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Glassed-Lane: In Shreveport, I^a.,
March 1, 1912, by Rev. H. M. McLain,
Mr. Alfred Glassell, of Gilliam, La., and
Miss Prances Elvie Lane, of Shreveport,
La.
Jfutcheson-O'Ferrall: On February
15, 1912, at the home of the bride's
sistor, Mrs. J. T. Thompson, Farmville,
VUnlnK.r Do,, T f T?nlu. flvohon.
* ** & AAA Act, %jj ivcr , ax* i uvnci vji unuui,
D. D., J. Stanford Hutcheson, of Richnr.ond,
Virginia, to Miss Mabel Blnford
O'Ferrall, daughter of the late Governor
Charles T. O'Ferrall of Richmond,
Virginia.
Mr. I). C. Kaney, an honored citizen,
a successful merchant and a member
of the Collins Presbyterian church, to
which he was devoted, passed away
February 6, 1912, in his 71st year* He
left two sons and a daughter and a
host of friends and relatives to mourn
his departure.
Mrs. Annie Hriggs Sims was born in
Alabama June 25, 1839. In early life
she joined the Presbyterian church. In
1865, she was 'married to Mr. W. A.
Sims and removed to Texas. February
rtt mil) iiroo cnuoroUf Itnrnrul fltlH
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thiB with her enfeebled condition, carried
her off in a few hours. She leaves
two sons, four sisters and one brother.
"He giveth his beloved sleep."
RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT.
"Whereas, in the providence of God,
he has seen fit to remove from our
midst Mrs. Mary W. Bull, one of our
most beloved members of the Aid Society
of the Second Presbyterian church
of Norfolk, Va.,
Be it resolved. That we, the members
of this Society, bow in humble submission
to God's holy will; giving thanks
for her beautiful Christian example,
oaruina iior Master's work.
and untiring efforts to promote the welfare
of the church.
Resolved, That we tender our warm
sympathy to her family in their great
loss, feeling that we also shall miss her
wise counsel and loving companionship.
Be it further resolved, That a copy
of these resolutions be sent to the fam- i
ily, and recorded in the minutes of the (
Ladies Aid Society of the church, published
in the Presbyterian of the South.
Mrs. Wm. I-Auder,
Miss Mary G. Ghiselin,
Mrs. George W. Kennedy, !
(Norfolk, Va.
March 7, 1912.
THE CHINESE CHURCHES AND
THEIR RELATION TO PRESENT
PROBLEMS. *
By S. II. Chester.
If an Old Testament prophet were
among us to describe some of the things
that are happening In China to-day, I
wonder If he would not use the same
forms of speech the Old Testament
prophets did use in describing the
supernatural events of their own time.
I refer not merely to the great political
events connected with the revolution,
but to some things that have found no
place in the press dispatches.
For instance, at the battle of Nanking
the Manohu army was defeated, but the
General ran away and there was no one
In authority to acknowledge the defeat.
The Revolutionary army therefore, kept
up Its firing, and would not have
stopped until 'the Manchu army had
been exterminated. In this emergency
Dr. Mackltn and Dt. Garrett, two
American missionaries, went out with
one of their native official friends and
took charge of the Mancfliu army, and
THE PRESBYTERIA
stopped the massacre by making a |
peaceful surrender. i
When the revolutionary forces took <
possession or Hanchow the native Fres- I
byterian pastor, Mr. Sang, an ardent 1
revolutionist, busied himBelf in at <
parties of Manohu refugees to escape
from a threatened massacre there. . ]
Some wounded Manohus whom he found
hiding in some straw, were afraid to <
trust him: Finally he said, "I am a ]
Christian and really wish to help you." ]
Then they went with him, and he let i
them down over a wall by a way he had i
already prepared for the escape of the ^
missionaries in case it should be found <
necessary for them to flee. Having accomplished
this work of mercy he returned
to the church just in time to
make the closing prayer at tihe Sunday
morning service, in which, as the missionary
who sends me the account of it
writes, "He poured out his soul in
thanksgiving to God for our safety,
fervently praying for guidance for the
Revolutionaries, and entreating bhe
Lord to show compassion on his ancient
enemies, the Manchus."
This happened in a country, where.
fifteen years ago, the most hated man
was the foreign missionary, and the
most despised man was the native
Christian. It behoves us, therefore, to
recognize that we are dealing with a
situation in which the presence of God
is manifest in a way in which it seems
to me, it has not heretofore been manifest
in any of the events of modern
history.
The Problem.
Buddhism as a religion having any
real power over the minds of the people
of China has long been dead, as is
witnessed by its dilapidated temples,
in which a few irreverent worshippers
may. usually be seen performing before
the idols, while the crowds In the
temple yard find their diversion in the
j/cri iui itium.c ui uuc j/iuicoojunai oiui J"
teller, and in the booths where every
conceivable kind of humbug Bide-show
is in full blast.
