niiiinHniiininiuni 
 
 piiiiiiiiii 
 
 The CONQUEST of 
 
 The CROSS in 
 
 JACOB SPEICHER. 
 
tihvaxy of Che theological ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 •«^j> 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Delavan L. Plerson 
 BV J41b :"S73 iyo7 * 
 Speicher, Jacob, b. 1866. 
 The conquest of the cross i 
 China 
 
THE 
 
 W 
 
VETERAN LEADERS IN CHINA MISSIONS 
 J. Hudson Taylor (at left), Griffith John (centre), and W. A. P. Martin 
 
 (at right). Combined service, 156 years 
 
.<«>>*^ "^ 
 
 THE CONQUEfe^^ 
 
 oq 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CROSS IN CHINA 
 
 ^lu... ..^^ 
 
 .l''iiuflL a't»V 
 
 BY 
 
 JACOB SPEICHER 
 
 American Baptist Mission, Kityang, South China. 
 
 Introduction by 
 REV. WILLIAM ASHMORE, D. D. 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1907, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 
 
To my wife : 
 
 My faithful helpmeet^ who is a blessing to 
 
 many in this glorious work. 
 
 To the faculties and students of Colgate 
 University and Seminaryy in memory 
 of the pleasant term spent with them. 
 
 To the faculties of the University of 
 Rochester and the Rochester Theological Seminary, 
 my former teachers ^ who have inspired 
 the writer with the best this book may contain. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction, By Rev. William Ashmore, D, D. , 1 1 
 Preface 23 
 
 /. Characteristics of the Chinese People 
 
 I. China, Her Country and Her People 
 
 II. China and the Problems of the Far East . 
 
 III. A Review of Christian Missions in China . 
 IV The Domestic Political Situation in China 
 
 V. The Power of Superstition and Demonology over 
 
 THE Minds of the Chinese 
 
 VI. How THE Chinese are Brought Into the King 
 
 DOM ....... 
 
 27 
 49 
 7+ 
 90 
 
 06 
 23 
 
 //. The Foreign Missionary in China 
 
 VII. Essentials OF A Successful Missionary Career . 143 
 
 VIII. The Political Status of the Missionary in China 161 
 
 IX. The Social Status of the Missionary in China . 177 
 
 X. The Family Life of the Missionary in China . 193 
 
 ///. Missionary Methods in China 
 
 XI. The New Testament, the Model for Church 
 
 Planting and Church Training . . . 209 
 
 XII. Pioneer Sowing and Planting . . .226 
 
 XIII. Training and Development of the Local 
 
 Church ....... 241 
 
 7 
 
8 Contents 
 
 XIV. The Use and Misuse of Mission Money . .258 
 
 XV. Opening Mission Stations in South China . 277 
 
 XVI. Churches and Outstations on the Kityang 
 
 Field 290 
 
 IV. Problems of the Chinese Local 
 Churches 
 
 XVII. Intensive and Extensive Methods of the King- 
 
 dom . . . . . . . '3^3 
 
 XVIII. The Chinese Church and the Foreign Mission- 
 
 ary ........ 327 
 
 XIX. Chinese Local Churches ; Self-Supporting and 
 
 Self-Sustaining ...... 341 
 
 XX. Chinese Preachers, Their Call to the Min- 
 
 istry and Their Training . , -353 
 
 Index ...••••• 367 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Facing Page. 
 
 Veteran Leaders in China Missions "^^^^f- 
 
 The " Fu-tsi-Miao," or Confucian Temple at Nanking . 38 
 Buddhist Temple on Island of Pu-ti . . • • 3^ 
 
 Ichang Pagoda, Ichang, Upper Yangtse River ... 74 
 A Typical Ancestral Temple at Hun Lou near Swatow . 109 
 Worshipping at the Ancestor's Grave . . • . 1 24 
 
 Rev. William Ashmore, D. D. Fifty-four Years in China, 152 
 Group of Chinese Students, Yachow, West China . .181 
 
 A Family Group. Three Generations . . . • '94 
 
 A Preacher and His Wife 221 
 
 Chinese at a Chapel " Hall of True Doctrine '* . . 236 
 
 Chapel of American Baptist Mission, Hanyang, Central 
 
 China ^^° 
 
 Schools Old and New. Old Examination Hall, Chontu, 
 
 West China ^71 
 
 Nan Yang College, Shanghai 271 
 
 Mission School for Boys, Kinhv^a, East China . . .271 
 
 Mission School at Sing Hu, near Kityang . • .271 
 
 Chart Illustrating growth of Church and Missions on the 
 
 Kityang Field -290 
 
 Market Place in Full Blast in Market-town of Lai-pu-sua, 
 
 near Kityang ....••• 3^7 
 
 "Heads and Tails," A Street Scene in Shanghai. A Fes- 
 tal Occasion .....•• 3^4 
 Group of Native Preachers, Ningpo . . • -354 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Mr. Speicher, the author of this book, has requested 
 me to prepare for it a word of introduction. He has also 
 suggested that a glance at the progress of missions in 
 China through its first century might be serviceable to 
 the readers of missionary literature. With both the re- 
 quest and the suggestion I comply with the greatest 
 pleasure, partly out of appreciation of himself personally, 
 with whom I was at one time associated in mission work 
 in the field which he occupies in South China, and partly 
 as a tribute to the zeal, the energy and the discriminating 
 tact which he has shown from the beginning. 
 
 The missionary century in China begins with 1 807, for 
 in that year Dr. Morrison, the pioneer of them all, landed 
 at Canton. 
 
 It must be said, however, to the credit of the English 
 Baptists, that though not first to enter the field, they 
 were first to undertake work for the Chinese in the way 
 of translating the Scriptures. That distinguished trio of 
 translators, Carey, Marshman and Ward, whose translat- 
 ing aspirations were boundless, among other things under- 
 took to translate the Gospels and the Acts. In a list of 
 missionaries who have worked for the Chinese, printed at 
 the Presbyterian Press and prepared by Mr. Holt, at that 
 time superintendent, appears at the head of the list, since 
 swollen to many thousands, this initial entry : 
 Rev. J. Marshman, 1799 
 
 Next in order came Robert Morrison in 1807. 
 
 The missionary movement in China during the century 
 
 II 
 
1 2 Introduction 
 
 now about to end may be divided into four periods ac- 
 cording to outward happenings, but as regards inward 
 experiences, into four stages. The time periods are dis- 
 tinctly marked by wars. The missionaries had nothing 
 to do with any of these wars but they took advantage of 
 them to step in. Thus it has happened over and over 
 again that God has made the wrath of man to praise Him. 
 These various miUtary upheavals are the fulfillment of the 
 declaration, " I will turn and overturn until He shall 
 come whose right it is to reign." The stages, however, 
 indicative of processes, are not so distinctly marked. 
 They overlap one another, commencing in one period 
 and running over into a second one, especially in recent 
 years. 
 
 The First Period 
 (i8oy-i8^2 — Thirty- Five Years) 
 
 This may be called the period of prospecting, the 
 period of surveying round about. The missionaries were 
 not yet allowed freedom of access to China. Accord- 
 ingly, the few who followed Dr. Morrison were obliged 
 to work at very long range. Some settled at Singapore, 
 some at Batavia, some at Penang and some at Bangkok, 
 and there they commenced studying the language, pre- 
 paring vocabularies, making translations and learning 
 how to preach to the Chinese emigrants who lived in 
 those places. Robert Morrison and a very few others 
 managed to shelter themselves in Macao and in some of 
 the by-lanes of the contracted foreign settlement in 
 Canton. 
 
 The jealousy of the Chinese was intense. The mission- 
 aries were watched and denounced and defulminated 
 against by officials who watched them with the eyes of a 
 
Introduction 13 
 
 lynx and pursued them with the vigour of a sleuth-hound. 
 The reason for this was well-known to them, nor is it the 
 least surprising, for they had seen that elsewhere the 
 foreigner was aggressive and grasping. They had seen 
 India taken by the EngHsh, the Philippines by Spain and 
 Java by the Dutch. They feared their turn would come 
 next and that they might have to fight to the death to 
 maintain their national independence. So the settled 
 policy of the officials was to prevent the foreigner from 
 gaining another inch and if possible to wrest from his 
 hand advantages he had already gained. Still another 
 consideration actuated their hostihty. The Romish 
 priests had been in the country for about 300 years. At 
 first they had been kindly received and if they had been 
 less grasping, China to-day would have been almost as 
 Roman Catholic as the states of South America are. 
 But they were ambitious of power. They sought polit- 
 ical control and consequently were continually in collision 
 with the officials, who learned to distrust them and to 
 hate them. But the missionaries had another source of 
 difficulty. The British East India Company was relent- 
 lessly hostile and made trouble for them in every pos- 
 sible way. They thought that the success of missions 
 would interfere with their trade and so they were not only 
 severe themselves, but they led the natives to be severe. 
 
 It will be seen, of course, that the missionaries were to 
 have a hard time of it. They became heirs to all the dis- 
 trust and all the aversion which had been accumulating 
 for 300 years against foreign merchants and Romish 
 priests. It was not difficult to make the Chinese officials 
 believe that Protestant missionaries were only a branch 
 of the hated Jesuits. Many of our doctrines were the 
 same and though we had no pope we talked about the 
 
14 Introduction 
 
 same God and the same Saviour, and were both bent on 
 gaining converts. The officials beheved, many of them, 
 and the common people were taught to believe that we 
 were the emissaries of a foreign power and that if they 
 did not curb us we would soon bring down upon them a 
 fleet of fire-ships and an army of red-bristled barbarians. 
 Is it any wonder they hated us and that we had a very 
 hard time to gain a foot-hold or receive the consideration 
 of a common hospitality ? 
 
 So passed away the first thirty-five years. We have 
 but little to show for all the effort put forth by those 
 sacrificing men and women. When the time was up 
 there were only six known converts among the Chinese 
 all told, inside and outside of the empire. During the 
 thirty-five years there were enrolled as missionaries to the 
 Chinese about sixty names of men and at least forty 
 wives. With the exception of Dr. Morrison himself, who 
 was allowed to remain in Canton as a translator, the 
 others were all scattered at various outposts, at Bangkok, 
 at Singapore, at Batavia, waiting and watching. While 
 some few had broken down and had gone home, the bulk 
 of them were still waiting and watching and hoping. 
 
 This may have seemed Hke a great waste of missionary 
 material, time and energy, but it was not so. In God's 
 economy nothing is ever wasteful of the resources of His 
 servants. He had a great work for them ; He had a great 
 preparation for them. They were, in fact, like expectant 
 soldiers in a training camp, getting ready for the cam- 
 paigning that was to be. Had these men, in their com- 
 plete ignorance of Asiatic character and conditions been 
 sent without training among Chinese in their own land, 
 they would have committed many sad blunders and laid 
 themselves open to the reprehension of Chinese officials. 
 
Introduction i^ 
 
 Therefore we see divine wisdom in locating them among 
 outside Chinese to get their preliminary schooling under 
 foreign rulership where the mandarins could not get at 
 them. 
 
 Among the missionaries, thus going to school outside, 
 there were such men as Milne, Medhurst, Dyer, Gutzlaff, 
 Bridgeman, S. Wells Williams, Dean, Goddard, the 
 Stronachs, Lockhart, Legge and Hepburn. These men 
 were among some of the bravest that have ever been in 
 China. Some of them were to be translators, some of 
 them were to be dictionary makers, some of them were 
 to be printers, some of them were to found hospitals and 
 some of them were to start printing presses. During all 
 this time they were in God's training school, getting ready 
 for the work they soon were to do. We speak of it here 
 to show the hand manifest in the preparation of mission 
 agencies at the various stages of the work. God prepares 
 His own tools as they may be needed. 
 
 The Second Period 
 {18^2-1860 — Ezghteeft Years) 
 
 It will be seen that now God's work was ready for an 
 advance. His servants had been trained and were all 
 ready. The war of 1842, usually called the Opium War, 
 was now on. When it was ended, five seaports were 
 opened in China at which missionaries were allowed to 
 reside, as well as merchants. As soon as the treaty was 
 signed, the missionaries came rushing in from the differ- 
 ent outposts where they were and established themselves 
 at Canton, at Amoy, at Fuchow, at Ningpo and at 
 Shanghai. 
 
 These eighteen years are filled with new and advanced 
 forms of work. The missionaries were now out of the 
 
l6 Introduction 
 
 training camp and in the battle-field. The Christian and 
 the Confucianist now began to measure their swords with 
 each other. Converts began to be made, but they were 
 few in number and brought with them a deal of trouble 
 and anxiety for the missionary, so that the chief char- 
 acteristics of the period were its infantile proportions and 
 kindergarten experiences. The missionaries had to learn 
 how to evangehze. They had also to meet with and 
 solve those initial problems always attendant upon the 
 putting off of an old faith and the putting on of a new 
 one. Some of these problems the missionary never had 
 at home; they included such things as polygamy, meats 
 offered to idols and enforced participation in idolatry, 
 such as Naaman said he would have when he attended 
 his master when he went to worship in the temple of his 
 God. This period was also taken up with the mutual 
 taking of measurements, the missionaries taking the 
 measure of the Chinese at home and the people of China 
 taking the measure of the missionaries. Much time had 
 also to be spent in providing facilities, like grammars and 
 lexicons, in settling upon and testing ecclesiastical and 
 theological terms, the latter of itself an indispensable 
 prerequisite to efficiency in missionary progress. Eight- 
 een years was none too long a time for all this. Indeed 
 the work was very much hurried as it was, but when it 
 was completed, it furnished another illustration of the 
 completeness of God's tutelage of His militant forces, and 
 now they were ready for the next period. 
 
 The Third Period 
 {i86o-i8g^ — Thirty-five years) 
 
 Hitherto the work had really been preparatory. The 
 reaping time was now to begin. The missionaries and 
 
Introduction 17 
 
 the Confucianists had carefully taken each other's 
 measure and they were now ready for the clutch. 
 
 The officials on their side had seen the peril looming 
 up in the distance, but they had been under no particular 
 apprehension as yet. Nevertheless a secret circular was 
 sent out by the noted Tseng Kwo Fan, a man of great 
 abihty. He saw the spirit of the missionaries and that it 
 would be very difficult to keep them down. Neverthe- 
 less he spoke disparagingly of them and their expecta- 
 tions. Christianity, he said, would never supplant Con- 
 fucianism. Their great sage, he declared, was un- 
 paralleled and unapproachable. At the same time the 
 officials all over the empire were told to be watchful. It 
 was soon made manifest that the missionaries were to 
 have a powerful influence against them. Missionaries 
 were to be resisted and foreigners were to be driven 
 back. Insidious but characteristic tactics were resorted 
 to. Mobs began to be stirred up. These mobs, if not 
 directly originating with the yamens, were soon found to 
 be stimulated by them. When foreign officials lodged 
 complaint of a violation of a treaty and demanded the 
 issuance of proper proclamations, the proclamations 
 were at once given in huge black letters, but at the same 
 time, a private circular would be sent to these officials, 
 to make it of no effect. 
 
 The common people soon came to understand the 
 state of the case. As a consequence, a mob-spirit be- 
 came rampant. This, therefore, was a period marked by 
 outrages on person, property and converts. Converts 
 were persecuted, missionaries were assaulted and driven 
 out of cities, where their houses were sacked and 
 burned. 
 
 And yet it became evident that the reaping had begun. 
 
i8 Introduction 
 
 Converts began to be multiplied and this notwithstanding 
 persecutions in violence. It was surprising how the 
 gospel began to grip many of the common people. In 
 some of the old missionary fields which had long been 
 considered barren, were now movements which be- 
 tokened the presence of the Spirit. Those old mission- 
 aries, some of whom had died without the sight, were 
 now found ready to make people prepared for the Lord. 
 In Fokien Province the inquirers soon became num- 
 bered by thousands and there were also thousands of 
 baptisms. Indeed the more the church was persecuted 
 the more it grew and prospered, as has always been the 
 case since Christianity began. Bunyan's allegory was 
 being fulfilled in China : a man dashing on water in 
 front to extinguish the flame and a man pouring in oil 
 behind to keep it going. 
 
 Not only in some of the old stations but also in some 
 of the new ones there were great awakenings, which to 
 heathen observers were inexplicable. In Formosa multi- 
 tudes began to turn to the Lord, and in Manchuria con- 
 verts commenced to come in by hundreds and by thou- 
 sands. The carts began to groan under the sheaves. 
 The outlook for Christianity became wonderfully promis- 
 ing. Others, both of the older fields and of the new 
 fields, began to have their trophies. China which so long 
 had been called a hard field, now began to be one of the 
 most hopeful. 
 
 There were, however, some heavy drawbacks. On the 
 one hand missionaries were severely criticised, but most 
 undeservedly, by some of the officials of their own 
 governments. Roman Catholic missionaries sought and 
 obtained a political status and recognition. Protestant 
 missionaries refused this status which was offered to them 
 
Introduction ig 
 
 as an offset, but they were blamed all the same. The 
 ambitions and the meddlesomeness of the Jesuit priests 
 were attributed to the Protestants. The latter suffered 
 heavily in consequence. Although they may have had 
 some indiscretions of their own and for which they were 
 willing to take rebuke, these were petty compared with 
 things attributed to them of which they were entirely 
 innocent. All the time the work went on. As of old 
 the walls were being built in troublous times. A con- 
 spicuous feature of this period was the starting of the 
 China Inland Mission by Hudson Taylor. The members 
 of this mission soon increased to hundreds. Their con- 
 verts were few at first, as was to be expected, for they 
 broke an entirely new ground. Before the period was 
 up, however, they too began to gather in converts, who 
 came like doves to their windows. 
 
 The greatest single event of this period was the con- 
 ference of all the missionaries in China, who met at 
 Shanghai. There were more than four hundred of them. 
 They spent two weeks together, three sessions a day, 
 comparing notes, telling experiences, discussing ways and 
 means and preparing for an advance movement all along 
 the line, in evangehzation, in education, in translation, 
 in printing and publishing, in medical work and in all the 
 subordinate branches of mission work. One of the 
 things they agreed upon was to send a call for five hun- 
 dred new missionaries, a daring stride of faith which has 
 since been justified by the results. The increase in 
 strength of tone, the broadening out of purpose 
 generated by that conference, was simply enormous. 
 The effect upon the Christian churches of Europe and 
 America was also enormous. In a subordinate degree a 
 similar effect was produced upon heathen China. Their 
 
20 Introduction 
 
 leaders, their viceroys, their governors and their taotais^ 
 wondered what it all meant with a stupefied wonder and 
 startled incredulity. 
 
 Another characteristic of this period was the effort of 
 the Chinese Government to gather itself together and to 
 become assertive against further foreign encroachments 
 and also to become progressive. The former manifested 
 itself in the formation of a fleet of war vessels, com- 
 menced under Mr. Horatio N. Lay, the general inspector 
 of customs, and carried on under the present general in- 
 spector, Mr. Hart. There was also a grand beginning 
 made in a commercial marine. An account of these 
 things belongs rather, but not wholly, to political history. 
 On that account further mention of them at present can 
 be omitted, though the influence and development of 
 China have been great. 
 
 The Fourth Period 
 [iSg^-igoy — Twelve Years) 
 
 This has been the culminating period, a period in 
 which all the influences, foreign and domestic, emanating 
 from China's relation to foreign nations, were brought to 
 a head. That was the harvest time of the ages. The 
 events which followed have been portentous and tre- 
 mendous. Leading off was the Boxer Movement, a 
 spasmodic and fruitless attempt to drive out foreigners. 
 Then there was the reform movement, headed by the 
 sons of viceroys and high officials and even the emperor 
 himself. It was attended also with a relegation into the 
 background of the young emperor himself and of the 
 assumption again of power by the empress dowager. 
 Since then the whole nation has been staggering to and 
 fro like a drunken man. It is, however, beginning to 
 
Introduction 2 1 
 
 get steady on its feet and is destined to become a political 
 power in Asia, a vast factor in the industrial world and a 
 looming personality in the rehgious world. Latterly, 
 the reform movement, which seemed for a time to have 
 been killed, has developed a new Hfe, and taken vast 
 strides to the front, strides that are almost inconceivable, 
 and but a quarter of a century ago would have been un- 
 believable. Foot-binding has received its death-blow. 
 The vice of opium smoking has been taken in hand and 
 in the end will be throttled. The old examination sys- 
 tem has been dethroned and a new one has started in its 
 place. A postal system has been inaugurated. Rail- 
 roads have been projected from north to south and east 
 to west covering thousand of miles. Religiously, China 
 has shown signs of breaking with the past. To be sure, 
 she has recently apotheosized Confucius by imperial de- 
 cree. But as a matter of fact this, too, is a concession 
 to the power and influence of Christianity. Christian 
 students who are very assertive are becoming numerous. 
 They take the ground that they can worship God only, 
 whereas Confucius was but a man. In their parblindness 
 they have said, " Well, then, we will exalt Confucius to a 
 place among the gods and your scruples will be done 
 away with." This elevation of their sage is but a pre- 
 cursor to his fall. An eagle takes an oyster high up 
 into the air in order to let it fall heavily upon the rock 
 and break the shell. So will it be with this assumption of 
 divinity. 
 
 The miUions of China are on the move. They are 
 awake only in parts, still dozing, many of them, and still 
 rubbing their eyes ; others of them, looking around with 
 dazed countenances and wondering where they are going 
 next. Where will the head of the Chinese column be 
 
22 Introduction 
 
 twenty-five years from now ? Where will it be fifty 
 years from now ? 
 
 The writer of this introduction would include a word 
 of appreciation of the work Mr. Speicher is doing in 
 Kityang. The field he occupies is magnificent. He is 
 cultivating it with uncommon skill and with great suc- 
 cess, and is developing to an unusual degree the graces 
 and the resources of the members. It is one of the 
 gratifications of the present writer that he is permitted 
 to have so trustworthy a successor to whom to commit 
 the work started by him and carried on in its early devel- 
 opment with blundering steps and blinding tears. Many 
 saints have already gone on, and multitudes more will 
 follow with the years to come. A goodly and paying 
 heritage has the American Baptist Missionary Union in 
 that Kityang mission field. 
 
 William Ashmore, D. D. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The contents of this book represent twenty of the 
 thirty-two lectures which the writer deHvered at the 
 Theological Seminary of Colgate University while oc- 
 cupying the lectureship in Practical Missions. 
 
 The aim of the author has been not so much to record 
 what the foreign missionary societies are accomplishing 
 through their representatives on the foreign field as to 
 make clear the inherent power of the small local churches 
 scattered throughout the vast empire of China. These 
 spiritual centres are the most powerful factors in hasten- 
 ing the enlightenment and moral regeneration of China 
 to-day. The Chinese need proof at this time that the 
 Christian religion is not necessarily a foreign religion, 
 but that it can be, and in fact has become, indigenous. 
 To accompHsh this the native leadership must be en- 
 couraged. It has been the aim of the writer to place 
 the responsibilities of their own work upon the Chinese 
 churches, their preachers and evangelists, and in addition 
 to this to urge them to carry on aggressive mission work 
 in a new district entirely under their own control. The 
 results have proved conclusively to the writer that the 
 Chinese Christians can to a large degree be entrusted 
 with the responsibilities and duties of their own work 
 and that they have spiritual gifts which make them 
 trusted leaders in the evangelization of the Chinese 
 people. Progressive missionary work should and must 
 lead to these things. The foreign missionary is only a 
 temporary factor in China's evangelization and the sooner 
 
 23 
 
24 Preface 
 
 the native churches are able and willing to raise thousands 
 of dollars for the evangelization of their fellow country- 
 men, and the sooner the best men of the native church 
 consider it an honour to enter new mission fields with a 
 holy zeal to evangelize the people, then the nearer we 
 shall be to the consummation of our ideals. 
 
 With a definite aim in view the writer was compelled 
 to omit a number of important topics originally consid- 
 ered in the course of lectures. Thus the educational 
 phase of the Christian church in China, a subject worthy 
 of a book itself, the creation of a Christian literature, 
 and other important departments of foreign missionary 
 work, could not find space. 
 
 The author is under deep obligation to Rev. Stacy R. 
 Warburton, assistant editor of the Baptist Missiojiary 
 Magazine and formerly a fellow missionary in South 
 China, for his great kindness in undertaking the work of 
 proofreading, of selecting the illustrations and seeing 
 the book through the press. 
 
 Thanks are also due to the owners of the illustrations 
 used. 
 
 If God uses this book to quicken the interest in foreign 
 missions the author will feel that the period of his fur- 
 lough was not spent in vain. 
 
 J.S. 
 
 On Board the «' Nippon Marui'' 
 October iS^ igo6. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 CHINESE PEOPLE 
 
 I. China, Her Country and Her People. 
 
 II. China and the Problem of the Far East. 
 
 III. A Review of Christian Missions in China. 
 
 IV. The Domestic Political Situation in China at 
 
 THE Present Time. 
 
 V. The Power of Superstition and Demonology 
 
 over the Minds of the Chinese. 
 
 VI. How THE Chinese are Brought Into the King- 
 
 dom. 
 
The 
 Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 CHINA, HER COUNTRY AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 China, the storm-centre of the conflicts of the civihzed 
 powers of this generation, is one of the chosen territories 
 of this earth. The Chinese people, Hving in such a land, 
 could not help becoming a mighty nation and drawing 
 upon themselves the attention of the nations of the world. 
 The territory of China is in many respects similar to the 
 territory of the United States of America. There, as 
 here, we find a seacoast thousands of miles in length, 
 with great commercial cities clustered about the impor- 
 tant harbours, the latter large enough to receive the 
 fleets of all the nations of the world. Some of the high- 
 est mountains on earth are to be found in the western 
 part of the empire, from which flow mighty streams east- 
 ward, coursing through the very heart of the nation in 
 their sweep to the sea. Then again, the climate of China 
 is as varied as that of our country. There are vast re- 
 gions that are hilly and even mountainous, but also plains 
 which are more densely populated than any other part of 
 the world. Here is suggested one of the peculiar traits 
 of the Chinese. Fifteen thousand of them can live 
 crowded together in hamlets and villages, subsisting 
 
 27 
 
28 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 wholly on the products of their own fields, within a 
 territory that would be too narrow for 5,000 Europeans 
 and certainly too congested for 500 Americans. Im- 
 agine 383,000,000 of Americans, mostly all tillers of the 
 soil, living in the states east of the Mississippi and south 
 of the Arkansas Rivers ! The Chinese do it, and there 
 are large tracts of land still uninhabited. 
 
 From whence are the Chinese people? When they 
 arrived in the land where they live at present they found 
 a brown coloured race, the Miao Tze, living in most parts 
 of the country. It seems to be the general opinion that 
 the Chinese originally emigrated from the southwestern 
 part of Asia, and crossing the desert in the central part 
 of the continent finally settled along the Yellow River. 
 There are evidences that they belong to the Babylonian 
 stock. One scholar has even been able to lay down a 
 series of phonetic laws showing the growth of the Chi- 
 nese language out of the ancient Babylonian. The Chi- 
 nese themselves have little knowledge of their origin, but 
 from their traditions and legends it would appear that 
 they entered China and settled in the territory now 
 known as the province of Shensi over 4,000 years ago. 
 Nor did they all come at the same time. It is likely that 
 one tribe followed another, the late-comers pushing the 
 foremost onward until the seacoast was reached and the 
 aborigines driven out. 
 
 Chinese history may be divided into five periods : 
 (i) the Mythological, (2) the Legendary, (3) the Ancient 
 or Classical, (4) the Medieval or Traditional and (5) the 
 Modern or Reform. 
 
 The Mythological Period can interest us only in so far 
 as it reveals the attitude of mind of the ancient Chinese 
 towards the problems of the universe and of life. The 
 
Her Country and Her People 29 
 
 ancients assign myriads of years to this period, and try 
 in an anthropomorphic manner to explain the creation of 
 the universe and of nature. 
 
 The Legendary Period, beginning about 2900 b. c. and 
 continuing until 1 1 22 b. c, has as its background the 
 country through which the Yellow River winds its course. 
 The feudal kings of this age were powerful men of heroic 
 deeds and the legends connected with them remind one 
 of the stories and folk-lore of ancient peoples of Europe. 
 
 The Ancient or Classical Period begins with the reign 
 of the Chou Dynasty in b. c. 11 22 and ends with the 
 later Han Dynasty in 225 a. d. From this period on- 
 ward the history of the Chinese people is based upon 
 trustworthy records. Lao Tsze, Confucius and Mencius 
 were of this period. As teachers they still exert the 
 greatest influence upon the whole nation. The books of 
 Confucius have been the classics of the people, and 
 as we shall see, constitute the foundation of Chinese 
 civilization. During the early part of this period — the 
 Chou Dynasty — the power of the emperor was merely 
 nominal, as the empire was only a loose aggregation of 
 feudal states. This feudal system continued down to 
 B. c. 220, when a tyrant calling himself the First Emperor 
 and founding the Dynasty of Chin, overthrew the entire 
 political system, and in order to prevent the revival of 
 feudalism ordered all the classical books of the ancients 
 to be destroyed. He succeeded in destroying feudalism 
 in China for all time, but failed in his attempt to destroy 
 the Confucian books. The Great Wall was built by this 
 ruler. The Han Dynasty, b. c. 255-A. d. 204, is con- 
 sidered by the Chinese as the Golden Age of their civili- 
 zation ; the people still delight to call themselves " Sons 
 of Han." 
 
30 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 The Medieval or Traditional Period was chiefly char- 
 acterized by the slavish adherence of all the dynasties and 
 rulers to the models and ideals of the ancients. Begin- 
 ning with the passing away of the Three Kingdoms, 
 A. D. 265, this period continues until the close of the 
 Ming Dynasty, 1644 a. d. During the reign of the 
 famous Tang and Sung Dynasties, moral philosophy was 
 followed by a few sages. The coins of the Sung Dy- 
 nasty, 960-1280., A. D., show evidence of prosperity at 
 that time, great care being taken to produce beautiful 
 specimens of coins. The reign of the MongoHan Dy- 
 nasty was a distinct disaster to the welfare of the Chinese 
 people. The latter, however, were able to drive the 
 Mongols out of China proper after a reign of eighty-eight 
 years. 
 
 The Ming Dynasty, known for its codification of laws, 
 failed after a reign of 276 years and was displaced by the 
 Manchus, who have ruled over the destinies of China 
 ever since. This Modern Period may be characterized 
 as the period of interchange of commerce, political ideas 
 and sciences with Western nations. The Manchurian 
 Dynasty has reluctantly granted the right to foreigners 
 to enter China. Nor are the Manchus persuaded 
 that for China to follow in the footsteps of Western 
 nations should be considered a wise pohcy. Many 
 Chinese officials look upon reform as a necessary 
 evil, to be adopted simply for the sake of self-preserva- 
 tion and to be laid aside as soon as the pressing danger 
 has ceased. 
 
 The government of China may be called a patriarchal 
 despotism. The emperor is the " Son of Heaven " and 
 the father of the people. His power theoretically is un- 
 limited. The nation is held together by no constitution 
 
Her Country and Her People 31 
 
 or congress or even code of laws. Far more powerful 
 than all these in its cohesive results is the observance of 
 the customs of the ancients by the dynasty. It would 
 be impossible for any ruler to occupy the throne of the 
 Dragon were he to ignore these customs. For example, 
 one of the cherished institutions has been the civil service 
 examination, in which the most humble boy could com- 
 pete with the richest for the highest honours and through 
 which he could become a powerful factor in the life of the 
 nation. It is undoubtedly true that the civil service ex- 
 amination has been as a safety-valve, providing a career 
 for all ambitious men who, but for the prospects held out 
 to them of becoming leaders of the people, might use 
 their talents against the government. Thus while on the 
 one hand the system of civil service has helped the gov- 
 ernment to get the very best men of the empire as its 
 loyal agents, It has also protected the people from being 
 governed by incompetent men who have been appointed 
 only because they happen to be relatives of the emperor. 
 Theoretically, every government official is supposed to 
 have passed the civil service examinations and to have 
 proved himself among the best of his fellow candidates. 
 The provisions made for the salaries of these officials are 
 utterly inadequate and insufficient. Under the ancient 
 methods employed, the magistrates and higher officials 
 are forced to resort to " graft " in its worst form in order 
 to be able to meet the demands made upon them by their 
 superiors. All government positions are supposed to be 
 the reward of faithful service. The truth is that the posi- 
 tions are bought and sold with a very definite price for a 
 limited period. The official at any given place cannot 
 make the welfare of the people his prime object even if 
 he desires to do so. His appointment is only for one 
 
32 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 year, or, in rare cases, for three years. This itinerating 
 of the whole official class keeps them constantly on the 
 watch to " squeeze " money from the public in order that 
 at the close of the year they may have a safe balance 
 with which to buy a new position. " No money, no 
 official position" is a political axiom in China! And 
 yet the officials grow rich. The magistrate of Kityang 
 is obliged to pay from ^60,000 to ;^70,ooo silver in ad- 
 vance for his position for one year. During the past ten 
 years nine officials have succeeded one another in this 
 post, all of whom, except one who was dismissed during 
 the first four months of his term, have made from ;^50,ooo 
 to ;^70,ooo profit. 
 
 This is practically the condition throughout the whole 
 land of China. It is the old method of ancient times, 
 great satraps paying a certain amount for the privilege of 
 extorting money out of the people of a given district. 
 The Manchu rulers may not be much worse than the 
 rulers of former dynasties, but the world has advanced, 
 making the antiquated methods of China appear unrea- 
 sonable and impossible to the enlightened Western mind. 
 But the man of the West needs to use judgment and dis- 
 crimination when he undertakes to judge Chinese cus- 
 toms and institutions. We continually make the mistake 
 of judging Chinese civilization according to the standards 
 of the West. On the other hand, the Chinese in their 
 narrowness and ignorance make their own civilization the 
 criterion for our Western civilization. Thus the East and 
 the West continue to misunderstand each other. To the 
 average Occidental the Chinese civilization is an impossi- 
 ble one. To the Chinese our Western civilization appears 
 to lay more emphasis on the material and mechanical 
 than on other things which are more important. Each 
 
Her Country and Her People 33 
 
 fails to understand the motives of the other. Only many 
 years' residence in the Far East can enable one to make 
 proper allowance for the eccentricities and unusual cus- 
 toms of a distinct race. Such a one will be slow in ex- 
 pressing his convictions too strongly, or condemning 
 institutions and customs too readily. 
 
 China in Appearance and Reality 
 To the new arrival in China the sights and scenes that 
 greet him are likely at first to fill him with disgust and 
 repulsion against the inhabitants. Imagine, if you can, 
 the state of your feelings as you leave your beautiful 
 ocean steamer to take your first glimpses of China at close 
 range by entering a Chinese city. Of the coolies work- 
 ing about the wharves ninety-nine out of a hundred are 
 almost wholly divested of clothing. As you enter the 
 main thoroughfare swine obstruct your way. You step 
 to one side and immediately you are ordered to get out 
 of the way by some peasant coming up behind you ; and 
 as he passes by on a trot you see that he is conducting a 
 private excavating company with open buckets. A few 
 paces up the street you meet a band of lepers in all their 
 filth and squalor, who follow you crying for alms. Right 
 and left you see men and boys sitting on the streets gam- 
 bling, but they are so interested in their game that the 
 sight of a foreigner does not affect them. You notice 
 that every little while, as you continue your walk, the 
 foul odour of an opium-den offends your nostrils. You 
 meet a company of literary scholars, dressed in fine silk 
 gowns and carrying fans in their hands (the badge of 
 distinction), who as they pass give you a condescending 
 look. Could you understand what they are saying it 
 would not make you feel flattered. Further on you hear 
 
34 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the clanging of the cymbals and the noise of a cryer call- 
 ing out at the top of his voice the fact that the magistrate 
 is coming. The street is only six feet wide at the most 
 so you hastily step in at the door of some store or shop 
 to make room for the procession. Presently the magis- 
 trate passes by, sitting in a large sedan chair carried by 
 a number of coolies, and followed by a retinue of fifty or 
 one hundred young men and lads dressed in the most 
 comical ragamuffin style ever conceived. 
 
 These and other sights will greet you during your first 
 hour of sightseeing in a large Chinese city. And what 
 are your impressions ? You are in a state of bewilder- 
 ment. You want to see more of it in order to under- 
 stand it all, but the price on the nervous system is too 
 great. Your globe-trotter does not want a second dose ; 
 he gives his readers the benefit of his first impres- 
 sions. 
 
 And yet China has another story to tell, but it is only 
 to him who will settle down to life in the interior. There 
 he will gradually come to understand the simplicity of 
 the humble lives of these miUions. They represent an 
 obsolete civilization, and yet one finds that they have 
 strong moral characteristics that speak of the glories of 
 China's great past. But a close investigation of their his- 
 tory does not indicate that they ever stood upon a much 
 higher plane of material prosperity than is known among 
 them at the present time. True, they point with pride to 
 the period of Yao and Shun as the ideal of all imperial 
 dignity and virtues. But we must remember that this 
 period is somewhat uncertain, having only tradition for 
 its foundation. At that time, also, the Chinese were just 
 emerging from a semi-barbaric state. Hence much al- 
 lowance must be made before we can place much reliance 
 
Her Country and Her People 35 
 
 on the story of China's ancient material prosperity. In 
 morals, too, the past is exalted. It is said, for example, 
 that during the period of the Han Dynasty the people 
 were absolutely honest. Any article lost upon the public 
 highways would lie in the same spot until the owner re- 
 turned to pick it up. We confess that the moral integrity 
 of the Chinese must have been far greater than it is to- 
 day. And doubtless it is true that their civil service ex- 
 aminations for public office were maintained honestly for 
 a long time after they were introduced, in the time of the 
 Han Dynasty, 255 b. c. 
 
 Some Ancient Discoveries by the Chinese 
 It is not surprising at all that a people whose history 
 dates back to the time of some of the oldest races of 
 humanity, should have made a number of discoveries that 
 have proved valuable to mankind. The Chinese are not 
 now noted for their inventive turn of mind, but being 
 eminently practical it was inevitable that during so many 
 centuries of civilization they should accumulate quite a 
 number of inventions. The art of printing was discovered 
 as early as 117 A. d.; although it was not until the eighth 
 century that book-making was attempted for public use. 
 The compass was used by the Chinese ambassadors who 
 were sent to the southern parts of Asia as early as 
 iioo B. c. Its first use was in travelling overland, and 
 only later did sailors make use of it. 
 
 It is also maintained that the Chinese discovered the 
 making of gunpowder, silk, paper and porcelain. In the 
 realm of science the Chinese possessed a smattering of 
 astronomy, mathematics and physics about a thousand 
 years before our Christian era, although they never de- 
 veloped these studies to any degree. 
 
36 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Chinese Literature 
 
 The Chinese must be ranked among the foremost 
 nations of the ancient world in the field of literary pro- 
 duction. Confucius, in b. c. 55 ^> compiled his works 
 from ancient writings which had been handed down to 
 his generation. He was therefore a transmitter rather 
 than an original producer. He eliminated all undesirable 
 elements and selected only that which he considered 
 profitable. There are some doubts as to whether the 
 present writings represent the genuine labours of Con- 
 fucius. The reactionary movement of Shih Huang-ti, 
 B.C. 255, against the books of Confucius because they 
 depicted the life of the earlier Chow Dynasty was too 
 radical for the people and his dynasty came to an end in 
 B.C. 207 and the great Han Dynasty was established. The 
 rulers of this new dynasty at once collected all the works 
 and writings of Confucius. Rewards were offered for the 
 old manuscripts that had been hidden for nearly fifty 
 years. Aged scholars tried to reproduce certain parts of 
 the classics from their prodigious memories. The inevi- 
 table result was that much apocryphal matter was intro- 
 duced. This is practically conceded to-day by the Chi- 
 nese scholars, yet for all that, to the mind of the Chinese 
 the writings have not thereby lost any of their value. 
 
 The most important of the works of Confucius are the 
 Shi King or the Book of Odes, the Shu King or the Book 
 of Documents, the Li Ki or the Book of Ritual, the Yih 
 King or Book of Changes and the Chun Tsiu or Book 
 of Annals. The latter is said to be the original produc- 
 tion of Confucius himself. It would take us too far from 
 our subject to attempt an estimate of each of these books. 
 Some of the best poetic productions from the Book of Odes, 
 representing the social life of the Chinese about 1000 b. c, 
 
Her Country and Her People 37 
 
 are given by Dr. J. C. Gibson in his valuable book on 
 " Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South 
 China." Dr. W. A. P. Martin's interesting book en- 
 titled " The Lore of Cathay " gives also much informa- 
 tion regarding the above books. Mencius, the interpreter 
 of Confucius, is by far the most interesting author of the 
 ancient Chinese. He lived about two centuries after his 
 great master and his influence on the scholars of China is 
 only second to that of Confucius. The Chinese have had 
 their quota of philosophers and poets who have helped 
 to enlarge their literature. The classics are noted for 
 conciseness of statement, which makes it a difficult task 
 to the translator to give the full meaning in a similar 
 short sentence. Their literature is of a high moral tone 
 and represents the best of their ancient civilization. 
 
 The Chinese from a Religious Point of View 
 It is undoubtedly true that the rehgious conceptions of 
 the Chinese people were much higher and more spiritual in 
 the early part of their history than during the later 
 periods. The ancient writings often allude to a supreme 
 being, who not only rules over the destinies of all human 
 beings but is righteous and benevolent in all his actions. 
 The modern Chinese conception of their gods, however, 
 has drifted far from this lofty truth. It is indeed an open 
 question whether it is safe to maintain that the worship 
 of this supreme being was really the worship of the only 
 and true God. In olden times this God, called by the 
 Chinese Shiang Ti or Supreme God, was offered sacri- 
 fices and homage by kings and emperors, who acted as 
 high priests for the people. This worship is continued 
 to this day by the emperor, who once every year 
 offers sacrifice to Shiang Ti. Several forms of prayer 
 
38 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 offered by ancient kings at the time of offering sacrifices 
 to the Supreme Deity have been handed down to us and 
 they prove conclusively that the farther back we go, the 
 clearer conception of the spiritual we find the Chinese to 
 have. The impress of Confucius has erased all that, 
 however. He deliberately suppressed all subjective feel- 
 ing in rehgion and gave the subject consideration only 
 in the form of elaborate ritual and ceremonies as applied 
 to state officials. Being of a practical turn of mind, he 
 eliminated all speculation regarding man's hereafter and 
 appHed himself the more to a rigorous system of ethics, 
 which found its highest development in filial piety. An- 
 cestor worship, which to-day is an integral part of the 
 Confucian system, was not in ancient times the rigid 
 system it is to-day. 
 
 With the introduction of the tablet, upon which the 
 name of the ancestor was written (perhaps 200 b, c), an- 
 cestor worship became an iron-clad system. It would be 
 difficult to exaggerate the influence of this institution 
 over the lives of the Chinese. In certain parts of South 
 China, during the early months of spring all the male 
 inhabitants visit the graves of their chief ancestor. It is 
 a reunion of the clan. At such a time we may see the 
 aristocratic mandarin, home for a short visit from a far 
 distant province, a respectable number of literati, mer- 
 chants from various parts of the empire, artisans and 
 peasants, the rich and the poor, the mighty and the 
 humble, — one great family gathered around the grave of 
 their common ancestor, who may have departed this life 
 500 or 1,000 years ago. A stranger is out of place on 
 such an occasion. The faithful worshippers have brought 
 with them a number of slaughtered swine, goats, chick- 
 ens, geese, etc., to offer to the departed spirit. They 
 
THE -FU-TSI-MIAO," 
 or Confucian Temple at Nanking 
 
 BUDDHIST TEMPLE ON ISLAND OF PU-TI, 
 
 The most sacred place in Chinese Buddhism 
 
Her Country and Her People 39 
 
 spend the larger part of the day at the grave feasting 
 and debating regarding the welfare of the clan. Before 
 they leave, they cover the grave with gold paper and 
 burn paper models of articles used in life, on the suppo- 
 sition that the spirit will thus be suppHed with all the 
 necessities of its existence. This yearly gathering is in 
 a sense the most important event of the year. A man 
 is judged according to the enthusiasm he shows for the 
 maintenance of this worship. In case a family removes 
 to a distant place far from their original home, where it 
 is impossible to make this filial visit, they are then per- 
 mitted to erect a tablet and as they become prosperous 
 are expected to build an ancestral hall. The result of 
 Confucianism upon the life of the nation has been to 
 lessen the significance of the individual and to emphasize 
 the family and clan. The family submits to the clan as 
 the individual submits to the head of the family. The 
 result is that the individual does not feel the moral re- 
 sponsibihty of his action ; he is but the expression of the 
 will of the clan. The clan will stand by him under all 
 circumstances if he does its will. 
 
 Taoism, or the Teaching of Lao Tsze 
 Lao Tsze was fifty- four years old when Confucius was 
 born. He Hved to be one hundred and spent nearly the 
 whole of his life in the territory which is now known as 
 Honan Province. The doctrine of Lao Tsze, or Tao Teh 
 as it is called, is the basis of the Taoist religion, but has 
 been so overlaid and misinterpreted by his followers that 
 Taoism of to-day bears no resemblance to its original 
 source. Instead of seeking after the great mystery of 
 Being, the Cause of all things, the followers of Lao Tsze 
 spent their time wholly in geomancy, superstition and 
 
40 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 fortune-telling. It ceased many centuries ago to be a 
 moral force in the life of the nation. It would be an 
 absolute waste of effort to try to harmonize the present 
 form of Taoism with the ancient writings of Lao Tsze. 
 I have selected a few examples of the lofty thought of 
 this ancient sage, from Dr. Heysinger's book entitled 
 " The Light of China." 
 
 RETURNING TO PURITY 
 If men would lay aside their holiness 
 
 And wisdom, they would gain a hundredfold. 
 And if benevolence and righteousness, 
 
 Parental care and filial love would hold. 
 If they would drop their cleverness and gain, 
 
 Robbers would cease to trouble, as of old. 
 
 Here are three things where decorating fails; 
 
 Let them again embrace reality : 
 Let them restore the purity of old. 
 
 Let them return to their simplicity, 
 Curb selfishness, diminish their desires, 
 
 And in the genuine find felicity. 
 
 PURE VIRTUE 
 In centuries of old the men who used the light 
 
 Of the Tao ti its goodness were not blinded ; 
 They used to practice it, not to make the people bright. 
 
 But better still, to make them simple-minded. 
 
 TRUE FAITH 
 
 There is nothing weaker than water. 
 
 Or easier to efface, 
 But for attacking the hard and the strong 
 
 Nothing can take its place. 
 
 We need not wonder that the uneducated followers did 
 not understand his lofty views and that superstition and 
 magic resulted. There is to-day an acknowledged head 
 
Her Country and Her People 41 
 
 of the Taoist religion, often called the Pope of Taoism, 
 who is officially recognized by the Chinese Government. 
 It is to Taoism that the Chinese are indebted for the 
 system of " fung shui," which if translated means only 
 " wind water," but this system of geomancy controls 
 the fortunes and destinies of men in every sphere of life. 
 By the configuration of hills, the courses of rivers, the 
 contour of the grave, " fung shui " controls every im- 
 portant act of the Chinese. The entire nation submits 
 to this superstition without protest. The proud Con- 
 fucianist may have nothing to do with the ignorant 
 Taoist priests, but we have yet to find the first one to 
 ignore the rules of " fung shui." It has extraordinary 
 hold upon the nation, and is one of the greatest forces 
 in opposition to progress in China. As the source of 
 "fung shui," Taoism cannot be said to have any re- 
 deeming feature whatever. 
 
 Buddhism 
 Buddhism, originally a popular religion in India, dis- 
 appeared from the land of its birth in the fifth century. 
 It has been transplanted to Ceylon, Burma, Siam, China 
 and Japan, and has undergone great changes. When 
 Buddhism was introduced into China by invitation of the 
 Han emperor Ming, A. d. 61, it found two so-called re- 
 ligions preoccupying the field : on the one hand the ma- 
 terialism of Confucius and on the other the absurd super- 
 stitions of Taoism. The cry of the soul for something 
 higher, which found expression in this invitation to Bud- 
 dhism, was the direct result of the mistake of Confucius 
 in failing to rekindle the ancient faith in the one true 
 God— the Shiang Ti, the Supreme Ruler. To the an- 
 cients the faith in Shiang Ti was a real factor of life ; to 
 
42 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Confucius it amounted to the empty question of rites and 
 ceremonies. This proved insufficient for the spiritual 
 needs of the people, as was quite natural. To the Chi- 
 nese the truths of Buddhism came as a gospel of hope, 
 teaching that immortaUty is man's inahenable inheritance, 
 as well as that of every sentient creature ; that all are 
 connected by the links of an endless chain, moving on- 
 ward in unceasing procession, on either an ascending or 
 a descending scale ; that the reality of the next stage of 
 being is more certain than the existence of the material 
 objects by which we are surrounded ; that the soul is an 
 immaterial essence, which the transformations of matter 
 have no power to destroy ; and finally that the weal or 
 woe of the future life depends upon the conduct of each 
 individual during this present state of probation. Let us 
 forget for a moment that we possess a far higher revela- 
 tion than Buddhism and try to picture to ourselves with 
 what joy these new and profound religious thoughts must 
 have been received by the people. We need not wonder 
 that Buddhism at once took a place coequal with the two 
 other religions. The practical Chinese saw that they 
 could follow the ethical teachings of Confucius and hold 
 to some of the views of Taoism, and accept such portions 
 also of Buddhism as satisfied their spiritual nature. We 
 have therefore to this day the strange anomaly of one 
 person holding to all three religions. The government 
 of China, however, has often denounced both Taoist and 
 Buddhist religions. Especially can this be said of the 
 present dynasty. The powerful Emperor Khang Hsi 
 (1662- 1 72 3 A. D.) in a royal proclamation issued sixteen 
 maxims, in which he warned the people from the folly of 
 accepting any other teaching than that of the great Con- 
 fucius. " Degrade," says he, " the strange religions in 
 
Her Country and Her People 43 
 
 order to exalt the true doctrine." The same was done 
 by Yung Cheng. Buddhism is despised by the educated 
 Chinese and has lost much of its vigour in the lives of 
 the common people. 
 
 The Social Life of the Chinese 
 In order to obtain a proper conception of the social 
 life of the Chinese let us enter as it were one of the 
 many villages of that great empire. Rev. Arthur H. 
 Smith, D. D., claims that over two-thirds of all the people 
 live in villages. The Chinese have remained largely an 
 agricultural people, for the inhabitants of these thousands 
 of villages are dependent upon the products of their own 
 fields. There are no extensive manufactories. We 
 notice as we approach a village that their houses are 
 crowded together into a very small area and that their 
 fields, divided into small parcels, lie close to the four sides 
 of the village. As we approach along the main road, 
 not more than three feet wide, we notice that the fields 
 are perfectly level for many acres and covered with water 
 to a depth of three or four inches. The small plots of 
 ground, not more than one-sixth of an acre each, have 
 been carefully planted with rice, which in South China 
 is planted in preference to everything else if conditions 
 admit. Along the slopes of the hills, where irrigation is 
 impossible, sugar cane and sweet potatoes are grown in 
 large quantities. The rice-fields are usually connected 
 with some waterway, a river or canal. During a dry 
 season the whole population may be seen at work pump- 
 ing water into these rice-fields to save the rice crop. 
 After harvesting two crops of rice, many peasants of 
 South China plant a third crop, during the early winter 
 months, or wheat or vegetables may be planted. The 
 
44 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Chinese can get greater results at each harvest than our 
 American farmers do. When we remember that they 
 secure two and three such crops every year we see in 
 part why they are able to live in such congested centres. 
 Had the Chinese developed all branches of their civiliza- 
 tion as they have the branch of agriculture, they would 
 to-day stand foremost among the nations of the earth. 
 
 As we enter the village, we notice that their houses 
 are almost without exception one-story structures, built 
 of concrete or in many instances only of mud bricks. 
 The roofs of the houses are substantially built, made of 
 burnt tiles that withstand the wear and tear of many 
 years. We notice also that the doors of all the houses 
 in the entire village face towards the south, and we learn 
 that this is due to the local law of " fung shui." There 
 are no windows on the north side of the houses. Such a 
 provision for ventilation would be simply ruinous. It 
 would be only inviting the evil spirits, coming in and 
 passing out, to play havoc with the good luck and peace 
 of the whole family. To prevent them from entering 
 straight into their homes, the doors of the houses have 
 been set as obliquely into the walls as possible. Even 
 the road leading to the village is a constant zigzag, for it 
 would be destruction to a village to have a straight road 
 leading directly into it ! 
 
 The average family occupies two or three rooms. In 
 the middle one may be found the ancestor tablet, placed in 
 the most conspicuous location. There may be an idol in 
 the room also. Apart from a common table and rude 
 wooden chairs and a few farming implements the room 
 offers nothing attractive for the eye. We do notice the 
 black cobwebs hanging from the rafters in the roof. On 
 both sides of this room are small doors that lead to the 
 
Her Country and Her People 45 
 
 side rooms. One is the sleeping room, where the whole 
 family, parents and three or four small children, sleep in 
 one bed under the same blanket or quilt. On the other 
 side is the black, smoked-stained kitchen, containing a 
 fireplace and earthenware cooking utensils. This kitchen 
 is often partitioned off so as to give quarters for the 
 water-buffalo, also a member of the family, a clumsy ani- 
 mal used for plowing the fields and turning the crushing 
 stones of the sugar-mills during the winter season. 
 
 If it has been our good fortune to come to this village 
 on invitation, we shall undoubtedly find a feast prepared 
 in our honour. The host, perhaps the head-man of the 
 village, the most worthy and in many cases the most 
 wealthy, will come out to meet us. He is dressed in 
 holiday attire, with silk gowns and high boots. On his 
 hat we notice the official button, which denotes distinc- 
 tion. He will lead us to one of the side rooms connected 
 with the ancestral hall and within a few minutes the 
 almost naked children of the village will crowd into the 
 room to watch us eat. After some delay the time for 
 the feast has come. The host with a deep bow comes to 
 the oldest or most distinguished of our party and invites 
 him to take the seat of honour. To the initiated, how- 
 ever, this is the time to protest and to ask others of the 
 party to occupy the first seat at the table. The protest 
 is expected to be kept up until one is dragged and 
 pushed along to the chair. Then mine host offers the 
 second most distinguished of our party the second place 
 of honour. If the guest has good taste he will also pro- 
 test and ask others to occupy the place of position ; and 
 will not desist until dragged and pushed into his place. 
 This method is carried out until the very last man is 
 seated, and it often takes some time to get eight men 
 
46 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 seated about the table. Now a Chinese feast is an elab- 
 orate affair. Oftentimes as many as twenty or thirty 
 courses of food are served before it is concluded. Eight 
 persons usually sit together at a table on such an occa- 
 sion. The food, cut up into small portions, is placed in 
 a dish in the centre of the table. There are no individ- 
 ual plates for the guests ; each person by the use of the 
 two chopsticks is to help himself from the central dish. 
 A feast on such an occasion would consist of such deli- 
 cacies as bird's-nests, the fin of the shark, the bladder of 
 the cod, frog legs, slugs, shrimps and so forth. As soon 
 as the feast is over all the guests are expected to express 
 their compUments in a few chosen words and take their 
 leave. There is no sociability after a Chinese feast. 
 Every man has his own burden and has all he can do to 
 take care of himself. Should it happen to be night by 
 this time, the host will provide each guest with a guide 
 carrying a road-lantern to light him to his abode. The 
 matter of guide and lantern is a necessity, for travelling 
 by night in China is a very risky undertaking. There 
 are no public lights and you must have your own light 
 or run the risk of falling frequently into the muddy rice 
 fields. 
 
 The people living in the villages retire very early. As 
 we pass out we see very few lights and were we to in- 
 quire why these lights are still burning we should learn 
 that they indicate the abodes of gamblers or opium 
 smokers. 
 
 The organization of the village is very simple. Every 
 village has one or several head-men who are held respon- 
 sible to the government officials for the good behaviour 
 of the people and the regular payment of the taxes of the 
 entire village. If any crime is committed by a member 
 
Her Country and Her People 47 
 
 of the village community, the head-men at once become 
 the responsible parties to arrange the matter in a peace- 
 able way, or failing to do this to deliver the wrong- doer 
 to the civil magistrate. The villages in South China are 
 so close together and their fields dovetail into one another 
 in such complexity, that there frequently arise discord 
 and strife among the young men of neighbouring hamlets. 
 Sometimes the trouble spreads through outside villages 
 taking sides, and the clan fights then develop. These are 
 often very serious, but they have their comical aspects 
 also. The writer was present in one of these villages 
 when a fight was in progress. He noticed that the fight- 
 ing began only after breakfast and lasted until about 
 eleven o'clock, when a recess was taken by mutual con- 
 sent to get dinner and take the regulation cat-nap. In 
 the afternoon, towards evening, there would be some 
 show of courage on both sides and by sunset hostilities 
 would cease as a matter of course in order to get food and 
 rest. At another place I heard both combatants teasing 
 one another during the warm summer night with ques- 
 tions such as these : " How many fools did we send to 
 their ancestors to-day ? " The reply was a poor compli- 
 ment to their shooting. Then came the taunting ques- 
 tion why they did not invest a httle money in buying 
 powder that was decent ? The other would answer with 
 a cannon shot, saying, " Here is something for your an- 
 cestors," which must have had a sting for the other party, 
 judging from the volley of curses that followed and the 
 shots that were returned. But the social relations of the 
 villages are not always strained. On the contrary they 
 are often very friendly. For instance on the Festival of 
 the Dragon Boat, the fifth day of the fifth moon, the 
 young men of villages along the rivers of South China 
 
48 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 vie with one another in boat-rowing. In some districts a 
 prize is given to the best trained crew. 
 
 Much so-called laziness of the Chinese is apathy, due 
 largely to the insecurity of property rights. With the 
 exception of very few rich merchants and men who own 
 large estates in the country, the mass of the people are 
 very poor. They live a hand-to-mouth existence upon 
 a scale which to us would be considered impossible. 
 Day labourers receive from ten to fifteen cents in our 
 money for a day's work and on this they support their 
 families. But we need to remember that money has a 
 greater buying capacity, and that almost every Chinese 
 has some income of rice coming to him as his share in 
 his ancestral property. Happy for him that he takes 
 little heed of the morrow ! He holds that the govern- 
 ment is responsible to see that there is peace and plenty 
 in the land ; and when conditions become intolerable, he 
 and other thousands will turn against the government and 
 steal and rob for a living until matters become normal 
 again. He lives very close to the fundamental idea of a 
 patriarchal government. 
 
II 
 
 CHINA AND THE PROBLEMS OF THE FAR EAST 
 
 In order rightly to understand China in her conflict 
 with the civiHzed nations of the earth, we are obliged 
 first of all to approach the subject from the historical 
 standpoint. The Chinese in ancient times, that is 2000 
 years b. c, were divided into a large number of independ- 
 ent states, which in their relation with one another had 
 developed a system of interstate diplomacy not much 
 unlike that which is now carried on in Europe. Upon 
 consolidation of all the states into a vast empire by the 
 Han Dynasty in 255 b. c, the Chinese felt themselves so 
 overwhelmingly superior to all other Asiatic nations that 
 the thought of establishing any system of diplomacy with 
 these inferior countries was out of the question. The 
 petty states of Korea (later merged into the Han Em- 
 pire), Japan and Tartary to the north, the Burmans, the 
 Anamese and the Siamese to the south, together with 
 the less civilized races to the northwest, were not for a 
 moment to be considered as equals. If they approached 
 China it could only be under the status of vassals. Was 
 not China the « Middle Kingdom," the dominating force 
 of the whole universe ? The only country which some- 
 times objected to this assumption was Japan, but her in- 
 dependence in those days was due to her geographical 
 position ; otherwise Japan also would have been incor- 
 porated into the Chinese Empire. This condition con- 
 tinued for nearly 4,000 years. But recently China awoke 
 to the fact that there are many countries from afar that 
 
 49 
 
5o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 demand treatment on an equal footing with herself. 
 This was so startling to the whole empire that one of 
 China's strongest men is said to have called it the " great- 
 est political revolution that has taken place in China 
 since the abolition of the feudal system over 2,000 years 
 ago." Unfortunately for China she has refused to accept 
 the changed condition and has persisted even up to this 
 present day to express herself in a spirit of resentment. 
 For a time she insisted that the rulers of the west, when 
 sending a communication to the dragon throne, should 
 address the emperor in the same terms as were expected 
 from Asiatic vassals. It was demanded also that repre- 
 sentatives of European rulers when approaching the 
 Chinese emperor should fall on their knees and approach 
 the throne on all fours. As no nation would agree to 
 these humiliating conditions the government refused to 
 allow foreign ambassadors to live in the capital city of 
 Peking ; and only after the city had been captured by a 
 European army, was this request granted. China her- 
 self refused for a time to send representatives to any 
 European court, for by doing so she would admit the 
 principle of equality. Commercial treaties obtained from 
 China were only the fruits of force. 
 
 The Relation of Japan to China 
 In order to understand the present condition of the 
 Far East it is essential for us to review the historical atti- 
 tude of the leading nations towards China. We will 
 consider Japan first. Japan's relation to China finds an 
 analogy in the historical relation of France and England. 
 The Chinese made several attempts to invade the islands 
 of Japan ; but though they failed to subjugate the Island 
 Empire they did impress upon her their own form of 
 
The Problems of the Far East 51 
 
 civilization, and as early as A. D. 250 Japan had adopted 
 the Confucian civihzation, to her great advantage. The 
 strong MongoHan leader, Kublai Khan, the Conqueror, 
 undertook with an army of 100,000 soldiers to subjugate 
 Japan, but nobody ever returned to the continent to tell 
 of their disaster. In retaliation for this presumption 
 Japan fitted out a large fleet of semi-pirates against China 
 and laid waste a large number of cities and towns along 
 the coast and up the rivers. An invasion of Korea 
 was undertaken at that time, but the Koreans with the 
 aid of the Chinese were able to drive the invaders out of 
 their territory. With the appearance of the first Eu- 
 ropean ships in the Far East the Japanese became fright- 
 ened and closed their seaports to all comers as a protec- 
 tion against encroachments upon their territory, although 
 this plan was criticised by many of the foremost men of 
 the empire. Nagasaki was finally granted as a port for 
 the Hollanders to carry on their trade. With the ap- 
 pearance of Perry and his squadron in the harbour of 
 Yokohama, Japan awoke and determined to be a vital 
 factor in the Far East and she has succeeded. Had 
 China bestirred herself at the same time there would be 
 no Far Eastern problem to-day in the form in which it 
 is. For many years China held Japan in utmost con- 
 tempt for having abandoned her old Confucian civilization 
 for that of the West. In the mind of the honest Chinese 
 statesmen nothing but disaster could result from it. 
 With the outbreak of the Japanese- Chinese war the 
 Chinese were convinced that the doom of Japan had be- 
 gun. Their consternation and chagrin at their defeat, 
 and the publicity of their weakness, now revealed to the 
 whole world, are matters of so recent occurrence that we 
 need not dwell upon them, except to say that the Chinese 
 
52 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 have not yet forgiven the Japanese for stealing a march 
 upon them and abandoning the traditions of the Far 
 East. 
 
 The Relation of Korea to China 
 Korea has ever been the " bone of contention " among 
 the Asiatic nations. That unhappy country has been 
 conquered and reconquered by the Chinese, Tartars and 
 Japanese for the past 2,ooo years. As early as the sec- 
 ond century before our Christian era, Korea became a 
 part of the Chinese Empire. As was the case with 
 Japan, she adopted the civiHzation of Confucianism. 
 Japan has spilled much blood for the control of Korea, 
 but during all the past 2,000 years she has been able to 
 hold the country only for a brief period. Will her pres- 
 ent ascendancy in Korea be more successful than during 
 the past ? The Koreans were always paying tribute to 
 one country or the other and sometimes to both. During 
 the past few years the Russian Government had begun to 
 encroach upon the territory of Korea, and the Koreans, 
 playing their own trick, received the Russians with a 
 great deal of consideration, with the ultimate aim of 
 checking in their country the predominant influence of 
 the Japanese. In this they were successful ; the Rus- 
 sians tried to make hay while the sun shone, but the 
 Arctic night came all too soon for them and they had to 
 surrender their interests to Japan. Korea by reason of 
 her queer methods of diplomacy has practically lost her 
 identity as a sovereign nation. The American Govern- 
 ment has acquiesced in the desire of Japan that all dip- 
 lomatic relations regarding Korea be arranged through 
 the Japanese ambassador. The European nations will 
 no doubt follow the example of our own government ; 
 
The Problems of the Far East 53 
 
 for this is certain, Japan will not brook any interference 
 with her plans in Korea. 
 
 The Relation of Russia to China 
 In speaking of the relation of Russia to China we 
 must not forget that she is an old neighbour to the 
 " Middle Kingdom " and has had centuries of experience 
 with the Mongolian races. We know, of course, that a 
 large part of European Russia had been overrun with the 
 Tartars from Northeastern Asia for several generations 
 and that the Russian race shows traces of this invasion 
 to this day. It was only a natural sequence that the 
 pendulum should swing the other way after centuries 
 and that the European Russians should be found masters 
 over the whole Mongolian and Manchurian country. 
 But for Japan, she would have found no opposition 
 on the part of the native people of the invaded country. 
 But now, having lost the war, Russia will never again 
 enjoy that prestige and power in the diplomacy of the 
 Far East which she did during the period from 1895 to 
 1904. Her defeat has been so thorough as to cause all 
 the Asiatic races to think less of the abilities of the 
 Europeans. The day of land-grabbing is over; the 
 Asiatics have been delighted with Russian defeat and 
 the cry is heard all over Asia, " Asia for the Asiatics ! " 
 They laugh at the European terror of a " yellow peril " 
 and claim that it is the " white peril " they want to get rid 
 of in Asia. The defeat of Russia may lead to the defeat 
 of other nations engaged in empire building in the Far 
 East. 
 
