P ew NCOs ae Ly IN THE HE AY ‘ENLY Aduiaeah Li fd: eau Be NAST TT eee Gdheled fchhvaccccidianeial Wash! BVSHI5 B36 Correll University Library Sthaca, New York CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 (ilvesrelty fibers “Hin t 6 ili THE FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES “Anywhere, provided it be FORWARD.” — Davin LIvINGSTONE. EDITED BY S. EARL TAYLOR anp AMOS R. WELLS, As a committee of the interdominational Young . People’s Missionary Movement. The following comprehensive series of text-books has been arranged for, each by a writer especially qualified to treat the topic assigned him. For the more important countries two ‘books will be written, one a general survey of missionary his- tory in the land, together with an account of the people and their surroundings; the second a series of biographies of five or six leading missionaries to that country. INTRODUCTION. Into Allthe World. A First Book of Foreign Missions ; a General Survey of Mission Fields and Missionary History. By Amos R. WELLS. Published. CHINA. General Survey. By Rev. ARTHUR H. Smiru, D.D., missionary in Peking and well-known author, 70 be published soon. Biographical. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. By Harian P. Beacu, M.A., F.R.G.S., Educational Secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement and author of a number of most valuable books ; a former missionary in China. Published. AFRICA. General Survey. By BisHor HaRTZELL, in charge of the Methodist missions in Africa. Biographical. The Price of Africa. By S. Eart Taytor, Chair- man of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth League. Published. INDIA. General Survey. By Bishop THoBuRN, the distinguished missionary to India. Biographical. By WiLL1AM Carey, English Baptist missionary to India, great-grandson of the famous missionary pioneer. THE ISLANDS. General Survey. By AssisSTANT-SECRETARY Hicks, of the American Board. Biographical. By S. Ear, TayLor. JAPAN. General Survey and Biographical. By Rev. J. H. DeForest, D.D., a well-known missionary to’ Japan. PERSIA. General Survey and Biographical. By Roserr E. Speer, Presbyterian Foreign Mission Secretary and author of many valuable books. SOUTH AMERICA. General Survey and Biographical. An- nouncement later. KOREA. General Survey and Biographical. By Rev. H. G. UNDERWOOD, D.D., missionary pioneer in Korea. TURKEY. General Survey and Biographical. By Rev. E. E. SrronG, D.D., Editorial Secretary of the American Board. EUROPE. General Survey and Biographical. By Bishop Vin- CENT, at the head of Methodist missions in Europe. EGYPT. General Survey and Biographical. Announcement later. BURMA AND SIAM. General Survey and Biographical By Rev. Epwarp Jupson, D.D., son of the great pioneer mis- sionary to Burma. HOME MISSIONS will not be in the least neglected. A full and elaborate set of text-books is proposed, covering in successive volumes by specialists the Indians, Negroes, Mormons, Moun- taineers, Chinese, and other foreigners among us, and our Island Possessions, Dr, J. M. BucKLEy will write one of the volumes. Detailed announcement will soon be made. A JUNIOR COURSE is also proposed, and one or two text-books will soon be announced. These books are published by mutual arrangement among’ the denominational publishing houses involved. They are bound uniformly, and are sold for 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents, in paper. Study classes desiring more elaborate text-books are referred to the admirable series published by the interdenominational eos of the Woman’s Boards. The volumes already pub- ished are: Via Christi, by Lovis— MANNING HopckKINs. A study of missions before Carey. Lux Christi, by CAROLINE ATWATER MASON. A study of missions in India. Rex Christi, a text-book on missions in China, by Dr, ARTHUR H. SMITH, — a more difficult volume than the one he is preparing for the Forward Mission Study Courses. Dr. Morrison and His CuHinese Assistants. The Forward Mission Study Courses EDITED BY AMOS R. WELLS AND S. EARL TAYLOR “Editorial Committee of the Young People’s Missionary Movement Princely Men / in the Heavenly Kingdom BY HARLAN P. BEACH, M.A., F.R.G.S. ~ Author of «* A Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions,’” ete. AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, BOSTON, Wlasan BV3 +12 ) Tike We. lobs CopyYRIGHT, 1903, BY AMOS R. WELLS anv S. EARL TAYLOR PREFACE Lire always has a deep interest for the reader. It pervades the otherwise uninteresting details of achievement, and converts missionary annals into modern Acts of the Apostles. An experi ence of many years in connection with mission study classes shows that biography, or life done in ink and paper, is one of the best methods of imparting missionary information. It is all- inclusive in its scope. Missionary geography is transformed into the necessary background of a life which otherwise would not be understood. Methods and problems, customs and religions, which by themselves are interesting, are most attractive when they serve as the scenery of lives full of activities and at times of dramatic interest. This little volume contains the fragmentary record of a few of the heroes who have contri- buted to the uplifting of the world’s greatest empire. They have been chosen to illustrate different phases of missionary endeavor in China, from the first entry of Protestantism to those tragic months of 1900, when a worse than Dio- Preface cletian persecution sowed the Church’s most prolific seed in the blood of her faithful martyrs. The pages of the text have not been burdened with dates; the most important of these the reader will find on the page preceding the first one of each chapter. It is not supposed that the reader will rest content with the meager details found here ; color must come from the fuller biographies mentioned in the Bibliography following Chapter VI. Those who use the volume as a study class text-book will find in the Appendixes material that will prove helpful for such a purpose. It is suggested that every reader be on the alert for suggestions from these sketches, some of which are as worthy of being incorporated into personal living as are the lessons of early Church History, or even of the apostolic age. CONTENTS I. Rospert Morrison, CHINA’S PROTESTANT as PIONEER : a : : 9 II. JoHN KENNETH MACKENZIE, “THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN”. : ‘ ‘ i ~ 45 III. James GILMOUR, THE APOSTLE TO THE \ MoNnGOoLs ‘ : 77 IV. Joun Livincston Nevius, THE CHRISTIAN ORGANIZER : 107 V. GEorGE LESLIE MACKAY, FoRMOSA’s PREACHER AND TEACHER : . 4 : , - 145 IV. PRINCELY MARTYRS OF CHINA’s SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE . . : ‘ ‘ . » 185 APPENDIX, A— Bibliography. : « 223 B— Organization and Leadership. . 226 C — Questions and Hints on the Chapters 231 Map oF CHINA. . i ‘ . Facing page 244 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Dr. MoRRISON AND His CHINESE ASSISTANTS, Frontispiece MORRISON AND MILNE’S CHINESE BIBLE Facing page 31 Morrison’s CHINESE DicTIONARY . me e 31. JOHN: KENNETH MACKENZIE w ri “ ss 45 JamMEs GILMOUR . ‘ : te “i 77 A Monoco.t Camp ; ‘ s #8 gl Joun Livinecston Nevius. 2 “ oi 107 Dr. NEvius In His WHEELBARROW es 125 Dr. MacKay AND STUDENTS . se ue 145 ARMED HEAD-HUNTERS s i « 159 Rev. Horace Tracy PITKIN . . ‘ fe 185 MENG, A MartTyr.OF Pao-TING Fu f ae 207 Map oF CHINA . . ‘ i " & 244 ROBERT MORRISON CHINA’S PROTESTANT PIONEER Born in Morpern, Encianp, January 5, 1782 Diep in Canton, Cutna, Aucust 1, 1834 THE DESPAIRING CRY “O rock, rock! when wilt thou open? ’’— Exclamation of Catholicism’s — Apostle, Xavier, as he lay dying of fever off the forbidden coasts of hina. “ O mighty fortress! when shall these impenetrable brazen gates of thine be broken through?’’ — Lament of Valignani, Xavier’s successor, as he gazed in sadness at the same inaccéssible mountains. THE PROPHETIC ANSWER “T have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build and to plant... . For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land... . And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. . . Is not my word like as fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? ’’— Jeremiah, the prophet of the brazen wall. PROPHECY BEING FULFILLED “To have Moses, David, and the prophets, Jesus Christ and His apos- tles, using their own words and thereby declaring to the inhabitants of this land the wonderful works of God, indicates, I hope, the speedy introduc- tion of a happier era in these parts of the world; and I trust that the loomy darkness of pagan scepticism will be dispelled by the Day-spring fom on high, and that the gilded idols of Budh and the numberless images which fill the land will one day assuredly fall to the ground before the force of God’s Word, as the idol Dagon fell before the ark. These are my an- ticipations, although there appears not the least opening at present. A bitter aversion to the name of our blessed Saviour and to any book which contains His name or His doctrine is felt and cherished. However, that does not induce me to despair.’’— Words of Morrison, when, in 1819, the translation of the Chinese Bible was completed. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EVENTS IN 1782. 1803. 1804. MORRISON’S LIFE Born in Morpeth, England, January 5. Entered Hoxton Academy, January 7. Offered himself to the London Missionary Society, May 27. Goes to Gosport for special training, May 30. 1805-06. Studies in London and Greenwich. 1807. 1809. 1813. 1814. 1815. 1816. 1817. 1818. 1819. 1820. 1821. 1822. 1823. 1824. 1825. 1826. 1828. 1830. 1833. 1834. Ordination, January 8. Voyage from England to New York, January 31-April 20. Voyage from New York to China, May 12-September 4. Marries Mary Morton, February 20. Appointed translator to East India Company, February 20. William Milne reaches Macao, July 4. Baptizes Tsae A-ko, the first Protestant convert, July 16. Wife and two children obliged to return to England, January at. Accompanies Embassy to Peking, July 13-January 1, 1817. Provisional Committee of Ultra Ganges Mission reports, November. Granted the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Clasgow University. Foundation of Anglo-Chinese College laid at Malacca, November. Translation of Bible completed, November 25. Family returns from England, August 23. Death of his first wife, June 9. Finishes writing his Dictionary, April 9. Visit to Malacca and Singapore, January 17-August 8. Appointed vice-president of the ‘‘ Singapore Institution,’ April. Voyage to England, December 6-March 23, 1824. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Second marriage —to Eliza Armstrong, November. He and his family return to China, May 1-September 19. Morrison’s Dictionary translated into Japanese. America’s first China missionaries, Bridgman and Abeel, arrive, February 25. Company forbid further publication by Morrison, June 22. Appointed Chinese interpreter to the Crown, July 16. Died at Canton, August 1. I ROBERT MORRISON Cuina’s Protestant PIongEER A GREAT man will be great anywhere and Heroes of under all conditions; yet his life and the forms 7/4¢¢ of his activity will necessarily vary with his en- vironment and with his underlying aims. Hence it happens that a missionary hero of Africa will exhibit his greatness in deeds of daring or of patient effort to enlighten a savage or barbarous people, while in India, China, or Japan an equally great.man will live for years without en- countering serious peril, and in quietness will lay foundations upon which the future Church in those countries will rise to be a blessing to un- told millions. In general, one must expect to find the picturesque and the exciting in lands inhabited by undeveloped races, while in civil- ized, or semi-civilized empires, life will be more commonplace. Though China belongs to the lat- ter class of countries, there are, nevertheless, con- stant points of interest in the land itself, in its customs which have come down from a period antedating the birth of Abraham, in the charac- iI “Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom.” Unconscious Preparation. 12 Princely Men ter of its remarkable people, and in the attrac- tions of missionary work which, under God, can produce such heroes of the faith as were brought before the world in the summer of 1g00. The beau-ideal of Chinese literature is known as the chin teti_pén, or chiin tett, commonly trans- lated “the superior man,” but more literally ‘‘the princely man.” As the Empire itself has as one of its designations T’ien Kuo, “Heaven King- dom,” it is appropriate, both from the Chinese and the Christian viewpoints, to regard as princely men of the Heavenly Kingdom those noble rep- resentatives of Jesus Christ who have lived con- secrated and consistent lives in the midst of those who are Celestials in God’s desire, but who are so far from being true citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Robert Morrison, who was born January 5, 1782, enjoyed few of the advantages which one would have chosen for a man who was destined to be the foremost Chinese scholar of his time and the leader of the forces of the Church against the acknowledged Gibraltar of the non-Christian world. Though not the child of poverty, he was the son of a farm laborer who, in Robert’s third year, left Morpeth, in Northumberland, to be- come the proprietor of a last and boot-tree shop in Newcastle, sixteen miles away. Yet the lim- ited opportunities for schooling, the necessity laid upon him to work diligently and steal his Robert Morrison 13 time for study from the “darkness or from his work, as he looked for a moment at his open book upon the bench, and the religious training that one expects to find in the home of a Scotch elder, were perhaps the best preparation for the pioneer in a most difficult enterprise. It meant something to have lived his boyhood through in England’s northernmost county, with its tradi- tions of border warfare and of that older Roman period which has left its memorial in the lesser Chinese wall which stretches across the southern border. Flodden Field, where an English army had so nearly exterminated their northern foes that there “was not a worshipful Scots family that did not own a grave on Brankstone Moor,” spoke of heroic warfare with carnal weapons. And not far distant, just off the Northumberland coast, was Lindisfarne, the Holy Island, which Columban monks had made an abode of piety and the home of learning in a dark and heathen- ish age. Morrison’s was a county, too, whose boys could count as a fellow shireman brave old Bishop Ridley, who was slowly roasted to death for Christ’s sake over against Baliol College in Oxford. Nor did young Morrison need to look to the past for incentives to great endeavor against overwhelming odds; for had he not worked shoulder to shoulder with the father of modern railroads, George Stevenson, who could say: “I have fought for the locomotive single- Spiritual Preparation. Vision and Action. 14 Princely Men handed for nearly twenty years; I put up with every rebuff, determined not to be put down.” A godly father and a praying mother were his early object lessons, and though he sowed to the wind for a brief period, during which profanity and intemperance gained temporary mastery, God’s spirit conquered the strong youth when he was about fifteen years of age. Conversion meant for Morrison a new life. Old things had passed away, and the one business in life was to cultivate his own spiritual nature and aid every one near him to reach a higher plane. In the family circle and shop and church, among the poor and sick of Newcastle, he was constantly on the alert to save or to build others up in the Christian life. To accomplish this he gave him- self to prayer and to Bible study, making sacri- fices in order to find the time and the necessary seclusion. Good books, like Romaine’s Letters, Marshall on Sanctification, and above all, Mat- thew Henry’s quaint and helpful Commentary, entered into the bone and sinew of his Christian life. The more Morrison studied his Bible, the surer he became that God needed his entire time for a wider ministry than was possible for an artisan. Hence we hear him saying on June 10, 1801: “This day I entered with Mr. Laidler to learn Latin . . . I know not what may be the end; God only knows. It is my desire, if He Robert Morrison 15 please to spare me in the world, to serve the Gos- pel of Christ as He shall give me opportunity.” He had left school at an early age in order to earn his daily bread; henceforth he must feed his body and mind at the same time, even if much of the night needed to be spent in the process. He did not excuse himself from personal effort for others because of this extra strain; instead he redoubled his efforts for the salvation of those who were in need of a Christian friend. So faithful was Morrison in his studies, that Missionary two days after he had attained his majority he 28/0" entered Hoxton Academy, the theological semi- nary of the Congregationalists, in order to fit himself for the ministry. Here he soon found himself face to face with the all-important ques- tion of the field of his future activity, and the following quotation reveals his solution of the problem: “Jesus, I have given myself to Thy service. The question with me is, Where shall I serve? I learn from Thy Word that it is Thy holy pleasure that the Gospel should be preached ‘in all the world, for a witness unto all nations.’ And hence Thou hast given commandment to Thy servants unto ‘the end of the world’ to ‘preach the Gospel to every creature,’ promising them Thy presence. I consider ‘the world’ as ‘the field’ where Thy servants must labor. When I view the field, O Lord, my Master, I perceive that by far the greater part is entirely without 16 Princely Men laborers, or at best has but here and there one or two, whilst there are thousands crowded up in one corner. My desire is, O Lord, to engage where laborers are most wanted.’ In the line of his last sentence may be quoted a statement with regard to difficulties. His desire was “that God would station him in that part of the mis- sionary field where the difficulties were the greatest and to all human appearance, the most insurmountable,” —a wish that was gratified, surely, in China. Obstacles. The decision cost him much. Prospects of being sent up to the university for further study, visions of large opportunities at home for a man of unusual strength, the changed circumstances of his family which, had he not been one of eight children, might have necessitated his heeding his father’s appeal to return home and assume the burdens of the shop and of the family, and an engagement which was broken off when a for- eign mission was decided upon, — these were some of the obstacles which God sent into his life to fit him for an enterprise which was beset with difficulties. Special Having overcome them all and been accepted Preparation. }y the London Missionary Society, in 1804 he went to its training institution at Gosport for special preparation, and the next year he was called to London for work in medicine, astron- omy, and Chinese. Two laymen on the Board Robert Morrison cy of Directors had felt a special burden for un- reached China, and finally they had prevailed. So Morrison was turned aside from Timbuctoo, his first love, to go to China, — just as Living- stone, desiring to go to China, was later sent by the same Society to Africa. To learn Chinese in the heart of London was not an easy task; but a manuscript copy of most of the New Testament, translated by an unknown Catholic missionary, a Latin-Chinese Lexicon, also in manuscript, and an irascible native of South China, Yong Sam- tak, were the means of initiating him into the mysteries of the most difficult language in the world, and were also a splendid training in pa- tient endurance. Just after he had entered his twenty-sixth year Morrison’s preparation was completed, the last sermons were preached, and the heart-breaking adieus were said to friends who were dear as life itself. He could not sail directly to China, since the East India Company’s ships would not carry such despicable cargoes as missionaries were con- sidered to be. Hence we see him and two families destined for India, bidding farewell to England on January 31, 1807, en route for New York. Having reached our metropolis after a voyage of almost eighty days, he succeeded in securing passage for China, and armed with a letter from James Madison, then Secretary of State, he turned his face toward the land of desire. Farewell to England. In America. The Situation. 