The West Chin a

Missionary NewsN o v e m b e r — 1 9 3 0

ED1TOR4L

Is the Missionary a Modern Don Quixote?

It has not been the custom ot the Editor to substitute old sermons for the monthly editorial, notwithstanding the temptation in this busy life to try to make one effort accomplish a maximum result. But the repeated request that a recent study of the doctrine of sin in its relation

-to modern thought as found in those articles ana books of the present day accessible to all be put in printed form for further reflection cannot be ignored. W e con­sent more rea dily because we have long been convinced that both preacherand missionary in China have failed to bring themselves or their hearers to a real admission of the deadliness of sin. W e are Don Quixotes tilting our lances against theoretical enemies. Part of this is due to a desire to avoid the critical attitude 01* the assumption of the power and the right to judge. W e have no ambition (to quote Dr. Sockman) to act “ as the sheriff of God summoning men before the bar of judge ­ment-” W e believe with him that probably more can be done ‘ by goi ng out to create the atmosphere which will make moral law popular.” But at the same time, there will be no conscious need of a Saviour until people are clear as to the nature of Sin, and know for a certainty that sin is not superstition but has a real relationship to one ’s own welfare and that of the race. In order to help some in their mental readjustment to this doctrine, the Editor has agreed to print his talk in full, though apologizing for the length of the article.

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That Ever-Restless Sea.

T h e ever restless sea of human conscience has its tidal e b b a n d flow, but there is little fundamental chan ge in the great deeps- There the pressure is too gre^.t for merely physical life to hold sway, and below the 250 ' fathom line where the ethical light of human traditions and reason scarcely penetrates, the absolute standards of morality still await revelation. A bo ve this line, each new generation tries and rejects, tests and accepts those standards which appeal most strongly to it. Thus the ebb of the waters in Puritan times disclosed a wave- washed beach on which was strewn a tangled mass of seaweed, drift-wood from many an appal ling wreck, and no doubt a few species of stinging, cutting, clutching creatures of the twilight zone unwillingly stranded and left out of their element. For a time, righteous souls sought to clean up the unsightly, dangerous mess, but slowly the returning flow of the tide, characterized first by the hypocrisy of the mid-Victorian era, has increased into a great tidal wave of frank rejection of former moral standards, and loud-voiced criticism of both Puritanic and Victorian conventions and practices. No one professes to know whether the inundation will prove* to be a c leansing torrent, performing the Herculean task of cleasning these Augean stables, or will again recede, leaving a greater wreckage of civilization, a more appal l ­ing heap of bluish, bloated dead upon the shore line than before. A n d in the meantime, the professed life-savers claim to be functioning, and the lights are supposed to be burning in the towers where the rocky reefs are most fraught with danger, but no one seems to heed the warn­ings or to grasp at the life-line.

Is Sin a Superstition ?

T o question the fact of sin in the world seems to be as useless and as senseless as to call black white or matter an illusion. For the recognition of the fact of sin forms the original ra iso n d ’e tr e of the great religions, and provides the central theme for abiding literature, both sacred and secular, both ancient and modern. Governments presuppose its presence. The legislative and judicial departments assume faulty standards of conduct and provide a system of protection for thejust

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and punishment for the transgressor. It is the religious concept of sin, though which chal lenges discussion. For in this realm there are linked up the related concepts of a Supreme Judge, a final judgement with awards of heaven or hell, a Saviour or intermediator, a Satan or Accuser. Final authority rests in an almighty, a ll -know­ing. personal God whose unalterable will is made known clearly in the Biblical code. The interpreter of this Law has been the religious leader of each generation ana at times the Church has asserted the right to represent the Almighty One with power of opening or closing the Gates of Heaven. In only lesser degree, religious and secular authority have been invested in the head of the family. But with the coming of a new science, a new philosophy, and a new civilization, the Source Book of moral standards is being laid as ide; divine, parental, and national authority are being alike flouted. Sin is being explained away in some circles and redefined in others. In either case the tendency is to rule out the Psalmist ’s point of view when, through Nathan, it was revealed unto him that his adultery with Bathsheba, (though condonea by men in a king,) and his official murder of Uriah the Hittite, were not specific examples of unethical conduct, but sin against God. ‘ ‘ Agai nst thee, thee only have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy s ight” , David lamented at the time. But Prof. Harry Elmer Barnes, modern historian, would show David his error when he writes, “ Sin goes into the l imbo of ancient superstitions such as witchcraft and sacrifice.” and again, “ The new cosmic perspective and biblical criticism rule out of civilized nomenclature one of the basic categories of all religious and metaphysical morality, namely, SlN.”

The New Decalogue o f Science.

Somewhat affiliated with this revolt against the so-called religious and metaphysical concept of sin is the biologist ’s point of view as compared with that of Moses. The latter’s catalogue of “ jungle sins” may be contrasted with Albert Edward W i g g a m ' s “ New Decalogue of Science.” He says, “ Until science entered the world nobody had made a comparative study of G o d ’s ways to man and the Devil ’s ways to man so one could tell with any certainty which was which.” He

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declares that Christ and Moses would be “ the first to perceive that a new Ten Commandments must be a d a ed to those on the tables of stone, that a new moral and spiritual dispensation must emerge from the modern Mt. Sinai— the laboratory of science. ’"’ “ Conscience, next to authority has been found to be the worst guide to righteousness with which superstition on the one hand and ignorance of physio logical psychology on the other, have ever burdened the soul of man.” Many seem to have gone beyond Mr. W i g g a m ’s proposition to add Ten Com mandments and would rather substitute eugenics, preferential reproduction, scientific research, socialization of science, measuring men, humanizing in dustrv, trusting intelligence, art, internationalism, and philosophical reconstruction. They would have the fruits without the roots. This is not to say that all biologists would substitute an impersonal, natural force for a personal God, or that they would subscribe to the Spencerian idea of inevitable progressive evolution in­stead of repentance and the working out of one’s own salvation with fear and trembling. Biologists of note may be found in both camps.

The Matrix o f Humanism.♦

A not her challenge to the old point of view might be called the Humanistic. W i n f r ed Ernest Garrison, though not himself a proponent of the humanistic doctrine, ventures to define its attitude toward sin as “ leaning toward the description of misdeeds as pheno­mena of ignorance, cultural crudity, shortsightedness, bad judgement, or social maladjustment rather than as sins. ” W a l te r Lippman bears this out in his “ Preface to Morals.” W e have laughed with him over his descrip­tion of Puritanism as “ prim, prudish, and pedantic’ -, “ associat ing itself with a rather preposterous idealism which insisted that maidens should be wan and easily frightened, that draperies and decorations should conceal the essential forms of objects, and that the good life had something to do with expurgated speech, with pale colors and shadows and silhouettes, with the thin music of harps and soprano voices, with fig leaves and a general conspiracy to tell lies to children, with philosophies that denied the reality of evil, and with all manner of affectation and sel f -deception” , but when

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Mr. Lippman gets down to business and defines the way in which Humanism excels Puritanism we confess that- it sounds a bit weak. Here it is ; The problem of Educa­tion is “ how to lead the child from one stage of develop­ment to another until at last he becomes an harmonious and autonomous personality ; the functional disorders- of the character are problems in the fixations and re­pressions on the path to maturity ; the art of l iving is to pass gracefully from youth to old age ; and at last, as Montaignesaid, to learn to die. It is this progress which we have to understand and imaginatively to conceive.. For in conceiving it, we conceive the matrix of hu— manism. In this conception is to be found, I believe, the. substitute for that conception of divine government which gives shape and form to the theocratic culture. To - replace the conception of man as the subject of a. heavenly king, which dominates the whole ancestral, order of life, humanism takes as its dominant pattern, the progress of the individual from helpless infancy t o • sel f-governing maturity.” One word stands out impres­sively above a l l e lse in the paragraph,— the word H O W ?.' W h a t force is there in intellectual conceptions, merely, , in imagination, in scientific theory, which will provide that spiritual dynamic which the race has hitherto found in God ?

Sin as a Social Product,

There is, of course, a fourth rejection of the old point of view more or less touched on by all, but more specifi­cally represented by such men as John Dewey and W i l l Durant, who would view each generation's doctrine of sin as a social product, the building up of a practical ethic supported by a religious sanction. The latter, for instance, in his articles on “ Our Changing Morals” appearing in the FORUM, asks, “ W h a t is it that changes moral codes? Probably alterations in the economic basis of life.” H e then proceeds to produce evidence that “ every vice was once a virtue and may become res­pectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.” Elaborating, he writes, “ The passage from tillage to industry, from village to city life, has finally overcome that morality of restraint of fear, which for 1500 years as an agricultural moral system of chastity,

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early marriage, divorceless mon og a my , and multiple maternity, maintained itself in Europe and in European colonies. ” But Durant, like Lippman, brings us back to an interrogative. “ W h er e (he asks) shall we find a moral code that shall accord with the changed conditions of our lives, and yet lift us up, as the old codes lifted men, to gentleness, decency, modesty, nobility, honor, chivalry and love ?'!

Sin and the New Psychology.

N o w at the risk of seeming to put all the emphasis upon the non-Christian understanding of sin, I must add one other point of view which is opposed to Sin in the religious sense of the term. This is that point of view represented by a certain group of psychologists. Hudson summarizes this in a sentence in his book on “ Recent P s ych olo gy and the Christian Rel i g io n” , H e had previously devoted six chapters to the support con­tributed by modern psychology to Christian principles and practices, and then he says, “But it would be idle to pretend that this apparent rapprochement is the whole picture. So far from this being the case, it would be, on the whole, a more accurate account of the situation to say that where the protagonists of the New Psychology seem to support religion, they oo so unwittingly and indirectly, and that when they discuss thesubject directly we find them, almost to a man, emphatical ly and uncompromisingly antichristian.” Mr. Chesterton says somewhere in his customary paradoxical vein, “ The glad news brought by the Gospel was the news of original s in .” But in the case of the New Psychology the paradox appears in an aggravated form. For where the modern mind ridicules with unrestrained scorn what it regards as the attempt on the part of religion to equate original sin and guilt, asserting that man was created perfect but that through the sin of Ad am all men have fallen and are doomed to death by an arbitary predeterminism,— though it rejects this theory with scorn, I say, it ap­parently swal lows whole the theory of psychic deter­minism. I am not given to reading Freud, and W a t s o n and Mc Dougal l are not now before me, but my general impression is that Hudson is not far wrong when he re­presents them as saying “ Left to themselves, uneducated and uncontrolled, 'the instincts are more likely to develop

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hellwards than heaven wards.” Mc Dougal l in his chapter on “Vol i t ion” in “ Social P s yc hol ogy ” calls specific at ­tention to the bearing of this theory upon the problem of Sin. He writes; “ If each of my actions is completehr determined by antecedent conditions ana processes that are partly within my own nature, partly within my environment, why should I make any moral effort? My conduct will be what it will be, the issue of conditions that existed and determined it in every detail long before I was born ; therefore it would be foolish of me to take pains to choose the better course and to make efforts to realize it.”