 The Relation of France to China 
 The relation of France to China has been one of con- 
 stant storm and stress. France has sought to build up a 
 
54 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 vast empire in the southeastern part of Asia, perhaps to 
 compensate for her disappointment and losses in India, 
 Inasmuch as China was to pay the bill of this ambition, 
 one can readily understand that there must unavoidably 
 have been constant friction between the two countries. 
 Having hved in that part of China which borders the 
 territory now held by France, the author is able to state 
 from personal observation how exceedingly careful the 
 Chinese officials were not to do anything that would 
 arouse the animosity of the French Government. The 
 cooHe class from Kityang and Swatow Districts emi- 
 grated in large numbers to the French possessions of 
 A nam and Co chin- China, a fact which gave the French 
 colonial officials the opportunity of exercising a great in- 
 fluence in the Swatow District. Sometimes these emi- 
 grants would return to their native country as French 
 subjects or converts of the Roman Catholic Church and 
 would be a source of annoyance to the government, 
 which, of course, could exercise no authority over them. 
 During the memorable period from 1895 to 1905, the 
 period of Russian and French ascendancy in China and 
 the Far East, China was in daily fear of Russian en- 
 croachment on the northern boundary and French aggres- 
 sion at the south. 
 
 The writer remembers one time when a rebellion of 
 considerable importance broke out in the southern prov- 
 inces of China and the French colonial government of 
 Anam offered with great eagerness to send French troops 
 across the border to help the Chinese suppress the up- 
 rising. China not only refused this aid, but actually had 
 to send a large force of soldiers to the frontier to prevent 
 the French troops from crossing. The Chinese officials 
 were aware that once the French troops entered the 
 
The Problems of the Far East ^^ 
 
 domain of China it would be a difficult thing to get them 
 out. With the defeat of Russia and the frustration of 
 her plans in northern China the hope of the French 
 of building up a vast empire in the southern part of 
 China has become dim. Japan is jealous of French 
 plans in the East and will thwart every movement of 
 aggression. The French understand the issue and have 
 become far more reasonable in their relations with China. 
 It was surprising to notice the change that came over the 
 French priests in the southern provinces as the reports 
 of Russian defeats were received. They no longer went 
 to the yamens to dictate to the magistrates regarding 
 civil lawsuits, and refused to countenance adherents who 
 came with cases of trouble and litigation. The native 
 priests received strict orders to keep away from the 
 yamens for a time. And why so timid all of a sudden ? 
 They foresaw trouble with Japan if they persisted. The 
 Japanese had become jealous of the power exerted in the 
 Swatow District by the French priests. They saw how 
 these priests claimed for their converts immunity from 
 civil punishment by reason of their connection with the 
 French Catholic mission. To offset this a host of Japa- 
 nese Buddhist priests came into the district, nominally 
 to do missionary work, but really to oppose the French 
 on their own lines. These Japanese received converts to 
 their faith at two dollars per man and promised to repre- 
 sent them at the yamens should they get into trouble 
 with the French converts or the ordinary people. The 
 wisdom of the Jesuit at once made itself evident, for as 
 already stated the priests were more careful about taking 
 up lawsuits ; evidently they did not care to try con- 
 clusions with the Japanese at this time. It seems prob- 
 able that the diplomatic relations between France and 
 
56 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 China will in the future have to be on the basis of 
 common interest rather than of spoliation and retalia- 
 tion. 
 
 The Relation of Germany to China 
 Germany was one of the latest of all nations seeking to 
 despoil China, but she made up by a vigorous policy for 
 what she lost in time. Ten or fifteen years ago Germany 
 did not possess in any open port the concession usually 
 granted to commercial nations. To-day she has a num- 
 ber of them and has annexed a fine harbour, Kiaochau, 
 which controls the trade of the hinterland, a populous 
 country. It is currrent opinion, that above every other 
 nation Germany is to be blamed for the methods em- 
 ployed in obtaining a colony in China. It was the kill- 
 ing of two German missionaries that precipitated the 
 seizure of Kiaochau. If we study history we shall find 
 that both England and France have made use of the same 
 methods ; but that does not diminish the seriousness of 
 the blunder, for it was a bad mistake from both the re- 
 ligious and the political standpoints. For this wrong 
 done to China, the German Minister at Peking, Herr 
 von Ketteler was killed and the Boxer revolt hastened. 
 As is known, Germany's position in the northeastern 
 part of China makes her a close neighbour to Japan. 
 While there is not that tension of jealousy between Japan 
 and Germany that exists between Japan and France, yet 
 it must be remembered that Japan has not forgotten that 
 it was Germany that united with Russia and France in 
 compelling her to give up Port Arthur and the Liaotung 
 Peninsula. For this very reason Germany's position in 
 Shantung is a doubtful one. Japan may get even with 
 Germany; in which case the latter may be invited to 
 
The Problems of the Far East 57 
 
 give up the colony to China without the use of the 
 " mailed fist." 
 
 The Relation of England to China 
 England is without doubt the foremost European 
 nation in China. The amount of English capital in- 
 vested there for commercial pursuits is perhaps far larger 
 than the invested capital of all other nations in that em- 
 pire. England's quest in China has not been territorial 
 expansion; she resorted to the land-grabbing method 
 only in so far as it furthered and advanced her commer- 
 cial schemes. In this respect her interests are wholly 
 different from those of France. Although England has 
 had two wars with China and upon both occasions had 
 the government completely at her mercy, yet she never 
 used these occasions to further any imperial designs 
 upon China's territory. During the period of the great 
 T'aiping rebellion, when eight of the sixteen provinces 
 had passed under the control of the rebels and the whole 
 Ching Dynasty seemed tottering, England came to her 
 aid through her officers, and General Gordon crushed the 
 rebellion and restored peace. Indeed it may be said of 
 England that if her commercial record in China had re- 
 mained unstained she could be numbered easily as one 
 of the firmest friends of the empire. But the opium 
 blot forbids that England should be classified as a friend 
 of China. The people are to-day besotted by opium, 
 which is planted in India under the jurisdiction of the 
 Indian colonial officials, the profits, which are very large, 
 being used to help pay the extraordinary salaries of the 
 European officials in India. This Indian opium is im- 
 ported into China largely through English shipping firms 
 and sold to the Chinese merchants through English 
 
58 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 agents. It constitutes the greatest curse that enslaves 
 the Chinese people. It is not only a crime against China 
 and against the better nature of England herself, but is a 
 wrong against the legal commerce of the whole world. 
 There is no doubt that the buying capacity of China is 
 reduced many millions every year by reason of the drain 
 and waste of the opium traffic. Nor will China ever be 
 able to take her rightful place among leading nations 
 until this curse is blotted out. The opium habit is on 
 the increase. It has of late become a matter of good 
 form for the best of families to have an opium couch and 
 the paraphernalia for smoking opium ready for a visiting 
 friend. The higher the official status of the man the 
 greater the probability that he uses opium. It will be 
 difficult to uproot the evil at this late day. The Chinese 
 plant the poppy in many parts of the empire ; but the 
 bulk still comes from India. The Chinese Government 
 is now taking steps to discourage the use of opium. 
 Officials are forbidden to use the drug, and the planting 
 of the poppy is to be under the control of the imperial 
 government. 
 
 The great influence of England upon the commercial 
 life of China is noticed in every open seaport. The 
 English language is the medium through which trade is 
 carried on. One often hears the coolies making use of 
 the " pidgin English," business English, or as the natives 
 call it, " the salt water talk." The use of the English 
 language in China is on the increase. Every school of 
 higher learning must provide a course in English in order 
 to be successful. Many of the students of these institu- 
 tions receive upon their graduation very profitable em- 
 ployment if they have a fluent command of the English 
 language. They are sought by the large commercial 
 
The Problems of the Far East 59 
 
 and banking houses in all the treaty ports along the 
 coast. 
 
 Politically, England's position in Asia has been very 
 much strengthened by the results of the Japan-Russia 
 War. As we shall see, England's influence as a domi- 
 nating power in the Far East suffered an eclipse after the 
 war between Japan and China. Both England as well as 
 Japan had to give way to the Russian-French aUiance ; 
 but now by reason of Russia's defeat on the one hand 
 and the strengthening of the Anglo-Japanese alliance on 
 the other, there has been a complete change on the po- 
 litical chessboard and England by a combination of cir- 
 cumstances finds herself in an impregnable position. 
 For this those who are interested in the evangelization 
 of the world feel a sense of satisfaction ; for even if Eng- 
 land is not always what we should like to see her it still 
 remains true that her influence counts more for Chris- 
 tianity than any other nation. 
 
 The Relation of the United States to China 
 
 It was a common thing a few years ago to hear edu- 
 cated men in China speak in the highest terms of respect 
 of the American nation. The short-sighted policy of 
 some officials in this country in treating like the common 
 coolie the upper class Chinese who have come to this 
 country for educational purposes, and the rich merchants, 
 has changed all this and a reaction resulted which found 
 its expression in the boycott of American goods a few 
 months ago. One may safely say, however, that as soon 
 as the Chinese understand that all these wrongs have been 
 corrected the traditional happy relations will be resumed. 
 America has a clean record in her diplomatic relations 
 with China. No country enjoys the confidence and 
 
6o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 trust that America does. On more than one occasion 
 China has rehed upon the advice of the American minis- 
 ter in crises with foreign nations. America has never 
 stooped to browbeat the Chinese Government nor ever 
 taken a foot of land from her. Crimes have been com- 
 mitted against American citizens, as they have been com- 
 mitted against citizens of other nations, but the methods 
 employed to seek justice have been entirely different from 
 those of European nations. These are facts that are con- 
 ceded by the Chinese, and of course have made a deep 
 impression upon the people. We have been exceedingly 
 fortunate in having men of singular abiHty to represent 
 our government at Peking. The names and stories of our 
 leading men are known by the Chinese scholars. George 
 Washington, Lincoln, Grant, McKinley, John Hay, 
 Roosevelt, are all familiar. The author once showed a 
 picture of George Washington to an old man, the father 
 of the two highest scholars in Kityang city, who when 
 being told whose picture it was at once made ready to 
 worship the picture. He had read the story of the life of 
 " the father of his country " and classified George Wash- 
 ington as one of the few men to be compared with Con- 
 fucius. To this man, an American represented the 
 honour, the virtue and the best of Western civilization 
 and there are thousands who are of the same mind. 
 
 China and Her Struggle With the World 
 
 China, the " sick man " of the Far East, has taken a 
 new hold upon life as the result of the Japanese-Russian 
 War. A number of European imperial surgeons had 
 planned an operation to be performed upon the chronic 
 patient, but Japan, supported by John Bull, a private 
 surgeon of world-wide fame, insisted that the carving be 
 
The Problems of the Far East 6l 
 
 abandoned, and in order to make her desires regarding 
 the patient respected was compelled to adopt heroic 
 measures with one of her opponents. The result of this 
 encounter has been that the whole world is now con- 
 vinced that less drastic measures than an operation upon 
 China will answer. All America at least rejoiced with 
 Japan over the results of the war and yet there is reason 
 for the fear that connected itself with the rejoicing of 
 many. The great problem now is, Will the method 
 proposed by Japan for heaUng the " sick man" prove it- 
 self sufificient? WiU the mere renaissance of learning 
 and the remodelling of China's army according to West- 
 ern methods remove the dead hands of ancestor worship 
 and its concomitant " fung shui " which have throttled 
 every effort of true reform thus far ? 
 
 At heart China has still the same old conservative, 
 fossilized civilization. There is at present a rattling of 
 dry bones all over the country, to be sure, and hosts of 
 her students are making every effort to get all the West- 
 ern learning possible, but of a radical breaking away 
 from those things that have held the whole Chinese 
 nation in subjection, there are hardly any signs in the 
 interior. And perhaps it is well that this is so, for the 
 time being at least. The gentry and the common people 
 in the interior may not be prepared for sweeping reforms 
 and would fail to appreciate the merits of the new move- 
 ment. This very thing was the underlying cause that 
 brought about the successful reaction against the scheme 
 of reforms of the Emperor Kwang Hsu in 1 898. Just how 
 moribund the Manchu Government remains in spite of 
 the world-wide pressure brought to bear upon her, is seen 
 in the rejection of the plan of reforms offered by one of 
 her most noted and tried friends, Sir Robert Hart. 
 
62 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Some time ago the latter submitted a well thought out 
 scheme of reform with regard to taxation, official ap- 
 pointment, salaries, army and navy and so forth. It was 
 at once the sanest and most statesman-like proposal ever 
 offered China in a day of great need. Instead of giving 
 heed, the proposals were pigeon-holed by reason of the 
 opposition and scorn of China's leading statesmen, Chang 
 Chih Tung, Yuan Shi Kai and others. And yet every 
 one who has the faintest conception of international 
 affairs knows that China will have to adopt reforms along 
 the very lines suggested and refused. There can be 
 no serious talk of a new China until these far-reaching 
 measures are inaugurated. It is a comparatively unimpor- 
 tant matter how many students are studying the sciences 
 of the West, although the latter will become important 
 factors in helping forward the cause of reform when the 
 opportunity arrives. We need not be blind to the tre- 
 mendous powers arrayed against reform and the great 
 fight that is yet to come, yet these proposed reforms 
 must and will triumph ! It will be impossible much 
 longer for the conservatives to oppose successfully the 
 constant and ever-increasing pressure of the leading 
 nations of the earth from without and that of the re- 
 formers from within. Now that the integrity of China 
 is once more assured, the Manchu Government could 
 adopt reform measures without having its sovereignty 
 questioned. Had the results of the war been different 
 and Russia been the victor, large territories of the Chinese 
 Empire would have passed out of the hands of the 
 Manchus and the prospects of an " open door," either in 
 a commercial or in a religious sense, would have been 
 discouraging to the people representing Anglo-Saxon 
 civilization. 
 
The Problems of the Far East 63 
 
 With the integrity of China assured, evangelical mis- 
 sionary endeavour has gained immensely. It has been an 
 open secret that both Russia and France desired to ex- 
 tend their jurisdiction over large territories to the north 
 and south of China respectively, and in order to bind 
 these new acquisitions closer to their own interests would 
 not only close the " open door " to international trade 
 but would also limit evangelical missionaries in their 
 preaching of the gospel. The policy of circumscribing 
 and limiting missionaries in their work had already been 
 adopted by the Russian Government as soon as they were 
 in full possession of Port Arthur and Dalny and the sur- 
 rounding country. The restrictions were practically as 
 severe as were enforced in European Russia against mis- 
 sionaries not belonging to the Greek Catholic Church. 
 In the territory south of China, Anam and Cochin China, 
 the French have prohibited missionaries of other coun- 
 tries from preaching the gospel, and would have extended 
 the same policy to all other territories obtained from 
 China. Evangelical Christianity therefore has much 
 reason to be thankful over the results of the late war. 
 
 But the dismemberment of China would not have been 
 such an easy task as some have supposed. In certain 
 parts of China the expense of putting the country into 
 subjection would have prevented the plan from being 
 carried out. The amount of blood that would have been 
 shed in the struggle would have made conquest impossi- 
 ble in this late day. The love of the Chinese people for 
 their country (not for the Manchu Government) is as 
 great and sincere as that of any nation on earth. The 
 Chinese above any people could sing in their national 
 hymn the words •' Land where my fathers died," and it 
 would mean more to them than to others. But they do 
 
64 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 not sing it, they live it ; that fact has become one of the 
 strongest moral motives determining their lives. Then 
 again, it is a mistake to suppose that the Chinese are not 
 aware of the vast mineral and coal resources of their own 
 country. In their own way, in places where " fung shui " 
 was not disturbed, the Chinese dug mines centuries ago. 
 But though there may be the greatest riches hidden in a 
 hill near a village not a soul will be tempted to dig for 
 it if the grave of the ancestor should be situated on that 
 hill or the " fung shui " of the village be endangered, 
 which usually is the case. Not many miles from the 
 city of Kityang there are hills containing pewter and 
 gold, and to the southwest can be seen on the surface of 
 the hills coal that would bring fortunes to the owners, 
 but the laws of " fung shui " are so stringent that nobody 
 gives the matter a thought. To the mind of the Chinese 
 there are other things of more importance than the con- 
 stant search and mad rush for riches. The spirit of com- 
 mercialism has not yet invaded the interior of China. 
 There the people live to-day much as their ancestors did 
 two or three thousand years ago. And that very fact 
 makes them content and even happy with their lot. The 
 common people are too poor, too ignorant, to understand 
 or even grasp the significance of the progress of the 
 human race during these many centuries. They have 
 been told over and over again by their leading men of 
 the glories of their ancient ancestors (which at the best, 
 however, consisted merely in holding public office), and 
 they have become so devoted to this filial worship as to 
 exclude any new view on that question. They have be- 
 come the most moribund and fossihzed nation on earth. 
 
 And yet it is but fair to say that the Chinese people 
 have undergone changes according to their own methods 
 
The Problems of the Far East 65 
 
 through all these centuries. Every important dynasty 
 which ruled over the people has left its impress upon 
 them. A change of dynasty is usually a great calamity 
 in China, costing the lives of millions of people, and al- 
 ways stands for some modification of existing conditions. 
 Thus for instance the Chinese were never known to 
 wear the cue before the reign of the present dynasty. 
 When the Manchus overthrew the government of the 
 former Ming Dynasty, they issued a proclamation com- 
 manding all the people to shave the front part of the 
 head and wear the cue as the sign of loyalty to the new 
 government. Not to do so was to stand in rebellion 
 against the new rulers and was punished with death. 
 After a reign of over 260 years the Manchu Dynasty 
 stands convicted by the entire world for having done 
 nothing for the general welfare of the Chinese nation. 
 They have treated the land as an object of plunder, but 
 have been wise enough not to interfere with local beliefs 
 and superstitions. The Chinese, on the other hand, see- 
 ing they were not molested or asked to depart from their 
 old ways, have tolerated the Manchu reign up to the 
 present time ; though there have been a number of re- 
 bellions against it in different parts of the empire. 
 Not only have the Manchus failed to improve internal 
 conditions, but they have also neglected — even opposed — 
 international trade and diplomatic relations with the 
 civihzed nations of the world. 
 
 It is only since the disastrous war with Japan in 1894 
 that Manchus have begun to understand the true state of 
 affairs in their country. Since that event various national 
 crises have followed one another so closely as to keep them 
 in a constant state of panic. The defeat of China, the huge 
 giant, by the plucky dwarf, Japan, was an event of world- 
 
66 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 wide importance. Leading European nations, Russia, 
 France and Germany, at once jealous of Japan's victory 
 and opportunity in China, formed an alliance to limit the 
 prize of Japan's victory. The Island Empire, as all know, 
 was compelled to reUnquish its hold on Port Arthur and 
 the Liaotung Peninsula. The immediate effect of this 
 diplomatic victory was the temporary effacement of 
 England in the Far Eastern political situation, the 
 almost stultification of Japan and the rise of Russia and 
 France as the most powerful friends of China. Formerly, 
 England was known as China's friend and to a certain 
 extent her protector, but her refusal to join the alliance 
 caused the loss of her prestige. Russia and France held 
 the trump cards in the diplomatic game at Peking. Ger- 
 many, eager to become an Asiatic power, unwisely made 
 the murder of two German missionaries the occasion for 
 seizing Kiaochao in Shantung. This event caused a 
 general demand on the part of the European nations for 
 equal compensation. Russia soon " leased " Port Arthur 
 and Dalny, to the utter consternation of Japan ; France 
 was given Kwang Chou Bay and England received Wei- 
 haiwei and Kowloon, opposite Hongkong. Italy also 
 demanded a port, but perhaps because of her impaired 
 reputation, through her African venture, was denied by 
 China. 
 
 These were days of distress to the Manchu Govern- 
 ment. They heard the nations speak of " spheres of in- 
 fluence," they were constantly asked for " leases " and 
 ♦' concessions " until the world began to talk of the 
 '• break-up of China." It was admitted that Manchuria 
 and the neighbouring territory would fall to Russia. 
 Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Yunnan Provinces would be 
 annexed to the possessions already held by France at 
 
The Problems of the Far East 67 
 
 the south. England was to hold the valuable Yangtse 
 Valley. Germany was to obtain Shantung, and Japan 
 Fokien Province. The whole country was tense with 
 excitement. The most sluggish man in the interior 
 was aware of the danger that threatened the national 
 existence. Does one wonder why there was a Boxer 
 outbreak ? How could it have been otherwise ? In the 
 period of this excitement the American missionary was 
 one of the few foreigners whom the Chinese trusted. 
 They understood the position of the United States 
 towards China and took courage. 
 
 With the settlement of the Boxer troubles there still 
 remained the formidable combination of Russia and 
 France, with Germany sometimes joining hands with 
 them. Against this combination England continued to 
 play a very unimportant part in the affairs of China and 
 the Far East. Japan was in an ugly mood and was pre- 
 paring for war. England and Japan before the close of 
 the Chinese-Japanese War did not consider their inter- 
 ests to be along the same path, but in the period of their 
 diplomatic humiliation they clearly saw that nothing but 
 a closer union of some kind could alter the losing game 
 both were playing in the affairs of China. The need of 
 mutual support was the cause of the formation of the 
 Anglo-Japanese alHance in 1902, and with it the affairs 
 at Peking became more interesting. Japan at once be- 
 gan to find herself and to question Russia as to the date 
 when the evacuation of troops from Manchuria was to 
 take place. The Anglo-Japanese alliance attained its 
 great moral dignity through our late secretary of 
 state, John Hay, who in a note to both nations indorsed 
 the principle of the " open door " in China. The policy 
 of Russia and France in the Far East was discredited ; 
 
68 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the United States and Germany to a certain extent gave 
 their moral support to the aUiance that stood for an 
 " open door " for commerce in China ; Japan made prac- 
 tical use of the alliance by calling upon Russia to fulfill 
 her pledges regarding the evacuation of Manchuria, and 
 when no satisfaction was obtainable opened the war for 
 which she had been constantly preparing for years. 
 During the time when the Japanese were as busy as bees 
 the Russian officers in the Far East spent most of their 
 time in drinking and in licentiousness. There was no 
 comparison between the two nations in their preparation 
 for war. Russia made her mistake in refusing to invite 
 Japan to become her ally in the development of the Far 
 East. But Russia in her unrighteous methods over- 
 reached herself and Japan has now taken her place in 
 the diplomatic councils at Peking. The very terms of 
 peace are also a source of much gratification to those 
 interested in evangelical missions. It is fortunate that 
 Japan did not receive the large sum of money asked as 
 reinbursement for the expenses of the war, for she would 
 have used it largely for military equipment and thus 
 have promoted to even a greater degree the martial 
 spirit of the country, — a great misfortune. It will be in 
 the interest of Japan and all the Far East if less atten- 
 tion is given to the construction of forts and arsenals and 
 more to schools, colleges and laboratories, in order to 
 equip the young men for helping China in the true path 
 of progress and reform. This is Japan's true mission in 
 China. Already thousands of young Chinese are flock- 
 ing to Japan to receive a thorough education. There is 
 just one reason why this emigration of students to Japan 
 may not prove beneficial to the Manchu Government. 
 It is said that most of the students in the Island Empire 
 
The Problems of the Far East 69 
 
 are revolutionists and bitterly opposed to the present 
 dynasty. The government fears them and only recently 
 issued a proclamation directing that more students should 
 go to Europe and America. China distrusts Japan and 
 there is every indication that the ancient and traditional 
 jealousy between the two countries will continue. Though 
 the Chinese know that they cannot oppose the hegemony 
 of Japan in the Far East for the present, they believe 
 that this condition is but temporary and that soon China 
 will again take her rightful place at the head of Asiatic 
 affairs and Japan, nolens volens, will take a secondary 
 place. It will be in the interest of Japan to make China 
 her ally just as far as China is wiUing to go with her. 
 There may be an Asiatic " Monroe Doctrine " formulated 
 for the time being, for China expects Httle justice at 
 the hands of European nations. All her experiences 
 with the powers of Europe from the earliest times down 
 to the present have taught her that they are robber 
 nations. Still China will not commit herself to Japan 
 any more than to a European power. In all her poverty 
 China remains the same, she has faith in her destiny. 
 She feels instinctively that when she has once found her- 
 self again she will need no defensive league with any other 
 nation. Fortunately for the world the Chinese are not a 
 people given to wars of conquest. They have extended 
 their borders by " squatting " upon territory adjacent to 
 their own country, and once having entered, it was im- 
 possible to get them out. The aborigines themselves 
 sought other places ! But while the world need have no 
 fear of the Chinese outside of their own territory, great 
 catastrophies will without doubt take place in China by 
 reason of the many conflicting forces now at work 
 there. 
 
yo The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 The Missionary Problem 
 This is a burning question that demands the attention 
 of all Christian powers. The talk of recalling the mis- 
 sionaries from China is idle twaddle. The whole ques- 
 tion ought to be taken up and sifted thoroughly in con- 
 junction with the Chinese Government. In the first place 
 the European governments ought to bring pressure upon 
 China to cancel the special decree of March 15, 1899, in 
 which pohtical status on equality with Chinese mandarins 
 was granted to each order of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. According to this, bishops were given the rank 
 of viceroys and ordinary priests that of magistrates. This 
 has brought them the power to intermeddle with lawsuits 
 which do not concern the interests of their church. It 
 would fill volumes to report all the disturbances this in- 
 terference on the part of the Roman Catholic priests, 
 who are supported by the diplomatic power of the French 
 Government, causes in China to-day. All foreigners 
 suffer more or less because of this shameless use or mis- 
 use of power. Inasmuch as all Christian governments 
 are disturbed by these conditions the French Govern- 
 ment ought to be requested to modify or wholly with- 
 draw her political aid to the Catholic priests when they 
 take up lawsuits that do not concern the interests of the 
 Church. There will be no peace to the missionary prob- 
 lem until this thing is stopped. The Chinese Govern- 
 ment made a serious blunder when it yielded to the com- 
 bined pressure of France and Russia in their repeated re- 
 quest to grant these special privileges to the Catholic 
 priests. The whole world knows it was a mistake and 
 for the sake of peace to the nations having Christian 
 missionaries in China and for China herself, this error 
 
The Problems of the Far East 71 
 
 should be righted. Then we should hear of fewer mas- 
 sacres of missionaries in China. 
 
 Religious Liberty in China 
 The Chinese Government is afraid to grant religious 
 liberty to its subjects because Christian missions are con- 
 sidered by the Chinese as upheld by the European 
 nations by the power of force. The government to this 
 very day makes a distinction in its proclamations regard- 
 ing the rights of Christians, between the people of the 
 country and the people belonging to the new teaching. 
 The very juxtaposition of the two classifications is a 
 sufficient sign to all the enlightened people of China that 
 the government is hostile to Christianity. There is no 
 question of religious liberty; a contemptible toleration 
 under compulsion is all that China has granted. The 
 Christian nations have given missions their support, but 
 that support has not furthered the proclamation of the 
 gospel as much as some had hoped. Has not the time 
 come to try a new method ? Would it not be possible 
 to adopt the same method that has been carried out in 
 Japan for many years ? That method has insured the 
 Japanese Government against foreign interference in do- 
 mestic affairs, and the elimination of that danger made it 
 possible for the native Christians to enjoy complete re- 
 ligious liberty because the government did not need to 
 fear that the Christian subjects would appeal to for- 
 eigners. The one objection to this is that the present 
 Chinese Government cannot under any circumstances be 
 compared with the enlightened Japanese administration 
 of even thirty years ago. Nevertheless, inasmuch as the 
 missionary problem is becoming acute and something 
 
72 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 will have to be done sooner or later, why not give China 
 the opportunity to prove herself ? 
 
 The Reform Movement in China 
 The present dynasty of China must inaugurate far- 
 reaching political reforms ere the nation can enter lipon 
 a new era. But political reform is the very thing the 
 Manchus fear. They know, as every one else does, that 
 they are no more able to carry out a rational political re- 
 form than a two year old child is able to lead an army. 
 The conditions in China therefore are vastly different 
 from what they were in Japan in the period of her crisis. 
 She was fortunate in having a good and benevolent 
 sovereign, aided by wise statesmen who were all favour- 
 able to a progressive and yet conservative reform. But 
 in spite of these wise precautions Japan had to undergo 
 several crises. The path of reform in a country as mis- 
 erably governed as China, must be one of great tribula- 
 tion, and shedding of blood. These things must come 
 and we need not deceive ourselves. The conflicting 
 forces will soon clash. We have sporadic cases of 
 troubles in various parts of China constantly. The 
 Manchus themselves are divided and trouble may begin 
 should the Empress Dowager die. We cannot but feel 
 that a change of dynasty would be a good thing for the 
 future of the country, but missionaries refrain from ex- 
 pression of such sentiments within the hearing of the 
 Chinese Christian. The people themselves feel that they 
 ought to play more of a figure in international politics 
 and blame the Manchu Government severely for the 
 present humiliation of their country. They have de- 
 rived much comfort out of the defeat of Russia. It has 
 encouraged them to such an extent that they have tried 
 
The Problems of the Far East 73 
 
 to do something smart themselves. The boycott of 
 American goods is one of the indirect results of the 
 " yellow races finding themselves." The discrimination 
 of America against Chinese immigrants was known all 
 along the coast of China for many years. I have often 
 explained the reason to the people on my field to their 
 perfect satisfaction, but since the late war they have re- 
 ceived a new impulse for self-assertion, and naturally 
 have turned their attention to a country that is known to 
 be practically harmless. They might have turned upon 
 England because of the opium wrong, but they have 
 learned two or three lessons from England that were 
 very costly. It would be a mistake on the part of our 
 government to grant any concessions, but absolute justice 
 to the Chinese stranger coming to our shores ought to be 
 given, whether there be a boycott or not. 
 
Ill 
 
 A REVIEW OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA 
 
 China has ever been the land of missionary endeavour. 
 The teachings of Lao Tsze (604-504 b. c), or Taoism, 
 became a religious force through the land soon after 
 the death of the sage, and in a corrupt form this 
 has remained to the present day one of the three popu- 
 lar religions in China. The teachings of Confucius 
 (550-479 B. c), though not essentially a religion, has 
 controlled the lives of rulers, public officials and the 
 literati of every dynasty of the empire for the past 2,400 
 years. Buddhism, first carried from India into China 
 about the year 216 b. c, met with considerable opposi- 
 tion. The Indian missionaries were cast into prison and 
 after being released gave up their missionary work. But 
 250 years later, about 40 A. d., the Emperor Ming-ti, of 
 the Han Dynasty, dreamed that a monster golden image 
 appeared and addressed him with the words, " Buddha 
 bids you send to the western countries to search for him 
 and to get books and images." The emperor at once 
 sent an embassy to India, which returned after an ab- 
 sence of eleven years bringing with them an Indian 
 priest and teacher who translated some of the Buddhist 
 books into the Chinese language. From that time on to 
 this day Buddhism has remained the popular religion of 
 the Chinese. What a difference it might have made in 
 the destiny of the Chinese nation had that embassy con- 
 tinued its search for a saviour to a country still more 
 westward, until it came to Jerusalem, where at that very 
 
 74 
 
ICHANG PAGODA,, ICHAXG, Upper Yangtse River 
 
Christian Missions in China 75 
 
 time they would have found a number of the apostles of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ ready to teach them, and who in- 
 deed, perhaps just as the apostle Paul obeyed the call to 
 Macedon, might have returned with them to China. Why 
 was it not so ? 
 
 It may be of interest to know, however, that there ex- 
 isted a colony of Jews in the very heart of the Chinese 
 Empire before the birth of Christ. This colony of Jews 
 was discovered at Kaifungfu in Honan Province by the 
 Jesuit missionaries during the seventeenth century. In 
 the year 1850 a number of Chinese Christians were sent 
 to visit these Jews and a number of the latter were in- 
 duced to come to Shanghai. They brought some of 
 their old Hebrew manuscripts with them, which were 
 found to be perfect copies of many of the books of the 
 Old Testament. A number of years ago the well-known 
 missionary, Dr. W. A. P. Martin of Peking undertook a 
 trip with the express purpose of visiting this colony of 
 Jews. His trip to Kaifungfu and his experience with 
 this people is described in his most interesting book, 
 " A Cycle of Cathay." Dr. Martin says that " to all 
 appearances this colony will die out as a distinct people 
 during the next half century, inasmuch as they have 
 given up their religious worship and are intermarrying 
 with their heathen neighbours. I have copied an 
 extract of the inscription of a monumental stone regard- 
 ing the Jewish religion. It reads as follows : * With re- 
 spect to the religion of Israel, we find that our first 
 ancestor was Adam. The founder of the religion was 
 Abraham : then came Moses, who established the law 
 and handed down the sacred writings. During the 
 dynasty of Han, 255 b. C.-226 a. d., this religion entered 
 China. In the second year of Hiao-tsung, of the Sung 
 
76 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Dynasty (a. d. 1164), a synagogue was erected in Kai- 
 fungfu. Those who attempt to represent God by images 
 or pictures do but vainly occupy themselves with empty 
 forms. Those who honour and obey the sacred writings 
 know the origin of all things. Eternal reason and the 
 sacred writings mutually sustain each other in testifying 
 whence men derived their being. All those who profess 
 this religion aim at the practice of goodness and avoid 
 the commission of vice.' " Dr. Martin well adds, " It is 
 affecting to think of this solitary stone continuing to 
 bear its silent testimony after the synagogue has fallen 
 and the voice of its worshippers ceased to be heard. 
 Like that which records the story of the Nestorian mis- 
 sion in China, it deserves to be regarded as one of the 
 most precious monuments of religious history." The 
 Mohammedans brought their religion to China at a very 
 early period in their history. They established promis- 
 ing missions in all the important cities along the Pacific 
 Coast. There are still Mohammedans found in the cities 
 of Canton and Fuchow and in many of the cities further 
 north. It may be said that they are decreasing rapidly 
 in the southeast of the empire while in certain provinces 
 to the northwest their number has increased wonderfully. 
 Some are of the opinion that the whole northwest of the 
 Chinese Empire will soon become Mohammedan. They 
 are said to number over ten millions at the present time. 
 They frequently rise up in rebellion against the govern- 
 ment and are much feared. 
 
 The first effort of any Christian body to bring the 
 gospel to the Chinese was made by the Nestorians of 
 Persia during the sixth century. They came overland 
 from Persia and began their first missionary conquests in 
 the northwest provinces. They were men of great ability 
 
Christian Missions in China 77 
 
 and soon made their influence felt over the whole em- 
 pire. The leading missionaries were received with much 
 favour by the princes and the court, then residing at 
 Hsinganfu in the Shensi Province. Their converts must 
 have numbered many tens of thousands, for they had 
 their appointed archbishops and bishops throughout the 
 empire and the adoption of the Christian faith by the 
 whole nation seemed very promising ; but in some way 
 a reaction set in and the Nestorians were fearfully perse- 
 cuted, with the result that for centuries there have been 
 no traces remaining in China of their heroic work, ex- 
 cepting a stone tablet commending their work which 
 was erected by the government in the year A. d. 781, 
 during the reign of Te-tsung of the T'ang Dynasty. It 
 would seem that the same temptation which has come 
 thus far to every missionary effort, befell the Nestorians 
 also. It was that of intermeddHng with the political life 
 of the country and allowing themselves to be drawn into 
 the inevitable factional poHtics. In a country Hke China 
 it is a difficult problem to keep aloof from political in- 
 fluence and yet maintain a successful mission. In that 
 country every popular religion is more or less regulated 
 and governed by the throne. If a struggling religion is 
 detected in a compromising attitude towards the dynasty, 
 vengeance will always be the result. 
 
 Another weakness connected with the Nestorian mis- 
 sion was the failure on their part, so far as we know, to 
 translate the word of God into the Chinese vernacular. 
 We know that they made much of their Syriac manu- 
 scripts and presented a copy of the entire Scriptures 
 to the emperor, but we look in vain for arty trace that 
 will lead us to believe that the Christian congregations 
 possessed the word of God in their own language. Per- 
 
78 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 haps herein we have the real cause why the entire mis- 
 sion was blotted out by persecution. Confucianism was 
 crushed out of existence for a time, but when the tyi^nt 
 died the Confucian books were brought forth from their 
 hidden places, and became the foundation of a revival of 
 Confucianism that swept the whole nation. This lack is 
 the more deplorable since we know that the art of print- 
 ing was popular at that period of Chinese history. Thus 
 all we possess to-day of their work in China is the 
 stone tablet, which praises the Nestorian missionaries for 
 their good work. 
 
 The chapter relating the story of the Roman Catholic 
 Church in China is far more interesting. The first mis- 
 sionary attempt of the Roman Church was undertaken 
 in 1292 by John Corvino, who came to Peking and es- 
 tablished a successful mission there. He found recogni- 
 tion and favour from the Mongolian (Yuan) Dynasty but 
 his highest hopes were frustrated upon the expulsion of 
 the Mongolians from the throne of China. The new dy- 
 nasty, the powerful Ming, would have none of his propa- 
 ganda and the undertaking was given up. For two or 
 three centuries nothing was done by the Roman Church 
 in the sending of missionaries to China, but in 1582 the 
 Jesuits, led by Francis Xavier, Michael Ruggiero, Mitteo 
 Ricci and others made a second attempt to Christianize 
 China, and this attempt was destined to be more successful. 
 Francis Xavier was not able to preach in China as he 
 longed to do, but Ricci established himself in Shanking. 
 By patience and tact he was able to enter Peking and to 
 make that his headquarters. Here he soon made use of 
 his opportunities and by the power of his striking per- 
 sonality and his learning made a deep impression upon 
 the official class. The missionaries imported scientific 
 
Christian Missions in China 79 
 
 instruments and taught astronomy and surveying. They 
 soon made a large place for themselves in public Hfe, and 
 some of the priests were appointed to important political 
 positions. The result, however, was that they were com- 
 pelled sooner or later to take sides in political intrigues 
 and became the objects of envy and suspicion. The time 
 came when they were no longer in favour at the royal 
 palace and the crash seemed to have come when in 1665 
 the leading Jesuits in pubHc office were disgraced and an 
 imperial edict issued against the Roman CathoHc reHgion. 
 They persevered, however, and were able to regain the 
 favour of the emperor, Kang Hsi, who restored them to 
 their former rights and granted liberal toleration for mis- 
 sionary effort throughout the empire. The Jesuits were 
 able men and by reason of their heroic work their con- 
 verts became very numerous throughout the land. At 
 one time it appeared as though the Emperor Kang Hsi 
 himself had become a convert of the Roman Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 Thus having imperial favour and holding pubhc office 
 themselves the Jesuits were indeed a power in China. 
 Had these devoted men been able to continue their work 
 unmolested it would have been a question of merely a 
 generation or two and China might have been added to 
 the number of the countries recognized by the Roman 
 hierarchy as the daughters of the Holy Church. But 
 there soon came a period when the successors to these 
 great men were less able as statesmen than as theologians 
 and soon allowed themselves to enter into a controversy 
 with the Dominican priests with regard to the proper 
 word for God, the worship of Confucius, ancestor wor- 
 ship, and so forth. The Jesuits, influenced by their large 
 political interests, naturally maintained a hberal interpre- 
 
8o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 tation. The worship of Confucius and of ancestors con- 
 stituted to them only civil ceremonies. To the Domini- 
 cans, however, who were jealous for the spiritual welfare 
 of the Church, all these acts were declared idolatrous and 
 their views were sustained by a decision of Innocent X, 
 who issued a decree denouncing the worship of ancestors 
 and of Confucius as idolatrous and not to be tolerated by 
 the Church. The Jesuits, however, did not give up the 
 fight. Within ten years they were able to obtain a de- 
 cree from Pope Alexander VII, in which their position 
 was sustained and approved. If things had been left 
 alone at this stage of the controversy, disaster might have 
 been averted, but the whole question was laid before the 
 Chinese emperor, Kang Hsi, and naturally, as the head 
 of the Chinese nation, he decided that the worship of 
 Confucius and of ancestors were national and civil rites, 
 but that the disputed point, the worship of heaven, was 
 in fact the worship of the true god. This decision was 
 sent to the Pope (Clement XI) who repudiated the views 
 of the heathen emperor and claimed for himself the right 
 to govern matters relating to the Church. On the other 
 hand the emperor refused to recognize the authority of 
 the pope in his domain and refused the right to live in 
 China to missionaries who did not agree with his views 
 in these matters. The missionaries got themselves into 
 a dilemma, and the whole question brought about a re- 
 action in the mind of Emperor Kang Hsi. He finally 
 issued an edict, by which a large number of missionaries 
 were banished from the land. Only a few of the Jesuits 
 whom he thought subservient to his views were permit- 
 ted to remain, and the Catholic converts were persecuted 
 in many parts of the land. 
 
 The following Emperor, Chien Lung (1736- 1795), not 
 
Christian Missions in China 8l 
 
 only banished every foreign missionary from China, but 
 ordered all his subjects who had hitherto embraced the 
 doctrines of the Roman Church to recant or to suffer 
 death. The persecutions which followed were as ter- 
 rible as Christians ever experienced. Thus the splendid 
 work of the heroic missionaries of that period was oblit- 
 erated. And yet, strange to say, after the treaty of 1858, 
 which granted toleration to the Roman Catholic Church 
 in her modern attempt to carry on mission work in 
 China, a surprising number of the descendants of the old 
 Catholic converts were found to have remained true to 
 the faith of their parents and ancestors. They continued 
 to worship God secretly in their own way for over two 
 generations, and only after the toleration edict did they 
 dare to become known again as Catholics. 
 
 The introduction of Christianity into China during the 
 nineteenth century is a chapter that is intimately con- 
 nected with the international wars and treaties made 
 along the coast of China. The policy of the Chinese 
 Government has been a consistent opposition to granting 
 commercial treaties to the Western nations and the pre- 
 vention, if possible, of the introduction of Christianity by 
 foreign missionaries. To France belongs the honour of 
 inducing the government to repeal the persecuting inter- 
 dicts of the past century and to issue an edict of tolera- 
 tion. This was accomplished in 1844. It granted the 
 right to missionaries to live in the five open ports of 
 Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Shanghai and Chefoo, and to 
 travel inland within a radius of twenty miles. The 
 United States Government, together with Great Britain, 
 was able through its agents to have the following tolera- 
 tion clause inserted in the treaty of Tientsin in 1858. It 
 reads : " Art. 29. The principles of the Christian re- 
 
82 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 ligioii as professed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 Churches are recognized as teaching men to do good and 
 to do to others as they would have others do to them. 
 Hereafter those who quietly teach and profess these doc- 
 trines shall not be harassed or persecuted on account of 
 their faith. Any person, whether a citizen of the United 
 States or a Chinese convert, who according to these 
 tenets, peaceably teaches and practices the principles of 
 Christianity shall in no wise be interfered with or 
 molested." 
 
 The Chinese Government had shown from the very 
 beginning of its intercourse with Western nations an atti- 
 tude that was not only unreasonable but positively 
 abusive at times and there seemed to be no other course 
 open but to compel her by force to treat Western nations 
 with that respect and courtesy laid down in international 
 law. But China does not learn easily, and lessons once 
 learned are soon forgotten by the rulers of the Celestial 
 Empire. Thus the punishment inflicted by England in 
 1840, the seizure of Hongkong and the opening of treaty 
 ports, were forgotten or disregarded and the same policy 
 of treating European nations as vassals and inferiors was 
 resumed soon after. Such treatment was too much for 
 Great Britain, and when the opportunity offered itself in 
 the arbitrary destruction of the lorcha Arrow with her 
 cargo of opium another conflict with China was begun. 
 The city of Canton was soon at the mercy of the British 
 ships, but the imperial government at Peking refused to 
 make peace. At this point France united her forces 
 with England and after a short struggle the city was cap- 
 tured. England demanded more concessions for her 
 trade and a large indemnity, while France insisted upon 
 the extension of privileges to Christian missions, besides 
 
Christian Missions in China 83 
 
 receiving a specific amount of money for indemnity. 
 These new concessions to French Catholic priests were 
 afterwards also granted to English and American mis- 
 sionaries by reason of the " most favoured nation " 
 clause, by which is understood that concessions granted 
 to citizens of one nation by treaty are to be granted to 
 the citizens of another country having a treaty, without 
 any special negotiation. 
 
 France, as is well known, claims the protectorate over 
 all Roman Catholic missions in China. This has given 
 that government an opportunity to make a place of great 
 influence for herself in diplomatic relations with China. 
 In return for this favour shown to her by the Roman 
 CathoHc Church, France, through her minister at Peking 
 and her consuls throughout China, has always been at 
 the service of the Catholic missionaries. For many years 
 the French minister had urged China to grant to all the 
 Roman Catholic missionaries an official status according 
 to their grade. After many refusals it was finally 
 granted. On the fifteenth of March, 1899, the Chinese 
 Government published an imperial decree in which 
 political status is given to each order of the Roman 
 Catholic hierarchy. To quote from the decree : 
 
 " It has been agreed that local authorities shall exchange 
 visits with missionaries under conditions indicated in the 
 following articles : — 
 
 " In the different degrees of the ecclesiastical hierarchy 
 bishops being in the rank and dignity the equals of 
 viceroys and governors, it is agreed to authorize them to 
 demand to see viceroys and governors. . . . 
 
 " Vicars-general and archdeacons will be authorized to 
 demand to see provincial treasurers, judges and taotais. 
 
 " Other priests will be authorized to demand to see 
 
84 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 prefects of the first and second class, independent prefects 
 and other functionaries. 
 
 " These functionaries will naturally respond, according 
 to their rank, with the same courtesies." 
 
 Attention was at once called to the fact that under the 
 *' most favoured nation " clause the decree applied equally 
 to Protestant missions and that communications had been 
 addressed to Protestant missions acquainting them with 
 their new privileges. It is needless to say that not one 
 Protestant missionary accepted the offer of the Chinese 
 Government. We could not afford to compromise our 
 position as spiritual leaders for any honours of a heathen 
 nation. For the Roman Catholic priests, however, it 
 meant a great deal. Now they could flaunt their polit- 
 ical power in the faces of the heathen and compel the 
 magistrates to recognize them as equals. They soon 
 had large crowds of people flocking to their missions all 
 over the empire. The French legation and consulates 
 were overwhelmed with lawsuits that were reported to 
 them by the priests in behalf of their converts. I have 
 seen a French priest recognize men as converts who 
 were about to be arrested and cast into prison for crimes 
 committed, and for a money consideration or the promise 
 of a donation towards his building fund, would demand 
 from the magistrate that the man be left unmolested or 
 else he (the priest) would carry the case to the French 
 consul, who naturally would complain about the magis- 
 trate to the viceroy. The magistrate, fearing results of 
 being reported to his superiors, would give orders to let 
 the man go. On another occasion two men were sen- 
 tenced to imprisonment for assault and robbery. These 
 men, fearing the arm of the law, had united with the 
 French Catholic Mission only a few days previous, but 
 
Christian Missions in China 85 
 
 this was ground enough to enable the French priests to 
 demand the immediate release of the prisoners. And 
 the request was granted. One can easily imagine what 
 the effect of such actions would be in a country like 
 China, where at any time a large percentage of the people 
 have lawsuits of some kind pending. Thousands hurried 
 to the French mission and by bribing the native priest 
 were made to appear to the priest as regular adherents to 
 the faith. In all cases some aid is rendered. Conditions 
 at Kityang were such at one time that the magistrate 
 was in abject fear of the power of the French priest. 
 The native priest was looked upon as the most important 
 person in the whole district. None of the Confucian 
 literati, who usually are supposed to have influence at 
 the yamen, would dare to try conclusions at court with 
 him. Fortunately such a state of things does not last 
 very long; in China changes do sometimes come about 
 very suddenly. As a rule the native priests are men of 
 very humble origin, and having had no discipline over 
 themselves from early childhood, nor even understanding 
 the law of self-discipline, they as a rule run to excess. 
 The opportunities for making money without the French 
 priest's knowledge, in the case of which we write, were 
 too great and ever present to be resisted. " When 
 Jeshurun waxed fat, he " — well it is the same story ; in 
 time he failed to be as submissive towards the French 
 priest, his master, as he ought to have been. He was 
 soon discharged and in order to prevent him from con- 
 tinuing to make money his discharge was reported at 
 the yamens. Such changes are frequently made, and the 
 discharged person at once leaves the city for fear of the 
 many enemies who are waiting for an opportunity to 
 even up an old score. 
 
86 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 While we must admit that the French CathoHc mis- 
 sions do attract large numbers of men, it is but just to 
 say that much of their work is composed of hay and 
 stubble. Only a small percentage of the adherents are 
 true believers. We must give the priests credit for recog- 
 nizing this to be so, for they are slow in receiving these 
 men into their church. It is an open boast of hundreds 
 of Catholic adherents that they are not expected to at- 
 tend religious service every Sunday ; three times a year 
 is all that is required of them and they tell this to some 
 of our people as though they commiserated the Chris- 
 tians who had to go to church every Sunday. There 
 are thousands enrolled upon the books of the Roman 
 Catholic missions, who have never given the spiritual 
 claims of the Church more than a passing thought, but 
 who simply have their names upon the list that in 
 case any trouble should arise they may find powerful 
 " friends " to aid them. This costs something, but it 
 gives assurance. 
 
 That this condition of affairs does not redound to the 
 credit of foreign missions stands to reason. Many of the 
 best people are filled with disgust and anger to think 
 that the foreigner should allow himself to be misled by 
 men who have no reputation themselves and who are in 
 constant strife with their neighbours. It becomes still 
 more unfortunate when converts of evangelical missions 
 become involved in trouble with a convert of a Roman 
 Catholic mission. The usual method of procedure on 
 the part of the evangelical mission is to place the case in 
 the hands of a trusted preacher to bring about an arbi- 
 tration. The Roman Catholics alway prefer a lawsuit, 
 for they are almost sure to win out against the other 
 man. It has been the good fortune of the author to 
 
Christian Missions in China 87 
 
 have succeeded in almost every trouble in having the 
 matter settled by arbitration. Still, in two or three cases 
 this was impossible; and although he was morally cer- 
 tain that the cause of his convert was righteous, the 
 magistrate even admitting to him personally that this 
 was so, yet when the time for a decision came pressure 
 from the French priest had been brought to bear, so that 
 the mandarin did not dare render a decision in favour of 
 the Protestant. It will avail very little to complain to 
 our consul about a case. In the first place he is not 
 interested in that sort of thing ; and secondly, it would 
 involve a contest with the French consul. The inter- 
 ference of the Roman Catholic missionaries in lawsuits 
 has embittered many of the natives against missionary 
 work. It sometimes causes riots and even results in the 
 slaughter of the French priests. The matter must be- 
 come an international question and must sooner or later 
 be regulated by the world powers. On the other hand 
 it may be possible that the present agitation against the 
 Roman Catholic Church in France may result in a modi- 
 fication of the custom of her consuls in acting as cham- 
 pions for the Roman Catholic interests. And yet France 
 has gained more politically by this method than has the 
 Roman Catholic hierarchy which she has aided. 
 
 The first evangelical missionary who went to China was 
 Robert Morrison. He was sent under the auspices of the 
 London Missionary Society and sailed for China towards 
 the close of 1806. The East India Company, however, 
 refused to grant him a passage on one of their ships and 
 Morrison was obliged to go to New York and from thence 
 sail to China on a ship of the firm Olyphant and Com- 
 pany, arriving at Canton in 1807. He endured the 
 enmity of the European CathoHc priests, who were 
 
88 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 jealous of his appearance. In 1809 he married and also 
 accepted the position of translator for the East India 
 Company. This gave him a position of security and he 
 was able to give considerable time to the translating of 
 Scriptures and to other literary work besides his official 
 duties. His evangelistic efforts were not successful in the 
 number of converts. He baptized his first convert in 
 1 8 14, seven years after his arrival in China. Morrison, 
 however, did a great work in giving a trustworthy trans- 
 lation of the Holy Scriptures to a people numbering one- 
 fourth of the entire human race. Others have taken up 
 the evangelistic and literary work he laid down and both 
 have made the present success in China possible. 
 
 It would be impossible to review the life work of the 
 numerous faithful servants of God who have laboured in 
 China during the past century. No field ever presented 
 greater obstacles to the gospel, and yet no field ever 
 offered greater prizes. Books have been written concern- 
 ing the work and worth of many of these men. We 
 need only mention the names of Milne, Wilkinson, John 
 Burns, Edkins, Legge, Lechler, Hudson Taylor and a 
 host of others. China has had her quota of missionary 
 lights, and the work of these men's hands has been such 
 as to vindicate the cause of foreign missions. No one 
 factor has been such a constant force for China's awaken- 
 ing as the missionary cause, and no cause has been so 
 helpful in bringing the East to an understanding with the 
 West as this missionary endeavour. At every critical 
 period of China's relation with the West, men of long 
 experience in the missionary movement were called upon 
 to give their own native countries the benefit of their 
 experience. At times some were also selected as agents 
 for the Chinese Government, due to the fact that they 
 
Christian Missions in China 89 
 
 were men of integrity, known as such by the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The present prosperous condition of missionary work 
 in China is due not a little to the foundation work of 
 these able men. 
 
IV 
 
 THE DOMESTIC POLITICAL SITUATION IN CHINA 
 
 The international disturbances of the Far East during 
 the past generation have had their origin to a large ex- 
 tent in the deplorable internal condition of the Chinese 
 Empire. The oldest and largest country in the world 
 has become the prey of the nations because she does not 
 know how to regulate her own domestic affairs. It is 
 still true in international politics as it is in the realm of 
 nature that " wheresoever the carcass is, there will the 
 eagles be gathered together." The fundamental law gov- 
 erning the whole land of China to-day is that might 
 makes right. This principle has controlled the actions 
 of the people for centuries and has brought about the 
 twofold division throughout the entire kingdom : namely, 
 the Strong and the Weak. It is impossible to mention 
 one sphere of life in China where this division does not 
 form the line of demarkation between the privileged and 
 the down-trodden classes. It rules with the greatest ex- 
 actness in the royal palace and courts at Peking. It has 
 complete sway over the destinies of the cities, towns and 
 villages in their relation to one another. Every clan and 
 family is either weaker or stronger than another and ac- 
 cording to that important fact will know its place in 
 life. People upon making acquaintance with one another 
 will usually inquire whether their family or clan belongs 
 to the weaker or the stronger party in their locality. If 
 we ask what are the conditions that determine this hne 
 of cleavage in society it will not be so easy to answer in 
 
 90 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 9I 
 
 a few sentences. In some cases where cities and towns 
 are involved, numbers and courage may be determinative; 
 and yet the author has known instances where a few 
 rich towns were able to control the destinies of a very 
 large territory with such rigour and spirit of injustice 
 that a great struggle resulted, involving nearly a thou- 
 sand villages in a desperate clan fight and costing the 
 lives of over a thousand men before the strife ceased. 
 In this case the Chinese officials made no honest attempt 
 to put down the disorder, but allowed both combatants 
 to struggle for nearly a whole year until both sides were 
 completely exhausted and weary of the strain of constant 
 warfare. Then the government dispatched a large num- 
 ber of soldiers and imposed fines amounting to several 
 tens of thousands of dollars upon the wealthy families 
 for the disturbance of public peace. It would not have 
 paid financially to interfere before this time, as both 
 parties would perhaps have united in attacking and 
 driving out the soldiers, thus causing the military offi- 
 cial's degradation and ruin. But when the psychological 
 — no, let us be exact, — when the financial moment came, 
 troops were sent to burden the towns and villages until 
 they made terms with the government official. This 
 was only accomplished by compelling the wealthy to sell 
 their lands and personal property, thus bringing new 
 disaster upon the people. It sometimes happens that 
 when the terms of settlement imposed by the local 
 magistrates are considered too severe, the people raise a 
 considerable fund and send representatives to some higher 
 official for the purpose of making a money settlement with 
 him, with the ultimate aim of cutting off the local offi- 
 cial from participating in the profits of this " squeeze." 
 This method is not always successful, however, and may 
 
92 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 cause great humiliation to the protesting people. An 
 attempt was made many years ago by the inhabitants of 
 the city of Kityang to have a local (likin) tax removed. 
 Failing to induce the local magistrates to grant their 
 request, the people raised a sum of money and sent ten 
 of their most honourable citizens to the viceroy to lay 
 their complaint before his excellency. They were re- 
 ceived and a feast given in their honour ; much encour- 
 aged, they laid their petition before the viceroy, who, 
 however, had them notified then and there that instead 
 of allowing them to leave the yamen (palace of the gov- 
 ernment official) they were all to be imprisoned. Word 
 was sent to their friends at Kityang that a certain sum of 
 money would have to be paid for each representative ere 
 they could be released. The " squeeze " was enormous, 
 the entire city of Kityang subscribed and the men were 
 redeemed. That was the end of agitation against their 
 local tax, which is enforced against the Kityang people 
 to this day. 
 
 The Government and the People 
 The dynasty ruling China at present is not Chinese, 
 but Manchurian, of the nation considered for centuries 
 the enemy of China and against whose invasions the Great 
 Wall had been built as early as the third century before 
 our era. The Manchus have been successful as no pre- 
 vious dynasty was in adding territories to the empire, 
 and China to-day comprises a larger area of territory than 
 ever before. In order to be fair to the present house one 
 ought to state that some of its rulers have been men of 
 singular ability. They are not inferior to the rulers of 
 past dynasties. Unfortunately for them, they live in a 
 time when their reign is necessarily compared with the 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 93 
 
 enlightened great powers of the world. Having failed to 
 progress much beyond the attainments of former dynasties 
 they stand before the world condemned. The Chinese 
 look upon the Manchu Dynasty as about to pass away. 
 This is partly due to the fact that for the past generation 
 there has been no proper succession to the throne. In 
 order to understand the present complexity regarding the 
 heir it will be necessary to go back some fifty years. At 
 that time Hsien Feng was emperor. One of his secondary 
 wives had the good fortune to present him with an heir 
 to the throne. This happy woman was Tszehi, the present 
 Empress Dowager, who gained a world-wide fame during 
 the Boxer revolt. The emperor at once raised her to the 
 rank of empress, thus placing her on equal rank with the 
 first empress, who, unfortunately for her, did not become 
 a mother of a son to the emperor. It has been a for- 
 tunate circumstance for the dynasty that these two 
 women were able to get along with each other very well 
 and that their political actions were, to the nation at 
 least, in perfect accord and unison. Upon the death of 
 the Emperor Hsien Feng, when the heir to the throne 
 was but a little child, the first empress and dowager 
 Tszehi exercised a regency during his minority; although 
 this was accomplished only by a coup d "etat in which 
 eight of the leading statesmen were beheaded. When 
 the young emperor, who is known under the title of 
 Tung Chih, began to show evidence oi having a mind of 
 his own regarding the policy of his reign he at once 
 caused friction with the two empresses and the ministers 
 supporting their interests. In the midst of this crisis he 
 died without leaving a son as heir to the throne. The 
 two empresses again established a regency and selected 
 as heir to the throne a child four years of age, the son of 
 
94 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the youngest brother of Hsien Feng. The title of Kwang 
 Su, i. e.y " Happy Succession " was given to this young 
 ruler. He is now about thirty-six years old and because of 
 his incHnation towards the reform movement has been 
 shorn of his royal prerogatives and is to-day a nonentity in 
 the pohtical affairs of the empire. Furthermore, there has 
 been no son born to him as heir to the throne and again 
 the Empress Dowager has chosen a young lad as heir to 
 the throne ; but this person has already shown signs of 
 independence of thought and action in a manner not 
 creditable to his reputation, and has been disgraced and 
 the contract regarding the throne cancelled. 
 
 While all this has become known throughout China 
 the people do not seem to concern themselves with the 
 pohtical problems of the dynasty. They protest at times 
 against certain local conditions in a very drastic manner, 
 and often rise up against the unjust action of a magistrate ; 
 instances have been known where the mandarin has been 
 killed by one of these mobs. The people act in this way 
 not in rebellion against the dynasty but simply because 
 of local reasons. The magistrate, on the other hand, 
 having paid a large sum of money to his superior official 
 for the occupancy of the office for a hmited period 
 ( usually for one year) finds it a matter of necessity to 
 dispense justice according to the profit that can be made 
 out of the case. An illustration of this may be helpful to 
 us and may indirectly show us the domestic political 
 situation of China. 
 
 Justice a Purchasable Article 
 There lives in the city of Kityang a scholar of singu- 
 lar ability by the name of Ho Lau la. During the war 
 of China with Japan this man became the private secre- 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 95 
 
 tary to one of the Chinese generals. Upon his return to 
 Kityang Ho Lau la was chosen both by the magistrate 
 and by the most prominent men of the city to become 
 the head-man of the city elders. The latter are the ad- 
 visors to the magistrate and act as aldermen. Ho Lau 
 la was a man given to ideas of reform, and frequently 
 came to the house of the writer and often invited him to 
 his own to meet the leading minds of the city to discuss 
 the merits of Western learning and other reform move- 
 ments. Our relations were almost brotherly. During 
 one of our heart to heart talks about the condition of his 
 country tears flowed down his face as he bewailed the 
 unpromising attitude of the government officials towards 
 the principles of reform, progress and enhghtenment of 
 his country. 
 
 There lived in Swatow a very rich merchant by the 
 name of Sio Kim Thai, who by paying large bribes to the 
 higher officials of the Swatow District obtained per- 
 mission to run two steamers daily between Swatow and 
 the city of Kityang. This undertaking proved a great 
 financial success. This same merchant paid for a long 
 period ^12,000 yearly for the right to control the likin or 
 local tariff upon all merchandise imported into the county 
 of Kityang. Such a monopoly carries with it the right 
 to extort taxes out of the people. Sio Kim Thai was 
 personally a very fair-minded man, but his agents 
 stationed at Kityang to collect the tariff and to manage 
 the affairs of the steamers at that end of the line, were 
 men who made unrighteous use of their powers. Sio 
 Kim Thai also opened a large bank in the city of Kityang, 
 and though a non-resident, he exerted an influence in 
 that city, in both poHtical and commercial affairs, far greater 
 than any other man living at Kityang. This naturally 
 
96 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 caused much jealousy in the city. The very fact that he 
 was obliged by reason of his monopoly of the likin to pay 
 the magistrate, besides the ;^i 2,000 a year, 30,000 cash 
 every morning (about thirty silver dollars) and make a 
 special gift of ;$ioo the fifteenth of every month, made 
 him a "persona grata" with the magistrate, and it was 
 only necessary for him to express a wish as to the result 
 of a case or lawsuit, to gain his desire. This knowledge 
 that no verdict would ever be pronounced against the 
 interests of the Swatow bank, likin monopoly and steam- 
 ship combination made the men connected with these 
 concerns practically reckless. Of their own accord they 
 arrested men and imposed fines. They beat men un- 
 mercifully who perhaps attempted to smuggle goods into 
 the city. In a word, might was right and they practically 
 had the city and the inhabitants in their control. The 
 elders of Kityang attempted to ameliorate this condition 
 but the magistrate would not support them in the matter. 
 After a time it so happened that a relative of Ho Lau la, 
 an old woman, in attempting to board the steamer, fell 
 overboard and was drowned. The Kityang people said 
 that she was rudely pushed by one of the sailors. Every 
 one at once felt that a crisis had come. Many of the 
 strongest men in the city rallied about Ho Lau la, and 
 after some deliberation, it was decided to send a repre- 
 sentative to the noted Sio Kim Thai. The latter was 
 sick at this time and soon died, but his son, Sio Ghee 
 Swan, who took his place, was a scholar and in many 
 respects a shrewd man, for many years a personal friend 
 of the author. He received the Kityang representative 
 and told him to report to Ho Lau la and to the rest of the 
 Kityang people that there was no money to be made out 
 of this case, and that he would rather feed tigers than dogs. 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 97 
 
 The meaning of the latter expression was that he would 
 rather give money to the government officials than to the 
 ordinary people seeking a financial adjustment of their 
 litigation with him. When his reply was reported to the 
 parties concerned their anger knew no bounds. A fund 
 was made up to enter upon a lawsuit against him. 
 When the case was presented to the magistrate he refused 
 to treat it seriously. Ho Lau la had to take it to a 
 superior official, the toatai of Swatow District. This 
 official at once saw that there was money to be made 
 from the case and forthwith sent investigators to 
 Sio Chee Swan to inquire into the matter. These sub- 
 officials were received most kindly, the best of food was 
 prepared for them and when they were about to leave a 
 snug sum of money was pressed into the hands of every 
 one with instructions how to report the case. Ho Lau la 
 had had his innings ; now Sio Chee Swan was to have 
 his. He entered complaint against Ho Lau la at the 
 Theng Hai (Swatow District) yamen, charging him with 
 attempting blackmail and extortion, and with endeavour- 
 ing to injure him in his lawful business. He urged the 
 magistrate to arrest Ho Lau la and place him on trial. 
 There is no question in the mind of the author that this 
 mandarin received a good sum of money to push the 
 case. Investigators were at once sent to the city of 
 Kityang, some fifty miles distant, to arrest Ho Lau la 
 and bring him to the Theng Hai magistrate. Many of 
 the influential men appealed to the Kityang mandarin to 
 prevent these men from another county from arresting a 
 native of Kityang. But he evidently had sold himself 
 for a certain sum and refused to interfere. As the author 
 had been a personal friend of Ho Lau la's for many 
 years an attempt was made to induce him to take up his 
 
(jS The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 case. Ho Lau la and several others of the city elders 
 earnestly besought his aid, but they were told that the 
 author had to be true to the laws of his own country be- 
 fore carrying out any personal desire. It was pitiable to 
 notice the disappointment written upon the face of every 
 man present. The officials from Theng Hai had arrived 
 to arrest Ho Lau la. The Kityang magistrate was in- 
 duced by a money consideration to degrade him by taking 
 his literary title of " Siu Tsai " from him, and also issued 
 a proclamation denouncing him as a dangerous man and 
 calling upon him to confess the wrong he had done to 
 Sio Chee Swan or to pay the penalty of imprisonment. 
 After the writer's refusal to help him by laying the 
 matter before a higher Chinese official, or perhaps re- 
 porting the injustice to the American consul at Canton, 
 there seemed to Ho Lau la no other alternative but to 
 escape from the city as soon as possible, for if he were 
 once taken to the Theng Hai magistrate he might never 
 return alive. In the dead of night he left the city and 
 managed to get to Canton without being arrested. He 
 had friends in Canton, but they could do nothing for him, 
 as the influence of Sio Chee Swan was already making 
 itself felt in the capital of the province. The persecuted 
 man wrote out his case explicitly and made use of the 
 privilege which every citizen of China has to lay his case 
 before his excellency the viceroy. Feeling uncertain as 
 to the effect of this document and partly to protect him- 
 self from the power of Sio Chee Swan he visited the 
 French bishop, who but shortly before this time had been 
 an ordinary missionary priest at Kityang and an ac- 
 quaintance. He told his story and asked for protection 
 and aid. The writer was told some time after this that 
 the bishop asked him why he did not go to his personal 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 99 
 
 friend the American missionary and seek his protection. 
 The position maintained by him regarding matters of 
 such a nature was explained to him. Suffice to say, the 
 bishop not only promised his aid but enrolled him as one 
 of his converts, though he had never before that time 
 attended the worship of the Roman Cathohc Mission. 
 The very day the Roman bishop wrote to the French 
 consul and the viceroy regarding the case, the viceroy, 
 aware that a suit of such moment would bring large 
 sums of money to his court, answered the petition of 
 Ho Lau la and promised to exact justice if his statement 
 regarding Sio Chee Swan should be found true. This 
 notification of the viceroy, however, must be rightly 
 understood. It did not mean that he would see that 
 justice was rendered so much as it did a distinct threat 
 to Sio Chee Swan to let himself be heard from or to 
 stand the consequences. Money being no object to the 
 latter he at once presented his side of the case. Mean- 
 while the powerful influence of the French fell into the 
 scale of Ho Lau la and there at once was a check against 
 any further attempt at arrest and imprisonment. The 
 native daily paper of Swatow, a miserable pubHcation, 
 taking its instructions from Sio Chee Swan, published a 
 series of articles against interference by missionaries in 
 lawsuits which were wholly secular. This was as a pro- 
 test against the French bishop's interference and had 
 nothing to do with the question of religion. In this the 
 paper was right, but it denied its own position by making 
 statements regarding the Christian faith that practically 
 amounted to Boxerism. 
 
