BY REV. F. B. PERKINS.
Mr. Pond has just left for San Francisco, after a week of exhausting toil for the Chinese missions here and in Santa Barbara. For his relief, I have undertaken to write this letter, that his vacation—for so he calls it—may not be altogether farcical. I do it the more readily for the opportunity it gives me of saying some things which your readers would not be likely to learn from him.
It has long been my conviction that, in proportion to the means employed, no form of Christian work on this coast yields so large a revenue as Chinese missions. I am sure this is so as regards that carried on under the direction of the A. M. A. And the explanation I find largely in the Christ-like devotion of your superintendent and his coadjutors.
It is but a single illustration of this spirit which Mr. Pond’s recent visit offers. Both at Santa Barbara and San Diego the missions have lost their rented premises, and are literally homeless. It seems imperative that, if the work is to go on, they should no longer be subject to the disabilities of rented buildings. But it is a fixed principle of this mission, on no account to incur a debt. So it is of Mr. Pond, as regards himself; but for Christ’s needy ones he has more than once accepted the burden. This he has now again done. In Santa Barbara he purchased a lot for $600, for which land he is personally liable, but which he holds in trust for the mission. On that lot, by the close of this week, a chapel will be erected by a Christian friend, at a cost of $340. For this property a moderate rental is to be paid by the mission, and when the sums thus paid shall amount to the price of the land it, together with the building, (toward which the little Chinese band have already paid $150), becomes the property of the mission. In San Diego the course pursued has been the same, only that here, owing to the rise in real estate, the amount assumed by Mr. Pond and one other friend of the work, is $2,500. By similar acts of Christian self-sacrifice in the past, the mission has already become possessed of property to the value of $10,000, all without the burden of debt, or an even temporary diversion of its funds.
But is the mission work worth all this toil and sacrifice? Mr. Pond, in a carefully guarded statement, says, that since the establishment of this mission the Chinese converts number over 600, at least fifty having been added during the past year; and this statement, you observe, makes no mention of results wide reaching in their beneficence which do not involve this radical heart work. If this statement be accepted as correct, the question is answered. But is there really any such a character as a Christian Chinese? Many persons say, “No.” It is but a day or two since a Christian man denied it, in my hearing. My reply to him was to ask for his standard of judgment. If his demand was that Chinamen should cease to become Chinese, and, abandoning all their associations, habits and prejudices, become simply Americans, doubtless they are not Christians; but in that case, neither are converts from many another nationality to be reckoned as Christians. Or if absolute freedom from infirmities and faults be made the test, this would shut them out, but it would shut out many others also. Alas! it would be fatal to the hopes of the writer. But if the test be the same we apply to ourselves, love more or less enthusiastic, loyalty true, even if troubling, to our Divine Master, and our judgments be according to the law of charity, then we have no more reason to look askant upon a Chinese than upon a Bohemian, or a negro brother. The grace of God works out in these and in those alike, encountering similar obstacles and being triumphant in about an equal degree.
Ex uno disce omnes. He was a house servant, and naturally not of amiable disposition or agreeable ways. But some twelve months ago his employer began to notice a change in his bearing, a more cheerful observance of his duties and a generally pleasanter manner. Awhile ago he came to the lady, and said: “Mrs. B., I’m a Christian. I don’t know as you have thought it, but I am.” “Yes, Jim,” was the reply, “I have seen it for some months past.” Yet he is as much a Chinaman now as ever, and no more faultless perhaps than an American Christian. But he is “following on,” reaching out after likeness to the Master, and that is about as much as most of us can claim.
“But so much of the work seems fruitless owing to the migratory life these people live.” Well, twelve years ago I was among the prospectors of Southern Colorado. During one of our meetings, I noticed a Chinaman enter the room. Through all the service he maintained a respectful and interested attitude, and at the close, taking his hand, I asked him; “You sabe (understand)? You know our Jesus, our Saviour.” “Yes, I know.” “Where did you learn?” “San Fis.” “Who taught you?” “Miss Loomis (Rev. Dr. Loomis).” So I had come across one of these waifs in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and two years after he had gone out from his Christian teacher. I don’t know how clear his views of sin and salvation were, nor how hearty his trust in the atoning Saviour. That could only be learned by longer intercourse, and I have never seen him since. But he knew enough to find his way into that little cabin in the wilds of Colorado, and to speak with apparent intelligence and sympathy of the things of the kingdom. Nor could I doubt that he stood as the representative of very many who go out from these mission schools, and are lost to all but the all-seeing eye of Infinite Love.
The work in their behalf may seem to be, but it is not, fruitless. From this number let us not doubt it, many will stand forth at last, redeemed unto God, monuments alike to the unspeakable grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the patient fidelity of Christ’s disciples.