“W c Should W orry!"

W e may take this concluding sentence as sufficiently illustrative of the class of people whose way of making this a sinless world would be to omit the word hereafter from the dictionary ; or who would assume along with our Christian Science friends that Sin is merely an error of mortal mind. An d along with the “ W e should worry” school of thought may be found other classes of religious thinkers, who, in their reaction against Calvin’s idea of G o d , so stress His love as to make it sentimental and deprive H im of any moral character whatever. “ God so loved the world, that He has abolished punishment and all we have to do is to believe and we shall not perish but have eternal life.” Or, there is the H. G. W e l l s type,

'which, if it admits a personal God at all into this mind- made universe, would consider G od as limited, having so many troubles of His own that He isn’t likely to bother Himsel f about what 1 do. W h a t are my indiscre­tions or my sins to one who deals in the stars of the in­finite spaces ? Now this may be an easy way to view life. It may even give a feeling of exhilarating liberty for the time being. But the “ eat, drink and be merry” philosophy of life has ruined more civilizations than it has built up, and we can't easily imagine a Ki ngdom of Righteousness finding the elements of growth therein. It is easy to deride Puritanism by selecting some idiosyncracies as being fully descriptive, but one should not ignore the characterization of such a historian as Lecky who says, “ It is to Puritanism that we mainly owe the fact that in E n gl a nd religion and liberty were not dissevered”, and when Gregory “ makes the essence of

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Puritanism to consist, not in an ecclesiastical or dogmatic principle, but in its lofty moral enthusiasm”, we wonder if Lippman couki keep his humanistic “ liberty” from running into libertinism if he did not emulate the Puritans. “ The Puritans were narrow as the sword of righteousness is narrow”, said Lowel l . Let us not forget this in the popular but shallow criticisms which we hear and read.

The Forgotten Relationship.

I think that we would not be going too far were we to say that the fundamental purpose of the Puritan was to prevent the obscuring of the face of the H ol y Go d- It is significant that there is no vivid sense of the reality of sin in any person from whom the face of God is hid. It is the mystic ratherthan the rationalist whose g limpse of the Absolutely Holy One enables him to comprehend the significance of the contrast. Men may build up a system of morals without G o d as did Confucius or Gautama. Confucius, borrowing his conception of the Five Relationships from the Book of History, found no place for the relationship of the Heavenly Father and the son of man, The highest moral standard possible was that of the.Emperor, and while the decree of Heav en might lapse in the course of a dynasty, in the main the imperial standards set the ideal for the empire, and its failure is seen in the records of the Sung D ynasty , in the status of woman, in the filthy records of the eunuchs, and in the lack of a moral basis for trust and faith which accounts in large part for China ’s anarchy today. So, too, Buddha ’s Ten Commandments largely parallel M o se s ’ decalogue, and the Noble Eightfold Path of Righteousness commends itself to us all. But here, likewise, there is lacking that sense of the cooperation of a divine power making for righteousness in each one of us and moral ideals go slumping. T h e Cult of Science as represented in the prayer of the hero of “ Martin Arrowsmith” has points which the devout Christian might very well take to heart, but the closing sentence, “ G od give me strength not to trust in G o d ” is not always used by the scientist in the sense of a reluctance to shirk one’s own duty and become a parasite in the spiritual world. W h en ev er sciencesimply analyzes and classifies

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and cuts away, it finally leaves no germ of life. H. N. W i e m a n warns against this in “Religious Experience and Scientific Method” wrhen he admits, “ W e must develop a better theology, philosophy ana ethics. But most important of all we must cultivate religious ex­perience,— which is acquaintance, with God. Th e more rigorous the scientific method, the more need have we of religious experience and the more need has science of this experience to keep it youthful and growing.” And in his chapter on “ Christianity and Scientific Morality”, he says, “ Scientific method is indispensable but it is not self-sufficient. Scientific method can bring harmony and fulfillment to our wants but it cannot to any degree create in us a new and richer system of wants such as we saw, occurs in rebirth when God is experienced. It can bring maximum efficiency to our old sel f ; but it cannot give us a new self. It fails to lead us into an ever wider and fuller vision. This is what Christian mysticism must do. This is the chief contribution of Christianity to morals. It counteracts the inherent fatality involved in scientific method. ' ’

What, then, is Sin ?

Still stressing the fact that there can be no adequate morality, no sufficient sense of the reality and danger of sin without a personal experience of the holiness of God, I turn to one of the foremost modern German theologians, Rudolf Otto. In his book on “ The Idea of the H o l y ”, Chapter 8, he brings this out. “ W e have now to put alongside of this another sort o f self-disvalua- tion, which has long been a matter of common observa­tion, and only needs to be suggested in order to be recognized. ‘I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips. ’ ‘Depart from me, for I am a s in fu l man, O Lord. ’ So say, respectively, Isaiah and Peter when the numinous reality encounters them as a present fact of consciousness. In both cases this self-depreciating feeling-response is marked by an immediate, almost instinctive, spontaneity. It is not based on deliberation, nor does it follow any rule, but breaks, as it were, palpitant from the soul— like a direct reflex movement at the stimulation of the numinous. It does not spring from the consciousness of some com­mitted transgression, but rather is an immediate datum

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given with the feeling of the nurnen; it proceeds to ‘disvalue’ together with the self the tribe to which the person belongs, and incieeci, together with that, all existence in general.” The same writer, though in evaluating the “ morally robust older Rational ism” , he is constrained to admit that it was “ lacking neither in a sincere and respectful recognition of the moral law nor in honest endeavor to conform to it” , concludes that “ the objection brought against it by its opponents was in fact just; R a tio n a lism la ck ed u n d ersta n d in g o f w h a t 's in ' i s . " In Rudol f ’s point of view, tnerefore, holiness is morality plus. Conviction of sin is a vivid conscious­ness of the gulf that exists morally ana ethically between God ana oneself.

Sin is Social Failure.

But we have one more step to take before we can be sure of modern theology ’s most valid definition of sin (from the writer's point of view, that is.) H. Richard Niebuhr in an article entitled “ The. Relativities 01 Religion” brings this out in his answer to the question, W h a t is meant by sin? “ For Augustine sin is co n­cupiscence, for Luther it is guilt, for Calvin it is secularism, for W es l ey frivolity and vice. But the co n­ception of sin in tne modern world, or to speak mure modest ly , in American Christianity, is r.itner that of ethical failure. W e know that we have missed and are continuing to miss the mark, A n d this missing of the mark is not just an i ndivi dual mn tter ; it is social failure, ’ I should like to buila my concluding review upon this last clause: S in is s o c ia l fa ilu re . There is more implied here than appears on the surface. W e have a tendency in Christianity to over-emphasize the value of the in­dividual. The individual ’s value does not consist in isolation but in relationship. Like the members of the body, no part is to be despised. Tne function and skill of each may be improved to the highest degree that you please, but its chief worth lies in its coordination with all the rest. It is only when the eye offends, causing the whole body to stumble, that it is better that it be plucked out. So are we as individuals in the great universe, visible and invisible. Rel igion sees therein one guid­ing Mind, one holy Purpose, one comprehensive Love. The universe groans and travails in pain waiting for

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the manifestation of the Sons of God. Science simply exchanges the terms of the concept. It sees therein the presence of an Infinite, Eternal Energy , universal Law, an Organic Connection embracing all. The universe from time immemorial has been in process of evolution and it does not yet appear what the final outcome wili be. Some rise to the high conception expressed by Proi.C. Llovd Morgan of Bristol University in his contribu­tion to the symposium on ‘'Creation by Evolution” . “ Evolution implies reference to God a so b j e c t o f spiritual contemplat ion; it implies guidance of conduct in the light of this reference; it implies joy in attaining such ends as are deemed to be consonant with Divine Purpose.”

Going back to religious terminology. Sin is that in the individual which outs him out of harmony with God in His purpose for a righteous universe. If one says that one personality, more or less, good or bad, cannot affect the harmony of the universe? we would refer him to the physicist to explain the implications of atomic energy ; to the chemist for the elements of his formulae ; to the biologist and the microscopic cb rcnuscme, to show that however minute, however individualistic, how­ever numerous, each individual entitv has its all- important place in the scheme of the whole, capable oi catastrophv if maladjusted, omnipotent in possibilities of good if harmoniously adjusted. Such law is eternal, universal, and subject to no arbitrary interfeience.

The Disrupted Organism.

