|
THE
Missionary Echo
OF THE
Xftmteb flftetbobist Cburcb
Editor,
Rev. A. E. J. COSSON
VOLUME XXXIV.
1927.
“ Do we believe that only on the principles of Jesus can we
build a safe and prosperous world ? . Think of that
wonderful faith of His in human worth which is expressed
not so much in texts as in deeds—in seeking the despised
and broken outcasts and bringing them into the Kingdom,
in eating and drinking with them and recognising them as
full heirs of the Kingdom. Can we go and do likewise in
Africa?â€â€”Dr. Donald Fraser.
London :
HENRY HOOKS, 12 FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C.4.
INDEX.
PAGE
CHINA.
Missionaries, Position of our Rev. C.
Stedeford ... ... ... ... ... 43
Missions and China. Professor W. E.
Soothill ........................41
National Movement. Rev. F. B. Turner 201
Raine, Nurse ... ... ... ... 16
Students and the Bible. Rev. G. W.
Sheppard ... ... ... ... ... 96
Unknown Chinese Christian ... ... 137
NORTH CHINA,
Banditry in North China. Rev. F. B.
Turner ........... ... ... ... 3
Chinese Hymn-book. Rev. F. B.
Turner ... ... ... ... ... 172
Chu Chia Tsai, Last winter and this at
Rev. D. H. Smith ................48
First Impressions. Rev. H. T. Cook 34
Girls’ School, The Story of Rev. F. B.
Turner ... ... ... ... 52
Lao Ling Hospital. Dr. W. E. Plummer 8
Robson, Dr. J. K. ... ... ... ... 131
,, ,, Rev. E. W. Hirst ... 170
Tongshan College Song. Rev. F. B.
Turner ... ... ... ... ... 195
Work in North China ... ... ... 101
SOUTH-EAST CHINA.
Chang of the Golden Heart. Ladv
Hosie ...........................'.224
Ningpo, Anxious days in Miss M.
Fortune ... ... ... ... ... 113
Village Christians in Chekiang. Rev.
W. R. Stobie ... ... ... ... 23
Wenchow, Last days in Miss E. Simpson 159
Wenchow Training Institute for Women.
Miss E. Simpson ... ... ... 79
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
Blazing the Trail. Rev. W. II. Hud-
speth ... ... ...... ... 57
Chaotong Girls’ School ....... ... 186
Hudspeth, Rev. W. H. Back in England 61
Light and Shadow in Chinese Interior.
Rev. W. H. Hudspeth ... ... ... 184
Miaoland, A trip into Dr. C. J. Austin 36
Stone Gateway, A day at Rev. II.
Parsons ... ... ... ... ... 12
Wedding Bells in Miaoland. Rev.
F. W. J. Cottrell ............... 81
EAST AFRICA.
Africa Calling ... ... ... ... 80
Africa’s Thousand Languages ... ... 154
Beginnings of Church Praise in Meru.
Rev. R. T. Worthington ... ... 148
Breaking New Ground. Mrs. A. G. V.
Cozens ... ... ... ... 164, 189
Meru, Visit to an Out-station. Mrs.
A. G. V. Cozens ... ... ... ... 28
Meru, Old and New. Rev. J. Jackson 194
PAGE
Rain Magic in East Africa. Rev. A. J.
Hopkins ... ... ... .........156
Superstition, The power of Rev. J.
Jackson ... .....................17
Wapokomo, The Rev. J. Jackson ... 70
Witchcraft, A story of Dr. Brassington 104
WEST AFRICA.
Africans at Prayer. Rev. E. Cocker ... 93
“ Bon Voyage †to Rev. A. C. Lamb
Rev. R. Key ... ... ... ... 196
Five days’ tour in Southern Sierra
Leone. Rev. E. Cocker ... ... 14
Levuma, Gondema, Bo. Tour to Rev. E.
Cocker ... ... ... ... 141, 181
Mendi Stories. Rev. E. Cocker... -54, 74
“ Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Pa-
tience! †Rev. E. Cocker ... ... 221
Sierra Leone, To Rev. A. C. Lamb... 174
Waterloo, Visit to Rev. E. Cocker ... 75
Yamandu, A week-end at Rev. E. Cocker 126
HOME AND- GENERAL.
Ark upon the waters, The Rev. R. H. B.
Shapiand ... ... ... ... ... 207
Can we not watch with Him one hour? 103
Charm of Missionary Idea Rev. C.
Ellison ... ... ... ... ... 21
Christian World Mission Rev. W. Paton 211
Conference, Missionary Day at ... 161, 178
Editor’s Notes 10, 32, 50, 72, 90, 115, 132,
153, 175, 191, 214, 231
Enthusiastic Missionary Collectors 38, 92, 136
Gauge, Rev. T. M. ... ... ... ... 51
,, ,, Rev. R. Strong ... 68
Gifts for Africa : What to send Mrs.
Hopkins ... ... ... ... ... 198
"Hath God cast away His people?â€
Rev. Bruce White ... ... ... 233
“ He giveth power to the faint.†Rev.
W. F. Newsam ... ... ... ... 117
Hill-top Vision, A Rev. J. Naylor ... 121
How Grenfell stopped a tribal quarrel... 78
Mission House, From the Rev. C. Stede-
ford 4, 25, 45, 65, 85, 105, 124, 145, 167,
187, 208, 225
Missionary Anniversary ... ... ... 107
Missionary Harvest Festival, A ... 228
Missionary Test Questions ... 17l, 200
Missions and Youth. Rev. W. H. Bourne 97
“ My Lady Dauntless.†Mrs. J. B. Brooks 219
Medical Missionary, The day of a ... 129
Missionary as “ Bill-Sticker “ for Jesus
Christ. Rev. F. H. Robinson ... 64
Pope Pius and Foreign Missions. Rev.
J. E. Mackintosh... ... ... ... 47
President’s Message. Rev. H. Janies ... 1
Rounsefell, Rev. D. J. ... ... ... 89
Squire, Mrs. J. H. ... ... ... ... 20
Stedeford, Rev. C. Rev. J. E. Swallow 177
Stories of Pioneer Work in Africa.
Mrs. J. B. Brooks ....................235
PAGE
Strange sights and sounds in China and
Africa ..............................119
Students’ Missionary Anniversary. Mr.
J. H. Fenton ... ... ... ... 83
Sunset and Evening Mist. Rev. C. G.
Dunkerley ... ... ... ... ... 151
Swallow, Rev. J. E. Dr. FI. Lloyd
Snape, Mrs. Maclaurin, Rev. L. H.
Court ... ... ... ... 7, 8
Tapestry Weavers (Poem)... ... ... 135
Thanksgiving and Intercession ... ... 180
“Too Late,†A Missionary Sketch. Miss
Doris May ... ... ... 39, 59
Two interesting incidents at Salisbury.
Rev. H. Marsden... ... ... ... 94
Two Million Books... ... ... ... 77
Week of Prayer ... ... ... ... 213
Why Missionaries? ... ... ... 155
W.M.A. 19, 39, 59, 79, 99, 119, 138, 159,
178, 198, 219, 235
W.M.A., History of ... ... ... 51
,, “ Glad Hands.†Rev. J. E.
Swallow ... ... ... 140
Young People, For the
An Interesting Correspondence. Rev.
E. Cocker ... ... ... ... 31
Fanny Banjoko. Rev. E. Cocker ... 197
Missionary’s Little Difficulties, A
Rev. E. Cocker ... ... ... 216
BOOKS REVIEWED.
“Chinese Religious Ideals†... ... 9
“Young Islam on Trek †... ...... 9
“The Indian Mystic†... ... ... 9
“ Everyland †................. 9
“ What happened to Eric †...... 9
“Tales from Dragonland†... ... 9
“On the Road. Adventures in India†9
“ Esa. A little boy of Nazareth †... 9
“Friendly Beasts†... ... ... 9
“Youth in World Service†........... 11
“Study of World Evangelism†... 18
“Christian Fellowship in Thought and
Prayer†........ ... ...... 40
“What one sees in India†... ... 40
“African Clearings†... ...... 50
“ Christ and Money †... ... ... 56
“From Field to Factory†............ 56
“The Philosophy of Confucius â€... ... 56
“ Frank, Bishop of Zanzibar †...... 87
“ In the Year of the World Call †... 90
“These ought ye to have done†... ... 91
“George Grenfell†... ...... 95
“China and Britain†... ... ... 95
“The Golden Stool†... ......115
“The New Africa†... ... ... 115
“Uganda Contrasts†... ... 132
“The Master and His Men†...........134
“From Savagery to Christ†... ... 136
“Talks on Friends in Africa" ... ... 136
“If I lived in Africa†... 136
“ Twenty years of Missionary Co-opera-
tion †153
“The Call Drum†............205
“Dawn in Africa†... ......205
“Big World Picture Book†... 205
“The Wonderful Island†.............205
PAGE
“ Special Messenger †............218
“Everyland†... ... ... ••• 218
International Review of Missions
33, 82, 176, 230
ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHINA,
Babies in Chinese Hospital ... ... 100
Blind Chinese Girls ... ... ••• 98
Buddhist Priests ... ... ......118
Chinese Mothers and Children ... 35
Confucian Temple ... ... ... 56
Model of Pagoda ... ... ... ... 23
Modern Chinese College Girls ... ... 101
Waiting for the Doctor ... ... ... 128
“Why not leave them alone?†... ... 50
NORTH CHINA.
Chu Chia Tsai, Outside of Mission
Compound ..... ........... 53
Drawing water in Peking ...........201
Firewood Dealers ...... ... ... 185
Gateway in China’s Great Wall ... 42
Peking Cart ... ... ... ... 173
Tutors and Students : Peking Preachers
Training School..................21
SOUTH-EAST CHINA.
East and West ......... ... ... 5
Feather Dusters ... ... ... ... 179
Hangchow, Street scene in ... ... 66
Street in Shanghai ... ... ... ... 44
Walls of Wuchang...................32
Wenchow, Candidates of Women’s
Training Institute ... ... ... 79
Wenchow, A street in ... ... ... 146
Wenchow Hospital... ... ... ... 359
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
Chaotong Girls’ School ... ... ... 186
Miao Family............. ... ... â– â– â– 81
Stone Gateway Boys’ School ... ... 12
EAST AFRICA.
Africa : old style ... ... ... ... 87
Africa : new style ... ... ... ... 88
Burial place of Mrs. Wakefield and
others ... ... ... ... ... 214
Christmas gathering in Meru ... ... 156
Grand Falls in Meru ... ... ... 166
Griffiths, Rev. J. B. attending a patient 46
Meru Women ... ... ... ... 28
River scene ... ... ... ... ... 104
Tana River, On the .......... ... 55
Tharaka Heights ... ... ... ... 165
Village, An East African ... ... ... 71
WEST AFRICA.
Bendu from Tikonko ... ... ... 127
Bo New School ... ... ... ... 128
Cloth Sellers, Sierra Leone ... ... 221
Chieftain, A ... ... ... ... ... 6
Hdw baby is carried ... ... ... 191
Mendi boys at play ... ... ... 144
Mendi Paramount Chief and Retainers 141
PAGE
Near Freetown ... 210
Off to Interior ... 183
On the way to School ... 143
Sierra Leone Ferry ... 182
Susan’s Bay ... 209
Village Street in West Africa ... ... 38
West African Weavers ... ... 212
HOME AND GENERAL.
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem,
The ..............................233
Departure of Rev. A. C. Lamb ... ... 196
Hill-top Vision ... ... ... ... 121
“Immortal Story,†“The .............232
Manchester College Group ... ... 84
Mary’s Well at Nazareth ... ... 235
Missionaries on Furlough (Bristol Con-
ference) ... ... ... ... ... 226
Wesley’s Chapel ....................108
PORTRAITS.
Aidley, Miss R. ... ... ... ... 92
Bristol Conference Missionary Group... 225
Chuh Sy Mo ... ... ... ... 59
Coad, Miss G........................136
Cocker. Rev. and Mrs. E. ... ... 125
PAGE
Cottrell, Rev. F. \Y. J. ... ... ... 62
Dzing, Miss ... ... ... ... 80
Ellis, Rev. James and Rev. W. H.
Hudspeth ... ... ... ... 230
Embery, Miss V. ... ... ... ... 92
Fielden, Mr. Percy ... ... ... 110
Gauge, Rev. and Mrs. T. M. ... ... 69
Gautry, Rev. R. M. ... ... ... 109
Hall, Rev. W.........................110
Hudspeth, Rev. and Mrs. W. II. ... 61
Hudspeth, Rev. W. H. ... ... ... 61
Hudspeth, Rev. W. H. and Rev. Janies
Ellis ...........................230
James, Rev. H. ... ... ... 1, 109
Knight, Mrs. ... ... ... ... 19
Lamb, Rev. A. C. ... ... ... ... 174
Lew, Dr. T. F. ... ... ... ... 163
Mallinson, Mrs. S. S. and Sheila ... 109
Mole, Miss F. ... ... ... ... 136
Nichols, Rev. J. B...................222
Raine, Miss ... ... ... ....... 16
Robson, Dr. J. K. ... ... ... ... 170
Soothill, Rev. W. E..................Ill
Swallow, Rev. J. E. ... ... ... 7
Turner, Rev. and Mrs. F. B. ... ... 161
Weeks, Miss ... ... ... ... 20
“Willy†.............................217
WHO SHOULD GIVE NOTHING
FOR MISSIONS
Matt. 28 : 19 ; Rom. 1 : 16 ; Matt. 24 : 45
1. Those who believe that Jesus made a mistake when He said: " Go
ye, therefore, and teach all nations.â€
2. Those who do not believe that “ the Gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth,†Jew or Greek.
(Rom. 1 : 16).
3. Those who wish that no missionary had come to our forefathers and
would prefer to be heathen.
4. Those who believe that everyone in the world should shift for himself
and ask with Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper? â€
5. Those who do not care to have part in Christ’s final victory.
6. Those who believe that God will not call them to account because of
the way they use their (?) money.
7. Those who are willing to have Jesus say to them : “ Inasmuch as ye
did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto Me ! â€
(Matt. 25 : 45).
(From the “ Missionary Review of the World.â€)
‘For Sion’s sake I will not hold my peace . . till her triumph shines
out brilliant, and her deliverance like a blazing torch.â€
The President’s
Message.
Rev. HENRY JAMES.
“God be thanked Who has matched us
with His hour.†Rupert Brooke.
AVE you read “The Master’s Man-
date â€â€”the Missionary Report for
1926? Have you read the Foreign
Secretary’s comprehensive and most able
survey with which the Report opens?
Have you reflected again upon the Divine
words which he quotes as the heading of
his article, and so re-impressed yourself
with the grand fact that the missionary
enterprise goes forward under the joint
compulsion of the Master’s authority and
power ?
It is delightful to be held to your task
by its inherent fascination—like an artist
at his easel ; or by the hope of reward
like the aspirant for academic honours.
But it is a noble thing, when the hope of
success grows dim, and the immediate
effort is uninspiring, to keep to your task
under the driving power of a Divine
imperative.
Happily, this is an enterprise which
need not collapse, and cannot be finally
defeated. We have only to remember our
illimitable resources, and Who it is that
leads us, and we have made our covenant
with victory.
Never was there greater necessity to
keep our memories tingling and our
hearts aflame with the thought of that
imperative and of those resources. Never
were the difficulties confronting us, nor
Rev. Henry James.
January. 1927.
The President’s Message
the embarrassments hanging about us,
more serious than to-day. They are
largely peculiar to our times, are created
by our past successes, have little of the
romance which makes opposition allur-
ing, and are so varied, subtle and com-
plicated that they challenge, not simply
our piety, fervour and devotion, but our
very highest statesmanship.
Certain obstacles we expect to en-
counter. The wrestle with ancient super-
stition, with deep-seated heathen tenets
and practices, with the suspicion, the
fear, and the cruelty born of fear, natural
to a remote people newly disturbed by the
incalculable foreigner : these are difficul-
ties inherent in the task. Moreover, in
China, particularly, during the year under
review, we have been deluged with trials
of a more incidental though most for-
midable character—famine, pestilence,
brigandage, rioting, civil war, looting,
brutality, murder. Easy words to write
—terrible conditions to work in.
But I do not regard these as our most
serious obstacles. The forces that threaten
to hold us up to-day are more modern,
and are chiefly two-fold. They are, first,
rival religion and theories ; and, second,
industrial and political developments. You
find in China an intellectual opposition to
the Christian creed—a cruder form of the
scepticism, the agnosticism, and the so-
called free thought of our Western coun-
tries ; while in Africa we are engaged in
a fierce duel with Mohammedanism for
the religious sovereignty of the Dark
Continent. Rivals are deadlier opponents
than foes from the directly opposite camp.
The second class of obstacles—those
arising from industrial and political con-
ditions—are more formidable still. They
are akin to those which have so seriously
handicapped our work at home since the
opening of the nineteenth century. Alike
in China and in Africa the native is de-
manding freer and juster industrial con-
ditions, and blaming the foreigner, and
the missionary as foreigner, for his
present disabilities. Graver still are the
political embarrassments. The closer con-
tact of alien races, and the breaking up of
ancient traditions and forms of govern-
ment by the impact of new peoples and
new ideas of rulership, create a problem
of the first magnitude, not only for the
missionary, but for the politician and
statesman. But there is more than this.
In Africa, India, and China we are wit-
nessing, as never before, the emergence
of nationality, a claim for national dis-
tinctness, integrity, autonomy, a demand
for a place in the sun, and a determina-
tion to escape from the bonds of child-
hood, tutelage or servitude. It is a move-
ment which cannot, and ought not to be
arrested. But it is liable to ugly turns.
In China, unfortunately, it is at the
stage of somewhat intractable youth,
wild, plunging, heedless, feverish with
impatience and ablaze with antagonism
toward everything it pleases to call
foreign.
It is on these accounts, and others like
them, that I say our missionary difficul-
ties are peculiar to our times, and per-
haps more trying than ever before. They
call for sanctified statesmanship, and
statesmanship is a vastly more difficult
tool to fashion and to manipulate than
pious fervour or grateful devotion.
Yet who falters? Who turns back?
Who doubts the ultimate victory of the
Christian Church and the Christian Creed?
Who says the Christian Gospel can only
commend itself to a people that is in
childhood or tutelage or bonds? Who
would offer the Great Captain, with the
thorn wreath under His diadem, a cheap
and easy conquest?
It is a grand day for an heroic task, a
glorious situation for an heroic missionary
society, a splendid opportunity for measur-
ing your resources. And, indeed, there
is a delightful contrast presented in the
Report. I smile, as I read it, at the
poetic fitness of things.
Look at page 2. China—a. decrease ;
East Africa—a decrease ; West Africa,
again, a decrease. Are we down-hearted?
Turn toi pages 4 and 5. China—new
schools and a new church ; East Africa,
—an enlarged and diversified staff ; West
Africa—three new chiefdoms entered.
That is the heroic way of going to work.
I raise my hat to the Missionary Com-
mittee.
Oh, Great Captain of our Host, make
us, in vision, in statesmanship, in
courage, and in self-sacrifice worthy of
Thyself. Inflame our daring, and enlarge
our resources. “Give what Thou com-
mandest, and command what Thou wilt.â€
2
Banditry in
North China.
GONDITIONS in China as a whole
show little sign of improvement ;
for though here in the extreme
north-east fighting has ceased, the war
in the north-west between the Mukd.en
forces and the Kuo Min Chun is by no
means over. The latter army has been
driven from the formidable Nan Kow
Pass and from its Kalgan stronghold ;
but it seems to have retired in somewhat
good order ; and is said to be in consider-
able strength in the further north-west.
It remains as a menace to the powers-
that-be (if such they may be called) who
now hold Peking.
But while in the north there is now
comparative peace, the fiercest fighting is
raging in Mid-China and the Yangtze
valley between the Cantonese and the
northern armies. It is from day to day
reported, and as often denied, that Wu
Chang and Hankow have fallen to the
Southerners.
Certain it is that a bitter conflict is
being waged, and that it is not unlikely
to involve the whole of China. The
seriousness of the situation may be
judged in that it is said that, as a last
resort, and in order to break the line of
the southern forces, the Yangtze dykes
are to be cut. This would flood an im-
mense region ; and would not only involve
the Canton Army, but would bring ruin
to hundreds of thousands of country
people and death to very many.
It is a relief to be no longer in the
theatre of active civil war, and to find
communications restored almost to nor-
mal. But off the beaten track on which
armies move, and while such large forces
are engaged in driving the Kuo Min
Chun, or in holding what has been won
from them, banditry is rampant.
One hears of it in all parts of the
north ; but in this region east of the
capital, and especially in the Yung Ping
Circuit, it is a veritable scourge, and
small local garrisons seem quite unable
to cope with it.
To the east, west and north of Yung
Ping City bands of brigands are roam-
ing the country ; they are relatively small
bands of armed men ; they hold-up and
seize travellers ; enter villages and bind
and carry off people whom they hold to
ransom. They call themselves, and are
Rev.
F. B. TURNER, O.E.C.
popularly known as “pang p’iao ti,â€
literally “banknote binders,†; i.e., they
take a number of people whom they con-
sider “good for†a certain sum, and tie
them together on one rope as though
they were a bundle of notes : and they art
â– pre-pared to exchange them for cash only !
Where those who hear of their intended
visit escape and leave their homes empty,
the brigands, balked of their prey, burn
the houses.
Numbers of people have been thus
seized.' An American mission station on
the borders of our Yung Ping Circuit was
thus raided a week or two ago, when two
girl scholars were seized and had to be
ransomed at the price of $500.
The country on three sides of Yung
Ping Fu is terrorised, and travel is im-
possible. The only open way is that by
road or river between the city and the
railway at Lan Chow. The city itself,
though occupied by soldiers, has been so
threatened that the gates are shut day
and night, and no one is admitted with-
out a guarantor. To show “prepared-
ness,†and to warn off brigands, the
magistrate ordered every household in
the city to send a representative on to
the city wall with a lantern : a soldier
was at each embrasure in the turreted
wall with his rifle ; and by his side a man
whose lantern stood on the merlon.* It
is said that this ring of lights—for seven
or eight nights in succession—could be
seen eight or ten miles away.
It seemed unwise, in a region so in-
fested, to travel with the entire cash for
mission grant with which to finance the
September Quarterly Meeting of the
Yung Ping Circuit : and the meeting,
usually held in the city, was convened at
a sub-station well on the safer side of the
circuit, Shih Men. Naturally the attend-
ance was small, but it was interesting and
effective.
Among those present was a preacher
who, at the June Meeting, was actually
in the hands of brigands. They had
seized and carried him off, roped to
several others : but finding that he was
only a poor evangelist, they released him,
first however requiring him to preach to
* “ The raispd parts of a battlement are called Merlons, the
separated openings crenelles or embrasures."
3
v.t'!?•-, ’•rrTpJ’-?.'-"'"'-.''-v-71
From the Mission House
ihem. He gave us a very vivid story of
his experiences.
One sympathises with the people of this
district, harassed thus by evil men, and
left without protection, though they are
bled heavily to finance the militarists and
their swarming armies.
The effect of this state of things upon
our work is calamitous. The circuit
finances suffer : local contributions,
though not large, were steadily increas-
ing in response to our urging to greater
effort towards self-support. But one
needs to be almost heartless to press, for
the maintenance of the level of contribu-
tion, people who, like our Yung Ping
members, in the spring, suffered so
heavily from looting soldiers ; or those
who now are victimised by bandits, and
inordinately taxed by militarists whose
special levies are almost continuous.
The work of our preachers is also ham-
pered. With such conditions obtaining
th.e travel is impossible which is essential
to the prosecution of our projects for
wider evangelism. But in spite of these
difficulties we must not despair. We are
the custodians and the messengers of the
evangel, which is the one thing that can
bring to this distracted people peace, har-
mony and security. We must preach it
And duly shall appear,
In verdure, beauty, strength
The tender blade, the stalk, the ear,
And the full corn at length.
Oh for the day when the gospel shall be
everywhere received throughout China,
and every man shall dwell under his own
vine and figtree, none daring to make him
afraid !
From the
Mission House.
The Great In his translation of the
“ I-will-be.†third chapter of the book
of Exodus, with its ac-
count of the burning bush and the call
of God to Moses, Dr. Moffatt renders the
name by which God would be known as
“I-will-be.†“God said unto Moses, I
will-be-what-I-will-be : tell the Israelites
that I-will-be has sent you to them.†The
change from the name “I-am †to “I-will-
be †is very significant. The “ I-am â€
suggests absolute, static, all-glorious
majesty. The “I-will-be†suggests the
ceaseless revealing of a glorious nature,
infinite and eternal. The latter concep-
tion of the name and nature of God gives
boundless joy and hope to the hearts of
men. This rendering of the name ac-
cords with the promise “I will be with
you,†previously made to Moses when
Moses deprecated his unfitness for the
great task to which he was called. Moses
could desire nothing more than this
promise, if only he could apprehend its
full significance. No finite mind could
measure its significance ; no language
could express it. When God said “ I-
will-be-what-I-will-be,†He declared a
Rev. G. STEDEFORD.
secret which must for ever remain hidden
in the Divine mind.
The New Year The name is not new, but
and the new rendering makes
the New Name, it like a new name to us.
As we face the New Year
which bears us toward tasks and trials
unknown, we may find an unfailing source
of strength and comfort, joy and inspira-
tion, in the name by which God was
pleased to reveal Himself, the “ I-will-be.â€
The unfolding of life is the occasion of
the unveiling of the “ I-will-be.†The less
dependent upon God we find ourselves, or
imagine ourselves, to be, the less we can
learn of His grace and power. Mission-
aries have testified that they never knew
the wondrous peace of God until they
found themselves in peril for His sake.
The soul cannot anticipate its needs,
neither can it anticipate the full meaning
of the name “I-will-be.†“I will be with
you,†is the all-sufficient promise for the
new year.
Portents. In the survey of the world
there are portents which
produce uneasiness. Dark clouds are
4
From the Mission House
rolling over China. The Government has
resigned because it is bankrupt. The
resignation is tendered to the war-lords
who are the acknowledged masters of the
situation ; which of these war-lords will
become the masters ultimately the fates
will determine. The foreign residents in
China, apart from the missionaries, are in
a state of alarm, and appeal to their re-
spective governments for intervention.
The form of intervention is the difficult
question to decide. It is the duty of the
Governments to protect their own
nationals, and no doubt they will do so.
The fear is that in doing so the wild
action of Chinese communists will pro-
voke disastrous conflict. The deplorable
conflict at Wanshien aroused the bitterest
feeling- among the Chinese and they may
attempt reprisals.
Under these darkening shadows we call
to mind God’s glorious name “ I-will-be. â€
He is with His servants the missionaries,
and with His Church in China, and we
may believe that the time of impending
danger will be signalized by great deliver-
ances. The case is not so desperate as
was that of the Israelites in Egypt, and
if it were ten times more so, the Great
“I-will-be †would prove the virtue of His
name.
Bolshevism The truth of the fore-
in China. going paragraph is illus-
trated by the mer-
ciful deliverance of
Wesleyan mission-
aries. from an out-
burst of Bolshevic
frenzy at Liuyang.
Situated in the re-
gion occupied by
the a d v a n c i n g
Cantonese forces,
Liuyang surrend-
ered to the Bol-
shevic principles of
the invaders. A
revolt began in the
mission school,
when the scholars
presented to the
Principal six Bol-
shevistic demands,
including one “to
abolish the teach-
ing of Scripture,
and attendance at
Divine worship and morning prayers.â€
Learning the state of feeling in the town
the Chinese preachers begged the mis-
sionaries to leave. A friendly representa-
tive reported that a meeting had decided
that on the following- Sunday they would
“attack the foreigners, beat them and
drag them round the streets.†On Satur-
day evening the missionaries, four ladies,
two men and a baby boy, managed to
escape and to elude their pursuers. A
gracious Providence brought them un-
expected help at critical moments during
their flight through the night. Relating
this trying experience in a letter to her
father, Rev. C. W. Andrews, B.A., B.D.,
one of the Wesleyan Missionary Secre-
taries, Dr. Mary Andrews said: “Don’t
worry, God is with us ; we have had won-
derful protection, and are well.â€
We rejoice with our Wesleyan friends
in this timely deliverance. The Wesleyan
Mission is situated in the midst of the
present storm centre in China, and we
pray that the workers and the work may
receive God’s special care and direction.
Anticipations Fortunately for our mis-
in Wenchow. sion in Wenchow the
“ Red †revolt of Hsiao
Chao, the Civil Governor of Chekiang
province, proved unsuccessful. There
were eager anticipations on the part of
the “ Red †section in Wenchow, and pre-
Fast and West. [Miss Dorothy Doidge, Wenchow
Miss B. Petrie Smith (Wenchow) and Miss Mabel Fortune (Ningpo).
From the Mission House
parations were made for taking over the
city in the name of the Canton Govern-
ment. Among the provisions laid down
one was “that all foreigners be given till
the end of the month to- leave the city ; â€
another was “that no food be sold, and
no service be given to any foreigners.â€
Happily, the crisis was averted. It
leaves little doubt as to the kind of treat-
ment missions will receive if the “ Red â€
party become dominant, and it presents
a powerful plea for all Christian people
to pray for China during this critical
period of her history.
Mrs. Hey wood’s We are glad and grateful
Recovery. to report that Mrs. Hey-
wood made a very satis-
factory recovery after her operation. She
left the nursing- home on October 13th,
and a week later she was able to leave
Shanghai by steamer for Wenchow. Mr.
A West African Chieftain.
Heywood writes : “After one of the
calmest voyages ever made by us down
the coast we arrived in Wenchow early
Friday morning, October 23rd, without
Mrs. Heywood suffering any ill-effects.â€
Dr. Dymond arrived in Shanghai just
in time to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Hey-
wood to Wenchow where they all
received a warm welcome.
German We are happy to report
Missionaries that the German mission-
Return to tlie aries have now returned
Tana River. to their mission on the
Tana River from which
the war separated them for twelve years.
The intervening years have not diminished
their devotion to the field where, through
toil and sacrifice, they planted the Church
of Christ. Herr Kraft, Herr and Frau
Becher and Herr Mai sailed from Ham-
burg in November, and have now reached
the Tana. May God’s richest blessing
rest upon their labours.
Our Mr. Jackson has spent the greater
part of last year on the Tana, and re-
mained to welcome the returning mission-
aries and to transfer the work to their
hands. Ever since the withdrawal of the
Germans we have given some care to the
orphaned mission, but it was not until
1921 that our Conference assumed respon-
sibility for its maintenance and oversight ;
in doing so the Conference decided to re-
transfer the Mission as soon as it became
possible for the Neukirchen Mission
authorities to resume their charge.
After Many Mr. Cottrell, in an ac-
Years. count of a tour around
Miao country, in which
he covered about three hundred miles in
twelve days, says: “You will be in-
terested to know that I visited the vil-
lage where Mr. Pollard was beaten, the
first foreigner to do so since then. I
stayed in the same house as he did, and
was shown the spot where he was beaten.
The people of this village are entirely
heathen, and I have arranged for the
nearest preacher to make periodical visits
to this place. It would be a fine thing,
and a further memorial to Pollard, if we
could win Hmao-Ha-Li-Mi for Christ.â€
6
Rev. J. E. Swallow.
By Dr. H. LLOYD SNAPE.
UNITED Methodists, and especially
those who are most keenly in-
terested in missions overseas, have
great reason to be profoundly grateful to
the Rev. J. E. Swallow, who by his excep-
tional ability, industry and zeal has, dur-
ing the 21 years in which he has acted as
the Editor, made the Missionary Echo
an invaluable medium for providing,
month by month during that long period,
both information and inspiration, and a
magazine of which the Church may be
justly proud. His resignation affords an
opportunity of endeavouring to express
the appreciation which has always been
felt, but might perhaps have been more
frequently uttered, of the splendid service
he has so gladly rendered, and—in the
case of those who have had the privilege
of knowing him personally—of the charm
of his character.
The editorial “We†has scarcely ap-
peared, and some of us would have liked
to see more frequently articles over the
signatures of “J.E.S.†and “ Hirondelle†;
but Mr. Swallow, whilst characteristically
effacing himself, has achieved remarkable
success in suggesting suitable subjects to
others, and in winning the willing support
of those most competent to write thereon.
One would like, if space permitted, to
refer in some detail to other ways in
which Mr. Swallow has rendered immense
service to the missionary cause. Three
must be mentioned, however briefly. (1)
The maintenance of the “Missionaries’
Literature Association,†whereby our
missionaries are supplied regularly with
many welcome periodicals. (2) The meet-
ing of missionaries and their families on
their arrival at, and departure from, the
homeland. (3) The conduct, with re-
markable devotion, and without any re-
muneration, of the largest share of the
administration of the Foreign Mission
Committee- work during Mr. Stedeford’s
prolonged absence in China and Africa.
The missionaries love Brother Swallow.
So do we all. May God richly bless him
in the eventide of life.
By Mrs. MACLAURIN.
President of the Women’s Missionary Auxiliary.
It is with very great pleasure that 1
add my tribute to our dear friend, Rev.
J. E. Swallow, on the occasion of his
retirement from the Editorship of the
Missionary Echo.
His loyal service calls for the deepest
gratitude, and we cannot but admire the
fine literary gifts that have made this
small magazine a great and living force,
educating and inspiring to an inestimable
degree all who have followed and read its
pages.
In no better way could the work of our
missions be brought into the lives and
homes of those interested.
We regret that the passing years make
it impossible for him to continue this
work.
His graciousness and helpful encourage-
ment have endeared him to the members
of the W.M.A., who will pray that he
may be spared for many more years of
happy service.
Rev. J. E. Swallow.
7
r.-
;--T: /• ~ . - . . ■: • :■- ; 7.--. - v
To the Rev.
J. E. Swallow.
i.
A thousand blessings on you, Friend of
mine !
As for your well-earned rest, at even-
tide,
You leave the task that long has been
your pride,
And in the which your gifts did brightly
shine.
’Twas yours to lead our thoughts in that
Divine
And glorious enterprise which scatters
wide
The saving knowledge of the Lord
Who died,
And brings all lands beneath His rule
benign.
You gave us Echoes from the fields afar :
You made the pages live-—a subtle
charm
Was cast about us following your star ;
And for the fight you sounded the
alarm.
The Master’s whitening fields, the wide
world o’er,
You made us see so we forget no more.
II.
Go ! and your eventide be filled with light!
Your grateful people’s prayers will fol-
low you.
May each new day disclose you bless-
ings new,
And all your homeward journey grow
more bright,
As the Old Book declareth. Not the
night
Awaits you ; but the Day that brings in
view
1 he plains celestial where no more
“Adieu â€
Is said, nor sorrow’s tears make dim the
sight.
Your cheerful spirit cannot age, and
youth
Remains to you spite of the passing
years.
Yours is the strength that comes of fol-
lowing Truth,
The Spirit that itself to all endears.
Yours not the setting but the rising sun.
We say to you, “Servant of God well
done ! â€
Lewis H. Court.
Lao Ling Hospital.
Dr. W. E. PLUMMER
(Now in Canada).
^3*' HE number of those who hear the
good news during their medical
a treatment increases daily.
We report the following case because
it illustrates a Chinese way of expressing
gratitude and will interest those who are
unacquainted with the manners and cus-
toms of the Flowery Kingdom.
Mr. Li is a preacher of the R.C.
Church in this district. He was
attacked by brigands and the shock
resulted in loss of voice (functional
aphonia) a condition common during
the war as a result of shell-shock. One
treatment with electricity and sugges-
tion brought back the power of speech.
This was done with ease and but little
expenditure of time and energy, yet
the patient was so very grateful he
thought something wonderful had hap-
pened. About three weeks later I
' heard he was preparing a presentation
tablet.
I object to these things as they in-
volve such a waste of money, but when
they are made it is difficult not to
accept them.
A large crowd gathered in the hospi-
tal grounds, and following it was the
sound of Chinese music. The tablet
was carried by four men sedan-chair-
fashion ; then the donor appeared,
made his obeisance and again expressed
his thanks.
In the photograph can be seen the
patient standing behind the tablet, and
the four characters below, literally
translated, read
GRACE REACHES FLOWERY
KINGDOM.
Since then, numbers of deaf mutes
have been brought to our clinic, and it
has been sad to tell most of them that
nothing could be done : and to know
what a number of children there are
who are completely deaf as the result
of some injury to or disease of the
auditory nerve.
This report has been waiting for more^than
a year for the receipt of a most expressive
picture. It must have been lost in transit.
We will not wait longer, so the description
of the tablet must suffice.—Ed.
8
Some New Books.
ROM the Student Christian Move-
ment we have received “ Chinese
Religious Ideals. A Christian Valua-
tion.†By Dr. P. J. Maclagan (6s.). Dr.
Maclagan has been a missionary at
Swatow, and is at the present time
Foreign Missions secretary of the Presby-
terian Church of England. He gives a
masterly survey of those forms of religion
and modes of spiritual thought which
have long held sway in China, and seeks
to appraise their value from a Christian
point of view. He holds, as every wise
missionary has held, that Christianity
conserves the best elements of China’s
traditional religion and morality, but
shows nevertheless that we have in Chris-
tianity something better. As a contribu-
tion to our understanding of the present
upheaval in China the book is of im-
mense value. The lesson that we are all
being taught, says Dr. Maclagan, is
that the Church in China must be the
Chinese expression of the Church Catho-
lic. In no small degree we have failed
to promote that expression, probably
more through inadvertence than by de-
sign. Our only hope of obtaining our
objective is to show that by becoming
Christian the Chinese spirit does not
cease to be Chinese.
In “The Indian Mystic†(S.C.M.,
2s. 6d.), Mr. J. C. Winslow, M.A., says
that no other country can compare with
India in its quest for Truth, which is the
quest for God ; and that no other country
has shown so remorseless a subordination
of considerations of personal comfort and
ease to the imperious claims of the Great
Adventure The great spiritual treasure
which India possesses is vastly helpful to
the acceptance of the Gospel, and India
is beginning to pay her homage and
devotion to the Person of Christ. Will
India recall active and practical Western-
ers to many much-neglected aspects of
the Christian life? Mr. Winslow thinks
she will, and he holds with Stanley Jones
that the next great spiritual impact upon
the soul of the race is due to come by way
of India.
