European Prejudice.—French Fathers.—Italian Sisters.—Prize-giving.—Anti-Christian Tracts.—Chinese Saints and Martyrs
European Prejudice.—French Fathers.—Italian Sisters.—Prize-giving.—Anti-Christian Tracts.—Chinese Saints and Martyrs.
People can hardly fairly discuss the question of missionaries without deciding definitely first of all whether they wish the Chinese to become Christians or not. And as I do not know what may be the views of those who read this book, I think I had better here cite impressions as to the prejudice against them, written after I had only spent a few years in the East; for the prejudice against missionaries is really one of the most amusing things in China.
"They all hang about Chefoo. That is the sort of place that suits them. A nice comfortable house, and nothing to do! Just about suit me too! I'd like to find a merchant's clerk who did as little as one of these self-devoted men, who have given up everything," is a little speech I heard one man make to three others one day, apparently expressing the sentiments and experience of all. Yet take Chefoo, the very place thus pointed out, and what do you find there? There is not a Shanghai man who knows him who does not say: 231"Oh, Dr. Nevius! Oh! but he's quite an exceptional man. He does more good than all the others put together, I believe. You don't fancy other missionaries are like him?" Or, "Oh, Dr. Williamson! Oh! but that's a man quite unlike the common," or, as I heard another day, "That's a man one really likes to hear talk about religion."
歐洲偏見——法國神父——意大利修女——頒獎——反基督教小冊子——中國的聖徒和殉道者
如果不先確定是否希望中國人成為基督徒，人們幾乎無法公平地討論傳教士問題。由於我不知道讀這本書的讀者的觀點是什麼，我想在這裡引用我在東方僅僅度過幾年後對他們的偏見的印象；因為對傳教士的偏見在中國確實是最有趣的事情之一。
“他們全都在芝罘閒晃。那正是適合他們的地方。一個舒適的房子，什麼事都不做！這也正適合我！我倒想找個做得像這些放棄了一切的‘自我奉獻’的人的商人職員，”某天我聽到一個人對另外三個人說這段話，似乎表達了所有人的情感和經驗。然而，就拿芝罘這個被指名的地方來說，你會發現什麼呢？沒有一個上海人不說：“哦，內維斯博士！哦！但他真的是個例外的人。我相信他做的好事比其他所有人加起來都多。你不會以為其他傳教士和他一樣吧？”或者，“哦，威廉姆森博士！哦！但那是個完全不同於普通人的人，”或者，正如我另一天聽到的，“那是個人們真正喜歡聽他講宗教的人。”
MISSIONARY GROUP AT OUR HOUSE-WARMING. *By Mrs. Archibald Little.*我們家的喬遷之喜上的傳教士團體 作者：阿奇博爾德·利特爾夫人
It is just the same, if you go up Hankow way. "Mr. Barber! Ah! but he is a thorough gentleman! A University man! Seventeenth Wrangler, you know, and a splendid all-round man—good at cricket, and football, and everything." "Mr. Hill! You won't meet another man like him in a hurry. Why, he is a man232of independent means; doesn't draw a penny from the Mission. There is hardly a good cause all over the world which that man does not give to. He is wearing himself out, though"; or if the speaker be a little enthusiastic—they are enthusiastic sometimes in the outports: "That man is a real apostle."
Then again: "You don't know who that man is? Why, he was the champion wrestler till he came out here on mission work—wore the Border belt for two years. Some of the young bloods in Shanghai thought a missionary couldn't do much, and challenged him when he first came out. Didn't he punish them, though, and said, 'You see I am trying not to hurt you!' Why, he could have broken every bone in their bodies, if he had let himself."
Or again: "Mr. John! Now that man does real good. He has worked away for years, and every one must respect him. His is real solid work."
Then again, Mr. Baller of Ngankin. He is only to be named for every one who knows him to burst out into a eulogy. Mr. Studd's cricket renown is too widely spread not to make him exceptional from the outset; but those who have come across him in China seem already to have found out other things yet more noteworthy about him.
Thus the conversation goes on about pretty well every missionary any one knows anything about; and yet it winds up as it began: "But the missionaries generally are quite different,—hang about and make believe—and save money—and go home!" These 233typical missionaries no one seems to have ever met; yet every one who has been to China must agree one hears plenty about them. It begins on the voyage out, when you are told about the poor girls—the enthusiastic, misguided young girls they lure out to wretchedness, nobody knows where. "Clap them into Chinese dress the moment they arrive, and send them off up-country, where there is not a single European, in carts and all sorts of miserable conveyances. That's what they do. Why, the poor girls don't know themselves where they are going to."
如果你去漢口那邊，也是同樣的情況。“巴伯先生！啊！他真是個徹底的紳士！大學畢業生！第十七名的Wrangler，你知道的，全能的人——板球、足球和一切運動都很在行。” “希爾先生！你不會很快再遇到像他這樣的人。你知道嗎，他是個有獨立經濟來源的人，從不從傳教會領一分錢。他幾乎為全世界所有的好事業捐款。但他把自己累壞了”；或者如果講話者稍微有些熱情——他們有時在外港是熱情的：“那個人是真正的使徒。”