That Confucianism, the very citadel
of Chinese idolatry, is losing its hold
is shown by the fact that the income of
the Confucian temples from the sale of
paper clothes, paper horses, and other
things connected with ancestral worship,
has fallen off over one-half, according
to reliable testimony, in recent
years.
Our western education will soon have
accomplished its task of expelling from
the minds of the Chinese the natural
superstitions which are the basis of
their present religions. The demons of
earth and air and water that have so
long terrorized them will soon all have
Deen irigntenea away Dy tne roar of
modern machinery and by screams of
the railroad whistle. 1
It is true in the spiritual as well as
In the material realm that nature abhors
a vacuum. Unless, therefore, '
Christianity shall Itself speedily take 1
the place in the minds of the Chinese
left vacant by these banished superstitions,
that which will take the place
of them will be educated materialism
and atheism, and the last state of that
nation will be worse, than the first.
Republicanism will not save an atheistical
China, nor will it safe-guard the
world against the menace of a nation
of 400,000,000 of people who have
acquired the power of knowledge, hut
who have acquired no spirit that will '
prompt them to use that power for
other than selfish ends. The only thing
that can be done to save the situation
is the speedy and thorough evangelization
of the whole Chinese Republic.
The Chinese Church. (
The agency hy which this work must I
be accomplished is, of cousse, the ]
Chinese Church. The Church needs to
N OF THE SOOTH
be put to the front, not only in the
actual work, but also in our thinking
an the subject. It is no longer a question
of the missionary and his "native
helpers," but a question of the Chinese
L-hurch and its missionary helpers.
In speaking of the Chinese Church, I
prefer to Bpeak of it in the singular,
rather than in the plural number. For,
while outwardly the Church is marked
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lines of division, and while differences
of dialect will, for a long time, perhaps,
make complete organic unity impracticable,
it is nevertheless, one
Church to a degree that is not characteristic
as yet of our western Christianity.
Its lines of cleavage are, as
it were, mere scratches on the surface,
and have almost nothing to do with any
real differences of theological conviction
or of inherited tradition bearing
upon forms of ecclesiastical organizations.
There is also a spirit in the
Chinese Churches demanding that, as
far as practicable, these lines of
division be speedily eliminated.
In planning to meet the present
situation one of the very first things
that ought to be attempted is the furthering
of the Dlhns formulated by the
Shanghai Centenary Conference for the
more complete and effective unification
of the Christian forces in China. A
similar effort should also be made at
once to effect every possible combination
on the part of the missions, in
their educational and medical work
especially, which would contribute to
the attainment of the largest possible
results from their work, losing sight
of our separate denominational interests
and regarding only the interests
of our whole Christian propaganda.
The present athering together in
Shanghai of such a large proportion of
the missionary force under conditions
of enforced leisure affords unprecedented
opportunity for conference and planning
for both of these ends. It would
also afford an onnortunitv for narrvln.e
out a suggestion made by a well known
missionary traveler and writer, which
seems to me to be worthy of our consideration.
That is, that there should
be prepared by the wisest Christian men
in China, both native and foreign, a
simple and comprehensive statement to
be laid before the whole people of
China, through every available agency
and in the shortest possible time, show,
ing just what Christianity is, its consistency
with the new national ideals,
and its adaptation to the needs of the
people. The issuing and circulation of
such a manifesto would be one method
of preaching the Gospel to China, and
ought, at least, to have a powerful
effect in removing prejudice and in preparing
the way for the individual evangelist.
Character of the Chinese Church.
The Chinese Church as gathered by
our Protestant Missions contains a
communing membership of about 200,000,
a catechumenate of about 100,000
(most of whom have undergone more
searching tests of true conversion that
the average full communicant in our
western Churches), and a total adherency
of about 750,000. This is juBt 750
times the number given by Dr. Milne in
1830 as a probable estimate, and what
was then considered a rather optimistic
estimate of what might reasonably be
expected as a result of the first century
of our missionary work. Nevertheless,
a constituency of 750,000, including
women and children, is not a very
strong numerical force with which to
undertake the spiritual conquest of a
nation of 400,000,000 of people. For
well known reasons, up to the present
time, also, the membership of the
Chinese Church has been gathered
largely from the poorer and humbler
classes. Their social, political and
[ March 20, 1912
commercial Influence is relatively
smaller, even, than their numbers. Let
it never be forEOtten however, thaf- In
the establishment of his kingdom on
earth God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the mighty,
that no flesh may glory in his presence.
The Chinese Church has many elements
of strength of the kind that tells
in the accomplishment of spiritual results.
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