The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-22
FORTY YEARS IN CHINA
DIR. ALIENS BOOKS CIRCULATE
AMONG 100000, 900 READERS.
HOW BEST TO REACH tbs CHINESE
The Venerable Missionary has Original Views
Upon how to Put the Gospel in Hands
of the 400, 100000 People
il the Celestial Empire.
il the Celestial Empire.

visit from one of the most learned and
successful missionaries in the world In
1859, DR.. Young j. Allen, young man
of fine attachments, good scholarship and
fine constitution, was sent to China rs u
missionary by the Southern Methodist
church, and for nearly forty years he
has labored in the Celestial Empire with
wonderful success Cut off from support
by the home church during the Civil Wan
his abilities stood him in good hand, for
as author, scholar, teacher public man
he made his own support and obtained
Il position of influence which he probably
could have never secured through the
ordinary channels of mission work.
DR. Allen is now growing old, but his
long residence abroad has not put him out
of sympathy and touch with an Amerl-
can congregation. He is broad and
learned. enlightened and taught by the
two greatest civilizations the world has
known. He has made his impress upon
China as has no other missionary of his
church. and to-day ninety volumes writ
ten by him are read by five hundred mil
lion people He is the author of a scheme
of education from primary to the higher
education that has been adopted in
China, and is in the hands of millions
of people, DR.. Aliens latest work has
been writing history of the Chinese
and japanese war. In this work of
seventeen volumes he was associated
with scholarly Chinese author, and the
work has already gone through an edi-
tion of 100000 authorized volumes, and
has been pirated and even more widely
read. In the eighth volume, Dr. Allen
discusses the difference between Chris
tianity and the religions Of China. show
ing in what respect Christianity is supe
rior to the religion of the far East.
DIR. Allen is the wisest and most ac-
complished missionary | have ever heard.
He has studied the Chinese civilization
from the standpoint of an honest investi-
gator and his discussion of Chinese civi i
cation is profoundly interesting. He does
not tell in his addresses of the eccentrici-
ties and peculiar customs of the Chinee.
which furnishes the chief part of most
missionary addresses, but speaks of the
philosophy of their civilization, tells of
their greatness as a nation, their pros
perity. their attainments i'll letters, their
hatred of war, and gives his hearers "a
lucid and interesting exposition of their
government. His account of their civil
service system shows it to be perfectly
fair, and far in advance in the require
ments for public office of any country
boasting its Western civilization.
The learned doctor has views of mis-
sionary work that are at variance with
the practical efforts of most missionaries.
He thinks it a mistake to suppose that
the stone wall of Chinese hostility to
Christianity can be broken into by mis-
sionaries going to the humble alone, but
believes that Christian people will find
entrance best by studying to learn the
creviccs and cracks and places Of least
resistance in the wall, and trying TO en-.
ter through them instead of trying to
butt down the wall. 1t is the glory Of
Christianity that the poor have the Cos.
pei preached unto them, but if a church
confines itself to the poor it is not fulfill
ing the divine mission to carry the Cos
pei alike to rich and poor. In China and
in what we call heather countries, the
duty of the missionary is to reach the
people through their literature and their
leaders as well as through the hearts or
the humble.
/ gathered from the doctors learned
duuTtsS Ut JLutUlDH plIttb
church Sunday morning that he. thinks
the missionaries abroad have had in part
a mistaken idea of how to carry the Cos
pei to the heather. He said that it is
generally thought that foreign and do
nestle missions are alike, and that as in
this country the domestic missionaries go
to preach the gospel to the poor and the
destitute, so in foreign lands it is the poor
to whom the missionaries go first DR..
Allen does think this the st way Il
would rather fave Il publishing house i'll
Shanghai than twenty missionaries" he
cried out in his Sunday morning address.
He believes that the grearest work the
missionaries can do is to put their gospel
in the literature that circulates among
the people. More than 20O000,000
Chinese speak one language, and that stu
pendOus fact makes it easy to reach the
worlds most populous nation through one
tongue. When a book is translated into
Chinese. and it gets into the peoples
hands, it travels and causes the people
who are not satisfied with their religion.
to turn their minds 10 the religion of
Christ That is the way DIR. Allen evil
IDENTIFY thinks the Chinese will be reached,
particularly the educated classes, rather
than through the preached word. There's
sense in this, and Dr. Aliens long and
successful experience warrents him in
stating it to the Christians in America
and turning their minds toward the best
way Of reaching that great nation.
DR. Aliens account of the Chinese
Japanese war: his description of the
opening door that the extra territorial
clause gives to us; his tribute to the
Chinese as a race of peace-loving people;
his appreciation of their true character;
and his personal "reminiscences of a ca
reer that makes him a man fit to teach
and to lead-all these things made his
addresses at Edenton Street Methodist
church Sunday morning and at Central
church Sunday night most remarkable,
able. entertaining and instructive. / have
heard more eloquent men talk Of mis-
sions and foreign countries, but never
one with such ripe experience, who had
learned the philosophy of Chinese civil