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“...INDEX.
CHINA. PAGE
An Emperor’s Throne 10
Buddhism. J. S. Clemens , D.D. ... 50
,, Prof. Soothiil, M.A. ... 70
Christian Education. Dr. Snape 101, 130, 150
General Feng 121
Medical Missions ... 15
National Conference 8, 29
Twelve Greatest Chinese. B. Mathews 125
NORTH CHINA.
Beyond the City Gate. Mrs. Eddon... 120
Christmas at Tientsin. Mrs. Eddon ... 99
District Meeting. D. V. Godfrey ... 133
Farewell. E. Richards ... ... ... 186
Hinds, Rev. J. W. Bainbridge ... 110
Impressions of North China. Mrs.
Plummer ... ... ... ... ... 39
It Wins Its Widening Way. F. B.
Turner ......... ... ... ... 170
Lao Sung. D. V. Godfrey ... ... 148
Lu Mrs. Mrs. Plummer ... ... 119
Tong Shan. F. B. Turner ... 48, 146
Tranquil Goodness Church. Miss
Armitt .........................198
Turner’s School, Miss ......... ... 79
Women Workers Wanted. Miss
Armitt .........................120
SOUTH-EAST CHINA'.
Farewell. W. Tremberth ........... 12
,, Miss Smith ... ... ... 47
,, Miss Simpson ... ... 198
,, H...”
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“.... 69
April—Fellowship. W. C. Braithwaite... 69
Autumn Song, An. S. G. Ford ... 188
Call, The .Mission ... ... ... 57
Christmas on the African Field. S. G.
Ford ... ... ... ... ... 223
Christmas Meditation, A. Miss Syson 229
Christmastide. Lewis Carroll ... ... 236
Crucifix, A Wayside. J. M. Blake ... 37
Discipleship. PI. W. Frost ... ... 20
Echo, A Missionary ... ... ... .57
Good Friday. E. Shillito ... ... 49
Harvest Song. S. G. Ford ... ... 160
June Roses. S. G. Ford ... ... 113
Kings. F. Langbridge ... ... ... 15
Lamps Burning, Keep the. C. Ellison 73
Not Ashamed ... ... ... ... 57
Prayer, A. Whittier ...... 93
Prayer Thoughts. A. A. L. Barwick... 197
Reformer, The Real. W. Watson ... 67
Shepherd, The Good. C. Rossetti ... 120
Sweeter the Song ... ... ... ... 9
Trees and the Missionary. S. G. Ford 38
Voyage, The Last. Tvnan'. ... Index iii.
Work. Kashmir ... ... ... ... 134
REVIEWS.
“China Through Chinese Eyes.” T. W.
Chapman ... ... ........ ... 41
Duff, Alexander. W. A. Grist ... 92...”
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“...Ratcliffe, Miss
Taylor, Miss Jennings and Mr. Perry, on
o-ur Meru station. We were glad to find
ourselves again in a missionary house,
where so often we have found a home so
far away from home.
As we became more acquainted with
Meru the more we were charmed with its
scenery and delighted with its climate.
In contrast to our other stations in Africa,
it offers a congenial abode for Europeans-.
Our mission building, which serves the
purposes of both church and school, is a
rude structure built of piles and covered
with thatch, without any pretence at
elegance o-r comfort. In this place the
members of the mission were called to
prayers each morning at 7 o’clock, and
immediately following began the school
lessons. We found there, under the
superintendence of Miss Taylor, about...”
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“...the river.
We had 15 minutes’ walk to the mission-
house, situated at the top of a gentle
slope. All the way we were accompanied
by the singing throng. The singing was
excellent, and the enthusiasm with which
we were welcomed could hardly have
been surpassed.
On the Tana river we have 24 stations,
21 of which belong to the German
Mission we have recently taken over.
These stations extend for twelve days’
journey from the mouth of the river. The
membership totals 1,009. To have an
idea of the influence of a mission station
one needs to know the size and constitu-
tion of an African village. Villages form
little settlements amid extensive regions
of uncultivated country. One village
numbers between twenty and one hun-
3...”
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“...support of the elders
it becomes the most prominent feature in
the village life. The total population of
Tanaland is estimated at 25,000, and the
villages we occupy contain about one-fifth
of that number.
