Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-08-17
Washlnatul' Standard
OLYMPIA. WASH.
FRIDAY NENIAi. AUGUST II. 1890
A Perversion OF Christian Methods.

A Perversion OF Christian Methods.
ii. ID. Moore, the newly chosen SUI
perintendent o! Missions in the Far
East, of the Methodist church, lately
gave utterancc to sentence, while
passing through Chicago, on his way
to Shanghai, China, that has made
him notorious if not famous. 1t was
that, "This war with China is simply
ploughing of the field for the gospel"
The remark did rot fall from his lips
without generalization. 1t came from
the heart and was an expression OF
that bigoted zeal which has caused SO
much OF cutting and killing in the
worlds history. Even Nero, when he
sang Of the destruction of Troy to the
accompaniment ON his Tyre while
Rome was in flames by his own orders,
does not afford counterpart to this
cruelty, for he made no pretension of
love or reverence for a meek and
lowly Saviour who taught nothing but
"Peace on Earth and good will among
men," This idea Of ploughing the
field with cannon balls, and deluging
and enriching the soil with the blood
of brave men, is of lowly, if not devil
ish origin, and is not in any degree
justified by the assumed command
from on high to preach the gospel to
every creature, even though it be at
the crack of the rifle or the point of
the sword. All the teachings of the
Divine Master breath the spirit of
love, peace and goodwill, and if the
command to preach is admitted to be
of that high authority, Reason impels
the belief that consistency would be
as much recognized and maintained
in it as in the ways by which God al
ways manifests His plans and presence
to mankind.
The sending of such a man as
Bishop Moore to the Orient is but
waving the red flag in the face of a
people who have been noted for their
exclusiveness and devotion to the be-
lief of an ancestry which dates its ORR
gin thousands of years before the
advent of the Saviour. 1t is natural
for such people to adhere to the
faith of their fathers; and it is by no
means surprising that the willy China.
man should very early in his novitiate
discover and avail himself of the privi-
lege of making religion cloak for ad-
vancing his selfish desires, as Palan-
que, the rich mandarin of Manila,
says he does. In fact we see too much
of that disposition in this country,
and the success with which it meets,
to think for an instant that a people,
whose foxy nature predominates,
should be behind Ills white neighbor
in espousing religion as matter of
business, or that it should lead, as Pa.
lanque says, to open defiance OF Chi
nese law when applied to the converts,
who thus escape paying their debts, or
avoid penalties for violation of law, by
simply claiming protection of the
church, and the church appeals to the
home government to uphold it in car
ing for its proteges.
This is the leaven which gave rise
to the band OF outlaws known as the
Boxers. They had just enough justice
back of their movement to keep it
from speedy extirpation, and in the
meantime it grew until it became too
powerful for suppression without revo-
luton.
There are two sides to almost every
question, and it is we'll to look on
both sides of this. The Rev. Bishop
Moore has aided very materially in
pointing out the necessity for consid-
GRAFTON before jumping at a conclu.
sion.