18 Princely Men This was not done, however, until he had won a host of friends and awakened much inter- est in a cause which had still to wait three years for its first organized society, the American Board. He had also returned to a sneering ship- owner his classical reply to the question, “And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect you will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire?” “No, sir; I expect God will.” After a journey of 113 days from New York, the shores of China came into view, and_ shortly thereafter he landed at Canton on September 7, 1807, a day long to be remembered in Protestant Church history. What was the situation confronting Protest- antism’s pioneer as he landed amid the heats and odors and perils of Canton? The English, who were almost wholly connected with the hos- tile East India Company, were so opposed to missions that he had been obliged to sail on an American ship in order to reach there. Indeed, for some time it was not deemed expedient for him to be openly known as an Englishman, and hence he was regarded as an American. The Catholics, who were numerous down on the coast at Macao, were bitterly opposed to the ‘coming of Protestants, and from the beginning to the end of his career in China were covertly or openly dogging his footsteps and organizing opposition to his efforts. The Chinese officials Robert Morrison 19 were even more opposed to anything except trade relations with the despised “ocean men.” For any native to teach a foreigner was a very grave offence, and as for openly holding religioussmeet- ings, that could not be thought of for years to come. The Chinese merchants could not under- stand why a foreigner was there who was never seen to enter into trade, and for months he was a suspicious enigma to them. While he had a few friends from the outset, notably Sir George Staunton and Mr. Roberts among the English and a few among the American merchants, the two nationalities were rivals and not at peace among themselves. The British were quite will- ing, when Morrison’s missionary character began to be known, to call him the American mission- ary, but his American acquaintances were ex- tremely uneasy lest this story should offend their commercial friends and the Chinese officials. In the anxieties which the situation occasioned dur- ing those early days, he wrote: “In my father’s house and by my father’s example, I was taught at morning, noon, and night, to cast my care on God. This has been, and still is, the way in which I seek peace to my troubled mind and comfort when disconsolate. I do not boast my- self of to-morrow, or make myself unhappy about it. In the morning I seek the blessing of my God and His protection until noon; at noon I seek it until night; and when I seek for the Canton. 20 Princely Men body repose at night, into the Lord’s hands I commend my spirit. If at any time I take a different course, I slight my own mercy and rob myself of that peace and joy which is to be ex- perienced in believing prayer to God.” The Canton of 1807 in its native section did not differ materially from what it is to-day. The name, by a strange persistence of an early error, is strictly that of the province of which it is the capital and means “Broad East.” The natives call it “Capital City of Broad East,” or simply “Capital City,” while two other names, founded on legends, are “City of Rams” and “City of Genii.”’ It is near the southeastern shore of the Empire, seventy miles north of Macao in a direct line, and lies at the foot of the White Cloud Hills. Between it and the sea is one of the most extensive and fertile river estuaries of the world, and its outlying territory is the home of almost all of the Chinese who come to America. While its walls are not more than six or seven miles in circuit, there is as large a population without as within them. Its twelve gates, called Great Peace, Eternal Rest, etc., were closed at night. A view of the city from a distant eminence re- vealed “‘an expanse of reddish roofs, often con- cealed by frames for drying or dyeing clothes, or shaded and relieved by a few large trees and in- terspersed with high red poles used for flagstaffs. Two pagodas shoot up within the walls, far above Robert Morrison QI the watch-towers on them, and with the five- storied tower on Kwanyin Shan [Hill], near the northern gate, form the most conspicuous objects in the prospect. To a spectator at this eleva- tion, the river is a prominent feature in the land- scape, as it shines out covered with a great di- versity of boats of different colors and sizes, some stationary, others moving, and all resound- ing with the mingled hum of laborers, sailors, musicians, hucksters, children, and boatwomen, pursuing their several sportsand occupations .... The hills on the north rise twelve hundred feet, their acclivities for miles being covered with graves and tombs, the necropolis of this vast city.” We must not stop to look at its more than six hundred streets, glorying in the names Martial Dragon, Pearl, Golden Flower, New Green Pea, Physic, Old Clothes, etc. Pagoda, temple, shrine, and the thousand curious sights which met Morrison’s eye must be imagined, as also Canton’s interesting inhabitants. In 1807 foreigners were not permitted to live at will throughout the city, but were confined to certain houses along the river side, known as The Thirteen Factories. The number being limited, rent was exorbitant and the cost of living so great that Morrison, in order to economize, reduced his expenses to the point of endangering his health. Moreover, the fear lest he and his teachers should be noticed, if he were seen often The Nearer Environment. ae Princely Men in the streets, prevented his taking exercise in his early life in China. The Canton of the for- eigners of that time is thus described by Dr. Medhurst, Morrison’s successor: ‘‘The Factories comprise a pile of buildings about a quarter of a mile square, through which they may range with- out molestation. In front of these is an open space, not moré than a hundred yards long and fifty wide, where they may take the air; but this esplanade is generally so choked up with barbers and fortune-tellers, vendors of dogs and cats, quack medicines, and trinkets, with a host of strangers come to gaze at the foreigners, that it is difficult to move. Adjoining the factories are two rows of native houses, called New and Old China Street, where foreigners may ramble and purchase trinkets; and if they can endure crowds and confusion, with the chance of being pushed down, they may stroll through the narrow streets of the suburbs, but never without offence to the olfactory nerves, or the finer feelings. Another mode of recreation is the pleasure of rowing Eu- ropean boats up and down a crowded river, where the stranger is in continual danger of being upset by large Chinese barges, bearing down upon him without warning, while no one makes the slightest effort to save those who may be precipitated into the water. Should he land at any given spot up or down the river, he is always liable to be stoned or bambooed bv the natives, Robert Morrison 2% when they are strong or mischievous enough to attempt it. The Government does, indeed, allow foreigners to take a trip in parties of eight or ten about once a month to the flower gardens, which lie three miles up the river; but this indulgence is so pompously given and of such little worth that few avail themselves of it.” In such a spot Morrison spent his early months, wearing the Chinese garb and queue, permitting his finger- nails to grow long like the native scholar’s, and eating Chinese food with the native chopsticks. Later he abandoned this mode of living, but it proved his desire to become one with his adopted countrymen; while even his private prayers were offered in faltering Chinese, that he might the sooner acquire their language. All this time, it should be remembered, he was under the closest espionage of men who were his security to the Government, and who duly reported the minut- est acts of the new comer. The London Missionary Society, in view of the conditions existing in China, had sent him out with instructions to prepare a dictionary and, if possible, a translation of the Bible, either within the Empire, or at a settlement near China where he might be allowed to live. This program was practically the only one open to him, and it proved in the end the best one that could have been de- cided upon. Two factors were necessary in order to carry Morrison's Program. Two Essen- tial Factors. 24 Princely Men out these instructions, he must have competent native assistance and he must be supplied with native books and writing materials. But what Chinese would incur the risk of teaching him with the probability confronting him of being branded with the characters meaning traitor? Through the kindness of Sir George and of the head of the English factory, Mr. Roberts, Abel Yun, a Catholic convert from Peking, came to his assistance. Morrison still needed paper, ink and books, but within a few months his Chinese library grew to a collection of 500 thin volumes. These were procured at great expense, because furnished to a foreigner and also because of most exorbitant “squeezes” taken from him as an in- voluntary commission by those who made the purchases. Yun had been taught by the Cath- olic Fathers, so that he could speak Latin flu- ently, and through this medium and what Mor- rison already knew of Chinese, together with the two manuscripts which he had copied in London, new acquisitions were rapidly made. Lee, his other teacher, was a literary graduate and hence was not as timorous as one would be without that safeguard. Both held in contempt the knowledge of the West. ‘My two people,” Morrison writes, ‘agreed in considering it alto- gether useless to be at any trouble to know any- thing of foreigners. The Celestial Empire has everything in itself that it is desirable either to Robert Morrison 25 possess or to know. As the most learned never acquire the whole of the literature of China, why then concern themselves about that which is exotic? With regard to religion and morality, the depths of the knowledge contained in the Four Books have never been fathomed; and till that be done it is folly to attend to any other.” As the weary months of that first year wore away, Morrison’s constant application to study without sufficient exercise and nourishing food, on the ground floor of a storehouse, led to illness that threatened to be most serious. He was ac- cordingly obliged to secure better quarters, pre- viously occupied by a French missionary, whom the Chinese Government now ordered to be de- ported, while Morrison was permitted to remain. He feared lest he, too, might be required to go to Penang or elsewhere; but the kindly offices of his London tutor, Yong, who had secured an excellent position on his return to China, enabled him to remain. As time went on Morrison’s sterling worth had won friends for him among the English; so that when serious ill-health made it necessary for him to remove to Macao, he was provided not only with a place in which to live, but, better still, their influence preserved him from the enmity of the Catholic clergy, who had an increasing fear and hatred of the zealous and successful Protestant emissary. When later a disagreement with the Chinese Government drove Anxieties. 26 Princely Men all Englishmen out of Canton, his powerful fellow countrymen furnished him with protection. Spiritual The great sorrow of these early months had Work. been his inability to do any open religious work. An attempt to conduct a service for the few Americans in Canton was not appreciated, though the first meeting was attended by one of their number. Long residence in a Sabbathless land had made all the foreigners indifferent to reli- gion, and though later a few English and Amer- icans attended services conducted by Morrison, he never saw any large fruitage from such en- deavors. He used the English liturgy, but even this concession did not allure Churchmen to his rooms. From the outset his program for Sunday was arranged to benefit the Chinese. The Gos- pel Harmony, copied in London, enabled him to present to his teachers and servant the great truths of Christianity; and as his knowledge of Chinese grew, his ministrations became increas- ingly helpful. To the end of his life these Sun- day meetings were continued, though he was never permitted to conduct an open service for all Chinese. On the contrary, it was necessary to hold the meetings behind closed or locked doors for fear lest the few attending might be arrested for their interest in Christianity. Their attitude toward the truth taught was that of indifference; our Lord’s words were right words, but they claimed to have similar teachings that were Robert Morrison a7 equally good. A life-time of most faithful per-' sonal dealings with the few whom he was able to! approach, as well as the regular services on Sun- day and in family prayers, resulted in very little manifest fruitage. If as many as ten were pres- ent on the Sabbath, it was a good attendance. Though Morrison yearned for their salvation and endured the scorn of his Chinese friends, as well as the open violence of his assistants, — one of them tore his coat from his back, while his Lon- don tutor turned against him, — all was seem- ingly in vain. Only the profoundest convictions of duty and the deepest longing of a Christian heart made him willing to continue these self- denying efforts. Not until he had prayed and taught and ag- First onized in prayer for the conversion of the Chinese Protestant for nearly seven years was he rewarded by seeing ica even one of them give himself to God. In his journal for July 16, 1814, he writes: “At a spring of water issuing from the foot of a lofty hill by the seaside, away from human observa- tion, I baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the person whose name and character have been given above. Oh, that the Lord may cleanse him from all sin by the blood of Jesus and purify his heart by the influences of the Holy Spirit! May he be the first fruits of a great harvest — one of millions who shall come and be saved.” Until his death five years later 28 Princely Men this earliest Protestant convert, Tsae A-ko, re- tained his faith, though how imperfect it was is indicated by Morrison’s account of him. He had heard the Gospel in the missionary’s home during his first year in China. Three years later, when he was working on the New Testament which was being prepared for the press, he came to know the truth more fully. Yet even then Morrison says of him: ‘His natural temper is not good. He often disagreed with his brother and other domestics, and I thought it better that he should retire from my service. He, however, continued, whenever he was within a few miles, to come to worship on the Sabbath day. He prayed earnestly morning and evening and read the Decalogue as contained in the Catechism. He says that from the Decalogue and instruction of friends he saw his great and manifold errors, — that his nature was wrong, that he had been unjust, and that he had not fulfilled his duty to his friends, or brothers, or other men. His knowledge, of course, is very limited and his views perhaps obscure; but I hope that his faith in Jesus is sincere. I took for my guide what Philip said to the eunuch, ‘If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized.’” Had this convert been like Leang A-fa, the first Chi- nese baptized by Milne, who became a shining light in the Church, Morrison’s faith would not have been so sorely tried; yet our hero endured Robert Morrison 29 as seeing the invisible, and patiently labored on until death, without receiving into the Church more than two or three others of his own con- verts. In November of the year following his arrival, he became acquainted at Macao with the family of Dr. Morton and invited them to his rooms for worship. The son, William, was his pupil in language and science and through Morrison’s in- fluence he became a Christian. His father de- sired that he should prepare himself to become a missionary and had the young man lived, this wish would probably have been realized. The year brought to Morrison an even greater bless- ing; for an acquaintance with Miss Morton soon led to her conversion and later to their engage- ment, and in February, 1809, they were married. The days preceding this event were most anxious ones for him. The jealousy of the Chinese and the enmity of the Catholic Church, together with opposition from the leading employees of the Factories, so harassed him that he determined to flee to Penang in the hope of there pursuing his labors unmolested. It so happened, however, that on the very day of his marriage an invitation from the East India Company came to him to become its official translator at a salary of £500. This offer, which he accepted as did the officers of the London Missionary Society, assured him of freedom from Morrison's Marriage. Translator to the East India Company. The Dictionary. 30 Princely Men molestation in language study, furnished him with an excuse for being in China that would satisfy the Chinese, protected him from Catholic persecution, and provided the large sum needed in order to print his monumental Dictionary.. His salary, which was later largely increased, relieved the Missionary Society of his support and made it possible for him to subscribe thousands of dol- lars toward the publication of his religious works and the educational schemes which he later set on foot. While most of his time must now be given to his secular duties, —a great sorrow to him, — there was little else possible for a mis- sionary living within the Empire to do except to lay the foundations of the Protestant missionary enterprise by furnishing the means of acquiring the language and providing a translation of the Scriptures. The key that was to unlock one of the most difficult languages in the world to Occidentals, may be said to have been begun in London when Morrison laboriously copied with a camel’s hair pencil the strange hieroglyphs taught him by Yong, after which he transcribed the Latin- English Dictionary. From that day until 1823, when the six quarto volumes, each equal in size to a family Bible, were given to the world by the munificent assistance of the East India Com- pany, it had been the constant burden of his life, though he was directly engaged upon the work Morrison and Mitne’s Curnese Brsie. The verse enclosed within black lines is John 3 : 16. Morrison’s CuinesE Dictionary. The last large character on the left-hand open page is the Heo, meaning to learn. Robert Morrison 31 for seven years only. Based upon the standard Chinese Dictionary of the Emperor Kang Hsi, which required for its production the time of thirty of the best scholars in the Empire for five years, it is far more than its name suggests. “The work is indeed almost as much an encyclo- pedia as a dictionary. Biographies, histories, and notices of national customs, ceremonies and sys- tems abound, making it a repertory of informa- tion on all matters touching Chinese life and lit- erature.” Brief extracts from the account given of a single character or word, will show the intrinsic interest of this Dictionary. After explaining the symbol Heo, “learning,” Morrison describes most interestingly the Chinese educational sys- tem and then quotes 100 of the rules for the regulation of schools and their pupils. Here are a few of them. “When the scholars enter the school, they must bow to Confucius, the Sage, and next bow to the master.” ‘‘Every evening, when about to break up school, there shall be an ode recited, or a piece of ancient or modern his- tory narrated, a piece the most easily understood, the most affecting, or one connected with im- portant consequences being selected. All frothy talk and lewd expressions are forbidden; and when the school is broken up, the scholars must bow to Confucius and the master the same as in the morning; even the very oldest must not omit A Sample Character. The Chinese Bible. 32 Princely Men doing so.” ‘‘When they reach home, let them first bow to the household gods, then to their ancestors, next to their fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts.” Rule twenty commands those who desire to memorize to bring three things to the work—their eyes, mind, and mouth — and carefully to avoid repeating with the mouth while the heart is thinking about something else. Drawing lots as to the order in which each scholar is to recite, the personal ap- plication of what is studied to the life, etc., are other rules found under this character, as well as a full account of China’s unique examination sys- tem, occupying twenty-four pages. One can readily see that Morrison really needed the 10,000 volumes of his Chinese library to enrich the pages of the only interesting Chinese Dictionary ever published. Even more important in the early history of Protestant missions in China was his work as Bible translator. Here, however, he made large use of what had been done by the unknown Cath- olic translator of most of the New Testament, and he was also aided in the Old Testament by Dr. Milne, so that this work was not as largely his as was the Dictionary. Thirty-nine of the sixty-six books were of his own translation, how- ever. The primary difficulty which he had to overcome was that of finding terms for the cor- rect representation of spiritual and theological Robert Morrison ge ideas. The manuscript of part of the New Tes- tament and other Catholic writings, as well as the famous controversy waged between different parties in that Church as to the proper term for God, and the usage of Chinese Mohammedans, cast some light upon the subject; yet Morrison carefully studied anew the whole matter of ter- minology. This question is too technical to be discussed here; suffice it to say that the terms chosen by him differed in some cases from those used by the Catholics, and that to-day few of them are retained. As for his translation, the historical portions are more smoothly rendered than is the remainder of the Bible. Here is a literal translation of the first part of Genesis: “God in the beginning made at first heaven and earth, and the earth without form and empty, and darkness upon the abyss’s surface; and God’s spirit vibrated over the water’s surface. God said, Let obtain light, and immediately have light; and God saw the light to be good.” The Psalms occasioned more difficulty. The 139th, beginning at the seventh verse, reads: “I to what place may escape from thy Spirit? I to what place may escape from thy presence? I, if as- cend to heaven, thou in that place. I, if myself make bed in hell, behold thou art there. I, if take the morning’s wings and dwell in the sea’s remote places, there thy hand still shall lead me, thy right hand shall guard me.” In India, Marsh- Other Literary Works. Morrison, the Strategist. 