^y Of PRiN^ 
 
 06ICAL S£>^'^ 
 
 BV3315 .B72 1902 
 Brown, Arthur Judson, 1856-1963. 
 Report of a A/isitation of the Siam and Laos 
 missions of the Presbyterian Board of Fore 
 Missions / 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF A 
 
 VISITATION OF 
 
 THE CHINA MISSIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 THE REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D. D., 
 Secretary 
 
 IAP\X 22-SEPTEMBER 19, 1901 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 Printed for the Use of the Board and the Missions 
 
 BY THE 
 
 BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. 3. A., 
 
 156 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
 1902 
 

 REPORT ^%?«4L ivi0^' 
 
 ON A 
 
 Visitation of the Missions in China 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the U. S. A. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D. D., Secretary. 
 
 While I visited Central and Southern China, particularly 
 in and about the large stations of Canton and Shanghai, I 
 gave the greater part of my four months in China to the 
 three missions in the north, where the anti-foreign uprising 
 of last year wrought such havoc to our work and where such 
 stupendous problems of reconstruction now confront us. 
 
 Many will sympathize with the emotions which stirred my 
 heart as I entered the Peking Mission, hallowed to us by the 
 sufferings and death of so many of our Chinese fellow 
 Christians and of all our beloved missionaries who laid down 
 their lives for Christ during the awful summer of 1900. 
 When I think of all that the survivors endured I wonder that 
 their health was not irretrievably shattered. Several, in- 
 deed, had been forced to leave before I arrived, invalided 
 home by order of the mission. But others were heroically 
 and self-sacrificingly at their posts, and almost daily and 
 sometimes nightly, too, during the two weeks of my visit 
 there, we studied and prayed together concerning the grave 
 questions which have been forced upon us. 
 
 Naturally, we took an early opportunity to visit not only 
 the places made memorable by the great siege, but the sites 
 of our former mission work. I say former, for the desola- 
 tion is complete. The very fact that the railroad train on 
 which we traveled to Peking rushed noisily through a ragged 
 chasm in the wall of the Chinese city, and stopped at the 
 entrance of the Temple of Heaven, within whose sacred en- 
 closure we saw lounging British Sikhs, was suggestive of 
 the consequences of war, and now we rode past innumerable 
 wrecked houses, crumbling towers and shell-pierced walls, 
 and through motley throngs of Manchus, Chinese, German, 
 
French, Italian, British and Japanese soldiers to Duck Lane, 
 which, though narrow, is not so unimportant a street as its 
 name implies. But where devoted missionaries had so long 
 lived and toiled are now only shapeless heaps of broken 
 bricks and a few tottering fragments of walls. Sadly we 
 journeyed to the Second street compound to find even greater 
 ruin, if that were possible. Silently we stood beside the 
 great hole which had once been the hospital cistern and from 
 which the Japanese soldiers, after the siege, had taken the 
 bodies of a hundred murdered Chinese, whose putrefaction 
 was a menace to the health of the neighborhood. Not all 
 had been Christians, for in that carnival of blood many who 
 were merely suspected of being friendly to foreigners were 
 killed, while foes took advantage of the tumult to pay o& old 
 scores of hate. The bricks that can be saved would not pay 
 for the clearing away of the debris. The loss is total. 
 
 It was worth traveling far to meet the surviving Christ- 
 ians. The sadness of the occasion was lessened by the un- 
 expectedly large number. The first reports which came to New 
 York were that 80 per cent of our native Christians and three- 
 fourths of the boys and girls in the boarding schools had 
 been killed or had died under the awful hardships of that 
 fatal summer. But as the months passed, first one and then 
 another and another were found. Husbands searched for 
 wives, parents for children, brothers for sisters, until now no 
 less than 250 of the adult baptized Christians (including fifty 
 at Paotingfu), besides many baptized children and other 
 adherents and inquirers, are known to be living. 
 
 About 200 of these surviving Christians and their families 
 are living together in native buildings adjoining the residence 
 which the missionaries occupy. But while it was a joy to 
 meet them we could not forget that they had a history of 
 agony and bereavement. For, including those who fell at 
 Paotingfu, 191 of their fellow Christians had received the 
 crown of martyrdom, so Vr '. almost every survivor had lost 
 father or mother, brother or sister or friend. The Chinese 
 are supposed to be a phlegmatic people and not given to 
 emotion. But never have I met a congregation more swiftly 
 responsive than this one in Peking. I bore to them loving 
 messages from the Board, from the Women's Boards, from 
 the Chinese Christians of San Francisco and from the Christ- 
 ians of Korea. My own words were not of commiseration, 
 but alxjng the line of Peter's encouragement of the persecuted 
 "elect sojourners" who had been "kept by the power of 
 God through faith unto salvation ; " and these modern saints, 
 like those of old, find the trial of their faith " precious " and 
 even amid their tears rejoice in Him "whom, having not 
 seen, they love." 
 
Clouds lowered over us as we left Peking at ten minutes 
 to 8 o'clock, Saturday morning, July 6th, on the Peking & 
 Hankow Railway for Paotingfu, that city of sacred and pain- 
 ful interest to every American Christian. Soon rain began 
 to fall and it steadily continued while we rode over the vast 
 level plain, through unending fields of kao-liang, interspersed 
 with plots of beans, peanuts, melons and cucumbers, and 
 mud and brick walled villages whose squalid wretchedness 
 was hidden by the abundant foliage of the trees, which are 
 the only beauty of Chinese cities. At almost every railway 
 station roofless buildings, crumbling walls and broken water 
 tanks bore eloquent witness to the rage of the Boxers. At 
 Liang Hsiang Hsien the first foreign property was destroyed, 
 and all along the line outrages were perpetrated on the in- 
 offensive native Christians. Nowhere else in China was the 
 hatred of the foreigner more violent, for here hereditary 
 pride and bigoted conservatism, unusually intense even for 
 China, were reinforced by Boxer chiefs from the neighboring 
 province of Shantung, and were particularly irritated by the 
 aggressiveness of Roman Catholic priests and by the con- 
 struction of the railroad. It is a part of the trunk line which 
 is to run southward from Peking to the great city of Hankow 
 on the Yang-ste River. It is being built by a Belgian 
 syndicate, and trains are running the 110 miles to Paotingfu. 
 But the schedule is slow and the stops long, so that it was 
 not till three o'clock that we sighted the strong wall of 
 Paotingfu. A minute later, as we silently stood at the car 
 windows, we passed the ruins of our mission compound, and 
 soon we arrived at the large, well-built brick station, from 
 which we bumped and splashed in a Chinese cart through nar- 
 row, muddy street to the spacious residence of a wealthy Chinese 
 family who had deemed a hasty departure expedient when 
 the French and British forces entered the city, and whose 
 house had been assigned by the magistrate as temporary 
 quarters for Mr. LovVrie. ''-: > 
 
 As some additional facts have come to light since the 
 preparation of Mr. Lowrie's leaflet on the " Tragedy of 
 Paotingfu," it appears desirable to restate the narrative, so 
 that it may be brought down to date. As all the Presby- 
 terian martyrs in China fell at Paotingfu, every scrap of in- 
 formation should be preserved with sacred care. It is 
 impossible to ascertain all the details. None of the for- 
 eigners live to tell the painful story. No other foreigners 
 reached Paotingfu until the arrival of the military expedition 
 in October, three and a half months later. The Chinese who 
 had participated in the massacre w^ere then in hiding. 
 Spectators were afraid to talk lest they, too, might be held 
 guilty. Most of the Chinese Christians who had been wnth 
 
the missionaries were killed, while others were so panic- 
 stricken that they could remember only the particular scenes 
 with which they were directly connected. Moreover, in 
 those three and a half months such battles and national com- 
 motions had occurred, including the capture of Peking and 
 the flight of the Emperor, that the people of Paotingfu had 
 half forgotten the murder of a few missionaries in June. 
 
 In these circumstances full information will probably never 
 be obtained, though additional facts may yet turn up from 
 time to time. But from all that can be learned, and from 
 the piecing together of the scattered fragments of informa- 
 tion carefully collected by the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie, who 
 accompanied the expedition, it appears that Thursday, June 
 28th, several Chinese young men who had been studying 
 medicine under Dr. Taylor came to him at the city dispensary, 
 warned him of the impending danger and urged him to 
 leave. When he refused they besought him to yield, and 
 though several of them were not Christians, so strong was 
 their attachment to their teacher that they shed tears. 
 
 Dr. Taylor placed the dispensary and its contents, to- 
 gether with the adjacent street chapel, in charge of the 
 District Magistrate and returned to the mission compound 
 outside the city. That very afternoon startling proof was 
 given that their alarm w^as not ill-founded, for the Rev. Meng 
 Chi Hsien, the native pastor of the Congregational Church, 
 was seized while in the city, his hands cut off, and the next 
 morning he was beheaded, the first martyr. 
 
 The missionaries then decided to leave, drew their silver 
 from the local bank and hired carts. But an olBcial assured 
 them that there would be no further trouble, and they con- 
 cluded to remain. It is doubtful whether they could have 
 escaped anyway, for the very next afternoon, Saturday, June 
 30th, a mob left the west gate of the city, and, marching 
 northward parallel to the railroad, turned eastward through 
 a small village near the mission compound, which has always 
 been the resort of bad characters, and attacked the mission 
 between 5 and 6 o'clock. 
 
 The first report that all the missionaries were together in 
 the house of Mr. Simcox is now believed to have been 
 erroneous. The Hodges were there, but Dr. Taylor was in 
 his own room in the second story of Mr. Lowrie's house. 
 Seizing a magazine rifle belonging to Mr. Lowrie, he showed 
 it to the mob and warned them not to come nearer. But the 
 Boxers pressed furiously on, in the superstitious belief that 
 the foreigner's bullet could not harm them. Then, being 
 alone, and with the traditions of a Quaker ancestry strong 
 within him, he chose rather to die himself than to inflict 
 death upon the people he had some to save. The Boxers 
 
set fire to the house, and the beloved physician, throwing 
 the rifle to the floor, disappeared amid the flame and smoke. 
 But the body was not consumed, for a Chinese living in a 
 neighboring village says he saw it lying in the ruins of the 
 house several days afterward, and that he gave it decent 
 burial in a field near by. But there are hundreds of un- 
 marked mounds in that region, and he is unable to indicate 
 the particular one which he made for Dr. Taylor's remains. 
 Mr. Lowrie has made diligent search and has opened a 
 number of graves, but has found nothing which can be 
 identified. 
 
 In the Simcox house, however, the two men were charged 
 with the defense of women and children, and to protect them 
 if possible from unspeakable outrage, when they realized 
 that persuasion was vain, they felt justified, as a last desper- 
 ate resort, in using force. The testimony of natives is to 
 the effect that at least two Boxers were killed in the attack, 
 one of them the Boxer chief , Chu Tu-Tze,who that very day 
 received the rank of the gilt button from the Provincial 
 Judge as a recognition of his anti-foreign zeal, and an en- 
 couragement to continue it, and who was shot through the 
 head while vociferously urging the assault from the top of a 
 large grave mound near the compound wall. 
 
 The story that little Paul and Francis Simcox, frightened 
 by the heat and smoke, ran out of the house and were des- 
 patched by the crowd and their bodies thrown into a well, 
 now appears to be unfounded. All died together, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Simcox and their three children, and Dr. and Mrs. 
 Hodge ; Mr. Simcox being last seen walking up and down 
 holding the hand of one of his children. 
 
 It is at least some comfort that our loved ones were 
 spared the outrages and mutilations inflicted on so many of 
 the martyrs of that awful summer, for unless some were 
 struck by bullets, death came by suffocation in burning 
 houses — swiftly and mercifully. No Boxer hand touched 
 them, living or dead, but within less than an hour from the 
 beginning of the attack, the end came, and the flames did 
 their work so completely that, save in the case of Dr. Taylor, 
 nothing remained upon which fiendish hate could wreak itself. 
 Husbands and wives died as they could have wished to die — 
 together, and at the post of duty. 
 
 The next morning the Boxers, jubilant over their success 
 the night before, trooped out to the American Board com- 
 pound in the south suburb. The two ladies took refuge in 
 the chapel, while Mr. Pitkin remained outside to do what he 
 could to keep back the mob. But he was speedily shot and 
 then decapitated. His body, together with the bodies of 
 several of the members of the Meng family, was thrown into 
 
a hastily dug pit just outside the wall of the compound, but 
 his head was borne in triumph to the Provincial Judge, who 
 was the prime mover in the outbreak. He caused it to be 
 fixed on the inside of the city wall, not far from the south- 
 east corner, and nearly opposite the temple in which the re- 
 maining missionaries were imprisoned. There, the Chinese 
 say, it remained for two or three weeks, a ghastly evidence 
 of the callous cruelty of a people many of whom must have 
 known Mr. Pitkin and the good work done at the mission 
 compound not far distant. When sorrowing friends arrived 
 in October the head could not be found, but it has since been 
 recovered and buried in the pit with his fellow martyrs. 
 
 The fate of the young women, Miss Morrill and Miss 
 Gould, thus deprived of their only protector, was not long 
 deferred. After the fall of Mr. Pitkin, they were seized, 
 stripped of all their clothing except one upper and one lower 
 garment, and led by the howling crowd along a path leading 
 diagonally from the entrance to the compound to the road 
 just east of it. Miss Gould did not die of fright as she was 
 taken from the chapel, as was at first reported, but at the 
 point where the path enters the road, a few hundred yards 
 from the chapel, she fainted. Her ankles were then tied to- 
 gether, and another cord lashed her wrists in front of her 
 body. A pole was thrust between legs and arms, and she 
 was carried the rest of the way, while Miss Morrill walked, 
 characteristically giving to a beggar the little money at her 
 waist, talking to the people, and with extraordinary self- 
 possession endeavoring to convince her persecutors of their 
 folly. And so the procession of bloodthirsty men, exulting 
 in the possession of two defenceless women, one of them 
 unconscious, wended its way northward to the river bank, 
 westward to the stone bridge, over it and to a temple within 
 the city, not far from the south-east corner of the wall. 
 
 Meantime, Mr. Cooper, Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall and their 
 little daughter, had begun the day in Mr. Bagnall's house, 
 which was a short distance east of the American Board com- 
 pound, and on the same road. Seeing the flames of the hos- 
 pital, which was the first building fired by the Boxers, they 
 fled eastward along the road to a Chinese military camp, 
 about a quarter of a mile distant, whose commanding officer 
 had been on friendly terms with Mr. Bagnall. But in the 
 hour of need he arrested them, ruthlessly despoiled them of 
 their valuables, and sent them under a guard to the arch con- 
 spirator, the Provincial Judge. It is pitiful to hear of the 
 innocent child clinging in terror to her mother's dress. But 
 there was no pity in the heart of the cruel judge, and the lit- 
 tle party was sent to the temple where the Misses Morrill 
 and Gould were already imprisoned. 
 
All this was in the morning. A pretended trial was held, 
 and about four in the afternoon of the same day all were tak- 
 en to a spot outside the south-east corner of the city wall, 
 and there, before the graves of two Boxers, they were be- 
 headed, and their bodies thrown into a pit. 
 
 Months passed before any effort was made by the foreign 
 armies in Peking to reach Paotingfu. Shortly after the oc- 
 cupation of the capital I wrote to the Secretary of State in 
 Washington reminding him again of the Americans who at 
 last accounts were at Paotingfu, and urging that the United 
 States commander in Peking might be instructed to immedi- 
 ately send an expedition there, not to punish, for I did not 
 deem it my duty to discuss that phase of the question, but to 
 ascertain whether any American citizens were yet living, and 
 to inake an investigation as to what had happened. 
 
 Secretary Hay promptly cabled Minister Conger, who 
 soon wired back that all the Americans at Paotingfu had 
 been killed. The United States forces took no part in the 
 punitive expeditions sent out by the European commanders, 
 partly, no doubt, because our Government preferred to act 
 on the theory that it would be wiser to give the Chinese 
 government an opportunity to punish the guilty, and partly 
 because the Administration did not wish the United States to 
 be identified with the expeditions which were reputed to equal 
 the Boxers in the merciless barbarity of burning, pillaging, 
 ravishing and killing. 
 
 Still, it is not pleasing to reflect that though there was an 
 ample x\merican force in Peking, only a hundred miles away, 
 we are indebted solely t o an English,g£Jieral- fox the oppor- 
 tunity to acquire any a'ccurafe'Information as to the fate of 
 eleven Americans in Paotingfu. An expedition of inquiry, 
 at least, might have been sent. But as it was, it was not till 
 October that three columns of Europeans (still no Americans) 
 left for Paotingfu. One column was French, under General 
 Baillard. The second was British and German, under Gen- 
 erals Campbell and Von Ketteler, both of these columns 
 starting from Tientsin. The third column left Peking and 
 was composed of British and Italians, led by General Gaselee. 
 The plan was for the three columns to unite as they ap- 
 proached the city. But General Baillard made forced marches 
 and reached Paotingfu October 15th, so that when General 
 Gaselee arrived on the 17th, he found, to his surprise and 
 chagrin, that the French had already taken bloodless posses- 
 sion of the city. The British and German columns from 
 Tientsin did not arrive till the 20th and 21st. With them 
 came the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie, who had obtained permis- 
 sion to accompany it as an interpreter for the British. 
 
 The allied Generals immediately made stern inquisitions 
 
8 
 
 into the outrages that had been committed, which, of course, 
 included those upon Roman Catholics as well as upon Protes- 
 tants. Mr. Lowrie, as the only man who could speak Chinese, 
 and the only one, too, who personally knew the Chinese, at 
 once came into prominence. To the people he appeared to 
 have the power of life and death. All examinations had to 
 be conducted through him. All accusations and evidence 
 had to be sifted by him. The guilty tried to shift the blame 
 upon the innocent, and enemies sought to pay off old scores 
 of hatred upon their foes by charging them with complicity 
 in the massacres. It would have accorded with Chinese cus- 
 tom if Mr. Lowrie had availed himself to the utmost of his 
 extraordinary opportunity to punish the antagonists of the 
 missionaries, especially as his dear friends had been remorse- 
 lessly murdered, and all of his own personal property des- 
 troyed. It was not in human nature to be lenient in such 
 circumstances, and the Chinese fully expected awful venge- 
 ance. 
 
 Profound was their amazement when they saw the man 
 whom they had so grievously wronged acting not only with 
 moderation and strict justice, but in a kind and forgiving 
 spirit. Every scrap of testimony was carefully analyzed in 
 order that no innocent man might suffer. Instead of secur- 
 ing the execution of hundreds of smaller oificials and com- 
 mon people, Mr. Lowrie counseled the Generals to try Ting 
 Jung, who at the time of the massacre was Provincial Judge, 
 but who had since been promoted to the post of Provincial 
 Treasurer and acting Viceroy ; Kwei Heng, the commander 
 of the Manchu garrison, and Weng Chan Kwei, the colonel 
 in command of the Chinese Imperial forces, who had seized 
 the escaping Bagnall party and sent them back to their doom. 
 The evidence plainly showed that these high officials were 
 the direct and responsible instigators of the uprising, that 
 they had ordered every movement, and that the crowd of 
 smaller officials. Boxers and common people had simply 
 obeyed their orders. They were found guilty and condemned 
 to death. 
 
 Was ever retributive justice more signally illustrated than 
 in the place in which they were imprisoned pending Count 
 von Waldersee's approval of the sentence ? The military 
 authorities selected the place, not with reference to its former 
 uses, of which, indeed, they were ignorant, but simply because 
 it was convenient, empty and clean. But it was our street 
 chapel and dispensary, the very dispensary in which the mar- 
 tyred Dr. Taylor had so often healed the sick in the name of 
 Christ. Mr. Lowrie says that he looked through the window 
 of the chapel, where curious gazers had been wont to gape at 
 him during a Sunday morning service, and that he heard the 
 
pitiful moans of the once powerful Acting Viceroy, a hand- 
 some man of forty-five, now a condemned felon in the ,room 
 where the Christ he hated had been preached. In an adjoin- 
 ing room, where Mrs. A. P. Lowrie had taught classes of 
 Chinese women, lay the proud Taotai, of Tientsin, who was 
 also adjudged worthy of death for his crimes-in that city, and 
 who was afterward sent back to the scenes of his iniquities 
 and beheaded there. The remaining rooms about the little 
 court, which we had rented for our work, held the other dis- 
 tinguished criminals. 
 
 Not long afterwards, the three officials were led out of 
 the city to a wide, level, open space, just east of a little clump 
 of trees not far from the south-west corner of the city wall, 
 and as near as practicable to the ruins of the mission build- 
 ings and the place where the missionaries had been behead- 
 ed, and there, in the presence of all the foreign soldiers, they 
 were themselves beheaded. 
 
 Nor was this all, for Chinese officials are never natives of 
 the cities they govern, but are sent to them from other prov- 
 inces. Moreover, they usually remain in one place only a 
 few years. The people fear and obey them as long as they 
 are officials, but often care little what becomes of them after- 
 ward. They had not befriended them during their trial, and 
 they did not attend their execution. The Generals, therefore, 
 felt that some punishment must be inflicted upon the city. 
 Chinese cities are proud of the stately and ponderous towers 
 which ornament the gates and corners of the massive city 
 wall, and, as they imagine, protect them from foes, human 
 and demoniac. All of these, but two comparatively small 
 ones, were blown up by order of the foreign generals. The 
 temples which the Boxers had used for their meetings, in- 
 cluding the one in which the American Board and China In- 
 land Missionaries had been imprisoned, were also destroyed, 
 while the splendid official temple of the city, dedicated to its 
 patron deity, was utterly wrecked by dynamite. 
 
 Not till March 23d could memorial services be held. 
 Then a party of missionaries and friends came down from 
 Peking. The remaining Christians assembled. The new 
 city officials erected a temporary pavilion on the site of our 
 compound, writing over the entrance arch : " They held the 
 truth unto death." Within, potted flowers and decorated ban- 
 ners adorned the tables and walls. It was solemnly impres- 
 sive; Mr. Lowrie, Dr. Wherry and Mr. Killie and others mak- 
 ing appropriate addresses to an audience in which there were, 
 besides themselves, fifteen missionaries, representing four 
 denominations, German and French army officers, Chinese 
 officials and Chinese Christians. A German military band 
 furnished sweet music, and two Roman Catholic priests of 
 
the city sent flowers and kind letters. The following day, a 
 similar service was held on the site of the American Board 
 compound. 
 
 We sadly visited all these places. It was about the hour 
 of the attack that we approached our own compound. Of 
 the once pleasant homes and mission buildings not even ruins 
 are left. A few hundred yards away, I should not have been 
 able to distinguish the site from the rest of the open fields if 
 my companions had not pointed out marks mournfully intel- 
 ligible to them, but hardly recognizable to a stranger. The 
 very foundations have been dug up by Chinese hunting for 
 silver, and every scrap of material has been carried away. 
 Even the trees and bushes have been removed by the roots 
 and used for firewood. In front of the Simcox house are a 
 few unmarked mounds. All but one contain the fragments 
 of the bodies of the Chinese helpers and Christians, and that 
 one, the largest, holds the few pieces of bones which were 
 all that could be found in the ruins of the Simcox house. A 
 few more may yet be found. We ourselves discovered five 
 small pieces, which Dr. Lewis afterwards declared to be 
 human bones. But their charred and broken condition 
 showed how completely the merciful fire had done its work 
 of keeping the sacred remains of our dear ones from the 
 hands of those who would have shamefully misused them. 
 The American Board and China Inland Mission compounds 
 are also in ruins, a chaos of desolation. But as the martyred 
 missionaries and native Christians were beheaded and not 
 burned, their bodies have been recovered and interred in a 
 long row of twenty-three graves. 
 
 Sunday I preached to the little company of Christians re- 
 maining. It was difficult to repress emotion as I faced the 
 unexpectedly large number of fifty-eight men and twenty-two 
 women, and realized all that they had endured for Christ's 
 sake. Again a tenderness of feeling was manifest which 
 will make it ever impossible to believe that all the Chinese 
 are stolid. I wish that all our Christians at home could have 
 seen that group of humble Chinese Christians in that open 
 courtyard as they sang and prayed and communed with me. 
 I should be glad if I could feel that I helped them half as 
 much as they helped me. That service was a spiritual tonic 
 to me. There is hope for China when, after all that has 
 passed, such Christians are yet to be found. 
 
 I gave longer time to the two Shantung missions, partly 
 because our work in that province is so extensive, and partly 
 because, except for the unfinished line from Tsingtau, there 
 are no railroads as in the Chihli province. I visited each of 
 our seven stations in Shantung, besides most of the stations 
 of other Boards, traveling by water along the coast, but for 
 
five weeks in a rude mule litter called a shendza, far into the 
 interior, going to our remotest stations and traversing the 
 heart of the region where the Boxers originated. I preferred 
 to travel quietly, without military escort ; but neither the 
 United States Consul nor the Governor of the Province would 
 consent, insisting that the life of a foreigner was not yet safe 
 and that they could not afford to risk the consequences of 
 further trouble. So our little party of two or three was 
 "guarded" all the way by from two to eleven Chinese 
 soldiers. 
 
 All the missionaries in the Province, except in the ports 
 of Chefoo and Tsingtau, Were forced to leave their stations 
 in June, 1900, and were unable to return till March 19th of 
 this year, when several of the men re-entered the interior 
 under guard. The great Wei Hsien station was in ruins, and 
 several of the Chinanfu and Ichowfu buildings had' been 
 damaged and looted. Chiningchow, our most distant and, 
 as we had always supposed, our most perilously located sta- 
 tion, was not revisited until my arrival with Mr. Laughlin 
 and Dr. Lyon, and we were surprised to find that the reports 
 which had reached us were true — everything was untouched 
 and just as it had been left by the missionaries more than a 
 year before. 
 
 It was good to see every man of the two Missions at his 
 post, living in more or less discomfort, particularly at Wei 
 Hsien, under constant guard of Chinese soldiers, except dur- 
 ing one or two bold visits to the Christians in the out-stations, 
 but calm, self-reliant, hopeful for the future, and determined 
 to stay, if possible, in order to shepherd the scattered and 
 frightened Christians, and as far as possible to prepare for 
 permanent return with their families in the fall. I had long 
 and helpful conferences with them, inspecting, under their 
 guidance, all the mission property, and meeting as many of 
 the Chinese Christians as could be gathered at each place. 
 In August, all the missionaries returned to the coast for the 
 annual mission meeting at Tsingtau, which had been kindly 
 called for that early date in order to take advantage of my 
 presence. I remained throughout the session, greatly to my 
 profit, and we planned together in delightful fellowship the 
 work of the future. 
 
 In all the many cities I visited in China, I freely conferred 
 not only with our own missionaries, but also with those of 
 other Boards, European and American, Protestant and 
 Roman Catholic, as well as with consuls, editors, business 
 men and American, German, English and Chinese civil, naval 
 and military officials. Everywhere I was cordially received, 
 and, as I look at my voluminous notebooks, I am increasing- 
 ly grateful to the men of all faiths and nationalities who so 
 generously aided me in my search for information. 
 
CAUSES OF UPRISING. 
 
 As for the causes of the great uprising, a few main con- 
 siderations stand out amid the chaos of conflicting rumors 
 and opinions. 
 
 It is true, but misleading, to say that the Chinese have 
 " no word or written character for patriotism, but 150 ways 
 of writing the characters for good luck and long life," For 
 while the Chinese may have little love for country, they have 
 an intense devotion to their own customs. For nearly 5,000 
 years, while other empires have risen, flourished and passed 
 away, they have lived apart, sufficient unto themselves, cher- 
 ishing their own ideals, plodding afong their well-worn paths, 
 ignorant of, or indifferent to, the progress of the western 
 world, continuing to mechanically memorize dead classics, 
 despising foreigners as inferiors, and standing still amid the 
 tremendous onrush of modern civilization. But, of course, 
 it was impossible for so vast a nation, especially one repre- 
 senting a fourth part of the human race, to permanently 
 segregate itself. The river of progress cannot be perma- 
 nently stayed. It will gather force behind an obstacle until 
 it is able to sweep it away. The present commotion is the 
 breaking up of this fossilized conservatism. It is such a 
 tumultuous upheaval as the crusades caused in breaking up 
 the stagnation of mediaeval Europe. As France opposed the 
 new ideas, which in England were quietly accepted, only to 
 have them surge over her in the frightful flood of the revo- 
 lution, so China is undergoing, with the violence always in- 
 separable from resistance, the transition which Japan wel- 
 comed with a more open mind. 
 
 Three forces were at work on this conservatism of the 
 Chinese, and beyond question the combined influence of those 
 forces was the real cause of the recent uprising. 
 
 THE FIRST FORCE WAS FOREIGN COMMERCE. 
 
 The beginnings of China's foreign trade date back to the 
 third century, though it was not until comparatively recent 
 years that it grew to large proportions. Now the leading 
 seaports of China have many great business houses con- 
 trolled by Europeans and Americans. The most persistent 
 effort is made to extend commerce with the Chinese. That 
 the effort is successful is shown by the fact that the total 
 imports and exports increased from 217,183,960 taels in 1888 
 to 366,329,983 taels in 1897, while it is probable that the fol- 
 lowing years show an even more rapid growth. 
 
 Our share was larger than one^ might suppose from the 
 reports issued by the Bureau of Statistics in Washington, as 
 no inconsiderable part of the trade goes to China by way of 
 
13 
 
 England and Hongkong and is credited to the British total 
 instead of to ours. It will, however, serve the purpose of 
 illustration to note that from 1898 to 1900 our exports of 
 flour to China increased from $89,305 to $218,645, with the 
 market growing so rapidly that the wheat producers of the 
 Pacific Coast are looking to China for their chief market. 
 Within the same period our exports of oil increased from 
 $2,865,095 to $3,500,000, and I found the cans of the Standard 
 Oil Company in the remotest villages of Shantung. We sell 
 more cotton to China than to all the rest of the world com- 
 bined, our exports within the two years noted having grown 
 from $5,195,845 to $9,844,565, and already we are so de- 
 pendent upon the Chinese market that the cotton growers of 
 the South are alarmed by the present interference with their 
 trade. As for locomotives, we sent to China in the single 
 year 1899 engines to the value of $722,212. Our direct trade 
 with China in that year aggregated $33,000,000, which was 
 an increase of 100 per cent, in ten years, and if we add 
 $10,000,000 as a fair estimate of our trade via Hongkong, we 
 find that we are the third nation in trade relations with China, 
 England and Japan being first and second respectively. 
 
 Of course, trade means traders, and the pioneers were, as 
 a rule, pirates and adventurers, who cheated and abused the 
 Chinese most flagrantly. Gorst says that "rapine, murder 
 and a constant appeal to force chiefly characterized the com- 
 mencement of Europe's commercial intercourse with China." 
 In 1839, the Chinese officials destroyed 22,299 chests of 
 English opium, from motives about as laudable as those 
 which led our revolutionary sires to empty English tea into 
 Boston harbor. England responded by making war, the re- 
 sult of which was to force the drug upon an unwilling people, 
 so that the vice which is to-day doing more to ruin the 
 Chinese than all other vices combined is directly tracable to 
 the conduct of a Christian nation, though the England of to- 
 day is presumably ashamed of this crime of the England of 
 two generations ago. 
 
 Now, there are many men of high character engaged in 
 business in the great cities of China. I would not speak any 
 disparaging word of those who are worthy of all respect. 
 But I am not reporting the utterances of missionaries, but 
 giving the consensus of opinion expressed to me by reputable 
 laymen who have traveled widely in the East, when I say in 
 the words of another that "many Americans and Europeans 
 doing business in Asia are living the life of the prodigal son 
 who has not yet come to himself." Profane, intemperate, 
 immoral, not living among the Chinese but segregating 
 themselves in foreign communities in the treaty ports, not 
 speaking the Chinese language, frequently beating and 
 
14 
 
 cursing those who are in their employ, regarding the Chinese 
 with hatred and contempt, it is no wonder that they are hated 
 in return and that their conduct has done much to justify the 
 Chinese distrust of the foreigner. 
 
 Most of the criticisms of missionaries which find their 
 way into the daily papers emanate from these men. The 
 missionaries do not gamble or drink whisky, nor will their 
 wives and daughters attend or reciprocate entertainments at 
 which wine, cards and dancing are the chief features. So, 
 of course, the missionaries are "canting hypocrites," and 
 are believed to be doing no good, because the foreigner who 
 has never visited a Chinese Christian church, school or hos- 
 pital in his life, does not see the evidences of missionary 
 work in his immediate neighborhood. The editor of the 
 Japan daily Mail, April 7, 1901, justly says: "We do not 
 suggest that these newspapers which denounce the mission- 
 aries so vehemently desire to be unjust or have any suspicion 
 that they are unjust. But we do assert that they have mani- 
 festly taken on the color of that section of every Far Eastern 
 community whose units, for some strange reason, entertain 
 an inveterate prejudice against the missionary and his works. 
 
 Were it possible for these persons to give an intelligent 
 explanation of the dislike with which the missionary inspires 
 them, their opinions would command more respect. But 
 they have never succeeded in making any logical present- 
 ment of their case, and no choice offers except to regard 
 them as the victims of an antipathy which has no basis in 
 reason or reflection. That a man should be anti-Christian 
 and should devote his pen to propagating his views is strict- 
 ly within his right, and we must not be understood as sug- 
 gesting that the smallest reproach attaches to such a person. 
 But, on the other hand, it is within the right of the mission- 
 ary to protest against being arraigned before judges habitu- 
 ally hostile to him, and it is within the right of the public to 
 scrutinize the pronouncements of such judges with much sus- 
 picion." 
 
 Trade also means steamers, which are running to-day up 
 the great rivers of China, and wherever they run, the Chinese 
 junks are deprived of their patronage, bringing beggary to 
 their owners, who cannot be expected to feel kindly toward 
 such competition, however desirable the steamer may appear 
 to be from the viewpoint of a more disinterested observer. 
 
 Trade also means the railroad. The first railroad in China 
 was built in 1876. It ran from Shanghai to Wu Sung, only 
 nine miles. Great was the excitement of the populace, and 
 no sooner was it completed than the government bought it, 
 tore up the road-bed and dumped the engines into the river. 
 That ended railway building for twelve years, and then, 
 
15 
 
 largely through the influence of Wu Ting Fang, now Chinese 
 Minister to the United States, a little line was built from the 
 Kaiping coal mines to Taku. Other concessions gradually 
 and grudgingly followed, until, in 1899, there were not only 
 566 miles in operation, but 6,000 were projected, and the 
 engineers were surveying rights of way through whole 
 provinces. 
 
 Of course, railroads develop the resources of the country. 
 We have had an illustration of this in our own land, where 
 the transcontinental railroads resulted in the amazing devel- 
 opment of our Western plains and of the Pacific Coast. The 
 effect of such a development in China can hardly be overes- 
 timated. Think of the influence not only upon the Chinese 
 but the whole world, when railroads not only carry the corn 
 of Hunan to the famine sufferers in Shantung, but when they 
 can bring the coal, iron and other products of Chinese soil 
 and industry within reach of steamship lines running to 
 Europe and America. 
 
 But it is more to our present purpose to remember that 
 extension of these lines of communication greatly irritated 
 the Chinese. Mob violence attended the introduction of 
 labor-saving machinery in both England and the United 
 States. We need not, therefore, be surprised that it has 
 made trouble in China. Millions of coolies earn a living by 
 carrying merchandise in baskets or wheeling it in barrows at 
 five cents a day. A single railroad train does the work of a 
 thousand coolies, and thus deprives them of their means of 
 support. Myriads of farmers grew the beans and peanuts 
 out of which illuminating oil was made. But since American 
 kerosene was introduced in 1864, its use has become well- 
 nigh universal, and the families who depended upon the bean- 
 oil and peanut-oil market are starving. Cotton clothing is 
 generally worn in China, except by the better classes, and 
 China formerly made her own cotton cloth. Now American 
 manufacturers can sell cotton in China cheaper than the 
 Chinese can make it themselves. 
 
 All this is, of course, inevitable. It is indeed for the best 
 interests of the people of China themselves, but it enables us 
 to understand why so many of the Chinese resent the intro- 
 duction of foreign goods. That much of this business is 
 passing into the hands of the Chinese themselves does not 
 help the matter, for the people know that the goods are for- 
 eign, and that the foreigners are responsible for their intro- 
 duction. Moreover, the Chinese, while not very religious, 
 are very superstitious. They people the earth and air with 
 spirits, who, in their judgment, have baleful power over man. 
 Before these spirits they tremble in terror, and no inconsid- 
 erable part of their time and labor is devoted to outwitting 
 
i6 
 
 them, for the Chinese do not worship the spirits, except to 
 propitiate and deceive them. They believe that the spirits 
 cannot turn a corner, but must move in a straight line. Ac- 
 cordingly, in China you do not often find one window oppo- 
 site another window, lest the spirits may pass through. You 
 will seldom find a straight road from one village to another 
 village, but only a distractingly circuitous path, while the 
 roads are not only crooked, but so atrociously bad that it is 
 difficult for the foreign traveler to keep his temper. The 
 Chinese do not count their own inconvenience if they can only 
 baffle their demoniac foes. 
 
 When the Chinese die, their bodies are not segregated in 
 cemeteries as with us, but geomancers are called in to find 
 lucky places for burial, which may be by the roadside or in 
 the garden or the field ; and as 33,000 Chinese die every day, 
 all China is dotted with graves. The Chinese worship their 
 ancesters and venerate the tombs in which they lie. From a 
 Chinese viewpoint is it an awful thing to desecrate them. 
 Imagine, then, their feelings when they see haughty foreign- 
 ers run a railroad straight as an arrow from city to city, 
 opening a highway over which the dreaded spirits may run, 
 and ruthlessly tearing through the tombs hallowed by the 
 most sacred of associations. No degree of care can avoid 
 the irritations caused by railway construction. In building 
 the line from Tsingtau to Kiaochow, a distance of forty-six 
 miles, the Germans, as far as practicable, ran around the 
 places most thickly covered with graves. But in spite of 
 this, no less than 3,000 graves had to be removed. It was 
 impossible to settle with the individual owners, as it was 
 difficult in many cases to ascertain who they were, most of 
 the graves being unmarked, and some of the families con- 
 cerned having died out or moved away. Moreover the 
 Oriental has no idea of time, and dearly loves to haggle, 
 especially with a foreigner whom he feels no compunction 
 in swindling. So the railway company made its negotiations 
 with the local magistrates, showing them the routes, indicat- 
 ing the graves which were in the way, and paying them an 
 average of $3 (Mexican) for removing each grave, they to 
 find and settle with the owners. This was believed to be 
 fair, for $3 is a large sum in the interior, where the only coin 
 in common circulation is the copper cash, so small in value 
 that 1,600 equal a dollar, and where a few dozen cash will 
 buy a day's food for an adult. But while some of the 
 Chinese were glad to accept this arrangement, others were 
 not. They wanted more, or they had special affection for 
 the dead, or that particular spot had been carefully selected 
 because it was favored by the spirits. Besides, the magis- 
 trates doubtless kept a part of the price as their share. 
 
17 
 
 Chinese officials are underpaid, are expected to " squeeze " 
 commissions, and no funds can pass through their hands 
 without a percentage of loss. Then, as the Asiatic is very 
 deliberate, the company was obliged to specify a date by 
 which all designated graves must be removed. As many of 
 the bodies were not taken up within that time, the company 
 had to remove them. 
 
 In these circumstances, we should not be surprised that 
 the most furiously anti-foreign feeling in Shantung was in 
 the villages along the line of that railroad. Why should the 
 hated foreigner force his line through their country when the 
 people did not want it ? Of course, it would save time, but, 
 as a Peking official naively said, " We are not in a hurry." 
 So the villagers watched the construction with ill-concealed 
 anger, and today that railroad, as well as all the other rail- 
 roads in North China, can only be kept open by detachments 
 of foreign soldiers at all the important stations. I saw them 
 at almost every stop — German soldiers from Tsingtau to 
 Kiaochow, British from Tongku to Peking, French from 
 Peking to Paotingfu. 
 
 Those who protest that we ought not to force our relig- 
 ion upon the Chinese, do not appear to think that there is 
 anything objectionable in forcing our trade upon them. As 
 a matter of fact, the Chinese do not strenuously object to 
 the missionaries as missionaries. The average missionary, 
 especially in the interior stations, dons Chinese clothing, 
 shaves his head, wears a queue, speaks the Chinese language, 
 lives among the people, tries to get into sympathy with 
 them, teaches the young, heals the sick, distributes relief in 
 time of famine, preaches the gospel of peace and good-will, 
 and, in the opinion of unprejudiced judges, is a pure, sensible, 
 and useful man. Confucianism is virtually an agnostic code 
 of morals with Chinese variations, and the worst foe which 
 the missionary has to encounter is not hostility, but indiffer- 
 ence. Wu Ting Fang, Chinese Minister to the United States, 
 frankly declares that "Confucianism is not a religion in the 
 practical sense of the word," and that "Confucius would be 
 called an agnostic in these days." It is the foreign idea 
 that the Chinese dislikes the interference with his cherished 
 customs and traditions. A railroad alarms and angers him 
 more than half a hundred missionaries. A plowshare cuts 
 through more of his superstitions than a mission school. He 
 does not want the implements of our Western civilization, 
 and he resents the attempt to push them upon him. 
 
 But trade cannot be checked. It advances by an inherent 
 energy which it is futile to ignore. And it ought to advance. 
 For trade means much that is of value to a people. A loco- 
 motive brings both intellectual and physical benefits, the ap- 
 
i8 
 
 pliances which mitigate the poverty and barrenness of exist- 
 ence, and increase the ability to provide for the necessities 
 of life. The regret is that such benefits are so far neutral- 
 ized by the evils which disgrace civilization and which em- 
 bitter the Chinese against us. 
 
 THE SECOND FORCE WAS EUROPEAN POLITICS. 
 
 The history of the dealings of the Christian powers with 
 China is not altogether pleasant reading. It must be admit- 
 ted that the provocation has sometimes been great, but the 
 retaliation has been heavy. We sometimes imagine that the 
 Golden Rule is peculiar to Christianity, forgetting that its 
 spirit was recognized by Confucius five centuries before 
 Christ. This form was negative, but it familiarized the 
 Chinese wath the principle. They were not, therefore, pleas- 
 antly impressed when they found the alleged Christian na- 
 tions violating that principle. Even Christian America has 
 been no exception. We have Chinese exclusion laws, but 
 we will not allow China to exclude Americans. We sail our 
 gunboats up her rivers, but we would not allow her to sail 
 gunboats into ours. If a Chinese commits a crime in Amer- 
 ica he is amenable to American law as interpreted by an 
 American court. But if an American commits a crime in 
 China he can be tried only by his consul ; not a Chinese 
 court in the empire has jurisdiction over him, and the people 
 naturally understand from this that we have no confidence in 
 their sense of justice or in their administration of it. This 
 law of extra-territoriality is one of the chief sources of irri- 
 tation against foreigners, for it not only implies contempt, 
 but it makes foreigners a privileged class. When we take 
 into consideration the further fact that the typical Anglo- 
 Saxon the world over acts as if he were a lord of creation, 
 and treats Asiatics with more or less condescension, as if 
 they were his inferiors, we can understand the very natural 
 resentment of the Chinese, who have just as much pride of 
 race as we have, and who, indeed, consider themselves the 
 most highly civilized people in the world. The fact that for- 
 eign nations are able to thrash them does not convince the 
 Chinese that those nations are superior, any more than a 
 gentleman's physical defeat at the hands of a pugilist would 
 satisfy him that the pugilist is a better man. Then the 
 Chinese know of the abuses to which their countrymen have 
 been subjected in other lands, how almost universally the 
 Chinese in America, for example, are despised and hated. 
 Many Chinese have suffered from mob violence in San Fran- 
 cisco and Tacoma and other Pacific Coast cities as sorely as 
 our countrymen have suffered from mob violence in China. 
 
19 
 
 Some years ago they were wantonly butchered ' in Rock 
 Springs, Wyoming, and it was as difficult for the Chinese to 
 get indemnity out of our Government as it is for the Powers 
 to get indemnity out of China for the Boxer outrages. The 
 Chicago Inter-Ocean printed a cartoon representing a Chinese 
 reading a daily paper, one of whose columns was headed, 
 "Massacre of Americans in China," while the other column 
 bore the headlines, "Massacre of Chinese in America." 
 Uncle Sam stands at his elbow and ejaculates, " Horrible, 
 isn't it ? " To which the celestial blandly inquires, " Which?" 
 
 But the political aggressions of foreign powers were 
 probably the immediate cause of the recent trouble. A 
 hundred years ago France began to regard Anam as within 
 her sphere of influence. In 1858, she seized Saigon, and 
 from it as a base began to extend her influence throughout 
 Cochin China. In 1882, she cooly decided to annex Tonking. 
 The Chinese objected, but the war ended in a treaty, signed 
 June 9, 1885, which gave France the coveted territory. 
 
 In 1886 England took Upper Burma, which China regard- 
 ed as one of her dependencies. As far back as 1841 she had 
 taken Hongkong. In 1871 she wrested from China the 
 Kowloon coast line on the mainland, but in 1898, finding that 
 Hongkong was still within the range of modern cannon in 
 Chinese waters seven miles away, England calmly took 400 
 square miles of additional territory, including Mirs and Deep 
 Bays. 
 
 Not content with these aggressions, the press of both 
 Europe and America has, for several years, boldly discussed 
 the dismemberment of China as certain to come, and journal- 
 ists and magazine writers have disputed as to which should 
 possess the richest parts of the empire, whose impotence to 
 defend itself was taken for granted. Chinese ministers in 
 Europe and America reported these discussions to their su- 
 periors in Peking. The English papers ifi China republished 
 some of the articles and added many virulent ones of their 
 own, so that speedily all the better-informed Chinese came 
 to know that the foreigners regarded China much as vultures 
 regard a carcass. 
 
 Nor was all this talk empty boasting. China saw that 
 England and France were absorbing Siam, that Britain was 
 already lord of India and Egypt, that Germany was pressing 
 her claims in Turkey, that Russia was obtaining control of 
 Persia and Korea, that Italy had tried to take Abyssinia and 
 that, with the single exception of Morocco, all the remainder 
 of the entire continent of Africa had been partitioned by the 
 European powers. 
 
 And soon the Chinese saw the foreigners descend upon 
 their own shores in such ways as to justify the fear that the 
 
Celestial Empire, too, would be speedily reduced to vas- 
 salage. December 1, 1897, two German Roman Catholic 
 priests were murdered in the province of Shantung, and on 
 the 14th of that month Admiral Diedrich landed marines at 
 Kiaochow Bay. Early in the following year Germany, under 
 the forms of an enforced 99-year lease, took the territory 
 bordering on the bay, and at Tsingtau began to demolish the 
 native houses, build docks, erect buildings, open streets, lay 
 sewers, project railways and telegraph lines into the interior 
 and to push her interests so aggressively and ruthlessly that 
 the whole province of Shantung was thrown into the most 
 intense excitement. 
 
 March 8, 1898, Russia demanded, and May 27th obtained, 
 similar rights on the peninsula terminating in Port Arthur, 
 including Ta Lien Wan and 800 square miles of adjoining 
 territory. Grim significance was given to Russia's plans by 
 the prompt appearance of 20,000 Russian soldiers and 90,000 
 coolies, who were set to work developing a great modern 
 fortification under the very eyes, as it were, of the Chinese 
 capital. April 2, England secured the lease of Lin Kung, 
 with all the islands and a strip ten miles wide on the main- 
 land, thus giving the British a strong post at Wei Hai Wei. 
 April 22nd, France peremptorily demanded, and May 2d ob- 
 tained, the bay of Kwang Chou Wan, while Japan found her 
 share in a concession for Fu Chou, Wu Sung, Fan Ning, Yo 
 Chou and Chung Wan Tao. Ere long, in all China's 3,000 
 miles of coast line, there was not a harbor in which she 
 could mobilize her own ships without the consent of the 
 hated foreigner. The New York Siin, noting these facts, 
 truly says : " It was while Chinese territory was thus virtu- 
 ally being given away that the people became uneasy and 
 riots were started ; the people felt that their land had been 
 despoiled." 
 