 Sio Chee Swan did not propose to let matters drop, 
 in spite of the influence of the French priest. He now 
 spent large sums of money to influence the officials 
 
loo The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 against Ho Lau la and this expenditure of money induced 
 the viceroy to appoint Deputy Judges who were to go 
 from Canton to the Swatow District and investigate the 
 case. This investigation did not result in any change in 
 the situation; both parties were more hostile towards 
 each other than ever. To make a long story short, Ho 
 Lau la had all his honourary titles taken from him, he 
 lost his seat as a member of the city elders, and another 
 scholar, a rival, was appointed in his stead. Sio Chee 
 Swan, on the other hand, still controls the likin tariff of 
 Kityang County and the steamships running from Swatow 
 to Kityang ; the Kityang bank, though boycotted by 
 some, has still a large influence in the city, and taken all to- 
 gether the interests of Sio Chee Swan in Kityang are 
 safer to-day than ever. But to make this a fact he indeed 
 had to feed the tigers. He must have spent many 
 thousands of dollars to accomplish it. We would per- 
 haps reason that it might have been better to have fed 
 the dogs, i. e.^ to have paid a reasonable sum for dam- 
 ages to the relatives of the person drowned. But in 
 China such things are considered differently from what 
 they are in this country. Once Sio Chee Swan admitted 
 the principle of recognizing a claim against his interests, 
 he would have admitted a power higher than himself in 
 the Kityang District which would involve the destruction 
 of his power ; and Ho Lau la understood his conten- 
 tion to mean nothing less than this. Such cases are be- 
 ing fought to-day all over the land and in the last 
 analysis it resolves itself into the principle " might makes 
 right." He who has the longest purse or the biggest 
 club to compel the recognition of his superiority will 
 receive the recognition of the government officials and 
 have his own will. 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China loi 
 
 Some Imperative Reforms 
 Taking this case of Ho Lau la and Sio Chee Swan as 
 an example of the prevalent conditions throughout China, 
 let us deduce certain principles that need to be recognized 
 and adopted by the Chinese Government ere a genuine 
 reformation can be established. 
 
 First. The present system of government must be 
 changed. The methods employed are obsolete and ob- 
 structive to the welfare of the dynasty itself. The 
 Chinese officials are not true to their positions as magis- 
 trates. There must be the reaffirmation of the principle 
 that to hold a pubHc office ♦' involves the responsibilities 
 of seeking the welfare of the people " and not merely an 
 opportunity for self-enrichment. The ancient idea of the 
 Chinese was that the official was the father and mother of 
 the people. They may well drop out the patriarchal 
 idea but get a new hold again upon the idea of responsi- 
 bility. The much praised civil service system of the 
 Chinese Government has degenerated and many men 
 holding official positions have bought the literary de- 
 grees which made them eligible to official life. Every 
 mandarin is obhged to pay a certain sum of money for 
 an official position, the payment of which gives him the 
 right to squeeze as much money out of the people of his 
 district as he can. And he is compelled to do it, if he is 
 to meet his expenses for the year and have enough money 
 to buy another position the following year. Then he 
 must make allowances for special invitations by his 
 superiors to attend the latter's birthday party. All this 
 is a part of the system. 
 
 No wonder that Sir Robert Hart, after observing such 
 methods for many years, should have earnestly urged the 
 Chinese Government to adopt certain reforms. His first 
 
102 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 point was that magistrates and mandarins appointed to 
 any government position should receive a certain stipu- 
 lated salary and that the income of his district, such as 
 land taxes, local tariff, court fines and monopoly taxes 
 should be handed over to the government. The magis- 
 trate of a first class district was to receive 20,000 taels or 
 about 27,000 silver dollars ; a toatai, or head of a depart- 
 ment, was to receive 50,000 taels ; and a governor or 
 viceroy about 100,000. These salaries from our point 
 of view seem to be reasonable, but they are very meagre 
 from the Chinese official's standpoint. And there is 
 little doubt that this was one of the principal reasons why 
 the reform proposals were ignored. 
 
 Second. Sir Robert Hart proposed that the so-called 
 " land tax " be equally distributed. At the present time 
 it is only the peasant, holding land for agriculture, who 
 pays a land tax. No property holder in the city or vil- 
 lage, though he be the owner of a thousand houses, pays 
 a regular tax to the government. After the Boxer revolt 
 and the settlement with the European nations, China in 
 its despair of finding ways and means to raise money to 
 pay the yearly indemnity to the powers, did impose a tax 
 upon each property owner whose house contained more 
 than a certain number of rafters in the roof. This 
 method excluded the very small and humble homes but 
 made the owners of the better houses pay a tax of from 
 one to two dollars. When this became known in the 
 interior there arose a great protest against this unheard-of 
 " squeeze " as they called it and the references made to 
 the foreigners, for whose benefit the money was said to 
 be raised, were anything but complimentary. It was on 
 the whole a shrewd trick of the government to keep 
 awake the hatred against the foreigner. According to 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 103 
 
 Sir Robert Hart's proposal a regular tax for the main- 
 tenance of the government was to be placed upon all 
 property. Corporations were to pay a tax also. Ac- 
 cording to the careful estimates given by Sir Robert 
 Hart there would be an annual surplus of about 300,- 
 000,000 dollars Mexican, which could be used for internal 
 improvements and for the development of the army and 
 the building of an efficient navy. When we consider 
 that the Chinese Government is in a chronic state of 
 bankruptcy it seems surprising that this scheme of reform 
 was not adopted at once. But the fact is, the three most 
 powerful viceroys, all of whom were pure Chinese and not 
 Manchus, opposed the plan of the foreigner. What could 
 have been their underlying motive for opposing it? 
 They did mention that the great Manchu Dynasty did 
 not need to adopt measures of a foreigner, which might 
 only further the power of the latter in China. But one 
 cannot help wondering whether they were afraid of hav- 
 ing such large sums of money as were proposed by Sir 
 Robert Hart sent out of China proper to the Manchus, 
 and thus simply enrich the dynasty at the expense of the 
 Chinese people. Furthermore, it is customary that if any 
 proposals are adopted by the government, the man mak- 
 ing the proposals is appointed to inaugurate them. Now 
 Sir Robert Hart, though an Englishman, is still a full- 
 fledged Chinese mandarin of very high degree. To have 
 adopted his measures would have meant to appoint a 
 foreigner to one of the foremost of all governmental 
 positions. Hence the opposition. Still, China will have 
 to reconsider her decision, for no true reform can be es- 
 tablished until these ideas are put into practice. 
 
 Third. The Chinese code of law must be remodelled. 
 Their codification of law is very crude. The dispensing 
 
104 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 of justice is arbitrary and as we have seen in the case 
 reviewed, often unsatisfactory. China has made but 
 feeble attempts to remodel her internal laws up to the 
 present time, though a commission of able men has been 
 appointed to consider the subject. How much wiser did 
 not the Japanese statesmen act in this matter ! When 
 they realized their deficiency in this respect they at once 
 set to work to reconstruct their national code, on the 
 basis of the ancient and modern European codes. After 
 the adoption of the new code it was the honest enforce- 
 ment of it which was the greatest proof to the world that 
 Japan had entered upon a new era ; and soon she won for 
 herself the respect of the powers. Not only this, but the 
 restrictions of ex-territoriality, at one time imposed upon 
 her by the powers, were in due time cancelled and Japan 
 was recognized as a state coequal with European powers. 
 But with China all this is different in spite of the example 
 of Japan for the past fifty years. She had up to a short 
 time ago persistently set her face as flint against any 
 attempt to remodel her internal laws, using the same 
 methods of legal procedure that were used in the days 
 of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. It will be 
 impossible for the nations to recognize her on an equal 
 footing, or to allow her to try any European as long as 
 she fails to reform her own national laws. 
 
 Fourth. The local spirit setting itself against the in- 
 terests of the country must cease. What we mean is 
 this. A clan may take a dislike to the building of a rail- 
 road through its territory and may cause unlimited 
 trouble to the railroad builders and to the government on 
 the grounds of *' fung shui " and the graves of their an- 
 cestor. The same also holds with regard to the opening 
 of mines. Up to the present time the policy of the 
 
Domestic Political Situation in China 105 
 
 Chinese has been to consider the interests of their own 
 locality paramount to all others. The dynasty is of little 
 consequence as long as their local interests are not inter- 
 fered with. How to overcome this is a grave problem. 
 Nothing but education can solve it; and it seems that 
 this education must be Christian in order to sweep away 
 the cobwebs of superstition and idolatry. Two years ago 
 the Japanese attempted to build a small railroad from 
 Swatow to the large city of Chaochowfu. The engineers 
 planned the road to pass through a plain among a num- 
 ber of villages. As the Japanese coolies began to work 
 in the neighbourhood the inhabitants of the villages drove 
 them away, kiUing two of them. The Japanese retaliated 
 by killing quite a number of the Chinese. The case was 
 reported to the central government and large claims for 
 indemnity were made by the Japanese. Commissioners 
 were appointed to settle the matter and it is said the vil- 
 lages were severely punished. This goes to illustrate 
 that villages will not recognize the right of a franchise 
 received from the central government if they believe that 
 it will injure their " fung shui " or the " good luck " of 
 their vicinity. It is a matter of life and death to them, 
 government or no government. It indirectly goes to 
 show that the Japanese are not as careful as they ought 
 to be as an Asiatic power in ignoring the prejudices and 
 superstitions of the Chinese. However, to do so under 
 all circumstances would simply mean the abandonment 
 of every innovation. It will need a wiser government 
 than the present to cope successfully with this great 
 problem of the relation between local and national in- 
 terests. 
 
V 
 
 THE POWER OF SUPERSTITION AND DEMONOLOGY 
 OVER THE MINDS OF THE CHINESE 
 
 The writer finds it necessary to confess at the outset 
 of this lecture that the subject which we are about to con- 
 sider does not appeal to him. Still to have ignored the 
 subject of the power of superstition and the behef in 
 demonology would have been to neglect one of the most 
 important factors in the every-day life of the average 
 Chinese. 
 
 The subject is indeed a world by itself and if we were 
 determined to understand the system of Chinese supersti- 
 tion it would be necessary to renounce our reason and 
 common sense and become absolutely foolish. But we 
 must not judge the Chinese in the same manner. With 
 them it is a matter of " race inheritance," of environment 
 and involuntary training. Almost every act in the life 
 of the Chinese is bound in some way or other with su- 
 perstition and belief in evil spirits. This slavery to gross 
 ignorance is largely due to the influence of the home life. 
 The children of the best families do not escape the evil 
 effect of the superstitions of their mothers. Nor must we 
 blame these poor women. They receive no education in 
 books whatever. It is a common thing to hear of a 
 woman who has spent ten or twenty years of her life in 
 one building without having gone more than one hundred 
 yards from her abode in all that time. Many govern- 
 ment officials often show in public life the effects of their 
 early training by their superstitious mothers ; we have 
 
 io6 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 107 
 
 had officials at Kityang that were as superstitious as the 
 most ignorant peasant. For instance, no new official 
 coming to Kityang will ever attempt to enter the city 
 except through a certain gate, though that way to his 
 yamen is longer. He believes in a " lucky " and an '< un- 
 lucky " gate as everybody else does and it is an impor- 
 tant matter to enter the " lucky " gate in order to insure 
 prosperity and felicity during his term of service in that 
 city. He will make provision to have incense offered at 
 the city gates to prevent evil spirits from entering the 
 city. In seasons of drought or when there has been too 
 much rain and the crops are threatened, he will issue 
 proclamations forbidding the slaughter of cattle. The 
 eating of flesh is supposed to represent an irreverent 
 spirit. At the time of the spring solstice all officials from 
 the great emperor down to the magistrate plow the field 
 with the aid of an ox and in the presence of their retinue 
 go through ceremonies that are to insure a good crop of 
 grain to the people. If this does not happen the em- 
 peror takes all the blame upon himself and does penance. 
 The literati, the best educated men in China, are equally 
 superstitious. The teachings of Confucius are not suf- 
 ficiently positive to prevent the best of scholars from ob- 
 serving the absurd rites of the superstitious and ignorant 
 people. To refuse to conform to the usual customs and 
 ceremonies would cost them a good deal of unpleasant 
 experience with their fellow men. The average Confucian 
 scholar is a man who moves along the lines of least re- 
 sistence. The author did know one scholar in Kit- 
 yang, not a Christian, who refused to worship any of the 
 idols and who would not allow any Buddhist or Taoist 
 priests to officiate at a funeral in the family. For this 
 independence the man was considered by some to be 
 
lo8 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 possessed with a malignant spirit who would lead him to 
 sure destruction. Others maintained that he had been 
 influenced by the strange magic of the foreign mission- 
 ary and that sooner or later he would become a victim of 
 the foreigner's teachings and become a Christian. The 
 Confucian scholars have a god of their own, who is sup- 
 posed to be the dispenser of literary merit. To him one 
 must go and seek favour ere one can hope for success at 
 the civil service examination and obtain the desired de- 
 gree. Most of the scholars carry some kind of a charm 
 or amulet on their person. They have a superstitious 
 reverence for paper upon which something has been 
 written. If such a piece of paper were found to lie upon 
 the road no scholar and very few other Chinese would dare 
 pass by without picking it up and placing it in a re- 
 ceptacle which may be found in every village and town 
 for this very use. The paper thus gathered is burned at 
 specific periods by some person appointed by the 
 scholars of the place. At one time I happened to be 
 thrown in company with a scholar in Weichow District 
 who was on his way to the important government ex- 
 aminations at Canton. We were stopping at the same 
 inn and this gave me an opportunity to note the super- 
 stitions of a Chinese scholar. He frequently offered in- 
 cense to the idols of the inn. When the time came to 
 start the day's journey he lighted the joss or incense 
 sticks and fastened them to the sedan chair, in order to 
 appease the evil spirits of the road and insure for himself 
 a prosperous journey. 
 
 But if the educated men of the nation are given to 
 superstition and absurdities what then is the condition of 
 the poor and ignorant class ? The curse of superstition 
 increases as the burdens of life press heavier. The peasant 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 109 
 
 adopts means to insure his small field from becoming pos- 
 sessed with evil spirits. He will place incense sticks, 
 worship paper and cooked food on his field to appease 
 and ward them off. Should he meet with an accident or 
 be taken sick while at work in the field, he will take it as a 
 sign that the evil powers have taken possession of his 
 field. He at once fears for the safety of his life and in 
 many cases refuses any longer to plow or to work in that 
 field. It is abandoned and known as a *' haunted field." 
 The Chinese Christians are wholly emancipated from the 
 fear of evil spirits and in many cases are able to obtain 
 possession of these supposed " haunted fields " for a small 
 sum of money. Some of them have been able to rise 
 from a condition of poverty to a position of easy circum- 
 stances by this method. The pagans, of course, can- 
 not understand the daring of the Christians. To them 
 the temerity of such a course is inviting certain destruction. 
 The fact that Christians escape unharmed for the time 
 being is only accounted for by supposing that the Chris- 
 tian possesses a secret of magic. 
 
 " Haunted houses " are very common. A band of 
 Christians in the village of Cie Chng were very eager to 
 obtain a building to use as a meeting-house. After con- 
 siderable deliberation they concluded to ask for the use 
 of the neglected and partly dilapidated ancestral temple. 
 This building, at one time the best in the village, had 
 been abandoned many years before because the site had 
 been condemned as the cause of the retrogression of the 
 entire clan and the degeneration of the village. The 
 spirits of the ancestors, it was said, were no longer will- 
 ing to make their abode in the temple and the evil spirits 
 had taken possession of it. A new temple for the spirits 
 of the ancestors was built immediately at considerable 
 
110 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 cost and the old building allowed to decay. The village 
 experienced quite a shock when it became known that 
 the Christians had expressed the desire to make use of 
 this " haunted temple " of the ancestors as a house of 
 worship. Relatives and friends tried to show them the 
 terrible consequences of their foolhardiness. Others 
 more opposed to their religion, but not as benevolent, 
 were willing that they should try their luck with the 
 building. They expected of course that the results would 
 be disastrous to the Christians and therefore be an effect- 
 ive check to their optimistic faith and a barrier to further 
 growth of the new religion at Cie Chng. The Christians 
 renovated the old temple and a day was set for formal 
 occupation. A number of Christians came from Kit- 
 yang, Chim Khe and Mi O to celebrate the great event. 
 Some of the visitors brought beautiful scrolls which were 
 hung upon the walls of the temple. Many of the villagers 
 were certain that the day would result in some calamity 
 and that some Christian would die or at least become ill 
 by reason of his daring to enter the abode of evil 
 spirits. But as the day wore on, many, seeing the 
 spiritual joy of the believers, came to the conclusion that 
 the followers of Jesus Christ had the power of expelling 
 evil spirits from a temple of the ancestors as they did 
 from the Buddhist temple at Mi O some time before. 
 This method of reasoning on the part of the heathen re- 
 sulted in quite a number in the village becoming Chris- 
 tians. Many, however, still believe to this very day that 
 we are casting out the evil spirits through the agency of 
 spirits more malignant and of greater power. 
 
 Men and women are given to making pilgrimages to a 
 distant temple, where they hope to obtain favour from the 
 idols and a favourable answer to their earnest petitions. 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology in 
 
 I have frequently met men and women as they returned 
 from these trips and have always been impressed with 
 their serious demeanour. I have frequently tried to enter 
 into conversation with them, in order to tell them of One 
 who has taken upon Himself our griefs and burdens, but 
 I always found them very reticent, due to the fact, as I was 
 told, that they considered themselves still under the influ- 
 ence of their great god to whom they had gone, and who 
 had at last given them what they had sought so long. 
 They believed that any conversation with man would 
 have the effect of effacing this mysterious influence. Some 
 even refuse to talk for many days with their fellow pil- 
 grims and neighbours. As time passes, however, they 
 realize to their dismay that they were only deluded. Un- 
 der such conditions they always receive the message of 
 the native evangelist or foreign missionary with intense 
 eagerness. Many believe on Christ the very first time 
 they hear the message, and though they do not know 
 much of Christian truth, they are to all intents true dis- 
 ciples, for they want to learn to live the Christian life. 
 When Christ comes into their lives the thraldom of super- 
 stition and fear of evil spirits cease. They take the amu- 
 lets and charms which they had been carrying on their 
 bodies and throw them away. In a coin collection be- 
 longing to the author there are such coin-amulets, some 
 of them nearly 2,000 years old, that had been worn by 
 Chinese women to insure them the good fortune of be- 
 coming mothers of boys. Other coins are noted for me- 
 dicinal use, and if certain parts are swallowed will cure 
 malignant fevers, and one coin is said to heal a fractured 
 bone, if tied to the injured spot. 
 
112 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Superstition in Public Life 
 In times of peace and plenty one might pass through 
 a number of cities and towns of China and not be cogni- 
 zant of any absurd superstition. But in times of plague, 
 famine, or an uprising, the whole country becomes an 
 excited mob, ready to carry out any measure which will 
 appease the gods and insure the usual tranquillity again. 
 A few years ago the bubonic plague, or " black death," 
 broke out in the city of Kityang. The inhabitants at 
 once made arrangements to humour the spirits of the an- 
 cestors and the gods. A large number of theatre plays 
 were set up nightly all over the city, and the idols were 
 brought out of the temples and given the most conspicu- 
 ous places to see the plays. But the coming together of 
 such large numbers of the inhabitants every night, standing 
 crowded close up to one another, did not relieve the city 
 of the plague, no matter how much the idols may have 
 enjoyed themselves. 
 
 Instead of a few scores of people dying every day hun- 
 dreds succumbed. Men grew very excited. Some claimed 
 to have received messages from the gods to become " me- 
 diums" to lead the people out of distress and death. In 
 order to insure belief on the part of the people, these men 
 would demand that red-hot charcoals be laid upon the 
 ground, and they would deliberately walk upon this path 
 of hot coals barefooted. Others would wash their bodies 
 with boiling oil, carry red-hot iron between their teeth, 
 lie upon nails driven through boards, the nails entering 
 deep into the flesh; some would stab a long iron rod 
 through both cheeks and hold the rod in place by biting 
 upon it with their teeth ; another would have a ladder 
 made of swords and knives and would walk up and down 
 barefooted upon the sharp blades, bleeding terribly, of 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 113 
 
 course. The people follow implicitly the dictates of such 
 men. They are considered to be possessed with a spirit that 
 can bring disaster or prosperity upon any individual fam- 
 ily, or even upon the whole community. When the peo- 
 ple were dying at the rate of two hundred a day the writer 
 happened one morning to be standing outside his gate, 
 close by the river. He heard the noise of a large crowd 
 of men coming down the road from the direction of the 
 newly built chapel. As the mob came closer he saw they 
 were carrying a man upon a few planks of wood, through 
 which long nails had been driven. The man was bleed- 
 ing profusely from the wounds the nails were making in 
 his body. He also had thrust an iron rod through both 
 cheeks and was holding it between his teeth. The crazy 
 glare of his eyes, the white of his teeth and the blood 
 flowing down his face, was a sight not soon to be forgot- 
 ten. I at once realized that the coming of the mob from 
 the city along our road, which terminates at a ferry in 
 front of our mission gate, involved certain elements of dan- 
 ger. It was too late to retreat into the house, lest this 
 fellow interpret my going as the result of fear, and con- 
 coct some plan detrimental to our entire mission plant. 
 For a moment he glared at me fiercely, while I tried to 
 appear interested. Had he cried out then and there that 
 it was the foreign missionary who was the cause of the 
 terrible plague, that he must be killed and the mission 
 houses destroyed, he would have been obeyed at once, 
 regardless of future consequences. But this incident was 
 to end in a comedy. The "possessed" looked in another 
 direction towards the ferry and commanded that he be 
 taken into one of the ferry boats. Immediately the few 
 boats were filled, and ere they had rowed more than one 
 hundred feet from the shore, he cried out, "The water at 
 
1 14 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 this place is good to use. Let everybody in the city come 
 out and get water here to wash himself and to clean his 
 house." With this they all came ashore, and, with cries 
 and exultation, made for the city. Soon crowds came with 
 pails and buckets to dip water at the ferry in front of 
 our mission. I tried to tell some of the "water of life," 
 but they were all intensely excited. Meanwhile, the 
 plague continued to carry off hundreds of victims. 
 
 The people fear the evil influences of certain localities 
 in every district. Thus the inhabitants of the city of 
 Kityang fear the evil spirits that are constantly attempt- 
 ing to enter the city from the northeast. It is a fact, 
 moreover, that the northeastern portion of the city had 
 been the most disreputable for generations up to fifteen 
 years or so ago. This was partly due to the fact that 
 numerous piratical attacks were made upon the inhabit- 
 ants living outside the northeast gate and also perhaps 
 to the destruction of a village close to that locality by 
 the marauders prowling up and down the river. In the 
 year 1893 Dr. Wm. Ashmore bought a site close to the 
 ruins of this village and just alongside the newly estab- 
 lished headquarters of the steam launch company, which 
 had placed two excellent launches on the river to run 
 between Swatow and Kityang city. A two-storied mis- 
 sion cottage was erected without any difficulty, and later 
 on a larger building to be used for hospital. Then two 
 high dwelling houses were put up and a large building 
 for worship, and at the present time the mission is erect- 
 ing a hospital higher and larger than the former building 
 and in all these undertakings there has been no protest 
 on the part of the " doctors of the fung shui " supersti- 
 tion. On the contrary, they have given out the state- 
 ment that the higher the walls of buildings on the north- 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 115 
 
 east side the more fortunate will it be to the whole 
 city. These mission buildings are therefore according 
 to these wiseacres a distinct blessing and the fact that the 
 authorities of the " fung shui " system have said so has 
 checked the animosity and fears of a hundred thousand 
 people. The opening of the steam launch Hne running 
 twice a day from Kityang to Swatow has brought the 
 business centre nearer to the northeast gate and to-day 
 there is no section of the city so prosperous as that close 
 to the mission headquarters. The founders of the mis- 
 sion builded better than they could know when they 
 selected the east side of the city. Had they gone to the 
 west side they would have had no end of trouble in 
 erecting mission buildings. There the system of " fung 
 shui " would have demanded that the houses should not 
 obstruct the '* good influences " from entering the city, 
 and perhaps the missionaries might not have been 
 allowed to build there at all. There seems to be there- 
 fore a method in their superstition and if one could 
 always hit upon the proper thing one need have but very 
 little trouble with the Chinese. Shortly after the author 
 had erected a large dwelHng and the commodious house 
 of worship at Kityang, a member of one of the foremost 
 families came to his house and offered him several hun- 
 dred dollars if he would seek a suitable site as a grave 
 for his deceased father. The man had to be told that 
 while the missionaries did give attention to proper loca- 
 tion for their mission dwellings, they were not yet pre- 
 pared to enter the " fung shui " business ! 
 
 The Belief of the Common People in Demonology 
 
 The Chinese people beHeve in demoniacal possession 
 
 as sincerely as we do in the laws of gravitation. To 
 
li6 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 them, whether pagan or Christian, there is no doubt as 
 to the reality of demons. The foreign missionary in 
 China, however, is very reticent in expressing any opin- 
 ion on the subject. In the course of years he comes 
 across many cases of lunacy and epilepsy which the 
 Chinese persist in calling demoniacal possession. This 
 is due to their lack of knowledge in pathology. Still, 
 when a whole race like the Chinese believe in such a 
 thing one is likely to come across some very peculiar 
 cases. It may be of interest to relate a few curious inci- 
 dents in connection with this behef which came under 
 the author's observation. 
 
 The first case is that of Chiap Pheng, a young fellow 
 of twenty-five years. He was a respectable lad before 
 becoming addicted to the gambling habit. After he be- 
 came a gambler he neglected every duty of his life. He 
 worshipped the idols of the gamblers with a great deal 
 of zest and soon gained the reputation among his fellow 
 gamesters of being able to direct men how to worship the 
 idols so as to insure success in their play. Finally he 
 himself was worshipped by some of the gamblers. He 
 seemed to be dissatisfied with his condition and longed 
 to be able to break away from the life he was leading. 
 But the temptations and the companionship of the gam- 
 blers seemed to have a superhuman hold upon him. One 
 day he fell in with an evangelist, who preached Christ 
 Jesus to him. Chiap Pheng knew nothing of book learn- 
 ing though he was naturally a bright and intelligent man. 
 The truths he heard seemed to make a deep impression 
 upon him and he longed more than ever to find relief. 
 The more he thought about it the worse his condition 
 seemed to become. He threw himself into the worship- 
 ping of the idols of gamblers with such intensity that he 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 117 
 
 seemed to himself another person. His fellows made 
 matters worse by worshipping him as a medium for 
 obtaining good luck. In a condition of semi-insanity he 
 strayed into a prayer-meeting one Friday night in the 
 autumn of 1896. There were perhaps a dozen or more 
 Chinese Christians present besides the missionaries. 
 Nothing unusual occurred until we all knelt to pray, 
 when Chiap Pheng arose with a loud cry and began to 
 run about the room shouting at the top of his voice, 
 " Siang-ti lai Ho, Siang-ti lai lio ! " '• God has come, 
 God has come ! " Soon after we arose Chiap Pheng fell 
 heavily upon the hard tile floor as though he had been 
 thrown. He remained unconscious for a few minutes. 
 The Christians present said that a demon had taken 
 possession of him and prayers were offered in his behalf. 
 As he came to himself he began to foam about the mouth 
 and uttered words like these : " Chi kai nang in sok 
 Jaso, i sok uhy' i. e., " This man does not belong to Jesus, 
 he belongs to me." In all the years since this happened 
 the last clause, — •* he belongs to me," has bothered the 
 writer more than anything else. Who is it that is speak- 
 ing in the first person ? 
 
 The Chinese Christians remained together long after the 
 missionaries retired. I was not a little surprised to find 
 Chiap Pheng in the chapel the next morning eating his 
 rice and seemingly a changed man. The pastor of the 
 Kityang church and the evangelist continued to instruct 
 him in Christian truth, and he remained several days ab- 
 sorbing all the instruction he was able. His return to his 
 native village caused considerable comment. People 
 saw that the once half-demented Chiap Pheng seemed to 
 be actually of a right mind, and what was equally re- 
 markable he took no interest in gambHng whatever. The 
 
li8 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 surprise, however, soon changed into disgust when it be- 
 came known that Chiap Pheng had become a Christian 
 and that he was preaching the new religion to all the 
 people. His aged father was influenced by the village 
 elders to endeavour to compel him to worship the ances- 
 tors. If he refused he was told that he could not remain 
 in the village. A great crisis came to Chiap Pheng when 
 he was pressed not only by his father but by all the 
 elders of the village to show his filial piety by the wor- 
 ship of his ancestors. He felt that he ought to have 
 nothing to do with any other worship but that of the 
 living God through Jesus Christ. However, being inex- 
 perienced and not realizing any bad results, he soon sur- 
 rendered to the demands of the elders and of his father. 
 He worshipped and sacrificed to the tablets of the ances- 
 tors, with the result that ere the sun had set that very 
 day he was as irrational as ever and had to be dragged 
 from the gaming tables. Fortunately he was soon found 
 by one of the Christians, who brought him to the chapel, 
 where it is said a somewhat similar scene took place to 
 the one at the prayer meeting. I did not see him under 
 the condition of relapse but met him shortly after he was 
 restored to a normal condition again. I heard the pastor 
 tell him how to avoid all such temptations and that for 
 the present it might be best for him not to return to his 
 pagan home. From that time until the present day 
 Chiap Pheng has proved himself a faithful Christian. He 
 has a considerable gift in preaching, and though he does 
 not receive any salary for his services he frequently goes 
 to some outstation to preach on a Sunday. 
 
 In times of great excitement there is sure to be some 
 manifestation of persons said to be possessed with 
 demons. Men who are perfectly sane at other times are 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 119 
 
 suddenly " possessed " and act, it is said, as though they 
 were under the power of some one else. In the Kityang 
 District the pagans call such persons " Tang ki," i. e.^ 
 " medium." They are greatly feared and their com- 
 mands are always obeyed, even though they cause great 
 inconvenience. In a town called Kau Nam, with over 
 5,000 inhabitants, during a period of intense excitement 
 a " medium " came forth from a temple and claimed to 
 have received a message from the idols. After undergo- 
 ing several feats of self-torture in order to insure belief, 
 he gave his message to the people of the town. It con- 
 sisted in a denunciation of the plan of construction of the 
 whole village. The approach to the village was wrong 
 and invited the evil spirits to enter instead of warding 
 them off. The house fronts had to be changed to the 
 opposite side. All the doors and windows on the front 
 had to be closed with masonry. Within a few days after 
 this message had been delivered denouncing the " fung 
 shui " of the town the entire population was busy reno- 
 vating their houses. The former doors and windows 
 were closed up and on the opposite side of the houses the 
 walls were broken through to make new openings. The 
 main road to the town was changed, as were also many 
 of the streets and alleys. Nobody dared to protest. 
 
 A short time ago the Christians in a village of Thng 
 Khe Ui were threatened with dire persecutions if they 
 did not recant and take upon themselves again the duties 
 and expenses of ancestor worship, with the concomitant 
 feasts and theatres. They were given a certain time dur- 
 ing which they were to make up their minds, after which 
 speedy punishment would follow if they failed to respond 
 to the demands of the entire village. The district 
 magistrate was notified of the threatened attack upon the 
 
llo The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Christians, but he refused to treat the matter in a serious 
 manner. The time for the feast in connection with their 
 ancestor worship was fast approaching. It was to last 
 two days and a large theatrical exhibition had been 
 arranged for the occasion. The Christians were given 
 until the end of the first day of the feast to consider ; if 
 they still refused to do their duties they were to be pun- 
 ished ere the feast came to a close. It happened, how- 
 ever, that during the evening of the first day of the feast 
 a man recognized as a leading medium in that district 
 came out of the temple crying at the top of his voice 
 that the gods had given him a message. The entire vil- 
 lage came together at once and many feared that some 
 great woe might be uttered against them. Sometimes on 
 such occasions a medium will demand that the town 
 make arrangements for a fair in connection with which 
 there are to be donations of valuables according to the 
 commands of the medium. These valuables are then 
 given away to the people. Such occasions are very ex- 
 pensive affairs to any place, and a village is in constant 
 dread of having such a burden placed upon them. In 
 this instance, however, the people were astonished to 
 hear the medium warn the entire village from participat- 
 ing in the proposed attack upon the Christians ! They 
 were, said he, the people of a mighty God and he who 
 did them an injury at this time would cause disaster to 
 come upon the entire village. We need not be surprised 
 to learn that the Christians were not only allowed to 
 worship according to their own convictions, but that they 
 were never troubled after that to contribute anything to- 
 wards the expense connected with the worship of 
 ancestors. 
 
 The Christian Chinese tell an incident to prove the 
 
Power of Superstition and Demonology 121 
 
 power of the Spirit of Christ over the power of the evil 
 spirits. There were two brothers who hved together in 
 a village. The younger became a Christian, much to the 
 displeasure of his elder brother. Everybody in the village 
 was opposed to the young man's remaining a Christian. 
 Every art of moral suasion was used to get him to recant 
 and return to his filial duties of ancestor worship. Having 
 failed in this it seemed to the intolerant villagers that 
 nothing but a severe beating could bring him to his 
 senses. At the time of a feast a medium called the 
 village together and said that he had received a message 
 to deal with the Christian dog who so shamefully 
 neglected his ancestors. A mob of several scores of men 
 accompanied the man supposed to be possessed to the 
 house of the two brothers. The elder had received word 
 of the proposed attack upon his younger brother and 
 hastened once more to try to persuade him to recant and 
 thus to save his life. The Christian, however, could not 
 be moved ; in fact he even continued to eat his rice at the 
 doorstep and was thus confronted by the mob. The 
 " possessed " uttered words of reproach, but was inter- 
 rupted by the Christian, who full of spiritual earnestness 
 cried out, pointing his chop-sticks at him, " How long, O 
 vile spirit, will you continue to trouble all men. In the 
 name of Christ Jesus I charge you not to trouble me any 
 more ! " Hardly were these words pronounced when the 
 " possessed " fell on his face to the ground before the 
 Christian and lay there for some time unable to move. 
 The mob became panic stricken and cried out, " The god 
 of the Christians is mightier than our gods ; it is no use 
 interfering in this matter ! " Every man departed at 
 once, leaving the " medium " to his fate. The Christian 
 picked him up and preached the gospel to him and 
 
122 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 exhorted him to forsake the work and deeds of the evil 
 one. 
 
 However we foreigners may explain this so-called 
 demoniacal possession, one thing is certain. The 
 Chinese, both heathen and Christian, believe that they 
 are truly such ; but with this difference, that while the 
 heathen are in abject fear of these supposed " possessed " 
 people the Christians have no fear of them whatever. 
 They have been made free from the captivity of such 
 things and their very boldness and fearlessness may be 
 just the factor, for all I know, which gives them the 
 victory over these absurd superstitions. 
 
VI 
 
 HOW THE CHINESE ARE BROUGHT INTO THE 
 KINGDOM 
 
 In the last chapter certain characteristics of the Chinese 
 in his own country and home were described. It is pro- 
 posed in this chapter to show the difficulties and struggles 
 he undergoes ere he is able to become a Christian. The 
 true Christian adherent entertains, with no light heart, the 
 proposition of becoming a follower of Christ, nor does he 
 expect to escape a certain amount of persecution and 
 enmity on the part of his former friends. The very fact 
 of contemplating the Christian life brings him face to face 
 with tremendous forces, all essentially heathen, which 
 make it exceedingly difficult for him to cut loose from 
 the traditions and customs of his whole life. 
 
 Counting the Cost 
 At the very beginning of becoming interested the 
 Chinese seeker for truth will be compelled to count the 
 cost of becoming a follower of the Christ. He is aware 
 of great obstacles confronting him in every sphere of life. 
 Confucianism, the great obstacle in the path of a Christian 
 triumph in China, has permeated the religious, social, 
 political and moral life of the people to such an extent 
 that at times the new adherent almost despairs of holding 
 out to the end. Let us consider his difficulties in the 
 religious realm. The adherent knows that by becoming 
 a Christian he can no longer have any connection with 
 the worship of his ancestors. But from earliest childhood 
 this very worship was the only motive that called out the 
 
 123 
 
124 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 best in his life. The most cherished and most tender 
 experiences of his circumscribed life have been inter- 
 woven with ancestor worship. He well remembers how 
 as a small boy his grandfather or his father took him by 
 the hand and led him — yes, at times, carried him — to the 
 grave of the great ancestor of the clan. He recalls how 
 in his youth, with perhaps several hundreds of his fellow 
 companions, he made a yearly pilgrimage to the grave 
 and enjoyed the novelty of helping prepare the food to be 
 offered as a sacrifice and then eaten by the great crowd 
 of kinsmen. There around the grave of their common 
 ancestor he remembers the elders discussing the welfare 
 of the clan. He, like every one else of the thousands of 
 descendants, looked to that sacred grave as the source of 
 all earthly prosperity. He now realizes that as a Chris- 
 tian this fellowship with his own flesh and blood will have 
 to cease. The glory of the hall of ancestors has faded 
 for him and he looks upon the worship within with 
 revulsion that almost startles him, for he remembers how 
 but a few months ago he felt himself drawn towards that 
 place above every other, with a spirit of true devotion. 
 Now he as a Christian will not only neglect the altar of 
 sacrifices to the manes of his ancestors, but his whole 
 attitude of life will be — must be — in direct contrast and 
 opposition to his former habits of life. 
 
 In the social sphere of life he is aware also that there 
 are many customs which he has observed from earliest 
 childhood which he must now renounce. The theatres, 
 the village holidays in honour of the ancestors and idols, 
 the feasts connected with idolatry, are now as obnoxious 
 to him as they once were the delight of his life. A 
 scholar who had obtained his first degree was on the 
 point of asking to be received for Christian baptism, but 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 125 
 
 when he counted the cost of losing some twenty or more 
 feasts to which he as a member representing his branch 
 of a powerful clan was entitled every twelve months, he 
 felt that the cost was too great and surrendered his higher 
 nature to the passion of appetite. 
 
 There is a pecuniary loss involved for the man who 
 becomes a Christian. In our part of China the towns 
 and villages have certain public lands known as the estate 
 of the ancestors. This property is under the control of 
 the clan and is leased for a certain price to the peasants 
 of the clan. The income, which sometimes is quite large, 
 is used in part to keep the grave of the ancestor in repair 
 and the rest is divided among the famihes constitutmg 
 the entire clan. Almost every family count upon this 
 money which they inherit every year, and in some cases 
 it forms a good percentage of their yearly income. The 
 fact that the Christian refuses to worship the tablet of the 
 ancestor or to offer sacrifices at the grave of the common 
 ancestor constitutes in the minds of the people sufficient 
 cause to confiscate his share and to use it for some pur- 
 pose connected with idolatry. There have been instances 
 where the portion thus lost has been quite large and the 
 loss was keenly felt. But the estrangement of old friends is 
 even of greater consequences. Imagine a man having 
 enjoyed the respect and esteem of his fellows and kins- 
 men, suddenly by one act of moral rectitude, as he knows 
 it is.' despised by every one in the whole village. This is 
 perhaps the hardest thing to bear, for the Chinese per- 
 haps more than any other race desires and craves the 
 esteem and respect of his fellows. To lose that is almost 
 as bad as to die. As the adherent counts the cost of his 
 becoming a Christian and remembers that he will be con- 
 sidered a dog for not worshipping the ancestors, it comes 
 
126 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 to a supreme test whether his love to Christ Jesus is deep 
 and real enough to lead him to take upon himself the 
 cross and follow his Master. Few of us in a Christian 
 land really understand what it means to the average 
 Chinese when he decides to become a Christian. We 
 speak of the heroism of foreign missionaries and say 
 many beautiful things about their devotion, but we ought 
 to remember the real heroes, those brave native Chris- 
 tian men and women, who, counting the cost, are wiUing 
 to bear the brunt of the battle even though they pay the 
 price with their lives. 
 
 Then again, there are political obstacles that make it 
 difficult for the Chinese to become a Christian. To ac- 
 cept the religion of the foreigner carries with it the idea 
 of drifting away from things purely Chinese and opening 
 the flood gates for things foreign and harmful to the 
 welfare of the nation as a whole. It is considered unpa- 
 triotic to accept any teaching from an outsider. China, 
 the home of the illustrious Confucius, has no need of any 
 other master. Then again, it is a most unfortunate 
 thing that the crimes committed by European nations 
 against China, and the religion of Jesus Christ, are 
 thrown together. By embracing the religion of Christ, 
 the Chinese convert is condemned by millions of his 
 countrymen as failing to consider the just cause of his 
 country against the Europeans. He in fact has become 
 an enemy to his own people, a traitor to his country. In 
 counting the cost of becoming a Christian the inquirer 
 will not delude himself with the thought that his decision 
 will be looked upon as an act for the welfare of his fellow 
 men and his country. 
 
 The moral test of the Chinese among themselves is the 
 relation which each individual sustains towards the wor- 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 127 
 
 ship of ancestors. Failing to comply with this moral and 
 religious requirement the man is considered a worthless 
 fellow, an outcast, one who does not deserve any consider- 
 ation. His sincerity of motive will be questioned, he will 
 be misunderstood and despised. Men will debate about 
 the possible advantage and profit he expects to make out 
 of the treasonable act. Old friends who knew him from 
 childhood may give him the credit of not seeking selfish 
 ends, but they all the more expect to see disaster over- 
 come him and his family. They take it for granted that 
 evil demons have decided to destroy him and that the 
 beginning of his ruin was when he decided to forsake 
 the worship of his ancestors. He has neglected the rudi- 
 ments of fiHal piety and that is always the beginning of a 
 man's destruction. He must be left severely alone. We 
 can imagine the consternation it causes when a man of 
 considerable influence and importance in a town decides 
 to become a Christian, as is often the case in these days 
 of transformation. A large circle of friends put forth 
 every effort to draw him away from his strange infatuation 
 for the " foreign doctrine." He is reminded of all the 
 dreadful consequences that will surely follow and hints 
 are made that men will attempt to take his life. 
 
 On the other hand we have said but little of the deep 
 impression which the simple story of the gospel makes 
 upon the enlightened soul of the Chinese. It would take 
 hours to give an adequate and just description of the re- 
 ligious and moral regeneration the word of God has upon 
 the Chinese. His whole training from childhood has 
 been a moral one. The grand moral truths of the Ten 
 Commandments, the spiritual and moral laws of the king- 
 dom enunciated in the Sermon on the Mount, take com- 
 plete possession of him. The simple story of the creation 
 
128 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 of the world never leaves the Chinese pagan mind in the 
 same benighted condition ; if he has taken an intelligent 
 grasp of the truth, he is never the same man after that. 
 The New Testament stories concerning Jesus Christ suf- 
 fering for the whole human race do not present any dif- 
 ficulties. They accept them readily because they are all 
 in perfect harmony with facts in their own lives. The 
 attraction of the cross of Christ is as strong in China as 
 in any other part of the globe. And so, in spite of all 
 the religious, social, political and moral difficulties, the 
 great soul conflict goes on within the adherent. He per- 
 sists in attending the Christian services in spite of warn- 
 ings of friends and kinsmen. He cannot be untrue to the 
 spiritual claims of his better nature. He has counted the 
 cost and has made up his mind to become a follower of 
 the Saviour of the world. He refuses henceforth to take 
 part in those things that would demand serving two mas- 
 ters, but while he has decided thus to do he has fortified 
 himself against the results of his actions. He is wiUing 
 to pay the price of his actions. 
 
 Paying the Price 
 
 Instead of describing certain possible methods used by 
 the Chinese pagans to compel a Christian to recant and 
 take up once more the duties of filial piety, we will speak 
 of a few concrete illustrations of persecutions. 
 
 The persecution and death of an individual Christian 
 will be best illustrated by the sufferings of A Nam, a 
 barber, Hving in the city of Kityang. He was a young 
 man of about twenty-four years when he came the first 
 time to hear the gospel. He had a prosperous shop 
 close to the west gate within the city walls. He was 
 most thoroughly converted to the Christian faith and his 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 129 
 
 devotion to the cause of Christ in the city from the very 
 beginning was an evidence of his deep sincerity. He de- 
 cided from the first day of his conversion to close his 
 shop on Sundays and to refuse to have any connection 
 with the idolatry of the barbers' guild. The guild, how- 
 ever, took up the challenge and gave A Nam notice that 
 he would not be allowed to continue his business nor to 
 live except he conformed to their strict requirements. 
 Shortly after this they had their annual feast in honour 
 of their god. Each barber was taxed a certain amount, 
 A Nam with the others. A Nam refused to pay, claim- 
 ing that he gave his contributions to the Christian con- 
 gregation and that religious toleration had been granted 
 by the emperor. The night after the feast he was at- 
 tacked by hired thugs and beaten into insensibility. It 
 was found that one of his lungs was injured and he went 
 into quick consumption and died a few months later. As 
 the end approached he was triumphant in faith. Never 
 shall I forget the expression of his face when he attended 
 the chapel services the last time. " They have injured 
 my body," said he, " but they have moved me closer to 
 my Lord and Saviour." He bore them no malice, and 
 no attempt was made to get revenge. He was the first 
 martyr of the work at Kityang and his true Christian 
 character, his spiritual hold on the realities of the faith, 
 became the type of Christian manhood in our mission. 
 A Nam has now been dead over eight years, but his in- 
 fluence is still felt in the lives of many. 
 
 How Families Enter Into the Kingdom 
 
 About twenty-eight miles southwest of Kityang city 
 on the southern branch of the Kityang River lives a 
 clan of about 5,000 people with the surname of Lai. 
 
130 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 The territory they inhabit is called Chiang Mui compris- 
 ing in all about eight villages. The rice-fields of this 
 district are very productive, owing to the numerous 
 streams which flow from the hills even in times of 
 drought. The people have planted thousands of olive 
 trees on the low hills, from which they derive no small 
 profit. In spite of these favouring conditions in the sur- 
 rounding country the people of Chiang Mui are poor, 
 due wholly to their devotion to idolatry, sorcery and 
 gambling. They delight in making long pilgrimages to 
 renowned shrines and temples in order to obtain prom- 
 ises from a lying priest that prosperity will attend their 
 family and earthly affairs. The practical religion of the 
 Chinese does not go much beyond material matters. 
 
 It was with a good deal of pleasure, therefore, that we 
 heard that men from Chiang Mui were attending Chris- 
 tian services at the Chim Khe chapel. My joy, however, 
 was soon checked when I visited the villages of Chiang 
 Mui soon after and found that these new adherents had a 
 lawsuit on hand with parties belonging to their own 
 clan. Fortunately the parties involved lived in separate 
 villages. The adherents boldly asked that we help them 
 in their lawsuit at the magistrate's office and were sorely 
 disappointed when we flatly refused to do anything of 
 the kind. 
 
 A few weeks later we had occasion to enter the village 
 of the enemy of our so-called adherents. We preached 
 the gospel of peace and good will to them the same as 
 we did everywhere else. The people were delighted to 
 know that we refused to take sides in their local quarrels 
 and asked whether they would be permitted to hear the 
 gospel at the Chim Khe chapel. We saw nothmg to 
 prevent them and we harboured the hope that perhaps 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 131 
 
 we might be able to unite both factions into harmony. 
 The first to come was Lai A Ki and his younger brother. 
 The so-called adherents, who had been making but little 
 progress in Christian truth and walk, were offended when 
 they saw that we were willing to allow some from among 
 their enemies to come and worship at the same chapel. 
 Some maintained that if we permitted them to come they 
 would quit coming. We tried to teach them the true 
 purpose of our mission, but many were obstinate and we 
 were compelled to tell them plainly that they were prov- 
 ing themselves unworthy of the gospel blessings. The 
 great living God was not hke their idols, but was a God of 
 love and peace and men who desired to worship Him must 
 be willing to put aside all hatred and strife and be ready for 
 reconciliation. The Chinese preachers were able to 
 bring about a reconciliation between a number, but some 
 were disappointed and refused to come after this. The 
 troubles, however, were peaceably settled through the 
 help of our Christian co-workers. 
 
 Lai A Ki was so pleased with what he saw and heard 
 that he brought his mother and wife to the meetings. 
 He also persuaded a number of friends and kinsmen to 
 become Christians. Within a year the number of ad- 
 herents increased so that all the adults of six or more 
 families came to the meetings at Chim Khe regularly. 
 To do so they were obliged to cross a river and that is 
 something the Chinese do not like to do. It is not only 
 often troublesome, but the river is a boundary line, and 
 to the average villager it seems as though he were in- 
 vading a strange territory if he crosses a boundary. It 
 was largely due to this fact that the adherents of Chiang 
 Mui, including both parties now united, asked us to open 
 a " place of prayer " in their own territory, so that the 
 
132 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 women could attend the services more regularly and 
 thus get a better knowledge of the gospel. The plan 
 was carried out, a suitable house was obtained for a house 
 of prayer and the preacher stationed at Chim Khe visited 
 the place twice a week. The number of inquirers in- 
 creased and we found it necessary to establish Sunday 
 services there soon after. The gospel truth had full 
 sway over many families at Chiang Mui. A Ki was the 
 first to be baptized and quite a large number followed 
 the year after. In the spring of 1900, just when the 
 Boxers were preparing to exterminate the foreigners and 
 native Christians, nearly all the adherents coming to wor- 
 ship at the Chiang Mui chapel decided to cast out every 
 trace of idolatry from their homes. Some of the women, 
 like Rachel of old, still clung to an idol ; others had tried 
 to worship both the idols and the Hving God, but had 
 found it impossible. They now of one accord decided 
 that they would clean themselves from every contami- 
 nation of idolatry. They startled the villages by burn- 
 ing their idols and destroying the paraphernalia for 
 idolatrous rites, and a large number of books relating to 
 geomancy and superstition were destroyed in the sight 
 of all the people. The village elders were angry because 
 the Christian converts had refused to pay their usual 
 share to defray the expenses of the annual idol proces- 
 sion and the festivities connected with it. The Chris- 
 tians maintained that the Chinese Government had 
 granted religious toleration and that it was forbidden 
 to compel Christians to pay towards the maintenance of 
 idolatry and ancestor worship. At first the most in- 
 fluential men of Chiang Mui tried to dissuade them from 
 such a radical position, but seeing that they were deter- 
 mined they decided to allow them to enjoy religious 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 133 
 
 liberty. This was not so, however, with the common 
 people. They would allow no toleration nor suffer the 
 Christians to live in their territory unless they conformed 
 to the rules governing ancestor worship. A plan was 
 adopted according to which the Christians were to be 
 taken in hand and severely dealt with. Life was to be 
 made burdensome to them until they returned to their 
 old ways. Their crops were totally destroyed by night 
 and no traces could be found of those who had done the 
 wrong. Strong young men provoked the Christians and 
 sought to pick a quarrel with them, and when they re- 
 fused to fight would heap all sorts of indignities upon 
 them. Still they remained firm. Then came the crisis. 
 During the closing days of 1900 a large number of men 
 united and made a raid upon all the homes of the Chris- 
 tians. They were beaten and driven out of the villages 
 and their houses plundered. Lai A Ki was taken pris- 
 oner, tied by hands and feet, thrown into a deep vat and 
 locked up in an empty house. Some came to us to tell 
 of their misfortunes, and they were a pitiable sight to 
 behold. No one knew at that time of the whereabouts 
 of Lai A Ki. His wife and mother knew that he had 
 been captured, bound and carried away. It was sus- 
 pected that he had been murdered. The magistrate who 
 had jurisdiction over the district was notified, but a big 
 struggle between many clans and villages was raging 
 throughout the entire territory ; furthermore, the under- 
 lings of the magistrate did not dare venture to go to 
 Chiang Mui lest bodily harm might come to them. 
 There were many men killed daily in these clan fights 
 and the loss of a single Christian seemed of little conse- 
 quence to the magistrate and the yamen officials at that 
 time. 
 
134 1^^ Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Lai A Ki lay bound in the vat for two days without 
 any nourishment but he never gave up hope. He finally 
 was able to get one hand loose and within a short time he 
 was out of the vat. Finding the house locked he got out 
 through the roof and made good his escape from the 
 village at once. He came to us at Kityang and we now 
 had the problem how to get the Christians back into 
 their homes. The heathen neighbours refused to allow 
 them to enter the village unless they promised to comply 
 with the customs of worshipping the ancestors and to 
 pay their quota of all expenses connected with the 
 temples and festivities of idolatry. The Christians said 
 they would rather die than do so. The magistrate said 
 he could do nothing owing to the many clan fights in his 
 district. 
 
 There was nothing to do but to report the whole mat- 
 ter to the American consul at Canton, who at once 
 notified the viceroy of the outrage. The viceroy tele- 
 graphed the magistrate to protect the Christians accord- 
 ing to the treaty stipulations made between China and 
 the Christian nations, warning him that any failure on 
 his part would result in a censure. The clan fights were 
 still in progress when the magistrate received this in- 
 struction from his superior official, but now he was able 
 somehow to take cognizance of the affair. He asked me 
 to come to see him about the matter and in our con- 
 ference it was decided that a Confucian scholar be sent 
 into Chiang Mui to investigate and try to get at the real 
 cause of the difficulties and if possible to settle the matter. 
 The investigation showed that the Christians were mo- 
 lested contrary to the laws of the country. Every charge 
 made by them was sustained. The magistrate then 
 asked the Christians to make out a list of their losses in 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 135 
 
 order to reimburse them. The total amount claimed by 
 six families was only ;^203, and the magistrate was im- 
 pressed by the moderation of their demands. The sum 
 was paid and divided among the parties who suffered 
 damages. Otherwise no punishment was inflicted upon 
 the evil doers. It was agreed at that time that in matters 
 of religion each person at Chiang Mui could thereafter 
 follow his own way of worshipping without being mo- 
 lested by his neighbour. The struggle for religious tol- 
 eration in that district was won for the time being. The 
 method of settlement of the whole case and the moderate 
 demands of the Christians became known throughout 
 the entire district and received the commendation of 
 many of the thoughtful people. As a rule missionaries 
 find that the heathen spirit of revenge crops out here and 
 there in the Christians. They believe any other method 
 would indicate a weakness and tempt the enemy to try 
 conclusions later on, and so simply from the point of self- 
 protection utter destruction of the enemy must be at- 
 tained. In this instance fortunately it was not so. There 
 has been no trouble in Chiang Mui between the pagans 
 and Christians for some years. 
 
 " He Who Endures to the End " 
 Happily persecutions have an end even in pagan 
 China. The Chinese resent innovation and for a season 
 will do their utmost to exterminate it root and branch, 
 but they are not unable to appreciate moral excellencies. 
 The Chinese people judge everything according to its 
 moral worth. The Christian is misunderstood and per- 
 secuted because he refuses to observe those things which 
 seem to the narrow-minded pagan to differentiate the 
 moral man from brute creation. These things are of 
 
136 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 course the rites connected with filial piety, which finds 
 its highest expression in ancestor worship. But all the 
 Christian needs is time and opportunity to prove to his 
 kinsmen and neighbours that Christianity is also essen- 
 tially moral and that the spiritual morality of the New 
 Testament is as far above the crude Confucian system of 
 ethics as the heavens are above the earth. Given time 
 and opportunity he will make a place for himself among 
 his fellows and the place will often be far more important 
 and influential than the one he occupied when he con- 
 formed to the customs and ways of the village or town. 
 This is simply due to the fact that the Chinese are not 
 blind to the moral changes that have been wrought in the 
 Christian convert. It is not an unknown thing for the 
 people of a town to select a Christian to fill a position 
 of honour and trust, largely due to the fact that they feel 
 they can trust the Christian, where they could not trust 
 one another. 
 
 It has been the experience of the author that wherever 
 a preaching station is opened persecutions immediately 
 follow. The first Christian in any given town or village 
 always has to suffer more persecution than those who 
 embrace the faith later on. If these first converts are 
 careful and peace-loving, showing the spirit of their Lord 
 and Master, these persecutions cease within two or three 
 years and the disciples soon after succeed in making 
 their influence felt in their village, for their new moral 
 life and intelligence necessarily distinguish the Christians 
 from the average ignorant idolater. Nor can this differ- 
 ence be stated too strongly. I have frequently had 
 occasion to tell the disciples on the Kityang field that I 
 could pick out the children of Christian parents from 
 among hundreds of children of pagan parents. There is 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 137 
 
 something very definite in the expression and appearance 
 of the child brought up under Christian influence that 
 distinguishes them from other children. 
 
 During the present period of transformation in China 
 the Christians are not without honour and influence in 
 certain enlightened towns and villages, where the signs 
 of the times are understood and the people are willing to 
 get all the information they can. In matters of doubt 
 regarding political conditions and international questions 
 the common people always appeal to the Christians as the 
 source of knowledge of the true state of affairs. China 
 above every other land is given to idle rumours, but the 
 Christian convert who gets his information from the 
 Chinese pastors and preachers is known to give an un- 
 biased report of what is going on in the world. The 
 fact that he often is compelled to give the lie to idle but 
 popular rumours makes him detested for the time being, 
 but the reaction and vindication always follow. 
 
 Loyalty to the Cause of Christ 
 The day is past in which the foreign missionary needs 
 to convince the world of the sincerity and loyalty of the 
 Chinese Christian. The Boxer revolt has done the cause 
 of foreign missions a good deed in reveahng to the world 
 the moral and spiritual fibre of the Chinese convert. It 
 would be difficult to describe the enthusiasm of the 
 average disciple for the Church of God. To him it is the 
 only organization that can bring about the real trans- 
 formation of his country. His optimism as to the ulti- 
 mate triumph is remarkable. He will lay down his life 
 in its defense and honour. 
 
 At one time the Chinese Missionary Society in the 
 author's district was in danger of running into a heavy 
 
138 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 debt and some of the directors of the society were in 
 favour of recaUing a number of evangehsts from the 
 mission field in the adjoining district in order to prevent 
 the debt. A delegate arose and said that he had been 
 able to save $'j^ during the past six years, but he felt 
 that the work which the missionary society was doing 
 was so important that the present crisis demanded that 
 he give ;^50 of this sum at once towards raising the 
 necessary money to carry on the work which the 
 evangelists were doing in Weichow. When we con- 
 sider that that ;^50 represented almost a half year's 
 salary we need not be surprised that the effect was such 
 over the people that the money was raised at once to 
 carry on the work for the entire year. 
 
 A few years ago when preaching to the people in 
 Haifong City, in the Weichow District, about one hundred 
 miles southwest from Kityang, my attention was drawn 
 towards a young man who showed great interest in all 
 that was being said. Later in a private conversation he 
 admitted that he desired to learn more of this truth and 
 asked that an evangelist be sent to his house at his own 
 expense. At first we suspected some personal and selfish 
 motive, but soon found that this was not so. An 
 evangelist stayed at his house for a month and during 
 that period the young man, whose name was A Khoi, 
 persuaded over thirty young men to become adherents 
 and led them to establish regular services of Christian 
 worship. A Khoi's next step was to buy a house, and 
 having had it renovated gave it to the missionary society 
 for a chapel. His zeal for the new religion caused com- 
 ment throughout the entire city and his best friends were 
 sure that disaster would overtake him before long. At 
 the time of opening the new meeting-house the bubonic 
 
The Chinese Brought Into the Kingdom 139 
 
 plague broke out in that city and the surrounding country. 
 Some of the people were sure that it was the result of 
 allowing the Christians to obtain such a foothold and that 
 the spirits were now taking revenge. The astonishment 
 grew all the greater when it became known that A Khoi 
 the zealous Christian was also stricken with the pestilence. 
 It was all too true. But in his delirium he prayed to 
 Christ to save and spare his life for the work's sake. 
 While scores and hundreds of the people died A Khoi 
 was one of the few that recovered. The effect of this in- 
 cident was very favourable to the work of the mission. 
 His entire family became Christians. They brought me 
 their idols, which were coated with gold leaf and had 
 been worshipped in that family for several generations. 
 Many of the merchant class also became interested in the 
 work. 
 
 The Chinese people are not so far removed from the 
 entrance of the kingdom of God as Occidentals often 
 imagine. If we could, by any means, direct that intense 
 devotion rendered to the manes of the ancestors to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and through Him lead them to worship 
 the living God, China would soon take her place as one 
 of the strongest of Christian nations. But meanwhile the 
 battle must be fought against the overstatement of a 
 moral truth. The struggle will be a severe one. No re- 
 ligion has yet been able to dislodge ancestor worship, but 
 on the contrary had to make provision for it in its 
 system. Will the Christian Church of China do the 
 same ? Present indications are that she will not. Men 
 and women are suffering a martyr's death rather than 
 have two masters. And with every death of one of 
 these martyrs the final victory is made more sure. 
 
II 
 
 THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 IN CHINA 
 
 VII. Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career. 
 
 VIII. The Political Status of the Missionary in 
 
 China. 
 
 IX. The Social Status of the Missionary in China. 
 
 X. The Family Life of the Foreign Missionary 
 
 a Great Aid to His Work. 
 
VII 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF A SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARY 
 CAREER 
 
 The elements of character essential to a successful 
 missionary career are in many respects the same as those 
 which are necessary to a successful ministry of the gospel 
 in this country. The stronger a man is in spiritual lead- 
 ership the better will he be in any work connected with 
 the extension of the kingdom of God the world over. 
 And yet in a sense there is a difference between the min- 
 istry of the gospel in this country and the work of a for- 
 eign missionary. Some men have failed utterly on the 
 foreign field and yet after returning to their native land 
 have accomplished a successful work as pastors and lead- 
 ers in Christian activity among our home churches. It is 
 difficult to lay down hard and fast rules in determining 
 what are the essential characteristics of a successful mis- 
 sionary career. In some cases the best equipped men 
 and women go to the foreign field and yet in a few years 
 return to the home country. Some become dissatisfied 
 with themselves and feel they cannot carry the responsi- 
 bilities of the great work ; others have to return on ac- 
 count of ill health. Every missionary about to go to the 
 foreign field ought to be warned against the disgusting 
 sights and shocking conditions of humanity which he 
 will find there. Some missionaries meet their Waterloo 
 during the first contact with heathenism and are never 
 able to rally to the conflict. With others the loss of 
 home comforts is quite unendurable and they become 
 
 143 
 
144 ^^^ Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 seriously sick because of the want of them. Happy the 
 person who has not been over-educated nor has had every 
 wish granted in Hfe and thus perhaps spoiled for this 
 great work. Men and women are needed for the foreign 
 field that can put up with Hmited resources and who have 
 the spirit of a true soldier. There are many other char- 
 acteristics necessary and we propose to mention some of 
 them under a threefold division, namely, physical, men- 
 tal and spiritual requirements. 
 
