The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1907-11-15

Yet, In perfect fairness and frank.
ness, can say Of the very large ma.
Jorlty of the hundreds of mission.
aries whom I have watched at their
work, that they are thoroughly hon.
est, competent, self-immolating and
devoted servants of great ideal. This
applies to men and women of all de-
nominations and bodies-Roman Cath.
Ole and Protestant, churchman and
| independent; and to all the mission
helds which l have thus far investi.
gated. In quiet modesty, and with
self-denying service, these men and
women are patiently seeking, against
great odds, the conversion of the PEG.
pie among whom they dwell. Their
lives are the best recommendation OF
their message
On the whole, they are persons OF
more than ordinary ability and refine
ment; the charge may be rejected
practically in toto, that missionaries
are lncompetents who have been driv.
en- into their field by inability to sc.
cure livelihood. So eminent an au
| thority as DR.. Arthur H. Smith as.
sures me that there is no class of pro-
fessional worker, except only the col
lege professor of whom so high a
! standard is required.
The number of missionaries of in.
dependent wealth, who give literally
| to the foreign mission work Of which
they themselves are part, is a sur.
prising revelation to an Investigator:
and at once an evidence of the conf
| dence OF these persons in the mission.
airy enterprise, and of their own dis.
| interestedness in pursuing this voca.
ton.
The Troubles Of the Missionaries.
Nevertheless, there are certain trials
of missionary life worth noting, apart
from the difficulties inseparable from
any kind of pioneer work. The first
| of these, which bears most hardly in
| the beginning, is the separation from
family and friends; as the years soften
this, and the foreign field becomes
!! home. there ensues, usually, the great.
est trial of all. separation from chill.
dren, who must be sent away to be ed.
| ucated This is the heaviest burden
borne by the missionary.
Very little is said by missionaries
in China about the danger from mobs,
although all the older workers have
thrilling stories to tell when you get
them to talking upon this topic.
When Natives Get on the Nerves.
Another price that must be paid for
life amid an alien people is the fact
that the natives gradually--w wear upon
the nervous system of the missionary,
who as rule, is person of more
than ordinary culture and of sensi-
tive temperament Gradually the ma.
tives do get on foreigners nerves,
to degree incredible to one who
| spends his days with people of his
own color and speech and manner of
life and thought. The white men who
are in the east for their own advant-
age usually arrive speedily at the point
of detesting and despising the native,
even to the extent of abusing him, if
he be a Chinaman of Korean; they
also abused the Japanese until the lat.
ter would stand it no longer.
While on this point of the character
and calibre of the missionary, the tee.
timony of British war correspondent
with whom l travelled into the famine
district of China, is worth quoting
When we started out he was bitterly
prejudiced against missionaries;
thought them mo good" and a crowd
of mischief makers. Upon his return
after meeting many missionaries, he
wrote a glowing tribute to their char
acter, their disinterestedness and theil
efficiency. -
We:l do l recall his astonishIuent
one evening at the dinner table of q
missionary, far in the remote interior
when he found the little company oil
missionaries quite as cultured, as cos
mopolitan and as brilliant as himself
He did not know that two of the
young women present bear one of the
| most hoaored names in Virginia and
Pennsylvania, and that they received
their education in one of Philadel
phia's laost fashionable schools, and
moved, as was their right, in the most
select c:tcles in the Quaker City. YET
here they were, hundreds of miles
from anything that could be called
fertilization, spending their lives cheer
lily for horde of dirty, ungrateful and
uncongenial Chinese and serene In the
confidence that they were making the
best possible use of life. It was of 6
member of this same missionary com
munity that my British friend said tt
me later, mr.. Patterson is the finest
man l have ever met anywhere in al
the world"
copyright. by Joseph B. Bowles)