J UN ir^ 1914 BV 3150 .E4 1913 Eddy, Sherwood, 1871-1963 The new era in Asia EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA THE NEW ERA IN ASIA Suggestions to Leaders and special denominational helps may be obtained by corresponding with the secretary ot your mission board or society. THE NEW ERA IN ASIA BY C^--:^^ SHERWOOD EDDY Author of India Anvakening V,' Fc o'rvsra^^rcx New York Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada 1913 COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA TO MY MOTHER CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction by Dr. John R. Mott . . . xi Preface xiii I The Renaissance of Asia i II The New Era in Japan 31 III The New Era in Korea 57 IV The New Era in China 85 V The New Era in China [Continued) . . .113 VI The New Era in India 137 VII The New Era in the Near East .... 163 VIII The New Era in World Missions .... 191 Index 219 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Provincial Parliament of Fukien . . . Frontispiece The Harbor of Osaka i8 Two Thousand Women at Professor Robertson's Lecture on Wireless Telegraphy, Foochow, 1913 .... 24 Speaker and Interpreter in the Osaka Y. M. C. A. . . 52 Pastor Kil of Ping Yang 72 Group of Political Prisoners 78 Temple of Heaven 108 C. T. Wang 118 Chang Po-ling 124 The Grave of Pitkin 126 William Carey 152 Bishop Azariah 160 Abdul Hamid H 170 Reading the Constitution in the Square at Monastir . 176 World Missionary Conference, United Free Church As- sembly Hall, Edinburgh 196 Syrian Conference on Unity, Serampur, 1913 ... 198 Map End INTRODUCTION The vast continent of Asia with its multitudinous population is in the midst of stupendous changes — changes political, educational, economic, social, and religious. From the Near East to the Far East one feels the thrill of a new life. The situation thus presented to the Christian Church is unprecedented in opportunity, in danger, and in urgency. This is the greatest single fact to be pressed upon the mind and conscience and will of Christendom. In this volume Mr. Sherwood Eddy has massed with compelling force the results of his personal in- vestigation, observation, and experience. His fifteen years of active work among the educated classes in all parts of the Indian Empire, and his recent re- markable journeys and campaigns in the near and in the extreme Orient, have given him an unexcelled opportunity to study the Christian problems in Asia and especially to understand the movements and tend- encies in Asia as a whole. John R. Mott. New York, N. Y., September jo, igij. PREFACE On the occasion of the inauguration of the present campaign of the Mission Boards of North America, a telegram was received by the writer, while in Japan, requesting the preparation of a manuscript on The New Era in Asia. The experiences of the evan- gelistic tour across Asia with Dr. John R. Mott in 1912-13, seemed to offer an especial advantage for the preparation of such a book, and one could hardly refuse to let the facts speak for themselves. Every year changes are taking place in the Orient, but on no preceding trip were there visible transformations so vast and far-reaching as during this past year. China had become a republic; Japan had made a distinct advance in constitutional government; Korea was adjusting herself to the new regime; the unrest in India was entering upon a new phase; and the Balkan war was changing the map of the Turkish Empire and affecting the Near East. The present awakening constitutes nothing less than a renaissance of Asia, and already there are signs of a moral and religious reformation that is to follow. When taken together, in their inner significance and with their cumulative force, the facts present a compelling chal- lenge to the Christian Church. Asia is passing through a period of fundamental reconstruction, and the molds into which she hardens HV Preface will determine her whole future life. The Renaissance and Reformation introduced a new era into Europe, the significance of which no one could have foreseen. The forms of national religion into which nations settled after the Reformation have been little changed since then. The present changes in Asia are in many ways more vast and fundamental than those which took place in Europe in the fifteenth century. The reconstruction of Asia in these decades is the most important issue the world has to face. Special thanks are due to Dr. T. H. P. Sailer for valuable suggestions and help received in preparing the manuscript; to Mr. Galen M. Fisher for help on the chapter on Japan, and Professor Harlan P. Beach on the chapter on China; to the Rev. Joseph K. Greene on Turkey and the Balkan war ; to Mr. W. B. Pettus and Mr. Charles H. Fahs for helpful criticism. Sherwood Eddy. New York, N. Y., July 21, igis. THE RENAISSANCE OF ASIA THE RENAISSANCE OF ASIA Decisive Pauline Voyage. During the recent war between Turkey and Italy we sailed one day through the gateway of the new world down the narrow strip of water that separates Europe from Asia. We had sailed through the ancient Hellespont, had passed the ancient plain of Troy, where Homer's heroes fought, and, further on, the site of the deserted harbor of Troas, where nineteen centuries ago the Apostle Paul crossed from the East to the West, with his trans- forming message for the new world. As we glanced northwestward over the waters we thought of the momentous voyage, when the apostle to the Gentiles, at the call of that man from Macedonia, " Come over and help us," launched out in the little sailing craft that was to bear him from the old world into the new. Little could he have dreamed, and as little does the writer of the Acts seem to realize, that in response to that epoch-making vision, St. Paul was passing not merely from one Roman province to another, but from Asia to Europe, from the ancient East to the newer West. What It Meant. When thrown into prison at Philippi, the first city of the district, he had little to show for his labor in the two or three insignificant 3 4 The New Era in Asia converts that had been gathered — an obscure Jewish woman, a demented Greek slave girl, a despised Ro- man jailer and his family; these few converts help- less and scattered, and the apostle in prison. The first foreign missionary venture to the West had ap- parently ended in failure. Yet, that first Christian woman meant a new womanhood for the West and for the world. That first slave freed meant a prin- ciple at work that should in time strike the last shackle from the last slave. That first family converted and feeble church founded meant the widening circles of the kingdom of God in the West, the leaven of a new power in life, the beginning of a Christian civilization in Europe. Three Great Words. What was the transforming gospel that this first missionary carried to the conti- nent of our savage ancestors? Any one of a hundred passages will epitomize the Christian message ; for ex- ample, John iii. i6 : " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieveth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." This single passage contains three new terms, three dynamic concepts, three great principles that must in time transform all life and found a new civili- zation. Those three terms are " God," " man," " life." A God of love, a self-sacrificing Father, who so loved that he gave; the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, revealed in the incarnation of his Son. Man, of infinite worth, worthy of such an infinite sacrifice, free to enter into a personal relation with the living God, responsible before the issues of life and death, The Renaissance of Asia 5 created to love and serve his fellow man. Life, eternal, capable of infinite development, realized in a personal relation through faith in Jesus Christ, who alone has given a new world of meaning to those great words, ''God," "man," and "life." Such was the good news which St. Paul and other Christian mes- sengers and missionaries carried to the West. On these principles the best in the Western world was built and by them it was transformed. Benjamin Kidd, in his Principles of Western Civilisation, as well as in his Social Evolution, shows that Western civilization at its best has been only the life history of Christianity; that a few millions of the least sig- nificant savage tribes of the West, the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon, when uplifted by Christianity soon came to comprise one-quarter of the white population of the world and to control nearly half the globe. The Asiatic Renaissance. During seven months of 1912-13 in a journey across Asia, including India, Burma, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, China, Korea, and Japan, the writer has been impressed with a great awakening that is sweeping over the whole of that vast continent of Asia. The same principles that cre- ated our Western civilization are at work to-day in the ancient East, bringing about the same great trans- formations there that they have wrought in the West. So vast and widespread is this awakening that it might well be called " The Renaissance of Asia." And yet it is more than this; it is an intellectual renaissance, a religious reformation, and a nineteenth century of scientific and industrial development all 6 The New Era in Asia combined. Greater in volume, in depth, and in power than the Renaissance of Europe five centuries ago, it may prove to be even greater in its significance also.^ The population of Europe in the fifteenth cen- tury was less than one hundred millions, while that of Asia to-day is over nine hundred millions, with more than twice the population of Europe, more than five times that of North and South America combined, half that of the habitable globe.^ Greater in rapidity than the awakening in the West, this combined re- naissance and reformation is crowding into decades in Asia what was the slow growth of centuries on the continent of Europe. The European Renaissance. To grasp its full significance, let us look back for a moment at the Renaissance of Europe during the fifteenth century. By the Renaissance we mean the whole transition from the middle age to the modern, that *' rebirth " to a new and larger life through the revival of learn- ing. The human mind, released from its long repres- sion, asserted itself in a new demand for liberty. The movement affected first thought, then politics, bring- ing unrest and war in the inevitable conflict of the new ideals of life with the old. A five-fold trans- formation of life swept all Europe, for this awaken- ing was at once political, intellectual, economic, social, and religious. 1 See " The Greater Renaissance," by Dr. T. H. P. Sailer, in All the World, April, 191 1. 2 The population of Europe in igio was 427,000,000 ; that of Asia, 959,000,000. (Compiled from the States7narCs Year Book, 1913.) The Renaissance of Asia 7 Political Scope. First of all, politically, following upon the decay of the Roman Empire, the medieval Church, and the feudal system, the new nations were knit together, breaking up into new national units, with the beginning of that process of the evolution of nationality, the development of patriotism, the de- mand for constitutional government, and the growth of military power, which came to final expression in the nineteenth century. The growth of nationality and individual freedom have been the main features of modern history ever since. Intellectual Range. Intellectually, with the new freedom of thought, men broke from the crushing restraints of medieval authority and absolutism. Schools, colleges, and universities were rapidly founded throughout Europe. The discovery of print- ing widened and extended the new revival of learning. New worlds were opened up by the compass of Co- lumbus and the telescope of Galileo. The substitu- tion of the Copernican system for the cumbersome, earth-centered Ptolemaic system of astronomy, gave a new center and true perspective to modern science. The use of gunpowder revolutionized the art of war, and as a great social leveler armed the common peo- ple with power. Economic Results. Economically, Europe passed from a simple agricultural to an industrial and com- mercial age, with the growth of the free cities, the development of trade and commerce, and a great stimulus to intercommunication, and the material en- richment of life. S The New Era in Asia Social Gains. Socially, with the new conception of divine Fatherhood, of human brotherhood, of the sacredness of life and the worth of the individual, came the development of a new democracy and the growth of the middle classes. A new individualism taught a new reverence for personality and the true worth of man. The meaning of manhood, the pre- ciousness of childhood, the worth of womanhood came gradually to be recognized. With this great move- ment toward humanism came the emancipation of man, the restoring of humanity to its birthright. Religious Reformation. Religiously, this move- ment culminated in the great Reformation, in the liberty of thought and conscience which produced the free nations of northern Europe. Asia's Awakening Politically. If we turn from the Renaissance of the fifteenth century in Europe to the greater renaissance of the twentieth century in Asia we shall find a striking parallel in each of these five phases of human life, and we shall find that the changes in Asia have been not only sudden but thoroughgoing. First of all, there is a great political awakening in Asia. There has been a rapid develop- ment of nationality, patriotism, constitutional govern- ment, and military power far exceeding the same de- velopment in Europe four centuries ago, both in its rapidity and extent. Japan the Pioneer and Inspirer. Japan, chiefly, led the way in the opening of the Far East. The opening of her doors to Commodore Perry's peaceful armada in 1853 destined the opening of all Asia. The The Renaissance of Asia 9 charter granted by the young Emperor in 1868, when he took the oath that the government should be ac- cording to pubUc opinion, that justice should be ad- ministered, and that knowledge should be sought throughout the whole world, was the birthday not only of Japanese but of Asiatic liberty, the Magna Charta of a new political era in the entire Orient. Japan's victory over China was really a victory for China as well as Japan, in that it destroyed the foundation of the old era and extended the political principles of the new. Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 was really a victory for the entire Eastern world. Not merely to her own advantage did Japan thus gain recognized equality among the great powers of the West. Within a month of the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth one stroke of the vermilion pencil of the Chinese Emperor had abolished the obsolete sys- tem of education in that empire and China had adopted the educational principles of the new era. The next year the Shah of Persia was compelled to grant a constitution to his people, and two years later the Young Turk Party brought on the revolu- tion in Turkey. The news of Japan's victory flashed like an electric spark across Asia and sent a thrill of hope through the eastern hemisphere. Nev^ Spirit from the West. An intense develop- ment of the spirit of nationalism and patriotism has swept through almost all the great peoples of Asia. This spirit has come to the East from the West. Not one of the great Oriental nations held this con- cept of patriotism, nor was there any word in most 10 The New Era in Asia of the Eastern languages to express it, until these ideas came with the great principles of Western civilization. The patriarchal family and state, and absolutism in government crushed out all possibility of true nationalism, but to-day what a change! And this new sense of nationalism in the peoples of the East is a fact of incalculable blessing and promise. The intellectual, the economic, the social, and even the religious developments of Europe were based upon the nationalism and liberty of the free peoples of the West. As Bishop Gore well says: "If 'the powers that be . . . are ordained of God,' then, as surely as the Roman Empire and the British Empire, so surely the democratic movement and the nationalist move- ment [of the . . . races in Japan, China, Africa, and Egypt] are ordained of God. ... It is only through faith in Christ that either movement can realize it- self." ^ . . . Extreme Patriotism of Japan. Japan is perhaps the most patriotic nation in the world. Indeed there is an over-emphasis of this intense and exclusive nationalism there that will be modified when a wider perspective of humanity is developed. The patriot- ism of Japan almost startles the traveler. In 1904 soldiers and officers wrote petitions in their own blood, asking for permission to go to the front to have a part in taking Port Arthur or to lead some desperate charge. Men often committed hara-kiri if they were not allowed to go to the war. A condemned criminal gave up his last dinner before his execution that he might give "^International Review of Missions, April, 1912, 274. The Renaissance of Asia ii the price of the meal thus saved to his country. The suicide of General Nogi by hara-kiri on the death of the Emperor called forth a deep and almost nation- wide response from the Japanese people, and showed at once the strength and danger of this exclusive na- tionalism. Its Recent Sweep in China. In books on China published before the Boxer war it was often stated that, although there was racial unity, there was no word for patriotism in the Chinese language and no conception of nationality among the people. We are told that many among the masses did not even hear the news of Japan's victory over China and that many of those who did hear cared nothing about it. Yet to-day a burning patriotism is sweeping through the students and the younger generation of China and extending rapidly even among the masses. The writer heard of many a student who had cut off a finger that he might, in his own blood, sign a petition to the throne for liberty. It was a strange sight to see student audiences in China with every cue gone and with them the whole conservatism of the past four thousand years suddenly cast away. Whole audiences rose with intense feeling to sing their new national anthem to the same tune as that of several of the great nations of the West. The widespread demand for a republic and the recent change of government was a striking evidence of the new spirit of national- ism and patriotism which has pervaded the Chinese people, and so strong is the demand for it to-day that, despite local disturbances, democratic and republican 12 The New Era in Asia government can probably never again be permanently overthrown in China. Its Strength in Korea and the Philippines. A generation ago patriotism was almost unknown in cor- rupt Korea, but a strong national feeling is now every- where manifested. In the Philippines, also, which showed almost no national consciousness under the Spanish government, political autonomy is now in- sistently demanded, and the people are restive even un- der the most rapid advances in self-government which the United States can give them. India's New Consciousness. The same burning patriotism has spread among the students of India. Indeed every student audience from Tokyo to Cal- cutta, from Shanghai to Constantinople, from Seoul to Bombay, shows the same deep national feeling, the same response to the national note. The point of con- tact to-day with the students throughout Asia is to be found in this deep national consciousness. They are at first little interested in individual salvation ; but to anything which concerns their nation and its wel- fare there is instant response. The students of India to-day are not reading the Vedas or the musings of the ancient Rishis or speculative philosophy, but they are reading Mill and Mazzini on liberty, they are in- terested in the American and French revolutions and in England's struggle for liberty. This developing national consciousness, which is slowly but surely pen- etrating the masses, will probably in time bring India to the position of a great self-governing mem- ber of the British empire, like Canada. The Renaissance of Asia 13 No Ground for Race Pride. It is sometimes lightly assumed that the white race is so inherently superior to all others that it can afford to leave them out of account. On this subject one of the leading American anthropologists, Professor Franz Boas, speaks as follows : '' We conclude, therefore, that the conditions for assimilation in ancient Europe were much more favorable than in those countries where in our times primitive people come into contact with civilization. Therefore we do not need to assume that the ancient Europeans were more gifted than other races which have not become exposed to the influences of civilization until recent times. (Garland, Ratzel.) ... In short, historical events appear to have been much more potent in leading races to civilization than their faculty, and it follows that achievements of races do not warrant us in assuming that one race is more highly gifted than the other. ... I hope the discussions contained in these pages have shown that the data of anthropology teach us a greater tolerance of forms of civilization different from our own, and that we should learn to look upon foreign races with greater sympathy, and with the conviction, that, as all races have contributed in the past to the cultural progress in one way or another, so they will be capable of advancing the interests of mankind, if we are only willing to give them a fair opportunity." ^ Asia's Awakening Intellectually. The intellectual awakening in Asia is even more marked than the ^ The Mind of Primitive Man, 13, 17, 288. 14 The New Era in Asia political. Just as Europe in the Renaissance drew her culture and her inspiration from the Greek and Latin classics and the wisdom of the East, Asia to-day is borrowing in her turn from Western education and Western science the same freedom of thought and emancipation of the mind. Japan's Phenomenal Advance. Within our own lifetime the Japanese have become a nation of readers. They claim to have more than ninety per cent, of their children of school-going age in their public schools. Japan issued books, under more new titles, last year than did either England or America, and her Era of Meiji, or Enlightenment, since 1868 has been a veritable renaissance. Startling New Departure in China. China's in- tellectual awakening has been even more startling than that of Japan. Reference has been made to the Im- perial Edict, which, a month after the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, swept away the ancient system of education and substituted a modern and Western system. China's scholars for two thousand years had had their eyes steadily fixed on a golden age of the past. Although they had performed titanic feats in memorizing whole volumes of their ancient classics, they did not know that the earth was round, they knew nothing of gravitation or of practical af- fairs. But now China has begun her modem educa- tion in earnest. Temples in many of the cities have been confiscated to accommodate the colleges or schools which are being founded more rapidly than buildings can be built for them. The ancient exami- The Renaissance of Asia 15 nation halls of the classic system are being torn down to build the new universities and parliament buildings. The number of modern government students in Pe- king in a decade rose from three hundred to seventeen thousand, and the pupils in the province surrounding, from two thousand to two hundred thousand. During a visit to a dozen of the cities in China the writer found from four thousand to twelve thousand stu- dents in each. The splendid buildings of the great normal schools rise in many cities, some having a thousand teachers in training; for China's new system when completed will call for nearly a million teachers. There is a thirst for modern education greater even than that formerly manifested for the old learning, when men of seventy or eighty years of age were seen still trying to pass the classic examinations. Even women's education is being rapidly advanced in China. Philippine Record of a Decade. The educational record of the Philippines also has been a brilliant one during a decade. In 1910-11 there were over six hundred thousand pupils in the schools, or more than one quarter of the two million children of school- going age. More than five hundred American teach- ers were carried in one shipload to the Philippines. A splendid system of industrial training, including farming, domestic science, and practical handicrafts, is giving the Filipinos a much needed industrial gos- pel. Education is free to all. Pupils have learned more English under a decade of American rule than Spanish in three centuries under the control of Spain. l6 The New Era in Asia Approximately one sixth of the entire revenue of the government is spent for education. Educational Progress in India. The revival of learning and the thirst for education are equally mani- fest in India. Not only are there more than thirty thousand students in the colleges and over six million children in the schools of India, but the growing and insistent demand for free and compulsory primary education is being steadily voiced by Indian political leaders, like Mr. Gokhale. Some one may object that the masses are not yet educated in India or China and that four fifths of the children in both countries are not as yet in school, that the farmers in the distant villages have not yet heard of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 or of Japan's victory over China ; but it is equally true that the masses were not educated in the re- naissance of Europe and indeed often did not even know of the existence of the revival of learning. Progress of the Press in Asia. The printing-press is extending this Oriental renaissance much more rapidly than it did the Occidental. Although the Chi- nese invented movable type five centuries before Gutenberg at Mainz, it was Robert Morrison, the missionary, who brought the first modern press to China. Her one permitted newspaper, the Imperial Gazette, for the officials, is now multiplied more than two hundred-fold. William Carey introduced the first printing-press and newspaper into India, where to-day three thousand five hundred newspapers and periodi- cals are issued from two thousand seven hundred presses. One mission press in Shanghai is publish- The Renaissance of Asia 17 ing a hundred million pages a year and the Beirut press to date has turned out over a billion pages in the heart of the Mohammedan world. The half mil- lion copies of a single Gospel sold in Korea in a year would exceed the number of Bibles sold in all Europe during the first century of the Renaissance. The four million Bibles, Testaments, and portions sold in China in a year would equal the number of Bibles in circulation in the entire world at the opening of the nineteenth century. Almost every great mission in Asia has its press, which is adding to the volume of new learning in the East. Asia's Economic Advance. The economic awak- ening of Asia is as clearly marked as the political and intellectual. During the latter half of the nineteenth century the trade of India increased four-fold and that of China six-fold. The trade of the Philippines doubled in a decade of American rule, while that of Japan has increased seven-fold in twenty years. But the twentieth century will see far greater develop- ments in the East than the nineteenth. The simple age of agriculture is giving way to one of industry, handicrafts to national commerce, and isolation to the new means of communication that are producing a new national and international consciousness. Based on the new sense of nationality in the renaissance of Europe, the free thought which led to the develop- ment of trade in England, France, and Holland, is producing the same economic development in Japan, China, and India to-day. The chimneys of the great factories of Osaka and Calcutta tower like those of l8 The New Era in Asia Birmingham. We traveled around the world on Japanese steamship lines, comfortable, highly efficient, and paying dividends, with their stock at a premium, while some of the American lines on the Pacific Ocean can scarcely pay expenses. Our Japanese steamer crossing the Pacific issued a daily paper, re- ceiving news by wireless from Asia and America. Iron and Steel Record in China. The trade of China will develop rapidly like that of Japan and will be of great significance to the West. A decade or two ago they were picking up old horseshoes in the streets of London and shipping them out to make third-rate plows for the farmers on the hills of Central China. To-day, digging under those hills in the four central provinces they find the greatest coal fields in the world; enough in the Shansi province alone to supply the world for over a thousand years, according to the estimates of the German geologist, Baron von Richt- hofen. In Central China they have found iron ore better for casting than that of Pittsburgh. In the great Hanyang iron and steel works at Wuchang, across from Hankow, — the Chicago of China, — among its four thousand workmen the writer saw skilled Chinese labor working at $1.25 a week, handling thirteen thousand horse-power machinery under elec- tric control, and turning out the finest steel rails for the new railways of China, that will stretch from Shanghai on the east to India on the west, from Canton in the south to Siberia in the north. An American steel man who was asked to open up iron works on the Pacific coast declined to do so, saying The Renaissance of Asia 19 that America could never compete with China on that coast. Even the American Steel Corporation, ac- cording to the testimony of Charles M. Schwab be- fore the Senate Commission in 1912, finds it cheaper to-day in San Francisco to get pig iron from China than to haul their own iron from Pittsburgh. China's Natural Resources. China has vast nat- ural resources. The former American minister, the Honorable John W. Foster, said that China would build more railways than any other country in the world in the twentieth century. If her railways were developed until their gross returns were equal to those of the United States, these in one year would exceed China's present national debt.^ She has vast resources in coal, having twenty times as much as the United Kingdom, and almost if not quite as much as the United States. Develop China's mines of all kinds until the output is of like value to those of the United States and it would exceed China's national debt every three months. China has the largest laboring popula- tion in the world, the greatest supply of cheap, and potentially of skilled, labor of any nation. If her manufactures were developed until the gross returns were equal to those of America these would equal the entire national debt in three weeks. Though retarded for a short time by the adjustment of her political difficulties, she will surely, though not slowly, de- velop these vast resources. 1 The foreign debt of China, according to the China Year Book of 1913, is about $752,000,000. If to this is added the $125,000,000 of the Five Nations' Loan, it totals $877,000,000. 20 The New Era in Asia India's Trade and Tariff. India's trade has in- creased in half a century from about three hundred milHon dollars to fourteen hundred million dollars, and stands at present first of all the countries in Asia. She needs, however, a protective tariff to develop her industries and save her population from an exclusive dependence upon agriculture in a land of drought and recurring famines. Asia's Awakening Socially. The social awakening of Asia is also unmistakable. The development of a new social consciousness and the beginnings of a great movement for social service are among the most striking phenomena which the writer observed during the last seven months in India, China, and Japan. The enthusiasm of students for the social message of Pro- fessor Henderson, Raymond Robins, and others was a sign of the times, and this whole social movement has followed in the train of Christian missions and Western education. In this, as in so many other movements, Asia is unconsciously moving as a unit, owing to simultaneous influences from the West. Be- fore receiving the principles of Western civilization' and Christianity, the individual was but a fraction; not a unit, not a man, not an end in him- self. But with Christianity has come the con- ception of the worth of the individual, as well as a new ideal for society and a new view of social duty. Points of Progress in Japan and China. In Japan there is a steady advance of democracy and of the masses against the classes. The defense of the con- The Renaissance of Asia 21 stitution this year against the exclusive power of the Emperor and the elder statesmen in Japan was a marked triumph. China, naturally democratic, has shown her ideals in the insistent demand for a re- public. The National Review of China, which is not a religious paper, states that the movement for consti- tutional reform began when Robert Morrison landed in China. The striking social reforms which China has undertaken are evidence of a growing social con- sciousness. Her splendid fight against opium, de- liberately facing a loss in revenue of forty million dol- lars, although retarded somewhat by the revolution and the period of political reconstruction, has put to shame the feeble efforts of timorous Western nations in their fight against the liquor traffic. The testimony of missionaries and experts from all parts of China convinces the traveler that the advance in the sup- pression of the growing and the consumption of opium has been genuine and widespread. The gambling evil in Canton was abolished in the face of a loss of more than a million dollars in revenue. Foot-binding has been prohibited by Imperial edict, and some women with bound feet wear large shoes to give the impres- sion of normal feet. The laws of judicial procedure have also been improved, and torture abolished. The origin of this great social movement is directly or in- directly traceable to the influence of Christian mis- sions. The opium movement followed on the memo- rial of the Protestant missionaries. But apart from the influence of Christian missions and Western edu- cation the social need is still appalling. 'J22 The New Era in Asia Social Advance in India. In India too a new so- cial conscience and a growing movement for social reform is following in the train of Christian missions and of Western education. The old conceptions of pantheism and polytheism are giving place to the idea of the Fatherhood of God. The crushing power of Hindu caste is being confronted by the Christian prin- ciples of brotherhood. The sacredness of human life and the value of the individual are being taught, and a new social conscience is manifested among the edu- cated leaders in India to-day. The graduates of mis- sion colleges and Indian leaders of social reform are working bravely against enforced widowhood and child-marriage, against the selling of little girls for the infamous uses of the temples and against the other wrongs of womanhood. Groups for study of the social problem and for service are being organized throughout the colleges of India. A movement is nOw gaining ground even in Hinduism for the relief of the Pariahs and outcasts and for the education of the poor. Day and night schools and schools for girls are being founded in all parts of India. But this whole movement, however unconsciously, has drawn its principles and its initial impulse from Chris- tian missions, though it is extending far beyond the Christian Church and will in time change the very structure of Hindu society. Asia's Av^^akening Religiously. But the awaken- ing of Asia is not only political, intellectual, economic, ;and social. It is primarily and profoundly religious. Just as the Reformation in Europe followed the Re- The Renaissance of Asia 23, naissance with a new liberty of thought and conscience: and a deepening of all life, a religious reformation is as surely beginning in Asia. It is true that the break- down of the old religions and their patent inability to satisfy the cravings of the heart or to supply a sufficient basis for morality, are leading for a time, especially in Japan and China, to secularization and materialism. Just as southern Europe four centuries ago entered an age of liberty and of license, of in- fidelity and immorality, so many of the students of the Far East, losing the restraints of the old era, have fallen into immorality. The danger is that the break- up of the old religions may be so rapid that Chris- tianity will not have time to take the place of the old, and to give a new and surer foundation for life. But, along with this tendency toward secularization and loss of faith in the old religions, there is a new religious attitude observable among the students, as truly as it was in the deeper life of northern Europe during the Reformation in Germany, Holland, and England. Response to the Gospel. During the recent tour of Dr. John R. Mott and the writer this new attitude toward religion was unmistakably evident in the hear- ing given to the Christian message. Student audi- ences averaged about eight hundred a night in Japan, a thousand a night during the two months spent in India, and over two thousand a night in China, where the interest became so intense that in the last two- cities visited, — Mukden in the north and Foochow in the south, — the attendance rose to five thousand a- :24 The New Era in Asia day. More than fifty thousand^ different men in China, chiefly government students, attended these meetings. The meetings often lasted from two to three hours and in many cases numbers had to be turned away for lack of standing room in the largest halls or theaters that could be obtained. Throughout the six countries visited, in an evangelistic campaign extending through the thirty principal cities of Asia, there was instant response on more than a hundred occasions when the invitation was given for men to decide for Christ or to take a stand as inquirers. These inquirers promised to read the four Gospels 'with open mind and honest heart, to pray daily to God for guidance and help, and to follow Christ ac- »cording to their conscience. Immediately following the meetings several hundred non-Christian students were received into the churches in China, and several thousand government students had been enrolled in Bible classes. Remarkable Demonstration in Foochow. It will be impossible to describe in detail the spiritual awak- ening in China to-day, but perhaps a concrete instance of the change which has taken place in a single typi- cal city will serve to show the significance of the present religious awakening. Picture yourself enter- ing an old Chinese city, the city of Foochow. Though in other cities of China the student audiences had averaged two thousand a night, here were five thou- sand a day, admitted by ticket only, and the total at- tendance during the six days rose to over thirty thou- sand. I shall never forget the scenes of that event- _ o The Renaissance of Asia 25 ful week. Professor Robertson worked with me throughout the week. It is not quite correct to say that all in these audiences were students; indeed it almost seemed as if the leaders of the whole city of 600,000 inhabitants had been moved. The leaders of the Chamber of Commerce also attended one lecture and a banquet. The members of seventy-two new reform societies of the city, which have sprung into being with the new spirit for reformation, attended one of the meetings. The Provincial Parliament it- self adjourned and invited Robertson and myself to address them. It was an imposing body of men, and I have seldom spoken to a more enthusiastic audience. To observe their dignity in debate and the grasp of thought in the handling of modern problems mani- fested by many of these men was encouraging for one who has at heart the future welfare of China. These men are no longer the begoggled scholars of the old school. Here, beside the conservatives in their silk robes, are young men in Western frock coats, re- turned students from Japan, America, and Europe, with practical merchants of the great trading gilds — men of two political parties often melted into one burning unit of patriotism and concern for the new republic. What Will Save China? Now the formal session of the parliament is adjourned and they are gathered in the great hall to hear a religious address, but their concern, like that of the students, is centered in one question — "What will save