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diff --git a/27243.txt b/27243.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a3e79b --- /dev/null +++ b/27243.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6621 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's, by +A. Mildred Cable + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's + The Story of the Work in Hwochow + +Author: A. Mildred Cable + +Release Date: November 12, 2008 [EBook #27243] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DREAM OF PASTOR HSI'S *** + + + + +Produced by Free Elf, University of Hong Kong Library, +audreyii, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +THE FULFILMENT OF A DREAM OF PASTOR HSI'S + + + + +[Illustration: MRS. HSI. + +_Frontispiece._] + + + + + +THE FULFILMENT OF A DREAM OF PASTOR HSI'S + +THE STORY OF THE WORK IN HWOCHOW + +BY A. MILDRED CABLE + + _Of the China Inland Mission_ + + "Is it a dream? + Nay, but the lack of it, a dream. + And failing it, life's love and wealth a dream, + And all the world a dream." + WALT WHITMAN + + + LONDON: + MORGAN & SCOTT LTD. + 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. + CHINA INLAND MISSION + NEWINGTON GREEN, N. MCMXVII + + + + + TO + + DR. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN + + THE "APOLLOS" WHO + + BY PRAYER AND SYMPATHY HAS "WATERED" + + THIS WORK + + THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +TWENTY-ONE years ago, on 19th February 1896, Pastor Hsi, to quote the +words of his biographer, "was translated to higher service." Those who +read the fascinating and wonderful story of his life by Mrs. Howard +Taylor will at once be interested in _The Fulfilment of a Dream_, which +is the story of the work in Hwochow, and gives the account of the +carrying on of the spiritual labour of that remarkable man, and of the +fulfilment of his dream. I think it is equally true that those who have +not read Pastor Hsi's life will desire to do so after reading this book. + +It is a commonplace observation, but none the less true, that the story +commenced in the Acts of the Apostles could not be finished by Luke, +because the great activity, the commencement of which he recorded, is +still going forward. Every tale of missionary endeavour moving forward +"toward the uttermost part of the earth" is an added chapter. It has +been given to Mildred Cable and her fellow workers, to labour in the +apostolic succession; and then to Mildred Cable, to write this wonderful +chapter. + +From my own standpoint the book is full of charm. While by no means its +supreme value, the first impression made upon the mind is that of the +naturalness of the story. The reader is made the friend of the writer, +and listens to an artless and charming account of places and of peoples. +My first reading of the book at one sitting (as all such books should be +read), left me with a sense of the atmosphere of the missionary's life +and surroundings. I was admitted into the actuality of everyday things, +and was made familiar with the pathos and tragedy and humour of life in +a land and among a people largely unknown to me. + +As I have said, this is by no means the supreme value of the book. That +rather consists in something that grows upon you as you read. The writer +does not state it in so many words, or very seldom, and certainly is not +trying to persuade you to believe it, but there it is. I refer to the +tender and yet strong revelation of the power of the Divine Grace, both +in its sustenance of those who are called to missionary work, and its +transforming power in the case of those who, often at cost, yield +themselves to its call. + +In Chapters I., V., VI., VII., and VIII., the reader will trace the +story of the development of the work, and a wonderful story it is. +Chapters XI. and XII., containing first the story of Ai Do, and then a +record of demoniacal manifestations, show the reader how these quiet and +earnest workers are brought up against the big, naked, awful things of +life; and also how being so confronted, they are unafraid and +unconquered in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. The fact that I draw +special attention to these chapters is not intended to suggest for a +moment that the others are either uninteresting or unimportant. They are +neither the one nor the other. For all that it is intended to be, the +book is a whole, and is supremely precious, because it is manifestly a +part of the larger whole of Christ's great emprise. + +With confidence and joy I commend the story to all those in whose heart +burns the passion for the coming of the hour when our adorable Redeemer +shall "see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." + G. CAMPBELL MORGAN. + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + +I WISH to acknowledge that apart from my co-workers, Evangeline and +Francesca French, this book would have been impossible. To Mr. Albert +Lutley, Superintendent of the China Inland Mission Work in the Province +of Shansi, I am indebted for help and kindnesses which I can +acknowledge, but never repay. I am also indebted to my Chinese +secretary, Miss Wang, for her able reporting of the many interviews +which the compiling of this book has necessitated. + + * * * * * + +The Chinese themselves say: "One mile alters the speech, and ten miles +change the customs." + +In view of the fact that the Province of Shansi alone is larger than +England and Wales, I wish it to be clearly understood that the usages +and customs to which I refer throughout this book are local. + + + + +EDITOR'S NOTE + + +ALL personal names are spelt according to the system employed by the +authoress, except where it has been necessary to modify this to retain +the identity of someone mentioned in Mrs. Howard Taylor's _Pastor Hsi_. +All place names are spelt according to the orthography of the Chinese +Postal Guide, which system is now used in the standard maps of China and +has been adopted by the larger missionary societies. Thus, Hoh-chau of +_Pastor Hsi_ becomes Hwochow, T'ai-yuean becomes Taiyueanfu, P'ing-yang +becomes Pingyangfu, etc. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + PROLOGUE xix + + + CHAPTER I + + MRS. HSI'S GIFT, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE + OPENING OF THE STATION OF HWOCHOW 3 + + + CHAPTER II + + THE BIG ROAD, INDICATING THE SITUATION OF + HWOCHOW IN THE PROVINCE OF SHANSI 11 + + + CHAPTER III + + A NEW VENTURE, IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE + APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES + TO HWOCHOW 19 + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY, BEING A RECORD + OF SOME WHO WERE COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER + FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, AND OF MRS. HSI'S + EXPERIENCE IN THE BOXER OUTBREAK 27 + + + CHAPTER V + + LIFE IN THE VILLAGES, AN INTRODUCTION TO + CHINESE HOME LIFE 37 + + + CHAPTER VI + + OUR RECEPTION AT HWOCHOW, SHOWING THINGS AS + THEY SOMETIMES ARE 47 + + + CHAPTER VII + + A PORTRAIT GALLERY, WHEREIN THE READER IS + INTRODUCED TO SOME OF OUR FELLOW WORKERS 57 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + WORK DEVELOPMENT, RELATING HOW WE SOUGHT TO + ENCOMPASS THE WORK, AND THE WORK + ENCOMPASSED US 69 + + + CHAPTER IX + + MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF + HER LIFE FROM WIDOWHOOD 77 + + + CHAPTER X + + THE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER 85 + + + CHAPTER XI + + THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL, BEING THE + STORY OF AI DO 95 + + + CHAPTER XII + + THE POWERS OF DARKNESS, BEING A RECORD OF SOME + OBSERVATIONS IN DEMONOLOGY 109 + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE LIFE STORY OF PASTOR WANG 127 + + + CHAPTER XIV + + A VISIT TO THE BASE, FROM WHENCE WE ARE AGAIN + SENT FORTH WITH FRESH SUPPLIES 141 + + + CHAPTER XV + + THE BUILDERS, RELATING HOW THE SUPPLIES WERE + USED 151 + + + CHAPTER XVI + + WOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL, WHICH TELLS HOW + A LINK WAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN WESTMINSTER + AND HWOCHOW BIBLE SCHOOLS 159 + + + CHAPTER XVII + + THE DRAW NET LET DOWN INTO THE SEA, AN ACCOUNT + OF FRESH EFFORTS TO REACH THE MULTITUDE, AND + BRING THEM TO DECISION 169 + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + LIFE AMONGST THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND, RECORDING + HOSPITALITY SHOWN TO US BY THE OFFICIAL + CLASSES 177 + + + CHAPTER XIX + + THE REVOLUTION OF 1911, AND HOW WE WERE + AFFECTED BY IT 189 + + + CHAPTER XX + + CHANGED CONDITIONS, WHEREIN SOME, THOUGH + FOLLOWING A PATH OF ACTION, FAILED TO + UNDERSTAND IT 199 + + + CHAPTER XXI + + ANOTHER PORTRAIT GALLERY, WHEREIN THE READER + IS INTRODUCED TO SOME WHO HAVE FAILED 211 + + + CHAPTER XXII + + PREACHING THE GOSPEL, HEALING THE SICK, + TELLING OF THE DAILY ROUTINE 223 + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + A CASKET OF JEWELS, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE + GIRLS' SCHOOL 233 + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + THE TREASURE HOUSE, WHERE THE READER IS SHOWN + THE LAPIDARY AT WORK 247 + + + CHAPTER XXV + + CONCLUSION, BEING A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT + SITUATION 257 + + + APPENDIX 263 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + MRS. HSI _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + A WOMAN OPIUM SMOKER 82 + + PASTOR WANG 136 + + WOMEN'S BIBLE SCHOOL 160 + + "PUPPY" AND HER MOTHER 218 + + THE TEACHING STAFF 228 + + SOME KINDERGARTEN SCHOLARS 236 + + LING AI, HER CHILDREN, AND HER MOTHER, MRS. LIANG 252 + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +THE spirit of the Confucian scholar Hsi met with its Master Christ, and +overwhelmed by the vision yielded all to His control. Constrained by His +love the souls of men were sought and won; led by His Spirit, churches +were established in the faith; sharing His sufferings, their failures +became his burden. + +In the darkest days the Hwochow Church has known, when many forsook +their faith, he was strengthened by a dream, in which he saw a tree cut +down to the ground, only to sprout again, and throw out branches +stronger than before. + +In his dream, Pastor Hsi knew this tree to be the Hwochow Church. He +knew that though it were brought low, it would revive, and by faith +obtained the promise, the fulfilment of which is recorded in these +pages. + + + + + When Thou wouldst pour the Living Stream + Then I would be the earthen cup, + Filled to the brim and sparkling clear. + The Fountain Thou and Living Spring + Flow Thou through me, the vessel weak, + That thirsty souls may taste Thy grace. + + When Thou wouldst warn the people, Lord, + Then I would be the golden bell + Swung high athwart the lofty tower + Morning and evening sounding loud; + That young and old may wake from sleep, + Yea, e'en the deaf hear that strong sound. + + When Thou wouldst light the darkness, Lord, + Then I would be the silver lamp + Whose oil supply can never fail. + Placed high, to shed the beams afar, + That darkness may be turned to light, + And men and women see Thy face. + + When Thou wouldst slay the wolves, O Lord! + Then I would be the keen-edged sword; + Clean, free from rust, sharpened and sure, + The handle grasped, my God, by Thee. + To kill the cruel, ravening foe, + And save the sheep for whom Christ died. + + Translated from Pastor Hsi + by F. L. F. + + + + +MRS. HSI'S GIFT + + "First love is the abandonment of all for the love + which has abandoned all."