INTERNATIONAL SERVICE Through missions . . . OR . . . MISSIONS AS AN AGENCY FOR PEACE REV. JOHN NELSON MILLS, D. D. Washington, D. C. An address given at the Lake Junaluska and Montreat, N. C., Missionary Conferences, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Fa., University of Rochester, &c. RICHMOND PRESS, INC., PRINTERS il mTERNATIONAL SERVICE THROUGH MISSIONS: OK MISSIONS AS AN AGENCY FOR PEACE. Rev. JoH 2 sr Nelson Mills, D. D., Washington^ D. C. This is the day of internationalism, the age of world-con- faciousness. Every one is getting the international mind. We look upon ourselves as citizens of the world. As no man liveth to himself, so we feel that no nation liveth to itself. There is a community of interest among nations. Crop failure in Russia, Argentina or Mesopotamia is felt in the United States. No part of the world is so remote hut that (he agents of our commercial firms are to be found there. Through the multiplication of railroads, steamships, cable and telegraph lines, this old earth has been made to shrink. A number of years ago a lady in Albany, N. Y., told me that in her early life she went with her husband as a missionary to Iowa. Before leaving, her friends gave her a farewell recep- tion, when, amid tears and much misgiving, they bade her an affectionate farewell, never expecting to see her again, for she was going to far-off Iowa. Well, she lived to get hack to Al- bany many times, and may be living there to-day. Now, Peking is nearer New York to-day than Iowa was to Albany in 1835. Two years ago a friend of mine asked the Chief of Police of San I’rancisco where the center of vice of that city was. What was his surprise to hear the chief locate it in Shanghai, China. So, then, to clean up San Francisco, and keep it clean, it is necessary to clean up Shanghai. And, in the same way, if we are to make the United States wholesome and pure, we must attend to the moral condition of the rest of the world. As Booker Washington used to say, referring to his race, “You can’t keep part of the people down without all the peo- ple getting down in a measure.” To permit any part of the world to live in ignorance, superstition and sin is sure to prove disastrous to our own moral life. And statesmen are begiiming to recognize this; so that there will be, after tliis 2 vrar, a closer and more helpful relation between the nations than there has been heretofore. The day of the “hermit” nations has gone by. Korea was the last. And Korea was opened to the world in 1884 by Presbyterian missionaries. Japan persisted until Commodore Perry, in company with S. Wells Williams, a missionary, en- tered the harbor of Yokahama in 1853. Africa might still be ‘•'the dark continent” had it not been for the labors of David TJvingstone, a missionary. That oft-quoted sentence of Kipling’s, therefore, “The east is east and the west is west,” is no longer true. The world is one. Christianity is international or it is not Christian. Chris- tianity is for the world or it is for nobody. All nations must he Christian or none will be. Now, I will say quite frankly that the early missionaries did not go out for the purpose of doing international service. The heathen without the gospel were lost, and they went out to save them. To found schools and hospitals, to educate the blind and the deaf and dumb, to minister to lepers and insane, to lead in all manner of I'eform, to become almoners of relief funds, to pave the way for interchange of commerce, to pro- mote diplomatic relations and aid backward nations to assume international functions — none of these was the purpose of the early missionaries. But they did all of them. Finding heathen nations suspicious if not hostile, the missionaries created confidence and good will. Finding them ignorant of western diplomatic procedure, by becoming ad- visers of native rulers, they introduced their peoples to the family of nations. When there were misunderstandings be- tween diplomats and natives, the missionaries intervened and became mediators. So that Sir Peregrine Maitland, at one time Governor of Cape Colony, said: “I have always relied more upon the labors of missionaries for the peaceful govern- ment of the natives than upon the presence of British troops.” And General Charles Warren, Governor of Natal: “For the preservation of peace between colonists and natives one mis- sionary is worth a battalion of soldiers.” And our Gen. Crow- der: “Missionaries can do more than diplomats or business 3 men to maintain international peace and promote harmonious relations between the United States and the Far East.” In- deed, our government at Washington wdll not send out a rep- resentative to these people without, oftentimes, instructing him to take no important step nor act in any emergency without first consulting the local missionary. On the other hand, this missionary work has broadened our outlook upon the world. It has made us less provincial. It has quickened our interest in distant and alien peoples, and, in a measure, removed race prejudice. Now only Christians, as a rule, have this broad outlook, this interest in distant and alien peoples. And, I may add, only those Christians who are interested in Foreign Missions. Our first treaty with China was negotiated in 1844 by the Hon. Caleb Cushing and Dr. Peter Parker, the first medical missionary to China, and a Presbyterian. It is said that Peter Parker opened China at the point of a lancet. Parker then became United States Commissioner to China, acting in that capacity until the appointment of Anson Burlingame, our first United States Minister, in 1861. In his latter years Dr. Parker came to Washington to live, and his name is still to be seen on the silver plate surrounding the door-bell of 1 Jack- son Place, opposite the White House. The first Korean Embassy was brought over to this country by Dr. Allen, another Presbyterian missionary. Dr. Allen was Secretary to this Embassy until appointed Consul General at Seoul, and later United States Minister to Korea. When the United States Government directed Commodore Perry to open Japan to the commerce of the world, he request- ed that S. Wells Williams, a Congregational missionary, ac- company him as interpreter. And the hand and brain of Dr. Williams are to be seen in the treaty made with Japan at that time. It was this, along with other events that occurred later, that led Prince Ito to say: “Japan’s progress and develop- ment are largely due to the influence of missionaries, exerted in the right direction when Japan was first studying the outer world.” 