The old world and its ways

by William Jennings Bryan

In former letters I have mentioned the missionary work being done by Americans in the Orient, and I deem the subject important enough for an article, in view of the conflicting reports which have been brought back by tourists. We had an opportunity to investigate the work done by American missionaries in Hawaii, Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, India, Egypt, Palestine and Turkey. We met representatives of nearly all the churches in the various departments of missionary work, and as a result of our observations our interest in foreign missions has been quickened. In Hawaii the missionaries laid the foundation for the present civilization in the islands and exerted a most beneficial influence upon the natives.

In Japan the missionary work has spread rapidly and is carried on under four heads. The religious teacher presents the gospel and establishes churches; the school teacher arouses an interest in education and establishes schools; the medical missionary, by unselfishly rendering obvious service, opens the way for both the preacher and the school teacher, while the Young Men's Christian Association and its accompanying organization, the Young Women's Christian Association, weld the church membership into a religious but unsectarian working body. The rapid growth in public instruction has somewhat dwarfed the relative importance of the mission schools in Japan, and the spread of the science of medicine has made the work of the medical missionary less conspicuous there, but the religious teacher in Japan has a field which is not surpassed anywhere. The Japanese people are rapidly drifting away from Buddhism, which until recently was the national faith. Shintoism, which has become the state religion, is not a religion at all, but a reverence for ancestors. Japan must have a religion, for no nation is likely to avoid decay unless its morals are reinforced by religion. If I had the authority to decide the question, I would send some of the leading men of each denomination to Japan to present Christianity to the educated Japanese. English is taught in the schools of Japan, and one can speak to the Japanese without the aid of an interpreter. This proposition I tested several times. While it would be an advantage to have preachers who could speak the Japanese language, still, it is more important that we should send our ablest divines there—men who can meet the most intelligent of the Japanese upon an equal footing and defend before them the Christian philosophy of life.

Japan is the gateway of the Orient, and is to-day exerting an influence upon China greater than the combined influence of all the European nations. Western civilization is likely to enter China through Japan. In fact, I believe that the Christian religion, presented to the Chinese by the Japanese, would spread more rapidly than if presented in any other way, for China has come to regard Japan as a leader of thought. More than five thousand Chinese students are now at schools in Japan, and Japanese teachers are being more and more employed in China. Some of the most earnest Christians whom we met are natives of Japan. At Tokyo, at Kioto, and at Kagoshima I was especially impressed with the sincerity and enthusiasm of the Japanese Christians. I could not but recall the lines "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love" as I saw how much stronger this heart tie is than the ties of blood or race or language.

In Seoul, Korea, we found a very successful medical mission and a flourishing Young Men's Christian Association. We also learned of several Christian congregations.

In China mission work has made great progress, although it has had to bear the brunt of the fight now being made against foreign influence. During the Boxer trouble there were examples of heroism among the Chinese Christians which recalled the early days of martyrdom. There were those who suffered death because of their devotion to the Christian faith, and thousands more who did not hesitate to take the part of the white Christians against members of their own race. It takes time to educate a race or to make an impression upon a great population like the population of China, but the next quarter of a century is likely to see the Christian religion spread more rapidly among the inhabitants of the Flowery Kingdom than it has during the last century.

That our missionaries often make mistakes need not be denied. They are human, and to err is the lot of all. A missionary among strangers must exercise more sagacity and discretion than one who works among people of his own race. The wonder is not that missionaries make mistakes, but that they do not make more than are now charged to them. It is even possible that a missionary occasionally proves untrue to his calling—is it strange that this should happen to a missionary almost alone and with but little sympathetic support, when it sometimes happens to ministers who are surrounded by friends and hedged in so that a fall would seem almost impossible?

One part of the missionary's work has received scant notice, namely—the planting of western ideas in the Orient. The daily life of a missionary is not only a constant sermon, but to a certain extent, an exposition of western ways. His manner of dress and his manner of living are noted, and even if he did not say a word, he would make an impression upon those about him. It would be worth while to send Christians to the Orient merely to show the fullness and richness of a Christian life, for, after all, the example of an upright person, living a life of service according to the Christian ideal, is more eloquent than any sermon—it is the unanswerable argument in favor of our religion.

It is sometimes suggested by those unfriendly to missionary work that missionaries live in too great comfort. This criticism will not have weight with those who have attempted to live in the Orient upon the salary of a missionary, but even if the missionaries lived more luxuriantly than they do, that would still exert a beneficial influence. As the Chinaman becomes educated he learns of the manners and customs of the people of other nations, and the home of the missionary gives an opportunity for comparisons. In China there is polygamy, while the missionary has but one wife. In the Chinese home the birth of a son is the occasion for rejoicing; the birth of a daughter an occasion for less rejoicing, if not actual mourning. In the missionary's home the girl child is as welcome as the boy. The missionary's wife is not only a standing rebuke to the practice of foot-binding, but is a stimulus to the movement now setting in for the education of women.

The Catholic missionaries reach a class which might not be reached by Protestant missionaries and Protestant missionaries appeal to some who could not be reached by the Catholic missionaries. Each church does its own work in its own way, and the result is better than if either church attempted to follow the example of the other. The celibacy of the priest and his voluntary sacrifice of home and its joys that he may more fully devote himself to religion—these appeal to some, especially to those who have been impressed with the asceticism of the religious teachers of the Orient. There are others, however, who are more impressed with a form of Christianity which does not deny to its ministers the advantages of the family. In other words, the different branches of the Christian Church, each pursuing its own way, meet the widely different needs of the heathen better than any one church could do it.