The Foochow Choral Union

In the summer of 1901 the Rev. F. Ohlinger, of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, made the suggestion to me that in such a large Christian student centre as Foochow it ought to be possible to develop really good singing, and that we should aim at some kind of annual Choral Festival for which the schools should prepare.

We then determined to make an appeal to the leading Christian schools and colleges and ask them to co-operate and to take part in such a festival on the Easter Monday of 1902. We prepared one simple anthem for all the schools to practice and asked each school in addition to prepare a special piece of its own. The idea was very warmly taken up, and when the day arrived the largest church in Foochow, holding nearly 2,000 people, was completely crowded out. Three services were held on that first day, an effort which we have long since abandoned, and we were all fairly tired out when the day was over. But the festival had been a success. The music was very simple and entirely in unison, there was no separation between the choir and the congregation; there was no conductor and there had been no rehearsal beforehand and therefore there were many mistakes and much to be desired, but the Chinese were greatly pleased and it was generally felt that the movement was full of possibilities. It was therefore decided at the next united monthly prayer-meeting that a committee should be chosen of one lady and one gentleman from each of the three missions to arrange for a similar festival on the Easter Monday of 1903.

For the first few years the singing was entirely in unison and though there was a choir, it did not face the congregation.

We very soon, however, gave up the practice of each school singing a special piece: that was only done the first year and we saw how easily it would lead to rivalry and break down the thought of worship which we were trying to cultivate. From the first there has always been a short ten to fifteen minutes’ address on the resurrection and a few general hymns for the congregation.

With the advent of part singing and the choir facing the congregation a great advance was made and at last we have come to limit the choir to 150 voices, each school being allowed so many. This year sixteen schools took part, (eight girls’ schools and eight boys) and the greatest number of voices allowed to any one school was sixteen. Male voices in proportion are allowed to the senior schools, as they have naturally more voices capable of being trained and no voices are allowed to day schools. In addition to the general choir of 150 there is now a special choir of 132 voices chosen from the University (men) and the College Preparatory (girls). This special choir sings a special anthem and represents perhaps the high water mark to which our part singing has reached. We had two big anthems this year sung by the general choir, one of which “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem,” by Maunder, being quite difficult, and yet it was sung excellently, and with good expression. We are, of course, fortunate in having in Mr. Newell a very capable conductor and we were able this Easter to have three general rehearsals.

Another special feature of the Easter Festival of recent years has been the blind boys’ band. This band plays during the collection which adds greatly to the service.

It is necessary now to have two services each year, one on Easter Monday and one in another centre on the Saturday before Easter. Even so we have to limit the numbers attending each service to 2,000 by ticket, and it will be readily seen that a good deal of thought and organization is necessary.

For many years we struggled with debt, caused chiefly by printing our own music, but now we order music direct from home and then translate the English into Chinese and get each school to make its own copies with a Chinese pen. The collections each year amount to about $50 and this more than covers all the expenses of the festival, i.e., teas, platform, etc., and we have a balance at present of about $80 in hand.

The improvement in the singing here has been so marked since the Choral Union was started and the interest aroused in the Easter Festival has been so greatly especially in the schools, that I cannot help thinking that something on similar lines might be tried in almost all large student centres.

(By W. S. Pakenham-Walsh, first published in the Chinese Recorder of June 1919.)

Sowing the Seeds

His spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue… and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers… encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? Other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods; because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. - Acts xvii. 16-18.

In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. - Eccl. xi. 6.

Sowing the seed by the day-light fair,

Sowing the seed by the noon-tide glare;

Sowing the seed by the fading light,

Sowing the seed in the solemn night:

O what shall the harvest be?

What shall the harvest be?

In May, 1850, the Revs. W. Welton and R. D. Jackson arrived at Fuh-Chow as missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. The American missionaries, who had preceded them by four years, were not allowed to live inside the walls, but only at the suburb of Nantai. Through the intervention of the British Consul, however, part of a temple, on the Wu-shih-shan Hill, within the city walls, was assigned to the new-comers as a residence. This concession, which was obtained with difficulty, would probably have been soon lost but for the personal popularity quickly acquired by Mr. Welton, who having been a medical man of some experience, opened a dispensary, to which Chinese of all classes thronged. The literati, who had several clubs on the hill, where they met for discussion or worship, and in which students up from the country for their examination could reside for a term, took umbrage at the proximity of the missionaries, and having failed to prevent their occupation of the temple, resolved to turn them out. A series of petty annoyances began: the tiles of the roof were forcibly removed one night, and the garden door carried away; efforts were made to rouse the passions of the populace; and at last the priest of the temple, who was the lessee, brought to the Consul the quarter’s rent which had been paid in advance, and begged him to get rid of the obnoxious tenants. Nothing came of this, and though the excitement continued, some successful cures performed by Mr. Welton won the hearts of the people. But ultimately, to save the local officials who had ratified the agreement from the displeasure of the supreme authorities at Peking, to whom the literati appealed, the missionaries consented to remove to another temple, equally well situated, but not objected to by the literary class.

This difficulty, however, was but the first of many similar ones in the history of the Fuh-Kien Mission.

The ninth day of the ninth moon is a great festival, the principal amusement of which is the flying of kites, made in the shape of birds and insects, on that very Black-Stone Hill on which the temple was situated. During this festival, in the following year, 1851 (when it fell on November 1st), the crowd of holiday-makers attacked the premises, destroyed the furniture, and carried off all they could lay hands upon. Mr. Welton took refuge in the interior of the temple, and was kindly protected by the priest. A few months later, when he hired a Chinese house with a view of fitting it up as a school, the workmen employed in repairing and adapting it were so violently threatened by the literati that they had to desist; two literary men engaged to organise the school were seized by the authorities (acting, it was believed, under instructions from Peking, where reactionary counsels then prevailed), flogged, and cast into prison; and Mr. Welton was obliged to abandon his plan. A piece of land, however, was at length secured, upon which mission-houses and other buildings were erected; and for twenty-seven years there premises were occupied without molestation. How they had then to be abandoned will appear hereafter.

The spirit of the missionaries, like that of St. Paul at Athens, was from the first deeply stirred by the sight of a whole city “given to idolatry,” “full of idols.” Heathen processions and superstitious observances met their eyes on every side as they walked the streets. Mr. Jackson wrote (July, 1850): -

At this particular time of the year we can hardly stir out but we meet idolatrous processions. The gods are presented by immense pasteboard heads and bodies, with wooden arms, which are moved by strings. They are supported by men, who are covered with the long drapery flowing from the idols’ necks; opposite to the man’s face a hole is cut for the purpose of enabling him to see and breathe. It is enough to excite the smile of ridicule to notice the swaggering gait some of the men assume when they see the foreigner coming. Sometimes, as they can only see straight before him, in moving to one side of the way the idol’s head gets a blow, and on one occasion his crown got knocked off. The people are “mad upon their idols.”

Little missionary work could be done by men who as yet knew not the language; but Mr. Weltons’s dispensary, besides exerting a powerful influence in giving them favour in the sight of the people, was made a means of disseminating Gospel truth, a Chinese tract, directing the reader to the “True Physician,” being given to every patient; and as for three or four years from 2,000 to 3,000 cases were treated annually, the way of life must have been made known very widely by this instrumentality. From 1852 to 1855 Mr. Welton laboured alone, Mr. Jackson having been removed elsewhere; and his perseverance soon enabled him to converse with the people. Among the villagers of the surrounding country, the frequenters of the plays performed in the temples by strolling actors, the students who flocked to Fuh-Chow for the literary examinations, the sick for whom his visits as a doctor were requested, the lepers in he village allotted for their separate residence, the Tartar soldiers in their distinct quarter of the city, and many other classes, we find him mingling freely, with the message of salvation ever on his lips. Everywhere “the common people heard him gladly”; he travelled from place to place without molestation; and even the extreme shyness at first manifested by the women gradually wore off. Natives were also employed to sell or distribute Chinese Testaments; but being of course heathen, they proved untrustworthy. In 1854 Mr. Welton succeeded in starting a school, which was soon well attended. Among those who sought his medical aid were the victims of opium, both the smokers and the friends of those who took it to destroy themselves: -

Aug. 7, 1850. - I have had applications from all classes of Chinese to cure them of opium smoking. They have generally, the better class especially, a great abhorrence of it, and pray for medicine to cure them of the habit. Their abhorrence extends to opium dealers; and the missionary who boldly opposes and decries the practice has a greater hold on the affections of the people. I always insist on the opium pipe being given up before I give medicine, as a test of sincerity. I have about fourteen pipes in my possession. Two persons earnestly besought me afterwards to restore them their pipes, which I resolutely refused. One man brought two persons with him, and tried to coerce me into it, but he did not succeed. I called to-day to see a married woman who had taken opium with a view to destroy herself. This is the common means of suicide among the Chinese. I am generally called to the opium suicides early in the morning, at daybreak, for the opium is taken at night, and the friends do not know it until the following morning, when some hours have elapsed, and all hope of recovery is past.

This form of suicide is still common, and the missionaries have been frequently sent for, as Mr. Welton describes.

