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THE CHINESE.

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THE CHINESE WORK.

BY REV.  M. McG.  DANA, D.D., LOWELL, MASS.

I never read any report of this, without feeling both humiliated and inspired.  Humiliated, because I have regarded the field so unpromising; inspired, because such glimpses of gracious possibilities and achievements are caught.  We have been so incredulous as to certain alien races, that we have only partially and feebly brought to bear upon them the saving influences of the Gospel.  We are not, indeed, responsible for the presence of these Orientals in our land.  Ours is a different responsibility; it is for their evangelization, now that they have been led to our shores.  This work is laid upon us, and never was it more urgent or hopeful than at this hour.  It was one of the methods of our Lord to arouse men to noblest service by reminding them of the obligations imposed upon them by their circumstances and opportunities.

Whether the call came to them from a promising or unpromising field, on them rested the duty of responding.  In the great Sermon on the Mount, our Lord, after finishing with his gentle and sweet benedictions, abruptly turned and, with changed tone and impressive words, said to his disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth.”  On you rests the obligation of becoming the conservative element in society.  Confronting as they did a decadent civilization and a vanishing religious faith and a general heart-despair, they were to be the saviors of men.  Pungent and preservative as salt, are ye to be in the midst of a putrid age.  Few, too, as they were in numbers, and without honor as well, yet they were to be the light of the world.  On their luminousness depended their power to influence.  The radiancy of their life and teaching was to penetrate the surrounding gloom.  Later on follows the divine imperative to “Go forth and disciple all nations.”

However unfavorable the outlook, however inadequate they seemed for the undertaking, they were to attempt what was enjoined.  It lifted them to an altitude never before reached, and made them conscious of a power never before possessed.

This is the principle which we need to apply to the emergencies in which we are called to act.  We get from others what we tell them we expect.  There is something in human nature that likes to be trusted with responsibility; something in us that responds to great occasions.  You remember when Nelson fought that pivotal naval engagement at Trafalgar against the combined fleets of France and Spain, he gave to his command as a motto to inspire them to do their best, “England expects every man to do his duty.”  That brought every soldier and sailor under the eyes of the country whose interests they were upholding, and nerved each one to deeds of valor.  It awakened a sense of responsibility