 Physical Requirements of a Foreign Missionary 
 We begin with that which is the most natural. Any 
 one who is to go to the foreign field ought to be able to 
 stand a medical examination as severe as the United 
 States Government requires of recruits for the army and 
 navy. Almost every missionary society has lost thou- 
 sands of dollars in years past in not being strict enough 
 in this matter. It costs a considerable sum of money to 
 equip a young missionary couple and to send them to the 
 other side of the globe. The failure of health of either 
 the missionary or his wife is a dead loss of sacred money. 
 Furthermore, a constitutional weakness in any person is 
 likely to be exaggerated in the climate of Asia. A sick 
 person cannot learn a new language very readily nor can 
 he make proper use of it even though acquired. We 
 need to remember the old maxim " Mens sana in corpore 
 sano!' There can only be a healthy mind when the 
 physical body is sound and well. One of the first signs 
 of ill health of a missionary on the foreign field is the ex- 
 hibition of worry and ill temper. And sad to say this 
 ill temper is usually directed against the natives, the very 
 ones who ought to be protected. I have heard of cases 
 where the very sight of a native would make the mission- 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 145 
 
 ary quite ill tempered. It is not necessary to add that 
 such a person should be sent to America as soon as pos- 
 sible. The Chinese delight, as does every other race, in 
 the sight of a healthy person. The Christian Chinese 
 rejoice in a missionary who not only can do a day's work 
 in walking and preaching equal to the strength of the 
 Chinese preachers and evangelists but is still able to work 
 and preach the gospel when he is tired, and they are rest- 
 ing. His native co-workers will always respect such a 
 missionary as a leader and will gladly work with him to 
 the utmost of strength and resources. Naturally a mis- 
 sionary will respect the limit of their abilities, and yet I 
 have often travelled from twenty to thirty miles a day 
 preaching here and there accompanied by a number of 
 co-workers and as I look back it seems to me that those 
 very strenuous trips, doing pioneer work, were after all 
 the happiest of my experiences on the foreign field and 
 the native co-workers would say the same. We had a 
 royal time walking overland from Kityang to Canton 
 several years ago and though we were thirty days mak- 
 ing this trip from village to village yet the men who went 
 with me frequently spoke about the good time they had. 
 A missionary must be able to do a hard day's work and 
 yet be bright and fresh the next morning, ready and de- 
 sirous to continue his work. 
 
 It will not be necessary to mention anything about the 
 importance of correct habits in eating, drinking, sleeping 
 and so forth. These things have much to do with one's 
 health on the foreign field. If one is careless in any of 
 these things it will be absolutely necessary for one to 
 correct oneself in this respect. Missionaries owe it to 
 themselves, to the churches which have sent them to the 
 foreign field and to God to seek to render the best serv- 
 
146 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 ice of which they are capable ; and they can do this only 
 in so far as they watch over the health of the body, the 
 temple of God. 
 
 Mental Requirements of the Foreign Missionary 
 It would be a mistake if our foreign missionaries were 
 selected by the authorities of our missionary societies 
 only because of their mental abilities. But mentality 
 does constitute one of the foremost tests as to the candi- 
 date's ability to learn the language and to understand the 
 manifold problems connected with foreign missionary 
 work. The Chinese people are a race with strong men- 
 tal power and it goes without saying that a man who 
 would perhaps not be able to understand the working of 
 the Chinese mind ought not to be sent to a country like 
 China. The foreign missionary must be a man to whom 
 the Chinese preachers and evangelists can confidently 
 look for that instruction and guidance that shall insure a 
 constant progress of development and growth in their 
 Christian work. When this is not the case there will be 
 lacking a singleness of purpose in the entire work of the 
 station and mutual disappointment will be the result. 
 The influence of such a weak man is not limited to his 
 own station either. In China at the present time there 
 often arise problems and abnormal conditions which may, 
 if the missionary fails to grasp the real and true condition 
 of things, not only result in disaster to his own work, but 
 affect the work in the fields of other missionaries. A dis- 
 aster happened in China but a few months ago which will 
 illustrate this very point. Certain Roman Catholic mis- 
 sionaries at Nanchang, a city in the Yangste valley, 
 pressed a case of litigation with such vigour and prejudice 
 (as it seemed to the Chinese official who was to try the 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 147 
 
 case) that he flatly refused to meet their demands. For 
 this the magistrate was threatened with being reported to 
 his superiors through the French consulate, which might 
 have resulted in a rebuke from the viceroy for not set- 
 tling the case ere it became an international affair. Still 
 the magistrate felt that he could not conform to the un- 
 just demands of the priests and retain the respect of his 
 subjects. As the French missionaries refused to take a 
 moderate view of the case it seemed to this Chinese 
 mandarin that there was nothing left for him to do but to 
 resort to that method which every high-minded Chinese 
 uses when he feels that a great wrong is being done to 
 him and every avenue to justice is denied : he commit- 
 ted suicide. Now according to Chinese custom in these 
 circumstances the blame of the whole case and the re- 
 sponsibility of the suicide is laid upon the enemy. Such 
 a case usually endangers public peace. Not only the 
 family, but the clan and the neighbours feel honour-bound 
 to make the case of the deceased their own, and an af- 
 fair of such a character is never closed without a large ex- 
 penditure of money and sometimes the shedding of blood 
 by way of revenge. In this Nanchang affair the people 
 took up the case of their magistrate and in their fury 
 killed several of the French priests and also the family of 
 an English missionary. The latter had nothing whatever 
 to do with the matter, but all were foreigners and the 
 mob did not stop to discriminate. Fortunately the fifteen 
 American and twelve English missionaries living in that 
 district were able to escape in time to save their lives, 
 but their religious work has suffered and hundreds of 
 other foreign missionaries living in the Yangste valley 
 have been disturbed in their work. And all this because 
 of the narrow-mindedness and the bigotry of men who 
 
148 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 preferred to ride rough shod over the Chinese rather than 
 make allowance for their peculiar customs. Far better 
 for the foreign missionary to suffer a wrong than to bring 
 things to a crisis. The writer has seen a copy of a 
 Chinese daily paper which published the story of the case 
 showing in a picture the body of the magistrate. Appeal 
 is made to resist the claims of the foreign missionary. It 
 will take years of hard Christian work before this blot 
 will be erased. This was an extreme case, to be sure, but 
 it goes to show that we need men of strong moral and 
 mental ability to cope with situations and abnormal con- 
 ditions in China during this period of transformation. 
 
 Among the most important mental characteristics of a 
 foreign missionary in a country like China we would 
 mention : — 
 
 First, the Gift of Practical Application: — The mis- 
 sionary should be a practical man, able to meet the prob- 
 lems of his work. The man who has developed only the 
 scholastic side of his life or he who is indefinite in his 
 methods of work will not find the Chinese people conge- 
 nial. They are not of a philosophical trend of mind. 
 They are very logical in their every-day life and have a 
 definiteness of purpose second to no other race on earth. 
 It is true that often for their own protection in relation 
 with one another they adopt methods of circumlocution 
 that would lead the superficial observer to believe them 
 void of the faculty of definiteness, but the Chinese are es- 
 sentially practical. The foreign missionary who influ- 
 ences them the most will be the one who has the gift of 
 applying his knowledge in a practical manner. 
 
 Secondly, Clearness of Perception : — The missionary to 
 the Chinese should be a man very difficult to deceive. 
 The Chinese have a fine art of suppressing a part of their 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 149 
 
 story, which, if known to the foreign missionary, would 
 have enabled him to understand the real issue of the case, 
 It is a well known fact that almost every mission has suf- 
 fered and been put to a great deal of trouble and in some 
 cases suffered mortification because the Chinese Christians 
 withheld the information necessary to an understanding 
 in all the bearings of the affair. Sometimes, no doubt, 
 this withholding of certain facts is unintentional, but in 
 most cases it is thought best by the Chinese Christians to 
 leave certain parts of the story for the foreign missionary 
 to find out for himself as best he can. It is this weakness 
 in the character of the average native Christian that con- 
 stitutes the stumbling block in the way of friendly and 
 intimate relations between some missionaries and the na- 
 tive Christians. To the straightfoward and truth-loving 
 Western teacher this weakness is simply contemptible. 
 And yet the foreigner is as much to blame as the 
 Chinese. The latter is simply following a race charac- 
 teristic in his own land, but the foreigner has not become 
 thoroughly acquainted with the Chinese, and failing in 
 clearness of preception in understanding the story of his 
 converts and in ferreting out the truth, serious misunder- 
 standings result. The missionary must needs be able to 
 supply a few missing links to the story related to him by 
 the Chinese and to allow a large margin for doubt even 
 when it is most evident that the Christians have suffered 
 a great injustice. 
 
 Thirdly, A Mi?zd Conservative in Every Phase of Life : 
 — The Chinese are a conservative people and they will 
 respect the conservative poise of mind on the part of the 
 foreign missionary. A mind that is constantly changing 
 its attitude does not appeal to them. They have learned 
 many things during the long period of their civilization, 
 
150 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 and one of the greatest lessons is that conservatism is at 
 once proper, respectable and safe. It is proper with re- 
 gard to the ancients. An existing institution with them 
 should be treated with propriety. It has been handed 
 down to them from the ancients and they are believed to 
 have been wise men in their day. It is respectable in 
 contrast to a desire for change; this impHes dissatisfaction 
 with the present and that is not an ideal condition. It is 
 safe in knowing what one actually has in contrast with 
 seeking the uncertain, which may be liable to lead to dis- 
 aster and ruin. Now I am aware that this very conserv- 
 atism if strictly adhered to would make it practically im- 
 possible for him to become a Christian. How can the 
 foreign missionary be conservative if his mission to the 
 people involves the undermining of their heathen customs 
 and rites ? Still I contend that it is possible to maintain a 
 respectful attitude towards the ancient institutions of the 
 people while at the same time he is teaching them higher 
 things. His mission is not to destroy but to fulfill the 
 highest ideal of their greatest sages. The Christians are 
 considered by their heathen neighbours as iconoclasts 
 and radicals, and in a sense they are, but at heart these 
 very men are conservative and this is one of the strongest 
 characteristics present in their church life. The conserv- 
 ative foreign missionary will have the respect of all the 
 people, whereas the iconoclast, the drummer-Hke mis- 
 sionary, who wants to make things hum and to hustle the 
 East will fail utterly to make for himself a place as a re- 
 ligious teacher. 
 
 Fourthly, The Quick Mind of the Missionary and its 
 Dangers: — As the missionary becomes accustomed to the 
 ways of the Chinese he will naturally grasp certain 
 principles and methods which he has found to be proper 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 151 
 
 and effective in the solution of certain problems. It be- 
 comes a settled matter with him that under certain con- 
 ditions there is one method of procedure that is the best 
 policy. But while this is so it would be a mistake for 
 him to give an off-hand expression of opinion to the 
 Chinese immediately after he has related his case. It is 
 a matter of sound policy to ask him to come again within 
 a few hours or even the next day for a reply regarding 
 the matter. The Chinese friend is not only satisfied that 
 he has been treated properly, but strange to say he will 
 give more respect to the advice offered. The missionary 
 might have given him the same advice at the close of 
 their first meeting, still the effect w^ould not have been as 
 satisfactory as a dehberate expression of opinion and 
 advice. 
 
 Fifthly, A Weak and Vacillating Man is Undesirable in 
 China : — As a representative of the Christian church and 
 in a measure of the American people, the foreign mission- 
 ary ought not only to be of average mental ability at least 
 but also a man of moral strength. If possible he should 
 be a man who stood above the average students of his 
 class in these things, certainly not below. The problems 
 on the foreign field are sometimes very trying. The new 
 leaven of Christianity is at work and there often arise by 
 reason of this new moral force, conflicts with heathenism 
 which demand most skillful guidance. One of the great- 
 est tests of the missionary's usefulness will be his ability 
 so to direct the affairs of his mission that while on the 
 one hand he will try to prevent the native Christians from 
 becoming the victims of heathen persecution and cruelty, 
 he will on the other hand aim to prove the " good will" 
 of his mission to the people and eliminate all needless 
 stress and strife. If he fails in these qualities he will fail 
 
152 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 to win that loyalty of the Chinese Christians essential to 
 harmonious work, while the attitude of the people will be 
 one of passive hostihty. The conditions of China in this 
 generation need the best men the Church can produce. 
 The strong mental character of the missionary will find a 
 large sphere for usefulness. 
 
 Spiritual Characteristics of the Foreign Missionary 
 Under this head I would mention what seems to me 
 the most essential element in the life of the foreign mis- 
 sionary, namely : 
 
 First, A Persojial Conviction of a Call to the Foreign 
 Field: — A man must be sure of his call to a foreign field. 
 He should feel that it is this above every other place on 
 earth to which he would like to give his whole life. Doubts 
 as to your calling will perhaps come as you rub up against 
 heathenism and it will be a great help to the young mis- 
 sionary to know that the foundation of his life's work 
 had been laid years ago. A call to the foreign field is 
 the recognition of the importance of the work on the 
 one hand, and, on the other, the abiding conviction of 
 one's own urgent responsibiHty to obey the command of 
 the Master to go. Every candidate for the ministry 
 ought to make a careful study of the world's need of the 
 gospel, and, in the light of Christ's commission to go 
 unto the uttermost parts of the earth, prayerfully to con- 
 sider his personal duty as to this great work. Not every 
 one is called to go. But if a young man willfuly ignores 
 the claims of the foreign field let that man be assured 
 that his sin of " saving his life " will find him out. 
 
 Secondly, Spiritual Leadership : — A foreign missionary 
 must needs be a leader of other men. He will have 
 practical plans and ideals for the development of his 
 
REV. WILLIAM! ASHMORE, D.D., Fifty-four years in China 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 153 
 
 field far in advance of his native co-workers. In the 
 working out of the plans to successful results the foreign 
 missionary will win the loyalty of the Chinese Christians. 
 He must be progressive and resourceful, always leading 
 the little host of Christians to greater undertakings and 
 he should never surrender his prerogative and duty as the 
 planner for the development of the work to a native co- 
 worker, though a wise missionary will constantly consult 
 with his co-workers as to the best methods to em- 
 ploy. 
 
 Thirdly, A Life of Prayer: — The Chinese co-workers 
 and Christians should know that the missionary has a 
 large place for prayer in his life and work. A legitimate 
 amount of preaching and exhortation may be done to in- 
 duce the Christians to give attention to prayer. But a 
 much better plan, as it seems to me, is to take this co- 
 worker or that Christian into your private closet of 
 prayer, as occasion permits, and with him pour out your 
 heart in prayer in behalf of the work in which he also is 
 intensely interested. I feel that such methods result in 
 greater helpfulness to the Chinese preacher, evangelist 
 and Christian than many long sermons on the subject. 
 
 Fotirthly, Benevolent and Sympathetic in Spirit: — 
 There is a danger that in the multiplicity of his duties 
 the foreign missionary may degenerate into the brusque 
 habits of a busy man of the West. A thousand and one 
 things must be attended to although there are native 
 Christians who have perhaps come a long distance to see 
 the missionary. Shall he refuse to see them ? He had 
 better refuse if he cannot meet them with a sympathetic 
 spirit. These poor but faithful witnesses in the towns 
 and hamlets of China look to the foreign missionary for 
 spiritual strength. The spirit of kindness or unkindness 
 
154 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 with which he meets these humble followers of Christ 
 will be reflected in their lives as they leave his home to 
 return to their abodes. We have already stated in a for- 
 mer lecture that ** might makes right " in China and that 
 consequently many thousands of Chinese are crushed and 
 ruined every day. The amount of suffering that our 
 Christian brethren undergo would fill volumes. The of- 
 ficials do not want to render justice to the Christians. 
 By reason of his position the foreign missionary is looked 
 upon by the Christians as the protector of their lives and 
 property. Can he refuse to succour them in times of dis- 
 tress ? If a man is callous or indifferent to the sufferings 
 of his fellow men let him not go to China in this day of 
 transformation. We need to add that while the foreign 
 missionary is not sent to act the part of a lawyer in cases 
 of htigation, it is simply impossible for him at the present 
 time to ignore his duty to find ways and means by which 
 friction, lawsuits and bloodshed may be averted. 
 
 FiftJilyy Courage : — I do not mean physical so much as 
 moral and spiritual courage. There will be moments 
 when the missionary will feel the loss of that help that 
 comes by reason of numbers. He finds himself alone, 
 facing many thousands of heathen. He is out of sym- 
 pathy with most of their customs and rites, and feels him- 
 self called to a work that is to supplant these idolatrous 
 institutions. But what an undertaking ! He soon learns 
 that every step in the progress of the kingdom of God 
 will call forth severe persecutions upon the new converts. 
 As he sees the suffering he will ask himself whether it is 
 right to call men to such a career. He will need to have 
 a clear conception of the laws of the kingdom of God, of 
 the aims of the Church and the real ministry of suffering 
 for Jesus' sake if he is to remain steadfast in his work. 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 155 
 
 The true foreign missionary suffers with the native 
 Christians and their joy causes him to rejoice. 
 
 Sixthly y A Passion for Souls : — Why did I not place 
 this characteristic at the head of all requirements ? It 
 certainly must be one of the most marked characteristics 
 of the man who goes to the foreign field. To lead a soul 
 to Christ is the very essence of the missionary calling. 
 We are not called or sent to the foreign field to become 
 " missionary statesmen " at the expense of abandoning the 
 " urgency " of the gospel message. We are to follow the 
 example of our Lord and Master and preach the gospel, 
 even though tired from a day's trip, to any man or woman 
 on the road or at the well. Some people disparage the 
 method of counting converts brought into the church of 
 God and so would I if the counting is done in a wrong 
 spirit. But it is a New Testament method, recorded for 
 the encouragement of the whole Church. 
 
 Seventhly, Humility Towards God and Confidence in 
 One's Message : — The immensity of the work and the 
 poverty of the missionary's own resources will keep him 
 humble towards his God. It is a startling fact that mortal 
 beings are co-workers with Christ in the extension of the 
 kingdom of God on earth. When we honestly consider 
 our shortcomings, limitations and sinfulness it is nothing 
 less than a miracle that we are permitted to have a share 
 in this work. While this is evident it also is true that 
 the foreign missionary needs a subhme confidence when 
 in the presence of hundreds of heathen. The author has 
 often felt as he stood in the presence of hundreds of peo- 
 ple preaching, that he must fail in bringing conviction of 
 the truth in the hearts of his hearers. And yet as he be- 
 gan to open his lips to utter those precious truths he 
 never failed to receive the necessary power to deliver the 
 
156 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 message with a triumphant ring. Christ's promise to be 
 with His messengers holds good to this day. 
 
 Eighthly y He Should be a Man with a Message : — The 
 missionary does wisely in giving his whole attention to 
 the proclamation of a positive gospel. Let error take 
 care of itself. In preaching the cardinal doctrines of the 
 gospel he will give the people truths which will stir 
 them to intense excitement. Sin should be taken as a 
 fact in life and everybody will agree with the missionary 
 whenever he may expound that truth. The Chinese 
 themselves have developed several systems by which they 
 hope to escape the power of sin. The message of a 
 Saviour, that He died for the remission of sin for the 
 whole human race and that this same Saviour lives and 
 has all power in heaven and earth, is a message of glad 
 tidings indeed. The Chinese rejoice in the hope of a fu- 
 ture state of happiness more than we of America are wont 
 to. Perhaps this is due to the distressful experiences 
 they have to undergo in this life, so that heaven is to 
 them in the fullest sense what the Bible represents it to 
 be. 
 
 Hard Common Sense and Business Ability 
 The missionary having charge of the field must be a 
 man who delights to get among the people rather than a 
 student who is constantly in his study. Labour on the 
 foreign field is manifold and no learning nor accomplish- 
 ment will be lost. In closing this chapter let us mention 
 a number of duties that may come to the average mis- 
 sionary and for which he should make provision in his 
 preparation for the foreign field. 
 
 I . He should be a theologian : — As a religious teacher 
 he must be apt in thinking along the lines of orthodox 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 157 
 
 theology. A careless mind in religious thinking will 
 never do. The native preachers and pastors are strug- 
 gling with theological terms and thoughts and often they 
 will run into heresy without being aware of it. But what 
 if the missionary is not careful to correct the erratic 
 views ? The bad leaven may then leaven the whole 
 lump. It is no easy task to discriminate between right 
 and wrong theological terms in a new language and often 
 it is impossible to find terms to cover the exact meaning ; 
 so we must simply choose the term nearest to the thought 
 and wait until the Christian consciousness of the Church 
 gives it its full meaning. The conditions being as they 
 are, it is necessary that the missionary should have an 
 historical knowledge of theological dogma. This will 
 help him not only to judge the present phase of theolog- 
 ical discussion but also to understand the little heresies 
 cropping out here and there among the Chinese Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 2. He should know somethiitg about pathology and 
 medicine : — If he is fortunate enough to have a physician 
 as a co-worker, as every foreign missionary should have, 
 this knowledge will not be required. If, however, he has 
 no doctor at his station, he will often have to give the 
 subject attention. Some members of his own family will 
 need his aid and the Chinese will constantly come for 
 medicines. A wise missionary will always have a good 
 stock of quinine and some Pain Killer on hand. The 
 author knows of an instance where one of his fellow mis- 
 sionaries. Rev. S. B. Partridge, D. D., saved hundreds of 
 lives during an epidemic of cholera by distributing Davis' 
 Pain Killer. We are increasing the number of medical 
 missionaries in these days and so it will not be necessary 
 for the evangelistic missionary to give attention to this 
 
158 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 matter except when he is itinerating and may be several 
 days' journey from his station. On such trips he should 
 always have some good remedies with him. 
 
 3. He should have administrative ability : — The ad- 
 ministrative work is the most important of all. Problems 
 are continually coming up for solution and the mission- 
 ary must find the proper way to meet the difficulties. 
 This is a constant grind and sometimes becomes a weari- 
 ness to the flesh. Good, sound judgment is absolutely 
 necessary. A thorough knowledge of the laws and cus- 
 toms of the people is imperative and without this more 
 harm than good will result. 
 
 He will need administrative abihty in the management 
 of schools. Shortly after a Christian congregation is 
 formed it is proper to think about the organization of a 
 day school for the children of the Christians. These 
 schools should be so organized as to graduate their 
 scholars into a higher school, i. e., the Christian boarding 
 school. Chinese teachers must be trained how to govern 
 such schools, for evidently our Christian schools must 
 have a system superior to that of the Confucian schools. 
 
 4. He must be a good teacher: — The foreign mission- 
 ary is not only a planter of the church but also a trainer. 
 But training of the church implies teaching, and that is a 
 work that must be carried on systematically for years. 
 Then we have the training of the young preachers and 
 evangelists, who some day should become regularly or- 
 dained pastors of the Chinese churches. The various 
 church officers, too, need to be trained. After the first 
 years of strenuous pioneer work are past and the most 
 strategic centres have been occupied, the work of the 
 foreign missionary may be said to change from that of 
 an evangelist to that of a teacher. 
 
Essentials of a Successful Missionary Career 159 
 
 5. He shotdd know something about bookkeeping : — 
 It is surprising what large sums of money pass through 
 the hands of some missionaries during a period of a few 
 years. This is especially the case if buildings have to be 
 erected. There are many different accounts to be kept. 
 For instance, there is the yearly appropriation made for 
 the support ^of the work and the salary of the missionary 
 and there are always certain specifics. Then one has to 
 report to the mission board in this country and to the 
 treasurer of the mission on the field, to keep track of the 
 accounts of the Chinese church, and so forth. It is simply 
 a matter of proper business methods to have all of these 
 accounts in perfect condition, and yet unless a man 
 knows a few elements of bookkeeping he will spend 
 hours and days trying to find the cause of a deficit or 
 surplus of twenty-five cents. 
 
 6. The missionary should know something about 
 architecture and building : — A missionary who under- 
 stands something about architecture will be able to render 
 a great service to the entire mission. Some missions 
 have a building committee and all buildings to be erected 
 must first be approved by that committee. It is evident 
 at once that a man knowing the principles of building can 
 be of great help by serving on such a committee. As an 
 illustration of the amount of building of houses and chapels 
 that becomes the duty of an average missionary let me re- 
 view our own experiences at Kityang. There have been 
 built on this field during the past ten years two two- 
 storied dwelling houses, a large chapel at the central 
 station, twelve chapels at various outstations, and the ren- 
 ovation of about ten old buildings into chapels. At the 
 present time a large hospital is being erected. 
 
 There are other duties that come to our missionaries 
 
i6o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 sometimes, for instance the matter of publishing and 
 printing Christian Hterature. It is the missionary who 
 feels the great need of proper books and tracts. He 
 sometimes translates the books into the Chinese language 
 and formerly had in some instances to print them himself. 
 We have now well equipped publishing houses that can 
 do the work more cheaply and more neatly than can be 
 done by any amateur effort. 
 
 Perhaps we are somewhat discouraged with ourselves 
 and our abilities after reviewing the elements of character 
 essential to a successful career as a foreign missionary. 
 Still we know that God can use the man who tries to 
 serve Him faithfully. In meeting the obligations of our 
 daily duties we find that we grow stronger and become 
 better fitted to meet future problems. But he who thinks 
 of the sphere of the foreign missionary as a limited one 
 and for which any Christian worker will answer, does not 
 know the true facts. Some may have thought of the life 
 of a foreign missionary as a work in which one cannot ex- 
 pand and grow but I assure you such never made a 
 greater mistake. The life of a foreign missionary, above 
 every other vocation of life, is broadening and deepening 
 for every part and faculty of the man. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE POLITICAL STATUS OF THE MISSIONARY 
 IN CHINA 
 
 The missionary has become a troublesome subject in 
 international politics. The results of his activities are 
 recognized by his foes as well as by his friends. Some 
 condemn his work as worse than useless, and if their 
 counsels could prevail all missionary activity would be 
 prohibited or the protection of the missionary's govern- 
 ment withdrawn. Others recognize the work of the for- 
 eign missionary to be helpful not only to individuals but 
 also to the Chinese nation as a whole. In China the 
 missionary problem has been for many years one of the 
 leading questions among the mandarins. Some of the 
 officials are bold enough to admit that the work of the 
 missionaries is a great help. Thus, only recently H. E. 
 Viceroy Tuan Fong said the following at a reception 
 in New York City tendered the visiting high commis- 
 sioners of the emperor of China : " We take pleasure in 
 bearing testimony to the part taken by American mis- 
 sionaries in promoting the progress of the Chinese peo- 
 ple. They have borne the light of Western civilization 
 into every nook and corner of the empire. They have 
 rendered inestimable service to China by the laborious 
 task of translating into the Chinese language religious 
 and scientific works. They help us to bring happiness 
 and comfort to the poor and suffering by the establish- 
 ment of hospitals and schools. The awakening of China 
 which now seems to be at hand may be traced in no 
 
 i6i 
 
i62 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 small measure to the hands of the missionary. For this 
 service you will find China not ungrateful." Without a 
 doubt there were other mandarins present at that occa- 
 sion who would not agree with this frank admission of the 
 viceroy. Fortunately the missionary is not looking for 
 the approval of Chinese officials or of American critics. 
 He believes that Christ, his Lord and Master, knew what 
 was involved when He commanded His followers, " Go 
 into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture." Those are His " marching orders " and the true 
 missionary does not concern himself regarding the dis- 
 cussion of the world as to whether he is right or wrong 
 in fulfilling Christ's commands. But while this is so 
 (and even his foes must grant him the freedom of exer- 
 cising his innermost convictions), the missionary is under 
 moral obligations to be circumspect and discriminating 
 in the methods of his work. The religion of Jesus seeks 
 the good in every human being and aims to bring all 
 things excellent into captivity for the progress of the 
 kingdom of God. A review of missionary history in 
 China is a chapter of promising successes and complete 
 failures. The catastrophies that overwhelmed Christian 
 missions in previous centuries were not always the result 
 of mistakes on the part of missionaries, but often had 
 their causes to a great degree in the traditional opposi- 
 tion of the Chinese Government to the foreign religion. 
 
 The Foreign Missionary and the Chinese 
 Government 
 
 In order to be just towards the Chinese Government it 
 ought to be stated that it has had unfortunate experiences 
 during the past centuries with the leaders of Christian 
 missionary endeavour. These heroic Christian men, 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 163 
 
 almost without exception, held to the idea that the suc- 
 cess of their missionary cause demanded that they exert 
 a political influence in the empire. We know that the 
 ancient Nestorians, who had at one time a most flourish- 
 ing church in China, collapsed when they set their hopes 
 upon royal favour and became men of importance in the 
 political life of the nation. The same sad story, even in 
 a more drastic manner, may be related in the case of the 
 mission of the Jesuit fathers of two centuries ago. We 
 know that many tens of thousands of Chinese converts 
 lost their lives because the government of China was de- 
 termined that there could be only one supreme power 
 within the realm and that for a Chinese subject to receive 
 instructions from the pope of Rome meant nothing less 
 than treason against the " Son of Heaven." What a 
 lesson these instances teach the missionary of to-day ! It 
 would seem that if missionaries in China loved their own 
 work and desired it to be permanent they would forever 
 have done w^ith meddling with the political conditions of 
 the country. 
 
 The French Catholic missionaries exercise a greater 
 protection over their converts and adherents than do the 
 missionaries of any other country. This is due on the 
 one hand to the traditional policy of the French Govern- 
 ment, which has always been eager to further her polit- 
 ical influence by asserting the right of protection over 
 Christian converts in heathen and Mohammedan coun- 
 tries ; and on the other hand to the fact that the French 
 missionaries were encouraged in this by the Chinese 
 Government, which, as we have already seen, granted the 
 Catholic missionaries an official status on equality with 
 their own officials. It is only just towards the Chinese 
 Government, however, to say that this concession was 
 
164 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 granted only after much pressure had been exerted by 
 the French minister, who had the support of the Russian 
 representative. The decree was granted the fifteenth of 
 March, 1899, in the period when the Russian- French 
 alhance had complete control of affairs at Peking. The 
 decree could not possibly be issued at the present time ; 
 the Anglo- Japanese alhance would not tolerate such a 
 reactionary measure. There can be no hope for internal 
 peace in China until these prerogatives are counter- 
 manded, or at least greatly modified. It would be to the 
 spiritual interest of the Roman Catholic Church in China 
 and to the progress of all reform if this right of exercising 
 the functions of a Chinese magistrate were relinquished 
 by the Roman Catholic priests. It is an undeniable fact 
 that because of this anomaly the name of God is 
 blasphemed among the heathen. It is impossible to 
 exaggerate the critical conditions which this misuse of 
 power on the part of French priests in the domestic 
 affairs of Chinese lawsuits has caused. The priests use 
 every opportunity to flaunt this prerogative and power in 
 the faces of the people. An illustration of this occurred 
 some time ago at Kityang of which the writer was an 
 eye-witness. The French bishop of Canton visited the 
 Catholic churches and missions on the Kityang field. 
 Hundreds of people went to the wharf to meet him, 
 among whom were many carrying banners which were 
 given to them by the lower officials of the church, bear- 
 ing inscriptions such as these : " The Imperial Religion," 
 •• Under Government Protection," " By Royal Command." 
 The presence of the bishop at any place where court was 
 held would so influence the Chinese officials that no 
 Catholic convert feared the outcome of his case. It has 
 been known that French CathoHc adherents who knew 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 165 
 
 that the French priests were in the neighbourhood 
 would openly defy the judges at the trial. In one in- 
 stance a murderer defied a magistrate and the latter 
 ordered the offender to be beheaded then and there. If 
 all the Chinese officials had the courage that this man had 
 the issue would at once become definite. It is a common 
 thing for priests to enter a yamen and demand instant 
 release of a Catholic adherent ; and nine times out of ten 
 they are successful. It is said that since the Japanese 
 and Russian war the Catholic priests have become more 
 moderate and careful in their demands upon the govern- 
 ment. Whether this is wholly due to the results of the 
 war or in part to the present reaction against ecclesiasti- 
 cism in France, is difficult for an outsider to say. The 
 fact remains that the change to a more moderate pohcy 
 from that of intimidating the Chinese non-Catholics and 
 overawing the common people, began at the time 
 when the Russians met with defeat on both land and 
 sea. 
 
 The American Foreign Missionary and His 
 Government 
 
 The American Government has always recognized that 
 the rights of the missionary in foreign countries are the 
 same as those of any other American citizen sojourning in 
 that country — no more and no less. In China all Ameri- 
 cans as well as Europeans stand under the exterritoriality 
 law. That is, the foreigner cannot be arrested and placed 
 on trial by the Chinese Government. Should he be charged 
 with having committed a crime, the Chinese Government 
 can only hand him over to the authorities representing 
 his government, usually a consul, to be tried by that 
 official if the crime committed does not exceed his 
 
i66 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 jurisdiction. In the case of very great crimes the person 
 is sent home a prisoner to be tried by some higher court 
 in the home land. There are of course sufficient reasons 
 why the civilized nations refuse to allow their subjects to 
 be imprisoned and punished by a government Hke China. 
 The Chinese courts of justice are antiquated and wholly 
 unreliable. Bodily punishment is used to compel the 
 prisoner, whether guilty or innocent, to confess. The 
 assumption of the court is that a man arrested is guilty 
 and is to be treated so until he can prove his innocence. 
 The habit of bribing both the magistrate and his un- 
 derlings is all but universal in China. The Chinese 
 prisons are filthy beyond description and are leprous. It 
 will be many years before any Christian nation will allow 
 China to judge and imprison any of its subjects. The 
 government of China naturally would like to see the day 
 hastened. She considers it a disgrace to be compelled 
 to grant exterritoriality to foreign nations, while her 
 own citizens are treated with contempt in many countries. 
 Then again, she has the great object lesson of Japan in 
 this respect before her. As we know, two generations 
 ago the courts of Japan and her prisons were similar to 
 those in China to-day. But Japan, unlike China, at 
 once set to work to reconstruct her code of laws and 
 thoroughly reform her prisons. Her statesmen were 
 patriotic and for the love of their country carried out the 
 reform measures with a high moral purpose which won 
 the admiration of all nations. So well did she succeed 
 that every nation willingly acquiesced in Japan's request 
 to have the exterritorial status cancelled. To-day Japa- 
 nese judges try cases of Europeans living in Japan with 
 the same rectitude and unimpeachableness as character- 
 izes any American court. China has appointed a com- 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 167 
 
 mission to consider a reconstruction of her laws, but even 
 though the most perfect laws were to be codified, the 
 present condition of Chinese officialdom makes it im- 
 possible for the foreigner to expect any improvement for 
 many years to come. 
 
 Chinese Officials and Foreign Missionaries 
 Foreign missionaries living in the interior of China 
 know the Chinese officials as few others can know them. 
 Apart from the general system of " graft " and avarice, 
 which the Chinese mandarin is compelled to use because 
 of the government's policy towards him, the average 
 magistrate is a man desiring to do what he understands 
 is right and just. That many mandarins hate the very 
 sight of a foreigner is only natural, if we consider 
 how many times their country has been humiliated 
 by European nations. Some of them have a bitter 
 spirit of revenge and are as cruel as death. The mas- 
 sacre of foreign men, women and children by Chinese 
 mobs is an incident of our current history which fills 
 every one with horror. The fact that the Chinese gov- 
 ernment finds it impossible to prevent these outbreaks, 
 has led many to think it wise for missionaries to leave 
 the country or to limit their missionary activity to the 
 vicinity of the treaty ports along the coast. But such a 
 plan is repudiated by every missionary as not only cow- 
 ardly but unworthy of the cause of foreign missions. 
 The missionary is aware of the danger that is involved 
 by penetrating into the heart of China, but in spite of it 
 he feels that the message of Christ must be preached 
 everywhere. The present abnormal condition of mis- 
 sionary work in China is due to two factors, both essen- 
 tially political. The corruption of China's government is 
 
i68 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 one of the factors, and the method of propaganda of the 
 French Catholic priests is the other. Every large com- 
 munity of Chinese has its mob element, which is ever 
 ready to make trouble as soon as the magistrate is thought 
 to be indifferent to deeds of injustice. The first to suffer 
 are often the Christian converts. What is the proper 
 attitude for the foreign missionary to adopt at a time 
 when the lives of men, women and children are endan- 
 gered ? Shall he call upon the officials to render neces- 
 sary protection for the converts ? There are some who 
 maintain that the missionary ought never to have any 
 relations with government officials in China. But such a 
 view is perhaps due more to ignorance of the true condi- 
 tion of affairs than to any intention of doing his fellow 
 men a wrong. It will never do for us to maintain that 
 there ought to be no official relation between the foreign 
 missionary and the Chinese officials. Our American 
 Government has made a treaty with the Chinese Govern- 
 ment concerning the status of Americans living in that 
 empire. The Chinese magistrates can and sometimes do 
 demand passports of foreigners before granting permis- 
 sion to travel through their districts. The officials are 
 held strictly responsible for any attack that may be made 
 upon the person of the foreigner while in his domain. 
 The foreign missionary is oftentimes placed in charge of 
 thousands of dollars' worth of property belonging to 
 missionary societies and the United States consul expects 
 the missionaries to keep him informed of the condition 
 of their fields as regards any anti-foreign feeling. The 
 consul would consider that missionaries had been negli- 
 gent in their duty did they not notify the Chinese magis- 
 trates of any premeditated plan to injure the native 
 Christians. It is simply impossible to live in the interior 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 169 
 
 of China as a foreign missionary and not to have some 
 official relations with the mandarin. 
 
 But the simple method of informing the Chinese magis- 
 trate regarding a threatened attack upon Christians, or 
 reporting violence already committed, is quite a different 
 matter from demanding as an official of equal status the 
 immediate arrest and punishment of certain persons or 
 the liberation of imprisoned converts, as is constantly 
 done by the French Catholic priests. Here we at once 
 enter upon a political situation which will sooner or later 
 occupy the attention of the powers of the Western world. 
 Because of this stumbling-block of interference, the peace 
 of China is threatened and almost every Christian nation 
 represented among the missionaries has suffered because 
 of this medieval and antiquated method of doing Chris- 
 tian work. Surely the Christian nations are justified, in 
 view of the past annoyances and sufferings, to utter a 
 word of protest to France and ask that she annul the de- 
 cree which gave the Catholic priests the status of Chinese 
 officials. Since its issue it has become known as a dis- 
 turber of international peace. If France should refuse to 
 acquiesce, the civilized nations ought to support China in 
 a determined effort to annul the decree, which is to-day 
 utterly repugnant to the whole country. There cannot 
 be peace in China until this source of contention is done 
 away with. The Chinese are convinced that the French 
 priests have made unfair use of this courtesy and they 
 will not stop shedding blood in order to impress the 
 world with their innermost convictions. The heathen do 
 not discriminate between the various nations ; they be- 
 lieve that all foreigners are alike in methods and intent. 
 The emphatic refusal of many evangelical missionaries 
 throughout China to make use of political recognition 
 
lyo The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 has not failed to impress the people, but it is over- 
 shadowed by the constant exercise and abuse of the 
 French priests in defending so-called adherents. Foreign 
 missionaries outside the Roman Catholic propaganda 
 have almost to a man refused political recognition, 
 although it was offered to them. But in spite of this fact, 
 the missionary is looked upon by the common people 
 not only as a person of wealth but also as one represent- 
 ing the pohtical power of his government. The fact that 
 he holds the honourable position of a teacher only 
 strengthens this conviction. This is perfectly Chinese 
 and in accord with their own ideas of propriety. We 
 protest and explain, but the people will not be convinced, 
 except perhaps, that we are moderate in the use of our 
 powers. There are reasons why the people cling to this 
 belief. They have noticed that wrong committed against 
 some missionaries resulted in a visit of several gun-boats 
 in the harbour, and any one who is cared for by his gov- 
 ernment to such an extent according to Chinese ideas 
 must be an agent of his government of no mean degree. 
 But this supposed influence attracts many people to the 
 missionary under the pretense of being interested in the 
 gospel, whose real purpose is to seek protection from the 
 consequences of their own covetousness and crimes. 
 The missionary is, to some extent, the same refuge which 
 David proved to be while abiding in the cave of Adullam : 
 " Every one that was discontented gathered themselves 
 unto him and he became a captain over them." David 
 might have had use for them in building up a pohtical 
 kingdom, but the coming of such men into our missions 
 in China does not help in the least in the building up of 
 the kingdom of God. They are a distinct harm to the 
 work and place the missionaries in a wrong position be- 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 171 
 
 fore the whole world. The missionary does not encour- 
 age the coming of men who have lawsuits, but the very 
 fact that he allows them to come is sufficient, in the 
 light of the abuse on the part of the French missionaries, 
 to satisfy the better elements that missionary work has 
 degenerated to the office of a lawyer accepting clients in- 
 volved in litigation. The Chinese officials also get a 
 wrong impression of the work if these men having law- 
 suits with their neighbours can go about boasting that 
 they have united with the mission. It has always seemed 
 to the writer that all missionaries ought to take high 
 ground in this matter; a very strict refusal to receive 
 these men will help to let the Chinese officials, as well as 
 the common people, know that we are opposed and will 
 not allow people having lawsuits to seek refuge in the 
 Christian mission. The promise that is sometimes made 
 by whole villages involved in litigation that if the mis- 
 sionary will but put in a good word with the Chinese 
 official they all will become Christians is a snare of the 
 evil one to pervert the ideal method of the extension of 
 the Kingdom. Such a venture and undertaking very 
 seldom produce a normal Christian character. The very 
 foundation of such mission work is not according to the 
 gospel of Christ Jesus. I have seen the results of such 
 methods applied by our French neighbours. For a 
 season hundreds clamour to enter the church, but after 
 the case of litigation is settled there is a great falling 
 away, until hardly any traces are left of the whole move- 
 ment. It has paid evangelical missions in China, even 
 from a policy of expediency, leaving out the greater 
 moral side of the problem, to have had nothing to do 
 with such cases. This is also the desire of the American 
 government officials. A few years ago the United States 
 
172 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 minister at Peking advised the American missionaries 
 " to refrain from interfering in lawsuits or persecution in 
 which native Christians may be interested when the cases 
 are purely Chinese, involving no foreign interests and 
 not being cases of religious persecution." The relation 
 of the American missionary to Chinese lawsuits is thus 
 clearly defined by our government and the instructions 
 ought to be satisfactory to every American missionary in 
 China who seeks qualitative rather than quantitative suc- 
 cesses. Let the French run semi-magistrate offices if 
 they desire, American missionaries cannot afford so to 
 waste their time. 
 
 But in cases of genuine persecution of Chinese Chris- 
 tians what shall the missionary do ? Is it his duty to 
 protect the lives and property of his converts ? The 
 native Christian, as we have seen, cannot take part in the 
 rites and ceremonies of heathenism. His neighbours 
 raise the question whether he shall be allowed to live in 
 the village. If he refuses to worship the tablet of his 
 ancestors he brings upon himself many trials and tribu- 
 lations. The missionary in China has reason to con- 
 gratulate himself on being permitted to see the steadfast- 
 ness of faith of the Chinese Christians. They are the 
 crown of his rejoicing. But while the missionary mar- 
 vels at the grace given to the native converts, the latter 
 sometimes suffer greatly. What is the missionary to do ? 
 The writer's personal experience in such matters has been 
 that it is well to remember that the native Christians are 
 fighting the good fight of faith, and for that reason we 
 should not be too ready to help them in getting redress 
 and perhaps revenge upon their oppressors. The mis- 
 sionary is not to interfere in the relations between the in- 
 dividual believer and his Saviour. The native Christians 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 173 
 
 do well to put their trust in the first place in God and not 
 in the missionary. There is a habit common among the 
 Christians of bringing every petty case to the foreign 
 missionary. And in some cases the Christians do not 
 show that submissive spirit in time of persecution which 
 our Lord and Master bids them show. Perhaps mis- 
 sionaries are as much to blame for this as are the natives. 
 When the foreigner offers his aid in having the enemies 
 of Christians punished, it is teaching the Christians a 
 very bad lesson. It is far better for him to refuse many 
 times before he gives them the benefit of his political 
 influence. I would not be willing to go so far as to say 
 that the foreign missionary should never come to the 
 rescue of his adherents in time of severe persecution that 
 would mean death to many men, women and children, 
 but he should let God's plan of suffering for the gospel's 
 sake have its sway in China, and only when the very 
 towns and villages ring with the outrage committed 
 against the Christians and utter destruction of the work 
 seems imminent, should the missionary render aid. He 
 will in such a case be certain that he has not injured the 
 persecutors more than they have injured the Christians. 
 Experience teaches that if he only urges the native con- 
 verts to exercise patience and forbearance it will in 
 many cases be unnecessary to report the trouble to the 
 officials or to the consul. There are, however, some in- 
 stances where persecution of Christians becomes unen- 
 durable because of the very fact that the missionary re- 
 fuses to come to the aid of his people. The good will 
 of the missionary towards all men, including the op- 
 pressors of Christians, leads the evil-doers to misunder- 
 stand him. Although the continued persecution of the 
 Christians has the effect of discouraging the new hearers, 
 
174 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 yet the foreign missionary must teach in China to-day as 
 did the great apostle to the Gentiles, " that we must 
 through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of 
 God." Missionaries preaching this to the multitudes 
 may not have tens of thousands of adherents but their 
 work will be all the more substantial. Chinese do not 
 come to the chapels of the foreign missionaries to-day 
 for rice, but rather for pohtical aid ; and the missionary 
 who will give this can get a large following. But it will 
 be at the expense of his reputation as a man seeking the 
 welfare of China. The best minds of the district con- 
 sider him an enemy of common morahty, and I think 
 they are right. 
 
 The relations between the foreign missionary and the 
 Chinese magistrate can be one of mutual friendship if 
 the former refrains from urging a favourable decision in 
 law cases. The less the missionary has to do with mag- 
 istrates in matters of litigation, the more popular will he 
 become with the better classes of the country. The 
 magistrates resent (and rightly too, as it seems to me) 
 any interference in their courts of justice. We may have 
 an utter contempt for their system of justice, but we are 
 not called to China to interfere in the application of their 
 domestic laws to their own citizens. The foreigner, 
 whether he be a missionary or a merchant or a govern- 
 ment official, enjoys many privileges by the courtesy of 
 the Chinese Government, It would seem that the civil- 
 ized nations ought to insist that no foreigners of any 
 nation should be allowed to carry out a policy fraught 
 with danger to citizens of every other nation and ob- 
 noxious to China herself. We are entering upon a great 
 conflict in China. The old conservative forces are not 
 dead by any means. The political struggle in the 
 
Political Status of the Missionary 175 
 
 Chinese Empire will be between the conservatives and 
 the reformers. In the educational sphere there will be 
 this same clash. Men who stand for the material de- 
 velopment of their own country will be confronted with 
 the deadly opposition of the superstitions and fears of 
 the disciples of '• Fung Shui." In rehgion the work of 
 the foreign missionary has made itself felt throughout 
 the empire. But the missionary cannot afford to be 
 hampered by the ill-will and distrust of a large part of 
 the people, due to interference in their laws of justice. 
 
 The Relation of American Missionaries to Their 
 
 Consuls 
 There is a definite understanding between the Amer- 
 ican consuls and the American missionaries. The latter 
 are instructed to keep the consul informed as to the con- 
 dition of the country in which they are living. Dis- 
 turbances or uprisings against foreigners or persecutions 
 against the native Christians, constituting a violation of 
 the treaties made with the United States, must be re- 
 ported to him in order that a protest may be lodged with 
 the proper Chinese officials. Americans believe that the 
 consuls are the proper persons to do these things ; some 
 of the French priests carry consular seals with them to 
 attend to such matters themselves. As a rule American 
 missionaries have a prejudice against appealing to polit- 
 ical authorities regarding mission matters. The consuls 
 in South China have as a rule treated the missionaries 
 justly, though I am sorry to add that we have not always 
 been fortunate in having representative men in South 
 China and the report of one of our government officials 
 to the foreign department regarding some of our consuls 
 made public some months ago, cannot but be humiliat- 
 
176 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 ing to us as a nation. On the other hand we have reason 
 to be proud of the noble record of the ministers who 
 have represented our government at Peking. Almost 
 without exception they have been among the strongest 
 men of the diplomatic corps at the capital. The future 
 policy of the American Government in order to be true 
 to the traditional policy of the past must be along the 
 lines which have been made clear by our immortal John 
 Hay in his support of the Anglo-Japanese AUiance. 
 This poHcy will insure a reasonable and safe political 
 status for Americans in the Far East. 
 
IX 
 
 THE SOCIAL STATUS OF THE MISSIONARY 
 IN CHINA 
 
 The foreign missionary just arriving at some city in 
 inland China cannot expect to have any social standing 
 among the Chinese. As a stranger he will be considered 
 by the people with distrust, and many will refuse to rent 
 their houses to him even though he may offer a sum 
 several times larger than the ordinary price. To the 
 Chinese it seems a discreditable thing to leave one's native 
 land to live in a foreign country. The motives that could 
 have led the missionary, who evidently has not come to 
 China to make money, to leave his fatherland and the 
 tombs of his ancestors and live among a people among 
 whom he is an utter stranger, and of whose language he 
 has not the slightest knowledge, are beyond the ken of 
 the people living in the interior and must therefore be 
 sinister. 
 
 Though many of the Chinese along the coast emi- 
 grate to foreign lands it must be remembered that they 
 go only to seek riches and return to their native land as 
 soon as their finances will allow. They take it for 
 granted that this is so with emigrants of all nations, and 
 individuals who come to Hve in a strange land for pur- 
 poses other than seeking wealth need careful watching. 
 Some are sure that the foreign missionary is an agent and 
 spy of his government and therefore is a dangerous man. 
 This is still a very prevalent conception in the minds of 
 the Chinese in South China and it is necessary to combat 
 
 177 
 
lyS The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 it again and again. They take it for granted that mis- 
 sionaries report to their government all that they see. 
 They are also suspected of reporting the wealth and 
 prosperous condition of the country to their home gov- 
 ernment. Many of the people of the author's district be- 
 lieve to this day that he is sent to China under govern- 
 ment appointment and that he receives government pay. 
 Others who have accepted his explanation that this is not 
 so still hold that he has come for selfish purposes and they 
 maintain that in some way the missionary will enrich 
 himself at their expense. I have frequently been asked 
 how deep I could see into the ground and whether the 
 hills round about Kityang contained silver and gold or 
 some other treasure. We find it necessary to tell them 
 over and over again the reasons that led us to come to 
 them, but the story of such altruism does not seem to 
 have much weight with them. They simply do not be- 
 lieve us. They will admit that the words and sentiments 
 uttered " are good to listen to " and immediately ask us 
 whether the territory of Kityang contained anything that 
 could produce riches. The pagan mind cannot under- 
 stand the spiritual motives and ideals of the missionary. 
 On one occasion I heard a new convert admit that when 
 he heard for the first time these motives that led the mis- 
 sionary to come to Kityang he ridiculed the idea with the 
 remark, " Where in all the wide world can you find men 
 willing to do what the foreign missionary says he has 
 done ? " This man was a neighbour of ours. He had 
 been a wine distiller for many years, but soon after his 
 conversion gave up the distillery and went into another 
 business. He admitted that he often watched us to see if 
 we did not go out during the night to make excursions 
 to the hills seeking hidden treasures. He said he had 
 
Social Status of the Missionary lyg 
 
 harboured this distrust against the foreigner for five years 
 and only after he had watched the family life of the 
 foreigner did he become convinced that what we were 
 preaching was true. It was this, too, more than the 
 words that we preached that led him to decide to become 
 a Christian. He became a zealous student of the Bible, 
 though before his conversion he was unable to read a 
 line. Within a few months he was able to read the en- 
 tire New Testament, and his testimony regarding his sal- 
 vation in Christ had all the more effect upon his former 
 friends because they knew of his previous hostile attitude 
 towards the foreign missionary. This man's experience 
 is an illustration of the victory of the gospel. It is a great 
 reward to the missionary to watch the development of 
 these spiritual victories and to observe how these oppo- 
 nents become defenders of the faith. I still remember the 
 joyous expression on his face as he would report to me 
 the progress made in leading his wife and children to be- 
 come Christians. So well did he succeed that within a 
 year after he was baptized his whole family also put 
 away their idols and became Christians. This case was of 
 importance to us in that it proved that the most hostile 
 Chinese could be won the same as those in Christian 
 lands. To this man we appeared to be only an enemy 
 of his own and his country's interests, and yet we became 
 firm friends and through his aid were able to buy an im- 
 portant site which we had to have for the needs of our ex- 
 panding mission interests. But in winning the friendship 
 of the Chinese the missionary must exercise patience. 
 All things will come to him if he respects the native con- 
 servatism. It took us five years to win out with this dis- 
 tiller mentioned above, but it was worth all the trouble 
 and more. 
 
i8o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 The Foreign Missionary as a Teacher 
 The foreign missionary comes to the Chinese as a re- 
 hgious teacher. In Cnina, however, teaching is the most 
 honoured profession, and by reason of his position the 
 teacher enjoys many privileges above every one else, pro- 
 viding he has successfully passed the government civil 
 service examination. This has been the case from the re- 
 motest times of Chinese national life down to the present 
 day. The people were led to believe that their teachers 
 were the most able men in the world and that no foreign 
 nation could ever produce men of learning and polish to 
 compare with the disciples of Confucius. The fact that 
 the foreign missionary was said to be a teacher of a 
 Western religion amused many of the Chinese in former 
 days. But during the past decade or two that has all 
 changed. It is now known and universally accepted that 
 the foreign missionary represents a civilization that not 
 only is more powerful but also more enlightened than 
 their own. Our arrival at Kityang was at a proper psy- 
 chological time. China had just been defeated by Japan 
 and the awful truth was beginning to dawn upon the slug- 
 gish minds of the Confucian scholars of inland China that 
 the principles and methods of the Western world, of 
 which Japan had been a diligent scholar, were superior to 
 their own civilization. We of the West cannot appreciate 
 what this rude awakening of the Chinese literati and offi- 
 cials from a stupid dream of 4,000 years' duration meant to 
 the whole nation. Scholars and teachers soon sought the 
 friendship of the missionary. Except in the treaty ports 
 he was the only foreigner who could speak their language 
 and who was available for information. It would cover 
 pages to relate the story of how the Confucian scholars 
 would gather about the foreign missionary and how the 
 
Social Status of the Missionary 18 1 
 
 most exclusive tried to become our closest friends. In 
 order to show their appreciation of the willingness of the 
 foreigner to teach them about the principles of Western 
 civilization, and of his placing proper books at their dis- 
 posal, the gentry of Kityang would frequently invite him 
 to a sumptuous feast with the special request that he would 
 teach them. They would gather together in companies 
 of about eight men at a time and put all sorts of ques- 
 tions to their guest on the subjects of geography, world 
 politics, astronomy, rehgion and kindred subjects. 
 Oftentimes an hour or two would be spent discussing 
 these subjects before the meal. The city elders and the 
 very best minds in the city would invite the missionary 
 to their homes and schools that he might tell them of 
 things relating to Western learning. International ques- 
 tions which showed that they were thoughtful in their 
 quest of learning were often put to him. Some of them 
 were as follows : How did Japan accomplish her refor- 
 mation within so short a period ? Why are the countries 
 of Germany and France traditional enemies ? What is it 
 that has made America such a great country within so 
 short a time ? What is England's aim in importing opium 
 into China from India? and so forth. They were eager 
 to read and devour every book they could obtain which 
 treated of Western learning. 
 
 For a time the missionary felt that it would pay him 
 well to help these inquiring minds to think along the 
 right lines on these important questions, but as time went 
 on the number of inquirers increased so that the larger 
 part of his time was taken up with this phase of work. 
 He felt that he could not forsake the positive preaching 
 of the gospel and spend this critical period teaching the 
 rudiments of Western learning. And yet he was con- 
 
i8i The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 vinced that he could not afford to ignore this tremendous 
 awakening and perhaps with the use of right methods 
 might be able to bring much of it into captivity to our 
 Lord and Master Jesus Christ. After much contempla- 
 tion and consideration of the situation he decided to 
 establish a public circulating library. Fortunately Chi- 
 nese books are cheap. A suitable building was leased 
 and for a time much good was accomplished. The in- 
 terest was so intense that at times we would have fifty to 
 one hundred scholars and merchants at our evening meet- 
 ings in our schoolhouse. The missionary also taught a 
 class of some fifteen young men after the day's work in the 
 library building. Those were the stirring days when the 
 young Emperor Kwang Hsu issued proclamation after 
 proclamation upon advice of the Cantonese reformer 
 Kang Yu Wei. The scholars read with dismay the proc- 
 lamations which denounced the old methods and which 
 called upon all the literati to study the methods of the 
 foreign nations. The older men felt that their chances of 
 further promotion were over. Officials were commanded 
 to inaugurate methods about which they were utterly 
 ignorant ; they also felt that the future promised but little 
 prospect for them. The question was raised by many of 
 the officials and scholars where all these sudden changes 
 would bring them. To the foreigner the inconsiderate 
 haste with which these proclamations were issued were 
 matters of great concern. Men of insight foresaw that 
 there must be a crisis approaching. The missionaries 
 made the most of their opportunity ; the truths received, 
 whether scientific, political or religious, would never leave 
 the Chinese in the same helpless position as before. The 
 famous cotip d'^etat of September, 1898, speedily checked 
 the reform movement which had swept all over the land. 
 
Social Status of the Missionary 183 
 
 but nothing could now stamp it out of existence. The 
 truth had taken root in thousands of hamlets and towns 
 of China, and though caution had to be exercised so as 
 not to defy the government openly, still the enlightened 
 scholars could not and would not give up their quest for 
 the truth. The public library at Kityang was no longer 
 visited by the literati for fear of their being classed with 
 those defying the will of the conservative government. 
 The missionary, however, was welcomed all the more in 
 private circles and many hours were spent in trying to 
 make plain the forces that produced the fruit of our 
 Western civiHzation. It need not be said that his argu- 
 ment for a true reform in China was in showing the neces- 
 sity of having the same vital force which Europe pos- 
 sessed in working out the results of her civilization. 
 Many of the hterati seemed to think that an outward 
 adaptation to the foreigner and his methods, such as dress 
 and buying of foreign goods, would be all that was needed. 
 My purpose was always to show that a true and abiding 
 reform for China must be a growth. As Chinese are 
 extremely fond of illustrations the favourite argument used 
 would often be the illustration of buying fruit and tying 
 it to a tree and the better method of having a tree planted 
 in their own garden and raising their own fruit, Chris- 
 tianity is that plant. Confucius and his teaching had 
 given China a certain kind of fruit which is to-day found 
 wanting. China needs something else, and the real 
 power to produce this is nothing less than the gospel of 
 Christ. The time spent in this kind of instruction was 
 not lost. Several members of the best families in and 
 about Kityang became Christians and desired to be bap- 
 tized. A young military mandarin, who had governed a 
 town of 10,000 people, was baptized and has now entered 
 
184 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 a national military school to become a leading officer in 
 China's new army. Another, a son of a general, asked 
 to be baptized, but we had to refuse him for the time 
 being until he could induce both of his wives to become 
 Christians with him. This is usually a very difficult task 
 and proved so in his case. A number of Confucian 
 scholars were baptized and have become teachers and 
 preachers in our mission. Many of the scholars and 
 literati, while not becoming actual church members, have 
 practically accepted the truths of Christ and are waiting 
 for future developments. 
 
 The Foreign Missionary as a Friend of the 
 People 
 
 It can readily be understood that this intimate relation 
 of the foreign missionary with the officials and literati 
 gives him vast opportunities for doing good. The very 
 fact that the strongest and brightest men of the city were 
 in close touch with us gave our Christian work at Kityang 
 an entrance among the ordinary people that left nothing 
 to be desired. We had to build a large church edifice 
 at the central station holding six hundred to seven hun- 
 dred persons and on special occasions the building would 
 be filled. The local church at Kityang has now a mem- 
 bership of over two hundred and has long been self-sup- 
 porting. The conviction had taken hold of the people 
 that the foreign missionary was a friend in whom they 
 could place their confidence. When the city was stricken 
 with bubonic plague or cholera the city elders would 
 come to me for assistance and together we would work 
 out certain regulations of health which would be printed 
 and posted in all parts of the city. The regulations 
 were issued by authority of the city elders ; it would have 
 
Social Status of the Missionary 185 
 
 been a mistake to let the people know that the foreigner 
 had much to do with it. When at a certain time the 
 bubonic plague became very severe in the city the mis- 
 sionary suggested to the proper authorities that measures 
 adopted in time for the prevention of the plague would 
 be far better than fighting the scourge after it had once 
 broken out in all sections of the city. His suggestion of 
 a systematic street-cleaning was carried out. The lead- 
 ing magistrate of the district willingly subscribed a 
 respectable sum towards helping defray the expenses of 
 the undertaking. Most of the city elders and many of 
 the leading merchants did the same. Others mocked 
 and scoffed, claiming that it was a new system of squeez- 
 ing the public. The responsibihty of the undertaking 
 was placed in charge of an ex-military official, a Christian 
 adherent, who possessed considerable influence. His 
 appointment by the head magistrate to this office pro- 
 voked considerable opposition by some of the literati and 
 men who were disappointed in their expectation and who 
 in time were able to cause much trouble. A corps of 
 uniformed young lads was organized and for several years 
 Kityang was free from every form of plague and epidemic. 
 Jealousy, however, made it necessary to place another 
 man at the head of the street-cleaning department and 
 the people, distrusting the change, refused to pay any 
 money for the object. The magistrate issued a statement 
 that he would control the matter after this which simply 
 meant that nothing would be done in the matter until 
 some private individual should take up the subject again. 
 This will not be done, however, until another plague 
 visits the city and sweeps hundreds into their graves. It 
 is a difficult matter to make an abiding impression upon 
 a people like the Chinese in things relating to health pre- 
 
l86 The Conquest of the Cross In China 
 
 cautions. When the crisis is present the people will come 
 for help but all instruction to prevent the trouble is lost 
 effort. 
 
 The oppressed and wronged will often come to the 
 missionary and pour out their tale of woe to him. By 
 reason of extended acquaintance with the leading men 
 and the scholars in the city we were often able to appeal 
 to a scholar who would perhaps be of the same surname 
 and clan as the oppressed and asked that he arrange the 
 matter according to Chinese methods of settling disputes. 
 In such a manner I found that much suffering could be 
 stopped without giving our mission the bad reputation 
 of interfering with lawsuits already in court or overawing 
 the local magistrates by demanding a favourable decision. 
 
 During the Boxer revolt it was a pleasure to the mis- 
 sionary to aid two leading scholars who had gone from 
 Kityang to Peking a year or two before that event in 
 order to seek political promotion. It needs to be said 
 in advance that the Boxers in northern China persecuted 
 the Cantonese and Swatow Chinese with the same cruelty 
 they did the foreigners and the native Christians. The 
 Boxers maintained that the Chinese of South China were 
 the real cause of the foreigners gaining a foothold upon 
 the shores of China. Their merchants, i. e., the Canton- 
 ese, had received the foreigner, and for gain allowed him 
 to introduce Western goods, and so forth. Perhaps there 
 might have been jealousy on the part of the Chinese of 
 the north, for many of the merchants from the south who 
 go north to trade become rich, but being strangers the 
 Chinese mobs seek such people out as victims on every 
 occasion. Be that as it may, these two scholars from 
 Kityang had to make their escape from Peking as soon 
 as the Boxers entered the imperial city. They were 
 
Social Status of the Missionary 187 
 
 unable to travel southward on account of the rapid spread 
 of Boxerism and so went northward. Their funds soon 
 gave out and from a place of hiding in a small city north 
 of Peking they wrote letters to their relatives and friends 
 at Kityang describing their dangerous condition. The 
 local magistrate at the place where they were in conceal- 
 ment was willing to protect them, but on account of the 
 unsettled condition of the entire country he was unable 
 to say how long his power would last. Happily one of 
 these letters reached Kityang. As these two men were 
 members of the very best families in the city and were 
 recognized as the best scholars of Kityang their sad con- 
 dition caused a considerable sensation. The city elders 
 took upon themselves the matter of rescuing them. 
 They sent a deputation to Swatow to get one of the 
 principal banks to telegraph several hundreds of dollars to 
 their friends, only to find out to their dismay that there 
 were no telegraphic connections between Peking and 
 Swatow. The only telegraph in connection with Peking 
 and the rest of the world at that time was the German 
 field telegraph. No Swatow bank could be found willing 
 to attempt to forward money into North China. Peking 
 had fallen into the hands of the allied armies and the 
 Boxers had been driven northward, which seemed to 
 make matters all the more dangerous for the two scholars. 
 When the elders returned from Swatow they came to the 
 writer asking whether he could do anything for them in 
 this crisis. Fortunately he was well acquainted with the 
 German consul, Mr. Ivo Streich, a most able official and 
 a tower of strength to the people living in the port of 
 Swatow in those troublous days. I offered to write to 
 the consul and to acquaint him with the facts of the case 
 and suggested that two of the elders go with me on the 
 
l88 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 next day to visit the consul at his office at Swatow and 
 thus have the opportunity to lay the matter personally 
 before him. It was done as suggested. When we ar- 
 rived at the consul's office the following day, it was found 
 to our great relief that he had given the matter consider- 
 able thought and had worked out two plans. To make 
 the story short we all decided that the plan advised by 
 him should be carried out, namely, to telegraph to a per- 
 sonal friend of his who held a leading position at the 
 German legation at Peking, teUing of the condition of 
 the two scholars and asking the official to draw several 
 hundred dollars against his (the consul's) name and to 
 send soldiers to the place to rescue the men. The plan 
 worked without a hitch. The men were placed under the 
 protection of the German army and sent to the coast, 
 where they took a ship for Swatow. The joy of the 
 entire city when the two scholars arrived safe and well 
 was unbounded. The scholars showed their appreciation 
 of the German consul for his efforts in their behalf. 
 This event was one of several that made our mission 
 work ** persona grata " to the people in the whole district. 
 On another occasion I was able through the aid of the 
 American consul at Fuchow, Hon. Mr. Gracey, to have 
 the body of a Kityang magistrate, who died from bubonic 
 plague while in office, sent to his home, a small town in 
 the Kityang district. There is a stringent rule that no 
 bodies of any who have died of bubonic plague can be 
 sent through the customs until a certain time has passed. 
 When the first refusal came the relatives were afraid that 
 they would never be able to recover the corpse of the 
 magistrate. But this order was cancelled after a short 
 period. The people always showed their appreciation of 
 efforts in such matters and would always reciprocate in 
 
Social Status of the Missionary 189 
 
 ways which showed that they desired to be known as 
 friends of the foreign missionary. 
 