4 Education was not in the original purpose of missions. But il was soon realized that the best way of approach to the heathen was through the children; and that if the work was 1e be permanent and wide reaching, there must be a trained native missionary and teaching force. So that to-day every mission field has many schools and colleges, some of the latter comparing favorably with those we have at home. And they are educating women. Now, this may not sound very strange to you; but when the late Emperor of Japan, a leally great man, issued his famous Rescript on Education in 1S71, he put into it this sentence: “Japanese women are without understanding.” And when the missionaries began to <^pen schools for girls in China, the Chinese said: “These missionaries will be trying to teach our cows next.” One was quite as impossible and useless as the other, they thought. Even a great mandarin asked: “What possible use can a woman have for a book except as a place in which to store her em- broidery threads?” And good old Alexander Duff, who did so much for edu- cation in India, was so convinced of the prejudice of that people against female education that he was led to say: “It is as fantastic to think of educating women in India as it would be to attempt to scale a wall 300 yards high with your hands and feet.” Well, the impossible has been accomplished; for beside being admitted to five of the national universities on the same footing as men, there is now a great woman’s col- lege in India. WTen I went out to the Indemnity College, some five miles from Peking, I was surprised to learn that of the seventeen foreign teachers in the institution at that time, five were women. Think of it, women teaching the most select body of young men in China ! And the Chinese Government is not only send- ing over young men to this country to have their education completed in our colleges and universities, but is now sending young women. Ten came four years ago, and I met nearly all of them at Smith College. The next year twelve came, and last year fifteen. 5 Those large Bible classes in Korea, of which you have all heard, are made up largely of women, who have learned to read in order that they might study the Word of God. And Japan, beside admitting women to her two great national uni- versities, has just opened a woman’s college with 500 students. And what international service has this education accom- plished? Well, in Japan the students who sat under the in- struction of Guido Verbeck, the missionary who, at the invi- tation of the late Emperor, organized the Imperial University of Tokyo, were the foremost men of Japan of the last and present generations, among them Count Okuma, late Prime Minister. And it was Verbeck who proposed and organized that first traveling embassy which visited America and Europe in 1871 to acquaint themselves with the nations of the west and with modern civilization, nine members of the embassy being Verbeck ’s students. The Republic of China, together with the Revolution that led up to it, are the indirect result of missionary teaching. Sun Yat-Sen, the organizer of the Revolution, and his chief assistants, a majority of the first National Congress, nine- tenths of the Provincial Parliament of Nanking, and all but two of the Provincial Parliament that met in Canton were from our Christian mission schools — as is also Mr. Koo, China’s representative at Washington. And every one of the national universities is presided over either by a missionary or by a graduate of a mission school. In 18G8 Domingo Sarmiento was representing Argentina at Washington when ho was elected President of that Republic. He returned with the slogan, “The more schools the fewer revolutions,” and appointed the Rev. William Goodfellow, an American missionary. Minister of Education. And, patterning after his example, President Alfaro, of Ecquador, appointed the Rev. Thomas B. Wood, another Methodist missionary, Com- missioner of Education for that Republic. It is said that one-half of the leading politicians of Bul- garia and Rumelia are graduates of Robert College, Constan- tinople. Mr. Panaretoff, Bulgarian minister to this country, 6 ivS not only a graduate of Eobert College, but for twenty-five years was a teacher in that institution. The same infiuence, in a slightly lesser degree, has been exerted by the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, Syria. So that Mr. E. T. Noyes, at one time United States minister to Turkey, was led to say: “By actual observation I know that wherever a conspicuously intelligent and enterprising man or woman is found in the East — one imbued with the spirit of modern civilization — it is always found that he or she was educated in an American mission college.” Medical work was also an after-thought. But our mission- aries could not submit to the practice of the native doctor, which, in some places, consisted in prescribing live sjnders as a cure for baby’s colic, putting fleas in the ear as a remedy for lethargy, and thrusting red-hot needles into the stomach, and leaving them there, as a specific for indigestion. So that medical missionaries were sent out. And these, of course, did not confine their labors to the missionaries. The rcsvilt being that to-day every mission field has hospitals and medical schools. As to the quality of the work done in these I refer you to the Kockefeller Foundation. A few years ago Mr. John D, Rockefeller, having more money than he could spend, petitioned the United States Con- gress for a charter to organize the Rockefeller Foundation, with an endowment of $400,000,000. Those gentlemen who sit upon the hill of my home city and make the laws for the country were astounded at the proposition. Up to that