34 Princely Men man, with the help of an Armenian from Macao, named Lassar, had translated the Bible into Chinese, and it was issued from the Serampore press in 1820. It was thus the first entire Chi- nese Bible to be printed, though Morrison and Milne completed their work of translation on November 25, 1819. Their version was far su- perior to the Marshman-Lassar translation, and except among the Baptists it had a longer life and a much wider circulation. Apart from its great value as an evangelical agency in China, it awakened a great desire on the part of Occidental Christians to forward a work which had hitherto seemed hopeless; while learned bodies and Eu- ropean scholars lauded the man who had pro- duced a translation of the Bible and a Diction- ary incomparably superior to anything hitherto known. Morrison’s Chinese Grammar, like every sub- sequent attempt in that line, was practically use- less. “A View of China for Philological Pur- poses” was more successful and is interesting to- day for any reader, and so are his “Chinese Miscellany” and “Horae Sinicae.” In all Dr. Morrison published in English nineteen separate works, including some minor pamphlets, while twelve Chinese works of his were also printed. All of these attest his industry, care, and learning. The work already mentioned was most fun- damental to the cause of Chinese missions; yet Robert Morrison 35 Morrison did not content himself with transla- tion and such evangelistic effort as the narrow restrictions already mentioned permitted. The _ coming of his only colleague, William Milne, in 1813 and his own liberal salary enabled him to plan larger things than could be accomplished in the Empire itself. Milne was a man of great ability but was so rustic and unpromising in his youth that a member of the Society’s Committee proposed that he be sent out as a servant to a missionary. When asked if he would go in that capacity, he replied with joy: “Yes, Sir, most certainly; I am willing to be anything, so that I am in the work. To be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water is too great an honor for me, when the Lord’s house is building.” This half- orphan, who had been converted from a life of notorious wickedness to one in which before he had decided to become a missionary he spent hours every day in prayer for the conversion of the world, was a royal assistant to China’s pio- neer. The bitter animosity of Catholics and the opposition of Protestant merchants made it im- possible, however, for Milne to remain in China; and hence his brief but fruitful life of ten years was spent in Malaysia, mainly in Malacca. Morrison’s scheme called for an educational institution outside the limits of the Empire and in that part of Asia where there were many Chi- nese colonists, so that missionaries might be free Anglo- Chinese College. yi Other Activities. 36 Princely Men to educate workers for the Chinese, as well as prepare an abundant literature, which Morrison clearly foresaw would always be one of the most important factors in China’s evangelization. In- struction in Chinese and English, later in Malay also, was given; and from its foundation in 1818 to its removal to Hong-kong in 1845 it did a valuable work, though it never rose beyond the grammar grade. The literary part of Morri- son’s program was more successfully carried out. Aside from Milne’s valuable aid in translating the Bible, he edited a periodical in Chinese and issued most helpful tracts, particularly one of the best and most useful in China at the present time, his “Two Friends.” Like William Burns and Griffith John, he had the happy faculty of speak- ing to the heart of the Chinese in the very ac- cents of their native tongue. Soon after Morrison’s arrival, he began a cor- respondence with missionaries in other parts of the world, feeling that much was to be gained by keep- ing in touch with those engaged in the same work the world over. ‘‘The Ultra Ganges Missionary Union,” intended to unite all the members of the London Society in Southeastern Asia, was a wiser attempt in that direction. Its objects were “to cultivate mutual fellowship among the mem- bers; to strengthen and perpetuate the Missions connected with the Union; and to promote the diffusion of divine truth in Pagan and Moham- Robert Morrison a7 medan countries.” As a part of Morrison’s other duties he was called upon to be a purchas- ing agent and general adviser to all the mission- aries in that part of the world. He was the first to be invited to contribute to periodicals which sprang up, such as the Canton Register and the Chinese Repository, the latter a missionary jour- nal. The first work for medical missions in China was the result of his investigations into the needs of the poor. As no medical missionary was at hand and as the Company physician could aid him but little in his philanthropic en- deavor, he opened a dispensary under a native practitioner, in which were treated multitudes of poor patients according to the prevalent methods. For the use of the dispensary, he purchased a library of 800 Chinese medical works and a com- plete assortment of native medicines. Meetings at his rooms for religious conference and worship, and others to which were invited those interested in the study of Chinese or of subjects relating to China, constituted no small part of his labors. The correspondence with missionary societies, which finally brought to China such men of might as Dr. Bridgman and David Abeel, and increased to six the force sent by his own So- ciety to Southeastern Asia, was an important contribution to China’s redemption. Work for sailors, for whom he held meetings and estab- lished a coffee house, should also be mentioned. Journey to Peking, The Wider Parish. 38 Princely Men Morrison’s only journey in the Empire, beyond his shuttle trips between Canton, his official resi- dence, and Macao, his home and city of refuge when driven out of Canton, or in need of change, was to Peking as one of the official suite of Lord Amherst, sent as ambassador to the Emperor. The journey by water to Peking, and by the Grand Canal and other waterways so far as pos- sible through six of the provinces, occupied about six months of 1816. The embassy was a fail- ure, owing to Britain’s rightful refusal to permit her representative to make the “three prostra- tions and nine head knockings” to the Emperor; but the journey gave Morrison the opportunity to enlarge his knowledge of the language in dif- ferent sections of the Empire. It also furnished much needed relaxation in visiting places of his- toric interest, such as the White Deer College, older than Oxford and sacred to its most illustri- ous graduate, Chu Fu-tzu, the maker of modern Confucianism. Few traces of Catholic Christian- ity were found on the journey, but he held illuminating conversations with Mohammedans, made inquiries about the Jews of Kai-féng Fu, etc. The Chinese Scriptures and tracts, prepared by Dr. Morrison, as also his ‘Domestic In- structor” and “Scripture Lessons,” were quite widely circulated, some of them penetrating into Korea and Japan and the far interior of China Robert Morrison 39 itself. He even had the joy of hearing that a young Chinese from Macao, who was living in New York, had been converted through reading his Chinese New Testament and was living an earnest, consistent life. Leaving China early in” 1823, Morrison spent some time in Malacca and Singapore in advancing the interests of the Anglo- Chinese College and in establishing a Malay branch of the same in the latter place, the two henceforth being called the Singapore Institu- tion. He had also raised his voice in protest against the licensed gambling and the slave trade which cursed the two settlements. His first and only furlough to England oc- Home curred during the years 1824-26, after he had Fu//ough. been absent sixteen years. After returning from Singapore, he sailed in December for England, reaching there in 1824. His wife’s ill health had forced her to go home in 1815, and returning to China, she had died in 1821, so that in England he had no stated home until his second marriage to Eliza Armstrong in 1825. Hardly had he landed when his troubles began. A fine library of 10,000 volumes which had cost him £2,000, and which he intended to donate to a public in- stitution for the furtherance of Chinese study, were held for some time before they could be ad- mitted duty free. Otherwise he was most cor- dially greeted, and his stay in England, Ireland, Scotland, and France was a constant ovation and 40 Princely Men a wearisome series of addresses and sermons. Often his day began at five in the morning and closed at eleven at night. Even royalty granted him an audience and some of the foremost schol- ars of the Continent greeted him with enthusiasm, —men like Humboldt, Rémusat and Klaproth. Sir Walter Scott desired to have him as guest at Abbotsford; but this and many other alluring in- vitations must be declined that he might interest a larger number in China’s evangelization and in his college scheme as an aid to it. Among more direct efforts for China and other mission lands was the establishment of a Universal Phil- ological Society, whose objects should be to “‘af- ford to those benevolent persons who leave their native country, with the view of imparting to the heathen the knowledge of Christianity, every de- bree of assistance before they quit their native shores.” It also included the collection of in- formation as to customs and opinions of the peoples of mission lands, instruction in languages by returned missionaries and other competent persons, and the collection of a suitable library. His ambitious scheme eventuated in a “Lan- guage Institution,” toward the development of which he devoted an extra year at home at his own expense. The Institution was short lived, but so far as China was concerned, it was a help to those who availed themselves of its advan- tages. In addition to the thirteen studying under Robert Morrison 4I him was a small class of ladies who wished to prepare for foreign missionary service. In 1826 Dr. Morrison returned with his fam- ily to China. The closing years of his life there were clouded by increasing difficulties with the Company and the uncertainty as to his future, when its dissolution should be followed by reg- ular British trade under Government care. In- creasing weakness also added to his anxieties. When the Company finally ceased to exist, Mor- rison’s fears were dispelled by his appointment as Chinese secretary and interpreter with a sal- ary of over $6,000. Had his wife’s health per- mitted her to remain in China he might have rallied after being thus relieved of financial anx- ieties; but his intense affection for her and for all the members of his family was an occasion of deepest uneasiness during her long journey to England. This sorrow and some vexatious ne- gotiations at the very beginning of his new work aggravated his weakness, so that he finally passed away on the first of August, 1834. Probably no Englishman has ever died in China whose de- parture has been so widely known and deplored. Friends of missions the world over, as well as all interested in the Chinese, united in tributes of highest esteem and sorrow. He had given to the heralds of salvation in China a dictionary and other linguistic helps that for decades smoothed the way for a speedier entrance into active work. The End. A Testimony. 42 Princely Men He had bequeathed to the Chinese the Scrip- tures and other religious literature which had led many into the light; and the power of his Christian example was even more helpful to a people whose obscurest scholars daily strive to reproduce in outward ways the life of their great Teacher, Confucius. To the world Dr. Mor- rison furnished an illustration of life-long endur- ance of petty persecution and hydra-headed op- position, which were more than overcome by a firm trust in God and undying devotion to the supreme end of bringing China to the Savior. S. Wells Williams, one of the two Protestant missionaries, who with three native Christians constituted the entire Protestant Church in China at Dr. Morrison’s death, thus summarizes the results of his life: “The dawn of China’s regen- eration was breaking as his eyes closed on the scene of his labors, and these labors contributed to advance the new era, and his example to in- spirit his successors to more and greater triumphs. His name, like those of Carey, Marshman, Jud- son, and Martyn, belongs to the heroic age of missions. Each of them was fitted for a peculiar field. Morrison was able to work alone, un- cheered by congenial companions and sustained by his energy and sense of duty, presenting to foreigners and natives alike an instance of a man diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. His life was mostly passed in the midst Robert Morrison 43 of those who had no sympathy with his pursuits, but his zeal never abated, nor did he compro- mise his principles to advance his cause. His translations and his Dictionary have been indeed superseded by better ones, built up on his foun- dations and guided by his experience; but his was the work of a wise master-builder, and fu- ture generations in the Church of God in China will ever find reason to bless Him for the labors and example of Robert Morrison.” OS . SSS cc Joun Kenneta Mackenzie, M.R.O.S.: L.R.O.R. JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE «THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN ’”’ Born in Yarmoutu, Enctanp, AucusT 25, 1850 Diep in Tientsin, Cuina, Aprit 1, 1888 THE DIVINE COMMISSION ** As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: freely ye received, freely give.” OUR LORD’S EXAMPLE “* And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were sick, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick with divers diseases, and cast out many devils. ... And in the morning, a great while before day. he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed. . . . And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.’ «THE IMITATION OF CHRIST ’”’ ‘«Should we not seek to imitate the Lord’s method, even though the re- sult be but a very feeble copy of the great original? What is it that we have to impart? Let us be definite with ourselves. Is it some new dogma? a system of doctrine from the West? If so, by ali means leave the religious element in the hands of the evangelist ; he will expound your doctrines better than you can. But we reject such an idea. The Chinese already have more than enough of mere empty doctrine. What we bring them is no lifeless form, but a living, personal Saviour, whom it is our privilege to represent to the Chinese; and this glorious privilege of representing our Saviour King and witnessing for Him, we dare not commit to any second party.” — From Dr. Mackenzie’s editorial in the Medical Missionary Journal, written shortly before his death. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EVENTS IN 1850. 1867. 68. 1870. 1874. 1875. 1877. 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1888. MACKENZIE’S LIFE Born in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, August 25. First strong religious i impression from Mr. Moody’s address, May 10. Decides to follow Christ, May 10. Enters Bristol Medical School to prepare for his medical mission, October. At London receives the diploma of M.R.C.S.,— Member of the Royal College of Surgeons,— and at Edinburgh that of L. R. C. P.,— Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. Accepted for China by the London Missionary Society, December 15. Works in Moody’s evangelistic meetings, March. Sails for China, April ro. Reaches Hankow, China, June 8. Marries Miss Travers in Shanghai, January 9. Reaches Tientsin,—having been transferred from Hankow, — March 13 Hospital iaeniotial presented to Viceroy Li Hung-chang, May. Viceroy Li invites Mackenzie to attend his wife, August 1. The Viceroy’s temporary ‘‘ Free Hospital ”? opened. The permanent hospital of the Viceroy opened, December 2. Mackenzie’s wife and daughter return to England, March. China’s first Medical School opened, Dec. 15. Wife and daughter return to China, November. Mrs. Mackenzie i invalided home, her husband accompanying her, December Srends af a Hew months in England and on the Continent, February 18-Jul First six Sidents graduate from the Medical School, October. Emperor confers upon | ‘Dr. Mackenzie “The Star of the Order of the Double Dragon."’ Coming to Tientsin of the Cambridge Band and accompanying re- vival, April. “Medical” Missionary Association of China’’ formed, Mackenzie being one of the prime movers and an editor of its journal, Autumn, Dr. Mackenzie dies after a six days’ illness, April 1. II JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE «© THe Berovep Puysician ”’ On August 25, 1850, an infant opened its eyes in the fen-begirt town of Yarmouth, England, who was destined to become one of the princely physicians of a great Empire. From this place, so much resembling the Tientsin plain, — in which he should close his labors, — in its absence of rising ground and the presence of straggling willows and abundant harvests of reeds, Mac- kenzie’s parents removed to Bristol, before he had any consciousness of Yarmouth’s quaint “rows” or interesting traditions. Most of his life was spent in this city that “seems to swim on the waters.’ It is the port whence Sebastian Cabot sailed forth to be the first Englishman to land in America and to discover the United States; and to it was brought later from Juan . Fernandez the real Robinson Crusoe. Here, too, the doctrines of the Reformation were preached by Tyndale, Cranmer, and Latimer, — and here, alas! the peaceful Quakers suffered persecution, 103 of them being in Bristol prisons at the acces- sion of Charles II. 47 Early Home. 48 Princely Men Mackenzie's Providence blessed Mackenzie’s boyhood with Parents. 1 North of Scotland father of strong Presbyte- rian instincts, as became an elder in that Church, while his mother was a Welsh lady from Brecon- shire. Mrs. Bryson, the wife of his Tientsin col- league, remarks that “to his Highland blood he doubtless owed a certain reticence of manner, combined with an intensity of feeling, which in a marked degree characterized his likes and dis- likes.” To his mother, perhaps, may be attrib- uted the strain which gave to him that unusual facility in language acquisition which marks most Welsh missionaries. While their influence was helpful, Kenneth was not a model in all respects. He had a hasty temper and disliked study more than do most boys, who are fond of outdoor sports. Not until his fifteenth year, when he entered a merchant’s office as clerk, did he appreciate op- portunities for study; but from that time he used his spare time for reading. His The Young Men’s Christian Association was Conversion. for him what it has been to so many other young men, the awakener of the spiritual life and an excellent training school for Christian service. On a May Sunday in 1867, after an impressive discussion of the Bible class topic for the day, “A Good Conscience,” Mr. Moody spoke to the men, and the first strong spiritual impression of his life was received. Not until the anniversary of that day, however, was he led to give himself John Kenneth Mackenzie 49 unreservedly to God and to His service. The warmth of those early years of discipleship were prophetic of the rare spirituality and delight in evangelistic effort of every sort, which marked his labors as a missionary. He did not come to this life of devotion to others without much self-crucifixion, as well as through a course of preparation for it. The prayer-meeting, held by him and three compan- ions on a hilltop as they returned from the Asso- ciation after they had witnessed a good confes- sion, was a fundamental method of gaining essen- tial equipment for spiritual service. More unique was a preparatory school, held by a little group of congenial workers in a cow-shed, two miles out of town. It meant self-denial for this“band of young men to go there at five o’clock in the morning to discuss and criticise sermons and ad- dresses which they had carefully prepared, and which they subsequently used,at Association and street services, or at theater meetings. Note- books of Mackenzie’s are filled with illustrations, which he had jotted down to serve as feathers for evangelistic arrows. His leisure time was occupied with preparation for meetings and active participation in open air services, lodging-house visitation, ragged-school teaching, and the deli- cate and almost dangerous work of the Midnight Mission. Desperate thieves and shameless women found in him one who sought them out and con- Preparing for Christian Work. Two Biographies anda Decision. Overcoming Difficulties. 