No more striking proof could be seen of the progress of Christianity in
China than the difference of attitude shown towards missions in time
of danger and difficulty. When I first visited China a mission station
was the most dangerous place to live in; now it is the place of safety
_par excellence_, to which all the Chinese flock when they are in
danger. An interesting illustration of this took place last year. In a
certain district in Shensi a notorious band of robbers came to a Baptist
Missionary and a Roman Catholic priest, and promised to save the town
where they were working if they would procure for them six rifles. They
succeeded in getting the rifles, and took them to the brigands. When they
attempted to use them, the brigands found they had been tampered with,
and decided to loot the town in consequence. They respected, however,
their promise to the men who had brought them, evidently believing in
their good faith, and said they would spare all the Christians. The
problem was how to recognize them, for at once there were a large number
who claimed to be Christians. The robbers decided by looking at them who
was genuine and who was not. In cases of uncertainty they appealed to the
missionaries, who assure us that they had proved quite accurate in their
judgment. Christianity _ought_ to mould the expression of a face.
There are many missions of various nationalities at Changsha, and
all seemed extremely prosperous, most of them in large and handsome
buildings. The girls’ school, of which our hostess was the head, stood
in spacious grounds outside the city wall, and near it is the imposing
pile of the Yale mission buildings. The mission started in 1905 when
Dr. Gaze began the medical work, a hospital was opened in 1908, and the
first students graduated in 1912: it is essentially a medical school,
and differs from others as regards the staff in having short course men
sent out from Yale University as volunteers. They are not necessarily
missionaries. There are fine laboratories for research work, a large
new building for science students, splendid up-to-date equipment in
all branches of medical and surgical work, schools for male and female
nurses, beautiful houses for the large staff of professors, library, a
really beautiful chapel, lecture rooms, dormitories, playing grounds,
tennis courts; in fact everything that can be desired on the most lavish
scale, the greatest conceivable contrast to every other mission I have
seen in China. There is a special ward for Europeans. The new Rockefeller
hospital in Peking is to outshine it in beauty, I believe, but will find
it difficult to equal it in all-round equipment, and of course will lack
the acreage, which makes many things possible in Changsha which are
impossible in Peking. “The Hunan Provincial Government has met all the
local expenses of the College of Medicine and the Hospital for the last
six years.” The Rockefeller Foundation has provided funds for salaries of
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