THE CHINESE.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.
Your Committee on the Chinese Mission of the Association have agreed upon the following report:
There are three points which demand special thanksgiving to God.
First. The manifestly wise policy of the Association on the whole question of Christianizing the Chinese. This appears (1) in the noble stand it has taken and the work it is doing for education and Christianity on our Pacific coast, thus uttering a perpetual rebuke to the intolerable selfishness and barbarism of political parties in the passage of the anti-Chinese bill; (2) in the admirable disposition made of the proposed mission in China itself.
The desire of earnest Christian Chinamen in California that a mission be started in Southern China, which might be a “rallying centre” of Christian influence for converted men on their return home, and from which they could “go forth to carry the gospel to their countrymen,” is a desire which must commend itself to reason; and the readiness of these Christian Chinamen to aid such a movement with contributions of their own is worthy of the highest commendation. Moreover, that Hong Kong, that great gateway of Chinese emigration, that district wrenched away from the Chinese by English selfishness and rapacity forty years ago, in the ignominious struggle of the opium war, should be the place agreed upon for that mission, seemed peculiarly fitting. But that this Association should be the body to establish the mission there, thus distracting attention from its great peculiar work at home, and dividing the contributions of American Congregational churches between two foreign Congregational boards in China, could hardly seem wise to any. How gratifying then to learn that this Association, holding to the purpose of no more missions abroad, has successfully arranged with the American Board to accept and carry forward this movement at Hong Kong. The principle of simplicity of arrangement and economical division of labor among our great benevolent societies is thus endorsed once for all.
Second. The second point calling for thanksgiving is the marked success of the work among the Chinese on the Pacific coast. There is no more promising work for China, as a whole, in all the world, than that now being done by the California Chinese Mission. Its fifteen schools, with thirty-one teachers, eleven of whom are converted Chinamen, twenty-five hundred scholars—an increase of almost a thousand over last year, and a hundred and six conversions to Christ, all show that it is no longer a mere experiment. The efficient Christian organization known as the Congregational Association of Christian Chinese, with its missionary spirit and liberal contributions, demonstrate the fact on our own soil that the Chinamen, like others, when touched by the spirit of Christ, are a power for righteousness.
Third. The recent influx of 25,000 Chinamen, hastening to reach our shores before the pagan bill of Congress should go into effect, has suddenly increased the demand for laborers and money.
The work on the Pacific coast ought not to receive less than $13,000 the coming year, that the 125,000 Chinese already in the country may, during the ten years of national disgrace, be quietly fitted to become a great Christian power for the elevation of their countrymen.