The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1908-10-28

Of students was $4,000 last year.
They go out into the nelghborhoods
and they cannot but have a good eff
feet throughout that great empire,
large enough as it is, to promote the
ideas of Christianity and the ideas of
civilization. Two or three things
make one impatient when he under
stands the facts. One Is this criticism
of the missionaries as constantly in
volving the governments in trouble,
as constantly bringing about war.
The truth is that Western civilization
In trade is pressing into the Orient
and the agents that are sent forward,
| am sorry to say, are not the best
representatives of Western civiliza-
ton. The American and Englishman
and others who live in the Orient a..e,
many of them excellent, honest, God
fearing men; but there are in that set
Of advance agents of Western ctviliza-
tion gentlemen who left the West
for the good of the West. and be-
cause their history in the West might
prove embarrassing at home. More
than that, even where they are hon
est, hard-working tradesmen and
merchants attempting to push busi-
ness into the Orient, their minds are
constantly on business. 1t is not hu-
man nature that they should resist
the temptations that not infrequently
present themselves to get ahead of
the Oriental brother in business
transactions. They generally are
quite out of sympathy with spirit
Of brotherhood toward the Oriental
natives. Even in the Philippines
that spirit is shown, for while l was
there can remember hearing on the
streets, sung by a gentleman that did
not agree with my view of our duty
toward the Fllpinos:
ale NAV be a brother of William II.
Taft,
But he amt no brother of mine"
Now that is the spirit that we are
so likely to find among the gentle
| men who go into the East for the
purpose of extending trade. Then l
am bound to say that the restraints
Of public opinion, of a fear of the
criticism Of ones neighbors that one
finds at home, to keep men in the
/ straight and narrow path, are loos-
ened in the Orient, and we do not
flnd that they are the models, many
of them, that they ought to be in
probity and morality. They look up
on the native as Inferior and they are
too likely to treat him with insult.
Civilization Parallcling Trade.
Hence 1t Is that in the progress OF
civilization We must move along as
trade moves; and as the foreign mis-.
sions move on, it is through the for.
eign missions that we must expect tc
have the true picture of Christian
brotherhood presented to those ma.
tives, the true spirit of Christian sym
pathy. That is what makes in the
progress of civilization the immense
Importance of Christian missions
You go into China to-day ana try t.
find out what the conditions are II
the interior-consult in Pekin the
gentlemen who are supposed to know
and where do they go? They go a
once to the missionaries, to the mel
who have spent their lives far ad
vanced into the nation. far beyonC
the point of safety II any uprisin,
takes place, and who have learned
by association with the natives, b,
living with them, by bringing then
into their houses, by helping them OIL
to their feet, who have learned tn,
secret of what Chinese life is. Ant
therefore 1t Is that the only reliabl,
books that you can read, telling yol
the exact condition of Chinese civil
ization, are written by these sam
foreign missionaries who have beel
so much blamed for involving us II
foreign wars.
, The Boxer War.
It is said that the Boxer war wa
} due to the interference of misslonar
/ les, and the feeling of the Chimes
} against the Christian religion q
: manifested and eXemplified by tn
= missionaries. That is not true. !
+. is truo that the first outbreak wa
r against the ssionaries-becaus
Q the outbreak was against foreign In
| terference, and 1t was easiest to al
g tack those mon who were farthes
in the Chinese nation, and there the
: made expression Of that feeling b
y their attack against the whole fol
0 eign interference. But that whlc
r really reused the opposition OF til