A new book by Mr. Basil Mathews is
always welcome. “Young" Islam on
Trek†(Edinburgh House Press, 2s.) is
described as “written for youth about
youth.†Here we see how Islam has
struck its tents and is rapidly moving out
on a new trek. Imagine this notice as
Nazareth is approached: “Speed Limit
through Nazareth : Ten Miles an Hour †!
And instead of maidens coming to the
wells with picturesque forty-century-old
pattern jars on their heads, half the
Nazarene maidens come carrying hideous
petrol tins. This is typical of the vast
changes that are taking place. But to
what goal ? Can the Christian Church
direct this amazing trek? Not while the
Church is limited in vision, separatist in
spirit, and tied to ecclesiastical systems.
Moslem lands are peculiarly Christ’s own
lands. It is a task worthy of our best to
restore these lands to Him.
From the Carey Press we have “ Every-
land †(3s. 6d.), a splendid book for young
people, finely illustrated, and full of mis-
sionary incidents of a stirring kind. It
is an extraordinarily cheap book. “What
Happened to Eric,†by Ernest Scrivener
(2s.) comes from the same publishers. It
is a capital story of a fine-spirited boy
who became a missionary. “Tales from
Dragon Land †(Carey Press, Is.), by
Henry Payne, is illustrated with Chinese
drawings. These are Chinese stories
turned into English, and they are ex-
ceedingly well told. “ On the Road ;
Adventures in India,†by Mary Entwistle
(Is. 6d.), ; “Esa; A little boy of Naza-
reth,†by Mildred Nevill and Elsie A.
Wood (Is. 6d.), and “Friendly Beasts;
Postcard Painting Book,†by E. A.
Wood (Is. 6d.) are all from the United
Council for Missionary Education. (Edin-
burgh House Press.) All these will in-
terest young children in the people of
other lands.
9
The Editor to
His Readers.
THE tributes paid in this issue to the
fine service rendered by the Rev.
J. E. Swallow during" his twenty-one
years’ editorship of this magazine will be
read with great pleasure at home and
abroad.
No doubt many such tributes would
have been published had Mr. Swallow
passed to another world. I am glad these
appear while he is still in this world.
He deserves all that is said about him,
and I am sure I could have filled every
page of this month’s Echo with similar
testimonies. For a fuller appreciation of
Mr. Swallow and his work I would refer
readers to the December “United Metho-
dist Magazine,†where they will find a
delightful article by the Rev. C. Stede-
ford. Through the courtesy of the editor,
the Rev. H. Hooks, I am able to publish
the portrait of Mr. Swallow which ap-
pears with the article.
The only thing I will say about myself
is that I hope to prove worthy of the
trust the Missionary Society has com-
mitted to me, and of the traditions of
the office created by my esteemed prede-
cessor.
My church, with true denominational
loyalty, has allowed me to add this task
to those I have daily to perform as a
minister in one of the busiest circuits in
Methodism.
To place this responsibility on the
shoulders of a man whose life is already
busy enough is not an ideal arrangement.
But this magazine has to be edited : I
have been asked to edit it, and there the
matter may rest. One task more is just
another chance of learning love, and thus
of gaining happiness. This crude adapta-
tion of some lines of Browning expresses
my feeling as I begin my editorship, and
I can only hope and pray that no interest,
local or denominational, will suffer
thereby.
© ® ® ©
The Situation in China.
The situation in China causes grave
anxiety among all missionary societies.
Though the anti-foreign movement has
affected us less than the Wesleyan Mis-
sionary Society, the Baptist Missionary
Society, and the China Inland Mission,
we have not been left unscathed by any
means. Mr. Stedeford’s well-informed
comments on another page should be care-
fully read.
We can trust the foreign Governments
not to add any provocation to the already
overheated state to which Chinese mis-
government has brought the country. At
the same time foreign residents must be
given full protection, and we are glad to
know that adequate measures have been
taken. Our own Foreign Office is not
likely to be backward on a matter of this
sort.
Those of us at home, and especially
those who have relatives in China, should
be reassured by the recent articles we
have published by Professor Soothill and
Principal Redfern. And here I may quote
a communication I received recently from
a friend who spent several years in China,
and afterwards went to the United States.
“A few years ago,†he writes, “while
I was teaching at the University of
Southern California, I had as one of my
students the Hon. Fan Lien Yuan, who
has on three separate occasions been
Minister of Education under the Republic.
Mr. Fan is one of the finest types
of Chinese gentlemen. When he was
leaving us for a tour of several months
through America and Europe I said to
him, ‘ Have you anything to say that I
might use as your message to the Ameri-
can people whenever I speak to them of
China? ’ His answer was, ‘ Please ask
the American people to be patient with
us ; to give us time to adjust ourselves to
the tremendous social and political
changes into which we have. come. ’
‘ How much time do you want? ’ I asked,
‘ a generation ? ’ ‘ Well at least twenty-
five years,’ was his reply. I pass Mr.
Fan’s request on to all Americans and
Europeans. Be patient; Give China
time, and plenty of time. She will1 come
out all right.â€
When it is remembered that the Repub-
lic of China is not yet fourteen years old,
and that the dynastic changes brought
about by the revolution found the people
10
The Editor to His Readers
largely unprepared for democratic govern-
ment, we ought not to be surprised if
China is finding that it is by much tribu-
lation she is entering her kingdom.
© @ © ©
We warmly commend a book recently
published by the Student Christian Move-
ment at half a crown, entitled “ China To-
day Through Chinese Eyes.†Four years
ago a book was published with the same
title ; the present book is a sequel, bring-
ing the story up to date, and treating
some fresh aspects of the situation. Some
words of Mr. David Z. T. Yui, M.A.,
may well encourage us : “ By suffering
tremendously from the hands of militar-
ists and politicians for these many years
our people’s patience is nearing the ex-
haustion-point, and their desire for
peace, order, and unity is gradually
expressing itself in no uncertain terms.â€
© © © ®
To the Front in a Gracious
Enterprise.
St. Paul said to the Church at Corinth :
“You are to the front in everything: in
faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all
zeal, and in love for us—do come to the
front in this gracious enterprise as well.
Carry it through as far as your means
allow. â€
On hearing that I was going to a mis-
sionary meeting an old-age pensioner put
an envelope in my hand the other day,
saying as she did so, “ Please put that in
the collection for me.†When I opened
the envelope I found—a pound note !
“Carry this gracious enterprise through
as far as your means allow.†Last year
this dear old saint gave me two en-
velopes, each containing a pound note.
Three pounds from an old-age pen-
sioner in eighteen months. How much
do your means allow you to give? And
how much mine? There would be no
shortage of funds if all gave in this pro-
portion.
£§>
God’s Door.
In the entrancing story of the Bible
Society’s work told in “The Everlasting
Doors,†we read that one day early in
1926 a Chinese woman entered the
Society’s depot in Shanghai and bought
a number of Bibles in the best binding".
She said to Mr. Sheppard : “ I am buy-
ing them to give to my friends, and I
shall ask them to read the book daily.
I am getting the most beautiful ones you
publish because they are God’s Door.â€
A book as a door. “The entrance of
Thy Words giveth light.†One of our
members spent an evening recently read-
ing" “The Master’s Mandate,†and he
said, “ I had no idea we were doing so
great a work in China and Africa. The
book is a revelation to me.â€
We sit down one quiet evening with
the Report in our hands. We begin to
read—and, lo, a door is opened, a magic
door. We pass through and find our-
selves in strange lands. China—the un-
changing East, now changing with be-
wildering rapidity. Africa—black and
comely, much-blamed, much-loved, a lost
paradise being slowly and surely re-
gained. And everywhere we feel the
Master’s presence, causing joy to mix
with grief, and hope with despondence,
and lighting lamps of love and life
wherever He goes. And we see men and
women in company with Him, our own
kith and kin.. Some are preachers, some
are doctors, some are teachers, and some
are nurses, and all are His messengers of
peace. Their way is sometimes hard, and
the waters they cross are often dark and
deep, but how soon a smile from Him
changes their world! And we follow
their footsteps in those far-off lands, enter
hospitals with them, stand in market
places, sit with boys and girls in the mis-
sion schools ; and it is a King’s Highway
all the time.
A magic door indeed, and what a gol-
den hour we’ve had on passing through
it! A. E. J. C.
“ Youth in World-Service.â€
H. T. Vodden and C. A. Martin.
(Edinburgh House Press ; Is.)
The latter, the Rev. Clifford A. Mar-
tin, M.A., is the secretary of the Youth
Committee of the United Council for
Missionary Education.
We can cordially commend this book.
It shows the vital importance of the ideals
of world service for Christ as a worthy
outlet for the ability and enthusiasm of
youth and contains practical suggestions
for use in various organizations.
11
Specimen Days in
Missionary’s Life.
HA have ashed some of our missionaries to
give us an account of a “specimen" day,
similar to the very interesting articles which
appeared last year in the “ Spectator,†from
various people. The first instalment from
the Rev. H. Parsons will be read with great
interest.
UT which day, that is the question?
Days do vary so. A Monday is
so unlike a Sunday, and a market
day, recurring every sixth day, totally
unlike either.
Sunday is the Day of Days, the Best of
Days in service and in enjoyment. The
quietness of the Sabbath dawn is broken
by the bugle bidding- villagers, scholars
and others to the House of Prayer. Then
breakfast and family prayers. Soon
laughter and talk around the house tell
us that the clans are gathering from the
ten-mile radius. Sunday School opens
3. A Day at Stone Gateway.
Rev. H. PARSONS.
at noon, class work follows for men,
women, girls, lads and bairns. An hour
thus, then preaching services, both Miao
and Chinese. With “Go away slowly,â€
and the cheery response, “Be seated
slowly,†the folk disperse, excepting those
who need medicine, books, or a tooth ex-
tracted, for it is imperative that they reach
home to cook the food and tend the
cattle before nightfall. Many have been
away eight hours, and have walked from
ten to fifteen miles.
The thronging crowd around the medi-
cine room until almost dark tells its own
sad story of sickness and want and the
loving endeavour to relieve pain, comfort
the sorrowing and cheer the bereaved.
Half an hour among the trees, if pos-
sible, then tea—always a hurried meal.
Often before it is over, the merry chatter
of girlish voices reminds the teacher’s
Boys’ School, Stone Gateway.
12
Specimen Days in a Missionary's Life
wife that it is time for the cottage! meet-
ing in the village, whilst the school whistle
bids the teacher make his way to the
school-room for evening prayers.
This is a bare outline of the most de-
lightful of days ; joyous service and glad
fellowship, though at times shot through
with heartpang and anxiety.
The workaday Monday. If it should
be the much-appreciated day of the doc-
tor’s monthly visit, then from breakfast
hour there will be a steady stream of the
halt and lame, the fever-stricken,—the
burns, scalds and other casualties. A
couple of hours of the afternoon occupied
in a visit to the leper compound, advising
as to the buildings in course of erection,
etc.
Whilst the missionary’s wife lends aid
in the medicine room, in the endeavour to
make Miao patient and doctor mutually
understood of each other, seeking thus to
avoid misunderstanding which might lead
to castor oil or other delicacy being
rubbed in instead of otherwise ap-
propriated ; the missionary himself has
usually a succession of visitors, folk
with1 troubles of many kinds, native
helpers seeking advice upon all as-
pects of their work; quarrels be-
tween husbands and wives, landowners
and Christians ; brigand outrage, or help
sought through the Mutual Aid Society
because of the burning out of a home, the
loss of the ploughing cow or distress
caused by flood or hail, etc. There will
probably be preachers calling to make
arrangements for visits to the out-sta-
tions, and there are always a score or
two of “week-end †visits waiting to be
made by the foreigners, or school matters
to be discussed. Rarely can any work
be done in the study on Mondays. It is
a fatiguing day.
Market-day, one day in six, is worse.
Our village and scholars’ market, a few
minutes’ walk from the mission com-
pound, is the centre to which Chinese,
Mohammedan, and many a Miao and No-
su aborigine come for barter and purchase
of corn, cloth, salt and cattle from a wide
area. The people take advantage of the
market day to visit the teacher on any
matter of business waiting to be settled.!
In addition, it is the weekly pay day. The
dining-room is rarely free of preachers,
teachers and helpers needing cash for
many purposes ; men offering goods for
sale. Masons, carpenters, sawyers, tim-
ber carriers, coal hewers and carriers,
burners of tiles and water pipes, all need-
ing their weekly silver payments. If any
local official, Customs or otherwise, has
been appointed, the usual “call†is on
market-day. Dinner over, then a hurried
visit to the market to see that wine and
opium are, at least openly, not on sale,
and that brawling and other infringements
of market regulations are not taking
place.
Then there are duties for other days—
translation work of hymn-book, primers,
syllabus for evening studies in the vil-
lages, preparatory work for translation
of New Testament into River Miao ;
supervision of schools, and new build-
ings : Pollard Memorial Hospital, Leper
Compound, Sandford Children’s Home,
bridge-building, water-pipe-laying : these,
amongst others, were tasks of last year.
There is a daily succession of callers for
medicine and of those seeking guidance
in many matters. Constant supervision
of preachers and churches, teachers and
schools, and a service each evening in
school or village, not always led by the
missionary, but usually attended by him.
Visits to be paid to the Sandford Chil-
dren’s Home, to see that matron and chil-
dren are well. And then cricket or foot-
ball, or other game, with the school-boys,
as well as a keen appreciation and pur-
suit of gardening, especially fruit grow-
ing, as well as photography, as hobbies.
And, in recent days, the holding of
ourselves in constant readiness, with bed-
ding and stores packed, to move away
should any hostile band of brigands be
reported from the guarded roads, as ap-
proaching the Compound.
There is certainly no monotony in mis-
sionary life among the Hills of Yunnan—
the unexpected so frequently happens.
Woe betide the student missionary, the
lover of books, if he cannot readily adapt
himself to a life of topsy-turvydom.
13
A Five Days’ Tour in
Southern Sierra Leone,
West Africa.
York, Kent, and the
Banana Islands.
Rev. E. COCKER.
GAPTAIN Slow sent word by one of
his five jolly sailor boys that he
had arrived at King Jimmy wharf
and would like to have the luggage on
board ready for a prompt departure at
six o’clock next morning. We were partly
prepared and had still a few hours before
the swift fall of night at six o’clock ; but
the darkness beat us in the race. All the
same we managed. We had lanterns, and
carriers to whom the darkness' is not the
worry that it is to the Englishman accus-
tomed to lingering twilight and the com-
fort of efficient street lighting. Jehu, with
his ample if never-furious cab, anywhere
in England could not have moved ten
packages more gracefully, and with less
fuss, than the five sailor boys with other
five boys in file moved so many packages
on their heads down to King Jimmy.
First went the bath, packed full with
cooking utensils, held secure by a spe-
cially made lid padlocked on either side
(Micklethwaite’spatent), then the “chopâ€
box trunks, camp-beds, etc. The next
thing was to go to bed and hope for good
weather in the morning. At sunrise we
were up and busy with our final prepara-
tions, and at a quarter past six we went,
a party of four, down to King Jimmy.
There was Willy, the Mission House
general ; Santiggy, the cook, who, given
a match, two sticks, a frying-pan and
some lard, will cook you a meal anywhere
on earth ; our guide, philosopher, and
friend, the Rev. J. B. Nichols, and myself.
It was half-past six when we went
aboard, and we were punctual, though
half an hour late. When Captain Slow
said six o’clock sharp; we knew, of
course, that he meant half-past—human
nature is the same all the world over :
how often have I been saying that since
I came here?
I suppose the straw-matting covered
shelter at one end of the boat, where we
reclined in a space about eight feet by
five, might be called the awning deck. It
was very soon the yawning deck. .But
there was one who found himself unable
to sink in boneless sleep away. The breeze,
so zealous at first, proved fickle, and the
men had to take to the oars. If Oxford
could beat Cambridge with such oars, the
crew would surely be stuffed and exhibi-
ted in the British Museum for ever. They
were simply trunks of young trees
tapered, allowing only the very minimum
of purchase in the stroke. But what did
it matter? The harder the rowing the
better the men seemed to like it. They
rowed as though rowing were something
to save up for, like a Sunday School
treat. How handsome they looked !
Their finely-developed muscles were like
the contour of the coast line in miniature ;
and, bathed in perspiration, their bodies
shone like burnished bronze. It was after
two when we drew ashore at York, hav-
ing first bought from a fine fellow in a
canoe seven shillingsworth of fish (En-
glish price) for sevenpence. The Akabo
(welcome) was of the sort much favoured
in these parts : a party of women were
gathered on the beach singing “ spiri-
tuals,†not unlike the little choruses of
an old-fashioned Methodist prayer meet-
ing. They sang us to our lodgings, and'
later brought gifts of fine fruit—oranges,
bananas, plaintain—to prove the reality
of their Akabo.
Later, there was a welcome meeting in
the church, which was rounded off by a
twenty minutes’ happy riot of song, dur-
ing which the folk came forward to shake
hands with the new G.S., giving him not
only Akabo ! but Okushe ! which means
Well done! in every tense and every
shade of meaning.
One of God’s creatures, which came on
a hundred legs to greet me, an African
centipede, was misjudged in its intention,
and was most vigorously stamped out of
existence by a member of my bodyguard.
As this happened during one of the
speeches, our hair was raised a little, for
we did not at first see why our good friend
had chosen that moment for an exhibition
of the “Africo-Highland Fling.†Before
we left York, I went to see the famous
14
A Five Days’ Tour in Southern Sierra Leone, West Africa
cave, comparable with the Derbyshire
watercourse caves, only smaller, which is
supposed to run from York to Tokeh,
two miles or so away. . I was assured
that there was most certainly a devil in
the cave. My informant wouldn’t go
with me to see, not for a thousand
pounds. The devil, I learned also, was
white. Proof of his presence was given
me in the tragic story of an Englishman
who determined to explore the cave.
He got as far as he could, but was com-
pelled to retreat, bringing' with him,
among other things, a crab he had found
in a pool. A few days later he was a
dead man. The devil had suffered his
intrusion, but could have no mercy on a
thief. In how many places in England
has one heard similar stories?
It was good to meet the York people
at worship. The service I conducted was
hearty and inspiring ; and I just wished
some of our folk at home could have
been present to hear the singing of the
old familiar hymns, and feel the power
of the spirit. Not unto us only, but to
these people also does God come. They
have eyes and they see, ears and they
hear, hearts and they feel, and minds that
understand the gospel of redeeming love.
Boys among my readers will be interested
to know that as I went down to the wharf
to depart for Kent I met the shade of one
Richard Turpin. I thought he looked
bewildered. Finding he had been mis-
directed, I pointed northwards, and he
rode away. For two pins I would have
gone with him—perhaps not. We
reached Kent at a quarter past three, and
met with the same kind of happy wel-
come. It was Sunday afternoon. We
went straight to the District Commis-
sioner’s rest house close by the sea, look-
ing over the channel to the Banana Is-
lands. We “donned up†rapidly, and
were ready for service at five o’clock.
The Kent church is small and needs help.
The few folk who gather are very loyal
and devout, and their welcome was of
the spirit, beautiful in simplicity. There
turned into the service a prophet and
prophetess (so called) white-robed, each
with a crozier. In this fashion they were
wandering from place to place. So here
also there are those who love the odd
way. And who will say it is not God’s
way? Is there not a word which speaks
of being odd for Christ’s sake?
On Monday, November 8th, we rowed
across to Dublin, our first call in the
Banana Islands. The two islands to-
g'ether are not as large as the Isle of
Man ; and they are only islands when
the tide is full. When the water is low,
a connecting bridge of rocks is visible,
which can be crossed by strong legs,
Mr. Stedeford travelled that way, and I
believe feels a stiffness in his legs to this
day. I went by boat. The meetings at
Dublin were very -well attended and very
enthusiastic. There was a Mendi man
present at the welcome meeting. He
told me that the Creoles had had the ad-
vantage of being born Christians, but the
Mendies had to be won by patience and
tact. The Mendi, he said, was like a
dry stick, he needed careful handling. I
told him I had been called a dry stick
myself many a time, and assured him that
we should ever seek the loving guidance
and wisdom of God in our work among
His people.
During our stay at Dublin a certain
mother was reported to have pulled her
daughter by the nose, with some injury to
the child. At sunset, a crowd of children
gathered in procession, hammering tin
cans with sticks, and singing the impro-
vised ditty, “She took her little daughter
by the nose.†Now and then one could
hear the woman’s voice raised to a shriek
in anger at this treatment, but the chil-
dren went on relentlesslv. At sunrise next
morning, the town-crier was out, calling
a town’s meeting under the tamarind tree,
by order of the headman, presumably to
deal with the woman’s complaint.
The church at Ricketts, on the other
island, is only small, but very dear to the
folk there. I was asked here if I had a
rifle to shoot some monkeys which were
doing damage in the plantations. Here I
drank the milk of young coco-nuts, and
to all small boys I would say it was just
ripping !
We returned to Dublin, and from
thence forward to Freetown, a journey of
about 30 miles. How long? Only twelve
and a half hours. I have no words to
describe my feelings as hour followed
hour. We got becalmed half way ; and
after being doused by rain that filled the
boat almost faster than it could be baled
out, we landed in a thunderstorm. How
the men rowed ! And they rowed to a
little homely song.
15
Nurse Raine Returns to China
Solo : “We are hungry, what shall we
â– do? â€
Chorus : “Steal some chop.â€
Solo : “ Where shall we hide it ? â€
Chorus : “Under the sofa.â€
Solo : “When Mammy comes.â€
Chorus : “I’ll tell um.â€
Solo : “When papa comes.â€
Chorus : “I’ll tell um.â€
After all the relations have thus been
dealt with, the song begins again. I got
up very late next morning, feeling sore-
boned and weary. But still it was Okushe !
Well done !
Nurse Raine Returns
to China.
URSE RAINE leaves for China on
the fifteenth of this month. Our
readers will be interested in the
message from her which follows :
In returning to China for a second
term of service, I do so with a clearer
knowledge of what is before me.
The romantic adventure into the un-
known which buoys up the missionary on
the first trip is absent from the second
r '' ......
|
Bb
kL.JU.. .....
Nurse Ruine.
adventure. Fortunately its place is
usually taken by a great love and ad-
miration for the people and the land of
one’s adoption.
Though circumstances do not permit
me to return to my old colleagues in
Yunnan, it is to them and the Yunnanese
that I owe a great debt. For the former’s
help and encouragement during the first
difficult years, and to the latter for the
affectionate way they took me into their
hearts and homes. It is this experience
that gives me every confidence in going
to a new; sphere. I am sure of help and
sympathy from the missionaries and
affectionate greetings from the Chinese
women.
A woman missionary’s lot is a very
happy one ; she is the connecting link
between two fine bands of women : the
women of the home churches and their
sisters overseas, and it is very beautiful
to be able to see with what affection the
Chinese women on one side of the world
regard the mother church, and, on the
other side, with what loving sympathy the
women of our home churches regard the
daughter church afar. It is because I
am so proud to be such a connecting link
that I rejoice in my early return to
China.
But over and above all is the wonder-
ful knowledge that I go in the name of
Jesus and for His sake.
Nora B. Raine.
16
The Power of
Superstition. Rev J jackson.
Superstition is an extremely
strong force in the life of the primi-
tive. His ideas are limited by the
bounds placed upon him by his ancestry.
It requires a strong combating power to
eliminate what has become a fundamental
characteristic in his nature. The mode
of life which he leads may tend to assist
the development of this side of his make-
up, but certain it is, that it will need a
very long period of Christian teaching to
lift him from the slough of despond.
I have had many illustrations during my
short residence among these East African
natives of the hold which superstition
exercises. Particularly, does one meet it
when dealing with the medical side of the
work. There are instances where it does,
more or less, touch every phase of the
native’s life, but I do not propose to at-
tempt to deal with so comprehensive a
subject My only desire is to help you to
realize how one superstition is so firmly
fixed that such subjects as life, death and
service are affected. W e, recognized
civilized people, regard these as most
important, and they are so important
in the native’s life that one super-
stition affecting either will cause a native
to relinquish all hopes of what human aid
can give him, and calmly await what des-
tiny has in store Without hesitation you
would say this attitude is fatalistic. I
think you are right. The native has a
good deal of fatalism in his nature. Even
those who have been recognized Chris-
tians for decades still have a fatalistic out-
look upon life. This I have deduced from
the constant reiteration of the phrase, “It
is the will of God,†where if science,
cleanliness and common sense were ap-
plied we would say it is the fault of the
individual. This is particularly true of
the Wapokomo, in whose midst I am now
working for a short period.
But my chief illustration is drawn, not
from the Wapokomo, but from the Wan-
vika. While I was at Ribe, a number of
very bad cases—I mean medical—had to
be dealt with. At the beginning of his
career, a young missionary is extremely
anxious to master the intricacies of the
language in which he hopes to deliver the
message of our Lord. With this purpose
in mind I awoke one morning, feeling re-
freshed after a good night’s rest, re-
solving to set apart at least three hours-
for language study. I have heard it said,
that resolutions are made to be broken.
Certainly I do not agree with the spirit ot
that implication, but I do feel that the
carrying out of resolutions is subject to
circumstances. The sun did not shine
upon my resolution that morning, for we
had just finished the morning service, and
were wending- our various ways when I
noticed a rather anxious-looking crowd
standing inside the boma (palisade). They
were waiting for the missionary.
When I reached the steps of the house,,
and the usual formalities having been
passed, I inquired their business. A big,
burly man stepped forward and explained
that his son had fallen from the top of a
coco-nut tree the previous evening, and he
thought he had broken his leg. Would I
go and see him ? For a moment I thought
of those precious three hours’ language
study, and then turned round and con-
sented. Was it far? No; but when the
native says “si mbali,†meaning “not a
long way,†you can look out for a decent
tramp. Consequently, “ si mbali †went
In one ear and out ot the other. Having
secured all I was likely to require for
setting a fracture, we started off. It was
so near that we had been walking for an
hour and a half and still were not at our
destination. At the end of two hours we
reached the grass hut in which the young
man was lying.
It was obvious that his femur was
broken. The native in his crude way has
some idea of what to do. They had se-
cured two pieces of bark to act as splints,
and had fastened these bv blades of
grass. I immediately set the fracture,
securing the necessary extension as best I
could with poor materials, and having
finished the job prepared to give them
advice regarding the case.
His home was too far from the mission
for me to attend to him, so I suggested
to the father that the very best thing he
could do would be to take the young man
to Mombasa Hospital, where he could
secure the best treatment possible. This
involved carrying the young man, on an
improvised stretcher, to Mwakerungi,
where they would secure a dhow to cross
to Mombasa. This idea was accepted by
the parents and relatives, and they swiftly
17
The Power of Superstition
made all arrangements for carrying the
young man to Mwakerungi.
Consider my astonishment when the
relatives came two days later, and in
formed me that the young man had re-
fused to go. I could think of no reason
at first. Then I beg-an to wonder if it
had anything to do with the act of carry-
ing. On inquiry I found my suspicion to
be correct. The young man had refused
to go because if he was carried on a
stretcher like a dead body is carried, he
would surely die before he reached his
destination. Sound, in every other part
of his body, except the injured limb, and
yet this idea persisted that if he was car-
ried on his back similar to that of a dead
body, his life would be required for tres-
passing into another realm. Even if
nature, which heals in a miraculous
fashion, had not been ready to lend her
assistance to that young man, I am con-
vinced, he would calmly have waited his
fate before allowing himself to be
carried.
Such is the influence and power of the
spirit-world in the life of the native. These
people have no thought of an after life,
yet they believe in spirits. When one
touches the question of death, they say
that our life is finished totally when the
breath of life leaves the body, and then
proceed, illogically, to argue that the
spirit of the dead person still lives, and
can haunt or bless the remaining relatives.
It is not a question of their imagination
being brought into play, but a real and
fundamental belief. It is a position hard
to reconcile, and I must frankly admit
that I cannot find a solution. That even
to be carried on a stretcher is a premoni-
tion of death is a difficult position to
solve. I suggested that they bring him
to Rib£, where I could attend to him, but
he persistently refused to be carried.
My thoughts have often dwelt on this
problem, and I have been wondering
whether there is any great gulf between
what we term civilized peoples and primi-
tive tribes. How many Europeans walk
round a ladder? How many ladies will
not wear green ? Why ? There is some
half-conceived notion that by walking
under a ladder one would bring down the
wrath of the gods, or that by wearing
green the star of fortune would be lost
in the clouds. How far is this removed
from the attitude of the young man who
would not be carried for fear of death ?
Tam not going to attempt to answer this
problem, but merely throw it out for
thought among my fellow-Christians.
This is just one feature of how super-
stition affects these people, and is an in-
dication of what the Christian messenger
has to combat. Yet there is a power
which can banish all the fears from our
hearts. In that we rejoice, and in that
we press forward, conscious that the love
and power of Christ can win where our
poor human persuasions fail so miserably.
-5-
A Study of World Evangelization.
By David Jenks, Author of “A Study
of the Mind of Christ.†(Stud.ent
Christian Movement; price 4s.
cloth ; 2s. 6d. paper.)
This book contains a brief history of
the world-wide missionary enterprise of
the Christian Church. It meets a long-
felt want, and its chapters carry us into
a field of study which the impartial his-
torian and the fervent missionary advo-
cate will find helpful and stimulating. One
obvious merit of the book is that it com-
plies well with the author’s intention as
set forth in the preface. It is a “ study â€
of evangelisation in relation to general
history, and not a history of evangelisa-
tion, or a history of modern missions.
From this description it must not be con-
cluded that the author has abandoned the
historical method, save in the last few
chapters, where he avowedly deserts it to
illustrate, by selections from modern mis-
sion fields, his conviction that to-day, as
in the past, God’s voice is heard. On
the contrary, he is true to it in letter and
in spirit ; not to give us a continuous his-
tory of world evangelisation, but in order
to show the relationship between Chris-
tian missionary enterprise and the trend
of secular history from apostolic times to
the present day.
The aim of the book is in no way
obscured by the multitude and variety of
the details.
It is a book admirable from beginning
to end, and we would earnestly commend
it to missionary study circles, C.E. socie-
ties, guilds, and all who are interested in
missions and missionary advocacy. The
small outlay will prove a sound invest-
ment. W. Dewdney.
IS
Mrs. J. B. BROOKS, B.Lltt,
Our President’s Message.
IT is difficult to realize that we have
come to the close of the year 1926.
Time goes so quickly.
Many of the days have been troublous
and anxious, but we give thanks to God
for His care and manifold kindness.
The New, Year on which we have
entered is like an unopened book. We
know not what it holds for us. Let us
follow “The Christ, the King,†and make
it the best year we have ever lived.
Ada Maclaurin.
From the Council Secretary.
Mrs. Brooks, in asking me to write a
New Year Message to the W.M.A.
Branches, said she was sure there were
some things I should like to tell the
Branches. If I could visit them all, I
should implore them to remember the dire
need of evangelistic missionaries in
China. One woman member of the
Chinese Church to every three men, and
we have only three evangelistic women
missionaries at work in the whole of
China. The missionaries’ wives do yeo-
men service—all honour and thanks to
them—but all of them have more to do
than they can accomplish. Think of
Ningpo—the ante-chamber of Shanghai
for many Chinese—with one woman mis-
sionary as our representative. If branches
will redouble their efforts to make the
needs of our work known, and will, with
great importunity, lay the matter before
our Omnipotent Head, I feel sure the
young women of our Churches will re-
spond to the call.
A. Truscott Wood.
Our Foreign Corresponding Secretary
and her Work.
Mrs. Knight, who completed a six
years’ term of service as Foreign Corre-
sponding Secretary at Conference, 1926,
has been a member of the W.M.A. Coun-
cil since its formation in 1909, when the
women’s missionary organizations of the
three denominations united. Presumably
she had served on the committee of the
Bible Christian Women’s Missionary
League from its inauguration in 1892. We
owe her grateful appreciation for such
continued interest and devoted service.
Miss Weeks, who succeeds her, is well
known in the Council, having been a
member nearly every year since 1915, and
having often acted as minute secretary or
scrutineer. In her the Bristol District has
had a most capable and enthusiastic
secretary for over thirteen years, during
which the W.M.A. has made great pro-
gress. She will give us of her best.
Besides keeping in touch by cor-
respondence with the women workers
overseas, the Foreign Corresponding
Secretary is responsible for despatching
gift parcels to the mission stations. It
is important that all should know that
articles for this purpose should now be
sent to Miss Weeks, Ashton House,
Mrs. Knight.
19
Women’s Missionary Auxiliary
Hanham, Bristol. We cannot measure
the gracious helpfulness of this ministry.
No doubt many of you were privileged
to hear over the wireless a few weeks ago
a beautiful talk to children by Rev. James
Black, of Edinburgh, about the sunbeam
that turned corners. How, through the
kindly interest of a lady visitor and the
happy thought of a schoolboy and his bit
of broken glass, the sun’s rays were
turned in the direction of the northern-
facing window of a room where a poor
ailing laddie lay each day. Often had he
watched the sunbeams playing on the
houses across the street and wished they
would visit him. What joy' came into his
face when he saw the bright beams mov-
ing up and down the quilt upon his bed !
A bit of broken glass and a kindly
thought had caused the sunbeam to turn
a corner.
There is always a bit of broken glass
at hand, and many, many hearts are
kind. May they ever remember the power
of little things to reflect the warm sun-
shine of God’s love.
The wife of one of our missionaries
now in England on furlough would like
to take back to China hundreds of vests
made from stocking legs, and bibs made
from towel ends, etc. Bits of broken
Mjss Weeks.
glass, cast aside it may be, but through
them sunshine may reach those in sore
need.
This autumn, Miss Weeks has received
and dispatched a goodly supply of ar-
ticles—brightly coloured dolls and other
toys, handkerchiefs, bags, various gar-
ments, pieces of material, and all sorts of
hospital supplies from sheets to safety
pins. Each gift parcel has its own story.
Here is one.
Week by week the members of a Junior
C.E. society dropped their tiny farthings
into a special “farthing jar.†These have
been used to buy sheets for some hospital
overseas. Tiny bits of metal turned into
cool, clean sheets which the poet, Rupert
Brooke, has told us are among the things
to love. 'These will help to reveal God’s
wondrous love where it is little under-
stood.
Some of our workers abroad possess a
gramophone and find it helpful. Nurse
Raine, who sails for Wenchow this
month, is taking one with her, towards
the cost of which her home church has
largely contributed. A shining black
record from your ample stock would
bring sunny hours into weary days for
the patients in the hospital wards.
Take your bit of broken glass, whatever
its shape or colour. Fashioned by loving
thought and skilful hands it may become
the medium through which the comforting
rays of the Father’s love shall reach sad-
dened hearts and darkened lives, J. B,
The late Mrs. J. H. Squire.
The passing away of Mrs. Squire, wife
of the Rev. J. H. Squire, B.A., B.D., of
Forest Hill, is a great blow to the mis-
sionary cause in London. Her death was
quite unexpected, taking place on Decem-
ber 9th, at St. Thomas’s Hospital,
where she had gone for what was con-
sidered to be a minor operation. She
will be greatly missed in many circles.
Her zeal for the Women’s Missionary
Auxiliary scarcely knew any bounds";
indeed, it might be truly said that in
service of this kind she worked beyond
her strength. It is hard to reconcile our-
selves to the passing away of such a
gracious Christian personality. We pro-
foundly sympathise with Mr."Squire and
his children in their deep sorrow.
A. E. J. C.
20
“There was not a trace of racial prejudice in his heart. Alhracial distinctions
had vanished from his eye. The doors of his heart were wide open to receive as
his brothers all sorts and conditions of men.†—Dr. C. E.Jefferson on St. Pan!.
The Charm of the
Missionary Idea.
IN an Edinburgh garden there might
have been seen a few years ago an
old lady, of gentle and refined appear-
ance, her strong face marked with ex-
perience of life. After a long day of
Rev. CUTHBERT ELLISON.
service for others she was enjoying-,
among- her “ain folk,†a quiet eventide
before the falling of the night.
“Smoyana,†a friend said to her one
day, “if you had the chance, would you
Tutors and Students of the Peking Preachers' Training School. (Rev. F. B. Turner is seen on the extreme left.)
February. 1927.
The Charm of the Missionary Idea
go back and live those thirty years over
again in heathen Xolobe ? â€
“Yes,†came the instant reply, as the
old face lit up with eager interest, “ Oh
yes ! I should like to do it better than
I have done. I have done so little.â€
In that ardent response there is re-
vealed the unfailing charm and attrac-
tiveness of the missionary idea. Since
St. Paul first tasted the joy of leading men
out of darkness into the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God, out of
bondage into the liberty of the children
of God, the succession has never failed of
those who have fallen under the spell,
and have yielded themselves to its attrac-
tion. In every age they have arisen,
those ardent souls who in obedience to
Christ have forsaken all things—count-
ing not life itself dear—and have eagerly
embraced every peril and privation, to
carry into remote places the message of
the love of God.
There is an element of adventure in the
missionary idea. It touches also the
sense of chivalry. To the charm of the
adventurous is added the appeal of the
chivalrous. It is the chivalrous impulse
that is foremost with the Christian mis-
sionary. He is constrained by the love
of Christ, for whose sake he desires to
help the weak and needy. But the adven-
turous appeal is not negligible. That
difficulties, have to be overcome and dan-
gers faced in the carrying of the good
news is part of the attraction. The
fascination of such a book as “Tight
Corners in China †lies as much in the
tight corners in which the missionary
found himself as in the purpose for which
he was there.
