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“...we may strive on to
finish the work we are in : to bind up the nation’s wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among all nations.”
(Adapted from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4th, 1865.)
A New Year Call
to Service.
By the PRESIDENT.
'HE uppermost feeling of friends
throughout the Connexion during
the last six months has been one
of profound gratitude that the Mission
Debt was extinguished at the last Con-
ference, with some ;£3,000 over, which
is kept in reserve, the interest only to be
applied to current expenses. It was a
great effort, and the response was
spirited and general. At the close of
the Conference portentous clouds began
to gather on the political horizon, and in
a few days the storm broke. Since
then we have lived in anxiety, and our
hearts have been stirred day by day by
the stories of carnage and devastation
in Belgium and France. So far as...”
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“...and such generous and gracious action
would meet at once with human grati-
tude and Divine blessing.
To present an apologia for Mission
enterprise, or to expound its many
methods of evangelistic, medical, edu-
cational, and philanthropic work, is no
more needful than to give a demonstra-
tion that the whole of a thing is greater
than any of its parts. The development
of our work abroad is directly related to
that at home, and both grow, or fail,
together. A forward policy is the only
safe one. To attack is better than
merely to defend, and year by year fresh
territory should be marked for conquest.
Methods are already projected for
China, which, when actually brought
into operation will have a great influ-
ence on the future of that wonderful
landi
If I might say a word or two to my
ministerial brethren, it would be to sug-
gest that in the ECHO and the “ Mission
Report,” they might find excellent il-
lustrations for many pulpit themes, which
would tell all the more because of per-
sonal...”
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“...permit of extensive de-
velopments at that time among the
Chinese. Mr. Dymond now writes
that a chapel has been opened there.
The usual method of crossing the
river is by a ferry-boat secured against
the strong current by the bamboo rope,
by which it is also hauled from one side
of the stream to the other. It was al-
most without doubt, at this ferry that Mr.
Thorne crossed the river.
1904—1914.
During this period extraordinary de-
velopments have taken place in this
land. Our district, as a mission, ex-
tends from Yunnan Fu to the northern,
boundary of the province of Yunnan.
It takes nearly three weeks to journey
from one extreme to the other. Ten
years ago, a person could only spend
two or three nights out of the twenty on
premises where the folk were Christian ;
and two of these were our centres—
Tong Chuan and Chao Tong. To-day
a person by travelling through country
running nearly parallel with the main
Ko Ku’ei. [Rev. H. Parsons.
6...”
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“...Bookland
road need not stay more than one night
in a Chinese inn; all the remaining
nights he can sleep on chapel premises
or in the homes of members or en-
quirers belonging to the United
Methodist Church, excepting that the
first two nights would be on China In-
land Mission premises.
In going from Yunnan Fu to Chen
Hsiong: 1904, 16 inns and 3 mission
homes; 1914, 1 inn and 18 mission
homes.
God grant that growth intensively
may be as rapid as growth extensively.
We are in danger—a very real danger
of being swamped with numbers. Luke
xi. 2.
Booblapd.
“With the Bible in Brazil? By
Frederick C. Glass. (Illustrated
with a map.) (Morgan and Scott;
2s. 6d. net).
This is a story of life in Brazil, where,
for 15 years, the author has been at
work as a colporteur and missionary.
His adventures and experiences make
thrilling reading, as Rev. J. Stuart
Holden remarks in his “Foreword” to
the volume. The story of a modern
miracle is told—of a leper healed with-
out medical aid, of how a revolution...”
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“...“Lead, kindly light.” The
folk sang it very sweetly and nicely.
What a contrast to the fierce passion of
the battlefield! ”
MONTHLY PRAYER MEETING.
Hymns:
“ Standing at the portal of the
opening year.”
“ Jesus, where’er Thy people meet.”
“ I am Thine, O Lord: I have
heard Thy Voice.”
Scripture: Habakkuk ii. I—14
Prayer: For the fuller consecration of
our members. That wisdom may be
given for the carrying out of the work
of 1915.
That the war may not seriously im-
pede our work or reduce the Mission-
ary income.
1
Glirppses of
Cbao Topg.*
By Dr. LEWIS SAVIN.
ANY thanks for your kind letter
of some time ago. It was good
to get your words of cheer and
to know of the sympathy and prayers of
the Christian Endeavour Society of your
church for the Medical Missionary work
at C'hao-t’ong. If it were possible I
should be glad for the friends in your
society to see something of the work
they are helping to do in our Master’s
Name, but that cannot be. Could it be,
I am certain that all would agree...”
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“...baptized
over 200 people in one day, and when
the tour was finished he had added
about 400 to the number of baptized
Christian Miao.
