Daily British Whig (1850), 12 Jun 1909, p. 12

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------------------ PAGE TWELVE. HOW AN EDUCATIONAL ADVANCE IN CHINA 18 IMPEDED. ---- Lord William Cecil Visits the Far East to Study Christian Missions--The Boxer Move- ment Against Foreigners Not Christians. Lord William Cecil, the clever and devoted churchman, has been visiting the East to stuuy Christian missions. His letters home are more than interesting. They are instructive and valuable. The latest received was from Yang- tsze, China: Thete are cational advance in impede' the development: of t a complete educational system. China thinks that western education, as it comes to her, is demoralizing--note, as it comes to her; that is, after it has passed through the hands of the western materialists and their Japanese imi- tators. Western education, for instance, as it is taught in Tokio University, appears to the Chinaman--and I think to others also--to be a sort of mental poison, calculated to reduce the morality of any mation down to zero, even if that nation be blessed with high ethical prin- ciples. And when poor China tastes this men- tal poison as it is digpensed by her Japanese teachers she realizes that it will soon bring her state with its time-honored customs to nothingness. Japanese thinkers say, for in- stance, that it is no good believing in religion since all the ablest men of the west are un- believers. Leaving on one side the falseness of such a statement, can you wonder that the Chinese find the result of such teaching de- moralizing? Chinese morality, even before it has been submitted to such a destructive pro- cess, is not very exalted, but there are matters on which its teaching is excellent, and which depend on Chinese religion. A Chinese will cheat and will lie against anyone in most things but on certain points he is absolutely reliable. These points, under the process of westernization, are getting uis- tinctively fewer as the German traders in Tientsin have found out, who are now rather ruefully counting over bad debts, allowed to accumulate on the theory that the Chinese al- ways meet their trade obligations. Again, the Chinaman will leave a fellow-Chinaman to die in a gutter full of water, as the chief engineer of this ship saw done in Shanghai. * And this wa; not an exceptional case, as Dr. Macklin, of Nanking, tells me. That Canadian Phil- anthropist--or shall I say saint ?--rides along the roads, picking up dyipg Chinamen, and saves their lives, and, as a rule, he gets no help from their fellow-countrymen. Yet no Chinaman of the old sort will allow his father or his brother or any relation, or even his guild-brother to want; even if he has to divide his last crust with him. But the modern west- ernized Ch'naman has no such scruples, and while he has not learnt to play the good Samaritan, he has even forgotten the sacred obligation to his own father--thus 1 was in- formed by several Chinese gentlemen of rank. Or, to take another instance, Chinese permit polygamy; women are regarded as inferior beings, and their condition, compared to wo- men of the West, is very miserable. There have been a few white women who have been so foolish as to marry Chinamen; and they have suffered much. Yet, when we have said this, we must remember that the Chinaman has a high ideal of the public decency You will never. see an indecent picture except in a foreign shop-window, and 1 was told by a Chinese gentleman that they would never al- low their wives to look at such a picture. But the westernized Chinawoman is already acquir- ing a reputation for unseemly behaviour. Fe: male students dress like men, they go on pic- difficulties in the way of an edu- China, difficulties which he organization of nic parties without chaperones, or they' have their clothes cut extremely tight. Can you | wonder that many of the best men in China-- good conservatives of-that-most conservative land--are shaking their heads and saying that under western influences their nation is going to the dogs? Perhaps what impedes the development of | western education in Chinese universities most | of all is the reputation that the westernized | Chinaman who teaches in these universities has of being a revolutionary. The consequence is-that China halts in her advance. Mind you, | I am not saying that there 1s going to-be a reaction in favor of the old learning; China quite understands that unless she will accept modern ideas she will no-Jonger be able to call her land her own. She is constantly re- minded of this by the Russians in the north, by the English at Weirhai-wei and Hong Kong, by the French in Yunnan, by the Germans in Shantung, and, lastly