THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
17
Onward Christian Soldiers
The following editorial which appeared in the Los Angeles Times, bears a splendid testimony to the power of the Gospel of the Son of God, as manifested in the conversion and practical consecration of the great Chinese General Feng. It is refreshing to "know that so many of the secular papers are giving messages that ring true to the Word of God. [ T B ^ s HAT good, what solid practical good, have Chris- t*an teachers done in heathen lands? Many peo- © ©ft M pie ask themselves the question a little dubiously, even as they renew their subscription to some foreign mission. Many others in the belief that charity begins at home contend that it ought to end there also. Some novels have won ephemeral fame by unfolding a plot that suggests how much better axe oriental philosophies for oriental minds and bodies. By a strange contradiction, some ultramiodernists delight in extolling ultra-ancient sects and wax facetious over the folly of exchanging adamant, Brahminism for impractical Christianity or trading Confucius or Zoroaster for Peter and Paul. In a certain type of so-called funny picture, the missionary has long been the butt of the impecunious artist. Not infrequently the foreign offices of European govern ments receive complaints from distant dependencies that Christian missions are stirring a lot of political trouble for local administrators. Very often this is so. Sometimes the missions wouldn’t be Christian if they didn’t. Confused by such a maze of witnesses, the plain citizen may well pause and ask himself, What practical good have Christian missions accomplished in foreign lands? Sup pose, then, we turn to the pages— not of recent fiction— but of recorded history and see what light modern China sheds on this perplexing question. For the last three years, and more particularly in the last few months, the provinces of Central China have passed through dark and turbulent times. Under the guise of dissatisfaction with the government, ambitious Chinamen have organized troops, ostensibly for legitimate warfare, in reality for plunder. From the province of Hunan strange reports went out to the rest of China, reports of an army that did not en gage in plunder, of an army that respected women and children, that carried no strong liquors, an army whose soldiers were quiet and industrious, making their own sad dles and other equipments and mending their own clothes. Wherever irregular troops were engaged in pillage and plunder, this strange army marched to the scene, protected life and property and generally succeeded in dispersing the brigands. So this army organized along such novel lines in the ban dit-infested Chinese provinces grew in numbers and strength and reputation and its leader, Gen. Feng Yu Siang, became famous for both his prowess and his hu manity. Finally at the request of the Peking government his brigades marched to Peking and encamped a short distance south of the Imperial City where they have become the chief force in the country for suppressing lawlessness. And the most amazing fact in connection with this strange Chinese army is that it is a Christian army and that Gen. Feng Yu Siang is a Christian general. A late report from Peking says that the hope of the Chinese to end the present era of constant civil war and to suppress pillage and banditry dwells in this small but
well-drilled army, enlisted and commanded by Gen. Siang. Yet a little more than a year ago this general was not only an obscurity— to the Chinese masses he was that despised thing— a Christian convert. At the start of his crusade to save China from dissolution, the epithet, “ The Christian General,” was applied to him in scorn and ridi cule. Since then Feng Yu Siang has put teeth into the jibe. Today the Chinaman pays fit homage to the Christian army and the Christian general whose fine police work once more assures the humble laborer protection from the armed brigands of rebel chieftains. For the first time mil lions of Chinamen have seen Christianity in its working clothes and in its fighting togs. Not in the form of an invading foreign force come to collect for hypothetical dam age suffered by some isolated missionary. But as a vital potent army of Christianized Chinese cru saders, healers and helpers, not conquerors or oppressors, ready to fight to the finish the internal foes of distracted China and with their disciplined and orderly ranks exacting alike the respect of the Peking authorities and the humble coolie. So the seed • sown by the earnest isolated missionary, often neglected, sometimes despised, bears fruit in far-off Chinese soil. The preaching of the individual may have appeared ineffectual. Some church directors possibly did not discern much spiritual profit in such religious adventur ing into the wilds of Asia. Reading what has been accomplished by this Christian general in revolt-torn Central China, one realizes that the sacrifices made for a generation by Christian missionaries have not been made in vain. The Chinese army, of Christian soldiers is to the people of China something more than a defensive power against the forces of anarchy. It gives forcible expression to what the evangel could only feebly preach. It is a prac tical example that what the missionary demanded for his religion is true. After all, what is the great difference between the re ligion of Christ and the teachings of Confucius or Buddha or Mohammed? Is it not that Christianity can successfully transform its Words into deeds, its texts into action. On the door of his headquarters, Gen. Feng has a pla card in Chinese from the works of the great philosopher, Laotse. Freely translated, it reads: What half is shall whole become. What crooked is shall straight become. What empty is shall be filled. Who little has shall more acquire. Of him who much has shall much be expected. The words are the words of a pagan poet, but Gen. Feng has set them to Christian music and to a tune un known before in ancient China the soldiers of the Cross are marching onward!
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