--Dr. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN. + + ". . . such men + Carry the fire, all things grow warm to them. + Their drugget's worth my purple, they beat me." + R. BROWNING. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +MRS. HSI'S GIFT + +BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPENING OF THE STATION OF HWOCHOW + + +MRS. HSI was in great mental distress. The blow she feared had fallen, +and her husband was a prey to the bewitching power of the "foreign +devils." How cleverly the trap had been laid. Firstly, the offer of a +monetary prize for a classical essay--which he had won; secondly, the +insistence of the foreigner on a personal interview with the writer, on +the occasion of which, certain as her husband had been that he had +tasted neither food nor drink under his roof, some means had certainly +been found to introduce into his system some of that subtle foreign drug +which, as every one knew, must eventually compel the victim to embrace +Christianity and follow the "foreign devil" to the world's end. Thirdly, +he had been invited to become the teacher of this dreaded man (Rev. +David Hill), and she had foolishly yielded her consent. She had taken +every precaution and had, on three occasions, sent for him on plea of +her own illness during the time he was an inmate in the foreigner's +household. His clothing had been carefully searched for traces of the +magical compound, but in vain; nothing had come to light, and now here +was her husband, one of the leading Confucianists of the district, +declaring that, of his own free will and action, he had determined to +follow--not the foreign devils--but this Jesus, around Whom all their +preaching centred. He attributed this change of mind, evidently quite +irrationally, to the reading of a book printed under the strange title +of _Happy Sound_,--but perhaps even the sacred Chinese character might +become a snare in their hands! Nothing but the influence of some +powerful magic could have worked so complete a transformation. Even his +intense craving for opium was gone, the Confucian writings which had +been his constant companion were now neglected, and in spite of her +entreaties and fears, the family gods were destroyed. + +During his stay at home he spoke constantly, both to her and in her +hearing to many visitors, of the teachings of this Jesus Who, he +explained to all comers, was the Son of the only True God. + + * * * * * + +Time passed, and gradually her fears were somewhat allayed, so that she +even consented to repeat certain sentences which, he told her, were to +be used night and morning, kneeling, and with closed eyes. Her +inclination to favourably regard what he told her grew, especially +during his absences from home; for, strange to relate, she soon began to +find herself under the influence of an unaccountable external power, +which compelled her on each occasion of a visit from her husband to fly +into an uncontrollable rage at the sight of him, and this despite her +most determined resolution to the contrary. To her husband it was most +distressing to see so gentle a woman thus transformed. As his own +spiritual experience increased, he recognised in this an onslaught of +the devil, and betook himself to prayer and fasting in order to discover +how they had laid themselves open to the attack. It was then that there +was brought to his remembrance the fact that, in a room at the top of +the house, there stood a small idol responsible for the health of the +family, whose existence Mrs. Hsi had been careful not to bring to his +remembrance, and which had been overlooked in the general destruction. +The shrine was instantly destroyed, and Mrs. Hsi was free of the +tormenting spirit, and shortly afterwards openly confessed Christ. + +From that time their home in the Western Chang village was a centre of +Christian activity. Through intense suffering Mr. Hsi had freed himself +from the craving for opium, and he felt that, for the evangelisation of +his native province, some means might be devised whereby the treatment +of opium patients might be combined with widespread preaching of the +Gospel. + +The more he thought of this the stronger the conviction grew that it was +of God, and when, through the agency of a dream, a system of treatment +was revealed to him, he accepted it as a revelation and at once prepared +the medicine which proved successful beyond his highest expectations. +After a time, men who had been delivered from the opium vice and led to +Christ through the Refuges, were gathered into his home (which he +called the Middle Eden) and trained for the work. + +This community life for so large a number was only made possible by Mrs. +Hsi's enthusiastic devotion. The extension of the opium refuge work was +rapid and widespread, and necessitated frequent absences from home on +the part of Mr. Hsi, during which time a heavy burden fell upon his +wife. + +Houses were rented in many towns and villages, and patients entering the +"heavenly called refuges"[1] were numerous. + +The burden of one city, however, lay heavily upon the heart of Mr. Hsi, +and he and his household constantly prayed together that Hwochow might +be opened to the sound of the Gospel; but funds which seemed essential +for the initial expenses of the venture were not forthcoming. His +itinerant journeys frequently took him through this important centre, +which was situated sixty miles north of his home. + +Day after day prayer was made, and Mrs. Hsi often heard her husband in +the night watches, as he knelt alone in the court, plead with God that +nothing might hinder what he strongly believed to be the Divine Purpose. + +One Sunday night she was wakened by the familiar sound. She knew that +her husband, like herself, had gone to bed tired out by a long day of +preaching, during which large numbers had joined their household from +more or less distant villages. According to their custom, they had spent +the day fasting; it was Pastor Hsi's habit to refer to the Scriptures +direct for guidance on matters of daily conduct, and in the early days +of his faith he feared to sin against the law of God by allowing fires +to be lighted and meals to be prepared on Sunday. In accordance with his +habit, he had arisen soon after midnight to give himself to prayer, and +her ear caught the murmured sentences, "I beseech Thee, O Lord, open a +way for Hwochow to hear the Gospel." As she listened, the sound of his +voice brought conviction to her own mind that she was to be the human +agency by which the Divine Will should now fulfil itself. In a flash, +the path of duty was clear. + +At the back of her cave were large painted cupboards which contained the +whole of her worldly possessions: bundles of handsome silk, satin, and +embroidered garments, and a box holding the heavy jade and silver +ornaments, which had been her husband's marriage gift. Leaving her +_kang_[2] Mrs. Hsi unlocked the cupboards and spent the rest of that +night in sorting their contents. All except a few cotton gowns were put +to one side, and as the voice in the courtyard still pleaded for +Hwochow, even the earrings were taken from her ears, the rings from her +fingers, and the ornaments from her hair. + +He Who is worthy to receive accepted the offering, and her heart sang a +song of thanksgiving as she murmured to herself, "Hwochow shall have the +Gospel." + +Morning prayers at Middle Eden was an hour of joyful worship, and on +this day Mrs. Hsi's heart was so full of happiness that she could +scarcely wait until the full congregation had assembled before she, +laden with her bundles, entered the room and placed them on the table, +saying, "I think God has answered our prayers; I can do without these, +let Hwochow have the Gospel." + +Every heart present must have been moved, for all could judge accurately +what the sacrifice must be. She had offered her only worldly treasures, +articles which her husband could not ask her to sacrifice, ready as he +was to use in God's service all that pertained to their home. + +Surely the angels joined their song to that of the little Christian +community that morning, as the words of their own pastor's hymn ascended +with the sacrifice of praise: + + "I hung for thee on Calvary, what dost thou still withhold from Me? + Thy strength, thy time, thy goods? + Oh say, what dost thou yet deny, My heart of love to satisfy?" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Heavenly Invitation Office ("Pastor Hsi's" translation). + +[2] The raised brick or mud platform, heated by a fire, used as a bed in +North China. + + + + +THE BIG ROAD + + "Allons! whoever you are, come travel with me! + Travelling with me you find what never tires. + Whoever you are, come forth! a man or a woman, come forth! + You must not stay sleeping or dallying there in the house, + though you built it, or though it has been built for you." + WALT WHITMAN. + + "The Master said: With coarse rice to eat, with + water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow;--I + have still joy in the midst of these + things."--_Confucian Analects._ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BIG ROAD + +INDICATING THE SITUATION OF HWOCHOW IN THE PROVINCE OF SHANSI + + +THE city of Hwochow is situated on the main road which connects +Taiyueanfu with Sianfu, the direct route from Peking to the northwestern +provinces. Along this road pass strings of camels, laden with the +merchandise of Mongolia; thousands of donkeys, carrying bags of flour +from the more luxuriant southern plains; cartloads of tobacco and paper +from the large cities in the south of the province, and caravans of +travellers; whole families packed into large carts moving to some new +home; mat-covered litters swung between two mules and heavily curtained, +in which the wives of an official are transported to their new abode; +pedestrians, clad in sky-blue cotton, "yamen runners" yelling as they +ride at furious speed to clear the way before them, and bearers of +burdens combine to form a moving picture of interest and beauty upon the +_Big Road_, as it is called. + +Not least interesting among the wayfarers are the Lhamas from distant +Thibet nearing the end of their long pilgrimage to the famous holy +mountain Wutai, where each one hopes to be granted the vision of the +famous opening lotus. For many months, stretching into years, this hope +has sustained them through the weary pilgrimage. From the threshold of +their Lhama home they have walked every step of the thousand and more +miles, some at every tenth, some at every fifth step, touching the +ground with their forehead, and some measuring the whole length of the +way with their outstretched body on the road. + +As the traveller enters Hwochow from the north, he crosses a bridge, +passing on his right a large