designs. I am sorry to say that I have known of a great many cases of this sort. The Chinese scholar does appreciate the altruism of American Christianity when it is shown in its true form in China. He appreciates that exhibition of it that we see in the free hospital. He appreciates the work of education that is being done by many devoted missionaries, and he also appreciates the nobility of Christian doctrine. If missionary work could be freed from this quality of foreignization, if the adoption of Christianity could be freed from carrying, as it does now, the stigma of a lack of patriotism, the sympathy between Christianity and Confucianism would be increased at once. There are two obstacles to the successful propagation of Christianity in China at the present time. The first is the unwillingness of many of those who go out there to recognize the noble truths that are contained in Confucianism, and to build upon them, or to vivify them by the aid of our western ideals. The idea is, on the part of many who go there, not of all, that the faith of the Chinese, which has so firm a hold of their consciences, must be rooted out in order that Christianity may take its place; but the proper method is to graft on upon that original stock what new truths and ideals we may. - I remember an interesting conversation I had a few years ago with the Viceroy Chou Fu, now Viceroy of the two Kuang provinces. We were speaking about the Confucian ceremony, and he was explaining to me that it was not to be regarded as a deification of Confucius. He said, "We Confucianists do not believe in the immortality of the soul, and therefore we cannot be supposed to be worshiping a man who does not exist." In saying this, he went further than most Chinese scholars would go, for in positively denying a belief in the immortality of the soul he went beyond his Master. But what struck me in this conversation was that, after we had been speaking for some time, he suddenly said, "You foreigners can never understand what these Confucian rites mean to the Chinese mind. To us, a man who refuses to pay his respects to Confucius ceases to be a man; he becomes like a beast. He denies the obligation of the moral law." Now, when people feel this way it is very dangerous to tamper with their ceremonies and with their beliefs; we should treat them tenderly. The second obstacle to harmony between the religions of the West and those of the East is the presence in China of too many fanatics among the missionaries. I am not condemning those broad-minded and noble missionaries who are truly holding up western civilization to the Chinese; but there are a great many fanatics that seem to feel specially called upon to go out and enlighten the heathen as to the tenets of their own particular narrow sects. The presence of these people is a very great hindrance to establishing a right understanding between the West and the East. I will give you one illustration of what I mean-something which happened a few years ago at Tientsin. The Chinese government had established there a medical college, and in collecting students who had had a preparatory training a great many were taken from missionary schools. Now, a missionary lady of the sort that I have spoken of invited the young men of this government medical school to attend religious services at her house and obtained a very great influence over them. One of the peculiar tenets of the sect represented by this woman was that it was sinful to practice medicine. Therefore she preached as thoroughly as she could her doctrine to these young men, and so influenced them that the whole senior class of the medical school went in a body and tried to resign because they had been brought to believe that it was sinful to practice medicine. The Chinese official in charge, the Customs Taotai of Tientsin, was naturally disgusted. He came to the university to see me, and told me that he was thinking of issuing a proclamation to the effect that thereafter no Christian student would be admitted into any government school; but he wished to get my advice about it before he did so. I explained to him that the fanatics of whom I have spoken did not fairly represent Christianity, and that he would be doing a great injustice to the broad minded and noble people who did more perfectly represent it, if he issued such a proclamation. I thus succeeded in dissuading him from his purpose. But you can see that the presence of these people who represent so poorly our civilization is a tremendous hindrance in the establishment of proper relations between Christianity and the religions of the East. We have been seeing a great deal in the papers recently about a reactionary movement in China, and the correspondents at Peking and elsewhere in China have seemed to represent that the new educational reform from which we are hoping so much is in danger. I think I can assure you that this is not the case, but that the situation is misunderstood by the correspondents. There are two reasons why it might seem that a reactionary movement was in progress. One is the competition for positions in the government service. Naturally, the men who have trained themselves by long years of study. to hold office do not look with equanimity upon the monopolizing