OTHER MISSIONS
Though the Roman Catholic missions were first in the field by several
centuries, it must not be supposed that they are now the only Christian
influence at work. The work of other bodies is extensive and very
important. The pioneer society was the London Mission, which began
work under Dr. Morrison in 1807. Very soon after them the British and
Foreign Bible Society began work in 1812. But no great mission work
was undertaken till after the treaty of 1842. Then society after
society sprang up. One of the earliest was the Church of England
Missionary Society, which has a very extensive work, especially in
Eastern China. Among the earliest of its missionaries were the two
veteran brothers, Bishop Moule and Archdeacon Moule, who have for half
a century ordered its ranks with courage and self-denial. The
Presbyterian Mission was not long behind them, and the American
Methodist Missions began work practically at the same time; and so
missions have gone on increasing till there are over sixty missions,
over and above the Roman Catholic Missions, at work in China, with a
staff of over three thousand five hundred white workers and a {199}
body of converts numbering over a quarter of a million.
The people who are opposed to missions will immediately say what a
regrettable thing it is that Christianity should present such a picture
of division to the heathen, and they will probably find a great number
of people who are sympathetically inclined to missions and who
cordially agree with them. There can be no doubt that it would be far
better if the Christian Church presented a picture of unity to the
whole world. It would be far better that we should all think alike;
but if we cannot think alike, it would be a great mistake to seek for
unity by encouraging people to suppress their convictions. Unity is
very valuable, but it can never be so valuable as are truth and
honesty. Far better to accept the truth and say that there is a
difference of opinion rather than by denying the truth and concealing
the divisions that really exist to give a false appearance of unity.
If this is true of other parts of the world, it is even more true of
China. Her national tendency is to regard conviction as of little
importance, and on the other hand to lay great stress on uniformity.
Perhaps one should say that this is the natural result of an autocratic
government. Autocratic government naturally encourages the doctrine
that everybody should agree with the autocrat. Now the advance of the
West has been accomplished by encouraging liberty of opinion, therefore
the people who are to expound the great doctrines of Western
civilisation rightly appear before {200} the Chinese world showing a
great diversity of view.
It is most regrettable when liberty is exchanged for tyranny, when the
acceptance of one opinion involves the persecution of another, when
Christians not only differ but persecute and thwart each other's
efforts. This may be an evil in our own land, an evil which we hope
will soon pass away, but in China that evil does not exist except
between the Roman and the non-Roman bodies.
There are great differences of opinion. The extreme Ritualist position
is ably represented in China, the ultra-Protestant position has equally
able representatives, and I have seen them uniting in the Shanghai
Conference in defence of the Apostles' Creed against a Latitudinarian
attack. To the Chinese I think they present not the aspect of
different bodies opposing one another, but rather different regiments
of the same army intent on overthrowing the same enemy; and though they
are clothed in a different uniform and use different weapons they serve
under the same general.
[Illustration: TRAVELLING IN CHINA--OLD STYLE. A RAILWAY STATION--NEW
STYLE]
The American bodies are far the richest. Whether it is that the United
States is a richer country than England, or whether it is that they are
more liberal in their gifts to missions, or whether it is that they are
more inclined to spend their money on Chinese missions, the result is
certain, the American missions have every advantage that money can
give. Their splendid educational establishments are a feature in {201}
many towns. If the American missions have the advantage of the English
missions in money, both British and American missions have an equal
right to claim that they have as representatives in China a body of
self-denying and enthusiastic men. It would be invidious to make any
reference to the excellence of any special mission. Among the British
missions, the London Mission claims indeed the greatest number of
converts, though the Church Missionary Society does not come far behind
it. Again, the Presbyterian Missions and the China Inland Mission have
a large and growing work. The latter is a most curious development of
missionary policy. The missionaries, differing in many doctrinal
particulars, have agreed to co-operate under the name of China Inland
Missions in the west of China; they have agreed not to oppose each
other in any way, and to give each other mutual support. They are
under the head of a director who organises and arranges their separate
provinces. A great feature of this scheme is that they effect a large
saving in the expenses of mission work by co-operation. A white man
cannot live in many districts in China without a supply of medicines
and some Western comforts; they arrange for the forwarding of these
things, and help the missionaries in their journeys.
Bishop Cassels is at once a member of this mission and of the C.M.S.
He is a splendid example of the courage that is necessary for
missionary work. He has been through the Gorges of the Yangtsze twenty
{202} times. Once he was unwise enough to forsake the small native
boat in which he habitually travels and to entrust himself to a
steamer, which, under the pilotage of a German captain, was going to
attempt the rapids. They did very well till they happened to bump on a
rock, when the captain lost his head, and instead of beaching her, he
tried to anchor. The water surged in and soon put out his fires, thus
preventing him from raising his anchor, with the result that the ship
gradually filled and sank and the passengers had to swim for their
lives.