China?" Our point of contact with them is in the new national flag and we 26 The New Era In Asia take its five stripes to signify the five needs of the young republic, which furnish the five headings of our address. They are a call to National Unity, Prac- tical Patriotism, Social Service, Moral Earnestness, and Reality in Religion. At the mention of the flag and patriotism these men, conservative and liberal alike, burst into applause. But deeper and stronger still is the response as we strike the moral note in this land of Confucius. Soon we are one with this audi- ence of men once antagonistic, and we proceed to speak of that only Foundation for individual or na- tional life which can save China or her sons. Thus official doors are opening before the Christian mes- senger where our predecessors half a century ago were asked to kowtow as " foreign devils " and bar- barians to those whom we now meet as brothers and equals long separated. Support of Educational Leaders. The Confucian Presidents of thirteen government colleges and the Commissioner of Education in Foochow, who had officially invited us to visit the city, closed their col- leges during the afternoons, that the students might attend our evangelistic meetings, postponed the gov- ernment examinations for a week, and invited Pro- fessor Robertson and myself to a dinner to discuss plans for helping the students in their moral habits. In an address one President asked us to provide healthful athletics, while another urged that Chris- tianity should be given to their students to supplement the moral foundations that had been laid by Confu- cianism, but which were not sufficient to save them in The Renaissance of Asia 27 this time of transition. Never have we received bet- ter support from professors in any Christian country. Phenomenal Interest and Results. We spoke the first day on " The Crisis in China." When our hear- ers responded with a burning interest and concern for their country we spoke of the moral and religious needs of the republic. An hour before the time of meeting two thousand students crowded the hall, while more than two thousand men stood outside for over an hour in an overflow meeting until they also could gain admission and hear the lecture repeated. Scores of others who could not get in were turned away from the doors, but the police could not drive them away and they finally broke down the gate. On the second day four thousand students came back again as we spoke on " The Need of China," taking up the ques- tion of personal purity and the fight for character. On the third day we had again to conduct an over- flow meeting as we spoke on " Christ, the Only Hope of China." There was the most rapt attention, and when we called for inquirers over a thousand men promised to join Bible classes and study the four Gospels with open mind, to follow Christ according to their conscience and accept him if they found him true. The scene of the fourth day was even more remarkable, when in the great after-meeting an oppor- tunity was given for those who wished to accept Christ and confess him publicly before men, over four hundred rose and the whole audience of non-Chris- tians broke out spontaneously into applause at this evidence of their courage. More than seventeen hun- 28 The New Era in Asia dred men, a majority of whom were students from twenty different colleges, enrolled themselves as in- quirers, while over five hundred took a stand confess- ing Christ as Savior and Lord. What Shall Be Our Answer? The Asiatic nations are facing the greatest crisis not only of the past century of missions but of all the centuries of their history. They cannot remain forever in uncertainty. They must develop in the near future in one of three directions. They may turn rapidly toward Chris- tianity, as Korea has done. Or there may be a re- vival of the old religions, regalvanized and nation- alized, as under Julian in the Roman Empire in the last struggle of dying paganism. Or they may turn toward Western materialism, agnosticism, and infidelity. Just as the West once borrowed from the culture and Christianity of the East, and as St. Paul passed from Asia to Europe with his trans- forming message, which shaped all that is best in our Western civilization, so we in turn have given the first impulse toward the new awakening, both intel- lectual and religious, in the nations of the East, through Christian missions and Western education. It lies largely within our power to determine which way these nations shall turn. The nations of Europe at the close of the Renaissance and Reformation set once for all either in Catholic or in Protestant molds. Northern Europe responded to the new awakening by the Protestant Reformation. Southern Europe re- sponded by a Catholic reaction and counter-reforma- tion. But the map of Europe has been little changed The Renaissance of Asia 29 since that day and the future centuries take their di- rection from the formative period. It will be the same in Asia. Think of the significance of this mighty movement which is sweeping Asia to-day — Asia, the cradle of the race, the birthplace of civiliza- tion, the teacher of the West, the mother of all the great religions of the world, is awakening. Asia, with its more than nine hundred millions, or over half the human race, calls to-day in the words of the man of Macedonia, *' Come over and help us." If the gathered need of this vast continent — its wronged womanhood, its blighted childhood, its crushed manhood — could find one common vocal expression, what a cry to God and to man there would be ! Dull must he be of soul who hears no personal summons in the united voice of this continent of need. What shall be our response to this awakening of Asia? THE NEW ERA IN JAPAN II THE NEW ERA IN JAPAN Perry and Mutsuhito. The day that Perry entered the Bay of Yeddo with his Httle fleet, however un- consciously to him or to America or to Asia, was a day of glad tidings for the Eastern world. To aid the whalers and protect their industries was apparently the chief motive of the United States in sending this expedition to Japan, but how much more God pur- posed for it than did man! In 1853, Commodore Perry's fleet arrived from America laden not only with guns but with gifts from the Western world, indicating its commercial, scientific, and religious ad- vancement. Japan, awakened from her long seclusion, turned suddenly from the traditions of her past to welcome the enlightenment of modern civilization. In 1868 the young Emperor Mutsuhito took the great Charter Oath, promising to rebuild the empire accord- ing to the right way. During his remarkable reign Japan probably made more rapid progress than any other nation in the world. Pioneers of Reconstruction. Calling expert for- eigners from every nation, Japan went forward by leaps and bounds. For thirty years, more than three thousand foreigners labored in Japan as teachers, en- gineers, physicians, military and naval leaders, finan- 33 34 The New Era in Asia cial and political advisers, to reconstruct the empire. From Great Britain Japan derived most of her politi- cal and financial reforms; from France her first mil- itary system, which is now formed upon the German model; from Germany her medical science; and chiefly from America her public school system and impulse in trade and manufacture. Noble men like Dr. Murray, and Dr. Verbeck, started the national system of education and helped to organize the Im- perial University. Achievements of New Era. Let us now turn to survey the achievements of the new era, and the trans- formations which have already been wrought in the short space of sixty years since the opening of Japan. Political Progress. Politically, Japan has achieved much. In 1872 the army, navy, and civil service were entirely reconstructed ; the imperial mint and the new coinage were introduced; a new educational depart- ment, with an imperial university, was established; new post-offices and the first railways were opened, together with the first industrial exposition. The next year the Christian calendar was adopted. In 1875 a deliberative assembly was added, followed by provin- cial assemblies. In 1889 the Emperor granted a writ- ten constitution, and the first parliament followed in 1890. Educational Advance. Education, no longer con- fined to the training of the aristocracy in the Chinese classics, became now, through a larger recognition of the worth of man, free, compulsory, and almost uni- versal. Japan claims to-day over 90 per cent, of her The New Era in Japan 35 children of school-going age in schools, and has sud- denly become a nation of readers. Women are now educated for the first time, and are even admitted to one or two of the imperial universities. Economic Gains. Economically, Japan's advance has been phenomenal. Her foreign trade, which was but $25,cx)0,ooo in 1876, or about 75 cents per capita of the population, had become in 19 10 — $461,350,000, or $9 per capita. The estimated wealth of Japan has increased to $12,000,000,000, and her annual invested capital, according to Dr. Nitobe, is now $200,000,000. Factory laborers already number 900,000, and have in- creased since 1901 at an average rate of 60,000 a year. The writer traveled around the world on the Japan Mail Steamship Company's boats, which company now operates over seventy-five steamers with a ton- nage of three hundred thousand. We traveled on the comfortable Pullman and other sleeping and dining- car corridor trains in Japan, Manchuria, and Korea. " The Japanese are still remarkably successful in imi- tation and adaptation and in real assimilation. Three words mark the stage of progress of the Japanese in most matters — adopt, adapt, adept, but they are also evincing considerable power of invention, as the Ari- saka gun, the Shimose smokeless powder, the Meiji 30th year rifle, and the Oda mechanical mine bear evidence." Social Improvements. Social changes are quite evident under the new era. Infanticide and suicide are condemned. The place of woman has been ex- alted. She now has a recognized status. Monogamy 36 The New Era in Asia has been introduced through Christianity. The old ideas of concubinage, divorce, and prostitution have been condemned by the best pubHc sentiment through the agitation led by Christians. A woman may now become the head of a family or inherit property. The very physique and stature of the Japanese has in- creased almost a full inch under the new era, accord- ing to scientific measurements taken in the schools and army. The treatment of criminals has been im- proved, humane laws of criminal procedure passed, torture prohibited, and asylums for the insane, the leper, and the blind have been opened. A social con- science is being developed, and social service is now being undertaken on an increasing scale by the Japa- nese themselves. Moral and Religious Progress. The most marked triumph of the new era, however, is evident in the sphere of morality and religion. In three directions especially this change is noticeable : in the growth and power of the Christian community, the revival and renovation of the old religions, now thrown upon the defensive, and the wide diffusion of Christian prin- ciples in the life of the nation. Change Summarized. To sum up in a word. Al- though the changes wrought in Japan have not been so sudden and sweeping as in Korea, nor so dramatic and concrete as in China, yet the very structure of Japan's society is undergoing a vast change, and the country is passing rapidly from seclusion to cosmo- politanism, from the autocratic to the democratic, irom despotism and feudalism to constitutionalism, The New Era in Japan 37 from paternal solidarity to modern individualism, in a word, from the old era to the new. Too Quick Success. Japan has moved almost too quickly to success. Though her people have excelled as soldiers and sailors, in manufactures and commerce, in a dazzling external success, the heart of the nation is far behind the outward development, and may be said to be living still under the spell of the middle ages. In morals, in social uplift, in truth, and in chastity, Japan's advance has not been so rapid as in other directions. Moral Defect in Education. In education, Japan has tried to base her entire system upon the insufficient moral foundations of the Imperial Rescript.^ But this purely secular education has had its dangerous and inevitable consequences. The Minister for the Department of Justice, surveying with apprehension the increase of crime during the decade, reports that while crime among illiterates decreased from 41 per ^"Know ye, our subjects: Our Imperial Ancestors have founded our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting. . . . Ye, our subjects, be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wives be harmonious, as friends, true; bear yourselves in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all ; pursue learning and cultivate arts; and thoroughly develop intellectual faculties and per- fect moral powers ; furthermore, advance public good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution and observe the laws ; should emergency arise, offer your- selves courageously to the State ; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth. So shall ye not only be our good and faithful subjects, but render illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers." — Extract from " The Imperial Rescript on Edu- cation " of October 20, 1890. 38 The New Era in Asia cent, to 33 per cent., that among literates increased from 59 per cent, to 64 per cent.^ Economic Drawbacks. Even economically Japan is not altogether prosperous. Her industries are crip- pled by the unfortunate absence of iron in the coun- try, lack of skilled labor, and the predominance of female labor. Japan's debt now amounts to $1,325,- 000,000; an increase of $1,050,000,000 over her debt prior to the Russian war. The taxes have more than doubled since the war and are now $165,000,000, an average of about 30 per cent, upon the income of business men and property holders. The country is far too poor to undertake a war to-day, save in self- defense. Japan's wealth is about one fourteenth that of the United States, while her debt is fourteen times as heavy and the average income per capita is only $30.00 a year or about one fifth that of the United States. Japan's water-power and a few mines are her only large undeveloped resources. Social Points of Weakness. Socially, Japan will lag behind till she accepts the Christian basis for her civilization. Dr. Nitobe tells us that 62 per cent, of the laborers in the 10,500 factories are women, who constitute an army of 500,000 of the weaker sex. Child labor is disproportionately large, five per cent, of the operatives being commonly children. ^The Minister of Justice thus analyzes crime in the two classes : Against the public good Illiterates 4 per cent Literates 28 per cent. Against the body " 13 " " " 16 " " Against property " 16 " " " 20 " " The New Era in Japan 39 Prevalence of Impurity. Much of the impurity of the old era still persists. At least one temple still exists which is endowed by the establishment of houses of ill fame. Nearly all the national religious shrines are surrounded by such immoral resorts ; for a pilgrimage often means a spree to the average worshiper. After his penance is performed at the shrine he can begin again to have a good time. Japanese women imported to the cities of Asia are the worst poison to society in the slums of the East.^ There are 48,769 prostitutes in the country. One woman in every seven, between the ages of fif- teen and thirty-five, is a prostitute or geisha. Ac- cording to the Japan Mail these poor girls in Tokyo are selling body and soul for an average wage of seven cents a day, and even their food is insuffi- cient. It is often said, " Why trouble these peo- ple with our religion ; are they not getting on very well with their own?" But as Bishop McDowell says: " Nobody is getting on very well without Jesus Christ.*' Religions of Japan. From ancient times Japan has had three religions. Shinto is a combination of nature-worship and of hero-worship, the primitive cult of Japan, codified and nationalized. Ethically and theologically weak, its chief emphasis is upon the past. Confucianism, the Chinese system of ethics, ^ Even to-day it is not uncommon for girls to be sold or lent to brothel keepers in order to help their families when in financial straits. The notorious geisha girls of Japan are practically higher class prostitutes; and the saddest feature of the system is the fact that public sentiment is so callous that the geisha are not only condoned but boasted of. 40 The New Era in Asia based upon the five human relations and ignoring the godward duties of man, confines itself to the present life. Popular Buddhism, with its religious worship, its sensuous Nirvana, its many gods and superstitious rites, places its emphasis upon the future life. The people of Japan have been affected by all three re- ligions, receiving their patriotism from Shinto, their morals from Confucianism, and their religious hopes and fears from Buddhism. Debasing Religious Elements. Morally and re- ligiously, the old era was darkened by much that was debasing in the national religions. We gladly recog- nize every ray of light, every truth of these religions, but their utter inadequacy is revealed in the conditions of old Japan. Shinto, the national religion, is with- out a definite moral code or any hope of immortality. Confucianism worships the past and the established order, while even in Buddhism the aim is not progress or redemption but only escape from life. Sadly de- generated from the noble life and high aims of Gotama and mingled with a mass of corrupt superstition. Bud- dhism has produced in most of its priests throughout Asia all the ignorance and some of the nameless vices recorded in the first chapter of Romans. Even at the present time Baron Kato, the former President of the Imperial University, says : '* Buddhism is worthless, because the vast majority of the army of priests are so corrupt. Christian preachers, on the other hand, are few in number, but in character they far surpass the priests ; indeed, they are almost all good men. . . . The [Buddhist] priests are indeed a rotten set and they The New Era in Japan 41 themselves have the greatest need for reformation. They are absolutely unable to save the masses, and are moreover a peril to society." Lack Basis for Progress and Morality. Without the three Christian interpretations of God, man, and eternal life, to which reference was made in our first chapter, the old religions of Japan offer no ade- quate basis for human progress or the highest morality. Hearn, in his Japan, An Interpretation, states that '' The real religion of Japan, the religion still professed in one form or another by the entire nation is . . . ancestor-worship." And ancestor-worship alone means petrifaction and arrested development. Unfavorable Heritage from the Past. The visitor to Japan must observe that the country has been pro- foundly influenced both by Christianity and by West- ern civilization. There is, however, one deep-seated defect, one vein of weakness in the present civihza- tion of Japan. This is indeed but a survival of the old paganism, whether the paganism of early Japan or that imported with Western materialism. When Japan entered upon the new era her emphasis was upon the material and outward, and from this material vein, which runs throughout almost her entire civilization, nearly all the defects of Japan can be traced. The Church also must bear its full share of the re- sponsibility in that it did not adequately press its ad- vantage in the days when Japan was so marvelously open and responsive to Christian missions. We may well afford, however, to judge Japan generously in her shortcomings, remembering all too painfully our 42 The New Era in Asia own. As Dr. Gulick, in his Evolution of the Japanese, points out, the characteristics of the Japanese are sociological rather than biological, that is, they are rather the result of their past training and environ- ment than the inherent racial tendencies of the nation. In the last analysis we are all brothers before God, with the same human nature, capable of yielding to the same temptations under an unfavorable environ- ment, capable of being uplifted and saved by the same gospel if we receive the truth that God has for the world. Centuries of isolation, warring feudaUsm, and repressive Buddhism have left the Japanese in an at- titude of suspicion toward the foreigner, and of re- serve even toward each other. But an intelligent study of conditions in Japan not only fills one with appreciation for her brilliant accomplishments, but with sympathy for her limitations and shortcomings. We have no right to demand perfection of a nation which has made more rapid progress in the last forty years than perhaps any other people in history in an equal time. For they are not half a century removed from feudalism. Naturalism and Materialism. Nevertheless, the weak point of Japan is naturalism and materialism, and this, introduced at the very beginning of its mod- ern period is bearing its multiplied fruit in the present, and bids fair to reach far into the future. Refusing for the most part to receive the Christian principles that lay at the foundation of Western civilization, Japan sought to receive the outward forms of that civilization without its inward power and principles. The New Era in Japan 43 She tried to hold the new wine in the old wineskins of her own religious faiths or the outworn creeds of materialism. Japan has accepted from the West the spirit of the age, without the religion which can alone control and satisfy the high demands of that spirit. As one leading Japanese says : " We have accepted a great machine of Western civilization, but we have not the moral oil with which to run it." Count Okuma, the former Premier, says : '' The fatal defect of the teaching of the great sages of Japan and China is that while they deal with virtue and morals they do not sufficiently dwell on the spiritual nature of man, and any nation that neglects the spiritual, though it may flourish for a time, must eventually decay. The origin of modern civilization is to be found in the teachings of the sage of Judea, by whom alone the necessary moral dynamic is supplied." Drift toward Unbelief. Owing in part to this ma- terialistic vein Japan has not thrown herself as whole- heartedly into Christianity as Korea has done. With the liberty of the new age and its emphasis upon in- dividualism came also a dangerous license. Men often lost faith in the old religions without accepting the new, so that numbers of educated men turned to Western agnosticism and materialism. According to a careful estimate concerning religious beliefs of the students of the Imperial University of Tokyo, made by one familiar with their religious life, 450 are said to be adherents of Shinto and Buddhism, and sixty of Christianity, while some 1,500 are said to be professed atheists and some 3,000 agnostics. Many of these 44 The New Era in Asia latter, however, are unconsciously religious and are more responsive to the religious appeal than these fig- ures would indicate. Seam of Weakness. Thus we have seen that this vein of materialism accentuated in the early period of the modern era runs through almost the whole life of Japan. It is a seam of weakness in political, eco- nomic, educational, social, moral, and religious life. Reaction of the Nineties. This vein of material- ism may be traced back to Confucian influence for its origin, but it received its final impetus in the reaction against Christianity and Christian civilization in the nineties. Development of Protestant Missions. It will be remembered that the history of Protestant missions in the country falls naturally into four clearly marked periods, i. From 1859 to 1879 was the period of laborious preparation and of seed-sowing, during the greater part of which Christianity was an illegal and prohibited religion. 2. In 1872 the prohibitory edicts against Christianity were removed, and from 1879 to 1890 was the period of popularity and of rapid advance. During this time the Japanese in their enthusiasm for Western civilization contemplated receiving Christianity for its political and material benefits. 3. From 1890 to 1900 came the anti-foreign reaction, caused in part by strained relations with the Western nations regarding revision of the treaties, and a desperate effort was made to revive the old religions of Japan. 4. From 1900, and especially since the war with Russia in 1904-05, Christianity has The New Era in Japan 45 entered upon a period of natural and normal growth. It is now being more and more studied with open mind and is being received upon its own merits. Lost Opportunity. This reaction which the Chris- tian movement in Japan suffered between 1890 and 1900 could, as Mr. Galen M. Fisher points out, have been to a large degree prevented if the missionaries and their supporters in the homeland had been able to understand the causes of the reaction as they do to-day. They may be summarized as follows : 1. Swing from Foreign to Native. A natural swinging of the pendulum back from an excessive es- timate of everything Western to an equally excessive estimate of everything native. This included the dis- counting of foreign missionaries and of their message. 2. Contrast of Ideal and Real. A great shock was i-eceived from the naturalistic and atheistic phi- losophy, and from the materialistic commercial ideals of the West in sharp antagonism to the supernatural and ideal teachings which had been given by the mis- sionaries. Included in these was the shock of the disappointment that came to Japanese who traveled abroad, and saw the contrast between actual ethical conditions in America and Europe, and the ideal con- ditions which they supposed existed in lands which they had imagined were entirely Christian. 3. Delight in Liberalism. A sudden breaking away from the orthodox theological and Biblical teaching which had been given by the early missionaries, and a sophomoric delight in the liberal and somewhat de- structive theological and Biblical theories which Japa- 46 The New Era in Asia nese who went abroad in the eighties met in the West, or read about in imported books. 4. External Faith. The espousing of Christianity by not a few patriotic Japanese as an easy panacea for all social and national ills. In other words, they accepted Christianity to meet patriotic rather than personal needs, or because of its appeal to their in- tellect without any corresponding change of heart, and when they found that Christianity would not produce magical results for the nation except through the in- dividual, they experienced deep disappointment. Guarding against Weaknesses. All of these weaknesses could have been guarded against could they have been foreseen, but without now intending to utter one word of criticism of the noble men and women who lived up to the light they had, it is in- cumbent on us to take to heart the lessons learned by experience in Japan. This is particularly impor- tant in lands where missionary work is just now enter- ing upon the stages already passed through in Japan; for example, in China and Korea. The ways of cor- recting or preventing these evils are obvious. Some of them may be enumerated by taking up the reasons mentioned above, as follows: I. Preserving Native Basis. Let missionaries be especially careful to prevent new converts from throw- ing overboard everything native, the good with the bad, but rather show how Christianity can reclaim and purify that which has been abused or corrupted. Let Christianity be built upon the established customs and institutions of the country in so far as they are not The New Era in Japan 47 positively wrong. Let us guard against denationaliz- ing and Westernizing converts. 2. Apologetic Work. A strong apologetic litera- ture should be created, and the periodical and daily press should be utilized to present Christianity, not only in its simple form, but in its relation to scientific and philosophic thought. Furthermore, the ablest apologetic and philosophic leaders of the West should be sent on lecturing tours to mission lands. 3. Up-to-Date Teaching. Missionaries and Japa- nese teachers should teach essential and historic Christianity without insisting upon the theological formulae prevalent in the West. At the same time, they should keep abreast of the latest thought in various realms as it bears upon Christian doctrine. It is utterly futile to attempt to keep native preachers and laymen ignorant of the various theories and movements prevailing in the West. 4. Social and National Issues. In the earlier days not only the missionaries but the Churches as well throughout the West laid almost exclusive stress upon individual salvation and almost ignored the application of Christianity to social and national problems. It is unfortunate that they did not more clearly show that there is no country in the West which is more than half Christianized. It would also have been desirable for Christian teachers to assure the Japanese that the veneration for ancestors and for the imperial house was by no means necessarily discordant with true Christian faith and life, but that it was rather purified and exalted by Christianity. 48 The New Era in Asia Higher Christian Education. In addition to the various points mentioned above, it should be said that one of the fundamental weaknesses of Christianity in Japan is the lack of a higher system of Christian schools and colleges. In the early years of the evan- gelization of the country this was not true, because until 1890 Christian educational institutions were on the whole of as high grade as the government institu- tions ; but since then they have fallen steadily behind. Nevertheless, it is not only possible but of the utmost importance that the lost ground should be recovered. To this end the most important single step is the crea- tion in Tokyo of an interdenominational Christian preparatory or junior college, and a first-class Chris- tian university. Lessons for Other Fields. It is especially desir- able that we should learn these lessons from Japan in view of the conditions in other mission fields. Korea is just ending a period of seven years of plenty. China is just entering upon such a period. India is in the midst of a period of prosperity in the mass movements connected with the low-caste work, but has not yet entered a time of plenty in the high-caste work. In each of these countries we may forestall the danger by taking to heart the lessons forced upon us by the period of reaction in Japan. Growth of Christianity. The growth of the Chris- tion Church has been marked. Think of the growth of the last fifty years.^ The number of missionaries 1 See pamphlet by Clement and Fisher, "Japan To-day and To-morrow." The New Era in Japan 49 has increased during this period from 10 to over 900; the Christians from none to 189,000, including 66,689 Roman CathoHc and 32,246 Greek CathoUc Christians, while the Christian community of adher- ents is two or three times as large as this.^ The Sun- day-schools grew from none to 1,600, with 100,000 chil- dren under instruction. A leading Japanese estimates that '* there are in Japan a million persons who are fashioning their conduct according to the principles of Jesus Christ." Fifty years ago there was no Bible in public circulation; to-day its circulation is num- bered by millions. Then there was hardly a hospital or asylum in the land. Christianity has been the pioneer in establishing homes, hospitals, refuges for the poor, the blind, the fatherless, the insane, the leper, the out- cast, and the criminal. Such institutions were prac- tically unknown in old Japan. Revenge was one of the cardinal virtues of Bushido, the moral code of the tipper classes, but new Japan praises Christianity for its philanthropic fruits, and the adherents of the older faiths pay the tribute of imitation. Position of the Church. The Christian Church in Japan to-day is characterized by strong independence, advance in self-support, a liberal theology, strong character, the high social influence and education of the Christian community, and by the unity and coop- eration among the various Christian communions. ^ When the late Emperor Miitsuhito took the Charter Oath in 1868 there were but four Japanese Protestant Christians ; at his death in 1912 there were 83,638. — Christian Movement in Japan, 1912. 50 The New Era in Asia Only one two-hundred-and-fiftieth part of the popu- lation, the Christians are supporting one-quarter of the organized benevolence of the empire, with four times their proportion in the various sessions of the Imperial Diet ; furnishing prominent editors, admirals, officers of the army, statesmen, officials, and writers. Throughout Japan the Christian religion has thus far been distinguished even more for quality than for quantity. Applied Christianity. The principles of Chris- tianity also have been widely adopted throughout the nation. Men's ideas of God have now set in the molds of Christian thought. There is a widespread accept- ance of the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and of the worth of human life. The Christian agitation for temperance and purity has had a far-reaching effect. Baron Kato, called the "Thomas Paine of Japan," writes: "After the burn- ing of the Yoshiwara licensed quarters in Tokyo, the Christians stirred up wide public discussion of the abolition of licensed prostitution. I detest Chris- tianity, but I heartily approve their agitation of this abolition question. Although there is licensed prosti- tution in every city, yet our educators and educational magazines never uttered a syllable nor wrote a line in opposition to it." The agitation of the Christians to free the captives of " the white slave traffic " of Japan finally compelled the Diet to pass " a free cessa- tion law," so that more than ten thousand women left this iniquitous business within a year. In Neesima's own province the brothels have been banished and The New Era in Japan 51 licensed prostitution excluded, as the result of per- sistent agitation by daring Christian men. The moral tone of the province is much above the average. Verbal Evidence of Christian Influence. Old words have taken on new meanings as the result of Christian teaching. The words for God and love have been enriched with deeper significance, while the words for sacrifice, personality, character, church, re- ligion, eternal life, duty, rights, responsibility, society, liberty, etc., have been coined to express Christian ideas. Constitutional government itself in Japan is the result of Christian civilization. " The various church assemblies have been training-schools in par- liamentary procedure and representative government.'" Indeed, do not the fundamental principles of liberty and democracy find their ultimate source in Jesus' idea of the value of the soul? And may not all that is best in the modern conceptions of " liberty, equality, and fraternity " be traced back, as one has done, through the Reformation to the great Liberator of man? Statement of Count Okuma. Count Okuma, the former Premier of Japan, writing in the International Review of Missions, October, 1912, says : '' We Japa- nese for the past generation have been so absorbed in the struggle for existence, both individually and nationally, that we have hardly had time to attend to the interests of the higher life. We have attempted to master centuries of Western development in a few- decades. But although we have paid too little atten- tion to the problems of religion, we have not been un-r 52 The New Era in Asia influenced by religious ideals. For example, although Christianity has enrolled less than 200,000 believers, yet the indirect influence of Christianity has poured into every realm of Japanese life. . . . Japan received Buddhism and Confucianism from India, China, and Korea, and under their influence she declined. But under the impact of Western civilized thought, Japan has revived. China and India have pined under the old faiths. It is clear that their only hope is to follow the example of Japan and welcome Western thought." Profound Need of Christianity. The brilliant achievements that Japan has already made, as well as her deep need to-day, constitute a call to Christen- dom. Count Okuma says : " We are face to face with many deplorable conditions. Our country is a very sick man; it is hopeless to look to politics or even to education alone to cure him." Mr. Clement and Mr. Fisher, two of the younger missionary leaders of Japan, say : " The above confession throws a side- light on the pathos of the situation. Among all! classes the growing contempt for the old faiths, the thirst for wealth, and the indiscriminate adoption of individualistic and naturalistic thought from the Occi- dent are quite disquieting facts, and facts that cannot be blinked. They point irresistibly to the need of Christianity. . . . First, with all of Japan's virtues there is a seamy side to her lining, whether social, industrial, moral, or political, so seamy that no Japa- nese thinker has yet suggested any thoroughgoing remedy which does not imply Christianity. How The New Era in Japan 53 serious the situation is a single fact will indicate. In February, 1912, the Home Minister took the un- precedented measure of calling together representa- tives of Buddhism, Shinto, and Christianity, in order to enlist the forces of religion in staying the moral ravages of materialism and irreligion. The step had the approval of the Cabinet and the elder statesmen. This prominent recognition of Christianity shows that Japanese statesmen realize on the one hand the inad- equacy of Buddhism and Shinto, and on the other hand the vigor and the adaptation of Christianity to Japan's needs. . . . Christianity is Japan's ultimate hope." Demonstrated Need. Japan still needs the help of these Christian nations, indeed the day has passed when nations can live unto themselves or by them- selves alone. It is said that to-day about two thirds or thirty-four millions of the people have never heard Christian preaching. The 962 Protestant mis- sionaries and seven hundred ordained Japanese pas- tors are insufficient to reach this vast multitude. Only one in 275 ^ of the people are Christians, as compared to one in three in the United States. While there are 90,000 Protestant Christians in Japan, they are faced by an army of 67,000 Buddhist and Shinto priests. A limited number of strong and carefully selected missionaries are needed for Japan; men strong in intellect, in sym- pathy, and in service. As President Harada of the Doshisha University says : '* Some may ask whether ' These figures include Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Protestant Christians. 