GAiNM-a. 
 
 
 a vv-v - 
 
 
 THE TRAGEDY 
 AND THE IMPERATIVE OF 
 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 
 IN CHINA 
 
 HERBERT E. HOUSE 
 
 THIS SECX)ND AND REVISED EDITION 
 IS PROVIDED BY THE GENEROSITY AND IS SENT OUT WITH 
 THE COMPUMENTS OF A FRIEND OF CHINA 
 
 156 FIFTH AVENUE 
 NEW YORK 
 
1 
 
 
 1 
 
 * 
 
 »] 
 
 i 
 
 ■f 
 
 i 
 
 j 
 
THE TRAGEDY AND 
 THE IMPERATIVE OF CHRISTIAN 
 EDUCATION IN CHINA 
 
 The Tragedy 
 
 NDER the influence of the Chinese Emperor’s reform 
 
 program of 1897-1898 which followed the humiliat- 
 
 ing defeat by Japan, there had come a widespread 
 
 awakening to the value of “Western learning,” and every- 
 where the youth from the best families, hitherto practically 
 untouched by Christian missions, were earnestly asking mis- 
 sionaries to teach them English and the “useful learning.” 
 
 At a missionary conference at Pei Tai Ho, the seaside 
 resort Northeast of Tientsin, during the summer of 1898 — 
 fourteen years ago — this signiflcant question, in substance, 
 was discussed, “What shall we do in view of the demand 
 made upon us to teach English and the Western education?” 
 It was brought out in this discussion that at that time every- 
 where in North China, and the same was true elsewhere 
 throughout the empire, the missionaries were besought by the 
 youth of the best families, the class hitherto unreached, to 
 teach them, and there was much perplexity regarding the 
 response that should be made. Finally a resolution was 
 passed setting forth the situation and stating that the mis- 
 sionaries were unable to turn aside to meet this new oppor- 
 tunity, but strongly recommending that teachers be sent from 
 home to do this work, which could be made self-supporting. 
 
 Being engaged in this very work I listened to the dis- 
 cussion with deepest interest. My own assurance that a new 
 day had dawned in China was confirmed and I at least fol- 
 lowed the suggestions of the resolution by urging a friend 
 
in America to join me in developing the private school I 
 was then conducting.* During the nearly two years of teach- 
 ing which followed, I was more and more impressed with 
 the reality of the awakening of the Chinese of the cultured 
 and leading class to an appreciation of the value and im- 
 portance of modern education. The earnestness of the stu- 
 dents in my school was an impressive object lesson, as was 
 also, later, the high character and unflagging zeal in his 
 study, of my pupil, Tuan Yuen Tai, son of Tuan Shih Kai, 
 now President. It became widely evident that a complete 
 change had come over the mind of China, and that the time 
 had now come when China, thus far slow to move and diffi- 
 cult to evangelize, could be led into a Christian civilization 
 through the means of Christian education to be given the 
 vast body of students who had turned their faces Westward. 
 This student body has never turned back. The many thou- 
 sands who went to Japan, and who are still going there and 
 to other countries, is an expression of this fact. All these 
 fourteen years they have been open to us and actually 
 seeking our aid. 
 
 The facts regarding the opportunity presented to Chris- 
 tian missions through this educational renaissance although 
 more widely known are no clearer and no more emphatic 
 now than they were in 1900. Before leaving China in April, 
 1900, I said, “I feel the same desire to return home now to 
 tell of the opportunity for Christian education in China that 
 once I felt in coming out to serve in China,” and reaching 
 America my constant theme in public address and private 
 conversation, in season and out of season, was that the op- 
 
 •I had in 1898 in connection with other work a private school in 
 Tientsin, where I was teaching English and elementary branches to 
 twenty-seven young men and boys. That year I became private 
 tutor in the family of Tuan Shih Kai, now president; the older boys 
 were dropped from the private school which was continued for about 
 a year under Mrs. House. I remained with Yuan until the Boxer 
 trouble in 1900. At that time I. probably more than any other, 
 was Impressed with the opportunity to win China through the 
 medium of Christian education. 
 