metal cow. Beyond, flows the Fen River, and +before him is the city gate. To this brazen image is committed the +important function of guarding Hwochow from flood, and so successfully +does it accomplish its task that dryness and drought are the normal +condition of the countryside! + +Turning to the east he faces the magnificent range of the Ho Mountains, +in winter covered with snow, and in warmer seasons touched with the +beauty of ever-changing colour. These mountains are part of the range +which, farther north, is traversed by the famous Lingshih Pass. + +Excepting in the early summer months when patches of vivid green +indicate the fields of growing wheat, the landscape is of a uniform +shade which is best described as _khaki_. Owing to the friable nature of +the soil formation known as _loess_, the traveller, whether journeying +from north or south, finds himself in a succession of deep gullies. + +This wheat-growing land was formerly given over to the cultivation of +the opium poppy, and for miles over the plain the wonderful iridescent +bloom gave the appearance of a sea of changing light and shade as the +wind passed over it. + +In the year 1908 a proclamation was issued forbidding the growth of +opium under penalty of death, and so vigorously has the law been +enforced that the poppy has completely disappeared from view, and no man +is bold enough to openly grow that which has been forbidden by the +authorities. + +For ten months in the year brilliant sunshine can be counted upon, and +during that time, except for dust combined with heat or cold, the +physical condition of a journey may be comparatively easy. Ease of mind, +however, can only be attained by the philosopher who, putting away all +thought of unseemly haste, shares the Easterner's pleasures of +observation, contemplation, and wayside intercourse. + +The journey from Taiyueanfu to Hwochow is accomplished in five stages, +and nothing will induce the carter to shorten or change them, though +hours may have been wasted in some narrow gully where, spite his warning +yells, his cart met another at a point where advance or retreat on +either side were alike impossible. After fierce recriminations the two +men each produce a pipe, and it is good practice for the impatient +Westerner to see them sit on their heels and talk the matter over. Time +passes, but the carter is untrammelled by any artificial measure +thereof, and after endless discussion, amid comforting whiffs of +tobacco, he proceeds to think of a plan whereby the deadlock may be +overcome. How they manage to extricate themselves, one never knows! Some +of the bank comes down, yells and shouts do their part, and at last the +traffic, which may now amount to fifty waiting carts, slowly passes by. +It is an everyday occurrence, and you ask, "Why do they not widen the +road?" "Nobody's business," is the reply. "Who would spend the money?" + +It is, however, the rainy season that reveals to the full the horrors of +Chinese travelling. The _loess_ is slippery beyond description, and the +litter or cart in which you travel may be stuck for hours in a pit of +greasy mud, black by reason of the coal dust so plentiful throughout the +district, so deep that nothing but the mule's head is visible, the +plunging body being hidden in the black mass. Your only hope at such a +moment is to throw yourself with the grace of an expert gymnast on to +the bank, thankful if you escape unhurt and only bespattered by mud. +These pits are carefully kept in condition by a small group of men who +appear, as by magic, to offer assistance at the suitable moment. No +plight, however, excites their pity sufficiently to induce them to +render help apart from a pecuniary reward of an exorbitant nature. Once +within the city gates there is hope that you will soon find a shelter. +You will have accomplished "the stage" which has been allotted from time +immemorial. Marco Polo himself followed these stages in the year 1280 as +we do to-day in the twentieth century. + +The main road runs through the city of Hwochow from north to south, and +many inns invite the traveller to rest, the red scrolls at the door +assuring him that "From the four seas men all gather to this great +hotel," and that the fame of its food is far-reaching. + +Crossing this road from east to west is another important street where +the official residence is situated. Here, most of the large shops are to +be found and in the centre of the city is a fine tower, but all the +smaller streets are alike, running between blank walls, from which +access to as many as twelve courtyards may be through one small door. +Numerous pigs walk unhindered up and down, acting as scavengers, and as +such are not unneeded, for every one throws the refuse of the household +out of the court door, caring nothing for the convenience of the public. + +Parallel with the Yamen street is another important thoroughfare known +as Prospect Hill. Here stands the largest and most important temple in +the city, and almost next door to this, with the money given by his +wife, Mr. Hsi secured small premises and announced that he was opening +an opium refuge, and was willing to receive patients. Particulars as to +rules and expenses were widely published, and in this place the first +results of the love and self-sacrifice of Mrs. Hsi were seen. + + + + +A NEW VENTURE + + "Love has a hem to its garment + That touches the very dust: + It can reach the stains of the streets and the lanes, + And because it can it must. + + It dares not rest on the mountain; + It is bound to come to the vale; + For it cannot find its fulness of mind + Till it kindles the lives that fail." + GEORGE MATHESON. + + "The world had begun to stare, she half + apprehended the fact, but she was in the presence + of the irresistible. In the presence of the + irresistible the conventional is a crazy + structure, swept away with very little creaking of + its timbers on the flood."--GEORGE MEREDITH. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A NEW VENTURE + +IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES TO +HWOCHOW + + +THE first endeavour to bring the people of Hwochow within sound of the +Gospel proved in every way encouraging. Numbers of men entered the Opium +Refuge, and before long a nucleus of twenty were calling themselves +Christians. The effort was, however, sterile so far as women were +concerned, and Pastor Hsi knew the impossibility of establishing upon a +solid basis a work which left untouched those who so largely controlled +the home. + +The power wielded by the woman in China is immense, for while she may be +despised and, in her young days, even ill-treated, her day of power +surely dawns, and woe betide the man who has to combat the determined +will of mother or wife. + +The question of providing women workers for Hwochow became a pressing +one, and a visit from the Rev. Hudson Taylor was the occasion chosen by +Pastor Hsi to bring before him the urgency of this claim[3]. His +suggestion was that single women missionaries should be appointed who +could give their time unreservedly to the teaching of women, and +preaching. Mr. Taylor pointed out the difficulties and the +misunderstanding which would make their lot far from easy, but these +difficulties, Pastor and Mrs. Hsi felt, might be overcome, and willingly +promised to give all the help which lay within their power. In any case, +the claim of the women constituted a call to make a forward movement, +and Mr. Taylor promised to give the matter serious consideration. By the +end of that year, 1886, two Norwegian ladies had offered for the post. + +Miss Jacobsen, an idealist, strong, capable, and critical, gave herself +whole-heartedly to the work for which she had come. Enthusiastic and +independent in thought and action, she soon acquired the spoken language +to a remarkable degree, and with a praiseworthy tenacity she studied the +classical works of the Chinese, and at the same time could vie with most +of the women in all branches of their domestic activities. Her +extraordinary ability is a byword to this day amongst the people who +knew her. + +She was accompanied by Miss Reuter, a lady of education and refinement, +whose grace of manner and goodness of heart speedily endeared her to all +with whom she came in contact. Varied as were the gifts and +circumstances of the friends, they were one in desire and purpose. Their +home was one small room, and here they dwelt and received all who came +to them. They wore the Chinese dress, ate the Chinese food, and whether +in their own home or in the villages where they preached, ever kept +before them the one object of the salvation of souls. + +As pioneer workers, enthusiasm sometimes overstepped discretion, and the +violation of Chinese custom in such matters as the public playing of +stringed instruments and open-air preaching to mixed congregations, led +to misunderstanding, and even to the gathering around them of some whose +presence was far from helpful. + +Desire on the part of Miss Jacobsen to encourage in every way possible +those who were already faced with persecution as they left idolatry, led +to the preparation, each Sunday, of a simple meal which might be shared +with any who walked long distances to attend services in the City +Church, and who arrived weary and tired. Others, however, apart from the +Christian family heard of this, and if matters of business brought them +to the city, Sunday was considered an appropriate day to transact them, +as thereby dinner might be obtained free. This naturally led to +criticism on the part of the heathen, and many of the more independent +and self-respecting people refrained from intercourse with a community +of whom it could be said: "They believe for their food's sake." Acting +upon the advice of Pastor Hsi, this practice was discontinued, the +missionaries themselves willingly taking no food from morning until +evening, that all might fare alike. It could but be evident to all +concerned that the mistakes were those of love and enthusiasm, and such +qualities do much to counteract any harm that might arise from unwise +methods of expression. In every land, the world might well see more of +the love that defies criticism, and forgets its own interests in +whole-hearted devotion. + +Miss Reuter felt the importance of at once reaching the children, and +opened a small school for the daughters of Christians. Three little +girls were committed to her care, and these she faithfully taught, not +despising the day of small things. + +She, with Miss Jacobsen, travelled from village to village with the +evangelist Cheng Hsiu-chi, and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. +Cheng was a native of Hwochow, and had, at Pastor Hsi's request, made +ready the house for the missionaries when they came. As a young man he +had wandered far in the paths of sin, and his mother, eager for his +reformation, had spent no mean sum of money upon incense with which to +seek the favour of the gods on his behalf. Seeing her devotion, his +heart was touched, and he considered seeking refuge in a Buddhist +monastery from the "fire of passion, hatred, and ignorance always +burning