54 The New Era in Asia there is need of increasing the missionary force at all, and to this I unhesitatingly answer, * Yes.' Japa- nese leaders emphasize, and rightly, that Japan wants only carefully selected missionaries, spiritual prophets, intellectual experts, social service engineers. And with equal insistence and equal wisdom they plead for money from the West." Interior Masses Unreached. The striking need of Japan for Christian effort in the untouched in- terior, which missions have heretofore left for the native Church, forms one of the most significant ele- ments in the religious situation in Japan. The rural population forms 80 per cent, of the whole. Obviously, the struggling native Church in a country so poor as Japan cannot be saddled at once with this unfinished task of our missionary enterprise. Both men and money must be sent, with a larger consecration than ever before. No country can be said to have been evangelized, or to have entered the new era religiously, in which the new enlightenment has been denied the masses. And no national religious situation can hope to advance greatly without the prophets and reform- ers, the native leaders, who have always been drawn from the country-bred, interior people, hitherto un- sought by the Christian forces in Japan. In 772 towns, with a population of over 5,000 each, there are foreign workers in about 100, and Japanese workers in about 100 more, while over 500 towns and thousands of surrounding villages are untouched. Rival Forces. Two forces are at present contend- ing for the possession of Japan: the one pagan, the The New Era in Japan 55 other Christian; the one material, the other spiritual; the one for Christ, the other against him. Professor Nitobe well says : " At present one perceives in the Orient two currents of thought flowing from the Occi- dent, molding the rising generation. One is derived from the continent of Europe, especially from Slavic and Romance literature and art, making for skepticism and decadence, often pessimistic, negative, and de- structive; the other, derived from the indefatigable spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, constructive, robust, forever ready to be up and doing with a ' heart within and God o'erhead.' " We must see to it, as Dr. Mott says, that we Christianize the impact of the West upon the East, and enable the Christian forces to predominate for the saving of Japan. Call to Christian North America. As has been well said : " Japan is Christianity's ' Port Arthur ' in the Far East. If it cannot win Japan, it cannot win and hold China. Shall Japan be an ally or an enemy in the conquest of the Orient? The call is for reenforce- ments of men and means from the Christians of North America, now, while it is day. The summons is to a crusade, not for the slaughter of Saracens and the conquest of an empty tomb, but for the giving of life to a people of magnificent potentiality, and the enlist- ing of them with ourselves under the banner of the Prince of Peace." THE NEW ERA IN KOREA Ill THE NEW ERA IN KOREA Renaissance a Method of Missions. As in the case of Japan, Korea received the impulse of the new era from without. Secular or religious, the new move- ment was missionary in its nature. Japan received her impulse from America; Korea in turn from Japan; China from the combined pressure of all the foreign powers; India chiefly from Britain; Turkey from the Balkans and the powers of Europe. In the same way Europe received her first impulse from Asia, Italy from Greece, and the northern nations of Europe received the inspiration of the renaissance from Italy. The world was made for missions, for service. Freely we have received; let us freely give. Survey of the Past. Let us first of all rapidly survey Korea's past history and the conditions that obtained under the old era. We will then be in a position to study the present political reconstruction and note its probable results. The people are the product of centuries of oppression, with all the virtues and vices of this condition. A representative Korean described their characteristics as those of patience, resignation, gentleness, docility, good nature, and im- providence. They are hospitable, affectionate, sym- pathetic. Indeed, Korea is called the *' Land of Sym- 59 6o The New Era in Asia pathy." The people are rich in their capacity for friendship, poetic, lovers of nature, bright, with dis- tinct literary gifts, but suffering from the result of centuries of relative idleness with no incentive to work. In the old days why should a man work, only to have his property seized by the government or to be cast into jail to pay the debts of his improvident relatives? The faults of the Koreans are, as in the case of the Japanese, sociological rather than biologi- cal; they are the result of their environment. Under a stable government, with the people compelled to work, and able to retain the rewards of their labor, the conditions will rapidly improve. Governmental Corruption and Extortion. The former government of Korea almost beggars descrip- tion. The writer cannot do better than to state con- ditions as they were told to him by an earnest Chris- tian patriot, himself a Korean, who was an official under the old regime. He states that the former government for the last forty years was almost des- titute of every good principle. The Emperor, kindly but weak, corrupt, and selfish, did everything to ruin the country. Money was extorted from the rich. False charges were preferred against them, they were cast into jail, tortured to extort some confession, and released only on payment of a large bribe or fine. All the offices were sold and every office had its price. Extortion was common. No Korean felt safe with regard to life and property. Many died in prison. Had even part of the money thus extorted been de- voted to the development of public works, or to the The New Era in Korea 6i general welfare, it might have been pardonable, but practically all of it went into the pockets of the offi- cials. The Emperor stole from the rich within reach of the capital, the governors extorted from the promi- nent men of their provinces, while petty officials seized whatever was left. The condition of the peasants and the farmers was most pitiable. If a man was found with a yoke of oxen or a little property, he could be seized for the debts of all his profligate relatives; or the officials would forcibly confer upon him some empty title like that of " Royal Grave Keeper," and compel him to sell his oxen or his property to pay for his title, until finally there were more grave keepers than graves to keep. There could be no patriotism under such a government and such an Emperor. The old government, this Korean official stated, was the worst in Asia, and as bad as that of Turkey.^ Low Economic Condition. Economically, the country was left poor, bankrupt, and in debt. Daily wages ran from ten to twenty cents. Almost every man was in debt, and rates of interest were from ten to twelve per cent, a month two decades ago. This has now fallen to from one to four per cent, a month, and is growing less. Labor was considered degrading. Superstition prevented the opening up of mines and * Mr. Gale says : " Reform was stamped out. The best and most enlightened men were shut up in prison. It was a fight on the part of the old Emperor, single-handed, against his own people, against the onrolling centuries, with the Japanese accompanying." A Korean said of the Emperor : " He handcuffed us, he robbed us, he paddled us, he hanged and quartered us, he lived for himself alone and for his worn-out superstitions." 62 The New Era in Asia the development of the country. Disease was rife, owing to filthy and insanitary conditions. Japan Obtains Control. Having reviewed the de- pressing conditions that were found under the old era, we are now in a position to observe the present political reconstruction under the Japanese govern- ment, and to forecast its probable results. This proverbial " Land of the Morning Calm " and of peaceful improvidence, has become in recent centuries the storm center of the Far East. Lying between Japan, Manchuria, and China, it has been at once the buffer and the battle-ground of the surrounding states. Korea has been increasingly the bone of con- tention between China and Japan on the one hand and between Russia and Japan on the other. China looked upon her as her ancient vassal and rightful possession. Japan saw in Korea her base upon the mainland and the most favorable opening for her rapidly extending population, which, in self-preserva- tion must find some outlet. It seemed imperative to Japan that sooner or later she must possess this long- coveted prize. The old Emperor, Yi Hiung, who had been the thirty-first in the direct line of succession from the founder of the dynasty which stretched back to 1392, had ascended the throne in 1864. Imme- diately after the Russo-Japanese war, Japan's first act was to occupy Korea by establishing a virtual protectorate. In 1905 Japan sent there her ablest statesman as Resident-General, who had done so much to shape her own wise policy, Marquis, later Prince Ito. Failing to recognize that the control of The New Era in Korea 63 Japan was inevitable, the old Emperor turned his palace into a place of intrigue against the Japanese. The climax was reached in 1907 when the Emperor sent a delegation to the International Conference at the Hague to secure the interference of Western na- tions in the affairs of Korea. Pathetic as was their plea, the Hague commissioners could not receive the Korean emissaries. At last, on July 18, 1907, the Emperor was compelled to affix his signature to an imperial decree announcing the transfer of the throne to the Crown Prince of Korea. A storm of protest at once broke from patriotic Koreans. But Japanese troops quelled the disturbance. On July 24 the cor- rupt Korean official, Yi Wan Yong, under the author- ity of Marquis Ito, signed an agreement at the Japa- nese residency declaring that " the government of Korea shall follow the directions of the Resident-Gen- eral." Under the wise guidance of Prince Ito reforms were rapidly inaugurated, but Japan felt that she did not have a free hand and finally annexed Korea on August 23, 1910. Conditions Under Japanese Rule. As we recall these dates we observe how recent and how rapid has been Japan's extension of her complete control over the " hermit nation." It also convinces us that the thorough reconstruction of Korea is inevitable. No unprejudiced person can deny that under Japanese rule Korea has made remarkable material progress. On every hand new and substantial buildings are rising. There has been a new census of the population show- ing that it now totals 13,299,699. An accurate land 64 ' The New Era in Asia survey is being undertaken. The government has been reconstructed, finances have been placed upon a firm footing, peace and security have been guaran- teed to the merchants and farmers. There has been a rapid development in the construction of railways, which now extend over 600 miles. Post-offices, telegraphs, and telephones are being extended. The trade of Korea is increasing. The exports have doubled within five years. Agricultural tools and superior seeds and young plants are being distributed to some of the farmers. Agricultural schools are also being opened in each province. An efficient school system has been organized. The government has opened or subsidized 173 schools with 20,121 pu- pils. Though it is true that education is still back- ward, the number of children attending school has trebled in three years. The Korean people, despite the galling discipline of a foreign yoke, are growing stronger and more prosperous, as well as more unified and patriotic. At the same time it is impossible not to sympathize with the natural, patriotic aspirations of the Korean people. It is true that their material conditions have improved, and true also that this new national consciousness and strong feeling of patriotism has arisen chiefly since the fall of the old and corrupt regime. Nevertheless, how would the people of America like to be reformed and improved by a con- quering nation? How hard it must have been for a patriotic Israelite to see any possible providential good in being subjected to a foreign yoke and to a power which had less religious enlightenment than his own! The New Era in Korea 65 Improvements Introduced. Japan is introducing into Korea her own efficient methods in sanitation, in iisheries, and in forestry, the last being sorely needed upon the bare, denuded hills of the peninsula. The death-rate is being steadily reduced under Japanese medical science. The system of justice and of judicial procedure introduced by the government of Japan is also a great improvement over the methods in vogue during the old era in Korea. New Material Opportunities. We may now fore- cast the probable effects of the Japanese occupation of Korea. New material ambitions will be created for the people of the country. Already new oppor- tunities in business have opened up with the Japanese occupation. With greater security to trade many of the Koreans are beginning to make money, and what they make is now their own. An increasing number of positions have also been offered to Koreans in the Japanese government service. Farmers also are now more prosperous. New Intellectual and Moral Standards. New in- tellectual and moral standards will be introduced. Wider horizons will be opened up before the people, wrho, no longer isolated and stagnant, will take their place in the knowledge and enterprise and broader interests of the world. Danger of Secular Drift. But the occupation of Japan will bring with it not only material advantages but grave dangers as well. The material and ap- parently successful civilization of Japan will be intro- duced, and the vein of materialism which we have 66 The New Era in Asia found running through the national Ufe of Japan will naturally extend throughout the governing ser- vice in Korea. In fact it has already done so. Inadequate School Provision. It is to be feared that the education introduced by Japan will be both secular and insufficient. It is to be said in defense of Japan that she has had but a short time to improve conditions in Korea, and that it is too soon to judge of her educational program, but government educa- tion in Korea has not kept pace with the material de- velopments. When the writer was last in Korea only about two and a half per cent, of the income of the government was spent upon education, while in the Philippines more than one sixth of the total income was spent for this great object. As against 20,121 in the Korean government schools, the government in the Philippines had in 1910-11 over 600,000 or thirty times as many in a population only about half that of Korea. If the government education in- troduced by Japan is both secular and insufficient, this constitutes a special call for foreign missions to pro- vide secondary and higher education for the people, and to supplement the secular education given by Japan by the spiritual emphasis which missions can give. Unique Opening for Christian Effort. Not only is there a unique opportunity offered to-day in the matter of education in Korea. There is another fact also in our favor. In Japan, China, and India native patriotism tends to bring about a reaction against all Western influence, religion included, in favor of the The New Era in Korea ^y older form of national religions. In Korea, however, the tendency of patriotism is toward a welcoming of all Western influence. Consequently, if the Japa- nese government grants the people real religious lib- erty Christianity will have a better chance in Korea than in the larger countries about it. Peril of the Social Evil. Japan may not only in- troduce into Korea the danger of its own materialism and its secular education, but also of the social evil which is so widespread in Japan itself. The bril- liantly lighted " red light district "of the Yoshiwara stands out plainly on the hillside of Seoul. Soon after the Japanese entered Korea there were to be found twice as many immoral women among the 27,000 Japanese then in the capital as there were Korean women in the same corrupt trade among the 300,000 Koreans. But unfortunately since the Japa- nese occupation this evil has spread among the Ko- reans also. In fact, in every Japanese colony and con- cession throughout the East the social evil will be found in disproportionate excess. In some Chinese cities, for instance, where they are making a heroic fight against opium, the Japanese concessions are do- ing a thriving business in their opium dens and im- moral houses. It is greatly to be regretted that the social evil so prevalent in Japan is likely to be ex- tended to her colonial possessions also. Call for Spiritual Service. In a word, we may look to Japan to supply thoroughly and sufficiently the material needs of Korea. It is for us to help her in things spiritual. And this help will be wel- 68 The New Era in Asia corned by the best Christian and non-Christian leaders of Japan, as it has been in Japan itself. Religious Problem. Having reviewed briefly the political reconstruction and its probable results and dangers, let us examine the religious life of Korea under the old era and the new. In the old era the country was almost bankrupt religiously. Korea, like China and Japan, has had three religions. Con- fucianism and Buddhism have been common to all three lands. Taoism in China, Shinto in Japan, and Shamanism in Korea have codified and nationalized the primitive nature-worship of the three countries.^ Religion had come to a low ebb in Korea before the entrance of Christianity, and the people seemed in- different and irreligious. Confucianism had resulted in agnosticism, Buddhism in pessimism, Shamanism in superstition. But Korea's wonderful response to Christianity in the last two decades has made her famous throughout the world, and proved that the fault was not in the people but in their environment, not in their lack of religious capacity but in their old religions. Vast World of Demons. Dr. George Heber Jones says : " In Korean belief, earth, air, and sea are peo- pled by demons. They haunt every umbrageous tree, ^ The Persian word " shaman," meaning idolater, has come to denote a religion restricted to the use of fetiches and charms for the control of spirits and demons, the cure of disease and the averting of disaster. Its diviners and sor- ceresses are pov^^erful in Korea. Its host of local deities- personifications of nature, gods of various diseases, and evil spirits — are supposed to swarm in the land. The New Era in Korea 69 shady ravine, crystal spring, and mountain crest; by road and river, in north, south, east, and west they abound, making malignant sport out of human des- tinies. They waylay the traveler as he leaves home, walking beside him, dancing in front of him, whirring over his head, crying out upon him from earth and air and water. They are numbered by thousands of bil- lions. They touch the Korean at every point of his life, keeping him under the yoke of bondage from birth to death." Model Christian Development. Christianity in Korea has been characterized by its r^pid growth and its apostolic zeal. In self-support, self-expansion, and self-government it has furnished in many respects a model for all mission fields. The Church in Korea has been a witnessing Church, a praying Church, a Bible-studying Church, and a giving Church. A Transformed City. In order to realize the characteristics of Christianity in Korea let us observe the changes which it has wrought in a single typical city. Ping Yang was the worst city in all Korea. When Mr. Thomas came from China with a quan- tity of Christian Scriptures in 1866, in the ill-fated vessel Sherman, he and all the crew were killed by the inhabitants of this city. Later on other mission- aries were driven out. In 1894 came the war be- tween China and Japan, and after the terror and suf- fering caused by the decisive battle of Ping Yang, the self-denying medical labors of Dr. Hall and the good news of peace brought by Dr. Moffett and others revealed to the people the true nature of the 70 The New Era in Asia Christian religion. At that time, only twenty years ago, the first seven converts in this city were baptized. Wonderful Church Life. One Sunday in 191 1 the writer attended an ordination service in the Central Church at Ping Yang. What changes had taken place in these twenty years ! Instead of seven men, there is now a Christian community of over 33,000 in this one station. Instead of the little room, eight by twelve feet square, which formed the original church, here was a great building crowded by 1,500 Christians on a rainy Sunday. Instead of one little church, forty- two congregations have branched off from this mother church, each with its nucleus of members from the original congregation. As against a pittance of a few pence formerly given out of their poverty, over $30,000 was contributed last year by the poor Christians of this section, who built their own churches, supported their pastors, and sent the gospel far and wide to others. Instead of seven men, a whole church is now witnessing to an apostolic gospel, nine tenths of the workers receiving no salary. In this city, which first received Chinese religion and culture three thousand years ago, the writer saw the first Korean native Christian missionary sent to China, supported by the Koreans themselves, and heard the suggestion of the next one being sent to Japan. Biblical Simplicity and Service. But the most striking thing about these Christians is not their num- bers but the apostolic simplicity of their lives. The Scriptures are studied as in the days of old. Instead The New Era in Korea 71 of a children's Sunday-school, the whole church comes in a body to study the Bible. At the afternoon service ten churches were all well filled in this city of 50,000 people. At the mid-week prayer-meeting eight hundred were in attendance at one church and a prayer-meeting was announced for five o'clock every morning during the week following. We saw a hun- dred laymen giving up Saturday afternoon to prepare themselves to teach the Bible to their classes on the following day. Some two hundred special Bible train- ing conferences were held in this station during the year, attended by upward of 10,000 Christians. Many walk from fifty to one hundred miles to attend, and pay all their own expenses. Apart from one paid helper for each missionary to assist in traveling work and supervision, practically all the work is self-sup- porting, while the majority of those who conduct the Sunday services receive no pay. Personal Witnessing. When we asked one of the missionaries how many of the Christians witnessed for Christ, he said about 100 per cent. He added that the gospel was still " good news " in Korea, and the people try to tell it to all they meet. If a man spends the night in an inn without telling the message to all the inmates, he feels he has been guilty of miss- ing a great opportunity. We saw a young student whose diary showed 3,400 interviews during the year. He ministers to a little church without salary. One day he confessed with shame to the missionary that he had only spoken to four persons about Christ that day. One year the Christians tried to reach a million J2 The New Era in Asia souls with the message, and carried the story into almost every house in the district. General Spirit of Zeal. We have spoken somewhat at length of Christianity in Ping Yang, but this city is typical of others in Korea. Many other instances of the marked growth of Christianity might be added. In Korea as a whole 94 per cent, of the workers are supported by Korean money, and receive no financial aid whatever from abroad. About 40 per cent, of the Christians have been enrolled in training classes for Christian workers, to train the rank and file of the laity for active and intelligent Christian service for the evangelization of their own country. One class of 250 members pledged more than 2,500 days of Chris- tian service during the year. The Christians of Korea purchased themselves in one year more than 400,000 copies of Mark's Gospel to distribute among their non-Christian neighbors. Apostolic Evangelization. The Christian life of Korea in its simplicity, its zeal, its power, and its love, carries us back to apostolic times, and puts our conventional coldness of the West to shame. In one denomination in America 350 ministers and 50,000 members in one section of the Eastern States showed a net gain for a year of only seventy-nine members. During the same year fifteen overworked missionaries and one Korean pastor and their members gathered in 10,600 souls, or about 660 for each ordained man. When the writer looked up the statistics for the Church in Korea, after thirteen years' absence in India, he found it had gained 1,000 per cent. When PASTOR KIL OF PING YANG The New Era in Korea 73 he was in Korea last he found that an average of one new congregation was added every day during that year. Sacrificial Giving. The Christians of Korea are apostolic in their giving as well as in their witness and in the study of the Word. One poor man gladly lived on one meal a day and gave $500 in two years toward the building of his church. The missionary found another man drawing his own plow instead of an ox. When questioned he said, " Oh, it's great ; it's good exercise and I enjoy it." The missionary finally learned, however, that he had sold his only ox to give money to the church, and was cheerfully draw- ing the family plow himself. Wonderful little Korea ! Land of suffering and of service. May her lamps be kept burning and her loins girded till she becomes an example to the world, and gives us back the gos- pel for an age of doubt! Breakdov^^n of Old Standards. The causes of the remarkable and rapid growth of Christianity in Korea are not difficult to trace. Negatively, on the one hand, there was the breakdown of the old standards of life, political, economic, social, and religious. The old system, engendered and supported by the old faiths and chained to the past had hopelessly failed. As Dr. Jones says : " Misgovernment and oppression had reduced the people to despair. . . . The peo- ple were tired out, weary, and disheartened with the barrenness of pagan beliefs and religions. Morally they were decrepit and moribund. Into the gloomy, chilly atmosphere of their moral life 74 The New Era in Asia came the gospel of Jesus Christ, with its radiant promises of better things, and the Koreans turned as instinctively to it as the flower to the sunshine. There has been a lack of competition with Chris- tianity which has given to Christian forces virtually a monopoly of the field." Welcome to Christian Light and Cheer. Posi- tively, the entrance of Christianity, with its message of light and life, met the need of the people. It was the one ray of hope which drew out their whole faith, and the Christians of Korea threw themselves single- heartedly into the Christian life. Needs of the Nevi^ Era. We have spoken of the political reconstruction of the country and of its re- ligious transformation. In closing let us think of the needs of the new era, and recall the warning afforded by Japan. We remember how the rapid success in Japan was followed by a period of reaction. It is im- possible to predict that there will not be some such reaction in Korea itself. Does history furnish the example of any country which has been won easily and quickly and which has remained a strong and vital source of Christianity with strong missionary zeal? Are there not signs of a possible reaction in Korea it- self? To Forestall Other Interests. Formerly Chris- tianity alone held the field of interest. From now on it will have formidable competitors. Modern civilization with all its variety and complexity, its assumption of superiority, its new opportunities and allurements, its material standards and rewards, comes The New Era in Korea 75 to appeal to impulses that never could be gratified before. There is danger* lest the distractions of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things, entering in, choke the Word, so that it becomes unfruitful. Under the old regime patriots turned toward Christianity as the one hope of saving the country, but they now find that Japan has come to stay, and that they must adjust themselves to ex- isting conditions, however bitterly they may resent them. Deeper Basis of Education. Is Korea prepared to meet such a period of reaction if it should occur? Her people, not highly educated, are by nature as the result of environment in a childlike and naive stage. They have never had to oppose great national ob- stacles, such as the caste system of India, govern- ment opposition, and a literati class like that of China, or the strong currents of agnosticism and in- tellectual doubt that have swept Japan. True, they have been purified by affliction and suffering, but they have not yet been tested to the full. We must deepen and strengthen the foundations in Korea before the superstructure is extended too rapidly. Is there not need to-day of a wider emphasis upon education, all the more because the government, in its financial stringency, has been somewhat backward in develop- ing it? Should not a Christian university be speedily established in Korea, with a unified and coordinated system of Christian education related to it, as was recommended in the recent conference of the Con- tinuation Committee held in Korea in 1913? 76 The New Era in Asia More Fully Trained Leaders. Is there not need also of developing a more highly educated and spe- cially trained leadership for the Korean Church ? They have set an example to the world in voluntary service, but there will be need of educated Christian leaders who can cope with the men who will receive higher secular education in Japan. Fortunately, the Korean students at present studying in Japan are being brought under the helpful influence of the Christian Student Movement. Is there not need also of a wider work of philanthropy and social service, to- gether with all the broad and ramified applications of Christianity to the people of the nation, to enable them to meet the demands of the new era? Four Lines of Reenforcement. Is there not a need in Korea to-day to accept the warning afforded by Japan in emphasizing the four points mentioned in our last chapter, which might have prevented the reaction which took place in that country, namely, to avoid denationalizing and Westernizing the converts, to develop a stronger intellectual life and apologetic literature, to emphasize essential and his- toric Christianity without insistence upon narrow theological formulae, and to seek the wider applications- of Christianity to social and national problems, as well as placing stress upon individual salvation? God grant that as the work in Korea is deepened and broad- ened that land may not lose the apostolic zeal and fervor for which it has become rightly celebrated throughout the world! Well-Deserved Help. Thus we see that Korea The New Era in Korea *J*J calls to-day for a broad and deep and varied Chris- tianity, as well as for the early message of the simple gospel. Now is the time to help Korea. The brave fight she has already made, the brilliant victories she has already won, and her glad willingness for self- support, entitle her to receive at our hands the help which she needs from without. Men Who Guarantee the Future. We do not wish to close this chapter with a pessimistic note of warning. The work in Korea is still wonderfully suc- cessful. The promise of the future lies in the teach- ing of men who have been raised up out of great suf- fering, and who have become strong, fervid witnesses for the gospel. In closing, in order to show the con- trast between the old era and the new and the effect of Christianity in the lives of the people, let us glance at a typical group of young men who suffered under the cruelty of the old Emperor, and who are leaders in the regeneration of Korea under the new regime. Such men are the best guarantee for the future of Korea. Rise and Fall of Reform Party. These young men had been members of the new " Independence Party," working together for the long-needed reforms in their corrupt government. Educated in America, or in mission schools in which Western learning, with its new ideas of liberty, the worth of the individual, and modern theories of government, was taught, they were striving for the regeneration of Korea. The In- dependence Party sought to reform the entire govern- ment in accordance with the ideas of modern civiliza- 78 The New Era in Asia tion. For a time this party was in power and reforms were rapidly introduced, but the reactionaries soon gained the upper hand over the Emperor. The palace gates suddenly opened, and armed police and hired members of the pedlers' gild rushed out, and carried some forty of the choicest spirits of the reform party into prison, while the others fled. Dr. Rhee an Active Spirit. Among those cap- tured was Dr. Rhee, or Yi Seung Man, who had been a member of the Imperial Privy Council while the Independence Party was in power. Dr. Rhee was born of an old Confucian family of scholars. When English began to be introduced, he joined the mis- sion school in order to learn it, but as a proud and self-sufficient Confucian boy he came to the school with great suspicion, fearing the influence of some foreign drug, disliking the compulsory chapel, the absence of idols and all that he had been accustomed to associate with religion. He learned English, how- ever, and along with it, at first unconsciously, a world of new ideas, centering in the word " liberty." On leaving the school, apparently untouched religiously, he threw himself into a movement to reform his coun- try. There was a short period when everything seemed hopeful; then the blow fell, the Emperor and his associates turned against the reform movement, and in a moment all was changed. Prison Experiences. No words can describe their prison. Besides being frequently tortured to extort confessions or to incriminate others, the prisoners were herded like cattle in a foul pen. In dirt, covered O ;:; o The New Era in Korea 79 with vermin, with unspeakable sanitary conditions, they were Hving in a stifling atmosphere, and were never allowed to leave the room. They were crowded in with coarse criminals and outlaws. Those who were not fast in galling stocks were often unable to lie down, unless they lay one upon another, because of the crowd in that stifling room. They were cruelly treated by the keepers and by the professional crim- inals. The food, disgusting and often decaying, was torn from the weaker men by the stronger criminals. The torture to which the political prisoners were sub- jected was agony. Mr. Kim had his leg broken. After each period of torture Dr. Rhee was bound hand and foot in painful stocks. For seven months he could not lie down, and seven long years in all this gifted man, since an M.A. of Harvard, and a Ph.D. of Princeton, spent in this horrible prison. Unprotected from the winter's cold or summer's heat, in the pain of torture, and in the filth of that dark prison, he longed for death. Som.e of his friends were killed, and he wondered when his turn would come. In a newspaper smuggled into the prison from the city he read the announcement of his own death. He was convinced that it had been determined upon by the authorities, and it was now only a matter of hours. Yes, he was to die, but after that, what? Where was he going? Confucianism oflfered him no hope, Bud- dhism no certainty, and he could not accept the de- basing superstitions of Shamanism. In despair he turned to Christianity as his only hope, and recalled much of the teaching he had heard in the mission 8o The New Era in Asia school of a loving heavenly Father, of a compas- sionate Savior, of the forgiveness of sins, and of hope for the future. He Becomes a Seeker. He felt convicted of sin in that he had rejected Christ in the mission school, through his pride and hardness of heart, and in that he had bitterly and openly criticized Christ, but he dimly remembered some verse that said if a man would repent God would forgive. In his agony he turned, helpless and undone, to God. He knew not how to pray, but bowing his head as well as he could in the wooden stocks, he cried with breaking heart, " Oh God, save my country, save my soul." It was all he could say, but in that broken cry the young patriot found God. It was the first prayer he had ever offered. Conversion and Work. He sent a message to his father, through a released prisoner, not to mourn his loss as he was soon to die, but to send him a New Testament, such as he had read in the mission school. At last it was smuggled in. In the filthy cell one prisoner stood guard at the door to give warning of the approach of the keeper, while another held open the Testament before this young man bound in the stocks. Here on the brink of eternity, a famished soul, he thirstily drank in the truth. As soon as he found the light himself, he began to tell the good news to the miserable group in his prison cell. One by one he pleaded with every hardened criminal in the place, and many were touched. Dr. Rhee wit- nessed not only to the prisoners, but to the jailer The New Era in Korea 8i himself. At last he also believed, and later was bap- tized with all his house. " The Hall of Blessing." Dr. Rhee had been sen- tenced to prison for life, but after the jailer's conver- sion he was transferred to a larger and more com- fortable cell, where he had access to a greater num- ber of prisoners. He gathered together a class of thirteen boys and taught them to read. Another adult class of forty members was formed, and the jailer himself attended daily. A continual revival went on in that prison, and the men who were there perfected in suffering have come to be leaders in the regeneration of Korea. Many of them are prominent in Christian work. Some five centuries before some one had ironically named the prison '' The Hall of Blessing " ; and under the alchemy of the gospel it did indeed become a place of blessing to all these men. They were like the writer of the Ephesians, ^' in chains " yet " in heavenly places." Some forty in all were converted, and others were won after they left the prison. Yi Sang Jai. Among the group in prison was the old veteran Korean statesman, Yi Sang Jai. He had been secretary of the Korean Legation at Washing- ton for many years. On his return to Korea he bought a copy of the New Testament. Joining the new Independence Party, he became its Vice-Presi- dent, and later the Secretary of the Imperial Cabinet of Korea. In the new party he vigorously opposed Christianity, which was advocated by the reformers, ridiculing its supernatural element, and holding 82 The New Era in Asia proudly to his position as a Confucian scholar of the old school. As the leader of the party left for America, still advocating Christianity, he said to the old scholar, " You will yet remember Christ, in prison." The words came back to him like a prophecy, when, two years later, he with a score of his friends was thrown into prison and tortured. Some were killed, but most of all it harrowed the old man's soul to see his son tortured before his eyes. Sometimes the prisoners were whipped with a hundred blows, and at other times their limbs were twisted almost to the breaking point. Dr. Rhee, a member of the party who had now been converted, visited the old man in his cell and told him of Christ, but the latter boldly resisted him to his face. In fact he was the chief opponent of the Christian religion in the prison, with tlie wealth of his Confucian scholarship to back him. Saved to Serve. Gradually his opposition began to break down, a sense of his own sin came over him like a flood, and he felt suddenly that Jesus was his Savior. No sooner had he yielded his life to Christ than he became as strong an advocate as he had previously been an enemy of the truth. To-day this gray-haired old man is the Religious Work Director of the Seoul Young Men's Christian Association. He fairly radiates love. A tireless personal worker, an incessant witness for Christ, and a powerful public speaker, scarcely a week passes without this man get- ting definite converts or inquirers. Probably no men are doing more for the regeneration of Korea than The New Era in Korea 83 this little band of liberated prisoners '' made perfect through suffering." Theirs is the spirit of Ugo Bassi, who, dying for Italy, wrote on his prison cell, '' Here Ugo Bassi endured, somewhat glad of heart at knowing himself innocent." THE NEW ERA IN CHINA IV THE NEW ERA IN CHINA China the Climax of Change. China furnishes the dimax of the new era in Asia. The recent changes are more vast, sudden, and complete than in any other land. The new era stands out in violent contrast to the old. From the most corrupt and autocratic of absolute governments, China has swung to an extreme republican form. From an attitude of disdain and age-long conservatism and rejection of all innovation, she is now seeking reconstruction with headlong rapidity. What is the significance of these sweeping changes? As national members of the great interna- tional brotherhood the fate of China affects us all. Her enormous population, her political relations to the Western powers, her great economic resources, and her religious possibilities, emphasize the significance of the new era in China. Vast Elements Involved. Let us notice the vast- ness of the change. China has an area twelve times as great as the United Kingdom, and seven tim.es as great as France. China's population is eight times as great as Japan and thirty times that of Korea. Her large resources, her commercial and economic possi- bilities, her political significance to the world, either 87 88 The New Era in Asia as a successful republic or, if weakened, as a bone of contention among the nations, all alike emphasize the significance of Napoleon's prophecy : " When China is moved she will move the world." Suddenness of Movement. Observe also the sud- denness of the change which has swept over China. She was slower to yield than the other nations, but when she yielded she moved all at once. China was exposed far longer than other countries before yield- ing. The versatile and precocious peoples of Italy and France enthusiastically embraced the renaissance of Europe. The slow and conservative English and Ger- mans long held out