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“...INDEX.
PAGE
CHINA.
Bible Society ... ••• ••• 53, 180
Concerning China. F. B. Turner ... 161
Feng. Marshal. D. E. Hoste ... 73
Hosie. Sir Alexander .........................91
Sun Yat-Sen. H. S. Redfern ..................101
Transformation. J. Hinds .................... 50
War-horrors. W. T. Slater ... ... 94
Woman of China, The new. J. Hinds 234
NORTH CHINA.
Cracking-up China. D. V. Godfrey ... 35
China, New. G. T. Candlin .................... 7
District Meeting. E. Richards................134
Robson, Dr. J. K. J. Hinds ... ... 130
Wayfaring. E. Richards ......... 88
SOUTH-EAST CHINA.
Christmas. A. A. Conibear ................... 75
Penryn Spier, B.A. H. S. Redfern ... 41
Wedding at Ningpo ........................... 48
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
Austin, Dr. C. J.............................148
Chao Tong Hospital. C. E. Hicks ... 1
Dartmoor, A grave on. L. H. Court ... 28
Dingle, The late Dr. Lilian. C. Stedeford 3
Eastern Lutist. Hudspeth .................... 77
Finally, farewell! F. J. Dymond...”
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“...affected ; thou-
sands of houses have collapsed, and many
thousands of the people are homeless.
This is a terrible condition in which to
face the bitterly cold winter of N. China.
The method of relief adopted is thus
stated by Mr. Turner in an address he de-
livered to the Tientsin Rotary Club :
“You will ask how we propose to relieve
these destitute people. The Commission has
given the most careful consideration to this
problem, and has formed the opinion that
direct relief by free gifts of food is, at least
upon any large scale, beyond the bounds of
possibility : that, except in the case of the
very old, and those of the most destitute who
have no one to work for them were work
available, relief should be given by providing
work which will at once support the workers
and those dependent upon them. The Com-
mission has therefore formulated a scheme
which will not only provide work and sup-
port for the starving, but will directly and
largely help in reducing the menace of flood
in the...”
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“...per-
happy naturally that we should think of
our mission as an invasion of heathen
darkness. We undertook a great Cru-
sade. Our methods were exclusively
polemical, and the odium Theologicum was
far more malodorous than at home.
Every vestige of every other faith than
Christianity must be extirpated root and
branch. There were perhaps parts of the
mission field, Africa, Polynesia, Micro-
nesia, where this would not be glaringlv
unfit. But missionary experience itself
has taught us how grossly unfit it is as a
policy in India and in China,, and, we
must say, in Arabia. Faiths like Confu-
cianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Moham-
medanism, have too much in them that is
excellent, that is strictly consonant with
our own faith, for this method of pro-
cedure. In their case, the Gospel is not
the condemnation indiscriminately of all
they hold precious, but the message of
Christ to the other faiths of the world.
We have provoked a great storm of need-
less antagonism. There is loud call for
the conciliatory...”
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“...you have, as I conceive, the means
of generously helping churches to get on
their feet. This money will circulate auto-
matically. Each year a twentieth of it
will come back to you and be available to
meet new appeals. By this means you can
found as many churches as you have
effective openings, until all China is pro-
vided for. By our present methods we
are getting nowhere, are pauperizing our
members and are rapidly congregationali-
zing ourselves. By our present method
we cannot reach the goal. Not all the
missionaries we can sent from England
and America, with all the money we can
send after them will suffice. It can only
be done by the living faith of Chinese con-
verts. We as a mission have spent sixty-
five years in forming supported churches.
Those churches are the very reason why
we cannot form self-supporting churches.
A new motive will put our work on a
more practical and business-like founda-
tion, giving us an incentive of our own
for pursuingi it : a new method will bring
us...”
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“...riors often come. One day an Afridi boy
was brought in for treatment, and during
his stay in hospital he learned to be a
Christian. When his father, a fierce
Moslem, knew of this change of faith, he
killed his son, and then stabbed Dr. Starr
to death in the night. Thus he took his
revenge.
What did Mrs. Starr do ? Did she leave
her work for this ? No; she stayed,
motion. These pages only serve to show
what the Home Mission Committee might
set about doing if only it had an adequate
income.
And what shall we more say ?
For the space would fail us to tell—
Of churches in China moving slowly but
surely in the direction of self-support;
Of the conviction being formed in the
Chinese mind in favour of an indigenous
Church, in which the theological concep-
tions and modes of worship and order
shall be such as shall fit most naturally
the mould of the native mind, because they
are the product of that mind ;
Of long journeys undertaken on foot ;
of souls who are g'reat in prayer, and par-
ticularly...”