Though phases differ, it is the same principle, the same disrupting element. Because it threw one cut of gear with G o d ’s purpose in building His Holy City, Augustine denounced sensuality. Because he was unwill­ing to trust even papal wisdom in the moral government of the world, Luther nailed up his theses on the chapel door. Because Calvin sa w the deleterious moral effect of letting G o d ’s love cast His righteousness into shadow so that men became indifferent to right and wrong and sought only bodily comfort or intellectual reputation, he made secularism his target. So W e s l e y in his genera­tion saw that frivolity and vice were as sand in the delicately fashioned eyes of the spirit, bl inding the people oi his day to the holiness of God. Rauschenbusch

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and Harry F. W a r d and other modern social prophets would show us how Phariseeism has taken new forms in our day, and G o d ’s purpose of a race in which righteous­n e s s is enthroned is still being thwarted. The organism is disrupted. But let us take care lest we think this hoped-for unity may be realized in a mechanical unity which sin cannot affect. A s Curtis reminds us in “ The Christian Faith'5, “ No man can organize his individual life under the demand of conscience. He is totally unable even to start an organism, and the greater his development in moral personality, the greater impossi­bility of that adjustment which secures wholeness and peace in manhood. It is this inorganic condition of a m an ’s fundamental individual being which I understand to be depravity.” T o overcome this depravity is the aim of us all. W al te r Li ppm an seeks to restore the organic relationship of the individual by careful education. Albert Edward W i g h a m would seek to adjust body and mind to Nature’s laws, bringing life habits into harmony with them. McDougal l admits that James and Schiller can put forth a strong case against psychic determinism when they inist upon the availability of spiritual environmental factors for the development of the self- regarding sent iment,and also that in true volition there is a (strictly minimal) underived contribution. It would lighten to some degree the moral difficulty of deter­minism, he says, because “ it would allow us to believe ‘in a power not ourselves which makes for righteousness’, and such a belief might encourage and stimulate us to make efforts towards the realization of the purpose of that power .” Even H. G. W e l l s bears witness to the possibilities for the restoration of our broken spiritual relationships when he admits us into theinnersanctuaries of his personality : “ At times in the silence of the night and in rare lonely moments, I come upon a sort of co m­munion of mysel f and something great which is not myself . It is perhaps poverty of mind and language which obliges me to say that this universal scheme takes on the effect of a sympathetic Person— and my com­munion a quality of fearless worship. These moments happen, and they are the supreme fact of my religious life to me; they are the crown of my religious experience.” W e scarcely recognize here the author of “ The Open C ons pi rac y” trying to detach humanity from any belief in a personal God.

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The New Race in Jesus,

It was the purpose of Jesus to lead fill men into union with this great ana universal scheme which takes on the effect of a sympathetic Person. He was profoundly aware that this human race might be an organic brotherhood of moral persons “ in which every member would fit into the life of all, and minister to the progress and joy of all, and receive stimulus and social c o m ­panionship and positive supplement from all.'" How strange to him would be that caption in a Christian periodical recently, “ Make W a r a Sin” . Though a patriot, he was crucified, as Simkovitch so vividly points out, because he would not make enemies for his race by setting the Jews against the Romans and the Hellenists. He was crucified because in the interests of the restora­tion of the defeated orga nic brotherhood, he condemned their separatism and artificial pietv in the most stinging rebukes of his public ministry, while at the same time he forgave the adulteress, and also the syphilitic patient by the Pool of Bethesda. The Kingdom of Heaven was at their very doors, he called out, and they might have it if they repented. A n d because they insisted that sin cannot be forgiven save through blood sacrifice, he himself became the perfect sacrifice not only for the ones whom he had given absolution, but offered himself in a love that comprehended the whole world. T o heal the wounded organism was his purpose. H e could forgive the dy ing thief because he desired to be restored to such universal fellowship. But there was one sin which could not be forgiven and that was the sin against the Holy Spirit, whose inner call tp repentance and union with God could not be continually ignored with impunity. W h y rebel against this communion with a great and sympathetic Person ? W h y not welcome the release of these powers of awareness which under other circumstances are bound by the acquired habits of mind which select these certain limited data of experience? W h y not seek those moments of awe before some scene of awful beauty, or the bewilderment of a heartrending sorrow, or the wonder of a new-born love, or the emo­tional upheaval of a religious meeting, or thequiet hour of meditation ? Wh y.no t let these innumerable responses which make up our mental life become, for once, fused into one total response and let one lose oneself in God ?

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Rcderrptive Suffering.

By his death, Jesus paid the racial penalty for sin' Not as a transgressor of the law, nor because of inherited guilt, did he bear our sins and sorrows up to the foot of the Cross, but as our brother-man. H e suffered as the Race-Man. In him we see God overshadowing the suffer­ing due us for our sins by his own redemptive suffering. The deadly nature of sin was so vicariously borne on our behalf that even Jesus felt the connection with the Father broken for the time. Like any other sinner he was thrust into isolation, rejected, betrayed, uncom­forted in his agony, until in that awful experience even God seemed to slip out of his consciousness and he cried, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken m e? " W h o pretends to understand the method of the atone­ment ? Yet we know that only by being faithful unto death can either he or we overcome sin. H o w can Mr. W e l l s after even one such experience as he relates feel such a sympathet ic Person sl ipping out of his con­sciousness without an over-powering agony such as Jesus felt and expressed ? Put over against such re­demptive suffering the Sin of our experience. Sin, suddenly stalks into our midst and with a knife strikes down our friend under cover of darkness. Sin comes up out of the pit and calls for the release of Barabbiis the murderer, while for Jesus the Lover it shrilly screams. Crucify him, crucify him ! Sin breaks up the brotherhood Sin stings with death. “ W ho sh a ll d e l iv e r u s ? ” Thank God, deliverance is found in Jesus Christ. For he refused to let the contact remain broken. Love could not be overcome. It reached out into the darkness of glowering clouds and touched his Mother a nd gave her into John’s keeping so that they might comfort each other. It reached across to the dying thief and forgetful of his ’ own ago ny, it promised, “ this day shalt thou be with ¡me in Paradise. ” It reached upward into the heavens and touched the Father and said, “ Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Surrounded by the environ­ment of sin, he would not permit it to become personal sin, so there was nothing which could separate him from the love of God. Being without sin it was not possible that he should be holden of death.”

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The Unfinished Task.

Jesus prayed tiiat his disciples, having been sancrifiedin truth, shouldcontinue the work of reconcilia­tion, and that those who believe through their word should likewise find true salvation. An d the purpose of all was ' ‘that they may all be one ; even as thou Father, art in me and I in thee, that they may also be in us.” The New Race was begun, but the work is not yet done. Some say that there are no new sms, that they are all hackneyed and stale. Sin is not new, butthe forms are more insidious than of old. The killing now is not only in the hands of gunmen but in the hands of reckless auto drivers who in one land alone take their toll of 30,000 Jives a year. It is in the hands of adulterers of food and of the makers of wars. Impurity of life more and more creeps out of the segregated districts and flaunts itself openly in novel, movies, the adventures of a certain type of flaming youth, in the sordidness of the consecutive polygamy of the divorce court. Idolatry and cove­tousness combine to enthrone profits above all, class is arrayed against class, personality is submerged, the tenement and the sweat-shop blot out the image of God in the faces of women and children. v Promiscuous marriages result in the birth of defectives and crime is perpetuated. The forms differ but SIN is not yet out of date. Ye t there is hope. And that hope is not is in Harry Elmer Barnes’ aenial of the fact of sin on the ground that a vital relationship between man and God is but a myth, but in the Rufus Jones and Henry N. W i e m a n type of thinker, who are convinced “ that the doclrine of sin implies the cosmic significance of whatman is and does.............. That when man becomes awareof sin he becomes aware of his own greatness. For the greatness of man is measured by the greatness of that in which he participates as an organic member and function.” Shall we prove recreant to our trust ? W e have more to do than to “ make ourselves healthy, happy and comfortable and rear a culture for our own delight.” Th e redemption of a world has been committed to us. The future of the race depends upon our ability to understand G o d ’s will and cooperate in it. This is a task in which all realms of human knowledge must unite,— science and the arts, philosophy and religion, are all bound up together and must willingly combine forces to help us achieve high destiny and God.

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IN D IF F E R E N C E

When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged him on a tree,They drave great nails through hands and feet,

and made a Calvary;Thev crowned him with a crown of thorns,

red were his wounds and deep,For those were crude and cruel davs, ,

and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by, Thev never hurt a hair of him,

they only let him die ;For men had grown more tender,

and they would not "ive him pain,They only just passed down the street,

and left him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, “ Forgive them for thev know not what thev do,”

And still it rained the winter rainthat drenched him through and through;

The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,

And Jesus crouched against a wall arid cried for Calvary.

G. A . Studert-Kennedv. (Doubleday, Doran & Company)

THE W EST C H IN A M ISSIO N AR Y N E W S 17

“ G R O W IN G IN T O L I F E ”

I can still feel quite clearlv the “ liftin g” sensation that came to me, and the feeling of tremendous relief when I finished reading that chapter in D r. ¡Stanley Jones’ book, The Christ of the Indian Road, where he discovered it was no longer necessary for him to keep up the defence lines and constantly repair the breaches in his attempt to maintain the infallibility of the Bible from the first chapter of Genesis to the last verse of Revelations. I felt as if a great burden had fallen away, because somehow in mv own loose thinking, I too had been doing that very thing. I had been clinging to a great amount of debris which was at the same time a heavy burden and a real annoyance to uphold in the light of modern thought.

A quite similar experience came to me as I read through the pages of ‘ ‘Growing Into L ife .” I felt again a fine freedom from the bondage of old ideas that brought with it a great jovousnessand a new vision. There is something so refreshing and exhilarating in being able to push aside completely the false standards and artificialities that -we are continually setting up for ourselves and being just ourselves— standards which we cannot live up to, which do little more than make hypocrites of us. I t may be that we are attempting to maintain our moral integrity in such a wav that it becomes superficial; or we may be trying to “ save our face” at a terrific cost, when goodness knows we couldn't lose so very much, maintaining appearances which are not genuine. Somehow’ I seemed to come to a very fine understanding with mvself, and I was able to bridge the gap between the many things which I Jo, and things which con­vention says that I should not do, things which worried and which somehow I felt were not right. I t was like meeting an old friend, one who never blames, or condemns, who believes in you, and trusts you, and understands, no matter what you do, who might love you in spite of your sins, if not for them. And a great peace came to me. This might seem like breaking: down standards which to some are considered necessary or funda­mental. Perhaps it is, but it is also building up higher standards in another and a more rational way. Any points along this line which I may not make clear in this review will be clearly

18 TH E W EST C H IN A M IS S IO N A R Y 'N E W S

explained in the book. My purpose, as I understand if, in giving this review is merely to arouse your curiositv, or annoy von, perhaps, or stimulate you in some way so that you will be forced to read the book.