In June, 1855, after three years of patient sowing of the good seed alone, Mr. Welton was cheered by the arrival of two fellow-labourers, the Revs. F. M‘Caw and M. Fearnley; but in the following year his own health broke down, and he returned home to die. He entered into rest March, 1857, leaving a touching testimony to his love for the great cause in the shape of a legacy to the Society of £1,500. Meanwhile the young missionaries were hard at work upon the language; and one of Mr. Fearnley’s letters vividly paints the difficulties of the task: -

Learning the language with my teacher, word by word and sound by sound, and bringing every word into immediate use, in communication with my servants on domestic matters, or with the workers in wood and stone outside. Sounds have been my principal attention hitherto, practicing incessantly the vowel sounds and tones, so utterly unlike anything the English ear and tongue have been accustomed to in their native land. The organs of speech have to be called off from many of their old actions, and forced violently into perpetually new motions and combinations. Latterly I have looked a little to the character, and I have felt quite refreshed by this partial relief of my overtasked ears and tongue, and employment of my yet unlaboured eyes.

In less than eighteen months after their arrival, however, they were able to begin preaching in public, and before this they were actively engaged in going from place to place conversing with the people. We append an extract or two from their journals, as illustrations of the first attempts to set the message of salvation before the people of Fuh-Chow. Mr. Fearnley writes: -

Dec. 16, 1856. - Returned down the South Street towards my residence. As I had come up it, I had thought, “Well, this is too noisy and too crowded; one could not preach here; it would be a very good place, an admirable place, for a chapel; but one could not preach here in the open street; the press is too great, and the cries and noises too many.” These had been my thoughts on going up the street; but as I returned down it, a man, leaning over the counter of a wine shop, seeing my blue bag, said, “Have you books?” and, on my answering in the affirmative, rejoined, “Give me a volume.” By this time Iwas advanced close to his counter, and said to him, “But why do you want a volume? Do you know what doctrine it teaches?” “Yes, the doctrines of Jesus,” said he. “Well,” I said, “I will enunciate to you some of the doctrines of Jesus if you are willing to hear.” And, without giving him the book immediately, I began to tell him and his fellow-shopman and some bystanders outside, a few of the great and glorious truths which, rightly received, are able to make men wise unto salvation. Soon I heard a feeble voice close at my left hand, inquiring, in apparently earnest tones, whether Jesus was still alive; and, turning, found they proceeded from a very old and emaciated-looking man, who, by his pitiable poor and age-weary look, might reasonably put himself forward as one interested in a doctrine which spoke of a place where are the riches of everlasting pleasures, and where age and decay are unknown. Of course this question gave me an admirable starting point; and I declared to them, in no diffident terms I imagine, the eternal majesty of Him “who liveth and was dead, and, behold, He is alive for evermore.”

After taking some time at this spot, and gradually turning away from the shop to address more audibly the now greatly-increased crowd, I acceded to the proposition of a barber, who was plying his trade at my left hand, and whose business was somewhat incommoded by the numbers of my auditory, and mounted a low stone breastwork which he pointed out to me on the opposite side of the road. Hither came all my previous audience, and more added themselves besides, for their standing-place was larger. And here, in the main street of Fuh-Chow, for as long a time as my voice would hold out in that open and noisy place, did I continue to address them, stimulated every now and then by some question put to me by one among the listeners, and unfolding to them,  as well as my yet narrow vocabulary would permit, the fearful truths of judgment and eternity; and inviting them, while yet it was to-day, while yet the grave had not shut its mouth upon them, to seek the Saviour Christ Jesus. I gave only one book to a well-dressed literary-looking man at this place, besides the one, i.e., that I left in the shop where I began my discourse, for the crowd was so dense, and it was utterly beyond my power to put the books into the hands of those to whom I wished them to come, viz., the more educated-looking among them. It was very pleasing, however, to see how perfectly free they were from any inclination to violence. In the very midst of the uproar, when a hundred hands were uplifted, and a hundred voices were shouting for a volume, and man and boy were pressing forward, and almost tumbling one over the other, in their eagerness to get the first chance of the coveted treasure, immediately I said, quietly but firmly, that I would give no book more at that place, and proceeded to step down from my eminence among the people, they at once made way; not a hand was raised to take a volume from my bag. With the exception of a few who accompanied me along the street, talking quietly and courteously to me, they dispersed, and the stream of noise and talk and traffic resumed its usual current through the ever-busy South Street.

Turning out of the South Street, when a little beyond the Confucian temple, I walked leisurely on homeward, somewhat wearied and lowered in voice-power by my late exertion. But meeting several people with books in their hands, which I conjectured to have been given to them by my colleague, Mr. M‘Caw, and which, on examination, I found to be really so - meeting these, I could not forbear taking a volume from the hand of a young man who held it, and questioning him as to the doctrine it taught. This soon brought a crowd about me, and the conversation and address from me which ensued was to me the most pleasing I had been engaged in that day. The first person that markedly engaged my attention was a tall, handsome-looking, well-dressed young man, who undertook, it would appear, to roast me a little for the amusement of the bystanders. “And this Jesus,” he began, “if a man believes in Him he’ll go to heaven, will he?” “Yes, if he truly believes in Him, and so hates sin, which Jesus’ soul hateth, trusting to His merits only, he will go to heaven.” “Oh!” and a scornful smile played over his features the while, and I could see his side-look of ridicule to those beside him - “Oh! and what must we do if we believe in Jesus? what must we do? What must our course of conduct be?” There, I fancy, he considered that he had puzzled me, for his laugh was peculiarly joyous, and his side-wink to the bystanders exceedingly triumphant. But I told him that I would answer him very quickly if he would listen. “First,” I said, “let the heart within think good thoughts. Jesus knows the thoughts, and all those who profess faith in Him must purify their thoughts. Secondly, let the mouth speak good and holy words - no falsehood, no wicked, no reviling words. (Here the Chinese offend grievously.) Thirdly, let he hand occupy itself in good deeds, not in stealing, not in fighting, not in injuring men.” As I gave him these three divisions of the conduct to be observed by those who wished to believe in Jesus, his face became more serious. My positions were founded on principles which he himself and his countrymen could deny to be good. He turned his head and looked behind him when I uttered the first as if he were looking for somebody coming up in that direction; but really, if my thoughts misled me not, in a certain measure of disappointment that my answer gave him so little handle for ridicule. I called to him to listen to me again when he turned his head away, and gave him my second branch of Christian duty, and afterwards my third.

Another man, apparently a tradesman, brought an argument against both the power and benevolence of Jesus, and his scornfully and mockingly. Being of humble grade, his thoughts occupied with things material, he said, “I think that Jesus should make rice cheaper, that the people, now but scantily fed, might eat.” “Why,” I said, “if men were dealt with according to their deserts, it would be still dearer even than now.”

Thus is it then, in the back-room away from the street, on the front shop threshold, in the open glare and toil and bustle of the main street, in the by-lane, in the little bay by the street side, where a wall perhaps recedes and gives standing room, in each and every place, by God’s mercy, we are permitted and privileged to preach the everlasting Gospel.

Dec. 17. - It was curious to observe how much interest already had been excited in this part of the city. “Books, books,” was the cry everywhere; and I could hear one little boy repeating to a man with whom he was walking some of my remarks respecting the sin of using bad language in the streets. Many shouted, as I thought in ridicule, “Jesus,” “Jesus,” “Jesus is very high.” And, in addition to our common name of “foreign child,” I heard one person calling after me, “Jesus’ foreign child.” So that that wondrous name has already begun its progress here; now in shame and contumely, but to end, we hope, in the mouths of many at least in glory and reverence.

Dec. 20. - To-day again went down into the streets to repeat my small attempt at preaching. Once, during the morning, before I went down, the thought came before me so vividly of my exceeding inaptitude for such a work, my yet lamentably scanty stock of words, my still scantier power of idiomatic construction and sentences, my far from perfect utterance of the tones - joined with all which, too, I reflected on the exceeding dissimilarity of the modes of thought of the people of this land and of my own land - and the result of the whole on my mind was, “Oh, how can I go? How can I possibly stand there by a wall-side with a hundred staring Chinamen about me, and exhibit to them all my imperfections, and lay before them my uncouth modes of thought? How can I do this?” But yet, with all these thoughts, I did not for a moment say, “Shall I stay? Shall I omit to go?”

The next paragraph is from Mr. M‘Caw’s journal. He refers to what the missionaries have ever found the chief hindrance to their work, the opium traffic. Such scenes as he describes are still frequent, and sadly militate against the missionaries’ success. It may be stated here that in the Great South Street, not far from the printer’s mentioned by Mr. M‘Caw, there is now a chapel belonging to the Society.

Oct. 16. - Preached at the printer’s door, corner of Great South Street. When I had spoken some time, a smart-looking man asked me if I had any opium. “No,” I said, “I don’t use it, nor do the true worshippers of Jesus use it either.” “What countryman are you?” was his next question. “Englishman,” I answered. “And you do not smoke opium? Do not your countrymen bring it here?” He then turned to the crowd, with an air of triumph, raising his hand and shaking it aloft, soon enlisting all the audience on his side; and to make the scene more ludicrous - to say nothing worth of it - in the midst of all the confusion an old woman, apparently above sixty, came forward, and clenching her hand, shook it up at my face in desperate rage. I remained quiet for some time, until the noise abated; then I addressed them on the subject, and told them that I came here to teach them a religion which condemned all such evil drugs and practices.

