Mz. Wilbur Burton, once of the Nationalist. News Agency' has written a challenging article for "Current Histors" on the subject "A Critical View of Christian Missionary Results in China." The statement of the case is too cursory to be import: ant. but Mr. Burton's niajor thesis that Christianity is under the present should stimulate the missionary ers to an analysis of their fon and to a study of the act causes for their failure. as Mr. Burton snys, there hea lure. It is not at all impossible that what the oppon ents of the missionaries regan as a failure may be an ordeal through which only the sincere ye, It ma: even be true that those Chinese Christians who have fallen the wayside during the past four years were of the "rice Christian™ variety—the sort of men who turned Communist for a season and then abandoned thos doctrine when it became dangetous and unpopular.
Tt is very doubtful whether a faith like Christianity can be measured by mere numbers. A single true believer, an individual faithful follower, is surely worth mor than a brigade baptized with rubber hose. Nevertheless, Mr.
Burton's challenge docs requ an analytical reply, Has miz~ sionary work in China failed since the missionaries have been described as "running does of imperialism," as Mr, Burton says. of isit not equally: true that' many Chinese Christians turned from their missionary' leaders because of the generat spiritual uncertainty which is a comitant of all revolutions?
The character of missionary work in China is undergoing a constant change. For a time, an creasingly greater emphasis was placed upon health, education and social service. Missionary efforts almost took on a nonreligious aspect, the hospitals schools, institutes of various kinds occupying many of the best missionary minds until the natural question arose as to whether the missionary came China to preach the Gospel or to engage in work which Chinese educators and ph to do themselves. Partly out of this and partly over the question of principle, arose the Funda-
Mr. Burto: due stress, purely theologi-quarrel must have been most confusing, for they had not been Christians long enough affected by the more intimate us of the faith. Many of them wondered what it was all about. As a result a large body of Chinese Christians left sectarian churches and organized their own "union" groups until one of the sternest Christian efforts is being put forward the evangelical Chinese istians who have purged their movement of politics and isanship. The recent meet= inge of the Chinese Christians in Hanyehow breathed a new at-sphere of religious enthus-in which polities were eschewed, Tt matters little whether the numbers of Christi we decreased, if the rit of 4 conference such as Hangchow is much more in consonance wi the Christ of the prev what, at the time, we had been forced to take exception.
Mr. Burton seems to feel, as do so many other casual visitors to China, that the Chinese are incapable of adopting Christian-says: "The implications are all too evident—Christianity must become indigenous with Nationalism in the saddle, and if it becomes indigenous it clines." Why should that be so? The Chinese have invariably adopted foreign religions. Bud-diiism is foreign, Islam is foreign; even Taoism borrowed its form and content from foreign sources, There is no genuinely' indigenous religion in China except Confucianism, and that seen: s to lack some of the essen-reli Christianity will untial characteristics of popular
doubtedly thrive in China when the Chinese who become Chris tians have brought the tenets of the faith to bear upon their: everyday life. This is undoubtedly happening now. In matters of religion, it is not the church organization nor the polities of the leaders that matter—it is the faith which moves men's mind spirits, That will be Christianity's contribution here as it has been in the Western world,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.