ONE of the many marks of folly shown by the foolish virgins was their attempt to make empty lamps burn by trimming. All the trimming in the world will not make an empty lamp burn. Trimming can never be made to become a successful substitute for oil.
There are many in the church to-day who are making this mistake. They are trimming an empty profession, but it gives no light. Thousands are imitating the foolish virgins in this respect. They are trimming their church-membership with prayers and almsgiving and churchly efforts, but all in vain; there is no divine grace in the heart. A great denomination keeps a week of fasting and prayer, but it amounts to nothing except with those who have oil in their lamps. God said of the Jews who attempted to substitute the keeping of festal days for obedience, that His soul loathed the whole business.—Christian Witness.
The Call to Go
"Christ says, 'Go ye into all the world,' but of every one hundred thousand communicants in America only twenty-one go."
Chinese Characteristics
By I. H. Evans
THAT the Chinese have national characteristics needs no argument. What nation or people that ever held their own in the world has not had peculiar characteristics which belonged to them as families, communities, or nations? So with the Chinese we find peculiarities belonging to sections of the country, and we find other characteristics that seem to be national.
We will mention a few which seem to belong to the Chinese race, and which tend toward making them what they are. In mentioning these characteristics it is not by way of criticism; for we all have our peculiarities, which in time become characteristic of the individual, unless these peculiarities are overcome and put away.
Economy
As a race the Chinese lead the world in strict economy. No people are able to live better or do more hard work on so little food as the Chinese. Rice, beans, a few vegetables, and fish, make up the diet of millions of this people. They are fond of meat, and eat it freely when they are able to obtain it. One can not but be impressed, as he travels through China, with the extensive use of swine's flesh. This seems to be the meat liked best and eaten most; yet in nearly every native stall where meat is sold, will be found beef, mutton, donkey, and even dog's meat. All animals are considered suitable for food, even rats and mice. Not everybody would eat all of these meats, but many of the people are so poor they esteem some of these foods as luxuries. Dr. Smith says: "Doubtless it will appear to some of our readers that economy is carried too far, when we mention that it is the general practise to eat all of these animals as soon as they expire, no matter whether the cause of death be an accident, old age, or disease. This is done as a matter of course, and occasions no remark whatever, nor is the habit given up because the animal may chance to have died of some epidemic malady, such as the pleuropneumonia in cattle. . . . Dead dogs and cats are subject to the same processes of absorption as dead horses, mules, and donkeys. We have been personally cognizant of several cases in which villagers cooked and ate dogs which had been purposely poisoned by strychnin to get rid of them." The writer has seen cockroaches for sale as confectionery in parts of China.
In this plan of economy nothing is wasted. In the country the women and children wander in the fields day after day, hunting for a straw, a weed, or a passing leaf, which, when found, they carefully store away in a basket or a bag, for fuel with which to cook their food. All the bits of waste paper are carefully gathered to burn. There probably never was a whole people so trained in the most rigid school of the strictest economy as the Chinese.
Industry
One can not travel through China and see the toiling millions of men, women, and children, but he will confess he has seen nothing like it elsewhere in the world. From the first dawn of light till darkness covers the land, these people remind one of a hive of bees for activity.
The Chinese have divided themselves into four classes,—scholars, farmers, workmen, and merchants. To the Chinese the scholar leads all trades. The able student and scholar is the ideal man. From early childhood to old age, thousands of the Chinese work and toil to the limit of their strength to obtain their degrees. Among no other people is the task of obtaining a liberal education so difficult as among the Chinese.
In other countries the school years of the student are pleasant, full of happy experiences, and in after years the time spent in school is looked back on with pleasure. In China all is reversed. Few slaves ever toiled more unceasingly than the Chinese student. From the day he enters a fireless, dark, damp room to begin his lifelong struggle for an education, till his work is crowned with success by receiving his degree, or till death releases him from further hardships, the would-be Chinese scholar labors and toils beyond his strength. Often this labor lasts till old age. In Honan, Dr. Smith says, in the year 1889, "the governor of Honan reported thirteen candidates (who took the examinations for the highest degree) over eighty years of age, and one over ninety," who all "went through the whole nine days' ordeal, and wrote essays which were perfectly accurate in diction and showed no signs of failing years." But even this astonishing record was surpassed in the province of Nganhwei, where thirty-five of the competitors were over eighty years of age, and eighteen over ninety!