Neither of the two brethren found any lack of willing hearers; but neither was spared to the Mission long enough to have the joy of seeing any of these hearers turning from idols to serve the living God. Mr. M‘Caw’s career in particular, though giving great promise of future usefulness, was a brief one indeed. His wife had been taken from him within a few months of her landing in China, and after two years’ faithful labour he too died of fever in August, 1857. Another two years saw the Mission deprived also of Mr. Fearnley, who was obliged by his wife’s illness to leave; and though in the meanwhile the Rev. G. Smith had arrived at Fuh-Chow, this again left the work to a single labourer unfamiliar with the language.

Long, however, before Mr. Smith could speak with any comfort or readiness, he was going in and out among the people, setting before them with a stammering tongue, but with the loving heart of a true missionary, the claims and the invitations of the Gospel. We have just seen the ordinary incidents of such work, and need not repeat them. But one passage in Mr. Smith’s journal is worth noticing, as it introduces us to a department of evangelistic work in Fuh-Chow, which must have severely tried both his patience and his moral courage.

In China, the honour attached to the attainment of literary degrees is extraordinary, and success in the examinations is an indispensable qualification, not only for official employment, but for social position. There are four of these degrees. The first, to attain which the candidate must pass three examinations, is called Siu-Tsai, or “Budding Talent.” It raises the possessor of it above the common people, and exempts him from corporal punishment, but it does not qualify him for Government employ. The second degree, called Ku-Jin, or “Promoted Man,” qualifies for the lower offices. The examination for it is held every three years, in all the eighteen provincial capitals; and there are generally from five to ten thousand candidates at each capital. The third, called Tsin-Sz, or “Advanced Scholar,” is the entrance to higher official life, and the examination, also triennial, is held only at Peking. The forth degree of Han-Lin, or, as it may be called, “Academician,” is only attained by the few who aspire to the highest posts, and is conferred with much ceremony at the imperial palace. The triennial examination for the second degree was held at Fuh-Chow in 1859, and the city was crowded with candidates from every part of the province of Fuh-Kien; and Mr. Smith resolved, if he could not speak intelligibly to these students, that he would at least distribute copies of the Scriptures at the door of the examination hall: -

Aug. 15. - This year the examinations for the Ku-Jin, or second literary degree, take place in this city. Consequently the place is crowded with reading men from every part of this large province, and it forms an admirable opportunity for spreading far and wide a knowledge of the truth. To-day we went down with a large number of copies of the Scriptures, to take advantage of the opportunity thus presented. After waiting about two hours, during which we engaged in conversation with the people standing about the place, and beating of a drum, a loud report produced by a kind of cracker, and the commencement of some very unharmonious music, announced the speedy exit of some of the anxious candidates, to each of whom we proffered a volume out of our treasures, and only in two instances were they declined. Some, getting one volume, came to us to complete the set. Besides ourselves, two American brethren were engaged in the same good work. Nor was Satan altogether idle; he had a servant there distributing short tracts concerning Kwang-Ing, the goddess of mercy, according to the Chinese. Another was endeavouring to procure merit by distributing perfumes to the scholars, including ourselves in his favours. Others were equally busy, perhaps even more perseveringly so, in selling tea and refreshments to the weary candidates.

Aug. 17. - Again distributing Scriptures to the literary men. It may be that many will not be read, many not even taken home; but if only one or two should be instrumental in turning an idolater from the error of his way, all our expenditure and fatigue will be more, far more, than repaid.

Aug. 19. - At the examination hall again with copies of the precious Word. Whilst waiting, we got into conversation with a literary man from Iong-Ping, a city about 110 miles further up the river. He had received books both from us and the American missionaries on a former day, and commenced his conversation by remarking on their contents. Thus one instance came to our knowledge in which our books had received some attention. Perhaps this man, on his return, may read the strange books to others, and thus the seed of life be introduced into his far distant city.

Aug. 21. – Again at our post, though a wearisome work, and one from which no immediate result is to be anticipated. Yet we feel it our duty and our privilege to sow the seed, leaving it perchance to others to reap the harvest. On this occasion many of the candidates under examination belonged to the city. This drew a large crowd of their friends to the place, which rendered our work much more difficult. This time, too, it was quite dark before the doors were opened, which added to our task, by making it more difficult for the candidates to see the offered books, and for us to distinguish them from the crowd; and at last, fatigued and exhausted, we had to wend our way home without quite emptying our baskets.

The following additional entry in his journal takes us behind the scenes with regard to these examinations: -

Aug. 26. - At the beginning of this month my teacher complained of weakness from the excessive heat, and expressed his inability to come for the whole day, proposing to come but half the day and receive but half pay. Knowing the Chinese greediness for money, and feeling the effects of the heat myself, I supposed him to be sincere, and consented to his proposal. After a few days his eyes became very bad, and he was unable to come at all. This, too, is a very common ailment among the Chinese, and did not excite my suspicion. But at the end of the month I was surprised by an unblushing confession, entirely unasked for, that he had got permission to stay away in order to write minute copies of the Chinese classics for the use of men going into the examinations, for them to secrete in their clothes, and this had made his eyes bad. This man has been with missionaries now about eight years, and is in the habit of explaining the Scriptures to our people. We have every reason to fear that his heart is thoroughly seared against the truth, yet are obliged to retain him in order to get a knowledge of the language. This is not the least of a missionary’s trials.

Ten years had now elapsed. Diligently and prayerfully had the sowers scattered the good seed over the Happy City and the surrounding valley. But while year after year the fertile and well-watered plain yielded its earthly produce to the labours of the agriculturist - while the rice and the tobacco and the sugar-cane flourished, and crop after crop was gathered in - while the countless chests piled up on the wharves for export showed that the tea plantations, too, in the uplands failed not amply to reward the cultivators - the spiritual husbandman waited, and waited, and looked in vain for any sign that the seed of the kingdom had even taken root, much less was springing up. The people were hearers, indeed, and willing hearers, but they were wayside hearers. The Gospel grain fell upon hearts not only naturally hard, but trodden over by the petrifying tramp of superstition, and ignorance, and vice.

But how was it that the earth yielded its increase in regular and unchanging order? Was it not because He whose power alone gives “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness,” had given His Divine decree that “while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease”? And if the same God has also promised to the spiritual sower that “in due season he shall reap, if he faint not,” would not the very fact that the one promise was fulfilled before the eyes of the missionaries year by year be assurance to them that, in the Lord’s time, the other must needs be fulfilled also?

And so it was. Though sickness or death had removed Welton, and M‘Caw, and Fearnly, and the wives of the two latter, the new-comer, Mr. Smith, “fainted not,” and “in due season,” as we shall see, he did reap.

’Mid the tread of many feet,

’Mid the hurry and the throng,

In the burden and the heat,

Have the working hours seemed long?

Softly the shadow falls,

And the pilgrim’s race is run;

While through celestial halls

Resounds the glad “Well done!”

Well worth the daily cross;

Well worth the earnest toil;

Well worth reproach and loss,

The fight on stranger soil!

Let us lift our hearts and pray,

And take our journey on;

Work while ’tis called to-day

With the thought of that “Well done!”

> Author of Copsley Annals.

Fret not for sheaves; a holy patience keep;

Look for the early and the latter rain,

For all that faith hath scattered love shall reap.

Gladness is sown: they Lord may let thee weep,

But not one prayer of thine shall be in vain.

> Anna Shipton.

(Second chapter of The Story of Fuh-Kien Mission of the Church Missionary Society by Eugene Stock, published in 1890.)

The City of Fuh-Chow

Say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty... Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee, ... and they shal draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom. - Esk. xxvii. 3, xxviii. 7.

The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. - Eph. vi. 17.

I cling to yon crowded city,
Though I shrink from its woe and sin.
> Bonar.

If we sail up the south-eastern coast of China, from Hong-Kong, we come about four hundred miles further to the mouth of a large river named the Min, which with its tributaries, waters nearly the whole of the great province of Fuh-Kien, comprising a territory nearly as large as England without Wales, with a population of probably twenty millions. Let us in imagination ascend this noble stream.

As we approach the mouth, steering cautiously through a somewhat intricate channel between picturesque little islands, lofty granite mountains rise before us, and between their almost perpendicular precipices we enter the narrow channel of the Min. Further on, where the gorge widens a little, Chinese villages nestle at the foot of the cliffs, or crown the lower spurs of the mountains, each with its watch-tower rising conspicuous above the low houses; and here and there a hill-torrent leaps from the precipice into the valley below. Signs of Chinese industry meet the eye on all sides, every terrace or ledge of rock being assiduously cultivated. After threading another narrow passage, with columns of rocks on either side piled up to a height of a thousand feet, we emerge into a fertile valley eight or ten miles broad, in the midst of which, ten miles further up the river, stands Fuh-Chow, the capital of the province. As we approach the city, the loftiest peak in the surrounding mountain chain rises on our right. It is called Kushan, or the Drum mountain, and its summit, which is 3,900 feet high, is occasionally, in the depth of winter, white with snow for a few hours. In a hollow at the foot of the peak, and about 2,000 feet above the plain, is a famous Buddhist monastery, a favourite retreat for the foreign residents in Fuh-Chow in the hot season; and within its hospitable walls our missionaries have frequently been thankful to take refuge from the almost intolerable atmosphere of the city.