The abiding interest, the perennial
fascination, of missionary work lies in
the fact that it is an adventure of the soul-
For what is the missionary idea? It is
the idea of winning men and women from
low and unworthy things to things high
and good. It is the hope of establishing
a close relationship between the separated
peoples of the earth, upon the basis of
a common Divine Fatherhood, and its
correlative a common human brotherhood.
Here is a thought well fitted to captivate
the mind and thrill the spirit. To have
seen the vision, to have grasped the idea,
and to know that we have the power to
make it real : this is what is behind mis-
sionary work. It is to believe in the
Gospel as “ the power of God unto salva-
tion,†and to go out to put it to the test
in every place. And if there be a place
on earth more dark and hopeless than
others, then to go to just that place,
through every hindering circumstance, to
put the Gospel to the test there : that is
the missionary idea—the most intrigpiing,
fascinating notion that has visited the
mind of man.
The missionary proves by experience
that the idea is truth, and that it works.
With the slenderest equipment he goes
out and does wonders. He sees men and
women grow into the consciousness of a
high purpose in life. He watches the
growth of souls. He marks the develop-
ment in the changed life, the dawning
intelligence in the look, the spiritualising
of the face as it is struck by light from
within.
To witness the response to the appeal
to the Divine in degraded humanity is
to taste the highest felicity. There is no
achievement like the awakening of a soul.
Nothing that art has accomplished is com-
parable to this. Nay, this is the supreme
art.
“Shall to produce form out of unshaped
stuff
Be art—and further, to evoke a soul
From form be nothing?â€
The missionary makes out of a bar-
barous tribe a civilised community. He
creates for them a written language. “ He
gives them a literature, and the faculty
to enjoy it. He raises womanhood ; he
creates homes ; he draws a whole race to
high levels of life.†Life has no more
durable satisfaction to offer than the
accomplishment of such work. “The
growth of the soul is the one pursuit
which makes life, to its very last day, full
of interest,†says one of the teachers of
our time. But to be the means of the
growth of the soul in others is more
interesting still.
Christina Forsyth, known and loved
by African natives as Smoyana, endured
without break a thirty-years’ exile for
Christ in dark Xolobe. The changes
which her service made there brought,
with other gains, the sometimes doubtful
advantage of callers. Of such casual
22
Some Village Christians of Chekiang, China
visitors was the wife of a trader, who
afterwards wrote of her hostess : “ Mrs.
Forsyth is a remarkable woman, living
alone like that. It is wonderful what
some people will do for a hobby.†Hobby !
It is a singular word in such a connec-
tion. For one thing, it seems so
curiously inadequate. Its offence how-
ever lies deeper. To associate such an
idea with the pains and sacrifice of mar-
tyrs and saints is to reveal a mind un-
enviably insensitive.
But the charm abides. The high
adventure that calls for daring, the
chivalrous appeal that asks for service,
still weave their alluring spell and capture
ardent souls. Still men and women caught
by that charm forsake all, and fare forth
with brave hearts to confront the world
with the challenge of Jesus.
Some Village Christians
of Chekiang, China.
Rev. W. R. STOBIE.
Wenchow, 1896-1912,
1918-24.
GHEKIANG is a Chinese maritime
province, south of Shanghai and
nearly twice the size of Belgium.
In many parts it is very mountainous,
particularly in the county of Wenchow.
This county is divided into several magis-
tracies or hsiens, all of which are moun-
tainous. Cedar Creek is part of one of
these hsiens, and one of the most rugged.
The name is taken from a tributary stream,
about 100 miles long, of the Wenchow
River. Its main direction is southward,
and almost at right angles to the larger
river. The beautiful limpid waters of the
Cedar Creek bubble and dash and leap and
dance and whirl and glide and sing and
make rippling laughter during its whole
course among mountains, some of them
beautifully wooded, especially in the
higher reaches of the stream, until, about
ten miles from its confluence with the
river, it worries its way through rich
alluvial soil which has formed narrow
plains here and there at most only a mile
wide. Here its waters are no longer limpid,
but muddy, even at low tide, though the
mountains accompany it right to its
junction with the main stream—-a point
on the northern bank of the river opposite
the eastern suburb of Wenchow City,
which is on the southern bank.
The temper of the Cedar Creek people
is as rugged and hard as the coarse granite
of which their mountains are composed,
and it is but a scanty living that with
prodigious toil they can wrest from the
innumerable and narrow valleys and
barren hills which constitute their district.
Such terms as “the struggle for existence"
and "the survival of the fittest†find here
abundant illustrations among the hardy
inhabitants, and the struggle is carried on
not only amid the extraordinarily severe
conditions of agriculture which necessarily
prevail on land whose soil is scant, but
flood and drought, bandits and clan feuds,
Model of Pagoda in silver presented to Rev. J. E. Swallow
by the Missionaries in China in appreciation of his long and
valued services to them in connection with the Missionaries’
Literature Association.
Some Village Christians of Chekiang, China
disease and litigation, all take a big toll of
the population.
The Cedar Creek people are notorious
for the independence of their character,
and, while making brave and steadfast
adherents to the Christian faith—some of
them have been (mown to suffer severe
physical tortures rather than deny that
faith—nevertheless not infrequently they
provide some difficult problems in Church
discipline for their missionaries and their
Chinese ministers. One can recall some
Cedar Creek men whose physical appear-
ance and posture strongly suggest the
upstanding rugged hills amid which they
were bred ; the poise and contour of whose
heads is reminiscent of the upward thrust
of the beetling peaks and crags from the
massive shoulders of their native moun-
tains.
Forty miles up the Cedar Creek the
mountains to the east and west of the
stream recede from each other to form a
somewhat circular and level strath about
three or four miles across. On its eastern
side, where a small valley widens out to
join the Cedar Creek Valley, stands, at the
foot of the mountains, the walled village
of Fung Ling (Maple Grove). It is about
a mile distant from the creek, from which
it is reached across a level stretch of land
on which are cultivated wheat, rice, beans,
and a grove of fruit trees, and the tallow
tree from the tiny white globular bloom
of which tallow is obtained for making
candles. When these trees are white with
blossom in the spring, the walk along the
narrow paths under their shade up to the
flight of steps leading to the small gate of
the town is delightful and refreshing after
miles of walking under a hot sun. Maple
Grove is the largest town in Cedar Creek,
and is now the head of that circuit of 29
churches, having the Circuit Chapel and
the dwelling of the Chinese superintendent
minister.
Maple Grove Church was founded in
1896, toward the close of which year I
first left England for China. The meetings
for some years were held in a small Chinese
dwelling. The members of the Lincoln
Silver Street Church, from which I went
abroad, at the instigation of the late Mr.
Samuel Lee, of that city (who later en-
dowed the Samuel Lee Cot in Wenchow
Hospital), subscribed £26 as a memento
of our year of happy co-operation in the
work of that circuit. The money was used
to buy the site of the Maple Grove Chapel.
There are five village churches within about
four miles of Maple Grove, and most of
them are on this little circle of land,
some lying at the foot of stupendous but
mysteriously maj estic crags. The history of
these Christian communities is largely one
of persecution, suffering, daring faith even
to the “resisting unto blood,†penurious
toil, devotion, and enterprise.
This statement receives graphic illustra-
tion in an article of nine chapters entitled
“Maple Grove,†by Rev. J. W. Heywood,
issued in the Missionary Echo for 1901,
dealing with events connected with the bitter
persecution heroically borne by several
members of that church in the earliest years
of the history of their society. It was in
Maple Grove that I had my first experience
of being mobbed by Chinese, and of learn-
ing at first hand of the rugged temper of
the Cedar Creek people, shortly after my
arrival in China, but of that I may speak
later. The outstanding figure of that in-
cident, a Chinese Christian called Ding
Ngoe, is also the most prominent figure in
Mr. Heywood’s narrative. An incident
given by Mr. Heywood may be briefly re-
called as exemplifying the ruggedness and
independence referred to. The time was
the hot season in the broiling city of Wen-
chow, 1894 ; the occasion, the trial, on
false accusation, of Ding Ngoe and some
fellow Christians in a Wenchow court; the
cause, the refusal of their fellow villagers
to allow a footing in their village to Chris-
tianity. For over five hours the little band
had suffered from kneeling on the hard
stones, besides other rough treatment.
They are sent to the stifling and vile prison,
chained to a staple in the wall so that their
arms remain outstretched, their necks
being similarly chained. With limbs and
neck outstretched, unable to rest their
feet comfortably on the ground, they are
kept for six hours. Near midnight a small
bribe secures a very slight relaxation of
their chains, and then a period of twelve
hours in that chained posture follows.
Imagination can only feebly enable one
to realise something of the intensity of the
prolonged misery, for though it is early
September, it is still summer heat in
Wenchow, and one may lie on a European
From the Mission House
bed at night,.wearing the thinnest of cotton
shorts, on a linen sheet, in the wide open
doorway of an upstairs spacious verandah
and be unable to sleep because, though
thus uncovered, one may feel the moisture
from one’s pores slowly exuding and
making clammy the skin. No wonder
that, hardy Highlander though he is, one
of the four should burst into tears and cry
out that his sufferings are beyond en-
durance. One cannot improve on Mr.
Heywood’s crisp and sharp-cut sentences :
“Ding Ngoe with great difficulty turned
his head towards him and began to com-
fort him by saying, ‘ Don’t weep ! Don’t
be disheartened ! We ought to be full of
joy. You ought to think of Jesus ; how
He was nailed to the cross, and be filled
with grief at what was done to Him. We
are bearing the cross now for Him, and
we ought to be joyful and not sad ! ’ Zie
Liae (the name of the other), hearing these
words, was much comforted and streng-
thened, and, in his own words, ‘was soon
at peace.’ â€
Well over 70 years of age, Ding Ngoe is
living still, of patriarchal appearance, but
erect as ever, and a pillar of his native
church in Maple Grove. Of events and ex-
periences connected with his later Christian
life—-for, though a village Christian, his
life has been full of incident—and which
have come under my own observation, I
have more to say. This will appear later.
From the
Mission House.
China and the At the Washington Con-
British ference in 1922 the Great
Memorandum. Powers agreed to take
united action, in relation
to China, and announced their willing-
ness to revise) existing treaties, and their
desire to see the development in China of
such a stable form of Government, and
such a satisfactory system of justice, as
would warrant the surrender of the ex-
territorial privileges conceded by treaty to
foreigners resident in China. The at-
tempts made to fulfil these professed aims
have proved abortive, chiefly on account
of the chaotic condition of the internal
affairs of China. In the meantime a
powerful anti-foreign movement has de-
veloped in China which has directed its
hostility chiefly against Great Britain,
because foreign interests in China are 80
per cent British. Consequently Great
Britain sustains a loss, in commerce and
prestige, greater than all the other Powers
combined, as a result of the failure of the
Powers to adjust satisfactorily their rela-
tions with China. It became urgent,
therefore, for the British Government to
declare its attitude toward China’s claims.
This has been done in a Memorandum
addressed to the other Powers who were
Rev. C. STEDEFORD.
parties to the Washington agreement on
united action. The Memorandum is most
friendly in spirit and shows a real desire
to grant the legitimate claims of China
and to help China to take her place on
equal terms in the comity of nations.
The British The publication of the
Memorandum Memorandum was de-
an Offence. signed to allay the anti-
British feeling in China.
That effect will be produced on the minds
of many fair-minded Chinese, but they
will probably remain voiceless because no
one can speak for China as a whole. On
the other hand, the Southerners, who
dominate the greater part of the country
south of the Yangtze River, have found a
voice in their Foreign Commissar, Mr.
Eugene Chen, who denounces the Memo-
randum as a sinister attempt, in friendly
guise, to deceive the Chinese people, to
frustrate their nationalist aims, and to
strengthen the North against the South.
He seizes upon the British willingness to
recognise the Chinese right to impose a
surtax upon imports as the justification of
his view. This is interpreted as a device
by means of which the North may obtain
a source of revenue and more success-
35
From the Mission House
fully maintain the fight against the South.
Canton imposed the surtax in defiance of
international treaty, but the Cantonese
Government is alarmed at the prospect of
their opponents in the North gaining
revenue from the same source. The
North has the command of the most lucra-
tive ports, including Shanghai and Tient-
sin, and the Southerners may well feel
apprehensive when the North profits by
following their method. In inventing their
weapon against the foreigner the Can-
tonese did not imagine they were placing
a more powerful one in the hands of their
opponents in the North.
Conquest After all, ideas are
by Ideas. mightier than military
force or financial power,
and the chief strength of the Southerners
in China consists in the fact that they
proclaim a definite programme for the
amelioration of China. They propagate
a theory of national independence and
social reconstruction as the remedy for
China’s poverty and misery. It is not
surprising that the distracted Chinese are
ready to adopt any theory which promises
such a glorious emancipation. Wild and
impossible may be the schemes, but they
excite the lower classes with great hopes.
Ardent supporters of the new order are
found in the various cities of China ready
to welcome the military supporters of that
order as soon as they appear. The op-
posite camp is composed of distintegrated
and discordant elements which find it
almost impossible to form a working
alliance against the advancing Southern-
ers. The indications clearly favour the
ultimate triumph of the South. Such a
prospect awakens alarm in the minds of
many on account of the attitude assumed
by the Southerners toward Christian mis-
sions. It may be anticipated, however,
that as a movement spreads its extreme
ideas will become modified in order to
conciliate the greatest number. Notions
which flourish in frenzied minds do not
long survive contact with sober judgment.
The Chinese are a sober-minded people,
and may be trusted to discriminate be-
tween beneficent service and fruitless
promises.
Christian missions are another form
of conquest by ideas. Preaching is their
most essential feature. The present state
of the Chinese mind emphasizes the ur-
gent necessity for preaching the truth,
the mightiest of all ideas which must
ultimately prevail.
Bandit A most distressing story
Devilry. of bandit barbarity, in
which one of our Bible
colporteurs and his wife were the victims,
is sent by Rev. C. E. Hicks in Yunnan.
Here it is as he relates it.
“We are growing very much oppressed
by the sordid and brutal crimes perpetra-
ted by the brigands. A few days after I
returned from Sifangching news was
brought to us that our colporteur, Mr.
Ma, with his wife, had been captured by
brigands. A day or so later report said
that the wife had been released but the
man was taken away over the mountains.
We waited a little and soon it was bruited
abroad that Mr. Ma had been murdered.
The reports became numerous and insis-
tent, and Mr. Li sent two young men,
student preachers we call them, to inves-
tigate. They called at Mr. Ma’s home,
which is in a village only seven miles from
Chaotong, and found that the.wife had
never returned, and that the only occu-
pants of the home were four destitute
little children. The story now told is
that the brigands captured Mr. Ma and
his wife as they were watching their
maize. The unfortunate victims of this
outrage were forced up the mountain
side. Later details indicate that the
brigands had no wish to kill the wife,
but that, as she persisted in following
her captured husband, they grew en-
raged and threw her alive into a deep
ravine by the roadside on the way to
Stone Gateway, and that Mr. Ma, seeing
the cruel intention of his captors, threw
himself down after his poor wife.â€
The The effect of such a
Missionary’s tragedy upon a mission-
Sorrow. ary can hardly be im-
agined. Mr. Hicks de-
scribes his feeling in the following words :
“This crime has created in me a feeling
of nausea. I feel I want to get away
from the place, if not from the country.
I have known Mr. Ma for about eighteen
years. He came as a school boy to our
Training Institute in the elementary sec-
tion many years ago, and he developed
into a simple-minded, quiet Christian.
His work as a colporteur was steady and
regular. It is feared that he had offended
26
The Missionary’s Plea
some of these brigands, who were among
the rebels who attacked the city last
year, and to whom Mr. Ma was related.
Some of these wicked men have begun to
return to their homes, silencing the vil-
lage officials by bribes ; and it is sup-
posed that they feared Mr. Ma would
divulge the fact of their return.â€
Our missionaries who labour amid
such tragic and disheartening events need
our utmost sympathy and most earnest
prayers.
A New Since the retirement of
Doctor at Dr. Plummer in 1925
Chu Chia. our hospital at Chu Chia
has been without an En-
glish doctor, and has been dependent
upon the Chinese assistants. We rejoice
to learn that Rev. F. B. Turner has been
able to secure the services of Dr. R. P.
Hadden, a medical missionary with a re-
cord of fourteen years’ service in connec-
tion with the Wesleyan Mission in the
Canton District. The present engagement
is for one year only, but with the possi-
bility of the period being extended. Dr.
Hadden arrived at Chu Chia on Novem-
ber 20th. When Mr. Turner met him,
Dr. Hadden had gone to Peking with the
desire to transfer his services to a Man-
darin-speaking district. He served in the
South1 as the Christian Endeavour repre-
sentative of the Irish Methodist Confer-
ence, and his retirement evoked the fol-
lowing resolution from that Conference :
“The Conference returns thanks to Dr.
R. P. Hadden for his valuable services as
Christian Endeavour missionary for thir-
teen years. Dr. Hadden brought to his
work outstanding abilities as a medical
man, and a spirit continually aflame with
devotion to Jesus Christ. In his Chris-
tian service rendered in this country, in
China, and in connection with the Great
War he has proved himself a true man
of God, and has served the Master with
transparent sincerity in all the activities
of his life. â€
We welcome Dr. Hadden to our staff
and pray that he may himself be blessed
and be made a blessing in his new sphere.
“ Tlie Song A leaflet with the above
and tlie title has been prepared as
Sacrifice.†a means of introducing
our needs to possible
subscribers. They are for free, but dis-
creet, distribution. Ministers and mis-
sionary secretaries may obtain a supply
on application to the Book Room, or to
C. Stedeford.
->?•*»
The Missionary’s Plea.
Will you not pray for us? Each day
we need
Your prayers, for oft the way is
rough and long,
And our lips falter and forget their
song,
As we proclaim the Word men will not
heed.
Pray for us ! We are but vessels frail ;
The world’s appalling need would
crush us down
Save that in vision we behold the
crown
Upon His brow who shall at length
prevail.
Not yet the crowning ! Fields must first
be won,
Lives freely yielded, martyr-blood be
spilt,
Love cast out fear, redemption blot
out guilt,
Ere we behold the Kingdom of God’s
Son.
We shall behold it ! Lo, His word stands
sure :
Our King shall triumph in a world set
free.
With joy His chosen ones His reign
shall see!
Pray for us, friends, that we may still
endure.
(Author unknown.)
27
Specimen Days in
a Missionary’s Life.
UZZ . . b . . b . . rr! Goodness,
what could it mean? It slowly
came to me that it was the alarm
-clock’s warning", bidding- us to rise while
it was yet dark. Mr. Cozens, the doc-
tor’s wife and myself were to- visit one of
the out schools several miles away, and
we knew we must be astir early. S-o there
was nothing for it but to get up. The
night before I had prepared the “ Chop-
Box †with the necessary sardines, fruit,
tea, sugar, cakes, enamel cups and sau-
cers, teapot, knives and forks, not for-
getting the tin opener. This was to be
a very short, and shall we say, ordinary
safari. When one camps, and will be
away several days, the preparation is
quite an ordeal. A trunkful of clothes,
beds, blankets, basin and jug, table and
chairs, a tent, food, and pots and pans
to cook in, which is all carried by porters,
as they are called, each man being able
to carry sixty pounds.
Signs of movement about the house—
we must certainly get up-. We dressed
in suitable clothing for a long and dusty
walk, and just outside our bedroom door,
in the one large room of the bungalow,
we could hear the breakfast cups and
porridge plates being hastily dumped on
the table. The Doctor and his wife
[Photo: Mr. T. Butler, J.P.
Meru Women.
A Visit to an Out-Station
in Meru.
Mrs. A. G. V. COZENS.
occupy part of the bungalow, and usually
breakfast in their own room, but this par-
ticular morning we breakfasted tog'ether.
The three of us left the house waving
good-bye to the Doctor (who was left in
charge) just as the bell was being rung
for morning prayers—seven o’clock, and
the boys who live at the mission, and
the people who live â– round about, went
trooping down to the church, where
Nelson, the head teacher, would conduct
prayers, after which morning school
would continue until ten o’clock.
Imagine first of all the scene from out-
house. Immense space, and practically
all around us range after range of hills,
much higher than one is accustomed to
see in England. On our right we can
see the peaks of Mount Kenya (17,040
feet) always snow-capped. On our left
we can look away across desert. Be-
tween the mountains—in the valleys—we
look upon miles of forest. Dark green
belts, the home of the elephant, rhino,
leopard and lion. The nearest town is
two- hundred and forty miles away, and
the railway line, single, starts a hundred
and ten miles from this mission station.
We set off across the mission ground,
taking one of the paths which led down
into the first dip, across a stream, and
up the other side.
Here and there
we passed a
native hut
shaped like a
beehive, built of
mud, with a
thatch roof.
Congre gated
outside would be
the children, all
smiles, their
little naked
bodies gleaming
in the sunshine,
in spite of the
dirt. Thus we
continued our
way for nine
miles, up and
down, across
streams by
means of step-
ping stones,
passing through
28
Specimen Days in a Missionary’s Life
banana and sugar plantations, patches
here, there and everywhere yielding
native peas, beans, and castor oil—
but mostly bananas, the kind which we
dare not eat. Oh, what a climb once more,
but our reward was such as you cannot
possibly imagine. A view for hundreds
of miles, vast hills and valleys, no cities,
no chimneys, blue sky overhead, and the
sun’s rays just scorching-, so that the
white man must needs take every pre-
caution.
As we continued our way to Katheri,
our destination, we passed on these nar-
row paths long lines of women carrying’
tremendous burdens on their backs, the
firewood for the day, and in their huge
water pots, water for the family, which
they fetch from the nearest stream. The
bundles of wood and the water pots are
strapped to their backs, and each woman
is bent nearly double with the weight of
the burden. Whenever a man, or a boy,
who has reached the “young warrior â€
stage comes along- the path, these women
must step aside into the bracken, and
respectfully wait for them to pass before
continuing their way. The women, too,
till the ground, and do all the heavy
work, and a man having- as many wives
as he can afford to buy, can treat them
how he likes, and if she is in any sense
lazy, then a stick is brought into action
at once. We passed men, too, old and
young, many of them making for one
central spot where native beer could be
bought. All natives, both men and
women, greet you in passing, and you
return the greeting, until the utterance
“Monga Omwega †(“Good day, are you
well ? â€) becomes wearisome.
We were nearing our destination when,
to our astonishment, we came upon
swarms and swarms of men squatting in
the path with long knives clearing the
ground of weeds and grass, and, inci-
dentally, making a road. They were
packed together like sardines in a box for
quite half a mile along our course, and
in order to let us pass, they had to all
rise, and make a gangway. Mrs. Bras-
sington and I were very surprised to see
an African working like this. It appears
that road-making is the only enforced
labour in the country. The District Com-
missioner happened to be at Katheri col-
lecting taxes, and had ordered that a road
be made, and immediately heralds were
sent out, and all men must obey the sum-
mons. They can be claimed for one
week at a time only. Their only dress is
a blanket, which they endeavour to keep
around them, but which constantly needs
hitching up. A hole is made in the lobe
of their ears, and stretched and stretched
until a shaving- tin, a treasured posses-
sion, or a chunk of wood can be pushed
through it and worn as an ornament, and
little strings of beads suspended from it,
and, of course, a* safety pin too. This is
never used to fasten anything but kept
for digging out a little creature known as
a “jigger,†which is a source of great
worry to them, and to us, from their toes.
Having- made our way through this
long line of man force, we arrived at
Katheri. No sign post, or post office, or
store even to announce the fact, but a
Government Rest House built of mud
and thatch in a great open space, and
our mission school, and teacher’s house
right beside it. Again, there were un-
usual activities in the camp. At once
we perceived the flag flying which de-
noted the fact that the District Commis-
sioner, a very important person, is in
residence. Outside his tent stood his
beautiful black pony in readiness for his
departure, whilst he was seated inside at
a table making up his accounts.
All around were scenes of tremendous
activity. In the twinkling of an eye, a
kitchen, a stable, and a boy’s house
would stand complete. Swarms of men
broug'ht branches of trees from the forest
for supports, dozens of men staked them
in the ground, women in parties of thirty
to fifty brought banana leaves for the
thatching, singing, or, rather, chanting
as they came in sight, a most weird and
wonderful song. We passed on to the
school and greeted Dandi, the teacher,
and there on tree trunks sat the pupils
with slates, learning to write their own
language, and read from the two Gospels,
St. Mark and St. John. Here they learn
and read for the first time the name of
Jesus, and as the African is very eager
to learn, and the mission school is his
only means, here is our chance. The
little mites who begin at the beginning
and pass through all the standards, learn
and understand more and more of Jesus
and the One True God, and eventually
want to join the catechism class for bap-
tism. Here at the central school men
Specimen Days in a Missionary’s Life
will attend school in order to learn to
read and write. The Commissioner got
news of our coming, and came himself to
greet us and offer us tea. How I had
longed for a cup of tea since half way
along the road. Our own boy was then
preparing tea, but we were glad to drink
it in the Commissioner’s headquarters,
and we drank and drank until we had
had our fill, and were feeling refreshed,
though warmer than ever !
Mr. Cozens then set off with Dandi,
the teacher, to do some visiting, and
Major Buxton mounted his horse and left
the camp, in order to meet his wife and
three children, who were coming to spend
a few days with him whilst at work. Mrs.
Brassington and I rested in our chairs
which had been carried by porters—there
are too many creepy things to sit on the
grass—and watched operations. Never
have I seen such activity in Africa. They
swarmed like bees round the buildings to
be erected, and yet did not seem to get
in each others’ way. At twelve o’clock
we sought the shelter of the school for
lunch, and ate the sardines and tinned
fruit off enamel plates, and drank more
tea from large enamel cups. The sun
was now; right overhead and very very
hot. We were getting quite accustomed
to the buzz of many voices outside, and
the chanting of the women as they came
in long lines down the road from the
forest . . but surely this was some-
thing unusual. A single voice, high
pitched, and the jingle and clash of brass
ornaments. We hurried out to see what
it meant, and there on the road stood a
girl, her body polished with red earth and
castor oil till it shone like brass. Round
her neck were strings upon strings of
beads, round her waist she wore a leather
fringe, her arms and legs were encased
in brass wire, wound round and round,
and the chief ornament, I think, must
have been the fur anklets she wore,
although on her fingers were beautifully
curved pieces of steel, which reminded me
of a cricketer’s finger pads in shape. The
crowning feature was the feathers in her
hair. This good lady had pleasure in
dancing a terribly weird and wonderful
dance, whenever she could find an
audience, and the sounds emitted from
her throat were too awful to describe,
but the theme of her song was the an-
nouncement of engagement and her
desire to collect wedding presents. Mr.
Cozens approached her, spoke to her and
persuaded her to stand for a photograph,
rewarding her with a piece of silver. A
girl in Africa, when her father wishes her
to marry, is sent out to seek a husband
in this way, and the highest bidder gets
the bargain, and has to pay dearly with
sheep, oxen and goats.
We returned to resume our lunch,
when from a little aperture in the school-
room wall, we saw a very pretty and
effective sight. Approaching were Major
and Mrs. Buxton, the nurse, and three
children, one behind the other, each
mounted on a pony, then, following on,
a long line of boys, carrying on their
heads the equipment of the party. They
had come as far as possible on the road
by car, and the rest of the way by native
path on ponies. (N.B.—Only the mis-
sionary walks in Africa.) Major and
Mrs. Buxton are genuine Christian
people, and when the Commissioner is in
sympathy with mission work, it is a
great help and asset, naturally. We took
leave of them and started on the home
journey, nine miles to walk, which Mr.
Cozens says are equivalent to twelve at
home because of the steep climbs and
streams to cross. At one stage we had
to cross a crude kind of suspension
bridge high up across a waterfall. As I
looked a fear possessed me, my already
heated blood ran cold. Not one step
could I advance, until a helping hand in-
stilled courage into me, and led me
across.
When nearly home, on a large open
space, we came upon a couple of hundred
men squatting on the ground, their long
spears almost dazzling us, as the sun
caught the glint of the long steel blades.
A native kiama, conference, undoubtedly,
and just as we arrived a decision must
have been reached, for the assembly
broke up in the usual fashion. Like one
man they rose up with a shout, and each
perfectly in step, majestically danced
round the green chanting- as they went,
and finally took the road which led to
their district, having formed themselves
in rows of ten or twelve deep, and how
long this step is kept up, and how long
this chanting as one voice is continued,
I cannot say. It was a sight worth see-
ing. The last three-quarters of a mile
home was the longest, when we could
30
For the Young People
â– see the bungalow and yet had two more
ridges to cross, down and up, down and
up. At the door of the little wooden
shanty, known as the dispensary, stood
Dr. Brassington waving us a welcome,
and before we even removed our dusty
sun-baked shoes, we drank tea and en-
joyed luscious mulberries, and wine ber-
ries, grown in our own garden. A bath
and a change of clothing, and we were
as fresh as the arum lilies in the vase on
the table, and ready for prayers at half-
past six, just as the sun had finished sink-
ing and we had witnessed the most gor-
geous sunset you can possibly imagine.
So ended our most interesting day.
-5-
For the
Young People.
An Interesting Correspondence.
I.
(From Rev. E. Cocker’s children and
their friends to some children in Sierra
Leone.)
“ Newholme,â€
Brighouse,
England,
Nov. 28th, 192G.
Dear Little Brothers and Sisters,
You have my Daddy over there
amongst you, and someday I should like
to come to him, and see you all ; but just
now my brother and I and my school
friends can only make ourselves busy by
sending you these little gifts, which we
hope will please you. With our very
best love, from,
Mary Cocker, Jack Cocker, Mary
Casement, Mabel Whitehead,
Kathleen Walker, Bessie Nort-
cliffe, Molly Haxbv.
An Additional.
About the Presents.
The cracker shaped ones must be given
to little girls—all except the ones marked
for a boy. The Ex books must be given
to either boys or girls, and with each give
a pencil. The one marked for Willie must
be given to him, and also give him a pen-
cil. The Blotters can be given to any-
body, and also the Indian doll. The Text-
cards can be given to anybody. But
don’t give one person about half a dozen.
Ex Books, share them out, and also
crayons given with Painting Book.
Ta-Ta.
II.
(From Rev. E. Cocker.)
Freetown, Dec. 24th, ’26.
To the “Newholme †Missionary Work
Co., Ltd.
I herewith enclose a letter of thanks
from my Mendi boy, Willie. I have told
you previously how he chuckled with
delight when he received your gift.
But I think it’s rather serious when he
talks of marrying the lot of you, and
mother as well. You will have a good
laugh over that I know ; but even the
pleasure of that laugh will not compare
with the joy in your hearts—that sweetest
joy of all which God gives to those who
love and serve. Again I put my finger
on Matthew 25, 40, and ask you to read
with me :
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me.â€
With love to all,
Daddy.
III.
(From Willie, Mr. Cocker’s Mendi boy,
to his little English friends.)
Free town
sarrileone
Clusters street,,
December 24, 1926.
My dear good friends
I am so glad for the coppy book
wich ; you you sent forme the last time
the book was very nice Indeed. And I
am so please when you sent me that
book ; I like to see you and Marry and
also vour mother
I hope you all are well
I am your friend
WILLIE.
“The continent of Africa, largely un-
known a century ago, lies open to-day.
New forces are pouring in, and nothing
hinders the Christian Church from taking
a foremost place among them.â€
Mr. J. H. Oldiiam.
31
The Editor’s Notes.
Day of Prayer for Students.
THE Student Christian Movement
once again invites its friends in all
the Churches to join with its mem-
bers throughout the world in the observ-
ance of the Universal Day of Prayer for
Students. In practically every land
Student Christian Movements are at
work to lead students to Christ and His
service. Let one fact only be quoted,
thrilling enough in itself to,' anyone with
imagination and a memory of the past.
In the midst of all the turmoil in China
there were last year 18,000 students in
Bible Study Groups. In such facts lies
the hope of the future. Pray for them
and their fellow students throughout the
world on Sunday, February 20th.
Walls of Wuchang.
[From the L.M.S. "Chronicle."
The Siegelof Wuchang.
The Wesleyan Missionary Society and
the London Missionary Society suffered
much from the siege of Wuchang. Wes-
ley College, which was founded by Dr.
Barber, was occupied by the attacking
forces, and this naturally drew fire from
the city. Many of the buildings were
reduced to ruins. Much trouble has been
experienced in Hankow, during the last
month. Violent. rioting against the
foreigners, and especially against the
British, has taken place, and the women
and children had to leave the British
Concession. The British marines be-
haved with admirable restraint, and no
shots were fired. The missionaries and
their native colleagues have shown the
courage and fortitude we all
expected. “God save China,
and give her peace,†should
be our daily prayer.
© © ©
Sir Harry Lauder:
Evangelist.
A missionary in Madagas-
car, Mr. Kendall Gale, tells
a delightful story in last
month’s L.M.S.11 Chronicle.â€
On entering a native village
for the first time it is not an
easy task to gain the confi-
dence of the people. “ Some-
times they have gone for
their lives, terrified by my
strange white face, and the
fact that I was a European.
Some take to the bush ;
others hide within their huts
and slam the door. Others
again receive me with indif-
ference—take little or no
notice of me. Others gather
round with lowering eye-
brows, drooping mouths, and
sulky demeanour. Others
stand up to me, and want to
know my business—suspi-
cious to the finger tips.
More than once I have been
ordered to quit the village
immediately, otherwise the
consequences might be
serious. Well, if the people
have flown they have to be
brought back somehow.
The Editor’s Notes
If there is opposition it has to be broken
clown. Otherwise, I am vanquished and
not a victor. How do I set about it? â€
© © © ©
Mr. Gale plants his gramophone on the
boxes which carry his clothing and bed-
ding, and puts on the jazziest, rowdiest
record he has ; a regular rouser. Soon
tousled heads peep round bushes, hands
timorously open windows and doors,
astonished eyes peer round jambs or
through casements. Those standing by
cast awed, furtive glances at one
another, startled by the strange sounds
which come from a great trumpet. Then
Mr. Gale puts on a song with some
volume in it ; the band startled them.; the
song staggers them. Then follows a
laughing song, preferably one of Harry
Lauder’s, and this fetches them. “Trem-
blingly, fearfully they creep nearer and
nearer, unable to resist the wonder of
a machine talking singing, laughing.
Now Harry Lauder is always clean, and
his laughter is absolutely ‘it,’ rocking,
ripping, infectious laughter. ‘ Tickle
Geordie,’ and 1 Stop your tickling, Jock,’
have been with me everywhere. Ade-
quately to give you a picture of what
goes on around me when Harry Lauder
is singing is quite beyond me. â€
© © © ©
In “Tickle Geordie,†somebody has put
pepper in father’s snuff box, and so the
record sneezes and coughs, and then
goes off into side-splitting" laughter.
“ Suddenly there is a guffaw ; the dam
bursts and there is a roar ; the whole
crowd is convulsed. I have got the
people around me ; I have disarmed sus-
picion ; ugly faces take on a more comely
expression ; we have become one through
the communism of laughter. Think of
it ; Harry Lauder being used for the
advancement of the Kingdom of God in
Madagascar ! And why not? â€
Mr. Gale tries to explain to the people
how the gramophone talks and sings and
laughs. “Isn’t it wonderful that the
voices of people you have never seen—
and even of people who have passed away
should be brought to you here? †He
then takes up his Bible. “ I have a book
here,†he goes on to say, “which is God’s
Book. He caused it to be written. He
wants you to know His will and to obey
it. His message is here ; it is His
‘ record. ’ â€
“ Now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed.â€
Dr. John R. Mott says in the current
number of “The International Review of
Missions †that the number of men under
arms in Asia is greater than at any pre-
vious time in modern days, and that the
wars actually in progress in the Far East,
and recently in the Near East, would,
before the world war, have startled man-
kind. Nevertheless the influences direc-
ted towards the weakening and abolition
of militarism are unmistakably growing.
In China the people are losing confidence
in military methods as a means of settling
the troubles of their country. The agita-
tion against military instruction in schools
in Japan, and elsewhere, is highly signi-
ficant. “The oriental peoples may yet
become a tremendous makeweight on the
side of world peace. â€
© © © ©
But what of the future of Christianity ?
Are the grave doubts which some enter-
tain concerning' what is taking place all
over Asia justified? By no means.
“ Everywhere one travels in Asia to-day
one is made vividly conscious of wide ex-
pectancy. Every troubled people, every
depressed race, every discouraged social
group seem to be on the tiptoe of expecta-
tion of the drawing near of a better order
and a better day. The best days for Asia
lie in the future—not the distant future,
but the near future. ‘ Now is our salva-
tion nearer than when we believed.’ â€
The situation affords a wonderful op-
portunity for the Christian faith to
present an adequate apologetic. “ Under
wise guides and teachers it will serve to
rivet attention on Christ Himself as the
central Reality and as the great Source of
spiritual vitality. . . The very difficul-
ties, conflicts and, perchance, persecu-
tions involved in meeting the present-day
anti-religious attacks in Russia, China,
and elsewhere, will, as in other genera-
tions, lead to a deeper and purer faith
and life and a larger realization of the
presence and power of the Living God.â€
The Missionary Doctor.
Here is a story well worth telling in
the pulpit or on the missionary platform.
It is from Mr. Basil Mathews’ new book
“Young Islam on Trek.†A missionary
33
My First Impressions
doctor at work in Mesopotamia had as a
patient a young Arab. He could only
be saved by transfusion of blood from a
healthy man. The doctor told the youth’s
family, and asked from which of them
he could take the blood. Father, brothers,
cousins, ail refused to be lanced to give
their blood even for their own kin.
The doctor saw there was only one way
of saving the youth’s life, and he took
that way. He lanced his own body and
gave his blood to save the young Arab.
The Arabs were amazed. This was some-
thing that had never come into their lives
before. From that day the doctor has
been able to do what he likes with those
Arabs. “He is our brother now,†they
say of the doctor to one another. “ His
blood is in our veins.â€
That is the difference between Moham-
med and Jesus Christ, says Mr. Mathews.
