Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1900-10-18
TALK OF A VIEW CHINA.
che Presidents of ths American Board OF
Missions Declares the Dynasty
Is Doomed.

ST. Louis Oct 12.-At Thursdays
session of the American Board of
Missions the topic was China and
several notables discussed the prob
lem. Our Missionary Co-partner-
Samuel B. Capen, of Boston, who de-
livered his first annual address as
president. He said in part:
There are 1900, 900 persons Il India who
are either now under instruction or have
graduated from government schools, and
yet the vast majority of these are not
yet Christianized. They ought to be fur
nished generously with Christian htera-
ture, for it is these educated young men
and women who are to shape the new
India. They are to be the teachers and
leaders of society, and they will influence
the nearly 100000 600 who are still in 1s-
norance.
There is no better illustration of the
power of the gospel to permeate society
that what we see to-day in Japan. The
last report of the Kumiai churches states
that, while but very small fraction or
the population of the empire are Christ
ians, yet they hold an influence out of all
proportion to their numbers. They have
furnished one cabinet minister, two
judges of their supreme court, two speak
ers of the lower house of the diet and
many other heads of bureaus, judges,
ETC. There seem to be two conflicts into
which we are entering. FIRST the new
civilization of the west as represented
by Europe and America, against that OF
the east as represented by China can
not we see as we enter into this fierce
conflict the wonderful providence that we
have Japan with us? suppose no mis-
sionary had entered that empire and she
stood where she did in 1872. Instead of her
being our splendid ally, permitting US
to use her soil for the trans-shipment
of troops and munitions of war, and
having a finely equipped army Of her
own which has received the commenda-
ton of the world, would have her with
China as an opponent.
There is the contest between the leu
tonic race, including the Anglo-SaXon
on the one side and the Slav, represented
especially by Russia on the other. NO
one can have watched the course of the
latter in the steady crOwding of England
at every point, without feelings of SuS-
picion. She has built her great railroad
to within a few miles of Herat, the key
of England's possessions in India; not
far away is an immense army which she
can mobilize for service at a few hours
notice. She has stretched another great
railroad through Siberia clear to the Chi
ma seas. Along the ASiatic frontier she
has 100000 men. She has recently guar
anteed a Persian loan of $4,000, 900, and one
item of the guaranty is the income from
the Persian ports on the gulf. She has
secured an impregnable position at Port
Arthur and foothold in Corea. Her di-
plomacy is SmoOthe and maSterful, but
her purpose to control Asia is most ap-
parent. Whatever may be true of the
car, the Russian government is the
enemy of all our missionary work as
evidenced by its course in the Armenian
outrages a few years ago. England the
past year, with her hands tied in South
Africa, has been pOwerless to resist the
pressure of this great Slavonic power,
while the outrage recently perpetrated
upon Finland, in violation of the most
sacred pledges, shows anew how little
she can be trusted. Under these condi-
lions we must hail the happy providence
of the closer drawing together of En-
gland, Germany and the United States,
who represent the spirit of religious
freedom.
The questions at issue bear not on
China's millions alone. but also on the
fortunes of the whole world The old
time conflict of heathenism and Chris
tianity is here renewed; conservatism and
reverence for the past struggle against
progress and the forces that animate the
western nations. A world crisis has
been reached, the destinies of all the ma
lions are involved and China is the the
alter on which the great drama is enact
ing. The doom of the dynasty, and of
the anti-foreign policy it embodies is
pronounced; no diplomacy, force of
arms can save them; the powers, even
if they should wish to prolong their life,
will fight against an irresistible fate.
The future will reveal a new China and
that will be a new world, with a glorious
destiny before it.
H6FDTHANC "EDF H6AnDED