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;tS5laiiarg P^anitals. 
 
 Christ or CoNFUCiui' Wto-i ? 
 
 OR, 
 
 t Storg 0f llje l^mag glissioit. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOHN MACGOWAN, 
 
 M 
 
 MISSIONARY IN AMOY SINCE 1863 ; 
 
 AUTHOR OF "a MANUAL OF THE AMOY COLLOQUIAL," AND " AN ENGLISH AND 
 
 CHINESE DICTIONARY OF THE AMOY LANGUAGE." 
 
 IV/TH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 £onti0n: 
 
 LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 14, BLOMFIELD STREET, E.G. ; 
 
 JOHN SNOW & CO., 2, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, E.G. 
 
 1889. 
 

 Main Ub. 
 
 JOHN FRYER 
 CHINESE LIBRARY 
 
 BUTLER & TANNER, 
 
 THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, 
 
 FROME, AND LONDON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ^H+• 
 
 When I commenced writing the story of the Amoy 
 Mission, I determined to confine myself simply to 
 giving an account of the introduction of the Gospel 
 into Amoy and the regions around, and the gradual 
 formation and growth of the Churches there. I have 
 consequently rigorously resisted all temptation to 
 describe the laws and customs of the people, except- 
 ing when they were necessary to illustrate and explain 
 my subject. In order to make the book more graphic 
 and lifelike, I have preferred, whenever I could, to 
 describe scenes in which I myself have mingled, and 
 to tell the stories of men with whom I have been 
 personally associated. This has been to me a most 
 delightful task, as it has brought back to my recol- 
 lection memories of the past, that are amongst the 
 most pleasant in my life. 
 
 I should like to have referred to the other two 
 Missionary Societies in Amoy — the American Mis- 
 sion and the English Presbyterian — and to the work 
 that is being carried on by them, but want of space 
 has prevented me. Even as it is, I have had to 
 
 747749 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 leave out all description of Hospital work, and of the 
 growth of Self-support amongst the Amoy Churches, 
 simply because I knew there were imperative reasons 
 why my work should not be extended beyond the 
 present number of pages. 
 
 If this book should, in any small degree, help to 
 inspire the hearts of its readers with a more profound 
 sympathy for missionary work, and should lead the 
 Christian Churches to recognise more fully the duty 
 and joy of sending the Gospel to their heathen 
 brethren in China, then, indeed, would my heart's 
 desire be satisfied, and I should be more than repaid 
 for the time and labour I have expended upon it. 
 
 J. MACGOWAN. 
 London, August 14th, 1889. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Great Preparation ii 
 
 II. Amoy and its People 25 
 
 III. First Successes 48 
 
 IV. Chiang-Chiu 76 
 
 V. Koan-Khau loi 
 
 VI. The County of Hui-an, or Gracious Peace 127 
 
 VII. Ditto {contimced) 152 
 
 VIII. Pho-lam 175 
 
 IX. Confucianism, and the Results of Mis- 
 sionary Work in Amoy . . . .201 
 
 7 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 View of the City of Amoy .... Frontispiece 
 
 District of Amoy {Map) lo 
 
 Pagoda, Golden Island, Hong-Kong ... 15 
 
 A Street in Canton .21 
 
 People of Amoy . 29 
 
 Amoy Women 35 
 
 An Opium Smoker 53 
 
 A Chinese Junk ........ 83 
 
 A Chinese Lady at her Toilette . . . .117 
 
 Sedan Bearers 145 
 
 County of Hui-an, or Gracious Peace {Map) . 153 
 
 A Barber .159 
 
 A Pagoda 177 
 
 A Temple . 202 
 
CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH ? 
 
 -fK 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GREAT PREPARATrON. 
 
 The dawn of the nineteenth century witnessed the 
 first systematic efforts of any of the Protestant 
 Churches of England to give the Gospel to the 
 Chinese. In 1805 the directors of the London 
 Missionary Society decided to send three or four 
 missionaries to Penang, a possession of the English, 
 as a preliminary step to their ultimate settlement in 
 China. This plan was agreed upon, because a great 
 many of the inhabitants were Chinese, and also 
 because it was deemed hopeless to expect that any 
 missionary would then be allowed to take up his 
 residence in China itself. The difficulties, indeed, 
 connected with a mission to that country were con- 
 sidered so insuperable, that the directors never con- 
 templated the possibility of their men being permitted 
 to teach and to preach. The only specific objects 
 they dared to set before themselves were, that the 
 missionaries should learn the Chinese language and 
 translate the Bible into it. What should be done 
 
12 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 after these things should be accomplished it was im- 
 possible to anticipate. 
 
 :Oji'.January' .SJi'S^, J807, the Rev. R. Morrison set 
 out for China by way of America. The original 
 intetntron of commencing the Mission in Penang was 
 abandoned, through the difficulty of obtaining men. 
 It was considered that as Mr. Morrison was going 
 alone, he might possibly be allowed to remain in 
 Canton until he had mastered the language. Full 
 permission, however, was given him in his letter of 
 instructions to remove to Penang, or to any other 
 place that he saw fit, in case he found it impossible to 
 remain in that city. 
 
 He arrived in Canton on September 7th, where he 
 very soon found himself exposed to considerable an- 
 noyance and even danger. In 1808, in consequence of 
 disputes between the English and the Chinese, he was 
 compelled to remove more than once to Macao, which 
 was then held by the Portuguese, so that his studies 
 were necessarily very much interrupted. At length, 
 seeing the risk of remaining in China to be very 
 great, he decided to leave for Penang and study the 
 language there. The time for his departure was actu- 
 ally fixed, when, on the 20th of February, he was 
 appointed Chinese interpreter to the East India 
 Company. This gave him an official position that 
 secured the right of residence in China, and at the 
 same time prevented the breaking up of the Mission 
 in that country. The acceptance of such a post was 
 a dangerous one, and with a different man might 
 have meant the shipwreck of the work. With him, 
 however, there was no risk. He had consented to 
 become an official in order that he might the more 
 
THE GREAT PREPARATION. 13 
 
 effectually carry out the one aim which was the pur- 
 pose of his life. He could now study without inter- 
 ruption, and, moreover, his official duties gave him 
 such wide opportunities of getting a deeper insight 
 into the language, that he was being continually 
 qualified for the great work of translating the Scrip- 
 tures into Chinese. 
 
 Although public preaching was not allowed, he 
 availed himself of every opportunity for making 
 known the Gospel to those who came within his 
 immediate influence. The Chinese in those early 
 days were not easily moved to become Christians. 
 The utter contempt with which they were accustomed 
 to look down upon the foreigner made them scout the 
 idea that he had anything better to teach them than 
 what they had received from their great sages. China 
 was the land of light and culture and refinement, 
 and had nothing to learn from the outer barbarian. 
 The idea of one of these coming to teach the Chinese 
 was just as ludicrous as though a Zulu were to come 
 to London, and, establishing himself in some promi- 
 nent position, were to invite the scholar and the 
 scientist to sit at his feet and be instructed by him. 
 Now the conceit and haughty insolence which were 
 marked features in the Chinese character were to be 
 found in a more intensified form amongst the Can- 
 tonese, than perhaps in any other part of China. It 
 was therefore particularly unfortunate that the first 
 contact of the missionary with the Chinese empire 
 should have been at Canton. This city was one of 
 the most prominent in the country. There were 
 others that could excel it in the beauty of their 
 natural surroundings, and in the historic memories 
 
14 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 that clustered around them, but it stood pre-eminent 
 as one of the strong cities of the empire. The lofty- 
 walls that surrounded it, and the massive gates, 
 through which the teeming crowds passed in and 
 out, had an imposing air of strength that seemed to 
 bid defiance to all the world, and to laugh to scorn 
 any attempt that might be made to capture them. 
 It was one of the wealthiest places in the kingdom. 
 Like other Chinese cities, it had its narrow lanes, 
 where the poorer people lived, and long lines of 
 streets where the smaller shops were opened ; but it 
 was conspicuous for the number of its large and exten- 
 sive business houses, where trade on a large scale was 
 carried on. Here could be found, as hardly anywhere 
 else in the empire, firms where the finest silks and 
 satins, and elegant embroidery of every design, could 
 be procured. Not only articles of native manufacture 
 could be bought, but also those from far-off distant 
 cities, which had been carried over lofty mountains 
 and down great rivers to this famous mart. Here, 
 too, were to be found the most beautiful vases from 
 well-known potteries, painted with the most exquisite 
 colours, the secret of which was known only to their 
 designers, and which has since been lost to the world. 
 Tea warehouses, filled with the fragrant leaf that 
 came from the centre of China, to be shipped away 
 to England, explained in some measure the presence 
 of the English ships that lay anchored in the river. 
 The city was alive and bustling, and had the air of a 
 pressure of business upon it. Men from the region 
 around, and from the far interior provinces, could be 
 seen in its streets. Tea merchants from Hankow, 
 silk merchants from Soochow, makers of the famous 
 
THE GREAT PREPARATION. 
 
 5 
 
 pottery from the Kiangsi province, merchants from 
 distant cities coming to buy and sell, mandarins of all 
 degrees with their retinues, and speaking the different 
 dialects of their far-off homes, so that they were 
 strangers in language amongst the very people they 
 had come to rule, all spoke of the hold that this 
 mighty city had upon remote places in the empire. 
 
 PAGODA, GOLDEN ISLAND, HONG-KONG. 
 
 The people of Canton were perhaps the most vigor- 
 ous in the kingdom. Though bred and born within the 
 tropics, and scorched by the great Eastern sun for the 
 greater part of the year, the only effect seems to have 
 been to develop in them an extraordinary amount of 
 mental and physical ability. In their build, they 
 could not compete with those of some of the northern 
 
i6 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 provinces, but in push and enterprise and business 
 capacity they stood first amongst the men of the 
 eighteen provinces. They were men of daring, too. 
 Their trading junks were accustomed to make con- 
 siderable voyages along seas where gales are frequent 
 in winter and typhoons in summer. The China Sea, 
 and the Formosa Channel, swarmed with pirate junks 
 manned by Cantonese, and none so terrible and ruth- 
 less as they. No force could compete with them, and 
 it has required the naval power of England to rid the 
 seas of these monsters. 
 
 The consequence of all this was, that the people of 
 Canton were a proud and haughty race. They felt 
 themselves more than a match for any of their own 
 countrymen, and much more therefore for the bar- 
 barian English. Even at the present day, after succes- 
 sive defeats, and the capture and occupation of their 
 city by English troops, the Cantonese still behave with 
 a rudeness and arrogance such as are experienced in 
 no other place where Europeans have been accus- 
 tomed to reside for any length of time. One can 
 easily understand, therefore, how dreary and depress- 
 ing the early years of the first missionary's life must 
 have been. Active work, such as is openly carried on 
 to-day, would not have been tolerated, either by the 
 Chinese authorities or by the directors of the East 
 India Company. In patient waiting and strong faith 
 in God, and in the Divine power of the Gospel, he had 
 come to preach ; in these alone could he find a com- 
 fort for his soul ; and by the grace of God he never 
 faltered in his purpose or dreamt of giving up the 
 enterprise as hopeless. 
 
 The year 1813 proved to be a memorable one in 
 
THE GREAT PREPARATION. 17 
 
 the history of the Mission. After six years of solitary 
 labour by Morrison, the Rev. W. Milne arrived in China 
 to become his colleague, and for the few years he was 
 permitted to live did splendid service, the fruits of 
 which remain to the present day. But the great event 
 of the year was the completion of the translation of 
 the New Testament into Chinese. Men who were 
 ignorant of that language had argued that it was 
 impossible to put the wondrous thoughts, and subtle 
 shades of meaning, and the tender and pathetic 
 language of the Bible into those cumbrous Chinese 
 characters. As though God had given a revelation 
 that could never be communicated to fully a fourth 
 of the human race ! Men forgot that the Bible is an 
 Oriental book, full of figures and similes, and teeming 
 with illustrations from Nature that can be understood 
 best under an Eastern sky. In coming to China it 
 was nearer its home than it was where dreary winters 
 and leaden skies prevail. The Chinese language is 
 one of the most beautiful in the world in which to 
 enshrine the sacred Scriptures, and there is a flexi- 
 bility and grace about it, that render it capable of 
 expressing all the tenderness, and pathos, and poetry, 
 and subUme thought of that most wondrous book. 
 
 Morrison himself was deeply impressed with the 
 work he had done. What a comfort and a joy he 
 must have felt as the last sheets were printed, and 
 the Word of God, the revelation of Jesus Christ, was 
 now ready to be distributed amongst the Chinese. 
 He had not been allowed to preach. He had 
 been watched and suspected. Edicts forbidding the 
 Chinese to receive the religion of the foreigners had 
 been issued. " A special express was sent from 
 
 B 
 
i8 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 Peking for search to be made for persons professing 
 the Christian religion, and old people and country 
 gentlemen were called upon by the Government to 
 give information against such." Anything that was 
 done by him had to be effected as quietly as possible, 
 for any public manifestation would have been at- 
 tended with danger to himself, and to those who 
 listened to him. Little did those in power dream 
 that he had already completed a work that one day 
 would revolutionize China, and change her customs, 
 and break up the long sleep of ages, and give men 
 thoughts such as no sage had ever taught them. 
 The Word of God was now ready to do a work that 
 no mandarin or royal edict could stop. God's 
 message, selfishly held back by the Christian Church 
 for so many ages, had at last reached China, and 
 men's hearts, there recognising the Divine voice, 
 would ere long respond in loving and loyal service 
 to Him. 
 
 The next great event in Morrison's life was the 
 baptism of the first Chinese convert on July i6th, 
 1 8 14. ** At a spring of water," he says, "issuing from 
 the foot of a lofty hill by the seaside, away from 
 human observation, I baptized Tsae-a-ko in the 
 name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." What 
 a day of rejoicing this must have been ! For nearly 
 seven years he had hoped, and longed, and prayed 
 for this very thing. Men had said : You cannot con- 
 vert the Chinese; and when he saw the arrogance and 
 scorn with which the Chinese scouted the idea of 
 being instructed by a barbarian, h^ must have had 
 his moments of perplexity and depression. But after 
 years of weary waiting, the Gospel has proved its old 
 
THE GREAT PREPARATION. 19 
 
 power. And now he receives the firstfruit of that 
 mighty harvest that other labourers will reap in the 
 future. 
 
 It would be interesting to learn what was the 
 attractive power in Christianity that led this China- 
 man to give up his idolatry, and his ancestral worship, 
 and to run the risk of death at the hands of his 
 rulers. Fortunately we have his own written con- 
 fession, and we are not surprised to find that the one 
 feature of the Gospel that touched his heart was the 
 same that had so mightily taken possession of the 
 mind of Paul, and had become the ruling force in his 
 life, and that was, Christ and Him crucified. He 
 says that *' Jesus has made an atonement for us is a 
 message that is full of joy. Language and thought 
 are both inadequate to exhaust the gracious and 
 admirable goodness of this purpose of Jesus. I now 
 believe in Jesus, and rely on His merits to obtain the 
 remission of sin. I have sins and defects, and with- 
 out faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins I should 
 be eternally miserable." How wonderfully this man 
 speaks of sin, who never knew what the word meant 
 till he heard the Gospel ! Christianity had given 
 him a definite conception and sense of the evil that 
 was in his life, and had shown him the way to get 
 rid of it. Confucius had never done this, and no 
 voice from the great temples in the city had ever 
 suggested it. The cross with its Divine story had 
 revealed to him his misery and his salvation, and so 
 his confession centres round Christ who had delivered 
 him. 
 
 The men and women that have been converted 
 since have all followed in his footsteps. As I listen 
 
20 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 to his confession it has a strangely familiar sound to 
 me. I know its language ; I can hear the very tones 
 and accents in which it was uttered, for I have 
 baptized hundreds of Christians, and they have all 
 seemed instinctively to adopt this same grand con- 
 fession of faith. 
 
 And so the years went by amid struggles and 
 difficulties. Everything had to be done with the 
 utmost secrecy and caution, lest the Chinese Govern- 
 ment should take action against him. He knew that 
 his own countrymen would not stand by him and 
 uphold him in such a case, for the East India Com- 
 pany, having heard that he had translated the New 
 Testament and various tracts into Chinese, sent out 
 an order that his connection with them should be 
 severed, for " they were apprehensive that serious 
 mischief might possibly arise to the British trade in 
 China from these translations." 
 
 In the meantime as there was no scope for mission- 
 ary work in China, missions were commenced in 
 Batavia, Malacca, Penang, and Singapore, amongst 
 the Chinese residing there. One very valuable result 
 of this was that men were being trained in a know- 
 ledge of Chinese and of Chinese life that would 
 specially qualify them to be workers in China the 
 very moment that country was opened. And 
 splendid men were some of these, and well adapted 
 for the great work that was to be done by and by ; 
 one of the mightiest empires in the world was to be 
 won for Christ. Men of feeble hands, or still feebler 
 hearts, would fail in the enterprise, and so God 
 selected, in this crisis, men of great powers of mind, 
 and of still profounder faith. Such names as Morri- 
 
A STREET IN CANTON, 
 

THE GREAT PREPARATION. 23 
 
 son, Milne, Medhurst, Legge, Stronach and Lockhart, 
 will be innperishably connected with the first preach- 
 ing of the Gospel in China. 
 
 In 1834 Morrison died; Milne had finished his 
 work twelve years before. Soon after his death the 
 mandarins began to enforce more rigidly their regu- 
 lations against the intercourse of Chinese with 
 foreigners, and also against their belief in Christianity. 
 The little band of Christians were punished by fines 
 and imprisonment, and were released only by the 
 payment of a large sum of money, which Mr. J. 
 Morrison, who had succeeded his father as Chinese 
 Secretary, very generously paid. The Chinese pastor 
 Leang-a-fa, found it expedient under these circum- 
 stances to leave China and fly to Malacca. It began 
 to look as though this missionary enterprise were to 
 be a failure. The founder of the work was dead. 
 For twenty-seven years he had given his soul to it, 
 but he was gone now, and those who had been 
 gathered by him, were left to the tender mercies of 
 the heathen. The strong and merciless hand of the 
 law had been laid upon the Christians, and they 
 were scattered as sheep without a shepherd. China, 
 with its ancient civilization and its great sages and 
 teachers, and with its stronger than adamantine walls 
 that were reared so high, as if to keep out the very 
 sounds that might come in from the outside world, 
 will never be evangelized. These strong men, with 
 the mighty forces behind their backs, will never give 
 up the traditions and teachings of their fathers. 
 Christianity will have to retire before such invincible 
 forces. Will it } The time is very near when these 
 walls shall be rent, and Christianity shall stand face 
 
24 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 to face with the nation. The appliances are all ready. 
 The Bible has been translated, and men of indomit- 
 able faith are waiting, all ready trained for the con- 
 flict. No gathering of great armaments has been 
 ^een, no clash and sound of weapons being forged 
 in the workshops of the world have been heard, and 
 no assembling of troops witnessed, and yet there 
 have been forces prepared that shall not fail in 
 their conquest of China. 
 
 In August 29th, 1842, by treaty with the Chinese 
 emperor, Hong-Kong was ceded to the English, 
 and Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai 
 became open ports, where men of every nation might 
 freely reside. Our missionaries, who had been eagerly 
 looking for this, at once hastened to enter China, 
 and Hong-Kong and Shanghai were occupied as 
 mission centres, whilst two years afterwards the 
 wondrous work, whose story will be told in the 
 following pages, was commenced at Amoy. 
 
 The weary years of waiting are ended. The dawn 
 has come at last. The shadows are beginning to 
 tremble before the coming day, and soon along the 
 coast, and far away into the interior, across its plains 
 and among its mountains and valleys, shall the light 
 flash, till the darkness shall have vanished, and 
 Christ come to claim the kingdom for His own. 
 
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 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AMOY AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 The island of Amoy is on the southern coast of 
 China, about three hundred miles to the north-east 
 of Hong-Kong. It is about thirty miles m circum- 
 ference, and is beautifully situated in the midst of a 
 very extensive bay. Seaward, it is protected by 
 a chain of islands, the largest and most important of 
 which is about the size of Amoy, and is called Quemoy, 
 or " The Golden Gate." This acts as a natural break- 
 water, and prevents the heavy seas that are raised by 
 storms and typhoons from rolling into the bay and 
 injuring the shipping that lies anchored there. 
 
 On the south the bay is bounded by a low range of 
 mountains, from the midst of which rises abruptly 
 Lam-tai-bu, the " Great Southern Warrior." This is 
 the most beautiful sight in the whole of the landscape, 
 for there is a never-ending charm in its varying moods, 
 as seen in storm or sunshine. In fine weather its sum- 
 mit is bathed in great floods of light, and it stands 
 out clearly against the sky as it looks down upon 
 the blue waters of the bay, which dance and sparkle 
 beneath the rays of the great eastern sun. When 
 bad weather is coming on, dense masses of cloud, 
 tumultuous and agitated, as if clinging to it for pro- 
 tection, gather round its head and far down its sides, 
 and then the waters of the bay, dark with the shadows 
 
26 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 cast upon them, seem to be in sympathy with them, 
 as though they feared the coming gale. 
 
 To the west and north the scenery is very grand 
 and rugged. It seems to consist entirely of hills and 
 mountains, for the plains and valleys that lie at their 
 feet, and that contain cities and villages and great 
 market towns, are hidden from our view till we come 
 upon them. The hills have grouped themselves into 
 all kinds of imaginable shapes. Over the lower 
 grounds can be seen the peaks that tower above the 
 rest ; whilst one range of mountains rises above 
 another, till the distant background seems to be 
 resting against the sky. 
 
 The city of Amoy is a walled town of the third 
 degree in rank. As compared with the great cities 
 of the empire, such as Canton, Suchow, or Hang- 
 chow, it is a very small and insignificant place. It is 
 a dull, semi-respectable town, and all the business 
 and life and energy that the Chinese are capable of 
 are concentrated in the immense suburbs that have 
 absorbed nearly all the wealth and trade of the port. 
 These are very finely and picturesquely situated. 
 They stretch along the shore of the beautiful bay, 
 which is lighted up daily with almost perpetual sun- 
 light. 
 
 The harbour is diversified by junks and sailing 
 vessels, and all kinds of steamers on their way north 
 or south ; whilst one ship that flies the white flag of 
 England shows that one of our men-of-war has come 
 from our far-off" home to guard and protect us if 
 needs be. 
 
 The scene before us is a busy one. The steamers, 
 with great noise and clatter, and with a rapidity that 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 27 
 
 the Chinese coolies do not reh'sh, are discharging their 
 cargoes. They are in a hurry to be off, and, more- 
 over, all this incessant rush and activity are but in 
 keeping with the restless and untiring energy of the 
 Englishman. Close beside them is a huge junk^ 
 hoisting its great mat sail, to the slow, monotonous 
 song of the sailors. This song, which might have 
 been composed in the days of Confucius, has not yet 
 caught the spirit of the nineteenth century. There is 
 no inspiration about it, nor anything to warm the 
 men's hearts and cause them to pull the sail up to the 
 masthead with a rush. A little farther on a number 
 of sailors are standing on the bow of another junk beat- 
 ing gongs. They begin with measured strokes, and 
 end with a few given quickly and with great energy. 
 They are welcoming a junk that is coming in with 
 flowing sail from sea, and they are expressing the 
 gladness of themselves and their shipmates that they 
 have passed safely through all the perils of the deep. 
 Passage boats of all sizes and descriptions are coming 
 in from the country districts laden with passengers, 
 small boats plying for hire from the shore to the 
 shipping dot the bay, and see ! here is a boat's crew 
 from the man-of-war, and Jack, with his easy, saucy 
 air, seems as much at home as though he were cross- 
 ing the Solent. 
 
 The town is a thoroughly typical one, and from it 
 we can, in a large measure, judge what is the char- 
 acter of nearly every other one in the country. To 
 enable the reader to get an idea of what it is like, 
 I shall take him through one of the principal 
 streets, and let him see some of the scenes that 
 may be constantly witnessed in it. This street, 
 
2S CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 being an important one, is wider than the gene- 
 rality, but even it is not more than about four- 
 teen feet ; but as most of the shops have projecting 
 counters, on which goods are displayed, the really 
 available space for the public is often not more than 
 from eight to ten feet. The crowd in this street is 
 always dense ; and were it not that it is usually good- 
 natured, and careful in following the rule of the road, 
 there would be fierce collisions and stoppage of the 
 traffic. Such narrow streets, where so much of human 
 life has to pass in such close contact the livelong day, 
 would never suit the people of the west, where men 
 are high-spirited and easily take offence, and where 
 the exigencies of life make it difBcult for them to 
 brook delay. 
 
 But it is not the people only that pass along these 
 narrow arteries. Everything that the necessities of 
 the town require has to be conveyed along them. 
 As we are sauntering quietly along with the crowd, 
 a faint shout is heard in the distance, which grows 
 louder and still more loud as it approaches us. We 
 discover that it proceeds from four men who are 
 carrying an immense bale of Manchester cottons on 
 bamboo poles, the ends of which rest on their 
 shoulders. Their cries are to warn the people to get 
 out of the way, and speedily this must be done, for 
 they come along at a swinging trot, and a blow from 
 the ends of the poles, or from the heavy bale might 
 prove a serious matter to the person struck. The 
 crowd good-naturedly opens up a way to let them 
 pass, whilst we hurriedly flatten ourselves against a 
 fruit-stall. The men swing by us with a shout, and 
 are almost instantly lost in the human tide in which 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 29 
 
 they are engulphed, but their voices can still be heard 
 in the distance, long after they have disappeared from 
 sight. 
 
 We now come to a part of the road that is slightly 
 wider than the rest. At the side of it is a man seated 
 at a small table, on which are laid materials for 
 
36 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 writing. Two ink-slabs, one for black and the other 
 for red ink, are placed in order before him. He is a 
 man of about fifty years of age, with large spectacles 
 on his nose, and he assumes a learned look, as though 
 he would try and persuade the public that he belongs 
 to the literary class. He is wanting, however, in that 
 invisible something that marks the true scholar, and 
 consequently no one is deceived by him. He is a 
 broken-down tradesman perhaps, or a ne'er-do-weel 
 who had been partially educated when he was young, 
 but who had not character enough to go on with his 
 studies. He is now picking up a very precarious 
 living by writing letters for the very poor and un- 
 educated classes of society. But let us draw near, for 
 a woman has just come up to his table, evidently on 
 business, and custom will allow us to stand by and 
 listen to what she has to say. The letter-writer has 
 now assumed a learned look, and he peers over the 
 spectacles at her with an air of profound thought, as 
 she tells him what she wishes him to write about. 
 She wants him to write a letter to her son, who has 
 gone abroad, and has not written to her for a very 
 long time. She then tells a long story of how- 
 good her son was as a boy, how filial he was, and 
 with what affection he used to treat her. The 
 mother's heart is full, and her eyes glisten as she 
 speaks of those happy days, and the virtues of her 
 son. Then her voice changes, and a cloud comes 
 over her^face as she proceeds to tell how evil com- 
 panions got hold of him and worked his ruin. He 
 gave up his work, became a gambler, and then an 
 opium smoker, and finally left the country in the hope 
 of turning over a new leaf, and of finding a fortune 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 31 
 
 that could not be got in Amoy. She tells her story 
 with great dramatic effect. At one time her eyes are 
 filled with tears, as the painful memories are recalled, 
 then her features assume a stern and angry appear- 
 ance, as she recounts the wiles by which her son was 
 led astray. Then her face brightens as she speaks of 
 her hopes that her son may yet repent, and come 
 back to her home to be a comfort to her. The people 
 who have gathered round the table, attracted by our 
 presence, listen sympathetically. They nod their 
 heads and look pleased when she speaks of her once 
 happy home, and they utter very strong, unclassical 
 language when she describes some particular indi- 
 vidual whose influence had been the ruin of her son. 
 The letter-writer listens quietly, but with a dignified 
 manner, as the tragic story is being rehearsed. He is 
 human, however, for, as we watch him, we see that 
 his feelings get the better of his reserve, and looks of 
 pity, and anon of indignation, steal over his face, as 
 the woman acts out this most piteous story of her 
 life. After she has concluded he proceeds to write 
 the letter. The paper is soon covered with strange 
 hieroglyphics in perpendicular columns, written with 
 black ink. Then the stops are all put in with red ink, 
 and important sentences underlined with the same, 
 and finally it is read over to her to see whether it 
 contains all she desired to say. It is then folded up 
 and addressed, and for all this he receives the modest 
 sum of one penny. 
 
 Again we saunter on. We pass by opium shops, 
 always dingy and dark looking, as though they feared 
 the light of day, and silk shops, and idol carvers, and 
 fruiterers, and eating houses, where groups of hungry 
 
32 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 customers are shovelling basinfuls of suspicious-look- 
 ing stuff down their throats with chop sticks. A 
 large cauldron is kept ostentatiously boiling in front 
 of these houses, and the steam that rises from it is a 
 capital advertisement to the hungry passers-by. For 
 a penny one can dine luxuriously whilst standing 
 round the cauldron. 
 
 These main streets are capital places for seeing 
 how the Chinese live. Everything is open to the 
 public. What they talk about, what they eat, how 
 they spend their time, and how hard the majority of 
 them have to work can all be seen by a quiet walk 
 down any of them. It is amazing in what a narrow 
 space a Chinese family can live, and how many 
 families can be accommodated in a house that, 
 according to our ideas, is capable of giving room to 
 only one. Let us stop and look at the one just close 
 by us. It is about twenty feet deep and ten feet wide. 
 The man that occupies it is a locksmith. In front is 
 his stock-in-trade, and immediately within is a bench 
 on which he is sitting with two young lads, his ap- 
 prentices, busily engaged in making iron hinges. 
 Immediately beyond them is the wife with a baby in 
 her arms, and two little ones playing on the floor. 
 This is their home, where their lives are spent. 
 During the summer the place is stiflingly hot, and it 
 is a mystery to us how human beings can live and 
 seem moderately happy in such a terrible atmosphere. 
 I presume they have not much time to think about 
 the heat. The great problem with them is how they 
 shall earn enough to pay the rent, and feed and clothe 
 the family. 
 
 The pleasures they enjoy are very few. As they 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 33 
 
 know nothing of the Sunday, every day is a work-day 
 to them. There are certain national festivals, how- 
 ever, when the noise of labour ceases, and the family, 
 dressed out in their best clothes, make it a business 
 to enjoy themselves. The tools are laid aside, and 
 the weary workman sits calmly smoking his pipe, 
 looking out on the moving world before him, absorbed 
 in the business of taking rest. But he cannot change 
 his surroundings, for these are always the same. The 
 dirty, narrow street outside, with the everlasting tread 
 of men passing by, never changes. The house too, 
 with its dirty walls and earthen floors, impossible to 
 be kept clean, reminds the family continually of their 
 poverty. The green fields are miles away. They 
 would like to look upon them, but they are too far 
 distant. The great sun shines overhead, and at cer- 
 tain times of the day his rays flash in on the dingy 
 walls, and play about the dirty floor, and light up the 
 cage in which the lark is hung, and touch with a 
 passing glory the solitary flower they are rearing ; but 
 they seldom see him as he is setting in the west, 
 filling the clouds with exquisite colours, and flashing 
 his golden rays over mountain peaks and ranges, as a 
 farewell message to the world before he leaves it in 
 darkness. 
 
 Whilst we are standing looking at this shop, we are 
 conscious of strange sounds that reach our ears above 
 the hum of the people in the shops around us, and of 
 the tread of the passing crowds. We hear the violent 
 beating of gongs, and then a long-drawn sound of 
 " I-yo," uttered by a number of voices. We notice, 
 too, that the crowd, going in the direction of the 
 sounds, begins to scatter, and the people range them- 
 
 C 
 
34 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 selves at the sides of the road, faces outwards, and 
 their arms hanging respectfully by their sides. A 
 mandarin with his retinue is approaching, and we 
 must stand where we are, for we must show him the 
 respect that is due to his rank. The men that uttered 
 the prolonged sound are the lictors that precede the 
 great man, and with whips in their hands they clear 
 their way in a rough and ready fashion, should any 
 one be incautious enough to get into it. The appear- 
 ance of these men is highly provocative of mirth. 
 Their hats are exactly like fools' caps, and sit side- 
 ways on their heads. This gives them an exceedingly 
 comical appearance, though the Chinese do not think 
 so. The question here arises : Why should a tall fool's 
 cap set awry on a person's head provoke a smile in 
 us, when three hundred millions of people look on the 
 same sight and see nothing funny in it ? They are a 
 villainous-looking set of men, and every one of them 
 seems as if he had come out of the opium den, for the 
 opium hue is on their faces. Their whips are poised 
 ready for instant use, the prospect of which they seem 
 to enjoy. They cast their eyes furtively from side to 
 side, upon the standing lines of people, and there 
 is a sour dissatisfaction in their faces, because they 
 cannot get a chance at them. But look ! here is a 
 country bumpkin, fresh from his fields, and slow in 
 his movements, who has dared to cross the road in 
 front of them. The dark, forbidding faces light up 
 with a gleam of satisfaction, and whack ! whack ! 
 whack ! and he is taught a lesson in etiquette that 
 he will not soon forget. 
 
