J. N. ANDERSON by J. N. Anderson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 22, 1902

J. N. ANDERSON

By J. N. Anderson

China

J. N. ANDERSON

It is the general opinion that the recent religious and political convulsion in China is the most significant event of modern history. It can be so regarded, not because so many lives were sacrificed, although about two hundred and forty missionaries and several thousand native Christians perished; nor because the outbreak was of a prolonged character, for it lasted only a few weeks; but because, involving the majority of the race, it involved the well-being, the very destiny, of humanity. This alone could dignify the outbreak of 1900 as the most significant event of our times.

The whole world was directly concerned. On the one hand was the empress dowager at the head of four hundred million souls, representing the oldest and the most interesting empire in the world; while on the other hand were the seven leading powers of the West—Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, England, and America, together with Japan, the foremost power of the Orient. The principals in this struggle were not pigmies, petty princes, but world rulers, upon whose shoulders rests the temporal sovereignty of the world. They represented not one continent, nor two, but in very truth the four continents and the islands of the sea. It was, indeed, one half of the world pitted against the other half.

Up to the time of the uprising, these great powers of the West had stood as deadly political and commercial rivals, ever on the alert to seize the favorable opportunity of crushing one another. Let it be remembered that in this situation these very nations, in a moment's time, as it were, brushed aside or held in abeyance their national jealousies and selfish interests in the face of this greater interest or danger. As if prompted by some magic power, they all at once agreed to dispatch with all possible haste their armies and navies to the mouth of the Peiho.

What was this greater danger, or this absorbing interest? To the student of mere secular history this event has one meaning, while to the person who sees God as the Maker of history, directing all things to the ultimate triumph of his purpose, it has a meaning altogether different. And it is also well to remember in this connection that the occasion and the cause of these mighty world changes are very different. The occasion of the American Civil War was the attack on Fort Sumter, but the cause of that war was a very different thing. The occasion of the mutiny in India was a greased cartridge, but the underlying cause of that awful outbreak was something more serious. That the occasion of the great event of 1900 was the Boxer uprising there can be no question; but back of and beyond all that was a deeper and more far-reaching cause, having its origin in the distant past, and extending in its results into the future. This clash was essentially a racial struggle—the impact of two civilizations. While it is true that all mankind is by nature alike, and, hence, one civilization is, in itself, no better than another, yet for some reason unknown to us, it seemed good to God to cast his revelation into the stream of the Western civilization. It is this element in the Western civilization that lay as the fundamental cause of this

mighty upheaval.

It was to make room for his gospel that God permitted this crisis to arise. No doubt many worldly and selfish interests actuated the nations in this lamentable affair, yet underneath it all, and unknown to the actors, was this divine interest involving the destiny of the world.

Nor is it difficult to see how it all came about. God's purpose is ever unfolding and progressing. Resistance to it always brings a crisis. China, in her blindness and ignorance, refused a right of way to the gospel, and the result could only be a tremendous shock. So far as God's purpose is concerned, the race is a unit, and the gospel of our Lord must, despite obstacles, go to the whole world. God said, “I will work, and who shall let [hinder] it?” This applies to nations as well as to individuals.

A prominent writer has recently set forth this truth in the following thought: “It is possible for every one of us to become a little cog in the great wheel of God's eternal purpose that moves the universe; but if we fail thus to fit into God's plan, we shall be ground to powder.” This truth so well put is no less true of nations than of individuals—a fact to which history abundantly testifies. As well might China or any other nation attempt to stop the sun in his course as to try to arrest the progress of God's purpose. The gospel, which prepares the world for the coming of Christ, must be proclaimed to the entire race.

That God's hand guided and overruled in this great upheaval, there can be no doubt; and the correlative truth is equally patent, that by this shaking of four hundred millions our responsibility as bearers of light is greatly increased. If God by such means sets before us open doors, we must see in it an urgent call to enter and bear solemn witness to the truth committed to us. As this great Oriental world is opening up, men who have political and commercial interests to promote are bending all their energies and enlisting all their resources to push their schemes. With how much greater zeal and enthusiasm should we as ambassadors for Christ stand ready just now to enter and advance the claims of the gospel? We are years behind in entering this great field; yet at this late hour there are doors swung wide open, inviting young men and young women of consecration.

Of the many young men and young women in the United States and elsewhere, there must be scores who stand ready, or will soon be ready, to give their lives to this great work. It calls for workers of careful training, sound experience, and, above all, of consecration and spiritual fervor. How many will within the next few months volunteer to enter upon this work as the Lord opens the way?