and especially, by the | Japanese in Manchuria, who will not even let her build railways in her' own country; and so | she is going to modernize. To many a Chinaman it seems as if it were a choice between two evils--the demoraliza- tion of western education or the certainty of western domination; sadly they prefer the for- mer. Of course, many of my readers will say, "Why must western education be regarded a demoraliging," The is because all education divorced from religion has, by the universal experience of mankind, been found demoralizing. Christians, Buddhists, Brah- mins, Jews, Mahometans disagree about most things, and yet on this point they are agreed that education and religion must go hand in hand, or else there will be bad results The western educator of the Far East, if he is not a missionary, believes in education without religion. Irreligious education is mm full swing at Tokio: thé Germans are going to start an- other non-religious university at Shantung; some people say the English university at Hong Kong is going to be non religious, but I hape wiser counsels will prevail, and, at any rate, religious hostels in connection with the university will be permitted ft makes one sad to think of poor China, with these three great universities hard at work turning out not good Confucians, good Buddhists, good Jews,-or good Christians, but just producing men without faith, and there- fore without principle, without truth, and with- out honesty. who shall go throughout the length and breadth of China making the name of the west odious to all right-minded men. s answer ------ reformed the prisons if he had hot been 2a Christian? Would Wilberforce have freed the slaves if he had been educated at Tokio or at Shantung Universities? Think of the states- men who have made England great from Bur- leigh to Gladstone. Statesmen who have dif- fered absolutely on many points, point. Where would England be without the teaching of Latimer and Laud, of Richard Baxter and John Milton, of Pusey and Simson, of Bunyan and Wesley? Did I say England? English-speaking races, for it was the Pilgrim Fathers who founded the States, and it is the Wesleyan thought thdt has largely guided them. But I take up too much of your paper. I hear that the prospectus of the Hong Kong Univetsity speaks of making a special effort to build up character; but how? I understand it is to be without religion, certainly without Christianity. This truly is making bricks with: ont straw; nay, witheut clay as well. How is | it to be done? I suppose the master is to teil his pupils that they must be good. But will that have any result? Why, China is a living proof to the contrary. If every Chinese ruler ever thought of keep- ing the excellent' maxims that were written by Confucius, and that are learnt by heart by every educated Chinese boy, China would be an ideal country. Chinese morality is as low as its ethics are high. It is a standing example of $he uselessness of good advige. Yef the same old plan is to be tried again, in spite of its obvious failure; only the authority on which the good advice rests is to be largely diminish- ed--the teacher is not to say, as the Chinese teacher says now:--YThis advice comes down to you from, Confucius, and has been respected by your fathers"; but he is to say, if he tells the truth The good advice I give you is a mere invention of a few theorists; it has never obtained acceptance in the West except in France, and there its results are injurious; so we are going to try it in the East." Poor China is to share in that experience which is proving such a failure in Japan and India--of education without religion, of morality with- out faith. Has such a course made high- minded men in the west, and can such course make high-minded men in the East? a as Strafford | and Cromwell, have been united on this one | I should have said the | THE DAILY BRITISH WHICG, SATURDAY JUNE 12, 1909. IT EMBRACES A POPULATION OF PROBABLY 29,000,000 PEOPLE. The Turk Despises the Christian--The De- posed Sultan Finds Refuge in the House of a Despised Jew--The Field Discouraging. The Turkish Empire consists of Turkey inf Europe, Turkey in Asia, Tripoli, Fezzan, and nominally at least; Egypt in Africa; together with some of the islands in the Eastern Medi- terranean. It embraces an area of about 1, 500,000 square miles with a total population, including the tributary states, of about 29, 000,000. Every variety of climate is repre- sented, but the greater proportion of the Em- pire lies within the temperate zone. The soil is on the whole fertile and productive, and great ¢rops of wheat, barley, millet, rice, house- hold vegetables, tobacco, etc, are grown; while