 After these men come a crowd of ragged urchins, 
 veritable street arabs, who for a penny or so have 
 
^^^^^HiMtt4^-' 
 
 
 
 

AMOY AND ITS PEOPLE. 37 
 
 been hired for the occasion to carry large boards, on 
 which are inscribed the office and titles of the man- 
 darin. They are impudent little fellows, bubbling 
 over with fun and mischief, and they grin and make 
 hideous faces at us, as they pass close by. Behind 
 them come men carrying chains, dread emblems of 
 the power of the magistrate, and intended to strike 
 terror into the hearts of evildoers. Closely following 
 upon them comes the great man, seated in his sedan 
 chair, which is carried by four bearers. He is a 
 thoroughly typical-looking man of his class, for he is 
 very stout, and he has a very dignified, magisterial 
 air about him, which he never loses for an instant. 
 If the scenes before him touch him at all, he is careful 
 to conceal the slightest traces of emotion. There is 
 not a ripple on his face, and not the slightest sign that 
 he has the remotest sympathy with those he rules. 
 Their very language is a mystery to him, which he 
 cannot understand, for it is one of the laws of the 
 present dynasty that no man may be a mandarin in 
 his own district. This man comes from a distant 
 province, where a different language is spoken, and 
 the probability is that his thoughts even now are in 
 his far-off home, amongst his kindred there, and that 
 he sees nothing of the strange sights around him. 
 
 The crowd that has been pent up, during the pas- 
 sage of this official procession, now surges into the 
 middle of the road, and, with quickened pace, tries 
 to make up for lost time. As we are not in a hurry, 
 we walk along leisurely. We have not progressed 
 very far before our ears are assailed by a terrible 
 din of cymbals and small drums. Very soon we 
 come to a large crowd that packs the street so 
 
38 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 densely that further progress is absolutely stopped. 
 A theatre has been planted in this, one of the busiest 
 streets of the town. For forty or fifty yards on 
 each side of it the people are packed like herrings, 
 gazing with rapturous, upturned faces at the actors. 
 They are just concluding a farce, and ever and anon 
 bursts of laughter show how keenly the fun is 
 appreciated by the crowd. When this is concluded, 
 a famous historical play is performed, and ere long 
 mandarins and soldiers in the dress of an ancient 
 dynasty are in mortal conflict, and the crowd is 
 hushed, and holds its breath, and the gaze is long 
 and intense, as they await the result of the battle. 
 To give intensity to the scene, the cymbals break in 
 at certain times with furious clashing, and the drums 
 rattle as though in the midst of a hot engagement. 
 To an unpractised ear this is exceedingly annoying, 
 for the voices of the actors are completely drowned, 
 and to us there is nothing but dumb show. The 
 Chinese, whose musical ear has been trained by ages 
 of such music, are entranced with the hideous noise. 
 We are disgusted ; but what does the ear of a bar- 
 barian know of music? It is as untrained as his mind, 
 and needs the civilizing influence of the " Middle 
 Kingdom" to teach it to appreciate really good 
 sounds, such as crash out from these vile cymbals. 
 
 The acting before us is first-rate, for the Chinese 
 are natural, born actors, but it is exceedingly grotesque. 
 Even a serious play is full of suggestions of mirth to 
 a foreigner, and he will often be convulsed with 
 laughter, whilst the crowd is hushed into seriousness. 
 What specially strikes one about these actors is the 
 coolness and ease with which they perform their parts, 
 
AMOY AND ITS PEOPLE. 3,9 
 
 and the natural life-like way in which they act the^ 
 characters they have taken. Two women for example 
 are quarrelling and scolding each other. As women 
 are not allowed to be actors, two men have assumed 
 their dress. The looks, the gestures, the feminine 
 toss of the head, the rising tones that grow shriller and 
 shriller as their passions become excited, are exactly 
 such as may be witnessed in the quarrels of women 
 almost any day in the streets of Amoy. We forget, 
 in the reality of the scene before us, that these persons 
 are actors. They have impersonated an actual event 
 in human life so realistically, that the stage seems to 
 have vanished, and we are standing in one of the 
 narrow streets of the city, with the crowd around us, 
 watching two women so completely absorbed by their 
 passions as to have become oblivious of the many 
 eyes that are fastened upon them. 
 
 It is certainly amusing, the complete way in which 
 this theatre has taken possession of the street. 
 Coolies come up with huge loads on their shoulders, 
 whose destination lies perhaps a few yards on the 
 other side of it, but no way is made for them. 
 Sedan chairs, with their fares, are carried within a few 
 feet of the crowd, but the bearers, with a half-sullen 
 half-good-natured look upon their faces, turn back to 
 find their way by another street. The whole traffic 
 is stopped, but there is no grumbling, no row, and no 
 outcry of any kind. This custom of acting on the 
 streets is the growth of long ages, and the Chinese 
 are too wise to grumble at something that they 
 dearly love, and which, moreover, they can always see 
 for nothing. 
 
 Thus far I have been endeavouring to give some 
 
40 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 idea of Amoy and its surroundings. To complete 
 the picture, I must now speak somewhat more defi- 
 nitely of the people, amongst whom missionary work 
 was about to be commenced. 
 
 The men of Amoy and of the region around are a 
 bold, independent race, very vigorous both mentally 
 and physically. They have a reputation which 
 extends far beyond their own country, for their 
 poverty has compelled large numbers to emigrate to 
 other countries, to endeavour to find a subsistence 
 that they cannot get in their own land. They are 
 brusque and rough in their manners, very often to 
 rudeness. They speak out their minds with great 
 freedom, and, to one who is not accustomed to their 
 manners, offensively. They are without that polish 
 and suavity that their countrymen in other parts of 
 China have to perfection. Even after many years' 
 residence amongst them it is difficult sometimes not 
 to believe that their rough ways of addressing or 
 answering are intentionally insulting. You want 
 something done in a particular way, for example. 
 They will not hesitate at once to express their 
 opinion about its stupidity, if it should strike them as 
 wanting in wisdom. Some statement is made which 
 seems to them to be very doubtful, though you are 
 absolutely certain that it is true. They will at once 
 declare there is not a shadow of truth in what you 
 say. They are accustomed in ordinary life to speak 
 to each other in this way, and though their innate 
 sense of propriety will restrain them up to a certain 
 point, their independence of character will eventually 
 assert itself, and they will express themselves in a 
 way that is oftentimes exceedingly offensive. This 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 41 
 
 of course refers to the common people. The educated 
 classes are more refined, and therefore more careful 
 as to their manner of expressing themselves. 
 
 There is one very offensive feature about the 
 Chinese, that is not simply annoying in itself, but that 
 has always been a serious hindrance to the immediate 
 reception of the Gospel in any place where it is first 
 preached, and that is the deep-rooted scorn and con- 
 tempt they have for the foreigner. It is difficult for 
 any one who has merely read of this to understand all 
 that is meant by this statement To get a thorough 
 idea of what this feeling is, one has to pass through a 
 great city, where the foreigner has seldom been seen. 
 The streets are thronged with an ever continuous 
 stream of people ; but though you move and mingle 
 amongst the crowd, you feel there is not an atom of 
 sympathy that binds you to any one in it. You rub 
 shoulders with the people, but mighty oceans might 
 roll between you, and great ranges of mountains 
 divide you, so sharply separated are you from any 
 kindly feeling on their part. They gaze upon you as 
 they would upon any strange animal that had 
 suddenly appeared amongst them. The most con- 
 temptuous expressions flash from mouth to mouth. 
 The shopkeepers crowd to see you pass. Their faces 
 exhibit not merely curiosity, but open and undisguised 
 contempt, and low guffaws reach your ears from the 
 shops on each side of the street. To be thus abso- 
 lutely cut off from all kindly sympathy with one's 
 fellow-creatures, and to be a solitary unit amidst vast 
 crowds, gives one an oppressive feeling of loneliness, 
 such as no desert could produce. You catch at last 
 what you fancy is a friendly face amidst the host of 
 
i2 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 sneering contemptuous ones, and your heart warms 
 at the sight. Or perhaps you are jostling your way 
 along, weary and heart-sore, when a man suddenly 
 accosts you. He is full of kindly greetings, and he 
 shows by the hearty, demonstrative way in which he 
 addresses you that he is rejoiced to see you. You feel 
 as if you could embrace the man upon the spot for 
 very gladness of heart. You recognise him as a 
 former patient at the hospital with which you are 
 connected. You were able to do him some kindness 
 during his sickness, and he remembers it. As you 
 stand chatting with him, the crowd stops too. They 
 want to know what you are talking about. The man 
 rehearses, for their benefit, all the favours he has re- 
 ceived from you. He tells them he was sick, nigh 
 unto death, and how the foreign physician saved his 
 life. He speaks of the attentions you were able to 
 pay him, and the little comforts you gave him, and 
 as the picture rises before him of those weary days in 
 the hospital when the shadow of death lay upon him 
 for some time, he becomes quite eloquent in your 
 praises. The crowd becomes sympathetic. The 
 sneer dies out of their faces. There is nothing that 
 touches the Chinese heart so mightily as practical 
 benevolence. It is a virtue they highly appreciate. 
 Their stolid, emotionless features begin to light up 
 with genuine feeling, and the eyes of some are twink- 
 ling and flashing as their hearts are moved by his 
 story. You feel the inspiration of the change, and 
 your heart goes out in loving hope to those who but 
 a minute or two ago seemed separated from you by 
 an impassable gulf. You bid the man good-bye, and 
 the crowd silently melts into the human stream, and 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 43 
 
 again you hurry on your way. Soon the epithets are 
 as vile, and the jeers of the people as loud as ever, 
 but they do not sting as they did a while ago. The 
 incident that has just happened has been a mighty 
 revelation. It has brought you closer to the Chinese 
 heart than you were before, and it has revealed to you 
 the wondrous possibilities of the future when that 
 shall have been touched by the love of Christ. 
 
 This contempt for the foreigner, though deep 
 enough amongst the masses, is still more profound 
 amongst the scholars of the country. They are 
 consequently the most formidable enemies the mis- 
 sionary has to deal with. It might have been sup- 
 posed that education would have made them more 
 liberal in their views than the uncultivated farmers 
 and artisans, yet this is not the case, but actually the 
 reverse. Their education, instead of enlarging their 
 minds, has the positive effect of cramping them. A 
 thoroughly educated man may have no independent 
 views that will clash with the teaching of past ages. 
 He is not allowed to propound any thoughts that are 
 not sanctioned by their sacred classics. His face is 
 always turned to the past, for there, he believes, lies 
 the source of inspiration to himself and his nation. 
 The future has no word of hope or comfort for him, 
 for it is shrouded in an impenetrable mystery. The 
 past he knows something of. The great sages, with 
 their writings that have made China what it is, live 
 there. Their forms, it is true, are misty and shadowy, 
 and more than twenty centuries hide them from his 
 gaze, but they are the only force he knows in life that 
 has given him thought. When he turns to the 
 future he looks into a vacancy, where no figure is 
 
44 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 seen, and no voice breaks the silence to tell the 
 story. 
 
 But let us imagine for a moment one of these scholars 
 standing before us. He is dressed in a long robe that 
 comes down to his ankles. This is usually made of 
 coloured silk, or common homespun calico, dyed with 
 the universal blue, just according to the means of the 
 man. His head is cleanly shaved, and his queue 
 plaited with extreme care, whilst in his right hand he 
 holds a fan, with which, with natural ease and dig- 
 nity, he gracefully fans himself. His face is a perfect 
 picture, because it is in striking contrast to those that 
 one sees at a glance belong to the great unwashed 
 around. It is keenly shrewd and intelligent. The 
 black eyes snap and sparkle at the bidding of hidden 
 thoughts that come only to men of his class. How 
 his brain teems with traditions, that reach away back 
 until they touch the region where history is lost, and 
 myths and romances reign supreme. Sages, and 
 poets, and statesmen, and great warriors, and mighty 
 emperors troop by, solemn and ghostly, but their 
 words and deeds still live, and he believes there is no 
 country with so grand a history as that of China. He 
 is very proud and scornful, and the way he can curl 
 his lip, and compress into that pale face his contempt 
 for the barbarian, is very trying to one's temper. We 
 speak to him of moral questions, and he seems at 
 once to be in his element. He will quote the finest 
 passages in the writings of the sages that touch upon 
 these. The beauty of virtue is dwelt upon, lovingly 
 and sympathetically as it seems, and pearls drop one 
 by one from his mouth, and we instinctively say: What 
 a splendid fellow this is ! He is nothing of the kind. 
 
AMOV AND ITS PEOPLE. 45 
 
 His education has trained him to talk this way, but 
 his heart is unmoved by the words of the great men 
 he has been quoting, and when it comes to a question 
 of money-making he will act as though he were 
 utterly destitute of principle. He uses his education 
 simply as a lever to gain his own ends. He foments 
 quarrels, and stirs up strife, and incites men to litiga- 
 tion, and then he will sell his services as a lawyer to 
 the highest bidder, without any regard to the rights 
 of the case. " His pen," as the common proverb has 
 it, " is sharper than a knife," and slays more fortunes, 
 and murders more hopes, than the sword. And yet we 
 must not be too hard upon him. His training morally 
 has been a bad one. He has never seen a Bible, 
 and he has no knowledge of a God. The word " sin " 
 in the Christian sense is an unknown term to him. 
 He is an agnostic, pure and simple, and is content to 
 leave the great problems of life, that will force them- 
 selves upon his mind, unsolved. Heathenism has no 
 moral power to make a man good. When a nation 
 loses God, decadence in every direction is the imme- 
 diate result, and of this China is a standing testimony. 
 It is now pleasant to turn away from this repulsive 
 feature in the Chinese character to speak of some of 
 the strong points in it. The Chinese are one of the 
 imperial races of the world, and are yet destined to 
 play a mighty part in the great drama of nations. 
 Physically they are strong and robust. They can 
 live and thrive in all kinds of climates, and under the 
 most unhealthy conditions. A Chinaman will make 
 a little straw hut, just big enough to creep into. He 
 will then place it right down amongst the standing 
 water in which his rice is growing, and he will 
 
46 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 sleep there for weeks, watching his crops till they are 
 ripe and harvested. One night in that hut would be 
 enough to give an Englishman such a dose of fever 
 that it would take all his strength and all the skill of 
 his doctor to bring him back to life again. 
 
 The Chinaman is as strong mentally as he is 
 physically. His mind is of a broad common-sense 
 type, and he has the solidity and the conservatism 
 that are characteristic of the typical Englishman. 
 There is one feature in which he is specially like him, 
 and that is in the dogged, persevering way with which 
 he holds on to his purpose. Nothing seems to be 
 able to divert him from it. Difficulties may arise 
 and obstacles intervene, but he will patiently bide his 
 time, till, finally, after long waiting it may be, he 
 gets his plan carried out. It is this heroic virtue that 
 explains the marvellous growth of the Chinese em- 
 pire, and the still more wonderful fact that the 
 Chinese have not merely subdued surrounding na- 
 tions, but also transformed them in language, and in 
 national sentiment, till they have become one with 
 themselves. Such is the terrible force and energy of 
 this remarkable race, that they have always suc- 
 ceeded in absorbing those they have conquered, 
 and in transmuting them in the course of time into 
 Chinese. The same process has been effected with 
 their conquerors. The Tartar armies, about the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, invaded and con- 
 quered China. The fierce soldiers of Tartary have 
 in time been subdued, yet no weapon has been seen 
 in the struggle, no shock of arms, and no great and 
 crowning victory, in which countless slain mark the 
 place where fortune changed and the victor became 
 
AMOY AND ITS PEOPLE. 47 
 
 the vanquished. It has been the victory of mind, and 
 thought, and force of character. The supremacy has 
 been gained by untiring perseverance and a determi- 
 nation that knows of no change of purpose. These 
 are the forces that have turned the Tartars into 
 Chinese, and made them one with the " Black-haired 
 race." The Emperor, in times of emergency, may 
 flee back to the home of his fathers, but the children 
 of the men that conquered China will not follow him, 
 for their homes are in the Middle Kingdom, and they 
 have for ever thrown in their fortunes with the people 
 of the land. 
 
 The Amoy people, amongst whom the missionaries 
 came to preach the Gospel, are sturdy representatives 
 of their race. They are heathen, be it remembered, 
 and no more vivid and graphic picture of what this 
 means has ever been given than that which an inspired 
 hand has drawn in the first chapter of Romans. They 
 are very fiery and passionate when any injustice or 
 wrong is attempted, but generally they are fair- 
 minded and amenable to reason. They have an 
 Englishman's sense of fair play, and they have an 
 intense respect for virtue and goodness of every kind, 
 and they will pay devout homage to any one in 
 whose lives these are conspicuous. The story of 
 what the Gospel has done amongst them, in changing 
 and transforming their lives, is not amongst the least 
 marvellous and romantic of the missionary annals of 
 the world. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRST SUCCESSES. 
 
 The London Missionary Society first occupied 
 Amoy in the year 1844. The Rev. John Stronach, 
 one of its missionaries, was ordered to remove from 
 Singapore, where he had been labouring for some 
 years, and take up his permanent residence in this 
 place. In a few months he was joined by his brother, 
 and for many years they were most successful 
 preachers of the Gospel in Amoy and the region 
 around. 
 
 Soon after his arrival, Mr. Stronach succeeded in 
 renting a large building for religious services in one 
 of the busiest and most crowded thoroughfares of the 
 town. It was situated in Sack Street, so named be- 
 cause it was famous for the manufacture and sale of 
 sacks. It is anything but picturesque. It is very 
 narrow and dirty, and in wet weather very unsavoury 
 and uninviting, and yet it was most admirably suited 
 in those early days for the preaching of the Gospel. It 
 was a most important thoroughfare. From early 
 dawn till late at night a continuous stream of people 
 passed with never-ending tread in it, for, though a 
 short street, it was a main artery, which connected 
 some very large ones in different directions around 
 it, and to get directly to them, this had to be used. 
 
 All classes of people consequently travelled through 
 
 48 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 49 
 
 it. Rich merchants, in their costly silks, whose busi- 
 ness places were situated a few streets off, ney the 
 seaside, took this road. Scholars in their long robes, 
 with their keen, intellectual-looking faces, mingled 
 with the crowd, for at the end of the street there 
 were several famous book-shops, where all kinds of 
 literature could be bought. Coolies, with great bur- 
 dens, came panting and shouting along it. Manda- 
 rins in their luxurious sedan chairs, that almost 
 filled up the street, crushed through the crowds on 
 their way to visit some wealthy merchant friend. It 
 was a busy, restless street, where the sounds of human 
 life and the ceaseless tramp of men resounded the 
 live-long day, and even far into the night. 
 
 No sooner were the doors of the building opened, 
 than it was thronged with hearers, that crowded 
 round the preacher, and listened as long as he had 
 strength to go on. The congregation could never 
 fail with such an incessant stream outside upon which 
 to draw. The wonderful fact that an Englishman 
 was addressing the people in their own language 
 proved irresistibly attractive to all classes. After 
 more than forty years the charm is still a powerful 
 one, for the foreign missionary can always command 
 an audience, whenever he stands up to preach the 
 Gospel. But it was not simply curiosity that drew 
 the crowds around the first preachers. The people 
 were mightily stirred by the new method they 
 adopted to make their Gospel known. It was one 
 they had never seen before. The religious sects in 
 China do not preach their doctrines promiscuously 
 to the masses. They have no regular services which 
 their adherents attend, and no class of men set apart 
 
 D 
 
50 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 to preach the peculiar tenets of their faith. Neither 
 the Confucian scholars nor the heathen priests ever 
 dream of addressing popular assemblies for the pur- 
 pose of inducing men to become believers in their 
 systems. The only class of people to whom the 
 missionaries could be likened were the public story- 
 tellers, that are found in every town throughout the 
 empire. At first, and indeed for many years after- 
 wards, the popular name for the missionaries was 
 "story-tellers," or more literally, "tellers of ancient 
 things." These story-tellers gain their living by read- 
 ing romances and historical novels in public. They 
 generally choose the large vacant place in front of 
 a temple. Here congregate pedlars of sweetmeats 
 and eatables, as well as loafers and idlers, who find 
 time hang heavily on their hands, and who are ready 
 to be amused by these men. These story-tellers are 
 mostly men of loose character, opium smokers, or 
 men who have failed in life through their own folly. 
 They are very highly appreciated, however, by cer- 
 tain classes of the community. Tradespeople, arti- 
 sans, the jolly rollicking fellows whose aim is to get 
 all the pleasure out of life possible, flock in crowds to 
 hear them. Their stories have a wide range, and are 
 taken out of every period of Chinese history. The 
 great kings whose names are famous in the annals 
 of their country, and the ilustrious statesmen whose 
 genius has left its impress upon the laws and 
 thoughts of the nation, are portrayed with wonder- 
 ful vividness and power. The exciting scenes of past 
 history, the great battles on which hung the fortunes 
 of the empire, the stern and bloody conflicts, when 
 Tartar or Mongol hordes invaded China and became 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES, 51 
 
 the conquerors, to be ultimately lost and absorbed 
 amongst the masses of the conquered, are all told to 
 breathless and excited audiences. 
 
 When the first missionaries commenced their public 
 work of preaching, the populace could only imagine 
 that a new set of story-tellers had arisen. They 
 were not long in discovering the vast difference there 
 was between them and the men after whom they 
 were named. This was a decided advantage, but 
 still a vast amount of work had to be done before the 
 populace could understand the divine truths that 
 seem so simple to us, but which are mysterious and 
 profound to a heathen mind. It is utterly inconceiv- 
 able how difficult it is for such to grasp spiritual 
 ideas. Idolatry seems to have the power of eliminat- 
 ing all such out of the mind, and of disqualifying it 
 for reasoning about them. I hold a conversation, for 
 example, with an extremely intelligent Chinaman. 
 He is as keen and sharp as a needle in worldly 
 matters. He is so shrewd a business man that in a 
 moment his mind has grasped, even in its minutest 
 details, some great transaction in which thousands 
 of dollars are involved. I speak to this same man 
 about some of the simplest truths of Christianity, and 
 his intelligence seems at once to have vanished. I 
 speak to him of God, a living personal Being, the 
 Creator of the mountains around that are bathed in a 
 great ocean of light, but there is a vacant look about 
 his face as though he were trying to master a thought 
 that was too great for him. His native politeness 
 will make him nod his head in acquiescence of what 
 I say, but I know he does not understand me. How 
 should he 1 God as a Person, mingling in human 
 
52 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 life, and full of sympathy and compassion for man, 
 of Him he knows nothing. The silent idols that he 
 bows down before have never taught him of Him. 
 The priests that burn the incense for him, and mutter 
 certain forms of prayer by his side have never spoken 
 to him of Him, for they are just as ignorant on this 
 question as he is himself. No word about God has 
 ever fallen from the lips of his parents during all the 
 years of his childhood, and now the only man that 
 can speak to him about Him is the Christian. It takes 
 many conversations with such a man before he can 
 take in the conception that is familiar to any ordinary 
 intelligent boy in our Sunday-schools in Great Britain. 
 The early missionaries therefore had to do what has 
 to be done in the establishing of mission work in every 
 new place from that time to the present. They had 
 to make it their business to saturate the people with 
 Christian ideas, and to fill the very air with the music 
 of the name of Jesus. They had to reveal to them 
 a spiritual world, peopled with forms that reason 
 could not disclose, and to get them to have thoughts 
 about life and the future such as their greatest sages 
 had never even hinted at. In addition to all this 
 serious work, they had to defend themselves against 
 the doubts and suspicions that ere long began to be 
 entertained in regard to their own character and the 
 purpose they had in coming to China. The Chinese 
 do not believe in the existence of disinterested 
 benevolence, and therefore they were certain the 
 missionaries had other motives for their self-denial 
 beyond those they publicly gave out. The most 
 absurd and abominable stories got abroad in regard 
 to them, and placards were posted on the walls and 
 
AN OPIUM SMOKER. 
 
 53 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 55 
 
 circulated through the villages, warning the people 
 against them. The opium question met them in a 
 very objectionable form in the early years of their 
 work. It was reported, and the rumour lives even 
 to the present day in out-of-the-way places, that the 
 missionaries took out the eyes of the Christians after 
 death to make opium of them. This was believed 
 in by every class of the community. The scholars 
 accepted it as true ; the commonest coolies repeated 
 it ; the middle classes everywhere talked about it as 
 a fact, and even the mandarins were prejudiced 
 against the Christians, because they believed the 
 common report. 
 
 Four years thus passed away, and still no impres- 
 sion seemed to have been made upon the large num- 
 bers that during that time had listened to the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel. Crowds had come, and crowds 
 had gone, but they appeared utterly untouched. 
 One would like to have got behind those stolid- 
 looking faces, and have read their thoughts, as they 
 sat so patiently and listened with such attention. 
 The Story of the Cross, that has melted so many, 
 seemed to have lost its virtue here. Has its ancient 
 power vanished, or is it one that is suited only to the 
 genius of the men of Western lands ? 
 
 The year 1848 is a notable one in the history of 
 the Amoy mission, for in it the missionaries had the 
 unspeakable pleasure of baptizing two men, a father 
 and his son, the former being over sixty years of age. 
 
 They were artificial flower-makers by trade, a 
 branch of industry for which Amoy is famous. It 
 would seem surprising that a man so old as the 
 father was should have been willing to abandon 
 
56 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 beliefs that had grown up with him from his child- 
 hood for a new faith preached by foreigners. He 
 was literally steeped in idolatry. According to hu- 
 man reasoning such a man will be the very last to 
 feel the influence of the new faith. The experience 
 of the missionary is in direct opposition to such a 
 theory. Truth is imperious, and when it touches a 
 man's heart, be he old or be he young, be he moral 
 or immoral, he must yield. I have often been taught 
 the folly of laying down rules by which I thought the 
 Divine Spirit might operate. 1 have seen young 
 men, with many excellent and amiable qualities, who 
 seemed so close to the kingdom that they had to 
 take but a single step and they would be inside, go 
 back into heathen life and vanish completely from 
 sight. I have known, on the other hand, men ad- 
 vanced in years, of the very lowest moral reputation, 
 after a brief acquaintance with the Gospel, become 
 sincere and humble disciples of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 The two individuals who were the first converts in our 
 mission were simple, unedutated men. Their occupa- 
 tion being necessarily a sedentary one, they had ample 
 opportunities for the quiet discussion of many subjects, 
 that others of more active employments had not. Ru- 
 mours had reached them that the missionaries had es- 
 tablished themselves in their town, and were engaged 
 in preaching strange doctrines such as neither they 
 nor their forefathers had ever heard. Many a chat 
 did they have as they sat pasting the many-coloured 
 leaves together, and deftly fashioning the various 
 kinds of flowers, that were soon to adorn the heads of 
 women far and near. What could they be preaching 
 about ^ It was not at all likely that the barbarians 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 57 
 
 would come away from the western seas simply to 
 amuse them as their own professional story-tellers 
 did. They questioned their customers, or chatted 
 with their neighbours after they had finished their 
 evening meal of rice before they retired to bed. 
 Opinions differed about these missionaries. Some 
 thought they were good men, and that their only aim 
 was to benefit the people. Others, of the sharper and 
 shrewder kind, the knowing ones in fact, had a totally 
 different estimate of them. They had discovered 
 that behind all this pretended disinterestedness there 
 were deep laid schemes for the ruin of their country. 
 They had come, they said, ' from the lands in the 
 western seas on purpose to teach the Chinese how to 
 obtain happiness, but this story was manifestly un- 
 true. What could the barbarians know of benevo- 
 lence } They had never been enlightened by the 
 teachings of the great sages of China. They reasoned 
 thus: "We should never dream of making the sacrifices 
 that these men do. It is quite inconceivable, indeed, 
 that such ideas of self-sacrifice should ever originate 
 with any one in the Central Kingdom, and if not in it, 
 how much less amongst the barbarians, who have 
 never felt the civilizing influences of the great Yau 
 and Shun." 
 
 They pointed triumphantly to the opium traffic, 
 and asked how a people that grew and sold opium 
 could be moral or benevolent. Besides, was it not a 
 tradition, graven deep into the heart of the nation by 
 many a bitter experience in the history of the past, 
 that the barbarian was ever the foe of China, whose 
 lands and riches he coveted 1 Was it conceivable that 
 his nature could ever change } Impossible ! He 
 
58 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 was but changing his tactics. Instead of lance and 
 spear, and wild and bloody inroads, he came as he pre- 
 tended for purposes of trade, and to preach doctrines 
 which he said would benefit the people, whilst he was 
 really laying deep schemes, when he had won the 
 affections of the people, for possessing the Empire 
 for himself. 
 
 The old man at length determined to go and hear 
 for himself. He entered the church with a good 
 deal of curiosity. He found it pleasantly fitted up, 
 with a number of forms all ready placed for the 
 comfort of the listeners. He was pleased with the 
 appearance of things, and especially with the 
 urbanity of the missionary. The room in the mean- 
 time became filled with people, and the preacher in 
 a solemn earnest way began to expound the very 
 simplest truths of the Gospel. He spoke of God, 
 not simply as one of the idols of the foreigners, but 
 the Supreme Ruler over all lands, and the same that 
 their forefathers in the golden age of Chinese history 
 had worshipped. He told of His power and His 
 love, and His care for all men, good and bad. The 
 old man listened with open mouth. Never in all his 
 life had he heard such wonderful doctrines as these. 
 No romance that the story-tellers had ever told, or 
 deed of daring, pictured in their most graphic and 
 realistic manner, had ever touched his heart as these 
 had done. He was full of the subject when he re- 
 turned home, and he and his son discussed it, as they 
 fashioned the leaves and petals of the flowers that 
 seemed to grow like magic from amongst their fingers. 
 
 The father would have his son go with him the 
 next time he went to listen to the missionary. Un- 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 59 
 
 consciously to himself, he had become a believer in 
 the truth. The more he heard, the more entranced 
 he became. The preacher told him that God was 
 not only omnipotent, but that He was also exceed- 
 ingly willing to listen to, and deliver every man that 
 called upon Him. This came to him as a mighty 
 revelation. The idea of a personal God, mingling 
 in human life, and full of love and concern for man- 
 kind, was one that was entirely new to him. Up to 
 this time he had firmly believed in the idols, but 
 many a time in his long life had he found them fail 
 him. He remembered how in seasons of perplexity 
 he had made his offerings to them, and prayed for 
 their help. He had thrown the divining rods, and 
 the answer they gave him through them was favour- 
 able. He had got assurances, too, from the idol 
 mediums who were supposed to be specially inspired 
 by the gods, that his prayers would be answered. 
 By and by he found that he had been deceived. 
 Idols, and mediums, and divining rods had all equally 
 been at fault. It was no comfort to tell him that his 
 fate was an unlucky one, and that the idols were 
 powerless to control that. It simply revealed to him 
 that they were subject to the same weaknesses that 
 paralysed human life. Now the God that these 
 missionaries spoke about was the very reverse of all 
 this. He was great. He was omnipotent, He was 
 infinitely compassionate and loving, and His tender 
 mercies were over all His works. He discovered 
 that He was the very Being that he had been un- 
 consciously longing for all his life. He and his son 
 abandoned their idolatry, and were the first converts 
 that were received into the Church. 
 
6o CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 Not long after the reception of these two men, 
 another person who has played a conspicuous part in 
 the history of our Mission became a Christian, As 
 his case is full of interest, I shall give a somewhat 
 detailed account of it. He was a military officer, 
 who had made for himself a good reputation, and 
 had every prospect of rising to a very high position 
 in the army. A short time before his conversion, he 
 had been sent with a detachment of his men on 
 board a war junk to assist in attacking some pirates 
 that had been plundering the merchant vessels on the 
 coast. In his conflict with them one of his eyes had 
 been severely burnt by a '* stink-pot." These stink- 
 pots are favourite weapons with the pirates. They 
 are filled with all sorts of combustible materials, and 
 with some compound so terribly offensive, that when 
 they explode they not only wound and burn, but 
 also sweep the deck of every one that has any 
 sense of smell. He had been invalided home until 
 he could recover from his burns. Various Chinese 
 doctors were called in to prescribe for him, but 
 having no knowledge of surgery they could do no- 
 thing for him. The agony from his eye was excessive, 
 so much so, that as he lay tossing about at night he 
 devised a plan for committing suicide. An itinerant 
 dealer in pork, who was accustomed in his daily 
 rounds to serve the family, saw how severely the 
 officer was suffering, and said to him : " I have heard 
 that the English have opened a free hospital by the 
 seaside, and they have invited all who are sick to go 
 to it, and be healed. Some of my neighbours who 
 have been ill have attended there and have been 
 cured. They speak of the doctor as a man of great 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES, 6i 
 
 benevolence, and they praise his ability in healing 
 the most desperate diseases. Why should not you go 
 and be healed by him ? " 
 
 The officer was profoundly indignant at this 
 proposal. The mere suggestion that the barbarian 
 doctors could do what the Chinese had failed in was 
 perfectly abhorrent to his mind. "What!" he said, 
 " do you wish to make me believe that the English 
 doctors know more about medicine than ours ? It is 
 well known that China is the most enlightened 
 country in the world. There is none that can be 
 compared to it. I have consulted our own doctors 
 and they have not been able to relieve me. It is 
 not their want of skill that has caused them to fail, 
 but it is because it is the will of Heaven that I should 
 suffer. The barbarians cannot help me, and, more- 
 over, I would rather die than submit to the disgrace 
 of having anything to do with them." 
 