Around the wholesale vegetable market wharf in Canton, China. Competition among the boat-people, who have brought their vegetables to the market.
But in each of the other three classes of Chinese, —the farmer, the workman, and the merchant,—the same application, the same unremitting toil, is one of their chief characteristics. Even the horde of beggars in China possess the spirit of constant industry, fulfilling Wesley's description of a live church: "All at it, all the time."
Cheerfulness
Everywhere one travels in China the people seem contented and happy. They do not worry about to-morrow, and have more fully learned that lesson of contentment taught by the Great Teacher, than their Christian neighbors. The Chinese are fatalists. What is, must be, and they neither seem to worry because things are as they are, nor are they inclined to endeavor to make them different. They toil, they suffer, they patiently endure, without complaint. A kind look, a kind word, to a Chinese, will always bring a smile to the face; and no people could be so easily satisfied with the hardships the majority have to endure, as these people. In heat and cold, in the dulling rain, and in the scorching sun, these people toil on, day and night if need be, without a murmur. Again and again these toilers work for twenty-four consecutive hours, with only an hour or two for food and rest, yet never showing the least vexation at any extra hardship added to their toil.
In sickness, and even in death, this same cheerfulness seems to stay by this people. Many have seen some of these people on shipboard, gambling at the roulette wheel, or shaking dice, and losing heavily, and yet not a muscle would quiver, nor could one detect a shadow crossing the brow.
"We have known multitudes of cases where Chinese patients, suffering from every variety of disease, frequently in deep poverty, not always adequately nourished, at a distance from their homes, sometimes neglected or even abandoned by their relatives, and with no ray of hope for the future visible, yet maintained a cheerful equanimity of temper which was a constant, albeit an unintentional, rebuke to the nervous impatience which, under like circumstances, would be sure to characterize the Anglo-Saxon."—Chinese Characteristics.
Commercial Honesty
It would be impossible for any of us to believe that all the people of any nation would equally measure to the same high standard in any virtue. But as a race, a nation of people, those who know the Chinese best, maintain they stand high in commercial honesty. That this great people should know "a trick or two in trade," goes without saying; but that they have an unimpeachable reputation for commercial honesty, doing as they agree, and "delivering the goods," is recognized by most people who have done business with the Chinese. Some of the ablest bankers of the world belong to this people.
In China everybody seems to be involved in the game of "squeeze." There is a commission allowed to every Chinese servant for nearly every article he buys for his master. For groceries, vegetables, fuel, laundry, everything he buys for his employer, he expects a commission. In Canton a linen and silk merchant told the writer, when he had stepped into his store, that, having come without a Chinese, he would give him ten per cent more discount, and he assured him that had he been shown into his store by a Chinese he would have had to pay ten per cent more for his goods. From the viceroy down to the humblest servant who does business for another, the "squeeze" is known, and has proved unpreventable. Nor do the Chinese recognize it to be any reflection on their honor when it is known that they receive a commission. Notwithstanding the "squeeze," the Chinese still buy the same thing cheaper than the15foreigner could purchase it. While the servant always expects to have his commission in all the business he does for his employer, he is very jealous to allow no one else to get the better of his master. The servant class are not pilferers, and seldom do they steal from their employers outside of the "squeeze." Perhaps there are no people in the world whose servants are less addicted to pilfering than the Chinese. All in all, so far as honesty in deal is concerned, so far as commercial integrity is involved, measured by their own standards, and compared with the civilized nations of the world, the Chinese must take first rank.
Social Life
The Chinese are a very social people. Everywhere you see men, women, or children, there you will hear laughter and talking, and may know the people are full of pleasantry and gossip. But rarely does one see men chatting with women, or women engaged in conversation with men. The Chinese know but little of social life as enjoyed and appreciated by Christian people. The Christian home and fireside is the one place where all members of the family have their happiest moments. The Chinese social life has no family fireside. In most cases the husband and wife are not married because they love each other, for they are supposed to have never seen each other till after marriage. They have no knowledge of each other's temperament, taste, or refinement. They are married by their parents or relatives without personal choice or will.
The man is not supposed to talk to his wife before others, or to be seen with her. There must never be seen by others any manifestation of love on the part of the husband for the wife, for that would be a disgrace to the manhood of the man. They are not to eat together,—the men eating by themselves, the women by themselves. In the village streets the men cluster together, and the women do the same. Really, most Chinese know no family social life.
