Pagoda Bells

PEACE STREET HOSPITAL AND THE WHITE PAGODA

Peace Street Hospital for Women and Children is near the White Pagoda, which looks down on us like a giant sentinel. This pagoda is said to be over 900 years old, has seven stories and is over 300 feet high. For many years it had been in a dilapidated condition, the plaster on the outside crumbling, the idols much defaced, and the stairs inside all broken, so there was no safe to ascend, to get the fine view.

A few years ago some zealous Buddhist priests collected money to repair it. Among other repairs, the bells on the corners of the turrets, absent for many years, were replaced. When the wind blows hard these bells all join in their voices in a melodious chime. In the fierce gusts of a typhoon they have a thrill, weird sound. Sometimes a breeze strikes only one side of the pagoda, and the bells tinkle softly, making a very sweet chime.

Oh, Christian churches! Where are your heralds to proclaim on the mountain tops of China that Christ is “The Way, the Truth, and the Life”? Where are your messengers to go through these villages and hamlets and tell of Him who said, “I am the Light of the world,” “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness”?

Sometimes when we listen to the pagoda bells they seem to us like voices bringing messages from far away. One day the voice sounded like a familiar anthem and it ran thus, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation.” “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?” And the sweet chime added, “And how shall they send except we hear?”

And so, dear friends, we send out this record of two years’ work for women and children, that you may know a little of what we are doing, and so be stimulated in your work and prayers for this dark land of China.
Graduation of Medical Class

One of the important events of 1899 was the graduation of our class of four medical students, after six years of training.

One of the graduates remained in the Hospital as assistant. Two are engaged in private practice in the villages where they live with their husbands. One has charge of the dispensary in Ing Hok. All four are making good use of their medical knowledge and bid fair to be increasingly useful.

We have a new class of four students. These, with the assistant, the hospital evangelist and hospital nurse, make a good native working force for the medical work.

FOUR NEW STUDENTS, FOOCHOW HOSPITAL

Incredulous Patients

The physicians’ joy when able to give relief and cure their patients is as great on mission fields as in the home lands. We often think of what John Brown, a famous Scotch physician, said in a popular lecture: “When you are better don’t forget to tell your doctor so. It is the mantle that he wraps about him, to comfort himself withal.” But we here often have the sorrow of having to say, “It is too late, we cannot heal you.” The Chinese are so unwilling to believe this, it makes it harder still. A woman came one day who was blind in one eye and the other inflamed. She was much excited and very eager to know if we could heal her. We said, “It is a great pity; you have waited too long before coming and the blind eye cannot be healed, but you can come into the Hospital and we will heal the other eye.” In a loud voice she said, “They told me you were very skillful and could heal blind eyes.” We explained to her that some blind eyes could be healed, but hers was not the kind that could be healed. She turned to another patient and said, “They told me she could heal blind eyes,” in a tone that said very plainly, “She could if she would.” People here believe quite generally that we save our best sill for a few of our favorites.

An Interesting Little Patient

Early one beautiful June morning, men came bringing into the Hospital court a little crib covered with green mosquito netting, and looking very neat and attractive. Everything about it showed that it belonged to a well-to-do family. The occupant was a feeble child very sick with pneumonia, and they had brought it through the street in this way that it might come as comfortably as possible. The uncle of the child came with it. He said his sister had come from a long distance that she might bring the child to the Hospital to be healed. Soon the grandmother and an older sister of the baby came to take care of it. The sister was a very pleasant little lady, and it was very interesting to see how tenderly she cared for the little one. The mother was in delicate health, but she spent a part of each day at the Hospital, going to her brother’s at night.

Different members of the family came from time to time, and one day the little child’s uncle came into the ward bringing his feeble old mother on his back and laid her on the bed. She said she wanted to come once and see their baby in the foreign Hospital. She rode in her sedan chair to the Hospital door, but was not strong enough to walk up the steps on the little feet.

Every day they would bring something new, hoping to add to the comfort of the little sufferer, as the weather was very warm. So eagerly did they co-operate with us in our fight with disease, that it was quite an inspiration.

We had the satisfaction of seeing the child relieved of the acute disease from which it was suffering, but the chronic disease with which it had struggled from birth proved a more formidable foe.

They remained in the Hospital until we had to leave for the mountain. They seemed very grateful for what we were able to do for them and listened attentively to the gospel teaching.

One day a patient from the country was brought in on a litter. Several members of the family came with her. They were all very much excited, and tried to explain to us how very ill she was; that only cold medicine agreed with her; that if she ate hot medicine it made her much worse. Would the doctor teacher be very careful to give her cold medicine; if she should eat hot medicine they feared she could not get well. We assured them they need have no fear, for Western medicine was not divided into hot and cold, and we would be very careful to give just the right medicine that her disease required. They all looked very incredulous and anxious as we proceeded to examine the patient.

During the years 1899 and 1900, of which this report is a record, the obstetrical work has been much the same as in former years. With a few exceptions we have been called only to cases requiring surgical interference. One of these exceptions was in an officer’s family. They called us in time, and the labor proved a natural one. Afterwards they called us several times for slight ailments of the little one, which were promptly relieved.

This family showed their gratitude by the presentation of a tablet. It was a case where kind Nature did the work, and the physician got the praise.

GROUP OF HOSPITAL PATIENTS, FOOCHOW

Dispensary Work

As year after year passes the work in the dispensary is much the same, and yet no two days are quite alike. Cases of indigestion, chronic bronchitis, rheumatism, stiff limbs, skin diseases, ulcers, wounds and bruises, and inflamed eyes are varied with something peculiar for nearly each day. One day it is a woman with a needle in her finger. The patient is not more glad than the doctor when the mischief-making bit of steel is removed.

Another day it is a man who claims he has a needle in his throat. But examination reveals only the fact that some kind neighbor, in trying to relieve, had torn the throat with his nail, and given rise to much suffering. We give him some bread to eat and find that he can swallow all right. He is sent away with a vial of sweet oil to soothe his sorrows.

Another day a father brought his daughter, fourteen years old, with her bound feet gangrenous and ready to drop off. “Could we heal them?” “No, but she can be relieved of her suffering by having the feet amputated.”

But we cannot persuade them to leave her at the Hospital. They think a girl with no feet is not a very good result of Western healing. They said as their final decision, “If you can restore the feet we will bring her to the Hospital.”