50 Princely Men sorted with them, as did another young man centuries before, the Savior of thieves and the friend of publicans and sinners. One of Mackenzie’s staunchest friends was Colonel Duncan, with whom he was associated in much of his religious work. He had been greatly moved by the memoirs of two Chinese missionaries, William Burns and Dr. Henderson, and he had been led to desire for himself a simi- lar life. Returning one night from a theater meeting of unusual interest, he confided to Col- onel Duncan his new desire. The Colonel’s re- sponse, ‘You are still very young; would it not be well to go in for the study of medicine and in the course of time go out to China as a medical missionary ?” was to Mackenzie the voice of God. Not understanding very clearly the nature of the work, however, he sought for further light, and after reading Mrs. Gordon’s “The Double Cure: or, What is a Medical Mission?” his duty seemed to be perfectly plain. When he sought to gain his parents’ consent to be allowed to give up business and enter a medi- cal school to prepare for China, the young man met a most serious obstacle. Argument did not change their position, and hence Mackenzie was forced to look up. A triumvirate of friends mighty in prayer, Colonel Duncan, Mrs. Gor- don’s husband, and a Bristol surgeon, Dr. Steele, joined him in definitely pleading with God for a John Kenneth Mackenzie 1 change of mind on the parents’ part. This com- pact wrought two valuable results: it led his father and mother to withdraw their objections on the very night that it went into effect; and it was a proof to him ever after, that united prayer for a desired object would bring an answer, if it was according to the will of God. It was the war- rant for a conviction which Dr. Mackenzie ex- pressed near the close of his life in these words: “TY do indeed believe in prayer. I am forced to believe in it, and say, from practical experience, I am sure that God does hear and answer our prayers.” The four years following October, 1870, were spent in the diligent study of medicine at the Bristol Medical School, and at the end of that period he very successfully passed examination both at London and Edinburgh, at which places he received respectively the diploma of M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. Realizing the prevalence of eye- diseases in his chosen field, he afterward took work at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital in Lon- don. Meanwhile he had been looking about for advice as to the next step. Dr. Lowe of the Ed- inburgh Medical Missionary Society gave him especially helpful counsel; and China’s mission- ary Nestor, Griffith John, as well as Messrs. Bry- son and Cullen of the same Empire, finally de- termined him to apply to the London Missionary Society. Student Life. Enlists and Sails. Mackenzie's Forerunners. $2 Princely Men Though a Presbyterian, he willingly enlisted in an organization which is still largely interdenomi- national, and which has behind it so noteworthy a history. Other appointments allured him only momentarily, and*his natural impetuosity drove him hastily on. The necessary carefulness of the Society to which he had offered himself and the consequent delay nearly caused a cessation of negotiations, but finally he was accepted. And now he must be off. Sailing so as to arrive in the heat of a China summer and leaving his betrothed behind to follow him when he should have gotten into his new work, he reached Shang- hai on June 4, 1875. He did not leave dear old England without being first moved by the strong spiritual life of a little group of men at Trinity College, Cambridge, and by a final interview with Mr. Moody. Life on shipboard was a delight and an opportunity. He read, he entered into the social life of the ship, he alternately listened to the stirring yarns of the sailors and recipro- cated with most affectionate heart talks, and he preached occasionally. Mackenzie was not a pioneer in his depart- ment, as was Morrison. We have already seen that the latter had enlisted the good offices of the East India Company’s physician in the medi- cal missionary enterprise and had carried on a still larger work through a native practitioner. But it was Peter Parker of America who had the John Kenneth Mackenzie 53 honor of “opening China to the Gospel at the point of a lancet.’”” He had been followed by a number of others in the Empire, one of whom, Dr. Henderson, had so interested Mackenzie at the beginning of his missionary investigations. Yet thus far no one had won for the cause strong official endorsement, which was very desirable in a country where foreign doctors are acknowledged to be superior to native practitioners mainly be- cause of their rumored use of medicines made of good Chinese eyes and hearts. Dr. Mackenzie was to do more than any other man toward de- molishing this foolish belief. And surely Western medicine was sorely needed in this most populous empire of the world. Of physicians there was no lack; indeed, any scholar who could read the voluminous medical litera- ture and who had been unable to secure a more desirable position, was thereby created an A’scu- Medicine . Needed. lapius. But what did he know and how did he~ practice? China was no worse than many other enlightened nations of antiquity; for in Greece, “the mother-land of rational medicine,” the ‘‘tem- ple sleep” and its dreams were the basis of pre- scriptions; and even Hippocrates and Galen held views about the elements and the moon that are not outdone by their Chinese brothers of to-day. This is what Dr. Mackenzie says of his native confréres: ‘Chinese doctors profess to be able to diagnose disease by the state of the pulse only. A Pro- fessional isit. Medical Super- stitions. 54 Princely Men Their knowledge of anatomy and physiology is almost nil; yet in the place of exact knowledge, they substitute the most absurd theories. The nature of disease being unknown, they attribute to the influence of the ‘ five elements’ the onset of disease. To a large extent the physiological action of drugs is unknown, and most wonder- ful healing properties are attributed to such sub- stances as dragons’ teeth, fossils, tiger bones, pearls, etc. “A Chinese doctor examines the pulse of each wrist of his patient with much solemnity, the sick person’s hand resting meantime upon a cushion, while the friends stand round watching the opera- tion with much awe. The tongue is then exam- ined and a prescription written out. The doctor then departs, after giving his diagnosis and going into long explanations of what is taking place in his patient’s interior. Many of the Chinese won- der much that foreign physicians should make so many inquiries of their patients; they think that they should be able to find out all about such matters from the condition of the pulse. “Superstitious notions and practices control and pervert medicine. In almost every case of sickness, idols, astrologers, and fortune-tellers are consulted. Disease is generally attributed to the anger of the gods, or to a visitation of evil spirits; the priests, indeed, teach this for their own ends. Charms are in general use to expel evil spirits John Kenneth Mackenzie 55 and pacify offended gods, and many idolatrous rites are employed. The noise of gongs and fire- crackers, used in these observances, is constantly heard and of necessity proves very injurious to a patient whose nervous system is weakened by dis- ease. The charms are written out and pasted about the sick-room. Sometimes these marvel- ous pieces of paper are burned and the ashes used to make a decoction, which the patient is ordered to drink. It is not wonderful, therefore, that, medical science being in so unsatisfactory a state in China, the cures wrought by foreign doctors seem to the people little short of miracu- lous; and in many cases the difficulty is not to get the people to believe in the foreign medical man, but rather for them to understand that there is a limit to his healing power.” This is especially true of surgical cases; since native practitioners confine their surgery to remov- ing a tooth, puncturing sores and tumors, at- tempting to reduce dislocations, and reuniting fractures. Mackenzie’s destination was Hankow, a great port almost in the geographical center of the Em- pire and located at the confluence of China’s girdle, the Yang-tzti, and the Han River, so fa- mous in history that it and the dynasty of the same name furnish one of the proudest designa- tions of the Chinese to-day, “men of Han.” A royal welcome from Mr. and Mrs. John and Mr. Beginning at Hankow. Language Study. 56 Princely Men Foster awaited the Doctor as he stepped from the gang-plank at Hankow, and almost immediately he is at work. His first Sunday morning there was spent in the city chapel, endeavoring to catch a few words and wondering whether he could possibly acquire so complicated a language, with its accompanying tones. In the afternoon of the same day he was once more in his element; for among the thousands of native craft on the broad bosom of the Yang-tzti were some foreign tea-steamers, and here was his opportunity for evangelistic effort in his own tongue. From that time onward, both here and later at Tientsin, work for sailors was his avocation. The following afternoon he was closeted with a language teacher for his first Chinese lesson. “We sit down together with the same book,” writes Mackenzie. ‘‘He calls over a word and I try to imitate him; my mouth is twisted into all sorts of shapes, and I struggle on. The idea is first to get the proper sound, the meaning after- ward, and then — probably the most difficult — to learn the characters. We go on for about three hours, until I am tired of repeating sounds after him.’”’ The Doctor’s native ability and his desire to master the language enabled him to gain an unusual command of Chinese, an ac- complishment that many physicians can not boast of, since they become so early burdened with pro- fessional duties. John Kenneth Mackenzie 57 Medical work had already been begun at his Mackenzie's station, so that Dr. Mackenzie built on excellent 4Pprentice- foundations, having at his command convenient am premises and the prestige already won by West- ern medicine. As the hospital had been built partly by the foreign community, it had accom- modations for them, and so does not need to be described, as it was not wholly indigenous. Yet the people needed to be understood in order to be reached, and this study was a most fascinat- ing one. Under the guidance of Griffith John or another of his colleagues, he watched the bus- tling crowd in streets so narrow that the widest of them could not accommodate more than four or five people standing abreast. Their customs and feasts, their temples and the gruesome Bud- dhist representations of hell which they contained, were intensely interesting to the Doctor. As he came to know the people better, they learned to admire him more; and owing to some successful surgical operations, his fame soon traveled far and wide, his practice proportionately increasing. No one in China, unless it were the late Dr. Learning Nevius, could better have initiated Dr. Macken- 4ow to zie into evangelistic work, than did Griffith John. rae As often as he could do so, the Doctor attended his chapel. He thus describes this work in Han- kow: “Very frequently a shop in the middle of a crowded street is rented and fitted up with benches as a ‘Glad Tidings Hall,’ where the for- 58 Princely Men eign missionary and his native assistant for many hours every day proclaim the way of salvation through Jesus to those who come into the build- ing. No regular service is held, but as the coolies resting from their burdens, the countryman with his basket by his side, or the pedler with his case of cord and tapes, come in for awhile, the preacher in colloquial fashion addresses questions to indi- viduals and tries by patient repetition to implant in his hearers’ minds some ideas about the love of God as manifested in His Son, Jesus Christ. This new ‘doctrine,’ as they call it, is very novel and strangely unlike anything the hearers have ever listened to before. It is with great diff- culty that they grasp any thoughts relating to the unseen and eternal. ... Mr. John spoke in the chapel for about two hours. It was half an hour . before he could get one idea thoroughly home to Mackenzie Afield. the people, showing, it seems to me, how useless are ordinary sermons to teach these people. Wan- dering through the country and simply preaching is pure waste of time, I think. Men must settle down to patient, persevering work; and if ac- companied by the Spirit of God, one may expect to see great results from it. Mr. John has anx- ious inquirers at the end of these patient, hard- working services, which greatly cheer his heart.” It was the Doctor’s delight to get out among the people, and with Griffith Johri, who knew no fear, even the most dangerous trips were enjoyed. John Kenneth Mackenzie 59 On one occasion, however, he would have been glad to be at home. The two men went into a new section to aid a native Christian, named Wei. He had been so earnest in preaching the truth, that hostility to Christianity had arisen with the result that the rabble proceeded to drive out the foreign devils. A paragraph from the Doctor’s description of the attack gives one an idea of what a Chinese mob is like. ‘‘ Presently pelting began. There were, fortunately, no stones at hand; but the earth being dry, the plowed fields were covered with hard clods, and these soon be- gan to fly about our heads. At this stage I took off my spectacles and pulled my soft felt hat well over my ears, which protected me a good deal. Mr. John was struck on the mouth with a hard lump of clay, which made the blood flow freely and almost caused him to faint; and soon after another piece cut his scalp at the back of the head. I guarded my face with my arms, my hat well protected my head, and I received most of the blows about my head and body. We still went on, following Wei, who walked like a prince, calm and fearless with his head up, just his nat- ural self and apparently not a bit troubled... . At this time we might have been killed at any moment; for we were the center of a howling, infuriated mob of about one thousand men and boys bent on mischief and dragging us about in every direction. We were several times sepa- The Outcome. Higher Lessons. 60 Princely Men rated. I was pushed down once, but Mr. John and the native Christians kept the crowd off me.” They finally succeeded in escaping from the mob, and soon reached a place of safety. During this encounter neither they nor the Christians used any force, and Mackenzie could testify: “I felt perfectly calm. No feeling of anger entered my mind; Christ was a very precious companion then.” The two missionaries felt that for the sake of the native Christians they must complain of the action of the Hiau-kan rabble, and this enabled them to return to the place and show their for- giving spirit and their desire to benefit the people. As an ultimate result, there were in connection with the Hiau-kan station just before the Boxer Uprising three foreign missionaries laboring there, one being a physician having in his charge a hos- pital and leper asylum. A force of eleven native helpers were co-operating with the missionaries at Hiau-kan and its two out-stations. During his Hankow apprenticeship Mackenzie learned. also of God Himself. The deepening of his spiritual life was aided by fellowship with helpful friends, by special meetings held for that purpose, and by unceasing efforts to save others. On one steamer the meetings held resulted in the conversion of about fourteen men. As for ‘his inner life, he says: “I have been thinking and praying about a more complete trust in Jesus. I John Kenneth Mackenzie 61 am weary with struggling against temptation and feel very many failures are caused by my trying to do these things with God.” And later he adds: “I have placed myself and all my concerns in His hands, looking to Him for deliverance from temptations. I have been so happy to-day in simply looking up. May my faith fail not! I feel so helpless and weak and yet so safe. The life of simple trust in Jesus is so delightful — such perfect safety!” Later, meetings for the foreigners and native Christians resulted in even greater blessing. Having learned much of the language and got- ten his medical-work under way, the Doctor felt that he was justified in having his fiancée come out to China. She did so, and they were mar- ried January 9, 1877, at Shanghai. The early years of their married life were ideal. Home was a perpetual joy to the Doctor and a haven of rest from the weariness and worries of a life in which a single physician with no adequate assistance was obliged to take charge of the most difficult cases. His wife was a direct aid to him in his work both here and at his later home; for he makes repeated references to her prayers as be- ing united with his own for the successful issue of difficult operations, and the two labored to- gether for foreign sailors and marines. In Han- kow, too, their only child was born. His work was likewise growing, especially on the surgical Mackenzie's Marriage. Transferred to Tientsin. A New Beginning. 62 Princely Men side, — a work of which he writes, “I am pas- sionately fond of surgery and never happier than when I am about to undertake some big opera- tion.” Yet here, also, he experienced trials. He had been attacked once and again by malaria; his wife’s health was a source of solicitude; and fin- ally, after three and a half years of most fruitful service, family complications and personal mat- ters caused the Doctor to request the Society to transfer him to another station. It was charac- teristic of him that he should ask to be sent into the far interior of China’s greatest western prov- ince; but the perils of such a. place for Mrs. Mackenzie led the Directors to send him instead to Tientsin, the steamer port of Peking, which is eighty-three miles to the northwest. Wholly different from the majestic Son of the Ocean upon which Hankow lies was the narrow and sinuous Pei Ho, or North River, on whose muddy banks Mackenzie was henceforth to live and achieve a national, instead of a provincial, reputation. Though he already had an excellent command of Chinese, the variations of the North- ern Mandarin over the speech of Central China gave him a new task, especially in adjusting him- self to the changed tones. A more serious diffi- culty, however, was the lack of a suitable plant for his work and the greater indifference to Chris- tianity and to the benefits of Western medicine. John Kenneth Mackenzie 63 As there seemed to be no human method of over- coming this apathy, and as Mackenzie felt that there was a loss of power in leaving a city in which he had had as many as 1,137 hospital and 11,859 out patients in a single year to come to a station where he had only about one-fifth as many, he and his colleagues had recourse to prayer. This was not a spasmodic and formal exercise; but unitedly both the foreigners and native Christians of the station prayed, continu- ing their supplications for weeks. As an offset to this comparative cessation from practice, he gave himself anew to language study, including much work on the Classics, and a re-reading of William Burns’s incomparable colloquial render- ing of Bunyan’s immortal allegory. Mackenzie and one of his colleagues, Mr. Lees, had drawn up a memorial and presented it to the famous Viceroy Li Hung-chang, who was for years the virtual ruler of the Empire. Prayer Answered. From the middle of May until the first day of ’ August prayer was unceasing that the Viceroy might realize the value of Western medicine and. endorse Mackenzie’s plan for a hospital. At the’ weekly prayer-meeting on that momentous Aug- ust evening the subject was our Lord’s words, “Ask, and it shall be given you,” and once more the little church pleaded with God for an answer to the memorial. In the evening a member of the English Legation, who was calling on the Mackenzie's Hospital. 