{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26744/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26744","id":"gutenberg_26744","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26744","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Missions -- China"],"text":"Produced by Free Elf, Emmy and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Music files created\nby Linda Cantoni.(This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian\nLibraries) Full-color map generously provided by The\nMissionary E-texts Archive at\nhttp://www.missionaryetexts.org\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Signature: J. Hudson Taylor.]\n\n\n\n\nA RETROSPECT\n\nBY\n\nJ. HUDSON TAYLOR, M.R.C.S., F.R.G.S.\n\n_Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee._\n\nTHIRD EDITION\n\n TORONTO\n CHINA INLAND MISSION\n 507 CHURCH STREET\n\n[Illustration: THE \"LAMMERMUIR\" PARTY. _See page 125._]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n CHAP. PAGE\n I. THE POWER OF PRAYER 1\n II. THE CALL TO SERVICE 7\n III. PREPARATION FOR SERVICE 13\n IV. FURTHER ANSWERS TO PRAYER 19\n V. LIFE IN LONDON 24\n VI. STRENGTHENED BY FAITH 30\n VII. MIGHTY TO SAVE 35\n VIII. VOYAGE TO CHINA 39\n IX. EARLY MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES 45\n X. FIRST EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS 49\n XI. WITH THE REV. W. C. BURNS 57\n XII. THE CALL TO SWATOW 70\n \"The Missionary Call\": Words and Music 75\n XIII. MAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES 77\n XIV. PROVIDENTIAL GUIDANCE 92\n XV. SETTLEMENT IN NINGPO 98\n XVI. TIMELY SUPPLIES 105\n XVII. GOD A REFUGE FOR US 110\n XVIII. A NEW AGENCY NEEDED 116\n XIX. FORMATION OF THE C. I. M. 121\n XX. THE MISSION IN 1894 126\n THE MISSION IN 1902 128\n STATIONS OF THE C. I. M. 131\n\n * * * * *\n\n MAP OF CHINA\n\n SHOWING THE STATIONS OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION:\n CORRECTED TO JUNE 1900 _To face page_ 131\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n 1. Portrait of J. Hudson Taylor _Frontispiece_\n 2. The \"Lammermuir\" party _Facing \"Contents\"_\n PAGE\n 3. Honorary banner presented to a missionary 1\n 4. A heavy road in North China 7\n 5. Salt junk on the Yang-tsi 13\n 6. Travelling by mule cart on \"the great plain\" 19\n 7. Ch'ung-k'ing, the Yang-tsi, and mountains beyond 24\n 8. Water gate and Custom house, Soo-chow 29\n 9. View on the Kwang-sin River 30\n 10. Temple and memorial portal 34\n 11. \"Compassionate heart, benevolent methods\" 35\n 12. Outside the wall of Gan-k'ing 38\n 13. The new girls school at Chefoo 39\n 14. Entrance to the Po-yang lake 44\n 15. A fair wind, at sunset, on the lake 45\n 16. A view on the grand canal 49\n 17. Down the Yang-tsi on a cargo boat 57\n 18. East gate and sentry box, Bham\u00f4, Burmah 69\n 19. Farmhouse, with buffalo shed attached 70\n 20. A fishing village on the lake near Y\u00fcnnan Fu 77\n 21. Teng-yueh, the westernmost walled city in China 91\n 22. A small temple near Wun-chau 92\n 23. Group of Christians at Lan-k'i, Cheh-kiang 97\n 24. A boat on the Red River, Tonquin 98\n 25. Students' quarters, Gan-k'ing Training Home 104\n 26. A Mandarin's sedan chair 105\n 27. A presentation banner (a mark of high respect) 110\n 28. View on the Po-yang lake 116\n 29. A village on the grand canal 121\n 30. The battlements of Pekin 126\n 31. Native woodcut of a landscape 131\n 32. Elder Liu and wife, Kwei-k'i 136\n\n The hearty thanks of the Mission for the use of\n photographs and sketches are hereby tendered to\n Rev. George Hayes for Nos. 4 and 6; Dr. G.\n Whitfield Guinness for Nos. 8, 12, 16, 25, and 28;\n Miss Davies for No. 23; Mr. Thomas Selkirk for\n Nos. 18 and 21; Mr. J. T. Reid for Nos. 14, 15,\n and 27; Mr. J. S. Rough for No. 30; Mr. Grainger\n for No. 19; Mr. E. Murray for No. 13, and also to\n other friends unknown by name.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE POWER OF PRAYER\n\n\nTHE following account of some of the experiences which eventually led to\nthe formation of the CHINA INLAND MISSION, and to its taking the form in\nwhich it has been developed, first appeared in the pages of _China's\nMillions_. Many of those who read it there asked that it might appear in\nseparate form. Miss Guinness incorporated it in the _Story of the China\nInland Mission_, a record which contained the account of GOD'S goodness\nto the beginning of 1894. But friends still asking for it in pamphlet\nform, for wider distribution, this edition is brought out.\n\nMuch of the material was taken from notes of addresses given in China\nduring a conference of our missionaries; this will account for the\ndirect and narrative form of the papers, which it has not been thought\nnecessary to change.\n\nIt is always helpful to us to fix our attention on the GOD-ward aspect\nof Christian work; to realise that the work of GOD does not mean so much\nman's work for GOD, as GOD'S own work through man. Furthermore, in our\nprivileged position of fellow-workers with Him, while fully recognising\nall the benefits and blessings to be bestowed on a sin-stricken world\nthrough the proclamation of the Gospel and spread of the Truth, we\nshould never lose sight of the higher aspect of our work--that of\nobedience to GOD, of bringing glory to His Name, of gladdening the\nheart of our GOD and FATHER by living and serving as His beloved\nchildren.\n\nMany circumstances connected with my own early life and service\npresented this aspect of work vividly to me; and as I think of some of\nthem, I am reminded of how much the cause of missions is indebted to\nmany who are never themselves permitted to see the mission field--many,\nit may be, who are unable to give largely of their substance, and who\nwill be not a little surprised in the Great Day to see how much the work\nhas been advanced by their love, their sympathy, and their prayers.\n\nFor myself, and for the work that I have been permitted to do for GOD, I\nowe an unspeakable debt of gratitude to my beloved and honoured parents,\nwho have passed away and entered into rest, but the influence of whose\nlives will never pass away.\n\nMany years ago, probably about 1830, the heart of my dear father, then\nhimself an earnest and successful evangelist at home, was deeply stirred\nas to the spiritual state of China by reading several books, and\nespecially an account of the travels of Captain Basil Hall. His\ncircumstances were such as to preclude the hope of his ever going to\nChina for personal service, but he was led to pray that if GOD should\ngive him a son, he might be called and privileged to labour in the vast\nneedy empire which was then apparently so sealed against the truth. I\nwas not aware of this desire or prayer myself until my return to\nEngland, more than seven years after I had sailed for China; but it was\nvery interesting then to know how prayer offered before my birth had\nbeen answered in this matter.\n\nAll thought of my becoming a missionary was abandoned for many years by\nmy dear parents on account of the feebleness of my health. When the\ntime came, however, GOD gave increased health, and my life has been\nspared, and strength has been given for not a little toilsome service\nboth in the mission field and at home, while many stronger men and women\nhave succumbed.\n\nI had many opportunities in early years of learning the value of prayer\nand of the Word of GOD; for it was the delight of my dear parents to\npoint out that if there were any such Being as GOD, to trust Him, to\nobey Him, and to be fully given up to His service, must of necessity be\nthe best and wisest course both for myself and others. But in spite of\nthese helpful examples and precepts my heart was unchanged. Often I had\ntried to make myself a Christian; and failing of course in such efforts,\nI began at last to think that for some reason or other I could not be\nsaved, and that the best I could do was to take my fill of this world,\nas there was no hope for me beyond the grave.\n\nWhile in this state of mind I came in contact with persons holding\nsceptical and infidel views, and accepted their teaching, only too\nthankful for some hope of escape from the doom which, if my parents were\nright and the Bible true, awaited the impenitent. It may seem strange to\nsay it, but I have often felt thankful for the experience of this time\nof scepticism. The inconsistencies of Christian people, who while\nprofessing to believe their Bibles were yet content to live just as they\nwould if there were no such book, had been one of the strongest\narguments of my sceptical companions; and I frequently felt at that\ntime, and said, that if I pretended to believe the Bible I would at any\nrate attempt to live by it, putting it fairly to the test, and if it\nfailed to prove true and reliable, would throw it overboard altogether.\nThese views I retained when the LORD was pleased to bring me to\nHimself; and I think I may say that since then I _have_ put GOD'S Word\nto the test. Certainly it has never failed me. I have never had reason\nto regret the confidence I have placed in its promises, or to deplore\nfollowing the guidance I have found in its directions.\n\nLet me tell you how GOD answered the prayers of my dear mother and of my\nbeloved sister, now Mrs. Broomhall, for my conversion. On a day which I\nshall never forget, when I was about fifteen years of age, my dear\nmother being absent from home, I had a holiday, and in the afternoon\nlooked through my father's library to find some book with which to while\naway the unoccupied hours. Nothing attracting me, I turned over a little\nbasket of pamphlets, and selected from amongst them a Gospel tract which\nlooked interesting, saying to myself, \"There will be a story at the\ncommencement, and a sermon or moral at the close: I will take the former\nand leave the latter for those who like it.\"\n\nI sat down to read the little book in an utterly unconcerned state of\nmind, believing indeed at the time that if there were any salvation it\nwas not for me, and with a distinct intention to put away the tract as\nsoon as it should seem prosy. I may say that it was not uncommon in\nthose days to call conversion \"becoming serious\"; and judging by the\nfaces of some of its professors, it appeared to be a very serious matter\nindeed. Would it not be well if the people of GOD had always tell-tale\nfaces, evincing the blessings and gladness of salvation so clearly that\nunconverted people might have to call conversion \"becoming joyful\"\ninstead of \"becoming serious\"?\n\nLittle did I know at the time what was going on in the heart of my dear\nmother, seventy or eighty miles away. She rose from the dinner-table\nthat afternoon with an intense yearning for the conversion of her boy,\nand feeling that--absent from home, and having more leisure than she\ncould otherwise secure--a special opportunity was afforded her of\npleading with GOD on my behalf. She went to her room and turned the key\nin the door, resolved not to leave that spot until her prayers were\nanswered. Hour after hour did that dear mother plead for me, until at\nlength she could pray no longer, but was constrained to praise GOD for\nthat which His SPIRIT taught her had already been accomplished--the\nconversion of her only son.\n\nI in the meantime had been led in the way I have mentioned to take up\nthis little tract, and while reading it was struck with the sentence,\n\"The finished work of CHRIST.\" The thought passed through my mind, \"Why\ndoes the author use this expression? why not say the atoning or\npropitiatory work of CHRIST?\" Immediately the words \"It is finished\"\nsuggested themselves to my mind. What was finished? And I at once\nreplied, \"A full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin: the\ndebt was paid by the Substitute; CHRIST died for our sins, and not for\nours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.\" Then came the\nthought, \"If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what\nis there left for me to do?\" And with this dawned the joyful conviction,\nas light was flashed into my soul by the HOLY SPIRIT, that there was\nnothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one's knees, and\naccepting this SAVIOUR and His salvation, to praise Him for evermore.\nThus while my dear mother was praising GOD on her knees in her chamber,\nI was praising Him in the old warehouse to which I had gone alone to\nread at my leisure this little book.\n\nSeveral days elapsed ere I ventured to make my beloved sister the\nconfidante of my joy, and then only after she had promised not to tell\nany one of my soul secret. When our dear mother came home a fortnight\nlater, I was the first to meet her at the door, and to tell her I had\nsuch glad news to give. I can almost feel that dear mother's arms around\nmy neck, as she pressed me to her bosom and said, \"I know, my boy; I\nhave been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to tell\nme.\" \"Why,\" I asked in surprise, \"has Amelia broken her promise? She\nsaid she would tell no one.\" My dear mother assured me that it was not\nfrom any human source that she had learned the tidings, and went on to\ntell the little incident mentioned above. You will agree with me that it\nwould be strange indeed if I were not a believer in the power of prayer.\n\nNor was this all. Some little time after, I picked up a pocket-book\nexactly like one of my own, and thinking that it was mine, opened it.\nThe lines that caught my eye were an entry in the little diary, which\nbelonged to my sister, to the effect that she would give herself daily\nto prayer until GOD should answer in the conversion of her brother.\nExactly one month later the LORD was pleased to turn me from darkness to\nlight.\n\nBrought up in such a circle and saved under such circumstances, it was\nperhaps natural that from the commencement of my Christian life I was\nled to feel that the promises were very real, and that prayer was in\nsober matter of fact transacting business with GOD, whether on one's own\nbehalf or on behalf of those for whom one sought His blessing.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE CALL TO SERVICE\n\n\nTHE first joys of conversion passed away after a time, and were\nsucceeded by a period of painful deadness of soul, with much conflict.\nBut this also came to an end, leaving a deepened sense of personal\nweakness and dependence on the LORD as the only KEEPER as well as\nSAVIOUR of His people. How sweet to the soul, wearied and disappointed\nin its struggles with sin, is the calm repose of trust in the SHEPHERD\nof Israel.\n\nNot many months after my conversion, having a leisure afternoon, I\nretired to my own chamber to spend it largely in communion with GOD.\nWell do I remember that occasion. How in the gladness of my heart I\npoured out my soul before GOD; and again and again confessing my\ngrateful love to Him who had done everything for me--who had saved me\nwhen I had given up all hope and even desire for salvation--I besought\nHim to give me some work to do for Him, as an outlet for love and\ngratitude; some self-denying service, no matter what it might be,\nhowever trying or however trivial; something with which He would be\npleased, and that I might do for Him who had done so much for me. Well\ndo I remember, as in unreserved consecration I put myself, my life, my\nfriends, my all, upon the altar, the deep solemnity that came over my\nsoul with the assurance that my offering was accepted. The presence of\nGOD became unutterably real and blessed; and though but a child under\nsixteen, I remember stretching myself on the ground, and lying there\nsilent before Him with unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy.\n\nFor what service I was accepted I knew not; but a deep consciousness\nthat I was no longer my own took possession of me, which has never since\nbeen effaced. It has been a very practical consciousness. Two or three\nyears later propositions of an unusually favourable nature were made to\nme with regard to medical study, on the condition of my becoming\napprenticed to the medical man who was my friend and teacher. But I felt\nI dared not accept any binding engagement such as was suggested. I was\nnot my own to give myself away; for I knew not when or how He whose\nalone I was, and for whose disposal I felt I must ever keep myself free,\nmight call for service.\n\nWithin a few months of this time of consecration the impression was\nwrought into my soul that it was in China the LORD wanted me. It seemed\nto me highly probable that the work to which I was thus called might\ncost my life; for China was not then open as it is now. But few\nmissionary societies had at that time workers in China, and but few\nbooks on the subject of China missions were accessible to me. I learned,\nhowever, that the Congregational minister of my native town possessed a\ncopy of Medhurst's _China_, and I called upon him to ask a loan of the\nbook. This he kindly granted, asking me why I wished to read it. I told\nhim that GOD had called me to spend my life in missionary service in\nthat land. \"And how do you propose to go there?\" he inquired. I answered\nthat I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probable that I should\nneed to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Jud\u00e6a--go without\npurse or scrip, relying on Him who had called me to supply all my need.\nKindly placing his hand upon my shoulder, the minister replied, \"Ah, my\nboy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would\ndo very well in the days when CHRIST Himself was on earth, but not now.\"\n\nI have grown older since then, but not wiser. I am more than ever\nconvinced that if we were to take the directions of our MASTER and the\nassurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we\nshould find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which\nthey were originally given.\n\nMedhurst's book on China emphasised the value of medical missions there,\nand this directed my attention to medical studies as a valuable mode of\npreparation.\n\nMy beloved parents neither discouraged nor encouraged my desire to\nengage in missionary work. They advised me, with such convictions, to\nuse all the means in my power to develop the resources of body, mind,\nheart, and soul, and to wait prayerfully upon GOD, quite willing, should\nHe show me that I was mistaken, to follow His guidance, or to go forward\nif in due time He should open the way to missionary service. The\nimportance of this advice I have often since had occasion to prove. I\nbegan to take more exercise in the open air to strengthen my physique.\nMy feather bed I had taken away, and sought to dispense with as many\nother home comforts as I could, in order to prepare myself for rougher\nlines of life. I began also to do what Christian work was in my power,\nin the way of tract distribution, Sunday-school teaching, and visiting\nthe poor and sick, as opportunity afforded.\n\nAfter a time of preparatory study at home, I went to Hull for medical\nand surgical training. There I became assistant to a doctor who was\nconnected with the Hull school of medicine, and was surgeon also to a\nnumber of factories, which brought many accident cases to our\ndispensary, and gave me the opportunity of seeing and practising the\nminor operations of surgery.\n\nAnd here an event took place that I must not omit to mention. Before\nleaving home my attention was drawn to the subject of setting apart the\nfirstfruits of all one's increase and a proportionate part of one's\npossessions to the LORD'S service. I thought it well to study the\nquestion with my Bible in hand before I went away from home, and was\nplaced in circumstances which might bias my conclusions by the pressure\nof surrounding wants and cares. I was thus led to the determination to\nset apart not less than one-tenth of whatever moneys I might earn or\nbecome possessed of for the LORD'S service. The salary I received as\nmedical assistant in Hull at the time now referred to would have allowed\nme with ease to do this. But owing to changes in the family of my kind\nfriend and employer, it was necessary for me to reside out of doors.\nComfortable quarters were secured with a relative, and in addition to\nthe sum determined on as remuneration for my services I received the\nexact amount I had to pay for board and lodging.\n\nNow arose in my mind the question, Ought not this sum also to be tithed?\nIt was surely a part of my income, and I felt that if it had been a\nquestion of Government income tax it certainly would not have been\nexcluded. On the other hand, to take a tithe from the whole would not\nleave me sufficient for other purposes; and for some little time I was\nmuch embarrassed to know what to do. After much thought and prayer I was\nled to leave the comfortable quarters and happy circle in which I was\nnow residing, and to engage a little lodging in the suburbs--a\nsitting-room and bedroom in one--undertaking to board myself. In this\nway I was able without difficulty to tithe the whole of my income; and\nwhile I felt the change a good deal, it was attended with no small\nblessing.\n\nMore time was given in my solitude to the study of the Word of GOD, to\nvisiting the poor, and to evangelistic work on summer evenings than\nwould otherwise have been the case. Brought into contact in this way\nwith many who were in distress, I soon saw the privilege of still\nfurther economising, and found it not difficult to give away much more\nthan the proportion of my income I had at first intended.\n\nAbout this time a friend drew my attention to the question of the\npersonal and pre-millennial coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and gave me\na list of passages bearing upon it, without note or comment, advising me\nto ponder the subject. For a while I gave much time to studying the\nScriptures about it, with the result that I was led to see that this\nsame JESUS who left our earth in His resurrection body was so to come\nagain, that His feet were to stand on the Mount of Olives, and that He\nwas to take possession of the temporal throne of His father David which\nwas promised before His birth. I saw, further, that all through the New\nTestament the coming of the LORD was the great hope of His people, and\nwas always appealed to as the strongest motive for consecration and\nservice, and as the greatest comfort in trial and affliction. I learned,\ntoo, that the period of His return for His people was not revealed, and\nthat it was their privilege, from day to day and from hour to hour, to\nlive as men who wait for the LORD; that thus living it was immaterial,\nso to speak, whether He should or should not come at any particular\nhour, the important thing being to be so ready for Him as to be able,\nwhenever He might appear, to give an account of one's stewardship with\njoy, and not with grief.\n\nThe effect of this blessed hope was a thoroughly practical one. It led\nme to look carefully through my little library to see if there were any\nbooks there that were not needed or likely to be of further service, and\nto examine my small wardrobe, to be quite sure that it contained nothing\nthat I should be sorry to give an account of should the MASTER come at\nonce. The result was that the library was considerably diminished, to\nthe benefit of some poor neighbours, and to the far greater benefit of\nmy own and that I found I had articles of clothing also which might be\nput to better advantage in other directions.\n\nIt has been very helpful to me from time to time through life, as\noccasion has served, to act again in a similar way; and I have never\ngone through my house, from basement to attic, with this object in view,\nwithout receiving a great accession of spiritual joy and blessing. I\nbelieve we are all in danger of accumulating--it may be from\nthoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation--things which would be\nuseful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of\nwhich entails loss of blessing. If the whole resources of the Church of\nGOD were well utilised, how much more might be accomplished! How many\npoor might be fed and naked clothed, and to how many of those as yet\nunreached the Gospel might be carried! Let me advise this line of things\nas a constant habit of mind, and a profitable course to be practically\nadopted whenever circumstances permit.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nPREPARATION FOR SERVICE\n\n\nHAVING now the twofold object in view of accustoming myself to endure\nhardness, and of economising in order to be able more largely to assist\nthose amongst whom I spent a good deal of time labouring in the Gospel,\nI soon found that I could live upon very much less than I had previously\nthought possible. Butter, milk, and other such luxuries I soon ceased to\nuse; and I found that by living mainly on oatmeal and rice, with\noccasional variations, a very small sum was sufficient for my needs. In\nthis way I had more than two-thirds of my income available for other\npurposes; and my experience was that the less I spent on myself and the\nmore I gave away, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul\nbecome. Unspeakable joy all the day long, and every day, was my happy\nexperience. GOD, even my GOD, was a living, bright Reality; and all I\nhad to do was joyful service.\n\nIt was to me a very grave matter, however, to contemplate going out to\nChina, far away from all human aid, there to depend upon the living GOD\nalone for protection, supplies, and help of every kind. I felt that\none's spiritual muscles required strengthening for such an undertaking.\nThere was no doubt that if faith did not fail, GOD would not fail; but,\nthen, what if one's faith should prove insufficient? I had not at that\ntime learned that even \"if we believe not, He abideth faithful, He\ncannot deny Himself\"; and it was consequently a very serious question to\nmy mind, not whether _He_ was faithful, but whether I had strong enough\nfaith to warrant my embarking in the enterprise set before me.\n\nI thought to myself, \"When I get out to China, I shall have no claim on\nany one for anything; my only claim will be on GOD. How important,\ntherefore, to learn before leaving England to move man, through GOD, by\nprayer alone.\"\n\nAt Hull my kind employer, always busily occupied, wished me to remind\nhim whenever my salary became due. This I determined not to do directly,\nbut to ask that GOD would bring the fact to his recollection, and thus\nencourage me by answering prayer. At one time, as the day drew near for\nthe payment of a quarter's salary, I was as usual much in prayer about\nit. The time arrived, but my kind friend made no allusion to the matter.\nI continued praying, and days passed on, but he did not remember, until\nat length, on settling up my weekly accounts one Saturday night, I found\nmyself possessed of only a single coin--one half-crown piece. Still I\nhad hitherto had no lack, and I continued in prayer.\n\nThat Sunday was a very happy one. As usual my heart was full and\nbrimming over with blessing. After attending Divine service in the\nmorning, my afternoons and evenings were filled with Gospel work, in the\nvarious lodging-houses I was accustomed to visit in the lowest part of\nthe town. At such times it almost seemed to me as if heaven were begun\nbelow, and that all that could be looked for was an enlargement of one's\ncapacity for joy, not a truer filling than I possessed. After concluding\nmy last service about ten o'clock that night, a poor man asked me to go\nand pray with his wife, saying that she was dying. I readily agreed, and\non the way to his house asked him why he had not sent for the priest, as\nhis accent told me he was an Irishman. He had done so, he said, but the\npriest refused to come without a payment of eighteenpence, which the man\ndid not possess, as the family was starving. Immediately it occurred to\nmy mind that all the money I had in the world was the solitary\nhalf-crown, and that it was in one coin; moreover, that while the basin\nof water gruel I usually took for supper was awaiting me, and there was\nsufficient in the house for breakfast in the morning, I certainly had\nnothing for dinner on the coming day.\n\nSomehow or other there was at once a stoppage in the flow of joy in my\nheart; but instead of reproving myself I began to reprove the poor man,\ntelling him that it was very wrong to have allowed matters to get into\nsuch a state as he described, and that he ought to have applied to the\nrelieving officer. His answer was that he had done so, and was told to\ncome at eleven o'clock the next morning, but that he feared that his\nwife might not live through the night. \"Ah,\" thought I, \"if only I had\ntwo shillings and a sixpence instead of this half-crown, how gladly\nwould I give these poor people one shilling of it!