A. E. J. C.
My First
Impressions.
OR at least a fortnight after I landed
on Chinese soil I felt too bewildered
to have any impressions at all. Hong-
Kong, to put it frankly, frightened me.
Here for the first time I was confronted
with Chinese people, all engrossed in
doing Chinese things in a Chinese way ;
and it was all so strange that for a time
I lost all hope of ever doing any good in
this land. Now, however, 1 have been
in China seven weeks, and there is a
strong temptation to one who has been
here so long a time to feel that he knows
all there is to be known about China and
the Chinese. My better judgment tells
me that I know nothing about them, and
that it would be the best policy for the
present to say nothing. But as I have
been asked to give my first impressions
of China, I give them here on the strict
understanding that they shall be taken as
such and not as an accurate picture of
Chinese life.
One’s attention at the outset is caught
by the myriads of strange sights and
sounds that are constantly appealing to
eye and ear. The first two days are suffi-
cient to prove that the Chinese love noise.
In Shanghai that was brought home to
me. It was evidently Sale Time, for
every other store was thronged with
people, while upstairs in the front win-
dow sat a band, discoursing as loudly as
possible Chinese music as an inducement
to the populace to draw near. One band
was enough for any European ear, but
frequently there were two and three in
close proximity, while once I came within
hearing of four, all plaving different tunes
and each trying to drown the others.
Rev. HAROLD T. COOK,
Here in Peking it is the same. A new
store was being opened a week or two
ago, and to advertise the fact a gramo-
phone was put in the front of the door
and Chinese music was rendered free
from early morning to late at night.
That shop was never free of a crowd :
in China, too, it seems, it pays to adver-
tise. In the first few days, also, one
becomes what our American friends call
a. “rubberneck.†The streets are so full
of interesting sights that there is a con-
stant temptation to stop and stare. Daily
one can see camel trains treading majes-
tically across the busy main streets, or
long strings of mules laden with mys-
terious packages, and everywhere can
be seen men pushing great wheelbarrows,
heavily loaded, their advent heralded by
horrible squeakings from unoiled bear-
ings. The very sound of the city is
strange, at least to a Londoner’s ear.
The predominant note is human, not the
whir of mechanisms. There go up from
Peking the cries of myriads of hawkers,
accompanied by the clash and clang of
the gong- or bell that each one carries ;
and ceaselessly by day there is a confused
murmur as of a great multitude talking.
Above, from time to time, can be heard
a whining, moaning sound, made by
whistles tied to pigeons’ wings.
But besides strange sights and sounds
there are sights, sad sights, that all too
soon hecome everyday and ordinary.
What hordes of beggars there are in
Peking ! Wherever one goes, there is no
escape from them. Here are young men,
young women, often carrying- little chil-
dren in their arms, sturdy youngsters,
34
My First Impressions
cripples, men with awful open wounds,
and (strangely enough in this land of
veneration for age) great numbers of old,
old men and women, all clad in inde-
scribably fdthy rags, pictures of abject
misery and poverty. In the face of a
problem such as this one does indeed feel
helpless. What can be done for these
poor people ? But poverty does not seem
to be confined to beggars. Doubtless,
the pedestrian in Peking gets only a one-
sided view of life here, for the better
class—richer folk—live behind walls, and
are rarely seen ; but even remembering
that fact, the newcomer cannot but be
appalled at the widespread poverty that
he sees all around him. Poverty and
dirt seem to be the most common sights
in Peking", when one first comes.
One soon notices the kiddies, in China,
and discovers that they are just as lovable
as those at home. Strange little figures
some of them are, to be sure, with locks
of hair, tightly bound with ribbon, stand-
ing out stiffly from each side and on
top of their heads, and now the cold
weather is here, appearing as wide
as they are tall by reason of their
multitudinous quilted clothes ; but
nevertheless not so very different
from Western children, playing' to-
gether and calling to one another and
laughing in their shrill little voices.
It does one’s heart good to hear
them. It is one of the most cheer-
ing sights out here to see parents,
poorly clad themselves, carrying His
Majesty the Baby, decked out in the
most g'orgeous clothes they can
afford. But there is a darker side to
this picture of the children. To one
who has a great interest in boy life
it is heartbreaking to see boys of
thirteen, and fourteen years of ag'e
pulling rickshaws, and serving as sol-
diers in the army. What a start in
life for a boy 1 Yet they are wonder-
fully cheerful, and so often smiling ;
they keep the 8th Scout law under
conditions that would try the best of
English scouts. Who would not long
to do something- to help these plucky
little Chinese boys?
How the Chinese work 1 I had
been given the impression before I
left England that the Chinese were
lazy ; but my observations so far have
belied that opinion. The shops and works
never seem to close. Pass down the streets
late at night, and you will see lights in
most of the shops, and all around you will
hear sounds of various industries being-
carried on even at that late hour. During
the day men are to be seen working at
the most arduous tasks, perhaps not too
vigorously but without those frequent
rests that many people are prone to take.
Seven days a week the Chinese work, and
there are no half holidays or days of rest
for them. One wonders how they keep
going, knowing so well how tired one
can be after six days’ work. Yet signs
of active discontent are altogether
lacking.
What has the missionary to do with
all this ? Life seems to go on so com-
pletely without him, that it seems an in-
trusion for him to appear at all. To this
missionary, at least, the great thing he
has to deal with is China’s need ; and
Chinese Mothers and [Photo : Mrs. Craddock.
their Children.
35
A Trip into Miaoland
that need is the need for Love. I dare
not talk about China as appallingly sin-
ful, for had I been born under these con-
ditions I should have been not one whit
better than they. But I can talk about
China’s need. She needs, not condemna-
tion, but understanding; not to be
patronised, but to be loved. My first
A Trip into
Miaoland.
THE hope that an account of a trip
among our Miao, however in-
adequate, will not be lacking in
interest to those who are strengthening-
our hands in the homeland by prayer and
sacrifice, must serve as an apology for
this article.
The occasion was the necessity of se-
lecting a few lepers in the earlier stages
of that disease, for treatment in our new
Leper Home at Stonegateway. The treat-
ment which has made such rapid strides
recently, and of which such glowing
reports have been published in the popular
press as well as in medical circles, does
undoubtedly offer a hope of cure that has
never before been tenable. So far as we
can, we are hoping, by the generous aid
of the Mission to Lepers, to bring such
a hope to some of the afflicted in our
District.
The first day from the city was over the
well-known road to Stonegateway, where
one is ever assured of a hearty welcome
both from the Miao and from the resi-
dent missionary. Early the following
morning, Mr. Cottrell and I took to the
road, well-equipped against rain, for
Stonegateway was living up to its repu-
tation and we were already among the
clouds, as, indeed, we remained for the
greater part of our journey. The most
tiring part of our day’s travelling was a
long and steep descent, which we pre-
ferred to make ourselves, instead of trust-
ting to our horses. Fortunately a Miao
village about half-way down the hill
served as a resting place, and we were
welcomed into one of the huts for lunch.
By the time we reached the river level,
having shed outer garments on the way
owing to the increasing warmth of the
air, we were very glad to remount and
impression is that China needs to know
the Love of God : and how can she learn
that better than through, not primarily
the teaching, but the active love of
Christians ?
In conclusion, may I say that the power
of loving China is not confined to those
working on the mission field.
Dr. C. J. AUSTIN.
so rest our legs, which were in the
“quivery†state such as might be felt
after running down a few hundred steps !
Just- at the bottom of our descent was
the place where Mr. Parsons is com-
mencing a bridge over the river, which
would have saved us some fifteen
or twenty li of our day’s journey.
As the bridge is still in its earliest
stages, we had to make our way
alongside the river for some distance
over a very roug'h and uneven path
to the ferry. Here we crossed safely after
some preliminary difficulty in persuading
the horses to adopt this novel form of
travelling ! A climb up the opposite side
of the valley soon brought us once more
into the too-familiar clouds, and just
about dark we reached our destination—
Mi-Ri-Keo, where we received a hearty
welcome from the local Miao, and were
soon thawing and drying- in front of a
large fire.
Mi-Ri-Keo will be easily remembered
from Mr. Pollard’s graphic description of
the “tired †chapel that was always “sit-
ting down.†It is one of the three main
centres of our missionary enterprise
among the Miao, and the present chapel
is a fine building in a commanding posi-
tion, overlooking' a deep valley with hills
rising in a semicircle beyond. This was
especially remarkable when, the next
morning, being Harvest Festival Sunday,
we stood at the chapel door waiting for
the congregation to appear. At the time
service should have started, the mists
were still low, and very few Miao had
come. Gradually the scene cleared, and
after a while we could discern white
figures appearing over the opposite hill-
tops and coming down the three winding
pathways—to the right; to the left ;
36
A Trip into Miaoland
directly in front. It was a most inspir-
ing sight, and one could not but be
reminded of Sam Pollard’s love for these
people, and how this love of his had been
to them as the rising of the mists, and
how he had the joy of seeing them coming
from all directions—not in their ones and
twos, but in their hundreds, into the
Kingdom. On the whole trip we met very
few heathen Miao*, but the contrast be-
tween their sullen looks and generally
abject appearance, and the radiant joy
and hopefulness of those belonging to the
“Jesus Church,†left an indelible impres-
sion on the mind, convincing one of the
good already accomplished and providing-
inspiration for the future.
The service was marked by real enthu-
siasm, if heartiness in singing can be
taken as a criterion. The most strict
attention was paid to Peter, the Miao
preacher who led the service, and to Mr.
Cottrell, as he explained my hope that
now they knew “the foreign doctor from
the city †as a friend, they would not be
so afraid to come into the city for medi-
cal help. The table in front of the pulpit
was heaped with the thank-offerings of
maize that every one, however poor,
brought with them, and seeing- the faces
of those who gave of their so-little, one
lelt that it was indeed a very real gift of
love.
The next morning was devoted to the
selection of lepers suitable for treatment.
It was no pleasant task, but any personal
feelings were swallowed up in pity and
a sense of helplessness towards those
whom we had to reject.
In the afternoon we had more leg exer-
cise in descending a steep hillside to
another river-bed and to the Miao village
where we were to spend the night. Here
again we were warmly welcomed, and the
warmth was continued into the evening-
service that was held in the Miao hut
where we slept.
Another Miao village had to be reached
the next day, and we had to recross the
big river by ferry. The boat we should
have used lower down the river had been
sunk the previous morning, so we had to
ride up the river-bank to the place where
we had crossed two days before. The
river had grown in the meanwhile, and
we had to go over first, the boat returning
for the horses later. When the latter
were about half way across, one of the
three men in charge of the boat slipped,
knocking the other two into the bottom
of the boat! For a moment it looked
as though the strong current must carry
the boat away, with the six men and
three horses. Fortunately, the water
being high, the upright pole at the end
of the boat caught the bamboo rope by
which the boat is pulled across, and this
gave the men time to recover their feet !
After that, we felt very grateful when all
were safely on land once more. Later on
the same afternoon there was another
difficult river to* cross. We managed to
scramble over the big boulders, but had
to leave the horses and arrange for men
to return and haul them across with
ropes. As it happened, a steep hill lay
ahead and both of us were very glad to
reach the top and have a short rest, for
an average height of 7,000 feet above
sea-level considerably restricts one’s
breathing capacity !
Shortly after this we reached our
destination for the night. The chapel at
this village is at . present derelict, but
arrangements are being made for its
renewal before long. Here ag'ain, there
is a wonderful prospect from the chapel
site, with valleys and hills stretching in
all directions. At a slightly lower level,
and about twenty li distant, lies the almost
impregnable “fort†of Mao-Mao-Shan,
the “T’u-muh †or “Earth Eye †(cor-
responding, according to Mr. Pollard, to
the Chief Barons of our Feudal System)
of the District. Just at present, he is
chiefly notable for his oppression of his
Miao tenants, from many of whom he
has taken their land, leaving them with
no means of support. Incidentally, we
hear that he had threatened the Miao that
if the foreigners got the worst of what
he anticipated would be the “war †on
the Yangtze, he would pay the Miao out
for previous foreign interference with his
“rights.†His house is situated on a
triangular piece of land, two sides o*f
which are sheer cliff leading- directly down
to the river bed, some hundreds of feet
below. The only means of entrance is on
the third side, which could be easily de-
fended by a few men from any form of
attack he is likely to fear from Chinese
sources. Seeing that one of his fellow
“T’u-muh †has recently been carried off
and held to ransom, his precautions can
be readily understood.
37
Some Enthusiastic Missionary Collectors
At this village an open-air meeting was
held outside the chapel before we con-
tinued our journey in the morning. Many
of the Miao were afraid to leave their
land unprotected, so the attendance was
not very good.
The next and last of the villages to be
visited was, to an outsider, the most en-
couraging of all. The characteristics
already mentioned—warmth, joy at the
sight of their pastor, Christian enthu-
siasm, all serned to be more marked than
anywhere we had visited. At the service,
•the chapel, which is visible at a great
distance, standing as it does, on an
eminence separated from the village
proper by a small valley, was crowded, in
spite of the absence of forms and the fact
that almost all were standing. The sing-
ing must be heard to be appreciated fully,
and we were very pleased when, in the
evening, the girls and boys of the, village
came into our hut and sang hymns to us.
This was the last night of our trip, but
to me, at least, the most memorable.
The next night found us rejoicing to
be at our respective homes, but the recol-
lections of my first trip among the Miao,
short as it was, will remain with me as
a stimulus when the mountain-tops of
endeavour tend to lose their appeal and
the valley of sloth offers to prove seduc-
tive.
-5-
Some Enthusiastic
Missionary Collectors.
At George Street Sunday School, Bur-
ton-on-Trent, there is a missionary collec-
tor, Wilfred Robinson, now a helper in
the primary department, who during the
past twelve years has collected no less a
sum than £83 9s. lid. In 1915 he col-
lected £5 Is. 9d. Each year he has im-
proved on this, until in 1920 he collected
£11 6s. One would like to know if we
have any Sunday School scholars with a
finer record. We congratulate our enthu-
siastic young helper.
Another zealous collector is Miriam
Rayner Dodgson, of Trinity Sunday
School, Pudsey. During the past five
years she has collected £36 16s. lid.
Last year she collected the splendid sum
of £11 11s. Mr. Arthur Milner, the mis-
sionary secretary, says that Miriam, who
is thirteen years of age, heads the circuit
list of junior collectors, and her example
has done much to raise the missionary
enthusiasm of the church and school. We
offer her our warmest congratulations
also.
_
A Village Street in West Africa.
38
•* -
I
Mrs. J, B. BROOKS. B.Litt.
“ Too Late.â€
A Missionary Sketch.
By Miss DORIS MAY (Dudley).
With adaptations by NURSE RAINE.
Characters:
Po-Chi (pronounced “Bo-jee â€), just re-
turned from Hospital with eye-
sight restored : greatly excited.
Mrs. Ling, her Mother.
Mrs. Zee, a Neighbour.
Hsiao-Hua (pronounced “ Shee-ow-hwaâ€),
the blind daughter of Mrs. Zee.
A Lady Missionary Doctor.
A Lady Missionary Nurse.
SCENE 1.
A room in a Chinese house, furnished only
with a bare table about a yard square, and
wooden stools or straight-backed chairs ; no wall
decorations unless Chinese scrolls are available;
idols placed against the middle wall; a charcoal
or wood fire on the floor in one corner.
Mrs. Ling, seated; Po-Chi trying to control
obvious excitement.
Po-Chi : I can see as well as ever 1
could, Honourable Mother. The sky is
so blue to-day and the peach blossom
makes the old trees look lovely. It is
good to have one’s sight at blossom time !
Mrs. Ling : Yes, it is wonderful. No
one who saw your eyes with the skin
grown over them would have believed
you could ever see again. How clever
the Foreign Doctor must be !
Po-Chi : She is clever. It was won-
derful how she cut away the skin from
before my eyes with a tiny knife without
hurting me at all. The nurses were so
kind, too. One used to sit beside my bed
and tell me stories, when I had to lie
still with bandages over my eyes. Some-
times she would bring in a funny box
which made music, such nice music, too.
Nurse called it a gram—gram—a gramo-
phone. It was strange. We could hear
somebody singing, and yet there was no-
body there.
Look, Mother, who is that coming
round the corner? It is Mrs. Zee. I can
see that : but who is with her?
Mrs. Ling : Why, Hsiao-Hua, of
course. Don’t you remember her?
Po-Chi : Is that Hsiao-Hua? She has
grown so much while I have been living
in darkness that I did not recognise her.
But I might have known by the way Mrs.
Zee is leading her. Poor girl ! It is
dreadful not being able to see. Look,
they are coming" here.
[Enter Mrs. Zee and Hsiao-Hua. The
women greet each other, the children keeping
well in the background. Each woman clasps
her own hands, and, raising them slightly,
lets them gradually descend : at the same time
each bows stiffly to the other.']
Mrs. Zee : Have you eaten rice?
Mrs. Ling : I have eaten. Will you
honour my humble home by sitting with
us for a while. Poi-Chi, bring some tea
at once.
Mrs. Zee : We heard that Po-Chi was
at home again, and called to see how
she is.
Mrs. Ling : She is quite better, thank
you ; and can see as well as ever she
could. Isn’t it wonderful? But, please
sit down \offers her a cup of tea, without milk
or sugar, with both hands. Mrs. Zee receives it
with both hands, rising to do so. They drink
tea, and pass complimentary remarks to each
other.]
Mrs. Ling : How is your honourable
family?
Mrs. Zee. : My unworthy family is well,
I thank you. Po-Chi’s eyes look well,
39
Bookland
don’t they? I wonder if they would be
able to cure Hsiao-Hua.
Mrs. Ling : I should think if they can
cure Po-chi they can cure anyone.
Po-Chi : There were ever so many
people whom they made better. Mrs.
Chang’ had not walked for months
through her bad foot. Now she can walk
as well as I can.
Mrs. Zee : Perhaps it would be worth
going' to see what could be done.
Hsiao-Hua : I should like to see again.
Do let us go.
Po-Chi : I should go if I were you.
You will have a lovely time, plenty to eat
and drink, and heaps of fun. They will
be certain to make you better in a few
weeks, and then you will be able to play
as you used to do.
Mrs. Zee. : It is a long walk. It will
take five days.
Hsiao-Hua : Oh, Mother, do let us go !
I don’t mind the walk.
Mrs. Zee : It is worth trying,' anyhow.
I wonder why the foreign doctors come
here, and are so good to us ' No one else
seems to care.
Po-Chi : I wondered, too. But the
nurses said they came to tell us about a
Great God more powerful than any of
ours, who loves everyone of us. Nurse
wants me to go to the school and learn
to read and write and hear about the
Great God.
Mrs. Ling : I think I shall let Po-chi
go to the school. I cannot understand
why the Great God should so love us,
but perhaps when Po-Chi has been to the
school she will be able to tell us.
Hsiao-Hua : Oh, do let us go to the
Hospital, and after my eyes are better,
they may let me go to school as well.
Then I shall learn to read. Won’t it be
lovely ! [excitedly]
Mrs. Zee : Yes, it would be lovely if
you could see. We will go when the har-
vest is gathered in.
[Mrs. Zee and Hsiao-Hua rise to go. Mrs-
Ling begs them to be seated again, but this is
only Chinese etiquette, and the visitor is not
expected to stay. In parting, each woman
clasps her own hands, and, bowing low, the
hostess says, “ Please go slowly ; †the guest
says, “ Please be seated." Remember Hsiao-
Hua is blind, and will need to be led about.]
Curtain.
Scene II. will appear in March.
Bookland.
“ What One Sees in India.â€
Rev. T. R. Glover, D.D. (The Carey
Press ; 4d.)
A slight booklet—interesting' to us,
who have no work in India. Registers
the thought of a great man. Convenient
for handing to friends.
“Christian Fellowshipin Thought
and Prayer.â€
Basil Mathews and Harrv Bisseker.
(S.C.M. ; 2s. net.)
This is a reprint, and well worthy of
the treatment. It may be said to deal
with five salient words : Prayer, Thought,
Fellowship, Experience, Action. Excel-
lent is the chapter “The Test of Experi-
ence.†Some of the story was gained in
association with the S.C.M., when the
author “was permitted.to take part in
the preparations for a great Conference
—composed of a thousand students.â€
Many of our readers will buy this book
Note these words :
“The challenge is absolute : the call is
ultimate and inescapable. If the world is
to be saved, if Christ’s glory is to fill the
earth, broken fellowships must.be united ;
the seamless mystic robe must be woven
afresh. That sacred mystery, the
Church, fitly framed together must grow
into a holy temple in the Lord.â€
The native king of the Barotse ad-
dressed an assembly of his people, some
two thousand in number, on presenting
to them a new prime minister. Some
representatives of the British Protectorate
were present, and some merchants. Said
the king- Litia,
“What was our country? A little land,
unknown, delivered over to disorder and
anarchy, hastening us to ruin. If we
have not perished, to whom do we owe
it? To the missionaries. You have
been instructed bv them. That which is
important for us to do above all things
is to hold fast to the gift which has saved
us, the Gospel of God. It is that which
has given us peace. It is the Gospel
which has made us live.â€
From “Francois Coillard.†Rev. E.
Shillito, M.A.
40
“A God-inspired Expectation, a Holy Patience, has always been the mark of the true
believer at the most critical periods in the history of the Church.â€â€”Dr. J. Rendel Harris.
Missions and
China. Professor W. E. SOOTHILL, M.A.
TO write in February on the position of China in March is to don the mantle of
the prophet. Whether I wear it or not, I cannot refuse the first call to write
from our new editor, to whom I wish all the success of his predecessors.
No one must ever dream of supposing that we have laboured in vain in China.
“Labour in vain †is unthinkable in connection with any mission field as a whole.
Individuals and periods and stations may seem to fail. Some undoubtedly do fail,
for it is true that “we have this treasure in earthern vessels,†sometimes indeed very
earthen, but there can be no scrap of doubt that we have the “treasure.†And it is
a treasure far more precious than rubies or diamonds : for our treasure is not dead
matter, but the miracle of living seed, amazingly potent and reproductive.
IN the present situation there is naturally much to cause anxiety. There is, first,
the deplorable situation of our missionaries, their wives and families : not because
they are more important than others, but because we sent them. Now it is singular
fact that under the War Lords there was no great interference with missionaries :
none officially. Their lives were comparatively safe ; and although property sometimes
suffered from ruffianly soldiers or bandits, their stations became harbours of kindly
refuge to many of the suffering people, without discrimination of religion. Of late,
however, under the incitement of an unscrupulous and immoral propaganda, conducted
by a small handful of extremists, the Cantonese and the inflammable mob have in
manv places driven out the missionaries, and taken possession of their churches,
hospitals, schools and homes for anti-religious and anti-foreign purposes. The “ little â€
finger of Moscow is thicker than the “thigh †of the War Lords in its unjust oppression
of foreigners and of missions. To suppose that this is the last word in the argument
is to suppose that Eternal Justice has been dethroned. This period is not permanent.
It will pass—because it is false, unjust, and its aim is to cramp and confine the spirit
of man in the material and the perishing.
The revolutionary in Russia may have had justification for rebellion, apart from
his cruelty, for Church and State had been of little service to a people sodden with
vodka and superstition. Indeed, their religion was “the opiate of their people,†not
its stimulant as is Christianity here, and in China.
THE world has been through anti-religious periods before. They have perished :
religion lives on. The present period is worse than some of the others and may
become still more violent, for it is dominated by an organized, wealthy, malicious
March. 1927.
Missions and China
A Gateway in China’s Great Wall.
foreign force. That force wages war not only on Christianity but on all religion. It has
not succeeded in Russia. It will not succeed in China, but we may yet see “many
-offended †who will “betray one another and hate one another,†and “the love of
many shall wax cold.†That is the chief cause of anxiety to some of us, the persecution
which makes men and martyrs of some and cowards of others. Therefore, though
we sympathize with our missionaries to the full, we realize that it is our Chinese
people who often have to suffer most, for' they cannot be withdrawn to comparative
safety. Will they stand firm? They did, right nobly, in 1900; and the present
•outrage is Boxerism revived, but guided by more cunning minds. They did stand
firm and I have confidence that they will.
With Chinese Nationalism, founded on and developed by reason and justice, our
British nation has the utmost sympathy. But no self-respecting people ought to allow
“Sovereign Rights †to blind their eyes to primary “Sovereign Duties.†With regard
to these “duties †China is to-day woefully lacking, both towards its own despairing
people and towards the foreigner.
O URVEYING the past, our
Church has done the best it
knew and has no cause to be
ashamed either of its policy or
the results. Speaking for one
of its Districts, I may say that
it is more than thirty years since
I made plans in Wenchow for a
gradually self-governing, self-
supporting and self-propagating
Church there. My colleagues,
Chinese and English, have since
worked on those plans. With
frequent reiteration, I warned
the Chinese Church that we
could not “ nurse †it for ever.
To-day there is probably no
church in China more self-
governing than that of Wen-
chow. All these years we have
urged that Church to release us
from our responsibility in order
that we might devote ourselves
to further evangelization. This
surely is sound policy, and any
delay is due, not to us, but to
the weakness of the small Chris-
tian communities which deserve
our consideration. But, as I
have so often reminded our
people at home, they must not
assume that self-support in
China will relieve them here
financially. On the contrary, the
pressure will be greater rather
than less. It will be decades,
perhaps a century, before the
Chinese Church will be able both
to carry on the work in its own
country and to take its share in
the moral and spiritual elevation
of humanity elsewhere. When
[From " The Foreign Field." the Chinese Church starts its
42
The Position of Our Missionaries in China
own missionary societies abroad, its first duty ought to be the evangelization of the
many millions of Chinese emigrants outside China, unless indeed those become China’s
missionaries.
In the meantime, we have one, and only one, retrospective duty, and that is to
be profoundly thankful to the men, women, and even children, Chinese and foreign,
who have been, and are, faithful to the “treasure†we have committed to them.
They are the salt of the earth. Every true Christian home, Chinese or foreign, is
a candle shining where it is needed. As to the missionary, let me again emphasize
the unquestionable fact that : If it were not for the Missionary, the East would not have
known the West had a soul. To reveal the soul of the West is not the office of our
officials or our traders. That joyful duty fell upon the missionary and his supporters.
It is entirely due to the missionary that the East has any idea that the West has a
heart, a soul, a philosophy and an intellectual culture. No other argument for mis-
sions is necessary. No other monument could be so gratifying. Let us, then, be
profoundly grateful for the honour conferred on us.
jrX So far as we are concerned, we would willingly hand over everything in the
Mission, were there competent hands ready to receive it. We have no spirit of
grudging. Rather, when the Chinese do not need us, we shall sigh with relief. But
as to the Church, who are “the Chinese Church� Are they a mere handful of
youthful, heady politicians ; or are they the members of the Church in their
Conferences ? How is it possible to accept the demands of an extremely small minority
clamouring for power? The fine body of steady stalwart Chinese members have their
rights, and let them decide. The present upheaval has its depressing side, but if it
brings about the independence and self-development we all wish to see, so much the
better. The policy of our Committee for some years has steadily been for self-govern-
ment and self-support. It may be advisable to go a step further and make definite
grants to the native Church, while appointing Chinese alone as the officers of its
Conferences and church meetings. That is a matter on which the Conferences in China
must be consulted.
As to our duty at this end, it is obvious and cannot be ignored ; namely, to stand
loyally by our Christian brethren, Chinese and English.
The Position of Our
Missionaries in China. Rev c*STEDEFORD
ANY of our friends are very solici-
tous for the welfare of our mis-
sionaries in China during the
present crisis, and, as some may not
realize the precise location of our mis-
sions in relation to the civil war, it may
be as well to state that our missions in
North China and in West China are so
far distant from the scene of conflict in
Central China that they are not affected
by it. They are affected, however, by the
tides of national sentiment which sweep
over China, but, as far as we are aware
at present, those tides have not caused
serious disturbances in either North or
West China. Our missions in S.E.
China around Ningpo and Wenchow will
come within the zone of conflict if the
Cantonese forces are able to make an
advance upon Shanghai. Until now their
efforts in that direction have been frus-
trated, and the War Lord controlling the
provinces surrounding Shanghai seems to
have strengthened his position. Recently
the Cantonese are reported to have suf-
fered a reverse. Our missionaries in
Ning'po and Wenchow are watching
anxiously the progress of events. Should
43
The Position of Our Missionaries in China
those cities fall under the Cantonese it is
very probable our missionaries will be
compelled to leave.
Writing from Wenchow on January
18th, Rev. J. W. Heywood says: “On
Sunday morning, January 16th, some
2,000 troops arrived from Ningpo. They
came direct by sea on two small Chinese
gunboats and four small steamers. They
are opposed to Marshal Sun (Marshal
Sun is the Shanghai War lord), and
retired from Ningpo on the approach of
a larger body of Northern troops. They
are undoubtedly “Southern.†For the
time being they are lodged in the Govern-
ment schools. Reports are to the effect
that several hundred Southern troops are
coming up from Fukien, and are due to
arrive here within the next two or three
days. On their arrival the city and dis-
trict will be proclaimed as being under the
rule of the Cantonese.†A postscript
added that “another gunboat with 500
Southern troops has arrived in port.â€
There is, however, no report of the city
being actually taken over by the Can-
tonese, and no report of any interference
with the missionaries, or of any occupa-
tion of mission premises. Mr. Heywood
makes this remark, “Our position as
residents within the city complicates
matters a little in the event of a crisis.
Still, while we all feel the seriousness of
the situation, none of us is panicky.â€
Even before this latest letter was re-
ceived from Mr. Heywood I sent to him
the following cable, “Committee sympa-
thetically sanctions any emergency course
advisable.†Such sanction would be
readily assumed by our missionaries in
any emergency, but we desired to give
our brethren and sisters in Wenchow the
assurance that we were watching their
situation with sympathy and concern.
A Street in Shanghai. [From “ The Foreign Field."
44
From the
Mission House.
British Prestige Many patriotic Britishers,
in China. in China and in England,
are gravely concerned
because they consider the recent surrender
of the British concession in Hankow has
seriously affected British prestige in
China. Many writers to the press pleaded
for much stronger action on the part of
our Government in order to maintain the
prestige of this country. I know the
pride with which Britishers greet their
flag when it is seen flying against a
foreign background, and I can sympathise
with the feeling of humiliation and re-
sentment aroused by the disrespect to
our flag shown by the Chinese in Han-
kow. Nevertheless, in my judgment
British prestige was greatly enhanced by
the restraint and calmness manifested on
that occasion. The provocation was
great; gunboats lay in the river which
could have reduced the city to a ruin,
and a single shell would have scattered
the frenzied mob. The highest courage
is manifested in possessing power and
refusing to use it. Reason and patience
triumphed, and surrendered the conces-
sion rather than employ the weapons of
destruction.
The Best Prestige is a vague and
Prestige. undefined quality which
assumes the complexion
of the mind which contemplates it. To
the military mind it is the power gained
by military dominance, and any failure
to demonstrate military supremacy in-
volves a serious loss of prestige. A
Christian nation should have outgrown
such a barbaric notion. The best pres-
tige is based upon the exhibition of the
noblest qualities, righteousness, honour,
truth, good will and unselfishness ; it in-
spires confidence, disarms suspicion and
converts enemies into friends. It is the
prestige of the righteous nation foreseen
and described by the prophet Isaiah when
he said, “ Behold thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not, and nations that
knew not thee shall run unto thee be-
cause of the Lord thy God, and for the
Holy One of Israel ; for He hath glori-
fied thee.†We cannot commend too
highly the policy of patience and concilia-
Rev. C. STEDEFORD.
tion which our Government has pursued
in China. The use of force by Britain
in China during last century left a bitter-
ness in the heart of China which is bear-
ing bitter fruit to-day. That bitterness
must be eradicated by ample proof of
friendship. It is only with good that evil
can be overcome.
Chinese We little realize to what
Exactions. a terrible extent the Chi-
nese are being fleeced by
the War Lords. Merchants are driven to
desperation by merciless taxation. Every
device for extorting money is put into
operation. Land taxes are demanded a
year before they are due ; bonds are
issued which people are compelled to take
up to the full extent of their financial
ability, and their ability is judged by the
authorities demanding payment; sum-
mary demands are sometimes made upon
villages and towns for a certain amount
of money. In two months in succession
a small town in the Chihli province re-
ceived a demand for 80,000 dollars. The
same wail of distress comes from .the
business firms which suffer the exactions
of the Cantonese government in Southern
China. Both sides in the civil strife pro-
fess to be saving the country, whereas
together they are swiftly impoverishing it.
The Soviet In the wake of the ad-
System in vance of the Cantonese
China. forces it appears that the
system of Soviet govern-
ment is put into operation. Government
is conducted by committees which rank
in four grades, national, provincial, city
and district. A committee is usually
composed of ten persons who must be
members of the Kuomintang party.
Coolies, labourers, young students, and
other people with no previous experience
of government, serve on these commit-
tees. Any missionary institutions within
the territory have to operate under the
control of such a committee. It is easily
seen how ignorance, prejudice and even
hostility may gain control. Toleration is
professed as the official attitude, but it is
toleration under such stringent regula-
tions as may be imposed. The attitude
45
From the Mission House
of the local committee is often one of
intolerance, and there is no concealment
of the desire to get rid of foreign interests
as soon as possible. The policy of the
Kuomintang party has been summed up
in the words: “Fight Britain; ignore
Japan ; try to make friends with
America; co-operate with Russia.†We
are thankful that none of our fields is
under the blight of this policy.
After Many Under this title, in the
Years. January Echo, I had a
note relating’ the visit of
Rev. F. W. Cottrell to the village where
our beloved Sam Pollard suffered his cruel
beating' in 1906. It was then stated that
arrangements had been made for one of
our preachers to visit this place periodi-
cally. I am now . happy to report that
these visits are bearing fruit. Mr. Cot-
trell says that many of the people of this
village have asked for their names to be
entered as inquirers. He adds : “Whilst
some period of probation must necessarily
elapse before they are received into full
membership, we are thankful that after
all these years the village where our
pioneer missionary suffered so sorely has
become the scene of our latest triumph. â€
Such news would move Brother Pollard
to say : “ Praise the Lord ! †So we say
in reminiscent fellowship with him.
Rev. J. B. Griffiths attending [.Photo : Mr. T. Butler, J P.
to a patient.
Progress Our staff in Meru has
in Meru. been busv broadening the
basis of the missionary
structure upon lines which promise the
fulfilment of our long-cherished aims in
that region. The Kenya Government has
granted a site at Kiagoi, in North Meru,
for the hospital and medical work Dr.
Brassington is there to undertake. Plans
for the buildings are in preparation. The
Inspector of Schools and the Prospector
and Adviser on Technical Education have
visited our Industrial School at Meru.
Mr. Clay was able to show them 23 chairs
which had just been completed for the
Native Council House. The visit was
followed by a substantial grant for the
work of the school.
The Government education policy is
being applied to Meru. The Meru Local
School Area Committee has been formed
and Mr. Cozens is one of the six mem-
bers. The interest being shown in the
schools by the Government officials is
doubtless producing its effect upon the
native headmen, with the result that there
is a steady growth in the number of
scholars and in average attendance. In-
deed, attendance becomes compulsory
when the school is within reasonable dis-
tance. Mr. Cozens reports seven schools
in connection with our mission with 369
scholars and an
average attend-
ance of 301.
The most remote
schools are
situated about
forty miles north
and south of our
central station.
In addition to
the seven schools
there are four
villages where
preparations for
opening schools
are in progress.
The chief diffi-
culty is to obtain
sat isf a dory
teachers.
The work of
teacher prepara-
tion Mr. Hopkins
is pressing for-
ward with his
46
Pope Pius XI. and Foreign Missions
characteristic zeal and thoroughness.
Nine of his students took the Government
examination last July, eight passed and
five won distinction.
*
A Remarkable Writing on January 11th,
Record. Rev. J. B. Griffiths says :
“ On the 5th inst. I com-
pleted my 33rd year in Africa. It is a
long time in prospect but a short time
in retrospect. The New Year started
with the work at Mazeras more prosper-
ous than ever. We have record congre-
gations. On Christmas Sunday our
Church could not accommodate the crowd,
and we had a record collection.â€
Thirty-three year-s of unbroken service
in East Africa is a remarkable record. It
is eight years longer than Rev. T. Wake-
field laboured there. We congratulate
Mr. Griffiths upon his wonderful record,
and we praise God for raising up one
who has been able to render such long,
unique and heroic service to our mission
in East Africa. May his bow, like
Joseph’s, abide in strength.
-9*
Pope Pius XL and
Foreign Missions.
IN the January number of “The East
and the West,†Dr. Trollope, Bishop
of Korea, gives a suggestive and in-
forming account of an Encyclical on
Foreign Missions issued from St. Peter’s,
Rome, by Pope Pius XI., in February,
1926.
We give below the main points of this
Encyclical, as set forth by Dr. Trollope,
believing that they will be of interest to
our readers.
The Pope claims that his predecssors
had never forgotten that it was their
business to win to Christ those outside
their fold, and he rejoices in the greatly
increased generosity with which, within
recent years, the missionary organisations
within the Roman Communion have
backed up the labours of those engaged
in mission work abroad.
He then appeals to those “who share
with him the care of the Churches of
Christendom to stand with him in the
supreme effort he is making to bring the
light of the Gospel into non-Christian
lands.†“He cannot rest quiet while
there are a thousand million souls, more
than half the human race, outside the
Gospel range.†“ For any within the fold
to remain indifferent to the fate of those
without is a gross breach of the charity
which should be a distinguishing mark of
every disciple of Christ. Of all works of
charity, this is the greatest, to lead one’s
neighbour into the knowledge of the
truth. This is the duty of the whole body
of the faithful.â€
How can the home Church help? There
are two ways. She can help by sending
Rev. J. E. MACKINTOSH.
out “an increasing number of highly-
qualified workers,†and further “by rea-
lising the very great extent to which the
success of the missionary abroad depends
on the fervour of the prayers offered and
the liberality of the alms contributed at
home.†“However hard the mission-
aries work, all will be of no avail unless
God softens the heart of the heathen by
His grace and draws them to Himself.â€
As to the sending forth of workers, the
Pope is most urgent. Bishops and their
flocks must “spare no efforts to increase
the number of workers in the mission
field.†They must “foster vocations
whenever and wherever these appear. â€
They must resolutely refuse to be deterred
by “considerations of the paucity of
clergy or the local needs in their own dio-
ceses.†He will have them gladly face
any possible loss that may be involved in
the belief that the Divine Founder of the
Church will more than make it up to
them.