A Specimen Opium Case

One evening messengers came for us to go to a young woman who had taken a suicidal dose of opium. We called chair-bearers and made hasty preparation, and were soon on our way. We found a room full of excited people,—bound-footed women, large-footed women, men and children,—all trying to arouse the patient from her deep sleep. “Save her, save her! Use some good medicine and save her!” was repeated over and over again as we entered the room. This was varied by an occasional: “Do we need to be afraid? Can she live?” After the first excitement was over they were all attention to help us and bring what we needed. A tiny tablet of apomorphia and plenty of hot water soon did the work of washing out the stomach. But it was very difficult to keep the patient from sleeping. The limbs refused to do their duty, and they were obliged to lift her bodily back and forth across the room. Never did little feet look more helpless than hers, dangling about as her frantic rescuers tried to make her walk. After hypodermics of strychnia she began to gain strength, and the family were delighted when they found she was using her feet again. Soon she was able to walk with very little assistance, but it required constant exertion to keep her from sleeping. We stayed with her until midnight, when it seemed safe to leave her. We heard the next morning that she was doing well, and seemed as glad as were her friends that her foolish anger had not resulted fatally. We were not able to learn the cause of this strange freak. The Chinese sometimes swallow opium when they suddenly become angry from some trifling cause.

A Complimentary Tablet

Complimentary tablets are brought through the streets in a gaily decorated red sedan chair, accompanied with a little band of musicians, and fire-crackers are brought to be exploded upon arrival at the Hospital, and again when the tablet is fastened upon the wall.

When one of these came one day we asked them to wait until we could take a photograph. The boy standing at the left, holding a basket, is a little cake and cracker merchant, who did a big trade and nearly emptied his basket while they were waiting for the photographer.

The chief musician, who played the big brass horn, does not appear in the picture, as he refused to be photographed.

The Chinese characters on the tablet are “Sìng miêu mŏk mìng,” meaning, “Wisdom that cannot be expressed.” The small characters on the right read, “Presented to the lady doctor Hó, from Great America.” On the left is the name of the donor.

BRINGING A TABLET TO THE HOSPITAL

The Hospital Assistant

When the Boxer trouble came in 1900, all the patients left the Hospital. Mrs. Ling, the Hospital assistant, was much alarmed at first, and thought she must leave, and go to her home in the country for safety. We told her we should be glad if she could stay, but wanted her to feel free to do as she thought best, as we could not tell whether or not there was real danger. She decided to remain, and we were very glad that our dispensary was open all through the vacation, as it was the only mission hospital that was not closed.

Mrs. Ling has been very happy working in the Hospital since she graduated. She has proved herself efficient in many ways in relieving me of care in the general oversight of the Hospital. She has had the care of the operating room, preparing for operations, sterilizing dressings, etc. In the more important daily surgical dressings she has been my right-hand woman.

The study of medicine is so absorbing and so fascinating, that if we are not very vigilant we shall find our students falling back in spiritual things. In our medical schools we need to nurture carefully the spiritual life begun in the literary schools, that we may help to attain unto their best in spiritual growth these young people who have devoted their lives to the responsible work of physicians.

After we had been engaged in medical missionary work for a few years, we decided that the most efficient way for a missionary physician to do evangelistic work was to work with and through their medical students; that most of the time we could spend in strictly spiritual teaching should be devoted to them.

Our medical students are a chosen few, selected from the graduates of our mission schools. But we all know how much these students, who are the choicest results of missionary schools, need help. How far short most of them come of knowing how to enter in to their rich inheritance as “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,” of being fellow-workers together with God! If we can strengthen and stimulate them to become zealous, earnest, consecrated workers, we shall do much to increase the efficiency of the medical missionary work as an evangelistic agency. If these medical students can get a hunger for spiritual growth and a love for soul-saving, if they can learn to depend on the teaching of the Holy Spirit and live the overcoming, victorious life, they will be an ever-increasing power on the evangelist side of our work.

The Message of the Pagoda Bells

One stormy night in winter the bells on the pagoda rang out suddenly and sharply. This time the message was for the sons and daughters over the sea, in the home-land. It said: “Awake thou that sleepeth! The day fleeth away and the night cometh. What thou doeth, do quickly! The Destroyer is doing a deadly work, and is blasting the fruit of this great land of China!”

The fierceness of the storm passed, but the sweet chime kept on, and it sang the Saviour’s words, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Go out to the heathen, and gather them in, that there may be one fold and one shepherd.”

And when winter had passed, and the summer breezes played with the little bronze tongues of these same bells, they seemed to be singing: “Tell it out among the heathen, this glorious message of salvation. Tell the poor people who know no consolation in times of distress and sorrow except to pray to gods of wood and stone, tell them that the Lord is good. Tell the heathen mother, in her stony grief over her dead child, that ‘Like as a Father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth.’ Oh, tell them ere it is too late!”

And one beautiful starlit night the message of the soft bell chimes was: “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.” “He that winneth souls is wise.”

Sweet pagoda bells! May your messages not go unheeded!

(By Kate Cecilia Woodhull, a medical missionary connected with the ABCFM, first published in Life and Light for Woman, 1902.)

Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church

Stephen Livingstone Baldwin (1835—1902)

China was designated as a mission field by the General Missionary Committee in May, 1846. The first missionaries sent out were Judson Dwight Collins and Moses C. White, who sailed from Boston April 15, 1847, and reached Foochow September 6. They were followed by Rev. Henry Hickok and Rev. Robert S. Maclay, who arrived April 15, 1848. In 1851 Rev. I. W. Wiley, afterward Bishop, with his wife, the Rev. James Colder and wife and Miss M. Seely were added to the mission. Dr. Erastus Wentworth and Rev. Otis Gibson and their wives arrived in 1855, and Dr. S. L. Baldwin and wife, with the Misses Beulah and Sarah H. Woolston and Miss Phebe E. Potter, in 1859, since which time numbers of missionaries have been added, a few have died, and some have from time to time retired from the work. Much attention has been given to the evangelistic work, and no mission in China has been more successful in winning converts and organizing them into churches than the mission at Foochow. The first converts were received in 1857. In 1862 the number of members was 87.

The mission sent out in 1867 the first missionaries to Central China, Rev. V. C. Hart and Rev. E. S. Todd, who began work at Kiukiang, which work has now grown into the large and successful Central China Mission. In 1869 it also sent Rev. L. N. Wheeler and Rev. H. H. Lowry to Peking, who laid the foundations of the work of the North China Mission.