When the husband leaves home, sometimes to visit foreign lands, etiquette does not permit him to address a letter to his wife; he writes to his mother or son. To address a letter to his wife would be an act of indelicacy.
Conceit
The Chinese' self-consciousness and importance seldom fail him. He is satisfied with China, satisfied with his surroundings, and contented with his lot. He neither wants anything better, nor does he believe there could be any better country or better conditions than can be found in China. To his mind, a "foreigner" is uncivilized, brusque, disagreeable; his manners are offensive, and there is no comparison between them so far as culture and civilization are concerned. The Chinese live in the past. They worship antiquity, they reverence age, and are models of mankind in the way they respect their parents. Filial piety is a marked Chinese characteristic.
They want nothing like the foreigner, and they desire nothing from him save his money. A more happy, peaceful, contented, law-abiding, and knowledge-loving people have never existed as a nation. They have weaknesses—sad, painful weaknesses; but they also stand as a people with some of the most admirable virtues to be found among any people of any age.
I. H. Evans.
Page Eight
8
Our Work and Workers
By Editor
SEVEN were baptized and united with the church at Lents, Oregon.
OUR meeting-house in Portland, Maine, was dedicated on May 27, 28.
ON April 23 the brethren at Palmyra, Missouri, dedicated their new house of worship.
SEVEN have recently united with the believers at Holly, Michigan, two at Shelby, and ten at Sand Lake.
OUR new church for the colored brethren in Chicago was dedicated on May 7, at which time three persons were baptized and added to the church.
EIGHT have been recently added to the church at Danbury, Texas; a church was organized at Elgin, Texas; and three were baptized at Valley View, Texas.
THE corner-stone of the Cedar Lake Academy, in Northern Michigan, was laid on May 3. Pastors Irwin, Wight, and Siemann had charge of the ceremonies.
DENOMINATIONAL papers are desired by Pastor C. V. Achenbach, to be used in connection with the tent meeting he is conducting at Zephyrhills, Florida.
GROUND has been broken for our new church at Butte, Montana. We are glad to see the believers in that important place moving forward to erect for themselves a house of worship.
THE brethren at Albany, Oregon, recently dedicated their new church. Eight additions have been made to the church in Portland, and four have been added to the church at Colville, Washington.
AT Beaver City, Nebraska, four were baptized and added to the church and five more await baptism at an early date. And at Williams five have taken their stand and united with the church.
DURING the last days of April a church was organized at Mount Pleasant, Washington, at which time nine were baptized. Two have been added to the church at Ferndale, Washington, and two to the church at Aberdeen.
THE Royal Academy at Cottage Grove, Oregon, reports a very prosperous year just closed. Among other items of interest, mention is made of the fact that eleven of the students were baptized on the last Sabbath of the school.
AT Cle Elum, Washington, May 7, seven were added to the church by baptism. This makes fourteen additions to that church since the first of the year. Four were baptized and united with the church at Endicott, Washington, one of these being a lady seventy-six years of age.
WE are just passing the season of year when our mission schools in India are opening for the coming year's work. We have very interesting and encouraging reports in regard to the opening of our schools in Garhwal, Meiktila, Karmatar, Utraula, and Annfield. Baptisms are reported at Karmatar and Utraula.
PASTOR G. A. IRWIN, president of the Pacific Union Conference, and E. W. Farnsworth, president of the California Conference, spent Sabbath, May 13, with the church at Mountain View in the interest of our foreign mission work. The church here raised $1,250. The following Sabbath these brethren were with our church in Oakland, California, and over $1,300 was raised there. Let the good work keep right on.
PASTOR R. C. PORTER, in presenting his presidential address at the recent session of the South African Union Conference, reported that three new main mission stations have been opened since the last meeting, and more than a score of "out schools" in addition have been started. The funds raised by the believers in that field have increased during the same time $17,505, and a very interesting feature of his financial summary is the further fact that they have raised and sent to "foreign missions" $12,607.25 more during the last two years than they did the two years preceding. It has been only a few years since we were raising large sums of money to send for "mission work in South Africa;" and now to have a Union Conference of devoted believers there that are able to increase their own mission donations by such a large sum in two years is a very hopeful and encouraging omen.