against every innovation, but when moved they were moved to the moral depths of their national life. Japan may prove to be the France of the Orient and China the British Empire of the East. China was repeatedly invaded as the other countries of the Far East were not, and for nearly a century held out against long and continued pressure brought to bear upon her by the foreign nations. Even as late as 1896 Lord Curzon in his Problems of the Far East prophesied that China would never yield to the forces of Western civilization. He writes : " That the em- pire . . . whose standard of civil and political per- fection is summed up in the stationary idea; which after half a century of intercourse with ministers, missionaries, and merchants, regards all these as in- tolerable nuisances . . . and which, after a twenty years' observation of the neighboring example of Japan, looks with increasing contempt upon a frailty so feeble and impetuous — that this empire is The New Era in China 89 likely to falsify the whole course of its history . . . is a hypothesis that ignores the accumulated lessons of political science and postulates a revival of the age of miracles." Completeness of Transition. Let us note also the completeness of the change in China. The movement has not been controlled from above with the retention of the old form of government, as was the case in Japan. It was not forced by outsiders as was the case in Korea. It was not supervised by an alien govern- ment as in India. Led by the students and educated young men, the revolution has affected the merchants and even the literati, and has finally been accepted by the common people themselves. The change in the form of government will make possible a more complete transformation than was the case either in Korea or Japan. To outward appearance Japan seems demo- cratic and the government of China hopelessly auto- cratic. As a matter of fact, the government of Japan is a somewhat liberalized oligarchy, while that of China has been an autocracy superimposed upon a broad de- mocracy. Now the last vestige of autocracy, so far as the old dynasty is concerned, has been swept away, and the democracy remains. The key-note of the Japanese people is solidarity, that of the Chinese, in- dividualism and democracy. This offers a more hope- ful field than the conditions in other lands in Asia. Not only all classes, but all departments of national life have been affected by the changes in China. To realize how vast, how sudden, and how complete the change has been, let us note the striking and often 90 The New Era in Asia even dramatic contrast between the old era and the new in two typical cities of China. Let us take Can- ton, the radical revolutionary center of the south, and Peking in the north, the capital of the Manchu dynasty and of the new republic. Canton Entered by Morrison. First of all, let us observe , the contrast in Canton. Potentially, the new religious era in China began the day that Robert Morrison stepped ashore in Canton. Met by the stolid conservatism of the most changeless race of antiquity, and by the opposition of the govern- ment, he saw no outward evidence that a new era had begun in China. But Morrison carried in his heart the same message that the Apostle Paul brought to Europe when he landed in Philippi. The leaven had been hidden, and it was only a question of time until the last man of the four hundred millions of China should feel the power of the new age. It was significant that Morrison had prayed that " God would send him to that part of the missionary field where the difficulties were the greatest and to all human appearances the most insurmountable." His prayer was abundantly answered. Incomparable Labors, Obstacles, Faith. Living in an insanitary " godown," where once the roof fell in upon him, with repeated breakdowns in health, owing to overwork and insufficient food, Morrison was opposed and thwarted at every turn. Forbidden to preach in public, laboring seven years without a convert, long able to speak of Christianity only be- hind locked doors with the three or four men in his The New Era in China 91 employ, he was threatened repeatedly by the officials, his printing materials were destroyed, his stock of paper burned, his money stolen, his press closed. He was threatened with edicts which made even the trans- lation of the Scriptures a crime guilty of capital punish- ment. Beaten, driven out in turn from Canton and Macao, broken in health, hated by the people whom he had come to serve, this brave man held to his course till his work was done. Often he dared not even walk out upon the streets in public, and he was so weak from his long toil of translation that at times he could not walk across the room. Six years he was left alone while his invalid wife was at home, and for sixteen years he toiled on to produce the six huge volumes of his Chinese dictionary. After years of unremitting labor the whole Bible was at last trans- lated. Seven hundred and fifty thousand copies of books and tracts were issued by Milne and himself from his press during his lifetime, yet there were only one or two converts to show after a life of toil, and the combined efforts of all the little group of missionaries in China after the first twenty-five years did not result in ten baptized converts. Bold indeed was this man's faith when, asked by a New York merchant if he expected to make any impression upon the idol- aters of the great Chinese Empire. " No, sir/' re- plied Mr. Morrison with energy, *' I expect God will." During the twenty-seven years of Morri- son's life in China, from 1807 to 1834, the old era continued unbroken in its power, and for over sixty years, with all her pride and power, China re- 92 The New Era in Asia sisted every effort to open up this great land of rock-Hke conservatism. Contrast with the Present. All this is changed now! We look on the scene of Morrison's labors and then pass to the modern theater in Canton, to a great audience of three thousand picked men, ad- mitted by ticket only, representing the government colleges and the leading young business men and offi- cials of the city. During one week in Canton in January, 19 13, eight thousand government students attended the lectures of Professor Robertson, while nearly three thousand men listened hour after hour as Dr. Mott made his evangelistic appeals. Movement in the Meetings. How it would have delighted Morrison's heart, to see to-day in Canton over a thousand men stay to an after-meeting, eight hundred enrolling themselves as inquirers, promising to study the Gospels which Morrison had labored so long to translate, and to follow Christ according to their reason and conscience. In his day it would have meant death either to preach or to accept Christ in public. Within a short time after the close of these meetings in Canton a hundred men had been received into the church, and many others were pre- paring to follow in their public acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Whereas in Morrison's day the officials opposed, insulted, or persecuted the missionary, to-day we find the Commissioner of Edu- cation in Canton presiding at Dr. Mott's meeting, the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs introducing him to the audience, the Chief Justice presiding the follow- The New Era in China 93 ing night, and some of the leading young men of the city coming out boldly as inquirers of Christianity. The contrast would be almost as striking if, instead of contrasting the present with the conditions of Mor- rison's day, we should take those preceding the Boxer uprising, a little more than a decade ago. More students and young men of the leading classes have decided for Christ during the year 1913 than the total number of converts from among the officials, gentry, and literati in the first hundred years of Christian efTort in China. Less than a thousand Protestant Christians had been gathered up to i860, after more than fifty years of faithful seed-sowing, yet a larger number than this were enrolled as inquirers during a single night in the recent meetings in one city. Truly a new era has dawned upon China. Sudden End of Political Despotism. Contrast the spirit of this new age with the old era, even down to the Boxer uprising of 1900. Politically, where the old Oriental despotism reigned, life was at the mercy of the absolute will of the monarch or high official. The very Emperor of China himself would be kept waiting for half an hour on his knees by the late Empress Dowager before he could see her, and when his favorite concubine, who was practically his wife, suggested that he remain in Peking at the time of the flight, she was promptly thrown down a well by the order of the Empress, in spite of the Emperor's supplications. Change in Other Elements. Intellectually, there was no freedom of thought in that obsolete system 94 The New Era in Asia chained to an imaginary golden age of the dead past. Dr. Pott in The Emergency in China estimates that only one in twenty-seven of the men could read un- derstandingly, while the education of women was al- most entirely neglected. Economically, trade was stifled under an ignorant system of iniquitous taxa- tion, bribery, and corruption. The morals of the effete Manchu dynasty find their parallel only in the abominations recorded in the first chapter of Romans. Confucianism Proved Inadequate. Although Confucianism had furnished a great moral restraint to the people in its high ethical teaching, the religions of China had proved utterly inadequate to save the people. Confucianism, which as Dr. Faber points out, is ethically by far the best of the three, recognizes no relation of the common people to a personal God, takes no adequate account of sin, permits polygamy and polytheism, is without a mediator and without prayer, deifies human ancestors in the place of God, and offers no comfort either in life or in death. Noble as are many of its moral maxims, Confucian- ism as a religion is unable to satisfy the spiritual needs of China. After more than four thousand years of trial it has failed to meet the demands of the new age. Without the dynamic of evolutionary and progressive Christianity it cannot afford the basis and power for an advancing civilization which would give China her rightful place among the nations. Present-day Peking. Let us now pass to Peking, the present capital of China. Arriving in Peking the The New Era in China 95 railway passes through the ancient city walls, and as we approach we see the battered bastions, which carry us back to the siege of Boxer days in 1900. The huge picturesque gateways, the enormous spread- ing towers above the ponderous walls, that rise in places to a hundred feet in height, remind us of the pomp and power of this ancient people. In Peking under the old era, according to Sir Robert Hart, men were sometimes drowned during the rainy season in the deep pools of mud and water in the main streets of the city. Now we were speeding from college to college in a taxicab, in order to keep our lecturing engagements in the government colleges. Though we had to slow up occasionally for a camel-train or plod- ding donkey-cart, as reminders that the old era was still obstructing the advance of the new, it was never- theless evident that the new had the right of way, and had come to stay. Government Prepared the Way for Meetings. The government threw open to us for the first time all the colleges of the city, and arranged our meet- ings for us. Taking five meetings a day we were able to visit the Imperial University, the great Law School with its four hundred enthusiastic students, and some important colleges never before opened to Christians. The Tsing Hwa College, built by America's returned indemnity money, stands in the palace grounds that were reeking with the blood of the Christians in the Boxer uprising. To-day, under a Chinese Christian principal and fifteen Christian American professors, this college is training all the government students 96 The New Era in Asia who are to study in America and the West, and who will be the leading officials in the new China. The students, drawn from the eighteen provinces, are a strong body of men. Their studies are conducted in English, and indeed they could not understand each other in any other spoken language, as their provincial dialects are often unintelligible to each other. Be- fore the revolution China had organized in 1910 42,444 schools in the provinces, enrolling 1,284,965 students and pupils, but it will take some time to re- organize their educational department, and adequately finance it after the disorder of the revolution. Cities Mark the Chinese Movement. A visit to the cities of Canton and Peking must convince any sympathetic and unprejudiced observer of the vast- ness, the suddenness, and the completeness of the change in China. But the change is not only in these cities. Every city in China shows evidences of the new era. From Foochow in the south to Mukden in the north; from Shanghai in the east to far-away Chengtu in the west, or at Hankow in mid-China, one sees the adamantine rock of China's former con- servative customs and institutions now melted as by a volcanic, revolutionary upheaval, and flowing freely into new molds. And from the score of provincial capitals out to the seventeen hundred walled cities, to the thousands of secondary cities and towns, and even to the remotest villages, the influence of the new era is gradually permeating. But in the great cities first of all, more even than in the cities of the Roman Empire in St. Paul's day, the leaders of The New Era in China 97 thought and government students are being won to Christianity. In Mukden alone, where the governor generously erected a pavilion for Dr. Mott's evan- gelistic meetings at his own expense, for the five thou- sand government students of the city to attend, thirty- six officials, professors, and teachers were enrolled among the inquirers. The Mukden correspondent for the North China Daily News characterized the recent evangelistic meetings for students in that city as " the most significant Christian movement in the history of missions in Manchuria." In all, in fourteen cities of China, within the first three months of 1913 over 7,000 inquirers were enrolled in the series of special meet- ings, chiefly among the government students. In one city missionaries who had been once in danger of their lives before the bigotry of angry throngs of the con- servative students of the old regime rejoiced to behold this movement where such a change was now mani- fested. In India Christianity has won its greatest triumphs, not in the cities, but in the remote villages. In the Far East, as in the early Roman Empire, the cities have not only been the first to feel the effects of the new era, but have yielded the largest results in reaching the upper classes. Positive and Negative Causes. Let us now ex- amine the causes which led to these changes and to the success of the revolution. In addition to three general and positive causes, contact with Western trade. Western education, and Christian missions, three negative causes have operated in China to produce the vast changes which we are witnessing. 98 The New Era in Asia Opposition to Manchu Rule. There was a grow- ing dissatisfaction and opposition to the foreign Man- chu rule, which had imposed itself upon the Chinese people since 1644. It was not only opposition to the Manchus, however, as foreigners, but also to the prin- ciple which controlled their government. That prin- ciple was one of selfishness, not of service, which is the obligation of the new era. Every office had its price. Almost every official lived for himself ^nd disregarded the national welfare. This produced such a corrupt and impoverished condition of affairs that the leaders of the nation finally rose in indignant re- volt. Seeing the danger which menaced the empire, the young Emperor, Kuang Hsu, with a band of young advisers, had instituted a program of radical reform, issuing some twenty-seven edicts in the course of two months. The old Empress Dowager, however, aroused by these changes, in a frenzy of rage seized the government, threw the young Emperor into con- finement, and led a blind and bigoted reactionary movement which finally culminated in the Boxer up- rising, which she secretly encouraged. The final ef- forts of the Manchus to save their tottering throne came too late. Breakdown of Old Standards. There was a general breakdown of the old system of life — intel- lectual, social, and religious — which had been based upon Confucian standards. High as were its ethics and its system of political morality, it was without con- ception, in the Christian sense, of the Fatherhood of God, of the universal brotherhood of man, and of The New Era in China 99 eternal life. Its center of gravity was not in the ex- panding future but in the changeless past. It was petrified, static, dead. Despite its noble ideals and moral maxims it contained no power of advance. It could not be adapted to the spirit of the new age. The true principle of life is that which fully develops and fully satisfies man's highest nature, but Confucian- ism could neither fully develop nor fully satisfy the people of China. A bar to progress, it left China in an arrested state of development. It was a cumber- some, cast-iron system of man-made rules, not an organic body of eternal principles, revealing the moral order of the living God. Hence it was doomed. Economic Dissatisfaction. There was a growing dissatisfaction with economic conditions under the old system. This was the one fundamental, underlying cause of the recent Chinese revolution. It was shown in the gathering tide of unrest that swept across China and finally dashed itself against the very walls of Peking. The suffering of three million people from famine and flood, the death of thousands from pneu- monic plague in Manchuria, the growing poverty from oppression, misrule, and stagnation of business, the failure on the part of the nerveless central govern- ment to suppress the gathering-bands of outlaws who were roving throughout the country, all added to the growing discontent. The foreign loan negotiations and the nationalization of the railroads aroused indig- nation among the provinces, in their dread of foreign intervention and suspicion of the national government,, for provincialism is strong in China. 100 The New Era in Asia Two Defeats. Rendering these causes operative, were certain occasions which brought matters in China to a crisis. These were furnished by two de- feats and two victories. The first defeat was that of China at the hands of her long-despised neighbor, Japan, in 1895. The second, which showed China her utter helplessness, was by the relatively small force of foreign troops who represented the Western powers in the suppression of the Boxer uprising in 1900. As Dr. Pott says, " In that wild outburst of bigotry, frenzy, and ignorance of the year 1900, we see gath- ered to a focus all the elements in China opposed to progress." With much of her territory already lost, and with books rapidly appearing on The Break-up of China, The Partition of China, etc., the leaders of the nation aroused themselves to one supreme effort to save the country before it was too late. Two Victories. Two victories, however, brought hope to China's leaders. The first was Japan's victory over Russia in 1905. The victory of one of the smaller nations of the East over what was supposed to be one of the greatest and most dreaded nations of the West convinced China that the hour had come for her to cast off the grave-clothes of the dead past and enter the arena of modern life. Secondly, the successful agitation of the radical leaders of the Young China Party furnished the occasion for the final incoming of the new era. The growing unrest of the masses was voiced and guided by the young revolutionary leaders. The dumb discontent of the multitude be- came articulate in the insistent demands of the edu- The New Era in China lor cated. Three classes especially led in the revolt. These were the returned Chinese students with their new revolutionary ideas imbibed in Japan, the more highly educated young men who had been trained in America and the West, and the aggressive, radical leaders of Canton and the Yangtze Valley. China rapidly became honeycombed with revolutionary so- cieties. Dr. Sun Yat-sen and others had for years been working in China and among the Chinese in Japan, America, and other lands, until the psycho- logical moment for action came in 191 1. A Comparatively Bloodless Revolution. The writer traveled down in the train from Peking to Hankow with General Sun, whose bomb accidentally exploding on October 9, 191 1, in Hankow, was the spark which set the nation ablaze. A plot was dis- covered, and in order to save their own heads after the execution of some of the revolutionists by the local officials, the leaders were forced to raise the standard of revolt in Central China. When the Man- chu government showed its inability to cope with the uprising in Hankow and Szechwan, the revolutionary societies roused the people all over the country, and seized the reins of government in province after province. General Li Yuan-hung threw in his lot with the revolutionists and took command of the southern army. Within three months fifteen of the eighteen provinces had cast in their lot with the cause of free- dom, and within four months the most wide-spread revolution in history, and comparatively speaking, per- haps the one accompanied by least bloodshed, was 102 The New Era in Asia concluded by the edicts of February 12, 1912, pro- claiming through the child Emperor the abdication of the Manchu dynasty, and the acknowledgment of the new republic for one fourth of the human race. It is estimated that less lives were lost in the entire conflict than the numbers sacrificed in the single bat- tle of Gettysburg in America during the Civil War. Just at the right time Dr. Sun Yat-sen arrived in China, and on January i, 1912, was chosen as the first President of the provisional government. Grov^th of Humane Christian Spirit. During the revolution the work of the Red Cross Society, and the humane treatment both of foreigners and Chinese, showed that a new era had dawned for China. The only place where a massacre occurred on a large scale was in Shensi, where there were no educated Chris- tian Chinese in positions of leadership. In contrast to this, during the Tai Ping rebellion of fifty years ago, from 1852 to 1864, over twenty millions of lives were sacrificed, most being butchered in cold blood. What but the principles of Christian civilization pro- duced this humanitarian change in the conduct of the recent revolution? Even the Manchus were spared as a rule, the Emperor's life was protected, and the royal family were permitted to occupy their ancient palace, and were generously pensioned for Hfe. Remarkable Official Action. On Sunday, April 13, 19 1 3, a united prayer service was held in Peking and other places '' for the Chinese nation and the National Assembly at this important time of the in- auguration of a permanent government." The fol- The New Era in China 103 lowing message was adopted by the Cabinet, and was telegraphed by the Chinese government to all Provin- cial Governors and other high officials within whose jurisdiction there are Christian communities, and also to leaders of Christian Churches in China, both Catho- lic and Protestant: National Request for Prayer. " Prayer is re- quested for the National Assembly now in session; for the new Government ; for the President who is to be elected; for the Constitution of the Republic; that the Government may be recognized by the Powers ; that peace may reign within our country; that strong and virtuous men may be elected to office; and that the Government may be established upon a strong foundation. Upon receipt of this telegram you are requested to notify all churches in your province that April twenty-seventh has been set aside as a day of prayer for the nation. Let all take part." An Unprecedented Step. The North China Daily News, in commenting upon this announcement, says : " This is the first time in the history of the world that such an appeal came from a non-Christian nation. . . . The hard fact remains that the Central Govern- ment has telegraphed to provincial officers as well as to Christian leaders, asking prayer to be made, almost in the familiar phrase, * for the House of Parliament as at this time assembled.' The change in the spirit of China that can lead to such an appeal as this is unquestionably great. That it is something more than a surface change was shown the other day at the opening of the Assembly, when, as our Peking corre- 104 The New Era in Asia spondent wrote, of the members present no fewer than sixty were Christians. Revolutions have an awkward knack of exalting the purely material. But it is something that her leaders can give this public acknowledgment of the spiritual side of things." Unmistakably a New Age. As we glance at the China of Morrison's day, or even at the China of 1900, and then at the modern republic, whose Presi- dent and Cabinet thus called upon the Christian world for intercessory prayer in behalf of the nation, it seems like passing from darkness to light, from the crucifixion of martyrdom to the resurrection power and life of a new age. Resultant Problems. Having noted the changes which have swept over China, and the contrast be- tween the old era and the new, let us now observe some of the national problems involved in the present changes which confront the Chinese to-day. I. Representative Government. There is first of all the political problem of a representative gov- ernment, or how to run a republic. Utterly unpre- pared, China is faced with the problem of developing a strong central government, which shall command the confidence of the people, unite the north and south, and bind together her divided and independent provinces. Even in the United States, with our in- coming tide of immigration, a republic is a difficult form of government; but imagine the problem we would have with 90 per cent, of the people illiterate, and a population four times as great as our own. What a burden this places upon the educated minor- The New Era in China 105 ity! As Mr. L. P. Jacks says in the Hibbert Journal: " It cannot be too much considered that democracy as it now exists, if in one aspect the freest, is in another aspect the severest form of government; less than any other form does it permit the natural man to do as he likes." Evil Inheritances. The inheritance of evil from the corrupt Manchu dynasty cannot be thrown off at once. Mismanagement, incapacity, and bribery al- most beyond human belief, characterized the decaying rule of the Manchus. A prominent item in a Chinese official's annual income was from the sale of offices. Almost every office and every piece of work had its price and its bribe, and an official had to reimburse himself by bribery for the office for which he had paid so much, and which he was liable to lose so soon. Basis for Popular Rule. China has become a re- public, but a complete transformation to representa- tive government cannot be wrought in a single day. Even America has not yet fully achieved an honest and efficient government of the people, for the people, by the people. China always has been, however, in a large measure, self-governing. In the family, the clan, the trade-gild, the village, and the province, the Chinese largely manage their own affairs, and are ready to resist taxation, innovation, or undesirable orders from the central government. Mr. H. A. Giles of Cambridge refers to " the Chinese who, strictly speaking, govern themselves in the most democratic of all republics." The republic has come to stay. China now needs time; time to regain her equilibrium, and io6 The New Era in Asia to utilize her vast resources. The elections have been held with a measure of success. True, there was but little supervision at the polls, there has been some " repeating," and coolies not eligible to vote have sometimes voted; but if America has not solved her own problems in this matter can we expect China to do so in a moment? 2. Financial and Economic Problem. China's financial and economic problem is equally grave. There is the need of standardizing her currency, ad- justing taxation, and collecting the revenues due from the provinces. There is the imperative need of build- ing her much-needed railways, of developing the vast resources of her mines and the even greater possi- bilities of her manufactures. Almost bankrupt after the revolution, and with the encumbrance of debt in- herited from the Manchu dynasty, China long sought a loan from the four nations, and later from the six nations, including British, German, French, American, Russian, and Japanese capitalists. China was unwill- ing to submit to a foreign supervision with regard to expenditure of the money which might prevent her maintaining an efficient army and navy for self-de- fense, and leave her a prey to the nations who might keep her in a helpless condition for their own interests. President Wilson wisely withdrew the support of the American government from this group in order to leave China more free. A loan was finally concluded with the five nations for $125,000,000. But the wise contraction and expenditure of foreign loans still re- mains one of China's chief problems. The New Era in China 107 3. International Relations. The problem of China's international relations, and the control of her provinces and dependencies is most serious. For the time being Russia almost controls Mongolia, Tibet seems nearly lost, and many fear that Russia and Japan may divide Manchuria. On January i, 1912, Outer Mongolia declared her independence, and on April 9 refused to join the Republic, and was sup- ported by Russia at the Urga Convention on Novem- ber 3. There is also unrest in Eastern Inner Mon- golia, which has attempted to assert its independence. Tibet seized her opportunity, and besieged and drove out the Chinese garrisons. On August 17, 1912, the British government protested against China's hos- tilities in Tibet. At the same time Russia and Japan are steadily strengthening their hold in Manchuria. The revolutionary forces have not yet all been paid and discharged, and bands of outlaws still continue to plunder some of the remote districts. For the next decade or two China may lose her control over her outlying provinces, but if she once gets firmly estab- lished she can at leisure take them back from any power on earth, for no nation can withstand her within her own borders once she learns to govern her- self. Her real problem is internal and is one of good government. 4. Problem of Moral Character. But greater than her political, economic, or foreign problem is the one underlying central problem of moral character. This is China's deepest need to-day. It is true that she has put Western nations to shame in her heroic io8 The New Era in Asia fight against the opium traffic. The moral conscious- ness which China possesses is her chief asset and her greatest hope for the future. The splendid precepts of Confucianism have produced in the people a deeper moral consciousness than in any other nation in Asia, deeper, probably, than that produced by any non- Christian religion in the world; but they have not solved her deepest problem. The missing link is be- tween conscience and character. In many things China knows but cannot do. A giant among the nations, she is still pathetically helpless. If China fails it will not be from foes without, for as her own great Mencius says, "A nation must injure itself be- fore it can be injured by others." It will not be from lack of native ability or democratic spirit in her great people. The only fear is, as her own leaders feel deeply to-day, can she produce enough honest men in the positions which determine the destiny of the people to secure an efficient government? For it takes moral character and honest officials successfully to develop railways, mines, and manufactures. Secularizing Drift. The danger is further in- creased and the need of a moral and religious basis for national life is further emphasized by the strong tendency toward secularization manifest at present in China. The new education bill passed by the National Council eliminates all religion from the schools of China, and the Director of Education of Kwangtung Province has refused to permit the veneration of Con- fucius in the government schools. The grounds of the sacred Temple of Heaven, the most holy place in t m^- -*-**AJf TEMPLE OF HEAVEN Grounds to be used as an experiment farm The New Era in China 109 China, are to be used as an experiment farm. As Mr. J. H. Oldham in the International Review of Mis- sions asks, if these two foundation pillars, of worship at the Altar of Heaven and the veneration of Con- fucius, be removed, how far can the social and po- litical structure of China survive, and what faith is to be the support of the new social order? Christianity Essential. After several months in China, visiting many of the principal cities, meeting scores of officials, and seeing thousands of students, the writer returns with the conviction that there is absolutely no hope for China's highest success apart from a Christian civilization. Numbers of officials and non-Christian leaders throughout the country feel that this is " China's only hope." What would Europe have been without Christianity ? What would we have been? What will China be? China's Future. China, after four thousand years of continuous history, with a conservative, law-abid- ing, and naturally self-governing and democratic peo- ple, will emerge from these times of trouble into a great, united, and stable republic. The nation which built the Great Wall, which invented the compass and gunpowder long before the Christian era, which dis- covered the art of printing nearly a thousand years ago, which gave to the world her manufactures of por- celain and silk, this great nation of scholars and of skilful agriculturalists and artisans, which had reached a higher civilization than that of Europe when visited by Marco Polo in the thirteenth century, this nation, with its great past, is rising to-day in the dew of its no The New Era in Asia youth, in the dawn of a new era, facing a yet greater future. Our Best or Our Worst. We have given her much of the worst side of our civihzation. Do we not owe her our best as well? The ship that carries the missionary carries also Western tobacco, liquor, and perhaps opium, as well as the godless sailor and trader of the ports. We are debtors to give the gos- pel so adequately and purely that it shall triumph over these forces of evil from the West. We should show at least as great enterprise in missions as in trade. American oil is sold to-day in many villages in Asia where the gospel is not preached. The cigar- ette propaganda is an example of an efficient enter- prise. It was through Spain that tobacco was intro- duced into China from North America in 1620; and though prohibited by edict it became almost uni- versal both among men and women in China. The Dutch taught the Chinese to mix opium with their tobacco about 1650; later opium was smoked alone. For over a century China has protested and fought against it, sometimes feebly, sometimes forcibly, but she feels it has been forced upon her from the West. Now that she is breaking away from opium the British-American Tobacco Company, with others, is giving away its cigarettes by the thousand to fasten this habit upon the people as they escape from that of opium. With the motto " Taste and See " they are said to have the aim of making every man, woman, and child in China form the cigarette habit. On a Bteamer in which the writer traveled was an agent The New Era in China iii of one of these companies taking a large consignment of cigarettes for free distribution among the Chinese. No one can deny their enterprise and efficiency. Should we show less in giving the gospel to China? As Professor Ernest D. Burton in the World's Chi- nese Students' Journal says, " The open question is whether we shall, with our worst, give our best; by the gift of our best atone for the evil we have done in sending our worst, and at length displace the evil with the good." An Urgent Situation. China is facing the period of greatest peril in all her history. It is a time of transition. The danger is that the old standards may be temporarily abandoned before the new ones are created. It might have been safer if China could have had, for a time at least, a constitutional mon- archy, and have prepared herself more gradually by a longer course of education for a republican govern- ment. But she has a republic on her hands and she must do something with it. It might have been better if the old religions could have retained their power until Christianity had taken a firmer hold upon the people, but the old supports are breaking down more rapidly than the new are taking their place as yet. China is making history rapidly for her own weal or wo. If ever a nation needed help it is China to-day. Every nation has its problems, but where else is there a population so vast which is facing problems so great? If we are ever to help China it must be now. THE NEW ERA IN CHINA (Continued) THE NEW ERA IN CHINA (Continued) Official Classes Now Responsive. In reviewing first of all the hopeful features of the situation, let us observe the complete change of attitude toward West- em civilization and Christianity on the part of the official classes. To appreciate this change we should recall their former attitude. Let us remember that the combined foreign powers had to struggle for twenty- five years (till the Treaty of Peking in i860) before China would consent to receive foreign envoys at her capital, even as despised inferiors. Let us not forget that for forty years more the officials and literati re- sented the presence of the foreigner. A leading worker in China stated that he would have felt well repaid if he could have been the means of the con- version of even one of these officials or literati in his lifetime, and had he been offered the opportunity of winning as many as twelve of these men as the work of a lifetime, he would gladly have given his life for the chance. But now a door of access is thrown wide open to these hitherto inaccessible classes. Almost every missionary in every part of the country can testify to this sudden and surprising change. The writer noticed this especially on his recent tour. "5 Ii6 The New Era in Asia Representative Men at a Banquet. On arrival in Shanghai a banquet was given to welcome Dr. Mott and myself. It was a sight to see the leaders of this young republic, arrayed in evening dress, gathering in the Palace Hotel some two hundred strong. In the chair was Mr. K. S. Wong, business manager of China's great iron and steel works, and perhaps the future Carnegie of China. In these works, employing over 4,000 workmen, we saw skilled laborers turning out the finest steel rails with which to build the new railways of China, which will stretch from Shanghai to Burma and from Canton in the south to Siberia in the north. On the left sat the celebrated Dr. Wu Ting-fang, former minister in Washington, who represented the revolutionary forces in the negotiations with the Manchus in forming the new Republic of China. Next him sat the manager of the Nanking Railway, a graduate of Yale. Though not a Christian he said : " Confucianism has supplied China with precepts in the past, but China impera- tively needs Christianity to-day to furnish her with moral power. Many leading men are now turning toward Christianity as the hope of China; it is a sign of the times." Others gave the same testimony. Requests Show Changed Attitude. On Dr. Mott's right at the banquet sat a Confucianist, who had made a six hours' journey to Shanghai as the special representative of the governor at Hangchow, to ask for a Young Men's Christian Association build- ing and officially to request the organization of an Association in their city, the governor promising to The New Era in China 117 give the site. Requests similar to this are coming in from various parts of China. How the Work Spreads. The attitude of several other governors in various parts of China is typical of the complete change under the new regime. The Provincial Assembly of Kirin in northern Manchuria showed their confidence in this Christian work for young men by voting to request the extension of the Association throughout the cities of their province. The governor in southern Manchuria erected at his own expense a great hall for the evangelistic meetings. The writer interviewed on two succeeding days the two generals who had commanded both the northern and southern armies and had led the two forces in the recent revolution. Both are now governors, and both spoke enthusiastically of the Christian work for young men going on in their city. Each of them asked that it should be extended to help the young men of the province at this time. General Li Yuan-hung, Vice- President of the Republic, who commanded the south- ern army, was particularly cordial. He gave us a European luncheon, and discussed with us the moral conditions of the young men of his province. Both these governors are themselves liberal supporters of the work. Openings in Western Provinces. The two gov- ernors in the extreme western provinces on the borders of Burma and Tibet have shown the same remarkable spirit of cordial cooperation. In one of these prov- inces, which seemed the last stronghold to yield to mission effort, where, apart from the aborigines, thirty Ii8 The New Era in Asia years of work had yielded less than one hundred con- verts even from the lower classes, and where the hearts of high and low alike seemed hardened to the gospel message, the new era was introduced by two Chinese students who had just returned from Japan. There they had been won to Christ in the local Young Men's Christian Association, and upon their return they told the governor that a political revolution was not enough. It was necessary they said to change the hearts of the people. They urged him to lend his assistance in founding a Young Men's Christian Association. The governor granted them a large Buddhist temple for the use of the new Association. The students ground the idols to powder, and used them to make bricks for repairing the building. The missionaries were called in to address the crowds that daily poured in to listen to the gospel message. It was, perhaps, the hardest city and province to influence in the whole of China, and yet in a day all was changed. Favorable edicts were issued throughout the city and province concerning the work. Non-Christian Confucian lead- ers began to demand the formation of Christian Asso- ciations in other cities of the province, and the work is still spreading. Individual Transformation. Having observed the changed attitude of the officials and leaders of China, let us note the transformation in individual character wrought by Christianity in the new era. Only the Christian ideal, realized in the lives of true patriots, can save and uplift China. There is C. T. Wang, of Yale, who has had such a brilliant career in the young C. T. WANG I must go to the front. This is the hour of my country's need The New Era in China 119 republic. He was trained in a Christian home as the son of a humble preacher of the gospel. Finally he became Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, and the writer observed his able work among his fellow Chinese students when in Tokyo seven years ago. Later he graduated from Yale with high honors, and as Secretary of the Chinese Student Movement in America was the recognized leader of the hundreds of Chinese students in this country. His burning and fervid appeals for China will long be remembered by all who heard him deliver addresses in the United States, in Canada, in Constantinople, and elsewhere, for he is a true orator in the highest sense of the word. He Goes to the Front. Upon his return to China he again entered the service of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association as a National Secretary. Then came the revolution. Without risking his life his own posi- tion would have been assured. He had only to wait till the revolution blew over and he could have received a high office from either party that was successful, but he said : " I must go to the front. This is the hour of my country's need. The revolution may fail, or it may succeed. If it fails I could never forget that in the hour of the nation's need, at the crisis of her fate, I did not put my life upon the altar. Should it suc- ceed I would then have waited until there was no longer any risk, and I would have had no part in China's fight for freedom. No, I must join the move- ment when there is a chance to die." So saying, he started for the front. 