64 Princely Men Viceroy, noted an unusual sadness and learned that his wife was dying. The visitor suggested that foreign physicians be called in, and after much urging he sent for Mackenzie and a com- munity physician, Dr. Irwin. The summons came just as the prayer-meeting was breaking up, and here was the long delayed answer to their petitions. The two physicians, assisted later by Miss Dr. Howard from Peking, were used to bring the patient back to health. Even more important was the issue of that cure; for it had given Western medicine an advertisement which nothing short of an Imperial endorsement could have equaled, and it led the Viceroy to person- ally investigate Occidental methods of surgery and to appreciate the value of foreign medicines. The result was the establishment of a hospital _and dispensary, which were carried on with Li Hung-chang’s sanction and with money contrib- uted by him and other wealthy Chinese. This - in turn was the entering wedge that opened to the army and navy the blessings of modern medi- cine. The building which “God gave to us” is thus described by Dr. Mackenzie: “It is erected in the best style of Chinese architecture and has an extremely picturesque and attractive appearance. The front building, standing in its own court- yard, is ascended by broad stone steps, which lead from a covered gateway to a verandah with John Kenneth Mackenzie 65 massive wooden pillars running along its whole length. A hall divides it into two portions. On the right side and in front is a spacious dispen- sary, which, thanks to the liberality of the Vice- roy, is wanting in nothing, rivaling any English dispensary in the abundance and variety of the drugs, appliances, etc.; behind this is a roomy drug-store. On the left of the hall is a large waiting-room with benches for the convenience of patients, and used on Sundays and other days as a preaching hall. Behind and to one side is the Chinese reception-room, always to be found in a native building. The rooms are very lofty, without ceilings, leaving exposed the huge, painted beams, many times larger than foreigners deem necessary, but the pride of the Chinese builder. Running off in two parallel wings at the back are the surgery and the wards, the latter able to accommodate thirty-six patients. The wards in the right wing, four in number, are small, in- tended each to receive only three patients. Here we_can isolate dangerous cases, and also receive persons, such as officials and others, who require greater privacy. The wardsare all furnished with kangs instead of beds, as is the custom in North China. They are built of bricks, with flues run- ning underneath, so that in winter they can be heated; the bedding is spread out over the bricks.” The breadth and depth of Mackenzie’s life His Time and activities may be judged from the following 7°* 66 Princely Men account which he gives of his daily and weekly program. ‘My hour to rise in the morning is half past six for winter; breakfast at a quarter to eight. At a quarter past eight I conduct a sort of Bible class in the hospital among the pa- tients — those who are able to come — and the dispensers and servants. This lasts for three quarters of an hour and is, of course, in Chinese. From half past nine till eleven o’clock I study Chinese; at eleven o’clock dispensary work be- gins, and here and in the hospital I spend two hours, until one o’clock. At one I take dinner; at two prepare my medical class work; at three I take the senior class in the medical school in medicine or surgery; at four or half past four I am free, and I try to get away for a walk; but there is constantly something coming up to be attended to — perhaps an operation, or a Chi- nese letter to answer, or some case of discipline in the Medical School to be dealt with. On Tuesday evenings at seven we have a Chinese prayer-meeting, with a review of the week’s work in the Bible; this I conduct. On Monday eve- ning we have a Mission prayer-meeting, when we all meet for consultation and prayer. On Wednesday evening there is the Union Church prayer-meeting, which is practically a united mis- sionary prayer-meeting, and which I always at- tend. Sunday is also a very busy day. Sunday- school class at half past nine; Chinese service at John Kenneth Mackenzie 67 half past ten; medical school Bible class at three; evening service at six; meeting for Blue-jackets from English and American navy after the eve- ning service in the church.” Let us look more in detail at some of the activities just named. A pen-picture from the Doctor’s letters gives oné an excellent idea of the average company of lame, halt, and blind, who are found in Chinese mission hospitals. ‘The hour is nine o’clock, and the gong is sounding for morning prayers. Already groups of men are collected from the city and villages around, some having their bed- ding by their side done up in bundles. There is a man nearly blind —his little son has led him here this morning; here sits a lame man with his crutches in hishand. That pale, hollow- cheeked, feeble man has probably dysentery, or phthisis. The sallow, emaciated opium smoker is also there; and one who is suffering from a horrible tumor has come up for operation. As the gong beats, the in-patients who are suff- ciently convalescent come trooping in; a strange spectacle indeed, with their bandages and dress- ings on. Here come the assistants, and now we all take our seats. A hymn is given out, — per- haps it is one from Sankey’s collection, — then a portion of Scripture is read, verse about. The subject is probably a Gospel one, — very likely a case of healing. It is explained and lessons are drawn from it. The patients, who continue “The Double Cure '' — the Gospel. Healing the Multitudes. 68 Princely Men to drop in, are generally very quiet and atten- tive. The meeting closes at the end of half an hour with prayer. Then the medical mission- ary crosses to the dispensary, while the native evangelist continues to talk to the patients as they wait for their turn. “And now the work of healing begins; one by one the patients come into the dispensary. This is a large room with two sides occupied with shelves and drawers, containing our stock in trade. In front is a counter, at which the dis- pensers are at work putting up medicines. At the table sits the Chinese writer, taking down the particulars of each case and making out the tick- ets.”” It would be tedious to describe the patients thus treated. An analysis, of his work at Tien- tsin for a year shows that diseases of the eye are most common, and then follow those of the di- " gestive system, of the bones and joints, of the respiratory and nervous systems. The common- est surgical operations are those performed: on the eye, after which come amputations, disloca- tions, and fractures. Dr. Mackenzie emphasized the work for opium patients, especially when in Hankow. Concerning this generally hopeless class of men he writes: “There is no medical specific guaranteed to cure; the object aimed at is to relieve symptoms as they arise and so to help the patient back to health and freedom. I always tell them the medicine given them is to re- John Kenneth Mackenzie 69 lieve the pain and craving, but they are to pray to God and believe in Jesus to get the desire taken away from their hearts and new hearts given them. They thus carry back a knowledge of the Gospel north, south, east, and west.” The cure of souls was so emphatically Dr. Mac- kenzie’s great object in life that an additional paragraph is needed to show how the deeper work was accomplished. In addition to the Spiritual Thera- peutics. morning prayers already described, he regarded . it of prime importance to have a staff of assist- ants who were more than nominal Christians, and to that end he and others offered most earn- est prayer. Daily meetings for prayer, a special one on Tuesday night to gather up the results, a Bible class on Sunday for more careful study, were the agencies mainly used; but above all meetings and study was the holy life of Dr. Mac- kenzie himself and the spiritual atmosphere which always haloed him. A single illustration will show the object and effect of the agencies used by Dr. Mackenzie for deepening the spiritual life of his Chinese assistants. ‘We were reading of how Jesus while preaching by the Lake of Gennesaret, being troubled by the crowds which pressed upon Him, sought refuge in a fishing- boat belonging to Simon Peter, and it is stated that at the time the fishermen were engaged in washing their nets. ‘Ah!’ remarked young Mao, one of our Christian dispensers, ‘we want to imi- 70 Princely Men 7 tate Peter in this. He and his fellow disciples had toiled all night and caught nothing, and here they were found washing their nets. We, who are fishers of men, need to attend to this; we should be washing our nets oftener. Are we not succeeding in our work as we should like? Per- haps our communion with the Savior is broken. Perhaps we are not constantly feeding upon God’s Word. Then are our nets foul, and we had bet- ter give up fishing until we have washed our nets.”” What wonder that the spiritual fruitage was large, with such preparation and a praying band organized for work among all the patients, especially those in the wards! The Medical Dr. Mackenzie was engaged in an undertak- School. ing which was at once most thoroughly Christian, and yet it was being carried on at the expense of Viceroy Li and other Chinese, many of whom were officials. An obligation was thus laid upon him to prepare men to extend his own work, ~both for the benefit of the Empire and for Chris- tianity’s sake. The army and navy were with- out a medical staff, and his first thought was to furnish competent men and thorough going Christians for this need. He realized that an ideal thing would be to have such men get their education abroad at the best Occidental medical colleges. That, however, was impracticable; and had it been done, the Christian training of the students would have been nil. Hence, with the Sy John Kenneth Mackenzie 71 Viceroy’s approval, he secured some of the stu- dents who had been sent to America by the Chi- nese Educational Commission, and assisted by doctors and surgeons of the community, or on the war vessels in port, he undertook the train- ing of. China’s first modern practitioners. This added immensely to his labors, since he had to be a whole medical faculty in himself; yet the examinations proved that the students were re- markably well prepared for their work. Being in a sense a government institution, there was at first some difficulty about compulsory instruction in the Bible; but a slight mutiny and an appeal to native officials’ in the hope of release, brought the men back to the regular régime with permis- sion to spend Sundays in medical study, if they objected to Bible work. The writer recalls how Sunday was spent at the Medical School, and testifies to the living treatment of the Bible which Dr. Mackenzie always gave. The Bible class especially was full of life. He aimed to make it as conversational as possible and to en- list every one in taking part. ‘‘People enjoy a meeting much more when they have some part in it, however small. Above all things, the leader should avoid preaching, if the meeting is to be interesting and profitable.” This was his theory and practice; and as the prayers were always short and definite, as well as remarkably spiritual in tone, the class was both interesting and profitable. Its Graduates. Mackenzie's Family. re Princely Men During his lifetime, Dr. Mackenzie was dis- appointed in the reception accorded his students. The army and navy being under official control and the prevalent corruption making it impossi- ble to secure the money appropriated, because it clung to the hands of superior’ officers, these young men fared ill in the attempt to further a work which was essentially Western and hence hated. Some were driven from the field, while others remained at their posts under the heaviest opposition. A few of the men were permitted to remain in Tientsin and teach in the Medical School, and this was a great relief to the over- burdened Doctor. After his death, three of his students were placed in charge of the new Vice- roy’s Hospital; others took a similar position in the naval and military hospital at Port Arthur; and still others were appointed to Wei-hai-wei, a naval station. Dr. Chang became house-surgeon of a hospital in Hongkong, and Dr. Mai for some time successfully treated the father of the Emperor in Peking. Having briefly noted the main facts in Dr. Mackenzie’s career, a few personal items must be given. His affection for his wife was very deep, but in February, 1881, her health became so broken that she and their little daughter were ordered to England. In November of the fol- lowing year they returned and the Doctor was delighted at the prospect of a reunited family. John Kenneth Mackenzie 73 But almost immediately Mrs. Mackenzie’s health so completely gave way again, that he was obliged to return home with her. After five months in England and on the Continent, he bade his wife adieu for the last time, and the remaining five years of his life were spent in a lonely home. Their separation and the nature of his wife’s disease were such that most men would have been crushed. Yet one who saw him constantly duting those years writés: “The chastisement yielded afterwards the peaceable fruits of right- eousness, and did much towards the develop- ment and making of his spiritual life, while his personal griefs only made him the better able to enter into the sorrows of others.” Each trial drove him closer to his Heavenly Father. “Though one of the Lord’s chosen people,” he writes, ‘“‘I was previously so ignorant of Him! Now, through His great mercy, I have been learning what it is in some measure to walk with Him and to hold close communion with Him. Oh, He has been so good to me in filling up my life with such unutterable joy and peace!” Mackenzie was so exceedingly busy that he could scarcely stir from Tientsin; though during the Week of Prayer he visited Peking, and he also ran away for a brief health-change at other times. Hence he made no wide acquaintance outside of his own city. His chief joy was to find those whose spiritual yearnings coincided His Friends. His Books. 7a Princely Men with his own deep longings for a higher life. The brilliant prize-winner among English and Continental medical students, R. Harold A. Schofield, who had studied medicine in London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, and who could preach in French, German, and English, and at, the end of three months in China knew more of the lan- guage than the ordinary man after a year’s study, brought an oasis into his Tientsin life. Even more pronounced was the effect upon him of his acquaintance with Chinese Gordon, who was later the martyr of Khartum. “I was struck with one thing about him,” says Mackenzie, “and that was that religion had become a part of his life. Not that he used religious phrases; I fancy he has an abomination of cant, or any- thing approaching to it; but it is natural to him to refer to spiritual things. You can’t help recog- nizing the sort of man he is.” The brief visit in Tientsin of Stanley Smith and others of the Cam- bridge Band was another mighty uplift in his life, to which he owed much. But it was in James Gilmour that his soul seemed to delight most. The two congenial spirits knew no greater joy than that of sitting together with open Bibles and bowing in fervent prayer. And those silent friends that speak to us when we turn to them in our need, good books, were a large factor in the Doctor’s growth. He espe- cially enjoyed such compilations as ‘‘ Daily Light John Kenneth Mackenzie as on the Daily Path,” and Andrew Murray’s writ- ings, pafticularly his “Abide in Christ,” as well as stirring biographies like those of Finney and Bishop Patteson. As his character ripened, how- ever, the range of his reading grew narrower, and he found in The Book the quintessence of them all. How greatly he loved it, may be seen from the fact that a Bible received but three months before his death was marked in every part, while whole books had been carefully studied during that period. , Before Dr. Mackenzie had completed his thirty-eighth year the end came. In the midst of his strength he was smitten down with a fever which threatened to become small-pox. Less than six days he suffered, and then the last fare- wells were said, the most affecting being the final interview with his chief native assistant, formerly a student at Phillips Academy, whose questionable life led him to utter this final appeal, ‘‘ Whether we shall meet again or not is for you to decide.” And then on Easter morning, April 1, 1888, “early, while it was yet dark,” the beloved phy- sician left the cheerless plain of Chih-li to join Him whom not having seen, he so deeply loved. The funeral of the “most important man of Tientsin” occurred the following day, when the last words which he had marked in his Bible previous to being smitten down were fulfilled, “And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusa- The Completion. 76 Princely Men lem did him honor at his death.” Missionaries and other members of the foreign community, the Chinese Christians and official representatives of Viceroy Li Hung-chang and his wife, and his _ devoted hospital assistants, followed the body to _ the grave amid demonstrations which are most \ unusual among the Chinese. With the strains of “Rock of Ages” rising from the graveside in Chinese they left him there to await the trump of earth’s final Easter Sabbath. JAMES GILMOUR THE APOSTLE TO THE MONGOLS Born in Carukin, Scotian, JunE 12, 1843 Dizp in Tientsin, Cuina, May 21, 1891 A PROPHETIC FORESHADOWING “‘T said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God. . . . Thus saith the Lord, the redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of the Lord that is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.” — Isaiah, 49: 4, 7+ THE ASPIRATION “‘ The ten days we passed there [at Ta Chéng Tzi], we were the song of the drunkard and the jest of the abjects ; but the peace of God asses all understanding, and that kept my heart and mind. We puta calm front on, put out our stand daily, and carried ourselves as if nothing had hap- pened. The great thought of my mind in these days, —and the great ob- ject of my life, —is to be like Christ. As He was in the world, so we are to be. He was in the world to manifest God ; we are in the world to mani- fest Christ.’? — Gilmour's words, written in 1888. A TESTIMONY ‘James Gilmour, in season and out of season, in almost constant soli- tude, in superabounding physicial labors that often overburdened him and once nearly broke him down, in the long disappointment of the most cher- ished hopes, and under the constant strain of what would have crushed any but a giant in faith, lived a life which, if taught no other lesson, was yet well worth living to teach this —that Jesus Christ can and does give His servants the victory over apparent non-success, after the most vehement and long-sustained effort to secure success, and that is the greatest victory ossible to renewed and sanctified buman nature.’’ —Gilmour’s friend, ichard Lovett. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EVENTS IN GILMOUR’S LIFE -~ 1843. Born at Cathkin, near Glasgow, Scotland, June 12. 1862. Enters Glasgow University, where he received his M.A. Is converted early in his college course. 1867. Applies to London Missionary Society and is accepted. Enters Cheshunt (Theological) College, near London, September. 1869. Enters Highgate missionary training institution, September. 1870. February 10. _Joumey from Liverpool to Peking, February 22-May 18. Massacre of foreigners at Tientsin, June 21. Ordained as missionary at St. Augustine’s Chapel, Edinburgh, First Mongolian trip —from Peking to Kiachta, August 5s-Septem- ber 28. 1871. Visits scene of first Mongolian Missions (1817-1841), March. 1872-3. Spends winter in Yellow Temple, Peking, working for Mongols. 1874. Marries Emily Prankard at Peking, December 8. 1874-5. Time mainly spent in Peking, substituting for furloughed colleague. 1877. Tours in Shantung, baptizing many converts. 1882. Gilmour and his family start for furlough in Great Britain, Spring. 1883. They return to China, September 1-November 14. 1884. good confession in a lama tent, March 1. 1885. Mrs. Gilmour dies, September 19. Gilmour starts for Eastern Mongolia, the scene of his later labors, December 14. 1889. Second furlough in Great Britain, May 25—January g, 1890. 1891. Died of typhus fever at Tientsin, China, May 21. Boyinto, his only convert among the nomadic Mongols, witnesses a Ill JAMES GILMOUR Tue ApostLe To THE Moncots MattHew GiLmour, mason and wright, and his good wife, whose piety was such that they gladly walked five miles to church, returning by lantern-light, were fitting grandparents for one who was a strict Sabbatarian like James Gil- mour. In his paternal grandmother, also, was the prototype of the future amateur physician of Mongolia; for she had a great local reputation as lay doctor and nurse, and in those early days she procured vaccine lymph direct from the cow. Was John Pettigrew, his mother’s father, so scrupulously honest that, though only a farmer- miller, he compelled the minister to retract his charge of scant measure after grinding the par- son’s oatmeal? What wonder, then, that his fa- mous grandson should be blunt and honest to the point of eccentricity! James Gilmour was born June 12, 1843, at Cathkin; but in a short time the family removed to Glasgow, five miles away, though a few years later they returned to the country. The third 79 Gilmour's Ancestry. Home Influences. 