Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1907

Changes in China

From an article on “The Hour of Opportunity in China,” in the Home Herald of November 6, we quote:

The decay of belief in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in China, as one result of the awakening throughout the empire, has prepared the Chinese as never before for the gospel. In various places in the empire, writes Frank A. Smith, may be seen the abandoned examination halls. Through the gates great companies of scholars once trooped to take the government examinations, win the coveted degree if they might, and secure official position. But as we saw the halls of Peking, the walls were crumbling, the roofs battered in, the cells where the candidates worked were filled with rubbish, and the whole place was abandoned to decay. For by a stroke of the pen the Confucian classics were tumbled from their throne of a thousand years or more, and the new Western learning given supremacy. . . . The hour has struck for Christianity. The door stands open as never before. What is done must be done quickly. Changes are coming with such amazing rapidity that none may venture to predict what may happen in a year, or even in a month. And unless we are quick to seize the opportunity, it may be gone. The sanest piece of missionary policy we could pursue would be to concentrate our efforts on China for the next ten years. We must work the works of Him who sent us while it is day.

Those who have understanding of the time can not doubt that these changes and openings in China have a special significance in their relation to the finishing of the gospel work in ‘this generation. Our representatives in China are praying that the Lord will open the way for fifty additional workers to come to that field at once. The situation really demands that number, and we should be glad to see them start for the field at once.