in his heart." With this in view, he took counsel of a friend +who had harboured similar ideals. This man had lately been a patient in +the Refuge, where he had learnt of a stronger power to break the bonds +of sin than fasting, penance, and self-discipline. With him Mr. Cheng +attended a meeting of Christians where, meeting with Christ, he became a +disciple. He returned home to face bitter persecution for refusing to +pay the temple taxes; it was understood that no robbery of his crops, or +ill-treatment of his person, would be punished by the village elders. He +had finally no option but to leave his home and seek refuge elsewhere, +rejoicing that he was counted worthy to suffer "for the Name's sake." + +He then helped Pastor Hsi in the Hwochow Refuge, and later took charge +of the same work in new and hitherto untouched districts, returning from +time to time to his own city. + +A strong admiration for Miss Jacobsen and her whole-hearted devotion +awoke a consciousness that this feeling was not entirely on his side, +and gradually, but surely, the difference of race and outlook was +obliterated in the love which revealed to each the other's secret. + +Those to whom Miss Jacobsen in honour bound confided her purpose, did +all in their power to prevent what it seemed might prove to be a +catastrophe to the work. She was asked to leave Hwochow, and was sent to +another province. Some years passed, but nothing could change the +determination which saw in this union a possible wider sphere of +usefulness and understanding of the people she had come to love; +moreover, the mysterious something which caused her to know that "one +man loved the pilgrim soul" in her, could not be ignored. To her trusted +friend Pastor Hsi, however, she did turn for advice, and while many +fellow-workers found it hard to express their indignation and regret, +he, with a clearness of outlook only possible where there is absence of +prejudice, told her that while he could not regard it as a sin for a +Christian man and woman of different races to marry, he felt convinced +that the time had not come for such unions to be desirable. + +As is usual in such cases where inclination runs contrary to the advice +given, the latter was ignored, and in the year 1898 Cheng Hsiu-chi and +Anna Jacobsen became man and wife. Painful as must have been the +attitude of Westerners to Mrs. Cheng, a greater trial awaited her when +she came to realise that the Chinese, both Christian and heathen, +regarded her action with disapproval, and adopted so unappreciative an +attitude both towards her husband and herself, that she found only +critical antagonism where she had looked for sympathetic understanding. +Mr. Cheng proved himself worthy in all ways of the confidence she had +placed in him, and by self-sacrificing toil he, both before and after +his wife's death, faithfully served the Lord to Whom he had yielded his +life. In the year 1915 he too passed to his reward. + +Miss Reuter had some time previously married Mr. Stanley Smith; young +workers who had joined Miss Jacobsen for short periods had been moved to +other places, and when fresh appointments were made it was a time of +great difficulty. It was not easy to replace those whose absolute +devotion had won the love of the people amongst whom they lived; and +while Miss Jacobsen's action necessitated her withdrawal from the staff +of the China Inland Mission, and made further residence in Hwochow +impossible for her, they could not forget that she was the first +missionary who had come to them, and that they were losing with her the +man who had been a help to so many of them in their early Christian +life. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] It was on the occasion of this visit that Mr. Hsi was ordained +pastor. + + + + +THE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY + + "Death is short, and life is long; + Satan is strong, and Christ more strong. + At His Word, Who hath led us hither, + The Red Sea must part hither and thither. + At His Word Who goes before us too, + Jordan must cleave to let us through." + C. ROSSETTI. + + "On the other side of the River was also a meadow, + curiously beautified with lilies, and it was green + all the year round."--_Pilgrim's Progress._ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY + +BEING A RECORD OF SOME WHO WERE COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER FOR CHRIST'S +SAKE, AND OF MRS. HSI'S EXPERIENCES IN THE BOXER OUTBREAK + + +CHANGES in the staff at Taiyueanfu released for the oversight of mission +work in Hwochow, Jane Stevens and Mildred Clarke. + +They might well shrink from the task facing them. Work in the provincial +capital had been of so totally different an order, and life in a large +community of foreigners had limited their sphere to the oversight of a +small school for girls, and the instruction of women inquirers. + +None had felt more strongly the seriousness of the step taken by Miss +Jacobsen, and they came to Hwochow with the determination that all +should early understand the impossibility of intercourse outside the +most rigid observance of etiquette, Chinese and Western. Feeling +strongly that such an attitude on their part would be the most helpful +factor in the gathering around them of better-class women, they +faithfully carried it into practice. Men who were connected with the +Church were received by them only under the most formal restrictions. +Finding it impossible to eat Chinese food, a simple, but foreign +_menage_, took the place of the hitherto free-and-easy conditions. + +It was a severe test for Chinese and foreigners alike; desire for +renewal of the former conditions of intimacy met with no encouragement +from those who could not but constantly bear the past in mind, and who +felt that, for the highest interests of the work, a new relationship +must be established. This attitude was naturally regarded as aloofness, +and was galling to those whose love had been set on the young +missionaries fresh from Norway, with all the enthusiasm of youth, to +whom they themselves had taught the language and who belonged to them as +others could not. + +Miss Clarke gave her time to the Girls' School, the pupils of which now +numbered nearly twenty, and those who followed her have reaped where she +sowed. Often sad and weary she plodded on, but God in His time gave the +increase. Miss Stevens, to the limit of her strength, and often beyond +it, faithfully worked in the city and villages, suffering much which to +her was intense hardship, and feeling keenly the isolation and lack of +confidence amongst the people who misunderstood the course of action +deliberately adopted. Thus, while bringing heartache to themselves, +these missionaries were enabled to make easy the way to all who followed +them. + +The year 1900 dawned. In the month of June the ladies closed school and +gladly accepted an invitation from friends in their old station to +visit them. To Taiyueanfu they went, and after many anxious days spent +with the missionaries gathered there they, in obedience to the +Governor's command, helpless to disobey, even though they suspected his +treacherous promises of protection, moved to a house near his +_Yamen_.[4] + +"Arrived at the house chosen for them, they made themselves as +comfortable as possible for the night; and the next morning (Sunday, +July 8) were able to examine their surroundings. They found that for +their whole number (twenty-six, including children) there were only two +comparatively small courts, the two inner courts being already occupied +by the Roman Catholics. . . . When the fateful day (Monday, July 9) +dawned, the foreigners evidently had no inkling as to what was to +happen. Just before noon the sub-prefect called and took a list of all +who were in the house, both foreigners and Chinese, saying it was by +order of the Governor. . . . As was ascertained just a year later, when +other Protestant missionaries returned to the province, the Governor had +determined that on that day he would kill all the foreigners in +Taiyueanfu. He evidently only took a few of the officials into his +confidence, and one at least--the _Tao Tai_--strenuously opposed the +course he was about to pursue, but unfortunately without result. + +"It must have been about two o'clock in the afternoon when he ordered a +number of officers, with their soldiers, to accompany him, and mounting +his own horse, led the way. He made as though he would go out of the +city by the North Gate, but before reaching that point, he suddenly +wheeled round and went to the house where the missionaries were +confined. He there ordered their immediate arrest, and they appear to +have made no resistance--as, indeed, it would have been useless. All who +were found within the compound (Protestants and Roman Catholics) were +seized; and it so happened there were several Chinese there on +business. . . . No excuse was listened to, and all were marched off to +the Governor's _Yamen_ between files of soldiers, where they were taken +into the courtyard adjoining the street and surrounded by soldiers--not +Boxers. + +"As to what really occurred, the whole truth will probably never be +known, but from inquiries made on the spot, it seems certain that the +Governor did not assault any with his own hand; but, having asked the +missionaries where they came from, and being answered, 'From England,' +and 'From France,' just gave the order, 'Sha' (kill) to the soldiers, +who answered with a shout and immediately fell upon their defenceless +victims, killing them indiscriminately."