The age-herald., 1900-07-14
MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES
 ~-IN CHINA
Q the Editor of The Age-Herald:

Some days ago, in more than one issue
 of The Age-Herald, your regular contr1bu-
 tor, Med Brace" undertakes to enlighten
 the church and the reading public on the subject of missions and missionaries in
 China He also quotes, with manifest ap-
 proval, an alleged interview with Consul
 Chow, of New York.
 These utteranees are so full of error, and
 so unjust to the heroic and self-sacrifcing missionaries, and to the church which
 sends them out, and so offensive to many of your most intelligent readers, that they
 should not be allowed to go without chal- lenge. So thought the Ministers Union of this city in their last meeting, and the un- dersigned was appointed to make reply.
 The sweeping statements that the mis- sionary money spent on Chinese lis abso- lutely wasted"-that the missionaries have accomplished practically nothng"-that they live on the fat of the land'-that there is such rivalry among the mission aries, that they pay a regular salary" for church attendance-that the native Chris tians ''are mostly a sorry lot'-that of the three hunderd and fifty thousand native Christians not sixty are sincere in their
 
 whole question that is inexcusable in any intelligent person, specially one who essays to mould public opinion through the daily press.
 Dr. W. R. Lambuth, Secretary of the Board of Missions, of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, who was born in China, and until recent years mission ary to China and Japan-a very high au- thority-is responsible for the following facts:
 First-Last year we sold $6000,OOO worth of flour in the Chinese markets and s9,00o,- GOO worth of cotton goods Seventy-five per cent of the latter was manufactured by Southern mills. When we add the other items of trade, including immense ship ments of iron, machinery, clocks, watches and coal oil, we reach a sum which in five years will exceed the entire amount which has been expended by the American churches for the evangelization of the Chinese during a period of eighty years.
 Second-As to the progress of missionary work, in numbers alone the membership of the native church has grown from 200 in 1S40 to 13,000 in 1877, to 10000 in 1890 and to GOO during the present year. To these are to be added over 300,000 adherents. Statis- tics cannot in a measure represent the sub stantial work in the reconstruction of nation which has been accomplished by the missionaries. They have given a body of literature to the Chinese which is a marvel in itself. It is the missionary who, in addition to more than twenty separate editions of the Scriptures, has translated an entire series of international law, scien- tific works in every department works on mathematics through mechanics and inte- gral calculus, works on natural and m oral biographies of eminent states men and Christians and a complete school and textbook series, which has been ac- ceoed in number of the government de- partments of education.
 Besides this colossal literary work, much of which has been done at odd moments, during late hours of the night and on hard, trying journeys into the remote inerior, a number of periodicals have been published which have had wide circulation among these have been read for years by the Viceroys and the Emperor himself The re- forms inaugurated by the latter, prior to the coup d'etat of the Empress Dowager, who is violently opposed to progress, grew largely out of convictions due to a careful study of the fundamental principles of law and order discussed by the editors of these magazines. The highest Chinese authorities have frankly acknowledged that the prog resS made by the empire in the direction of liberty and enlightenment has been most largely due to the missionary. This means more than can be expressed in words, at a time when three or four Vice. roys in Central and Southern China are making every effort to control the masses of unruly Boxers and soldiery, while there is an actual state of war in and about the capital, Pekin.
 g. As to the comforts and emoluments of missionary life, few words ought to be sufficient to make the matter clear It is the policy of the boards on a basis of business economy and common sense to have their employees live as comfortably as is possible under the conditions of a trying climate, difficulty in securing pro- visions and life often at very remote points from the coast. Considering the qualifications of the men who are experts in language, in medicine and in the art of writing and translation, the average sal ary is well below that of pastors of churches, surgeons and educators in this country. Three of the ablest men in our mission get LOO gold year. One of these men, pr. Y. J. Allen, who has spent forty years in China, during which time he has translated 100 volumes besides much edi- torial work, has twice refused a salary of &, 800 in gold, or 5000 in the currency of the country, preferring to pursue the work of a regular missionary upon the moderate allowance provided by his church. It is gross mistake. and one which exhibits an ignorance of financial conditions to say that $1 900 gold equals $4,000 Mexican The rate for a number of years has been two to one, which would make 5000 Mexican. When one remembers however, that near ly all foodstuffs and the clothing for the female members of the family, together with books and literature, are purchased in the United States at gold rates, or bought from importers in Shanghai and other treaty ports at prices which are the equivalent of gold, there is little difference between living on Sl,00O gold and $2,000 Mexican. Servant hire Is less, but one needs to have more in number, and it is the custom of the country to add gifts and to make presents outside of ones own family, as in the case of weddings and
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