CO

THE STORY OF THE CHURCH IN CHINA

FRQM THE LIBF^RX OF

COLLEGE

TO

:

V—*

The Story of the Church in China

By

ARTHUR R. GRAY

and

ARTHUR M. SHERMAN

The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society

New York

'9*3

136239 OCT 2 2 1991

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface ix

PART I

I The Beginnings 3

II The Beginnings at Shanghai 33

III Ebb and Flow 71

PART II

I Significant Development in Educational Work... 87

II The Struggle to Survive in Wuchang 99

III Changing Attitude Towards Foreigners 109

IV Into New Fields 125

V Expanding Opportunities 141

VI Further Development of the Upriver Wrork 165

VII Forging Ahead 183

VIII The War With Japan— and its Far Reaching

Effect Upon the China Mission 197

IX A Survey of the Work at the End of the Century 215

X The Boxer Movement and After 229

XI Division of the Missionary Jurisdiction.... 245

XII A Time of Harvest 265

XIII New Ventures of Faith 291

XIV Bringing Forth Fruit Many Fold 307

XV Wuhu — The New Missionary District ; the Organ ization of the Sheng Kung Hui 323

XVI The Revolution and the Outlook 331

APPENDICES

A List of Missionaries 341

B Chronology of the Mission 352

Index 363

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Chinese Summer Palace Near Peking Frontispiece

Girls of St. Agnes' School, Anking, at the Wash

Tubs Page 142

The Orphanage, Shanghai " 142

The Creek Which Makes St. John's University

Campus a Peninsula " 112

The Main Entrance to the Mission Compound,

Wusih 112

A Confirmation Class at an Outstation " 62

An Outstation Chapel " 62

Chinese Presbyters— Rev. Y. T. Fu; Rev. T. K. Hu " 189 The Church and Some of the Congregation at

Tai-Hu 236

Ingle Hall, Boone University, Wuchang " 236

An Elderly Christian in the District of Shanghai... " 219 A Great Gathering of Male Communicants from the

Shanghai District, Planning for Church Extension " 219

The Assembly Room, St. Mary's Hall, Shanghai... " 241

The School Chapel, Anking " 295

St. John's Pro-Cathedral, Shanghai " 295

A Group of Girls' Day School Teachers " 313

A Typical Girls' Day School " 313

The Shanghai Mission in Early Days, Hongkew " 33

A Chinese Christian Priest With Part of His Fam ily—The Rev. Lieo Yin Tsung, Hankow 78

The First Synod of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, Shanghai, April, 1912 — American, British,

Chinese and Canadian Delegates " 328

(1) Soldiers Bringing a Wounded Comrade to St.

Peter's Hospital, Wuchang " 120

(2) The Commonest Way of Bringing Patients to

the Hospital " 120

(3-4) Other Methods of Conveying Patients to the

Hospital Gate " 120

Slave Girls in St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Shanghai... " 269

Main Building, St. Luke's Hospital, Shanghai " 269

Altar of St. Peter's Church, Shanghai " 168

Wall Around St. Saviour's Chapel, Wuchang " 168

Preface

THE following story has been written to meet a real demand. In Miss Richmond's history the fads and figures are compre hensively arrayed, and to it the reader is recom mended to turn for details omitted in this volume.

The objecl: of this book is to provide the general reader, who is not interested in dates and data, with a sketch of such a nature as will hold his or her attention.

The first-named Author is the Educational Secretary of the Board of Missions and the second a clerical member of the Hankow staff. The Authors felt acutely their limitations to do such a piece of work, but the call was clear and they could not refuse, and they are at least happy to say that, however imperfect the book may be, it represents a labor of love and joy.

The Church in China is so desperately im portant to her people's welfare in this time of wide emergency, and the need for help is so great, that we earnestly hope that some, at least, who read this story will be inspired to do large things and to pray large prayers for the prosperity of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui.

ARTHUR R. GRAY ARTHUR M. SHERMAN

The Story of The Church in China

Part I

THE BEGINNINGS

CHAPTER I JHE BEGINNINGS

The first part of this book will be very simple. To be sure it deals with a big subject, but that very self-same big thing had a most unpretentious beginning, and therefore it would be out of place to deal with it in any but a very simple way. How true it is that the things which are most worth while began in apparent insignificance. Was not the beginning of the greatest thing in the world — the only eternal thing — so small and silent that none knew it had begun except a few poor shep herds on the plains of Palestine?

Augustus Foster Lyde. The Church's work in China had its origin in the heart of a student at the Gen eral Seminary in New York just eighty years ago. His name was Augustus Foster Lyde, and he had been born one hundred years ago, on the 4th of February, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Graduated with highest honors from Washington (now Trinity) College, in Hartford, Connecticut, he had entered the New York Seminary in 1831. If there only had been preserved some record of his life there, one might be able to tell exactly when and how his

4 The Story of the Church in China

thoughts turned in the direction of the mighty and mysterious land of Cathay — that land whereof so little was known.

Just how little China was known in those days it is hard for us to realize. There had been a time to be sure, before the Turks set up a bar rier between the West and the East, when inter communication between them had been compara tively easy, but those days had gone and cara vans no longer crossed the deserts with impunity. In the early part of the last century, to reach the Orient meant to round the Horn, and to do that meant to journey for the fabulous year and a day. As a result, the Europeans knew practically noth ing about the land of the fabled Kublai Khan. Whenever travellers managed to get there and back their tales were listened to with incredulity. Be yond the fact that the inhabitants were yellow, and wore their hair long, and ate unmentionable things — beyond this, nothing was known of far Cathay. If one looks through books upon China, he will find that in 1830 there was not one of any practical value. It would not be a very rash guess to say that there was not a single book about the land in the library of the Seminary when young Lyde went there.

How, then, did he become interested in it? It must have been in the first place through tales told of the work done by that great pioneer Morrison, who had gone out just six years before Lyde was born. Many letters he had written home, and

The Beginnings 5

tales of his prodigious labors in translating and in making a Chinese dictionary had doubtless come to the ears of the Seminary student in New York. And then again, Peter Parker had gone out from Yale to be a missionary, and his fame had spread throughout the land. Again, China's trouble with the proud powers of Western Europe had begun, so that it was beginning to be an item of impor tance in the newspapers. These things, and the new interest which had just been aroused in mis sions by the organization of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society ten years before, had turned the thoughts of young men to the possi bility of serving their Lord outside the limits of the United States.

Curiously enough, reversing the policy of St. Paul and the Church at large in carrying the cross westward, our Church had at first turned its eyes eastward, and Liberia and Greece and Constanti nople had been the first objects of its missionary endeavors. Up until the year 1834 no one ap parently had suggested that we endeavor to drive the sway of ecclesiastical empire westward — beyond the broad Pacific.

In the discussions in the Missionary Society of the General Seminary, however, the students had brought this matter forward, and with such ear nestness that results followed, the chief of which was that in his senior year Lyde decided to offer himself as a missionary to China. As we shall see, his determination influenced his classmate,

6 The Story of the Church in China

Henry Lockwood, since the latter was destined to be the pioneer. To Lyde, however, is due the fact that the Foreign Committee of the then very primi tive Board, determined to undertake the enterprise.

It came about in this way. The young man, full of zeal, was travelling to Philadelphia in the spring of 1834 and chanced to fall in with two men whose counsels had great weight in the Mis sionary Society: Dr. Milnor, the Secretary of the Committee, and Mr. E. A. Newton. They were on their way to a meeting of the Society, and learning this, young Lyde poured out his heart, telling them of his desire to go to China, and begging them to make the land an object of the Board's endeavors.. So impressed were these gentlemen that at a meet ing of the Society on the 13th of May, Dr. Milnor, after Mr. Newton had opened up the subject, moved and carried a resolution to the effect that the Board undertake work for the conversion of the people of Cathay.

In those days, however, money was very scarce, — the total income of the Board being but a few thousand dollars — and it was one thing to come to a decision, and another to take action. To raise enough money to send one man to China was an undertaking quite as appalling as it would be for us today to undertake to raise $200,000 for some special fund. Still, they went to work, and, had all gone well, young Lyde would have gone out as our first missionary. But the seeds of the great white plague had long been in him, and his un-

The Beginnings £

remitting study had done the rest, so that he died in Philadelphia on the 19th of November, 1834, and lies buried in the Churchyard of St. Peter's. His tombstone may be seen there to this day.

The death of this young man made no small im pression upon the Church. Bishop Vail of Kan sas wrote : "An event like this is a mystery too deep to be fathomed by the plummet of human reason. * * * The sun of his earthly existence arose with amaz ing rapidity and brightness, but it has suddenly sunk into the midnight of the grave."

Thus died the real founder of our work in China. But the work itself went on, and Henry Lockwood who, as we saw, had been Lyde's classmate in the Seminary, came forward to take his place.

Lockwood and Hanson. It was not deemed wise, however, in those days to send out one man alone, and a search was accordingly begun for another volunteer. For months the Foreign Committee sought in vain for a man rash enough to cross the Pacific. It was not till February, 1835, when the Reverend Francis R. Hanson, Rector of Christ Church, Prince George's County, Maryland, volunteered, that their search was ended and the way made open. All be ing ready therefore, on the last day in the month of May, in St. Stephen's Church, Philadelphia, a farewell meeting was held under the presidency of Bishop White, at which the young volunteers were subjected among other things to a long and ponder ous sermon-letter of instructions. This over, they journeyed to New York and attended another fare-

8 The Story of the Church in China

well meeting in St. Thomas' Church on the 1st of June, and on the next day, in the good ship "Morrison," they sailed for Canton.

At this period the amount of the China Mission Fund was only a little over $1,000, but as has hap pened so often, certain individuals of large means and charitable disposition promised to contribute whatever extra amount was needed to meet the expenses of the expedition for at least one year. To add to their munitions of war, the American Bible Society had given them three hundred Bibles for distribution among the peoples whom they sought to serve, and $1,000 in cash for the purchase of copies of the Scriptures in Morrison's Chinese version ; and from the Bible Society of Philadelphia came $100 to be used for a similar purpose.

And so they sailed away, almost "for a year and a day," to a land quite as mythical then to Americans as is the one told of in the nursery rhyme "where the bog tree grows." Fortunately for the adventurers, the voyage was a pleasant one. No fabled anthro pophagi or Chinese pirates, of which latter there were many, disturbed the serenity of their journey, and they reached Lintin, at the entrance to the harbor of the only place where they could land in those days, Canton, on the 4th of October, and were warmly welcomed by the few resident Amer icans. Let the story be continued in their own words :

"Being obliged to wait here several days, before going up to Canton, we availed ourselves of the

The Beginnings 9

opportunity to visit Mr. Gutzlaff at Macao.1 He received us very cordially, and kindly offered us all the assistance and advice he could give."

From Lintin they proceeded up to Canton, from where they write :

"We were welcomed in the most friendly manner by Mr. Olyphant, as well as by Mr. Bridgman and Dr. Parker, missionaries of the American Board. Mr. O. very kindly had rooms prepared for us in his establishment, and we were invited by Mr. Bridgman, who has rooms in the same factory, to remain at his table during our stay in Canton. We take peculiar pleasure in acknowledging our obli gations to the former gentleman, for the constant friendly interest manifested in our behalf; and, among the rest, could not fail to notice his having taken upon himself the charge of our passage from the ship to the city, the usual price of which is £15 for each passenger.

"Divine Service is conducted here by Mr. Bridg man, once every Sunday, for the benefit of the For eign residents. From thirty to fifty usually attend, though the number here is generally more than twice as large. For the last two Sundays we have,

'Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff had been sent to Batavia by the Netherland Missionary Society in 1826. In 1828, by which time he had become proficient in the Chinese language, he severed connection with his "home base" and went to China on his own account, and after various adventures had been appointed in 1834 successor to the great Protestant pio neer, Morrison, as interpreter and secretary to the British Ambassador to China. He was one of the great missionaries of the early days.

io The Story of the Church in China

at the request of Mr. B., performed the service and preached. We were pleased with the numerous attendance, as well as the appearance of interest exhibited. A large proportion of the gentlemen here are English, and of course have a preference for our service."

Knowing, as they did before they went out, that it would not be possible for them to settle at first among the people whom they intended to convert — • knowing that two things would prevent this, first their utter ignorance of the language, and second the laws of the land which forbade foreigners to reside anywhere outside a few English, Portu guese and Dutch trading posts, — realizing these things before leaving America, the missionaries had decided, from the few facts and bits of information obtainable, that the best place for them to settle till they could speak the language and learn the ropes was Singapore. From Canton accordingly they write :

"The reasons that induced us to regard Singapore as the most eligible place for establishing ourselves, at present, have all been confirmed since arriving here. We have accordingly determined on going there, and are now only waiting for a passage, which we expect can be obtained in a few days. Its dis tance from the main field of operations offered the only objection to our minds, being about 1,500 miles from this place. But even this can be of no great consequence, as the communication between the two places is constant and direct, and the passage (at

The Beginnings If

this season of the year) is generally performed in less than ten days, which is considered in this part of the world, but a small trip. Communications from home may also reach us sooner by way of Batavia, than at this place.

"Singapore is the nearest settlement to China, which is under English control, and its advantages, on this latter account, will be apparent. An estab lishment at any of the Dutch or Spanish settlements lying nearer would be out of the question, their sys tem of exclusion being scarcely less strict than that of the Chinese."

It seems that they could have remained on the mainland and begun their work where they were, but they feared that they would see but little of the natives if they did so. They wrote on this point :

"There is no positive obstacle in the way of our remaining at Canton, as the residence of the Mis sionaries here shows. Indeed, on some accounts, we think it important that our Society should, if possible, sustain a missionary here. But its advan tages, in many respects, particularly such as arise from unrestrained intercourse with the natives, are limited compared with those at Singapore. Here you are closely watched; even your servants are spies ; and no one, even if he has a disposition, dares to be on familiar terms with the 'fan Kidei' (Foreign devils) as we are called."

Batavia the First Station. The next we hear from the Missionaries shows that despite their careful

12 The Story of the Church in China

reckonings they found it best to change their minds about Singapore. Under date of February 29, they wrote from Batavia:

"Our last communications to the Society were forwarded from Singapore and contained informa tion of our intention to come to this place. We also sent some papers written by Mr. Medhurst, showing the principal reasons that induced us to change our purpose of remaining at Singapore. We went on board a Dutch brig at that place on Saturday the 12th of December, and arrived here on the 22d of the same month.

"The situation of things we have found fully as favorable to the prosecution of our objects as has been represented. The field of Missionary labor among the Chinese and Malay population is im mense; and what is more, there are no important obstacles in the way of its being improved. The opportunities of intercourse with every sort of people here are unlimited. You may go out at any time of the day, and to almost any place, and find multitudes of people to whom you may preach, dis tribute books, or converse on any subject without fear of interruption, and may be certain of being always received with respect, if not with serious attention. The Chinese here, are, to a great extent, free from that national prejudice against foreigners, which, in their own country, forms so strong a barrier against all efforts to do them good."

This is followed by an account of their visit to the Governor General, the which, because of the

The Beginnings 13

local color it provides, is well worth putting into print again :

"As all persons who intend to remain here longer than six weeks are obliged by law to ask permis sion from the government to do so, we made a visit to Bintenzorg, the residence of the Governor General, a short time ago, for the purpose of pre senting our petition. Our company consisted of four besides ourselves, Mr. Medhurst, Mr. Arms, lately arrived from the American Board, a Dutch Missionary and a young man assisting Mr. Med hurst, Mr. Young. We started in a post coach a little after five o'clock in the morning and performed the journey in about four hours — a distance of thirty-six miles over a most excellent road, through a charming country. From the inn we sent up a note with our names to the Governor, requesting an interview, and soon after received an invitation to dine. We were received in a friendly manner, and his Excellency appeared to take some interest in our object, as well as in Missions generally. He informed us, however, that as he is about to be superseded in office and to return to Holland, our petition would go before his successor; but that it would undoubtedly be favorably received, and that we should meet with no difficulty in pursuing our objects. In the petition it was required to state our names, profession and country; our purpose in coming here, with a brief account of the Society under whose direction we had come out, and our wishes to remain. This was translated into Dutch

14 The Story of the Church in China

before being sent. We have not yet had a reply, but expect it soon, for which a stamp duty of about $40 each will be required."

When they had first made their plans, they imagined that it would be possible for them to become thoroughly acquainted with the language and peoples and religions of China within a com paratively short time. But their experience in Batavia soon convinced them that they had mis calculated. A task different from anything for which they had prepared themselves confronted them. Men going out today have all sorts of things to help them, but Hanson and Lockwood had no modern advantages. They had to grope blindly, as it were, through the mists of an un charted ocean. It did not take them long to decide that the thing to do was to make the best of their enforced captivity and to settle down. Aye more, to preach the gospel there. Now since they could not well preach in a language understanded of the people, they did the next best — perhaps the best — thing, and opened a school for boys. Thus it came to pass that the first oriental work done under the auspices of our Church was not in China but in Batavia on the island of Java.

This was so unexpected a move that the con scientious spenders of the Board's hard earned money feared that the people at home might think they were not doing their duty and so they wrote:

"The Society must not suppose that, because we have deemed it expedient to retire for a time from

The Beginnings 15

China, we have forgotten our original destination, or abandoned the hope or intention of preaching the Gospel within that vast Empire. As soon as we acquire the language of the Chinese we hope to return, and trust we shall be privileged to con tribute in some small degree to the overthrow of superstition and vice in that land. But patience must have her perfect work. It would be fanaticisn of the worst kind to desire or anticipate the har vest without having performed the labor previously necessary. He who would preach the Gospel success fully in China, must qualify himself for it in the same way in which he would prepare himself to preach the Gospel among civilized nations. He must become acquainted with their philosophy, modes of thought, and civil, religious, social and domestic institutions. While knowledge continues to be acquired only by slow and painful steps, this will consume time. The Society must not, there fore, expect much active labor from us for some time. If in two or three years we acquire a suf ficient knowledge of the language and customs of the Chinese to justify our return to China, it will be quite as much as can reasonably be anticipated, and more, I fear, than will be realized."

But now an event happened over which the reader of sentiment will rejoice. Mission work is lonely work at best, and one of our heroes found it too much so for him. Among their fellow workers in Batavia were the Medhursts. The father of the family was for many years a faithful servant of

16 The Story of the Church in China

his Lord under the direction of the London Mis sionary Society. His daughter, Sarah Sophia, ap pealed particularly to Mr. Lockwood, and he apparently suited her, so they were married, and great was the joy that came to the heart of the lonely worker.

But alas! it was not to be that he should remain happy. Tragedy soon darkened the door of his house, for after but a few months Mrs. Lock- wood died.

