is to establish a home. He approaches them not as a priest, not
simply as a man, but as the head of a family, presenting
Christianity quite as much in its social as in its individual
characteristics. This Christian home is to be the transforming
centre of a new community. Into the midst of pagan masses, where
society is coagulated rather than organized, where homes are
degraded by parental tyranny, marital multiplicity, and female
bondage, he brings the leaven of a redeemed family, which is to
be the nucleus of a redeemed society.... It is on this mission
home that everything else is founded--the school, the college,
the kingdom itself....
When they are at their homes, this new institution, with its
monogamy, its equality of man and woman, its sympathy between
child and parent, its co-operative spirit of industry, its
intelligence, its recreation, its worship, is at once a new
revelation and a striking object-lesson of the meaning and
possibility of family life. Whether they come to his church and
school or not, the natives seem always ready to visit the
missionary’s home, and to remain there so long, and to conduct
themselves so familiarly, that it sometimes becomes necessary to
teach them by object-lesson another feature of the Christian
home--its privacy....
If the family in its very existence is an important missionary
agent, having a distinct work to do, not only for its own
members, but for the natives, ... then there must be a distinct
acceptance of this office by its members, and it must play its
part in the outreaching work of the missionary. The natives must
be brought in contact with this domestic sphere. The walls of the
home should be at least translucent, that its light may
continually shine through to them; its doors should be often
open, its table often spread for them; a distinct social as well
as Christian fellowship should be cultivated.[26]
[Sidenote: At the missionary’s table.]
“Given to Hospitality” might be the true epitaph on the headstone of
most missionary wives, and untold lessons in love and deference
between husband and wife, obedience of children, interesting and
profitable table conversation, self-control, and courtesy, are taught
in the missionary dining room as they could never be taught in church
or school room.
[Sidenote: Planning the day’s work.]
“Won’t you write an article on the orderly management of a home for
the paper published by the mission?” begged a young Christian teacher
who was spending her vacation week as a guest in the missionary home.
“The work of each servant and person in this house is arranged for
every day, and everything goes on quietly and regularly. Our women
have no plan for their day’s work, and I wish they might know how you
do it.”
“I was taking dinner at the home of Mr. C.,” said a native pastor,
“and his little boy cried for some more of the food he liked. Instead
of giving it to him, his mother actually sent him away from the table
to stay until he could be pleasant! I never heard of such a thing, but
I went home and told my family about it.”
[Sidenote: Learning to cook.]
Mrs. J. C. Worley of Matsuyama, Japan, writes: “One woman whom Mr.
Worley baptized a year ago walked thirty-five miles over the mountains
and carried a baby on her back to get to us so she could learn foreign
cooking in a week. I could not do too much after she had made such an
effort. She came over every morning into our kitchen, and we proceeded
to cook; she with paper and pencil in hand and watching with both
eyes. I am wondering what I shall be expected to eat next time we go
there. I taught her some new songs for the Sunday School she and her
husband hold in their little mountain village. I just wanted to fill
her up with good thoughts and helps to take home, as she had made such
an effort to get here.”[27]
[Sidenote: The baby who made her smile.]
Even the little missionary children may have their unconscious share
in kindling a new light that shall shine in palace and hovel, and be
reflected in the faces of parents and children who have long since
lost the radiant look they were meant to wear. A woman of high
position was making a very formal call in the missionary home,
accompanied by many retainers. Every effort was made by the ladies of
the station to entertain her fittingly and to bring some gleam of
interest to the weary, hopeless face. The piano, beautiful pictures,
the wonderful writing machine (typewriter), dainty refreshments,--all
were acknowledged courteously, but, neither interest nor heart was
touched. At last in desperation the tiny baby in her dainty, long
dress was brought out from the bedroom, and, as the visitor’s arms
were stretched out eagerly for the cunning form, so different from any
baby she had ever seen, the little face looked up into the sad,
wondering eyes, and a beautiful smile crept into the baby eyes and
hovered about the rosebud mouth. “Oh, see,” whispered the servants in
eager watchfulness, “our lady is smiling,--smiling for the first time
since her brother died. God bless the little baby who made her smile!”
Ah yes! God bless the missionary babies, and the missionary fathers
and mothers, and every one of the men and women whose hearts glow with
the love of the great Father whose supreme will it is that “not one of
these little ones should perish!”
QUOTATIONS--CHAPTER II.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE HOME
Christianity will call into existence a sympathy between parents and
children hitherto unknown, and one of the greatest needs of the
Chinese home. It will teach parents to _govern_ their children, an
accomplishment which in four millenniums they have never made an
approach to acquiring. This it will do, not as at present by the mere
iterative insistence upon the duty of subjection to parents, but by
showing parents how first to govern themselves, teaching them the
completion of the first relations by the addition of that chiefest one
hitherto unknown, expressed in the words Our Father. It will redeem
many years during the first decade of childhood, of what is now a mere
animal existence, filling it with fruitfulness for a future
intellectual and spiritual harvest.
It will show Chinese parents how to _train_ as well as how to govern
their children--a divine art of which they have at present no more
conception than of the chemistry of soils. (Dr. Arthur H. Smith,
“Village Life in China.” Revell.)
MOTHERS’ MEETINGS
I have been much interested in our Mothers’ Meetings this winter. They
meet at our house twice a month, and we have been trying to have some
very practical talks which shall help them to be better mothers and
women. The need for such talks is very great, and I wonder more and
more that so many children escape physical and moral wreck. Our more
intelligent women realize their need for instruction and help, and are
very grateful for the opportunities given them by these meetings, but
a large number come only out of curiosity. Some of the young women
say, “You ought to have these meetings for our mothers-in-law instead
of for us. They govern the house and our children. We would like to
try these methods. We know they are right, but we are not allowed our
way.” But I know it is hopeless to do anything with the grandmothers,
and I believe that at least these young women will learn enough to
keep their hands off when their turn comes to be mothers-in-law! It’s
a long look ahead, but well worth while to plan for the future
generation, even though we cannot do all we long to for the present
one. (Mrs. Henry Riggs, Harpoot, Turkey.)
A TRANSFORMED HOME
In a small village near Hoi-How lived Sitli Nin, a poor woman, worn
out by a life of hard work, bitter poverty, and sorrow. Her husband
had become a victim of the opium habit, and squandered what little
property she had. When her eldest boy was eight years old, the inhuman
father, in order to gratify his cravings, sold him to a Hong Kong
boatman, and the mother never heard from him since. Eight times she
had attempted suicide, three times by drowning, three times by
hanging, and twice by taking opium; but in the latter case she had
failed to take enough, and the other times love for her children
restrained her at the last moment. By some chance the ladies of our
mission found her. Her husband was persuaded to take the opium cure at
the hospital.... While he was in the hospital, she attended the
services at the mission, and was genuinely converted. Her husband was
cured, and they went home rejoicing in their new-found happiness.
(Josephine P. Osmond, “Home Life in Hainan,” leaflet of Women’s
Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church)
CHILD MARRIAGE, INDIA
Sir W. W. Hunter says, “In Bengal, out of every thousand girls between
five and nine years of age, two hundred and seventy-one are married.
More than ten boys in every thousand between five and ten years old
are bridegrooms; while of girls, twenty-eight in one hundred are wives
or widows at an age when, if they were in Europe, they would be in the
nursery or infant school.”
In England, out of every hundred females of twenty years of age and
upwards, 25.80 are single, 60.60 are married and 13.60 widows.
“A Brahmin of Bengal gave away his six aunts, eight sisters, and four
daughters in a batch of altogether eighteen, in marriage to one
person--a boy less than ten years old. The brides of three generations
were in age from about fifty years to three months at the lowest. The
baby bride was brought to the ceremony on a brass plate.” (Quoted from
_Times_ of India.)
The origin and authority for early marriage are worthy of inquiry.
Like so many Hindu customs, it claims a quasi-divine authority, and is
based on certain reasons which, from the Hindu point of view, are of
great weight. “Reprehensible,” says Manu, “is the father who gives not
his daughter in marriage at the proper time.” And all commentators say
the proper time is before the age of puberty.... A high legal
authority, Mr. Justice Moothoswami Iyer, recently said, “According to
custom now obtaining, a Brahmin girl is bound to marry, for fear of
social degradation, before she attains maturity. Marriage is of the
nature of a sacrament which no Brahmin is at liberty to neglect
without forfeiting his caste.”... Thus a religious or sacramental
purpose has been operative here, as in most other departments of Hindu
life and thought.... There has been one strong incentive to early
marriage, which in the past might be urged in its justification. The
unsettled, precarious conditions of life, from the remotest times
until the establishment of British power, encouraged parents to have
their children married as soon as possible. (Rev. E. Storrow, “Our
Sisters in India.” Revell.)
CHILD-WIVES, PERSIA
The usual age for a Mohammedan girl to marry is thirteen or fourteen,
but in many places they marry as early as eight.... Poor little girl
wives! They are taken away from home before they are grown up, and
although they are now married women they cannot help behaving as
children. There was one young wife of a Government official who
received her visitors with the utmost dignity and propriety, and then
could not resist the temptation to pinch the old black woman who was
handing the tea and make her jump....
[Illustration: A LITTLE GOANESE BRIDE IN INDIA]
Even when the children grow older their mothers, grown-up children
themselves, do not know how to manage them.... One woman bit her
little boy’s hand till it bled badly. He was about seven, and had
cried to have his best coat on when he went to see the missionary.
Another woman bit the cheek of a poor little consumptive girl of eight
or nine so that there was a great bruise and the skin was broken. She
told a neighbor, with a laugh, that she had got angry with the child
because she was tiresome about taking her medicine, which was very
nasty.
There is no command in the Koran that girls should be married so
young, but the mothers declare that it was the command of Mohammed,
and certainly he himself set the example by marrying a girl of
nine....
The man is absolute master in his own house, and unless his wife has
powerful relations he may do what he likes to her and her children,
and no one will take any notice. I knew one woman whose husband
treated her like a slave. He forced her not only to do all the work of
the house, but the work of the stable too, for he was well enough off
to keep a horse. He killed one child in her arms, and twice stole
another away from her, sending it once to a town a week’s journey off,
and once to another part of the town. Finally he divorced her, without
giving any reason, and left her ill and destitute. And she had at no
time any redress....