 One or two cases will illustrate this. On one occasion 
 the Christians in the town of Kau Bue were severely 
 persecuted. Their houses were destroyed, their crops 
 ruined and all of the Christians, some fifteen in all, 
 beaten and driven out of the town. The parties respon- 
 sible for this outrage, fearing punishment, united with the 
 French Catholic mission and by paying a certain sum 
 received aid, first from the Chinese priest, and later also 
 from the French missionary. The magistrate finally was 
 compelled under pressure of the United States consul to 
 render a just decision in spite of the efforts of the French 
 priest. Word was passed by the leaders of the French 
 mission that inasmuch as this crime had been so obvious, 
 nothing could be done in the matter but pay the fine 
 imposed. But they would support them after a short 
 time in any attempt to take their revenge. Our people 
 were consequently persecuted without end and life made 
 a burden to them. One of the leading persecutors, who 
 had been looking for some stronger support for years, had 
 upon one occasion, when a certain city scholar attained 
 his second literary degree, given his marriageable daugh- 
 ter to this scholar to be his second wife. This had hap- 
 pened before we arrived at Kityang. The reason for this 
 action was this : should he ever get into trouble or in- 
 volved in a lawsuit, his son-in-law, being one of the fore- 
 most men of the city, by virtue of holding an exalted 
 literary degree entitled to consult the local magistrate, 
 would see to it that no harm would come to him. This 
 assurance made the man bold to the extreme in all mat- 
 ters relating to his town, and taking a radical dislike 
 towards the Christians, he determined to drive them from 
 
igo The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 their homes. In the course of time, however, we became 
 very intimate with the scholar, his son-in-law, and on one 
 occasion were able to do him a favour which he never 
 forgot. When we saw that nothing, not even the influ- 
 ence of the magistrate, could bring relief to our Chris- 
 tians, I went to the son-in-law and laid the whole matter 
 before him and asked him to investigate the case and if 
 he found that the Christians were in the wrong to let me 
 know and if the fault was with his father-in-law, as we 
 sincerely beheved it was, to bring pressure upon him to 
 cease, and as far as we were concerned the entire matter 
 would be dropped and forgotten. The scholar did make 
 the investigation and talked very seriously to the old man 
 about it. To our utter astonishment a fierce attack was 
 made upon the Christians that same night. The next 
 day we called the plight of the Christians to the attention 
 of the scholar. The latter, having convinced himself of 
 the truth of our statement, went to his father-in-law with 
 the ultimatum that either the persecutions against the 
 Christians must cease or he would return to him his 
 daughter at once. There was no trouble after that. The 
 case was closed. 
 
 During the later period of the Boxer troubles a mob of 
 young men came into our mission enclosure and began 
 to make a disturbance. They called upon the coolie to 
 leave the employ of the foreigner, and said they were go- 
 ing to convert the mission buildings into opium halls, and 
 so forth. The coolie was punished very badly and going 
 out on the veranda to see what the noise was all about I 
 was surprised to see the big crowd in our grounds. I 
 heard them hoot and call the missionary wicked names. 
 A glance showed that they were rowdies and that they 
 had come to make mischief. As they came on towards 
 
Social Status of the Missionary 191 
 
 the entrance of the house, in order to check them and 
 possibly to frighten them away I took a revolver and 
 going out on the veranda shot several cartridges in the 
 direction opposite to the crowd. Then pointing the 
 weapon at them called on them to leave the place at 
 once. They left immediately, not a man remaining. 
 The city elders heard of this invasion of the mob element 
 of the city into our mission grounds and at once called 
 upon me, assuring me that the whole affair would be ad- 
 justed to my satisfaction, and that they could not afford 
 to allow the matter to be ignored. While we were yet 
 speaking an old man of seventy or more years came in 
 crying and fell on his knees. I did not know the man, 
 but was told that he was the father of the young man 
 who led the mob into our place. Lifting the old man up 
 I assured him that I had no ill feeling against him, but 
 the elders talked to him in a different strain and de- 
 manded that the son and three other leaders appear the 
 next morning to confess their wrong before the foreign 
 missionary or his whole family would be thrown into 
 prison. The next morning several of the young men 
 came into my study. Two of them I recognized as 
 among the leaders of the mob. Two city elders and the 
 father of one of the leaders were also present, the latter 
 with a whip in his hands. The young men fell upon 
 their knees begging forgiveness, but I made them arise 
 at once. As they arose the old man laid the whip upon 
 their backs. It seemed as if the strength of the old man 
 was not sufficient, for one of the vigorous city elders 
 snatched the whip out of his hands and began to lay 
 heavy blows upon the young fellows, making them cry 
 out for pain. I made them desist, refusing to allow this to 
 go on in our house. The men received some very sharp 
 
192 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 rebukes from the city elders while I gave them a number 
 of tracts and books. The case was thus closed. The 
 same young men after this, whenever they met me in the 
 city, always greeted me in a friendly manner as their 
 teacher. 
 
 I have mentioned these instances only to show that the 
 foreign missionary, though a stranger among so distrust- 
 ful a race, can make a place for himself among the 
 people where he Hves, and that his social status among 
 the Chinese can be in time the most pleasant imaginable. 
 It has been the author's experience that the more he had 
 learned about the inner life of the Chinese people the 
 more he was led to love and respect them. 
 
THE FAMILY LIFE OF THE MISSIONARY IN CHINA 
 
 The stability of Chinese civilization had its origin and 
 has found its continued sustenance for over a hundred 
 generations in the institution of the family. Nothing is 
 so jealously guarded by them as the traditional functions 
 and rights of the family. The government of the nation, 
 pubHc education, the crying needs of reform and other 
 national questions, however important, are all subordinate 
 and insignificant in comparison. The patriarchal system 
 still holds sway as it did centuries before the birth of 
 Abraham. To have a wife and children are requi- 
 sites to respectability, and in China it is an insult to 
 ask a man whether or not he is married and whether he 
 has any children. That is all taken for granted, as much 
 as we in America take it for granted that a respectable 
 man sleeps in his bed at night and not on the street. 
 The proper question to put to a Chinese regarding these 
 matters is to ask him how many sons he possesses, and 
 the mutual joy and congratulations to the father will be 
 just in proportion to the number of his sons. Unfortu- 
 nately for China daughters are not recognized as a per- 
 manent element of the family. In South China the 
 daughter is frequently called " the run away child " and 
 the boy " the abiding child." Daughters do not share in 
 the estate of their parents nor is the daughter-in-law 
 allowed to exert much of an influence in the family into 
 which she has married. Chinese family life suffers an 
 unspeakable loss by being deprived of the wholesome in- 
 
 193 
 
194 'l'^^ Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 fluence which the wife, mother and daughters could in- 
 fuse into it if allowed to exert their God-given powers. 
 It is taken for granted that the parents make the proper 
 arrangements for the marriage of their daughters at the 
 proper time and there are very few instances where 
 parents neglect this important matter. After the girl is 
 married she is supposed to have no connection with the 
 family of her parents. At certain periods she is permit- 
 ted to make a visit to her old home for a few hours 
 only. Her own mother is not expected to visit her 
 without the special permission of the mother-in-law. 
 The daughter-in-law is expected to conform absolutely to 
 the customs of her new home, and her husband cannot 
 take sides with his wife against the harsh treatment of the 
 mother-in-law even though there be just cause to do so, 
 without being guilty of the serious charge of unfilial 
 piety. A young married couple do not establish a home 
 of their own if the parents are still living. The daughter- 
 in-law in the families of the middle and poorer classes 
 becomes the servant of the household. Her life in her 
 new home will be pleasant or otherwise according to the 
 disposition of the parents-in-law. The influence of the 
 Chinese woman increases as she grows older and has 
 daughters-in-law of her own. She is then treated with a 
 good deal of consideration and respect, but in most cases 
 her training has been along such hard lines that all the 
 sweetness of life has vanished and her highest ideal in her 
 small world is to govern the daughters-in-law with strict 
 authority. Having been made to eat the dust in her 
 younger days she now develops into a tyrant in her nar- 
 rowed sphere. With a few notable exceptions that has 
 been the history of Chinese family life in every genera- 
 tion for the past four thousand years. 
 
Family Life of the Missionary 195 
 
 The Chinese insist upon a strict family life. The 
 breach of the seventh commandment is punished in some 
 parts by cutting off the ears of the male and by the death 
 or expulsion of the female. Yet home life is anything 
 but ideal. The Chinese women have not developed the 
 sense of cleanliness with regard to their household duties. 
 They do not notice filth when they see it. Their sense 
 of smell is blunted. Excepting the few wealthy families, 
 the homes of the Chinese are filthy and offensive in the 
 extreme. The number of rooms which make up the 
 home of the average peasant is seldom more than two or 
 three, and thousands of famihes live in a single room. 
 Parents and children often sleep in one bed, while an- 
 other part of the room is occupied during the night by 
 the huge water-buffalo, the family pig, a dog and a num- 
 ber of fowl. These are all essentials in the making up of 
 a happy peasant family in South China. 
 
 The construction of the Chinese characters expressing 
 the idea of home Hfe will suggest their conceptions and 
 ideals. The written character denoting " the home " or 
 " a family " is made up by combining the two written char- 
 acters signifying " roof" and " swine." To have the swine 
 under roof is the original Chinese idea of a home or family. 
 Their word signifying " rest " is made up by combining 
 the symbols representing " roof " and " woman." It may 
 be supposed that the idea is that if the woman is under 
 the roof it will bring " rest " to the whole household. 
 To marry a husband is expressed by a written char- 
 acter composed of "family," /. ^., " roof " and "swine," 
 and " woman." If expressed in words it would say 
 that to become a wife involves the duty of keeping the 
 swine under the roof. The word " good " or " excellent ** 
 is made up of " woman " and " child." 
 
196 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 When the foreign missionary arrives at a place in the 
 interior of China and estabUshes his home among the 
 people, he at once becomes the object of critical ob- 
 servation. It is his family life that appeals to the Chinese 
 as nothing else does. They will doubt his message and 
 have nothing to do with his religion, but there are very 
 few of the neighbours who are not interested in the 
 events of the foreigner's home Hfe. That constitutes the 
 one element in common with their own lives. It did not 
 take us long before we noticed this, and we concluded 
 that perhaps we might be able to make the best of our 
 opportunities among the people just along these lines for 
 the time being, until the people understood us better. 
 We decided that every Chinese who desired to pay us a 
 visit should be allowed to enter our home, and that he or 
 she would be made to feel perfectly welcome. 
 
 The " Open House " of the Missionary 
 We received visitors from the very beginning of our 
 residence at Kityang. The word was soon passed among 
 the people that all were welcome and that our home was 
 " clean to death " (the Chinese often use the word 
 *' death " to express the superlative). Others, Christians 
 and adherents, said our little home of three rooms was 
 beautiful and desired to know whether heaven would be 
 arranged along some such plan. We have often thought 
 what the poor people would say if they could see some 
 of the homes of our well-to-do American Christians. 
 Our home in Kityang has less comforts in many ways 
 than that which an ordinary clerk or artisan in America 
 would demand for his family. On special occasions, 
 such as Chinese holidays, many of the people who live 
 in the city would come out to our mission to spend an 
 
Family Life of the Missionary 197 
 
 afternoon in sight-seeing and converse with the mission- 
 aries. The crowds that came were generally well-be- 
 haved and orderly. As we obtained a stronger foothold 
 in the city and won the friendship of some of the city 
 elders and officials we began the plan of inviting these 
 men of influence and authority to a social meal at our 
 home. My wife would of course be at her regular place 
 and do the honours of the occasion. The idea of a woman's 
 sitting at a table with men was something entirely new to 
 the gentry and officials, but these men were open-minded 
 and were willing to learn from the foreigner. The very 
 first gathering of this kind made a deep impression upon 
 them. Later on, several of the gentry confessed to me that 
 if their wives were as intelligent and able as the wives of 
 the foreigners they would also have brighter and better 
 homes. This gave me the opportunity to show them 
 that the fault was not to be found with the poor women 
 but rather with the men who imposed the customs of 
 the family upon them, and prevented them from exerting 
 their proper influence in private and social life. We 
 cannot look for immediate results along these lines in 
 China ; there must be a gradual enlightenment and process 
 of instruction before the people will be willing to change 
 their customs. We do know, however, that the ex- 
 ample of home life and the teachings of the gospel have 
 proved a great blessing in hundreds of homes, and that 
 the lives of many women have become richer and more 
 cheerful. The fact is, China can never reach its true 
 height and develop into a real strong moral nation until 
 the Chinese women shall take their proper place in the 
 family, society and nation. 
 
 The officials and city elders would reciprocate these 
 little social functions. The missionary would frequently 
 
igS The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 be invited to their homes to a feast ; of course only men 
 would be present. The wives of the gentry, however, 
 would frequently ask my wife to visit them and some 
 would also come to our home on special occasions. Out 
 of regard to the social customs of the Chinese women 
 the missionary would always be absent from home when 
 they came, either preaching in the villages or perhaps 
 visiting in the city. During late years more women 
 have come to pay a social visit at our home than men. 
 This may be due partly to the fact that the gradual de- 
 velopment of our field made it necessary for the mission- 
 ary to be absent much, whereas his wife was always at 
 home with the children. Christian women passing 
 through Kityang would be sure to call and greet her. 
 The object lesson of the cleanliness and order of the 
 household would have its visible effect in their humble 
 homes, and when visiting the little village churches and 
 calling at the homes of the Christians the writer would fre- 
 quently, if the case warranted it, commend the cleanli- 
 ness of the home. Such a remark on part of the mis- 
 sionary has been known to have been remembered by 
 these good faithful women for several years. " Cleanli- 
 ness is next to godliness," and oftentimes it is noticeable 
 how the homes of the Christians become cleaner as they 
 grow into a deeper spiritual life. 
 
 One of the most pleasant of the social receptions at the 
 writer's house has always been the gathering of the 
 preachers and evangelists. Once every two months as 
 the Chinese co-workers came to the central station for 
 the preachers' institute we would invite them to our home 
 for a social hour. Simple refreshments would be served, 
 but these faithful workers always enjoyed coming and we 
 believe much good was accomplished in this way. 
 
Family Life of the Missionary 199 
 
 Preachers and evangelists who passed through Kityang 
 would always come to our house even though there were 
 no special business to be brought up. These fellow 
 workers bear the burdens of the great fight that is going 
 on in China to-day and they deserve every word of com- 
 fort and help we can give them. It is quite certain that 
 if a foreign missionary could but equip a large number o 
 Chinese evangelists and preachers for the great work that 
 is to be done by the Chinese themselves, he would be 
 doing the greatest work after all. These men can and 
 should be enriched and developed along the social side as 
 well as along the religious and moral side of hfe. 
 
 Unpleasant Experiences in Having an " Open 
 
 House " 
 Almost every question of missionary policy has its two 
 sides The policy of the missionary's having an " open 
 house" for all who desire to visit him has some draw- 
 backs. Apart from the fact that he will be constantly 
 disturbed in the pressing work which he may have m 
 hand, he soon learns that not every person in China is an 
 honest man. He will be surprised to find that after en- 
 tertaining certain people whom he thought were perfectly 
 trustworthy an article from the dining-room or something 
 out of the study will be missing. Thus we have lost 
 several things which we felt we could not bear to lose, 
 and though we offered rewards the articles were never re- 
 turned to us. Yet after the lapse of time, we are con- 
 vinced that in spite of this danger and loss incurred the 
 plan of having one's house open to all the people was 
 correct and one of the best methods of overcoming the 
 prejudice and wicked reports about the missionaries and 
 their work. We did, however, have an experience during 
 
200 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the Boxer troubles that gave us an anxious thought. 
 The missionary's family, because of the unsettled condi- 
 tion of China, were on their way to America, and the 
 missionary had just returned from Hongkong, where he had 
 seen his own on the steamer and said farewell. His faith- 
 ful cook, who had been with the family for many years, 
 was preparing his breakfast, when he was obliged to run 
 out to buy something. On his return he served the 
 morning rice. With the very first mouthful of food I felt 
 a gritty substance, which on investigation I found to be a 
 small piece of glass. The second mouthful of rice gave 
 the same result and it was found that the entire dish was 
 saturated with fine broken and ground glass. The cook 
 could give no satisfactory explanation. He was a faith- 
 ful Christian, a man who had proved his worth and trust 
 over and over again. He was entirely innocent, but to 
 this day we do not know who put the glass in the rice or 
 what the motives were that led the person to do it. It is 
 most likely that some one entered the open kitchen dur- 
 ing the time the cook had gone out on his errand and 
 put the glass in the pot of boiling rice. But if his 
 motives were sinister why use a substance that could be 
 detected so easily ? The Chinese do not masticate their 
 food carefully, and it may be that with their method of 
 gulping things down, a trifle hke a small piece of glass 
 would be no obstacle in the aesophagus. Still the event 
 proved the value of masticating food before swallowing, 
 and the writer chews his more than ever since that morn- 
 ing's experience. 
 
 There is possibility of disease being brought into the 
 house of the missionary by the people at certain times of 
 the year. Measles, chickenpox, smallpox, eye diseases, 
 bubonic plague and many other diseases are often rife 
 
Family Life of the Missionary 201 
 
 among the people. And yet it is an established fact that 
 the foreigner does not contract a disease from the Chinese 
 as readily as from his own people. At one time lepers 
 lived in a Httle temple just outside our mission gate. The 
 place was a distinct menace to the health of the family, 
 inasmuch as the mosquitoes would often be driven from 
 the temple to our house by a strong west wind. The 
 writer gave the magistrate the scientific explanation of the 
 way the malaria germ could be transmitted to the human 
 being by a mosquito and also explained that the mosquitoes 
 in China could transmit the leprosy germs from one 
 human being to another. He tried to show him that he 
 ought to prevent any possible danger of such contamina- 
 tion wherever it existed. This explanation was written 
 on very fine paper by an able native scholar and pre- 
 sented to the magistrate. It need not be added that it 
 also gave him a hint of the leper temple close up to our 
 mission house. The mandarin, ever friendly and obliging, 
 had the lepers taken away from the temple at once and 
 before sunset the doors of the temple w^ere nailed tight 
 and a large lock placed upon them in order to prevent 
 other lepers from occupying the place. It is doubtful if 
 without the translation of that mosquito theory we could 
 ever have had that temple closed. 
 
 Another unpleasant circumstance that we were sub- 
 jected to by permitting the Chinese to call upon us at any 
 time was that men who were in danger of being arrested 
 would sometimes come into our house to escape arrest or 
 to give the yamen runners the impression that they stood 
 on good terms with the missionaries and that therefore 
 any attempt to arrest them would be an insult to the 
 foreign teacher. At one time an adherent from another 
 field passed through Kityang and came in to pay us a 
 
161 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 visit. The man evidently belonged to the well-to-do class 
 of merchants. He stayed with us for a half hour or more 
 and departed evidently in good spirits, fearing no harm. 
 What was our surprise to learn that this man was seized 
 and arrested just as soon as he came out of our mission 
 gate. He was cast into prison, loaded down with heavy 
 chains, and several hundreds of dollars demanded for his 
 release. The reason for his arrest was as follows : He 
 lived in a large village composed of a single clan. Many 
 of the people of this village had neglected to pay their 
 annual taxes to the government. The underlings of the 
 official did not dare go to the village to demand the tax 
 lest they be mobbed. So they awaited their opportunity, 
 until some wealthy member of the clan might pass 
 through the city. When this man came to Kityang his 
 arrival was at once reported to the proper authorities and 
 they followed him expecting to arrest him, when they 
 saw him go to the American mission to call wpon the 
 missionary. They waited, however, until he came out of 
 the house and then laid hands on him. He was made re- 
 sponsible for the wrong of others of his clan. He was 
 wealthy and belonged to the more influential part of the 
 clan and was now held until the taxes should be paid, and 
 a fine thrice as large as the original tax paid to the un- 
 derlings. The man appealed to us to help him out of his 
 dilemma, but we could not interfere in a case of such a 
 nature. The tax and the " squeeze " were paid and the 
 man was released the next day. If he came to us know- 
 ing that he was being followed by the yamen runners, he 
 did us and our mission a great injury ; and we had that 
 message carried to him. The fact that he never called 
 upon us after that leads us to suspect that he was guilty 
 of this misuse of our kindness. 
 
Family Life of the Missionary 203 
 
 But in spite of some of these unpleasant experiences 
 the very fact that we made no distinction, which soon 
 became known to every one, disarmed all suspicion and 
 distrust against us and was a great help in our work. 
 Our experience has been that the kindly treatment ac- 
 corded to all, and the example of our Christian home, 
 overcame all misconceptions and misgivings regarding 
 the missionary who came to live among them. Not only 
 that, but it made many of the Chinese friendly towards 
 us. The writer once met a man in a village about ten 
 miles from his station who complained that when he tried 
 at one time to come into our house he was told by some 
 one, perhaps by the coolie, that he could not come in. 
 He spoke as though a great wrong had been done to 
 him. I told him in the presence of his neighbours that 
 when he called again to say to the coolie that I had 
 asked him to come ; this mollified him. Sometimes the 
 missionary would enter a village to preach the gospel 
 thinking that he was an entire stranger to all the people, 
 when some leading man would come forward and speak 
 in terms of close acquaintance and friendship. Later 
 it would become known that he had visited the mission 
 house for curiosity's sake and had met the missionary 
 and conversed with him. He remembered the foreigner 
 while the latter lost sight of him among the many other 
 strangers that called. It is not necessary to state that 
 our reception in such a village was always more cordial 
 than if the missionary had been an utter stranger. 
 
 Then again, at this very time when China is looking 
 about to learn from the foreigner, the fact that we re- 
 ceive the people in our homes acts as a leaven for the 
 spreading of Christian principles. We know of one 
 official who had his house renovated upon principles of 
 
204 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 our own mission house, allowing fresh air and light to 
 enter the building. One large room was fitted up in 
 regular, approved American style. He bought foreign 
 furniture and household articles at auction in Swatow, 
 paying in some instances twice the sum the things were 
 worth, and has since then entertained foreign merchants 
 from Swatow and government officials in his house. An- 
 other rich merchant, a deacon of the Kityang church, 
 has built a three-storied house for his large family. It 
 is the highest building in the city and has windows on 
 the four sides of the house. The heathen were sure that 
 he was only inviting disaster upon himself by adopting 
 such dangerous methods, but the deacon and his entire 
 family seem to thrive well on fresh air and sunlit rooms. 
 The Chinese method of building will need revision if they 
 are to imitate the foreigner in these things. At the 
 time the deacon was about to build his house the mis- 
 sionary offered to aid him in making a plan which the 
 builders should follow minutely. The deacon, however, 
 thought that such previous work would be unnecessary, 
 and that it would be an easy matter to put up a three- 
 storied building. He remarked, " Teacher, we will de- 
 velop our plans as the walls go up." The teacher said 
 nothing, but was curious to see how they would come 
 out. The windows were placed as the walls went up 
 and when the time came to put in the beams for the 
 flooring for the middle and upper stories, which was 
 done after all the walls were completed, it was found that 
 one or more of the windows would be cut in two by 
 these divisions, one-half of the window being in the 
 second story and the other half in the third story. But 
 that did not seem to trouble either the contractor or the 
 
Family Life of the Missionary 205 
 
 owner of the building. The windows remain in this 
 manner to the present time. 
 
 It is not only in material things, however, that the in- 
 fluence of the missionary's home Hfe is making itself 
 felt. By seeing practical Christianity in the home they 
 begin to understand the real meaning of some of their 
 beautiful moral maxims which have lost their original 
 meaning, if they ever did convey to the minds a mean- 
 ing as full as Christianity brings into the individual life. 
 Many of the beautiful ideas of Confucius are finding 
 their fulfillment in the gospel of Christ. And the mis- 
 sionary does well in adopting the attitude that he has 
 come not to destroy the ideals and moral conceptions of 
 Confucius, their great teacher, but rather to fulfill them 
 and to give to them their true significance and worth. 
 This is realized in Christian life, and inasmuch as the 
 Christian religion is not so much a set of doctrines and 
 specific teachings as a life applied to every-day problems, 
 the writer is convinced after ten years' trial that the open 
 house is one of the best methods of bringing men and 
 women in touch with the divine Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
Ill 
 
 MISSIONARY METHODS IN CHINA 
 
 XI. The New Testament the Model for Church 
 
 Planting and Church Training. 
 
 XII. Pioneer Sowing and Planting. 
 
 XIII. Training and Development of the Local 
 
 Church. 
 
 XIV. The Use and Misuse of Mission Money. 
 
 XV. Opening Mission Stations in South China. 
 
 XVI. Churches and Out-Stations on the Kityang 
 
 Field. 
 
XI 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT THE MODEL FOR CHURCH 
 PLANTING AND CHURCH TRAINING 
 
 The foreign missionary cannot carry on his missionary 
 activities as did the apostles of old, even though he de- 
 sire to do so. Times have changed, the old forms of 
 civilization have passed away, and the countries in which 
 Christ's ambassadors labour differ widely. Nor is mere 
 imitation desirable in this divine work. Each country 
 and nation has its peculiar difficulties and problems and 
 these can be met only with present day resources and 
 wisdom. And yet, in a larger sense, the study of the 
 apostolic method of church planting and church training 
 ought to be helpful to every missionary. After all there 
 are many incidents in the work of establishing the king- 
 dom of God on heathen soil that are analogous to the 
 experiences of the apostles, and the idea of studying 
 their methods, either for imitation or for contrast, cannot 
 but be helpful to every one interested in the progress of 
 the gospel among all the nations of the earth. 
 
 A Review of Some Methods Employed by the 
 Apostles in Church Planting 
 We are confronted at the outset with the fact that the 
 men who undertook the work of preaching the gospel 
 outside of the boundaries of the Holy Land were men 
 qualified and equipped for that responsible work by the 
 Holy Spirit. They were men who had been active in 
 service in the city of Antioch. Had they not been of a 
 
 209 
 
210 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 warm evangelical spirit and done their uttermost to win 
 souls in that heathen city the Holy Spirit would not have 
 called them to the larger work. The same principle holds 
 to-day, in that a young man or woman who does not 
 delight in the work of extending the kingdom of God in 
 his or her own city and country will hardly be the right 
 person to go to the foreign field. It seems that the 
 church at Antioch ordained and sent the two missionaries, 
 Barnabas and Saul, to do the work to which the Holy 
 Spirit had called them. There was therefore a human as 
 well as a divine side to their preparation. When the 
 Holy Spirit called them for this special work, He un- 
 doubtedly also bestowed on them the necessary spiritual 
 gifts for the performance of that work. The human side 
 of their preparation consisted in active missionary work 
 among their fellow men in Antioch on the one hand, and 
 the leading of a devout and prayerful Hfe before God on 
 the other. So it is still to-day with our young men and 
 women who are looking forward to the foreign field. I 
 would not limit their preparation for this great work to 
 prayer and fasting, but would include their every-day 
 desire to lead some one to Christ Jesus. 
 
 These servants of God, Barnabas and Paul, were intent 
 on preaching the gospel to such as seemed nearest to the 
 Kingdom. •' They preached the word of God in the 
 synagogues of the Jews." That seemed to be a natural 
 duty, and yet they had to learn that many Gentiles were 
 far more prepared to receive the word of God and to 
 enter the Kingdom than their own countrymen. Still, 
 they were open-minded ; they did not consider themselves 
 called to minister exclusively to one part of the people of 
 any country. Their message was unlimited and embraced 
 all men. When the Jews " j udged themselves unworthy of 
 
The Model for Church Training 2 1 1 
 
 everlasting life " they turned to the Gentiles. Conditions 
 in China to-day are different from those existing in Asia 
 Minor during the apostolic period, and yet we may draw 
 this lesson from the action of the apostles : that no 
 missionary should consider himself called to work for a 
 special class to the exclusion of others, who may, per- 
 chance, be more willing to receive the Word. It is a very 
 important work to win the literati and officials of China 
 for Christ, but when that phase of work would exclude 
 the uneducated and the common people, it seems to me 
 that such a plan of missionary endeavour has not the 
 proper spirit to insure its permanent existence, and that 
 it must suffer defeat because of its own inherent defects. 
 
 The Apostle Paul had a world-wide conception of the 
 kingdom of God and felt that he owed a debt to every 
 part. He travelled from place to place preaching Christ. 
 Persecutions and threats of death did not have the power 
 to prevent him from carrying out his aim in life. Yet 
 the apostle was not careless regarding dangers, and as he 
 was able, did what he could to protect his life, without 
 surrendering important principles. The missionary in 
 China at the present time needs to adopt the very same 
 methods as the apostles. Almost every missionary living 
 in the interior will be in danger at certain times. He 
 should not be an alarmist, taking every little local dis- 
 turbance to be a" world-wide event." The native Chris- 
 tians have a right to expect in their religious teacher an 
 example of courage and poise of mind in times when 
 others are excited. During the Boxer revolt some mis- 
 sionaries were a source of strength in South China by 
 their cool and courageous action ; others were constantly 
 on the point of a nervous collapse and endangered the 
 critical situation not a little. Missionaries were divided 
 
212 The Conquest of the Cross m China 
 
 into two classes in those eventful days. There were the 
 ♦' scoots " and " anti-scoots," /. e., those foreigners who 
 left their places in the interior and sought refuge in 
 Hongkong, and those who refused to leave their posts 
 of duty. The attitude of the foreign missionary during 
 this crisis was reflected in the little Christian congregations 
 under his jurisdiction. The missionary should know how 
 to make even times of distress redound to the welfare of 
 the elect of God. 
 
 The Apostle Paul often utilized the results of his mis- 
 sionary work at once. He often received new converts 
 for baptism immediately after their conversion to the new 
 faith. When several persons became believers in Christ 
 in one locality, they were called a church and usually the 
 responsibility of their local church life was placed upon 
 them. At certain times the apostle would send special 
 messengers to these churches, or he would designate one 
 of his co-workers to remain with the young church for a 
 short period. A profitable and interesting subject for the 
 foreign missionary's study is the nature and character of 
 spiritual gifts in the churches established by the Apostle 
 Paul. It is at this very point that the opinions of mis- 
 sionaries differ and determine their attitude towards 
 the young Christian congregations on their fields. 
 The usual view is that these congregations or local 
 churches are unable to regulate their own affairs and 
 must have the guiding hand and mind of the skilled mis- 
 sionary until they have attained a certain growth, when 
 they may be left to take charge of their own destinies. 
 This view naturally appeals to the conservative and 
 thoughtful mind and an error is detected in the reasoning 
 only when we make a thorough investigation into the 
 facts and note that many local churches, so guided, have 
 
The Model for Church Training 213 
 
 taken more than a whole generation to develop into self- 
 supporting and self-directing churches ; and that the step 
 from tutelage to self-direction was almost as abrupt as if 
 it had taken place a generation before. The New Testa- 
 ment view is that this newly created organism, the 
 spiritual body of Christ, has life and has been created to 
 work and to accomplish wonderful things. The members 
 of that body should be respected by the foreign mis- 
 sionary as being able to work out their own destiny. It 
 is far better for him to throw upon the church heavy and 
 great responsibihties from the very beginning than to be 
 solving all their local problems for them. The chances 
 are that they could solve them in many instances quite as 
 well as the missionary himself. 
 
 It would appear from a reading of the New Testament 
 that the money was a secondary matter in Paul's mis- 
 sionary career. The question of the money to carry on 
 the work of the Church was not allowed to appear prom- 
 inently in the word of God. We do find traces that the 
 Apostle Paul received aid from certain churches to help 
 him in his work and also that he refused to allow a 
 certain other church to have a share in this matter. The 
 raising of sums of money for the distressed in Judea in 
 the time of famine is allowed to appear more prominently. 
 Conditions surrounding the foreign missionary in countries 
 of Asia and Africa are entirely different from those which 
 the Apostle Paul met when he went to Asia Minor, 
 Greece or Rome. Paul was able to work with his hands 
 for a livelihood when in Corinth, but it would be simply 
 impossible for a foreign missionary to open a shop in 
 central China and earn a living by the work of his hands. 
 The sending out of a large host of men and women to all 
 parts of the earth naturally makes the financial problem 
 
214 Ihe Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 of this stupendous work more prominent. But there is 
 nothing dishonouring in urging the churches to have a 
 large share in the work. Money represents the toil of 
 man's brain and hands, and when the Christian gives his 
 money for the cause of foreign missions he gives a portion 
 of his time and strength to this greatest work committed 
 to men. There is a moral dignity in uniting in this 
 work — a work which must be accomplished ere Christ 
 can fulfill the promise of His second coming. We must 
 send our foreign missionaries to all parts of the world. 
 The churches must raise the funds to send them. The 
 subsidizing of the native churches on the foreign field, 
 however, from one generation to another, is quite another 
 matter. It is a large subject and cannot be settled with 
 a categorical answer. 
 
 The Apostle Paul relied simply upon the preaching of 
 the gospel when on his missionary journeys. To-day 
 many missionaries make much use of philanthropy, educa- 
 tion, and medical treatment to attract men to the cross. 
 The Christ preached on the foreign fields to-day is a 
 larger Christ than the one preached in the apostolic age. 
 We have in addition to the New Testament Christ the 
 Christ of the past eighteen hundred years. In the 
 apostoHc age the servants of God emphasized the value 
 of persecution for conscience' sake as a means of grace 
 more than the missionaries of the present generation 
 dare attempt. In his letters to the churches, the Apostle 
 provided comfort and spiritual sustenance for the perse- 
 cuted and oppressed Christians. Persecutions still come 
 to men and women who take upon themselves the name 
 of Christ, but somehow missionaries do not always feel 
 that it is a matter for congratulation and joy. Evidently 
 many have lost sight of the real blessing that would surely 
 
The Model for Church Training 215 
 
 be enjoyed by the oppressed if they were trained in the 
 Christhke spirit. Missionaries in China, in this period 
 of storm and stress, ought to be able to utihze the situa- 
 tion for the upbuilding of the Chinese Church. 
 
 The simplicity and directness of the gospel message of 
 the apostles is more than noteworthy. The fact that the 
 Apostle Paul refused to make much use of the learning 
 and philosophy of his day is a lesson for the foreign mis- 
 sionary of to-day. Paul was " determined not to know 
 anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." It has 
 been suggested that Paul had become convinced that his 
 speech on the AcropoUs in Athens did not accomplish as 
 much as the plain truths respecting the cross and crown 
 of Christ would have achieved. There is danger lest we 
 put too much into Paul's statements in i Corinthians 2 : 2. 
 The Apostle was not a narrow-minded man. Let the 
 foreign missionary recognize the good and the virtue and 
 the truth existing in the people to whom he has come, 
 trying at every point to see a fulfillment of God's purpose 
 in their history and folklore and hterature. The writer 
 believes that every nation has been prepared by God for 
 the reception of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as much as he 
 believes that God selected grace to be the medium 
 through which this salvation should be made possible for 
 all nations. It will not be a difficult task for foreign 
 missionaries to find distinct traces of God's dealings with 
 the heathen nations in order that they may be better pre- 
 pared for the gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Thus 
 the best in Confucianism will find its fulfillment in Christ, 
 and some truths uttered by the great sage of China will 
 find their true meaning only in Christian thought and 
 living. 
 
 Paul established his churches in the strategic cities and 
 
2i6 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 centres of the Roman Empire. These churches naturally 
 became the centres of missionary activity throughout the 
 surrounding country. To-day, when the conflict of 
 heathenism and Christianity is perhaps fiercer than ever, 
 we need to study closely the right principle upon which 
 to carry on this tremendous struggle. The evangeliza- 
 tion of the Chinese Empire presents in many respects to 
 the missionary of our day the same problems as the 
 evangelization of the Roman Empire did to the Apostle 
 Paul. One of the essentials to a successful and influen- 
 tial missionary enterprise is that the missionary make his 
 headquarters at the best strategic centre possible. It may 
 not be always possible to obtain a footing in the most 
 important city of a populous territory from the start, nor, 
 perchance, can missionary work in a certain territory be 
 deferred until a site at such a desirable centre be obtained ; 
 but plans should be kept in mind to establish the head- 
 quarters ultimately at the principal centre, and in no case 
 should missionary societies allow their missionaries to set- 
 tle permanently in some insignificant town or isolated 
 village. The missionary societies ought to become wiser 
 by accumulated experience, and ought to assist mission- 
 aries in their decisions. While there is no gainsaying 
 the fact that a good work can be accomplished even when 
 the headquarters of a mission are established in a small 
 town, yet a wise, statesmanlike policy demands that cities 
 in certain districts which have developed and become 
 government and commercial centres, must in time be- 
 come also the centres of religious influence and power. 
 This policy is fortunately being observed at the present 
 time more than in the past, due, no doubt, to the fact 
 that it is more possible to-day to occupy larger cities 
 than it has been in former years. 
 
The Model for Church Training 217 
 
 Is it proper for the missionary to make use of his 
 political rights and prerogatives in a foreign land ? We 
 know that the Apostle Paul made use of his rights as a 
 Roman citizen when it helped the cause of the gospel. 
 There is much nonsensical talk, at the present time, 
 respecting the receiving by missionaries of government 
 protection when in danger. The fact is, there is not a 
 single country in all Christendom that has made a dis- 
 paraging distinction between its commercial citizens and 
 missionary citizens in foreign lands. Missionaries, as 
 citizens of the United States of America, are entitled to 
 the same rights abroad as are American merchants, 
 globe-trotters, political or diplomatic agents of our gov- 
 ernment. Our authorities at Washington will never 
 attempt to make a distinction. A citizen is always to be 
 protected, regardless of his occupation, so long as the 
 latter is not unlawful. Seeking the protection of the 
 American Government over the lives and property of 
 Christian converts is quite another problem. But even 
 here it is very easy for those unacquainted with the facts 
 to give a biased judgment. One of the great burdens 
 that have been the lot of the writer in China has 
 been to observe the rankest injustice done by the Chinese 
 officials upon the poor, unoffending non-Christian people 
 and not to be able to help the miserable and suffering 
 victims. At this period in the transformation of China 
 the Christian convert has much persecution to endure. 
 If the Chinese Government would change her courts of 
 justice so that equity would prevail, and grant religious 
 liberty or even an honest toleration of Christianity, it 
 would not be necessary for the foreign missionary to call 
 the attention of his government to the disregard of the 
 treaties made by China and the United States in respect to 
 
2i8 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Christian missions. If some people can be indifferent to 
 the sufferings of unfortunate women and children, they 
 ought to know that the missionary cannot be unmindful of 
 these barbarities and that he is constrained to seek every 
 lawful means of saving life and property. There is of 
 course a possibility of misusing this right and privilege, 
 and care must be exercised in the matter. Foreign mis- 
 sionaries cannot afford to allow any abuse of their in- 
 fluence. They are morally bound to be thoroughly con- 
 vinced as to the justice of the case before they appeal for 
 aid in behalf of their converts. In the days of the 
 Apostle Paul, men were not attracted to the Christian 
 faith from any other motives than the spiritual. In 
 China, however, there are to-day many motives that 
 might induce a man to become a Christian adherent, any 
 of which may be worldly. 
 
 From the very beginning of Christian missions it has 
 been difficult for two leaders to direct helpers and to 
 work the same territory together. The experience of 
 Barnabas and Paul respecting the young man Mark has 
 taught many missionary societies the wisdom of appoint- 
 ing a specific field and sphere of work to each man. 
 The best organized societies have found it expedient to 
 have each man responsible for a definite field. Ex- 
 perience has shown that in this way harmony, which is 
 absolutely necessary to a successful work, can be easily 
 assured. 
 
 Can New Testament Precedents be Applied on the 
 
 Foreign Field To-Day ? 
 
 Many acts of the Apostles cannot constitute precedents 
 
 for us to-day, but foreign missionaries can carry on this 
 
 divine work in the same spirit as they. The Holy Spirit 
 
The Model for Church Training 219 
 
 has not abrogated his power and work, and our present 
 conquest on the foreign field is but a continuation of the 
 campaign begun by the Apostles. The Holy Spirit still 
 works in the same way in the hearts of men. The Acts 
 of the Apostles affords us a valuable source of information 
 and in some respects also a guide; yet the ever-present 
 Spirit of Christ will supplement the Scriptures whenever 
 the ambassador in foreign lands needs guidance. 
 
 This does not imply that the missionary of to-day 
 neglects to apply the methods which were used by the 
 Apostles. In addition to apostolic methods we have 
 added others that in a measure have buried the simplicity 
 of the apostolic campaign. Methods of missionary ac- 
 tivity have changed as much as those of war. There is 
 more deliberation and preparation, there is more system 
 and combination of effort, but in the last analysis the 
 same aim and purpose are there. Perhaps many of the 
 victories of modern missions are achieved i7i spite of our 
 splendid systems of to-day. The real essence of his 
 work appears when the missionary meets the individual 
 native in some lonely place in China, just as was the 
 case when the Apostle Paul planted the faith in pagan 
 Europe. The reahty of the divine work when a burning 
 soul kindleth another soul, is still the same in spite of the 
 glamour and system of missionary organization back of 
 the burning soul. The communication of the w^ondrous 
 message of Christ's love is still the same and it is still the 
 work of the Spirit to open the heart of the soul receiving 
 the message. 
 
 He who reads his Bible and knows also something of 
 our present day foreign missionary campaign must be 
 impressed with the closer supervision over newly-estab- 
 lished Christian congregations at the present day than 
 
220 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 was the custom at the time of the Apostles. The latter 
 gathered a few Christian disciples together and then soon 
 departed in order to go elsewhere and preach to others, 
 leaving the new converts with an elder appointed from 
 among their own number. The foreign missionary of 
 to-day would not dare attempt to carry out such a pro- 
 gram for fear of evil results. Perhaps certain nations 
 among whom missionaries labour at the present time 
 have not the ability that the people had among whom 
 the Apostle Paul laboured ; but the Chinese certainly are 
 not inferior to any of them. Why do we not let them 
 direct their own church affairs ? Is a close foreign super- 
 vision necessary for their spiritual development ? It is 
 possible that less ecclesiastical red tape and more apos- 
 tolic simplicity would be conducive to the growth of a 
 very strong Chinese church. Perhaps some of the ofifi- 
 cers of our missionary societies would not be able to 
 recognize the denominational type, but that would be a 
 decided gain also in many instances, as far as the welfare 
 of Chinese Christianity is concerned. 
 
 Closely connected with the foregoing is the use of 
 foreign money. Let the missionary societies refuse to 
 subsidize the local churches and to pay the salaries of 
 thousands of evangelists, and foreign supervision would 
 soon be in jeopardy. Not that there need be strife and 
 enmity between the foreign missionaries and the native 
 Christians, but the Chinese have a keen sense of justice, 
 and with them it is a common axiom of life that if a man 
 pays for a thing he has the right to direct and control it. 
 It is also a law in the kingdom of God that personal 
 work and responsibility create a strong type of Christian 
 character. Is it possible, then, that by subsidizing the 
 Chinese churches we are defeating the very ends we are 
 
The Model for Church Training 221 
 
 trying to attain? How did the Apostle Paul make use 
 of the money sent to him for his work ? 
 
 Then again, there is the office of the foreign mission- 
 ary ; is it a permanent one? Hardly that. But the es- 
 tablishment of strong Christian institutions all over China, 
 built with foreign money, gives the impression to the 
 Chinese people that the foreign missionary has come to 
 stay for all time. It is essential to the prosperity of these 
 institutions that the local native churches become deeply 
 interested in them. This can be accomplished only by 
 promoting native leaders to a large share in the responsi- 
 bilities of such institutions. The evangeUcal spirit of the 
 churches, rather than intellectualism, should be felt m 
 these institutions. This would involve a diminution of 
 foreign control in the whole matter of our Christian in- 
 stitutions, but it would help much to develop the native 
 Church and to make it strong and indigenous and inde- 
 pendent, so that even the greatest enemy of foreign 
 missionary work could not charge the native church with 
 being a foreign institution, as has been the case up to the 
 present time. 
 
 Active participation in foreign missions results in widen- 
 ing the conception of the possibilities of the Church of 
 God. Christianity as conceived in Jerusalem would have 
 been an impossible rehgion for the nations of the world. 
 It was necessary to counteract this provincialism by the 
 strong character of Paul, supported by his missionary ex- 
 periences. The conference regarding the status of Gen- 
 tile Christians, recorded in the book of The Acts (15th 
 chapter), not only resulted in obtaining soul liberty for a 
 certain number of Christians; it made the rdigion of 
 Jesus a world religion and thus saved its life. It is a 
 thousand pities that so many of the leaders of the Church 
 
122 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 during the past eighteen centuries have failed to apply 
 this basic principle of their religion. These spiritual 
 leaders have often given themselves up to dreams of 
 political ambition. They became men of influence in 
 some petty kingdom instead of taking their appointed 
 places as leading Hghts in the world-wide progress of the 
 kingdom of God. Some became provincialists and es- 
 tablished a state church, a national organization, instead 
 of insisting on establishing the international brotherhood 
 of the Kingdom. Then there was also the selfishness of 
 scholasticism, when leaders of Christendom gave their 
 entire attention to theological dogma and set up formulas 
 and creeds for other Christians to accept, instead of ex- 
 pending their God- given powers for the establishment of 
 the gospel in heathen lands. But since the Church 
 finally has realized her duty towards the heathen world 
 the reflex influence upon her has only been of great bene- 
 fit. It is true to-day as in the days of the Apostle 
 Paul, that the doors of the nations opened as the messen- 
 gers were preaching the word. The door to Europe 
 opened while Paul was itinerating in Asia Minor, and in 
 our own time one country after another has been opened 
 for the gospel message. 
 
 The Apostle's Method of Church Training 
 The Apostles revisited the churches they had estab- 
 lished. We read that the Apostle Paul appointed elders 
 over certain churches on one such occasion. No doubt 
 the selection of the men appointed was made at the re- 
 quest and approval of the local churches. Many years 
 must have elapsed ere the Apostle was able to visit these 
 churches again, and it may rightly be doubted if he ever 
 did visit them after that. These facts indicate that the 
 
The Model for Church Training 223 
 
 Apostle placed confidence in the ability of the local 
 churches to manage their own affairs. At certain impor- 
 tant centres he established his headquarters for several 
 years at a time. 
 
 The Apostle did not cut off his relations with these 
 churches, but as opportunity offered corresponded with 
 them, aiding them in solving difficult problems, comforting 
 and exhorting them in their faith and practice. We may 
 take it for granted that many of the epistles of the Apostle 
 Paul have gone astray. His daily care for the *' churches 
 that are in Christ Jesus," was a passion of his hfe, and noth- 
 ing brought such joy to his heart as the knowledge that 
 they were steadfast in faith. The foreign missionary 
 needs to be a true shepherd, ever ready to aid with words 
 and deed if asked. 
 
 In matters of church discipline the Apostle held that 
 the local churches were able — or ought to be able — to reg- 
 ulate their own affairs. Christians ought not to go to 
 law against one another. The weakest brother ought to 
 have sufficient spiritual gifts to act as arbiter and to es- 
 tablish peace among brethren. Missionaries in China do 
 well to take it for granted that the weakest Christian can 
 arbitrate a quarrel among his own people better than the 
 missionary can. Going to law against one another is of 
 course frowned upon as unchristian, though the ever-pres- 
 ent desire of the Chinese to engage in litigation often 
 makes it an impossibility. 
 
 Paul kept the churches informed as to his travels 
 from place to place. They were also cognizant of his 
 conflicts and trials. The great Apostle did not consider 
 it beneath his dignity to ask for the prayers of the little 
 churches for himself and the cause he represented. Per- 
 haps he was more favourably situated than the average 
 
224 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 foreign missionary to-day. The white and yellow races 
 do not have the same ideals and needs : hence it is per- 
 haps more difficult to establish intimate relations between 
 the missionary and the native Christians. And yet much 
 can be accomplished. The love of Christ can do wonders, 
 and it is nothing less than miraculous to observe the love 
 and esteem often existing between the foreign teacher 
 and the native disciples. 
 
 The Apostles gathered about them young men who 
 had the confidence and trust of the church. These men 
 became efficient co-labourers, and after the death of the 
 Apostles were leaders of the Christian cause. The great- 
 est work of the foreign missionary is to gather a number 
 of select men and to train them in the active work of 
 preaching the gospel, that they may become the shepherds 
 of the flock. 
 
 The ministry of suffering for Christ's sake is emphasized 
 in the word of God and the Apostle Paul made much use 
 of it as developing spirituahty. The experience of the 
 writer has been that a certain amount of persecution has 
 usually been found beneficial to the Chinese Christians, 
 but when the torture was prolonged it often excited the 
 passions, not only of the persecuted but of the entire 
 church. Sometimes, indeed, the Christians would become 
 restless at the quiet demeanour of the missionary and 
 would urge the latter to get the Chinese authorities to 
 punish the persecutors. This spirit of revenge causes the 
 missionary many unhappy days. The native Christians 
 note the indifference and heartlessness of their govern- 
 ment in regard to the sufferings of their fellow Christians, 
 and some fall into a chronic dislike, bordering on dis- 
 loyalty, for the present Manchurian Dynasty. But the 
 missionary in China teaches, in season and out of season, 
 
The Model for Church Training 225 
 
 that it is their duty to pray for their government, that 
 God may direct the hearts of the rulers to consider the 
 just cause of the Christians. The Chinese Christians have 
 always prayed with enthusiasm for the present emperor, 
 Kwang Hsu, and his practical retirement from active par- 
 ticipation in the affairs of the government several years 
 ago filled the hearts of the loyal ones with dismay. The 
 Church of Christ in China will in the near future have to 
 undergo many of the experiences which the apostolic 
 church had to endure by reasons of the upheavals and 
 catastrophies of the old Roman Empire. 
 
XII 
 
 PIONEER SOWING AND PLANTING 
 
 The arrival of the foreign missionary in a new district 
 will naturally cause a sensation. The fame of the for- 
 eigner has penetrated the interior of China, but many of 
 the common people have never seen one of them even up 
 to the present time. The people are usually alarmed at 
 the announcement of his arrival and every act and gesture 
 is keenly observed by scores and even by hundreds of 
 people. Tact and good taste on the part of the foreign 
 missionary, however, will at once put the people at their 
 ease and in most instances they are eager to hear some 
 words from his lips. It would be unwise if he should 
 begin at once to speak on religious subjects. Experi- 
 enced missionaries all agree that the best way to win over 
 a promiscuous crowd in a town or village is to address 
 one of the oldest men present and to inquire as to his age, 
 followed by the inquiry as to the number of his grand- 
 children. This makes an opening. By the time you have 
 congratulated him on the fact of a large progeny, as in- 
 variably is the case, the people round about have become 
 sympathetic ; for they feel that you have placed yourself 
 on their level and are actuated by the same motives as 
 they. Questions will soon be put to the visitor, and the 
 more willing he is to talk to them about their own affairs 
 the more he has prepared his hearers for the important 
 message he is about to deliver. A set speech or talk 
 that would exclude interruptions is unsuited. It is best 
 to ask questions about general subjects, viz., prospects of 
 crops, trade, and so forth. 
 
 226 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 227 
 
 The missionary who can enjoy a laugh with the people 
 and yet not throw away his dignity as a teacher has won 
 half the battle of gaining a willing audience. The Chinese 
 are in fact the most teachable race on earth. The foreign 
 missionary has a superabundance of material with which 
 he can interest people for hours if need be. He may, as 
 American missionaries frequently do, interest them by 
 describing some of the methods of our western farmers, 
 which naturally sounds to them like fairy-tales. It is but 
 one step from the subject of crops and harvesting to the 
 Final Cause of all these things. They are always inter- 
 ested in the story of the creation, of the giving of the ten 
 commandments, and the Hfe of our Saviour. The fact 
 is that some of the most blessed experiences in the life 
 of the missionary come in preaching the truth on virgin 
 soil. The results are sometimes quite surprising, and 
 often he finds souls who have been waiting for the salva- 
 tion of God, and are quite eager to accept his message. 
 
 There are various methods of evangelization in China. 
 The missionary can change his methods quite frequently, 
 for the opportunities for evangelization are always offer- 
 ing themselves in China. He may choose to go to the 
 people, and in a new district this method may be the 
 best, in order that he may know thoroughly the field on 
 which he is to plan and direct the great gospel campaign. 
 He will want to know and see every important town and 
 village in his field and note the different dispositions of 
 these places. He will find that there is a decided differ- 
 ence between towns in receiving the foreigner and his 
 message. As a wuse master-builder he will establish his 
 Lord's cause in places where the " least resistance " was 
 manifested. It is almost too much to expect a hearty 
 welcome for his message in a new district, except it be 
 
228 'The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 for sinister motives. In very hostile districts missionaries 
 have found it necessary to remain at their headquarters 
 the greater part of their time, waiting to receive and in- 
 struct those v^ho were bold enough to come. A preach- 
 ing hall on the main thoroughfare of the town or city has 
 always been found a profitable method of disseminating 
 the truth. The moral teachings and common honesty 
 of the Christian religion receives the concession of its 
 reasonableness even in the most hostile districts. The 
 good use of tracts and books in evangelistic work should 
 not be overlooked. The printed page carries with it 
 more respect and reverence in China than perhaps in any 
 other part of the globe. The evangelistic work in our 
 hospitals can be made a great blessing if efforts are made 
 to instruct the convalescent in-patients, rather than the 
 crowds at the dispensary, though this work need not be 
 neglected. 
 
 The present conditions in China make it certain that 
 undesirable and unworthy individuals will try to get on 
 friendly terms with the missionary. If these men came 
 to receive religious instruction, no objections could be 
 offered to their coming. They do not come for instruc- 
 tion, however, but rather to obtain the aid of the for- 
 eigner in their bitter contest with enemies. These men 
 are, as a rule, not frank enough to confess their real 
 motives. As a rule they know that the mere fact of 
 their attending the religious services at the missionary's 
 headquarters will be sufficient to frighten the enemies, 
 who in ignorance of the true aim of evangelical missions, 
 confound the work of the American or British mission- 
 ary with that of the French priests. It has already been 
 stated that the latter have received the status of magis- 
 trates and that they make much use of their consequent 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 229 
 
 influence at the yamens or courts of justice. The Chi- 
 nese believe that all foreign missionaries can exert an in- 
 fluence upon the officials ; hence those who are in dis- 
 tress come to the mission headquarters, hoping that they 
 as " converts " will also receive such aid as will be found 
 necessary to relieve them of their oppressors. The com- 
 ing of such men plays havoc with the best interests of 
 Christian missions. Foreign missionaries, who are lay- 
 ing foundations, need to fortify themselves against this 
 serious phase of the work more than against any other 
 single factor. 
 
 Motives of the Chinese in Inviting a Mission to 
 Their Town 
 
 It is no easy task at times for an experienced mission- 
 ary to decide whether to accept an invitation from Chinese 
 adherents to open missionary work in their town or not. 
 He knows from experience that the people will come to 
 him from motives that are directly opposed to the gospel 
 teachings. 
 
 People who have been engaged in clan fighting among 
 themselves may, because of impending punishment by 
 government officials, seek to induce the missionary to 
 come to their town and open a meeting house. They 
 hope that their presence, in large numbers, at the re- 
 ligious meetings will so impress the missionary as to lead 
 him to address the authorities in their behalf, and they 
 thus may escape the usual consequences of their wrong 
 doing. Christians are not supposed to fight, rob and kill, 
 even in China, and the fact that the missionary might be 
 induced to write to the authorities, claiming to have a 
 large body of Christians among one side of the com- 
 batants, might not only relieve them from threatening 
 
230 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 punishment but indirectly put the blame of the whole 
 trouble on their opponents. But the Chinese officials 
 are men of experience ; they know their own people, and 
 take Httle notice of the claim that they are Christians, 
 except perhaps when they maintain that they have united 
 with the French mission. No Chinese magistrate, if he 
 has any regard for his future official career, will punish 
 such without first conferring with the French priest. 
 Such an act would be considered an outrage and would 
 be reported to the bishop at once. The latter would 
 bring pressure upon the French consul and Chinese vice- 
 roy. The usual result of such incidents for a number of 
 years has been that the local magistrate received a repri- 
 mand and therewith the French converts were vindicated. 
 There has been too much of this going on in all parts of 
 China. It is cause for astonishment that the Chinese 
 Imperial Government has tolerated such unwarranted 
 interference and has not denounced the decree which 
 granted to the French priests official rank, and at the 
 same time forbade any foreigner from interfering in a law- 
 suit when no religious principle is involved. It will have 
 to come to this sooner or later, that is certain. 
 
 Again, some become adherents when a clan fight is 
 yet only prospective. They do not want fighting nor do 
 they want to be compelled to pay towards the costs. 
 They know from bitter experiences the cost which it in- 
 volves in lives, money, suffering and time. They reason 
 that by becoming Christian converts, they cannot be 
 compelled to fight nor to pay the customary tax for the 
 raising of funds necessary to carry on the fight for clan 
 supremacy. They know also that at the end of the con- 
 flict, when the officers arrive to punish and fine the par- 
 ticipants, the bona fide Christians, those that can prove 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 231 
 
 that they were Christians ere the conflict began, will 
 stand a good chance of escaping punishment. These 
 men, then, come to the mission headquarters and receive 
 the gospel message week after week. Shall the mission- 
 ary enroll them as adherents ? These people may live a 
 full day's journey from the nearest mission station. It 
 will involve the loss of three days every time they come 
 to the meeting. Perhaps they will ask the missionary to 
 open a meeting house at their village or town and to send 
 them an evangehst to be their leader. They may also 
 offer to pay a large portion of his salary. What shall the 
 missionary do ? There is a certain amount of danger in- 
 volved in sending an evangelist, and yet to refuse every 
 opening of such a nature would be to stultify his mis- 
 sionary spirit. 
 
 In China, " Might makes Right," and a clan, village, 
 family or individual that is weak must bear the double 
 burden of sorrow and oppression. It is only natural that 
 such a clan or village should try to escape from under the 
 heel of its stronger neighbour. Unfortunately for the 
 purity of Christian missions the Chinese have conceived 
 the idea that if they, during the period of their subordi- 
 nation, become converts of the missionary's reHgion, he 
 in return could not well refuse them such aid as he might 
 be able to offer them ; and if it should be possible to turn 
 tables upon their oppressors — that would be filling their 
 cup of joy. Nothing is so sweet to a Chinese as a strong 
 and lasting revenge. It gives him " face," and that is 
 what makes life worth living. Should then the foreign 
 missionary open a mission station among a clan that is 
 known as the weakest in its vicinity ? If he refuses he 
 perhaps will never be invited to come into that district, 
 for the stronger clans have no use for him. The strong 
 
232 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 and mighty, those heartless forces in China, consider the 
 missionary a disturbing factor ; the weak unfortunately 
 look upon him with the hope of through him becoming 
 strong, rather than righteous. 
 
 Cases of litigation induce more Chinese to come to the 
 mission centres than any other single reason. The fame 
 of the success of the French missions in protecting their 
 converts has permeated the empire, and the uninitiated 
 do not discriminate between the various missions, but 
 suppose that they have all been established for their 
 private benefit and to help them out of their troubles 
 should they deign to enter the mission premises. It 
 would, however, be unfair to give the impression that only 
 the French priests have made the mistake in rendering 
 aid to such men. Protestant missionaries, in the past, 
 have also taken up cases. Evangelical missionaries in 
 China ought not to complain if the Chinese in their dis- 
 trict have not yet made a clear distinction between the 
 principles governing one mission and those governing 
 another. A missionary who sets his face as flint against 
 lowering his ideals of missionary work to the plane of a 
 court of justice need not always be troubled with that 
 class of men who come not for spiritual instruction but 
 simply to get aid to help them out of a trying position. 
 
 A motive with which the foreign missionary may have 
 more patience and yet which is far from the ideal, is that 
 Christian converts can get along more comfortably in life 
 than those worshipping idols. They may have noticed 
 that the Christians do not pay the usual heavy taxes con- 
 nected with idolatry. Christians can even dare to take 
 over haunted fields, plough them and plant rice without 
 any harm resulting. They are known to live more 
 soberly than their neighbours, and consequently, instead 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 233 
 
 of being in a poor and unpromising condition, seem to 
 be well-to-do and happy. The Christians, to be sure, are 
 not loved in their village, but the poor and weak families, 
 though heathen, are made to bite the dust constantly by 
 the stronger elements ; and it is not surprising that the 
 comparative ease and comfort of the Christians when the 
 persecutions cease (as they do in the course of time) 
 should be an object lesson to them. The very fact that 
 the Christians are actually and positively free from the 
 fear of demons, is in itself a miracle and always causes 
 surprise and wonder. And when the Christians boldly 
 proclaim that this liberty can be enjoyed by all, the 
 people bound captive by their superstitions can hardly 
 believe that the message is for them. Some are bold 
 enough to come to the mission from just such a motive. 
 Truly they are building better than they know ! 
 
 Only in rare instances do men and women come at 
 first from a purely spiritual motive. It does happen that 
 some who have wasted long and dreary years with the 
 weariness of Buddhism and the absurdities of Taoism are 
 still longing for something that can satisfy the soul. 
 Such people accept the truths almost instantly, and 
 though they lack the fuller teachings of the gospel they 
 soon obtain a saving knowledge of Christ. Old though 
 they be, the transformation of such in life and habits is 
 most remarkable. 
 
 In mentioning the various motives that lead the Chi- 
 nese to seek instruction from the foreign missionary we 
 must not forget the important fact that in many instances 
 the people come with mixed motives. The clan that 
 has been fighting with its neighbours until nearly every 
 family has suffered, may have certain people in its midst 
 who not only long for better physical conditions but who 
 
^34 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 also desire more spiritual light. One or another may 
 have heard the foreign missionary preach a sermon or 
 talk to a crowd ; the message found lodgment in his soul 
 and he has told his fellow men about it ever since. Then 
 again it need not follow that because the clan has been 
 fighting with its neighbours at the command of the 
 elders all of its members are depraved men, delighting 
 in pillage, plunder and murder. The results of sin in 
 China as in every other country are often self-corrective. 
 Men become wise through suffering, and to such the 
 message of peace, love and eternal life is indeed a wel- 
 come one, as every foreign missionary of experience in 
 China has seen. 
 
 The foreign missionary must decide each case on 
 its own merits, whether he will accept an invitation 
 to open missionary work or not. The same is true 
 in the recognition of individuals, coming to the chapel 
 to attend religious services, as adherents. The welfare 
 of his work demands that the foreign missionary re- 
 fuse to allow some men to pose as Christian converts. 
 In making his decision there are certain principles that 
 must govern, and the first of three important questions 
 to ask is, whether the opening of a mission station at a 
 certain place will compromise the ideals of his religion ? 
 The second question that must be answered is, whether 
 there are a sufficient number of men at that town who 
 are receiving the word with a sincere heart ? If such is 
 the case then there remains still a third question before 
 he allows the name of his mission to be used in the new 
 project, namely : is the understanding between the ad- 
 herents and the missionary clear in matters of litigation 
 and other civic troubles ? 
 
 It is evident from this that at the present time foreign 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 235 
 
 missionaries must be circumspect in the planting of the 
 church in China. They will have to investigate whether 
 the local condition of any place proposed for occupation 
 by his mission are such as will not bring Christian mis- 
 sions in disrepute. It will not always be an easy task to 
 decide. Conditions and facts obtainable do not always 
 make the issue clear enough for quick decision. The 
 foreign missionary given to idealism will have a distress- 
 ing time in China. Conditions in that country make the 
 true, the beautiful and the good almost impossible in the 
 life of the common people. The missionary not only 
 finds that sights and smells offend; he is often at his 
 wit's ends to understand how a nation like China could 
 have existed all the years with such a low regard for 
 truth and righteousness. Yet by the very nature of his 
 calling he is helping them to higher ideals, and he will 
 have abundant opportunity for establishing the kingdom 
 of God among men. Though they may not understand 
 the laws of that kingdom, the fact that men come to 
 him for instruction should inspire him with courage to 
 give them the very highest ideals possible from the very 
 start. The probabilities are that a new mission opened 
 with these safeguards will not draw to it people in large 
 numbers. The experience of most missionaries has been 
 that a new mission beginning with a few tens of men is 
 always more desirable than many hundreds. Individual 
 work counts for more on the foreign field than even in 
 the home country. 
 
 A New Congregation in the House of God 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that the Chinese who 
 invited the missionary to open work in their town are 
 Christian in anything but name. They have given up 
 
236 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 idolatry and come to the newly established mission for 
 instruction, and that constitutes them Christians in the 
 eyes of the heathen. But let us look in upon a typical 
 congregation of new adherents. 
 