the climate is specially adapted for fruit grow- ing--grapes, oranges, olives, melons, figs, peaches, pears, quinces, dates, ete., being of th: finest. The mineral wealth of the Empire is also very great, though the mines, owing to the unprogressive character of the government, remain largely undeveloped. Trade and com- merce are geeatly retarded by want of trans- portation. Railways, now however, built large- ly with German capital, connect the principal cities--a line right through the Medina, next t6 Mecca the most sacred city of the Mo- hammedans,| having only recently been com- pleted. The people are on the whole very democratic. There is no hereditary autocracy in Turkey, and there is nothing to prevent 2 farmhand or a pedlar from becoming Prime Minister, if he be a Mohammedan, or Patri- arch, if he be an Armenian. Caste is uknown, and there is the freest intercommunication between the various races in a business way, though little social intercourse, The saddest phase of the whole situation is the hatred the various peoples cherish toward one another. The Turk despises "the dog of a Christian," the Armenian hates the Greek, while the Jew is held in contempt by all Particularly gall- What China wants at the present day is high- minded men. Can you bg high-minded with- out religion? ' | Those interested in the. well-being of China | are meditating sorrowfully on this question; | this is especially true of the missionaries. | Many have lived for years in discomfort and | danger, many have died from pestilential clic mates or by the sword. They think little about | such matters. They are only anxious fot the | future of those for whom they have lived and suffered. Many mission bodies have erected splendid schools. What will be the fate of | the pupils of these schools? The Chinese learn readily, and some of the bright boys in those mission schools have great futures before them if they can only get a good university education. But whit will 'be their fate if-they- fall into the hands of some unbelieving pro- fessor at one of those universities who will persuade them that all they have learnt in the m'ssion schools is wrong? Their condition will be worse than if they had never heard of Christianity or western education. Perhaps the reason why people think that western education in China must be irreligious is because they think that the Chinese hate Christianity. 1 believe this is a misunder- standing that should be cleared up. The Chi- nese are the most tolerant people in the world as regards religion; they have tolerated Indian Buddhism; yes, they still speak of it as the Indian religion. They have tolerated Mahomet- ism; there are Mahometan colonies in many of their big towns. They are more tolerant than the Russians, for they tolerate the Jews. They are rather proud of a little colony of Jews they possess in their midst. They have tolerated Christianity. For two hundred years there: has been a cplony of Greek Christians close to Peking; they will tolerate any re- ing must it be for the deposed Sultan to be | compelled, in his exile, to find refuge in the home of a despised Jew. ' Of the 22,000,000 in the Turkish Empire proper, about io are Mohammedans and 6,000,000 Christians. Both Moslems and Chris- tians are divided into many sects, between which there exists often the bitterest feuds, which lead to constant disorders and frequent- ly bloodshed. The Christians include Arr menians, Greeks, Syrians, Jacobites, Copts, Bulgarians, Protestants and Roman Catholics. The territory of the Empire is well covered by Mission Societies. The American Board (Congregational) occupies the whole of East- ern Turkey, together with Bulgaria south of | the Balkans, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia, The Presbyterian Church of the United States occupies Syria and a portion of Eastern Tur- key; the Reformed Presbyterian Church of America has stations in Northern Syria and Southern Asia Minor; the Disciples in Asia Minor; and the Methodist Episcopal Board in Bulgaria. There are a number ~ of Baptist churches in the Balkan states, chiefly in Bul- garia, The Anglican (C.M.S,) has a flourish- ing work in Palestine, the Society of Friends has a Mission in Syria and Medical work in Constantinople; and the Reformed Presby- terian Church of Ireland has stations at Da- mascus and Idib. 