Little Bagum, the child-wife, was deliberately and cruelly burnt by
her husband, and was brought to the mission hospital. There was no
hope of recovery, but all was done that was possible to relieve her
pain and brighten her last days. She had heard something of the Gospel
story from a missionary who had paid a visit to her native village,
and she had been so interested that she asked two Persian children to
teach her more. When she was brought to the hospital even the terrible
pain she was suffering did not make her forget the wonderful story,
and she begged to be told more and more. And, resting in the love of
Christ and trusting wholly in Him and His salvation, she loved to sing
of the joy to which He was going to take her, and kept begging for
“Here we suffer grief and pain,” until even the Mohammedan women would
sit beside her and sing the hymn that comforted her so much....
“I have a foolish husband,” said one little girl, “He says he will
beat Jesus Christ out of me, but he can only beat my body, and Jesus
Christ is in my heart, so he cannot beat Him out.”
(Mrs. Malcolm, “Children of Persia,” Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier.)
BIBLE READING
THE IDEAL HOME
Psalm 128
v. 2. The busy father working with joy for the maintenance of the
home.
v. 3. The happy, willing, successful mother, striking the keynote of
the home.
v. 3. The vigorous young children growing up in the home.
v. 4, 5. All this is the token of God’s rich blessing to him who puts
God first, and who is interested in the growth of God’s kingdom as
well as in his own home.
v. 6. Not only as parents but as grandparents God’s blessing will be
enjoyed.
PRAYER
We thank Thee, O Lord,
For the sweet and silent years of the Holy Childhood.
For the light and gladness brought into the world by little children.
For Thy servants who, by word and good example, are protecting and
guiding Thy lambs in the dark and waste places.
For the Christian nurture, Christian homes, and Christian parents,
which are the gifts of the Christ-Child to our nation; the strength of
its life and the hope of its future.
For Thine assurance that inasmuch as we have done it unto the least of
Thy little ones, we have done it unto Thee.
For the growing interest and co-operation of the children of the
Church in the up-building of the world-wide Kingdom.
May it please Thee--
To guard and protect the innocence of children, and by their example
to win men and women to a worthier life.
To bless family life, and direct parents in their sacred task, that
Thy children may have a fear and love of Thy Holy Name.
To bring to the mothers of the world the knowledge which alone can
sanctify their joy and soothe their sorrow.
(_Spirit of Missions_, February, 1910.)
QUESTIONS
1. What is the saddest part of the life of a girl in India?
2. What do you consider the greatest sorrow of Mohammedan motherhood?
Of heathen motherhood?
3. What methods can you suggest for effecting a beneficial change in
the home life of the Chinese?
4. What feature of home life in Mohammedan lands most needs to be
improved?
5. What effect would it have on your boy to be married at the age of
fourteen?
6. If you could make marriage laws, what would you set as the lowest
marriage age for boys? For girls?
7. Name the missionary wives and mothers of your acquaintance. In what
ways do they serve and help the communities in which they live?
BIBLIOGRAPHY. CHAPTERS I & II.
LEAFLETS
Home Life in China Women’s Foreign Missionary
Home Life in Syria Society of the
Home Life in Siam Presbyterian Church.
Home Life in Persia
Home Life in Hainan
Home Life in Korea
Home Life in Africa
Home Life in India
Home Life in Japan
Child Life among the Lao
Other Children
Being a Boy in Korea Woman’s Board of Foreign
Selma (Beirut) Missions of the
A Faithful Follower Presbyterian Church.
Auntie’s Explanation
Child Life in China Woman’s Presbyterian
Story of Satabia Board of Missions of
the Northwest.
Child Life in Burma Woman’s Foreign Missionary
Foot Binding in China Society of the
Little Daughters of Islam Methodist Episcopal Church.
Motherhood in Heathen Lands
Young Ladies here, Young
Ladies there
Childhood in Heathen Lands
Child Life in Turkey Woman’s Board of Missions
Chih, the little Chinese Girl of the Congregational Church.
Sister May’s Impressions Woman’s Board of Foreign
Village of the Milky River Missions of the Reformed
Church in America.
Sorrows of Heathen Motherhood Woman’s Baptist Foreign
Missionary Society.
CHILDREN’S MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
_World Wide_ American Baptist Publication
Society, Ford Bldg.,
Boston, Mass.
_Over Sea and Land_ Pres. Bd. For. Miss., 156
Fifth Ave., New York City.
_Day Star_ Woman’s Bd. of For. Miss.
Ref. Ch. in Am., 25 E.
22d St., N. Y.
_Lutheran Boys and Girls_ Lutheran Board, 1424 Arch
St., Phila.
_Children’s Missionary Friend_ Woman’s For. Miss. Soc.
of the M. E. Church, 581
Boylston St., Boston, Mass.
_Everyland_ Everyland Publishing Co.,
156 Fifth Ave., New
York, N. Y.
See magazines of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Boards.
See also Bibliography for Chapter I.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] John L. Dube, Orange, Natal, _Missionary Review_, June, 1912, p.
410.
[16] J. S. Dennis, “Chr. Miss. & Soc. Prog.,” vol. ii, p. 176. Revell.
[17] Mrs. S. C. Perkins, “Home Life in China.” Pres. Wom. Bd. of Miss.
[18] Mrs. O. W. Scott, “Child Life in Burma.” Wom. For. Miss. Soc. M.
E. Ch.
[19] _Life and Light_, Aug., 1912.
[20] _Missionary Review_, June, 1912, Karl Kumm, F.R.G.S.
[21] _Missionary Review of the World_, Oct., 1911.
[22] Daniel McGilvary, “A Half Century among the Siamese and Lao.”
Revell.
[23] Mrs. C. M. Wherry in “Daylight in the Harem,” Revell.
[24] M. Fadil, Atbara, in _Missionary Review_, Feb., 1912, p. 131.
[25] Robert Moose, “Village Life in Korea.” Pub. House of M. E. Ch.
Soc.
[26] E. A. Lawrence, “Modern Missions in the East,” Chap. viii.
Harper’s.
[27] _The Continent_, April 17, 1913.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHILD AT PLAY AND AT WORK
“Boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.”
Questions concerning play and work--Two great movements,
Playground movement and Child Labor movement--The importance of
play--Children at play in Japan--Games known the world
over--Children at play in Africa--In the desert--Why play stops so
early in non-Christian lands--Need of the “Spirit of Play” in
children and parents--The message of a doll--Child labor--Bedouin
and African girls at work--Children at work in many lands--Child
slavery--Rescue homes for slave children--Defective and dependent
children--Orphans and orphanages--Famine waifs--Blind, deaf and
dumb children--Homes for untainted children of lepers--A crime in
the name of civilization--The Child in the Midst.
What is play?
[Sidenote: How would you answer these questions?]
What are the advantages and disadvantages of play?
At what age would you wish your child to stop playing?
What would be the physical and moral consequences to a child who
practically stopped playing at or before the age of ten years?
At what age would you advise that a child begin to work for commercial
profit?
If it is good for the children in whom you are interested to have time
and opportunity for play, how far would the same rule hold good for
other children in America? For children of other countries?
Name the countries in which defective and dependent children may be
neglected or overworked without danger to world-welfare.
Reversing the stereotyped text-book arrangement, we place our
questions at the beginning rather than at the end of this chapter.
Every thoughtful woman is begged to stop and answer these
questions,--in writing, if feasible,--as fully and as honestly as
possible, and then, after carefully studying the subject, to see if
her opinions have altered in any particulars.
[Sidenote: Two great movements.]
Two of the great movements that are sweeping over our land,--the
Playground movement and the movement to create and enforce proper laws
concerning Child Labor,--are engrossing the attention of some of our
greatest and wisest men and women. The abundance of literature on
these subjects, the time devoted to them in great conventions and in
lesser gatherings, the very opposition encountered in the ranks of
those who profit by the exploitation of America’s growing
children,--all go to prove that they belong to the living issues of
the day. Our grandmothers would doubtless have been shocked beyond
words to be told that the subject of their children’s play belonged to
the “Child Problems” studied by the country at large through its
Juvenile Commission, and had become a matter for legislation and
financial appropriation by state and municipality! But so it is, and
Hygiene and Psychology and various other learned sciences each claim a
voice in the subject of the play and the work of the nation’s
children.
[Sidenote: The importance of play.]
A few extracts from earnest writers and thinkers on this subject will
illustrate their view point.
All animals play. Play is likewise one of the fundamental
instincts of the child. If there are any inherent rights of
childhood, the right to play must be considered one of them. It
carries with it immeasurable benefits, but the exact results still
remain comparatively uncertain. It is unquestionable, however,
that play promotes the physical and mental development of the
child, and that it is no mean factor in his social and moral
elevation.... The ancient attitude toward play was that of
toleration of the ebullient spirits of the growing boy.... The
utilitarian function of play was undreamed of. The physical
weakness of the child and his incapacity for concentrated thought
and endeavor saved to him the enjoyment of play until his parents
could use his services in some gainful occupation.... Play--the
most enjoyable right of childhood--was unduly curtailed, and even
at the present day its value is minimized by many who do not
recognize its varied functions....
Whatever be the correct theory of play--that it is practice in
the line of future methods of conduct, that it is simply the
discharge of the surplus energy of the young, or that it is for
the purpose of relaxation and recreation only--whatever theory be
adopted, the inestimable value of play to the child and to the
nation cannot be gainsaid. Play is an irrepressible method of
self-expression....
The social and moral influences of play produce indelible effects
upon the child mind.... The recognition of mutual rights is one
of its initial values. These rights are but little understood by
the unthinking child, and when brute force permits, are often
entirely overthrown or perverted into a mere toleration of
privileges.... On the supervised playground a new regime is put
into operation.... The growth of the instinct of co-operation is
perhaps the most valuable result of play.... Ability to
co-operate spells ability to excel.[28]
[Sidenote: Jane Addams on Play.]
Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago, speaks with no uncertain
sound and with undisputed authority on this subject.
This stupid experiment of organizing work and failing to organize
play has, of course, brought about a fine revenge. The love of
pleasure will not be denied, and, when it has turned into all
sorts of malignant and vicious appetites, then we, the middle
aged, grow quite distracted, and resort to all sorts of
restrictive measures. We even try to dam up the sweet fountain
itself because we are affrighted by these neglected streams; but
almost worse than the restrictive measures is our apparent belief
that the city itself has no obligation in the matter, an
assumption upon which the modern city turns over to commercialism
practically all the provisions for public recreation.[29]
[Sidenote: Professor St. John on the little girl and her doll.]