\" But to part with the\nhalf-crown was far from my thoughts. I little dreamed that the real\ntruth of the matter simply was that I could trust in GOD plus\none-and-sixpence, but was not yet prepared to trust Him only, without\nany money at all in my pocket.\n\nMy conductor led me into a court, down which I followed him with some\ndegree of nervousness. I had found myself there before, and at my last\nvisit had been very roughly handled, while my tracts were torn to\npieces, and I received such a warning not to come again that I felt\nmore than a little concerned. Still, it was the path of duty, and I\nfollowed on. Up a miserable flight of stairs, into a wretched room, he\nled me; and oh what a sight there presented itself to our eyes! Four or\nfive poor children stood about, their sunken cheeks and temples all\ntelling unmistakably the story of slow starvation; and lying on a\nwretched pallet was a poor exhausted mother, with a tiny infant\nthirty-six hours old, moaning rather than crying at her side, for it too\nseemed spent and failing. \"Ah!\" thought I, \"if I had two shillings and a\nsixpence instead of half-a-crown, how gladly should they have\none-and-sixpence of it!\" But still a wretched unbelief prevented me from\nobeying the impulse to relieve their distress at the cost of all I\npossessed.\n\nIt will scarcely seem strange that I was unable to say much to comfort\nthese poor people. I needed comfort myself. I began to tell them,\nhowever, that they must not be cast down, that though their\ncircumstances were very distressing, there was a kind and loving FATHER\nin heaven; but something within me said, \"You hypocrite! telling these\nunconverted people about a kind and loving FATHER in heaven, and not\nprepared yourself to trust Him without half-a-crown!\" I was nearly\nchoked. How gladly would I have compromised with conscience if I had had\na florin and a sixpence! I would have given the florin thankfully and\nkept the rest; but I was not yet prepared to trust in GOD alone, without\nthe sixpence.\n\nTo talk was impossible under these circumstances; yet, strange to say, I\nthought I should have no difficulty in praying. Prayer was a delightful\noccupation to me in those days; time thus spent never seemed wearisome,\nand I knew nothing of lack of words. I seemed to think that all I should\nhave to do would be to kneel down and engage in prayer, and that relief\nwould come to them and to myself together. \"You asked me to come and\npray with your wife,\" I said to the man, \"let us pray.\" And I knelt\ndown. But scarcely had I opened my lips with \"Our FATHER who art in\nheaven\" than conscience said within, \"Dare you mock GOD? Dare you kneel\ndown and call Him FATHER with that half-crown in your pocket?\" Such a\ntime of conflict came upon me then as I have never experienced before or\nsince. How I got through that form of prayer I know not, and whether the\nwords uttered were connected or disconnected I cannot tell; but I arose\nfrom my knees in great distress of mind.\n\nThe poor father turned to me and said, \"You see what a terrible state we\nare in, sir; if you can help us, for GOD'S sake do!\" Just then the word\nflashed into my mind, \"Give to him that asketh of thee,\" and in the word\nof a KING there is power. I put my hand into my pocket, and slowly\ndrawing forth the half-crown, gave it to the man, telling him that it\nmight seem a small matter for me to relieve them, seeing that I was\ncomparatively well off, but that in parting with that coin I was giving\nhim my all; what I had been trying to tell him was indeed true--GOD\nreally was a FATHER, and might be trusted. The joy all came back in full\nflood-tide to my heart; I could say anything and feel it then, and the\nhindrance to blessing was gone--gone, I trust, for ever.\n\nNot only was the poor woman's life saved, but I realised that my life\nwas saved too! It might have been a wreck--would have been a wreck\nprobably, as a Christian life--had not grace at that time conquered, and\nthe striving of GOD'S SPIRIT been obeyed. I well remember how that\nnight, as I went home to my lodgings, my heart was as light as my\npocket. The lonely, deserted streets resounded with a hymn of praise\nwhich I could not restrain. When I took my basin of gruel before\nretiring, I would not have exchanged it for a prince's feast. I\nreminded the LORD as I knelt at my bedside of His own Word, that he who\ngiveth to the poor lendeth to the LORD: I asked Him not to let my loan\nbe a long one, or I should have no dinner next day; and with peace\nwithin and peace without, I spent a happy, restful night.\n\nNext morning for breakfast my plate of porridge remained, and before it\nwas consumed the postman's knock was heard at the door. I was not in the\nhabit of receiving letters on Monday, as my parents and most of my\nfriends refrained from posting on Saturday; so that I was somewhat\nsurprised when the landlady came in holding a letter or packet in her\nwet hand covered by her apron. I looked at the letter, but could not\nmake out the handwriting. It was either a strange hand or a feigned one,\nand the postmark was blurred. Where it came from I could not tell. On\nopening the envelope I found nothing written within; but inside a sheet\nof blank paper was folded a pair of kid gloves, from which, as I opened\nthem in astonishment, half-a-sovereign fell to the ground. \"Praise the\nLORD!\" I exclaimed; \"400 per cent for twelve hours investment; that is\ngood interest. How glad the merchants of Hull would be if they could\nlend their money at such a rate!\" I then and there determined that a\nbank which could not break should have my savings or earnings as the\ncase might be--a determination I have not yet learned to regret.\n\nI cannot tell you how often my mind has recurred to this incident, or\nall the help it has been to me in circumstances of difficulty in\nafter-life. If we are faithful to GOD in little things, we shall gain\nexperience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious\ntrials of life.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nFURTHER ANSWERS TO PRAYER\n\n\nTHE remarkable and gracious deliverance I have spoken of, was a great\njoy to me, as well as a strong confirmation of faith; but of course ten\nshillings, however economically used, will not go very far, and it was\nnone the less necessary to continue in prayer, asking that the larger\nsupply which was still due might be remembered and paid. All my\npetitions, however, appeared to remain unanswered; and before a\nfortnight had elapsed I found myself pretty much in the same position\nthat I had occupied on the Sunday night already made so memorable.\nMeanwhile, I continued pleading with GOD, more and more earnestly, that\nHe would graciously remind my employer that my salary was overdue. Of\ncourse it was not the want of the money that distressed me--that could\nhave been had at any time for the asking--but the question uppermost in\nmy mind was this: \"Can I go to China? or will my want of faith and power\nwith GOD prove to be so serious an obstacle as to preclude my entering\nupon this much-prized service?\"\n\nAs the week drew to a close I felt exceedingly embarrassed. There was\nnot only myself to consider; on Saturday night a payment would be due to\nmy Christian landlady which I knew she could not well dispense with.\nOught I not, for her sake, to speak about the matter of the salary? Yet\nto do so would be, to myself at any rate, the admission that I was not\nfitted to undertake a missionary enterprise. I gave nearly the whole of\nThursday and Friday--all the time not occupied in my necessary\nemployment--to earnest wrestling with GOD in prayer. But still on\nSaturday morning I was in the same position as before. And now my\nearnest cry was for guidance as to whether it was my duty to break\nsilence and speak to my employer, or whether I should still continue to\nwait the FATHER's time. As far as I could judge, I received the\nassurance that to wait His time was best; and that GOD in some way or\nother would interpose on my behalf. So I waited, my heart being now at\nrest and the burden gone.\n\nAbout five o'clock that Saturday afternoon, when the doctor had finished\nwriting his prescriptions, his last circuit for the day being taken, he\nthrew himself back in his arm-chair, as he was wont, and began to speak\nof the things of GOD. He was a truly Christian man, and many seasons of\nvery happy spiritual fellowship we had together. I was busily watching,\nat the time, a pan in which a decoction was boiling that required a good\ndeal of attention. It was indeed fortunate for me that it was so, for\nwithout any obvious connection with what had been going on, all at once\nhe said, \"By-the-bye, Taylor, is not your salary due again?\" My emotion\nmay be imagined! I had to swallow two or three times before I could\nanswer. With my eye fixed on the pan and my back to the doctor, I told\nhim as quietly as I could that it was overdue some little time. How\nthankful I felt at that moment! GOD surely had heard my prayer, and\ncaused him, in this time of my great need, to remember the salary\nwithout any word or suggestion from me. He replied, \"Oh, I am so sorry\nyou did not remind me! You know how busy I am; I wish I had thought of\nit a little sooner, for only this afternoon I sent all the money I had\nto the bank, otherwise I would pay you at once.\" It is impossible to\ndescribe the revulsion of feeling caused by this unexpected statement. I\nknew not what to do. Fortunately for me my pan boiled up, and I had a\ngood reason for rushing with it from the room. Glad indeed I was to get\naway, and keep out of sight until after the doctor had returned to his\nhouse, and most thankful that he had not perceived my emotion.\n\nAs soon as he was gone I had to seek my little sanctum, and pour out my\nheart before the LORD for some time, before calmness--and more than\ncalmness--thankfulness, and joy were restored to me. I felt that GOD had\nHis own way, and was not going to fail me. I had sought to know His will\nearly in the day, and as far as I could judge had received guidance to\nwait patiently; and now GOD was going to work for me in some other way.\n\nThat evening was spent, as my Saturday evenings usually were, in reading\nthe Word and preparing the subjects on which I expected to speak in the\nvarious lodging-houses on the morrow. I waited, perhaps, a little longer\nthan usual. At last, about ten o'clock, there being no interruption of\nany kind, I put on my overcoat, and was preparing to leave for home,\nrather thankful to know that by that time I should have to let myself in\nwith the latch-key, as my landlady retired early to rest. There was\ncertainly no help for that night; but perhaps GOD would interpose for me\nby Monday, and I might be able to pay my landlady early in the week the\nmoney I would have given her before, had it been possible.\n\nJust as I was preparing to turn down the gas, I heard the doctor's step\nin the garden which lay between the dwelling-house and surgery. He was\nlaughing to himself very heartily, as though greatly amused by\nsomething. Entering the surgery, he asked for the ledger, and told me\nthat, strange to say, one of his richest patients had just come to pay\nhis doctor's bill--was it not an odd thing to do? It never struck me\nthat it might have any bearing on my own particular case, or I might\nhave felt embarrassed; but looking at it simply from the position of an\nuninterested spectator, I also was highly amused that a man who was\nrolling in wealth should come after ten o'clock at night to pay a\ndoctor's bill, which he could any day have met by a cheque with the\ngreatest ease. It appeared that somehow or other he could not rest with\nthis on his mind, and had been constrained to come at that unusual hour\nto discharge his liability.\n\nThe account was duly receipted in the ledger, and the doctor was about\nto leave, when suddenly he turned, and handing me some of the bank notes\njust received, said, to my surprise and thankfulness, \"By the way,\nTaylor, you might as well take these notes; I have not any change, but\ncan give you the balance next week.\" Again I was left--my feelings\nundiscovered--to go back to my own little closet and praise the LORD\nwith a joyful heart that after all I might go to China.\n\nTo me this incident was not a trivial one; and to recall it sometimes,\nin circumstances of great difficulty, in China or elsewhere, has proved\nno small comfort and strength.\n\nBy-and-by the time drew near when it was thought desirable that I should\nleave Hull to attend the medical course of the London Hospital. A little\nwhile spent there, and then I had every reason to believe that my\nlife-work in China would commence. But much as I had rejoiced at the\nwillingness of GOD to hear and answer prayer and to help His\nhalf-trusting, half-timid child, I felt that I could not go to China\nwithout having still further developed and tested my power to rest upon\nHis faithfulness; and a marked opportunity for doing so was\nprovidentially afforded me.\n\nMy dear father had offered to bear all the expense of my stay in London.\nI knew, however, that, owing to recent losses, it would mean a\nconsiderable sacrifice for him to undertake this just when it seemed\nnecessary for me to go forward. I had recently become acquainted with\nthe Committee of the Chinese Evangelisation Society, in connection with\nwhich I ultimately left for China, and especially with its secretary, my\nesteemed and much-loved friend Mr. George Pearse, then of the Stock\nExchange, but now[1] and for many years himself a missionary. Not\nknowing of my father's proposition, the Committee also kindly offered to\nbear my expenses while in London. When these proposals were first made\nto me, I was not quite clear as to what I ought to do, and in writing to\nmy father and the secretaries, told them that I would take a few days to\npray about the matter before deciding any course of action. I mentioned\nto my father that I had had this offer from the Society, and told the\nsecretaries also of his proffered aid.\n\nSubsequently, while waiting upon GOD in prayer for guidance, it became\nclear to my mind that I could without difficulty decline both offers.\nThe secretaries of the Society would not know that I had cast myself\nwholly on GOD for supplies, and my father would conclude that I had\naccepted the other offer. I therefore wrote declining both propositions,\nand felt that without any one having either care or anxiety on my\naccount I was simply in the hands of GOD, and that He, who knew my\nheart, if He wished to encourage me to go to China, would bless my\neffort to depend upon Him alone at home.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] Since the above was written Mr. George Pearse has died.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nLIFE IN LONDON\n\n\nI MUST not now attempt to detail the ways in which the LORD was\npleased--often to my surprise, as well as to my delight--to help me from\ntime to time. I soon found that it was not possible to live quite as\neconomically in London as in Hull. To lessen expenses I shared a room\nwith a cousin, four miles from the hospital, providing myself with\nboard; and after various experiments I found that the most economical\nway was to live almost exclusively on brown bread and water. Thus I was\nable to make the means that GOD gave me last as long as possible. Some\nof my expenses I could not diminish, but my board was largely within my\nown control. A large twopenny loaf of brown bread, purchased daily on my\nlong walk from the hospital, furnished me with supper and breakfast; and\non that diet, with a few apples for lunch, I managed to walk eight or\nnine miles a day, besides being a good deal on foot while attending the\npractice of the hospital and the medical school.\n\nOne incident that occurred just about this time I must refer to. The\nhusband of my former landlady in Hull was chief officer of a ship that\nsailed from London, and by receiving his half-pay monthly and remitting\nit to her I was able to save her the cost of a commission. This I had\nbeen doing for several months, when she wrote requesting that I would\nobtain the next payment as early as possible, as her rent was almost\ndue, and she depended upon that sum to meet it. The request came at an\ninconvenient time. I was working hard for an examination in the hope of\nobtaining a scholarship which would be of service to me, and felt that I\ncould ill afford the time to go during the busiest part of the day to\nthe city and procure the money. I had, however, sufficient of my own in\nhand to enable me to send the required sum. I made the remittance\ntherefore, purposing, as soon as the examination was over, to go and\ndraw the regular allowance with which to refund myself.\n\nBefore the time of examination the medical school was closed for a day,\non account of the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, and I had an\nopportunity of going at once to the office, which was situated in a\nstreet on Cheapside, and applying for the due amount. To my surprise and\ndismay the cleric told me that he could not pay it, as the officer in\nquestion had run away from his ship and gone to the gold diggings.\n\"Well,\" I remarked, \"that is very inconvenient for me, as I have already\nadvanced the money, and I know his wife will have no means of repaying\nit.\" The clerk said he was sorry, but could of course only act according\nto orders; so there was no help for me in that direction. A little more\ntime and thought, however, brought the comforting conclusion to my mind,\nthat as I was depending on the LORD for everything, and His means were\nnot limited, it was a small matter to be brought a little sooner or\nlater into the position of needing fresh supplies from Him; and so the\njoy and the peace were not long interfered with.\n\nVery soon after this, possibly the same evening, while sewing together\nsome sheets of paper on which to take notes of the lectures, I\naccidentally pricked the first finger of my right hand, and in a few\nmoments forgot all about it. The next day at the hospital I continued\ndissecting as before. The body was that of a person who had died of\nfever, and was more than usually disagreeable and dangerous. I need\nscarcely say that those of us who were at work upon it dissected with\nspecial care, knowing that the slightest scratch might cost us our\nlives. Before the morning was far advanced I began to feel very weary,\nand while going through the surgical wards at noon was obliged to run\nout, being suddenly very sick--a most unusual circumstance with me, as I\ntook but little food and nothing that could disagree with me. After\nfeeling faint for some time, a draught of cold water revived me, and I\nwas able to rejoin the students. I became more and more unwell, however,\nand ere the afternoon lecture on surgery was over found it impossible to\nhold the pencil and continue taking notes. By the time the next lecture\nwas through, my whole arm and right side were full of severe pain, and I\nwas both looking and feeling very ill.\n\nFinding that I could not resume work, I went into the dissecting-room to\nbind up the portion I was engaged upon and put away my apparatus, and\nsaid to the demonstrator, who was a very skilful surgeon, \"I cannot\nthink what has come over me,\" describing the symptoms. \"Why,\" said he,\n\"what has happened is clear enough: you must have cut yourself in\ndissecting, and you know that this is a case of malignant fever.\" I\nassured him that I had been most careful, and was quite certain that I\nhad no cut or scratch. \"Well,\" he replied, \"you certainly must have had\none;\" and he very closely scrutinised my hand to find it, but in vain.\nAll at once it occurred to me that I had pricked my finger the night\nbefore, and I asked him if it were possible that a prick from a needle,\nat that time, could have been still unclosed. His opinion was that this\nwas probably the cause of the trouble, and he advised me to get a\nhansom, drive home as fast as I could, and arrange my affairs forthwith.\n\"For,\" he said, \"you are a dead man.\"\n\nMy first thought was one of sorrow that I could not go to China; but\nvery soon came the feeling, \"Unless I am greatly mistaken, I have work\nto do in China, and shall not die.\" I was glad, however, to take the\nopportunity of speaking to my medical friend, who was a confirmed\nsceptic as to things spiritual, of the joy that the prospect of perhaps\nsoon being with my MASTER gave me; telling him at the same time that I\ndid not think I should die, as, unless I were much mistaken, I had work\nto do in China; and if so, however severe the struggle, I must be\nbrought through. \"That is all very well,\" he answered, \"but you get a\nhansom and drive home as fast as you can. You have no time to lose, for\nyou will soon be incapable of winding up your affairs.\"\n\nI smiled a little at the idea of my driving home in a hansom, for by\nthis time my means were too exhausted to allow of such a proceeding, and\nI set out to walk the distance if possible. Before long, however, my\nstrength gave way, and I felt it was no use to attempt to reach home by\nwalking. Availing myself of an omnibus from Whitechapel Church to\nFarringdon Street, and another from Farringdon Street onwards, I\nreached, in great suffering, the neighbourhood of Soho Square, behind\nwhich I lived. On going into the house I got some hot water from the\nservant, and charging her very earnestly--literally as a dying man--to\naccept eternal life as the gift of GOD through JESUS CHRIST, I bathed my\nhead and lanced the finger, hoping to let out some of the poisoned\nblood. The pain was very severe; I fainted away, and was for some time\nunconscious, so long that when I came to myself I found that I had been\ncarried to bed.\n\nAn uncle of mine who lived near at hand had come in, and sent for his\nown medical man, an assistant surgeon at the Westminster Hospital. I\nassured my uncle that medical help would be of no service to me, and\nthat I did not wish to go to the expense involved. He, however, quieted\nme on this score, saying that he had sent for his own doctor, and that\nthe bill would be charged to himself. When the surgeon came and learned\nall the particulars, he said, \"Well, if you have been living moderately,\nyou may pull through; but if you have been going in for beer and that\nsort of thing, there is no manner of chance for you.\" I thought that if\nsober living was to do anything, few could have a better chance, as\nlittle but bread and water had been my diet for a good while past. I\ntold him I had lived abstemiously, and found that it helped me in study.\n\"But now,\" he said, \"you must keep up your strength, for it will be a\npretty hard struggle.\" And he ordered me a bottle of port wine every\nday, and as many chops as I could consume. Again I smiled inwardly,\nhaving no means for the purchase of such luxuries. This difficulty,\nhowever, was also met by my kind uncle, who sent me at once all that was\nneeded.\n\nI was much concerned, notwithstanding the agony I suffered, that my dear\nparents should not be made acquainted with my state. Thought and prayer\nhad satisfied me that I was not going to die, but that there was indeed\na work for me to do in China. If my dear parents should come up and find\nme in that condition, I must lose the opportunity of seeing how GOD was\ngoing to work for me, now that my money had almost come to an end. So,\nafter prayer for guidance, I obtained a promise from my uncle and cousin\nnot to write to my parents, but to leave me to communicate with them\nmyself. I felt it was a very distinct answer to prayer when they gave me\nthis promise, and I took care to defer all communication with them\nmyself until the crisis was past and the worst of the attack over. At\nhome they knew that I was working hard for an examination, and did not\nwonder at my silence.\n\nDays and nights of suffering passed slowly by; but at length, after\nseveral weeks, I was sufficiently restored to leave my room; and then I\nlearned that two men, though not from the London Hospital, who had had\ndissection wounds at the same time as myself, had both succumbed, while\nI was spared in answer to prayer to work for GOD in China.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nSTRENGTHENED BY FAITH\n\n\nONE day the doctor coming in found me on the sofa, and was surprised to\nlearn that with assistance I had walked downstairs. \"Now,\" he said, \"the\nbest thing you can go is to get off to the country as soon as you feel\nequal to the journey. You must rusticate until you have recovered a fair\namount of health and strength, for if you begin your work too soon the\nconsequences may still be serious.\" When he had left, as I lay very\nexhausted on the sofa, I just told the LORD all about it, and that I was\nrefraining from making my circumstances known to those who would delight\nto meet my need, in order that my faith might be strengthened by\nreceiving help from Himself in answer to prayer alone. What was I to do?\nAnd I waited for His answer.\n\nIt seemed to me as if He were directing my mind to the conclusion to go\nagain to the shipping office, and inquire about the wages I had been\nunable to draw. I reminded the LORD that I could not afford to take a\nconveyance, and that it did not seem at all likely that I should succeed\nin getting the money, and asked whether this impulse was not a mere\nclutching at a straw, some mental process of my own, rather than His\nguidance and teaching. After prayer, however, and renewed waiting upon\nGOD, I was confirmed in my belief that He Himself was teaching me to go\nto the office.\n\nThe next question was, \"How am I to go?\" I had had to seek help in\ncoming downstairs, and the place was at least two miles away. The\nassurance was brought vividly home to me that whatever I asked of GOD in\nthe name of CHRIST would be done, that the FATHER might be glorified in\nthe SON; that what I had to do was to seek strength for the long walk,\nto receive it by faith, and to set out upon it. Unhesitatingly I told\nthe LORD that I was quite willing to take the walk if He would give me\nthe strength. I asked in the name of CHRIST that the strength might be\nimmediately given; and sending the servant up to my room for my hat and\nstick, I set out, not to _attempt_ to walk, but TO WALK to Cheapside.\n\nAlthough undoubtedly strengthened by faith, I never took so much\ninterest in shop windows as I did upon that journey. At every second or\nthird step I was glad to lean a little against the plate glass, and take\ntime to examine the contents of the windows before passing on. It needed\na special effort of faith when I got to the bottom of Farringdon Street\nto attempt the toilsome ascent of Snow Hill: there was no Holborn\nViaduct in those days, and it had to be done. GOD did wonderfully help\nme, and in due time I reached Cheapside, turned into the by-street in\nwhich the office was found, and sat down much exhausted on the steps\nleading to the first floor, which was my destination. I felt my position\nto be a little peculiar--sitting there on the steps, so evidently\nspent--and the gentlemen who rushed up and downstairs looked at me with\nan inquiring gaze. After a little rest, however, and a further season of\nprayer, I succeeded in climbing the staircase, and to my comfort found\nin the office the clerk with whom I had hitherto dealt in the matter.\nSeeing me looking pale and exhausted, he kindly inquired as to my\nhealth, and I told him that I had had a serious illness, and was ordered\nto the country, but thought it well to call first, and make further\ninquiry, lest there should have been any mistake about the mate having\nrun off to the gold diggings. \"Oh,\" he said, \"I am so glad you have\ncome, for it turns out that it was an able seaman of the same name that\nran away. The mate is still on board; the ship has just reached\nGravesend, and will be up very soon. I shall be glad to give you the\nhalf-pay up to date, for doubtless it will reach his wife more safely\nthrough you. We all know what temptations beset the men when they arrive\nat home after a voyage.