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0441 The heart of a continent : vol.1
The heart of a continent : vol.1 / Page 441 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000247
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE MISSIONARY QUESTION IN CHINA.

"I venerate the man whose heart is warm,
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life,
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause."

Cowper.

Before recording the general impressions formed in my
mind in the course of my travels, I am anxious to say
something on the subject of missionary enterprise in China,
because I have thought that a few words on this question
from one who has seen missionaries at work in the remotest
corners of the Chinese Empire may be of interest to readers
in England at the present time, when the recent massacres in
China have directed marked attention to the matter. I do
not think that a mere casual traveller like myself ought to
presume to judge in too assured a way the many really
earnest men who, taking their lives in their hands, have gone
out to impart to the Chinese a religion which they believe
would help to elevate and rouse those ignorant of its blessings.
Many of these men have devoted years to the study of the
question, and they have had practical experience in dealing
with the Chinese. It would ill befit a passing traveller,
therefore, to undertake to say whether this or that method
of proselytizing was good or the reverse, or to judge whether
the missionaries have been successful or not.

But it is part of the duty of a traveller to observe and