Singling out one type of the play instinct, the little girl and her
doll, Professor St. John of the Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy
says:--
Altruistic feeling had its origin in motherhood, and it has
reached no greater heights of self-denial and service than in that
same relationship. In playing with her doll the child is in
thought and feeling making that experience her own. At a very
formative period of her life it gives her much the same training
that the race has received through the actual experience.... Every
impulse toward loving care of the doll should be encouraged. To
the child in her play it is a living child, and hence the
experience provides the same kind of emotional training that would
come from the care of a baby, without the obvious disadvantages to
the infant.
Kate Douglas Wiggin says, “Every mother knows the development of
tenderness and motherliness that goes on in her little girl
through the nursing and petting and teaching and caring for her
doll.”[30]
If we agree with an axiom laid down in the first chapter (p. 7) of
this book, that one of the inalienable rights of every child is to
follow his instinct for healthful play, it is now our privilege and
pleasure to watch the little ones of many lands with their tripping
feet and merry voices and lithe little bodies. We instinctively turn
to Japan, “the paradise of children,” where annually at the “Feast of
Dolls” the whole home becomes a big playhouse for the girls of the
family, and where the “Feast of Flags” is the day dedicated to the
boys of the nation. We certainly must stop long enough to see what is
done at these feasts.
[Sidenote: Feast of Dolls.]
And then there is the feast most loved in the whole year, the
Feast of Dolls, when on the third day of the third month the great
fire-proof store-house gives forth its treasures of dolls,--in an
old family, many of them hundreds of years old,--and for three
days, with all their belongings of tiny furnishings, in silver,
lacquer, and porcelain, they reign supreme, arranged on
red-covered shelves in the finest room of the house. Most
prominent among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and
Empress in antique court costume, seated in dignified calm, each
on a lacquered dais. Near them are the figures of the five court
musicians in their robes of office, each with his instrument.
Beside these dolls, which are always present and form the central
figures at the feast, numerous others, more plebeian, but more
lovable, find places on the lower shelves, and the array of dolls’
furnishings which is brought out on these occasions is something
marvelous....
[Sidenote: Feast of Flags.]
As the Feast of Dolls is to the girls, so is the Feast of Flags to
the boys,--their own special day, set apart for them out of the
whole year. It comes on the fifth day of the fifth month.... When
the great day at last arrives, the feast within the home is
conducted in much the same way as the Feast of Dolls. There are
the same red-covered shelves, the same offerings of food and
drink; but instead of the placid images of the Emperor and Empress
and the five court musicians, the household furnishings, and
toilet articles, there are effigies of the heroes of history and
folk-lore.... Behind each figure stands a flag with the crest of
the hero in miniature. The food offered is mochi wrapped in oak
leaves, because the oak is among trees what the carp is among
fishes, the emblem of strength and endurance. The flower of the
day is the iris or flag, because of its sword-shaped
leaves,--hence the name, Shobu Matsuri, feast of iris or flag.[31]
[Sidenote: Playground movement in Japan.]
It is a matter for heartfelt rejoicing that the Japanese Government
has seized upon the idea of the Playground Movement as one of the
really essential activities of some of the great Christian nations,
and is introducing playgrounds for the benefit of Japanese children,
who certainly deserve a suitable place and opportunity to follow their
instinct for play. We hope that hammocks and sandpiles for babies will
soon eliminate one feature of the play hour which is described by many
missionaries and tourists.
“We have such hosts of children here in Tokyo,” writes Mrs. J. K.
McCauley. “We go out and see boys on high stilts, with babies on their
backs, and we tremble lest they fall and drop the baby; but I have
never heard of one who did; and we see girls, jumping the rope with
babies on their backs, and playing battledore and shuttlecock,
dodging, hopping, stooping, and the wee baby’s head bobbing up and
down, laughing, and sometimes crying; but the playing goes on, winter,
summer, no matter how cold, unless raining or snowing. The streets
swarm with children, with bright colored kimonos, bright eyes, rosy
cheeks, and on wooden shoes, making such a clatter; but seldom are
they noisy in their play, but fun-loving as any children in the
world!”[32]
[Sidenote: Other lands feel the need of play.]
That other lands than Japan are beginning to be aroused on the subject
of Child Play by America’s example is proved by the fact that in
April, 1913, letters were received by the Playground and Recreation
Association of America from Persia, Russia, China, and Uruguay
regarding recreation in those countries. The suggestion is made that
perhaps as Rome gave to the world law, and Greece gave art, so America
may contribute play as her share towards the world’s progress.
[Sidenote: Games that are known the world over.]
There are some games that seem to be as instinctive to mankind as are
the processes of eating and sleeping. Kites, tops, and marbles appear
at their proper seasons in Korea, India, and Persia, the rules of
“Hop-Scotch,” “tag,” “hide and seek,” “crack the whip” seem to be very
similar whether played by the Lao children or European immigrant
children on an American pavement. Jack-stones and “Fox and Geese” are
popular among the small, bound-footed girls in China. The rhythmic
movement and exciting choices of “London Bridge” are recognized in the
very heart of Africa in a game so prettily described by Miss Jean
McKenzie that we long to join in the fun.
[Sidenote: African “London Bridge.”]
A mother and her children file under the arms of two players. The
child caught is drawn aside for the choice between a cake of gourd
seed or a peanut porridge, a necklace of beads or a bow and
arrow--we all know the phantom bliss of such choices. The children
are caught and ranged until there remains none but the mother and
one who is now called “the only child.” This remnant of a once
numerous family takes to the bush, but the mother sallies forth
from time to time and tosses a handful of grass toward the
company, who ask her in chorus:
“How big is the only child now?”
“The only child creeps,” says the mother.
“Hay-a-a!” exclaims the astonished chorus after this and all
other complacent maternal announcements.
“How old is the only child now?”
“The only child walks.”
“Hay-a-a!”
To this chorus of astonished approval, the only child comes to be
a young girl, has a sweetheart, is married, and has a baby!
Having achieved so much success, the only child ceases to figure
in this drama, and the grandmother is plied with questions about
the child of the only child.
“How old is the child of the only child now?”
“The child of the only child creeps.”
“Hay-a-a!”
He walks, he sets traps, one day he has killed a little antelope,
another day he has killed a big antelope, and now he has killed
an elephant!
Here surely is a climax. “Hay-a-a!” The chorus disintegrates; one
after another comes to beg a piece of elephant meat from the
child of the only child, who emerges from hiding. One after
another is refused, until that one comes who pleases the child of
the only child. He gives her a piece of elephant meat for a sign
that she is his sweetheart--and they are obliged, of course, to
run away. After them the entire company is, of course, obliged to
follow.
Here, you see, is a rehearsal of life as it is to be. Here is the
dissension, the gossip, the greed, the romance, and the adventure
of life.[33]
[Illustration: “LONDON BRIDGE” AT THE MIDORI KINDERGARTEN, JAPAN]
[Sidenote: African children’s play.]
“Kidd in his book on ‘Savage Childhood’ describes the Bantu children
of Africa as showing great power of imagination in their games. Before
the missionary they appear dull and unresponsive, but when no stranger
is about they delight in playing missionary, holding a play service,
singing hymns, and mimicking the padre’s bad dialect. The insistence
of the motor idea is strong in the native; he likes to play games
involving motor skill, is fond of acrobatic tricks, of mimicking
animals, and delights in dolls and play animals. In fact, the whole
picture is that of an intensely human little animal, decidedly
attractive, and one feels pity that it should grow up into an
unattractive and troublesome Kaffir problem.”[34]
[Sidenote: Children of the desert at play.]
How invariably true is the child’s instinct for imitation, for making
his play largely a “rehearsal of life as it is to be.” The little
Bedouin boys, each with a pet locust harnessed to a bit of string,
enjoy the exciting races of their “fiery steeds,” and prepare eagerly
for the great game in which the bigger boys show their budding
manhood. A dweller in the region of the Dead Sea thus describes some
of the games of the desert:
“The boys of the desert are glad when the first of the month comes.
For that day their fathers allow them to have a horse each and ride
away from their black tent homes into the open desert, their athletic
field. A few of the men, heroes of the tribe, meet there with the boys
and act as judges in the horse-racing. They divide the boys in two
rows, and then select a boy from each side, and start off this first
pair in their race (on horseback) to the distant goal, a pole with a
prize on it such as eggs, money, or clothes. The one who arrives first
takes the prize off the pole or knocks it down with his staff. The
judge keeps the conqueror on one side, the conquered on the other. A
new prize is put up, another pair races, and so on till all the
victors are on one side, and the poor defeated ones on the other.
“A sham battle takes place, the conquerors shooting the conquered with
paper or some harmless shot. Then the beaten soldiers are taken
captive and led to their homes, while the proud victors are allowed to
go to the meeting place of the men and drink coffee with the heroes of
their tribe.”
[Sidenote: Why play stops so early in non-Christian lands.]
All too soon the games of childhood merge into the stern realities of
life, and, as we watch and listen and smile, we suddenly wonder why
the laughter is hushed, why the smiling, girlish lips are covered by a
woman’s thick veil, why the little backs stoop beneath loads far too
heavy for them. Then from far and near comes the testimony of those
who have lived and worked among the children in non-Christian lands.
The physical director of a Y. M. C. A. says:--“One of the strongest
impressions made on me in China was by the lack of opportunity which
the average child has for normal physical development and for the
adequate expression of its play instinct.”
Deaconess Phelps of St. Hilda’s School for girls in Hankow says: “When
Chinese girls come to our mission schools we find it difficult to
teach them how to play, and in the case of elder children we often
fail completely, because from time immemorial the idea of learning
and scholarship has been entirely inconsistent with fun and good
times.”[35]
So great an authority as Dr. Arthur H. Smith says: “The outdoor games
of Chinese children are mostly of a tame and uninteresting type. Even
in the country Chinese lads do not appear to take kindly to anything
which involves much exercise. Their jumping and climbing are of the
most elementary sort.”[36]
Mrs. Napier Malcolm after discussing the play life of Persian children
adds:
“But when all is said, the games and toys are very few in Persia as
compared to those you are accustomed to. No great distinction is made
between children and grown-ups, and really there is not so much
difference as we find at home. The children are taught to take life
very seriously ... and they have no time to grow up into proper men
and women. The result is that we find the children too grown-up and
the grown-ups too childish.”[37]
[Sidenote: Need of the “Spirit of Play.”]