 2 
 
portunity of the ages was before the Church in the demand 
 of the youth of the higher classes of China for English and 
 a modern education. 
 
 It was after an hour’s address which I gave on this sub- 
 ject, the 11th of February, 1902, before the Presbyterian 
 Ministers’ Association of New York, that Mr. W. Henry 
 Grant, Trustee of the then projected undenominational Can- 
 ton Christian College, who had listened to the address, asked 
 me to come into the service of this institution, and for ten 
 years I have been associated with it promoting its interests 
 in America. Last year I made a trip to China for closer study 
 of the Canton ChrLstian College and observation of the edu- 
 cational situation in the country at large. 
 
 For twelve years I have been doing what I coidd to 
 awaken the Church and individuals to an appreciation of 
 the tremendous importance of rising to meet the new situ- 
 ation ; a situation surpassing opportunity, and immeasurable 
 in its possibilities. For two years up till 1902 I had the 
 field almost to myself in this work of calling attention to 
 the educational opportunity in China, but about that time 
 others began to voice tbe call, and by 1905 it had become 
 the most widely heralded and most earnestly emphasized of 
 missionary facts. Everywhere speakers proclaimed that a 
 wonderful day of Christian opportunity, such as the world 
 had never seen, had dawned in China in the demand of 
 the best youth of the land for English and a Western 
 education. Missionaries, travelers, commissions, confer- 
 ences, great conventions, all said the same thing. The 
 chorus filled the land. Everybody talked, but few did 
 anything. And so it has continued to this present hour. 
 
 To meet the new situation, a few in the field have strug- 
 gled with hands almost bare, a few at home have sought to 
 co-operate .with and to sustain them, a few individuals have 
 given of their means, and given generously, but as a whole 
 the Church, although endowed with every needed organiza- 
 
 3 
 
tion and resource, has thus far revealed a practical incapacity 
 to meet the situation. Big schemes have long been in the 
 air on various sides, but the years have gone by and almost 
 nothing has yet been done in definite response to the pe- 
 culiar opportunity of the time, almost nothing more than 
 would have been done in any case as a slow growth and 
 development of existing work under old conditions. 
 
 It may be asserted carefully and solemnly that American 
 Christians have failed utterly to rise to the occasion and 
 that the failure has been an appalling one, humiliating and 
 disastrous. 
 
 I do not hesitate to say that the opportunity for Chris- 
 tian education in China was as great twelve years ago, im- 
 mediately following the restoration of order after the 
 “Boxer” trouble, as it is to-day, and certainly in some quar- 
 ters it w’as greater. There was then a newness and in- 
 tensity in the desire for the new learning that certainly is 
 not now surpassed and probably not equalled, and Chris- 
 tian teachers and schools would everywhere have been wel- 
 comed. Twelve years of perfectly open opportunity for a 
 mighty movement have gone by and there is only a beginning 
 of a response to it. 
 
 Educational work of importance was being done prior 
 to 1900 and it has been continued with some growth since 
 and some new work has been begun; but in definite re- 
 sponse to the majestic situation offered in the call of 
 China for our help in her educational need nothing worthy 
 to be mentioned as a response has been done. Had there 
 been any adequate response, any doing even so much as might 
 easily have been done, the Church in China might to-day 
 have been leagues onward in the mightiest highway of op- 
 portunity that the Christian world has ever entered instead 
 of still standing more or less bewildered at the entrance to 
 that highway, wondering what is best to do and still sending 
 out commissions to discover. 
 
 4 
 
The following facts regarding the Canton Christian Col- 
 lege are not presented primarily in its interest. The facts 
 are presented as an illustration of what can be done and 
 as inspiration to immediate and greater action. The writer 
 has had no part in the constructive work of the College and 
 therefore writes freely regarding it. 
 
 The Canton Christian College entered the highway of 
 opportunity at the dawn of China's new day with a courage- 
 ous and progressive policy in keeping with the demands of 
 the time. That policy was to give the Chinese in the name 
 of Christ what they wanted, which was an honest Western 
 education through the medium of the English language and 
 also, of course, to give an equally thorough training in 
 Chinese. Probably no school in China has had a higher 
 standard in its Chinese department. 
 