 A few more days passed by, but his sufferings 
 continued to increase. His friends now urged him 
 to visit the English doctor. At length worn out with 
 pain, and careless of life, he started for the hospital. 
 The reluctance with which he went, however, was 
 manifest by the fact that he took the longest way 
 round the town to get to it. At last he stood out- 
 side the door, his unwilling steps dragged there by 
 the excruciating pain in his eye. He little dreamt 
 that he had now approached a great crisis in his life, 
 and that the kingdom of heaven had come nigh unto 
 him. Let us look at him for a moment. He is a 
 tall military-looking man, very solemn and dignified 
 in his demeanour. He is a beau ideal Chinaman, 
 whose brain is teeming with the traditions of more 
 
62 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 than three thousand years. To him there is no nation 
 so great as China, and none whose history is filled 
 with such splendid names. His inborn contempt for 
 the foreigner is intensified by the thought that only 
 a few years ago barbarian ships bombarded Amoy, 
 and barbarian troops defeated the soldiers of the 
 empire. Why, he can almost fancy as he looks on 
 the hills around that he can hear the echo of the 
 guns that made the soldiers fly before the fierce on- 
 slaught of the English. He is the last man in all 
 this great city, one would suppose, that could be 
 influenced by Christianity, and yet he is the one 
 whom God has chosen to play a conspicuous part in 
 the preaching of the Gospel in this region. The time 
 has come, and workers are needed ; for though foreign 
 missionaries shall first tell the wondrous story of the 
 Cross, it shall be Chinese hands that shall build up 
 the Church in this land ; and this Chinese soldier shall 
 have the honour of laying the impress of his own 
 great faith upon many who by his means shall be 
 brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 As he entered the door, he found that a religious 
 service was being held. The preacher was just giving 
 out his text : " A good tree bringeth forth good 
 fruit, and a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A 
 good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 
 can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." He was 
 startled by these words. He had been prepared for 
 very strange revelations, in coming in contact with 
 the foreigners. In the camp he had heard most out- 
 rageous stories of what the barbarians did and said, 
 but here, on the very threshold of his acquaintance 
 with them, he is arrested by a great and profound 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 63 
 
 truth. He is bewildered, and he does not know what 
 to think. He seats himself amongst the listeners, 
 and as the preacher unfolds his subject, his heart is 
 profoundly moved. Every word that he hears is true. 
 This is very different from what he expected. This 
 teaching is equal to anything that the sages of China 
 ever uttered, and it evidently comes with more power, 
 for how otherwise can he explain the wondrous im- 
 pression it is making on his heart ? 
 
 The service over, and his mind completely revolu- 
 tionized in thought, he is taken before the doctor, who 
 examines his eye. He is very pleasantly surprised 
 by the appearance of this gentleman. Instead of a 
 wild barbarian, with spear in hand, and fierce and 
 savage mien, he sees before him a man so full of 
 politeness, that he might have been trained in all the 
 profuse etiquette of the Middle Kingdom. He told 
 the officer that he must lance his eye, but that he 
 could not give him any hope that he would ever be 
 able to see with it again. The proposal to touch his 
 eye with a lance rather staggered him. The Chinese 
 have very peculiar ideas with regard to the various 
 organs of the body, and how they ought to be treated. 
 The free use of the surgeon's knife is a thing utterly 
 unknown to the medical profession in China. It 
 rather shook his faith in the doctor to find him 
 advising that so delicate an organ as the eye should 
 be touched with the knife. When I heard him say 
 that my eye should be lanced, he has since told me, 
 I was full of consternation. The eye, you know, he 
 said, is a very soft tender thing, and by way of 
 illustration he held up his right hand, with the 
 fingers converging towards each other, as though he 
 
64 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH ? 
 
 were gently and delicately holding the eyeball with 
 them. A mere touch of the hand, and instantly it 
 closes itself, and shrinks from it ; but imagine a knife 
 stuck into it ! The consequences of such might be 
 far reaching, and might even imperil the life. I told 
 the doctor that what he proposed was so serious, that 
 I must have some time to consider it. 
 
 He went home determined never to return to the 
 hospital ; but two or three days more of acute pain 
 brought him back, prepared to submit to any operation, 
 no matter what the risk might be. A slight incision 
 gave him immediate relief, and after a series of visits to 
 the hospital he was able to resume his duties, though 
 the sight of his eye was gone for ever. His regular 
 attendance at the hospital had given him the oppor- 
 tunity of becoming fully acquainted with the truths 
 of the Gospel. These he listened to with intense 
 delight. He attended every service both in it and 
 in the church, and he was never wearied of listening 
 to the story of Christ's love, as shown in His death 
 on the cross for the sins of the world. Before many 
 months had passed by he was received into the 
 Christian Church by baptism. 
 
 When it became known that he was a Christian, 
 he had to suffer a good deal of annoyance from his 
 fellow officers. They could not comprehend how a 
 gentleman and an officer could demean himself by 
 even associating with the despised foreigners. Jokes 
 and sneers were continually used to try and shake 
 his faith. All the vile stories that were then begin- 
 ning to circulate about them were repeated in his 
 hearing. He was taunted with giving up his nation- 
 ality, and in heart becoming a barbarian. These 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 65 
 
 attacks did not for a moment influence him, excepting 
 to drive him more to the company of the Christians 
 and the missionaries. He now spent nearly all his 
 spare time in the church, because he could then hear 
 more of the truths that had become so precious to 
 him, and also because he wished to take an active 
 part in preaching them to his fellow-countryman. 
 The strong manly character of the man will be some- 
 what understood from the fact that he, an officer 
 with brilliant prospects before him, had the courage 
 to stand up before the crowds of heathen that daily 
 flocked into the church, and preach a religion which 
 was universally supposed to be merely a foreign sect, 
 with which patriotic Chinese could have no possible 
 concern. 
 
 On one occasion, at a united prayer-meeting of 
 Christians and missionaries, this officer was asked 
 to engage in prayer. There was a large crowd of 
 heathen present as spectators, and amongst them 
 some of the soldiers under his own command. These 
 opened their eyes wide with astonishment when they 
 saw one of their own officers taking a public part in 
 this religious ceremony of the foreigners. On their 
 return to the camp, they at once reported the matter 
 to one of their officers, who made a formal complaint 
 to the colonel. On the next day he sent an orderly 
 to the officer, commanding him to appear at his 
 quarters. When he entered his room, the com- 
 mander, after addressing him in a very kind and 
 polite manner, said : " I hear that you have become a 
 member of the sect of the barbarians. Is that so ? " 
 The officer replied that he had been misinformed, for 
 that such was not the case. " The fact of the matter 
 
 E 
 
66 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 is," he continued, " I have become a member of the 
 Church of Jesus." " But how is it that such a promis- 
 ing officer as you are should have been so deluded 
 as to give up your own beliefs, and adopt those of 
 the men who are the enemies of China ? " The officer 
 then explained how he had been wounded in his 
 engagement with the pirates ; what agony he had 
 endured, and how he had been treated by the foreign 
 doctors. He also told him how he had been in- 
 structed in the knowledge of God, the very same 
 God that their fathers in ancient times had wor- 
 shipped ; how as the character of God was revealed 
 to him, his own sinfulness was impressed upon him, 
 and how he had found in Jesus, the Saviour of the 
 world, the true remedy for his distress of mind. 
 
 His superior officer listened to him very attentively, 
 and then said : " If you want to be good and serve 
 God, why not do so in your own home, or in your 
 quarters here? There is no reason why you. should 
 be constantly associating with the foreigners, and 
 thus bringing disgrace upon yourself and your regi- 
 ment. Do you really believe that the Chinese don't 
 know how to be good, and that you have to get this 
 knowledge from these strangers?" 
 
 The officer replied that he was very sorry that he 
 must appear insensible to the kindness of his superior, 
 but he could not promise to do as he had advised 
 him. "Very well, then," he said, "be sure that you 
 are prompt and faithful in the discharge of your 
 duties, for on the very first occasion on which you 
 fail in any of them, I shall report you to the general, 
 and have you dismissed from the army." 
 
 This man's faith was not a common one. He 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 67 
 
 must have had a profound conviction of the truth of 
 Christianity to have thus disregarded the almost 
 direct commands of his colonel. He had no influ- 
 ential friends to back him, for he was a poor man, 
 and had come from a poor family. At present he 
 was a rising man, and there was no reason why he 
 should not attain to high position in the army, which 
 in China invariably brings with it wealth and honour. 
 Long years afterwards, indeed, one of his fellow 
 officers, whose prospects were far less bright than his 
 own, gradually rose in the army, and actually obtained 
 the command of all the troops in the Amoy district. 
 All these prospects he deliberately risked, rather than 
 do anything that would interfere with his open pro- 
 fession of Christianity. 
 
 His faith was soon to be rewarded by a most 
 signal deliverance from a great peril. On one oc- 
 casion he was ordered out with an expedition in 
 search of pirates, that had been committing depre- 
 dations on the coast. The officer in command dis- 
 liked Sok-tai because he was a Christian, and so he 
 skilfully devised a scheme by which he felt sure he 
 could ruin him. They had not been out to sea long, 
 before the pirate junks were discovered in the dis- 
 tance. Chase was at once made, and as the wind 
 was fair, and the gunboats were fast sailers, they 
 soon began to overhaul them. The one that Sok-tai 
 commanded was well in advance of the rest, and the 
 breeze was so strong that he found himself fast 
 getting up with one of the largest of the pirates. 
 The commanding officer now determined to put into 
 execution his plan for Sok-tai's destruction. He 
 accordingly allowed his junk to get well ahead, until 
 
68 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 a considerable distance intervened between him and 
 the rest of the squadron. As his vessel drew nearer 
 the pirate, he discovered that she was too large for 
 him to attack with any hope of success. Her decks 
 were crowded with a crew of savage ruffians, who 
 had forgotten what the word mercy meant, and who 
 would fight to the bitter end rather than be captured. 
 She was, indeed, already beginning to show fight, 
 and the shot from her guns were whistling unplea- 
 santly around. Sok-tai looked anxiously about for 
 help from his consorts, but to his dismay he found 
 that they were being purposely kept back. Whilst 
 he was debating with himself what he should do, he 
 saw the red flag hoisted on board the commanding 
 officer's ship. This was an order for him to come to 
 close quarters with the pirate and board her. He 
 dared not disobey, for to do so would end in ruin to 
 himself, whilst to carry out the command and attack 
 such a crew of monsters, who were fighting for dear 
 life, was attended with the greatest possible peril. 
 He felt that there was none that could save him but 
 God, and to Him he must appeal. Descending to 
 his cabin, he knelt down, and cried : " O God, I am 
 very weak. The enemy is in front of me, and the 
 enemy is behind me. My only hope is in Thee. I 
 know not what to do of myself. Deliver me, for the 
 sake of Jesus Christ." Returning quickly to the 
 deck, with his own hand he trained one of the largest 
 of his guns against the pirate, when the shot carried 
 away her tiller, and killed the helmsman. Immedi- 
 ately there was the greatest confusion on board. All 
 control over the junk was lost, for there was nothing 
 to steer her with, whilst the shot from the gunboat 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 69 
 
 was making havoc amongst the pirates. A panic 
 ensued, during which Sok-tai laid his junk alongside 
 and boarded her. Some of the crew threw themselves 
 into the sea, and were drowned; a large number were 
 killed, and thirty-eight were taken alive, and subse- 
 quently beheaded. 
 
 After the action was over, Sok-tai went to make 
 his report to the commander. When he appeared 
 before him with the list of his prisoners, he found 
 him standing on deck surrounded by his officers. 
 As he drew near to him, he cried out, half in earnest, 
 half in banter : '' Your God certainly is the true God : 
 to-day you owe your safety to Him." Sok-tai's heart 
 was too full to reply. The thought of the great peril 
 through which he had just passed, and the wonder- 
 ful deliverance that God had given him, filled his 
 mind, so he merely bowed and then retired. 
 
 The answer to his prayer that day was one of the 
 turning points in his life. It was not simply that he 
 had been delivered from the pirates. He had had a 
 vision of the Unseen, which was to qualify him for 
 the great life-work to which God was calling him. 
 Eighteen years ago he and I went together to com- 
 mence work in a new region, where men had never 
 heard of God. The people were notoriously bad. 
 Opium smoking, and gambling, and other vices that 
 follow in their train were rampant. The Gospel was 
 preached there, and its divine power touched the 
 hearts of opium smokers and gamblers, and in time 
 a church grew and multiplied under his teaching. 
 What was the one great truth he was able to impress 
 upon that church.? It was the reaUty of God, and 
 of the unseen world. There are some things that no 
 
70 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 language can tell. They have to be taught by a 
 life. I remember seeing a sunset in the China Sea 
 that I shall never forget. The sky in the west was 
 covered with beautiful fleecy clouds that floated lazily 
 before a gentle breeze. All at once they were filled 
 with the rays of the setting sun, that painted on 
 them the most marvellous scenes. One panorama 
 had scarcely faded before another still more beautiful 
 took its place. Pictures of life fashioned themselves 
 on the clouds, so real that I could scarcely believe 
 that in a few moments they would melt away and 
 lose themselves in others. Exquisite colours flashed 
 through the bank, behind which the sun was hiding, 
 and flashes of gold, and then of purple, and then of 
 blood-red, followed each other in rapid succession, 
 till finally one great band of afterglow streamed 
 across the heavens, and I found myself involuntarily 
 looking round to see if there was not another sun 
 rising in the east. No painter, though a genius, could 
 ever put that wonderful scene on canvas. No great 
 poet, though inspired, could ever sing so divinely 
 that those changing clouds, and golden rays, and 
 flashing colours should be seen as God's hand had 
 painted them on that evening sky. Now Sok-tai 
 had to preach truths which it takes even Christians 
 long to fully believe. He had to tell of God, mingling 
 in human life, planning for men, very human in His 
 affections, listening to every cry of the heart to 
 Him, and full of the intensest sympathy for all. 
 How shall he get opium smokers and gamblers, who 
 require to have the very word God explained to them, 
 to understand this.? His own life shall tell what 
 human language cannot ; and the unseen world, 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES, 71 
 
 which opened its mysterious gates to him through 
 the flash of the cannon and the tumult of deadly con- 
 flict, shall, through his profound faith in it, become 
 a reality in their life. 
 
 A very marked feature in the Amoy work is the 
 fact that persons specially qualified by faith and 
 character to be leaders of men were raised up by 
 God at various periods of its history. This is a 
 striking fact, indeed, in God's government of His 
 Church in all ages. When America was about to 
 become a nation. He did not leave the shaping of 
 its destinies to discoverers, and adventurers, and men 
 half sailors half pirates. Men of better character 
 than these were needed to mould the thought and 
 culture of a great nation, and so the Mayflower 
 carried her precious freight across the stormy At- 
 lantic, and landed on Plymouth Rock the choicest 
 forces that ever went to lay the foundation of a 
 great empire. So it was in Amoy. God left nothing 
 to accident, or to the mere desultory preaching of a 
 few foreign missionaries. Men of profound faith were 
 called to stand by their side from amongst the people 
 of the land, and to them belongs the honour of 
 whatever success has been achieved in that region. 
 Amongst the figures that stand out prominently 
 before my mind's eye, is that of a woman, the in- 
 fluence of whose life was far-reaching, and whose 
 memory is still fragrant in the Church. She was a 
 little, quiet, sweet-tempered woman, with apparently 
 not very much force of character. A slight acquaint- 
 ance with her, however, showed that she was possessed 
 of a power that was all the more forcible because it 
 was wielded in such a loving, gentle way. 
 
72 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 She was originally a member of a religious sect 
 called the "Vegetarians," because on religious grounds 
 they were opposed to the taking of life in any form. 
 She heard of the new doctrines that were being 
 preached, and so she determined to go and hear what 
 they were. She was deeply impressed, for there was 
 a directness and a simplicity about them that con- 
 trasted favourably with those she had been accus- 
 tomed to. The revelation of a personal God, and 
 a Saviour who had redeemed her, came home with 
 power to her soul. There was no need for her to ask 
 for the evidences of their truth. The strongest proof was 
 that they touched her as she never had been touched 
 before. She went home with her mind in a state of be- 
 wilderment. She had not had time to think the subject 
 out fully, and yet she was conscious that her life had 
 been in some mysterious way changed by what she 
 had heard. She felt her own beliefs slipping from 
 her heart in spite of herself. There was one thing 
 that had greatly perplexed her. She had been told 
 that her abstinence from animal food was of no avail 
 for the forgiveness of her sins, and she was advised 
 to trust in Christ instead. This seemed to her hor- 
 rible. For many long years she had denied herself 
 many articles of food, in the conviction that she was 
 accumulating such an amount of merit that she 
 would by and by have assigned her a very high 
 position in the " Western Heaven." Was the self- 
 denial of all those years to count for nothing t She 
 could not endure this thought, and she determined 
 that whatever else she might ^vw^ up, she would at 
 least hold on to this part of her old faith. As she 
 became better acquainted with Christianity, her views 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 73 
 
 completely changed. She saw the folly of believing 
 that the abstinence from any particular food could 
 cleanse her soul from sin. She soon learned that the 
 one royal road to purity was through the blood of 
 Christ, and ere long she gave up her vegetarianism, 
 and became a devoted follower of the Lord Jesus. 
 For many years she had been in a delicate state of 
 health, and had suffered greatly from weakness. 
 After her reception into the Church, she seemed to 
 get a new lease of life, and she enjoyed good health 
 for many years afterwards. 
 
 Her conversion to Christianity had an immediate 
 effect upon her own family. She was a weak, gentle- 
 spirited woman, but with a good deal of quiet power 
 that gave her great influence over others. She had 
 several sons ; sturdy fellows they were, too, and very 
 independent in manner, but with boundless admiration 
 for their mother. The eldest of them was a brusque, 
 impulsive man, and very outspoken, as most of the 
 Foh-kien men are. He seemed so unlike his mother, 
 and yet her gentleness formed the unseen basis that 
 lay behind his outer life, and which was yet to make 
 him a power amongst men, after the Spirit of God had 
 converted him. At the time she became a Christian, 
 he was a leader amongst the idolaters. He had 
 been elected for the year to look after the public 
 services that were to be held in connection with the 
 temple of his district. His duties were to see that 
 the customary plays should be performed on the 
 birthdays of the idols, and at the great festivals of 
 the year. He was highly indignant that his mother 
 should give up the religion of their fathers for that 
 of the despised foreigner. He reasoned with her in 
 
72f CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 his rough yet respectful way. The little woman al- 
 lowed the great strong man to say all that he could 
 in defence of the idols. There was a magnetic in- 
 fluence, however, about her very gentleness that 
 touched him. She spoke, too, with such dignity of 
 the new truths that had altered her own life, and 
 given her absolute peace, that ere long he was 
 silenced. He was a shrewd, practical man, and he 
 could not but see the difference between the divine 
 truths of the Gospel and the miserable lives and 
 teachings of the priests. Before long he became an 
 earnest seeker after the truth, and soon there was no 
 more devoted follower of Jesus than he. The whole 
 family in time became Christians, together with the 
 sons' wives and their children. Although she and her 
 husband have gone home years ago, her grand-chil- 
 dren and great-grand-children now fill a large space 
 in the church every Sunday as they assemble for 
 worship. 
 
 And so the years went by, though they were not 
 marked by any very great success. Preaching was 
 carried on very regularly. Mr. Stronach made it a 
 daily practice to preach in the streets, and in front 
 of the great temples, and in prominent places of the 
 town. As he was a thorough Chinese scholar, and 
 had an intimate acquaintance with the books of 
 Confucius, the scholars that came to discuss with 
 him were constantly foiled by the weapons supplied 
 by their great sage's writings, whilst at the same 
 time they were told of truths that he had never re- 
 vealed to them. Christian ideas were thus becoming 
 more familiar to the people, who were gradually 
 getting accustomed to the thought that a greater 
 
FIRST SUCCESSES. 75 
 
 Name than any of their most famous sages was being 
 taught them by these foreign teachers. At last the 
 year 1855 arrived, a famous one in the history of the 
 mission, for in it no fewer than seventy-seven persons 
 were received into the Church by baptism, whilst a 
 considerable number in addition came under religious 
 instruction, and professed themselves desirous of 
 becoming Christians. 
 
 From this year may be dated the commencement 
 of that marvellous work that has not only made its 
 influence to be felt in Amoy, but which has also 
 spread far away into the interior, and demonstrated 
 its divine power in the formation of churches, many 
 of which are to-day self-supporting. 
 
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 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHIANG-CHIU. 
 
 The year 1861 was an important one in the history 
 of the Amoy Mission, for during it a house was ob- 
 tained in the large city of Chiang-Chiu, from which 
 missionary work could be carried on, and where a 
 Church might be formed of such as believed. The Rev. 
 W. K. Lea, who had joined the Mission in 1856, and 
 had devoted a great deal of time to itinerating in the 
 country districts, selected this place because it would 
 be a most admirable centre from which to carry on 
 the new work. The town is about twenty-five miles 
 from Amoy, and at that time was estimated to 
 contain at least one hundred and fifty thousand in- 
 habitants. It is delightfully situated in the midst 
 of a very extensive plain, which is bounded on nearly 
 every side by hills and mountains. Two rivers flow 
 through the opposite sides of it, and it is on the 
 banks of one of these that the city has been built. 
 The plain, for miles around, is dotted with innumer- 
 able villages, which have a thriving, well-to-do 
 appearance. Nature has bountifully supplied all the 
 people's wants. The rivers are a perpetual source 
 of prosperity to them, for they rarely know what 
 drought means. In other places, when the clouds 
 withhold the rain, and the springs are dried up, and 
 
 the fiery Eastern sun pours down his fierce rays, 
 
 76 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 77 
 
 blasting and scorching the crops in the fields, the 
 farmers there look on with aching hearts, for they 
 well know that this means sorrow and suffering to 
 themselves and their families. Here they are almost 
 independent of rain, for the rivers are at hand, and 
 their waters, trained with skilful and patient hands, 
 find their way throughout the plain, and into far-off 
 and out-of-the-way places, and cover them with 
 luxuriance and beauty. 
 
 A sail up the Chiang-Chiu River during any of the 
 summer months, though trying, is a very delightful 
 one. The great sun pours down his light in con- 
 tinuous billows, as if in the very wantonness of his 
 power, and flashes his rays upon fields of waving 
 rice, and paints, with exquisite colours, mighty 
 creepers, that twine and twist over mouldy walls 
 and sides of houses and round the stems of trees, 
 with their purple cups looking straight up into his 
 face, as they quaff great draughts of sunshine. Here, 
 close by, is an immense banyan tree, that the fore- 
 fathers of the village planted more than two hundred 
 years ago. Its huge boughs stretch far out from the 
 stem, and branches innumerable, with fadeless leaves, 
 make a dense covering that no sun can penetrate. 
 Among its gnarled and rugged roots 'that project far 
 above the ground, stone seats have been fixed, and 
 we can see a slab hoary with moss and lichen, that 
 the men and women that have lain sleeping on the 
 hill-side for many a long year used to sit on, but 
 which the growing roots have caught within their 
 embrace, and claimed as their own for ever. A little 
 farther on is a clump of bamboo trees. How grace- 
 ful they look with their long tapering stems and 
 
78 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 feathery leaves, and with what ease and grace they 
 bend and bow before the breeze that comes up the 
 river! They are the poetry and the romance in the 
 landscape, for though there are other trees that are 
 grander and more magnificent, there is none whose 
 history and life is so entwined with those of the people 
 as the bamboo. The ancient history of China, with 
 its story of conquest and fierce conflict with barbarian 
 invaders, who were tempted by the richness of the 
 country, were first recorded upon it. The poetry of 
 the past, the lives of the great, the struggles of the 
 poor to-day for very life, and the luxuries of the great, 
 are all associated with the elegant trees that bend in 
 exquisite unison before the breeze that sends the 
 junks flying up the river. 
 
 The scene on the river is always a lively one. As 
 it is the great highway to the city, boats of all 
 descriptions are continually passing up and down. 
 Great boats filled with all kinds of merchandise from 
 Amoy, with enormous latteen sails, dash by, under 
 the influence of the strong monsoon wind. Passenger 
 boats crowded with their fares come close up to us, 
 and the people that are sitting closely packed to- 
 gether, look keenly and wonderingly at us, while the 
 almond-shaped eyes twinkle with mirth as some one 
 in a low voice makes some funny remark about us 
 or our appearance. But see ! here is a huge, un- 
 shapely-looking craft coming down against the wind, 
 but with the tide in its favour. It is a boat that is 
 specially characteristic of this river, and plies between 
 Chiang-Chiu and Amoy. It has a very tall mast and 
 a huge heavy sail, and it is housed in with strongly 
 made bamboo mats, which serve the double purpose 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 79 
 
 of protecting the family that lives in it, and the cargo 
 from the weather. She is now being propelled by 
 half a dozen sturdy rowers, the most of them being 
 women. These latter can handle a boat just as well 
 as the men. They can pull an oar, or hoist the sail, 
 or steer the boat with the best of them. As we 
 swing by her with the strong breeze behind us, we 
 have a passing glimpse of the family life on board. 
 The sons with their wives are busy at the oars, 
 straining every nerve to keep her on her course. 
 One of the younger women with a baby strapped on 
 her back, has charge of the tiller, whilst at the same 
 time she does her work at the rowing ; and it is 
 interesting to watch how deftly she moves it, and 
 with what apparent unconcern she steers her way 
 amongst the crowd of boats that thread their course 
 in and out amongst each other, as though they were 
 instinct with life. 
 
 Just in front of the rowers, in the stern, several 
 children are running about, who find the old grand- 
 mother a delightful centre around which to gather. She 
 has one of the youngest in her lap, which has twink- 
 ling black eyes and a closely shaven head, and is laugh- 
 ing and crowing, just as babies do all over the world. 
 The grandfather is busily engaged over a huge pot 
 of rice, which sends out bubbles of steam, and plainly 
 intimates that they had better haul up to the bank, 
 and anchor for a while, for the dinner hour is at hand. 
 It is a pleasant, homely sight, and we have here an 
 insight into the kind of life that the water population 
 on this river lead. This boat is the only home they 
 know. Their lives are spent in it. The man brings 
 home his wife here, and the bride is welcomed with 
 
8o CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 furious beating of gongs, and uproarious noise of fire 
 crackers from the neighbouring boats. Sons and 
 daughters are in course of time born on the boat ; 
 and when these have grown up, the girls are married 
 from it, whilst the sons bring in their wives to add to 
 the family circle. When life is at length ended, the 
 offerings to the dead are spread in front of the coffin, 
 and the priest chants his service in the very place 
 where the dead has spent his life, and the body leaves 
 it direct for the grave on the hill-side amidst the 
 sounds of lamentation, and the loud explosion of fire 
 crackers. 
 
 When I first visited the city, the approaches to it 
 were very fine. As is usual in China, it was surrounded 
 by a high wall, in which were four gates that corre- 
 sponded with the four cardinal points. On the south 
 side it was flanked by the river. A main street ran 
 alongside this, and it was one of the busiest in the 
 whole town, for here were congregated goods of all de- 
 scriptions, that had been brought from the coast and 
 the inland towns by the boats that lay anchored in the 
 stream. It was a crowded, busy thoroughfare, and men 
 from early dawn till late at night were absorbed in 
 business. The street leading to the east gate, however, 
 was by far the finest, for it was the great highway 
 along which people travelled who were going north 
 or south. Mandarins on public business, or going 
 to their posts, carried in luxurious sedan chairs, and 
 attended by crowds of attendants, had to pass along 
 it. Couriers, from the far distant capital Peking, 
 bustled along with ostentatious haste bearing de- 
 spatches from the Dragon throne. Coolies with 
 heavy burdens that they had carried for many weary 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 8i 
 
 days, with perspiration streaming down their bodies, 
 and with hot and jaded-looking faces, staggered 
 along it. It was a street where at times every phase 
 of life, and representatives of nearly every province, 
 could be met with, and a really magnificent one it 
 was. It was ornamented for a mile and more with 
 scores of beautiful stone arches, that had been erected 
 by imperial permission in commemoration of the 
 conspicuous virtues of certain of the citizens of this 
 region. The general design of these was the same, 
 but considerable latitude had been shown in the 
 details. They stood fifteen or twenty feet high, and 
 spanned the road. The inscriptions could thus be 
 seen by every one, and thousands every day could 
 read about sons that had been pre-eminent for their 
 filial piety, and of widows that had elected never to 
 marry again, and who for a long life had illustrated 
 the homely virtues by their modesty, and the fidelity 
 with which they had trained their children to be 
 good citizens of the empire. The city itself, when 
 viewed from the walls, was one of the most beautiful 
 that I have ever seen in China. Looking over it, it 
 seemed like one huge forest. The Chinese have a 
 passionate love for trees and flowers, and conse- 
 quently every householder had planted some kind 
 of a tree in his courtyard. These, during years of 
 undisturbed prosperity, had grown large and spread- 
 ing, until at length the city seemed to lie beneath 
 the shadow of a mighty forest. Lines of streets 
 could here and there be distinguished through the 
 foliage, but it was difficult to realize that down be- 
 low, a hundred thousand people lived, that great busy 
 streets, crowded with buyers and sellers, stretched 
 
 F 
 
82 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 far away into the distance, or that the river beyond 
 was lined with craft of all kinds, in which thousands of 
 people passed their lives, and had no homebesides them. 
 The people of Chiang-Chiuwere proud and haughty. 
 They were prosperous and well-to-do. The great 
 plains around them produced enough food for the 
 city, and still they could afford to export large 
 quantities of rice to Amoy. This was a famous kind. 
 It was the whitest in all the region, and could always 
 command a good price. They were proud, too, be- 
 cause of the exquisite silks and satin stuffs they 
 could produce. Their looms were famous, and their 
 designs were rare, and beautifully executed. They 
 had the most supreme contempt for foreigners, and 
 showed it in a very unpleasant manner. It was 
 always unpleasant, and sometimes even risky, to 
 travel about the streets in the day time. In certain 
 parts of the town, such as the city gates, or the open 
 spaces in front of the temples, where crowds of idlers 
 were wont to assemble, one was always sure of be- 
 ing instantly surrounded by a mob, that seemed to be 
 boiling over with delight at the idea of getting some 
 fun out of the foreigner. In consequence of this 
 haughty, overbearing spirit, mission work was carried 
 on with extreme difficulty. Crowds of people would 
 come into the church, which was opened daily for 
 preaching, simply to have a look at the foreigner, just 
 as men might gather to see a menagerie, or some 
 strange grotesque sight. A group of young bloods, 
 for example, would come swaggering in. They would 
 be invited in our politest Chinese to be seated. They 
 would stare at us with a look of the most profound 
 contempt, and then break out into noisy conversation, 
 

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 iiililllillii'ii^^^ 
 
 81 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 85 
 
 walking about and examining everything that struck 
 their fancy. 
 
 They were once more invited to sit down, and have 
 some tea, for in accordance with Chinese etiquette, 
 we had a tea-pot and half a dozen tiny cups, that 
 would hold about three or four thimblefuls each, always 
 ready, to carry out the hospitable ideas that prevail 
 throughout Chinese society. They would rudely 
 decline, and by and by stalk out with some insulting 
 expression at the impudence of the barbarians daring 
 to come to their city to teach them. 
 
 Whilst these young fellows were acting in this 
 offensive manner, a number of shopkeepers would 
 come in, and although these did not dare to take the 
 same liberties that the others did, there was still the 
 same scornful look about their faces. They, too, were 
 invited to be seated and partake of some tea. One 
 or two of the better disposed would do so, but the 
 rest would simply shake their heads and refuse. We 
 then began to talk to them about God, and about 
 Christ, who gave His life for the world. We spoke 
 to them of God as a living person, who cares for 
 every human being, and whose love for all no human 
 language can express. These were new thoughts to 
 our audience. In all their life they had never heard 
 such before. Their only conceptions of Him had 
 been taken from the idols, and these had never 
 spoken to them of love, or of anxiety for the welfare 
 of mankind. As we continued our discourse, the 
 contemptuous look on their faces began gradually 
 to melt down into one of surprised attention, and 
 when they bid us good-bye it was with much kindlier 
 feelings than when they entered. 
 
86 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 Those early days were exceedingly trying ones. 
 We had to carry on our work with the knowledge 
 that the sympathies of the people were decidedly 
 against us. The great mass of the population knew 
 absolutely nothing of what Christianity was. It 
 was something that was preached by the despised 
 foreigner, and that was enough to condemn it. We 
 had simply to be patient, and preach and preach 
 until the Gospel should tell its own story, and win its 
 own way into the hearts and consciences of men. It 
 was only the eloquence of the tale it had to tell, and 
 its own native power to touch the heart, that could 
 bring this people to Christ. 
 