“Little old men and women” the missionary called them in her plea that
to the children of India might be brought the gift of CHILDHOOD, and
so we must not be surprised that our missionaries find the lesson of
“HOW TO PLAY” one of the most essential and one of the most difficult
to teach in many lands. They have been at it for many years in a
quiet, unpretentious way, these pioneers of thought and action. Now
that the whole American public is being aroused as never before to the
value and need of play for _all_ children, let us see to it that all
necessary facilities are in the hands of our missionaries, and that
their numbers are sufficiently reinforced so that the “Spirit of Play”
may flit from land to land and bring smiles and joy and health and
lessons of unselfishness and co-operation to little children who have
long since forgotten how to play.
[Sidenote: Parents ought to know how to play.]
Not only because they are children today, but because they will in a
few short years become parents, must we give the little ones this
opportunity. If the fathers and mothers of the near future know how to
value the development of the play instinct at its true worth, there is
great hope for their children. If they can enter into the play spirit
with their boys and girls, there will be a revolution in home ideals
and companionships. That the lesson is not an easy one to learn or to
teach, we are assured by Elizabeth Harrison, who says, “How many
parents and teachers are there who can enter into this world of play
and not spoil it? In my classes for mothers I have found that one of
the most difficult things I have had to teach many of them has been
how to play simply and genuinely as a child will play.”
But whether the parents themselves know how to play or not, the
quickest and surest way into their hearts is through sympathy with the
play instinct of a little child. The missionary who can enter into
even that realm of the life of a child has the wondering appreciation
of the parent. A little mountain girl lay dangerously ill at the
girls’ school in Urumia, Persia. The principal, who was tenderly
caring for her in her own room, came to ask if by any chance I knew
how to get hold of a dollie for the little child, who had seen such a
toy in the possession of a missionary’s child. Yes, a thoughtful
friend had tucked a couple of dolls into one of my boxes for just such
an emergency, and the one whose head had survived the eight thousand
mile journey was found and sent to the little girl. Such rapturous
smiles, such motherly hugs and caresses, such appreciation when her
schoolmates gave up their recreation hours in order to make proper
Persian clothes to replace the queer American garments! And when the
little one went to be with Him who “gathers the lambs in His arms,”
her weeping parents selected according to custom her chief treasure to
lay into the casket,--in this instance, the cheap little American doll
that had travelled so far to bring joy to the heart of a dying child.
Up into the rugged Kurdish mountains the crude casket was carried on
the back of a sure-footed horse, and at every village where there were
friends of the family the caravan was halted for a last glimpse of
the little face and a wondering look at the fascinating toy. “How they
must have loved her!” was the text from which the doll preached many a
sermon that day.
[Sidenote: Need of public sentiment concerning child labor.]
In order that the “Spirit of Play” may have full right of way, a
great, united, preliminary effort is needed, that the little ones of
all lands may come into their rightful heritage. What time, what
strength, what zest is there left for play when the children have to
work and contribute toward the family support? With shame we confess
that the Christian nations are far from guiltless in this matter,--the
blood of thousands of their children cries to God from the ground.
But, thank God, they are _aroused_, and changes are taking place with
wonderful rapidity, and nations like China and Japan are _looking to
us_ as examples. Shall we fail them in their hour of crisis, or shall
we lead and help and encourage them and other lands awaking from
age-long sleep in this matter of their duty to the children?
Prominent among the rights of the child must be the right to
abstain from the task of earning money either for his own support
or to increase the family income. Premature child labor is an
absolute evil and is wholly without justification.... The
enlightened view of today refuses to regard the child as a mere
commercial asset of the parent. On the contrary, the relation of
the two is exactly reversed. Until children reach a certain age it
is absolutely necessary that they be supported by their parents,
and society must enforce this obligation.[38]
[Sidenote: Bedouin girls at work.]
“How hard the Bedouin girls have to work,” we read in “Topsy-Turvey
Land,”[39] “treated like beasts of burden as if they had no souls!
They go barefoot carrying heavy loads of wood or skins of water, grind
the meal and make fresh bread every morning, or spin the camel’s hair
or goat’s hair into one coarse garment.”
One little Bedouin girl said, “I tote my two small brothers on my back
all day long, and they kill me a thousand times with their crying.”
Another said, “What do I do? Why, nothing but work--that’s what
children are for.”[40]
The familiar Chinese proverb,--“A child of six should earn his own
salt,” is an indication of public opinion that needs revision.
On the African girl the burden falls early and heavily, while her
brother, joining the men in their occupations, finds life much easier
and more enjoyable than she does.
[Sidenote: The burden of the African girl.]
“The girl follows her mother to the plantation (distance one-half to
one mile from the village), imitating her mother in carrying a basket
on her back, its weight supported by a broad strap going around it and
over her forehead. Some burden is always put into that basket, often
one beyond the child’s strength, as a jug of water. The little one
staggers under it, leaning far forward to lessen the direct traction
over her forehead. With that daily bending the child would become
deformed, were it not counteracted by the carrying at other times of a
log of firewood or some lighter burden on her head.”[41]
[Sidenote: Children at work in many lands.]
The little coolie children of Hong Kong toiling up a steep road under
the broiling sun with great loads of bricks slung on either end of a
bamboo pole; the thousands of Chinese children gathering and carrying
home great loads of fuel and manure; the Japanese girls sitting
closely on their heels and painting cheap crockery for $1.00 a week;
the little children of a Japanese village helping to support
themselves by making match boxes for the sum of eight cents a
thousand; the mere babies picking tea leaves under the hot sun in
Bengal; the seven year old girls working from five in the morning to
six at night in the cotton and silk mills in China;--these and
countless others seem to be calling to us in the name of the Child of
Bethlehem to lighten in some way their heavy load.
[Illustration: LITTLE MANURE GATHERERS IN A PERSIAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE]
And, oh, what heroic efforts your missionaries are making to lessen
the great evil, but how powerless they seem in lands where _no law, no
custom, no religion_ gives the child any rights. Once more we turn to
Mrs. Napier Malcolm for a vivid word picture from Persia.[42]
[Sidenote: The little carpet weavers of Persia.]
But for the horrors of child labor in the carpet trade we must
turn to the factories of Kirman.
These factories are filled with children from four years old
upward, underfed, overworked, living a loveless, joyless,
hopeless life. The factories are built without windows lest the
children’s attention should be distracted, and the bad air, want
of food, and the constantly keeping in one position produce
rickets and deformity in nearly all. Of thirty-eight children
examined in one factory, thirty-six were deformed.
One of the Governors of Kirman forbade the employment of children
under twelve in the factories, but the order did not last beyond
his governorship. The same Governor gave the order still in
force, which forbids the employment of children before dawn or
after sunset, thus reducing their working hours to an average of
twelve hours a day. A recent Governor added to this an order
limiting the Friday work to about two and a half hours, “from
sunrise to full sunshine,” so now the children share in part the
general Friday holiday of Mohammedanism.
One of our medical missionaries was called to attend the wife of
the owner of one of these factories, and consented to do so on
condition he made windows in his factory to allow the children
air and light. He objected at first, saying that it would prevent
their working, but finally consented, and admitted afterwards
that the children did more work with the windows than they had
done without them.
The factory owners are glad to get the children, for they say
children work better than grown-up people at carpet-making, and
of course they expect less wages. But how can the parents allow
their children to live this cruel life? You will find the answer
in the Persian saying that “of every three persons in Kirman,
four smoke opium.”... Over and over again comes the terrible
story, the father and mother smoke opium; the little deformed
child toils through the long days to earn the money that buys it.
Is the picture sad enough, are the colors gloomy enough, are the weary
cries loud enough to reach and touch every womanly heart in a
Christian land,--every mother or sister or teacher who has ever loved
or helped or taught a child? Ah, but we must go into darker depths
than these if we are to be even ordinarily intelligent concerning
child life and its needs. What of the little slave children who are
stolen from their homes “in darkest Africa,” who are sold by their
parents in China and Assam, who live lives of unspeakable misery in
Korea, in Siam, in Turkey, Morocco, and Arabia? Paid child labor is
terrible enough, but the countless slave children of the world live
under a far more cruel system.
In his revelations concerning “The Crime of the Congo,” A. Conan Doyle
gives proof of the atrocious crimes perpetrated on little children as
well as on men and women by employees of the Congo government. The
selling, beating, mutilation, and murder of children were proved to be
common occurrences.
It is said to be difficult for even the missionaries to realize the
awful extent of the traffic in girls in China. In famine times girls
may be bought for a mere song, sometimes being peddled about the
streets in a basket and sold like poultry. In Siam the problem of
slavery has assumed such large proportions that the king issued an
edict a few years ago that thereafter all children born of slaves
should be free.
[Sidenote: Rescue Homes for slave children in Arabia.]
“To set at liberty them that are bound” is still the work of Jehovah’s
servants, and here and there throughout mission lands will be found
Rescue Homes for slave children where new life and hope and
opportunity are given to children who have been stolen from their
homes or deliberately sold into slavery. The rescued-slave school in
Muscat, Arabia, was started by the Rev. Peter Zwemer for some African
slave boys caught by Arab traders, who were in turn caught by a
British consul whose servant saw the slave-dhow and reported it. The
rescued children were turned over to Christian people, most of them
being cared for and trained for useful Christian manhood at the Muscat
school.
[Sidenote: In China.]
_The Spirit of Missions_ for June, 1905, tells of a woman’s conference
held at Shanghai at which one of the subjects chosen for discussion
was “Chinese Slave Girls.” A successful effort was made to enlist the
co-operation of non-missionary ladies, and the result was the opening
of a home for slave children under the direction of a committee on
which the missionaries and the foreign residents were represented.
After four years they were able to report the presence of fifteen
girls, most of them very young and looking even younger than they
really were because stunted by harsh treatment and lack of sufficient
food. Not a child in the home but had been taken from a life of pain
and cruel hardship, and none is too wretched or maimed or low to be
received. They are taught to sew, to read and write in their own
language, and to know and love Christ who put it into the hearts of
His children to save and help them.
[Sidenote: Result of saving a slave-child.]