The Foochow Conference was organized by Bishop Wiley December 6, 1867, by which time the number of members and probationers had reached 2,011. The native preachers who were appointed presiding elders on the organization of this Conference, namely, Hu Po Mi, Hu Yong Mi, Sia Sek Ong, Yek Ing Kwang, and Li Yu Mi, had been raised up in the mission; all having been converted as adults except Yek Ing Kwang, who was converted while a student in the boys’ boarding school. The mission has continued to grow and prosper up to this date.

In 1896 the work in the Hing Hua prefecture and surrounding regions had grown to such an extent that a Mission Conference was organized and is making very rapid progress towards self-support. The North China Mission was organized as a Conference in 1894.

The West China Mission in Sz-Chuen province was ordered by the General Missionary Committee in November, 1880, and Dr. L. N. Wheeler, formerly of the Foochow and North China Missions, with his family, and Rev. Spencer Lewis and wife, sailed from San Francisco September 6, 1881, and arrived at Chung King December 3. The mission, although broken up by riot in 1885 and suffering much tribulation at various times since that date, has been successful and is now well established.

The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has done most valuable work in China, and its pioneers, the Misses Woolston, Dr. Sigourney Trask, Miss Clara Cushman, Miss Gertrude Howe, Miss Lucy H. Hoag, M.D., and their successors, are held in grateful remembrance. The following table, compiled from the latest reports at hand, will show the present statistics of the missions in China in some important particulars:

	Members.	Probationers.	Totals.	Benevolent Contuibutions.	Self-support.
Foochow	4,349	4,301	8,650	$777	$3,488
Hinghua	2,338	2,949	5,287	1,885	4,156
Central China	1,531	2,478	4,009	141	5,453
North China	3,738	2,904	6,642	529	3,563
West China	219	118	337	31	172
Total	12,175	12,750	24,925	$3,363	$17,832

The mission to Japan was inaugurated in 1872; Dr. R. S. Maclay, who had been superintendent of the Foochow Mission for a quarter of a century, being appointed to open the work there. He arrived with his family in Yokohama June II, 1873. Rev. J. C. Davison, Rev. Julius Soper and Rev. M. C. Harris were appointed at the outset. The Rev. I. H. Correll, who was originally appointed to Foochow but detained at Yokohama on account of the serious illness of his wife during the voyage, was also transferred to the Japan mission. The formal organization of the mission took place August 8, 1873, in Yokohama, under the presidency of Bishop Harris. It was decided to occupy at once stations in different portions of the empire, Hakodate being chosen for the North, Yokohama and Tokyo for the Center, and Nagasaki for the South. Other missionaries have been added, the evangelistic and educational work has been carried on with much energy, and although the work has been subject to many vicissitudes it has made noticeable progress. The Japan Conference was organized by Bishop Wiley at Yokohama August 15, 1884, the number of members at that time being 907 and probationers 241. In 1898 the South Japan Conference was organized, at which time there were in the whole empire over 5,000 communicants connected with the Church. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has nobly sustained its work in the empire since its first missionary, Miss Dora E. Schoonmaker, was sent out, in 1874. The names of such ladies as Miss Elizabeth Russell, Miss M. A. Spencer, Miss Minnie S. Hampton, and many others, are well known in the Christian world and are a sufficient guarantee for faithful and successful work.

Korea, so long known as “the hermit nation,” had been open to foreign commerce and settlement but a short time when this Society entered upon work in that land. Dr. R. S. Maclay had pioneered the work by visiting the country and making a report on it to the Board at home. Dr. W. B. Scranton and Rev. H. G. Appenzeller were appointed to open the mission and the work was begun, in 1885, at Seoul, the capital. In after years stations were opened at Chemulpo, Pyeng Yang and Wonsan, and the work has been increasing in interest and importance. Mrs. M. F. Scranton, the mother of Dr. W. B. Scranton, was the pioneer of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, and has been aided by a noble band of sisters who have since gone to the field. More than two thousand communicants are now connected with the mission and the opportunities for successful work seem to be among the best in the whole foreign field.

(Taken from S. L. Baldwin’s Foreign Missions of the Protestant Churches, published in 1900.)

Jubilee Letter from C. C. Baldwin

Dr. & Mrs. Baldwin, Missionaries in Foochow, 1847—1895

Dear Brother Hartwell:

… Among my first, and perhaps best thoughts, comes that of God’s most wonderful providence over our Mission. It would be easy to write a chapter showing their number and directness, though in early years the work seemed so slow, still there were never wanting abundant proofs of the Divine oversight and guidance. We were never at a standstill and never once beat a retreat. It was soon apparent, however, that we must encounter a legion of difficulties in order to secure a minimum of advance or even to hold our own. Of course, you now know all about it. To mention one of such obstacles, take the amazing duplicity of the people, their tergiversations, in which, like to fox they doubled again and again on their track, to throw off the scent of too keen pursuit. The other day I was looking over an old journal, dating from November 3rd, 1847, when we first left our home for the East. We arrived May 7th, 1848, and were soon at work on the language. The journal says about two weeks after that date that I wished to get a Chinese inkstand, and my teacher brought one, for which he asked four dollars. He finally accepted two, when I told him that he might take it back. He probably got a bargain at that. I have reason to think that this old journal could tell worse tales than this, if called upon to yield up its secrets. This single one may suffice as an index to a host of others which would show how the very life has been worried out of us by such woeful experiences.

…

Another thought is about our getting the language. A hard job as you all very well know. We had with us at the head of Dong-ciu our good friends of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, Dr. and Mrs. White, Messrs. Collins and Maclay and Mr. and Mrs. Hickok, and there was soon an effort to settle on an English orthography. This, as finally agreed upon, has continued essentially the same to the present time, the principal changes being in the initials and simpler forms of the diacritical points. The subject is alluded to here simply to introduce the thought, the inestimable value of these systems in learning a hard language. These helps to the mastery of such an uncouth tongue (delightful though when you once get hold of it) deserve at least a half hour’s notice and thought during the Jubilee meeting. It is also a matter of devout gratitude to God that during this half century our own and the other missions have carried on the work so persistently. So far as I recollect there was never a hint of giving up in any department. There have been delays and changes, but always with a view of renewed efforts and better hopes under better methods. I think that no figures can do justice to the amount of actual work done with its far-reaching influence in city, town and village throughout the Fookien Province. God has led us on to victory, and we feel sure that the truth of Christ is fixed in its seat of power never to be overthrown…

