05 IN THE CONFESSIONAL

Chapter 5 IN THE CONFESSIONAL A pagan approaches Christianity the way the world did. -- The Shadow Christ.

I HAVE tried to show how Christianity grows extensively through the medium of the street-preaching chapel; a more difficult but a more interesting task is to attempt to depict its growth intensively. What impact does Christianity make upon the heathen mind ? How do the Chinese enter the Church ? What is the rationale of conversion ? How does the change come, and what effects are apparent in the lives of the converts ? In short, can we trace the evolution of the inward growth of Christian doctrine in the pagan mind ? The first obstacle that confronts the missionary who would essay such a task is one which he can never thoroughly overcome. He is a foreigner. The Chinese have been described as "sphinxes of imperturbable reserve." Reserve is a national characteristic. People even those who are on familiar terms with you are careful not to reveal their deepest experiences to the foreign gaze. It has been remarked by an experienced missionary, with some truth, that when a Chinaman comes to consult the foreigner about his soul s good, it is time to look to one’s pocket. Sincere inquirers observe a wise reticence about such matters. Yet there are not wanting opportunities for observing how the leaven of the gospel wins its way. The manner of conversion differs from what one would naturally expect from one’s experience of the same change as witnessed in persons at home. One would suppose that the sheer novelty of the gospel would strike the pagan mind, almost on a first hearing, with overpowering force; that conversion would be swift and irresistible. As a matter of fact it is not so. We forget that " their eyes are holden " by custom, prejudice, and antecedent belief, so that " they cannot see." The portrait of Christ which confronts them demands much study and long patience ere it yields up its secret to their gaze, and ere they see in Him who was pierced that beauty which will make them desire Him as their Saviour. Writing to a friend who was home on furlough, Mackay of Uganda says : " You will do a noble work if you get good Christians in England to understand fully the exact nature of the case that the heathen do not by nature wish the gospel, although we know they sorely need it; that in every land people are jealous for their faith which came down from their ancestors of long-lost memory."

Let us try to trace the steps of the normal conversion of a working-man in China. Let us suppose that a chapel has been opened in his village. For some time he ignores its very existence. He not improbably anticipates some dire calamity to visit the neighborhood because of it. Time passes, however, and nothing happens. He hears that some of his friends have visited the place. They give kindly accounts of the preacher. He is not a foreigner; he is one of themselves. One night he drops in. The chapel is a comfortable room. He meets his companions, gets a hearty welcome, and is invited to return. The preacher sings them a hymn and explains the doctrine. They never sang in their lives before, and no one ever manifested such a kindly interest in them and their families, as this preacher of the " Jesus religion." Some of his friends have actually bought a catechism and begun to learn to read. He is a simple man; peaceful, industrious, fond of his family. The only religion he knows is associated with the " Kitchen-god," which he believes has power to ward off evil influences from the home. Perhaps he goes to the temple once a year to bump his head on the ground before the idol - his sole ritual. He is beginning to enjoy going to the chapel of an evening after the labours of the day are ended. One night the evangelist speaks of the sin of idolatry. He had not thought of it in that way; how could he? He does but as his fathers did. Yet it does seem ridiculous to expect help from the idols. Some of his friends have got rid of theirs, and the heavens have not fallen. He talks it over with his wife, resolves to abolish the idol, and learn the " Jesus doctrine." " Ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God." This is invariably the first step into the Kingdom. He begins to read; this is inevitably the second step. Line upon line, precept upon precept, he spells out the gospel story and the doctrines of grace. When the foreign pastor comes along that way on circuit, he is presented for examination. How different his feelings towards the foreigner now! He remembers how once he called him a " devil," or threw mud at him on the street. To-day, he salutes him with a profound bow, and attends to his slightest need with alacrity.

Most inquirers are examined two or three times before baptism. Experienced missionaries have little difficulty in discovering if the truth has reached the heart and changed the life. Though his knowledge is yet imperfect, and from the moral and spiritual point of view the net result in character small, yet the beginning of a new life has begun. He has the faith of the mustard seed. In his home Scripture texts are to be seen adorning the walls in place of the " Kitchen-god." The singing of hymns takes the place of family feuds, and the children go to school instead of running wild on the streets.

