12 THE "BOXER" CRISIS
Chapter 12 THE "BOXER" CRISIS This is the crack of doom for Paganism. -- DR. MARTIN. IN the summer of 1900, by one of those national convulsions not uncommon in her history, China again thrust herself into public prominence and crossed the path of the nations of the West. Seldom has there been anything to equal it for sheer ferocity and extent. It is of some importance that we endeavor to understand it, since it has an intimate bearing upon the mission work of the future. Moreover, the elements that produced it, though dormant, are not dead, and may come to life some other day, unless we profit by its lessons. My object is not so much to apportion blame as to state facts, leaving these to speak for themselves and to carry their own conviction to the mind. In order to perceive the trend of events that led up to the recent imbroglio, it is necessary to revert for a moment to the time of the Japanese War in 1894-95. Prior to that war China was practically an unknown military force, and like most unknown forces was apt to be overestimated. At the inception of the war the bulk of opinion, even of those resident in China, seemed to forecast a victory in the long run for the Celestial Empire. At the close of the War, however, when the tables were so completely turned in favour of Japan, it was patent to everyone that the imposing bubble had at last burst. It was seen how worthless were China s defenses, how corrupt were her official classes, and how apparently incapable the whole Empire seemed to be of anything like united and effective resistance. As a result of the war with Japan, China lost Formosa. She had to relinquish her ancient suzerainty of Korea, and had in the end to pay Japan an indemnity of 34,000,000 sterling. But the most precious thing she lost was her prestige. After the war, the mask she had worn for centuries, dropped off, and she stood forth in all her weakness to the gaze of the world. Since then it is no exaggeration to say that China has been a prey to various forms of Western political aggression. So much so that the recent disturbances may be said to have arisen out of a strong feeling of resentment at what Chinese statesmen conceived to be the totally unjust way in which their country was suffering at the hands of Western powers. Things have been done that probably would not have been attempted had China been able to keep up the mere show of military strength. Railway and mining concessions have been wrung out of her ; tracts of valuable territory have been forcibly seized or ear-marked ; the " partition " of the whole Empire has even been calmly discussed, " as if such a gigantic revolution could be accomplished by a stroke of the pen," until a sense of wonderment seized the mandarin mind as to whereunto all this policy of grab would lead. It was not because of the intrinsic value of the concessions. Chinese statesmen are probably as sensible as we are of the commercial advantages of mines and railways, but they saw, or thought they saw, in our political aggression an unwarrantable encroachment upon their liberties and the herald of their subjugation to the foreign yoke. This was what they dreaded, and against which they were prepared to fight to the death.
Little more than a year after the Japanese War (1897), ostensibly because of the massacre of the two German priests, Nies and Henle, in the province of Shantung, but in reality because a strategic base was essential to German expansion in North China, the Government of the Emperor William surprised the world and outraged China by the seizure of Kiaochow. This was done at the instigation of Bishop Anzer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shan tung. In the Reichstag, on 8th February 1898, Count von Billow, commenting on Germany’s action, said : " After the empire had taken under its care the protection of Christian missions and Catholics in Shantung, and since we consider the exercise of that protectorate, not only as a duty, but also as an honour, a declaration like that of the chief of these missions, Bishop Anzer, who has told us in the most peremptory manner that the occupation of Kiaochow was a vital question, not only for the prosperity, but also for the maintenance of the Chinese Mission, ought to be for us one of very great weight." In his " New Year’s Greeting," written from Tsi-ning on ist December, 1899, after the occupation of Kiaochow, the bishop himself has described for us with admirable frankness the consequences of Germany’s action. It may be questioned whether anyone ever penned a more damaging indictment against himself than this document offers. He says :
" Before the occupation of Kiaochow the mission enjoyed an excellent reputation with the people and also with the Government. The mandarins themselves showed to the mission their appreciation in an entirely public way, and the Government at that time strengthened on its part this token of esteem by bestowing on the bishop a button of high rank.
