Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05


reflections when we recall the other Amer
jean houses that have fallen, and that
Chinese trade which was the basis of the
fortunes of an Astor and a Girard- 1t
means, am afraid, that Chinese merchants
have learned Western methods, and beaten
us.
Facts About the Missionaries.
The missionary, however, stands on q diff
ferent footing. Much is written abont him
in eulegy and censure. We are told that
he goes from hamlet 10 hamlet with the
self-denial of Xavier taking his life in bis
hands We are told that he is an ignorant
mischief worker doing more harm than
good. Neither estimate is correct. The
rhetoric of the missionary conference as 1t
sings about Greenland's icy mountains must
be accepted with the reserve due to en-
1husiasm. No one, however, can know the
missionary in China without seeing how
much sincerity and self-abnegstion is given
10 his work. In many cases, and especially
when the medical missionaries have had
chance, the religious results are gratifying.
The difficulty in missionary effort is the
imposSibilitv of reaching the intelligent
classes, the men of authority, the rulers Of
The small eommunes.
1t is not so much the faith of Christ as
The subtleties Of faith. not so much a relig
ion as a creed, that is presented by the mis-
sionarv 10 the Chinese 1t takes so many
forms that even if the mind of the China
man were receptive, and not suspicious, its
presentation would be attended with EN-
barrassmenJs not found among other races,
even people IS advanced as the japanese.
Christ Is brought to the Chinese in various
forms He comes as presented by our Meth
odist friends and by Presbyterian friends.
in the American field Of labor, as l remem-
10, = S,, Dol !
bodies a certain amount of harmony, as
far advanced at least as to make them
work in common, has been attained, but no
Chinese convert can go tar without discov-
ering a difference in church discipline, if
not in doctrines. The English have their
special missions Even if English and
American Protestants were homogeneous
there remain other potent Christian agen-
cirs. We have the Russian and the Cath
ollie missions The Chinaman is asked by
the Russian to accept Christ according TO
the rites Of the Greek, and by the French
according to those of the Latin Church, the
special difference to the Chinese mind be-
ing the manner in which the figure Of our
Savior is arranged on the crucitix.
Politics Hid in Religions Cloak.
Moreover, and this / always fsucied was
an obstacle TO our American friends, is the
fact that behind the Russian and the Catho-
lie propaganda are political aims. The am
bitiOn of Russia has ever been a problem
for Chinese statesmen. And when the
pOlity of the Russian empire is considered,
and il is remembered that this aggressive,
warliile power has for thousands of mikes a
frontier line contiguous to China; that Rus
sla continually presses upon China by what
I might call the process of crumbling and
attFition, we can well understand the dread
- s+s nd
how difficult ii is not TO see the sword of the
Cnssack beneath the cross of the archiman-
drite. If the Chinaman were learned in
Russian, and l might add French, history,
he would have known that the cross was
synonymous with the sword, that il was
among the pastimes of earlier Popes to
divide beathen lands among Obedient kings,
ana that the power which gave the Pacific
islands 10 faithful princes might in Asia be
invoked to W ider spoliation.
The Catholic missions embody spirit of
intense and sincere proselytism. The priest
goes among the people. He adopts their
customs, wears their dress, eats their food
learns their language, enters into their hab-
its-becomes Chinese in ell but his creed
If he cannot teach the faith In a cathedral
he viii be content with hut. This arouses
antagonism. An influence so silent and un-
seen. which permeates rather than flows is
more to be feared than the frank, ostenta- |
JiouS methods of the American and Angli- |
can Churches. Apprehensions are awakened
aud rumors spread One impossible story
follows another, and among sensitive, cred
ulOus people soon finds acceptance. Take
the massacre in Tentsin in 1871, an inexpli-
cable outbreak, causing the death of priests,
nuns, consular and diplomatic officials, the
sacking of churches and religious houses.
All Caused by False Reports.
It was sad in its consequences to those
who suffered as well as the Chinese them
selves, for France eXacted swift retri- |
button. Yet it was only panic-no special
dislike TO foreigners or foreign creeds, but
an ignorant multitude suddedly, as it were,
losing its head The common people had
whispered themselves into the belief that |
Sisters of Charity kidnapped Chinese chill |
Gren; that behind sealed convent walls |
terrible things were done; that Chinese chill |
dren were put TO death, their eyes taken |
ont and used for medicines; that religion |
vas a screen for cruelty and sin. With a |
wise government, with good temper on the |
part of the consular officers, with prudence
and a careful observance by them of the |
aBaecedeut symptoms Of popular discomfort,
these terrible suspicious could have been re- |
moved, and even the most ignorant of the |
Chinese assured Of the gentleness, the |
Influences they were persuading themselves |
to dread. The priests rested upon their /
consular representatives, the consuls upon |
Chinese authorities, and as authorities had |
q contempt for the missionary work, a con- |
tempt which | am afraid was not allayed by /
their intercourse with the mercantile and /
Official foreigners, they gave no heed, until
superstition and fear famed into massacre
and rApine.
When it became my duty to study the re-
1GtioGs between the Chinese and the mis-
sionaries, the Tieptsin massacre, as it was
cSiled, was an impressive lesson. In any
event. and under the best circumstances, as
used TO say to missionary friends, those
who follow the cross must at times bear the /
cross. There is no special dislike on the
part Of the Chinese to missions. l say |
special dislikes, because we may rs well un-
derstand, as a fact underlying intercourse
between the Chinese and the foreigner, that
they are ayerse to everything alien, that we [
are to them an inferior race, and that if by /
some decree of the Emperor wall as high
as Ararat could be buih between China and
the Christian world, il would be the most
popular cdict of his reign
The Progress of the Orient
We entered China by battering in the
door, and Japan by threats to batter What
We found were not Indians, or Africans, or
even the gentle and skilled Aztecs, whose
fate is among the nournful problems of our
latest civilization, but subtle, ingenious,
gifted race, with a religion, liter
ature, a philosophy, a code of laws,
rites and ceremonies; with artistic methods |
IN q condition of exquisite development.
We found that they had already anticipated,
IN rude fashion, some of the wonderful dis