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“...is always the case,
what we gaze upon with admiration be-
comes reflected in us, and we are uplifted
towards their level.
“ The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls,
And lifts us unawares
Out of all meaner cares.”
And here we touch another great gain,
springing from the widening of our out-
look on life, which comes from a living
interest in Missions. Often life seems
nothing but a dull round of petty cares.
Then we lift our eyes to the far horizons,
we look at Africa, India, China, and the
isles of the sea, and we remember the
brave men and women who are working
there under difficulties and limitations
graver than any we know. So life is
seen from a right viewpoint, and we
are no longer the centre of the universe,
and love for God’s children afar sets us
free from this blinding self-engrossment.
“ Self is the only prison that can ever bind
the soul,
Love is the only angel that can bid the
gates unroll :
And when he comes to call thee, arise,
and follow fast;
His way may...”
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“...Women’s Missionary Auxiliary
about it, for, as many will know, the
author is the daughter of Professor W. E.
Soothill, M.A., of Oxford, formerly Pre-
sident of the Shansi Imperial University
and for thirty years the Missionary in
charge of our Wenchow Mission. As the
wife of Sir Alexander Hosie, who has
spent many strenuous years in China in
the service of the British Government and
the Chinese people, Lady Hosie has had a
varied experience of Chinese life and
thought.
Thus her real qualifications for writing
this book are, as the brief introduction
suggests, that she has lived in Chinese
homes, rich and poor, and has been on
intimate terms with mothers, wives, and
daughters, entering fully into their joys
and sorrows. What better equipment
can there be ?
Native manners, customs, dress and
family life are shown in striking detail.
Indeed, it is doubtful if any more intimate
description of the private life of the Chinese
has hitherto been published.
The following incident from the book re-...”
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“... 1898
Aged 47 years
He was one of our first missionaries
to China, and for nearly four years
Pastor of the Chagford Circuit.
I have fought a good fight,
I have kept the faith.”
A simple memorial, but it com-
memorates a great soul, and our Chag-
ford Circuit is honoured indeed to have
the keeping- of his ashes. It was a great
chapter in our denominational history
that closed with that quiet g-rave on the
Dartmoor hillside. There are thousands
of souls in far-off Yunnan, in the great
cities and the M’iao and Nosu villages
who can trace their new era of blessing
to the little man of whom we write. He,
and Samuel Thomas Thorne, were the
torch-bearers who first carried the Gospel
light into the heart of the great province
which holds our West China mission
field, and time can never rob him of the
glory which belongs to pioneer souls of
the Faith. Their enterprise has borne
wonderful fruit, and when the story of the
Church in China is written, Thomas Grills
Vanstone is a name that will shine...”
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“...Cracking Up China:
A Protest.*
Rev. D. V. GODFREY.
HERE seems to be a general im-
pression abroad that the Chinese
have taken the place of our trans-
Atlantic cousins as “the intellect and
virtue of the airth, the cream Of human
natur’, and the flower Of moral force,”
and that they must be “cracked up” in
consequence.
Mr. Bertrand Russell has been telling
us that their civilization
is in many ways su-
perior to ours, and
naturally the mission-
aries report to all their
journals startling news
about an Awakened
China. Naturally, be-
cause a missionary is
always something' of a
prophet, and usually
something of a poet! too.
Where the matter-of-fact
see but the first cold
streak of dawn, your
missionary feels the
warmth of the mid-day
sun that shall be. His
rejoicing is so great over
one sheep found that for
a moment he forgets the
nine hundred ninety and
nine.
Thank God that those
who search so diligently
can rejoice with their
friends when their pains
are rewarded, even
though they g'ain...”
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“...increase
our numbers and therefore our income.
Will you, with the same beautiful spirit
that has animated the whole of Christen-
dom during Christmastide, enter into such
a league of prayer and service with me?
“Prove me now, herewith, saith the Lord
of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there
shall not be room enough, to receive it.”
Lovingly yours,
Laura Rounsefell.
Mrs. C. E. Hicks.
The Bible Christians of New Zealand
gave to the infant West China Mission
one worker, Mrs. Dymond, nee Cannon.
The Australian Churches gave two, the
Rev. E. Piper, who returned when union
was cemented there, and Miss Bush, who
38...”