 And shall we pretend any innocent wonder ? Suppose 
 that after the murder of the Chinese in Rock Springs, 
 Wyoming, a Chinese fleet had been able to seize New York and 
 Boston harbors, and suppose our Government had been weak 
 enough to acquiesce. Would the people of this country have 
 made any protest ? Would the lives of Chinese on our 
 streets have been safe ? And was it an entirely base impulse 
 that led the Chinese to violently oppose the forcible seizure 
 of their country by aliens ? The Empress Dowager said in 
 her now famous edict: " The various powers cast upon us 
 looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other in their en- 
 deavors to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories. 
 They think that China, having neither money nor troops, 
 would never venture to go to war with them. They fail to 
 understand, however, that there are certain things which this 
 
21 
 
 empire can never consent to, and that, if hard pressed, we 
 have no alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause, 
 the knowledge of which in our breasts strengthens our re- 
 solves and steels us to present a united front against our 
 aggressors." That would probably be called patriotic if it 
 had emanated from the ruler of any other people. 
 
 THE THIRD FORCE WAS CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 In his life of Morrison, Townsend reminds us that the 
 Church early realized that it could not ignore so vast a 
 nation, while its very exclusiveness attracted bold spirits. 
 As far back as the sixth century the Nestorian Christians 
 established missions in China. A monument in Hsi An Fu 
 on which is inscribed an outline of the Nestorian effort from 
 the year 630-781 is the only trace that remains of what must 
 have been an interesting and perhaps a thrilling missionary 
 effort. However zealous the Nestorians may have been for 
 a time, it is evident that they were finally submerged in the 
 sea of Chinese superstition. 
 
 The Roman Catholic effort began in 1293, when John de 
 Corvino succeeded in reaching Peking. Though he was 
 elevated to an Archbishopric and reinforced by several 
 priests, this effort, too, proved a failure and was abandoned. 
 
 Two and a half centuries of silence followed, and then in 
 1552 Francis Xavier set his face toward China, only to be 
 prostrated by fever on the Islands Sancian. Realizing that 
 he would never be able to set his foot on that mighty and 
 still impenetrable land, he despairingly moaned : " Oh, rock, 
 rock, when wilt thou open ! " and gave up the ghost. 
 
 But in 1581 another Jesuit, this time the learned and 
 astute Matteo Ricci, entered Canton in the guise of a 
 Buddhist priest. He managed to remain, and twenty years 
 later he went to Peking in the dress of a literary gentleman. 
 In him Roman Catholicism gained a permanent foothold in 
 China, and although it was often fiercely persecuted and re- 
 duced at times to feebleness, it never became wholly extinct. 
 Now it has nearly 600 foreign missionaries in China, and en- 
 rolls 532,448 native Christians. 
 
 It is not to the credit of Protestantism that it was 
 centuries behind the Roman Church in the attempt to Christ- 
 ianize China. It was not till 1807 that the first Protestant 
 missionary sought China. January 31st of that year the 
 Rev. Robert Morrison, then a youth of twenty-five, sailed 
 alone from London, under appointment of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society (Congregational). As the hostile East 
 India Company would not allow a missionary on any of its 
 ships, Morrison had to go to New York in order to secure 
 
22 
 
 passage on an American vessel. As he paid his fare in the 
 New York ship owner's office, the merchant said with a 
 sneer: "And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect that you 
 will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese 
 Empire?" "No, sir," replied Morrison, "I expect God 
 will." The ship Trident left New York about May 15th and 
 did not reach Canton till September 8th. For two years he 
 had to live and study at Canton and at the Portugese settle- 
 ment of Macao with the utmost secrecy, lest he might be 
 forced to leave. For a time he never walked the streets by 
 daylight for fear of attracting attention, but exercised by 
 night, and all the time finding his Chinese language teachers 
 insolent and impatient, till February 20, 1809, the date of his 
 marriage to Miss Morton, when his employment as translator 
 by the East India Company gave him for the first time a 
 secure residence, though even then he was forced to secrecy 
 in his missionary work, presenting Christianity behind 
 locked doors to the few Chinese whom he dared to approach. 
 In these circumstances, he naturally gave his energies largely 
 to language study and translation, and in 1810 he had the 
 joy of issuing a thousand copies of a Chinese version of the 
 Book of Acts, the first fruits of the coming harvest. 
 
 But the door was not yet open, and the work was done 
 against many obstacles, and chiefly in seci^eFllTT'the treaty of 
 Nanking, in 1842, opened the five ports of Amoy, Canton, 
 Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai. Missionaries who had 
 been waiting and watching and praying in the neighboring 
 islands promptly entered these cities. Eagerly they looked 
 to the great populations in the interior, but they were practi- 
 cally confined to the ports named till 1860, w^hen the treaty 
 of Tientsin opened other cities and officially conceded the 
 rights of missionary residence and labor. At that time there 
 were only 1,300 converts in all China, but the number speed- 
 ily grew, till, at the time of the Boxer outbreak, there were 
 100,000 communicants, 3,500,000 adherents, 2,500 stations and 
 outstations, 6,697 missionaries and helpers, 1,551 schools, 23 
 mission presses with an annual output of 107,149,738 pages, 
 32 mission periodicals, 124 hospitals and dispensaries, treat- 
 ing in a single year 1,700,452 patients; while the asylums 
 for the orphaned and blind and deaf number 32. 
 
 It is significant that our Presbyterian work in China was 
 started the very year that the Board was organized. In 1837, 
 the Western Foreign Missionary Society, which had been 
 founded by the vSynod of Pittsburg in 1831, was merged into 
 our present Board, and October 31st of that year, the Revs. 
 R. W. Orr and T. R. Mitchell were commissioned for China, 
 though they got no further than Singapore. In 1840, the 
 Rev. Walter M. Lowrie and James C. Hepburn, M. D., were 
 
23 
 
 commissioned, and in 1843 they transferred the mission to 
 Amoy, China, where they were soon reinforced by D. B. Mc 
 Cartee, M. D., and the Rev. Richard Cole. 
 
 From that time the work was enlarged as steadily as cir- 
 cumstances permitted, until, at the uprising of the Boxers, 
 we had in the empire 7 missions, 22 principal stations, 309 
 outstations, 209 foreign missionaries, including those under 
 appointment ; 594 native helpers, 92 organized churches, with 
 11,214 communicants ; 217 schools and colleges, 2 printing 
 presses, one of which, that at Shanghai, is the largest mis- 
 sion press in the world, employing 135 workmen, and issuing 
 last year 67,625,660 pages of religious matter; and 16 hospi- 
 tals and 13 dispensaries, which, together, treated last year 
 143,491 patients. The maintenance of this extensive work 
 requires an annual expenditure of about $200,000. The 
 property interests involved were very large, and included 
 churches, chapels, school, college, hospital and press build- 
 ings, residences of missionaries, etc. Of our pioneer mis- 
 sionaries to China, Mr. Lowrie was murdered by pirates in 
 1847; Dr. Mc Cartee, after many years of labor, first in China 
 and afterwards in Japan, died in San Francisco, July 17, 1900, 
 at the ripe age of eighty, while Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn are 
 still living. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the work of all the Christian 
 missions in China was being conducted upon a large scale. 
 It would be diiTficult to overestimate the silent and yet mighty 
 energy represented by such work, steadily continued through 
 a long series of years, and representing the life labor of de- 
 voted men and women, and an annual expenditure of many 
 hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
 
 True, the number of Christians was small in comparison 
 with the population of the empire, but the Gospel has been 
 aptly compared to a seed, and the seed has indestructible 
 vitality and irresistible transforming power. It is small, but 
 seeds generally are. Lodged in a crevice of a rock a seed 
 will send its spread-like roots into fissures so tiny that they 
 are hardly noticeable. Yet in time they will rend the rock 
 asunder and firmly hold a stately tree. Now the seed of the 
 Gospel has been fairly lodged in the Chinese empire. It has 
 taken root, and a part of the commotion which we have re- 
 cently witnessed is undoubtedly due to the influence of that 
 growth. It was not without reason that the Gospel was 
 spoken of as a force that " turned the world upside down," 
 since it is one of the avowed objects of the Gospel to recon- 
 struct human society. It is significant that the word trans- 
 lated "power" in Romans i. 16 — " The Gospel is the power 
 of God," is in the Greek the word which we have anglicized 
 in common speech by the word dynamite. We might, there- 
 
24 
 
 fore, literally translate Paul's statement : "The Gospel is the 
 dynamite of God." That dynamite was long ago placed 
 under the crust of China's conservatism, and that which we 
 are now witnessing is in part the shattering effect of the 
 mighty explosion. 
 
 THE REFORM PARTY. 
 
 The combined result of all three of these forces was the 
 development of a Reform Party among the Chinese them- 
 selves. It was not large, but it included some influential 
 men, though, unfortunately, their zeal was not tempered by 
 discretion. The war with Japan powerfully aided them. 
 True, many of the Chinese do not yet know that there was 
 such a war, for news travels slowly in a land without railway, 
 telegraphic and post-office facilities, and whose average in- 
 habitant has never been twenty miles from the village in 
 which he was born. But some who did know realized that 
 Japan had won by the aid of Western methods. An eager- 
 ness to acquire those methods resulted. Missionaries were 
 besieged by Chinese who wished to learn English. Modern 
 books were given a wide circulation. The Emperor bought 
 a Bible. In his private apartments in Peking, I saw scientific 
 works, maps, globes and wind and current charts. Several 
 of his influential advisers became students of Occidental 
 science and political economy. In five years, 1893-1898, the 
 book sales of one society — that for the Diffusion of Christian 
 and General Knowledge Among the Chinese — leaped from 
 $817 to $18,457, while every mission press was run to its ut- 
 most capacity to supply the new demands. 
 
 A powerful exponent of the new ideas appeared in the 
 Great Viceroy, Chang Chih-Tung. He wrote a book ridicul- 
 ing the conservatives, exposing the causes of China's weak- 
 ness and advocating radical reforms. The book was printed 
 by the Tsung Li Yamen, and by royal command copies were 
 sent to the high officials of the Empire. Big yellow posters 
 advertised it from the walls of leading cities, and in a short 
 time a million copies were sold. An English translation is 
 now on sale under the title " China's Only Hope." He 
 who would understand the present situation should read that 
 book, written, not by a foreigner or by a Christian, or even 
 by a malcontent, but by a Chinese Confucian dignitary, in 
 the Chinese language and for the Chinese people. It is hard- 
 ly an exaggeration to say that "this book made more history 
 in a shorter time than any other modern piece of literature, 
 that it astonished a kingdom, convulsed an empire and brought 
 on a war." 
 
 The Reform Party urged the young Emperor to use the 
 
25 
 
 imperial power for the advancement of his people. He 
 yielded to the pressure, became an eager and diligent student 
 of the Western learning and methods, and with the ardor of 
 a new convert issued the now famous reform edicts, which, 
 if they could have been sucfcessfully carried into effect, would 
 have revolutionized China and started her on the high road 
 to national greatness. These memorable decrees have been 
 summarized as follows : 
 
 1. Establishing a university at Peking. 
 
 2. Sending imperial clansmen to study European and 
 American governments. 
 
 3. Encouraging art, science and modern agriculture. 
 
 4. Expressing the willingness of the Emperor to hear the 
 objections of the conservatives to progress and reform. 
 
 5. Abolishing the literary essay as a prominent part of 
 the government examinations. 
 
 6. Censuring those who attempted to delay the establish- 
 ment of the Peking Imperial University. 
 
 7. Directing that the construction of the Lu Han railway 
 be carried on with more vigor. 
 
 8. Advising the adoption of Western arms and drill for 
 all the Tartar troops. 
 
 9. Ordering the establishment of agricultural schools in 
 the provinces to teach improved methods of agriculture. 
 
 10. Ordering the introduction of patent and copyright laws. 
 
 11. Ordering the Board of War and the Foreign Oflfice to 
 report on the reform of the military examinations. 
 
 12. Offering special rewards to inventors and authors. 
 
 13. Ordering officials to encourage trade and assist mer- 
 chants. 
 
 14. Ordering the foundation of school boards in every 
 city in the empire. 
 
 15. Establishing a Bureau of Mines and Railroads. 
 
 16. Encouraging journalists to write on all political sub- 
 jects. 
 
 17. Establishing naval academies and training ships. 
 
 18. Summoning the ministers and provincial authorities 
 to assist the Emperor in his work of reform. 
 
 19. Directing that schools be founded in connection with 
 all the Chinese legations in foreign countries for the benefit 
 of the children of Chinese in those countries. 
 
 20. Establishing commercial bureaus in Shanghai for the 
 encouragement of trade. 
 
 21. Abolishing six useless Boards in Peking. 
 
 22. Granting the right to memorialize the Throne by 
 sealed memorials. 
 
 23. Dismissing two presidents and four vice-presidents of 
 
26* 
 
 the Board of Rites for disobeying the Emperor's orders that 
 memorials should be presented to him unopened. 
 
 24. Abolishing the governorships of Hupeh, Kuangtung 
 and Yunnan as a useless expense to the country. 
 
 25. Establishing schools for instruction in the preparation 
 of tea and silk. 
 
 26. Abolishing the slow courier posts in favor of the Im- 
 perial Customs Post. 
 
 27. Approving a system of budgets as in Western countries. 
 But, alas, " You must not try to hustle the East." The 
 
 Chinese are phlegmatic and will endure much, but this was 
 a little too much. Myriads of scholars and officials who saw 
 their hopes and positions jeopardized by the new tests, pro- 
 tested with all the virulence of the silversmiths of Ephesus, 
 and all the conservatism of China rallied to their support. 
 
 FLOOD AND FAMINE. 
 
 Meantime, the Yellow River, aptly named " China's Sor- 
 row," again overflowed its banks, devastating a region 100 
 miles long and varying from twenty-five to fifty miles wide. 
 Three hundred villages were swept away, and 1,000,000 
 people made homeless. Famine and pestilence speedily fol- 
 lowed, so that the whole catastrophe assumed appalling pro- 
 portions. Even American communities are apt to become 
 reckless and riotous in time of calamity, and in China this 
 tendency of human nature was intensified by a superstition 
 which led the people to believe that the disaster was due to 
 the baleful influence of the foreigners, or that it was a pun- 
 ishment for their failure to resist them, while in the farther 
 north a drought led to equally superstitious fury against "the 
 foreign devils." 
 
 The now famous Boxers were members of two of the 
 secret societies which have long flourished in China. To the 
 Chinese they are known as League of United Patriots, Great 
 Sword Society, Righteous Harmony Fists' Association and 
 kindred names. Originally, they were hostile to the foreign 
 Manchu dynasty. When Germany made the murder of two 
 Roman Catholic missionaries a pretext for pushing her politi- 
 cal ambitions, the Boxers naturally arrayed themselves against 
 them. As the champions of the national spirit against the 
 foreigners, the membership rapidly increased. Supernatural 
 power was claimed. Temples were converted into meeting 
 places, and soon excited men were drilling in every village. 
 
 The real ruler of China at this time, as all the world 
 knows, was the Empress Dowager, who has been fitly des- 
 cribed as "the only man in China." At any rate, she is a 
 woman of extraordinary force of character. She was astute 
 
27 
 
 enough to encourage the Boxers, and thus turn one of the 
 most troublesome foes of the Manchu throne against the 
 common enemy, the foreigner. Under her influence, the 
 depredations of the Boxers, which were at first confined to 
 the Shantung Province, spread with the swiftness of a prairie 
 fire, until the most important provinces of the empire were 
 ablaze. In the heat of the conflict and under the agonizing 
 strain of anxiety for imperiled loved ones, many hard things 
 were said and written about the officials, who allied them- 
 selves with the Boxers. But Sir Robert Hart, who person- 
 ally knows them, and who suffered as much as any one from 
 their fury, candidly wrote after the siege : " These men were 
 eminent in their own country for their learning and services, 
 were animated by patriotism, were enraged by foreign dicta- 
 tion, and had the courage of their convictions. We must do 
 them the justice of allowing that they were actuated by high 
 motives and love of country," though he adds, "that does 
 not always or necessarily mean political ability or highest 
 wisdom." 
 
 And so the irrepressible conflict broke out. It had to 
 come, a conflict between conservatism and progress, between 
 race prejudice and brotherhood, between superstition and 
 Christianity, the tremendous conflict of ages, which every 
 nation has had to fight, and which, in China, is not different 
 in kind, but only on a vaster scale, because there it involved 
 half the human race at once. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY OF MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Shallow critics vociferously tell us that the missionaries 
 are chiefly responsible for the outbreak. True, there is a 
 sense in which the Gospel does revolutionize heathen com- 
 munities. Christ himself said: "Think not that I am come 
 to send peace on earth : I came not to send peace, but a 
 sword ; for I am come to set a man at variance against his 
 father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter- 
 in-law against her mother-in-law." There is always more or 
 less persecution in a heathen land when a man turns away 
 from the old faith and confesses Christ. But opposition of 
 that sort is usually local and sporadic. It affects more or 
 less individuals, but it does not cause such a vast movement 
 of population as that now taking place in China. The mis- 
 sionaries, as missionaries, have not been so bitterly hated by 
 the Chinese. Not only men, but women, have traveled far 
 into the interior, frequently alone, and always unarmed. 
 They have freely gone into the homes of the people, preached 
 in the village streets, slept unprotected in Chinese houses, 
 and have received much personal kindness from all classes. 
 
28 
 
 If no other force had been at work than the foreign mission- 
 ary, this anti-foreign agitation would never have started. 
 
 The animosity of the Chinese has been primarily excited 
 not by the missionary, but by the trader and the politician. 
 It is foolish to say that the missionary is responsible for the 
 prompt appearance of the consul and the gunboat. The 
 missionary goes forth without either consul or gunboat to 
 preach the Gospel, to teach the young, to heal the sick, to 
 comfort the dying, to care for the orphaned. He devotes his 
 life to ameliorating the sad conditions- which prevail in 
 heathen communities. His reliance is not upon the arm of 
 flesh, but upon that Christ who promised to be with His dis- 
 ciples always. But as soon as his work begins to tell, the 
 trader appears to buy and sell in the new market. The poli- 
 tician casts covetous eyes on the newly opened territory. 
 Christianity civilizes, and civilization increases wants, stimu- 
 lates trade and breaks down barriers. The conditions of 
 modern civilization are developed. Then the consul is sent, 
 not because the missionary asks for him, but because the 
 government chooses to send him. Sooner or later some 
 local trouble occurs, and the politician takes advantage of 
 the opportunity to further the territorial or commercial am- 
 bitions of his country. What did the Emperor of Germany 
 care for Roman Catholic missionary work in China until two 
 German monks were killed by a mob? But that catastrophe 
 so shocked him that nothing would soothe his wounded re- 
 ligious feelings but the wrenching from China of a seaport 
 in Kiaochow Bay, to serve as a base for his plans of German 
 aggrandizement in the Shantung province. " Missionaries 
 responsible, indeed!" writes Dr. H. H. Jessup. "The dip- 
 lomats of Europe know better. Had there been no grabbing 
 of seaports and hinterlands, no forcing modern improvements 
 and European goods down the throats of the Chinese, the 
 missionaries would have been let alone now as in the past." 
 
 But it is said that the missionaries and Boards will, of 
 course, defend themselves. I have, therefore, been at some 
 pains to collect the testimony of men whose positions are a 
 guarantee of both knowledge and fairness. 
 
 The Hon. George F. Seward, former United States Min- 
 ister to China, declares: "The people at large make too 
 much of missionary work as an occasion for trouble. There 
 are missionaries who are iconoclasts, but this is not their 
 spirit, in great measure. They are men of education and 
 judgment. They depend upon spiritual weapons and good 
 works. For every enemy a missionary makes, he makes 
 fifty friends. The one enemy may arouse an ignorant rabble 
 to attack him. While I was in China I always congratulated 
 myself on the fact that the missionaries were there. There 
 
29 
 
 were good men and able men among the merchants and offi- 
 cials, but it was the missionary who exhibited the foreigner 
 in benevolent work as having other aims than those which 
 may justly be called selfish. The good done by missionaries 
 in the way of education, of medical relief and of other chari- 
 ties cannot be overstated. If in China there were none other 
 than missionary influences, the upbuilding of that great 
 people would go forward securely. I was nearly twenty 
 years in China endeavoring to serve our Government and 
 people. During all that time not an American missionary 
 suffered death from the violence of the Chinese. I am not 
 a religionist, not a church member, but I have the profound- 
 est admiration for the missionary as I have known him in 
 China. He is a power for good and for peace, not for evil." 
 
 President James B. Angell, another United States Minis- 
 ter to China, replies as follows to the question, "Are the 
 Chinese averse to the introduction of the Christian religion?": 
 " No, not in that broad sense. They do not seem to fear for 
 the permanency of their own religion. It is not that they 
 object to missionaries and the Christian religion as much as 
 it is that the missionaries are foreigners. A more serious 
 cause of the uprising is the widespread suspicion among the 
 natives, since the Japanese war, that the foreigners are go- 
 "ing to partition China. It is not strange that all these con- 
 ditions cause friction and excitement. The Chinese want to 
 be left to themselves, and the one word ' foreigners ' sums 
 up the great cause of the present trouble." 
 
 The Hon. Charles Denby, after thirteen years' experience 
 as United States Minister to China, wrote: "No one can 
 controvert the fact that the Chinese are enormously benefited 
 by the labors of the missionaries. Foreign hospitals are a 
 great boon to the sick. In the matter of education, the 
 movement is immense. There are schools and colleges all 
 over China taught by the missionaries. There are also many 
 foreign asylums in various cities which take care of thous- 
 ands of waifs. The missionaries translate into Chinese 
 many scientific and philosophical works. There are various 
 anti-opium hospitals where the victims of this vice are cured. 
 There are industrial schools and workshops. There are many 
 native Christian churches. The converts seem to be as de- 
 vout as people of any other race. As far as my knowledge 
 extends, I can and do say that the missionaries in China are 
 self-sacrificing ; that their lives are pure ; that they are de- 
 voted to their work ; that their influence is beneficial to the 
 natives ; that the arts and sciences and civilization are great- 
 ly spread by their efforts ; that many useful western books 
 are translated by them into Chinese ; that they are the lead- 
 ers in all charitable work, giving largely themselves and per- 
 
30 
 
 sonally disbursing the funds with which they are intrusted ; 
 that they do make converts, and such converts are mentally 
 benefited by conversion." And more recently he has added: 
 " I do not believe that the uprising in China was due to hatred 
 of the missionaries or of the Christian religion. The Chinese 
 are a philosophic people, and rarely act without reasoning 
 upon the causes and results of their actions. They have 
 seen their land disappearing and becoming the property of 
 foreigners, and it was this that awakened hatred of foreigners 
 and not the actions of the missionaries or the doctrines that 
 they teach." 
 
 The present United vStates Minister, the Hon. E. H. Conger, 
 has repeatedly borne similar testimony, publicly assuring the 
 missionaries of his " personal respect and profound gratitude 
 for their noble conduct." 
 
 Ex-Secretary of State John W. Foster, counsel for the 
 Chinese Government in the settlement with Japan, says : 
 " The opinion formed by me after careful inquiry and obser- 
 vation is that the mass of the population of China, particu- 
 larly the common people, are not specially hostile to the mis- 
 sionaries and their work. Occasional riots have occurred, 
 but they are almost invariably traced to the literati or pros- 
 pective office holders and the ruling classes. These are often 
 bigoted and conceited to the highest degree, and regard the 
 teachings of the missionaries as tending to overthrow the 
 existing order of government and society, which they look 
 upon as a perfect system, and sanctified by great antiquity." 
 Wu Ting Fang, Chinese Minister to Washington, while 
 frankly stating that " missionaries are placed in a very deli- 
 cate situation," and that "we must not be blind to the fact 
 that some, in their excessive zeal, have been indiscreet," 
 nevertheless as frankly says : " It has been commonly sup- 
 posed that missionaries are the sole cause of anti-foreign 
 feeling in China. This charge is unfair. Miseionaries have 
 done a great deal of good in China. They have translated 
 useful works into the Chinese language, published scientific 
 and educational journals and established schools in the coun- 
 try. Medical missionaries especially have been remarkably 
 successful in their philanthropic work." 
 
 Ex-President Harrison replied to my inquiry last fall in 
 the terse remark: " If what Lord Salisbury says were true, 
 the reflection would not be upon the missionaries, but upon 
 the premiers." 
 
 The Hon. John Barrett, late Minister of the United States 
 to Siam. writes : " Let us be fair in judging the missionaries. 
 Let the complaining merchant, traveler or clubman take the 
 beam from his own eye before he demands that the mote be 
 taken from the missionary's eye. We must remember that 
 
31 
 
 we are a Christian as well as a commercial nation. More, a 
 moral as well as a material power. We cannot think of with- 
 drawing the messengers of Christianity from Asia until we 
 are ready to withdraw the merchants of commerce and the 
 minister of diplomacy. In my diplomatic experience in Siam 
 150 missionaries gave me less trouble in five years than fif- 
 teen merchants gave me in five months." 
 
 General James H. Wilson, of the United States Army, 
 late second in command of our force in Peking, adds his tes- 
 timony : "Our missionaries, after the earlier Jesuits, were 
 almost the first in that wide field (China). They were gen- 
 erally men of great piety and learning, like Morrison, Brown, 
 Martin and Williams, and did all in their power as genuine 
 men of God to show the heathen that the stranger was not 
 necessarily a public enemy, but might be an evangel of a 
 higher and better civilization. These men and their co- 
 laborers have established hospitals, schools and colleges in 
 various cities and provinces of the empire, which are every- 
 where recognized by intelligent Chinamen as centres of un- 
 mitigated blessing to the people. Millions of dollars have 
 been spent in this beneficent work, and the result is slowly 
 but surely spreading the conviction that foreign arts and 
 sciences are superior to ' fung shuey ' and native supersti- 
 tion." 
 
 Consul-General Goodnow, of Shanghai, emphatically de- 
 clares : " It is absurd to charge the missionaries with caus- 
 ing the Boxer war. They are simply hated by the Chinese 
 as one part of a great foreign element that threatened to up- 
 set the national institutions." 
 
 Governor Yuan Shih Kai wrote to the Baptist and Pres- 
 byterian missionaries of the Shantung province this spring : 
 "You, reverend sirs, have been preaching in China for many 
 years, and, without exception, exhort men concerning right- 
 eousness. Your church customs are strict and correct, and 
 all your converts may well observe them. In establishing 
 your customs you have been careful to see that Chinese law 
 was observed. How, then, can it be- said that there is dis- 
 loyalty ? To meet this sort of calumny, I have instructed 
 that proclamations be put out. I purpose, hereafter, to have 
 lasting peace. Church interests may then prosper, and your 
 idea of preaching righteousness I can promote. The present 
 upheaval is of a most extraordinary character. It forced you, 
 reverend sirs, by land and water to go long journeys, and 
 subjected you to alarm and danger, causing me many qualms 
 of conscience." 
 
 A charge which has been so completely demolished by 
 such competent and unprejudiced witnesses can only be re- 
 newed at the expense of either intelligence or candor. 
 
32 
 
 Amid all the furious onslaught of criticism upon mission- 
 aries in China in connection with the recent troubles, there 
 has not been, so far as I know, a single specific charge 
 against any of our Presbyterian workers, though they have 
 naturally suffered from the reproach which the careless pub- 
 lic has indiscriminately cast upon the whole missionary body, 
 Catholic and Protestant, European and American. They 
 have been modestly reluctant to proclaim their own innocence 
 of the charges so freely brought against their fellows. They 
 might have justly expected more considerate treatment in 
 view of their past service and the frightful ordeal through 
 which they have passed. But it is due to them and to their 
 many friends in the Board and the Church that the facts 
 should be known. I have made it a part of my business in 
 China to learn them — not because I suspected our beloved 
 friends — I know them too well for that — but because I want- 
 ed to authoritatively answer critics who are not willing to ac- 
 cept the presumptions of character, and to relieve the minds 
 of those in the home churches who have never personally 
 met our missionaries, and who are troubled by the fear that 
 their good name and the interests of a sacred cause may be 
 injured by identification with the acts of others, who, how- 
 ever conscientiously, did things in the heat and stress of an 
 appalling emergency which were not altogether wise. There 
 is nothing which we need to conceal, nothing of which we 
 are ashamed. And first as to 
 
 LOOTING. 
 
 For nearly two months men, women and children had 
 been closely besieged. At the British Legation there were 
 419 marines, "over 400" other foreigners, including mem- 
 bers of legations and missionaries, and 2, 650 C hinese Christ- 
 ians ; at the Roman Catholic Cathedral were 40 marines, 40 
 priests and nuns, and 3,400 Chinese Christians — about 7,000 
 in all. The outbreaiT'oT'Ti'ostilities had found them unpre- 
 pared, and they had hurriedly taken refuge at the legation 
 and cathedral without opportunity to make adequate provis- 
 ion for their necessities. To protect their helpless charges 
 from the pitiless storm of shells and bullets, sand bags were 
 made out of every available material within the reach of 
 sorties — cotton and silk, velvet and broadcloth, lace and vel- 
 vet. I saw the little Episcopal chapel, not much larger than 
 a good-sized drawing-room, in which seventy missionaries, 
 including children, ate and slept during the entire siege. I 
 heard Dr. Wherry and Mr. Killie describe the scanty rations 
 of mule meat and stale rice, with which all had to be con- 
 tent. I listened to Bishop Favier as he told me that for the 
 
33 
 
 first month of the siege the food allowance for each of those 
 under his care, and 2,700 of them were women and children, 
 was half a pound a day. The first half of the second month 
 it was four ounces a day, and the second half it was two 
 ounces a day, the hungry people, in their desperation, eating 
 the very roots and bark and leaves of the trees. 
 
 When the relief expedition entered the city, all these 
 ragged, famishing hosts were liberated, and the men, of 
 course, and of necessity, sought immediately for supplies of 
 food and clothing for them, as well as houses to which these 
 homeless families could be taken, for the ministers were 
 obliged to ask the missionaries to go elsewhere, and thus re- 
 lieve the congestion at the British Legation. But nothing 
 could be bought, for the simple reason that there was noth- 
 ing to sell. Half the population had fled in terror from the 
 city, and that half included nearly all of the oflficial, social and 
 commercial classes. They had left their homes as precip- 
 itately as the missionaries had left theirs eight weeks before. 
 On every side were deserted residences filled with rich 
 furniture, abandoned shops containing ample stores of food 
 and clothing. What was to be done? Some sapient critics 
 talk as though those men ought to have compelled their 
 wives and children to starve in the midst of plenty belonging 
 to foes who had been trying to kill them, and let the plenty 
 be carried off by Chinese thieves rather than touch a mouth- 
 ful of it themselves ; to have forced their families to lie down 
 on the broken bricks at the ruins of their former homes 
 rather than enter a single empty house. I confess to a feel- 
 ing of contemptuous indignation for such supercilious 
 Phariseeism. And why single out the missionaries, as if 
 they were the only ones, when every foreigner, including 
 marine officers and members of legations, adopted the same 
 course ? But that is not looting, plundering for personal 
 gain. 
 
 I grant, however, that there was looting, the pillaging of 
 homes for furs, silks, silver, jewelry and bric-a-brac, that there 
 was a regular carnival of greed in which many foreigners 
 participated. The soldiers of the relief expedition were 
 particularly prominent in this. In the language of Rev. Dr. 
 Arthur H. Smith, of the American Board: "There came 
 to China numerous foreign troops of many nationalities, and 
 they were not in a happy frame of mind when they reached 
 there. Our Legations had been murderously attacked for 
 two months together, and between 200 and 300 innocent for- 
 eigners had been barbarously butchered in the interior of the 
 empire. This certainly does not make a good background 
 for exhibitions of international law in actual operation. That 
 Russian, French and German soldiers committed excesses is 
 
34 
 
 as certain as that these troops came to China. But it is un- 
 questionable that many accounts (such as the oft-quoted tale 
 of Dr. Dillon) are demonstrable falsehoods, told with intent 
 to make a sensation." 
 
 I called on Sir Robert Hart, the famous Inspector Gen- 
 eral of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, and who, as 
 one of the besieged, is conversant with the whole subject, 
 and I asked him whether it was true that the missionaries de- 
 served censure for looting? He kindly gave me the following 
 statement in writing. Note his use of the first personal pro- 
 noun, thus identifying himself with his fellow sufferers, both 
 missionary, military and official : 
 
 " Looting has evoked much discussion. It has had its 
 uses and abuses. Tar is the right thing when in the right 
 place, and, perhaps, so too is loot. But when the tar-brush 
 is spoken of, it oftener suggests the idea of dirt than of mat- 
 ter in the right place. During the siege, we looted neighbor- 
 ing houses. We thereby got food to live on and materials 
 to make sand-bags with. After the siege we had to find 
 quarters for ourselves, and we had to furnish them. And we 
 had to find food for ourselves and for the Chinese connected 
 with us. If we occupied other people's empty houses, if we 
 collected necessary furniture from other people's deserted 
 houses, if we seized and used food at points where there was 
 nobody in charge to buy it from, it was because necessity 
 forced us to do so, a necessity that grew out of such lawless 
 doings as temporarily swept away all possibility of living ac- 
 cording to law. Charitable interpretation will recognize the 
 plight we were in and acknowledge the fitness of the effects 
 produced by such a cause. 
 
 All the same, it is possible that much more was taken 
 than was required; and to whatever extent that was done, 
 to that extent might appropriation be objected to. The 
 question is, of course, complicated by considerations suges- 
 tive of ideas of reprisals, prize-money and sacking, and con- 
 siderable latitude is allowable. The flight of a terror-stricken 
 population may or may not constitute a valid reason for re- 
 garding the rights of ownership as ended. For my part, I 
 should have preferred protection for deserted houses, and 
 the restoration of their property intact to returning families. 
 For some days after the relief, license, as inevitable, ruled, 
 and one thing may be safely said — the missionary was, at all 
 events, not worse than his neighbor, the probability is that 
 he was better, and the certainty is that for whatever he did 
 he had better reasons and more justification than others. 
 And yet, just because he is a missionary, criticism was all 
 the more pointed. Whoever pleads necessity and helps him- 
 self to other people's goods must first of all show very un- 
 
35 
 
 usual circumstances to be entitled to a hearing ; and each 
 appropriation must then be judged of on its own special 
 merits. 1 have no doubt the missionaries who had thus to 
 help themselves did so with a clear conscience, and their 
 critics could hardly have acted otherwise under the circum- 
 stances. Still, there was looting — looting of every kind — 
 justifiable and unavoidable, and also avoidable and unjustifi" 
 able — and looting has a bad name, and the reproach of it 
 sticks. Apart from the exhiliarating but demoralizing effect 
 it may have had on the Chinese members of their churches, 
 I do not think Chinese sufferers will make any distinction as 
 regards the foreigners concerned. They will simply say 
 " foreigners looted." But non-Christian Chinese are said to 
 be very wroth over the indignities put on them by the — for 
 the moment triumphant — converts and the losses they at- 
 tribute to their initiative and their growing greed." 
 
 But whatever may be said of the general conduct of the 
 foreigners as a body, after thorough investigation, I deny 
 point blank that our Presbyterian missionaries took any part 
 in the looting of Peking, further than to aid in obtaining 
 absolutely necessary food and clothing from abandoned 
 shops — supplies without which the women and children under 
 their care would have died. With the exception of a few 
 rusty guns and swords of dead Boxers, picked up on the 
 field of battle, our missionaries took only what those depend- 
 ent on them required, and gave their names to any Chinese 
 who could be found, with the assurances that full market 
 value would be paid to an owner who could established his 
 claim. Our missionaries, like other foreigners, might easily 
 have enriched themselves, for wealthy Chinese, unlike our 
 rich men at home, often keep their riches in their houses. 
 But though our missionaries lost everything they had in the 
 world, they scrupulously refrained from even the appearance 
 of evil. 
 
 Perhaps I ought to mention an instance as an illustration 
 of their conscientious sensitiveness on this point. One of 
 our young ladies found some silver pins. She asked Min- 
 ister Conger whether she had better keep them. He said 
 certainly, as the owner could not be found and the trinkets 
 were of small value. So she kept them for a time. But it 
 so troubled her, notwithstanding Minister Conger's knowl- 
 edge and approval, that she sent them with an explanation 
 and apology to the army officer then in charge of the dis- 
 trict in which she had found them. He laughed at her scruples, 
 refused to receive them, said that some soldier would take 
 them if she did not, and told the missionery friend who 
 brought them to take them back to her. But he, knowing 
 her wishes, was obdurate, and when the officer persisted in 
 
36 
 
 declining to accept them, left the pins on the table and 
 walked out. 
 
 When the missionaries were notified by the Legations that 
 they must seek quarters elsewhere for themselves and their 
 native Christians, two of them went "house-hunting." They 
 soon found .the spacious residence of a wealthy Chinese mer- 
 chant who was almost frantic over the ruthlessness of sol- 
 diers who were daily ransacking his property. Hearing that 
 his present visitors were missionaries seeking a temporary 
 home, he literally implored them to take possession in the 
 hope that their occupation would protect his home from ut- 
 ter ruin. He said that he owned another place nearby to 
 which he could remove his family. So our missionaries 
 moved in, establishing the native Christians under their 
 charge in adjacent deserted buildings. On entering, they 
 found the floors piled deep with an almost incredible amount 
 of silks and furs which the Chinese owner had stored in his 
 house for safe keeping and which the plundering soldiers 
 had scattered about in their search for silver and jewelry. 
 Not a piece of all this did our missionaries touch, but they 
 insisted on the owner himself gathering all of it up and tak 
 ing it away. 
 
 But let the missionaries speak for themselves. The fol" 
 lowing statement was written by the Rev. Dr. John Wherry, 
 read to, and unanimously approved by, all the other members 
 of the station present in Peking during the conferences with 
 me. 
 
 "Although more than 300 of the native Christians (and 
 inquirers) belonging to the Peking station were killed by 
 the Boxers in the summer of 1900, a considerable number — 
 perhaps as many as 120 — escaped. Part of these had found 
 refuge in the Legations before they were surrounded by 
 Tung Fu Hsiang's troops. Others had hidden themselves 
 away in unfrequented places, in the fields or on the moun- 
 tains. All were homeless and destitute. Almost immedi- 
 ately after the raising of the siege notice was given to our 
 missionaries in the English Legation that the room occupied 
 by them and their converts would be required for other pur- 
 poses. It was necessary, therefore, for missionary and 
 convert to seek immediate shelter elsewhere. A search dis- 
 covered two residences in close proximity in the quarter 
 under the protection of the United States troops that would 
 answer the requirements. These, with the free consent of 
 the owners, who coveted the protection guaranteed by the 
 residence of American missionaries, and with the full ap- 
 proval of the American Minister, Mr. Conger, were at once 
 taken possession of, and are still held by our mission. Noth- 
 ing was said as to rent. The owners were too grateful for 
 
37 
 
 protection from pillage to suggest it. The missionaries 
 knew not what minute they might be ordered to leave 
 Peking. 
 
 "At the Chinese New Year the mission voluntarily gave 
 each of the landlords a check for 50 taels. At the end of 
 the financial year in April, in the same voluntary way, a 
 check for 200 taels each were added, making the total paid 
 for rent to that date 500 taels. These sums were accepted 
 gratefully and with profuse thanks, and the missionaries 
 were requested to remain as long as their necessities re- 
 quired. Further payments for rent will be made from time 
 to time. It should be remembered, however, that no rent 
 has been asked for by the owners, and that tens of thousands 
 of taels' worth of property has been preserved to them 
 from spoliation by the foreign occupation of these houses. 
 
 "Food was as necessary to missionaries and converts as 
 shelter. Our Minister, recognizing the fact, urged, if in- 
 deed he did not positively direct, us to secure this at once — 
 by purchase if possible — by taking it from abandoned shops 
 if it could not otherwise be had. Purchase proved quite out 
 of the question. The shop owners had disappeared, and the 
 whole city was given over to pillage, the Chinese themselves 
 taking the leading part. On a visit to the Imperial Uni- 
 versity, Dr. Martin found in its immediate neighborhood a 
 small shop, entirely abandoned, and all its doors broken 
 down and wide open, containing a considerable supply of 
 wheat, and a small store of rice and beans. He advised our 
 mission to secure this wheat at once, and promised to be 
 personally responsible for its value in case the owner re- 
 turned. Several of the ordinary small Peking carts were ac- 
 cordingly dispatched, with Dr. Martin as a guide, to the 
 shop, and came back laden with the precious grain. Dr. 
 Martin himself remained, dinnerless, too, for the return of 
 the carts for a second load. During the second visit a Rus- 
 sian officer in charge of the district appeared on the scene, 
 but finding the grain in our carts not such as was required 
 by the Russian army, allowed us to take it away. This grain 
 we had ground into flour and sold it to the native Christians 
 at a low price, until some other sources of supply appeared. 
 We then advised the purchase of grain in the market, and 
 the retention of the wheat until the price of grain advanced, 
 as we felt sure it would. In the meantime, a large supply of 
 American flour and Korean rice, the gift to the American 
 army of the Emperor of Korea, was presented to our mis- 
 sion by General Chaffee for the use of the Christians. This, 
 too, we sold at a low price, except in cases of poverty, where 
 it was freely given away. With the proceeds we bought 
 cheaper grains — millet and old rice — which in turn were also 
 
38 
 
 sold and the proceeds invested as before. In this way we 
 tid-d over the hard winter without great suffering, and with- 
 out drawing largely on our original stocks of wheat. When 
 the season of 1901 was sufficiently advanced to insure a 
 good harvest, we sold the balance of this wheat at a high 
 price, and put the remainder, nearly $200, in bank to await 
 the return of the owner. This sum will be increased by the 
 proceeds of sales. As yet this owner has not appeared. 
 
 " The shop remained untenanted for nearly a year. Various 
 enquiries failed to elicit the whereabouts of the managers. 
 In the meantime all the movable appurtenances, even the 
 heavy millstones, were carried away by plunderers. About 
 a year after the raising of the siege, I made it a final visit, 
 preparatory to returning to the United States, and learned 
 from neighbors that the day before one of the junior man- 
 agers had returned from his flight. I arranged for an inter- 
 view with him the next day. I learned at this interview that 
 the chief owner and head manager of the shop had com- 
 mitted suicide a day or two after the taking of the city by 
 the allied troops, when a general looting of the shops and 
 residences of wealthy citizens had begun, and that the other 
 partners and assistants had all fled to the province of Shan- 
 tung. After receiving adequate assurances from neighboring 
 shopmen that he was entitled to receive it I turned over to 
 the junior manager a small quantity of rice and beans still 
 undisposed of that had come from his shop, and the proceeds 
 of the sale of wheat mentioned above, to which I added the 
 market value of the wheat, rice and beans sold or given 
 away to our native Christians, amounting in all to nearly 
 three hundred dollars. For this our friend expressed his 
 grateful thanks, and affirmed that he was fully satisfied with 
 our action in the matter. He might well have been so, for 
 without our interference he would have been left penniless, 
 the building which his firm occupied not being their own. 
 
 " One small cartload of grain, partly wheat, partly rice, 
 was secured at an abandoned dwelling in another part of the 
 city by permission of the army officer in charge of the dis- 
 trict. Except rifles, ammunition, swords. Boxer flags, records, 
 badges, etc., picked up in the streets or found in Boxer 
 camps, no other goods than grain were taken by the mis- 
 sionaries of the Presbyterian Board." 
 
 Wide currency has been given to the criticisms on mis- 
 sionaries in the report of Major-General Chaffee to the War 
 Department. In Manila, I asked General Chaffee whether 
 his criticisms applied to any of our Presbyterian mission- 
 aries. He promptly replied that so far as he knew they did 
 not, and that he had not had them in mind in discussing the 
 questions at issue. He named one of our Peking mission- 
 
2>9 
 
 aries as personally known to him as a good man, and his aid, 
 
 who was present during my interview, added that Mr. , 
 
 one of our Paotingfu missionaries, was the best man he had 
 met in China. After full and frank conference and inquiry 
 on this subject, I am confident and I have pleasure in report- 
 ing to the Board that the hands of our Presbyterian mission- 
 aries are clean as touching this matter. 
 
 INDEMNITY. 
 
 I am equally willing to publish to the world the course 
 of our missionaries in the adjustment of indemnities. The 
 losses have been heavy. In life, five missionaries, three 
 children and over two hundred Christians ; in health, wounds 
 and bruises and shattered nerves ; in mind, suspense and 
 grief and agony so prolonged and heart-breaking that some 
 will never recover from its effects ; in property, the Board 
 has lost all its valuable plants at the Peking, Paotingfu and 
 Wei Hsien stations ; many buildings in other stations, like 
 Ichoufu, were damaged, and heavy expense was incurred in 
 the rescue of missionaries, in bringing some of them home, 
 and in maintaining others at ports where prices of living 
 were greatly increased. The missionaries of all the interior 
 stations in North China lost personal effects, most of the 
 members of the stations mentioned above losing everything 
 they possessed, except the summer clothing they happened 
 to be wearing when the outbreak occurred ; while multitudes 
 of the Chinese Christians were reduced to utter destitution. 
 
 And yet, after prayerful consideration of all the circum- 
 stances, our Board, as far back as September, 1900, unani- 
 mously voted that" It would be highly unbecoming in the 
 followers of Christ to manifest a mercenary spirit and make 
 exorbitant demands upon the Chinese, and that when the 
 Government should ask for information as to claims for in- 
 demnity, such claims should not include suffering, loss of 
 life, or interruption of work, but only the actual value of de- 
 stroyed or injured property, and the extraordinary expenses 
 incurred in consequence of the troubles." 
 
 The original plan was to have all claims, personal and 
 mission, approved by the mission within whose bounds the 
 losses occurred, and sent to the civil authorities, not by the 
 missionaries, but only through the Board, which should 
 handle them on behalf of the missionaries, as well as of 
 itself, thus relieving the individual missionary of much 
 trouble, and avoiding the embarrassment to the Government 
 which would have been involved if hundreds of widely scat- 
 tered individuals were to separately push their claims with 
 varying degrees of vigor, and with widely different ideas as 
 to the objects which should be included. In this way, we 
 
40 
 
 thought, the vexed question of indemnity could be handled 
 in an orderly and prudent manner. We could prevent de- 
 mands which might subject the whole missionary enterprise 
 to criticism, and, at the same time, avoid embittering the 
 Chinese by taking what might be deemed an unfair advan- 
 tage of them. 
 
 With this moderate position our missionaries were in full 
 sympathy. Indeed, the East and West Shantung Mission, 
 in joint meeting, December 15th, 1900, passed a special 
 resolution expressing its appreciation and gratitude. I have 
 not found a Presbyterian missionary in China who feels that 
 any indemnity should be asked or received for punishment, 
 suffering or death, save in clearly exceptional cases, where 
 the impoverishment of Chinese widows and orphans might 
 necessitate some provision for them. The utmost that any 
 have asked, so far as I know, is for reimbursement for actual 
 monetary loss, conservatively estimated. The joint meeting 
 of the Shantung Missions, already referred to, adopted the 
 following : 
 
 " The East and West Shantung Missions believe, 
 
 " 1. That the Board should receive indemnity in full for 
 all property destroyed, and for all extraordinary expenses 
 incurred through the Boxer disturbances. 
 
 "2. That individual missionaries should be indemnified 
 in full for all private property destroyed, and for all ex- 
 penses incurred through the disturbances. 
 
 "3. We agree that such indemnities should be secured 
 through the Board, in harmony with the Board's suggestion. 
 
 "4. We admit' the principle that Chinese Christians 
 should also be reimbursed for direct losses consequent on 
 the Boxer disturbances. 
 
 "5. In cases where Chinese who, though not baptized, 
 yet suffered losses through some connection with Chris- 
 tians, or through friendliness toward them, or through pre- 
 vious interest in the truth, that each case be investigated 
 and decided on its merits. 
 