 Pursuing that policy unwaveringly, though often mis- 
 judged, this school has gone forward even though, for lack 
 of means, with halting step, until it has by the grace of 
 simple merit become an institution of commanding impor- 
 tance. Since locating on its new site in 1904 it has grown 
 with a rapidity probably unparalleled in the history of such 
 institutions, having in the autumn of 1912 428 students in 
 all its schools, with grounds, buildings and staff proportion- 
 ate. Its standard has been so high and its work so thorough 
 that its students so far have taken practically all the in- 
 demnity scholarships in the government examinations for 
 the province. The Christian character and activity of its 
 students, although nearly all from leading non-Christian 
 families, are remarked wherever the College is known. It 
 has given an education, a training and a discipline, — mental, 
 physical, spiritual, — that has developed a new type of young 
 manhood of an excellence never before seen in South China; 
 and young as the institution is it has gained the hearts of 
 the people in “The Two Provinces,” in America, and wher- 
 ever the Cantonese, that wonderful people, are scattered the 
 
 s 
 
world over. The recent subscriptions of $80,000.00 gold to 
 the dormitory fund of the College by the Cantonese in China, 
 America and elsewhere, $60,000.00 of which has already been 
 paid, is one evidence of this fact. 
 
 This liberality and the very substantial fees paid by the 
 students also prove the readiness of the Chinese to co-oper- 
 ate generously in educational work which is of such char- 
 acter as to meet their need, and command their respect, a 
 fact of the greatest economic importance. There might easily 
 have been a dozen such institutions well under way, with an 
 established policy and a strong hold upon the great centers 
 instead of there being generally only beginnings with un- 
 settled policies. 
 
 This College has been unusually free to proceed in a 
 progressive and uutrammeled way. It has been unusually 
 wise in seeking to meet the need of those who are natural 
 leaders of Chinese life and who are able by fees they pay to 
 make possible a work that otherwise would not, thus far at 
 least, have been at all possible. It is because a few attacked 
 the educational situation at Canton with the right policy, 
 with faith and determination, that the Canton Christian Col- 
 lege is to-day the most widely known, and the most highly 
 regarded of any educational or other institution or enter- 
 prise, native or foreign, in South China. It has not only 
 become a school ; it has possessed a province, and, great as 
 is the task, it may hold it and actually give South China a 
 Christian civilization if those who love the cause of Christ 
 will rally to sustain the effort. 
 
 It would be nonsense to suggest that this College is the 
 only powerful Christianizing force in South China, but it 
 is the only institution being developed to train leaders of 
 the first rank. Other agencies may lead many of the people 
 into the Christian life, but it is to the Christian colleges 
 we must look for the trained and masterly men who in this 
 day of rapid transformation shall be able to lead China into 
 
 6 
 
a Christian civilization; men who like Dr. Sun Yat Sen shall 
 dominate the heart and thought of a nation ; men like W. K. 
 Chung, graduate and Dean of the Canton Christian College, 
 who while still retaining his connection with the College, 
 has been appointed by the new government Commissioner of 
 Education for the Two Kwang Provinces. Professor Chung 
 may alone accomplish more for his people in the things we 
 desire for them than any other present influence. 
 
 The Canton Christian College stands as an evidence of 
 what might have been done, readily and at a moderate cost, all 
 over the land during the twelve well-nigh wasted years that 
 have passed since an awakened China felt her need and wel- 
 comed our help 
 
 The accomplishment of the Canton Christian College is 
 small, however, compared with what it might easily have done 
 with a little additional support. At comparatively slight addi- 
 tional expense this College might have developed five times its 
 present elementing school work, it might have advanced much 
 more strongly the work of the entire institution, and it might 
 have exerted a much greater influence upon the province. 
 Take one item alone. Three of the very best men ever con- 
 nected with the institution were lost to it for lack of suit- 
 able houses for their small families. At comparatively small 
 additional outlay the College might now be doing for the 
 neglected daughters of the gentry what it is doing for their 
 sons with a consequent greatly increased claim upon their 
 interest and generosity. The entire institution should be- 
 fore this time have been put on a substantial financial basis. 
 Instead, it still exists in a precarious condition of hand to 
 mouth existence, while holding, for Christianity, civilization 
 and the world’s welfare, the most, or one of the most, im- 
 portant and strategic positions in all the world. 
 