80 Princely Men son of a family of six boys, of whom all but one lived to manhood, he naturally saw-plenty of life, and he was a prominent factor in all sorts of pranks and outdoor activities. Chaffing the men in the workshop and mill, — his father and uncle were partners for a time in the lumber business, — devising plans for mechanically increasing his stroke in swimming, tramping over mountain and through glen to secure geological specimens, row- ing and dragging his skiff over shallows to a point on the Clyde rarely reached — these are some of the feats and activities of his boyhood and youth. But the indoor life of the home made a more lasting impression upon the boy. Family prayers of a prolonged and helpful type, though rather hard on illiterate apprentices, were a marked feature of the home training. So were the meetings around their mother’s knee, when she read to the boys stories or told them of her hopes for their future. As one reads Gilmour’s “Among the Mongols,” one cannot but believe that these stories were the remote cause of its fascinating style and racy descriptions —a De Foe, the London Spectator called Gilmour. Nor was the mother the only hero of those never-to- be-forgotten Sabbaths; for the father made the evenings memorable by placing upon the table the “big Bible” — Scott and Matthew Henry’s —and reading therefrom interesting passages with pithy or quaint comments. In a word, the James Gilmour 81 future apostle to the Mongols found in the home of this Scotch Congregationalist the most impor- tant foundation of his future usefulness. Four years in a subscription school, followed by a successful period of study at Gorbals Youths’ School in Glasgow, proved to his father that he was deserving of higher opportunities; hence he was sent to the Glasgow High School, where he won prizes and thereby convinced his parents that he ought to give up all thought of entering a trade. Few boys have been more conscien- tious scholars than he. No slighting of work was tolerated, and to make the five miles to his school, he often went without his breakfast. At Glasgow University he exhibited the same traits: an ambition which did not rest satisfied until his best had been done and prizes in Greek, Latin, and English literature were won; a studi- ousness which could not rest in summer time, but which drove him to the library for loads of books; and a sense of justice which led him to join others in a revolt against an inefficient pro- fessor of moral philosophy. His most intimate college friend says of those days: “Throughout his college career Gilmour was a very hard- working student; his patient perseverance and powers of application were marvelous; and yet as a rule he was bright and cheerful, able in a twinkling to throw off the cares of work and enter with zest into the topics of the day. He Gilmour's Early Schooling. Further Education. The Missionary Decision. 82 Princely Men had a keen appreciation of the humorous side of things, and his merry laugh did one good. Al- together he was a delightful companion and was held in universal esteem. One of Gilmour’s leading thoughts was unquestionably the un- speakable value of time, and this intensified with years. There was not a shred of indolence in his nature; it may be truthfully said that he never wilfully lost an hour.” This testimony would hold good with regard to his later studies and life at the Theological Hall of the Congregational Church of Scotland, located at Edinburgh, and at Cheshunt and Highgate in England. Gilmour’s conversion had been a gradual one, though in the process he had sometimes been in deep darkness. ‘‘I can remember the time,’’ he writes, ‘“‘when the pains of hell got such a ter- rible hold upon me, that I would gladly have changed places in the world with anyone who had the hope of salvation. Death, life, prospects, honor, shame, seemed nothing compared with the hope of salvation, which I was then without. Could I ever be saved ?. was the question. Would I ever have the hope that I knew others had?” But the light came full and clear in his first year at the University, and he developed into a hope- ful, active Christian. Not until the first session in the Theological Hall did he decide upon his life work. The ministry was first chosen on the ground that, as one saved by grace, he was under James Gilmour 83 obligations to do what he could to extend Christ’s Kingdom, and the ministry was the vocation looking most directly to that end. When it came to the question of the place of his ministry his course of reasoning was almost identical with that of Robert Morrison, though Gilmour added a stronger conclusion: ‘‘He who said ‘preach,’ said also, ‘go ye into and preach,’ and what Christ hath joined togéther let not man put asunder. This command seemed to me to be strictly a missionary injunction, and, as far as I can see, those to whom it was first delivered regarded it in that light; so that, apart altogether from choice and other lower reasons, my going forth is a matter of obedience to a plain com- mand; and in place of assigning a reason for going abroad, I would prefer to say that I have failed to discover any reason why I should stay at home.” Near the close of the session of 1867, Gilmour applied for appointment to the London Mission- ary Society, and, being accepted, he was sent to Cheshunt, College, fourteen miles north of Lon- don. The new life of a dormitory institution was not an easy one to become accustomed to, but apart from that he owed much to Cheshunt and to the books read there. Those which made the most abiding impression were even then out of ordinary use, — such volumes as James’s “ Earnest Ministry,” Baxter’s ‘‘ Reformed Appointment and Preparation. 84 Princely Men Pastor,” and some of Bunyan’s works. Here, ‘too, he gained the victory over his lust for prizes. “So now I made a stand,” he says, “threw am- bition to the winds, and set to reading my Bible . in good earnest. J made it my chief study dur- ing the last three months of my residence at Cheshunt, and I look back upon that period of my stay there as the most profitable I had.” In September, 1869, he entered the missionary sem- inary at Highgate, and also studied Chinese in London with Professor Summers. His prepara- tion was not without its more practical aspects. Going out in the evening alone, he would con- duct open-air services near the railway station, or else would invite those on the streets to special meetings, in a way which stirred all who heard him, as well as called forth many sneers. Through correspondence he reached many at a distance. He was also working for China even before he set sail for the Middle Kingdom. A friend writes: “When he knew what was to be his field of labor after his college course was over, how solicitous he was to go out fully prepared and fitted in spiritual equipment! The needs of the perishing heathen were very real and weighed heavily upon his heart, and he was very anxious to win volunteers among his college friends for this all-important work. How he longed and prayed for China’s perishing millions, only his most intimate friends know.” James Gilmour 85 While in Edinburgh in 1869, Gilmour had At Peking. those interviews with Mrs. Swan, a survivor of the first Protestant mission to the Mongols, which led to his appointment to Mongolia. But the ocean and North China lay between him and his goal. The former was a place in which he could labor for those who needed his aid almost as much as his future parishioners; and so we see the canny Scot winning the respect of the crew in the silent night-watches and in manly fashion testifying to them of the power of Christ to save. A small but critical and sceptical audi- ence in the cabin soon came to value the minis- trations of “the only parson on board,” even if he was a Dissenter. The unique experience of the world-traveler, that of seeing the great walls of Peking rise from the horizon of the flat plain and a little later of passing through them by a cavernous portal, was our hero’s on May 18, 1870, a little before he had reached his twenty- seventh birthday. While no awful calamity, like that which visited the capital thirty years later, was impending, foreigners were in great fear of being exterminated. It was just before the san- guinary massacre of their fellow-countrymen in Tientsin, and men’s hearts were failing them with fear. ‘Keep me, O God, in perfect peace,” was the burden of his prayer for himself, and for the multitudes he felt that there was no other refuge. “While others are writing to the papers On to the Plateau. 86 Princely Men and trying to stir up the feelings of the people, so that they may take action in the matter, per- haps I may do some good moving heaven. My creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a day’s asking God to overrule ail these events for good is not lost. Still, there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he is doing nothing; and this feeling, I am sure, makes us give undue importance to work, sometimes to the hurrying over, or even to the neglect of prayer.” A smattering of Chinese in London, and only a little beginning made in that language during less than three months at Peking was a meager preparation for a solitary plunge into the work which was before him. Moreover, the mission- aries disapproved and the recent disturbances made his start somewhat hazardous. Yet he was of heroic mold, and so he creeps over the northern part of the Great Plain and up through the age-old stairway, known as Nan-kou, or South Pass. For days he is among pack camels, numbering into the thousands, while the silvery tinkle of the mule bells mingles with the deep bass of those suspended about the leading camels of each caravan of seven. And then those great cross walls, plunging down into the pass, fol- lowed at its northern end by the Great Wall itself, came into view and impressed him with the ancient greatness of a wonderful Empire. James Gilmour 87 Kalgan, on the threshold of the Mongolian plat- eau, was reached at last, and the home of the American missionaries there was a House Beau- tiful in his weary pilgrimage. Eighteen days later Gilmour moves onward, up the famous pass where the great Khans had been centuries be- fore; indeed to his right, far, far above the high- way, is an arched rock through which one of them is said to have shot an arrow from the path below. Quaint caravans of soda carts, made without a single scrap of iron and drawn by recalcitrant oxen, come down the steep in- cline in alternate leaps and balks. But finally the summit is gained and here at last is grass- land, — miles of it rolling away to the horizon, —and in the fleckless blue are thousands of skylarks, that have sung themselves out of sight but not out of hearing. Who were these Mongols to whom Gilmour was giving his life, and what was their country? They are the descendants of those hordes which under Genghis and Kublai, the two greatest Khans, swept westward and southward until Kublai’s sway extended during the latter half of the thirteenth century ‘from the Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca, and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of Hungary — an extent of territory the like of which had never before, and has never since, been governed by any one monarch in Asia.” The land which they in- Mongolia. Learning Mongolian. 88 Princely Men habit is only a scrap of their former realm. The traveler in the region of the nomad Mongols, where Gilmour spent most of his missionary life, sees scattered here and there over the rolling plateau, clusters of circular felt tents, flanked with stacks of argol— dried dung used as fuel. The superfluity of dogs is the first impression that is made upon the visitor, and children in swarms are equally omnipresent. Prayer-flags fluttering over the encampment, horsemen watch- ing the widely scattered flocks and herds, lazy lamas going on pilgrimage, — all setting off a land blue with myriads of forget-me-nots, make the scene one long to be remembered. The agricultural Mongols, who live in settled habita- tions along the Chinese border and who speak Chinese, differ but little from their neighbors in North China, and their land is simply a northern extension of the Imperial Province. Gilmour’s first trip was to Kiachta, on the Siberian frontier, which he reached in fifty-four days from Peking. Here his troubles began. Though a trader, named Grant, received him, he soon left his host because of the taunt that any one spending as much time as he on the language ought to make more rapid progress. He had experienced difficulty in securing a teacher, and that fact with Grant’s sneer deter- mined him to commit himself to the people and learn the language as does a child. He was James Gilmour 89 providentially led to a tent whose occupant was friendly and who agreed to teach him the mys- teries of the language. What happened during the next three months he thus describes: “He was only temporarily located there and had no dog, so I could go out and in as I liked. He was rich, so could afford to keep a good fire burning, — a luxury which could not have been enjoyed in the tent of a poor man. His business required him to keep two or three menservants about him; and as a man of his position could not but have good tea always on hand, — a great attraction in the desert, — the tent was seldom without conversation going on in it between two or three Mongols. This last — conversation car- ried on by Mongols, just as if no one had been listening — was exactly what I wanted; and I used to sit, pencil and notebook in hand, and take down such phrases as I could catch... . In the quiet intervals of the day or evening I would con over again and again what I had caught. Learning the language in this way, I could soon speak a good deal more than I could understand, or my teacher explain tome. Though I could not parse the phrases, nor even separate out the words of which they were composed, much less understand the meaning of what I said, I knew when and how to use them and could hardly help having the accent correct, and I could not avoid learning first those words and phrases which were in most common use.” go Princely Men The This sort of life, which was more or less con- Mongolians. tinuous for years, gave Gilmour unsurpassed op- portunities for studying the Mongolians them- selves and their customs. A ride of 600 miles across the Desert of Gobi taught him the art of riding a Mongol horse, his knees well drawn up, and the power to endure thirst for long periods. The gentle art of dickering, which in the Orient is an accomplishment absolutely essential to hap- piness; the unwisdom of being too obliging to menials; how to camp out on the wilds; the proper forms of receiving and enduring Mongol hospitality; these and other items which made the people call him ‘Our Gilmour,” were the’ basis of his influence with them. He also learned the power of the lamas, the priests of \ _Mongolia’s form of Buddhism. As the eldest “son in every family is set apart to religion, the country swarms with lazy men, who are celibates jin name, but in reality libertines. Gilmour as- \serts that “the great sinners in Mongolia are-the lamas; the great centers of wickedness are the temples.” Of the blackmen, or laity, he writes: “The influence of the wickedness of the lamas is most hurtful. It is well known. The lamas sin, not among themselves, but sow their evil among the people. The people look upon the lamas as sacred and of course think they may do what the lamas do. Thus the corrupting influence spreads, and the state of Mongolia to-day, as re- “dAYD) TOONOT] Vv ‘daays & Surry “fF “Sup rakeig °f *sdvay yang *z "s]ua} [OSUOW *r 791905 JIVAT “itp 4ag kg ,‘sposuopy ay) Suouw py ,, mor | Sad wiwad Ny We Re coat ava y witty, James Gilmour gl gards uprightness and morality, is such as makes the heart more sick the more one knows of it.” Like the Japanese and Hindus, the Mongols are externally devoted to their religion as an- other extract from Gilmour picturesquely shows. Mongol Religiosity. “One of the first things that the missionary no- tices in coming in contact with the Mongols is the completeness of the sway exercised over them by their religion. Meet a Mongol on the road, | and the probability is that he is saying his prayers | and counting his beads as he rides along. Ask him where he is going and on what errand, as the custom is, and likely he will tell you he is going to some shrine to worship. Follow him to the temple, and there you will find him one of a company with dust-marked foreheads, moving his lips and the never absent beads, going the: rounds of the sacred place, prostrating himself at: every shrine, bowing before every idol, and strik- | ing pious attitudes at every new object of rever- ence that meets his eye. Go to the quarters where Mongols congregate in towns, and you will find that quite a number of the shops and a large part of the trade there are dependant upon. images, pictures, and other articles used in worship. “Approach tents, and the prominent object is a flagstaff with prayer-flags fluttering at the top. Enter a tent, and there right opposite you as you put your head in at the door is the family altar, with its gods, its hangings, its offerings, and its Home Religion. 92 Princely Men brass cups. Let. them make tea for you, and before you are asked to drink it a portion is thrown out by a hole in the roof of the tent .by ' way of offering. Have them make dinner for you, and you will see a portion of it offered to the god of the fire, and after that perhaps you may be asked to eat. Wait till evening, and then you will see the little butter lamp lighted and set upon the altar as a pure offering. When bedtime comes, you will notice as they disrobe ‘that each and all wear at their breast charms sewn up in cloth, or pictures of gods in metal cases with glass fronts. In the act of disrobing, prayers are said most industriously; and not till all are stretched on their felts does the sound of devotion cease. Among the first things in the - morning you will hear them at their prayer again; . and when your host comes with you to set you on your way, he will most likely give you as your landmark some cairn, sacred for the threefold reason that its every stone’ was gathered and laid | in prayer, that prayer-flags flutter over the sacred pile, and that it is the supposed residence of the deity that presides over the neighborhood.” It ' is not surprising among a people so devoted to . their religion and with such hostility to other faiths, that one accepting Christianity should be- come worse than an outcast. For these reasons Gilmour made little religious = upon the Mongols. ee eae Mee James Gilmour 93 Being now in a position to work effectively, Gilmour at and having experimented as to the best method 0ré- of reaching his man, how does he do his work? He must keep near the people and to him this meant living as nearly like them as possible. Thus he went about from tent to tent as do they when on their travels. He also shared their fare, which consisted in the morning and at noonday of a tea made of meal fried in cracklings with tea poured over it, and at sunset of beef, mutton, or tripe, boiled and then fished out with the fire- tongs and placed in a basin or on a board. It was then eaten by taking it between the teeth and cutting off the bite with a knife, thus en- dangering the lips. Millet boiled in soup was a second and more palatable dish. His great dif- ficulty was to find privacy for personal prayer and for personal conversation with any who showed an interest in Christianity. As there is no such thing as privacy in Mongolia, he must arrange to have the person with whom he was working serve as an attendant on long walks or rides. Approaching a tent-hamlet, he shouts out Tent hanoi, “dog,” which brings out all the old “s/tation. women and children, whose business it is to hold in check the fierce beasts. After entering the “tent and partaking of snuff and removing the reserve by friendly sips of tea, he shows the com- pany a set of Scripture pictures, which are enter- The First Convert. 