But why mention one whose connection with the work was so painfully brief? Because she was our first woman missionary in the Orient; and because she was a woman of unusual ability and conse cration ; and because, though her days as a Church- woman were few, she became deeply devoted to her newly adopted Church ; and because she was the first of that long line of saintly women who, in the service of our Board, have laid down their lives for China.

The Situation at Home. But let us go in the im agination back to the home land and see how things were progressing there. A most interesting, and to some of us familiar sight greets the eyes. Perhaps no more fundamental question ever confronts mission boards than this: What shall be done if more people volunteer for the field than there is money to provide for? We have been hearing somewhat of this question lately, and when one investigates the situation in the Board rooms in 1836 and 1837, he finds the same problem staring the officers in

The Beginnings 17

the face. The letters from their representatives had made the officers wonder whether they ought not to send out more men. If the work were worth being done at all, it was worth being well done. Much debate had been carried on as to whether or not the staff should be increased. But then the spectre of poverty rose up and said: "Suppose somebody else volunteers, what will you do?"

But little money was in hand. It was hard enough to get the wherewithal to support Hanson and Lockwood. Would it not be madness to at tempt to send out a third missionary? To be sure, money was coming in for Domestic work better than it had. An editorial in The Spirit of Mis sions for February, 1837, speaks with enthusiasm of collections of $717 at St. Anne's, Brooklyn ; of $1,002 at the Ascension in New York; and $800 at St. Thomas', New York. "These are believed," the editorial interestingly goes on, "to be the largest plate collections which have ever been made by any congregation of our communion to the Cause of Missions."

In those days, it must be remembered, a strict differentiation was preserved between Domestic and Foreign work. Indeed, as is still the case in most of the other Boards, secretaries were designated as either Domestic or Foreign. Now the generous collections just referred to were for Domestic work — for supporting workers in such then "remote" spots as Florida or Louisiana. Foreign Missions were receiving no such golden windfalls. The days had

i8 The Story of the Church in China

not passed when men said from their pulpits that the Church had best confine her attentions to her own front yard. China? What and where was it? Beyond suggestions of tea and rice and mice and junks, China meant nothing to the average American, and, if it is hard now to awaken people to the needs of that mammoth republic, what must it have been in those days? No thousand dollar collections were likely to be made for a mission to an unknown land.

William J. Boone Appears Upon the Scene. And yet at this juncture, when the question arose as to whether they should reinforce Hanson and Lockwood, the Board had faith and decided, as it almost always has ever since, that oblivion were better than failure to advance. Accordingly, when the Reverend W. J. Boone from South Carolina volunteered to join the workers in Batavia, he was accepted. This happened at the Board meeting on January 17th, 1837. Lest their supporters should think them rash, and in order to establish the principle that when men of unquestioned ability volunteered they should be accepted, the editor wrote in The Spirit of Missions that "the Board having on the 18th of October passed a vote, imply ing, in their view, the inexpediency of increasing at present the number of Missionaries to China, they are now induced to make an exception in favor of the Reverend Mr. Boone, whose qualifications for that field are of peculiar character, and whose long and devoted self-consecration to the spread of the

The Beginnings 19

Gospel in China gives him a high claim to such an appointment."

Thus the Church made a step forward, and a far greater one than it realized, since it had yet to learn how great a man Boone was; and thus it acted on faith, believing that God would provide the means wherewith to support this man — and their faith, one is glad to relate, was justified within a very short time.

Relief came from Boone's own part of the world, and in very substantial form, as will be evidenced by the following letter received shortly after the Committee had made the venture.

"Charleston, South Carolina.

"April 20th, 1837. "Rev. and Dear Sir:

"It gives me great pleasure to inform you that I am authorized by my congregation (St. Peter's) to pledge to the Foreign Committee, in their be half, the sum of one thousand dollars annually for the salary of Reverend W. J. Boone, as Missionary to China.

"With frequent and fervent prayers for the bless ing of God upon this and all other efforts to ex tend the kingdom of Christ, I am," etc.

Thus the reinforcement of the men at the front was made possible, and, all being well, Mr. and Mrs. Boone sailed from Boston on the 8th of July, 1837. It was not until the 22d of the succeeding Oc tober that they reached Batavia. What a journey!

2O The Story of the Church in China

No wonder China was thought of as a land beyond the uttermost seas.

Progress at Batavia. In the meantime Lockwood and Hanson had been sending in encouraging reports. The school with twenty Chinese boys and ten Chinese girls was prospering famously. "They are taught," writes Mr. Lockwood, "by a native master to read the Chinese classics, and also the New Testament and a book containing simple lessons of Christian truth, written by Mr. Medhurst. They assemble at the house every Sunday afternoon, where we hear them read a lesson and give them such oral instructions as our knowledge of the language per mits. By the assistance of Dr. Barrenstyne, a Ger man Missionary, they are also learning to read the Malay language in the Roman character, and to sing devotional tunes, an employment of which they seem very fond."

This sounds well, and shows that despite the fact that they were not in China they were really ac complishing something. And yet that something was not to continue long. When men journey from Maryland to Batavia one must expect something to happen, and in this case what happened was the breaking of Mr. Hanson's health. The climate proved too much for him and to the regret of all he was forced to come home in the beginning of 1838.

Disquietude at the Home Office. Even the best men become impatient at times and this time impatience seems to have seized the people at home. Batavia was

The Beginnings 21

not China, it was frankly no more than a stopping place for preliminary study and examination. To be sure the workers in the field felt this quite as much as did the people at home, and yet the Executive Committee did not realize it, in fact they asked Mr. Boone to make a special investigation of the matter upon his ar rival in the field, and to see to it that as soon as convenient the Mission be put upon a permanent basis — which meant of course, in China proper.

This, however, was more easily ordered than done. Strangers were not only not welcome, but were forbidden to travel in China. It was the eve of the first war with Great Britain, and a white man's religion and politics not being distinguishable were equally detested. Moreover, occidentals were considered inferior beings ; their governments were only recognized — if recognized at all — as tributary to the Emperor of China. Lord Napier, for ex ample, coming out at this time as British Ambassa dor, had been absolutely unable to obtain an inter view with any high official. Low officials were considered good enough to deal with him.

The Opium War with England. The opium ques tion was the burning one. To China's honor, be it said, she was nearer in the right than was England. Her leaders wished to prevent opium from being imported. England, on the other hand, wanted a continuance of the trade — her trade — between India and Canton in the accursed drug. What then? Neither would give way, and after a sort of Boston "tea party," in which over twenty thousand chests of opium were

22 The Story of the Church in China

destroyed, the inevitable breach followed, and a war ensued which lasted from 1840 to 1843.

This, be it noted, came later than the events about which we are thinking, but reference to it was necessary to illustrate the tension of the times. The point to be borne in mind is that Boone's arrival was at the moment when England was trying to obtain commercial rights from the Chinese, and when, despite all their efforts, her emissaries failed to obtain so much as a dignified reception. They were treated as tribute bearers from a sub ject state, and it was this fact which was really responsible for all that followed. The opium dis pute was merely the occasion for the war — it would have come had there been no opium.

Boone's Arrival. At such a juncture then, Boone, under special orders from the Board, came out seeking for a place at which to establish permanent work on the mainland of the great Continent. But though he came full of confidence he found that it would not be possible to proceed as rapidly as the people at home had hoped. In fact, within a few weeks he discovered that Lockwood's summing up of the situation was correct; that obstacles — political and linguistic — abounded, and wrote home shortly after his arrival that they had best stay where they were for the present. Among other things he said :

"I believe that an individual, with something more than ordinary talent for acquiring languages, with a good ear for distinguishing sounds, provided he has been accustomed to study from early youth,

The Beginnings 23

and knows how to apply his mind, may be actively and usefully employed among the Chinese in two or three years; and that he will, from the first, make such improvement as will encourage him to persevere, with strong hope, by Divine blessing, of finally mastering all opposing difficulties."

And so the future Bishop made up his mind to follow the example of his predecessors and settle in Batavia for two or three years. How little he appreciated the uncertainties of the situation ! How little did any one understand the uncertainties of the Orient! Within a few weeks an event was to happen which would set all his plans at nought. This was the collapse of Mr. Lockwood. He had long been ailing, as the old fashioned saying has it, and in April 1839 he was forced to give up and go back to America.

Thus it was that Boone, who had gone out in the expectation of having fellow laborers, was left alone. In his despair he wrote:

"A most painful opportunity of addressing you is afforded by the departure of the last remaining brother of the two who came out as the first mis sionaries from our Church to the heathen.

"Mysterious indeed is the dispensation of God, which has thus, in the short space of four years, returned them both to the bosom of the Church from which they came; but wise doubtless it is, and we will say 'righteous art Thou, O God, in all Thy ways, and blessed be Thy holy name/ *** Since the impulse (given, as I firmly believe, by the Holy

24 The Story of the Church in China

Spirit) to the Church at the time of the coming out of these brethren, scarce any who were not debating then with themselves their duty to the heathen, have offered their services to the Com mittee. Soon after they sailed, or about that time, if I am not mistaken, eight or ten candidates for orders came forward, saying each man, 'here am I, send me.' But it is now a long time since we have heard of any similar movement in the ranks of our younger brethren. But should not the return of these brethren from China speak in a tenfold louder voice, to constrain all who are in circumstances to do so, if it is not their duty to come and fill up the gap, I desire to lift my feeble voice on the occasion, and say to them, a great breach has been made — one of our outposts has been almost entirely driven in, and it is not too much to say that the advance of our whole por tion of the Church militant may be much affected by the promptitude and efficiency with which this post is succored and sustained."

Despite the gloom into which he was thus cast, the solitary Boone determined to stand by his guns. In this very same letter he writes of high hopes and new plans, and of a determination to continue "for some years the present efforts," He can see as yet no hope of entering China, and, therefore, prepares to settle down. He has not yet learned the lesson of the uncertainty of his position.

If one may be permitted to moralize a moment, it might be said that Boone's greatness, as well as

The Beginnings 25

the greatness of all missionaries, lay in his readiness to feel settled wherever he was. The man or the woman who does the best work is the one whose mind is not dismayed by the possibilities of change which lie ahead. Many an able man is prevented from getting to the heart of things because he is always wondering how long he will be in his present station. Boone never lost time in this way. Though he never knew what would turn up on the morrow, he always worked as if things would continue as they were, and thus he accomplished much and laid large foundations.

As has been said the godly missionary had no idea that his plans would soon be altered. Little did he seem to dream that another year would see the abandonment of the Batavia work. "We are both well satisfied that * * * there is no other place to which we can well go." He even went so far as to ask that, if money could be found, a house be built for them.

Batavia Abandoned. But, as has been seen, things are no more certain in Batavia than they are elsewhere, and the unexpected happened. As late as August 1840, Boone wrote as if there were no chance of a change for the present. He had been ill, and Mrs. Boone had been suffering from the climate, but they were content and believed that they were where God meant them to be. And then suddenly the un expected happened. It came as the result of ac cumulated mishappenings, of which Dr. Boone's

26 The Story of the Church in China

health was the most prominent, and he was forced to gather up his belongings and move.

Lockwood had written that the climate was not so horrible, and yet in the same letter he had said that the continued warmth (it got as low as 72 sometimes in winter) made it almost impossible for one to recuperate after being ill. He illustrated it by saying that a man felt just as if he were in a "stuffy room" all the time. Dr. Boone had been worn down, and to save his life it became neces sary to get out of the "stuffy room" at once.

Accordingly he and Mrs. Boone left for a six months holiday in Macao, intending to return at the end of that time. He had not been long in China, however, before he decided that, inasmuch as others had managed to settle there, there was no reason why he should not. Therefore he began seeking for a place in which to lay the permanent foundations of the mission.

Seeking a Permanent Place. Boone was a man of large vision, but so far he had been handicapped by the conditions under which he labored. He was trying to build upon another man's foundation, which is just about as hard a thing to do as to preach or speak from another man's notes. One is inclined to think that had he been the first to go out he would never have started the work in Batavia, but would rather have found lodgment somewhere on the mainland. At all events, that is what he now undertook to do.

But what place should he select? Macao, the Portuguese settlement, where life was almost Euro-

The Beginnings 27

pean, and' where the comforts and luxuries and re finements of an English watering-place could be found? No, this would never do, or at least there was another seaport, Amoy which offered greater advantages.

To begin with, our missionary had learned the Amoy dialect and could begin there without further language study. And then, further, it offered bet ter opportunities because it was not frequented by soul-destroying European traders. Already the Congregationalists, Presbyterians from the United States and the London Missionary Society had be gun work there and had found it fertile soil. These and other reasons, among which loomed large a better climate, seemed to him to close the question. But he would not decide definitely until he had made a trip to Amoy and investigated the situation.1 This he did, and all turning out as he had expected, he moved his family and effects there as soon as it was convenient. It was on the 7th of August, 1842, that they arrived at Ku-lang-su, a small island situ ated half a mile from the island on which Amoy lay.

Let Boone's own story be given in abbreviated form:

"At an expense of about $150 I have had a Chinese house, that was injured, repaired and made com fortable for my family; and here I trust, by God's blessing, we shall be permitted to abide many days. * * * The climate is milder than that of Macao and

1 There is a valuable summary of the Amoy work in The Spirit of Missions, Vol. XII, page 24.

28 The Story of the Church in China

Mrs. B. and myself both rejoice that we have now, after five years, got out of the torrid zone. Ku-lang-su is very favorably situated for missionary operations ; it is within half a mile of Amoy, * * * to which place we can go in a boat for one cent. There are many other towns and villages quite near, and all acces sible by water, * * * these advantages cause us to pray earnestly that we may be permitted to re main at this place."

The war between England and China had now begun to draw towards its close. The Chinese with their junks had not been able to stand against the British frigates. Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, Woo- sung and Shanghai had fallen after but feeble resistance, and China had to come to terms. By the new Treaty of August 24, 1842, among many other stipulations, Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were opened to foreign trade, and thus it was that the new point selected by Dr. Boone became one in which he could labor with comparative freedom.

It must, however, be borne in mind that it was not necessarily an unmixed blessing for a messenger of the Gospel to have his way made easy by the guns of the foreigner's fleet. In fact the problem which has confronted all missionaries to China has been, how to appeal to a people while nominally under the protection of soldiers, and when we wonder about the progress, or lack of progress of the Gospel in that land we should never forget that

The Beginnings 29

it was under the chaperonage of England's navy that Boone went to work.

Thus a new station was established. Whether Dr. Boone ever regarded this move as final it is not possible to say. Apparently the Foreign Com mittee at home did. References to Amoy at this time in The Spirit of Missions speak of it as if it were the long sought opening. But this was not to be. As it turned out, Dr. Boone remained there only a year, at the end of which time he left for America, and when he returned, it was not to Amoy that he went. But that is another story.

Boone on Furlough in America. Early in their stay at Ku-lang-su Mrs. Boone died. The loss was a great blow to the Mission. The calibre of the woman can be guessed at by reading her dying words :

"If there is a mercy in life for which I feel thank ful it is that God has called me to be a missionary."

Perhaps to escape from unhappy reminders, and perhaps because his sorrow made him restless, Boone, shortly after his wife's death, moved the Mission across to Amoy proper. But this was an even more temporary arrangement, and, in 1843, the lonely man returned to America. He did this for two reasons. The first to carry out his wife's wishes of taking their children home to be edu cated ; the second to appeal personally for workers and help.

With the return of Dr. Boone to America we come to the end of the experimental stage of the

3O The Story of the Church in China

Church's work in China. And what a period of trial it was, more specially to those at home! Ten years of imploring an inappreciative Church — ten years of questioning as to whether the mission should be continued or abandoned — ten years of close financiering — and as a result, what? No sta tion, no buildings, no property. The sum total of it all was one man with an ability to speak the Amoy dialect. And this at the cost of the lives of two women and the health of two men. Was it worth it all? Could the Church be persuaded to take it up again? Did she not have the right to assert that the whole adventure had been a wild mistake? The sequel will answer these questions.

THE BEGINNINGS AT SHANGHAI

VI

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CHAPTER II THE BEGINNINGS AT SHANGHAI

During the last year of his residence in the Orient Dr. Boone had continually flung back to the Church the question : "When shall I welcome my coad jutors?" He saw that until there were more men in the field little could be looked for. More signifi cant than this, before Boone had gone out Lock- wood had appealed for a Bishop, asserting that nothing permanent could be done till the mission had a head. As we now come to the events which followed upon Dr. Boone's return to America, we shall see how both of these demands were met. And more, as we read of what follows, we shall perhaps be set to wondering whether or not the failure of the first attempt to establish work in China was not due to the fact that the Church did not begin in a large enough way. Little ventured, little gained. The Church had been very timid. Sometimes it is better to do nothing than to do too little. And yet it is not fair for us to find fault with our predecessors. God knows they did as much in proportion to their means as we do in proportion to ours.

Boone's Triumphal Tour. Boone arrived in America some months before the General Con vention which was to meet in Philadelphia in

33

34 The Story of the Church in China

1844. He had travelled about the States con siderably, and wherever he went received enthu siastic welcomes. Now this place would subscribe $100, now that $200; now this man would enquire as to the possibility of his going back with Boone, and now that woman would take up the matter. He wrote to the Foreign Committee in August, 1844:

"I have great cause for gratitude to God for the interest manifested in the Mission to China at that place [Beaufort, South Carolina], and indeed at every place visited during the tour from which I have just returned.

"The good people of Beaufort gave me for the Mission, during the delightful week I was permitted to spend with them, in cash, $551.25, and pledges for $6,750; that is, they promise to support twenty- seven children in our schools for ten years, at the rate of $25 a year for each child, which is $675 per annum for that length of time. I received a promise for the support of four children from one family; four persons pledge themselves for the support of two children each ; the Sunday School supports two, the boys a boy, and the girls a Chinese girl ; and the remaining thirteen are to be supported by persons who pledge themselves for $25 a year. When the size of this parish is taken into the account, this must be reckoned large-hearted Christian liberality in behalf of the Heathen."

Added to these large outpourings of money from the South — and it must be said that no part of the Church responded quite so heartily in proper-

The Beginnings at Shanghai 35

tion to its means as did the South — there came a splendid response from the North. In particular from a steadfast friend came what was perhaps the most needed of all promises — a promise to furnish one-half of the money needed to maintain three un married missionaries in China for three years. What a Te Deum the hard pressed Foreign Committee must have sung when it received this intelligence, and with what increased confidence they must have gone forward seeking for volunteers. "We have the means," they joyfully acclaimed, "and now may God send us the men !"