The increasing wisdom and skill in dealing with questions about churches, chapels, schools; about pastors, evangelists, teachers, colporteurs; about inquirers, backsliders, wine drinkers and opium smokers, and in a word, all those experiences relating to a growing and multiform work, - all these give abundant reasons to thank God for the gracious help which has brought our Mission thus far in safety. If I were only with you on this joyous occasion, and called on to make an address, I would perhaps refer to Zech. iv. 10 and xiv. 6, 7. I would say that the prophetic sentences refer to the advance of the Christian church and its grand millennial triumphs. Then I would read the verses as they stand, “For who has despised the day of small things? And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark; but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at even time it shall be light.” And then I should venture to apply this to our own Foochow work, merely borrowing the sentences for accommodation sake, using preterite and present tenses in place of future, and read thus: Who now despises the day of small things? It came to pass in that earlier day that the light was neither clear nor dark, but there is one day to the Lord, not day nor night, and now it comes to pass that at even time it is light. Does this seem fanciful? By no means. All prophecy, sooner or later, is to become actual history in the little spot called Foochow, as well as throughout the whole world. We believe that the Spirit of God is working mightily to this end, changing the future to preterite and present. Prophecy is being now fulfilled, and poor heathen Foochow is becoming a part of our Lord’s glorious inheritance…

How gladly would I be with you. If you could only find enough to pay my steamer fare one way, and telegraph one word, “come”!!

Yours sincerely,
C. C. Baldwin

(Jubilee letter from Caleb Cook Baldwin to Charles Hartwell and was read in the ABCFM Jubilee Meeting in Foochow, January 2nd, 1897.)

Historical Sketch of ABCFM in Foochow

ABCFM Foochow Mission. The picture was taken on Mr. Hartwell’s seventieth birthday, December 19th, 1895. Beginning on the left in the rear are Mrs. Peet, Mr. Beard, Mrs. Kinnear, Mrs. Beard, Dr. Kinnear, Mr. Peet, Mrs. Gardner, Dr. Nieberg-Goddard, Mr. Gardner. In the middle row are Miss Woodhull, Dr. Whitney, Mrs. Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Hartwell, Mr. Walker, Mrs. Whitney, Dr. Woodhull. In front are Miss Chittenden, Mr. Goddard, Mrs. Hubbard, Miss Newton and Dr. Bliss.

Former Missionaries

Names	Date of Arrival	Date of Departure
Rev. Stephen Johnson	1847	1852
Mrs. Caroline (Selmer) Johnson	1849	1852
Rev. Lyman B. Peet	1847	1871
Mrs. Rebecca C. Peet	1847	*1856
Rev. Seneca Cummings	1848	1855
Mrs. Abbie M. Cummings	1848	1855
Rev. Caleb C. Baldwin	1848	1895
Mrs. Harriet F. Baldwin	1848	1895
Rev. William L. Richards	1848	*1850
Rev. Justus Doolittle	1850	1864
Mrs. Sophia A. Doolittle	1850	*1856
Mrs. Lucy E. Doolittle	1859	1864
Mrs. Lucy E. Hartwell	1853	*1883
Rev. Simeon F. Woodin	1860	1895
Mrs. Sarah L. Woodin	1860	1895
Miss Jane S. Peet	1867	1868
Miss Adelia M. Payson	1869	1879
Dauphin W. Osgood, M.D.	1870	*1880
Mrs. Helen M. Osgood	1870	1881
Mrs. E. A. (Claghorn) Walker	1872	*1896
Rev. Josiah B. Blakely	1874	1880
Mrs. Isabella Blakely	1874	1880
Miss Alice B. Harris	1882	1884
Miss Emily Susan Hartwell	1884	1887
Mrs. H. Jennie Kinnear	1889	*1892

* Died on the field.

Members of the Mission (as of 1897).

Address—Foochow, China

Names	Date of Arrival	Stations
Rev. Charles Hartwell	1853	City
Mrs. H. L. (Peet) Hartwell	1859	〃
Rev. Joseph E. Walker	1872	Absent in America
Henry T. Whitney, M.D.	1877	Pagoda Anchorage
Mrs. Lurie A. Whitney	1877	〃〃
Miss Ella J. Newton	1878	Po-na-sang
Miss Elsie M. Garretson	1884	Absent in America
Rev. Geo. H. Hubbard	1884	Pagoda Anchorage
Mrs. Ellen L. Hubbard	1884	〃〃
Kate C. Woodhull, M.D.	1884	Absent in America
Miss Hannah C. Woodhull	1884	〃〃〃
Miss Caroline (Koener) Peet	1888	City
Rev. Lyman P. Peet	1888	〃
Rev. G. Milton Gardner	1889	Shao-wu
Mrs. Mary D. Gardner	1889	〃
Hardman N. Kinnear, M.D.	1889	Absent in America
Edward L. Bliss, M.D.	1892	Shao-wu
Mrs. Ellen J. Kinnear	1893	Absent in America
Miss Caroline E. Chittenden	1893	City
Mrs. F. E. (Nieberg) Goddard, M.D.	1893	〃
Rev. Dwight Goddard	1894	〃
Rev. Williard L. Beard	1894	Po-na-sang
Mrs. Ellen L. K. Beard	1894	〃
Miss Emily S. Hartwell	1896	City

Historical Sketch

The Foochow Mission was commenced by the Rev. Stephen Johnson and Rev. and Mrs. L. B. Peet. They had labored previously in Siam, the former twelve and the latter persons six years among the Chinese who had immigrated thither from the region of Amoy and who spoke the Amoy language. Mr. Johnson landed at Foochow on 2nd January, 1847, and Mr. and Mrs. Peet on 7th September of the same year. They were able at once to begin the distribution of books and tracts in the book language prepared by others and themselves, but were obliged to learn a new spoken language—one not previously learned by Protestant missionaries—before they were able to preach.

Foochow was one of the five ports first opened by treaty to commerce and the residence of missionaries. They found it an important field. Although at first by treaty rights their labors were restricted to a circuit with a radius of about thirty miles, within such a limit they found a population probably of three million people. The place also was comparatively salubrious and noted for its fine scenery. Mr. Mott, at the time of the Y. M. C. A. Convention, held here last October, told the present writer that in his travels around the world, in his estimation, he had seen no city more beautifully situated than Foochow, excepting Stockholm. The people, however, though comparatively literary, were found to be found, high spirited and disinclined to receive instruction from foreigners.