“ Growing Into L ife” is a ruagna charta of Youth ; — Youth who are breaking away from the old Victorian spirit, who will no longer be told what to do, and what not to do, Youth who must experience things for themselves. But it is the magna charta of a Youth which to-day is on one of the mightiest crusades since time was, Youth that is seeking to know how life should be lived, and why. They refuse to go like sheep in the straight and narrow paths where their ancestors sickened and died. And it is safe to say, though not flattering, that Youth’s strongest desire is not to become like its elders. And whv should it ? (present company excepted) although we so often like to make children into little prototypes of ourselves, of our own likes and dislikes, of our standards and religious restraints.

“ How manv joyous people do you know, whose married life is built on the glory of love, whose days and work are filled with satisfaction and sustained by enthusiasms ? How many adults are there whose faces radiate the consciousness of adjustment to life ? H ow many whose hearts and minds are at peace, how many whose bodies are free from nervous tensions and that toxic poisoning which goes with secret discouragement ? . . . . Can it be that the men and women we see struggling, worrying and despondent, sardonic or sick, were once innocent, fresh- minded, sturdy young people full of promise and hope, with dreams of what life would become someday ? Y e t it must be so. Even that dour-faced old conservative who. lives near you was once a laughing-eyed, red-cheeked lad with plenty of p e p ; and that acidulated spinster who poses as a stained-glass saint, and is almost too good to be true, was originally a sweet little girl. But something happened to her girlhood back there to make her hate herself and she has transferred this dislike to others.” W hy should Youth desire to become like its elders— Youth which is just about everything which age is n o t !

The book is a plea to parents in their training of their children. I t is not only a partisanship with the present genera­tion, but even more with the youth of the past, with your youth and mine. Think how different our parents might have been if our grandparents had understood them. Think how different we m ight have been— but again we are becoming personal! It is a plea for parents to study their children, to understand them. “ In order to raise hogs successfully men are sent to agricultural colleges. Some study animal husbandry for four

T H E WEST C H IN A M ISSIO N AR Y N E W S 19

years. But did you ever hear of a woman getting a college degree in the art of motherhood ? or of a man studying human husbandry?” It is a matter of common sense that a man musi learn the mechanism of a radio, or of an automobile, and possess some degree of intelligence to begin with. Y et we stupidlv take for granted that any person without anv experience, or any training can understand at once that far more delicate mechanism, the unfolding mind of a little child.

And thirdly, the book is an attempt to restore us to ourselves— to show us what we might have been— Oh no, not a cross between Venus de M ilo and a Jeanne D ’arc, or a glorified .Napoleon with the -soul of a saint and the brain of an Aristotle, but just that man or woman whom we sometimes in our quieter moments see rising up to meet a crisis, or to noblv meet i i iV .s testing places ; or perhaps that person whom we see move crowds with a great spirit, and an urge within savs, “ That is vou,” and then it fades. Jt helps us to face the silent disappointments, the dreams of the past, and to understand. They can never be ours now in the way in which they might have been but we may plant the vision in the heart of another and there watch it grow with great rejoicing. And is it a little thing to have found understanding ?

The book, although long, is written in a most fascinating style. I t is not technical. Many case studies are scattered through its pages which gave it for me a greater interest than any book of fiction I have read for many months. I f time seems to prevent your attempting such a book at present, there is a larse section on, Neurosis in the Making, which can be omitted without interfering with its continuity.

Time and time again I was impressed with the new significance it gave to old religious ideas. It reclothes them in the thought of the new age and they have recaptured their original force with even greater power. Let me qu ote:

“ For there is one striking fact about himself with which every man is familiar and of which he never speaks. H e knows that in the depths of his heart is a void where loneliness stalks. When the noise of living is hushed, and he draws aside to muse, or sleep, this spiritual vacuum comes up and confronts his mind. H e wants somebodv or something, to make him feel right in the universe. I t may be only a handshake, yet with a touch about it he has never felt. It may be onlv the thrill of accomplishment yet there is a requirement of permanence life has never brought. . . Beyond the drama of every day life this insatiable desire is always with him.”

20 THE W EST C H IN A M IS SIO N A R Y NEW S

There are two outstanding ideas that run through the book and present themselves continually as the cause of the greatest confusion in the world in which we live. The first is the attitude of parents towards their children and to their preparing them to meet life. The second is our outgrown ethics.

The offenders among the parents are of two classes, the stern domineering type and the coving, clinging, codciij £ tvpe. So many parents seem somehow to have received the impression that a child is just an added possession to the general stock and trade, something that belongs to them and therefore something to be made over into what they consider the proper thing. They do not realize that there is growing up within the child a great and wonderful individuality, a personality that may have all the potentialities of a great artist, while they have made all necessarv plans to have him become an executive. Aud with this tvpe of parent, life becomes for the child little more than a straight-jacket. “ You musn’t do this and you must do that. Because it is or it isn’t done !” The writer observed a mother in front of him on a train who gave the child fifty-five “ don’ ts” in ninetv minutes, without one constructive suggestion. W hy shouldn’t the child turn to his mother and sav, if he dared, “ W ell what m a t I do then?” Parents blame their children without sympathy or understanding, and ■with no endeavour to help the developing powers find the right method of expression. This wav is always wrong. It produces bruising resistance and bitter emotion. The straightesr way to make a child sinful is to censure him for what seems to be his sinfulness. Thesurest way to make him dishonest, to incline him to lie and arouse degrading impulses'is to blame him for negative expression of his forces. Blame is to the soul what injury is to the body. W e punish, while punishment usually irakes the child more re­sourceful in getting what he wants. W e should ever strive to place before him and have him picture to himself the right mental image of the course of action which we wish to have acquired. A child never acts on words of command unless under force. H is activity always follows a mental image. H e pictures for himself the idea ; every thought must become more than an idea, it must be brought up before him as a picture of some course of action and have his emotional sanction before he can act on it. And the greatest sin of all is that we make all the decisions for him— and give him no reason. ‘ ‘ Mother knows best.” H ow it used to annoy me when I was persistently answered as to any particular course of conduct, “ Because, because!” And yet I realized later that I was receiving my own “ reasons” back again. Parents possess a divine right, a spiritual

THE WEST C H IN A M ISSION ARY NEW S 21

wisdom, you know, but never question v Leie thev get it or b v what right they inhibit their young.

The result is that the child breaks our into life some fine morning with a grown up body and the mind and emotional attitude of a small child - either a dud or a fire-brand, in­toxicated with a new freedom which he knows absolutelynoth- ing about using, and utterly incapable of bearing the least res­ponsibility for his actions. Pieligion is a collection of dou’ts based on old fairy tales which adults appear to believe but cannot follow. It possesses no relation to cause and effect in the universe. ¡Morality— there is no such a thing in his life. Morality is based upon the right of choice, the powder to make decisions and weigh consequences. H e has never made any decisions with which there was associated responsibility. Em otionally he is untrained, unsteady, or perverted. He has been repressed throughout his entire life when his spirit has cravpd for expression. H is emotional life has been thwarted until it cannot function naturally.

W hat should have been done? Two things. He should have been trained always and ever to make his own decisions and abide by them. He should have been taught that the uni­verse is based upon.cause and effect, law and order, that there is a reason for things. And there should always have been placed before him the constructive mental image upon w'hich he was to pattern his life. Parents should study their children. They should find the ruling love of their lives and then help them to develop along that line.

Now* for ethics. The world in which we live has progressed rapidly along all lines in the field of science ; but for some particular or peculiar reason, until the last two decades it has not shown much interest or made much progress in the art of living. W e have in this complex life of to-day, completely outgrown the old ethics. Indeed if medicine, mechanics or mathematics were conducted on rules as idiotic as those of human conduct, civilization would not last the week out. W e speak of the old-time religion being good enough and ask w hy do we need a new ethics. Aren’t the engineering notions of two hundred years ago good enough to teach our children ? Aren ’t the ideas of chemistry, or physics, or botany of our forefathers adequate for the younger generation ? Can’t we return to the medicine of two hundred years ago and perform operations as thev did ? Think of it. W e could then blame destiny when buildings blew down, as we blame human nature for the sickness which we create in it.

W e have set up for ourselves standards which we never can

22 T H E W EST C H IN A M ISSIO N AR Y NEW S

achieve; And yet we pretend to. W e have set before us pictures of perfection, of honesty, of perfect chastity, absolute kindliness, and utter morality. And of course Youth see? that we are none of these. W e assume that a child will seek righteousi.eirs if we prohibit every opportunity to do wrong. I t is not supposed to be necessary for him to have anv experience with the laws of action and reaction to teach him the consequence of any procedure, nor is it necessary £pr him to think for himself. W e try to be good by a command rather than grow pood by a means. An ideal is not a pattern to follow mechanically, but a goal towards which we move. In the old ethics no room is le ft for spontaneity, for emotional release, or natuia) growth and progress.

The newer psychology has not taken awav any responsibility from us. I t has created an even greater responsibility and an obedience to truth such as never before existed, an obedience to external law rather than others’ whims. The boy and girl from childhood up, through training in making decisions ahsun.es responsibility continually. There is no sudden release from parental strings, or running wild there are tighter strings already in control. . . . Oh, believe me, as I talk to you along this line I can see the other side of our problems, and I have thought and am thinking the thoughts that are now passing through the minds of many of you. I can aLmost hear a valley of questions, “ Yes, but what would you do if . . . . W hat would vou do if vour children were. . . ” Yes, whac would you if your children emptied a bucket of water on your best mattress, as thev did on ours last week? W hat would you do if they took scissors to your best curtains, or drew a huge green dragon on your newly decorated hall wall ? W hat would you do if. . . ? Nevertheless, I believe I see a real vision of a new era ushered in by the younger generation, not completed by them but brought much nearer to us, when it will be possible to leave behind so many mistakes that have been made upon us and have been passed down for so long. W e shall see a new childhood that will grow into young manhood and womanhood, strong, alert, independent, resourceful, filled with the energy and the vision of vouth and possessed with a great abiding joy. Joy is always an emphatic sign of the triumph of life.

L e w i s C. W a l j i b l e y .

