Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-08-18
Or SUND j DING.
All sorts 81 opfnions.

1NM OVNNA ! y OAlSSSs
All Sorts Of Opinions.
1@~@0@~A&&4ee 1IHA144~eS
ANOTIFDR LETTER FROM PEK1N.
In July The Outlook published .
letter written In Pekin, the latter part
Isof May, by Anna N. BENJAMIN. In q
prefatory note the. editor considerably
mentions that Miss Benjamin got away
from Pekin in time.
Evidently she left It without regret.
4 She speaks OF 1t In the very first sem
tence Of her letter as this great, filthy
beehive Of city" She had sense of
serious trouble afioat." and convic-
ton that the empress doWager was
back Of 1t. The old lady is as active
as ever, she wrote. Evidently, too, the
uppermost topic OF conversation in the
4 foreign colony of Pekin in the latter
part OF May was the Boxers" Miss
4 Benjamin was toll dthat the society has
a history Of $50 years; began as "a plot
4 against the Manchu dynasty, but is
4 now an anti-foreigner society; holds
the Roman Catholics In special detes-
tation, but cannot be trusted to distin-
guish between one Kind Of foreigners
and another when its long knife" once
tastes blood. She heard things which
convinced her that the dowager em-
4 press idea was to utilize the Boxers
for killing off the foreigners-..or at
4 least number of them''-and then to
i Punish her instruments with an edify-
4 ing severity. 1T is not impossible"
she wrote month before last, that by
4 the time this letter reaches America
4 they may have added to their list OF
a atrocities and perpetrated massacre"
She thought in May. and presum-
ably hasn't reversed her opinion, that
q the Roman Catholic preiates and
a priests made a sad mistake in accept
\ ing official rank at the hands of the
Chinese government. The same offer
was made to the Protestant mission
d aries-English. American, etc.-an0
A latter careful consideration" was de-
clined. Miss Benjamin writes:
4 The Roman Catholics have worked
4 longer in China than any of the Protes-
4 tant missionaries. and they are not go
s particular about putting their converts
: on probation. They accept Immediate
A ~ all who come to them Whether
I these are faithful to their new religion
or not, they are still kept on the rolls.
-. A native convert in trouble with
4 his neighbor, subjected to lawsuit OF
arrest, applies Immediately to his
4 priest, who responds by sending his
card to the local magistrate. This acts
4 like magic, and the convert is released
or gains his point. = 1t does not
take the canny Chinaman long to see
{ and to seize ansopportunitytof material
n14n
of his neighb0rs. Small wonder that
!, the ranks of converts were unnaturally
a swelled. Many men who wished to set
tie old grudges or to attain certain set
d Elements in law unfavorabie to their
Il opponents joined the Roman Catholic
church and obtained their desires from
this vantage point. 1t must not be
considered that the priests have beer
u lacking in conscientousness Its gen
a orally their zeal for the faith which has
q led them to make mistakes and too Of
q ten they have failed to investigate
a whether the supposed convert whom
Y they We're helping was in the right OF
f the wrong. 1t will be seen, however
/. that here is injustice where the Chi
nese might naturally resent albeit 1t il
!, only of a new varie ty-hardly y of a diff
!, ferent nature-from that to which the.
!, have always been accustomed
RELIGION AND MODERN
THOUGHT.
4 re. Penrhyn Gasquoine in Westminste
Review.]
thoughtful men and women seeking
!, !, for truth of the existence of God ar,
:. met with three alternative answers
a revelation, they find satisfaction in al
& innate CONSCIOUSNESS of His exist
: ence, or they deduce Him from a "a
), tional observation of phenomena. Tn
Il doctrine of miraculous revelation is no
i5only unscientitic, but to man.
thoughtful students must appear made
Isquate end even repulsive On the othe,
\ hand the mere conscious ness of the ex
I istence of God, Saich brings peace o
!. Ismind to some, will seem to others de
Il ermined TO think the matter out. in
!, sufficient data upon which to base an.
= assumption Unsuitable to assert tina
fairies and imps really exist. becaus
! We can conceive such a possibility.
How far can We grasp an idea of tn
: supreme authority from the result Q
observation? The careful study Q
physical nature from the lowest min
eral form to the highest development 0
: animalisna, in man. al once suggests tn
II idea of a central law Of control operat
! Ting upon the phenome ma from cen
trail point. If there be no such author
ity behind the activity of phenomeni
+ how can We reasonably explain the reg
. ularity with which nature acts? Loo
4 at the humblest plant life and you OBJ
> serve a spirit Of unconscious utilitar
ionisn actuating all vegetable growth
y obedient to law Of obligation to som
central authority Just as the plant. i
q order to reproduce its life must ODE,
= the law OF obligation, SO the moral be
: ing. In order}to safeguard his moral lif
must lose it in concession to the law o
moral obligation, an attitude we cal
self sacrifice. So far as our experienc
! goes. then. we are conscious of the eS
4 istence Of a central authority, which
!. holds the universe in order and regu
lates phenomena physical and moral
!, By the operation of the law Of obliga
ton and submission to itself.
Reason applied to the result OF OBJ
servation compels the belief that til
( central and final authority lies in
power which can command the submis
sion OF phenomena, and is therefor
II o,,te;d, ,,t,apnn1epa " for py<1n if III wer