 It was intensely interesting to watch the process 
 by which this was accomplished. One man I have 
 a very vivid recollection of He was a doctor. He 
 was a very fine, handsome-looking man, and when 
 at his ease he had a dignified bearing that gave him 
 the appearance of being a man of power. If his 
 mind had corresponded to his body he would have 
 been, but unfortunately it did not. He was of a 
 nervous, timid disposition, and seemed to be per- 
 petually on his guard lest he should do or say any- 
 thing that would compromise him with his neigh- 
 bours. He came into the church one day, and was at 
 once arrested by the wonderful truths that he heard. 
 After this he was an almost daily visitor at the 
 church, and became an earnest seeker after the truth. 
 There was one thing about him that we disliked, 
 and that was his want of courage to confess Christ. 
 He always seemed to live under a perpetual dread 
 lest he should be recognised by any in his visits to 
 us. At first he used to come late in the evening, 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 87 
 
 when there were few people in the street, and it was 
 too dark for him to be known by the passers-by. 
 When he left us, he would first open the door very 
 cautiously, peer hastily into the darkness, and not 
 hearing any footsteps, would plunge hastily into the 
 street, and go off at railway speed for a few yards, 
 until he was far enough off from the church not to be 
 suspected of having come from it. After a time, as 
 he became more fully instructed in the truth, he grew 
 more bold, and finally agreed to attend our Sun- 
 day services. It was amusing to watch his conduct 
 for some months after he had consented to take this 
 public step. When the doors were opened for the 
 service, the heathen as usual soon began to crowd in. 
 Our doctor took good care not to seat himself too 
 near the Christians, lest he should be identified with 
 them, so he sat a little apart by himself When the 
 singing was commenced, though he held a hymn- 
 book in his hand, he acted his part so well,, that the 
 heathen would never dream that he was anything 
 more than an interested spectator, and anxious 
 merely to know what these Christians were singing. 
 By and by, when the people stood up to pray, he 
 made it a point of keeping his eyes wide open, and 
 moving his head about as though he was absorbed in 
 the study of every article of furniture in the room. 
 When he was spoken to about this, he would reply 
 in a low, mysterious tone of voice : " Ah ! you don't 
 know the difficulty in which I am placed. Were my 
 patients to find out that I was a Christian, they would 
 all dismiss me, and then what should I do.'* Besides, 
 you don't know what a temper my wife has got, and 
 what a life she would lead me, if she got to know 
 
88 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 that I came here. Let me go on by degrees, and 
 God will help me to confess Him more boldly as I 
 get more faith and trust in Him. 
 
 In the course of time he lost a good deal of his 
 timidity, and gave up the farce of trying to make the 
 heathen believe that he was nothing more than a 
 curious listener. He joined heartily in our services, 
 though he still exhibited such nervousness and 
 timidity that we could not be quite so proud of him 
 as we should otherwise have been. This was con- 
 stitutional, however, so we had to be patient with 
 him. After he had been fully instructed in the 
 Christian religion, and had given us satisfactory 
 evidence of his sincerity, we proposed to him that 
 he should be baptized. This he was firm in declining. 
 With a shake of the head, and a solemnly mysterious 
 look about his face, he said : " There is something in 
 my home that has to be rectified before I can feel 
 worthy of baptism." We asked him what it was, but 
 he only became more sphinx-like in his answers. 
 Our curiosity was aroused. It must surely be some- 
 thing terrible since he refused to give us even a hint 
 of what the family skeleton that troubled his con- 
 science so was. We naturally became all the more 
 anxious to find it out, but that solemn face and 
 mysterious shake of the head gave us no clue. This 
 went on for two years, but we never could get any 
 nearer to the solution of the secret. At last it was 
 revealed to us in the midst of a tremendous tragedy. 
 The long-haired rebels made a sudden incursion into 
 the city, captured it, and made an indiscriminate 
 slaughter of the people. All that could escape 
 through the city gates hurried away for dear life 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 89 
 
 from the doomed town. Amongst these were the 
 doctor, with his wife and little son. Soon after 
 emerging from the east gate, they were met by a 
 body of the rebels, who attacked the husband, and 
 left him for dead upon the ground. The wife rushed 
 on frantic with fear, and heart breaking with sorrow 
 for the loss of her husband. At last she stopped in 
 the middle of the road. Her belief in the idols, 
 which had been intense until that day, was shattered. 
 Nevermore as long as she lived was she to trust in 
 them again. She knelt down under the great stone 
 arches that I have described, and made a vow to the 
 God of her husband, that if He would only deliver 
 her and her son from death that day, she would serve 
 Him only. She cared not for the crowds that were 
 rushing distractedly by her, nor for the fierce bands 
 that might be in pursuit. She was communing with 
 God for the first time in all her life, and she could 
 think of none else. Whilst she was thus engaged, 
 her husband, who had only been stunned, came rush- 
 ing along. When he saw his wife kneeling in the 
 street, he was thunderstruck. " What are you 
 doing?" he hurriedly asked her. "I am praying to 
 God," she said ; " I was so sad. I thought you were 
 dead. My heart was breaking, and so I was be- 
 seeching your God to deliver me and my son." All 
 the time she was speaking the doctor's heart was 
 filled with rapture. Ever since he had been an open 
 worshipper of God, she had been a most bitter op- 
 ponent of Christianity. His home had been made 
 most wretched. The idols had still been retained in 
 the house by her, and it was these that had kept hfm 
 back from baptism, for he felt it would be inconsistent 
 
90 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 for him to receive it whilst those were still worshipped 
 in his home. He had kept all this a secret from us, 
 because he had been loyal to his wife. A great load 
 was at once lifted from his heart. It seemed nothing 
 to him now that his home was in the hands of the 
 rebels, that his means of subsistence were gone, and 
 that he was a fugitive with possible death still before 
 him. It was enough for him to know that his wife 
 had made a solemn vow to the Lord to be His. " It 
 is all right now," he said joyfully. "The Lord will 
 hear you, of course. He has promised to answer 
 prayer, and now we shall be a happy family indeed." 
 His heart was filled with a supreme joy that excluded 
 every other thought from it. Screams of affrighted 
 women and children filled the air, but he heard them 
 not. The tread of men rushing in terror from the 
 city resounded around him, but he was absorbed in 
 the one glad thought that his wife would now be a 
 worshipper of God with him. The whole family 
 managed to escape to Amoy. In time they were all 
 baptized, and for many years were members of the 
 church in Chiang-Chiu. 
 
 There is no more beautiful study for the missionary 
 than to watch the silent process by which the Gospel 
 wins its way in any community in spite of the fiercest 
 opposition, and converts its bitterest opponents into 
 its staunchest adherents. To stand up in the streets 
 and preach the Gospel in those early years was an 
 ordeal that the missionary of to-day knows nothing 
 about. The preacher had no sooner taken up a 
 position in some prominent place, than he was at 
 once surrounded by a great crowd. The elements of 
 which it was composed were very mixed. The 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 91 
 
 loungers and idlers, whose time hung heavy on their 
 hands, were promptly there, as there was some pros- 
 pect of diversion. Some of these were rough, coarse 
 fellows, ready for any kind of fun that might turn 
 up. Coolies, with their huge burdens which they 
 laid down in a convenient place where they could 
 keep a watchful eye upon them, drew near. Scholars 
 with their cynical looks, and undisguised scorn of the 
 barbarian, stood by in their long gowns to hear 
 what the preacher had to say that could be better 
 than what their great sage Confucius had taught 
 more than two thousand years ago. The crowd was 
 entirely unsympathetic. There was not a single tie 
 that bound them and the speaker together. There 
 was a babel of voices, and very uncomplimentary 
 expressions could be heard above the din. Young 
 fellows were laughing and jeering in coarse language. 
 The first thing to be done was to get the crowd not 
 only quiet, but also into a good humour. In order 
 to this, great patience was required, as well as a little 
 humour, and a considerable amount of tact. A cross 
 word or an impatient look would have delighted the 
 crowd, whilst at the same time it would have prevented 
 the preacher from getting any hold upon them for that 
 day. Whatever the clamour and commotion around 
 him, he must be calm. Whilst he is debating with him- 
 self how he shall begin his address, he notices on the 
 doorposts of the house across the street two sentences 
 written in a large bold hand. The one on the right 
 says : " Life is like a dream before the awaking 
 in the early morn." The other on the left declares 
 that, " Life is like a game of chess : how the pieces 
 shall be moved, no man can foretel." He instantly 
 
92 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 takes these as his text, and pointhig the crowd to 
 them, he endeavours to show them that there can be 
 no true solution of the mysteries of life without a 
 knowledge of God, and no escape from its sorrows 
 and perplexities excepting through Christ, the Saviour 
 of the world. The quotation of these inscriptions at 
 once arrests the attention of the crowd. What ! the 
 barbarian has actually studied their books, and 
 knows how to read their mysterious hieroglyphics. 
 He is decidedly, a better man than they thought 
 him to be. They are hushed whilst he goes on 
 speaking of the great Father, who with loving heart 
 cares for mankind, and would shape their lives, and 
 make them full of happiness, but they refuse to let 
 Him. Incidents from life are taken, stories from 
 their past histories, the comedies and tragedies of 
 their own every-day life are woven into the story, 
 and ere long the crowd are silent listeners, and they 
 forget for the moment that they are being taught by 
 a barbarian, for the Divine power of this new Gospel 
 is holding them within its grasp. The scorn on the 
 faces of the scholars is still there, but it is not so 
 bitter. The pale opium smokers' faces around look sad 
 and ghastly, as the preacher tells how Christ delivers 
 men from all vices, and makes them good and happy 
 citizens. At this point, he hears a man that is 
 standing near him remark to another: "Why, this 
 religion is not so bad as it is commonly reported to 
 be. I have not heard him say a single thing that I 
 can condemn. Every word is true." His companion 
 nods his head, and replies : " That is indeed so." At 
 last the preacher ends. The spell of his voice ceases. 
 The old instincts of the crowd assert themselves, and 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 93 
 
 soon the silent attention is changed into the turmoil 
 and confusion with which he began. He seems to 
 have effected absolutely nothing, and in the end not 
 to have touched a single heart. But this is not so. 
 The crowd has gone home with new thoughts. The 
 shopkeepers who stood and listened will discuss in 
 their homes the points that have been pressed upon 
 them by the preacher. Their ideas about idolatry 
 will never again be precisely what they were before, 
 for besides the grim idol that has been to them the 
 only power they knew, there has now come, dimly 
 and shadowy it is true, the picture of Another, who 
 may in time become the very light of their life. The 
 great city was thus being educated in Christian 
 truths, and to-day the audiences gather round the 
 missionaries in quiet respectful attention, because 
 the preachers in those early days, amidst noisy 
 crowds and unsympathetic hearts, patiently and in 
 faith preached a gospel that men now generally 
 recognise to be true. 
 
 As the years went by, the Church at Chiang-Chiu 
 gradually grew in numbers, till in 1865 the city was 
 captured by the famous Tai-ping rebels, and utterly 
 destroyed. Its people were murdered by thousands, 
 its trees were cut down, and large portions of the 
 town were left desolate and tenantless. Fortunately 
 nearly all the Christians managed to escape to Amoy. 
 After the city was recaptured by the Imperial troops, 
 the inhabitants who had escaped flocked to their 
 ruined homes. With the indomitable pluck and de- 
 termination of the Chinese, they at once began to 
 rebuild their city, and ere long streets sprang up, as 
 if by magic, on the place where only heaps of broken 
 
94 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 bricks and rubbish lay before. The quarter where 
 our old church had been was one wilderness of ruins, 
 so that it was difficult to point out the place it once 
 occupied. We had no desire, however, to go back to 
 that neighbourhood, as its situation was not central 
 or commanding enough. After a good deal of patient 
 waiting, we were fortunate in being able to secure a 
 house in the large thoroughfare just outside the east 
 gate of the city. The people had been so thoroughly 
 humbled by the awful disasters that had come upon 
 them, that we were allowed to take possession with- 
 out any molestation from any one. 
 
 When we began work afresh, we found the tone 
 and temper of the people entirely different from 
 what they had been before. The men were not so 
 arrogant, and consequently they were less unruly in 
 our public gatherings. Their enthusiasm for their 
 idols, too, was greatly diminished. In the time of 
 their peril, these either would not or could not 
 deliver them, and so from either point of view, they 
 had good cause for feeling somewhat coldly towards 
 them. For several years we had marked success. 
 Our numbers grew so large, that the building became 
 too small for our Sunday services. We therefore 
 purchased a piece of ground in a very prominent part 
 of the same street, and there we erected a spacious 
 church that has ever since been a conspicuous feature 
 in it. In the meantime, before this, our work had so 
 far prospered, that we determined to extend our 
 operations into the country around. We accordingly 
 rented a house in a busy market town some three 
 miles away from the city, named "Bridge Head 
 Market." The chief attraction of this place was that 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 95 
 
 it was a large centre for business. On the fair 
 days, which were frequent, the farmers from the 
 villages far and near, and buyers from distant dis- 
 tricts, assembled there for purposes of trade. The 
 scene on these days was an exceedingly interesting 
 one. The produce of the region was displayed in 
 the open spaces, and crowds gathered, and voices 
 were heard in noisy disputation about prices, and 
 sounds of laughter, too, as jokes were cracked by some 
 of the more facetious. All the while, the goods were 
 rapidly changing hands, and were being carried away, 
 some in boats, and some on the shoulders of sturdy 
 fellows, that panted and perspired under their huge 
 loads. The goods were of a very varied description. 
 Here were large bags of rice full to repletion, and 
 revelling as it were in the very luxuriance of their 
 abundance. How white the grains are, and how 
 large too! None such ever grow beyond the moun- 
 tains that bound this plain. The epicure's eyes 
 sparkle as he gazes with loving looks at the great 
 bags so temptingly displayed. Red sweet potatoes, 
 piled up in heaps, and deftly arranged in baskets, were 
 laid out for the inspection of purchasers. They are 
 the mealiest and the sweetest that can be got, and 
 come from a certain district only, where the soil is 
 suitable for the growth of such. Numberless jars of 
 sugar, black as it was crushed' from the canes, that 
 grow so luxuriantly on this hot plain, were exposed 
 for sale, to be carried away and refined, and shipped to 
 far-off places in China. But what shall I say about 
 the fruits } How abundant and beautiful they were, 
 according to the time of the year ! Great clusters 
 of nai-tsi, bunches of plantains, baskets of peaches, 
 
96 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 oranges in the richest profusion from the orange- 
 groves a few miles away ; mangos plucked from the 
 trees around, and pumelos in such abundance from 
 the gardens at the foot of the mountains out yonder, 
 that they were sold in the distant markets of 
 Shanghai, and were shipped also to southern ports 
 in China by the regular steamers. 
 
 Our church was situated close to the busiest part 
 of the fair. Crowds flocked to hear the Gospel who 
 had never heard it before. Farmers and farm 
 labourers, with open mouths, listened to the truths 
 that came to them, with as veritable a revelation as 
 did any that was ever revealed in ancient times to 
 the greatest of God's prophets. They had looked 
 since childhood upon that great plain clothed twice 
 a year in the beauty of waving fields of rice. They 
 had watched the circle of mountains in the distance, 
 in all the varying moods of that Eastern climate. 
 Sometimes they were bathed in a great ocean of sun- 
 shine, sometimes they flashed and darkened with 
 alternate lights and shadows, and again they were 
 crowned with dense masses of clouds that clung to 
 them as if in mortal dread of the driving gale ; but 
 never till the preacher told them had they ever 
 dreamt whose hand had made them, or whose thought 
 had clothed the world in such matchless beauty. 
 Gamblers, with the hungry look in their eyes, and a 
 slovenly uneasy gait, which the consciousness of the 
 disrepute in which they were held by the public had 
 given them, stood spellbound as they listened to the 
 Divine teaching of Christ. Prodigals were arrested 
 by the marvellous picture of themselves that He had 
 portrayed ages ago. Others again, with keen and 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 97 
 
 worldly faces, but out of which all spirituality had 
 been obliterated by heathenism, listened with a grim 
 smile of incredulity. Life was to them the only 
 reality, and trade and money making, and the ac- 
 cumulating of wealth the only things about which a 
 man ought seriously to concern himself. '* The unseen 
 world," they said, " was a mystery that no man had 
 ever penetrated, and then come back to tell its story 
 Why, then, trouble one's head about a matter that 
 men could never know absolutely 1 " 
 
 And thus the Gospel was preached amongst all 
 classes, and ere long we saw gathering around us 
 those that were attracted by its great truths. Among 
 the first was a person whose belief in Christianity 
 brought almost immediate suffering to himself and 
 family. He was a man of a good deal of character, 
 though one would not have thought so from a pass- 
 ing acquaintance with him. His face had a gentle, 
 almost feminine look about it, and there was a shy, 
 reserved manner about him that seemed to indicate 
 a lack of power to grapple with any question that 
 demanded nerve or pluck. Behind that gentle face, 
 however, there was a reserve of force that enabled the 
 man, when the time came, to perform the most heroic 
 deeds. His business was to examine the dollars that 
 were given in payment during the progress of the fair, 
 and ascertain whether they were good, and of sufficient 
 weight or not. Farmers, when they had sold their 
 produce, came to him with the purchasers, and had 
 their dollars weighed and tested before they accepted 
 them. He was known for his ability in detecting the 
 counterfeit ones, no matter how perfect the imitation, 
 and his reputation had spread, so that large numbers 
 
 G 
 
98 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 of farmers regularly employed him. Unfortunately 
 some of these fair days fell upon the Sunday. A 
 serious question now arose for decision. How was 
 he to act on those days ? Was he still to carry on 
 his business as usual, or was he to close his shop, and 
 refuse to examine the dollars of his patrons t To do 
 the latter would imperil his business. We strongly 
 urged him to keep holy the Sabbath day. He then 
 explained to us how dependent he was upon his 
 employment, and how the loss of that would bring 
 poverty upon his family. We still adhered to our 
 advice, and showed him, that now he had a new 
 Power in his life, who had promised to honour those 
 who honoured Him. After some time of hesitation, 
 in which he was thinking out the question, he decided 
 to give up all Sunday work, no matter what might be 
 the consequences. The farmers came round as they 
 had done for years with their dollars, and they could 
 not understand why his shop was closed. They brought 
 rolls of them to be examined, and they were amazed 
 when he would not look at them. It was Sunday, he 
 said. Sunday ! what was the meaning of that? They 
 had never heard the term before. They remonstrated 
 with him, and threatened that they would give their 
 custom to some one else. He remained firm; but 
 before many months had passed, the bulk of his cus- 
 tomers had left him, and he had to face the problem 
 how he should provide for the needs of his family. 
 He never faltered in his faith in God, nor though 
 severely tried did he regret the sacrifice he had made. 
 Many years have passed by since then, and he has 
 proved by experience the faithfulness and loving- 
 kindness of God to those who honour His law and 
 
CHIANG-CHIU. 99 
 
 keep His commandments. For many years there 
 has been a church in Bridge Head Market, and many 
 noble men and women have testified both by their 
 life and by their death their faith in Christ as their 
 Saviour. 
 
 The changes that have taken place during the 
 thirty years of missionary work in this region are 
 perfectly marvellous. On the 30th of June, 1859, ^^' 
 Lea writes : " I have paid repeated visits to Chiang- 
 Chiu. Several attempts have been made at various 
 times to introduce the Gospel there, but owing to the 
 opposition both of mandarins and people, with no 
 apparent result. At the time of the (local) rebellion 
 two native converts were preaching in the city. One 
 was beheaded, and the other made his escape with 
 difficulty. Ever since that time the visits of for- 
 eigners, and indeed of native Christians too, have been 
 regarded with suspicion, and identified with insur- 
 rectionary movements. I cannot say that there is as 
 yet more than a readiness to hear on the part of the 
 people generally, but this, as contrasted with the 
 unfriendliness and open opposition of former years, 
 gives much room for encouragement. I only regret 
 that all efforts, both on my own part, and on that of 
 the friendly disposed residents to obtain a house for 
 regular preaching have as yet entirely failed. A 
 short time ago a young man, who had been a student 
 with a brother missionary at Amoy, returned to his 
 home at Chiang-Chiu, and commenced meetings in 
 his own house. In a few days he was arrested by 
 an officer, reproved, and ultimately beaten by the 
 mandarin." 
 
 These words read like a passage taken out of some 
 
loo CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 ancient history. Christianity is now an important 
 factor in the place, and is recognised both by the 
 people and the mandarins. To-day there is the 
 widest liberty to preach the Gospel in the city and 
 its large and influential suburbs, and men are free to 
 become Christians, without the serious penalties of 
 early days. Chiang-Chiu is now the seat of a 
 separate mission. A large hospital has been opened, 
 and thousands yearly are being treated. When these 
 people return to their homes, it will be with new 
 thoughts of Him who commanded His disciples not 
 only to preach, but also to heal the sick; and they 
 will tell the story of Him, that they have learned in 
 the hospital, to friends, whose hearts will be melted 
 when they think of Him through the lives of dear 
 ones who have been restored to them in health and 
 strength. 
 
CHAPTER; V;^ : \ l'/ :' .^i: I'.^l 1 
 
 KOAN-KHA U. 
 
 The year 1861 was also an eventful one in the annals 
 of mission work in the Amoy region. In the town of 
 Amoy itself, the successes had been great beyond all 
 expectation. The little church had grown so rapidly, 
 and its numbers become so great, that it was in 
 serious contemplation to build another church in a 
 different part of the town, where many of its mem- 
 bers resided. This would not only suit the con- 
 venience of the Christians in that neighbourhood, but 
 would also form another centre from which active 
 work could be carried on. This plan was actually 
 carried out in 1862. In addition to the church in 
 Amoy, two mission stations had been opened in vil- 
 lages near the town, and the populous city of Chiang- 
 Chiu was occupied, and regular services were being 
 held in a building, which, after years of waiting, had 
 been secured in the very heart of the town. And 
 now another step forward was taken, and a house 
 was secured in the large market town of Koan-Khau, 
 which lies some eight or nine miles to the west of 
 Amoy. The position of this place made it a most 
 admirable centre for missionary work. It was situ- 
 ated in the midst of a large farming population, that 
 necessarily had constant communication with it, and 
 could thus be easily reached by the missionary from 
 
I02 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 it. The town is very picturesquely situated ; it is 
 built on a hill about two miles from the sea, and 
 from it can be seen the numerous villages that cover 
 the plain .up; to: the foot of the distant mountains. 
 Close JDehind the town there rises a splendid range 
 of njojun tains,, the highest in all that region, and 
 the source of never-ending and varying beauty. It 
 would seem as though nature were continually spend- 
 ing her highest ahd finest thoughts in designing the 
 scenes she paints upon them. At 'one time they 
 are covered with dense masses of clouds that hide 
 them completely from view ; again, they are bathed 
 in golden sunshine that makes them stand out from 
 the populous plain, one mass of glorious light, and 
 again the fleecy mist floats along their sides over 
 dark shadows and sunlit spots till it is lost in the 
 morning sun. 
 
 With some little difficulty a house was rented, 
 which was soon transformed into a church. Though 
 it was a miserable place, we were very glad to get it. 
 The main room faced the street, and was about 
 twelve feet square. Here we had our pulpit, and the 
 benches on which our future hearers were to sit ; 
 immediately above this was a room about half its 
 size. This was reached by narrow stairs so steep 
 that there was a risk to one's neck every time one 
 came down them ; for having no banisters, the only 
 thing one had to hold on to was a rope that hung 
 dangling from a beam in the roof. This was our 
 sleeping room, dining-room, and reception room. 
 Immediately behind the main room was a little dark 
 den where any women that might be interested in 
 the Gospel could sit ; for it was entirely opposed to 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 103 
 
 Chinese custom to have the men and women sit 
 together during a service. This room was lighted by 
 a passage that led to a small courtyard where the 
 kitchen was. It was a dismal place, and in the hot 
 weather perfectly stifling, as not a breath of air could 
 by any possibility get to it. In fact, the whole place 
 was hot, and it was only by a vigorous use of the fan, 
 that one could just manage to exist. In almost every 
 place where we first go to, these initial difficulties 
 have to be encountered. In time, when we have 
 gained the confidence of the people, we can always 
 rent better and more suitable houses. The congrega- 
 tions of some of our elegantly appointed churches in 
 England would be astonished could they see the 
 miserable houses in which their brethren and sisters 
 sometimes have to worship God in China. Indeed, 
 it would be a wonderful and romantic story that could 
 be told of the wretched places in which the Church that 
 is destined in the future to cover the land with beauti- 
 ful buildings had its birthplace. Christianity has built 
 magnificent churches and stately cathedrals through- 
 out the world, but it must be remembered that the 
 birthplace of them all was the stable in Bethlehem. 
 
 No sooner was the building opened for daily 
 preaching than the people began to crowd in to listen 
 to us. Men wanted to hear for themselves what we 
 had to say. People had been to Amoy, and they had 
 brought back rumours that the foreigners were preach- 
 ing strange doctrines, such as their fathers had 
 never listened to. They were greatly divided in 
 their opinion about them. Some said they were 
 good ; others declared that they were abominable, 
 and would upset the whole of the beliefs in which 
 
I04 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 they had been trained. Now they could hear for 
 themselves, and so men of all classes thronged around 
 the door, and filled the place till it was quite 
 packed, eager to hear what was said, but especially 
 to see the foreigner, and to verify for themselves 
 whether he was human or not, or whether in a 
 strictly Darwinian sense he was descended from a 
 monkey, and still retained enough of that animal 
 to indicate his origin. Young country bumpkins 
 with mouths wide open would stand and gaze, 
 thunderstruck as they looked for the first time upon 
 the barbarian. His dress was so different from their 
 own, and his skin so fair ; his head, too, was covered 
 with a confused mass of hair, so unlike their own 
 shaven heads, and queues neatly plaited. And then, 
 wonder of wonders ! this strange-looking being could 
 really speak in Chinese, and not only so, but actu- 
 ally in the very patois that was spoken by themselves. 
 They were transfixed. The missionary addresses a 
 few words to them. They start back with amaze- 
 ment, and look around with a startled air, as though 
 something was going to happen to them. He ad- 
 vances a little nearer to them in order to try and 
 make them feel a little more at home, and they 
 hastily retreat. It is some time before he can get 
 them to be seated. Even when they are, they sit 
 upon the edge of the bench, as though that was the 
 safest position they could occupy under the circum- 
 stances. Old men with dry and wrinkled faces 
 quietly sit down and listen by the hour to the doc- 
 trines that are being preached. They are village 
 elders, and for many a year they have exercised a 
 controlling influence in their villages ; and as they 
 
KOAN-KHA U. 105 
 
 generally belong to families that are strong in num- 
 bers, they have always the power ready at hand to 
 enforce their decisions. Their faces have a stolid, 
 unimpassioned look, and they have such wonderful 
 command over themselves, that they can completely 
 conceal their thoughts from us. They may be 
 pleased or not, we cannot tell, for not a muscle in 
 their faces indicates to us what effect our preaching 
 is having upon them. The probability is they are 
 intensely prejudiced against us, because the elemen- 
 tary truths we are preaching are too profound to their 
 heathen mind to be grasped yet, and they will return 
 to their villages to throw all their influence in the 
 scale against any of their people becoming Christians. 
 But see ! amongst the crowd of listeners is a tall, 
 sharp-featured man. He is not a farmer : you can 
 tell that by his dress. He is not a shopkeeper 
 either, for he has a refined look, as though he got 
 his living by his pen. He is very attentive, and, as 
 he seems to catch the drift of our argument more 
 easily than the stolid-looking men around, we 
 address ourselves particularly to him. He perceives 
 this, and becomes still more attentive. As we reiter- 
 ate the strong points in our discourse, he waves his 
 head slowly from side to side as though our thoughts 
 were flowing into his brain, and he was endeavouring 
 to assimilate them more rapidly by this physical 
 process. We stop by and by and ask him how he 
 likes what he has heard. He assures us that he is 
 profoundly impressed. " Every word that you have 
 uttered is Heaven's truth," he says, " and men ought 
 to believe. The difficulty is, you know," and here 
 he looks keenly and sharply at us, *' the Chinese are 
 
io6 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 bad, and, moreover, they are bound by customs that 
 have been handed down from their remote ancestors ; 
 and so it is next to impossible to act in defiance of 
 these, and yet be tolerated by our relatives and 
 neighbours." We find after he has left that he is" 
 employed in some official capacity in the mandarin's 
 court up the street, and that he has been sent by his 
 superior to report on the character of the doctrines 
 that are preached by the barbarian. Let us hope 
 that he will give a tolerably true account of what 
 has been sai'd. 
 
 This region proved to be a most difficult one to 
 influence. There were two reasons for this. The 
 people generally were comfortably off, and conse- 
 quently were not disposed to deny themselves the 
 luxuries and the vices that men who have the means 
 indulge in in China. A rich village is always more 
 difficult of access to the preagher than a poor one. 
 The good gifts of God, instead of disposing men to 
 worship Him, have too often the very opposite effect. 
 Another great impediment to the spread of the 
 Gospel was the social condition of this region. The 
 villages were numerous, and some of them contained 
 several thousands of people. As a general rule, the 
 members of each belonged to the same clan, and 
 consequently were more or less related to each other. 
 Ages ago, the founder of the clan came and settled 
 there. His descendants have prospered and multi- 
 plied, and they have ramified into various family 
 branches, which in their turn have become numerous 
 and powerful. Questions that affected particular 
 individuals or families only were decided by them- 
 selves ; but those that touched the whole clan could 
 
KOAN-KHA U, 107 
 
 not thus be settled. Not only the heads of the tribes, 
 but also every individual member of them, with true 
 democratic freedom, felt themselves free to express 
 their opinion either in praise or in condemnation of 
 them. Now there was one particular phase of their 
 religious life in which the whole clan was deeply 
 affected, and that was their ancestral worship. A 
 large building was erected in some prominent place 
 in the village, where the tablets that were supposed 
 to contain the spirits of their forefathers were placed. 
 Annually, with great pomp and ceremony, the clan 
 assembled, and the leading men offered sacrifices to 
 these, and implored the dead from whom they were 
 descended to protect them, and to send them happi- 
 ness and prosperity. When a man became a Christian 
 he could, of course, take no part in such worship. 
 This was considered monstrous by his fellow clans- 
 men. What ! not worship the dead that had given 
 them birth, and had watched over them for genera- 
 tions, and had guided them through the perils of 
 ages, and had made them a strong people to-day. 
 There was no wrong that seemed to them so 
 heinous as this. One of the bitterest terms of re- 
 proach that is still constantly hurled against the 
 Christians is that they have renounced their fore- 
 fathers. This to a heathen Chinaman implies the 
 very depth of wickedness, and shows a depravity of 
 heart that even the vilest in the community would 
 indignantly repudiate. 
 
 The knowledge of Christianity has now spread so 
 widely in that region, and has made such a favourable 
 impression upon the people generally, that men do 
 not suffer as they used to do, when they avow their 
 
Jo8 CHI^IST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 determination to worship God. In those early days it 
 required a great deal of courage, and a good deal of 
 the spirit that led our martyrs to the stake to dare to 
 declare in the face of their clan that henceforward they 
 would no more take a part in the services that were 
 deemed essential to the well-being of the tribes. Was 
 it any wonder that there was the fiercest indignation 
 against them ? Their kinsmen had no knowledge of 
 God. They had a dim conception that Heaven in some 
 mysterious way protected men ; but this belief was too 
 vague a one, and besides, they had no authoritative 
 revelation on this subject, and so they got no comfort 
 from it. Their dead friends were a reality to them. 
 They were allied to them by the nearest of all ties — 
 that of blood. Who could love them as much as 
 they, and whose heart could be so moved towards them 
 as theirs .? The man who gave up this belief was 
 not simply a renegade : he was a traitor to his own 
 kin, and should be shown no mercy. His condition, 
 indeed, was sometimes a most unhappy one. He 
 was despised and hated by his neighbours, and I 
 have known of cases where the man's wife indignantly 
 refused to live with him. He was denied the ordi- 
 nary protection of the laws ; his crops were cut down 
 by night ; his potatoes were dug up by unknown 
 hands ; his cattle were stolen from him, and, if he 
 appealed to the elders of the village for redress, he 
 was scornfully dismissed with the reply that he had 
 forfeited all his rights by becoming a Christian. In 
 spite of all this, men under the impulse of the new 
 faith, and even gentle, timid women, whose hearts 
 had been melted by the story of the Cross, dared to 
 brave the anger of their relatives and of the clan. 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 109 
 
 The Gospel had not been long preached in Koan- 
 Khau before several persons professed their faith 
 in Christ. One of these was a young man that kept 
 a cake shop in one of the principal streets of the 
 town. He was naturally a thoughtful and earnest 
 man, and the exalted truths of Christianity had a 
 special attraction for him. The question of religion 
 was to him a most serious one, and now that he had 
 obtained what he believed to be the true one, he was 
 prepared to make any sacrifices that might be de- 
 manded of him for it. The time very speedily came 
 when he was to be tested. It is the custom in every 
 town to hold public services in honour of the idols in it, 
 at particular times of the year. Each district appoints 
 a head man, who arranges about the feast and the 
 theatrical performances, and who also collects from 
 the public the sums in which they have been assessed 
 to defray expenses. This man, with a number of his 
 followers, applied to the cake-maker for his amount. 
 He told them that he had become a Christian, and 
 could no longer pay as he had been accustomed to 
 do. They said they had no objection to his worship- 
 ping any God he pleased, so long as he conformed 
 to existing usages. He was positive in his refusal, 
 and they went away. Next day they returned and 
 proposed a scheme by which he might be relieved, 
 whilst at the same time they would not lose his sub- 
 scription. They suggested that he might increase his 
 rent by the amount due, and then the landlord could 
 settle with them. "They did not wish," they said, 
 " to quarrel with him, because hitherto they had been 
 good neighbours together. He was an honest, indus- 
 trious man, and they liked him, and were anxious 
 
no CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 to come to some arrangement that would prevent ill- 
 feeling." The Christian sturdily refused to agree to 
 this plan, as it would not be honest for him to do so, 
 seeing that he would still be paying for the support 
 of an idol that he disbelieved in. They again 
 reasoned with him, and appealed to him to give in, 
 on the ground that his case would afford a precedent 
 for others. The head man said : '* Suppose that you 
 are allowed exemption : of course other persons in 
 the street may claim the same. And supposing that 
 the whole street should decide to follow your example, 
 then how would the temple service be kept up, and 
 who would pay for the feasts in honour of the idol ? 
 The whole thing would then collapse." 
 
