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A TOUR OF THE MISSIONS
Observations and Conclusions
by
AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
President Emeritus of the Rochester Theological Seminary
Author of "Systematic Theology," "Philosophy and Religion," "Christ
in Creation," "Miscellanies," "Chapel-Talks," "Lectures on the
Books of the New Testament," "The Great Poets and Their
Theology," "American Poets and Their Theology"
Philadelphia
The Griffith and Rowland Press
Boston Chicago St. Louis New York
Los Angeles Toronto Winnipeg
MCMXVIII
Copyright, 1918, by
Guy C. Lamson, Secretary
Published March, 1918
A PERSONAL FOREWORD
The forty years of my presidency and teaching in the Rochester
Theological Seminary have been rewarded by the knowledge that more than
a hundred of my pupils have become missionaries in heathen lands. For
many years these former students have been urging me to visit them.
Until recently seminary sessions and literary work have prevented
acceptance of their invitations. When I laid down my official duties,
two alternatives presented themselves: I could sit down and read through
the new Encyclopædia Britannica, or I could go round the world. A friend
suggested that I might combine these schemes. The publishers provide a
felt-lined trunk to hold the encyclopædia: I could read it, and
circumnavigate the globe at the same time. This proposition, however,
had an air of cumbrousness. I concluded to take my wife as my
encyclopædia instead of the books, and this seemed the more rational
since she had, seven or eight years before, made the same tour of the
missions which I had in mind. To her therefore a large part of the
information in the following pages is due, for in all my journey she was
my guide, philosopher, and friend.
Our tour would not have covered so much ground nor have been so crowded
with incidents of interest, if it had not been for the foresight and
assistance of the Reverend Louis Agassiz Gould. He was a student in our
seminary forty years ago, and after his graduation he became a
missionary to China. Though his work abroad lasted only a decade, his
interest in missions has never ceased, and he is an authority with
regard to their history and their methods. I was fortunate in securing
him as my courier, secretary, and typewriter, and his companionship
enlivened our table intercourse and our social life. But he was bound
that we should see all that there was to be seen. Without my knowledge
he wrote ahead to all the missions which we were to visit, and the
result was almost as if a delegation with brass band met us at every
station. We were sight-seeing all day, and traveling in sleeping-cars
all night. Though I had notified the public that I could preach no more
sermons and make no more addresses, I was summoned before nearly every
church, school, and college that we visited, and fifty or sixty
extemporized talks were extorted from me, most of them interpreted to
the audience by a pastor or teacher. My letters to home friends were
often written on the platforms of railway stations while we were waiting
for our trains, and after six months of these exhausting labors I still
survived.
These preliminary remarks are intended to prepare the reader for a final
statement, namely, that the papers which follow were written with no
thought of publication. They were simply a record of travel, set down
each week, for the information of relatives and friends. I have been
urged to give them a wider circulation by putting them into print. In
doing this I have added some reflections which, for substance, were also
written at intervals on my journey, and these, with sundry emendations
and omissions, I have called my "Conclusions." I submit both
"Observations" and "Conclusions" to the judgment of my readers, in hope
that my "Tour of the Missions" may lead other and more competent
observers to appreciate the wonderful attractions and the immeasurable
needs of Oriental lands.
I cannot close this personal foreword without expressing to my former
students and the many friends who so hospitably entertained us on our
journey, my undying sense of their great kindness, and my hope that
between the lines of my descriptions of what I saw they will discover my
earnest desire to serve the cause of Christ and his truth, even though
my impressions may at times result from my own short-sightedness and
ignorance. Only what I have can I give.
Augustus H. Strong.
Rochester, August 3, 1917.
CONTENTS
I. A WEEK IN JAPAN 1-11
An ocean truly pacific brings us to a rainy Japan 3
The novel and the picturesque mingle in our first
views of Yokohama 3
Visit to the palace of a Japanese millionaire 4
A museum of Japanese art and a unique entertainment 4
Our host, an orthodox Shinto and Buddhist 5
Conference of missionaries and their native helpers 5
The pastor of the Tokyo church invites us to
his home 5
Reception at the Women's College of Japan, and an
address there 5
A distinguished company of educators at dinner 6
We give a dinner to Rochester men and their wives 7
A good specimen of missionary hilarity and
fellowship 7
The temple of Kamakura and its great bronze Buddha 7
The temple of Hachiman, the god of war 8
Supplemented by the temple of Kwannon, the
goddess of mercy 8
Japan enriched by manufacture of munitions 8
A native Christian church and pastor at Kanagawa 9
Immorality, the curse of Japan, shows its need of
Christianity 10
Wonders of its Inland Sea, and great gifts of its
people 10
II. A WEEK-END IN CHINA 13-22
Hongkong, wonderful for situation and for trade 15
Swatow, and our arrival there 15
Chinese customs, and English collection of them 16
The mission compound of Swatow, one of our noblest 16
Dr. William Ashmore, and his organizing work 17