It is true of the mission field of to-day, as in the days of our Lord, that the poor hear the message of salvation gladly. They have little to lose. They have no selfish ends to serve by throwing in their lot with the new faith. But it is different with the rich and the cultured classes. To them it means sacrifice, and only strong impelling motives lead their feet into the fold of the Christian Church. These motives are not always disinterested, and much caution has to be exercised in admitting them to the privileges of the Christian Society. One very powerful inducement which the Christian Church presents to the Chinese mind lies in the protection which it affords against oppression in the native law courts. Without doubt the Chinese are the most litigious people on the face of the earth. There is hardly a family that has not had at some time or other its lawsuit. The iniquitous system is encouraged by the Yamens, for by it they live. The ingenuity of the machinery for entangling worthy and wealthy people in the meshes of the law is simply appalling. Respectable people live in terror of being entrapped and coerced into its clutches. In nine cases out of ten it means their ruin. They are powerless to prevent it, and seldom escape till they have paid the uttermost farthing. Hence the reason in this social evil why many merchants have looked to the Church, hoping to find in her communion a haven of rest where they may pass their days in peace and quietness, undisturbed by the intrigues of their enemies or the injustice of the law courts. But how, it may be asked, does the Church fulfill such expectations? Does she come between the subject and the civil courts of the country? In this way. The Roman Church early recognized in this social evil an opportunity for recruiting a large number of converts among the rich and cultured classes. Over these she determined to throw the aegis of the Church’s protection. For example, Mr. Wang has an impending lawsuit. He may be perfectly innocent of the charges trumped up against him. They may even have originated in the Yamen itself, for in every Yamen there exists a class of men called " sword pens," whose sole occupation is to bring grist to the mill and keep the Yamen coffers full. When charges are brought against Mr. Wang he is helpless. He must appear to defend himself. There is no such thing as justice. He who has money has reason on his side. " The big fish eat the little fish, the little fish eat the shrimps, and the shrimps eat the mud," is one of the proverbs of the country. Mr. Wang, finding himself in a tight place, resolves to join the Church. It is cheaper to make a handsome donation to the funds of the Church than to be fleeced in the Yamen. The day of the trial comes. The French priest sends his card to the magistrate informing him that Mr. Wang is one of his converts. This is sufficient to put the magistrate on his guard. In nine cases out of ten it will be sufficient to secure Mr. Wang s acquittal. But should the magistrate be bold enough to defy the priest and decide against his convert, what happens? The priest will call upon the magistrate; argue, threaten, browbeat, until, because of his importunity, the magistrate will drop the case altogether. It seldom needs more than this to clench the matter. But should the magistrate still persist, the priest has another and a terrible card to play. He writes to the French Consul, informing him of this case of flagrant persecution. The Consul acquaints the Taotai, the chief Chinese official in the treaty-port; who, in turn, instructs the local magistrate to see to it that no more complaints reach him from that quarter. This method has been so successful that a tradition has grown up amongst local magistrates that it does not pay to give decisions against Roman Catholic converts. Sometimes the priest’s action is sufficient to call for the removal of the magistrate. Now, if the priest only interfered on behalf of bond fide converts, who were such prior to the instituting of law proceedings, and if he took care to discover that his convert was innocent of the charge preferred against him, there would not be cause for complaint; but when he deliberately receives men into the Church knowing that their motive is to secure his protection, and when, in addition, the justice of their case may be extremely doubtful, no language can be too strong, in the interests of Christianity, to condemn such a practice. It is notorious that men guilty of the grossest crimes have been protected from the just punishment of the authorities in this way. The wily Chinaman can always color the facts of the case to make himself appear the injured party in the priest’s eyes. Others, in similar straits, hear of Mr. Wang s success ; they also become converts on like principles, till the Roman Church in China has become a veritable " cave of Adullam," beyond the reach of the jurisdiction of the civil courts of the country. The example and practice of the Roman Church have not been without their baneful influence on the Protestant cause in China. In spite of the greatest vigilance, Protestant missionaries have been dragged into this matter. With the haziest notion of the difference between the two churches, the Chinese come to us expecting like favors The problem has been complicated by the fact that in not a few cases of genuine persecution we have been constrained to afford protection to our converts. And having yielded in some cases, it is difficult to get the Chinese to understand why, having the power (successfully to protect some), we should not exert our influence on behalf of all who may apply. This gigantic evil has grown up all over China, and threatens to poison the life of the Church. No inquirer is allowed to enter his name on our books who is known to have an impending lawsuit. It is by no means easy to discover when your inquirer is, or is not, in that condition. And there are not wanting native preachers who dissemble and throw the foreigner off his guard. Some years may elapse before he becomes acquainted with the true facts of the case. Even after baptism we refuse point-blank to be entangled in their law pleas, or in any way to lend our influence to their cause. The mere fact, however, that they are members, gives them an immense advantage in the eyes of the officials. Many who were enthusiastic when they entered the Church, turn back and walk no more with us when they learn that we are not prepared to help them. Some, however, who may have entertained false hopes and impure motives when they began, continue. They rectify their mistakes. They learn the true meaning of the Church. They truly repent and believe the gospel, and develop into splendid Christian men.

