The age-herald., 1898-08-16
DR. YOUNG J. ALLEN OF SHANGHAI, CHINA Breaches Two Powerful Missionary Ser
 mons Sunday ON THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE Commerce and Christianity Go Hand
 in Hand.
THE UNITED STATES GREAT FUTURE
We Should Not Build Confning Wall Around Our Country-Chinese Have Greatest Civilization Achieved
 by Man Unaided by God.

Dr. Young J. Allen of Shanghai, China, Sunday preached two of the strongest and most foreible missionary sermons at the First Methodist church that have ever been heard in Birmingham. Dr. Allen has since 1859 been a missionary in that coun- try, representing the Methodist Episcopal church, south.
 Not only as a teacher Of the Christian religion has he done a great work, but 1t has been through him that number of the changes In the moral and political life of that country have been made. At the close of the war between China and Japan he was appointed by the Chinese, Japanese and Corean governments to write the off, cial history of the war, which he did to the entire satisfaction of all three countries.
 Large congregations were present at both morning and evening services yesterday and the music was especially good.
 The Morning Sermon
 Dr. Allen chose for the text of his morn- ing sermon Acts II, g7: And when they had come and had gathered the church to- gether, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened
 
 This text" said pr. Allen, "refers to the return of Paul and Barnabas from their mission into Asia Minor, and I shall claim the apostolic example and tell you some- thing of Asia Major, or rather China"
 pr. Allen told how these two apostles had, at the request of a man of Macedonia, gone over to that country on the first mis- sion of the Christian religion into Europe He told how they had been cast into prison and beaten, and how Europe had ceived the Christian religion which was destined in few hundred years to over- run all that continent
 How China Missed Christianity
 It is a matter of history, Dr. Allen said thot about 1900 years ago, one of the great emperors of China had a vision telling him that a great sage was teaching in the west. and he set out to seek instruction from him. But instead of going to the scene of Christ's teachings in Asia Minor. he mistook the route and went. down into h. dia, where he was taught the faith of Buddhism, then rapidly growing. The Chi nese emperor returned to i,ie country esr,ti i,, this way Buddhism became one of the es- tablished religions of China. It softened the natures of the Chinese. It gave them the doctrine of the transmigration of souls and after hundreds of years of wandering, promised the weary soul an indefinite sort of rest.
 Taoism is another form of religion es- tablished in China about 800 B. C., by a philosopher named Laotsze It is very poor religion, believing in ghosts, spirits, charms and the like.
 Confucianism was founded about this time by another philosopher named Con- fucius and has done the greatest good for China. The controlling principle of this religion is that the child shall love and respect it's parents. This has come to be the great law of China.
 ChIna's High Civilization
 q believe that the civilization of China under this religion" said pr. Allen, lis greater than that of either Greece or Rome 1 ntheir bpasted enlightment of nineteen or twenty centuries ago. It represents the highest form of religion which can be at tained by man unasssted by God
 "When l was writing my history of the recent war, I desired to criticize the Chi nese civilization and compare it with that of foreign countries. One of my assistants a Chinese scholar who was helping me, protested vigorously.
 'It is difficult matter to show the Chinaman in what respect the Americans are a superior race to his. He sees our steamboats, railroads, telegraphs, etc., but in China the literary classes are placed first, the agricultural classes second, the laboring class, such as mechanics and in ventors, are third, and the merchants are fourth. Consequently they are apt to con- slider us a nation of workmen and put us in the third class.
 'I went on to argue with my Chinese assistant; showed him that nature, man and God was the all in all to the Chris itians, while to the followers of Confucius, man was all Their only relationship was that of father and son, while we have that of man to God. Because Confucius said that he recognized no God is no proof that there is none, I told him.
 .'In the creation of the world God put man at the top and told him to subdue and conquer the world. What d minion or power has China acquired? China has no science, very little liberty and \no progress
 e Woman in China
 ''Women is considered as an inferior creature and in many cases treated like a beast. She is given no education be- cause she might get hold of something she ought not to read. They are kept shut up in their houses and are rarely permitted to go on the outside. Then their system of foot binding is a barbar- ous custom that not even savages practice.
 In this connection may say that since I have been in the United States I have received a letter from of the lineal descendants of Confucius, in the seventieth generation, I believe, and he has been conviced through the women of America who have been carrying on an active cru- sade against foot binding, that the custom is barbarous, and he says that in future he would lend all his energies toward breaking up the practice.
 .tpo1vpamy which is practiced not only