William Ashmore, his son, and his Bible translations 17
A great Sunday service in a native New Testament
church 18
The far-reaching influence of this mission, manned
by many Rochester graduates 18
Our expedition to Chao-yang, to see the heart of
China 18
Triumphal entry into that city of three hundred
thousand inhabitants 19
Impressed by the vastness of its heathen population 20
Mr. Groesbeck, the only minister to its needs 21
An address to the students of his school 21
A great procession conducts us to our steamer at
Swatow 21
Shall we be saved if we do not give the gospel to
the heathen? 22
III. MANILA, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG 23-32
A Yellow Sea, and white garments 25
American enterprise has transformed Manila 25
Filipinos not yet ready for complete
self-government 26
Visit to Admiral Dewey's landing-place, and also to
Fort McKinley 26
The interdenominational theological seminary and
its influence 26
Printed and spoken English is superseding native
dialects 27
Singapore, one of the world's greatest ports
of entry 27
British propose to hold it, in spite of native
unrest 27
Heterogeneous population makes English the only
language for its schools 28
Germans stir up a conspiracy, but it is nipped in
the bud 28
British steamer to Penang, an old but safe method
of conveyance 28
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Malay Confederated
States 29
Penang furnishes us with a great Chinese funeral 29
Its immense preparation and cost show worship of
ancestors 29
Mourners in white, with bands of hired wailers 31
Glorification of man, but no confession of sin or
recognition of Christ 32
IV. THREE WEEKS IN BURMA 33-46
Burma, the land of pagodas 35
The Shwe Dagon of Rangoon is the greatest of
these 35
Its immense extent and splendor 35
The religion of Burma is Buddhism, a religion of
"merit," so called 36
Pagoda-building in Burma, coeval with
cathedral-building in Europe 36
The desolation in which many pagodas stand shows
God's judgment on Buddhism 36
Burma is consecrated by the work of Adoniram
Judson, and his sufferings 37
Our visit to Aungbinle, and prayer on the site of
Judson's prison 37
Met and entertained by missionaries, our former
pupils 37
Fruitful Burma and its Buddhism attracts
famine-stricken India with its Hinduism 38
Baptist missions in Burma antedate and excel both
Romanist and Anglican 40
Far outstripping these in the number and influence
of converts 40
The work of our collegiate and other schools is
most encouraging 41
The Baptist College at Rangoon and the theological
seminaries at Insein 42
The lieutenant governor invites us to meet Lord
Chelmsford, viceroy of India, at afternoon-tea 44
A royal reception, with great conglomerate of races 44
A demonstration of loyalty to the British Crown 45
The dinner of our Rochester men at the house of
Rev. Mr. Singiser, including representatives of
the Mission Press and the Baptist College 45
Our final reception at Dr. D. W. A. Smith's, on
Mrs. Smith's birthday 46
V. MANDALAY AND GAUHATI 47-56
Mandalay, in Burma, the type of Buddhism; Gauhati,
in Assam, the type of Hinduism 49
Visits to Maulmain and Bassein, in Burma, preceded
both these 49
King Thebaw's palace, at Mandalay, a fortress built
wholly of wood 50
The Hill of Mandalay and its pagoda, four pagodas
in one 50
We ascend eight hundred steps by taking extemporized
sedan-chairs 51
Four successive platforms and four images of Buddha 51
Waxwork figures at the top depict the vanity of life 52
The Kuthodaw in the plain below seen from this
height 52
Four hundred and fifty pagodas in one, each with
its Buddha and his law engraved on stone 52
The descent from Mandalay Hill more hazardous
than the ascent 53
Buddhism compared with the religion of Christ 53
Gauhati, the capital of Assam, has also its temple
on a hill 54
This temple illustrates Hinduism as Mandalay
illustrates Buddhism 54
Its immoral cult claims to have an immoral origin
in the wife of the god Siva 54
Its priestesses a source of corruption to the
British college and the whole country 55
Vain attempts to interpret Hindu myth and worship
symbolically 55
The need of Christian teaching as to sin and
atonement 56
VI. CALCUTTA, DARJEELING, AND BENARES 57-64
Calcutta, the largest city of India, so named from
Kali, goddess-wife of Siva, the Destroyer 59
The temple of Kali, its priestesses and its worship,
an infamous illustration of Hinduism 59
The temple of the Jains represents Hinduism somewhat
reformed 60
The real glory of Calcutta is its relation to
modern missions 60
The work of William Carey, and his college and
tomb at Serampore 60
Our ride northward to Darjeeling, and our view of
the Himalayas 61
A temple of Tibetan Buddhists on our mount of
observation 61
Benares, the Mecca and Jerusalem of the Hindus 62
A hotbed of superstition and devotion 62
Its Golden Temple, its bathing ghats and burning
ghats on the sacred Ganges 62
Our voyage of inspection in the early morning 63
Thousands bathing and drinking in the same muddy
stream 63
Smallpox and plague in western lands traced back
to this putrid river 64
Some of the temples have toppled over, being built
on sand instead of rock 64
VII. LUCKNOW, AGRA, AND DELHI 65-76
On Mohammedan ground, and the scene of the
great mutiny 67
Elements of truth in the Moslem faith make missions
more difficult 67
The defense of Lucknow, one of, the most heroic
and thrilling in history 67
The only flag in the British Empire that never
comes down at night 68
English missions and education are guaranties of
permanent British rule in India 69
The Isabella Thoburn College, under Methodist
control 69
We see the "mango trick" under favorable
circumstances 70
Agra, and the Taj Mahal, a wonder of the world,
seen both at sunrise and at sunset 70
The Pearl Mosque and the Jasmine Tower, surrounded