[5] + +The Church in Hwochow, Chaocheng, and Fensi had a marvellous escape. The +Boxers, practising their mystic rites, overran the district. Whole +families fled to the mountains, and no one was safe from robbery and +violence. The mandarin of Chaocheng, fearful lest massacres should take +place in the county under his jurisdiction and desiring at any cost to +keep the peace, called together some of the leading gentry and asked for +advice as to the problem facing them. "I know," said he, "that calling +upon the Christians to recant will be useless, but can we not issue +tickets to them upon which are the very words they use in entering the +Church, 'I promise to repent?' There should be no difficulty in getting +them to take these, for it will mean to them what they themselves +preach, while to the anti-Christian fanatic it will be sufficiently +satisfactory." + +Orders were accordingly issued that all Christians were to receive this +official paper whereby their safety would be ensured. Large numbers in +the Church regarded the mandarin's action as the overruling of +Providence on their behalf, and accepted tickets which involved no +verbal recantation of their faith. Others, amongst whom was Mrs. Hsi +(now a widow), with more sensitive spiritual perceptions, refused to +take advantage of even the semblance of a subterfuge. + +The Chaocheng mandarin, surrounded by his bodyguard, went outside the +city gates to the place where the Boxers were practising their rites +with the intention of burning incense in their presence, by which act he +would acknowledge them as invulnerable and holy men. At the critical +moment, however, one of them was said to have made a move as if to +attack the official, who instantly called upon his bodyguard to seize +the men, exclaiming: "These are insurgents, and no holy men; bind them, +they are prisoners." As such they entered the city, and Boxerism never +spread in the district. Thus did the Hand of God protect the hundreds of +men and women who in these three counties were called by His Name, and +while in many places few escaped the sword, the numerically largest +Church in the province of Shansi was spared. + +Mrs. Hsi was in Chaocheng seeking to help the women in their troubles, +when news reached her that her brother-in-law, Elder Si, was stabbed by +one of the local Boxers. Rumours followed rapidly, and she heard that +her mother-in-law was in serious danger. She hastened to her home, and +found matters worse than she had feared. There was no place in which to +live, the house was destroyed, her clothes were stolen, and had it not +been for the thoughtfulness of one missionary who, in the midst of +personal danger, found time to buy and send to her some garments and +bedcovering, she would have been in a sad plight. Her old mother could +not walk, so badly had she been beaten by the robbers, and terrified, +the two women crept to the fields and hid themselves. When night fell +they returned to shelter and to get a little food, crawling out to their +hiding-place before the cock crew each morning. Terror was upon the +whole populace. The official had not been successful here, as in +Chaocheng, in dealing with the movement, and the party of missionaries +who had for some time been gathered in Pingyangfu were openly attacked +and robbed by Boxer bands as they left the city under official escort. + +In loneliness and peril Mrs. Hsi and her aged mother cried to God, as +the anxious, weary days passed by. The missionaries were gone, very many +killed, others in hiding, and some, after perils and sufferings +unspeakable, had reached Hankow. After some months came the additional +sorrow of the death of her brother-in-law, Elder Si, who had managed +for her all matters in which she required help. + +Gradually the storm blew over, but those who passed through that period +can never forget it. For Christ's sake they had suffered, and they could +not again be as before. The Church in Shansi "had a new and powerful +weapon" in her hands, "the power of her sufferings." + +A few months later, as soon as passports were available, the +missionaries were back at their posts. There was much to tell and to +hear, as old friends met and were able to recount all the wonderful +deliverances of the past year. But how many vacant places there were! +How could they be filled? Ripe experience and Christlike sympathy were +needed to deal with the new situation. + +Some had, under pressure, in a weak moment, recanted; others had +resisted this temptation, but fallen over the more subtle question of +indemnity for property destroyed. The situation, moreover, was changed; +foreigner and Christian alike were now in the ascendancy. Compensation +for life and property was granted, and though the members of the China +Inland Mission declined to accept this, their action was made the +occasion of a laudatory proclamation which called upon the people to +note and imitate such an exemplification of self-forgetting goodness. + +In the providence of God the lives of a few missionaries had been spared +to return, and with the benefit of their experience, to help new workers +to an understanding of a situation which, mishandled, would inevitably +lead to disastrous consequences. + +Nothing could give Mrs. Hsi greater pleasure than to hear from her +friend, Miss French, that Hwochow was to be her future centre. I, as a +new worker, was to accompany her, and together we reached the city which +was to be henceforth our home. + +The reception given by the very few Christians who gathered to meet us, +was both cordial and critical. Miss French was welcome as being one +whose reputation had long ago reached them, who had already paid several +visits to the station, and whose Chinese, they soon remarked, was "as +good as Miss Jacobsen's!" Of me they knew nothing, and I had to meet the +gaze of many eyes and listen to the remark, before I opened my month to +speak, that it was impossible to understand my words. I had only one +asset, and that was the fact that this being my first station I should +belong to them, and when the day dawned that would release my stammering +tongue, the honour of having taught and trained me would be theirs! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] _Yamen_=law courts or Mansion House. + +[5] From _Fire and Sword in Shansi_, by Dr. E. H. Edwards. + + + + +LIFE IN THE VILLAGES + + "Great things are done when men and mountains meet; + These are not done by jostling in the street." + WILLIAM BLAKE. + + "Arrived there, the little house they fill, + No look for entertainment where none was; + Rest is their feast, and all things at their will; + The noblest mind the best contentment has." + WILLIAM SPENSER. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LIFE IN THE VILLAGES + +AN INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE HOME LIFE + + +THE house at Hwochow, which we were to inhabit, was still in the hands +of workmen. We therefore decided to delay the unpacking of our boxes, +and to spend several months in visiting the homes of the Christians +throughout the four counties for which we were then responsible. Our +travelling paraphernalia was simple, luggage being limited to the amount +that a small donkey could carry in addition to a rider. Clothes and +books were tied up in large square handkerchiefs and distributed as +evenly as possible, along with a folded, wadded quilt in a long bed-bag +which, thrown over the donkey's saddle, reached nearly to the ground on +either side. On the early morning of the day decided on for our +departure, two donkeys thus laden stood at our gate. On to one of them I +was hoisted, and took my first lesson in how to sit happily, perched +high on the voluminous luggage with neither reins for my hands nor +stirrups for my feet, for sometimes as long as twelve hours' travelling +with but a short break for food and rest at midday. From village to +village we wandered, received everywhere with cordial hospitality, +pressed to extend our visit, and followed on our departure by the +reiterated cry: "Come again, come again, come again soon!" + +All was fresh and delightful to me and brimful of interest, from the +hour when I rode through the city gate, passed the great tanks of lotus +bloom to the edge of the swift, shallow river, where my servant stripped +off his shoes and socks to lead my donkey knee-deep over the ford. + +By narrow roads we travelled where the tall grain stood like a wall on +either side, ripening in the fierce sunshine which bathed the landscape +in a dazzling glare. Through occasional villages we rode, where the +women called to each other to hurry and see the strange sight, and +groups of naked and semi-naked children commented freely on the +appearance of the "foreign devils." + +A few miles farther and the first stage was reached--a deep courtyard +backing the hillside, from which had been hollowed a row of caves +according to the economical method of the country. Scarcely any bricks +are required for such building, and the deep, lofty, arched room affords +the warmest shelter in our bitter Shansi winter cold, as it does the +coolest refuge from the burning summer heat. + +"Come again, come again soon," and we were off again, refreshed by a +delicious, beautifully cooked meal, and our hearts warmed by the evident +pleasure which our visit had given and the cordial hospitality which had +sought to let us know how welcome we were. And now we left the fertile +plain and well-watered land which lay all along the river-bed to climb +steep, stony roads, and follow narrow footpaths, where the difficulty of +its broad load made my donkey step gingerly as near to the chasm's edge +as she could secure a foothold, and I dug my knees into the soft bed-bag +and longed for something on which I could get a grip. How pleasant and +easy such journeying became before the end of that autumn's wandering, +and how familiar the life of the village homes. Almost day by day the +confused sounds took form to my unaccustomed ears, and I was soon able +to differentiate quite clearly between the two inevitable questions, +"How old are you?" and "How many brothers and sisters have you?" I +ceased to cover myself with confusion, by answering that my brothers and +sisters numbered twenty-three, and that my age was six--though now that +the days of helpless shame are passed, I would not _not_ have made these +mistakes, so keen is the enjoyment still felt when some one repeats the +old joke, and all laugh merrily at the recollection. + +Happy, irresponsible days, in which I learned to know and love the +Chinese. I saw them now to best advantage, simple, patriarchal, +industrious and thrifty, extraordinarily resourceful, and independent of +all that their own fields and farm do not supply. I saw the women's +activities, and how they picked the cotton in the fields, spun and +carded it, then wove it into strong cloth on the loom made for them by +their own husbands; how they dyed the cloth with indigo of their own +growing, and finally converted it into the garments, and even the shoes +and socks, worn by the whole family. I saw how those same garments were +wadded with a layer of cotton-wool as the cold season approached, and +behold, the whole family was made proof against the severe onslaughts of +the keenest frosts and bitterest winds. I saw how a measure of wheaten +or maize flour, a vessel of water, and a few vegetables dug from the +field were daily converted into the three meals on which young and old +alike thrived, the men showing a muscular development and endurance and +an agility unequalled by anything I had met in other countries. I +learned to recognise their simple, unexpressed joys, and to realise the +deep tragedies which lay beneath the surface of their laborious lives. + +I was in the midst of the province which--in the very year when I was +born--had been swept by the horrors of a famine and pestilence which +left whole villages with no other survivor than perhaps two or three +wailing children, feeding on garbage torn from the grasp of the dead +hand. + +My servant remembered the time well. His whole family had been wiped +out, and he had escaped as by a miracle. "In those days, dogs ate dogs +and men ate men," was the refrain of his tale, only too literally and +absolutely true, for no man dared to venture on the lonely path leading +from one village to another, knowing that the likelihood was that +murderers lay in wait, and that a few picked bones alone would tell the +tale even if, satiated with horrors to the point of indifference, any +one cared to inquire of it. + +When I expressed surprise at the many rows of caves allowed to fall into +utter ruin, and the traces of whole villages now returned to waste +land: "Famine year," he would briefly