If you are tempted to query,--Can a stunted, maimed, degraded
slave child ever repay such an outlay of effort and toil and
expense?--please read the following extract from a letter from Miss
Muir of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in China.
One year ago last spring Dr. B. was called to see a little slave
girl in one of China’s most prominent official’s families. She was
five years old. She was caught napping when she should have been
fanning one of the young ladies of the family. This young lady,
sixteen years old, a spoiled pet, struck the child over the head
and face, leaving deep scars, tied her hands and feet together,
and threw scalding water upon her. When Dr. B. saw her he
persuaded them to let her go to the Hospital, where her feet and
all fingers except the stump of her right thumb had to be
amputated. Then Dr. B. wanted to put her into the school, and so
he told this official he would have to settle a certain amount of
money on her for life or he (Dr. B.) would expose him to the
public and the foreign countries where he had lived. After he had
tried in every way to creep out of it, Dr. B. holding fast,
$3000.00 was settled upon the child as long as she lives, but
whatever has not been spent of it at her death goes back to the
family. This is poor little Mary, who is compelled to walk on her
knees the rest of her life just because she was too sleepy to keep
awake one afternoon when only five years old. But her influence in
the school cannot be estimated. Her being there has helped to
soften and make more kind and thoughtful every girl from the
oldest to the youngest. It is beautiful to watch the little ones
try to carry her or pick her up when she falls. It has been the
redemption of “Pontsi” (Fattie), who used to be the mischief of
the school: she would not study for any teacher, and was the
hopeless case of every one. “Pontsi” appointed herself the
guardian and caretaker of Mary as soon as Mary came to school; she
is Mary’s partner in the line; she wheels Mary in her little
chair; helps her up and down from the bench in chapel; and is
always alert to do the many little helpful things where Mary needs
help. She has become very studious and good in her classes, no
more in mischief. But Mary has such a bright, happy disposition
that she is a great help to herself, and many a time will beat
half a dozen with two good feet running across the compound on her
knees.
[Illustration: CHINESE MARY
A Cripple for life, because she took a nap at the wrong time]
[Sidenote: Defective and dependent children.]
We started our chapter with children at play; we found that all too
soon in countless instances the play must cease and hard grinding work
must begin; we learned that in many lands great masses of little
children are in hopeless slavery. One other large group of pathetic
little ones claims our attention, sympathy, and help in this
connection,--children who know little or nothing of play and fun and
laughter,--for whom no provision is made in lands where Christ is not
known. These are the defective and dependent children,--cripples, deaf
mutes, the blind, orphans, famine waifs, children of lepers. Why is it
that until missionaries started to work for these classes of children,
or governments were inspired to such efforts by the examples of
Christian governments, there was no chance or hope for the great mass
of defective and dependent children in non-Christian lands? Why is it
that blind girls in Korea had no other prospect than that of being
sold to be trained as sorceresses, or that parents of blind Chinese
girls find a ready market for them in brothels? Search diligently and
find out if you can what would have become of the famine waifs of
India and China, or the massacre orphans of Turkey, had not Christian
missionaries considered their need a call to new and more difficult
service, and had not Christians in Europe and America heard and
answered the call for more funds to support the new work.
[Sidenote: Statistics.]
The World Atlas of Christian Missions, published in 1911, gives the
statistics for Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands as follows:
Missionary Orphanages 266
Inmates 20,303
Homes for Untainted Children of Lepers 21
Inmates 567
[Sidenote: Armenian massacre orphans.]
The Armenian massacres in 1894-96 cast some fifty thousand children in
Turkey without warning onto the care of the missionaries, who had to
face the alternative of letting these children die or drift hopelessly
into lives of wretchedness and vice, or else of caring for them in
some adequate, systematic way. Many pages might be written to show how
Christian missions rose to the occasion, but one instance must suffice
as an illustration of the task, how it was met, and its consequences.
We quote from a letter written in 1912 by Rev. George C. Reynolds, M.
D., for forty-four years a missionary in Van, Turkey.
“In 1896 occurred the great massacre, when for a week our premises
became the place of refuge for the Armenians, of which from 10,000 to
15,000 availed themselves. And then our streets became filled with
helpless orphans, whose plaintive cry for help we tried to voice as an
appeal to Christian philanthropy in America and Europe. Thank God, the
appeal brought response, and we were enabled to gather in a few of
these helpless waifs to feed and shelter and clothe and educate in
books and trades. For fifteen years this God-given work was continued,
and several temporary buildings were erected for its accommodation.
When our German friends withdrew their part of the institution to
separate quarters, promising sufficient orphanage provision for the
province, the American Orphanage was allowed to pass into history; but
we feel as we review this history, that this effort at least was worth
while. Nearly a thousand children were rescued from the streets to
find a loving Christian home, and the elevation which it gave them
over the mass of even well-to-do villagers from among whom most of
them were taken might almost make them thankful for the massacre.
Forty-five of the five hundred and seventy-five boys have graduated
from our high school, thirty-nine of whom have given some years of
their lives to teaching. A good number have continued their studies
in higher institutions in this country or abroad. Two have secured the
degree of M. D. in America, and are engaged in successful practice of
their profession there, while others are on their way to the same
goal. One has just taken his M. D. degree from Edinburgh University,
and another is soon to graduate from London University, while three or
four are successfully pursuing university studies at Harvard. Three
have graduated from colleges in Turkey. Political and economic
conditions in this land not being attractive, many have emigrated, of
whom fifty are now in the United States, and two in South America.
Most of these are fully making good. This orphanage episode of my life
brings me much of joy and satisfaction.”
[Sidenote: Mohammedan children in need.]
Seventeen years pass, and the scene changes. _Then_ it was Christian
children, helpless and starving because the Mohammedans had killed
their parents. _Now_ it is Mohammedan children homeless and suffering
because Christian nations have devastated their land by war. Then and
now it is the Christian missionary who sees the need and realizes that
“it is not the will of our Father that _one_ of these little ones
should perish.” “Some of these children are simply irresistible,”
writes Professor Arthur Reed Cass of the International College,
Smyrna, “The stories they tell are sad indeed. Hundreds of Moslem
babies are being born on transport ships and in schools where lessons
have been suspended to make room for homeless folk. Here is a chance
for American Christianity to prove its recognition of need regardless
of lines of race and creed.”[43]
[Sidenote: The “Polishing Jade Establishment.”]
Reports full of thrilling interest come to hand concerning the work of
Christian orphanages in non-Christian lands,--institutions founded and
maintained by those who consider it their privilege to act as the
human agents of Him who is the “Father of the fatherless.” We are told
that St. Mary’s Orphanage maintained in Shanghai, China, by the
Episcopal Board of Missions has been dubbed by the Chinese, “The
Polishing Jade Establishment,” which is a reference to their own
classic teaching that as jade must be cut and polished to be of value,
so children must be taught and trained.
[Sidenote: Orphanages in India.]
The plan of establishment of orphanages in India under the Methodist
Episcopal Mission dates back to 1857, and is a fine example of how
Christian missionaries are on the lookout for suitable openings for
work, and how to them is apt to be granted the far vision that labors
for the present and future generations and for eternity.
The orphanage for girls was first established in the city of
Lucknow, but up to the close of 1860 only thirteen orphans had
been received. Owing to the famine that spread over the land after
the great mutiny, it became an easy matter to secure girls, and
the following year the number increased to forty-one.... At the
close of the mutiny, Dr. Butler made application to the government
for a number of girls to be placed in the orphanage, to be cared
for by the mission. The government was very willing that the
children should be thus provided for.... Dr. Butler says:
“Upon reaching the city we found that the Mohammedan officers
connected with the magistrate’s court, at whose disposal the
girls had been placed, had distributed many of them in houses of
infamy throughout the city to be brought up to a life of sin.
This matter was presented to the governor, and the children were
ordered to be immediately recovered and forwarded to the mission.
They were sent in large carts, each containing twenty girls. The
oldest was probably twelve or thirteen years, the youngest a mere
babe; but three-fourths of them were under eleven years of age.
Each driver had his list for his load. He lifted out the largest
one first and laid her down, then the rest, placing them around
her as if building them into a bee-hive shape. Then the heaps
were counted and the signature affixed to each list, and the
carts moved out.
“The children were all untidy, and their countenances bore the
traces of the hunger through which they had passed.... But these
were girls, and the glad thought was that they were our own to
save and train and elevate. We accepted them as a trust from God.
All hands were soon at work in loving labor to change the aspect
of things. The missionary women and their native helpers before
the sun went down had accomplished a delightful transformation.
Bodies were washed, clean clothing put on, and a hearty meal of
wholesome food banished the gloomy looks and brought forth the
first smiles on those little faces.”[44]
[Illustration: BASKET OF BABIES FROM THE ORPHANAGE, GUNTUR, INDIA]
[Sidenote: Famine waifs.]
Not only are orphanages established, but missionaries use many other
means to provide for helpless, dependent, or neglected children who
are thrown on their care. After one of India’s great famines the Rev.
Rockwell Clancy of Allahabad formed a distributing station for famine
waifs and collected and placed hundreds of them in various schools and
institutions throughout the land. A new missionary to China after only
a month’s study of the language had rather an interesting trip with
his collection of famine orphans. He writes:--
“The trip to Nanking, including a ten-mile trip on the Presbyterian
motor boat to the railroad station and the one hundred miles by rail,
was full of wonders to these little country lads. On the cars when
eating our slim lunch, consisting of a bun and a boiled egg for each
boy, one of the boys who was a little older than most of them politely
offered part of his share to the people who were occupying the same
seat with him, and this in spite of the fact that he had been going
hungry for weeks or months.
“After entering the city wall at Nanking we drove the seven miles to a
rented Chinese house where I was living, which was to serve as their
home for the time being. One of the drivers told the boys that we were
going to dig out their eyes and cut out their stomachs. This awesome
news, coupled with a little homesickness, was probably the cause of
two of them running away the very next day. We had to send four or
five to the Methodist hospital to be treated, and two of the older
boys who were allowed to go along ran away. But their places have been
filled by three others, two of whom I had to leave in the hospital at
Hwai Yuan.”[45]
[Sidenote: A Persian “Helen Keller.”]