N o t e : This article is a critical review of the book “ Grow­ing into L ife” by David Seabury, published by Horace Liveright, and was first read before the Book Club of Chengtu.

THE WEST C H IN A M ISSIO N A R Y NEWS ¿’ 3

N O B L E S S E O B L IG E .

In the course of a two-hour visit today, a former student who had studied in various government schools mace a very self-revealing remark. “ Our schools now have so many graduates that we do not have enough teaching positions to go around.1’ I t would be a “ select school” indeed that existed to provide jobs for its students to teach others I It was what m k h t be denominated a lament that the mother schools could not absorb their own product. The man did not exclude mission schools from his criticism of the state of affairs. This man was more or less disinterested in his remarks, for he himself holds down three positions with assistants to do some of the work. H e teaches in two schools, and is director in an institution of visual education. I more then suspect that he reflects an attitude or psychology that is a hangover from Manchu Days.

The Manchus debased education until it became an “ opiate” •— to plagiarize a Russian slogan— to keep the Sons of Han submissive. Even high officeslike the viceroyship of Szechuai.— a province of upwards of 50 ,000 ,000 people— were open to the Chinese who won out in the educational system of examinations These aspirants tried and tried again, until some of them could put up their degree poles before their doors, could hold office, and might sit in the seats of the mighty. The way was open to all, and “ hope springs eternal-— Even if one might not attain oneself, his relative might, or his friend might, which was not unprofitable. The system was well-calculated to keep the people hoping and quiet. Office, position, and the emoluments thereof were the rights of the educated. I t was an aristocracy of the literati. Societv (if we may use a word that has now replaced the “ hundred names” , a synom m for t h e “ c(D-n.cn herd” ) owed the degreed man a living, and if he were a second or third degree man, a fat living at that. The system in its practice out working did not encourage the idea that the educated owed society anything. In such an atmosphere, literary lights did not attain first magnitude, and society was drugged.

W hat my good friend remarked about the government schools, students and teaching positions, is coming to be true of

24 TH E WEST C H IN A M IS SIO N A R Y NEWS

mission schools. W e have about absorbed our product up to date. The pulpit, the teacher’s desk, the dental chair, and the operating table have been waiting for chose who were worthy to be graduated. It has been some people’s boast that 70 or 80 or 90 per cent of our graduates have been in the church movement and on its payroll. (I am referring to the West China Union University graduated.) W e have now approximated the saturation point. Foreign money cannot be found— at least it is not found— according to an accelerated scale. W e have worked for this dav for years.

W ill our product go out with the idea that there is an aris- tocracv of the educated which owes society something, or will it go out with the idea that society owes it everything or all that it can get by hook or by crook ? W e have been conducting an experiment that is more thrilling and vital that those carried on in a laboratory of psychology. W e have some data that some of our students are standing the test. “ I am among you as he that serveth” is true of certain. It is no more true of all than it is in some other countries. It is here that Christian education must surpass the old, and dispel the atmosphere that still lurks like lire damp from the“ civil service” (or rather office) examinations of Manchu Days.

D . S. D jte.

W H A T O F T H E S P I R I T ?

W ith reference to the subject of Pentecost, I wonder if we have not each been passing through the same experience. Over and over again it has persisted in coming up before us as we have been repeatedly reminded that, this year, the whole Christian world is concentrating its thought upon this particular topic. Possibly we all feel too u n w o r t h y and perhaps a little timid also about broaching the subject. We are not fit to tread on such holy ground. But none of us feel like the preacher who later confessed to S t a n le y Jones that when he announced as his subject llPentecost” , he said in his heart, “ Good gracious, are we going to have some more of that rant?”

T H E WEST C H IN A M ISSIO N A R Y N E W S 25

Are not the hearts of many missionaries ar,d many of our Chinese colleagues, also, bleeding today because we have come to a real crisis? In his book on “ An Emerging Christian Fath”, N ixon says, “ Many people practically reconstruct their oultook upon life through such experiences,” namely experience that tiest the individual to the utmost of his ability. May it be that we are being brought to this place for just such a purpose ? N ot so much that we may be tested, but that we many be led to that proper source of deliverance.

W e all accept the fact that the Christian life, generally, consists of the practical and the emotional. Like the motorist, it may profit us to sean the mirror in order to see what is behind us. W e doubtless have not overstressed the practical, but have we understressed the so-called emotional ? Is our cause suffering through a paralysis of Analysis? Is it possible, that like the centipede, when some one, for fun, asked him which leg comes after which, “ we lie distracted in a ditch, not knowing how to run ?” Or, is it possible that we mav have gotten into that sort of a rut which Stanley Jones describes as being a grave, open at both ends ?

However these things may be with us, I fancy we will all agree that we can well afford with Stanley Jones to study together the various aspects of Pentecost. I have read his book “ The Christ of Every Road” over twice and I know it will do me good to read it again ; in fact, no book recently has done me so much good as this one has, and it seems to me that the whole treatment of the subject is all so appropriate.

Some may even tell us that religion is superstition and, I suppose, they would tell us that Pentecost is a myth or something like that. Perhaps Stanley Jones stands on the opposite side of the fence when he says something like this,“ W hile the church is not experiencing Pentecost, she is adding statistics but nothing else.” Have we not often felt just like that ? However, some of these things may seem to be, the plain fact remains that the disciples were a most discouraged and disorganized bunch before Pentecost, and they were anything but that after Pentecost. I t would seem that following Pentecost they were truly very near the N O R M A L Christian life and that one may be justified in concluding that Pentecost brings about the natural Christian life and experience. They were, it is true, behind closed doors previous to Pentecost, but not there after, unless while in prison and even then the prisons couldn’t hold them. Apparently they were required to remain right amidst the scenes of their dismal failure. And yet did the Christian cause elsewhere ever experience a like impulse ?

26 TH E W E ST C H IN A M ISS IO N A R Y NEW S

I hope someone will show us the wav,— the wav in which as missionaries we shall be enabled to concentrate our study properly on this subject, both for our own sakes and for the sakes of our Chinese fellow workers. Or are we, too, going to stay behind closed doors in this matter ? I f Pentecost was the birth of the Christian Church, do we need it today? Did anything ever do what Pentecost did? W ill Pentecost do the same or greater things today ? There is nothing so modern and up to date as religion. Anyone may be a Christian but at the same time the Christian life brings out A L L there is in him.

W ho does not welcome everv new application of religious truth ? On the other hand, has Sin changed ? Is there any less need of Pentecost today, or do we even think there is ? I f increased knowledge would save us, the world should today be religiously red hot, yes, there ought to be the glow of white heat. Is it not true that we behold some of our most cultured and educated minds, yes, even some of the most devoted of men and women, going off on foolish tangents? Stanley Jones tells us that ‘ ‘Pentecost brought amazing balance, poise, clear­sightedness, effective and moral living.” W hat a program ! I t it true ? And then to think that it all followed so closely on the heels of Peter’s experience when he said, 1 go afishing. W hat else could he do ?

When one comes to think of i t— Is there any other such experience recorded in all the Bible ? And if it were away back in the dim past of the Old Testament, we might well feel hopeless about it in this modern day. “ The system gnashed on them with its teeth, struck at them and broke its own arm in the striking. The disciples smiled their way through threats, rejoiced their way through stripes, sang their way through prisons, and triumphed their way through death. And the multitudes watching, found themselves wanting the very thing the disciples had,— this freedom, this poise, this moral power.”

A fter Pentecost, they did undoubtedly turn the world upside down, and*who were they ? Can God work thus through us today ? I f not, whv not ? W e cannot well expect our Chinese to go farther than we go. W ho will tell us how far we should go ? I am sure we are all ready to respond and many of our Chinese fellow— workers are ready to follow us all the way.

W’ ill “ the Christ of Every Road’" be translated into Chinese? Or can we afford to he just one year behind the W est and thus make a frank study of it when we have such a translation ? W e surely cannot start too soon to persistently discuss the subject with our workers, if we have not already done so.

THE WEST CHINA M ISSIONARY NEW S 27

They that expect great things of Gcd will do great things for H im .

W e cannot help thinking and praying very much about this topic and it would seem as if the whole world never was riper for another Pentecost and our Chinese Christian cause certainly needs the experience, far and bevond its need for any­thing «Ise. Who, then, will indicate to us the wav?

A , C. Hoffman.

A T R A N S L A T IO N O F T H E R E P L Y O F T H E M I N I S T R Y O F E D U C A T IO N TO

T H E P E T IT IO N O F T H E C H IN E S E C H U R C H E S TO T H E N A T IO N A L G O V E R N M E N T

F O R T H E R E P E A L OF T H E R E S T R IC T IO N S A G A IN S T R E L IG IO U S

E D U C A T IO N A N D W O R S H IP IN C H U R C H SC H O O LS

July 24, 1930.

Your petition requesting that all grades of church and mission schools be permitted to have elective religious courses and primary schools to have the privilege of worship, has been received.

Upon consideration of the points raised in your petition, we find them not free from misunderstanding. Let us consider these points seriatim.

(1) The first point, that we should use religious teaching in the training for life, is not far from the truth. Rut this depends upon whether you utilize in your teaching the ideals of all religions, such for example as the teaching of equality and mercy in Buddhism, of universal love and service of others in Christianity ; one cannot lim it the teachings exclusively to those of one religion. Furthermore, religion cannot be taught by outward forms and practices. I f you conduct courses on religion and have worship limited to one religion only,

2^ TH E W EST C H IN A M ISSIO N AR Y NEW S

this is in fact mere outward form ality and from the educational point of view is not an essential in the training for life.

(2 ) In the regulations governing the establishment of private schools, the restrictions on religious education are not limited to one particular religion. I f we allow any one religion to inculcate exclusively its own principles in non-adult of junior middle school grade and below, this will preempt their minds and deprive •them later on when they have reached years of maturity of the ability to exercise freedom in the choice of their religion. This is really the placing of shackles upon their liberty of thought.

(3) Since the principal purpose of your churches in establishing schools is to make education widely available and is not intended to employ education to entice or compel students to become church members, therefore the restrictions against the propagation of religion do not run counter to the prime purpose of the churches in conducting schools.

