Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-07-21

MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES IN
All sorts OF Opinions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES IN
CHINA.
In the July number OF the North
American Review, Poultney Bigelow
compares the methods OF Jesuit and
Evangelical missionaries in China.
The two men who most interested him
among the many teachers and preach-
ers he met there were Professor Wells
and Father Palladius, an archimand-
rite of the Greek church at Pekin.
He says OF the latter:
He was an elderly gentleman with a
smile like Benjamin Franklin's. and
was famed at the Chinese capital for
keeping the best wines and the best
tobacco. He was a bachelor, and today
recall him when try to fancy Epi-
Gurus in the body He wore the Chi
nese pigtail and clothes to match and
people said he could give Chinese man
darins points on etiquette One day 1
asked him bluntly how many converts
he had made. He answered that he
thought he had made one, but he did
not wish to be taken - stating this
positively. When returned to China
after an interval of twenty-one years,
all my Inquiries led me to respect the
honesty of this Russian"
In contrast to the somewhat cynical
attitude of Father Palladius was the
opinion of DR.. Corbett, of Che Foo:
He has worked in China almost as
long as had Father Palladius when /
4 first knew him. DR.. Corbett is splen-
did specimen il American, dressed ex-
actly as tho in his native New Eng
land. His wife has been trained in the
hospital service and helps him on the
medical side of his mission. He well
coined me to home equipped for fam
lily happiness on the Anglo-American
plan. DR.. Corbett told me that China
was rapidly preparing for grand
| Christian awakening; that he and his
/ colleagues had made large number OF
converts. but there We're still more who
We're restrained from avowing faith be-
cause they feared evil consequences
from social and political point OF
4 view. This was told me in the autumn
| of 1898 and / heard the same thing at
the same place in 1876. Now, DR.. Cor
.bett is a practical worker and had cul-
tivated this field for thirty-six years,
4 He assured me that in that time he had
noticed a great Improvement in Shan
Tung; that the natives had laid aside
much of the hostility which they for
merly showed toward strangers
The Jesuits call the Protestant mis-
sionaries enthusiastic babies and the
latter regard old Father Palladius as a
\ cynical fox
The distinguishing feature OF Jesuit
missions everywhere has been their
adoption of native customs and man
ners. In China they wear the queue
and the long robes and the short,
clumsy shoes. The Chinaman delights
in gongs, professions. and waving ban
ners therefore the Jesuit manufac-
lures a saints shrine to which the sim
pie minded celestial may make pilgrim
age with much noise and flare of fire.
works.
The mission printing shop at Zicka-
Wei turns out great quantities of pos
tiers representing scenes more or less
scriptural. but all appealing very
strongly to the Chinese Imagination:
wo of these pious posters We're de-
Voted respectively to heaven and hell.
To Chlnaman hell is pretty simple
conception, which is refreshed every
day In his daily walks a bout his native
town and whenever a criminal court is
in session. The hell poster. therefore,
merely outdid Dante in the matter of
snakes and devils tormenting wretches
already crazy with suffering The pos
ter or heaven was more subtle. There
was a chorus of slant-eyed angels beat
Ing gongs. tom-toms and many other
instruments vaguely limited at. In the
background We're enthroned the Gre
ator and our Savior tho the chief OBJ
Ject OF alteration appeared to be the
Virgin Mary. In the foreground were
dozen or SO happy faces Of saints,
among which We're emporors, kings,
popes. bishops, and-more conspicuous
han aily--tWns Cinnamon. For the sake
OF local prejudice, the Women We're
punched separate from the men.
The Jesuit has of course, only con-
tempt for Evangelical methods. He re-
CARDS the Chinaman as a creature es-
sentially different from the white man.
and consequently as one whose senses
and emotions must be differently awak-
ened. The idea of a Christian revival
II 8S3HiEa3 on slne plan OF the Methodist
campmeeting is regarded by him as
absurd. He proposes not 10 revolution
lie. but merely to modify what already
exists.
The scientific achievements of the
Jesuits cooperate with their appeals
to local prejudice and custom to gain
the favor of the people. BY means of
an observatory connected by wire with
many stations In the eastern seas they
are able to foretell the time of ty-
phoons. The time by which ships chro-
nometers are set at the harbor of
Shanghai is corrected by Jesuit obser-
vations.
The Protestant rejects most of these
devises as a lowering of the standard
of missionary methods and morals. He
places himself squarely against local
superstition and refuses to sanction the
slightest concession or compromise. AS
result the conditions in which he
works are harder and the attitude Of
the people more unfrindly than TO the
Jesuit.
The history of Evangelical mission
WORK in China is a painful chronicle OF
persecution, nobly sustained by large
body of devoted men and women fire.
quently poorly equipped for their work
and always inadequately organized. If
Isn11 Nh,.se &t.,,.