The Newtown bee., 1907-01-25
HOME NEWS.

HUME NEWS.
 INTERESTING ADDRESS BY HAR. DIN GEORGE
 AT TRINITY CHURCH, SUNDAY MORN 1 Despite the inclement weather 8 good sized audience was present at Trinity church, Sunday morning, to | enjoy the address of Hardin George, instructor in history in St John $ university, Shanghai, China, who ar rived in New York, last week, after the long trip from Shanghai. MT George spoke without notes and made an excellent impression on all who heard him.
 MT George said In part: It is utter ly beyond conjecture that a person should visit 8 heathen country and see the real life and misery produced Dy heathentsm and speak in favor of 1t. Gospel the specific object was not to set up 8 white mans church in a yellow mans country. The initial work is done almost entirely by natives. After native has once become bap- ttzed Christian he shares the lack of
  Not only haSrthe missionary on sta tton to conduct the educational work but he has also the work of the priest and clergyman in Christian country. As an illustration of the lack of cond- dence the Chinese have in their fellow perience of the Bishop of Hankow, who sent very important message to one of his clergy. In order to make sure of it he addressed it in both Chinese and English, and deposited the letters in the imperial postofice. The foreign letter addressed in English arrived at it's destination in five days, while the letter addressed in the Chi neSe language was not received in two months. MT George said the object of the church is to build up eventually an entirely Chinese church. But the substitution of Chinese for white men as leaders will probably take two or three generations. No one had more con nfidence in the Chinese than the famous::Gen Gordon, who suppressed the Taiping rebellion. But there was not 8 native commissioned officer in his army. To plan, to organize, to direct seems to be beyond the ability of the present everyday Chfnaman. That in order to do this they must be trained in Western thought and the Western mission schools are very rapidly turn ing out men of this type. The Episco- pal church has mission stations of the hrst importance at Shanghai, SOo Chow and Wu Sch. The problems Of the clergymen in charge of these stations when there is chance to expand the work of the station: Land must be bought and the clergyman must be a skillful real estate agent. Tenure of property in China Is on 2 very uncer- tain basis. It may he owned by two or tEree families in common, and 1t is very difficult in some cases to know with whom to negotiate. A striking example of the difficulty of gaining land came up in connection with St property in front of the college gate in which is located pond, where the Chinese raised fish and periodically pumped 1t dry to secure the fish for market. The property was owned by an old servant who was a typically shrewd man and he kept demanding more money whenever approached, out of all proportion to it's value. This problem is no small one on the out stations.
 Shanghai is very convenient as a center but it labors under all the dis advantages of port towns so far as making converts is s-co9esrned. These difficulties are mostly due to the at titude and behavior of foreign resi- dents. A considerable number of the unmarried men lead utterly corrupt lives and naturally they think the liberties. The Chinamen are treated like dogs and 1t does not require a very keen intellect to see that all this prejudices the work of the missions. However, on account of convenience of the situation we have our most inn portant institutions, St Johns univer- sity, St Mary's School for Girls, the Orphanage and the Bible WOmen's Training school and St Luke'S hos pital, at Shanghai. There are several features of the work at St Johns and St Marys that might be of especial of the students are not professedly Christian. I can cite one instance in particular of the value of the work among the heathen. St Johns is now recognized as leading institution of Western learning in China. AS re- suit of this we have young men there from the influential middle class from all over the empire. One of these men made this remark shortly before I left: 'Do you know, would become allow it," Any one who is at all fla mtliar with the Chinese knows that it would be inSanely useless to tell that young man he should have the back bone to declare himself Christian. The Chinama from child is taught UO AOuOI LID ldUA01 O k1O0U uCd4 oAO his mother somewhat. But that young man would certainly offer no objec- l tions to his own children becoming Christians and he will carry the Chris tian idea and Christian atmosphere | into a heathen home. One of tk : greatest difficulties that we have to deal with in teaching the Chinese is | their tendency to substitute memory for thought. Since the work of in- struction is carried on by text books | and very little work can be attempted outside of the text books, on accoun of the difficulty of studying through a
 foreign language the difficulty is all
 the more increased. An example came
 up in connection with the class in
 English history. MT George asked a
 boy some question about the Invinci-
 ble Armada. He answered his in-
 structor with the words: Because
 Drake, Raleigh and Hawkins were
 there" I looked up in some astonish
 ment, and he said: "Why sir, it is or
 Page 189." And the boy behind him
 chimed in: "Yes sir, about half way
 down the psge.'' I turned to tbis
 page and sure enough there were the
 words: "Because Drake, Raleigh anc Hawkins were there" This Is RooC
 example of the substitution of mem ory for thought.
 Some of the noblest work of the China mission iS done bV C1erQVmen iI