Some Missionary Problems by J. N. Anderson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 27, 1907

Some Missionary Problems

By J. N. Anderson

J. N. ANDERSON

Of the different recommendations passed at our recent council at Shanghai [these appeared in the REVIEW of May 30, on page 13], at least two call for special mention. When read from this side, they are perfectly intelligible; but to people in the home land, where conditions are quite different, they are quite sure to be more or less misunderstood.

Reference is made to the fourth and fifth as they appear in the series. They read as follows: “We recommend that all our gospel workers, native and foreign, be urged to teach carefully all inquirers repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour from sin; and, further, that all candidates for church fellowship give evidence of a new life and a sincere love of God’s Word; and in particular, that they abstain from idolatry in any of its many forms, including ancestral worship, also from polygamy, gambling, opium, tobacco, and wine. We recommend that as foreign workers engaged in missionary work under special treaty rights, we scrupulously abstain from interference in disputes and litigations among Chinese subjects, and that we do our utmost to prevent our Chinese helpers and church-members from giving encouragement to, or having any connection with, this evil.”

The first part of the fourth resolution presents nothing out of the ordinary; it is indeed only what we as a people in all parts of the world insist on with reference to those who seek admission to our churches. To join the church is but a formal and outward step, the evidence of a vital and spiritual operation which has taken place in the life-springs of the individual. As for the second part of the resolution under consideration, it might at first thought seem to be so absolutely obvious that even the mere mention of these requirements reflects on our loyalty to the truth of the message we as a people bear. I can indeed almost hear some say that all converts as a matter of course should lay off all these; and so indeed they should. But when one stops to think that other missionary societies freely allow the use of wine and tobacco, and even furnish the latter to the inquirers, directly or indirectly, it can be seen that at least so far as the Chinese and other missionaries are concerned, it is not superfluous to dwell especially upon these two sins. They are outstanding and universal.

Opium is, beyond a peradventure, the curse of this empire; and it is gratifying to know that all missionaries, as well as the Chinese government, are set against its use. A lively crusade is just now being waged against this drug. It

should be borne in mind, however, that it is not merely the use of opium and its importation into China that makes it so deadly to this race; it wields a more subtle, and hence a more deadly, influence on China in the temptation it presents to the rural people in its culture. Like the raising of tobacco and swine in the States, it promises material prosperity to the poor farmer; and thus by the fact of its being a domestic article, it easily and rapidly insinuates itself among the masses. This is China’s awful incubus, which the government is vigorously exerting itself to throw off. We are glad to put ourselves on record against this deadly thing.

Gambling is a vice that runs deep into the life of this people. It is well-nigh universal, its victims representing all classes and both sexes. Its forms are legion, and the very foundations of society are honeycombed with it. The Chinese themselves many times fail even to regard it seriously. All Christian people are of right unequivocally set against it.

Coming now to idolatry, the very web and woof of Chinese life, teaching, feeding, molding the entire mass of this great nation, it is the one great force that in the past has made, and in the present continues to keep, China what she is. With us idolatry is an abomination; but with the Chinaman it is not only respectable, it is a positive virtue, and the means to all good. Every day throughout the year it holds in its benumbing embrace this entire nation. Its spirit is one; its forms and aspects are countless. The folly, the mischief, the ruin wrought by Chinese idolatry does not spring so much from the fact that false gods are worshiped as it does from the fact that dead men are worshiped as gods.

This is ancestral worship, “filial piety gone mad,” as one writer puts it. For decades during the early history of Roman Catholic missions in China, this specious form of idolatry was not only winked at, but pronounced consistent with both the spirit and the letter of Christianity. Later the pope by a bull pronounced against this opinion, though in so doing he reversed the infallible dictum of a former infallible pope. The Catholics hold to this belief to the present day. In general, all Protestant missionaries hold the same position with reference to this question. There is, however, a sentiment gaining ground that ancestral worship is not, after all, so very serious; that it is, in reality, not worship; and that to require converts to lay off this much-cherished custom is as unnecessary as it is impossible. It is filial piety, very commendable in the Chinese, and to be encouraged in a measure in the people of the West. In many ways it presents some very mild and apparently helpful aspects; but in reality it is the very heart and soul of all the false worship that pervades this great land. It ignores the true God by deifying man, and so strikes at the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Between Christianity and ancestral worship there can be no reconciliation.

With reference to the fifth recommendation, it is well known that interference in political matters in China has been the fruitful source of mischief in this field. The frightful outburst of the popular, fanatical indignation of 1900, was in a large measure the fruit of such ‘filial’ interference on the part of missionaries. Chinese converts and adherents are constantly seeking for some material advantage through the gospel and those who represent it here. Disputes and litigations are very common among Chinese people, and in all these differences the foreigner can be, if he will, a very convenient and helpful factor. There is a constant temptation to us as foreigners to lend a helping hand as we hear pitiful tales of oppression, and even persecution, which in many cases fall to the lot of those who turn to the Christian faith. It is a very simple matter oftentimes for the foreigner to help out in such cases; but while it may seem to be a harmless matter, and at times a manifest duty, it nevertheless entails serious consequences. The treaty under which we are in this land as missionaries stipulates that we entirely refrain from such interference.

Canton, China.