New Volunteers. Boone meantime had not been soliciting money only. He had been equally emphatic in proclaiming the need for men. Seldom has the Church seen a better man-beggar. As a result of his men dicancy, three clergymen, Henry W. Woods, Richardson Graham and Edward W. Syle, all of the Diocese of Virginia, came forward saying they were ready to go back with him. In addition to these, Miss Gillett of New York (who has the honor of being the first single woman ever appointed by any board to China), Miss Jones of Mobile, and Miss Morse of Boston volunteered and received along with the clergy appointments to the China staff. All in all, for both Woods and Graham were married men and Dr. Boone had married again, this brought the number up to ten. A goodly company this, and those who had been praying for the enterprise must indeed have felt that their prayers had been an swered.

36 The Story of the Church in China

As yet, however, the Mission lacked the chief requisite for success, the one for which Mr. Lock- wood had appealed, a head. The Foreign Com mittee realized this fully however, and in their report of October 1st, 1844, had said : "The Com mittee hopes that this Mission may not be permit ted to depart without a Bishop at its head." These gentlemen knew the futility of resolutions and ex pressions of opinions and did not confine themselves to this innocuous statement. They wrote letters and plead their cause incessantly so that it came to pass that the House of Bishops, which soon as sembled, appointed Boone as Missionary Bishop to China.

Election of Boone. The General Convention of 1844, and particularly the upper House, found itself confronted by questions of large importance. Relatively speaking they were in the same position that our gov ernment was in a few years ago when it was compelled to enter into the concert of European powers. Serene national isolation had become a thing of the past. If the Church was to act as those interested in China de sired, they would have to do some most extraor dinary things. Many were the questions and deep the doubt as to whether it was right to make a Bishop for territory outside the Union. Would it not be jingo expansionism? After much heart- searching and questionings as to whether the Church should take so bold a step, it was decided to cross the Rubicon. Missionary Bishops were elected for the West Coast of Africa, for the "do-

The Beginnings at Shanghai 37

minions and dependencies of the Sultan of Turkey," and for "Amoy and other parts of the Chinese Em pire as th^ Board of Missions may hereafter desig nate." To these positions were elected Alexander Glennie, Horatio Southgate and our Dr. Boone.

In these days it is hard to realize, impossible prob ably, how great a commotion this act created. For this young Church still in its infancy to send out Bishops to lands not under the flag was indeed a daring act. To be sure it had set the world an ex ample some nine years before and reverted to the Apostolic precedent by sending out Bishops to blaze the way in the Western States and Territories, but to send Bishops to foreign lands, that was in deed a new thing. So perturbed and astounded at their own audacity were the fathers in God that they proceeded at once to send along with their commission to Boone a lengthy, and to be honest one must say in parts very prosy, letter of instruc tions. In it the purpose of the Episcopate was duly laid down, and with great care it was explained exactly why this thing had been done.

One passage in these instructions is worthy of quotation as it reveals the origin of that splendid policy which has been pursued so closely by our Church in foreign lands:

"So vast is the population of the Empire; so great the difficulty of acquiring its language; so small the number of Missionaries or teachers that we can send out from this country; and so heavy the expense at which they are to be maintained,

38 The Story of the Church in China

that there is an evident and imperative necessity for taking immediate steps for rearing in the short est space of time a band of Christian teachers for schools; a body of able translators, and above all, an efficient native ministry.

"The training of children will, therefore, form a very important part of your labors, and is an object well worthy the attention of all."

And again it is interesting to see that the fathers in God fully realized the decisiveness of their act. They wrote :

"We feel that our present undertaking will form an important epoch in the Missionary history of the Church of Christ. We are sending out the first com pletely organized Mission to Heathen lands since the early ages of the Church."

And so in this act our Church took upon its shoulders the full weight of the Apostolic burden. From this time forward hers it became to carry the cares of many peoples. No longer was she to be a local Church with a little outlook, but rather an universal Church, whose prayers would arise in all languages, and whose Bishops would minister to all colors and kinds.

As has been said, Boone was elected for China. This was, of course, the only thing to do, and sub sequent experience more than justified the choice. One fact of interest is that he was not elected Bishop of Amoy specifically. At the beginning of the in structions given him came this passage which re-

The Beginnings at Shanghai 39

vealed the fact that discussion had been carried on in the Convention as to whether Amoy were really the best place for the new mission to begin :

"After their arrival at that place [Canton], the Missionary Bishop is requested to make arrange ments for a passage to Amoy; or in case he shall find it practicable and expedient after his arrival in China, it is recommended to him to make Shanghai, the most northern port in the Empire open to for eigners, the station for present Missionary opera tions."

Boone and His Party Sail. On the evening of Sun day, December 8th, (when did that miserable prac tice begin of relegating missionary services to the evening,) a farewell service for the China band was held in St. George's Church, New York. Though many Bishops attended, one is inclined to conclude that the same enthusiasm did not pervade this gathering as did those attended by Boone in South Carolina or Massachusetts, since the offering only amounted to a little over $300. However that may be, it was a whole-hearted send-off, and with tears many and fears many and endless God-be-with-yous ringing in their ears, the little company sailed on the 14th in the good ship "Horatio/*

It was a long journey but a restful one. Several letters were sent back by means of such vessels as were passed at sea, (that being the custom of those days when a ship was not afraid of losing a couple of hours by stopping in midocean,) and these told of some seasickness and much study of the Chinese

4O The Story of the Church in China

language. One wonders which was the worst for the beginners. At length on the 24th of April Hong Kong was reached, and after a short stay there the party proceeded to Shanghai, the possi bilities of which place had been vividly laid before Boone by the Church Missionary Society agent, Reverend G. Smith, who had made for his Society an examination of all possible points.

Shanghai at Last. The 17th of June, 1845, should be a red letter day in the history of our work in the Valley of the Yangtse, for it was then that the small party reached the city which has since been the headquarters of our work, Shanghai.

What days of bewilderment must have followed ! The strange looking town, the babel of incompre hensible tongues, the filthy streets, the unspeak able smells, the utter strangeness of it all ! And then along with this came the feeling that they were to live in the midst of all this for — perhaps the rest of their lives.

It was a very different thing to take up residence in China in those days from what it is now. No steamships or cables or posts bound the mission ary to the home land. Today if a Bishop needs to he can communicate with the Board of Missions and gret an answer within twenty-four hours. Then it meant anywhere from five to seven months to do this. Now, there are hospitals and doctors and railroads, but then in illness or trouble there was practically nobody or no thing to turn to. Surely those first days in Shanghai must have been days

The Beginnings at Shanghai 41

of wonderment and consternation to the nine dis ciples of the Lord.1

It would be very dry reading if one proceeded to narrate in their correct order the events which followed ; if one told of all the comings and goings, of the successes and failures, of the steps forward and then backward. The tide was always on the flood of course, but at times it looked as if it had started to ebb. Men would come out full of en thusiasm, and leave, for one reason or another, at the end of a short time. Such, for example, as the retirement of Mr. and Mrs. Woods, (of the original party,) on account of ill health after only eighteen months, or of the defection of Dr. Fish, who came out in '55 to minister to the bodies of the ignorant sufferers and then left in '56 to take secular work in Shanghai.

As a matter of fact though, this coming and going of the Missionaries was not so bad then as it is now. The average length of service of one of our missionaries in China between '35 and '85 was about six and one-half years, while since '86 they have only averaged three and one-half years. This is due in the first place to the fact that many of late years have broken down or died shortly after arrival, and in the second place to the large increase in num bers which always pulls down averages. Still, when communication with America was so difficult, and

1 For a list of all the protestant mission stations in China at this tirye see The Spirit of Missions, Vol. XII, page 319.

42 The Story of the Church in China

the numbers so small, it must have been trying in deed to see one's brethren and sisters leave after but a short stay. When workers are plenty one can endure the loss of one or two every now and then, but in those days there were perilously few, and the few who were there had before them the constant dread of such depletion as to compel the abandonment of the work.

But all growth is of this kind, if it be sure. Things that forge ahead at the beginning without ever so much as a hitch seem always to come to an untimely end. This gives us courage when we see here at home the alarming rapidity with which certain new sects have grown. We are never alarmed by things which move inordinately fast. Experience has taught us that imperishable things grow slowly, that the law of life is per aspera ad astra. Therefore, when we see the Church in China moving with painful steps and slow we are not concerned, recognizing in such progress the symp toms and signs of enduring success.

Instead, then, of going minutely into the details of the work it will be better to limit the narrative to certain broad features as they center around certain outstanding facts and personalities.

The City of Shanghai. The place chosen for the first sowing of seed was a city as yet little known to the occidental world. A traveller of those days described his arrival there as follows :

"The entrance of the great river Yangtse is rather difficult, especially to vessels drawing much

The Beginnings at Shanghai 43

water. So much earth is brought down by this immense stream, and deposited in the sea, that the water is quite shallow for many miles and a vessel is in danger of running aground long before the land is seen. The coasts of China in this latitude are low, and perfectly level, and the land can scarcely be seen more than ten miles off. The strength of the tides is also very great, and several vessels have already been lost on the sands and rocks off the entrance of the river. Until lighthouses are erected, and buoys properly placed, more than ordinary cau tion will be required of the officers of vessels visiting Shanghai.

"After entering the river, (only the southern bank of which is seen, on account of its great width,) the course is northwest to Woosung. Entering the Woosung river, the course is southwest, about four teen miles to Shanghai.

"The whole country for many miles around the city is a perfect plain, having only sufficient eleva tion and depression to carry off the water. There is not a single hill within twenty miles of Shanghai, which, of course, renders the appearance of the country uninteresting. The soil, however, is rich and productive, and, excepting the space occupied by the graves, is in a high state of cultivation. There are no stones, nor even small pebbles, for in a trip of some twenty miles along the Woosung river, not a stone was to be seen, except such as had been brought from a distance. Farm-houses and small villages dot the country in every direction,

44 The Story of the Church in China

and clumps of bamboos, with orchards of peaches and plum trees, and willows by the water-courses, relieve the sameness of the ground.

"The city of Shanghai is pleasantly situated at the junction of the Woosung and Hwangpoo rivers. It is of a circular form, surrounded by walls about fifteen feet high, and nearly four miles in circumfer ence. The suburbs near the rivers are thickly inhabited, and the population is estimated at about two hundred thousand inhabitants. * * * By the Woosung river it is connected with the city of Soo- chow, the capital of the province, and one of the most luxurious and wealthy in the Empire — and also with the Grand Canal which reaches to Pekin. Hence its situation is one of great importance, and its trade is immense. Rows of junks are moored for nearly two miles along the bank of the Hwangpoo, on the east of the city, and vessels are constantly arriving and departing. Already it is attracting a large share of foreign commerce, and many suppose that it will soon rival, if not surpass Canton, as a place for foreign trade. Sixty-five foreign vessels have already entered the port, though it is but a year and a half since business commenced to be done there. The great tea and silk districts of China are nearer to Shanghai than to Canton, and if proper encouragement be held out, a large part of those articles which were formerly carried at great expense to the latter place, will find their way either to Shanghai or Ningpo."

First Impressions. The treatment experienced by

The Beginnings at Shanghai 45

the new arrivals was probably better than they would have received in any other part of China at that time. The inhabitants were, all things considered, rather well disposed. Perhaps it was the "eye for business," which put a little "foreign sense" into their heads, at all events the good Bishop and his flock were apparently allowed to move about without danger. One contemporary observer wrote :

"We walked quietly to the English Consulate in the heart of the city, where Divine Service was held, on the Sabbath, * * * and excepting a few dogs which had not yet become reconciled to the pres ence of foreigners (dogs always go by smell) none moved his tongue against us."

The indifference of the natives to foreigners was due to their lack of inquisitiveness. They were sophisticated enough, but according to our workers were unusually self contained and diffident. Our workers were not the first strangers to invade their domain. The Roman Catholics had already begun work and obtained quite a foothold in Shanghai, and several of their priests were stationed there. In addition to these Italians, the London Missionary Society had a station in the city presided over by two missionaries, Dr. Lockhart, a physician, whose presence meant much to the new comers, and Dr. Medhurst, whom we remember as the father-in-law of our Mr. Lockwood. It was, by the way, due to the hospitality of these gentlemen that our party was made comfortable on their arrival. Nor were these the only foreigners. At least a hundred

46 The Story of the Church in China

English lived there and a splendid God-fearing lot they seem to have been. One writer asserts that Shanghai at this period could boast of being the only Treaty port in the Orient where merchants stopped work on Sunday.

The Shanghainese. An obvious question is: What was the religious condition of these folk whom Boone and his companions had come to aid. A letter written at this time partially answers the question :

"Wherever we walk through the city we meet the priests of Buddha, and see spacious temples dedicated to him, all, of course, supported by the people; and yet they seem to care not a straw either for priests, temples or idols. The most bitter reproach they can bestow on an idle young man is to tell him he is fit for nothing but to be a priest; and when we have seen religious ceremonies per formed, there was not the least semblance of de votion in either priest or people. Their only ob jects of reverence seem to be their ancestors and dead friends, and these, certainly, have a very strong hold upon them."

For some time the only church building in which worship of the Anglican order was held was the Consulate Chapel. Bishop Boone administered the Communion and held services in his own room. Dr. Medhurst built a chapel in the mid-forties but our first church was not to be completed until Epiph any, 1850. One can well imagine how the workers looked forward to the day when they could hold

The Beginnings at Shanghai 47

Divine service without the nuisance of a preliminary removal of tables and bric-a-brac in order to make ready a room. Who ever really enjoyed services in a sitting room?

As a matter of fact, not very much evangelistic work could have been done as yet even had a church been built, since none could speak the language well enough to conduct a service. It was not until '46 that the Bishop could, his first attempt being at the Baptism of Wong Kong Chai, — of whom more presently. A long road had to be travelled before any of the workers could be suffi ciently versed in Chinese to do much active teaching or preaching. A rather pitiable letter was written home by one of them in reply to a request for more vivid and attractive accounts of their doings. He said that as yet they did little but study. One might sum up his plea by paraphrasing Mark Twain's description of the diary he kept as a boy, in which "got up, dressed, went to bed" followed monotonously from day to day. Our missionaries' diaries would have read "got up, dressed, studied Chinese, went to bed."

Wong Kong Chai and the Evangelistic Problem. And now about Wong Kong Chai. He was a young man whom the Bishop had taken under his wing in the Amoy days, and whom he had taken with him (as "Exhibit A" one would suppose) on his first trip home. The story of his conversion, and of the length of time which it took, form an

48 The Story of the Church in China

excellent introduction to the subject of evangelistic work in the days of Boone.

The Bishop, as has been said, had taken Wong to America with him. They had been close com panions for months, and Wong had come to idolize the man of God. For three full years he was thus with or near his ideal, and yet at the end of that time, when circumstances compelled him to go home to his family, he neither asked for baptism nor gave any evidence of having been won away from the belief of his forebears. Is not this extraor dinary? And does it not reveal to us the prodigious proportions of the task which confronted Boone and his helpers? If years of effort and affection had failed to win Wong, how could the turning of the hearts of four hundred unknown millions be accomplished?

Wrhat, then, one wants to know is, why was Wong Kong Chai so slow to hearken to the words of Life? If this can be understood it will be less hard to see why all Chinamen are slow to attend, and why, after seventy years of effort, our con verts are counted by the hundreds rather than by the tens of thousands.

The explanation is to be found in the singular conservatism of the Orientals, — so well typified in Wong. To have broken with China's past would have been a fearfully serious act. Christians, with their faces set always towards the future, believing as they do in a Gospel of change — on from glory on to glory — can alter their opinions on many mat-

The Beginnings at Shanghai 49

ters without violating their theory of life. Of the Chinaman this cannot be said. Instead of viewing life as a chance to make the world better — to im prove on the past — he sees in it a chance to prevent any change, to do all he can to prevent things from becoming different from what they were in the days of old. In fact, to him the whole trouble with the world is that it has changed, and is no longer what it was in the days of Yao and Shun. The best that the individual can do is to oppose any further change, and thus to keep the world from going further down hill.

To Wong, then, the best had been. His whole conception of values was one according to which change in itself was harmful for the simple reason that it would remove the already too much altered world further away from the ideal condition in which it once was. In connection with this one can see how catastrophic the recent political revo lution has been, and incidentally how incompatible with the Confucian point of view a republic is, since the very genius of a republic lies in its being an arrangement whereby, through periodic changes of laws and officers, a more and more satisfactory government may finally be obtained. The great Shi Huang Ti, China's first Emperor, who lived about two hundred years before Christ, found that all his plans were defeated by this same spirit of conser vatism. He wanted to change things, and he did change them in many ways. He built the Great Wall and organized a new system of government, but at

50 The Story of the Church in China

every turn he found that the Confucian precepts against change thwarted him. So incensed did he be come with the change-nothing attitude of his people that he tried to burn up all the books in which this suffocating doctrine had been taught. But Shi Huang Ti was not great enough to oust Confucius, It has remained for The King of Glory to do this. The story of the great Tsin conqueror is the most suggestive one that can be found. It illustrates right royally the inveterate conservatism of the people.

Remembering this point of view, ground into him by the teachings of ages, one can see the spirit which dominated Wong and kept him from turn ing to Christ. Had he been anything but a China man one is led to believe he would have done so long before he actually did. Further, it must be remembered that it was this spirit of hyper-con servatism which dominated his family and made ostracism and persecution the inevitable outcome of his making any important change in his life.

It is quite impossible for us to realize the signifi cance of all this in the eyes of those to whom our missionaries preached, and to understand how great was the sacrifice which they asked converts to make. It was no mere matter of being baptized. It was a matter of giving up family and friends and honor! Aye more, of outraging the feelings of one's ancestors; of insulting China's incomparable past!

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It was then a desperately serious matter to poor Wong, this question of whether or not he should adopt the faith of his friend and benefactor. One cannot wonder that he did more than hesitate, that he even left Dr. Boone shortly after his return from America in order to return — reluctantly to be sure — to his parents at Amoy.

His day of deliverance, however, was not long in coming. His parents were gathered to their an cestors during one of the numerous epidemics which visited the land, and being left alone he went post haste to Shanghai. There he joined the Boones, and after some time, so greatly did he feel the call of the Master, that, defying the customs and con ventions of the centuries, he asked for holy bap tism. This, as we have said, was administered in Easter, 1846, a day of great moment in the history of our work. Of his subsequent career we have not the space to speak. Suffice it to say he was ordained priest in 1863, and became an honored leader in the Church.

