MISSIONS IN THE EAST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1086, 27 March 1911, Page 6

MISSIONS IN THE EAST.

TREMENDOUS CHANGES. LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CHURCH. By Telegraph-Press Associatjon-Copyrizat Sydney, March 25. Tho Re,-. Mr. Paton, a member of the commission sent from Victoria to study the missionary position ill the East, was greatly impressed by the progress Df the missionary movement, particularly in Korea. Tho whole nation, he says, is turning to Christianity. Tremendous changes, politically and socially, havo been taking place in tho East. China is passing through a national ferment. Tho old things are passing with lightning rapidity. Mr. Paton is certain that China will, during tho nest few years, play a very different part in history to that played in the past. Limitless opportunity faces the Church everywhere in tho East.

OPINIONS DIFFER. Lord Curzon, speaking at his installation as Lord Hector of Glasgow University a few weeks ago, referred to the outlook for Christian missions in the East. Ho said: "The East is unlikely to accept Christianity fc;r two main reasons. I'irst, tho religions of Asia give to it what the pagan mythologies did not give to Europe— namely, a definite and intelligible theory of the relations of God to man, which satisfies tho spiritual aspirations as well as the day-to-day requirements of the Oriental; and, secondly, the latter sees in the teachings of Christianity something hostile to that revived self-consciousness to which ho clings as his dearest possession, liven if he had no objection to tho dogmatic teaching of Christianity, he would not consent to become a Christian at tho cost of ceasing to be an Asiatic. But I do not think that Christianity, even, if its success as a proselytising agency has been, or is likely to be, circumscribed, lias therefore failed to justify itself, or that no work remains for it to perform. Everywhere it has exerted an immense, though silent, influence upon the morality , of its environment, however hostile. It has taught the East philanthropy; it may still teach it pity. And when the day comes in which the Eastern world shall address itself seriously to the emancipation of woman, the Christian Church may bo powerful both in aid and example."

Sir Andrew IVaser, ox-Governor of Bengal, with 33 years of Government service in India behind him, disagrees with Lord Curzon. He states: "Lord Curzon has forgotten the progress of events. He has gone back to something that he read long ago about missions or something that was written of the beginnings of mission work. There was a time when missionaries thought that Christianity was English, and they went forward with the determination to teach nothing but the English language. But all that has passed away. Missionaries do not now call on native Christians to drop their nationality when they are baptised. Surely uo man who has studied Christianity believes that any man of any nation is called on to drop his nationality when ho is called on to acknowledge Christ."