 The task of securing in America a vital interest in the 
 magnificent opportunity which confronts the Canton Chris- 
 tian College in South China has been an almost impossible 
 
 7 
 
one. What it is doing in its field with limited means is a 
 double proof of the mighty work that could have been 
 wrought throughout China if there had been even a mod- 
 erate general response to the urgent plea of the last twelve 
 years. One who has been in the presence of the unspeakable 
 privilege offered by China’s transformed desire and has seen 
 the distressing and disastrous loss in Canton and in other 
 great centers of opportunity, need not fear extravagance 
 of speech when he says that the loss through this lack of 
 response to the call which has for years been ringing in 
 the ears of those who profess allegiance to Christ is in truth 
 a Tragedy. 
 
 Consider Nanking and the Christian University. By a 
 recent vmion of all the educational work that has been 
 growing for a generation under several denominations in 
 that important center, it was possible to show in June, 1912, 
 all told a value of about $125,000.00 in property, $45,000.00 
 in endowment and $45,000.00 in recent subscriptions.* Con- 
 sider this, as the permanent investment of Christianity, dur 
 ing the work of a generation in that which is key to the 
 whole missionary situation, Christian education, at the nat- 
 ural center for a hundred million of as capable people as 
 any in the world. Consider this, as the answer of Christen- 
 dom to the vast body of students, the natural leaders of this 
 people as they have for the last twelve years been standing 
 before us with open minds and hearts actually asking for 
 our help. Consider this as the measure of the response of 
 the Church as it has stood for these twelve crucial years 
 before a field so vast and so white to the harvest that what 
 our Lord looked out upon was petty in size and green in 
 the husk in comparison. 
 
 •By the action of the seven leading denominations which make 
 up the Nanking union, under the leadership of Rev. J. E. Williams, 
 there has been a substantial start made during the six months since 
 June, 1912, toward establishing the University on a substantial basis. 
 This is a hopeful sign. 
 
 8 
 
Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are 
 white already to the harvest. And (lest we forget) he 
 that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto 
 life eternal. 
 
 Had we done our simple, obvious and easy duty we might 
 to-day, as was perfectly evident years ago, be providing the 
 Christian teachers for the new government schools, and the 
 leaders in all lines of official and professional life, not ex- 
 cepting an efficient ministry. With every needed resource 
 at hand we still stand helpless, taking years to consider, when 
 we might start, almost in a day, and bring quickly to a 
 vast success a movement that even now before it is too late 
 would lay hold of the best youth in all parts of the land, 
 would win many, many of them to Christ and would pre- 
 pare them to lead their own people into the light and strength 
 of a new life. 
 
 Not only has the Church at home failed to appreciate 
 the opportunity, and not only has support been lacking, but 
 the existing agencies and schools have with few exceptions 
 been equally slow to adopt a policy either in keeping with 
 the demands of the time on the field, or inspiring to the 
 Church at home. 
 
 Take an example of the loss sustained on this account 
 Ten years ago the missionaries of an ancient and important 
 city were besought by the gentry to open a school for their 
 sons to teach them English and the Western education, but 
 those who were so invited felt no call to give this cup of 
 cold water to satisfy the mental and heart thirst of a peo- 
 ple, for, it was said, they only desired it for selfish reasons. 
 There was no faith in the power of the Gospel to trans- 
 form these coming leaders and the call was unheeded. One 
 young man who saw the vision and wished to enter work for 
 the gentry was looked upon as a traitor to his mission and 
 was refused permission. What is the result? There is near 
 that city indeed an excellent missionary institution where 
 
 9 
 
some advance steps have recently been taken. Gathered 
 largely from the missions of the district this College has a 
 fine company of students, but they might not simply have 
 built a school, they might have moved a province. The peo- 
 ple of this city having been neglected, the gentry have 
 largely lost faith and interest in the foreign schools and have 
 developed fairly satisfactory, though non- Christian, schools 
 of their own. So it is to a greater or less extent throughout 
 most of the country. The finest period of our opportunity 
 has been neglected and has slipped away. By a right policy, 
 an immediate and mighty effort, we may yet win favor and 
 a position of strong influence, we may yet win the ground 
 and do the work to which w^e were called, but all over the 
 land twelve years of supreme opportunity have passed and 
 passed forever. 
 