Coining Rev. G. T. Candlin,
and Going. D.D., terminated his brief
furlough on January gth
and sailed for China per the P. and O.
S.S. “ Medina” An enthusiastic meet•
ing at Fentiman Road bade him farewell.
It hqs been a great joy to his old
friends, and likewise to a large number
of new ones, to see and hear Dr. Cand-
lin. His record extends to the early
days of the mission in North׳ China, a
record in whiefh loyalty, fidelity, and
ability have won the highest esteem of
all who know him. We pray that his
More Jourpeyipgs
in Ncsulapd. (Continued).
’HE old gentleman gravely as-
sures us that all the people in
the city are deeply sensible
of the honour we have paid them
by condescending to come to their
squalid, poverty-stricken little village,
and he begs us not to take offence or to
feel hurt at the bad manners of the
people in these parts, who are all an ex-
ceedingly...”
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“...your boxes and
stolen everything you had.”
We are two days’ journey away, and
the next day is Sunday. So we turn
homewards and on Monday get to head-
quarters. We were hoping that this
affair would serve to bring to light some
budding Sherlock Holmes who would
discover the thieves for us.
P.S.—It didn’t!
[Rev. H. Parsons.
A Nosu woman and her son.
Tljc Iptcrpatiopal Review
of Missions.*
LWAYS a distinctive and wel-
come feature of the January
number is the Editor’s review of
the year in the Mission Field. This
time it occupies 54 pp. and is as deeply
interesting and useful as ever. From
Japan to China, to India and Ceylon,
through the Moslem World and Africa
generally, then away to other fields, as
e.g., Jewish Missions, and he returns to
the Home base.
Dr. Arthur Smith contributes an ar-
tide on “ The Christian Church in
Changing China,” which reveals a wide
experience, and finishes on an optimistic
note.
The series on “ The Home ministry
and Foreign Missions ” is continued by
contributions...”
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“...Tbc late
Mrs. Capdlip.
׳HE hearts of all the members of
our Mission in North China go
out in sympathy with our dear
old friend and colleague, Rev. G. T.
Candlin, in the bereavement which has
come to him during his furlough in Eng-
land, and while far away from the mem-
bers of his family who have settled
in the country of his adoption. And it
is well that at this time it should be
placed on record how much the mission
has owed to Mrs. Candlin’s devotion.
She so׳ little obtruded herself and the
work she did upon the public notice that
in our community in England her name
is far less associated than it ought to be
with our most successful work.
It is generally felt that in our Mission
operations in North China the most en-
couraging feature is our Girls’ School in
Lao׳ Ling. It is less known that we are
now very largely reaping what Mrs.
Candlin has sown.
Others have helped forward this
work and have found the means for its
continuance and extension and for the
provision of its excellent...”
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“...orders. ’
In each field we have had “ saints,
apostles, and martyrs,” To name a
few would be to do injustice to many.
We have witnessed wonderful triumphs.
A marvellous awakening amongst the
Miao tribes in South-West China added
3,000 members to our mission in two
years. And we have sorrowed over
great disasters. We entered Mendiland,
West Africa, in 1892, and the work
amongst real heathen seemed ideal: but
the whole mission ■was swept away, na-
tive ministers and people were killed,
By the Rev.
J. BARRETT.
and our missionary barely escaped with־
his life, in the rebellion of 1898.
HOW WE WORK.
The missionary is essentially a man
sent to seek and save. How many-
sided his work is we do not always
realize. His aim is to save souls, but
his mission carries him farther than we
think. To save souls he must often
heal sick bodies, enlighten dark minds,
and teach men the dignity of labour.
Hence to our evangelistic work we add
medical, educational, and industrial
missions. In China consecrated Chris-...”
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“...Noteworthy Helpers
Do not read merely the figures. Get
at the facts behind the figures. Re-
member that every church is a haven of
refuge for weary souls, every mission-
ary a pioneer who has sacrificed much
in order to annex the territory of the foe
to the Kingdom of His Lord, and every
convert a light shining in a,dark place.
Let it be said, too, to their glory and
our shame, that the converts from
heathenism are often far more eager for
the salvation of their brethren than we
at home are.
Noteworthy Helpers.
107. Mr. H. A. Neath, Box, Bath Circuit.
How is this for a record of a juvenile col-
lector who is over 70 years of age, and w־ho
has the following list to his credit? We are
proud of him. He has collected regularly and systematically for thirty-two years.
£ s. d.
1882 0 5 2
1883 0 8 0
1884 0 12 6
1885 0 13 1
1886 0 15 3
1887 0 19 1
1888 1 4 9
1889 1 6 6
1890 1 9 0
1891 1 11 0
1892 1 7 2
1893 1 5 7
1894 1 0 10
1895 1 6 0
1896 1 6 1
1897 1 7 0
1898...”