The keynote of the second part of the
Encyclical, which is addressed to the
workers overseas, “ is one of generous
trust in the native Churches and in their
capacity to produce as good and capable
clergy and religious as the Churches of
Europe and America.â€
This should interest us of the United
Methodist Church, for we, along with
other missionary Churches, are up
against this same question of delegating
more and more to the native Christian
leaders the responsibility for self-main-
tenance and self-government. Native
leaders aspire to this. Indeed there is
Last Winter and This at Chu Chia Tsai
already in being, both in China and
India an organisation which looks toward
the formation of a great National Native
Church for each of these lands.
The Pope will have his own views of
this, of course, but, in his Encyclical, he
welcomes, and would have his mission
clergy welcome, these aspirations. He
says, “ The whole future of the Church is
bound up in the creation of a native
clergy.†During the summer of 1926 he
elevated six Chinese priests to the Episco-
pate, and, that the act might have the
fullest possible force, he summoned them
to Rome and had the consecration in
great St. Peter’s. A new departure in-
deed, in view of the fact that but one
Chinaman had previously been made
Bishop in all the centuries of Rome’s
work in the Orient.
The Pope will not have it that the
native clergy are to fill less important
ministries than the foreign missionaries.
“It would be good policy,†he says, “for
the foreign staff to be moving out to break
up fresh fallow ground, while they leave
settled stations to be cared for by the
native clergy.â€
This last statement reads almost like
an extract from a recently issued state-
ment of policy by our own Foreign Mis-
sionary Committee.
Without a strong native clergy, the
Pope maintains there will be no guaran-
tee for the work’s continuance in the
event of war. Present events (January,
1927) are showing how nearly impossible
popular passion may make the work of
European missionaries in China. We can
imagine how much worse things would
be if war came.
As the Pope would have the native
clergy attain to highest office in the mis-
sion church, so he would have them
receive the best equipment for office that
can possibly be provided.
He is very urgent in all this, very
radical. He will have the mission clergy
distribute themselves over the area to
be evangelised. He will have them be
accessible to the sick and to little chil-
dren. He will have no costly piles of
buildings at the Bishop’s seat, tying him
down to his base ; but will have these,
too, scattered through the diocese. And
in all he will consider one thing only—
“ the extension of the boundaries of Holy
Church.â€
There are things in the Encyclical which
good Methodists will not like, but more
striking, perhaps, is the fact that, in call-
ing His people to attempt greater things
for God, the Pope addresses them, in the
main, in terms that are hardly distinguish-
able from those our trusted leaders use
in calling us to more gallant enterprises.
Last Winter and This
at Chu Chia Tsai.
IDO not think I shall ever forget last
winter—my first -winter at Chu Chia
Tsai. Hardly had we returned from
our summer holiday when one rumour
after another told us of the frightful work
of bandits in the district. First one vil-
lage and then another built up its crumb-
ling walls, and barred itself in behind
strong gates. But even high walls and
strong gates were often too insufficient
against the strong armed bands of roving
brigands.
Well I remember setting out for three
weeks with Mr. Richards, and for three
weeks we seemed to hear nothing but sad
tales of the barbarities of lawless men.
Then came Christmas and the New
Year with a terror for the people
such as even brigands could not create.
Rev. D. HOWARD SMITH, B.D.
For retreating soldiers came—pouring
through the village an increasing stream
—and every fresh company demanded
food, money and carts. Women and
children, men and animals crowded our
compound, and took every available inch
of room. But it seemed as if the hand
of God stretched out over us and our
charges, and “He brought us up out of
all our distresses.†A week after the last
soldiers had disappeared to the South
all was as usual again.
And so winter passed, and the District
Meeting arrived. But still the brigands
levied their toll on the district and travel
was disorganized. Markets were held
outside the village walls and people went
abroad at their peril. The news came
that our village postman’s son, a fine
48
Last Winter and This at Chu Chia Tsai
Christian lad, had been shot on his way
to Tientsin.
We came back this year to a more
peaceful countryside. The villagers had
organized for self-defence. The brigands
had moved to fresh hunting-grounds.
In several parts there was disturbance
still, but local and sporadic, usually due
to the ill-feeling between semi-soldier-
brigands • and the “ Little Red Door
Society.†Now when we travelled out
the village gates were opened for us to
pass through. Busy harvesters worked
in the fields. Carts passed freely along
the roads. The hand of fear was lifted
from the people. All they had to suffer
now were the impositions of the magis-
trates and the exactions of the local
soldiers.
In consequence, our mission work this
winter has been more like normal. It
has been a relief and joy to all of us to
be able to continue the great work of
teaching and preaching without much
interruption.
Shortly after the harvest was gathered
in a preaching band began its work in
the Shangho district. Five preachers
and one hospital assistant gathered to-
gether at Shangho. They were wonder-
fully helped in their work by the stewards
and leaders of the local church. They
mapped out a round of villages and pre-
pared a letter which was sent to the head
men of each village. The letter stated
that on a fixed day the preachers hoped
to arrive to preach to the villagers about
Jesus. They respectfully asked for a
welcome. At most of the villages a real
welcome was accorded. Tables and chairs
were prepared outside and tea was
usually provided. A lively interest was
often shown. Altogether about 1,600
people listened to the preaching. Twenty-
eight gave in their names as enquirers
and many tracts and gospels were sold
and distributed.
While this was going on in the vil-
lages, the hospital assistant opened a
clinic in the Shangho chapel ; and 334 men
and 226 women went for treatment. To-
wards the end of the period over forty
patients came each day. To these the
word was preached. Each evening, wher-
ever the preachers were, they held a
prayer meeting and made plans for the
following day. Three weeks were spent
on this work. Towards the end of the
period, Pastor Chang and I went to
Shangho and brought the preachers back
with us to Chu Chia Tsai for the Quar-
terly Meeting and the village fair.
The village fair was a great success
this year. From a tent on the street the
gospel was preached to the men, whilst
the women were catered for in the chapel.
The chapel was crowded each evening by
the business men who closed up their
stalls before dark. They listened this
year most attentively as the preachers
spoke on such topics as “ The Kingdom
of Heaven,†“True Peace,†“The Way
of Salvation.â€
This year we have had, besides our
usual Bible study classes, a special class
for voluntary workers. We arranged for
a month’s classes in Old and New Testa-
ments, The Life of Jesus, Sermon
Making and Sermon Delivery, Church
History, etc. Five students came. We
had expected more, having suggested
that not more than five should come from
each of the two circuits. None came,
however, from the Wutingfu Circuit, as
the distances were too great for men to
come in these troubled times. Thpse
who came gained much and asked for
another school next year, of two months’
duration.
A special feature of the school was the
evening meeting, when a series of twenty
addresses was delivered on Bible sub-
jects. During the last week of the school
the students themselves took part. This
work needs developing. The strength
of country circuits out here in China, as
in England, lies with the voluntary
workers.
Mrs. Smith and I have just returned
from a round of some of the country
stations. We have had a fine welcome
everywhere. Over twenty Christians
were ready to receive baptism, and it was
with great joy that we received them into
the fellowship of the Church.
And now it is Christmas-time as I
write. To-day the women Christians
have their Christmas feast. The men
and boys had theirs on Christmas Day.
Our work is not easy. We do not
wish it so. The harvest is small, but
when we think of how poor illiterate men
and women find Christ and learn to love
Him we humbly marvel that God can
and does use such as we are in His great
employ.
49
The Editor’s Notes.
Professor Soothill.
PROFESSOR SOOTHILL’S article
in this issue will be read with
profound interest. His long resi-
dence in China ; his position as Pro-
fessor of Chinese in the University of
Oxford; his acknowledged place as a
Chinese historian, give great authority to
his views of the Chinese situation. This
article, and the Foreign Missions Secre-
tary’s, express the mind of the leaders of
our Church in this great crisis of Chris-
tian missions in China.
© © © ®
The Divinity of Postmen.
Those of us who receive letters every
day may not notice any particular signs
of divinity in postmen. But if we lived
in an African clearing we should most
likely regard postmen as only a little
lower than the angels. And if it should
happen that the postman came before he
was duel we should probably think him a
god.
This happened once, and what a shout-
ing when he came ! “All the inhabitants
of that little settlement of white men
called to each other ; the four or five of
"Why not leave them alone?’’ [From “ The Foreign Field."
50
them filled the room of a bark house—
those white faces that were growing daily
like the face of the Asra, ‘ bleich und
bleicher,’ were all lit by the flame of the
mail. In all that little commonwealth,
with its pioneer trades and its pioneer
gardens and its pioneer hospital and
school and church—in all that-settlement
all the busy crude wheels of industry
slackened and stood still while the white
men opened the load of the mail.
“ ‘ Now they will be reading the books
from home ! ’
“And of Ebenga, that young carrier, it is
still remembered that he arrived before
he was due. ‘ Ah, Ebenga,’ you still say
to him from time to time, ‘ that was a
fine walking you walked that walk so
long ago when you slept but three nights
with the mail! ’ â€
This is from a charming book by Miss
Jean Kenyon MacKenzie, entitled “Afri-
can Clearings,†and published by Messrs.
Martin Hopkinson and Co., at six
shillings.
© © © ©
Holding up the Mail.
All letter carriers were not like Ebenga.
One night Miss MacKenzie was .awakened
by two old men chatting in
front of her tent. They were
village headmen, and one had
a white man’s letter to pass on
to the other according to the
pioneer custom in Africa,
where the headman of one
settlement carries it to his
brother headman farther down
the trail. And that night the
postmen loitered.
“To stand and chat there in
the moonlig’ht with the exile’s
letter in your hands — how
could you do that, you two
old heartless headmen ? I
watched you from my little
green tent. It is remembered
of you that you so delayed,
while in some lonely hamlet
under that same moon a white
man sickened for a letter. . .
If, indeed, as you say you
spoke no more than five words
of gossip, those five words
were five too many. It is re-
Death of the Rev. T. M. Gauge
membered of you, and a thousand nights
since when I have waited for the mail, if
it were a moonlight night, I have- told
myself with an extreme self-pity and a
bitterness, ‘ The carrier is gossiping in
some clearing-. ’ I have seen in my heart
that man with a load of mail upon his
back, standing for hours by a friend of
his, laughing and asking news one of
the other. This conjured vision of two
black men holding up the mail is the sad
issue of an imagination infected beyond
cleansing. You see, I saw them do it.â€
A letter from home. How life must
sing to those in many an out-station on
the day the mail arrives. And Miss Mac-
Kenzie says that in all alien settlements
there is one night unlike all other nights,
it is the night before the mail is closed.
“The lamp is full, of oil that night, and
the cup of coffee is at the elbow. On and
on, while the stars march, the white
man’s hand runs upon the page. In vil-
lages where there are no street-lamps, the
white man’s window is a lamp all night
of the night before the mail. From
steamers that are tied to trees among the
rushes, in rivers that you do not know,
the officer on watch may look all night
through such a window at such a man
writing, writing a long, long letter—the
beating heart of man, articulate in all
that heartless darkness.â€
Miss MacKenzie was for many years a
missionary in the Southern Cameroon, in
the heart of West Africa. Her delightful
book ought to have a very large circula-
tion.
© @ @
East and West.
Sadhu S-undar Singh says that on his
return from a world tour he was fre-
quently asked : What is the difference be-
tween the West and the East, and which
are the better people?
The simple answer is that the intrinsic
and essential basis of human nature is the
same all over the world, with a few out-
ward differences of social life and organi-
sation.
The Sadhu, in the “Missionary Review
■of the World,†says that many in India
believe that materialism reigns supreme
in the West, while spirituality has its ex-
clusive monopoly in the East. This is a
false and narrow outlook. Materialism
and spirituality go hand in hand every-
where.
@ ®> ® ®
The London Meetings.
The London Missionary Meetings will
be held this year in Wesley’s Chapel, City
Road. The date is Monday, April 25th.
Mr. W, J. Mallinson, D.L., presides in
the afternoon, and the speakers are Revs.
R. Moffat Gautrey and William Hall.
The evening chairman is Mr. Percy
Fielden, and the President of the Confer-
ence, Dr. Timothy T. Lew, of Peking
University, and Rev. W. H. Hudspeth,
M.A., will be the speakers.
Death of the
Rev. T. M. Gauge.
The intimation in the “United Metho-
dist †of February 24th that the Rev.
T. M. Gauge had passed away came as a
great shock to many. It was known that
he had been seriously ill, but hopes were
entertained of recovery, but this fine-
spirited servant of Christ was called to his
reward on Tuesday, February loth.
Mr. Gauge was a missionary in Wen-
chow from 1910 to 1917. During these
years he did a splendid work ; his keen-
ness and devotion knew no limits. In-
deed, he undoubtedly worked far beyond
his strength. He was a man of lovable
disposition, and wherever he went he
made hosts of friends. We sympathise
very deeply with his dear ones in this
great sorrow which has befallen them.
-f-
A W.M.A. History.
One of our District secretaries recently
asked whether we could supply a pamphlet
describing how the W.M.A. came into
being. That request suggests that there
may be others who along with her will
be interested to know that we have in
preparation such a booklet, telling the
story of the inauguration and growth of
women’s work for missions in the three
denominations of the United Methodist
Church, of the union of the three organi-
sations to form the present W.M.A., and
a brief account of progress since that
union. Fuller particulars will be given
later, but it is hoped that the booklet will
be ready for sale at the annual Council
meetings in May. J. B. B.
51
The Story of the Girls’
School, North China.
Rev. F. B. TURNER.
O Memory, fond memory,
We bid thee bring us back the years.
HE story of the Girls’ School now
at Chu Chia Tsai goes back to
early days of the North China
Mission. With the passing years the
effective labour of those who began it is
forgotten by, or unknown to, most of
those who are now interested in this
valuable work. One feels that they should
be rescued from oblivion ; and that to-
day we should give thanks for those who
blazed the trail.
It is to be remembered that until some
forty years ago the absolute illiteracy
of women and girls was universal in
China. Occasionally the favourite daugh-
ter of a learned man had wheedled her
father into permitting her to study with
her brothers, but it was the rarest thing
to meet with, or even to hear of, a woman
who could read and write.
This lay heavy on the heart of Mrs.
Innocent, the wife of the pioneer of our
North China Mission ; and back in the
“seventies†of last century she con-
ceived the idea of establishing a school
for girls, theiT quite an unknown thing in
China. She dedicated her young daugh-
ter, Annie, to this work : sent her home
to school, and later to Germany to com-
plete her education and equipment with
a view to her returning to China to teach
Chinese girls. Meanwhile Mrs. Innocent-
set about raising the wherewithal for
building the necessary premises.
Before her education in Germany was
completed Annie Innocent was taken ill
and died. But the bereaved and heart-
broken mother nobly persisted in her pur-
pose ; and before furlough in 1886 she had
accumulated a considerable sum. This
was largely augmented after appeals
during that visit to England, and Mrs.
Innocent returned to China in 1887 with
sufficient funds to erect at once in
Tientsin the “Annie Innocent Memorial
School.â€
Effective premises were built in the
Tientsin Mission compound; and the
work was at once begun by Mrs. Inno-
cent, assisted by her daughter Kate,
now the wife of Dr. Shrubshall, of
Brighton.
At the Methodist New Connexion Con-
ference of 1888, Miss Waller, who had
done good service in the McAll Mission
in Paris, was designated to the Girls’
School, and took up her post on arrival
in Tientsin in the winter of that year.
Miss Waller was not. successful in the
post of Lady Principal ; she was not
young, and she did not easily adapt her-
self to the atmosphere of life in China.
She was bent on importing English ideas
into China without consideration for
Chinese feeling. An illustration will ex-
plain this.
It was difficult to secure girls, even
for free education ; many a Shantung
farmer when approached on the subject
replied with astonishment, “What does
a girl want with reading and writing? â€
Parents who had been persuaded to send
their girls to Tientsin were also dissatis-
fied because their daughters came back
quite out of love with home work : they
were without the training they would
have received at home in sewing and,
more important still, in spinning and
weaving, in the Chinese mind very es-
sentials. For the Chinese idea of the
“virtuous woman †is just that expressed
by King’ Lemuel in Proverbs ; and no
woman was considered fit for wifehood if
it could not be said of her, “She layeth
her hands to the spindle and her hands
hold the distaff.â€
The Mission executive recognised this
as a valid criticism, and decided that
spinning and weaving must form an
essential part of the Girls’ School course :
sewing was already taught to some ex-
tent. This policy Miss Waller strongly
resented.
In furtherance of this project the writer
obtained in Shantung, and presented to
the school, a complete equipment of
native looms, spinning wheels, spindles,.
The Story of the Girls’ School. North China
etc., etc., only to be solemnly reproved by
Miss Waller, who wrote expressing pain
and surprise that “a man of your intel-
lectual calibre and classical education â€
should have been capable of furthering
an industrial course like this in a modern
girls’ school. All through the years Dr.
Candlin and other colleagues, in pleasant
argument, have used this “ Et tu, Brute â€
against the present writer. No wonder
that after only a few years’ service, Miss
Waller’s health also meanwhile failing,
she was recalled to England. Mrs. In-
nocent carried on for a time alone.
These years of early effort not having
been as successful as had been hoped,
and most of the girls coming from Shan-
tung (for the Tongshan work was then
but in its infancy), it was decided to close
down the Girls’ School in Tientsin, sell
the premises, and take measures towards
re-opening the work in Chu Chia Tsai,
the centre of our Shantung mission.
This decision was reached shortly before
Rev. and Mrs. J. Innocent retired from
missionary work and returned to Eng-
land in 1897.
The project for resuscitating the Girls’
School was for a time in abeyance. Then
came the Boxer troubles ; and in 1902-3
it fell to my lot as the “mission brick-
layer,†in connection with the complete
scheme of rebuilding and restoration after
the Boxers’ destruction, to design and
build in Chu Chia Tsai the Ladies’
House and Girls’ School premises which
have ever since been in use.
The Girls’ School work was recom-
menced in 1903 by Mrs. Turner, who
soon gathered over forty day scholars,
Mrs. Candlin for a time co-operating, as
she was temporarily in Chu Chia Tsai.
The school succeeded admirably ; but
without a lady missionary to give whole
time to it it was impossible to have
boarders. After three years the sad
death of Millie Turner having freed Miss
Turner from further duty as governess to
her brother’s family she was, in 1906,
appointed to the charge of the Girls’
School, and took it over from Mrs. Tur-
ner as a going concern. Her residence
for the three previous years in China,
and her having already acquired some
knowledge of the language, made it pos-
sible for her to take full control at once,
and the boarding establishment was
forthwith opened.
The progress of the school during the
past twenty years is well known to friends
of the China Mission, and all rejoice in
its effectiveness and success.
And all will be glad to recall or to
learn of the good work done in the earlier
days when those foundations were laid
upon which later labourers have built.
Outside the Mission Compound at Chu Chia Tsai.
[Photo : Dr. IV. E. Plummer.
53
Mendi Stories Told me by Natives at
Bendu, Bongo Chiefdom. Rev. e cocker.
1. Why You Should Not
Hate Your Brother.
CERTAIN rich man had seven
sons. The seventh was much
younger than the others, and
greatly beloved by his father. Unlike his
brothers, he was little in stature, and for
that reason was named Shortman by his
fellows. The day came when the father
died, and his love for his youngest boy
was fully proved by the inheritance the
boy received, which was much larger
than that given to his brothers. The
brothers were angry at this treatment,
and began to hate Shortman. At last one
said to the others, “Let us get rid of
him, and divide his inheritance.†Near
bv was a broad river. On some pretext
they persuaded Shortman to accompany
them in a boat, and when half way cross,
suddenly pushed him into the water and
rowed away. Shortman went down, and
was caught in a swift current, which
landed him half dead on the other side.
After a time he recovered, and fearing to
return to his brothers, made his way to
a far country. There he entered the
King’s household, -and after many years
became the greatest man in the land next
to the King. He had immense wealth,
and great possessions. One day the
desire came upon him to go and see his
brothers. So after much preparation, he
made the journey, and greatly astonished
his brethren, who had thought him dead
these many years. They were puzzled to
know how he had escaped. He replied
that therein lay the secret of his success :
“When you pushed me in the water, I
went down, and was astonished to see
our dear father, who took me by the
hand and led me into the way to the
country where he said I should find great
riches.†His brothers now began to ask
eager questions, until Shortman said, “ I
can take you to the exact spot where I
found my father.†So they rowed out to
the middle of the river, and reaching the
spot, peered into the deep water, seeing
not what their brother professed to see.
So they peered until, in a state of dizzi-
ness, they were easily pushed in bv
Shortman, who-rowed away and left them
to drown. That is why you should not
hate your brother.
(What is the relation between the above
and Joseph and his Brethren?)
2. The Heady
Fisherman.
A certain fisherman made a new fish-
trap, and said, “I am no longer going to
fish in the old place, but in the river at
the other side of the village, where none
ever fishes.â€
The people said, “You must not fish
there. Our fathers never fished there.
There is some good reason why men
should not fish there.†He replied, “That
is all nonsense. There are fine fish in
that stream, and I am going to get
them.†So he fixed the trap and straight-
way caught fine fish, which he displayed
in the village with much boasting. But
the people shook their heads and said,
“There is some good reason why men
should not fish there.†But after many
weeks, during which he produced wonder-
ful hauls of fine fish, they began to won-
der. But still they shook their heads
and said, “Our fathers never fished in
that stream. There is some good reason
why men should not fish in that stream.â€
One day when the fisherman went to
examine the trap, he was enraptured to
see in it a very large fish. He quickly
attached a cord and slung the great fish
•over his shoulder. “ What will they
say,†he thought, “when they see this? â€
He had not gone far, however, when he
felt the load on his back changing shape.
Looking round, he was horrified to see
a river genie clinging to his shoulders
and grinning hideously. At the same
moment the genie began to sing, laugh-
ing derisively as it sang. “You thought
yourself clever, eh? catching big fish
and boasting, eh? Ah, my fine fellow,
what think you of the one you’ve caught
now, eh? †The fisherman’s answer was
to run backwards against a tree. Bang,
bump, bang he went, until his own back
was sore. “That’s settled him,†he
thought. But as he went away, he felt
th? genie on his back,again, laughing
54
Mendi Stories
harder than ever and singing: “ Oh,
clever man, catching big fish, eh? Ha,
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha !†In desperation the
fisherman now ran to a thorn bush, and
violently rubbed his back across the
thorns, thinking thus to tear the genie to
pieces. But all he got for his trouble was
a thorn-torn back, bleeding and sore,
with the genie still there singing his taunt
song with merciless persistence. The
fisherman now became desperate and ran
hither and thither in frantic rage. He
bumped against the rocks, he rolled on
the ground, he jumped into a pond. But
it was all no use ; the genie was still
there, “Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!
(To be c
Caught fine fish, eh ? Such very fine
fish, eh? Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!â€
Words have not speed enough to tell
how now the fisherman rushed and
banged about like a human tornado, until
at last, in a fearful frenzy, he took the
cord which had held the fish and with it
strangled himself. The genie departed.
By and by the body of the fisherman was
found by the villagers, who shook their
heads and said, “Did we not say there
was some good reason why men should
not fish in that stream?†And to the
children the lesson was made plain, “ See
what happens to a heady man who will
not be told.â€
tinned.)
Find Lost Men ; Never
Mind the Cost.
“James Gordon Bennett sent Henry
M. Stanley into Central Africa with the
commission ‘ Find Livingstone, never
mind the cost ; find Livingstone, and bring
him back. ’
“The Word of Jesus Christ to His
Church is : ‘ Find lost men ; never mind
the cost ; find them, and bring them
back to Me.’
“ I like my missionary job because it is
a commission from my Master Himself,
and because it is difficult ; but what gives
a greater thrill is to realize there is hope
of victory. . . Men who three years
ago marched around the mountain and
called for rain are now quietly kneeling
in our little church and praying to God
for rain. Some who watched through the
long nights in fear of evil spirits now
say the Lord’s Prayer and lie do\vn to
pleasant dreams.â€
Albert Hesler, F.R.G.S., Nigeria, in
“The Missionary Review of the World.â€
On the Tana River.
{Photo : Mr. T. Bugler, J.P.
55
Some New Books.
In “Christ and Money†(S.C.M., 3s.
and 2s.), the Rev. Hugh Martin, M.A.,
shows that clear thinking and true acting
in regard to money are of fundamental
importance. “If a man’s religion does
not affect his use of money, that man’s
religion is vain.†There can be no ques-
tion that money talks. Whether he be a
casual labourer or a millionaire, what a
man does with his money reveals his
character.
It would startle many to learn how
much Jesus had to say about money, and
Mr. Martin expresses a natural surprise
that the subject should be treated in so
meagre a fashion by Christian teachers.
In a series of valuable chapters, all prac-
tical and pertinent to the main theme,
Christ and money, we are led to the con-
clusion that we must assess ourselves in
the presence of God as to what we shall
give to the needs of His Kingdom. And
in this self-assessment missions must
have a definite share. Among the many
Confucian Temple at Chufu,
where Confucius died and was buried.
,[Mr. T. Butler, J.P.
wise sayings in the book the following is
worthy of special attention : we are
warned against exhorting the poor to re-
member that “the real blessings and joys
of life are not to be bought with money—
especially if the preacher himself is com-
fortably off.â€
“From Field to Factory,†by Margaret
Read (S.C.M., Is. 6d.). The progress
of Western industrialism in India has
been phenomenal. The India of romance
and legend is largely passing away, and
many Indian cities are nearer akin to an
industrial English town than to the
legendary pictures of the “ gorgeous
East.†The result is that the Indian
peasant in his thousands is turning into a
factory hand, and many of the ugly fea-
tures of o-ur own early factory system are
seen to prevail. Over 40,000 women are
employed down in the mines, and they
work a ten-hour shift. Naturally enough
the standard of life is deplorably low, and
family life among these miners is practi-
cally non-existent. It is no
wonder that men like Tagore
and Gandhi hate the industrial-
ism which has bred these con-
ditions. The Christian Church
in India is alive to them, and
is working with all her might
to improve them ; but it is a
stupendous task, as we find to
our sorrow at home. Miss
Read’s little book should be
read by all who are jealous for
the fair name of the British
Empire.
In “The Philosophy of Con-
fucius†(S.C.M., Is. 6d.), Mr.
C. Y. Hsu, of the College of
Law, Changsha, says that the
national life of China, good or
bad, is mainly, if not entirely,
determined by Confucius, whose
ideas and teachings have sunk
into the heart of every Chinese
either by education or tradition.
The fundamental principle of his
philosophy lies in the doctrine
of “perfect virtue.†This has
different meanings, and is in-
terpreted as “love†or “benevo-
lence†and “man.†The world
is a big family, so that to love
one another is to practise
56
Blazing the Trail
“perfect virtue.†Confucius did not
claim to be a religious founder, and did
not care to speak much of divine things.
No attempt was made bv him to attack
polytheism, though he appeared to believe
that there was one god who was supreme
above the rest. Mr. Hsu holds that Con-
fucius paves the way for Christianity in
China, and that the gulf between Con-
fucian philosophy and Christian doctrine
may easily be bridged, if both are under-
stood.thoroughly and interpreted properly.
Blazing the
Trail.
I'l one of our most important Miao
centres—Heaven-born-Bridge—there
are many Miao who have not yet
joined the Church, and who each year
hold a great heathen festival where there
is dancing, playing of pipes, whisky-
drinking and saturnalian revelry. To
combat this we hold a Christian Festival,
where, instead of whisky-drinking, there
is hymn-singing, instead of dancing and
pipe-playing there are healthy sports, and
where, instead of lewd behaviour, the
people learn to live clean and pure lives.
This year Mr. Cottrell and I visited
Heaven-born-Bridge, and it is of our visit
that I write. We went away with happy
hearts, for an hour before leaving we
heard of a beautiful though sad thing.
News was brought that an aforetime
preacher had died of typhoid, that dread
disease of these parts of China. His wife
and children were also ill, and there was
none to nurse them. So great is the. fear
of typhoid that people are unwilling to
approach sufferers : a little food and
water are placed by the side of the
patients, who are left to fate. No one
was caring for the wife and children of
the dead preacher, but as soon as the
news was brought to Stone Gateway our
preachers decided that one of them would
go and see that food and medicine were
taken to the sick family. That is what
Christianity does for these people; it
gives them a new, deep, broad love and
sympathy.
The Saturday evening was spent at an
out-of-the-world Miao village in which
only six families out of twenty-four were
Christians. These six families have been
with us since the earliest days of the
Miao movement. They were amongst
Rev. W. H. HUDSPETH, M.A.
those who first sought Mr. Pollard in
Chao Tong, and they have borne witness
for twenty years. In the early days a
great number of Miao were unresponsive ;
and they remain dormant. This is a cause
of great sorrow to the missionaries and
a source of mystery too. In the mass
movement why did large numbers come
and large numbers refuse the message ?
Here and there new families have joined
us, but only a few, and how to win the
heathen exercises our minds continually.
It is not easy for a few families to be
Christian when they are surrounded by
many who refuse to believe. People in
England cannot picture the difficulties
that Christians in China have to face, and
amongst the Chinese it is even more diffi-
cult than amongst the Miao. With the
Miao there was a mass movement, but
the Chinese are won only one by one.
They are sneered at, avoided, overlooked,
called traitors to their country, and ridi-
culed as being slaves to the foreigner. It
is hard, very hard, to be a Christian in
China. But to return to the Miao vil-
lage. We were most interested to learn
there that throughout the Miao field
wherever in a village there are only two
or three Christian families, the unclean
communal house is done away with.
Christianity becomes the conscience of
the village. That is one of the fruits of
the Church here.
On the Sunday morning as we ambled
along on our ponies to Heaven-born-
Bridge chapel we were cheered by seeing
the people gathering from every quarter
for the mid-day service. Old men with
sticks to help them tramped along, fol-
lowed by women with babies strapped to
their backs, and a large number of kid-
57
Blazing the Trail
dies, who are the most lovable of all.
Turning a corner we came upon a crowd
of girls titivating themselves by the side
of a fresh water spring. Their wash-hand
basin was a clear watered pool, and their
mirror was a second pool, the latter being
the only species of mirror known to these
people. The girls had tramped some dis-
stance and had carried their best skirts
and gowns in bundles over their shoul-
ders. They were donning these for the
mid-day service. In the church, which
was filled by some five hundred people,
how I wished it were possible to bring
some of our supporters to see for them-
selves the work that is being done. Some
were sitting on forms, many were squat-
ting on the floor, as there were not suffi-
cient seats. So many people had congre-
gated before the meeting was timed to
commence that we filled in the period of
waiting by singing. One of our minis-
ters, Mr. Chang Chi-ch’eng, led this ser-
vice of praise. It was inspiring to hear
these people sing the first verse of hymn
after hymn. “All hail the power of Jesu’s
name,†“Blow ye the trumpet, blow,â€
“The God of Abraham praise,†“Great
God, how infinite Thou art,†“ Meet and
right it is to praise,†“Nearer, my God,
to Thee,†etc. One might have been in
a Methodist meeting in England, and this
is what I felt throughout the whole ser-
vice. The uniqueness of the meeting was
at its close. As the people were separa-
ting a woman came up to us and asked
us to pray with her : her baby boy had
died, and in her dreams she heard him
crying. Grief and sorrow are the same
throughout the world, they know no
colour. Another woman had seen a ser-
pent in her dream, and amongst the Miao
this is a dreadful omen. Is it that the,
whole earth suffers because of Eve’s
transgression?
As we were passing out of the door a
young man stopped us. “Teacher,†he
said, “ I’ve a devil.†We took him aside
and asked him quietly what was the
matter. He explained that a few weeks
ago he sinned, and sinned badly, since
when the devil had not left him. He was
with him in the house, in the fields and in
his dreams, as real to him as any New
Testament story of the demon-possessed.
We prayed with him and I think drove out
his devil.
I will not detail the programme of Mon-
day, when over a thousand people
gathered. It was wonderful to see such a
gathering, but I want to speak of some
of the people we met on the following day.
We had reached another centre where
there is always a welcome for the mis-
sionary, who can go at most only once a year.
Here we met several villagers who had
suffered at the hands of brigands. They
told a sorry story. Their homes had been
looted of everything, and they had only
the things in which they stood. Think of
what it would mean, Reader, if ruffians
came to your home and robbed you of
all your possessions ; you succeed in es-
caping, but all you possess is what you
are wearing, and this without any bank
balance. Such is the position of some
Miao, and I hear from Mr. Hicks that
several of the Ibien have suffered in a
like manner. Turning to the head-man
of the village where we were staying, I
asked him how his fellow villagers had
fared. “Ah,†said he, a smile stealing
over his lined face,“The Heavenly Father
has taken care of us.†The faith of these
unsophisticated people is a naive but real
thing. My last memory of that village
as we were leaving was seeing people
from a neighbouring hamlet driving away
their cattle as brigands were coming that
day to burn them out.
The journey home was a weary ride of
thirty odd miles crossing hills over almost
unrideable cattle-tracks.
You will-wonder why I have called this
“Blazing the Trail.†It is because all
the work in Yunnan, whether amongst
Miao, Chinese or Ibien, is pioneer work.
It is our lot to blaze the trail for future
generations, and we beg the people at
the home base to give us their sympathy.
I would ask especially that you would
give a first place in your prayers to Mr.
Cottrell, who is this year stationed at
Stone Gateway. He has the oversight of
three to four hundred hamlets and vil-
lages which are nominally Christian. It
is a heavy task to put on the shoulders
of a young missionary, but he tackles the
problems gallantly, and this in spite of
the fact that some of his-out-stations are
more difficult to superintend than a
church in Vienna would be for a London
pastor to shepherd. Give him a place in
your daily prayers.
58
Mrs. J. B. BROOKS. B.Lltt.
“ Too Late.â€
A Missionary Sketch.
By Miss DORIS MAY (Dudley).
With adaptations by NURSE RAINE.
Characters:
Po-Chi (pronounced “Bo-jee â€), just re-
turned from Hospital with eye-
sight restored : greatly excited.
Mrs. Ling, her Mother.
Mrs. Zee, a Neighbour.
Hsiao-Hua (pronounced “Shee-ow-hwaâ€),
the blind daughter of Mrs. Zee.
A Lady Missionary Doctor.
A Lady Missionary Nurse.
SCENE II.
A Dispensary.
Doctor seated at table reading letters and
chuckling. Nurse enters and begins to prepare
dressings, etc.
Nurse : Nearly finished your letters,
Doctor ? There are patients here'already.
Doctor : Not quite. Ready shortly. •
Nurse : Breakfast was rather late this
morning, but you would have been sur-
prised to get it as early as you did, if
you had been in the kitchen watching
the preparations. It was as good as a
pantomime.
Doctor : Why ? What happened ?
Nurse : Well, in the first place, cook
has just started to fry some bacon, and
had left it for a moment when a dog
came in and took it from the pan and
ran off with it. Cook ohased the dog up
and down the courtyard, through the
garden, right round the compound, and
finally rescued the bacon, when the dog
took refuge in the gatekeeper’s hut. He
brought the. bacon back and proceeded to
•cook it!
Doctor : “What! The bacon the dog
had mauled about?
Nurse : Yes, the very same bacon that
had been carried in the dog’s mouth all
round the compound. However, don’t
worry. I suggested we would rather
have eggs this morning, so you didn’t
.get any of it. Then on the way to the
table cook dropped a piece of bread as
he was crossing the courtyard. He picked
it up and carefully wiped.it on his sleeve.
Doctor : Oh, did he? on his sleeve,
too? Why that is always very dirty.
Nurse : That’s nothing. Yesterday
he strained the soup through one of my
stockings, and when I rebuked him he
said, ‘ Oh, it’s all right, Nurse : it wasn’t
a clean one.†You didn’t get any,
though. I am keeping a watch on the
kitchen now.
Doctor : Thanks, nurse, it seems very
necessary, too. Oh, by the way, one of
my letters this morning was particularly
interesting. You remember the soldier
who came to me with his ear chopped
off, and I stitched it on, again?
Nurse : Yes, indeed.
Doctor : I have just had a letter from
his general congratulating me on my
Chuh Sy Mo. [Photo : Miss Simpson.
Matron and School Mistres in Women’s
Bible Training Institute, Wenchow.
59
Women’s Missionary Auxiliary
great surgical skill, but informing me
that the next time he cut off his soldiers’
ears he wishes them to remain off. [Clears
away letters, etc.i
Well, I suppose it is time we got to
work. See if there are any new patients
first, please, nurse.
[Nurse goes I out, and returns leading Hsiao
Hita, Mrs. Zee following.']
Nurse : Here is a little girl to see you,
Doctor ?
Doctor : [Turning to Mrs. Zee] What
do you want to see me about, Big-sister?
Mrs. Zee : I have brought my daugh-
ter, Hsiao-Hua that you may make her
see again.
Doctor : How long have her eyes been
like this?
Mrs. Zee : For about two years. First
the lids were sore, then it spread to her
eyes, and now she is unable to see.
Doctor : Let me look at your eyes a
minute ; I won’t hurt you. [She asks the
nurse to bathe the child's eyes and put drops in
while she is talking to the mother.]
Doctor : Where is your honourable
home?
Mrs. Zee : My unworthy hovel is in
the illustrious city of Tong Ch’uan.
Doctor : Tong Ch’uan ! Why, that
is a long way. How did you come? Did
you walk?