 The loss, almost unheeded, entirely unnecessary, the 
 incalculable loss, of the unspeakable opportunity of these 
 twelve years in which the leaders and even the masses of 
 China’s millions might have had their faces turned toward 
 Christ; the loss to the people of China, to the world, and 
 to the Kingdom of God; this loss, is an immeasurable, a 
 bitter and a heart-breaking TRAGEDY. 
 
 10 
 
The Crisis 
 
 E very one who is familiar with the situation in China 
 understands that owing to the rapidly changing con- 
 ' ditions, the peculiar opportunity which was so fully 
 ushered in twelve years ago, is now passing speedily and 
 forever. It is NOW or NEVER ; and the thing to do in this 
 Crisis is so simple and so obvious that even the most ordinary 
 man can understand it. 
 
 The fact of first importance in any present discussion of 
 missionary problems in China, must be this rapidity with 
 w'hich the opportunity to grip the situation is passing. Un- 
 less we enter the open gates at once with some policy that 
 assures immediate and vast results, soon we will need to lay 
 siege against walls of self-sufficiency and false beliefs that 
 we can never hope by any means widely to overcome. To 
 delay now even three or five years in the strong inaugura- 
 tion of a new crusade will be fatal to our greatest success. 
 
 A policy that would now as an emergency measure send 
 out a large number of men and women for evangelistic mis- 
 sionary work, indispensable as such missionaries may be, 
 simply will not meet the case. It would be five years before 
 the best of the first of these could know the language well 
 enough to begin to be really effective workers. It would be 
 much longer still before those who have not dropped out by 
 the way would have become an effective body of mission- 
 aries, and then upon their few shoulders would rest the 
 burden of evangelizing the vast communities in which they 
 would be placed. In the words of Jethro, “This thing is too 
 heavy for thee * * * Thou shalt teach them * * * the work 
 they must do * * * then thou shalt be able to endure and 
 all this people shall go to their place in peace.” (Ex. 18:18, 
 etc.) 
 
 The demand of the times, which is the demand of a crisis 
 
 11 
 
in the history of a fourth of the race and perhaps of the 
 world, is emphatically that we work on a policy that prom- 
 ises quick results and that promises through a highly edu- 
 cated leadership to multiply our own lives many fold. 
 
 The key to the whole situation must be an educational 
 policy which will make it possible, if it is possible, to 
 immediately lay hold of thousands and very soon of al- 
 most tens of thousands of the boys and girls of grammar 
 school age, who must be from the most cultured and pros- 
 perous homes in the land, from among those who are able 
 and glad to pay, at least to a large extent, for what they get 
 as well as from among the poorer classes among whom most 
 of our educational work is now done. 
 
 It is impossible to do this through the medium of the 
 Chinese language. If that is our only hope then our cause 
 is already lost, the crisis cannot be met. If the teachers to 
 be sent out must wait till they know Chinese well enough 
 to teach in that language and must give their students an 
 education worthy of the name in that language, then the day 
 of opportunity will long have passed as for twelve years it 
 has been passing, before even a start is made. 
 
 But there is a method whereby the task that is set be- 
 fore us can be done. It has already been proven in actual 
 experiment on a substantial scale under varying circum- 
 stances and in different places in China, and also in differ- 
 ent lands, especially in Japan, that in the English language 
 we have an instrument ready and fit whereby swiftly, surely 
 and almost easily we may lay hold of China’s youth, meet 
 the crisis and save the day for a Christian leadership, a 
 Christian civilization, and a Christian people in the land of 
 the mightiest oncoming host the world has ever had to reckon 
 with. 
 