What provision is there for the blind, the deaf and dumb, the crippled
children in non-Christian lands? Would you care to know the number of
children whose fate is like that of the Mohammedan girl who was
brought by her grandmother to the missionary dispensary in Persia? She
was deaf, dumb, and blind, and her grandmother pleaded with the lady
physician to do something to cure her. The girl shrank in fright as a
strange hand touched her and then every tense muscle in her body
showed amazement and relief when the hand proved to be gentle and
loving. Again the grandmother brought her, saying, “You _must_ find a
remedy. There is nothing we can do with her. Must I kill her?” and the
missionary’s heart was broken because she could not cure and there was
absolutely no institution to which to take the girl. Some years later
a younger deaf and dumb girl was brought to the dispensary by a woman
whose face seemed familiar and who turned out to be the despairing old
grandmother. “Where is the older girl?” asked the doctor. “Oh,”
exclaimed the old woman, while the tears rained down her face, “I had
to kill her. There was nothing else to do!”
Who knows what there was behind that wall of blindness and
deafness,--who knows what might have been the result had the
Mohammedan Helen Keller had her fair chance? Which members of the
“organized motherhood for the children of the world” will see to it
that there are means and workers enough to give these children their
inalienable rights? The work is barely begun, but is full of promise.
[Sidenote: Blind children in India.]
“According to the last census, the number of blind persons in the
Indian Empire is 600,000. Little was done for them until Miss Asquith,
superintendent of the school for Tamil girls in Palamcotta, founded a
school for blind children a few years ago. Her success was so great
that she resigned her lucrative position and gave herself and all her
time to the care of the blind. Now the English Government will aid her
in the erection of two substantial school buildings, one for boys, the
other for girls, that she may give both a more complete
education.”[46]
[Sidenote: Work for the deaf.]
“The Martha A. King Memorial School for the Deaf has been started as a
department of the work of the Woman’s Board of Missions at Marsovan.
The oral method is used, and it is the intention to teach each pupil
the language of his own home. The present year the Greek department
has been opened, an Armenian department will be opened in September,
1911, and one in Turkish as soon as there is a demand for it.
“Children (both boys and girls) will be received at from six to eight
years of age. Older children may be accepted, but it is important for
the attainment of the best results that pupils begin the work within
the age limits named. Miss Philadelpheus, the teacher, has spent two
years at the Clark School for the Deaf, Northampton, Mass., in
preparation for this work. Both the home and school life of the
children are under the most careful supervision.”[47]
[Sidenote: Deaf and dumb school in China.]
One in every five hundred of China’s vast population is estimated to
be deaf and dumb. The _only_ school in China for such unfortunates is
in Chefoo and was started in 1898 as an independent work by Mrs. A. T.
Mills, for many years a member of the Presbyterian Mission, which
heartily approves of the school, but has no funds with which to
support it. Boys and girls are taught in this school to read, write,
and speak, and are given as much elementary knowledge as is possible,
while being trained to useful occupations by which they may hope to be
self-supporting. Such constructive work for children who are
handicapped is considered absolutely necessary in America and Europe.
Is there in your opinion any necessity for multiplying such agencies
in non-Christian lands?
Does it pay to help in Christ’s name even one of _these_ little ones?
Are they worth helping? Which one of us could do the work of the blind
reader of Amritsar in India?
[Sidenote: The blind reader of Amritsar.]
“A peculiarly bright, happy-looking girl of about eighteen,
sitting down at the beginning of the morning in one of our
Amritsar dispensaries, with her large Gospel of St. Matthew, in
Dr. Moon’s system of raised characters for the blind, open on her
knees; she can see nothing, but her fingers move swiftly across
the page, and she begins to read better than some persons who have
the use of their eyes! As the morning goes on, all the sick who
come for medicine will listen with astonishment and pleasure, and
she will have opportunities of witnessing for Jesus to those who
ask her a reason for the hope that is in her. She was once herself
in the darkness of Mohammedanism, and in the Blind School found
Christ. She is now a rejoicing and consistent Christian. Do you
think that, as we stood and watched her delight in reading the
comfortable words of our Saviour Christ, we asked ourselves if to
bring such to the Lord were work worth doing? Rather, is it not a
service which angels might envy?”[48]
[Sidenote: A leprous mother.]
A leprous mother, outcast of society, doomed to spend the rest of her
life in a leper village and to drag out a miserable existence among
those who are afflicted and suffering like herself! What, oh what,
shall she do with her children, as yet untainted by the frightful
disease, but sure to develop it if they too go to the leper village?
And yet who is there in the wide world to care for her little ones?
Her husband is up at the village, hands gone, sightless eyes,
disfigured face,--he cannot help. No relatives or neighbors will be
bothered with the children of the outcast, and yet that mother heart
beats with an intense, despairing mother love as yours or mine
might,--with a love that can bear all suffering and even slow death
for herself if only her children are safe. Hark, a neighbor calls to
her from a safe distance,--“Do you know that those foreign Jesus
people have a place where they take the children of those who are
accursed of God like yourself? They take them and feed them and teach
them their Jesus religion and train them to earn their living.” Oh, it
is the one word of hope and courage, the one ray of light in utter
darkness, and the little children are left on the threshold of the
Home for Untainted Children, and the leper mother learns of a Home
where she herself may go and where she and her husband may receive
loving care and unheard-of comfort, and where the years of suffering
are illumined by the knowledge of another Home where she may meet her
darlings once more, and “where the inhabitant shall not say, I am
sick.”
[Sidenote: Homes for untainted children of lepers.]
“Twenty-one Homes for the untainted children of leprous parents in
which about five hundred boys and girls are being brought up to
healthy and useful lives and saved from adding to the terrible total
of diseased outcasts,”[49] this is the record of the work of
Christian missions thus far. Compare with it the record of what in
this modern day has been done in the name of an attempt at
civilization which leaves Christianity entirely out of account.
[Sidenote: In the name of civilization, but without Christianity.]
“Wellesley G. Bailey of Edinburgh, the superintendent of the Mission
to Lepers, has received authoritative information concerning the
terrible massacre of lepers by government soldiers which was
perpetrated at the city of Nanning, the remote capital of the province
Kwang-si in southern China. The massacre was instituted under the
direct orders of the governor general of the province.... In this case
the offense of his cruelty is aggravated by the fact that, taking
advantage of the trend to modern ideas in China, the vicious old
general pretended to be acting in the interest of scientific hygiene.
The excuse he has made for the massacre is that leprosy is a great
menace to humanity and the destruction of those afflicted with it is
the surest way of stamping out the scourge....
“The English Missionaries had been anxious for some time to build a
leper hospital, but could not spare the energy for it from their other
work. And for a long time the Catholics seemed entirely indifferent to
the needs of lepers. But finally, there arrived in the latter mission
a very earnest and sympathetic priest, whose attention was early
attracted to the collection of miserable hovels outside the city,
where the community of suffering had drawn together a larger group of
outcast lepers. The priest determined that something must be done for
them....
“But it appears that the intrusion of the French into the matter
angered General Luk so much that he took measures immediately to
dispose of the question in another way. Soldiers were sent out to dig
a deep trench near by the leper village, and early on a Saturday
morning soon after a large body of troops completely surrounded the
lepers’ wretched huts. Shouts brought them out of the door of their
hovels, and immediately the soldiers opened fire, shooting
relentlessly until the whole community--men, women and children--were
dead or helplessly wounded. Then the whole mass, many still living,
were dropped into the trench, kerosene poured over them and the pile
set alight. The victims at this one point numbered fifty-three. Of
course there was immense excitement in the city, and to defend himself
the governor general issued a proclamation urging that all lepers
should be put out of the way, and advising that those who did not
voluntarily kill themselves should be killed by their friends and
relatives. How many more died in this way is not known.
“Many crimes have been committed in the name of civilization, as of
liberty, but perhaps never one quite so monstrous as this in the name
of ‘hygiene.’ Certainly the incident illustrates how keenly China
needs not civilization simply, but civilization based upon Christian
religion.”[50]
[Sidenote: “The child in the midst.”]
“The child in the midst,” playful, trustful, loving, helpless, exalted
by our Saviour into a type to be admired and copied if one would enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven! The Master placed him in the very midst of
His disciples, where he might find shelter, protection, and love. But
today we find the little ones, thousands, millions of them, in the
midst of suffering, neglect, vice, crime, torture, despair, danger to
body and soul. And ever and anon the Master’s voice echoes in our
ears, “Whosoever shall receive _one_ such little one in My name,
receiveth Me.”
QUOTATIONS
FEAST DAY, ARABIA
What Christmas Day, with its toys and sweets and merry-making, is to
the Christian child, the Moslem Feast Day, at the close of the
Ramadhan Fast, is to the little men and women of Arabia. At that time
every child must have a new gown of some bright color. On that gay
day, in the bazaar, are sold delicious sweetmeats made only on this
one occasion in the whole year. Every one is happy, for the weary
month of fasting is at an end. Friend meets friend with the greeting,
“May your feast be blessed,” and is answered, “May your day be happy.”
Out on the edge of the town, where the houses end and the desert
begins, some enterprising Arab, who has “seen Bombay,” has constructed
the crudest and most dangerous of Ferris Wheels, and a merry-go-round
to match. Here the youthful inhabitants congregate, with their
precious coppers, eager for a ride on these wonderful machines. There
are big boys and little boys and middle-sized boys. There are little
girls with their faces uncovered, and a few older ones with their
faces veiled, but most of the larger girls must stay at home, as it
would be a shame for them to appear in public. There are the proud
sons of the rich Arab merchants, and the children of the wild
Bedouins. What better opportunity could one have to study the rising
generation?
If a Westerner, wearing a hat, passes through the crowd, he is
immediately followed by a mob of impudent, mischievous boys, calling
out in Arabic:
“The English, the English!
They don’t pray!
Even the chickens
Are better than they!”
The Moslems say that the chickens are praying when they raise their
heads before swallowing water. (Letter from E. T. Calverley.)
[Illustration: THE MERRY-GO-ROUND AT AN ARAB FAIR]
PLAY, AMONG THE LAO
We have 110 girls in school this term, over half of them boarders, and
they are so gentle and tractable it is a pleasure to work with them.
It is pitiful to see how little they know about playing. Their
greatest pleasure is watching us play tennis. A few evenings ago I
heard an unusual noise under my window, and, looking out, saw a towel
tied across the walk between the hedges. On either side of this stood
a girl with a flat stick in her hand, and they were knocking across
the towel a bundle of rags which they had tied up in some semblance of
a ball. Later we took them out, and let each one have a few minute’s
real play with real racquets and balls, and, when I put the racquet in
a girl’s hand, she would gasp, as if to say, “Can this be really true,
or am I dreaming?” (Miss Lucy Starling in _Foreign Post_, May, 1910.)