Mrs. Zee : Yes, all the way. Hsiao-
Hua would come. She is so anxious to
be able to see. How long will it be
before she can see?
Doctor : We will see what we can do.
Pass the light, please Nurse. [The nurse
passes an electric torch] Can you see this
light, Hsiao-Hua?
Hsiao-Hua : No, Doctor.
Doctor: Not at all? Not the least
little bit?
Hsiao-Hua : No, Doctor.
Doctor : [After carefully looking into
the eyes]. We will get rid of this dis-
charge at any rate, but I am afraid it is
too late to save her sight. If she had
come to the Hospital when the sores first
came she could have b'een cured in a week
or two.
Mrs. Zee : But we had not heard of
the Hospital then. Won’t you take her
in now, and try to cure her, Doctor? We
have had a good harvest, and I will
gladly pay anything you ask.
Doctor : I am so sorry.
Mrs. Zee : We will pay you. We could
sell the pig and some of the rice. We
will give you all we can.
Doctor : Yes, I believe you, and I
wish I could do what you ask. If only
Hsiao-Hua had come earlier ! It is too
late now. I can do nothing for the
sight : she should have been treated
before.
Mrs. Zee : But there is no hospital in
our town and we didn’t know.
Doctor : I know. I wish there were
more hospitals and more doctors and
nurses.
Would you like, Hsiao-Hua, to come
into Hospital until the discharge is
cleared up? You could stay in the city
near her. Then we might arrange for
her to go to school. She could learn
much by listening to the lessons. [Turning
to Hsiao-Hua].
How would you like to stay with us
a little while, Hsiao-Hua.
Hsiao-Hua : Oh, please may I stay.
Perhaps you may make me see after all.
Doctor : No. dear, you will not be
able to see, but we will cure the sores,
and then the pain will go away. Would
you like to go to school afterwards ?
Hsiao-Hua : Yes, please. With Po-
Chi.
. Doctor : Well, go along with Nurse
now.
[Nurse leads Hsiao-Hua out.]
Mrs. Zee : Thank you so much for
bringing some joy to my poor blind
daughter. We have heard that you have
come to our unworthy country to tell of
a Great God who loves us all, even a
little blind Chinese girl. Plow wonderful
it is ! [Re-enter nurse.]
Nurse, : Hsiao-Hua is quite happy with
one of the Chinese nurses, and wants you
to go and see how comfortable she is.
Mrs. Zee : Thank you. I will go to
her. Please be seated. [Bowing as she
retires.]
Doctor and Nurse [together] : Please
go slowly.
Nurse : Oh, Doctor, isn’t it sad? She
was so brave about it, too.
Doctor : Yes, and it would have been
so different if they had come before. Now
it is “too late.†Oh, Nurse, why have
we not more hospitals, more doctors and
more nurses ?
Curtain.
60
“ If God has left certain things dependent on the action of the human will, He may have
also left certain things dependent on human petition.†—James Drummond.
Rev. W. H. Hudspeth, M.A.,
Back in England.
I
T is hard to realize that it is as long
ago as 1909 that the Rev. W. H.
Hudspeth, M.A., first set out for
Yunnan. His travelling companion was
the Rev. S. Pollard, who was returning
at the end of his second furlough, having
stirred missionary enthusiasm to white
heat by his remarkable speeches to large
audiences in the newly-formed United
Methodist Church. Mr. Hudspeth be-
longed to the Methodist New Connexion,
and went direct to China from Ranmoor
College. A friendship beg'an on that
voyage which meant much to both men,
and later bore much precious fruit among
the Miao and Nosu people.
As soon as possible after Mr. Hud-
speth’s arrival I took the opportunity of
assuring him that he would receive a
warm welcome in the homeland. Would
he tell us something about his long jour-
ney? I was sure it would be of interest
to our readers.
“To be once again in England after
an absence of many years is a wonderful
experience,†replied Mr. Hudspeth, “and
one that only those who havei been away
from her can understand. We whose
work is twelve thousand miles distant in
returning pass through many climes, and
it is with a wonderful appreciation that
we again view the familiar landscapes
and come into contact with our English
home life. As we travelled up from
Folkestone to London, and from there to
West Hartlepool, we felt that in spite of
The
EDITOR
all its labour and economic problems there
is no country in the world like dear old
England.
“ Our homeland journey was unevent-
ful. We had twelve days overland in
chairs and then four days down the
French Railway through Tongking to
Haiphong. Here we boarded a French
coasting steamer which took us to Hong-
Rev. and Mrs. W. H. Hudspeth
on the boat home.
April. 1927.
Rev. W. H. Hudspeth, M.A., Back in England
Kong which, when we arrived, was all
agog with the news from Hankow. It
was here that we first learnt of the crisis.
Our first thoughts were that we should
go back to Yunnan, and had I not been
under strict medical orders, to Yunnan
I should have returned. A minority of
the people in Hong-Kong advocated send-
ing troops to Hankow, but a bigger
majority favoured more conciliatory
measures. From Hong-Kong we tra-
velled by the Japanese Line in the ‘ Suwa
Maru,’ in which we enjoyed five weeks’
rest and quiet, and then, in order to miss
the gales in the Bay, we landed at Mar-
seilles, travelling overland to England.’’
I asked Mr. Hudspeth about the posi-
tion in Yunnan. I did not want to
anticipate what might possibly be the
subject of his address in London on April
25th ; all the same, if he could tell us
something now I knew it would be
appreciated.
“The situation in Yunnan, as in other
provinces of China, is one of considerable
anxiety. It has been truly said that
4 history may be ransacked to furnish a
situation that so stirs interest, that keeps
Rev F. W. J . Cottrell, escorting
Mr. and Mrs. Hudspeth to Yunnanfu.
the spectator so wavering between hope
and fear, that presents so baffling a face
to every attempt to find a solution. ’
Several of our country churches have
been plundered by bandits, though, hap-
pily, the attitude of officials has been
friendly. Three of our preachers have
been murdered, but this has not deterred
others from spreading the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Both Chinese Christians
(in the term ‘ Chinese ’ I include Chinese,
Miao and Nosu) and missionaries suffer
from the strain incident to the perils of
banditry and lawlessness, anti-Christian
and anti-foreign propaganda ; and for
the missionaries who are isolated in the
interior there is an insidious and increas-
ing tension. The workers in Yunnan are
more- remote from cultural influences
than your missionaries in any other part
of China, and should there be a serious
anti-foreign outbreak there is no human
way of escape. Two days ago I was the
recipient of a letter from Chengtu
(Szechuan, the province bordering on
Yunnan), where some of our more ad-
vanced students are studying, telling me
that on January 1st the military gover-
nor hoisted the Cantonese red flag whilst
his soldiers plundered the city, urging
the people not to eat breakfast until they
had wiped out the foreign religion. My
fear is that this wild outcry will spread
to Yunnan and intensify the already
existing difficulties. My correspondent
ended his letter by saying, ‘ Here’s to
wishing that we might all be here next
New Year’s Day,’ and that I am sure is
the spirit of our workers in Yunnan.
“The Christian movement is faced
with an increasing army of critics. The
anti-Christian movement is most certainly
growing and its propaganda is active
and ubiquitous. Social conditions are
bad and militarists bleed the people, but
amidst it all our Christians are making a
brave stand. They are puzzled and be-
wildered, yet during this period of poli-
tical chaos their manner of life bears
witness to the power of the inner peace
and understanding which comes from
Jesus Christ. Many indeed are learning
to place more reliance on Jesus Christ
and less on the missionary, realizing that
Christ is not a European or an English-
man but the Son of God, the Saviour of
the world, and this is what we mission-
aries have been working for.
62
Rev. W. H. Hudspeth, MA., Back in England
“On the morning; we said ‘ Good-bye,’
the parting compliments were exchanged,
and whilst these are usual, I was im-
pressed with the earnestness with which
the preachers urged us to return as soon
as health permitted. I suggested to
them that the time had now come when
we missionaries need not come to China,
as the slogan of the Chinese is now
' Nationalism and Independence,’ and
personally I favour this aspiration. I
further pointed out that it is becoming
increasingly difficult to maintain the dif-
ferent branches of missionary work, but
to all my arguments they had ready
answers, and pressed and begged for a
return.â€
All realize the difficulty of looking very
far ahead concerning mission work in
China. I asked Mr. Hudspeth what
opinions he had formed of the immediate
prospect, and of the ultimate issues.
“It is extraordinarily difficult to fore-
cast the future of our work,†said
Mr. Hudspeth, “and the immediate
prospect that we shall not be able
to hold our own must be admitted
and faced. The lukewarm and insincere
will dissociate themselves, but the acid
test of persecution will reveal the fine-
ness of the gold to be found in large
numbers of our followers. In view of
this, it would be a splendid innovation if
during the next tw'enty years home
boards and home churches did not
trouble their missionaries for schedule
returns. One of the grave defects in the
attitude of the West is that we demand
numerical results. To penetrate the en-
tire area of Oriental thought and life by
the spiritual power of the Christian life
is a much more significant task than the
mere baptizing of converts from pagan-
ism. In fact, one of the immediate results
of the present chaos will be less baptisms,
but amongst those who are baptized
there will be a deeper, fuller and more in-
timate knowledge of Jesus Christ.
“ Of the ultimate result there can be
no doubt. Out of the present confusion
will grow an indigenous Christian Church
whose stupendous task will be the in-
spiring, reinvigorating- and saving of the
whole Chinese nation. Only a Chinese
Christian Church can save China, and I
believe that such a one will also bring
to the Church Universal new glimpses of
God and fresher and deeper understand-
ings of the teaching and life of Jesus
Christ.
“There is therefore no need for fear
or alarm. We shall need much patience,
much fortitude and deep sympathy ; and
to put new hope and courage into our
missionaries and Chinese Christians, we
at home should have more vision, more
spiritual agony for the redemption of
men, and a deeper consecration to Jesus
Christ.â€
LONDON MISSIONARY MEETINGS, 1
7 /3a
HOME
MISSIONS,
3 o’clock.
OVERSEAS
MISSIONS,
6.30.
WESLEY’S CHAPEL, CITY ROAD.
MONDAY, APRIL 25th, 1927.
Speakers—Rev. R. MOFFAT GAUTREY (Tooting Wesleyan Mission).
Rev. WILLIAM HALL (Lindley. Huddersfield).
Rev. THOS. SUNDERLAND.
Chairman—Mr. W. J. MALLINSON, J.P., D.L. TEA at S.
Speakers—The President of the Conference (Rev. HENRY JAMES).
Rev. W E. S00TH1LL, M.A. (Oxford).
Rev. W. H HUDSPETH, M.A. (Yunnan).
Rev. C. STEDEFORD.
Chairman—Mr. PERCY FIELDEN.
The singing will be led by the choirs of Walthamstow and district, under the direction of
Mr. PERCY J. RIDDLE. Organist, Mr. C. F. WARNER, A.R.C.O.
Contributions to the Chairmen’s Lists should be sent to the Rev. A. E. J. COSSON,
42 Kestrel Avenue, Herne Hill, London, S.E.24.
©
©
63
The Missionary as “Bill-Stickerâ€
for Jesus Christ.
I ONCE heard Dr. Rendel Harris say
that St. Paul called himself “bill-
sticker †for Jesus Christ. He did
not say when or where. I have since
found the place in Galatians iii. 1 :
“Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was
openly set forth crucified. †That “ setting
forth †was the life-work of the Apostle.
Drs. Moulton and Harris found the word
in the vernacular Greek spoken in Asia
Minor in the time of our Lord. The
words “ set forth †in our Revised Ver-
sion exactly present what was done with
the edicts and proclamations of the
Roman Emperor by the Pro-Consul of the
Province he governed. The edict was
stuck up, posted on every door or wall of
a Consular Office. So Paul had travelled
through Derbe and Lystra, and else-
where, proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord
and Saviour of Jew and Gentile. As
though he would say to pagans, “You
need not first become Jews and then
become Christians, and you need not be
circumcised, baptized, pay tithes as
Jews and then pass to Christian rule.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you shall be saved.†He is your Divine
Friend ; your Redeemer, who lived and
died and rose again for your deliverance
from sin. He so identified (Dr. Peake’s
word) Himself with you as to become
your Saviour.
Is not this the first and last thing the
Christian missionary at home and abroad
has to do ? Aye ! To be and to do : as
herald, as crier, as bill-sticker for lesus
Christ !
Is not this the most recent doctrine
and teaching of the most convincing and
popular books being published concern-
ing missionary work? Is it not the bur-
den of Dr. Stanley Jones’s “The Christ
of the Indian Road � He has learnt the
way to the heart of the highest Brahmin
castes of India by simply presenting the
character and work of Christ to them.
He has found the best of the intelligent,
educated Hindus ; the Gurus, or “holy
men,†the students, are men familiar
with the Christian gospels ; admirers,
yea, lovers of the person and character
of Jesus Christ. They draw a distinction
between a professor of Christianity and
Rev. F. H. ROBINSON.
a Christian man. The preaching of Chris-
tianity as a system of doctrine has failed.
As an answer to Indian philosophy and
Eastern pantheism the Christian theory
has had little impression. The Hindu
can argue and controversially expound
without end. Rabindranath Tagore can
lecture as in his “ Sandana. †So do other
Hindus. But to be “bill-sticker †for
Jesus Christ; to present Him as Friend,
teacher, healer, caster-out of devils ; as
dying Redeemer and living Lord—that
they can appreciate, receive and love.
The new method is succeeding as if by
miracle. “ Bill-sticking †for Jesus is
working wonders in India amongst the
highest castes. Like St. Philip to the
Ethiopian eunuch, Stanley Jones is
preaching Jesus as Saviour and suffering
Friend. The Brahmin wants to know,
not are you a member of the Christian
Church, but are you a Christian man?
Are you like Jesus? Are you following
Him? In so far as you are like Him,
and are doing His work in His way, we
believe in you and in Him.
Is not this the way along which
Samuel Pollard walked and worked?
From Stone Gateway inward, through the
gorges and upward into the mountains
of the very roof of the world ! To the
Miao his every word was of the “ Blessed
Yesu†who loved them and gave Him-
self for them : living, teaching, healing,
casting out devils, dying on the cross,
rising and being enthroned ! Then the
Nosu landlord class, seeing their serfs
and tenants giving up drink and the
devil, cleansed and in their right mind,
working and paying rent, they too began
to believe in the Blessed Yesu and to give
land for schools and churches. Then
from the regions beyond came the poor
Kapu tribes crying, “ O let us in that we
may find the light ; send us teachers and
helpers.â€
Is not this what many of us first saw
in Pollard in the early days of United
Methodism ? And have we not heard the
same story from every missionary—man
and woman—from Yunnan?
Have we not read the same story about
Judson in Burma? No open convert for
seven years ! The Missionary Board at
64
From the Mission House
Home writing to ask if there were any
prospect of success. Judson replying,
“Yes ! as sure as the promises of God.â€
Before and after his death the poor
Karens whom he led to Christ called him
“Jesus Christ’s man.â€
Is not this the whole story of the
Sadhu Sundar Singh, the high-born Sikh
prince who, spite of family influence,
bribes of uncounted wealth and jewels,
martyrdom, attempted poisoning and
such persecution became a Christian,
adopted the yellow cloak of the devotee,
walked the Indian road from end to end
and side to side of that many-peopled
land : talking by the wayside ; to jungle
villagers ; to congregations of 30,000 in
Travancore; to crowded halls in the
British Isles ; facing terrors, horrors and
sufferings unnamable in Tibet, and
still talking of Jesus Christ.
Is not this the one message for every
one of us—official and unofficial—at
home and abroad? Have we not in a
noble yet humble way to be “ bill-stickers â€
for Jesus Christ?
Let us learn afresh to know and prac-
tise what we know: that “Love is All.â€
The love of God for His prodigal chil-
dren ; the love of the erring for the One
who forgives ; that the Blessed Jesu loved
me and gave Himself for me. Is not this
what William Law meant when he said,
“Love God and do as you like †! If we
love Him our passionate life of personal
sacrifice will say :
“I love Jesus, Yes ! I do :
Because He first loved me.â€
And we shall not be ashamed of “bill-
sticking†for Him.
From the
Mission House.
Missionaries The departure of our
heave missionaries from Wen-
Wenchow. chow was reported in the
“United Methodist†at
the time the news was received by cable.
For many weeks prior to their leaving
the missionaries experienced considerable
suspense on account of the general un-
settlement, the coming and going' of sol-
diers, and the fickle and exaggerated
rumours of what was happening or was
going to happen. Certain it was that
the Kuomingtang faction in the city had
determined what policy should be put into
force as soon as the Southerners gained
control of the city. They decided that
the foreigners should be given notice to
leave by the end of the month, and that
all supplies and services to foreigners
should cease. The men of our staff met
every morning to consider each phase of
the situation as it arose. Until January
27th there was no special reason for
anxiety. On that day consular messages
were received urging withdrawal. The
last boat before the Chinese New Year
Rev. C. STEDEFORD.
was sailing- on the following Sunday. It
was decided on Friday morning that Mr.
and Mrs. Truelove and their two chil-
dren—the children being far from well—
should take that boat to Shanghai. Five
members of the C.I.M. staff sailed by the
same boat. With only Chinese accom-
modation they must have had a very un-
comfortable voyage, but they arrived at
Shanghai safely on February 1st or 2nd.
The remainder of our staff preferred to
await further developments, but it is
evident that they found it necessary to
leave because the cable stated that all of
them, excepting the two doctors, Dr.
Stedeford and Dr. Dvmond, were in
Shanghai on February 20th.
The Return of Consultation in Shanghai
Mr. and Mrs. led the missionaries to the
Truelove. conclusion that it was
most advisable for Mr.
and Mrs. Truelove and their children to
return immediately to England. Sanction
for this course was requested, and given,
by cable. Health entered into considera-
From the Mission House
tion, but there are other reasons which
make their return expedient. It will be
an advantage for Mr. Truelove to take
furlough during the present period of ex-
clusion from Wenchow in order that his
furlough may terminate before other fur-
loughs become due. If the way for the
missionaries to return to Wenchow does
not open soon it may be found expedient
for other members of the staff to take
furlough during the waiting period.
Probably the Trueloves will be in England
by the end of April.
The Need for At the first glance the
Patience. desire of the advancing
Southerners in China to
get rid of missionaries is disconcerting
and discouraging. It almost appears
that missions have failed, or are doomed
to fail. No conclusion could be further
from the truth. It is the success of Chris-
Street Scene in Hangchow, [Photo: Lady Hosie.
Capital of Chekiang Province.
tian Missions in China which has caused
them to challenge universal attention.
We know the turning of the wheel of
political fortune brings different sections
of the community into power. It must
not be assumed that the hostility to mis-
sions shown by the Southerners is ap-
proved by the majority of the Chinese
under their control. In China it is very
dangerous for people to avow opinions
contrary to the ruling power, conse-
quently the disapproving section main-
tains a discreet silence until there is
another turn in the political wheel.
Quietly and sincerely Chinese, even
some outside of our mission community,
expressed their loyalty and sympathy with
our Wenchow missionaries. On the
Chinese New Year Day, February 2nd,
.Mr. Heywood received 20 visitors convey-
ing1 greetings, and a New Year card was
sent to him by the City Governor who
had taken flight on account of threaten-
ing trouble. On the same day between
30 and TO of our Wenchow Christians,
without any request from the mission-
aries to do so, met at the Church for a
special prayer meeting. The withdrawal
of the missionaries will be a great sorrow
to our Churches in the Wenchow District,
especially when they know it results from
the action of the Chinese people, and we
may rest assured that every means will
be used to open speedily the way for
their return. In the meantime our Chi-
nese pastors and preachers will need
special wisdom and grace to meet a diffi-
cult and critical situation, and they should
be sustained by the prayerful sympathy cf
our people at home.
The Kuo A better understanding
Ming- Tang-. will make it easier to view
the Chinese situation with
patience and sympathy. The Kuo Ming
Tang, or the People’s Party, is the poli-
tical expression of the nationalist move-
ment started by Sun Yat Sen. It
triumphed in the revolution of 1911 when
Sun Yat Sen was made the first President
of the Chinese Republic. He retired in
favour of Yuan Shih Kai, who, however,
bitterly frustrated the expectations of the
triumphant Nationalist Party. Its leaders
then made Canton the centre of their
activities and established there a local
government independent of Peking. After
G6
From the Mission House
the death of Yuan Shih Kai in 191G, mili-
tary factions contended for mastery in
the North, while the Kuo Ming Tang
propagated their democratic ideas in the
South. Bolshevic elements sought to
capture this Nationalist movement and
convert it to communistic aims. Money
came from Russia when the Nationalist
movement was almost stranded for want
of funds, and Bolshevic influence thereby
gained dominance. This dominating in-
fluence now accounts for the display of
hostility towards missions. They are
denounced as the disguised agencies of
Imperial powers. The Chinese National-
ist Movement, however, is not entirely
converted to communistic aims. Within
the Southern camp there is a strong
section opposed to communism, though
ardently supporting the movement in
order to ameliorate social conditions and
to g'ain for China progressive, sovereign
and independent nationhood. The broad
aims of the Kuo Ming- Tang may be
summarized as the political unification of
China under the authority of a nationalist
government, the readjustment of China’s
international treaties and the betterment
of the condition of hand-workers. These
aims must command our sympathy, and
the fact that they are perverted for a
time by Bolshevic elements should com-
mand our patience. Already there are
signs of a split between the extreme sec-
tions in the Southern camp. The com-
munistic section has had a serious set
back even in Canton. At the same time,
the political commission, under Chang
Tso Lin in the North, has issued recom-
mendations which show substantial agree-
ment with the aims and principles of the
Kuo Ming- Tang-, thereby extending a
hand which may be grasped by the
South and effect a co-operation which
may result in a cessation of ruinous civil
war, deliverance from Bolshevic domi-
nance, and unfettered progress for the
whole of China.
Ningpo On March 11th it was
Evacuated. reported in “The Timesâ€
that missionaries had
been compelled to leave Ningpo on
account of the menacing attitude of the
“ Reds †who had gained control in the
city. No confirmation of this report has
come from our own missionaries up to
the time of writing. We were encouraged
to hope that they would be allowed to
continue their work unmolested. Writing
on January 26th, Mr. Conibear says : “I
do not think for one moment that we have
any need to fear for our personal safety.
If the Nationalist Government do manage
to get this province, then it may be that
we shall be advised to evacuate Ningpo
for the time being, but even this is by no
means certain. It may have been re-
ported in the English papers that we
were ordered to evacuate here in the
middle of January, but this is quite un-
true. Where the rumour came from I
do not know. For the present we are
quite happy and comfortable, and if Mr.
O’Malley can come to some definite
understanding with Eugene Chen at
Hankow then I think we may be per-
mitted to carry on our work undisturbed. ’r
In North. During the fluctuations in
China. the negotiations proceed-
ing at Hankow between
Mr. O’Malley and Mr. Eugene Chen there
was much concern in foreign circles in
Tientsin. The fate of the Tientsin con-
cession was involved to some extent in
the terms adopted at Hankow. Mission-
aries in the interior received instruction
from the British authorities to be ready
to leave their stations at short notice.
The signing of the agreement at Hankow
terminated the suspense. Mr. Turner
writes : “The air seems a little clearer
these few days ; but no one can tell what
a day may bring forth with so much
electricity and so much gunpowder about.
Ora pro nolis."
China National The China National Chris-
Christian tian Council has issued
Council the following statement
Statement. concerning the critical
situation in China. The
view taken reflects that optimism which
is born of faith in God and in the Divine
Mission of the Church of Christ.
“The Executive Committee of the
National Christian Council, reviewing, in
their wider significance, the effect of
recent events and present tendencies upon
the Christian movement in China, regards
the situation hopefully. Chinese Chris-
tians fully recognise the danger to the
Church and Christian work from extreme
elements, but they share in the national-
Rev. T. M. Gauge
ist aspirations for unity of China and for
justice, equality and freedom. They are
prepared to accept risks and even to face
persecution rather than oppose the most
hopeful movement in modern China. This
movement is, in their view, not confined
to one party, but is shared in by thought-
ful Chinese, north and south, irrespective
of their political allegiance. The present
situation is calling out and developing
recent events and present tendencies upon
Chinese leadership and initiative in the
Church — a most encouraging fact.
Though the Church may lose in numbers
it is gaining in self-reliance and spiritual
power. In certain parts of China mis-
sionaries have been obliged to leave their
stations. They are doing so reluctantly,
mainly on consular instructions and as a
precautionary measure. Most mission-
aries leaving China have furloughs due
shortly, and any general withdrawal
would be regretted by Chinese Christians,
who emphasize continued need for mis-
sionaries, especially in co-operating with
the Chinese Church.â€
Rev.
T. M. Gauge.
IT was impossible to know Mr. Gauge
without seeing in him a lover of
China and the Chinese. Although
his term of service in Wenchow was only
seven years ,(1910-1917), he revealed dur-
ing that period many of the signs of a
specially great missionary, and his re-
moval to England, owing to ill-health, not
only cut short his own hopes of a life’s
work in China, but deprived the mission
both of a worker and a statesman.
Arriving at Wenchow in February,
1910, circumstances at once arose which
tested his power to handle a new and
difficult situation. Normally the young
missionary is not asked to bear the bur-
den of serious administrative responsi-
bility at first, for he needs time to gain
familiarity with the new life and condi-
tions, and, of course, he needs to work at
the all-important problem of the lan-
guage. Six weeks after Mr. Gauge’s
arrival at Wenchow, Principal T. W.
Chapman was compelled to leave on fur-
lough owing to bereavement, and the
young missionary was asked to take
charge of the work of the college. It is a
tribute to his wisdom, his activity and his
courage that although he lived alone in
the college house, and although the work
involved the handling of staff and students
by one who was the merest beginner in
Rev.
R. STRONG, M.A., B.Litt.
the language, yet the duties were carried
through with conspicuous success.
When in due course he was able to
take up evangelistic work he was given
charge of a section of the district with
oversight of the churches, preachers,
teachers of day schools and all the finan-
cial work involved in running his section.
During his first winter in this work
(1912-13) the ordinary routine was
largely interfered with by the work of
administering the Famine Relief Fund.
This work involved a good deal of stand-
ing about on the quay-side, superintend-
ing the loading of boats with food, and
it was during this period that he fell ill
and developed diphtheria. His ordinary-
work during the next few years meant
much travelling up hill and down dale to
reach country preaching" stations. The
amazing variety of the work stirred all
the great deeps of humanity that were in
him. He preached to the people, advised
the leaders, taught local preachers, did
his best for sick children, and made
arrangements for sick folk from distant
villages to be brought down to the
hospital.
On these journeys it was his delight to
talk with all and sundry, and much of his
evangelistic work was done according to
the Gospel formula “as he passed by.â€
68
Rev. T. M. Gauge
It was precisely this human attitude which
not only made him a real friend to varied
types, but also guided his thought
on the many problems of church govern-
ment which arose.
From the first he was a learner and
loved to watch every detail of Chinese life.
He never ceased learning to see things
with their eyes, and in every dealing with
them he followed the g'uidanoe of love
and trust. Hence he was an early, con-
sistent and enthusiastic adherent of the
movement towards self-support and self-
government in the Chinese churches. It
was because of this deep understanding
of the Chinese mind, and his power to
guide hopes and aspirations into useful
channels that his removal was so serious
a blow to our work in Wenchow. Those
of us who have known him only in recent
years can appreciate how great
were his skill, his patience and
his understanding. It would be
difficult to imagine any business
meeting straying into serious
complications if he had any
hand in the direction of affairs,
for he always revealed in these
cases that adroitness and
humour of which Mr. Galpin is
so great a master.
In 1913 Mr. Gauge was mar-
ried to Miss Ada Holt, who
three years before had gone out
to take charge of educational
work among girls. She was one
with him in culture, devotion
and courage, and together they
must always rank amongst the
highest of the high types who
have served our churches in
China.
Owing to war conditions,
Wenchow was left badly under-
staffed, and for the year 1916-17
Mr. Gauge was in charge of all
but the medical work, Dr.
Stedeford being his only col-
league. It was during this
period that the strain became
overpowering and the beloved
work had to be given up. In
the years of service at home,
however, he never ceased to
preach a high doctrine of mis-
sionary effort. As a missionary
he was an inspired opportunist willing
to fling himself into the next duty that
emerged ; he was a great lover of men,
offering to China nothing less than love.
And he never failed to be the soldier of
Jesus.
Only a few days before the end he
asked Mrs. Gauge to play one of their
favourite Chinese hymn tunes, a composi-
tion by Pastor Hsi, and asked to see
again some Chinese books. He held
them, but was too tired to be able to
read them. This note on his missionary
work may well end with that picture—a
worn-out body clasping a Chinese book.
There is a victory of Jesus yet to be
won in China, and here is a part at
least of the price—the broken body
and the unbroken love of Tom Moore
Gauge.
Rev. and
Mrs. T. M. Gauge.
69
The Wapokomo.
THE Wapokomo have for their resi-
dence the banks and adjoining
land of the Tana River. They are
to be found principally on the banks of
the river, the interior being occupied by
Gallas, Koro-Koro, and others on the
one side, and by Somalis on the other.
The river is particularly noted for its
beauty—and its mosquitoes. The scenery
of nature may be improved by man to
some extent, but the beauty of God’s
handiwork especially appeals to one here.
The river’s winding, tortuous route, with
its delightful foliage, thrills a lover of
nature. While it is a moot question
whether the African realises and appre-
ciates the beauty of his surroundings,
certainly the European with his supposed
developed aesthetic sense ought to appre-
ciate the tropical beauty which is so
apparent.
The Bantu peoples have a genius for
worship, a capacity for adoration, which
does not come readily to the average
Englishman. The Wapokomo are indeed
reverent. When they secure a religion
which gives them but a fragmentary idea
of a hero and Saviour like Jesus Christ,
they pour out their souls in adoration and
worship. The African does indeed pos-
sess a religious capacity which astonishes
one at first. But after reflection, the very
nature of his surroundings gives him an
innate religious sense. Christianity has
indeed worked a wonderful change in the
lives of these people. There is still much
to be accomplished, but the stepping-
stone towards character development has
been achieved. Dr. Westermann sums
up the position of religion in the life of
the native admirably in the following
words : “ His religion does not give him
energy or strong’ impulse of life and
action, but it is to him helpful and pro-
tective.†There is a remarkable differ-
ence between the Christianised Wapo-
komo and the Christians of our Ribe and
coast stations. .To some extent, although
not a great deal, these Wapokomo are
capable of accepting responsibility. The
general impression created by the natives
of our other coast stations is that respon-
sibility is merely an irksome duty to be
shirked and lost at the earliest oppor-
portunity. To instil the truth that, ‘‘faith
without works is dead,†will take cen-
turies.
Rev. J. JACKSON.
The Wapokomo depend upon the land
lor their food and wherewithal. Their
money is their crops, goats and sheep.
An abnormally rainy season, such as
we have just had, places them at the
mercy of the elements, preventing them
planting their rice, or destroying it by
heavy floods. Heavy rains cause the har-
vest of the Mpokomo to be late, and in-
flicts upon him a period of famine, during
which time his staple food is river fish
and jungle fruit. Unfortunately, he has
been left much to his own devices. Very
little interest in the development of the
Wapokomo has been displayed by the
Administration. The policy of encourage-
ment of native cultivation is undoubtedly
the best for this part of the coastal area,
and if more interest was displayed on this
side of his life, there would be very little
need for complaint by the Administration.
The Mpokomo’s needs are few. These
he can secure from his land, and if native
cultivation was encouraged, the problem
of labour, which is hotly discussed in the
Colony at the present moment, would not
arise.
The whole tribe is affected by that ter-
rible complaint, Yaws. Whether this
problem is tackled effectively or not will
affect the future of this part of Kenya
very seriously. At least seventy-five per
cent of the tribe is affected. One hails
with delight the proposed training of three
young Wapokomo to travel the whole
length of the river injecting' a course of
treatment against this complaint. It is
heartrending to witness the scourge which
is eating away, like a cancerous growth,
their vitality and energy. They, like
other tribes, are subject to many other
complaints, but if this, the chief of them,
was waged war against, a distinctly
bright and optimistic future is before
these people. One feels that a hospital
in a much more centralised position than
Lamu would help immensely. The earliest
in which a sick man could travel from
Ngao to Lamu is five days, and the neces-
sary living in Lamu, while receiving a
course of treatment for Yaws, is too ex-
pensive for many of them.
Suffering is acute, and appeals to our
sympathy. Anyone possessing humani-
tarian feelings could not travel the length
of the mission on the Tana without being
appalled at the prevalence of disease and
70
The Wapokomo
suffering. There is a valuable suggestion,
which is being considered by the Govern-
ment, of erecting and establishing a hos-
pital at Kipini, the mouth of the river.
This would assist the whole tribe con-
siderably, for it is much easier to reach
the mouth of the river than to travel to
Lamu. The missionary does his utmost
but his effort is lost among the innumer-
able needs of these people.
On the educational side the Wapo-
komo’s gain can be written as nil. Travel-
ling from our first station to the last, our
schools, except one, could not attain to
Standard I. in an English elementary
school. While maintaining that the
saving of souls is our principal object, we
cannot altogether neglect, in the develop-
ment, of the African, the educational side.
Here we are in terrible conflict with
Islam. One regrets to say that it was
imperative to close a school on account
of its development. Without mincing
matters, Islam is growing on the Tana.
Why is this ? Largely because the school-
master is abroad.
We are told that one of the big social
factors of to-day is that the whole Mos-
lem world is learning to read, and it is
equally true of the Tana area. The idea
of missionary work being merely the
plucking of a brand from the burning has,
I think, lost its hold upon the Christian
mind. The missionary’s task is not
merely the plucking of a brand from the
burning, but the reconstruction of society
on a Christian basis. It includes morals,
civilisation, education, and all the phases
of an ordinary life. While pleading for
education for these people we must bear
in mind the purpose of education. Let
me quote Dr. Anson Phelps-Stokes : “We
now see that education involves not only-
formal instruction, but the development
of all the physical, mental, moral and
spiritual powers of youth in the interest
of service.†The use of the “jerribe â€
(hoe) should not be forgotten in the use
of the book. We are told that the ob-
jects of African education are sound
development of character through reli-
gion, health, agricultural and industrial
skill, improvement of family life and re-
creation. The application of education
among the Wapokomo would, I believe,
achieve some of the foregoing objects.
We, through lack of men and money,
have not been able to introduce effectively
An African Village.
71
The Editor’s Notes
any system of education on the Tana
River, but on the eve of the German’s
return to their work, I breathe a fervent
prayer that they will not overlook this
phase of native development.
There is scope here for a wonderful
work. I believe the power and love of
God has been manifest in their midst,
and would pray that when I hand over to
German missionaries in December, that
their return may prove a wonderful bless-
ing' to these people. Whereas only one
man has been posted here by our own
Mission, the Germans will arrive with
four workers, one lady and three men.
They will thus be able to concentrate to
a much larger extent than we have been
able to do, owing to the vastness of our
work. Let us pray God’s blessing upon
their efforts towards the emancipation of
these Wapokomo.
[It will be recalled that in our January
issue, Rev. C. Stedeford stated that this
mission has been handed back to the
Germans, from whom it has been separa-
ted for twelve years. We gave it what
oversight was possible when the Ger-
mans withdrew at the time of the war,
but in 1921 we assumed responsibility for
it, deciding* at the same time to restore
it to the German Mission authorities as
soon as they were able to take charge of
it. This, has now been done.—Ed.,
Echo.]
The Editor’s Notes.
The Call to Prayer.
E should pray daily for all our
missionaries, doctors, nurses,
teachers, native preachers and
helpers. Particularly at this time should
we pray for our brethren and sisters
in China. It is a time of great
anxiety for them, and for their loved ones
at home. Let us therefore pray, not only
at our usual stated times, but often. We
can make the street, the shop counter, the
kitchen, the office desk, a Holy of Holies.
From these places a brief prayer, “God
help and bless our brothers and sisters in
China,†can be quite as effective as the
prayers we utter on our knees and in the
House of God.
© @ ®
Where Livingstone was Born.
The house at Blantyre, near Glas-
gow, where David Livingstone was
born in 1813 is to be purchased and
used as a memorial museum. An in-
fluential committee has been formed
in Edinburgh, and already good progress
has been made. The London Missionary
Society is of course taking an active
interest in the fund. The Scottish
Churches are supporting the effort
heartily, and English Congregationalists
and others are taking up the scheme with
enthusiasm.
© @ ® ©
David’s father kept the home together
by retailing small packets of tea from
house to house. People said of him that
“he was too honest ever to be rich.â€
But he was a friend of all who dealt with
him, and especially with the children
whom he met on his rounds.
Dr. H. Livingstone Wilson gives a
graphic picture of Livingstone’s child-
hood. Money was often very scarce in
that little one-roomed home. That was
the reason why David was sent to work
in the cotton mills as a “piecer†when
only ten years old. Work started at six
in the morning and continued till eight
at night. After the mill closed David
went to night school !