The thickening forest of masts, both of Chinese and of smaller foreign vessels, and the numerous boat-building yards lining the river bank, warn us that we are nearing the capital; and presently a rough but massive bridge, built of enormous blocks of granite, and no less than a third of a mile in length, stretches across the stream. This the Wan-show-Keaou, or bridge of ten thousand ages. On our left, as we approach it, is the populous suburb of Nantai, where, on a rising ground, stand the houses of the European merchants. The city lies away to the right, approached from the bridge by a narrow winding street nearly three miles long. Let us land at the bridge and traverse this pattern of a Chinese street, with our eyes wide open while our guide explains to us the many curious sights that are to be seen.

What a busy and confused scene! How quickly the thronging crowds move to and fro! Yet there are few accidents, and little or no wrangling. We have been told that the people of Fuh-Kien are more turbulent and independent than most Chinamen; and we were prepared, on the other hand, for a certain amount of order from a people so tenacious of forms and ceremonies; but here we find apparent disorder and yet no disturbance - a crowd of avaricious tradesmen pushing their business with the utmost consideration for those around them. The road is very badly paved, and we are thankful that we have to step into the deep holes and over the dirty heaps in the dry season. In wet weather we should prefer to occupy the sedan chairs in which wealthy citizens are borne on the shoulders of their servants.

Let us enter one of the houses. At first sight they seem to be built with their backs to the front, but we find that we are really looking at the front, and that the door is the only opening to the low one-story shed in which these wonderful people crowd, more like hens in a fowl-house than like human beings. The doors, which are sometimes oval of leaf-shaped, are placed so as not to be opposite to each other, in order to inconvenience the evil spirits which this clever people dread so much. The shop front is open with a double counter, so that the proprietor may serve in the street as well as in his shop. The foundations are of stone, the frame-work of wood, and the walls of lath and plaster, though sometimes of mud; the roof alone shows by its shape the tented origin of the building. Each tradesman erects a tablet to one of the gods that preside over mercantile transactions, before which he burns incense sticks twice a day. As we return to the street we inquire the name of the tradesman who has so politely shown us his premises, and our guide points to a sign of some seven feet in height, containing his name, and a motto, “Mutual Advantage.” Next door we see an enterprising firm trading under the title, “Rising Goodness,” and so on all up the street.

As we approach the city gates, it seems as if some calamity within the walls had compelled the whole population to migrate into the suburbs, and to do their business in the open air, for here we see not only travelling fruiterers, pastrymen, cooks, and vendors of gimcracks, but blacksmiths, tinkers, and shoe-makers too. We are not surprised to see a bookseller’s stall, but we are not prepared for a migratory banker or chemist and druggist, who, one would suppose, must necessarily settle in a fixed place, that we may know where to find them. We are considerably amused by the sight of a placid Chinaman having his head shaved in a quite nook of this fancy fair. We are not surprised to learn that a wise and paternal government compels them to submit to this trying operation, and that those who rebel against the Tartars, who have ruled for more than two centuries, let their hair grow, and cut off their queues. It is very easily seen that nothing but duty would cause them to put up with such a continual affliction. As we proceed, we miss the rows of gas lamps to which we have been accustomed, but if only we could be here at the time of the “Feast of Lanterns,” we should find much more to admire in the effect produced by the lighting up of a vast number of paper lanterns, of all sizes and shapes and covered with all sorts of devices.

And now we meet with several tradesmen whose business we cannot comprehend - chiromancers, fortune-tellers, and choosers of lucky days. The dentist hangs round his neck a ghastly string of grinders and fangs as evidences of his skill; but what testimonials shall we require before we do business with the gentleman “who chooses lucky days”? And yet he does a good business, for no Chinaman can be married, or buried, or take any important step, except on a lucky day. The Chinaman, with all his shrewdness and ability, is as much a slave to his superstitions as the most degraded negro.

But what is this procession of gaily dressed folk coming down the street with gongs beating and fireworks cracking? The white dresses notwithstanding, there is a sad look about the people forming the procession. It is a funeral party. This is their lucky day for carrying the dead parent to his last home. All the rites have been performed, and the widow and children are sadly wending their way to a small knoll in the country, there to lay their loved one down in the hope that if they continue to pay the required subscription, the departed one will wander about in the world of spirits, clothed and fed and supplied with ready money. That is all.

The Buddhist or Taouist priest tells them nothing of a Day of Judgment, nothing of a Heaven; without hope himself, he gives them none. These busy thronging multitudes literally have no religion that will influence their lives in the present, or give them hope for the future. They have no God; they are given up to selfishness; they carry on their trade without any day of rest; they are told that their profits will be larger if they burn incense before certain idols, and that their luck will be better if once a year they observe certain ceremonies which bear a semblance to idolatrous worship, and so they do as they are advised. Their God is Self, and the only objects of worship they at all care about are their ancestors.

They may call themselves Buddhists, and summon the Buddhist priest to conduct every domestic religious ceremony; or they may profess Taouism, and pay some homage to its multitude of divinities; or if they belong to the literary classes, they will hold both Buddhists and Taouists in contempt, and hold proudly to the moral maxims of Confucius; but whichever of the three national religions may claim them as adherents, their real faith, such as it is, is in the ancestral worship which prevailed in China long before Confucius taught the five cardinal virtues, or Taouist austerities and magical ceremonies were thought of, or Buddhism covered the land with temples and pagodas, convents and monasteries, priests and nuns. Go into any house we may choose, everywhere we shall find the ancestral tablets - pieces of board twelve inches long and three broad, each with the name, rank, and date of birth and death of the person it commemorates. Is it a rich man’s house? There is a hall set apart for the tables. Is it the hovel of the poor? They adorn a special shelf in the single room. Before these ancestral tablets are prayers and incense offered, especially on the 1st and 15th of the month. It is the worship of the dead.

Before we reach the gate of the city we are to witness another procession peculiar to China. A number of porters carrying various articles of dress and household furniture are parading the street, ostentatiously displaying a bride’s contribution to the furniture of her future home. We do not see the bride herself in her gay marriage chair on her way from her old home to her new one, but we know that she is entirely giving up her own family and joining that of her husband. She will live with their parents, for it is a common thing to find three generations living together in tolerable peace and harmony.

As we enter the southern gate we notice a curious sight - a basket carrier collecting something which he evidently values very highly, and which we are surprised to learn are only scraps of waste paper with the Chinese character written on them. They have been taught by Confucius to venerate the written character, and therefore they collect the paper in this way to be afterwards carefully burned.

We partake a slight refreshment at one of the curious bamboo stalls, which does duty as a cookshop, and provides warm and tasty rice puddings and hot tea at all hours of the day, and then, passing on through the city, we catch sight of a European face in a room used as a temporary chapel by the side of this teeming highway. And now for the first time do we thoroughly appreciate the difficulties of a missionary to the Chinese. There stands the missionary, in a conspicuous garb, speaking with difficulty, in a language he has been learning for several years, to a people who are worldly above all others, thoroughly conceited, believing in their own wisdom, and filled with contempt for the poor “foreign devil,” as he is frequently called; taught from their earliest childhood to venerate all that he condemns, and to despise all that he teaches to be good and right, while the slightest disposition to heed the things that be of God is the signal for persecution from every relative and friend he has. How can we expect him to hear and embrace the saving truths of the Gospel? Yet in spite of all this, we see here, supporting the words of the foreigner, a Native catechist and a Native pastor, whose sincerity none can doubt, to whose honesty the suspicious and distrustful Chinese are themselves ready to bear witness. The sight lends vigour to our steps, and we continue our journey to the Mission premises with a lighter heart and with renewed hope.

Presently we arrive at the highest bit of ground in the city, called the Wu-shih-shan, or Black-Stone Hill, and on this, amid pleasure-grounds and temples, we should have found, until lately, the Church Missionary Society’s Mission buildings. Why we shall not see them there now will appear further on.

