Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-10-11

It was Goethe who said that 'intel-
lectual emancipation, If 1t does not at
the same time give us control over our
selves is poisonous. His saying is self
! evident knowledge is power, and
every increment Of mental strength is an
| increase of personal power. But growth
! In power is not necessarily growth In
the disposition to use power wisely
and benifcently. Sir Francis Bacon. who
perceived that knowledge was power,
was a man of much knowledge and great
intellectually; but he was justly charac-
| ter1zed "as the wisest, meanest of man.
: kind.
1t was growth in knowledge without
corresponding growth in moral life which
wrought the enormities Of the French
Revolution. And now the press dispatches
tell us of vast unrest In China. arising
! from somewhat similar conditions, which
threatens to break out In revolution In
China. The same forces are operating
which operated in France. The old relig-
| lon is dead or dyingi intellectual life Is
springing most vigorously; no new re-
| ligion to take the place of the old and
direct the conscience OF the nation has
become general enough throughout the
Empire to command the peace. In that
situation in the East is our real vel
/ low peril; not in Japan. The interests
of Japan impel her to keep the peace,
especially to keep the peace with the
United States. She needs our raw cot
ton from the South and our wheat from
Minnesota and the Dakotas. Moreover,
| she is too heavily in debt to go to war.
! Although victorious in her contest with
Russia, that struggle left her exhausted.
She could not borrow, If she would, the
money required for a great war.
But China is awakening she has
! population of over 400000,0O0 to Japan
| 5O,OOOOOO. In her territory is vast wealth,
| and she has untold resources which as
| yet are undeveloped. She is training g.
/ 100000 of troops, If credible authorities
may be trusted. She has thousands Of
J students in other lands preparing for the
public service. She is beginning the
| construction of a navy. She Is hunger
| ing for western learning and arts. The
awakening is very great and very wide
| spread The nation has seemed to slum-
Der for centuries as If stupefied with
some narcotic which put her in a mood
| to submit to the kicks and cuffs of any
powers disposed to use her i'll. But now
! she is arousing, rubbing her eyes, and
getting ready to stand on her feet She
/ will never go to sleep again. When fully
| awake she will tolerate no more "exclu-
| sion acts" nor endure from any power
any sort of indignity. She will likely
have a settlement of some old scores
with Japan, and she will demand re-
spect and consideration from the West
ern Nations. The peace of the world
can only be preserved then by spreading
I the controlling motives of Christianity
! as rapidly as the knowledge of Western
arts and learning is spread among the
! Chinese.
1t might be supposed that these Chris
! tan motives would be carried back by
! her thousands of students now studying
at government expense at universities In
our own and other land. Most of them,
however, are in institutions where a
subtle scepticism and a corrosive ration
alism have enfeebled all christian forces
No virile, dominating Christianity can
be derived from such sources. Not
enough Of such christianity survives
there to keep strong faith in the facul-
ties, much less to impart any to the stu
dents. We ourselves can not depend up
on such sources for a ministerial supply
! for our American Churches: what hope
! of getting from such centers a gospel for
other lands? What promise is there in
such places for men who can confront
age-long institutions of China with a
| faith so confident and courageous as to
command respect and acceptance for the
truth presented? To ask such questions
| is to answer them. IT is idle to hope that
any pale-faced bleached Christianity
shaking with the agues of agnosticism
and quivering with chills of doubt, will
command the peace of China.
The world must depend upon the mis-
| sionary preacher and the missionary
teacher to carry Christianity swiftly to
the multiplied millions of China, or the
world must prepare for a period Of
bloody revolutions there, which will cost
many thousands of precious live and in
| finite treasures of a material sort. The
! mission schools in that populous land
are fortunately crowded with students
anxious to acquire western learning"
, and while seeking learning many Of them
| find Christ. All of them are in some
measure affected with the influence and
I ideals of christianity. They go out from
those schools more friendly to foreign
ers, more reasonable, and more pacific in
spirit They go with purer ambitions for
| their country, which make them abhor
the pagan usages and heather customs
that contribute so much TO the creation
of inflammatory and explosive conditions.
! For these and other reasons the
Christian schools OF China are fortresses