The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-03-29
CHINESE MISSIONS AND MYTHs.

The Chinese Wall not a Myth--The
Chinese are not SImple-AmerIcau
Science and Boston Culture Taken
TO Task by Missionaries on the
GrOund.-An Interesting showing.
The Rev. j. H. Roberts OF Kalgau,
North China, writes to the Missionary
Herald that to one who has lived close
bN the Great Chinese Wall, seeing il
every day, and often climbing oTer il
and examining it minutely, it is very
amusing to see its existence questioned
He says that the wall is no more a myth
than are the Pyramids of Egypt or the
Bunker Hill Monument. He gives this
interesting description Of it: 'As one
goes northwest from Peking he first sees
the Great Wall when in the Nankou
Pass, at distance of 81 miles from Pc
king. 1t is made of earth, faced with
several layers of large brick, and rests
on l. foundation of cut stone, like the
walls around cities commonly seen in
China. But this wall asserts its indivd.
uality by stretching right away on each
side of the valley, up steep slopes, and
from peak to peak, till it is lost to view
at the top of those high and picturesque
mountains. One sees at glance what
herculean efforts must have been put
forth to raise so much brick and mortar
to such nights AMI build ii there-a
great work of national defence at the
time, and wonder for all subsequent
ages to behold.
Going up the valley one sees several
forts built like the Great Wall, but not
extending far up the mountains. AT the
summit of the Pass is another branch of
the wall, which follows the highest ridge
of that great mountain chain, stretching
off to right and left as far as one can
see, climbing every peak of the divide.
The wall here is not much ruined, and
has about the dimensions given in Will
liams's Middle Kingdom namely, 25
feet thick at base, Is feet thick at top,
and from 10 to 80 feet high. The vary
ing hight is due to the fact that the top
of the wall does not follow all the me
qualities of level at the base. On the
south side are few arched doOrways,
TO admit the soldiers who were to de-
fend it. AS one passes the little city OF
Cha Tao, and follows the road toward
Kalgan, he begins to cross grayelly
plain, about 90 miles wide. Then look
ing back toward the east. he has a dis
tant hut fine view of the Great Wall. II
the weather IS good, the wall almost
CLEANS in the sunshine, extending like a
light gray ribbon along the ridge of the
mountains, waving up and down, reach
ing from summit to summit, surround
ed at its highest points by a square tow
er that stands out against the sky, defy
ing wind and weather, as it once defied
the Mongol hordes. The wall stretches
away from Cha Tao to the southwest
and the eye can follow it for 90 or 80
miles, except where it crosses deep val
leys or is hidden behind the nearer
peaks At the foot of the mountains is
a row Of towers only about 200 feet apart
which the eye can trace for distance
of nearly 30 miles, to point where it
enters a valley and is lost to sight among
the mountains
Mr., Roberts mentions nine different
points at which he has crossed and care
fully examined the Great Wall, the ex-
treme distance between these points
being over 260 miles.
In like manner the Rev. S. G., Par
fridge of Wuchang, China, punctures h
fancy of cultured Boston, in letter to
the Living Church. He refers to an
eminent Hub Divine who preached
before the Episcopal Board of Missions
in Philadelphia, last October, as "cOn-
juring up with his wand of eloquence
the ideal heather to whom the simple
gospel is to be preached. The vast au-
dience before HIM knowing absolutely
nothing Of heathenism in its terrible
reality, accepts the glowing picture
without question, They do not stop to
ask whether the preacher speaks from
practical experience, they do not stop to
ask whether the testimony of men who
spend their lives in heather lands CORE
spends with the Boston theory. No
with simple child like crsduity, they
believe it.every word of it. The preach
er wins them all over 10 his view, he
convinces them that he alone is right,
in his peculiar viewsl. Yes, even So"
Meantime the printers devil and
compOstor have been busy and the re-
port of the Missionary council stands
blocked in its form of cold lead ready
for the press. 1t is printed and starts
on its long westward journey. After
many weeks Of weary seas and oceans
it reaches Central China and is read by
the Missionary clergy They see through
| it all in an instant, stripped of the elo
quent accompaniment of the human
voice, deprived of that all essential quail.
ty of personal magnetism, crystallzed
in black ink on the page before them,
the great missionary sermon shows it
self, alas to be but the old, old story OF
myth and legend, to preach
THE pure AMI simple Gospel
By a pure and simple plan
To the pure and simple heather
In a pure and simple land"
1.-THE whole thing is nought but the
baseless fabric of vision and we can
answer it perhaps by the corresponding
jingle
There are no pure and simple heather,
In this pure and simple land,
How then preach the pure and simple Gospel
On the pure and simple plan -
Mr.. Partridge thus valiantly disPoses
of the myth that the heather are not
people of full grown intellect as effectu-
ally as does Mr., Roberts of the fallacy
of the non existence of the "Great Chi
nese Wall" the history of which has
fallen out of some late school text
books. r.r