Anderson University - Echoes Yearbook (Anderson, IN)

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l ., ., time, too, are the facts that Russia is one of the few nations not enjoying extraterritorial and other special rights in China, that the Bolsheviki having preached for years to Europe with little effect have faced eastward to gain new disciples, that Russian trade has long coveted ice-free ports on the Pacific, and that the bitterest enemies of Russian Communism a1'e at the same time the nations most firmly entrenched in special privilege in China. Clearly, it need not be from philanthropic motives that Russia is sending' Chinese students to Moscow in reward for revolutionary activities. But neither should it be argued that all Russian sympathy for China and Russian help, if it comes to that, are wholly selfish, nor that there are no principles of brotherhood in the Soviet system which might improve the nation. It is to be hoped, however, that Young China does not drink too deeply at the fount of Russian tutelage. Notwithstanding' the fact that the ancient sages seem sufficient teachers to the scholarly Chinese, and although the Chinese masses rely largely for special advice upon crude counsellors who seem to satisfy their materialistic minds, and even tho there is an alarming increase in the numbers discovering a new fellowship at the far end of the Trans-Siberian railway, yet the message of Jesus Christ still offers China a unique opportunity. There accompanies the instruction of the Son of God sometliing' which all the other teachers lack, something that can be felt better than portrayed, something which is unmis- takable when men of any race experience it, something that makes scholar and plebian and patriot alike acknowledge the supremacy of Christ-a spiritual dynamic that we call LIFE. as -rei , ,, i PAGE TWENTY-SIX

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he thinks it resembles his own philosophy of life. But when he formulates his ideas of propriety, and when he seeks a standard of right and wrong, the gentleman who can quote passage for passage f1'OlI1 the writings of his own ancestors, in a land, be it remembered, where ancestors are but little lower than the gods, such a one will invariably turn to his own books if not his own memory for teaching. To obtain immediate knowledge or advice on any undertaking, the average Chinese seeks a diviner. From morning till night the fortune-teller stands, shaking little metal counters like dice in a box, thumbing his ancient books of magic for the symbol. corresponding to the fall of the counters, hurriedly writing out the answer which explains with an air of astounding finality to the believing crowds pressing about, then picking up the next pile of eight coppers, asks for the next question that requires an answer. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God,', runs the Christian formula. More tangible is the Chinese method, which makes it harder to combat. This system of superstition affords satisfaction. If? one fortune-teller has not satisfied, there are others aplenty. Perhaps next time the little brass counters will fall differently. Or one may consult the Taoist sorcerers, or a blind magician, or the man who learns the will of the spirit-world from the oracles of his austere crows. Young' China will have none of this crass superstition. The returned students and those envious ones who che1'ish secret longings to go to America or France or Russia, the attendants of the Biiddle Schools and the many who have been influenced in any of the infinite ways in which missions are influencing, these Chinese of the renaissance are discountenaneing the age-old, time-tested teachers. For theln a new China is nascent. VVith unlimited manpower, vast untapped veins of coal and iron, indomitable patience and virility in her blood, China will inherit the prestige about which Western friends have, wisely or unwisely, fired their minds. VVhatever stands in the way of immediately achiev- ing a strong, untrammeled China, they are opposing. If they see the foreign- ers within their gates enjoying various anachronistic concessions, they are demanding that such inequalities be removed. If they discover that foreign aggression has often advanced hand-in-hand with missionary pioneers, or per- haps tagging closely in the footsteps of the peaceful conquest of the evangel- ists and taking advantage of their place of friendship, then these ardent patriots say that VVestern Christianity, too, must be abolished along with political imperialism. Just as in unsettled conditions anywhere, labor agitators are thriving. Likewise, as the Communists ever seek to contravert disturbances to Bolshevistic ends, so- in China Soviet emmisaries are active. Peculiarly significant at this ,fi A i t W.. PA G E 'l'NV1CN'l'Y-FIVE

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