 An old house in the town has been renovated and a 
 number of benches placed in the room. The people are 
 standing about in groups smoking their pipes and talking 
 as usual in loud voices. Their language is still filthy and 
 their expressions show that the Christian moderation and 
 love have not yet taken possession of them. Their 
 habits are still the same as those of the pagans. Word 
 is given by the evangelist in charge that the time for 
 meeting has arrived. At the signal every one cries out, 
 «' Li-pai ! " Worship ! Those who have not yet done 
 so untie their braids, done up in a top-knot, and let them 
 fall down the back. Each takes a seat, every man talk- 
 ing in loud tones to his neighbour. The evangelist finds 
 it necessary to tell the audience to be quiet, and in order 
 to give them something to do calls out the number of a 
 hymn. Some ten or more may repeat the number in a 
 loud voice, without the least thought of any disturbance. 
 After a number of hymns have been sung the evangelist 
 announces the lesson of Scripture and begins to read, 
 when a man decides that he wants to turn to the page of 
 Scripture too, but, having missed the chapter and book, 
 calls out in a loud voice to ask where the lesson is found. 
 Several, including the evangelist, inform him. At this 
 point, just as the evangelist is about to resume reading, 
 he spies one of the late-comers sitting on the rear bench 
 smoking his pipe. He calls upon him to put away his 
 pipe, and at once quite a number from the audience turn, 
 crying, " No smoking," each one of them being con- 
 vinced that he did his share towards keeping things in 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 237 
 
 order. They listen with reasonable quietness, excepting 
 a disturbance or two by late-comers who perhaps have 
 deposited in a corner a basket containing potatoes or 
 live chickens or even a pig tied up securely. There is 
 very little reverence shown in their demeanour, and the 
 missionary finds himself growing indignant within him 
 as he observes the lack of this, which seems to him ab- 
 solutely necessary for the proper development of a true 
 spiritual hfe. 
 
 It is of great importance that a faithful Chinese preacher 
 be placed in charge of such a new work. His responsi- 
 bilities are very great, and his spiritual strength or weak- 
 ness will become evident among the adherents who have 
 received his teaching. The preacher is tempted by the 
 conditions of the new mission to do things that would not 
 be expected of him at an old station. He is asked to aid 
 in every conceivable trouble, from a threatened clan 
 fight which he is called upon to arbitrate, down to the 
 petty quarrels of women about their children. If he is 
 avaricious it is an easy matter for him to make money 
 aside from his salary, but by doing so he loses the re- 
 spect of the better class of men and his usefulness as a 
 spiritual leader is over. Many missions have lost men 
 who have become victims of avarice at such newly- 
 established places. It has become a standard rule with 
 many missionaries to send only the very strongest men 
 to such new openings. 
 
 The relation of the foreign missionary to these new 
 stations should be well defined and uniform. Pressure 
 will be brought upon the native preacher by the ad- 
 herents to use his good offices to gain the missionary's 
 help in this or that case of litigation. The preacher, 
 while knowing the rules of his mission, feels that he must 
 
238 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 do something to satisfy the adherents and to remove the 
 responsibihty from his shoulders. He presents the case 
 in the most favourable light, for if the missionary should 
 offer to render any aid it would be a distinct victory for 
 him and he would be •' persona grata " to an increasing 
 circle of friends. But the foreign missionary knows the 
 power of precedence. The Chinese are not slow in 
 noting some favour to this or that place, and a discrimi- 
 nation at a later time against another place would not re- 
 dound to his credit as a leader. 
 
 Questions of finance in a new mission will also have to 
 be solved. It is common for the Chinese who have a 
 case on hand to pay a very good salary to a preacher if 
 they can entertain hopes of receiving yamen aid from the 
 missionary ; or if the preacher is a good man for settling 
 quarrels, etc. It is to-day a mooted question whether it 
 is wise to allow adherents who have a case of litigation 
 with no religious import, to ask the help of mission 
 workers. Growing out of this problem of asking the 
 native preachers to become arbiters of all sorts of civil 
 and worldly affairs, is the important question of allowing 
 adherents, who have not made considerable advance in 
 spiritual enlightenment, to contribute any money towards 
 the support of the preacher. This may seem to the 
 reader an extreme position to take, but the pagan 
 Chinese do not give something for nothing. They ex- 
 pect to get aid if they make a contribution, and the mis- 
 sionary who fails to see it is deluding himself. The 
 writer was present at an occasion at one of his out- 
 stations when money for the preacher's salary was being 
 raised for the coming year. A well-to-do old man was 
 finally asked whether he desired to add his name to the 
 list as all others had done. He remarked that he hardly 
 
Pioneer Sowing and Planting 239 
 
 had made up his mind yet. " Last year about this time," 
 he said, " I gave ^2.00, and also asked the church to pray 
 for my lame leg. I gave the ^^2.00 but I still have the 
 lame leg. I will see later on what I can do." Of course 
 he was set right in his theology by a number of Chris- 
 tians, but his case is not isolated by any means, nor do all 
 expect aid only by prayers either. 
 
 And yet it would be a mistake to ignore the impor- 
 tance of teaching a congregation from the very beginning 
 to make a substantial contribution towards its own self- 
 support. Experience has taught that such congregations 
 that have been aided financially for twenty or more years 
 have been slower in becoming self-supporting churches 
 than congregations formed many years later, but who 
 were expected from the beginning to raise a share of the 
 expenses necessary to carry on the work in their own 
 locality. As with everything else in Christian missions, 
 the Chinese need to be taught what is proper ; the mis- 
 sionary cannot take anything for granted. It is Hne upon 
 line, precept upon precept. 
 
 In order to establish a mission of real permanent value 
 the missionary must insist that the male adherents allow 
 their wives to attend worship. An outstation can never 
 be considered fully established until the men lead their 
 wives, mothers and children to worship at the chapel. 
 True church planting can be done only when the family is 
 under Christian instruction. The individuals who have 
 become Christians, but who fail to lead their relatives to 
 Christ, cannot exert that influence which the Christian 
 family does. The individual dies and that is the end of 
 his influence in the life of the church. When, however, 
 the family is Christian the faith of the parents lives on, as 
 it were, in the lives of the children and the work of es- 
 
240 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 tablishing the kingdom of God on heathen soil becomes 
 more thorough in the souls of the children than in the 
 soul life of their parents. The important fact of the in- 
 fluence of a Christian family life upon the social Hfe and 
 community in a country like China cannot be overstated. 
 The missionary labours to bring individuals to Christ in 
 the first instances but the Christian lives of many families 
 in China will hasten the coming of the kingdom of God 
 as nothing else can. 
 
XIII 
 
 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCAL 
 CHURCH 
 
 The problems connected with the ingathering of the 
 first converts, forming the nucleus of a Christian church, 
 are manifold. Care must be taken in the choice of those 
 who are first baptized. They will be looked upon by 
 others as guides to be followed. In China, as in other 
 countries, the first converts usually do not come from the 
 best classes of the inhabitants. But this fact makes it all 
 the more desirable that the first Christians be men and 
 women who have experienced a change in their lives. It 
 often happens in God's own mysterious way that men who 
 are in disrepute with their own neighbours are the very 
 first who accept the teachings of Christ, while the more 
 respectable class refuse to identify themselves with the 
 work of the missionary. The grace of God cannot be 
 limited, but the future prosperity of the mission and the 
 reputatidn of the gospel which is preached demand that 
 the first converts be men who not only have undergone a 
 spiritual change but who are recognized by their neigh- 
 bours as men living new moral and social lives. It is 
 only the changed character of the first converts received 
 as church members which will challenge existing condi- 
 tions and which will prove to be the determining force 
 in making a place for the Christian church in that territory. 
 For that reason the foreign missionary in China should be 
 slow to receive men and women as candidates for baptism 
 and church membership. For if they should be found 
 
 241 
 
242 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 lacking in true spiritual life or if they are not proving 
 their calling by purified lives, manifest to all their heathen 
 neighbours, the missionary has only added greater diffi- 
 culties to his future work for having received them into 
 the church. In this matter above any other the mission- 
 ary must be inexorable in demanding the most rigid 
 moral and social rectitude. The converts may still be 
 children in spiritual matters, but the welfare of the young 
 church demands that these first members be men of clean 
 hands and spiritual conception. 
 
 But the test of their spirituality is not as easy as it 
 might seem. The Chinese are given to a practical exer- 
 cise of their faith rather than to mystical contemplation 
 and enjoyment. Rarely, if ever, does one hear the 
 Chinese Christian speak about his emotional experience 
 of religion in a prayer-meeting. This has led some to 
 maintain that the Chinese do not have a deep conviction 
 of sin. This is evidently a mistake. There are many 
 thousands of Chinese all over the country who have un- 
 dertaken long and tedious pilgrimages in order to obtain 
 release from sin and to find peace of soul. The Chinese 
 do, however, express their religious sentiments and ex- 
 periences in a way quite different from that of Western 
 peoples. With the Chinese Christians it is the recital of 
 what they have suffered or had to endure during the past 
 week that affords interest and appeals to the Christian 
 congregation, far more than any attempt to explain sub- 
 jective views or feelings as to a certain bibhcal truth. 
 He who has suffered the greatest persecution and lost his 
 earthly possessions will not fail to stir up the interest of 
 his fellow Christians, and his words will be helpful in the 
 prayer-meeting. These recitals of bitter persecution be- 
 come frequent at every new outstation as soon as the 
 
Development of the Local Church 243 
 
 Christians refuse to pay the customary tax for the main- 
 tenance of idolatry in their villages, or decline to partici- 
 pate in the worship of the common ancestor. Chinese 
 Christians believe that when a man or a family suffers 
 persecution for His Name's Sake they are entitled then 
 to become proper applicants for baptism. But care needs 
 to be exercised that the persecutions are really for the 
 sake of the gospel and not the outgrowth of an old feud. 
 The foreign missionary can easily be misled, but it is 
 difficult for the natives to be deceived by one of their own 
 number. 
 
 The Organization of the Local Church 
 After a number of converts at an outstation have been 
 baptized and received into the church, the next step will 
 be the organization of the band of Christians into a church. 
 The question has often been raised as to the necessary re- 
 quirements for establishing a local church. There have 
 been some who hold that when a body of Christians are 
 able to be entirely self-supporting in all their financial 
 obligations, they by that fact are entitled to recognition 
 as a church. That is quite in accordance with the 
 Chinese way of doing things. When they pay towards 
 the maintenance of any organization they expect to be a 
 factor in the running of it also. Now while this proper 
 effort for financial independence should be recognized, it 
 would nevertheless be a mistake to allow the ability of 
 raising a certain amount of money to be the criterion. 
 Others have suggested that when the baptized Christians 
 reach a certain number they then be recognized as a 
 church. But numbers are not always a satisfactory 
 guide. A limited number of Christians may at one place 
 have greater ability to regulate their local affairs than a 
 
244 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 larger number at another place. Nor will the opinion be 
 found satisfactory that would recognize any body of 
 Christians as a local church as soon as they themselves 
 demand it. Such a method may answer well in some 
 cases but in others much harm could result. Then there 
 is the ordained preacher who may be serving a congre- 
 gation for a year or longer. In that case the ordinances 
 of Baptism and the Lord's Supper could be observed 
 without reference to the foreign missionary. Such a con- 
 gregation would for all practical purposes be like a local 
 church, self-governing and self-directing. But what 
 would result if the ordained preacher were to leave the 
 congregation for another and an unordained man take up 
 the work? A congregation of believers attains the 
 status of a church apart from the possession of an or- 
 dained man. This is also true in a real sense in the case 
 of external authority. A number of missionaries or a 
 committee may adopt a system by which a congregation 
 may be recognized as a local church, but that is simply 
 an external recognition of a supposed spiritual growth. 
 A Christian congregation can become a church only by 
 its own spiritual growth. No external system can make 
 it a real living church, though they may be able to grant 
 the status and the name. We must mark the difference 
 between essentials and non-essentials, between the divine 
 plan of a church and human additions to that plan. 
 
 There is no biblical reason why a council should be 
 called together to recognize a congregation of believers 
 as a local church. That is ecclesiasticism pure and sim- 
 ple. While the system of calling a council answers the 
 needs in home countries very well, missionaries on the 
 foreign field must not place ecclesiasticism about the 
 necks of the young Chinese Christians. They have no 
 
Development of the Local Church 245 
 
 right to make the ability to raise money, the number of 
 Christians, the possession of an ordained pastor, or any 
 other external condition the necessary quahfication for 
 the attainment of the status of a local church. The only 
 essential is the inherent spiritual life of the believers 
 themselves and the conforming to the New Testament as 
 the guide for their daily living. 
 
 The writer has become convinced that a congregation 
 of men and women can be considered a living local 
 church only where the baptized Christians have such 
 spiritual gifts that they themselves are able to carry on 
 their religious meetings. There should be men with the 
 gift of prayer and with the gift of exhortation. They must 
 have the ability and gifts necessary to carry on their re- 
 ligious services at their own place apart from the aid of a 
 preacher called from another place. When a body of 
 Christian men and women unite themselves for regular 
 worship on the Kityang field, having the above-men- 
 tioned spiritual gifts, the missionary knows that they 
 have all that is necessary to constitute them a local 
 church, because they are in fact already the spiritual body 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ in that locality. Observation 
 on the field has taught the writer that when a body of 
 believers at an outstation are able to perform their own 
 services of worship they very soon ask that the ordi- 
 nances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, be observed at 
 their place of worship. When they have become de- 
 veloped to such a degree he would consider those men 
 and women entitled to the name of the Church of Christ 
 Jesus even though they may not be more than five or six 
 members. It sometimes happens that though a band of 
 Christians may have the necessary spiritual gifts to direct 
 all their religious services, if need be, they still fear the 
 
246 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 probable results that may follow if the rite of Baptism is 
 observed in their locaHty. This fear must be overcome, 
 and when it is conquered, there is no reason why such a 
 congregation of believers should not be classified as a 
 local church. This development of a congregation into 
 a church is a growth and not an external act, and it is 
 therefore impossible to say just when the church began. 
 As far as the external recognition is concerned there may 
 be certain ceremonies connected with it, but that would 
 be what a birthday party would signify on the twenty- 
 first birthday of a new citizen of his country. He would 
 be a citizen just as well even though there had been no 
 birthday party. So with the little churches on the foreign 
 field. The time may come when the Chinese of their 
 own accord will want to establish these semi-social-relig- 
 ious customs, but the foreign missionary must not intro- 
 duce them with the absolute essentials of the New Tes- 
 tament. When the Chinese churches regulate such 
 things among themselves, as they surely will in time, 
 they will know where to place the emphasis and what to 
 consider as non-essentials. 
 
 The Reception of Candidates for Baptism 
 
 It is a wise policy to place the responsibility of receiv- 
 ing applicants for baptism upon the native Christians 
 themselves. This does not mean that the missionary has 
 no share in the matter ; he will always take a deep interest 
 in those who are to be baptized and will be found ready 
 with advice and help for the Chinese leaders, but a wise 
 missionary will get the Chinese to do as much of their 
 own church work as is consistent with a healthful growth. 
 The examination of the candidates for baptism is always of 
 great interest. Usually the first examination takes place 
 
Development of the Local Church 247 
 
 on a Saturday afternoon before the Sunday on which 
 they are to be baptized. The deacons, preacher and a 
 few of the leading members of the church are expected 
 to be present. The foreign missionary or an ordained 
 preacher has arrived by the time the examination begins. 
 The names of those desiring to be baptized having been 
 given the Sunday before, the names are called off and 
 the applicants invited to take seats at the front. The ex- 
 amination of the candidates may be carried on as follows, 
 each member of the board of deacons, the preacher and 
 missionary taking a share in the examination. 
 
 Question : Mr. Lim Hah Li, how long have you been 
 attending services at this chapel ? 
 
 Answer : It will be three years next month. 
 
 Q. What do you desire at this time ? 
 
 A. I desire to ask the church to permit me to be 
 baptized and to receive me into the church. 
 
 Q. Have you separated yourself from every phase of 
 idolatry ? 
 
 A. I have had nothing to do with the worship of an- 
 cestors for the past two years. Last year during the 
 first month because I refused to pay the customary tax 
 for the theatres and the idolaters' procession I was perse- 
 cuted and not allowed to live in the village until the mat- 
 ter was settled by the aid of our preacher. 
 
 Q. Do your relatives also come to worship here ? 
 
 A. None up to the present time. 
 
 Q. Why do you not bring your wife to the chapel ? 
 
 A. I have repeatedly tried, but my other female rela- 
 tives have kept her away. 
 
 Q. Do you pray in your home ? 
 
 A. Yes, but it is very difficult, as they make fun of 
 me. 
 
248 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Q. Now about the doctrine. How many persons are 
 there in the Godhead ? 
 
 A. Three ; God the Father, God the Son, God the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 Q. Can you tell us what each does for you ? 
 
 A. God the Father forgives my sins. God the Son 
 has died for me on the cross. God the Holy Spirit 
 guides me into all truth and helps me to live as I ought. 
 
 Q. What is this Book to you (Bible) ? 
 
 A. It is the word of God, which teaches me how I 
 may be saved and live as God desires me to live. 
 
 Q. What is the purpose of the Church of Christ on 
 earth ? 
 
 A. To bring about the kingdom of God on earth and 
 to prepare God's people for heaven. 
 
 Q. Which is important, faith or baptism ? 
 
 A. Both are important, but faith must precede 
 baptism. 
 
 Q. Do you purpose to help the local church in its 
 financial obligations ? 
 
 A. I consider it my duty. 
 
 Such and many other questions in various forms may 
 be put to each candidate. It sometimes happens that 
 thirty or more questions are put to a single candidate. 
 At times when the past private Hfe of an applicant has 
 not been what it ought to have been the questions become 
 very personal. The Chinese leaders do not depend only 
 upon this oral examination of the candidate in making 
 up their minds whether to present his name favourably 
 to the church for baptism ; they also investigate his life in 
 the village. 
 
 As a rule the applicant appearing for the first time is 
 refused and told to seek the way of life more diligently. 
 
Development of the Local Church 249 
 
 In some cases one man may seem quite as fit for 
 baptism as another, but for some reason will not be in- 
 dorsed by the leaders. During the past ten years there 
 have been over 1,300 applications for baptism on the 
 Kityang field but only about 700 have been received. 
 The Chinese converts do not take their failure to pass 
 examination in a bad spirit ; they invariably become all 
 the more zealous in attending to their religious duties. 
 In one instance an applicant for baptism had been refused 
 for the sixth time when he assured those present he 
 would try until his dying day, as he did not want to die 
 outside of the Church. The baptism of Chinese converts 
 always attracts large but orderly crowds. Many persons 
 have received their first impulse to becoming a Christian 
 while observing the holy rite. There are numerous 
 rivers, streams and canals throughout the entire Kityang 
 field ; in fact, nine out of every ten of the chapels are 
 close to some river or stream, thus making the matter of 
 baptism a very simple matter. 
 
 Difficulties of Church Discipline 
 The Chinese are slow in their administration of dis- 
 cipline. This is true in every phase of life. Most of 
 their children grow up without proper discipline on part 
 of parents. The Chinese institutions of social and clan 
 life make it exceeding difficult for a church to exercise 
 proper discipline over some of its members. The power 
 of the strong and mighty clans and families to retaliate 
 make the Christians afraid to testify and to push a case 
 against a church member who may belong to such a clan 
 or family. There was a case of this kind only recently 
 at one of the churches in the author's field. A number 
 of years ago a well-to-do man, whose family had undis- 
 
250 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 puted control over the destiny of all the surrounding 
 towns and villages, became a Christian. He made con- 
 siderable progress in the Christian life and after a few 
 years was elected as one of the deacons of the church. 
 A place of prayer was soon established in his market- 
 town and soon after the Christians erected a substantial 
 building there. This man, called Sam Lau, desired very 
 much that Sunday services be inaugurated at this place 
 at once, but the native pastor and the church decided 
 that such a plan would be premature and not for the best 
 interests of the work. The deacon soon became offensive 
 to many of the members and began to play havoc with 
 the weaker church members by intimidation and by ex- 
 ercising pressure upon them in business. The young 
 church found itself helpless to move against the deacon. 
 The missionary observed all this with anxiety, for he felt 
 that the rights of the church should be respected and 
 that no interference on his part should take place even 
 though matters became still worse. The trouble soon be- 
 came so bad that some feared personal violence. In their 
 dilemma they came to the missionary and invited him to 
 take up the matter and arbitrate the trouble. The mis- 
 sionary might have done so, but it would not have helped 
 the local church any and it would not have become 
 stronger because of the distressing experiences. The 
 missionary felt that all the other local churches ought to 
 learn from this incident. It was proposed that the 
 church in distress should invite a number of sister 
 churches to send reputable and devout men as representa- 
 tives to meet with the church and give their advice. In 
 all sixteen churches were invited and a personal letter 
 from the missionary reminded these churches to send 
 only their strongest members as representatives, men of 
 
Development of the Local Church 25 1 
 
 repute if possible, but certainly of spiritual force and 
 character. When the day arrived for the holding of the 
 council the number and character of the men sent to 
 represent the churches made a deep impression upon all. 
 Sam Lau was present, and being of the gentry, knew how 
 to keep up the dignity on his side, while the patience of 
 the pastor and other leading church members was evident 
 to all. The sessions were held all that day. The Chinese 
 are past masters in the settling of trouble, and at the 
 close of their meetings they found one charge true against 
 the local church, three sustained against Sam Lau, and a 
 reprimand or caution advisable for some unwise members. 
 Sam Lau was requested by the council to ask the pastor 
 to forgive him. This he did during that very meeting. 
 The authority of the local church over her members was 
 confirmed and every church on the field felt that a 
 method of cooperation had been established by which 
 they could have protection against men who placed 
 themselves above the authority of the local church. The 
 missionary, on his part, felt that the native churches had 
 advanced another step towards governing their own 
 affairs, and that to carry the responsibilities of their own 
 work was their prerogative. 
 
 The Theology of the Chinese Church 
 The theological teaching in the young Chinese Church 
 is largely molded by the views of the foreign missionaries, 
 the founders of the churches. It is quite natural that 
 this should be the case. But there are many signs that 
 the Chinese pastors and teachers are appropriating bib- 
 lical truths and assimilating them in their own peculiar 
 manner. The Bible, after all, was made for the whole 
 human race and certain phases of the book will therefore 
 
252 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 appeal to the Chinese in a way quite different at times 
 from what it does to Europeans. Their admiration for 
 the monotheism of the Old Testament is unbounded and 
 the chief incidents in the history of the Jewish nation 
 are constantly dwelt upon by the Chinese preachers. 
 
 This has a psychological basis. In more than one 
 sense their civilizations have been somewhat similar. 
 The Chinese have preserved up to the present day a pa- 
 triarchal system similar to the system in vogue at the time 
 of Abraham. The offering of Isaac as a sacrifice to God 
 does not seem in the least harsh or incongruous to them, 
 for according to their patriarchal system the ancestor has 
 power over the life and death of his offspring. Nobody 
 has a right to interfere but God. Certain truths of the 
 Old Testament mean more to the Chinese Christian than 
 they do to the European. We have perhaps never 
 thought of pouring out thanks upon our knees before 
 God for being the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 
 To us it is a simple historical fact among a thousand 
 others. But to the Chinese who has had to forsake the 
 worship of the ancestor tablet and to abandon the yearly 
 pilgrimage to the grave of his ancestor, the comforting 
 assurance that the Almighty God is not only the God of 
 the individual but the God of the ancestor, the clan and 
 the family is to him more dear than we can make plain 
 to the Western mind. Sunday after Sunday, year after 
 year, do the Chinese Christians thank God and rejoice in 
 this truth. It fills a definite need and want in their lives 
 and it is simply impossible for us to estimate the impor- 
 tance it may yet have upon the history of the Church of 
 Jesus Christ in China. 
 
 The account in the First Book of Samuel of Hannah 
 praying in the temple that God may have compassion 
 
Development of the Local Church 253 
 
 upon her and take away her reproach is a theme upon 
 which every Chinese preacher loves to dwell, for he knows 
 that the sympathies of all are enlisted. The perpetuation 
 of the family name is a very essential matter among the 
 Chinese to-day as it was thousands of years ago among 
 the Jews. Lessons from the life of Samuel are drawn as 
 often as any single truth from the New Testament. The 
 heroic conflict of the prophet Elijah with idolatry and 
 paganism is also an unfailing source of comfort to the 
 Chinese. The upheavals in China during the past decade 
 have often caused the Christians there to turn to the 
 story of the great Tishbite in his trials and troubles with 
 a government opposed to the worship of the true and 
 living God. During the Boxer revolt the Book of Esther 
 was a source of spiritual help to the condemned but still 
 hopeful Christian Church in China. The Saviour of His 
 people was still found to be " the same yesterday, to-day, 
 yea, and forever." The final reward of a Haman was 
 repeated in the punishment of the Chinese governor Yu 
 Hsien and other blood-thirsty officials who had planned to 
 exterminate the Christians. 
 
 Foreign missionaries do well to respect the Chinese 
 mode of viewing Christian truths if the spirit of interpre- 
 tation is right. Many of their views are crude and often- 
 times the inborn habit of the Chinese to consider them- 
 selves the cream of all nations will manifest itself in their 
 theology. A favourite theme among the preachers and 
 pastors is that the Chinese are the descendants of Shem, 
 the first-born of Noah. They will refer to the fact that 
 the Europeans are the descendants of Japhet, or the 
 youngest of the three brothers. To the Western mind 
 that does not mean anything important but to the Chinese 
 it is one of those things that help the Chinese Christians 
 
254 'The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 to mollify opposition among their countrymen. Chinese 
 teachers have been heard to preach from the words 
 " Blessed be the Lord God of Shem ; and Canaan shall 
 be his servant. God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall 
 dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his serv- 
 ant." The fact of Europeans having established them- 
 selves in China is looked upon as the fulfillment of this 
 prophecy, but they add that habitation in a tent is only 
 a temporary event. The Chinese have very poor opinions 
 of the negro and his abilities. 
 
 The epistles of the Apostles are in many instances of 
 very vital importance to these churches in China. Having 
 come out of the darkness of heathenism they understand 
 the real significance of the power of the Church of Christ. 
 The instructions contained in the Epistles of James and 
 those to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians and 
 others, answer every-day problems in a very practical 
 manner. The fact that the Chinese Christians have so 
 nobly responded to the claim of God's word has led many 
 of their friends to prophesy that they will yet give to the 
 world a type of Christian manhood that shall be a distmct 
 addition to the Church of God. The Chinese have 
 natural abilities of a high order, and when the Holy Spirit 
 shall make use of these abilities, the spiritual gifts of the 
 Chinese will be classed among the highest yet attained. 
 This is partly due to their intense moral training. No 
 nation has made use of its moral systems in practical life 
 as have the Chinese race. Many forms of her moral code 
 are obsolete and without force or influence, but the in- 
 tense moral nature of the people is still unchanged and 
 with the universal sway of the Christian religion the 
 practical morality of the New Testament will have an 
 opportunity as never before. 
 
Development of the Local Church 255 
 
 Chinese Faith in Prayer 
 The faith of the average Chinese Christian in the effi- 
 cacy of prayer is practically unlimited. It is considered 
 nothing out of the ordinary to have a number of Chris- 
 tians arise in a prayer-meeting and ask for the benefit of 
 prayers for a sick member of their households or for 
 themselves. Oftentimes the sick person is brought to 
 the chapel, but this faith in the power of prayer does not 
 hinder them from accepting medicine from the preacher. 
 They believe in medicine as a means given by God for 
 man's well-being, and Christians never take a dose of 
 medicine without uttering a prayer for divine blessing. 
 A Christian about to travel, to build or renovate a house, 
 will invariably ask the church to pray for the success of 
 his undertaking. They will pray for one another in a 
 season when their cattle are perishing because of pesti- 
 lence. The loss of a water-buffalo or a pig is often a 
 great calamity to a family and in this as in other matters 
 they find the Christian faith a source of refuge and com- 
 fort. It has happened that Christians have arisen in a 
 prayer-meeting publicly and given thanks to God for 
 protection to cattle during a season of danger. Buffalos 
 and swine belonging to the idolaters had died by the 
 score, but the wee pig of the Christian, or his water- 
 buffalo, had escaped destruction. The foreign mission- 
 ary is tempted at times to discourage this minute prac- 
 tical application of the Christian faith, but every time he 
 studies the situation, and notes their deep earnestness 
 and their great poverty compared with Western stand- 
 ards, he can find no sufficient reason to protest against 
 the practical application of their faith in matters of their 
 own private life. Perhaps it would be better if they were 
 more private in the exercise of their faith, but then again 
 
256 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the very practicalness of their new religion may make it 
 more attractive to their fellow countrymen. There is a 
 limit, however, even to the Chinese themselves. Some 
 ignorant people believe that there is no limit to the 
 power of prayer offered within the chapel walls. They 
 therefore bring their lunatic neighbours or relatives and 
 persons supposed to be possessed with evil spirits and 
 exhort them to learn the gospel truths taught, and assure 
 them that all will be well with them very soon. It fre- 
 quently happens that these distressed people become very 
 noisy during the services and thus cause no little annoy- 
 ance to the congregation. The majority of the Chris- 
 tians would rather put up with the inconvenience than 
 to have the man taken out of the meeting. At Kityang, 
 however, such people are told to go to the hospital, 
 while the church officers promise to pray for the sick 
 person. In many chapels such cases are not unwelcome 
 in the least. A deacon at one of the outstations believed 
 in the power of casting out the evil spirits by prayer and 
 fasting, and in one or two instances young men who 
 were evidently insane at one time were led to live a quiet 
 Christian Hfe; the effect upon them was nothing less 
 than marvellous. The foreign missionary does well not 
 to intermeddle with affairs of such a nature. It is pos- 
 sible the Holy Spirit may have given spiritual gifts to 
 the young Chinese Church, and that these events are for 
 the purpose of attracting the attention of the multitudes 
 for the time being. The time will surely come when 
 more profitable spiritual gifts will be permanent with the 
 church. Meanwhile every gift adds towards the upbuild- 
 ing of the whole body. The Chinese Christians them- 
 selves must learn what are the essentials and non-essen- 
 tials of their new faith. The foreign missionary cannot 
 
Development of the Local Church 257 
 
 make the experience of his own Christian life the criterion 
 of the Church of God in China, he must trust in the good 
 judgment and spiritual discernment of the native Chris- 
 tians. If these men and women are under the guidance 
 of the Holy Spirit the Church of God in China must 
 advance and develop to a fuller growth, when she will be 
 able to stand independent of any support from outside 
 sources. There are many of her friends who believe 
 that she is making rapid progress towards this goal. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE USE AND MISUSE OF MISSION MONEY 
 
 Statistics show that over fifteen millions of dollars 
 were raised during the past year by the members of 
 Protestant churches for the spread of the gospel in pagan 
 lands. That is a large sum of money to be expended 
 every year and certainly the Christian Church has a right 
 to expect that a considerable amount of positive religious 
 work should be accomplished. The fact that a large 
 majority of the Christians in the home land are indif- 
 ferent to missionary work and ignorant of it does not 
 prove that the cause of foreign missions is a failure, or 
 may be losing ground. On the contrary, there has been 
 a general advance by nearly every important foreign 
 missionary society in all Christendom during the past 
 years. Furthermore, thousands of the brightest of Chris- 
 tendom's young men and women are preparing them- 
 selves in universities and seminaries for mission work on 
 the foreign field. They are convinced that this work is 
 the grandest and most important ever given mankind to 
 accomplish. These consecrated young people, too, are 
 worth more to the militant church than are her stately 
 church edifices and equipment. 
 
 The funds expended yearly for equipping, sending and 
 maintaining these leaders at the " front " constitute the 
 largest portion of the money raised to carry on this world 
 campaign. This is as it should be. The modern mis- 
 sionary in Asia and Africa cannot earn a living by the 
 work of his hands. The climatic conditions and the ab- 
 solute poverty of most of the countries to which the mis- 
 
 258 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 259 
 
 sionaries are sent make it simply impossible for him to 
 attempt to undertake handicraft. In countries having 
 important seaports it may be possible for missionaries to 
 obtain employment with corporations and large foreign 
 firms, but their time would thus be taken up in attending 
 to their duties as secretaries and clerks, so that very lit- 
 tle time could be given for the preaching of the gospel to 
 the people. The Church of Christ sends men to teach 
 the gospel and in order that they may be able to carry 
 on this work effectively, the care of their living should be 
 assured by the church at home. Their salaries should be 
 regular, in order that they may give their whole attention 
 to the word of God and to prayer for the native church. 
 
 Like every other institution seeking permanent results, 
 foreign missions cost. The missionaries must have suit- 
 able and healthful dwellings. The expenses of a grow- 
 ing work constantly increase in spite of the gratifying 
 gifts of the native Christians in support of their own work. 
 Until every tribe has heard the gospel message, the 
 church will have to send pioneer missionaries, and the 
 very nature of such a work demands liberal support on 
 the part of the church for many years. As the work 
 develops and the native church is formed, another item 
 of expense is added, namely, the establishing of institu- 
 tions of learning. No mission centre can hope to become 
 a powerful influence among a people like the Chinese if 
 higher education be neglected. But such institutions 
 cost a great deal of money. 
 
 It may also be added that the expenses of medical 
 missions, which ought to be established at every central 
 station of every mission in China, are also heavy. Pub- 
 lication societies and mission presses are essential auxili- 
 aries to every developed missionary enterprise, and the 
 
26o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 expenses connected with the founding of such institutions 
 are perfectly legitimate. They help much towards the 
 development of the native churches and give a solidarity 
 to the work which nothing else can give. These above- 
 mentioned and other institutions are necessary to every 
 large mission in China and the churches of the home 
 lands should not hesitate to invest many hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars in placing them upon a basis at once 
 worthy of the cause and a credit to the statesmanlike 
 policy of the missionary leaders. Money expended for 
 these enterprises is making the best use of the offer- 
 ings of Christian men and women. 
 
 Misuse of Home Money on the Foreign Field 
 Every enterprise of human activity is liable, as time 
 passes, to show evidences of mistaken judgment, foreign 
 missions not excepted. It is being universally regarded 
 that to support a native church among an able race like 
 the Chinese for over a generation is a mistake, yet in 
 times past this has been done. It was thought that the 
 Chinese were too poor. Therefore, missionaries not only 
 supplied them with a preacher, free of expense, but also 
 paid the rent of the meeting-house. They hired a janitor 
 or doorkeeper and in some instances the monthly tea 
 bill was paid regularly by the foreign teacher. In those 
 days there was slow progress ; the adherents were few and 
 missionaries felt that it would not be wise to put money 
 burdens upon the new converts who had to bear the 
 moral and social reproaches of their neighbours. Charity 
 must be used in criticising the methods of men who 
 laboured faithfully many years, for the probabilities are 
 that every young missionary to-day, if placed in the cir- 
 cumstances and conditions of missionary work in China 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 261 
 
 of thirty or forty years ago, would have done likewise. 
 The missionaries in those days were men of great 
 patience, and having received the promise of financial 
 support from their missionary society they felt perhaps 
 that they would do wrong in letting opportunities 
 for advance work pass by, if they were not liberal 
 with the use of home money already in their hands to be 
 used. Perhaps the first financial aid thus rendered was 
 not wrong in policy. The continuation of that system 
 after converts were baptized was certainly an error and 
 could not help but arrest the growth and development of 
 the first converts. These latter were true to God in 
 their faith and steadfast in suffering persecution. They 
 were unfaithful, however, in their stewardship and to- 
 wards their fellow men. Some of these older members 
 to-day prove to be the greatest barrier to progress in 
 liberal giving and in the development of a true mission- 
 ary spirit. 
 
 The fact that the foreign missionary paid all the ex- 
 penses resulted in the work at the mission chapels being 
 designated as the foreigner's. It is worthy of note that 
 when the Chinese pay their own bills they do not allow 
 the foreigner or any one else to receive undue credit. 
 The fact that the Chinese have always supported their in- 
 digenous religion, ancestral worship, Buddhism and the 
 superstitions of Taoism, which, by the way, are extremely 
 costly for a people like the Chinese, ought to have led 
 the missionaries to insist that when they became Chris- 
 tians and were thus released from their expensive 
 heathen religion, they would share a part of the expenses 
 of their Christian worship at least at their own local 
 chapels. 
 
 The support of native helpers with foreign money can 
 
262 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 be helpful only when the individuals supported under- 
 stand that they are to do the work of evangelists. There 
 is a distinct difference between this work and that of a 
 regular preacher. The evangelist preaches the gospel of 
 salvation to the pagans and is not permanently appointed to 
 any one station or church. A preacher may do the work 
 of an evangelist a part of his time, and invariably does do 
 it, but he has a flock of Christians to feed and guide. He 
 may not yet be an ordained man, but the sphere of the 
 preacher's work ought to help develop him as pastor and 
 leader. The funds raised in the home land are given 
 with the desire that the money be used for the procla- 
 mation of the gospel to people who have not yet accepted 
 Christ rather than to pay the salaries of preachers and 
 pastors. The local churches ought to pay these salaries 
 and only in instances where the Christians are poor, but 
 are, nevertheless, making great efforts towards self-sup- 
 port, ought there to be any aid from the home contribu- 
 tions. The money thus appropriated ought to be paid to 
 the church as an aid and not to the preacher or pastor 
 apart from the management of the local church. 
 
 The question of the amount of salary which the foreign 
 missionaries ought to pay evangelists is one that has been 
 often raised on the foreign field. There arise conditions 
 on the field that tempt many missionaries to pay sala- 
 ries considerably higher than the wages which the 
 average Chinese receive. The question of a suitable in- 
 come for the support of wife and children has its place in 
 China as well as in America. Missionaries desire to get 
 the very best talent possible and in times when great op- 
 portunities for preaching the gospel are everywhere evi- 
 dent, the question of a few dollars seems a very small 
 item in comparison to the great good that may be ac- 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 263 
 
 complished. Then again, there are perhaps some who 
 by reason of ability and equipment are able to do work 
 far superior to that of others. The missionary desires to 
 have such a one as a co-worker. He may offer him a 
 salary larger than that of other mission workers, but if he 
 is not doing a special work, such as assisting in Hterary 
 work or translation, or superintending a school, the sing- 
 ling out of an individual for a larger salary may cause 
 jealousy on the part of men who are employed along the 
 same lines of work. Our methods of missionary employ- 
 ment should not be on the money basis but rather on the 
 Christian principle of the surrender of hfe and all to the 
 service of Christ. Foreign missionaries are thus em- 
 ployed by their societies, and the principle should hold 
 good with the native workers. 
 
 Who shall determine the salaries of the Chinese pas- 
 tors and preachers ? Without a doubt, the native 
 churches themselves. They are in every way better fit- 
 ted to do so and know the real value of the man better 
 than the missionary. This does not mean that the mis- 
 sionary has nothing whatever to do with the arrange- 
 ments between churches and preachers. He will often 
 have to advise them as to the man they need. The 
 method of the Chinese churches up to the present time, 
 has been to call their preacher at the beginning of the 
 Christian year and to make a contract for one year. In 
 most cases this contract is renewed two or more times. 
 In some instances preachers have been retained for six 
 and in one case now for ten years, but the average stay 
 of a preacher at one place is not more than perhaps three 
 years. The yearly contract is simply following the 
 methods of the people in calling a Confucian school- 
 teacher. There is nothing obnoxious about it and we do 
 
264 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 well to let the Chinese use as many such indigenous 
 methods as seem best to them. 
 
 Sometimes the missionary will meet with opposition in 
 his efforts to establish the churches upon a self-support- 
 ing basis. An old station which had been put under the 
 care of a new missionary had taken a strong dislike to 
 his methods of asking the churches to pay towards the 
 support of their preacher. This congregation had been 
 visited by evangelists sent to them by the missionary, 
 and having a number of members who were able to 
 preach themselves, was able to exist without the neces- 
 sity of raising much money towards expenses. The 
 growth of the church, however, had become arrested and 
 a fossilized spiritual condition of the church members was 
 imminent. Those of their number who were wealthy 
 proved the least inclined to aid in supporting a regular 
 preacher, and the church notified the missionary that 
 they were unable to raise the money. A crisis had come 
 in the work of that missionary. There seemed no other 
 method by which to cure that particular church than to 
 leave them entirely to themselves for the time being and 
 to make them an object lesson for others. The mission- 
 ary did not include this church in his regular visitations 
 to the outstations. After six months had passed they be- 
 gan to understand that they had isolated themselves and 
 that they were the only church that had refused to sup- 
 port their own preacher, at least in part. This led to a 
 severe heart-searching on the part of many of their num- 
 ber. Soon the true Christians got together. They ig- 
 nored some of the wealthy, and among themselves raised 
 a considerable sum of money and asked that a preacher 
 be sent to them at once. This church has since then 
 been entirely self-supporting. They have also con- 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 265 
 
 tributed substantial sums of money every year for mis- 
 sions besides. But what is still more gratifying, the 
 church has branched out into another outstation, and has 
 established several new places of prayer in the villages of 
 adherents living some miles from the chapel. It is a 
 waste of money to support a local Chinese church which 
 makes little or no attempt towards self-support. 
 
 The Problem of Specifics 
 The usual method of our missionary societies is to ap- 
 propriate a certain sum of money to each missionary 
 each year, in addition to his own personal salary, for the 
 maintenance of the work on his field. As a rule, the re- 
 quest of this sum on the part of the missionary has been 
 examined and endorsed by his co-workers of the same 
 mission. The missionary authorities at home feel safe 
 in granting these requests and the method is likely to in- 
 sure equal consideration to all worthy needs. It some- 
 times happens, however, that the work in a certain field 
 develops during the year beyond the calculation of the 
 missionary. There is a special demand for evangelists. 
 To send these men would cost money far exceeding the 
 appropriation granted for his field. The usual method of 
 presenting such cases to the proper committee on the 
 foreign field and then referring the whole matter to the 
 home authorities would take months and the opportunity 
 presented meanwhile, have been lost. Rather than run 
 the risk of losing the opportunity for which the foreign 
 missionary had been praying for months, perhaps years, 
 he will, in many instances, pay the money out of his own 
 funds. It often happens that missionaries pay out of 
 their own private purse such expenses rather than let the 
 opportunity slip by. Sometimes the missionary societies 
 
266 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 will reimburse these sums to the missionary, who as a 
 rule cannot afford very well such extra expenses. If, 
 however, the missionary had a special fund upon which 
 he could depend, it would in many ways afford a great 
 relief. But only special offerings from friends interested 
 in his work will enable the average missionary to be in 
 possession of such a fund. 
 
 The giving of funds as specifics by friends of foreign 
 missions and home churches is likely to draw their at- 
 tention from world-wide evangelization to a hmited 
 locality. It is good to have men and women interested 
 enough to give for the work of any distinct mission 
 centre in China. It is better if they are instructed as to 
 the needs of the whole of that great nation and give their 
 sums for the evangelization of her many miUions. But 
 it is best to have a world-wide vision and to give, be the 
 sum ever so small, for the evangelization of the entire 
 world, or such a part of it as is reached by the missionary's 
 own society. Specifics tend to narrow the giver in his 
 conception and duty towards the great commission, 
 " Go ye into all the world." The one hundred dollars 
 which a little church may give should " go " into all the 
 world. Each giver can find out from the missionary 
 secretaries how much of that one hundred dollars went to 
 China, to India, to Africa, to Japan, to Burma, Assam, 
 Siam, to the Philippines and other lands. That thought 
 must be broadening to each contributor of that one 
 hundred dollars and it makes every one of them a co- 
 worker for the coming of the kingdom of God in all 
 lands. A special specific for one field is clannish, narrow 
 and provincial. Its motive is perpendicular but lacks 
 the necessary horizontal effect which must characterize 
 foreign missionary work. 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 267 
 
 It would be disastrous to the organization and to the 
 effective work that our missionary societies are accom- 
 plishing, if our churches were to insist upon the system 
 of specifics or on the support of certain stations, and fail, 
 therefore, to participate besides this in raising funds for 
 the general work of the evangelization of the world. 
 The loyalty of the missionary to his missionary organi- 
 zation demands that he do his utmost to check the giving 
 of private specifics. There are many missionaries who 
 are continually refusing sums of money to be used for 
 some special object on their field. They always advise 
 that the money should be sent to the treasurer of the 
 missionary organization as the best means of obtaining 
 good results. The " Station Plan " which is now being 
 adopted extensively among churches of different denomi- 
 nations, is also a form of specific giving. If this is the 
 only way by which certain churches can be induced to 
 raise substantial sums for the cause of foreign missions, 
 it may well be adopted. We have known cases where a 
 church has declined to accept the responsibility of a sta- 
 tion and has encouraged its young people's society to 
 take it up, the church in the meanwhile raising large sums 
 yearly for the maintenance of the regular work of the 
 missionary society. This is an ideal which should be 
 adopted. It is a mistake for a church to raise money for 
 the support of a native pastor and then feel satisfied that 
 she has done her share in helping out the commission, 
 " Go ye into all the world." 
 
 Specifics are largely responsible for the development 
 of pet schemes of missionaries on their fields. Mission- 
 aries sometimes feel that they ought to have an in- 
 dustrial mission, a special school for teaching the English 
 language, a printing press, a free dispensary and many 
 
268 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 other enterprises. These are all perfectly legitimate 
 auxiliaries to our mission work when they receive the 
 indorsement of the other missionaries of the same mission 
 and the approval of the home authorities. But when this 
 is not the case, it is usually duplicating the work unneces- 
 sarily and proves a waste of energy, time and money. It 
 is useless for three or four missionaries of one society in 
 a country to run a mission printing press. A well- 
 equipped pubhcation society can do the work much bet- 
 ter. The same may be said with regard to special schools 
 and free medical dispensaries. We have heard of people 
 who had given money for special objects maintain that 
 they had a right to do with their money as they please. 
 In a sense this may be true, but it also is a fact that 
 these good people have no right to expect that a mission- 
 ary who has been sent to the foreign field and who has 
 been regularly sent by one of our national missionary 
 societies to preach the gospel in the vernacular and to 
 plant churches among them, should forsake this direct 
 work of preaching the gospel to the people and " serve 
 tables " of indirect work. 
 
 In line with this phase of mission problems we must 
 also mention that of establishing " private missions " not 
 under the jurisdiction of any regular missionary society. 
 They are often called the "Free Lances" in foreign mis- 
 sions, but history shows that after they have had their day 
 and support a decline usually sets in, due oftentimes to the 
 death of the founder of the mission, and then the larger 
 missionary societies are invariably asked, even implored, 
 to take up the " mission " and become responsible for it. 
 To do so would often involve a violation of the laws of 
 comity existing with other societies and the withdrawal 
 of funds needed for the regular work to absorb this " Free 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 269 
 
 Lance " and establish it upon a solid basis worthy of the 
 cause. The ministers of home churches ought to feel 
 themselves under obligation to discountenance any and 
 all of these independent ventures in foreign missions. 
 There is a vast amount of knowledge necessary to insure 
 the establishment of a successful mission, and this 
 knowledge is often attainable only by the cost of human 
 Hves. New ventures in foreign missions are noted for 
 their terrible loss of Hves, the sacrifice of which might 
 perhaps have been wholly unnecessary if these self-ap- 
 pointed leaders had worked in harmony with one of the 
 larger missionary societies. 
 
 Wealthy Christians sometimes feel that they ought to 
 go to the foreign field and support themselves. This is 
 more often the case with our English brothers and sisters 
 than with us in America. As a rule these persons work 
 in delightful harmony with the regular work established 
 and maintained by our missionary organizations and they 
 are then a blessing to the work. If they fail to fall in line 
 with the general plans, however, their presence on the 
 foreign field may be of more harm than usefulness in 
 spite of their noble sacrifices. 
 
 Of minor importance, yet worthy of mention, is the 
 waste of a free distribution of tracts and books. It is 
 not the cost of publication that calls forth protest but the 
 injury done to the reputation of this class of literature 
 itself. Things given away are rarely appreciated in any 
 country. The Chinese will keep for many years things 
 they have bought. We find it a wise rule to ask from 
 one-half to three-fourths of the full price of missionary 
 literature. Of books and reading material used by the 
 native Christians we have found them willing to pay the 
 full value if it is found wise to charge this. 
 
270 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Financial Support of Auxiliary Institutions 
 Day schools for Chinese children are essential to the 
 welfare of a mission. '• In days past," — thus confessed 
 an old missionary, — " when converts were few and it was 
 hard to get their boys to attend our mission schools, 
 some of us were even tempted to pay them so much per 
 day for coming to school." In spite of this peculiar 
 missionary method one cannot help but respect the 
 eagerness and the foresight of those men in trying to 
 get the boys under Christian influences. They foresaw 
 in that early day that it would be necessary for them to 
 train the boys if they were to have efficient co-workers 
 later on. Perhaps some such method of subsidizing gave 
 reason for the nickname of " rice Christian " in those 
 early days. Fortunately for us the sturdy independence 
 of the Chinese has saved them from this stigma. There 
 are very few connected with any mission in China de- 
 serving that name and such cannot command the respect 
 of the native church. 
 
 The present system of our day schools expects every 
 boy entering the school to pay a sum of money for his 
 tuition. Many heathen often try to have their children 
 received into our schools, and in some cases, where they 
 agree to send the boy to the religious services on Sunday 
 and not allow him to stay away from school to attend 
 heathen ceremonies, they are accepted, but as a rule 
 they do not keep their word and the contract is often 
 annulled. The ideal is to have a day school connected 
 with every church, though this cannot be reahzed as 
 easily in some places as in others. 
 
 Christians at an outstation often call a young man who 
 is able to preach on Sundays to be their school-teacher. 
 The money received from the boys for tuition often 
 
bo 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *rt 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 Ui 
 
 
 'bb 
 
 rt 
 
 
 g 
 
 w 
 
 
 rt 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 3" 
 
 
 a 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 biD 
 
 bfl 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 
 U 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ti 
 
 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 >H 
 
 
 'J 
 
 w 
 
 
 CO 
 
 iz; 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 
 :fl 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 •XI 
 
 < 
 
 
 a 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 c3 
 
 J 
 
 rt 
 
 
 O 
 
 S 
 
 ■? 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
 "So 
 
 03 
 
 m 
 
 OJ 
 
 w 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 oT 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 .-> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 
 G 
 
 yT 
 
 
 7 
 
 >> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 m 
 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 
 .2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -i-i 
 
 _ 
 
 
 rt 
 
 
 
 
 .s 
 
 
 
 
 c2 
 
 TJ 
 
 
 rt 
 
 CO 
 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 <L> 
 
 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 '55 
 
 
 c 
 
 ./i 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 271 
 
 pays half of the teacher's salary ; the congregation usually 
 pays the other half. We do not like to see men with 
 marked evangelistic gifts tied down to the work of teach- 
 ing a day school. The young Church of Christ in China 
 reahzes that the preaching of the gospel is its highest 
 function and that the schoolhouse is a good and neces- 
 sary auxiliary for the successful prosecution of this work 
 among the four hundred milHons of souls. 
 
 The mission boarding schools are considered of more 
 importance than the ordinary day schools. In more than 
 one sense it is the most satisfactory method for develop- 
 ing young Christian boys. They are in constant touch 
 with a foreign teacher, who usually is a man qualified for 
 that specific kind of work. We believe that thus the de- 
 velopment of an all-around Christian character can be 
 accomplished as could not be the case without these 
 schools. Furthermore the scholastic training is more 
 thorough ; there are fewer destroying temptations in the 
 path of the young man. The companionship of kindred 
 minds having the same purpose in hfe must be profitable 
 to the young students. The conditions for entering 
 boarding schools are of course more exact than for en- 
 trance to day schools. The lads must be either church 
 members themselves or their parents must be Christians. 
 It would be defeating the very ends for which such 
 schools have been established to accept lads of pagan 
 parents and who themselves may not be in sympathy 
 with the spiritual ideals of the church. The usefulness 
 of such schools of higher learning is lost to the native 
 church if the number of pagan lads outnumber those 
 who are Christian and in which distinct religious teach- 
 ing is only an elective study or a side issue. It must be 
 ultimately both a loss of money and a waste of effort as 
 
272 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 far as the missionary is concerned. As a means of dis- 
 seminating scientific knowledge the institution may be 
 very successful, but Christian boarding schools supported 
 by the evangelical churches at home must stand for more 
 than the mere dissemination of knowledge. There is no 
 need that our home churches give a dollar for the sup- 
 port of institutions in China for the teaching of sciences 
 only. The Chinese are more than willing to pay for all 
 such expenses themselves. All along the coast and 
 many miles inland such secular schools can be now 
 found well-equipped, and all the funds necessary to estab- 
 lish and sustain these institutions are raised by the 
 Chinese themselves. But when the Christian Church 
 invests thousands of dollars in the establishing of a 
 school for higher learning, the donors have a right to 
 expect that they be kept at the highest state of efficiency 
 for the special needs of the native church. It is some- 
 times maintained that these men who are not yet Chris- 
 tians can be won perhaps during their period of studying 
 in our schools. It would be much wiser to make the 
 ABC of Christianity a requisite for entrance to the 
 Christian school. The influence of a number of heathen 
 lads can be very detrimental to the reputation of the 
 school. The chief aim of schools estabHshed and main- 
 tained with home money is to develop young Christians 
 to become efficient leaders of native churches. Expe- 
 rience has taught missionaries that even in schools where 
 the requirements for entrance are the strictest possible, 
 there has been a deplorable loss of men to the churches 
 because of the temptation of larger pecuniary rewards in 
 secular employment. Missionaries have a right to ex- 
 pect the Christian young men in China to respond to the 
 call for Christian service and when they fail to answer 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 273 
 
 the call they deplore it ; but their conscience is at ease 
 in knowing that they have not placed temptations in 
 their paths by throwing them together with worldly- 
 minded companions. It is not necessary to speak of 
 the moral temptations of such institutions where heathen 
 boys live together in numbers. The Christian Church 
 of China ought not to be asked to jeopardize the reputa- 
 tion of her institutions and the spiritual tone of her sons, 
 to whom she is looking with great expectation. 
 
 Mission Hospitals 
 
 It is surprising, in the light of existing conditions in 
 China and the beneficent work of medical missions, that 
 more hospitals have not been opened in that great empire. 
 The possibilities of revealing to the Chinese the essentials 
 of our religion by word and precept are unlimited in 
 medical missions. They cost a good deal of money if 
 the equipment is what it ought to be, but they are worth 
 the money a thousandfold, provided their aim and pur- 
 pose are kept in mind. Where they are merely philan- 
 thropic institutions or where the chief aim is to teach 
 young men the science of medicine they fail to realize 
 the ends for which they were established. The aim of 
 the medical missionary should be to make his institution 
 a power for the spread of Christian knowledge and for 
 the coming of the Kingdom in his district. Only by 
 keeping that in view will he be able to do justice to his 
 high calling and truly follow the example of Christ, the 
 great healer of body and soul. China is fortunate in 
 having such a noble body of men and women who have 
 given their lives to this work. It is a thousand pities that 
 the usefulness of many of them is hampered by imperfect 
 accommodations. It is wrong to send out a physician and 
 
274 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 then let him wait years for a proper building for a hospital. 
 The Chinese appreciate the great benefits of this work 
 and in some instances, especially in the open ports, they 
 have been known to subscribe thousands of dollars for the 
 building of hospitals. 
 
 Medical missionaries sometimes discuss the question 
 whether to ask a fee from patients for accommodations 
 in the hospital and for the medicines given. Some hold 
 that the principle " freely ye have received, freely give " 
 should hold and only money from those who are well-to- 
 do or feel disposed to give out of their own free will 
 should be received. Others maintain that the Chinese 
 will appreciate the more what is being done for them if 
 a small sum covering the expenses of medicine given be 
 charged. A system that will help the Chinese to appre- 
 ciate what is being done for them without destroying 
 the Christian principle of serving in love cannot be 
 wrong. The Chinese of course are never asked to 
 pay towards the salary of the medical missionary or his 
 assistants. 
 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that all the patients 
 who have received successful treatment become Christians. 
 The medical missionary has reason to ask to-day as did 
 our Lord Hiniself, " were there not ten cleansed, but 
 where are the nine ? " Thousands of Chinese are afraid 
 to enter the hospital buildings of the Christian missions 
 and only can be reached after they have heard some 
 moral truths from either the foreign missionary or Chinese 
 Christians which became sufficient evidence to them that 
 the hospital was not there for sinister purposes. Money 
 spent for medical missions is well invested if the primary 
 object, viz., to carry the knowledge of Christ's love by deed 
 and word, is kept in view. If a lower purpose than this 
 
Use and Misuse of Mission Money 275 
 
 is entertained it were better to place the hospital upon a 
 philanthropic basis and to let the Chinese support the 
 enterprise entirely. They can and do support such 
 medical institutions in various parts of the Empire. 
 
 Theological Institutions 
 
 Every mission must have a school for the training of 
 native preachers and leaders. Students who are able to 
 pay their board are asked to do so. Such men do not, 
 however, form a large percentage of the student body. 
 Many have left their plows and shops to take up the 
 work of preaching. There is no reason why these 
 Chinese students should not receive the same consider- 
 ation and support which we give to the young men in 
 seminaries of the home land. There is this difference, 
 however, that American churches support their own 
 students. Chinese students are still largely supported by 
 funds sent from America. It is but right to expect the 
 local churches in China to help pay part of the expense 
 of educating their young men for the gospel ministry. 
 Every church in the author's mission is now expected to 
 contribute to the support of the students in the theological 
 seminary. It is beHeved it will bind the churches closer 
 to this important institution and it may incidentally result 
 in keeping undesirable men from entering the seminary. 
 As long as a man is of no special expense except to the 
 mission fund it may be an easy matter to get a recom- 
 mendation from a church as a candidate for the seminary. 
 But when a local church is expected to pay a part of the 
 general expenses of the institution the people naturally 
 desire to see only worthy men admitted to it. In this 
 way a twofold good is attained. The Chinese are taught 
 to take upon themselves the burden of their own work, 
 
2y6 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 and there is less danger of a waste of time and money on 
 an unworthy man. 
 
 Offerings of Money on the Foreign Field 
 The foreign missionary has many opportunities to teach 
 the Chinese Christians the difference between " tainted " 
 and untainted money. People will come to our missions 
 in China offering to pay many hundreds of dollars in 
 order if possible to make an allegiance with the foreigner. 
 Individuals will offer to contribute very liberally to a 
 church solely to obtain the aid of the Chinese preacher 
 in settHng a troublesome dispute with a neighbour. Should 
 the native Christians foolishly allow themselves to be 
 drawn into such a purely secular dispute no spiritual re- 
 sults follow. The party which has been helped out of a 
 dangerous situation leaves off attending the reHgious 
 services of the mission and feels that he paid enough for 
 the help received without committing himself to the re- 
 hgious teaching. 
 
 The Chinese pubhc should not be asked to subscribe 
 to any mission enterprise. The missionaries are doing a 
 special work and Christian missions cannot afford to ap- 
 peal to pagans for support of their distinctive work. In 
 some instances personal friends and officials may want to 
 contribute to some philanthropic work, such as the build- 
 ing of a public hospital, but only in such a case should 
 money be received. The Chinese churches need to be 
 taught in the early stage of their history that it is possible 
 to make too much of money by receiving it from men 
 who do not give from pure motives, but who aim to use 
 the influence of the church for their own advantage, to 
 the ultimate detriment of the church. 
 
XV 
 
 OPENING MISSION STATIONS IN SOUTH CHINA 
 
 It will be of interest to get a glimpse of the opening 
 and development of a central mission station in South 
 China. Kityang is chosen because the writer has lived 
 there during the past ten years, and is thus better ac- 
 quainted with this station than with any other. It will 
 be our aim to show by describing various types of out- 
 stations, how manifold are the motives that lead men to 
 connect themselves with the Christian missionary move- 
 ment. It will also be seen incidentally what a power 
 unto salvation the gospel of Christ still is to-day. 
 
 The Mission Field of Kityang 
 Kityang is a district comprising an area as large as an 
 average county in this country. The boundaries of Kit- 
 yang follow in the main the course of two rivers called 
 the North and South Kityang rivers, which unite into 
 one stream about ten miles below the city, and flowing 
 southwest empty into Swatow Bay about eight miles 
 above that city. The capital city of this fertile district, 
 called by the same name as the district itself, is situated 
 between both rivers, and there are several canals in and 
 about the city that connect the two streams. These 
 numerous artificial waterways have helped to make the 
 district one of the most prosperous for rice culture in 
 South China. There are from two to three thousand 
 towns and villages in the Kityang county, and the 
 people are more peace-loving and industrious than in 
 
 277 
 
278 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 many other parts of the province. They are mostly 
 peasants who till their small fields with scrupulous care 
 and the fact that they are able in many instances to ob- 
 tain two and even three crops every year from the same 
 fields makes it possible for the people to live in a more 
 congested way than is usually the case, even in China. 
 The principal products of their fields are rice, sugar-cane, 
 sweet potatoes and many kinds of fruit. Their exports 
 are limited to sugar, fruits and a coarse linen which is 
 made in the homes of thousands of the common people. 
 The people of Kityang very rarely suffer from drought, 
 owing to the copious flow of water in both rivers, which 
 have their sources in the high range of hills about one 
 hundred miles in the interior. 
 
 The district of Kityang offers ideal conditions for ag- 
 gressive evangelistic work. The towns and villages are 
 close together, and the people are quite open-minded to 
 the message of the foreigner. 
 
 Many of the merchants have travelled frequently to the 
 foreign ports of Swatow, Hongkong and Shanghai and 
 have observed the wealth and prosperity of foreign firms 
 of all nations. Ever since the Japan-China War, the 
 literati of the district have been very friendly with the 
 foreign missionary. From the earliest period of mission- 
 ary activity in the Swatow district Rev. W. Ash- 
 more, D. D., preached the gospel with success in Kityang 
 and estabhshed a number of outstations. For a number 
 of years a successful station had been carried on within 
 the city. For a time the work was jeopardized by certain 
 converts who became factionists, leading a number of the 
 adherents astray and opening an independent mission. 
 The attempt was unsuccessful, however, and lacked the 
 elements of stability. At the close of the Japan-China 
 
Opening Mission Stations 279 
 
 War it was felt that a foreign missionary and family- 
 should be established in that important centre. When 
 the young missionary couple went to Kityang to live in 
 1895 they found a small cottage and chapel already built 
 and a body of baptized Christians numbering twenty-two 
 men and women. 
 
 About the time the missionaries were becoming able 
 to speak with some distinctness they received a deputa- 
 tion from the clan inhabiting the forty-five villages of 
 Chimkhe, some twenty-eight miles west of Kityang. The 
 missionaries were asked to send a preacher of the gospel, 
 as many of their people had determined to forsake 
 idolatry and to worship the living God. A minute in- 
 quiry into the specific reasons that led them to come to the 
 missionary revealed the fact that they had had clan fights 
 with the neighbouring town of Lio and that both sides 
 had appealed to the civil magistrate ; the latter was now 
 demanding large sums from both parties. Further in- 
 vestigation showed that not only was this story true, but 
 also that Chimkhe had the worst reputation in that entire 
 district. Clan fights had been chronic with them for the 
 past two generations and the clan had hardly ever been 
 free from lawsuits. The magistrate of Kityang, who has 
 power of life and death, threatened to burn out their en- 
 tire forty-five villages and exterminate the clan. It 
 seemed a very doubtful invitation at the time and would 
 seem still more so to-day. But after considerable thought 
 over the matter the conclusion was reached to preach the 
 gospel to them. The missionary insisted from the very 
 beginning that he would in no wise give any aid with re- 
 gard to the troubles growing out of their fighting and 
 lawsuit. They consented to this arrangement. Reliable 
 preachers were sent to Chimkhe, and after a week the or- 
 
28o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 dained preacher returned reporting that many of the 
 people were intensely interested in the preaching of the 
 gospel. For two years evangelistic meetings were held 
 every morning and evening. A large boys* school was 
 at once established and the lads soon became an efficient 
 help to the evangelist and teacher in conducting the sing- 
 ing. It was a marvel to note the power of the gospel 
 among this wicked clan, and to see how soon these pagan 
 people understood the message and began to rejoice in 
 the salvation of Christ. Men and women were hopefully 
 converted from heathenism and at the close of two years' 
 faithful preaching there was the nucleus of a church in 
 the fact that fifteen persons had been selected as proper 
 recipients for baptism out of sixty applicants. 
 
 The leaders and elders of the clan of Chimkhe, while 
 many of them attended the religious services, failed to 
 respond to the claims of the gospel. This was due, no 
 doubt, to the fact that these men have large interests and 
 profits by reason of their connection with ancestral wor- 
 ship. But though they did not publicly confess Christ 
 they did receive the principles of the gospel and its sane 
 teachings of life. They were also wise enough to apply 
 these teachings, and when during the following years 
 difficulties with their neighbours arose, instead of fighting 
 pitched battles or spending thousands of dollars in litiga- 
 tion, they simply had the matter arbitrated. Thus the 
 people at Chimkhe, who previous to the missionary's 
 coming with the gospel of Christ never enjoyed peace for 
 a year, have not had a clan fight for nearly two genera- 
 tions, nor a lawsuit with their neighbours for ten years. 
 Their determination to keep out of the follies of the past 
 is clearly seen in the following story. From 1899 to 
 1902 the people of nearly the whole western part of the 
 
Opening Mission Stations 281 
 
 Kityang district and two adjoining districts were in a 
 state of greatest disorder, bordering on anarchy. The 
 larger towns and villages had for many years previous 
 been oppressing and plundering the smaller villages to 
 such a degree that the latter felt themselves compelled to 
 unite and to organize a league of defense against their 
 powerful enemies. By this union of forces the smaller 
 villages were able not only to defend themselves but in 
 some instances to turn the tables upon their former 
 oppressors. This led the rich and strong towns to unite 
 their forces for mutual protection. Then a war — for it 
 was nothing less than that — began. A thousand villages 
 and towns were engaged in the struggle. During the 
 year of 1900 over one thousand persons lost their lives on 
 the battle-field. The government officials were afraid to 
 interfere. The distress throughout the whole devastated 
 districts became so great that the common people begged 
 for arbiters to settle the matter. This period of the fight 
 was the opportune time for the officials, who, aware that 
 the people were tired of fighting, sent soldiers unawares 
 to the richer and larger towns and demanded a settlement 
 on a money basis. A rich clan livmg at Hongo, only 
 six miles from Chimkhe, was one of the principals in the 
 struggle, and was fined ^40,000. The sum was paid with 
 the understanding that no further punishment would 
 result. All other clans involved were mulcted accord- 
 ing to their wealth, and peace was established. Such 
 settlements are quite frequent and are considered proper. 
 The people of Chimkhe were not involved in this gigantic 
 struggle, though all the clans living about them were 
 involved and the people were sometimes sorely tempted 
 to cast their lot with one side or the other. It was the 
 first general clan fight in the memory of the oldest per- 
 
282 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 sons living in which the people of Chimkhe were not in 
 the thickest of the contest. It is generally acknowledged 
 that a change for the better has come over the people 
 living at Chimkhe, and not a little of this is due to the 
 power of the gospel. The setback to heathenism at the 
 beginning was plainly seen in that no theatres were hired 
 for two years in all the villages. This Puritanism was 
 too radical for many, however, and the annual theatres 
 wholly given to idolatry are again maintained, but only 
 by the non-Christian people. 
 
