SENSATIONAL SERMON.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 22, 28 January 1901, Page 2

SENSATIONAL SERMON.

A MISSIONARY’S STARTLING • STATEMENTS.

At St. Andrew’s Church yesterday morning the Rev. Mr Painter took as his special subject the state of affairs in China, a country which, ho said, had emerged from obscurity to unenviable notoriety; a country that was prosperous had been over-run by the allied armies of eight countries wit h all the curses that necessarily and unnecessarily attended such an occupation. Towns and villages have been destroyed by fire, and the fruits appropriated by the enemy. Millions of people were now enduring the rigors of a more than Canadian climate, and without the necessaries of life. Not only had the capital been trodden under foot, but the most sacred places in the minds of the Cliineso had been appropriated to uses which

they considered desecration. Those places to which the Emperor alone had been allowed had no\v been made use of for barracks for the common soldiers. The Temple of Heaven, where the tablets to the memory of the ancestors of the present dynasty had been erected, entered; even that place where Chinese exclusiveness was known to rest in its severest form, the palace of the Emperor, had been used for tho location of a detachment of soldiers, to mako the Chinese feel that their humiliation was complete, and it certainly was most abject. Our diplomatists had cause to be ashamed of their lack of foresight before these events, and were now at their wits’ end to know what to do and how it was to he done. “ They found armies sent out to the relief of Pekin, going over the country in

PREDATORY BANDS, dignified by the name of punitive expeditions, and going for shameful loot—the result on the army itself is so debasing that the nations which send them should be ashamed of themselves. “ It was largely the greed of the merchants,” continued the speaker, “that helped to aggravate the Chinese and bring about the troublous state of affairs, and the missionaries themselves who had scattered themselves throughout the Empire had been compelled to turn their backs to the enemy, or been driven out. Tho soil of China had been

STAINED WITH THE BLOOD of 106 missionaries. In addition there had been 74 of those besieged in Pekin killed ; since he had loft China.it had been found that 50 more had been killed, and 50 were still missing.” Tons of thousands —no, he would say that ten thousand was a low estimate of the number of native Christians who had with their blood testified their faith in Jesus. He could not help but say that a wrong was being crpetrated somewhere, or such a thing would never have occurred. He would not explain why this had come about, but would say generally that everyone connect was to blame in a way that made them guilty before God, Instead of specifying who was to blame he would show them some of the appalling obstacles the missionaries had to contend with. The missionaries really had no treaty right in China—it had been put into the Chinese Copy by a trick, but was not in the French copy, as the authorities opposed the missionaries occupying new stations, and gave them infinite trouble. If a missionary wisely—frequently unwisely—insisted on his rights, the officials would retaliate by punishing the Chinese so severely as to make them despise the missionaries and blame the latter for being the cause of the calamities. They then knew that the missionaries were there •

BY BRUTE FORCE,. just as the merchant'was'in the treaty ports—it looked as if they were coercing them at the cannon’s mouth. They felt that the missionaries were the forerunners of others, merchants and soldiers, to come in due course, and that in taking up new stations they were the emissaries of the Government. The Chinese were exceedingly liberal as far as religion was concerned, . but their fear was that the missionaries were carrying out tho plans of the Government. There was no trait of character in the Chinese more prominent than that of pride, and if any nation had right to be proud the Chinese had. They had had an immense section of the earth allotted to them, and could produce all that was necessary for their sustenance. They had vast mineral resources only just scratched, and in the Shansi alone there was coal enough to last the whole world for ages to come. The Chinese had stimulated agriculture by ways that might seem to us childish, but were effective. The Emperor and high officials took a hand at agriculture—he had himself seen a viceroy holding a plough, while other officials were sowing seed—the agriculturist was placed before the artist, and by the calling being dignified and made so honorable, the Chinese were able to produce enough for all, without intercourse with the outside world. They were aware THEY HAD SUFFERED.

by any such intercourse, and they were more inclined to exclude the foreigner. The world had held that no people had a right to oxclude then- trade, and if they could not get it by fair means they were going to have it any way. People were accustomed to think of the Chinese as not half civilised. He would grant them that if by civilisation was meant simply those appliances and comforts which we had, that we were ahead of them. But they ought to remember that many of those appliances were invented by the Chinese. The mariners’ compass, porcelain, German silver, gunpowder—if that 'could be called a good thing—and printing, were invented by the Chinese. Chinese civilisation reached its climax over 354 years before Christ. They had long solved the labor difficulties, Thero was a splendid literature, and the Chinese word dwelling in comfortable houses and dressed in silks and linen fabrics we used to-day, “ when your ancestors and mine went' as naked savages in northern Europe, eating raw roots and berries.” The speaker went on to refer to the politeness of the Chinaman, and said that the natural enemy of both Chinese and missionaries were the gentry whose aim was to keep everything as it was. Tho DOCTRINES OF CONFUCIUS were deal with, the mam obstacles in the way of-the missionaries being the conservatism of the Chinese. He concluded by stating that though the actions of the .allied forces were inexcusable, they would still work good, as never 6 Chinese maintain their spirit of exclusiveness. The Boxers did one good thing—they had precipitated the outbreak ; for if the movement had matured there could have been few escaped, and he would not be there to address them that day.