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Southern Pacific
Contained in This Issue
By Editor
Our Question Corner
3451 — Famine of Spiritual Food; 3452 — The Seven Divisions of the Gospel Age; 3453 — Unpardonable Sins; 3454 — Daily Sacrifice and Abomination. Dan. 12:11; 3455 — Martin Luther and the Bible; 3456 — To or for the Angels; 3457 — Baptism; 3458 — Carcass and Eagles. Matt. 24:28; 3459 — All Manner of Four-Footed Beasts. Acts 10:12 . . . . . . 2
BISHOP CHARLES D. WILLIAMS, of the Episcopal Church of Michigan, has a striking article in the American Magazine for June, entitled, "The Conflict between Religion and the Church." He tells us frankly that the church is "losing in numbers," in attendance, "losing ground" "in membership," "losing hold on the masses and classes alike," "losing influence." Referring to Ray Stannard Baker's declarations concerning the deplorable condition of the church, in his book, "The Spiritual Unrest," Bishop Williams says: "Almost every statement made by Mr. Baker may be endorsed and underscored by the sad confessions of earnest and devoted representatives of the church and of ecclesiastical conventions and assemblies."
Bishop Williams tells us further that "the seers of Protestantism are admitting its practical failure;" that "historical criticism has discredited for many the Book on which Protestantism is built;" that "the Bible can no longer be accepted by any intelligent modern man as the literal and inerrant Word of God;" and so "the churches that are based upon an Infallible Book have therefore lost their authority." All this sounds great and learned and wise; but it is strongly suggestive of the boy who thought he had sailed past the north star because he had changed his direction.
But Bishop Williams says more than this. He says that "the church preaches for the most part a narrow and petty round of ethics," "while the age is seeking the larger righteousness of the kingdom of God, which is 'human society organized according to the will of God.'" There is more to the same effect emphasizing "civic righteousness" and belittling "individual righteousness."
He further says: "Intelligent non-Christians are constantly asking of our missionaries such questions as these: 'How is it that, in your own lands, where your Gospel of righteousness and justice and brotherly love is so largely accepted and prevails, you have such notorious commercial dishonesty, political graft, industrial oppression?'" etc., etc.
The only salvation which God's Word knows, which Christianity knows, is the salvation of mankind by faith, and faith is individual. The righteous nation is made up of righteous individuals. The kingdom of God is first in the hearts of man as requisite to citizenship in the commonwealth of Christ. The setting aside of God's Book puts in its place human tradition and opinion. The setting aside of God's plan of salvation by faith puts in its place salvation by law, the germ of the Dark Ages. The organization of human society "according to the will of God" has meant the darkest period in the history of this world, and the death of millions of souls for conscience' sake. Civic righteousness, the "larger righteousness" by law, is a device by which the devil is deluding thousands to the doom of a Church-and-State régime.
Let missionaries preach the Word. Let them tell the inquirers the whole world lies under the power of the wicked one, and it is as true of every soul in America or England as in China or India, "Ye must be born again."
Book Department Manager Visits Conferences
Mr. H. H. Hall, the manager of our book department, is spending about six weeks at the annual meetings and conferences that are now being held in the upper Pacific Coast district.
Visit to Tulare Camp-Meeting
On May 22 Elders H. W. Cottrell and M. C. Wilcox and C. H. Jones left for a few days' visit and work at the camp-meeting being held by the Central California Conference at Tulare, California.
Not long ago a young evangelist, in a State thickly populated with Mormons, was asked the stereotyped Mormon question, "By what authority are you preaching?" The young man naturally and simply asked the old Mormon bishop (for such was his title), "What authority have you to question my authority?" It was a poser. The old bishop had no answer. The simple question was too much for him.
Religious Appetite Needed
By Editor
Religious Appetite Needed.—This morning's paper (May 22) announces a new tabloid food, of which enough can be carried in the vest pocket to last a day or a week, we do not recall now. That is the kind of church services now demanded. It is a serious condition which faces both Protestants and Catholics. The latter used to boast of their full church attendance, but a prominent Catholic paper before us is demanding a "low mass," or short service. Many Catholics will not attend the high mass, the long service, whether appealed to or threatened. It is a significant sign of the times. Men are turning from the religious, the spiritual. An entertainment three and four hours long does not weary, but a religious service of over an hour is intolerable. Perhaps the service may be at fault; but what about the appetite for the things of God?
