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Show CHAPTER TWO 3 I3eto *Dag in amissions Ten months have passed since the North China Mission1 adopted the plan of sharing the transaction of all Mission business with the Chinese church. How far has this policy justified itself in these first months of its operation? Jn the old days, local business was transacted by Chinese and1 Americans acting together, but Mission business was conducted: exclusively by the American missionaries, acting ^ r i V i ^ , ? either as a body assembled in annual meeting, or „ P » y j Y through a Committee ad interim, or by circular-' MEANS vote. In accordance with the recent reorganization, the Chinese share in the conduct of all Mission affairs just as truly as they have long shared in the-transaction of all local station business. How radical is this change? From the point of view of the missionary, not very radical. The volume of local business, in which the Chinese used to share, was always JJ*~.:X i f ? larger and more important than the volume of Mission business, in which they did not share. But you will readily understand how natural it was that the Chinese, since thev had no hand in Mission business, and were not present at deliberations upon it, should exaggerate its importance, and should sometimes feel that all vital decisions concerning the work as a whole were made by the foreigners in their exclusive assembly, and that the authority exercised jointly in the stations was a mere show of authority; that the foreigners decided everything first, and then urged the Chinese to go through what were mere forms of deliberation. It was an entire misconception of the facts on the part of the Chinese, but a natural misconception. The old arrangement thus militated against a thorough sense of brotherhood between Chinese and Americans, against a genuine sense of responsibility on the part of the Chinese for the conduct of the work, against frankness in expressing their opinions and against their gaining the'inspiration that comes from intimate association with the work of the Mission as a whole. The first great merit of |