 "6. As to the basis for reckoning indemnity, and meth- 
 ods for securing it for Chinese, it is important, 
 
 "a. That such indemnity be only sufficient to replace 
 actual losses of property. In cases of wounds or death, it 
 may be permissible under exceptional circumstances to ask 
 for a special indemnity. 
 
 "<^. That claims be settled under the supervision of the 
 missionaries, privately and harmoniously if possible, through 
 mediators; if not, then through the local magistrate. If this 
 is impossible, the case may finally be taken to the Consul. 
 
 'V. When settlement could be secured through some 
 abatement of the claims, the missionaries should urge the 
 
41 
 
 Christians to accept the compromise, rather than continue 
 litigation. 
 
 'V. If the official, in a spirit of fairness, prefers to deal 
 with the Chinese directly, we should remain in the back- 
 ground, giving him full opportunity to settle the troubles if 
 he can. 
 
 'V. Too great care cannot be taken to settle in such a 
 way that, so far as possible, future bitterness of feeling be 
 allayed." 
 
 In practice, however, the Shantung missionaries were 
 led to place an emphasis on 'V" and 'V" which resulted in a 
 considerable modification of their declaration in 1 and 2 that 
 "indemnity in full" should be paid. For many of the local 
 Chinese magistrates were indisposed to wait the conclusion 
 of tedious diplomatic negotiations, and intimated a willing- 
 ness and, in some cases, an eagerness to settle at once with 
 the individual missionaries. 
 
 In the Chihli Province this local settlement did not in- 
 clude the losses of the Board or the missionaries, which, in 
 compliance with the request of the United States Minister in 
 Peking, were filed with the Legation, December 31, 1900. The 
 claims including the losses of the Board and the personal 
 losses of all the missionaries, save for one, who declined to 
 present any claim. In Peking, the original cost of the 
 Board's property was $47,617, gold. But the prices of labor 
 and materials have so risen since the buildings were erected 
 that the mission estimated that it would cost at least 
 $53,422 to replace them, and indemnity was, therefore, asked 
 in that sum. The personal losses of the fifteen missionaries 
 of the station call for $28,323. For Paotingfu, the claims are : 
 for the Board $11,850 ; for personal, $15,530, the latter includ- 
 ing the hospital, which was listed as Dr. Atterbury's property. 
 The estimates for the Board's losses include, of course, furni- 
 ture, etc., as well as buildings. The governing principle was 
 indemnity for the full cost of replacing the destroyed pro- 
 perty, this being estimated from the present prices of mater- 
 ials and labor to be about 10 per cent, more that the original 
 cost, though the exact original cost only was asked when- 
 ever there was reason to believe that it would replace a 
 given article. Each item of the personal as well as the 
 Board claims was separately examined and approved by the 
 mission, except in the case of two missionaries, who sent 
 their personal lists directly to the Legation when departing 
 for America at the close of the siege. 
 
 No losses of Chinese Christians were filed with the Lega- 
 tion, save that, in obedience to a ruling of the Legations, 
 the losses of native employees of the missionaries were sent 
 in a separate list. Afterward, a Chinese Imperial Com- 
 
42 
 
 mission, appointed by the Government, requested that a 
 statement of all claims be sent to it. With the approval of 
 United States Minister Congfer, the commission was given a 
 copy of the claim filed with the Legation, with the under- 
 standing that it was not thereby withdrawn from the Lega- 
 tion. A schedule of all the claims of Chinese Christians 
 was also handed this commission. The commission, after 
 examination of all these claims, approved them without 
 demur just as they were presented, referred all foreign 
 claims to the general indemnity fund to be settled through 
 the Legation, and promised that the Chinese Government 
 would pay all native claims within three months directly to 
 the Chinese concerned. 
 
 Meantime, the magistrate of San Ho Hsien (county), 
 where more than half the losses of our native Christians 
 occurred, began raising money for them without any sug- 
 gestion from the missionaries, and soon others followed his 
 example; so that now practically all the losses of our native 
 Christians have been paid, except in the city of Peking, 
 where, as indicated above, payment is promised in Sep- 
 tember. The losses of the Peking Christians have since been 
 paid in full. 
 
 The missionaries, however, were by no means content to 
 leave the native Christians to deal directly with the Chinese 
 oflficials. Human nature is as strong in the Chinese as in 
 the American, and w^hen so many in our own land rate 
 burned household furniture above its market value, and 
 deem it no wrong to charge the government a little more 
 than any one else, we can hardly wonder that some of the 
 Chinese fell into the same temptation, particularly as the 
 money was to be paid by those who had tried to kill them, 
 and who would kill them now if they dared. So the mis- 
 sionaries wisely felt that the good name of the cause of 
 Christ was involved, and that, as the appointed leaders of 
 the Church, it was their duty to see that no one of their flocks 
 took advantage of the situation to obtain more than was 
 justly his due, as well as that the numerous pretended Chris- 
 tians should not smuggle in fraudulent claims under cover 
 of the confusion and the officials' ignorance of individual 
 cases. The mission, therefore, appointed a committee of 
 two missionaries, Mr. Killie and Mr. Cunningham, and two 
 Chinese, and this committee insisted that all claims of 
 native Christians should be itemized and presented to it in 
 writing. Each one was carefully examined, a visit usually 
 being made for this purpose to the village where the claim- 
 ant lived. The committee was assisted in determining 
 values by a schedule sent out by Viceroy Li Hung Chang, 
 specifying that a brick house with a tiled roof should be 
 
43 
 
 rated at 30 taels for each room; a brick house with straw 
 roof, 25 taels for each room; a mud house with straw roof, 
 20 taels for each room; the contents of the house in no case 
 to exceed in value the cost of the building, a life to be listed 
 at 70 taels, etc. (A tael is about 70 cents.) 
 
 The committee labored hard and conscientiously, rigidly 
 scrutinizing each item presented to it. Not only were 
 claims reduced where definite proof of overvaluation was 
 obtained, but many were cut down where proof could not be 
 had, so anxious were the missionaries that no extortion 
 should be permitted. The Christians were frankly and yet 
 kindly told that it was better that they should suffer some 
 loss for Christ's sake than that their neighbors should have 
 any ground for suspecting that injustice had been done 
 them. Not a claim was endorsed until the committee was 
 satisfied that it was not beyond the actual loss sustained. 
 No collections were made from the people or the village 
 officials, but solely through the hsien (county) magistrates. 
 No visits were made to the villages where the violence had 
 been committed to ask or to accept anything, but only to 
 verify claims. Not a cent was included or received for wid- 
 ows, orphans, fines, punishment, monuments, tablets or 
 chapels, except where a chapel had been destroyed, and 
 then, of course, the cost of replacing it was included. 
 
 Under Viceroy Li Hung Chang's schedule the Mission 
 Committee might have collected 21,000 taels for loss of life, 
 but the committee refused to receive a single tael for this 
 purpose. In one outstation, it was found that three families 
 had collected 1,100 taels for several lives, a sum which, 
 by Chinese standards, would have enriched them for life. 
 But the committee required the familes to refund every tael 
 to the official. The only exception was the case of a Paotingfu 
 widow whose husband was murdered,' and who was left des- 
 titute with three little girls, and with no relative to help her. 
 Even then, no demand was made, but Mr. Lowrie simply 
 told the hsien magistrate about the case, and he promptly 
 provided for her necessities. 
 
 The hsien magistrates appeared to be not only relieved 
 but delighted by the course adopted by our missionaries. 
 One of them told Mr. Killie that he had expected the claims 
 to be three times as large, and at the close of the negotia- 
 tions, all the magistrates heartily thanked our missionaries 
 for their moderation and fairness. The Chinese Christians 
 also accepted in a beautiful spirit the judgment of the mis- 
 sionaries in scaling down their claims. This part of the 
 work required no little tact and firmness, and it is a remark- 
 able testimony to the spiritual character of the Chinese 
 Christians, as well as to the wisdom of the missionaries. 
 
44 
 
 that the native brethren yielded to the committee, and ac- 
 cepted such a modest, and, in many instances, partial reim- 
 bursement, when so many others were reaping- that rich 
 harvest which was in strict accordance with hereditary cus- 
 tom and the universal expectation of the Chinese them- 
 selves. 
 
 In Shantung, the field conditions, as the missionaries 
 found them on returning to their stations in the spring, led 
 some of them to feel that no indemnity whatever should be 
 received. While they believed that both the Board and the 
 missionaries were entitled to full reimbursement, from the 
 viewpoint of legal right and strict justice, they, neverthe- 
 less, held that, from the viewpoint of Christian expediency, 
 it would be unwise to accept it. Further reflection and cor- 
 respondence, however, brought nearly all of the missionar- 
 ries to the conclusion that the ends of Christian charity and 
 mission influence would not be imperiled by their acceptance 
 of a reasonable compensation for destroyed property, espec- 
 ially as Governor Yuan Shih Kai showed a disposition to 
 settle all claims, foreign as well as native, "out of court." 
 Indeed, his representative, Tao t'ai T'ang, frankly said that 
 "it was not the Governor's desire that the indemnity should 
 be all remitted, but that should we see fit to withdraw some 
 portion of it, the Governor would be under obligations," 
 though this intimation was not due to any feeling on the 
 part of the Governor that the full amount would have been 
 unreasonable. 
 
 The missionaries, however, had already decided, after 
 much thought and prayer, to reduce their claims to the low- 
 est point consistent with reason. The circumstances varied. 
 At Chiningchow, though the station was abandoned for a 
 year, no property. Board or personal, had been touched. 
 This was remarkable, as Chiningchow is not only our most 
 distant and isolated station in North China, but it is in a 
 region which has long been notorious for robbery and vio- 
 lence. Nor did the Chinese Christians seriously suffer. The 
 elders told me that there were many rumors of danger, 
 threats of maltreatment and a few cases of blackmail, but 
 that no Christian was hurt, and no one had his property 
 stolen or destroyed. As Mr. Laughlin arrived with me, he 
 had not had time for full inquiry before I left. But no 
 signs of loss were then apparent. 
 
 At Ichowfu the buildings were but slightly injured, but 
 windows were broken; locks, door-knobs and many articles 
 of furniture were carried away; pillows, mattresses, a piano, 
 and in some cases, the plastering, were ripped open in the 
 search for valuables. The looting here was not done by the 
 people, who have always been friendly, but by the Chinese Im- 
 
45 
 
 perial soldiers, on their way from the southern provinces to aid 
 in the attack on the foreigners in Peking. As they were gov- 
 ernment troops and marching under the command of their 
 officers, the missionaries believed that the government 
 might be fairly expected to make good the loss. However, 
 in order to be on the safe side, and to give no possible 
 ground for complaint, the estimates were cut down below 
 the actual loss, the list handed to the hsien magistrate call- 
 ing for only $300, gold, for the Board's losses, and $4,000, 
 gold, for the personal losses of all seven of the missionaries 
 belonging to the station, though some of them had lost 
 their all, Mr. Chalfant's new house in particular having been 
 stripped even to nails and picture hooks. 
 
 The losses of the Chinese Christians were not large in 
 the aggregate, and were handled in the same conservative 
 manner, each claim being rigidly scrutinized, and reduced to 
 a figure whose reasonableness none could challenge. All 
 these claims, foreign and native have now been paid. 
 
 At Chinanfu, also, comparatively little damage was done to 
 the mission buildings; but, as in Ichowfu, breakages, thefts and 
 the extraordinary expenses incident to the escape of the mis- 
 sionaries, amounted to over 7,000 taels. The same moder- 
 ation was observed, and the claim was scaled down to 5,000 
 taels, including 500 taels for books belonging to the Diffu- 
 sion Society, which were on deposit with the station. Chin- 
 anfu is the residence of the Governor, and so impressed was 
 he by the spirit of fairness manifested by the missionaries 
 that, within two days after the signing of the agreement, the 
 amount agreed upon was paid to the station treasurer. 
 
 The Chinese Christians in this station field are scattered 
 over eight counties, and they suffered heavily from black- 
 mail, looting and arson. Only three were murdered, but 
 several other deaths occurred from causes directly traceable 
 to the mental and physical agonies of the outbreak. As in 
 other stations, no effort was spared by the missionaries to 
 keep within the limits, not only of justice, but of charity. 
 No attempts were made to call to account the villages 
 where the losses occurred, but, in company with two Chinese 
 deputies, designated by the Governor, Messrs. Hamilton 
 and Murray adjusted all claims through the county magis- 
 trates. Everywhere the conferences were friendly. "We 
 took," writes Mr. Murray, "the position of ministers seek- 
 ing relief for our suffering people, and in no case of lawyers 
 having a case. We made an occasion to speak of our mis- 
 sion, the Church, the members, their relation and our rela- 
 tion, to the government. We said plainly and repeatedly 
 that we discouraged a spirit of revenge and of undue' litiga- 
 tion. In one or two cases we mentioned by name and act 
 
46 
 
 those who were unworthy, and said we could not make a 
 claim for them. In every way possible we sought the wel- 
 fare of the name of the Church, as well as the property and 
 persons of the members." 
 
 The care and conservatism manifested by the missiona- 
 ries appear in the fact that the claims approved by them 
 averaged only 50 per cent, of the reported losses. Mr. Mur- 
 ray adds: "In some cases of evident deception, or for bad 
 conduct before and after the outbreak, or for a litigious 
 spirit, we either cut out entirely or allowed a low per cent. 
 While we put in on the basis of 50 per cent., yet we held the 
 right to distribute when money is paid to us, according to 
 circumstances. In connection with the helpers and others, 
 the lists are again revised; some got fully 50 per cent.; 
 others having lands and other permanent property will get a 
 little less than 40 per cent.; others, for very doubtful conduct 
 as Christians will get even less. We had to do this, for even 
 on the final count, at the very close, in order to close up the 
 case without too much friction, we still dropped, in some 
 places, from the 50 per cent. In such cases, the worthy per- 
 sons, especially if poor, got all, while the rich and others 
 bore the cut. When the matter in hand was decided, the 
 official had a written agreement, which we all signed. The 
 money is promised to be paid to us for the Christians 
 through the Foreign Office, at Chinanfu. The time limit of 
 forty and fifty days was agreed upon. In one case, half to 
 be paid in fifty days andhalf intwo months. There was ob- 
 jection to it being paid through the Foreign Office, the rea- 
 son given being, 'We don't want any public record of it.' " 
 All have now been paid. 
 
 The heaviest loss in Shantung was at Wei Hsien, where 
 our large station was virtually destroyed. The compound 
 wall, with the exception of a few breaks, remains intact, and 
 one or two of the smaller buildings are but little injured. 
 But all the larger buildings are in ruins, and the materials 
 that can be saved will not much more than paj^ the cost of 
 clearing the site for rebuilding. The actual losses on the 
 mission compound, exclusive of the losses of Chinese Chris- 
 tians in the village, are 64,421 taels ($47,720 gold), of which 
 33,944.40 taels are for Board property, 1,904.80 taels for 
 special expenses caused by the outbreak and 28,571.80 taels 
 for the personal losses of the twelve missionaries belonging 
 to the station, all their clothing and household effects having 
 been totally destroyed. 
 
 But the Wei Hsien missionaries, like their brethren in 
 other stations in North China, were thinking not so much of 
 personal compensation as of the interests of the cause of 
 Christ. As one of them said in my hearing: "We are here 
 
47 
 
 to influence the Chinese; if we are not, we had better go 
 home. The efi'ect of our action upon the Chinese, Chris- 
 tian and heathen, must, therefore, be of prime importance." 
 But in applying this excellent principle certain facts had to 
 be kept in mind. On the one hand, the missionaries knew 
 that the ravaged property must be rebuilt. They were 
 aware that the local officials were directly responsible for 
 this necessity. The mob had come from the city, and when 
 it attacked the station, Mr. Chalfant promptly dispatched a 
 messenger to the magistrate, asking for protection. Mean- 
 time, with a courage which in the British army would have 
 won the Victoria Cross, he held the assailants at bay. The 
 magistrate received the message and had time to send re- 
 lief. But instead of doing so he summoned several of the 
 leading men, and in a conference they deliberately decided 
 not to interfere. In such circumstances the missionaries 
 felt that those who had so wantonly connived at the burning 
 of the hospitals and schools and houses of those who had 
 sought only the welfare of the people, should bear some of 
 the cost of rebuilding. 
 
 And yet they saw that both gentry and people were sul- 
 len and resentful, and that full indemnity could be exacted 
 only by fear or force. They became convinced that such an 
 exaction would embitter the people and prejudice Christian 
 influence for decades. So they decided to share the loss 
 with the Chinese, though innocent themselves to bear a part 
 of the punishment of the guilty, in the hope that their foes, 
 moved by such an example of Christian love, would be con- 
 ciliated toward the work of the Master. Accordingly, after 
 having made plain to the Chinese officials that the bona fide 
 loss was 64,421 taels, they voluntarily reduced their claim to 
 45,000 taels. Nor did they simply saddle this loss on the 
 Board. They assigned to it only 1,953 taels, and divided all 
 the rest among themselves — four families and four single 
 women relinquishing altogether 17,468 taels. None of them 
 could afi^ord such a sacrifice, but they made it for the sake of 
 Christ and of His cause. 
 
 Governor Yuan Shih Kai personally told me of his grate- 
 ful appreciation of the spirit manifested by the missionaries. 
 When the revised list of claims was presented for the ap- 
 proval of his representative, Tao t'ai T'ang, he handed it 
 back without looking at it, politely saying : " This is not a 
 commercial transaction, and it would be discourteous for me 
 to read the list. I accept the word of you gentlemen as to 
 their accuracy. A memorandum of the total will be all I 
 desire." In view of the settlement, the Governor readily 
 agreed. 
 
48 
 
 " 1st. That the relinquishment of just claims be not made 
 a precedent prejudicial to the claims of others. 
 
 "2nd. That the balance will be assessed upon those most 
 culpable in the immediate neighborhood of the mission com- 
 pound. 
 
 " 3rd. That a public statement shall be made at Wie 
 Hsien of the nature of the settlement. 
 
 "4th. That adequate provision shall be made for the 
 family of the teacher, Chu Tung Kwang, who was killed in 
 the riot. 
 
 "5th. That there shall be relief from exorbitant prices 
 in purchase of land adjacent to mission compound. 
 
 "6th. That there shall be security of title in cases where 
 the deeds for church or mission property were destroyed or 
 stolen." 
 
 Conditions 4 and 5 were complied with June 1st. The 
 first instalment of the indemnity, 20,000 taels, has already 
 been paid, and the Governor has given a written guaranty, 
 stamped with the official seal of the Foreign Office of the 
 provincial capital, that the balance will be forthcoming be- 
 fore next February. The entire indemnity has now been 
 paid. 
 
 The losses of the Chinese Christians in the many out- 
 stations of the great Wei Hsien field were adjusted in the 
 same careful way as at the other stations already described. 
 
 In the East Shantung Mission no mission property was 
 destroyed, as all three stations, Tengchow, Chefoo and 
 Tsingtau, are on the coast. Tengchow had to be abandoned 
 for a time, and the Chefoo missionaries on Temple Hill, two 
 miles back from the water front, had to move dowm to the 
 beach in readiness for instant departure on a junk which was 
 kept anchored off shore. But their houses were not molested; 
 and the stations were soon reoccupied. The Chinese Chris- 
 tians in the scattered outstations suffered greatly, in com- 
 mon with their brethren in other places. But in every case 
 the matter was settled by the local officials, the missionaries 
 adopting substantially the same methods of close, detailed 
 investigation, reduction of claims within actual losses, and 
 negotiations solely with officials, so that there was no intimi- 
 dating of helpless villagers, no collection of money under 
 promise of protection. 
 
 "How are the funds for these indemnities to be raised?" 
 I ventured to frankly ask Governor Yuan Shih Kai. "We 
 wish the Chinese to feel," I continued, "that we are their 
 friends, and that we are sharing the loss with them. Many 
 of our American Christians who support this work are com- 
 paratively poor. We have many financial burdens and we 
 are straitened for funds. But we would rather bear the en- 
 
49 
 
 tire loss ourselves than to have the indemnity wrung frorri 
 the innocent, or even to have the guilty impoverished. Our 
 religion teaches us to suffer for others as our Master, Christ, 
 has suffered vicariously for us all, and we do not desire the 
 payment of indemnity to be pressed in any way which will 
 make the people smart under a sense of injustice." 
 
 The Governor, who, by the way, impressed me as one of 
 the ablest public men I have ever met, listened with pro- 
 found attention, and then heartily thanked me for expressing 
 such sentiments, and said that they were quite in accord 
 with the position which has been taken by our missionaries. 
 He stated that the Chinanfu indemnity had been paid out of 
 money which was then lying in the provincial treasury. As 
 for the Wei Hsien indemnity, he had sent a deputy to that 
 city to make a careful investigation as to the responsibility 
 for the outrages, which he deeply deplored. As far as pos- 
 sible, the money would be collected from the guilty parties. 
 Of course, if enough could not be secured from them, the 
 balance would have to be raised by general taxation upon 
 the region which had furnished the mob, but he anticipated 
 no dii^culty, because some of the ofTficials and gentry had 
 permitted or encouraged the destruction, and he "proposed 
 to make those who had used their mouths pay as well as 
 those who had used their hands." So the sum would be 
 easily collected. 
 
 There is reason to fear, however, that the collections 
 will not be so smoothly effected as the good Governor desires. 
 It could be if our losses were the only ones, or if they could 
 be collected separately, but, the German Railroad Company 
 has filed a claim for a million taels, on account of damage 
 done to its property and interests, while there are additional 
 claims by the German mining and railway engineers who 
 were scattered over the province, and particularly by the 
 Roman Catholics, who are very numerous in Shantung, with 
 three dioceses and much valuable property, including ex- 
 pensive cathedrals, schools, orphanages, etc. Some of the 
 priests never left the interior, but purchased ample supplies 
 of food, rifles and ammunition, armed their Christians, forti- 
 fied themselves, and fought the trouble through with vigor 
 and success. Now they invite the Chinese to foot the bills, 
 and they do not deem it their duty, either, to scale them 
 down. On the contrary, they propose to make their foes 
 pay up, and pay, too, not only for the actual loss, but with 
 a liberal allowance for the trouble which they have caused. 
 At Yenchowfu I saw a stately cathedral approaching comple- 
 tion, the funds having come from the indemnity paid for the 
 murder of two priests in 1897. This is the German and the 
 Roman Catholic policy — to make the Chinese pay heavily 
 
5P 
 
 for every attack, and to show them that a destroyed building 
 means a far larger and costlier one in its place. There is 
 not the slightest doubt that they will adopt the same course 
 in the present instance. 
 
 And so it comes to pass that our Presbyterian claims are 
 a mere bagatelle in the grand total which the people of Shan- 
 tung are expected to pay, while as for the Chili losses, the 
 aggregate for not only all the Protestant and Catholic mis- 
 sions, but for tile Legations and foreign business interests, 
 and the political, military and naval damages is so enor- 
 mous that our modest and conscientious Presbyterian claims 
 sink out of sight. And now, on top of all this, comes an or- 
 der for a higher assessment, to provide for the increased ex- 
 penditures of the exiled court, a huge sum in itself. 
 
 It will, therefore, be difficult to give our conservative pol- 
 icy its intended moral effect upon the Chinese, except as lo- 
 cal communities are convinced by the individual missionaries 
 whom they know and trust. A general tax will be collected; 
 has, indeed already been imposed. That tax, while small 
 per capita in our eyes, will not be small to the thrifty and 
 parsimonious Chinese who are always on the verge of starva- 
 tion, especially as it will fall upon multitudes who took no 
 part in the uprising. It is urged that the outbreak was so 
 general that the whole community may justly be held ac- 
 countable, but, on the other hand, I am informed that near 
 Wei Hsien, some people who did not even know till after- 
 ward that the station was attacked, are now being ordered to 
 help pay for the damage. Even Americans raise a hue and 
 cry over an increase in taxes, and in China the universal an- 
 tipathy to such increase is in this instance intensified by the 
 poverty of the people and the knowledge that the money will 
 go to the foreigner. 
 
 The motives of the local magistrates in promptly taking 
 up the question of indemnity with the missionaries in their 
 respective districts may be variously interpreted. It would 
 be too much to assume that all these oflficials have suddenly 
 become friends of the foreigner, and it would be contrary to 
 human nature to suppose that so many men are eager to 
 make restitution from purely conscience-stricken considera- 
 tion. Some enlightened officials, indeed, sincerely lament 
 the mistaken policy of the Boxers, and at the time did every- 
 thing in their power to check it. Governor Yuan Shih Kai 
 even going so far in his effort to protect the foreigners in 
 vShantung as to jeopardize his own life. Others, like those 
 in Paotingfu, have come into office since the troubles, and 
 are not, therefore, to blame for them. In many places, like 
 Ichowfu and Chiningchow, the people bore no ill-will toward 
 the missionaries, and were kindly disposed toward them. 
 
51 
 
 Even at Wei Hsien, a heathen muleteer, at the risk of his 
 life, helped Miss Boughton and Miss Hawes to escape. There 
 were many instances of great kindness shown to the mission- 
 aries by their non-Christian neighbors, and there are many 
 now who deeply deplore the atrocities of last year, and are 
 glad to do what they can to atone for them. 
 
 Nevertheless, the great body of the people of all classes, 
 including presumably the friendly officials, unquestion- 
 ably feel that China has reason to dislike the foreigner. They 
 wish that the movement to expel him from the country had suc- 
 ceeded, and they would revive it to-morrow if they thought it 
 could accomplish its purpose. But the more sagacious offi- 
 cials now see that the foreigner is here to stay, and they are 
 shrewd enough to see that it would be better to have him 
 stay as a friend than as a formidable enemy. They want him 
 to take away his regiments and warships, so that he will va- 
 cate their palaces, and so that their Emperor can return to 
 his capital, and they imagine that he will do this as soon as they 
 settle up. They know that indemnity will have to be paid. 
 Apart from any demands from the foreigner, such payment 
 is in accordance with immemorial Chinese custom, and offi- 
 cials and people alike have not the slightest idea that they 
 can escape it. In such circumstances, it is the inevitable and 
 invariable course in this land to offer a financial compensa- 
 tion for injuries. They know that if this indemnity is paid 
 through the Government in Peking, their share of it will not 
 only be levied upon them, but "two or three fold" more, to 
 cover what the Chinese euphemistically term, "charges for 
 collecting," for the official "squeeze" is accepted as a matter 
 of course in China, and the very thought of the long line of 
 official hands through which an indemnity would have to pass 
 from Wei Hsien via Peking to Berlin, London, St. Peters- 
 burg and Washington, frightens the local magistrate, who be- 
 lieves that, in order to get 45,000 taels to the missionaries by 
 such a circuitous route he would probably be mulcted 145,000. 
 The missionaries are in his district. He knows them to be 
 kindly, fair-minded men, and he, therefore, prefers to deal di- 
 rectly with them. Indeed, he is eager to do so. In some in- 
 stances, he does not wait for the presentation of claims but 
 presses the money upon them, and when they accept it and 
 give him a receipt, he is relieved and delighted at his good 
 fortune in getting off so easily. In the Canton Mission, the 
 local magistrate not only paid the claims with alacrity, but 
 sent presents to the missionary in token of his gratitude. 
 Doubtless, all these motives, with varying degrees of em- 
 phasis in diiferent localities, have operated in bringing about 
 the settlement of claims. 
 
 Should the missionary accept the indemnity in such cir- 
 
5^ 
 
 eumstances? Some say, No. Three of our own missionaries 
 in North China declined to file any claims for themselves, 
 though they did so for the Board. Several others asked re- 
 imbursement for only half their losses. I am informed that 
 the China Inland Mission, and the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel, have, as Mission Boards, taken the same 
 ground and will ask the home churches to make good their 
 losses and those of the missionaries. One of our missionar- 
 ies forcefully presents the argument for this view in a way 
 which should interest those who imagine that all mission- 
 aries are demanding indemnity. 
 
 His views may be summorized as follows: — 
 
 1. Though as citizens entitled to such indemnity, yet 
 there is a higher law than legal right. 
 
 2. The disciples began and carried on their work, expect- 
 ing, but neither seeking nor avoiding persecution. Paul's 
 assertion of his Roman citizenship at Philippi and Jerusalem 
 was simply arguing for protection not indemnity. 
 
 3. The renunciation of just claims would emphasize to 
 the Chinese government the difference between the Church 
 and the covetous " powers ". 
 
 4. A forced indemnity will irritate officials and people, 
 while its renunciation will impress them with Christian gen- 
 erosity. 
 
 5. Relinquishment will teach the Chinese Church a use- 
 ful lesson. 
 
 6. The sacrifice demanded of the American Church by 
 relinquishment will stimulate spirituality. 
 
 While the majority of missionaries in China apparently 
 heartily agree with these arguments in the main, yet they 
 do not feel that his conclusion necessarily follows. 
 
 So far as I can judge from what I have learned in China, 
 the majority of the missionaries of all denominations, while 
 heartily agreeing with much that Mr. Davies has so eloquent- 
 ly urged, do not feel that his conclusion necessarily follows. 
 They believe that Christian justice and security for the fu- 
 ture demand some payment. An apparently small minority 
 of our missionaries, and a considerable majority of the mis- 
 sionaries of some other Boards, feel that indemnity should 
 be full, and with something over, for moral effect. They 
 insist that it will not do in China any more than in America 
 to allow the vicious to imagine that they can burn and steal 
 and rape and murder — violate all laws, human and divine — 
 and then, without any sign of true repentance, be freely 
 forgiven. That would be casting pearls before swine with 
 a vengeance. Nor will it suffice, they argue, to give the 
 criminals the idea that the payment of enough to rebuild a 
 burned house will atone for everything, while the foreign 
 
53 i 
 
 occupant endures all the hardship and suffering and the in- 
 nocent widows and orphans of the slaughtered Chinese 
 Christians are left to starve. The criminals will pay, 
 chuckle in their sleeve at getting off so easily, and burn the 
 house again at the first opportunity. They must be made 
 to understand that such outrages will not be tolerated, and 
 the only way to make them understand is to touch them at 
 the only point where the Chinese are sensitive — the pocket. 
 They will stop pillaging mission property and murdering 
 women and children if they find that such amusements come 
 high. It is to the real interests of the Chinese themselves, 
 we are told, that they should be taught this lesson. There 
 is no hope for China until this lesson is learned, and it will 
 be mistaken kindness if a false sentimentalism prevents us 
 from adopting a stern but eminently just policy at this time. 
 Influenced by some such considerations as these, some of 
 the missionaries of some of the other Protestant Boards, the 
 Roman Catholics quite generally, and, of course, the busi- 
 ness and political foreigners, have exacted not only the full 
 amount of their monetary loss, but an additional sum of 
 varying proportions, as a fine, or for widows and orphans, 
 or for monuments or memorial buildings. I am credibly 
 informed that some non-missionary civilians have included 
 in their claims $5,000 for wardrobe. In several cases val- 
 uable land has been purchased for a merely nominal sum 
 from owners who were too frightened to insist on a fair 
 price, while in one city that I visited the priests were com- 
 pelling the terrified people to labor without compensation in 
 extensive rebuilding operations. It is not for me to judge 
 the Roman Catholics who have adopted this policy, and 
 whose splendid cathedrals I saw rising in more than one 
 city with the proceeds of a "punitive" indemnity. Nor 
 must I be understood as criticizing my brethren of other 
 Protestant bodies who have seen fit to adopt a modified phase 
 of the same policy. They are highminded, Christian men, 
 who are acting from a lofty sense of duty, whose personal 
 sacrifices for the Chinese are notable, and whose judgment 
 is backed by many years' experience in dealing with Asiatics. 
 The question is not one of essential right or wrong, but of 
 expediency and judgment. Every day, in America, courts 
 award damages for slander and accidental injuries and no 
 one objects. In Indiana, the Christian Governor Mount, 
 with the approval of the press of the whole country, proposed 
 a law assessing heavy damages upon any county in which 
 mob violence occurred. Everybody knew that ninety-nine 
 one-hundredths of the population of such a county would be 
 innocent, but it was deemed just to hold the public account- 
 able for what it tolerated. Why, then, should honorable 
 
54 
 
 Christian men in China be malijjned for conscientiously be- 
 lieving that the Chinese must be convinced by just penalty 
 and treaty rights must be respected and human lives held 
 sacred ? In a letter to me, which I have permission to pub- 
 lish, Sir Robert Hart writes : 
 
 "As regards recent occurrences in China, and more 
 especially in and around Peking, you wish me to say whether 
 there has been anything in the action or attitude of mis- 
 sionaries in respect of indemnity claims, punitive measures 
 and looting, |]to justify the scolding and abuse which some 
 writers^and- speakers have indulged in. This opens up a 
 very large question, and you will get a diiferent answer from 
 every man you apply to. So many societies, congregations 
 and individuals are concerned that thorough justice could 
 only be looked for by treating of eachoneseparately. Neither 
 the information at my command, nor my time, will admit of 
 that, however, and I doubt if anything short of that would 
 be convincing or satisfactory. 
 
 "The experience we are emerging from has been a try- 
 ing one, and at every step the progressive nature 3f con- 
 sciousness forced one to recognize how principle must per- 
 meate circumstance, and how circumstance must interpret 
 principle. Considering the terrible and uncalled-for suffer- 
 ing Chinese action caused people, sufferers are entitled to 
 the fullest indemnification. While this right is beyond all 
 question, there are some who think the positive good likely 
 to follow renunciation would prove a greater blessing than 
 the deterrent effects of a heavy fine. I think it is a matter 
 for the individual conscience to settle. If circumstances 
 guide conscience into demanding the utmost farthing, it is 
 right to demand it. And if the man who teaches the people 
 to pray, ' forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, ' 
 prefers to act accordingly and forgive, he need not fear the 
 blessing of Heaven will not follow the object lesson. Some 
 claims, however, are said to be excessive, and if such be the 
 case, to satisfy them will in the end carry its own punish- 
 ment with it. Missionaries do not lose their civil rights on 
 ordination; on the contrary, and perhaps all the more so, if 
 they in Christian charity are willing to forego them their 
 national authorities ought to see in the renunciation of the 
 individual all the greater reason for enforcing what the com- 
 munity respects as a right. Principle and circumstance are 
 so intertwined that, admirable as it is, even renunciation 
 must cease to be Christian when it ceases to be politic, and 
 therefore the constituted authorities ought to be saddled with 
 the responsibility of decision. " 
 
 But while I refuse to join those who so unjustly assail de- 
 voted men who have acted from pure motives, my own con- 
 
55 
 
 victions are a mean between the two views outlined above. 
 I would neither renounce everything, on the one hand, nor 
 demand everything, on the other. Perhaps I may define 
 my position as follows : 
 
 From the political viewpoint, the missionary is a citizen, 
 and he has the same rights to indemnity for life and prop- 
 erty as any other citizen. He cannot yield this point, or 
 permit any one to deprive him of his full status as an Amer- 
 ican citizen. If it is lawful for a business man to demand 
 an indemnity, it is lawful for a missionary to demand it. 
 He is no more objectionable to the Chinese than the trader. 
 He is under the protection of the same treaties, and our 
 Goverment has no right to discriminate between its citizens 
 when they are engaged in legitimate undertakings. 
 
 But whether he should receive indemnity is a question 
 not of political right but of Christian expediency, to be de- 
 termined not for him but by him, and by him not from the 
 viewpoint of legal status or commercial transaction, but of 
 the higher law of divine love. He should remember with 
 Paul that "all things are lawful, but all things are not ex- 
 pedient. " Most of us have rights which we do not deem 
 it prudent to exercise. Without waiving them, we volun- 
 tarily hold them in abeyance, because to insist upon them 
 would " edify not. " There are some things that I will give 
 away that I will not sell. The bearing of idemnity upon 
 the cause of Christ should, therefore, be considered from 
 this viewpoint: 
 
 I do not believe it to be expedient to ask or to accept in- 
 demnity for life. We should place no money value upon 
 the lives of our martyred dead, not because they were worth- 
 less, but because they were priceless. There must be no 
 haggling about the cost of blood. We do not wish the 
 Chinese to feel that a missionary's life can be estimated in 
 dollars and cents. Christ plainly warned His followers that 
 " they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, 
 and ye shall be hated of all nations, for My name's sake." 
 The missionary goes forth knowing this, and if, like his Mas- 
 ter, he suffers death, it is not for us to send a bill to Caesar. 
 
 Nor would I accept indemnity, even if it were offered, for 
 physical or mental suffering. Stripes and imprisonments, 
 tears, and travail, have from the beginning been a part of the 
 risk accepted by the true missionary. The apostles did not 
 sue their persecutors for damages, while the Lord Himself, 
 when invited to reply to His accusers, opened not His mouth. 
 
 As to indemnity for property, it may be said that the 
 same principle holds. But Christian expediency is not bound 
 by logic any more than by law. At any rate, on its ground, 
 I recognize a difference between life and property. If I am 
 
56 
 
 chargfcd with inconsistency, I reply that within the limits of 
 my right, I can do as I please, and I please to distinguish 
 blood from bricks. 
 
 So I hold that if indemnity for property is conceded by 
 the Chinese, who pay it, to be just and fair, and if it is willingly 
 paid, I would accept it in any sum not exceeding the actual 
 loss sustained. Some of the North China magistrates wanted 
 to settle with the missionary to avoid the otherwise certain 
 extortion of a far larger sum through the Powers, and to 
 have refused would have disappointed and irritated them, as 
 it would simply have forced them into the hands of the cor- 
 ruptionij^t. But if indemnity must be exacted by force, if it 
 is prompted by fear, if it impoverishes the innocent, if its col- 
 lection would embitter the people against the cause we love, 
 if there is ground for believing that self-sacrifice would open 
 hearts now closed, if the native Christians show a spirit of 
 greed or revenge and need an example of self-denial for 
 Jesus' sake — in these contingencies, I say, I would remit so 
 much of a just and lawful claim as would suffice to avert such 
 results, even if I had to relinquish all of it. 
 
 To the argument that the Chinese do not appreciate 
 magnanimity, that they would interpret it as weakness, and 
 feel that they had license to destroy, I replied : 
 
 a. It is safer and better to assume that the heathen is a 
 man who does understand kindness and self-sacrifice, and 
 who will be influenced by it. The human heart is essentially 
 the same the world over. 
 
 b. If the Chinese do not vmderstand magnanimity, let us 
 teach it to them, by example as well as by precept. That is 
 what we are there for. That is the way Christ taught us 
 when we were as dull of comprehension as the Chinese. 
 
 c. Even if it were true that the Chinese cannot be made 
 to understand charity and self-sacrifice, it does not follow 
 that we should abandon our Christian principles. We should 
 not become bullies because others may know only the argu- 
 ment of brute strength. 
 
 Since so much depends upon the local circumstances and 
 the local feeling in a particular district, which may differ 
 widely from those in the adjacent province, the Board should 
 content itself with fixing the general principle of indemnity 
 only in such sums within the actual cost of replacing dam- 
 aged property and the special expenses caused by the out- 
 break as the law of Christian expediency may dictate, and 
 the determination af this sum should be left, as far as prac- 
 ticable, to the discretion of the missionaries upon the ground 
 in consultation with and subject to the approval of the mis- 
 sion to which they belong. Any error of an individual will 
 thus be corrected by his colleagues, who are as competent as 
 
57 
 
 he is to judf^e of tendencies and effects. The missionaries, 
 living: as they do among the people, speaking their language, 
 personally knowing them, are properly the ones to intelli- 
 gently gauge their sentiment. 
 
 But if the missionaries recommend remission, either in 
 whole or in part, it should be with the distinct understand- 
 ing on their part that they are to share in the loss by making 
 a pro rata reduction upon their own claims. The moral 
 effect of reduction will be lost upon both people and native 
 Christians unless the missionaries offer to bear their pro- 
 portion with them. The Board may endeavor, in its discre- 
 tion, to relieve the missionary of this personal burden, but it 
 should not guarantee to do so. I believe that ordinarily it 
 will be wiser for the Chinese, the native Christians, the mis- 
 sionaries and the Board, to share the loss, than it will be to 
 force any one party to bear it all. As for the Christian at 
 home who declares that the Board ought not to receive any 
 indemnity whatever, I would invite him to subscribe. 
 
 Holding the above views, I am, naturally, very much 
 gratified to find that our Presbyterian missionaries have, for 
 the most past, independently adopted this middle course, and 
 while I respect honored brethren of other Boards who, from 
 motives as pure as ours, followed a different course, I re- 
 joice that our own workers stand squarely upon the ground 
 of Christian expediency as interpreted by the law of charity 
 and self-sacrifice. They would be the last to expect any 
 credit for this above their fellows. Almost ev^ry missionary 
 in North China is poorer because of the Boxer outbreak. 
 Some have suffered in money, some in health, some in 
 loved ones. Those who have borne most know that their 
 brethren who have borne less would have cheerfully endured 
 as much if their peculiar circumstances had called for the 
 larger sacrifice. Those of us who were providentially in 
 places of safety can say with one who was at home on fur- 
 lough : 
 
 " In spirit, I have suffered with those whose goods and 
 shelter have been destroyed. I have wandered with the 
 homeless Chinese Christians. I have felt the agony of a 
 strong man overpowered in defense of those dearer than his 
 life. I have stood beside that Christian mother who saw 
 father and children and grandchildren slain before her eyes. 
 The unutterable shame of outraged Christian womanhood 
 has burned into my soul." 
 
 I thank God for what m\^ eyes have seen and my ears 
 have heard of the missionaries of the Presbyterian Church 
 is this troubled land. So far as hostile criticism is directed 
 against them, I am prepared to meet it. The home church 
 has no cause to be ashamed of its representatives in China. 
 
58 
 
 I question, however, whether some of them are not bear- 
 ing more than their share of financial loss. They have as- 
 sumed the burden of their own accord, and when I have inti- 
 mated my feeling that the church at home ought to help 
 some of them, they have replied that this would prejudice 
 their influence over both Chinese officials and native Chris- 
 tians, who suppose that the missionaries are suffering with 
 them. They say that, sifter using their own example to in- 
 duce the Christians to acquiesce in only partial indemnity for 
 Christ's sake, they would be placed in an embarrassing posi- 
 tion if all their own losses were made good from America. 
 I grant the force of this objection, and I believe, as I have 
 already indicated, that the missionary who advises others to 
 reduce their claims should reduce his own in the same ratio. 
 Nevertheless, I cannot but feel that the missionaries who 
 have relinquished a half or more are going farther than can 
 reasonably be expected. Their willingness is worthy of all 
 praise, but I hope that the Board can obtain some special 
 gifts which will make the distribution of losses more equit- 
 able. An equitable adjustment has since been made by the 
 Board. 
 
 What attitude the Board should take toward its propor- 
 tion of the national indemnity of 450,000,000 taels, to be 
 paid in 4 per cent, bonds to each power according to its 
 claim, may, it seems to me, be determined by the principles 
 already enunciated, if they commend themselves to the 
 judgment of the Board. That, is if our part of that indemnity 
 is recognized by the Chinese as reasonable, if it is not for 
 life or for hardship, but only for expenditure, and if it will 
 not embitter the Chinese against us, I see no reason why we 
 should not receive it if it is offered. But if it has to be ex- 
 acted by military power, I would not touch it. After having 
 talked not only with many foreigners, but scores of Chinese 
 officials, on this subject, I believe that the course of our 
 national administration is in harmony with the conditions 
 which I have enumerated. It is plain to every one here that 
 China feels that America has been her best friend in the 
 recent trials. vShe knows that America tried to reduce the 
 indemnity to the lowest practicable sum, and there is no part 
 of that indemnity which the Chinese will pay more ungrudg- 
 ingly than the part which goes to the United States. The 
 details of payment are not settled yet, but as they will be 
 known to the Board by telegraph before this report can 
 reach New York, I need not enter the subject here further 
 than to state that the bonds are likely to run for thirty years, 
 and that, as the customs receipts are already mortgaged, and 
 as a joint guarantee by the Powers appears at this writing 
 to be improbable, the market value of the bonds will be 
 
59 
 
 chiefly determined by the disposition of each Power to 
 guarantee its own. If our Government does this, the in- 
 demnity will probably become available in about a year and 
 a half, and the whole should be realized within three years. 
 At least, this is the opinion of a gentleman in Peking whose 
 knowledge of the situation and whose relation to the Chinese 
 Government entitle his judgment to great weight. 
 
 RELATION OF MISSIONARIES TO THE CIVIL POWER. 
 
 The relation of the foreign missionary to the consular and 
 diplomatic representatives of his own government is another 
 topic of special interest at this time. In answer to an inquiry 
 by the Rev. Paul D. Bergen, seventy-three missionaries, of 
 from five to thirty years' experience, and representing many 
 of the Protestant Boards, reported a total of only fifty-two 
 applications, through Consul or minister, on behalf of native 
 Christians, though the inquiry did not cover applications on 
 their own behalf, which were presumably few. On this sub- 
 ject, also, I find that our missionaries take conservative 
 ground. Indeed, a few would adopt the policy of wholly ab- 
 rogating appeals to the civil power. One of them frankly 
 writes, 
 
 "Probably no missionary to China doubts that almost all 
 Chinese oiBcials believe the missionaries to be political agents. 
 Dr. D. Z. Sheffield recently said: 'Missionaries are feared 
 and hated not because of their religious teachings but be- 
 cause they are thought to be political emissaries.' While in 
 China I was repeatedly asked my rank as 'an American offi- 
 cial,' whether I 'report in person to my emperor on my re- 
 turn to my native land,' 'how much salary my government 
 allows me,' and many other questions the import of which is 
 manifest. During the late reform period (1895), I was as- 
 siduosly cultivated by an expectant official who had been un- 
 successful in obtaining office, in the hope that I would induce 
 the Governor to give him a place. He offered, through our 
 Chinese medical helper, to contribute 1,000 taels ($750) or 
 more a year to the Church in return for our aid, provided he 
 secured office. This seems very strange, and yet there are, 
 doubtless, many things, which interpreted from the stand- 
 point of the Chinese official, would appear to warrant such a 
 view. Their sentiments were voiced long ago by Wen Hsiang, 
 who said, in 1868: 'Take away your extra-territorial clause, 
 and merchant and missionary may settle anywhere and every- 
 where, but retain it and we must do our best to confine you 
 and our trouble to the treaty ports.' The spirit of depend- 
 ence on the political influence of the foreigner is an acknowl- 
 edged weakness of the Chinese church to-day, and example 
 is better than precept." 
 
6o 
 
 Doubtless many diplomats would be glad to have the mis- 
 sionaries expatriate themselves. But, while we cannot limit 
 the liberty of the individual to renounce his claim to the pro- 
 tection of American citizenship, I am of the opinion that 
 such renunciation is neither necessary nor expedient. There 
 is not the slightest probability that our Government will re- 
 quire it, and if it should, the public sentiment of America 
 would not tolerate it for a week. No self-respecting nation 
 can expatriate its citizens who go abroad to preach Christ. 
 
 Nor would I go so far as the China Indian Mission in for- 
 bidding missionaries to appeal to their government officials 
 without special permission from headquarters. But I think 
 it might be well to make the approval of the station necess- 
 ary, and, wherever practicable, of the mission. Nine-tenths 
 of the missionaries do not and will not unnecessarily write or 
 telegraph for the intervention of Minister or Consul. But 
 the tenth man may be benefited by the counsel of his col- 
 leagues who know or who maybe easily acquainted with the 
 facts. This is in harmony with the policy of the Board, which, in 
 a formal action, has expressed the judgment that "appeals to 
 the secular arm should always and everywhere be as few as 
 possible." It is not in the civil or military power of our coun- 
 try to give missionary success. In the crude and half-chaotic 
 condition of heathen society, and the hostility of those who 
 "take council together against the Lord," the temptation is 
 sometimes strong to appeal for aid to "the secular arm" of 
 the United States Government. Occasions may possibly arise 
 in which it will be necessary to insist upon them. Neverthe- 
 less, as a rule, it will be wise to remember that "the weapons 
 of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God," and 
 that "the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle 
 unto all men." The argument of the sword is Mohammedan, 
 not Christian. Our Prince is a Prince of Peace, and "His 
 banner over us is love." The veteran Rev. J. Hudson Tay- 
 lor holds that in the long run appeals to home government 
 do nothing but harm. He says he has known of many riots 
 that had never been reported and of much suffering endured 
 in silence which have "fallen out rather to the furtherance of 
 the Gospel," and that "if we leave God to vindicate our 
 cause the issue is sure to prove marvelous in spirituality." 
 