\"\n\nBefore, however, giving me the sum of money, he insisted upon my coming\ninside and sharing his lunch. I felt it was the LORD indeed who was\nproviding for me, and accepted his offer with thankfulness. When I was\nrefreshed and rested, he gave me a sheet of paper to write a few lines\nto the wife, telling her of the circumstances. On my way back I procured\nin Cheapside a money order for the balance due to her, and posted it;\nand returning home again, felt myself now quite justified in taking an\nomnibus as far as it would serve me.\n\nVery much better the next morning, after seeing to some little matters\nthat I had to settle, I made my way to the surgery of the doctor who had\nattended me, feeling that, although my uncle was prepared to pay the\nbill, it was right for me, now that I had some money in hand, to ask for\nthe account myself. The kind surgeon refused to allow me, as a medical\nstudent, to pay anything for his attendance: but he had supplied me with\nquinine, which he allowed me to pay for to the extent of eight\nshillings. When that was settled, I saw that the sum left was just\nsufficient to take me home; and to my mind the whole thing seemed a\nwonderful interposition of GOD on my behalf.\n\nI knew that the surgeon was sceptical, and told him that I should very\nmuch like to speak to him freely, if I might do so without offence; that\nI felt that under GOD I owed my life to his kind care, and wished very\nearnestly that he himself might become a partaker of the same precious\nfaith that I possessed. So I told him my reason for being in London, and\nabout my circumstances, and why I had declined the help of both my\nfather and the officers of the Society in connection with which it was\nprobable that I should go to China. I told him of the recent\nprovidential dealings of GOD with me, and how apparently hopeless my\nposition had been the day before, when he had ordered me to go to the\ncountry, unless I would reveal my need, which I had determined not to\ndo. I described to him the mental exercises I had gone through; but when\nI added that I had actually got up from the sofa and walked to\nCheapside, he looked at me incredulously, and \"Impossible! Why, I left\nyou lying there more like a ghost than a man.\" And I had to assure him\nagain and again that, strengthened by faith, the walk had really been\ntaken. I told him also what money was left to me, and what payments\nthere had been to make, and showed him that just sufficient remained to\ntake me home to Yorkshire, providing for needful refreshment by the way\nand the omnibus journey at the end.\n\nMy kind friend was completely broken down, and said with tears in his\neyes, \"I would give all the world for a faith like yours.\" I, on the\nother hand, had the joy of telling him that it was to be obtained\nwithout money and without price. We never met again. When I came back to\ntown, restored to health and strength, I found that he had had a\nstroke, and left for the country; and I subsequently learned that he\nnever rallied. I was able to gain no information as to his state of mind\nwhen taken away; but I have always felt very thankful that I had the\nopportunity, and embraced it, of bearing that testimony for GOD. I\ncannot but entertain the hope that the MASTER Himself was speaking to\nhim through His dealings with me, and that I shall meet him again in the\nBetter Land. It would be no small joy to be welcomed by him, when my own\nservice is over.\n\nThe next day found me in my dear parents' home. My joy in the LORD's\nhelp and deliverance was so great that I was unable to keep it to\nmyself, and before my return to London my dear mother knew the secret of\nmy life for some time past. I need scarcely say that when I went up\nagain to town I was not allowed to live--as, indeed, I was not fit to\nlive--on the same economical lines as before my illness. I needed more\nnow, and the LORD did provide.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nMIGHTY TO SAVE\n\n\nRETURNING to London when sufficiently recovered to resume my studies,\nthe busy life of hospital and lecture-hall was resumed; often relieved\nby happy Sundays of fellowship with Christian friends, especially in\nLondon or Tottenham. Opportunities for service are to be found in every\nsphere, and mine was no exception. I shall only mention one case now\nthat gave me great encouragement in seeking conversion even when it\nseemed apparently hopeless.\n\nGOD had given me the joy of winning souls before, but not in\nsurroundings of such special difficulty. With GOD all things are\npossible, and no conversion ever takes place save by the almighty power\nof the HOLY GHOST. The great need, therefore, of every Christian worker\nis to _know_ GOD. Indeed, this is the purpose for which He has given us\neternal life, as our SAVIOUR Himself says, in the oft misquoted verse,\nJohn xvii. 3: \"This is [the object of] life eternal, [not _to_ know but]\nthat they _might_ know Thee the only true GOD, and JESUS CHRIST, whom\nThou hast sent.\" I was now to prove the willingness of GOD to answer\nprayer for spiritual blessing under most unpromising circumstances, and\nthus to gain an increased acquaintance with the prayer-answering GOD as\nOne \"mighty to save.\"\n\nA short time before leaving for China, it became my duty daily to dress\nthe foot of a patient suffering from senile gangrene. The disease\ncommenced, as usual, insidiously, and the patient had little idea that\nhe was a doomed man, and probably had not long to live. I was not the\nfirst to attend to him, but when the case was transferred to me, I\nnaturally became very anxious about his soul. The family with whom he\nlived were Christians, and from them I learned that he was an avowed\natheist, and very antagonistic to anything religious. They had, without\nasking his consent, invited a Scripture reader to visit him, but in\ngreat passion he had ordered him from the room. The vicar of the\ndistrict had also called, hoping to help him; but he had spit in his\nface, and refused to allow him to speak to him. His passionate temper\nwas described to me as very violent, and altogether the case seemed to\nbe as hopeless as could well be imagined.\n\nUpon first commencing to attend him I prayed much about it; but for two\nor three days said nothing to him of a religious nature. By special care\nin dressing his diseased limb I was able considerably to lessen his\nsufferings, and he soon began to manifest grateful appreciation of my\nservices. One day, with a trembling heart, I took advantage of his warm\nacknowledgments to tell him what was the spring of my action, and to\nspeak of his own solemn position and need of GOD's mercy through CHRIST.\nIt was evidently only by a powerful effort of self-restraint that he\nkept his lips closed. He turned over in bed with his back to me, and\nuttered no word.\n\nI could not get the poor man out of my mind, and very often through each\nday I pleaded with GOD, by His SPIRIT, to save him ere He took him\nhence. After dressing the wound and relieving his pain, I never failed\nto say a few words to him, which I hoped the LORD would bless. He\nalways turned his back to me, looking annoyed, but never spoke a word in\nreply.\n\nAfter continuing this for some time, my heart sank. It seemed to me that\nI was not only doing no good, but perhaps really hardening him and\nincreasing his guilt. One day, after dressing his limb and washing my\nhands, instead of returning to the bedside to speak to him, I went to\nthe door, and stood hesitating for a few moments with the thought in my\nmind, \"Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.\" I looked at the\nman and saw his surprise, as it was the first time since speaking to him\nthat I had attempted to leave without going up to his bedside to say a\nfew words for my MASTER. I could bear it no longer. Bursting into tears,\nI crossed the room and said, \"My friend, whether you will hear or\nwhether you will forbear, I _must_ deliver _my_ soul,\" and went on to\nspeak very earnestly to him, telling him with many tears how much I\nwished that he would let me pray with him. To my unspeakable joy he did\nnot turn away, but replied, \"If it will be a relief to you, do.\" I need\nscarcely say that I fell on my knees and poured out my whole soul to GOD\non his behalf. I believe the LORD then and there wrought a change in his\nsoul.\n\nHe was never afterwards unwilling to be spoken to and prayed with, and\nwithin a few days he definitely accepted CHRIST as his SAVIOUR. Oh the\njoy it was to me to see that dear man rejoicing in hope of the glory of\nGOD! He told me that for forty years he had never darkened the door of\nchurch or chapel, and that then--forty years ago--he had only entered a\nplace of worship to be married, and could not be persuaded to go inside\nwhen his wife was buried. Now, thank GOD, his sin-stained soul, I had\nevery reason to believe, was washed, was sanctified, was justified, in\nthe Name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST and in the SPIRIT of our GOD.\nOftentimes, when in my early work in China circumstances rendered me\nalmost hopeless of success, I have thought of this man's conversion, and\nhave been encouraged to persevere in speaking the Word, whether men\nwould hear or whether they would forbear.\n\nThe now happy sufferer lived for some time after this change, and was\nnever tired of bearing testimony to the grace of GOD. Though his\ncondition was most distressing, the alteration in his character and\nbehaviour made the previously painful duty of attending him one of real\npleasure. I have often thought since, in connection with this case and\nthe work of GOD generally, of the words, \"He that goeth forth _weeping_,\nbearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing\nhis sheaves with him.\" Perhaps if there were more of that intense\ndistress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see\nthe results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining\nof the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the\nhardness of our own hearts, and our own feeble apprehension of the\nsolemn reality of eternal things, may be the true cause of our want of\nsuccess.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nVOYAGE TO CHINA\n\n\nSOON after this the time so long looked forward to arrived--the time\nthat I was to leave England for China. After being set apart with many\nprayers for the ministry of GOD's Word among the heathen Chinese I left\nLondon for Liverpool; and on the 19th of September 1853 a little service\nwas held in the stern cabin of the _Dumfries_, which had been secured\nfor me by the Committee of the Chinese Evangelisation Society, under\nwhose auspices I was going to China.\n\nMy beloved, now sainted, mother had come to see me off from Liverpool.\nNever shall I forget that day, nor how she went with me into the little\ncabin that was to be my home for nearly six long months. With a mother's\nloving hand she smoothed the little bed. She sat by my side, and joined\nme in the last hymn that we should sing together before the long\nparting. We knelt down, and she prayed--the last mother's prayer I was\nto hear before starting for China. Then notice was given that we must\nseparate, and we had to say good-bye, never expecting to meet on earth\nagain.\n\nFor my sake she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted;\nand she went on shore, giving me her blessing; I stood alone on deck,\nand she followed the ship as we moved towards the dock gates. As we\npassed through the gates, and the separation really commenced, I shall\nnever forget the cry of anguish wrung from that mother's heart. It went\nthrough me like a knife. I never knew so fully, until then, what GOD\n_so_ loved the world meant. And I am quite sure that my precious mother\nlearned more of the love of GOD to the perishing in that hour than in\nall her life before.\n\nOh, how it must grieve the heart of GOD when He sees His children\nindifferent to the needs of that wide world for which His beloved, His\nonly begotten SON died!\n\n Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;\n Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;\n So shall the KING desire thy beauty:\n For He is thy LORD; and worship thou Him.\n\nPraise GOD, the number is increasing who are finding out the exceeding\njoys, the wondrous revelations of His mercies, vouchsafed to those who\nfollow Him, and emptying themselves, leave all in obedience to His great\ncommission.\n\nIt was on 19th September 1853 that the _Dumfries_ sailed for China; and\nnot until 1st March, in the spring of the following year, did I arrive\nin Shanghai.\n\nOur voyage had a rough beginning, but many had promised to remember us\nin constant prayer. No small comfort was this; for we had scarcely left\nthe Mersey when a violent equinoctial gale caught us, and for twelve\ndays we were beating backwards and forwards in the Irish Channel, unable\nto get out to sea. The gale steadily increased, and after almost a week\nwe lay to for a time; but drifting on a lee coast, we were compelled\nagain to make sail, and endeavoured to beat on to windward. The utmost\nefforts of the captain and crew, however, were unavailing; and Sunday\nnight, 25th September, found us drifting into Carnarvon Bay, each tack\nbecoming shorter, until at last we were within a stone's-throw of the\nrocks. About this time, as the ship, which had refused to stay, was put\nround in the other direction, the Christian captain said to me, \"We\ncannot live half an hour now: what of your call to labour for the LORD\nin China?\" I had previously passed through a time of much conflict, but\nthat was over, and it was a great joy to feel and to tell him that I\nwould not for any consideration be in any other position; that I\nstrongly expected to reach China; but that, if otherwise, at any rate\nthe Master would say it was well that I was found seeking to obey His\ncommand.\n\nWithin a few minutes after wearing ship the captain walked, up to the\ncompass, and said to me, \"The wind has freed two points; we shall be\nable to beat out of the bay.\" And so we did. The bowsprit was sprung and\nthe vessel seriously strained; but in a few days we got out to sea, and\nthe necessary repairs were so thoroughly effected on board that our\njourney to China was in due time satisfactorily accomplished.\n\nOne thing was a great trouble to me that night. I was a very young\nbeliever, and had not sufficient faith in GOD to see Him in and through\nthe use of means. I had felt it a duty to comply with the earnest wish\nof my beloved and honoured mother, and for her sake to procure a\nswimming-belt. But in my own soul I felt as if I could not simply trust\nin GOD while I had this swimming-belt; and my heart had no rest until on\nthat night, after all hope of being saved was gone, I had given it away.\nThen I had perfect peace; and, strange to say, put several light things\ntogether, likely to float at the time we struck, without any thought of\ninconsistency or scruple. Ever since, I have seen clearly the mistake I\nmade--a mistake that is very common in these days, when erroneous\nteaching on faith-healing does much harm, misleading some as to the\npurposes of GOD, shaking the faith of others, and distressing the minds\nof many. The use of means ought not to lessen our faith in GOD; and our\nfaith in GOD ought not to hinder our using whatever means He has given\nus for the accomplishment of His own purposes.\n\nFor years after this I always took a swimming-belt with me, and never\nhad any trouble about it; for after the storm was over, the question was\nsettled for me, through the prayerful study of the Scriptures. GOD gave\nme then to see my mistake, probably to deliver me from a great deal of\ntrouble on similar questions now so constantly raised. When in medical\nor surgical charge of any case, I have never thought of neglecting to\nask GOD's guidance and blessing in the use of appropriate means, nor yet\nof omitting to give Him thanks for answered prayer and restored health.\nBut to me it would appear as presumptuous and wrong to neglect the use\nof those measures which He Himself has put within our reach, as to\nneglect to take daily food, and suppose that life and health might be\nmaintained by prayer alone.\n\nThe voyage was a very tedious one. We lost a good deal of time on the\nequator from calms; and when we finally reached the Eastern Archipelago,\nwere again detained from the same cause. Usually a breeze would spring\nup soon after sunset, and last until about dawn. The utmost use was made\nof it, but during the day we lay still with flapping sails, often\ndrifting back and losing a good deal of the advantage we had gained\nduring the night.\n\nThis happened notably on one occasion, when we were in dangerous\nproximity to the north of New Guinea. Saturday night had brought us to a\npoint some thirty miles off the land; but during the Sunday morning\nservice, which was held on deck, I could not fail to notice that the\ncaptain looked troubled, and frequently went over to the side of the\nship. When the service was ended, I learnt from him the cause--a\nfour-knot current was carrying us rapidly towards some sunken reefs, and\nwe were already so near that it seemed improbable that we should get\nthrough the afternoon in safety. After dinner the long-boat was put out,\nand all hands endeavoured, without success, to turn the ship's head from\nthe shore. As we drifted nearer we could plainly see the natives rushing\nabout the sands and lighting fires every here and there. The captain's\nhorn-book informed him that these people were cannibals, so that our\nposition was not a little alarming.\n\nAfter standing together on the deck for some time in silence, the\ncaptain said to me, \"Well, we have done everything that can be done; we\ncan only await the result.\" A thought occurred to me, and I replied,\n\"No, there is one thing we have not done yet.\" \"What is it?\" he queried.\n\"Four of us on board are Christians,\" I answered (the Swedish carpenter\nand our coloured steward, with the captain and myself); \"let us each\nretire to his own cabin, and in agreed prayer ask the LORD to give us\nimmediately a breeze. He can as easily send it now as at sunset.\"\n\nThe captain complied with this proposal. I went and spoke to the other\ntwo men, and after prayer with the carpenter we all four retired to wait\nupon GOD. I had a good but very brief season in prayer, and then felt so\nsatisfied that our request was granted that I could not continue asking,\nand very soon went up again on deck. The first officer, a godless man,\nwas in charge. I went over and asked him to let down the clews or\ncorners of the mainsail, which had been drawn up in order to lessen the\nuseless flapping of the sail against the rigging. He answered, \"What\nwould be the good of that?\" I told him we had been asking a wind from\nGOD, that it was coming immediately, and we were so near the reef by\nthis time that there was not a minute to lose. With a look of\nincredulity and contempt, he said with an oath that he would rather see\na wind than hear of it! But while he was speaking I watched his eye, and\nfollowed it up to the royal (the topmost sail), and there, sure enough,\nthe corner of the sail was beginning to tremble in the coming breeze.\n\"Don't you see the wind is coming? Look at the royal!\" I exclaimed. \"No,\nit is only a cat's-paw,\" he rejoined (a mere puff of wind). \"Cat's-paw\nor not,\" I cried, \"pray let down the mainsail, and let us have the\nbenefit!\"\n\nThis he was not slow to do. In another minute the heavy tread of the men\non the deck brought up the captain from his cabin to see what was the\nmatter; and he saw that the breeze had indeed come. In a few minutes we\nwere ploughing our way at six or seven knots an hour through the water,\nand the multitude of naked savages whom we had seen on the beach had no\nwreckage that night. We were soon out of danger; and though the wind was\nsometimes unsteady, we did not altogether lose it until after passing\nthe Pelew Islands.\n\nThus GOD encouraged me, ere landing on China's shores, to bring every\nvariety of need to Him in prayer, and _to expect that He would honour\nthe Name_ of the LORD JESUS, and give the help which each emergency\nrequired.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nEARLY MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES\n\n\nON landing in Shanghai on 1st March 1854, I found myself surrounded with\ndifficulties that were wholly unexpected. A band of rebels, known as the\n\"Red Turbans,\" had taken possession of the native city, against which\nwas encamped an Imperial army of from forty to fifty thousand men, who\nwere a much greater source of discomfort and danger to the little\nEuropean community than were the rebels themselves. Upon landing, I was\ntold that to live outside the Settlement was impossible, while within\nthe foreign concession apartments were scarcely obtainable at any price.\nThe dollar, now worth about three shillings, had risen to a value of\neight-and-ninepence, and the prospect for one with only a small income\nof English money was dark indeed. However, I had three letters of\nintroduction, and counted on counsel and help, especially from one of\nthose to whom I had been commended, whose friends I well knew and highly\nvalued. Of course I sought him out at once, but only to learn that he\nhad been buried a month or two before, having died from fever during the\ntime of my voyage.\n\nSaddened by these tidings, I inquired for a missionary to whom another\nof my letters of introduction was addressed; but a further\ndisappointment awaited me--he had left for America. The third letter\nremained; but as it had been given by a comparative stranger, I had\nexpected less from it than from the other two. It proved, however, to be\nGOD's channel of help. The Rev. Dr. Medhurst, of the London Mission, to\nwhom it was addressed, introduced me to Dr. Lockhart, who kindly allowed\nme to live with him for six months. Dr. Medhurst procured my first\nChinese teacher; and he, Dr. Edkins, and the late Mr. Alexander Wylie\ngave me considerable help with the language.\n\nThose were indeed troublous times, and times of danger. Coming out of\nthe city one day with Mr. Wylie, he entered into conversation with two\ncoolies, while we waited a little while at the East Gate for a companion\nwho was behind us. Before our companion came up an attack upon the city\nfrom the batteries on the opposite side of the river commenced, which\ncaused us to hurry away to a place of less danger, the whiz of the balls\nbeing unpleasantly near. The coolies, unfortunately, stayed too long,\nand were wounded. On reaching the Settlement we stopped a few minutes to\nmake a purchase, and then proceeded at once to the London Mission\ncompound, where, at the door of the hospital, we found the two poor\ncoolies with whom Mr. Wylie had conversed, their four ankles terribly\nshattered by a cannon ball. The poor fellows declined amputation, and\nboth died. We felt how narrow had been our escape.\n\nAt another time, early in the morning, I had joined one of the\nmissionaries on his verandah to watch the battle proceeding, at a\ndistance of perhaps three-quarters of a mile, when suddenly a spent ball\npassed between us and buried itself in the verandah wall. Another day my\nfriend Mr. Wylie left a book on the table after luncheon, and returning\nfor it about five minutes later, found the arm of the chair on which he\nhad been sitting shot clean away. But in the midst of these and many\nother dangers GOD protected us.\n\nAfter six months' stay with Dr. Lockhart, I rented a native house\noutside the Settlement, and commenced a little missionary work amongst\nmy Chinese neighbours, which for a few months continued practicable.\nWhen the French joined the Imperialists in attacking the city, the\nposition of my house became so dangerous that during the last few weeks,\nin consequence of nightly recurring skirmishes, I gave up attempting to\nsleep except in the daytime. One night a fire appeared very near, and I\nclimbed up to a little observatory I had arranged on the roof of the\nhouse, to see whether it was necessary to attempt escape. While there a\nball struck the ridge of the roof on the opposite side of the\nquadrangle, showering pieces of broken tile all around me, while the\nball itself rolled down into the court below. It weighed four or five\npounds; and had it come a few inches higher, would probably have spent\nits force on me instead of on the building. My dear mother kept the ball\nfor many years. Shortly after this I had to abandon the house and return\nto the Foreign Settlement--a step that was taken none too soon, for\nbefore the last of my belongings were removed, the house was burnt to\nthe ground.\n\nOf the trials of this early period it is scarcely possible to convey any\nadequate idea. To one of a sensitive nature, the horrors, atrocities,\nand misery connected with war were a terrible ordeal. The embarrassment\nalso of the times was considerable. With an income of only eighty pounds\na year, I was compelled, upon moving into the Settlement, to give one\nhundred and twenty for rent, and sublet half the house; and though the\nCommittee of the Chinese Evangelisation Society increased my income\nwhen, after the arrival of Dr. Parker, they learned more of our\ncircumstances, many painful experiences had necessarily been passed\nthrough. Few can realise how distressing to so young and untried a\nworker these difficulties seemed, or the intense loneliness of the\nposition of a pioneer who could not even hint at many of his\ncircumstances, as to do so would have been a tacit appeal for help.\n\nThe great enemy is always ready with his oft-repeated suggestion, \"All\nthese things are against me.\" But oh, how false the word! The cold, and\neven the hunger, the watchings and sleeplessness of nights of danger,\nand the feeling at times of utter isolation and helplessness, were well\nand wisely chosen, and tenderly and lovingly meted out. What\ncircumstances could have rendered the Word of GOD more sweet, the\npresence of GOD more real, the help of GOD more precious? They were\ntimes, indeed, of emptying and humbling, but were experiences that made\nnot ashamed, and that strengthened purpose to go forward as GOD might\ndirect, with His _proved_ promise, \"I will not fail thee, nor forsake\nthee.\" One can see, even now, that as for GOD, His way is perfect, and\nyet can rejoice that the missionary path of to-day is comparatively a\nsmooth and an easy one.\n\nJourneying inland was contrary to treaty arrangements, and attended with\nmuch difficulty, especially for some time after the battle of Muddy\nFlat, in which an Anglo-American contingent of about three hundred\nmarines and seamen, with a volunteer corps of less than a hundred\nresidents, attacked the Imperial camp, and drove away from thirty to\nfifty thousand Chinese soldiers, the range of our shot and shell making\nthe native artillery useless. Still, in the autumn of 1854 a journey of\nperhaps a week's duration was safely accomplished with Dr. Edkins, who\nof course did the speaking and preaching, while I was able to help in\nthe distribution of books.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nFIRST EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS\n\n\nA JOURNEY taken in the spring of 1855 with the Rev. J. S. Burden of the\nChurch Missionary Society (now the Bishop of Victoria, Hong-kong) was\nattended with some serious dangers.\n\nIn the great mouth of the river Yang-tse, distant some thirty miles to\nthe north of Shanghai, lies the group of islands of which Ts'ung-ming\nand Hai-men are the largest and most important; and farther up the\nriver, where the estuary narrows away from the sea, is situated the\ninfluential city of T'ung-chau, close to Lang-shan, or the Wolf\nMountains, famous as a resort for pilgrim devotees. We spent some time\nin evangelising on those islands, and then proceeded to Lang-shan, where\nwe preached and gave books to thousands of the devotees who were\nattending an idolatrous festival. From thence we went on to T'ung-chau,\nand of our painful experiences there the following journal will tell:--\n\n\n _Thursday, April 26th, 1855._\n\nAfter breakfast we commended ourselves to the care of our Heavenly\nFATHER, and sought His Blessing before proceeding to this great city.\nThe day was dull and wet. We felt persuaded that Satan would not allow\nus to assail his kingdom, as we were attempting to do, without raising\nserious opposition; but we were also fully assured that it was the will\nof GOD that we should preach CHRIST in this city, and distribute the\nWord of Truth among its people. We were sorry that we had but few books\nleft for such an important place: the result, however, proved that this\nalso was providential.