224 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



and in the developing of churches, they were also interested in 

 improving all phases of Chinese life. Some missionaries have made 

 important contributions by interpreting the best in Chinese culture 

 to the rest of the world. Both missionaries and Chinese leaders have 

 brought the best in occidental culture to the Chinese. Other con- 

 tributions to the welfare of the Chinese were that the laws of health 

 were explained in lectures, taught in schools, and spread by the pub- 

 lishing and distribution of literature ; important textbooks were trans- 

 lated into Chinese; there was work for lepers; there was work for 

 the blind and the prevention of blindness, and schools for the bhnd; 

 there was work for the deaf and dumb ; there were vaccination cam- 

 paigns to prevent smallpox, cholera, and other diseases; there were 

 campaigns against the planting, sale, and use of opium, the curing of 

 opium addicts, and the spreading of information about the harm of 

 the drug ; missionaries and Chinese Christians rendered great service 

 in famine relief ; there were efforts to improve labor conditions, and 

 there was opposition to footbinding, prostitution, sexual immorality, 

 gambling, idolatry, polygamy, the abandonment of infants, early be- 

 trothal and marriage, having slave girls in the home, and certain 

 phases of ancestor worship. 



Practically speaking, the Protestants in China pioneered in modern 

 medicine and medical education, and they pioneered in modern edu- 

 cation and in the education of women and girls, laying foundations 

 on which later the Chinese modern educational system was built and 

 enlarged. The preaching of all Christians proclaimed high ideals of 

 God and of human conduct, and the character and conduct of Chinese 

 Christians averaged higher than that of other Chinese people (Latau- 

 rette, 1929, pp. 681-682). 



Early in the 20th century Protestant missionaries and missions 

 adopted the policy of developing indigenous churches with native 

 leadership that could be self-supporting, self-governing, and self- 

 propagating, and much progress was made toward these ends. Some 

 of the Chinese were believed to be among the greatest Christian 

 leaders in the world. 



Beginning near the close of the 19th and continuing during the 

 20th century there was much progress in China toward cooperation 

 and unity. There were union hospitals and educational institutions, 

 and cooperation in relief and in social service. Most of the Protestant 

 denominations cooperated through the provincial and national Chris- 

 tian councils, and several of the largest denominations united in the 

 Church of Christ in China. 