and protected by the Fort 71
A flowering out of art, like that of
cathedral-building in England 72
Moslem architects "designed like Titans, and
finished like jewelers" 72
Delhi, the capital of India before the reign
of Akbar 72
The British respect ancient tradition by
transferring their central government from
Calcutta to Delhi 73
The progress of India under British rule in the
last fifty years 73
Indian unrest due in part to English mistakes in
educational policy 74
The Friday prayer service in the great mosque of
Delhi 75
VIII. JAIPUR, MT. ABU, AND AHMEDABAD 77-87
The native states of India distinguished from the
presidencies and the provinces 79
Their self-government a reward of loyalty in the
mutiny 79
The rajas influenced by Western thought 79
Jaipur, the capital of a native state, called "The
Pink City" 80
"A rose-red city, half as old as Time" 81
The maharaja's town-palace and astronomical
observatory 81
A visit to Amber, the original metropolis, and his
summer residence 81
An elephant ride up the hill while hanging over the
precipice 82
The road to Mt. Abu, a wonderful piece of
engineering 84
We reach Dilwarra, the greatest temple of the Jains 84
Their reformed Buddhism recognizes Buddha as
only one of many incarnations 85
The temple is almost a miracle of art, and
illustrates the genius of the East 85
Ahmedabad, a uniquely prosperous manufacturing
and commercial city 86
Factories needed by India more than farms 86
Missions need employment for converts, to save
them from famine 86
IX. BOMBAY, KEDGAON, AND MADRAS 89-99
Bombay, second in population in the Indian Empire 91
Hindus outnumber Moslems and Parsees 91
The Caves of Elephanta, excavated in honor of
Siva, god of reproduction as well as of
destruction 91
His temple a cathedral, hewn inside of a mountain 92
The lingam, or phallus, gigantic, carved out of
stone, in the innermost shrine 93
Its worship a deification of man's baser instincts 93
The Towers of Silence represent Parseeism 93
The dead are exposed in them to be devoured by
vultures 93
Construction of the towers and details of
the process 93
Compared with Christian burial in hope of
resurrection 94
Kedgaon, a happy contrast and relief 94
The center of the work of Pundita Ramabai 94
The story of her life a romantic and thrilling one 94
The pitiable condition of child-widows in India
touches her heart 95
In time of famine she furnishes a refuge for two
thousand four hundred of them 95
The wonders of her plant, in schools, hospital,
printing office, factory, and farm 96
A great scholar of the Brahman caste, she is
recognized as the most influential woman in India 96
Madras, the third largest Indian city, gives us our
first tropical heat 97
A center of mission work for the Telugus and their
tribal conversion 97
New Year's Day reception at Lord Pentland's, the
governor of the Madras Presidency 98
Followed by a reception from the Rochester men,
my former pupils 99
X. THE TELUGU MISSION 101-113
Madras, next to Calcutta and Bombay in thrift and
importance 103
Baptists have done most for the Telugus, as
Congregationalists most for the Tamils 103
Statistics of our mission are most encouraging 103
Self-government, self-support, self-propagation,
require time 104
Conference at the house of Doctor Ferguson brings
together men from four separate fields 104
The theological seminary at Ramapatnam, in charge
of Doctor Heinrichs 105
Our reception by teachers and students, and value
of their work 105
Ongole and the work of Doctor Baker, the successor
of Doctor Clough 107
Laying the corner-stone of gateway to the new
hospital 107
Country tour into the heart of Telugu-land, and
open-air preaching to the natives 107
Vellumpilly, where 2,222 were baptized, and Sunset
Hill, where Doctor Jewett prayed 109
Kavali, and the work of Mr. Bawden for a hereditary
criminal class 110
Industrial education side by side with moral and
religious 110
Nellore, our first permanent station in South India 111
Its high school, under Rev. L. C. Smith; its
hospital, and its nurses' training-school 112
Mr. Rutherford, successor to Dr. David Downie,
and Mr. Smith--all of them Rochester men 112
XI. THE DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES 115-124
The Dravidians are the aborigines of India 117
The Aryan conquerors appropriated their gods, and
Siva married Kali 117
Massiveness and vastness characterize their
temples, but also Oriental imagination and
invention 118
The temple at Tanjore, with its court eight hundred
by four hundred feet 118
Its multitude of chapels, each with its image in
stone of the lingam, or phallus 119
Its central image of a bull, the favorite animal of
Siva 119
Its tower, or gopura, is the grandest in India 119
Its sculptures of gods and goddesses wonderfully
realistic 119
Its appurtenances tawdry, childish, and immoral 120
Yet Tanjore was the home, and is the tomb, of
Schwartz, the first English missionary to India 120
The raja's library of Oriental manuscripts 121
Madura, the center of Dravidian worship, one
hundred miles farther south 121
Temple built about two great shrines for the god
Siva and his wife Minakshi 121
Five great pyramidal towers and a court eight
hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirty feet 121
The "Golden Lily Tank," and "The Hall of a
Thousand Pillars" 122
Dark alcoves and a festival night, the acme of
Hindu religion 122
The palace of Tirumala and his Teppa Kulam tank,
one thousand feet on each side 123
The noblest sight of Madura is its American
Congregational Mission 123
Under Dr. J. X. Miller, its schools and seminaries
are revolutionizing southern India 124
XII. TWO WEEKS IN CEYLON 125-135
Ceylon not a part of India, but a Crown Colony of
Britain 127
Colombo, a European city, and English the best
means of communication 127