94 Princely Men tainingly described. Next he produces tracts, catechisms, and a Gospel of St. Matthew which are also briefly explained. Very likely some lama will ask questions. He does not believe in a Bible which is so insignificant in bulk in com- parison with his own Canon, which it may take a string of camels to transport. God’s omni- presence is unbelievable to him. The Christian view of the hereafter and our theory of salvation are real problems to most Mongols. Gilmour’s notorious love of argument made such questions a genuine pleasure, much as he deplored their opposition. It was exceedingly difficult to make the people understand spiritual truths; but it was easy to show what the Christian life was like through his own godly walk and conversation. Though often disappointed and of the ‘“con- viction that any one Mongol coming out of Bud- dhism and entering Christianity would lead a very precarious existence on the plain, if in fact he could exist there at all,’ Gilmour was over- joyed to win his first and only convert among the nomad tribes, one Boyinto by name. The long story of the heroic confession of the young man amid the dense smoke of a lama’s tent, and of his twenty-three mile walk, with feet causing him excruciating pain, that he might have pri- vate conversation and prayer with the young confessor, is one of the classics of missionary literature. Yet even this one convert was bap- James Gilmour 95 tized by a missionary of the American Board and received into the Kalgan church. The writer well remembers the sensation made at a service in Peking when Gilmour, shortly after his wife’s death, preached her funeral ser- mon. The funeral of this true heroine of China was no more unconventional than their courtship and marriage had been. Refused at home when he had proposed to a Scotch lassie, he fell a vic- tim to a London young woman whom he had never seen and whom he knew only through mu- tual friends and correspondence. Here is the chronicle of the romance, dated Peking, January 31, 1875. “I proposed in January, went up to Mongolia in spring, rode about on my camels till July, and came down to Kalgan to find that I was an accepted man! I went to Tientsin to meet her; we arrived here on Thursday, and were married on Tuesday morning. We had a quiet week; then I went to the country on a nine days’ tour and came back two days before Christ- mas. We have been at home ever since. Such is the romance of a matter of fact man.” Miss Prankard’s first view of her future husband is thus pictured by her brother-in-law: ‘‘The morn- ing was cold, and Gilmour was clad in an old overcoat which had seen much service in Siberia, and had a woolen comforter around his neck, having more regard for warmth than appearance. We had to follow back to Tientsin, Gilmour A Romance. Their Mongol Home. 96 Princely Men being thought by those on board the steamer to be the engineer!” Yet beating beneath the rough exterior was a most affectionate heart, and their home life was most delightful. The brave woman longed to relieve the loneli- ness of her husband and to share in its burdens; hence in the summer of 1876 they were in Mon- golia for over four months, during which time his wife suffered unspeakably from lack of pri- vacy, the rough fare of the plain, and a cataclysm of woes, — ice even in May, a furious tempest lasting thirty-six hours and threatening to sweep tents and occupants away, the summer rains “pouring and lashing and roaring, the great drops bursting through the rent cloth and looking like pepper shaken from a box” and the most trying of their ‘‘meteorological experiences,” the fierce heat of a Mongolian summer. Yet with all these discomforts there was the joy of getting close to the people, and proving their love by their works. A corpulent mandarin. was one of their visitors, on which occasion their ‘‘tent was crammed with eager listeners, and we reasoned together from the Creation to the finish, includ- ing all manner of side-issues and important ques- tions. It was a long time before he could be convinced that our Jesus was not spoken of in the Buddhist classics. When he was as length satisfied on that point, he wanted to know about the Trinity; how men could get good; how it was James Gilmour 97 right that men should escape punishment due to their misdeeds by praying to Jesus; why God al- lowed animals, such as starving dogs, to lead a life of suffering; why God did not keep sin from | entering the world; and how about the souls that died before Jesus came.” In one of their two later sojourns in Mongolia they almost lost their lives in a fearful storm and flood. With a great swift-flowing river on both sides of their frail tent and the crash of thunder and the louder roar of the waters, they faced death for a time, but at last were saved. His marriage and the loneliness of both be- /n China. cause of the necessitated absence in Mongolia of the husband made little difference with Gil- mour’s scheme of Mongol evangelization. Yet it so happened that he spent considerable time in China, either substituting for his Peking col- leagues when they were on furlough, or else aid- ing the Tientsin members of his mission when they were left alone. On one of his trips to the sacred land of China, the Province of Shantung where Confucius and Mencius were born, he and his companion baptized a large number of Chi- nese. The circumstance raised grave a in Gilmour’s mind as to the advisability of ad-,\ ministering the rite to those who had had = little instruction and oversight. His most con-: tinuous work in China was done in its capital not far from the palace grounds. A most vivid Hunting Mongols in hi Peking. 98 Princely Men account of street chapel work was given before an enchained audience at the annual meeting of the London Missionary Society when he was home on his first furlough. That work, however, was not as distinctively s as were his labors for Mongols in Peking, many of whom spend the winters there. Part of the time he followed the plan of residing in the Yellow Temple, outside the city walls. Living here, he was constantly meeting among the wor- shippers, those whom he could converse with about Christianity. A more fruitful work was done, however, at the two Mongol encampments of Peking. ‘I followed the example of the ped- lers,”’ he writes, “and, hanging two bags of books from my shoulders, hunted the Mongols out, going not only to the trading places, but in and out among the lanes where they lodged, visiting the Outside Lodging first and the Inside Lodging later in the day. The number of Mon- gols outside the city became latterly so small that it was not visited very often... . In many cases the Mongols before buying, and not infre- quently after buying, would insist on having the book read, supposing that they got more for their money when they not only had the book, but had me let them hear its contents. ... As the purchasers of these books hailed from all parts of Mongolia, the tracts thus put into their hands will reach to even remote localities in the James Gilmour 99 west, north, and east; and my prayer is that the reading of them may be the beginning of what shall lead to a saving knowledge of the truth in some minds. Hoping for some good result, I had my address stamped on many of the books, to enable such as might wish to learn more to know where to come. In some cases, Mongols wish- ing to buy books had no money, but were willing to give goods instead; and thus it happened that I sometimes made my way home at night with a miscellaneous collection of cheese, sour-curd, but- ter and millet cake and sheep’s fat, representing the produce of part of the day’s sale.” Twice in his missionary career, this rough hero of the desert revisited Great Britain. The first visit was due to his wife’s ill-health, which began to break during the first summer in Mongolia. Aside from the charm of his vivid word-pictures which held his audiences spell-bound, he had published while at home his unique record of the early years in Mongolia, entitled “Among the Mongols.” This missionary ‘Robinson Crusoe” awakened both interest and enthusiasm, and re- quests to write books and articles for periodicals were a temptation to devote his life to literary work, or at least to give much time to such pursuits. Both visits were a tonic to the recluse of Mongolia, their chief delight being the oppor- tunity of quickening his spiritual life through ‘contact with earnest Christians at home. - The Gilmour's Furloughs. His Wife's Death. _—_ The Agricultural Mongols. 100 Princely Men hearty abandon to religion in the Salvation Army, and the deeper current of spirituality found in a little circle of friends, restored naturalness to a religious life which tended to become morbid in his Mongolian loneliness. Though Mrs. Gilmour returned to China with her husband, she was spared to her family only a little more than two years longer. Her departure, leaving him with two boys and baby Alick, and the departure later of the two eldest to Great Britain, constitute one of the semi- tragedies of missions which finds its record in “James Gilmour and His Boys.’ These pa- thetic epistles to his children reveal the tenderer side of his nature better than anything else writ- ten by him. In 1872 Gilmour had visited the settled Mon- gols in the eastern part of Mongolia, but he then reported that the nomad tribes were more needy and also more open to personal work. His wife’s death and the failure of his Society to send out a colleague for work among the nomads, caused him to change his position, and during the last six years of his life the bulk of his work was done for them. Here he appears in a new role, that of lay doctor. Though he had done considerable of this on the plain and had had charge of the lay affairs of the London Hospital in Peking, thus gaining valuable experience, the work was never pushed as in Eastern Mongolia. James Gilmour 101 Had he consulted his own preferences, this would not have been undertaken; since he had had no medical training, and to fail in a case might re- sult disastrously. Indeed, the loss of an eye, operated on at the Peking hospital at Gilmour’s suggestion, nearly occasioned the death of him- self and his wife when they were on the plain. Yet everywhere he saw suffering which the wretched lama doctors regarded as the pathway to the sufferer’s pocket, they spending their time in days of prayer for the patient, since in their opinion “work without prayer is of no avail.” | It was for such reasons and because his appeals — for a colleague who was a physician were in vain, that he so emphasized this branch of the work. The character of his labor among these tribes may be gathered from this report of eight months spent among them: Patients seen, about 5,717; hearers preached to, 23,755; books sold, 3,067; tracts distributed, 4,500; miles traveled, 1,860; money spent, 120.92 taels — about $150. Dur- ing nine months of 1887 he attended between twelve and thirteen thousand cases. Early in the morning Gilmour would sally out to the market place with his little cloth tent, and after pitching it would stand there all day nearly, preaching and healing diseases with his well-tried specifics. Itch, rheumatism, eye difficulties, spring diseases due to the damp of the thaw, ague, narry, — occasioned by whiskey which so Lay Medicine. 102 Princely Men burns the stomach that many die of the disease, —and the chronic maladies of women, affecting nearly every one of those beyond girlhood, pass in motley order before him, and all are treated by the lay doctor. So successful was he that nothing was regarded as too hard for the foreign healer, and hence many cases must be turned away. “One man wants to be made clever, another to be made fat, another to be cured of insanity, another of tobacco, another of tea, another wants to be made strong so as to conquer in gymnastic exercises; most men want medicines to make their beards grow, while al- most every man, woman and child wants to have his or her skin made as white as that of the foreigner.” The Nomad In constant activity, except for his second at Rest. brief furlough in Great Britain necessitated by ill-health, the remaining years of Gilmour’s ser- vice were spent. It is true that he here saw oc- casional conversions and the nuclei of three na- tive churches started; but over against these signs of promise were constant opposition from a people to whom he was giving his life, and the perils of a section abounding in thieves, who even stole his much prized Revised Version of the Bible. His hopes would be once and again raised by the tidings of re-enforcements, but the two physicians who had been sent out, were speedily called away and by contrast his last James Gilmour 103 state was worse than the first. He decided that he must be at the annual meeting of his mission which was to be held in Tientsin in 1891. In glad anticipation he made special preparation through prayer and a correspondence looking toward their first conference of native workers. The journey down, particularly that part of it over the newly: constructed railroad, was thor- oughly enjoyed. Gilmour was made chairman of-the gathering; and in the meetings held every evening for the deepening of the spiritual life, also conducted by him, he was at his best. It was afterward recalled that the songs which he most delighted in at the meetings were such as “© Christ, in Thee my soul hath found,” “In the shadow of His wings there is rest, sweet rest,” “God holds the key of all unknown,” and “Some one at last will his cross lay down.” Less than a fortnight before the end he wrote his last letter to a Kalgan missionary, in which occurs this sentence, “Lately I am becoming more and more impressed with the idea that what is wanted in China is not new ‘lightning methods,’ so much as good, honest, quiet, earnest, persistent work in old lines and ways.” The unusual burdens which Gilmour was bearing, added to heart weakness, finally culminated in an eleven days’ attack of typhus fever. In his delirium he was again on the Mongolian plain, living out his old heroic rdle; or else he was addressing most The Funeral. A Wasted Life? 104 Princely Men earnestly his fellow-workers, urging them to a life of constant waiting on God, that their labors might become more fruitful. And then the strug- gle ceased and on Thursday, May 21, 1891, the lonely wanderer of the Mongolian plateau passed through the gates into the city. The future life had been so real to him, especially since his wife’s death, that heaven was not so great a surprise to him as to those who have not been living in heaven from day to day. Like Mackenzie’s passing, the departure of Gilmour was an event worthily lamented. A lovely afternoon; a hymn sheet with Bunyan’s words printed on it, ‘““The pilgrim they laid in an upper chamber whose window opened toward the sunrising”; the coffin borne by relays of bearers, both foreigners and native friends; singing by the Chinese of their version of ‘‘In the Christians home in glory”; and casting into the open grave by Chinese boys of the flowers which Gilmour so loved: these are some of the features of an occasion which meant to many a new inspiration to arise and fulfill the works which a man of heroic mold had set before them, both by word and example. The reader cannot but feel inclined to say that so strenuous a life, lived for those who were so nearly hopeless from a spiritual point of view, was a waste of force. Even his own associates and his Society questioned the wisdom of his James Gilmour 105 continuing in a field so sparsely settled and so abounding in difficulties. But if success is not measured by actual conversions and is viewed from the standpoint of the builder of massive foundations and the inspirer of others with apos- tolic ideals, the years were gloriously spent. He had, like his Master, trodden the wine press alone, and of the people there were very few with him: And also like Jesus, he preached and lived ideals which even his associates could not accept. His periods of fasting, his intense rever- ence for the Sabbath which, however, always in- cluded its right use, his strong position with refer- ence to the use of tobacco and liquor, and his gradual rise from asceticism to a life singular in its imitation of Christ, constitute a legacy to every missionary and a stimulus to higher living for all Christians. His friend and biographer, Richard Lovett; writes: “Love, self-crucifixion, Jesus Christ fol- lowed in adversity, in loneliness, in manifold perils, under almost every form of trial and hin- drance and resistance, both active and passive, — these are the seeds James Gilmour has sown so richly on the hard Mongolian plain, and over its eastern mountains and valleys. ‘In due time we shall reap, if we faint not.’ His work goes on... . Upon us who yet remain rests the responsibility of carrying forward the work he began, of re-enforcing the workers, of bearing Still Living. 106 Princely Men Mongolia upon our prayers, until Buddhism shall fade away before the pure truth and the perfect love of Jesus Christ, and even the hard and un- responsive Mongols come to recognize the truths James Gilmour so long and faithfully tried to teach them — that they need the Great Physician even more than they need the earthly doctor, and that He is more able and willing to heal the hurt of their souls than the earthly physician is to remove the disease of their bodies.” And the work is literally going on. While the London Missionary Society has continued the enterprise, it has been more largely cared for by other bodies of Christians, especially on the grass land. The Boxer Uprising scattered the workers and Chris- tians, but the field is slowly being covered again. Except for the Chinese settlers, Mongolian mis- sions will always be difficult to carry on; but the Church is never without heroic souls who will be the lineal successors of this pioneer and of that goodly fellowship of old, who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” t-- JOHN LIVINGSTON NEVIUS THE CHRISTIAN ORGANIZER Born BETWEEN Ovip anp Lopr, N. Y., Marcu 4, 1829 Diep ar CuEeroo, Cuina, Ocroser 19, 1893 THE MISSIONARY’S REWARD “‘ For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy.”’ —r Thessalonians 2: 19, 20; last verses read and commented upon by Dr. Nevius on the morning of his death. METHODS AND GOD * Let us bear in mind that the best methods can not do away with the diffi- culties in our work, which come from the world, the flesh, and the devil ; but bad methods may multiply and intensify them. For unavoidable difficul- ties we are not responsible; for those which arise from disregard of the teachings of Scripture and experience we are. Let us also remember that, while in undertaking the momentous task committed to us, we should by the study of the Scriptures, prayer for divine guidance, and comparison of our varied views and experiences, seek to know what is the best method of work, still the best method without the presence of our Master and the Spirit of all truth will be unavailing.’”? — Dr. Nevius in ‘‘ Methods of Mission Work.’’ «“THAT THEY MAY ALL BE ONE” “Tn our present position of missionaries representing different branches of the Church, closely related to one another in a common work, our meth- ods simple and presenting many points of agreement, and our different sys- tems of organization in a rudimental, undeveloped state, should we not make use of our opportunity to avoid as far as possible in the future the divergences which impair the unity and efficiency of the Church at home, retaining and perpetuating a degree of uniformity and co-operation which in Western lands seems impracticable? Is it not our duty to do this? Would it not be in accordance with the express teaching of our Savior and also with the wishes of most of those whom we represent? Would it not have a decided influence for good on the home churches?” — Dr. Nevius in ‘‘ Methods of Mission Work.” CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EVENTS IN NEVIUS’S LIFE 1829. Born between Ovid and Lodi, New York, March 4. 1845. Entered Union College as sophomore, September. 1848. Graduated from Union College. 1849. Went to Georgia to teach, October. His conversion. 1850-53. Studied theology at Princeton Seminary. 1853. Decides to become a foreign missionary, March. Appointed to China under the Presbyterian Board, April 18. Marries Helen S. Coan, June 15. Sailed from Boston for China, September 19. 1857. Powerful revival in Nevius’s station of San-poh. 1859. The Neviuses go to Hang-chow as pioneers, February. Obliged to leave the city, August. 1860. Transferred to Kanagawa, Japan, June (?) 1861. Returned to China, February. Transferred to the Province of Shantung, May. 1863. Visits Amoy, Hongkong, Canton. 1864-68. Furlough in Europe and the United States. 1848. First edition of ‘‘ China and the Chinese ’’ mainly written. 1869. Union College confers the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 1877. Engages in the work of famine relief, February to June. 1881. Second furlough, spent in the United States, March, to August, 1882. 1890. Chosen American Chairman of Second General Missionary Confer- ence, Shanghai. Last furlough in the United States, August, to September, 1892. 1893. Died at Chefoo, China, October 19. IV JOHN LIVINGSTON NEVIUS Tue CurisTian ORGANIZER WHETHER the Neviuses were descended from A Dutch the Latin poet Cn. Nevius may be doubtful, 47¢estry. despite confirming legends; yet there is no question as to the Dutch ancestry of John Liv- ingston Nevius. His first American progenitor, Johannes Nevius, migrated from Holland before 1652, and became a schepen, or alderman, of New Amsterdam in 1654. Later, as Clerk of the Court of Burgomasters, he received permission, as his “spoils,” to sow grain on the unappropri- ated fields about the City Hall, in which he lived, and to pasture his cows on the State House lawn. Genealogical tables of succeeding generations are monotonous iterations of John, Peter (or Petrus), John P., Peter P., until in the eighth generation the original Johannes became John Livingston for the benefit of the subject of this sketch. Our missionary did not inherit the ancestral Early Years. acres on Wall Street, New York, but instead he first saw the light in the beautiful “ Lake Coun- 109 Nevius's Education. 