 The man replied with a smile that this was what 
 he hoped and longed for. "The idols," he said, "were 
 the work of men's hands, and they had been the 
 source of infinite sorrow and mischief to the Chinese. 
 The sooner they were abolished from the country the 
 better it would be for the nation." The head man 
 was struck with the boldness of this Christian in the 
 way he spoke about their gods. He seemed to have 
 no dread of their vengeance, and no fear that they 
 would afflict him in his person, or ruin him in his 
 business. They were amazed, but in no way con- 
 vinced, so they calmly told him that he must either 
 pay or be prepared for such treatment as he would 
 find would make it impossible for him to do business 
 in that town. Before long he found that this was not 
 an idle threat. During the next few months, he was 
 so harassed by those in authority, and deserted by 
 his customers, that he had to shut up his shop, and 
 remove to Amoy. 
 
KOAN-KHAU, in 
 
 Amongst the very first believers, was a man who 
 was destined to hold a prominent place in the church 
 afterwards, and to be the means of the conversion of 
 a large number of his countrymen. Humanly speak- 
 ing he was about the very last man that one would 
 have dreamt of accepting the truth. Let us describe 
 him. He was a tall, slim man, with a bright piercing 
 eye, and he had a restless, uneasy look about his face, 
 as though he had something on his mind, and was 
 constantly perplexed with the thought as to how he 
 could get rid of it. He was a highly excitable and 
 nervous fellow, and could not sit quietly for two 
 minutes at a time. His hands or his legs were con- 
 stantly in motion, and on the slightest provocation 
 he would get heated and talk with tremendous energy. 
 Although his face did not betoken any very great 
 strength of character, there was sufificient in the 
 strong lines about his mouth to indicate that he 
 could be very determined if he liked. Just a short 
 time before I met him, he had been one of the very 
 worst characters in his village. He had been a 
 gambler, and a constant companion of men of the 
 lowest description, such as are usually found in the 
 gambling dens in China. He was, moreover, a 
 thief, for his losses at the gambling table had to be 
 made up in some way or other, and the easiest 
 method was by joining a band that used to prowl 
 about at night, and rob and plunder in the villages 
 far and near. It is an extraordinary fact that in spite 
 of the degraded and vicious character of this man, 
 he held a most important sacred office in his village. 
 He was an idol medium. As the idol cannot reveal 
 its own will, or give replies to the worshippers, some 
 
112 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 one is selected to fulfil these duties. The person who 
 is supposed to be a suitable one is taken to the tem- 
 ple, where certain noisy ceremonies are gone through, 
 whereupon the spirit of the god enters the man, 
 and he is then competent to speak authoritatively in 
 the name of the idol. This service is conducted at 
 night time. The party gathers at the main entrance 
 of the temple, where two or three small oil lamps 
 serve but to reveal the darkness. The grim idol can 
 be dimly seen sitting in its shrine, with its attendant 
 figures by its side. The group of men that are 
 chanting in a steady, monotonous voice the charms 
 that are supposed to bring the spirit, are usually men 
 of no reputation in the village. There is no scholar 
 in his long robe present, and no man of influence 
 stands by to do honour to the idol. The men look 
 fit for scenes of darkness, and remind one of Macbeth's 
 witches making their incantations round their caul- 
 dron. On they go for hours in the darkness. The 
 voices at times grow louder and more excited, and 
 the beat on the drum more vigorous. All at once 
 the medium, who has begun to sway his body from 
 side to side as if to invite supernatural influences, 
 begins to be violently affected. He dances and leaps 
 in the air ; the beat of the drum becomes more rapid, 
 and the voices of the men louder and shriller. The 
 wildest confusion reigns. It seems as though some 
 horrid scene from the infernal regions were being 
 enacted on earth, and the devils had been let loose 
 for a time to carry on their orgies amongst men. 
 Finally the medium drops down on the ground terribly 
 exhausted, and quivering with excitement. He is 
 now supposed to be qualified to interpret the mind of 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 113 
 
 the god, and to stand between it and its worshippers. 
 It has always been an extraordinary thing to me 
 that the Chinese, who are an exceedingly shrewd and 
 intelligent people, should be content with a system 
 that allows such men to occupy the high position of 
 being at times inspired by their gods, whilst they 
 know that their moral character is exceedingly bad. 
 The man I have above described was a most daring 
 medium, and was not at all restrained by any fear of 
 the idol from giving forth opinions that were never 
 dictated to him by it. He pretended to be inspired 
 by it, but as he has since told me, he was influenced 
 only by his own passions. If his statements or promises 
 were not fulfilled, no blame was attached either to him 
 or to the idol. Any failure was always put down to 
 the want of sincerity on the part of the worshipper, 
 for want of sincerity was always understood to vitiate 
 any request that might be offered to the idol. Pass- 
 ing the church one day, he was so influenced by the 
 truth, that in process of time he gave up his position 
 as a medium, and became an honest and virtuous 
 member of the community. He at once gave up his 
 gambling and his midnight adventures, as well as the 
 company of his loose companions, and began to culti- 
 vate the few small fields that his father had left him. 
 After a time, being conspicuous for his earnestness, 
 and the zeal with which he preached the Gospel to 
 his countrymen, he was taken into our training insti- 
 tution, and for many years he has been an energetic 
 and successful preacher of the Gospel. 
 
 As the church began to grow in numbers, it was 
 deemed advisable to commence work in some of 
 the large villages and market towns in the district. 
 
 u 
 
114 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 These had been for years visited by all kinds of mission 
 agencies. Missionaries had itinerated from village to 
 village; native preachers had expounded Christianity, 
 and shown from their own experience the blessings 
 it brings to men, and Bible colporteurs had sold the 
 word of God in every village and hamlet, and had 
 explained the wonderful revelation it contained of 
 God's love for the world. Besides all these, the 
 Christians in their own homes, and amongst their 
 neighbours, had by a purer life, and by the explanation 
 of the cause of the marvellous transformation that 
 had often taken place in themselves, been doing a 
 work that was in some respects even more effective 
 than that of any of the above. This necessary, pre- 
 liminary work was often very trying and fatiguing. 
 The great sun was burning overhead, and everything 
 one touched was hot. The effort to keep oneself cool 
 seemed enough to absorb all one's energies. As we 
 entered a village the people would throng around us 
 with looks full of curiosity. They were not as responsive 
 as we, with our strong faith, expected they ought to be. 
 Some were indifferent, others were hostile, whilst some 
 again were simply puzzled with the novelty of men 
 going about as we were to preach such strange doctrines. 
 As we began to speak every voice was hushed, and 
 every face was turned to us ; but there was a lack of 
 intelligent understanding of what we said that op- 
 pressed us. The simplest truths were explained as 
 though we were talking to children, but they could 
 not grasp them. The vis inertics of heathenism is a 
 force that paralyzes the spiritual faculties, and renders 
 men incapable at first of comprehending spiritual 
 truths. It is a factor, however, with which we have 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 115 
 
 to deal every time we come in contact with a 
 heathen audience. As we proceeded with the exposi- 
 tion of the very elements of religion we saw a gradual 
 change come over the faces before us. A look of 
 intelligence flashed over them. We took our illustra- 
 tions from nature around us. The mountains, bathed 
 in the light of the great Eastern sun; the banyan tree, 
 under which we stood, whose leaves were silvered with 
 the rays that came flashing down upon them, and that 
 poured in streams through the boughs and branches 
 upon the faces of the crowd ; and the green crops of 
 rice that raised their heads to the sun and drank in the 
 light that was to turn them into golden harvests that 
 would fill the homes of our listeners with gladness — 
 these they could understand. Through them their 
 thoughts were taken up to the great Father, the 
 Creator of them all, and now they became absorbed 
 as they listened. We spoke again of a Saviour that 
 had come to redeem men from sin, and to comfort 
 them in the sorrows and miseries of life. A still 
 brighter flash lighted up their faces. We felt a cur- 
 rent of sympathy flow between them and us. We 
 forgot the day was hot. Our fan was poised motion- 
 less in our hand, as we caught the signs of the in- 
 creasing interest. We were all unconscious that the 
 perspiration was streaming down us. We had 
 touched them with the Divine message, and we had 
 the ecstacy of feeling that the hearts around us were 
 as human as our own, and could be reached by the 
 same Gospel that had filled ours with hope and glad- 
 ness. By and by we left them with friendly greetings, 
 and with urgent requests that we should come and 
 visit them again before long. 
 
ii6 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 And thus the work went on for years. Sometimes 
 amidst clouds, and sometimes amidst sunshine, but 
 always with an unfaltering faith in the Gospel, we 
 taught men about God. The knowledge of Him had 
 died out, and in His place was left the grim, repulsive 
 idol, the only representative of the great loving 
 Father. Men, it is true, talked of Heaven, but that 
 embodied no person, and within it there was no great 
 heart that throbbed in sympathy with men. To get 
 men to understand that there is a God is apparently 
 a very easy matter, and yet it is an exceedingly diffi- 
 cult one, and one that absorbs the energies of the 
 missionary in the early stages of every new work. 
 Some men seem instinctively and at once to grasp 
 the idea, but the masses do not. The conception of 
 a personal God is a tremendous revelation to a pure 
 heathen, and it is long before the picture becomes a 
 living one that influences and comforts his life. The 
 places selected for the new work were generally like 
 Koan-Khau. They were either market towns, or 
 large villages, and were in a smaller degree centres 
 that attracted to them the surrounding population. 
 Our great aim was to economize our strength. By 
 occupying such places we could reach large numbers 
 without the necessity of ourselves visiting every vil- 
 lage and hamlet in the district. In this way our 
 influence was far-reaching, and in course of time men 
 and women, who recognised in the Gospel a Divine 
 message to themselves, gathered round us, and small 
 churches were founded that have grown in prosperity, 
 and that are to-day self-supporting. Besides the 
 original church in Koan-Khau, there are now five 
 others scattered throughout this district, that for 
 
A LADY AT HER TOILETTE. 
 1*7 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 119 
 
 many years have paid their own pastors and 
 preachers, and that carry on their own church work as 
 intelHgently as any of the old estabhshed churches in 
 England. We believe that the Chinese should sup- 
 port the Christian religion. They support idolatry, 
 and that very liberally. We always make it a special 
 point that every mission church shall become self- 
 supporting at the earliest period possible. The 
 Chinese are to be the evangelizers of China. In 
 educating these native churches to become inde- 
 pendent of foreign aid, we are really training them for 
 the mighty work that lies before them in the future. 
 
 It was most interesting to watch the elective pro- 
 cess by which the Gospel selected out of the crowds 
 that listened in the market places and the churches, 
 not simply those whose hearts were in deepest 
 sympathy with it, but also those who were to become 
 distinguished preachers of it The history of one of 
 these is an exceedingly beautiful one, and as it is 
 illustrative of this very process, I shall proceed to give 
 it. The person I refer to was a Chinese scholar of the 
 name of Tay. He was originally of a good family, 
 but he had for many years been a most inveterate 
 smoker of opium, and consequently had squandered 
 away his fortune, till now he was a very poor man. 
 At the time my story opens, he was a teacher in 
 the family of a wealthy merchant, near one of our 
 churches, who was as great a smoker as himself. 
 Having heard that the foreigners were preaching cer- 
 tain new doctrines, they determined to go and hear 
 for themselves what they were. On their arrival at 
 the church, the wealthy man stopped at the door. 
 He would not compromise himself further than that. 
 
I20 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 The scholar advanced boldly into the middle of the 
 room where the Christians were holding their service, 
 and stood looking at the preacher. How little did he 
 then dream that he had come to a great crisis in his 
 life, and that the kingdom of heaven had come nigh 
 to him. Let us look at him for a moment as he 
 stands there. He is a man of medium height, slouchy 
 and disreputable looking, as a consequence of his 
 opium habit. His face has that pallid, death-like 
 look that opium after a time invariably stamps upon 
 it. It is naturally a serious one, and one would never 
 dream that mirth could ever lighten it up ; but when 
 a smile does come, it flashes through it like the early 
 sun upon the landscape that has just emerged out of 
 night. The more the face is studied the more irre- 
 sistibly are we drawn towards it. The mouth is 
 somewhat stern, showing strong will, but the back- 
 ground is a kindly one, and we can see there sym- 
 pathy, and tenderness, and a heart that could be 
 moved to noble deeds were he delivered from his vice. 
 One thing is certain, he is a scholar. His pallid face, 
 and his shabby looking clothes, and the dissipated 
 air that envelopes him cannot take away the refined, 
 scholastic look that marks the literary man. 
 
 The preacher stops for a moment and politely re- 
 quests him to be seated. He at once takes his seat 
 on the nearest bench, much to the disgust of the mer- 
 chant, who presently returns home, inveighing as he 
 goes against the stupidity of Tay for thus identify- 
 ing himself with these Christians. At the conclusion 
 of the service, the preacher got into conversation with 
 him, and expressed his pleasure at seeing him, and 
 hoped he would come again. He assured him that the 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 121 
 
 sole object they had in view in assembh'ng together 
 was to worship the true God, the same that their 
 fathers in ancient times revered. " Of course," he 
 continued, ** as a scholar, you are aware that long be- 
 fore the time of Confucius our forefathers worshipped 
 God. The idols of to-day are never once mentioned 
 in the Confucian classics. God is continually spoken 
 of. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, 
 and of all things ; but I will give you a book in which 
 you can read of His great power." He then handed 
 him the Old Testament, and asked him to read the 
 first chapter in it. The scholar sat down and began 
 to read to himself. He had not read many lines 
 before a look of astonishment came over his face. 
 Turning to the preacher, he asked him who had 
 written these words. It was explained that they were 
 Divinely inspired, and had been given to man by God 
 to describe how the world had been created. The 
 scholar listened with profound attention, and then 
 proceeded with his reading. It was evident when he 
 had finished the chapter that he was most seriously 
 impressed. *' I was delighted," he afterwards told 
 me, "with the story of creation. In all my reading 
 in Chinese I had never met with anything that could 
 equal it. There was a dignity and a grandeur about 
 the description that captivated me. I felt it was 
 worthy of the subject." Unconsciously to himself, 
 he had with the reading of that Divine story taken his 
 first step towards God. He was easily persuaded to 
 remain and take dinner with the Christians and stay 
 for the afternoon service. Excepting during the time 
 of public worship the day was spent in conversing 
 about Christianity, and it was late in the evening 
 
122 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 when he reached the house of his employer. There he 
 was received with jokes and sneers, which, however, 
 soon ended when the serious business of the even- 
 ing, viz., opium smoking, began. The whole of next 
 Sunday was spent with the Christians. To his great 
 delight he now heard more fully of Christ the Re- 
 deemer. He learnt that He had come to save men 
 from their sins, and for this purpose had died to de- 
 liver men. He expressed a wish to become His 
 disciple. He was told that he could be one, but he 
 must be prepared to give up his opium. This he 
 readily agreed to, and made the instant determination 
 to do so at once. He was advised not to do this, but 
 to give it up gradually. He was told of the danger 
 there was to his life, after smoking for so many years, 
 and that to renounce the habit by degrees was the 
 safer course. He refused to listen to this advice. 
 He said: " I wish to become a disciple of Jesus; opium 
 smoking is inconsistent with such a profession, there- 
 fore I'll never smoke again as long as I live." The 
 strength of the man's character may be inferred from 
 this determination. He knew that he would have to 
 suffer terribly, but he was willing. 
 
 When he returned home in the evening, his employer 
 told him to come away and take his opium. " Every- 
 thing is ready for us," he said. The scholar said : ** I 
 have become a Christian, and I am never going to 
 smoke again." The merchant looked incredulously 
 at him, and smiling grimly, said: "You'll change your 
 mind before midnight, and when you do, the opium 
 is there ready for you." Midnight saw him suffering. 
 The opium craving was upon him. Every bone in 
 his body ached, an intolerable lassitude that made 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 123 
 
 life a burden crept over him. Sleep fled from his 
 eyes as completely as though they had never been 
 made to come under its influence. Thoughts ran in 
 quick succession through his brain, as though chased 
 by some demon. A spirit of restlessness came over 
 him, which he could not control. It seemed as though 
 the outside world had lost its power over him, and he 
 was absorbed in a fierce conflict with the forces that 
 made up his own individuality. Relief for all this 
 was close at hand if he chose. In the next room the 
 tray was spread with all the requirements of the 
 opium smoker. A few whiffs of the pipe and the 
 man would be himself again. The fevered brain 
 would rest, the pains and aches that tortured him 
 would cease, and by and by sweet sleep would close 
 his eyes in happy forgetfulness of his sorrows. But 
 not a single step does he take towards the room. 
 The pipe and he have bidden good-bye for ever. 
 There is a new force in his life, even Christ, that holds 
 him true to his purpose. He believes that He can 
 save him, and though it be through fire and suffering 
 he will trust in Him to deliver him. And so the long 
 weary night drags on. The pains increase, the 
 thoughts troop more wildly through his brain, his 
 eyes seem to be on fire, but still no step does he take 
 in the direction of the next room. The same power 
 that kindled the puritan spirit in Englishmen in days 
 gone by was touching this Chinese scholar, and bring- 
 ing him into the same line with men whose lives 
 have stamped themselves upon history. 
 
 Days go on that seem endless, and nights more 
 dreary still that seem eternal, and yet there is no re- 
 lief. He can do no work ; he can settle down to 
 
i24 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 nothing, and as for sleep, ah ! that will never come 
 to him again. If he could but get this glare out of 
 his eyes, he thinks he would feel relieved ; but though 
 It is midnight and darkness is everywhere, they feel 
 as though the mid-day sun was shining straight upon 
 them. Five or six days pass in this awful struggle, 
 and then the fierce tortures begin to abate. He can 
 sleep at last, and forget himself for a brief season. 
 Each day increases his comfort, until he is finally free, 
 and he now feels he can begin life again with a 
 grander, nobler purpose, than ever he has felt before. 
 
 He loses his position as teacher, but he is at once 
 engaged to take charge of one of our Christian 
 schools. After a time he becomes a preacher, and 
 finally he is elected by one of our most influential 
 churches to become its pastor. Many years have 
 elapsed since he passed through this fiery ordeal, but 
 the impressions that it left upon his mind are still 
 strong and vivid. I said to him some time ago, after 
 we had been talking together of those days of trial : 
 " Since you gave up opium, have you ever had the 
 least inclination to go back to it again } " He looked 
 at me steadily for some time, without replying to me, 
 and then a pleasant smile lit up his face, as he said 
 very earnestly, " Never " ; and then a shadow chased 
 away the smile, and he became absorbed in thought. 
 I knew he was going over the tragic scenes in his life, 
 and I sat silently by, whilst I thanked God that He 
 had given such a noble man to the Church. 
 
 Twenty-eight years have elapsed since the first 
 building was rented in Koan-Khau. Many workers 
 have had the happiness of sharing in the building of 
 the churches in this region. Many a pain and sorrow 
 
KOAN-KHAU. 125 
 
 have they had in their conflict with the forces of 
 heathenism, but their joys have infinitely outnumbered 
 the griefs they have had to endure. To-day the 
 market town is still as crowded as ever, and farmers 
 throng in from the region around, and the great 
 mountains look down upon it ; but a change has come 
 over the place since the first missionaries preached in 
 its streets. A thriving church now meets there in a 
 large commodious building, whilst scattered over the 
 plain four others stand out as prominent objects from 
 the idol temples, as places where Christian congrega- 
 tions meet on the Sabbath to worship God. 
 
 In addition to these, across the plain and over an 
 arm of the sea, but still in the same county of Tong- 
 an, or Eastern Peace, is the church of Tung-a-be, with 
 its ten mission stations. Five years passed away after 
 the renting of the building in Koan-Khau before 
 serious work began here. At first there seemed in- 
 superable difficulties in the way of the spread of the 
 Gospel. The people were fierce and turbulent. Great 
 clans, that were constantly fighting with each other, 
 held this region, and defied all law. Travellers had 
 to go in companies, and even then had to pay black- 
 mail to avoid being robbed. Pirate boats swarmed 
 from the numerous bays and inlets, and went far afield 
 to plunder, for the fame of these men of Eastern Peace 
 had gone before them, and few cared to fight with 
 them. To-day Tung-a-be is the largest and most 
 active of all the churches in our Mission. Most en- 
 thusiastic and laborious are the members in preach- 
 ing the Gospel to the heathen, as its numerous branch 
 churches can attest. The Gospel has indeed proved 
 to be " the power of God unto salvation " to many a 
 
126 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 soul in this region, and our faith looks forward to a 
 time in the near distance when our churches shall 
 be largely increased throughout the whole country 
 round. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN ; OR, GRACIOUS PEACE. 
 
 The story I have to tell in this chapter opens in the 
 year 1866, in an out-of-the-way village, in the county 
 of Hui-an, or Gracious Peace. The situation of this 
 village is a most picturesque and beautiful one. Just 
 outside of it, Toa-bu, or the " Great Mother " rises 
 abruptly from the plain, and towers up amidst the 
 peaks and mountain-tops that range themselves around 
 it, a conspicuous mark to a large part of the county. 
 In front of it there flows a stream that comes out of 
 the heart of the mountain, its waters pure and spark- 
 ling, and as yet undefiled by their touch with the 
 outer world. It never dries up, for its fountains re- 
 pose deep in the bosom of those everlasting hills ; and 
 no summer's drought, nor fiery-faced sun can pene- 
 trate to where they lie. Its music, too, never dies out, 
 for jutting rocks, and stones worn smooth, and curves 
 and winding passages, and miniature falls make it 
 sing an endless song. 
 
 In this village there lived a farmer and his wife, with 
 their four sons. Their house was a large, capacious 
 one, and evidently had been built in the days when 
 the farmer's ancestors were in a prosperous condition. 
 Times had changed, however, and grim, gaunt poverty 
 stalked about the home. This was not owing to the 
 bad management of the wife. She was a woman 
 
 127 
 
128 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 with much force of character. She had shrewd 
 common sense, and it was due to her superior wisdom, 
 and to her heroic endurance, that the family was able 
 to keep up an appearance, that was not sustained by 
 any resources they had at their command. The 
 miserable condition of the home was entirely the 
 result of the misconduct of the husband. He was a 
 wretched little creature, and entirely wanting in those 
 moral qualities that enable a man to perform the 
 duties of life with even a minimum amount of success. 
 His want of moral stamina was seen in the vices into 
 which he had fallen. He was an opium smoker, 
 and in addition to that, a confirmed gambler. He 
 was a constant visitor to the neighbouring market- 
 town, where the gambling houses and the opium dens 
 drew to themselves the dissipated and the abandoned 
 from all the villages round about. This life soon told 
 upon his home. The farm was neglected. One after 
 another of his ancestral fields was sold to pay his 
 gambling debts, and to provide him with opium. The 
 crops in front of the house still waved beautiful and 
 green, watered by the mountain stream, but they 
 brought no sense of relief to the suffering wife and 
 her hungry children, for they belonged to another ; 
 and when the time of harvest came, they would not 
 be gathered into their empty barns. Things went on 
 from bad to worse, till it became a serious question 
 whether it would not be necessary to sell some of the 
 children to provide the rest with food. The mother 
 resisted this. She knew that in the end this would 
 result in the entire breaking up and dispersion of the 
 family. The children would be sold one by one, and 
 then she would follow, and finally the ancestral home 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 129 
 
 would pass into other hands. The gambling-houses 
 and the opium dens have no conscience, and no re- 
 morse ; they are omnivorous in their appetite. They 
 care not for family ties, or mother's tears, or whether 
 hearts are broken or not. They are reckless of human 
 sorrow. 
 
 Just at this crisis, when the hour seemed the very 
 darkest, and starvation had come up to the very doors, 
 it was agreed that the husband should travel south 
 to Amoy, and see whether he could not find employ- 
 ment there, and somehow or other retrieve his for- 
 tunes. Imagine the gambler and the opium smoker, 
 ruined and beggared, starting to make his fortune, 
 with two vices dogging his steps, that would spoil any 
 human fortune that might come to him. Before he 
 begins his journey, let us stop for a moment to con- 
 sider this family. I presume that if we were to travel 
 through the whole county, and examine every family 
 in it, there would be very few in it that would give 
 less promise of becoming a spiritual power to this 
 region than it. The husband was a reckless gambler, 
 that would sit night after night amongst desperate 
 characters, and madly risk the money that would have 
 fed his children. The mother was sad and worn with 
 anxiety, and the little ones pale and hungry. What 
 moral power could ever come from this home } We 
 should answer, none. And yet God had decided that 
 Christianity was to be given to this county by it, and 
 that the first message that was to result in the build- 
 ing of churches, and the gathering in of men and 
 women, who were to make a noble profession of faith 
 in Him, was to be uttered by the lips of this degraded 
 opium smoker. 
 
 I 
 
I30 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 The man started for Amoy. He smoked his opium 
 before he set out, though his family was almost starv- 
 ing around him, for he could take no journey till he 
 had done that. He left sorrowful hearts behind him, 
 for his wife was too sensible not to know that, with 
 his habits, failure was a certainty. On arriving at 
 Amoy, he could get no employment. He was a little, 
 insignificant-looking man, with the brand of opium 
 stamped upon his face, and so men were shy of en- 
 gaging him to do work for them. He consequently 
 before long drifted to a small market town, named 
 " Sea Village," where some people from his own dis- 
 trict lived. He hoped through them to be introduced 
 to some method by which he could gain his living ; 
 but he wished especially to borrow some money from 
 them, for the terrible opium craving that came upon 
 him daily was a demon that tortured him with infinite 
 pain, and his resources were nearly all exhausted. 
 Fortunately, there was a small church in this village, 
 and having nothing to do, he one day sauntered in. 
 Let us pause here to mark the wonderful way in which 
 God has thus far been leading him. Step by step he 
 has travelled from his far-off home in the north, till 
 he has reached this out-of-the-way village, and now 
 he has come to the very house where he is to learn 
 how his fortunes are to be retrieved, and his home to 
 be made glad with prosperity, and how the fields that 
 are green with luxuriant rice shall come back again to 
 him, and how the ancestral home need never be sold 
 to strangers, whilst he is alive at least. The possi- 
 bility of all this lies within his very grasp, as he enters 
 the church, not far from the water-side. 
 
 The Gospel seemed to have an especial attraction 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN, 131 
 
 for this man, and he listened to it with perfect deh'ght. 
 Never before had he heard truths that touched his 
 heart, as those, that the preacher expounded, did. 
 Before long he became a true convert to Christianity, 
 and as a proof of this, he began the painful process of 
 curing himself of opium. What that means, only an 
 opium smoker can tell. After severe suffering he 
 found himself free, and then, for the first time in his 
 life, he was a real man. The Gospel had given him 
 the nerve to do what the entreaties of his wife, and 
 the wan and haggard faces of his children, and the 
 dread of ruin had been unable to effect. In the 
 course of time he was baptized, and then there came 
 to him that profound spiritual experience that every 
 truly converted man or woman invariably passes 
 through. He had a great longing to preach this 
 Gospel, that had saved him, to his fellow-men. He 
 came to Mr. Stronach, and told him of his anxiety to 
 return home to let his wife and children see the 
 change that had been wrought in him. His chief 
 desire, however, was to tell them of Christ, the 
 Saviour of the world, and to let the people of his 
 own village, and the men of Gracious Peace, hear the 
 good news that had gladdened his own heart. Mr. 
 Stronach listened with delight, and at once gave him 
 authority to arrange for renting a house in his village, 
 where Christian services could be held, and promised 
 to come and preach himself as soon as it would be 
 wise for kim to do so. 
 
 He starts out for his home, a man over whom a 
 marvellous change has passed. He is not a hero, for 
 he is lacking in those moral qualities that constitute 
 such ; and, moreover, the scars of his old vices are 
 
132 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 still visible in him. He is a man, however, that God 
 has chosen to do such a work as many a greater man 
 might have gone down on his knees and besought 
 God to let him have the honour of doing. He travels 
 along the same great road by which he came, but he 
 is no longer oppressed by a vice that was eating out 
 his very life. He mingles amongst the crowds that 
 travel with him, but the low passions that filled his 
 soul have fled, and he talks to them of a Gospel that 
 has delivered him, and can equally save all other 
 men. He is a fearless preacher. He has a pleasant 
 smile, and a ready knack of avoiding unpleasant ways 
 of presenting the truth, that makes even those that 
 disagree with him willing to listen to him. He has 
 an inimitable manner of assuming, as a matter of 
 course, that what he preaches is the truth, which half 
 overcomes an opponent. There is no hesitating, and 
 no eagerness to defend his position, as though he 
 thought it were assailable. He will take any amount 
 of pains in explaining it ; but defend it, never, for it is 
 the eternal truth of God, and needs no defence. As 
 well try and justify the sun when it is filling the land- 
 scape with beauty, or the crops that have just turned 
 into a golden colour, and give the promise of plenty 
 to those whose lives depend upon them. 
 
 The preaching of the Gospel in the little village, 
 under the shadow of the great mountain, produced 
 great excitement far and wide throughout the county. 
 Men came from every direction to find out w^at these 
 new doctrines that were being preached meant ; the 
 result being, that the Sunday services were attended 
 by some that were destined in the future to become 
 preachers themselves, and founders of Christian work 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 133 
 
 in their own villages. Ere long this new religion was 
 widely talked about, in market towns, where men 
 gathered to buy and sell, and in villages on the 
 mountain side men discussed it. They were all un- 
 conscious, during these discussions, that new forces 
 had already entered their county that were to set 
 men thinking; and instead of the eternal monotony of 
 the common-place thought supplied by idolatry, their 
 minds were to be exercised by ideas which in time 
 would completely change the character of society. 
 The congregation increased in size, and, singular to 
 say, the serious part of it was mainly composed of 
 people from other parts. In the course of a year, Mr. 
 Stronach visited the place, and, after a careful exami- 
 nation of the candidates for baptism, selected twenty, 
 whom he baptized, and who thus constituted the first 
 Christian Church in the county of Gracious Peace. 
 This took place on the seventeenth of March, 1867, 
 a memorable day in the history of the church. The 
 success thus far was remarkable. A year ago the 
 very name of Christianity was unknown; and this out- 
 of-the-way village, sunk in idolatry, gave no promise 
 that the message of life would first be given to the 
 county by it, and that, too, by the mouth of one of its 
 most depraved citizens. After the lapse of so short 
 a period, about forty persons regularly met for the 
 worship of God, twenty of whom were members of 
 the new church. 
 
 It must not be supposed that all this was accom- 
 plished without opposition. Just in proportion to the 
 hold that Christianity took upon the people, was 
 the active hatred of the more bigoted of the heathen 
 aroused. This, in the very nature of things, must 
 
134 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 always be the case. An eternal antagonism, as was 
 predicted by Christ, must ever exist between it and 
 the world. A Christian, by his very faith, is pre- 
 vented from taking a neutral position ; in fact, he has 
 to assume an offensive one. This was the case with 
 these early converts. The idols had at once to be 
 renounced, and either broken up or burned. The 
 ancestral tablets, around which gathered so many 
 hallowed associations, and which were the visible ties 
 that bound them to their departed fathers and 
 mothers, had to be destroyed, or buried on the hill- 
 side, where none else should know the secret, for 
 around them centred the most profound worship that 
 the Chinese offer to anything. Many local customs 
 and feasts, inextricably bound up with their social 
 life, had to be given up. All this excited the hatred 
 of their relatives, or the more ardent of the idolaters, 
 who were jealous of the honour of their gods, for they 
 were wise enough to perceive that there was a power 
 in this religion, were it allowed to spread, that would 
 completely overthrow the old faiths that had come 
 down to them from their fathers. The most potent 
 enemies of the Gospel, however, are usually the 
 scholars in the villages, because of the influence they 
 wield over the uneducated. They cannot tolerate 
 any teaching except that of Confucius, and so they 
 rouse the passions of their followers by their contemp- 
 tuous pictures of the foreigner, and their appeal to 
 their patriotism to maintain the honour of the famous 
 men who for so many ages have been the teachers of 
 China. Fortunately, the influence of the scholars in 
 this village under the great mountain was neutralized 
 by some of the leading men in it becoming Christians. 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUl-AN. , 135 
 
 One of the head men, aged seventy-five, was one of 
 the most earnest of the band that was baptized. 
 There was, unquestionably, a special providence in 
 the selection, not only of the man who was to com- 
 mence the work, but also of the place. Hidden away, 
 almost under the shadow of the " Great Mother," and 
 far removed from the great centres where the opposi- 
 tion might have been fierce, it was just the locality 
 for the Gospel to get a quiet footing, from whence it 
 could ultimately spread to every part of the county. 
 