 12 
 
The Imperative 
 
 T here are sound reasons on general principles for 
 the use of English in all our teaching of Western 
 subjects; for one thing, the Chinese want it and 
 are not much interested in any education we foreigners have 
 to give that does not put it first, and educate through it as 
 a medium. 
 
 Another prime reason for giving an education in English 
 is that our business as educators is, and as missionaries, 
 ought to be, not to do the great things that are waiting to 
 be done in China, but to train the leaders who will them- 
 selves develop their own educational system and to some 
 extent their language, who will evangelize their own people 
 and who will work out their own problems of all kinds as 
 no foreigners can ever do. Let no one suppose that the 
 Chinese are lacking in the qualities required for eminent 
 service in these fields, if properly trained. Our business is to 
 train leaders of the first rank who will themselves go out and 
 lay hold of the people and the resources of their country and 
 make a new and worthy China. It is simply impossible to now 
 give through the medium of Chinese the education required 
 to develop such leadership; there are neither the teachers, 
 books nor words that would be required. Also the English 
 language at the present time has itself a powerful influence 
 on the student. It is like foreign travel, it opens to him 
 new worlds, it is like a great classic rich with new ideas. 
 As one qualified to speak, wrote regarding the Canton Chris- 
 tian College: “Through English it is possible for you to 
 give the most thorough development of mind and heart, 
 sending out a unique band of young men destined to change 
 the current of history in South China instead of merely 
 giving a creditable course of instruction and exercising only 
 a limited portion of the possible influence upon the prov- 
 
 13 
 
ince, * * *” “It takes time and hard labor on the part 
 of teacher and student to make a man of the modern type 
 out of a crude Chinese boy, and English is the best medium 
 through -which to effect the transformation. The very lan- 
 guage itself alters the mind of the person who learns it.” 
 
 Or there may be quoted the words of another who in 
 speaking of the extreme difficulty of putting into Chinese 
 language a correct and inspiring expression of Western 
 thought with its higher spiritual meaning, says, “The Eng- 
 lish language has developed with the mind and spirit of 
 Christianity, it has its very being in them. Christian civili- 
 zation is the very breath of life within our English speech, 
 and cannot be put into another language except in some 
 fashion of slow growth. Introducing the Chinese child to 
 the English language is opening to it not only the wide 
 fields of English Christian literature and Western civiliza- 
 tion but the very spirit of Christian life.” 
 
 It will stand the test of every criticism that, on general 
 principles, the educational work which we foreigners do in 
 China, in this generation at least, must be done through the 
 English language to be powerful and effective in developing 
 men and women of strong character who shall rank with the 
 best of their foreign associates and who shall be thoroughly 
 fit leaders of their people. But even that is not now the 
 point, the vital consideration now is that only through Eng- 
 lish is it possible to do quickly, before it is forever too late 
 the thing we must do if we are to lead China into a Christian 
 civilization or if Christianity is to hold a place of high im- 
 portance in the land. If there is any other way it has not 
 yet been revealed. It is not the love of English nor the de- 
 sire to propagate it that is back of the demand for its use. 
 As gladly would Sanskrit be used if by it the task could be 
 done. 
 
 It is perfectly evident that the permanence and power 
 of all our mission work, of the Young Men's Christian As- 
 
 14 
 
soeiation or the Young Women’s Christian Association, or 
 Christian enterprise of any sort in China depends upon the 
 thoroughly trained Christian leaders who shall have been 
 educated in large numbers in the Christian colleges within 
 the bounds of the country itself. If we fail in this we fail 
 in everjdhing and we shall fail in this educational effort in 
 most parts of the eighteen provinces unless there is an imme- 
 diate advance incomparably more rapid and more wise than 
 during the past twelve years. Such an immediate advance 
 can be made only by throwing into the field at once com- 
 panies, almost regiments, of young men and young women 
 having the missionary spirit who have had some training as 
 teachers. Under the direction of the present organized forces 
 on the field these should be a far-fiung battle line entering, 
 without a day’s delay for language preparation, into the 
 mighty campaign of elementary education to be conducted 
 in the English language. Do this, and within two or three 
 years thousands of boys and girls will be prepared for the 
 best that American teachers can give them, teachers who 
 even in the higher grades will not be delayed a single day 
 after arrival on account of language. 
 