From the summit we survey the whole town; and the surrounding plain, to the foot of the mountains, and extending north and south twenty miles, is spread before us like a map. It is a fine sight. The city indeed, though it is frequently spoken of by the Chinese as the “Banyan City,” owing to the many trees of that name to be found growing in the town, is not very picturesque. It appears “like a solid mass of murky roofs,” the streets being too narrow for us to distinguish them from the elevation on which we stand. Here and there lofty ornamented poles or walls of a bright red colour rise above the houses, and mark the temples and the Mandarin dwellings. But beyond the walls, which are seven miles in circumference, and broad plain, encircled by the mountains, intersected by canals, studded with rural villages, temples, and fish-ponds, and richly cultivated, affords a beautiful prospect. Facing the north-west, where the Min emerges from the mountain range, we are looking in the direction whence come the two great staples of Fuh-Chow commerce, timber and tea. The famous black tea district of Bohea (so called from a mountainous chain of that name) lies beyond those hills; and wood of many and varied kinds - comphor-wood especially - abounds up the course of the river. Mr. Wolfe thus refers to this view, and the thoughts suggested by it, in a letter written in 1863, soon after his arrival at Fuh-Chow: -

Hill rising behind hill, in beautiful order, form the extensive plain into a natural and most magnificent amphitheatre. Looking down upon the city, with its 600,000 inhabitants inside the walls, fills the mind of the spectator with thoughts and feelings which can be realised only by himself. The whole city is seen from our door,* so that we can never go out or come in without being reminded of the vastness of our work, and our own want of strength to accomplish it. The entire beautiful valley of the Min lies spread before our eyes; the river itself, flowing noiselessly along, having its surface enlivened with crowds of boats - the various plots of ground formed by canals which pass through the vale - the crops of rice and wheat waving in the sun - the clumps of trees and hamlets scattered irregularly over the plain, with a grave or a mausoleum occasionally attracting the attention, and reminding one the death is the same everywhere.
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* In the engraving, the hill in the left foreground is Wu-shih-shan, or Black-Stone Hill. About the left centre of the picture, on this hill, will be observed a white wall; behind it a house with a slightly gabled roof looking as pagoda. This wall surrounds what used to be the C.M.S. Mission compound; and the house was the original mission-house, afterwards burnt down, but replaced by a new one built by the late Rev. J. E. Mahood. To the right, but lower down, and almost exactly in the centre of the picture, is another English-looking house, which was used as a girls’ school, and as the residence of the Native Pastor, the Rev. Wong Kiu-taik. Between the two houses, and a little behind, is a large Taouist temple. Another hill, crowded with buildings, will be seen in the background, with a famous pagoda half-way up it. Just beneath this pagoda, between the two hills, a building stands up from the mass of houses: this is the city gate, the lower ground to the right being the suburbs.

If the sight of a single city overwhelms the missionary with the vastness of his work, as well it may, what must be his feelings as he thinks of the great province of which it is the capital, with its twenty millions of souls - not to speak of all China, with its four hundred million - spread out beyond! Fuh-Chow means “the happy city”, and Fuh-Kien “happily established”; and certainly, with their diversified scenery, their rich produce, and their industrious people, the city and the province only need the Gospel - the Fuh-yin or “happy message” - with its blessed provision of grace and pardon, life and peace, to make them indeed abodes of true happiness. How the Fuh-yin was carried to Fuh-Chow, and from city to city over the mountains and valleys of Fuh-Kien, will be told in subsequent chapters.

Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could dwell

Amid that dreary glare, in this world’s citadel?

But ...

... be ye sure that Love can bless

E’en in this crowded loneliness,

Where ever-moving myriads seem to say,

Go - thou art nought to us, nor we to thee - way!

> Keble.

Come, O Thou all-victorious Lord,

Thy power to us make know;

Strike with the hammer of Thy word,

And break these hearts of stone.

> C. Wesley.

(First chapter of The Story of Fuh-Kien Mission of the Church Missionary Society, by Eugene Stock; Third edition published in 1890.)

The Mission Cemetery of Fuh-Chau

DR. WENTWORTH, one of our missionaries at Fuh-Chau, has sketched, and the artist has finely engraved for us, a beautiful picture of a far-distant spot, around which, to every lover of the Redeemer and of his cause, there gathers a melancholy interest. It is the cemetery of Fuh-Chau, where quietly sloop five precious American female missionaries, who counted not their lives dear unto them, if they might win Christ and be found in him. Let us retire to this beautiful and silent vale of death, and read its touching and inspiring history.

Fuh-Chau is one of the five cities of China opened to foreign residence and commerce by the treaties of 1842. It is the capital of Fuh-Kien, one of the richest and most enterprising provinces of China, possessing a territory of 67,000 square miles, and a population of 16,000,000, of the most hardy and adventurous natives of the empire. Fuh-Chau, the provincial city, is situated about five hundred miles up the Chinese coast from Canton, and till recently was only accessible to the foreigner through the Portuguese lorchas –  small, schooner-like crafts, owned and manned mostly by the Portuguese of Macao, and by which is conducted a lucrative, but dangerous and adventurous trade in conveying or guarding native junks along the Chinese coast, to preserve them from the attacks of native pirates, with which all parts of the China sea are infested. In the summer of 1851 we chartered one of these little vessels at Hong-Kong, and a voyage of eight days along the bold and barren coast of China, brought us to the outlet of the river Min. About three o’clock In the afternoon, while a clear sun poured its flood of golden light over the beautiful scenery which skirts the embouchure of the river, we suddenly tacked about from our course and bore into the river, winding our way through a picturesque group of islands called the “White Dogs” and “Five Tigers,” which seem like savage sentinels guarding the entrance of the river.

The scenery of the Min inspires universal admiration. Travelers have frequently compared it to the picturesque scenery of the Rhine; but Americans find a better comparison in the bold scenery of the Hudson, which it equals in grandeur, and surpasses in the beautiful blending of rich lowlands, cultivated fields, and tributary streams. Sweeping along the winding river for about thirty miles through this enchanting scenery of towering mountains, terraced hills, cultivated fields, and quiet villages, all glittering in the light of a southern sun, softened by the rich verdure of tropical vegetation, we enter the beautiful amphitheater, skirted on all sides by irregular, broken mountains, under the shelter of which lies embosomed the city of Fuh-Chau. As we approach the city, the banks of the river on both sides are lined with boats – hundreds of small sam-pans, or row-boats, and large vessels more permanently located, which serve as residences for their owners. These water residences are one of the striking features of Chinese life, and are found in all parts of the empire. The river population of Fuh-Chau must amount to several thousands, born, and reared, and spending their lives on these little boats. The stream is also occupied by hundreds of junks of all forms and sizes, from the massive, unwieldy vessels of Shantung to the neat, little, black-painted crafts of Ningpo. In the center of the river lies a large island called Tong-Chiu, or “Middle Island,” connected with the banks of the river, on each side, by stone bridged, and densely covered with buildings, and occupied by busy, thriving multitudes, numbering several thousands. Several native official residences are found on this island, and formerly it was occupied by three mission families.

On the south side of the river is a large suburb called A-to, divided into several districts, and stretching for some two miles along the river bank. In the lower part it expands over the level plain, presenting a mass of buildings and a dense population, with some of its streets stretching far back toward the rice-fields of the country. Throughout the greater part of the length of this suburb the ground rises from the bank of the river into broken hills, the faces of which are occupied with buildings and numerous temples, and the summits fringed with pine and fir-trees. Stretching for miles among those hills, in the rear of the population, is the city of the dead, the principal burying-ground of Fuh-Chau. Here we may wander for hours among thousands of tombs of every size, from the small conical mound, covered with hard plaster, beneath which rest the remains of the humble poor, to the spacious, well-paved, and ornamented monument, covering an area of several hundred square feet, which indicates the resting-place of wealth and importance. Here, too, in a little secluded vale, covered with grass, shaded by clusters of olive and guava-trees, marked by its simple, granite tombs, differing from the thousands around them, and only separated from these curious graves of the natives by some clusters of shrubbery, is the “Mission Cemetery of Fuh-Chau,” where sleep in the calm repose of death those precious ones whose memory we here preserve.

Circumstances have fixed this suburb as the chief residence of foreigners at Fuh-Chau. It was at once occupied at several points by the missions – in the district of Tuai-Liang by the American Board mission, and in the district of Chong-Seng by the Methodist Episcopal mission. The whole force of the Methodist mission is now located on a healthy, elevated spot, overlooking the whole vast suburb, and commanding a magnificent view of the whole “happy valley” of Fuh-Chau. In addition to the ordinary Chinese chapel and school-house located here, this mission has recently completed on the main street of this district, a neat Anglo-Chinese chapel, designed for both English and Chinese service. At Tuai-Liang are the house and chapel of the lamented Cummings, who has gone to his reward and sleeps beneath the soil of his fatherland. They are now occupied by Mr. Hartwell and family.

On the north bank of the river lies another still more extensive suburb, stretching along the stream for a mile above and below the bridge, and reaching back a distance of nearly three miles to the walls of the city. In some places it spreads out to a great distance over the plain, and in others is contracted to the single winding street leading to the city gate. A population of perhaps a hundred thousand occupies this suburb, and it presents one of the most busy and interesting scenes about Fuh-Chau. Stores, shops, factories, markets, banks, temples, arches, and public buildings are found in abundance, and the main thoroughfare, which connects the whole suburb with the city, is thronged from morning till night with a busy, noisy multitude.

In a very fine elevated locality in this suburb, called Pona-Sang, two missionary families of the American Board have fixed their residences, and near them, on the thronged thoroughfare, their chapels and schools. Here, too, the Methodist Episcopal mission has a center of operation in the district of Iong-t’au; and in still another part of the vast suburb, this mission has completed, and recently dedicated to the worship of the “true God,” a very neat and commodious church, the first erected in Fuh-Chau.

