125 into by all three groups for a federation looking toward ultimate union. The Lutheran bodies in China represented six different countries and more than that number of societies. Steps preliminary to union, however, were taken by the bodies working in Hunan, Hupeh, and Honan, when in 1915 a constitution was drafted and a "Temporary Council of the Lutheran Church in China" was elected, and when in 1917 at a celebration of the quadricentennial of the Reformation the constitution was adopted.12 127 The Associated Mission Treasurers of China was formed (1916) to facilitate the operation of the many mission business offices in Shanghai and in it five of the larger boards joined. Some of the provincial councils continued to function and in Shansi steps toward union were taken in the reciprocal recognition by missions of each other's membership and discipline.' Several city unions were organized or reconstructed to coördinate the efforts of the missions in the larger centers.12 Some progress toward union in bookstores and publishing houses was also reported.1 130 128 As may be surmised from repeated references in the preceding pages, the China Continuation Committee came speedily to occupy a large place in the Protestant enterprise. Regular meetings were held, the secretariat provided unusually able leadership, and through a number of sub-committees important phases of the common task were studied.1 131 INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-SUPPORT OF THE CHINESE CHURCH 132 The war years witnessed fairly rapid progress toward selfsupport and the transfer of responsibility to Chinese leaders. The number of Chinese ordained ministers rose from seven hundred and sixty-four in 1915 to eight hundred and forty-six in 1917.1 Chinese increased their contributions to the support of the 125 China Mission Year Book, 1918, p. 85; The Christian Occupation of China, p. 334. 126 Chinese Recorder, Vol. 48, p. 724; China Mission Year Book, 1918, pp. 87-92. 127 China Mission Year Book, 1917, pp. 491-493, 1919, p. 296. 128 Ibid., 1915, pp. 43, 94-99, 1917, p. 215. 129 Ibid., 1916, p. 249, 1917, p. 92. 130 China Mission Year Book, 1915, p. 443. 131 Chinese Recorder, Vol. 47, pp. 369, 405, Vol. 48, pp. 351-357, Vol. 49, p. 357; China Mission Year Book, 1915, pp. 481-515, 1916, pp. 377-400, 1917, pp. 468-477, 1918, pp. 266-275. 133 134 137 136 Church and several new home missionary societies were reported.' The year 1915 saw C. T. Wang succeed Fletcher Brockman as National General Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association,' 1,15 and the Young Women's Christian Association was steadily passing into the control of Chinese. In 1914 the North China Mission of the American Board extended to all business matters Chinese-foreign coöperative control.111 A meeting of Chinese leaders held at Kuling in 1918 adopted a program which involved the education of members in Christian patriotism, the promotion of evangelism by personal contacts and campaigns of preaching, and the appointment of a commission to study Yünnan as a possible field for united home missionary effort.1 In 1918, moreover, Shen Tsai-sheng was consecrated Assistant Bishop of Chêkiang, the first Chinese to be raised by Protestants to the episcopal dignity."" 138 140 139 With all this "devolution," the Church remained primarily a foreign institution in both leadership and support, and observers commented on the fact that in independence and efficiency it was behind the Church in Japan. Here and there, however, Christians were rising to prominence in national affairs and a few members of well-known families and men in official position were beginning to enter the Church and to assume leadership in it.'' The Protestant Church was becoming a force with which the nation had obviously to reckon. 141 That this rising Church could exert itself vigorously and effectively was demonstrated when it was proposed to establish Confucianism as the religion of the state. Protestant Christians petitioned Parliament against the measure, and when, in 1916, a 133 China Mission Year Book, 1915. p. 331, 1916, p. 51, 1917, p. 189. 134 The Christian Occupation of China, pp. 386-390. 135 China Mission Year Book, 1916, p. 164. 136 Burton, Women Workers of the Orient, p. 198. 137 Chinese Recorder, Vol. 48, pp. 79-81. 138 China Mission Year Book, 1918, p. 150; Gamewell, New Life Currents in China, pp. 212-215. 139 A. C. Moule in New China Review, Vol. 1, pp. 480-488; Spirit of Missions, Vol. 83, p. 304. 140 China Mission Year Book, 1917, pp. 170, 313, 314. 141 Ibid., 1916, p. 351; Dennett, The Democratic Movement in Asia, p. 50; Poteat, Home Letters from China, p. 152. In Foochow in 1914 25% of the Protestants were merchants and shopkeepers, 25% students, 16% teachers, 15% workmen, 3% doctors, 3% government employees, 2% farmers, and 1% ministers. 45% of the members had a fair education.-China Mission Year Book, 1917, p. 114. In Manchuria 30% of the Protestant Christians were farmers owning land, 10% were skilled laborers, 10% unskilled laborers, and 6% were in business. Ibid., p. 275. milder form of the same suggestion was broached to declare Confucianism the basis of moral instruction in the national educational system-a union of Roman Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Taoists, and Moslems succeeded in defeating it and liberty of religious worship was guaranteed.1 142 143 The war years, then, while slowing down growth, had not caused it to cease. Protestant Christians were as yet little disturbed by the rising disorder in the country; persecution, except in petty forms, was unknown; and the prospects were that the return of peace to Europe and America would be the signal for the resumption of rapid expansion. 