\n\nOur native teachers did their best to persuade us not to go into the\ncity; but we determined that, by GOD'S help, nothing should hinder us.\nWe directed them, however, to remain in one of the boats; and if we did\nnot return, to learn whatever they could respecting our fate, and make\nall possible haste to Shanghai with the information. We also arranged\nthat the other boat should wait for us, even if we could not get back\nthat night, so that we might not be detained for want of a boat in case\nof returning later. We then put our books into two bags, and with a\nservant who always accompanied us on these occasions, set off for the\ncity, distant about seven miles. Walking was out of the question, from\nthe state of the roads, so we availed ourselves of wheel-barrows, the\nonly conveyance to be had in these parts. A wheel-barrow is cheaper than\na sedan, only requiring one coolie; but is by no means an agreeable\nconveyance on rough, dirty roads.\n\nWe had not gone far before the servant requested permission to go back,\nas he was thoroughly frightened by reports concerning the native\nsoldiery. Of course we at once consented, not wishing to involve another\nin trouble, and determined to carry the books ourselves, and look for\nphysical as well as spiritual strength to Him who had promised to supply\nall our need.\n\nAt this point a respectable man came up, and earnestly warned us against\nproceeding, saying that if we did we should find to our sorrow what the\nT'ung-chau militia were like. We thanked him for his kindly counsel, but\ncould not act upon it, as our hearts were fixed, whether it were to\nbonds, imprisonment, and death, or whether to distribute our Scriptures\nand tracts in safety, and return unhurt, we knew not; but we were\ndetermined, by the grace of GOD, not to leave T'ung-chau any longer\nwithout the Gospel, nor its teeming thousands to die in uncared-for\nignorance of the Way of life.\n\nAfter this my wheel-barrow man would proceed no farther, and I had to\nseek another, who was fortunately not difficult to find. As we went on,\nthe ride in the mud and rain was anything but agreeable, and we could\nnot help feeling the danger of our position, although wavering not for a\nmoment. At intervals we encouraged one another with promises from the\nScripture and verses of hymns. That verse--\n\n \"The perils of the sea, the perils of the land,\n Should not dishearten thee: thy LORD is nigh at hand.\n But should thy courage fail, when tried and sore oppressed,\n His promise shall avail, and set thy soul at rest.\"\n\nseemed particularly appropriate to our circumstances, and was very\ncomforting to me.\n\nOn our way we passed through one small town of about a thousand\ninhabitants; and here, in the Mandarin dialect, I preached JESUS to a\ngood number of people. Never was I so happy in speaking of the love of\nGOD and the atonement of JESUS CHRIST. My own soul was richly blessed,\nand filled with joy and peace; and I was able to speak with unusual\nfreedom and ease. And how rejoiced I was when, afterwards, I heard one\nof our hearers repeating to the newcomers, in his own local dialect, the\ntruths upon which I had been dwelling! Oh, how thankful I felt to hear a\nChinaman, of his own accord, telling his fellow-countrymen that GOD\nloved them; that they were sinners, but that JESUS died instead of\nthem, and paid the penalty of their guilt. That one moment repaid me for\nall the trials we had passed through; and I felt that if the LORD should\ngrant HIS HOLY SPIRIT to change the heart of that man, we had not come\nin vain.\n\nWe distributed a few Testaments and tracts, for the people were able to\nread, and we could not leave them without the Gospel. It was well that\nwe did so, for when we reached T'ung-chau we found we had quite as many\nleft as we had strength to carry.\n\nNearing the end of our journey, as we approached the western suburb of\nthe city, the prayer of the early Christians, when persecution was\ncommencing, came to my mind: \"And now, LORD, behold their threatenings,\nand grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy\nWord.\" In this petition we most heartily united. Before entering the\nsuburb we laid our plans, so as to act in concert, and told our\nwheel-barrow men where to await us, that they might not be involved in\nany trouble on our account. Then looking up to our Heavenly FATHER, we\ncommitted ourselves to His keeping, took our books, and set on for the\ncity.\n\nFor some distance we walked along the principal street of the suburb\nleading to the West Gate unmolested, and were amused at the unusual\ntitle of _Heh-kwei-tsi_ (black devils) which was applied to us. We\nwondered about it at the time, but afterwards found that it was our\nclothes, and not our skin, that gave rise to it. As we passed several of\nthe soldiers, I remarked to Mr. Burdon that these were the men we had\nheard so much about, and that they seemed willing to receive us quietly\nenough. Long before we reached the gate, however, a tall powerful man,\nmade tenfold fiercer by partial intoxication, let us know that all the\nmilitia were not so peaceably inclined, by seizing Mr. Burdon by the\nshoulders. My companion endeavoured to shake him off. I turned to see\nwhat was the matter, and at once we were surrounded by a dozen or more\nbrutal men, who hurried us on to the city at a fearful pace.\n\nMy bag now began to feel very heavy, and I could not change hands to\nrelieve myself. I was soon in a profuse perspiration, and was scarcely\nable to keep pace with them. We demanded to be taken before the chief\nmagistrate, but were told that they knew where to take us, and what to\ndo with such persons as we were, with the most insulting epithets. The\nman who first seized Mr. Burdon soon afterwards left him for me, and\nbecame my principal tormentor; for I was neither so tall nor so strong\nas my friend, and was therefore less able to resist him. He all but\nknocked me down again and again, seized me by the hair, took hold of my\ncollar so as to almost choke me, and grasped my arms and shoulders,\nmaking them black and blue. Had this treatment continued much longer, I\nmust have fainted. All but exhausted, how refreshing was the remembrance\nof a verse quoted by my dear mother in one of my last home letters--\n\n \"We speak of the realms of the blest,\n That country so bright and so fair,\n And oft are its glories confessed;\n But what must it be to be there!\"\n\nTo be absent from the body! to be present with the LORD! to be free from\nsin! And this is the end of the worst that man's malice can ever bring\nupon us.\n\nAs we were walking along Mr. Burdon tried to give away a few books that\nhe was carrying, not knowing whether we might have another opportunity\nof doing so; but the fearful rage of the soldier, and the way he\ninsisted on manacles being brought, which fortunately were not at hand,\nconvinced us that in our present position we could do no good in\nattempting book-distribution. There was nothing to be done but quietly\nto submit, and go along with our captors.\n\nOnce or twice a quarrel arose as to how we should be dealt with; the\nmore mild of our conductors saying that we ought to be taken to the\nmagistrate's office, but others wishing to kill us at once without\nappeal to any authority. Our minds were kept in perfect peace; and when\nthrown together on one of these occasions, we reminded each other that\nthe Apostles rejoiced that they were counted _worthy_ to suffer in the\ncause of CHRIST. Having succeeded in getting my hand into my pocket, I\nproduced a Chinese card (if the large red paper, bearing one's name, may\nbe so called), and after this was treated with more respect. I demanded\nit should be given to the chief official of the place, and that we\nshould be led to his office. Before this we had been unable, say what we\nwould, to persuade them that we were foreigners, although we were both\nin English attire.\n\nOh the long weary streets that we were dragged through! I thought they\nwould never end; and seldom have I felt more thankful than when we\nstopped at a place where we were told a mandarin resided. Quite\nexhausted, bathed in perspiration, and with my tongue cleaving to the\nroof of my mouth, I leaned against the wall, and saw that Mr. Burdon was\nin much the same condition. I requested them to bring us chairs, but\nthey told us to wait; and when I begged them to give us some tea,\nreceived only the same answer. Round the doorway a large crowd had\ngathered; and Mr. Burdon, collecting his remaining strength, preached\nCHRIST JESUS to them. Our cards and books had been taken in to the\nmandarin, but he proved to be one of low rank, and after keeping us\nwaiting for some time he referred us to his superiors in office.\n\nUpon hearing this, and finding that it was their purpose to turn us out\nagain into the crowded streets, we positively refused to move a single\nstep, and insisted on chairs being brought. After some demur this was\ndone; we seated ourselves in them, and were carried on. On the road we\nfelt so glad of the rest which the chairs afforded us, and so thankful\nat having been able to preach JESUS in spite of Satan's malice, that our\njoy was depicted on our countenances; and as we passed along we heard\nsome say that we did not look like bad men, while others seemed to pity\nus. When we arrived at the magistrate's office, I wondered where we were\nbeing taken; for though we passed through some great gates that looked\nlike those of the city wall, we were still evidently within the city. A\nsecond pair of gates suggested the idea that it was a prison into which\nwe were being carried; but when we came in sight of a large tablet, with\nthe inscription \"_Ming ch\u00ef fu mu_\" (the father and mother of the\npeople), we felt that we had been conveyed to the right place; this\nbeing the title assumed by the mandarins.\n\nOur cards were again sent in, and after a short delay we were taken into\nthe presence of Ch'en Ta Lao-ie (the Great Venerable Father Ch'en), who,\nas it proved, had formerly been Tao-tai of Shanghai, and consequently\nknew the importance of treating foreigners with courtesy. Coming before\nhim, some of the people fell on their knees and bowed down to the\nground, and my conductor motioned for me to do the same, but without\nsuccess. This mandarin, who seemed to be the highest authority of\nT'ung-chau, and wore an opaque blue button on his cap, came out to meet\nus, and treated us with every possible token of respect. He took us to\nan inner apartment, a more private room, but was followed by a large\nnumber of writers, runners, and other semi-officials. I related the\nobject of our visit, and begged permission to give him copies of our\nbooks and tracts, for which he thanked me. As I handed him a copy of the\nNew Testament with part of the Old (from Genesis to Ruth) and some\ntracts, I tried to explain a little about them, and also to give him a\nbrief summary of our teachings. . . . He listened very attentively, as of\ncourse did all the others present. He then ordered some refreshments to\nbe brought in, which were very welcome, and himself partook of them with\nus.\n\nAfter a long stay, we asked permission to see something of the city, and\nto distribute the books we had brought, before our return. To this he\nkindly consented. We then mentioned that we had been most\ndisrespectfully treated as we came in, but that we did not attach much\nimportance to the fact, being aware that the soldiers knew no better.\nNot desiring, however, to have such an experience repeated, we requested\nhim to give orders that we were not to be further molested. This also he\npromised to do, and with every possible token of respect accompanied us\nto the door of his official residence, sending several runners to see\nthat we were respectfully treated. We distributed our books well and\nquickly, and left the city quite in state. It was amusing to us to see\nthe way in which the runners made use of their tails. When the street\nwas blocked by the crowd, they turned them into whips, and laid them\nabout the people's shoulders to right and left!\n\nWe had a little trouble in finding our wheel-barrows; but eventually\nsucceeding, we paid off the chair coolies, mounted our humble vehicles,\nand returned to the river, accompanied for fully half the distance by an\nattendant from the magistrate's office. Early in the evening we got back\nto the boats in safety, sincerely thankful to our Heavenly FATHER for\nHis gracious protection and aid.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nWITH THE REV. WILLIAM BURNS\n\n\nAFTER the retaking of Shanghai by the Imperialists, in February 1855, I\nwas enabled to rent a house within the walls of the native city, and\ngladly availed myself of this opportunity to reside amidst the crowded\npopulation left to inhabit the ruins that had survived the war. Here I\nmade my headquarters, though often absent on more or less prolonged\nitinerations.\n\nAt the suggestion of the Rev. Dr. Medhurst, the veteran leader of the\nLondon Mission, I was led at about this period to adopt the native\ncostume in preference to foreign dress, to facilitate travel and\nresidence inland. The Chinese had permitted a foreign firm to build a\nsilk factory some distance inland, with the proviso that the style of\nbuilding must be purely Chinese, and that there should be nothing\nexternal to suggest that it was foreign. Much benefit was found to\nresult from this change of costume; and I, and most of those associated\nwith me, have continued to use native dress.\n\nThe T'ai-p'ing rebellion, commenced in 1851, had by this time reached\nthe height of its ephemeral success. The great city of Nan-king had\nfallen before the invading host; and there, within two hundred miles of\nShanghai, the rebels had established their headquarters, and proceeded\nto fortify themselves for further conquests. During the summer of 1855\nvarious attempts were made to visit the leaders of the movement, in\norder to bring to bear some decidedly Christian influence upon them; but\nso little success was met with, that these efforts were abandoned.\n\nI, amongst others, had sought to reach Nan-king; but finding it\nimpossible to do so, turned my attention again to evangelistic work on\nthe island of Ts'ung-ming. After some time I was enabled so far to\novercome the prejudice and fears of the people as to rent a little house\nand settle down in their midst. This was a great joy and encouragement\nto me; but before many weeks were over complaints were made by the local\nauthorities to the British Consul, who compelled me to retire; though\nthe French Consul had himself secured to the Romish missionaries a\nproperty within three or four miles of the house I had to vacate. Sorely\ntried and disappointed by this unexpected hindrance, I reluctantly\nreturned to Shanghai, little dreaming of the blessing that GOD had in\nstore for me there.\n\nA few months previously the Rev. William Burns, of the English\nPresbyterian Mission, had arrived in that port on his return journey\nfrom home; and before proceeding to his former sphere of service in the\nsouthern province of FU-KIEN, he had endeavoured, like myself, without\nsuccess, to visit the T'ai-p'ing rebels at Nan-king. Failing in this\nattempt, he made his headquarters in Shanghai for a season, devoting\nhimself to the evangelisation of the surrounding populous regions. Thus\nin the autumn of the year I was providentially led into association with\nthis beloved and honoured servant of GOD.\n\nWe journeyed together, evangelising cities and towns in southern\nKIANG-SU and north CHEH-KIANG, living in our boats, and following the\ncourse of the canals and rivers which here spread like a network over\nthe whole face of the rich and fertile country. Mr. Burns at that time\nwas wearing English dress; but saw that while I was the younger and in\nevery way less experienced, I had the quiet hearers, while he was\nfollowed by the rude boys, and by the curious but careless; that I was\ninvited to the homes of the people, while he received an apology that\nthe crowd that would follow precluded his being invited. After some\nweeks of observation he also adopted the native dress, and enjoyed the\nincreased facilities which it gave.\n\nThose happy months were an unspeakable joy and privilege to me. His love\nfor the Word was delightful, and his holy, reverential life and constant\ncommunings with GOD made fellowship with him satisfying to the deep\ncravings of my heart. His accounts of revival work and of persecutions\nin Canada, and Dublin, and in Southern China were most instructive, as\nwell as interesting; for with true spiritual insight he often pointed\nout GOD's purposes in trial in a way that made all life assume quite a\nnew aspect and value. His views especially about evangelism as the great\nwork of the Church, and the order of lay evangelists as a lost order\nthat Scripture required to be restored, were seed-thoughts which were to\nprove fruitful in the subsequent organisation of the China Inland\nMission.\n\nExternally, however, our path was not always a smooth one; but when\npermitted to stay for any length of time in town or city, the\nopportunity was well utilised. We were in the habit of leaving our\nboats, after prayer for blessing, at about nine o'clock in the morning,\nwith a light bamboo stool in hand. Selecting a suitable station, one\nwould mount the stool and speak for twenty minutes, while the other was\npleading for blessing; and then changing places, the voice of the first\nspeaker had a rest. After an hour or two thus occupied, we would move on\nto another point at some distance from the first, and speak again.\nUsually about midday we returned to our boats for dinner, fellowship,\nand prayer, and then resumed our out-door work until dusk. After tea and\nfurther rest, we would go with our native helpers to some tea-shop,\nwhere several hours might be spent in free conversation with the people.\nNot infrequently before leaving a town we had good reason to believe\nthat much truth had been grasped; and we placed many Scriptures and\nbooks in the hands of those interested. The following letter was written\nby Mr. Burns to his mother at home in Scotland about this time:--\n\n\n \"TWENTY-FIVE MILES FROM SHANGHAI,\n _January 26th, 1856_.\n\n \"Taking advantage of a rainy day which confines me\n to my boat, I pen a few lines, in addition to a\n letter to Dundee, containing particulars which I\n need not repeat. It is now forty-one days since I\n left Shanghai on this last occasion. A young\n English missionary, Mr. Taylor, of the Chinese\n Evangelisation Society, has been my companion\n during these weeks--he in his boat, and I in\n mine--and we have experienced much mercy, and on\n some occasions considerable assistance in our\n work.\n\n \"I must once more tell the story I have had to\n tell already more than once--how four weeks ago,\n on December 29th, I put on the Chinese dress,\n which I am now wearing. Mr. Taylor had made this\n change a few months before, and I found that he\n was, in consequence, so much less incommoded in\n preaching, etc., by the crowd, that I concluded it\n was my duty to follow his example. We were at that\n time more than double the distance from Shanghai\n that we are now, and would still have been at as\n great a distance had we not met at one place with\n a band of lawless people, who demanded money and\n threatened to break our boats if their demands\n were refused. The boatmen were very much alarmed,\n and insisted on returning to some place nearer\n home. These people had previously broken in,\n violently, a part of Mr. Taylor's boat, because\n their unreasonable demand for books was not\n complied with.\n\n \"We have a large, very large, field of labour in\n this region, though it might be difficult in the\n meantime for one to establish himself in any\n particular place; the people listen with\n attention, but we need the Power from on High to\n convince and convert. Is there any spirit of\n prayer on our behalf among GOD's people in\n Kilsyth? or is there any effort to seek this\n spirit? How great the need is, and how great the\n arguments and motives for prayer in this case. The\n harvest here is indeed great, and the labourers\n are few, and imperfectly fitted without much grace\n for such a work. And yet grace can make the few\n and feeble instruments the means of accomplishing\n great things--things greater than we can even\n conceive.\"\n\nThe incident referred to in this letter, which led to our return to\nShanghai more speedily than we had at first intended, took place on the\nnorthern border of CHEH-KIANG. We had reached a busy market town known\nby the name of Wu-chen, or Black Town, the inhabitants of which, we had\nbeen told, were the wildest and most lawless people in that part of the\ncountry. Such indeed we found them to be: the town was a refuge for salt\nsmugglers and other bad characters. The following extracts are taken\nfrom my journal, written at the time:--\n\n\n _January 8th, 1856._\n\nCommenced our work in Wu-chen this morning by distributing a large\nnumber of tracts and some Testaments. The people seemed much surprised,\nand we could not learn that any foreigner had been here before. We\npreached twice--once in the temple of the God of War, and afterwards in\nan empty space left by a fire, which had completely destroyed many\nhouses. In the afternoon we preached again to a large and attentive\naudience on the same site; and in the evening adjourned to a tea-shop,\nwhere we had a good opportunity of speaking until it got noised abroad\nthat we were there, when, too many people coming in, we were obliged to\nleave. Our native assistants, Tsien and Kuei-hua, were able, however, to\nremain. Returning to our boats, we spoke to a number of people standing\non a bridge, and felt we had abundant reason to be thankful and\nencouraged by the result of our first day's labour.\n\n\n _January 10th._\n\nFirst sent Tsien and Kuei-hua to distribute some sheet tracts. After\ntheir return we went with them, and in a space cleared by fire we\nseparated, and addressed two audiences. On our return to the boats for\nlunch, we found people waiting, as usual, and desiring books. Some were\ndistributed to those who were able to read them; and then asking them\nkindly to excuse us while we took our midday meal, I went into my boat\nand shut the door.\n\nHardly was there time to pour out a cup of tea when a battering began,\nand the roof was at once broken in. I went out at the back, and found\nfour or five men taking the large lumps of frozen earth turned up in a\nfield close by--weighing, I should suppose, from seven to fourteen\npounds each--and throwing them at the boat. Remonstrance was of no\navail, and it was not long ere a considerable part of the upper\nstructure of the boat was broken to pieces, and a quantity of earth\ncovered the things inside. Finally, Tsien got a boat that was passing to\nland him at a short distance, and by a few tracts drew away the\nattention of the men, thus ending the assault.\n\nWe now learned that of those who had done the mischief only two were\nnatives of the place, the others being salt smugglers, and that the\ncause was our not having satisfied their unreasonable demand for books.\nMost providentially no one was injured; and as soon as quiet was\nsomewhat restored, we all met in Mr. Burns's boat and joined in\nthanksgiving that we had been preserved from personal harm, praying also\nfor the perpetrators of the mischief, and that it might be over-ruled\nfor good to us and to those with us. We then took our lunch and went on\nshore, and but a few steps from the boats addressed a large multitude\nthat soon assembled. We were specially assisted; never were we heard\nwith more attention, and not one voice was found to sympathise with the\nmen who had molested us. In the evening, at the tea-shops, the same\nspirit was manifested, and some seemed to hear with joy the glad tidings\nof salvation through a crucified and risen SAVIOUR.\n\nAs we came home we passed a barber's shop still open, and I went in, and\nwhile getting my head shaved had an opportunity of speaking to a few\npeople, and afterwards pasted a couple of sheet tracts on the wall for\nthe benefit of future customers.\n\n\n _January 11th._\n\nA respectable shop-keeper of the name of Yao, who on the first or second\nday of our stay at Wu-chen had received portions of the New Testament\nand a tract, came yesterday, when our boat was broken, to beg for some\nmore books. At that time we were all in confusion from the damage done,\nand from the earth thrown into the boat, and so invited him to come\nagain in a day or two's time, when we would gladly supply him. This\nmorning he appeared and handed in the following note:--\n\n\"On a former day I begged Burns and Taylor, the two '_Rabbis_,' to give\nme good books. It happened at that time those of our town whose hearts\nwere deceived by _Satan_, not knowing the _Son of David_, went so far as\nto dare to '_raca_' and '_moreh_' and injure your respected boat. I\nthank you for promising afterwards to give the books, and beg the\nfollowing: Complete New Testament, 'Discourse of a Good Man when near\nhis Death,' 'Important Christian Doctrines,' an Almanack, 'Principles of\nChristianity,' 'Way to make the World happy,'--of each one copy. Sung\nand Tsien, and all teachers I hope are well. Further compliments are\nunwritten.\"\n\nThis note is interesting, as showing that he had been reading the New\nTestament attentively, as the italicised words were all taken from it.\nHis use of \"raca\" and \"moreh\" for reviling, shows their meaning was not\nlost upon him.\n\nAfter supplying this man, we went out with Tsien and Kuei-hua to the\neast of the town, and spoke in the street for a short time. Upon\nreturning to the boats, I was visited by two CHIH-LI men, who are in the\nmagistrate's office here. I was greatly helped in speaking to them of a\ncrucified SAVIOUR in the Mandarin dialect; and though one of them did\nnot pay much attention, the other did, and made inquiries that showed\nthe interest he was feeling. When they had left, I went on shore and\nspoke to the people collected there, to whom Kuei-hua had been\npreaching. The setting sun afforded a parable, and reminded one of the\nwords of JESUS, \"The night cometh, when no man can work;\" and as I spoke\nof the uncertain duration of this life, and of our ignorance as to the\ntime of CHRIST'S return, a degree of deep seriousness prevailed that I\nhad never previously witnessed in China. I engaged in prayer, and the\ngreatest decorum was observed. I then returned to my boat with a\nBuddhist priest who had been in the audience, and he admitted that\nBuddhism was a system of deceit that could give no hope in death.\n\n\n _January 12th._\n\nIn the afternoon we addressed the people on shore close to our boats,\nalso in one of the streets of the city, and in a tea-shop, books being\ndistributed on each occasion. In the evening we went as usual to speak\nin the tea-shops, but determined to go to the opposite end of the town,\nin order to afford those who lived there a better opportunity of meeting\nwith us. It was a long straggling place, nearly two English miles in\nlength. As Mr. Burns and I were accustomed to talk together in Chinese,\nthis conclusion was known to those in the boats.\n\nAfter we had proceeded a short distance we changed our minds, and went\ninstead to the usual tea-shop, thinking that persons might have gone\nthere expecting to meet us. But this was not the case; and we did not\nfind such serious hearers as we had done on previous occasions. On this\naccount Mr. Burns proposed leaving earlier than usual, and we did so,\ntelling Tsien and Kuei-hua that they might remain a little longer.\nReturning to the boats, we gave away a few books; but, singularly\nenough, were left to go alone, no one accompanying us, as is so\ngenerally the case. Instead of being a clear night, as it was when we\nstarted, we found that it had become intensely dark. On our way we met\nthe boatman, whose manner seemed very strange, and without giving us any\nexplanation he blew out the candle of our lantern; we relighted the\nlantern, telling him not to put it out again, when to our surprise he\ndeliberately removed the candle and threw it into the canal. He then\nwalked down along a low wall jutting out to the river's edge, and gazed\ninto the water.