Leaving this great suburb by passing through the south gate, we enter the city proper – a vast and densely-crowded metropolis, spreading over an area of many square miles, encircled by a massive stone wall nearly nine miles in circuit, flanked every few rods with towers and bastions. The best bird’s-eye view of the city is to be had from the Woo-Shih-Shan, “Black Stone Hill,” a dark, rocky eminence in the north-western part of the city, which rises first by a gentle acclivity, and then by a steep and abrupt ascent, till its dark summit, crowned with an altar and the implements of idolatrous worship, towers above all the surrounding city. From this point may be contemplated one of the finest views in China, embracing the whole vast amphitheater encircling Fuh-Chau, bounded on all sides by the broken, irregular mountains, intersected by the winding branches of the river and numerous canals and water-courses, dotted every here and there with little hamlets and villages, animated by the wide-spreading city and its suburbs, and beautifully relieved, in many places, by large paddy-fields and cultivated gardens, all luxuriant in tropical vegetation. On the left, at the foot of the hill, lie the romantic and picturesque grounds formerly occupied by the British consulate, and on the right the bold eminence on which, after many a struggle, the mission of the Church of England succeeded in establishing itself, where its buildings rise above all the plain, as a city set upon a hill.

At your feet lies the populous city of Fuh-Chau, with its seeming masses of living idolatry. Only a few buildings rise above the general level of low, one-storied dwellings, which spread over the plain like a sea of tile and roofs. Two pagodas lift themselves up within the city wall, and, towering high above all surrounding buildings, are prominent objects to the eye. Here and there the eye is arrested by the comical joss-poles, which indicate the residence of the mandarins of the city, and again by the bright-red color of some more massive buildings, which bespeak the localities of the various temples scattered over the whole city. The city is richly supplied with large, wide-spreading shade-trees, which, rising above the buildings, and spreading their verdant branches over the roofs, gives the city the appearance of being embosomed in a vast grove. But, the noise and din perpetually ascending from below, soon convince us that it is not a grove of solitude, but is animated by a full tide of population. Such is the city of Fuh-Chau as it presents itself to the eye when contemplating its vast outlines. Let us pass to a brief review of its missionary history.

Fuh-Chau was scarcely known to foreigners before the treaties of 1842-’44. It was even but little disturbed during Anglo-Chinese War, which preceded those treaties. It had been, however, for several years a profitable depot for the opium traffic – two extensive British houses having their receiving ships stations at the mouth of the river, and their agents residing in the suburb of the city. Through the influence of these houses it was chosen as one of the ports opened to foreign trade and residence by the treaties, and was immediately occupied by a British consular establishment. Some years, however, were permitted to pass before this vast city attracted attention as a place of trade or a desirable point for missions. In 1844 the Church Missionary Society of England sent the Rev. George Smith, now Bishop of Victoria, for the express purpose visiting the open ports of China, and reporting on their comparative claims and feasibility as mission stations. In December, 1845, Mr. Smith reached Fuh-Chau, and spent nearly a month in exploring the city and its suburbs, and in investigating the question of its eligibility as a point for missionary action. Mr. Smith was at once convinced of the importance and promise of this great city as a missionary field, and strongly recommended it to the Church Missionary Society for immediate occupancy. Its favorable situation, and its vast resources as a place of foreign trade, were only partially made known by this visitor, whose great business WAS to discover fields for missionary activity; and, consequently, several years more passed before the advantages of this city were discovered and made available for foreign commerce. It now promises to become one of the most important centers of foreign trade. On the second day of January, 1846, the first Protestant missionary entered Fuh-Chau. This honor belongs to Rev. Stephen Johnson, who had already been laboring for several years among the Chinese at Bangkok, in Siam, and who, as the Chinese at Bangkok were from the province of Fuh-Kien and spoke that dialect, was thought to be an available pioneer, and was directed to enter the port by the American Board, under whose auspices he was acting. Mr. Johnson’s knowledge of the Chinese language, as used at Bang-kok, was of little avail to him here, as, although in the province of Fuh-Kien, the dialect of Fuh-Chau differs widely from that used by the Chinese of Siam. Mr. Johnson gave nearly six years of earnest pioneer missionary activity to this infant field, and then, under prostrated health, returned to his native land, where he still lives, abundant in labors and patiently awaiting the coming of his Lord.

The practiced eye of Mr. Johnson soon saw in Fuh-Chau a most desirable missionary station and recommended its rapid occupancy by the American Board. In a few months Rev. L.B. Peet and family, who had been fellow-laborers with Mr. Johnson in Siam, joined him again in Fuh-Chau. For about ten years Mr. Peet and his most estimable lady labored efficiently in Fuh-Chau, and then, in July, 1856, Mrs. Peet, after having given in all nearly twenty years of labor to the Master’s cause in Siam and China, laid down the armor and slept with the precious ones who had gone before. 8he rests in the “cemetery of Fuh-Chau;” her tomb, marked by its upright slab, stands first in the foreground of our engraving. In the autumn of the same year, Mr. Peet, with his motherless children, returned to America, where he still remains, recruiting his health and awaiting an opportunity to return to Fuh-Chau.

In 1846 the attention of the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society was directed toward China, and soon decided on Fuh-Chau for the locating of their infant mission. Accordingly Rev. M.F. White and wife, and Rev. J. D. Collins, sailed for that port on the 15th of April, 1847, and arrived at Fuh-Chau early in September of the same year. During the ensuing winter Mrs. White was attacked with a severe cold, which no treatment would relieve, and which soon manifested all the symptoms of consumption. She soon began to realize that her missionary life was to be a short one, and that her mission to China was to be like that of those who being dead still speaks. She was to make the first missionary grave in Fuh-Chau, and her preaching was to be the silent preaching of the fallen pioneer addressed to the missionaries and the heathen around her, and to the Church that sent her forth. Yet this conviction did not shake her faith, nor make her spirits droop, nor subdue the ardor of her missionary devotion. 8he worked while she lived, and trusted in the God of missions when she died. On the 25th of May, 1848, she fell asleep, and awaits, in the mission cemetery, the coming of the Lord.

Just one month after the arrival of these pioneers at Fuh-Chau – on the 13th of October, 1847 – two more missionaries – Rev. Henry Hickok and wife and Rev. R. S. Maclay – embarked at New York for the same destination, and reached Fuh-Chau early in 1848. About one month after the sailing of those missionaries to reinforce the Methodist Episcopal mission, another company sailed from Philadelphia, on the ship Valparaiso, and arrived at Fuh-Chau on the 7th of May, 1848, to join the mission of the American Board. A precious company was borne on that vessel –  Rev. Dr. James and wife, under the auspices of the Southern Baptist Board of Missions, destined to reinforce their mission at Shanghai; Miss Pohlman, the sister of Rev. William Pohlman, who was then laboring at Amoy; Rev. C. G Baldwin and wife, Rev. S. Cummings and wife, and Rev. W. L. Richards, constituting the reinforcement of the mission at Fuh-Chau.

A touching history belongs to this little company. Dr. James and wife were destined never to reach their field of labor. The little company of the Valparaiso had all safely reached Hong-Kong, and there parted for their different fields of labor. Dr. James and lady determined to visit Canton while awaiting an opportunity to sail for Shanghai. This they did, and spent a few days at the great city of foreign trade; but as they were returning on board the schooner Paradox, just after they had made sight of Hong-Kong, a sudden squall struck the vessel and threw it on its beam ends, when she filled and immediately sank, bearing with her to a watery grave Dr. and Mrs. James and five others belonging to the crew. Miss Pohlman safely reached her destination at Amoy, and was welcomed to the warm heart of her brother. Not long after her arrival, however, that brother made a tour along the coast of China, for the benefit of his health, and also for purposes of missionary exploration. On this tour the vessel was attacked by pirates, and Mr. Pohlman never returned. His fate is unknown. This blow fell heavily on his sister, and she never recovered from it. Her health failed, and reason itself began to totter, when she was accompanied to her native laud by Rev. Mr. Talmage. Mr. Richards reached Fuh-Chau, entered heartily into his missionary labor, but in a few years sank under failing health, and started for America, but found a grave in the broad Atlantic. Mr. Cummings returned with his enfeebled wife in the winter of 1855, but in the following August, in the midst of busy preparations to return to Fuh-Chau, the messenger of God suddenly came, saying, “It is enough, come up higher.” He sleeps in the cemetery at New Ipswich, N. H. Mr. Baldwin and wife still live, efficiently laboring in the Master’s cause in Fuh-Chau. Such has been the fate of this little band of missionaries, who, in 1847, embarked with warm hearts and high hopes on board the Valparaiso.

On the 31st of May, 1850, the American Board mission was again strengthened by the arrival of Rev. J. Doolittle and wife, who were accompanied on their voyage from Hong Kong by Rev. Messrs. Welton and Jackson, who came to lay the foundations of the Church of England mission. In 1852 Mr. Jackson retired to Ningbo, and in 1856 Mr. Welton returned in prostrated health to England, and a few months ago died suddenly in London. Mr. Doolittle still occupies the field, one of the most zealous and efficient missionaries, that has been sent to Fuh-Chau. Mrs. Doolittle continued the efficient help meet of her husband for six years, and then, on the 23d of June, 1856, finished her labor and went to her reward. Mrs. Doolittle was one of the most precious jewels the American Church had given to the evangelization of China. Her life was short; she died at thirty-five; yet it was long enough for her to give to the world a beautiful example of an affectionate daughter, a loving sister, a devoted wife, a tender mother, a ripe scholar, an early and faithful Christian, and an earnest missionary. Her life is her praise, her consecration to the work of missions the proof of her character, and the rude stone which covers her resting-place in the silent “cemetery of Fuh-Chau” is her noblest monument. It is the one she would have chosen for herself, and it utters its silent memorial and dispenses its quiet influence from the very spot where she would have placed it. Here the heathen, for whom she lived and with whom she died, will gather around it – perhaps sit down upon it in the refreshing shade of the beautiful olive-tree that waves above it, and read in their own language the record of her life, the inscription of her death, the assurance of her hope of immortality, and the proof of the love and devotedness if one who came far over the ocean to teach them of Jesus and the resurrection.