 The critics are now vociferously charging that the mis- 
 sionaries are manifesting a bloodthirsty and revengeful spir- 
 it. It may indeed be true that among the thousands of Ro- 
 man Catholic and Protestant missionaries in China some have 
 temporarily lost their self-control and given way to anger 
 under the awful provocation of ruined work, burned homes, 
 outraged women and butchered Chinese Christians. How 
 many at home would or could remain calm in such circum- 
 
stances? But it is grossly unjust to treat such excited utter- 
 ances as representative of the great body of missionary opin- 
 ion, particularly among Presbyterians. Our missionaries, as 
 a rule, are men and women of the highest Christian charac- 
 ter. They have gone to China, and they propose to stay 
 there, because they love and believe in the Chinese, and it is 
 very far from their thought to demand their punishment. 
 They sensibly expected a certain amount of opposition from 
 tradition, heathenism, superstition and corruption, and they 
 are not disposed to unmanly or unchristian measures when 
 that trouble falls upon them which fell in even greater meas- 
 ure on their Master Himself. They know, too, that the upris- 
 ing in China was not so much anti-Christian as anti-foreign, 
 that it was superinduced chiefly by foreign politics and com- 
 merce, and by a native revolutionary party whose zeal was . 
 not tempered by discretion. 
 
 Critics, however, may be reminded that missionaries are 
 American citizens; that when distillers' agents and beer-sel- 
 lers and gamblers in China claim the rights of American citi- 
 zenship, the missionary does not forfeit his rights by a resi- 
 dence in China for the purpose of teaching the young, heal- 
 ing the sick, distributing the Bible and preaching the Gospel 
 of Christ, particularly when treaties guarantee him protection 
 in the exercise of these very privileges. 
 
 It is true that many of the missionaries feel that the ring- 
 leaders of the Boxers, including those in high official posi- 
 tion who more or less secretly incited them to violence, 
 should be punished, yet not in the interest of revenge, but of 
 the welfare of China, the restoration to power of the best 
 element among the Chinese, and the reasonable security of 
 Chinese Christians and of the foreigners who have treaty 
 rights. Many missionaries feel that there is no hope for 
 China save in the predominance of the reform party, and 
 that if the reactionaries are to remaiii in control the outlook 
 is dark indeed, not so much for the foreigner as for China it- 
 self. The men who are guilty of the atrocities perpe- 
 trated last summer violated every law, human and divine, 
 and some of the missionaries are demanding their punish- 
 ment only in the same spirit as the ministers and Christian 
 people of the United States with united voice demanded the 
 punishment of four young men in Paterson, N. J., who have 
 been systematically outraging young girls. 
 
 Nevertheless, as to the whole subject of the policy which 
 should be adopted by our Government in China, I believe 
 that it would be wise for both the missionaries and the Board 
 to be cautious in expressing advice, and to leave the respon- 
 sibility for action with the lawfully constituted civil authori- 
 ties upon whom the people have placed it. They have bet- 
 
62 
 
 ter facilities for acquiring accurate information as to political 
 questions than we have. They can ask our views if they 
 want them. They can see the bearings of movement'.' more 
 clearly than we can. They know elements in the situation 
 which we do not and they must bear the blame or praise for 
 consequences. Moreover generations of protest against 
 priestly domination have developed in both Europe and 
 America a disposition to resent clerical interference in politi- 
 cal questions for which we ministers are ourselves largely re- 
 sponsible. This is particularly true in Asia, where the politi- 
 cal situation is so delicate. The opinions publicly expressed 
 by the missionaries as to the policy, which, in their judgment 
 should be adopted by our Government and by the European 
 Powers have included not only many published articles of in- 
 dividual missionaries in various newspapers and magazines, 
 but formal communications of bodies or committees of mis- 
 sionaries, as, for example, the protests of missionaries as- 
 sembled in Chefoo and Shanghai against the decision of the 
 Government to withdraw troops from Peking, to recognize 
 the Empress Dowager, to omit certain officials from the list 
 of those who were to be executed or banished, and, in parti- 
 cular, the letter addressed by "the undersigned British and 
 American missionaries representative of societies and organ- 
 izations that have wide interests in China" "to their Excel- 
 lencies the Plenopotentiaries of Great Britian and the United 
 States accredited to the Chinese Government." 
 
 These actions were taken by men whose character, ability 
 and knowledge of the Chinese entitle them to great weight, 
 and who were personally affected in the security of their lives 
 and property and in the interests of their life work by the 
 policy adopted by their respective governments. All are 
 citizens who did not abdicate their citizenship in becoming 
 missionaries, and whose status and rights in China, as such, 
 have been specifically recognized by treaty. All, moreover, 
 expressed their views with clearness, dignity and force. 
 From the viewpoint of right and privilege, and, indeed, 
 political duty as citizens, they were abundantly justified in 
 expressing their opinions. 
 
 On the other hand, there are some friends of missions and 
 and missionaries who, from the viewpoint of Christian ex- 
 pediency, doubt whether formal declarations of judgment on 
 political and military questions " as missionaries " were ac- 
 corded much influence by diplomacy, whether they did not 
 increase the popular criticism of missionaries to an extent 
 which more than counterbalanced any good that they accom- 
 plished, whether they did not identify the missionary cause 
 with " the consul and gunboat " policy which Lord Salisbury 
 charged upon it, and whether they did not prejudice their own 
 
6j 
 
 future influence over the Chinese and strengthen the im- 
 pression that the missionaries are " political emissaries." 
 As Sir Robert Hart gently puts it: "Some people seem to 
 feel it would have been wiser for ministers of the Gospel to 
 have left to 'governors' the 'punishment of evildoers.'" 
 And yet we must all add, with him : " For my part, I cannot 
 blame them. " Perhaps the whole of his balanced statement 
 to me on this subject should be quoted : 
 
 "As for punitive measures, etc., I have really no personal 
 knowledge of the action taken by American missionaries, and 
 hearsay is not a good foundation for opinion. It is said that 
 vindictive feeling rather than tender mercy has been noticed. 
 But even if so, it cannot be wondered at, so cruel were the 
 Chinese assailants when they had the upper hand. The 
 occasion has been altogether anomalous, and it is only at 
 the parting of the ways the difterence of view comes in. 
 That what was done merited almost wholesale punishment 
 is a view most will agree in — eyes turned to the past — but 
 when discussion tries to argue out what will be the best for 
 the future, some will vote for striking terror, and others for 
 trusting more to the more slowly working but longer lasting 
 effect of mercy. I do not believe any missionary has brought 
 anybody to punishment who did not richly deserve it. But 
 some people seem to feel it would have been wiser for min- 
 isters of the Gospel to have leftto 'governors' the 'punishment 
 of evildoers.' For my part, I cannot blame them, for with- 
 out their assistance much that is known would not have been 
 known, and, although numbers of possibly innocent, inoffen- 
 sive and non-hostile people may have been overwhelmed in 
 this last year's avalanche of disaster, there are still at large 
 a lot of men whose punishment would probably have been a 
 good thing for the future. One can only hope that their good 
 luck in escaping may lead them to take a new departure, and 
 with their heads in the right direction." 
 
 Wisely or unwisely — the former, as I venture to think — 
 our Board at home and the interdenominational conference 
 of all the Boards in America having work in China, declined 
 to make representations to our Government on questions of 
 policy. We necessarily had much correspondence with Wash- 
 ington regarding the safety of beloved missionaries during 
 the siege, but when I inquired of the Secretary of State as to 
 the accuracy of the later newspaper charges that mission 
 boards were urging the Government to retaliatory measures, 
 he promptly replied : 
 
 "No communications of this nature have been received 
 from the great mission boards or from their authorized rep- 
 resentatives." 
 
 But let us hear the missionaries themselves on this sub- 
 
64 
 
 jeci. A committee, headed by the Rev. Dr. Calvin Mateer, 
 and representing all the leading English-speaking missionary 
 bodies in China, has prepared a reply to this criticism, a re- 
 ply which has been circulated throughout China, and has re- 
 ceived the assent of so large a number of missionaries of 
 all churches and nationalities that it may be taken as repre- 
 senting the views of fully nine-tenths of the whole body of 
 Protestant missionaries in the Empire. This letter should 
 be given the the widest possible currency, as expressing the 
 views of men who are the peers of any equal number of 
 Christian workers in the world. It is dated May 24, 1901, 
 and, after discussing the question of the responsibility for the 
 uprising, the letter continues : 
 
 "With reference to the second point — that we have mani- 
 fested an unchristian spirit in suggesting the punishment of 
 those who were guilty of the massacre of foreigners and 
 native Christians — we understand that the criticism applies 
 chiefly to the message sent by the public meeting held in 
 Shanghai in September last. 
 
 "l. It should, in the first place, be borne in mind that the 
 resolutions passed at that meeting were called for by the 
 proposal of the Allies to evacuate Peking immediately after 
 the relief of the Legations. It was felt, not only by mis- 
 sionaries but by the whole of the foreign residents in China, 
 that such a course would be fraught with the greatest dis- 
 aster, inasmuch as it would give sanction to further law- 
 lessness. 
 
 "2. Further it must be remembered that w^hile suggest- 
 ing that a satisfactory settlement ' should include the ad- 
 equate punishment of all who were guilty of the recent 
 murders of foreigners and native Christian,' it was left to 
 the Powers to decide what that ' adequate punishment ' should 
 be. Moreover, when taking such measures as were neces- 
 sary, they were urged to 'make every effort to avoid all need- 
 less and indiscriminate slaughter of Chinese and destruction 
 of their property.' 
 
 "3. By a strange misunderstanding we find that this sug- 
 gestion has been interpreted as though it were animated by 
 an unchristian spirit of revenge. With the loss of scores of 
 friends and colleagues still fresh upon us, and with stories 
 of cruel massacres reaching us day by clay, it would not have 
 been surprising had we been betrayed into intemperate ex- 
 pressions, but we entirely repudiate the idea which has been 
 read into our words. If governments are the ministers of 
 God's righteousness, then surely it is the duty of every 
 Christian government not only to uphold the right but to put 
 down the wrong, and equally the duty of all Christian subjects 
 to support them in so doing. For China, as for Western 
 
65 
 
 nations, anarchy is the only alternative to law. Bothjustice 
 and mercy require the judicial punishment of the wrong-doers 
 in the recent outrages. For the good of the people them- 
 selves, for the upholding of that standard of righteousness 
 which they acknowledge and respect, for the strengthening 
 and encouragement of those olificials whose sympathies have 
 been throughout on the side of law and order, and for the 
 protection of our own helpless women and children and the 
 equally helpless sons and daughters of the Church, we think 
 that such violations of treaty obligations, and such heartless 
 and unprovoked massacres as have been carried out by of- 
 ficial authority or sanction, should not be allowed to pass 
 unpunished. It is not of our personal wrongs that we think, 
 but of the maintenance of law and order, and of the future 
 safety of all foreigners residing in the interior of China, who, 
 it must be remembered, are not under the jurisdiction of 
 Chinese law, but, according to the treaties, are immediately 
 responsible to, and under the protection of, their respective 
 governments." 
 
 The reply rather pathetically concludes : 
 " It is unhappily the lot of missionaries to be misunder- 
 stood and spoken against, and we are aware that in any ex- 
 planation we now offer we add to the risk of further mis- 
 understanding, but we cast ourselves on the forbearance of 
 our friends, and beg them to refrain from hasty and ill- 
 formed judgments. If, on our part, there have been ex- 
 treme statements, if individual missionaries have used in- 
 temperate words or have made demands out of harmony 
 with the spirit of our Divine Lord, is it too much to ask that 
 the anguish and peril through which so many of our num- 
 ber have gone during the last six months should be remem- 
 bered, and that the whole body should not be made respon- 
 sible for the hasty utterances of the few ?" 
 
 WHEN SHOULD MISSIONARIES RETURN TO THE INTERIOR? 
 
 On the one hand, it is urgently desirable that the work should 
 be permanently resumed as soon as possible, that men now 
 living temporarily and without homes in the interior, and 
 wives living inconveniently and at increased expense at the 
 ports should be reunited, and that, in particular, both native 
 Christians and Chinese communities should see the rebuild- 
 ing of the destroyed stations and the return of the fugitive 
 families, not only for safeguarding the present interests of 
 the work, but for the moral effect upon the Chinese. As we 
 are going on with our work, the shorter the demoralizing 
 interregnum the better. On the other hand, we must not 
 recklessly disregard local conditions, or unwisely expose 
 devoted missionaries to unreasonable risks. 
 
66 
 
 Of course, we first ask : What is the advice of experienced 
 men who are not engaged in missionary work, especially 
 the Ministers and Consuls of the various Powers ? It may 
 be urged that, from their position, they are more apt to be 
 disinterested, and, therefore, to be wiser on this subject than 
 missionaries, who are naturally eager to return to their homes 
 and work. Moreover, we are undoubtedly under strong 
 moral obligations to attach great weight to their judgment. 
 If missionaries receive the benefits of their citizenship, and 
 if by their acts they may involve their governments, they 
 should recognize the right of the authorized representatives 
 of those governments to counsel them. The presumption 
 should be in favor of obedience to that counsel, and it should 
 not be disregarded without clear and strong reasons. 
 
 But we cannot ignore the fact that, whatever may be the 
 personal sympathies of individual ministers or consuls, di- 
 plomacy as such values only the secondary results of mis- 
 sions and not the primary ones. Government ofificials, 
 speaking on missionary work, almost invariably dwell on its 
 material and civilizing rather than its spiritural aspects. 
 They do not, in their official capacity, feel that the salvation 
 of men from sin and the command of Christ to evangelize 
 all nations are within their sphere. Moreover, diplomacy is 
 proverbially and necessarily cautious. Its business is to 
 avoid risks, and, of course, to advise others to avoid them. 
 The political situation, too, is undeniably uncertain and 
 delicate. The future is big with possibility of peril. In 
 such circumstances we must expect diplomacy to be anxious, 
 and to deprecate resumption of missionary work which events 
 may show to be premature. Diplomacy, therefore, will prob- 
 ably look at the whole question solely from the prudential 
 viewpoint. 
 
 Rut the missionary, like the soldier, must take some risks. 
 From Paul down, missionaries have not hesitated to face 
 them. Christ did not condition His great command upon 
 the approval of Csesar. It never has been and it is not likely 
 to be for a generation to come, perfectly safe for foreigners 
 to reside in the interior of China. But the work must go on. 
 Devoted men and women have accepted the risk in the past, 
 and they will accept it in the future. We recognize the im- 
 portance of worldly wisdom. We must exercise common 
 sense. And yet this enterprise is unworldly as well as 
 worldly, and when the soldier of his country boldly faces 
 every physical peril, when the men of the world unflinch- 
 ingly jeopardize life and limb in the pursuit of gold — a min- 
 ing engineer and his wife are now living alone in an interior 
 village of Shantung — when the Roman Catholic priests are 
 in their remotest stations and propose to stay there, shall the 
 
67 
 
 Protestant soldier of the Cross be held back ? He is willing 
 to gfo. Our men hurried to the front as soon as they could. 
 Several of the wives would have gone with them if they had 
 not been dissuaded by their consuls and friends. Now, save 
 in a few cases where small children are involved, the wo- 
 men also are planning to return to their stations in the fall. 
 Missionaries of the English Baptist, American Baptist South, 
 Canadian Presbyterian, China Inland, American Board, Lon- 
 don and American Methodist Missions inform me that they 
 are making similar plans. Consul Fowler, of Chefoo, told 
 me that he saw no present reason for discouraging the re- 
 turn of the Shantung missionaries, though -he naturally re- 
 served the right to alter this judgment if later developments 
 should justify him in doing so. Sir Robert Hart writes 
 me : 
 
 "You ask me if missionary families may safely return to 
 their stations inland. There is still unrest all around, and, 
 as there is nothing to be gained by unnecessary haste, I 
 think it would be better to avoid risks. It seems safe 
 enough now in Shantung, but were anything to happen to 
 the Governor, Yuan Shih Kai, the position of the men who 
 have resumed work might be less secure. The personality 
 of a Governor or Viceroy has much to do with the attitude 
 of both officials and people, and, therefore, the decision to 
 reoccupy places inland ought to be determined at this junc- 
 ture, not by the accident of the presence of a friendly Gov" 
 ernor, but by the known conditions of the locality. There 
 is more or less disturbance everywhere, and I think it would 
 not only be prudent to wait till things settle, but also unjust 
 to missionaries to decide otherwise." 
 
 Minister Conger was in America on furlough when I was 
 in Peking, so that I could not learn his views. The mis- 
 sionaries justly respect him and trust his judgment. Thus 
 far, therefore, there is no official opposition to the return of 
 our missionaries this fall. If there should be, it must not 
 be lightly disregarded. If, after careful deliberation and 
 prayer for Divine guidance, the missionaries feel that they 
 ought to go, they should consult the Board, and if the Board 
 sustains them, all concerned should accept responsibility for 
 the risks involved. If we do not allow diplomacy to control 
 our missionary movements, we must not be too exacting in 
 our demands on them when trouble comes. The editor of 
 the New York Evangelist once said: " A foreign missionary 
 is one who goes to a strange country to preach the Gospel 
 of our salvation. That is his errand and his defense. The 
 civil authorities are not presumed to be on his side. If he 
 offends the sensibilities of the people to whom he preaches, 
 he is supposed to face the consequences. If he cannot win 
 
68 
 
 men by the Word and his own love for their souls, he can- 
 not call on the civil or military powers to convert them. 
 Nor is the missionary a merchant, in the sense that he must 
 have ready recourse to the courts for a recouping of losses 
 or the recovery of damages. Commercial treaties cannot 
 cover all our missionary enterprise. Confusion of ideas 
 here has confounded a good many fine plans and zealous 
 men. It is a tremendous begging of the whole question, to 
 insist on the nation's protection of the men who are to sub- 
 vert the national faith. Property rights and preaching rights 
 get closely entwined, and it is difficult to untangle them at 
 times, but the distinction is definite and the difference often 
 fundamental. By confusing them we weaken the claims of 
 both. And when our Christian preachers get behind a mere 
 property right in order to defend their right to preach a new 
 religion, they dishonor themselves and defame the faith they 
 profess. To get behind diplomatic guaranties in order to 
 evangelize the nations is to mistake the sword of the spirit, 
 to rely on the arm of flesh and put aside the help of the 
 Almighty." 
 
 That is, in my judgment, stating the case very strongly, 
 but it is the counsel of a friend, and it is deserving of our 
 thoughtful consideration. 
 
 While the situation may radically change by the time this 
 report is laid before the Board, yet from present indications 
 I agree with Consul Fowler and the missionaries, that we 
 should plan the full reoccupation of every one of our stations 
 this fall, and I believe that every able-bodied China mission- 
 ary in America whose furlough has expired should hasten to 
 the field. Now is the time for the missionary ministry of 
 reconciliation in China. To leave the field to the politician, 
 the soldier and the trader would be to dishonor Christ, to 
 fail to utilize an unprecedented opportunity, to abandon the 
 helpless native Christians in their hour of sore need and to 
 prejudice missionary influence at home and abroad for a gen- 
 eration. 
 
 I am astonished by the occasional remark that a mission- 
 ary can do so little in China at present that it would be wise 
 to anticipate or prolong furloughs home. True, it may not 
 be practicable to reopen a school or a hospital, or to make 
 long itinerating tours. But is missionary work simply insti- 
 tutionalism? Can a missionary do nothing because he can- 
 not superintend something? There was never more urgent 
 need than there is to-day for loving personal work, and the 
 opportunity is ample. If one cannot return to his own sta- 
 tion let him help some sister station of his own or another 
 Board, as the Canadian Presbyterians of Hunan have offered 
 to help us in Shantung. Even if the whole interior should be 
 
69 
 
 closed by a new outbreak, there are enough Chinese who 
 have never heard the Gospel within the zone of military oc- 
 cupation of foreign armies to keep all the Protestant mis- 
 sionaries in China busy for a year, and still the proportion of 
 Christian workers to the population would be less than in 
 New York and Chicago. Why not take advantage of the op- 
 portunity to evangelize the great cities of Peking, Tientsin, 
 Shanghai, Canton and a score of other populous coast towns, 
 which exert such a mighty influence in this empire? Dr. Lil- 
 lie E, V. Saville, of the London Mission, who reopened her 
 dispensary in Peking in January, now says : I have never 
 had such rich opportunities for sowing the seed, and I am 
 sure in many hearts the ground has been prepared during the 
 past months of disorder and suffering." Other missionaries 
 give similar testimony. This is not the time for the messen- 
 ger of Christ to hold his peace, but to preach with new zeal 
 and fidelity. 
 
 INTERFERENCE IN NATIVE LAWSUITS. 
 
 Most vehement of the criticsms upon missionaries in China 
 is that they interfere on behalf of their converts in the law- 
 suits which are so common among the Chinese. Jealousy 
 and dislike of the native who attaches himself to the foreign- 
 er, or who espouses "the foreigner's religion," frequently 
 hale him into court on trumped-up charges and the notorious 
 prejudice and corruption of the average magistrate often re- 
 sult in grievous persecution. The terrified Christian natur- 
 ally implores the missionary to save him. It is hard to re- 
 sist such an appeal. But the defendant is not always so in- 
 nocent as he appears to be, and, whether innocent or guilty, 
 the interference of the foreigner irritates both magistrate and 
 prosecutor, while it not infrequently arouses the resentment 
 of the whole community by giving the idea that the Christ- 
 ians are a privileged class who are not answerable to the or- 
 dinary laws of the land. When, as sometimes happens, the 
 Christians themselves get that impression and presume upon 
 it, the situation becomes acute. 
 
 It is well known that the Roman Catholic priests quite 
 generally adopt this policy of interference. Through the 
 Minister of France to Peking they have obtained an Imperial 
 Edict granting them official status, so that the local priest is 
 on a footing of equality with the local magistrate, and has the 
 right tofull access to him at any time. Whether or not intended 
 by the Roman Catholic Church, the impression is almost univer- 
 sal in China among native and foreigners alike that, if a Chi- 
 nese becomes a Catholic, the Church will stand by him through 
 thick and thin, in time and in eternity. This is one secret of 
 Rome's great and rapidly growing power in China, and un- 
 
7° 
 
 questionably, too, it is one of the causes of China's hostility 
 to missions. In my many interviews with Chinese officials 
 it was my custom to lead the conversation toward the mo- 
 tives of those who had attacked foreigners last year, and 
 without exception the officials mentioned, among other causes, 
 the interference of the Roman Catholic priests with the ad- 
 ministration of the law in cases affecting their converts. In 
 several places in the interior this was the only reason as- 
 signed. The politeness of an Oriental host to a guest is not 
 always limited by strict veracity, and it is possible that to 
 Roman Catholics the officials may blame the Protestants. 
 But it is worth recording here that when I asked the magis- 
 trate of Paotingfu why the people had killed such kindly and 
 helpful neighbors as our missionaries, he replied: "The 
 / people were angered by the interference of the Catholics in 
 ( their lawsuits. They felt that they could not obtain justice 
 \ against them, and in their frenzy they did not distinguish be- 
 \ tween Catholics and Protestants." The Roman Catholic 
 / Mission in the prefecture of Paotingfu, it should be remem- 
 / bered, is about two centuries old, and the Catholic popula- 
 j tion is about twelve thousand, so that the iew hundred Pro- 
 testants who have been gathered in the recent work of the 
 Congregationalists and Presbyterians are exceedingly small 
 in comparison, while the splendid cathedral of the Roman 
 Church, the spectacular character of its services and the of- 
 ficial status and aggressiveness of its priests intensify the 
 disproportion. The term Christian, therefore, to the average 
 man of Paotingfu is more apt to mean a Catholic than a 
 Protestant. 
 
 It is customary for the friends of Protestant missionaries 
 to answer the critic's charge of interference in native law- 
 suits by stating that it does not justly lie against them, but 
 against the Roman Catholics, the rule of the Protestant mis- 
 sionaries being to avoid such interference save in the most 
 rare and extreme cases. Alexander Michie, however, in a 
 recent address, declares that Prostestant missionaries are 
 not entitled to such exemption, and that, while they may not 
 interfere so frequently as the Catholics, they, nevertheless, 
 interfere often enough to bring them under the same con- 
 demnation. 
 
 I asked vSir Robert Hart what he thought upon this ques- 
 tion and what he would advise, illustrating my meaning by 
 describing a case in which a native Christian was falsely 
 charged by his heathen neighbors, and who, by perjury and 
 the connivance of anti-foreign magistrate, had been deprived 
 of his property and thrown into prison. In such circumstan- 
 ces, I inquired, should the missionary seek to obtain justice 
 for the persecuted man, or should he remain silent? vSir Rob- 
 
71 
 
 ert, on this point also, very kindly wrote out his views as 
 follows: 
 
 "The missionary question is likely to remain a debated one 
 for years to come, but in the meantime what we shall continue to 
 see is this: Christian countries will subscribe funds. Christian 
 communities will supply volunteers, and devoted men and wo- 
 will take their lives in their hands and carry the Gospel every- 
 where. In China missionaries will seek to do good accord- 
 ing to their light, and in doing so they will be followed by 
 the defects of their qualities. Their labor will benefit many, 
 but will probably oftend more and, China being what it is, I 
 think it would be well if their future marching orders could 
 in some way suggest to them what they are not to do, not 
 in the faulty form of a list of details but in the handy and 
 convenient shape of a principle. The active benevolence of 
 the Golden Rule, 'Do unto others' ought to go hand in hand 
 with the restraining common sense of its Counterpart, 'Do 
 not.' Missionaries are grown-up people, and must be very 
 much left to themselves to decide what duty requires at each 
 step in their career. They carry with them the Master's or- 
 ders, 'Preach the Gospel to every creature;' that is their di- 
 vine commission; but they are also the agents of the soci- 
 eties which send them forth and support them, and every 
 such society has indubitably the right to indicate the policy 
 its envoys are to adopt and practice as men among men, and 
 the 'do not' axiom ought to be as liberally interpreted and 
 as zealously followed as its mate 'do.' If converts exper- 
 ience that change of heart which is the essential of our relig- 
 ion, all other virtues will gradually group themselves around 
 that vivifying center and suitable non-essentials will increase 
 and multiply. But the teacher himself — that is, the mission- 
 ary — will do well to take a leaf from the pages of the past. 
 Local customs need not be banned, popular prejudices need 
 not be tilted against, a neighborhood's feelings in respect of 
 site and style of buildings ought not to be hurt, and interven- 
 tion in matters litigated ought to be absolutely eschewed. 
 Let the missionary content himself with making his disciples 
 good men and good citizens, and let him leave it to the duly 
 authorized officials to interpret and apply the law and admin- 
 ister their affairs in their own way. Individual Christianity 
 has as many shades and degrees as men's faces. There are 
 converts and converts, but even the most godly of them may 
 give his neighbor just reason to take offense, and the most 
 saintly among them may get involved in the meshes of the 
 law. In such cases let the missionary stand aloof. There is, 
 too, such a thing as hypocrisy; much better let the schem- 
 er get his deserts than hurt the church's character by follow- 
 ing sentiment into interference. You ask what is to be done 
 
72 
 
 when there is persecution to be deal with? First of all, I 
 would advise the individual or the community to live it down, 
 and, as a last resort, report the fact with appropriate detail 
 and proof to the Legation in Peking for the assistance and 
 advice of the Minister. 'Watch thou in all things, endure 
 afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of 
 fhy ministry.' " 
 
 After having freely talked with our Presbyterian mission- 
 aries on this matter, I do not believe it is necessary at pres- 
 ent for the Board to attempt to make an inflexible rule. 
 While there may be exceptional cases of imprudence, yet our 
 missionaries, as a whole, are keenly alive to the dangers of 
 such interference, they are increasingly careful in their con- 
 duct, and they are developing a wholesome mission sentiment 
 on the subject. As an illustration of the strength of this 
 feeling among some of them, I append an extract from a 
 pamphlet written by the Rev. L. J. Davies. 
 
 " By the extra-territorial treaty clauses the foreigner in 
 China is governed by the laws of his own nation. If accused 
 of grave crime the Chinese officials can do no more than 
 arrest and convey him to his consul. The missionary is in 
 close touch with consul and foreign minister. These facts 
 give him a peculiar advantage in dealing with the local 
 Chinese offlcials. The policy of the Chinese Government 
 during the past few years has been to avoid trouble by let- 
 ting the foreigner have his own way whenever possible. 
 Reports, the accuracy of which I cannot doubt, have reached 
 me more than once within the past four or five years of cases 
 in which the Chinese official has said in substance to non- 
 Christian litigants : ' You are right and your Christian ac- 
 cusers are wrong; but if I decide in your favor the foreigner 
 will appeal the case to the Governor or to the Peking foreign 
 ofhce and I shall suffer. Such things are charged, justly or 
 unjustly, to the account of both Protestant and Romanist. 
 With scarcely an exception the missionaries agree that there 
 are cases of persecution in which to refuse aid would be ut- 
 terly unjust. The opinion is equally unanimous that a dis- 
 position to take advatage of the influence of the foreigner in- 
 cases into which no persecution enters is very widely diffused 
 in the Chinese church. This is particularly true of inquirers 
 and those whose knowledge of the Christian truth is slight, 
 but it is by no means confined to them. I yield to no one 
 in esteem for the type of Christian character devoloped in 
 China, and I do not consider it reasonable to blame unspar- 
 ingly either the Chinese convert or foreign missionary. The 
 situation is extremely complicated and delicate, and is un- 
 questionably one of the most difflcult with which the mis- 
 sionary is compelled to deal. This question of stopping by 
 
73 
 
 legal methods alleged persecution is the bete noire of the 
 average missionary's life. He is distraught by two fears : 
 First, that he may not do what he should for a man genuine- 
 ly persecuted for righteousness' sake, and, secondly, that he 
 may use his power as a foreigner in supporting unjust causes, 
 and so not only do injustice but injure the church. That the 
 Chinese officials feel this state of affairs to be very troublesome 
 is known to everyone who comes into contact with them." 
 
 The Rev. Paul D. Bergen, of our East Shantung Mission, 
 has sent to over two hundred missionaries, representing all 
 Protestant denominations, a series of questions as to their 
 practice and convictions regarding this subject. Seventy- 
 three missionaries answered, and Mr. Bergen has tabulated 
 their replies in an interesting and valuable paper. Only two 
 " would decline under any circumstances to ask for yamen 
 intervention." While, as was to be expected, wide differences 
 of opinion appear, a study of the letters led Mr. Bergen to 
 make the following generalizations : 
 
 "Missionaries are willing to intercede in the yamen for 
 the Christians with the following qualifications : First, that 
 persecution must be genuine and somewhat serious ; second, 
 a thorough private investigation of the facts should first be 
 made ; third, the matter should be made a subject of earnest 
 prayer, privately and with the Christian concerned ; fourth, 
 the Christian should be warned as to the dangers and abuses 
 likely to come from official aid, and be urged to maintain a 
 quiet and patient demeanor ; fifth, but finally, when the above 
 conditions have been met, aid should be asked for without 
 hesitation, and with a clear conscience, according to the cir- 
 cumstances of the case. 
 
 "A great majority of the seventy-three missionaries would 
 endorse what we might call a friendly, temperate presentation 
 of the facts to the official as a beginning. Some would stop 
 here. The majority would however, proceed to sterner meas- 
 ures, if necessary, to secure justice. Some would work di- 
 rectly with the official, others through the consul. " 
 
 As to the results of the one hundred and seventy-five con- 
 crete cases of intervention cited, " fifty-three are reported to 
 have been of benefit to the church, twenty-six are characterized 
 as doubtful, four as mixed and sixty-seven as bad." This 
 leaves the remaining cases, "suspended in the air," and Mr. 
 Bergen conjectures that "perhaps the missionary felt in such 
 a confused mental state at their conclusion that he was quite 
 unable to work out the complicated equation of their results. 
 
 " But surely the result that only fifty-three cases are re- 
 ported to have been of unmistakable benefit, while sixty- 
 seven are set down as resulting in evil, ought to give us 
 thought. In short, in the yamen intercession in behalf of 
 
74 
 
 prosecuted Christians, it is the deliberate opinion of seventy- 
 three missionaries that, as a matter of personal experience, 
 sixty-seven cases have wrought only evil, while only fifty- 
 three have been productive of good. The balance is on the 
 wrong side. We must decide, in view of these replies, that 
 there exists in general rather a pessimistic opinion as to the 
 advantages of applying to the yamen in behalf of Christians." 
 
 In reply to another question, "nearly one-third of the 
 correspondents noted that Christians, under their care or m 
 their neighborhood, have been guilty of prosecuting lawsuits 
 for private gain, using the name of the Church, and have 
 taken thereby unfair advantage of their unbelieving neigh- 
 bors, who feared the power of the foreigner." Two-thirds, 
 however, reply that they have had no such experience. 
 
 "Summing up briefly the results of this inquiry, we note 
 the following points, which will embody the views of a very 
 large majority of the Protestant missionaries of experience 
 in this Empire : 
 
 " First — That it is highly desirable to keep church troubles 
 out of the yamen, but that there are times when we cannot 
 do so without violating our sense of justice and our sense of 
 duty toward an injured brother. 
 
 " Second — Official assistance is to be sought in such 
 troubles only when all other means of relief have been tried 
 in vain. Always seek to settle these clifflculties out of court. 
 
 " Third — When official assistance is requested, our bear- 
 ing should be friendly and courteous in the spirit, at least in 
 the first instance, of asking a favor of the oflficial, rather 
 than demanding a right. If the oilcial seems quite insensi- 
 ble to such a spirit, a severer attitude may become neces- 
 sary. Nevertheless, we should be extremely careful about 
 trying to bring pressure to bear on an ofificial. 
 
 " Fourth — In the presence of the native Christian, and 
 especially of those chiefly concerned, as well as in our own 
 closets, we should cherish a deep sense of our absolute de- 
 pendence on heavenly rather than on earthly protection, and 
 remind the Christians that, as Dr. Taylor has so tersely put 
 it, their duty is ' to do good, suffer for it and take it patiently.' 
 
 " Fifth — Only in grave cases should matters be pushed to 
 the point of controversy or formal appeal. 
 
 " Sixth — Christians and evangelists should be solemnly 
 warned against betraying an arrogant spirit upon the suc- 
 cessful termination of any trouble. 
 
 " Seventh — Previous to the carrying of a case before the 
 official, let the missionary be sure of his facts. Each case 
 should be patiently, thoroughly and firmly examined. Re- 
 ceive individual testimony with judicious reserve. Be not 
 easily blinded by appeals to the emotions. Be especially 
 
75 
 
 ready to receive any one from the opposition, and give his 
 words due weight. Do not be too exclusively influenced by 
 the judgment of any one man, however trusted. 
 
 " Eighth — In the course of negotiation beware of insist- 
 ing on monetary compensation for the injured Christian. In 
 greatly aggravated cases this may occasionally be unavoid- 
 able. But should it be made a condition of settlement, see 
 to it that the damages are under, rather than over, what 
 might have been demanded. It is almost sure to cause sub- 
 sequent trouble, both within and without, if a Christian re- 
 ceives money under such circumstances. 
 
 " Ninth — When unhappily involved in a persecution case 
 with the official, we should remember that we are not law- 
 yers, and therefore make no stand on legal technicalities, nor 
 allow ourselves to take a threatening attitude, although we 
 may be subjected to provocation ; we should be patient, digni- 
 fied and strong in the truth, making it clear to the official 
 that this is all that we seek in order that the ends of justice 
 may be satisfied. 
 
 " Tenth — It would be well on every fitting occasion to ex- 
 hort thos,e under our care to avoid frequenting yamens or 
 cultivating intimacy with their inhabitants, unless, indeed, 
 we feel assured that their motive is the same as that animat- 
 ing our Lord when He mingled with publicans and sinners. 
 
 " Eleventh — The higher and more vivid the religious con- 
 ceptions of our people, the less fascinating will that which is 
 purely secular become. If we can succeed by the Holy Spirit 
 in filling them with spiritual power they will care less for the 
 petty influence and notoriety that comes from the great gate 
 of the yamen." 
 
 The Interdenominational Committee of Protestant Mis- 
 sionaries in China already referred to makes the following 
 statement on this subject : " To the charge that missionaries 
 have excited hostility by interfering in native litigation in the 
 interests of their converts in courts of justice, we need only 
 say that even by the Chinese officials themselves this charge 
 is rarely preferred against the Protestant section of the mis- 
 sionary body. In flagrant cases of persecution missionaries 
 have felt it their duty to support members of their churches, 
 and it cannot be denied that occasionally natives have secured 
 the influence of the foreigner in an unworthy cause. But in- 
 terference in native litigation as such receives no support 
 from the principles and practice of the general body." 
 
 This was doubtless all the space that could be devoted to 
 the subject within the limits of a general statement on the 
 crisis in China. But, in view of the gravity of the charge 
 the widespread anxiety of many friends of missions regard- 
 ing it, and in view also of the desirability of correcting any 
 
76 
 
 unfortunate impression created by individual exceptions and 
 of guiding new missionaries by placing at their command the 
 accumulated experience of the older ones, would it not be 
 well for our missions in China to give fuller and more formal 
 expression to their policy on this subject ? Such expression 
 need not be primarily defensive, but a clear, adequate and 
 positive statement of the convictions and practice of the mis- 
 sionaries as to this very important particular. 
 
 THE CONDUCT OF THE CHINESE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 The behavior of the native converts under the baptism of 
 blood and fire to which they have been subjected, is a source 
 of joy to the missionaries^ not unmingled, however, with 
 grief. That some should have fallen away was to have been 
 expected. Not every Christian, even in the United States, 
 can " endure hardness." Let one hundred men anywhere be 
 told that if they continue to hold a given faith their homes 
 will be burned, their business ruined, their wives ravished, 
 their children brained, and they themselves scourged and be- 
 headed, and a proportion of them will flinch. 
 
 It was to have been expected, too, that when, after the 
 uprising, the Christians found their side in the ascendent, 
 triumphing over a prostrate foe, some of them should unduly 
 exult and take advantage of their opportunity to punish their 
 enemies or to collect money from them as the price of pro- 
 tection. The spirit of retaliation is strong in human nature 
 in China as well as in America. When the armies of the 
 Allies, led by educated and experienced officers, and con- 
 trolled by diplomats from old-established Christian countries, 
 gave way under the provocation of the time to the most vin- 
 dictive cruelty, it is not surprising that some of the Chinese 
 Christians, only just emerged from heathenism, should betray 
 a revengeful spirit toward men who had destroyed their 
 property, slaughtered their wives and children, and hunted 
 the survivors with the ferocity of wolves. In some places 
 the missionaries have had a hard task in restraining this 
 spirit. It was inevitable, also, that in the confusion which 
 followed the victory of the foreigners, some wolves should 
 put on " sheep's clothing," and, under the pretense of being 
 Christians, extort money from the terror-stricken villagers, 
 or try to deceive the foreigner with false claims for indemnity. 
 
 But, as I have visited the scenes of disaster, heard the 
 stories of Christians and missionaries, and learned more of 
 the awful ordeal through which they passed, I have marveled, 
 not that some yielded to the temptations of the hour, but 
 that more did not yield. Multitudes of those Christians 
 withstood a persecution as frightful as that of the early dis- 
 ciples in the gardens and arenas of Nero. Edicts were post- 
 
77 
 
 ed commanding them to recant, and promising protection to 
 those who obeyed. If they were hypocrites, "rice Christians," 
 why did they not return to their old faith ? As Dr. Babcock 
 truly said, "One-tenth of the hypocrisy with which they were 
 charged would have saved them from martyrdom." But 
 thousands of them died rather than abjure their faith, and 
 thousands more " had trial of mockings and scourgings ; yea, 
 moreover of bonds and imprisonment ; they were starved, 
 they were tempted ; being destitute, afifiicted, tormented ; 
 wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes 
 of the earth," " of whom," in very truth, " the world was not 
 worthy." 
 
 One of the most trying experiences of the missionaries 
 has been the dealing with those who did recant. Some of 
 the cases are pitiful. Poor, ignorant men confess their sin 
 with streaming eyes, saying that they did not mean to deny 
 their Lord, but that they could not see their wives outraged 
 and their babies' heads crushed against stone walls. Others 
 admit that, though they stood firm while one hundred blows 
 were rained upon their bare, bleeding backs, after that they 
 became confused and were only dimly conscious of what they 
 said to escape further agony than flesh and blood could en- 
 dure. Still others made a distinction, imfamiliar to us, but 
 quite in harmony with Oriental hereditary notions, between 
 the convictions of the heart and the profession of the lips, so 
 that they externally and temporarily bowed their heads to 
 the storm without feeling that they were thereby renouncing 
 their faith. One of the best Chinese ministers in Shant.ung, 
 after two hundred lashes, which pounded his back into a pulp, 
 feebly replied in the afifirmative to the question : " Will you 
 leave the devils' church ? " But he explained afterwards that, 
 while he promised to leave " the devils' church," he did not 
 promise to leave Christ's church. The deception was not as 
 apparent to him as it is to us, whose moral perceptions have 
 been sharpened by centuries of Christian nurture which have 
 been denied to the Chinese. 
 
 When the proclamation ordering the extermination of all 
 foreigners and Christians was posted on the walls of Ching 
 Chou Fu, a friendly official hinted that if the Chinese pastors 
 would sign a document to the effect that they would "no 
 longer practice the foreign religion," he would accept it as 
 sufficient on behalf of all their flocks, and not enforce the 
 order. Warrants for the arrest of every Christian were al- 
 ready written. Ruffians were hurrying in from distant vil- 
 lages to join in the riot of plunder and lust. Two women 
 had already been killed. What were the pastors to do ? 
 There was no missionary to guide them, for long before the 
 consuls had ordered all foreigners out of the interior. The 
 
78 
 
 agonized pastors, after much prayer, determined to sacrifice 
 themselves for their innocent people, to go through the form 
 of giving up the "foreign" religion. That word foreign must 
 be emphasized to understand their temptation, for "our breth- 
 ren do not recognize the faith they profess as foreign, but as 
 from God for all peoples." Moreover, the "pastors were 
 made to understand that it was simply a legal fiction, not af- 
 fecting the religion of their hearts, and only a temporary ex- 
 pedient, that the magistrate might have a pretext for- giving 
 his protection to the Christians. They were not to engage 
 in any idolatrous rite; they were not to make any public apos- 
 tasy, but simply to sign the document with the one sentence, 
 *No longer to practice the foreign religion.' 'So far from re- 
 canting,' it was urged upon them, 'you are preventing recant- 
 ing.'" 
 
 Their decision may be best given in the words of Pastor 
 Wu Chien Ch'eng: "When I thought of these people," he 
 said, his emotion being so great the tears were running down 
 his face, "in most cases with children and aged parents de- 
 pendent upon them, and thought of all that was involved for 
 them if I refused to sign the paper — well, I couldn't help it. 
 I decided to take on myself the shame and the sin." 
 
 Though these pastors were not Presbyterians, I have de- 
 scribed their case because it is so thoroughly illustrative of 
 many of the recantations in all denominations. As the Rev. 
 J. P. Bruce truly says: 
 
 "Who could listen to such a narrative — so sad and painful, 
 and yet not without much that was noble — without sympathy 
 and tears? One could not look into their faces without pain. 
 Instead of the usual bright, affectionate and frank expression, 
 they seemed to be almost cowed, and yet with a half-wistful, 
 half-challenging look, as if to say: 'Were we not right to do 
 wrong for such a cause ?' But with the pain there was one 
 thought that gave comfort. Though our brethren had failed 
 in the hour of trial, they had taken this step, not to save 
 themselves, but for the sake of others. And better than all' 
 else, they had not ceased to love their Master, even though 
 they had outwardly denied Him. If only they could realize 
 how much they had wounded Him, there would not be want- 
 ing such penitence as should turn this failure into rich bless- 
 ing." 
 
 In this spirit of tenderness, so marked in the Lord's deal- 
 ings with sinful Peter, the missionaries are dealing with the 
 recanting Christians. 
 
 With the impostors, indeed, they have justly had less 
 mercy. Mr. Mateer secured the arrest of two scapegraces 
 who, under pretense of being Christians, had blackmailed in- 
 nocent villagers, one having forged a letter in Mr. Chalfant's 
 
79 
 
 name, and collected considerable sums on his alleged behalf. 
 Very plainly, too, did the missionaries deal with Christians, 
 who, like some good people in the United States after a fire, 
 placed an extravagant valuation upon what they had lost. 
 Mr. Chalfant had to publicly denounce one outstation leader 
 who insisted on collecting exorbitant sums from the Boxer 
 participants in the anti-foreign riots in his village. 
 
 But these were exceptional cases. Loving and prayerful 
 conference was the course followed wherever practicable. 
 Witness the following resolutions adopted by the East and 
 West Shantung Missions, in joint session, December 1, 1900, 
 "in reference to those Christians, who through stress of per- 
 secution have denied their faith" : 
 
 "We first desire to express our joy and gratitude to God 
 that so many of our native brethren, though placed for a time 
 in imminent peril or subjected to actual distress, ha^fe re- 
 mained steadfast and immovable, witnessing a good profes- 
 sion. But we record with sorrow that others have fallen 
 away, though in their behalf we must maintain that, as a 
 rule, they recanted, first, because of the suddenness and im- 
 minence of the peril; second, because of the enforced ab- 
 sence of their natural spiritual advisers, and the impossibility 
 of obtaining relief through them; third, because of lamenta- 
 tions, reproaches or threats of their heathen relatives, friends 
 or neighbors, who regarded their own safety or interests as 
 jeopardized; fourth, because of a lack of definite conception 
 as to the serious character of such a step as recantation, 
 which they regarded in most cases as a more or less justi- 
 fiable expedient to escape destruction. In short, there was 
 not present in the minds of the Christians the idea of aban- 
 doning their faith, but only in their weakness and defense- 
 lessness of bending before the storm. 
 
 "We recognize, however, the fact that the gravity of the 
 sin was of different degrees in diilerent cases. Therefore, 
 resolved, 
 
 "1. That there be a careful investigation of each case, if 
 at all possible, on the spot, by the missionary or pastor in 
 charge. 
 
 "2. That the Christians be dealt with in a spirit of ten- 
 derness rather than severity, remembering ourselves lest we 
 also be tempted. 
 
 "3. It is recommended that where the Christians have 
 signed recantations under oflficial pressure they be exhorted 
 to formally withdraw such recantation before readmission to 
 fellow^ship in the Church. The means of accomplishing this 
 to be left to the discretion of the missionaries of each station, 
 but it is recommended that after the facts have been ascer- 
 tained a communication be prepared for the official of each 
 
8o 
 
 Hsien, giving a list of the names of those who recanted un- 
 der fear, but who now desire to withdraw such recantation, 
 at the same time expressing their loyalty as Chinese subjects. 
 
 "4. It is recommended that, should there be those who 
 give no evidence of having been truly attached to the truth, 
 or those who manifest a disposition to remain outside the 
 Church, abiding by their recantation with no sign of repent- 
 ance, they should be disciplined, after having been heard, 
 first by suspension, and finally, by excommunication. 
 
 "5. A large measure of discretion must be allowed each 
 missionary in his own field in the application of cases com- 
 ing before him. 
 
 "6. That special attention be paid to the instruction of 
 the Chinese as to the nature of recantation, the necessity of 
 repentance, and the justice of the discipline to be admin- 
 istered." 
 
 Will not the Board and the Church at home continue in 
 intercessory prayer for our fellow Christians- in China who 
 have been called upon to suffer so much for Christ? Puri- 
 fied and chastened by the fearful holocaust through which 
 they have passed, they are smaller numerically but stronger 
 spiritually than ever before. May we not confidently expect 
 that, like the apostles after Pentecost, they will go forth to 
 give "with great power their witness^ of the resurrection of 
 the Lord Jesus," and that "great grace 'may be' upon 
 them all" ? 
 
