Christian missions and social progress; a sociological study of foreign missions . uture is darkened by cheerless mysteries. If we follow 157 committed suicide, as against 45 with children; widowers without children,1004; with children, 526; widows without children, 238; with children, but figures are eloquent pleaders in favor of family ties as conservators of life. 1 The Memorial Arches erected to persons who have committed suicide, espe-cially to widows, are throwing a sad light on the morality of a community where suchcrimes are necessitated. Confucianism is responsible for it by
Christian missions and social progress; a sociological study of foreign missions . uture is darkened by cheerless mysteries. If we follow 157 committed suicide, as against 45 with children; widowers without children,1004; with children, 526; widows without children, 238; with children, but figures are eloquent pleaders in favor of family ties as conservators of life. 1 The Memorial Arches erected to persons who have committed suicide, espe-cially to widows, are throwing a sad light on the morality of a community where suchcrimes are necessitated. Confucianism is responsible for it by the low place it allowsto women, by the wrong feeling of honor it awakens in men and women, and bythe meagre religious consolation it can provide for the afHicted. Death is soughtas the only escape from unbearable misery. —Article on Confucianism, by theRev. Ernst Faber, Dr. Theol., in The China Mission Hand-Book (1896), pp. 5, 6. 2 Smith, The Natural History of the Chinese Boy and of the Chinese Girl:A Study in Sociology, pp. 19, 26. •> ;^ .4- -fc A. fPl^ ^ « i /^ ^ ^. Patients Nankins: Hospital. Inscription on the wall, John 3 : in the Womans School, in Bible Traininjj School, Nanking. Christian Optimism in Chinese Faces.(.M. E. M. s.) THE SOCIAL RESULTS OF MISSIONS 151 the trail of heathenism, nature-worship, and demonology, into therecesses of the non-Christian world, we find our pathway deeplyshadowed by the same depressing hopelessness. It can hardly be questioned by any candid mind that the Gospel,when accepted, brings a flood of precious light and a supply of comfortand hope into these dreary and saddened realms of pessimism. Whatthe world needs everywhere is the sanity, courage, and cheer of Chris-tian optimism. Hope is the antidote to despair, and a restraint upon thehideous suggestions of suicide, and this support is just what the Gospelprovides wherever it is received. In an article on Japans Debt toChristianity, by the Rev. Jam
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