However short of money his father
might be, the coppers for paying the
night school fees, and for providing the
necessary books, were always found
somehow. Nor was any pressure re-
quired to get David to attend the school,
though he had been at work since six
o’clock. “On the contrary, he was so
attached to his books that often he was
only got off to bed by his mother carry-
ing away the candle by which he was
reading. Few boys of our own times
would believe so strenuous a life possible
to them. Yet he was far from being a
dull bookworm ; he was full of fun and
had an inimitably droll way of relating
the incidents of the day around the fire
at night, which made him the life of the
home circle. With his two brothers he
enjoyed spending free days in wandering
up the Clyde, or over moors that rarti
72
The Editor’s Notes
down to the outskirts of Blantyre, and on
these expeditions made collections of
flowers which he arranged at night in
their proper families and orders with the
aid of an old-fashioned book called ‘ Cul-
peper’s Herbal.’ Nor does he appear to
have been above bringing home an illicit
salmon from a fishing expedition to add
variety to the evening meal. When re-
turning on one occasion with the spoil
hidden in the leg of his brother’s trousers
they were greatly amused to hear a
worthy old dame who met them comment
with sympathy on the lad’s limping gait!â€
© @> © @
The recent fire at the chapel at Stan-
ford Rivers recalls the incident when
Livingstone forgot his sermon. When
training to be a missionary the London
Missionary Society sent him to Chipping
Ongar, in Essex, to study under a tutor
there. A part of his training was to
preach in the surrounding village chapels,
and the custom was for the students to
learn their sermons by heart. One Sun-
day evening Livingstone was directed to
supply the pulpit at Stanford Rivers, as
the minister had been taken suddenly ill
after the morning service. On announ-
cing his text the young preacher halted—
not a word came to him of the sermon
that had been written out and committed
to memory ! He tried to whip his memory
into action, but it was of no avail. There
was nothing for it but manfully to own
up. “Friends,†he said, “I have for-
gotten all I had to say,†and he abruptly
left the pulpit, and hurriedly passed out
of the chapel.
One would much like to have heard the
comments of the deacons on the quality
of this young student whom the mission-
ary society had recently accepted for
foreign service. And if someone with
second-sight had told them that the day
would come when all Christendom would
do him honour, and at the last he would
be buried in Westminster Abbey, their
comments would have had a piquancy
that even those on his sermon lacked.
It is well that Livingstone’s first home
should be preserved, and the proposal to
make it a National Memorial to the great
missionary should receive general sup-
port. The hon. treasurer of the Memorial
Fund is Mr. J. MacGregor Hart, C. A.,
142 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.
“That Subscription I Meant
to Give.â€
The accounts for the year will be
closed shortly, and the officers of the
Missionary Societies, both Overseas and
Home, are anxiously wondering how
much money will be coming in during the
next few weeks. Will there be a deficit?
God forbid.
Are the missionary boxes being filled
up during these closing weeks of the
financial year? Calling at the home of
one of my poorest members the other
day, an old-aged pensioner, she told me
she thought she had eighteen shillings in
her box, and she hoped that by the time
I wanted it she would have a pound !
And there is that subscription you
meant to give last year, but forgot it
until it was too late. Do not fail to give
it this year—with last year’s in addition,
if possible.
Rev. William Goudie, of the Wesleyan
Missionary Society, used to tell a most
impressive story. A young woman who
was starting a little business, wrote ask-
ing how much it would cost to maintain
a native worker on the mission field. It
was not a larg'e sum, but Mr. Goudie,
knowing something of the young woman’s
circumstances, tried to put her off. She
insisted, sent the money for the first
year, and a native worker was appointed
to a village in India. Year by year the
money came, and year by year the work
prospered. The superintendent wrote say-
ing that he did not know why, but the
work did not progress anywhere as it did
at such and such a village, naming the
place where this young woman paid for
the upkeep of the evangelist. Then one
day a letter came saying that the last
person in the place had been baptized,
and that the whole village was now a
Christian community.
Mr. Goudie had to visit the town where
this young woman lived, and so called to
tell her the good news. He was shown
into a little living-room at the back of
the shop, and as he himself said, “the
whole thing become plain to me.†On the
wall was an enlarged map of India. A
little flag marked the place where the
native minister worked. Underneath was
written, “Let me not forget to pray for
these people daily.†The young woman
had given something more than money.
73
Some West African Cameos
She had given thought, she had. given
prayer, she had given herself with her
gift.
Thought ; prayer ; herself ; and, conse-
quently, her money.
Is it not the trouble with many of us
that we do not think sufficiently about
our gifts? When the collector comes
we say, “Let me see, what is it I give? â€
When we are told it is half-a-crown or
five shillings we pay the money, and that
is the end of it for another year. The
more excellent way is by thought and
prayer.
_t_ _S_ _S_
Some West African
Cameos.
Rev. E. COCKER.
I. Mendi Stories.
( Continued)
3. The Terrible Mother-in-Law.
A certain man said to his brother,
“ Brother, I am very busy, and have not
time to spare in going to fetch my wife
home from her mother with whom she
has been staying. Will you go in my
place and bring her home? †The
brother said he would, and went. It was
late when he arrived, and he was shown
to a room where he could spend the night.
He was very hungry, and craved for rice.
By and by a servant came and spread a
small white cloth on the floor which was
very bare. Being so very hungry, and
the light1 of his torch being very dim, he
mistook the cloth for rice, and poured
upon it oil and curry which he had with
him in a leather pouch. Having done
this, he took the small wooden spoon
from his belt, and proceeded to mix the
oil and curry with the “rice.†Feeling
the hardness he said, “What is this?
This must be foo-foo. †Much puzzled,
he shook the torch, and then saw what
a foolish thing he had done. He screwed
up the cloth, and threw it into the bush
some distance away.
Next morning he went into the house
for breakfast, and was just sitting down
when he heard the mother-in-law order-
ing a servant to fetch the white cloth.
What could he do? In great shame he
jumped up and ran away as fast as he
could go. When he appeared before his
brother, his brother said, “Where is my
wife?†“Where, indeed?†said the un-
fortunate messenger. “I would like to
see the man who will take her from that
terrible woman, her mother.†The hus-
band, much perplexed, sent another
brother, who also arrived tired and hun-
gry late at night. He had little sleep on
account of his hunger, and very early in
the morning, while it was yet night, he
went into the house. There he found the
mother-in-law preparing a dish of hashed
meat. He craved for some, but was
afraid to ask. By and by the mother-in-
law went out. He wondered if she would
miss a handful of the hash. He was
tempted to take a handful, but hesitated.
At last his hunger overcame him and he
scooped out a handful.
He was just getting away with it when
he saw the mother-in-law returning.
Not knowing what to do he pulled off his
woollen cap, put the hash inside, and
replaced the cap on his head. The mother-
in-law bid him come and have some
breakfast, for she was sure he must be
hungry. So he sat at the table and she
gave him some of the hash. “Take your
cap off,†she said, “you will be too warm
eating with your cap on.†He told her
he always ate with his cap on. “ Do
take your cap off,†she said, “for see
how you are sweating, it is running- down
your face in streams.†In a very agony
of shame, the man fled, and scarcely
stopped until he had reached his brother’s
home.
In answer to his brother’s inquiry he
displayed great anger that he should have
been sent to be insulted and tormented
by such a woman as he has found his
brother’s mother-in-law to be. The hus-
band couldn’t tell what to make of it.
He only knew his mother-in-law to be a
kind soul who had always treated him
well. A third brother now volunteered
to go, sure that the two who had been
were just a pair of fools. He also arrived
late at night and was hungry. The
mother-in-law receiving him said, “What
strange men your brothers are ! Why
74
Some West African Cameos
did they leave so hurriedly ? †A room
was prepared, and the man went to rest.
Tormented by his hunger, he rose early
and gathered fruit in his gown, thinking
to return unseen to his room. But alas !
as he was returning, the mother-in-law
stepped forth from the house. How
could he explain? Greatly embarrassed
he let go his gown, the fruit rolled on the
ground, and he leaped a fence in his
hurry to get away. Returning to his
brother, he expressed his loathing and
disgust so forcibly that at last the hus-
band said, “I cannot believe these stories
about my mother-in-law whom I know
to be a good, kind woman. I will go
myself.†So away he went, and great was
the rejoicing when he appeared. Many
were the words spoken concerning the
strange conduct of his brothers, who
were regarded as having been overtaken
by some kind of madness.
Accommodation was very limited, but
the husband was quite satisfied with the
small wooden bed fixed for him in the
store room across the yard from the
house. With a little oil lamp giving
light, there he lay down to rest. But oh !
how hungry he was. In the corner was
a freshly-gathered stock of bananas all
ready for market. He looked at them
for a while, and then rose from his bed.
He went across to the bananas, and with
both hands began to wrench one free.
Alas 1 he did not see the strong steel trap
set to catch vermin, and before he knew
what had happened the trap had him
fast by both hands. Was ever a man in
such a plight? To his horror he found
that the trap was fixed to the wall as a
precaution against coveting thieves. He
dare not cry out.
He could do nothing' but grin and bear
his trouble until morning, hoping then
to be liberated without shame. He was
greatly relieved when morning came, and
it was his wife and no other who came
to call him. But alas ! woman-like, she
screamed and ran for her father. Not
only father but mother also came running
to see what was the matter. Quickly the
father-in-law released the trap and set
the poor man free. Like a bird escaping
from a gin so he flew away, clearing
not one fence but two in his flight.
Ashamed and dejected he reached his
home where his brothers were waiting.
How now, Clever, why have you not
brought your wife? †“Ah, my brothers,â€
he said, “ I did not believe you when you
told me of that terrible woman, but now
I know that you spoke truly. My wife
may remain there for ever, but never
again will I face that old scratch-eyes her
mother. â€
II. A Visit to Waterloo.
IT had been arranged some time that I
should visit the Waterloo Circuit for
mission services on December 19th.
Waterloo is 20 miles from Freetown, and
the train annihilates the distance in 1J
hours. It is an interesting journey, but
unfortunately, the banana trees are too
far away for you to pick any as you pass
along. But after all joking there is the
voice of reason to be heard. There are
no tunnels ; instead, there are huge
curves skirting the bases of the moun-
tains, and smaller curves negotiating the
humps and knolls. The gauge is only
2 ft. 6 in., so that any speedier travelling
than about 12 miles an hour would be
disastrous. There are a lot' of bridges
crossing deep gorges where mountain
streams go hurrying1 down. Beyond
Waterloo the running is easier, but the
scenery is no longer interesting. We left
at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, the 18th. The
party consisted of Mr. Nichols, myself,
Santiggy, and Willie. Santiggy was all
gay in a new rig', a flowing white shirt
of most imposing cut, and a round “pork
pie †cap richly embroidered. Willie was-
as usual—Tweed hat, thin white vest,
and khaki shorts. Of course, none of
these ever wear boots—they are born
with boots on. The palms of their hands
and the soles of their feet are a yellowish
white, and quite thick and hard. San-
tiggy occasionally wears a pair of carpet
slippers, for show rather than comfort.
It is interesting to see fellows carrying'
heavy loads on their heads over rough
roads. Their feet get cut, but it is a rare
thing to see one bleeding-, the skin is so
thick. We reached Waterloo at 4.25,
and proceeded to our “hotel.†It is just
across from the station. No white man
would dream of putting up there without
taking with him his bed, food, and cook.
It possesses a dancing hall. The dancing
hall was our headquarters. Mr. Nichols
fixed his bed in one corner, and I fixed
mine in another—on the band stand.
75
Some West African Cameos
Santigg-y pitched with some friends, while
Willie found some boards bigger than
his body up in a loft. Willie is a most
independent soul. For clothing give him
a shirt and—well, he’ll manage very well
without anything else. For food give
him 2s. 6d. a week for rice, fish, and oil.
For bed, the floor—the floor of the earth
if no other is available. Willie doesn’t
lie down to muse, or think of comfort, he
lies down to sleep, and doesn’t take long
about it either.
On Sunday morning we went by ham-
mock to Campbell Town three miles
away. How fiercely hot the sun 1 All
nature seemed drowsy. I saw a dog
sleeping in the shade. I saw a cat
enjoying a most luxurious siesta on the
top of a shaded wall. We passed where
the palm branches quivered on high.
We passed over the little bridge and felt
the allurement of the cool water where
a dusky son of toil was refreshing his
body. We went through the rice planta-
tions and on and on until we came to the
hamlet—Campbell Town. The church
there is of red sandstone. There are win-
dow spaces but no glass. There are rude
forms, a desk, lectern, and table. All
books, cloths, etc., are brought in a tin
box and carried away again after service.
There were 19 present. As I spoke to
them I looked ahead through a Gothic
window space which perfectly framed a
tall coconut palm some 50 yards away.
“ How beautiful ! †’tis all I can say.
The service was very simple. During
my address a youth got up, walked out-
side, stretched his arms and yawned, and
came back to his seat. After that you
will understand that the message must be
put in the very simplest form, and must
be brief. After the service the good folk
said “Akambo†and “Okushe†with the
usual gestures and waved their hands as
we moved away.
Half way back, we halted at Busseh
Town, where about a dozen folk gathered
to a special service to meet me. The
little address I gave here might be taken
as a sample of the simple talk one has to
learn to give out here, except in some of
the Freetown Churches where they can
feed on something stronger. The subject
was, “The Three Storms,†sug'gested by
the lines in the hymn, “ He plants His
footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the
storm. â€
1. The faith of Jonah in the storm.
Its calming effect.
2. Same effect of faith in story of Paul
in a storm.
3. Jesus in a storm. What He said
about the calming effect of faith.
Illustrations : John Wesley in a storm,
wonders why Moravians are so calm.
Monica, the mother of St. Augustine in
a storm, an example and wonder to the
frightened sailors.
The simple lesson : Faith in God means
peace.
We got back to Waterloo at 1.30. In
the afternoon I looked in at the church
where a popular service was being held
with a lady presiding, a local worthy
speaking, and children singing and re-
citing. 1 sat near a window space where
the light breeze was blowing' through.
After a while I detected an odour, and
spent some time looking about for the
cause, I observed that when I got into
a certain position on my chair my nostrils
were no longer troubled. It was some
time, however, before I found out the
cause. I happened to turn my head to
look out of the “window,†and there I
saw a circumferential woman with her
arms akimbo on the sill watching- and lis-
tening intently !
In the evening Mr. Nichols conducted
the service and I preached. The little
place was crowded with 93 people. I gave
a very simple talk on the reiteration of the
107th Psalm, with particular reference to
verse 22, “And let them sacrifice the
sacrifice of thanksgiving.â€
Subject: “ The origin and development
of thanksgiving.†Three stages : I
think, I thank, I give.
1. Exepriences that make us think.
2. When we think we thank (see Dic-
tionary for connection).
3. Becoming truly thankful, we give.
Emphasize by stating 2 and 3 nega-
tively. Illustrate.
The following morning early I received
a deputation. I was prepared for them.
They had come to plead my help in regard
to a new church. The foundation stones
of the present church were laid in 1917.
The building was advanced and the roof
ordered from Freetown. The roof was
sent to the railway station in sections to
be forwarded. But just at that time the
Syrians incensed the people by cornering
rice and sending up the price. Rioting
76
Two Million Books
going to kiss me. I stipulated that they
must raise £10 during the next three
months. We calculated on £25 by open-
ing services. There is £50 promised by
the Foreign Missions Committee waiting
to be claimed. With an assurance of
£85, I felt safe in encouraging them. I
then took them to the site and instructed
them what to do to save labour. Their
first task is to level the floor and lay it
with rubble ready for the concrete. Ay,
these people !
I forgot to tell you that I travelled to
Waterloo with the Bishop of Sierra
Leone, Bishop Taylor-Smith. He is a
Barnsley man. We soon got chummy
talking Yorkshire and “shop.†We con-
ferred and concurred. The Bishop is a
true “tyke.†He possesses strength and
cheerfulness.
of a very serious nature broke out. The
railway was held up many days. When
peace was at last restored it was found
that thieving had been going on all over
the place, and the roof had disappeared.
Since then laxity has sat lightly in ease
and comfort and the building had stood
all these years a roofless skeleton. The
deputation wanted to know what I could
do. I replied : “There are only two pos-
sible courses with that building, one is to
pull it down, the other is to finish it.
You ask me what I am prepared to do.
My answer is, that I am going to see a
roof on that .building if possible before
the rainy season sets in.†When I said
this (not without previous investigation
and meditation) two of the old mammies
jumped up and began to shower blessings
upon me. I thought one of them was
-5*
Two Million
Books.
“{►HERE is no trace to-day of the
I foolish talk that in order to be
simple a paper must be silly or that
a plain man does not enjoy the best food,â€
said Miss G. A. Gollock, for fifteen years
editor of “The International Review of
Missions,†at a luncheon given on her
retirement recently, referring to the
changes in missionary literature since she
first took up editorial duties for the
Church Missionary Society in 1890.
Religious and missionary literature,
provided it is of the right sort, and plans
for its distribution are made in a business-
like manner, is certainly not a drug on
the market to-day. During the past
book season, for instance, a book like
“The Christ of the Indian Road,†by Dr.
Stanley Jones, has run through twelve
editions, and 60,000 copies have been cir-
culated, while the publishers, Messrs.
Hodder and Stoughton, state that “ Mary
Slessor of Calabar †has run into over
100,000 copies since it was first issued.
The United Council for Missionary
Education, that flourishing department of
missionary co-operation, in twenty years
can boast of an output of nearly two mil-
lion volumes, besides pamphlets and pic-
tures. The best seller has been “The
Clash of Colour,†the book primarily for
Missionary Literature Among
To-Day’s “Bestsellers.â€
(From a Correspondent.)
adolescents on the colour problem, by
Mr. Basil Mathews, of which 100,000
copies have been circulated since it ap-
peared in June, 1924, and it is now in its
eighteenth edition. A lady just home
from British Columbia tells me, for in-
stance, that everybody seems to be read-
ing it out there. It has been translated
into Japanese, Arabic, Swedish and
Danish, besides having a special Ameri-
can edition.
Since the “Yarns†series was started
in 1913, the Council has sold 190,000
copies, while in the same period 125,000
books in the “ Babies †series have been
circulated. “The Moslem World in
Revolution,†by the Rev. W. W. Cash,
Assistant Principal Chaplain to the
Forces in Palestine during the War, and
now Secretary of the Church Missionary
Society, is now in its seventh edition, and
32,000 copies have been called for since
March, 1925. Last year 28,000 copies of
Mr. Maclennan’s own book, “The Cost
of a New World,†were sold, and it has
run through two editions in North
America.
Visitors to the May Meetings will have
a special opportunity of seeing the publi-
cations of the Council on the various
bookstalls. Among the new books to be
How Grenfell Stopped a Tribal Quarrel.
issued shortly by the Council, which is
giving special attention to Africa this
year, will be “The New Africa,†by Dr.
Donald Fraser, of Livingstonia, for
seniors. An arrangement has also been
come to with the publishers of a remark-
able book, “The Golden Stool,†by the
Rev. E. W. Smith, of the Bible Society,
for a cheap edition at 2s. 6d. The new
lives of great pioneers of the past will
have an addition in the story of “George
Grenfell, Pioneer in Congo,†by H. L.
Hemmens, price 5s.
China is particularly in people’s minds
just now, and a warm welcome will await
“China and Britain,†by R. O. Hall, price
2s., while a new volume by Basil Mathews
is promised in the “Youth†series, and
a book for girls by Mabel Shaw of
Mbereshi on African Village Life. Mary
Entwistle is preparing a third “ Round
the World †story book, and the little ones
will look forward to “The Big World
Picture Book,†illustrated by Elsie Anna
Wood, who has done such excellent
work for the Council already.
For seniors, including ministers, church
officers and missionary circle leaders, a
book is now being written by Mr. Ken-
neth Maclennan on “The Principles and
Practice of Co-operative work since
Edinburgh, 1910.†This account will be
a revelation to many of what has been
accomplished in the past half generation.
How Grenfell Stopped a
Tribal Quarrel.
IN a recently published book entitled
“George Grenfell, Pioneer in Congo,â€
by Mr. H. L. Hemmens, of the Bap-
tist Missionary Society, and issued by the
Student Christian Movement, there is an
amusing story, not without its tragic ele-
ments, telling how Grenfell once stopped
a tribal quarrel. Evidently on occasion
Grenfell found a big stick a useful weapon
to promote peace !
He tells that personal and tribal quar-
rels broke out on the flimsiest provoca-
tion, and were settled by appeal to the
knife and spear. “When at Yalemba last
week,†he wrote, “I had to interfere to
prevent things becoming too serious ; as
it was there were lots of blood flowing
and one man seriously hurt. I got in
between the rival factions, but my poor
shouting was simply nowhere. When
they got a ‘ howl ’ on I had to resort to
a piece of bamboo I had in my hand for
making an impression. They got it on
both sides indiscriminately when the
lines closed up for another charge. There
were over a hundred of them, many of
them with no other covering than their
shields, and armed to the teeth with
knives, spears, bows and arrows, and all
the savage panoply of the really old-time
scrimmage—feathers and paint galore.
They must have felt very ridiculous stand-
ing there being licked with a stick by a
little old white man. There was ‘ glory ’
in it when they could get up close to
one another and draw blood, but this was
altogether too tame, and so they drew
off and let their tempers cool down. The
next morning they allowed I had done
well to give them the stick ; they said,
‘ If you had not interfered someone would
have died. ’ â€
Grenfell will for ever be gratefully re-
membered by the stand he took when it
became known that the rubber trade on
the Congo was associated with many
nameless atrocities. This was one of the
blackest plague spots in Africa. Baptist
missionaries had a very hard task, but
they ranged themselves alongside those
who were determined to expose this
ghastly iniquity. It was a happy day for
Africa when the Belgian Parliament took
over the control of the Congo, thus re-
lieving King Leopold of his charge.
This year is the jubilee of the Church
Missionary Society’s work in Uganda.
During the past fifty years a great living
Church has been built up, and it is hoped
by means of the jubilee fund of £25,000
which the C.M.S. is raising to extend and
consolidate the noble work. We wish it
abundant success.
78
Mrs. J. B. BROOKS. B.Lltt.
The Institute for the Training of
Bible Women, Wenchow.
By Miss ETHEL SIMPSON.
IN the Spring of 1926 three of the
rooms in the old Boys’ School were
repaired and cleaned for the recep-
tion and training of Bible-women.
We began the first term with seven
candidates, chosen with much care from
ten women recommended by our Chinese
preachers. Three of them were widows :
the others were married and had chil-
dren. Two came from Whu Zih, which
is two days’ and one night’s journey dis-
tant from Wenchow. All were workers
in our churches and able to read Chinese
characters a little, though in the true
Chinese way all declared themselves very
stupid, but willing to try to learn.
The women are taught to read and
write, and are guided in their study of
the Scriptures and “Pilgrim’s Progress.â€
They are instructed how to conduct, and
speak at meetings, and are given the
opportunity of doing practical work,
helping in the Christian
Endeavour, the Sunday
School, women’s meet-
ings and hospital ser-
vices. They also visit
women members, es-
pecially the sick, and
the old ladies in the
workhouse.
Chuh Sz Mo, who
has served as matron,
and whose picture ap-
peared in the March
Echo, is a widow of
high Christian charac-
ter and most suitable
for the position. She
was at one time mis-
tress at the Girls’
School. Unfortunately
she has just left us,
having gone to live at
Shanghai with her son. I am there-
fore left with the task of finding some-
one to take her place. This is not easy,
for we need a middle-aged widow of good
education and Christian character, and
such women are very rare. However, the
institute is now closed because of the
trouble and the coming Chinese New
Year. This gives me a few weeks in
which to look around for a suitable
matron.
We have two other helpers, Foa Sz
Mo and Miss Dzing. Foa Sz Mo does
duty mostly in the afternoons, guiding
the women about the city in the visita-
tion and conducting of women’s meetings,
etc. Miss Dzing is a voluntary helper, a
Shanghai trained nurse and a member of
our city church. She gives an hour’s
lesson each week on hygiene, the care
and upbringing of children and kindred
subjects. We are grateful for her ser-
vice. She is an asset to our Wenchow
Church.
Two of the married women did not con-
tinue after the first term. They only
Bible Women’s Training institute. Wenchow.
First Group of Candidates.
[Photo: Miss Simpson.
79
Africa Calling!
entered for one term, just to fit them-
selves for mo-re efficient voluntary service
in their own churches. They could not
offer themselves for full training as
Bible-women. So we had only five can-
didates during the second term. Indeed,
we could not afford more, for we have to
provide our student Bible-women with
their rice as well as train them. Other-
wise we should have no candidates. They
have no money of their own, and their
relatives are not willing, and usually are
not able, to maintain them.
All the five have worked diligently and
well. They are, of course, far from
being educated women. I took them
with me to the Women’s Bible School at
Sang Djiae (new bridge) to see how they
managed, and they really did very well,
though they are not yet ready to be sent
out on their own. It is our purpose,
which I trust we may be able to fulfil, to
train these women properly. Such con-
secrated women, equipped for service, are
greatly needed in our churches to help to
Miss Dzing. A Shanghai Trained Nurse.
Gives lectures on Hygiene to the Bible Women and
at the Women’s Meeting. [Photo : Miss Simpson.
liberate their less fortunate sisters from
the chains of superstition and to bring
them into the glorious liberty of the
Kingdom through the saving power of
Jesus Christ.
«4«-
Africa Calling!
“ FRICA Calling ! †Do we hear
Jss it? Vast movements are taking
* place there. Have we taken the
trouble to read about them ?
What an immense country ! All Europe,
India, China, and the United States can
be put into Africa, and there is still room
to spare. It is true that in this vast
country there are probably less than 160
millions of people, but to build up a Chris-
tian civilization among 160 millions is a
task of tremendous magnitude.
Speaking at a Conference recently on
International and Missionary Questions,
the Rev. Garfield H. Williams, secretary
of the Missionary Council of the National
Assembly of the Church of England, said
that we shall not Christianise Africa by
talking about it. “You will only do it
if you have the same passionate faith and
love as had the African missionaries of
the Victorian age. I do not doubt that
you young men and women have ‘ the
faith that enquires ’ ; what I fear is lest
with all your talk and thought you have
not the faith that achieves.
“ It is not your talk that Africa needs.
It is your action, the laying down of your
lives in selfless service for Africa. That
service your fathers were able to render
and did render. It remains to be seen
whether you can complete the task in
Africa they so heroically commenced.
You are going to be judged, not by your
talk, but by your action ; not by your
dialectical skill, but by your lives ; not
by the acuteness of your criticism, but by
the strength and purpose of your actual
building in this new age. Africa is going
to test your capacities to the uttermost,
and it is going to test your faith as
ruthlessly.â€
Has not the time come for us to make
another “plunge� We are richer as a
Church than we -were in the days of Hall
and Innocent, Vanstone and Thorne,
Micklethwaite, Wakefield, Galpin, and
other pioneers. Many lands are calling,
and none more loudly or insistently than
Africa.
80
‘The future offers enlarged opportunity for Christian service in China.â€
—Message from the China Christian Council in Shanghai.
“Wedding Bells
in Miao-Land.
THE title of these notes is rather a
euphemism. “ Wedding Crackers â€
in Miao-Land would be more
accurate, but somehow, “crackers†rather
suggests to us Westerners a vision of
squibs and rockets and a huge bonfire and
Guy Fawkes, than anything connected
with marriage. The Miao sometimes bor-
row the custom of firing crackers from
their Chinese neighbours—who use them
to frighten away evil influences—to wel-
come the bride and bridegroom, and we
have just come back from a wedding, the
bang-bang-bang still in our ears.
In a Miao village, not far from Stone
Gateway, lives a fairly well-to-do family,
whose eldest son is one of our young
preachers, and on
Saturday, a day
or two after the
Chinese New
Year, there was
great rejoicing in
the neighbourhood.
A marriage had
been arranged be-
tween this boy and
a girl who lives
twenty - five miles
away, and on
Friday he had
gone to bring his
fiancee to his home
village where the
ceremony w o u 1 d
take place.
xt7- • . , A Christian Miao Family,
vv e were invited Heaven-Born-Bridge.
Rev.
F. W. J. COTTRELL.
to come at one o’clock and to bring
our g-ramophone to entertain the other
guests, but, knowing from experi-
ence, that the time of invitation is
usually an hour or two before the time
when the guests are really expected, we
arrived at three o’clock, and for an hour
or so, we put on record after record, to
the expressed delight of about a hundred
guests who had already assembled. The
gramophone rarely fails to please a Miao
audience, and it is sometimes amusing to
hear their comments. As one old man
once said to me, when I was giving them
something from “The Mikado,†“What a
pity it is we know no English ! Un-
doubtedly there is a lot of Christian teach-
[Photo: Rev. W. H. Hudspeth, M.A.
May, 1927.
“The International Review of Missionsâ€
ing in this if we could only understand it.â€
All this time, folks outside were feast-
ing and making way for others to feast,
but when night came on, there were still
no signs of the bride and bridegroom.
They were hardly to be blamed ! Imagine
it, you who, at a wedding, take but a few
minutes to go to the church in motor-cars
or “taxis,†or who, at the worst, have
only a step or two to walk. They had to
walk twenty-five miles over hills covered
with snow, which had been frozen so that
one could hardly stand. Although they
had one or two friends with them, we were
a little anxious, for on these cold nights
wolves sometimes attack the stragglers
of a small party, and finally, a number of
friends took lanterns and went to meet
them, whilst we waited eagerly for their
coming. At last, we heard a cry in the
distance and rushed out into the snow to
see the lights dimly flickering, still some
way off.
Rang ! Bang ! Bang ! Someone has lit
crackers to welcome the little party, and
there is much shouting from the men and
much screaming from the girls. Here
they are, dressed in their new clean
gowns and looking as handsome and as
bashful as ever bride and bridegroom in
England. “Are you tired?†“No, not
tired, only cold.†They go straight to the
altar, and the service begins. Gan you
see the picture I see? The small piece of
land before the father’s house has been
specially thatched with maize stalks and
leaves. At the end, a few late comers are
still eating, for none must miss the wed-
ding feast, however late he come. The
place is lit by candle lanterns and by
torches of bamboo twigs, and no arc lamp
could give such a warm glow as do these
flares. There are over three hundred
people gathered now, guests and on-
lookers, Chinese and Miao, men and
women, boys and girls, and most of them
manage to crowd into the small enclosure
which we use as church.
We sing, we pray, we read the Scrip-
tures, and then several preachers, fellow-
students of the bridegroom sing a hymn
which prays God’s blessing on the young
couple and on their new home. The bride
now takes a small basin of tea (in the
old days it would have been wine) from
the minister and hands it to her groom,
who sips it and passes it to her to drink.
They repeat the marriage sentences and
sign the register, and T’ao Hsi Mei has
become Iang Hsi Mei. They are man and
wife, and we again pray that throughout
their life they may be conscious of the
presence of Christ in their home.
We congratulate the newly-married
couple and hurry home by torchlight
through the snow. Next Wednesday
week we are going to conduct the cere-
mony at the wedding of another young
preacher. Coming?
“The International
Review of Missions.â€
The April number of “The Inter-
national Review of Missions †(Edinburgh
House, Eaton Gate, S.W.l, 3s.) is full
of excellent reading. In another part of
this issue attention is drawn to one or
two of the articles. We would like to
emphasise the African portion of this
quarter’s Review’. Professor Brookes, of
Transvaal University College, Pretoria,
writes on “The South African Race
Problem in the light of General Hertzog’s
proposed Legislation.†The Bishop of
Masasi’s article on “The Educational
Value of Initiatory Rites†shows what
an important place these rites have had,
and still have, in the development of
young Africans. In Miss G. A. Gollack’s
story of “Three African Dioceses,†w7e
come close up to our own African work,
though the diocese of Mombasa is not
dealt with in the article. These articles
on Africa are of vital interest. In no part
of the mission field do we need clearer
thought or greater courage in regard to
our duty than concerning Africa. Other
contributions to this number, such as
“New’ Tendencies in Islamic Religious
Thought,†and “The Use of the term
‘ Indigenous ’ †make the Review well-
nigh indispensable to missionarv leaders.
82
Students’ Annual
Missionary Demonstration.
THE Students’ Missionary Demon-
stration was held in Oxford Road
Church, Manchester, on April 6th.
At the commencement of the afternoon
meeting" Mr. W. A. Lewins presided, ex-
plaining that Coun. C. W. Godbert had
been detained at the Town Hall, and that
he was taking his place till he came. Mr.
L. G. James spoke on “The Resurrection
of the Orient and its Appeal to Western
Civilization.†He drew our attention to
the many significant changes that have
taken place in the Eastern social, indus-
trial, religious and national life within
the last generation. One of the chief of
these changes is the growth of a new
nationalism—a nationalism that can be
either beneficial to the world or a menace.
Too many evil influences have flowed into
the East in the past. It is for this genera-
tion to give something better, in art,
literature, high ideals and, above all, in
Jesus who saves that the resurrection of
the Orient may be a blessing and not
a bane.
Coun. Godbert now arrived and took
charge of the meeting. “Youth always
responds enthusiastically to noble causes,â€
he said. Such a one is the missionary
cause, and he was delighted with the mis-
sionary enthusiasm of the college. He
rejected the view that missions require
any apology or justification. “There is
nothing,†he concluded, “that this world
needs more than the consolation and com-
fort of Christianity.†Tribute should be
paid to the courage of Mr. Godbert, who
fulfilled his engagement in spite of the
great sorrow that has recently darkened
his days, in the death of Mrs. Godbert.
Mr. H. Tomlinson, who is designated
for China, spoke next, on “China at the
Parting of the Ways.†He drew atten-
tion to the valuable contribution of that
country to the world in religious and
ethical ideas, in art and in industry. But
she is rapidly becoming Westernized,
and, unfortunately, too rapidly. She has
not had time to outgrow old ideas and
customs before taking upnewones, and the
result is the present chaos, which is fun-
damentally a conflict between the old and
the new. Old superstitions remain, and
the revivals which are taking place in the
old faith are but very superficial. The
only revolution in thought, ideal and
spirit which can do China any good must
have its foundations laid deep in Jesus
Christ ; and we are challenged to do all
we can that she who now walks in dark-
ness may soon see a great light.
During the afternoon Madame V. Bar-
low, of Ashton, delighted us with two
beautifully rendered solos, “Arise, O
Sun,†and “Open the gates of the
Temple.â€
There was a good audience at the even-
ing meeting. Professor Hornby led in
prayer. Mr. H. Crowther (of Golcar), the
chairman, spoke on the mutual inter-
dependence of the nations. “We are
living in a world that is- shrunk to almost
negligible dimensions, and those peoples
once regarded as primitive and decadent
are now crying for self-determination.
They are becoming Westernised. What
is to happen if they do not become Chris-
tianised?†In the face of this great
problem we are compelled to carry out
the Master’s command, “Go ye into all
the world. â€
The Rev. PI. Parsons gave us a magni-
ficent address that wonderfully combined
the real, live missionary account of adven-
ture, -courage, pathos and loving self-
sacrifice, with a definite, inspiring, pas-
sionate purpose behind it. He began with
a missionary’s word of grateful acknow-
ledgment for the ministry of intercession.
“We yonder have been wonderfully
blessed because you at home prayed/’ he
said. He took us back to the Yunnan
hills, where our fellow United Methodists
have experienced such distress during
recent years. He told us stories of
brigandage, flights to the caves and rocks
and returns to desolation and starvation,
or sometimes a few shots before dawn
and a father or son held to ransom with
torture and death as the alternatives.
“ But in all these experiences we have
been assured that you have been pray-
ing. Wondrous has been your ministry.â€
He related the account of the year when
the harvest failed, and told us of the
sufferings in the famine that followed, and
how suffering and death would have been
much greater but for the “loving gifts of
those at home.â€
But there has been a brighter side.
It has not all been distress ; much pro-
gress has been made. There is the Pol-
83
Students’ Annual Missionary Demonstration
lard Memorial Hospital where many will
find healing of body and comfort of mind
and soul because those at home loved
and gave. There is the Children’s Home,
whose first inmate was a baby rescued
from the bosom of its dead mother and
who was to be buried with her. Such
a home on the hills of Yunnan must be
near the heart of the Master who on the
hills of Galilee suffered little ones to
come unto Him. A third sign of pro-
gress and cause for thankfulness is the
Leper Asylum on the hills across from
Stone Gateway, where those who once
were cast out from society to die like
dogs by the roadside are now cared for
and brought into contact with the
greatest Physician of all. These are
some ways in which those at home have
helped those abroad. But still greater
help is needed. “Be it in Africa, China
or Manchester, shall we not lay ourselves
at His feet that those who are yearning
for life may find it and the burdened
rest?â€
Principal Brewis led the meeting in an
act of remembrance of the men who have
passed through the college to the foreign
field. The college missionary secretary,
Mr. H. Tomlinson, announced that the
total amount raised by the students this
year had realized T176, an increase of
.£6 over last year’s record. The students
wish to thank all who have so generously
supported their efforts. The services of
the Oxford Road Choir were much
appreciated.
Manchester College Staff and Students, 1926-27.
a * ~ J-1 i Bp it. M if
Back Row—(Left to right) W. Horswill, R. S. Reed, G. Wallace.
4th Row—A. E. Beeden, R. Hindle. J. Bown. S. H. Spode, P. W. O. Hill. W. T. Harvey. T. L. Wilson.
F. E Capewell. S. W. Jones, R. J. Hall. G. Bassett, L. G. James, H. Edwards, J. W. Jordan,
C. G. Marshall. J. Mayne.
3rd Row—J. Slack. G. Speller, D. W. Cape well, H. Tomlinson, A. Hill. P. S. Gagg, Miss Rutherford (Matron).
J. M. Yellowley, C. S. Sheffield, J. H. Fenton, F. E. Poad, S. Winfield, A. T. Marchant, L, Davison.
2nd Roxv—W. J. Doidge, C. Lees. Esq.. A. S. Peake, M.A., D.D . A. L. Humphries, M.A., E.W.Hirst,M A.,B.Sc..
J. T Brewis. B.A . B.D. H. J. Pickett. G. G. Hornby. M.A., B.D., W. L, Wardle, M.A., D.D..
A. Lee, M.A., A. T. Dale.
1st Roxv—S. Wilding, G. L. Stephens, C. E. Job, W. H. Smith, W. E. Jones, D. W. Lawson, F. Sidaway,
G. "Vernon.
84
From the
Mission House
The Advance Our readers may remem-
of the ber that the success of
Southerners the Southerners in China
in China. has been anticipated in
these notes. The expec-
tation was based upon the popularity of
the Communist appeal among the lower
social ranks, and upon the vigorous pro-
paganda methods adopted. Nevertheless,
the very rapid advance which has swept
over Shanghai and Nanking in the course
of a few weeks has caused considerable
surprise. The Northerners have dis-
played no resistive power whatever. It
becomes increasingly evident that the
populace are ready to welcome the
Southerners as soon as they approach.
