Forty Years in South China: The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D.D.Fagg, John Gerardus
Religion
Forty Years in South China: The Life of Rev. John Van Nest Talmage, D.D.
Fagg, John Gerardus
Missions -- China; Talmage, John Van Nest, 1819-1892
The cause which Mr. Talmage was advocating was too near his heart, and his
convictions were too strong to permit silence. He prepared a pamphlet,
setting forth more clearly the position of the Mission at Amoy, as well as
answering objections made to it. [The exact standing of missionaries in
the Union Chinese Church of Amoy was also explained by Dr. Talmage in a
later pamphlet, for the contents of which see Appendix.] A few quotations
read:
"In reference to it, i.e., the report of the Committee on Foreign Missions,
we would make three remarks: (1) It (Resolution III.) seems rather a
cavalier answer to the fraternal wish of the Synod of the English
Presbyterian Church, as expressed in their action. (2) The action of Synod
is made to rest (Res. I.) on the fact that Synod had 'tested' this 'plan of
conducting foreign missions.' If this be so, and the plan had been found
by experiment unobjectionable, the argument is not without force. But how
and where has this test been applied and found so satisfactory? Our Church
has three Missions among the heathen-one in India, one in China, and one in
Japan. Has it been tested in Japan? No. They have not yet a single
native church. Has it been tested in China? If so, the missionaries were
not aware of it. The test applied there has been of an opposite character
and has been wonderfully successful. The test has only been applied in
India, and has only begun to be applied even there. There, as yet, there
is but one native pastor. Their Classis is more American than Indian. We
must wait until they have a native Classis before the test can be
pronounced at all satisfactory. (3) No consideration is had for the
feelings, wishes or opinions of the native churches. The inalienable
rights of the native churches, their relation to each other, their absolute
unity-things of the utmost consequence-are not at all regarded, are
entirely ignored."
In reply to the advantages claimed to flow from the plan advocated by
General Synod, Mr. Talmage says:
"1. The most important advantage is, or is supposed to be, that there will
thus be higher courts of jurisdiction to which appeals may be made, and by
which orthodoxy and good order may be the better secured to the Church at
Amoy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account