The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-12
IDOLATRY
 AREA GREAT Sixty Societies in One Mission Field. FAR EAST IS FOR AMERICANS British Societies Hold Down Res
 of Countries.
  China, Japan and Korea With Vast Arss and soo,ooo,ooo Popuiatios. EasaEe Attention of Societies
 in United states. V

Boston, July 11.---Alls the foreign missionary movements of the year have an eye almost solely on the Far East
 It is assumed that England and its
 vast church interests take care of the popuious country to the south of the
 Himalayas, so that the missionary so-
 cieties of the United, States and Cam ada do not haverto concern themselves
 with this tremendous field.
 d The Far East, then. Is for missionary purposes made to include China, Japan and Korea, three countries with an area nearly 1,0o0.0o0 square miles greater than the United States and a population over six times as great The 5oo,o00.- 600 persons who reside in these three lands of idolatry furnish wider oppor- tunity for the spread of Christianity than almost any other country that is safely open to the purveyor Of the Gospel It is now 100 years since the first missionary started work in China and tho results seem discouragingly small for the time, but 1t has to be remembered that 1t is only within the last decade that the civiization of the Western Hemisphere has made any impression on the land of the mongol.
 The total number of Protestant sccie- ties working in the Empire is sixty, of which twenty-one are British and Co., Iofiial; thirty-one American. and eight from Continental Europe. Connected with these foreign missionary societies are 3,445 missionaries, of which I ,z45 are men. This does not include the medical stan of s01 physicians.
 The total number of stations and outstations occupied is 5.102, at 6s2 of winch foreign missionaries reside En- rolled in the 2.6s5 mission schools there is a total of 57.6s3 pupils The num- Der of communicants is enumerated as 154,142. The total of Chinese Christian workers allied with these missions Is 9,9O4, of whom 345 are ordained pas- tors. Connected with these missions are 407 hospitals and dispensaries, and the patients recorded the past year number 1,0s9,24S.
 It is still .dificult to impress upon the ordinary Chinese the value of a Christian life, but the leaven is work ing and reform is gaining a stronger hold every day. This is indicated by statements of Rev. F. Ohlinger a Methodist missionary, who has spent a a good part of his forty years as minister in China. Once he tried on a small scale to hustle the East. A fellow missionary had brought a grain cradle to China as a curiosity. When the wheat harvest came. Mir. Ohlinger shouIdered the ''big knife" and started toward the city gate. The highes as well as the lowest dignitaries of Meth odism in the place, including a theo- logical school, followed to the scene of action. The crowd increased at every turn and barely found standing room around the one-quarter of an acre field. A swathe was cut. 1t took about five minutes to cut as much as one can cut with a sickle in an hour. 'El-yam the crowd applauded at every stroke. But the woman in charge of the field called out: Thank you, teacheri Don't cut the rest. The grain did not lie straight and the stub ble was far more than the regulation Anch high. Too much waste of fuel in that stubble. And" agreed the astonished spectators, the big knife. though truly wonderful, must never be introduced here in China. Why! thieves could cut all the grain you have and carry 1t off in one night" Rut low wages alone are keeping modern ina- plements and labor saving machinery out of China, though the Chinese usu- ally give reasons that to us seem ri- d!culous.
 In the autumn of 1878 Mr. Ohiinger visited Teng ping, 140 miles west of Foo-chow When within twenty miles of his destination he received a letter from the Chinese preacher stationed there informing him of strange stories being circulated among the people and warning him not to enter the city be- fore seeing the writer of the letter. On the banks of the river opposite the city the faithful preacher stood waiting for the hated foreign devil" After con- sultation thew decided to cross over and go to the chapel as if all were quiet and peaceable.
 In less than an hour the -yamun run ners called to inform the honorable foreign guest" of the unrest among the people and of the danger he was in so long as he tarried in the hostile city. The Prefect and the Magistrate both requested. the runners said. that the foreign guest should return to Foo chow at once. MT. Ohlinger insisted on calling on these worthies to pay his and to show them his pass port The runners declared he would be mobbed on the way to the yamun.
 At the yamun it was agreed that the foreigner might stay In the city till daylight. dedicate his chapel without opening the front door and without singing on Sunday, and without preach Ing or selling books on the streets this agreement the runners" came every three or four hours repeating the latest stories they heard on the streets and urging that the foreign guest" leave their mean sity at once. Monday morning they