The story of Wong Kong Chai has been related at such length because it illustrates the problem which confronted the youthful Church. Things have changed in China since those days beyond belief — change is no longer anathema. The adop tion, as has been pointed out, of a new form of government, is in itself a change of such pro portions, and does so definitely constitute a nega tion of the whole Confucian theory, that lesser changes such as a single individual's changing his

52 The Story of the Church in China

faith are insignificant. But in the forties, and up until recent days, turning away from the faith of one's fathers in China meant more than we can realize.

Such was the task before the infant Church, and bravely did it set to work. As has been said the missionaries were content at first to worship at the Consulate Chapel, and in their own rooms. "Parish work" was, of course, impossible for the obvious reason that there were no parishioners. How to get this necessary item was the problem, and, heeding the instructions given him by the Board, the Bishop started out to teach the young.

Educational Beginnings. One can not but feel that the work in Shanghai was begun more scien tifically than in many places here at home. How sadly have we neglected the axiom that the Church depends for its strength upon the training of the young.

"I have determined," wrote Boone in '46, "to place Sunday Schools first and children next." Fol lowing up this determination he organized a boys' school. The ladies of course thought that he should have started with a girls' school. In how many of the dioceses in America have there been heart searchings over this dilemma? Which shall come first, a boys' school or a "female institute" — as they used ponderously to call them. At all events, Boone believed in beginning with the boys, and started to transform a warehouse at the back of his dwelling into an institution of learning.

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In those days it was easier to get a school than scholars, therefore the first problem confronting our educator was that of how to corral students. The people were afraid to leave their children for the necessary length of time to the imagined severi ties of foreign teachers. Who could tell what theyj would do to their darlings? They might be taught the wisdom of the West, but would that mean that they would also abandon the superior wisdom of the East?

The chief difficulty lay in the fact that Boone, having profited by experience in Batavia, saw that it was a waste of his time and the Church's money to get boys for a short time, since, after giving them a good start, he would lose them at the very moment when it became possible to influence their lives. Therefore he decided not to accept any pupil until the parents had given satisfactory bond to vouch for his remaining in the school for ten full years.

Many were the disputes and debates which this decision created. At times it looked as if it would make the school an impossibility. But the Bishop and the two Clergymen with him, Mr. Graham and Mr. Syle, tactfully assisted by Miss Emma Jones and Miss Mary Morse, finally persuaded the parents who were really interested to take the risk and send their boys.

After a daring few had taken the step — China men being in this just like Westerners — many fell into line, and soon there were more applications

54 The Story of the Church in China

than could be met. One incident, however, de serves to be related since it illustrates the unex pected problems which the workers were constantly encountering. It was in connection with the case of a man named Foukien, whose sons the School wanted as pupils, but who had raised an unusual number of objections. Finally, after much bicker ing, when they thought that all had been arranged, in walked Wong to the Bishop's study and pro pounded this one last objection:

"Now that Foukien will write (»". e. make the bond) only one thing more he wants to know." "What is that," asked the Bishop. "Why, he says that his oldest boy is sixteen years old and is engaged to be married when he is twenty. Therefore, be fore his ten years have expired, he will have two or three children. What will Bishop Boone do in that case?" The Bishop promised that the progeny would be cared for and the expectant grandfather, with a most anxious heart, signed the dreaded pledge.

Of another woman who had been with difficulty persuaded to sign the ten-year bond for her son one of the workers wrote:

"I have a waiting woman who is a widow, and she had two little boys in the school. The poor woman got her head filled with fears that her children were to be transported to America, and said she could not sign ; however, when the men overcame their scruples, she came forward too, and,

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with the manner of a person who was signing a death-warrant, made her mark on the paper."

Thus, in the spring of 1846, the Church's Educa tional work began in China. It remains for a later chapter to tell how it grew and grew until it has reached the splendid proportions of St. John's at Shanghai and Boone at Wuchang, together with the preparatory schools scattered along the banks of the Yangtse from its mouth to the trade school at Ichang.

Miss Emma Jones and Schools for Girls. Two names connected with this work should especially be held in high regard and grateful memory. Miss Emma G. Jones, who went out in 1845 and remained until 1861, and Miss Lydia M. Fay, whose service in the field lasted from 1851 till her death in 1878. Many others there were who rendered high service, but to one who reads the records of those days it would seem as if these two were the fore most and wisest workers.

Miss Jones was one of the two teachers in the original boys' school, the opening of which has just been described, and for the first five years she was its superintendent. Time and again she pleaded for relief so that she might open a girls' school — the dream of her life, but it was not until Miss Morse came back from a long furlough, bringing Miss Lydia Fay with her, that Miss Jones was able to do so.

It was in 1851 that educational work among girls was begun, and Miss Jones was the pioneer. After

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her departure in the years of depression which en sued when our States went to war with one another her work was closed down, but what she had estab lished was not lost since after conditions had im proved everything was re-established, and we can think of Emma Jones as the founder of our work for women in the Orient.

Miss Lydia Fay. The other woman referred to was one of extraordinary calibre. Miss Jones was a plodder and laid the heavy foundation stones. Miss Fay was a brilliant originator and withal one of the ablest missionaries we have ever sent out. Referring to the Chinese language in his book on "China and the Chinese," Dr. Giles, professor of Chinese in Cam bridge University, says : "Speaking of women as students of Chinese, there have been so far only two who have really placed themselves in the front rank. It gives me great pleasure to add that both these ladies were natives of America, and that it was rny privilege while in China to know them both. In my early studies of Chinese I received much advice and assistance from one of them, the late Miss Lydia Fay."

For twenty-seven years this remarkable woman spent herself in the Master's service in China. Only one short vacation did she ever take, and that after twenty years of work were behind her. Her faith fulness, her skill as a teacher, her level head and her zeal made of her one of the master builders of the work in and around Shanghai. Her words about prayer have been often quoted : "I went to

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China praying continually that God would make me instrumental in leading one native youth to the ministry of reconciliation," and she loved to give it as an evidence of answered prayer that she lived to see four of her pupils laboring as priests among their own people, while, since her death in 1878, six more have been ordained.

Chinese Children's Characteristics. And now a few words about some of the mental characteristics of the children who attended the schools, since one can not know much about a school's problems until one understands something of those who attend it.

The writer once heard an Oriental tell of a deep religious conviction — of a vision of the meaning of life — having come to him at the age of ten. It seemed preposterous, and yet in some way or other the child in China does seem to reflect more ser iously than the child in America. They are typical boys and girls to be sure, with all their pranks and games, and yet, to many of them come moments of more serious thought than, so far as the writer has observed, come to our own children. Imagine, for example, an American child of ten writing like this. The words are taken from an essay sent home by Miss Jones as a specimen of what her pupils were capable of:

"The only hope which they cherish, is that China may be enlightened, and turn to be a Christian country, and that its people may share the blessings which they themselves enjoy. Now this is the hope that all Christians have, and shall we, who are the

58 The Story of the Church in China

objects of their hope, waste the money which they subscribe in desiring merely that we may get a fortune by means of the education which we receive in this school, and make their ardent desire of no effect? We ought to know better than that, after being under the instruction of a Christian teacher for years. It is our duty to learn to be good, and then with all our power to do or to help others to do good."

According to Miss Jones this was not an extraor dinary case. There were others quite as remark able. Whether it means that the Chinese mind ma tures earlier than the American, one hardly dare say. At all events, it shows us how different was the task which confronted our pioneers from any thing they had experienced before.

Of the other peculiarities of the children, such as their great power of memory, their studying out loud, their devotion to duty while engaged at it, it is not practicable to speak here. What has been said has been merely to introduce in some measure the atmosphere of the school behind the Bishop's dwelling.

Education in China. In those days it should be borne in mind there were no schools — in our use of the word — in the land of Sinim. It was so difficult to ac quire the elements of learning, i. e. to learn the charac ters well enough to read and write, that by the time that accomplishment had been gained the students felt good and ready to rest on their oars. Some one has said that a Chinaman spends his youth

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learning the characters and the rest of his life trying to remember them.

The demand, in those days, for Western schools, was tremendous. It is perhaps not so great now. The Chinese Giant has awakened and the whole educational order has been changed, but in Boone's days schools of practical value were unknown. This is worth noting since it shows not only how great a need the Church had undertaken to meet, but likewise how violent a shock to the natives Miss Jones' and Miss Morse's modern methods must have been. In fact when they undertook to teach ac cording to Western methods they were doing some thing quite as revolutionary and quite as opposed to ancient custom as the clergy were attempting when they preached Christ Crucified. This fact should be borne in mind, since the recent revolution was made possible by the introduction of Western learning, and, therefore, we may say that in part it had its beginning in the warehouse behind the Bishop's residence. Miss Jones, Miss Mary Morse, Miss Fay and their fellow laborers were among the founders of the new Chinese Government!

Translating for the Mission. Educational work was not the only side issue with the Bishop. Cares and responsibilities of all kinds fell upon him. Almost immediately after he left Shanghai he realized that his force would be trying to make bricks without straw until they possessed a catechism, a form of service and a New Testament in the Shanghai dialect. To these matters he ac-

60 The Story of the Church in China

cordingly devoted a considerable part of his time. The catechism came out first, and next, the form of service. It is a commentary upon the spirit of the times in England and America that when the good Bishop wrote to England asking the authori ties of the "Prayer Book and Homiletical Society" to enter into an agreement with him whereby the American and Anglican workers (the latter being represented by Mr. McClatchie and six others of the Church Missionary Society) might be provided with a uniform Chinese Prayer Book, he was told in reply that such changes as would be necessary to bring the English and American books into har mony involved the sacrifice of "principle" ! *

Though not successful in this attempt, we can in a way call this move of Boone's the first of many subsequent ones towards the founding of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui. In fact he wrote in 1846 in connection with this subject: "I suppose that all Churchmen, both in England and America, will sympathize with me in the wish, that when in the Providence of God the time shall have arrived for committing our work into the hands of native Bishops, that all in China who may have been gathered into the Christian fold by the Missionaries from the Church of either country, may unite and form one Church."

The demand for a revised translation of the Scriptures was met in a very satisfactory way. A

1 See The Spirit of Missions, Vol. XII, pp. 225-268.

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committee composed of representatives from several mission boards was appointed. Workers from Hong Kong, Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, Foo Chow and Shanghai were among those included. To each was given a different part of the New Testament to render in Chinese.

A standard version was needed. There were al ready three in existence, Morrison's, Gutzlaff's and Medhurst's, but inasmuch as they gave different renderings of important passages a new one was needed to take their place and to be a general source of reference for the representatives of different Churches.

When one remembers how much the clergy re ferred to the ipsissima verba in those days; how to the English the English words of the English ver sion had become veritable standards of orthodoxy, he can see how vital a matter it was to the mis sionaries at that time to have a standard version of the Bible to which all could refer questions of dispute. What — for illustration — would have hap pened in England and America in the early 19th Century if there had been several versions in cir culation, each of which used a different word for "God." In Chinese the idea of "Deity" could be expressed in different ways. In fact the English, American and Roman missionaries each used a different term. Which should be taken as the standard? This and other serious problems con fronted the translating committee. The history of its activities is long and involved and of interest

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only to the specialist, but these bare facts should be remembered in order that the reader may possess some idea of one of the hardest problems which had to be solved by our Bishop.

"Out-station" Beginnings. Or turn to another side of the work. Take the matter of establishing out- stations. Clearly the missionaries could not be content to remain in Shanghai — they had to extend the bounds of the Kingdom. And yet to do so was not easy since beyond the city gates was practically forbidden ground. They were permitted by the government to go on excursions, provided they were not absent from Shanghai more than twenty-four hours, but this was not enough to make practicable the found ing of new out-stations.

The Reverend Edward W. Syle, who was in the field from 1845-1861, and whose diary preserved in The Spirit of Missions is the best record we have of the times, gives us a good picture of what little they could do.

"On invitation of Dr. Lockhart, (medical mission ary from the London Society,) I accompanied him in one of the frequent excursions, which he and Dr. Medhurst are accustomed to make, for the purpose of distributing books and tracts through the sur rounding country. In order to comply with the consular regulation, (which limits the time, during which a foreigner may be absent from Shanghai, for the purpose of travelling inland, to twenty-four hours,) we got into a boat at about midnight, took what rest we could, while the boatmen sculled

A CONFIRMATION CLASS AT AN OUTSTAT1ON

AN OUTSTATION CHAPEL

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steadily through the winding canals, towards our point of destination, the city of Chingpoo, distant about thirty miles. Nine o'clock next morning found us at the foot of a few hills which are the only ones that break the monotony of flatness for many a league, in this region. A walk of five miles brought us to Chingpoo, and there we distributed great numbers of tracts, etc., finding it difficult to pass through the streets with sufficient rapidity to prevent our being borne down by the crowd which followed us. Our books were generally received with great civility, nay, with an appearance of courtesy, which afforded a striking illustration of the general attention paid to the cultivation of good manners. In a few cases they were taken with an ungraciousness which reminded me of the manner with which the tract-distributor in Christian lands is sometimes greeted ; but in only two or three in stances were they positively refused."

This is but a sample of the "out-station" begin nings, but it at least reveals the limited extent to which the workers could go in the early days be yond a "treaty port." And yet it was from these small beginnings that there has since emerged a splendid Church throughout the Valley of the Yangtse. The first permanent establishment of work beyond the city limits was in 1857 at Sinza, a suburb north of Shanghai. In the next year Zang- Zok was taken on for a while and then Chefoo in '61.

Medical Beginnings. It took many years of patient struggle to get medical work started. Time and again

64 The Story of the Church in China

appeals were written to the Foreign Committee, to friends, to anybody who seemed hopeful, asking for a doctor to start the ministry of healing. A little taste of what could be done was had when the Bishop's brother visited the mission. As a physician he rendered no little help, and the poor people flocked about him wherever he went begging for help. After he had gone the missionaries were not a little embarrassed by continued appeals from people who could not understand why they could not heal them just as well as Dr. Boone had.

This important phase of gospel propaganda was not really begun until 1855, when Dr. Fish came out, opened a dispensary and did great things — for awhile. But alas ! a civil offer tempted him and he yielded. Then followed another period of sterility, until the coming of Dr. Bunn in '74, who was the real founder of our medical work in China. Strange as it may seem, Dr. Bunn did not remain in Shang hai where everything else had begun, but went up the river and started in Wuchang, where he re mained and labored gloriously for five years. Medi cal work in Shanghai was curiously slow in get ting started. Not until 1880, when Bishop Boone's eldest son went out, were permanent foundations laid.

Why is it so hard to get doctors to volunteer? When we read the foregoing we perceive that of all phases of work medical was the last to be es tablished — very much the last. Today, to a certain extent, the same condition prevails. Our physicians

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work their hearts out waiting for help. It is not as if the work were undesirable, for physicians have enormous scientific opportunities and "sure pay" for their labors. In no field does the attraction seem greater. To a medical man, to the kind that is not in it for the money, and there are many such, to one who wants a chance to do thorough and skillful experimentation, it is hard to imagine a more alluring chance than is presented in oriental lands. And yet volunteers do not come forward today any more than they did in the forties and fifties. Surely doctors are not more subject to nos talgia than others!

The First Girls' School. One last word about the laying of foundations. Long and patiently did the women workers have to wait for the days when they could start a girls' school. As was seen, their energies were fully occupied with the boys' school. Appeal after appeal went out for some one to relieve Miss Jones and Miss Fay so that they could take up work among girls, but it was not till '48 that they found the opportunity.

Mr. Syle in his diary tells thus of the arrival of the happy moment: "Shanghai, May 8th. This day we count an era in the progress of our efforts here. A little girl has been bound to Miss Jones for a term of years — to be, as we trust, only the first fruits of a numerous school. Besides this, the ladies of the Mission paid a visit to the females of the Wong family, who are our near neighbors, and were received with much freedom and interest. This

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day's events I regard as an effectual breaking the ice in the matter of instructing girls and women here."

Thus began that most occidental of all our ori ental undertakings, educational work among wom en. Confucius and the other wise men of the East had made remarks to the effect that to educate women would be to cast pearls among swine, so that this phase of the undertaking was perhaps the most revolutionary of all. Had it begun, as have some of our modern American institutions of learn ing, with an abundance of money and splendid buildings, China would probably have been shocked through and through, perhaps so much so that what little welcome was extended would have been withheld. As it was, the first schools for girls were so insignificant that few realized their significance or whereunto they would grow.

Sixty- five years have seen great changes in China. Things that were once little have become large, and things that were once insignificant have now become signs of approaching dawn. Let us remember those early days as days of little things; as days when the workers were so few that the arrival of one new man or woman was an event of stupendous importance; as days when the death or departure of one of the force made them wonder whether or not they would be able to continue in the Lord's garden. The days which were to follow were to be such as always follow after the sowing of seed in difficult soil. They were to be times of

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small returns, of anxiety, of depression and often moments of despair, but in the end, as we know, all turned out well, and of the happy ending we shall hear in later chapters.

EBB AND FLOW

CHAPTER III EBB AND FLOW

This chapter must be more or less statistical. It deals with a period in which many things were done, and many undone, and, all in all, covers the least interesting period of the work.

The seed had been sown, and the years in which returns were to be waited for had to be endured. If the reader knows anything about fruit farming, he knows that it takes time to get results. One must wait till the trees become productive. Even so in China they had to wait for the trees to grow large enough to bear fruit.

To carry the metaphor further, just as in farm ing, frosts and blights often occur, delaying beyond ordinary expectation the process, so in China un expected difficulties arose and tried mightily the patience of the laborers. On some occasions so serious were the difficulties that the missionaries feared that all was lost — that their fruit trees had been utterly ruined. One thing would come up after another. In '64, when the great Bishop died, the very world seemed to have come to an end.

The Years of Trial. Consider, for example, this series of events which lead up to the death of Boone. Miss Morse had had to give up and go home in '52, and was followed by Miss Wray in '55. Dr. Fish, upon

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whom all the medical work depended, and Mr. Pointer left in '56, and Mr. Liggins, a recruit of great promise, went to Japan in '59. Mr. Yokum was the only one to go in '60, but '61 was a disastrous year. Miss Emma Jones, a pillar of strength, Mr. Syle, who had become invaluable, Mr. Purden and two lay volunteers named Doyen and Hubbell all went home, and up in Chefoo, where the Bishop wanted to es tablish an out-station, Mr. Parker received the crown of martyrdom at the hands of a mob. In '62 two more deaths occurred, Mr. Keith's and Mrs. Smith's and the latter's bewildered husband left in '63.

To one who remembers that the staff was small the news that these disasters resulted in nearly shutting down the work should not be unexpected. Constructive educational work was suspended; of medical work there was none. All that remained were the evangelistic laborings of two clergy, one an American, Mr. Thomson, and one a native, our friend Wong Kong Chai. Whenever one thinks about the Church in China these two should be remembered. They weathered a storm of surpassing violence, they stood by the ship. To them and their cheerful courage the American Mission owes more than it can ever repay.

