ROMANISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA.
WE have before spoken of the serious difficulties imposed upon Protestant missionaries in China, by the Catholic propaganda of Rome. This propaganda has achieved, in appearance at least, important successes. But it may be well to examine somewhat more closely the value of these successes, for many of them will be found to be far from resembling moral triumphs. Le Missionaire gives this view of the case:— 'This very often is the way in which the question presents itself to the heathen Chinese. It is in vain that they have entrenched themselves in the citadel of Confucianism. The most intelligent of them begin to perceive its weakness. The late political events have dealt the power of the old philosopher a stroke from which it will probably never recover. The literati, the 'readers of books,' the obstinate disciples of the sage so long held divine, have not known what to do to save their country, or to shelter her from the keenest affronts. 'They begin now to allow that it might not be so bad to give over this decrepit system, and to borrow some new principles, perhaps even a new religion, from these abominable foreigners, these men so long condemned or even driven out with stones. In a word, missions may well be looked into as, perhaps, a means of saving the empire. 'But which missions? There are two, Roman Catholic and Protestant. Which shall be preferred?—Naturally, they think that which lays on its disciples the less burdensome yoke; that which puts up with the least costly conversion, or is even not unwilling to dispense with conversion, provided that certain outer forms, and these not too numerous, are taken up in outward practise. Very well. These more convenient requirements are those of the Roman mission. And the Chinese have that old and easy beat of the human heart which inclines them to this side. 'The Catholics,' say they, 'render Christianity more easy.' And they add, with a naïveté of which they are not always conscious, 'The Evangelicals have the truth, but the Catholics have the power.'' 'But the two chief obstacles to Protestant missions in China are these:— 'In the first place, the power of Chinese heathenism resides at present, not in the worship of idols, but rather in the worship of ancestors. The false gods have decidedly lost their influence. The worship of them becomes colder and colder; facts have shown, only too well, their utter good-for-nothingness. But ancestors! In them is gathered up all the family and thereby all the commonwealth. Not to give them homage any longer, not to offer prayers to them—in short, to give over treating them as divinities, would be to shake the pillars of the state. And there are Chinese who have received baptism, having strong claims on our confidence, who are still entangled in these meshes, which are so incredibly strong. 'Secondly, a considerable number of former disciples of Confucius are to-day ready to embrace Christianity, not by reason of a real conversion, but by enlightened self-interest. They have not come to this willingness through a feeling of sin; genuine repentance may have grazed their souls, but nothing more; Jesus is not in their view as the one Saviour. Ask them why they wish to become Christians. They will placidly answer you, 'Because Christianity is good.' Only, this adjective good has for them a meaning wholly earthly, nay, grossly earthly. It means with them that the Gospel opens the way to good places and good friends: in other words, is a fairer road to prosperity than idolatry. We must, at all costs, stand for a deeper Christianity in our churches and give to our flocks guides thoroughly surcharged with the Spirit of God. This is now one of our chief duties.'—Missionary Review.