answer, "dogs ate dogs and men ate +men." + +I learned, too, why it was that no merry groups of children wandered +away from the village, even now when no evil-doers lay in wait, upon +some game or exploring adventure. I first discovered the reason of this +through meeting a woman whose face was scarred and mutilated so as to +bear small likeness to the human, and on inquiry I was informed that, as +a little girl, she had strayed away from home and been attacked by a +wolf; men had rushed to her rescue, but her face, which is generally the +part first attacked, was torn beyond recognition. I then learned what a +common thing it is for wild beasts, wolves or leopards, to come down +from the hills, and steal children even as they play around the +courtyard grinding-stone. I could not be surprised at the intense +anxiety of a woman whose son was half an hour late returning from an +errand, when I heard that her eldest child had strayed off one day, and +never been seen again. I was told of yet another woman who, nursing her +baby in the cave, saw a leopard spring on her eldest child in the +courtyard. Frantic, she left the baby to raise the alarm, and when she +returned bearing the little mangled body in her arms, she found that the +wild beast's mate had noted her absence and carried the baby off to its +lair. + +I also heard, and found myself compelled to believe, things which I +should have dismissed with an incredulous smile some few months earlier. + +It was now that I found myself brought face to face with the strange +phenomenon of demon possession. There is so much to be said on this +interesting topic, that it will require a chapter under its own heading +to note even a portion of what has come under my personal notice. For +the first time I heard, often in the midnight stillness, the +high-pitched voice, intoning the magic incantations whereby some young +woman yielded herself to be the medium of communication between the +spirit and the material, the wild chant sometimes dying away in the +distance, as she led a group of inquirers over wild mountain paths in +obedience to the directions of her control. + +A few weeks were spent in the home of an elder of the Church, Giang by +name, as from this centre it was easy to make daily itinerations in the +neighbourhood. What a welcome we received there! The deep cave set apart +for our use was decorated with flowers, everything was clean and +comfortable, and we were made to feel "at home." Being guests in the +house, our meals were always served separately, but we liked to take our +bowls into the courtyard and enjoy the family life. We were able to +consult with our host concerning many whom we had visited during the +day, and discuss our plans for the morrow. + +As the daylight faded we joined in prayer and praise, and listened to +much that was of interest to us as the Elder told of early years spent +in dissipation, opium smoking, and gambling; of his conversion through +Pastor Hsi, and of first efforts to preach the Gospel. Meanwhile, the +shepherd folded his sheep, carefully counting them lest one should be +missing, and the women prepared the millstones for grinding on the +morrow. I saw much illustrated that had been familiar to me from +childhood in the Gospel stories, even to the midnight cry announcing the +arrival of the bridal party to a neighbour's house. A little oil was +added to our long-extinguished lamp, as, being first to hear the +clanging of the cymbals, we hastened to the bridegroom's home to help +arouse the drowsy guests. + +We returned in due course to Hwochow, urged by our kind hostess to come +again at any time. Such homes are resting-places to those who have left +home for the Kingdom of God's sake, and are part of the literal +fulfilment of the promise: "An hundredfold now in this time." + +Nowhere are we more sure of a welcome than in some of these Chinese +courts, and for the Church of Christ in the home of Elder Giang, I for +one shall ever be thankful. + + + + +OUR RECEPTION AT HWOCHOW + + "The Master said: At first, my way with men was to + hear their words, and give them credit for their + conduct. Now, my way is to hear their words, and + look at their conduct."--_Confucian Analects._ + + "The Master said: A man should say, I am not + concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how + I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that + I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be + known."--_Confucian Analects._ + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OUR RECEPTION AT HWOCHOW + +SHOWING THINGS AS THEY SOMETIMES ARE + + +IN spite of the valuable help given by study-circles, training-colleges, +and other means by which the candidate for the mission field is equipped +for his work, I question if many are fully prepared, when they arrive at +the station to which they have been appointed, to find themselves +studied, summed up, and criticised by the people to whom they have come +in the capacity of teachers, and from whom they unconsciously expected +some measure of deference. + +The Westerner, as such, has no prestige in the eyes of the Chinese, and +though his wealth, education, and business capacity may command more or +less respect, the deep-rooted feeling is a sense of the intrinsic +superiority of the Middle Kingdom and its sons to the barbaric subjects +of a vague territory known as the "Kingdom without"--that is, without +the pale of the ancient civilisation. By grace, the Christian will +welcome you as a fellow-subject of the Kingdom of God, but on this +ground only, and on no preconceived assumption of your superiority, will +you be accepted. + +The fact that you have come several thousands of miles in order to +preach the Gospel, is not sufficient to place you unquestionably on a +pedestal. By temperament you are either impetuous or slow, easy-going or +exacting, courteous or brusque, and you will prove to be by nature more +or less reasonable or unreasonable when the Chinaman seeks to make you +understand _li_, an untranslatable word, which embodies the idea of the +complete range of all that it is suitable that you should be and do, on +every occasion. + +Failure to readjust your mind to such conditions during the first years +of your missionary life may prove an eventual fatal barrier to mutual +sympathetic understanding, and the establishment of that barrier has +been one of the difficulties which has not been much spoken of by those +with whom you have conversed, though they have doubtless been keenly +conscious of it themselves. + +We returned to Hwochow. The house was ready for us, and so were the +Church members. "New people," said some, "we are unaccustomed to each +other; they do not understand our circumstances, and we do not know +them." + +"Why did they spend months in another district instead of coming at once +to make themselves acquainted with us, our affairs, and our homes?" + +"It is a case of clear neglect," said another. "I have been a Church +member for fifteen years, and all the notice they have taken of me is to +spend one paltry day in my home, whereas they were three whole days in +the village of Peace and Harmony, where there are only heathen and not a +Christian to receive them." "I," complained another, "have been unable +to attend Church service for two weeks, and neither of them has been +near, as yet, to inquire the cause of my absence." + +"Well," chimed in an old gentleman, who by reason of his seniority in +the Church carried a good deal of weight, "had our beloved teacher of +former days been here, our homes would have been visited, and I will +take the first opportunity of telling them my mind on the subject." + +The close of the following Sunday morning service found us sad enough. +The congregation numbered thirty, and while some were loyally ready to +help, there was a section of malcontents who since the early days had +been a source of difficulty to Pastor Hsi and his friends, and from +whom, in the light of past knowledge, Miss French knew that trouble +would come. + +The first indication of the brewing storm was the entrance to our +guest-room of an aged Church member who, by reason of his rank as +military mandarin, was one of the glories of the Hwochow Church. +Vigorous and stalwart, his seventy years sat lightly on him, his bearing +and the play of his facial muscles affording proof of the brilliancy +with which he had passed the necessary examinations for the obtaining of +his degree. Unlike the civil mandarin, whose examinations require such +arduous study of classical writings, the military honour was conferred +as a reward for physical prowess. The competitor was required to exhibit +great skill in archery, shooting at the target from the back of a +galloping horse, and to lift stones of immense weight; meanwhile +throwing the body into such postures as, coupled with a terrifying +expression of the countenance and accompanied by blood-curdling yells, +would strike such terror into the heart of the opponent that he would +flee without striking a blow. + +After such training he had little to fear, and felt, no doubt, that a +few moments' interview would be sufficient to reduce two young women to +reason, and place matters on a more satisfactory basis. + +When the old gentleman entered, we invited him to the seat of honour, +ourselves taking chairs at the lower side of the table. He asked for an +explanation. Had he been informed correctly that we had been appointed +to carry on the work in Hwochow? "Yes," we replied, "that is the case, +and also to help the women in the counties of Chaocheng, Hungtung, and +Fensi, until such time as lady workers shall be in residence there; +moreover, our schools are to be for the women and girls of these +counties as well as Hwochow." + +This item of information fell as a severe blow. Hwochow is a curious +district, its natives physically and mentally being of a totally +different type to all around, in all relationships with whom there +exists mutual distrust and suspicion. It was odious to men and women of +this exclusive type to hear that the foreigner, in coming, viewed the +nurturing of a small band of discontents as of very secondary importance +to the opportunity of spreading the news of the Gospel far and wide +amongst the heathen. It was at this point of the conversation that the +first traces of that terror-striking expression began to flit across his +features, and his eyebrows gathered themselves into a most terrifying +bunch. "Are you aware that I have been a Christian for twelve years, and +that I am known far and wide by Chinese and foreigners alike?" "I am +fully aware of it," said Miss French, and might have added, "known and +dreaded of all men." + +"Should not the missionaries' conduct be regulated in accordance with +the command, 'Seek the lost until it be found'?" "It should," acquiesced +Miss French. "Then are you aware that during the past three months we +have been as sheep without a shepherd, left as prey to wolves, with no +one to care for us, our homes have been unvisited, and members who have +absented themselves from Church service have had no inquiries made as to +the cause of their