of these offices by the young men recently trained in the modern schools. There is jealousy as to who shall hold the offices a not unnatural jealousy. But as to the general principle that China is to modernize herself and fall in line with the western nations, I think there is no real question. Another movement which might seem to indicate reaction is, that the Chinese have taken steps to emphasize the fact that in adopting our modern studies, our science, they do not intend to depart from the principles of morality that were taught by their great sage, Confucius; and in emphasizing this they have perhaps disappointed some who believed that there would come an official change of religion in China with the change in the system of education. People who believed that were expecting what there was never the slightest ground to expect. The Chinese have the profoundest respect for the teachings of their own religion, and they will never give them up, although they may add to them; and they certainly may vivify them by larger intercourse with those who represent in a proper way the ideals of our Christian civilization. I believe that the religious outlook of China is hopeful if we westerners approach it in the right spirit. [Applause.] THE PRESIDENT. - Unhappily, it costs money to run public meetings, as well as to do most other things in the world, and at this stage of the meeting, before we listen to the last two addresses, a collection will be taken. While it is being gathered, I should like to say how glad we should be if the membership of the Association could be largely increased. We ask all who feel that its work is beneficent and needed to number themselves with us. There are few things religious in which greater changes have taken place in the last half-century than in the removal of the sharp antithesis which men used to feel between heaven and earth. We all come to see now all men who think and feel deeply that this universe is one, that here and now we have to deal with eternal principles, and that our business is to bring every corner of this universe for which we are responsible into conformity with the laws of eternity and of God. "A sane mind in a sound body" was the ideal of the Greeks; and the ideal and demand of modern charity, without discouraging good Samaritans, but praying for their multiplication, is that we shall clear the Jericho road of thieves. It is important, if we are to have clear thinking, that we shall have sane minds and sound bodies in which to do the thinking; that is a religious duty. There is no one who stands for that principle in Boston to-day more earnestly than Rev. Elwood Worcester, of Emmanuel Church; and I am glad that he is, here to speak to us this morning. [Applause.] ADDRESS BY REV. ELWOOD WORCESTER, PH. D., D. D., BOSTON, MASS. TRUTH AND LIFE. I am very happy to be allowed to come here to say a few simple words to you this morning on the subject in which we all are so deeply interested. I believe in spiritual freedom; I think that it is quite as precious to a nation as political freedom, and that without freedom to think and even liberty to err we shall probably never discover the truth. But I want in the little while I have at my disposal this morning to emphasize the side of this subject which was so nobly and so beautifully presented by Dr. Hale. In general the position is this: that if faith is judged by truth, as Mrs. Humphry Ward is very fond of reminding us, in the long run truth in its turn will be judged by life. I mean by this that the truth which does not affect life and make it better in some form is hardly any better than error. And this I think is pre-eminently true of religious truth. This has always been the weakness, as Mr. Stead did not hesitate to point out to the Ethical Culturists the other day, of most of our so-called liberal movements that they are too prone to begin and to end in mere talk. I suppose the greatest example of this tendency may be gathered from a comparison of the Greek philosophers with the Hebrew prophets. Both were enamored of truth, but there was a great difference in their attitude toward it. The Greek philosopher was in the possession of the highest truth, but stood apart from the general cause of humanity. Himself holding the highest views in regard to the Godhead, it was a matter of very little concern to him that his people were sunk in polytheism, and so he constantly adapted his language to their point of view and made use of many expressions which in his heart he did not believe. The Hebrew prophet, on the other hand, embraced the cause of humanity with the whole ardor of his nature. Plato, for example, in the seclusion of his beautiful garden dreamed of an ideal and an impossible Republic, whereas Jeremiah, walking through the streets of Jerusalem day by day and crying in the ears of his people, at last died a martyr. Renan says, "He ended his life a great bleeding Ecce Homo, sombre, defeated, and despairing." But I would like to call your attention to the fact that in the long run humanity pays its debt, and loves those that love it. I suppose that Plato's disciples to-day are probably not much more numerous than they were during his lifetime. Emerson, I remember, somewhere estimates his little flock at |