The way in which the Mission has been reinforced by foreign laborers, can be learned from the list of members and dates of their arrivals already given, but a few words may be of additional interest. In 1848 the Mission was strongly reinforced by the arrival of five persons from America. In 1849 a Swedish lady, who had taught at Ningpo, joined the Mission as Mrs. Johnson. In 1850 two more workers came from the United States, and in 1853 two others. But the depleting of the missionary force had already begun. In 1851 the Rev. William L. Richards, a son of Rev. William Richards of the Hawaiian Islands, died at sea on his way to America. Near the end of 1852, on account of his failing health, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson left for U. S., and in 1856 Mrs. Doolittle and Mrs. Peet died at Foochow, and the Rev. Seneca Cummings died in America. While therefore in 1850 for a few months there were eleven members of the Mission, men and women, on the ground, in 1858 there were only three were only three persons in the field, and the number for both the Foochow and Shao-wu fields never again rose to eleven until the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Blakely in 1874. Since then the number of workers has increased, but it has often been and is now quite inadequate to meet the demands of the work. Some of the forty-eight persons who have been connected with the Mission during the past fifty years, for various reasons, have filled but short terms of service, but others have been permitted to labor many years in the field, and the average term of service has been quite good. In this Jubilee year of the Mission there have been fifteen men and women at Foochow city, Foochow suburbs and Pagoda Anchorage stations, and three at Shao-wu.

At first all the missionaries lived on the island in the river between the bridges, and the Chinese would have been glad to restrict their residence to that locality. But in 1849 Mr. Cummings succeeded in renting premises on the south bank of the river, where he built a house. In 1850 Mr. Richards, after a great deal of trouble, rented premises at Po-na-sang, in the large suburb north of the river, and a little over a mile from the city gate. There two houses were erected, one of which is still occupied as a missionary residence. After the opening of the port to the tea trade, from 1853 and onwards, the Mission houses on the island and the one on the south side of the river were sold to foreign merchants, and more suitable locations were sought elsewhere. In 1861 land was secured inside the city proper, on which two houses were built. In 1876 premises were first secured for a mission residence at Shao-wu, two hundred and fifty miles up the river. Previous to this, for two years or more, chapels had been rented at two other places connected with this station and occupied by the native helpers from Foochow. In 1890 a house was purchased at Pagoda Anchorage, which was first occupied as a mission residence by Mr. Hubbard in 1891. The Chang-loh district, with its three to five hundred thousand people, is adjacent to and connected with this station. Work was begun at Chang-loh city by the Mission in 1862. This district and the Yung-fuh district have, by agreement with the other missions, been left for our Mission to evangelize. Work was begun by Mr. Woodin in the latter district or county in 1865, and Mr. Goddard is hoping to occupy it as a resident station soon.

The first baptism connected with the mission occurred in 1856, when Mr. Doolittle baptized the Chinese teacher employed in his boarding-school. In 1857 six more were baptized—the wife of the teacher just mentioned, four pupils and a second teacher in the school. Of these the first church was formed at the suburbs station. Since then there has been a gradual but steady growth in the native membership. In 1866 twelve members were received to the church, and the whole number reported was sixty-four. In 1876 fifteen were added by baptism, and the whole number of members reported was one hundred and seventy-one. In 1886 thirty-four were added to the churches, and the total of members was three hundred and thirty-four. In 1896 the number of members received has been five hundred and thirty-eight, and the total membership is fourteen hundred and forty. In 1866 the Mission reported five native preachers and four other helpers. At present there are three native pastors wholly supported by their churches, thirty-three unordained preachers, twenty-eight theological students, ten Christian medical students, eighty-seven Christian teachers in boarding and day-schools and thirty-three colporteurs, Bible women booksellers and other helpers.

Medical work for the Mission was begun by Dr. D. W. Osgood, who arrived at Foochow in January, 1870. Although sent out especially to aid in opening work in the interior, after visiting Yen-ping, Shao-wu and Kien-ning prefectural cities and other cities of less importance, without finding a good opening at the time, he located at Foochow, and succeeded in opening the Po-na-sang hospital at the suburbs station. Dr. H. T. Whitney arrived in 1877, and opened medical work at Shao-wu. He has since engaged in this work at Foochow suburbs and at Pagoda Anchorage. Dr. Kate C. Woodhull arrived in 1884, and opened our medical work for women and children in Foochow city. These physicians have been succeeded and aided in their work respectively by Dr. H. N. Kinnear in the suburbs, Dr. E. L. Bliss at Shao-wu and Dr. Nieberg-Goddard in Foochow city.

Education has received a good share of attention by the Mission from the beginning. Messres. Johnson, Peet, Baldwin, Cummings and Doolittle, and Mrs. Cummings and Mrs. Doolittle opened day-schools as soon as they were able to accomplish it, to which they gave most careful supervision. In 1854 Mr. Doolittle opened a boarding-school for boys, and Mrs. Doolittle took three girls as boarding pupils under her special care. Subsequently there were breaks in continuity in the boarding-schools. The boys’ boarding-school was started again inside the city by Mr. Woodin, and subsequently it was in charge of Messrs. Baldwin and Hartwell till 1889. In 1890 Mr. Peet took charge of it, and in 1891 introduced an English department, since which time it has grown to be the present Banyan City Institute with its one hundred and forty students. The Girls’ Boarding-school, started again by Mrs. Baldwin, was afterwards in charge of Miss Payson till early in 1879. Since then, under the charge of Misses Newton and Garretson, it has developed into a school of ninety pupils. The day-schools have been fostered by nearly all the members of the Mission, but more especially by Mrs. Baldwin and Miss Chittenden. As to Biblical and theological training of native helper our first preachers came largely from the Boys’ Boarding-school, where they had been thoroughly instructed in Biblical knowledge. These and others were also instructed in special classes, taught by Messrs. Baldwin, Woodin, Hubbard and Hartwell. In 1896 Mr. Beard secured premises for enlargement in this branch of the work, and is laboring to promote it. A boarding-school for educating women was begun at the suburbs station in 1885 by Mrs. H. L. Peet. They next year it was removed to the city, and has been for the most part in charge of Miss H. C. Woodhull. Since her return to U.S. on furlough it has been in charge of Mrs. Dr. Nieberg-Goddard. Station calluses for women have been held at the suburbs station in charge of Mrs. Woodin, Miss Newton, Mrs. Kinnear and Mrs. Beard. Kindergarten methods have been introduced somewhat at the city and suburbs stations.