Buddhism, crowded out of India, made its way
southward 127
A sacred tooth of Buddha is preserved at Kandy 127
Wesleyan Methodist College and English Baptist
College at Colombo 128
The Ananda College, a theosophical institution,
unfavorable to Christianity 128
A refuge in Nurwara Eliya, six thousand two hundred
feet above the sea 129
Switzerland without its ruggedness, and terraces of
tea-plants lining the approaches thither 129
Forests of rubber make a sea of verdure 130
The Missionary Rest-house at Kandy 131
The famous Buddhist temple, and its evening worship 131
Its library the only sign of intelligence 131
Church of the English Baptists welcomes us 132
The botanical gardens, wonderful for their variety
of products 132
Anurajahpura and its ruined pagoda, a solid conical
mass of brick 133
One thousand six hundred pillars of stone, the
foundations of an ancient monastery 133
Cremation of a Buddhist priest, and our reception
by the high priest of the remaining temple 134
XIII. JAVA AND BUDDHISM 137-146
Java, the jewel of the Dutch Crown, has
thirty-five millions of people 139
The "culture system" makes it immensely productive 139
Mistakes of Holland in matters of government and
education 140
A back-bone of volcanic mountains furnishes
unsurpassed railway views 140
Endless fields of rice and sugar-cane on hillside
and plain 141
A passionate people reveal themselves in their
music, their shadow-dances, their use of the
Malay dagger 141
The new policy of the Dutch government shown in
the botanical gardens 142
More scientific and practical than those of Ceylon,
they minister to all the world 142
Doctor Lovink, Dutch minister of agriculture,
conducts us 143
The temple of Boro Budor, restored after ruin, the
greatest wonder of Java 143
Five times as great as any English cathedral 143
Sculptures in alto-relievo that would stretch three
miles 144
A picture-gallery of the life of Buddha 144
Buddhism has no personal or living God, and no
atonement for sin 145
Boro Budor, slowly disintegrating, has no power to
combat either Mohammedanism or Christianity 145
XIV. THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA 147-161
This essay, a summary of the book of Professor
Andrews, formerly of Delhi, now associated with
Sir Rabindranath Tagore 149
But with additions and conclusions of my own 149
The Renaissance in Europe needed a Reformation
to supplement it, and a similar renaissance in
India requires a similar reformation 150
History of religious systems in India begins with
the Rig-Veda, and is followed by the Upanishads 152
Hindu incarnations are not permanent, and the
Trimurti is not the Christian Trinity 153
The Krishna of the Puranas is a model of the
worst forms of vice 154
Deification of God's works fixes the distinctions of
caste, and the degradation of woman 154
Christianity is needed to unite the Hindu and the
Moslem 155
Signs of an approaching reformation in the weakening
of class barriers and the spiritual interpretation
of the old religions 156
The Brahmo-Somaj and the Arya-Samaj aim to
bring Hinduism back to the standards of the
Vedas 158
The Aligarh Movement among the Mohammedans,
and the Aligarh College in Delhi 158
Swami Vivekananda, and his denial that men are
sinners 159
The Theosophical Society and Mrs. Besant, a
hindrance to missions 160
Justice Renade, in his social reform movement, sees
in Christianity the one faith which can unite all
races and all religions in India 160
In Christ alone India's renaissance can become a
complete reformation 161
XV. MISSIONS AND SCRIPTURE 163-178
Some critics deny Jesus' authorship of the "Great
Commission" 165
We must examine "the historical method," so called 165
As often employed, it is inductive but not deductive,
horizontal but not vertical 166
Deduction from God's existence normally insures
acceptance of Christ 168
Deduction from Christ's existence normally insures
acceptance of Scripture 169
Scripture is the voice and revelation of the eternal
Christ 169
The exclusively inductive process is not truly
historical 170
Both Paul and Peter gained their theology by
deduction 171
Since experience of sin and of Christ is knowledge,
it is material for science 173
The eternal Christ guarantees to us the _unity_ of
Scripture 174
Also the _sufficiency_ of Scripture 175
Also the _authority_ of Scripture 176
The "historical method," as ordinarily employed,
proceeds and ends without Christ 177
It therefore treats Scripture as a man-made book,
and denies its unity, sufficiency, and authority 177
It sees in the Bible not an organism, pulsating with
divine life, but only a congeries of earth-born
fragments 177
XVI. SCRIPTURE AND MISSIONS 179-198
The "historical method" finds in Psalm 110 only
human authorship 181
And contradicts Christ himself by denying the
reference in the psalm to him 182
A document can have more than one author, shown
in art as well as literature 183
Predictions of Christ in the Old Testament
convinced unbelieving Jews 184
The "historical method" finds no prediction of
Christ in Isaiah, and so contradicts John 184
Effect of this method upon the interpretation
of the New Testament 185
It gives us no assurance of Christ's deity, and
ignores Old Testament proofs that he is Prophet,
Priest, and King 185
Value of the "historical method" when not exclusively
inductive 186
Effect of this method, as often employed, upon
systematic theology 187
If Scripture has no unity, no systematic theology
is possible 187
Unitarian acknowledgment that its schools have no
theology at all 189
Effect of this method upon our theological
seminaries to send out disseminators of doubts 189
Effect of this method upon the churches of our
denomination to destroy all reason for their
existence 191
Effect of this method upon missions to supersede