 Prominent among the problems of reconstruction which 
 now confront us is, 
 
 SHALL WE WITHDRAW THE PEKING MISSION? 
 
 In the Missionary Revieiv of the World, for October, 1900, 
 Hon. Charles Denby, then United States Minister to Peking, 
 wrote: 
 
 "With all due deference to the great missionary societies 
 who have these matters in charge, my judgment is that mis- 
 sionary work in China has been overdone. * * * Take Pe- 
 king as an example. As given in this Review, in its issue 
 of September, 1900, there were located at Peking the follow- 
 ing Protestant missions: American Roard, American Presby- 
 terian (North), American Methodist (North), Christian and 
 Missionary Alliance, International Young Men's Christian 
 Association, London Missionary Society, Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel, International Institute, Mission 
 for Chinese Blind, Scotch Bible Society, and the Society for 
 Diffusion of Christian Knowledge. To these must be added 
 the Church of England Mission, and English Baptist Mission 
 and the Swedish Mission. The above list shows that of 
 American societies alone there werj seven in Peking, not 
 
8i 
 
 counting- the Peking University, and that all Western Powers 
 taken collectively, were represented by about twenty Mis- 
 sions. * * * A careful study of the situation would seem to 
 suggest that no two American societies should occupy the 
 same district." 
 
 The East and West Shantung Missions in joint meeting 
 December, 1900, endorsed this view and expressed the 
 opinion, that advantage should be taken of the destruction 
 of our property to discontinue Peking as a station of our 
 Board on account of "the greater need elsewhere in Chihli, 
 in view of the devastation of Paotingfu and contemplated 
 new work in that province." 
 
 The Peking Mission itself sent a communication to the 
 North China Mission of the American Board proposing "an 
 exchange of all work and fields of our Presbyterian Church 
 in the Province of Chihli in return for the work and fields of 
 the American Board Mission in the Province of Shantung, 
 subject to the approval of our respective Boards." The 
 Mission added: "It means no little sacrifice to sever at- 
 tachments made in long years of service in fields and 
 among a people whom God has enabled us to lead to Christ, 
 but we feel that a high spirit of loyalty to Christ and his 
 cause, inspiring all concerned, will lead us to set aside per- 
 sonal preferences and attachments, if thereby the greater 
 interests of his Church in China can be conserved." 
 
 I was at pains to talk over the question with many mis- 
 sionaries of various denominations. With the Peking Mis- 
 sion in particular I frankly conferred, stating that, as the 
 question had been raised, and as the total destruction of all 
 our mission property gave us opportunity for reconsidering 
 our position in Peking, we should go thoroughly into the 
 subject, and either transfer the missionaries and money to 
 Shantung, or else have a reason for rebuilding which would 
 satisfy our own judgments and those of our brethren else- 
 where. With a single desire to know what was best, and 
 'to be guided by the spirit of God, we spent whole days 
 traversing the entire ground. Not content with this, we 
 called a meeting of all the missionaries of other Boards rep- 
 resented in Peking. Such men as the Rev. Drs. Sheffield, 
 of the American Board, Owen, of the London Mission and 
 Lowry and Headland of the Methodist Society, were among 
 the many who kindly responded. I candidly sought their 
 counsel, telling them that we should take it for granted that 
 their personal wishes would be for us to remain, but urging 
 the importance of an impartial consideration of the question 
 raised by Mr. Denby and others as to whether there is not a 
 disproportionate "congestion of mission enterprises" in 
 Peking, and whether, considering the great needs elsewhere. 
 
82 
 
 we ought not to take advantage of the present opportunity 
 to make any readjustments which would promote efficiency 
 and economy, and I quoted the action of our Board which 
 was unanimously approved by the General Assembly of 
 1900 that, "the time has come for a larger union and co- 
 operation in mission work and where church union cannot 
 be attained, the Board and the missions will seek such divi- 
 sions of territory as will leave as large districts as possible 
 to the exclusive care and development of separate agencies." 
 I added that we did not desire this action to be considered 
 merely a glittering generality on paper, but as our definite 
 working policy, to be given practical eiTect in every proper 
 way. In subsequent interviews at Tientsin and elsewhere, 
 I obtained the views of the Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith 
 and others. 
 
 The result of all these conferences was the unanimous 
 and emphatic judgment of the missionaries of other Boards 
 as well as of our own Board that there is not "a congestion of 
 missionary societies in Peking," and that Presbyterians can- 
 not be spared without serious injury to the cause. 
 
 The reasons for retaining our Peking Mission are: 
 
 1. The reply of the North China Mission of the Ameri- 
 can Board to the proposal of our Mission as follows: 
 
 "Peking, May 3, 1901. 
 "7c the American Presbyterian Mission., Peking: 
 
 ''Dear Brethren — We have received with great interest 
 the communication brought to us by two of your number, 
 and having listened to its reading, have deliberated upon its 
 subject matter. We fully appreciate the cordial tone mani- 
 fested, and heartily reciprocate the earnest desire that our 
 missions may be guided to take whatever steps may be 
 necessary for the best advancement of the kingdon of God in 
 the territory within which we work, wherever that may lie. 
 After considering the matter in all its bearings we are con- 
 strained to say, first, that we contemplate with regret any 
 plan which lo oks to the withdrawal o f the Presbyterian Mis- 
 sion from the field whieh-^iey have soTTdng occupied in 
 Northern Chihli, since, however explained, this would look 
 like a retrograde step for the mission and a confession of at 
 least partial failure which, more than ever before, is at the 
 present time undesirable. We think that instead of illus- 
 trating comity this would appear as if comity was not to 
 be attained without a violent dislocation from long-establish- 
 ed foundations, and that in this particular there would be a 
 definite loss all around. We also regret the suggestion 
 that the Presbyterian Mission withdraw from fields which 
 h^ve now been reconsecrated by the death of their martyrs, 
 and we cannot but think that this action, especially in the 
 
83 
 
 case of Paotingfu, would have a chilling effect upon the 
 churches at home which are now being roused to fresh activ- 
 ity to repair the serious losses and the martyrdom of the 
 past year. The abrupt removal from that city would also 
 sacrifice for your mission the hardly bought and priceless 
 good-will which the work of Mr. Lowrie has earned for you 
 during the past many months, an advantage not lightly to be 
 resigned, and which will be of permanent value in the future. 
 We further deprecate the proposed step because there is 
 now an excellent opportunity for the adoption of actual 
 measures of co-operation between our respective missions. 
 We already have a field sufficiently large, and it can be inde- 
 finitely expanded in some directions without involving the 
 removal of an entire mission to another province. 
 
 "With regard to the infelicities of the boundaries of the 
 areas which we have hitherto worked, we are ready to read- 
 just these boundaries in such a way as to remedy the waste 
 of effort in the crossing of one another's territory, and this, 
 we hope, will not be found to be a difficult matter. * * * * 
 
 "We are confident that the ultimate outcome could not 
 fail to be a greater benefit than the sudden rupture of long- 
 existing relations for the sake of mere geographical conti- 
 guity of the work of missions like yours and ours, each keep- 
 ing its own district, careful not to encroach upon the other. 
 In the higher unity here suggested we should expect to rea- 
 lize larger results in the promotion of comity not only, but 
 also in the best interests of that kingdom of God for which 
 we are each laboring. 
 
 "In the prayer that we may be divinely guided in this 
 and in all other decisions, we remain on behalf of the Amer- 
 ican Board of Mission, 
 
 "(Signed) Arthur H. Smith, 
 
 D. Z. Sheffield, 
 
 "Committee." 
 
 This letter, like the one from our Mission to which it 
 is a reply, breathes a delightful spirit of comity. While 
 the P'ang Ch'uang and Lin Ch'ing stations of the American 
 Board in Shantung would add largely to the strength and in- 
 fluence of our work in that Province, and while they are with- 
 in such distance of our stations that we could effectively 
 work them, yet we can appreciate the reluctance of our Con- 
 gregational brethren to leave fields with which they have 
 been associated for more than a score of years, especially as 
 their work at P'ang Ch'uang is among the very best and 
 most promising they have in all North China. 
 
 2. The ties formed with the China Christians and people 
 in thirty-eight years of continuous missionary work, during 
 which our missionaries have become widely known and have 
 
84 
 
 acquired large influence — an influence which cannot be trans- 
 ferred without serious loss. 
 
 3. Several of the agencies enumerated by the Hon. 
 Charles Denby, such as the Y. M. C. A., the International 
 Institute, the Mission to the Blind, the various Bible Socie- 
 ties, the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge, 
 etc., are not competing missionary agencies at all, but are 
 doing a special work along such separate lines that it is un- 
 fair to take them into consideration. As a matter of fact, 
 with the exception of a comparatively small work by the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the real mission- 
 ary work is being done by only four Boards — the American, 
 Methodist, London, and Presbyterian. This is not a dis- 
 proportionate number, considering the fact that Peking is one 
 of the great cities of the world, and the capital of an Empire 
 of four hundred millions of people, and considering also that 
 the work of these Boards is not merely local, but that it in- 
 cludes a vast surrounding region. 
 
 In the Paotingfu station our Board and the American 
 Board are the only agencies represented, the China Inland 
 Mission having simply a forwarding agent for its extensive 
 work in the Shan-si Province, Paotingfu being the point 
 where the transfer is made from the river and railroad to 
 overland carts and shendzas. The China Inland missionar- 
 ies inform me that they have no local work at Paotingfu, and 
 do not expect to have any. 
 
 4. It is not true that the poplation of Chihli is small com- 
 pared with that of Shantung. Colquhoun says, in his vol- 
 ume on "China in Transformation," that whereas the Shan- 
 tung Province has an area of fifty-five thousand square 
 miles, and a population of thirty millions, the Chihli pro- 
 vince has an area of fifty-seven thousand square miles and a 
 population of thirty-six millions. This is probaby an under 
 estimate for vShantung, which I was told has about thirty- 
 five millions, but even at this figure Chihli is the larger. 
 For this enormous field the missionary agencies now at 
 work are really few. Hundreds of American cities of half 
 a million inhabitants have a greater number of ordained 
 workers than this entire province, with a population half as 
 large as that of the United States. 
 
 5. Our Mission occupies a large and distinct geographical 
 field in this Province. By common consent, all that portion 
 of the city and suburbs of Peking north of the line of the 
 Forbidden City, with a population of about two hundred thou- 
 and, is Presbyterian territory. No other Mission Board is 
 located in that part of Peking. Our missionaries and their 
 work are known there and have the good-will of the people. 
 In the country, the counties of San Ho, Huai Jou, Pao Ti, to 
 
85 
 
 the north and east of Peking, are also understood to be dis- 
 tinctively Presbyterian ground. San Ho County alone is 
 said to have twelve hundred villages, while the others are 
 also very populous. No other Protestant denomination is 
 working in any of these counties. We also have some work 
 in the counties of Chi Chou and Ch'ang P'ing Chou. At 
 Paotingfu, the American Board and our Board have made a 
 division of the field, the former taking everything south of a 
 line drawn through the centre of the city and our mission- 
 aries taking everything north of that line. The field thus as- 
 signed to us includes not only half the city of Paotingfu, but 
 eleven and a half counties, with a population of about half 
 a million. There are no other Protestant workers in this 
 large field. The charge I once heard that we entered Pao- 
 tingfu against the judgment of the North China Mission and 
 the American Board who, it was said, considered it their field, 
 is emphatically denied by Dr. Sheffield for the Mission and 
 by Dr. Judson Smith for the Board, the latter saying to me 
 before I left New York, "The Presbyterians established a 
 station at Paotingfu with our understanding and approval." 
 
 6. Extensive and densely inhabited areas of the Province 
 are not being worked by any Board. Dr. Wherry, who has 
 been for a generation in the Chihli Province, says that there 
 are a hundred times as many people in the Peking field as 
 are now being reached, and that there are twenty millions in 
 the Province who have never yet heard of Christ; so that 
 there is room for an almost indefinite extension of the work. 
 
 7. The missionaries of the three other Boards with which 
 we really divide the field — namely, the American Board, the 
 London Mission and the Methodist Board — plainly state that, 
 in the event of our withdrawal, they would not be able to 
 care for the work which we would leave. They say that they 
 are not able adequately to sustain the work they already 
 have, and that there is not the slightest reason to hope that 
 their home Boards would find it possible to give them the 
 reinforcements in men and money which would be required 
 if our present responsibilities were to be added to theirs. 
 They strongly urge that, if we withdraw, the large districts 
 which we occupy in both the Peking and Paotingfu fields 
 would simply be vacated, and that the influence for Christ 
 acquired by our faithful missionaries through long years of 
 toil and at heavy expense would be lost. 
 
 8. The question whether we have any moral right to de- 
 sert the work which we have developed in Chihli. The num- 
 ber of Christians surviving is now known to be far greater 
 than was at first supposed. Immediately after the siege we 
 were told that of the four hundred and sixty Christians on 
 the roll of our Mission, only sixty were known to be living. 
 
86 
 
 Since then, however, they have been coming out of their hid- 
 ing places, and have been collected, until now there are 
 known to be two hundred and fifty still alive. In quality 
 they are second to no other Christians in China. They have 
 been purified as with fire. They have stood the test of a per- 
 secution so awful as to leave no doubt as to the genuineness 
 of their faith. There will, indeed, come a time when it will 
 be the duty of the missionary to leave the native Church to 
 itself. But is this the time to go, when the native Church, 
 instead of being strong and able to care for itself, is torn and 
 bleeding after frightful persecution ? Would not our depart- 
 ure now expose us to Christ's rebuke of the hireling who 
 "careth not for the sheep"? These Christians look to our 
 missionaries as to their spiritual fathers for guidance for the 
 future. They feel with us that the time has come for a new 
 consecration to the task of evangelizing all their people. As 
 directed by our missionaries, they may become a great influ- 
 ence for the conversion of their countrymen. Ought we to 
 leave them when other missionaries expressly tell us that 
 they cannot care for them ? 
 
 9. The importance of exerting a strong Christian influ- 
 ence in the capital of the Empire. If there is any place in all 
 China where this influence ought to be intensified, it is Peking. 
 The Shanghai Conference of 1890 voted that a city of pre- 
 fectural rank should not be considered the exclusive territory 
 of any one Board ; that different agencies should not be 
 multiplied in small places, but that in cities of such rank 
 more than one society might wisely be located. Not only is 
 Paotingfu a prefectural city, but Peking is the capital of the 
 whole Fympire. It is granted that Christian work is difficult 
 on this account, that it is harder to convert a man there than 
 in a country village. But, on the other hand, he is more in- 
 fluential when he is converted. Peking is the heart of China. 
 Alone of all its cities, it is visited sooner or later by every 
 ambitious scholar and prominent ofificial. The examinations 
 for the higher degrees bring to it myriads of the brightest 
 young men of the empire. The moral effect of a strong 
 Christian Church in Peking will be felt in every province. 
 If Christianity is to be a positive force in China, and is ever 
 to regenerate it, it cannot afford to weaken its hold in the 
 very citadel of China's power. 
 
 10. The hopefulness of the field. The missionaries in- 
 sist that, considering the small missionary force that has 
 been available for itinerating and direct evangelistic work, 
 the field has been reasonably productive. For years there 
 was only one man who could do country work, and his free- 
 dom of movement was limited by the ill-health of his wife. 
 The missionaries declare that the work in the San Ho County 
 
87 
 
 is as prosperous as that in any county in Shantung, and that 
 there is no more promising: opening in all China than Shun 
 te fu, where the mission desires to open a station as soon 
 as practicable. The missionaries of all denominations hope 
 and believe that there is to be a great spiritual awakening in 
 North China, as a result of the recent troubles, and urge that 
 it is a time for strengthening our forces instead of weaken- 
 ing them. There is profound significance in the fact that 
 since last December twenty new members have been baptized 
 in the Paotingfu field. 
 
 11. The extraordinary influence acquired by our mission- 
 aries in connection with the adjustment of recent troubles. 
 In Paotingfu, Mr. Lowrie's tact and wisdom and kindness 
 have softened the hearts of all classes. When I was in 
 Paotingfu, evidences were abundant that he had won the 
 hearts of the people as perhaps no other missionary in China 
 has ever won them before. Alike in the yamens and on the 
 streets, he was treated not merely with respect, but with 
 affection. When he spoke to the district magistrate about 
 the possibility of purchasing a larger and better-located tract 
 of land for the mission compound and asked permission 
 to buy it, the magistrate gave him an evasive answer, 
 and no sooner had he departed than the magistrate laid 
 the case before a number of the prominent and wealthy 
 people of the city, and they immediately subscribed the nec- 
 essary sum to donate the entire tract of sixteen English 
 acres to the Board. It would be folly to sacrifice the oppor- 
 tunity for exerting Christian influence which has been thus 
 acquired in this powerful city of Paotingfu, and in the 
 populous region which surrounds it. Nor are such feel- 
 ings of the Chinese confined to Paotingfu. In the Peking 
 station field as well, Chinese who are not Christians have 
 freely expressed their gratitude to our missionaries for the 
 way in which they befriended them after the siege. There 
 have been many remarkable expressions of this from 
 nobles, merchants and people. At a time when so many 
 atrocities have been committed by foreign soldiers, and 
 when the people have been the prey of the political am- 
 bitions of European Powers, many of the natives feel that 
 our Presbyterian missionaries have shown themselves to be 
 true friends. This is a substantial reinforcement of our 
 work which would be lost if we were to withdraw. 
 
 12. The call which comes to us from the blood of the 
 martyred dead. One hundred and ninety-one of our Chinese 
 Christians in the Chihli Province laid down their lives for 
 Christ, besides about one hundred and sixty inquirers. Of 
 these, thir ty-four 3Lprp Villprl iii__ the Paotin gfu field, though 
 some of them had come from Peking, which station, there- 
 
88 
 
 fore, bore bj^ far the heavier proportion of the loss in Chinese 
 Christians. But in Paotingfu, five of our beloved mission- 
 aries met death for Jesus' sake. The soil of Chihli has been 
 forever consecrated by these martyrdoms. Can we leave a 
 place made sacred to us by such associations ? 
 
 13. Nor should we be unmindful of the eiTect of with- 
 drawal upon the home chvirches. God has ordained that mis- 
 sionary work shall be maintained by his people. Their atti- 
 tude toward the missionary enterprise, therefore, is one of 
 the elements which we cannot ignore. If our Government 
 is amenable to public opinion, much more must the Board 
 heed the prevailing sentiment of the Church, if we are to 
 command its confidence and receive its 'CO-operation. The 
 catastrophe in China has centered the attention of the whole 
 Presbyterian body upon China. It has impressed anew upon 
 God's people the divine character of the missionary obliga- 
 tion, has softened hearts and deepened consecration. There 
 is encouraging reason to believe that multitudes at home 
 have formed a high and holy resolve to press the work of 
 world-evangelization on a larger scale than ever before. Out 
 of the ashes of ruined buildings and the blood of beloved 
 martyrs and the tumult of furious men, a new and sacred re- 
 solve has been formed to win China for Christ. While mis- 
 sionary work everywhere will receive the benefit of this, and 
 particularly the work in all parts of China, is it not true that 
 this feeling in the Church centers in the Peking Mission, 
 not because that was the most important of our fields, but 
 because it was the place where the memorable siege occurred, 
 where all our martyred missionaries and nearly all our Chinese 
 Christians fell. To leave that field of all others, just now, 
 would be to sacrifice that moral effect which every general 
 recognizes as so important in warfare. However we might 
 explain the matter to ourselves and our immediate friends, 
 the withdrawal would be interpreted hj the general public as 
 an acknowledgment of defeat, a confession that we had been 
 driven from a strategic position. It might even appear 
 to some that our devoted missionaries had died in vain, and 
 expose us to the charge of having maintained them at the 
 cost of their lives at an unnecessary point. For men might 
 say : " If you ought to withdraw from Peking at all, you ought 
 to have done so before this trouble occurred. No new ele- 
 ment has been introduced but the destruction of a few thous- 
 and dollars' worth of property, which can be easily replaced. 
 All the vital reasons that ever existed for sending mission- 
 aries to the Chihli Province exist today in undiminished 
 force." We might persuade ourselves that these arguments 
 were unsound, but it would not be so easy to persuade the 
 Church. I believe that the moral eflfect of withdrawal, in 
 
89 
 
 such circumstances, would be disastrous. Rather is it^ the 
 feeling of the Church that like Lincoln at Gettysburg: "We 
 should be here dedicated to the great task remaining before 
 us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion 
 to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of de- 
 votion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
 have died in vain." 
 
 It may be said that this is a purely sentimental considera- 
 tion. But so may love for country, for liberty, for wife and 
 children, aye, for Christ Himself, 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 ad- 
 mit, that as I stood amid the ruins of our mission buildings 
 in Peking, as I faced the surviving Christians in that city and 
 in Paotingfu, and remembered what they had suffered for 
 Christ, the property they had lost, the husbands and wives, 
 fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and children they 
 had seen murdered, the wounds and privations they had re- 
 ceived — as I saw the tears in their eyes while I spoke to them 
 of the sympathy of God's people at home, and the light that 
 came into their faces when I assured them of our fellowship 
 with them in love and service, as I stood with uncovered head 
 on the spot where the sainted Taylor and Mr. and Mrs. Sim- 
 cox and Dr. and Mrs. Hodge had perished — I confess, I say, 
 to the rising of a deeper consecration in my heart to the work 
 of evangelizing not only China, but this particular part of it — 
 a holier resolve to give myself anew to the Christ whom they 
 served. And I am not willing to admit that the spiritual ex- 
 perience which has come to me as a result of my visitation 
 of these places is a mere matter of sentiment. It means 
 something very vital to me, and I believe it does to the whole 
 Church. 
 
 Therefore, unless the American Board is prepared to over- 
 rule the adverse judgment of its North China Mission, give 
 us its P'ang Chuang and Lin Ch'ing Stations in Shantung, 
 and assume such responsibility for our Chihli Christians and 
 fields as will enable us to feel that they will be adequately 
 cared for, and will acquit us before our own consciences and 
 before the Chinese churches and the Christian world of the 
 charge of desertion in a time of supreme need, I recommend 
 that we retain our Peking Mission. 
 
 The next question to be considered is the 
 
 READJUSTMENT OF STATIONS. 
 
 1. Shuntefu. — When the Boxer outbreak occurred, the 
 Board, in compliance with the urgent request of the mission, 
 
9° 
 
 had authorized the opening of a station at this point. It is 
 an important prefectural city about half way between Pao- 
 tingfu and Chinanfu and on the Hne of the Peking and Han- 
 kow Railway, which already runs some distance beyond Pao- 
 tingfu, and is being rapidly pushed southward. The city 
 will, therefore, form a connecting link between our Peking 
 and Shantung missions. The population of the adjacent re- 
 gion is estimated at 6,000,000, and includes many walled 
 cities in which no regular work is being done by any Pro- 
 testant body, except the China Inland Mission. Several 
 members of that Mission have told me that their mission 
 has never had more than two men in Shuntefu; that, so 
 far as they know, there is no expectation of increasing 
 the number ; that they have no medical or educational 
 work there, and that the special reason of their being there 
 at all is that the place is, like Paotingfu, a forwarding point 
 for their extensive work in Shan-si. The soil is fertile, the 
 people relatively prosperous and the location comparatively 
 healthful. Mr. Lowrie, who personally explored the district 
 in 1898, informs me that he regards it as an exceptionally 
 inviting field, and this is the unanimous judgment of the mis- 
 sion. Before, however, the plans for the opening of the 
 station could be carried into effect, the outbreak occurred, so 
 that we have not actually begun our work there. The mis- 
 sion is very desirous that the station should be opened as 
 soon as practicable, and I share their desire. I feel, never- 
 theless, that the proper equipment of our existing stations, 
 not only at Peking and Paotingfu, but in the West Shantung 
 Mission, should come first. But as soon as these stations 
 can be brought up to their normal strength, I think Shuntefu 
 should be opened. To that end we should keep the station 
 in mind, and the Paotingfu missionaries should make such 
 occasional tours to that district as they may find practicable. 
 2. Paotingfu. — I have already referred to the new com- 
 pound which has been obtained free of cost. The old com- 
 pound lies about a mile north of the North Gate of the city. 
 While adequate for the work in operation at the time of the 
 outbreak, it was not large enough for any extension. More- 
 over, it was fully two miles from the dispensary, street 
 chapel and day school in the city — a fatiguing daily journey, 
 especially for ladies, in a place of rough roads and rougher 
 crowds. The new compound is not only in itself more 
 beautiful and healthful, but it is within five minutes' walk of 
 the West Gate, and within an equally short distance of the 
 railway station. It will be far more convenient to the city 
 work, and yet it is outside the wall in the open country, with 
 natural drainage, shade trees, grape arbors and several wells, 
 while it is ample in size for any plant we may ever desire to 
 
91 
 
 put upon it. The Board should therefore approve the Mis- 
 sion's unainmous desire that the station be rebuilt on the 
 new compound. 
 
 A Chinese firm in Paotingfu has leased the old compound 
 for ten years for nursery purposes, agreeing at the expiration 
 of that time to return it to us with all the trees and shrubbery 
 that may then be upon it. This will enable us to keep and 
 beautify, without expense, a place which has been made 
 sacred to us by the blood of martyrs. If we wish to sell, we 
 can probably do so at the expiration of the lease to far better 
 advantage than now, in view of the improvements which are 
 promised and which will then be ours. That portion of the 
 tract upon which the martyrdoms occurred should be set aside 
 as a cemetery. This would include the site of the houses 
 occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Simcox and Mr. and Mrs. Lowrie, 
 Dr. and Mrs. Hodge having been in the former house and 
 Dr. Taylor in the latter when the attack was made. A neat 
 wall should be placed about this enclosure and a suitable 
 monument erected. It is true that the new station will be 
 the real memorial of the martyrs, and there should be some 
 tablet to that effect, either at the entrance or in the chapel. 
 But surely we ought also to have something on the very 
 spot where the massacre occurred. Our Duck Lane property 
 in Peking was orginially a Buddhist temple, and when we 
 bought it we came into possession not only of the temple 
 and a miscellaneous assortment of gods, but of three beauti- 
 ful and massive monumental tablets erected about three 
 hundred years ago. In size and shape and quality of stone 
 they are as fine as anything we could secure, and as they be- 
 long to us there would be no expense involved except rail- 
 way freight to Paotingfu, the erasure of the present inscrip- 
 tions and the necessary reinscribing. It would cost $1000 or 
 more to get any monument from America or Scotland which 
 would be as good as one of these. I, therefore, recommend 
 that the Peking Mission be authorized to have one of these 
 monuments erected on the spot where our friends died, and 
 to have a suitable stone or brick enclosing wall put around 
 such an adjacent portion of the compound as they may deem 
 expedient for the needs of a small foreign cemetery. 
 
 Hitherto Peking has been our larger station, but now there 
 are some weighty reasons for transferring the balance to 
 Paotingfu: 
 
 1. It is nearer the geographical center of our Peking Mis- 
 sion field, especially in view of our prospective development 
 toward the South rather than toward the North. 
 
 2. It would be a better location for our boarding-schools 
 than a great city like Peking. The boys and girls would be 
 less likely to be educated out of sympathy with the village 
 
92 
 
 life from which they come. Buildings are less expensive in 
 Paotingfu than in the capital, living is cheaper and the whole 
 scale of life more modest. It is quite generally agreed in 
 America that a country town is a better place for an educa- 
 tional institution than a great metropolis, and the same con- 
 siderations apply in China. 
 
 3. There is a larger constituency in the Paotingfu field, our 
 district there including eleven and a half counties, against 
 three in the Peking field, to say nothing of the large work 
 which we hope to develop later at Shun te fu. 
 
 4.,Xhere are no competing plants, such as the Congrega- 
 tionalists~aiTa""TVIethodists have in and near Peking. The 
 North China College of the American Board at Tung Chou 
 and the Peking University of the Methodist Church in Peking, 
 together with the Congregational Bridgman School for Girls, 
 as well as the various institutions maintained by other Boards, 
 more nearly cover the Peking field educationally. We can- 
 not now compete with the institutions they have developed, 
 nor is it expedient that we should do so, even if we could. 
 But in Paotingfu we have a comparatively clear field, and if 
 the arrangement with the Congregationalists, to which I 
 shall refer later, can be made, we shall have a territory exclu- 
 sively our own. 
 
 I therefore recommend that we transfer the emphasis of 
 our educational work in this mission to Paotingfu and develop 
 there our leading boarding schools for both boys and girls, 
 and also that the station be so reinforced, by transfers as 
 far as practicable, that it will have a force adequate to the 
 care of these institutions and to a larger evangelistic work. 
 This readjustment will place us to far better advantage for 
 the effective working of our field while at the same time 
 leaving us proper representation at Peking. 
 
 Injnedical work the American Board has a women's hospi- 
 tal aboiirtwoirTTd-a--half mites from An Ting, treating 4,000 pa- 
 tients annually and a large general hospital at Tung Chou, 
 twelve miles distant, with about 15,000 patients. The Metho- 
 dists are building a large general hospital three and a half miles 
 fromt he An Ting, where they have one physician, and they have 
 long had an extensive and well-equipped women's hospital on 
 the same compound, employing one physician and controlled 
 by the Women's Board. The London Missionary Society 
 has a general hospital three miles from ours, a women's hos- 
 pital and the West City Women's Hospital, the staff for all 
 consisting of three physicians. The Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel has no regular hospital but it has a women's 
 medical work under the care of a lady physician, assisted by 
 the physician of the British Legation, while a German dis- 
 pensary is conducted by an attache of the German Legation. 
 
93 
 
 For so great a city, this is not a large number of hospitals. 
 Indeed it is very small if we remember that these institutions 
 represent almost the entire surgical profession of the city; 
 that the equipments of all combined would not equal that of a 
 single hospital in Chicago, and that each hospital represents 
 a large county work — drawing its patients from and sending 
 its influence to thousands of outlying villages. 
 
 Of course, the An Ting Hospital must be immediately re- 
 built. For a time, the opinion prevailed that it would be 
 wise to remove our Women's Hospital to Paotingfu, for 
 while there are already two general hospitals there, our own 
 on a scale of 13,000 patients a year and the American Boards' 
 on a scale of 18,000, there is no Women's Hospital in all 
 that region and as urgent a need as anywhere in China. 
 Moreover we have ample room for a women's hospital on 
 the new compound and a well qualified lady physician to 
 superintend it. Medical missionaries whom I met told me 
 that, as a rule, Chinese women who will go to a hospital at 
 all do not object to being treated by a man except for dis- 
 eases and injuries peculiar to women. But that exception 
 gives a field for the woman medical missionary of vast and 
 painful extent. There are no sorer agonies than those which 
 are endured by the women of heathen lands. I therefore 
 favor the Mission's earnestly expressed desire for a Women's 
 Hospital at Paotingfu. This, however, need not prevent 
 the rebuilding of the Women's Hospital in Peking, if the 
 funds can be secured either from the indemnity or from 
 the special memorial fund being raised in the United States, 
 so that the resources available for other work will not be 
 diminished. 
 
 In Peking we have hitherto occupied two compounds 
 about a mile and a half apart. This arrangement has prov- 
 ed unsatisfactory and inconvenient, and the Mission wisely 
 feels that in the future the station should be concentrated on 
 one compound. Neither of the present compounds is ideal- 
 ly located, nor is either large enough for the work formerly 
 carried on at both compounds. I looked at several proposed 
 new sites, but the only desirable one would be quite expen- 
 sive. It is so doubtful whether the old ones could be sold 
 that we shall probaby have to keep them for some years any- 
 way. Of the two, the Second street compound is, all things 
 considered, better adapted to our purpose than the one in 
 Duck Lane. It is larger, pleasanter for residence, in a health- 
 ier locality, is two and a half miles from the nearest com- 
 pound of any other Board, has more of our native Christian 
 families near it, and as the former site of the An Ting Hos- 
 pital it is the section of the city where our work has made 
 the stronger local impression. The advantage of a new lo- 
 
94 
 
 cation does not appear to be imperative enough to justify us 
 in sacrificing such a place and incurring the heavy expense 
 of a new tract. 
 
 I, therefore, recommend that the Mission be authorized 
 to sell the Duck Lane compound if a good opportunity 
 offers, and that the station buildings be erected on the Sec- 
 ond street compound. A lot across the street already own- 
 ed by the Board can be utilized for helpers or a day school, 
 but additional land will be required and should be obtained 
 as soon as practicable. Our work will be too cramped un- 
 less the present compound is enlarged by the purchase of 
 adjacent lots. 
 
 CO-OPERATION. 
 
 At the conference of representatives of foreign mission 
 boards of the United States and Canada having work in 
 China, September 21, 1900, the following resolution was 
 unanimously adopted, and was afterward cordially approved by 
 our Board: "It is the judgment of this Conference that the 
 resumption of mission work in those parts of China where it 
 has been interrupted would afford a favorable opportunity 
 for putting into practice some of the principles of mission 
 comity which have been approved by a general concensus of 
 opinion among missionaries and boards, especially in regard 
 to the overlapping of fields and such work as printing and 
 publishing, higher education and hospital work, and the con- 
 ference would commend the subject to the favorable consid- 
 eration and action of the various boards and their mission- 
 aries." 
 
 Christian America, which ought to set the example of 
 comity, is distractingly divided. But can we not learn some- 
 thing from our experience at home, and, as far as possible, 
 organize our work abroad in such a way as not to perpetuate 
 unnecessary divisions? With institutions in existence it 
 would be dii^cult to bring about changes; but now that, in 
 the providence of God, everything in these two stations has 
 been blotted out, shall we not, before rebuilding, at least 
 carefully consider whether a limited force cannot be used to 
 better advantage for China and for Christ? Accordingly, 
 December 3d, 1900, I corresponded with the American 
 Board and the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, 
 regarding possible joint action in rebuilding the hospitals 
 and boarding-schools which have been destroyed in Peking 
 and Paotingfu. I made it plain that we were not commit- 
 ting ourselves to any definite plans, but simply to a willing- 
 ness to confer as to whether it would be better to have a few 
 adequately equipped institutions under joint control, than to 
 have a larger number of smaller ones under separate man- 
 
95 
 
 agement, and whether one large hospital would develop all 
 the evangelistic opportunities that the missionaries of the 
 combined Boards could well utilize. 
 
 Pursuant to my invitation, the Rev. Dr. Judson Smith, 
 secretary of the American Board, and the Rev. Dr. A. B. 
 Leonard, secretary of the Methodist Society, met in my office, 
 December 27th, and, after prayer for divine guidance, we 
 spent several hours in delightful and profitable conference. 
 Dr. Leonard, while expressing a cordial willingness to bring 
 the matter before the Methodist Board and missionaries, 
 if desired, nevertheless expressed the opinion that consol- 
 idation would not be practicable so far as the Methodists 
 were concerned, on account of the interdependence of 
 their various institutions which are concentrated upon a 
 large compound of seven acres. As the Methodists have 
 no work in Paotingfu, our range of inquiry was there- 
 fore narrowed to the question as to whether there should be 
 any joint action between Congregationalists and Presby- 
 terians. 
 
 Accordingly, Dr. Smith and I agreed to recommend to 
 our respective Boards that the judgment of the Congrega- 
 tional North China Mission and of the Presbyterian Peking 
 Mission should be sought on certain specific questions relat- 
 ing to co-operation in medical and educational work. These 
 questions were approved by our Board January 7th, 1901, 
 and later by the American Board. 
 
 In Paotingfu, as in Peking, the large and totally distinct 
 fields of the two Boards, the distance between the compounds, 
 and especially the vital relation of the medical work of each 
 Board to its country evangelistic work, led the missionaries 
 to feel that each Board may wisely conduct its own hospital, 
 •and that consolidation is not demanded by the interests of 
 the cause, no competition being involved. 
 
 In educational work, more appears to be practicable. In 
 Peking, besides our boys' boarding school and girls' board- 
 ing school, the American Board had, in the Bridgeman 
 School for Girls, the leading Congregational girls' school in 
 North China, with three missionaries, eighty pupils and a 
 good equipment, and a recently opened boys' boarding school, 
 with one missionary. At Tungchow, it had a theological 
 seminary and a preparatory school, and, in particular, the 
 North China College. The Methodists had the Peking Uni- 
 versity, a boys' boarding school on the same compound, with 
 one missionary, and a girls' boarding school, also on the 
 same compound, but, like the hospital, under the control of 
 the Women's Boards. 
 
 In Paotingfu, the American Board had a girls' boarding 
 .school, with one missionary, the school being conducted as 
 
96 
 
 an auxiliary to the Bridgeman School in Peking, and the 
 Presbyterians a very small school, opened in December, 1899. 
 
 It was at first suggested that it would not be expedient 
 to press the question of consolidation in educational work, as 
 the chief object of such work is to train up a native ministry, 
 and each mission can best educate its own helpers. It is true 
 that the plan of joint control of the Meiji Gakuin in Tokio, 
 Japan, by the American and Reformed Boards, works satis- 
 factorily, but in Japan but one native church is involved, so 
 that the cases are not parallel. Moreover, in a large school 
 there would not be as good an opportunity for that close per- 
 sonal contact between missionary and pupil which would be 
 desirable. 
 
 These difficulties, however, are believed by many of the 
 missionaries to be more theoretical than practical, or, at any 
 rate, not sufficiently formidable to prevent some more effective 
 co-operation than we now have. No plan will be free from 
 all objections, so that we should not abandon a good effort 
 because they are found to confront us, but rather consider 
 whether they are not materially less than the grave defects 
 inherent in the present systems. 
 
 In the higher education of young men, we have no insti- 
 tution competing with the North China College, and we do 
 not intend to develop one in the Chihli Province. The Con- 
 gregational and Methodist institutions represent both types 
 of Christian colleges, the North China College having for its 
 primary object the training of helpers and ministers, while 
 the "certificate of incorporation" of the Peking University 
 declares its "object shall be to aid the youth of the Chinese 
 Empire and of other countries in obtaining a literary, scien- 
 tific or professional education," and the eleventh annual re- 
 port adds, "to qualify young men for responsible positions 
 in Church and State, in commerical life or any honorable 
 vocation in the new China." 
 
 This distinction should not be pressed too literally. The 
 North China College .does not confine its course to students 
 for the ministry, and the Peking University educates the men 
 for Methodist churches. Nevertheless, broadly speaking, 
 the former is a training college for Christian workers, and 
 the latter a general college more nearly on our home models. 
 Neither wishes to be considered denominational. The Pe- 
 king University, indeed, is not under the immediate control 
 of the missionary society, but has a separate board of trus- 
 tees, all of whom, however, are Methodists, while the uni- 
 versity receives annual grants of money from the missionary 
 society. But the local board of managers is composed of 
 men of various evangelical churches. Both President Shef- 
 field and President Lowry cordially urged upon me the 
 
97 
 
 plan of having us join them in the support, control and facul- 
 ty of their respective institutions. 
 
 Since, however, we have no college of our own in that 
 field, such identification with either institution would compel 
 us to increase our missionary force by the appointment of 
 one or more professors, and to increase our expenditure by 
 our share of the expenses. Our work in the Chihli Province 
 is not large enough yet to warrant us in making such ex- 
 penditures for college work, it would not be fair to us to ac- 
 cept an equal share of financial responsibility, nor fair to the 
 others to accept less, unless we were content to have no voice 
 in control, an alternative which, however unobjectionable as 
 long as the present men are living, might involve us in 
 future embarassments. Besides, we must remember that, 
 while we have no college of our own in Chilhi, we have one 
 in Shantung, and that it has been our desire to make it our 
 institution of higher training for all three of our North 
 China Missions. Before this College can be removed from 
 Tengchow to Wei Hsien, the railroad will be running into 
 that city. I am told that within two years this east and west 
 line will form a junction at Chinanfu with the north and 
 south Tientsin and Chinkiang line, while the Peking & Han- 
 kow Railroad, which is already beyond Paotingfu, is being 
 so rapidly pushed southward that it is expected to reach the 
 Yellow River in about the same period. By the time we get 
 our College fairly established at Wei Hsien, therefore, there 
 is likely to be all-rail connection with it from both the sta- 
 tions of our Peking Mission, and one could travel from Pao- 
 tingfu to Wei Hsien in as short a time as from Ichowfu to 
 Wei Hsien — five days. The greater expensiveness of such 
 travel as well as the difference in dialect, will always be a 
 dii^culty which will be insuperable to many students unless 
 their traveling expenses are paid. But the fact remains that 
 we have never been able to properly support our own Col- 
 lege. It has had to stagger along in a way which has been a 
 shame to us. We are now trying to secure an endowment 
 for it, but thus far without success. It is plain that all the 
 money and teaching force which we have any reasonable 
 hope of obtaining will be required for the equipment of our 
 Shantung College, and that it would be quite out of the ques- 
 tion for us to undertake, in addition to its support, a pro- 
 portionate share of the support of another college in Peking. 
 
 It, therefore, appears wiser to me for us to leave the 
 Chihli Province college field to the Congregationalists and 
 Methodists, and to concentrate our college efforts on our own 
 institution in Shantung. Our Peking missionaries can con- 
 tinue, as heretofore, to work in fullest harmony with the 
 North China College and the Peking University, being free 
 
to send students to both institutions according to the cir- 
 cumstances in particular cases. There will always be many 
 young men who must be educated near their homes. But I 
 believe that our College at Wei Hsien should be recognized 
 as our higher intitution for North China. 
 
 As for a Theological Seminary, we must in time have 
 something of the kind, if we are to have an adequate supply 
 of ministers for our churches. Of course, our great Shan- 
 tung field cannot send all its theological students to Peking, 
 nor if it could would it be desirable to train our village pas- 
 tors amid the comparative splendors of the capital. As other 
 denominations already have larger interests in collegiate 
 grades, I sympathize with the pending proposal that we 
 might accept the theological work in a co-operative scheme 
 for higher education. 
 
 As for the boarding schools, I have already expressed the 
 judgment that it would be unwise for us to rebuild in Peking 
 on a scale which would be necessary to enable us to hold 
 our own in competition with the large plants of other Boards, 
 while our central station at Paotingfu has practically nothing. 
 I fully agree with the Congregational Committee that "it 
 certainly seems unnecessary that our two missions should 
 maintain distinct high schools looking toward a college grade 
 side by side, when the whole number of pupils in both could 
 be instructed more economically and perhaps more efficient- 
 ly in one institution." 
 
 The Congregational Committee suggests one way by 
 which the desired end could be attained — namely, union 
 schools, supported jointly by the two Boards. Is there not, 
 however, another way? Can we not give the control of 
 the boarding-school field in Peking to the American Board, 
 and can they not give it to us in Paotingfu? This would cer- 
 tainly be fair, as it would leave to each Board the station at 
 which it wishes to develop its largest interests and local in- 
 fluence. It would secure the ends of comity, economy and 
 efficiency by avoiding competition, reducing the number of 
 boarding-schools from four to two and giving to each school 
 a united local support, while it would prevent the embarrass- 
 ments which are almost inseparable from joint control. 
 Where the teachers are members of and responsible to two 
 different missions and Boards, with possibly differing ideas 
 and policies as to aim, self-support, scale of expenditure, etc., 
 the best interests of the institution are not so apt to be sub- 
 served, even if complications do not arise. I am convinced 
 that it would be wiser, wherever practicable, as it appears to 
 be in Chihli, to give each Board complete control of a school. 
 Comity should be practical if it is to accomplish anything. 
 It is not necessary that two families live in the same house 
 
99 
 
 to show that they love one another. I believe that this plan will 
 be in accord with comity, and result in increased efficiency 
 and economy, while at the same time being entirely feasible, 
 and avoiding dangers which experience has shown to be not 
 far in the back-ground of union institutions. 
 
 I therefore recommend a proposal to the American Board 
 that we co-operate in boys' and girls' boarding-schools in the 
 Chihli Province by having one school for each sex in Peking 
 under Congregational control and one for each sex in Paoting- 
 fu under Presbyterian control; that the American Board be 
 informed that we do not contemplate schools of college grade 
 in Chihli, either for boys or girls, but only institutions of 
 high-school grade, and that, if the American Board wishes to 
 develop its Bridgeman School for Girls into a women's col- 
 lege, we shall be glad to advise any of our Paotingfu gradu- 
 ates who may desire a further course to attend the American 
 Board college in Peking. 
 
 UNION OF CHURCHES. 
 
 The intimation that there might be "no inherent difficulty 
 in uniting the membership of the Presbyterian and Congrega- 
 tional churches in Chihli in one common body" is an excellent 
 one. A similar question is being informally and individually 
 discussed by our missionaries and those of the English Bap- 
 tist Mission in Shantung. The fellowship between the two 
 bodies there, as between Presbyterians andCongregationalists 
 in Chihli, is ideally delightful. I am in strong sympathy 
 with the view of our Board's Committee on Policy and Meth- 
 ods that "the object of the foreign missionary enterprise is 
 not to perpetuate on the mission field the denominational 
 distinctions of Christendom, but to build up on Scrip- 
 tural lines and according to Scriptural principles and 
 methods the Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ." (Re- 
 port March 6, 1899), and with the Board's action of May 
 15, 1900, which was specifically approved by the General As- 
 sembly of that year, that "we encourage as far as practicable 
 the formation of union churches in which the results of the 
 mission work of all allied evangelical churches should be 
 gathered, ai.d that they (the missions) observe everywhere 
 the most generous principles of missionary qomity." I have, 
 therefore, no question as to the desirabilty of forming union 
 churches on the mission field, nor any unwillingness to vote 
 for any reasonable concession which may be necessary to se- 
 cure it. 
 
 The local difficulties do not appear to be serious. Indeed, 
 an English Baptist missionary frankly stated, in an open con- 
 ference of missionaries of various Boards, that his mission, 
 with the full knowledge of the home Society, took the posi- 
 
tion that the Chinese Christians are not yet fit for Congrega- 
 tional government, being, as a rule, comparatively ignorant 
 farmers just out of heathenism; that it had been found neces- 
 sary to select the best men in a local church and give them 
 powers which, for all practical purposes, constitute them a 
 session, and that the native church as a whole was being 
 more and more directed by a body consisting of representa- 
 tives from such sessions. An American Board missionary 
 told me about the same thing regarding their work. We 
 should not infer too much from such admissions. Both Bap- 
 tists and Congregationalists are loyally attached to their in- 
 dependent policy as we are to our representative one. Both 
 referred, of course, to the temporary adaptations necessary 
 in the present stage of mission work. Indeed, our own 
 Board's Committee on Policy and Methods reported (March 
 6, 1899) that "it is inexpedient to give formal organization 
 to churches and Presbyteries after American models unless 
 there is manifest need therefor, and such forms are shown to 
 be best adapted to the people and circumstances." "In gen- 
 eral," the Committee continues, "the ends of the work will 
 best be attained by simple and flexible organizations adapted 
 to the characteristic and real needs of the people and de- 
 signed to develop and utilize spiritual power rather than 
 merely or primarily to secure proper ecclesiastical procedure." 
 
 As a matter of fact, neither the representative nor the in- 
 dependent forms of church government are yet in unmodified 
 operation on any mission fields, except perhaps Japan, for 
 the simple and sufficient reason that the typical foreign mis- 
 sionary has thus far necessarily exercised the functions of a 
 superintendent or bishop of the native churches. Undoubt- 
 edly, however, the native churches are being educated to ex- 
 pect self-government as soon as they are competent to exer- 
 cise it, though there are wise men who question whether the 
 Japanese Christians are not getting it too soon for their 
 own good. 
 
