The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-01-06


interesting article on the hiudrances to the con
version of this people, of whom there are not
less than 60, ,00l in California. The work may be
impossible with men, but is not impossible with
God But it is important that the difficulties
should be understood CEN Pass
TIE HEATHEN AMONG US: DIFFICULTIES
ENCOUNTERED BY THE MISSIONARY.
Having the heather thus among us
ready to be approached. why has so lit
tie been done? The answer TO this ques-
ton must be found in the peculiar nature
and difficulties of the work, and the man
ner in which it has been conducted
The conversion of the Chinese is per-
haps more difficult, than that of any other
people, owing to the character of their
education, and their almost blind rever-
ence for the past. They have few theo
ries about religion, and do not need any.
it is quite enough for them to know that
their ancestors, the sages of the felicitous
times of 1000 years ago, worshipped
just as they do. To overthrow this re
ligion you must weaken, and, to great
extent, destroy their veneration for the
past. 1t cannot need any argument to
convince any intelligent person of the
extreme difficulty of this. Yet without
it success is impossible.
Perhaps d more serious difficulty than
even this, is found in their ancestral wor-
ship. From earliest childhood they are
carefully instructed in this, and taught
to regard it as of the greatest impor-
tance, and most imperative duty. They
occasionally worship their living parents,
and erect tablets to those deceased, daily
burning incense and kneeling before
them. The custom must be given up,
and the convert forced, in the estimation
of his countrymen, to commit crime
equal to a murder, before he ceases to
be an idolater, and can be received into
membership in Christian Church. The
Jesuits have cunningly surmounted this
difficulty by allowing them to continue
this worship, which they excuse by call
ing it mere ceremony of respect in
memory of their dead.
The pride of the Chinese is another
serious obstacle. They yield in national
and individual vanity to no people in the
world. They believe that their Empire
absorbs nearly all the territory of the
habitable globe, and all outside of it are
tributary barbarians. Their government,
that of an irresponsible despotism, is in
their estimation the freest and best
Their philosophers and sages are the
wisest, and their military heroes the
bravest of mankind. They have the
same ideas in reference to their language,
manners and customs, and religious be-
lief and observances. To adopt the ideas
of outside Barbarians is humiliating,
because it is a confession of weakness or
error. Yet this acknowledgement must
be made by the convert.
Conversion of the Chinese almost de-
nationalizes them. They lose the pre-
iudices and bigotry characteristic of their
people. Yet, even more than this, be-
cause it brings with it pain and disability
hard 10 be borne; the convert is re-
garded by his people with much less re-
spect than before, and is by many held
in contempt, and refused recognition as
friend or equal, for his heinous crime
of fOrsaking the cherished faith of their
ancestors. In many things, he is made
to feel keenly his altered relations with
his countrymen. The Chinese Christian
makes a greater sacrifice for his faith
than IS possible Tor US. LII requires
hard struggle and earnest faith to do it.
These are but few of the more prom
inent difficulties encountered by the mis-
sionary. There are many which could
not be enumerated without pages of
elaboration. But, great and numerous
as they are, they never have discouraged,
and will not now discourage, jealous
and faithful Christian minister. They
only render more pressing the necessity
for surmounting them. Great as they
are, they have all been overcome in many
thousands of instances, and the prayers
of Chinese converts in China and Cali