evangelism by education and to lose all dynamic
both abroad and at home 193
This method was "made in Germany," and must be
opposed as we oppose arbitrary force in government 195
The remedy is a spiritual coming of Christ in the
hearts of his people 197
XVII. THE THEOLOGY OF MISSIONS 199-212
Is man's religious nature only a capacity for
religion? 201
The will is never passive, the candle is always
burning 201
Moslem and Hindu alike show both good and bad
elements in their worship 201
Here and there are seekers after God, and such are
saved through Christ, though they have not yet
heard his name 202
First chapter of Romans gives us the best philosophy
of heathenism 203
Heathenism, the result of an abnormal and downward
evolution 204
The eternal Christ conducts an evolution of the
wheat, side by side with Satan's evolution of the
tares 204
All the good in heathen systems is the work of
Christ, and we may utilize their grains of truth 205
Illustrated in Hindu incarnations and Moslem faith
in God's unity and personality 205
Christ alone is our Peace, and he alone can unite
the warring elements of humanity 206
A moral as well as a doctrinal theology is needed in
heathendom 208
But external reforms without regeneration can
never bring in the kingdom of God 209
The history of missions proves that heart must
precede intellect, motive must accompany example 210
The love of Christ who died for us is the only
constraining power 210
Only his deity and atonement furnish the dynamic
of missions 211
XVIII. MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES 213-223
Missionary work results in a healthy growth of
the worker 215
The successful missionary must be an all-round man 215
He secures a training beyond that of any university
course 216
That training is spiritual as well as intellectual 216
It tends to make him doctrinally sound as to
Christ's deity and atonement 217
Or convinces him that he has no proper place on a
mission field 218
A valuable lesson for our societies and churches at
home 218
New Testament polity, as well as doctrine, is tested
by missions 219
Our mission churches are becoming models of
self-support, self-government, and
self-propagation 219
The physical environment of the missionary needs
to be cared for 219
The large house, many servants, and an automobile,
are great and almost necessary helps 220
All these can be obtained cheaply, and should be
provided 220
Other denominations furnish better equipment than
ours 220
Yet the days of missionary hardship are well-nigh
past 221
Missionary trials are mainly social and spiritual;
and there are enough of these 221
But faithful work, in spite of hope deferred, will
be rewarded at last 222
I
A WEEK IN JAPAN
The Pacific Ocean was very kind to us, for it answered to its name, and
was pacific beyond all our expectations. Sixteen days of smooth seas and
lovely weather brought us by way of Honolulu to Yokohama. Only the last
day of our voyage was dark and rainy. But though the rain continued
after our landing, Japan was picturesque. On four out of our six days we
drove about, shut up in water-tight buggies called "rickshaws." They
were like one-hoss-shays, through whose front windows of isinglass we
looked out upon the bare legs of our engineer and conductor, who took
the place of the horse for twenty-five cents an hour.
There were other sights on these rainy days--endless processions of
slipshod men on wooden clogs, clattering their way through the narrow
streets, while they protected themselves from the watery downpour by
flat oil-paper umbrellas; other strong-limbed men acting as wheel-horses
to draw or push incredible weights of lumber; and saving themselves from
the wet by bushy coats of straw that made them look like porcupines;
women, little and big, carrying babies on their backs, occasionally a
girl, aged anywhere from four to eight, loaded with a baby aged two;
shops, shops, shops, one-storied, artistic, fantastic, with signs on
which Ah Sing and Ah Tong have mingled Chinese characters and English,
and which inform you that the proprietors can furnish you with the
_sake_ of Japan or the gasoline of the Standard Oil Company; these
things convince you that you are in the midst of a crowded population
struggling for subsistence and ready to work, a population of
inexhaustible vitality and enterprise.
Our first rainy day was distinguished by a visit to the palatial mansion
of a Japanese millionaire. Mr. Asano, the President of the Steamship
Company that brought us thither, had invited the whole lot of
first-class passengers to afternoon tea at his house in Tokyo. That
house is a veritable museum of Japanese art. It reminded us of the
collections of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. There was a great retinue of
servants, and we were escorted upon arrival to one of the topmost rooms,
where we were served with tea and presented with symbolic cakes by a
dozen gorgeously bedecked young girls, who proved to be the children and
grandchildren of our host. This, however, was only a preparatory
welcome, for it was followed by the real reception in a great
audience-room below, where Mr. and Mrs. Asano, together with their
eldest son and daughter, gave us cordial greetings. A couple of hundred
of our fellow passengers were gathered there and were partaking of light
refreshments, with claret, tea, and mineral waters, while an expert
Japanese juggler amused them with his feats of sleight of hand. The
tapestries and paintings of this house were exquisite products of taste
and skill, and the total effect was that of great wealth accompanied by
true love for the beautiful. But it was the mansion of an orthodox
Shinto and Buddhist, for in every large room there was an alcove with
the sitting figure of a bronze Buddha.