 As for doctrine, the denominations in question are so near- 
 ly alike already that no diificulty is to be anticipated there, 
 except, possibly, on the subject of baptism. But the English 
 Baptists believe and practice "open communion," and their 
 missionaries in China freely and lovingly unite with ours at 
 the Lord's table. All that would be necessary in a union 
 church, therefore, would be to explicitly recognize the liber- 
 ty of the individual pastor and believer to adopt either mode 
 of baptism he preferred. Doubtless isolated cases of em- 
 barassment might occur as to mode or the baptism of infants. 
 But they would be insignificant in comparism with the em- 
 barassments inherent in the present sectarian divisions and 
 disputes. Denominational uniformity is bought at bitter cost 
 
when it separates the people of God into rival camps. Unity 
 in essentials and liberty in non-essentials are far better than 
 a slavery to non-essentials which destroys that oneness of be- 
 lievers for which our Lord prayed. No Presbyterian can con- 
 sistently object to such liberty, for the very essence of our 
 position on baptism is that the form and the quantity of wa- 
 ter are relatively unimportant, the vital thing being the in- 
 ward washing of which the application of water is but an ex- 
 ternal symbol. Our historial contention is for freedom as 
 against the bondage of method. It is well known that many 
 Presbyterian pastors in America immerse in individual cases 
 where strong conscientious scruples are involved. Why 
 should a Presbyterian minister in Shantung, who has unques- 
 tionable right to sprinkle adults and infants, and who need 
 not immerse unless he wishes to — why should he, I say, 
 deny the right of a brother minister to follow the Baptist cus- 
 toms if they are more in accord with his convictions? So I 
 see no insuperable difficulty in the proposed union of native 
 churches in Chihli and Shantung. 
 
 A question may fairly be raised, however, as to the re- 
 lation Df such a united church to the pending movement to 
 unite the native churches of all the Presbyterian and reform- 
 ed Boards at work in China. There are no less that eight of 
 these bodies — namely, the American Reformed, with 18 mis- 
 sionaries; Canadian Presbyterian, with 22; Church of Scot- 
 land, 6; English Presbyterian, 77; Irish Presbyterian, 24; 
 Southern Presbyterian, 68; United Presbyterian of Scotland, 
 37, and our own church, with 222 missionaries, a total of 8 
 boards and 474 missionaries. These boards represent about a 
 seventh of all the Protestant missionaries and one-third of 
 all the native Christians in China, while the English Bap- 
 tists have only 48 missionaries and the American Congrega- 
 tionalists 111. 
 
 Manifestly, a union of the native Christians of the Pres- 
 byterian and Reformed Boards in China would result in a 
 magnificent Church — a Church which would be by far the 
 most powerful and influential factor in the spiritual regener- 
 ation of China, while it would permit such economies in the 
 use of men and money that a given force and expenditure 
 would be vastly more effective than at present. Such a 
 union is in successful operation in Japan, and it is being 
 formed in India. Let us join the missionaries who have 
 long been hoping and praying and working for it in China. 
 A Pan-Presbyterian Alliance has already been constituted, 
 and held a conference in Shanghai, October 2 to 4 of 
 this year. I profoundly regret that my imperative engage- 
 ments in the Philippine Islands did not permit me to accept 
 the urgent invitation of the committee to be present. 
 
)02 
 
 Now, would a local union with the American Congrega- 
 tionalists in Chihli, and the English Baptists in Shantung, 
 cut off our churches in those provinces from the larger union 
 of the great Pan-Presbyterian Church which is slowly form- 
 ing throughout the empire? If it would, I am inclined to think 
 that such local unions in the north would not be expedient. 
 The question, it will be seen* is not at all one of comity and 
 co-operation, since we are cordially willing to unite with our 
 brethren of other denominations. But shall we unite with 
 the larger or smaller body — with seven other other boards, 
 to form one splendid church, or with two other boards to 
 form two separate and comparatively small churches, one in 
 Chihli and the other in Shantung? 
 
 This objection might, however, be obviated by broaden- 
 ing the scope of the Pan-Presbyterian movement so as to in- 
 clude the Congregationalists and English Baptists, if they 
 are willing to come into it. The Church of Christ in Japan, 
 which is composed of all the Presbyterian and Reformed 
 native churches there, was originally intended to include the 
 churches of the American Boai"d, and many missionaries 
 lamented to me when I was in Japan that opposition from 
 home overruled the Congregational missionaries and pastors 
 who desired to join the Church of Christ. All felt that a 
 mistake had been made, but that it is now too late to correct 
 it, as the native churches have since then drifted apart. 
 
 There might be similar difficulties encountered in China. 
 The larger the number of denominations involved the great- 
 er the probability of opposition from well-meaning brethren 
 of "high church proclivities," who conscientiously feel that 
 the historic witness of their particular denomination to some 
 specific truth would be impaired by a union with other de- 
 nominations, and that the advantages of union would not 
 compensate for the loss in such impairment. Moreover, con- 
 solidations of churches are difficult to bring about, anyway, 
 and if the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance in China attempts too 
 much it may not succeed in accomplishing anything. The 
 home boards and churches must also be reckoned with. A 
 prominent Methodist told me recently that he doubted the 
 wisdom of a union of the Methodist bodies in Japan, as he 
 feared that such a union would weaken the sense of respon- 
 sibility of his home denomination for the support of its work. 
 Better, he argued, to lay the whole weight of a smaller for- 
 eign work on the home Church than a part of the weight of a 
 larger work. Are we, then, to force our Atnerican sectarian- 
 ism upon the rising churches of Asia? Must the unity of the 
 foreign Church be sacrificed to the divisions of home Church? 
 I fear that there is some ground for anticipating such objec- 
 tions from home, though I do not believe they would emanate 
 
I03 
 
 from our Church. At any rate, I will never admit that such 
 objections are valid. If they are found to exist, we should 
 not stop seeking- union in Asia, but we should begin preaching 
 juster views in America. 
 
 The way does not appear to be clear now to make posi- 
 tive recommendations as to the details of so g;eneral a union. 
 In so momentous and yet so delicate a matter we must move 
 prudently. The Pan-Presbyterian Alliance is being wisely 
 guided by the missionaries themselves. It is enough for the 
 present to let them know that we sympathize with them, 
 that we are prepared to co-operate in every practicable way, 
 and that we heartily favor a union with the American Board 
 churches in Chihli and with the English Baptists in Shantung, 
 provided it is understood that such united churches are to 
 become a part of a Church of Christ in China, if one shall be 
 formed. I therefore recommend that our Board notify the 
 American Board that we heartily reciprocate the desire of 
 the missionaries of the North China Mission of the Ameri- 
 can Board for the union of the Congregational and Presby- 
 terian native churches in the Chihli Province, and thus avoid 
 the perpetuation of unnecessary denominational divisions, 
 but that, in view of the pending movement to unite in one 
 organic body the large number of Christians connected with 
 the work of the various Presbyterian and Reformed Boards 
 in China, we hesitate to take any action which might possibly 
 cut off our Chihli work from participation in such a move- 
 ment, and that we should be glad to have our brethren of the 
 American Board indicate more specifically the policy which 
 they have in mind for the proposed united Church in Chihli 
 in order that we may see how it would be related to the 
 larger union if one should ultimately be formed. 
 
 In the great Province of Shantung, some important ques- 
 tions press for early decision. Prominent among them is 
 
 THE REMOVAL OF TENGCHOW COLLEGE. 
 
 When the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Calvin W. Mateer opened 
 the college with six students, in September, 1864, there was 
 little choice as to location, for Tengchow was then the influ- 
 ential port of Shantung. All our mission work was in the 
 immediate neighborhood, and our only other station in the 
 province was Chefoo, at that time a far less important place 
 than Tengchow. But with the opening of Chefoo as a port 
 and the development of our mission work in the interior, 
 Chinanfu being opened as a station in 1872, the influence of 
 Tengchow declined and it is now a relatively unimportant 
 and decaying city. The Minutes of the Shantung Mission 
 for 1878 show that at that time the question of removing the 
 College was discussed. The opening of Wei Hsien Station 
 
I04 
 
 in 1882, of Ichowfu Station in 1891, and of Chiningchow Sta- 
 tion in 1892, emphasized the objections by throwing Teng- 
 chow farther on one side than ever. In the mission meeting 
 of 1894, there was a long debate on the advisability of re- 
 moving the College to a more central point, and much dis- 
 satisfaction with the location was expressed. The final touch 
 was added by the founding of Tsingtau by the Germans in 
 1897, its selection as the terminus of the railway and tele- 
 graph lines, and the evident fact that it was to be the port of 
 arrival and departure for all future travel and commerce with 
 the interior, leaving Tengchow away off in a remote corner, 
 with no regular lines of communication with the rest of the 
 province. Comparatively few students come to it from the 
 Chinanfu, Chiningchow and Ichowfu Stations, and those who 
 do come must have help in paying their traveling expenses. 
 The adjacent population is comparatively poor, sparse and 
 inferior in type to that of the rest of the Province, and with 
 a dialect which, though not essentially different from that of 
 Central and Western Shantung, is, nevertheless, different 
 enough to be distinctly noticeable. Then our Christian con- 
 stituency there is quite small, while the field is divided with 
 the American Southern Baptists, whose convictions will not 
 permit them to fellowship with us, save, of course; in person- 
 al social intercourse. Moreover, the great bulk of the popu- 
 lation of the province, the center of its influence and the over- 
 whelming majority of our missionaries and native Christians 
 are farther west, while all indications point to the great future 
 development of our work in that region. It is plain that our 
 College is too far from its constituency, and that we must 
 either move it or found another institution in the west — a 
 wholly impracticable alternative. 
 
 This is the opinion of both Missions. A joint committee 
 which included two of the college professors, has drawn up 
 a statement which presents the following reasons unfavorable 
 to Tengchow : 
 
 "First. It is geographically isolated, being located on the 
 Shantung Promontory on the extremity of a cape that pro- 
 jects at an obtuse angle into the sea, so that the direction 
 from which it is possible for students to come is from one 
 side only. 
 
 " Second. This landward side is mountainous. Roads are 
 exceedingly poor, and the place is difficult of access. Carts 
 and wheel-barrows are not practicable, and the communica- 
 tion with the interior is confined to pack trains, litters and 
 saddle animals. The land is poor, and the price of grain 
 higher than in the interior. Coal must come from Chefoo by 
 junk, after having come across the sea from Japan or Taku 
 by steamer. All of these things enter as a factor into the 
 
I05 
 
 cost of living, and cheapness of living is of immense im- 
 portance to students the world over, and nowhere so much 
 so as in China. It will easily be seen that this has a distinct 
 bearing on self-support. 
 
 "Third. Tengchow is exceedingly eccentric to the con- 
 stituency. Within fifty miles of Tengchow there are not 
 more than 250 Protestant Christians ; and within seventy-five 
 miles there are not more than 600. The poor mountain 
 farmers can never support a thick population such as is found 
 in the west. Moreover, a college located in a place not easy 
 of access and eccentric to the constituency would operate 
 against self-support. The English Baptists at Ching Chou 
 Fu will be developing their school into a college in the near 
 future, in case our College is not moved. Such an institution 
 on the railroad would be easy and cheap of access. With 
 our College difficult and costly of access, the only way it 
 could maintain a hold on our constituency in the western 
 region would be to offer such financial advantages as would 
 balance the difference in expense. The hindrance it would 
 be to the pushing of self-support is easily seen. It would be 
 a never-ending handicap on the college." 
 
 There is now absolutely no reason for leaving our College 
 at such an out-of-the-way place, except the fact that our lim- 
 ited plant there cannot be disposed of without some loss ; 
 though Dr. Mateer thinks that some of the materials could 
 be transported to Wei Hsien and used in rebuilding. But 
 the accident of a few thousand dollars' worth of property is 
 a poor reason for maintaining a college in a location which 
 seriously cripples its usefulness. 
 
 Wei Hsien, however, appears to meet all the conditions 
 desired. 
 
 " First. It is central to the constituency. Within a radius 
 of fifty miles of Wei Hsien there are at least 4,000 Christians, 
 and within a radius of 100 miles there are probably 8,000 
 Christians, 4,000 of whom are Presbyterians. A considerable 
 portion of the Chefoo and Tengchow fields, and the whole of 
 the Tsingtau field, lie nearer to Wei Hsien than to Tengchow. 
 From Chinanfu and Ichowfu to Wei Hsien the distance is 
 about half that from the former two places to Tengchow, 
 while Wei Hsien would be quite within reach of Chiningchow, 
 even were there no prospect of a railroad to shorten the dis- 
 tance. Further, between two-thirds and three-fourths of the 
 present college students are from the Wei Hsien field ; and 
 if we include those from Tengchow, Chefoo and Tsingtau 
 fields, who are as near or nearer to Wei Hsien than Teng- 
 chow, it would constitute probably eighty per cent of the 
 whole number. There is a distinct gain to the religious at- 
 mosphere of the College by having it located in the midst of 
 
io6 
 
 a large body of Christians. With active and successful evan- 
 gelistic work going on all about them, the students are more 
 apt to be imbued with an earnest evangelistic spirit, and their 
 thoughts turned to the service of the ministry. 
 
 "Second. Wei Hsien is geographically a central location, 
 independent of the present Christian constituency. A large 
 and thickly settled population lies in all directions, so that 
 future growth wall but emphasize the advantages we now be- 
 lieve it to possess. 
 
 "Third. A railroad is rapidly being pushed from the port 
 of Tsingtau via Wei Hsien to Chinanfu. This will bring Wei 
 Hsien into closer touch with all the main portions of the 
 Shantung field. Moreover, it is contemplated to extend this 
 railroad into Honan Province on the west, and another main 
 line north and south will connect with the regions worked by 
 the Southern Presbyterians. If in the future a theological 
 school were opened at Wei Hsien in connection with the Col- 
 lege, the railroad would render it possible for us to co-operate 
 in theological instruction with the Southern Presbyterians, 
 with the Canadian Presbyterians in Honan, and with our own 
 northern mission. The valid argument made against Wei 
 Hsien six years ago, that an inland station would involve in- 
 creased outlay for freight on college and other supplies, is 
 now removed by the building of the railroad. 
 
 "Fourth. Wei Hsien is in the midst of rich farming lands, 
 and possesses the largest market between Chefoo and Chi- 
 nanfu. The roads reaching out in all directions are (for 
 China) good ones. For these reasons, food stuffs are not a 
 little cheaper than in the eastern part of the province. Coal 
 mines are close at hand. 
 
 "Safety of property. The united action of the two Mis- 
 sions was taken in the face of the fact that a mob had laid 
 the Wei Hsien property in ruins. The feeling of all was that 
 it was an accident of time rather than of place. Railroad 
 riots and the political explosion coincided. It was agreed 
 that no special danger attaches to the location, and with the 
 development of the railroad, the mines and the commerce 
 about Wei Hsien, it is likely to become as secure a place for 
 residence as there is in the province." 
 
 For these reasons, the joint meeting of the two Missions 
 last year asked the Board to sanction the removal of the col- 
 lege to Wei Hsien. I have carefully traversed the subject 
 with the members of every station of the North China Mis- 
 sions, and I find that the vote for Wei Hsien is unanimous. 
 In Tengchow itself, the chairman of the station meeting said 
 to me, in open session, and there was no dissent : " There is 
 no use in further discussing the removal to Wei Hsien, as 
 that is settled so far as we are concerned." 
 
I07 
 
 The final reason is the announcement by Governor Yuan 
 Shih Kai of the establishment of a great Provincial College 
 at Chinanfu, and the acceptance of its presidency by the Rev. 
 Dr. W, M. Hayes, the honored president of our own College, 
 who has already relinquished his position at Tengchow, and 
 removed to Chinanfu under salary from the Governor. While 
 all deplore the departure of Dr. Hayes as a heavy if not an 
 irreparable loss to mission education, yet it is generally 
 agreed that it is wise for him to accept the high post offered 
 him. It would be a calamity to have such an influential in- 
 stitution controlled by a non-Christian man, as it is an ines- 
 timable advantage to have the new and progressive system 
 of provincial education organized by one in such close sym- 
 pathy with Christian ideals. Let us be thankful that the mis- 
 sion cause could furnish the leader needed, and accept the 
 compliment implied to Dr. Hayes and to Christian missions. 
 But the new Provincial College has not yet received that Im- 
 perial endorsement which is necessary to guarantee its per- 
 manence, especially as Governor Yuan Shih Kai has now 
 been transferred to the viceroyalty of Chihli. Moreover, the 
 official order for Confucian worship may create conditions 
 which a Christian president would find intolerable. If for 
 these or other reasons. Dr. Hayes should prefer to return to 
 mission work, he will be heartily welcomed. The Board has 
 not accepted his resignation, so that his status is that of a 
 missionary on detached duty. He is a very valuable man. 
 
 This new enterprise does not lessen the necessity for a 
 well-equipped college of our own. State universities in 
 America, even under the presidency of the most eminent 
 Christian men, have signally failed to produce adequate sup- 
 plies of ministers. How much more signal is likely to be 
 the failure of a state institution in China, which has absolute- 
 ly no Christian affiliations except the personal faith of the 
 individual who for the time presides over it. Dr. Hayes will 
 carry his faith into anything he undertakes. Indeed, he has 
 already begun chapel preaching in Chinanfu; but it would be 
 unfair to expect him to turn out preachers from a university 
 which is not designed to be Christian, much less a training 
 school for Christian workers. 
 
 " For our purposes," writes an experienced missionary, 
 "we regard it preferable to spend a little more money in 
 raising up from the middle and lower classes strong and 
 virtuous men, than to relax our standard and modify our 
 curriculum so as to bring in the rich and official classes, who 
 would pay liberally but whose character and habits we could 
 not control. A few such we might assimilate, but a larger 
 number would speedily demoralize the school. The rich and 
 official classes in China are so strongly addicted to opium 
 
io8 
 
 smoking, wine drinking, feasting, etc., that they would, as 
 we know from a little experience, be restive under discipline, 
 take ethical studies only under compulsion, and, in fact, by 
 influence and example become a strong disintegrating 
 agency." 
 
 Moreover, most of our Christian boys could not enter the 
 university even if they wanted to. This is not only because 
 of the distance of Chinanfu from their homes, for it must be 
 borne in mind that marriage in China is at an earlier age than 
 in America, so that many college students have families, but 
 because the students of the Provincial University are to be 
 two from each of the one hundred and eight counties of the 
 Province, and to be nominated by the county magistrates. 
 None of these magistrates are Christians, and they will 
 naturally give the preference to the sons of the wealthy and 
 official classes, especially as candidates must have completed 
 their native classics about as far as the first degree. So we 
 must have our own college. 
 
 But plainly we should not build it under the shadow of 
 such a great and necessarily secular institution as the Prov- 
 incial University. We cannot compete with its ampler plant 
 and equipment, nor with the prestige of an institution backed 
 by all the power of the State. We can educate our pastors 
 and helpers to better advantage at a station which we can 
 dominate. Therefore I recommend that the Board approve 
 the removal of the College from Tengchow to Wei Hsien. 
 
 Additional land there will, of course, be required, and 
 on the authority of the Board's action of February 4th, the 
 station has already purchased an adjoining tract of about 
 170x600 feet for $1,496 (Mexican). I think the campus 
 should be still further enlarged as opportunity opens and 
 funds become available. 
 
 The aim of the College, it seems to me, should emphasize 
 the training of Christian pastors, evangelists, teachers and 
 laymen. And yet I would not too rigidly narrow the scope 
 of the institution. wStudents who do not have Christian work 
 in mind, and who are not even Christians, will, of course, be 
 admitted. Some of the best material for the churches will 
 often be developed in the course of study. Undoubtedly, 
 too, many graduates will not and should not enter Christian 
 work. We must give a sound education to the young men 
 of Shantung and fit them for leadership as laymen as well as 
 clergymen. We need educated Christian men not only in the 
 pulpit, but in the community. Dr. Hayes forcibly says : 
 ' Every able, efficient man graduated, whether preacher, 
 teacher, physician, engineer or other professional man, is so 
 much clear gain to the nation. At present China is helpless, 
 for her leading men from the country district magistrate up 
 
I09 
 
 to the Grand Council, if not morally untrustworthy, are, 
 through lack of proper training, incompetent ; so we find the 
 Customs, the Imperial Postal Department, etc., in the hands 
 of foreigners, and every source of national revenue not in 
 charge of foreigners is a place for extortion and peculation. 
 In her railroads, steamship lines, arsenals, etc., she is com- 
 pelled to use foreigners ; no native has the skill and train- 
 ing. Her legal advisers are foreigners, and while all these 
 may be efficient, honorable men, yet no country can main- 
 tain its rights unless self-dependent." If we are to retain 
 our Christian leadership in Shantung and rightly discharge 
 our responsibilities, we cannot ignore this phase of the edu- 
 cational question. But the governing principle should dis- 
 tinctly be " For Christ and the Church." The Provincial 
 University will meet the demand for a purely secular educa- 
 tion, under the influence of a Christian president. Our chief 
 business as a mission agency and with mission money is to 
 train men for the leadership of the native church. To this 
 end, the College should not only be a part of our mission 
 compound, but its plant and equipment should be in harmony 
 with mission ideals. An early effort should be made to se- 
 cure special gifts for the necessary buildings and apparatus. 
 It may be easier to get them by asking individuals to erect 
 or furnish particular buildings than to find persons who will 
 give large sums for a general endowment, though, of course, 
 such persons should be sought if practicable. The running 
 expenses might wisely be the income of an endowment for 
 that purpose, if it can be secured, and if it is to include the 
 professors' salaries, the amount authorized by the Board 
 November 6th and 20th, 1899 — $250,000— would not be too 
 large. But until that can be secured, as liberal a provision 
 as possible should be made in the regular appropriations. 
 The College should not be held down to the almost beggar- 
 ly and constantly fluctuating grant it has hitherto received. 
 Shantung is one of the clearest and most vital fields for edu- 
 cational work that we have anywhere in the world, and our 
 College there ought to have a proportionate support. 
 
 The question has been raised whether such a College 
 should be under the control of an independent board of trus- 
 tees. But the advantages of that plan are not apparent. 
 The members of the Board of Foreign Missions are selected 
 with great care from the very best available Presbyterian 
 ministers and laymen among the five million people living 
 within a radius of twenty miles of 156 Fifth Avenue, New 
 York. There are no wiser ministers in our denomination, no 
 more sagacious and consecrated business men in our national 
 metropolis. It is a well-organized body. It meets regularly 
 every two weeks. It has a permanent Committee on China 
 
and another permanent Committee on Finance. Their mem- 
 bers take a personal interest in the problems committed to 
 them. The China and Finance Committees know about 
 the College and are in sympathy with its objects. The 
 Board has a secretary for North China who forms an 
 easy and regular channel of communication between the Col- 
 lege and the Board. There is not the slightest reason for 
 believing that it would be possible to constitute another board 
 of better men than are already found on the Foreign Board. 
 There is no guarantee for the wisdom or the continued in- 
 terest of an independent board except the personal character 
 of the men who compose it. That character may change 
 with years. But the Presbyterian Church is a stable body, 
 and there is guarantee for wisdom in a Board which the 
 Church itself appoints, and which it can and does hold to 
 strict accountability. Moreover, experience has shown that 
 an independent board cannot as efficiently and harmoniously 
 co-operate with an institution thousands of miles away as 
 our Foreign Board can. Several institutions in other parts 
 of the foreign field have such independent boards of directors 
 in America. Some of the officers and members of our Board 
 are members of them. The consensus of opinion is that, with 
 possibly one or two exceptions, this plan does not work so 
 satisfactorily as the other. The members of such a board, 
 having only this bond of union, do not meet often enough, 
 and cannot come into sufficiently close contact with the col- 
 lege. The professors in some of these institutions have re- 
 peatedly lamented that the independent board is unworkable. 
 In one instance, at least, they are contemplating the expedi- 
 ency of asking the trustees to turn over all their functions 
 to the Board of Foreign Missions and then go out of exist- 
 ence. Experience has also shown that the relations of the 
 independent board and the Board of Foreign Missions are 
 apt to become confused. For example, in some cases the 
 foreign professors are appointed by the Board of Foreign 
 Missions, and, therefore, have the rights and privileges inci- 
 dent to that appointment, but they are also under the author- 
 ity of a separate Board of Trustees. They are, therefore, in 
 a sense, under the control of two distinct bodies. Each body 
 acts separately, and the rights and privileges accorded by the 
 Board have sometimes conflicted with the rules formulated 
 by the trustees. Embarrassment has thus developed as to 
 the question of furloughs, traveling expenses, etc. If the 
 professors are not missionaries, these embarrassments are 
 avoided, but graver ones are incurred; that is, if the aim of 
 the college is missionary. 
 
 Surely we ought to learn something from experience, and 
 the experience of many years, during which both plans have 
 
been carefully watched, has led to the conclusion that, what- 
 ever functions ought to be discharged by a board in the 
 United States, can be discharged with greater efficiency and 
 economy, and with less confusion and friction, by the Board 
 of Foreign Missions, which has been appointed by the Pres- 
 byterian Church for the express purpose of exercising such 
 a relationship on behalf of the givers to the work and workers 
 on the field. In this great enterprise of missions, the home 
 Christians and the foreign missionaries must work in partner- 
 ship. Neither can get along without the other. The home 
 church must be depended upon to provide the money, to train 
 'the men, to send them forth, and, so far as human resources 
 are concerned, to maintain the whole enterprise by their sym- 
 pathies and gifts and prayers. Now the Presbyterian Church 
 has itself constituted the Board of Foreign Missions as the 
 agency through which these influences shall flow to the for- 
 eign field. The Board reports to it not only in the religious 
 press, in pamphlets, leaflets, letters, in innumerable addresses, 
 in churches, Presbyteries, Synods and ministers' meetings, 
 but particularly to the General Assembly itself, where the 
 whole work is reviewed and set in proper relations before 
 the entire Church. In these circumstances, why should any 
 particular institution on the foreign field be cut off from direct 
 relations with the Presbyterian Church by being placed under 
 some separate agency, and thus deprived of the right to be 
 heard as a part of the missionary enterprise for which the 
 whole Church is responsible, for which the prayers of the 
 whole Church are offered, a part of the enterprise, too, which 
 may be presented before the great judicatories of the Church? 
 
 My beloved colleague, the Rev. Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, who 
 has had more than thirty years' experience as a secretary, 
 and who ishimself a member of the Boards of Trustees of 
 two institutions which are separately organized, makes the 
 following statement : 
 
 "I have been familiar with the history of Robert College 
 in Constantinople, the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, 
 the Meiji Gakuin in Japan, the Doshisha of the American 
 Board at Kyoto, our Christian College at Canton and the 
 Protestant College of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The resultant con- 
 clusion which I have been compelled to reach is, that it is 
 better for a missionary college itself, and for all the mission- 
 ary interests which it is designed to subserve, that it should be 
 and should continue to be closely identified with the mission 
 and some missionary board. This arrangement better suits 
 the Church at large, and increases that confidence which is 
 necessary for the support of such an institution. The church- 
 es know little of the Christian college as a separate organ- 
 ization, but they know the Presbyterian Board. They know 
 
little of the Christian College at Canton, or the College at 
 Sao Paulo, Brazil, but they feel safe with respect to their 
 gifts so long as they are controlled by the Board, which is 
 itself the servant of the General Assembly and is amenable 
 to it. It is better for the college itself, as shown by the 
 judgment of those who are not connected with our Church. 
 In the case of the College at Canton, the two subscribers who 
 had given two of the three largest amounts for its endowment 
 — namely, Mr. Martin, of Cincinnati, and Mr. David Torrens, 
 of this city — both united in a special request that the consti- 
 tution drawn up by Dr. Happer should be so changed as to 
 make the trustees eligible by the Board of Foreign Missions. 
 The reason for this request was, that they had given this 
 money as a missiona.y gift for missionary purposes, and 
 they feared the possible effect upon the College of an out- 
 side and irresponsible trusteeship. The constitution was 
 changed accordingly, much against the wish of Dr. Hap- 
 per. The subsequent course of Dr. Happer in regard to the 
 institution, his long continued effort to remove it from Can- 
 ton and to make it more definitely a secular institution, etc., 
 was believed to justify the wisdom of the request and the ac- 
 tion of the Board in regard to it. The most recent history of 
 that institution, and the action of its local directory, has con- 
 vinced the trustees of the wisdom of an appellate power 
 here in New York. A similar experience occurred in the ac- 
 tion of the legal directory of Beirut College, some years ago. 
 It was a result of having a mixed and composite board of di- 
 rectors on the field. The trustees in New York became 
 alarmed lest the institution might drift away from the origi- 
 nal purpose for which it was founded, and become less and 
 less a Christian college. There are two Christian colleges 
 now connected with the Board — namely, at Canton and at Sao 
 Paulo — both of which are under the direction of a trusteeship. 
 Of the former, I do not hesitate to say that I would be 
 glad if it were wholly under the direction of the Board, or 
 were more closely connected than it is. The management 
 would be simplified, and, I think, greater efficiency would be 
 secured. With respect to Sao Paulo, I may say the same 
 thing, but it so happens that the conditions under which these 
 institutions have received large endowments forbid this di- 
 rect connection, although in the case of Sao Paulo, the Board 
 pays several thousands of dollars toward the salaries of pres- 
 ident and professors. The trustees, although they are sup- 
 posed to raise more or less money, really raise very little. 
 Three of them are members of our Board, and a close and 
 harmonious relationship is kept up, but the machinery is awk- 
 ward, and the directory in Brazil is virtually a dead letter." 
 I believe not only that the professors should be appointed 
 
"3 
 
 with reference to their missionary as well as their education- 
 al qualifications, but that they should be members of the West 
 Shantung Mission, on precisely the same plane as other mis- 
 sionaries. I am aware that this is a disputed point. Some 
 feel that, with a fixed endowment income exempt from a cut, 
 the college men should have no voice over a cut on other 
 work. But there is no endowment yet, and it may be some 
 time before there will be one so ample as to give the College 
 all it asks. Moreover, the regular appropriations now main- 
 tain the existing work of the whole Mission without a cut, 
 and we hope that they will continue to do so. Even if they 
 should not, and the College should have its full endowment, 
 it would not follow that there would be any injustice to the 
 evangelistic and medical work in giving votes to the college 
 men. A cut is not determined by a mission, but by the fail- 
 ure of the home churches to give enough money. The mis- 
 sion and station task, from the nature of the case, is confined 
 to distributing it. The fact that the special work of a few 
 individuals may not be affected is not an adequate reason 
 for disfranchising them, and cutting them off from all organic 
 relation with the missionaries among whom they live and 
 work. Presumably, the common work is dear enough to 
 them to make their judgment upon it of some value, especial- 
 ly as a mission can, if it chooses, refer the adjustment of a 
 cut to a committee composed of those most directly con- 
 cerned. 
 
 On the other hand, it is urged that an educator should not 
 be compelled to submit his plans to the votes of men who 
 are engaged in evangelistic and medical work; that they do 
 not have the proper technical qualifications for intelligently 
 passing upon such matters, and that the college men should 
 be emancipated from mission control. On the contrary, I af- 
 firm that they are, of all missionaries, the very ones who 
 should not be so emancipated, and who should be expected 
 and required to submit their plans for the approval of their 
 brethren. If this argument for separation proves anything, 
 it proves too much, for it would immediately segregate the 
 hospitals, which require far more technical knowledge than a 
 college, while the boarding school teachers could set up an- 
 other plea, and the evangelists themselves could with justice 
 assert that they know as much about education as profession- 
 al educators know about evangelistic work, and so a princi- 
 ple would be established which would split a mission into a 
 number of diverse cliques. I believe that the men who are 
 in charge of the evangelistic work should have a voice in de- 
 ciding the policy of the institution which must be the main de- 
 pendence for supplying the pastors, evangelists, helpers, 
 elders, deacons and Sunday-school superintendents for the 
 
114 
 
 churches. It is essential to the interests of both college and 
 mission that they should be vitally connected with one an- 
 other. The college men should keep in touch with the gen- 
 eral work by Sunday preaching, by occasional itineration and 
 by visitation of the out-station schools. The college is de- 
 pendent upon the co-operation of the mission, and if the co- 
 operation is to be effective, it should be organic. 
 
 Painful experience on several fields has shown that when 
 an institution is divorced from mission control it rapidly de- 
 velops a centrifugal movement. This is not because of any 
 deliberate intention on the part of its faculty, but because the 
 inherent tendency of the ambitious teacher is to press his work 
 out of proportion to other mission enterprises, to make it 
 more and more professional and technical and highly special- 
 ized. While this may be proper and even desirable in Amer- 
 ica, yet amid the partially developed conditions of the foreign 
 field, it ultimately throws the college out of vital relation to 
 the mission needs, producing men who will not enter the min- 
 istry, who have been educated out of sympathy with their 
 countrymen, whose scientific equipment can find no sphere 
 among their own people, and whose financial requirements 
 can only be satisfied by permanent foreign employment. 
 
 Let us heed the lesson of experience, and keep our Col- 
 lege and Mission together. There may be slight embarrass- 
 ment at times, growing out of the fact that the College is not 
 a station but a mission institution. But it will be insignifi- 
 cant in comparison with the historical dangers of the other 
 policy, and it can be minimized, as already indicated, by in- 
 sisting upon the college men taking some part in the local 
 work. Four professors ought to give enough of such help 
 to be the equivalent of one additional ordained man in the 
 general Wei Hsien work. 
 
 Fortunately, the present college men are of this stamp. 
 They are missionaries as well as professors — men who love 
 evangelistic work and who are accustomed to make itinera- 
 ting tours. In my conference with them in Tengchow, they, 
 with Dr. Mateer, unaminously expressed the opinion that 
 the relation of college professors to the Mission should be 
 the same as that of the other missionaries — viz., regular mem- 
 bers. As for Wei Hsien, the Rev. Frank Chalfant wrote to 
 the Board last year: "It is the unanimous opinion of the Wei 
 Hsien Station that the College should form part of the pres- 
 ent compound or mission plant, and not constitute a separate 
 community. The complications that would be sure to grow 
 out of a double Wei Hsien station, or even a doubled mission 
 plant under the same station name and control, are plain to 
 those who have had experience in such things." 
 
 A field board of directors appears to be advisable, espec- 
 
1^5 
 
 iaily as two and possibly more missions are to co-operate in 
 the support of the College. Their support can be more ef- 
 fectively given through a small number of men selected with 
 reference to their qualifications for such work than by the 
 comparatively large bodies meeting only once a year. On 
 this point there is no difference of opinion. A plan for such 
 a local directorate was presented to the Board by a Shantung 
 missionary in 1899, and, with slight modifications, was in- 
 corporated in the report of the China Committee and Execu- 
 tive Council, tentatively approved November 6 and 20 of that 
 year. That report proposed nine directors, representing 
 each of the five Presbyterian boards working in Shantung, 
 Chihli, Honan and Manchuria. 
 
 Some brethren, however, whose ability and experience 
 entitle their judgment to great weight, have expressed the 
 opinion that the Assembly's Board and the Missions should 
 surrender to this field board a considerable part of their 
 powers, so that the directors, when elected, would be inde- 
 pendent of the control of the Missions, and would be amen- 
 able to the New York Board only on the written appeal of 
 three members. They, therefore, recom.mend changes in the 
 report of the China Committee and the Executive Council, 
 which one of them summarizes as — 
 
 "First, enlarging the powers of the field board of direc- 
 tors, and second, safeguarding the interests of the College 
 as endowed, and consequently the use of the fund against 
 possible inimical changes in the personnel of the Board 
 of Foreign Missions itself." 
 
 Commenting on these proposed changes, this brother 
 writes: 
 
 "The first is done not in any spirit of jealousy toward the 
 Board in New York, but in order to secure a hearty interest 
 in the College among the missions on the field. Unless this 
 is secured the endowment, however carefully guarded, will 
 be guarded to but little purpose. To gain this interest and 
 active support, we must make their able and influential men 
 feel that it is a part of their work, something for the success 
 or failure of which they will be held responsible. The only 
 way to do this is to lay responsibility, guarded if you will, 
 but still real and heavy, upon them. 
 
 "In regard to the second main criticism made on the plan 
 sent us, we do not wish to be understood as impugning the 
 good faith of the Board. Nothing is farther from our inten- 
 tions. At the same time it must be remembered that, in 
 the order of events, the membership of the Board changes. 
 New men often bring in new ideas, and unless the interests 
 of the fund are carefully guarded here also, not only is the 
 College jeopardizd, but we doubt if an endowment could be 
 
ii6 
 
 raised. We have also thrown out the word 'cut,' as its use 
 implies that these funds after all are part of the Board of 
 Missions' assets, their proceeds being exempted from cut by 
 promise only. As this money is supposed to be given for 
 the cause of Christian higher education in China, we wish to 
 secure this money from ever being diverted to any other 
 purpose." 
 
 It seems to me, however, that the changes thus proposed: 
 
 First. Unduly weaken the responsibility of the Assembly's 
 Board in order to unduly strengthen the responsibility of the 
 field board. 
 
 Second. Assume that a field board elected by six differ- 
 ent Missions of five different denominations and four differ- 
 ent countries (United States, Canada, Ireland and Scotland), 
 Missions in which many changes annually occur by death, 
 resignation and new appointment, aboard independent, when 
 once elected, of their control, and responsible to no other 
 body, unless three members make a written appeal to New 
 York from a decision of the majority — assume, I say, that 
 such a board would be more attractive to donors of an en- 
 dowment, a safer and more stable custodian of funds and a 
 surer guarantee against unwise changes in policy than the 
 Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in 
 the United States of America, which is an incorporated body, 
 amenable in its use of trust funds to the laws of the State 
 of New York, which is appointed by and is subject to the re- 
 view and control of the General Assembly, the highest re- 
 sponsible body in the Presbyterian Church, which is personal- 
 ly known to and is under the easy observation of the givers 
 from whom any endowment is to be sought, and which has 
 a record of sixty-four years of stability and trustworthiness 
 in handling the funds entrusted to it. 
 
 Third. Involve the very separation from mission control 
 and the very dangers of centrifugal development which I 
 have already presented, and which I find that the majority 
 of the missionaries wish to avoid. One of the signers above 
 mentioned frankly said to me — I quote from my notes made 
 at the time: "The field board of directors should not be amen- 
 able to the Missions. They can, of course, instruct their 
 representatives in the board, and they can affect the policy 
 of the board by not re-electing a director if they do not ap- 
 prove his attitude. But when the field board votes, its de- 
 cision should be final, unless appeal is taken to New York." 
 But another missionary objected that this would simply 
 throw the entire control of the College into the hands of the 
 president, unchecked even by such control as resides in the 
 board of trustees of an American college, for a field board 
 in China, scattered all over the vast region occupied by the 
 
117 
 
 missions named, and separated by weary weeks of travel in 
 cart or shendza, could seldom meet, and the functions of the 
 average member would inevitably degenerate into simply 
 signing circular letters prepared and sent around by the pres- 
 ident. 
 
 Another reason strongly urged by some for such a field 
 board of directors is that "experience has shown that the 
 station and Mission either will not or cannot control the col- 
 lege. Many of the members of the Mission do not take 
 sufficient interest in the work of the College, but leave the 
 faculty to itself. The few who are interested hesitate to 
 oppose anything that the president and professors advocate, 
 so that matters have drifted into an unfortunate condition. 
 The present field board feels that it is but a figure-head. 
 The need is for a field board which will take an active inter- 
 est and exercise real management." 
 
 If this be true, and I have been freely told that it is, the 
 recourse plainly is not to create a new board, which will be 
 still more widely scattered than the old one, but for the Mis- 
 sion to take a deeper interest and exercise its undoubted 
 rights of control. I fail to see why a field board which can 
 meet but once or twice a year will be any more elficient than 
 a Mission composed of men living near the College. The 
 trouble is not with the present system, but with the failure 
 to work it. I am not willing to admit that our method of 
 mission control is so fatally defective as this argument 
 would imply. As in our home Presbyteries which do not 
 exercise proper authority over their churches, the remedy is 
 not to organize another body for that purpose, but for the 
 one already constituted to do the work for which it exists. 
 The Board gives the Missions all requisite power for this 
 purpose. Why acquiesce in their abdication of it, or assume 
 that it will be any more efficiently wielded by a board con- 
 sisting of men of various denominations and nationalities 
 distributed all over North China ? Our Board is sometimes 
 criticized for not giving the missions power enough. But 
 here are missionaries confessing their inability to use the 
 powers they already have, and a secretary, as is frequently 
 the case, urging them to magnify their office. 
 
 I am, therefore, of the opinion that the plan outlined in 
 the Report of the China Committee and the Executive Com- 
 mittee, November 6 and 20, 1899, is to be preferred, though 
 I would change "third" by confining the membership of the 
 field board to representatives of our own Missions — namely, 
 three from East Shantung, three or four from West Shan- 
 tung, one or two from Peking and the president of the Col- 
 lege ex officio. It is the judgment of nearly all our North 
 China missionaries that any more widely distributed field 
 
ii8 
 
 board would be practically unworkable, and that, while as- 
 sociation with missions of other denominations is a hope of 
 the future, it is not yet feasible in Shantung and will not be 
 until railway facilities are better than they are now. 
 
 The English I-]aptists, however, may possibly call for an 
 exception, as their chief work is near Wei Hsien and as the 
 relations between the two bodies of missionaries are remark- 
 ably close and cordial. A committee of the English Baptist 
 Mission is now conferring with similar committees of our 
 Shantung Missions. But the Baptist committee is not yet 
 sure of the co-operation of the educational leaders of its own 
 Mission, nor of the Board in England. It simply represents 
 the informal but cordial and unanimous desire of the com- 
 paratively few men who are now on the field. The project 
 was not definite enough when I left China to justify me in 
 doing more than to assure both the Baptist commiittee 
 and our own Missions, in answer to ciuestions, that our 
 Board is on record as heartily favoring co-operation in 
 educational work wherever practicable, and that, while I could 
 not commit it to any decision on this particular case until we 
 know more fully what our Baptist brethren desire, yet that I 
 was disposed to encourage the committees to confer and re- 
 port on the subject. 
 
 Until their desire shall take some authoritative form 
 which our Missions and Board can approve, I believe it will 
 be wiser, considering the character and aim of our College, 
 that it should be under the immediate jurisdiction of our own 
 Missions, within whose bounds it is to be located. It is the 
 wise policy of the Board to dignify the mission, to recognize 
 its authority within its legitimate sphere, and to leave to it 
 all practicable discretion in the supervision of the details of 
 the work. This is our system. This is Presbyterianism as 
 we practice it in our foreign mission work. I see no valid 
 reason for making the College an exception to the other in- 
 stitutions and work of the Missions. These Missions are 
 composed of wise, strong and experienced missionaries. 
 They live and work in the immediate field of the College. 
 They appreciate its importance. They know its needs. 
 They understand the work which the College ought to do, 
 and they are competent to superintend the local activities of 
 the institution. Without their support the College cannot 
 possibly succeed, and no independent board should be inter- 
 posed between them and the- College to deaden their sense 
 of responsibility for it. For the practical details of operation 
 they can vest in their representatives in the field board of 
 directors as much of their own power as they choose, subject 
 to their review and control in annual meeting. If the 
 necessities of some future great endowment or of union with 
 
119 
 
 other denominations render necessary modifications in the 
 constitution and duties of the field board of directors, they 
 can be made when the necessities appear. But as the case 
 stands now, I am convinced that both Missions and Board 
 will be wise in keeping the College in their own hands and 
 in refraining from cumbering the machinery of our mission- 
 ary organization by adding another agency which, once 
 formed, will be beyond our control. 
 
 It is a well-known and eminently just principle that the 
 mover of a proposition is not to be held responsible for all 
 the consequences, which another man imagines will flow 
 from it. It should not be supposed, therefore, that I for a 
 moment charge upon the brethren who desire a highly or- 
 ganized and authoritative field board of directors the results 
 which I have anticipated, much less that I believe them to be 
 actuated by distrust of either the Missions or the Board. 
 But we are considering neither men nor motives, but a 
 proposition to which we sustain responsible relations before 
 the givers, the missions and the Church, and as it has been 
 formally placed before us, we have no alternative but to 
 frankly discuss what appear to us to be its inherent character 
 and tendency. 
 
 I close this part of my report by quoting the words of a 
 beloved brother who urges the formation of a field board of 
 directors, "with enlarged powers": "If the Board of Foreign 
 Missions waits until it can obtain absolute unanimity on the 
 mission field before taking action in regard to these points, 
 it will probably wait until doomsday." 
 
 But whatever the Board may see fit to do as to these 
 questions of organization, I earnestly hope that both Board 
 and missionaries will unite in inaugurating for the College a 
 new era. Under the leadership, first of Dr. and Mrs. Calvin 
 W. Mateer and then of Dr. W. M. Hayes, it has exerted a 
 splendid influence. The lines on which it is working are 
 more nearly in accord with the true ideals of higher Christian 
 education on the foreign field than those of any other college 
 of which I have knowledge. Its instruction is thorough, the 
 course covering six years and including the branches most 
 necessary to adequate equipment for a life work. It is 
 Chinese, not giving the young men a knowledge of English, 
 which seals up their training in a language which must al- 
 ways be foreign to them, and encourages them to run oflE to 
 the United States, or to seek emploj^ment in treaty ports, 
 but communicating truth in their native tongue and thus 
 turning their faces toward their own people, among whom 
 they must live and work, and to whom they can easily trans- 
 mit that which they have learned from the missionary. Not 
 one of the graduates of the College has left his native land. 
 
Of how many other colleges on the mission field can that be 
 said? And the instruction is Christian, There is no com- 
 promise on this point ; no concession to ambitious Chinese 
 who wish to get a secular education in a mission institution. 
 Christianity pervades every part of the College. The Presi- 
 dent of St. John's College at Shanghai, American Protestant 
 Episcopal, publishes in his official prospectus the statement 
 that "very seldom is a convert made from the ranks of the 
 heathen boys ; they come to us heathen, and when they leave 
 us they are still nominally heathen, though I emphasize the 
 word nominally, for I firmly believe that all our Christian 
 training has not been without effect." But it is a significant 
 fact that every one of the one hundred and twenty-four 
 graduates of our Tengchow college has been a Christian, and 
 that none of them since has gone back to heathenism. 
 
 To-day the graduates of this institution are to be found 
 throughout all North China as pastors, evangelists, teachers, 
 physicians and Christian business men. They are in demand 
 for positions of influence. Every high school north of the 
 Yangtse River includes one or more of the Tengchow grad- 
 uates. The new university at Peking had six of them on its 
 faculty, while the new Imperial University at Nanking has three 
 and wants more. Thus the College is one of the mightiest 
 of influences for the Christian development of China. 
 
 This success has been obtained rather by the splendid 
 ability and fidelity of the foreign inissionaries who have had 
 immediate charge of the College than by the financial sup- 
 port of the home churches. Drs. Mateer and Hayes have 
 spared neither their strength nor their money. The Board 
 has appropriated a full proportionate share of its general 
 funds, but the amount which could thus be given has been 
 necessarily subject to the fluctuations of our treasury, while 
 it has always been painfully inadequate to the needs. The 
 sum available for all the expenses of the College the last 
 year before the Boxer outbreak, exclusive of the foreign 
 missionaries' salaries, was less than $1,800, while the appar- 
 atus has been either made or secured by Dr. Mateer himself. 
 We should not allow this condition of affairs to continue, 
 particularly at this time, when China is undergoing a trans- 
 formation which affords imperial opportunities, not only for 
 missionary work in general, but for higher Christian educa- 
 tion in particular. In this College the Presbyterian Church 
 now has a position of educational leadership which ought to 
 be maintained. 
 
 In the eloquent language of Dr. Hayes : 
 
 " For the sake of the Presbyterian Church in China we 
 need a college fairly well endowed. At present in North 
 China there are five Presbyterian missionary bodies at work. 
 