-- Here are a few of the leading rules of the Presbytery :

"All who come on account of lawsuits are excluded from entering the Church. A similar prohibition against those whose motives are of material gain, or those who, being their own masters, do not abolish their idols."

"Inquirers, after they have been enrolled, must submit to nine months probation and instruction."

"All opium-smokers who do not break off the habit are excluded from membership; but if anyone through illness is unable to break it off, he is to be examined by the medical missionary, and if the latter certifies that it cannot safely be broken off, he may be baptized with the approval of the Session."

"All persons cultivating, or trading in, opium, whether raw or prepared, are excluded from entering the Church." The approach of the literati to Christianity differs in many respects from the approach of the two types already portrayed. Their attitude is strictly intellectual. Hitherto converts from this class have not been numerous, and can hardly be regarded as a success. Their Christianity is eclectic. They read the Scriptures, and find in them a system of ethics, higher than that of their own classics. But their religious life remains cold and unprogressive. They seldom appreciate the great doctrines of grace. Their characters are marred by insufferable conceit, and by the absence of that humility of heart which is the mark of the seeker after truth. They are too often content to admire and applaud the ethics of Christianity without endeavoring to reproduce them in their conduct. In short, they regard Christianity as a sort of sublimated Confucianism. The Confucianist Christian is generally censorious in his judgments of others, and more careful about his personal deportment and good name than about the salvation of men; and while professing to be enamored of the loftiest ethical teaching, he too often remains the very personification of selfishness. In spite of his profession of Christianity, Confucius, not Christ, is his Master; self-culture, not self-abnegation, his aim; law, not grace, his method of salvation. The ancestral worship of the thorough going Confucianist is not unfrequently the barrier that hinders his advance. The attitude of missionaries varies widely on the subject. Some there are who treat it with easy tolerance; not regarding it as worship in the proper sense, but simply as an expansion of filial piety issuing in a pious recollection of the dead. While there are others who insist on making it a test question of membership, and denounce it as a pernicious belief contrary alike to the worship of the One Living and True God, and to the teaching of Scripture. The elaborate ritual that has grown up round the doctrine in the present day bears the same relation to the original and classical form, as the corrupt practices of continental Catholicism bear to the pure teaching of Christianity in the New Testament. The native Christian Church will be the best arbiter in a matter which it is impossible for the Western mind thoroughly to appreciate or understand. So far as I have been able to observe, however, the native Christian conscience unanimously condemns the practice, and views with suspicion the sincerity of anyone who, while seeking admission to their fellowship, still retains the old belief, or practices the old ritual.

While converts of the literati type have hitherto been more or less of a disappointment, there is another class, somewhat akin to them, who are the most promising and useful men in the Church. Though not scholars in the technical sense, they are reading men: bright, thoughtful, intelligent. They approach Christianity with open mind and unsophisticated heart. They are generally young men of good family, liberal education, pure morals, and strong convictions. From this class we draw the great majority of our preachers and teachers. To sum up what I have to say on this subject it will be apparent :

1. That among Chinese Christians appreciation of the essential inwardness of Christianity is a growth. One is impressed, generally speaking, by the absence of a deep sense of sin. This is due probably to their Confucian training which makes morality largely an external thing. The missionary has constantly to guard his converts against the tendency to set too high a value on the efficacy of rites like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I have heard of a newly baptized convert who, immediately after his initiation, seized the font of water with trembling hands and drank it off. He doubtless believed that the water possessed some magical virtue that would cleanse him of his sins. Not till they have been in the Church for some time, and grown up to a knowledge of the holy character of God, do they feel the burden of a sense of inward pollution and undergo that radical change of heart that moulds their character and controls their conduct.