While at Ng’ao, the chief station, we
met in Conference about 70 teachers and
representatives of all the churches on the
Tana. We were profoundly impressed
with their devotion to their church. After
some discussion they accepted the respon-
sibility of maintaining their preachers
without aid from mission funds. This
will necessitate each member enlarging
his plantation in order to contribute his
share of the preacher’s maintenance.
Subsequently we visited the old U.M.C.
station at Golbanti and found the elders
there ready to adopt the same principle
and to maintain their preacher. Tribute
should be paid to the loyalty of the
preachers themselves, who declared their
determination to continue their work even
if they were left to find their own means
of support.
We spent a memorable day at Golbanti...”
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“...accident has befallen
us.
We have been appalled as we have felt
and seen the dense darkness of surround-
ing heathenism and realized the magni-
tude of the missionary task. On the other
hand, we have often been moved to the
deepest wonder and joy as we have wit-
nessed the triumph of grace in the
thousands of Christians gathered into our
mission churches and having their own
native preachers proclaiming the glad
evangel.
We return to our Church in England
bearing to her the fervent greetings of
her daughter-churches in China and
Africa. We bring also the deepened con-
viction that the Church of Christ is ful-
filling the supreme purpose of her Lord
in the mission field, and that our own
United Methodist Church in particular
has been greatly honoured in being en-
trusted with vast missionary oppor-
tunities.
-J-
Prayer Union.
Remember your leaders, the men who
spake the word of God to you ; and, con-
sidering the issue of their life, imitate
their faith. Heb xiii. 7. (Moffatt and
Westcott),
So...”
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“...Rev
Missionary Report. Walter cooper„
HE Mission Report is a remarkable
production, and a copy of it should
find an accessible place in every
United Methodist home. Here are the
reports of the missionaries : Candlin and
Eddon and Godfrey and Hinds and Rob-
son ; Heywood and Sheppard and Redfern
and Stobie and Chapman and Stedeford ;
Dymond and Craddock and Mylne and
Evans and Hudspeth and Bolton ;
Griffiths and Ratcliffe and Hopkins and
Micklethwaite; a bundle of fascinating-
letters from personal friends. Here are the
reports of the work among women and
girls : in China at Laoling and Ningpo and
Wenchow and Yunnan ; in Africa at
Meru. Here is the summary of the
W.M.A. circuit contributions for the mis-
sion fund—a fascinating record. Here
also the totals of the circuit contributions
to the Home and Foreign mission funds.
May the day soon come when we can have
the detailed lists printed again ! Here are
the names of the members of the two
Mission Committees ; for whom the
denomination should...”
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“...amongst the children.
Swiftly do the generations come and go,
and the boys and girls of to-day will be
the men and women of to-morrow. There
is work amongst the women. “ Much de-
pends on the women,” wrote “A Student
in Arms,” when visualizing" nobler condi-
tions in his native land. The same may
be said, and with equal force, in regard
to the Christianizing of China and Africa.
Then there is that which lies at the centre
of all these activities and toward which all
these activities converge, the pure work of
evangelism, the bringing of the souls of.'
the people into contact and communion,
with Christ.
An integral part of the Mission. Report
is that which relates to the Home Mis-
sions. There is as much romance in Eng-
land as in Asia or Africa, and the evan-
gelization of the world includes both.
■"=9"
“ A Manual for Preachers.”*
This book is presumably sent to us.
because it has two distinctions—the im-
print of the Christian Literature Society
of India, and the fact that it was prepared...”
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“...foreign, with three others to be elected
later. Many strong" statements on the
need of trusting Chinese leadership were
made throughout the Conference. Some
of the Chinese leaders themselves, how-
ever, pointed out that such statements
have been, made for several years, but
that hereafter, the measure to which they
were lived up to and acted upon might
well be the standard for the success of
every mission in China.
There was a certain amount of discus-
sion as to whether the new Council should
be an ecclesiastical body or a clearing-
house for the work of the church in all
its forms and a central agency to deal
with such national issues as no one church
group could adequately meet alone. The
decision was overwhelmingly in favour of
the latter plan. Invaluable help in the
forming of the new Council was given by
Mr. J. H. Oldham, general secretary of
the International Missionary Council, and
by Dr. John R. Mott, probably the two
Our Church at Tongshan.
The Congregation that received the Deputation...”
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“...the forming of
the Interchurch Movement, were of the
utmost value for comparative study.