\n\nNot knowing what was the matter with him, I ran forward to hold him,\nfearful lest he were going to drown himself; but to my great relief he\ncame quietly back. In answer to our repeated questions he told us not to\nspeak, for some bad men were seeking to destroy the boats, and they had\nmoved away to avoid them. He then led us to the place where one of them\nwas lying. Before long Tsien and Kuei-hua came and got safely on board,\nand soon after we were joined by the teacher Sung, and the boat moved\naway.\n\nThe cause of all this disturbance was then explained. A man professing\nto be the constable had come to the boats in our absence, with a written\ndemand for ten dollars and a quantity of opium. He stated that there\nwere more than fifty country people (salt smugglers) awaiting our reply\nin an adjoining tea-shop; and if we gave them what they wanted, and\nthree hundred cash to pay for their tea, we might remain in peace; but\nthat if not, they would come at once and destroy our boats. Sung told\nthem that we could not comply with their demand; for, not being engaged\nin trade, but only in preaching and book-distribution, we had not an\natom of opium, and that our money was nearly all expended. The man,\nhowever, told him plainly that he did not believe him, and Sung had no\nalternative but to seek us out, desiring the man to await our reply. Not\nknowing that we had changed our plans, he sought us in the wrong\ndirection, and of course in vain.\n\nIn the meanwhile the boatmen had succeeded in moving off. They were very\nmuch alarmed; and having so recently had proof of what these men would\ndo in open daylight, felt no desire to experience what they might\nattempt by night. Moving away, therefore, they had separated, so that if\none boat should be injured the other might afford us a refuge. It was\nafter this that we had providentially met the boatman, and had been\nsafely led on board. As Sung repassed the place where we were previously\nmoored, he saw between the trees a dozen or more men, and heard them\ninquiring where the boats had gone to; but no one could tell.\nFortunately they sought in vain.\n\nAfter a while the two boats joined, and rowed together for some time. It\nwas already late, and to travel by night in that part of the country was\nnot the way to avoid danger from evil men; so the question arose as to\nwhat should be done. This we left for the boatmen to decide; they had\nmoved off of their own accord, and we felt that whatever we personally\nmight desire we could not constrain others to remain in a position of\ndanger on our account. We urged them, however, to do quickly whatever\nthey intended to do, as the morrow was the LORD'S DAY, when we should\nnot wish to travel. We also informed them that wherever we were we must\nfulfil our mission, and preach the Gospel; it therefore made but little\ndifference where we might stay, for even if we passed the night\nunperceived, we were sure to be found out on the following morning. The\nmen consequently concluded that we might as well return to the place\nfrom which we had started; to this we fully agreed, and they turned back\naccordingly. But--whether by accident or no we could not tell--they got\ninto another stream, and rowed for some time they knew not whither. At\nlast, as it was very dark, they moored for the night.\n\nWe then called all the boatmen together, with our native assistants, and\nread to them the ninety-first Psalm. It may be imagined how appropriate\nto our position and need and how sweetly consoling was this portion of\nGOD'S Word:--\n\n \"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the MOST HIGH\n Shall abide under the shadow of the ALMIGHTY.\n I will say of the LORD, _He_ is my refuge and my fortress:\n My GOD; in Him will I trust.\n\n \"Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,\n And from the noisome pestilence.\n\n He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings\n shalt thou trust:\n His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.\n Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night;\n Nor for the arrow that flieth by day.\n\n \"Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him.\n I will set him on high, because he hath known My Name.\n He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;\n I will be with him in trouble;--I will deliver him, and honour him.\n With long life will I satisfy him,--and show him My salvation.\"\n\nCommitting ourselves in prayer to His care and keeping Who had covered\nus with thick darkness and permitted us to escape from the hand of the\nviolent, we retired for the night; which--thanks to the kind protection\nof the WATCHMAN OF ISRAEL, who neither slumbers nor forgets His\npeople--we passed in peace and quietness, and were enabled, in some\nmeasure, to realise the truth of that precious word, \"_Thou_ art my\n_Hiding-place_, and my _Shield_.\"\n\n\n _Sunday, January 13th._\n\nThis morning I was awakened about 4 A.M. by violent pain in the\nknee-joint. I had bruised it the day before, and severe inflammation was\nthe result. To my great surprise I heard the rain pouring down in\ntorrents, the weather having previously been particularly fine. On\nlooking out, we found ourselves so near our former stopping-place, that,\nhad nothing happened to prevent it, we should not have felt justified in\nneglecting to go into the town to preach as usual; but the rain was so\nheavy all day that no one could leave the boats. Thus we enjoyed a\ndelightful day of rest, such as we had not had for some time; and the\nweather prevented much inquiry being made for us. Had the day been fine\nwe should most likely have been discovered, even if we had not left the\nboats. As it was, we were allowed to think in peace, with wonder and\ngratitude, of the gracious dealings of our GOD, who had thus led us\napart into \"a desert place\" to rest awhile.\n\n\n _Monday, January 14th._\n\nA cloudless morning. One of the native assistants went before daybreak\nto get some clothes which had been given out for washing. He came back\nwith the tidings that, notwithstanding the drenching rain of yesterday,\nmen had been seeking us in all directions. We had been kept, however, in\npeace and safety \"under the shadow of the Almighty.\"\n\nThe boatmen were now so thoroughly alarmed that they would stay no\nlonger, and moved off at dawn. I was confined to my quarters by\nlameness, and had no alternative but to go with them. In the afternoon\nwe reached Ping-wang, on the way to Shanghai.\n\n \"Ill that GOD blesses is our good,\n And unblest good is ill;\n And all is right that seems most wrong,\n If it be His sweet will.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nCALLED TO SWATOW\n\n\nHAVING to leave the neighbourhood of Black Town thus unexpectedly was a\nreal disappointment to us, as we had hoped to spend some time\nevangelising in that district. We were to prove, however, that no\nunforeseen mischance had happened, but that these circumstances which\nseemed so trying were necessary links in the chain of a divinely ordered\nprovidence, guiding to other and wider spheres.\n\nGOD does not permit persecution to arise without sufficient reason. . . .\nHe was leading us by a way that we knew not; but it was none the less\nHis way.\n\n \"O LORD, how happy should we be\n If we would cast our care on Thee,\n If we from self would rest;\n And feel at heart that One above,\n In perfect wisdom, perfect love,\n Is working for the best!\"\n\nWhen we reached Shanghai, thinking to return inland in a few days with\nfresh supplies of books and money, we met a Christian captain who had\nbeen trading at Swatow, and he put very strongly before us the need of\nthat region, and the fact that there were British merchants living on\nDouble Island, selling opium and engaged in the coolie trade\n(practically a slave traffic), while there was no British missionary to\npreach the Gospel. The SPIRIT OF GOD impressed me with the feeling that\nthis was His call, but for days I felt that I could not obey it. I had\nnever had such a spiritual father as Mr. Burns; I had never known such\nholy, happy fellowship; and I said to myself that it could not be GOD'S\nwill that we should separate.\n\nIn great unrest of soul I went one evening, with Mr. Burns, to take tea\nat the house of the Rev. R. Lowrie, of the American Presbyterian\nMission, at the South Gate of Shanghai. After tea Mrs. Lowrie played\nover to us \"The Missionary Call.\"[2] I had never heard it before, and it\ngreatly affected me. My heart was almost broken before it was finished,\nand I said to the LORD, in the words that had been sung--\n\n \"And I will go!\n I may no longer doubt to give up friends, and idol hopes,\n And every tie that binds my heart. . . .\n Henceforth, then, it matters not, if storm or sunshine\n be my earthly lot, bitter or sweet my cup;\n I only pray, GOD, make me holy,\n And my spirit nerve for the stern hour of strife.\"\n\nUpon leaving I asked Mr. Burns to come home with me to the little house\nthat was still my headquarters in the native city, and there, with many\ntears, told him how the LORD had been leading me, and how rebellious I\nhad been and unwilling to leave him for this new sphere of labour. He\nlistened with a strange look of surprise, and of pleasure rather than\npain; and answered that he had determined that very night to tell me\nthat he had heard the LORD'S call to Swatow, and that his one regret had\nbeen the prospect of the severance of our happy fellowship. We went\ntogether; and thus was recommenced missionary work in that part of\nChina, which in later years has been so abundantly blessed.\n\nLong before this time the Rev. R. Lechler, of the Basel Missionary\nSociety, had widely itinerated in the neighbourhood of Swatow and the\nsurrounding regions. Driven about from place to place, he had done work\nthat was not forgotten, although ultimately he was obliged to retire to\nHong-kong. For more than forty years this earnest-hearted servant of GOD\nhas continued in \"labours more abundant\"; and quite recently he has left\nHong-kong, with his devoted wife, to return again inland, and spend the\nstrength of his remaining years amongst the people he has so long and\ntruly loved.\n\nCaptain Bowers, the Christian friend who had been used of GOD in\nbringing the needs of Swatow before Mr. Burns and myself, was overjoyed\nwhen he heard of our decision to devote ourselves to the evangelisation\nof that busy, important, and populous mart. Being about to sail himself\non his return journey, he gladly offered us free passages on board the\n_Geelong_, in which we left Shanghai early in the month of March 1856.\n\nA favourable journey of six days brought us to Double Island, where we\nfound ourselves landed in the midst of a small but very ungodly\ncommunity of foreigners, engaged in the opium trade and other commercial\nenterprises. Unwilling to be in any way identified with these\nfellow-countrymen, we were most desirous of obtaining quarters at once\nwithin the native city, situated on a promontory of the mainland, five\nmiles farther up, at the mouth of the Han river. Great difficulty was\nexperienced in this attempt to obtain a footing amongst the people.\nIndeed, it seemed as though we should fail altogether, and we were\nhelplessly cast upon the LORD in prayer. Our GOD soon undertook for us.\nMeeting one day with a Cantonese merchant, a relative of the highest\nofficial in the town, Mr. Burns addressed him in the Cantonese dialect;\nthis gentleman was so pleased at being spoken to by a foreigner in his\nown tongue that he became our friend, and secured us a lodging. We had\nonly one little room, however, and not easily shall I forget the long\nhot summer months in that oven-like place, where towards the eaves one\ncould touch the heated tiles with one's hand. More room or better\naccommodation it was impossible to obtain.\n\nWe varied our stay by visits to the surrounding country; but the\ndifficulties and dangers that encountered us here were so great and\nconstant, that our former work in the North began to appear safe and\neasy in comparison. The hatred and contempt of the Cantonese was very\npainful, \"foreign devil,\" \"foreign dog,\" or \"foreign pig\" being the\ncommonest appellations; but all this led us into deeper fellowship than\nI had ever known before with Him who was \"despised and rejected of men.\"\n\nIn our visits to the country we were liable to be seized at any time and\nheld to ransom; and the people commonly declared that the whole district\nwas \"without emperor, without ruler, and without law.\" Certainly, might\nwas right in those days. On one occasion we were visiting a small town,\nand found that the inhabitants had captured a wealthy man of another\nclan. A large ransom was demanded for his release, and on his refusing\nto pay it they had smashed his ankle-bones, one by one, with a club, and\nthus extorted the promise they desired. There was nothing but GOD'S\nprotection to prevent our being treated in the same way. The towns were\nall walled, and one such place would contain ten or twenty thousand\npeople of the same clan and surname, who were frequently at war with the\npeople living in the next town. To be kindly received in one place was\nnot uncommonly a source of danger in the next. In circumstances such as\nthese the preserving care of our GOD was often manifested.\n\nAfter a time the local mandarin became ill, and the native doctors were\nunable to relieve him. He had heard from some who had been under my\ntreatment of the benefit derived, and was led to seek our help. GOD\nblessed the medicines given, and grateful for relief, he advised our\nrenting a house for a hospital and dispensary. Having his permission, we\nwere able to secure the entire premises, one room of which we had\npreviously occupied. I had left my stock of medicine and surgical\ninstruments under the care of my friend, the late Mr. Wylie, in\nShanghai, and went back at once to fetch them.\n\nMr. Burns came down from a town called Am-po, that we had visited\ntogether several times, to see me off, and returned again when I had\nsailed, with two native evangelists sent up from Hong-kong by the Rev.\nJ. Johnson, of the American Baptist Missionary Union. The people were\nwilling to listen to their preaching, and to accept their books as a\ngift, but they would not buy them. One night robbers broke in and\ncarried off everything they had, with the exception of their stock of\nliterature, which was supposed to be valueless. Next morning, very\nearly, they were knocked up by persons wishing to buy books, and the\nsales continued; so that by breakfast time they had not only cash enough\nto procure food, but to pay also for the passage of one of the men to\nDouble Island, below Swatow, with a letter to Mr. Burns's agent to\nsupply him with money. Purchasers continued coming during that day and\nthe next, and our friends lacked nothing; but on the third day they\ncould not sell a single book. Then, however, when the cash from their\nsales was just exhausted, the messenger returned with supplies.\n\nIt was early in July, after about four months' residence in Swatow, that\nI left for Shanghai, intending to return in the course of a few weeks,\nbringing with me my medical apparatus, for further work in association\nwith the Rev. William Burns. A new and promising field seemed to be\nopening before us, and it was with much hopeful anticipation that we\nlooked forward to the future of the work. Marked blessing was indeed in\nstore for the city and neighbourhood of Swatow; but it was not the\npurpose of GOD that either of us should remain to reap the harvest. Mr.\nBurns while in the interior was taken up and imprisoned by the Chinese\nauthorities soon after I left, and was sent to Canton. And though he\nreturned to Swatow after the war had broken out, he was called away for\nother service, which prevented his subsequent return; while my journey\nto Shanghai proved to be the first step in a diverging pathway leading\nto other spheres.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[2] For words and music see the end of this chapter.\n\n\n[Illustration: Music: The Missionary Call]\n\n\"THE MISSIONARY CALL\"\n\n 1. My soul is not at rest.\n There comes a strange\n and secret whisper to\n my. . . .\n spirit, like a dream of night,\n that tells me\n I am on enchanted\n ground.\n\n\n CHORUS FOR FIRST FOUR VERSES.\n\n _Vivace._ The voice of my departed LORD, \"Go, teach all nations,\"\n\n Comes on the night air and awakes mine ear.\n\n\n CHORUS FOR LAST VERSE.\n\n Through ages of eternal years,\n My spirit never shall repent,\n that toil and suff'ring once were mine . . . below.\n\n\n 2. Why live I here? the vows of GOD are | on me; | and I may not stop\n to play with shadows or pluck earthly flowers, | till I my work\n have done, and | rendered up ac | count.\n\n 3. And I will | go! | I may no longer doubt to give up friends,\n and idol | hopes, | and every tie that binds my heart to | thee, my |\n country.\n\n 4. Henceforth, then, it matters not, if storm or sunshine be my |\n earthly lot, | bitter or sweet my | cup; | I only pray: \"GOD make me\n holy, and my spirit nerve for the stern | hour of strife!\"\n\n 5. And when one for whom Satan hath struggled as he hath for | me, |\n has gained at last that blessed | shore, | Oh! how this heart will\n glow with | gratitude and | love.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nMAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES\n\n\nIT is interesting to notice the various events which united, in the\nprovidence of GOD, in preventing my return to Swatow, and ultimately led\nto my settling in Ningpo, and making that the centre for the development\nof future labours.\n\nUpon reaching Shanghai, great was my dismay to find that the premises in\nwhich my medicines and instruments had been stored were burnt down, and\nthat all the medicines and many of the instruments were entirely\ndestroyed. To me this appeared a great calamity, and I fear I was more\ndisposed with faithless Jacob to say, \"All these things are against me,\"\nthan to recognise that \"All things work together for good.\" I had not\nthen learned to think of GOD as the One Great Circumstance \"in Whom we\nlive, and move, and have our being\"; and of _all_ lesser, external\ncircumstances, as necessarily the kindest, wisest, best, because either\nordered or permitted by Him. Hence my disappointment and trial were very\ngreat.\n\nMedicines were expensive in Shanghai, and my means were limited. I\ntherefore set out on an inland journey to Ningpo, hoping to obtain a\nsupply from Dr. William Parker, a member of the same mission as myself.\nI took with me my few remaining possessions, the principal being my\nwatch, a few surgical instruments, a concertina, books for the study of\nChinese, which in those days were very expensive; but left behind in\nShanghai a portion of my money.\n\nThe country through which I had to pass was suffering much from drought;\nit was the height of summer; and the water in the Grand Canal was very\nlow, having been largely drawn upon for the neighbouring rice fields, as\nwell as evaporated by the intense heat. I had determined to make the\njourney as much of a mission tour as possible, and set out well supplied\nwith Christian tracts and books. After fourteen days spent in travelling\nslowly through the populous country, preaching and distributing books,\netc., we reached a large town called Shih-mun-wan, and here, finding\nthat my supply of literature was exhausted, I determined not to linger\nover the rest of the journey, but to reach Ningpo as speedily as\npossible, _vi\u00e2_ the city of Hai-ning.\n\n\n _August 4th, 1856._\n\nThere was no water beyond Shih-mun-wan, so I paid off my boat, hired\ncoolies to carry my things as far as to Chang-gan, and ere sunrise we\nwere on the way. I walked on alone, leaving my servant to follow with\nthe men, who made frequent stoppages to rest; and on reaching a city\nthrough which we had to pass, I waited for them in a tea-shop just\noutside the North Gate. The coolies came on very slowly, and seemed\ntired when they arrived. I soon found that they were both opium-smokers,\nso that, although they had only carried a load that one strong man would\nthink nothing of taking three times the distance, they really seemed\nwearied.\n\nAfter some rice and tea and an hour's rest--including, I doubt not, a\nsmoke of the opium pipe--they were a little refreshed, and I proposed\nmoving on, that we might get to Chang-gan before the sun became too\npowerful. My servant, however, had a friend in the city, and he desired\nto spend the day there, and to go on next morning. But to this I\nobjected, wishing to reach Hai-ning that night if possible. . . . We\ntherefore set off, entered the North Gate, and had passed through about\na third of the city, when the coolies stopped to rest, and said they\nshould be unable to carry the burden on to Chang-gan. Finally, they\nagreed to take it to the South Gate, where they were to be paid in\nproportion to the distance they had carried it; and the servant\nundertook to call other coolies and come along with them.\n\nI walked on before as in the first instance, and the distance being only\nabout four miles, soon reached Chang-gan, and waited their arrival,\nmeanwhile engaging coolies for the rest of the journey to Hai-ning.\nHaving waited a long time, I began to wonder at the delay; and at length\nit became too late to finish the journey to Hai-ning that night. I felt\nsomewhat annoyed; and but that my feet were blistered, and the afternoon\nvery hot, I should have gone back to meet them and urge them on. At last\nI concluded that my servant must have gone to his friend's, and would\nnot appear until evening. But evening came, and still there was no sign\nof them.\n\nFeeling very uneasy, I began diligently to inquire whether they had been\nseen. At last a man responded, \"Are you a guest from Shih-mun-wan?\" I\nanswered in the affirmative. \"Are you going to Hai-ning?\" \"That is my\ndestination.\" \"Then your things have gone on before you; for I was\nsitting in a tea-shop when a coolie came in, took a cup of tea, and set\noff for Hai-ning in a great hurry, saying that the bamboo box and bed he\ncarried, which were just such as you describe yours to have been, were\nfrom Shih-mun-wan, and he had to take them to Hai-ning to-night, where\nhe was to be paid at the rate of ten cash a pound.\" From this I\nconcluded that my goods were on before me; but it was impossible to\nfollow them at once, for I was too tired to walk, and it was already\ndark.\n\nUnder these circumstances all I could do was to seek a lodging for the\nnight; and no easy task I found it. After raising my heart to GOD to ask\nHis aid, I walked through to the farther end of the town, where I\nthought the tidings of a foreigner's being in the place might not have\nspread, and looked out for an inn. I soon came to one, and went in,\nhoping that I might pass unquestioned, as it was already dark. Asking\nthe bill of fare, I was told that cold rice--which proved to be more\nthan \"rather burnt\"--and snakes, fried in lamp-oil, were all that could\nbe had. Not wishing any question to be raised as to my nationality, I\nwas compelled to order some, and tried to make a meal, but with little\nsuccess.\n\nWhile thus engaged I said to the landlord, \"I suppose I can arrange to\nspend the night here?\"\n\nTo which he replied in the affirmative; but bringing out his book, he\nadded--\n\n\"In these unsettled times we are required by the authorities to keep a\nrecord of our lodgers: may I ask your respected family name?\"\n\n\"My unworthy family name is Tai,\" I responded.\n\n\"And your honourable second name?\"\n\n\"My humble name is Ia-koh\" (James).\n\n\"What an extraordinary name! I never heard it before. How do you write\nit?\"\n\nI told him, and added, \"It is a common name in the district from which I\ncome.\"\n\n\"And may I ask whence you come and whither you are going?\"\n\n\"I am journeying from Shanghai to Ningpo, by way of Hang-chau.\"\n\n\"What may be your honourable profession?\"\n\n\"I heal the sick.\"\n\n\"Oh! you are a physician,\" the landlord remarked; and to my intense\nrelief closed the book. His wife, however, took up the conversation.\n\n\"You are a physician, are you?\" said she; \"I am glad of that, for I have\na daughter afflicted with leprosy. If you will cure her, you shall have\nyour supper and bed for nothing.\"\n\nI was curious enough to inquire what my supper and bed were to cost, if\npaid for; and to my amusement found they were worth less than\nthree-halfpence of our money!\n\nBeing unable to benefit the girl, I declined to prescribe for her,\nsaying that leprosy was a very intractable disease, and that I had no\nmedicines with me.\n\nThe mother, however, brought pen and paper, urging, \"You can at least\nwrite a prescription, which will do no harm, if it does no good.\"\n\nBut this also I declined to do, and requested to be shown my bed. I was\nconducted to a very miserable room on the ground-floor, where, on some\nboards raised upon two stools, I passed the night, without bed or\npillow, save my umbrella and shoe, and without any mosquito netting. Ten\nor eleven other lodgers were sleeping in the same room, so I could not\ntake anything off, for fear of its being stolen; but I was, I found, by\nno means too warm as midnight came on.\n\n\n _August 5th._\n\nAs may be supposed, I arose but little rested or refreshed, and felt\nvery far from well. I had to wait a long time ere breakfast was\nobtainable, and then there was another delay before I could get change\nfor the only dollar I had with me, in consequence of its being chipped\nin one or two places. More than three hundred cash also were deducted\nfrom its price on this account, which was a serious loss to me in my\ntrying position.\n\nI then sought throughout the town for tidings of my servant and coolies,\nas I thought it possible that they might have arrived later, or have\ncome on in the morning. The town is large, long, and straggling, being\nnearly two miles from one end to the other, so this occupied some time.\nI gained no information, however; and, footsore and weary, set out for\nHai-ning in the full heat of the day. The journey--about eight\nmiles--took me a long time; but a halfway village afforded a\nresting-place and a cup of tea, both of which I gladly availed myself\nof. When about to leave again, a heavy shower of rain came on, and the\ndelay thus occasioned enabled me to speak a little to the people about\nthe truths of the Gospel.\n\nThe afternoon was far spent before I approached the northern suburb of\nHai-ning, where I commenced inquiries, but could hear no tidings of my\nservant or things. I was told that outside the East Gate I should be\nmore likely to hear of them, as it was there the sea-junks called. I\ntherefore proceeded thither, and sought for them outside the Little East\nGate, but in vain. Very weary, I sat down in a tea-shop to rest; and\nwhile there a number of persons from one of the mandarin's offices came\nin, and made inquiries as to who I was, where I had come from, etc. On\nlearning the object of my search, one of the men in the tea-shop said,\n\"A bamboo box and a bed, such as you describe, were carried past here\nabout half an hour ago. The bearer seemed to be going towards either the\nGreat East Gate or the South Gate; you had better go to the hongs there\nand inquire.\" I asked him to accompany me in the search, and promised to\nreward him for his trouble, but he would not. Another man offered to go\nwith me, so we set off together, and both inside and outside the two\ngates made diligent inquiries, but all in vain. I then engaged a man to\nmake a thorough search, promising him a liberal reward if he should be\nsuccessful. In the meantime I had some dinner, and addressed a large\nconcourse of people who had gathered together.\n\nWhen he returned, having met with no success, I said to him, \"I am now\nquite exhausted: will you help me to find quarters for the night, and\nthen I will pay you for your trouble?\" He was willing to befriend me,\nand we set off in search of lodgings. At the first place or two the\npeople would not receive me; for though on our first going in they\nseemed willing to do so, the presence of a man who followed us, and who,\nI found, was engaged in one of the Government offices, seemed to alarm\nthem, and I was refused. We now went to a third place, and being no\nlonger followed by the mandarin's messenger, we were promised quarters;\nsome tea was brought, and I paid the man who had accompanied me for his\ntrouble.