 A Victory at Mio 
 On our trips from Kityang up the South River to 
 Chimkhe we usually halted a few hours at the market 
 town of Mio with its 40,000 inhabitants, to preach the 
 gospel on the streets and open places. We soon made 
 friends with a number of shop-keepers and others, who 
 soon expressed a desire that we open a meeting-house in 
 their town. Meanwhile some of them attended worship 
 at Chimkhe. A house was secured in 1898 and leased 
 for five years for use as a meeting-place. The morning of 
 the Sunday on which the few Christian adherents were to 
 meet in the new place of worship for the first time, a 
 worthless fellow, although one of the literati of the town, 
 claimed to have received a message from the gods of the 
 temple near by, commissioning him to prevent the 
 worship of the Christians at that new place. It is said 
 that he came out of the temple as though in a trance, 
 muttering strange words. The people, believing the 
 spirits had spoken to him, gathered about him, where- 
 upon he told that the venerable gods of the temple de- 
 manded that the new meeting-house of the Christians be 
 destroyed. He called for volunteers, and within ten 
 
Opening Mission Stations 283 
 
 minutes had a mob of 500 men following him. The 
 house was immediately destroyed ; not a stone of the 
 walls was allowed to stand upon another. All the timber 
 of the house and furniture was piled up and bonfires 
 lighted. The Christian adherents were at once compelled 
 to flee from the town for their lives. The local magis- 
 trate called his soldiers to aid him in quelling the dis- 
 turbance and if possible prevent the destruction of the 
 house. Faihng in this, two men were made prisoners 
 and placed in his yamen. A mob of hundreds assem- 
 bled before the yamen and demanded the release of the 
 prisoners. The magistrate did not comply with this re- 
 quest at once, and so the mob began to destroy his yamen 
 also. The prisoners were then given over to the people. 
 All this is typical of a Chinese mob, which will brook no 
 interference, be the results never so disastrous. 
 
 When word was received the same day of what had 
 happened, the missionary was much disappointed, for he 
 had planned and prayed much for this outstation. The 
 magistrate at Kityang had also received word of the out- 
 rage from his subordinates. He called at the mission 
 home early the next day and asked as a special favor 
 that the destruction of the meeting house be not reported 
 to the American consul, as missionaries are supposed to 
 do in such cases. This magistrate had only recently 
 been appointed to this place, having been obliged to pay 
 ^70,000 for the office. Furthermore, the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment had recently issued a proclamation demanding 
 that old officials use their utmost care in protecting the 
 rights of foreign missionaries and Christian converts. 
 Failure on their part would result in punishment. The 
 Kityang magistrate feared that if the American consul 
 reported the case to the viceroy, it would endanger his 
 
284 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 position. He promised to see to it that the missionary 
 would ultimately be allowed to preach the gospel at Mio. 
 We had no sufficient reason to refuse this request, and as 
 the owner of the house at once received a sum of money 
 covering the cost of the building, we promised not to 
 report the case to the American consul. 
 
 The magistrate brought pressure upon the elders of the 
 town, and after a month or so the latter sent me an invi- 
 tation to come to Mio to consider the final settlement of 
 the case. The magistrate, pleased at the easy settle- 
 ment of such a serious trouble as the destruction of a 
 chapel, called upon me at my home and asked me to se- 
 lect a house suitable for our purpose in Mio, with the 
 understanding that he would pay for it out of his own 
 funds. The elders at Mio were notified to this effect 
 also. At the time of the usual feast preceding such ne- 
 gotiations, the missionary gave the elders an outline of 
 the missionary work of the Christian churches in the 
 home lands, but he could clearly see that his altruistic 
 motive was not appreciated nor accepted as the real one. 
 They suspected that he had ulterior motives which had 
 not yet come to light. The morning following the feast 
 some of the village elders led him through a number of 
 streets and pointed out dilapidated buildings, but he re- 
 fused to consider any of them. The missionary had, of 
 his own accord, visited a certain temple which had never 
 been finished and which had nearly fallen into ruins. He 
 was favourably impressed with the site and the neigh- 
 bourhood. The contractors who originally undertook to 
 erect the building had died and the people superstitiously 
 feared that the fung shui was bad. Others maintained 
 that the place was haunted and kept away from the build- 
 ing. The missionary asked the village elders to give 
 
Opening Mission Stations 285 
 
 this place. The result was that within a few weeks a 
 proclamation was issued making the property over to 
 missionary uses. The elders, however, expected that 
 those who dared to have anything to do with this 
 " haunted " building would surely meet with death, and 
 if the foreign missionary died, no blame could rest upon 
 them. That event would also rid them of the foreigner's 
 religion, for who would dare to identify himself with a 
 religious movement that promised only death and de- 
 struction ? There was great rejoicing among the Chris- 
 tians of Kityang and Chimkhe when the negotiations 
 were completed and the temple was theirs. A large 
 number of Christians were at once employed to renovate 
 the building so as to make it suitable for the use of the 
 meetings, and the task was completed without any disas- 
 ter to the workmen ; which caused not a little surprise 
 among the pagan Chinese. The day of opening the new 
 house of God was an auspicious day for the Christian ad- 
 herents at Mio. Delegates from Chimkhe and Kityang 
 attended and there was general rejoicing. The progress 
 of the work from Mio as a centre has been very marked. 
 The experience there has proved that more can be ac- 
 complished sometimes by a peaceable settlement of 
 wrongs committed against mission interests than by use 
 of consular aid, though much depends upon the honesty 
 of the local Chinese magistrates. It is sometimes impos- 
 sible to get justice except an appeal is made to the higher 
 authorities through the consul. 
 
 The Little Church at Kange 
 Kange is a village of about a thousand inhabitants, 
 situated six miles east of the central station at Kityang. 
 The people are descendants of a common ancestor of the 
 
286 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 surname Lin who came with other settlers from the Fokien 
 province several hundred years ago. Towards the close 
 of 1895 a few men of this village came to the chapel at 
 Kityang to hear the gospel. Some men of Kange had 
 opened lottery shops in their homes. As this is consid- 
 ered a crime and is always punished by the official as soon 
 as he is informed of it, some of the timid people who pos- 
 sessed wealth feared the consequences. They knew from 
 experience that the men of wealth are always mulcted by 
 the officials, even though they are not guilty. These 
 men reasoned that if they became Christians the magis- 
 trate could not trump up a charge against them for the 
 purpose of obtaining their money. Their number soon 
 increased until there were about twenty or more ad- 
 herents at that place. Fortunately the fears on the part 
 of the people that the magistrate would punish the well- 
 to-do, as he had done in a neighbouring town, proved to 
 be unfounded. The new adherents, however, had been 
 favourably impressed with the gospel and continued to 
 come and to bring others. The missionary decided in 
 those days upon a method that has since commended it- 
 self in every way for the development of Christian work 
 at the outstations. He urged these young adherents to 
 obtain a house or a suitable room in their own village to 
 be used as a " place of prayer " where they could come 
 together every evening for mutual consultation and 
 spiritual help, and where they could invite their friends 
 and neighbours to come in and talk over the merits of 
 the " new " religion. The Kange adherents were eager 
 to have such a place, and one of the adherents, Mr. Lin 
 Bang Bu, had a suitable house, which had been built as a 
 schoolhouse by his father. This building was given to 
 the Christians for their special use for a nominal rent and 
 
Opening Mission Stations 287 
 
 thus the " place of prayer " was opened. Both the for- 
 eign missionary and the Chinese preacher visited them 
 frequently. 
 
 Towards the close of 1896 several were baptized and 
 preparations were made to engage a school-teacher to 
 teach the children of the Christians and adherents. A 
 young man was appointed who for four years did excel- 
 lent work there. While the attendance has never been 
 very large at this place the character of the work has al- 
 ways been a joy. 
 
 During the year of 1900 the Christians at Kange had 
 occasion to show the true calibre of their faith. During 
 these years progress had been made and a Httle church 
 formed. The Boxer troubles were on, but the Christians 
 at Kange were not molested by their heathen neigh- 
 bours. Their trials were within the little church. Mr. 
 Lin Bang Bu, the owner of the schoolhouse, though a 
 baptized Christian, had recently shown a tendency to 
 backslide into paganism : he had visited theatres con- 
 nected with idolatry. This was too much for the little 
 church. Bang Bu was asked to repent and confess his 
 sins or suffer exclusion at once. It is said he uttered 
 something about the impropriety of men asking him to 
 confess sins in his own house. Upon this statement the 
 deacons at once looked about for another place in their 
 village and having found one at once moved out of the 
 schoolhouse. Each Christian and adherent took a piece 
 of furniture or a number of books and marched out of the 
 old building into smaller but more congenial quarters. 
 The benches and furniture were placed in order and 
 services begun at once. Lin Bang Bu was excluded that 
 same day and the poor fellow has made a bad record ever 
 since. 
 
288 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Had the foreign missionary been with them on that 
 Sunday he would have cautioned moderation and less 
 hasty action, but under the circumstances he did not feel 
 that he could discourage them for putting so much action 
 into one single Sunday. This new crisis developed sur- 
 prising strength in the Christians. They rose to the 
 occasion and within a few days raised money to build a 
 suitable chapel. Their deacon gave a valuable piece of 
 land for the site of the building, situated just above the 
 entrance of the village. When it became known, how- 
 ever, that the Christians were about to build upon that 
 site, there arose a general protest on the part of the vil- 
 lage and the elders were asked to protest in behalf of the 
 village. It was claimed that ihe/un^;- shui of the village 
 would be destroyed if the chapel were erected on that 
 place. Not only would the general prosperity of the vil- 
 lage vanish, but the very lives of the inhabitants would 
 be endangered. When the elders of the village came to 
 the missionary he tried to show them the absurdity of the 
 fung shui superstition, but found it impossible to make 
 any impression upon them. They were irrevocably op- 
 posed to the chapel's being built there. It was plain to 
 the missionary that the Christians could not ignore their 
 requests and that it would pay in the end to remain on 
 good terms with the people rather than to antagonize 
 them, even though their objections to the chapel were but 
 superstitions. The Christians at Kange, however, were 
 indignant that any attention should be given to the fool- 
 ish fears of the people. They maintained that the time 
 had come to give the people an example of the absurd- 
 ities of their wrong beliefs. The Boxer disturbances, 
 however, were developing, and it was finally decided to 
 waive the project of building the chapel for the time be- 
 
Opening Mission Stations 289 
 
 ing. A few weeks later a site within the village walls 
 was offered to the Christians, and the building was then 
 erected with the best of feeling on the part of all the 
 people of the village. Christian forbearance and modera- 
 tion will oftentimes win in pagan China, where a demand 
 for a right to do as one pleases will only cause disaster. 
 The opening of the outstations of Chimkhe, Mio and 
 Kange show a few of the many motives that may lead 
 men to learn the gospel truths and thus become Chris- 
 tians. If tact and precaution are used on the part of the 
 missionary, clan fights, persecution, destruction of 
 chapels, haunted temples and lottery cases may all add 
 their quota to the progress of the kingdom of God in 
 China. 
 
XVI 
 
 CHURCHES AND OUTSTATIONS ON THE 
 KITYANG FIELD 
 
 The purpose of this lecture is not to narrate the 
 labours of the foreign missionaries on the Kityang field ; 
 it is rather to show that the development of missions and 
 outstations has been a natural growth due largely to the 
 fidelity of the native church in the use of her spiritual 
 gifts. Nor should it be supposed that the growth of this 
 central station has been phenomenal or exceptional. A 
 like growth and expansion have taken place within the 
 past decade in many parts of the Chinese Empire. Our 
 churches in the home lands ought to be of good cheer 
 and to take courage in the knowledge of the powerful 
 influence their prosecution of foreign missions has exerted 
 in China. In the study of the chart representing the 
 growth of the Kityang field, a proper conception of the 
 cumulative influence and power of Christian missionary 
 work may be formed if it be remembered that there are 
 many hundreds of such dynamic forces of spiritual in- 
 fluences at work among the Chinese people to-day. 
 
 The diagram on the opposite page will give a clearer 
 understanding of the growth of the churches and missions 
 to be described. The red centres represent independent, 
 self-supporting churches. The yellow centres are stations 
 which receive financial aid and have not yet attained the 
 status of a local church. The blue indicates " places of 
 prayer," i. e., towns or villages in which a number of 
 Christians and adherents live, who have banded them- 
 selves together to meet once or several times a week for 
 
 290 
 
Key to the Diagram. 
 
 In order to help understand the growth of the churches 
 and missions on the Kityang field __ this diagram has 
 been devised. The large circle () represents inde- 
 pendent, self-supporting churches. ^-^ The j^ear when 
 mission work was opened is given with each centre 
 Ihe double circle f=^ represents missions which receive 
 financial aid and \J have not yet attained the status 
 of a local church. The double circle with the broken 
 ""fO"^,?'^'^"*' "places of prayer," i.e., towns 
 and v^ villages m which a number of Christians and 
 adherents hve who have banded themselves together 
 to meet once or several times during the week for 
 prayer and spiritual helpfulness. On Sundays all 
 attend services at the nearest mission or church; but 
 they hope to increase the number of adherents in their 
 own town and thus be able to have Sunday services in 
 their own place. They would in that case be considered 
 as a mission. The small ^ circle represent the results 
 of the Kityang Native ^ Missionary Society. 
 
 To facilitate the study of the chart the out stations 
 of the entire field have been divided into ten centres or 
 strategic points. These points are designated bv 
 capi al letters, A, B, C, and so forth. As will be seen 
 
 Z^^ ,T'^^^''^^ ^^^y ^""^ clustered about by a 
 number of churches, missions and places of prayer, each 
 numbered according to the time it has grown out of the 
 particular centre. 
 
1905 (^ 
 
 CHART ILLUSTRATING GROWTH OF CHURCHES AND MIS- 
 SIONS on the Kityang field 
 
Churches and Outstations 29 1 
 
 prayer and spiritual help. On Sundays they all attend 
 services at the nearest station or church ; but they hope 
 to increase the number of adherents in their own town 
 and thus be able to have Sunday services there. The 
 green centres represent the results of the Kityang Native 
 Mission Society. The churches and missions represented 
 by the red and yellow colours, including all their places 
 of orayer, have organized themselves into a missionary 
 society. The Chinese Christians raise sums of money 
 sufficient to send yearly eight to ten evangelists and 
 preachers into a new territory to establish new gospel 
 centres. Some of these in turn will soon grow into local 
 churches and will help to carry the gospel to remoter 
 parts. 
 
 To facilitate the study of the chart the mission stations 
 of the entire field have been divided into ten centres or 
 strategic points. These points are designated by capital 
 letters A, B, C, and so forth. As will be seen, in almost 
 every case they are surrounded by a number of churches, 
 missions and places of prayer which have grown out of 
 that centre. 
 
 The central station of Kityang, designated by A is 
 in a sense the mother church of the entire network of 
 churches and missions. The membership of this church 
 is to-day over two hundred, while the adherents who at- 
 tend service number several hundred. The Christians and 
 adherents come from eighty or more different villages, all 
 situated near the city. The church at Kityang is not 
 only situated at a strategic location as far as the city with 
 its one hundred thousand inhabitants is concerned, but it 
 commands a large territory congested with hundreds of 
 villages. The gospel campaign carried on from this point 
 will undoubtedly be more effective in the near future 
 
292 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 than it has been up to the present time. The church 
 supports two missions, (i) South Gate and (2) West Gate 
 within the city walls ; it maintains a flourishing boys' school 
 and two places of prayer in villages, Kau Bue (3), and Bue 
 Poi (4), a few miles distant. Besides supporting the pastor, 
 the Christians also raise hundreds of dollars for their own 
 missionary society. During the Boxer revolt the church 
 erected a large church building with a seating capacity of 
 600 people which cost nearly ;^ 3,000 Mexican. The 
 natives themselves raised nearly ;^2,ooo of this sum. 
 This act of enterprise and faith on the part of the Chris- 
 tians during the very period when the future of Christian 
 missions seemed problematical to many, had much to do 
 in keeping the enemy, who were in sympathy with the 
 Boxers of the north, doubting the rumours and reports 
 of disturbances in the northern part of the empire. 
 The general public reasoned that a band of Christians 
 who were investing their money in erecting a larger 
 house of worship was not one which was about to become 
 defunct. Their courage and faith dismayed and dis- 
 couraged the heathen in their cherished plans of devas- 
 tating Christian missions. The following churches on the 
 Kityang field have been branched off from this church since 
 the time of its beginning : Gueh Sia (D), Peh Thah 
 (E), Sua O (F), Hua Cheng (G), Lau Kung (5), which 
 has since branched off into another church at Kho Khoi 
 (6) with her place of prayer at Sua Lai (7). An account 
 of the opening of the mission and the growth of the 
 church at Kang E (8) was given in the previous chapter. 
 The opening of the mission at Sin Hu (9), an important 
 market town about six miles northwest of Kityang was 
 the last important centre opened from this central station. 
 The progress of the gospel at Sin Hu is typical of several 
 
Churches and Outstations 293 
 
 Kityang outstations. In the year 1902 the missionary in 
 charge felt that a market-town in the centre of several 
 hundreds of villages ought to be a good field for evangel- 
 istic effort. Frequent visits to the market soon bore 
 fruit in gathering together persons interested in the gos- 
 pel. A house was leased for the use of a chapel, and 
 within a few months some of the business men of the 
 place became regular attendants at the services. Two of 
 them made considerable progress in spiritual thmgs and 
 gave evidence of the religious and moral change takmg 
 place within them. The business men proposed to build 
 a suitable house of worship and made the followmg offer. 
 One would supply all the material for the walls of the 
 building, a second became responsible for all the lumber 
 needed, and a third was willing to supply the material for 
 the roof, on condition that the congregation paid the 
 wages of the workmen and the foreign missionary bought a 
 suitable site. The undertaking was carried out success- 
 fully and to-day an attractive house of worship stands in 
 the market of Sin Hu. The fact that the Chinese them- 
 selves have been the leading spirits in this work has 
 placed this station very high in the estimation of many 
 who were somewhat prejudiced against the foreigner. It 
 is a sound poHcy of Christian missions for the foreign 
 missionary to remain in the background and let the 
 natives come forward to assume responsibilities. When 
 the Chinese have invested a good deal of their money it 
 always helps to make them careful in regard to the well- 
 being of their mission or local church. During the past 
 year or two a place of prayer has been maintained in the 
 village of Gi Chu (10), not very far from the market. 
 The quest for deeper knowledge of Christian truth at this 
 place is worthy of special notice. 
 
294 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Chimkhe (B) is not a strategic centre as to its geo- 
 graphical position. The market town of Li-O (H), 
 situated on the opposite side of the river must ultimately 
 prove to be the more important centre of the two places. 
 But the power of the gospel upon the Hves and customs 
 of the people at Chimkhe had been so marked and had 
 become so noted to the people in many sections round 
 about, that the church at Chimkhe has been a power- 
 ful centre of missionary activity and has become a mother 
 church to quite a number of other churches and missions. 
 The Christians of Chimkhe have only recently estab- 
 lished a place of prayer in one of the other forty-four 
 villages inhabited by their clan. The place is called 
 Teng Liau (ii), /. e., the " upper hamlet." 
 
 The story of how the people living in the villages of 
 Chiang Mui came to Chimkhe to hear the gospel has 
 been told in a previous lecture. Some of the Christians 
 at Chimkhe and Chiang Mui had established business in- 
 terests in the market town of Li-0 (H) and it was but a 
 question of time when this new light would make itself 
 felt in that place. Meanwhile the Christians and adher- 
 ents of Chiang Mui living a few miles away were desir- 
 ous of having a place of prayer in their own village of 
 Sin Liau (13). The church at Chiang Mui also had the 
 sagacity to occupy from the very beginning the market 
 of Bue Tng (14). Disastrous clan fights defeated the aims 
 of the mission at this point. The people there had to 
 learn to make a distinction between the methods of the 
 French and those of the American mission. 
 
 The town of Mio (C) proved to be a strategic point of 
 missionary propaganda second only to the city of Kit- 
 yang itself. Since the opening of the renovated temple 
 in 1898 three congregations have been branched off from 
 
Churches and Outstations 295 
 
 that centre. In 1899 the Christians and adherents of Cie 
 Chng (15) established their Sunday worship in their own 
 village. They had been attracted by the results of the 
 gospel among the Chimkhe people and had at first at- 
 tended religious services there, but when the Mio mis- 
 sion was opened they then had but one-third of the dis- 
 tance to go for worship. These people were in a large 
 measure the backbone of the early Mio mission and 
 stood faithfully by the side of the foreign missionary in 
 the matter of obtaining the " haunted " temple for use as 
 a house of worship. One of the leading members of this 
 church has opened a place of prayer in his village a few 
 miles distant (16). 
 
 Ua Jin (17) is an interesting and instructive station. 
 It shows us that a body of Christians, small in number, 
 may yet produce results that surprise even the Chinese 
 themselves. The people of Ua Jin had become weary of 
 the desolation and death caused by the constant inter- 
 clan fights in their district. A number of young men, 
 members of substantial families, came to Mio to hear 
 the gospel message and soon brought some of their 
 elders to the services also. The people were wealthy 
 and after due time made application to open a mission 
 station among the several thousands of their own people. 
 Some of these men did not know the full import of their 
 request. They hoped to escape the consequences of the 
 clan fight, with which they had nothing in common, but 
 for which, as well-to-do members of the community, they 
 knew that they would be the marked persons of the gov- 
 ernment official when the day of reckoning arrived. 
 Fortunately they escaped the expected " squeeze " of the 
 government officials but the truths of the gospel of Christ 
 meanwhile had so taken hold of some of them that they 
 
296 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 refused to have anything in common with idolatry and 
 ancestor worship. When this became known there was 
 consternation in the villages of Ua Jin. The gentry, 
 who at one time even professed to be favourably in- 
 clined towards Christianity, threw aside their false pre- 
 tenses and exerted their influence on the Christians to 
 make them give up their intentions of breaking away 
 from ancestor worship. They even went as far as to 
 advise the Christians to remain true to the forms of the 
 Christian truths but not at the cost of ancestor worship. 
 Failing in this they threatened to use measures which 
 would be disastrous to the Christians. One man had a 
 large number of olive trees and in a single night a good 
 portion of them were stripped of their bark and the de- 
 struction of the valuable trees resulted. But it did not 
 destroy his faith in God. That same man has since 
 given considerable towards the building of a chapel in 
 his own village. Objections were at one time made 
 against the site upon which the chapel was to be erected, 
 but nothing happened when the local congregation went 
 ahead and erected the building. Ua Jin will soon be a 
 self-supporting congregation. The members are able to 
 carry on their church work independent of the preacher 
 usually in charge of the work. The man who preaches 
 to this congregation must be above the average as a 
 student of the Bible. 
 
 Almost exactly the reverse of this may be said of the 
 Christians at O Bue (18). At this place the disciples 
 have not been able to profit by the petty persecutions of 
 their neighbours. The people are wretchedly poor and 
 are the constant victims of the grossest superstitions. A 
 " place of prayer " has been established in the largest 
 village not very far from the chapel. It is possible that 
 
Churches and Outstations 297 
 
 this station will be merged with the Cie Chng mission. 
 If both could be persuaded to unite, a self-supporting 
 church would result. 
 
 Gueh Sia (D) was established as a distinct congrega- 
 tion many years before a missionary was sent to Kityang. 
 Rev. Wm. Ashmore, D. D., had established up to that 
 period (1895), besides the Kityang and Gueh Sia mis- 
 sions, the Peh Thah (E), Sua O (F) and Hua Cheng (G) 
 congregations in the northern part of the Kityang field. 
 As will be seen from the chart they have since become 
 centres of successful church planting. Gueh Sia church 
 has established three local churches, one mission and five 
 places of prayer since 1896. The first of these three, 
 the congregation at Gu Phi Lang (20) has not been suc- 
 cessful in exerting a virile influence, but a successful place 
 of prayer has been established at Toa Peh (21). 
 
 The church at Toa Thau Nia (22) is a vigorous body ; 
 it is in a strategic centre and has a very bright outlook. 
 Two places of prayer are maintained by it, Gu Lo 
 Thau (23) and Sang Sua (24). The church at Tek Kie (25) 
 has been a gathering-place for a number of the gentry 
 and scholars. The pastor of this church is above the 
 average in abihty to draw men of this class. Still it 
 would be very difficult to say that the church is in any 
 way stronger because of this element in the congrega- 
 tion. The difficulties that this class of people bring to 
 Christian missions are numerous ; let the following case 
 suffice. A few years ago one of the gentry, an adherent, 
 was invited to feast with the district magistrate. This 
 was considered a great honour. At the close of the feast 
 the magistrate notified the man, who was also one of the 
 responsible elders of the Tek Kie villages, that he would 
 have to remain in the yamen, a prisoner, until he could 
 
298 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 clear himself of the charge of teaching and helping the 
 clan at Tek Kie to prepare for extensive warfare. The 
 man was undoubtedly innocent of the charge, but the 
 Kityang magistrate had received orders to come to Can- 
 ton to celebrate the viceroy's birthday. He knew that 
 he could not go to Canton without a substantial present 
 for his superior. Being short of funds at the time, he 
 examined a list of the wealthy men of the district and in- 
 vited among a few others the gentry from Tek Kie. 
 Strong efforts were made to get the foreign missionary 
 at Kityang to see the magistrate about this case and to 
 save the man from his clutches. But the missionary 
 could not see his way clear to do so and thus disap- 
 pointed a large number of friends, who thought the 
 American missionary ought occasionally do what the 
 French missionary frequently did. This man of Tek Kie 
 was released from his chains and imprisonment upon 
 paying a squeeze of a thousand dollars. The fact that 
 the missionary failed to come to his rescue in the time 
 of need caused some to fall away and to discontinue 
 attending the religious services. The absence of such 
 men, however, is more a relief to Christian missions in 
 China than a loss. The place of prayer maintained by 
 a few of the peasant Christians at the old village of 
 Tek Kie, Lau Ce (26), a half-mile distant from the chapel, 
 has proved a far more helpful force for the spread of the 
 gospel than many of the so-called adherents of the 
 gentry. Christian education and training are the direct 
 results by reason of these places of prayer. The gen- 
 try, on the other hand, impressed by their own impor- 
 tance, do not learn readily at the cross of the crucified 
 Saviour. The church at Gueh Sia, since establishing 
 the above mentioned churches, has again opened two 
 
Churches and Outstations 299 
 
 places of prayer, one at Chim Pho (27), the other at 
 Khoi Poi (28). 
 
 The church at Peh Thah has been sterile for a long 
 time. Only during the past few years have the Christians 
 at that place shown a true missionary spirit in establishing 
 places of prayer. The one maintained in the town of 
 Cui Liau Po (29) is on the border line of another tribe of 
 Chinese, who speak a different dialect. The other is at 
 Be Khu (30), a town near the banks of the south branch 
 of the Kityang River. Several years ago our mission 
 had a foothold in this town ; there were at that time a 
 number of women who had become adherents, but the 
 mission for some reason was not continued. In 1902 a 
 number of men came to Peh Thah church and showed 
 much interest. The motives, however, that led them to 
 come were not of the best. The different families of their 
 clan were at odds with one another, and though the mis- 
 sion has tried to keep clear of any connection with the 
 local situation, various troubles have since arisen at that 
 place which go to prove that such opportunities require 
 the utmost caution on the part of the foreign missionary. 
 The Christians of Be Khu have tried to erect a meeting- 
 and schoolhouse but have been hindered by their own 
 people from completing the building. 
 
 The Sua O (F) church is to-day one of the strongest and 
 most substantial of all the local churches on the Kityang 
 field. The church maintains a prosperous mission at Tng 
 Khe Ui (31); two places of prayer in connection with 
 the mission Gu Na Thau (32) and Cie le Lo (33); also 
 a place of prayer at Peh Cieh (34). This expansion of 
 missionary activity of the Sua O church has taken place 
 since the Boxer revolt ; the same is also true of some of 
 the other churches. 
 
300 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 The Hua Cheng (G) church as a strategic centre is of 
 minor importance. In 1896 a mission was estabhshed 
 in the important town of Siah Tie (35) with a popula- 
 tion of 10,000 people. Though this church is not yet as 
 strong as her mother church, she will necessarily take a 
 greater share in the diffusion of the gospel throughout 
 that vicinity than the church of Hua Cheng, which is 
 secluded in a little hamlet with a population of about 300 
 people. The Christians of Siah Tie are poor and have 
 found it rather difficult to support a preacher. A mem- 
 ber of the church, a boatman, has considerable gift as a 
 preacher, and has served the church for the past three 
 years in the preaching of the gospel. The Siah Tie 
 church is therefore a self-sustaining rather than a self- 
 supporting church. The Hua Cheng Christians have 
 established a place of prayer in the larger village of Hua 
 Cheng (36), about one-half mile distant from the chapel. 
 This place of worship has caused the Christians much 
 tribulation, as their pagan neighbours strongly objected to 
 a Christian place of worship in the larger and more im- 
 portant village of Hua Cheng. The Christians may, if 
 they desire, come together for worship in one of the 
 minor villages of Hua Cheng, but they must not be tol- 
 erated in the place where the gentry and the important 
 people live. However, in spite of their opposition and 
 persecutions, the Christians are holding their own and 
 will yet make a place for themselves in that community. 
 Every foot of ground is contested, every advance shown 
 on the chart has caused persecution and even bloodshed, 
 but the victory has always been with the Church. 
 
 The opening of the market-town of Li-O (H) as a centre 
 of missionary activity was brought about by the Chimkhe 
 and the Chiang Mui Christians who had business interests 
 
Churches and Outstations 301 
 
 at that place. It was this important centre with which 
 the clan at Chimkhe had had a clan fight and lawsuit at the 
 time they came to the Kityang missionary to urge him 
 to preach the gospel to them. Many of the people hoped 
 at that time that they might be able to persuade the mis- 
 sionary to take sides against the people at Li-0, and if 
 possible, even urge the magistrate to take the Li-O people 
 in hand instead of the Chimkhe people. It has been 
 narrated how the missionary expressed his opinions very 
 frankly to them on that subject and even suggested the 
 hope that within a few years he might be able to give 
 the gospel of Christ to the Li-0 people also. Only four 
 years later this hope was realized. Not only was the 
 missionary eager to give them the gospel but a number of 
 the Chimkhe people, also their former enemies, were now 
 as zealous to carry out this plan. Within a short time a 
 family of good standing Hving at Li-0 united with the 
 mission and the work was more than encouraging in the 
 fact that a number of peasants from the neighbouring vil- 
 lages became regular attendants. The tea planters from 
 Peh Cui Tsai (37), who formerly went to Chimkhe to 
 worship, now came to Li-0, and in 1903 established a 
 mission of their own among their secluded villages in the 
 hills. Here again the motives that led these people, at 
 first, to seek the teachings of the gospel were not alto- 
 gether pure. They had had trouble with the villages at 
 the foot of their hills and by some peculiar reasoning 
 came to the conclusion that they could better their con- 
 dition if they became Christians. They have now been 
 adherents and Christians for a number of years, but still 
 the enem.y continues to make it unpleasant for them as 
 they pass through his dreaded territory. In estabHshing 
 a mission among the hills they had less occasion to trav- 
 
302 The Conquest of the Cross In China 
 
 erse the territory of their enemies than when they went 
 to Li-0. They have since opened a place of prayer 
 among a neighbouring clan, also tea planters, living on 
 the hillside only a few miles distant at Ang Chu (38). 
 Apart from this growth the Li-O mission has also estab- 
 lished a place of prayer at Tek Thau (39) which has been 
 a very great aid in the development of the Christians in 
 that vicinity. 
 
 As the Boxer troubles were being adjusted the prob- 
 ability of a great opportunity to spread the gospel among 
 the people became evident to all foreign missionaries in 
 China. The thought of further expansion of the Kityang 
 mission gave rise to serious reflection by the missionary 
 in charge. Questions as to the source from which to get 
 reliable evangelists and preachers, and also the concom- 
 itant problem, whence to get funds for the enlarged 
 work, presented themselves in advance. Would it be 
 wise to carry on the entire extension with foreign money ? 
 If not, how could the Chinese churches and outstations 
 be enlisted to take a share in this, their own work ? At 
 this time, 1901, a letter was received from people living 
 in a town fifty-seven miles from Kityang, asking that the 
 missionary come to their place with native evangelists to 
 preach. The following week certain Christians at Li-O 
 asked that some effort be made to establish a mission in 
 an important market-town southwest of Li-O, where a 
 number of their own kindred lived. It proved that the 
 place to which the missionary was invited and the place 
 mentioned by the Li-O Christians was one and the same, 
 Kue Tham (40). A trip was taken to that place and 
 also further westward into the Weichow district. The 
 needs of a great field and the possibilities of a large 
 missionary undertaking became evident. The Kityang 
 
Churches and Outstations 303 
 
 churches were at once told of the Macedonian call of the 
 great field that had hitherto been left untouched by the 
 mission and the eagerness with which the gospel had been 
 received by the people who have been visited was clearly 
 explained. The churches were asked to pray during the 
 following few weeks regarding the organization of a 
 Chinese missionary society, to take upon itself the re- 
 sponsibility of the Weichow field. The churches were 
 to raise all the money necessary to carry on the work. 
 They were to choose and send their own evangelists and 
 were to hold two mission rallies every year in order to 
 hear reports of the progress of their work. When the 
 time came for the consideration of the matter, there was 
 considerable enthusiasm shown by nearly every delegate 
 present. The missionary society was organized and the 
 first evangelist under the auspices of the missionary 
 society sent into the Weichow. In organizing this 
 society the churches built wiser than they or the mission- 
 ary could at that time understand. No one factor has 
 proved to be such a power in unifying the numerous 
 churches and outstations, with one aim and purpose, as 
 the organization of this missionary society. This can be 
 fully appreciated only by those who understand the 
 narrowness and clannishness of the average Chinese. 
 The enlarged field of missionary endeavour has proved to 
 be a safety-valve for the Kityang mission in that it offered 
 to the Chinese co-workers, men of ability and capable of 
 larger things than remaining under the direction and pay 
 of the foreign missionary, a field for the exercise of their 
 gifts. But of still greater importance, the organization of 
 the missionary society has helped the churches to realize 
 the share that is theirs in the conquest of their native 
 country for Christ. The reflex influence of this mission- 
 
304 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 ary zeal upon the local churches has been very evident, 
 not only in the positive advance towards self-support of 
 all the churches themselves but also in the deepening of 
 the spiritual life of the Christians. It ought to be added 
 also that the number of converts has been increased very 
 much since the organization of the missionary society. 
 
 The first mission undertaken by the native society was 
 at Kue Tham (40) an important market town near the 
 border-line of the Weichow. The preacher chosen to go 
 to this field was specially fitted for the work, and in spite 
 of many difficulties was soon able to gather a respectable 
 number of business men of Kue Tham as adherents. The 
 interests at this place have developed. A boys' school 
 was established a few years ago, and a number of peasants 
 living in a village several miles distant, have established 
 a place of prayer (41). The leader of this undertaking, 
 A Teng, has since been baptized and has united with the 
 church. 
 
 Within a year several invitations from men attending 
 services at Kue Tham had been sent to the missionary 
 society to open gospel centres in their towns. Before 
 opening outstations in the Weichow it was necessary to 
 make a careful study of all the principal cities and towns 
 in that large territory in order to plan wisely for occupy- 
 ing strategic points as centres. A trip from Kityang to 
 Canton overland through the entire length of the Weichow 
 was made by the missionary and three native co-workers. 
 When the opportunities to preach the gospel offered the 
 itinerating party could only travel but a few miles a day. 
 When, however, as was sometimes the case, it was neces- 
 sary to travel through a country sparsely settled or where 
 the language of the people was entirely different, a dis- 
 tance of from twenty to thirty miles would be covered on 
 
Churches and Outstations 305 
 
 foot. The itinerants always lodged at the public inns for 
 there they often found opportunity of getting valuable 
 information and also preaching the gospel to many people. 
 The trip required over a month's time. When the mis- 
 sionary society came together for its semiannual meeting 
 it was decided to appoint an additional evangelist and to 
 open a new mission at Lok Fung (I), the capital city of 
 a county of the same name. The people of that city and 
 of the surrounding country are without doubt among the 
 most turbulent in all the eastern part of Kwangtung 
 province. The visiting missionary has hardly ever come 
 to that city without finding the people engaged in some 
 struggle. Oftentimes it would be a fight between the 
 various clans struggling for supremacy ; then again there 
 would be an uprising against the soldier and yamen- 
 runners and even against the government official himself. 
 At one time all the Catholic converts of that district were 
 compelled to flee for their lives because a French priest 
 had taken sides in a lawsuit contrary to the interests of 
 the people ; when the bishop of that territory attempted 
 to visit the city the people would not allow him to come. 
 At another time the traders and shop-keepers of the old 
 and the new markets would renew their feuds and a fierce 
 conflict would result, lasting days at a time, making all 
 communication in the city and vicinity impossible. It 
 required courage and tact on the part of the native 
 preacher to carry on a successful mission work among 
 such a people. The native society has from the begin- 
 ning selected the strongest and safest men possible to 
 preach the gospel at this storm centre. 
 
 The opening of the mission at Lok Fung city at- 
 tracted a large number of men from various parts of the 
 Lok Fung and Hai Fung counties. Men came thirty 
 
3o6 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 and more miles to hear the gospel message. Owing 
 to the unsettled condition of the entire region at that 
 time, due to clan fights and highway robberies, the peo- 
 ple were unable to come with such regularity as is indis- 
 pensable to insure satisfactory results. The missionary 
 society on account of these conditions voted to open a 
 mission at Ke Khau (42), a town in a populous district 
 nearly eighteen miles west from Lok Fung. The prog- 
 ress at Ke Khau, however, has not been very great. A 
 place of prayer has been established at Toa Lo, a village 
 several miles away, with the prospects that the work may 
 prosper more there than at Ke Khau. 
 
 The third year of the native missionary society wit- 
 nessed a still greater growth and expansion. Some 
 members of the Board of Directors who were in a way 
 responsible for the raising of funds to carry on the work 
 in the Weichow were very doubtful as to the wisdom of 
 sending five evangelists into the field during the year. 
 The Kityang churches decided to send the men and 
 raised the money needed to pay their salaries. Last year 
 some of the same directors favoured and helped forward 
 the plan of sending ten men into Weichow. There was 
 no debt at the close of the year. In 1903 four mission 
 stations were opened. The first, Toa Ue (44), a secluded 
 town where a considerable number of adherents were de- 
 sirous of better opportunities than an occasional visit to 
 the chapel at Lok Fung, became a regular outstation. 
 The following year a new station was opened at Phu 
 Thau (45), only a few miles away. The Christians at 
 both places were persuaded to unite in calling the same 
 preacher, who was to visit Sin Chu (46) also. Oppor- 
 tunities for preaching the gospel in many places and the 
 limited number of evangelists and preachers made it nee- 
 
Churches and Outstations 307 
 
 essary to adopt this method of economy in designating 
 the men for the time being, 
 
 Kong Pheng (47), one of the most important market 
 centres in the Hai Fung county, was occupied a few 
 months after Ke Khau. Considerable elementary teach- 
 ing has been necessary at this place, due to misconcep- 
 tions on the part of the people as to the functions of the 
 Christian church. The French Catholic converts at this 
 place make much display of the power of their priest, 
 thus causing envy and even a desire on part of the 
 weaker adherents to emulate them as regards their mis- 
 sionary. This has naturally hindered the progress of the 
 gospel in all the surrounding villages. 
 
 The system of opening places of prayer for the Chris- 
 tians and adherents isolated from the fellowship of the 
 weekly church meetings has proved to be such a positive 
 force in the development of the Kityang mission that the 
 same method has been continued in the Weichow field 
 also. Some of the adherents attending services at Lok 
 Fung established a place of prayer in their own town of 
 O Kham (48) ; they hope to be able to have an evangelist 
 stationed there to preach the gospel to the thousands liv- 
 ing in that region. 
 
 Hun Loh (49) a market town situated on the main road 
 of travel between Li-O and Kue Tham was also opened 
 this same year as a mission centre. The preachers on 
 their way to Weichow always pass through this place 
 and their short visits resulted in much good. A num- 
 ber of Christians and adherents have been gathered at 
 this point. 
 
 The most important centre growing out of the Lok 
 Fung mission was the district city of Hai Fung (J). The 
 city has about 40,000 inhabitants and is surrounded by 
 
3o8 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 hundreds of towns and villages. Hai Fung, though 
 smaller in population than Kityang, has almost the same 
 strategic advantages for becoming a great centre of 
 Christian missionary effort. It has in a measure become 
 so already. A glance at the chart will show that quite a 
 number of outstations have grown out from this centre. 
 The adherents at Chang Ki (50) had attended religious 
 services at Lok Fung at first, but are now closely con- 
 nected with the Hai Fung work, which is much nearer to 
 their place. The gospel message has spread from this 
 point to Chiap Cheng (51), an important military city, 
 which must, owing to its commanding position, also be- 
 come a powerful centre for Christian missions. 
 
 When the missionary society decided to open Chiah 
 Chieh as a gospel centre, it reached out as far as the dia- 
 lect spoken by themselves extends. Chiah Chieh (52) is 
 a large market-town near the border-line between the 
 Cantonese and Swatow dialects. The place is about 150 
 miles west of Kityang. From the latter station reaching 
 out to Chiah Chieh, there are at least i ,500,000 or 2,000,000 
 people. God has given the Kityang missionary society a 
 large field, but they can do the work better than any 
 number of foreigners. There are now about 900 baptized 
 Christians and about 3,000 adherents connected with this 
 network of outstations. One half and more of the 900 
 have been baptized since the formation of the missionary 
 society, though no converts, excepting about ten,have been 
 received from the Weichow up to the present time. The 
 native missionary society as well as the foreign mission- 
 ary believe in laying a good foundation before receiving 
 men and women into the church, even though it take five 
 times five years to do so. 
 
 Of second importance only to the district city of Hai 
 
Churches and Outstations 309 
 
 Fung itself is the seaport town of Sua Bue (53). The 
 place is one of the many commissariats of Hongkong. 
 The Kityang missionary society looks forward to the es- 
 tablishing of a strong church at this centre which shall in 
 turn exert a powerful influence in the many towns and 
 villages of the vicinity. 
 
 The training which the Weichow mission offers the 
 Chinese preachers cannot be overestimated. It has 
 brought out the latent abilities of many of the younger 
 men. The dangers to life and limb in having to travel 
 through districts infested with highway robbers, and the 
 assuming of great responsibilities, have called out the 
 best that was in a number of our young preachers. 
 Many of them have become strong and trustworthy. 
 
 As the necessity of a furlough for the missionary be- 
 gan to make itself felt in no uncertain way, a new crisis in 
 the development of the mission presented itself. Every 
 missionary in the South China Mission had more work on 
 his hands than was good for him and it was useless, there- 
 fore, to try to obtain the aid of a foreigner who could 
 give his entire attention to this vast field. The convic- 
 tion began to impress itself upon the missionary that the 
 Chinese leaders and preachers ought to be invited to as- 
 sume the responsibihties of the entire work during the 
 furlough of their missionary. This would not only be a 
 splendid opportunity for the further development of their 
 gifts, but it would also be a test for every preacher and 
 leader to show whether he could be trusted without hav- 
 ing the eye of the missionary upon him. An under- 
 standing was effected with the home board and Rev. 
 W. Ashmore, Jr., D. D., at Swatow% who should come 
 to the aid of the Christians if any severe crisis should 
 happen. Otherwise the prosecution of the work should 
 
31 o The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 rest upon each pastor, preacher, teacher and evangelist 
 and upon the churches themselves. When the churches 
 and the leaders were taken into confidence regarding this 
 plan it was urged that they owed it to their God, to them- 
 selves, to their fellow countrymen and to the American 
 Christians to prove that they possessed spiritual gifts and 
 were able to stand in the faith and carry on their own 
 work, even though the missionary were absent for a time. 
 The appeal struck home. There was a hearty response. 
 As the missionary left the field he felt that it was proper 
 that the work should undergo the test. If the principles 
 carried out during the nine years of his ministry were not 
 sound the sooner he became enlightened on that point 
 the better it would be for all concerned. The reports 
 that came to the missionary in this country showed that 
 the Chinese Christians are true to their calling. There 
 was no occasion for seeking the aid of the foreign mis- 
 sionary for help in lawsuits or other trouble. The native 
 missionary society carried on its work with vigour. It is 
 reported that two new outstations were opened during 
 the year in the Weichow. The year was closed without 
 a debt, though the expenses were heavier in the Weichow 
 than ever before. 
 
 There are many problems to solve in connection with 
 the further development of these churches and outstations. 
 One of the most important of all is the educational. A 
 Christian school must be established alongside every mis- 
 sion station. The problems connected with the source of 
 supply for preachers and evangehsts for the ever expand- 
 ing work will be considered hereafter, likewise also the 
 problem of ordaining men to be pastors and the question 
 of self-support of the local churches, all vital subjects. 
 
IV 
 
 PROBLEMS OF THE CHINESE LOCAL 
 CHURCHES 
 
 XVn. Intensive and Extensive Methods of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 XVIII. The Chinese Church and the Foreign Mis- 
 
 sionary. 
 
 XIX. Chinese Local Churches; Self-Supporting 
 
 AND SeLF-SuSTAINING. 
 
 XX. Chinese Preachers, Their Call to the Min- 
 
 istry AND Their Training. 
 
XVII 
 
 INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE METHODS OF THE 
 KINGDOM 
 
 Jesus Christ taught His disciples both the intensive and 
 the extensive method of establishing the kingdom of God 
 among men. He emphasized the intensive aspect when 
 he told His disciples ♦* the kingdom of God is among 
 you"; also when He commanded His followers not to de- 
 part from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the 
 Father. " But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
 Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto 
 Me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria 
 and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." The ex- 
 tensive aspect of the kingdom finds expression in the lat- 
 ter part of this Scriptural passage, but it is summed up in 
 its completeness in the marching orders of the king to 
 His followers : " Go ye into all the world and preach the 
 gospel to every creature." The Master made the in- 
 tensive, that is, personal religious experience, the first 
 requisite to the extension of the kingdom. But the ex- 
 tensive, the outward expansion of the kingdom among 
 men, should be a logical concomitant of this first law. 
 
 The Application of Intensive Methods in the 
 
 Kingdom 
 It is essential that the foreign missionary centralize his 
 efforts until a spiritual body has been created from among 
 
 313 
 
314 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the people who have come to him for instruction. He 
 will thus be able to work through these spiritual men and 
 women and multiply his influence many fold. The 
 foreign missionary must use good judgment in the selec- 
 tion of a strategic city or town as the centre from which 
 to exert his influence. It is essential that he give more 
 attention to the intensive phase of his work than to the 
 extensive. There have been missionaries who were 
 noted for their deep religious life, but who failed to reap 
 the fruit of their consecrated labours, simply because they 
 neglected to apply this fundamental law of the kingdom 
 in their missionary labours. That great saint and inde- 
 fatigable missionary, John Burns, travelled continually 
 from port to port along the entire coast of China. He 
 was literally consumed in the great work of the kingdom, 
 yet he did not gather the fruits of his labours. Though 
 no one would venture to say that his work was in vain, 
 yet there was not that visible result which such a devoted 
 labourer might easily have attained. He had a prema- 
 ture vision of the results of the extensive method and a 
 great desire to see the gospel spread into China from 
 many points, while his day of missionary labours called 
 for methods none the less heroic : settling down in one 
 strategic centre and living there year in and year out 
 until a strong body of Christians should be gathered 
 through which to work upon a larger territory. Mission- 
 aries have been known to spend their first years travel- 
 ling continually from place to place, rarely, if ever, stay- 
 ing at a single centre more than a day or two. These 
 men have finally come to the conclusion that the daily 
 example of a Christian life, illustrating the truths they 
 were preaching, was in the end more effective than many 
 transient visits of a few hours at a given place. The 
 
"HEADS AXD TAILS" 
 A Street scene in Shanghai. A festal occasion 
 
Methods of the Kingdom 315 
 
 planting of the Church of God does not consist in the 
 proclamation of the gospel apart from the new life which 
 that gospel teaches. The witness of a Christian life 
 among a non-Christian people is as important as the 
 proclamation of the truth itself. The constant itineracy 
 of the foreign missionary implies superficiality in method. 
 In order to teach " all things " there must be a permanent 
 residence of the missionary at a central location. 
 
 Intensive Methods as to Chinese Converts 
 In planting the local church in any town of village in 
 China the intensive method is the only safe one that will 
 insure a healthy growth. The rite of baptism should be 
 withheld until sufficient evidence has been estabHshed 
 that the converts are regenerated men and women and 
 that they have broken away from idolatry. The plan of 
 the missionary should be to use the church as a spiritual 
 dynamo to accomplish an extensive work rather than to 
 view it as a hospital wherein all sorts of disabled and 
 deathly sick patients are nursed back to spiritual health. 
 The writer is convinced that the success of mission work 
 in China is due to the direct working of the Holy Spirit 
 rather than to the methods employed by the foreign mis- 
 .sionary. The Holy Spirit is concerned with the indi- 
 viduality of the believer. If it is true that the spiritual 
 church is the creation of our Lord Jesus Christ, it neces- 
 sarily follows that he has supplied her with the proper 
 spiritual equipment to exist and to thrive independently 
 of all outside influences and helps. We read in the fourth 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, in the eighth 
 verse, that when Christ ascended on high " He led cap- 
 tivity captive and gave gifts to men." It has been the con- 
 viction of the writer for some time that the right solution 
 
316 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 of the problems connected with foreign mission work 
 cannot be found unless the subject of spiritual gifts and 
 their presence among the native Christians is given 
 proper attention. The questions of native ministry, self- 
 support, the rights of the local church, and so forth, are 
 often discussed as a matter between the mission boards, 
 the missionary and the native churches ; that is, the 
 whole subject is considered from the human point of view 
 only, thus overlooking the divine preparation laid down 
 in the word of God to meet these as well as other prob- 
 lems on the foreign field. The writer ventures at the 
 risk of weariness to the reader to enter upon the subject 
 of spiritual gifts among the Chinese Christians in the 
 light of spiritual gifts bestowed upon Christians of the 
 apostolic period. 
 
 Spiritual Gifts Defined 
 
 It will first be necessary to define spiritual gifts. The 
 writer has no sympathy with Irvingism or with German 
 naturalism. To arrive at a proper understanding of 
 spiritual gifts only the word of God can be our guide. In 
 the study of this subject it will be necessary to compare 
 spiritual things with spiritual. 
 
 For centuries spiritual gifts were considered as special 
 privileges of the apostolic church. They were thought 
 to consist in the ability to accomplish miracles. They 
 began, it was said, with the " gift of tongues " on the Day 
 of Pentecost, and the Roman Catholic theologians main- 
 tain that they have their continuation to this day in the 
 miraculous deeds of the holy saints of the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church. 
 
 This is also the view practically maintained by Edward 
 Irving, the famous Scotch preacher in London two or 
 
Methods of the Kingdom 317 
 
 three generations ago. He claimed that the apostolic 
 " gifts," the gift of tongues and other miraculous powers, 
 had been given to him and his followers. To what a sad 
 caricature of our holy faith that movement led is a mat- 
 ter of history. 
 
 It is perhaps the prevalent conception among Protes- 
 tant theologians of to-day that the gifts recorded in the 
 New Testament were miraculous, bestowed upon believ- 
 ers during the first three Christian centuries, but after 
 this period ceasing to exist within the Church. How- 
 ever, a closer study of the word of God will indicate that 
 the spiritual gifts of the New Testament have to do with 
 something deeper, broader and more permanent than the 
 mere power to accomplish miracles. We do not deny 
 that the latter may be, and at times are, included in 
 spiritual gifts, but this does not exhaust the subject, by 
 any means. 
 
 The word " gifts " (Xrjptfffiara) has a peculiar New 
 Testament meaning. This word is found in i Tim. 4:14 
 and 2 Tim. i : 6 to refer to certain gifts of grace which 
 the Christian has within him. The same word is used in 
 I Corinthians I : 6, 7 to denote a condition of victorious 
 spiritual growth among the Christians at Corinth. " So 
 that ye come behind in no gift." Then again, the word 
 as used in Romans 12 : 6-8 ; i Cor. 12 and 14 and in Peter 
 4: 10 teaches distinctly that the disciple is endued with 
 certain abilities by reason of the gift, by which he may 
 in a direct way serve the Church of God, the body of 
 Christ, just as a member of the human body, the hand or 
 foot, for instance, may serve the body. There is ample 
 proof from the above passages of Scripture that " spirit- 
 ual gifts " is not a subject that need necessarily be identi- 
 fied with the continuation of miracles. It has in a much 
 
31 8 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 larger sense to do with the spiritual equipment of each 
 member of the church, to serve the body and the King- 
 dom in a smaller or greater sphere. According to the 
 scripture just quoted such an equipment belongs to every 
 member of the body of Christ by reason of his regenera- 
 tion. Each member of that body has his specific func- 
 tion. There have been some scholars who maintain that 
 these spiritual gifts are only the expression of certain 
 natural abilities which each believer brings with him at 
 the time of conversion. These natural abilities or tal- 
 ents, they hold, become spiritual gifts as soon as they are 
 used in the service of the kingdom of God. This view, 
 however, is not the biblical one. When Christ ascended 
 upon high He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. 
 That these gifts were not given to men while in an unre- 
 generated state of heart is evident from the eleventh and 
 twelfth verses of the same chapter : " And He gave some 
 apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and 
 some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, 
 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
 body of Christ." The gifts that Christ gave are distinctly 
 spiritual and as such are given to men only after they 
 become spiritual. 
 
 It is not to be denied, however, that there is a blend- 
 ing of the supernatural with the human individuality. It 
 is quite true that the Spirit of God will often take the 
 natural ability of a new convert, and rectify, quicken and 
 consecrate it in the service of the Kingdom, but that is 
 only a small fraction of the whole truth in this important 
 subject. It is evident that this power necessary for the 
 hfe of the Church, a supernatural and spiritual organism, 
 cannot have its source in human or natural effort. It 
 must have a supernatural origin. The definition of the 
 
Methods of the Kingdom 319 
 
 New Testament - spiritual gifts " is powers and abilities 
 wrought in members of the church of Jesus Christ by the 
 Holy Spirit. On the one hand, these powers and abili- 
 ties are often imparted to the believer after his regen- 
 eration, and on the other they may have been natural 
 abilities wrought over, rectified and consecrated by the 
 Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts are bestowed for the express 
 service of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 Spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament can 
 be divided into two classes. There seem to be some 
 gifts bestowed in the Apostolic Age that evidently were 
 meant to be temporary only. The gift of apostleship, 
 its office and its powers, was a temporary gift to the 
 Church. The gift of tongues, and its concomitant, the 
 interpretation of tongues, the power to work miracles, 
 certain gifts of healing, and others, were undoubtedly 
 gifts of a temporary nature. They ceased when the 
 body of Christ could prosper without them. 
 
 There are other gifts, however, that have been per- 
 manent with the Church throughout all the centuries. 
 Prophets, evangeHsts, pastors, teachers, men and women 
 of faith to do a great work, are all gifts of Christ to the 
 Church. These and others have ever remained her in- 
 heritance. Furthermore, it would seem that there has 
 been a gradual addition to these gifts to the Church as 
 time passed on. The deaconship, its office and power to 
 fulfill the duties, is a gift. The four daughters of Philip, 
 the evangelist, were endowed with spiritual gifts. One 
 could continue to show, if it were necessary, that the 
 bestowment of spiritual gifts by Christ did not cease with 
 the Apostolic Age, but are in a large measure constant 
 and permanent. It may be added that these gifts have 
 
320 The Conquest of the Cross an China 
 
 changed to meet the spiritual needs of the Church at 
 various times and in different countries. 
 
 Spiritual Gifts Among Chinese Christians 
 According to the above definition of spiritual gifts it 
 is evident that there are such among Chinese Christians 
 at the present time. To deny this were to admit that 
 the missionary efforts of the past century have been a 
 failure and that God had not called a spiritual organism 
 into being from among the Chinese people. The failure 
 of a congregation of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ 
 to supply the spiritual needs of one another and the 
 spiritual needs of the body as a whole would indicate that 
 they were not fulfilHng the requirements of a New Testa- 
 ment church. The latest physiology teaches that the 
 human body has no superfluous members, and so it may 
 be said that no person called in Christ Jesus and thus 
 becoming a member of His spiritual body, is without 
 some spiritual endowment — " a gift " — by the exercise of 
 which he is to add to the benefit and upbuilding of the 
 whole body. As the failure of a member of the physical 
 body to fulfill its function may ultimately result in dis- 
 ordering the whole, so is the case with the spiritual body 
 of Christ: if the members exercise their spiritual gifts, 
 then the whole Christian Church will be in a robust and 
 healthy condition. 
 
 To what extent are these gifts exercised among the 
 Chinese Christians ? There is no doubt that the average 
 missionary in China is able to see the results of the work 
 of the Holy Spirit through the native Christians in a 
 more direct manner than in the average believer in the 
 home land. The most prevalent " gift " bestowed upon 
 the young church in China is that of the evangelist, the 
 
Methods of the Kingdom 321 
 
 man able to preach the truths of the gospel of Christ. 
 Missionaries have all been astonished at the boldness of 
 utterance and the liberty in proclaiming the gospel, pre- 
 vailing among Chinese converts. It is done often in a 
 way that the missionary would not do it, but the zeal of 
 these men and women command attention. In and 
 about their homes, on the roads of travel, in the shops, 
 at the markets, on the boats, the gospel is preached with- 
 out money and without price. This gift, it would seem, 
 is logically the most urgent one of all at the present 
 time : hence it has been bestowed upon so many of the 
 Chinese Christians. It is due to the use of this gift by 
 the Christians on the author's field preaching the Word 
 wherever they went, that the growth of the network of 
 outstations on that field must be attributed. It would 
 have been utterly impossible for the missionary to ac- 
 complish anything like these results through any plan 
 of his though backed up with many thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
 Another important gift bestowed upon the Chinese 
 Christians is that of a great childlike faith, which at 
 times induces on the part of the missionary a self-exami- 
 nation and a longing for something like it. With them 
 God is a God who is willing to answer prayers concern- 
 ing the smallest details of their private lives. The organ- 
 ization of the Kityang Missionary Society, under the 
 entire control of the Chinese themselves, and the fact 
 that they have been able to carry on the work through- 
 out the entire field during the furlough of the missionary, 
 are substantial evidences that they have the gift of ad- 
 ministration. The native church in all parts of China 
 has already produced a host of able evangelists, pastors 
 and teachers. The writer believes that most of the 
 
322 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 spiritual gifts which were designated as permanent have 
 already appeared among the Chinese Christians. 
 
 With regard to such spiritual gifts as are designated as 
 temporary it is more difficult to say to any degree of 
 certainty, whether there are such among the young 
 churches. The faith of the Chinese in the gift of miracu- 
 lous powers, as casting out of evil spirits and the healing 
 of the sick by prayer, is so sublime, that it seems quite 
 wrong to doubt ; nevertheless it is the duty of the mis- 
 sionary to be very circumspect in such matters. Should 
 there be such spiritual gifts really present among some 
 of the churches it is evident from history that they will 
 be but temporary and that other gifts, perhaps attracting 
 less attention on the part of the pagans, but more sub- 
 stantial towards the building up of the Church, will take 
 their places. 
 
 A subject which at the present time is demanding the 
 attention of our missionary societies and which will do so 
 increasingly as the years pass on, is that of self-support 
 among the native churches. The writer does not think 
 that the Chinese are behind any of the Asiatic people in 
 their effort to support their own work. But the question 
 of getting the people to raise money for their own local 
 church is not the important point at all. It is possible 
 under the present political conditions in China to have a 
 small congregation pay a good salary for a pastor and a 
 school-teacher and raise money enough and more to meet 
 all other local expenses, while at the same time all the 
 members and adherents of that church may be lacking in 
 true spiritual life, — worse, they may even despise it. 
 They may have united with the Christian congregation 
 with the same motive that a person has when he has his 
 house insured against fire. In such a case a missionary 
 
Methods of the Kingdom 323 
 
 could report a self-supporting church or congregation, 
 but that is about all that could be said of it favourably. 
 Far better were it if it could be said that though the Httle 
 church did not raise more than one dollar, it was never- 
 theless a self-sustaining, that is, a self- feeding church. It 
 is a mistake to urge a paid ministry too strenuously upon 
 the little churches. It is desired, of course, to see the ht- 
 tle churches grow in numbers and become independent 
 of foreign mission money. How can this be attained 
 while yet avoiding the dangers connected with the prob- 
 lem? The Apostolic churches were not in any great 
 need of money to carry on the spiritual work in their lo- 
 calities ; in fact it appears that money was a matter of no 
 importance to them. They were more concerned with 
 the far more profitable question of spiritual gifts and how 
 to serve the church in a proper way. Again, the writer 
 repeats that a congregation of believers constitutes a 
 spiritual organism and that as such Christ has given the 
 members of the organism spiritual gifts for the self-sus- 
 tenance of the whole body. These gifts may not at first 
 be of a high character in their outward expression ; in- 
 deed to the spiritually developed missionary they may ap- 
 pear unimportant, but such as they are they will be help- 
 ful towards the upbuilding of the faith and spiritual Hfe of 
 the other members. Perhaps one may have the gift of 
 singing; he will be sought after constantly ; it is for him 
 to render that service. Another may be able to read the 
 Bible understandingly ; let him be a constant comforter to 
 the whole Christian band. Another or several others 
 may have the gift of exhortation, to serve the church ; 
 other gifts along such lines as these mentioned will make 
 a congregation quite independent of paid preacher or 
 pastor if such persons cannot be had. Such a humble 
 
324 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 service by the Christians will strengthen the spiritual side 
 of the church as nothing else can. 
 
 In carrying out this policy we must of course be certain 
 that in the congregation left without an evangelist or pas- 
 tor there are at least a number of regenerated men pres- 
 ent ; otherwise it will be impossible to obtain any good 
 results. The mission must be on a scriptural basis before 
 scriptural methods can be adopted. 
 
 These principles should be carried out not with the idea 
 that there is anything special given to the Christians but 
 simply that they are fulfilling their duties ; for it is noth- 
 ing more or less than that. Many congregations have an 
 enjoyable time when the regular preacher is absent, for 
 then some of the members have their turn at preaching, 
 a service which seems to do them a great deal of good. 
 Thus by recognizing the spiritual gifts of the Chinese 
 Christians and urging the use of them, the planting and 
 training of the local churches are problems which are 
 being easily solved. This method, to be sure, does not 
 help to develop a system of perpetual foreign missionary 
 supervision, but in this period of transition in China it 
 may prove to be all the more valuable. 
 
 Spiritual Gifts in Relation to Extensive Methods 
 IN the Kingdom 
 The extension of the kingdom of God cannot be 
 neglected. It would be a sad mistake if the local 
 churches were to become contented with their own local 
 church life and neglect to carry the gospel to others. It 
 has often been the author's experience that the man who 
 took the initiative in establishing a place of prayer be- 
 came a lay preacher and later entered the theological semi- 
 nary for trai ni ng. So, too, the places of prayer, at one time 
 
Methods of the Kingdom 325 
 
 only a rendezvous for a few isolated Christians among thou- 
 sands of heathen, have developed into missions and then 
 into self-sustaining and self-supporting churches. This 
 could hardly have been accomplished unless the Chinese 
 Christians had made use of their spiritual gifts. There 
 has never been any hesitation on the part of the missionary 
 as to the ability of the Chinese to carry on the work of 
 their own missionary organization. Their missionary 
 meetings are always full of interest and their methods of 
 solving the problems connected with their work show 
 plainly that they understand the dignity and importance 
 of their work. They are furthermore realizing as never 
 before the great financial cost of missionary work as they 
 find themselves investing their thousands of dollars in 
 their own mission field. The daughter who has become a 
 mother herself, realizes as never before the anxiety and care 
 of her own mother in past years. There have never been 
 so many prayers of thanksgiving offered for the work of 
 the American Baptist Missionary Union in South China 
 as during the comparatively brief existence of the native 
 missionary society. 
 