120 The New Era in Asia During the War and After. Serving in the ranks of the Red Cross work, helping the wounded, he was soon made a member of General Li's staff, and acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs under him in the pro- visional government. The Vice-President, then Gen- eral Li Yuan-hung, sent him to be one of the rep- resentatives of the revolutionary forces in the negotia- tions for peace. When Dr. Sun Yat-sen became the Provisional President of the Republic, Mr. Wang be- came his personal representative in important negotia- tions. Elected a member of the National Senate he was a factor for peace and unity in reconciling the contending forces of the north and south in seeking to hold China together. Soon he was called to be Acting Minister of Commerce in Yuan Shih-kai's Cabinet, but as soon as his work permitted he left that post to return again to Christian work. During recent months he has been engaged in the great plan for constructing the new railway system by the Cen- tral Railway Company of China. A Reformer and Christian Leader. Mr. Wang is no idle dreamer, but a practical reformer and leader of men. Recently he has been elected Vice-President of the new Senate in Peking, and with some sixty other Christians in that great body is laboring with high purpose and splendid self-denial as a burning patriot for the welfare of China. Perhaps more than any man in China to-day he is playing the part that Alex- ander Hamilton played in the constructive period after the American Revolution. In a recent address in Shanghai he said : " China is poor to-day, not for lack The New Era in China 121 of resources, but because our one burning need is for moral character and for moral leadership. Chris- tianity alone can supply this need for China." Chang Po-ling, Educator. Another typical man of the new era is Chang Po-ling, the Arnold, not of Rugby, but of North China. He was a graduate of the Imperial Naval College and an officer in the Chi- nese navy. He resigned from the navy because he felt that China's greatest need was education. He was invited by the gifted Mr. Yen Hsiu to aid him in his educational program. Mr. Yen was, perhaps, the greatest of China's modern educators. As the head of the Board of Education in the metropolitan province of Chihli he raised the number of students within his province from two thousand to two hundred and fif- teen thousand within the seven years following 1903. He then became Vice-President and acting head of the Imperial Board of Education for the whole empire. Under his patronage, and with the generous contribu- tions of the gentry and officials of thousands of dollars, a model educational institution was started in Tien- tsin, and Mr. Chang was made the principal or presi- dent. So famous has this college become that it now enrolls students from all the eighteen provinces of China, and Chang has left his stamp on every student, as Arnold did at Rugby. Inquiring the Way. Professor Robertson came in contact with Mr. Chang and through his personal friendship for him helped him by lecturing in his college. Mr. Chang's mother had been an earnest Buddhist, his father a strict Confucianist, but through 122 The New Era in Asia the materialistic writings of Spencer and Huxley Chang himself had become a Confucian atheist. Op- pressed by the problem of evil and human suffering, he became a confirmed pessimist and was deeply dis- couraged over the condition of China, which seemed to be drifting upon the rocks. When he unburdened his heart to Robertson he said : *' I notice that you Christians seem to have some hidden source of joy and peace and power. What is the secret of this power? " Robertson invited him to join him in studying the Bible and they began with the problems of the book of Job and then studied the life of Christ. Months passed and their friendship grew. When Mr. Chang was appointed a representative of his province on a commission which was sent to visit America and Europe, Robertson invited him to his home before his departure. Conversion and Witness-bearing. Till nearly midnight one evening Mr. Chang told the writer the thrilling story of his conversion. On the night before his departure Robertson spoke to him again of Christ, and asked him if he would join him in prayer. Chang said that, as he knelt to pray, it seemed as if a great light filled his soul and flooded his whole being. His conversion seemed almost as clear and instantaneous and revolutionary as the blinding vision of the Apostle Paul himself. He knelt an agnostic, he rose a Chris- tian; he knelt a pessimist, he rose an optimist. The face of all the world seemed changed; he looked out upon a new heaven and a new earth. The whole night he could not sleep for joy. In the morning he said: The New Era in China 123 "*' I have been drifting for ten years like a ship at sea without chart or compass; now I know where I am going." He hastened to Tientsin, and spent the first day with his family telHng them of his decision. The next day he went to his college, and called together the teachers and students, and finally the Board of Directors. One can see those proud officials in their flowing silk robes as they come into the room. The young man with glowing face tells them why he has become a Christian, and opening the Scriptures reasons with them with that loving sympathy and joyous en- thusiasm that to this day marks his every utterance. He resigned his college position that his presence as a Christian might not embarrass the administration, for he could not bow to the tablet of Confucius. The next day he journeyed to Peking, and spent the day with the officials, boldly telling them the reasons for his decision. A whole week was spent with these men, especially with the Commissioner of Education, who was his best friend. Opening his heart, and opening up the Scriptures as well, he told them of his wonder- ful experience. Finally, they said : " Well, be a Chris- tion if you must, but be a Christian in secret; do not resign your college position, we cannot spare you. Simply bow to the tablet of Confucius; it is only an empty, outward form, and you can believe what you like in your heart." But Chang stood firm and with his winsome smile said : " A few days ago One came to dwell within my heart. He has changed all life for me forever. I dare not bow to any other lest he depart." When urged by some of his Christian friends 124 The New Era in Asia to be more cautious, he said boldly : ^' I want every- body to know that Chang Po-ling has become a Chris- tian." Reinstated and Working. After spending six months in America and Europe visiting the leading institutions, he returned to give his report in China. He was then called to be the President of his old college as a recognized Christian leader, and he occu- pies that position to-day. When during the student strike he was asked to lead some three thousand stu- dents to present their petition to the Throne regard- ing the wrongs in Manchuria, he stood firm before all their threats. Though they offered him the power of life and death over them as their leader, he persuaded them to go back to their institutions- and resume their work. Two years ago he or- ganized a church in his city. When the writer visited Tientsin he saw that wonderful church crowded to the doors. Some twenty of Mr. Chang's professors and students had already been baptized, and a hundred men from the leading classes had united with the church within the past two years. Night after night he presided at the evangelistic meet- ings and swayed a vast audience of two thousand stu- dents as he gave his ringing testimony for Christ with such sweet reasonableness and joyous fervor that re- peatedly that great audience of non-Christian govern- ment students broke out into applause. After one of the meetings the writer saw him step up to a non- Christian Chinese gentleman of wealth and position. He said : " My friend, I have been praying for you The New Era in China 125 daily by name for many months. Will you not now decide to accept Christ as your Savior ? " "I will/' replied the man. " You have long studied the matter ; will you not be baptized and join our church to-morrow morning?" Chang asked. Again came the reply, "1 will," and the writer saw this man with some of the government students admitted to the church the next morning. Mr. Chang's younger brother became one of the first student volunteers in China, and is to-day one of the most prominent students being educated in America. A growing company of men are going out from Mr. Chang's college with the stamp of his own life and character upon them. It is such men who are to be the makers of the new republic. New Leaders through a New Religion. Thus the power of the new age is manifesting itself in the lives of China's leaders. When we look from the lives of the former leaders to men like Chang Po-ling, we have passed from the old era to the new, and a great gulf separates the two; it is as wide as that which separates Confucianism from Christianity. Thus, the spirit of the new age is seen to-day throughout China in the new attitude of her officials, but most of all in the lives of the Christian men who are to leaven the whole nation and to lift the young republic into a place of power. The City of Martyrs, Paotingfu. Nowhere is the contrast between the old era and the new more strik- ing and dramatic than in such a city as Paotingfu, amid scenes of the Boxer uprising. We visited the city just after the revolution. We spent twenty-four 126 The New Era in Asia hours crowded with glorious opportunity in this city made sacred by the blood of the martyrs. I had long wished to preach the gospel where my friend and classmate, Horace Pitkin, laid down his life for China before he had time to learn the language or win a single convert, and where more than forty other mis- sionaries and Chinese Christian workers were mas- sacred. We stood beside the white stone that marks the grave of Pitkin to draw new inspiration for the work, and reconsecrated ourselves to the Master whom he served so well. Ringing Words of Pitkin. The crisis came on June 30, 1900, for the missionaries of the Presbyterian Board in Paotingfu. Five foreign missionaries and three children, together with a company of faithful Chinese Christians, received the martyr's crown. Pit- kin's spirit is reflected in the last letter the writer received from him in India : " It may be the beginning of the end. God rules, and somehow his kingdom must be brought about in China. . . . We may not be left to see the end. It is a grand cause to die in. Jesus shall reign, but we hope that long life may be for us in this work. Our affectionate greetings to you all. . . . God leads, thank God, he does. We can- not go out to fight. We must sit still, do our work, and take whatever is sent us. It will be but a short time before we know definitely whether we can serve him better above or not. . . . We cannot be sure of a single day's life. Work and pray for us.'* All Doors Now Open. How great the change to- day ! The city gates are open, the people are friendly. THE GRAVE OF PITKIN We stood beside the white stone that marks the grave of Pitkin to draw new inspiration for the work " The New Era in China 127 the former palace of the old Empress Dowager houses a modem government university. We went from the martyrs' graves to our meeting at the Li Hung-chang Memorial Temple, which had been generously given us for a Christian service. The missionaries estimated the attendance of government students at the first meeting at three thousand. More than half these men were standing for nearly two hours during the address, while several hundred were turned away from the doors for lack of room. We gave three addresses in succession without a break, and as we closed, in speak- ing on the cross of Christ, we could find no better illustration than the death of Pitkin himself, for there were men in that audience, doubtless, who had seen these martyrs die. We told them of his farewell mes- sage to his wife in America : " Tell her that God was with me at the last, that his peace was my consolation ; tell her to send our boy Horace to Yale, and tell him twenty-five years from now to come out and take up my work in China." After warning them that follow- ing Christ would mean opposition, if not persecution, nearly three hundred signed cards as inquirers, prom- ising to enter Bible classes. In the meeting with these inquirers in the evening, ninety of them, who already knew something of Christianity, rose, promising to become Christians, to be baptized and join the church. Some of them have already done so. After leaving the meeting with the inquirers we hastened outside the city at the invitation of the authorities of the Military Academy, which is training fifteen hundred cadets as the future officers of China's army, to ad- 128 The New Era in Asia dress these men drawn up at " attention " out of doors, in the bitter cold, at ten o'clock at night. . The general and his staff were present, and we had per- fect freedom to speak upon Christianity. Growth of Christian Missions. At last Christian missions are coming to their own in China, and that after centuries of waiting. Early in the sixth century the Nestorian Christians had entered China, but had not survived the persecution of those early centuries. As early as the thirteenth century Roman Catholic missionaries entered the country, and the community of Roman Christians now numbers over a million per- sons. In Protestant missions, the years from 1807 to 1842 mark the Period of Preparation begun by Morrison. From 1842 to i860, beginning with the opening of the first five ports by the Treaty of Nan- king, is known as the Period of the Port Cities, when mission work was almost impossible in the interior. From i860 to 1900 has been called the Period of Penetration and Progress, as Hudson Taylor and the members of the China Inland Mission and other societies pressed into the interior of the country. From 1900, the New Era begins with the fall of the older order. In 1910 there were 5,144 Protestant and 1,475 Roman Catholic missionaries in China. Prot- estant missions were conducting 170 hospitals, 14 or- phanages, 16 leper asylums, and 100 opium refuges. There were 553 mission colleges, academies, and higher institutions, and 3,708 primary institutions, with 117,000 pupils. The number of Protestant ad- herents was 324,890. The Church instead of being The New Era in China 129 ^iped out has gained nearly 80 per cent, since the Boxer uprising. The Bible Societies have printed and distributed 46,400,000 Bibles and portions. The in- crease of the Protestant communicants in China may he seen by the following table: 1807 Protestant Communicants o 1814 1842 1853 i860 1876 1889 1900 1910 I 6 350 960 13,515 37,000 113,000 196,000 Christian Problems. We have reviewed the hope- ful features of the situation in China as seen in the attitude of the officials, of individual converts, and in the centers of the Boxer uprising. Let us now notice some of the problems facing the Christian Church in China to-day. 1. The New Classes Made Accessible. The native Church in China is faced by the problem of tak- ing advantage of the opening suddenly presented to reach the official and leading classes when it has an insufficiency of highly educated leaders adapted to such work. There is the problem of handling the large number of inquirers from the government student class, and of taking immediate advantage of the pres- ent evangelistic opportunity in China to-day. 2. The New Religious Workers Needed. There is the problem of raising up speedily an adequately trained ministry and a sufficient force of strong lay 130 The New Era in Asia workers to meet the present unprecedented situation in China. Since the Christian Church was drawn at first necessarily from among the obscure and the poor,, the ministry was not highly trained, though recruited from the best class available. The situation would be even more grave than it is to-day were it not for the work of Pastor Ding Li-mei, who has been used of God to lead an indigenous Student Volunteer Movement to raise up men for the ministry. Some hundreds of the most gifted students have enrolled and signed the volunteer declaration to give their lives to the ministry in China. This means accepting a salary often of one fifth or even one tenth the amount they could receive in government service. There is all the more need of raising up a trained ministry in this period of transition in China. The educated classes are prepared to consider the claims of Christianity if they are intelligently presented. The Church is facing to-day a revival and reconstruction of the old religions, on the part at least of an educated minority. There is a " neo-Confucianism," just as there is a revival of Hinduism in India. There is a revival of Bud- dhism, though not on a large scale as yet ; for, not be- ing native to China and having appealed more to the ignorant masses, it does not present the same claim upon the patriotic leaders of China as an indigenous religion. There is a new eclecticism springing up similar to the movement in Japan, though not so pro- nounced as yet as that in India. There is a cult in China which calls itself " Confucio-Christianity." Many of the educated Chinese are trying to receive The New Era in China 131 the best in all religions, without professing allegiance to any one of them, not having found as yet that this has been tried repeatedly but has always proved a failure in the end. 3. Relation of Foreign and Native Forces. The problem of right relations between the foreign and Chinese forces is a very real one. This great nation is in a most sensitive, adolescent period. There are many foreigners who do not realize the changes in China itself, and who have not been able to adjust themselves to the new era. A student from the West who contemplates going as a missionary to cultured lands of the East, like Japan, China, or India, with their ancient systems of philosophy and religion, and their superior courtesy, should not be sent abroad if he goes with any mistaken notion that he is to be a prominent leader, superintendent, or dictator, who is to employ and direct native helpers. Rather, the for- eigner should go to help these great leaders of the East. He will find in many respects that he, as well as his barbarous ancestors, is inferior to the culture and courtesy of the blue blood of some of these an- cient nations. 4. Question of Church Unity. The problem of church unity and the question of comity, coopera- tion, and interdenominational relationships has not yet been solved in China. The Chinese do not appreciate nor value the denominational differences of the West. They are impatient with divisions which keep them apart, which were not created by them, and which they say have no meaning for them. How- 132 The New Era in Asia ever precious some of these differences are to those who fought for great principles in the past, they themselves feel more ready to fight for unity than to perpetuate division. A number of independent churches are already springing up in different parts of China. It will be well if there is a careful diag- nosis of the situation in time to prevent a wide-spread disaffection. If foreigners are not prepared to lead in the movement for unity themselves, the Chinese will take the lead. But this very independence and ability for leadership raises grave problems among a people who have but little experience in Christianity, and who may not realize all the issues involved nor know all the lessons of Christian history. Special Needs. How then are we to meet the present situation in China? In addition to the four suggestions already made as to the demands of the situation in Japan, China seems to need at this time the following: I. Adequate Trained Foreign Force. There is need of an adequate force of trained Christian work- ers from abroad. Once again, what we do for China must be done quickly. A race so strong, so independ- ent, and so gifted in leadership may not long be will- ing to receive help from without even when it is needed. The present forces in China are inadequate to cope with the situation. Our missionary staff should be greatly strengthened and extended, and we should study national strategy in dealing with so vast a problem as that which confronts the Church in China. The New Era in China 133 2. Enlarged Educational Work. We should greatly strengthen the present Christian educational system in China. For years to come the government will be unable to supply education for the whole pop- ulation. Even when it does so, the example of secular education in Japan proves how inadequate it may be. Strong Christian universities should be established at certain strategic centers, and the entire system of edu- cation of the surrounding provinces coordinated and related to these universities. The Christian colleges of China, such as St. John's University in Shanghai, Boone College in Wuchang, the Canton Christian Col- lege in South China, the Shantung Christian Uni- versity, Peking University, and other institutions in the North, have trained notable Christian leaders, and together with the returned students from abroad are furnishing the men who alone can solve the problems of China to-day. 3. New Leaders. Able Chinese Christian lead- ers must be raised up from among the young men of China who are outside of the relatively small num- ber of mission institutions. The 3,000 Chinese stu- dents studying in Japan, the 1,000 in America, and nearly 200 in Europe, together with the large numbers in the government colleges of China, furnish a field for evangelistic effort and influence. Every Chinese leader won is an asset for the republic. We should spare no pains to raise up an adequate Christian leadership for China. A Manifest Work of God. It is not too much to say that greater changes have been wrought in the 134 The New Era in Asia form and principles and spirit of the life of this most conservative nation of history during the last decade than in the four thousand years of China's history be- fore the landing of Robert Morrison. Such an effect must have an adequate cause. If v^e believe in a phi- losophy of history, if ever God has been at work anywhere, surely he is working in China before our very eyes. " Behold I work a work in your days which you will in no wise believe." It is always easier to relegate God's mighty works to the past, or to postpone them to an ever-retreating future than to expect or to discern God's work in the all-important present. But we cannot deny the argument of solid facts. Call of the Present Crisis. For a century the Church prayed for open doors in Asia. It would be almost blasphemy to pray that prayer in China to-day. Rather, God seems to be saying in the unmistakable logic of events : " I have begun to deliver. . . . Go in and possess the land." If we care at all how the other half lives, if humanity is anything more than a mere name, if religion is more than a dead rite or empty form, surely it must move us to the depths to behold one fourth of the human race struggling up out of ages of bondage and darkness toward the light and liberty of Christian civilization. Here are the facts confronting us. What are we going to do about them? More can be done in a decade now than in a whole generation in the future if we lose this one priceless opportunity. As an African proverb says, " The dawn comes not twice to waken a man." Where The New Era in China 135 else in all the world is there another nation of four hundred millions so open to the gospel? At what period in history has the Church been confronted with such a population, with such a mass of humanity wait- ing before its doors? But China's appeal is not only quantitative but qualitative. She is as colossal in her character as in her numbers. It is her deep moral earnestness that is so characteristic of China. Her greatest asset is in her people. They are a noble race, fit to survive. They constitute not a " yellow peril " but, as one has said, *' the golden opportunity of Christendom." And when will such an opportunity return ? What Is Our Answer? In Japan during the eighties the Christian Church failed to press its ad- vantage, and no succeeding years have sufficed to overcome the strong current of materialism which has swept through all the life of Japan. Shall we again fail God in this greater crisis ? We must act or there will be an inevitable reaction. Is China to turn, as we saw in the first chapter, toward Christianity, or toward a hopeless revival of the old national religions, or to a bitter experience of materialism, agnosticism, and immorality? If ever a nation needed help it is China to-day. If ever a nation was capable of re- sponding to the best it is China. If ever a call came to Christendom it is here and now. What shall be our answer to China's need? What shall my answer be? THE NEW ERA IN INDIA VI THE NEW ERA IN INDIA India's Present Outlook. A survey of present conditions in India emphasizes the fact that like all the rest of Asia it is undergoing a fundamental re- construction, and that the lines along which it hardens will determine its future. Conditioned on the one hand by the iron-bound social system of caste, and on the other by the almost absolute sway of religious tradition, India is in many respects the most con- servative of all the countries of the world. Yet in spite of this fact her present development is relatively rapid. Within a decade India may be more open to the influences of the new era than the Far East is to-day. In many respects India is entering upon her most plastic period, and if we are to be ready to help her we must enter the field in full force at once. Political Unity Due to the Occident. Politically, the government of India was without unity, stability, or security before the advent of the English. Though partially conquered by the Mogul emperors, never before 1858 was all India united under one govern- ment. Divided in race and religion, and speaking 147 different languages, the peoples of India lacked all sense of nationality and of unity. The country 139 140 The New Era in Asia was devastated by endless wars; almost every town was fortified, and every farmer hid his grain from the marauding bands which might sweep down upon him. Former Educational Lack. Although her phi- losophers and sages had worked out noble systems of thought and religion, education under the old regime was confined to a small aristocracy of the Brahman priesthood and of the upper castes. Not one man in a hundred could read and the women were utterly illiterate. India's golden age, like the rest of the East, lay in the past, and it lacked the dynamic prin- ciple of progress. Extreme Poverty. Economically, India was poor. Like China, she had early attained a relatively high degree of civilization, and was at one time one of the chief manufacturing countries in the world. Even as late as the eighteenth century she was on a par with Europe in industrial matters, but she was unable to compete with modern nations and lost many of her early arts and industries, until she finally sank to the position of one of the poorest countries in the world. ^ ^ According to Mr. P. Banerjea in his Study of Indian Economics, the wealth per capita has been variously com- puted from $50 to $125, while that of the United King- dom is $1,510; of France, $1,260; of the United States, $1,080; and of Germany, $780. The average farm production per head is only $13 a year in India. The average income in India is about $10 per capita. The average income in the United Kingdom is eighteen times as great as that of India. Forty millions have to lie down hungry every night upon a mud floor who have had only one meal, or at most two scanty meals during the day. Even during the last fifty years, twenty-two famines have swept away twenty-eight millions of people. The New Era in India 141 Causes of Poverty. The causes of this poverty are not far to seek. The almost exclusive dependence of the population upon agriculture when the monsoon so frequently fails, an overcrowding of population, primitive methods of agriculture, the hoarding of wealth which is congested in the hands of the few and not released in trade, the absence of manufac- tures, the prevalence of debt, the inordinate use of jewels, have all impoverished the country. Added to all this was the oppressive rule under the old auto- cratic or paternal forms of government. In one native state the writer found recently that its ruler had six hundred wives, and had left his territory un- developed, without roads, without schools, or ade- quate security in trade. Naturally the population was crossing over the border into British territory, and rich land can now be bought in that native state at thirty cents an acre. This was typical of other parts of India during much of the old era before the en- trance of the British. Social Blight of Caste. Socially, the life of India was conditioned by the tyrannous caste system. Aris- ing originally from the necessity of preserving race purity and the early trade-gilds, it gradually hardened into the most binding and blighting of all the social institutions ever devised by man. It has bound the individual, crushed initiative, stifled aspiration, pre- vented progress. It has produced early marriage, it has wronged womanhood, enfeebled childhood, fixed arbitrarily the conditions of capital and labor, petrified economic conditions, and enslaved the individual to 142 The New Era in Asia society. While caste Has preserved much that was good, it has hardened and petrified many evil customs and has been and continues to be the one great barrier to India's progress. Hinduism Religiously Misguiding. Religiously, the old era was conditioned by Hinduism. The most amorphous and undefinable of all religions, Hinduism might be described as a tangled jungle of the beliefs and practises of the peoples of India, springing from the soil of philosophic pantheism and of popular polytheism, enclosed by the thorny hedge of caste, and perpetuating its perennial growth by the laws of karma and transmigration. Tested by its views of God, man, and life, — the three principles referred to in our opening chapter, which lie at the basis of Western civilization, — we find that it is lacking as an adequate source of life and progress. In the Hindu triad, or sacred trinity of gods, not one has an un- tarnished moral record. There is not one of the three deities who has not broken the seventh command- ment. The stories of the sensuality and impurity of the gods as recorded in the sacred books and told by its votaries have polluted the imagination of the child- hood of India. As Professor Hopkins of Yale says: '' The Hindu moral code is savage and antique. Few of the older gods are virtuous." Caste an Immense Moral Barrier. As opposed to the doctrine of the brotherhood of man, the caste system stands as the deepest denial of brotherhood and perhaps the strongest barrier to human progress which has ever been devised. Life instead of being The New Era in India 143 real, progressive, free, and eternal, is overshadowed as by a dark cloud in the law of karma and the weary cycle of rebirth by transmigration. It lacks just the abounding good news which Christ can give to all men. India's Old Era Hopelessly Defective. As we survey the India of the old era politically, intellectually, economically, socially, and religiously, it is unmis- takably evident that she needs something radical and transforming, and that nothing less than the great dynamic principles which produced the best in our Western civilization are adequate finally to transform and uplift India. New^ Life under British Rule. The benefits of British rule are evident to any impartial observer. One unmistakable evidence of Great Britain's good government is that the peoples of India are being drawn together into a deeper unity by a stronger sense of nationality. Peace and security have been guaranteed to all. The population of India has in- creased by over a hundred millions under British rule since 1858. An efficient government has been built up, and an increasingly large measure of self-govern- ment granted to the people. Present Discontent. That there is unrest in India cannot be denied, but it is natural and in- evitable. It is a divine discontent, awakened by the conditions left by the old era when challenged by the conscience and ideals created by the new. It is caused by the conflict of the old civilization with the new\ As Sir Valentine Chirol says : " Swadeshi and Swaraj 144 The New Era in Asia are the battle-cries of this new Hindu ' nationalism/ but they mean far more than a mere claim to fiscal or even political independence. They mean an organized uplifting of the old Hindu traditions, social and re- ligious, intellectual and moral, against the imported ideals of an alien race and an alien civilization." The unrest bears witness alike to the nobility of In- dian aspiration and of British rule. Possible Nationality. There are those who believe and who tell us repeatedly that India can never be a nation, can never be united, can never form a self- governing member of the British Empire like Canada or Australia. It is true that there are almost in- superable obstacles in the divisions of races, languages, and religions. But British rule, the English language, Western education, and Christian ideals working to- gether are drawing the peoples of India increasingly toward political unity. It seemed an impossible dream that the divided peoples of Germany or of Italy could ever be united, but the seemingly impossible has come to pass. It is true that India is not a compact nation like Japan, nor has she a common race and written language like China, but she has a growing sense of nationality. The enlarged councils of Lord Morley, which constitute the beginnings of little parliaments, the firm yet friendly measures of government under the present Viceroy, the wider diffusion of educa- tion, the gradual leavening of the masses, the grow- ing aspirations of the people, all point toward the goal of India taking her place at some distant day as a great and self-governing member of the British The New Era in India 145 Empire, the Kohinoor amid the splendid but lesser jewels of its crown. Intellectual and Educational Progress. Intellec- tually as well as politically, the new era is unmistak- able in India. With all its faults, the English system of education in India introduced by Duff and Macaulay has diffused widely the leaven of the new era. With more than thirty thousand students in its arts and pro- fessional colleges, the number of students in the uni- versities is nearly equal to that in the United Kingdom, and about three times as great as that in Japan. The proclamation of the King-Emperor at Delhi an- nounced a more liberal grant for education, which will increase the number of primary schools by seventy-five per cent, and double the school-going pop- ulation. That only one woman in 144 can read in India is not surprising when we remember the con- servatism of the people and their unwillingness to send their daughters to school. But a comparison of the Quinquennial Review of Indian Education of recent years shows a rapid and gratifying increase in female education.^ The system of education introduced by Great Britain in placing an over-emphasis upon higher education, often of an impracticable character, and in not laying sufficient stress upon primary and in- dustrial training, as did Japan, has created more dis- content in the number of educated men who cannot find suitable employment than would otherwise have ^ During the fifteen years ending with 1902 the number of girls in schools increased by 151,600. During the succeed- ing five years, 1902- 1907, they increased by 186,480. 146 The New Era in Asia been the case. But nevertheless the ideas and ideals of a new and higher civilization are steadily permeat- ing from the educated classes to the masses, and from the cities to the remotest villages. Intellectually, In- dia is awakening. Economic Advance. The economic development of India is equally unmistakable. It is true that In- dia lost the place which she once held in the ancient world as one of the chief manufacturing countries. Her methods of agriculture are antiquated, and the two thirds of her total population dependent upon it are left in partial famine with the failure of the mon- soon. Yet in spite of all these many handicaps, India is making slow but steady progress in the industrial world. Her trade has increased during the last half century from $300,000,000 to over $1,500,000,000. The value of her land has increased under British rule by $1,500,000,000. There are 32,000 miles of railway in operation, which places India fourth in the world in its railway mileage, carrying 330,000,000 passengers annually at the rate of five miles for one cent.