There were other heroes to be sure, but they were not called on to endure what these two did. Miss Fay had taken up work in the Church Mis sionary Society School, and Mr. Schereschewsky

Ebb and Flow 73

had gone to Pekin, where he was busy translating the Bible.

Causes of the Difficulties. A combination of cir cumstances was responsible for these untoward hap penings. The American Civil War gave the first serious blow to the mission. As was pointed out, Southern Churchmen, especially South Carolinians, had contrib uted loyally and largely to the China work. Naturally, now that the Church in those States became the Epis copal Church of the Confederate States, whatever moneys were collected in the South would go to the Southern Board of Missions. Under the stress of circumstances, as a matter of fact, they were unable to inaugurate work in China — but that is another story.

All support therefore from below Mason and Dixon's line was lost to the Board, and, strange as it may seem, the Bishop in Shanghai whose sym pathies were with his Southern brethren, was de pendent upon their Northern adversaries for his work. As an illustration of how serious this was, it can be stated that almost half of the scholars in his boys' schools were directly supported by con gregations south of Richmond.

In addition to this difficulty at their base of sup plies, there were troubles in China. That queer affair called the Tai Ping rebellion was convulsing the land. A lowly born man by the name of Hung Hsiu-chuan had had dreams and seen visions in the which he was commanded by the Almighty to ex terminate devil worship from the land. About the

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same time he had happened upon some Christian tracts. He put the two together and interpreted the former in what he thought was the light of the latter and forthwith formed a society, called the Shang Ti Hui, or Society for the worship of the Almighty. Backed by his followers he instituted a crusade, much, one is ashamed to admit, like some of the crusades of the Middle Ages.

Hung may have meant well when he began, but from mere idol smashing his rapidly growing crew turned to open political rebellion and, before they were suppressed, set China aflame and caused the death by fire or sword or famine of untold multi tudes.1 The province of Kiangsu, in which lies Shanghai, in no way escaped from the horrors of this reign of terror, (it lasted from 1850 to 1864,) and as a result many things which might have been attempted were left untouched. It might be men tioned that it was at this time that the hero of Khartoum acquired his soubriquet of "Chinese Gor don," since he had much to do with putting an end to the rebels and their government.

It may well be seen, then, how great were the obstacles which thwarted the plans of the few mis sionaries who had remained. It will also be seen why the sixties were lean and lonely years, and the seventies days of small things.

Bishop Williams. But the dark is not the only side of any shield. Disappointments there were many, and

1 See for account of this Pott's "Sketch of Chinese History," Chapters XIX and XXI.

Ebb and Flow 75

the workers were few, and yet, to return to the meta phor, one by one the fruit trees became sturdy and buds appeared on their branches. Perhaps the best way in which to understand how the work developed in these two decades is to center it around certain figures and institutions. To begin with, Bishop Williams stands out so clearly that he provides a focus from which to start.

Channing Moore Williams, a Virginian, had come out in '56 and had shown himself at once to be an adept in winning the hearts of the Chinese. He never was a statesman, and as an executive he did not shine. In fact the material side of things went rather to rust under his administration in Japan. He was, however, a great lover of humanity, one of those gentle, humble souls whose very gentleness commands attention. Some men are so aggressive as to be quite insignificant. Williams lacked official aggressiveness altogether and yet became a great power for righteousness. As an illustration of his humility there is still shown in Tokyo the room in St. Paul's dormitory in which the old Bishop lived, and which he wanted to exchange for a student's much smaller room, because he felt the student needed air and sunshine more than he.

After the death of Bishop Boone the Church in China had been without a head for two years. Ru mors of another change of base were in the air, due, in the first place to a statement in a letter from a worker in Canton that the majority of missionaries felt, that given equal opportunities for doing good,

76 The Story of the Church in China

it was wiser to work in that climate which was healthiest. And due, in the second place, to an edito rial comment on this in The Spirit of Missions, which said: "Bishop Boone was in favor of going north ward and our two missionaries now in China, the Reverend Messrs. Thomson and Schereschewsky are in favor of making Pekin the headquarters of our mission and the see of the successor to Bishop Boone."

Fortunately nothing resulted from these murmur- ings. The valley of the Yangtse has proven abun dantly that it is the center of China in more ways than the geographical, and moreover, another change of base and another abandonment of work would have come as a heavy blow to the supporters at home who had often been disturbed by the ap parent impermanence of the work.

At the Convention of 1865 Mr. Williams was elected Bishop of China and Japan. This needs a word of explanation. The new Bishop had gone out to work in China and had spent his first years there, but had been transferred to Japan in '59. Thus he was cognizant of conditions in both lands, and, inasmuch as the exchequer was not overflow ing, it was decided to save money and make Will iams bishop of both the Sunrise and Middle King doms.

Obviously to be in two places so far apart as China and Japan at once made heavy demands upon the new apostle. To read of his endeavors to do all that was expected of him is like reading about

Ebb and Flow 77

the journeyings of the first Apostle to the Gentiles. Now in Tokyo, now in Soochow, now in Nagasaki, now going all the way from Osaka to Wuchang to spend a week there and then rush back — thus this modern St. Paul went about his work. Intensive cultivation, so much of a fad in these days, was to Williams quite out of the question. His only course was to scatter seed as consistently as possible, and never to lose an opportunity, whether on shipboard, in a wagon or in the midst of his flock, of telling the good news.

Such was the episcopate of Channing Moore Will iams from 1866 until, at his request, he was relieved of the oversight of the work in China in '77. He had asked that this be done in '74, but no one could be found brave enough to take even half of his bur den till three years later.

During these years his chief helpers were Mr. Thomson and Mr. Schereschewsky, whom we al ready know, Reverend Robert Nelson, than whom China never had a better friend, his ministry there lasting thirty years, Augustus Hohing, the founder of the Hankow work, Samuel R. J. Hoyt and Will iam James Boone, who had been appointed at the same time; Dr. Bunn, the founder of our medical work, and last, but far from least, Miss Fay, who continued her wonderful career until her death in 1878.

Beginnings at Hankow. Of the actual accomplish ments of Williams' episcopate the first place should be given to the establishment of a station at Hankow. This

?8 The Story of the Church in China

was so great an event that a date should be given. June 22nd, 1868, was the exact time when the station, whose very name now suggests such large things, was opened. The incidents surrounding this event were simple enough. The Bishop made up his mind after laborious tours of inspection to many points, that he could not afford to leave Hankow and Wu chang unoccupied. There were many places where work "just had to be started at once or a great opportunity lost," (how familiar those words sound to us!) — there were lots of such places — but Han kow seemed to be the most important. How clear was his vision ! Accordingly to Hankow he went, and with him he took Mr. Hohing and Mr. Yen who had just been made a deacon, and there they settled down, and there they laid broad and deep the foundations of the diocese of Hankow.

Yen. Of Mr. Yen one would like to speak at great length. Probably no Chinese presbyter was ever more venerated than he. Educated in the little school at Shanghai and then at Kenyon College, he had taken advantage of every opportunity and had become in time a scholar of considerable ability. Of his gentleness and dignity, of his learning and zeal, all who knew him spoke enthusiastically. From 1868 to 1898 he ceased not to preach Christ and Him crucified to his brethren in the great land of Sinim. It is told of him that when first he applied to be taken as a candidate for Orders the Bishop had told him that he had no money wherewith to help him. The story goes on to relate how he

Ebb and Flow 79

at once obtained a lucrative position as interpreter at the British Consulate and remained there until the Bishop could provide for him, and then, at great monetary sacrifice, gave up his well-paid po sition and accepted, as his Master had, poverty in order that he might the better serve his fellow men.

Boone College. The two chief happenings at Han kow were of course the beginning of medical work and the founding of what has since become Boone College. It was in September, 1871, that the latter took place. Named after the great founder of the work, the Bishop Boone Memorial School, situated in the Wuchang compound, had begun propitiously with three pupils — the oriental as well as the occidental loves that number. Its early days were, like those of all unendowed schools whether in Wuchang or elsewhere, days of struggling to survive. But cour age was never lacking, and the fight was always well maintained, and today it has become one of the proudest offspring of the American Mission — but that is for a later chapter to relate.

In this connection mention at least must be made of the Jane Bohlen Memorial School for girls, since, though it was not begun as soon as the boys' school, it was projected at the same time, and its origin should therefore be similarly dated.

Dr. Bunn. The other event of moment was the coming of Dr. Bunn, our first medical missionary to China. The first doctors under the Board went to Libe ria in the mid-forties ; they were T. S. Savage, who was also a priest, and George A. Perkins. Japan had re-

80 The Story of the Church in China

ceived her first physician from us in 1860, so in things medical China was far behind her. Mr. Thomson had, to be sure, opened a hospital at Shanghai ear lier than this, and there had been the short service of Dr. Fish, but to the upriver station belongs the honor of having the first permanent missionary doc tor, and China's medical missions cannot be said to antedate 1874.

One naturally asks at once why Dr. Bunn did not settle at the older station instead of going to the scarcely settled inland point. The explanation is to be found in the fact that there were several physi cians already in Shanghai, while not a single one was to be found in Hankow or Wuchang. That one was badly wanted at the new station is evidenced by the fact that or ever he had disembarked Dr. Bunn was importuned by would-be patients, many of whom had eagerly, and almost in tears, been praying that nothing untoward might befall him on the journey.

It has been the universal experience of medical men that their methods are distrusted by foreigners. Just as the child dreads a doctor here at home and trembles at the sight of his paraphernalia, so natives in mission lands shrink from them. Dr. Bunn's early experiences were no exception to this rule, and many were the tales that spread about his infer nal instruments of torture and his cutting up chil dren to made medicine out of their quivering remains. It took great patience and tact, and above all entire willingness to let anybody and everybody

Ebb and Flow 8ii

inspect anything and everything he had or did to assure his safety during the first months. How ever, the people soon found that Bunn was no ogre or child-killer, but rather a gentle, lovable friend, and before many years had passed no man in the neighborhood was more revered than he.

Naturally, the aspiring physician felt he must have a hospital. Much of the work could be carried on with out one, but something had to be provided for those unfortunates who came to him and who had no homes to which to return. To meet this neces sity, at first a temporary building was put up in the Compound, but in '78, just after his wife had died, Dr. Bunn rented a house and opened a hospital for women and children under the now familiar name of the Elizabeth Bunn Memorial Hospital.

Progress at Shanghai. So began the two most im portant phases of our institutional work "up the river" in the days of Bishop Williams. In the meantime in the neighborhood of Shanghai the Church was beginning to recover from the depression which had made the '60s such dark days. It is only fair though to the fine old soldier of Christ, Mr. Thomson, to say that even when things looked to those at home darkest, he had written cheerfully and protested vehemently against any expressions of discouragement.

Miss Fay had reopened the boys' school — the forerunner of the now proud St. John's, and a theo logical department under the name of Duane Hall and Divinity School was added. Thus the begin nings of a university were laid down. In addition

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to these educational activities Mr. Thomson's embryo hospital had helped 15,000 sufferers in one year, and last, and most important of all, the evan gelistic work had been so pressed forward that sev eral outstations were opened.

Bishop Schereschewsky. Before bringing this part of the story to a close something must be told of the other leader, Bishop Williams* greatest coadjutor and ultimate successor, Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschew sky. As his name rather boisterously proclaims, this good man was by birth a Russian Jew. After a youth of hard study in Russia he had emigrated to America and been well trained in a Presbyterian Seminary in Pennsylvania, and subsequently in the General Seminary in New York. In '59 he had heard Bishop Boone appeal for men and had gone to China with him. On arriving he quickly gave evidence of remarkable linguistic gifts, setting to work to learn the Language in a way that made him a marked man. Frequently we are told he would not go out-doors for a week, so engrossed would he become in his studies.

From 1862-1875 he lived in Pekin, as has already been pointed out, bringing all his native Jewish, and his acquired Greek and Latin and English knowl edge to bear upon the task of rendering the Bible in China's official language, Mandarin.

On the resignation of Williams in 74 Scher eschewsky was elected Bishop of China, but the godly man sent back an honest nolo episcopari. He felt that the scholar's life was the only one in which

Ebb and Flow 83

he could do well. A Mr. Orrick of Pennsylvania was then called upon by the House of Bishops, but he too felt that he was not fitted for the undertak ing. Upon this the Electors fell back again upon Schereschewsky in '77 and put the matter before him in such a way that he could not decline. Accordingly he was consecrated — in Grace Church, New York, since he was at home on furlough — in October of that year.

Inasmuch as the episcopate of Schereschewsky falls within the scope of the next chapter, it had best not be dealt with here. The student of China's history, however, should have a generous picture of this great man and it cannot be better procured than by quoting an account of him given by the widow of the second Bishop Boone:

"It was my very good fortune to meet both the Bishop and Mrs. Schereschewsky in London in 1878, while they were en route to China and my hus band and myself were coming home. We spent about six weeks there and occupied ourselves in sightseeing. I recall my gratification in having so tremendously well informed a companion in our rambles. It mattered not what we saw or where we went, the Bishop knew all about everything.

"One's first visit to London always includes the Zoo, and there I can see the Bishop now in mem ory, enthusiastically expounding the habits of snakes, pointing out their beautiful coloring ; and so it was with everything historical, horticultural, or artistic, he had real knowledge of all we saw, not

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ostentatiously displayed, but naturally in an ordin ary conversation.

"It was the year of the second Pan Anglican, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was so impressed with the deep learning of our Bishop, that he was reported as remarking, that 'the Bishop of Shanghai was one of six really learned men in the world.' There were many and great services during that time, but the Bishop always avoided the procession, and we used to get what sittings we could find among the great congregation. However, he was generally discovered and a verger sent to invite the Bishop and his chaplain to 'come up higher.' "

The Story of The Church in China

Part II

SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCA TIONAL WORK

1878-1879

CHAPTER I

SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCA TIONAL WORK

1878-1879

Purchase of the Jessfield Property for St. John's College. In 1878 Bishop Schereschewsky began a work which was destined to grow into one of the great forces for the regeneration of China. This was the establishment of St. John's College. The old mission property in Shanghai was situated in Hongkew (the "American settlement"). This part of the city was becoming the busy downtown of trading Shanghai and while a splendid field for medical work and, surrounded by a dense Chinese population, for evangelistic work, it had become unsuited for higher school work. The same causes that had made it such a busy centre had however greatly enhanced the value of the land.

It was decided to reserve part of the mission property for the work of the station centering around the Church of our Saviour and lease the remainder for a term of years. With money bor rowed upon the faith of these long leases thirteen acres of ground in the suburbs of Shanghai were purchased for the purpose of establishing a college

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which the workers saw was now an imperative need for the proper development of the mission work in the training up of native workers. This splendid piece of property thus acquired is situated five miles from the Bund, as the avenue in Shang hai along the river was called, and had been the country seat of a wealthy foreign merchant. It was approached by the "Bubbling Well" Road, leading out from Shanghai, on which were situated the spacious residences of Shanghai merchants, but it was itself quite out in the country and most suitable as the seat of an educational institution. The Su- chow creek winds around the compound making it a perfect peninsula. A good sized house was already there which was available for mission purposes and plans were immediately drawn up for a larger building to be erected for the college. In front of the house was a fine large lawn which would have been a credit to any American college. From the point of view of the building up of the Church in China the establishment of this Church college was a momentous step forward,— while from a purely financial point of view it was a splendid investment as was proven by the fact that the Bishop was offered an advance of $4,500 on his purchase price shortly after he had acquired it.

The nucleus of the college was already estab lished. Baird Hall and Duane Hall, the two suc cessful schools for boys in Shanghai which had been in charge of the Rev. E. H. Thomson and Miss Fay were combined to make the new college, so

Development in Educational Work 89

that it started out with a good quota of students. For its equipment an appeal for $100,000 was sent to the Church in America.

Wise Statesmanship. One cannot be too thank ful for the wise Christian statemanship displayed by Bishop Schereschewsky in his scheme for a Christian college in Shanghai. He saw that the future interests of the Mission and its work in China demanded educated native leadership and with far reaching vision and faith he planned for the future. He builded wiser than he knew. He felt, when called to the bishopric, that translating the Bible was his special vocation — he was to have, in God's providence, many years reserved for that later — but in the meantime he was to be used as the agent for laying broad and deep the foundations of an institution which has sent out steady streams of light and learning far and wide throughout China and which was to play a very honorable part in bringing in "China's New Day." Mr. William T. Ellis says : "The International marvel of the decade is the creation of the Chinese Republic. What is the explanation? The answer is clear and unani mous — the Mission schools. If Christian schools had not been taken to China that nation would still be a mediaeval monarchy — tied hand and foot to the Confucian classics. A world service of first magni tude has been done by the missionaries in trans forming old China."

Laying of the Cornerstone. On Easter-Monday, April 14, 1879, the cornerstone of the first building

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of St. John's College was laid with appropriate cere monies. It was a day of much rejoicing in the Mis sion circle and a bright and happy company, as it always is in China on the occasion of a new work started, wended its way to the grounds from Shang hai. In his address the Bishop called attention to the importance of educating the youth of any nation and especially to the importance of training the youth of China in sound learning and Christian truth. He struck the key-note of the policy of the Mission in China when he said : "We want an institution in which to train youth for the service of Christ. I believe the true Apostles of China must be natives."

Thus was St. John's College started on its noble career. It was far from being a college yet in any thing but name, but the vision and the hope were there that some day, with hard work and much help, a great school of Christian learning would be built up. In the building first erected there were accom modations for two hundred students, but it was evi dent that the strong desire for Western learning that was to sweep with such force over China twenty years later had not yet begun to stir in the youth of Shanghai, for there were only seventy-one admissions. It was a matter of rejoicing to the missionaries that they could give the Scholarships to the sons of Christians, as it was found that heathen parents greatly interfered with the religious instruction of the school. Up to that time however the Church had had no choice in the matter — the

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pupils were heathen for the simple reason that there was no Christian community to draw from. That there were now Christian boys was also a matter of great encouragement to the missionaries because the first aim of St. John's was to provide for a native ministry of a high order.