'Besides all these agencies is the Mission to the Jews carried on by the various English societies at Constantinople, Smyrna, Adrianople and in Palestine, and the work of the British and Foreign and the American Bible Society. In all there are no less than thirty-one missionary societies, great and small, at work in Asiatic and European Turkey, of which nineteen are British, nine American, and two German. The missionary agencies employed are chief- ligion--what they are intolerant of is-foreign- ers The Boxer' movement was directed against | foreigners, not Christians; in some' gases men who smoked cigarettes were killed because cigarettes were regarded as foreign. This | brings me to my second difficulty. education must be given by Chinese; therefore, the great | object of every university that hopes ceed in China should be to try to prepare and educate Chinese students to take the place of the western professors at an early date. The Chinese quite realize that at present western | education must be given by western teachers. They do not want a permancnt western settle- ment. So when I have explained to Chinese that we have the welfare of China at heart because by our religion we are bound to be- lieve in the brotherhood 'of man, and that our object is therefore only to retain -western teachers till we have educated enough Chinese thinkers to carry on the great traditions of Christianity and education, the suggested idea of a Christian university has met with the warmest approval. to choose between an unbelieving for: riversity and a Christian Chinese uni- versity he would a thousand times prefer the latter; and if he has to choose between a foreign university that is non-Christian, and a foreign whiversity that Christian, he would most probably prefer the latter, since, as a rule, he thinks that Christianity is the best thing that comes from the west. were eign ur is Home Work Is Bad Business. Calgary Herald. Children as. a rule know enough quite soon enough. Precocity has even increased of later years. There is lots of time in childhood's yeats to learn al life. Clear eyes and vigorous bodies are more' valuable than the ability to demonstrate that a plus x equals y. The teacher should be able tp give his scholars all the real information they can digest within the limit of school hours. It is a matter of knowing how. Home study spoils home life. How often one sees a father who hardly knows his own boys and girls because he is at work all day and they have to work all evening. ey would like to become acquainted, but th is no time. For, after all, civilization without religion has hitherto proved a failure Certainly, western civilization without Christianity 1s like Hamlet with Hamlet leit outs Allits ideals are Chris tian, and it is an unreasonable system unless vou accept a Christian basis for your thought Every western thinker, even those who pro- fess unbelief, have lived in an atmosphere of Christian thought. And those to whom we owe most have not hesitated to refer their A publisher has been talking of old times when he was the editor of a country paper. "My saddest experience came from a mistake in reporting a country tea-meeting. I intended to say that the Methodist choir furnished the music in its usual excellent style To. my horror the paper came out with that the Methodist choir "punished" the music in its usual elegant style. You can scarcely inspiration to the teaching of the Bible A Shanghai newspaper said the other day that it wanted a Chinese Howard to reform the Chinese prisons Would Howard ever have imagine my troubles for the rest of the winter." At the funeral of an unmarried woman n Brazil the mourning color is scarlet. Western | to be appreciated by the Chinese | to wield so mighty an to suc-|and relig I do not hesitate to say that if a Chinaman | | needed for a foundation in | the remark | ly evangelistic preaching, Bible distribution, education, publication and social influence. It wouldvbe difficult to decide which of these has exercised the largest influence for good, but special mention must be made of the work of the colleges. Perhaps no other Christian institutions in the-world have been permitted d far-reaching an in- fluence upon the political, intellectudl, setial ious character of any country as Robert College at Constantinople, Central Tur- key College at Aintab," Euphrates: College at Harpoot and the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut. In these noble Christian institutions, thousands of young men of all the various peoples that constitute the Turkish Empire, | receive at the hands of noble Christian men, a splendid modern education. Side by side they study, learn to know, love and respect | one another, and go out to take the leading | places in society as lawyers, doctors, judges, | civil servants, and members of parliament. It {1s the work of such colleges as these that has made possible the present great reform move- | ment in Turkey, and which is leavening the | whole population of the Turkish