time they had never heard of so large a sum of money. And, al- though Mr. Rockefeller stipulated that the Governor of JSTew York State, the Mayor of New York City, and the presidents of Yale, Columbia and other universities should be a self-per- petuating board of trustees, our Congressmen declared that it would be unsafe for our government to place such a sum of money in the hands of any body of men, no matter how honor- able. And they refused the request. Then Mr. Rockefeller went to the Legislature of his State, and there he had better 7 success, for they did grant him the privilege of organizing such a foundation with an endowment of $100,000,000. Kow Mr. Ivockefeller had no idea of spending all that money upon the people of his own city or of his own country. In other words, he believed in Foreign Missions. There are some people, you know, who do not. They tell you that we have enough to do at home. And I suppose there were those who (old our Saviour the same thing when he commissioned the disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. But they went; and we find the New Testa- ment largely taken up with their missionary letters and a record of their journey ings. This distinction between Home Missions and Foreign Mis- sions I never could understand. Some of our churches work in Mexico and Cuba under their Home Board and some under their Foreign Board. I can remember when we called our work in Alaska and among the Indians Foreign Missions. Of course those are both Home Missions now. And we Northern Presbyterians have this strange anomaly, that we operate our work among the Chinese in San Francisco and Portland as Foreign Missions, while that among the same people in Chicago and New York is operated as Home Missions. Well, Mr. Rockefeller believes in Foreign Missions. So he sent Dr. Burton and Dr. Chamberlain, of Chicago University, around the world to see where there was the greatest need. These men spent a year in making the investigation, and then reported that the greatest need was medical work in China. So then Mr. Rockefeller sent Dr. Starr Murphy, Dr. Simon Flexner, a Jew, both of New York City, and Professor Wil- liam Welch, of Johns Hopkins University, to China to see hew that need could bo best met. These men traveled over China, investigating, among other things, the medical work done by the various Churches; and came back and reported that this work was so well done that the best thing the Foun- dation could do was to take it over, wherever possible, and carry it on with their greater resources. So the Foundation took over the Union Medical School and hospital at Peking, 8 paying the six denominational Boards that were interested in i+ the $200,000 which they had put into the plant, and then making one representative of each Church a member of the board of trustees. This they are preparing to do with the medical work in Shanghai and in other parts of China, wher- ever the present management is willing. And they assure the secretaries of our Mission Boards that they will send out no representatives of the Foundation who are not first commis- sioned by our evangelical churches as missionaries. kTow, my friends, if you want a better testimonial to the efficiency of our medical missions than that, I do not know where you would go to find it. The students and alumni of Harvard University and of the University of Pennsylvania opened medical work in Shanghai, and those of Yale University at Changsha. And the students and alumni of Yale spend $30,000 a year on this work. When I was in Canton I visited our Presbyterian Institu- tion for the Insane there — the first and greatest of its kind in any heathen country. Now what do you suppose we did in order to get patients? Advertise, by great posters, on the walls of the city, in Chinese fashion, saying that we had opened this asylum and were now prepared to treat their insane with the most modem and approved methods ? We might have done that for a thousand years and not got a single patient. What we did was to send the police and soldiery into the dark, damp basements where we knew there were insane people chained to the stone floors, and drag them out that they might receive the treatment we were prepared to give. Why, you couldn’t convince a Chinaman with a hundred years of argument that there were people, living 10,000 miles away, speaking a dif- ferent language and worshiping a different God, who were Avilling to come over there and do for their people what none of them ever thought of doing. But they have been convinced ; and I was shown a fine building, erected by a Chinese for his insane mother, which was to revert to the institution after her death. Every manner of reform has been led by missionaries. The 9 hcrrors of African slavery, ‘ ‘the open sore of the world,” as he called it, were brought to the attention of Christian people by David Livingstone. The crusade against caste, child marriage and the burning of widows in India ; against foot-binding and the use of opium in China; and against the excessive employ- ment of women and little girls, under most trying conditions, in the factories of Japan, has been led by missionaries. We hear a great deal about the progressiveness of Japan. And Japan is very progressive. But, whereas the United States employs only fourteen women to eighty-six men in her factories; Germany, before the war, twenty women for every eighty men, and Great Britain twenty-five women to seventy-five men; in Japan there are sixty-five women at work in her factories to thirty- five men. And they are practically slaves — hound out for a certain number of years; confined within walls, and permiU ted to leave only very rarely ; all of them small, most of them delicate, and many but mere children ; working twelve or four- teen hours every day, or night; and receiving for wages from eight to thirty-two cents a day, or an average of sixteen cents. Well, the missionaries are doing much for these poor women. I attended one of their night schools, held, of course, within the walls of the factory; and heard of the changes which were gradually being brought about in these conditions, largely