The Child in the Midst: A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian LandsPlatt, Mary Schauffler
Religion
The Child in the Midst: A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian Lands
Platt, Mary Schauffler
Church work with children; Missions
Seventeen years pass, and the scene changes. _Then_ it was Christian
children, helpless and starving because the Mohammedans had killed
their parents. _Now_ it is Mohammedan children homeless and suffering
because Christian nations have devastated their land by war. Then and
now it is the Christian missionary who sees the need and realizes that
“it is not the will of our Father that _one_ of these little ones
should perish.” “Some of these children are simply irresistible,”
writes Professor Arthur Reed Cass of the International College,
Smyrna, “The stories they tell are sad indeed. Hundreds of Moslem
babies are being born on transport ships and in schools where lessons
have been suspended to make room for homeless folk. Here is a chance
for American Christianity to prove its recognition of need regardless
of lines of race and creed.”[43]
[Sidenote: The “Polishing Jade Establishment.”]
Reports full of thrilling interest come to hand concerning the work of
Christian orphanages in non-Christian lands,--institutions founded and
maintained by those who consider it their privilege to act as the
human agents of Him who is the “Father of the fatherless.” We are told
that St. Mary’s Orphanage maintained in Shanghai, China, by the
Episcopal Board of Missions has been dubbed by the Chinese, “The
Polishing Jade Establishment,” which is a reference to their own
classic teaching that as jade must be cut and polished to be of value,
so children must be taught and trained.
[Sidenote: Orphanages in India.]
The plan of establishment of orphanages in India under the Methodist
Episcopal Mission dates back to 1857, and is a fine example of how
Christian missionaries are on the lookout for suitable openings for
work, and how to them is apt to be granted the far vision that labors
for the present and future generations and for eternity.
The orphanage for girls was first established in the city of
Lucknow, but up to the close of 1860 only thirteen orphans had
been received. Owing to the famine that spread over the land after
the great mutiny, it became an easy matter to secure girls, and
the following year the number increased to forty-one.... At the
close of the mutiny, Dr. Butler made application to the government
for a number of girls to be placed in the orphanage, to be cared
for by the mission. The government was very willing that the
children should be thus provided for.... Dr. Butler says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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