AT THE BIBLE INSTITUTE IN HANKAU, CHINA, MAY 1, 1915
“THE CHICAGO OF CHINA”
By R. F. Cottrell
Great Inland City of Two Million — Its Railroads and Ships — Its Commercial Activities — European Nations Represented by Permanent Concessions — Transformations Among the Natives
By R. F. COTTRELL
The city of Hankau, located at the junction of the Han and the Yangtze River, is a great emporium, and has been most properly termed the “Chicago of China.” This place was first opened to foreign trade in 1861, by a treaty with Great Britain; and from that time to the present, there has been a remarkable growth in population and trade.
Although six hundred miles from the ocean, the depth of the water is sufficient, during a considerable portion of the year, to permit the largest ocean steamships to ascend to this port; while at all seasons, palatial river steamers arrive and depart daily. Also on the upper river systems, thousands of smaller steamboats and launches, besides vast numbers of native craft, ply in trade between Hankau and the numerous cities and towns of the great interior.
GREAT RAILWAY CENTER
Hankau is also becoming a great railway center. In 1901, the Peking-Hankau line was opened; and the Hankau-Canton road is now in process of construction, which, when completed, will give to China a trunk line running from north to south. Work has also been commenced on the railway that is to connect Hankau with that vast province of the west, Szechuan.
Not only is Hankau located very near the geographical center of China; but, as we have just seen, it is situated at the “cross roads” of the nation’s principal trade routes. What is sometimes termed “Greater Hankau” comprises three cities, and we might almost say, eight. On the south bank of the Yangtze River stands Wuchang, the provincial capital, which is a large, well constructed, walled city. Just opposite Wuchang, on the right and left shores respectively of the Han River, are the cities of Hanyang and Hankau. The combined population of this group is estimated at not far from two millions.
CONCESSION TO OTHER NATIONS
Hankau itself is subdivided into six sections; namely, the native city, and British, Russian, French, German, and Japanese concessions, the municipal affairs of each being administered independently of the others. For instance, Great Britain has a grant of land from the Chinese government some five hundred yards wide by one thousand in length, which is in reality English territory, under English law.
EDUCATIONAL AND MANUFACTURING
A large government mint is established in Wuchang; and beside numerous other schools, this city has a military academy and a government agricultural school. Boone College and Wesley College, mission educational institutions of the first rank, are located there. Hanyang is principally industrial, and has large steel and iron works, government arsenal, and immense lumber yards. Of the three thousand foreigners resident in this vicinity, most live in the foreign concessions of Hankau.
During the Chinese revolution of 1911, large portions of the native city of Hankau were burned to the ground; and more than 100,000 of the middle and poorer classes were forced to erect and live in straw huts and mat sheds. Although in many parts the city is building up rapidly, these temporary abodes are still the only shelter of more than 50,000 of the inhabitants. The most pitiable feature of all this is that not a month passes without the occurrence of several large fires among the mat sheds, thus over and over again reducing large numbers to absolute destitution. Some benevolent work on a large scale should be undertaken to provide these people with homes.
FOREIGN TRADE AND THE MISSIONARY
The same year that Hankau was opened to foreign trade, missionaries also entered and took up their work. These have increased, until this port is now a great missionary center, with its full complement of chapels, hospitals, schools, and societies for the circulation of Christian literature.
The changes that have taken place in and about Hankau, may be regarded as typical of the developments in other parts of China. In the above paragraphs, we have dwelt upon the material progress, because we cannot view such changes in a nation’s life or history as a matter of accident or chance, but must consider them as a part of God’s infinite plan and purpose.
Five years ago, our mission commenced work in Hankau. Last year, we moved our headquarters to a new place, about two miles from the city; but with the outbreak of the European war, we were not able to proceed397with the construction of buildings as we had hoped. Our Bible institute held this winter and spring has therefore been conducted in a tent; and although at times it has been very cold, on the part of the seventy-three students in attendance there has been no murmur or complaint.
HOW THEY ARE TRANSFORMED
NATIVE TEACHER AND PUPILS IN PRIMARY CHURCH
SCHOOL AT SIAO GAU, HUPE, CHINA
Of the number mentioned, sixty-six were formerly idolaters, twenty-six were addicted to the use of wine and tobacco, four smoked opium, nineteen were gamblers, five practiced sorcery, two were polygamists, and one had been a Taoist priest. Now their hearts are purified and changed, and their lives are dedicated to the Master and His service.