^ There are 76,000 miles of telegraph line, over which messages can be sent for over 2,000 miles at a cost of only twelve cents. Her post-offices handle annually over 900,000,000 letters and newspapers and other matter. Exports and Commerce. She is now the largest exporter of rice in the world. She holds first place in her exports of tea, and together with Ceylon ex- * Her railways are almost the safest in the world. Only some seven men were killed in accidents last year. The New Era in India 147 ports more than half the tea crop of the world. Next to Argentine she is the largest exporter of hides, and next to the United States the largest exporter of cot- ton in the world. Next to the United States she is the largest wheat-producing country in the world, while Bengal holds the virtual monopoly of the jute trade. Her increase in the production of iron and steel is most encouraging. The Tata Iron Works in Bengal, employing 8,000 men, have laid down iron in San Francisco at less than the price charged by the United States Steel Corporation. India's export of steel, which was an almost negligible quantity of $200,000 in 19 10, doubled the next year, and multi- plied four-fold the year following, so that in 1912- 1913 it was $1,700,000. During the last ten years be- tween 1900 and 1909 India's trading companies in- creased from 252 to 608, her coal-mining companies from 34 to 122, her cotton mills from 152 to 218, and the total number of her stock companies from 1,340 to 2,156.^ The trade of India now holds the first place in all Asia, with $788,000,000 exports and $746,000,- 000 imports. Irrigation and Improved Agricultural Methods. Her system of irrigation stands easily first in the world, being far more extensive than that of Egypt or America. Her more than 46,000 miles of irriga- tion canals have reclaimed more than 22,000,000 acres of land, and famine has been prevented forever * From Statistical Abstract for British India, 1908-09, Study of Indian Economics, by P. Banerjea. 148 The New Era in Asia in some districts. But encouraging as these facts are, they do not indicate a final solution of India's eco- nomic problem. The dependence of two thirds of the population upon agriculture, and in the rural dis- tricts of nearly 90 per cent, who are connected di- rectly or indirectly with it, makes it imperative that the scientific methods, which obtain in Japan and in the West, should be more widely introduced in India also. Even China, without Western improved methods, through her system of fertilization described in King's Farmers of Forty Centuries, is far more productive. Need of Protection of Industries. But more than improved methods of agriculture, India needs the de- velopment of her industries. With a large supply of cheap labor, many useful branches of industry could be introduced. Already we see " Swadeshi " cotton fabrics, iron goods, matches, soap, and other home- made articles being placed upon the Indian market. But compared to India's vast population and economic need her manufactures are pathetically inadequate. As Sir Bampfylde Fuller and many other open-minded English writers have said, India needs a protective tariff to develop her manufactures. As Benjamin Kidd points out in his Control of the Tropics, Eng- land will soon have to choose in this matter between her own self-interest and the higher interests of the Indian people. The enlarged councils of Lord Mor- ley's plan of government will in time doubtless at their own initiative introduce demands for such a protective tariff. The New Era in India 149 Social Gains. The social development of India also unmistakably indicates a new era. The humane laws of the British government have abolished suttee and other wrongs of Indian womanhood. They have raised the age of marriage, they have protected the weak, and have improved social conditions. The 2,700 hospitals and dispensaries of the British government are now treating some 28,ooo,ocmd patients each year. The ravages of plague, cholera, fever, and smallpox have been reduced. The death-rate in India, however, from 1900 to 1908 averaged thirty-four per thousand, while the death-rate in England is about fifteen per thousand, so that nearly 6,000,000 lives are lost an- nually in India that could be saved if the English death-rate prevailed. But the death-rate is constantly decreasing. Native Efforts toward Reform. Of far greater significance and encouragement than the social re- forms introduced by the British government are the changes which are taking place under native leader- ship in the Indian social structure itself. As Mr. A. Yusuf Ali, in his Life and Labor in India, points out: " Within the last few years there has been a com- plete remodeling of many of the old village customs and institutions, which have got stereotyped in the imagination of persons who have made the ' unchang- ing East' their fetich." During a tour in India last year nothing was more marked than the striking de- velopment of a social conscience and the rapid growth in social service among the educated classes in the non-Christian as well as the Christian communities. 150 The New Era in Asia 'Growing numbers of students are now devoting them- .selves to education and sanitation, to famine relief, to the uplift of the depressed classes of " untouch- ables," and many other forms of social service. The interest shown in the lectures of Professor Hender- son of Chicago University, and the demand for social literature dealing with education, citizenship, housing, and sanitation, the relief of poverty, the depressed classes, temperance, and other forms of social ser- vice is a sign of the times. Mr. Gokhale's Servants of Indian Society is typical of the new social movement. Here the ablest Indian graduates are preparing them- selves by five years of post-graduate study and prac- tical service for a life-work of public usefulness un- der Mr. Gokhale's direction. The Seva Sadan and numbers of other societies are also doing useful work. The recent two anna fund for famine relief in West- ern India, where 90,000 persons contributed $25,000, chiefly in amounts of four cents each, shows the de- velopment of the new social conscience. The con- nection between this social service and Christianity is not always recognized by the non-Christians, but it is none the less Christian. The growing sentiment against early marriage, and against the prohibition of Hindu widow remarriage, the founding of orphan- ages, schools, and benevolent institutions, the en- couragement of female education, work for the out- castes, and a hundred other reforms have sprung di- rectly or indirectly from Christian teaching or ex- ample. In most cases the movement for social re- form has been led by men like its founders. Rajah The New Era in India 151 Rammohan Roy and Justice Ranade, who were pow- erfully influenced by Christian teaching, and many of the leaders to-day are non-Christian graduates of mission colleges. Relative Advance of Christianity. The religious changes evident under the new era are even more marked than the political, intellectual, economic, and social developments. Owing to the incalculable bless- ing of religious toleration granted under the Pax Britannica, all the world's greatest faiths, save Con- fucianism, are here brought into open and friendly competition. As we survey the Christian and non- Christian communities in India, we find three marked evidences of the new era. First of all there has been a large ingathering into the Christian community. The census of India, which is the most unique and re- markable in the world, is taken in a single night be- tween sunset and sunrise. According to the census of 191 1, which shows the relative growth of the various religions during the last decade, while the Buddhists increased 11 per cent., the Mohammedans and Par- sees each 6 per cent, the Hindus 4 per cent., the Jains decreased 9 per cent., the Christian community increased over 32 per cent. But as caste gives way there will be a rapid gain also in the rate of increase. The growth of the Christian com- munity during the last four decades is striking. It is as follows: 1881 1,862,634 1891 2,284,380 1901 2,923,241 1911 3,876,203 152 The New Era in Asia Thus in the last thirty years the Christian community has doubled; in the last ten years alone it has in- creased by almost a million adherents. If, however, we confine ourselves to the Protestant Indian com- munity, we find that it is increasing at the rate of about 50 per cent, a decade. During the last ten years it has increased seven times as fast as the popu- lation, and twelve times as fast as the Hindu com- munity. There has been a gain by conversion of over 600,000 in a decade. More than 5,000 every month, or more than 1,200 every week have been received in the faith of the Christian Church during the last ten years. Thus India is becoming slowly but surely Christian. Mass Movements. The second evidence of a new era is found in the great mass movement which has set in toward Christianity. More than 50,000,000 *' untouchables " lay without the pale and beyond the help of Hinduism. These classes are now being re- ceived into the Christian Church, educated, civilized, and uplifted. These mass movements have taken place in five great areas in India: in Tinnevelli, and in Travancore, South India; in the Telugu country, north of Madras; in Chota Nagpur, in the United Provinces; and now in the Punjab. In each of these an average of about one hundred thousand have been added to the Christian community, and the numbers are rapidly increasing.^ For instance, in the United * Mr. Charles Trevelyan makes this prophecy as to the con- version of India: "I believe it will take place at last whole- sale, just as our ancestors were converted. The country will WILLIAM CAREY First modern missionary to India The New Era in India 153 Provinces — where the American Methodists ^nd Pres- byterians are working — the movement began among the Sweepers, but soon extended to the great Chamar caste. The Northwest India Conference of the Metho- dist Church alone has gathered over 100,000 converts from these castes in the last twenty years. Thus caste, which was so long the greatest hindrance, is now becoming the greatest help to the work. The Chamar caste alone numbers over eleven millions and may be reached by Christian forces if the missions are sus- tained and reenforced at once. The Hindus and the Arya Samaj are beginning to work to receive these people. The Mohammedans alone are said to be gaining some 50,000 every year from these low castes. It is inconceivable that the Church at home should be so blind that it should not press its advantage in this great providential movement which is at our very doors abroad. The numbers gained in the mass move- ment alone are greater than in any other mission field, and are entitled to place India among the most hope- ful and urgent mission fields of the world. Doubtless there are evident shortcomings in these mass move- ments, if you focus upon the individual, but viewed broadly there is an unmistakable uplift of the entire community from their former condition, often from filth, ignorance, and superstition, carrion-eating and devil-worship. Numbers of these outcaste converts have Christian instruction infused into it in every way. . . . Then at last, when society is completely saturated with Chris- tian knowledge, and public opinion has taken a decided turn that way, they will come over by thousands." 154 The New Era in Asia are to-day university graduates working in the higher professions. Reflex Compromise Efforts. The third evidence of the new era in reHgion is shown in the effects of its contact with the non-Christian communities. There is on the one hand a large infusion of Christian ideas into the non-Christian rehgions, especially in Hinduism. There is the resultant founding of various eclectic systems which are a combination of Christian truth and Hindu tradition, and which represent an attempt at compromise between them. There is also, in opposition to both the foregoing movements, a pas- sionate effort to revive Hinduism, to expurgate and reconstruct it, and adapt it to modern conditions. All of these movements are in one aspect encouraging. The conception of the Fatherhood of God and of the brotherhood of man in opposition to caste restrictions, and of the reality and eternal value of life, are found to-day on every hand in the literature, the addresses, the conversation, and the ideas of the educated classes. The Brahmo Samaj, founded in 1830 by Rajah Ram- mohan Roy, endeavored to found a Christian mono- theism on the Vedas, and to oppose polytheism, idola- try, and caste. It has never moved the masses, how- ever, and after more than seventy years numbers only about five thousand members. The Arya Samaj, founded in 1875 by Swami Dayanand, seeks to rid it- self of the abuses of Hinduism, to avoid idolatry and caste, and to find all truth, even of modern science and invention, within the Vedas. Powerful, often anti-Christian and anti-British, it is gaining rapidly The New Era in India 155 because of its fervid nationalism. The Aligarh Col- lege and the Aligarh Movement, founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, seeks by wider education and liberal ideas to broaden the outlook of the Mohammedan community, with its 66,000,000, and to adapt it to modern conditions of life. The New Vedantism, founded by Swami Vivekananda, is a clever compro- mise between pantheistic Vedantic philosophy and Christian and Western ideas which the founder gained in his own eclectic education. It seeks to blend Chris- tian philanthropy and Vedantic philosophy. The Theosophical Society, under Mrs. Besant, has exer- cised considerable influence in the south and in the Hindu college at Benares, but with its defense of superstitious practises, even to idolatry and caste, it has not often proved so much an instrument for reformation as for retrogression. Half-way Movements. All these movements, however, indicate the reaction of Christian thought upon the non-Christian communities. They are a half-way house between the old traditions and super- stitions and the full acceptance of the Christian faith. With all their defects they are signs of encourage- ment, and, like the Gnostic and other movements in the early Christian centuries, they mark at least a great advance over the stagnation and superstition of the old era. I. Growth in Strength and Unity. If we survey the Christian community itself, we find three other signs of encouragment that mark the new era. First of all is the growing strength and unity of the Chris- 156 The New Era in Asia tian Church and the Christian educational movement There are to-day in India 5,401 missionaries, 4,088 Protestant churches, with 568,080 communicants, and a Protestant Christian community of 1,617,617. The to- tal number of Indian Christians connected with the American missions is 817,150, while those connected with the missions of Great Britain number 568,865. Great Britain leads, however, in the matter of educa- tion with 25 colleges and 7,039 schools, enrolling 333,- 560 pupils; while connected with the American mis- sions are 13 colleges, and 5,931 schools with 177,177 scholars. Connected with the Protestant Churches are 38 well-equipped colleges, in which more than five thousand of the brightest young men of India are studying, and more than half a million pupils are found in the 13,000 mission schools; while 1,433 or- dained men and 38,458 Indian workers are connected with the various missions. Union Movements. The Christians of India, like those of China and Japan, are setting an example in the spirit of unity which they are manifesting. It has been repeatedly stated by native Christians of Japan, China, and India, that they would come to- gether were it not for the divisions of Western Chris- tianity, perpetuated by the representatives of the Western Churches. Already in South India all the Christians connected with the Presbyterian, Congre- gational, Dutch Reformed, Free Church of Scotland, and Established Church of Scotland missions have come together into organic unity in The United Church of South India, with over 150,000 members- The New Era in India 157 "having a common creed and a common ecclesiastical government. In numbers of instances throughout the v^hole of Asia, colleges and churches are coming to- gether into a closer unity than has yet been realized on the home field. Will not this have a beneficial reaction upon the divisions of Christendom in the West? 2. Growth in Autonomy. A second sign of en- couragement is found in the growth of a self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating Indian Church. The consecration of the Rev. V. S. Azariah at Cal- cutta at the close of 1912 as the first Indian Anglican Bishop marked a new departure in the self-govern- ment of the Indian Church. The formation of the National Missionary Society of India is a sign of the growth of an indigenous missionary spirit. This society is now successfully carrying on missions in five different provinces, in one of which it has en- rolled over a thousand converts. It is conducting missionary periodicals in six different languages, and is led by able Indian graduates. Its hold upon the affection and loyalty of many of the Indian churches is very encouraging. 3. Growing Hold on Upper Classes. A third sign of encouragement is found in the growing hold of the Christian community upon the upper classes, and the appeal which the gospel is making to the edu- cated leaders of India. During the recent tour of Dr. Mott and others in the evangelistic campaign of 1912- 13, the hearing which was given to the gospel by the students of India was certainly an evidence of a new 158 The New Era in Asia attitude toward Christianity. More than a thousand students a night in eight cities of India, Burma, and Ceylon crowded the largest theaters and halls which could be obtained for these student meetings. It is true that in one or two cities there was some opposi- tion, but the old era of stagnation and superstition and indifference is gone forever. The writer will never forget the scenes which were witnessed in these cities. Upon arrival in India we began work in Madras. It was deeply impressive to see that vast audience of two thousand non-Christian students crowded into the great Parsee Theater, filling every seat, in spite of the rain, listening night after night to the straightest preaching of the gospel in English. En- trenched as they are in Hinduism by centuries of caste, their minds darkened by the mists of pantheism, polytheism, and idolatry, they formed one of the hard- est audiences we have ever faced in Asia. Yet on the third night a thousand Hindu students stayed for the after-meeting, and many signed cards, promising to read the four Gospels with open mind and honest heart, to pray daily to God for guidance, and to follow Christ according to their conscience. These men, however, were at best only seekers after truth. Response in the Punjab. At Lahore in the Pun- jab, in spite of the fact that examinations were on, and that the meetings came at the worst possible time, an audience of thirteen hundred non-Christian students crowded into the Bradlaugh Hall, where the sessions of the Indian National Congress were twice held. The white turbans and the black beards of the war- The New Era in India 159 like Sikhs, the red fezzes of the Mohammedan stu- dents, and the eager faces of the members of the Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, and the orthodox Hindus made the scene a picturesque one. Ahhough placed under a severe strain at the presentation of Christ as Savior and Lord, they Hstened patiently with open mind, and finally many gave in their names as in- quirers. Interest in Calcutta. When we arrived in Cal- cutta examinations were on, and some of the colleges were closing for vacation. Yet on the opening night eighteen hundred students crowded the Curzon The- ater. If the students of the Punjab are the Scotch- men of the East, the brilliant Bengalis are the Irish, enthusiastic, responsive, swept by strong currents of emotion. The subjects dealt with on the five succeed- ing nights were : Personal Purity ; The Results of Sin ; Moral Heroism ; Christ the Only Savior ; and. Religion a Matter of the Will. Although the Calcutta students form, perhaps, the most restless student audience in Asia, they listened with close and eager attention, even when we spoke of the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ. Some fifty students came every night seeking inter- views. Significant Baptism of Converts. When the first two converts were baptized the following week, the ceremony was performed by the new Indian Bishop in the presence of an audience of Christian students gathered at the All India Student Conference, rep- resenting some seventy institutions. A hundred and twelve years ago William Carey baptized his first con- i6o The New Era in Asia vert in the Hooghly (or mouth of the Ganges) on the last Sunday of the year 1800. At that very spot, on the last day of the year 19 12, Bishop Azariah, after a meeting held in the house and chapel which Carey had occupied, led down to the river two M. A. students to be baptized. Only the day before we had sat beside the river preparing these converts for bap- tism. On the left was a baptized Brahm.an student who had gone through great persecution, and on the right was another young Brahman who was to be baptized the next day. As we sat in Martyn's pagoda, where that man of God had wept and prayed, his despairing remark came back to one's memory that he " would as soon expect to see a man rise from the dead as to see a Brahman converted." It was a scene never to be forgotten in the light of the torches that evening, the dark robes of the two Hindu students as they entered the river, the shining white apparel in which they appeared immediately after their bap- tism, and the ringing pean of victory that ascended from the Christian students gathered there from every part of India, as they sang by the river-side: " Onward, Christian soldiers, Marching as to war." Old Basis Removed. India is awakening, but are we awake and ready to help her? Let us not forget that the religion, the education, and the civilization which we have introduced from the West have be- gotten the present unrest, and that these alone can- not satisfy it. We have inevitably destroyed the old- BISHOP AZARIAH The first Anglican Indian bishop The New Era in India i6i world view of the people of India, with its impossible conceptions of nature and of human life. We have taken from them the treasure that they had. Do we not owe them the pearl of great price, the one treas- ure that we prize above all others, to take its place? Or are we to lead them to agnosticism, materialism, and the destructive forces of a purely secular educa- tion, and leave them helpless and in despair? Christ the New Foundation. Nothing but Christ can satisfy the unsatisfied heart of India. Hinduism after three thousand years of trial has failed to meet its need. Buddhism died here in the land of its birth. Mohammedanism had its day and failed to civilize or satisfy. India has also not only the largest Mohammedan population, but the one most open to Christian influence of any country in the world. ^ One thing India lacks, one thing is needful ; one thing we possess and can give her to meet her one central all-embracing need. If we are ever to meet India's need it must be now. Within a decade probably all India will be wide open for large in- gatherings. Caste is already beginning to give way. Millions of outcastes are at the door of the Church. There are already signs of the beginning of a mass movement among the middle classes. The students are giving an unprecedented hearing to the gospel. Our point of advantage must be pressed both in edu- cational work among the upper classes and in the mass movement among the depressed classes. The num- 1 See Islam and Missions, Report of the Lucknow Con- ference ; March, 191 1. 1 62 The New Era in Asia bers gained in the mass movement alone are greater than the number of converts being gained in any other land, and are entitled to place India among the most hopeful and urgent mission fields of the world. Now is the time to help India. And India's one need is Christ. THE NEW ERA IN THE NEAR EAST VII THE NEW ERA IN THE NEAR EAST A New Religious Atmosphere. As we turn from India to the Near East we pass from the mists of pantheism and polytheism which have constituted the spiritual atmosphere of Southern Asia to the dark cloud of Islam which has overshadowed the Levant. In both cases the religion of the country has molded almost the entire life of the people. Possible Access to Islam. In the past Islam has represented the greatest force of vindictive aggressive- ness and of stubborn resistance against Christianity, civilization, and culture. For four centuries, how- ever, a period of gradual decay and decline, culminat- ing in the defeat of the recent war, has prepared the way for a new era in the Near East. We believe that the results of the late war may prove the open door, not only to Turkey, but to the Mohammedan world. This apparent defeat may lead to their greatest victory, greater even in its final influence for good than any triumph Mohammed won at the point of the sword. It should open the door to a new era of closer contact with Christian civilization, to a period of reconstruction, of mutual helpfulness, and of broader humanity throughout the Near East. As China's defeats at the hands of Japan and in the 165 j66 The New Era in Asia Boxer uprising opened her eyes to her real condition, and led the way to thorough reform and reconstruc- tion, the ultimate effects of the late war will probably l)e either thoroughly to reform Turkey, or else place her finally under the control of Christian nations. And if it opens a door of access to Islam it places before the Christian Church the last great Gibraltar which must be taken before a Christian civilization -can dominate Asia and the world. The Strategic Center of Mohammedanism. To appreciate the new era in the Near East let us look for a moment at the environment of the Mohammedan world, of the Turkish Empire and of its capital city, Constantinople. As Japan led the way to the open- ing of the Far East, Turkey constitutes the strategic center of the Near East. According to the best authorities there are in the world to-day about 200,000,000 Mohammedans. Of these, about three fourths are in Asia and the remaining fourth in Africa.^ Almost exactly one third are found in In- dia, and more Moslems bow the knee at the call to prayer in the lands ruled by King George than in those ruled by the Sultan himself. Persia will for some time lag behind Turkey, and is not yet prepared to enter fully into the new era. We may, therefore, con- centrate our attention in this chapter chiefly upon the ^ About 160,000,000 Mohammedans are in Asia and about 40,000,000 in Africa. India, with 66,623,412, is the largest single Mohammedan country. China contains some 20,000,000 Mohammedans ; Persia, about 8,800,000 ; Asiatic Turkey some 12,000,000; and independent Arabia about 3,000,000. Europe 5till has perhaps 2,000,000 Mohammedans. The New Era in the Near East 167 Turkish Empire, for when Turkey is moved it will move the Mohammedan world. Change in Turkish Empire. The old Turkish Empire embraced a population of 24,000,000.^ But Turkey has now lost all of her European possessions, save a limited territory from the Black Sea to the yEgean, including Constantinople, the Dardanelles and Adrianople. Crucial Constantinople. Constantinople was long the key to Europe, and the strategic center between the East and the West. Founded on the ancient city of Byzantium, which dated from the seventh century B.C., the city was built by Constantine in 330 a.d. and became the new capital of the Roman Empire. For nearly a thousand years it was the center of the wealth and civilization of Europe. Long the " Queen City," its jurists gave to Europe her " Roman " law, and its theologians, artists, scholars, and merchant princes were the leaders of Europe. It shaped the creeds of Christendom, and even when it fell into the hands of the Turks in 1453 a.d. its libraries and manu- scripts helped both to cause and to spread the Re- ^ According to Dr. James L. Barton in his Daybreak in Turkey, the territory and population under the direct control of Turkey before the late war were as follows : Europe 65,350 square miles 6,130,200 inhabitants Asia 693,610 " 16,898,700 " Africa 398,900 . " 1,000,000 " 1,157,860 24,028,900 Under her indirect control were 464,220 square miles, with 15,000,000 inhabitants, found chiefly in Bulgaria, Bosnia, Crete, Cyprus, Samos, and Egypt. i68 The New Era in Asia naissance of Europe. Here Justinian, on the site of an earHer edifice of Constantine, erected in his new Rome the great St. Sophia, one of the grandest Christian structures in the world, where Chrysostom preached, and where the councils were held w^hich determined the faith of Christendom. As we stand to-day before the massive walls of Constantinople, which proudly with- stood twenty sieges, and still retain much of their an- cient grandeur, we recall the days of old when the armies of Xerxes and Darius, of Demosthenes and Alexander, of the Huns and Tatars, Slavs, Cru- saders, and Turks fought in turn about them. The city throngs to-day with a million inhabitants of many nationalities, virile Turks, enterprising Arme- nians, versatile Greeks, and a score of other tribes and tongues. As Sir William M. Ramsay well says: '' Constantinople is the center about which the world's history revolves. It is the bridge that binds together the East and the West, the old to the new civilization, which must be brought into harmony before the cul- mination of all civilization can appear, bringing peace on earth, good-will to men." Turks Have Racial Strength. If we would real- ize the significance of the present movement in Tur- key, we may well examine the conditions that ob- tained in old Turkey under the full sway of the Moslem power. Let it not be supposed as we examine the dark picture of Turkey's past and its misrule, that the Turks in themselves are an ignoble race. Rather the opposite is true. There is always some- thing noble about raw manhood. All the potencies The New Era in the Near East 169 of the best races He within it if it is given a chance to develop. As in the case of Japan, the fauUs of the Turks are due to sociological rather than biolog- ical causes; they are the result of environment rather than of any inherent defect or weakness in the Turkish race. We were informed by leading educa- tors in the Near East that in colleges and schools where Turkish students were placed in competition with Greek, Bulgarian, Servian, Armenian, and other students, that, not only in courtesy and politeness, but in intellectual acumen and virility and strength of character, the Turkish students are often superior to those of the surrounding nations. A Record of Misrule. As we look back over the history of Turkey we can trace long centuries of criminal injustice and misrule. We find the Turkish population left stagnant and corrupt, subject nations crushed and oppressed, industry choked, agriculture undeveloped, the farmer robbed, the poor oppressed, womanhood despoiled, manhood sensualized, and childhood corrupted. Sir Edwin Pears, after resid- ing a lifetime among the Turks, writes of the old regime in Turkey and Its People: Beyond Words to Describe. '' The career of the Turks during the last five centuries is one of de- struction and never of construction. ... In denounc- ing the iniquities of misgovernment in Turkey it was hardly possible to employ the language of exag- geration. When writing of the general corruption in the administration of government; of the great variety and nimiber of outrages committed; the tor- 170 The New Era in Asia ture of prisoners to obtain evidence or confession; of the imprisonment of crowds of Armenians to find one criminal; the daily extortion, shared in or per- mitted, by those in authority; the organized mas- sacres of tens of thousands whose offenses were, first, that they were Christians, and second, that they were more prosperous than their Moslem neighbors, hardly any language could be characterized as too violent." Abdul Hamid. Turkish misrule was concentrated and personalized in Abdul Hamid II., who was the thirty-fourth ruler in succession to Othman. His reign lasted from 1876 to 1909. This man, whom Gladstone called " Abdul the Damned," during his rule was responsible for the misery of over a million souls if we include the number subjected to torture, mutilation, rape, robbery, and slavery. Sir William M. Ramsay says : " Abdul Hamid has a fair claim to rank among the greatest destroyers of human kind that have ever stained the pages of history. Re- sponsible for half a million deaths, a still larger num- ber have suffered permanently from destitution, tor- ture, mutilation, loss of property, of honor, etc. Not one spark of any grand or great quality illumined his life or ennobled his fall." Summary of Conditions. Politically, the old Turkish rule was corrupt almost beyond belief. Bribery, injustice, and robbery characterized most of the officials. Turkey was " a fifteenth century Ori- ental government in conflict with modern civilization." Intellectually, the people were left in ignorance and mental stagnation. Schoolmasters among the subject /■••/> i i ABDUL HAMID II Has a fair claim to rank among the greatest destroyers of human kind The New Era in the Near East 171 races of the Bulgarians, Armenians, etc., were tor- tured and killed, and their schools closed, as the offi- cial followed Kis unerring instinct in opposing all learning and progress. Economically, industry lan- guished, agriculture was undeveloped, the same plow was used as in the days of Abraham, progress was impossible. There were no good roads, no safe com- munications, traveling was dangerous if not impos- sible, the press was throttled, and every man who showed signs of independence, enterprise, or progres- sive spirit was banished. The social conditions of the old Turkey almost beggar description. Manhood, womanhood, and childhood alike were blighted. Largely Due to Mohammedan Intolerance. The fanatical intolerance of Mohammedanism must largely be chargeable with this misrule, rather than any in- herent inhumanity of the Turkish race. They are naturally a virile and capable race. But after being dominated by Islam for a thousand years, and after a fair trial in Europe for five hundred and fifty years, with repeated warnings from the Powers and en- treaties from their oppressed Christian subjects, is it too much to say that Islam has proved a failure? View of Lord Cromer. Lord Cromer, in his Modern Egypt, quotes Mohammed's command in the Koran : " When ye encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads until ye have made a great slaughter among them, and bind them in bonds. . . . O true believers, if ye assist God, by fighting for his religion, he will assist you against your enemies; and will set your feet fast; but as for infidels, let them perish; 172 The New Era in Asia and their works God shall render vain. . . . Verily, God will introduce those who believe and do good works into gardens beneath which rivers flow, but the unbelievers indulge themselves in pleasures, and eat as beasts eat; and their abode shall be hell fire." Lord Cromer adds : " When principles such as these have been dinned for centuries past into the ears of Moslems, it can be no matter for surprise that a spirit of intolerance has been generated." Favorable Features. We gladly recognize every wholesome and true element in Mohammedanism. Its fervid and unflinching monotheism, its splendid virility and zeal, its missionary propaganda, its stern legalism, and its ceremonial and moral precepts have made the Turk, generally speaking, clean, sober, obedient, dis- ciplined, contented, and reverent. There is much in the Koran itself to indicate that the religion is not necessarily a foe to Christianity, and there are many points of contact and lines of approach which it opens up to the Christian missionary. Defects and Shortcomings. But the shortcomings of Mohammedanism, even at its best, cannot be for- gotten. In moral character we find the people, after five centuries of absolute Moslem rule, untruthful to a high degree. That is not strange when Mohammed himself says : " Verily a lie is allowable in three cases, to women, to reconcile friends, and in war." Living- stone's testimony in Africa was : " Heathen Africans are much superior to the Mohammedans, who are the most worthless one can have." Lord Curzon finds the same true in Persia, when he says : " I am con- The New Era in the Near East 173 vinced that the true son of Iran would sooner He than tell the truth." Any one who has lived in Turkey can bear the same testimony as to dishonesty, especially in official classes. Extreme Sensuality. A second and yet more grave evil fruitage of the Moslem faith is its wide- spread sensuality. Dr. von During, the German spe- cialist, in his scientific report on the widespread dis- eases in the Turkish army and among the population in general, stated that the race would be extinct in two generations if the present lustful life were con- tinued unchecked. Even Abdul Hamid was alarmed at the conditions existing. Blighted Womanhood. The third and greatest charge against Mohammedanism is the blight which it has everywhere cast upon womanhood. It has doomed numbers of its women to seclusion and igno- rance. The life in the harem, the seraglio, the zenana, and behind the purdah is for the most part unwritten and unknown in the West. And here again Mo- hammedanism must be held accountable for the fruits of this system. Its permitted polygamy, its unlimited divorce for the most trifling cause or whim, its sanc- tion of slavery, are traceable back to the practise of Mohammed and the commands of the Koran. Indeed, this faith has cast its shadow upon every Moslem home in Asia. Can it be said that the hundred mil- lions or more of Moslem women have their God- given rights under this system? For centuries the desolated villages of Africa, and the long slave gangs on the dreary march from the Dark Continent to the 174 The New Era in Asia slave markets of Constantinople, during which more than half died by the wayside, add their volume to the tale of ruined and wronged womanhood which is chargeable to the Moslem faith. Islam casts its shadow upon womanhood, even within the gates of Paradise, where she is conceived to exist to satisfy the lust of man. Any one who has traveled through Moslem lands can hardly write with calmness or with- out a sense of burning indignation when reviewing the wrongs of womanhood under Islam. Revolution of 1908. We gladly turn from this dark and depressing picture of the past to the signs of a new day. It began with the revolution of 1908, and was further advanced by the Peace of London in 1913. Contact with the liberty and prosperity of Christian nations, the education of some of the young men of Turkey, and information brought in through the printing-press, set at work within Turkey the leaven of the new principles of life. Every young Turk banished for liberal ideas to the outskirts of the Turkish Empire became a missionary of the new era. A campaign of education and a secret propaganda for liberty were carried on throughout the army and in the distant provinces. In 1891 a group of young Turks formed themselves into *' The Committee of Union and Progress." Their headquarters were suc- cessively in Geneva, Paris, and Salonica. Their first public success was winning the troops stationed in Salonica and Monastir. Here the army took the oath of allegiance to the Committee. Officers who opposed were shot. The leaders opened up telegraphic com- The New Era in the Near East 175 munication with the Sultan in Constantinople. When he learned that the troops were against him and that even the long-loyal Albanians had joined the move- ment, he yielded to the insistent and immediate de- mand for the revival of the Constitution of 1876, which had remained in force only a few months. Constitutional Government Conceded. On the 24th of July, 1908, the Sultan granted this constitu- tion to the people, providing for a responsible min- istry, a senate and chamber of deputies, the right of public meeting, freedom of the press, the appoint- ment of judges for life, compulsory primary educa- tion, and religious liberty. To this constitution the Sultan solemnly swore fidelity upon the Koran itself. The Sheik-ul-Islam, the high priest of the Moham- medan faith, proclaimed the declaration of the con- stitution and of the Sultan's oath. The motto adopted from the West by the constitutional leaders was " Liberty, Justice, Equality, and Fraternity." Joy Over New Outlook. When the first ballot- boxes were opened for the election of the representatives of the people, little girls dressed in white stood in lines upon either side of these sacred symbols of liberty, while the voters marched by with flags and songs of joy. Parliament was opened on December 18, 1908, by Abdul Hamid himself. Abdul Hamid's Counter Move Soon Reversed. This crafty Nero, however, was only biding his time. Enlisting the service of members of the Liberal Unionist Party, using bribery and corruption, he spread disaffection among the troops about Constanti- 176 The New Era in Asia nople against the Hberal leaders. On April 13, 1909, the troops rose, shot the liberal officers, seized the parliament building, and drove out the Young Turk Party. Once again in possession of power, Abdul Hamid sent his order to Cilicia to kill the Arme- nians, who were showing some signs of independence. In obedience to his order, simultaneously in Adana, Tarsus, and elsewhere, an attack was made on this defenseless people. This whole movement was a counter-revolution, aimed to fan the flame of the old Moslem fanaticism against the new liberal ideas. The Young Turk leaders, however, quickly rallied at Salonica, hurried the troops by rail toward the capital, and within eleven days arrived within striking dis- tance of Abdul Hamid's palace itself. The senate reassembled, and the Sheik-ul-Islam read a proclama- tion deposing the Sultan on the grounds of treason and misgovernment. On the 28th of April the Young Turks regained possession of Constantinople and seized Abdul Hamid, who was sent on a special train as a prisoner to Salonica within two weeks of his launching of the counter-revolution. We passed the villa in which this crafty and cruel monarch was then confined. It is to be hoped that this, like the Boxer uprising in China, was the last convulsive death- struggle of the old era. Young Turks' Good Intention. Many of the Young Turks honestly meant to reform the Turkish government. They had deposed the Sultan, recalled 40,000 exiles, dismissed the 30,000 spies, punished many who were guilty of the Adana massacres, The New Era in the Near East 177 granted freedom of worship, of travel, and the edu- cation of Moslem students. But they failed to de- velop unselfish, patriotic leaders. In order to win the support of the fanatical and reactionary Mos- lem element they endeavored to bring all the subject peoples into conformity to Turkish standards without regard to their race, religion, or language. Mace- donia especially bitterly resented the Turkish policy. Causes of the Balkan War. Dr. Joseph K. Greene, in " Turkey and the Balkan War " ^ states the causes of the war as follows: There was the memory of ancient wrongs rankling in the breast of every Greek and Slav. The memories of wrongs suffered by their mothers and grandmothers, and the atrocities com- mitted against their relatives in Macedonia, melted them into one burning unit of indignation. Secondly, the sympathy of the Balkan people for their co- religionists still under the Turkish rule. Thirdly, and perhaps chiefly, the allied States had a passionate desire to extend their own borders, for formerly the Bulgarians and Servians had ruled in turn over almost all the Balkan Peninsula. All these causes com- bined to drive the Turk from Europe, and to lead the Balkans to successful war. Turks Weak in Organization and Defeated. The Turks fought with their old-time bravery, but even within fifty miles of Constantinople their cor- rupt and effete organization, or rather lack of or- ^ Pamphlet of American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions. 178 The New Era in Asia ganization, was unable to supply the troops with either bread or ammunition. So long as the Bal- kan allies were united they swept everything before them. Divided, they presented a pitiable spectacle, as a divided Christendom always does. By the Peace of London, Turkey was stripped of practically all her possessions in Europe, and the Turks in large num- bers crossed from Europe into Asia, which is to be their future home. Probable Results. It is too soon to state the final effect of the war, but there is already evidence that certain results will follow, i. There is a distinct loss of prestige by Turkey as the political exponent of Islam, and a consequent check to the Pan-Islamic movement. 