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“...co-pastor with
the writer, of the Western Circuits of
the Wenchow Mission, was but fifty-
three years of age, and was at the zenith
of his career. During the latter part of
last summer it was a great shock to the
whole Mission to learn that he was suf-
fering from tuberculosis. The autumn
was passed under the care of Dr. Angus
and by Chinese New Year the patient
had recovered sufficiently to return to
his home and subsequently to take up
residence at his station, Underbridge,
the head church of the Outer West
Brook Circuit. He was able to be
present at the Annual District Meetings
in February, and to deliver a helpful
address containing some of the results of
the months of quiet thinking whilst he
was laid aside. His subject was sig-
nificant, being, “ Church Independence,"
and included a scheme by which the
churches should gradually become self-
supporting. Had he lived it is probable
that his great
work for this
Mission would
have been in
this direction.
He went back
:0 his station;
but...”
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“...is alphabetically &r-
ranged, while all possible difficulties as
to pronunciation are got through in a
single lesson.”
“ The Missionary Speaker and Reader I’
Edited by W. E. Cule, B.M.S.,
London. (The Carey Press ; x s.)
MANY a weary missionary secretary
should be delighted to hail this volume.
his loved ones. Something will have
to be done towards the support of
the widow and the little boy. The
Pastor was not a man who had sources
of income apart from his Mission
salary. ' ׳
Finally, United Methodists in Eng-
land and on other mission stations will
think of the bereavement not solely as
an incident local to Wenchow, but as a
loss to the whole Church. And if the
life of our Church has taken on this
year, a deeper and more hallowed note
in the presence of the passing hence of
revered leaders like our late President,
Rev. W. Redfern and Rev. R. Aber-
crombie I would like to think that that
impression will be deepened somewhat
by the fact of this latest loss on the
Church’s foreign field, and...”
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“...Noteworthy Helpers.
109. Miss Blanche Jackson, North Shields.
Miss Blanche Jackson is connected with
our Hudson Street Mission Sunday School
in the North Shields Circuit. She is a grand-
daughter of Mr. Thomas Scott, who is a
veteran Local Preacher and Sunday School
worker of over sixty years’ standing—during
the whole of which time, or practically so,
he has been an active supporter of the same
mission. Miss Jackson is an enthusiastic
missionary collector, and her book shows an
enormous amount of work, as almost all her
subscribers contribute a penny a week. We
are glad to know that she is still collecting.
Following are amounts she has handed over
to date :
£ s. d.
1908 0 17 6
1910 4 10 0
1911 5 0 0
1912 6 4 10
1913 6 0 0
1914 6 0 0
;£28 12 4
—Per Mr. J. Fawcett Hogg, Cir. Mis. Sec.
110. Miss Edith Field, Park Crescent, Clap-
ham, London.
Miss Field’s record is as follows
£ s. d.
1908 2 10 0
1909 6 0 0
1910 6 0 0
1911 6 5 0
1912 6 0 0
1913 6 0 0
1914 6 0...”
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“...they leave the hospital. She is a
bright and faithful worker, still in the
prime of life. May she have before her
many years of service for her Lord!
Another of the three Bible-women was,
in her young days, now more than 30
years ago, a pupil in Mrs. Swallow’s
school, where she made good progress
in learning and acquired considerable
Christian knowledge.
She was married early to one outside
of the Church, and went to live in a dis-
tant village where she was cut off from
connection with the Mission. But she
kept up her reading and did not lose
her interest in the things she had learnt.
Some seven years ago, her husband
having died, she came up to Ningpo
seeking work. One of our Chinese
pastors brought her along to us, but as
Mrs. Swallow was not then there, we
were strangers. I learned that after 25
years of married life, during which she
had known hard work and poverty and
had had a large family (some of the
children still dependent on her) she was
now seeking employment. She was
46...”
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“...books.
Her husband became a Christian
about 16 years ago׳, and was the first
Chinese whom Mr. Sheppard baptised.
His home was in a distant village.
About three years after his baptism he
was cruelly murdered for his profession
of the Christian religion. It was at a
time when Ningpo was greatly dis-
turbed by wild anti-Christian rumours.
His widow came to Ningpo in great
distress, and vainly sought redress and
compensation from the officials. Al-
though failing in this, she found friends
in the Mission, and some months later
became Amah to Mrs. Heywood’s chil-
dren. Gradually she came to under-
stand more of the Faith for which her
husband had died, and accepted it as
her own. Slowly and steadily she
learned to read, and growing in confid-
ence and zeal began to wish to help
others. It became her earnest desire to
equip herself to become a Bible-woman,
and helped by one and another of the
missionaries’ wives she has succeeded.