121 
 
 The Presbyterian Church (North) has its strongest missions 
 in Shantung, with churches scattered almost all over the 
 Province. It has also a mission in Chihli, another in Kiangsu, 
 v^ith work projected in Anhwei. The Scottish and Irish 
 Presbyterians have strong missions in Manchuria, to our 
 north. On the southwest the Canadians have a mission in 
 Honan. To all the above missions we supply helpers to a 
 greater or less extent. On the south, the Southern Presby- 
 terians have mission work along the Grand Canal. What 
 Washington and Jefferson colleges were to the early Pres- 
 byterian churches west of the Alleghenies a strong college 
 here might be to those bodies in China, and through them 
 to the future Presbyterian Church in this empire. At the 
 same time, just as at present, and as in every other similar 
 institution in America, its influence would in no way be lim- 
 ited to any denomination or belief. That the Christian 
 people of China will become influential and mould to any 
 great extent the general character of the nation without first 
 becoming more intelligent and capable than the mass by 
 which it is surrounded, is not to be expected. Those lands, 
 like Scotland, Holland and New England, which early pro- 
 vided good schools and colleges, with strong moral influences 
 surrounding them, still reap the reward of this foresight in 
 the general character of the inhabitants. It is not necessary 
 to refer to nations which pursued the opposite course." 
 
 Nor are we alone in this high estimate of its importance 
 to the cause of Christ in China. President W, A. P. Martin, 
 of the Imperial Chinese University, writes : " The Tengchow 
 College is, in my opinion, second to no institution in China, 
 in the thoroughness of the scientific training which it im- 
 parts. In respect of moral and religious education, it stands 
 equally high in my estimation. No enterprise in China is 
 more deserving of Christian aid and sympathy than that of 
 providing a permanent supply of oil for this great lighthouse 
 of Shantung. If Christians at home only knew what a de- 
 termined effort is being made to exclude Christian teachers 
 and Christian text-books from Chinese Government schools, 
 from the Imperial University down, they would exert them- 
 selves to give a Christian education to the youth of China." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Henry M. Woods, of the Southern Pres- 
 byterian Mission, writes : " The writer can bear testimony to 
 the high standing which the Tengchow College has taken, 
 and to the efficiency and zeal of its president and teachers. 
 In the mental and moral training which it gives, the College 
 is believed to be second to none in China. Its graduates oc- 
 cupy positions of usefulness in various parts of the country, 
 and there is a constant demand made upon it to supply 
 teachers for other schools and colleges. The prospects of 
 
usefulness in the future are increasingly bright. As Western 
 science and civilization win their way more and more in China, 
 the sphere of influence of such institutions will be far- 
 reaching. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of 
 well-conducted Christian colleges as agencies which are con- 
 tributing to the mental and spiritual regeneration of China, 
 in moulding the character of those who will be leaders of 
 thought and action in coming years. Thoroughness of teach- 
 ing, economy of administration, and an earnest Christian in- 
 fluence — these features of Tengchow College will surely com- 
 mend it to the benevolence of those who appreciate Christian 
 education, and who desire to expend their funds where the" 
 best return will be secured." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Hunter Corbett, of Chefoo, says: " I have 
 watched with the deepest interest the growth of your College 
 from its very beginning, and rejoice in the splendid and 
 thorough work done in the College. After every yearly visit 
 I make to Tengchow, my constant and growang wonder is 
 how you are able, with such limited means, to give men such 
 a solid and practical education. Not only the Presbyterian 
 Mission, but many of the missions of other denominations in 
 China, can never fully estimate the value of the able preach- 
 ers and teachers you have trained." 
 
 From the Rev. Dr. Chauncey Goodrich, then acting presi- 
 dent of the North China College (Congregational), near 
 Peking, comes this strong testimony: "Nearly half a cen- 
 tury ago I picked up an educational pamphlet in Vermont, 
 and at the top of the cover read : ' We build schoolhouses 
 and raise men.' This is the motto of which Vermont is proud. 
 Precisely this work you are doing at Tengchow. During my 
 stay of three months last year with you, I was much im- 
 pressed with the excellent work you are doing in making, 
 not scholars alone, but men. I knew before what an educa- 
 tion you were giving, but I did not know so well the moral 
 and spiritual forces of the college, which I was specially de- 
 lighted to witness. Taking everything into account, includ- 
 ing the training in the classics and the natural sciences, I 
 know no college in China which will match your College. 
 Now is the time in China to prepare for a great advance. 
 How little most men understand what relation a Christian 
 college in the heart of China bears to the uplifting of a con- 
 tinent and the regeneration of a quarter of the world." 
 
 Many similar testimonies could be cited. The general 
 opinion of men of all denominations who are familiar with 
 educational work in China, is expressed by Dr. A. P. Parker, 
 of Shanghai, when he writes: "There is no' educational 
 institution in China that is more worthy of support than your 
 College. I have no hesitation in saying that yours is by all 
 
123 
 
 odds the best of all the schools and colleges in China, whether 
 belonging to the government or under missionary control. 
 By patient, persevering labor, according to a well-conceived 
 and definite plan. Dr. and Mrs. Mateer, and later, Dr. Hayes, 
 have built up an institution of high grade, where Chinese 
 youth are receiving a real college education, and the demand 
 for your trained men is to-day much greater than the supply." 
 
 March 21, 1898, the Board voted that while it "sees no 
 reason for changing its former deliverances on this subject, 
 so far as to authorize any general canvass for this purpose, 
 yet in the case of some exceptional institutions it would not 
 be unprepared to receive large gifts for the purpose of. en- 
 dowments." November 6 and 20, 1899, this was supple- 
 mented by a specific approval of an effort to secure an en- 
 dowment of $250,000 for Tengchow College. The time has 
 now come when obedience to the call of Providence, and a 
 wise use of the opportunity which God has opened to us in 
 North China, imperatively demand that a more energetic 
 effort should be made to put the College on a firmer basis. 
 
 I earnestly hope that the Board will take such immediate 
 steps as will enable the College to open at Wei Hsien at the 
 earliest practicable moment. It is neither necessary nor de- 
 sirable to wait for the whole endowment. The land has al- 
 ready been purchased, and if one or two college buildings, 
 with the houses for the professors, cannot be at once provid- 
 ed by special gifts, we should make an advance from the 
 Shantung indemnity for Wei Hsien Station, since the neces- 
 sities for the station itself will be so largely met by the special 
 Pittsburg rebuilding fund. It is easy to conjure up dii^cul- 
 ties. Any of us can make a long list if we are given time. 
 But none of them are insuperable enough to justify us in 
 leaving our best mission college to stagger along amid un- 
 favorable conditions, while we wait for ideal ones to mater- 
 ialize. As John Sherman said of specie payments: "The 
 only way to resume is to resume." The location of Teng- 
 chow College has been discussed for more than thirteen 
 years. It is now high time to act. The additional equip- 
 ment can be provided as money and needs develop. 
 
 REBUILDING THE DESTROYED STATIONS. 
 
 In this work, Peking, Paotingfu and Wei Hsien should 
 have the assistance of an architect. The entire plants of 
 those stations are to be rebuilt, and the addition of the col- 
 lege buildings at Wei Hsien will swell the total to formidable 
 proportions. Moreover, Chiningchow Station, which I re- 
 gard as one of our important strategic centers in China, 
 though not destroyed, should be almost wholly rebuilt, as it 
 
124 
 
 is composed of native buildings, utterly unfit for missionary 
 residence and work. Never before has it been necessary for 
 us to undertake building operations in any one country and 
 at any one time on so large a scale. The missionaries are 
 men of good sense and administrative ability, but they frank- 
 ly say that their previous training has not fitted them for the 
 duties of supervising architects. The curriculum of a theo- 
 logical seminary or a medical school does not include such 
 studies. My examination of the buildings of our own and 
 other boards in various missions in Japan, Korea and China 
 has shown that some of the very best missionaries do not 
 know how to construct a building properly, while some who 
 do know are forced by the pressure of missionary work to 
 leave too much to the discretion of the native workmen, so 
 that, in some cases, defective foundations or walls have 
 necessitated repairs almost as soon as a building is complet- 
 ed. Even if the missionaries had the experience, they have 
 not the time. The force at tho-se stations, even in ordinary 
 circumstances, is hardly adequate to the conduct of the regu- 
 lar missionary work. Just now, indeed, it is painfully in- 
 adequate, while the peculiar situation in China presents 
 problems and opportunities which imperatively demand the 
 utmost strength of the missionaries. It would be calamitous 
 to divert practically half of this scanty force from their work 
 among the Chinese for a year or more, in order to direct 
 carpenters and bricklayers. This is the time for increasing 
 the missionary work, not diminishing it. 
 
 The Board has already recognized the principle, by send- 
 ing an architect to Korea to assist that Mission for a year. I 
 have cabled a request, most heartily endorsed by the Shan- 
 tung missionaries, that he be sent to Wei Hsien for a month 
 this fall, to draw plans and to make estimates for materials. 
 The Peking Mission is equally desirous of having his assist- 
 ance in the rebuilding of Peking and Paotingfu. If possible, 
 he should return in the spring to superintend the erection of 
 the buildings. Such a man will be imperatively needed, and 
 should be employed by the Board in North China for at least 
 a year. 
 
 On the general subject of missionary architecture, I find 
 wide differences of opinion on the field. Some excellent 
 missionaries insist on keeping as close as possible to native 
 lines, so that a mission building will be in harmony with its 
 surroundings, and will conciliate a people who dislike any- 
 thing obtrusively foreign. Other equally able and experi- 
 enced missionaries prefer a building of distinctively Ameri- 
 can style, a residence which will remind them of home — 
 boldly foreign in every outline. Some good men believe 
 that mission property should be severely plain, as more in 
 
harmony with the missionary purpose, the poverty of the 
 people, and the principle of self-support; while other men, 
 just as good, insist upon a scale which will be a visible wit- 
 ness to the presence and dignity of the Church of God, and 
 an example to the Chinese of what religion should have. 
 
 Coupled with this diversity of view, is often a disposition 
 to regard buildings at a particular station as a local matter, 
 to be, within the limits of the Board's appropriation, practi- 
 cally determined by the missionaries who for the time con- 
 stitute that station. They, in turn, are apt to leave it to the 
 individual whose work or residence is most directly involved. 
 In some missions there is no " Property Committee " for the 
 mission, but the mission appoints each station as the prop- 
 erty committee for its own work. 
 
 The consequence is a startling variety of architectural 
 types. A physician builds a hospital according to his own 
 ideas, and a few years later his successor finds it not at all 
 adapted to his notions. A man plans a house to suit the 
 needs of his particular family, and within a year his death or 
 resignation assigns the house to another man, who must have 
 alterations made. One missionary is- allowed to erect a 
 church because he is in charge of it, though the majority of 
 his colleagues do not conceal from a visitor their dissent 
 from the principles which the edifice typifies. I am not now 
 referring to any particular mission or board, but giving the 
 general impression of visits and conferences in many fields 
 of all denominations. Our own work presents less that is 
 objectionable from this viewpoint than that of several other 
 boards. And yet illustrations are not wanting in our own 
 fields. 
 
 It will be noted that these questions are not at all ques- 
 tions of the wisdom or ability or trustworthiness of the mis- 
 sionaries. It is altogether beside the mark to reply that an 
 authoritative decision by the mission or Board would " argue 
 a distrust of the station." Often, the utterances of the 
 members of the station themselves show that they have not 
 been able to agree. But whether they could agree or not, 
 to urge that an interference with a station or an individual in 
 a building matter implies distrust of his judgment begs the 
 whole question at issue. The very essence of that issue is 
 that building is not a local matter, that schools and hospitals 
 do not belong to the station or houses to the men who for 
 the time are to occupy them. Mission property belongs to 
 the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. It 
 is for the use of the mission work of that Church. In our 
 system, the Board is the legal and responsible owner of the 
 property, and the Board looks not so much to the individual 
 missionary or to the local station as to the mission as the 
 
126 
 
 field representative and guardian of its interests. A mission 
 should not abdicate its rightful function on the supposition 
 that " building matters should be left to the station," nor can 
 we for a moment admit that a desire of a mission or the 
 Board to see plans involves an unwillingness to trust the mis- 
 sionaries immediately concerned. That may be " The Gos- 
 pel Mission" idea, but it is not the Presbyterian. We be- 
 lieve in and are organized on the principle of representative 
 government. 
 
 So I think that the Board, which must bear the real respon- 
 sibility for consequences, may reasonably require that houses 
 should be built for the uses of the average missionary family, 
 and not for the peculiar needs of those who are to temporar- 
 ily occupy them ; that we should not, for example, have two 
 bedrooms in one house and five in another, because the first 
 man has no children and the other has several, but build 
 both for the average need. Anything beyond that should be 
 considered a personal expenditure which does not constitute 
 either a legal or a moral claim for the first occupant, in the 
 event of such changes in the station force as may justify a 
 mission in assigning another family to that particular house. 
 A family in a heathen land needs a comfortable house. The 
 husband should be given a reasonable discretion in making 
 it, and he and his should not be lightly disturbed. But, on 
 the other hand, personal idiosyncrasies should not be perma- 
 nently fastened upon a place which does not belong to him, 
 and which other families must use after him ; nor should a 
 single missionary continue to occupy alone a large house be- 
 cause "it is his " or "hers," while a family is dwelling in 
 discomfort in a small native dwelling. 
 
 I think, too, that, in general, the style of architecture 
 should conform as nearly as practicable to that of the coun- 
 try in which the building is situated. Exact similarity is not 
 usually expedient. The Asiatic's conceptions of comfort dif- 
 fer from ours, while of sanitation he knows nothing. We 
 should not live on damp mud or stone floors, or sleep on 
 heated brick kangs, because he does. Missionary residences 
 should be attractive to the lonely workers to whom they are 
 often the only bit of native land they have. Schools, churches 
 and hospitals should be adapted to their respective purposes, 
 not mere sheds or hovels, but enough above the level of the 
 natives to afford an example of decency and sanitation and 
 the possibilities of their own architecture. But they should 
 not be "monumental," Ostentation should be scrupulously 
 avoided. Forms of architecture which needlessly aggravate 
 a conservative people, and which stamp the whole mission 
 plant as something essentially and defiantly alien, should not 
 be adopted. At best, we are foreign enough in a country 
 
127 
 
 which is traditionally hostile to the outsider. Let us not un- 
 necessarily arouse this sort of antipathy. I have seen mis- 
 sion buildings which, if I were an Asiatic, I should resent. 
 I should instinctively feel that the men who lived in them 
 were not of my sort, that the religion which they typified 
 was an exotic, and that to espouse it was in some sense to 
 expatriate myself. I am glad to add that those buildings 
 were not ours, nor, so far as I know, would our missionaries 
 erect them, even if they had the requisite funds. But there 
 are Protestants as well as Catholics who need to remember 
 that the Orient can never be Occidentalized. Asia will be 
 Asia until the end of time, and not America or Europe, and 
 if China is to become Christian, her churches will not be 
 Gothic, nor will her schoolhouses be square, stiff, three-story 
 bricks. So let us, as far as practicable, follow, the flowing, 
 graceful lines of Oriental architecture, which are really more 
 beautiful than our own, anyway, build substantially and com- 
 fortably, but on as modest a scale as is compatible with rea- 
 sonable taste, health and permanence. 
 
 I believe that both the China Missions, which now have 
 rebuilding to do, are in harmony with these views. They 
 would doubtless adopt them by a large majority if they were 
 submitted to them in the form of a resolution. All the 
 easier is it, therefore, for me to write so .plainly of the 
 principle, and to urge that it should not be allowed to break 
 down through any failure on the part of the Missions or the 
 Board to enforce it in particular cases. We have an unprec- 
 edented opportunity to construct model station plants at 
 Peking, Paotingfu and Wei Hsien and Chiningchow. Let us 
 take advantage of it. 
 
 The prices of labor and materials have sharply advanced 
 in consequence of the enormous demands incident to the con- 
 struction of railways, with their depots, shops and round- 
 houses, the vast engineering schemes of the Germans at 
 Tsingtau, the British at Wei Hai Wei and the Russians at 
 Port Arthur, the extensive scale on which the Legations are 
 rebuilding in Peking, the reconstruction of virtually the entire 
 business portions of both Peking and Tientsin, as well as the 
 coincident rebuilding of the mission stations of all denomina- 
 tions, Protestant and Catholic. It will be readily understood 
 what all this activity means in a land where there are as yet 
 but limited supplies of the kind of skilled laborers required 
 for foreign buildings, and where the requisite materials must 
 be imported from Europe and America by firms who "are 
 not in China for their health." 
 
 Nor can we afford to "wait till the rush is over." The 
 interests of our mission work at this critical time are too vital 
 to be made secondary to railroads, stores, machine-shops 
 
128 
 
 and liquor houses. We are too far behind now. Besides, it 
 is futile to hope that the competition will be materially less 
 next year, or the year after, or the year after that. Com- 
 merce and politics are projecting: works in North China, 
 which will not be completed for a decade. Railway ofhcials 
 tell me that it will take them two years to finish their line to 
 Chinanfu and four years to construct the one to Ichowfu. 
 The German Government is not only spending 11,000,000 
 marks this year for streets, sewers, water and electric light 
 works, barracks, fortifications, wharves and public buildings 
 in Tsingtau, but it has voted 12,500,000 marks a year for ten 
 years for deepening and enlarging the inner harbor. China 
 has entered upon an era of commercial development. The 
 Western world has come to stay, and while there may be 
 temporary reactions, as there have been at home, prices are 
 not likely to return to their former level. There are vast 
 interior regions which will not be affected for an indefinite 
 period, but for the coast provinces, in which our chief work 
 is situated, primitive conditions are passing forever. We 
 should rebuild, therefore, as soon as the state of the country 
 will permit. 
 
 But while we cannot anticipate any substantial reduction 
 in wages we may be able to save something in materials by 
 taking advantage of the wholesale scale on which we must 
 purchase. Asia is too densely peopled to have large forests, 
 and those she has are not within. easy reach. Native lumber, 
 therefore, is scarce and often small and crooked. That in 
 common use comes from Manchuria and Korea. I was im- 
 pressed in T§ingtau to find that the Germans are using 
 Oregon lumber and to be told that it is considered the best, 
 and, in the long run, the cheapest. The Tsingtau planing- 
 mill says that Oregon pine costs more than the Korean and 
 Manchurian, but that it is superior in size and quality. The 
 transportation charges, however, are one cent per pound from 
 Tsingtau to Wei Hsien, which is a heavy addition: Man- 
 churian pine can be delivered at Wei Hsien via the junk port 
 of Yangchiako and thence by land for $20 gold per thousand 
 square feet, one inch thick, which is considerably less than 
 the Tsingtau retail price for Asiatic lumber. Oregon lumber 
 costs in Shanghai 45 taels (about $32 gold) per thousand 
 feet, but an importer estimates that it can be delivered at 
 Tsingtau for $25 gold per thousand in large quantities. 
 
 I, therefore, recommend that, as soon as the local 
 architect employed by the Mission can form an estimate of 
 the materials which will be required, and the form in which 
 they will be needed — viz., doors, sashes, flooring, etc. — bids 
 be obtained from the Pacific coast as well as in China. Low 
 freight rates could probably be secured for so large a con- 
 
I 29 
 
 signment. Direct purchase in Oregon may be found to be 
 impracticable. I simply advise investigation. Meantime, I 
 have asked the Wei Hsien missionaries to examine and re- 
 port to the Board on what terms they can obtain a cargo of 
 Oregon lumber which has been unexpectedly left on the 
 agent's hands at Chefoo. 
 
 THE VASTNESS OF THE FIELD. 
 
 The magnitude of the task to which the Church has set 
 herself in China is almost overwhelming. In spite of all that 
 I had read, I was amazed by what I saw. To say that the 
 empire has an area of 5,000,000 square miles is not sufficient- 
 ly intelligible, for our minds are not able to comprehend 
 such an enormous figure. But it may help us to remember 
 that China is one-third larger than all Europe, and that, if 
 the United States and Alaska could be laid upon China there 
 would be room left for half a dozen Great Britains. Extend- 
 ing from the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude on the north to 
 the eighteenth on the south, the empire has every variety of 
 climate from arctic cold to tropic heat. It is a land of vast 
 forests, of fertile soil, of rich minerals, of navigable rivers. 
 The very fact that it has so long sustained such a vast popu- 
 lation suggests the richness of its resources. There are said 
 to be 600,000,000 acres of arable soil, and so economically 
 and thriftily is it cultivated that many parts of the empire are 
 almost continuous gardens and fields. Baron von Richthovon 
 tells us that China has 600,000,000,000 tons of anthracite 
 coal, and that the single Province of Shensi could supply the 
 entire world for a thousand years. 
 
 Equally difficult is it for us to comprehend the meaning 
 of 400,000,000 as applied to the population of China. But 
 consider that the eighteen provinces alone, with an area about 
 equal to that part of the United States east of the Mississippi 
 River, have eight times the population of that part of our 
 country. In the vivid language of Gracey, "there are twice 
 as many people in China as on the four continents — Africa, 
 North and South America and Oceanica. Every third per- 
 son who toils under the sun and sleeps under God's stars is a 
 Chinese ; every third child born into the world looks into the 
 face of a Chinese mother ; every third pair given in marriage 
 plight their troth in a Chinese cup of wine ; every third 
 orphan weeping through the day, every third widow wailing 
 through the night are in China. Put them in rank, joining 
 hands, and they will girdle the globe ten times at the equator 
 with living, beating human hearts. Constitute them pilgrims 
 and let two thousand go past every day and night under the 
 sunlight and under the solemn stars, and you must hear the 
 
ceaseless tramp, tramp of the weary, pressing, throbbing 
 throng for five hundred years." 
 
 There is something almost overpowering in the immens- 
 ity of the population. Great cities are amazingly numerous. 
 In America a city of 1,000,000 inhabitants is a wonderful 
 place, and all the world is supposed to know about it. But 
 how many in the United States ever heard of Hsiang Tan 
 Hsien, the city in Hunan in which we are opening a mission 
 station ? Yet Hsiang Tan Hsien is said to have 1,000,000 
 inhabitants, while within comparatively short distances are 
 other great cities and innumerable villages. There are 
 hundreds of Philadelphias and Bostons and Clevelands in 
 China, while Rochesters and St. Pauls and Milwaukees are so 
 common as to be commonplace. Men never tire of writing 
 magazine articles about the number of suburbs around New 
 York and Chicago. In five weeks' constant journeying 
 through the far interior of the Shantung Province, the coun- 
 try districts, as we would call them, I passed through a vil- 
 lage or town an average of once in every mile, to say noth- 
 ing of the towns on both sides which my road did not 
 traverse. 
 
 I was impressed anew by the worth of these people. 
 Multitudes are, indeed, stolid and ignorant, but multitudes, 
 too, have strong, intelligent features. Thousands of chil- 
 dren have faces as bright and winning as those of American 
 children. More strongly than ever do I feel that Americans 
 have not done justice to the character of the Chinese. I do 
 not refer to the bigoted, corrupt Manchu oflEicials, nor to the 
 lawless barbarians who were among those who flocked to the 
 banners of the Boxers, just as in our own land lewd fellows of 
 the baser sort are ever ready to follow the leadership of a 
 demagogue. But I refer to the Chinese people as a whole. 
 Their viewpoint is radically different from ours, and we have 
 often harshly misjudged them, when the real trouble has lain 
 in our failure to understand them. Let us be free enough 
 from prejudice and passion to respect a people whose nation- 
 al existence has survived the mutations of forty-eight cen- 
 turies; who are frugal, patient, industrious and respectful to 
 parents, as we are not; whose astronomers made accurate re- 
 corded observations two hundred years before Abraham left 
 Ur; who used paper 150 years before Christ, and fire-arms at 
 the beginning of the Christian era; who first grew tea, man- 
 ufactured gun-powder, made pottery, glue and gelatine; who 
 wore silk and lived in houses when our ancestors wore the 
 undressed skins of wild animals and slept in caves; who in- 
 vented printing by movable types 500 years before that art 
 was known in Europe; who discovered the principles of the 
 mariner's compass, without which the oceans could not be 
 
131 
 
 crossed, conceived the idea of artificial inland waterways and 
 dug a canal twice as wide as the Erie and 600 miles long; 
 who invented the arch which is the basal element in our mod- 
 ern architecture, and who originated our modern methods of 
 banking, by using notes of exchange instead of cash or bar- 
 ter. In the year 1368 few Europeans dared to do business on 
 a credit basis. Bnt there has recently been placed in the 
 British Museum a bank note bearing that date, issued by 
 Hung-Wu, Emperor of China. The Chinese exalt learning, 
 and alone among the nations of the earth, make scholarship 
 a test of fitness for official position. True, that scholarship 
 moves along the narrow lines of Confucian classics, but sure- 
 ly such knowledge is a far higher qualification for ofRce than 
 the brute strength which for centuries gave precedence among 
 our ancestors. 
 
 We must not form our opinion from the Chinese whom we 
 see in the United States. True, most of them are kindly and 
 patient, while some are highly intelligent. But, with com- 
 paratively few exceptions, they are from the lower classes of 
 a single province — Cantonese coolies. The Chinese might 
 as fairly form their opinion of Americans from our day-labor- 
 ers. But there are able men in the Celestial Empire. Bishop 
 Andrews returned from China to characterize the Chinese as 
 "a people of brains." When Viceroy Li Hung Chang visit- 
 ed this country all who met him unhesitatingly pronounced 
 him a great man. After General Grant's tour around the 
 world he told Senator Stewart that the most astonishing 
 thing which he had seen was that wherever the Chinese had 
 come into competition with the Jew, the Chinese had driven 
 out the Jew. We know the persistence of the Jew, that he 
 has held his own against every other people. Despite the 
 fact that he has no home, and no government; that he has 
 been ridiculed and persecuted by all men; that he is an alien 
 in race, country and religion, he has labored on, patiently, 
 resolutely, distanced every rival, surmounted every obstacle, 
 compelled even his enemies to acknowledge his shrewdness 
 and his determination; till to-day in Russia, in Austria, in 
 Germany, in England the Jew is bitterly conceded to be mas- 
 ter in the editorial chair, at the bar, in the universities, in the 
 counting house and in the banking office; while the proudest 
 of monarchs will undertake no enterprise requiring large ex- 
 penditure until he is assured of the support of the keen-eyed, 
 swarthy-visaged men who control the sinews of war. Gener- 
 ations of exclusion from agriculture and the mechanical arts, 
 and of devotion to commerce, have duveloped and inbred in 
 the Jew a marvelous facility for trade. 
 
 And yet this race, which has so abundantly demonstrated 
 its ability to cope with the Greek, the Slav and the Teuton, 
 
132 
 
 finds itself outreached in cunning, outworn in persistence and 
 overmatched in strength by an olive-complexioned, ahnond- 
 eyed fellow with felt shoes, baggy trousers, loose tunic, round 
 cap and swishing cjueue, who represents such swarming myri- 
 ads that the mind is confused in the attempt to comprehend 
 the enormous number. The canny Scotchman and the shrewd 
 Yankee are alike discomfited by the Chinese. Those who do 
 not believe it should ask the American and European traders 
 who were crowded out ot Saigon, Shanghai, Bangkok, Sing- 
 apore, Batavia and Manila. It is true that the Chinese are in- 
 ordinately conceited, but shades of the Fourth of July orator, 
 screams of the American eagle! it requires considerable self- 
 possession in an American to criticize any one else on the 
 planet for conceit. The Chinese have not, at least, padded 
 a census to make the rest believe that they are greater than 
 they really are. 
 
 It is easy to be deceived by the result of the war with 
 Japan. The Japanese were successful, not because they are 
 smarter, but because they had more swiftly responded to the 
 touch of the modern world, and had more quickly succeeded 
 in organizing their government, their army and their navy in 
 accordance with scientific methods. More bulky and phleg- 
 matic China was caught napping by her wide-awake enemy. 
 Despising the profession of war and conceitedly imagining 
 that no other nation would dare to trouble her, or that if it 
 did, the attack could be no more serious thanamosciuitobite, 
 China gave her energies to scholarship and commerce, and 
 filled her regiments and ships with paupers, criminals and 
 opium fiends, who were as destitute of courage, intelligence 
 and patriotism as the darky who explained his flight from the 
 battle-field by saying tnat he would rather be a live coward 
 than a dead hero. Moreover China's public service is rotten 
 with corruption, and as the weakness of the government and 
 the absence of an outspoken public press leave them free 
 from restraint, China has been the very paradise of embez- 
 zlers. A Chinese official admitted to a friend of mine that at 
 the outbreak of the war with Japan the Chinese Government 
 contractors had bought a cargo of old rifles in Germany 
 which had long before been discarded as worthless by the 
 German army, paying two ounces of silver for each gun, and 
 thriftily charging the government nine ounces. Then they 
 had bought a cargo of cartridges whi-ch didn't fit the guns, 
 and which had been lying in damp cellars for twenty years, 
 and put the whole equipment into the hands of raw recruits 
 commanded by opiurp-smokers. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that the Chinese were worst- 
 ed in the onset with the wide-awake Japanese. But let no 
 man imagine that this is the end. China has plenty of men 
 
^33 
 
 who can fight, and when they enter the service and are well 
 commanded, they make as good soldiers as there are in the 
 world, as "Chinese Gordan" showed. Was not his force 
 called the "Ever Viccorious Army," because it was never de- 
 feated? Did not Lord Charles Beresford, of the English 
 Navy, say, after personal inspection of most of the soldiers 
 of China: "I am convinced that properly armed, disciplined 
 and led, there could be no better material tlian the Chinese 
 soldiers?" Did not the fifty Chinese who served under Admir- 
 al Dewey in the battle of Manila fight so magnificently that 
 they showed themselves equals in courage of the American 
 sailors, and were commended by Admiral Dewey in a spec- 
 ial report urging Congress to make them American citizens? 
 On this trip I have seen the soldiers of England, France, Ger- 
 many, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Russia, America and Japan, 
 But the Chinese cavalrymen of Governor Yuan Shih Kai, who 
 escorted me through Shantung, were as fine troops as I saw 
 anywhere. There are 7,500 of them. They have been 
 drilled by German officers, are splendidly mounted, armed 
 with modern rifles, and would be a foe not to be despised. 
 When Bishop Potter returned from his tour of Asia, he ex- 
 pressed a high opinion of the Chinese adaptability for modern 
 civilization, and he declared that "when Japan has taught 
 China the art of war, neither England nor Russia nor Ger- 
 many will decide the fate of the East." In Siam, in the 
 Philippines, in the Strait Settlements, wherever they have 
 gone, the Chinese have shown themselves to be successful 
 colonizers, able to meet and to control competition, so that 
 to-day the business of Manila and Bangkok and Singapore 
 is largely in the hands of these aliens. 
 
 It is common for people to praise the Japanese and to 
 sneer at the Chinese. All honor to the Japanese for their 
 splendid achievements. With marvelous celerity they have 
 adopted many modern ideas and inventions. They are 
 worthy of the respect which they receive. But those who 
 have made a close study of both peoples unhesitatingly de- 
 clare that the Chinese have more solid elements of perma- 
 nency and power than the Japanese. The Japanese have the 
 quickness, the enthusiasm, the intelligence of the French, but 
 the Chinese have united to equal intelligence the plodding 
 persistence of the Germans, and the old fable of the tortoise 
 and the hare is as true of nations as it is of individuals. Un- 
 questionably, the Chinese are the most virile race in Asia. 
 "Wherever a Chinese can get a foot of ground and a quart 
 of water he will make something grow." Colquhoun quotes 
 Richthoven as saying that "among the various races of man- 
 kind the Chinese is the only one which in all climates, the 
 hottest and the coldest, is capable of great and lasting 
 
134 
 
 activity." And he states as his own opinion: "She has all 
 the elements to build up a great living force. One thing 
 alone is wanted — the will, the directing power. That sup- 
 plied, there are to be found in abundance in China the 
 capacity to carry out, the brains to plan, the hands to work." 
 
 I do not, of course, mean that the Chinese are a perfect 
 people. Very, very far from it. They have grave faults. 
 Gambling, immorality and superstition prevail among them, 
 while beyond any other people known to us they are stag- 
 nant, spiritually dead, a nation of agnostics, living only for 
 this world and ignorant of thoi^e higher levels of spiritual 
 thought and life to which Christianity has raised whole 
 classes in Europe and America. Because of these things we 
 are attempting to Christianize them. But at a time when 
 they are being so vociferously abused it is only fair that we 
 should give them credit for the good qualities which they do 
 possess. I do not believe that Eliza Scidmore is right when 
 she says that ''no one knows, or ever really will know, the 
 Chinese, the most incomprehensible, inscrutable, contradict- 
 ory, logical, illogical people on earth," They are, indeed, 
 very different from us in many important particulars. It 
 would never occur to you to committ suicide in order to 
 spite your neighbor, but in China such suicides occur every 
 day, because it is believed that a death on the premises is a 
 lasting curse to the owner, and so the Chinese drowns him- 
 self in his enemy's well, or takes poison on his foe's door- 
 step. That is odd from our viewpoint, and there are many 
 other peculiarities equally strange to us. But, after all, we 
 shall get along best with the Chinese if we remember that 
 they are human beings, essentially like ourselves, responsive 
 to kindness, appreciative of justice and capable of moral 
 transformation under the influence of the Gospel. 
 
 And how little comparatively we are doing for them ! To 
 say that there are fifty-eight Protestant boards and societies 
 and 2,818 Protestant foreign missionaries working in China 
 is apt to give one a distorted idea of the real situation, for 
 he forgets the immensity of the population. We call a sta- 
 tion well manned when it has four families and two or three 
 single women. But what are they among those swarming 
 myriads ? I find that the proportion of Protestant mission- 
 aries to the population which is commonly quoted needs re- 
 vision. There is one to every 142,000 souls. But that, too, 
 requires modification, for it counts some who are engaged in 
 forms of work which are but indirectly missionary, wives 
 whose time and strength are absorbed by household cares, 
 and all those who are absent on account of ill-health and 
 furloughs, who alone are usually about ten per cent of the 
 total enrolment. The actual working force, therefore, is far 
 
135 
 
 smaller than the statistics appear to suggest. "The harvest 
 truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few." It will oppress 
 me as long as I live. 
 
 Take, for example, the West Shantung Mission. The 
 force is smaller by ten than it was a decade ago. Unlike 
 many of our other China stations, too, we cannot divide our 
 responsibility with any other Board. At every station we 
 occupy the field alone, so that those people must hear the 
 Gospel from us, if they ever hear it at all. How are we dis- 
 charging our responsibility ? Ichowfu, a prefectural city of 
 60,000, with an adjacent population estimated at 6,000,000, 
 has only three families and one single woman. 
 
 Chiningchow is an important commercial center, and 
 within a convenient itinerating radius of fifty miles north and 
 east and eighty miles south and west live 5,000,000 souls. 
 Yet the present force consists of three men and one wife. Ex- 
 cluding a couple of missionaries of the Gospel Mission who 
 are there temporarily, the nearest Protestant missionaries are 
 two Episcopalians, seventy-five miles north, our Ichowfu sta- 
 tion one hundred and forty-five miles east, two Southern 
 Presbyterians, one hundred and twenty miles south, and on 
 the west no one for many hundreds of miles. 
 
 Chinanfu, the capital of the province, is a fine city of 
 300,000 inhabitants. Though we have had a station there for 
 thirty years, there is now no regular missionary work being 
 done in all that city, save as our physicians reach those who 
 come to the dispensaries. There was formerly considerable 
 preaching done, but the force has dwindled to two physicians 
 and two ordained men, and one of them must give his whole 
 strength to shepherding the outstation churches north and 
 northwest of the city, and the other is equally burdened with 
 the care of the country work south and southwest. They can 
 can devote no time to Chinanfu's 300,000, unless they neglect 
 ten times that number in the country. So our city chapel is 
 rented as a post oflfice, and the dust and rats had full sway in 
 the adjacent house till Dr. Hayes went to Chinanfu for the 
 Provincial College, and voluntarily began a Sunday afternoon 
 service. The English Baptists work the field eastward, but the 
 city itself and the densely populated region north, west and 
 south are exclusively ours. 
 
 Wei Hsien is a thriving business city of 100,000. Nine- 
 teen years we have had a station here, but when I asked the 
 missionaries to give me an opportunity to meet the Christ- 
 ians, they replied that they had little work in the city, and 
 that there were very few Christians in it. Practically all the 
 work of this, our largest station in North China, is in the 
 country. Within a radius of eighty miles there are 124 out- 
 stations and 3,000 communicants. And yet there are thous. 
 
136 
 
 ands of villages in this field which are still unreached, for 
 here also the population in our itinerating radius aggregates 
 nearly, if not quite, 6,000,000. And for all this mighty host 
 we have, besides the medical man and woman, but three 
 families and two single women. Yet we count Wei Hsien 
 our most fully manned station ! 
 
 There are few other Protestant boards at work at Shan- 
 tung, and their work, except at Tengchow and Tsingtau, is 
 on the coast in regions wholly distinct from ours, for this one 
 province has almost half as many inhabitants as the entire 
 United States. It is the holy land of China, the home of the 
 great Confucius, the center of some of the most powerful in- 
 fluences in the empire. The people, unlike the Chinese whom 
 we see in America, are tall and robust, the best type of the 
 Chinese, both physically and mentally. In this magnificent 
 field God has given us a position of commanding ascendency 
 as compared with other denominations. We occupy the 
 strategic cities. We have the bulk of the population. We 
 have by far the largest number of churches and schools, and 
 our missionaries,^ few as they are, are, nevertheless, more 
 numerous than those of any other Board, and are recognized 
 leaders in all Christian work. 
 
 The tendency of the Mission has been to develop work 
 in the villages rather than in the cities. I would not dimin- 
 ish its efforts in this direction. We are not working a fifti- 
 eth part of the territory which we are supposed to occupy. 
 Practically the entire Province is one vast, highly cultivated 
 field, thickly dotted with villages, most of which in America 
 would ambitiously call themselves cities. Save for occa- 
 sional small groves which mark the graves of prominent fam- 
 ilies, trees are allowed to grow only in the towns, the space 
 in the fields being too valuable for them. Very beautiful 
 those masses of green foliage appear to the dusty traveler. 
 There are always a dozen, and often scores in sight, and I 
 knew that under every one clustered thickly the low mud and 
 stone walls of human beings who had never heard of Christ. 
 One morning as we crossed a ridge I counted thirty-one 
 populous villages in front of me and as many more were in 
 sight behind. And Dr. Johnson, who was wnth me, said that, 
 so far as he knew, there was not one soul of all those teem- 
 ing, toiling myriads who knew Jesus. Nor w^as there any 
 one who could tell them. The only missionaries in that 
 region are two of our own, but there are many hundreds of 
 other villages nearer them than these. All over the Prov- 
 ince there are literally thousands of villages which have 
 not yet been touched by the Gospel. As one looks upon 
 them he enters into the spirit of Christ, who, "when He saw 
 the multitudes was moved with compassion for them because 
 
137 
 
 they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a 
 shepherd." 
 
 It is natural that the missionaries should place emphasis 
 upon this village work, for the respectable middle class 
 farmers and merchants, who form the greater part of the 
 village population, are more open to the Gospel. Life is 
 simpler, temptations fewer, distractions smaller, faith easier 
 than in the cities, where worldliness and vice and heathenism 
 and race prejudice are often fiercely intensified. It is harder 
 to make an impression on a great city than on a small town. 
 There is a larger mass of hostile or indifferent public opinion 
 to be faced by the individual convert, while it is far more 
 difficult for him to observe the Sabbath. Of course, this is 
 the history of Christian work the world over, at home as well 
 as abroad. But on the foreign field the eagerness to obtain 
 visible results, the pressure from the home churches to re- 
 port conversions, the greater willingness of the villagers to 
 hear the gospel, the frequently remarkable way in which the 
 Spirit of God has moved upon villages, and the inexorable 
 fact that workers have been too few to preach everywhere, 
 have combined to lead the missionaries away from the cen- 
 ters. For this wide itineration the Mission deserves great 
 credit. It involves separation from the family, and often 
 much physical hardship. Those who have been doing it 
 should be encouraged to continue it, and their number should 
 be increased. 
 
 But I strongly feel that the Board should give each station 
 such a force that, without diminishing its country work, it 
 could more eiTectively work the cities. Stations at Chinanfu 
 and Wei Hsien, for example, ought to mean regular preach- 
 ing and aggressive work in those powerful towns, as well as 
 in their tributary villages. I know that the diiificulties are 
 great. They always have been. But the city dominates the 
 country now as much as it did in Paul's time, and in China 
 as much as in America. If we are to evangelize Shantung 
 we must not neglect the centers of its life. The Roman 
 Catholics entrench themselves in cities, and, while we would 
 not imitate their cathedrals or many of their methods, we 
 may at least recognize their wisdom in this respect. 
 
 Some missionaries tell me that street chapel preaching 
 does not pay. But Dr. Corbett, after thirty years' experience 
 in it, emphatically declares that it does. It must have the 
 right kind of a preacher, alert, sympathetic, fervent, ready in 
 extemporaneous address. It must be followed up by diligent 
 house-to-house work, and by free itineration. Comparatively 
 few men will be converted at the chapel, but prejudices will 
 be removed, hearts softened, and thoughts of God aroused. 
 Hearers are often visitors from the country, and months after- 
 
138 
 
 ward the preacher visiting some distant village, will be wel- 
 comed by some man who first heard the Gospel at the city 
 street chapel, and through that man the missionary will se- 
 cure a foothold in the community. Repeatedly it has hap- 
 pened that work has suddenly sprung up in some village fifty 
 or more miles away, and the missionary has been at a loss 
 to understand why that particular village, rather than scores 
 of nearer ones, should yield such fruit, till he finds that the 
 leading spirits received the Word in the city chapel. Men 
 like Dr. Corbett could cite scores of illustrations of this. 
 
 But city work need not be exclusively street chapel 
 preaching. There are many ways, such as following to their 
 homes school children and dispensary patients, personal work 
 with individual acquaintances, etc. Miss West and Mrs. 
 MacNair are effectively reaching some of the most influential 
 families in Tokio in this latter way. There are methods 
 enough, and the missionaries of China are finding them 
 wherever they have the available force, and they will find 
 them in West Shantung if we can give them the requisite 
 reinforcement. 
 
 THE FOUR PRESENT FORMS OF MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 Appear to be adequate, namely, the evangelistic, the educa- 
 tional, the medical and the literary. 
 
 Presbyterian missionaries have not given such propor- 
 tionate emphasis to direct evangelistic work as the mission- 
 aries of some other boards, notably those of the China Inland 
 Misssion. But the results show that, in proportion to the 
 number of missionaries employed and in the stability and 
 spirituality of the native church, our work is exceeded by no 
 other work in China. And yet it would be well if still greater 
 emphasis could be given to this form of missionary activity. 
 China needs the preaching of the Gospel — not in any narrow 
 or technical sense, but in broad scriptural proportions. Some 
 missionaries tell me that comparatively few Chinese are con- 
 verted by the foreigner, and that the main dependence in this 
 form of the work must be upon the native pastors and 
 evangelists. I fear that this fact sometimes unduly weakens 
 the missionary's sense of responsibility for personal effort 
 for souls. But, manifestly, we cannot send over mission- 
 aries enough to adequately preach the gospel to each one of 
 the four hundred millions of the Chinese. The great future 
 work of evangelization must be carried on by the Chinese 
 Christians themselves. To this end, missionaries must train 
 up a native ministry. 
 
 Both in China and Japan, some missionaries of our own 
 and other churches expressed a fear that the boards have com- 
 
139 
 
 mitted themselves to an extreme and impracticable theory 
 of self-support, and that, in harmony with this theory, it is 
 the policy of the boards to undervalue educational work, and 
 to refuse appropriations for native helpers. When, in my 
 interdenominational conference in Peking, I asked: "What 
 modifications in the policy of the boards do you think should 
 be made?" Dr. Sheffield, of the American Board, replied by 
 protesting against the "exploiting of the Nevius method." 
 When I asked him what he understood by the Nevius 
 method, both he and Dr. Owen of the London Mission an- 
 swered : "No paid native agents whatever." Substantially 
 the same answer was given in Tokio, Kioto, Chefoo, Tsing- 
 tau, Shanghai and Canton. It is unfortunate that an im- 
 pression prevails, in some missionary circles, that the boards 
 represented in the joint conference of the Foreign Missions 
 Boards of the United States and Canada are committed to 
 such a view. Dr. Nevius himself disclaimed it, for not only 
 did he employ a few helpers himself, but he said in his 
 "Methods of Mission Work," page 9: "I fully recognize the 
 fact that the employment and pay of native laborers is, under 
 suitable circumstances, legitimate and desirable; as much so 
 as the employment and pay of foreigners ; " and again, on 
 pages 95 and 96, he declared: "I should exceedingly regret 
 if the statement just made or any other statement in these 
 letters should be understood or construed as intimating that 
 the use of money in carrying on missionary work is not 
 legitimate." 
 
 The special merit of Dr. Nevius lies in the fact that, at a 
 time when foreign money was unquestionably too lavishly 
 employed, he appeared as a prophet of a new dispensation, 
 calling attention to the dangers which were involved and em- 
 phasizing the importance of educating the native Christians to 
 the duty of maintaining and extending the Gospel without ex- 
 pectation of pay from the foreigner. He did valuable service 
 in urging the minimum rather than the maximum use of funds 
 and in counselling greater reliance upon the Holy Spirit and 
 the inherent vitality of the Truth. The peculiar circumstan- 
 ces of his time and field probably led him to an extreme which 
 he himself might have modified if his life had been prolonged. 
 His book as a permanent guide to new missionaries is defec- 
 tive in that it does not adequately recognize the necessity for 
 the stated preaching of the Gospel by a properly trained minis- 
 try, and that, with all due prudence, foreign money may be wise- 
 ly employed to some extent in attaining that end. It is to be 
 regretted that the phrase "Nevius method" has come to be 
 used by many missionaries as if it were synonymous only 
 with this defect rather than with the really fundamental prin- 
 ciple of an economical and cautious expenditure of money. 
 
I40 
 
 When a missionary objects to the "Nevius method," it is 
 wise to ask him what he understands by that method. I us- 
 ually find that he means the undervaluing of educational work, 
 hostility to a settled ministry, and an absolute refusal to use 
 foreign money in the employment of native helpers. 
 
 But whatever differences of opinion there may be as to 
 what Dr. Nevius held and taught, it is important that the po- 
 sition of the Board should be more clearly understood. As 
 I understand that position, it is that one of the primary ob- 
 jects of missionary work is to establish in every land a self- 
 supporting, self-propagating and self-governing church. 
 Christianity is not to be exotic but indigenous. If China is to 
 be Christianized, there must be a Chinese church. To this 
 end, great care must be exercised in the use of foreign money. 
 Christians must be taught from the beginning that they should 
 support their own religious institutions, and that they are pri- 
 marily responsible for the propagation of the Gospel among 
 their countrymen. There is a legitimate use of foreign 
 money in the earlier stages of the work. Infancy must be 
 helped. The Board should make such appropriations as an 
 equitable distribution of funds will permit for the employment 
 of native evangelists and helpers. I do not believe that a 
 native pastor's salary should ever be fully paid by the Mis- 
 sion. Every organized body of Christians should contribute 
 something toward the support of their own work. Indeed, 
 the rule should be that organized churches should be self-sup- 
 porting. And yet it will sometimes be wise for the Mission 
 to give partial support for a time. But such assistance should 
 be with the distinct understanding that it is temporary, and 
 that the congregation will be expected to attain self-support 
 at the earliest practicable opportunity. 
 
 As far as possible, too, native evangelists and helpers 
 working among the heathen should be supported by the native 
 churches. Every congregation should be made to feel its re- 
 sponsibility for the evangelization of the neighboring villages, 
 and should assist in sending out men for that purpose. How- 
 ever, for a time at least, the Mission must provide a consid- 
 erable proportion of the cost of such work. But such helpers 
 should be as few as practicable. Their salaries should be 
 those which will enable them to live on or near the plane of 
 their community and which will be approved by their people. 
 They should not be allowed to get the impression that em- 
 ployment by the mission is their right, or that it is to be per- 
 manent, but, on the contrary, they should understand from 
 the outset that employment at the expense of mission funds 
 is temporary, and that the expectation of increase in salary 
 and of permanent support should be toward their own people 
 and not toward the Board. There must, of course, be due re- 
 
141 
 
 gard to local conditions, particularly in missions where the op- 
 posite policy was long pursued. Neither the missionary nor 
 the Board should suddenly or violently revolutionize in this 
 matter. Self-support cannot be attained by immediately dis- 
 charging all native helpers, or by so reducing the work that 
 nothing will be left to support. Change must be gradual, 
 and must be brought about by a due recognition of the de- 
 pendence of the Oriental, his poverty, his willingness to be 
 helped, and the tendency of human nature to move along the 
 line of least resistance by paying out money furnished by the 
 Board. The missionary should, therefore, kindly and wisely, 
 but firmly and persistently, keep pressure on the Chinese 
 Christians. 
 