 The preaching of the Gospel was, in the mean time, 
 vigorously carried on in the surrounding villages, and 
 excursions were made to the more distant ones, where 
 some of the Christians resided. In this way the truth 
 spread, and converts were gradually added to the 
 church. In course of time the church was moved 
 from the village to a small market town, on the great 
 road, about a mile away, named lah-poa. The popu- 
 lation was larger, and the numbers that daily passed 
 by the doors of the new building were very great. 
 For a long time after the removal, the church was in 
 a very unsatisfactory condition. It seemed to make 
 no impression on the place, for the members became 
 listless, and wanting in that enthusiasm without 
 which Christianity fails to be a power over the 
 heathen. 
 
 During the last two or three years, a remarkable 
 change has come over the church, due almost entirely 
 to the influence of two men who used to have about 
 the worst reputation of anybody in all the neighbour- 
 hood. One of these I shall describe, as I saw him on 
 my first visit after he had been converted. He was a 
 little humpbacked man, of insignificant appearance, 
 
136 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 but with a shrewd, common-sense looking face. It 
 was worn, and somewhat haggard, as though he had 
 passed through a deal of suffering ; but there was a 
 quiet look of satisfaction in it, indicating a happy- 
 state of mind. He was a citizen of lah-poa, and had 
 for years kept a gambling-house in it. It was the 
 resort of all the gamblers for miles round, and it had 
 witnessed many a scene of wickedness and dissipation. 
 A few months previously he had gone out of his 
 mind, and had wandered wildly about the country. 
 The temples seemed to have a special attraction for 
 him, but he got no relief from any of them. His rela- 
 tives made many vows to the idols, and presented offer- 
 ing after offering to them, but all in vain. One day 
 he happened to go into the church, when the preacher 
 spoke to him of Jesus, and His power to cast out evil 
 spirits. The story he heard soothed him. He gra- 
 dually quieted down. He came again and again, and 
 in a few days his reason came back to him. His 
 marvellous recovery made a great impression upon 
 the villagers, some of whom became regular atten- 
 dants at the services. His own heart was filled with 
 intense gratitude to God, and he seemed to take a 
 great delight in telling others of the wonderful cure 
 He had effected for him. I watched the play of his 
 features as he told it. His face darkened as he spoke 
 of his former life, and his gambling experiences ; then 
 a look full of sadness succeeded, as he described his 
 mental sufferings, and his hopeless despair ; and then 
 his face was suffused with a smile of happiness, as he 
 spoke of the return of his reason, and the deliverance 
 that Christ had given him from his old life of sin. 
 As I looked at the scene before me, I could hardly 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 137 
 
 believe that it was a real one. A group was gathered 
 round the man, absorbed in the story he was telling, 
 whilst his son, a tall, strapping young fellow stood 
 by, bending tenderly and lovingly over his father. 
 Is this man who speaks so pathetically, and so 
 devotedly, the quondam gambler, that has been 
 the cause of the ruin of so many .-* How soon he 
 has forgotten the language of the gaming-table, and 
 learnt that of the Christian. The story he tells can- 
 not be true. It must be one of those tales that the 
 story-tellers rehearse with such dramatic power and 
 vividness in the hearing of the street crowds, but 
 which lie within the region of romance, and are an 
 impossibility in actual life. It is no fiction, thank 
 God. The figures before me are all real. The men 
 that stand listening have come out of heathenism, 
 and some of them could tell a story almost as strange 
 as his own. The man himself, not long ago, was a 
 wild maniac, a terror to his friends, and a misery to 
 himself. His madness is gone, and so, too, have the 
 dice and the cards, and the gathering of bad men, and 
 the scenes of dissipation. See him as he talks ! what 
 a power he exerts over men that a few months before 
 would have shrunk with perfect horror from him. As 
 he goes over the tragedy of his life he touches every 
 heart with pity, and then again faces are lighted up, 
 and eyes glisten as he speaks of the sunshine that 
 has come into his life since he has experienced the 
 comfort of Christ's love. One of the greatest en- 
 couragements in missionary work is the belief that 
 the heroic element lies not very far from the surface 
 in every human being, and needs but the touch of a 
 Divine hand to turn the life into poetry and romance. 
 
138 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 Were it not for this, we should often turn in hopeless 
 despair from many that we meet in heathen life ; 
 whereas in looking over the history of the churches 
 in the Amoy district, I can think of some of the most 
 flourishing of them to-day, that were founded by men 
 whose lives had been notoriously bad and vicious. 
 
 The other man, whose story is connected with the 
 spiritual growth of this church, was a very different 
 character from the one I have been describing. He 
 was possessed of considerable force of intellect, and 
 had abilities that gave him great influence over his 
 fellow-men. Some three or four years ago, I was 
 travelling amongst the mountains, and coming to the 
 foot of them, I passed through the hamlet where he 
 lived. At that time he was well known throughout 
 the district as a man thoroughly destitute of prin- 
 ciple, and one who for many years had lived by his 
 wits. For thirty-four years he had been an opium 
 smoker, and during that time had dissipated his 
 father s property, till but little of the old man's in- 
 heritance was left. He had a great dislike to Chris- 
 tianity, and he used to mock and jeer at the Christians, 
 and write lampoons about them, and paste them on 
 the door-posts of his house for the amusement of the 
 passers-by. Catching sight of me as I passed by his 
 door, his indignation was aroused. " What does this 
 barbarian mean," he said to himself, " by coming 
 into this region, and disseminating his corrupt and 
 pernicious doctrines 1 The only reason is because 
 he has not yet met with any one that has the ability 
 to meet and overcome him in argument. He has 
 had to deal with farmers and labouring men, and 
 artisans whose minds have never been trained to the 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 159 
 
 discussion of profound questions. Now I feel that I 
 am a better man than he is, so I shall follow him 
 and overthrow him in argument, and make him so 
 ashamed that he will never dare to show his face 
 again in this quarter." Accordingly he followed me 
 along the narrow path that wound by the river side 
 and through the valley where rice crops were growing 
 in the shadow of the mountains, and along the great 
 high road up to the door of the church. Just as I 
 had entered I happened to look round and saw him. 
 I thought : Oh, dear me ! what does this man want } 
 I shall have nothing to do with him, for I cannot 
 possibly do him any good. His face was about as 
 bad a one as ever I have seen in China. If ever there 
 was a countenance upon which villain was written, it 
 was his. It was steeped in opium. His clothes were 
 greasy, and shabby looking in the extreme. His 
 eyes were bright and restless, and he had the appear- 
 ance of one who was perpetually planning profound 
 schemes of wickedness. 
 
 I retired to my private room determined not to 
 talk with him, but I could not get him out of my 
 thoughts. My mind became uneasy, and silent 
 questionings prevented me from thinking of any 
 other subject. " This man has evidently come to see 
 me,^' I said. " Is it fair to remain here whilst he is 
 outside there waiting for me ? My commission is to 
 preach to all men, whatever their characters may be ; 
 and who am I to decide who is the proper subject 
 for the kingdom ? " I at once came out, and found 
 him seated on a bench. He rose and received me 
 with profuse etiquette, for though a scamp he was a 
 gentleman ; whilst I, in my best Chinese, politely 
 
I40 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 requested him to be seated. Before commencing to 
 talk with him about reh'gion, I thought it advisable to 
 touch his heart in some way, so that he might have 
 a friendly feeling towards me before we began our 
 discussion. I brought out some foreign biscuits that 
 I had with me, and asked him if he had ever seen 
 such. No, he had not. "Would he like to take a few 
 home with him .-^ " I said, and I placed some in his 
 hands. His grim, bad-looking-face instantly relaxed, 
 and a half smile, like a sudden flash of light upon a 
 thunder-cloud, passed over it, as he bowed his thanks 
 to me. 
 
 I then asked him if he had a father. If there is 
 one thing that a Chinaman gets enthusiastic about it 
 is his parents. If he has any heart left, this is a 
 subject that will be sure to touch it. " Oh yes," he 
 replied with enthusiasm, " and would you believe it ? 
 he is eighty-seven years old." " Ah ! fortunate man," 
 I said, "what a good man you ought to be, since 
 Heaven has been so kind as to spare him so long 
 to you." " Yes," he said. And then he went on to 
 tell of all his father's virtues ; and as he dwelt upon 
 these, he became eloquent, and the bad look in his 
 face disappeared, and the repulsive features became 
 sublimed, and for the moment the vicious repro- 
 bate had vanished, and I saw before me a man 
 moved by the purest and tenderest feelings. I was 
 amazed. I felt my heart drawn out towards him. 
 I forgot the repulsive feelings I first had. He had 
 proved to me, that in spite of his shabby clothes, 
 and repulsive features, and the impalpable air of 
 dissipation that hung around him, he was still 
 human. 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 141 
 
 When he had finished, I said : " Won't you take 
 some biscuits to your father ? " and I placed several 
 on the bench in front of him. *'He has never 
 seen any, and they will be a novelty and a curiosity 
 to him." The man's eyes sparkled as he received 
 them with many thanks. His heart was touched 
 I could see. And now he was ready for the im- 
 partial hearing of a Gospel that up to this time 
 had come to him only through the distorted 
 rumours that had been carried to him by men that 
 understood it as little as himself. For more than 
 an hour we discussed some of the great doctrines 
 of Christianity. He listened with profound attention, 
 and questions were put in a kindly way, as though he 
 were really anxious for information. His demeanour 
 was that of a man who was anxious to know the 
 truth ; and never once did it occur to me that he 
 had come that day with the purpose of making me 
 ashamed. At last he said: "Now, sir, I should like 
 to be a Christian, but there is one thing that I can 
 never give up." As he said this the war look flashed 
 into his eyes, and placing his head on one side, he 
 straightened himself up, as though he were trying 
 to shake off the influence I had gained over him. 
 "What is it that you can never give up.'*" I anxiously 
 inquired. He said : " I can never give up my an- 
 cestral worship." This ancestral worship is the pro- 
 foundest form of faith that the Chinese have. It is 
 the very last thing that a Chinaman gives up when 
 he becomes a Christian. Though intensely idolatrous, 
 there is something very touching about it. The 
 father dies, and at the anniversary of his death the 
 son comes to his tomb and places his offering before 
 
142 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 it, and he believes that somehow or other the food 
 and the paper money will reach the spirit in the 
 other world, and make it more happy. He never 
 expects to see his father again, but he would fain 
 hope that though gone from him here, the tie is not 
 utterly broken, and that he can still minister to the 
 wants of him he loved so much whilst on earth. I 
 saw by the stern look in his face that we were on 
 dangerous ground, and that were I to declare that 
 ancestral worship must be instantly abandoned, I 
 should lose the man entirely, and convert him into 
 an enemy instead of a friend. I accordingly said to 
 him : " Well then, don't give up your worship, go on 
 with it. The first thing you have to do is to give 
 up your opium. Every other question must be 
 left in abeyance until this, the supreme one in your 
 life, has been settled." As I said these words, a 
 marvellous change came over the man. The defiant 
 look that shone in his eyes and held the pale opium- 
 dyed face in its grasp, gradually died away. The 
 head assumed its natural position, and the body 
 subsided from its stiff, erect attitude, and became 
 limp, just as though some vital force had suddenly 
 been snatched out of it. " I will give up the opium," 
 he said, in a low tone, as though he were measuring 
 the amount of suffering he would have to go through. 
 " I will begin at once, and gradually diminish the 
 quantity until I am finally free from it." Poor 
 fellow ! I pitied him, for I knew somewhat of the 
 awful struggle that lay before him. For thirty-four 
 years the opium had been a necessity of his life. 
 During all that time he had never had a single 
 day's release from it. It was the dark shadow that 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 143 
 
 had never left him. Will he be able to give it up ? 
 Humanly speaking, never; for there is no human 
 power that can stand face to face with it, and over- 
 come it. It is a demon without remorse and with- 
 out pity. Human tears don't move it, for it has 
 never wept itself; and ruined homes and broken 
 hearts don't touch it. It twines and coils itself 
 about the life, and though it is crushing it out, and 
 knows that it must perish with its victim, it laughs 
 and shrieks with joy at its own death because it has 
 killed another man. 
 
 The last time I saw him, I asked him what it was 
 in my conversation with him that day that had 
 touched his heart, and made him finally determined 
 to become a Christian. "Why," he said, "it was 
 those words of yours, * go on with your worship, but 
 you must give up your opium.' My heart was deeply 
 moved by them. No man had ever shown himself 
 so interested in my welfare as you had done. 
 Others had scorned me, and looked down upon me, 
 because of my character, but you showed that you 
 cared for me. You allowed me to continue my 
 worship, but you pleaded with me to give up my 
 opium, and be a good son, that I might yet be a 
 comfort to my old father. I knew from that moment 
 that you loved me, and I felt that I could do any- 
 thing in the world you asked me." 
 
 Some months after this, I returned to pay a visit 
 to the church. I found the Christians in great joy 
 about my opium friend. They told me he had been 
 a most regular attendant at the services, and most 
 energetic in his endeavours to get others to become 
 Christians. Whilst we were talking, he came up 
 
144 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 smiling to me, and I asked him about the opium. 
 **I have given up a half," he said, "and I am gradu- 
 ally lessening the quantity I take daily, ^o that I 
 am hopeful in time I shall not require to smoke it." 
 I was disappointed. He ought to have been further 
 on the way to freedom ; so I said : " Kai, you will 
 never give up opium as long as you live if you 
 remain in this neighbourhood. The opium dens are 
 near you, and your old comrades are about you to 
 tempt you. You must come with me to the mis- 
 sionary hospital, and stay in it till you are thoroughly 
 cured. I see no other way to save you, for the 
 forces around you are too strong for you, and I 
 must take you out of them. Will you go ? '' " Oh 
 yes," he replied. '* I'll do anything you want me, 
 and go wherever you like." 
 
 On my return to Amoy, Kai accompanied me to 
 the large city of Chin-Chew, where Dr. Grant had a 
 hospital. When we came to his door, I asked him 
 to remain in the street until I had seen the doctor. 
 This gentleman somewhat demurred to taking in 
 an opium smoker, because he had not much faith in 
 being able permanently to cure such, but after my 
 representing to him that my friend wished to be- 
 come a Christian, he said : " Well, bring him in, and 
 let me see what kind of a man he is." We were 
 standing in an open courtyard under the spreading 
 branches of a tree, and when Kai appeared the 
 doctor was startled. Gazing at him intently, he 
 said to me in a quick, hurried manner : " This man 
 is a bad man. Send him away from here at once. 
 Just look at his face, what a villainous looking one it 
 is ! You ought to be a sufficient judge of character 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 
 
 145 
 
 to know that you can do nothing with such a man 
 as that." 
 
 The poor fellow stood by fortunately not knowing 
 
 anything of what was being said. He was a sad, 
 pathetic picture to look upon. As he stood there 
 with the dark wall as a background, he looked about 
 
 K 
 
146 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 as dissipated a figure as a painter has ever drawn, 
 and yet he was immensely improved as compared 
 with what he was months before when I first saw him. 
 His clothes were now respectable-looking, and the 
 indescribably evil something that lay behind those 
 bad-looking features, like shadows that darken the 
 hollows of the mountain, had become less marked, 
 whilst through the opium hue on his face there 
 appeared the faintest possible suspicion of the tinge 
 of a colour that was still far off in the distance. I 
 begged the doctor to let him stay, because he was 
 my friend, and because I had faith that he would 
 turn out to be a good man. I knew, besides, that if 
 there was any man in China that could save him it 
 was Dr. Grant. The system that he had established 
 in his hospital was one of the most perfect I have 
 ever seen. It was not simply that he was an exceed- 
 ingly able medical man. He had the genius of 
 bringing Christianity to bear on his patients in such a 
 loving, forcible way that the hospital had become a 
 powerful centre, from which the truth had gone out to 
 many counties, and many had been the souls that 
 could trace the beginning of their new life to the time 
 when they were being treated in it. I myself have 
 had the privilege of baptizing a goodly number in 
 Gracious Peace who were converted in his hospital. 
 " I wish your friend were better looking," he replied 
 to my urgent request, as he gazed doubtingly and 
 hesitatingly upon him. " If it were not for your 
 recommendation, I should refuse to have anything 
 to do with him. Let him remain, however, and I'll 
 do my best to cure him, though from his looks I have 
 not much faith in him." 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN, 147 
 
 In about a month Kai had left the hospital cured, 
 and a better Christian than when he entered it. He 
 went away, too, with the highest admiration on the part 
 of Dr. Grant towards him. The other day I saw the 
 doctor in London, and talking of the time when I 
 brought the wretched opium smoker to be cured, and 
 the terribly dissipated look he had, he said : " If there 
 is one man in China that I have faith in, it is Kai." 
 After his return home he became a great preacher. 
 He travelled amongst the mountains near his home, 
 and the villages in the valleys, and searched out his 
 old opium-smoking comrades, and told them of the 
 Divine love that had saved him. The fame of his 
 conversion filled the whole district. The heathen 
 were amazed, for there was no power in all China 
 that could have wrought such a mighty miracle as 
 this. Even his own family were startled, and could 
 hardly believe in the reality of his conversion. Pass- 
 ing by his home one day, I spoke to one of his sons, 
 and urged him to follow in the footsteps of his father, 
 and become a Christian. 
 
 " I cannot do so yet," he said, in a low tone, " for 
 I must wait and see how my father turns out." 
 
 He was evidently doubtful about the change, and 
 no wonder that he should be. From the time that 
 he was a child, and through his boyhood, and up into 
 the years of his manhood, he never had had any 
 other picture of his father than that terrible life that 
 had brought misery and poverty upon the home. 
 Time has proved, however, that the change was a 
 real one. The bad, wild look has disappeared. The 
 pale, hollow cheeks have become rounded, and when 
 I last saw him they were slightly tinged with colour ; 
 
148 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 but more powerful evidence than all this lies in the 
 awakened church, and the numbers that I see crowd 
 to the services on the Sabbath, who first heard the 
 Gospel from his lips. 
 
 The man is himself a standing miracle to me, and 
 yet I never think of him without a dread feeling of 
 anxiety that I cannot control. Is he really for ever 
 free from that awful opium ? For thirty-four years 
 it held him in its grip. It controlled his life, and 
 destroyed his manhood, and absorbed his will so 
 completely that he had no thought of resisting it. 
 Has it, indeed, given up its mastery over him ? It 
 would seem so, and yet some of its roots may still be 
 imbedded far down in his nature, and some day, in a 
 moment of weakness or temptation, these may again 
 assert their power, and he may once more fall under 
 the awful and mysterious fascination with which 
 opium charms its victims. My hope that this may 
 not happen, is entirely in the grace of God. No 
 power of will, no selfish thought of life, no human 
 affections will save him. Nothing short of Divine 
 power can keep him a free man. 
 
 The last time I visited that church sixteen men 
 and women stood up before the Christians and the 
 heathen that crowded the doors and filled up every 
 available standing ground, and told the story of what 
 Christ had done for them. Most pathetic, and most 
 touching were some of them. Opium smokers related 
 how they had found deliverance, and gamblers told 
 how the cards and dice had lost their fascination for 
 them after they had heard the Gospel. Men spoke 
 of the bondage they had been in for years, and how 
 the fear of death had troubled them, and how they 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 149 
 
 had worshipped the idols, but no peace had come to 
 them ; but now their hearts were at rest, for Christ had 
 shed His precious blood for them, and had become 
 their Saviour and Redeemer. One woman that had 
 been a sorrow to her husband for years, stood before 
 me with modest look and downcast eyes. I could 
 hardly recognise in her the fierce spirit that had 
 twice compelled her husband to fly from his home to 
 escape her wrath, because he would not worship the 
 idols with her. She confessed how wrong she had 
 been, and how ashamed she felt when she thought of 
 the past. "But I am happy now," she said, "for I have 
 found Christ to be all that my heart can desire, and 
 nevermore shall I wish to worship the idols again." 
 
 It is a remarkable thing that these people quickly 
 learn to develop their Christian life very much in 
 the same manner as is done in our home churches. 
 They elect their pastors and deacons, and carry out 
 their church forms as naturally as though they had 
 never been heathen, but had been brought up in 
 Christianity all their lives. Of course they have their 
 own way of doing things, and occasionally I have 
 been highly amused at the methods they pursue. 
 
 I remember on one occasion, in one of the churches 
 in this county, it was arranged that there should be 
 an election of deacons. It was in an out-of-the-way 
 country place, where the people were very rustic. 
 Three men were to be appointed, and it was laugh- 
 able to see how this very simple matter seemed to be 
 one of immense difficulty to the majority of those 
 who had a right to vote. To the bucolic mind it 
 seemed a prodigious undertaking to specify three 
 persons whom they believed capable of exercising 
 
ISO CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 the duties of a deacon. The first person that was 
 called upon to come up to the desk and record the 
 names he had selected, seemed quite taken aback. 
 He stood up with a bewildered air, and protested 
 that he did not know whom to choose, in fact he was 
 not aware that there was any one in the church that 
 was fitted for the office. After a little gentle pressure 
 he began to move slowly towards where I was stand- 
 ing, but a kindly bench stood in the way, at which he 
 took his stand, and scratching his head, he declared 
 it was no use his proceeding further, as he did not 
 know how to choose. Various encouraging utterances 
 from the brethren brought him up to where I ^as 
 waiting for him, but his difficulty seemed only to 
 have increased when he had got there. He looked 
 long and earnestly over the congregation, as though 
 every man in it was a. stranger to him, whilst in 
 reality he was familiar with the life and history of 
 every one before him. After a tremendous effort 
 he got out one name, and then made a long pause. 
 Being reminded that he had to give two more, he 
 seemed startled, and said : " What ! two more !" and 
 then shading his eyes with his left hand he peered 
 long and anxiously at the members, who took the 
 whole thing seriously, and saw nothing funny in it. 
 Then two more names were blurted out, and he went 
 back to his seat with a look of relief on his face. 
 One man, the father of a family, and a sharp, shrewd 
 man in worldly matters, carried on this farce so long 
 that I took him at his word, and made him sit down 
 before he had voted. He was amazed. He could see 
 nothing incongruous in his conduct ; in fact it was the 
 proper thing to do. 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 151 
 
 After the three men had been duly elected, they 
 were called up to be regularly installed. One of 
 them, true to Chinese nature, at once got up, and 
 begged leave to decline the office of deacon. He 
 was not a good walker, he said, and therefore he did 
 not feel competent to fill it. Just imagine a deacon 
 of one of our fashionable English churches declining 
 the office on the ground that he was not a good 
 walker ! One of the brethren, who was noted for his 
 humour, suggested that he should buy a horse. He 
 might as well have told him to purchase an elephant 
 or a locomotive, for the man was very poor. The idea, 
 moreover, of a deacon buying a horse to enable him 
 to visit the members of his church was so ridiculous 
 that everybody was amused. A broad grin expanded 
 the faces of every one present, and the black, almond- 
 shaped eyes gleamed and twinkled with suppressed 
 fun. This argument of ridicule was such a powerful 
 one, that the poor man instantly collapsed, and he 
 slowly sidled down into his seat, with a sickly smile 
 on his face, muttering inaudibly to himself. 
 
 This mock modesty that I have been describing 
 is a prominent factor in the usages of polite society. 
 Chinese etiquette requires a man to depreciate him- 
 self, and to speak of himself in the most derogatory 
 terms, whilst at the same time he may have the most 
 overweening estimate of his own abilities. It was 
 satisfactory to know that these shrewd Chinese, in 
 the midst of all the little farce they had been playing, 
 had all the time been picking out the very persons 
 they ought to have chosen. The three men selected 
 were the very best that could have been elected. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE COUNTY OF GRACIOUS PEACE {continued). 
 
 Two years have passed by since the Gospel was 
 first preached in the county, and the "Great Mother" 
 from her solemn height looks down upon the grow- 
 ing church that week by week meets for worship in 
 the village at its foot. In addition to the music of the 
 brook, the village is getting accustomed to the sound 
 of tunes that are sung in the churches in far-off Eng- 
 land, and which are destined to take a firmer hold 
 upon the people of this county than any of their own 
 secular airs, though transmitted to them through the 
 long course of ages. It is now felt by the Christians 
 that it is time for the Gospel to go forth from the 
 sheltered valley, and occupy a position in some of the 
 great centres, where it could influence greater numbers 
 than here beside this mountain stream, or under the 
 shadow of these great hills. The emblems that Christ 
 used about the Gospel are profoundly true. It is 
 like the mustard seed, and it is like the leaven. It 
 cannot remain stationary. There are forces within 
 it that compel it to spread, and so the valley that 
 will do for its birthplace will be too small for its 
 manhood. There are multitudes in the cities and 
 on the great highways whose hearts have to be 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 
 
 153 
 
 touched, and there are men of power, and of thought, 
 and of influence there, who are needed as leaders 
 and workers in this crisis of the county's history. 
 
 About five miles distant was the county town. It 
 was not a large place, for it contained only between 
 twenty and thirty thousand inhabitants. It had a 
 
 COUNTY OF HUI-AN 
 
 OR 
 
 GRACIOUS PEACE. 
 
 mean and poor appearance, and well corresponded 
 with the general poverty of the county, yet it was 
 a city of great influence. The chief mandarins 
 resided there, as well as a number of prominent 
 scholars who got their living in connection with 
 the law courts. It was, moreover, a great centre of 
 business. Everything that the county could boast 
 
154 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 was to be purchased there. The fish that was 
 brought in by the great fishing smacks to the 
 famous seaport of ** Valiant Warrior" last evening 
 were exposed for sale in its streets next morning 
 by daylight. The men that carried them on their 
 shoulders during the darkness of the night have 
 had a hard time of it. The road, which is seven- 
 teen miles long, lies over as heart-breaking a bit 
 of country as it is the lot of poor travellers to pass, 
 as I know by many a painful experience. They 
 have had to travel over hills, and stony paths, and 
 along dry water-courses, where the feet continually 
 sank in sand, till at length jaded and worn they 
 have gained the city in the grey dawn of the morn- 
 ing. Every conceivable article required by the needs 
 or luxuries of the people found its way into the city. 
 No sooner were the gates thrown open at daybreak, 
 at the sound of the morning gun, than crowds of 
 men and women, with eggs, and fowls, and sweet 
 potatoes, and garden produce, and delicious oranges 
 from the next county of the " Pleasure Ground of 
 the Fairies," poured in to dispose of their goods in 
 the public market-places. 
 
 When the Christians attempted to rent a house in 
 this place they found themselves opposed by insuper- 
 able difficulties. The scholars of the town declared 
 they would allow no foreigner to reside in it to preach 
 his corrupt doctrines, and terrible penalties were 
 threatened against any one that dared to let his 
 house to him. The more fanatical of the heathen, 
 the priests, and those interested in the continuance 
 of idolatry, threw in their influence with the scholars, 
 so that no house could be got throughout the length 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN, 155 
 
 and breadth of the city. At length, after consider- 
 able difficulty, one was obtained in a narrow, dirty 
 street about half a mile away from the town, — a 
 place so obscure that the opponents of Christi- 
 anity no doubt thought it beneath their notice to 
 make any bother about it. The Christians were ex- 
 ceedingly delighted at the position they had gained, 
 even though in such an unpromising neighbourhood. 
 
 And now the work was vigorously carried on from 
 this new centre. The scholars might prevent the 
 Christians from getting a house in the city, but they 
 could not forbid them preaching in it. Accordingly 
 in the busy market places, in the main streets, in the 
 narrow lanes, and even on the steps of the temples, 
 right in front of the idols, the Gospel was proclaimed 
 to the masses. It was also preached in the countless 
 villages that dotted the plains, or nestled in the 
 valleys at the foot of the mountains, on the north, 
 right away to the sea that bounded one side of the 
 county on the east. The result of all this wide- 
 spread preaching was that in time there grew up a 
 better comprehension of what Christianity was, and 
 a desire in many to believe in it. The people of this 
 county are generally very poor. Their mountains 
 are rugged and barren, and their soil is thin and 
 poor, so that it requires constant and unremitting 
 labour to get even the necessaries of life out of it. 
 The consequence is, that for the great majority of 
 the people life is a continual struggle. The wolf is 
 never very far at any time from their doors, and the 
 dread of impending sorrow must be a perpetual shadow 
 upon their lives. Now the Gospel is full of promise 
 and comfort to such, and the revelation of God as 
 
156 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 a Father brought men hopes, such as they never knew 
 in their heathen life. The wondrous story of the 
 Cross, too, touched men's hearts, and so they gathered 
 in the narrow street outside the city, and in distant 
 villages, where it was found necessary to open new 
 places of worship ; and under the inspiration of the 
 new faith, men that all their lives had worshipped 
 only the idols became fervent preachers of the new 
 Gospel. 
 
 The history of one of those that became a Chris- 
 tian at this time is a very interesting one, and illus- 
 trates the spiritual experience of a heathen in his 
 passage from darkness into light. The man I refer 
 to was between twenty and thirty years of age, and 
 a person of great vigour of character. Even his very 
 speech showed this, for he always spoke in a sharp, 
 incisive way, as though every word he uttered came 
 from the very depths of his soul. His face was seldom 
 at rest, and his eyes shone and twinkled under the 
 inspiration of hidden thoughts. He was a man, too, 
 prompt in action, and he had a physique that enabled 
 him to endure a great deal of hard labour. He was 
 just the kind of man the church needed in its early 
 pioneer work. One day he happened to go into the 
 city, where he met a Christian who spoke to him about 
 God, and the folly of idolatry. This man gave him 
 instances from their every-day life of how useless the 
 idols were in protecting and comforting men. He 
 went home profoundly impressed. One great thought 
 remained rooted in his mind, namely, that the idols 
 were powerless to save men. To one who has been 
 brought up in Christian lands this is a self-evident 
 truth, and requires merely to be stated to be accepted. 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 157 
 
 but it was not so here. It was a revelation to him. 
 Never had such an idea dawned upon his mind be- 
 fore, and he was perplexed as he thought over it. 
 For three months or so his mind was ill at ease. 
 The truth that the Christian had revealed to him was 
 one that he could not dismiss from his mind, and 
 yet he could not bring himself to accept it. He had 
 always been an intense and earnest worshipper of 
 the idols. More than thirty of them were placed in 
 various parts of his home, that were honoured and 
 worshipped at regular seasons. They were all that 
 his soul had trusted in for years, and he could not 
 consent to abandon them at the bidding of a stranger. 
 Still the power of truth that was working in him was 
 mighty, and he was compelled to listen to it in spite 
 of himself. At the end of the three months a great 
 sorrow fell upon him. Disease attacked his domestic 
 animals. He made earnest appeals to his thirty gods, 
 but still the epidemic did not cease. Then his 
 younger brother died of small-pox, and at the same 
 time heavy rains fell, and the mountain streams came 
 roaring down from the hills, breaking down the em- 
 bankments of some of his fields, and covering them 
 with sand, so that they became useless. To crown 
 all, one day part of their house, weakened by the 
 long-continued rains, fell down and nearly killed his 
 father. The words of the Christian now came home 
 with intensified force to him. The idols certainly 
 had been proved useless to him in his time of need. 
 He would give up the worship of them. Before he 
 did so, however, he determined to make sure that 
 the Christian religion was all that it was represented 
 to be. His faith was almost shattered, but he would 
 
158 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 hold on to it until he had proved that Christianity 
 was better than it. He decided to visit Amoy, some 
 seventy-five miles distant, and examine it at its foun- 
 tain head. It had been first preached there, and the 
 men that came from the far west to promulgate it 
 amongst the Chinese resided there. Amoy was to 
 him what Mecca is to the Mahommedan, or Rome 
 to the Roman Catholic. On his arrival there, he 
 lived at an inn, as he knew no one in the place. 
 The next day he spent in visiting the churches, and 
 in listening to the preaching that was daily carried 
 on in them. He found that they all taught precisely 
 the same doctrines that he had heard in his far-off 
 home. In one of them an old man got up to speak. 
 He was so nearly blind that he could but just see 
 his audience. He had been a Christian for many 
 years, and his eyes, naturally weak, were now failing 
 him. He was not an educated man, or one that was 
 specially gifted in speaking. The power that made 
 his life eloquent was his profound faith in Christ. 
 He had not spoken long before our friend was ar- 
 rested by his arguments, for they dealt with the very 
 points upon which he was longing for enlightenment. 
 He told how unhappy he had been when he was 
 a worshipper of the idols, how his faith in them had 
 been rewarded by disappointment and sorrow, and 
 how Christ had brought light into his life, and His 
 cross had taken away the burden of sin that used to 
 lie so heavily on his soul. It was not so much the 
 force of argument as the narrative of a soul's experi- 
 ence that touched him into an earnest belief, and 
 loosened the last lingering hold that his former faith 
 had had upon him. When the preacher finished, the 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 
 
 159 
 
 man rose, saying to himself: " I am now satisfied. I 
 don't need to stay in Amoy any longer. I am con- 
 
 :2A/i.3Ayy^ 
 
 A BARBER. 
 
 vinced of the truth of Christianity, and henceforth 
 that is my faith." He travelled home rejoicing. 
 
i6o CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 Almost the very first act when he got there was to 
 gather the thirty idols and destroy them. Some 
 were made of clay ; these he smashed into a thousand 
 pieces. Others were made of wood, and these he 
 chopped into bits, and burnt in the fire. When his 
 father came in from the fields and saw the destruction 
 of the idols, he was horrified. What impious hands 
 had dared to commit such an act of sacrilege } He 
 absolutely trembled with fear, for he was convinced 
 that some terrible judgment would come upon the 
 family in consequence. When he found that it was 
 his son, he rushed at him, and would have laid violent 
 hands upon him, but that he fled and got out of his 
 way, and for fully two years he never ventured to 
 be in the same room with his father. Ultimately the 
 whole family became Christian, and the son is to-day 
 one of the most earnest and successful preachers we 
 have, and presides over a church with a membership 
 of one hundred and three persons, and an inquirers' 
 class of one hundred and fifty. 
 