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“...Women’s Missionary Auxiliary
remained in the mission. After her ar-
rival in Chao-t’ong-, her mother wrote :
*•' She is all that a daughter could possibly
be.” At that time the missionaries, were
few, and Miss Bush was the only single
lady worker in the far-distant field of
Yunnan, so she experienced at the outset
considerable loneliness.
She was a g'entle spirit, absolutely de-
voted to God. She commenced work in
'Chao-t’ong amongst girls who owing to
national custom were considered too old
to be seen out of doors. She visited ex-
tensively, had meeting's in the homes, and
had a class regularly for those who were
sufficiently near to steal through the early
shades of evening to the mission. The
lessons were a great treat to the girls,
and the spiritual influence lasting-. “Gentle
’Marie,” as we used to call her, was in
*China during the Boxer rising.
Immediately after this event, the great
work amongst the tribespeople com-
menced, which necessitated an extra man
to carry on the educational...”
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“...double the period promised. He is
now the right-hand man of Mr. Bates,
who has taken my place at the College.
He is a Boy Scout enthusiast, a local
preacher, a Sunday School superintend-
ent, a trustee of the City Y.M.C.A., and
one of the most trusted leaders of the
religious life of the city.
And now another bright-eyed little boy
has appeared in the bottom class of the
College ; it is his son, Peter Spier. May
he follow in his father’s footsteps and
become a leader in the Christian Church
of China.
“The Haunted House
at Huxtable.”*
This is the latest addition to the “Won-
derlands ” series, a series produced with
the specific aim of interesting girls and
boysl in missionary work.
The present story tells of a seaside
house which is certainly haunted, but not
in the usual time-honoured sense. It is
haunted by the last message of an old
sea-captain—“Carry on.” How the chil-
dren did carry on, and ultimately carried
out Captain Peter Faraday’s noble ambi-
tion, makes a splendid story, that...”
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“...China in
Transformation
6REAT changes have taken place in
China during the past twenty years.
The upheaval in 1900 was a vigor-
ous, attempt to stem the rising tide. The
reformers were ruthlessly hunted out, and
cut down without mercy. But it has ever
been true that “Truth crushed to earth
shall rise again ” ; for the changes made .
in the years following have been almost
without exception along the lines sug-
gested by these pioneers.
But reforms cannot be forced upon a
people. They must come from within.
And some of the foreign implements in-
troduced have not succeeded in weaning
the people from their old ways' of doing-
things. There is a legend at our Chu
Chia station of a foreign plough being in
the village, but no one ever sees it. It
was tried once or twice and then quietly
put away, and no blessings were called
down upon the head of the person who
introduced it. At the London Mission
Hospital in Tientsin, the Doctor
fresh from home was much dissatis-
fied with the brick beds in...”
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“...that story is the glory of the Baptist
Church, for it tells of William Carey and
his work in India, how he translated por-
tions of the Scriptures into 33 languages
and the whole Bible into, seven, built col-
leges, started a printing press there, and
founded a mission that has spread far and
wide in that great land. The story tells,
too, of Thomas Knibb and his brother
William who founded the mission in West
Africa ; of the heroic Comber family and
their work on the Congo, a country
sixteen times as large as England, and
of Holman Bentley, who was the first to
deal with the two hundred languages and
dialects of that land, and reduce them to
writing and to construct a grammar, a
dictionary and a literature ; of Timothy
Richard and China; and James Walls,
through whose courageous ministry in
Italy, four Protestant Churches have been
founded in Florence, Genoa, Turin and in
Rome itself. T. W. Slater.
§Tbe Story of the Baptist Missionary Society. By Rev
John Macbeath. M.A. The Carey Press, 19...”
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“...order.
But the chief value of the book is in
the fact that it truly answers to its title,
and that throughout its pages one can see
and feel the full play of The Forces of the
Spirit of the living God, striving together
for the salvation of the world.
T. W. Slater.
“ Africa and Her Peoples.”!
Some readers will be startled by a dia-
gram on an early page of this useful book
which illustrates the astounding fact that
Africa is equal in area with Europe, India,
China and the U.S.A. Following this we
may hazard the statement that either
China or India has received more mis-
sionary attention than the great continent
of Africa. It is penetrating- the conviction
of our folk—and there is being gradually
discerned a change. It is discovered that
no country needs us more, and propor-
tionately no country will so well repay our
effort.
This is an able book, which is not sur-
prising when we find it is by the Editor
of “The Foreign Field.” Mr. Walker has
travelled in Africa recently, and we have
seen...”