110 Princely Men try” of the Empire State. Between the towns of Ovid and Lodi, on March 4, 1829, Benjamin Nevius and Mary Denton, his wife, rejoiced over the advent of a babe who was destined to become one of the foremost missionaries in a great Oriental empire. Though his father was a splendid horseman, a martial officer of militia, and above all a very genuine fighter in the ranks of temperance reform and a champion and active promoter of Sunday-schools, his early death de- prived the boy of a father’s helpful influence. His mother, however, was a veritable Monica to him, and until their conversion she never ceased to labor and pray for the salvation of her two sons. Her second marriage to Mr. Eastman broke up the family life for a time, and hence his grandfather’s home and his example as a worthy Dutch Reformed elder were potent factors in answering his mother’s prayers. A precocious boy at school, willful and envious, and always ready for a quarrel with his brother Reuben, giving religion serious thought at seven only to decide not to embrace it until fourteen, delight- ing enough in a horse to be a centaur, glorying in the prospect of some day owning a real gun, and rambling and roving by the banks of Seneca Lake, the boy grew into the youth, with little to suggest his later career. Ovid Academy gave John and his inseparable brother that outlook into life and the world of eae John Livingston Nevius IIt knowledge that was typified by the view over nine counties that one could get who took the trouble to climb the Academy belfry. Those far-away prospects also ministered to that love of _ scenery and of the beautiful in nature which was a marked characteristic of the man. Entering Union College as a sophomore in 1845, he grad- uated three years later, after having diversified his college work with teaching and engaging in the social life of the young people in a way that would suggest that “good times” were an im- portant object in life, and that his words to his brother soon after graduation were a true record of much of his past: “We have thus far fooled away our time. If we ever do anything in this world, we must begin living on a new system.” Nevius’s mother was deeply disappointed that neither of her sons had become Christians, and that a favorite desire of hers could: not be real- ized, she having hoped that they would enter the ministry. As John thought he was too young to decide upon a profession, he determined to go to the South, as did many Northern graduates before the Rebellion, and there try his powers in the work of teaching. In this he succeeded admirably ; moreover, that year in Georgia was the turning-point in his religious life. Before leaving home his thoughts had been directed toward his relations to God, and in the lone- liness of a far-away land he was led into the In the South, At the Seminary. Life Decision. 112 Princely Men light. A happier mother can not be imagined than John’s when she received the glad news, especially as almost at the same time Reuben Nevius also gave himself to God. The two brothers and their mother were ever after very helpful to one another in the Christian life, though Reuben’s devotion to Episcopacy was a damper to John’s Presbyterian enthusiasm. Leaving his Southern friends and a successful work as teacher, Nevius turned away from the law to which he inclined, and from dreams of wealth and distinction, in order to prepare for the ministry. Entering Princeton Seminary in December, 1850, the work of preparation for his chosen calling was energetically undertaken. The resolutions which he formed, after the fashion of his day, reveal a conscientiousness and realization of his need that account for much in his later career. He was a faithful student, a fairly active worker in churches and communi- ties to which he ministered as a supply, and he had an ear ever open to God’s call. Princeton has always emphasized the work of missions, and his letters and diary abound in references to missionary meetings, missionaries, the visits of a missionary secretary, and his own attitude toward missionary service. The logic of facts finally drove him to give his life to foreign missions, a decision reached in March of his senior year in the Seminary. He writes to John Livingston Nevius 113 his fiancée: “I am sure that my motives are not mercenary or selfish, for I should have pre- -ferred the most humble place at home; nor ambitious, for I do feel that I am so poorly prepared for the work before me that, among such men as we have in the foreign field, I shall fall far short of ever being ‘distinguished.’ I do not think, either, that the ‘credit’ of the world had anything to do with forming my decision. I believe I have been driven to the determination to be a missionary by a solemn and increasingly oppressive sense of duty taught me by God’s Word and the call of Providence and the Church and God’s Spirit. I feel that few have been so much blessed and are so much indebted to God as I am, and I desire to con- secrate my all to Him. I think I have been able, without any regard to plans and prefer- ences of my own, to say, ‘ Lord, where wilt Thou have me to go?’” The following month, Nevius was appointed a missionary of the Presbyterian Board, and was designated to China. ‘ A quiet home wedding united Nevius to Helen S. Coan, whom he had known and ad- mired from her girlhood, and who still carries on his work in China. A wretched sailing-ship, the “Bombay,” carried the happy pair to their new home in a palatial stateroom six feet long and three and a half feet wide! Head winds, Marriage and Voyage to China. 114 Princely Men storms, calms, when the old East India trader was “a painted ship upon a painted ocean,” and finally, after six months of discomfort, a dan- gerous landing among the men-of-war and rebels who had closed in upon Shanghai, were experi- ences which prepared the young missionaries for those early years when the T’ai P’ing Re- bellion kept them always on the alert. Early Lifeat This “City of the Peaceful Wave” is a large Ningpo Fu. and important place on about the same parallel of latitude as New Orleans, and its population is only a little larger than that of its American counterpart. The Neviuses took up their abode for a time with resident members of their Board ; for already this place had been occupied by such well-known missionaries as Dr. McCartee, one of the pioneers in Japan and China, Matthew Culbertson, the talented West Pointer and one of the translators of the Bible into the Classical, and Walter Lowrie, the victim of Chinese pirates. While Nevius did not regard himself as having any genius for language study, which at first occupied his time, he atoned for that lack by laborious and persistent application. For ten years he did not read one English book except theological works and commentaries, so determined was he to gain adequate mastery of Chinese. The simple style, ample vocabulary, and absorption of the “flavor” of the language, which marked his later speech and writings, go John Livingston Nevius Lig to prove that linguistic genius is largely made up of hard work and persistent strivings after perfection in minor details. At the end of nine months Nevius was able to do considerable work in the street chapel, while at the expiration of a year he traveled about and preached as circumstances required. But the Neviuses did something besides study. There was little ad- vantage in continuous work on the language, as six or eight hours a day suffice to exhaust the brain. Walking and riding in the neighborhood, thus enabling them to enjoy Ningpo’s beautiful hill scenery and to get glimpses of Chinese life, visiting neighboring sacred places, and early attempts at touring, gave variety and interest to life. If adventure was desired, they found it in the feud between the Portuguese and Cantonese colonies of the city, which led to the bombard- ment of the place by the former and their san- guinary massacre by the Chinese a few years later. Christian union between the missionaries of different societies laboring in Ningpo, and delightful fellowship in various tours and trips, revealed to Nevius the meaning of the creed article, “I believe in the communion of saints.” During the second year in China, Nevius was chosen pastor of the Ningpo church. He also itinerated considerably, though the San-poh field was the one upon which he spent most tinie. It was in connection with it that a company of A Church in Prison. Transferred 116 Princely Men prisoners became deeply interested, one of whom he baptized. The work began through the efforts of a carpenter who imparted the Gospel to the head prisoner, a man who was there through no crime of his own, but because he had consented to expiate the guilt of another. This baptism administered in “hell,” as these places are sometimes called, created a strong impression on the other prisoners, ten of whom became inquirers. The result was a reformation in the prison, and the passing of gambling, curs- ing, and idleness. When later the rebels cap- tured the city, the prisoners were freed, and their converted leader was made an officer in the rebel army. Later still, he became a re- spected and useful member of the San-poh dis- trict. During part of the period just mentioned, to Mrs. Nevius had been in the United States, her Hang-Chow. health, which was always frail, having demanded afurlough. Returning to China, they were soon sent to Hang-chow to open up a work for their church in the capital of this important province. So delightful is this place that it is inwrought into the well-known proverb, “ Above is heaven ; below are Su-chow and Hang-chow.” But it was not a heavenly place to reside in, as the “red-haired devil” missionaries soon found. Rooms were easily secured at a monastery some distance outside the city, a place which was John Livingston Nevius 117 famous because its monster pagoda was supposed to preserve the city from the ravages of Hang- chow’s famous‘ tidal-bore. Soon this place was abandoned for rooms in a dilapidated Taoist monastery quite within the walls and near the populous section of the town, yet on a beautiful hill with charming outlook. For a time all went well, as Dr. Nevius was wise in his cultivation of the officials through an interchange of calls and presents. But soon disaffection was noticeable, and their landlord was maltreated. Officials desired the missionaries to leave the city. As the root difficulty seemed to be the defeat of the allied forces at the Taku forts, and as Amer- ican ships were not in the engagement, they’ declined to go. Such firmness on the part of one foreigner gave rise to the rumor that Nevius: had a regiment of soldiers drilling on the hills near their temple. Finally, at the request of the United States consul, they reluctantly de- parted. Their stay had not been fruitless. Several persons gave evidence of true faith in Jesus, among them a most interesting woman named Su. For years she had been longing for just such a religion as ours, and her conversion opened up a world of beauty and light hitherto unimagined. At the final interview, she asked Mrs. Nevius two typical questions: “Do tell Af me, when I get to heaven, shall I meet my ji ancestors there, and my little children who died ) In Japan. 118 Princely Men years ago? You know my ancestors never heard of Jesus, and so they could not believe in Him; but will He not save them, notwithstand- ing?” Their sorrow over their enforced with- drawal was alleviated by the fact that later the T’ai-P’ing rebels captured the city and some twenty thousand people were butchered most inhumanly, while the Taoist temple was burned to the ground, with the exception of their rooms, which were occupied by the insurgent com- mander. Dr. Nevius returned to Ningpo and remained there, resuming charge of the boys’ boarding- school, untilin June of 1860 he and his wife were sent to Japan by the Presbyterian Board, in order to aid the Hepburns in opening a work for their Church. In a renovated temple at Kanagawa, seventeen miles from Tokyo, the Neviuses spent some seven months. Their permanent appointment was so_ problematical that little strength was given to studying Japanese. Dr. Nevius thus writes of these months: “Much of my time has been spent in committing to memory parts of the Chinese Classics and learning to form with a camel’s-hair pen a few thousand characters. I have, besides, written out in Chinese a good-sized manual for the direction and encouragement of our native preachers, to be called ‘The Disciples’ Guide.’ I am also working up the material for a ‘Com- John Livingston Nevius 11g pend of Systematic Theology,’a book which is now much wanted. I wish to get back to China as soon as possible to superintend the printing of these books and take advantage of openings which may occur in these eventful times.” As the war between China and the Western Powers was over, and as the claims of that great Empire seemed paramount, they sailed back to Shanghai in February, 1861. The three months following Nevius’s return to Ningpo were spent in a revision of his books. Three native teachers were kept constantly at work, either copying or reading under his direc- tion. As the T’ai P’ing insurgents had made a return to Hang-chow impossible for the time, and as the Board desired to occupy stations in Shantung, China’s Holy Land, the Neviuses were sent thither, at first to Téng-chow Fu. This city is located at the apex of Shantung’s camel-headed promontory, and had less than 100,- ooo inhabitants. Yet for ten years it was Dr. Nevius’s headquarters, except for a home fur- lough, a winter in Ningpo devoted to literary work, seven months at Hang-chow teaching a theological class, and some time spent in tours to the five open ports, and up the Yang-tzti River. During the last twenty-two years of his life, Dr. Nevius made his home at the port of Chefoo, his house being a well-known landmark, as well as a haven of refuge for missionaries and others. Téng-Chow Fu and ~*~ Chefoo. The T'ai P'ings. 120 Princely Men His most effective work was thus done from these two centers, and the remainder of this sketch will have Shantung as its background. At the outset of his life in North China Dr. Nevius gained an intimate knowledge of one of the most remarkable rebellions in history; though, as we have seen, the T’ai-P’ing rebels had already once and again interfered with his plans. Within a year or two of Dr. Morrison’s death, Milne’s first convert, Liang A-fa, had given to a young aspirant for a literary degree, named Hung, portions of Morrison’s Chinese Bible and alse some Christian tracts. The perusal of these and an attack of sickness caused Hung to believe that he had personal interviews with God and Jesus; and in 1844 he and a friend, named Fung, started out to. propagate the religion which they had evolved from the Bible and native beliefs. Subsequently Hung studied Christianity under Mr, Roberts, an American Baptist missionary, and desired baptism and employment as preacher. As his request was regarded as mercenary, it was not granted ; and the poor country school-teacher went away to organize in time the “ God-worshipers,” and, later, to set up the T’ai Ping T’ien Kuo, or Great Peace Heavenly Kingdom. In the days of its early prosperity, the rebel camp was as religious as that of- Cromwell or Gustavus Adolphus. Dr. Nevius writes of it: “Religious worship was John Livingston Nevius a1 kept up in the camp. The Sabbath was ob- served, the day chosen by them being our Satur- day, or the Jewish Sabbath. The Scriptures were read and expounded according to their understanding of them; prayers were offered ; hymns and doxologies were sung in honor of the Triine God; and eloquent preachers exhorted the multitude, urging them to honor and obey God, to be faithful to His vicegerent, the new Emperor, and to fight bravely for the establish- ment of the Heavenly Dynasty, promising posi- tions of honor and influence in the new state, as well as eternal blessedness in heaven. It is said that before battle they often knelt down under the open heaven and invoked the protec- tion and assistance of the Heavenly Father, and then charged upon their enemies with the assur- ance of success.” Mr. Roberts accepted a ~ position under his former disciple, but as he could not prevent the excesses and rank heresies into which the movement speedily ran, he left the T’ai P’ings in disgust. Fora time it seemed as if the reigning dynasty would be overthrown by the rebels and the Empire become nominally Christian. After almost reaching the capital it- self, the rebellion was quelled, thanks to the assistance of foreigners, especially Ward, the Massachusetts man, who raised up for the imperialists the “ Ever-Victorious Army,” and ° Chinese Gordon, who led it on to ultimate victory. Téng-Chow Threatened. “The Nevius: Plan,”’ 123 Princely Men Before the Neviuses were fully settled in Téng-chow Fu, they found themselves shut in by the T’ai P’ings. The people so greatly feared an attack upon the city that the gates were shut and barricaded, though thousands fleeing from the rebels were drawn up the city wall by ropes and so were saved from awful death. Thousands of ownerless mules and donkeys, unable to enter this place of refuge, ran wildly about, per- plexed at their unwonted freedom. At night the red glare of the clouds told of villages burnt, while the sights that Dr. Nevius witnessed in a run outside during the temporary raising of the siege told of the horrors of the time. In one place he saw half a dozen well-dressed women dead by the roadside, having been dragged over the ground by ropes noosed about their necks, while nestling close by their sides were several children, who had starved to death. Some vic- tims had been hacked -to pieces, others were burned, and multitudes who succeeded in reach- ing Téng-chow walked the streets with heads apparently half-severed from their bodies, while wounds and bruises made them revolting specta- cles. Although two missionaries at Chefoo lost their lives at the hands of the rebels, the Nevi- uses escaped, greatly as they suffered from the gruesome sights and sounds. As Dr. Nevius is chiefly noted for his plan of mission work, which has been variously modified John Livingston Nevius 123 in other mission lands, it should precede an ac- count of his labors in organizing and founding groups of believers. For a full account of it, his “ Methods of Mission Work ” must be read. The main differences between what he calls the “old system” and his scheme he thus states : “These two systems may be distinguished in general by the former depending largely on paid native agency, while the latter deprecates and seeks to minimize such agency. Perhaps an equally correct and more generally acceptable statement of the difference would be that, while both alike seek ultimately the establishment of independent, self-reliant, and aggressive native churches, the old system strives by the use of foreign funds to foster and stimulate the growth of the native churches in the first stage of their development, and then gradually to discontinue the use of such funds; while those who adopt the new system think that the desired object may be best attained by applying principles of independence and self-reliance from the begin- ning. The difference between these two theories may be more clearly seen in their outward prac- tical working. The old uses freely and as far as practicable the more advanced and intelligent of the native church members in the capacity of paid colporteurs, Bible agents, evangelists, or heads of stations ; while the new proceeds on the assumption that the persons employed in 124 Princely Men these various capacities would be more useful in the end by being left in their original homes and employments. The relative advantages of these two systems may be determined by two tests, — adaptability to the end in view, and Scripture authority.” Both of these tests in Dr. Nevius’s opinion proved the desirability of the new sys- tem, and a long and painful experience under the old method caused him to remain ever after the advocate of the new. Touring In noting how the’ plan worked, let us accom- Outfit. pany the Doctor on an initial tour. Unlike Mackay, he usually went without helpers, other than those necessary for caring for his physical wants, though much of the time in his later years he was accompanied by an associate mis- sionary. He rides on horseback, or else he and his colleague occupy each one-half of his famous spring wheelbarrow, a vehicle which he thus de- scribes: “My barrow is a platform about six feet long and four wide, with a wheel in the middle and handles at both ends. I have in it now four large bundles of books for distribution, a few foreign stores, and my little portable kitchen, which weighs, with its kettles, dishes, etc., about fifty-five pounds. All together, my- self, my clothes and bedding, etc., weigh about 500 pounds.” A horse or mule attached in front, with two barrow-men, one supporting the handles and the other to steady it and drive the “ano T, AYLNNOD WV wot AAVAU ‘MOUAVATIIN AA SIH NI SOLATNY "UC “i Ae | John Livingston Nevius 125 animal, make up his outfit and force.