Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1910-11-02
URGENCY OF A CRISIS
Depends Upon Acuteness OF The
Crisis Which Is Two Sided
"PERIL" VS.. "PROMISE"
Rev. c. H. Fem D. D. Talks On The
Urgency OF The Crisis la The Far
Fast

Among the prominent speakers at
the Laymen's Missionary Movement
here on Sunday was the Rev. D. c.
H. Fem, of Pekin, China, who spoke
upon the Urgency of the Crisis in
the Far East"
DR.. Fem is man of strong per-
sonality, an earnest speaker, whose
message carries with it the convic-
tion of one who knows whereof he
speaks. He spoke as follows:
THE urgency of a crisis depends
upon the acuteness of the crisis.
The crisis in typhoid fever comes on
slowly, and requires no heroic treat
ment. In some other diseases it comes
suddenly, and for the physician it is
now or never. A crisis is two-sided;
on the one side stands Peril, on the
other Promise. Never has the world
seen more acute crisis than that
in the Far East. In fifty years
Japan has leapt from isolation to
leadership in the Orient. In twenty
five years Korea has advanced from
the hermit nation to the van of Chris
tian conquest. In ten years China
has sprung from the tenth century
into the twentieth by such a mater
Ial, Social. political and intellectual
revolution as the world has never
equaled in the same period of time.
"Time would fail me to treat of
all these. You are to hear directly
from Japan tomorrow. Korea must be
summed up in a word. Here is the
gathering of the full ripe harvest by
the Korean Christians themselves, but
as all roads to Kansas and Nebraska
and Dakota in the summer are lined
with reapers from other states, so
every steamer should bear to Korea
those who will help her to gather in
the sheaves.
''In China one phase of her crisis
is the birth and growth of a great
national consciousness, of which we
must take full account in our efforts
to help her meet her crisis. In her
Christian church she wants no Wes-
tern dictation, and she should have
none. But she realizes her own weak
ness, the greatness of the field, the
fewness of the laborers, and will
most gladly receive evangeistic CO.
workers, advisers, teachers. Chinese
Christians are growing more and
more restive under attempts to Per-
petuate the Western UNCONVENTIONAL
divisions. They want one Christ
church for China, and will welcome
the thousands of urgently needed
evangelistic enthusiasts with whom
Christ is first.
Critical beyond measure is the
need for Christian literature. Floods
of agnostic. pseudo:scientific works
and poetic fiction are pouring over
the land, while the output of Chris
tian textbooks, helps to Bible study
and devotional work is comparative
ly insignificant. In time the Chinese
church will produce its own litera-
ture, and better than we can give
them, but the time is not yet. They
need our help.
Perhaps most critical of all is the
need for Christian education. Chris
tian schools are too few; their equip
ment bears no comparison with that
of the government schools; yet their
work is so far superior that one in
three of the students chosen by COM
petitive examination to come to
America for study is a Christian.
With trebling of the financial equip
ment of the Christian educational
system of China would come more
than trebling of the Christian influ-
ence in the making of the new China.
This opportunity is direct product
of the Boxer movement, the return
of excessive indemnity for which has
led China gratefully to send her
choicest youth to America, where
many more of them are becoming
Christians.
as" Another product of that move
ment is the new China apostolic
leader, Pastor Ding Ii Mel, whose
crusade within the past two years
ha led nearly four hundred Christian
students to give themselves to the
ministry of the Gospel in spite OF
| opportunities to make ten times the
salary in other employment. God has
thus challeged US to enlarge our theo.
logical seminaries that these young
men may be trained, and shall we not
| do it.
China has been called the yellow
PERIL of the world. The China OF
1900 was great Yellow Peril. The
China of 1910 is still greater yell
low Peril, but she is also the most
golden opportunity, God has ever given
His church. The key to that oppor-
tunity lies very largely in another
Yellow Peril and Golden Opportunity