GIVE THE CHINESE THEIR DUE
By Dr. O. T. Logan
Dr. O. T. Logan, Missionary, in Cumberland Presbyterian The secular, and too often the religious, press seems only too willing to give the Chinese a kick, but alas! how seldom we see them praised! I desire with tongue and pen to protest against this unfair treatment. The American mob does not represent Americans, neither does the Chinese mob represent the Chinese. No people on earth is more peace-loving than the Chinese. Among the heathen Chinese, as well as among the “heathen” Americans, I have many warm friends, and I am duty bound to tell the good qualities of both. The atrocities committed and permitted by the governor of Shansi have been heralded to the ends of the world, while the kindnesses shown the fleeing missionaries by the governor of Shansi, in the face of an edict to slay, are almost unknown. This man—not a Christian—lost his position, and perhaps his life, for our brethren, and yet we esteem him not. A recent letter from my friend, Dr. F. A. Keller, of eastern Hunan, relates how the son of an official risked his life to save him. Letters from missionaries tell us how Chinese mothers in different places along the way nursed and kept alive the babe of a fleeing mother, who could no longer nourish it. The one thing that impresses me most in reading accounts of the escapes of missionaries is the aid given them by heathen Chinese. Some would desert these, and lose the glory of seeking out others like them. Are you, reader, among that class? Give the Chinese their due. The gospel is their due. Dr. Tinnon well says it was given us as a trust, not as a luxury. If the heathen are cruel, it is because they are Christless; and so long as they are Christless, we share their guilt, unless we have delivered our souls by giving them Christ. Thousands have been, and millions can be, transformed, not by might, but by the mighty One. Who will help?