" But things changed after the occupation of Kiaochow. The Catholic Mission of Southern Shantung, despite its youth, had behind it a past and an experience of nearly twenty years. No doubt during such a long space of time we had often to tell about troubles and persecutions. However, it is very necessary to observe that before the occupation of Kiaochow these troubles had a different character from those which we’ve had to endure after that event.
" Before the occupation of Kiaochow these troubles, although being a boisterous enough movement, were yet always of a purely local nature, and were almost every time promptly suppressed. They only happened in remote places where we were founding new communities ; consequently in localities where the foreigner was still unknown. From the moment that the communities were founded there began ordinarily a tranquil and peaceful life in common between Christians and non-Christians. The missionary was loved by the Christians, esteemed by the pagans, and was even frequently bound by bonds of friendship with the mandarins.
" Likewise the murder itself of the two missionaries, Nies and Henle, was only an isolated act of vengeance committed by some leaders of a sect who believed that a missionary lodged a complaint [against them], and who felt themselves encouraged by the hostile attitude towards the mission of the then Governor, Li Ping Heng.
" On the other hand, it is since the occupation of Kiaochow that the persecutions have assumed body, as it shall be proved by the report below. It is not a matter here of a local outburst of hatred against the foreigner, but of a general persecution, methodically organized, and under the protection of the officials against the mission in its entirety as such, having in view the systematic annihilation of Christianity.
" The first reason of the persecution and the most important one, was, as the preceding account has already indicated the occupation of Kiaochow.
" The taking of Kiaochow deeply and painfully wounded the national pride of the Chinese. The intentionally haughty way in which the German troops planted on the Island of Tsingtao, in place of the Chinese Imperial standard, the German war-flag, produced then and there an effect altogether disconcerting. The Government felt the ground quaking under its feet. The mandarins were, as Peng Taotai told me, miliao that is to say, they didn’t know what to lean on. We no longer know what we ought to do.
" It was to be anticipated that there would be a reaction. For the wound which Kiaochow had made was not yet healed for a long time, [when] Port Arthur, Wei-hai-wei, the humiliating projects of an imminent partition of China, appeared in the newspapers all this dated from Kiaochow.
" Although the common people had no great interest whatever to set against such political projects, nevertheless the educated Chinese, and particularly the mandarins, resented profoundly this outrage, and thought (that’s clear) of an appropriate occasion for vengeance.
" But what, it may be asked, has all this to do with the missions? A great deal! To the Chinese of medium culture, having no political education, all foreigners form a conjointly responsible whole (un tout solidaire) the foreign devils. And since it not rarely happens that the missionary is the only foreigner who has appeared on this horizon, they make him, together with the Christians ( the devils of the second rank ), responsible for all that has always happened in the wake of the foreigners, as well for the occupation of Kiaochow as for a box on the ear which any European might have given to a Chinese loafer.
" As for the sentiments of the educated Chinese, of the mandarins, Governor Yu Hsien of Shantung has openly declared them to me: Because the missionaries were assassinated, the Germans have come, hence Kiaochow and all that follows. Thou hast called the Germans, the Governor in question said to me; if there had been no German missionaries, nor Christians ruled by them in Shantung, Kiaochow, Port Arthur, etc., had not fallen into the hands of foreigners. Thou art guilty of all that.
" Likewise Li Hung Chang, with whom I have had dealings for many years, and who certainly counts among the men who know to the bottom their country and its state of mind, declared to me also in a conversation of 3rd September of this year: Southern Shantung was the pretext for the occupation of Kiaochow. The knowledge of this fact has penetrated little by little into the people and provoked an irritation against the missions and the Christians the risings have been the natural consequence thereof."