At the Shao-wu station, in the Shao-wu language, the educational work has not advanced so far as at Foochow. But preachers and theological students have been instructed in classes by Messrs. Walker and Gardner; a few boarding pupils have been taught; women have received instruction from the missionary ladies; medical students have been taught by Drs. Whitney and Bliss; and Christian day-schools have been opened at a number of places.

In literary work most of the members of the mission have taken a part. Messrs. L. P. Peet, Baldwin, Doolittle, Woodin and Hartwell shared in the early tentative translations of portions of the New Testament or of the Old. Messrs. Baldwin and Hartwell were on the committee for a common version of the New Testament, and Messrs. Baldwin and Woodin were on that for the Old Testament. Dr. Baldwin also did a large share in the final revision of the whole Bible. Mr. Walker has prepared portious of the New Testament in the Shao-wu Colloquial, which have been published.

Dr. Baldwin did a large share in the preparation of the “Alphabetic Dictionary in the Foochow Dialect,” and Mrs. Baldwin and he prepared the “Manual of the Foochow Dialect.”

Members of the Mission have prepared books and tracts in the Book Language, in the Foochow Colloquial and in the Mandarin and Shao-wu Colloquial. Dr. and Mrs. Baldwin, Miss Newton, Mr. Walker and Mr. Hartwell have prepared hymns in the languages used by the Mission. Miss Payson aided in starting the Child’s Paper in the Foochow Colloquial in connection with ladies of the Methodist Mission, and Miss Newton, Mrs. Hubbard and others have shared in conducting it. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard and Mr. and Mrs. L. P. Peet have started the Banyan City News in the Romanized Colloquial, and the same persons, for about ten years, have conducted the Romanized Press, and have published Scriptures, books and tracts in this form for use in schools for women and children.

At present all departments of the work are prospering, and although the Mission is straitened in the lack of workers and of funds, the outlook during all the fifty years has never been brighter than it is now.

Chas. Hartwell

(Published in 1897. Charles Hartwell was the senior missionary of the American Board in China.)

Persecutions

FAMILY OF HÜ YONG MI (許揚美)

From Ching Sing Tong, at Ta Ting, I was appointed to a new chapel on East Street, in the city. The missionary in charge was Rev. Mr. Martin, who lived on Black Rock Hill. He was very zealous and a faithful, loving pastor. A few months after my appointment the dedication of the chapel occurred. Members came from far and near. I had to provide for the hospitable entertainment of the guests. The chapel was close to the street; therefore great numbers of passers-by liked to approach and gaze within. Their voices were raised in such tumult that it was impossible to preach. Since the uproar could not be checked, it became necessary to close the chapel doors. The crowds were invited to withdraw; but they raised a louder clamor, using insulting language, and beating the doors. We therefore summoned the ward constable to restrain them.

When service was over, and the doors opened, the crowd rushed in, performing grotesquely in various ways, to insult me. I was very weary; for with all the work of the two days past, I had eaten nothing. The mob still filled the chapel till the middle of the afternoon, refusing to leave.

There was then no help for it, I thought, but to make appeal to the officers through Rev. Mr. Martin. This I did. The officers sent eight policemen who arrested ten or more, and took them to the yamum. They were judged as they deserved; but as it was their first offense they were merely condemned to bring to the chapel some firecrackers and large candles, and to make confession of their fault. The policeman brought the candles, the prisoners having escaped from them on the way. The candles were set up to illumine the chapel. Suddenly there was a pounding at the door, and several literati entered and destroyed the candles. It was already dark. Word came to me that a mob was destroying the chapel of the English Church Mission on South Street. It was told me that thence the mob was to separate in three companies, one to go to Black Rock Hill and destroy Mr. Martin’s house, one to go to the Hill of the Nim Genü and lay waste the premises of the American Board Mission, and another to come to the chapel at East Street. They did not carry out their intention at the American Board Mission, being resisted by the neighbors, who feared injury to their own property.

The house of Rev. Mr. Martin was tom down. Rev. S. L. Baldwin and wife, who had been at the church, and were stopping at Mr. Martin’s, having another meeting to attend, fortunately had left before the mob came. Mr. Martin and family escaped into the adjoining temple through a passage made for them in the wall by a Tauist priest. The mob at East Street began the attack by throwing broken tiles, crockery, and stones upon the roof. Then they struck the front door with a stone pillar, borne on men’s shoulders and broke the door. With an ax they split open the back door. There were in the house with me my wife, two of our children, my sister, and her three children, eight in all. The children were awakened from sleep and frightened by the noise. When the doors were broken open, the mob rushed in and began destroying furniture. They broke into our private rooms.

I then thought I must take away my family to a place of safety. I took my son John in my arms, my wife and sister each led one of the children, and I directed them all to follow me closely. In the dark court, where chairs and tables were upset and piled together in confusion, I stumbled and fell. Having the child in my arms I could not immediately recover myself. When I did, I called to the others, but no answer was returned. I alone was left, with John in my arms. I went on, and near South Street met my brother, Hieng Mi, just coming to tell me of the destruction of Rev. Mr. Martin’s house. He took the child from me, and then, for the first time, I noticed that he was unconscious, and had sustained an injury to his head. At once I went back to seek the rest of my family.

When about to enter the chapel I was rudely thrown back by the crowd, just making exit with great uproar. “My family are captive in their midst,” I thought. In my distress I cried with a loud voice, and insanely tried to force through the throng. I was carried on by it, and soon from one house on the street I heard weeping, and recognized the voices of my family. I made my way thither, and, entering, found my wife, sister, and the two children, whom they had led. The other two children were lost.

I had heard in the street voices crying, “Children trodden to death, children trodden to death!” and now feared they might be ours. Essaying to comfort the women, but very sorrowful myself, I hastened again into the street, and shouted the names of the children. One man told me that he had heard of two children being in a certain place, and indicated the way. I asked him to go with me, and we found the children. I rewarded the kind stranger with ten dollars.

My brother had carried little John to my sister’s house at the foot of Black Rock Hill, and I went there to see him at a little past midnight. I found him still unconscious, in delirium crying, “Break, break!”

Early the next morning I took a sedan to escort home my family. On East Street, near the chapel, my chair was surrounded by a riotous mob, who declared I should not escape them. I did, however, and got my family safe to Ching Sing Tong. Thanks be to God who enabled me to escape as from a pack of wolves!

At that time I heard that the mob planned to attack and destroy all the chapels, and commit other acts of violence. Thanks to Rev. Mr. Gibson, who, for the Lord’s sake, took much trouble in my behalf, fulfilling the words, “Mourn with those who mourn.” Energetically he prosecuted righteous measures with wisdom given of God.