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“...known by sight to very few
United Methodists. She had done a great
piece of missionary work in S.W. China,
but it was unappreciated by all but a few
intimate friends. There were reasons for
this. Mrs. Hicks seldom talked about her
work. She shrank from public notice of
any kind. The idea of attending a con-
ference where she might become the ob-
ject of curious, though sympathetic,
gazers was distressful to her. It was not
that she had no gift for platform service.
Whenever her natural reluctance was
•overcome by the gentle persuasion of
understanding friends she would give
herself to prayerful preparation, with
such result that her quiet, persuasive,
-clear, unassuming speech would make
deep impressions upon her hearers.
Then, too, Mrs. Hicks did not come to
the mission field through our English
Church. She was a product of Australian
Methodism and received the mystic call to
serve God in China, while she was a mem-
ber of the Bible Christian community in
a bush district of Victoria, where...”
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“...Women’s Missionary Auxiliary
arv work but rather widened its scope by
the added dignity, in the Chinese view,
which wifehood and motherhood gave to
her. Moreover, for a long period the
mission provided no lady evangelist, and
the privilege and duty of teaching and
shepherding' the needy Chinese women
and children became her responsibility.
This service Mrs. Hicks gave lovingly and
eagerly for many years. Large numbers
of women attended the weekly class, and
tiny children were delighted to be taught
by her. In 1921, she went to England on
furlough with her husband, and on their
return to China it was found that grave
changes had been made in stationing.
Undaunted, Mrs. Hicks found her own
work and gathered again a new weekly
class of women and children ; she orga-
nized also a special meeting for little
(otherwise untaught) heathen children.
She shared, too, in her husband’s work
among the Nosu. She would not be con-
tent to let him always go alone on his
journeys,* and the need of the Nosu...”
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“...ex-
hibited towards persecutors—two qualities
alone in which Christ-likeness is evidenced
in highest degree—and the charm of these
lives raises his own aspirations for more
real Christian living. How wonderful are
their spiritual experiences, and how
heart-searching are they to those who read
about them ! Who would not desire
honestly to breathe, e.g., the prayer
offered by Dr. R. H. A. Schofield, a man
of the highest academical attainments,
who died at 32 years of age a medical mis-
sionary in China : “Enable me at least to
aim at nothing less than walking in this
world as Christ Himself walked. Save me
from the subtle snare of lowering my
standard, bit by bit, to meet my miserable
attainments. Do so reveal Thy beauty to
me that to testify of Thee may be no
effort, but spontaneous.”
Is it not the experience of most, if not
all of us that our hearts have never been
so deeply stirred to self-reproach and to
desire to render nobler and more faithful
service, as when we have read the memoirs...”
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“...attendances throughout the year.
Reports continue to come in from the
country churches telling of Christmas Ser-
vices followed by a communal feast among
the members.
Altogether we had a thoroughly happy
and enjoyable Christmas. The thoughts
of the Mission staff, particularly those of
the new-comers, were directed longingly
towards England and home, but it was a
great pleasure to us to see growing up here
in China a kindred spirit of Christmastide.
A casual observer in all probability would
have found it difficult to find in the general
life of the city any indication that a great
and significant Christian festival was in
progress, but to those of us who knew
where to look, namely, in the hearts of
those who help to constitute the Church
of Christ in China, the spirit of Christmas
was easily preceptible. Wherever Jesus
lives in the hearts of His people, His birth-
day is celebrated with joy and gladness,
and the spirit of peace and goodwill is to
be found.
I am Debtor.*
Rom. i. 14.
Oh how shall...”
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“...Foreign
Secretary’s Notes.
The Shadows The Annual Executive
at Chaotong. Meeting of our mission-
aries in Yunnan was over-
shadowed by the deep sorrow and heavy
loss sustained in the recent death of two .of
their most valued and beloved colleagues,
Mrs. Hicks and Dr. Lilian Dingle. They
recorded their grief in the following reso-
lutions :—
(1) It is with the deepest sorrow that we
record the death of Mrs. C. E. Hicks, which
took place on October 25th, 1924, from
typhoid, which she probably contracted whilst
going on her errands of mercy.
Mrs. Hicks came to China in 1897, and
during all these years she has loved the
Chinese and aborigines with a wonderful
love. She was always willing and ready to
respond to need, and in this way she com-
mended the Gospel to large numbers of
women and children who would have been
reached in no other way.
We wish to place on record the deep love
which the Chinese gave to her. Mrs. Hicks’
work amongst the women and children was
one which will long be remembered...”
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