Scarcely had the sensation of Germany’s seizure of Kiaochow died down when, almost without warning and certainly without provocation, Russia (1898), probably in return for her services after the Japanese War, when she compelled Japan to relinquish the fruits of her victory in Southern Manchuria, quietly took possession of Port Arthur and Talienwan, and commenced the construction of the branch line of her Trans-Siberian Railway from the former port northwards through Manchuria. As an offset to these movements Britain stepped into Wei-hai-wei. Commenting upon this, Lord Charles Beresford wrote : " I feel most strongly that the pride and profession of Great Britain, to be the champion and chivalrous protector of weak nations, have been humbled and exposed, by her acquiescing and taking part in the disintegrating policy of claims and counter-claims with which the Chinese Empire is being bullied whilst she is down. I hold that to break up a dismasted craft, the timbers of which are stout and strong, is the policy of the wrecker for his own gain. The real seaman tows her into dock, and refits her for another cruise." The next year (1899) Italy tried to obtain on demand a sphere of influence in Cheh-kiang and a leasehold of Sanmen Bay, but was unsuccessful in the attempt.
Under all these trials the Chinese exhibited not a little of that patience which is perhaps the strongest characteristic of the race. As has been remarked, the process resembled nothing so much as the harpooning of a whale. The first thrusts were not particularly noticed by the vast creature. They were annoying, but they did not kill. The accumulative effect, however, soon began to make even leviathan wince and to lash out in his inelegant fashion with his mighty tail. Even so China, goaded to fury, lashed out in blind and impotent rage against the whole Western world. The following edict, issued at this time by the Government, gives forcible expression to the wounded pride of the nation :
" Our Empire is now laboring under great difficulties, which are daily becoming more serious. The various powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other in their endeavors to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories. They think that China, having neither money nor troops, would never venture to go to war with them. They fail to understand, however, that there are certain things which this Empire can never consent to, and that, if hardly pressed upon, we have no alternative but rely upon the justice of our cause, the knowledge of which in our breasts strengthens our resolves, and steels us to present a united front against our aggressors. No one can guarantee, under such circumstances, who will be the victor and who the conquered in the end. ... It behooves, therefore, that our Viceroys, Governors, and Commanders - in - chief throughout the whole Empire, unite forces and act together without distinction, or particularizing of jurisdictions, so as to present a combined front to the enemy, exhorting and encouraging their officers and soldiers in person, to fight for the preservation of their homes and native soil from the encroaching footsteps of the foreign aggressor. . . With such a country as ours, with her vast area, stretching out several tens of thousands of li, her immense natural resources, and her hundreds of millions of inhabitants, if only each and all of you would prove his loyalty to his Emperor and love of country, what indeed is there to fear from any invader? Let no one think of making peace, but let each strive to preserve from destruction and spoliation his ancestral home and graves from the ruthless hands of the invader. Let these our words be known to each and all within our dominion."
Two diametrically opposite currents of thought grew up in China out of the political situation thus created. The aim of the two parties was the same, but their methods were diverse : the one progressive and peaceful, the other reactionary and violent. Both sought to rid the Empire of the foreign oppressor, but they were traveling different roads to accomplish their end. The conviction was slowly gaining ground, especially amongst a large, educated, and influential class of young men, with the Emperor Kuang Hsii at their head, that China s only hope of stemming the tide of Western influence lay in herself adopting Western methods of education, administration, and military defense For a while it seemed as if the Reform movement under the Imperial patronage and leadership was going to succeed. In obedience to the young Emperor’s edicts, schools were opened on Western lines ; literary aspirants for degrees were informed that the useless and antiquated wen chang, or literary essay, was abolished, and that they would be examined in future in geography, mathematics, and elementary science. The people responded nobly to the new regime, and every weary toiler in China rubbed his eyes and wondered if the long- hoped-for renaissance of the nation had come. It was too good to last. Not so easily was the leopard to change his spots. The coup d etat at Pekin in September 1898 sounded the death-knell of such hopes. Clearly the Reformers had underestimated the conservative instincts of their countrymen, if they imagined that they could so easily " ring out the old and ring in the new," merely by the publishing of a few angry and revolutionary edicts. Like a bolt from the blue, the Dowager-Empress swooped down upon the Reform party and scattered it to the four winds of heaven. She set the young Emperor aside. She took the reins of government into her own hands, and from that day a reign of terror swept over the land. Much of the best blood of the nation was shed to appease her imperious wrath. Those in authority, who had in any way sympathized with or helped on the new movement, trembled lest theirs should be the next head to fall at the nod of this woman who wielded so despotic and deadly a power. It was even feared, for a time, that the life of the Emperor would not escape her malignant designs.