Importance of the Training of Native Workers. It is very clear to a student of the Church's Mission in China that the Church early realized its main work to be the raising up and training of Chinese evangelists, teachers and clergy, if the Church there is to be indigenous, self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating. It has been the strength of our work and now after all these years the wis dom of this policy is apparent in its full value. Other missions which have neglected this and which used the foreign missionary almost entirely in preaching to the heathen and then in acting as pas tors to the native congregations gathered together instead of training up natives in the Christian ministry, realize now, after decades of such work, that they have a very insufficient supply of trained natives to care for and carry on the work they have so patiently built up, and in spite of the number of converts are not much further advanced in plant ing the native Church than when they began. The work in these cases has been dependent upon the coming out of enough foreign missionaries to carry on the work of caring for the Churches when the older missionaries have been withdrawn. When new workers failed to come not only has the work failed

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to advance but they have been obliged sometimes to close up large and promising fields. On the con trary, although almost continuously undermanned with foreign missionaries, our work has made steady progress and important new fields have often been occupied, not by a resident foreign missionary but by the alert and consecrated native worker.

"I have always considered the education of youths for the Holy Ministry, and for other depart ments of missionary work, with a view to establish stations in the interior towns and villages to be the most important duty of the Church," wrote the Rev. Yen Yun Kiung back in 1880. Apart also from the work of educating divinity students it was found necessary to have laymen for evangelistic work if the field was to be at all covered. It was not enough to select earnest Christian men and women and send them forth untrained to evangel ize. It was soon found that the untrained could not be relied upon after the first warmth of earnestness and zeal was chilled by the hard facts of evangel izing a great heathen population, and the cold indif ference or hateful opposition to message and mes sengers. To this work of training native preachers the missionaries seriously set themselves in St. John's College and later in Boone College and then in the training schools opened as time went on for the special training of lay workers. A clever Chi nese said to Miss Fay many years before this, after the Boys' Boarding School had been abandoned : "If your Mission had been carried on as begun by

Development in Educational Work 93

Bishop Boone you would now have highly educated men to send as teachers and preachers of your; religion throughout the Empire." "I trust," said Bishop Cotton of Calcutta, "that we English bishops are only the foreign Augustines, to be followed by a goodly succession of Stigands." Fired by this great hope of the future our little group of mission aries in China, insignificant in point of numbers, have had for their goal the raising up of a native ministry and a native Church.

So the dream of Bishop Schereschewsky had come true at last and St. John's was an established fact. The buildings and the scholars were there and the missionaries were dividing the teaching among themselves as best they could. They real ized, however, that if St. John's was to fulfill their best hopes for general usefulness it must have men of special and scientific training. The next step was to get a man trained as a teacher to have general supervision of the college and to build up a scien tific department. The aim was to make the college Christian first and then as wide in its range as would be consistent with thoroughness. It was no mean conception of the part St. John's was to play in bringing in a day of light and progress for China. Bishop Schereschewsky writing to the Board of Missions said: "There are yet in China very few who know enough of Western literature and science to seek what is offered to them. Let a change be made in what is required in Government examina tions and there will be a great demand for our

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teachers and schools. Shall we not then patiently abide our time and do what we can in preparing the lads under our care for our own immediate work?" The changes of later years have fully justified his faith and expectation.

New Recruits. It was a time of high hopes for the Shanghai Mission. Four new recruits, — the Rev. and Mrs. William S. Sayres and the Rev. and Mrs. Daniel M. Bates, Jr., had recently been added to the staff. Not only was the Shanghai city work developing but the country work was improving and hopeful. There was now a small chain of out- stations with a native deacon or catechist resident in each, when possible to provide one, and parochial schools for the children. In this outstation work the quickest results came from the places opened because someone had heard the truth in some other place and had asked the missionaries to open a preaching hall in their native town or village. Such an encouraging station was San Ting Ko where a new chapel had been recently built and permanent work established. The work started here was the direct result of the activity of a man converted while a patient in St. Luke's Hospital, Shanghai.

Day Schools. The day schools were always a most valuable asset to Mission work. Mr. Yen wrote of them as the "real nets of our Church to catch the people." The Chinese reverence for learn ing has always been second to no other nation and although the old stories about the foreign mission aries kidnapping little children to take out their

Development in Educational Work 95

eyes for the gloss for foreign photographs, and simi lar wild tales prevailed, there were always some who would run the risk and send their children to the foreign school where instruction was free and thor ough. Through these schools the Church was usu ally introduced to a new neighborhood and adults would be attracted through the children. So they made a vital point of contact with the people. From these parochial day schools the most promising boys were selected for further instruction in Shanghai and many of the most gifted and zealous workers for Christ were men who had, as heathen lads, been first brought in touch with the Church through the little school room in some rented native house.

THE STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN WUCHANG

1879-1881

CHAPTER II

THE STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN WUCHANG

1879-1881

Dark Days Upriver. While" the work was opening up thus brightly in Shanghai at the close of the '70's, the outlook was dark and unpromising at the other foreign-manned station, Wuchang. In Hankow there was no foreign missionary at St. Paul's Chapel and the work was with difficulty kept together. Across the river the work in Wuchang was big with possibilities but the little staff of laborers was dwindling. Dr. Albert C. Bunn and his wife had, since 1874, been enthusiastically identified with a rapidly growing medical work. He won many friends for the Mission and this branch of mission activity under his able care was proving how very valuable it was as a means of bringing the Message to bear upon the masses who otherwise stood aloof from it. Some one has said that China was opened at the point of the lancet. Certainly the work of Dr. Bunn did much to disarm prejudice and win a hearing for the missionaries. It was therefore a great disappoint ment when after the death of his wife he was obliged to return to America with his very sick

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little son. His withdrawal followed close upon the prolonged illnesses and retirement of Mrs. Hoyt and the Rev. Mr. Boone. Again, after eleven years service in Wuchang and Hankow, the Rev. Mr. Yen had been transferred to the new work at St. John's College for which he was specially qualified and greatly needed at the time of its organization. This left the Rev. S. R. J. Hoyt alone in Wuchang and in a few months he would return to America. He had been in China for several years before this until he was obliged to retire from the field because of his wife's ill-health there. But when Wuchang was left without pastoral oversight, leaving his invalided wife in America he bravely went back to China to hold the fort for two years until someone could be found to come out permanently. Now, alone at his station, with no prospect of relief or of anyone to take up the work which he would soon be obliged to lay down, Mr. Hoyt wrote long earnest letters to the Foreign Committee urging re inforcements.

One wonders how the pathos of those letters could have failed to arouse the Church at home, All the missionaries in China recognized the importance of the Wuchang-Hankow center.1 Mr. Hoyt in pressing its claims wrote: "Shanghai and Hankow are alike great centers of commerce

1 It will be remembered that Wuchang and Hankow are twin cities separated only by the Yangtse river, while just across the narrower Han river is the city of Han Yang — making altogether one of the great centers of population in China. This is now a strong center of our mission work.

The Struggle to Survive in Wuchang 101

and this is especially a center of native enterprise. More native business is done at this point than at any other and so, besides a million resident citi zens, we have an immense floating population. Our language is understood in all parts of the country and an influence is, and is to be, exerted here equal to none. Rather than be hesitating or doubtful about sustaining her work here, our Church should be pushing forward to make this, at an early day, a Diocese with a Bishop and a sufficient staff of co- workers of its own. Does our Church seek a larger field in which to labor for her Lord? Here is one ready for the harvesters; the implements are rust ing for want of hands to use them."

It was pathetically true. There were, at Wuchang, boarding and day schools for boys and girls, three chapels, a hospital and a dispensary. In these last the Rev. Mr. Hoyt was, with two native partly trained assistants, keeping up medical work in addi tion to his many other duties. All this bade fair to be left idle and fallow with the fifty communicants and four candidates for Holy Orders uncared for unless the Church at home provided the means to send out some of the men who stood ready to come. There was no dearth of applicants at the time. At a meeting of the Board of Missions a few months before it was stated that there were fourteen candi dates for foreign mission work, but with the limited means at their disposal it was possible to make one appointment only and that to Japan. The mission aries at Wuchang had already waited eight years

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for a church. It was impossible to enlarge the little shanty which all that time had been a substitute for one. No wonder Mr. Hoyt sent home the challenge : "Our Church is losing grace by its lukewarmness." It is as true of the Church as of an individual. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God.

There is something heroic about the lonely figure of Mr. Hoyt there at his post in a great heathen city realizing the opportunities for great victories for the Cross — watching one by one his fellow workers forced to lay down their arms of war at the call of death or disease — until it looked as if there was not only to be no advance forward but as if the Church must lose what little ground she had gained after twelve years of earnest struggling service. But the spirit of the man was shown in his letter to the Board Secretary: "Do not think that I feel discouraged. I shall not lose my faith in my Church until she has proved herself callous. Even then, doubtless I should be more disposed to question my own right of judging. I believe God will answer the prayers of those who are earnestly supplicating Him. Per haps some of us are too prone to pray to the Church, rather than to God, to supply our needs; but there are, I am sure, in the Fold of Christ, many who pray to God to breathe the breath of life into the body of His creation and their prayer will be heard."

So hung the life of the Church in Central China by a single thread. Almost wiped out as in other

The Struggle to Survive in Wuchang 103

parts of the world again and again, yet it could not die, for unlike the other Chinese religions by which it was surrounded, it held forth not doctrine alone but Life.

Meanwhile the pleading call from the field was for "a double team to pull the heavy load" at Wuchang, and in response to the Church's appeal to save Wuchang, the Woman's Auxiliary, to its great honor be it said, raised the money to send out a new worker.

Sayres Saves the Day. The Rev. Mr. Sayres, one of the new men in Shanghai, went with his wife to Wuchang in the summer of 1879 for a holiday trip by steamer up the Yangtse. They were greatly impressed by the urgency of the situation in view of Mr. Hoyt's approaching departure, and by the encouraging outlook in Wuchang and its possi bility for development into a strong center. The result was that at their own earnest request Mr. and Mrs. Sayres were transferred to the upriver station to work in company with an expected recruit who had offered himself. In addition to these new workers a consecrated communicant in America had assumed the continuous support of a lady teacher for the Jane Bohlen School for girls, so long without a head. Miss Josephine Roberts of Brook lyn, New York, (afterwards Mrs. F. R. Graves,) who had been under appointment for some time waiting the raising of the necessary funds, was sent out to take charge of this neglected work for girls.

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Brighter days seemed about to dawn for Wuchang. Yet in spite of all the encouragements immediately in prospect that important station had yet to undergo many trials and discouragements and was to wait eighteen years longer before it was ade quately manned.

Mr. Hoyt Retires. It was with a sad heart that Mr. Hoyt left Wuchang in March after ten years of service at that center. "Dear old Wuchang," he had written a few weeks before, "my heart is already beginning to ache at the thought that I shall have to leave it so soon." The Spirit of Missions in com menting on it said : "Surely such devotion as Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt have shown and the cause to which in good faith they consecrated and would have given their lives except for providential circumstances, should never cease to be remembered and appre ciated by this Church. Where, humanly speaking, would this grand work have been had not the Rev. Mr. Hoyt offered two years ago with the consent of his devoted wife to leave her and all that he held dear and go back to China to 'stand in the Gap/ "

Mr. Say res took vigorous hold of the work laid on his willing shoulders. A heavy bereavement fell upon him within two months after his reaching his new station in the death of his wife, but he pressed bravely onward. "Mr. Sayres feels that his life is now more than ever consecrated to the work here," wrote Mr. Hoyt just before his departure. Fortu nately there was a growing and encouraging work to absorb him. His letters to America were full of

The Struggle to Survive in Wuchang 105

enthusiasm and consecration and his days were busy and full. He writes: "At every communion we have had twenty and forty communicants whereas it is only six years ago that there were but seven communicants." The Bishop came in March and confirmed a class of forty-three and the Christians seemed very much in earnest and zealous for Christ. "The prosperity of the Mission at Wuchang," wrote Mrs. Schereschewsky, "is said to be thriving greatly, under God, due to the exertions of the converts them selves to tell the good news to others." Mr. Sayres tells of his own servant who every Sunday on his time off went about the city to the temples, tea houses and places of public resort, distributing tracts which he had purchased from Shanghai with his own small wages. "When he comes back toward even ing," Mr. Sayres wrote, "he says not a word about his doings unless I ask him, he evidently does not do it for the sake of my approval but from a higher motive. The next day he goes about his work in a sober, matter of fact way and stays at it till the next Sunday."

Character of the Converts. "This is one of the evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit among the people here. It is so blessed to be able to see the miracles that the Holy Ghost is working every day, in changing the hearts of these people, making a new light to shine in their faces, and high aims, holy works, and the fruits of the Spirit to be manifest in the lives of these men who a short time ago were idol worshippers or worse. It would convince the

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most skeptical, I am sure, of the truth of religion if they could be here and see these people, could watch the change coming over them and the new life breaking forth in them and then compare them with the people still outside.

"Only the other day a man newly baptized came to me to express his joy and his thankfulness. His face was so happy and the tears were in his eyes and his voice trenrbled while he told me, as he pointed to his heart, that 'the Holy Spirit is true ; the Holy Spirit is true. It is all true.' "

CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARDS FOREIGNERS

1881-1884

CHAPTER III

CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARDS FOREIGNERS

1881-1884

Introduction of English in the Higher Schools.

A better feeling toward foreigners made the out look brighter to the missionaries in the early 80's. It was still impossible to enter many places, such as Tai Tsang in the Shanghai district which had been selected as one of the new centers of dispensary and evangelistic work under the Rev. Mr. Woo. Land had been purchased there but the literati and others raised such a disturbance over the advent of the Church that the Mission was obliged to yield up the land and retire. Missionaries were still freely called "foreign devils" and "foreign hags" and were to be accosted so in the streets for many years to come, but in the older centers of work at least the missionaries were conscious of a changing attitude and an increasing use of articles of foreign manufac ture such as cloth, clocks, lamps (to replace the small cup of native oil with a wick stuck in it) was evidenced by the number of natives selling these things. There was also a universal desire springing

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up in places like Wuchang, Hankow and Shanghai to learn the English language. The alert Chinese in these places saw the opportunities a knowledge of English would bring for business with the Eng lish and American merchants resident in the for eign concessions in the port cities. The Mission was wise enough to see and use the opportunity of making the teaching of the English language in St. John's College and Boone School a point of contact with the Chinese they wanted to reach. Accord ingly a department of English was added to St. John's. This was an important step to take. It has always been a debated question in Mission circles whether the introduction of English in the schools is a wise thing or not. There were many things to be said on both sides of the question. The principal objection to its use was that it attracted boys to the Mission simply for the sake of getting a language enabling them to secure good positions in the busi ness world and that the schools would fail to supply native Christian workers as they would all be diverted to money getting. There was this real danger and again and again missionaries have been greatly disappointed in having some promising young candidate for the ministry go off to take a position with larger pay in post office, government or commercial employ because of his knowledge of English. But, on the other hand, it brought a large number of young men to the Mission institutions — many of whom became converted and some of whom gave up cherished prospects of a business career in

Changing Attitude Towards Foreigners III

order to serve the Church they had come to love, although they had entered the school purposely to fit themselves for a commercial life. Then again the teaching of English opened up such a wider reaching knowledge of the Western world to the student and especially gave the candidate in theol ogy and medicine the access to so many valuable books that most of the Missions gradually have come to the point of having English taught in their higher schools, colleges and professional schools. The training schools for evangelists and Bible women however have still continued to use the Chinese language only. With the introduction of English teaching at St. John's College there arose an eager demand on the part of prosperous Shang hai merchants to have their sons educated there and a paying department was added to the free scholar ships in 1880. With this step St. John's larger sphere of usefulness began.

A Movement Toward Reform. The desire for English in China came some time in advance of the later wonderful and widespread movement in favor of the substitution of Western arts and sciences for the old Chinese classics as the basis of the Chi nese educational system. But a deeper movement than simply the desire to know the English lan guage was already beginning to make itself felt. As a result of the defeats at the hands of the English and French in the last two decades many of the Chinese leaders were coming to see that there was something for the nation to learn from foreigners.

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The first lesson learned was that bows and arrows and bamboo spears were not equal to foreign imple ments of war, and that the old Chinese war junks were powerless before a modern war vessel. Arse nals and navy yards were supplied with machinery from foreign countries and soldiers were drilled by foreign military officers. With all this there was gradually growing a desire for Western arts and sciences. The movement was however to receive many setbacks. Yung Wing, educated at a Mission school in China and at Yale College, received in 1872 permission to take a hundred youths to the United States for an American education. Before long they were all recalled and many years after the policy of reaction culminated in the coup d'etat of 1898 by which the progressive young Emperor was dethroned by the conservative Manchus, but in spite of all these opposing influences the movement toward reform in national life was gathering impetus all the time.

At the time St. John's was established at Jess- field there were already marked indications of an intellectual Renaissance. There was a great demand for the works on astronomy, geography, history, medicine and international law, prepared by mis sionaries. The educated Christian Chinese and for eign missionaries were quick to catch the signifi cance of this desire and the opportunity it pre sented to the Christian Church and for this reason Bishop Schereschewsky was most anxious to estab lish a Science department at St. John's.

THE CREEK WHICH MAKES ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

A PENINSULA THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE MISSION COMPOUND, WUSIH

Changing Attitude Towards Foreigners 113

St. Mary's School. Another step forward was the opening of St. Mary's School for girls at Jessfield near St. John's. It had been the Bishop's intention from the time of opening the college to make the new property a complete educational center by hav ing a girls' boarding school there also. This was accomplished in 1881, by moving the Emma Jones and the Bridgman Memorial Schools and combin ing them under one roof in the new St. Mary's under the efficient charge of Miss Wong (afterward Mrs. F. L. H. Pott), daughter of the senior pres byter of the Mission. The new building for this combined school was remarkably well adapted for its purpose and was in fact at that time the best school building in the Mission.

Effect of Christian Education on Women and Girls in China. Mrs. W. J. Boone writing home of the bright and happy faces of the girls at St. Mary's School told of their love for the School being such that when the summer holidays came they wanted to go home for a few days only and then return to the school for the remainder of the vacation. She continues : "One can have no conception of the dif ference Christian education makes in the faces of girls and women. The heathen women we see around us have faces utterly devoid of expression, at the same time not being the faces of idiots. It is not so with the men, and so it can only be their lack of knowledge that makes the difference. As a rule the women know absolutely nothing. If poor they work in the fields, if rich at embroidery, etc. Heath-

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enism can never be destroyed until the women are converted." a

Bishop Schereschewsky's Illness. Cheering news came from home that two more faithful stewards of their Master had each decided to make investments for Him in China in the erection of churches where His message might be proclaimed. One of these churches was to be the College Chapel at St. John's and another, given by a communicant of St. Peter's Church, Germantown, was to meet a long felt want by providing for the growing congregation at Wuchang. Partly to look after the erection of this building which he designed and partly to assist Mr. Sayres and Miss Roberts in this station, Bishop Schereschewsky with his family moved to Wuchang for the winter of 1880-81. The work of building progressed very slowly and the Bishop found his presence so greatly needed that he remained on throughout the next spring and summer. It was here on August 4th that there came the sunstroke which paralyzed and crippled him for the remaining years of his life and laid him aside from the active duties of the Episcopate while it gave the Church his translation of the entire Bible into easy Wenli, the literary language of all China. His health had been greatly impaired by overwork and anxiety — always the portion of our missionary bishops — and he was prostrated while attending to his duties in Wuchang during its terrible August heat. For a long time he was unable to move at all and only

1 Spirit of Missions-— 1883, p. 51.

Changing Attitude Towards Foreigners 115

articulated with the greatest difficulty. He was taken to specialists in Europe as soon as he could travel with some degree of convenience, but while he improved sufficiently to use his ringers on the typewriter by which he performed his herculean tasks, he never recovered.

