El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-22

1HANG1AI, China, Jan. FL want
to tell you what the missionaries
~ are doing in China. Both Protest
ants and Catholics are the advance
guard of the modern movement, the
leaven which has started the great
batch of Chinese dough TO working.
They were the first 20 stir up the dry
bones of the celestial civilization, and
they are now everywhere aiding in
putting the flesh and blood of our
western methods upon them.
Introduced by the Catholics.
The missionaries have been laboring
here for several centuries. The Catho-
lies were the first on the ground. They
were here represented by the Nestor-
ians as far back as the eighth century.
and when Marco Polo visited Cathay
he found Catholics here Later still
came the Jesuits, led by st. Francis
Xavier, who like Moses, died when on
the edge of the promised land, and
actively pushed by Matthew Ricci, who
was making converts in the Yangtse
valley less than 100 years after Column
bus discovered America. It was Jesuit
priests who made the beautiful astron-
omical instruments at Picking, and who
introduced the first linking of western
civilization centuries ago Since then
Catholics of other denominations have
come, and now there are here Fran
ciscans, Augustians, Vincentians and
missions of that church from Belgium,
France, Spain and Germany.
According to a geography OF China
just issued by the Jesuits, the Catholic
church now reckons its following at
1000, 600 believers who have been bep-
tized 1t has AZ bishops, 100 priests
and about 5000 chapels. Of its priests
1900 are foreigners.
The Work of the PrOtestants-
AS TO the Protestants, their foreign
staff now numbers about $500. OF
whom less than 1900 are men and al
most 1000 are women. OF the latter
1000 are married and 9S4 single. The
Protestants have more than 5000 mis-
sion stations scattered over the empire
and they claim altogether about $4,000
of a Christian community They De-
gan their work only a little more than
100 wears ago, and at first made way
but slowly AS far back as 20 years
ago they had only six communicates.
In 1853 they had no more than $50 and
in 1865 only 1000. Ten years later
their converts had increased to 13,OOO,
and in the next decade that NUMBER
had doubled. At present there are be-
tween 1000 and 5000 native Protestant
CONGREGATIONS, and their baptized Chi
sionaries claim that this increase is
gratifying, and say that if they ad-
vance during the next generation IN
the same ratio as in the past they VIII
at the end of that time have over 20
600, 900 communicates apd Christian
of over 100,000,0OO- This Is
one-fourth of the whole Chinese ma
ton. 1 give these figures from mis-
sionary authorities and those OF Pro
testant Christianity. The Roman Cath-
olics could make much better snow
ing.
school Work Among the Missions.
The great education movement when
is now going on in China was started
bv the missionaries and is largely car
rIed on by them Many of them are
teaching in the Chinese government
schools. and most of the text books are
of their composition The first chi
nese- English dictionary was made oy
the first Protestant missionary 10
China. This was the Rev Robert MOT
rison, who arrived here in lSo'- IN
with Dr. Milne ne also Haue
the first Chinese bible. 1t was Mr.
IVv1ie of the London Mission who pre-
pared the first Chinese school books IN
and later text books on
other subjects, including geology, were
written by Muirhead, Edkins and VIII
Hanson. The chief authorities on IN
ternational law and political economy
now in use in the government acade-
mics and colleges were prepared py
DR.. W. a. P Martin, and biographies
and other books by DR. c. D. Tenney'
the Chinese secretary of our legation
at Picking.
The printing press was brought into
China by the missionaries Dr. , Wells
Williams used the first metal1c types
at Canton. and the first power press
was brought to Shanghai oy the FIeS
byterian board
Today the Presbyterian Press al
is perhaps the largest pup
fishing house in Asia. 1t is pouring
forth bibles, books, tracts and maya
zines at the rate of 90.O00.O0O pages per
annum, and is distributing them all