W ith regrard to the idea that all the children of the200,000 Christians must be enrolled in church schools, this seems to us to be on the same plain as the attempt to view the world from your own door step and such an idea should not continue to be cherished.

(4 ) I f you propose to experiment in education, basing your experiment on projects related to science and social conditions, this is something which the Government unquestionably approves and permits. Religion, however, is one type of abstract intangible imagination and is outside the category of educational theories and there is therefore no reason for the Government to permit religion in schools for the purpose of experimentation.

To sum up : There is not only one religion. I f we allow each religion in the name of education to vie one with the other to propagate religion, the natural tendency will be to create divisions and strife. The Ministry of Education, in order to guard against such a possible future calamity, is obliged to impose these restrictions which do not apply only to Christianity but to the other religions as well.

Hence to have elective religious courses in junior middle schools and to have the privilege of worship in primary schools embodies obstacles too difficult to permit the Ministry to grant the request. Moreover, we hope that you will consider in a sympathetic way this our humble opinion regarding the restriction upon propagation of religion in schools. Let this be considered final and not subject to further review.

( Signed) M o l i n g T s i a n g ,

M i n i s t e r o f E d u c a t i o n .

rTH E WEST CHINA MISSIONARY NEWS 29

B IR D N O T E S .

H aving made the acquaintance of some of our larger common birds, we now turn to a few of our smaller neighbors. They are none the less deserving of attention because they are smaller in size, though they are, of course, a little more difficult to observe.

The Daurian Redstart, to whom you were introduced in the September issue, got ahead of himself this year, and reached Chengtu on October 5, three days ahead of my earliest previous record. Does he sense a little earlier cold season, one wonders ? Now his single sharp call, like a little chicken calling for its mother, may be heard most any day. I f one is near enough to hear it, the sharp call is followed by a sort of ohuckle. A t the mountain^ the bird is quite a songster, but he does not favor us with his proper repertoire here in his winter quarters. Look for the white wing spot, red-orange outer tail feathers, and nervously twitching tail, and you will surely be rewarded eze long with a view of the dapper male in his suit of black, white, and reddish-orange, or of his more demure brown mate.

Our smallest common bird is the Red-headed Tit. Summer and winter flocks of these little fellows come twittering around us, right into the rose vines bordering our verandahs. H e is four inches long, and of this a full rone-third is tail, so that the plump little bodv is very short indeed. Over crown and back of neck he is brick red, with a blaok patch through the eye, and another of the throat. Above and just below the black patch the throat is white. Below this again there is a reddish band which fades into the white of the lower abdomen. Back, wings, and tail are blue-black. The bird is always seen in flocks, frequently in company with other small birds. I f you hear a great twittering near by or overhead, stop and look. There vou will see the little fellows, darting quickly from twig to twig, and perching in every conceivable position. In five minutes or less the small insect life of the place will have been cleaned up, and the birds go flittjng on to the next tree or vine.

30 T H E W EST C H IN A M IS S IO N A R Y NEWS

Our commonest small bird the year round is the Central China Grey Tit, a near relative of our homeside Chickadee, and very similar to that in appearance and m am ers. He is about five inches long, with black cap and nape, and black throat, connected at the sides with the black of the hiud neck. A black band runs from the throat through the middle of the abdomen, which is light grey. Back, wings, and tail are blue-grey, with a more or less decided wash of olive green over upper back, Between the black nape and the mantle is what is called a nuchal spot of white or light yellow. Outer tail feathers are white, and usually show up quite plainly as he flits about. He is a great little acrobat, and seems to delight in assuming positions which would be quite impossible for most other creatures. One day I spied a little fellow swinging f i om the outer edge of a leaf on the tip end of a branch, and as I watched he let go with one fo o t ! A t another time I saw7 one caught bv its wing in a spider web. And in this awkw’ard position it was singing lustily ! These are not gregarious as are the Red-heads and oi.e usually sees one in a place hunting for insects in and under twigs and leaves in a much more systematic manner than is followed by his small cousin. This one will stay in one place long enough to give a chance to really observe him. H is song is a regular up and down see-saw, continued somewhat indefinitely.

Another tit which is with us as a winter visitor only, arriving the last week in October, is so similar to this that one easily mistakes the one for the other. This is given in the books as the Green-backed Tit, but that name does not suit us very well here, for the back of this is only a little more green than is that of its cousin. The real difference between the two is that this is a deep greenish yellow on the abdomen where the other is just light grey. This bird is a little more likely to be seen in groups than is the Grev T it. The black on the throat is a little broader, and the black of the crown less sleek, giving somewhat the appearance of a crest. A t Beh Lu Ding in the summer months it is this bird which is very common around our bungalows ; I believe the Grey T it does not go so high. One summer, servants at B .L .D ., finding a nest of these, put the small birds in a cage and placed it near .the original nest. The parent birds kept on with the feedings!

Another small bird which arrives at about the same time as the previous one is the Pallas Willow7 W arbler. I said that the Rsd-headed T it is the smallest of our common birds. I believe this one holds the record for size if visitors are also included. I t is but three and one half inches long, and the wee body is more slender th.an that of the tit. It , too, comes into the rose vines

THE W EST C H IN A M ISSION ARY N E W S 31

right around our verandahs, darting quickly from twig to twig and from leaf to leaf as it gathers its inject food. It is a general olive green in color with a median stripe of white or yellow, and superciliary lines, or eyebrows as well as wing bars, of the same eolorbut the really distinguishing mark is the yellowish white rump which shows plainly as the bird poises on the wing in front of leaf or twig. From its fondness for this position one might almost think it a relative of the humming birds.

Two other small birds which are common in our hedges are the Red Headed Babbler, and the Dark Faced Bush W arbler. The former is one of our residents, while the latter is a winter visitor, whose dates of arrival and departure correspond with those of the two birds mentioned above. These birds are not so easilv seen, but are quite frequently heard. The Babbler has two distinct notes, one a simple “ phoe-be, phoe-be” ; the other a continuous, clear piping in the same key. About the only note, one hears from the Bush W arbler during the winter months is a short scolding one issued from the depths of the hedge. But when spring comes he surprises us with a clear, ringing ‘O -o-o- o-h sweet bird” , starting cautiously and slow, but rising and ringing out on the last two syllables. Both birds are of a general brown color, but the Babbler has a bright rufous crown, which marks him unmistakablv if one can get a look at him. There is this difference between the two birds :— the Babbler is a curious little fellow, and if one watches quietly for a long enough time he will ultimately poke his little red-crowned head out from among the foliage to see who it is who is watching him. But the Bush W arbler persistently refuses to allow himself to be seen. I f vou ever catch a swift movement in the hedge as he moves on from one spot to the next you are doing well.

These little fellows all seem to be good weather prophets and gather in about us in far greater numbers whenever a storm is approaching. When you suddenly are attracted by an extra amount of twittering and flutteeing in your rose vines, or in trees or hedges, look out for a storm coming ! It probably is not manv hours away. As long as the disagreeable weather lasts, these little fellows are in evidence every day, trying to help us to keep cheerful in spite of our surroundings ! But once the sun comes out again and the weather smiles, many of these little friends desert us and return, we suppose, to their upland haunts.

O c t o b e r 1930. J a n e B. D y e .

32 T H E W E ST CH IN A M I S ' T O N A P Y NEW S

F L Y IN G IS C H E A P E R T H A N W A L K IN G .

W hile in Java Mrs. Peat and I traveled by air-plane from Bandoeng to Batavia. This was eighty miles in forty minuteB for about twenty Mexican dollars. The auto road would have taken us 140 miles, about the distance from Chungking to Tzechow.

The plaice carried ten passengers and flies regularly making two round trips a day.

As the plane started the first sensation was very much like that of a bus. W e were all seated, each in his wicker chair ■with windows and door closed. The start off across the field was a bit rough, like a bus on a not-too-good road. The noise of the motors began and increased and soon became a roar so we were soon off the ground. Then the going was wonderful. Gradually we ascended and watched the citv slip awav from us, then the suburbs. Railroads with a tiain creepirg along at a caterpillar rate and an auto road with an occasional auto apparently standing still in the middle of the road. Fields, groves, houses and villages, what a panorama !

W e experienced no sensation of speed at all. W hile probably a mile high, after having crossed a range of mountains it seemed as if we were just lagging along, so slowly did the scene below us change.

The only thing that approached unpleasantness was when we would strike a down current of air. These places used to be called “ air pockets.” This felt like crossing a bridge in a motor car and striking a lower or settled bit of road, some inches lower than the bridge. Jn a second it was all over and even this could not be called unpleasant. The landing was perfect.

The view was simply magnificent. I t was a glorious pan­orama eighty miles long. W e were seated with the utmost com fort from where we could see the view with the greatest possible enjoyment. There was the citv, some carefully tilled fields and gardens, houses, and streams, all seemingly laid out for our very benefit. The rivers were exceptionally fine. Miles

T H E WEST C H IN A M ISSIO N AR Y N E W S 33

and miles of a river winding along more crooked than they appeared to us as we traveled them in W est China. They seemed so astonishingly narrow. Merely a thin line on the great map below us, but their beauty was in their being fringed on both sides by green trees and shrubs. A river in a fertile country seen from the air certainly is a thing of beautv.

Rice fields, cultivated hills and valleys, villages and moun­tains of jungle, jagged cliffs with no vegetation, more and more beautiful eountrv with other villagas, roads, etc., all in their varied colors, we saw it all from the window of the Fokker. W e had forty minutes of one of the most beautiful scenes in the world— excepting possibly W est China. I would like to flvfrom Chungking to Chengtu via the Big road. W h at a picture that would be ! Jungchang, Lungchang and Neikiang would be seven or eight minutes apart. Forty minutes from Chungking to Tzechow and say another twenty minutes across the sugar fields, Lungchuene hills and to the south gate. L et’s go !

J. F . P e a t

T H E W E S T C H IN A C O U N C IL O N H E A L T H

E D U C A T IO N .

R e p o r t of t h e D i r e c t o r , f r o m J u n e t o S e p t e m b e r , 1930.