2. Reverence can hardly be said to be one of the graces of the Chinese Christian. This, too, is a growth. At first he is apt to make the punctilious performance of his elaborate etiquette do duty for reverence. He stalks into church, greets his friends in stentorian tones, and will even light his pipe immediately service is over, if not checked. The sacred building exercises no spell over his imagination. His consciousness is not sufficiently developed to lead him into communion with an invisible spiritual presence. With a deeper sense of sin comes a profounder humility and a truer reverence.

3. I have been struck, however, by the clearness with which Chinese converts grasp the central doctrine of the Christian faith the doctrine of atonement. Familiarity with the substitutionary idea, as it finds expression in their own religious life, has doubtless prepared their minds and given them some affinity with the Christian doctrine. The Emperor, as " the Son of Heaven " represents his people in formal acts of sacrificial worship twice a year, and offers prayers of intercession for their well-being. He is priest as well as Emperor. Every magistrate is called the " father of the people," in the same sense as the Romanist priest assumes the title of " father " of his flock. Nor is the idea of vicarious suffering unfamiliar amongst a people where the family, and not the individual, is the unit. The faith of the Chinese Christian is phenomenal. Belief would appear to be an easier thing to him than to us. He has small speculative faculty, and is unencumbered by doubts. If it is faith that saves, then whatever his defects, the Christianity of the Chinese convert is undoubted.

4. The institutional value of the Church is fully appreciated by Chinese converts. Its social attractiveness, its fellowship with brother believers, its mutual helpfulness, its intellectual impulse, appeal most powerfully to the Chinese nature. Among themselves they are extremely gregarious. They have a positive genius for combination, as witness the innumerable secret societies all over the country. Every trade, every class, every village has its guild. In the Christian Society they meet together, not from any community of interest, though that is not lost sight of, but on the basis of a common belief, and they are made to stand out against their heathen environment in strong relief. Now that Christianity has spread itself over the land, and chapels are to be found nearly everywhere, the Chinese convert is sure to find in his wanderings a congenial home within the fold of the Church.

5. The loyalty of the Chinese convert to his faith is proverbial. It is a significant fact that converts who have been excommunicated for opium-smoking or immorality seldom go back to heathenism, but usually continue to think and speak of themselves, in spite of their sins, as Christians. I have known a man of very imperfect moral character held over a hole in the ice in the dead of winter by his enemies, who threatened to thrust him under if he did not recant his faith but all in vain: he was prepared to be drowned rather than yield. Only the timely intervention of friends saved him from such a fate.

6. The ethical teaching of Confucius offers an invaluable groundwork for the preacher of the evangel of Jesus. The Chinese convert does not present a tabula rasa to the missionary, but a mind capable of moral distinction and religious impression. The Confucian classics are not comparable to the Old Testament Scriptures, not to speak of the New. All such comparisons are misleading. But they have paved the way, and laid a foundation for the higher faith, just as the Old Testament prepared the way for the New. Without the moral discipline which they represent and which has made the Chinese character what it is to-day mission work would have been slower and more difficult. The comparative study of religion has taught us at least two things: (1) It has taught us that Christianity loses nothing by comparison. Every fresh research brings out into clearer relief its unique, its divine character, and on every mission field the cry of the pagan Julian is heard again, " O Galilean, Thou hast conquered ! " (2) But it has not gained this solitary eminence by a cheap disparagement of the non-Christian faiths of the world. On the contrary, it has taught us to speak of these with greater respect. Their peoples are no longer classed by us as heathen and infidel indiscriminately. We now recognize that religion is an integral part of the life of every people. The more we study their religious systems, the more we see their incompleteness and insufficiency, but we thankfully acknowledge the gleams that bear witness to the immanence in them of the Father of Lights. Though the Sun of Righteousness has not yet arisen in their sky, we believe that the Day Spring from on high shall yet visit them, and guide their feet into the way of peace. Confucius and Sak-ya-muni have not lived in vain.

" God sends His teachers unto every age, To every clime, and every race of men, With revelations fitted to their growth And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth Into the selfish rule of one sole race : Therefore, each form of worship that hath swayed The life of man, and given it to grasp The master-key of knowledge reverence Infolds some germs of goodness and of right."