They are welcomed as the emancipators
of the masses, as the deliverers of the
down-trodden, as the heralds of a new
day for China. Southern troops are
crossing the Yangtze at various points,
and they boast of the prospect of being
in Peking in a few weeks. If this boast
should be sustained the movement which
has emanated from Canton will prove to
be one of the most remarkable through-
out China’s long history, and, indeed, in
the history of the world. A new China
is coming into being, a nation is being
born. It is the re-birth of the greatest
nation upon earth.
Nanking'. The civilized world has
been shocked by the
brutal assault made by Nationalist troops
upon unarmed foreigners in Nanking.
Having- visited Nanking- I have a vivid
impression of the scenes described in the
papers. I remember distinctly the fine
buildings connected with the Nanking
University which had been provided
chiefly by American generosity. In its
agricultural department particularly, the
University was rendering an immediate
and immense service to the whole com-
munity. What a noble company of mis-
sionary workers we met in Nanking ! It
is distressing beyond words to think of
those buildings being looted and of such
people being harried almost to death by
brutal soldiers. The Vice-Principal of
the U niversitv was one of those killed bv
85
Rev. C. STEDEFORD.
the ruthless soldiers. Such dastardly
deeds stir the blood with feelings of
revenge. Revenge, however, is not our
prerogative. “Vengeance is mine, 1 will
repay, saith the Lord.†A nobler spirit
demands our loyalty. Sacrifice is in-
volved in the upbuilding of any great
cause. Better far by sacrifice to build
up international unity than by slaughter
to perpetuate international hatred. The
bitter anti-foreign feeling in China is
born of ignorance and fed by falsehood.
Ignorance and falsehood may be over-
come by enlightenment, but not by the
use of destructive force. It would be a
calamity, therefore, if any7 of these un-
toward events should cause the British
Government to deviate from the path of
patience and conciliation which it has
thus far pursued.
'Tlte Effect The effect upon Chris-
ttpon tian Missions of the
Missions. present revolution in
China is deep and wide.
All the provinces south of the river
Yangtze, with the exception of Yunnan,
are now dominated by the Southern
Government. Nearly all the missionaries
have been obliged to evacuate the greater
part of China. A few still remain at their
posts, but they remain, they are told by
their Governments, at their own risk.
Suddenly the churches in that part of
China have been deprived of their mis-
sionary leaders. Chinese pastors and
preachers are now obliged to assume
great responsibilities under most critical
conditions. By correspondence mission-
aries may still give some direction and
the Home Boards will not withhold their
financial support. Nevertheless, it is
the local churches which must weather
the storm. If they outride it they will
gain immeasurably in strength and in-
fluence. They will pass from tutelage to
self-government, and gain a conscious-
ness of power they have never yet pos-
sessed. The process of devolving respon-
sibility upon Chinese leaders, which the
missions were contemplating, will be
accomplished swiftly and completely.
The Lord leads His host by the pillar of
cloud as well as by the pillar of fire.
From the Mission House
North China. I will state the position
of our missionaries in our
various Districts in China, as far as it
is known at the time of writing, early in
April.
In North China the Consul desired all
missionaries to concentrate in Tientsin,
and our missionaries in the outlying dis-
tricts were notified accordingly. It may
be assumed that they will comply with
the instruction. The rapid advance of
the Southern forces has necessitated this
precaution being taken. It will be ex-
pedient for our missionaries in remote
Shantung stations to remove without
delay, whereas those stationed north of
Tientsin at Tongshan will not feel the
same urgency.
Wenchow. No direct news has been
received from Drs. Stede-
ford and Dymond, who hold the fort at
Wenchow. Dr. Stedeford reported to
Mr. Heywood that there had been out-
breaks of mob violence in Wenchow, but
up to March 5th it had not been directed
against foreigners.
Ningpo. Our Ningpo staff re-
moved to Shanghai at
the beginning of April. The news came
by cable, and we await an account of the
events which precipitated their departure.
Writing on March 13th, Miss Mabel
Fortune said: “We five United Metho-
dists are the only remaining British mis-
sionaries.†At the same time she was
able to say : “ I am pleased to report that
the school still goes on peacefully. The
numbers are creeping up; six new
students to-day bring the number to
about 60.†At that time hers was the
only girls’ school still open.
Yunnan. As far as we know, our
missionaries in Yunnan
have not been required to leave their
stations. In a statement in the House
of Commons, Sir Austen Chamberlain in-
cluded Yunnanfu among the places
where, on March 26th, the Consular Offi-
cers had been warned to be prepared to
evacuate if necessary. This instruction
makes it probable that missionaries in
the more remote parts of the Yunnan
province have been called bv the Consul
to Yunnanfu.
Report states that Cantonese students
are carrying on Bolshevic propaganda in
Yunnan province, and that the Governor
of the province is practically a prisoner
in the hands of three of his generals.
Conditions are most unsettled, and it is
feared that brigands will become bolder
throughout the province.
Decline of How foreign prestige is
Foreign reflected in the conditions
Prestige. which obtain even in re-
mote parts of the mission
field, is seen in the following words of
Rev. F. W. J. Cottrell, who is working
among the Miao :
“ The foreigner is in a different posi-
tion from that which he occupied in the
early days of the work. Then, when the
authorities did not quite know the extent
of the.foreig'ner’s power, it was possible
for the missionary to do much to help the
Miao with their economic problems. But
since the Shanghai incident of 1925 and
that of Wanshien in 1926, that status of
the foreigner is altered, and it is no
longer possible to meet problems in the
old way. This change the greater part
of the Miao fail to realize, consequently
when we are not able to interfere in their
land affairs, for example, our attitude is
not understood. In consequence of this
failure to appreciate the present position,
some of our churches have suffered in
membership.â€
Arrivals. Rev. and Mrs. R. H.
Goldsworthy, from Yun-
nan, arrived per the “Mantua,†on April
7th, and Rev. and Mrs. H. Truelove, and
their two children, from Wenchow, per
the “Kashgar,†on April 16th. Rev.
F. B. and Mrs. Turner, from Tientsin,
who are travelling via Siberia, are ex-
pected to arrive at the end of May.
The Chinese Christians in the city of
Chungking, West China, are publishing a
daily newspaper. They have as reporters
the pastors and the members of the Chris-
tian Churches throughout the province.
The paper has been established because it
was found that anti-Christian forces were
often publishing false news about them.
From “The Missionary Review of
the World.â€
86
The Bishop of
Zanzibar.
THE late Dr. Weston, Bishop of
Zanzibar, will be remembered by
the general Christian public for the
part he took in the famous Kikuyu con-
troversy, and for his presidency of the
Anglo-Catholic Congress a few years ago
when he sent a greeting to the Pope. The
members of his own communion will, not
soon forget this fiery controversialist who
bearded Archbishops and Cabinet Minis-
ters in their dens with a fearlessness and
an impetuosity that left them gasping.
When he was on some ecclesiastical or
other “rampage†he was a terrible fel-
low to meet.
But his biographer and friend,* Canon
H. Maynard Smith, D.D., reveals another
side of this amazing man’s character.
With all his many gifts and many
manifestations, the wonder of Frank
was his heart. He only lived to love
and to be loved and, as he believed that
God is love, he found in love the reason
and explanation of all things. He
was great-hearted, whole-hearted, and
eag'er-hearted, and notwithstanding a
life of sacrifice and many disappoint-
ments, he retained to the end the heart
of a child. He had all the simplicity
of a child. For him things were good
or bad, true or false, right or wrong.
He had all the directness and impetuo-
sity of a child. He found it so hard to
wait and so impossible to compromise.
Though a so-
cialist in creed,
like a child
he individual-
ised everyone.
He never
thought of any-
one as merely
another man.
And notwith-
' standing h i s
sorrows and
sufferings he
never lost the
power of en-
joyment, the
fount of joy
* “ Frank, Bishop of
Zanzibar.’’ By Canon H.
Maynard Smith, D.D.
(S.P.C.K., 7s. 6cl.)
[By favour of B &F.B.Soc.
Africa : Old Style.
Controversialist.
Shepherd of Souls.
Saint.
which bubbles up in a child's face at an
unexpected pleasure.
As one reads this wonderfully interest-
ing book, the impression grows that Dr.
Weston was astonishingly like Mr. Hugh.
Price Hughes. Both were tremendous
fighters, tremendous lovers, born leaders
of men, passionate advocates of the
causes they believed in, capable of in-
spiring' intense loyalty and devotion, and,
most of all, simple-hearted followers of
their Saviour and Lord. Had these two
men met they would have fought as
ecjuals ; each would have been worthy of
the other’s steel. And when the fight
was over—if it ever was—they would
have warmly g'rasped hands and then
knelt in prayer together asking- God to
defend the right.
Of course much in this story is strange
reading to Free Churchmen. It is doubt-
ful whether Dr. Weston ever understood
our position. In the chapter on the
Lambeth Conference there is this extra-
ordinary statement: “Nonconformists as
a whole have not understood the Appeal
(the Lambeth Appeal on Christian Unity)
and have no desire for unity. . . They
were cradled in individualism and have
no conception of a Church. †These words
of Dr. Maynard Smith—and they are
supposed to express the views of Dr.
Weston—are a complete travesty of the
truth. They confirm what one has often
87
The Bishop of Zanzibar
suspected, and indeed often found : an
appalling want of knowledge concerning
Free Church beliefs, doctrines, ideals and
practices on the part of some leading
Anglicans. It was this which astonished
Hugh Price Hughes when at Oxford ; it
astonishes many of us still.
But to us the chief interest of this book
lies in the fact that it tells the story of
a great missionary. On leaving Oxford
in 1893, Weston joined the Trinity Col-
lege Mission at Stratford, first as a lay-
man and afterwards becoming a clerical
member of the staff. He was a ritualist
from the beginning, but he was some-
thing more. “Calvary was for him the
dominating fact in the whole world’s his-
tory,†says his biographer. Later he
held a curacy for a time at Westminster,
then he heard the call of Africa. “He
felt the eyes of the Crucified searched him
out with a mute appeal, ‘ Who will go
for Me?’ And he could not face the
Questioner unless he answered, ‘ Lord,
send me.’†So in 1898 he went to
Zanzibar.
He was always a great worker, and his
early years in Africa were years of im-
mense toil. Teaching children, training
a native ministry, building a theological
college, holding classes for the unbap-
tized and unconfirmed, preaching con-
stantly, it is no wonder that when he
came to England for his first furlough he
had all the appearance of an overwrought
man. He did not like deputation work
—does any missionary ?—maintaining
that missionaries tended to be spoilt by
the admiration they excited on mission-
ary platforms and at drawing-room meet-
ings ! Then it was too fagging--, often
leaving a man as tired at the end of his
holiday as he was at the beginning. But
of course he had to do it, and he had a
way of extracting a good deal of money
from people’s pockets on behalf of his
work.
On his return he was soon appointed
Chancellor of the diocese, and ten years
after landing in Africa, at the age of
thirty-seven, he was made Bishop of
Zanzibar.
In the subsequent years he was more
than once inclined to resign his bishopric,
either because of his wide divergence of
opinion from those in higher authority,
or from the consideration that he could
help the causes he had at heart by being
free from the exacting duties of his dio-
cese. But in his deepest heart he knew
that his real work was in Africa, and
for Africans. And he was African mis-
sionary bishop to the last.
The Bishop’s stand against forced
labour in Africa reveals the true man.
He championed the cause of his coloured
children—as he always lovingly regarded
them—against all attempts to exploit
them for gain by those Europeans who
settled among them. Nothing made him
angrier than proposals which in his judg-
ment made the Africans the “serfs†of
Great Britain. He wrote in the “ Em-
pire Review†in 1924 :
It is no good service to the Empire
to sacrifice the health and social life
of the Africans to a few thousand
Englishmen who find landowning,
cheaper in Africa than in England, and
less exhausting than in Canada or
Africa : New Style. (By favour of B.&.F.B.Soc.
88
North China District Meeting
Australia. Settlers are needed in
Africa, but in small numbers and of
picked character. To open Africa to
all comers irrespective of the needs of
the rest of the Empire is to shorten the
Empire’s existence.
Africa for the Africans was Weston’s
passionately held belief, and when he
found efforts were being- made to use the
Africans unjustly, as he held, and solely
for the benefit of European commercial-
ism, he put all his strength and vehem-
ence into the task of defeating the pro-
posal. He came to England to conduct
a campaign against forced labour, and
though in the end he did not get all he
wanted he was able to secure very great
modifications of the original plans.
Canon Maynard Smith has drawn the
picture of a very saintly man in this
book. He was a great believer in prayer.
One of his native helpers describes how
on one of his journeys he, like the rest
of the camp, went to sleep by the fire,
but the Bishop spent the time in prayer.
When the man awoke at three o’clock in
the morning Weston was still praying.
The man said, “Of all that he taught me
and said to me, of all that I watched him
do, this was the greatest wonder—to see
how he prayed. â€
At the early age of fifty-three Weston
died in a native house, which was little
better than a hut. He died a penniless
man, laying down his life for Africa
as truly as did Livingstone, Hanning-
ton, Pilkington, New, and hundreds
more. He was a very modest man, for-
bidding anyone to write his Life, or even
to print an obituary notice of him. His
biographer had a difficult task in deciding
whether to respect his friend’s wishes or
not. All readers of this book will be
glad of the decision he made. We prefer
to minimise what appear to us as pro-
found mistakes and extravagances in
this great, good man—particularly in
respect to Kikuyu—and to dwell on those
qualities and excellences of this holy man
with a big heart, as he is described in
the last lines of the book, who gave him-
self, and all he had, for Africa’s salva-
tion. The book vastly enriches our
literature on missionary work in the once
called Dark Continent of Africa, but
now a land where shines the light of Him
who is the Light of the World.
Rev. D. J. Rounsefell.
Missions have lost a true friend in the
passing away, on Saturday, April 16th,
at Lee, of the Rev. D. J. Rounsefell.
Few men have had keener missionary pas-
sion than Mr. Rounsefell. For a long
period he did fine home mission work in
London, and later at Bristol, which left a
deep mark on many lives. His evangel-
istic gifts were great, and his People’s
Mission at the “Old Vic.,†in Waterloo
Road,- was a distinct feature of the
aggressive evangelistic life of South
London.
He will be a g-reatly missed man. He
died, as we imagine he would wish to die
—in harness. It is only a few weeks ago
that he was reluctantly compelled to give
up the work he loved with all the ardour
of his soul. He never spared himself ;
perhaps had he done so he might still
have been with us. But to have hus-
banded his strength would have been im-
possible to a nature like his. He could
do nothing unless he did it with his
might. He gave his all for the Lord he
loved and for the people to whom he was
sent. Such men can never really die.
A. E.' J. C.
-9-
North China
District Meeting.
The Annual District Meeting of the
North China Mission was held at Tientsin
on March 12th, 13th and loth. For four
days before the meeting and four days
after, the Executive Committee met at the
house of Rev. W. Eddon. The reports
showed that in spite of unsettled condi-
tions in the country the mission has held
its own. Membership and financial re-
turns show an increase. The Tongshan
College has had a prosperous year, the
number of students being nearly fifty
more than last year. The Lao-ling Hos-
pital has had a very satisfactory year’s
work. A very cordial welcome was
given to Dr. Hadden, who has now taken
charge of the hospital, and also to Rev.
IT. T. Cook, who has been appointed to
Chu Chia Tsai. Rev. E. Richards re-
moves to Tongshan. The meetings
throughout were of a most harmonious
character.
19
The Editor’s Notes.
The Roman Catholic and the
Protestant in China.
Dr. Latourette, formerly a missionary
in China but now a professor at Yale
University, has a most informing article
in the current number of the “Interna-
tional Review of Missions,†in which a
comparison is drawn between the posi-
tion, methods of work and objectives of
the Roman Catholics and Protestants in
China. Apart from one long interrup-
tion, Roman Catholics have had missions
in China for six centuries, and they have
been working there continuously for three
centuries. As a body they are at least four
times as large as the Chinese Protestant
community, and they are increasing in
about the same proportion as the
Protestants.
© © © ©
Before dealing with the differences,
many of them cutting very deep, Dr.
Latourette points out some of the thing’s
the two bodies of missionaries have in
common. Both are loyal to Christ as
each understands Him. Both display a
great zeal for the present and eternal
welfare of the Chinese. There are, of
course, marked differences as to what
constitutes that welfare, and how it is to
be achieved, but in much there is agree-
ment. Both groups have their martyrs
and saints, and in both heroic devotion
has been shown. Both have made some
mistakes, and both have had some
failures—like the rest of the world. But
they have this common object : to build
up a self-supporting, self-propagating
body of Christians, a Church of Christ
in China.
®' @ ® ®
What are the differences? Thirteen
are named, admittedly an incomplete list,
and they appear to approximate closely
to what we find at home. But I will
quote one comment which Dr. Latourette
makes, somewhat exaggerated I think,
but in substance true. Dealing with
methods of publicity he says, “ It is
fairly easy to obtain a full account of
Protestant work, even to its quarrels, its
failures and its problems. Protestants
wash much of their dirty linen in public
and carry on their controversies largely
in print. Roman Catholics, at least
since the eighteenth century, have kept
their differences, their disappointments
and their difficulties largely out of the
press and the public eye. Not many years
ago, for example, an important book by
one of their missionaries, taking a de-
spondent attitude towards the work of
their Church in China, was ordered to be
withdrawn from sale shortly after its
appearance. Which of the two policies
is the more to be commended is a- matter
of debate.†How far this is generally
true of Protestant missions in China
those alone can say who have lived and
laboured there. In England we rather
take great pleasure in showing our
wounded finger, and the scoffer finds a
malicious joy in knocking up against it.
© © ® ®
Missionaries and Social Service.
A rough-and-ready distinction between
the Roman Catholic and the Protestant
missionary may be expressed thus : the
Romanist concentrates on Worship ; the
Protestant on Service. Both believe in
evangelization, but while to the Roman-
ist the dominant physical structure is the
church, to the Protestant the hospital and
the school sometimes dwarf the building
set apart for worship. Another writer in
this Review, Miss M. A. Dingman, says
that “from the start, missionaries have
never confined their work solely to evan-
gelization activities. Faced by the lack
of schools, especially for girls, they have
done fine pioneering work along educa-
tional lines, and even higher standards
are constantly being set up.†Then there
is the 'establishment of hospitals, the
training of doctors and nurses, and pre-
ventive medical, measures in the matter
of public health. Some of the largest
Christian universities in China are giving
training in agriculture. Social activities
are an integral part of the work of the
Christian Church in China, and in all this
work the Protestant missionary takes a
far larger share than his Romanist
brother.
© © ® ©
“ In the Year of the World Call.â€
T have been strangely moved by read-
ing a little book published by the Press
and Publications Board of the Church
Assembly, Church House, Westminster,
entitled “ In the Year of the World Call.â€
90
The Editor’s Notes
Twelve months ago a Convention was
held at Westminster, under the auspices
of the Missionary Council of the Church
Assembly, to consider the needs and
commitments of Anglican missions over-
seas. Some 2,700 delegates came from
all over the country. For more than a
year before the Convention was held
strong Commissions had been set up to
study the situation in Africa, India, the
Far East and Moslem lands, and to
present reports.
@ ® ® ©
Here is Miss Gollack’s description—she
is the writer of the book—of the opening
of the Convention :
“We recall, when St. Paulstide had
fully come,, the purposeful stream of
delegates to the central meetings ; the
eager buying of the Reports, like evening
papers on the day of some great election,
as hot from the press they were borne
in their neat cartons to the Convention
bookstalls ; the orderly statement of
newly ascertained facts, unadorned by
eloquence, barbed with truth ; the listen-
ing of an audience so involved in the
issues as to lose intent to applaud ; and
then the onward sweep, undiminished in
number, to Abbey and Cathedral, to the
great stillness and solemn worship in
which first responses to the World Call
were made.â€
The World Call has met with a won-
derful response, both in the offerings of
substance and of life. In the former the
industrial situation of last year has
naturally had its effect, and the aim
of a 25 per cent increase may not
be realized. In the matter of life
the encouragement is great. Rut, as
one of the leaders has said, the World
Call is not “a spasm†; the work is too
deep for haste.
The Call is gaining fresh hearing every
day. Earnest men and women are press-
ing the call home : upon young men and
women in the Universities, upon mem-
bers of the teaching and medical profes-
sions, and upon the ordinary church
member. The Call of 1927 is to be one
of prayer. As the Bishop of Salisbury
says in an Epilogue, “Last year the
Church was hearing the news of the
world’s need. This year it must fall on
its knees.â€
We most heartily commend this book.
It costs only a shilling. It has a mes-
sage for Methodists as truly as for
Anglicans.
® @ ® ®
“ These Ought Ye to Have Done.â€
No one can read Dr. H. Lloyd Snape’s
pamphlet “These Ought Ye to Have
Done,†without feeling that he has made
out a strong case for systematic and pro-
portionate giving. “ It is extremely diffi-
cult,†he says, “indeed, I think impos-
sible, though the attempt has been made,
to estimate the aggregate annual income
of those who profess to follow Christ ; but
there is, at any rate, ground for doubt-,
ing whether the financial resources of
Christian people have anywhere nearly
approached the breaking-point. I am
personally of opinion that the financial
problems which so grievously burden and
harass the Churches of to-day would be
completely solved were the duties of
Christian stewardship more thoughtfully
and prayerfully faced, and did systematic
and proportionate giving become the rule
for all Christians.â€
It would pay missionary societies to
obtain a supplv of this valuable booklet
and distribute it among their supporters.
It is published by Marshall Bros, at
threepence.
The Apostle of Central China
“He was the champion of hope based
on faith, against all who took the
shorter, darker view of life. ’ ‘ Some seem
to imagine,’ he said, ‘ that I am an opti-
mist because life has been easy and I have
never known trial or sorrow. But I tell
you I am an optimist because of what I
see—the changes which have taken place
these fifty years. Sorrow 1 Loss ! I
have known the bitterest : wife—children
—I have gone through it all. Disappoint-
ment, dangers—many! But I am an
optimist in spite of it all.’â€
—Rev. Nelson Bitton in “The Story
of Griffith John.â€
.91
Successful Missionary
Collectors.
Miss Vera Embery, Burrington, Ringsash Circuit.
Miss Rhoda Aidley, Frodsham Circuit.
Missionary collecting this year has
been rendered somewhat difficult in
Devonshire on account of the restrictions
imposed by the County Council By-Law,
prohibiting- young people under 16 years
of age from collecting. And even those
over 16 had to use boxes. Miss Embery,
however, a keen lover of missions, has
again succeeded in getting together a
substantial sum. She appealed to 1,041)
persons, who gave on an average about
7 Id. each. She had some strange ex-
periences ; but her happy disposition
enabled her to overcome difficulties.
Her efforts have issued in the fol-
lowing : £ s. d.
1924 8 10 6
1925 20 0 0
1926 30 0 0
1927 32 5 6
£90 16 0
W. Bennett.
Miss Vera Embery.
Miss Rhoda Aidley.
It appears that twenty years ago no
one was willing to take the missionary
box at Kingsley. The minister was con-
cerned that the missionary income for
the year would suffer in consequence.
At last Miss Aidley said she would take
it, and her fine record speaks for itself,
and should serve as an encouragement to
others. She has carried the same box
all these years. What a story it could
tell ! Though quiet and retiring, her
devotion to the cause of Christian mis-
sions is beautiful to behold. Miss Aidley
is a member of the Leaders’ Meeting" and
is warmly interested in the work of the
Church and the young" people. Her
brother, Mr. Samuel Aidley, is a local
preacher in the circuit, and the family
have been associated with our church for
more than fifty years.
During her first '. ear, 1908, Miss Aidley
collected £6 12s. 3d. She has never
collected less than £6, and this year the
sum reached £9 3s. 2d. The total
amounts to £146 12s. 6d.
W. Gerry.
92
Some West African
Cameos.
GREAT feature of church life in
Sierra Leone is the observance of
the Universal Week of Prayer,
organized by the World’s Evangelical
Alliance. The week begins on the first
Sunday of the year and continues to the
following Saturday. The Anglicans make
their own special arrangements, and all
the Free Churches unite. Roth bodies
have special organizing committees, and
the services are held at the same hour—
7 a.m. Formerly, Angdicans and Non-
conformists united ; and while now they
meet separately, unity is preserved in
that the services are held at the same
time, and in the fact that two of the
Anglican services are conducted by Free
Church “bishops†like myself. Actually,
it is a good thing that the services are
held separately, for so great is the attend-
ance that the largest buildings are
packed.
In these services the religious genius
of the African is finely demonstrated—his
love of singing, power of prayer, and his
vital, contagious emotionalism.
The first service was held this morn-
ing at Buxton Wesleyan Church. When
I arrived at 6.45 a.m., I found the
church already packed, and resounding
with the singing of Negro Spirituals.
These old-time hymns are built up on
exactly the same principle as the folk-
songs one hears in the hinterland villages.
They are antiphonal. I heard a shrill
voice singing the simple theme, followed
by a choral repetition and amplification.
The same theme may be favoured a full
fifteen minutes before there is a change.
These antiphonal hymns are not known
as Negro Spirituals, nor yet as Jubilee
Songs among the people who sing them ;
they are known as “Shouts.†The
hymn itself is a Shout, and a specially
organized service where there is nothing
else sung but these Shouts is itself known
as a Shout. The women particularly are
very fond of meeting together for a
Shout, and many such gatherings are
held with no power of organization except
common desire. So- as you pass along
during the week you will hear the music
of a Shout coming from a house where
a few neighbours have gathered to
“Praise de Lord and bless Hee’s name.â€
When I entered the church I found
Rev. E. COCKER.
III.—Africans at Prayer.
fully 800 people, mostly women. Some
dozen ministers occupied the communion
enclosure. The service was very simple :
Hymn: “Before Jehovah’s awful
throne.â€
Prayer.
Hymn: “When I survey the won-
drous cross.â€
Scripture : Psalms xcv., ciii., Gal. v.
16-26.
Address on the subject fixed :
Thanksgiving and Humiliation.
Hymn : “There is a fountain.â€
Prayers : Brother Baxter and Sister
During.
Hymn : Jesus, the very thought of
Thee.â€
Silent Prayer on themes given in the
printed order.
Prayers : Brother Macaulay and Sis-
ter Leigh.
Hymn: “Revive Thy work, O
Lord.â€
Prayer : Rev. W. B. Mark.
Hvmn: “Now thank we all our
God.’â€
Benediction.
All through the atmosphere was tense.
I have never been in a service anywhere
where feeling was so dominant. The vast
congregation seemed to be under the
control of one unifying spirit. As I read
the list of sins in Gal. v., all with one
accord began to repeat the words in peni-
tential tone ; but when I came to the
fruits of the Spirit the tone was changed
to one of gladness and triumph. Two
women rose, crying out for mercy and
confessing their sins. And what won-
derful prayers were offered, full of fer-
vent poetic feeling, a marvellous inter-
weaving of Scripture and quotations
from hymns. At the end of each sen-
tence the whole congregation joined in
assent :
“Lord we have sinned.â€â€”“Yes.â€
“We are not worthy of Thy mercy.â€
—“No.â€
“Help us and save us.—“Ay.â€
At the close when they sang-, “Now
thank we all our God,†it seemed as
though the very walls were dissolving,
and revealing the great “cloud of wit-
nesses †who praise day and night in the
Heavenly temple.
As I came out of the church a dear
93
Two Interesting Incidents
old Mammy with radiant face took my
hand and said, “O Massa, you feed my
soul, you give me food for thought.â€
Later, the old saint toddled down here
to see me ; said she could not rest until
she had come to tell me how sweet my
message had been to her soul. She told
me her story. As a girl she lived at
York and there learned to love the House
of God. A Bible was given her. She
read the words, “ If ye shall ask anything
in My Name, I will do it.†Thereafter
she began to pray, “Lord, I want to go
to a good school to learn. Lord send me
to a, school.†One day as she prayed a
voice seemed to say, “ Be patient until
November.†' In November came Mr.
Micklethwaite, father of Rev. W. S.
Micklethwaite, who said he wanted a
good girl to help in the mission house at
Freetown, and everybody said, ‘‘Here is
the girl you want.†So she came to
Freetown. Not long after, the mission
house had to be repaired, and Mr. and
Mrs. Micklethwaite went to reside at the
Annie Walsh School. While there the
girl began to attend classes and showed
such diligence that Mr. Micklethwaite
allowed her to continue, and she became
as a daughter to them. She nursed Mr.
W. S. Micklethwaite as a baby—“My
Willie,†she called him.
She is now nearly 77. I gave her
some things to eat, and finally helped her
down the steps and bade her farewell
while she showered blessings upon me.
Describing' her I have described scores
of other devout women, who are the
strength and glory of the African
churches.
Two Interesting Incidents.
Rev. HERBERT MARSDEN.
FROM one of our churches in the
Salisbury Circuit, Winterbourne,
there passed away last summer a
very devoted member of the church, one
whose thought was always for others. He
left a request that any money his chil-
dren and friends would think of spending'
on flowers at his funeral should be put
into his missionary box instead, fearing
that bv his death the missionary cause
would suffer. His wish was carried out,
and on opening the box recently it was
found to contain nearly £5. He was a
man in humble circumstances, and a great
lover of flowers, but how beautiful was
the thought that his dear ones and friends
should show their love for him in this
way.
At the missionary meeting in Salisbury
a short time ago a hymn was sung which
has an interesting-history. In conversa-
tion with his host, Mr. H. H. Bates, Dr.
Robson happened to mention that very
few hymns contained any direct references
to China. During" the following morning
Mr. Bates set to work to compose a hymn
about China. He had it printed forth-
with, and it was sung the same night.
This is the hymn :
To the Revd. J. K. Robson, M.D., oj
China.
O’er China’s ancient Empire,
Where ruled the Dragon Throne,
And countless thousands worshipped
The gods of wood and stone ;
O’er thee has come a brightness,
Far brighter than the day;
On thee the King of Glory
Has shed FI is gracious ray.
E’en now the sky is lighting,
E’en now the sleeper wakes;
The news of Christ’s Salvation
Its glorious passage makes.
And there, the Cross uplifted,
By feeble hands and few ;
The power of Love immortal
Is making all things new.
In many a Chinese heart,
The love of Jesus dwells;
In homes made sweet by prayer,
The song of triumph swells.
Full many a Christian witness,
On Chinese soil has won
The martyr’s crown transplendent,
The Saviour’s word “ Well done 1 â€
O’er Canton’s porcelain towers,
O’er Pekin’s stately gates,
From the Great Wall to coastline,
O'er all the feudal states,
Our Jesus shall be ruler,
His Kingdom come, we pray,
Yea, all shall own Him victor,
In lands of “far Cathay.â€
Spread wide the gates of Heaven,
Make broad the King’s highway;
The tramp of gathering legions
Is heard upon the way.
For East and West shall crown Him
Aiid round the world shall ring
One alleluiah chorus
To Jesus, Saviour, King.
94
Some New
Books.
“ George Grenfell:
Pioneer in Congo.â€
By H. L. Hemmens. (Student Chris-
tian Movement, 5s.)
“Without roads or railroads, without
shops or currency, without river-boats or
motors, without charts or maps, without
government help or native funds, without
literature or dictionary, without hospital
or doctors, but with mighty faith and
magnificent heroism, he crossed unknown
hills, explored unheard-of streams, estab-
lished friendly relations with the people
of new lands, built steamboats and
schools, reduced strange languages to
writing, and established printing presses,
taught handicrafts and founded hospitals,
raising everywhere the Gospel standard â€
—thus went George Grenfell, of the Bap-
tist Missionary Society, into the heart of
the Congo.
Others have written of him, whom
“The Times†called “this modest mis-
sionary, who, had he possessed the ambi-
tion and ‘ push ’ of men who have not
done a tithe of his work, would have been
loaded with honours. â€
This volume is the seventh of a uni-
form series of missionary biographies
undertaken by the United Council for
Missionary Education.
Before George Grenfell was ten years
old he read Livingstone’s first book, and
thus formed an attachment to the Dark
Continent which crystallized a few years
later into a determination to follow in
Livingstone’s steps.
On his first journey inland from the
West Coast he met a crowd of village
women most of whom had never seen a
white man before, and a mob of children
who fled panic-stricken on his approach.
His journal says: “I have not yet dis-
discovered ‘ Afric’s sunny fountains ’ 1
Afric’s decomposed-organic-matter-in-sus-
pension-laden streams abound.â€
When he first went in 1874, the Congo
area of over two million square miles was
virtually unknown. To-clay it is under
the control of European Powers, and a
great and effectual door is opened to the
heralds of the Cross.
He had unimaginable difficulties and
disappointments, but, like Grenfell of
Labrador, he traced his ancestry back to
the famous Sir Richard Grenville, and
was thus in a succession of men who
hazard their lives for the purpose in their
heart.
The whole of the 250 pages are packed
with interest and vivid experience, and
are a great record of missionary pioneer
work done in the spirit of the rugged
lines :
Got any rivers they say are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel
through?
We specialise on the wholly impossible,
Doing the thing that no man can do.
W. I’. Rhodes.
“China and Britain.â€
If anyone is in doubt as to what all the
trouble in China is about it is surely his
own fault. In a particularly uninspired
moment, Lord Inchcape gave the world
his version, only to find that nobody
believed him—at least nobody whose
opinion counted for anything. Books
have come from the press in large num-
ber during recent months concerning
China, her history, her religious ideas,
her aspirations, her present troubles and
her future hopes. One of the most recent
is one of the most enlightening. In
“China and Britain,†by R. O. Hall
(Edinburgh House, Eaton Gate, S.W. 1,
2s.) we have a very illuminating state-
ment of the Chinese problem by one who
is a great lover of the Chinese people.
Mr. Hall says he has written as “a plain
man for plain people in terms which are,
I hope, plain terms.†He deprecates all
heat in dealing with this momentous
issue. “Only if the heat is taken out of
the argument can the people of China
and Britain come to know each other
better, and so work together for the
ideals of brotherhood and mutual service
which they both have so very much in
common.†This is decidedly a book to
read—and to keep on one’s shelves.
K. A. P.
The books and other publications men-
tioned in the Echo may be obtained from
our Publishing House, 12 Farringdon
Avenue, E.C.4.
95
Chinese Students
and the Bible.
(Our readers will be greatly interested in
the following article from “The Bible in the
World †for April. Anything from the pen
of Mr. Sheppard is welcomed by United
Methodists. We are grateful to the Editor
for permission to publish this communica-
tion.—Editor.)
ISSIONARY educational work
has suffered more disturbance in
China than mission churches,
and has been more definitely attacked by
the political agitators. After the up-
heaval in the summer of 1925 most Chris-
tian schools reopened for the autumn with
their number of students greatly dim-
inished. In 1926 the enrolment increased
again, but difficulties arising from, the
Students’ Unions, the political agitations,
and more than all from new Government
Regulations (stipulating that for official
registration no school must have religious
instruction as a required part of its cur-
riculum, or the propagation of religion
as its aim), have greatly altered the
prospects and status of Christian schools.
Some missionary educationists believe
that the Government Regulations should
be accepted and the schools maintained for
purely educational purposes. Others are
of opinion that, rather than conform to
such conditions, it were better to close
the schools. If either of these courses
were taken, it is obvious that there would
not be as large a call for Bibles for school
use as there has been in previous years.
But it must not therefore be concluded
that the Bible has failed to win the in-
terest and esteem of those who- have
studied it. One incident may be recorded
which suggests the attitude of Chinese
students toward the Bible, when they
understand its nature.
For several years past, by a special
gift through the Bible Society, presenta-
tion Bibles have been given to Chinese
University Students on the occasion of
their graduation. The name of the re-
cipient was imprinted in gilt letters on
the cover of the book, and the gift was
regarded as a fitting souvenir of the
years spent in a Christian Institution.
At one of the best established universities
in China, 57 students were due to
graduate in June, 1925, and 57 Bibles
were prepared with their imprinted
names. These were dispatched to the
Rev. G. W. SHEPPARD
(The Bible Society’s Secretary in China).
University just prior to the famous
Shanghai Incident of May 30th. The up-
roar which followed that incident affected
students of all grades throughout the
country, and those of this university left
in a body, vowing never to return. They
departed without their graduation certifi-
cates, and without the Presentation
Bibles. The latter were returned in sor-
row to the Bible House, and received with
sorrow. They could not be taken back
into stock, for they had on them the im-
printed names. Nothing could apparently
be done with them but tear off their
covers and rebind them ; but, for the time
being, we sadly put them aside, in their
parcels, into a cupboard.
Seven months later, when with the
coming of the New Year (1926) the up-
heaval seemed to have passed into history
and the storm of passion had abated, it
occurred to the Principal that, although
the old students had not returned to the
University, some of them might be re-
gretting that they had not the Bible as
a souvenir of the old days. It was sug-
gested that a letter be sent to each of
them, intimating that, if desired, and if
personal or written application were
made, the Bible could be obtained from
the Bible House in Shanghai. In the
course of the next few weeks 50 out of
the 57 were applied for. Several letters
of appreciation were afterwards received.
One young man wrote : “ I know it is
the most precious book in the world. I
shall read it every day.†Another: “I
shall always prize this Book as one of
my valued volumes, as it helps a young
man in achieving a purity of mind and
sincerity of purpose.â€
The anti-Christian agitation has been
and is a serious feature confronting us in
China. It has found strong response
among the students and seemingly among
some ex-students of Christian schools.
But it may be questioned whether, in so
far as it is Chinese, it is really anti-Chris-
tian. It is part of a political propaganda,
and its arguments are generally directed
against Christianity as the tool of
‘‘foreign imperialism,†or “capitalism.â€
Rarely is there any indication of intelli-
gent Chinese hostility to the teachings of
the Bible.
96
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