The blow fell crushingly on the little band of workers in Wuchang and Shanghai by whom the Bishop was greatly beloved. A few months before they had said good-bye to Dr. and Mrs. Nelson and Miss Nelson, when, after thirty years of faithful ser vice, Dr. Nelson was obliged to leave the Mission on account of the serious illness of his wife, and to Mr. and Mrs. Bates who were obliged to leave China because of Mr. Bates' complete break down, and now the remaining few were suddenly deprived of their leader.

Change in Requirements for Baptism. Shortly before his illness the Bishop made an important change in regard to candidates for Baptism. It was found that in order to insure the sincerity of the convert and to give time for due instruc tion there should be a considerable lapse of time between the first expression of his desire for Baptism and the administration of the Sacrament. The candidate was now required to be enrolled as an enquirer for six months at the end of which time he was, after the manner of the ancient Church, formally admitted as a Catechumen. Then for six months or a year (it finally became definitely fixed as a year) he was under further instruction at the

Ii6 The Story of the Church in China

end of which time if he had been found faithful and sincere and actuated by no unworthy motives, he was admitted to Holy Baptism.1

Consecration of Church of the Holy Nativity. Christmas Day, 1881, was a red letter day for the Christians at Hankow and Wuchang, for the beauti ful new Church of the Nativity upon which Bishop Schereschewsky had bestowed so much care was formally opened and publicly used for the first time. The new missionary, the Rev. F. R. Graves, whose coming had so gladdened the hearts of the waiting workers in Shanghai and Wuchang, was there for the service and the procession of school boys and candidates for Holy Orders could sing, with the heartiness and happiness of the fulfillment of a long deferred hope, "I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord." At the ser vices that day twenty-five persons were baptized.

Extension of the Work. In the meantime (1881) Mr. Sayres was lengthening the cords as well as strengthening the stakes. The work across the river in Hankow was being reinforced. The newly ordained deacon, Mr. Yang, was placed in charge, together with his son, a candidate for Holy Orders. A day school was reopened and there were good prospects of getting back the scattered little con-

xThis system has been regularly carried out since in the China Mission with certain exceptions, such as in case of seri ous illness or of college students who have been long under Christian instruction. Since the Revolution the period of probation may be shortened at the discretion of examining presbyters.

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gregation. Two outstations were opened, the only ones in the upriver district. In those days this was not an easy undertaking as often great difficulty was experienced in renting a house. And although the foreigner kept in the background and a native evan gelist was sent, the people were suspicious of their own countryman from another part of the country coming to preach doctrines they had never heard of before. As Mr. Sayres wrote home of the station at Lung Hwa Ngan: "The people are afraid that the new religion may be one not permitted by law, for professing which they may some day have to suffer death or be subject to all sorts of annoyances and persecutions at the hands of bad men of the neighborhood who may make any affiliation with the new religion a pretext for working out their own designs." This attack on Christians by evilly dis posed men has happened again and again in the outstations. On the other hand the Christians in these stations removed from the contaminating influences of big cities and especially from the bad examples of foreigners living vicious lives, often made the heartiest and most sincere converts. So in spite of the many discouragements there was therefore a joy to the missionary in the country work that he did not find in the port cities. The work in the latter was more important but slower and more discouraging. Often however those con verted in the cities would return to their country homes and be the first messengers of the Gospel in a new region. Such a one was a convert of whom

n8 The Story of the Church in China

Mr. Sayres wrote in 1881 : "This remarkable woman of some sixty years is of a respectable fam ily, intelligent and during most of her life a believer in one of the Buddhist sects. She was greatly addicted to heathen rites, but she has left them all now and without any hope of temporal gain goes back to certain persecution in her country home." :

Growth of Boone School. The importance of developing Boone School at Wuchang was being more and more felt. In pursuance of the Mission's general policy it was recognized to be the most important institution in the upriver district, for in it lay the hope of the future supply of native clergy for Central China. Mr. Sayres in his plans for the general development of the Wuchang-Hankow work was appealing for its enlargement. There were thirty boys in it when he first went to Wuchang, but it was as easy to get three hundred as thirty. The need was especially felt as the care ful training of boys either for mission work or for general usefulness in life was neglected by the other missions and there was no really high grade mis sion school in that part of China. This omission by the other missions was purposely made as they did not then believe in the practical utility of educa tional institutions as an aid to the spread of the Church. On the other hand it was the main reliance of the Romanists and it was felt by our missionaries in Wuchang that here was an open field of opportu nity that the Church could ill afford to neglect.

* Spirit of Missions, 1881, p. 315.

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In 1882, Mr. Herbert Sowerby and his wife joined the Mission Staff. They had been previously con nected with another mission and had a valuable knowledge of the Chinese language and people and were able to be of immediate service in the needy field at Wuchang. Mr. Sowerby was placed in charge of Boone School and under his able manage ment the school improved greatly. The old build ing was torn down and rebuilt and a brighter day began to dawn for an institution which was to be known later as Boone University, the finest educa tional institution in Central China. But while the outlook became thus more promising for Boone, the Jane Bohlen School for girls was to suffer another setback in its checkered career. The new matron, Miss Boyd, died soon after reaching her station and it was decided to close the school for a time and transfer Miss Roberts to the work in Jessfield. With the presence of two recruits in Wuchang, Mr. Graves and Mr. Sowerby, Mr. Sayres was able to return to his work in Shanghai.

Retirement of Bishop Schereschewsky. Bishop Schereschewsky had been taken to Europe after his serious illness in Wuchang but the hope to which the Church clung that he might be able to return to his work in vigor was doomed to a sad disappoint ment. When at last the conviction deepened to him that never again would he be able to sufficiently regain the use of his limbs to engage in the active duties of the Episcopate, he resigned his jurisdic tion. He wished it distinctly understood that he

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"did not resign as a missionary" and that he hoped to return to China as a translator. For this work he was unusually qualified, and he had already trans lated the entire Old Testament and the Prayer Book into Mandarin and the latter into easy Wenli as well. His short episcopate had been marked by a high sense of duty and of energetic effort for the welfare of China and the Church, and had greatly set forward the development of the policies of the Mission work, but his name especially is associated with the establishment of St. John's College.

St. Luke's Hospital. Another strong feature of the Mission work, St. Luke's Hospital in Shanghai, had been transferred from the small and incon venient building in which it had been housed to new and more commodious quarters. The development of this splendid institution was chiefly the work of one man, Dr. Henry W. Boone, who came out in 1881. The funds for enlargement were largely from the Chinese raised especially through the energetic assistance of the Rev. Mr. Woo. With this aid and the gift of their property to the Mission by the Trustees of the Gutzlaff Hospital in Shanghai, the triangular block containing a good dwelling house which became the Hospital was purchased and an additional ward erected. Standing in the busy busi ness section of the town near the police headquar ters and the wharves it was in a position to receive a great number of accident cases. Its fame soon spread and drew patients from as far as two hun dred miles. In addition, Dr. Boone was in charge

Changing Attitude Towards Foreigners 121

of dispensaries at Jessfield and outstations. In the year 1884 the total number of cases treated in these places was over forty-one thousand. Thus rapidly did the work spread and the message of the Good Samaritan diffuse itself from this great center.

General State of the Work. Dr. Boone writing home of the general state of the mission work at the time of the retirement of Bishop Schereschewsky and speaking of the patient labors of his fellow workers and their predecessors said:

"Their toil has not been unrewarded. If the Com mittee could only come here and see the admirable College, the perfection of Girls' School, the earnest, Christian native clergy and catechists, the numerous schools and chapels, and the small but devout and growing band of native converts, their hearts would be cheered by the spectacle. One by one the gen tlemen of other missions I have met have told me that they have been greatly impressed with the excellence of our work as a whole, and see much to admire and imitate. It is my firm conviction that there is no mission in China working on a broader, stronger and firmer basis than ours, and that none are getting better results. But alas ! some other missions have double, treble and more than treble the numbers in the field that we put there."

INTO NEW FIELDS 1884-1886

CHAPTER IV

INTO NEW FIELDS

1884-1886

Successor to Bishop Schereschewsky. The elec tion of William Jones Boone, as Bishop in China, was a cause of general rejoicing to the friends of the China Mission. The son of the first noble Bishop, born and brought up in the field, a missionary since 1870, a man of wisdom, experience and vision, he was well qualified for the important work of plant ing Christ's Church in China's vast dominions. He was known to be in full sympathy with the policy of the higher educational work which had been made so prominent, while experienced in the more directly evangelistic agencies. He was consecrated on Octo ber 28, 1884, in Holy Trinity Church, Shanghai, the city in which he had been born, baptized, confirmed and ordained to the priesthood. The Consecrator was the Right Reverend Channing Moore Will iams, D.D., Missionary Bishop of Yeddo (Japan), who had exercised Episcopal oversight of the field during the absence of Bishop Schereschewsky, assisted by Bishop Moule, Bishop of the Church of England in Mid-China, and Bishop Scott of the same Church in North China. There was thus united in

125

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this function the two largest branches of the Angli can Communion.

So again the name of Boone became associated with the chief share in responsibility for the Church's Mission in China. The second Bishop Boone accepted the Bishopric in the same spirit of service and self-sacrifice that he had accepted the hard lonely years of missionary labor in Wuchang and later the charge of the theological department of St. John's College. In the land of his birth he elected to live and labor while life's earthly day lasted. "As in the case of the Selwyns in the Islands of the Southern Seas," said Bishop Scott in the Con secration Sermon, "so here in the Eastern parts of Asia, the mantle has descended from the father, and is today to fall on the shoulders of the son."

Extension Planned. The new Episcopate was to see a pushing forward of the work. The workers were looking toward the future and planning to advance the Kingdom into new localities. The two main stations strategically chosen, were six hun dred miles apart, between them lay the vast unoccu pied region of the valley of the Yangtse river which had been apportioned as the missionary field in China of the American Church. The Church of England by mutual agreement with our Church was in the North and South and we were responsible for planting the Church in the fertile, populous plains of Central China. Immense cities, Chinkiang, Nan king, Wuhu, Anking, Kiukiang, between Shanghai and Hankow, were beckoning and calling for help,

Into New Fields 127

while beyond there were the cities on the upper Yangtse stretching all the way to the province of Szchuen, — an empire in itself. As yet our Mission had made no attempt to reach these millions, but the workers were longing and praying that more laborers might be sent to enter this vast field com mitted to the Church they represented.

This burning desire of the missionaries to enter the needy fields beyond was expressed by the Rev. Sydney C. Partridge, a new recruit, who while on a trip to the Orient had seen the vast opportunities and thrown in his lot with the Mission work. "We need more men. I suppose this is an old story with you, and you must be weary of this cry for help that con tinually comes over the water, but we cannot help it. When we see the possibilities and the needs we must cry out. This is really the hardest thing we have to bear. It is not the loneliness, it is not the long separation from home, it is not the difficulty and petty hardships of our work; it is to see and feel the great need that is around us and to realize that we can do so little to meet it. If there is any spot on earth where the minister of Christ needs patience it is here in China. If he can only live a life of patience, he has the most intensely gratifying work that man can have anywhere in the world. * * *To preach the Gospel in a Christian community at home is a great privilege and calling, but to be permitted to live among a heathen people as the representative and teacher of a higher religion than theirs, to preach the great truths of the everlasting

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Gospel to whom they are a new and not an old story — this is glorious, beyond anything else."

It required a great measure of faith for the mis sionaries to take this attitude toward extension There were, including the stations in the two centers Shanghai and Wuchang, thirty-five outstations where the Gospel was being preached and the Church represented. The central stations where foreigners must necessarily reside were under manned and the Board of Managers was then as now with difficulty securing contributions for the existing work. But even with this shortage of men and money it never has been the policy of the Church to tarry at its first centers until the work was perfected there.

Chinkiang Opened. The first important city on the Yangtse river to be occupied was Chinkiang. This was the nearest to Shanghai of the great river cities, being distant about eighteen hours by steam boat. Here was sent the zealous Mr. Sayres to re side and be in charge of the new work, assisted by the recently ordained deacon Kwei Mei Peng. Chin kiang had a handful of resident foreigners engaged in business and in consular offices, and an immense native population. The Grand Canal that runs from North China to Hangchow crosses the great river at this point and made the city an important center of trade. A house was rented for use as a preach ing hall and in this as well as out on the busy street itself, as opportunity offered, the missionaries set forth the Saviour of men. "It appeals to me

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strongly," wrote Mr. Sayres from his new station, "to see these thousands and thousands of heathen who know nothing of God and the future life. To save one of their souls ought to be reward great enough to repay one for any suffering undergone for that end. I cannot understand how it is that Chris tians stay comfortably at home while the heathen go to death unenlightened."

Evangelistic Work Strengthened. One of the first acts of the new Bishop was to appoint the Rev. E. H. Thomson, Archdeacon, and as such to have charge of the directly evangelistic work in Shang hai and vicinity. The educational part of the work had been strongly stressed and in the hospitals in Shanghai and Wuchang the medical work was showing an encouraging development. With the increasing number of native clergy and catechists the direct preaching of the Gospel to the heathen was receiving more attention. A large staff of dea cons and catechists located at the various outsta- tions worked under the direction of the Archdeacon. These workers learned to vaccinate and often secured their foothold in a new town by this popu lar appeal to the people who brought their children in great numbers to be vaccinated. Dispensaries were also opened and by these means or without them the missionaries indefatigably preached the word to the informal congregations that would gather around them day and night.

Outstation Medical Work. The native workers availed themselves of every opportunity to reach their

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countrymen. Some of them, such as the Rev. Mr. Woo, possessed hospital experience and were able to dispense remedies. In one of these outstations lived a widow who became seriously ill. After Mr. Woo's treatment she recovered. One day she said to him, "Mr. Woo, my kitchen god recommended you to be my physician. The other physicians were of no benefit because my kitchen god did not approve of them." Mr. Woo replied, "How is this? I am no friend of kitchen gods for I always bid the people not to honor them or sacrifice to them. I don't think your kitchen god would recommend an enemy!" The other visitors joined in the general laugh and Mr. Woo asked her how she discovered that the kitchen god approved of him. She said that her son prayed and made an offering before the bamboo sticks. Stick No. 1 which represented Mr. Woo was a good one while those representing the other "physicians" were not good. Thereupon Mr. Woo spoke to them of the Gospel. "As I was leaving the house," he related, "I was met by some female neighbors who wanted to hear more on the kitchen god subject. I did not lose so favorable an oppor tunity of telling them of the uselessness of such gods and advised them to trust their lives in the hands of their Heavenly Father and invited them to attend our services for fuller instruction."

Growing Necessity of Pastoral Work. With the increase in the number of converts the foreign mis sionaries and the Chinese clergy were more and more occupied in shepherding and instructing them

Into New Fields 131

and the candidates for Baptism. The habits of heathenism were still strong upon them ; they were generally ignorant, superstitious and unspiritual. They were socially ostracized, their motives were misjudged and they were the objects of both petty annoying persecutions and more bitter attacks. The work of protecting and instructing and strengthen ing these lambs of the flock was of the first import ance to the native and foreign pastor — the former of whom lived in the station with them and the latter of whom visited the stations in turn. But the foreigner could never come as close to the Chinese Christians as one of their own race, and as the native clergy developed in spiritual power and knowledge it has been the policy of the Mission to make the Chi nese clergy the actual pastors of their flocks, encour aging, sympathizing, comforting or rebuking the Christians as the case might be. It was early seen that the Chinese Christians would go much more readily to their native pastor than to the foreign missionary. And this was as it should be. As they proved worthy of the trust, the direct pastoral work has been more and more turned over to the Chinese and the foreigner retires more and more into the background as the general adviser, director, helper and inspirer of the native clergy associated with him. And although they were not all of equal spir itual or mental power they were then and they are now a splendid body of high-toned men, the great est element of strength in the China Mission and the surest ground of hope for its future as a living

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branch of the Church of Christ. Speaking of three of the early native clergymen of the Church and their views, Mr. Partridge wrote home of them soon after his arrival, "I hold that one such man as Mr. Yen and one such woman as Mrs. Yen are worth twenty years of labor here, nay more, fifty. And what shall I say of Mr. and Mrs. Woo, and the Wongs? I can only say that the earth is hardly worthy of such people ; they have given all that they have, at a cost that we know little of, for Christ and His Church." At the time that Bishop Boone began his Episcopate there had been sixteen Chinese ordained to the Sacred Ministry since the founding of the Mission and there were eleven others pre paring for Holy Orders. Since then the number of ordained native leaders has increased until there were forty-two living in 1912 in the three dioceses. All honor to the missionaries who have called and trained these men and filled them with the wisdom and spiritual power with which they give their lives to the spread of Christ's Kingdom. These native workers and the greater number of many catechists and teachers working with them, though they have had much less opportunities for develop ment than the ordained men have had, are daily wit nessing to that which the power of Christ can do for the Chinese race. What He has done for them He can do for all. They are the first fruits for Christ in China. The Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith in his admirable book, "Chinese Characteristics/' has said that if the old religions of China : Buddhism, Con-

Into New Fields 133

fucianism, Taoism, had been able to produce one such character as Mrs. Charles Kingsley portrays her husband to have been in her biography of him, it would be a moral miracle greater than any or all that are recorded in the books of Taoist fables. But what these forces have been unable to accomplish Christianity is doing." The lives of these native pastors are lives of single hearted devotion to the cause of Christ.