The English and American consuls together presented to the governor accounts of the riot, and asked that the offenders might be dealt with according to law. The governor, whose surname was Sū, was an excellent man, possessing knowledge and virtue. He acknowledged that the people were very rebellious; and ordered the arrest of ten or more. Then the whole city was stirred. The people were in a panic. Shops were all closed. The streets were thronged with vagabonds. If a shop-door opened, stones were flung within. Great numbers, not of the rabble only, but respectable shopmen too, flocked to the prefect’s, and all day beat the drum at the gate, demanding the release of the prisoners. They were consequently all released. No punishment had been inflicted upon them; but their arrest had demonstrated to the people that the officers were just, and did not wish evil to foreigners, contrary to the ignorant supposition before entertained.

From this time the people were more civil and respectful to foreigners. No such general disturbance was ever again excited in the city of Foochow, hostile to the promulgation of the gospel. Through these troublous times my soul experienced comfort and strength from the Lord.

Through the conduct of a certain class of my associates, the devil devised more trouble for me, for which my wisdom was insufficient. Therefore, after the affair was past, its recollection often brought repentance, as billows will rise on a calm sea.

Subsequently, certain ones of the gentility came privately to comfort me, and offered to compensate me for losses sustained by the mob. I resolutely declined their offers of money. These people were already acquainted with my family and its history, and knew what kind of doctrine we taught. How had it come to pass that they were thus informed?

Strange! Supreme Omniscience had beforehand prepared for me many witnesses against this time, of which I then became aware. One of our former Church members, surnamed Chai, was a descendant of a Kwok sü. He had frequently brought his literary friends to the chapel to converse with me. They had thus clearly learned how correct our service in the worship of God. They, too, had often felt themselves strongly influenced to forsake their own gods and to become Christians.

The member Chai had been expelled from the Church for keeping more than one wife. Sorrowfully we exhorted him, but the matter involved too great difficulty for him, and he asked that his name be removed from the Church record. He had learned that the Church was pure, and such testimony he bore of it to his literary friends, who, during the time of uproar, went to him to make inquiries about the Christians. His testimony was firmly credited, which to themselves brought self-reproach.

Further, during the many years at Ching Sing Tong, I had known many people, and been known of more, who became witnesses for me. Months afterward, as I sat quiet at home, neighbors led men into my presence to confess their wrong. Wonderful, beyond man’s thought, the Lord’s wisdom and power! After the riot the officials appropriated twelve hundred dollars for remuneration. This money Rev. Mr. Martin gave into my charge to distribute according to each man’s report of his losses. By this means my knowledge of the affair increased very much. The silver was as a microscope upon the circumstances of the case, and the dispositions of men. Ah! I was sad. My heart earnestly wished to sink the money into deep waters or give it wings to flyaway.

My own share I requested the mission to retain, but Mr. Martin said: “This is your own; we will not take it.” I was willing to lose everything, glad to suffer ill for Jesus’ sake, let but the peace of Christ remain with me. I did not wish money to screen me from fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, to confuse my love for Christ. My experiences at this time led me to analyze character, and I found the principles of men to be as salt that had lost its savor.

I knew that wealth devoured peace of mind like a serpent. Therefore I besought the Lord: “What thou grantest let it not be wealth!” The mission planned to build a new chapel. The neighbors gave no trouble about the building, although the new structure was far better and higher than the old.

Mr. Martin, during the hot weather, came into the city to superintend the work. He took sick, and within twenty-four hours he and his son died. Although the Heavenly Father gave him everlasting rest, that could not prevent us from mourning unspeakably.

Suddenly I was taken ill, and was about to die. Thanks to Dr. Maclay for calling Dr. Stuart to see me. Rev. S. L. Baldwin and the Misses Woolston took much care of me. I was debtor for much love expended.

My health restored, I went to Ning Taik, Lo-ngwong, and Lieng Kong preaching. At Lo-ngwong, God gave me the respect of the villagers. One neighbor woman was said to be possessed of the fox demon for a long time. She wished to be free but dared not release herself. She came and invited my wife to go and pray for her, that she might cast away her idols. My wife went, and the woman experienced peace. The daughter of one of the neighbors was taken suddenly ill. She said: “The demon tells me, ‘I have been cast out by the Christians, and have no place to dwell. I happen to meet you; therefore I now come to you.’”

Previous to this time, when I was at Kang Chiá with Cheng Mi, I met a woman upwards of ten years possessed of a demon, also said to be the fox demon. Her husband told me that she was commonly very well; but when the demon came, she was seized with great fear and became insensible. Sometimes she would lie ten days or more without eating. She seemed to have no intelligence concerning what was spoken to her. When words were uttered by her, they were words of the demon’s, not her own; they were of secret, abstruse meaning, or prophetic. When she ate, she ate voraciously. Occasionally she committed self-injuries and mutilations. One day her husband invited a few of us to go to his house to pray. We first talked to him of the doctrine of faith, and told him that if he had faith, it would be enough for us to pray where we were. The demon would at once flee from his house. He replied, “I believe.” We prayed for him. When he returned home he found his wife already risen from her
bed, well.

At Tiong Loh I heard that Dr. Gibson and family were about to return to the United States. Our whole household returned to Foochow to bid him farewell. How could I know that from that time to the present I should not again see his face? Truly this caused our hearts perpetually to mourn.

On the same Sabbath there was quarterly-meeting at the A-to chapel. My heart was sorrowful. The love and glory of Christ did not spontaneously shine therein. I felt covered with uncleanness. I was glad to listen to the sermon; but when the communion service began, I felt that I ought to run away, that I dared not partake of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Yet if I went away I knew not what men would conjecture, and if I might not dishonor Christ. I was greatly troubled. It seemed equally difficult to go forward or to retire. What should I do?

Then Dr. Maclay began reading the service. My heart palpitated, and only by holding myself by force I sat still. Suddenly I heard read the words, “If any man sin, he has an advocate with the Father” – words most exceeding sweet. In my soul the language was as if addressed to me, a sinner, alone: “See the print of the nails; see the pierced side, the flowing blood. This for thee. Go forward! Why are you sad? Go forward! Come to the Father! I will be your Mediator.”