A more distinctly Christian entertainment for that same rainy day was
our reception by the Conference of Baptist missionaries and workers at
the new Tabernacle in Tokyo. They had been called to meet Doctor
Franklin and Doctor Anderson, who had been sent by our Foreign
Missionary Society to consult with them as to our educational policy in
Japan. We reached the Conference on its last day of meeting, and we had
a most valued opportunity of observing its method of procedure. Half of
those present were Japanese workers who did not understand English, and
it was a new experience to address them when every word had to be
interpreted. The social intercourse that followed was delightful, for it
enabled us to greet our former pupils in considerable numbers. We then
took lunch at the house of Doctor Axling, the pastor of the Tokyo
church, while Doctor Tenny is President of the Theological Seminary. The
little Japanese missionary home, with its tiny secluded garden, its
paper partitions, and its mingled reminders of an American household,
were things long to be remembered. Not less to be noted was the
gratitude for our visit which was shown by our hosts. We had regarded
ourselves as the persons honored and entertained. We learned that
missionaries in a heathen land wonderfully appreciate the sight and the
companionship of friends from their distant home.
Even more unexpected was our reception at the Women's College of Japan.
Since I had been more than thirty years a trustee of Vassar College,
and for some years chairman of its board of trustees, Mrs. Strong and I
were the guests of honor, and I was the first speaker called upon.
Before me were five hundred young women in more somber dress than
prevails at Vassar. All rose to welcome me at the beginning of my
address, and all rose again to thank me at its conclusion. Most of these
students understood only Japanese and needed an interpreter. Doctor
Zumoto, the accomplished editor of the Japanese "Herald of Asia,"
translated my address into his own language after I had finished, having
taken notes while I spoke. Until the very end I had the impression that
this was a Christian college, and I innocently made the Lord Jesus the
center and substance of my remarks, declaring that the renaissance of
learning in Japan needed to be supplemented by a reformation of
religion. Only when the evening was over did I learn that the
institution was not only undenominational, but also non-religious,
having Buddhist as well as Christian professors. Doctors Anderson and
Franklin were also guests, and when they followed me, they made the same
mistake and made Christian addresses. But the Japanese management is
very polite and very liberal, and even in the dinner that followed our
_faux pas_ did not provoke a word of criticism. The guests at that
dinner served by the students were from the most prominent educational
institutions of Japan. We highly appreciated the honor done us, and did
not regret that in our ignorance of the situation we had given to that
distinguished audience the true gospel of Christ.
Another dinner of a very different sort was that which we ourselves gave
at the Grand Hotel of Yokohama to the Rochester men. To my surprise
twenty-four persons sat down, but this number included at least ten of
the wives. Chiba and Axling, Tenny and Topping, the Fishers, father and
son, Clement, Brown, Benninghoff, Takagaki, Kawaguchi, all except the
last with their wives, made up the list. I was proud of them, for they
are leaders of thought and of education in Japan. Only Doctor Bearing's
absence on furlough in America, a furlough ended only by his lamented
death, prevented us from inviting him, though he was not a Rochester
man. Reminiscences of seminary life were both pathetic and amusing at
that dinner. One thing impressed itself upon my mind and memory: Our
missionaries have not lost their sense of humor. Under all their burdens
of anxiety and responsibility they have retained their sanity, their
hopefulness, and their good fellowship. The hilarity of our gathering
was the bubbling over of cheerful dispositions, and the safety-valve
gave evidence that there were large reserves of steam. Missionaries are
not a solemn set. They are only a good set of human beings made in the
divine image, for is it not written that even "He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh"?
The next day was the brightest of the bright. We took advantage of it to
visit the great temple of Kamakura, and to inspect the greatest artistic
monument of Japan, the bronze image of Buddha. It is a sitting statue,
with folded hands and eyes closed, as if absorbed in mystic
contemplation of his own excellence as a manifestation of deity, and
careless of the sorrows and sins of the world. The great bronze image
is fifty feet high, but it is hollow. We entered it, climbed up by
ladders to its shoulders, and looked out of windows in its back. Its
hollowness seemed symbolic, for it has only the outward semblance of
divinity and is deaf to all human entreaties. On that same day we
visited the temple of Hachiman, the god of war, most spacious and
impressive in its park-like surroundings of ancient trees and noble
gateways, but fearful in its accompanying images of revenge and
slaughter. Humanity needs compassion in the Godhead. The Japanese have
felt this, and they have invented a goddess of mercy, Kwannon by name.
Her shrine is the richest in Japan. It constitutes one of the greatest
attractions of the capital. Millions visit it every year, and the
offerings of its worshipers support a whole colony of Buddhist priests.
The avenue leading to the temple is lined with shops where mementoes of
the goddess may be purchased, as in Ephesus of old silver shrines might
be bought in honor of the great goddess Diana. It is the old story of
buyers and sellers in the Jewish temple. It was most pathetic to see a
well-dressed and handsome woman bend herself almost double before the
image, clap her hands to call the attention of the goddess, and then
fold them in prayer, possibly for the child that had hitherto been
denied her. It is well understood in this temple that, until the clink
of coin is heard in the collection-box, it is vain to suppose that even
the goddess of mercy will listen to a prayer.
