The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1893-05-27
Hood River Glacier.
HOOD RIVER, OK, MAY ", 1875.
TAE CHRlATXAN TlEW or III


The Rev, Edward r, payson, preach
ing last Sunday in New York, on th,
Chinese exclusion law, branded it a,
"unjust and unchristian,n Then as ht
warns up to the question he says;
II do not hesitate to say that il has
given more varied benefits to the
world than any other nation of the
earth, The Chinese proved them
selves strong intellectually and com.
merially, as is shown by what they
have accomplished in the 10 years
,. following the war which resulted in
me breaking down of the Chinese
wall of exclusion and the admission OF
Christian missionaries.
After more rot of this kind his zeal
got the better of his very common
sense and he enunciated the follow
ing remarkable doctrine:
THUS have we, christian nation,
, broken faith with the Chinese, whom
we, in our righteousness, designated AS
nation of pagans but even it we have
the right to exclude and deport Chi.
! ,nese, we have not the power. No act
of congress can keep them out. The
principles of christianity say we must
welcome :, all strangers within our
gates, to our schools and churches, and
= teach them the lesson taught us by
: Christ"
1t is passing strange how readily n
religious zealot can clothe with magi-
nary attributes people whom he
desires to inculcate with his doctrine.
1t would, perhaps, bother the rever-
end gentleman to point out the varied
benefits to the world than any other
nation of the earth, - and it would fur
nish serious employment for long
time to demonstrate that any good
has been accomplished by the admiSs-
ion of missionaries to China. Accord
ing to statistics there are 10000 Chi
nese in the United States, all exposed
to christianity, but few inoculated
with it. In San Francisco where there
is now, and has been for years Il
regular Chinese city, the conversions
to christianity,are few, and these few
have in most cases been accomplished
through the efforts of young lady
teachers, the religion lasting only
while the term of the teacher lasted.
The Caucasian and the MongUlian will
no more mingle than oil and water.
Race lines and race prejudices are too
strongly drawnIOn both sides to,bc ever
broken down, and it is right that it
should be so, The civilization o..
today will not join hands with that of
1000 years ago rs represented by the
Chinese, and neither 'tLeaties by the
government nor prayers 10y the mis-
sionaries can bridge over the chasm
between them. AS for the proposition
that congress can not keep the Chinese,
or any other people or persons out of the
United States, we refer the reverend
zealot to the decision of the supreme
court, and the logical conclusions of
commen sense. The first duty of any
government is to its citizens, and not
to those of some other country. 1t
matters not what the demands of
christianity are, or what claims the
Chinese may. have on the religious
world; if they are detrilnent to our
people and to our country, it is our
duty to keep them out of it. We may
sympathize with the leper, and hui
manity would dictate some provision
for his care, but bigotry itself would
scarcely demand that he should he ad-
mitted to our tiresides. The time
when these United States are to be
looked upon as a great receiving hos
pital for the world, has gone by. The
fellowship of man, unless it is an
agreeable fellowship, is an obsolete
doctrine. The United States govern
ment is for its own people, and neither
its duties nor its powers, demand of it
religious crusade. What the relig-
ious denominations may do is their
own business, but neither mistaken
zeal, nor fanatical bigotry will be sue
cessful in opening wide our gates, that
our country may be flooded with
human cattle, to furnish the raw ma
terial for possible converts.
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4 WORN OUT DOCUMENT.