The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-20
AN OLD NATION,
A NEW PROBLEM.
Terse Comments Upon the Christian
Endcayor Topic for July %. He
rocs of Missions i'll China.'-Natt
d: 1916.
BX WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

Some persons still think Of China
only in terms of Chinese laundrymen.
They assume an attitude of rather
contcmptuOus Indifference toward the
'heathcn Chinese" and rather take
credit to themselves for it. They have
no knowledge of tn real China with
it's polished its immemorlal
CUSTOMS. its classical education. and
it's incalculable wealth in men. min
erals and ~erchandiS It is altOgeth-
err beyond h power Of most OF us TO
visualize a nation Of four hundred
million people. SO we so on in our
provincia!ism, utterly that
some of the gfavest problems Of the
twentieth century are being wrought
out in that greatest of all living ma
tons, which. within the n OF
every person who reads these words,
has reversed front with respect TO all
that is known as Western civilization.
Whoever sets out to know China is
wise with the wisdom Of tomorrow.
A great many westerners ave buried
themselves as leaven in China
and, all u~nrecognized, their lives and
labOrs are a factor in the present
Transformation Of the empire.
To have lived greatly for great ends
is a form of success achieved by many
missionaries who have given them
selves for China
The idea of a career entertained
by Jesus aptly describes the life Of
some of the great missionaries in Chi
ma. The Son of man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give his life a ransom for many
The ancient art of China, and the
history of China, have been appreciated
by only a few persons, although to-
day Chinese ceramics are priced by
Discriminate persons everywhere.
Even the geography Of China has been
a terra incognita,' and the first real
" complete and correct maps have
appeared within the past t~WelvemOnth
These, Enthusiastically, liks most
other pioneer enterprises in China, are
the work Of missionaries. The Atlas
of the Chinese EMPIRE with it's sep
arate maps of the eighteen provinces
and four dependencies, is a work to
evoke the enthusiasm of every stu
dent of him 1t is issued by the
China Inland Mission. and has a COM
panion volume, THE hines En-
pire." Such eminent s~inologues as
Sir Robert Hart and Sir Earnes Sa-
tow warmly praise The scholarly ex-
cellence of this work, which is only one
more Of the innumerably b~y-products
OIL 1nlSSlOnS.
No hero of missions regards him
self as such.
TIL scholarly power of some mis-
sionaries is really There
was Walter Medhurst, who could
speak nine languages; Bishop Scher-
~eschewsky, who translated the whole
Bible; Elijah Bridgman, also a Bible
translator; and such living veterans as
w. A. P. Martin, D. z. Sheffield, Ar
Nthur H. Smith, DR.. Wherry, and the
lately deceased Calvin j. Master. The
new education Of China is in the hands
Of Christian missionaries and their
students.
Morrison, Milne, Chauncey Good
rich, Walter Lowrie, j.. Hudson. Tay-
Tor, john L.. Nevius, DR.. Peter Parker,
Bishop Boone, Wells Williams, H.
Blodget, DR.. Griffith John. James
Meadows, Hunter Corbett-how the
mount UP. The western world
knows little what they have done.
but some day China will enshrine
them in her hall Of great ones.
To say that all missionaries are
great and noble and heroic is, Of
course, ridiculous. They are not. I
nave met all klndS IN China alone. But
l remember most clearly such men
as the reserved and scholarly B.. c..
Patterson, a southern Presbyterian,
DR.. j. Walter Lourie, the great son
Of one of China's great missionaries,
and himself the saver of his city from
destruction by the Allies in 1900; the
sturdy, ~tireless Courtenay FL. Fem,
miller Of the Picking siege and now
teacher of teachers and a Christian ad-
ministrator; saac T. Headland, con-
noisseur in Chinese art and Literature:
fletcher Bookman and D.. Willard
Lyon, Major-generals Of the new ar
my Of Chinese young men: DR.. w. H.
Park, the beloved doctor of Soochow,