 For eight years the Gospel was preached from this 
 house in the suburbs, and converts from heathenism 
 were baptized there, till it became too small to 
 accommodate the congregation that met for worship 
 every Sunday. Every effort had failed to get into 
 the city. The influence of the scholars and leading 
 men had so far prevailed that no suitable building in 
 it could be rented. At last the time came when the 
 church was to enter it, not to occupy an insignificant 
 position in some back street, but one of the finest and 
 best known places in the city. An opium smoker, 
 driven by his need for money, offered a piece of land 
 for sale. His title deeds were examined and found to 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. i6t 
 
 be satisfactory. The only difficulty about at once 
 purchasing it, was the fact that it was in such a 
 prominent place in the town that it was felt sure 
 that the sternest and bitterest opposition would be 
 made if the Christians attempted to build a church 
 on it. It was in close proximity to the temple of the 
 city god. Every walled town in China has its city 
 god, that is supposed to control the spiritual affairs 
 of the people, just as the chief mandarin does the 
 secular. During the years that the Christians had 
 been preaching, this conviction had been growing in 
 the minds of the heathen, that wherever Christianity 
 came the idols lost their power. Now this plot of 
 land was only a few yards across the road from the 
 entrance to the temple. The church when built 
 would stand directly opposite to it. The Christians 
 would be seen from its doors gathering for worship, 
 and the sound of their singing would be heard inside 
 it, and reach the very ears of the god. Not only 
 would there be an uproar in any attempt to build, there 
 would also be a very serious danger to the persons 
 of the Christians. Such a possibility as this, however, 
 never for a moment caused them to swerve from 
 their desire to have this particular piece of ground 
 bought. Whatever risk there might be, they were 
 prepared to meet it. It was the very place, they 
 reasoned, where the church ought to be built. Across 
 the way was the heathen temple where men from all 
 the region round, and even the mandarins in their 
 official robes, at stated times came to worship. It 
 was only right that close by should be the temple of 
 the true God, where men might get the comfort and 
 deliverance that were not to be obtained in the other. 
 
162 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 They had been praying for years for a site, they said, 
 and now that God had answered them beyond their 
 highest expectation, were they to reject it because of 
 the possibility of danger ? Never. The land was 
 accordingly bought by Mr. Stronach, and the builder 
 at once commenced his work. 
 
 The excitement in the town was immense. Meet- 
 ings of the literati were held, and threats fierce and 
 terrible were uttered. The masses took up the cry 
 of their leaders, and they vowed that no Christian 
 church should desecrate their city ; still no one took 
 any active steps to interfere with the workmen. The 
 building meanwhile went steadily up, foot by foot. 
 The Christians had meetings for special prayer for 
 help in this emergency, and still the church rose 
 higher and higher, till finally the roof was completed, 
 and it did seem as though the threats and mutterings 
 of the scholars and the people were to result in 
 nothing. God, however, had determined to answer 
 the cry of his people in a more thorough way than by 
 the mere preservation of the building. Soon after 
 the roof had been put on, a crowd one day suddenly 
 collected in a very mysterious and yet business-like 
 manner in front of the church. It was a suspicious 
 looking crowd, and it had mischief in its looks. A 
 crowd in China soon begets a larger one. The stream 
 of people passing along the great highway stopped 
 in wonder, and then joined it. The opium smokers 
 and gamblers from their low dens hurried along with 
 eager, dissipated looks to join the crowd, for they had 
 hopes of plunder that would fill their pipes with 
 opium, or that would give them the means of a 
 night's carouse. The thieves and men who got their 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN, 163 
 
 living by their wits heard of the gathering of the 
 storm with delight, and soon their voices were heard 
 in the crowd protesting against the invasion of their 
 city by the Christians, and of the insult to their great 
 god over the way. A mob does not stand idle long. 
 The instinct of order that is so deeply implanted in 
 the mind of the Chinese restrained it for some time 
 from actual violence ; but the disorderly elements that 
 kept continually flowing into it aroused the passions 
 of the rest, till at last in a moment of frenzy the mob 
 surged into the building, and the work of destruction 
 began. Everything they could lay their hands on 
 disappeared as if by magic. Then bands of eager, 
 desperate men began to tear the church to pieces. 
 The tiles on the roof and the beams on which they 
 rested were carried off, and even the very pavement 
 of the floor was torn up in some places. Doors 
 moved away as if instinct with life, and hurried down 
 by-streets, and along narrow alley ways till they 
 finally vanished from sight. Just at this juncture, 
 when the building was rapidly dissolving, a police 
 force appeared upon the scene, and the crowd of 
 opium smokers, and thieves, and gamblers instantly 
 melted away before it. 
 
 A few days after this I visited the city, and had an 
 interview with the mandarin. He was a very agree- 
 able old gentleman, and received me in a very kind 
 and cordial manner. After a little conversation, he 
 promised to repair all the damage done to the build- 
 ing, and to restore it to me as good as it was before 
 the outbreak. " And when we get into it," I asked 
 him, " will you protect us, and will you restrain the 
 scholars and the people from again molesting us t 
 
i64 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 Turning to me with a pleasant smile, he said : " I'll 
 protect you as long as I am in office here, and if any 
 one dares to lift a finger against you, just inform me, 
 and I'll know where to find him." God had answered 
 the prayer of His church by giving it a position in 
 the town that has never been disturbed from that 
 day to this. The old man faithfully kept his word, 
 and stood our friend as long as he lived ; and when 
 he died a few years afterwards there was none that 
 more sincerely mourned his death than the Christians. 
 Thirteen years have passed away since we got a 
 footing in the town. The church has largely grown 
 since then, and has been self-supporting for many 
 years. Several years ago, a new church had to be 
 built to accommodate the greatly increased numbers, 
 whilst the old one has since been used as a school, etc. 
 The last Sunday I spent with the Christians was a 
 memorable one. .The church was crowded with a 
 very large assembly, so that the heathen had to stand 
 in groups around the doors as there was no room for 
 them inside. An ordination service was being held, 
 and two native ministers and myself were ordaining 
 a young man as pastor over this large and united 
 church. The choice of the people had been unani- 
 mous, and the one feature in his character that had 
 drawn every heart to him was his godliness. He 
 was not an eloquent preacher, neither was he dis- 
 tinguished for his great learning. His fame had gone 
 throughout the churches as one that lived near God, 
 and one in whom the Spirit of God dwelt ; and this 
 church desired to have such a man for their pastor. 
 As I looked over the great assemblage before me my 
 heart was deeply moved. Before me I saw old men 
 
. THE COUNTY OF HUT- AN. 165 
 
 that had passed the best years of their life in the 
 service of idolatry, with the new light that the Gospel 
 sheds, and gleams of the coming glory on their faces. 
 Young men were there, too, bright and happy looking, 
 because of the new purpose and new hopes that had 
 come into their lives. The heathen look had vanished, 
 and in its place had come such a one as only a belief 
 in Christ can infuse into a man's face. 
 
 It was a splendid gathering, and a marvellous one 
 too. It was not a congregation of Christians that had 
 been transplanted from some other place to show the 
 people of this city how God should be worshipped. 
 Every man and woman there had been gathered out 
 of heathen homes from the region around. The 
 opium dens, and the gambling houses, and the abodes 
 of vice had all contributed to swell the number. 
 Rakes and profligates, and men of abandoned char- 
 acter, whom no power in all China could influence 
 for good, touched by a Divine hand, that was slowly 
 effacing the scars of their old life, and that was 
 putting in the first touches of the new image, that 
 was to be the reflection of Christ's own in the future, 
 were conspicuous in it. It was an assemblage that 
 the angels in heaven might rejoice over, for in it was 
 the promise of the new forces that God was going to 
 employ for the conversion of the county to Himself. 
 
 Whilst the Gospel was being preached from the 
 miserable house in the suburbs, which was to- culmi- 
 nate in this beautiful church in the city, and the 
 " Great Mother " was still looking lovingly down upon 
 the church that was growing at her foot, a remarkable 
 conversion took place of a man who was to play no 
 mean part in the spread of the truth in this county. 
 
i66 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 His home was in one of the most beautiful and ro- 
 mantic places in all the region round. It was situated 
 in a village that lay nestled under the shadow of the 
 hills. To get to it one had to climb mountains, and 
 descend along the sides of deep ravines by narrow 
 and precipitous paths, and cross rugged passes where 
 travelling was a weariness and a pain. One of these 
 latter was exceedingly beautiful, and was called the 
 "Sunlit Pass." It was so named because, from its 
 peculiar conformation, the sun shone upon it during 
 nearly the whole of the day. In the early morning, 
 when the sun had risen just above the eastern moun- 
 tains, his rays flashed from peak to peak, and 
 streamed along the slopes of the hills, and chased 
 away the shadows in the deep ravines that furrowed 
 their sides, and finally lit up the stream that rushed 
 and tumbled in foam over the black rocks hundreds 
 of feet below. In the afternoon, when the sun began 
 to climb down towards the mountains on the west, 
 still the pass was ablaze with light, and the giant 
 peaks stood bathed in a flood of glory, reaching away 
 up in the blue sky, as though their aim was to touch 
 the heavens with their summits. The rays that 
 played upon the lower hills, and put out the shadows 
 from the ^4llleys and ravines, and that gleamed upon 
 the roaring stream below, were not the reflection of 
 those that flashed about those mighty peaks, they 
 came straight from the fiery faced sun, that daily 
 showed his power in this beautiful pass. I have 
 never passed through it without feeling myself en- 
 tranced with the grandeur of the scene. I take my 
 stand In the centre of it. The mountains are mar- 
 shalled around me, and lofty peaks towering up from 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 167 
 
 them look down upon me in solemn majesty. No 
 sound but the music of the stream and the indescrib- 
 able harmonies of nature break the silence. As I 
 look up, it seems as though those mighty forms are 
 instinct with life, and by and by they will speak to 
 me. Unconsciously to myself the idea gets more 
 hold upon me, and I wait expectantly for voices that 
 shall be a revelation and a strength to me when I 
 again mingle in the human stream beyond the pass. 
 
 In this village, in the valley at the head of the 
 Sunlit Pass, lived a small farmer, of the name of 
 Ting. He was exceedingly poor. His father had 
 been a gambler, and during his lifetime had sold 
 many of his fields, and even part of the ancestral 
 home to pay his debts of honour. The consequence 
 was that it was a constant struggle with Ting to 
 provide for the daily needs of his family. The fields 
 that his father had not sold were not enough for this, 
 so he had to meet the deficiency by cutting down the 
 brushwood, and the smaller pine trees on the hill- 
 side, and selling them for firewood in a market town 
 some ten miles distant. Ting was a man of great 
 energy, and of indomitable will, and when he had set 
 his mind upon anything, nothing in the world could 
 make him swerve from his purpose. His face has 
 always been a study to me. Usually it is a very 
 pleasant one, and there is a tender, womanly smile 
 upon it, that gives one the impression that there is 
 not much force of character behind it. A little 
 further study of it reveals the fact that the conclusion 
 we have arrived at is a mistaken one. As long as 
 there is nothing special being discussed, and the face 
 is in repose, it seems to be that of an ordinary good- 
 
i68 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 tempered man, but let a difference arise, and a 
 marvellous change at once passes over it. Every 
 feature seems to fall into an attitude of defiance ; 
 the lines around the mouth become contracted, and 
 the head is slightly poised on one side, whilst the 
 smile retreats into the background of the face, and 
 seems like the vanishing glory of the setting sun on 
 the mountains in the far-off distance. 
 
 One day he had carried his firewood to the market 
 town by the sea-side, and after standing long in the 
 market place, had succeeded in disposing of it. He 
 was winding his way through the streets on his 
 return home, when he noticed a crowd gathered by 
 the roadside listening to a man who was addressing 
 them. He drew near to see what was the matter, 
 when he heard the speaker say : " All the idols in 
 China are false." He was startled. Never had such 
 words been uttered in his hearing before. His first 
 impulse was to resent what the preacher said. 
 " That is not true," he reasoned with himself " I 
 have worshipped the idols all my life, and my father 
 and mother too before me." Every man and woman, 
 moreover, in his village looked to them for protection, 
 he thought, and no shadow of a doubt had ever been 
 expressed regarding their ability to help men. He 
 began to feel indignant, but still the preacher went 
 on with his argument. He showed how the idols 
 were the source of sorrow and misery to the country, 
 and how in the great crises of human life they were 
 absolutely helpless to comfort or relieve. The 
 speaker's facts coincided with his own experience. 
 The touches of human life that were given in his 
 discourse recalled many a sad event in his own his- 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN. 169 
 
 tory, and unconsciously to himself a mighty revolu- 
 tion was going on in his mind, that would drive the 
 idols for ever from his heart, and lead him to the 
 worship of the true God. He still stands on the 
 edge of the crowd listening in rapt attention to the 
 words of the preacher. The tramp of men with heavy 
 burdens on their shoulders, and the loud excited 
 tones of men wrangling about the prices of their 
 goods, and the confused noise and uproar of the 
 busy, crowded market fall unheeded upon his ears, 
 for he is listening to truths that are moving his heart 
 as it has never been touched before. 
 
 But he feels he must return home. The day is 
 swiftly passing away, and the evening shadows are 
 beginning to lengthen. He has a long walk before 
 him, along a weary painful road to travel too ; 
 besides, it is not very safe to be amongst the moun- 
 tains after dark, as there are tigers upon them. All 
 the journey home, he cannot get the words of the 
 preacher out of his mind. He passes along the 
 plain, and through the villages that dot it ; he 
 ascends the mountains, and enters the Sunlit Pass out 
 of which the light has nearly all faded, and he winds 
 his way by the mountain stream and reaches his own 
 village, but still the words, " All the idols in China 
 are false," ring in his ears. He will never get them 
 out of his heart as long as he lives. 
 
 When he entered his home, and the usual greetings 
 had passed between him and his family, he said to 
 his mother : " Mother, I have had a wonderful ex- 
 perience to-day. I heard a man declare to a large 
 crowd in the market town that all the idols in China 
 are false. "My son," she quickly replied, "the man that 
 
I70 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 says that is mad. Haven't we worshipped them all 
 our life, and our fathers before us, and the people of 
 all this region, and if they are false, who then has 
 guarded and protected us ? We know of no power 
 beside theirs." " Yes, I know that," he slowly and 
 thoughtfully answered, " but I have been thinking all 
 the way home this evening, if the idols can really 
 protect us, why are we so poor ? It is a daily struggle 
 with us all for life. See how poorly clad you are, 
 and what miserable food you have to eat. I should 
 like to care for you better, but I cannot, and it seems 
 as though we get poorer and poorer. This cannot 
 surely be the result of the displeasure of the idols, 
 for we make our regular offerings to them, and we 
 spend money on them that is taken out of our very 
 life's blood. ** My son," the mother cried out in 
 agony, " don't say such things. You will anger the 
 gods, and some dire calamity will fall upon our home. 
 If you talk this way you will soon be as bad as the 
 man you heard to-day." 
 
 The son became silent, but his thoughts were all 
 the more busy. Next Sunday morning, just before 
 dawn, he is on his way to the church in the village 
 that lies at the foot of the "Great Mother." His 
 heart is sadly agitated, and he cannot rest. He has 
 so many questions to ask, and so many perplexities 
 to unravel. He spends the day with the Christians, 
 who receive him with loving affection, so very 
 different from what a heathen company would have 
 done. His doubts and anxieties vanish as they tell 
 him of God, the loving Father, who has created all 
 things, and knows the hearts and thoughts of every 
 living creature. Never in his wildest dreams re- 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUI-AN, 171 
 
 garding supernatural beings has he ever thought of 
 such an one as this. He had feared and he had 
 dreaded the unseen powers, and he had made many- 
 offerings to them to avert their anger, and induce 
 them to look kindly upon him, but to-day he hears 
 of One who loves him. His heart is satisfied. 
 
 A few weeks pass by and he is received into the 
 church, and no truer man, or more valiant de- 
 fender of the truth, ever made his confession of faith 
 in Christ in the county than he. Years have elapsed 
 since then, and there is to-day a flourishing self- 
 supporting church in his village, whose influence is 
 felt beyond the hills that encircle it, and further than 
 the Sunlit Pass, and right away amongst the valleys 
 of the neighbouring county of the " Pleasure Ground 
 of the Fairies." 
 
 Twenty-four years have come and gone since the 
 miserable little opium smoker and gambler left his 
 home to retrieve his fortunes in Amoy. The Gospel 
 that was brought back by him to his native village, 
 has spread through the county till now there are 
 eleven churches in it, nine of which are self-sup- 
 porting, one partially so, and another that is assisted 
 by the voluntary contributions of one of the native 
 churches in Amoy. Only one out of the eleven has 
 to have the salary of its preacher supplemented by 
 the funds that come from England. 
 
 It may be asked here what is the peculiar charm 
 about the Gospel that has attracted so many in this 
 poor county to believe in it. I can answer unhesi- 
 tatingly that it is Christ and Him crucified. I 
 remember one day questioning a large number of 
 candidates just previous to their being baptized. 
 
^72 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 Amongst them were two scholars, a father and his 
 son. For several years the former had been an opium 
 smoker, but life seemed to flow on pretty smoothly, 
 till one day to his horror he discovered that his son 
 had taken to the pipe. He was in great distress, for 
 he knew that sorrow and misery now lay before his 
 son. With the heroic stoicism of the Chinese he was 
 prepared to pay the penalty for his wrong, but he 
 could not endure to think of the young life being 
 brought so early within the influence of a vice that 
 would ruin and destroy it. He appealed to him 
 to smoke no more, but his words were paralyzed 
 by his own bad example. He then called upon a 
 Christian in the village, and entreated him to use his 
 influence to save his son. The young fellow, how- 
 ever, resisted all attempts to make him abandon the 
 pipe. Seeing that all his arguments were making no 
 impression, as a last resort he adopted a ruse by 
 which he hoped to touch him. Coming to his house 
 one day, he said to him : " I have spent a great deal 
 of time in endeavouring to get you to give up opium, 
 I have been making a great mistake in this, for I 
 have discovered that you are a man of such a weak 
 character, and so wanting in energy, that it is impos- 
 sible for you ever to be cured. There is no hope 
 for you, and so I have come to tell you that I am 
 not going to waste my time any more on you. You 
 are not worth it." 
 
 The young fellow sat with congested eyes looking 
 at him whilst he was making these remarks, and was 
 so utterly taken aback by his rudeness, that he had 
 not a word to say in reply. After he had gone out, 
 he said to himself: "Weak character, indeed ! Cannot 
 
THE COUNTY OF HUl-AN. 173 
 
 be cured, forsooth ! I'll show him that I am a 
 stronger man than he believes me to be, and that I 
 have strength of will enough to give up the opium 
 if I like." The bait had taken. His pride and self- 
 respect were touched, and from that instant he began 
 gradually to free himself from the fascination of the 
 opium pipe. His father was delighted, and to en- 
 courage his son, began to imitate his example, whilst 
 at the same time he became a regular attendant at 
 our religious services. There he found such comfort 
 and strength in the terrible struggle with opium, that 
 he induced his son to accompany him, and in process 
 of time they were both free men. 
 
 The old man had an exceedingly intelligent face, 
 for it had been sharpened by many years of thought 
 and study. His eyes were black and brilliant, and 
 when he became excited they flashed as though the 
 fires of youth still burned brightly in his breast. The 
 haughty look, however, which is a general character- 
 istic of the Chinese scholar, had vanished. The very 
 position, indeed, that he occupied that day showed 
 what a mighty change had come over him. Close 
 beside him were several uneducated men and women 
 that were going to make their confession of Christ. 
 He did not resent being placed by their side, nor his 
 having to tell the story of his conversion in the 
 presence of his heathen countrymen, that crowded 
 into the building to watch the proceedings. When 
 I asked the old man what it was that gave him peace, 
 he answered at once that it was the fact that Christ 
 had died upon the cross for him, and had washed 
 away his sins in His precious blood. He did not 
 speak of the delivery from opium that had come to 
 
174 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 himself and his son as the cause of his happiness. 
 He found it in the cross of Christ. It was the same 
 with the son, a sturdy wide-awake young fellow, 
 brimming over with life and energy, and when I 
 turned to the rest, I found that in every case the 
 central thought in the confession both of men and 
 women, was the same as his. The stories that I heard 
 that day of changed lives, and beautiful hopes, and 
 purposes to live a better life, were all inspired by the 
 Cross, and as I looked upon the faces before me, and 
 then to those of the heathen that filled up the back- 
 ground of the congregation, I felt that this was to be 
 the great power that was to elevate China, and place 
 her high amongst the Christian nations of the 
 world. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PHO-LAM. 
 
 Twenty-six years have passed by since Mr. Stronach 
 first arrived in Amoy to establish a mission there. 
 The work has prospered more or less in every direction. 
 Christianity has become a power in the town, as two 
 large self-supporting churches attest. The churches 
 in the Chiang-Chiu and Koan-Khau districts are flou- 
 rishing, and even in the far-off county of Gracious 
 Peace there are already indications that Christianity 
 will one day be a mighty factor in the life of that 
 poor county. In the year 1870, it was again deter- 
 mined to take another step in advance, and to begin 
 work in an entirely new district, in a market town of 
 great importance some thirty miles from Amoy, up 
 the North River, named Pho-lam. The situation of 
 this place is a very picturesque one. Immediately 
 beyond it rises a range of mountains, diversified by 
 many a lofty peak that stretch away into the distance, 
 until they lose themselves amidst the clouds which they 
 seem to be holding up. In front of it flows the river, 
 which has but recently emerged from the hills. A 
 while ago it was a foaming torrent, as it dashed 
 through the mighty gorges, and curled in great eddies 
 where sudden reefs lay, or dashed itself into spray 
 
 ^75 
 
176 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 upon the rocks that rose above its surface, in the very 
 channel through which it was madly racing to the 
 plains below. The boatmen, who have but recently 
 been whirled down its numerous rapids and have 
 come in excited as if after a mad race, can hardly 
 recognise the river, as it placidly flows in gentle, 
 decorous manner past the town. 
 
 Behind Pho-lam, and away on the opposite bank 
 of the river, stretches the great plain of Chiang-Chiu. 
 It is dotted with countless villages and fields of rice ; 
 and endless clumps of sugar-cane indicate that the 
 people of this highly favoured region are prosperous 
 and well-to-do. 
 
 Pho-lam was a great trade centre. The teas that 
 were then sent from Amoy to America all came down 
 the river, and had to be transhipped here. Great 
 rafts of timber, too, were shot down the rapids, and 
 reposed alongside the town as quietly and as circum- 
 spectly as though they had never gone through any 
 such wild experience. Boats packed to overflowing 
 with packages of paper made from the bamboos that 
 grew in rich luxuriance on the mountain sides and 
 in the valleys, came in daily to be sent down to Amoy, 
 from whence they were despatched in steamers along 
 the coast, and away to Singapore and Manilla. Be- 
 side all this, there was a great fair held in the place 
 every fifth day, when the farmers brought their 
 produce, and buyers and sellers from far and near 
 crowded the streets. It struck me that it would be a 
 capital centre for missionary work. The Gospel could 
 be here preached to the representatives of almost every 
 village in the plain, as well as to men from the towns 
 that lay beyond those rapids, and behind the great 
 
A PAGODA. 
 
 17: 
 
 m; 
 
P HO- LAM. 179 
 
 mountains that frowned between us and the unknown 
 country at their back. There was just one discour- 
 aging feature in the case — the men of Pho-lam had 
 an evil reputation. They were notorious gamblers 
 and opium smokers. The place abounded with 
 houses for both purposes, and it did seem a hopeless 
 task to build up a Christian church in such a town, 
 and with such materials. 
 
 But let us take a ramble through its streets, and 
 see what is the character of the place where we are 
 going to commence our new work. It is fair day, and: 
 crowds have come in from regions far and near. How 
 busy the town is! Farmers are carrying the produce 
 of their farms on their shoulders to. the market places. 
 Men with great baskets of oranges from the neigh- 
 bouring orange groves come panting along. Large 
 numbers of young fellows saunter about with open 
 mouths, greatly enjoying the sights of the fair. They 
 have come in from remote villages to see the fun, and 
 to break the everlasting monotony of country life. 
 Huge delight is pictured on their faces, and their eyes 
 sparkle as they move slowly amongst the ever increas- 
 ing crowd of men. Here, in a convenient opening 
 from the main street, is the world-wide show of Punch 
 and Judy, acting almost precisely as they used to do 
 when I was a boy, and when I spent many a delicious 
 hour in watching the comedies and tragedies of that 
 inimitable acting. The rustics are entranced. Broad 
 grins overspread their faces, and exclamations of de- 
 light show how their sense of the comical has been 
 touched. But let us hasten on, for further down the 
 street there is a sound of high jinks and revelry. The 
 sounds of cymbals noisily clashing, and the shrill 
 
i8o CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 music of clarionets, and the waves of laughter that 
 come up on the breeze, show there is some uproarious 
 fun going on. We find that it is a comedy that is 
 being acted by a party of actors, and the crowd 
 is being convulsed by the jokes and comical 
 antics of certain of the players. When they find a 
 foreigner amongst their audience every eye is turned 
 upon me. The actors in the midst of their funniest 
 bits gaze at me. The man with the cymbals is just 
 as furious as ever when some great joke has been 
 made, but his eye is fixed on me. As the men move 
 about the stage representing some scene in life, they 
 linger on the side near me and have a prolonged stare 
 at me* It is becoming embarrassing to have so many 
 eyes upon me, so I move away, amidst the broad 
 grins of the players; and again the clarionet gives 
 forth its shrillest sounds, and the rattle of the drum 
 becomes more rapid and prolonged, and once more 
 the sound of laughter floats upon the air, and reaches 
 us after we have lost sight of the merry gathering. 
 The shops to-day are all busy, for customers crowd 
 into them during the busiest hours of the fair. But 
 how is it that, interspersed amongst them, there are so 
 many houses with bamboo screens hanging in front 
 of the open doors .'* Let us enter one, for it is not a 
 private house. It is an opium den. We put the 
 screen aside, and come into a dimly lighted room, 
 with a broad bench running round the sides of it. 
 Little lamps are placed at various intervals, and men 
 are reclining beside them. Some are asleep, and most 
 ghastly do they look with their haggard, opium-hued 
 faces. They are stretched on their backs, and they 
 seem as if they were corpses. They don't appear like 
 
P HO- LAM. i8i 
 
 men whose spirits are wandering in fairy land, and 
 are entranced with gorgeous scenes of beauty, such 
 as the opium smoker is said to enjoy. Others, again, 
 are busy manipulating the opium, and are slowly in- 
 serting tiny bits into their narrow pipes. A whiff or 
 two and the bits are exhausted, when they renew the 
 process, and will continue to do so till they doze off, 
 and are in the land of dreams like the rest. They 
 look at me with surprise, as a foreigner is about the 
 last man they expect to see amongst them. One 
 man smiles at me, and whilst he is melting the tiny 
 piece of opium over the flame, on the end of some- 
 thing very like a knitting-needle, he says, giving the 
 needle a jerk towards me : " This comes from your 
 country, doesn't it } " I feel distressed, for I know 
 he does but express the common opinion that all 
 opium comes from England. But this opium den is 
 an unsavoury place to be in. The close, horrid smell, 
 the ghastly figures ranged along the benches, and the 
 sense of being in the midst of some of the very lowest 
 of the population, are oppressive. We hear the sounds 
 of voices outside, and we see the rays of the bright sun 
 shining upon the bamboo mat, and we rush out of the 
 dim, fetid place, with a sense of deliverance, into the 
 open air. We walk along as quickly as the crowd 
 will let us, just to get away from the street, and if 
 possible, from the very thoughts associated with it. 
 By and by we observe a shop, quite open to the 
 street, in which are groups of men gathered round 
 tables, engaged in some absorbing occupation. The 
 crowd surges by. Men in loud tones discuss market 
 prices. Men in excited voices come almost to the 
 point of serious altercation over some disputed piece 
 
I §2 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 of business. But these groups hear nothing. They 
 are gamblers. They are forbidden by law to gamble, 
 and there are penalties for the infraction of the law. 
 Only a few yards away there is a mandarin's court. 
 You wonder how they dare gamble so near him! The 
 fact is, a man may break almost any law he chooses 
 if he will only pay for the liberty of doing so. The 
 policeman may be standing by watching the gamblers, 
 but he does not perceive that they are gambling. 
 " They are a few friends met for an innocent social 
 amusement, or they are assembled for the serious 
 study of their sacred classics, or they are engaged in 
 the discussian of some deep metaphysical subject:" 
 so he will report to his superior, for the gamblers 
 have bribed him, and they rely upon him to screen 
 them from trouble. Look at the men, how engrossed 
 they are in the cards they are holding in their hands ! 
 There is a smile of satisfaction on the faces of the 
 winners, and a dogged, unhappy look, on those that 
 have been unlucky. Loud wrangling now and again 
 takes place at some piece of unfairness. Some of 
 these men have a desperate look about them. They 
 are professed gamblers. Others are evidently far- 
 mers' sons, that have come in from their quiet vil- 
 lages to have a time of dissipation. They are no 
 match for the former, and they will lose every cash 
 they possess. At last the game is over, and the losers 
 have to pay. There is a tremendous row, and the 
 regular gamblers with fiendish faces and violent ges- 
 tures are pouring forth the vials of their wrath on 
 one unfortunate who dared to play the last game 
 though he had no money. He is stoutly protesting 
 that he will bring the money to-morrow, and pay them 
 
PHO-LAM. 183 
 
 all he owes them, but they refuse to consent. All of a 
 sudden a rush is made at him. His arms are pin- 
 ioned by some of the low browed ruffians, and in an 
 instant his coat is stripped from his back, and he is 
 hurled into the street. The policeman stands by 
 with a bland smile. You wonder he does not rush in 
 and stop the fray. Oh no, there is no disturbance 
 whatever. It is merely a rather heated discussion 
 upon the first principles of Heaven, or on the Five 
 Constant Virtues as propounded in the Divine works 
 of the great Confucius. He has been properly feed 
 by the owner of the estabhshment, and he is bound 
 to be blind to any of the incidents that may take 
 place in connection with the business. No one in 
 fact interferes in any way with the summary method 
 of doing justice that these gamblers have. The con- 
 science of the crowd that look on is not at all outraged 
 by it, and even the man himself tacitly acknowledges 
 that the rough way in which he has been treated is 
 not unjust. He slinks away as fast as he can, and is 
 soon lost to sight amidst the crowd. 
 
 It was fair day when we arrived at Pho-lam. When 
 we got opposite the town, the approaches were so 
 blocked up by the crowds of boats that anchored off 
 it, that we experienced great difficulty in landing. 
 When we at last got on shore, we found ourselves 
 amidst a great surging mass of people, that were 
 pressing eagerly to see the foreigner. Probably not 
 any of them had ever seen one before. Vague 
 rumours had come up the river about the existence 
 of men from the west, who were residing in Amoy, 
 but here to-day was one of them in their very midst 
 and with whom they could converse, for he knew their 
 
i84 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 own language. When we got into the church, it was 
 instantly filled to overflowing by a motley crowd, all 
 anxious to have a good look at the foreigner that had 
 come to preach his strange doctrines in the town. 
 The scene before us was an impressive one, and in 
 some respects a weird one. If there could have been 
 a Hogarth amongst us to have portrayed the various 
 faces there, he could have produced a picture that 
 would have immortalized him. There were farmers 
 and shopkeepers, and opium smokers with pale and 
 haggard faces, dyed with the unfading hue that opium 
 stamps upon it ; and conspicuous, too, were the gam- 
 blers, with the hungry look in their eyes and restless 
 movement of their fingers, that seemed perpetually 
 to be manipulating invisible cards, or grasping the 
 dice ready for a throw. Not one of the mass before 
 us knew anything of God. If each had been asked, 
 who made the mountains outside that were ablaze 
 with glory, or the river that flowed by their town, not 
 one could have told. There was no one, moreover, 
 whose life would have borne inspection. One short 
 inquiry into the history of any of them, and we 
 should have shrunk back, lest our thoughts should be 
 contaminated by the sight that would have been 
 revealed to us. 
 
 The babel of voices soon became hushed, and the 
 exclamations of wonder and surprise gradually died 
 away, as we proceeded to tell them of the great 
 Father and His eternal love. We spoke to them of 
 Christ, of His great sacrifice, and how He came to 
 redeem men from their sins and their vices. As we 
 dwelt on this topic, the crowd became rapt in their 
 attention. Every eye was fixed on us. The great 
 
PHO-LAM. 185 
 
 sun flashed and blazed in the street outside, and his 
 beams played about the doors, and fell upon the 
 faces of the gamblers and opium smokers, and made 
 them look ghastly ; but they thought not of this, for 
 the Divine story was touching their hearts, and 
 proving that its ancient power was as potent as 
 ever. 
 
