money. In purchasing value the amount would have been
equivalent to an American dollar or two. It was the first money gift
that had ever been presented to me by a Chinese.

I had always been pleased with the gifts of food, but somehow, when I
saw what this gift was, I reacted strongly against it. There was
something in me that rebelled. "_I_ don't need your money!" was my
instinctive reaction. Fortunately I had enough politeness left to
realize that I could not refuse it without offending the giver, and so
I did take it, mumbling my thanks, which I did not feel, and watched
the servant depart. Then I sat down to think it out. _Why_ did it make
me so uncomfortable to accept that gift? When I finally got to the
bottom of it, I decided that the real reason was that I unconsciously
felt that it put me in an inferior position. Accepting a gift of food
was different--that was just neighborliness. But a small gift of
money! That is normally given by a superior to an inferior--a father
to his child, a mistress to her servant, one who has sufficient for
his needs to one who has not. In this case the giver did not look at
it like that, of course. Money gifts were a common thing in her
circle, and to her the amount was not too small. But my unconscious
reaction was that I was being put in an inferior position, and this
was the thing at which I rebelled. How could I, who was this woman's
superior (this was my unconscious feeling), take this money, and so
accept the place of being her inferior?

The position of a missionary is something like that of a teacher. He
comes to tell people something that they do not know; to introduce a
Friend of whom they have not heard. He certainly knows more about
Christianity, academically and experimentally, than the people to whom
he goes--otherwise there would be no point in his going. He probably
knows more about the world in general than the people to whom he goes.
He may know better ways of living and working, even for their
environment, than they do. How can a person be conscious of how much
more he knows than someone else, and still not feel _superior_? Those
among whom he works may realize that he knows much that they should
learn, and may look up to him as a superior being. This makes it even
harder. How can he overcome the superiority complex that comes from
race, or from looking on oneself as _civilized_, or even just from
recognizing that one has more education and experience than those