 This is The Imperative. This is The demand of the hour. 
 Such a policy will mean victory, any other policy means 
 delay, defeat and ultimate rout; and by this course of action 
 there will be real preparation made for the projected and 
 much talked of universities, for which there are few students 
 either now or in prospect. 
 
 There is in a certain important city in China a school of 
 about two hundred students conducted by one of the lead- 
 ing missionary agencies. This school is in a position of large 
 and important possibilities and might be an inspiring success, 
 but it is quite undermanned and hesitating in its policy. 
 What would one expect the authorities of such a school to 
 do in this wonderful time? The only thing to do would be 
 to adopt a progressive policy, get into line with the whole 
 
 15 
 
modern progressive movement in China, send out a half dozen 
 select young men, and get to work at once on the students 
 they have and as many more boys in the lower grades as they 
 could care for. Within two and three years this school could 
 have a hundred, and then two or three hundred, boys well 
 grounded in English, weU on in the gra mm ar school work 
 and ready to go forward in English for their higher school 
 work just about as readily as American boys of the same age, 
 under their American teachers who would not need to know 
 anything of the Chinese language. 
 
 What actually has been done has been to send out one 
 married man to teach science. As this school has only recently 
 introduced English and only as a branch, this doubly ex- 
 pensive man must spend years in Chinese language study 
 before he can teach anything at all, or he must do the very 
 thing here advocated, teach English, but only as an educa- 
 tional subject, not as a policy of conquest. And so it goes 
 This school is not a particularly exceptional example. It is 
 still undermanned, its policy indefinite and its results dis- 
 appointing. At such a rate we will never, never, never do 
 amdliing adequate in China. 
 
 Few realize the ease with which well taught Chinese 
 youths learn English, or, on the other hand, the constant 
 and great difficulty that the Chinese have with their own 
 written language. A senior Chinese student in this country 
 who speaks English fluently and is well trained in Chinese, 
 said to me recently that he could learn more English in two 
 years than Chinese in five, that it was easier for a Chinese 
 student to learn English and to go on with his higher educa- 
 tion in English than it would be to learn the additional 
 Chinese that would be required to go on with even such 
 higher education as is possible in Chinese. Two years of 
 English puts the average student where he is able to go on 
 with his work in English without serious difficulty. 
 
 It should not be supposed that we must wait till these 
 
 16 
 
students are graduates and in positions of influence before 
 we can capture the heart and mind of the people, before 
 our work is effective in winning us a place of influence and 
 power in the community. The very gathering of these chil- 
 dren into schools, of the type mentioned, giving them, and 
 giving them well, the English they want and the kind of 
 education they want will give us almost at once the fellow- 
 ship in the community and the hold on the people which 
 we covet, will put and keep us in the vanguard of the new 
 education, and will enable us to help the Chinese as they 
 struggle with their problems. The confldence, friendship and 
 co-operation of the people are what we want and this is our 
 quick and easy and certain way to possess them. 
 
 If you purpose to do anything for the Kingdom of God 
 in China — Do It Now — Not waiting for others. 
 
 17 
 
Notes 
 
 Stated briefly, the vital and timely elements of a win- 
 ning educational policy in China must be emphasis on Ele- 
 mentary Education, 'Western education to be given in Eng- 
 lish and a determined effort made to win the well-to-do and 
 cultured classes, especially by an educational program that 
 will command their enthusiastic interest and support. 
 
 Timidity and hesitancy regarding the course advocated 
 has been because of the supposition that from the sons of 
 the gentry we could gain few or no converts and the fear that 
 by an education that opened the avenues of the world to 
 young men from Christian families we could gain few, if 
 any, Christian workers or teachers or ministers. Where is 
 our faith in the Gospel, in the power of God and in our own 
 enduement for our work? 
 