Such was the fate of the first really serious effort at internal reform! It ended in collapse ; and yet it was not altogether fruitless. What ever may be thought of the methods of the Reformers, there can be no doubt that they were actuated by the highest motives. The dying message of one of them Tan-Tzu Tung reveals the stuff of which they were made : " They may kill my body," he said, " but for each man killed there will be a thousand others in whom my spirit shall live." May the prophecy be fulfilled ! So long as there are men who are ready to die for their country in this fashion, it cannot be said that patriotism in China is dead. In effect, the Empress said to the Reformers : " Yours is not the way to save the Empire. The government of China is good ; has it not lasted for a myriad years ? To establish peace throughout the Flowery Kingdom it is only necessary to drive the foreign devils into the sea." On 5th November 1898, therefore, she issued an edict ordering the formation of volunteer corps throughout the country, " to turn the whole nation into an armed camp in case of need." To a large part of the nation ignorant, conceited, bitterly anti-foreign, and suffering at the time from famine the policy of the Empress and her party appealed most powerfully. Their superstitious minds fastened upon the " foreign devil " as the sole cause of their distress. The gods were angry, and would visit them with famine till they drove the enemy from their midst.
Hence sprang up all over North China, like Jonah’s gourd, almost in a night, what has come to be known as the " Boxer " movement. " Boxer " is a slang translation. It emanated from the treaty - ports. The Chinese call them I-Ho-Chuan ; literally, " Righteous-Harmony-Fists " ; or, more generally, " Patriotic Fists." The sect is believed to be a branch of the great Triad Society which has been in existence during the life time of the present dynasty. This particular branch first made itself prominent in 1897 at Tsaochow, in the south-west corner of Shantung, and in Wei-Hsien, by its violent attacks upon Roman Catholic converts. Soldiers had to be called out more than once to disperse them and to restore order. The movement spread rapidly over the provinces of Shantung and Chihli. To their original tenets they now added an inveterate hatred of all Roman Catholics, a feeling which quickly developed into anti-foreign dislike generally. They were secretly encouraged by the Governor of Shantung the notorious Yti Hsien. As the result of representations made by the Foreign Ministers at Pekin to the authorities, he was deposed, but shortly after wards, so far from being degraded, he reappeared as Governor of Shansi, by Imperial appointment. Relying on his protection the " Boxers " followed him and flourished there also. The movement spread by leaps and bounds. " Boxer " agents were soon found in every city and hamlet over North China, penetrating even to the extreme north of Manchuria. They promised to all who joined their ranks invulnerability to bullets and sword- thrusts. The people, prone to belief in infra- naturalism, seem to have placed implicit faith in such assurances. The movement was thus invested with a halo of religious fanaticism. They accompanied their drill with weird in incantations, praying passionately to the "spirits " to possess them. It is now generally believed that " Boxer " initiation consisted in nothing more nor less than a species of hypnotism. To a large extent this explains the popular effect of the movement, and the unshakable belief of sensible people in its spiritual origin. The effects produced upon the medium by purely physical causes, were to them proof positive of spirit possession.