DOLLS, CENTRAL AFRICA
The first two dolls that arrived in Toro met with a very mixed
welcome; the children howled and fled in terror, but their mothers
showed a most profound admiration for them. At first they held the
doll very gingerly, but finding that nothing happened to either one or
the other, and the doll still smiled at them like the Cheshire cat,
they became great friends, and begged that they might borrow it for a
few days to play with.
Whether it was the large circulation that those two dolls got, or the
gradually increasing confidence of the Toro children in the white
ladies, the fact remains that in a few months all childish prejudice
had disappeared, and often a little voice was heard asking for “a
child that causes play.” When this was known in England, over one
hundred dolls were sent to me from two working parties. I never saw
such a wonderful doll show as they made. They were all displayed on
our verandah, and the house was literally besieged with men, women,
and children for some days.
A bride, beautifully dressed in white satin and kid shoes, who even in
her wedding attire cried “mamma” and “papa,” was sent to little
Princess Ruth, but the report reached me that King Kasagama had
constituted himself guardian, and kept it locked up in his study for
slack moments!
Apolo, our faithful native deacon--confirmed bachelor--asked me in
secret if men ever played with dolls, and beamed with satisfaction as
he most triumphantly carried one off, peacefully sleeping.
The others were given out to the little girls who had been most
regular at the school, and were noted for having come with clean faces
and bodies.
When the boys saw that the dolls were only given to girls, some
borrowed their sisters’ garments to try and appear eligible! I did not
know till then they were versed in such cunning! It was so pretty to
watch the joy and even playfulness that those dolls brought into the
lives of so many little ones who had scarcely known what this meant
till then. Christianity has completely revolutionized child-life in
Toro.
SAVING A BOY, CHINA
Rev. F. E. Lund, of Wuhu, tells this incident in connection with a
visit to the out-station at Nanking:
“On going back to the school about ten o’clock at night I found in a
dark corner on the street a poor boy, half frozen to death. His
piteous groaning attracted my attention. His legs were already numbed
and his feet swollen and covered with chilblains which made him quite
unable to move. He told me he had been driven out from his home a few
days ago, as his father and younger brother were on the point of
starvation. His mother died last year in the famine. I knew that it
was up to me to save him. There was no one else to do it. The cold
night would have finished him. So I had him carried to our school,
where we gave him a warm bath and put him into new wadded clothes.
During the night he was in great pain and delirious, but in the
morning he seemed hale and hearty, and proved to be a most
straightforward and clever little man. He is ten years old, but very
small for his age. It was most interesting to see how heartily our
Chinese neighbors endorsed this little bit of charity. One gave me
$2.00 to help pay for the clothes. Another brought two pairs of socks.
Some one sent a hat, and an innkeeper sent bedding. If we only had a
trade school to put such boys in, we could do a little work along this
line and it would certainly meet with the approval of the best class,
who would be sure to give substantial help. At any rate, it would be a
work that the best Chinese would appreciate and understand.” (_Spirit
of Missions_, April, 1913.)
SCRIPTURE READING
“The Child in the Midst,” Matthew, 18:1-6, 10-14.
Christ commends the humility of the little child and the spirit of
those who receive a child gladly, whether into the home, the school
room, or into any part of their sphere of influence. There is no place
in Christ’s Kingdom for the one who “does not want to be bothered with
children” or who provokes, injures, neglects, despises, or causes one
little one to sin.
“The feature of child-nature which forms the special point of
comparison is its unpretentiousness. What children are unconsciously,
that Jesus requires His disciples to be voluntarily and deliberately.”
(A. B. Bruce.)
PRAYER
Grant, O Heavenly Father, that as Thy holy angels always behold Thy
face in heaven, so they may evermore protect Thy little ones on earth
from all danger, both of soul and body, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
Father of the fatherless, let the cry, we pray Thee, of the orphan and
the destitute enter into Thine ears; rescue them from the perils of a
sinful world and bring them to the refuge of Thy Heavenly Home, for
the sake of Thy Holy Child Jesus, our only Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. CHAPTER III.
BOOKS
Christian Missions and Social Progress, Vol. ii, J. S. Dennis,
(Revell.)
Centennial Survey of Christian Missions, J. S. Dennis, (Revell.)
Gloria Christi, Chap. v, “Philanthropic Missions,” Anna R. B. Lindsay,
(Macmillan.)
Children at Play in Many Lands, Katherine Stanley Hall, (Missionary
Education Movement of the United States and Canada.)
The Chinese Boy and Girl, Isaac T. Headland, (Revell.)
Village Life in China, A. H. Smith, (Revell.)
Japanese Girls and Women, Alice M. Bacon, (Houghton Mifflin & Co.)
The Happiest Girl in Korea, Minerva L. Guthapfel, (Revell.)
Village Life in Korea, J. R. Moose, (Smith & Lamar.)
The Laos of North Siam, Lilian Johnson Curtis, (Westminster Press.)
The Jungle Folk of Africa, R. H. Milligan, (Revell.)
Congo Life and Folklore, J. H. Weeks, (Religious Tract Society.)
Home Life in Turkey, L. M. J. Garnett, (Macmillan.)
Children of Persia, Mrs. Napier Malcolm, (Oliphant, Anderson &
Ferrier.)
Topsy-Turvey Land, E. A. & S. M. Zwemer, (Revell.)
Recreation.--A World Need. C. M. Goethe in _Survey_, Oct. 4, 1913.
LEAFLETS
The Bareilly Orphanage Woman’s Foreign Missionary
Ai Mei’s Busy Fingers Soc. of the Methodist
As They Play in China Episcopal Church.
O Kei San, the Child With
No Hands
St. Mary’s Orphanage, Board of Missions
Shanghai. (Episcopal).
March Third in Japan Board of Missions of
Pres. Church.
Home Life in Africa Woman’s Foreign Missionary
Other Children Soc. of the Presbyterian
Church.
Autobiography of a Woman’s Bd. of Miss.
Successful Life of Interior.
My little Blind Neighbor
Chinese Slave Girls Woman’s Board of Foreign
Of Such is the Kingdom Missions of the Reformed
of Heaven Church of America.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] George B. Mangold in “Child Problems.”
[29] Jane Addams, “The Spirit of Youth.” Macmillan.
[30] E. P. St. John, “Child Nature and Child Nurture.” Pilgrim Press.
[31] Alice Mabel Bacon, “Japanese Girls and Women.” Houghton Mifflin & Co.
[32] _The Foreign Post_, May, 1910.
[33] “Other Children,” Jean McKenzie. Wom. For. Miss. Soc. Pres. Ch.
[34] “On the Education of Backward Races,” E. W. Coffin, _Pedagogical
Seminary_, Mar., 1908.
[35] _Spirit of Missions_, Feb., 1911.
[36] “Village Life in China.” Revell.
[37] “Children of Persia.” Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier.
[38] George B. Mangold, “Child Problems.”
[39] A. E. and S. M. Zwemer. Revell.
[40] Dr. Ira Harris in _Over Sea and Land_, Dec., 1912.
[41] Rev. R. H. Nassau, D.D., “Home Life in Africa.” Wom. For. Miss.
Soc. Pres. Ch.
[42] “Children of Persia.” Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier.
[43] _The Congregationalist_, May 8, 1913.
[44] Mrs. J. T. Gracey, “Bareilly Orphanage.” Wom. For. Miss. Soc. M.
E. Church.
[45] John Magee in _Hotchkiss Record_, Jan. 21, 1913.
[46] _Missionary Review of the World_, Feb., 1911.
[47] _Missionary Review of the World_, April, 1911.
[48] Barnes, “Behind the Pardah.”
[49] _Missionary Review of the World_, May, 1911, John Jackson,
F.R.G.S.
[50] _The Continent_, March 27, 1913.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHILD AT SCHOOL
“Come, ye children--I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
The call for schools from Mission Lands--Is missionary educational
work still needed in the awakening East?--Divergent views on
education--Reasons why missionary education should be
continued--Comparative illiteracy--Testimony from Japan--From
China--From India--From Mohammedan lands--Can we refuse the united
demand?--Kindergarten Union in Japan--The impressionable years of
childhood and the call for Christian Kindergartens--Inventive and
adaptable missionaries--Primitive education among backward
nations--Lack of power of concentration--Evils of the memorizing
method--Old methods hard to discard--Education of girls--Early
marriage a barrier--Now is the time to educate the future
mothers--Mission schools and physical training--Building up a
“great personality”--The need for good literature--Industrial
training in mission schools--Extent of American missionary
education--Where shall we put the emphasis?--How mission schools
lead children to Christ--Mission school-children in after life.
[Sidenote: The call for schools from mission lands.]
Four little boys less than ten years of age came trudging over the
muddy Korean road three long miles to school. In their chilly, little,
bare hands they carried bowls of cold rice for dinner. But cheerfully
they marched along, for the daily six-mile walk took them to and from
the mission school, and oh! what a wonderful privilege it was to be
able to study,--a privilege not enjoyed by all the boys of their
village.[51]
The closing session of a school for Jewish children in the heart of
Asia was being held, and many mothers listened with awe and admiration
as child after child took part in the simple exercises. “See,” the
mothers exclaimed to each other, “see how our daughters are learning
to read, instead of growing up to be like donkeys as we have done!”
A woman in the capital city of Persia, head of a Bahaist school,
insisted on sending her little daughter to the American mission
school, paying all tuition charges gladly. “Lady,” she said to the
teacher in charge, “whenever I come into this school my life is
renewed.”
Over the African trail came a young man who had given his heart to
Christ and was now ready to enter the Bible Training School in order
to fit himself for a life work that no foreign missionary could hope
to accomplish. Earnestly he pleaded with the missionaries to let him
bring his little eleven-year-old wife to be taught and trained so that
she might some day be a true help-meet in his work. But there was no
boarding school for girls, no available place for the child. Think
what that future home and work might have been had the little wife
received a Christian education!