The S.P.G. Mission is excellently manned, but suffers much from want of
pecuniary support. I cannot help feeling that if it was but once
realised how important it is that the capital of China, whither resort
all the intellectual and ambitious men of China, should thoroughly
understand the logical position and the reverent worship of the Church
of England, that the necessary funds would be forthcoming. It is most
desirable that China should understand that there is a _via media_
between Rome and Protestantism.
Without wishing in any way to detract from the necessity for missions
to other parts of the world, we may point out that China has at this
moment a very special claim. No one would say that the mission work in
India or in Africa demands within the next few years that the
intellectual side of Christianity should be thoroughly explained, but
this is actually the case in China. The intellectual men of {203}
China who gather together at Peking are now demanding to know what
truth there is in Christianity. They must be answered by men as
intellectual as themselves, who will be able with courtesy and force to
convince them that Christianity is a religion that is thoroughly
consistent both with modern science and with the intellectual progress
of the world.
No better mission to undertake that work can be conceived than the
North China Mission of the Church of England. This mission, under the
leadership of Bishop Scott, represents with dignity the tolerant and
reverential attitude of the Church of England. One cannot help
thinking that if he had a sufficiently liberal support, so that he
could have a college where he could undertake the education of some of
those future statesmen of China who are desiring to understand Western
things, that his mission might be the means of encouraging a movement
towards Christianity among the scholars and statesmen of China. That
distinguished Baptist missionary, Dr. Timothy Richard, told me that he
thought that the dignity of the Church of England, especially as so
ably represented by Bishop Scott, might be a great asset in convincing
the Chinese literati that Christianity was a religion which would
harmonise with their love of order and dignity.
Of missions of other nations we saw one or two examples, but they are
few in number if you except the Roman Catholic Missions. It is rather
a pity that the Scandinavian Missions do not throw all their {204}
effort into work in Manchuria; few races would endure the bitter cold
of Manchuria better than they, and Manchuria is readier to accept
Western ideas than perhaps any other part of China. She has felt and
realised the pressure of the West, she has suffered under the burden of
Russian domination, she has seen the Westernised armies of conquering
Japan put to flight the northern invader. As we stood on the 203 Metre
Hill and realised on that shattered hill-top how Manchuria has seen the
full force of the destructive power of Western civilisation; as we
counted the wrecks that then lay at the mouth of the harbour; as we
looked at each shattered homestead, yes, and at the bones that were
still unburied, we felt that the great land of Manchuria has a special
need that some one should show her that Western civilisation can indeed
produce something more lovely than shells and bayonets.
I am happy to be able to say that a splendid work is being carried on
by the Presbyterian Missions; they have shown to the Northern Chinese
another form of courage than that which was shown by the warriors of
Russia and Japan. Two stories remain in my mind among many. First a
story of the old days before Russia had made the Trans-Siberian
Railway, before the Japanese had for the first time taken Port Arthur.
A British mission doctor was at work. The Chinese, _more suo_, had
determined to get rid of this example of the mercy of Western
civilisation. They did not dare to kill him openly, so they sent a
{205} messenger who feigned to have come from a sick man out in the
country. The doctor and his Chinese dresser, unconscious of the plot,
readily obeyed the summons. They noticed that a child followed them,
and they did their best to induce him to go home, but he would not.
When they arrived at the village inn they discovered that the sick man
did not exist. They were in doubt what to do, when suddenly the door
was thrown open and several of the soldiers of the Viceroy's bodyguard
rushed in, and seizing the two, they declared that they had stolen a
child to make medicine out of his eyes. They then proceeded to torture
the doctor by tying his hands behind his back and suspending him by
them to the roof. Such was the agony that the doctor lost
consciousness. They then took him down, and he was put into a
loathsome Chinese prison, where he was exposed to mental torture as
severe as the physical torture which he had already endured. He was
told that he would be beheaded, and every preparation was made, and
then at the last moment he was taken back to the prison. This was
repeated till they thought they had shattered his nerve, and then he
was allowed to go free. With that calm courage which has so often
characterised the action of the members of the missionary body he
returned to his work fearless of death and torture.
Another story, which has its humorous side, was also told us. At the
time of the Russian occupation of Newchwang, the Russians had, as we
have {206} described above, been "pacifying" the town, and a crowd of
terrified Chinese had taken refuge in the Presbyterian Mission
compound, where there was only one lady. She, however, came from
Belfast, and had all the courage of the Northern Irish in her veins. A
body of Russian soldiers came towards the mission with the intention of
shooting the Chinese. She took a horsewhip in her hand, and regardless
of the loaded rifle or the bloody bayonet, commenced to belabour the
soldiers with it. There are some things which are understood by all
nations, and the use of the horse-whip was at once appreciated by the
Russians, who fled before her, leaving her a victor and the saviour of
her Chinese friends.
I know people say that women should not be exposed to the risks of a
missionary's life, but the answer is that were women not employed, half
the mission work would be left undone and the heroism with which women
have endured death and danger has been no small factor in the spread of
Christianity and in producing the change in China.
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