Empire, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, | but with the new leaven of sincerity and truth. | Medical work not only opening closed { doors and allaying prejudice, but giving a rude shock to the fatalism of the Moslem faith. | By the millions of pages of wholesome re- ligious and scientific literature issuing from | the mission presses every year at Beirut and Constantinople, errors are being corrected, superstitions dispelled and.the intelligence of | the people steadily raised. Perhaps, too, in no part of the world is the sweetening, sanctify- ling influence of the missionary's home more | powerfully felt, especially among a people | where the Social vice so' abounds, and where | women are held in 'such low esteem. {| The field, whether among the Mohammedans or so-called Christians, is a hard and dis- | couraging one, especially in view of the ani- ! mosities existing between the races and, the | opposition of the unspeakable Turkish regime, | which hitherto has been steadily and consis- | tently opposed to any policy of enlightenment for the common people. The horrible mas- sacres of Christians and Jews, that have taken | place under the eyes of the missionaries, have | been a terrible trial, and yet out of these aw- | ful experiences the native church has arisen | trinmphant, and continues to witness for the | Redeemer. [fis to be hoped that the new | order of things at Constantinople will forever | bring to an end these dreadful atrocitles, and | that with the enjoyment of religious liberty, {a new era for Missions has dawned through- | out the Empire of the Sultan. | So far as the so-called Christian population {is coficerned, (whether Greek-Orthodox, Ar- | menian, Copt or Nestorian) the object of the missionaries has been, not so much to make | Protestangg as to quicken thesé dead and | formal chutches into a new life in Christ. "In- rs EVTENT OF TURKISH EMPIRE rate. ¢hurclfes was not thought of, but the jealousy and excommunicating policy of the native hierarchy finally compelled the mission aries to change thi§ policy. The result has been the raising-up of a great Protestant com- munity, but it is pleasing to record that of late years, and especially since the massacres, there has come a great quickening to the old Gre- gorian and Armenian churches, and the breach between them and their Protestant brethren is being healed. tet - THE MAYORS HAVE OBLIGATIONS. Quaint Forms 4.re Observed at the Induction to the Mayoral Chair. Old customs in England have been giving the press many articles of late, through the industry of the papers. Quaint forms are observed at the induction to the mayoral chair. The mayor of Lincoln is duly elected by the placing upon his finger of an ancient ring, which his predecessors have worn for centuries. This ring possesses a curious power, for when the mayor sends it to any school within the city the schoolmaster is beund to give his pupils a holiday for the day. A similar custom prevails at Chichester, an ancient turquoise ring being used. The chief magistrate of Chichester is also armed with a gold-mounted malacca cane. At York both the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress are equipped with silver-mounted oak staves, which have marked their authority for cen- taries. Moreover, the Lady Maybress enjoys the distinction of being the only lady in the land provided with a chain of office by the corporation. She is also entitled to retain the prefix "Lady" for the remainder of "her life. At Brightlingsea, a limb of the Cingue Parts, the ceremony attaching to the election of mayor has taken place in the parish church belfry from time immemorial. The retiring mayor of Bournemouth, on investing his suc- cessor with the civic regalia, confirms him into office with an old-time loving kiss. A similar salutation awaits the incoming mayor of Han- ley. A "striking" ceremony marks the ex- piration of the Grantham mayor's tenure of office. The robe is stripped off him, the chain is taken from about his neck, and with a small wooden hammer the town clerk taps the ex- mayor on the head in token of the demise of his authority. The mayor of Dunstable has to submit to a somewhat similar ceremony. Im- mediately after his election the chief magis- trate, aldermen, and councillors, headed by a brass band, proceed to the nearest point of the boundary, which happens to be the middle of a ploughed field. Here a huge crowd sur- rounds a post, . The bellman clangs his bell for order, the charter of the borough is read, and the mayor is then seized by stalwart arms, lifted and"bumped" vigorously on the top of the post. This process is repeated at every point of the boundary, so that the mayor has every