142 Oldham, The Missionary Situation After the War, p. 25; Missionary Review of the World, Vol. 28, pp. 272, 273, Vol. 30, pp. 580, 581; China Mission Year Book, 1917, pp. 34-37, 98-109; The East and the West, Vol. 15, PP. 401-404. 143 In 1916 in the war between the North and the South, some German mission property was destroyed.-Richter, Geschichte der Berliner Missionsgesellschaft, p. 582. In the Civil War of 1917, in Hunan, some mission property suffered.-China Mission Year Book, 1918, pp. 29-40. CHAPTER XXX CHINA IN A TIME OF REORGANIZATION (1901-1926) PROTESTANT MISSIONS FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR TO THE CLOSE OF 1926 CONDITIONS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA THE hope that the end of the World War would usher in a new day of rapid growth for Protestant missions at first seemed to be well grounded. In some cases, to be sure, recovery was slow. German societies especially were impoverished: the disestablishment of Protestantism necessitated retaining at home for reconstruction most of such funds as could be procured for church purposes, and the rapid fall of the mark brought financial ruin to many former contributors. However, many Germans gave heroically, and assistance came from Switzerland and the United States. German missions by no means ceased to exist. 1 In Great Britain the war was followed by financial and industrial depression, the cost of living did not subside, taxes were a staggering burden, and the middle classes, from whom a large proportion of the support of missions was drawn, were especially affected. However, incomes of societies rose. The annual receipts of the Church Missionary Society, for example, in the four years after the war averaged £479,464 as against £372,510 during the war and £402,681 for the five years just before the war. The annual income of the London Missionary Society for the five years just before the war (1909-1913) averaged £186,673, for the five years spanning the war (1914-1918) £222,144, for the five years just after the war (1919-1923) £337,014, and for the next four years (1924-1927) £378,824. The increase was, however, partly traceable to growing contributions from the 2 3 3 1 Keller and Stewart, Protestant Europe, Its Crisis and Outlook, passim. Beyer, China als Missionfeld, Chapter 16, p. 22. China Mission Year Book, 1923, pp. 102-111. mission fields. It is interesting, too, that while the amount appropriated to China by the London treasurer increased but little the figures being £44,472 in 1918, £55,758 in 1921, and £48,182 in 1927-the amount received in China from contributions, school fees, and the like rose from £12,711 in 1918 to £47,728 in 1921 and to £71,528 in 1927. For the five years just before the war (1910-1914) the Baptist Missionary Society had an average annual income (exclusive of the Arthington fund) of £93,648, for the five years spanning the war (1915-1919) the corresponding figure was £116,621, for the five years just after the war (1920-1924) it was £199,862, and for the three years 1925-1927 £215,433. The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society reported an income averaging £199,198 annually in the five years before the war (1909-1913), £374,089 annually during the war (1914-1918), and £432,076 annually in six of the seven years after the war (1919-23, 1925, 1926). The income of the China Inland Mission mounted from £87,879 in 1915 and £123,229 in 1918 to £156,217 in 1919, and to £184,116 in 1920.* In 1921 it fell to £158,173 and in 1922 to £152,786, but the decline was accompanied by a favorable turn in the exchange and in 1923 the figures again began to rise to £155,911 in 1923, to £175,217 in 1924, and to £185,492 in 1926.10 The British Chamber of Commerce in China contributed a fund to assist British mission hospitals and schools there with the frankly and naïvely avowed purpose of strengthening British influence." However, prices in China continued to mount and exchange 7 123d Report of the London Missionary Society (1918), p. 122, 132d Report of the London Missionary Society (1927), p. cxlviii. These figures did not include the Arthington fund. 123d Report of the London Missionary Society (1918), p. 144; 126th Report of ibid. (1921), p. cxix; 132d Report of ibid. (1927), p. cxxxviii. в Baptist Missionary Society Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the 118th year ending March 31, 1910, p. 348; 1911, p. 356, 1912, p. 360, 1913, p. 378, 1914, p. 456, 1915, p. 532, 1916, p. 462, 1917, p. 414, 1918, p. 186, 1919, p. 190, 1920, p. 214, 1921, p. 202, 1922, p. 210, 1923, p. 216, 1924, p. 250, 1925, p. 264, 1926, p. 168, 1927, p. 184. 796th to 112th Annual Reports of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. The amount received from foreign mission districts (largely the "native" churches) increased from £26,107 in 1909 to £163,954 in 1926. China's Millions, 1925, p. 88. These figures included income from North America as well as from Great Britain. Ibid. These figures included income from North America as well as from Great Britain. 10 Ibid., 1927, pp. 93 et seq. These figures include income from North America as well as from Great Britain. 11 Mrs. Butler, Missions as I Saw Them, p. 115; C. G. Sparham in Chinese Recorder, Vol. 51, pp. 271-276. |