Among the many reforms foisted upon China by the Powers is a college.
At the head of this college is a Foreign Devil and among its
professors are six Foreign Devils. The court of last resort, however,
is the Governor of Shantung, who is a native of China. He, quite
recently, filled the Foreign Devils with indignation because he
expelled from the college a student who refused to subscribe to the
teachings of Confucius, who was a wise as well as a learned man. The
Foreign Devils transferred some of their indignation to Mr. Conger,
the United States Minister, who "warned the Throne against infractions
of the treaties in respect to the freedom of the Chinese to practice
Christianity." This warning probably filled the Throne with even more
and hotter indignation than that which seethed in the Foreign Devils.
Why should Mr. Conger not follow the custom of his own country and
permit every religion to take care of itself? Here is a case in point.
A Mr. Noll applied for a license to preach and it was denied to him by
a Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian brand because he refused to
believe in the personality of Adam. He would not have carried his case
to the President even if he had not died. It has been asserted by a
Minister of another denomination that Noll was murdered, not in the
orthodox way, but simply because he was refused a license to preach.
If the murder theory be not untenable Noll was not of the stuff of
which martyrs are made, and as all Preachers hold that they are made
of this stuff Noll conferred a favor upon the profession by dying of
consumption.
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