The Rev. Dr. J. Walter Lowrie, returning to the field after
a furlough prolonged by ill-health, writes in amazement that
the changes that had taken place during his absence of twenty
months were greater than had taken place during the preceding
twenty years of his residence in China. Of course, there is
commotion. You could not expect one-third of the human race to
rouse itself from the sleep of ages without having more or less
disturbance in various places. But the disturbances in China
to-day are signs of progress. They mean that at last China is
awake. We remember that of old, the dying Francis Xavier lifted
up his hands and said: “Oh, rock! rock! when wilt thou open?”
For nearly a hundred years Protestantism has been hammering
upon that rock. Now it has opened.--A. JUDSON BROWN,
“Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.
(379)