There has recently been, as everyone
familiar with current religious develop-
ments in China knows, a sharp aligning
into conservative and liberal theological
camps, probably corresponding to what
has happened in several other countries
following the war. In China this has
been almost wholly an imported matter,
that is, the lead in the controversy, in so
far as there has been one, has been taken
by the missionaries. There was great
fear lest it should cause an open break in
the Conference. It was a rebuke to that
fear, and an averting of what would have
been a terrible blot on Christian history
in the Orient, that this did not happen.
Pleas were ma.de from the platform,
chiefly by Mr. D. M. Hoste, of the China
Inland Mission and by Miss Ruth Paxson,
for the inclusion in the constitution of the
new Council of a statement affirming
belief in “the deity of Christ, in salvation
by His atonement, and in...”
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“...under his inscription of
good wishes he had written Psalm 91. I
opened and read, and the words began to
live, and especially the phrase, “ It shall
not come nigh thee,” seemed to burn itself
into the mind. During many painful and
fearful and lonely experiences since, those
words have been strength and support. I
would humbly and gratefully testify to
the good hand of my God upon me .during
all the past.
During these nearly thirty years
one has seen the Church in China
grow from tiny groups of despised and
Rev C. E Hicks.
West China, 1895---
11...”
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“...China for the Third Time
hated men and women who were supposed
to have betrayed their own country by
attaching themselves to the alien from the
West, to a community with recognized
standing in the country as a force making
for personal integrity and national
righteousness.
It is to serve this Church that I return
to China recognizing that the day has
come when the missionary must obscure
himself that the glory of God may be more
truly revealed through that new member
of the mystic Body of Christ which is
being formed in the Far East.
China for the Third Time. w' TREMBERTH.
ESUS said unto him the third time,
“Lovest thou me? ”
Peter said, ‘' Lord, Thou knowest
all things, Thou knowest that I love
Thee.”
Jesus saith unto him,“ Feed My sheep.”
Mine is the great privilege, at the call
of the Master, to be facing China now for
the third time. One scarcely expected
such a development, at my time of life,
but I am not surprised. The need is very
pressing, and mv experience and know-
ledge of the...”
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“...Principal Redfern and Mr.
Bates, and the Hospital in charge of Dr.
C. P. Yang.
There is a specific thrill in returning to
China in this year of grace marked by the
■epoch-making event—the establishing of
the Christian Church of China. This is a
marvellous result of just over a century of
reformed missionary work in the land.
The new consciousness of a separate
■entity is bound to react with salutary effect
upon the Christians. It cannot mean for
years to come a withdrawal of foreign
friends and workers ; the need will be
■even greater—but it will mean the begin-
ning of a new effort towards complete
self-support and a better-qualified Chinese
ministry. China is a huge country, and
it is still true that there remains very
much land to be possessed. In 1914, there
were 552 occupied and organized centres
of work, i.e., in the Provinces and Depen-
dencies, whereas China has 1,300 coun-
ties, each with its great central city, and
populous townships and villages ad lib.
The outstations numbered...”
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“...came a passion with me to give my people
the Gospel in their own tongue, when as
yet they could read no tongue at all. But
I had a long road to travel before I could
make a real beginning. 1 set out to pre-
Philip Ntjinoti, (Smiler.) One of my
chief helpers in the transl tion.—R.T.W.
[G. &F. B. Society
pare myself by doing other translation
work, while gaining in the daily duties of
the Mission ever greater familiarity with
both the grammar and idiom of the
language. In this way my people were
given a catechism and a small collection
of hymns, before I started on the Gospel
itself. Meanwhile, the Mission itself had
grown so1 much that I, having to cope with
it single-handed, could spare but little
time for anything else. But the little 1
could spare, I did ; and mainly on Sunday
afternoons, while the Sunday School was
in. session, I prepared the first draft of
St. Mark’s Gospel. That I received much
help from the people themselves goes with-
out saying. But the time was so scanty
and the...”
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“...probably it was greater to the black
men, into whose lives was coming some-
thing great and new and wonderful.
Their joy was almost inarticulate, yet it
shone from eyes and faces with unforget-
table radiance. For these people know
the power of the Gospel, though they
have learned it through the medium of
other tongues : and thev have visions of
what it will achieve for their people.
It did not fall to my lot to be present
when the published edition of St. Mark
in Meru reached its readers. For mission-
aries must come home on furlough : they
have a message for God’s people, even
in England. It was a keen disappoint-
ment—the first which this work has
brought me—and yet I have entered into
that joy also. While I am writing a
letter is brought to me, telling of the
joy that is in the land of Meru, and with
them I rejoice and will rejoice. My people
have the Gospel. God be praised !
