The governor of the province of Shan Tung, China, has had occasion to remind the missionaries of that province that they were not expected to assist in the government of the Chinese people. It would naturally seem out of place for a Confucian to instruct a Christian in regard to the latter’s duty; and no doubt there are many Christian missionaries in China who do not need any such advice. Nevertheless it is evident that many missionaries have gone to China so thoroughly imbued with the national-reform idea, that the heathen governor of Shan Tung has been compelled to rebuke them and their followers in order that justice might be done between man and man. It is well known that the Chinese frequently persecuted converts to Christianity; but through foreign governmental influence the missionaries were enabled to give a measure of protection to their converts. This influence of the missionaries increased, and the protection which they were able to give to their converts finally became a sort of shield, or guarantee, against conviction in case of arrest for infraction of law. Unprincipled Chinese took advantage of this protection, and became “converts” in order to have an advantage over their countrymen in cases at law. In many instances missionaries assumed the role of magistrates or sat with the magistrate when one or more of the parties in the case were converts. In this way the Chinese came to look upon the missionaries as usurpers, interlopers, and upon the “converts” who took advantage of such proceedings as dishonest and only worthy of contempt. Thus has the cause of Christ in China been brought into disrepute by the interference of missionaries in the civil affairs of the Chinese. The Chinese people judge of Christianity by what they see in the course of those who profess it, and as the course of such missionaries is repugnant to them, so also is the religion which the missionaries represent, not because of the religion, but because of the course of those who profess to represent it. Governor Yuen’s proclamation, according to the press report, “is in language so energetic as to ‘make it evident that the Chinese magistrates will ‘not allow the missionaries to exercise the same ‘influence as heretofore in local affairs, or in any ‘other than religious matters in the future. Governor Yuen states that he has received many reports ‘from Chinese officials that unworthy members ‘of the church were practising their religion simply ‘for the protection which it afforded them, and were ‘setting aside the law of the land, and seeking occasions to quarrel, and that such affairs were daily ‘increasing in number.’” The governor then orders his sub-officials to administer equal justice to all without regard to whether the offenders are Christians or not. In continuing his instructions to the magistrates, the governor says:— The missionaries are merely preachers of religion. They have no authority whatever to interfere in the affairs of the Chinese people, nor any power to exercise official functions, as everybody ought to know. Of course “everybody ought to know” that the ministers of Christ were not commissioned to govern people, either at home or abroad. The governor was right in declaring that their business was that of preaching rather than governing, and Christians, above all others, “ought to know” that. Paul said, “This one thing I do,” and declared that he was “determined not to know anything . . . save ‘Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Cor. 2:2. And the Saviour Himself, who has left us an example that we should walk even as He walked, refused the protection of the human arm of His ordained servants, or the twelve legions of angels who would have obeyed His call, and suffered the extreme punishment at the hands of the civil power. When appealed to to settle a question of property rights, He asked, “Who hath made Me a ruler or divider ‘over you?” Christ understood His mission; and nowhere has He given authority to His followers to go contrary to the example He has set. When Christians realize the sacredness of their calling, they will not be seeking political or judicial appointments in their own country or in the lands to which they go as Christ’s ambassadors. That the governor’s proclamation is not a blow at legitimate missionary effort seems apparent from his closing admonitions to his magistrates, whom he enjoins to “make no distinction between church and ‘people,’ and to see to it that if the people insult the Christians, such acts are vigorously suppressed. On the other hand, he directs the magistrates that when a member of the church drags his religion into his suit, when the suit is one that has nothing to do with church matters, and the missionary forces himself into the case, “the magistrate should not hesitate to ‘controvert and reprove, as the facts of the case may ‘justify, and deal with the case according to reason.’ All of which would seem to be very proper and just, and Christians who are such indeed could have no just cause for complaint against the proclamation of the governor. The sad part of it is that those who should be giving lessons in the principles of religious liberty and equal and exact justice should have come so far short of their true calling that they must themselves receive such lessons from those whom they were sent to teach. The Christian worker has no business to tamper with the civil affairs of the land in which he labors. He is not there for that purpose. He bears no commission for such a work. To teach and preach the good news of salvation through Christ, to heal the sick and comfort the afflicted,—this is the work which Christ has given His ambassadors to do; and he whose life is given up entirely to that work will find enough to do to take all his time and attention.