Early in the year 1850 the Rev. Messrs. Fast and Elquist, the first missionaries sent out to a foreign land from Sweden, by a recent society formed through the agency of Rev. Mr. Fielsteatt, long a missionary in Smyrna, arrived at Fuh-Chau. We have not space here for their brief and melancholy history. On the 9th of July, 1851, the Methodist Episcopal Mission was reinforced by the arrival of the writer of this sketch, accompanied by his wife, Rev. James Colder and wife, and Miss M. Seely; and on the 9th of June, 1851, the American Board mission was strengthened by the arrival of Rev. Charles Hartwell and wife, the latter being a sister of Mrs. Cummings, already in the field. On the 3d of November, 1853, Mrs. Wiley passed away, and we say by an eye of faith the angel-messengers, and the company which no man could number, and Jesus, the glory of the heavenly city, ready to welcome her to a home in heaven. Of this precious one we can say nothing; her modest tomb stands the last in the background of our engraving, and a memorial of her life and death will be found in the Repository for August, 1854.

In June, 1855, the Methodist Episcopal mission was again strengthened by the arrival of Rev. Dr. Wentworth and wife. The missionary life of Mrs. Wentworth was short indeed. On the 2d of October, 1855, only about four months after reaching her field of labor, the Master dismissed her from the toil and called her to the reward. We confess our faith shook and our heart sank within us when we read of the early death of Anna Wentworth. We almost exclaimed – the sacrifice is too great – it demands too much – for one so young, so beautiful, so lovely in character, so promising, and so good, to be laid so soon on the altar. But we soon hushed these murmurings, when we went back to review with what willingness, with what peace, with what triumph, yea, with what hastening to the coming of the Lord, she passed to the world of glory from the world of toil. “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.” We want missionary graves as well as missionary lives. She has made one. “Her footsteps merely marked her field of toil, to show the way from thence to heaven. She greeted the heathen land with a smile, bade it an affectionate farewell, and passed on over Jordan, leaving her co-laborers gazing after her as an angel-visitant.” Her beautiful monument, rising from the midst of the Cemetery, still points heavenward, teaching the heathen and inspiring the missionary.

In the same year the mission was joined by Rev. Otis Gibson and wife, both of whom are still in the field. Dr. Wentworth was accompanied from Hong-Kong to Fuh-Chau by Rev. Messrs. Macaw and Fernley, and Mrs. Macaw, to strengthen the Church of England mission. This estimable lady also fell in a few months, and rests in the cemetery attached to the British consulate at Fuh-Chau. Let the reader now cast an eye over the row of little graves along the right of our picture, where rest the precious little ones that have gone to the Father’s bosom from the missions at Fuh-Chau, and we will have finished our description of the “Mission Cemetery at Fuh-Chau.”

And now, while we cast our eyes over this beautiful picture, and shed our tears over these fallen missionaries, let not these precious tombs startle us, or discourage us from the work of evangelizing this great heathen city. No; they are the tombs of Christians, of the daughters of America, of the children of the American Church, not one of whom regretted this consecration, or counted her life dear to her, if she might share a part in this glorious work. This cemetery consecrates Fuh-Chau. The voice from each sleeper there is a voice calling to the Church to go forward in this work.

The history of the past ten years, though presenting, as in all pioneer missionary movements, its sad and melancholy pages, has yet been such as to demonstrate the correctness of the action of the American and British missionary societies in selecting Fuh-Chau as a field for missionary activity. The fact that so many have fallen, and others, under broken health, have been forced to retire, while it presents a mournful chapter in the history of missions, is no real cause for discouragement, nor does it evidence the ineligibility of this city as a missionary station. Perhaps the proportion of fallen missionaries here does not surpass that of other new and untried fields; and we must remember that, although other parts of China had been occupied several years by missionaries and foreign residents, yet Fuh-Chau was entirely unknown, and presented all the hazards and difficulties of an entirely new field. The missionaries entered it ignorant of the language, the habits, the mode of living, etc., of the inhabitants. They knew not what articles of clothing, furniture, and even of food, might be procured or could not be had; and for the want of this information had, in many instances, to endure grave disappointments and serious privations. They had no homes. Rude, temporary shelters had to be provided, wholly unadapted to the wants of foreign residents in a new and untried climate. Long months, and even years, had to pass before the prejudices of the people could be so far removed as to allow them to build comfortable houses. They met, first of all, the labor of acquiring a new language, about which no foreigner knew any thing, toward which no books from other parts of China could be of service, and for which task no teacher could be provided that could speak a word of English. They were in the midst of a new climate, new scenes, new modes of life, to all which they must learn to accustom themselves, while, at the same time, they were necessarily meeting grave obstacles and performing gigantic labors. No wonder many of them fell – fell soon – but fell, however, bearing the banner of the great King in the fore-front of the Lord’s host.

These difficulties have been met and overcome. The night of toil now breaks into the day of promise. The time of “going forth weeping, bearing precious seed,” is now being followed by the joyful harvest. Fuh-Chau is now an inviting field of labor, Its climate is understood. The wants of the missionary are known, and can be provided for. Houses have been built, and comfortable residences can be rapidly procured. The language has been mastered and made comparatively easy of acquisition. The prejudices of the people have melted away; they hear gladly the words of life. A largo foreign trade has grown up; a large foreign community is gathering into the city, and the conveniences and necessaries of missionary life can be provided on the spot. The pioneer work is nearly done. Henceforth there will be no such drain on missionary life. The climate of Fuh-Chau is delightful through eight months of the year; through the remaining four months, the only difficulty is the great heat incident to its tropical position, which can be greatly provided against by the bettor homes of the missionaries, and by the numerous cool and refreshing resorts which have been found about the city. Unfortunate, indeed, would be the mistake of the Church were she now to forsake her minions at Fuh-Chau, or permit them to languish, just when her sons and daughters have finished their vast preparatory work – when the door is just widely opened – when the field is just white for the harvest, and thus throw away, on the eve of victory, these vast advantages for which she has paid the price of so many precious lives. No; let us cherish the memory of these fallen missionaries – let the name of those martyr-pioneers live in the heart of the Church – let us shed our tears over their precious graves; but let not the cemetery at Fuh-Chau startle us from the field; but let it be as a familiar voice from our beloved ones, who have borne the heat and burden of the day, calling us to enter into their labors.

(First published in the Ladies’ Repository, September 1858, by Rev. I. W. Wiley, M.D.)

Notices of Foo-chow-foo, with reference especially to Missionary Operations

After leaving Ningpo, Mr. Smith Proceeded to Chusan, which place he left on the 9th of December, [1845,] and arrived at Foo-chow-foo on the 15th. Of this city Mr. Smith has forwarded the interesting account which we now give.

Situation – Population – Commerce

Foo-chow, the second largest of the five ports open to foreign trade, is situated in 26°7′ N. latitude, and in 119°15′ E. longitude. The amount of its population, in the absence of all authentic statistics, can at best be only a subject of uncertain conjecture. Its apparent extent of space, covered with houses, is about twice the size of Ningpo, three times that of Shanghai, and nearly five times that of Amoy. The lowest estimate I have heard reckoned it to contain a population of more than half a million. I should myself be inclined to place it at about 600,000, a number which will not be considered excessive, when we remember its eight and a half miles circuit of walls, and the small proportion of space unoccupied with buildings. Though it is the capital of Fokien Province, it is a city, on the testimony of the high officers of the local Government, of little trade with the interior, and of decreasing commercial importance. Nor is the extent of its commerce with the other ports along the coast of China of any considerable importance, its trade with maritime parts being checked by hordes of pirates, who, more or less, for centuries have been the scourge of an unwarlike people, and the terror of a weak Government. Of the prospects of a foreign trade with Europe I am but little qualified to form an opinion.

Condition and Literary Character of the People

The numerous sedan-chairs, with two, and sometimes with four bearers, which impede the way at every hundred yards, are a fair proof of the existence of considerable wealth in the city; though by far the greater part of the population, as in other Chinese cities, are immersed in the lowest poverty, earning, in compliance with the sternest conditions of human nature, a scanty subsistence by the sweat of their brow.

The neighbouring villages are entirely agricultural, scattered over the plain to the encircling hills; those situated on either bank of the river, toward the sea, being addicted to frequent acts of piracy and lawlessness.