More Bible Helps
By Editor
More Bible Helps.—The Oxford University Press just announces for publication The 1911 Bible, containing the edition of 1611, with the text carefully corrected and emended by American scholars. This commemorative edition will take into consideration the "careful scrutiny of the text with the view of correcting, in the light of the best modern research, such passages as are recognized by all scholars as in any measure misleading, or needlessly obscure. This scrutiny was committed to a committee of thirty-four eminent Hebrew and Greek scholars, representing all of the great evangelical bodies, and many foremost Universities and Schools of Divinity." Special system and devices of reference, a new method of paragraphing, with black face print on the famous Oxford India papers, promise a fine Bible. We shall welcome this additional help to Bible study, and shall look with great interest for a sample copy.
Central California Camp-Meeting
By Editor
We were glad of the privilege of attending with others elsewhere mentioned, the camp-meeting of the new Central California Conference at Tulare, May 23. In our short stay we were impressed that it was an excellent meeting; that the people have a mind to work; that the president, Pastor J. H. Behrens, and his committee, are rounding into shape and harmony all the varied interests of the conference. May the work there be abundantly successful, and may harmony and strength pervade its work for all time. They gave us a cordial welcome, and we appreciate our brief visit.
The Sea of Life
"The Sea of Life," a sweet song with words and music—a song with tune suggested, "It Was You Who Invited Me Here"—and a short little sermon on "The Secret of a Happy Life," may be had in one publication, large quarto page for the music. May be obtained for 25 cents by addressing "the singing evangelist," Mr. C. P. Whitford, Miami, Florida.
Rules for Long Living
Mrs. Mary Scriggens is said to be the oldest woman in the State of Massachusetts. She has recently compiled a set of rules for long living. In her rules are included the following: "Do lots of hard work—fifteen hours a day is not too much; abstain from idle gossip; never flirt, for it is a useless waste of energy; do not read novels; banish the vanity of dress; keep away from dances and shows."
Panama Canal Bond Issue
On May 16 Secretary MacVeagh asked for popular subscriptions to a $50,000,000 bond issue to reimburse the treasury on account of the building of the Panama Canal. The bonds will be dated June 1 and run for fifty years, with interest at three per cent, payable quarterly. Preference will be given to small bidders, and national banks will be debarred from using these bonds as a basis of circulation.
Credit for Borrowed Material
By Editor
We do not know why all papers should not give proper credit to borrowed articles, poems, etc. Journalistic courtesy would suggest it, and common justice would demand it. Yet here comes the Baptist Chronicle of April 13, 1911, with a poem by Francis E. Bolton, original in this paper, for this paper, with no reference to the source from which the Chronicle took it. Was it an oversight?
Letters to a Daughter
By Editor
We hope that the girls of the great circle reached by this journal will not fail to read the "Letters to a Daughter" on page 12. They are written by an actual mother who has actual daughters, young ladies both of them, right in that period of life when the world's pleasures, temptations, trials, and also its blessed opportunities for service loom large before them. Sometime we will tell you her name. Just now let it be a real, earnest, sympathetic mother, who sees beyond her daughters the visions of other daughters, and who is writing to help them all.
The Gospel in Type and Antitype
By Editor
In our next issue will begin a series of articles by a devoted Bible student, Mrs. Loretta V. Robinson, of Boulder, Colorado, on the Gospel in Type and Antitype. These articles will develop the meaning of the sacrifices and the sanctuary of the Old Testament, and will help the reader better to understand the offering and work of our blessed Lord.
Are You Out of a Job?
Are you out of a job?—You need not be. Christ Jesus our Lord has work for every one as long as there is need. If you are unclean, sinful, unfitted for service, give yourself unreservedly to Him, and He will cleanse and fit you for useful, everlasting service.
Christ’s Use of Parables
By Editor
Next week Mrs. White has an article on "Christ's Use of Parables." The studies in the Revelation will cover the last part of chapter 12. Our departments will be full of God's message of life, of progress, of everlasting peace.
Union with Christ
Union with Christ is life union, and life union must bind together every effective organization for carrying on Christ's work. Any organization short of that will sooner or later break.
Righteousness by Law
Righteousness by law is civic hypocrisy, which develops into legalized tyranny.
