New Methods of Mission Work
WE commend these facts and suggestions of our consecrated and experienced missionary Mrs. W. F. Crawford to our readers. Long service and close observation have placed her in judgment beside our dear brother Carpenter, who though dead still speaks to us words of wisdom which we shall after a while heed.
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It seems to be a very prevalent idea, both in America and among inexperienced missionaries, that a nation will be easiest converted by beginning on the children. It is thought that by taking them away from the influences of their heathen homes they could be trained in the "way they should go." But some sides of this question have not been looked at—as is apt to be the case always until theories have been put in practice. This matter can probably be best illustrated by a narrative of my experience. During our twelve years' residence at Shangai I superintended several day schools, paying for school rooms and teacher's salary. Probably some good was accomplished by these schools, as it enabled me to get into the families and give
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them religions instruction, while some parents learned a little from the children themselves. The Chinese having a good many free schools of their own, ours did not seem an anomaly. Several years after settling in Tungchow I took over a small day school which Mrs. Holmes had commenced, as it would not interfere with my gospel work among the women. But I could get only a very few pupils. The desire grew upon me to increase the number, and to see these boys drawn from their homes and be moulded under my hands. So it was turned into a boarding school, the mission not only paying the native teacher's wages, but also supplying lodging, board, bedding, books, stationery, etc., but never clothes, as in the other missions.Most of the pupils, especially in the latter years, were sons of Christians. A few of these parents were able to board their sons, had they been so inclined, but most of them were not. The Christian education of these students was entirely in my hands, and I endeavored to lead them all to Christ. Some of them remained in school ten or twelve years, acquiring not only a good Chinese, but also a respectable scientific education. As the school advanced the sentiments animating both the pupils and their parents, manifested in numberless ways, began to reveal to us dangerous, nay, fatal tendencies. The first class who completed the course had places awaiting them as teachers among us. In this position the pay was regular, and higher than could be commanded among the natives. This had a most stimulating effect and there were more applicants from outsiders than we could take. We then began to require a fee of four dollars per annum from each pupil, which was a step, as we hoped, towards self-support. But there were no places for the next class, and after graduating they looked helplessly towards ns. No natives would employ them in any capacity. For trade and farming they were unfitted, since a literary man can do none of those things. By degrees we became fully aware that the school was fostering a sentiment threatening most disastrous consequences to the purity of the church and the conversion of the masses—that it was a hot-house system cutting off the Christians from the community around them, and cultivating dependence upon American churches for temporal as well as spiritual support.
What native would not make sacrifices for the education of his sons if assured of permanent, lucrative positions for them? Not only so, but many would become Christians for the sake of
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obtaining them. China is over-populated and many of her young men are under the necessity of seeking employment abroad—in Manchuria, Corea [Korea], Japan, Siberia and elsewhere. Of course they would prefer a place nearer home. The missionary asks himself, Is it wrong for parents to desire the education of their sons that they may better their pecuniary condition? Is it not a motive with Christian people in America? And is not secular education proper and good in itself? All this is fully admitted. But when the propagator of Christianity helps to fasten upon the native mind that Godliness is gain, making such education become a part of missionary operational it is time to pause. We saw demoralization had set in and the remedy was promptly applied—the school was closed. The result has proven the wisdom of the course. Those who became Christians for the purpose of securing a living have sloughed off, taking no further interest in our religion, or have gone to seek employment in other missions. Must there be no mission schools? Shall we lend no help in this direction? These questions must wait for answer in another article lest this should be too long.
TUNGCHOW, 1889,
M. P. Crawford
========== [From Samuel H. Ford, editor, The Christian Repository, 1889, pp. 306-308. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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