reason to remember exactly where the borders of his jurisdiction cease. Directly after electing the mayor at High Wycombe, the town council adjourns to the borough office of weights and measures, where the new occupant and each alderman and councillor, is publicly weighed, and these re- cords form one of the treasures stored in the municipal archives. The Lord Mayor of Birr mingham is required to pose before the photo- grapher immediately after his election, and a copy, together with biographical details, is placed ia an album containing portraits of all the gentlemen whe have occtipied seats on the council. es es-- THE SWORD OF OSMAN. v The Most Stately Rite in the Enthronement of the Turkish Sultan. The recdnt girding of Mahomed V. with the sword of Osman at the Mosque of Eyub was the most stately rite in the enthronement of the Turkish Sultan. - The mosque is rich with historic memories, At its gate, as the Sultan landed from the Golden Horn, the ministers pnd chief dignitaries of the empire received him, and the service was conducted by the Chelebi of Konia. This has been for many centuries the special privilege of his office. He is the hereditary head of the Mevelevi Der- vishes, a body which has had extraordinary influence through all political vicissitudes. The Chelebi rarely himself officiates at this function. Indeed he so commonly delegates his duty to a brother of his order that there is a, popular legend. It was said that he did not go to the capital because his mere presence would constitute him Sultan himself. The story shows the veneration in which this des- cendant of the renowned Jellal-ed-Din, founder of the Mevlevi or "Dancing Dervishes," who was also one of the greatest of © Oriental mystics--and of Abu-Bekr, the first of the Khalifs, is still held. His departure from re- cognized precedent in visiting the capital ex- pressly to invest Mehmed V. with the symbol of legitimate dominion strengthens the new ruler in the eyes of his Orthodox subjects. The sword of Osman was born by Mahomed the Conqueror and deposited on his death in the mosque he raised upon the fateful spot where was discovered the tomb of Eyub, the standard-bearer of the Prophet, just in time to fire the enthusiasm of the troops for the last and victorious storm of the walls of Con- stantinople. Eyub, according to tradition, had fallen 'there in one of the early sieges, and as he fell he foretold that the place of his burial would be found by a conqueror of the Moslem faith.. When Mehmed V. lately entered the mosque the opening chapter of the Koran was read and the Chelebi implored the blessings of Heaven on the new reign. Then he girded Mehmed V. with the ancestral symbol of su- preme power.A brief prayer followed and the Sultan was left alone ir the holy place to give thanks to the Almighty. fea pp-- The Jesuits Are Socialists. Ask any. confessed socialist what are the principal societies and he will mention one or two decaying phalansteries, and he will forget the largest and most influential. The Jesuit, Father Bernard Vaughan, in a lecture against socialism, thus described the order of which he is a member, atid what he says applies to other orders in the church. "As. a Jesuit I have lived for fifty years under the nearest approach to socialism yet seen on this planet. We Jesuits have to go where we are told, to do what we are told, to live under the superior we are told, and for as long as we are told, being switched to and fro and off and on like any poor gas light. Furthermore, we may be 'given things, but they must go to the com- munity. We have the use of clothes, of food, of lodging, and when money for travelling or what not is needed we get it from the common purse, into which we drop back again what has not been needed for personal consump- tion. We may not buy, sell, invest, or in other ways build up capital. "This, surely, is a state | of things not altogether unlike some phases of deed, in the beginning, the formation of ser socialism: And still they come. | Announces a New Pri 5 2 » Ee ads ens The First Prize will again be a LIFE ANNUITY FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS Equal to One Dallar Per Week Every Week During mired Dollars Gh CONDITIONShare similar to the last. that all ORANGE MEAT Carton Bottoms on or before November 30th, 1909. post card in every Full particulars on private enter this contest, ORANGE MEAT. Ii you complete . blank space below wi ih Joie name and 1} out and mail it to ORANGE MEAT, KIN N, 0 it will count equal to ten carton hottoms. Rm TO ORANGE MEAT, KINGSTON. I desire to enter your prize contest which matures Noveuiber 80, 1909. 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