non-appearance?" + +"Did you say _twelve_ years a Church member?" inquired Miss French. +"Nearly thirteen," he replied. "Then no longer a babe in Christ, but +yourself able to seek the lost, and to come to our assistance as we take +up the responsibilities of our new work. We have come here," she added, +"for the people who need us, whether Chaocheng or Hwochow." + +"Then go to Chaocheng and leave us alone; _our_ missionaries must +shepherd _our_ Church." At this point wrath overcame him, and throwing +himself into the classical position of the Chinese brave, "A couple of +youngsters," he yelled, "untaught in the wisdom of Confucius." With +these words he flung himself out of the room. His spirit was too much +perturbed to call to mind the wisdom of the sage, "In archery we have +something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the +centre of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his +failure in himself." + +The loud clanging of a gong was shortly heard, and the tones of a +well-known voice alternately carolling forth a familiar hymn with a +recital of the wrongs needing redress. + + "The Gospel way is the best of all, hark! I loud proclaim the same." + +(Loud beating of the gong.) "Call that love! I vow to report them at +headquarters!" + + "Heaven's joy bestowed on earth, saves poor sinners and sets them + free." + +(Again the gong.) "Much they care for our souls! Let them go to +Chaocheng!" + +The sounds gradually ceased, as those who were truly grieved that we +should be thus insulted pacified the old gentleman, begging him to have +a care for his aged body, and refresh it with food and rest. + +Miss French's mind was made up. "We shall soon make another tour of +villages outside this district," she said, "and it shall be a long one. +These old members have stood in the way long enough. New converts will +join themselves to the Church; if they be welcomed, all the better, if +not, the old ones must go; we can allow them to hinder no longer." + +Miss French's method was fully justified, for when they saw new +adherents keen with the flush of first love and enthusiasm they, with +very few exceptions, awakened more fully to their responsibilities. + +Time heals many wounds, and when we returned from England our old +friend, the military mandarin, came in full official dress to welcome +us. + +"Good to have you back," he said; "we are accustomed to each other, and +you know how to manage this place!" + + + + +A PORTRAIT GALLERY + + "We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a + picture, which we are willing to give the + advantage of a good light."--EMERSON. + + "He asked them to come with Him, and they came; + and Jesus did not begin by raising questions in + their minds as to whether they were worthy to + come. It was the purpose of Jesus to make them + worthy to stay. Now the Church of Christ ought to + be as hospitable as Christ was. I do not see for + what other purpose she exists. And the Church + ought to be as confident and believing as Christ + was, that many a one whom it may be was unworthy + to enter has at length become worthy to + remain."--Dr. JOHN HUTTON. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A PORTRAIT GALLERY + +WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO SOME OF OUR FELLOW WORKERS + + +IN meeting the members of an infant and unsophisticated Church, it is +delightful to observe the directness of their spiritual characteristics, +unfettered by the artificiality which grows up with theological +phraseology and the adoption of sectarian conventionalities. + +So strongly individualistic a band of men met us at Hwochow, that +Christian himself on his Heavenward journey encountered, I think, no +more varied a company, nor more striking, in the various ways in which +CHRIST had met them and called them to discipleship, and turned their +strongly-marked characteristics into the way of His service. + +Evangelist, Fu by name, keen and even fierce in his determination to +compel men to hear the truth concerning the City of Destruction and the +burden of sin which rests upon them, would go from place to place with a +bundle of books, preaching and warning sinners "to flee from the wrath +to come." He asked no remuneration from the Church _or_ foreigner for +the time he gave, but realising that necessity was laid upon him, he +pointed men to the Saviour. His best work was done alone for he was +easily offended, but, true and straight, he ruled his house in the fear +of the Lord. + +His conversion was characteristic of the man. Having business to +transact in the small city of Great Peace, he found that large crowds +had gathered to listen to a man proclaiming strange doctrines. Every one +knew why Pastor Hsi, for it was he, had come that day to the city. A +family had professed their willingness to destroy idols, and asked him +to be present on the occasion. When the Pastor arrived, however, the man +had changed his mind, and fear of consequences had proved too much for +him. Nothing could hinder the Pastor from preaching the Good News, and +he made much of this opportunity. When he had finished speaking, Mr. Fu +went to him and asked him what was this new doctrine, and Mr. Hsi told +him the story of the Garden of Eden, and the Fall of man. + +"In Adam all have sinned, and in Christ all can be forgiven." It was a +strange story, and yet as Fu listened he felt it was true, and as he +took the long, lonely walk over the mountains to his home, he meditated +much upon it. He had not as yet seen the wicket-gate, but he had seen +the direction in which it lay, and a subconscious desire was in his +heart to know more. + +Home affairs claimed his attention, and he had no time to give to the +further investigation of new religions; and yet the seed which had been +sown was gradually germinating, so that when after a few months he +found himself again near Great Peace, in a small place where was an +opium refuge, Mr. Fu went in to see the man who was in charge. Although +he had never smoked opium himself, Mr. Fu was on this occasion in +possession of some of the crude drug, and was on his way to the hills to +sell it, and hoped by the transaction to profit considerably. The +Refuge-keeper, seeing he was interested, asked him to share his evening +meal, and when he found out the errand on which his guest was bent, he +told him to sell the opium he had and avoid any further dealings with so +deadly a poison. Mr. Fu was deeply touched by the kindness of this man. +"I have no claim upon him, and yet he treated me as a brother," was his +reflection. From that day Mr. Fu never sold opium again. + +He started on his homeward journey, and once more as he walked the +lonely roads he was conscious of the constraining presence of One who +has so often met with men as they travel, walking through the fields, +and inviting them to leave all and follow Him. Thus untrammelled by the +words and requirements of men, Mr. Fu met with his God; but still +questioning, he reached home to find that his wife was dangerously ill. +He went at once to a neighbouring village to fetch a doctor, and found +him unwilling to come until he had taken a dose of opium which was then +due. Finding that all persuasion was useless, Mr. Fu suddenly decided to +go to Hwochow and see if the foreign missionaries, or the Opium +Refuge-keeper there, had any medicine. He walked the twelve miles, and +was directed to the missionaries' house. The decision to go to Hwochow +was made suddenly; not so the resolution to enter the open door of the +house. Perhaps he had been wrong after all! It was serious to so openly +come in contact with foreigners! It might be that the stories he had +heard of their magical powers were correct! And yet his heart had borne +him witness, in that lonely walk, that what he heard in Great Peace was +true. + +After walking up and down for some time, unconscious that Goodwill was +watching him from within, he heard some one call and ask him to come in. +The call came at the right moment and he entered, knowing as he did so +that a definite step was being taken and life would never be for him the +same again. + +"My wife is ill, and I have come to ask for medicine," he said. After +some talk he was taken to see Miss Jacobsen, who told him that God +could, and would, heal sickness in answer to prayer. She and the +evangelist prayed with him, gave him medicine, some books, and made him +promise to come again. He left them, saying that he would do so. Again +the long, lonely walk had to be faced, and Beelzebub gave orders that +arrows should be shot at him, and all manner of doubts took possession +of his soul. "I must go again, for I have given my word," he reflected. +"What folly!" and then again the words which he could not doubt +reasserted themselves, and he considered, yielded, and believed. + +As he entered his courtyard, he saw his wife grinding corn! "I am well," +she said. "And I," he said, "have believed in Jesus." To his surprise, +not one word of anger escaped her lips. "I am glad," was her only +comment. + +There was no time to be lost; if he delayed, others might hinder him, +and before his evening meal he tore down the idols, and together husband +and wife prayed to God. + +Fu was the youngest of four brothers, and the three other families were +not of the same mind; he was unceasing in his efforts to bring them to +the Saviour, but at the Chinese New Year festival they, as custom +required, burnt incense to the idols. + +Serious illness seized upon various members of all three families, and +their lives were in danger. Fu, seeing his opportunity, offered to go to +the city and ask the evangelist to come and pray for them, and to this +they consented. When Mr. Fu returned, he was accompanied by Mr. Cheng, +and in response to his exhortations their idols were destroyed and the +three brothers professed their willingness to become disciples. That +place has been signally blessed of God. All have given liberally of +their substance to the work of the Lord, and they have now their own +church, a cave cut from the _loess_ cliffs by their own hands, where +Sunday by Sunday men and women gather from the neighbouring villages to +hear the word of God, and many have been added to the Church as a +result. