New-York tribune., 1901-07-21
MISSIONARIES DEFENDED.

A committee representing the Protestant mis-
sionares in China met recently in Shanghai
and drew up a temperate answer to certain
attacks which have been made on missionaries
in China. In regard to the charge that the mis-
sionaries are chiefly responsible for the recent
uprising the committee properly points out that
this is not true. The work of the missionaries
was only an incidental factor in the case. China
has always opposed the Introduction of foreign
influences, and the Boxer movement was partly
an outcome of that feeling and partly the result
of such acts of foreign aggression as the seizure
of Kiao-Chau, Port Arthur and Wei-Hai-Wei
and the forcible surveying of railroad through
the province of Shan-Tung. In other words. the
Boxer movement was anti-foreign rather than
anti-Christian.
As to the charge that the missionaries ignore
what is good in Chinese life and thought and
disregard Chinese prejudice and etiquette, the
defence of the committee Is not so conclusive.
1t is admitted that isolated statements and
actions might be so construed, and that any
honest preaching of the Gospel must antagonlze
the superstition and dolatry that prevail among
the masses of the Chinese. But 1t is claimed
that the opposition thus reused has been more
than offset by the establishment OF colleges.
schools and hospitals. 1t is doubtless true that
the message of Christianity could not fail TO
offend ignorant and superstitious Chinese. That
is something for which the missionaries need
not be blamed. But for some reason or other
the preaching Of the missionaries seems equally
to have alienated the higher classes in China.
So little receptive, indeed. are they to the
Christian message that the Rev. Gilbert Reid,
who for years worked as a missionary among
the higher classes, announces his withdrawal
from that work on the ground that the edu-
tod NJ iS
Christianity The inability of the Chinese mind
20 understand and assmiate such religion as
that OF Christianity Is not sufficiently taken
into account by the missionaries The Gospel
probably could not be so Mongozed as to make
IL tit into the Chinese conception of things.
And. of course, no attempt is made thus to
transform ii. The Gospel as preached In China,
as elsewhere Ia the East, is frankly Occidental,
and is deeply saturated with the spirit of
Western civilization. which It has gathered up
in its centuries OF life. DR.. McKim, the Epis-
copal Missionary Bishop of Japan. declares
after n careful study Of the Japanese that their
capacity for receiving religion is limited and
uncertain. And so far as the Christian religion
is concerned this statement is largely true of
the Chinese. This is the real obstacle to mis-
sions In China and so long as IL exists 1t seems
hardly worth while to lay any great stress on
AS to the assertion frequently made that mis-
sionares excite hostility by interfering in native
litigation in the interests of their converts. the
committee declares II to be untrue of Protes-
tant missionaries. But this, of course. is ex
parte testimony. The Catholics are Just as GER
tain that Catholic missionary is ever guilty
of such conduct. They may both be right as
TO the general principle, and yet ground may be
given for the charge, for the committee says:
"In fragrant cases Of persecution missionaries
have felt 1t their duty TO support members OF
"ther churches, and it cannot be denied that
occasionally natives have secured the influence
'of the foreigner in an unworthy cause. But
interference in native litigation as such
receives no support from the principles and
practice of the general body" Human nature
being what IL is. 1t Is not hard to that the
Chinese might resent such support of converts
as is here described, and regard ii as an inter
ference with the laws of the land. The charge
that the missionaries have shown an unchris
tian desire for revenge is earnestly denied. and
probably with justice. But their very human
demand that the guilty should be punished has
been characterized unchristian by many of
the learned Chinese. who take as literal state
ments of Christian teaching such passages in
the New Testament as this: But | say unto
you. That ye resist not evil: but whOsoever
shall smte thee on thy right cheek, turn to
'hm the other also. And If any man will
'sue thee at the law and take away thy coat
"let him have thy coke also" II the intel
ligent Chinese can misunderstood Christian
ty as to put this Interpretation on it there need
be no surprise if some intelligent missionaries
misunderstood Chinese life and character
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