 From this viewpoint, I have been very much gratified by 
 the efforts which many of our missionaries are already mak- 
 ing in these directions. They are pressing the policy of the 
 self-support of the native church with wisdom and energy. 
 For example, in the large Wei Hsien Station in the West 
 Shantung Mission the Missionaries insist that "as rapidly as 
 possible the Chinese shall support their own church work and 
 primary schools and shall help as far as practicable in the sup- 
 port of the higher schools. The churches shall support their 
 ministry. A church shall not be organized until there are 
 enough reliable members to assure material for elders and 
 deacons, such organization looking toward a more complete 
 control of local affairs than a state of unorganization admits 
 and opening the way to the support of an evangelist and ul- 
 timately of a pastor by their own efforts. The object is a 
 church organized with its own elders and deacons and sup- 
 porting its own pastor and congregational expenses, and to 
 this end, steady pressure is put upon the Christians both be- 
 fore and after organization to give as they are able." So 
 far as I can judge, most of our missionaries appreciate the 
 necessity for bringing the native churches and schools to 
 self-support and they are earnestly striving to do so. 
 
 On the other hand, there are missionaries in China who, 
 whatever their theories may be, are not practically press- 
 ing self-support as much as they ought, and are yielding 
 to a greater or less extent to the temptation to use money 
 with a freedom which their colleagues frankly deprecate. 
 
 My conferences with some of the Chinese pastors and el- 
 ders, moreover, clearly showed that, in spite of all that has 
 been said and done by the missionaries and the Board, the 
 native Christians do not yet clearly recognize their obligation 
 to support their own work. This was particularly noticeable 
 in my conference with the officers and leading members of 
 the Chinese churches in Shanghai. We spent four hours in de- 
 lightful and profitable intercourse. Addresses were made by 
 
four pastors, three elders and one deacon. I had previously- 
 sent word to the Chinese brethren that I should like to have 
 them present with freedom any subjects which were in their 
 hearts. Among the topics upon which they spoke were: "A 
 New Church Building for Hongkew," More Preachers for 
 China," Enlargement of Educational Work," and "The 
 Need of Increased Salaries for Native Preachers." The un- 
 dercurrent of all these addresses, as of several others, was 
 plainly financial expectation from the Board. I listened care- 
 fully but vainly for an indication that these excellent brethren 
 had realization of the responsibility of the Chinese churches 
 themselves to relieve the Board of the burden of their sup- 
 port. Their idea appeared to be that the way to get more 
 native preachers for China was for the Board to educate them 
 and pay them ; the way to enlarge the educational work was 
 for the Board to supply the funds ; the increase in the cost of 
 living was to be met by increased appropriations from New 
 York, etc., though the pastor of the Hongkew church said 
 that the people would only ask the Board for the land, the 
 people themselves erecting the edifice. The trend of their 
 remarks was the more significant because seven of the eight 
 speakers were graduates of our Hangchow and South Gate 
 Schools. I was impressed by their intelligence and devotion. 
 They were evidently men of more than ordinary worth of char- 
 acter. I knew that the Central China Missionjiad been faithful 
 in its inculcation of self-support. I did not, therefore, at the 
 time, and I do not now feel that any just criticism should lie 
 against the missionaries. Rather did the evening tend to 
 show the difficulty of convincing the Chinese that Christian- 
 ity is not the foreigner's religion ; that they do not become 
 the followers of the foreigner in espousing it, and that the 
 foreigner is not permanently responsible for supporting their 
 religious institutions. Evidently weary years must yet be 
 spent in persuading the Chinese not to look so steadfastly to 
 the Board for financial assistance, not to expect that every 
 increased expense must come from New York, but that, 
 while American Christians will continue to aid them, and 
 count it a privilege to do so, yet, if China is to be evangelized, 
 the responsibility must be more largely assumed by the 
 Chinese Christians themselves. 
 
 In educational and medical work, our buildings are not 
 architecturally so elaborate as those of some other Boards. 
 Indeed, I have sometimes felt that our structures are almost 
 cheap in comparison. But in the quality of work done, we 
 stand in the very front rank. I have repeatedly heard mis- 
 sionaries of other boards speak in the highest terms of our 
 institutions. I have already discussed the needs of Teng- 
 chow College, and there are boarding schools which should 
 
143 
 
 also be strengthened. While we must guard against spend- 
 ing a disproportionate amount of strength and money upon 
 educational work, and while we should steadfastly refuse to 
 weaken the evangelistic work in the interest of the institu- 
 tional, we should, nevertheless, realize that the time has come 
 in China for developing Christian schools, and that their in- 
 fluence will be incomparably greater in the future than it has 
 been in the past. We cannot ignore this demand if we ex- 
 pect Christianity to vitally influence this great Empire. 
 
 In literary work, also, our missionaries are second to 
 none. In conversing with men of other boards, I have fre- 
 quently heard warmly appreciative testimony to the scholar- 
 ship and ability of Presbyterian missionaries. Any interde- 
 nominational committee on a literary or educational matter 
 is certain to include Presbyterians, while frequently we furnish 
 the chairman. The fame of some of our missionaries in this 
 respect is deservedly great in China. 
 
 This is a phase of missionary effort upon which even 
 greater emphasis should now be laid. I feel more strongly 
 than ever the vital necessity of the direct preaching of the 
 Gospel. Nothing can possibly take the place of that. And 
 yet we have not, perhaps, sufficiently realized that the Chinese 
 are a nation of writers rather than speakers. They are not 
 so much accustomed as Western nations to public discourse. 
 The priests of the native religions do not preach. The presen- 
 tation of truth in oral discourse is something that is compar- 
 atively new and strange in China, and it is much more diffi- 
 cult to influence people in that w^ay than it is in England and 
 America. The Chinese are pre-eminently a people of books. 
 Buddhism converted them, not by preaching, but by litera- 
 ture. Above all other nations they exalt learning. The 
 printed essay, the distributed pamphlet, the proclamation 
 posted on the wall, are the common means of disseminating 
 ideas. If Christianity is to supersede Buddhism and Con- 
 fucianism, it must make a larger use of this method of 
 promulgating Scripture truth. 
 
 This does not mean that every missionary should turn 
 from other work to prepare books and tracts. Abroad as 
 well as at home, comparatively few men are fitted for this 
 work, and comparatively few are required for it. The mis- 
 sions should be more insistent than ever that no one should 
 be allowed to sacrifice assigned missionary work to literary 
 efl^orts without the express approval of the mission. In this 
 connection it should be noted that the " Society for the Dif- 
 fusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the 
 Chinese " is doing much to widen the intellectual horizon of 
 the Chinese and to prepare their minds for the reception of 
 the Gospel. 
 
144 
 
 Under the general subject of literary work falls our Mis- 
 sion Press in Shanghai. It is a magnificent institution. I 
 have been at some pains not only to personally examine it 
 and to confer with Mr. Fitch and his associates, but to make 
 inquiries regarding it of missionaries of other boards, nota- 
 bly the agents of the Bible Societies. The testimony is unani- 
 mous that the Press does the best work in China, and that its 
 influence for good is mighty as it is far-reaching. Its annual 
 output for the year exceeds a million and a quarter copies, 
 comprising about seventy million pages. 
 
 In addition to this publishing work, there is a large and 
 rapidly growing supply trade in printing paper, stationery, 
 ink, books, magazines, blank books, type-casting, stereotypes, 
 school supplies, etc. These are sent to all parts of China 
 and to Korea. Other denominational presses in China, such 
 as the Methodist Press in Foo Chow, obtain their supplies 
 largely at our Press, while it is the general depository of the 
 Chinese Tract Society, the Diffusion Society and the Educa- 
 tional Association of China. 
 
 At the last rendering of account, the Press had in godown 
 books and tracts of the Chinese Tract Society to the 
 value of $14,176; of the Educational Association, $14,982, 
 and of the Diffusion Society, $8,322. Of our own stock we 
 had $42,562. Besides these there were many books sent to 
 be sold on commission. The above sums up over $80,000. 
 The ledger balance for December 31st, which Mr. Fitch 
 showed me, contained 996 open accounts, besides separate 
 magazine and paper book accounts. Sundry debtors owed 
 $28,245.67, and sundry creditors called for $8,753.07. Mr. 
 Fitch says : " It is very rare that we have to write off any- 
 thing as a bad debt." Besides the societies above mentioned, 
 printing was being done during my visit for the American 
 Bible Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the 
 American Baptist Mission at Swatow, the Berlin Mission at 
 Tsingtau, the American Episcopal Mission, both the Northern 
 and the Southern Methodist Episcopal Missions, the Christian 
 Mission, the Medical Missionary Association, the Christian 
 Endeavor Society of Nagasaki, besides various local jobs. 
 Three fonts of Chinese types were being cast for Korea, and 
 a half font for the American Board Mission at Foochow, 
 while a font had just been finished for Singapore. One hun- 
 dred and twelve Chinese workmen were employed. Before 
 the Boxer outbreak the number was 130. 
 
 While I knew before I came to Shanghai that our plant 
 was inadequate, I confess that I was unprepared for the nar- 
 row, congested quarters which I found. It is not to our 
 credit that we have not before this given the most important 
 mission press in the world a more suitable plant. This need, 
 
145 
 
 however, the Board has already met by advancing: $20,000, 
 gold, as a " loan to be repaid to the Board out of the earn- 
 ings of the Press within a period of ten years." Property in 
 that part of the foreign settlement where the Press is located 
 has now become so expensive that it is impracticable to make 
 the needed enlargement there, so that an admirably located 
 tract has been obtained in the outskirts of the city, and it is 
 proposed to transfer to that site all the manufacturing part 
 of the business, leaving in the present quarters the offices, 
 salesroom, etc. This will be a great improvement. The 
 Press can now do its own binding, which, up to this time, it 
 has had to give out to native firms at no small disadvantage; 
 while the increased equipment will enable it to more ade- 
 quately care for its large and growing business. Up to this 
 lime, the Press has not been able to accept half the business 
 that it might have had. 
 
 The most serious perplexity in connection with the Press 
 arises from the competition of native establishments. This 
 competition is partly in Shanghai itself. The Chinese are 
 rapidly learning the printer's trade, and it is as difficult to 
 compete with them in this business as in others. The manage- 
 ment of some of the best of these native presses are former 
 employees of our own Mission. One establishment in par- 
 ticular, on the same street and only a few doors away, is 
 under the management of native Christians. Their relation 
 to our Press is very friendly. Our missionaries are naturally, 
 glad to find that the native Christians are manifesting such 
 energy, self-reliance and skill in business matters, and as the 
 years pass, we must expect increasing competition of this 
 kind. Thus far, the Chinese establishments do not equal our 
 Press in the grade of work, but in this respect also they will 
 probably improve. 
 
 The most serious competition, however, is with Japan. 
 The agents of the British and Foreign and the American 
 Bible Societies informed me that, while they would be glad 
 to give a larger part of their work to our Press, we have not, 
 thus far, been able to do it. The output of each of those 
 societies far exceeds the total of our Press. Moreover, the 
 Bible Society agents find that, even after paying transporta- 
 tion charges both ways, they can get their work done in Japan 
 very much cheaper than our Press can do it in Shanghai. 
 Dr. Hykes says that the saving is sometimes as much as 
 one-half. Of course, the Bible Societies feel obliged to take 
 advantage of such a saving. 
 
 I find that our Press is not peculiar in this respect among 
 the presses of China. No press, native or foreign, in Shang- 
 hai or in any other Chinese city, is able to compete with the 
 Japanese presses. The Japanese are quicker and more adept 
 
146 
 
 in mechanical work than the Chinese. The printing establish- 
 ments in Japan are on a larger plan, a few of them being 
 among the very largest in the world, and by doing their 
 work on so extensive a scale and by the use of the very best 
 and most carefully selected foreign machinery, they are able 
 to underbid Chinese establishments in much the same way 
 that a trust in America can obtain advantages over lesser 
 plants. Moreover, the Japanese employers use child labor, 
 put men over them as guards are placed over convicts in a 
 penitentiary workshop, pay starvation wages, and force an 
 amount of work out of their employees that Christian mission- 
 aries cannot conscientiously imitate. It is difficult, therefore, 
 to see how this competition can be successfully met, though 
 it is probable that the rapid rise of wages in Japan will in 
 time partially equalize the difference, as wages in Shanghai' 
 are believed to be about as high as they are likely to become. 
 However, a large amount of work, particularly of the 
 higher grades, will always have to be done in Shanghai. As 
 no other establishment can compete with ours in the quality 
 of the work done, as we are now about to do our own bind- 
 ing as well as our own printing, as the new plant will give 
 increased facilities, and as there is the large and rapidly 
 growing supply trade to which I have already referred, it is 
 probable that our Press will always have all the work that it 
 can possibly do. Though we shall continue to lose some 
 printing on account of the competition of Japanese and 
 Chinese presses, our Press will be in the coming days, as it 
 has been in the past, an increasing powder in the dissemination 
 of Christian literature. I do not believe, therefore, that we 
 have any reason to fear for its future. 
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 I have discussed this subject with all the foreigners I 
 have met, and with many Chinese oificials. The latter, in 
 every case, suavely assured me that there would be no further 
 trouble. It would not be wise to presume too far upon such 
 promises. I attach more weight, however, to the words of 
 Governor Yuan Shih Kai. He is probably the ablest and 
 most reliable high Chinese official in the empire. His power 
 is great, and he has shown himself friendly to missionaries 
 in such effective ways that it would be ungracious to doubt 
 him. He personally told me that foreigners would be safe 
 in Shantung as long as he controlled it. He has written to 
 the missionaries : "I purpose hereafter to have lasting peace. 
 * * * Everywhere it is now quiet. The missionaries of 
 France, Germany and other nations have returned to the 
 interior to preach as formerly. If you reverend sirs, wish to 
 return to the interior I would beg you first give me word 
 
147 
 
 that I may most certainly order the military everywhere to 
 most carefully protect and escort." 
 
 Not content with this, he has widely published the follow- 
 ing regulations for the warning and instruction of the Chinese: 
 
 " 1. In order to protect foreigners from violence and all 
 mission property from burning and other destruction, all civil 
 and military oiiticials with all their subordinates (including 
 literati, constables, village elders, et al.), must use their 
 utmost endeavors to nisure their protection. Persons refus- 
 ing to submit to oilficials 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. 
 
 " 2. 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. 
 
 " 3. Whoever succeeds in capturing and delivering to the 
 officials a ringleader in these anti-foreign gangs shall receive 
 a reward of 200 taels ($150), the same reward to be given 
 to any one capturing five of the ordinary offenders. To 
 furnish accurate informarion leading to the capture of a ring- 
 leader entitles the informer to 100 taels. 
 
 "4. Whenever a missionary is traveling through the 
 country the civil officials, whether previously informed or 
 not, conjointly with the military officials, must carefully 
 protect and escort him stage by stage, and by no means 
 excuse themselves from fulfilling these obligations. 
 
 "5. 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. 
 
 "6. 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 them- 
 selves to the yamen and make good all losses. The consta- 
 bles of such villages shall be severely dealt with and expell- 
 ed from office forever. 
 
 "7. In case of an off'ender in matters above mentioned 
 concealing himself in a village, whether his native or neigh- 
 boring village, the elders and constables of such village shall 
 be dealt with according to the law regulating the conceal- 
 ment of robbers ; and in case such offender escapes from 
 
148 
 
 said village these constables, et al., shall be imprisoned until 
 the offender is delivered to justice. 
 
 " 8. All civil and military officials in whose districts none 
 of these offences 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. 
 
 " 9. Rewards will also be given to village elders and 
 constables in whose district no disturbance occurs. For one 
 year's freedom from such disturbances they shall receive 
 rewards to be determined by their local officials, and for three 
 years' such merit they shall receive a tablet of merit and a 
 button. 
 
 "10. All who unknowingly acquired goods stolen from 
 mission premises are advised to return the same at once 
 to the local official in order to avoid further trouble ; but 
 those who knowingly procure such and refuse to return them 
 shall be dealt with even more severely than those who or- 
 dinarily acquire stolen property from thieves." 
 
 But while foreigners have just confidence in the great 
 Governor of Shantung, they say that there is no certainty of 
 his long continuance in his present post, and that one official, 
 however powerful, cannot control national conditions. Since 
 this Report was first written, Governor Yuan Shih Kai has 
 been appointed Viceroy of Chihli, in succession to Li Hung 
 Ghang, a merited honor, which, though it removes him from 
 Shantung, increases his power. 
 
 It is the general opinion that the Chinese have learned 
 little from recent events except bitter hatred of the alien. 
 Only one province, Chihli, has felt the vengeance of the 
 foreigner. There the punishment has been severe. The 
 Tientsin Tao-tai has been beheaded, the city wall has been 
 razed to the ground and a roadway made where it stood — an 
 unspeakable humiliation to the proud commercial metropolis. 
 The Japanese soldiers tease the citizens by telling them that 
 "a city without a wall is like a woman without clothes," and 
 the people keenly feel the shame implied in the taunt. 
 
 In Paotingfu the Provincial Treasurer, the Manchu Com- 
 mandant and the Colonel of the Chinese Imperial Regiment 
 stationed there have been beheaded. The splendid official 
 temple of the patron deity of the city has been demolished, 
 and all the gate and wall towers, save two small ones, have 
 been blown up. 
 
 In Peking the ruin is pitiable. True, the city, as a whole, 
 is not as badly injured as I had expected to find it, but the 
 ravages of war are evident enough. Wrecked shops, crum- 
 bled houses, shell-pierced walls are painfully numerous, 
 while the most sacred places to a Chinese and a Manchu have 
 been profaned. At other times the Purple Forbidden City, 
 
149 
 
 the Winter and Summer Palaces, the Temple of Heaven and 
 kindred Imperial enclosures are inaccessible to the foreigner. 
 But an easily secured pass from the military authorities 
 opened to us every door. We walked freely through all the 
 spacious grounds and into all the famous buildings — the 
 throne rooms which the highest Chinese official can approach 
 only upon his knees and with his face abjectly on the stone 
 pavement — the private apartments of the Emperor and the 
 Empress Dowager, which, by the way, are not as comfortable 
 as those of many a moderately wealthy American, and the 
 great circular altar of the Temple of Heaven, where the 
 Emperor worships alone and in solemn state at the winter 
 solstice. Because Viceroy Li Hung Chang secured permission 
 for General Grant to visit this venerated sanctuary, when the 
 great warrior was in Peking during his tour around the 
 world, the people raised a furious clamor. But while I calm- 
 ly photographed the sacred places, a regiment of British 
 Sikhs lounged under the ancient trees, picketed cavalry 
 horses nibbled the uncut grass and clumsy quartermaster's 
 carts stood in long rows bej^ond. 
 
 The vandalism of the conquerors has been shameful. It 
 was, of course, inevitable that much havoc should have been 
 wrought by the fighting and the fires. It was necessary that 
 supplies for half-naked and famished besieged thousands 
 should be taken from deserted grain and clothing shops. It 
 was expedient that certain public buildings should be de- 
 stroyed by order of the allied generals as a warning for the 
 future. But why were soldiers and thieves allowed to steal 
 the bric-a-brac and furniture and break the mirrors of the 
 Emperor's personal apartments, to wantonly shatter beauti- 
 ful columns, deface rare works of art, punch holes in gilded 
 statues, tip over the noble bronze statue of Buddha in the 
 temple which crowns the summit of the hill at the Summer 
 Palace, and with malicious pains smash the heads of thous- 
 ands of exquisitely carved figures and lions ? The world is 
 poorer for some of this havoc, and it will be a generation 
 before it can be remedied, if, indeed, the edifices are ever 
 restored to their former beauty. The Rev. Dr. Arthur H. 
 Smith writes : 
 
 "Bating all exaggerations, it remains true that scores of 
 walled cities have been visited by armed bodies of foreign 
 soldiers, the district Magistrate — and sometimes the Prefect 
 — held up and bullied to force him to pay a large sum of 
 mone3^ with no other reason than the imperative demand 
 and the threat of dire consequences on refusal. In one case 
 the Russians kidnapped the Prefect of Yung P'ing Fu and 
 carried him oflE to Port Arthur. At Ting Chou the French 
 did the same to the sub-Prefect, the only energetic Magistrate 
 
ISO 
 
 in all that region, bearing him in triumph to Paotingfu and 
 leaving the district to Boxers and to chaos. At Ts'ang Chou 
 the Germans came in force, looted the yamen of General Mei, 
 the only Chinese officer of rank who had been constantly 
 fighting and destroying Boxers for nearly a year, drove him 
 away and released all the Boxer prisoners in the jails of the 
 city, plundering the yamen of the friendly and efficient sub- 
 Prefect who had saved the lives of the foreign families close 
 by the city. Is it any wonder that General Mei complained 
 that ' on eight sides he had no face left,' and that it is now 
 no longer safe for any foreigner to travel in Chihli at a dis- 
 tance from the military outposts?" 
 
 And what shall we say of the atrocities committed by the 
 troops of the allied armies in China last summer? Bishop 
 D. H. Moore, of the Methodist Church, wrote: "You can 
 hardly form any conception of the exposure and hardships 
 under any but the American and Japanese flags. The 
 English have scarcely any but the Sikhs, who are lustful and 
 lootful to a degree. The Russians are brutal and Germans 
 deserve their reputation for brutality. With Lowry and 
 Hobart, I responded to the agonizing appeal of a husband to 
 drive out a German corporal who, on duty and armed, had 
 run him off and was mistreating his wife. The instance is 
 but one of hundreds of daily occurrence. The French are 
 very devils at this sort of outrage. On the advance to 
 Peking, beyond Tungchow, they found married families — 
 men, women and children — cowering in barges on the canal 
 and volleyed into them. Every man, every cart, every boat 
 must fly a flag. Coolies are cruelly impressed and often 
 cruelly mistreated. On one side of the street the Germans 
 are in authority; on the other side the Americans. The one 
 is deserted, the other is a hive. The great Christian nations 
 of the world are being represented in China by robbing, rap- 
 ine, looting soldiery. This is part of China's punishment; 
 but what will she think of Christianity? Of course, our 
 soldiers are the best behaved ; but there are desperate char- 
 acters in every army." 
 
 The Japan Weekly Mail says : " It sends a thrill of horror 
 through every white man's bosom to learn that forty mission- 
 ary women and twenty-five little children were butchered by 
 the Boxers. But in Tung Chou alone, a city where the 
 Chinese made no resistance and where there was no fighting, 
 five hundred and seventy-three Chinese women of the upper 
 classes committed suicide rather than survive the indignities 
 they had suffered. Women of the lower classes fared 
 similarly at the hands of the soldiers, but were not unwilling 
 to survive their shame. With what show of consistency is 
 the Occident to denounce the barbarity of the Chinese, when 
 
Occidental soldiers go to China and perpetrate the very acts 
 which constitute the very basis of barbarity ? " And when I 
 asked the Rev. Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, for many years a missionary 
 of the American Board in Tung Chou, whether this statement 
 was accurate, he replied that it was not only true, but that it 
 was an understatement of the truth. The New York limes 
 declares that every outrage perpetrated on foreigners in 
 China has been repaid tenfold by the brutalities perpetrated 
 by the allied armies. " It is," adds the editor, " simply 
 monstrous that the armies of Christian nations, sent out to 
 punish barbarism and protect the rights of foreigners in 
 China, should themselves be guilty of barbarism. Revenge 
 has been accompanied by mean and cruel and flagrant rob- 
 bery. The story is one to fill all rational minds with disgust 
 and shame." 
 
 Is it any wonder that the Chinese continue to hate for- 
 eigners ? How can we expect them to love us as long as 
 they cannot go through the foreign settlements to the Young 
 Men's Christian Association in Tientsin for fear of insult on 
 the notorious Taku Road, or walk the streets of Shanghai 
 without being daily subjected to violence from brutal white 
 men, or when, as in Peking, even respectable American 
 ladies, to say nothing of Chinese, cannot prudently ride out 
 except in closed carts, so great is the probability of indignity 
 at the hands of foreign soldiers. As an American citizen, I 
 am thankful that our American troops conducted themselves 
 more decently. 
 
 Nor am I ashamed of the policy of our Government. I 
 am aware that a majority of the American citizens in China 
 believe that our national policy has been weak and short- 
 sighted. The missionaries speak highly of the kindness of 
 Minister Conger and the United States Consuls at Shanghai 
 and Canton, while everybody praises the magnificent energy 
 of Consul John Fowler, at Chefoo, who is only now begin- 
 ning to receive the credit that is justly his due. But I have 
 been repeatedly told that our Government did not appear to 
 realize that there were any other American citizens or prop- 
 erties in China than those in the Peking Legation ; that it did 
 absolutely nothing to rescue its citizens in the prefecture of 
 Paotingfu and the Province of Shansi ; that, while we con- 
 demn the policy of the European Powers, we have been for 
 years sponging benefits secured by them for all foreigners, 
 and that, if it were not for their control of the situation, not 
 an American could live in China to-day. The opinion is 
 well-nigh universal here that the Washington Administration 
 has been too much influenced by the astute Chinese Minister, 
 Wu Ting Fang, who is believed to be an adept in "the ways 
 that are dark and the tricks that are vain," and whose sue- 
 
^52 
 
 cess in " hoodwinking the Government and people of the 
 United States" make the average foreigner in the Far East 
 devoutly wish, with good old Bishop Cox, that some one 
 would compose a form of sound words suitable for the use 
 of pious men in circumstances of great provocation. The 
 men who criticize our nation's polic}' do not want revenge or 
 cruelty, and they deplore as greatly as any one the atrocities 
 perpetrated by the European troops and the selfishness and 
 avarice which apparently dictate European policy. But they 
 do want America to more adequately realize its responsibili- 
 ties in China ; to protect its citizens irrespective of their oc- 
 cupations, so long as their occupations are legitimate, and 
 to abandon the idea that it can escape its duty in and toward 
 China on Cain's plea that we are not our " brother's 
 keeper." 
 
 Though I confess that I am not able to satisfactorily ex- 
 plain the course of our Government in some important de- 
 tails, I cannot endorse all those criticisms. During the dark 
 days of the siege, I was, as secretary for North China, 
 brought into frequent correspondence with President McKinley 
 and Secretary of State Hay, and I vividly and gratefully re- 
 member the sympathy and co-operation which they invariably 
 gave me. They were as anxious as anyone, and tried to do 
 their best in circumstances new, strange and of extraordinary 
 difficulty. As for the Chinese Minister to the United States, 
 of course he did what he could to " save face " for his coun- 
 try. That was an essential part of his duty. But while we 
 cannot always agree with him, we should, as friends of China, 
 recognize the fact that by his ability and tact, he has largely 
 increased popular interest in and respect for the Chinese 
 people. Taking our Government's policy as a w^hole, I be- 
 lieve that it has been more in accord with Christian princi- 
 ples than that of any other nation. If our Government has 
 erred in trusting the Chinese too much, that is at least bet- 
 ter than erring by trusting them too little. If it has failed 
 to do all for its own citizens that it ought to have done, it 
 has not wronged or humiliated the Chinese. There is no 
 blood of Chinese women and children on American hands ; 
 no record of outrage and iniquity blackens the page on which 
 the American part of the Boxer outbreak will be written. If 
 our nation has been unjust to any, it has been to its own. 
 Generations will pass before the northern provinces will for- 
 get the bitterness of resentment which they now feel toward 
 the European Powers. But already they are beginning to 
 understand that the Americans are their friends ; that we do 
 not seek territory ; that we will not be a party to extortion ; 
 that we do not want to destroy her but to save her; that our 
 object is not to rule her, but to fit her to rule herself, and 
 
153 
 
 that we desire only freedom to peacefully trade and to com- 
 municate those ideas of religion which we ourselves origin- 
 ally received from the Far East, which have brought to us 
 inestimable blessings, and which will, in China as in Amer- 
 ica, result in the truest happiness and the purest character 
 for the individual, and the most stable institutions and gen- 
 uine greatness of the nation. 
 
 But America is not prominent enough in China to make 
 her example a determinate factor in the attitude of the nation 
 toward foreigners, nor are the people likely to discriminate 
 in favor of a few Americans among the hosts of aggressive, 
 grasping, domineering Europeans. On all sides, too, I am 
 told that while the Chihli Province feels the awful force of its 
 punishment, the reactionary oificials and the nation as a whole 
 are unmoved. Nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thous- 
 and Chinese hear only what their scholars and officials tell 
 them, and those worthies are careful to adjust the account to 
 suit their own purposes, and to save the national "face." 
 They blandly assure the credulous people that the foreign 
 armies did not follow the court because they dared not; that 
 the alien troops are leaving the capital because they are be- 
 ing driven out by Chinese patriots ; that the Boxers inflicted 
 crushing defeat upon their foes, etc. In Tsingtau the Ger- 
 mans are digging sewers, broad and deep, with laterals to 
 every house and public building, and the natives actually say 
 that these sewers are intended to be underground passage- 
 ways, down which the foreigners can flee to their boats when 
 they are assailed by the redoubtable Boxers ! 
 
 Chefoo is a city where foreigners have resided for forty 
 years, where there are consuls of all nations and extensive 
 business relations with other ports, where foreign steamers 
 daily arrive and depart, and where warships frequently lie. 
 There are five formidable cruisers here now. Surely the 
 Chinese of Chefoo should understand the situation. But dur- 
 ing the troubles of 1860 French troops were quartered here, 
 and their conduct was so atrociously brutal and lustful that 
 Chefoo has ever since been bitterly anti-foreign. The Pres- 
 byterian missionaries have repeatedly tried to do Christian 
 work in the old walled city, but have never succeeded in 
 gaining a foothold, and all their local missionary work is 
 confined to the numerous population which has come from 
 other parts of the province and settled around Chefoo proper. 
 Nothing but battleships in the harbor kept that old city from 
 attacking foreigners last summer. This spring the cry "kill, 
 kill" was raised as a foreigner walked through the streets, 
 and only last week inflammatory placards were posted on the 
 w^alls, while word has just arrived that within a day's journey 
 of the German headquarters at Tsingtau the populace is 
 angrily protesting against the recent increase of taxes. 
 
154 
 
 Nevertheless, the future is not necessarily so doubtful as 
 the present temper of the people might indicate. To a great- 
 er extent than any other people the Chinese are led by their 
 officials, and some of the high officials have learned that 
 massacres of foreigners result in the coming of more for- 
 eigners, in the capture and destruction of cities, in humiliat- 
 ing terms of peace, in heavy indemnities and large conces- 
 sions of territory and in the degradation and perhaps the ex- 
 ecution of the magistrates within whose jurisdiction the 
 tumult occurs. 
 
 In my tour through the interior of the Shantung and 
 Chihli provinces, the magistrates appeared to be almost ner- 
 vously anxious that no mishap should befall me. I had sent 
 no announcement of my coming to any one except my mis- 
 sionary friends, nor had I asked for any favor or protection 
 save the usual passport through the United States Consul. 
 But the first Tao-tai I met politely inquired about my 
 route, and, as I afterward learned, sent word to the next mag- 
 istrate. He in turn forwarded the word to the one beyond, 
 and so on throughout the whole trip. As we approached 
 a city, uniformed attendants from the chief magistrate's 
 yamen met us and escorted us, sometimes with much 
 display of banners and trumpets and armed guards, to an inn 
 which had been prepared for our reception by having a little 
 of its dirt swept into the corners and a few of its bugs killed. 
 Then would come a feast of from fifteen to thirty courses 
 of Chinese delicacies, some of which I found very good. A 
 call from the magistrate himself followed, and he chatted 
 amicably while great crowds stood silently about. Not for a 
 moment, day or night, were we out of the sight of soldiers. 
 If we took a walk about a village they followed us. Eating, 
 sleeping or traveling, we were always watched. Several 
 times we tried to escape such espionage, or to induce the 
 soldiers to turn back. We did not feel our need of them, 
 nor did I desire my peaceful mission to be associated with a 
 military display. Besides, if hostility should be manifested, 
 a dozen Chinese soldiers would be of little avail among those 
 swarming millions. But our efiforts and protests were vain. 
 Each official was determined to make it plain that he was 
 doing his duty in trying to protect these foreigners, so that 
 if they got hurt it would not be his fault. Perhaps, too, he 
 was not averse to showing the populace that foreigners had 
 to be guarded. I was half-ashamed to travel in that way. 
 But I could not help myself. 
 
 Whether any attack would have been made if I had been 
 allowed to journey quietly with my one or two missionary 
 companions, I am not competent to judge. Foreigners, who 
 have lived many years in China told me before starting 
 
155 
 
 that my life would not be safe beyond rifle shot. They have 
 told me since that the profuse attentions I received were 
 mere pretense ; that the very officials who welcomed me as 
 an honored guest probably cursed my race as soon as my 
 back was turned, and that, if the people had not understood 
 from the presence of the troops and from the magistrate's 
 marked personal attentions, that I was not to be molested, 
 my wife would probably have had a chance to collect my life 
 insurance. The views of such experienced men are not to 
 be lightly set aside. 
 
 All I can say is that on these suppositions the Chinese 
 are masters of the art of dissimulation, for in all my journey- 
 ings through the very heart of the region where the Boxers 
 originated, and where the anti-foreign hatred is said to be 
 bitterest, I saw not the faintest sign of unfriendliness. The 
 typical official received me with the courtesy of a " gentle- 
 man of the old school." The vast throngs which quickly 
 assembled at every stopping place, while silent, were respect- 
 ful. We tried to behave decently ourselves, to speak kindly 
 to every man, to pay fair prices for what we bought ; in 
 short, to act just as we would have acted in America. And 
 every man to whom I smiled, smiled in return. Wherever 
 we asked a civil question we got a civil answer. Coolies 
 would stop their barrows, farmers leave their fields to direct 
 us aright. In all my weeks of almost incessant traveling in 
 the interior, amid a population so dense that I constantly 
 marveled, I never heard a rude word, nor saw a hostile sign. 
 I naturally find it difficult to believe that those pleasant, 
 obliging people would have killed me if they had not been 
 restrained by their magistrates, and that the officials who 
 exerted themselves to show us all possible honor would have 
 gladly seen us murdered if they had dared. 
 
 And yet just one year ago these identical people were 
 angrily destroying the property and venomously seeking the 
 lives of foreigners who were as peaceably disposed as I am, 
 ruthlessly slaying not only men, but women who had never 
 done them wrong, but who had devoted their lives to teach- 
 ing the young and healing the sick and preaching the Gospel 
 of love and good will ; and the best-informed men I meet 
 here, from Sir Robert Hart down, are fearful that the end is 
 not yet, and that an official order might repeat the whole 
 bloody history. At a conference with forty representative 
 missionaries of all denominations in Shanghai, a very 
 large majority agreed with the Rev. Dr. Parker, of the 
 Southern Methodist Church, in the statement : " We are not 
 out of the trouble yet ; the reactionaries are in the minority, 
 but they are in power. They have learned nothing and they 
 will try again to drive us out unless the Powers unseat them 
 
156 
 
 and reinstate the Emperor and the Reform Party." Mean- 
 time, famine has brought the great Provinces of Shansi and 
 Shensi to such pitiable extremity that human flesh is being 
 openly sold for food. The Yungting River has overflowed 
 its banks in Chihli. The Yellow River, " China's Sorrow," 
 is again desolating wide areas in Shantung, and the flood in 
 the Yang-tse valley is said to be the most extensive known 
 for three-quarters of a century. Vast regions of the most 
 fertile and thickly populated part of the empire are at this 
 writing a continuous expanse of water, and the wretched in- 
 habitants, destitute and starving, are huddled in abject de- 
 spair on the higher ground beyond. Multitudes will be like 
 ravening wolves this winter. The three hundred missionaries 
 of all denominations who are spending their vacation at Ru- 
 ling, the mid-China mountain resort, are reported in the 
 Shanghai Daily News to be "'permeated by feelings of un- 
 certainty and distrust as to what the future holds in store. 
 Many fear unrest among the people in Central China on 
 account of the floods, and they are not satisfied with the out- 
 look for questions in the North." 
 
 It would be unwise to underestimate the gravity of the 
 situation, or to assume that the most numerous and con- 
 servative 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 conster- 
 nation when the barbarian hordes overran the Empire. We 
 do not know how long the disturbance will continue, nor 
 what further proportions it may assume. Already it has 
 brought the greatest peril to devoted men and women, as 
 well as the destruction of much valuable property. 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 furious struggle. Both 
 boards and missionaries must exercise great tact. It took 
 three hundred years to bring England from pagan barbarism 
 to Christian civilization, and China is vaster more and more 
 conservative than England. The world moves faster now, 
 and the change-producing forces of the present exceed those 
 of former centuries in mighty effectiveness as much as a 
 modern steam hammer exceeds the puny hand hammer of 
 old. But China is ponderous, and a few decades are short 
 for so gigantic a transformation. 
 
 The partition of her territory is possible. The Powers 
 do not want it now, partly because they fear that the result- 
 ant scramble would involve them in war with one another, 
 partly because they dread the uncertainties of direct ad- 
 
157 
 
 ministration of so huge and stubborn a population. So they 
 prefer their present policy of " spheres of influence." But if 
 partition should come it would only hasten the development 
 of those teeming millions of people, for foreign domination 
 would mean more railway, telegraph and steamship lines. 
 It would mean the opening of mines, the development of the 
 press, the domination of Western ideas. It would give the 
 missionaries readier access to every part of the Empire. And, 
 though China as a political organism might be divided, the 
 Chinese people would remain the most virile, industrious, 
 untiring people of Asia, and perhaps, after due tutelage, a 
 coming power of the world. 
 
 But trying and even awful as the period of transition may 
 be, the issue is not for a moment doubtful. Truth always 
 overcomes error. Progress invariably wins the victory over 
 blind conservatism. The higher civilization is sure to con- 
 quer the lower. With all its admixture of greed, selfishness 
 and violence, the fact remains that the forces operating on 
 China to-day include the vital regenerative element for the 
 world. We are not wise above what is written when we de- 
 clare that the eternal purpose of God comprehends China as 
 well as America. He did not create those four hundred mil- 
 lions of human beings to simply fertilize the soil in which 
 their bodies will lie. He has not preserved China as a nation 
 during these forty-eight centuries for nothing. Out of the 
 apparent wreck the order of a new dispensation will come — 
 is already coming. Frightened men thought that the fall of 
 Rome meant the end of the world, but we can now see that 
 it cleared the way for the Gospel. 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 further missionary work 
 in those countries, but in both they ushered in the most suc- 
 cessful era of missions. We have long felt that the barriers 
 which have separated China from the rest of the world must, 
 like the medieval wall of Tientsin, be cast down and over 
 them a highway for all men be made. We did not expect 
 the process to be so sudden and violent. But the hammer of 
 God is doing in months what would otherwise have taken 
 weary generations. Let us not be discouraged because the 
 air is still filled with the deafening tumult and the blinding 
 dust and the flying debris. Let us not lose heart and sound 
 a retreat because some ''of whom the world is not worthy" 
 have been crushed in the awful rending. But let us utilize 
 the new opportunity which is given us. Up to this time we 
 have been playing with foreign missions. It is now time for 
 
iS8 
 
 the Church of God to understand that its great work in the 
 new century is to plan this movement on a scale gigantic in 
 comparison with anything we have yet done, and, in a spirit 
 of the broadest Christian statesmanship, to intelligently, 
 adequately and prayerfully grapple with the stupehdous task 
 of Christianizing Asia. 
 
 But some are saying that this trouble has destroyed their 
 confidence in missionary work, and that we ought to abandon 
 the elTort to evangelize the Chinese. Many are aSking : 
 "Shall you send any more missionaries to China?" I reply: 
 "Shall we send any more merchants, any more consuls, any 
 more oil, flour, cotton ? Shall we continue our political and 
 commercial relations with China and discontinue our religious 
 relations ; allow the lower influences to flow on unchecked, 
 but withhold the spiritual forces which would purify politics 
 and commerce, which have made us what we are, and which 
 can alone regenerate the millions of China ? " 
 
 Is disaster a reason for withdrawal ? When our forefathers 
 found themselves involved in the horrors of the Revolution, 
 did they say that it would have been better to have remained 
 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 Harbor and Lawton 
 was killed in Luzon, did we demand withdrawal from Cuba 
 and the Phillipines ? When the gallant Liscum fell under 
 the walls of Tientsin, did we insist that our troops should be 
 recalled ? Or did not the American people, in every one of 
 these instances, find in the very agonies of struggle and de- 
 feat 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 run away 
 because the very troubles have occurred which Christ Him- 
 self predicted, for He frankly said that He came "not to send 
 peace, but a sword ; 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." Shall we abandon those myriads of 
 Chinese Christians in their hour of peril, leave the Christian 
 name to be disgraced, the rest of the mission property to be 
 destroyed, the work of weary years to be wholly undone ? 
 Suppose Christ had abandoned the effort to save men when 
 mobs threatened Him and the nation crucified Him ! 
 
159 
 
 At this solemn time, when we stand, as it were, in the 
 presence of the charred remains of our beloved dead at 
 Paotingfu and look upon our ruined stations and the frightful 
 persecutions of our Chinese Christians; and not only this, but 
 when we remember the savage beasts which tore the flesh of 
 the early disciples in the arenas of Nero, the hissing flames 
 which burned the bodies of a Savonarola, a Huss and a 
 Wiclif ; when we recall the catacombs of Rome, the pyres of 
 Smithfield, the dungeons of the Tolbooth and the thumb- 
 screws of the Inquisition, — I say by Paul's "Woe is me if I 
 preach the not Gospel," and Luther's "Here I stand, God help 
 me, I can do no other," aye, by the holy constraint of Him 
 whose sweet yet peremptory voice calls us to follow His 
 bleeding feet, we will — we must go on until all China has 
 learned of Christ. And I am persuaded that the Presbyterian 
 Church will say with us: "This is God's call for a forward 
 movement in China. We must send more missionaries, more 
 money, give every station an adecjuate equipment and press 
 the whole majestic enterprise with new faith and power." 
 
 But we are told that we shall not be allowed to go on ; 
 that one of the indispensable conditions of peace will be the 
 exclusion of missionaries from China, as neither China 
 nor the Powers will permit any further work of this kind. 
 On this point I venture three suggestions : 
 
 First — No administration that can ever be elected in 
 ' America will thus interfere with the liberty of the Church. 
 It will never say that arms manufacturing companies can 
 send representatives to Peking and breweries and distilleries 
 send drummers to Shanghai, but that the Church of God cannot 
 send intelligent, devoted 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 Tientsin and American prostitutes in Hankow 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 Board. The American missionary went to Asia be- 
 fore his Government did, and until recently he has seen very 
 little of the American flag. European nations have protect- 
 ed their citizens, whether they were missionaries or traders. 
 But in the United States Senate it has been said that " if our 
 citizens go to a far-distant country, semi-civilized and bitterly 
 opposed to their movements, we cannot follow them there 
 and protect them. They ought to come home." Is, then, 
 the missionary's business less legitimate than the trader's ? 
 Is a man entitled to the protection of his country if he goes 
 
i6o 
 
 to the Orient to sell opium and beer, but does he forfeit that 
 protection if he goes there to preach the Gospel of tem- 
 perance and peace ? In the United States Senate Mr. Frye 
 reminded the nation that about twenty years ago England sent 
 an army of 15,000 men down to the African coast, across 
 seven hundred 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 scepter of a king. And because of that repu- 
 tation 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 missionaries are endangered ? This is not a ques- 
 tion of " jingoism," whatever that may be. It is not a ciues- 
 tion of making unreasonable complaints to our own Govern- 
 ment. It is not a question of religion or of missions. It is 
 a question of treaties, of citizenship, of national honor 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 shall make such a demand in repudiation 
 of the treaties which she herself has expressly acknowledged 
 to be valid, and if all the Powers shall support her in that 
 demand, does anybody doubt what the missionary will say ? 
 He will reply : " I did not receive my commission from any 
 earthly potentate, but from the King of kings and Lord of 
 lords." He will' follow the example of Dr. Hamlin who, 
 when the Russian Minister in Constantinople haughtily said : 
 "My master, the Czar of all the Russias, will not let you put 
 foot on that territory, " replied, " My Master, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, will never ask the Czar of all the Russias where He 
 shall put His foot." He will say with Peter and John, who, 
 when scourged and forbidden to preach any more in the Name 
 of Jesus, friendless and penniless as they were, 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." Some 
 will say this is madness. So of old men said of Christ: "He 
 hath a demon." So they said of Paul: "Thou art beside 
 thyself." In these days of effeminate faith and self- 
 indulgent life, when some people think they cannot go to 
 church when it rains, and complain if they are asked to give the 
 price of a cigar to missions, let the world know that the mis- 
 
i6i 
 
 sionary of the Cross is still willing to suffer, and if need be, 
 to die for Jesus' sake. 
 
 Does any sane man imagine that the Church could cease 
 to be missionary and remain a church ? Politically, Benjamin 
 Kidd declares that Americans might as well face the utter 
 futility of any hypothesis based upon the supposition that 
 America can remain away from the Orient. The last three 
 years have made changes in America's relation to the world 
 which we can no more recall than we can alter the course of 
 the 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 the slavery of 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 moral 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 " Expul- 
 sive Power of a New Affection " enunciates a permanent 
 principle. When a man's soul is once thrilled with the con- 
 viction that Christ is his Saviour, he must declare that glori- 
 ous truth, 
 
 " To doubt would be disloyalty, 
 To falter would be sin." 
 
 Christ voiced the deepest and strongest forces of the regen- 
 erated human heart in that clear, ringing, categorical imper- 
 ative " Go ! " and go we must. 
 
 I confess to a feeling of impatience when I am told that 
 all our missionary plans for China must be contingent "upon 
 the settlement of political negotiations," " the overthrow of 
 the Empress Dowager and her reactionary advisers," "the 
 re-establishment of the Emperor on his rightful throne," 
 "the continuance in power of Governor Yuan Shih Kai," 
 "the maintenance of a strong foreign military and naval 
 force in China," " the thwarting of Russia's plans for suprem- 
 acy," etc. All these things have been said to me and more. 
 Are we then to despairingly resign our commission from 
 Jesus Christ and humbly ask a new one from Caesar? Not 
 so did the apostolic missionaries, and not so, I am persuaded, 
 wall their modern successors do. We cannot, indeed, be in- 
 different to the course of political events, or to their bearing 
 upon the missionary problem. But, on the other hand, we 
 cannot make our obedience to Christ and our duty to our fel- 
 lowmen dependent upon political considerations. To wait 
 until China is pacified by the Powers, or "until she is en- 
 
l62 
 
 lightened by the dissemination of truer conceptions of the 
 Western world," would be to abdicate our 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. I be- 
 lieve, with Kidd, that "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." 
 
 In the words of another : " It is not easy to exaggerate 
 the grandeur of the opportunity or the power of unfaithful- 
 ness. Let us realize this very great opportunity, and so go 
 forward. God grant that these things may be brought home 
 to us to-day, and that we may go forth as from the presence 
 of the Lord Himself, touched with the flame of the Holy 
 Spirit, not boasting of what we have done, but impressed 
 more and more with the thought that very much more yet 
 remaineth to be possessed, that the fields are everywhere 
 white unto harvest, and praying that God will quicken our 
 halting steps, will accept our offerings, and arise and do 
 great things by our humble means to the glory of His Holy 
 Name." 
 
 Arthur J. Brown. 
 Shanghai, China, 
 August, 1901. 
 Form No. 112. 
 
 Third Edition, 
 
 156 Fifth Ave., New York, 
 July, 1902. 
 
BW8240.B87 
 
 Report of a visitation of the China 
 
 ,'^,|'""'°"T,^ifolog'calSem,nary-Spee, 
 
 1 1012 00034 9748