An "Evidence of Christianity." One of the most striking "Evidences of Christianity" occurred at a meeting of the English "Shanghai Literary and Debating Club" in March, 1885, in a public meeting at which several able gentlemen were advertised to speak against Christian miracles. A spectator pres ent that night thus describes it. "The large hall was rilled with people and probably three quarters of them were unbelievers, drawn there because they thought it would be a good chance "to go for the missionaries" as the phrase is here. The assault was lamentably weak. After several speeches had been made, the Rev. Mr. Yen, who had modestly occupied a seat by the door, rose and moved toward the platform. As this tall and fine looking Chinese in a gentlemanly and dignified way began his remarks a profound silence fell on the audience. He made the speech of the evening and I wish all our people at home who question the utility of our work could have been there and heard him. He began with the 'ethical element* and showed how Chris tianity differed from and was superior to all the sys-

134 The Story of the Church in China

terns of the East, and then proceeded with the 'miraculous element5 as a necessary part of the great religion. He was interrupted by frequent expressions of approval and finally closed amid long and prolonged applause. Had I not come from St. John's College with him I would have risen and said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, what more striking and convincing argument for Christian miracles could you possibly have than what you have just seen and heard?' Of course I could not say that, but I had the satisfaction of knowing that many present felt just as I did. It was a tremendous 'crusher* for our unbelieving foreign ers to be met and answered on their own ground and in their own tongue1 by a Chinese missionary."

Making Hankow a Central Station. The work at Hankow had been superintended by the mission aries from Wuchang. In 1883, the Rev. Arthur H. Locke and his wife had joined the staff, going first to Wuchang and early in 1885 when Mr. Locke had some familiarity with the language he was trans ferred across the river to the greatest city in Cen tral China, — the thriving tea port of Hankow. It was one of the treaty-ports opened for the residence and trade of foreigners and situated as it is at the junction of the Han and Yangtse rivers it was the distributing point for all the Western and North western parts of the Empire. Hankow has aptly been called the Chicago of China and the Chinese called

JMr. Yen was one of the very few Chinese clergymen who received his education in the United States.

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it "the mart of nine provinces." It is situated in the center of the granary of the Empire and its importance was early recognized by foreigners. This city was the first point selected for a concession under Lord Elgin's Treaty of 1858. At the time of Mr. Locke's removal there as our resident mission ary he reported it as second only to Shanghai for foreign commerce, and that Canton alone surpassed it in the extent of its internal trade. "It seems to me," he wrote from his new station, "that all work in the interior, at least for many years, must center at this terminus. It must and will serve as a base of operations, and the only question is whether this base is to be weak and neglected or strong and invigorating the whole work."

Here the West was touching the East, but its touch was too often materialistic. Here the West was teaching the East but its teaching was too frequently of Western vices. The representatives of the West in oriental cities often throw aside all the moral restraints of Christian lands and live lives that do anything but commend Christianity to the Chinese mind. To them all foreigners were Christians and the religion that resulted in the evil lives the Chi nese saw was naturally not one to appeal to them as superior to theirs. So it was all the more necessary that in these treaty ports of China the Christian Church should establish itself and proclaim the Gospel. The work in these places was far more difficult and discouraging than in places further away from foreign display of wealth and the low

136 The Story of the Church in China

tone of foreign morals, but it must be done all the more energetically for these very reasons.

Advantages of the Port Cities. There were advan tages as well as disadvantages for work in these big centers of life and trade. Mr. Froude tells us that great reforms first take hold of large cities, and that the broadness of mind and susceptibility of change which is found there is necessary for their spread. In thus locating the strong centers of the Church's life in the strong centers of the nation's life our missionaries in China were following an Apostolic principle.

Says a late Margaret Professor at Cambridge: "There is something very striking in the choice made by the first heralds of the Gospel of strong positions. Obscure as they were themselves, they were not content with taking up obscure ground. They did not secrete themselves in rural and seques tered neighborhoods, and trust to emerge by degrees, as their new principle should creep through the country, without observation : they boldly fixed their headquarters, by preference, in the most con spicuous and flourishing towns, Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, being all of them sites the most commanding; cities populous, busy, alive, intelligent, pre-eminently set on a hill; serving in addition to their general aptitude for the purposes contemplated by the Apostles, to convince mankind that humble teachers of the Gospel who planted their standards so bravely must be confident in their cause, must feel their strength, were ready to chai-

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lenge inquiry, and were convinced that their efforts would make an impression on the world/'

Hankow was such a strategic center. Many of its residents were men from other places near and far who from time to time returned home or moved about the Empire for trade. In this way many were able to carry the newly found message far and wide. One of the Hankow converts — later a vestryman of St. Peter's Chapel — was a merchant who used to travel across Siberia toward Russia in the days before the railroad, and the journey used to take him nine months. Others came from the large country districts around Hankow, especially from the town of Hwang Pi and so the Gospel radiated from this center in ever increasing power and volume. Mr. Locke found the congregations at St. Paul's Chapel good from the start. The chapel was thronged with country folk and visitors whom the missionary might see once only. But the little leaven carried away was all part of the influence that was quietly yet powerfully working toward a new China. "No itinerant Evangelist could reach a greater num ber than the preachers in our Chapel," wrote Mr. Locke. "Our work here is growing rapidly. I have thirty-five in training for Baptism. Thirteen boys from our day-school are preparing for Baptism. We have not been able to secure any candidates from day-schools before this year. Our new Bible woman has a day-school for twenty-five girls and some women under instruction/'

The two Rev. Mr. Yangs — father and son — had

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been successively in charge of the Station. There were twenty-two communicants and two day- schools. It seems a day of very small things com pared with the present development of the Hankow work, but it was a promising beginning and in charge of a worker quick to see and use the wide opportunities offered.

EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES 1886-1891

CHAPTER V

EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES 1886-1891

Beginnings of St. Mary's Orphanage, Shanghai.

An orphanage had grown up naturally in connection with St. Mary's Hall. A few abandoned and other wise neglected girl babies had been rescued and were being lovingly cared for by Miss Wong and her assistants. But they were crowding the school for older girls and it was decided to put up an inex pensive building where this work could grow. Miss Wong and her pupils earned part of the money for this building and generous friends in America sup plied the remainder. Here the workers were able to receive into their arms a larger number of despised and perishing little heathen babies and transform them into bright, intelligent Christian children. Had there been a sufficient number of workers and more gifts of money the orphanage could have grown into a much greater institution such as the Roman Catholic Orphanage at Hankow with its six hundred Chinese girls being trained in the church, but St. Mary's was not thus able and perhaps after all it was better to do thoroughly well what was done rather than undertake a greater task and do it less thoroughly. The best use that the

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orphanage was put to was to provide students for St. Mary's Hall who had thus been from early infancy in a Christian atmosphere and were not to be married to heathen after leaving the school, as the girls often were betrothed before entering the school at the ages of six or eight. So the Orphan age insured the best possible use of the School course, for the orphanage girls were children of the Mission and could be used as missionary workers or be betrothed to educated Christian young men as the lady missionaries in charge might decide. Bishop Boone opened the Orphanage on October 1st, 1885. It started very humbly, with four rooms only, but they were soon crowded out of these and six more were added. The success of the new venture was, as is always the case, the opening of the doors to larger opportunities and greater responsibilities. No wonder the workers at St. John's College felt the need of such a work of loving mercy, when one of them wrote home that a mother in the neighbor ing village had killed all four daughters as soon as they were born, being too poor to bring up girls. Girls in China have always been considered as belonging to the family of the future husband, and therefore the blood relatives have been much more unwilling to invest money in a child when all the returns would be for someone else. "It is," said Dr. Arthur H. Smith, "as if one were to put a gold chain around the neck of a dog. The dog might be whistled off by your neighbor at any moment and then where is your chain?" So the poor girl in

GIRLS OF ST. AGNES' SCHOOL, ANKING, AT THE WASH TUBS THE ORPHANAGE, SHANGHAI

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China has always been the neglected and abused member of the household if indeed she were allowed to live at all. There would be probably no limit to the amount of girls any Christian mission might receive and train into Christian womanhood if there were the funds and the workers available for such a noble work. Would that some of the money that Christian people are spending in lavish entertain ment or self-indulgence were spent in rescuing these perishing little lambs of heathenism. Enough is often wasted in the frivolity of a single night in any one of some of our Christian homes in America to pro vide for a thousand of these neglected little ones, so precious to Christ, for a whole year. Our ears are so deaf we cannot hear Him saying to us, "Inas much as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it unto me." And He is pointing to the despised little ones of China. But small as our efforts are these institutions are standing as models to a vast people of what they should and of what they will do in the new great Christian China that is coming. First Ordinations in Central China. On the Feast of the Epiphany, 1885, the first ordination service at the upriver stations, as Hankow and Wuchang were called, was held in the old St. Paul's Chapel, Han kow. The candidates were all for work in Central China in the Mandarin speaking district and these ordinations marked a distinct advance. Yeh Tsang Fa, Tsun I Fu, Fung Tsen Seng, Hwang Min Kao and Wang Swun-I, were the candidates and all had been students in Boone School, — its first fruits into

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the Ministry of the Church. Some of them had gone later to St. John's College and all of them had been working as Catechists in the Mission. Mr. Wang, the youngest candidate, who was to have such a long and useful career in the Church in China, had come to the Mission School when he was a boy of seven and had been known as the baby of the School. This ordination was an occasion of special joy to Bishop Boone for his early mission work had been all among the Chinese in Central China. With a full and grateful heart he wrote to the Church at home:

"For sixteen years I have known them and watched their growth in stature and moral character, as well as their advancement in knowledge. To me, on the eve of the eighteenth anniversary of my landing as a missionary in this land of my birth, it was a deep joy to be the Lord's servant to impart to them this added seal and gift of grace for the work of a deacon in the Church of God. May I be spared to see their numbers added to and the fruit of their ministry in the gathering in of many souls from the harvest fields around us."1

Removal of Divinity School to Wuchang. It was at this time that the Bishop decided that it would

1 These deacons were used to strengthen the stations already opened. Han Yang, the third large city of the triple group made by Hankow and Wuchang, was occupied at this time as a sub-station of St. Paul's Hankow and the Rev. Mr. Hwang was put in charge. There were five other candidates for Orders, but it was to be two years more before Lieo Ying Tsung the more advanced of them was to be ready for ordination.

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be wise to move the Divinity School from St. John's College to Wuchang. It was a simpler atmosphere, removed from the distractions of a city very much foreignized and nearer the home of the majority of the students. With the removal of the Divinity School the Bishop also moved to Hankow in order that he might assist in this work and in the general development of the upriver stations.

Chinkiang Closed — Wuhu Opened. Not long after the work in Chinkiang had been opened it was decided to change the location of the station to Wuhu, some three hundred and fifty miles from the sea on the Yangtse river. The new station was more centrally located and gave easier access to the regions behind in which it was hoped to open outstations. Then too it was a needier field than Chinkiang in which several Christian missions were at work. The Rev. Mr. Kwei was sent to take charge at Wuhu (Grassy Lake) assisted by a cate- chist. A native house was rented and the large room fronting on the street was used as a preaching hall. Here for many years the seed was patiently sown and without any resident foreign missionary, preaching was going on daily and the prayers of the little band of workers were ascending. Listeners were always present, some interested, some simply idly curious.

In 1888, Bishop Boone purchased a piece of property outside the city as a basis for a central mission station which he hoped to establish there with a foreign missionary in charge. But help was slow in coming,

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more than ten years were to go by, and the Bishop was to lay down his work for another to take up before the "lone hill top" of Wuhu was to have any signs of permanent missionary activity.

Opening of Shasi and Ichang. With the trans fer of Messrs. Graves and Partridge to Wuchang, Mr. Sowerby gave up the settled work in Wuchang where he had done such excellent service in the parish and in Boone School and pushed further upriver to develop the new station in the city of Shasi and to open another at Ichang. Shasi is situ ated about three hundred miles beyond Hankow and Ichang is a hundred miles beyond that. Both were busy trading places and points of advantage for mis sion work. Mr. Sowerby from his experience in the China Inland Mission was well qualified for the difficult work of opening new stations and he found it an advantage to live in Ichang, the 'further sta tion, from whence he could drop down by native boat to Shasi and return by foreign steamer.

There had been reports of hostile feelings toward foreigners before the new station at Shasi was opened in 1886, but a proclamation had been issued a short time before giving permission to the natives to enter the Christian Church if they pleased and forbidding them to hurt or insult either mission aries or their converts as "the said Churches taught the people to be good and the missionaries only came to do good." The result was that in a city that had an established reputation for the rude treatment of foreigners, Mr. Sowerby found that in no place

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out of the five provinces he had visited in China had he a quieter three days than when he first entered Shasi to make arrangements for opening work there.

Hopeful Outlook Generally. It was in fact a time of hopeful outlook for mission work generally. In addition to the edict of toleration referred to above, the Board of Foreign Affairs at Pekin took two important steps in 1887 — either of which would have made the Chinese of the previous generation think that the end of all things was at hand. One was the appointment of a corps of officials with inter preters to travel in Western countries and study their civilization and the second sanctioned the introduction of mathematics and Western sciences into the government competition examinations for public office. These were some of the entering wedges that were in time to bring the mighty men tal conversion of the Empire. Three hundred years before Christ Mencius had said "I have heard of the outer barbarians learning from the Middle Kingdom but I have never heard of the Middle Kingdom learning from the outer barbarian." This pride lasted right up to the end of the 19th 'Cen tury but already was beginning to weaken until the time came when the self-satisfaction of centuries was to yield to the eager pursuit of the learning, meth ods and religion of the Western world so long despised. These changes, added to the sanction given to the introduction of railways, made the year 1887 an annus mirabilis in the history of the country.

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In the light of later events it was but a shadow of things to come, but the change of attitude was very welcome to the missionaries as they watched for signs of the coming day. The great inert mass of Chinese civilization had begun to move.

Time to Strengthen the Forces. It was a time for the Church to strengthen her forces and push harder the fight when the enemy showed the signs of weakness and flight. "Foreign capitalists realize what a magnificent empire China is to invest their money in" ran an editorial in the January Spirit of Missions in 1888 "and how immense will be the returns; and so American, English, French and German syndicates keep their representatives there to offer money and men wherewith to work the mines, increase the means of communication and travel and labor otherwise for the material pros perity of the country. Would that those whose duty it is to promote the spiritual and eternal weal of the many millions in this vast realm, realized as fully the magnitude of the field and the certainty of glorious results from Christian enterprise and missionary zeal !"

Anti-Foreign Feeling. These edicts from Pekin came at a most opportune time as a spirit of per secution was abroad in China in 1886, beginning in the Western province of Szchuen. In the city of Chungking the outbreak against foreigners had be come so violent that all the buildings of the Ameri can Methodist, the China Inland and the Roman Catholic Missions had been destroyed. Many native

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Christians, especially Roman Catholics, were killed. This uprising had been precipitated by the news of outrages against Chinese in the United States. Between twenty and thirty of them had been killed by American mobs in the West, and feeling ran high against Americans and all foreigners. The friendly natives came to the missionaries and said, "The people on the streets say that your people mob and kill our people there. Is it true?" It was a hard time for the missionaries and it was with great thankfulness that they saw the incipient spirit of persecution and retaliation stopped by the decided official stand expressed in the edicts commanding the people to live at peace with Christian mission aries and converts.

Work at Jessfield. Meanwhile, with the expand ing opportunities for training the future leaders of China, Bishop Schereschewsky's expectation of means for the purpose of equipping and developing St. John's had not been realized. American men of business were ready to invest millions in the development of commercial interests in China but as yet few American Christians of this Church were willing to invest the money, of which they were stewards, for its moral and spiritual renovation. The workers felt the need keenly and were sad dened at the failure of their own Church as they saw in 1888 the Presbyterians raise and send out $100,000 to found a college in connection with their work. St. John's in the meantime was losing valu able opportunities to train up young men and had

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to let them go to secular schools or to some other mission, if happily they might do so, for the educa tion they were demanding. One asset it received was however of far greater value than gifts of money, much as they were and still are needed, in the coming of F. L. H. Pott under whose foster ing care St. John's was to expand into its present commanding place in China. Dr. Pott came to the mission a deacon in 1886 and has given twenty- seven years continuously to this work for which he is so eminently qualified. Another notable accession to the mission ranks in 1888 was a new worker for St. Mary's School and Orphanage, Miss Stepha I,. Dodson. Miss Dodson's long ser vice for these institutions was to mean much the same for them that Mr. Pott's coming was to mean to the work for young men. Long, continuous services carrying out definite policies under wise, patient and capable leadership have been the most notable factor in developing our work in China. It has suffered so much from short term workers, many of whom have had to lay down their work because of serious illness or death. Such institu tions as St. John's and St. Mary's show us what uninterrupted work can do.

St. Mary's School. Miss Wong's work at the School and Orphanage is beyond all praise and when she turned it over to her successors, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Pott in 1888, she was still by her close interest and experience and prox imity to be of the greatest service in the many

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problems that arose, though no longer the actual head. Bishop Boone wrote of St. Mary's Hall in 1887 — "The Christian atmosphere of the School has been such and Miss Wong's influence so marked on all under her care, and the many instructions through years in Church and class have been so blessed, that sooner or later, all who have gradu ated, so far, have been brought to the glad use of the Church's means of grace as helps to lead a godly life. They go forth to make happy homes, and, as we trust, in the light of past examples, to diffuse blessings on others, among whom they witness for Christ and the Church that has nurtured and fos tered them."

"And," he adds significantly, "there is no mis sionary Bishop in the South or West who will not and does not testify to the worth of these centers of light which radiate out to the homes of his scattered peo ple. If that is so on the borders of a Christian civilization, what must it be here in a heathen mass of people and among those who have yet to learn in any proper way the holy and spiritual worth of those who are handmaids of the Lord, some even mothers in our Israel."

Losses in the Ranks. While the missionaries were rejoicing in the new recruits1 that were coming they were saddened by the losses that were keeping the total number still far below what

1 Among them was a lady doctor at last for Wuchang, Dr. Haslep, and, soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Smalley for the busi ness side of mission work.

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was urgently needed. The additions barely enabled them to hold their own. Dr. Griffiths, whose coming in 1885 had strengthened the medical work and made the Medical School at St. Luke's an immediate pos sibility was obliged to retire in 1888 because of ill health. Miss Purple, who had come out in 1888 to help in the educational work in Shanghai and had been a faithful and devoted worker, was obliged to retire in 1887 because of failing health and died on the steamer in the Mediterranean Sea where her body was committed to the deep. Most notable of all Mrs. Elliot D. Thomson after thirty-four years of loving earnest service was obliged to retire from the field in 1888 suffering with an incurable disease. Her name is one of the most honored in our small band of workers in the China Mission. In the fall of 1889 the news came to her old friends in the China Mission that she too had entered into rest. Miss Annette B. Richmond in "The American Episcopal Church in China" says of her : "There was no work of girls and women in which she