File:Fifty years in China - being an account of the history and conditions in China and of the missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States there from 1867 to the present day (1919) (14768842295).jpg

Identifier: fiftyyearsinchin00wood (find matches)
Title: Fifty years in China : being an account of the history and conditions in China and of the missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States there from 1867 to the present day
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Woodbridge, Samuel Isett
Subjects: Presbyterian Church in the U.S Missions
Publisher: Richmond : Presbyterian Committee of Publication
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ing balm, has received something more preciousthan he expected, even the saving grace of our LordJesus Christ. The poor have the Gospel preachedunto them, was one of the evidences of his Mes-siahship that our Lord gave to John the Baptist. Thisevidence is writ large in China by the followers ofJesus whom we have sent there. Missionary Motive Misunderstood.—The ChineseChristian, just brought out into the light from thegrossest darkness of heathanism, is often tempted toquestion the mission of his foreign teacher. All theforces of evil are brought to bear on the convert. Heinherits the superstitious bent of mind and heart fromgenerations of his ancestors. He is surrounded byheathen relatives and friends, or is perhaps ostracisedfrom home. With little in the way of Christian envi-ronment and association, beset on all sides with pecu-liarly strong temptations, what wonder if he beginsto doubt? He hears terrible stories about mission-aries from the rabble of the street, and these stories
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EFFECTS OF THE CHINESE REVOLUTION I23 are supported by assertions of his friends and neigh-bors. Have these missionaries any ulterior motives?The missionary motive is no more understood by theunconverted Chinese than by the godless Europeanmerchants, who sold opium in China for many years. Strange Use of Visiting Cards.—When the ChineseGovernment offered political rank to our missionaries,the Chinese Christians w^ere also raised to a higherlevel in the estimation of the people. Most of theseconverts had come from the lower order of society,and to be suddenly classed with the once despisedmissionaries now elevated to official rank was a prizeworth having. It mattered little that the missionariesdeclined the offer of the government. Here was atemptation indeed for the humble Chinese Christians.But they stood the test. There was little vaingloriousbraggadocio. A few of the imperfectly instructedChinese Christians did trade on the fear and folly ofthe government in the years before the

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