China by J. N. ANDERSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 12, 1908

China

By J. N. ANDERSON

J. N. ANDERSON

On all sides we see in this land of age-long exclusiveness and inertia, evidences of an awakening. Though it be in a conservative way, the government is seeking to introduce reforms and measures of improvement for the benefit of the people. A constitutional form of government, after the manner of Europe and America, has been promised to the people, and the existing government only waits the day when education and general intelligence shall have prepared the way for such a great change. Within the last two or three years the old educational system has been set aside, and modern methods and matter have been introduced. On the part of the people there is an unrest, in fact, a seething, that not only calls for, but positively demands, the breaking up of the old forms and systems once so honored and all-powerful.

The present condition of the Chinese nation, but imperfectly hinted at in the foregoing paragraph, is full of significance to us in our missionary plans for this land. Everywhere there are signs showing that the foreign missionary is not favorably received by the native Christians of China as a leader and director in the shaping of the movement to evangelize this empire. This spirit is not necessarily anti-foreign in any bad sense, but the people of this land feel that the time has come for them to assert themselves as members of a race capable of self-government and self-direction. We can scarcely blame them for this; but when we remember that our work in China is young and scarcely yet founded on a strong basis, we can not fail to see how urgent it is that we also awake to the situation, and see that this is our time to lay a foundation in China. Do we wish this message to be one and the same the world over? Shall the believers in the advent message here in this land of China be possessed of the same hope that those of America and Europe have? Is it our ardent hope and earnest endeavor that our Chinese brethren be an organic and vital part of this final movement in the earth? Shall Chinese Seventh-day Adventists practise and teach the same truth that we all hold? Will they do this if the influence of the foreign missionary is wanting? Will our end be accomplished if we delay to lay hold of this work until the independent spirit leads this people to stand aloof from us? Beyond question this is our day of opportunity in China. Canton.