CHINA INLAND MISSION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 35, 4 October 1912, Page 5

CHINA INLAND MISSION.

A very interesting address on China was given by Mr. Norris King, of Victoria, in the Primitive Methodist Church last night. Mr. King is representing the China Inland Mission, and, as late as January last, was in China, working as a missionary. The Llev. Motson presided over a fair attendance. tiever Knswn Debt, In Ins opening remarks Mr. King said that it was now seventeen years since ho first went out to that gioat land of China, in connection with tnc China Inland Mission. forty years ago there wore but live open ports in which missionaries were allowed toreside. It was at that time that the Inland Mission commenced. Its founder was the Rev. Hudson Taylor, a great missionary, whom ill-health forced to return to" England. The call of the East was so strong within him, that he used all his endeavours to persuade the missionary societies and other Christian organisations in England to carry on the work he had been forced to leave. Meeting with no response, lie was compelled to found the China Inland Mission. He decided from the first that that mission should never go into debt, and during the forty-six years it had been in existence it had never owed a penny. The missionaries salaries were never guaranteed, yet at the same time funds were always available, in spite of the fact that they had no collectors, and took up no collections. Year by year..the....number o teachers increased, until at the end of fast year there wore 100 U foreign missionaries in connection with the China Inland Mission. This! year forty more wore going out(' and ' of those, lie was glad to say, were New Zealanders. Mr. King proceeded to give a summary of the conditions oi affairs in his own particular, district— In the north of China—and in other parts of the province. He claimed that Christianity had made men of opium smokers, upon whom the vice was apparently indelibly fixed. Thousand.? ol Chinese received medical attention, and every opportunity - was seized while attending to their ailments, to impart to them a knowledge of Chns- • innity, and to endeavour to got then children sent to the missionary schools whore they received a good primary, and' even "secondary, education. One of the most promising features of taeir work .was that the great majority of their convicts, proved to ho workers, and the lecturer mentioned several remarkable instances of this cheering fact. Another remarkable thing was the manner in which these Chinese converts clung to their newly louml faith. During the Boxer outbreak:' there were wonderful instances o. martyrdom. The Rebellion. During the rebellionj the speaker said, the natives suffered much. The revolution started in th’o'capital city, and one morning the revolutionary soldiers took charge of the place, one company marching to< the, .Governor's residence- and shooting; him, another company; Talking a. stand, upon the. walls and pouring lead into the Manelm portirtlf." Unfortunately the revolutionary authorities allowed; ci'i 7,ons to loiit the Mauclnr area. ; The lust for loot gradually became , r.p atrf>ng< iirvtirem thatrthw; turned .0:1 the other'parts of tlio'Mty and ransacked the hanks, the big shops, and other business places, setting fire to everything as they went. The author ities' sent soldiers Amt into the streets, and in one night a thousand people were killed. There was general consternation when the news spread on! into the provinces, and families made off over tg monntsiinf t|r|'pr stricken. In mift-iy- instances- -they destroyed the mountain paths, for i fear of pursuit. Going 1 km to describe the atrocities which were _ committed, the speaker phfctically exonerated the revolutionaiy; soldiers, ! but • condemned the Imperialists, _ Ho -ipentioned two eases missionaries, -by person il intervention, had saved thousands from death and torture at the banes of the Imperial troops’.!' Their Opportunity.

A point which Mr. King emphasised was that the revolution had given the missionaries great opportunities. On eoi' the effects of the rebellion had been for the people to discard their idols. There were numerous temples depleted of these heathen gods, and in some instances dedicated to the missionary societies for schools and churches.' Besides this, they had been able to come more in contact with the higher classes. Thousands had come to the missionary stations for shelter and protection, and thus the opportunity of conversion to Christianity had been given. At the same time there was a danger, if the opportunity held out was not /seized. Having given up their old religion, it was quite possible that the atheists and agnostics would claim them. The country was being flooded with literature' of the materialistic class, In this connection he instanced the fact that out of five thousand university students at Tokio, six were Confucionists, sixty Christians, three hundred Buddhists, sixteen hundred Athiests, and no less than three thousand Agues: tics.

At the conclusion the lecturer was accorded a very hearty vote of thankfor his address. .