Now, it was this popular movement, embracing some of the worst elements of the nation, that the Empress and her party chose to employ as a valuable ally in the recent disturbances. They did not create it, but they used it. The recognition of the throne invested it with more than merely local importance. At any moment " Boxerism " might have been nipped in the bud had the Imperial authorities chosen so to act. It was not their policy to do so. By secretly nourishing it they were able to turn it to great popular use in stirring up the anti-foreign feeling of the nation. As a decoy to veil the hostile designs of the Government it was a complete success, and threw the authorities of Foreign Powers living in Pekin entirely off their guard, and for that matter foreigners generally all over the Empire. The important fact to remember, therefore, is that without the sanction of the Chinese Government " Boxerism " would never have been heard of. But that there was a real element of patriotism at the root of the movement no one, I think, can deny.
These, then, were the two parties in China that were struggling for the mastery. On the one hand, the Reformers, with the sympathy and goodwill of the native Christians and all foreigners living in China. On the other hand, the conservative and reactionary party of the Dowager-Empress, with " Boxerism " as its ally. The latter gained the upper hand, and brought the dynasty to the brink of destruction. It is not likely that they will again embark on such a hazardous enterprise. It remains to be seen, however, what impression recent events have made upon the mind of the nation.
Missionaries, of course, have not escaped their share of censure. Indeed, there are not wanting those who attribute the recent disturbances in China solely to missionary work. It is a pity that those who make such charges, or believe them, do not take the trouble to study the question, or at least to distinguish between missionaries. The missionary body in China is a very complex organism. It is composed of diverse elements. It includes various nationalities. It embraces widely differing types of religious faith and methods of propagandism. That individual missionaries are all actuated by high and sincere motives we must in justice believe, but that their methods for the carrying on of their work are all prudent or wise it would be impossible perhaps to expect. It would not be difficult, for example, to show that the methods of the Roman Catholic Church methods which differ widely from those of the Protestant Church are to a large extent responsible for a great deal of ill-feeling. I have already shown their connection with the occupation of Kiaochow the root of all the trouble that followed. The priests are constantly coming into conflict with the native officials over the law pleas of their converts. They have demanded, and have received, the better to facilitate their ends, a civil status which places them on the same level as mandarins. They have employed, as Church agents, men of notoriously bad character, who have used their positions to levy blackmail on innocent and helpless people, in the name of Mother Church. All this has caused much friction between priests and magistrates, and it has made the name of the Roman Church in many parts of China a byword amongst the people for all that is unscrupulous and high-handed.
Apart from these regrettable and objection able features in missionary work in China, however, there is another sense in which the charge is legitimate and true. To anyone who understands Christianity, or has read Church history, it must be apparent that there is that in it which naturally excites opposition. Did not our Lord say that, " He came not to send peace on earth, but a sword? " And was it not said of the first missionaries that they were "turning the world upside down"? If, therefore, missionaries, in the broadest sense, have caused trouble in China, may it not be due to the very success of their labours? Ought it not to be a cause of congratulation, rather than of complaint? There are thousands of missionaries to-day spread all over the Empire, each of them at the head of a large band of native evangelists. They have been sowing the seed of the Kingdom these many years by voice and by pen, and have exemplified its teaching by living blameless lives. The leaven of Christianity has been leavening the pagan lump. Now the fermenting process has begun. Thousands have responded to Christ s call. They have outgrown their old ideals. Inevitably their very presence evokes intense and bitter antagonism. So much is this the case that the recent crisis may not untruly be regarded as a conflict between the old and the new beliefs, between truth and false hood, between light and darkness, between Christianity and Paganism. The recent persecutions of native Christians who have played no other part in the troubles than that of witnesses and martyrs to the truth recall to our minds the early struggles of the Christian Church in its deadly conflict with Roman Imperialism.