The god of war reigns in Japan, rather than the goddess of mercy. War is
more profitable. The sale of munitions to the Russian Government is
enriching Japan, as our sales to the Allies are enriching us. The love
of gain is an obstacle to the success of the gospel, here as well as in
America. Nothing but a mighty influence of the Holy Spirit can convince
Japan of sin, and bring her to the feet of Christ. The work of our
missionaries, however, is permeating all the strata of society. Western
science and Western literature are so bound up with Christianity that
Japan cannot easily accept them without also accepting Christ.
We wished to see mission work in a country field, and we begged Mrs.
Fisher to go with us to Kanagawa, a suburb of Yokohama, where an
educated milkman is pastor, and where the Mary Colby School of Christian
girls attends the worship of his church. The reverence and sincerity of
the service impressed us. The warmth and abandon of the singing put to
shame our Western quartet choirs. Here is a pastor who prefers to
supplement his meager salary by selling milk on week-days, rather than
give up the satisfaction of seeing his church entirely self-supporting.
It seemed to me the model of a good ministry, and the prophecy of a
multitude of New Testament churches in Japan, manned and financed and
governed by the Japanese themselves. So long as we of the West furnish
both the preachers and their salaries, the Japanese will not learn to
depend upon their own administration or their own giving, and we will
not have churches organized on correct principles and so rooted in the
soil that they can stand the shocks of time and endlessly propagate the
gospel. May "the little one" in Kanagawa "become a thousand"!
Japan is a country where "every prospect pleases, and only man is vile."
Immorality is its curse. There is little drunkenness indeed, and
gambling is strictly prohibited. But the relations of the sexes are
almost wholly unregulated. Patriotism and filial devotion take
exaggerated forms, and girls can lead a life of shame in order to
provide means for the education of their brothers. General Nogi and his
wife can commit suicide when his sons are killed in battle, and the
whole country can regard it as so noble a deed that the general's desire
to extinguish his family name is not permitted to prevent the adoption
of it by another. The Japanese are a nation of wonderful natural gifts.
Honor, enterprise, submission, accessibility to new ideas, powers of
imitation and invention, make them the leaders of the Orient. Steamships
of twenty-two thousand tons, and equal to any Atlantic Cunarders, yet
built in their own dockyards by shipwrights who twenty years ago knew
nothing of their trade, are a proof of extraordinary plasticity and
ability. Civilization and Christianity may find new expression, if the
Japanese are subdued by the Cross of Christ.
My interest in missions has been doubled since I came in contact with
the practical work of our missionaries. We have able and devoted
representatives on this foreign field, and I believe that God will make
them mighty to dethrone Buddhism, and to crown Christ Lord of all. Yes,
"every prospect pleases." When I sailed through the Inland Sea of Japan,
two hundred and forty miles long, studded with hundreds of islands small
and great, islands often surmounted with glistening white temples or
fortifications, I thought our Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, and
even the Isles of the Greek Ægean, were not to be mentioned in
comparison. The landlocked harbor of Nagasaki, with its encircling
hills, is finer than our Golden Gate of the Pacific. Fuji-yama,
snow-capped and symmetrical, seen against the crimson sunset sky, is
more beautiful even than Mount Ranier when seen from Tacoma, or Vesuvius
when seen from Naples. Japan is a land for poetry and song, a land to
awaken the loftiest patriotism, a land to inspire and lead the world.
Provided, ah yes! provided, it can be converted to Christ, and made his
servant. The Japanese is a natural orator; he has organizing ability of
the highest order; he is accessible, yet independent. Now is the time to
make him a preacher of the gospel to all the East. China and India have
already felt the influence of his military and political progress. Let
us, by pouring in the light of Christianity, make him also their leader
in true religion!
II
A WEEK-END IN CHINA
Hongkong is a city wonderful for situation and for trade. It has a
landlocked harbor encircled by precipitous hills and large enough to
float the navies of the world. It is the second largest port on earth
for exports and imports, over six hundred million dollars' worth in a
year. It is a meeting-place of the East and the West, a fortress of
Britain in China, a conglomeration of people, a center of influence for
Japan and for India, an object-lesson in sanitation, education, and
municipal government. The dominating religion is that of the Church of
England, and the Hongkong University, though endowed in part by wealthy
Chinese, follows English models and has a staff of English professors.
I mention Hongkong only to make more clear my description of Swatow, its
northern neighbor. The situation of Swatow is very like that of
Hongkong. A noble harbor encircled by steep hills, it is one of the
chief ports between Hongkong and Shanghai, and only a single night's
steamer-ride from Hongkong. Its attraction to us lay in the fact that it
is more Chinese than Hongkong, a principal seat of Presbyterian and
Baptist missions, and not so dominated as is Hongkong by the Church of
England. As Hongkong is an island, so our Baptist Mission Compound is on
an island, separated from the city of Swatow by the bay on which
hundreds of sampans and fishing-boats with lateen sails are always
riding, and at whose wharves many a great steamship is loading or
unloading freight. When our vessel arrived, we were quickly surrounded
by a multitude of smaller craft, manned by clamorous tradesmen selling
wares or seeking employment. The commissioner of British customs, who
was our fellow passenger, most courteously invited us to share his
motor-launch, and when we had landed on the other side of the bay he
sent us up the hill to the mission compound in two of his sedan-chairs,
each one borne by two stout men in picturesque uniform: and wearing the
insignia of the customs office.