The entrance of civilization, recent inventions, and modern thought into the dark heathen nations of the world, is one of the wonders of the present day. But a greater miracle is wrought when the image of God, that has been so nearly obliterated, is restored. And we are glad to bear witness that He who, according to His infinite wisdom, establishes empires and renovates nations, is to-day gathering a people from ancient sin to meet Him when He appears in glory.
SCENE AMONG THE MAT SHEDS, HANKAU, CHINA
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These paragraphs are from an advertisement handed me on the street a short time ago. What a contrast between this “mystery” and the mystery of the gospel! What a change has come over the human mind when it will grasp with utmost eagerness for folly and fiction instead of seeking for the realities of this life, and of the life to come.
This advertisement is a forceful announcement of the prevailing tendency that is undermining manhood and womanhood of to-day. The old-time standard of public entertainment and social joys has been forsaken. The imagination has become so perverted that to-day it cannot be satisfied except it is gorged with “shocks” and “thrills” that only extreme sensationalism can provide.
The story of humanity before the Flood finds its counterpart in the experience of mankind to-day. “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Luke 17:26. As the antediluvians drew nearer and nearer to their unexpected end, they grew more and more desirous of pleasure and fiction, till at last their sensitiveness to spiritual admonitions was gone, and they were lost in the cataclysm of the Flood.
To-day men and women are hastening on to the end of the world and the coming of the Lord. Evil desires, corrupt imaginations, rule the majority of lives. Increasing disrelish for the deep spiritual truths that underlie the fact of individual salvation, marks the character of the present generation. With money and pleasure, with eating and drinking, the world at large is rushing on to the vortex of eternal destruction, heedless of the message that is warning the world of the coming of the Lord, and the end of probation.
The greatest need of the world to-day is strong Christian characters, a demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power to regulate the inner life, to purify the mind, dignify the imagination, elevate conduct,—in brief, to let the line of distinction between the worldling and the Christian stand out in holy boldness, revealing the joy and pleasure there is in intimate friendship with God,—this is the supreme need of the hour.
Preparedness Against War
MR. DANIEL SMILEY in 1895 sent out invitations to a number of individuals to enjoy his hospitality at Lake Mohonk, and at the same time to have a conference in regard to world peace. Similar invitations were given in succeeding years, and the Lake Mohonk Conference has come to be well known in peace circles. Invitations in the main have been confined, throughout these years, to the most influential men and women of the world.
At the conference this year, beginning on May 19, President Hibben of Princeton made a speech that has probably received as much comment as any address delivered in recent times at a peace convention. Some of the most striking utterances of President Hibben are the following:
“It is the weakest kind of sentimentalism gone mad, to imagine that the cause of peace is in the remotest degree advanced by teaching the children of the public schools to sing the doggerel rime beginning with the line, ‘I did not raise my boy to be a soldier.’”
“I do not advocate preparedness for war, but a preparedness against war.”
“No one can be so blind regarding the398significance of present conditions as to take the position that a grave national emergency is not at least a possibility.”
“In the high tension of international hate and international suspicion, the most insignificant accident may chance to precipitate for us a national catastrophe.”
“Let us not forget that there are some things which cannot buy peace. If we sacrifice them in order to secure peace, the peace thus sought becomes for us the veriest torment of a living hell. We dare not trade honor for peace.”
There are persons in many leading positions in the world to-day who seem to have the impression that all you need to do in order to have peace is to get together and pass a lot of resolutions censuring war and declaring for universal peace; and on the other hand, there are a large number of men and women who recognize that existing conditions in the world are such that war is ever a strong probability. Hence we have these two forces that are working strongly — the one declaring in favor of peace, and the other saying that there is no evidence that the world has reached the time when the implements of war can be safely thrown away by any nation.
The God in heaven will use every genuine effort put forth in favor of peace; and all right-minded people will recognize that war is not only wrong, but barbarous. But while recognizing this fact, we must also recognize the further fact that the world is largely composed of people who do not measure up to the standard of the golden rule. And He who knows man better than man can possibly know himself, has foretold that both “wars and rumors of wars” shall continue till the end of time. Those, however, who are familiar with the prophecies which apply in this time, understand full well that mighty peace movements, as well as a strong war spirit, will characterize the last days.