"Careless seems the great Avenger; history s pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness, twixt old systems and the Word :
Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne Yet that scaffold sways the future ; and behind the dim unknown, Standeth God, within the shadow keeping watch above His own." In considering the character of the " Boxer " movement two things have impressed us. On the one hand, its widespread nature ; and on the other, the rapidity of its growth. The country was ripe for revolution. From Canton in the south to the banks of the Amur in the north, from the seaboard on the east to the provinces of Ssu-chuan, Shansi, and Shensi on the west, in an incredibly short time the movement spread itself. Six months before the outbreak, with the exception of a few missionaries in Shantung and Chihli, everybody treated the " Boxers " with contempt. What was more serious, they seem to have regarded the attitude of the Government to the "Boxers " with incredulity. Even as late as the end of June 1900, after we had been compelled to leave our station in the interior, we were coolly informed by a consular authority that, in his opinion, a good shower of rain would put an end to the whole trouble. The unsettled condition of the people was attributed to the dread of approaching famine. So much for official " understanding of the times " The same gentleman had a rude awakening a week later, when the news of the burning of our property came to hand, and the yet sadder intelligence of the massacre of Roman Catholics in Moukden. The fact is that China had been arming herself with the best modern weapons for some years. But the ministers at Pekin seem to have as little understood the significance of this warlike preparation as Britain misunderstood the intentions of the Boers prior to the outbreak of hostilities in South Africa. " The quantity of Mauser rifles recently imported into Manchuria through the Port of Newchwang alone, for use in the Feng-tien province, would suffice to equip an army of about 40,000 men, and it must be remembered that the foreign-drilled troops of the province, amounting to 8000 men, are already provided with serviceable weapons." In the House of Commons on 2nd August 1900 it was stated that "since 1895 firms in this country had supplied the Chinese Government with 74 guns of position and 11,740 rounds of ammunition; 123 field-guns and 40,000 rounds ; and 297 machine-guns with over 40,000,000 rounds ; and Germany had supplied nearly half a million Mauser rifles with three million rounds." In the face of such facts it seems almost incredible that the " Boxer " outbreak should have taken anyone by surprise. The crusade was primarily anti-foreign, and only secondarily anti - Christian. Pekin and Tientsin, where all classes and nationalities suffered alike, may be taken as proofs of the former feeling, whilst the wanton destruction of churches and hospitals, and the massacre of missionaries and their converts, may be regarded as equally terrible illustrations of the latter. The brunt of the persecution fell, of course, upon the missionaries, not because they were missionaries, but because they were foreigners, living in the far interior and absolutely without the means of self-defense The Chinese would probably tolerate Christianity in the same way as they tolerate Mahommedism and Buddhism both of which are heretical sects in China were it not for the connection of the missionaries with powerful states that seek to encroach upon their country. The question is being eagerly discussed in many quarters : " Will the Boxer uprising be for the ultimate good of China?" In the month of May 1901 the subject was debated at the Chinese Young Men s Christian Association, Shanghai, in English, before a large audience. The debate is interesting, for it shows how keenly educated Chinese are interested in the welfare of their country. Some of the points of the debate are well worth the consideration of foreigners. The chief arguments of the affirmative, who attempted to show that the " Boxer " uprising would, from present indications, ultimately benefit China, were as follows :
" i . Reform always comes through upheaval. The history of France, Japan, and England has proved this point.
" 2. The Boxer uprising has caused a wonderful stimulus to public opinion, which makes for good government.
" 3. The Boxers themselves, though entirely fanatical, yet demonstrated that the Chinese are patriotic. Sir Robert Hart was cited to prove this.
" 4. And the fact is also noted that though the Russian Manchurian convention grew out of the Boxer uprising, yet that the patriotism of the Chinese was thereby roused, and was so strong as to force the hand of the Manchus. This was good out of evil.
" 5. The Boxer uprising has for good and all convinced the Manchus of the foolishness of their foreign-exclusion policy.
" 6. The uprising has demonstrated that the Chinese Christians have the martyr spirit, and that the hearts of the people are not dead within them.
" 7. The overthrow of Boxerdom has given a great blow to superstition.
" 8. The Conservatives have been crushed.