A word about the English customs may be interesting. To satisfy English
creditors, and later, to pay interest on indemnities for the Boxer
uprising, China mortgaged the larger part of her duties on foreign
imports. Sir Robert Hart was appointed Inspector General, to superintend
this collection of duties. He introduced system and honesty, where
before there had been only disorder and peculation. From twenty to
thirty million dollars are in this way collected every year. Swatow is
the third port in the amount thus obtained, itself furnishing two to
three millions of the aggregate result. But this putting her collection
of customs into the hands of foreigners, though it has taught China her
own wastefulness and the superiority of Western finance, is a burden so
humiliating that it cannot always continue. When China fully awakes, she
will realize her strength and will reclaim what her weakness ceded to
Great Britain.
Our mission compound is one of the noblest in the East. It is due to
the foresight and executive ability of Dr. William Ashmore, Senior. He
began his missionary work in Bangkok, Siam, but was transferred by our
Missionary Union to Swatow, with the view of opening China to our
missionary efforts. He had Irish blood in his veins. He was witty and
eloquent, fervid and passionate. But he was also a man of grit, and a
hero of the faith. He wanted a quiet base of supplies from which he
could send out expeditions into the heart of China. He had no means of
any account. But he saw the possibilities in these steep and barren
hillsides opposite Swatow, and for six hundred dollars he bought a tract
which he gradually turned into a garden, with twenty mission buildings
and residences so thrust into the rocks and so overhanging one another,
that the whole plant seems a miracle of engineering. Like a fortress, it
commands the city of Swatow across the bay, very much as Governor's
Island commands New York. From its church and its schools have gone out
a score of evangelists and native pastors, to turn Swatow and the whole
country within a radius of a hundred miles into a present seed-plot and
a future garden of the Lord.
William Ashmore, Senior, died seven years ago. But he left a son of the
same name, who is a Chinese scholar of wide reputation, a sound
theologian, and a leader greatly beloved. He has nearly completed a
translation of the Bible into the colloquial Chinese--a felt need of
many years. At his house, so wedged into the rocky hillside that a
typhoon might seem equal to washing it down into the bay, we were most
hospitably entertained. Here we spent a memorable Sabbath Day. At the
church service, at least five hundred church-members and pupils of the
various schools were gathered, and I addressed them on "Faith, as Both
a Giving and a Taking"--a giving of one's self, and a taking of Christ
to be ours. Doctor Ashmore interpreted my talk to the audience,
sentence by sentence. The whole service was to me an inspiring
illustration of New Testament order and simplicity, for my address and
the sermon of Doctor Ashmore which followed had been preceded by free
participation of members of the church, in which one happy father arose
to give thanks for the birth of a girl-baby, after five sons had been
given him--a great change from the time when new-born girls were
despised and often thrown out into the street. This reverent
congregation, worshiping God in freedom and sincerity, seemed the
prophecy of a redeemed China. This congeries of schools, from
kindergarten to theological seminary, with Ashmore, Capen, Page, and
Waters for instructors, and Groesbeck, Speicher, Lewis, Foster, and
others for evangelists, has already permeated a whole province with
Christian teaching. It needs an institutional plant in the city, where
it already has a noble location, and it also needs a motor-launch to
carry its students to the field across the bay, where they can find
opportunity to win the multitude to Christ.
Even Swatow is partly Anglicized. We wished to see old China, heathen
China, and Brother Groesbeck gave us the opportunity. Only twenty miles
from Swatow lies the city of Chao-yang, where this pioneer missionary
has for eighteen years been stationed. Chao-yang is a larger city than
Swatow; the Chinese count it as containing a population of three hundred
thousand. It is the converging point of all the trade that reaches
Swatow from a hundred miles to the south and the west. Yet all this
trade is conducted through a narrow canal, so congested with boats that
there are innumerable delays. Even when the boats reach the waters of
the bay, the remaining channel is shallow for lack of dredging, and
launch-progress is very slow. We had ocular proof of this latter evil;
but we at last reached the dock.
Then came a reception entirely new to our experience, and one which we
can never forget. Eighty young men from the mission school met us, all
in white uniforms with sashes of blue. We passed through their lines,
forty boys on each side baring their heads as we passed. Then a
procession was formed. A brass band, with bugles and resounding drums,
led the way. The student escort followed. After the long rows of boys
came an honor-squad of Chinese soldiers, shouldering their guns and
bearing the Chinese and the American flags. This portion of the escort
had been furnished by the Chinese governor, who in this way certainly
showed his friendly regard for the American mission. We concluded the
procession, sitting in our sedan-chairs, each of our party of four borne
upon the shoulders of four men. The band struck up, a great explosion of
firecrackers ensued, and we began our journey of a mile and a half to
the gates of the city, and then two miles and a half farther through its
crowded streets, until we reached the mission buildings and the
residence of Mr. and Mrs. Groesbeck on the other side of the town. The
Chinese are great on ceremonial, and all this reception had been
arranged by the students themselves, in honor of Mr. Groesbeck's teacher
and his teacher's wife. Needless to say that I was astounded at such a
reception, for Augustus Cæsar never made an imperial entry in Rome more
thrilling than the triumphal entry which Augustus Strong made that day
into the great city of Chao-yang.