Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-12-18
LHINA'S'FORWARD MOVEMENT
she Having now Entered on New
Career of Transformation and Ad-
vance.
Science and the Christian Religion
Having Entered the Land, are
Working Together.
Account Of the Work Which Has Been
Done in Translating Western
Literature.

China has been in the school of adversely.
She has had hard and ruthless teachers.
Her education has oeen omawhat rushed
but her progress has been marvellous.
Rudely shaken out of the lethdrgyo of ages,
the new spirit of the new era has entered
into her, and, quickened into new life and
she has entered on the career
of restless, resistless transformation and
advance. Among her enemies she has
found friends who have disenchanted her
and confidence has supplanted
distrust, diplomacy has turned aside the
sword, commerce has created mutual con-
fdence and the touch of higher civil1za-
ton has sharpened her intelligence and
kindled her ambition
The great moral movement of the great
est of the centuries has now reached
China III force, and the people that had
been in the bitches of the down-grade for
3 5000 years has during the past thirty
years begun to enter on the upgrade for a
new and higher life The missionaries
have entered China with passion more
absorbing than the greed of gain, with an
intensity more undying than the thirst
for knowledge, with a love more consum-
ing than the hunger for revenge. They
have gone there to stay They are there
to live or die, that China may know the
blessings of that gospel which has brought
comfort and Joy to their hearts, and in
splrel them with confidence in life, and
the hope of triumph in death. The
Shanghai conference is the great outstand-
ing missionary event of the year. 1t was
the largest assemblage of missionaries
ever brought together in China or on
heather soil; perhaps the largest
conference of missionaries ever assembled
in any land. From the distant provinces
of China and other parts of the remote
east, 433 delegates and their allies suspend
ed their labors and made expensive and
tollsome journeys to the meeting place at
Shanghai. They represented about
thirteen hundred missionaries and forty
two organizations, and on May 9 they
joined In conference with their accumulate
ed experience, and continued In session for
over a fortnight. 1t was an Eunique de-
mOnstration, and as a simple phenomenon
1t deserves the attention of all who are in
terested in the trend of events It is of
special significance to all christian work
ers who belive that the gospel is not only
the power of God for the salvation of
men, but also the instrument for uplift-
ing and vltflllzing the nation.
In China it is not question of educate
or not educate" The missionary can not
help being an educator. The aim of the
Gospel which he breaches is not only to
save, but to enlighten and uplift. Christia-
nifty enters China as pioneer of Western
civilization. TO that civilization China is
slowly but certainly opening her gates, and
the missionaries are only true to their
traditions in promoting science, art, itera-
ture, in furtherance of their cause. The
question simple is, shall Western science
enter China as the friend or the Antagonist
of Christianity. Educated men are the
strength of Confucianism. The educated
men in China, as in all lands are the men
of greatest influence The missionary, in
propagating a purer religion than the
morality of Confucianism, should not
come short in the advantages which West
ern learning offers him. The old civiliza-
ton is overshadowed by the new, and the
new religion should subsidize the influence
of science and civilization for the advance
ment of her own triumph.
The Pible comes to the Chinese with
purpose of mercy and voice of love. The
story is associated with the lowly lives of
men, and is only fully apprehended by an
awakened faith The learning of the
West comes to the Chinese with the firm
tread of certainty and the unerring stead
fastness of law. The one awakes the moral
faculties and the other the intellectual.
Thus far the missionaries have presented
religion and science to the Chinese as allies
and friends, and not as enemies. They be-
lieve that light from Goo is on their side.
The best Western books have been translat-
ed. Enormous work has been done in the
production of works in history, geography,
mathematics, physical and mental science,
The trarslators DIT the Shanghai Arsenal
alone have translated over ninety volumes
of scientific literature, the majority of them
having religious bearing. Serviceable
works On botany, geology, chemistry, and
medicine are now introduced TO the 900
students in the mission schools, as well as
to the general public. In addition the
missionaries are making extensive use of
periodic literature.
The Pekin Gazette was the first newspa-
per ever published. 1t has a circulation
of 10000 copies, and has been in existence
for a thousand years. But the Pekin
Gazette was the only periodical In Chinese
till the missionaries undertook the work.
OF the twenty-eight periodicals now pub
lished in China, twelve are religious. The
framing Of an appeal to the churches for
a thousand missionaries, to be sent out
during the next five years, was an act of
daring faith. only second in importance
to the magnificent undertaking regarding
the Bible. In the one matter the mission
aries have taken tremendous burden upon
themselves. In the other, they have laid
a tremendous responsibility at the door of
the churches. Looked at from the stats
teal point of view, it seems that there
are still in China 800 centers, with popu-
lations of over two hundred thousand each,
by the missionaries. and 200
centers of 100000 each. Those alone,
without taking into account the groups of
population under 100, 900, from al aggre-
gate of $4,000, 900 souls still bebond the in
fuence of the missionaries In China.
The above items are given on the an
thority of DR.. Ashmore, who has been IN
China since 1851, and who, from his great
experience and ability, is well qualified to
speak en- such matters. If DIR. Ashmore
approximations are correct, there would be
d field of so 600 for each of the l,OOO mis-
sionaries. The missionaries have now
completed their work of spying out the
land, and. tired of tentative efforts, they
are anxious to advance, not in scattered
squads, but in one compact united host.
and they ask for such numbers as shall
warrant reasonable hopes of speedy vic
tory.-Rev. Dr. William Wright in the
Contemporary Review.
the Decimal Point.
In France and Germany reduced
to decimal is written 0, %; in Eng
land it is written OPS: in the United