 "What are the results in the Canton Christian College 
 which has been conducted on the policy here commended? 
 Take for example the Dean, Prof. "W. K. Chung, a man from 
 the first rank of the gentrj’. A graduate of this College, a 
 benediction to the school, an apostle to his people, one of the 
 most potent Christian personalities in South China to-day; 
 not a minister, but a layman, yet a bold preacher of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Look at its students who are attending colleges in Amer- 
 ica, many of the forty being earnest Christian workers. I 
 have been closely associated with one, in college in the "West, 
 of well-to-do but non-Christian family, who has every Sunday 
 been teaching or preaching to his people; a devoted and 
 faithful worker hardly knowing whether to become a preacher 
 or an agriculturist, so great is his people’s need of his help in 
 both directions. Such a man wherever he is will be a power. 
 The other, who comes from a Christian family and has re- 
 ceived aid, is in college in New York preparing to be a 
 
 18 
 
teacher, yet he is said to be one of the most effective preachers 
 and Bible teachers among the Chinese in the city. 
 
 Look at the twenty or more young men, mostly from 
 well-to-do and non-Christian families, that go every Sunday 
 from the College which is as yet but little more than a high 
 school, preaching and teaching the Gospel in the villages 
 round about and planning how they may evangelize the 
 neighboring villages, with their tens of thousands of people, 
 wherein there seems to have been no mission work whatever 
 done. Look at the hundred students in volunteer Bible 
 classes, or consider the quiet effective personal work of the 
 Christian students for their fellows, or their work of love 
 for the children which has alone established the kindergar- 
 ten and primary school and has made it the pride of the 
 place. These are some of the many manifestations of an 
 earnest Christian spirit which fills the school and makes it a 
 place of gracious power. And remember that these students 
 are nearly all from non-Christian, well-to-do families of cul- 
 ture and pride. 
 
 Afraid we cannot make preachers? We can make almost 
 anything we will of our students, and our most effective 
 influence is in the close contact we are able to have with 
 them through the common tongue, English. 
 
 The fact is that while the results of teaching English 
 in the past were often unsatisfactory, the reason was that 
 the general education given was not such as to fit the stu- 
 dent for any position of leadership or importance, it was 
 not sufficient to give him the standing of a cultured, edu- 
 cated, efficient man. His education was most meager, his 
 occiipation could only be that of a helper or subordinate. 
 Giving such a student English, at a time when few Chinese 
 were able to speak English, paved the way to a good salary 
 in commercial life and the temptation was at times too great 
 to be resisted. No such difficulty arises where the educa- 
 tional work is thorough and advanced and where a high in- 
 
 19 
 
centive is furnished by wide-awake Christian teachers. Eng- 
 lish does not become in such a case a snare, but a help of the 
 first degree. 
 
 It is worthy of note that at present no teacher on the 
 staff of the Canton Christian College has had a theological 
 training. The success of the College has been gained solely 
 by a competent staff of American Christian men having asso- 
 ciated with them efficient Chinese teachers who are being de- 
 veloped in increasing numbers from among its own students. 
 
 The staff is made up of men who love their work, who 
 are deeply interested in their students, and who when they 
 teach the Bible, teach its great truths simply and earnestly, 
 and prayerfully seek the salvation of their students, winning 
 them to a Christian life and service. Here is a field of ser\dce 
 second to none, now open to the Christian teacher. 
 
 Most American teachers should study the Chinese lan- 
 guage and every school of importance should have members 
 of its staff who are specializing in it, but valuable as a com- 
 mand of the Chinese spoken language is its acquirement is 
 not necessar}" to success, and has no bearing upon the cam- 
 paign which must be immediately waged if victory is to be 
 won. 
 
 Education for women must keep step with education for 
 men. Both may be conducted with economic and other ad- 
 vantage under the same administration, and both will be 
 equally appreciated and supported by the Chinese. 
 
 It is taken for granted in this paper as being understood 
 that a thorough training in Chinese is essential for every 
 Chinese scholar. Chinese teachers are available for this work. 
 
 THE WILLETT PBSSS, NEW YORK 
 
T 
 
 V 
 
 4