2. The Christian nationalities in the empire are now emboldened to demand their rights. The government must finally commit itself to a process of more or less decentralization, with a certain amount of foreign supervision. 3. Turkey will be forced to introduce radical and final reforms, or, if she again proves unable or unwilling to reform, the ultimate disintegration of the empire is at hand. 4. There will be a larger opening up of Turkey to missionary work. This probably will be followed by the ingathering into the Christian Church of a body of Moslem converts in the Near East, and the recon- struction of Islam in the efifort to adapt it to modern civilization, culture, and progress. Problem of Reorganization of Government. Let us consider some of the problems created for Turkey by the new era and the recent wan First of all there The New Era in the Near East 179 is the serious problem of the reorganization of the government, with all the financial, administrative, edu- cational, and economic questions involved in such a reorganization. If Turkey is willing and desirous of accomplishing real reforms at this time, she de- serves our hearty sympathy. She is confronted with the enormous difficulties of race division; the Aryan, the Tatar, and the Semite are side by side. Even her present empire embraces ancient races, proud of their past history, with strong traditions and a growing national sentiment in each. Opposing Religions. Her difficulty is increased further by the differences of religion, for her sub- jects embrace the followers of the three intolerant religions of the world, reacting upon each other, the bigoted Jew, the fanatical Moslem, and the mission- ary Christian. Each claims the first place, and from the very nature of their creeds can admit no rival nor equal. With depleted finances, undeveloped resources, a divided population, an almost utter absence of an educational system, and with no preliminary training in a school of subordination to a Western power, Turkey's political problem of reorganization is over- whelming. Problem of Moral and Religious Reform. Even more serious than the problem of internal reorganiza- tion is the one underlying problem of moral and re- ligious reform. Thus far faith and practise, morality and religion have been widely separated in Turkey. Emphasizing the outward and ceremonial in her own religion, Turkey has seen the worst side of Christian i8o The New Era in Asia nations in their political propaganda, often without sincerity and without principle. She has had before her the example of the Oriental Churches and the diplomacy of foreign nations. The moral forces of Christianity have not yet been brought to bear suffi- ciently upon her. Signs of Hope. There are, however, signs of hope. The Moslems are now finding it possible to interpret the Koran so as to permit them to give a somewhat larger degree of religious toleration and political equity to Christians. . They are beginning in this new era to take a deeper interest in science, art, and cul- ture. They are now emphasizing the education of women. In the case of influential individuals they are showing themselves capable of approving in principle all broad philanthropic work, such as is now being carried on by the Young Men's Christian Association, and similar work that is being begun by the American Board. Turkey is facing, however, the increasing moral degeneracy of the youth of all races within her empire. Something must be done to check the rising tide of agnosticism, infidelity, and immorality. Her deepest problem, underlying political reorganization and international relations is, therefore, moral and religious. Evidence of New Era. Already there are en- couraging evidences of the new era. Politically, in spite of all the depressing features, there are signs of hope. The continuation of the selfish land-grabbing and privilege-grabbing policy of the foreign powers, if persisted in, can only end in the political disin- The New Era in the Near East l8i tegration of Turkey. But there is now a chance that the less selfish of the European powers may finally in- sist upon an improvement in the political and social conditions of the Christian races. Many individual Turks are inquiring into the causes of their defeat, and leaders may be raised up from among their own people who will take to heart the lessons of their recent humiliation. In a Turkish newspaper of November 13, 1912, there was published an open letter written by Prince Sabah-ed-din, a grandson of Sultan Hamid and an heir to the throne, in which, addressing the present Sultan, he says : " Sire, however bitter this truth may be, we must confess to ourselves that our greatest enemy is not Italy, nor Europe, nor the Bal- kans, but ourselves. The seat of the evil is in our own private life." Movement toward Christian Schools. Educa- tionally, also there are signs of hope. One of the prominent ministers of the Cabinet a few weeks ago made application to place both of his daughters in the American College for Girls at Constantinople. The ten colleges and fifty high schools under the control of American missions in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt will be overcrowded and unable to receive all the Moslems who will now clamor for admission in the new era. Prospective Economic Progress. Economically, progress cannot be prevented, though it may be re- tarded by an antiforeign policy on the part of the government. The coming decade will probably show the development of new modern harbors, the build- 1 82 The New Era in Asia ing of railways, the development of manufacturing and mining, and a consequent increase in trade. In spite of the great irrigation projects in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, which will be rapidly pushed through, and which will offer an opportunity for large numbers of the agricultural population, the darkest prospect is in the matter of agriculture, which bids fair to continue along its present crude lines. The taxes are still being farmed out, and as long as this state of things continues little progress can come to the needy farmer. Mission Outlook. Let us consider, in closing, the work of Christian missions in Turkey and the Near East, and the call of the new era. Beginnings by Europe and America. The Mo- hammedan world will stand as the last challenge be- fore the Christian Church. But the Church has been strangely slow to advance against this great and seem- ingly impregnable fortress. A few feeble attempts were made in past centuries, but the Church as a whole has never addressed itself to the Mohammedan prob- lem. Rather it has turned to Islam its worst side. As far back as the thirteenth century, Raymond Lull had witnessed to the Moslems. Opposed, imprisoned, banished, he was finally stoned to death in his eight- ieth year, in 13 15 in Africa. Henry Martyn had be- gun his work for Moslems in India in 1806, and laid down his life at Tokat, Turkey-in-Asia, in 1812. He had fulfilled his ambition " to burn out for God." The revived interest in the Jews in 1819 led the Ameri- can Board to send the first two missionaries to the The New Era in the Near East 183 Jews of Palestine, as well as to the Moslems. Smyrna and Beirut were entered in 1820, and Constantinople in 1 83 1, In 1870 the field was divided between the two principal missions, the American Board taking Turkey and the Balkans, and the Presbyterian Board Syria and Persia. The door of access to the Jews and Moslems being closed, the missionaries were led to turn their attention first to the old Oriental Churches. They did not attempt to establish a new Church, or to proselytize from members of the old Churches. In 1846, however, under a new and ignorant patriarch, all Christians who read the Bible were thrown into prison, a reign of terror was instituted, and a bull of excommunication drove out the evangelical members of the Armenian Church, and compelled them to form the first Protestant Church. Praise for American Work. Gladstone wrote: " The American missions in Turkey have done more good to the inhabitants of that country than has all Europe combined." Ambassador James Bryce says of the American missions : " They have been the only good influence that has worked from abroad on the Turkish empire." Rear Admiral Chester of the American navy makes this statement : " The eight colleges, the forty-four high schools, and the 300 common schools of the educational system of the American missions have left the masses with high ideals, the knowledge of true institutions, and long- ings for better government." Two Leavening Institutions. Two institutions have stood as radiating centers of light in the dark- 184 The New Era in Asia ness of the Near East, — Robert College in Constanti- nople, with 473 students, and the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, with 897. The former, on the banks of the Bosphorus, has been educating the young Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, and, in later years, the Turks also. As Professor Beach says : " Robert College has exerted an incalculable influence for Chris- tian life all over the empire. Among its graduates are many of the most prominent men in Bulgaria, and it is perhaps not too much to say that the nation really owes its existence to the influence exerted by Presi- dent George Washburn and his associates. Its stu- dents have included representatives of twenty nation- alities." Of the college at Beirut, Dr. Mott writes: *' This is one of the three most important institutions in all Asia. In fact there is no college which has within one generation accomplished a greater work and which to-day has a larger opportunity. It has practically created the medical profession of the Levant. It has been the most influential factor of the East. It has been and is the center for genuine Christian and scientific literature in all that region. Fully one fourth of the graduates of the collegiate department have entered Christian work either as preachers or as teachers in Christian schools." Auxiliary Educational Centers. The American College for Girls under the leadership of Dr. Mary Patrick is doing similar work among the women of the Near East. The above colleges and the splendid institutions conducted by the American Board, such as the Euphrates College at Harpoot, the institution The New Era in the Near East 185 at Aintab, the Anatolia College at Marsovan, St. Paul's Institute at Tarsus, and the International Col- lege at Smyrna, stand like a chain of lighthouses along a dark and dangerous coast. Meetings in Constantinople. For ten days in Constantinople we held meetings separately for the various classes of the community. Near the Imperial Ottoman University, in the meetings held especially for Moslems, it was said that a larger number of Mo- hammedans were present than have ever before come to Christian meetings in the city. On the last night many were standing, and gave the closest and most earnest attention as we spoke of Christ. For three nights meetings were also held for the Greek young men. The Bishop of the Orthodox Church was pres- ent and spoke with fervor. Meetings were also held for the Armenians, and in various higher educational institutions of the city. We devoted several days to Robert College, which draws its students from all parts of the empire, Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Turks, and even Russians. Its graduates have gone out to remold communities, nationalities, and churches. It is to-day the greatest educational force at the center of the Turkish Empire. War in Prospect. The Balkan war had long been brewing. Signs of it were everywhere apparent even in April, 1912, when the writer visited in turn th6 Balkan States of Greece, Bulgaria, and Servia. On the day he was permitted to address the students of the National Bulgarian Military Academy in Sofia, which was training all the young officers for their i86 The New Era in Asia efficient army, a drummer was going through the city- summoning the reserves to be in readiness. Meaning of Emancipation from Moslem Misrule. A prophecy of the new era in Turkey may be gathered from the emancipation which has followed the Balkan States the moment they were freed from Moslem misrule.^ Changed Outlook in Greece. Greece, long crushed and humbled under the Moslem yoke, sank to an almost unbelievable level under that blighting rule. Byron's Letters While in Greece, and the re- ports of travelers from 1810 to 1840 who observed the long, eager struggle for freedom, show the pitiful condition of the nation under the Moslems. Even the British consul, writing in 1825, could say: "There are some persons who choose to call this collection of huts Athens, and profess to believe that the barbarians who live in them are capable of civilization. To such persons I do not address my observations/' Visiting Athens in 19 12, only eighty years freed from the Turkish yoke, we found it a beautiful city with 200,- 000 inhabitants, with every sign of culture and pro- ^ The area and population of the Balkan States, among which Greece is sometimes included, before the war were as follows : Area Population Rumania 50,000 square miles 6,000,000 Bulgaria 37,ooo " 4,284,000 Servia i8,(X)0 " 2,500,000 Greece 25,000 " 2,433,000 Montenegro 3,630 250,000 Greece became an independent kingdom in 1832, Rumania, Servia, and Bulgaria, respectively, in 1881, 1882, and 1908. The New Era in the Near East 187 gressive civilization. The week in Greece exceeded our highest expectations. With only a day's notice for our evangelistic meetings, in the midst of the ex- citement of election week, with crowds parading the streets, and many competing political gatherings, we were surprised the first evening to find the hall crowded. On the second night two hundred students were standing, and it was only with difficulty we could get into the hall. After speaking for an hour, we could hardly persuade the students to leave. A Stu- dent Christian Association was successfully organized by Dr. Mott the previous year, in 191 1, among the men of the University of Athens, with its more than two thousand students. The writer was asked to ad- dress the theological seminary for training the priests of the Orthodox Greek Church, also a society of older priests and theologians, and the society of the Ana- plasis. The metropolitan of the Greek Church gave us his blessing and expressed his approval of the work we were doing. Marks of Wide Appreciation. Our interpreter in Athens was an Olympic champion who is the leading athlete of Greece and an earnest Christian. The Greek athletes crowded to the meetings as a result. He interpreted like a pugilist, and threw himself with fire and force into the work. Just before leaving Athens, Queen Olga received us, and asked with deep interest about the World's Student Christian Federa- tion, and spoke even with tears of the heroism of modern missions. She urged that we organize Bible classes among the students in Greece. 1 88 The New Era in Asia New Era in Bulgaria. From Greece we came ta Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. This little country^ with its four and a half million people, rose rapidly after it emerged from the crushing misrule and mas- sacres of the Turkish yoke. In the capital, Sofia, which a generation ago was a " miserable village of mud huts," we found paved streets, fine buildings, and a university of twenty-five hundred students. Eager Interest among Students. This government university of Bulgaria opened its doors and gave us its large hall. The student meetings were crowded and there was eager interest. On Sunday morning the students filled the large theater, in spite of a com- peting socialist lecture at the same hour. Some five hundred stayed to the after-meeting on personal purity. At the third lecture in the university, there were crowds of students, professors, socialists, and a few Greek priests. Again some five hundred re- mained to a second meeting, after we had spoken on ''What think ye of Christ?" Over a hundred stu- dents in Sofia gave in their names as desiring to join Bible classes, to come into a closer personal relation with Christ, and a large number wished to read privately. The writer was asked also to speak in the government gymnasium, or boys' high school, in the girls' gymnasium, and at the national military academy, which is training all the officers for the Bul- garian army. Rapid Change of Attitude. It was a surprise to> see the Student Movement firmly established in Tur- key, and in the three Balkan States of Greece, Bui- The New Era in the Near East 189 garia, and Servia, and to find in every city groups of students meeting for Bible study and for personal work. This promises much for the future of these nations. Five years ago, and in most places even two years ago, these meetings would have been impossible. Doors of opportunity are opening now on every hand. An Urgent Call. The disintegration of Islam, the formalism of the ancient Christian Churches, the rapid growth of skepticism and of immorality among the young men in the unsettled political conditions of the new regime, all constitute a call for us to reenforce the work in this needy field. The Near East and the Balkans, " the danger zone of Europe," are of large and growing significance, both politically and reli- giously, and must not be forgotten in our reckoning for the future. The tide of the Moslem advance was broken at Vienna in 1529, and finally turned back in 1574. The period of decline has been going on during the last four centuries. The defeat of Turkey, cul- minating in the Treaty of London, as we have seen, marks the possibility of the opening of a new era of reconstruction. Islam must change or die. For the first time since the Hegira the Mohammedans of the Near East are open to free and aggressive missionary work. The last stronghold of spiritual resistance rises before the Church to-day. Let us " go in and possess the land." THE NEW ERA IN WORLD MISSIONS VIII THE NEW ERA IN WORLD MISSIONS A Great and Insistent Issue. We have observed in the preceding chapters unmistakable signs of a re- naissance in Asia. We have traced the development of the new era in Japan, Korea, China, India, and the Near East. The evidence and the argument of these facts is cumulative. Taking Asia as a whole it presents the greatest and most insistent issue before the Church and the world to-day. It is an issue big and imperative enough to save us from ourselves, and to call us to sober thought and to united action. Mission Board and Student Volunteer Factors. If Ave look back over the last century, not only in the East hut also in the West, we find it is equally evident that we have entered upon a new era at the home base of missions. The past century has been one of organi- zation and coordination of the forces of Protestant Christendom. In 1793 Carey organized the Baptist Missionary Society in England. Following upon the Haystack prayer-meeting at Williamstown, American missions began with the organization of the American Board in 1810. The Edinburgh Missionary Confer- -ence reported 994 missionary organizations at the present time. To undertake the evangelization of the non-Christian world, the first need of the missionary 193 194 The New Era in Asia societies was men to send abroad. In the providence of God the student movement, which culminated in the organization of the Student Volunteer Movement in 1886 and the World's Student Christian Federation in 1895, is now providing men for this great world missionary movement. Already more than 7,000 vol- unteers from Anglo-Saxon countries have reached the field and have entered upon missionary work abroad. The Student Federation in 1913 embraced 2,305 As- sociations, with a membership of 156,071 students and professors. Awakening of the Whole Church. But mission- ary societies and student volunteers alone were not enough to insure the success of the missionary under- taking. Nothing less than the arousing of the whole Church is adequate to the winning of the whole world. In a providential way the various young people's mis- sionary movements, both in America and abroad, to- gether with the great Sunday-school movement, have been preparing the younger generation to undertake a new missionary crusade. The more than 5,000,000 young people who are now organized in these move- ments, and the 15,000,000 children in the Sunday- schools of North America, are being reached and in- fluenced by the missionary message, in a way that was undreamed of in any previous generation. The Mis- sionary Education Movement is doing a notable work in the great cause of missionary education. More than a million books have been issued, and at least an equal number of young people have been engaged in the study of missions. Last year more than 40,000 stu- The New Era in World Missions 195 dents also in the colleges of North America were en- listed in mission study. Laymen and Total Gifts. But the laymen re- mained as the greatest unutilized asset of the Chris- tian Church. The Laymen's Missionary Movement and the Men and Religion Movement in North America have done much to quicken the conscience of American laymen. Their call to an '' every member canvass," by which each member of a congregation is invited to contribute something to the cause of mis- sions at home and abroad; the arousing of the con- science of the laity through conventions and confer- ences; the emphasis upon the sacred responsibility of stewardship, have led to an increase in the contributions- for foreign missions. The world's gifts to foreign mis- sions during the last century, according to Mr. W. E. Doughty, have increased more than three hundred- fold, rising from $100,000 annually to more than $30,- 000,000 a year at the present time. The gifts from the Christians of North America alone now total $15,600,000 annually. Coordination through Edinburgh Conference. But even the organization of so many scattered missionary societies, the raising up of student volun- teers, the education of young people, and the arousing of the laity were not enough for the adequate entrance of the Church upon the new era in world missions. The coordination of the missionary forces of Prot- estant Christendom at the home base and abroad was still lacking. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference, held in 191Q, provided just this unification and co- 196 The New Era in Asia ordination of the missionary forces. Just as the Bal- kan Allies, who had each in turn been defeated and crushed by the power of the Turk, became invincible when united in the face of their common foe, so 994 scattered missionary organizations, working abroad without coordination and oftentimes with overlapping and competition, could not achieve what the same forces could do if mobilized by a common plan of •campaign. Just as the people of India, as long as they are divided by caste, race, and religion, are help- less and unable to govern themselves, so the mission- ary forces could not hope to wield full power with- out some national or international strategy. At the Edinburgh Conference for the first time all the great forces of Protestant Christendom were drawn to- gether. While many inspirational conventions pass, leaving no tangible result, the effects of the Edinburgh Conference seem steadily to grow with each passing year. The great step forward taken in the matter of Christian unity became incarnated and perpetuated in the Continuation Committee, representing the various Protestant missionary societies of Europe and North America. Through the pages of The International Review of Missions, through the thorough investiga- tion of the great problems of missions by the various commissions appointed by this Continuation Com- mittee, and through a closer coordination of all the Protestant forces working on the foreign field and at the home base, there is hope of a new science of mis- sions being patiently and steadily built up. We may now think together, plan together, and act together. The New Era in World Missions 197 Coordination of Field Forces — India. But one further step was needed to complete the great work begun by the Edinburgh Conference; that was the co- ordination of the forces on the field. The Continuation Committee Conferences conducted by the chairman of that Committee through the twenty-one great centers of Asia in 1912-13, took the first step toward the accomplishment of this end, just as the Edinburgh Conference had drawn together the societies at the home base. Asia was divided into twenty-one con- venient areas, and under the direction of the Continua- tion Committee, Dr. Mott, as its chairman, was re- quested to conduct conferences in each area, calling to- gether both the native leaders and the foreign mission- aries of each district. First of all, such conferences were held in the chief city of each of the eight prov- inces of India, Burma, and Ceylon. Practically all of the great Protestant Christian communions were rep- resented in these conferences. The Syrian Church of Travancore, which has been for fifteen centuries in India, for the first time in its history sent delegates to a Christian conference with the other great com- munions, where they met on terms of equality and brotherhood. The venerable metropolitan, Mar Dionysius, was himself present at the Madras Con- ference. At the close of each conference, committees on findings or recommendations were asked to re- port. At the close of the provincial conferences throughout India a national conference was conducted in Calcutta, attended by the leaders appointed by each province. It was probably the most representative and 198 The New Era in Asia the strongest group of missionaries and Indian leaders ever gathered in the history of Indian missions. India National Missionary Council. Before this conference closed it appointed a National Missionary Council, which will unite for the first time, in the fullest sense, all the Protestant Christian forces in India. Bishop Lefroy, the new metropoUtan of India, is the convener of this committee. A Board of Sur- vey was appointed to make a thorough study of the Indian field. Educational unions are being established or strengthened to unite the forces of educational mis- sions in the different parts of India. Union institu- tions for training Christian teachers, for the higher education of women, for medical work, and for lan- guage study were recommended, together with united evangelistic campaigns. Every one attending this great series of conferences was struck by the dominant note of unity, and the growing consciousness of the Christian body as it is being knit together for a great, united, and forward movement on the mission field. The most representative Indian Christian in South India said that the first provincial conference had ad- vanced the cause of missions in his field by a full generation. The Bishop of Madras in writing of this series of conferences says : " They have been unique in the forethought with which they have been planned and organized, in the thoroughness of their work, in the completeness of the arranging and focusing the best thought and experience of the Indian field, and the wise provision of an adequate machinery for mak- ing the findings effective in the future." The New Era in World Missions 199 Action in China. The conferences in China were similar to those held in India, and were even more ur- gently needed, as they came at a time of real crisis in the missions of that country. The Chinese and foreign forces were drawn more closely together, and a deeper sense of unity among the various bodies working in the Chinese Republic was created by the provincial and national conferences. These also re- sulted in the appointment of a National Committee, which will draw together the Protestant missionary societies working in that land. Wide Coordination in Japan. In Japan also sim- ilar conferences were held, first with the missionaries, then with the Japanese Christian leaders, and finally a united conference of both bodies. Six of the seven Anglican and Episcopal Bishops of Japan were pres- ent, as were the leading Bishops of the Anglican com- munion throughout the rest of Asia. Bishop Hiraiwa, the Japanese leader of the United Methodist bodies, Bishop Sergius of the Russian Orthodox Mission, to- gether with three other delegates from the Greek Church in Japan, including the editor of its periodical and the principal of its theological college, attended the Japanese conference. These leaders, both Japa- nese and foreign, voted to recommend an addition of nearly double the force of evangelistic missionaries ; they called for the establishment of a union Christian university to crown the Christian educational system of Japan, the founding of a Christian college for women, and the cooperation of Protestant Christian bodies in a three years' united evangelistic campaign^ 200 The New Era in Asia As in India and China, a Continuation Committee of Japan was organized, with forty-five members, to represent the various Japanese Churches and Chris- tian foreign missionary societies of the country. Drawn Together by the Spirit. The organiza- tion of these national committees will coordinate the missionary forces in each field, and unite them for efficient cooperation with the Continuation Commit- tee of the Edinburgh Conference at the home base, which draws together all the Protestant foreign mis- sionary societies of Europe and America. It was said at Edinburgh that real unity of the missionary forces on the foreign field would be equivalent to doubling the present force of workers. Is it not evident that we are being drawn together at home and abroad under the unmistakable guidance of God's Spirit to- ward the answer of that last prayer of our Lord " that they may all be one . . . that the world may believe that thou didst send me? " Divine Preparation for an Advance. Thus we see that God has been working to prepare the East- ern nations politically, economically, and religiously for a new era, and at the same time he has been pre- paring the Christian forces at the home base to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity in order that we may " go up and possess the land." ** All things are now ready." What then is the need of the hour, and what is our duty as we face this new era in world missions? Call for Men and Fair Play. There is a call for men to-day. The present force is utterly inadequate. The New Era in World Missions 201 We do not agree with many of the mechanical and numerical calculations which call for an impossible number of men, but all will agree that there is need at least speedily to double our forces abroad. At the moment of writing the eye of the writer falls on a letter just received from the head of one of the leading educational institutions of North America^ who has recently returned from a trip through the Orient. Writing with deep feeling, he says : " Were I ten years younger China would have the call on my services. She is just now in a remarkable con- dition, one that tends to rouse the fighting spirit of any red-blooded man who believes in fair play. My blood was boiling most of the time as I witnessed with my own eyes the prostitution to selfish and sor- did ends of our vaunted Western civilization, by the Western business man, politician, and adventurer. What can we do to wipe out that blot, and give the Chinese at least a fair field in which to wage their fight for the higher life?" Many college presidents, pastors, and leaders in the home field are saying the same to-day. Summons to Younger Workers. But there are others who are still young. There are students who have not yet decided their life-work. This call comes to you. Why should you go abroad? First of all, is there not a greater need in the foreign field? Re- member that half the world has never yet heard of Christ. And how does that other half live? That is the half that is poor to-day. The average income throughout India, China, and the poorer nations of 202 The New Era in Asia Asia is not over ten cents per day per capita. Famine raises its gaunt form almost every year in these non- Christian lands. Forty millions go to sleep every night in India hungry, upon a mud floor, and many are dying in the perennial famines in China. But the physical famine is but a faint and feeble outward symbol of the deeper spiritual poverty of these lands. Half the world is without any medical knowledge worthy of the name. Roughly about half the world to-day is without education, and cannot read or write in any language. Half the world is without the social rights of manhood, womanhood, or childhood. And is it a mere coincidence that this section of the world is the half that is without Christ? There is need at home, but can you name any need here that is not x)nly equaled but multiplied many-fold abroad ? There is the need of the city slum and the country district, but there are Protestant church-members in America to meet that need. Rouse your imagination to face these two hemispheres of the East and of the West as God must see them. Of every thousand Christians, we send less than one to that other half that is poor, sick, ignorant and without the Christian gospel ; while more than 999 out of every thousand remain here at home. Great Opportunities. Not only is there a greater need abroad, but there is also a greater opportunity. The average foreign missionary, despite the lack of backing we give him, wins several times more con- verts than the average Christian worker at home. Think of the opportimity before you abroad. We The New Era in World Missions 203 are dealing with continents. It is ours to uplift nations, to mold new societies, to build a new hu- manity, and to lay foundations where no other man has labored. Think of the opportunity of the scholar and of the apologist to-day! We still need men like Carey, who, with his fellow workers, bequeathed the gospel in forty languages to millions; or Morrison, who made the Scriptures accessible to one quarter of the human race. A new apologetic literature awaits creation in these awakening and intellectual nations of the Orient. Think of the opportunity of the evan- gelist ! The writer recalls three of his friends in India, each of whom had the care of a parish containing more than 20,000 Christians, and the guidance of, and friendly cooperation with, more than 300 native work- ers. In northern Bengal each missionary has a parish of some two million souls. The writer recalls that in his own field in India there were more than fifty churches and as many schools, some 5,000 Christians, and nearly half a million non-Christians to evangelize, with a force of a hundred workers, with whom it was a joy and a privilege to labor. Fields for Medical Work. Think of the oppor- tunity of the Christian doctor. Many a medical man in Asia to-day is handling major operations, and treating through his native fellow workers the sick and suffering of a district of more than five millions of people, who have no other trained physician to whom they can go for relief. Think of the privilege of the union medical colleges of China to-day, which will train hundreds of Chinese Christian physicians, 204 The New Era in Asia and give a new scientific medicine to one fourth of the human race! Openings for Christian Teachers. Think of the opening before the Christian teacher who can lead these bright and inquiring minds to the truth, under the powerful influence that every teacher of character possesses over the Oriental mind. Or measure the opportunity in student work in this awakening con- tinent of Asia to-day. Think of those bright minds in the Imperial University of Japan, darkened by the shadows of atheism, agnosticism, or materiaHsm; or those thousands of government students in China to-day, so open