A TRULY CHRISTIAN UTTERANCE.
What was indeed a most remarkable address was delivered at Hamburg to the General Protestant Missionary Association, by Prof. Adolf Harnack, of Berlin. Deprecating the idea of crusades in China, and protesting against the invoking of secular assistance by missionaries, he said:— Protection should neither be asked by missionaries nor given to them in certain lands. It must be recognized that missionaries give up their rights as subjects of their own countries. The missionary ought not to go to regions where he feels he can not remain during times of persecution. If the course of political events makes the prosecution of missionary work impossible, the missionaries must withdraw, even if they lose all they had gained. State churches as such should never engage in missionary enterprise. This should be a private undertaking. Missions should leave no doubt in the mind of the Chinese that they are a purely spiritual power. They should never be recognized as identified with worldly power. They should make it clear that they do not represent the interests of Europeans or Americans, but the interests of the natives. Sad to say, Professor Harnack stood alone in this view. The association passed a resolution in favor of the full protection of missionaries by the secular arm, and sent a telegram to the kaiser, asking his assistance. Thus the members deliberately classed themselves as emissaries of the state, and not messengers of God.