Though the question, how far Foo-chow is a literary place, is one difficult for a  casual visitor to investigate, the following facts, supplied to me by an intelligent Chinese with whom I became acquainted during my stay, will show that it enjoys no mean reputation in this respect. Previous to my arrival, the public examinations of the siutsai, or students of the first degree, and processions of successful scholars, had excited a temporary interest. It appears, that of the siutsai degree, conferred twice in every three years, there are about 8000 in the whole province of Fokien, of which 2000 belong to Foo-chow. Of the küjin degree, conferred once in the same period of time, there are about 1000 throughout the province, of whom 360 belong to the capital. Again, the tsintsz’, of whom only about 360 are made at each quinquennial examination at Peking, from the eighteen provinces of the empire, and beyond which step of literary distinction promotion is so rare that only thirty persons are raised to the highest degree of Hanlin at each triennial examination, from the whole of China, there are estimated to be 200 in the province of Fokien, 60 of whom belong to the city. In Foo-chow there are also 5000 literary students, who have not yet gained a degree, and who earn their livelihood by tuition and similar pursuits; a few, also, being employed in subordinate situations in the public Government offices. The siutsai are said to obtain promotion to political offices, if supported by the influence of the private wealth. The küjin, without such influence, have generally to waite ten or twelve years. The tsintsz’ immediately gain appointments, as the sure reward of their rare distinction. A system of social equality, which thus holds out to the offspring of the meanest Chinese peasant the hope of becoming the instrument of family aggrandizement, and which naturally summons the predilections of all in its favour, may be deemed, without doubt, as divulging the real secret of their national cohesiveness and duration through so vast and unprecedented a period of time, amid the frequent change of their dynasties, and ruin of surrounding empires. Though their classic literature, except as a means of distinction, and as a road to political preferment, exercises no very powerful influence on Religion, strictly so called, nor imposes any form of religious belief, but rather inculcates the wisdom of abandoning such subjects of uncertain speculation; yet it is easy to perceive that such a system of philosophical atheism as here has entwined itself around all their national associations, and has become deeply imbedded in the very soul of the thinking inhabitants, will to the propagation of the Gospel oppose a gigantic obstacle, against which it will be needful to bring all the advantages which a patient study of their own classics, combined with the literature of the West, can confer on those humble and persevering men, to whom belongs the high privilege of extending the Kingdom of Christ among this morally and spiritually unenlightened nation.

Temples

There is a remarkable scarcity of large and handsome temples in the city. There is, however, on of some little attractions to visitors about half-way between the south and west gates, close outside the city wall, and nearly opposite to the Consulate hill. There is also a famous Buddhistic monastery, called the Yung-tsiuen shi, about half-way up the Kushan range, about eight miles, in a south-western direction, from Foochow. There are about 100 priests on the endowment, of whom about 60 are generally resident in the temple. There are several intelligent men among their number.

Character of the Local Authorities

The disposition of the present Local Authorities is said to be, on the whole, liberal, and increasingly favourable, to foreigners. The city gates are closed soon after sunset; and so rigid are the regulations of a garrison city, that not even the Tartar General can be admitted into the city after they are once closed. Of all the officers of the Local Government, the acting Governor of the province far exceeds the rest in the varied extent of his information and liberality of his views. With reference, also, to the full toleration of foreign religions, his ideas are far in advance of the generality of his countrymen. In his intercourse with the British Consul he has alluded to the more prominent events of modern European history, and shown his general acquaintance with the whole cycle of European politics; as, for instance, the difficulty of governing Ireland on account of Popery, the revolt of Belgium from Holland, the separation from Britain and Spain of their Colonies in North and South America, the ambitious career of Napoleon, and the closing victory of Waterloo. He also seems to have heard of the excitement in England consequent on the discussion of the Maynooth grant. For hours together he will converse on geography, and has pasted the Chinese names over an expensive American atlas, presented to him by one of his subordinate officers from Canton; in addition to which, he will soon also possess a globe promised him by the Consul. The Consul’s lady, at his request, drew for him a map of the world, coloured respectively according to the divisions into British, French, and Russian territory. Shortly after the receipt of it, he sent a note, inquiring why Affghanistan had been omitted, and whether is had become amalgamated with Persia, or was no longer an independent kingdom.

Facilities for the Residence of Foreigners

As regards the residence of individual foreigners, there is no reason to believe that any great difficulty will be experienced in renting commodious houses. The partial difficulty which exists at present arises more from a desire of extortion, a want of friendliness, and a general distrust of foreigners, than from fear of the Authorities, or deep-rooted aversion in the minds of the people. Large and expensive houses may be obtained without much difficulty, even at the present time. A Missionary, unmarried in the first instance, or, if married, unaccompanied for the first few months by his family, might easily find a lodging in some of the temples within the city, either on the Wushih shan, or on the no less agreeable and salubrious site of the Kiusin shan, till his increasing acquaintance with the local dialect, and the increasing confidence of the people, should prepare the way for the residence also of Missionary families.

Missionary Aspect and Claims

This leads me to the last and most important point of view in which Foochow is to be regarded – the nature and degree of its eligibility as a Missionary Station.

To most minds the obvious disadvantage of its present inaccessibility will readily present itself. To this must be added the fact, that the people have never yet been impressed with the superior power or civilization of foreigners. There is also a spirit of suspicious distrust naturally prevalent among the inhabitants toward a race of strangers hitherto unknown. And lastly, the local dialect, partaking of all the difficulties of the Fokien dialect in other parts, is here considered to be doubly barbarous and difficult of acquirement. All these difficulties, however, are either temporary, or surmountable by those general habits of energy and perseverance which are indispensably necessary for usefulness in every part of a country so peculiar as China.

On the other hand, we behold in Foochow claims of no ordinary kind. With a population of more than half a million of idolaters, and as the capital of a province opening important channels of intercourse with surrounding places, it occupies a prominence inferior only to Canton among the newly-opened ports of China. It is free from the deteriorating effects of an extensive foreign commerce, and the irritating effects of the late war; the people never having witnessed the advance of invading armies before their peaceful homes.

The disposition of the Authorities, and the apathetic indifference of the people, alike encourage the belief that there exists no such jealousy of proselytism as is likely to throw interruptions or annoyances in the way of Protestant Missionaries. What gives to Foochow its highest and paramount claim is the fact, that, while every system of superstition has here its living representatives, Protestant Christianity is alone unrepresented in this vast city; and while every point along the coast accessible to foreigners has been occupied by Missionary Labourers, the populous capital of Fokien is destitute of a single Evangelist of the pure and unadulterated faith of the Gospel. And lastly, as regards security of residence, I feel assured that if past experience permitted me to indulge the hope of ever attaining in this climate such a measure of physical strength as to become an efficient Missionary Labourer in this part of the Lord’s vineyard, there is no city in China in which I should cherish greater confidence in the absence of persecution, and immunity from interruption, than in the city of Foochow.

Here, then, a new sphere of usefulness lies open, where no institution of caste operates to divide man from man; where no Priesthood wilds a general influence over the fears or respect of the people; where no form of Religion, strictly so called, threatens to oppose our progress; where the principal obstacles with which we shall have to contend are those national traits of apathy, indifference, and sensuality, which everywhere, alas! are deeply rooted in the nature of fallen man, and form the chief barrier to the reception of pure and vital Christianity.

On this part of the subject Mr. Smith thus enlarges, in a Letter dated Jan. 14, 1846 –

It was no common trial to my mind, as I gazed, from the summit of a neighbouring hill, on the populous city of Foochow, teeming with its moving masses of living industry, to reflect that here 600,000 immortal souls, spell-bound by idolatry or atheism, in the capital of one of the largest provinces of the empire – a garrison city, with the full provincial staff of Mandarins; the seat of a Viceroy having two provinces under his jurisdiction, and comprising the two other free ports of Ningpo and Amoy within its limits; with 2500 literary graduates, and 5000 literary students and candidates for degrees resident in the city – should nevertheless be destitute of a single Evangelist of the pure faith of Christ, and that no effort should yet have been made to convey to them the inestimable blessings of the Gospel. And within a few minutes of that time, and in the same vicinity, there were not wanting painful evidences to show that, even in such a spot, error was in advance of truth, and the various forms of superstition had their representatives. Placing a copy of the Gospel in the hands of an aged Bonze, and then, with their usual facility of assent, gave utterance to the Buddhistic notion, that after death “the good will ascend to heaven’s temple, and the wicked descend to earth’s prison.” Only at a few yards’ distance a Taouist Priest received a Christian Tract, and, as if to prove the unimportant nature of such subjects, or the universal skepticism of his mind, made the latitudinarian remark, that the principles of Religion were everywhere the same. At but a short distance, again, a Chinese Roman Catholic, by hereditary profession, after receiving a Christian book, drew forth a medal, suspended from his bosom, and inscribed with the images of Joseph, the Virgin, and John the Baptist, and said that the sight of it recalled to his mind the good things which he read in his holy books. A Roman-Catholic Priest, a Spaniard, has been residing for a year at Foochow, under the terms of the imperial edict of toleration. Even the Mahomedans have their six Priests, and twenty-four Fakeers, or religious beggars; so that, humiliating fact! with an imperial edict of universal toleration beckoning us forward, Protestant Christianity is the only Religion unrepresented in this vast city!

(First published in the Church Missionary Record of August 1846, by Bishop George Smith.)