A missionary was returning from an evangelistic tour over one of the
lonely roads of Palestine. Suddenly he was accosted by several armed
men in disguise, who demanded that he should promise to grant their
request before it was stated to him. He naturally demurred, but,
becoming convinced that they were not robbers, he finally consented,
realizing that his journey could not otherwise be continued. Whereupon
they demanded that certain mission schools which had been closed for
lack of funds should be re-opened, promising to give as much as
possible towards the necessary sum. “It is like depriving our
children of bread and water and air,” they exclaimed, “to deprive them
of the opportunity for religious teaching and useful education.”[52] A
peaceful missionary held up by a set of masked bandits in a Mohammedan
land, who demanded, not his money nor his life, but a Christian
education for their children!
Loud and clear and insistent are the voices from country after
country. In many tongues they call to us Christian women,--“Give us a
chance to learn, let us children have what our parents never had, put
books into our hands, train our hands and eyes and ears and hearts as
well as our minds, show us how people who love that Jesus whom you
tell about may read of Him and may make their lives good and happy and
useful!”
[Sidenote: Is missionary educational work still needed in the
awakening East?]
It may be the honest conviction of many that with advancing
civilization and the great political, social, and educational
awakening in many lands, there is no further need for mission schools
or for pushing missionary educational work. Japan has her public
school system with six years of compulsory school attendance, and
higher courses combining cultural with practical education in a way
that Western nations might well follow. China has done away with the
old educational regime and is patterning her new system after those of
Christian lands. In India we hear that “Mr. Gokhale’s bill for
universal primary education has stirred the whole country and will be
a constant issue until it is an accomplished fact. Already the
government has voted to increase immediately the number of primary
schools from 120,000 to 210,000.”[53] The demand for education of
girls as well as of boys in Persia, Turkey, and Egypt has caused a
marvelous overturning and re-arranging of custom, prejudice, public
opinion, and government action. In view of all this and much more in
the same line, has the time come when the matter of education can be
left in the hands of the awakening East, and does our obligation to
the little ones of non-Christian lands cease at the door of the school
room?
[Sidenote: Divergent views on education.]
In order to arrive at a fair answer to these questions it might be
well to study and discuss some divergent views on education and then
to learn how these questions are answered by those who were born in
non-Christian lands or who have lived and worked there for many years.
Some Views on Education
“To educate a girl is like putting a knife into the hands of a
monkey.” Hindu Proverb.
“The hope of our country is in the education of our girls, and we
shall never have statesmen till the mothers are educated.” A
Persian Nobleman.
“Men are superior to women on account of the qualities with which
God has gifted the one above the other.” The Koran, Sura 4.38.
“No scheme of education for primitive races can succeed that
neglects the woman’s influence in the family and the tribe.” E. W.
Coffin.[54]
“When a man does not ask, ‘What shall I think of this and of
that?’ I can do nothing with him. Learning without thought is
labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” Confucius
Quoted in “Oriental Religions,” Samuel Johnson.
“Education should lead and guide man to clearness concerning
himself and in himself, to peace with nature and to unity with
God.” Froebel.
“The aim of female education is perfect submission, not
cultivation and development of the mind.” Confucius.
“Not knowledge or information, but self-realization is the goal.
To possess all the world of knowledge and lose one’s own self is
as awful a fate in education as in religion.” John Dewey.
The Head Master of an English school declared it to be his ideal of
education to create an atmosphere of loyalty that should teach the
pupils to adapt themselves to the sphere in which their lives should
be cast, at the same time giving them self-reliance through the
knowledge that they are responsible for doing the things that are
worth while, and arousing their ambition to achieve that which is
highest and best.
As a practical basis for the study of our topic, “The Child at
School,” write out if you will your own definition of the scope and
ideals of education, drawing up a list of those members of the human
family who would benefit by such an education.
[Sidenote: Reasons why missionary education should be continued.]
Referring again to the question of whether our missionary obligation
ceases when the child’s education begins, we must first of all realize
clearly how recent has been the awakening in most of these lands, how
appalling is the illiteracy, how long it will take the most advanced
government to meet the need without assistance, and how infinitely
more a _Christian_ education will do for the little ones than a merely
secular education can possibly accomplish.
[Sidenote: Statistics of illiteracy.]
From the new Cyclopedia of Education[55] the following latest
available statistics are taken:--
Country Illiterate Basis Year
America 7.7 % Pop. over 10 yrs. 1910
England & Wales 1.8 % Marriage 1901-1910
German Empire 0.03% Army Recruits 1904
Ceylon (all races) 78.3 % All ages 1901
India 92.5 % Over 10 years. 1901
Cape of Good Hope
(Other than
European.) 86.2 % „ „ „ 1904
Egypt 92.7 % „ „ „ 1907
Quoting further from the Cyclopedia we learn that “in Turkey, India,
and China we find a high illiteracy among the males, and an almost
complete illiteracy among the females. The least illiteracy today is
to be found among the people in the countries to the north and west of
Europe, and of Teutonic or mixed Teutonic stock. It was in these
countries that the Protestant Revolt made its greatest headway and the
ability to read the Word of God and to participate in the church
services were regarded as of great importance for salvation.”
[Sidenote: Sir J. D. Rees on illiteracy in Asia.]
Sir J. D. Rees, an official of high position and distinction in India,
makes this significant statement in his volume on “Modern India,”
dated 1910--“While it is true that only half the boys of school-going
age were following a course of primary education when the last census
was taken, it is extremely improbable that in any other part of Asia
anything approaching that number has been ever attained, or in any
Oriental country under European control.”
[Sidenote: Education in Japan.]
Let us go back to Japan as to the one of all non-Christian lands that
has made the greatest advance along educational lines. After a visit
to Japan with many opportunities for observation and study of the
subject, Miss Kate G. Lamson says:[56]
Education for the masses has long since justified itself to the
Japanese. That education is universal and compulsory is
abundantly proved by the crowds of school children seen in every
part of the country. This naturally leads the observer to question
the need of outside help, especially missionary help, along
educational lines, and outside of two or three large centres our
Board has applied itself largely to the development of church
organization and evangelistic work. Yet the experience of years
has revealed an imperative need of the missionary even in the
ranks of education in Japan....
With schools everywhere, under an able and full staff of
instructors, with up-to-date appliances for every branch that is
to be taught, moral and religious training are not provided for,
and the well-polished husk of educated manhood and womanhood
without the inner life is the result. The dangers attending
non-religious education have not failed to make themselves
apparent to the watchful Japanese....
In every land we believe the hope of the nations lies largely in
the training of little children. Christianity in Japan has laid
hold upon this and has set the pace in the establishing of
kindergartens....
Although education in Japan is compulsory, it is a fact that it
is beyond the reach of the poorest people. This anomalous
situation is caused by the charges for tuition and books imposed
upon all scholars. These charges are so high as to be prohibitive
for the very poor, and the result shows in the absence of their
children from school. In this lies a direct invitation for
missionary effort.
[Sidenote: Opinions of a leading Japanese.]
These words from a Christian observer and student of missions find an
echo in the remark of a leading Japanese, himself a non-Christian, to
one of the team of workers of the Men and Religion Movement:--“I am
convinced that Japan must become Christian or she will never become a
great nation.”
[Sidenote: Educational awakening in China.]
[Sidenote: Where shall the teachers be trained?]
So much is being said and published about the wonderful developments
in China and the new system of education that is taking the place of
the old, time-honored memorizing of the “Four Books” and the “Five
Classics,” that we need not here go into the subject in detail. But we
must stop to query:--Where is China to procure the hundreds and
thousands of teachers who are needed to train not only the children at
present but the teachers of future generations of children? For many
long years she must look largely to missionary schools to prepare her
future educators. From a report on the Educational Work of the
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions we quote the following:
The wisdom of the West in matters of courses of study, together
with methods of teaching, discipline, etc., are brought directly
from our best institutions and freely offered upon the altar of
Chinese regeneration. The results of these years have also proven
that these best things are adapted to the young Chinese minds, and
that they appreciate them when they once come to know them. The
products of these years show that our Christian schools have been
getting hold of some excellent material, and that there is such
true worth and high possibility that all effort to develop these
bright minds and sincere hearts is well worth while, and that in
doing so a great service is rendered to China.... A number of
young women of fine type have been educated in the schools for
girls, who are proving themselves apt to teach and work for their
own people in the conduct of boarding and day schools and women’s
classes.
[Sidenote: Indian grants to mission schools.]
So highly does the Indian government prize the work of the missionary
schools that each of them which is held to the required standard of
efficiency receives a grant for partial support. The American Board
Bulletin says, “Our tremendous school system in Ceylon of more than
ten thousand pupils is carried on practically at government expense.”
In a village in India the parents’ request for a school was answered
by the statement that if such a school were opened, the Bible would be
taught in it. Quickly the reply came, “Teach your religion, but
educate our boys.”
[Sidenote: New demand for education in Persia and Turkey.]
When the century opened, Persia and Turkey were asleep. Suddenly came
the awakening, the reaching out for something new and different, and,
as in the case of China, one of the first thoughts was,--Our children
must be educated. Instinctively they turned to the missionaries who
for long years had quietly, steadily, sown the seed, prepared
literature, set up printing presses, trained preachers and teachers.
Boys _and girls_ began to flock into the mission schools.
[Sidenote: Messages from Persian parents.]
“Fathers sent pleasant messages,” wrote a missionary in Teheran in
1911. “One said, ‘Your girls make better wives and mothers and in
every way better women, than others.’ Another, ‘I wish my wife had
been educated, but I am determined my daughter shall be.’ An Armenian
of wealth and influence is reported to have answered to a remonstrance
against sending his little daughter to us instead of to their national
school: ‘Did I ever refuse to give you money? I will continue to help
support our national schools, but I must send my daughters (he has
five) where they can really obtain an education. They can learn in one
week all you can teach them about going to theatricals and dances.’ A
friend was telling us that her sister would send her girls to us.
‘Why?’ ‘Because every Moslem in this city understands that your school
is the only one where girls really learn. Why should my sister be the
only fool?’”[57]
[Sidenote: New schools for girls in Teheran.]
These messages are significant in view of the fact that in a brief
time seventy girls’ schools were reported to have sprung up suddenly
in Persia’s capital city, with an enrolment of five thousand
pupils.[58] But scarcely half a dozen of those at the head of the
schools had ever been to school themselves, and the testimony from all
over Persia was the same as that at the capital,--“The missionary
schools are the best.”
Here is the eager call from Turkey:[59]
[Sidenote: The call for teachers in Turkey.]