Page 339 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

325.
61
the divine glory."

American missionaries continually phrased their support

of English policies to force China to change its commercial

system in terms of Christian principles. By opening China

to Western, or Christian, influence the will of God would be
served. In fact the missionaries were fighting for their own

existence. Frustrated at being unable to preach and work

where they chose, legally prohibited from the territory of the

Celestial Empire and confined to Canton, the missionaries

knew they would be forced to disband the China mission unless

circumstance changed. American missionaries therefore concluded

that God had ordained the opium war to allow the Chinese an

opportunity to embrace Him through His servants. The crystal­

lizing factor in not doubting the righteousness of backing the

English was the missionaries' awareness that Catholic priests

faced no Imperial restrictions. As David Abeel observed in

his journal: "The Catholic priests appear to enter the country

and return at pleasure. We often see strange faces among them;

and then they disappear, as if there was a constant tide

setting into the empire and returning. .When will we thus
62
be able to enter?"

61
Letter, China Missj_on to Arnericu.n Board of Commis­
sioners, Jan. 1, 1842, in Mi�:�:;ionary IIc�rald, XXXVIII, 8 (August
1842), 336. In a letter describing the considerable loss of
Chinese lives at the Battle of the Bogue, the wife of onQ
missionary expressed similar sentiments: "Oh! may they .ithe
Chines�/ be overruled for his glory, and for the speedy
entrance of his servants into the country." Letter, Mrs. H.
s·:t-mck to Mrs. Kelling, Jan. 9, 1841, in Jeremiah Bell Jeter,
A Memoir of Mrs. Henrietta Shuck, the First American Female
Missionary to China (Boston, 1849), p. 167.
62
williamson, Memoir of Abeel, p. 195.