Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-09-24
MISSIONARIES IN CHINA.
Almost Inseperable Obstacles to Theil
Success.

representing the different Protestant
churches of the United States. They
follow actively their various branches
of the work in the different provinces
of the empire Many Of them, in intel
lectual and spiritual gifts, are far
above the average of our homework
ers. In their doings with the natives
they prove to be Influenced by the
highest principles of goodwill and hu-
manity as we'll as by Christian charity
They are men and women of whom
America may well feel proud.
'sThe home of the missionary is
center of light for all the surrounding
districts. The children of the mission
schools and colleges see the home life
of the missionary families, learn the
meaning of the stars and stripes OF
the national flag, understand their
feeling of patriotism in its highest
sense, and delight to learn the history
of the country that has sent them SO
much help from purely philanthropic
motives. It is the spirit Of patriotism
that the Chinese need next to the spirit
of Christianity; and it is the American
missionary who is eminently quallfled
to teach it to them even in the face OF
the corrupt government of China.
Some who criticise the labors OF
missionaries depend only upon bare
statistics. They reckon up the number
of mission stations and church mem
bers with the number of years of work,
and take these as the measure of use
fulness. Such people do not realize
the difficulties of the situation, which
make the results beyond the reach OF
arithmetical computation. the re-
ligious beliefs, the customs and preJu-
dices Of the Chinese are entrenched
behind centuries upon centuries OF SUI
perstition. It must be remembered
that China is the most ancient empire
in the world. Before the Jews became
a nation, say twenty-five centuries be-
fore Christ, China's civilization had
already reached high standard. Her
wealthy inhabitants wore silks anu
satins while the Israelites were in
Egypt, and long centuries before
! Greece and Rome were thought Of
ton of government have come down
almost unchanged through all those
thousands of years. AS far back as
history goes the Chinese were gov
erned by almost the same form OF pa :
ternal or patriarchal government that
has stood mistaken amid the rise and
fall of western empires, and is still as
c+,. nd
1t is this antiquity which the Chinese
fall back upon with SO much pride that
stands in the way of their accepting
anything so modern as Christianity.
"But in the consideration of the diff
ficulties the missionary has to encount
err there is not only the antiquity, but
also the enormous size of the nation
and the extent of country. Out OF
total of 100000 square miles the elgn
teen provinces, or China proper, con-
tain 100000 square miles. In the
middle of China is one Of the greatest
and most densely populated plains III
the world, through which flow the yell
low river and the Yang-tse. This one
plain supports g. population OF ll5, OOO,-
000 or nearly three times as many peo-
pie as inhabit the United States. The
emperor Of China rules over One-tenth
| Of che surface Of the habitable GLOBE,
and nearly half Of the population OF
our planet Both the land and the peo-
| pie are not only immense and over
whelming, but strange, unique and
without analogy. The methods used
for preaching the gospel in our own
lands or among uncivilized races have
| to be modified greatly, if not entirely
changed, when applied to the civiliza-
ton of China. The mass to be moved
is enormous, and the power applied
! must be great in proportion.
added to this difficulty of the size
, of the nation there is the compleXity OF
the language. The old saying that the
! devil invented the Chinese characters
| to keep Christianity out Of China ap-
! pears to have some show of reason
when we find that in place Of Chinese
alphabet there are tens of thousands Of
| formidable hierOglyphics of pictorial
| characters, and that each constitutes 4
separate monosyllabic word. Further
more, this written language is to be
seen and not heard, to be read and not
spoken. Then there is the official or
| court language used in the northern
and central provinces, with hundreds
of different dialects spoken south Of
| the Yang-tse. The missionary there
| has therefore to learn the local dialect,
the court language, and the written Or
classical language, before he can
preach, read the translations of the
scriptures, and carry on oral and writ