" 9. The war has brought other nations closer together in suppressing a common danger, and has therefore exerted a unifying effect on the world.
" As opposed to the position taken up by the affirmative, the speakers of the negative held that the Boxer uprising had resulted in an overwhelming evil to China :
"1. China has already lost her independence. Her foreign relations, the policing of her capital, her customs and her financial system are now dictated by foreigners. Officials are put up and down as the foreigners direct. She is only nominally independent. If the loss of independence is a benefit, then the " Boxer " uprising has been a benefit, but not otherwise.
" 2. The Boxer uprising is probably only the beginning of like troubles.
" 3. One result of the Boxer uprising is the certain increase of taxation to a point such as the Chinese have never known before.
" 4. The Boxer uprising has given Russia just the pretext she wanted to seize Manchuria. She will never restore Manchuria.
" 5. The moral effect of this bloodthirsty war, the object lesson of Western troops descending to barbarism, will take years to eradicate amongst us Chinese.
" 6. Another detrimental result was brought forward, namely, revulsion of feeling now felt all over the world against the Chinese, because of the Boxer outrages.
" 7. The barbarities of the foreign troops have led many progressive northern Chinese to hate foreigners, excepting the Japanese. The native newspapers are constantly praising the Japanese.
" 8. Though the Yangtze Viceroys undoubtedly did a wise thing in breaking with the northern Conservatives, yet the result has been the making of two parties, the northern party and the southern party. If any nation desires to secure north China, she undoubtedly will play off one of the parties against the other.
" 9. The missionary problem is now much more complicated than before the Boxer trouble.
" 10. The Court, instead of being led to adopt reform measures, has given evidence by recent appointments that it is as conservative as ever.
" The negative held that for these and other reasons the Boxer uprising was not for the ultimate good of China, and the judges decided in their favour, after long deliberation."
" You cannot carve rotten wood," wrote Confucius two thousand years ago, and his words find a startling fulfillment in the history of his own country to-day. It is difficult to say what impression recent events have made on the governing clique at Pekin. The future of China, to a large extent, will depend upon that. Should these events succeed in discrediting the conservative and reactionary party around the throne, and in restoring the young Emperor to his rightful position, they will not have occurred in vain, and we may yet hope to see some substantial advance made in the direction of reform. The " Boxer " crisis has left its mark upon the native Christian Church of China. It has purified it of many elements that have hitherto marred its influence and hindered its advance. It has given definiteness to the newly-found faith of its members, and it has awakened a consciousness of unity amongst believers all over the Empire. Nor can we doubt that the blood of its martyrs will be a seed from which the fruits of holiness will yet be reaped in the years to come. The fire of persecution through which the native Church has passed has at least convinced every unprejudiced mind of the sincerity of native Christianity, and it has opened the eyes of the Church at home to the magnitude of the task to which she has set her hand. As we review the wreckage of our work, the present may seem eloquent only of failure, yet it may prove to be God s way of leading His Church to a wider success and a more glorious triumph. " In Pekin and in the treaty - ports the visitor who inquires about missions and their work will always hear a great deal about the rice Christians that is to say, those Chinese converts whose steadfastness depends mainly on the material benefits that accrue to them from their religion. No doubt there is reason for this imputation in many instances, but there is also a vast amount of exaggeration. Anyone who, in the recent sieges of the foreign quarters in Pekin and Tientsin, saw the thousands of natives that stuck to their new faith, who read of the thousands that were martyred for it in the provinces, can hardly question their honesty and single- heartedness. A year ago the general European opinion in China was that the Chinaman was a born indifferentist. The same cynical attitude obtained as to his courage: he was a born coward. The events of 1900 have convinced most people who took part in them of the radical error of these two views. Under his apathetic exterior the Chinaman has after all a soul. He is apparently capable of being a good Christian, just as he is of being a brave soldier, and the discovery is as important for the ethical, as it is for the practical world."