1 The daily clinic of the Social Diseases department of the hospital was carried on all Spring and on into the Summer. The clinic assumed encouraging proportions, and it was with regret that we concluded this activity, to devote more time to the work of the Council.

2 During the middle of the Summer we were able to assist in the vacation period, in the hospital. Three weeks were taken at the end of July and the beginning of August.

3 Two weeks were spent on the hills at Beludin.

4 During the month of July, we sent out a survey party, who made a fam ily health survey of forty families in the She Pu

34 T H E W EST C H IN A M ISSIO N A R Y NEW S

area. Our objective was fifty families but we were only able to secure information from forty. E^en this is an encouraging start and we hope to be able to do more of this family health survey work in the near future. N ow that a beginning has heen made, we feel that the next attempt will be better and easier. Owing to the refusal to allow the Director to go out himself, the work had to be done by the office secretary, Mr. Chang, who took it on willinglj and did a good job. We shall have a report to make of this, through the columns of the W est China M issiocarv News.

5 Considering the vacation period, quite a few have visited our exhibit and reading room. This we hope to fit up and make a little more inviting. Chairs, flower baskets, and a settee ha\e been installed and books on health subjects will le put at the disposal of the guests, as well as the wail charts and tracts.

6 An invitation has been received from ore school to give regular lectures orf Health topics. This 'work will be taken on by the secretary Mr. Chang. More invitations have been received to go out on “ vaccination campaigns”. W e hof.e to do this some time during the Fall term.

7 Several specialists in Sociology, out in the Chengtu area have called on us and had long and interesting conversations. W e have been able to suggest a few things to the^e energetic young men, and they have promised to co-operate with us in Health Education work in their areas. One of these men has sent us the names of the Principals of all the government schools in his area and we are sending samples of our tracts to these men, wherever they can be reached by the Post Office.

8 Our mailing list continues to increase until we now have some six hundred and seventy five names on the list. This piece of work takes at least three days of our time each month. W e believe that it is worth while.

9 Articles have been prepared and piesented to the W est China Missionary News, regularly. W e a re running a series of “ Health H eroes.” Also, the daily papers have had a number of our articles in them.

10 Earlv in the Summer we were asked to give a series of lectures to the Municipal Council. These were given onMonday and Friday afternoon during the early part of the scm ner but since returning to the city, they have only been given on M onday afternoon. The lectures were fully and fairly correctly written up in the daily papers. A n outline scheme for Public Health

TH E WEST C H IN A M ISSION ARY N E W S

Administration was given to the members of the Council, who attended well for the first part of the series. The lectures are open to the public and often as many as two hundred will attend. These are held in the Municipal Park buildings.

11 The Students’ Volunteer Bands have been supplied with tracts free of charge, when they were going out on village campaigns, which was done several times during the Summer.

12 W e have continued the production of Tracts and these have met with an increasing sale. A statement of the sales and productions is appended herewith. These tracts have had a hearty response from our constituency, and we have been con­gratulated bv not a few on their success. W e have several more on the wav, as well as a few in prospect for next Spring and Summer. Mrs Kitchen continues to be a great help here.

13 Stereoptican slides with appropriate Hf.' lth texts and mottoes have been supplied to one of the Motion picture houses in the city and these are being used in the interim of the chang­ing of reels. They will also be used in the intermission period. The Health Bureau were good enough to allow these to be used free of taxation.

14 Quite a few Health organizations abroad are included in our mailing list. From one of these has come a request to be permitted to use our material in their Oriental work. This is being taken up with the Executive, and prices have been secured from the C. M. Press. The League of Red Cross Socie­ties has also requested that we send them ngularly, twenty fi\e copies of all we publish. This has been done up to date.

The Director presents to the Executive a number of sugges tions for additional work, by the Council.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

W a l l a c e C b a w f o h ;> D i r e c t o r .

36 T H E WEST C H IN A M ISSION AR Y NEW S

K E E P IN G T H E H O M A N M O T O R T U N E D U P .

Pull vour machine up alongside a filling station regularly three times a day, and put into it high-test fuel, such as leafy green vegetables, fresh fruit, milk, dark bread and real butter. Do not use substitutes— you wouldn’t do it with your limousine. This high-test fuel is remarkable in that it builds your automobile as well as puts pep into your motor.

R,un your human automobile into the garage each night for eight hours rest. Remember to turn on the fan bv open­ing the windows and getting plenty of fresh air. This will prevent flat tires.

Run your automobile body unto the wash rack daily.

Keep the chewing apparatus clean, wash it twice daily, morning and night.

Give your human car plenty of water to prevent a dry radiator.

V isit expert mechanics regularly, t ie dcctor otce a year and the dentist twice a year, every six months. They can help you overhaul your machine and discover a little kncck in the engine, before you even hear it.

Put a self-starter on your flesh and blood vehicle, that is, remember the main points abouts putting pep into your motor every day.

A new definition of modernism,— “ to buy a closed automo­bile, and electric exercises, and a violet-ray machine, so we wont have to take any more long walks in the fresh air.”

THE WEST C H IN A M ISSION ARY N E W S 37

SC H O O L F O R T H E B L IN D , D E A F & D U M B ,

C h e n g t u , W e s t C h i n a .

October, 1930.

W e are glad to report some measure of progress during 1929-30 . The Temple property •which the School had occupied for several years had to be given up. Providentially the Canadian Mission had available a large vacant lot, formerly a School compound. The Canadian Home Board very magnani­mously gave this property for the use of the School in perpetuity. For money expended on repairs on the Temple property we secured from the Management of the new occupants $1000.00 . W ith this as a starter we succeeded in raising about $7000.00 , the amount expended in the erection of the new buildings. W e now have a splendid group of buildings including eleven cla-ss and guest rooms ; eleven bed rooms, together with kitchen, bath room, etc. Dr. W . E . Manlv’s good help both in drawing the plans and superintending construction were absolutely invalu­able. W ork went speedily forward and within three months, on July 2, 1929, the new quarters were occupied, though not quite completed.

Progress is to be noted in the addition of a Department for the deaf and dumb. M r. Chang Chin Gen was sent to Che'foo for training and after a year’s study in Miss Carter’s School there, he graduated and took a little further study with Mr. Fryer at Shanghai. In February 1930 our first class of seven deaf students was enrolled.

Two of our blind graduates are out in service. Huang Lung Ngan is working in connection with the Yachow Hospital and Yang H o Sen is trying to get an independent work going at Hanchow.

Knitting has been added to our Industrial Department and Mrs. W en is teaching nimble fingers of both blind and deaf to learn another useful occupation. The making of rattan chairs, couches, etc. goes on as usual.

38 T H E W EST C H IN A M IS S IO N A R Y N E W S

The erection of an entrance way cost another $600 .00 and provides guest; and display rooms. W e still need another build­ing to further develop the work department, which will make our unit complete.

In line with the “ spirit of the age” we have had some trouble both with staff and students, but generally speaking the work has progressed harmoniously. Thirty-one students are enrolled this term, nine of whom are d eaf; eight of the total are girls. Two bovs were baptised at Easter time.

Dear little Chang of Suiling, supported by Miss Marie Brethorst, had a tubercular right arm and spent a long time in the Canadian H ospital. Finally amputation became necessary and now the little chap plods cheerfully on under this new handicap. Some who have graduated have returned to their hom es; others after Higher Prim ary graduation have gone into the work departm ent; one or two are anxious to take further Bible study and become evangelists. Several play the organ very acceptably.

M r. Chang is teaching the lip method to the deaf children. W hile results are very much slower it is considered much better than teaching the sign system. Progress is noted in several of the students after but one term of study. Y ang Tai Tai brings her little deaf daughter, aged 1'4, to the School dailv. The M other is very desirous that, her girl’s tongue be unloosed. The girl works hard and is progressing. She does fome color painting and it may be that she has real talent in that direc­tion. Mrs. Kitchen is going to test her out.

Wien the additional staff necessary for the running of the department for the deaf expenses have been greatly increased. M onthly salaries and wages amount to $ 1 2 3 .5 0 ; food costs ($ 3 .5 0 per individual] approximately $ 1 2 0 .0 0 . Then there are sundry incidental items for clothes, repairs, etc. which brings the monthly budget up towards $3 00 .0 0 . Foreign friends and missionaries are our best contributors, but Chinese give several hundred dollars annually. W e have a small Endowment Fund of $ 1 20 0 .00 , M ex., bearing interest, otherwise we are entirely dependent on the contributions of our friends. Gifts toward the Endowment Fund would be very much appreciated.

The School has a Board of M anagers, composed of representatives from the several Churches and Associations, but the actual woi k is handled by a small Executive Committee, and the financial load has largely fallen on the writer.

1 have not been able to give the time to the School that it deserves. Wfe would be glad to hear from anyone who may have a ‘concern’ for these unfortunate little ones— someone to take over at the close of 1933.

T H E '.VEST CHINA M ISSION AR Y N E W S 39

The Christian Church in Szechwan might we]] major on this one conspicuous piece of social service, for there must be literally thousands of blind and deaf in this great Province, and this School is alone in this immense field.

May I trike this opportunity to thank manv friends for kind words and liberal responses to mv recent appeal.

Special nif.ds.For purchase of more land - - $1 00 0 .00 , GoldFor new building for girls - 750.00 , “For new building for work dept. 750 .00 , i(For new building for Chinese Principal 500 .00 , “For compound wall - _ 500 .00 , t;

'F o r additional Endowment - 3000 00 , “

H . J. O p e n s h a w , P r i n c i p a l .

F IE L D G L E A N IN G S

Chengtu :The Editor is happy to announce the election of his

successor as editor oi the W est China Missionary News, due to the imminent furlough of t>he present “ encum braLce/’ 'J he Advisorv Board has seouredthe consent of the Rev. Archdeacon Frederick Boreham to act as editor. H is work begins officially with the January N e w ¡?, but as every one with experience knows, the actual work will have to begin at once. Contributors who have promised material during the past two years but have failed to make good as yet, have but one more mouth’s grace. Further editorial introduction will be made at the appropriate time.