\n\nSoon after he was gone some official people came in; they soon went\naway, but the result of their visit was that I was told I could not be\nentertained there that night. A young man present blamed them for their\nheartless behaviour, and said, \"Never mind, come with me; and if we\ncannot get better lodgings for you, you shall sleep at our house.\" I\nwent with him, but we found the people of his house unwilling to receive\nme. Weary and footsore, so that I could scarcely stand, I had again to\nseek quarters, and at length got promise of them; but a little crowd\ncollecting about the door, they desired me to go to a tea-shop and wait\nthere till the people had retired, or they would be unable to\naccommodate me. There was no help for it, so I went, accompanied still\nby the young man, and waited till past midnight. Then we left for the\npromised resting-place; but my conductor would not find it, and he led\nme about to another part of the city; and finally, between one and two\no'clock, he left me to pass the rest of the night as best I could.\n\nI was opposite a temple, but it was closed; so I lay down on the stone\nsteps in front of it, and putting my money under my head for a pillow,\nshould soon have been asleep in spite of the cold had I not perceived a\nperson coming stealthily towards me. As he approached I saw he was one\nof the beggars so common in China, and had no doubt his intention was to\nrob me of my money. I did not stir, but watched his movements, and\nlooked to my FATHER not to leave me in this hour of trial. The man came\nup, looked at me for some time to assure himself that I was asleep (it\nwas so dark that he could not see my eyes fixed on him), and then began\nto feel about me gently. I said to him in the quietest tone, but so as\nto convince him that I was not, nor had been, sleeping, \"What do you\nwant?\" He made no answer, but went away.\n\nI was very thankful to see him go, and when he was out of sight put as\nmuch of my cash as would not go into my pocket safely up my sleeve, and\nmade my pillow of a stone projection of the wall. It was not long ere I\nbegan to doze, but I was aroused by the all but noiseless footsteps of\ntwo persons approaching; for my nervous system was rendered so sensitive\nby exhaustion that the slightest noise startled me. Again I sought\nprotection from Him who alone was my stay, and lay still as before, till\none of them came up and began to feel under my head for the cash. I\nspoke again, and they sat down at my feet. I asked them what they were\ndoing; they replied that they, like me, were going to pass the night\nthere. I then requested them to take the opposite side, as there was\nplenty of room, and leave this side to me; but they would not move from\nmy feet, so I raised myself up and set my back against the wall.\n\nThey said, \"You had better lie down and sleep; if you do not, you will\nbe unable to walk to-morrow. Do not be afraid; we shall not leave you,\nand will see that no one hurts you.\"\n\n\"Listen to me,\" I replied. \"I do not want your protection; I need it\nnot; I am not a Chinese; I do not worship your senseless, helpless\nidols. I worship GOD; He is my FATHER; I trust in Him. I know well what\nyou are, and what your intentions are, and shall keep my eye on you, and\nshall not sleep.\"\n\nOn this, one of them went away, but soon returned with a third\ncompanion. I felt very uneasy, but looked to GOD for help. Once or twice\none of them got up to see if I was asleep. I only said, \"Do not be\nmistaken; I am not sleeping.\" Occasionally my head dropped, and this was\na signal for one of them to rise; but I at once roused myself and made\nsome remark. As the night slowly passed on, I felt very weary; and to\nkeep myself awake, as well as to cheer my mind, I sang several hymns,\nrepeated aloud some portions of Scripture, and engaged in prayer in\nEnglish, to the great annoyance of my companions, who seemed as if they\nwould have given anything to get me to desist. After that they troubled\nme no more; and shortly before dawn of day they left me, and I got a\nlittle sleep.\n\n\n _August 6th._\n\nI was awakened by the young man who had so misled me on the previous\nevening. He was very rude, and insisted on my getting up and paying him\nfor his trouble, and even went so far as to try to accomplish by force\nwhat he wanted. This roused me; and in an unguarded moment, with very\nimproper feeling, I seized his arm with such a grasp as he little\nexpected I was capable of, and dared him to lay a finger upon me again\nor to annoy me further. This quite changed his manner; he let me quietly\nremain till the guns announced the opening of the gates of the city, and\nthen he begged me to give him some money to buy opium with. It is\nneedless to say this was refused. I gave him the price of two candles,\nthat he said he had burnt while with me last night and no more. I\nlearned he was connected with one of the mandarin's offices.\n\nAs soon as possible, I bought some rice gruel and tea for breakfast, and\nthen once more made a personal search after my things. Some hours thus\nspent proving unavailing, I set out on the return journey, and after a\nlong, weary, and painful walk reached Chang-gan about noon. Here also my\ninquiries failed to give me any trace of the missing goods; so I had a\nmeal cooked in a tea-shop, got a thorough wash and bathed my inflamed\nfeet, and after dinner rested and slept till four in the afternoon.\n\nMuch refreshed, I then set on to return to the city, at the South Gate\nof which I had parted with my servant and coolies two days before. On\nthe way I was led to reflect on the goodness of GOD, and recollected\nthat I had not made it a matter of prayer that I might be provided with\nlodgings last night. I felt condemned, too, that I should have been so\nanxious for my few things, while the many precious souls around me had\ncaused so little emotion. I came as a sinner and pleaded the blood of\nJESUS, realising that I was accepted in Him--pardoned, cleansed,\nsanctified--and oh the love of JESUS, how great I felt it to be! I knew\nsomething more than I had ever previously known of what it was to be\ndespised and rejected, and to have nowhere to lay one's head; and I felt\nmore than ever I had done before the greatness of that love which\ninduced Him to leave His home in glory and suffer thus for me; nay, to\nlay down His very life upon the Cross. I thought of Him as \"despised and\nrejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief\"; I thought\nof Him at Jacob's well, weary, hungry, and thirsty, yet finding it His\nmeat and drink to do His Father's will; and contrasted this with my\nlittleness of love. I looked to Him for pardon for the past, and for\ngrace and strength to do His will in the future, to tread more closely\nin His footsteps, and be more than ever wholly His. I prayed for myself,\nfor friends in England, and for my brethren in the work. Sweet tears of\nmingled joy and sorrow flowed freely, the road was almost forgotten, and\nbefore I was aware of it I had reached my destination. Outside the South\nGate I took a cup of tea, asked about my lost luggage, and spoke of the\nlove of JESUS. Then I entered the city, and after many vain inquiries\nleft it by the North Gate.\n\nI felt so much refreshed both in mind and body by the communion I had on\nmy walk to the city that I thought myself able to finish the remaining\nsix miles back to Shih-mun-wan that evening. First I went into another\ntea-shop to buy some native cakes, and was making a meal of them when\nwho should come in but one of the identical coolies who had carried my\nthings the first stage. From him I learned that after I left them they\nhad taken my luggage to the South Gate; there my servant went away,\nsaying on his return that I had gone on, that he did not intend to start\nat once, but would spend the day with his friend, and then rejoin me;\nthey carried the things to this friend's house, and left them there. I\ngot him to go with me to the house, and there learned that the man had\nspent the day and night with them, and next morning had called other\ncoolies, and set off for Hang-chau. This was all I could gather; so,\nunable to do anything but proceed on my return journey to Shanghai with\nall expedition, I left the city again. It was now too late to go on to\nShih-mun-wan. I looked to my FATHER as able to supply all my need, and\nreceived another token of His ceaseless love and care, being invited to\nsleep on a hong-boat, now dry in the bed of the river. The night was\nagain very cold and the mosquitoes troublesome. Still, I got a little\nrest, and at sunrise was up and continued my journey.\n\n\n _August 7th._\n\nI felt very ill at first, and had a sore throat, but reflected on the\nwonderful goodness of GOD in enabling me to bear the heat by day and the\ncold by night so long. I felt also that quite a load was now taken off\nmy mind. I had committed myself and my affairs to the LORD, and knew\nthat if it was for my good and for His glory my things would be\nrestored; if not, all would be for the best. I hoped that the most\ntrying part of my journey was now drawing to a close, and this helped\nme, weary and footsore, on the way. When I got to Shih-mun-wan and had\nbreakfasted, I found I had still eight hundred and ten cash in hand; and\nI knew that the hong-boat fare to Kia-hing Fu was one hundred and twenty\ncash, and thence to Shanghai three hundred and sixty, leaving me just\nthree hundred and thirty cash--or twelve pence and a fraction--for three\nor four days provisions. I went at once to the boat office, but to my\ndismay found that from the dry state of the river goods had not come\ndown, so that no boat would leave to-day and perhaps none to-morrow. I\ninquired if there were no letter-boats for Kia-hing Fu, and was told\nthat they had already left. The only remaining resource was to ascertain\nif any private boats were going in which I could get a passage. My\nsearch, however, was in vain; and I could get no boat to undertake to go\nall the way to Shanghai, or my difficulty would have been at an end.\n\nJust at this juncture I saw before me, at a turn in the canal, a\nletter-boat going in the direction of Kia-hing Fu This, I concluded,\nmust be one of the Kia-hing boats that had been unexpectedly detained,\nand I set off after it as fast as hope and the necessities of the case\nwould carry me. For the time being weariness and sore feet were alike\nforgotten. After a chase of about a mile I overtook it.\n\n\"Are you going to Kia-hing Fu?\" I called out.\n\n\"No,\" was the only answer.\n\n\"Are you going in that direction?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Will you give me a passage as far as you do go that way?\"\n\nStill \"No,\" and nothing more.\n\nCompletely dispirited and exhausted, I sank down on the grass and\nfainted away.\n\nAs consciousness returned some voices reached my ear, and I found they\nwere talking about me. One said, \"He speaks pure Shanghai dialect,\" and\nfrom their own speech I knew them to be Shanghai people. Raising myself,\nI saw that they were on a large hong-boat on the other side of the\ncanal, and after a few words they sent their small boat to fetch me, and\nI went on board the junk. They were very kind, and gave me some tea; and\nwhen I was refreshed and able to partake of it, some food also. I then\ntook my shoes and stockings off to ease my feet, and the boatman kindly\nprovided me with hot water to bathe them. When they heard my story, and\nsaw the blisters on my feet, they evidently pitied me, and hailed every\nboat that passed to see if it was going my way. Not finding one, by and\nby, after a few hours' sleep, I went ashore with the captain, intending\nto preach in the temple of Kwan-ti.\n\nBefore leaving the junk I told the captain and those on board that I was\nnow unable to help myself; that I had not strength to walk to Kia-hing\nFu, and having been disappointed in getting a passage to-day, I should\nno longer have sufficient means to take me there by letter-boat, which\nwas an expensive mode of travelling; that I knew not how the GOD whom I\nserved would help me, but that I had no doubt He would do so; and that\nmy business now was to serve Him where I was. I also told them that the\nhelp which I knew would come ought to be an evidence to them of the\ntruth of the religion which I and the other missionaries at Shanghai\npreached.\n\nOn our way to the town, while engaged in conversation with the captain,\nwe saw a letter-boat coming up. The captain drew my attention to it; but\nI reminded him that I had no longer the means of paying my passage by\nit. He hailed it, nevertheless, and found that it was going to a place\nabout nine English miles from Shanghai, whence one of the boatmen would\ncarry the mails overland to the city. He then said, \"This gentleman is a\nforeigner from Shanghai, who has been robbed, and has no longer the\nmeans of returning. If you will take him with you as far as you go, and\nthen engage a sedan chair to carry him the rest of the way, he will pay\nyou in Shanghai. You see my boat is lying aground yonder for want of\nwater, and cannot get away. Now, I will stand surety; and if this\ngentleman does not pay when you get to Shanghai, I will do so on your\nreturn.\" This unsolicited kindness on the part of a Chinaman, a perfect\nstranger, will appear the more remarkable to any one acquainted with the\ncharacter of the Chinese, who are generally most reluctant to risk their\nmoney. Those on the letter-boat agreeing to the terms, I was taken on\nboard as a passenger. Oh, how thankful I felt for this providential\ninterposition, and to be once more on my way to Shanghai!\n\nLetter-boats such as the one on which I was now travelling are of a\nlong narrow build, and very limited as to their inside accommodation.\nOne has to lie down all the time they are in motion, as a slight\nmovement would easily upset them. This was no irksome condition to me,\nhowever; on the contrary, I was only too glad to be quiet. They are the\nquickest boats I have seen in China. Each one is worked by two men, who\nrelieve one another continuously night and day. They row with their\nfeet, and paddle with their hands; or if the wind is quite favourable,\nrow with their feet, and with one hand manage a small sail, while\nsteering with the other.\n\nAfter a pleasant and speedy journey, I reached Shanghai in safety on\nAugust 9th, through the help of Him who has said, \"I will never leave\nthee, nor forsake thee;\" \"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of\nthe world.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nPROVIDENTIAL GUIDANCE\n\n\nIT now seemed very clear that the lost property--including everything I\npossessed in China, with the exception of a small sum of money\nprovidentially left in Shanghai--had been deliberately stolen by my\nservant, who had gone off with it to Hang-chau. The first question, of\ncourse, was how best to act for the good of the man who had been the\ncause of so much trouble. It would not have been difficult to take steps\nthat would have led to his punishment; though the likelihood of any\nreparation being made for the loss sustained was very small. But the\nconsideration which weighed most heavily was that the thief was a man\nfor whose salvation I had laboured and prayed; and I felt that to\nprosecute him would not be to emphasise the teaching of the Sermon on\nthe Mount, in which we had read together, \"Resist not evil,\" and other\nsimilar precepts. Finally, concluding that his soul was of more value\nthan the \u00a340 worth of things I had lost, I wrote and told him this,\nurging upon him his need of repentance and faith in the LORD JESUS\nCHRIST. The course I took commended itself to my Christian friends in\nEngland, one of whom was afterwards led to send me a cheque for \u00a340--the\nfirst of many subsequently received from the same kind helper.\n\nHaving obtained the little money left in Shanghai, I again set out for\nNingpo, to seek assistance from Dr. Parker in replacing the medicines I\nhad previously lost by fire. This being satisfactorily accomplished, I\nreturned once more to Shanghai, _en route_ for Swatow, hoping soon to\nrejoin my much-loved friend, Mr. Burns, in the work in that important\ncentre. GOD had willed it otherwise, however; and the delay caused by\nthe robbery was just sufficient to prevent me from starting for the\nSouth as I had intended.\n\nOver the political horizon storm-clouds had long been gathering,\nprecursors of coming war; and early in October of this year (1856) the\naffair of the Lorcha _Arrow_ at Canton led to the definite commencement\nof hostilities. Very soon China was deeply involved in a second\nprolonged struggle with foreign powers; and missionary operations, in\nthe South at any rate, had to be largely suspended. Tidings of these\nevents, together with letters from Mr. Burns, arrived just in time to\nmeet me in Shanghai as I was leaving for Swatow; and thus hindered, I\ncould not but realise the hand of GOD in closing the door I had so much\ndesired to enter.\n\nWhile in Ningpo, I had made the acquaintance of Mr. John Jones, who,\nwith Dr. Parker, represented the Chinese Evangelisation Society in that\ncity. Hindered from returning to Swatow, I now decided to join these\nbrethren in the Ningpo work, and set out at once upon the journey. On\nthe afternoon of the second day, when already about thirty miles distant\nfrom Shanghai, Mr. Jones and I drew near the large and important city of\nSung-kiang, and I spoke of going ashore to preach the Gospel to the\nthronging multitudes that lined the banks and crowded the approaches to\nthe city gates.\n\nAmong the passengers on board the boat was one intelligent man, who in\nthe course of his travels had been a good deal abroad, and had even\nvisited England, where he went by the name of Peter. As might be\nexpected, he had heard something of the Gospel, but had never\nexperienced its saving power. On the previous evening I had drawn him\ninto earnest converse about his soul's salvation. The man listened with\nattention, and was even moved to tears, but still no definite result was\napparent. I was pleased, therefore, when he asked to be allowed to\naccompany me, and to hear me preach.\n\nI went into the cabin of the boat to prepare tracts and books for\ndistribution on landing with my Chinese friend, when suddenly I was\nstartled by a splash and a cry from without. I sprang on deck, and took\nin the situation at a glance. Peter was gone! The other men were all\nthere, on board, looking helplessly at the spot where he had\ndisappeared, but making no effort to save him. A strong wind was\ncarrying the junk rapidly forward in spite of a steady current in the\nopposite direction, and the low-lying, shrubless shore afforded no\nlandmark to indicate how far we had left the drowning man behind.\n\nI instantly let down the sail and leapt overboard in the hope of finding\nhim. Unsuccessful, I looked around in agonising suspense, and saw close\nto me a fishing-boat with a peculiar drag-net furnished with hooks,\nwhich I knew would bring him up.\n\n\"Come!\" I cried, as hope revived in my heart. \"Come and drag over this\nspot directly; a man is drowning just here!\"\n\n\"Veh bin\" (It is not convenient), was the unfeeling answer.\n\n\"Don't talk of _convenience_!\" cried I in an agony; \"a man is drowning,\nI tell you!\"\n\n\"We are busy fishing,\" they responded, \"and cannot come.\"\n\n\"Never mind your fishing,\" I said, \"I will give you more money than many\na day's fishing will bring; only come--come at once!\"\n\n\"How much money will you give us?\"\n\n\"We cannot stay to discuss that now! Come, or it will be too late. I\nwill give you five dollars\" (then worth about thirty shillings in English\nmoney).\n\n\"We won't do it for that,\" replied the men. \"Give us twenty dollars, and\nwe will drag.\"\n\n\"I do not possess so much: do come quickly, and I will give you all I\nhave!\"\n\n\"How much may that be?\"\n\n\"I don't know exactly, about fourteen dollars.\"\n\nAt last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was paddled over, and the\nnet let down. Less than a minute sufficed to bring up the body of the\nmissing man. The fishermen were clamorous and indignant because their\nexorbitant demand was delayed while efforts at resuscitation were being\nmade. But all was in vain--life was extinct.\n\nTo myself this incident was profoundly sad and full of significance,\nsuggesting a far more mournful reality. Were not those fishermen\nactually guilty of this poor Chinaman's death, in that they had the\nmeans of saving him at hand, if they would but have used them? Assuredly\nthey were guilty. And yet, let us pause ere we pronounce judgment\nagainst them, lest a greater than Nathan answer, \"_Thou art the man_.\"\nIs it so hard-hearted, so wicked a thing to neglect to save the body? Of\nhow much sorer punishment, then, is he worthy who leaves the soul to\nperish, and Cain-like says, \"Am I my brother's keeper?\" The LORD JESUS\ncommands, commands _me_, commands _you_, my brother, and _you_, my\nsister. \"Go,\" says He, \"go ye into _all_ the world, and preach the\nGospel to _every_ creature.\" Shall we say to _Him_, \"No, it is not\nconvenient\"? shall we tell _Him_ that we are busy fishing and cannot\ngo? that we have bought a piece of ground and cannot go? that we have\npurchased five yoke of oxen, or have married, or are engaged in other\nand more interesting pursuits, and cannot go? Ere long \"we must all\nappear before the judgment seat of CHRIST; that every one may receive\nthe things done in his body.\" Let us remember, let us pray for, let us\nlabour for the unevangelised Chinese; _or we shall sin against our own\nsouls_. Let us consider _Who_ it is that has said, \"If thou _forbear_ to\ndeliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be\nslain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that\npondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth _thy_ soul, doth\nnot he know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his\nworks?\"\n\n Through midnight gloom from Macedon,\n The cry of myriads as of one;\n The voiceful silence of despair\n Is eloquent in awful prayer:\n The soul's exceeding bitter cry,\n \"Come o'er and help us, or we die.\"\n\n How mournfully it echoes on,\n For half the earth is Macedon;\n These brethren to their brethren call,\n And by the Love which loves them all,\n And by the whole world's Life they cry,\n \"O ye that live, behold we die!\"\n\n By other sounds the world is won\n Than that which wails from Macedon;\n The roar of gain is round it rolled,\n Or men unto themselves are sold,\n And cannot list the alien cry,\n \"O hear and help us, lest we die!\"\n\n Yet with that cry from Macedon\n The very car of CHRIST rolls on:\n \"_I come; who would abide My day,_\n _In yonder wilds prepare My way;_\n _My voice is crying in their cry,_\n _Help ye the dying, lest ye die_.\"\n\n JESU, for men of Man the SON,\n Yea, THINE the cry from Macedon;\n Oh, by the kingdom and the power\n And glory of Thine advent hour,\n Wake heart and will to hear their cry:\n Help us to help them, lest we die.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nSETTLEMENT IN NINGPO\n\n\nTHE autumn of 1856 was well advanced before I reached Ningpo, one of the\nmost ancient and influential cities on the coast of China. Opened to the\nresidence of foreigners in 1842 by the treaty of Nan-king, it had long\nbeen the scene of missionary labours. Within its thronging thoroughfares\nthe busy tide of life runs high. Four hundred thousand human beings\ndwell within or around the five miles circuit of its ancient wall, every\none a soul that JESUS loves, for whom He died.\n\nAs winter drew on I rented a native house in Wu-gyiao-deo, or Lake Head\nStreet. It was not then a very comfortable residence. I have a very\ndistinct remembrance of tracing my initials on the snow which during the\nnight had collected upon my coverlet in the large barn-like upper room,\nnow subdivided into four or five smaller ones, each of which is\ncomfortably ceiled. The tiling of an unceiled Chinese house may keep off\nthe rain--if it happens to be sound--but it does not afford so good a\nprotection against snow, which will beat up through crannies and\ncrevices, and find its way within. But however unfinished may have been\nits fittings, the little house was well adapted for work amongst the\npeople; and there I thankfully settled down, finding ample scope for\nservice,--morning, noon, and night.\n\nDuring the latter part of this year my mind was greatly exercised about\ncontinued connection with my Society, it being frequently in debt.\nPersonally I had always avoided debt, and kept within my salary, though\nat times only by very careful economy. Now there was no difficulty in\ndoing this, for my income was larger, and the country being in a more\npeaceful state, things were not so dear. But the Society itself was in\ndebt. The quarterly bills which I and others were instructed to draw\nwere often met by borrowed money, and a correspondence commenced which\nterminated in the following year by my resigning from conscientious\nmotives.\n\nTo me it seemed that the teaching of GOD'S Word was unmistakably clear:\n\"Owe no man any thing.\" To borrow money implied, to my mind, a\ncontradiction of Scripture--a confession that GOD had withheld some good\nthing, and a determination to get for ourselves what He had not given.\nCould that which was wrong for one Christian to do be right for an\nassociation of Christians? Or could any amount of precedents make a\nwrong course justifiable? If the Word taught me anything, it taught me\nto have no connection with debt. I could not think that GOD was poor,\nthat He was short of resources, or unwilling to supply any want of\nwhatever work was really His. It seemed to me that if there were lack of\nfunds to carry on work, then to that degree, in that special\ndevelopment, or at that time, it could not be the work of GOD. To\nsatisfy my conscience I was therefore compelled to resign connection\nwith the Society which had hitherto supplied my salary.\n\nIt was a great satisfaction to me that my friend and colleague, Mr.\nJones, also of the Chinese Evangelisation Society, was led to take the\nsame step; and we were both profoundly thankful that the separation\ntook place without the least breach of friendly feeling on either side.\nIndeed, we had the joy of knowing that the step we took commended itself\nto several members of the Committee, although as a whole the Society\ncould not come to our position. Depending upon GOD alone for supplies,\nwe were enabled to continue a measure of connection with our former\nsupporters, sending home journals, etc., for publication as before, so\nlong as the Society continued to exist.\n\nThe step we had taken was not a little trying to faith. I was not at all\nsure what GOD would have me do, or whether He would so meet my need as\nto enable me to continue working as before. I had no friends whatever\nfrom whom I expected supplies. I did not know what means the LORD might\nuse; but I was willing to give up all my time to the service of\nevangelisation among the heathen, if by any means He would supply the\nsmallest amount on which I could live; and if He were not pleased to do\nthis, I was prepared to undertake whatever work might be necessary to\nsupply myself, giving all the time that could be spared from such a\ncalling to more distinctly missionary efforts. But GOD blessed and\nprospered me; and how glad and thankful I felt when the separation was\nreally effected! I could look right up into my FATHER'S face with a\nsatisfied heart, ready, by His grace, to do the next thing as He might\nteach me, and feeling very sure of His loving care.\n\nAnd how blessedly He did lead me on and provide for me I can never,\nnever tell. It was like a continuation of some of my earlier home\nexperiences. My faith was not untried; it often, often failed, and I was\nso sorry and ashamed of the failure to trust such a FATHER. But oh! I\nwas learning to know Him. I would not even then have missed the trial.\nHe became so near, so real, so intimate. The occasional difficulty about\nfunds never came from an insufficient supply for personal needs, but in\nconsequence of ministering to the wants of scores of the hungry and\ndying ones around us. And trials far more searching in other ways quite\neclipsed these difficulties; and being deeper, brought forth in\nconsequence richer fruits. How glad one is now, not only to know, with\ndear Miss Havergal, that----\n\n \"They who trust Him wholly\n Find Him wholly true,\"\n\nbut also that when we fail to trust fully He still remains unchangingly\nfaithful. He _is_ wholly true whether we trust or not. \"If we believe\nnot, He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself.\" But oh, how we\ndishonour our LORD whenever we fail to trust Him, and what peace,\nblessing, and triumph we lose in thus sinning against the Faithful One!\nMay we never again presume in anything to doubt Him!\n\nThe year 1857 was a troublous time, and closed with the notorious\nbombardment of Canton by the British, and the commencement of our second\nChinese war. Rumours of trouble were everywhere rife, and in many places\nthe missionaries passed through not a little danger. In Ningpo this was\nespecially the case, and the preserving care of GOD in answer to prayer\nwas consequently most marked. When the awful news of the bombardment of\nCanton reached the Cantonese in Ningpo their wrath and indignation knew\nno bounds, and they immediately set to work to plot the destruction of\nall the foreigners resident in the city and neighbourhood. It was well\nknown that many of the foreigners were in the habit of meeting for\nworship every Sunday evening at one of the missionary houses, and the\nplan was to surround the place on a given occasion and make short work\nof all present, cutting off afterwards any who might not be present.\n\nThe sanction of the Tao-t'ai, or chief civil magistrate of the city, was\neasily obtained; and nothing remained to hinder the execution of the\nplot, of which the foreigners were of course entirely in ignorance. (A\nsimilar plot against the Portuguese a few months later was carried out,\nand between fifty and sixty were massacred in open daylight.) It so\nhappened, however, that one of those acquainted with the conspiracy had\na friend engaged in the service of the missionaries; and anxious for his\nsafety, he was led to warn him of the coming danger, and urge his\nleaving foreign employ. The servant made the matter known to his master,\nand thus the little community became aware of their peril. Realising the\ngravity of the situation, they determined to meet together at the house\nof one of their number to seek the protection of the Most High, and to\nhide under the shadow of His wings. Nor did they thus meet in vain.\n\nAt the very time we were praying the LORD was working. He led an\ninferior mandarin, the Superintendent of Customs, to call upon the\nTao-t'ai, and remonstrate with him upon the folly of permitting such an\nattempt, which he assured him would rouse the foreigners in other places\nto come with armed forces to avenge the death of their countrymen and\nraze the city to the ground. The Tao-t'ai replied that, when the\nforeigners came for that purpose, he should deny all knowledge of or\ncomplicity in the plot, and so direct their vengeance against the\nCantonese, who would in their turn be destroyed; \"and thus,\" said he,\n\"we shall get rid of both Cantonese and foreigners by one stroke of\npolicy.\" The Superintendent of Customs assured him that all such\nattempts at evasion would be useless; and, finally, the Tao-t'ai sent to\nthe Cantonese, withdrawing his permission, and prohibiting the attack.\nThis took place at the very time when we were asking protection of the\nLORD, though we did not become acquainted with the facts until some\nweeks later. Thus again we were led to prove that--\n\n \"Sufficient is His arm alone,\n And our defence is sure.\"\n\nI cannot attempt to give any historical record of the events of this\nperiod, but ere 1857 terminated Mr. Jones and I were cheered by tokens\nof blessing. It is interesting to recall the circumstances connected\nwith the first profession of faith in Christ, which encouraged us.\n\nOn one occasion I was preaching the glad tidings of salvation through\nthe finished work of CHRIST, when a middle-aged man stood up, and\ntestified before his assembled countrymen to his faith in the power of\nthe Gospel.\n\n\"I have long sought for the Truth,\" said he earnestly, \"as my fathers\ndid before me; but I have never found it. I have travelled far and near,\nbut without obtaining it. I have found no rest in Confucianism,\nBuddhism, or Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here\nto-night. Henceforth I am a believer in JESUS.\"\n\nThis man was one of the leading officers of a sect of reformed Buddhists\nin Ningpo. A short time after his confession of faith in the SAVIOUR\nthere was a meeting of the sect over which he had formerly presided. I\naccompanied him to that meeting, and there, to his former\nco-religionists, he testified of the peace he had obtained in believing.\nSoon after, one of his former companions was converted and baptized.\nBoth now sleep in JESUS. The first of these two long continued to preach\nto his countrymen the glad tidings of great joy. A few nights after his\nconversion he asked how long this Gospel had been known in England. He\nwas told that we had known it for some hundreds of years.\n\n\"What!\" said he, amazed; \"is it possible that for hundreds of years you\nhave had the knowledge of these glad tidings in your possession, and yet\nhave only now come to preach it to us? My father sought after the Truth\nfor more than twenty years, and died without finding it. Oh, why did you\nnot come sooner?\"\n\nA whole generation has passed away since that mournful inquiry was made;\nbut how many, alas! might repeat the same question to-day? More than two\nhundred millions in the meanwhile have been swept into eternity, without\nan offer of salvation. How long shall this continue, and the MASTER'S\nwords, \"To every creature,\" remain unheeded?\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTIMELY SUPPLIES\n\n\nNOT infrequently our GOD brings His people into difficulties on purpose\nthat they may come to know Him as they could not otherwise do. Then He\nreveals Himself as \"a very present help in trouble,\" and makes the heart\nglad indeed at each fresh revelation of a FATHER'S faithfulness. We who\nonly see so small a part of the sweet issues of trial often feel that we\nwould not for anything have missed them; how much more shall we bless\nand magnify His Name when all the hidden things are brought to light!\n\nIn the autumn of 1857, just one year after I came to settle in Ningpo, a\nlittle incident occurred that did much to strengthen our faith in the\nloving-kindness and ever-watchful care of GOD.\n\nA brother in the LORD, the Rev. John Quarterman, of the American\nPresbyterian Mission North, was taken with virulent small-pox, and it\nwas my mournful privilege to nurse him through his suffering illness to\nits fatal close. When all was over, it became necessary to lay aside the\ngarments worn while nursing, for fear of conveying the infection to\nothers. Not having sufficient money in hand to purchase what was needful\nin order to make this change, prayer was the only resource. The LORD\nanswered it by the unexpected arrival of a long-lost box of clothing\nfrom Swatow, that had remained in the care of the Rev. William Burns\nwhen I left him for Shanghai, in the early summer of the previous year.\nThe arrival of the things just at this juncture was as appropriate as it\nwas remarkable, and brought a sweet sense of the FATHER'S own providing.\n\nAbout two months later the following was penned:----\n\n\n _November 18th, 1857._\n\nMany seem to think that I am very poor. This certainly is true enough in\none sense, but I thank GOD it is \"as poor, yet making many rich; as\nhaving nothing, yet possessing all things.\" And my GOD shall supply\n_all_ my need; to Him be all the glory. I would not, if I could, be\notherwise than I am--entirely dependent myself upon the LORD, and used\nas a channel of help to others.\n\nOn Saturday, the 4th inst., our regular home mail arrived. That morning\nwe supplied, as usual, a breakfast to the destitute poor, who came to\nthe number of seventy. Sometimes they do not reach forty, at others\nagain exceeding eighty. They come to us every day, LORD'S Day excepted,\nfor then we cannot manage to attend to them and get through all our\nother duties too. Well, on that Saturday morning we paid all expenses,\nand provided ourselves for the morrow, after which we had not a single\ndollar left between us. How the LORD was going to provide for Monday we\nknew not; but over our mantelpiece hung two scrolls in the Chinese\ncharacter--_Ebenezer_, \"Hitherto hath the LORD helped us\"; and\n_Jehovah-Jireh_, \"The LORD will provide\"--and He kept us from doubting\nfor a moment. That very day the mail came in, _a week sooner than was\nexpected_, and Mr. Jones received a bill for two hundred and fourteen\ndollars. We thanked GOD and took courage. The bill was taken to a\nmerchant, and although there is usually a delay of several days in\ngetting the change, this time he said, \"Send down on Monday.\" We sent,\nand though he had not been able to buy all the dollars, he let us have\nseventy on account; so all was well. Oh, it is sweet to live thus\ndirectly dependent upon the LORD, who never fails us!\n\nOn Monday the poor had their breakfast as usual, for we had not told\nthem not to come, being assured that it was the LORD'S work, and that\nthe LORD would provide. We could not help our eyes filling with tears of\ngratitude when we saw not only our own needs supplied, but the widow and\nthe orphan, the blind and the lame, the friendless and the destitute,\ntogether provided for by the bounty of Him who feeds the ravens. \"O\nmagnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together. . . . Taste\nand see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.\nO fear the LORD, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear\nHim. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the\nLORD shall not want any good thing\"--and if not good, why want it?\n\nBut even two hundred dollars cannot last for ever, and by New Year's Day\nsupplies were again getting low. At last, on January 6th, 1858, only one\nsolitary cash remained--the twentieth part of a penny--in the joint\npossession of Mr. Jones and myself; but though tried we looked to GOD\nonce again to manifest His gracious care. Enough provision was found in\nthe house to supply a meagre breakfast; after which, having neither food\nfor the rest of the day, nor money to buy any, we could only betake\nourselves to Him who was able to supply all our need with the petition,\n\"Give us this day our daily bread.\"\n\nAfter prayer and deliberation we thought that perhaps we ought to\ndispose of something we possessed in order to meet our immediate\nrequirements. But on looking round we saw nothing that we could well\nspare, and little that the Chinese would purchase for ready money.\nCredit to any extent we might have had, could we conscientiously have\navailed ourselves of it, but this we felt to be unscriptural in itself,\nas well as inconsistent with the position we were in. We had, indeed,\none article--an iron stove--which we knew the Chinese would readily\npurchase; but we much regretted the necessity of parting with it. At\nlength, however, we set out to the founder's, and after a walk of some\ndistance came to the river, which we had intended to cross by a floating\nbridge of boats; but here the LORD shut up our path. The bridge had been\ncarried away during the preceding night, and the river was only passable\nby means of a ferry, the fare for which was two cash each person. As we\nonly possessed one cash, our course clearly was to return and await\nGOD'S own interposition on our behalf.\n\nUpon reaching home, we found that Mrs. Jones had gone with the children\nto dine at a friend's house, in accordance with an invitation accepted\nsome days previously. Mr. Jones, though himself included in the\ninvitation, refused now to go and leave me to fast alone. So we set to\nwork and carefully searched the cupboards; and though there was nothing\nto eat, we found a small packet of cocoa, which, with a little hot\nwater, somewhat revived us. After this we again cried to the LORD in our\ntrouble, and the LORD heard and saved us out of all our distresses. For\nwhile we were still upon our knees a letter arrived from England\ncontaining a remittance.\n\nThis timely supply not only met the immediate and urgent need of the\nday; for in the assured confidence that GOD, whose we were and whom we\nserved, would not put to shame those whose whole and only trust was in\nHimself. My marriage had been previously arranged to take place just\nfourteen days after this date. And this expectation was not\ndisappointed; for \"the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed,\nbut My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant\nof My peace be removed.\" And although during subsequent years our faith\nwas often exercised, and sometimes severely, He ever proved faithful to\nHis promise, and never suffered us to lack any good thing.\n\nNever, perhaps, was there a union that more fully realised the blessed\ntruth, \"Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour\nof the LORD.\" My dear wife was not only a precious gift to me; GOD\nblessed her to many others during the twelve eventful years through\nwhich she was spared to those that loved her and to China.\n\nHers had been a life connection with missionary work in that great\nempire; for her father, the loved and devoted Samuel Dyer, was amongst\nthe very earliest representatives of the London Mission in the East. He\nreached the Straits as early as 1827, and for sixteen years laboured\nassiduously amongst the Chinese in Penang and Singapore, completing at\nthe same time a valuable fount of Chinese metallic type, the first of\nthe kind that had then been attempted. Dying in 1843, it was never Mr.\nDyers privilege to realise his hopes of ultimately being able to settle\non Chinese soil; but his children lived to see the country opened to the\nGospel, and to take their share in the great work that had been so dear\nto his heart. At the time of her marriage, my dear wife had been already\nliving for several years in Ningpo with her friend, Miss Aldersey, in\nwhose varied missionary operations she was well qualified to render\nvaluable assistance.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nGOD A REFUGE FOR US\n\n\nA SOMEWHAT different though not less manifest answer to prayer was\nvouchsafed early in the year 1859. My dear wife was brought very low by\nillness, and at last all hope of recovery seemed gone. Every remedy\ntried had proved unavailing; and Dr. Parker, who was in attendance, had\nnothing more to suggest. Life was ebbing fast away. The only ground of\nhope was that GOD might yet see fit to raise her up, in answer to\nbelieving but submissive prayer.\n\nThe afternoon for the usual prayer meeting among the missionaries had\narrived, and I sent in a request for prayer, which was most warmly\nresponded to. Just at this time a remedy that had not yet been tried was\nsuggested to my mind, and I felt that I must hasten to consult Dr.\nParker as to the propriety of using it. It was a moment of anguish. The\nhollow temples, sunken eyes, and pinched features denoted the near\napproach of death; and it seemed more than questionable as to whether\nlife would hold out until my return. It was nearly two miles to Dr.\nParker's house, and every moment appeared long. On my way thither, while\nwrestling mightily with GOD in prayer, the precious words were brought\nwith power to my soul, \"Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will\ndeliver thee, and thou shall glorify Me.\" I was at once enabled to plead\nthem in faith, and the result was deep, deep, unspeakable peace and\njoy. All consciousness of distance was gone. Dr. Parker cordially\napproved of the use of the means suggested, but upon arriving at home I\nsaw at a glance that the desired change had taken place in the absence\nof this or any other remedy. The pinched aspect of the countenance had\ngiven place to the calmness of tranquil slumber, and not one\nunfavourable symptom remained to retard recovery to health and strength.\n\nSpared thus in answer to prayer the loss of my own loved one, it was\nwith added sympathy and sorrow that I felt for Dr. Parker, when, in the\nautumn of the same year, his own wife was very suddenly removed. It\nbeing necessary for the doctor to return at once with his motherless\nchildren to Glasgow, temporary arrangements had to be made for the\nconduct of the Mission Hospital in Ningpo, for which he alone had been\nresponsible. Under these circumstances he requested me to take up the\nwork, at least so far as the dispensary was concerned. After a few days'\nwaiting upon the LORD for guidance, I felt constrained to undertake not\nonly the dispensary work, but also that of the hospital; relying solely\nupon the faithfulness of a prayer-hearing GOD to furnish the means\nrequired for its support.\n\nThe funds for the maintenance of the hospital had hitherto been supplied\nby the proceeds of the doctor's foreign medical practice; and with his\ndeparture these ceased. But had not GOD said that whatever we ask in the\nName of the LORD JESUS shall be done? And are we not told to seek first\nthe kingdom of GOD, not means to advance it, and that all these things\nshall be added to us? Such promises were surely sufficient. Eight days\nbefore entering upon this responsibility I had not the remotest idea of\never doing so; still less could friends at home have anticipated it.\nBut the LORD had foreseen the need, and already funds were on the way to\nsupply it.\n\nAt times there were not less than fifty in-patients in the hospital,\nbesides a large number who daily attended the out-patient department.\nThirty beds were ordinarily allotted to free patients and their\nattendants; and about as many to opium-smokers, who paid for their board\nwhile being cured of the habit. As all the wants of the sick in the\nwards were supplied gratuitously, in addition to the remedial appliances\nneeded for the out-patient work, the daily expenses were considerable;\nbesides which, a number of native attendants were required, involving\ntheir support.\n\nWhen Dr. Parker handed the hospital over to me he was able to leave\nmoney that would meet the salaries and working expenses of the current\nmonth, and little more. Being unable to guarantee their support, his\nnative staff retired; and then I mentioned the circumstances to the\nmembers of our little church, some of whom volunteered to help me,\ndepending, like myself, upon the LORD; and they with me continued to\nwait upon GOD that in some way or other He would provide for His own\nwork. Day by day the stores diminished, and they were all but exhausted\nwhen one day a remarkable letter reached me from a friend in England\nwhich contained a cheque for \u00a350. The letter stated that the sender had\nrecently lost his father, and had inherited his property; that not\ndesiring to increase his personal expenditure, he wished to hold the\nmoney which had now been left to him to further the LORD'S work. He\nenclosed the \u00a350, saying that I might know of some special need for it;\nbut leaving me free to use it for my own support, or in any way that the\nLORD might lead me; only asking to know how it was applied, and whether\nthere was need for more.\n\nAfter a little season of thanksgiving with my dear wife, I called my\nnative helpers into our little chapel, and translated to them the\nletter. I need not say how rejoiced they were, and that we together\npraised GOD. They returned to their work in the hospital with\noverflowing hearts, and told out to the patients what a GOD was ours;\nappealing to them whether their idols had ever helped them so. Both\nhelpers and patients were blessed spiritually through this remarkable\nprovision, and from that time the LORD provided all that was necessary\nfor carrying on the institution, in addition to what was needed for the\nmaintenance of my own family, and for sustaining other branches of\nmissionary work under my care. When, nine months later, I was obliged\nthrough failure of health to relinquish this charge, I was able to leave\nmore funds in hand for the support of the hospital than were forthcoming\nat the time I undertook it.\n\nBut not only were pecuniary supplies vouchsafed in answer to\nprayer--many lives were spared; persons apparently in hopeless stages of\ndisease were restored, and success was given in cases of serious and\ndangerous operations. In the case of one poor man, whose legs were\namputated under very unfavourable circumstances, healthy action took\nplace with such rapidity that both wounds were healed in less than two\nweeks. And more permanent benefits than these were conferred. Many were\nconvinced of the truth of Christianity; not a few sought the LORD in\nfaith and prayer, and experienced the power of the Great Physician to\ncure the sin-sick soul. During the nine months above alluded to sixteen\npatients from the hospital were baptized, and more than thirty others\nbecame candidates for admission into one or other of the Christian\nchurches in the city.\n\nThus the year 1860 began with openings on all hands, but time and\nstrength were sadly too limited to admit of their being used to the\nbest advantage. For some time the help of additional workers had been a\nmuch-felt need; and in January very definite prayer was made to the LORD\nof the harvest that He would thrust forth more labourers into this\nspecial portion of the great world-field. Writing to relatives at home\nin England, under date of January 16th, 1860, I thus expressed the deep\nlonging of our hearts:--\n\n Do you know any earnest, devoted young men\n desirous of serving GOD in China, who--not wishing\n for more than their actual support--would be\n willing to come out and labour here? Oh, for four\n or five such helpers! They would probably begin to\n preach in Chinese in six months time; and in\n answer to prayer the necessary means for their\n support would be found.\n\nBut no one came to help us then; and under the incessant physical and\nmental strain involved, in the care of the hospital during Dr. Parker's\nabsence, as well as the continued discharge of my other missionary\nduties, my own health began rapidly to fail, and it became a serious\nquestion as to whether it would not be needful to return to England for\na time.\n\nIt was hard to face this possibility. The growing church and work seemed\nto need our presence, and it was no small trial to part from those whom\nwe had learned so truly to love in the LORD. Thirty or forty native\nChristians had been gathered into the recently organised church; and the\nwell-filled meetings, and the warm-hearted earnestness of the converts,\nall bespoke a future of much promise. At last, however, completely\nprostrated by repeated attacks of illness, the only hope of restoration\nseemed to lie in a voyage to England and a brief stay in its more\nbracing climate; and this necessity, painful though it seemed at the\ntime, proved to be only another opportunity for the manifestation of the\nfaithfulness and loving care of Him \"who worketh all things after the\ncounsel of His own will.\"\n\nAs heretofore, the LORD was present with His aid. The means for our\njourney were supplied, and that so liberally that we were able to bring\nwith us a native Christian to assist in translation or other literary\nwork, and to instruct in the language such helpers as the LORD might\nraise up for the extension of the Mission. That He would give us\nfellow-labourers we had no doubt; for we had been enabled to seek them\nfrom Him in earnest and believing prayer for many months previously.\n\nThe day before leaving China we wrote as follows to our friend W. T.\nBerger, Esq., whom we had known in England, and who had ever\nstrengthened our hands in the LORD while in that distant land:--\n\n\"We are bringing with us a young Chinese brother to assist in literary\nwork, and I hope also in teaching the dialect to those whom the LORD may\ninduce to return with us.\"\n\nAnd throughout the voyage our earnest cry to GOD was that He would\noverrule our stay at home for good to China, and make it instrumental in\nraising up at least five helpers to labour in the province of\nCHEH-KIANG.\n\nThe way in which it pleased the LORD to answer these earnest and\nbelieving prayers, and the \"exceeding abundantly\" with which He crowned\nthem, we shall now sketch in brief outline.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nA NEW AGENCY NEEDED\n\n\n\"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith\nthe LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways\nhigher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.\"[3] How true\nare these words! When the LORD is bringing in great blessing in the best\npossible way, how oftentimes our unbelieving hearts are feeling, if not\nsaying, like Jacob of old, \"All these things are against me.\" Or we are\nfilled with fear, as were the disciples when the LORD, walking on the\nwaters, drew near to quiet the troubled sea, and to bring them quickly\nto their desired haven. And yet mere common-sense ought to tell us that\nHe, whose way is perfect, _can_ make no mistakes; that He who has\npromised to \"perfect that which concerneth\" us, and whose minute care\ncounts the very hairs of our heads, and forms for us our circumstances,\n_must_ know better than we the way to forward our truest interests and\nto glorify His own Name.\n\n \"Blind unbelief is _sure_ to err\n And scan His work in vain;\n GOD is His own Interpreter,\n And He will make it plain.\"\n\nTo me it seemed a great calamity that failure of health compelled my\nrelinquishing work for GOD in China, just when it was more fruitful than\never before; and to leave the little band of Christians in Ningpo,\nneeding much care and teaching, was a great sorrow. Nor was the sorrow\nlessened when, on reaching England, medical testimony assured me that\nreturn to China, at least for years to come, was impossible. Little did\nI then realise that the long separation from China was a necessary step\ntowards the formation of a work which GOD would bless as He has blessed\nthe CHINA INLAND MISSION. While in the field, the pressure of claims\nimmediately around me was so great that I could not think much of the\nstill greater needs of the regions farther inland; and, if they were\nthought of, could do nothing for them. But while detained for some years\nin England, daily viewing the whole country on the large map on the wall\nof my study, I was as near to the vast regions of Inland China as to the\nsmaller districts in which I had laboured personally for GOD; and prayer\nwas often the only resource by which the burdened heart could gain any\nrelief.\n\nAs a long absence from China appeared inevitable, the next question was\nhow best to serve China while in England, and this led to my engaging\nfor several years, with the late Rev. F. F. Gough of the C. M. S., in\nthe revision of a version of the New Testament in the colloquial of\nNingpo for the British and Foreign Bible Society. In undertaking this\nwork, in my short-sightedness I saw nothing beyond the use that the\nBook, and the marginal references, would be to the native Christians;\nbut I have often seen since that, without those months of feeding and\nfeasting on the Word of GOD, I should have been quite unprepared to\nform, on its present basis, a mission like the CHINA INLAND MISSION.\n\nIn the study of that Divine Word I learned that, to obtain successful\nlabourers, not elaborate appeals for help, but, _first_, earnest _prayer\nto GOD to thrust forth labourers_, and, _second_, the deepening of the\nspiritual life of the church, so that _men should be unable to stay at\nhome_, were what was needed. I saw that the Apostolic plan was not to\nraise ways and means, but _to go and do the work_, trusting in His sure\nWord who has said, \"Seek ye _first_ the Kingdom of GOD and His\nrighteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.\"\n\nIn the meantime the prayer for workers for CHEH-KIANG was being\nanswered. The first, Mr. Meadows, sailed for China with his young wife\nin January 1862, through the kind co-operation and aid of our friend Mr.\nBerger. The second left England in 1864, having her passage provided by\nthe Foreign Evangelisation Society. The third and fourth reached Ningpo\non July 24th, 1865. A fifth soon followed them, reaching Ningpo in\nSeptember 1865. Thus the prayer for the five workers was fully answered;\nand we were encouraged to look to GOD for still greater things.