We make no mistake in being in favor of peace, or in working to promote peace. No Christian can be or do otherwise. Where men make their mistake is in thinking that this wicked world can ever be brought to a place where it will enjoy universal peace.
WE SAY YES
By Editor
But we do not say it on our own authority.
The Roman and the Greek Catholic Church will in the near future be united.
The czar and the pope will come to an agreement.
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JULY LEADERS
Real Outcome of the Eastern Question
Shall There Be No More Wars?
Science and the Sabbath
The Greatest Apostasy of the Ages Now Impending
No Second Probation
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MATTHEW TWENTY-FOUR
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CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE and DIVINE HEALING
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Traces the Sabbath institution through a patriarchal, the Levitical, and the Christian dispensation. Shows God’s everlasting purpose in the Sabbath.
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The PROPHETIC GIFT in the GOSPEL CHURCH
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War Mothers and War Babies
The news of the day reports that some twenty thousand young girls in England, mostly fifteen or sixteen years of age, are about to become the mothers of illegitimate children. This is one of the indescribable results of the war now in progress. As soon as the war broke out, soldiers were encamped and drilled in all parts of the country. In many localities, so the dispatches say, the people had never seen a soldier in uniform. The glitter and the manufactured halo that was thrown around the heroism of going to war, made these soldiers akin to gods in the eyes of the people, and thousands of these inexperienced young girls were seduced to their downfall and ruin.
The reports say that “members of Parliament and reverend bishops are planning how best to stage the forgiveness” of these “war mothers.” It is suggested by some of the bishops and members of Parliament that “at a specified time a general edict of forgiveness will be read from the pulpits throughout the country which will automatically remove the stigma from the mothers.”
In other words, though the fathers of these children are in the army and unknown, many of them without doubt having already been killed, yet the state will undertake to make the children legitimate. But such a wholesale process cannot remove the sin. And this occurrence in the British army is but one399of the many illustrations which show the low morals of society in general, and the degraded condition of humanity.
But we hear people say that things of this sort have always existed, and are part of the results of mobilizing armies and quartering them in any territory. This is true. The pagan nations of the world have never risen above such a standard as that. But we have heard the statement, from every quarter, that the great nations of Europe are “Christian nations.” We have been told that England is foremost in this respect. Then why should a Christian nation present a spectacle of this kind? And why should “bishops” and “leading members of Parliament” lay plans to condone things of this character? The moral sense of the people of this world, taken as a mass, is blunted. Men do not see clearly.
Let it be granted that such conditions have existed in connection with every army that has ever been mobilized, and that they have been characteristic of many periods of the history of the past. Lust and violence characterized the time of Noah, but the Flood had to come and sweep away the wicked inhabitants. The cities of the plain in the days of Lot were overthrown for a similar reason. Old Babylon went down under the weakening influences of her moral degeneracy; and so did Rome, and all the rest of the great nations of antiquity.
But men have insisted on telling us that the moral condition of the world to-day is of the highest order. Men talked the same in Rome when her vices were eating away her foundations. The men who are engaged in sensual sins have always vehemently declaimed, even while standing on the brink of ruin, that they were all right; but people who are acquainted with the actual condition of things in this world know that everything is not all right. They know that our great civilization is one of the most colossal shams that the world has ever seen. Our boasted Christianity is a shame to the name of the Christ whom it claims to represent.
The great mass of humanity may insist on not seeing these things; but the individual with clear vision must see them, and should lay his plans accordingly. The moral tone of this world is such that it cannot mean anything else than universal ruin. The prophets have foretold it, and we ought to see it through the light of divine foreknowledge. And those who shut their eyes to this clear light, ought to see, from the pages of history, that this world cannot go on much longer in the course it is pursuing.
Those twenty thousand poor girls in England are to be pitied. But when twenty thousand girls at the inexperienced age of fifteen or sixteen are permitted to be seduced and degraded in a single nation, it ought to puncture completely the bubble of the claim of “Christian nations” and “great Christian armies.” Christianity cannot condone sin; and calling a thing Christian does not make it such, as the facts abundantly show.
Yet we would not for anything leave the impression that conditions are worse in England than in the other nations involved in this strife. And should the United States be drawn into it, thousands of the people of this nation, as soon as the artificial restraints are removed, will manifest the same degenerate tendencies.