and eager and responsive ! Even as we go to press the last letter from China brings news of nearly a thousand of these inquirers from the recent campaign already baptized or received into the Christian Church on probation. Think of the 30,000 university and professional students of that great in- tellectual land of India, with its splendid systems of philosophy and its ancient faiths. The students will lead Asia for Christ or against him, for a civilization that will be either spiritual or material, Christian or anti-Christian, for Mammon or for God. Forestalling Peril. Were this opportunity neg- lected or spurned, it would mean more than a yellow peril, it would be an Asiatic peril, the danger of a great material civilization, armed with all the enginery of war and unchecked by Christian principles. Or, to change the figure, the sins of these men could be- come a virus to poison the very springs of life, not only in the East but in the West as well. The New Era in World Missions 205 Facing the Need. If the choice of your hfe-work lies still before you, face this need abroad ; realize this overwhelming opportunity, and ask yourself if the presumption is not in favor of the greater need and the greater opportunity. Confronted by such condi- tions, a deepening sense of duty is the guidance of God. And may that joyful experience come to many a man. For here is the greatest call for men and women in all the world to-day. The Call for Money. The new era in world mis- sions constitutes also a call for money. In the provi- dence of God a few workers at the front are not allowed the entire blessing of winning the world in the pouring out of sacrifice and life. Only as the whole Church cooperates can this work be done. God has made these workers at the front dependent upon those at home for support by finances and by prayer. What is there but the great missionary movement abroad and the social needs at home that can save the Church in this age of materialism and of rapidly in- creasing wealth? One thousandth part of the annual increase in the wealth of the Christians of the United States would furnish all the money that is needed to carry on the entire foreign missionary enterprise. Even to support the maximum number of mission- aries that are asked for by the most advanced plans of to-day would require a gift of only $2.50 per year, or one carfare a week, from the average church- member. But the fact that so many are not con- tributing anything places a double burden of responsi- bility for sacrifice upon the few who have caught the 2o6 The New Era in Asia vision and who know the facts. Our present giving is pitifully inadequate for the winning of Asia, or to meet the demands of the new era in world missions. In one city the writer found a man who was laying up $6,000,000 a year in profits, but he refused to give a penny to any object at home or abroad. No human need appeals to him. Repudiated Obligation. A prominent minister pointed out that in a recent daily paper the will trans- mitting one of the largest fortunes of the United States left not one penny to charity, to missions, or to the needs of men, while side by side with this there was the statement that the flag of the country had been trampled down by socialists in their bitter cry against the grasping of wealth unjustly hoarded. Is there no connection between these two facts? True Stewardship. It is easy for all of us to point out prominent public men who we think ought to give more, and to say how much good they could do if they would only use their wealth, but the same prin- ciple applies to each one of us. How many of us have thoughtfully and prayerfully faced the question of our stewardship? What proportion of your income did you give last year to the advancement of God's king- dom, and what proportion did you spend upon your- self? Do you give prayerfully, gladly, generously? Do you have a plan of systematic and proportionate giving ? " It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." How many of us will receive from the Master the " well done, good and faithful serv- ant " because of the right use of our stewardship ? The New Era in World Missions 207 Poor yet Enriching Many. The writer recalls a poor girl, working in one of the great cities of this country, who, not able to go abroad herself, saved and sent abroad a portion of her slender income until to-day there is a community of over a thousand souls in North India who have been gathered into the king- dom through the native workers supported by the gifts of this one poor girl. Lines of Personal Support. How many of these people in Asia have you and I helped ? In many dis- tricts $3 a month will support a native teacher; $12 a year will educate a boy in a boarding-school; $20 will build a small school or church; $30 to $50 will support a native worker for a year. This does not mean that you should ask your missionary society to assign you a particular pupil, or request an over- worked missionary to lay aside his important duties to correspond with you about some particular native worker. This would greatly increase the cost of the administration of your own board and it would take the time of both native workers and foreign mission- aries from the great work to which they have set their hands. But it does mean that every dollar counts, that your board is carrying on just such work, and that every cent you save and send will be used in the wisest way for the expansion of the kingdom and the meeting of the present crisis in Asia. Fruit from Larger Sums. To educate a young man in an expensive college in this country would cost perhaps $4,000 for a full college course. That 5um will meet the deficit and run an entire mission 2o8 The New Era in Asia college in parts of the East for a year, helping to instruct several hundred Christian students and as many non-Christians, supporting a college which is a center of light and influence in a large district numbering several million of inhabitants. Do not fear that your money will be wasted. The cost of administration of the various mission boards varies from three to twelve per cent., which is a bet- ter percentage than most of our great industrial corporations at home. For the writer's own mission station in India the board appropriated only about $1,300 annually. This would pay the salary of one worker in this country, but in India it was expected to pay the salary of thirty native workers, to run a boarding-school, fifteen day-schools, thirty congrega- tions, struggling toward self-support, and carry on evangelistic work among thousands of non-Christians. A little calculation will show how much room there was for waste or extravagance upon a budget of this amount. " Work Enough." There are still those who make the threadbare and outworn excuse that they " do not believe in foreign missions." But again let us ask, where would we have been without foreign missions? There are some who tell us that there is " work enough at home." So there is, but work enough for what? Work enough to make us blush that we our- selves have done so little. Yes, work enough to make us resolve, here and now, to do more. But work enough to make us neglect the great command of Christ and the need of half the human race when we The New Era in World Missions 209 have men and money enough to give the whole world the gospel? Never. A Call to Prayer. The new era in world missions is above all a call to prayer. The Edinburgh Confer- ence, representing the leaders of all the forces of Protestant Christendom, set apart the best portion of the day for the great ministry of intercession, placing prayer above work in its potency and power. In the report of their commission on the Home Base they summon the Church to a new ministry of inter- cession. Voice of Edinburgh Conference. This conviction was voiced by the Edinburgh Conference as follows: " No thoughtful reader of the Gospels can fail to recognize the preeminent place which Jesus Christ gave to prayer, both in his teaching and in the prac- tise of his own life. The greatest leaders of the mis- sionary enterprise have been men of prayer. The volume of testimony is overwhelmingly that ' Prayer is power ; the place of prayer is the place of power; the man of prayer is the man of power.' Conditions Call for Prayer. " The need of prayer for missions is evident when we give thought to the circumstances under which missionary work is car- ried on. Were missionaries to go forth, a company of strangers and foreigners, to ask the peoples of Asia and Africa to change some habit of dress or social custom their task might seem almost impos- sible. How infinitely more difficult it is to ask these peoples to accept a teaching that will revolutionize 210 The New Era in Asia their whole life! There is nothing magical in the crossing of the seas that renders missionaries immune from the temptations, the weaknesses of character, the unbelief that deadens the life of the Church that sends them forth. The project might well seem hopeless, unless we believed in the spiritual resource of prayer. The neglect of prayer by the Church at home means defeat at the front of the battle. Testing the Divine Resources. " The call that is most urgent and most insistent is that Christian men and women should deeply resolve to venture out and make trial of the unexplored depths of the character and resources of God. The missionary enterprise has led many adventurous spirits to explore unknown territories and tread unbeaten paths. The same spirit of adventure is needed to discover the wealth and resources of life in God. The work of evangelization must wait until Christian people resolutely set them- selves to put to proof the availability of God for faith. Many who cannot go to the mission field may have a real share in the missionary labors of the Church if they will give themselves to the mighty ministry of prayer. Applies Vital Energy. " Prayer is the putting forth of vital energy. It is the highest effort of which the human spirit is capable. Proficiency and power in prayer cannot be attained without patient continuance and much practise. The primary need is not the mul- tiplication of prayer-meetings, or the more extensive circulation of prayer calendars, but that individual Christians should learn to pray. If this work is to The New Era in World Missions 211 be taken seriously, the hour of prayer must be defi- nitely set apart and jealously guarded in spite of weari- ness and many distractions. When the Church sets itself to pray with the same seriousness and strength of purpose that it has devoted to other forms of Christian effort, it will see the kingdom of God come with power." ^ Spiritual Energies Essential. Men may go to the field and do a certain amount of work. Money can feed the starving body and buy bread. But the ulti- mate issue in the regeneration of these countries is spiritual. Those who have taken part in this great spiritual conflict in the East have found a deeper meaning in the words of the Apostle Paul, " We wrestle not against flesh and blood." Our work is supernatural or it is nothing. Frankly, our work is humanly impossible if we cannot wield supernatural forces. To grapple with subtle and ancient systems of philosophy, with hoary traditions, with age-long prejudices, with religions deep-rooted and intertwined with the most precious traditions in the lives of na- tions; to change the currents of history, the nature of the human heart; to regenerate society, to uplift countries and continents, this, surely is no mere human undertaking. Though humanly impossible, in the light of God's promises, in the power of his presence, and in the perspective of past achieve- ments, it is gloriously possible. We can do it if we will. 1 The Home Base, Chapter I, Commission VI, of the World's Misssionary Conference at Edinburgh. 212 The New Era in Asia Appeal of Past Results. The very victories we have already won constitute a call from the triumphs of the past. Think of what we have already accom- plished in the century that lies behind us. A hun- dred years ago there were less than a hundred mis- sionaries on the field. To-day there are more than 24,000. Then the Bible was translated into some 65 languages ; now it is placed within the reach of peoples speaking 500 tongues and dialects, and made accessible to more than 800,000,000 of the human race. A hun- dred years ago there was not a medical missionary nor missionary hospital in the world, and more than two thirds of the world was without any adequate medical knowledge; to-day there are more than 675 hospitals treating annually many millions of patients. A cen- tury ago there was but a little handful of mission schools. To-day there are nearly 30,000 mission schools and colleges, educating more than a million and a half students in the great centers of the non- Christian world. Appeal of Present Progress. A century ago there was not a professing Protestant Christian in Japan; not one in Korea; less than ten in the Chinese em- pire, and a few thousands in India. To-day there is a Protestant Christian community of some 90,000 adherents in Japan, 200,000 in Korea, nearly a million in China, and 1,617,000 in India. In India the Prot- estant, native Christian community is gaining about 50 per cent, every ten years. It is doubling about every decade in China, while nearly a convert an hour has been added every day in Korea since the The New Era in World Missions 213 first missionary landed. We follow a Leader who has never known defeat. According to Mr. J. Campbell White it took nearly a century to win the first million Protestant Christians on the foreign field. The sec- ond million were won in about twelve years, and it is taking but six years to win the third million. An average of nine hundred Christians are being added every day throughout the non-Christian world. Dur- ing the last year more than 6,536 communicants were added every week to the Church abroad, and over 22,000 Christian adherents. To-day, with about six million Protestant Christian communicants and adher- ents, abroad, at the present rate of increase we shall be adding within a decade a million every year to the Protestant constituency abroad. As Dr. H. Clay Trumbull has said, it is our duty to make the past a success : the price already paid, the lives laid down, the noble sacrifices that have been made, the martyrs that have died, and the triumphs already won by the great army of 24,000 missionaries and 112,000 native workers at the front challenge us to a greater advance than in any previous era. Call to Win Half a World. The Church is facing to-day the need of more than half the human race. No pen can describe it, no heart can grasp or fathom that great ocean of need; no imagination can picture it, no tongue can tell it. There is a continent of need embracing nations newly awakened, which can be molded to-day. And here are we, young, strong, and free to give our lives, our gifts, our prayer, all that we have and are, to the greatest cause in the world. 214 '^^^ New Era In Asia The call comes to the West, to the Christian Church. It comes to you personally and individually. The call is before you. What will your answer be? It combines the challenge of a great need and the call of an overwhelming opportunity. Of that need Pro- fessor Paul Reinsch says, '' Humanity in the Orient, overpowered by destiny in the shape of natural catastrophe, famine, pestilence, and war, has not yet found itself ; " and of the opportunity he writes, " The unfolding of dynamic forces, acting upon such a vast basis, and with such an intricate background of civiliza- tion, has never been witnessed before in the remembered history of our world." ^ Dr. Mott has not overstated the matter when he writes : " The situation thus pre- sented to the Christian Church is unprecedented in opportunity, in danger, and in urgency. This is the greatest single fact to be pressed upon the mind and conscience and will of Christendom." Who Makes the Plea? The facts are before us; and we are witnesses of these things. Nay rather, these people are before us ; men and women with the same possibilities, the same human hopes and fears, the same longings and aspirations, the same worth and reality of life that we ourselves possess. They are laid at our gate, and we could help them if we would. We have what they need ; can we withhold it ? They have no articulate voice or cry. It is Another that pleads for them. " I was an hungered : I was thirsty : "^•Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East, i6, 187. The New Era in World Missions 215 I was a stranger ; naked : I was sick : I was in prison. . . . Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." " Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep/' COMMERCIAL EXPANSION OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD SHOWINQ RAILWAYS EXISTING AND PROJECTED INDEX INDEX Abdul Hamid II, 170, 173; deposed, 176; opens Parlia- ment, 175 Achievements of Japan, 34-37 Adana atrocities, 176 Agriculture in India, 146, 148 Aintab, 185 Aligarh College and Move- ment, 155 All India Student Conference, 159 All the World, 6 American Board, pamphlet on the Balkan war, 177; work in Turkey, 180, 183, 184 American College for Girls • at Constantinople, 181, 184 American missions and schools, in India, 156; in Turkey, 181-183 America's baneful gifts to China, no Anatolia College, 185 Ancestor-worship, 41 Appeal of missions, from past results, 211; from present progress, 212 Area and population of China, 87 Arisaka gun, the, 35 Armenian atrocities, 170, 176 Armenians in Robert College, 184, 185 Arnold of China, the, 121 Arya Samaj, the, 153, 154, 159 Aryan race, 179 Asia, economic advance, causes of, 17; intellectual awaking, 14; renaissance, xiii, 5 Athens, 186; University of, 187 Athletes, Greek, 187 Atrocities, 170, 176 Audience in Foochow, an, 25 Autonomy in the Indian church, 157 Azariah, Rev. Bishop V. S., 157, 159, 160 B Balkan States, improved out- look for, 186 Balkan war, causes of, 177; in prospect, 185; results, 178 Banerjea, Mr. P., work re- ferred to, 140, 147 Baptism of converts in the Hooghly, 160 Baptist Missionary Society, 193 Barton, Dr. James L., quoted, 167 Battle cries of Indian na- tionalism, 143 Beach, Harlan P., xiv, 184 Beirut, 184; press, 17 Benares, Hindu college at, 155 Bengal, 147 Besant, Mrs. Annie, 155 219 220 Index Bible, classes, 24, 2^, 71, 127, 188, 189; portions sold in China, 17; societies, 129; translated, 91 ; Gospel read- ing and study by inquirers, 24, 27, 92, 158 Blue blood of the East, 131 Boaz, Franz, quoted, 13 Books, new, in Japan, 14 Boone College in Wuchang, 133 Boxer war, China before the, 11; leading causes of, 98; indemnity money, 95 Bradlaugh Hall, 158 Brahman converts, 160 Brahmo Samaj, 154, 159 Break-up of China, The, 100 British, missions and schools in India, 156; rule in India, 143-149 Bryce, James, quoted, on mis- sions in Turkey, 183 Buddhism, 40 Bulgarian military students in Sofia, 185; other students in Robert College, 184, 185 Burton, Professor Ernest D., quoted, 11 Calcutta, 17, 159 Call, for men, 200; money, 205; prayer, 209 Canton, 90; meetings in, 92 Canton Christian College, ^33 . , . Carey, William, 16; baptisms by, 159, 160, 193, 203 Carnegie of China, the, 116 Caste, 22, 141-143 Causes of changes in China, 97-100 Census of India unique, 151 Ceylon tea, 146 Chang Po-ling, 121-125; his church at Tientsin, 124 Charter oath, Japan's, Z3 Chester, Rear Admiral, 183 Chicago of China, 18 Chihli, 121 Child labor in Japan, 38 China, changed conditions in^ II, 12, 87-97; coal deposits, 18; converts, 91-93, 118; defeats by Japan and Western powers, 100; early inventions and scholars, 109 ; finances, 106 ; flag, 25 j international relations, 107; iron and steel works, 116; opium and other reforms,, 21, no; problems, 104, iii; provinces and dependencies,. 107; request for prayer, 103 ; resources, 19 ; widely opened door of access, 115,. 129, 134, 135; work and converts in Western prov- inces, 181 ; Young China Party, 100 China Inland Mission, 128 China Year Book, quoted, 19' Chinese dictionary, Dr. Mor- rison's, 91 Chirol, Dr. Valentine, quoted, 143 Chota Nagpur, 152 Christ. See Jesus Christ. Christian Church in Japan, 49, 51, 53 Christian message, interest in, 23, 24 . Christian Movement in Japan^ The, 1912, 49 Christian schools, for Turkey,. 181-185; a junior college and a university required at Index 221 Tokyo, 48 ; university need- ed for Korea, 75. See also Educational advance. Christian work wins confi- dence, 117 Christianity's, Port Arthur, 55; uplifting influence, 5, 49-53, 68-70, 102, 149-151, 174, 183, 202 Church, native, in China, 128- 133; in India, I55-I57; in Japan, 49, 50; in Korea, 69-77; in Turkey, 183 Cities, changes in those of China, 96, 97 Civilization, different forms of, 13, 140 Clement and Fisher pamphlet on Japan, 48 Coal in China, 18 College in Tientsin, 124 Columbus and the Renais- sance, 7 " Committee of Union and Progress, The," in Turkey, 174 Confucianism, 26, 39, 40 ; fine precepts, loS; inadequacy of, 94, 98 " Confucio-Christianity," 130 Constantinople, 166-168, 175, 183, 185 Continuation Committee, the, 75, 196-200 Control of the Tropics, 148 Conversions, 24, 27, 28, 70, 72, 91-93, 122-125, 152, 153; in a Korean prison, 79-82 Copernican system, 7 Cotton and hides as Indian exports, 147 Cromer, Lord, 171, 172 Cue being relinquished in China, 11 Curzon, Lord, 88, 172 " Danger zone of Europe, the," 189 Dayanand, Swami, 154 Daybreak in Turkey, 167 Death-rate in India, 149 Debt, China's, 19 Demon belief in Korea, 68, 69 Despotism, former sway of, in China, 93; in Korea, 60, 61 ; in Turkey, 169-171 Ding Li-mei, Pastor, 130 Doshisha University, 54 Doughty, Mr. W. E., 195 Eastern Inner Mongolia, 107 Eclectic systems attempted in India, 154 Economic factor, in Asia, 17-20; in China, 18, 19, 106; in India, 20, 140, 141, 146- 148; in Japan, 17, 18, 35, 38; in Korea, 61-65 ; in the Philippines, 17; in Turkey, 171 Edinburgh Missionary Con- ference, 193 ; unification at the, 195, 196 Educational advance, in China, 14-16; in India, 16, 140, 145; in Japan, 14, 34, 35, 48; in Korea, 64, 66, 75; in the Philippines, 15, 16; in Turkey, 181, 183-185 Emergency in China, The, 94 Empress dowager, 93, 98 English language a unifying factor in India, 144 Envoys to China, old-time, 115 222 Index Euphrates College at Har- poot, 184 Europe's renaissance a five- fold transformation, 6-8 Evangelistic meetings, 17, 26-28, 71, 117, 118, 124, 127, 128, 157-159 Expenses in the mission field, 207 Faber, Dr., 94 Factories at Calcutta and Osaka, 17 Fahs, Charles H., xiv Famine relief, 150 Farmers of Forty Centuries, by King, referred to, 148 Finances, China's, 106 Fisher, Galen M., xiv, 45, 48 Five factors in the Renais- sance, 6. See also Econom- ic factor, etc. Five head- ings, 26; subjects, 159 Foochow, 2Z\ demonstration in, 24-28 Foot-binding, 21 " Foreign devils," 26 Foreign missions in the world's work, 208 Formative period of Asia, 29 Foster, Hon. John W., on China's resources, 19 Fuller, Sir Bampfylde, 148 Gale, Mr., quoted, on Korean government, 61 Galileo and the Renaissance, 7 Gambling evil abolished in Canton, 21 Geisha girls, 39 Gifts to foreign missions, an- nual total, 195 Giles, Mr. H. A., of Cam- bridge, quoted, 105 Gladstone, W. E., 170, 183 God, 4, 5, 10, 50, 51, 80, 91, 126; Fatherhood of, 22, 50, 98; mighty works, 134 Gokhale, Mr., 150 Gore, Bishop, 10 Gospel words, three great, 4 Gotama, 40 Great Wall, 109 " Greater Renaissance, The," 6 Greece, work among students in, 187 Greek Church, 53, 185 Greeks in Robert College, 184, 185 Greene, Joseph K., xiv; on the causes of the Balkan war, 177 Gutenberg, 16 H Hague commissioners and the Koreans, 63 Hall, Dr., 69 Hangchow, Y. M. C A. de- sired in, 116 Hangyang iron and steel works, 18 Harada, President, quoted, 54 Harpoot, 184 Hart, Sir Robert, 95 Haystack prayer-meeting, 193 Hearn, Lafcadio, quoted, 41 Hellespont, the, 3 Henderson, Professor, 20, 150 Hibbert Journal, The, quoted, 105 Index 223 Hides from India, 147 Hinduism, 22, 142 Home Base, The, 211 Hooghly, converts baptized in the, 160 Hopkins, Professor, quoted, I Imperial Edict of China, 14 Imperial Gazette, 16 Imperial Rescript of Japan, 37 Impurity, prevalence of, in Japan, 39; removal efforts, 51. 52 Independence party of Korea, 78 India, British rule, 139, 143, 144; Christian statistics, 151, 152, 156; eclectic sys- tems, 154, 155; education, 16, 145 ; effect of caste, 141, 142; poverty, 140, 141; re- ligious handicap, 142; self- government aspirations, 142-144; trade and manu- factures, 20, 146-148; uni- fying results of missions, 156, 157 Intellectual and Political Cur- rents in the Far East, 214 Intellectual factor, in China, 93, 94, 133; in India, 145, 146 ; in Japan, 14, 35 ; in Korea, 65 International College at Smyrna, 185 International Review of Mis- sions, 10, 51, 109, 196 Inventions and scholars of ancient China, 109 Iron in China, 18, 19 Islam and Missions, 161 Islam. See Mohammedan- ism. Ito, Prince, 62, 63 Jacks, Mr. L. P., quoted, 105 Japan, achievements, 8-14, 34- 37 ; Charter Oath, 9, 33, 49 ; Christian statistics, 49; crime, 38; debt, 38; defeat of Russia, 100; defects, 37- 44; need of missionaries, 54; schools, 14; some sources of progress, 33, 34; three religions, 39, 41 ; un- developed resources, 38; wealth, 35 Japan, An Interpretation, 41 Japan Mail, 39 Japan Mail Steamship Com- pany, 35 "Japan To-day and To-mor- row," 48 Japanese steamship lines, 18, 35 Jesus Christ, 4, 5, 10, 39, 55, 71, 80-82, 159; decisions for, 24, 27, 28, 80-82, 92, 93, 122, 125, 127; Foundation, 26, 27; Liberator, 51 Jones, Dr. George Heber, quoted, 68 Jute, 147 K Kato, Baron, quoted, 40, 50 Kidd, Benjamin, 5, 148 Kim, Mr., torture of, 79 Kirin Provincial Assembly, 117 Koran, the, quoted, 171, 172; new interpretation, 180 224 Index Korea, 28; Bible study and Christian life in, 70-73; converts, 70, 72, 78-82; delegation to the Hague, 63; development, 64; edu- cation plans and schools, 64-66; Independence Party, 78 ; misgovernment, 60-62 ; missionaries to and from, 69, 70 ; population, 63 ; re- action possible, 74-76; re- ligious problem, 68; social evil, 67 ; under foreign power, 64; Western influ- ences, dy Korean, missionary, the first, 70; prisoners, 78; traits, 59, 60 Kuang Hsu, Emperor, 93, 98 Lahore, 158 " Land of the Morning Calm," 62 "Land of Sympathy," 59 Laymen's Missionary Move- ment, 195 Lefroy, Bishop, 198 Legal procedure in China im- proved, 21 ; in Japan, 36 Letters While in Greece, by Byron, referred to, 186 Li Yuan-hung, General, loi, 117, 120 Life and Labor in India, Livingstone, David, quoted, 172 Low castes, work among the, 153 Lucknow Conference, report referred to, 161 Lull, Raymond, 182 M McDowell, Bishop W. F.^ quoted, 39 Macao, Dr. Morrison's expe- rience in, 91 Macedonia, 177 Macedonian call, 3 Madras, 158; Conference in,. 197, 198 Magna Charta of Asia, 9 Manchu rule, 98, loi ; ended,, 102; evils inherited from, 105 Manchuria, 99, 107, 124 Mar Dionysius, 197 Marco Polo in China, 109 Marsovan, 185 Martyn, Henry, 182 Martyn's pagoda, 160 Martyrs, 126; the city of, 125 Mass movements to Chris- tianity, 152, 161 Medical work, fields for, 205 Meiji rifle, 35 Men and Religion Movement, 195 Mencius, quoted, 108 Methodist work among the lower castes, 153 Mind of Primitive Man, The,. 13 Missionary Education Move- ment, 194 Missions, Protestant, in China, 90-93, 128-134; in India, 151-161 ; in Japan, 44-54; in Korea, 69-76; in Turkey, 182-185 Modern Egypt, 171 Moffett, Dr., 69 Mohammedanism, access to^ 165; adherents, 166; fa- vorable features, 172; un- favorable features, 171-174 Index 225 Mongolia, 107 Moral consciousness of China, 108 Morley, Lord, 144, 148 Morrison, Dr. Robert, 16, 21 ; in Canton, 90; work of, and results, 91, 92, 134, 203 Moslems, the. See Moham- medanism. Mott, Dr. John R., in Athens, 187; in Canton, 92; in Mukden, 97 ; in Shanghai, 116; on Beirut College, 184; on the situation in Asia, 214 Movable type, 16 Mukden, 23, 97 Murray, Dr., 34 Mutsuhito, Emperor, 9, 33, 49 N National Congress of India, 158 National consciousness of Korea, 64 National Missionary Council of India, 198 National Missionary Society of India, 157 National Review, of China, 21 Nationalism, the Orient's new, 9, II, 12 Near East, the, xiii, 165-189; recent changes in, offer new access to Mohammedanism, 165, 166, 180, 181, 189 Needs of the world, 202 Neo-Confucianism, 130 Nestorians, 128 New era in missions, 193 New wine, old bottles, 43 Nitobe, Dr., 35, 38, 55 Nogi, General, 11 North China Daily News, 97, 103 Northwest India Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 153 Oda mine, 35 Okuma, Count, quoted, 43, 51, 52 Oldham, Mr. J. H., quoted, 109 Olga, Queen, interested in Bible work, 187 Open door in China, the, 135 Open letter to the Sultan from Prince Sabah-ed-din, 181 Opium, 21, 108, no Opportunities in foreign work, 202-204 Organic union movements in India, 156 Organizations, missionary, 193 Orthodox Greek Church, 185 Osaka factories, 17 Paotingfu, 125, 126; changes in, 127, 128 Parsee Theater in Madras, ^58. Partition of China, The, 100 Patrick, Dr. Mary, 184 Patriotism, development of, in Oriental lands, 9-12, 64 Paul's first converts in Eu- rope, 4 Peace of London, effect of, 174, 178 Pears, Sir Edwin, quoted, 169 226 Index Peking, students in, 15, 94, 95 Perry's peaceful Armada, 8, Personal evangelism, 71, 72, 80, 122, 125 Pettus, W. B., xiv Philippines, educational ad- vance, 15; trade of, 17 Ping Yang, battle of, 69; statistics, 70; ordinations and work in, 70-72 Pitkin, Horace, a martyr, 126, 127 Political factor, in China, 9, II, 87-90, 93, 96-109; in In- dia, 12, 139, 140, 143, 144; in Japan, 10, 11, 23, 34, 36; in Korea, 12, 60-64; in Persia, 9; in the Philip- pines, 12; in Turkey, 9, 165-171, 174-181 Polygamy, instance of, 141 Port Arthur, 10 Pott, Dr., quoted, 100 Prayer, 24, 69, 70, 90, 122, 209-211; national, request for, 102, 103 Presbyterian Board of For- eign Missions, 126-128, 153, 183 Press, progress of the, 16 Prince Sabah-ed-din, open letter to the Sultan, 181 Principles of Western Civi- lization, 5 Prisoners and prisons in Korea, 78-82 Problems in China, 104, 129 Problems of the Far East, 88 Progress in India, 145 Protestant missions. See Missions, Protestant. Ptolemaic system, 7 Punjab, the, 152 Purity work, Baron Kato quoted on Christian, 50 Q Quinquennial Review of In- dian Education, 145 Race pride, causeless, 13 Races of Turkey, 179 Railways, in India, 146 ; ma- terial and prospects in China, 18, 19, 116; quality of service in Japan, 35 Rammohan Roy, Rajah, 151, 154 Ramsay, Sir William M., 168, 170 Ranade, Justice, 151 Red Cross Society, 102, 120 Reform party in Korea, yy- 79 Reinsch, Professor Paul, 214 Religions, 3-5, 39-41, 68, 69, 94, 142, 171-174, 179 Religious factor, in Asia, 22, 23, 28, 29; in China, 23-28, 90-97, 102-104, 109-135, 199; in Europe, 8, 22, 23 ; in In- dia, 142, 143, 151-162, 197, 198; in Japan, 39-55, I99» 200; in Korea, 66-83; in Turkey, 165-167, 179-189 Renaissance of Asia, 5, 8; compared with that of Eu- rope, 6, 14, 22, 23, 28 Revolution in China nearly bloodless, loi ; compared with Gettysburg, 102 Rhee, Dr., 78; prison experi- ence of, 79-81 Rice and tea as Indian ex- ports, 146, 147 Index 'Z2y^ Robert College, 184, 185 Robertson, Professor, 24-28, 121, 122 Robins, Raymond, 20 Roman Catholics, in China, 128; in Japan, 53 Russian hold on Chinese de- pendencies, 107 Russians in Robert College, 185 Sabah-ed-din, Prince, 181 " Sage of Judea, The," 43 Sailer, T. H. P., xiv, 6 Saint John's University in Shanghai, 133 Saint Paul's Institute, 185 Saint Sophia, church of, 168 Salonica, 176 Schools. See Educational ad- vance. Schwab, Charles M., 19 Secularization, tendency in China toward, 108 Semitic race, 179 Servants of Indian Society, 150 Seva Sadan, the, 150 Shamanism, 68 Shanghai, banquet in, 116; mission press in, 16; uni- versity in, 133 Shansi province, 18 Shantung Christian Univer- sity, 133 Shensi massacre, the, 102 Sherman disaster, the, 69 Shimose powder, 35 Shintoism, 39, 40 Sikhs, the, 159 Smyrna, 185 Social awakening, 20-22, 36 Social Evolution, 5 Social factor, in Asia, 20 ; in China, 21, 102, 107-109; in Europe, 8; in India, 22, 141, 142, 149-151 ; in Japan, 20, 21, 35-39; in Korea, 59, 60, 65-67; in Turkey, 171- I74» 180, 181 Social service, effect of Christian teaching, 149, 150 Sofia, address in, to Bulgarian military students, 185, 188 Spencer and Huxley, influ- ence of, 122 Statesman's Year-Book, 6 Statistical Abstract for Brit- ish India, 147 Statistics of Protestant mis- sions, in China, 128, 129; in India, 151-153, 156; in Japan, 49, 53; in Korea, 212 Steel works at Wuchang, 18 Student meetings, topics treated, 26, 27, 159; very marked interest, in Bul- garia, 185, 188; in China, 11, 23-28, 92, 95, 124, 127; in Greece, 187; in India, 157- 159; in Japan, 23; in Servia, 185, 189; in Tur- key, 185 Student Volunteer Move- ment, 130, 188, 194 Students at Tokyo Univer- sity, 43 Study of Indian Economics, 140, 147 Suggestions for situation in China, 132 Sun Yat-sen, Dr., loi, 102, 120 Suttee, 149 Syed Ahmad Khan, Sir, 155 Syrian Church of Travan- core, 197 228 Index Syrian Protestant College, 184 Tai Ping rebellion, 102 Tarsus, 185 ; atrocities at, 176 Tata Iron Works, 147 Tatar race, 179 Taylor, Hudson, 128 Tea, 146 Telugu country, 152 Temple of Heaven, the, 108 Theosophical Society, the, 155 Thomas, Mr., killed in Ping Yang, 69 Thomas Paine of Japan, the, 50 Three religions of Korea, 68 Tibet, 107 Tientsin, Mr. Chang in, 124, 125 Tinnevelli, 152 Tobacco in China, no Tokat, Turkey-in-Asia, 182 Tokyo University, 43 Torture abolished, 21, 36 Travancore, 152 Treaty of London, 189; of Peking in i860, 115; of Portsmouth, 9, 14 Trevelyan, Mr. Charles, quoted, 152 Troas, 3 Trumbull, H. Clay, 213 Tsing Hwa College, 95 Turkey and Its People, 169 " Turkey and the Balkan War," 177 Turkey, Committee of Union and Progress, 174; condi- tions in, 170; Constitution of 1876, 175; greatest enemy of, 181; record of misrule, 169-171 ; religions in, 168; statistics, 167 Turkish, characteristics, 172, 173; nationaUties, 168; race, 168, 171 ; students in Robert College, 184, 185 U United Church of South In- dia, the, 156 United Provinces, mass movements in, 152 United States, 33, 38, 53 Uniting missions in South In- dia, 156 University of Athens, Dr. Mott at, 187 " Untouchables," the, 150 Urga Convention, 107 Vedas, the, 154, 155 Verbeck, Dr., 34 Vivekananda, Swami, 155 Von During, Dr., 173 ' Von Richthofen, Baron, 18 W Wang, C. T., 118-121 Washburn, President George, 184 Wealth of India, 140 Whaling industries, protec- tion of, 33 Wheat in Indian exports, 147 " White slave traffic," 50 Widow, the Indian, and re- marriage, 150 Williamstown prayer-meet- ing, 193 Index 229 Wilson, President, and the Chinese loan, 106 Wireless daily news on a Japanese steamer, 18 Woman, condition of, in the East, 22, 35, z^, 38, 149; education of, in China, 15; in India, 22, 145 Womanhood, Moslem, 173, 174 Wong, K. S., 116 World's Chinese Students' Journal, iii World's Student Christian Federation, 187, 194 Wu Ting-fang, Dr., no Yen Hsiu, Mr., 121 Yi Hiung, Korean emperor, 62; transfers the throne, 63 Yi Sang Jai, 81, 82 Yi Seung Man, 78 Yi Wan Yong, 63 Young China party, 100 Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, 118; desired at Hangchow, 116; in Turkey, 180 Young Turks, 174-176 Yuan Shih-kai, 120 Yusuf Ali, Mr. A., 149 Forward Mission Study Courses Anywhere, provided it be forward." — David Livingstone. Prepared under the direction of the MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman; A. E. Armstrong, T. B. Ray, C. L. White, J. E. McAfee, A. R. Gray, G. F. Sutherland, H. P. Douglass, W. E. Doughty, W. W. Cleland, J. H. Poorman. The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a conference of leaders in young people's mission work, held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that was manifested at that conference for mission study text-books suitable for young people, two of the delegates. Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses. These courses have been officially adopted by the Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the Movement. The books of the Movement are now being used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards and societies of the United States and Canada. The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the various home and foreign mission fields and problems and written by leading authorities. The following text-books having a sale of over 1,200,000 have been published: 1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl Taylor. 2. Into All the World. A general survey of missions. By Amos R. Wells. 3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Biograph- ical.) By Harlan P. Beach. 4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. Revised Edition. A study of Japan. By John H. De Forest. 5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. (Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton. 6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. Revised Edition. A study of Africa. By Wilson S. Naylor. 7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of India. By James M. Thobum. 8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration. By Howard B. Grose. 9. The Uplift of China. Revised Edition. A study of China. By Arthur H. Smith. 10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City. By Josiah Strong. 11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 12. The Moslem World. A study of the Mohammedan World. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By Ward Piatt. 14. South America : Its Missionary Problems. A study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 15. The Upward Path : The Evolution of a Race. A study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By James S. Gale. 17. Advance in the Antilles. A study of Cuba and Porto Rico. By Howard B. Grose. 18. The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions. A study of conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By John R. Mott. 19. India Awakening. A study of present conditions in India. By Sherwood Eddy. 20. The Church of the Open Country. A study of the problem of the Rural Church. By Warren H. Wilson. 21. The Call of the World. A survey of conditions at home and abroad of challenging interest to men. By W. E. Doughty. 22. The Emergency in China. A study of present-day conditions in China. By F. L. Hawks Pott. 23. Mexico To-Day : Social, Political, and Religious Condi- tions. A study of present-day conditions in Mexico. By George B. Winton. 24. Immigrant Forces. A study of the immigrant in his home and American environment. By William P. Shriver. 25. The New Era in Asia. Contrast of early and present conditions in the Orient. By Sherwood Eddy. In addition to these courses, the following have been pub- lished especially for use among younger persons : 1. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex- ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs. 2. Servants of the King. A series of eleven sketches of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. Speer. 3. Under Marching Orders. The story of Mary Porter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 4. Winning the Oregon Country. The story of Marcus Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon country. By John T. Faris. 5. The Black Bearded Barbarian. The story of George Leslie Mackay of Formosa. By Marian Keith. 6. Livingstone the Pathfinder. The story of David Liv- ingstone. By Basil Mathews. 7. Ann of Ava. The story of Ann Hasseltine Judson of Burma. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. These books are published by mutual arrangement among the home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders should be addressed. They are bound uniformly and are sold at 50 cents in cloth, and 35 cents in paper; postage 8 cents extra. New The Whole World for Its Scope. Promotes World Peace. Cultivates the Missionary Spirit. Unique Contains True Stories of Life, Ac- tion, and Bravery. Develops High Ideals. Describes the Customs of Peoples in All Lands. Attractive Bound in a Beautiful, Appropriate Cover in Colors. Abundantly Illustrated with Original Drawings and Photographs. Printed on Excellent, High-finish Paper. EVERYLAND in the Home. Why not supplement your influence among boys and girls? EVERYLAND in the Sunday-school. A rich source for missionary story material. An excellent award, Christmas, or birthday gift. EVERYLAND is issued quarterly, sixty- four pages and cover. Subscription price, 50 cents a year, 10 cents extra for Canada, and 20 cents extra for foreign postage. EVERYLAND, 156 Fifth Ave., New York City Princeton Theological Seminarv Libraries 1 1012 01234 8159 DATE DUE ■ ■■xiBiTfliitiiftSir'''' "^^^i^ , 1 1 CAVLORO PHINTEOINO.S.A.