The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1872-06-12
From the Missionary.
Letter from Rev. Ben. Helm.


To the Sabbath. School Children: At tn
beginning of February we had our first ex
animation in the boys schools Although
lacked much that makes your examination
pleasant, yet you may feel an interest il
knowing how your little friends in China gel
along on such an occasion. First, it causes
them to study unusually briskly for couple
of weeks before the examination. And when
the day comes the little fellows are all ex'
citement, some of them trembling little
lest they should fail But of course you
know all about this.
You see they begin much as you do; but
there is little else like your examination.
There are no mammas and papaS present; for
the boys come from the poor families gene
rally. No little boquets for the best speech
or the incest composition. Neither axe there
any hard examples to 5e worked atthe black
board, for arithmetic is only occasionally
taught in native schools. After the lessons
are learned, they sometimes practice on their
calculating board But the Chinese learn to
calculate well on the Abacus, in addition,
subtraction, etc.; and some study almost all
the mathematics taught in foreign schools.
Every few years the officers have mathe-
matical examination in Hangchow But
this is not part of the course taught in an
ordinary native school. We also had no
geography, for the same reason. The natives
know but little about anything outside of
their own eighteen provinces" My teacher
said to me: "If the earth is round and
turns, how is it that the people below (mean-
ing those on your side) do not fall Off"
l now have class which l hope to ex-
anime next.summer. Having told you what
we did not have, let me next tell you what
we did have: A cold rainy February day
in an open room without fire. We began at 9
a. m. and ended at p. m. Sometime after
we commenced, some scholars from another
mission school, and some missionaries, with
their. native teachers, came in to encourage
US. The examination was first in their ma
tive books and in the Scriptures; and was,
according to their mode, called ''backing the
book" The only difference in our exami-
nation was, that instead of each boy repeat
ing an entire book, he began and repeated
till the person examining him stopped him,
and selecting some other part of the. book,
gave him catchword or two, when he took
it up and repeated as before. One little boy
of the second class, who recited especially
we'll, repeated in this form for fifteen minutes
faster than l could follow him, and scarcely
ssed acter. You psobabIy shinG this
is a poor way to teach, for a boy does not
learn to think. This is true, but their char
acters are so many, that it takes almost all
their time for four years to learn to read and
write fair number of the forty odd thou
sand letters in their language. And their
best scholars are not those who think the
most, but who know the greatest number of
characters, and can write the best style, with
many uncommon characters. Hence, so long
as this people use their literary style, boys
must think little and commit much.
The scholars had also specimen copies of
their own handwriting, in the native char
acter and in the Roman letters. They use
the same letters you do to write the language
they speak. This is very different from that
which they read in books. After they had
been examined on the parts taught by the
native teacher, Mr.. Houston and l examined
our two classes an hour each. They were
closely questioned by the different mission
aries, and by some of the natives, and stood
the examination as we'll as most Sabbath
school classes at home. Yet these boys have
only been in the school three years, and some
of the second class have recited as Bible
class only few months. Our aim in these
schools is, first, to lead the children to be-
lieve in Christ to the saving of their own
souls. Then to make good Bible students of
them; also teaching them how to explain the
Scriptures. For we hope God will stir up
their hearts to preach this gospel to their
poor brethren who, in their blindness, wor.
ship gods of every kind
Let me now tell you story the people
themselves laugh over. 1t shows how they
come to worship so many things as gods.
A man travelling along the road was caugb.
in thunder storm; seeing a stump by the
road side very convenient, he sat down on it
and spread his umbrella over himself. AS
the shower passed over, he journeyed on, lit
tie thinking what reward the stump was to
receive for having afforded seat. An
other traveller trudging along the same way
came to the spot, and seeing the ground
drenched all around, while the stump was
perfectly dry, exclaims: Certainly there is
a god in this stump" So he returned to the
village, bought him some incense, and collect
ing crowd of the people, hurried back tc
the spot where they kneeled, bumped theil
heads and burned incense. After time, il
happened that a party were worshipping al
the shrine of their newly found god, wher
the original traveller came along, surprised
to see what was going on, exclaimed: All
yoh, this is the very stump upon which | sal
a certain day during rain-Storm. This
broke the spell. An hour before it was 6