Bv permission from “ The Bible in the
'World.”
Kings.
Keep not a tank, but ocean, for thy
heart.
Claim jealous...”
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“...in the grounds of Nottingham
Castle the figure of a young airman. He
is only young, but the poise, the tense
earnestness of the face, and the eyes
strained to the skies, always seeking,
denote the intensity of life and of life’s
demands, and the response of the soul.
The dawning of 1923 presents to us the
same demand. Life is intense, life’s
demands are enormous,' and the soul
sometimes shrinks in its response. God
is calling us, our own land calls us, all
lands call. Away there in Africa and
China they cry the cry of ages, “Come
over and help us ! ” Here, they who
hear, and stand waiting—“Here am I,
Lord, send me.” And God, over all—to
us—“Send them forth in My Name.”
For many years the prayer ascended
from an anxious church to a longing
God. Open doors, raise up those who
will go for us. The answer came. Doors
have been widely flung. Opportunities
glorious, and terrible in their glory, have
come ; doctors, nurses, teachers, evan-
gelists, anxious to go, are rising in our
midst, and God...”
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“...the
dazzling beauty of everything around us.
The hills, the grand old hills, stretched
before us in never-ending line. Far, far
below us, in a deep valley, a mass of
fleecy clouds floated, looking so much like
a lot of downy pillows, that I could
imagine the tired ones of the earth, when
their tasks are done, resting' their heads
thereon, reposefully content. As the sun
played upon the hills, the atmospheric
vapour lifted, and hundreds of feet above
us, we could see the white buildings of
our mission. We resumed our journev,
and soon reached a little wayside house,
where we met Mr. Wang, B.A. (the
flaming apostle of the Nosu, as he is so
often called). A few li further, the school
boys were lined up, and greeted us with
the usual bow, as we passed, then, they
followed our chairs and sang as we neared
our destination. Once we passed through
a beautiful fern-clad lane, rich with moss
and lovely flowers. It was so much like
a lane in Devon, that the passing was
doubly sweet. And now we were...”
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“...tribal movement amongst these
River Miao. Ten per cent of their
language is the same as Flowery Miao
ninety per cent is different,
though related. Before Mr. Parsons took
February, 1923.
his furlough* he translated a Gospel for
these people, and we are hoping to have
this in the hands of the River Miao at an
early date. This and a hymn book will
be the first books ever possessed by the
River Miao.
The first day of our journey was for-
midably hot, but the next day we had
* He returned to West China on October 13th —Ed.
Ch’uan (or River) Miao women.
(See chapel in background).
[Rev. W. H Hudspeth, B.A....”
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“...Prayer Union
gathering of the harvest, when labour
will be considerably cheaper. There are
post-war labour troubles in China as well
as in England.
The opening .services were thrilling.
They started with a seven a.m. prayer-
meeting, at which nearly a hundred people
were present. After breakfast Miao and
Chinese gathered from many villages, and
in this un-walled chapel old Methodist
hymns were sung with a fervour and sin-
cerity that would have gladdened the
hearts of the fathers of Methodism. The
way these children of the hills have
learned to sing our hymns and psalms is
most astonishing. Prayers were offered
by a number of deacons and three of us
preached. The first preacher was one of
our Flowery Miao workers, who has
studied River Miao, and now can preach
fluently in that language. James was the
second preacher. He and I, not having
studied River Miao, spoke in Chinese, and
never have we had a more attentive
audience. My pulpit was a table from
which we told as clearly as we could...”
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“...From the
Mission House.
Imploring Let us face the facts.
Facts. Let us face them with the
spirit of courage and
determination which converts difficulties
into triumphs.
Fact number one. The expenditure in
connection with our foreign missions last
year exceeded the income by £3,000 with-
out any special expenditure to account for
it. The expenditure this year will not be
less than it was last year. Consequently,
with only the same income as last year,
£3,000 will be added to the debt of £3,639
with which last year closed, and make
the debt at the end of this financial year
mount to £6,639. Such a debt will
seriously embarrass all our missionary
operations. We cannot contemplate it
without the gravest concern. Our wisest
course is to determine beforehand that it
shall not come to pass. We urge upon
all our churches the necessity for some
extra effort in aid of our foreign missions
to avert the impending debt. To accom-
plish this, we require £40,000, an increase
of .20 per cent on the income...”
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