The anniversary of the overthrow of the Manehus, October 10th, was celebrated in Chengtu very quietly. Nationals of other countries were pleasantly entertained by the provincial m ilitary heads at the.Provincial Headquarters. The military band complimented the visitors with the playing of the national song of each country represented, and the guests replied with appropriate scrolls of congratulations. Afterwards all were entertained at dinner, foreign style, where t>he welfare of the Chinese Republic was drunk in champagne or in wateraccord-

40 T H E WEST C H IN A M IS S IO N A R Y NEW S

ing to the personal desires of the individual. Query: if one glass of champagne tvpifies “ wan sui” ( 10,000 years!) does one glass of water typify “ ih beh sui” only ?

The University Community welcomed Miss Jessie E . Payne, B . S. to its midst this week. Miss Payne’s specialty is Chemistry, a department of the University very much in need of her service at this particular time. Miss Pavne comes from Peiping and Shensi where she has worked for a number of years under the Ameriaan Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

The Chengtu Book Club held an all afternoon session dur­ing the month at which a number of interesting and helpful reviews were given by several of the members. Tea was served. M rs. O. G. Starrett was re-elected as President and M rs. A . W . Lindsav as secretary-treasurer.

The Rev. T . Gear W illet, formerly of Chungking and now in London as General Secretary of the China Inland Mission, is in Chengtu in the interests of the work of this mission.

Kiating :The Rev. R . S. Longley has been in K iating for about a

week and leaves on Oct. 14th for Junghsien. H e rendered a variety of services, such as giving D r. Allen his examinations in Chinese, and in leading the community prayer-meeting.

M r. J. C. Jensen is spending the month in Kien W ei and Ma Pien. H e reports a great eagerness on the part of the people to buy Christian literature.

The China Inland Mission Conference will open in K ia ­ting, October 18th.

On Oct. 13th the community was glad to welcome back M r. L . C. Marvin who came up from Chubentan to attend Confe rence.

October has brought many lovely Fall days which are indeed welcome after such a raw, rainy month as was the month of September.

L .B .J .

Luchow ( Lu Hsien)Perhaps in common with most places, we have felt that

there was litle of importance to record. However when street widening came upon us, it made us feel a bit different. N ow it is all over with. A t this north side of the city, we have a nice wide and smooth street, quite slippery enough to skate on, when it rains a bit. The C .I .M . on the south side have a beautiful

TH E WEST C H IN A M ISSIO N AR Y N E W S 41

building on the street front and even more beautiful in its accomodation within.

The people made strenuous opposition to the expenditure of so much monev, but the authorities would have nothing else and thus it was done.

Ptecentlv there have been many rumours of Communistic threats within the city. Summer matting has been ordered taken down.

Even in the city, one seldom hears expressions of ill will now. Our new street chapel down in the city and all the work being carried on there, is very encouraging, both the dav school and Sunday School and the preaching at nights.

W e have gotten a lot of tracts, systematically, all over the city.

There is the problem of registering Mission schools, which is causing a good deal of anxiety, in the city, but particularly in the country where certain authorities seem bent on. having Mission schools closed, whether or no.

On the other hand, the country people are very friendly and there seems not the slightest reason why any sort of Christian work cannot be carried on everywhere.

W e have been particularly encouraged, to note the splendid sales of the colporteurs. W e have been to practically all the market towns and villages where we have no organized Christian work and in every instance found the people very friendly indeed, as we have taken our stand at the tea shop front for hours and then the market square, preaching and selling many gospels and other Christian booklets and in a number of cases we have found people just as ready to buy the traets, most of which were our Chengtu illust rated type, with some of the plain Tract Society ones. In one large town we sold literally, one day, hundreds of bunches of these tracts at one big copper per bunch of ten tracts each.

It mav even be that people may not always make ideal use of this literature but surely it cannot fail to accomplish much, when coupled w'ith earnest prayer and when all reasonable precautions have been taken.

It moreover, also, indicates that this part of China still has faith in our Gospel and welcomes us. That this door, at least, is wide open.

I have never seen people so ready to post up tracts when asked to do so and that, amongst other things, is something for which to be grateful.

A .C .H .

42 T S E W EST C H IN A M IS S IO N A R Y NEW S

Suifu :

M r. Ballantvne of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, M r. W illiam s of the Standard oil Company, M r. Sinton of the China Inland Mission, and Mrs. Bridgm an of the U nited Church of Canada Mission have been recent visitors in Suifu.

Munroe Academ y has now thirty-three students. The enrollm ent has not exceeded thirty during the past three years. The attendance of the Suifu Baptist Girls'" School is i;ow ’ two •hundred and twenty-seven. This is the largest enrollment in the history of the institution, even before the evacuation, for the Fall term .Here and There :

T h e F r i e x d of London under date of June 20th, 1930, contains a very fine appreciatian of the late D r. Clifford M . Stubbs written by M r. and M rs. H . T . Sewell. Those who are particularly interested in reading it may see it in the University Faculty Pleading Room or may obtain the same from M.rs. R .L . Simkin.

On September 30th, the following members of the United Ohurch of Canada left Shanghai on their way to Szechuan : The Rev. E . W . Morgan and M rs. Morgan, the Rev. G. E. Rackham and Mrs. Rackham who wrill be stationed in Chung­king. D r. and Mrs. Bruce Collier who come to the Union U niversity , and M iss McLeod and Miss Coutts for the Language School. This party is expected to reach Chungking about October 14th.

The Yickerbs of the Baptists and the Liljestrands of the M ethodists are soon due to arrive.

I t has appeared in print that Bishop W h ite of the Anglican ‘Communion in Honan has not only given directions to close all their mission schools, but has gone so far as to order the tearing down of some of the school buildings. This is to show that the Church is in earnest; that it is not a mere gesture.

General Chang Dze-kiang who some years ago made arrangements with the Am erican Bible Society for the circu la­tion at his expense of 6 ,500 Bibles and 12 ,000 New Testaments upon which were printed his comment “ This is the greatest classic under heaven” together with his signature in gold leaf, has again made a gift of $5000 for the same purpose. W hile some will be sold at a nominal price, others will be reserved fo r presentation to ministers upon their seminary graduation or ordination and for placing in hospital wards.

Do Y o u Know ,— ?Flies hate red aud yellow ?Flies love green and blue. (H ealth ).

T H E WEST C H IN A M ISSIO N A R Y NEW S 43

D r. D. C. Graham, who is soon to leave for America on furlough, writes us that this summer in company with the Rev. T. Huston Edgar, they-went through some unsurveyed territory in Thibet. They camped as high as 15 ,600 feet— one hundred feefc higher than Mt. Blanc— and crossed passes whose altitudes were 15 ,300 , 15 ,900 , 16 ,400 , ana 17,150 feet above the sea-level, respectively.

L A D D R O W N E D IN C O O P E R ’S C R E E K

W om an’s brave attempt at rescue fails

Innamincka, Dec. lo th . When attempting to s-wimacross Cooper’s Creek, about four miles from here, at a wide part of the stream, Keith Adam , 17£ became exhausted and was drowned.

A brave effort at rescue was made by Sister E . Edgar, but struggling in deep water, the lad pulled her under, arid she was compelled to let go her hold. She dived many times but could not find the body. I t was recovered when help arrived.

“ Sister Edgar has been awarded the Royal H am ate Society ’s Bronze Medal for attempted life saving at Cooper's Creek last Decem ber.”

“ Great jov is felt at the offer of Sister Elsie Edgar, cow A .I . M . nurse at Innamincka, to fill the vacancy in Korea caused by Miss Diocon’s resignation.”

Miss Elsie Edgar is the daughter of .Mr. and Mrs. J-. Huston Edgar of Tatsienlu, a.nd was bom in Chengtu. She lias recently been doing pioneer nursing work in Central Australia in connection with the Australia Inland M ission.

C O D E A D D R E S SB E A M A N ' S S H A N G H A I PHONE 3 5 4 5 3M I S S I O N S C O D E U S E D

BEAMAN’S,A REST HOUSE FOR TRAVELLERS

W . F. BEA MAN PROP,

3 3 8 A V E N U E J O F F R E C O R . R U E C H A P S A L

S H A N G H A I

44 TH E W EST CH IN A M ISSION AR Y NEW S

“ W E L C O M IN G W E S T E R N C O N S U L A R A N D M I L I T A R Y P R O T E C T IO N

The Editor's attention has been called to an ambiguity on page 23 of the September W e s t C h i n a M i s s i o n a r y N e w s . The statement referred to reads as follows, “ Its (i. e. the Union U niversity ’s) constituent Boards have officially put themselves on record as not welcoming the consular or military protection of their respective countries.” This statement is criticized on the grounds of propriety and accuracy. Inadvertently the account was left unsigned, but the Editor acknowledges responsibility foranv inaccuracy and seeming discourtesy vhich mav have crept in. Our correspondent wriies, “ I t is possible to make out a case against armed military force being used for protection. To my mind this is entirely different from •welcom­ing or accepting consular assistance and 1 presume that when we accept assistance it really means protection.” I f to other readersthe above statement in the editor’s account fails to make it clear that what was referred to is simply such assistance as is backed by military force, the editor is quite •willing to accept the rebuke and withdraw the word “ consular” from the sentence. N othing was further from his thought than to speak disparag­ingly of such assistance as is generally rendered by our consuls under the provisions of international law. In times now happily past the rattling of the sabre was considered a more or less necessary adjunct of “ protection” of resident aliens. I t is such “ protection” which the writer, on the basis of the official statement of the International Missionary Council of 1928 which included all the constituent Boards of the U nion University, as well as other similarly official statements from the Council of the Foreign Missionary Boards of North America, intended to designate as being unwelcome. But the popular Chinese psychology does not differentiate. To it the presence of anything foreign seems to be an affront, and an institution or a consul is here by virtue of armed force. To point out this lack of discrimination on the part of the destroyers of the university wall and the murderers of our colleague was the purpose of the opening paragraph of the article in question. W e cannot retract the statement as: applied to military protection without viola­ting fact, but with the information before us that our statement connotes an entirely unintended meaning to some of our readers, we hereby withdraw the term “ consular” from its objectionable juxtaposition and apologize for our lack of clearness.

L .F .H .