MISSION WORK IN CHINA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 163, 3 April 1908, Page 5

MISSION WORK IN CHINA.

Last night, -'in-, the.-Terrace Congregational ' Church/- the Rev:.Howard .Smith, ' Chinese lecture on his 1 experiences during the . Boxer >Riots of 1900, and showed a number'of limelight pictures of Peking, and sccncs'of Chinese life. The whole trouble, Mr. Smith.- said, began when, after '.the 'war . with Japan, a reaction set in in favour : of reform, but this movement 'went too. rapidly and. consequently thore was a again a reaction in favour of conservatism,: when the /Emperor was ■ tlirust aside "by - ' the Empress. Dowager, • who took; the reins'of,power.-; The : leaders of this reactionary movement.'--incited r the :'people against, the foreigners, saying- that '.the * Empire would /go to - : ruin' if the-reformers' were, not , checked, and' so .the ' extraordinary - sight ' was' seen ' for thetfirst time .ini'historjv off foreign '.-legations besieged- by. the . people' of the- country.' Mr. Smith'said that-, the missionaries-ill the lega-' tions, aided 'by ..their' Chinese converts, organised .'the. commissariat, 'hospital,.-.sanitation, etc., and it was • those, converts who dug trenches,:and' built fortifications,and defences: Those rinside tho legation walls;'who. so nearly fell ■ into the - hands -of ■■ the infuriated.; mob, had' to thank 'the' ; for -their preservation. - Conditions in Chiha. had altered very" greatlysince; the riots, 'and:, now -the effects 7 of-Sixty years- of■ mission work ..were beginning to be seen very clearly. The Christian doctrine had.begun to leaven .the masses and reach the root of.: the. nation. • There was notthe hatred of the; foreigner that used to bo so evident; The Boxer riots had crystallised events and brought them'to a'climax. Another reason for this broader outlook and greater tolerance was the education of the Chinese at home and abroad.', There-were to-day 15,000 .Chinese students in Japan,, and their influence' when they return to China would tend greatly, to ' break ' down prejudices. The missionaries felt, however, that there • was a danger in this wider' education, unlets connected with some religious influence, and, in fact,' the revolutionary' ideas inibibed by tho Chinese abrond had been the cause of a good 'deal of trouble. It was recognised by missionaries that a very important work mußt be done by them in providing a good education in missionary colleges, and to this'work they were now addressing themselves. One of then 1 colleges, which had turned out 150 graduates, was proud to say that every one of those graduates was -also a professed Christian.