Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-12-12
THE LEAVEN WHICH is WORKING IN CHINA
nx BISHOP ". A. oANDLzn,

the Roman Empire. Our people seem to
have no adequate conception of the mag
nitude of the events which are taking
place there. The daily newspapers re-
port them, but the average man passes
by the press dispatches from China to
pore over the crimes and confessions of
the McNamaras or the love letters of
female scientist in Paris, who could dis
cover radium, but whose virtue Is not
strong enough to keep the command
ments with deceucy. Z But these passing
| incidents OF criminality will quickly fade
| from the memory, OF most people. The
history which is being made in China,
however, will affect mankind for millen-
lums to come, II the human race should
continue so long Some future Gibbons
| will recite the wondrous story, perhaps,
| and his readers may imagine that winch
| this far-reaching movement was In prog
ress all the peoples OF the earth nxeo
| their attention upon II, and were utterly
| oblivious OF all other contemporaneous
| events. Thus we read the history OF the
decline and fall OF Rome. although the
men of that day, absorbed In Trivial
matters of a personal, Industrial or COM
mercial character, had very little conn
! prehension OF what was transpiring
| around them at the time. They would
| have made better history II they had
| read more clearly the signs or their
times, and we will make history as PAD
as that which they made II we ran 70
measure rightly the events OF our DAY
Do we know what this commouon
| In China means? II is to be feared tnat
most of our people, including majority
| ~ those who account themselves among
the educated classes, have no faintest
conception of the magnitude of the mat
| ter
A nation which comprehends quite one
third the race Is in conflagration' us
uopulation, reckoned conservauVely' mum
bers 42s,OOO,O00 of souls. There are III
China more people than were IN lns
world. in the days Of the Caesars, sano
such is the fertility of her stocks tnaI 'no
population doubles in eighty years l. -
estimated by the most careful students OF
Chinese matters that by the close Oh the
present century the people of the empire
will number not less than 100000. 900, or
| ave-sevenths of the present population
of the whole world. In area the en-
pire. with it's dependencies, covers 4.2Ib.OOo
square miles, or one-tenth OF the lano
| surface of the globe. China is one-third
larger than all Europe. She has 6OOOoo,oOo
| acres of arabic land, much OF whlcn
Is more fertile than any in the Worlu'
Her coal beds are lnexhaustible and they
are almost entirely untouched by the
coal deposits Of the one province OF
Shen 81 are enough to supply the needs
| of ALI mankind for a thousand years. NOT
far from these deposits are vast beds OF
iron ore of the most superior quahty' Inc
supply of oil, copper and gold Is eouahy
abundant.
Judged by the mere bulk Of her pop
ulation and resources, China u.s. theIe-
fore, a great power to be reckoneo WIN
in forecasting the future history OF the
world. II the nation were well organlz-
| "a and wisely directed, as 1t will be IN
the end. she could muster an army or o.
OOO 600 of men without seriously dimin-
ishing the Industrial and protective
forces of the nation. When her people
awake to the resources at their hand,
and begin to turn her iron into arma-
ments and battle ships, bring forth her
coal, or unearth her gold, they will use
their power to assert their rights and
enforce their claims to international rec
ognition. That day Is now at hand =.
| And let no man imagine that the Chi
nese are a weak people The facts of MIS-
tory show them to be a very strong peo-
pie. Of all the nations known to ancient
history and mentioned In the Bible Chi
ma alone has maintained through all the
changeful centuries a persistent, organ
lied existence until now. Ancient Egypt
has passed away. Babylon and Nine
web have flourished and faded until their
CHIEF, interest Is the field which they
| furnish for the explorations of the arch
] biologists. But the land called "Sinim
| in the Scriptures is peopled by the same
race which possessed 1T when Abraham,
at the call of God, left his kindred and
country and fathers house and departed
| from Ur of the Chaldees milleniums be-
| fore the Christian era. OF all her ancien
| contemporaries China stands solitary
among the nations of the earth, aged as
| national Methuselah, but with eye
! undimmed and strength undated No
weak people could have persisted so long
And now, as If Refrigerated by some
elixir of life having power to perpetuate
vitality through centuries yet to come,
China is stirring with new forces and
making the first chapter of new his
| tory the end of which the wisest and
most far-seeing statesman can not pre-
dict with anything like certainty.
What has walked this sleeping giant
of the ages? What has loaded his veins
with such new and vigorous currents?
Nothing more nor less than the pene-
trating and puissant influences of Chris
| tianity.
| The evangelical, missionary movement
| in China dates no further back than Sep
| tember, 1907, when Robert Morrison. go
| ing forth from an American port in the
good ship, Trident" and bearing q let
ter from Mr.. Jefferson's secretary of
state, James Madison, arrived at Canton,
and pesented his letter from Mr.. Madison
to Mr.. Covington, the United States con-
sui there. Insurmountable obstacles
seemed to confront him. but undismay
ed by difficulties he undertook the super
human task before him, and won glori-
Gus victories for Christ. From time to
time others of like mind, courage, and
4 conservation have followed in his track.
He and his SUCCESSORS have been derided
by superficial and faithless men, but
needless of flippant jeerings and sense
| less criticism, they have gone forward
with their work until there is a heaven
of Christianity working throughout all
the ponderous mass Of the Celestial
Empire. and no power can get 1t out or
stay its pervasive influence.
In 1900 the Boxer movement began in
which 10000 native Christians persisted,
as martyrs for the faith, dying as nobly
| as any of the glorious company who
| suffered unto death in the worst of the
Roman prosecutions. That outburst was
| provoked by the INSCRIPTIONS deeds of
| foreign traders and syndicates, backed
| by governments Indifferent to considera-
| lions of justice towards the. Chinese,
xxytIc or, hue hoc 70 awpI0ft