The name Jesus was melody. My soul leaped to enter his precious side and be cleansed. “There is a fountain filled with blood.” Within the precious side I experienced peace and joy. This joy and peace seemed all to belong to myself alone. I felt the print of the nails, the fountain in the side; and how inestimably precious it was I could perceive. I also knew that nothing under heaven could remedy my heart’s illness and sorrow, only Jesus, from whose precious side flowed water and blood. He had healed me perfectly, and comforted me.

That day my soul first perceived the deep meaning in the sacrament. Naturally in my heart arose deeper friendship with the Lord Jesus. Blessedness! Where was its fountainhead? I had found it. It was in my Lord’s precious side. Great efficacy there! My one Savior! Through hearing of the ears my soul had seen, had come close to Jesus, was conscious of being washed clean, and had received great peace. True is this word: “All sinners under heaven; you need have no sorrow. Only come and trust Jesus, you all will be perfectly well.”

When I went again to Tiong Loh, I learned that the three missions had distributed among them the mission stations. The English Church Mission had taken Lieng Kong aud Lo-ngwong; the Methodist Episcopal Mission had Ming Chiang and Hok Chiang; the American Board Mission had Tiong Loh and Ing Hok. In Foochow, Ku-cheng, and Ping Nang, the work was to be general.

Up to this time the Methodist Episcopal Mission had been first in every district that the missionaries visited.

I returned home, and located again at Ching Sing Tong. There the opportunity to preach was good, but results were small. The converts were mainly the very poor or the solitary. For the Lord’s sake we cared for these. In the sixth month (July, 1864) my eldest daughter Hiong Kwang – about three years old – took suddenly ill, and died within twenty-four hours. This was a great sorrow. I could not understand why it should be. On the eighth day of the twelfth month, in the fourth year of Tung Te (January, 1865), another daughter, King Eng, was born. We received comfort. People said, “This one will stay with you long.” The sound of the name is the same as that of words meaning long-continuing. The signification of the name is Precious Peace.

When King Eng was about two years old she was very ill a long time. One day I asked Rev. S. L. Baldwin to invite Dr. Stewart to call and see her. Dr. Stewart promised on the next day, at twelve noon, to be at his hospital to see patients. Therefore my wife and I, with our two children, went in chairs to see him. Arrived at the hospital, we were told that Dr. Stewart had gone to Pagoda Anchorage, twelve miles distant. We waited until nearly dark, but he did not return. I perceived that the child was unconscious, not recognizing anybody all day. All said that she was dying. My whole heart was very sorrowful. No help!

Quickly we hastened to Ching Sing Tong, lest she should die on the street. I first ran up-stairs and agonized in prayer. I received answer from the Heavenly Father. “Go down and see, the child lives!” I hastily lighted a candle, and ran down stairs. The mother was holding the child close in her arms and weeping. She said to me, “She is dead.”

I looked at the child’s face and called “King Eng.” She opened her eyes and said, “E-wá” (mamma). We quickly gave her drink and observed a little perspiration.

From that moment she seemed well. She smiled, and spoke, and was well. This manifested the hand of God alone. Not by medicine was she cured. Praise to the Heavenly Father without end!

My younger brother, Hieng Mi, having attended examination on Sunday, his license to preach was withdrawn from him by the Quarterly Conference. He had formerly been very happy. Seeing him daily spending his time vainly, I feared that he would fall into temptation. I assisted him, and advised him to open a rice-shop, and commissioned him to have care of our mother, younger brother, and sister.

My brother Sing Mi was then in the United States. I was liable to be removed to a distant station, when it would be a comfort to know that those at home were provided for. I could not know that my brother would cultivate a taste for gambling. One day his gun exploded and destroyed two fingers. He was dangerously ill, near to death. Many thanks were due to Dr. S. L. Baldwin, who took great care of him, and invited Dr. Stewart to attend him. This accident cost me considerable money. The rice-shop failed to repay the capital expended. My brother asked me again to aid him. He wished to join a circle of twenty, each of whom was to contribute a sum for the use of one temporarily – all to have the benefit of it, each in turn. We formed the circle of twenty, several preachers joining it.

After about a year I was appointed to Ming Chiang. With the money that had been given me after the riot, I had bought a house, and this I had long desired to sell that I might bestow the proceeds in charity. The Church was not willing to receive the property. No opportunity had offered for sale.

As I was leaving for Ming Chiang I placed the matter in the hands of my brother. But the Lord was unwilling to receive the money. After a few years I understood why the Lord’s treasury could not receive it, nor the treasury of his Church. Therefore the money went to my relatives. They understood it was for the poor. They reckoned themselves poor, and appropriated it. They afterward were very poor for many years, and had great deprivations. Many demands were laid upon me – more, sometimes, than I felt I could endure. Even dear friends became enemies. I felt that it was better to die than to live. But Jehovah remained, my Heavenly Father, God, and Savior; him alone had I to love, to trust. I took the parables to heart. They comforted me as a sympathetic friend.

Although all my goods had been dispersed afterward, in an unexpected moment, from God’s hand, I received a gift of money. Great peace; unceasing thanks! All things in turn come, and all are naturally profitable to me.

One year, Bishop Thomson, at Ching Sing Tong, at the end of a discourse said: “Use that which will help you to walk heaven’s way the fastest; that is, tears and kneelings.” These words affected me greatly, and remained a constant reminder.

When the Conference appointed me to Ming Chiang and Lik Tu, my heart had additional grief. I feared that the missionaries had rejected me. I had learned that on this district were many literary men, hard-hearted, who constantly insulted the preachers and annoyed the Churches, stealing books and burning them. Therefore no preacher wished to go there. Now, I thought, I am sent here because the missionaries feel it inconvenient to expel me and wish me to resign. These doubts arose on account of my sorrowful frame of mind, fighting with sin. However, I thought, all things are in God’s hand to rule and determine. Dare to doubt? No. I must put away every imagination of my own. Preachers, whether in sorrow or joy, must finish their course. Therefore I, in depressing circumstances, must trust the Lord the more, and hope for the manifestation of his power.

I went to Lik Tu and rented a house. Having arranged to have it immediately repaired, I returned to Foochow. It was about the beginning of the eleventh month. My wife’s state of health compelled me to delay moving. Another preacher was appointed to Ching Sing Tong, which would compel us to move at once. It was impossible, so I remained. On the twenty-second day of the eleventh month, in the sixth year of Tung Te (December, 1866), a daughter was born to us – Ngük Eng.

(Tenth chapter of Hü Yong Mi’s biography The Way of Faith, published in 1896. Hü Yong Mi was one of the seven native Methodist ministers in Fuzhou.)

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.)