\n\nMonths of earnest prayer and not a few abortive efforts had resulted in\na deep conviction that _a special agency was essential_ for the\nevangelisation of Inland China. At this time I had not only the daily\nhelp of prayer and conference with my beloved friend and fellow-worker\nthe late Rev. F. F. Gough, but also invaluable aid and counsel from Mr.\nand Mrs. Berger, with whom I and my dear wife (whose judgment and piety\nwere of priceless value at this juncture) spent many days in prayerful\ndeliberation. The grave difficulty of possibly interfering with existing\nmissionary operations at home was foreseen; but it was concluded that,\nby simple trust in GOD, suitable agency might be raised up and sustained\nwithout interfering injuriously with any existing work. I had also a\ngrowing conviction that GOD would have _me_ to seek from Him the needed\nworkers, and to go forth with them. But for a long time unbelief\nhindered my taking the first step.\n\nHow inconsistent unbelief always is! I had no doubt that, if I prayed\nfor workers, \"_in_ the Name\" of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, they would be\ngiven me. I had no doubt that, in answer to such prayer, the means for\nour going forth would be provided, and that doors would be opened before\nus in unreached parts of the Empire. But I had not then learned to trust\nGOD for _keeping_ power and grace for myself, so no wonder that I could\nnot trust Him to keep others who might be prepared to go with me. I\nfeared that in the midst of the dangers, difficulties, and trials which\nwould necessarily be connected with such a work, some who were\ncomparatively inexperienced Christians might break down, and bitterly\nreproach me for having encouraged them to undertake an enterprise for\nwhich they were unequal.\n\nYet, what was I to do? The feeling of blood-guiltiness became more and\nmore intense. Simply because I refused to ask for them, the labourers\ndid not come forward--did not go out to China--and every day tens of\nthousands were passing away to Christless graves! Perishing China so\nfilled my heart and mind that there was no rest by day, and little sleep\nby night, till health broke down. At the invitation of my beloved and\nhonoured friend, Mr. George Pearse (then of the Stock Exchange), I went\nto spend a few days with him in Brighton.\n\nOn Sunday, June 25th, 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation\nof a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security,\nwhile millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on\nthe sands alone, in great spiritual agony; and there the LORD conquered\nmy unbelief, and I surrendered myself to GOD for this service. I told\nHim that all the responsibility as to issues and consequences must rest\nwith Him; that as His servant, it was mine to obey and to follow\nHim--His, to direct, to care for, and to guide me and those who might\nlabour with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened\nheart? There and then I asked Him for twenty-four fellow-workers, two\nfor each of eleven inland provinces which were without a missionary, and\ntwo for Mongolia; and writing the petition on the margin of the Bible I\nhad with me, I returned home with a heart enjoying rest such as it had\nbeen a stranger to for months, and with an assurance that the LORD would\nbless His own work and that I should share in the blessing. I had\npreviously prayed, and asked prayer, that workers might be raised up for\nthe eleven then unoccupied provinces, and thrust forth and provided for,\nbut had not surrendered myself to be their leader.\n\nAbout this time, with the help of my dear wife, I wrote the little book,\n_China's Spiritual Need and Claims_. Every paragraph was steeped in\nprayer. With the help of Mr. Berger, who had given valued aid in the\nrevision of the manuscript, and who bore the expense of printing an\nedition of 3000 copies, they were soon put in circulation. I spoke\npublicly of the proposed work as opportunity permitted, specially at the\nPerth and Mildmay Conferences of 1865, and continued in prayer for\nfellow-workers, who were soon raised up, and after due correspondence\nwere invited to my home, then in the East of London. When one house\nbecame insufficient, the occupant of the adjoining house removed, and I\nwas able to rent it; and when that in its turn became insufficient,\nfurther accommodation was provided close by. Soon there were a number of\nmen and women under preparatory training, and engaging in evangelistic\nwork which tested in some measure their qualifications as soul-winners.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[3] Isaiah lv. 8, 9.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nTHE FORMATION OF THE C. I. M.\n\n\nIT was thus that in the year 1865 the CHINA INLAND MISSION was\norganised; and the workers already in the field were incorporated into\nit. W. T. Berger, Esq., then residing at Saint Hill, near East\nGrinstead, without whose help and encouragement I could not have gone\nforward, undertook the direction of the home department of the work\nduring my anticipated absence in China; and I proposed, as soon as\narrangements could be completed, to go out with the volunteers and take\nthe direction of the work in the field. For the support of the workers\nalready in China, our friends at home were sending in unsolicited\ncontributions from time to time, and every need was met.\n\nWe had now, however, to look forward to the outgoing of a party of\nsixteen or seventeen, and estimated that from \u00a31500 to \u00a32000 might be\nrequired to cover outfits, passage-money, and initial expenses. I wrote\na little pamphlet, calling it \"Occasional Paper, No. I.\" (intending in\nsuccessive numbers to give to donors and friends accounts of the work\nwrought through us in China), and in that paper stated the anticipated\nneeds for floating the enterprise. I expected that GOD would incline the\nhearts of some of the readers to send contributions: I had determined\nnever to use personal solicitation, or to make collections, or to issue\ncollecting-books. Missionary-boxes were thought unobjectionable, and we\nhad a few prepared for those who might ask for them, and have continued\nto use them ever since.\n\nIt was February 6th, 1866, when I sent my manuscript of \"Occasional\nPaper, No. I.,\" with a design for the cover, to the printer. From delays\nin engraving and printing, it was March 12th when the bales of pamphlets\nwere delivered at my house. Now on February 6th a daily prayer-meeting,\nfrom 12 to 1 o'clock, had been commenced, to ask for the needed funds.\nAnd that we had not asked in vain, the following extract from\n\"Occasional Paper, No. II.\" will show:--\n\n\"The receipts for 1864 were \u00a351:14s.; for 1865, from January to June,\n\u00a3221:12:6, besides two free passages; from June to December, \u00a3923:12:8.\nHindrances having occurred, the MS. of the \"Occasional Paper, No. I.\"\nwas not completed till February 6th, 1866. Up to this time we had\nreceived (from December 30th) \u00a3170:8:3.\n\n\"We felt much encouraged by the receipt of so much money in little more\nthan a month, as it was entirely unsolicited by us--save from GOD. But\nit was also evident that we must ask the LORD to do yet greater things\nfor us, or it would be impossible for a party of from ten to sixteen to\nleave in the middle of May. _Daily united prayer was therefore offered\nto_ GOD for the funds needful for the outfits and passages of as many as\nHe would have to go out in May.\n\n\"Owing to the delays mentioned above in the printing of the 'Occasional\nPaper,' it was not ready for the publisher until March 12th. On this day\nI again examined my mission cash-book, and the comparison of the result\nof the two similar periods of one month and six days each, one before\nand one after special prayer for \u00a31500 to \u00a32000, was very striking:--\n\n \"Receipts from December 30th to February 6th, \u00a3170 8 3\n \" Feb. 6th to Mar. 12th \u00a31774 5 11\n \"Funds advised, since received 200 0 0\n --------- \u00a31974 5 11\n\n\"This, it will be noticed, was _previous_ to the circulation of the\n'Occasional Paper,' and, consequently, was not the result of it. It was\nthe response of a faithful GOD to the united prayers of those whom He\nhad called to serve Him in the Gospel of His dear SON.\n\n\"We can now compare with these two periods a third of the same extent.\nFrom March 12th to April 18th the receipts were \u00a3529, showing that when\nGOD had supplied the special need, the special supply also ceased. Truly\nthere is a LIVING GOD, and HE is the hearer and answerer of prayer.\"\n\nBut this gracious answer to prayer made it a little difficult to\ncirculate \"Occasional Paper, No. I.,\" for it stated as a need that which\nwas already supplied. The difficulty was obviated by the issue with each\ncopy of a coloured inset stating that the funds for outfit and passage\nwere already in hand in answer to prayer. We were reminded of the\ndifficulty of Moses--not a very common one in the present day--and of\nthe proclamation he had to send through the camp to the people to\nprepare no more for the building of the Tabernacle, as the gifts in hand\nwere already too much. We are convinced that if there were _less_\nsolicitation for money and _more_ dependence upon the power of the HOLY\nGHOST and upon the deepening of spiritual life, the experience of Moses\nwould be a common one in every branch of Christian work.\n\nPreparations for sailing to China were at once proceeded with. About\nthis time I was asked to give a lecture on China in a village not very\nfar from London, and agreed to do so on condition that there should be\nno collection, and that this should be announced on the bills. The\ngentleman who invited me, and who kindly presided as chairman, said he\nhad never had that condition imposed before. He accepted it, however,\nand the bills were issued accordingly for the 2nd or 3rd of May. With\nthe aid of a large map, something of the extent and population and deep\nspiritual need of China was presented, and many were evidently\nimpressed.\n\nAt the close of the meeting the chairman said that by my request it had\nbeen intimated on the bills that there would be no collection; but he\nfelt that many present would be distressed and burdened if they had not\nthe opportunity of contributing something towards the good work\nproposed. He trusted that as the proposition emanated entirely from\nhimself, and expressed, he felt sure, the feelings of many in the\naudience, I should not object to it. I begged, however, that the\ncondition agreed to might be carried out; pointing out among other\nreasons for making no collection, that the very reason adduced by our\nkind chairman was, to my mind, one of the strongest for not making it.\nMy wish was, not that those present should be relieved by making such\ncontribution as might there and then be convenient, under the influence\nof a present emotion; but that each one should go home burdened with the\ndeep need of China, and ask of GOD what He would have them to do. If,\nafter thought and prayer, they were satisfied that a pecuniary\ncontribution was what He wanted of them, it could be given to any\nMissionary Society having agents in China; or it might be posted to our\nLondon office; but that perhaps in many cases what GOD wanted was _not_\na money contribution, but personal consecration to His service abroad;\nor the giving up of son or daughter--more precious than silver or\ngold--to His service. I added that I thought the tendency of a\ncollection was to leave the impression that the all-important thing was\n_money_, whereas no amount of money could convert a single soul; that\nwhat was needed was that men and women filled with the HOLY GHOST should\ngive _themselves_ to the work: for the support of such there would never\nbe a lack of funds. As my wish was evidently very strong, the chairman\nkindly yielded to it, and closed the meeting. He told me, however, at\nthe supper-table, that he thought it was a mistake on my part, and that,\nnotwithstanding all I had said, a few persons had put some little\ncontributions into his hands.\n\nNext morning at breakfast, my kind host came in a little late, and\nacknowledged to not having had a very good night. After breakfast he\nasked me to his study, and giving me the contributions handed to him the\nnight before, said, \"I thought last night, Mr. Taylor, that you were in\nthe wrong about a collection; I am now convinced you were quite right.\nAs I thought in the night of that stream of souls in China ever passing\nonward into the dark, I could only cry as you suggested, 'LORD, what\nwilt Thou have _me_ to do?' I think I have obtained the guidance I\nsought, and here it is.\" He handed me a cheque for \u00a3500, adding that if\nthere had been a collection he would have given a few pounds to it, but\nnow this cheque was the result of having spent no small part of the\nnight in prayer.\n\nI need scarcely say how surprised and thankful I was for this gift. I\nhad received at the breakfast-table a letter from Messrs. Killick,\nMartin and Co., shipping agents, in which they stated that they could\noffer us the whole passenger accommodation of the ship _Lammermuir_. I\nwent direct to the ship, found it in every way suitable, and paid the\ncheque on account. As above stated, the funds deemed needed had been\nalready in hand for some time; but the coincidence of the simultaneous\noffer of the ship accommodation and this munificent gift--GOD'S\n\"exceeding abundantly\"--greatly encouraged my heart.\n\nOn the 26th of May we sailed for China in the _Lammermuir_, a missionary\nparty of 16 (besides my four children and their nurse, and Miss Bausum\n(afterwards Mrs. Barchet)); in all 22 passengers. Mr. Berger took charge\nof the home department, and thus the C. I. M. was fully inaugurated.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nTHE MISSION IN 1894\n\n\nTHE events sketched in the last two chapters have been more fully\ndelineated by Miss Guinness in her interesting _Story of the China\nInland Mission_, which continues its history to the present date. It is\nindeed a record of the goodness of GOD, every remembrance of which calls\nfor gratitude and praise. We can only here briefly mention a few facts,\nreferring our readers to Miss Guinness's work for all details.\n\nAfter a voyage of many mercies the _Lammermuir_ party safely reached\nChina, and during the first ten years stations and out-stations were\nopened in many cities and towns in four provinces which hitherto had\nbeen unreached by the Gospel. At home Mr. and Mrs. Berger continued\ntheir devoted service until March 19th, 1872, I having returned to\nEngland the year before. Shortly after this the London Council was\nformed, which has now for several years been assisted by an auxiliary\nCouncil of ladies. A Scotch Council was also formed in Glasgow a few\nyears ago.\n\nA visit to America in 1888 issued in the formation of the Council for\nNorth America, and a similar Council for Australasia was commenced in\nMelbourne two years later. In the field a China Council was organised in\n1886, composed of senior missionaries who meet quarterly in Shanghai.\n\nClosely associated with the C. I. M. are seven Committees--in England,\nNorway, Sweden (two), Finland, Germany, and the United States--which\nsend out and support their own missionaries, who in China have the\nassistance of the educational and other advantages of the C. I. M., and\nwho work under its direction.\n\nThe staff of the Mission, in May 1893, consisted of 552 missionaries\n(including wives and associates). There were also 326 native helpers (95\nof whom were unpaid), working as pastors, evangelists, teachers,\ncolporteurs, Bible-women, etc., in 14 different provinces.\n\nDuly qualified candidates for missionary labour are accepted without\nrestriction as to denomination, provided they are sound in the faith in\nall fundamental truths: these go out in dependence upon GOD for temporal\nsupplies, with the clear understanding that the officers of the Mission\ndo not guarantee any income whatever; and knowing that as they will not\ngo into debt, they can only minister to them as the funds sent in from\ntime to time will allow. But we praise GOD that during the past\ntwenty-eight years such ministry has always been possible; our GOD _has_\nsupplied all our need, and has withheld no good thing.\n\nAll the expenses of the Mission at home and abroad are met by voluntary\ncontributions, sent to the offices of the Mission without personal\nsolicitation, by those who wish to aid in this effort to spread the\nknowledge of the Gospel throughout China. The income for the year 1892\nwas about \u00a334,000 from all sources--Great Britain, the Continent of\nEurope, North America, Australasia, China, etc.\n\nSome of the missionaries having private property have gone out at their\nown expense, and do not take anything from the Mission funds.\n\nStations have been opened in ten of the eleven provinces which were\npreviously without Protestant missionaries; from one of these, however,\nwe have had to retire. The eleventh province has been visited several\ntimes, and it is hoped that in it permanent work may soon be begun.\n\nMore than 200 stations and out-stations have been opened in fourteen of\nthe eighteen provinces, in all of which stations either missionaries or\nnative labourers are resident. Over 6000 converts have been baptized\nfrom the commencement, some 4000 of whom are now living and in\nfellowship.\n\n\nTHE MISSION IN 1902\n\nThe year 1894, in which the first edition of _A Retrospect_ appeared,\nwas marked by the erection of large and commodious premises for the work\nof the Mission, and early in the following year the houses in Pyrland\nRoad, which had so long formed the home of the Mission in England, were\nvacated, and NEWINGTON GREEN, LONDON, N., became the address of the\nMission offices and home.\n\nFrom that date until the Boxer outbreak of 1900 the Mission made steady\nprogress, the development of the work in China being accompanied by\ncorresponding developments in the home departments of the Mission in\nEngland, America, and Australasia.\n\nIn January 1900, before the Boxer outbreak, there were in connection\nwith the Mission, 811 missionaries, including wives and associates; 171\nstations; 223 out-stations; 387 chapels; 581 paid native helpers; 193\nunpaid native helpers; 8557 communicants in fellowship, 12,964 having\nbeen baptized from the commencement. There were 266 organised churches;\n788 boarding scholars; 1382 day scholars; 6 hospitals; 18 dispensaries;\nand 46 opium refuges.\n\nDuring the terrible year of 1900, when no fewer than 135 missionaries\nand 53 missionaries' children and many thousands of Chinese Christians\nwere cruelly murdered, the China Inland Mission lost 58 missionaries and\n21 children. The records of these unparalleled times of suffering have\nbeen told in _Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission_ and in\n_Last Letters_, both of which books will be found advertised at the end\nof this volume. Apart from loss of life, there was an immense amount of\nMission property destroyed, and the missionaries were compelled to\nretire from their stations in most parts of China.\n\nThe doors closed by this outbreak have all been reopened in the goodness\nof GOD. In those districts which suffered most from the massacres the\nwork has largely been one of reorganisation; but throughout China\ngenerally there has been a spirit of awakening and a time of enlarged\nopportunity; which is a loud call for more men and women to volunteer to\nstep into the gaps and fill the places of those who have fallen.\n\nAmong recent developments we would specially mention the opening of a\nnew home centre at Philadelphia, U.S.A. The total income of the Mission\nfor 1901 was \u00a353,633 = $257,712, and the total received in England\nalone, for 1902, was \u00a351,446 = $246,912. The total membership of the\nMission in June 1902 was 761.\n\nCurrent information about the progress of the work in China may be\nobtained from _China's Millions_, the organ of the Mission. It is\npublished monthly, and may be ordered through any bookseller from\nMessrs. Morgan and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, E.C., for 1s. per\nyear, or direct by post from the offices of the Mission, Newington\nGreen, London, N., for 1s. 6d. per annum.\n\nThe Australasian edition of _China's Millions_ may be ordered at the\nsame price from M. L. Hutchinson, Little Collins Street, or from the\nMission Offices, 267 Collins Street, Melbourne. The North American\nedition will be sent post free from the Mission Offices, 507 Church\nStreet, Toronto, for 50 cents per annum.\n\nPrayer meetings on behalf of the work in China are held at the principal\nhome centres of the Mission, as follows: Every Saturday afternoon from 4\nto 6 o'clock, at Newington Green, London. Every Friday evening at 8\no'clock, at 507 Church Street, Toronto. Every Saturday afternoon at 4\no'clock, in the Office, 267 Collins Street, Melbourne. A hearty\ninvitation to attend any one of these meetings is given to any one\nresiding in or visiting any of these cities.\n\nDonations to the Mission, applications from candidates, orders for\nliterature, requests for deputation speakers, and other correspondence\nshould be forwarded to\n\n The Secretary,\n China Inland Mission,\n Newington Green, London, N.\n\n The Home Director,\n China Inland Mission,\n 507 Church Street, Toronto, Canada.\n\nor\n\n 702 Witherspoon Buildings, Philadelphia, U.S.A.\n\nor to\n\n The Secretary,\n China Inland Mission,\n 267 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia.\n\n[Illustration: MAP OF CHINA\n\n Shewing {1. All Protestant Mission Stations in China up to June 1866,\n when the C.I.M. was founded (they numbered fifteen) These\n are underlined in black.\n {2. The Stations of the China Inland Mission which (with the\n exception of Ning-Po & Fung-hwa) have been opened since\n June 1866. These are printed in red.]\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nSTATIONS OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION\n\n1900\n\n(BEFORE THE BOXER OUTBREAK)\n\n\nThe best guide to the stations of the Mission is the new _China Inland\nMission Map_ (size 44 \u00d7 38 in., mounted on linen, coloured, varnished,\nand hung on rollers), price 8s. _net_, carriage and packing extra.\nMounted to fold, 8s. _net_, post free.\n\n Provinces.[4] Stations.[5] WORK BEGUN.\n\n =Kan-suh=, 1876 LIANG-CHAU 1888\n SI-NING 1885\n LAN-CHAU 1885\n TS'IN-CHAU 1878\n _Area,[6] 125,450 square miles._ FU K'IANG 1899\n _Population, 9,285,377._ P'ING-LIANG 1895\n KING-CHAU 1895\n TS'ING-NING 1897\n Chen-yuen 1897\n Tong-chi 1899\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Shen-si=, 1876. Lung-chau 1893\n FENG-TSIANG 1888\n Mei-hien 1893\n K'IEN-CHAU 1894\n _Area, 67,400 square miles._ Chau-chih 1893\n _Population, 8,432,193._ _Sang-kia-chuang_ 1894\n Hing-p'ing 1893\n SI-GAN 1893\n _Ying-kia-wei_ 1893\n Chen-kia-hu 1897\n Lan-t'ien 1895\n K'ien-yang 1897\n Ch'ang-wu 1897\n San-shui 1897\n T'UNG-CHAU 1891\n Han-ch'eng 1897\n HAN-CHUNG 1879\n Ch'eng-ku 1887\n Si-hsiang 1896\n Yang-hien 1896\n HING-AN 1898\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Shan-si=, 1876 TA-T'UNG 1886\n Hwen-yuen 1898\n SOH-P'ING 1895\n Ts\u00f6-yuin 1895\n YING-CHAU 1897\n Hiao-i 1887\n Kiai-hiu 1891\n SIH-CHAU 1885\n Ta-ning 1885\n KIH-CHAU 1891\n Ho-tsin 1893\n Ping-yao 1888\n _Area, 56,268 square miles._ HOH-CHAU 1886\n _Population, 12,211,453._ Hung-t'ung 1886\n Yoh-yang 1896\n P'ING-YANG 1879\n K'\u00fch-wu 1885\n I-sh\u00ef 1891\n Y\u00fcin-ch'eng 1888\n _Mei-ti-kiai_ 1895\n HIAI-CHAU 1895\n Lu-ch'eng 1889\n _\u00dc-wu_ 1896\n LU-GAN 1889\n Kiang-chau 1898\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Chih-li=, 1887 T'IEN-TSIN 1888\n _Area, 58,949 square miles._ PAO-T'ING 1891\n _Population, 17,937,000._ Hwuy-luh 1887\n SHUN-TEH 1888\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Shan-tung=, 1879 _Chefoo_ 1879\n \" Sanatorium 1880\n \" Boys' School 1880\n _Area, 53,762 square miles._ \" Girls' \" 1884\n _Population, 36,247,835._ \" Preparatory School 1895\n _T'ung-shin_ 1889\n Ning-hai 1886\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Ho-nan=, 1875 Siang-ch'eng 1891\n _Chau-kia-k'eo_ 1884\n _Ho-nan_ ...\n _Ho-peh_ ...\n _Ho-si_ ...\n _Area, 66,913 square miles._ CH'EN-CHAU 1895\n _Population, 22,115,827._ T'ai-k'ang 1895\n _She-k'i-tien_ 1886\n Kwang-chau 1899\n Hin-an 1899\n _King-ts\u00ef-kuan_ 1896\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =W. Si-ch'uan=, 1877 Kwan-hien 1889\n CH'EN-TU 1881\n KIA-TING 1888\n _Area of whole Province, SUI-FU 1888\n 166,800 square miles._ LU-CHAU 1890\n Hiao-sh\u00ef 1899\n CH'UNG-K'ING 1877\n Ta-chien-lu 1897\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =E. Si-ch'uan=, 1886 Kwang-yuen 1889\n _Sin-tien-ts\u00ef_ 1892\n PAO-NING 1886\n Ying-shan 1898\n _Population of whole Province, K\u00fc-hien 1898\n 67,712,897._ SHUN-K'ING 1896\n Pa-chau 1887\n SUI-TING 1899\n Wan-hien 1888\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Hu-peh=, 1874 _Lao-ho-k'eo_ 1887\n _Area, 70,450 square miles._ _Han-kow_ 1889\n _Population, 34,244,685._ I-CH'ANG 1895\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Gan-hwuy=, 1869 T'ai-ho 1892\n VING-CHAU 1897\n _Ch'eng-yang-kwan_ 1887\n _K'u-ch'eng_ 1887\n Fuh-hing-tsih (Lai-gan) 1898\n LUH-GAN 1890\n GAN-K'ING 1869\n _Area, 48,461 square miles._ Training Home ...\n _Population, 20,596,288._ Wu-hu 1893\n Kien-p'ing 1894\n NING-KWOH 1874\n KWANG-TEH 1890\n CH'I-CHAU 1889\n Kien-teh 1892\n HWUY-CHAU 1884\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Kiang-su=, 1854 Gan-tung 1891\n Ts'ing-kiang-pu 1869\n Kao-yiu 1888\n YANG-CHAU 1868\n Training Home ...\n CHIN-KIANG 1888\n _Area, 44,500 square miles._ Shanghai 1854\n _Population, 20,905,171._ Financial Department ...\n Business Department ...\n Home ...\n Hospital ...\n Evangelistic Work ...\n Literary Work ...\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Yun-nan=, 1877 Bh\u00e2mo (Upper Burmah) 1875\n _Area, 107,969 square miles._ TA-LI 1881\n _Population, 11,721,576._ YUN-NAN 1882\n K'\u00dcH-TS'ING 1889\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Kwei-chau=, 1877 KWEI-YANG 1877\n GAN-SHUN 1888\n _Area, 64,554 square miles._ Tuh-shan 1893\n _Population, 7,669,181._ HING-I 1891\n (Work among Aborigines) ...\n _P'ang-hai_ 1897\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Hu-nan=, 1875 CH'ANG-TEH 1898\n _Area, 74,320 square miles_. SHEN-CHAU 1898\n _Population, 21,002,604._ Ch'a-ling 1898\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Kiang-si=, 1869 KIU-KIANG 1889\n Ku-ling Sanatorium 1898\n _Ta-ku-t'ang_ 1873\n NAN-K'ANG 1887\n Gan-ren 1889\n RAO-CHAU 1898\n _Peh-kan_ 1893\n Kwei-k'i 1878\n _Shang-ts'ing_ 1893\n H\u00fc-wan 1899\n Ih-yang 1890\n _Area, 72,176 square miles._ _Ho-k'eo_ 1878\n _Population, 24,534,118._ _Yang-k'eo_ 1890\n Kwang-feng 1889\n Yuh-shan 1877\n _Chang-shu_ 1895\n KUI-GAN 1891\n _Feng-kang_ 1891\n KAN-CHAU 1899\n Sin-feng 1899\n LIN-KIANG 1898\n NAN-CH'ANG 1898\n UEN-CHAU (_Itinerating_) ...\n Yung-sin 1899\n --------------------------------------------------------------------\n =Cheh-kiang=, 1857 HANG-CHAU 1866\n SHAO-HING 1866\n Sin-ch'ang 1870\n KIU-CHAU 1872\n Ch'ang-shan 1878\n Lan-k'i 1894\n _Area, 39,150 square miles_. KIN-HWA 1875\n _Population, 11,588,692._ Yung-k'ang 1882\n Tseh-k'i 1897\n CH'U-CHAU 1875\n Lung-ch'uen 1894\n Uin-ho 1895\n Song-yang 1896\n _Siao-mei_ 1896\n Tsin-yun 1898\n NING-P'O 1857\n Fung-hwa 1866\n Ning-hai 1868\n T'ien-t'ai 1898\n T'AI-CHAU 1867\n Ling-he District ...\n Hwang-yen 1896\n T'ai-p'ing 1898\n WUN-CHAU 1867\n Bing-yae 1874\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4] Arranged in three lines from west to east, for easy reference to\nMap. The dates in this column in many cases are of itinerations begun.\n\n[5] Capitals of Provinces in capital letters; of Prefectures in small\ncapitals; and of Counties in romans; Market Towns in italics.\n\n[6] Areas and populations are from _The Statesman's Year Book_.\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._\n\n * * * * *\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPage 109, \"my\" changed to \"My\" (My marriage had been)\n\nPage 125, ending ) added. (Miss Bausum (afterwards Mrs. Barchett)); in)\n\nPage 129, format of \"God\" was changed to \"GOD\" to match rest of usage.\n(goodness of GOD)\n\nPossible nconsistencies in spelling of Chinese names were retained such\nas Bh\u00e2mo and Bham\u00f4.","title":"A Retrospect","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":40609}