 After we had been speaking some time, a man came 
 quickly from the crowd where he had been standing, 
 and kneeling down before me, began knocking his 
 head upon the ground. I at once took him by the 
 arm and told him to get up at once. With some little 
 difficulty I got him on his feet, the crowd the mean- 
 while looking on with amazement. I then asked 
 him what he wanted. He told me that he had been 
 deeply moved by what he had just heard. " I have 
 been an opium smoker," he said, " for many years. I 
 am a complete slave to the habit, and I feel that I 
 have no power to help myself, and no one around me 
 can. You spoke of the power of God to save me. 
 Can you do anything to deliver me } " And as he said 
 these words, he was about to precipitate himself 
 again before me. I looked at him steadily whilst he 
 was talking. His face had a terribly dissipated look 
 about it. Vice had left its impress upon it, and so it 
 had a coarse, sensual look, as though it had been 
 dragged through the very slough of wickedness all his 
 life. His clothes were shabby in the extreme. They 
 were greasy and torn. He was about the very last 
 man in all that fair that day I should have selected 
 to become the first stone in the spiritual temple that 
 God was going to build in that town of Pho-lam. As 
 I looked at him, my faith in the man waned. These 
 
i86 CHBIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 opium smokers are such liars, and so exceedingly 
 difficult to cure, that I considered his case absolutely 
 hopeless. I said to him : " If you are in earnest, of 
 course you can be saved. Christ can save worse men 
 than you are. Are you really in earnest, though ? 
 Remember, the first thing you will have to do is to 
 give up your opium. Are you prepared for that ? " 
 '* I am," he said ; " try me." I at once assured him that 
 if he really had made up his mind to consent to this, I 
 would help him to the very utmost of my ability, and 
 that I would stand by him to the very last. I told him 
 he must come every day and study the life of Christ, 
 and be instructed in truths that would strengthen him 
 for the struggle that he was now going to have with 
 opium and his old vices. He readily assented to this, 
 and ere long a marvellous change was seen in him. 
 The sallow, ghastly look in his face disappeared, and 
 the slightest suspicion of colour gave it a more 
 healthy hue. His clothes, too, were more respectable, 
 and he lost the slouching gait that was but an out- 
 come of the life he used to lead. He at once began 
 to work, and soon his steady life and his quiet, un- 
 assuming manners drew customers to the little shop 
 he had opened. His brother, who to save himself 
 from being dragged down to his own level, had been 
 compelled to turn him on to the streets, looked on 
 with perfect amazement at the transformation. What 
 mysterious power had touched his brother ! He could 
 not understand it, so he came to the church to get 
 the explanation ; and he was so moved by the story 
 of the Cross that had converted his brother, that he 
 gave up idolatry, and with his whole family became 
 Christians. One of his sons was a fine manly young 
 
PHO-LAM. 187 
 
 fellow, who became such an earnest worker in the 
 church that he was elected a deacon, which office he 
 has held for years, being highly esteemed for his 
 godly, consistent life. The old opium smoker has 
 been for years one of the pillars of the church, and 
 has exercised a very powerful influence over the 
 young men of it. The tragedies of his own life, and 
 the terrible scenes through which he has passed, 
 enable him to speak with a pathos and a power to 
 them that help them to resist the temptations that 
 still abound in that market town. One would never 
 dream, as he sits reading his large print Bible, that he 
 was once the low dissipated character, such as we can 
 see in the opium dens to-day. His face is now plea- 
 sant to look at. The Gospel has long ago taken the 
 fierce, bad look out of his eyes, and. has made his 
 manners gentle and loving. I delight to sit and gaze 
 at the old man, for he is a standing miracle to me, 
 and I never look at him without having instantly 
 before me the terrible picture of what he was when I 
 first saw him. There was no power in China, or in 
 all the world, that could have changed him into the 
 man that he is to-day, excepting the Gospel of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 The next conspicuous character that appears 
 amongst the early Christians of Pho-lam was a very 
 different kind of person from the opium smoker. He 
 was a tall, elderly man, thoughtful looking, and with 
 a dignified and serious manner. He was evidently in 
 a good position in society, as I could see by the way 
 he dressed. In our discussions with him regarding 
 the Christian religion, there were some questions 
 that were evidently a perplexity to him, and so we 
 
i88 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 had patiently to discuss with him until his difficulties 
 were removed. We found that by profession he was 
 a geomancer, and one of the most noted in all that 
 region. Geomancy is a system that has a tremend- 
 ous hold upon all classes of society, and is inter- 
 woven with the most cherished beliefs and the social 
 life of rich and poor. It is a popular and deep-seated 
 conviction that the place where the dead are buried 
 has a great deal to do with the fortunes not only 
 of those that are laid in the grave, but also of the 
 relatives that are still alive. This superstition goes 
 by the name of " wind and water." The air is sup- 
 posed to be filled with good and bad influences, that 
 are always bringing either prosperity or misfortune 
 to mankind. The mountains and the valleys have 
 concealed within them the mysterious dragons that 
 have the power, when properly utilized, of bringing 
 untold wealth and honours into a family. The selec- 
 tion of a site, therefore, is a matter of the greatest 
 importance, and very often rich men will lie unburied 
 for months, and even years, because of the difficulty 
 of securing a piece of ground that will meet all the 
 laws of geomancy. There is a class of men who 
 spend their lives in the study of these, and who are 
 employed by those who can afford it to select the 
 lucky spots for their deceased relatives. When a 
 thoroughly good place has been obtained, then, it is 
 believed, business will begin to prosper, sons will be 
 born in rapid succession in the family, the boys will 
 in time pass their examinations and become man- 
 darins, and the father and the mother will live to a 
 good old age, surrounded by their children and their 
 grand-children. If, however, the geomancer has been 
 
PHO'LAM. 189 
 
 mistaken as to the lie of the dragon, or to the evil 
 influences that come swirling round some mountain 
 peak and, unconsciously to him, have neutralized the 
 good ones that, according to all the laws of geomancy, 
 ought to be blrowing over the ground, then dire 
 disasters will be the result. The mother, for example 
 is buried in it. Not long after, there is a tremendous 
 fall in the market, and certain goods have to be sold 
 at a ruinous price, that seriously affects the fortunes 
 of the family. Trade never comes back again to the 
 firm, and customers go to others for their purchases. 
 One of the little ones is playing about in the court- 
 yard and falls into the open well and is drowned ; 
 one of the daughters suddenly falls ill a few days 
 before her marriage, and after a severe attack of fever 
 is carried off. The eldest son, who has been remark- 
 ably steady before, begins to associate with evil 
 companions ; he becomes an opium smoker, and a 
 rake ; he goes abroad like the prodigal son, but never 
 returns as he did, and rumours by and by reach the 
 old home that he has ended his life a dissipated, 
 ruined spend-thrift. All these disasters are traced to 
 the evil influences that are moaning and sighing over 
 the mother's grave on the lonely hill-side, and to the 
 baneful working of the dragon that has been offended 
 by some disregard of laws that affected its dignity or 
 its comfort. 
 
 After long discussions with him in regard to 
 Christianity, he one day said : " Now I am convinced 
 of the truth of your religion, I want you to baptize 
 me, for I wish to be a Christian." " Before I can 
 baptize you," I replied, " you will have to give up your 
 profession." This statement of mine seemed to com- 
 
I90 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 pletely stagger him. I remember well, how he drew 
 himself up in a stately dignified manner, and then, 
 with his whole soul put into his face, he leaned 
 eagerly over to me, and with tremendous emphasis 
 in his voice, he said : " Then you wish me to die ? " I 
 assured him that I did not, but he was too impressed 
 with the demand that I had made upon him to heed 
 my disclaimer. "You know," he continued, " I am an 
 old man now. I have made a good deal of money by 
 my profession, and I have lived very comfortably, 
 but I have saved nothing. I have been kind to my 
 poor relatives, and even now I have a nephew that I 
 am supporting in the town. You very calmly tell me 
 to give up my profession, but what am I to do for a 
 living, for beyond that I have no resources to fall 
 back upon } " I assured him of my intense sympathy 
 with him, and that I did not wish him to die. " I want 
 you to live," I said, " and not die. I want you, with all 
 your ability, and knowledge of the people here, to be 
 a member of this church, so that you may be a power 
 on the side of Christ. You must go away and pray 
 over the matter. You are now called upon to make 
 a great sacrifice, and you need Divine strength to help 
 you. Go home and think over the matter, and ask 
 God to give you the purpose and the strength to 
 carry you through this great trial." He went away 
 very soberly and very solemnly, with the shadow 
 of the coming sorrow on his face. As he passed 
 out into the street my heart followed after him. It 
 ached for him. Will he come back again } He has 
 come up to the very door of the kingdom, one step 
 more and he will be inside ; and now, after all our 
 discussions and our rejoicing over his confession of 
 
PHO-LAM. 191 
 
 Christ, he seems to be slipping out of our grasp. He 
 has gone out into the darkness to study amidst his 
 heathen surroundings this fundamental law of Christ's 
 kingdom, that if a man would be a follower of Christ, he 
 must be prepared to give up all for love of Him, that 
 in this great surrender Christ may be able to give 
 him back more than a hundred-fold more than he has 
 given up for Him. He has to face this, not as a 
 beautiful theory, but as a stern practical truth. The 
 question he has now to decide is whether, in obed- 
 ience to One whom he has known for but a few 
 months, he is willing to abandon a mode of liveli- 
 hood upon which he depends for his very subsistence, 
 and trust to Him for his daily food. Surely this is 
 a tremendous question to settle, especially for a man 
 who has just emerged out of heathenism, with none 
 of ^he long experiences that helo the Christian to 
 make great sacrifices. After a severe mental conflict 
 he returned to tell us his story. As I caught sight 
 of his face, I knew what the result was, and my heart 
 leaped for joy. " It is all settled, Mr. Macgowan," he 
 said to me, " but it has been after a terrible struggle. 
 The Lord has helped me to a decision, and now I 
 shall nevermore have anything to do with geomancy 
 as long as I live. But it has been no easy matter, 
 you know ; " and he bent his head towards me as he 
 said this in a lowered voice, and a troubled look 
 came over his face, as though he were again going 
 through the dread ordeal. " It is like cutting off my 
 right arm," he said ; and now there was a stern look 
 upon his face, and suiting the action to the word he 
 held up high his arm, and seemed to be cutting it off 
 with an imaginary knife. " But never mind," he con- 
 
192 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 tinued, " I am now old, and soon the sun will set behind 
 the western mountains, and ere long I shall be with 
 God, and it matters little what I have to suffer here." 
 As the old man went on talking, and his face became 
 illumined with the glow that this great sacrifice had 
 shed upon it, I looked upon him with intense admira- 
 tion. He was to me a grander hero than all the 
 heroes of romance, whose names have sparkled in 
 ballad and in story. His resolution was faithfully- 
 kept, though for some months he had to suffer 
 considerable privations. He became a doctor, and 
 travelled round the country selling medicines. It 
 was a long time before his reputation became so far 
 established that he could gain enough to meet all the 
 requirements of his daily life. I never heard him 
 complain, or express a single regret at the course he 
 had taken, neither did he ever hint that he had made 
 any special sacrifice for his faith. He always spoke 
 of the peace of mind he had obtained, and the joy 
 and comfort God had given him. The people in 
 the region around were amazed that he, so famous 
 a geomancer, should give up his profession. They 
 could not conceive why a man in his position should 
 give up a business that was bringing him in so much 
 money, simply because he believed in a certain set of 
 doctrines taught him by the foreigners. There must 
 be some foul play, or enchantment, they argued, 
 to make him act in such a mad, unreasonable fashion. 
 Not all the gods in China, nor all the teachings of 
 their Divine sages, could have moved a Chinaman to 
 do what he had done. They shook their heads, and 
 looked in wonder at each other, and finally put it 
 down to some mysterious and unearthly fascination 
 
PHO-LAM, 193 
 
 the foreigner possessed, and which they as good and 
 loyal citizens should be careful to guard against. 
 Many were the applications that he received to go on 
 the hill-sides and point out the lucky places where 
 the people might bury their dead ; but he refused 
 them all, though there were times when he sadly 
 needed the money that they were ready to thrust 
 upon him for his services. 
 
 The early growth of the Pho-lam church was rapid, 
 and it soon began to acquire a reputation for earnest- 
 ness and godliness that has clung to it to the present 
 day. It was very fortunate in the character of its first 
 converts. They were men who had profound faith in 
 the Gospel, and their lives were generally so consistent 
 that they made a deep impression on those that were 
 subsequently baptized. God was to them a reality. 
 He mingled in their lives. He gave them counsel in 
 times of sickness and sorrow, and He was a comfort 
 to them when they were oppressed by their heathen 
 neighbours. It \\»qs beautiful to see how soon these 
 men, that all their lives had been accustomed to dumb 
 idols, realized the presence of a loving Father in all 
 the details of their life. As the Church grew in num- 
 bers our anxieties and cares were proportionately 
 increased. A missionary's duties are remarkably 
 varied. They do not consist simply in standing in 
 the front of some temple, or in a retired nook off 
 some main street, and preaching to the crowds that 
 gather round him. Neither do they consist in hold- 
 ing certain services with the Christians, or in baptizing 
 converts. These are simple and delightful matters, 
 and are to me the very poetry and romance of mis- 
 sionary life. His duties include a wide field beyond 
 
 N 
 
194 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 these, that often cause him much perplexity, and if 
 he be of a sympathetic nature, much sorrow of heart. 
 He has to be a veritable father to his people, and he 
 has to listen to all their trials, and sorrow, and ex- 
 periences, and to comfort .them the best way he can. 
 A man, for example, becomes a Christian. His wife, 
 who happens to be the better man of the two, makes 
 his life an utterly miserable one. Six days of the 
 week he has no peace, and on the seventh, which 
 he has been looking forward to as one of rest and 
 enjoyment, which he will spend in the church, he 
 finds his clothes locked up, and himself condemned to 
 bed for the day. The poor man comes perhaps on 
 the Monday with a long face to tell his grievance. It 
 is a ludicrous one, and one has great difficulty in re- 
 pressing one's mirth, for, unfortunately, the comical 
 side will obtrude itself, though it is a very tragical 
 one for him. We comfort him and tell him to be 
 patient, and that in due time his annoyances will 
 cease, and perhaps his wife become a devoted Chris- 
 tian with himself. One sturdy looking Chinaman, 
 with the war look in his face, and an outstretched 
 brawny arm, says: " If she were my wife I should soon 
 settle her"; and he waves his hand in such a threaten- 
 ing way that we all know precisely what he means, 
 and so I say : " No, no ! we cannot allow that. 
 That is not the way to gain a woman's heart, neither 
 is it the method that Christianity permits us to em- 
 ploy." " Ah," he replies, with a dogged determined 
 look in his face, " that is all very well for you English 
 people, but it will never do in China. A man must 
 rule in his own home. Your ladies are educated, and 
 they have been brought up in Christian ways from 
 
PHO-LAM. 195 
 
 their childhood. Ours have not, and if you don't 
 rule them, they will think you are weak. They will 
 then take the reins into their own hands, and then 
 what will become of the authority of the husband } " 
 It requires a good many lessons before the Divine idea 
 in reference to women is learnt by such a man. 
 
 Or perhaps there has been a season of drought. 
 There is no water in the wells, the grass is dried up, 
 the rice in the fields has been scorched and withered, 
 and the sweet potato vines are blanched and dying. 
 The family are bearing it patiently, though you can 
 see they are pinched ; but they are proud, and they 
 don't like to have their poverty exposed. You can- 
 not stand by and see them dying by inches. You 
 must devise with the church some means for relieving 
 their distress. Or again, a preacher falls seriously ill. 
 In a few days he is dead, and his wife, who loved him 
 dearly, is so paralyzed by the shock that in the course 
 of a week or so she is buried by his side. The three 
 children that are left orphans are claimed by the re- 
 latives ; but as they are all heathen and intend to 
 bring them up as such, we decide to take the charge 
 of them ourselves. This is a grave reponsibility, for 
 they are all young, and it means long years of almost 
 parental anxiety for the missionary who has the over- 
 sight of them. The church nobly takes its share of 
 the onerous duty, but on him the chief burden falls. I 
 remember one day, after having spent a delightful 
 Sunday with a certain church, as the members were 
 pressing around me to say good-bye before they left 
 for their mountain homes, a woman with a child 
 strapped to her back, with a sad and tearful face, stood 
 before me. Her husband, who was a shy modest 
 
jgS CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 fellow, stood a little way off. " What is the matter 
 with you ? " I asked her. " Are you in sorrow ? " for 
 I was deeply moved by her look of distress. It 
 seemed that they lived in a village some two or three 
 miles away, and that they were the only Christians 
 in it. The annual festival in honour of the village 
 idol's birthday was soon to be held, and this Christian 
 man had been chosen by the villagers to arrange for 
 it, and preside over the religious services. He had 
 protested against this, and had informed the leaders 
 of the heathen party that, being a Christian, he abso- 
 lutely refused to have anything to do with the festival. 
 They had replied in vigorous, but far from polite, 
 language that he must either comply or leave the 
 village. They came to me to see if I could counsel 
 them what to do. I was perplexed. To appeal to 
 the mandarins was useless. They would give no 
 assistance to a Christian. To endeavour to touch 
 the hearts of the heathen by laying before them the 
 hardships they would bring upon the 'family, was a 
 hopeless task. I talked over the matter with the 
 Christians. They shook their heads. The village 
 was notorious for its lawlessness, they said, and they 
 feared n'one, not even their mandarins. They had 
 selected the Christian on purpose, just that they might 
 be able to expel him from their midst, for they had 
 come to the resolution that they would not tolerate 
 a Christian in their village. We could only counsel 
 them to remain firm, and commit their case to the 
 Lord ; and after they had been driven out we should 
 then consider how we were to sympathize with them. 
 Such cases as these are but samples of the many 
 ways in which the heart of the missionary is tried. 
 
PHO-LAM. 197 
 
 What renders it all the more distressing is that some- 
 times the trials are so severe that the faith of the 
 Christian gives way, and he abandons his Christianity. 
 The story of one of the members of this Church will 
 illustrate what I mean. Bi was a native of a large 
 village some three miles away from Pho-lam. He 
 was an itinerant seller of pork, which he used to carry 
 in two baskets slung from the ends of a bamboo pole, 
 which rested on his shoulder. To sell this he had to 
 rise very early in the morning. The dew-drops were 
 still upon the grass, and the fiery face of the sun 
 hidden behind the hills across the plains, when the 
 sound of his conch shell, the emblem of his trade, 
 could be heard as he passed from village to village 
 with his meat. Those who wished to buy for the 
 day would gather around his baskets, and amidst the 
 sounds of laughter that echoed through the great 
 banyan trees, they would make their choice. He was 
 a merry fellow and full of joke and jest, that made 
 him a universal favourite ; and besides all this, there 
 was no man in all the country side that could sing a 
 song so well as he. His business led him on fair 
 days to Pho-lam. Here he first listened to the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel. It made a deep impression upon 
 him, so that in the course of a month or two he had 
 completely broken with idolatry, and became a pro- 
 fessed disciple of Jesus. His father was exceedingly 
 indignant at this, and so also were the elders of the 
 village. These latter were specially concerned be- 
 cause Bi was indispensable in their idol processions. 
 When once a year with banners waving and sounds of 
 music the chief village idol was carried in procession 
 to have its spiritual powers rekindled at the fane from 
 
198 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 whence the sacred fire on Its own altar was first 
 obtained, Bi was a most prominent man in it. The 
 cymbals and the flutes were useless without his voice. 
 He would sing some stirring popular ballad that 
 would touch the hearts of his hearers, and the stream- 
 ing crowd would pass on merrily, and the strains of 
 music would rise more wildly, as his voice was heard 
 rehearsing the wondrous deeds of some ancient hero. 
 His loss was irreparable, for there was no voice now 
 left that could move the hearts of the crowd, or kindle 
 such enthusiasm as his ; and besides, his own village 
 would lose its proud pre-eminence over its neigh- 
 bours. No more would crowds gather on the out- 
 skirts of the village, by which the procession passed 
 so jauntily, to listen to the voice that was the chief 
 charm in it. His father was exceedingly bitter against 
 him, and formally complained of him to the village 
 elders. At the same time he authorized them to use 
 severe measures against him, in order to cure the 
 madness which he declared had come over his son. 
 Fortunately his wife remained neutral, for if she had 
 taken sides against him then his life would indeed 
 have been miserable. In the meantime Bi was be- 
 coming a great favourite with the Christians. He 
 was a genial, kind-hearted fellow, and would put him- 
 self out to any extent to help any one in need. As a 
 proof of their affection and faith in him, they elected 
 him to be a deacon, the duties of which he fulfilled 
 to the satisfaction of every one. This went on for 
 about four years, but the misery of his village life had 
 never ceased. Every time an idol procession was 
 organized, he had to fly from his home, and remain 
 in the church till the festival was over. About the 
 
PHO-LAM. 199 
 
 end of that time his business began to fail ; he had 
 lost his old popularity amongst the heathen, for they 
 looked upon him as a traitor not only to his gods, but 
 also to his country. His conch shell sounded as 
 usual, but neither it nor his merry laugh could bring 
 out the customers. He became dejected, and lost 
 heart. His father was as bitter as ever, and the 
 elders were not one whit more reconciled to his loss 
 than they were four years ago. Just at this time his 
 father, accompanied by the leading men of the village, 
 came to see him, and told him that if he did not 
 obey him and take part in the next procession, he 
 would be seized and put in a bag and thrown into 
 the river. He knew that this was no idle threat. He 
 had suffered four long years of persecution ; his busi- 
 ness had failed ; everything about him looked dark, 
 and so he gave way. He never went back to idolatry, 
 and though he once more sang the ballads in the 
 next procession, it was not in honour of the idols. 
 In the course of a few months he became so unhappy, 
 and so dissatisfied with himself, that he emigrated 
 and went abroad, and all knowledge of him has been 
 completely lost. He was greatly mourned by the 
 Christians, who loved him dearly ; and he is still 
 remembered to the present day with the most kindly 
 feelings by those who knew him best. Many years 
 have elapsed since he left us ; but my heart aches 
 when I think of the generous, manly fellow, whose 
 presence was always as sunshine in our midst. 
 
 The changes that have taken place since I first 
 visited this market town have been marvellous. 
 When we first reached it, there was not a single 
 person that, as far as we knew, had ever heard the 
 
20O CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 Gospel. We did not find one that had any idea of 
 what Christianity meant. The moral darkness of 
 the town was dense ; heathenism was universal, and 
 vice was running riot in it. The Divine story of the 
 Gospel was told in the midst of this impure life, and 
 hearts were soon touched by its beauty and pathos. 
 Men of heroic faith, who had to suffer much for their 
 confession of Christ, came within His influence, and 
 became the spiritual stones in the new temple. Some 
 who were built in less heroic mould, faltered and 
 failed under the tremendous strain to which their faith 
 was put ; and others, with nothing specially con- 
 spicuous about their life, have patiently carried out 
 the Christian virtues in the midst of their heathen 
 surroundings. Many other workers since then have 
 preached with power in this place, and the region 
 ' around, and have helped to build up the church that 
 has been established here. The mountains still look 
 down, as of old, upon the town with its gamblers and 
 opium smokers ; but they also look upon a Christian 
 community that assemble here for worship, whilst on 
 the river bank, and away across the plain, and at the 
 foot of the distant hills, four other churches have been 
 formed where men may learn the way of life. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONFUCIANISM, AND THE RESULTS OF MISSIONARY 
 WORK IN AMOY. 
 
 The greatest name in China for the last two thou- 
 sand years has been that of Confucius. Great kings, 
 and statesmen, and warriors, and poets, and famous 
 writers have arisen during that time, whose Hves 
 have been woven, as it were, into the warp and woof 
 of the history of the country, and whose memories 
 will never die out as long as China is a nation. There 
 is not one, however, of that vast array whose brilliant 
 deeds or words have flashed a glory upon the nation 
 that can be compared with Confucius, the great sage 
 of China. He stands pre-eminent as the man whose 
 " virtue is equal to heaven and earth,'* and before 
 whose shrine the ruler of three hundred millions of 
 people yearly bows and worships as a god. The 
 influence of Confucius touches every class of society, 
 from the highest to the lowest, for every Chinaman, 
 whatever else he may be, is a Confucianist at heart. 
 We meet some great scholar who has just taken 
 the highest literary degree in the empire, and who in 
 time will be appointed a Viceroy of one of the pro- 
 vinces, and we ask him whom he considers to be the 
 greatest teacher that the world ever saw. With a 
 surprised look, he instantly answers : " Confucius, of 
 course; who else could there possibly be?" He 
 
202 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 has studied his writings from his childhood. He 
 knows every sentence and phrase in them by heart, 
 and start him at any page in his works that you like, 
 
 he will go on from chapter to chapter without the least 
 hesitation or mistake till you choose to stop him. 
 Confucius is the only inspiration that he has ever 
 
CONFUCIANISM AND MISSIONS. 203 
 
 known. His thoughts have so permeated his life that 
 to dream even of having any original ones of his own 
 would be deemed an act of treason against the great 
 sage worthy of the severest censure. We stop at a 
 shop where the owner is sitting waiting for customers. 
 We step in and ask him if he is a disciple of the 
 great Confucius. He stammers out that the necessities 
 of business have prevented him from studying his 
 works with that care and attention that he would 
 have liked ; still he has not entirely neglected them, he 
 says. He then rises, and from a shelf he brings down 
 some volumes that look well thumbed, and sitting 
 down opens one, and glancing through its pages 
 chooses out some of his favourite passages. As he 
 reads, his eyes begin to glisten, his voice naturally 
 falls into a rhythmical chant, and his head sways from 
 side to side as though impelled by the great thoughts 
 that come to him from the page he is reading. He 
 becomes absorbed ; he forgets all about his business for 
 the moment, and though crowds pass by his door, he 
 heeds them not, for the spell of the words of the great 
 master is upon him. We step out again into the 
 street, and we come upon a coolie, hot and perspiring, 
 standing by the great load he has just laid down, and 
 we ask him what he thinks of Confucius. " He is 
 the great sage and teacher of China," he replies, as 
 he fans himself, whilst the perspiration rolls down his 
 face. " I never had the happiness," he continues, ** of 
 being able to study his works like our scholars, but I 
 have not entirely forgotten what I learned when I 
 was a boy, and I can still repeat many sentences from 
 his books. Confucius, you know," and here he be- 
 comes serious, and his fan is poised motionless in the 
 
204 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH f 
 
 air, " is the source of the learning and civilization of 
 China. Without him our country would have been 
 as barbarous as other nations, but to-day it is the 
 most refined and cultivated in the world." The 
 crowd, that has gathered round us, though com- 
 posed of working men, vigorously applaud this state- 
 ment. One voice after another is heard extolling his 
 virtues, and declaring that the world has never yet 
 seen his equal. 
 
 Confucius is the name that binds the empire into 
 one. His writings have moulded the thought of the 
 nation, and so enthralled its thinkers that no criticism 
 of them is permitted, and no other standard allowed 
 to be set up as of equal authority to them. Every 
 scholar in the country is so by virtue of his having 
 studied and mastered his works. He may have be- 
 come proficient in every art and science in the world, 
 but without a knowledge of them he will never obtain 
 the coveted degree that is to open up the way to fame 
 and wealth. As these scholars are the teachers of 
 the youth throughout the eighteen provinces, and, 
 moreover, occupy all the civil posts under govern- 
 ment, it may be easily imagined how the current 
 of thought and legislation is all Confucian. 
 
 The morality of the country is founded on the 
 writings of Confucius. Even in religion there is no 
 name so great as his. Buddhism after nineteen 
 centuries of trial is dead in China, and has become 
 lost in a mere system of idolatry. The Chinese don't 
 look to it for morality, and if you were to ask the 
 priest as he stands muttering before the wooden 
 image, which he considers the greater, it or Confucius, 
 he would, if he spoke what his heart felt, instantly 
 
CONFUCIANISM AND MISSIONS. 205 
 
 reply, the latter. It has no doubt seemed marvellous 
 that a people with such ability as the Chinese, and 
 with such a wealth of natural resources should have 
 remained stationary during so many ages, and that 
 their gaze should have been so persistently towards 
 the past. The fact is that time brings no growth to 
 the nation. The nineteenth century, which is near 
 its close with us, has not yet dawned upon it, but is 
 still far off in the future. For ages the grip of the 
 dead hand of Confucius has been upon the Chinese 
 people, and long has the nation waited for one 
 mightier than he who should unloose the fatal grasp 
 and set it free. 
 
 With such a complicated and far-reaching system 
 as this, one that touches the Emperor on his dragon 
 throne, and to a greater or less degree every subject 
 in his dominion, it would seem that Christianity 
 would never be able to get a footing in China, 
 for Confucianism and it could never exist side by 
 side. Only one could reign. Now quite indepen- 
 dent of our profound belief that the Gospel is to be 
 the religion of the whole word, there are features 
 about Confucianism that show conclusively that it 
 has failed in a popular sense to be the religion of the 
 people. It has no personal god, no future, no re- 
 deemer, and no answer to the thousand questions 
 that the heart is always putting. Such a faith must 
 in the long run inevitably fail. But even as a national 
 religion that has grown with the growth of the nation, 
 and whose roots are running throughout the whole 
 of society, there is one aspect of it that shows its 
 essential weakness. It has never yet touched the 
 real hea7't of the people. Confucius has hitherto 
 
2o6 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 failed in exciting personal enthusiasm for himself. 
 In all my intercourse with the scholars of China, 
 I have not met with one that showed any passionate 
 devotion for him. I don't believe there is a man in 
 China that would go to the stake for him, or that 
 would risk his life in any shape whatsoever for his sake, 
 as thousands to-day would willingly do for Christ. 
 His writings are cold and stately. They seem as 
 though they were cut deep into granite slabs, and 
 as we read, the chill from the stone drives out the 
 warmth from our hearts. There is no loving heart 
 beating behind them, no human sympathy, no tears, 
 no poetry. They never make our blood run faster, 
 or give us heroic thoughts ; never fire us with an in- 
 spiration that makes us nobler and better men. One 
 could never imagine an army, on whom the destinies 
 of China hung, going into battle chanting some of 
 his great sayings, and nerved by them to conquer or 
 to die. In times of danger or of sorrow, or in the 
 great crises of their national Hfe, the last name the 
 Chinese would dream of invoking is that of Confucius. 
 The great void in the nation's heart has yet to be 
 filled. Who can do that but Christ ? 
 
 Forty-five years have passed away since the Mission 
 was first established in Amoy. What experiences 
 have been crowded into those years ! Joy and sorrow 
 sunshine and storm, have marked their course. 
 Sometimes the heart has been gladdened with a 
 success so great that sanguine hopes have filled it, 
 that in a few short years the whole region would be 
 Christianized. Then disappointment would come 
 and dash these to the ground. Converts failed, and 
 men that seemed as though they had been chosen of 
 
CONFUCIANISM AND MISSIONS. 207 
 
 God went back to heathenism, and stopped the work 
 for years by their bad example. Then again the 
 Gospel asserted its Divine power, and churches were 
 formed, and men of heroic mould were elected of God 
 to be apostles to their own countrymen. By and by 
 the old heathen forces leagued together to stay the 
 kingdom of Christ, and social pressure was brought to 
 bear upon the Christians, and some unable to endure 
 the strain bent before the storm, whilst the spiritual 
 descendants of the men that in olden times went to 
 the stake and the lions rather than deny Christ, stood 
 firm, and thus proved themselves to be the true 
 church of God. In all these years the Church has 
 been steadily growing, until to-day it is a powerful 
 factor in the moral and spiritual life of the people. 
 
 The Mission has now twenty-four churches, twenty- 
 one of which invite their own preachers and pastors, 
 and pay their salaries ; one is supported by one of the 
 native churches in Amoy, and the other is partially 
 helped by the public funds at the disposal of the 
 Mission. In connection with these twenty-four 
 churches, there are twenty-two mission stations, ten 
 of which are sustained by the natives, whilst twelve 
 are aided partly by native funds and partly by money 
 sent from England. In addition to the above, there 
 are three preaching stations that were opened by the 
 Mission, two in 1888, and one in 1885. 
 
 Besides the above, there are seven churches in the 
 North River district. This work was commenced 
 only in 1883, so that the success there has been very 
 remarkable. Thus in all there are fifty-six churches 
 and preaching stations where men assemble to worship 
 God, and where the heathen can hear of the way of life. 
 
2o8 CHRIST OR CONFUCIUS, WHICH? 
 
 The total membership of these is 1,478 adult 
 members, 1,135 adherents, and about 400 baptized 
 children, and during the year 1888 they subscribed 
 for the maintenance of their preachers and pastors, 
 and for incidental expenses the noble sum of 3,783 
 dollars. I may add that the English Presbyterian 
 Mission, and the American Mission, have in connec- 
 tion with their churches a joint membership of 1701. 
 
 The story that has been told in the previous 
 chapters, and the statistics with which I now close 
 the book tell their own story. Which shall the 
 nation choose, Christ or Confucius ? Shall it be the 
 great sage whose chilly hand has held the nation 
 bound for all these ages, or shall it be the Son of 
 Man, whose heart throbs with sympathy for every 
 human being, and whose gentle touch, the inheritance 
 of the Church, brings hope and comfort to men to- 
 day ? Need we doubt what the answer will be ? 
 
 Butler & Tanner. The Selwood Printing Works, Froine. and London. 
 
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