 The fact that the Chinese Christians are able to take 
 up a large share of the responsibility for their own work 
 will help much to lower the expense of mission work in 
 China. Perpetual foreign control over the older Chinese 
 churches is unnecessary. If the native church is the or- 
 ganization through which to accomplish the evangeliza- 
 tion of China then missionaries ought to get the Chinese 
 Christians to understand their relation to the great prob- 
 lem. If God has created a hunger and thirst for the 
 gospel message all over China He surely has made it 
 possible to satisfy this hunger and thirst. The native 
 church should understand the issue. She should know her 
 
326 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 prerogatives and her sublime duty. She should know her 
 strength in Christ and remember the promises of God 
 that in using the name of Christ in this great evangelistic 
 campaign, demons shall be subjected unto her. She shall 
 overcome her enemies. She shall go forth conquering 
 and to conquer. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE CHINESE CHURCH AND THE FOREIGN 
 MISSIONARY 
 
 The kindly interest which Chinese Christians take in 
 the welfare of the foreign missionary has become pro- 
 verbial. The missionary as he grows older and becomes 
 able to understand the Chinese better marvels at the 
 patience which they have exercised with him as he tried 
 to speak their language and learn their customs. The 
 Christians rejoice with the missionary as he gradually 
 masters the language and is able to preach to them. But 
 as he attains a better knowledge of the people he will 
 become conscious of the discouraging fact that he is not 
 able to enter into the social, moral and spiritual life of 
 these converts to the degree that he would like. The 
 racial distinctions are so vast, the civilization and make-up 
 of both the missionary and the Chinese are so different, 
 as to present great difficulties which both recognize and 
 which have been accepted by both parties as permanent. 
 Happily there are no misgivings that this is so. 
 
 This happy relation between the foreign missionary 
 and the Chinese Christians has lately been threatened in 
 a few sections of China, especially since the close of the 
 Japanese and Russian War. A movement is now on 
 foot among certain native leaders to carry on their local 
 church work independent of any control by the foreigner. 
 This is a natural sequence of the reassertion of the yellow 
 race in the Far East and a concomitant of the boycott 
 of American goods. The Chinese church, too, has made 
 
 327 
 
328 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 great strides in self-support during the past years, and it 
 is an axiom in Chinese hfe that he who pays shall also 
 govern. 
 
 A sane view of the situation ought to bring joy to 
 every missionary rather than forebodings of fear for the 
 future welfare of Christian missions in China. The func- 
 tions of the foreign missionary and those of the local 
 churches are entirely different, and with a strict applica- 
 tion of each to its own sphere of work, it ought to be 
 possible to find room for the activities of both. 
 
 The Functions of the Foreign Missionary 
 The missionary is sent to the foreign field to do a dis- 
 tinct work. He is called to preach the gospel to the 
 heathen. Having gathered a number of converts he is to 
 organize them into a local church and teach them how to 
 become self-sustaining and self-supporting. When the 
 native church has attained the period of self-sustenance 
 and self-support the relation of the missionary to that 
 church changes and the recognition of these changes is 
 as imperative as is the changed relation of a newly mar- 
 ried son or daughter to the parents. A local self-support- 
 ing church is a force in the social fabric and life of the 
 Chinese such as foreign missionaries can never hope to 
 be. But this influence will be diminished just so much 
 as the missionary keeps thrusting himself and his plans of 
 work upon such local churches. The fact that a church is 
 clamorous for freedom of foreign control is a healthy 
 sign, and if a good sound training has preceded this 
 crisis the problem of setting up the native church ought 
 to be a happy event. If not, the missionary who has had 
 the church under his care and training during the past 
 has no one to blame but himself. 
 
Chinese Church and the Foreign Missionary 329 
 
 Practical experiences on the foreign field show that 
 there are various methods employed by the missionaries 
 in their personal relation to the native Christians. From 
 the earliest stages there are many difficulties to a mutual 
 understanding in the way of both. The European and 
 Asiatic have always misunderstood each other. Tongue 
 and civilization have stood in the way. The race pride 
 of the average European in the Far East and the sturdy 
 independence of the Chinese race are disturbing factors. 
 These trying conditions of the East have compelled mis- 
 sionaries to adopt various ways in their personal relation 
 with the Chinese. They can readily be classified into 
 two schools. The one is largely influenced by the Euro- 
 pean official and merchant class in the ports. They keep 
 up their social relations with the Europeans in the port 
 and do not allow the Chinese to absorb their entire at- 
 tention. The other school has tried in every way possi- 
 ble to become like the Chinese themselves. They have 
 adopted the clothing and food of the natives ; they live 
 in Chinese houses and are seemingly constantly giving 
 their attention and strength to the Chinese. Further in- 
 vestigation, however, shows that this division is largely 
 due to the environment of the missionary. Men and 
 women living in the treaty ports are naturally compelled 
 to give attention to the social side of life more than mis- 
 sionaries who live in the interior and perhaps some dis- 
 tance away from Europeans. Many missionaries who 
 ventured several thousand miles into the interior of 
 China believed that the adoption of the native dress 
 and food would cause less curiosity and perhaps give 
 them a better opportunity to carry on their mission 
 among the people. The methods of these missionaries 
 demand universal respect, even though one may still 
 
330 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 maintain that the chasm between the European and 
 Asiatic is not a question of adaptation of dress and food as 
 much as in the inner characteristics. A European re- 
 mains a European and an Asiatic will always remain an 
 Asiatic in spite of clothing or food. It is possible to 
 unite them in love and to a certain extent in a bond of 
 union, but this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Instances 
 in West China have been known where the people pointed 
 to the missionary dressed in his own European garb as 
 the " true foreigner," while his companion dressed in 
 Chinese style was dubbed the <' false foreigner." But all 
 these things are non-essentials in comparison with the per- 
 sonal touch of the missionary with the Chinese. If the 
 home of the missionary is closed against the people, and 
 if the missionary unfortunately cannot induce his stom- 
 ach to accept Chinese food at specific functions, he fails 
 to make use of a strong element that will help to make a 
 place for him in the lives of the natives. This place may 
 not be as important as the missionary would like, but the 
 latent " race antagonism " will in a measure be obliterated. 
 The Chinese Christians will understand the missionary 
 and be better able to explain the man and his mission to 
 their fellow men, who may not be in sympathy with the 
 foreigner. 
 
 The Missionary and the Chinese Local Church 
 In the earliest stages of missionary work in China it is 
 but natural that the views and decisions of the foreign 
 missionary should be of supreme authority. This is ab- 
 solutely necessary in order to create a Christian congre- 
 gation, but it would be a mistake for the missionary to 
 let this authority become evident to every one. As the 
 little church of Jesus Christ is formed, even though it 
 
Chinese Church and the Foreign Missionary 331 
 
 may not be able to care for itself independently of the 
 foreign missionary, it is a wise plan for him to take the 
 young Christians into consultation and to cooperate with 
 them. The Christians will not be able to understand the 
 true significance of it at first, but after a few years these 
 same people will be the strongest forces connected with 
 the mission. There will rarely develop a desire among 
 Christians thus trained, to break away abruptly from for- 
 eign influence. It is a wise policy to have a strict di- 
 vision of responsibility between the foreign missionary 
 and the church as soon as possible. The local churches 
 should have complete control over their own affairs. 
 This would naturally include the control of money raised 
 among themselves, call of a preacher, the responsibility 
 of erecting chapels, receiving candidates for baptism, 
 church discipline, and so forth. The functions of the for- 
 eign missionary are too great to permit him to be Hmited 
 to the responsibilities of such local matters. He should 
 be the general who is always looking beyond the things 
 that others can do. The problems of sowing the seed in 
 new regions, the planting and the training of the church, 
 is his work. The administration of the Chinese churches 
 can never become the permanent duty of the missionary. 
 He may come to their aid temporarily if asked to do so, 
 but his influence, if continually present, will necessarily be 
 a stumbling-block to many in time, and defeat the very 
 end in view. It is a fact worthy of note that mission- 
 aries who give the Chinese a wide scope for the exercise 
 and development of their spiritual gifts will in the end 
 have a larger share of sympathy and influence in the 
 plans and life of the local churches. They will constantly 
 come to the missionary as a friend whom they can trust 
 as no one else. 
 
332 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Lessons Learned 
 The author upon his arrival in his field very soon 
 noticed that the Chinese had to a very remarkable de- 
 gree, the gift of concentrating their energies upon the 
 things in which they were interested. In business, in 
 their idolatrous festivities, or in building a temple, the 
 people would be found untiring in the carrying out of 
 their plans. It was a reHef to know this and in the 
 earliest months, when still studying the language, he de- 
 cided that the Christian people were capable of carrying 
 the responsibility for the maintenance of their own 
 church. It would be only just to the Chinese themselves 
 to assume that they were manly and strong enough to 
 carry on their own work. The little congregation at Kit- 
 yang had just come out of deep waters of schism. The 
 people were poor, but there was excellent material among 
 them. Two business men of the city, men of soHd worth, 
 were elected by the congregation as deacons to serve for 
 one year. At that time the people in the city were 
 eager to hear the gospel, which gave the missionary the 
 opportunity to appeal to the Christians to help raise suf- 
 ficient money to open a mission near the south gate in- 
 side the city wall. This place proved such a success that 
 money was easily raised to open a second mission in the 
 city. The reports of the two deacons on the progress 
 made each week, were always of intense interest to the 
 people. The native pastor as well as the missionary was 
 present at the nightly mission meetings. This exhibition 
 of native ability was an object lesson for every outstation 
 organized during the following years. It was taken for 
 granted that the Chinese Christians, coming out of super- 
 stition and ignorance of heathenism themselves, could 
 sympathize with their own fellow men and guide them into 
 
Chinese Church and the Foreign Missionary 333 
 
 the gospel light better than the foreign missionary could. 
 The function of the missionary, then, was to get the 
 Chinese to work and to urge them to establish missions 
 among their own people. This was the slogan that was 
 sounded all over the field from that time forward. Chris- 
 tians living in isolated villages were taught to unite for a 
 regular meeting once or several times a week. To-day 
 many of these small places of prayer have developed into 
 self-supporting churches. 
 
 The Functions of the Local Church 
 The native church is a living organism created by the 
 Holy Spirit. This divine organization, the body of 
 Christ in China is to accomplish through its members acts 
 of mercy similar to those the incarnate Christ accom- 
 plished when Hving among the inhabitants of Galilee 
 nearly nineteen centuries ago. The mission of the native 
 church in China is the same as Christ proclaimed to His 
 townsmen of Nazareth, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel 
 to the poor ; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, 
 to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of 
 sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised ; 
 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 
 4:18.) This proclamation included every variety of 
 spiritual work and it is all to be accomplished by the 
 body representing Christ in China. 
 
 The church must be guided by the missionary to study 
 the word of God and to be taught that the methods 
 Christ used in evangelizing the cities and towns of 
 Galilee are to be its methods of evangelization in the 
 cities and towns of China. It should be taught in the 
 first place that He Himself went about in all the cities and 
 
334 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 villages teaching in the synagogues and preaching the 
 gospel of the Kingdom, healing every sickness and every 
 disease among the people. *' The time is fulfilled and the 
 Kingdom is at hand, repent and beheve the good news." 
 What is this good news which the native church is to 
 tell ? It is not a political revolution nor is it the down- 
 fall of the Confucian system of learning. It is Christ, the 
 message from heaven that tells us of God's love — to know 
 Him and live. It is the work of the native church to 
 deliver this wonderful message to the harassed and 
 scattered souls of China. Her experience in this day is 
 something like that of the seventy disciples when they 
 used the name of their Lord. What a revelation to them 
 was the power in the use of that holy name ? " Even the 
 devils were subject unto us through Thy name." They 
 evangelized in the name of Christ. They received His 
 personal command to preach the glad tidings of the 
 Kingdom and to heal the poor and distressed. They 
 went forth in faith and were instantly a blessing to every 
 city and town they entered. And this same method will 
 yet gain the great victory in China. But the church 
 cannot attain this goal if she is kept in leading strings by 
 the foreign missionary. She must outgrow her appren- 
 ticeship and become mistress of her own destiny. The 
 foreign missionary as her best friend must help her to 
 attain this ability as soon as possible. It is imperative 
 that Chinese churches themselves recognize their respon- 
 sibility for the evangelization of their countrymen. Some 
 things, however, are essential and must be attained before 
 the church can assume the responsibility of evangelizing 
 China. The church must consist of regenerated men and 
 women. They must know the power of the Holy Spirit 
 in their lives. Granting a living church in Christ the 
 
Chinese Church and the Foreign Missionary 335 
 
 evangelization of China in this generation is not an im- 
 possible event. There was never a young native church 
 intrusted with so great a mission as is intrusted to the 
 Chinese church of to-day. But it is safe to add, that 
 rarely in all the history of Christian missions was there 
 a young native church better equipped to take upon itself 
 the responsibilities of such a vast enterprise. Whatever 
 may be said about the materialistic nature of the Chinese 
 as a nation, it still remains true that they are on the 
 whole excellent material for church-planting and church- 
 training. Then again, we are too often liable to forget that 
 there is a divine side to the great problem of China's 
 evangelization. If it is true that the missionary yearns 
 over the little groups of believers until Christ be formed 
 in them, how great then must be the heart-throbs of love 
 of Him, who bought their souls with His own blood. 
 Nor has God placed the native church upon her own 
 natural resources in this great work of evangelization. 
 When God places the responsibility upon the native 
 church to evangelize China, He at the same time, as was 
 pointed out in the preceding chapters, endows her with 
 spiritual gifts to accomplish the task. Thus for instance 
 the ability to preach the fundamental truths of the gospel 
 of Christ is a gift. There is a very large number of con- 
 verts who are constantly preaching Christ to their friends 
 and neighbours. It is only logical to maintain that the 
 great duty of the native Christians is to witness of Christ's 
 death and resurrection, and that the Holy Spirit has em- 
 powered them with this gift of evangelization. This is 
 the divine method for accomplishing the evangelization 
 of China. The foreign missionary must train the native 
 Christians in the fulfillment of this divine plan. Churches 
 trained with this truth constantly in view will never lack 
 
336 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 efficient leaders to carry on their local work. When this 
 becomes true the work of the foreign missionary is com- 
 pleted. He may safely turn his attention to a new field 
 and if possible get these self-sustaining churches interested 
 in the new missionary endeavour also. 
 
 Development of the Missionary Spirit in the 
 Chinese Churches 
 
 The missionary zeal of the foreign teacher ought to be 
 transmitted to the local churches. But in order to ac- 
 complish this wise methods of church-training must be 
 adopted from the earliest stages. Much good work of the 
 average missionary is partly lost as far as instructing the 
 native church to follow the example is concerned, because 
 the latter is not taken into confidence in the missionary's 
 plans of evangelistic endeavour. There ought to be a 
 hearty cooperation between the missionary and the na- 
 tive churches. It is true that the foreign missionary is in 
 no way subject to the native church, but there is a higher 
 law of love which would suggest that we take the 
 native church into confidence in plans for natives. The 
 activities of the missionary among the Chinese people 
 in a new district mean more to the native churches than 
 they can mean to the missionary. Unless he adopt plans 
 of letting the churches know what he is doing for them, 
 the Christians cannot be very much interested in his 
 methods and work of itinerating. The churches and out- 
 stations must have an intelligent grasp of the aim and 
 purpose of the missionary's efforts if they are to pray 
 effectively for the coming of the kingdom of God in their 
 midst. It is therefore a mistake, as far as the development 
 of the missionary spirit is concerned, for the missionary 
 to visit his outstation week after week without notifying 
 
Chinese Church and the Foreign Missionary 337 
 
 them of his plans. It also tends to isolate the foreigner 
 all the more from the life of the native church. A plan 
 has been carried out for a number of years on one field 
 whereby all the local churches and outstations know 
 what the missionary intends doing for them weeks in ad- 
 vance. A schedule has always been issued in advance 
 every three or four months and sent to all the outstations, 
 informing all the Christians of the work contemplated 
 among then for the coming season, and requesting them 
 to pray for it. The missionary experiences a beneficial 
 moral support and attributes the success of his mission- 
 ary efforts more to these united prayers of the native 
 churches than to any other factor. Moreover, the reflex 
 influence upon the people themselves in the development 
 of the missionary spirit has been quite remarkable. They 
 place the schedule of the missionary's plan of work in a 
 prominent place in the chapel and every Sunday morn- 
 ing many prayers were offered in his behalf, as well as for 
 the outstations where he is to preach on that day. 
 Reports of progress are sent to the churches from time to 
 time and they are received with great interest, for the 
 Christians had been praying for this work and have had thus 
 a distinct share in it. As these churches grow stronger 
 and are able to take upon themselves the responsibility 
 of their own work they find that they have a broad 
 missionary spirit which includes clans and tribes, cities 
 and towns, many miles distant from their own locality. 
 
 The Chinese Local Church and the Anti- 
 Foreign Spirit 
 The foreign missionaries by reason of superior educa- 
 tion, experience and force of character and position as 
 teachers are often tempted to become dictators over the 
 
338 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Chinese churches. During the past years the poHtical 
 importance of the foreigner in the affairs of China has 
 caused many of the Chinese to look upon the missionary 
 as a man of more poHtical strength than the facts war- 
 ranted. This overstatement was due largely to the con- 
 tinual interference of the French missionaries in Chinese 
 civil lawsuits and the people reasoned that all foreigners 
 possessed a like power and pohtical status. The fact, too, 
 that the missionary received a yearly appropriation from 
 the missionary boards for the support of native co- 
 workers gave him a standing that was artificial and not 
 for the best interests of the work. 
 
 During the past few years there has been a radical 
 change going on in China. The churches have become 
 self-supporting to a very marked degree and are therefore 
 independent of foreign money. The foreigner has lost 
 somewhat his artificial political importance since the 
 Japanese drove the Russians out of northern China. The 
 firm attitude of the Chinese government in limiting the 
 influence of the foreigner has found an echo in the hearts 
 of the people. The various uprisings against missions 
 were due wholly to local causes, but a number of them 
 following so closely upon each other showed plainly that 
 the spirit that caused the Boxer revolt and the boycott of 
 American goods has not yet been stamped out. To 
 those who know the history of the crimes that have been 
 committed by European nations against China during the 
 past decade it is not surprising that this should be the 
 case. It would be assuming too much to suppose that 
 the Chinese church should have escaped being influenced 
 by this national spirit. And yet the extent of this 
 movement within the church can easily be exaggerated. 
 From the very nature of the case there must be a con- 
 
Chinese Church and the Foreign Missionary 339 
 
 slant readaptation of relations between the missionaries 
 and the missions which develop into self-supporting 
 churches. This change is determined not by poHtical 
 conditions, though these may to a certain extent in- 
 fluence them, but by the growth of the churches them- 
 selves. It is safe to assume that very few of the native 
 churches that have been trained to support their own 
 work during the past decade or two and who have sup- 
 ported missionary undertakings among other clans and 
 cities have broken away from their old connections. 
 These churches understand the true motive in the mis- 
 sionary movement. They know that the missionary has 
 not come to them to denationalize them nor to make 
 them any the less patriotic in the upbuilding of a strong 
 nation. They know also that the missionaries have been 
 urging them for many years to take upon themselves the 
 responsibility for their own work. No one can rejoice 
 more than the missionary himself to see the work of 
 many years grow and to see the congregations develop. 
 
 The missionary should never allow himself to be the 
 pastor over a Chinese church. The pastor is a perma- 
 nent office in the church. The office of the foreign mis- 
 sionary is only temporary. He will do a far more im- 
 portant work in training young men to discharge their 
 duties as pastors over the churches. If he is wise he will 
 adopt methods that shall make it evident to the Chinese 
 Christians that to rely upon the missionary is weakness. 
 This calls for self-sacrifice on the part of the missionary, 
 but he cannot afford to ignore this important matter. 
 He must impress it upon the minds of the native Chris- 
 tians that his joy is fulfilled and his work crowned with 
 success when they are able to get along without him. 
 Let him adopt the spirit of John the Baptist " I must de- 
 
340 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 crease " but the body of Christ in China must increase. 
 In a great mission field offering a thousand opportuni- 
 ties in every province of the empire it is a very easy 
 thing to take up new evangelistic work. If the grown- 
 up churches of their own accord could be induced to be- 
 come co-workers with the missionary in the new evangel- 
 istic endeavour a twofold good would be accomplished. 
 If not they ought still be informed about the results of 
 the work and urged to remember the new adherents in 
 their prayers. The missionary is the proper person to 
 lead the native churches in China to become missionary 
 churches. They must be such if they are to be a power 
 in the new China. Not only are they to preach the gos- 
 pel to their own townsmen and kinsmen but they should 
 have an active interest in mission work undertaken many 
 miles away and each congregation ought to give either 
 one of its own men as an evangelist to that work or a 
 substantial contribution to carry the gospel to them, or 
 better still, do both. In caring for their own country- 
 men living miles away they will not be likely to be over- 
 interested in an anti-foreign movement except in so far 
 as it may be necessary to preserve their own local work 
 under their own supervision and to this, each spiritually 
 developed congregation has an inalienable right. There 
 will be little trouble between the Chinese local churches 
 and the foreign missionary if the latter respects the rights 
 of the former. 
 
XIX 
 
 CHINESE LOCAL CHURCHES; SELF-SUPPORTING 
 AND SELF-SUSTAINING 
 
 There is a difference between a self-supporting and a 
 self-sustaining church. A self-supporting church is one 
 which is able to raise all funds sufficient to meet its local 
 financial obligations. Such a church does not need any 
 assistance from outside sources. The test is simply a 
 financial one, not a spiritual. 
 
 A self-sustaining church is one which is able to main- 
 tain its regular services through the leadership of its own 
 members, should there not be a regular preacher stationed 
 over the church. This is due to the fact that the church 
 members make use of their spiritual gifts. Such a church 
 can be absolutely independent of a salaried pastor or 
 preacher if necessary. 
 
 The problems connected with raising money enough 
 to support its work need not trouble a self-sustaining 
 church. Here the test is spiritual and not financial. A 
 self-sustaining church may also be a self-supporting 
 church by supporting a pastor. 
 
 Self-Supporting Churches in China 
 The Christian law, " It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive," holds good on the foreign field as well as at 
 home. The Chinese Christians develop just in propor- 
 tion as they are willing to give. 
 
 During the past decade they have made more progress 
 341 
 
342 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 in the matter of self-support than all the eighty previous 
 years of their history. This progress is illustrated by the 
 following statistics of the author's field, which is a typical 
 one in this respect : 
 
 Year 
 
 Outstations ( 
 
 'Church Members 
 
 Money Contributed 
 
 1895 
 
 5 
 
 150 
 
 t> 125.00 
 
 1898 
 
 10 
 
 290 
 
 950.00 
 
 1901 
 
 19 
 
 504 
 
 2,250.00 
 
 1902 
 
 25 
 
 622 
 
 2,700.00 
 
 1903 
 
 30 
 
 752 
 
 3,800.00 
 
 1904 
 
 34 
 
 862 
 
 4,426.00 
 
 1905 
 
 34 
 
 868 
 
 4,000.00 
 
 Per member, 1895 t> -^o 
 
 1898 3.20 
 
 1901 4.00 
 
 1902 4.50 
 
 1903 5-00 
 
 1904 5.00 
 
 1905 4.60 
 
 These sums include the donations of the adherents as 
 well as those of the regular church members. It is diffi- 
 cult for Christians in our home land to appreciate how 
 much five silver dollars represent in the lives of the 
 Chinese. One could hire, for instance, thousands of arti- 
 sans and workmen in South China at the rate of five 
 dollars Mexican per month. It is no exaggeration to 
 say that five dollars silver represents to the average 
 Chinese Christian as much as fifty dollars gold does to 
 the average American Christian. If American churches 
 received an average annual contribution of fifty dollars 
 per member each year, such liberal giving would be 
 analogous to what the Chinese Christians are doing for 
 themselves towards self-support. There are hardly any 
 serious obstacles in the path of the missionary in South 
 China in guiding the churches towards this goal. The 
 statistics given above are but an illustration of the prog- 
 
Chinese Local Churches 343 
 
 ress that has been made by the Chinese Christians in 
 various parts of the empire. It disproves the statements 
 that have sometimes been made that the Chinese are too 
 poor to establish self-supporting churches. If a com- 
 parison be made between the average American and the 
 average Chinese, it may well be said that the Chinese are 
 extremely poor and if expenses of American churches 
 were to hold for China, then it certainly would be well- 
 nigh impossible to build up self-supporting churches. 
 But the missionary approaches the subject of self-support 
 wholly from the Chinese point of view. All the Chris- 
 tians before their conversion, for instance, are compelled 
 by their neighbours to make large contributions for the 
 maintenance of ancestor worship and Buddhist idolatry. 
 By a decree issued by the Chinese Government, the na- 
 tive Christians are exempt from this expense. This fact 
 gives the missionary a fine opportunity to urge the 
 Christians to bring this former yearly tribute into sub- 
 jection to the cause of Christ. Then also, the salaries of 
 the Chinese preachers and ordained pastors ought not to 
 be so large as to make it impossible for an average-sized 
 church to raise the money. It is impossible to dogma- 
 tize upon such a question, which must be judged accord- 
 ing to local conditions. But on one field, at least, it has 
 been possible to solve the problem in a case where an 
 ordained pastor was receiving a salary of nearly one hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars per annum. This was almost twice 
 as much as that of an ordained evangelist, but the man 
 was worth it. He became the pastor of two churches, 
 which divided the responsibility for his salary equally. 
 He has been pastor of these churches for a number of 
 years and has had his salary increased until it now 
 amounts to almost two hundred dollars. A pastor on 
 
344 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 that field commanding a salary as large as this will be 
 obliged to minister to two churches for some time before 
 any church is able to pay so large a salary, excepting the 
 church at the central station, which is now supporting 
 two preachers and a school-teacher. It has been a settled 
 policy of the missionary never to interfere in the regula- 
 tion of the salaries which the Christians were willing to 
 pay their own preachers. As a rule the Christians are 
 more liberal than are the missionaries. An evangelist 
 who has come from the rice-fields or from the shop will, 
 if he prove himself acceptable to the churches, receive a 
 salary larger than he had before he became a Christian 
 worker. The plan of the missionaries has been to pay 
 about the same sum that the man earned as an artisan. 
 It is important that the salaries be held in check some- 
 what, but this can be done only if the churches have a 
 sufficient number of preachers and teachers from which 
 to select, or if some of the churches can get along with- 
 out a salaried preacher. A church may, in order to keep 
 pace with the progress of other churches, desire to call a 
 preacher and pay his salary. That may be considered 
 good form, but it sometimes happens that in their haste 
 to attain this desired goal, money is accepted that does 
 more mischief than good. It has already been mentioned 
 that owing to the political conditions in China, men hav- 
 ing troubles or lawsuits with their neighbours will seek 
 to attach themselves to Christian missions. A case of 
 this kind happened on the author's field, where a church 
 desiring to become self-supporting enrolled a relative of 
 one of the church members and a number of his friends 
 as adherents. These men were of the weaker element in 
 their village and they hoped that by uniting themselves 
 with the Christian congregation, they might be able to 
 
Chinese Local Churches 345 
 
 rise in power. The new adherents made a liberal con- 
 tribution towards the preacher's salary with the aim of 
 winning the latter's favour. The preacher was aware of 
 the dangers involved and sought the advice of the mis- 
 sionary. The result was that the preacher advised the 
 church to refuse the offering of the new adherents, which 
 was done only after much personal work and moral per- 
 suasion. Soon after this a great struggle arose between 
 the two parties in the village of the new adherents. Both 
 were committing outrages upon each other so that the 
 church saw itself compelled to refuse to allow the ad- 
 herents to come to worship any longer for fear of being 
 connected with the crimes in some way. This the church 
 could consistently do, but had it received the money of 
 these men it would have had a grave problem on its 
 hands. Owing to the lack of sufficient funds to cover 
 the preacher's salary the missionary was asked to con- 
 tinue the appropriation to this church for another year 
 or two. This he did, knowing that the church could 
 uphold higher ideals if she were not pressed to make the 
 raising of the preacher's salary the most important con- 
 sideration. No local church should be allowed to have 
 the impression that if it is able to raise the preacher's 
 salary, it may solve all its problems as it sees fit. The 
 Chinese hold strenuously to the idea that if they are 
 able to pay the preacher's salary, they become self-deter- 
 mining. But experience teaches that care must be exer- 
 cised in this. They must be taught that the ability to 
 raise money, while necessary to a vigorous extension of 
 the Kingdom, does not constitute the most essential 
 element in the make-up of a church. It is here that the 
 necessity of a church's being self-sustaining makes itself 
 felt. 
 
34^ The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 Self-Sustaining Churches in China 
 There are a score of congregations on the Kityang 
 field which can carry on their local worship without the 
 leadership of a preacher, and at times do so. Five mis- 
 sions founded by Rev. Wm. Ashmore, D. D., Kityang, 
 Gueh Sia, Peh Thah, Sua O and Hua Cheng are self- 
 sustaining churches to-day, though because of present 
 phenomenal opportunities, each has engaged a preacher 
 to proclaim the gospel in the surrounding territory. 
 The church of Chimkhe is a typical illustration of a 
 self-sustaining church. This church began as a mission 
 under very doubtful conditions, owing to serious clan 
 troubles. Among the young men, who at first ridiculed 
 the attempt to estabhsh a Christian mission at their place, 
 was Lim Siau Hun, a Confucian scholar, who had just 
 received appointment by his own people to teach a 
 Confucian school of boys at Chimkhe. The preaching 
 of the gospel soon brought Lim Siau Hun to thinking 
 about the momentous questions involved, and he often 
 sought private talks with the preacher stationed there. 
 The two men soon became firm friends, and when after 
 a few months Lim Siau Hun announced that he had 
 decided to become a Christian the gentry opposed him 
 at once. He was visited by Confucian scholars of rank, 
 who had been sent for by his kinsmen to persuade him 
 from the foolish step that would spoil his promising 
 literary career. But even these learned men were un- 
 able to bring about any change in the determination of 
 the young scholar. He began to take active part in the 
 religious services and was soon able to deliver a short 
 sermon. Suitable books for self-development were sup- 
 plied to him and within a year he began to accompany 
 the preacher to the surrounding towns and villages to 
 
Chinese Local Churches 347 
 
 preach the gospel. His example led two or three other 
 young men to do likewise. When the Chiang Mui peo- 
 ple requested that the Word of God be preached in their 
 place, Lim Siau Hun and the preacher went every alter- 
 nate Sunday and conducted services there. After a few 
 years the outstations on the Kityang field increased to 
 such an extent that there was a lack of trained native 
 co-workers, and it was felt that the Chimkhe congrega- 
 tion could get along with its own native ability. The 
 congregation appointed Lim Siau Hun to become the 
 teacher of a boys' school and to preach to them on 
 Sundays. The two men who had been elected deacons 
 were requested to look after the interests in the outlying 
 towns, such as places of prayer, the Chiang Mui mission, 
 and the opportunities then offering in the market-town 
 of Li-O, just across the river. Lim Siau Hun has 
 proved himself such a rare leader that he has been able 
 to maintain this important position ever since. 
 
 The development from Chimkhe, represented on the 
 chart by the letter B, has been largely due to the efforts 
 of this self-sustaining church at Chimkhe. There are 
 other stations where the Christians by the use of their 
 spiritual gifts have been able to develop a work perhaps 
 not as large as that centred about Chimkhe, but 
 sufficient to encourage the Christians to continue along 
 the same lines. 
 
 It has been found advisable to have a trained native co- 
 worker stationed in centres of strategic importance, 
 where there are large business interests and where many 
 people from all directions come together. This does not 
 imply that the church members at such a station do not 
 make use of their gifts, but the opportunities for 
 evangelizing are so great at such centres and there are 
 
348 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 so many cases of Christians needing aid and advice 
 which need careful consideration that no one but an 
 experienced preacher would do. The market-town of 
 Mio (see chart, Centre C) which, besides its own popu- 
 lation of forty thousand people, is surrounded by many 
 hundreds of towns and villages, is an instance. The 
 Christians at this point are able to carry on their own re- 
 ligious services, but no one who is obliged to earn his 
 daily rice at his own business, could attend to the many 
 things that come up at such a centre. Furthermore, it 
 is desirable that such centres remain for the time being 
 in close touch with the missionary. He will frequently 
 stop at them in order to meet Christians and native 
 co-workers from the surrounding churches and out- 
 stations. At specific periods " institutes " for the training 
 of Christians or preachers and deacons may be arranged. 
 The problems and difficulties that continually arise in and 
 about such strategic centres have convinced the missionary 
 that the influence of the central station ought to be main- 
 tained, even though such churches become self-support- 
 ing. In order to accomplish this, the missionary must 
 plan for those things in the earliest stages of the work. 
 It is the safest for him to obtain the major interest 
 in the church property, which should always be of 
 respectable proportions at such centres. This right of 
 property should never be relinquished by him, as the de- 
 velopment of the work in and about such strategic points 
 must be conserved. Had the missionary at Kityang, for 
 instance, not had absolute control over the property of 
 the •' haunted " temple, the purity of the native church 
 in and about Mio would have been seriously endangered. 
 In and about the town the clans and families are fre- 
 quently in a state of warfare. This is nothing extraordi- 
 
Chinese Local Churches 349 
 
 nary in any part of Southern China, but the young mis- 
 sion at Mio was handicapped from the very beginning 
 in having a large element from this class of people. 
 Matters became worse when opposing parties attended 
 the services. The young adherents and Christians were 
 unwise enough to take sides, and to make matters still 
 worse, the evangelist was found guilty of having re- 
 ceived bribes in money from one party to use his influ- 
 ence against their opponents. Speedy discipline followed, 
 as a matter of course, but hardly was this matter settled 
 than it was discovered that the leading Christian, who 
 had stood foremost in the entire development of the work 
 at Mio from the start, had received bribes from the 
 other party. It was far more difficult for the missionary 
 to nuUify this man's influence over the people than in 
 the case of the preacher. Being a native of Mio and 
 having a medicine shop close to the chapel, he had 
 proved himself a true friend to many in dispensing 
 medicines when sick, and had led them to the knowledge 
 of Christian truth. To these new converts, the moral 
 delinquency of their friend in receiving a bribe, recog- 
 nized as perfectly legitimate in all China in greasing the 
 wheels of justice, seemed too insignificant for the drastic 
 measures of the missionary. When it was proposed that 
 the guilty man resign all his official positions (deacon 
 and treasurer) there was a protest on the part of his 
 friends. There was nothing else to do but to tell them 
 that if they found fault with the purity of the church of 
 Christ and its discipline, they would do the church a 
 favour by staying away from the services. Several had 
 to be instructed personally that their presence was no 
 longer desired. The mission at Mio was practically 
 reorganized. The leaven of " graft" was killed in Mio, and 
 
350 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the dangers of the same system were made more unlikely 
 in all the surrounding churches. The firm policy of the 
 missionary could not have been carried out if the church 
 property had not been deeded to the American Baptist 
 Missionary Union. This man is still under discipline, 
 but he has shown the proper spirit of repentance and 
 submission and many hope that he will yet develop into 
 a more useful man for the cause than ever before. 
 
 Some Practical Results of Self-Sustaining Churches 
 Self-sustaining churches emphasize the spiritual devel- 
 opment of all the church members. It places the re- 
 sponsibility of worship upon the congregation more than 
 upon the preacher. There are no churches or missions 
 on the author's field which do not begin the Sunday with 
 a prayer meeting. A large proportion of church mem- 
 bers spend the greater part of Sunday in and about the 
 house of worship. Some of the more advanced Chris- 
 tians teach the new converts to read the word of God ; 
 and the Bible school in the afternoon is attended by 
 nearly all the members. Many of them are kept do- 
 ing something towards the extension of the Kingdom. 
 This helps much in uniting a church into an enthusi- 
 astic body. The spirit of loyalty to the church and the 
 cause is developed to a remarkable degree. This was 
 made evident to all during the Boxer revolt, when the 
 Christians remained faithful in spite of the tremendous 
 pressure that was brought upon them to forsake the 
 new faith and return to the old order of things. The 
 standard of preaching is necessarily raised among our 
 evangelists and preachers among self-sustaining churches. 
 When laymen can preach in a way acceptable to the 
 Christians and to the unconverted, the man who receives 
 
Chinese Local Churches 3^1 
 
 pay from a church must be worthy of his hire. Wolves 
 in sheep's clothing are soon detected and are eliminated 
 by the churches. Only a virile and aggressive native 
 church will be able to overcome the difficulties in the way 
 of a complete triumph. The desired evangelization of 
 the Chinese people will never be accomplished through 
 the large amounts of foreign money sent by churches 
 in Western countries. The longer the native churches 
 depend upon this support, the weaker and more useless 
 they become. A self-sustaining church is absolutely in- 
 dependent from foreign money and it is right that such 
 a church should glory in its independence, especially if 
 this fact helps to further the progress of the gospel. The 
 native church lays hold of a subtle Chinese trait by claim- 
 ing independence and calling attention to the fact that the 
 God Jehovah is the God of the Chinese nation. This 
 policy of development was the one adopted years ago on 
 the Kityang field. When it seemed that the weak, strug- 
 gling missions were hardly able to exist in spite of the 
 help of the foreign missionary, they were told that the 
 work was theirs and that the missionary was simply their 
 helper. They were expected to take possession of the 
 entire district in the name of Christ and to evangelize the 
 towns and villages. The organization of their own mis- 
 sionary society was only a logical outgrowth of this idea 
 of native predominance in the carrying out of Christ's 
 command. There is to-day among the native co-work- 
 ers a spirit of enthusiasm for heroic work in hard fields, 
 which would have been impossible previous to the organi- 
 zation of their missionary society and the choice of Wei- 
 chow as their mission field. Men have faced grave 
 dangers, and in some instances it was simply taking their 
 lives in their hands to venture into certain parts of their 
 
352 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 mission field, yet they did it ; and when they told the 
 story of their work and their trials what else could have 
 been the result among Christians true hearted and loyal, 
 but that they should pour out their funds and send more 
 men. It is now an honour among the best of the preach- 
 ers to be able to say that they have preached the word of 
 God for years in the wicked but needy Weichow. Chi- 
 nese churches, depending upon the American dollar, 
 could never have been able to accomplish these results. 
 There must be a self-sustaining church first. It is not 
 necessary to eliminate foreign aid entirely. Let them re- 
 ceive aid for their own preacher and give a collection, 
 which oftentimes will amount to almost as much as they 
 receive in aid for the support of missionary work. The 
 matter of financial independence is important, but self- 
 sustenance and a deep missionary spirit is of the very first 
 import. The test of a church is after all not how much 
 money it can raise, but how much spiritual power it pos- 
 sesses. The Chinese churches may be well satisfied if 
 they are able to use the words of the Apostle Peter, 
 " Silver and gold have I none, but what I have give I 
 thee. In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk." 
 Here was a spiritual gift of the apostle that did more good 
 than thousands of dollars could do, and so the self-sustain- 
 ing church is set in China to dispense life and salva- 
 tion in the name of Christ Jesus. 
 
XX 
 
 CHINESE PREACHERS, THEIR CALL TO THE MIN- 
 ISTRY AND THEIR TRAINING 
 
 The limitations of the foreign missionary in his per- 
 sonal work among the Chinese are more largely due to 
 racial considerations than to any other factor. A new ad- 
 herent seeking further knowledge respecting Christian 
 teachings will go to the native preacher or to the mis- 
 sionary's servant for information rather than to the mis- 
 sionary himself. He makes it his business at the same 
 time to learn all he can about the habits and disposition 
 of the foreign teacher, in order to get a clearer concep- 
 tion of the new rehgion. There are very few, if any, mis- 
 sionaries in China who have led many Chinese to 
 Christ by personal contact with them. The missionary 
 does not neglect to talk to men about their salvation in 
 private conversation, but a man enlightened, will always 
 prefer to go to a brother Chinese for further light regard- 
 ing the many problems which confront him as he con- 
 siders the question of becoming a Christian. It is dis- 
 tinctly the work of the Chinese co-workers to lead these 
 seekers of truth into a fuller light and it is very proper 
 that this be recognized by all concerned. 
 
 The foreign missionary usually has on his hands a large 
 number of perplexing problems from various parts of the 
 field, which often tax all his strength and time. If added 
 to these cares of church planting and church training 
 there were added also the work of guiding the new ad- 
 
 353 
 
354 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 herents into the first steps of the new faith the number of 
 missionaries would have to be increased in order to carry 
 on the work, even in its present dimensions. 
 
 The Functions of the Chinese Ministry 
 The need of the young Chinese churches is for leaders 
 who, possessing spiritual gifts to guide them, will at the 
 same time be living examples of the gospel they preach. 
 The local churches, as spiritual organisms created by the 
 Holy Spirit, should be able, if necessary, to live and thrive 
 independent of a paid ministry. The individual church 
 members should be trained to exercise their spiritual 
 gifts, so that though they have no preacher they can 
 properly conduct worship. But while this is true, ex- 
 perience teaches that a church which has a trained over- 
 seer or preacher will flourish more than one without such 
 a leader. Missionaries do well to study closely the 
 methods of the great Apostle to the Gentiles. When he 
 revisited the little churches organized in Asia Minor, on 
 his way back to Antioch, he appointed and '• ordained 
 them elders in every church." While it is profitable and 
 even necessary to teach the local churches to stir up the 
 gift that each member possesses, it is wise also to follow 
 the Apostle Paul in appointing men as leaders, who shall 
 give their entire attention to feeding the flock. These 
 men are set to bear the brunt of the battle in China and 
 the Church of God needs to remember these heroic men 
 in her prayers. They stand between the foreign mission- 
 ary and the hundreds of adherents. Receiving on the 
 one hand religious instruction from the missionary, they 
 transmit the same in the oriental form to the Christian 
 and adherent. 
 
 Naturally there are many petty annoyances and 
 
> 
 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 — ( 
 
Chinese Preachers 
 
 355 
 
 troubles arising between the Christian converts and non- 
 Christian people. The Christians come to the native 
 preachers to help them out of their difficulties. If the 
 preachers were to bring all these cases of irritation and 
 troubles to the missionary it would be difficult for him to 
 attend to anything else. The preachers try as well as 
 they can to smooth out the difficulties and make peace 
 between the opposing parties. It is often surprising how 
 well they succeed. In time of persecution and riot it is 
 the Chinese preacher and pastor who frequently suffer 
 the most. When a massacre of missionaries occurs in 
 China the people in the home land hear only of the suffer- 
 ings of the foreigners. It would startle many to know of 
 the sacrifices and trials of these faithful co-workers. The 
 integrity of the Chinese pastors and leaders is one of the 
 underlying causes of the prosperity and steadfastness of 
 the Chinese Church to day. During the Boxer disturb- 
 ances, the writer often went alone into the city of Kit- 
 yang and he would hear hardly a word uttered against 
 him, but if there happened to be a native preacher ac- 
 companying him at the time, this man would be called 
 every wicked name, and threats would be made against 
 him for not forsaking the foreigner. These Chinese pas- 
 tors, preachers, evangelists, teachers and deacons are 
 servants of God, about whom the Church of God 
 throughout the world ought to know. This knowledge 
 is in a measure made possible through such books as 
 *• Pastor Hsi," " Two Heroes of Cathay," and other simi- 
 lar books. 
 
 The Best Men for the Gospel Ministry 
 The conditions now existing in China make it imper- 
 ative that only the very best men attainable should be set 
 
35^ The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 apart for the ministry of the gospel. Aside from the 
 need of such men for the upbuilding of the church itself, 
 there is need of the best talent at this time because of the 
 criticism and hostility directed against foreign institutions 
 by the common people. 
 
 The Chinese are in a receptive mood to-day for those 
 things that appear to them beneficial to their civilization. 
 They are equally hostile and opposed to the introduction 
 of things that seem detrimental to the structure of their 
 social system. It would be useless to hope that the 
 average Chinese mind under the overwhelming influence 
 of a pagan civiHzation would pronounce the proclamation 
 of the gospel and the establishment of the Christian 
 church the thing China most needed. The old antago- 
 nism between superstition and idolatry and the gospel of 
 Christ still exists. But if the Chinese preachers are men 
 of tact and ability much of the severity of the conflict 
 may be prevented. The author has in mind a man of 
 this type. A scholar of the Chinese classics himself, he 
 is able to speak with a deep sympathy to scholars who are 
 troubled because of the conflict between the new and the 
 old. He has kept himself informed of the recent prog- 
 ress of the reform movement and is making the most of 
 the present opportunities. He has been privileged to ex- 
 plain the gospel to a number of magistrates during the 
 past few years. His views regarding the duty of the 
 church to abstain from meddling in lawsuits are as ab- 
 solute as those of any American citizen can be. He 
 therefore enjoys the friendship of the influential gentry 
 of the city, who resent the unreasonable interference in 
 the yamen by the agents of the French priests. He has 
 been a safe man for the important centre where he is, and 
 has over and over again refused money offered by people 
 
Chinese Preachers 357 
 
 who were benefited by his kindness. Though his salary 
 is paid by the local church, he understands too clearly 
 the necessity of a harmonious working together with the 
 missionary to allow any anti-foreign spirit to develop. 
 As an example of a scholar versed in the truths of 
 Scripture, peace-loving and contented, he has been an ex- 
 cellent aid to the missionary in building up a safe and 
 vigorous body of evangelists and preachers. Pastor 
 Ting Si Tien has now been at one station continuously 
 for eleven years and during the absence of the foreign 
 missionary on furlough has borne the burdens of a large 
 part of the entire field. But not all of the preachers and 
 evangelists are of this type. 
 
 Some of our young preachers, in the enthusiasm of 
 their new faith, will be iconoclasts in spite of all instruc- 
 tions. Instances have occurred where native preachers 
 have so aroused the anger of their relatives and clansmen 
 by their tactless assault upon idolatry that they have been 
 driven out of the village, the heathen chasing them with 
 drawn knives and swords. Their methods were such as 
 ought not to be used in proclaiming God's love to a lost 
 world. The simple methods used by Tek Bu, a colpor- 
 teur and evangelist, were far better. On one occasion he 
 was overtaken by highway robbers, stripped of all cloth- 
 ing and robbed of all his valuables except the reHgious 
 books he had with him. Instead of finding fault, how- 
 ever, he began to preach Christ Jesus to them, with the 
 result that the robbers returned him his clothing and eye- 
 glasses. He felt encouraged and began to pray and ex- 
 hort and soon they returned to him the larger part of the 
 money they had taken and told him to go in peace. 
 
 Chinese preachers, however, are not always able to 
 avoid persecution. The gospel causes a tragic division 
 
358 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 among men to-day the same as it did centuries ago. 
 Some men cleave unto the gospel the moment they hear 
 it, others follow later. Again, there is the large class 
 who cannot see anything attractive in the gospel. There 
 are those, too, who oppose and blaspheme from the very 
 beginning. Still, it is also true that there is a vast dif- 
 ference between mission fields where circumspect and 
 cautious native preachers have laboured and those where 
 men had preached who unwittingly aroused the anger 
 and prejudice of the people by unwise methods. The 
 effect of the mistakes of some of these men cannot be 
 overcome for many years. The demands made upon the 
 native leaders of the churches are very great, and 
 in a way the tests upon their patience, resources and 
 good-will are greater than the tests made upon the 
 ministers in a Christian country. Present conditions in 
 China make it impossible for the average Christian con- 
 vert to escape persecution ; and not every Christian is 
 wiUing to allow men of the baser sort to inflict injury 
 upon him. This results often in very bad snarls, and 
 usually it is only the native preacher who is able to estab- 
 lish peace between both parties. It is evident from this 
 that the young men who are to be the pastors and 
 preachers of churches surrounded by these hostile con- 
 ditions must be men who are convinced of their call- 
 ing to preach the Word. 
 
 The Chinese churches do not enter largely into the 
 psychological views of his calling to the ministry. The 
 Christians judge the man according to the missionary 
 spirit which he has revealed in the past. They beHeve 
 that he should prove himself a practical missionary in his 
 own local church ere they can consider him a proper 
 person to preach the gospel. 
 
Chinese Preachers 359 
 
 How They Should be Selected 
 The foreign missionary should refrain as much as pos- 
 sible from calling men to leave their shops and fields and 
 accept wages as evangelists. Not only are the present 
 domestic conditions in China such as to offer temptations 
 to many, but it is a question whether the missionary can 
 make as careful a choice as the native churches them- 
 selves. The foreigner often forgets the dangers that con- 
 front the average Chinese as he leaves his shop or plough 
 to become a fellow worker with the foreigner, whose 
 political standing is considered by the average Chinese as 
 so high. The possible opportunities for making money 
 and the social influence thus enjoyed by contact with the 
 mission, have been the undoing of many a good peasant 
 and honest shop clerk. These men have been watched 
 and are better known by their own local churches than 
 by the missionary. Furthermore, the life and work of 
 native preachers and evangelists affect the churches, more 
 than they can effect the missionary. For these reasons 
 there ought to be due consideration given to the super- 
 vision of the Chinese churches in the selection of candi- 
 dates for their future preachers and pastors. The 
 churches would make mistakes, but so also would the 
 missionary. The Christians would gain a fund of 
 knowledge and experience that would be very valuable 
 for all future development in their church life. At Kit- 
 yang the missionary does not ask a man to leave his 
 daily occupation and offer him a salary to preach the 
 gospel. The method adopted when it became evident 
 that a larger number of men would be needed owing to 
 the extension of work into Weichow was to issue a 
 statement to all the churches and outstations, giving 
 them the facts regarding the existing conditions, the 
 
360 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 opportunities and the need for young men to preach 
 the gospel. Attention was called to the fact that this 
 was a serious matter and one which concerned the wel- 
 fare of the work among all the churches. It was sug- 
 gested that all the Christians continue in prayer regarding 
 this matter for the next three months and that they have 
 a sharp lookout in their churches for men having the re- 
 spect of the entire church, who had the necessary 
 spiritual gifts and had been making use of them. They 
 were to lay the important subject before such and to re- 
 quest them to pray about the matter of their individual 
 responsibility to this great need. The churches and mis- 
 sion stations entered into the matter with a seriousness 
 of purpose that plainly showed that they understood the 
 importance of having the right men. The result of this 
 effort was that over fifteen young men offered themselves 
 for the gospel ministry and entered the theological 
 seminary soon after. 
 
 Training of Native Co-Workers 
 There are three classes of men who offer themselves for 
 the ministry of the gospel : young men who have re- 
 ceived their education in the mission boarding schools ; 
 Confucian scholars who have become Christians after 
 they have studied the classics for a number of years ; and 
 last but not least, the peasants, or artisans, who by 
 superior spiritual gifts and strong personality make their 
 influence felt in their own churches and are desirous of 
 taking a larger share in the upbuilding of the kingdom. 
 The first class are too few in number to satisfy the 
 needs of a growing work. But the few that do enter the 
 active ministry always take prominent rank. As the 
 educational system is enlarged the number of these 
 
Chinese Preachers 361 
 
 valuable men will be increased. The second class, the 
 converted Confucian scholars, constitute very valuable co- 
 workers if they are spiritual men. These are able to pre- 
 sent the aims and purposes of the church to a class of 
 people which a peasant or artisan or even a graduate of 
 a mission school could not readily reach. The third 
 class, peasants and artisans, constitute the larger number 
 of mission workers, and for the present it is well that this 
 should be so. The Church of God in China needs men 
 who have come out from among their fellow men and are 
 able to witness of the grace of God and the power of the 
 blood of Christ. The very fact that they are known as 
 men who have never received any scholastic training 
 makes them all the more a marvel among their friends 
 and acquaintances as they explain chapter after chapter 
 of the word of God. 
 
 The training in the theological seminary must be ad- 
 justed to the needs of each class mentioned. The most 
 difficult to train is the Confucian scholar, who is obliged 
 to unlearn so much of that which is unchristian in 
 thought and in spirit. But even though these scholars 
 and peasants may have received instruction for three 
 years in the Bible school they still need a further course 
 of instruction to insure a constant and wholesome growth. 
 In order to meet that want missionaries have organized 
 " preachers' institutes," of which every native co-worker 
 is a member. This " institute " may meet once every 
 two months for systematic Bible study. All the men re- 
 ceive a certain amount of Bible work, which they are ex- 
 pected to prepare during the intervening two months, and 
 then give the results of their work during the sessions of the 
 " institute." Not only are the preachers thus kept from 
 fossilizing, but these gatherings are powerful factors for 
 
362 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 mutual help to all the men. Young preachers who have 
 problems on their hands too difficult for them to solve, 
 receive valuable aid from the more experienced. The 
 social needs and opportunities which these gatherings 
 offer are not neglected. 
 
 The Joys, Sorrows and Temptations of Chinese 
 Pastors and Preachers 
 
 It would be difficult to find a people who delight in 
 the preaching of the gospel more than do the Chinese at 
 the present time. There is a real danger that the 
 preaching of the Word may be considered most impor- 
 tant instead of holding fast to the truth that Christianity 
 is the expression of the Spirit of Christ through the be- 
 lievers. It is hfe more than formal doctrine. 
 
 The Chinese have expressed their moral truths in con- 
 crete phrases and proverbs for many hundreds of years 
 and it is a natural thing for the Christian to make much 
 use of a similar method of expression for Christian truth. 
 The native evangelists glory in the message they have for 
 their fellow men and their enthusiasm is nothing less than 
 contagious. The construction of the Chinese language 
 both in its conciseness and in its tonal utterance makes it 
 a strong ally in stirring men to give attention to the 
 claims of the new religion. The writer has frequently, 
 when accompanied by two or more Chinese evangehsts, 
 entered eight or ten different towns and villages in one 
 day to preach the gospel to the people, and rarely has 
 such a day been spent without some distinct advance to 
 the cause. The lives of the preachers in China are happy 
 because they have a great work to do and most of them 
 are doing it. Some time ago a preacher came to the 
 headquarters at Kityang after having spent the whole 
 
Chinese Preachers 363 
 
 night on a ferry boat. He complained that his fellow 
 passengers were more uncivil than any he had ever met. 
 Further conversation on the subject revealed the fact that 
 they had threatened to throw him overboard because he 
 had persisted in preaching to the people during the entire 
 night ! He could not sleep on a moving boat and so 
 thought to make the best use of his time and opportunity. 
 He quoted the passage of our duty to preach " in season 
 and out of season." His case is but an illustration of the 
 tremendous efforts the thousands of evangelists are put- 
 ting forth this day in the land of China. 
 
 The office of pastor and preacher over a congregation 
 in China is no sinecure. The leader is made responsible 
 for the welfare of the entire flock. In time of trouble be- 
 tween Christians and heathen it is the preacher who is 
 expected to make peace, and if he fail to accomplish this 
 the responsibility is his. At times Christians and adher- 
 ents will urge him to enlist the aid of the foreign mission- 
 ary in a matter where he knows this is impossible. They 
 take it for granted that if the preacher is on intimate 
 terms with the missionary the latter will not refuse any 
 request. Should the preacher decline to acquiesce in 
 their request they take it as an affront and the preacher 
 has lost his influence over them for the time being. 
 Some of the best preachers have adopted the method of 
 compelling the men who are urging him to lay the case 
 before the foreign missionary and to elicit his aid, to ac- 
 company him as he presents the matter to the missionary. 
 The idea is this : they know beforehand that the case has 
 no concern with Christian missions, but they want the 
 leading members of the church to receive the benefit of 
 the private conversation with the missionary on the sub- 
 ject of what constitutes proper and improper requests to 
 
364 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 the missionary in behalf of Christians and adherents. It 
 is a great gain to have these men get the right perspec- 
 tive of this important question and uphold the preacher 
 in maintaining the highest ideals of the church. 
 
 The temptations of the Chinese pastors and preachers 
 are manifold. Coming, as most of them do, from humble 
 homes, they are likely to show a lack of poise in mind 
 and of stalvvartness in character that is necessary for the 
 development of a strong, honest ministry of the gospel. 
 It is surprising at times to note how easily they allow 
 themselves to be drawn into affairs that do not concern 
 the church at all. They will get into unpleasant conten- 
 tions with the heathen about little matters, which arouse 
 the passions and leave ugly results. It is largely a lack 
 of sufficient training and experience in life that makes 
 these things possible. Then again, many of the preach- 
 ers, having been poor all their lives, are often tempted 
 to avarice. It is a common custom throughout South 
 China for the man who acts as an arbiter or middle man 
 in any transaction to receive some reward for his services. 
 Chinese preachers are constantly requested to act as 
 arbiters, but inasmuch as they receive a regular salary, 
 the consensus of opinion is that these services ought to 
 be rendered gratis and that the merit of such service ought 
 to redound to the credit of his position or of the church. 
 This would not be the case if the preacher accepted 
 money. These cases of dispute offer temptations to our 
 native co-workers, and the more able the men are to act 
 as arbiters the greater the opportunities to make money. 
 But if they were permitted to earn money in this way 
 the office of the preacher and pastor would soon de- 
 generate into a means of making money. The best 
 safeguard against this is for the churches to pay their 
 
Chinese Preachers 365 
 
 preachers a salary sufficiently large to enable the latter to 
 be free from anxiety in the support of their families. In 
 return for this it is just that all his time given to the 
 service of his fellow men should be given without price. 
 Another temptation along the same line comes to the 
 native preachers by reason of being closely connected 
 with the foreign missionary. The average Chinese credit 
 the missionary with more political influence than they 
 have, and they take it for granted that the native preach- 
 ers have a share in this coveted power. It has occasion- 
 ally happened that unscrupulous preachers have entered 
 the Chinese court or yamen and under the guise of 
 representing the missionary have opposed the sub- 
 officials and yamen-helpers, in their demands for ex- 
 orbitant charges and urged the case of a friend or fel- 
 low Christian. It is considered perfectly legitimate for 
 Confucian scholars and literati to do this thing, hence 
 the natural conclusion of the Chinese that the preacher 
 of the gospel, in order to be •' a power in the land " 
 should as a teacher make use of his influence in a like 
 manner. But besides the baneful effect this would have 
 upon the office of the ministry itself, it also stirs up the 
 animosity of the yamen officials against the Christian 
 religion, for the interference on the part of the preachers 
 deprives these men of the opportunity of squeezing 
 money out of the litigators, which is their only way of 
 making a living. 
 
 Still another temptation to which some intelligent 
 preachers of the gospel are subjected and which mars 
 their usefulness is the assuming of the superficial airs of 
 the Confucian scholar. This is more due to the moral 
 make-up of the individual, however. The average 
 preacher of the gospel in China is a manly and straight- 
 
366 The Conquest of the Cross in China 
 
 forward Christian. He has tremendous forces arrayed 
 against him, but he is fighting under the banner of One 
 who shall yet conquer over every power and principality 
 opposing His rule. Happy the foreign missionary who 
 has a large number of these faithful men at his side. 
 The possibilities of their influence in this wonderful day 
 of opportunity in China is unlimited. Wherever great 
 things are wrought on the mission field in China it is 
 safe to say that the native co-workers have made the re- 
 sults possible. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ancestor Worship, 38, 124, 133, 
 
 139 
 Ancient Period, 29 
 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 67 
 Annals, Book of, 36 
 Ashmore, William, 1 14, 346 
 
 Baptism, choice of candidates, 241, 
 249 
 
 Black Death, outbreak in South 
 China, 112 
 
 Boycott, of American goods, 59, 73 
 
 Boxer Movement, 20, 56, 137 
 
 Bridgeman, 15 
 
 British East India Company, hos- 
 tility to missions, 13, 87 
 
 Buddhism in China, 41, 74 
 
 Burns, John, travels along coast of 
 China, 314 
 
 Call to missionary service, 152 
 Chang Chih Tung, 62 
 China, first experiences in, 33 
 China, government of, 3off. 
 China Inland Mission, beginning, 
 
 19 
 
 China, missionary problem in, 70 
 China, natural characteristics of the 
 
 country, 27 
 China, religious liberty in, 71 
 Chinese, ancient discoveries by, 35 
 Chinese Christians, persecution of, 
 
 125, 132 
 Chinese, circumlocution of, 149 
 Chinese history, periods of, 28 
 Chinese law, crudeness of, 103 
 Chinese literature, 36 
 Chinese, origin of, 28 
 Chinese, patriotism of, 63 
 Chinese, religion of, 37 
 Chinese, social life of, 43 
 Chou Dynasty, 29-36 
 
 Christianity, Nestorians introduce 
 
 into China, 76 
 Christians, superstition of, 109 
 Civil service, 31 
 Clan fights, 47» 9 1, 133 
 Compass, invented by Chinese, 35 
 Confucius, 17, 21, 29, 36, 42, 79, 
 
 80, 123 
 Cue, reason for wearing, 65 
 
 Dean, 15 
 
 Demoniacal possession, instances of 
 
 apparent, ii6fF 
 Documents, book of, 36 
 Dominicans, 79 
 Dragon Boat, festival of, 47 
 Dyer, 15 
 
 England, relation to China, 57 
 England, war with, 82 
 English language, use of, 58 
 Extortion, by officials, 32, 92, 94 
 
 Family life in China, 193 
 Feast, Chinese, 45, 46 
 Formosa, conversions in, 18 
 France, relation to China, 53 
 Fu77g Shui, 41, 44, 61, 64, 104, 
 114 
 
 Germany, relation to China, 56 
 
 Gibson, J. C, 37 
 
 Goddard, 15 
 
 Gracey, American consul at Fuchow, 
 
 188 
 Great Wall, 29 
 Gunpowder, discovered by Chinese, 
 
 35 
 Gutzlaff, 15 
 
 Han Dynasty, 29, 35, 36, 49. 74 
 
 367 
 
368 
 
 Index 
 
 Hart, Sir Robert, submits scheme 
 
 of reform to emperor, 62 
 Hay, John, 67 
 Hepburn, 15 
 Herr von Kettier, 56 
 
 Idolatry, 132 
 Introduction, li 
 
 Japanese-Chinese War, 51, 66 
 Japan, distrusted by China, 69 
 Japan, relation to China, 50 
 Jesuits, banishment from China, 80 
 Jesuits, early Protestant missionaries 
 
 confounded with, 13 
 Jews, in China, 75 
 
 Kaifungfu, Jewish synagogue in, 
 
 76 
 Kang Hsi, 79, 80 
 Kang Yu Wei, Cantonese reformer, 
 
 182 
 Kiaochau, cession of, 56 
 Kityang, 22, 54, 60, 85, 92, 94, 106, 
 
 112, 128 
 Korea, relation to China, 52 
 Kublai Khan, 51 
 Kwang Hsu, reforms of, 61 
 Kwang Hsu, proclamations of, 182 
 Kwang Su, 94 
 
 Land Tax, 102 
 
 Lao Tsze, 29, 39, 74 
 
 Lawsuits, aid of priests in, 86 
 
 Legendary Period, 29 
 
 Legge, 15 
 
 Literati, superstition of, 107 
 
 Lockhart, 15 
 
 Manchuria, converts in, 18 
 Manchurian Dynasty, 30 
 Manchus, 30, 37, 72, 92 
 Martin, W. A. P., 37, 75 
 Medhurst, 15 
 Medieval Period, 30 
 Mencius, 29 
 Milne, 15 
 Ming Dynasty, 30 
 Missionaries, criticism of, by officials 
 of their own governments, 18 
 
 Missionary, relation to foreign field, 
 328, 339 
 
 Missionary service, physical re- 
 quirements, 144 ; mental, 146 ; 
 spiritual, 152 
 
 Missions, beginning of, Chinese 
 opposed to, 12, 13, 17 
 
 Missions in China, results of early, 
 
 14 
 Mohammedans, in China, 76 
 Money, use on mission field, 258-9 
 Mongolian Dynasty, 30, 78 
 Morrison, Robert, begins mission 
 
 work in China, ii, 87 
 Mythological Period, 28 
 
 Nanchang, cause of riot at, 146 
 Native preachers, temptations, 237 
 Nestorians, in China, 76 
 Nineteenth Century, history of 
 missions in, 11-22 
 
 Obstacles to becoming a Christian, 
 religious, 123; social, 124; pe- 
 cuniary, 125; political, 126; 
 moral, 126 
 
 Officials, superstition of, 107 
 
 Odes, Book of, 36 
 
 Open Door, 63, 67 
 
 Opium, trade with India, 57 
 
 Opium War, 15 
 
 Paper, discovered by Chinese, 35 
 Persecution, 121, 123(1., I28ff. 
 Plague, 1X2, 138 
 Porcelain, discovered by Chinese, 
 
 35 
 
 Reform Movement, 21, 61, 72 
 
 Reforms necessary, loi 
 
 Ricci, Mitteo, 78 
 
 Ritual, Book of, 36 
 
 Roman Catholics, missions in China, 
 
 78 
 Roman Catholic Missions, success 
 
 of, 86 
 Roman Catholic Priests, early policy 
 
 oi, 13; given political status, 18, 
 
 70, 83ff. 
 Ruggiero, Michael, 78 
 
Index 
 
 369 
 
 Russia, relation to China, 53 
 
 Shanghai Conference, first, 19 
 Silk, discovered by Chinese, 35 
 Smith, A. H,, quoted, 43 
 Specifics, evils of, 265-267 
 Stronach, 15 
 Sung Dynasty, 30 
 
 T'AiPiNG Rebellion, 57 
 
 Tang Dynasty, 30, 77 
 
 Taoism, 39, 74 
 
 Taxation of Christians, action by 
 
 government, 343 
 Taylor, Hudson, 19 
 Theatre plays, 112, 120 
 Theology, relation to Chinese 
 
 church, 251 
 
 Three Kingdoms, 30 
 Toleration, treaty securing, 81 
 Traditional Period, 30 
 Tseng Kwo Fan, 17 
 
 United States, relation to China, 
 59 
 
 Viceroy Tuan Fong, testimony 
 
 for missions, 16 1 
 Village life in China, 43ff, 
 Village, organization of, 46 
 
 Williams, S. Wells, 15 
 
 Xavier, Francis, 78 
 

 DATE DUE 
 
 .mmmmm 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 iMftinii-iifiiiii 
 
 ( 
 
 
 
 jim.^^ 
 
 m"^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLOFD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
S\V8220.S74 
 
 ■ 
 
 ''lii'liiiilMM 
 
 ill