For some years now she has shared
in the itinerating work, and has...”
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“...reflection,
No less that Spring is here :
For hope of ours is any resurrection ?
With war’s red tempest near,
Vain, vain the cowslip’s smile, the cuckoo’s
word of cheer I
For Peace lies dead : surely the cross
released her
Unto the grave’s cold breath !
.. . Was it a bird which sang that song of
Easter ?
“There shall be no more death.
In Me ye shall have Peace: write, write,
the Spirit saith I ”
Was it a dream alone, an empty vision
Of night fulfilled in day ?
—Lo, the white angels of the Easter mission
Where Peace enshrouded lay I
“ Behold, she is not here ; for she is risen,”
they say.
—S. Gertrude Ford.
52...”
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“...Cur Missions ip Cbipa, 1859 to 1915.
IT is proposed to illustrate our position
and growth in the great empire of
China by a series of charts in the
following order:—
North China (1859).
South-East China (1864).
South-West China (1885).
I.—Tl>c North China Mission•
By Mr. T. C. WARRINGTON, M.A.
The accompanying diagram sum-
marizes the history of what we now call
our North China Mission which was be-
gun by the M.N.C. in 1862. In this
summary, inferences from the diagram
are printed in ordinary type, the related
events in the history of the mission are
printed in italics.
1859 (Oct. 21).—Rev. John Innocent and
Rev. T. N. Hall sailed for China.
r86o'(Mar. 23).—Arrival at Shanghai.
1861 (April).—Mr. Innocent arrived in
Tientsin and was shortly after-
wards joined, by Mr. Hall.
1862.—First chapel opened in Tientsin.
1862-65.•—Small beginnings.
1865-70. — Extremely rapid growth.
Awakening of Chit Chia, 1866.
1870- 71.—Check. Tientsin massacre,
1870.
1871- 72.—Rapid recovery.
1872- 75.—Steady...”
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“... as may serve as a book
for worship and also as a reader in the
school.
All this is being done before Mr.
Worthington claims to have attained
what he regards as “ preaching pro-
ficiency ” in the use of the language. A
Meru boy from the American Mission
has rendered splendid service as the
regular mission preacher. Notwith-
standing all the difficulties Mr. Worth-
ington can see the evidence of the work-
ing of the Spirit of God and rejoices in
being able to regard a few who have come
most under his influence as sincere be-
lievers. They have not yet been
baptized because the rules of the federa-
tion of missions in East Africa require a
probation of two years before baptism.
We greatly rejoice in these signs of
blessing in our youngest mission, and
we ask our readers to unite in prayer
that the seed being sown in the hearts
of these primitive people may bring
forth an abundant harvest.
In Perils Rev. T. M. Gauge re-
of Robbers. counts some of the dan-
gers encountered by our
preachers...”
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“...meanwhile
he was kept a prisoner and somewhat
maltreated. Our preachers and Chris-
tians on the spot worked hard for his
release, principally among the. relatives
of the robbers. After seven, days’ con-
finement he was released on the pay-
ment of sixteen dollars, equivalent to
32 s.; a large sum for people of such
extreme poverty to raise.
A Word to Rev. T. M. Gauge in a
the Wise. recent letter speaks of the
immense value of the hos-
pital work and the splendid asset Dr.
Stedeford is to the mission. He also
drops a hint which I pass on in the
hope that some United Methodist will
be wise enough to take it to heart. He
says, “ I often accompany him (Dr.
Stedeford) on his evening round over
the Hospital and warmly testify to the
great work he is doing. Hospital work
is so absolutely worth while. One can-
not put it too strongly. I could cite
case after case, where but for the hos-
pital, life would have been lost or
ruined. But the Chinese working people
are so desperately poor that many cannot...”
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“...contribution on “ Christian
Literature in the Mission Field” is from
the pen of the Rev. J. H. Ritson, who is
chairman of the Committee on Christian
Literature appointed by the Continua-
tion Committee. His article embodies
the result of an extensive enquiry under-
taken by that committee during the past
three years, and must be read thorough•
ly to be appreciated. It will surely be
issued separately.
A startling article is that by Mr.
Dwight H. Day, on “ The Work of a
Mission-Board Treasurer.” One can
almost guess the board which claims the
services of such a treasurer, with its two
hundred to a thousand letters per day.
How remarkably they do things in
America! Many treasurers reading
this in our little island will simply be in
despair. They ought to read it, never-
theless.
Space fails to tell of other splendid
articles in this number. “ Missionary
Intercession and the Crisis.” A search-
ing examination of our praying power.
“Self-Support in the Mission Field,”
etc., etc. They are losers indeed...”
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