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Ging, little of stature, so short-sighted as to be almost blind, had +recently been a patient in the Opium Refuge. A scholar of note, holding +a high degree, we first knew him when he was about forty years of age, +and the only Christian in his village. He was more than any Chinaman I +have met impregnated with the teachings of Confucius; and filial piety +was for him no mere doctrine of words, but a ruling factor in his life. + +Shortly before the time of which I write, he had, one day, given some +cause of offence to his aged mother, in consequence of which she +commanded that, in recognition of his fault, he should kneel on the +ground before her until such time as she should see fit to excuse him. + +For half a day she kept him in that position, and he knelt quietly, +giving to all an example and illustration of the sacred duty of son to +parent as taught in the Chinese Classics, and as understood by those who +earnestly follow their teachings. + +By virtue of his learning and position, no matter of importance would be +settled in the village without him, and he enjoyed great respect as a +teacher of the young, notwithstanding the fact that he was handicapped +in his work as school-master by reason of his defective eyesight, the +boys taking full advantage of his disability and failing to appreciate +as they should the virtue of the "Princely Man" of whom they read so +much in their classical studies, and of whom they daily witnessed so +striking an example. + +For some of these pupils of his, examination-day dawned, and the results +were disastrous. The consequences of much undetected mischief were now +made clear in the light of day, and the indignant examining missionary +called upon Mr. Ging to aid in devising a punishment adequate to the +circumstances. "Is it by extra imposed work, or by the public disgrace +of the rod, that their misdeeds will be made most heinous in their own +eyes?" he was asked, the remarks being accompanied by a look which could +not fail to assure the trembling band of offenders that the method of +Solomon met with unqualified approval. "I think," replied Mr. Ging, +"that the case does not call so much for punishment as for exercise of +greater patience on our side!!!" This answer was to the unbounded +delight of the scholars, and discomfiture of the missionary. + +It was in his own village and home that he shone. Before many years had +passed, the people who were formerly unwilling to receive us had many of +them become Christians. One of their number had lent his room, rent free +for ten years, as a meeting-place for worship, and a good work had +begun. If you spoke to them of the cause of this change, they would tell +you of Mr. Ging and the force of his example, and how even his old +mother had, before her death, renounced idolatry and asked for a +Christian funeral. + + * * * * * + +What can I say of Mr. Lan? One is tempted to question, "How shall the +superficial enter into the Kingdom of God?" + +One of the aristocratic families, no longer enjoying the prosperity of +former days, yet endeavouring to impress upon all its grandeur whilst +inevitably sinking, gave us Mr. Lan. + +Contact with Pastor Hsi had been the turning-point in his life, and from +the early days he gave himself assiduously to the study of the Bible. +Few have more accurate knowledge of the Scripture than he, his +addresses are well and carefully prepared, and he has been the means +under God of leading many men to a knowledge of the Saviour. His kind +disposition and good-nature have given him many friends, but love of +money and appearances have crippled his usefulness. Any Christian work +he now does is independent of the missionaries, and he will sometimes be +invited to the official's residence to help some one to leave the opium +habit, he and his father before him having been doctors of no small +repute. He is constantly in debt, and will often remain away from his +home during the Chinese New Year when debts are settled, but when he +does return, he enters the house with such perfect manners, and is +attired in such gorgeous silk, that few would venture to mention +anything so unpleasant as the settlement of a debt. + +Easily led, he loves the glories of this present world and is fearful +lest, by too great zeal, the rulers of Vanity Fair may regard him as a +stranger and outcast. And yet, in his high moments, he finds himself +longing for the things that abide, and his affections and desires are +for the time being upon these, but as a morning cloud they pass. In +other lands, where the line of demarcation is less clear, he might be +considered a good Churchman, but neutral tints are rare here, and a man +must clearly show on which side he stands or he will get the benefit of +neither. + +He is ever faithfully served by his dependant and sycophant, Mr. Diao, +who is a weak, physically decadent man who can neither offend by word +nor deed the man from whom he has had so much. His manner is too +servile to allow one to place much confidence in him, but he is a +believer, and proves by many actions that he is truly following Christ. +If only he could get free from the net of the rich man, and yet--what +Church has not such members! + + * * * * * + +Mr. Tu, weak, good, always trusting the Heavenly Father to supply his +needs, temporal and spiritual, and ever ready to bear witness that He +has done so, in spite of the fact that life's outlook is always grey! +Very poor, he was the leader in his village by virtue of his sincerity. +Is some aggressive movement proposed? "The time has not yet come," is +his ever-ready answer. Do the crops seem to fail for lack of rain, and +the farmers, anxious and worried, speak of the famine confronting them, +and him? "Fear not, the Lord will provide," he will say, and though he +may have to eat the coarsest flour, and little of that sometimes, he +never doubts, and never rejoices!! + +On the occasion of the marriage of his son, even a short time before the +bride arrived, nothing was ready--he had so little--and all he said was: +"We must wait and see how the Heavenly Father will provide." When the +moment came every one was ready to help him, and he would be a +discontent indeed who was dissatisfied with the result. Mr. Tu was full +of praise to GOD for His goodness, and will quote the incident to those +who may have doubts. + +I have reflected much upon Mr. Tu and his ways, and I am reminded of the +ravens, "who sow not nor gather into barns," and our Heavenly Father +cares for them; and I come to the conclusion that to us is granted on +rare occasions the privilege of being the medium by which our Father +will prove His care to the weak, yet trustful souls. Good, faithful old +Tu, he could teach many of us of the active, energetic temperament a +lesson; for he will tell you, and truly, that he has no strength, yet he +has never asked from man, and he has perfect confidence that the Good +Shepherd will lead him safe to the journey's end. + + + + +WORK DEVELOPMENT + + "No Church is fulfilling its responsibilities to + God, or preparing itself for its best and most + effective work, which does not regard itself in + some respects as a great Training School for + Christian workers."--Rev. A. SWIFT. + + "And He gave-- + Some indeed to be apostles, + And some prophets, + And some evangelists, + And some shepherds and teachers,-- + With a view to the fitting of the saints + For the work of ministering, + For an upbuilding of the body of the Christ." + The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WORK DEVELOPMENT + +RELATING HOW WE SOUGHT TO ENCOMPASS THE WORK, AND THE WORK ENCOMPASSED +US + + +THE events of 1900 resulted in an extraordinary quickening of interest +amongst those who had a contact of some kind with Christianity. We very +soon found ourselves quite overwhelmed by the many openings and +opportunities which presented themselves on all sides. Hitherto +untouched villages begged for a visit, idols were destroyed by those +into whose homes we had never penetrated, leaders in the Church were +begging us to devise some means by which the women might be taught, +fathers were prepared for any sacrifice so that their daughters might be +received as scholars. + +For some time, at vast expenditure of strength, we attempted by +travelling in different directions to spend, at any rate, one or two +days in the various centres we were begged to visit. Each month we +became more strongly impressed with the fact that the work of +evangelisation was being carried on with tremendous aggressive force, +not by us, but by the native Church, we being unable to even follow up +the openings made by them. + +Such a mass movement afforded an unparalleled opportunity, provided +sufficient teaching were given to establish and build up in the faith +those who believed; but if left to itself, this large numerical increase +might prove a serious menace to the spiritual life of the Church. We had +to seriously consider our ways. Should we contribute our small part to +the widespread preaching of the Gospel and visiting of those who had +already heard through the Chinese evangelising agencies, or should we +leave to the Chinese Church the responsibility of propagating itself, +reserving ourselves to "preparing saints for the work of ministering"? + +Chinese Christians going from place to place spread the Good Tidings +more effectually than we could hope to do, and where such conditions +exist, it is surely an indication that the people of the land should +hear the Gospel first from the lips of their own countrymen. Moreover, +the Government was seriously considering the establishment of girls' +schools, and we had to decide as to whether the work amongst the young +should be an unimportant branch of our scheme of missionary activities, +or whether our schools should be established with the object of becoming +training-centres for Christian helpers. + +We were faced with this fact: unless we trained some Christian teachers, +the education of the young would be in the hands of heathen; no small +matter when the exalted position of the teacher in China is borne in +mind; and the, if possible, more urgent fact, that unless we seriously +prepared some Chinese missionaries we should go from year to year, +decade to decade, with no trained Chinese staff. The material was there, +and the Chinese Church was supplying young men and women, earnest +devoted servants of Jesus Christ, who, given the training and granted +the blessing of God, could do a work which it would be impossible for +the most earnest Westerner to accomplish. Chinese of the Chinese, with +neither linguistic nor climatic difficulties, understanding the minds of +the most subtle of people, they enter their work with a flying leap +which we may envy, but cannot attain. The Holy Spirit will deal with +them as He does with us, and recognising them as fellow-workers together +with God, we shall cease to hinder them by perpetual criticism and +doubt. Faults they will have, as we, and while of a different order, who +shall say that these failings make them in God's sight more unfit for +the work of preaching the Gospel than ours have made us? + +We therefore accepted the form of ministry which pressed with strongest +necessity on us, and from the free and irresponsible life of the +itinerant missionary, accepted the calling of teachers, and allowed +ourselves to be tied to the numberless claims and responsibilities of +institutional life. In addition to the girls' school, a plan was formed +whereby we agreed to accept married women for terms of varying +length--twenty to thirty days--as far as possible classifying them +according to ability and previous knowledge. The teaching was graded +from the first elements of Christian doctrine to fairly advanced New +Testament classes. From amongst the first groups of women who came to +us, it was evident that some were capable of receiving a far more +advanced training, and the zeal they exhibited in teaching the little +they knew on their return home, promised future usefulness. Two small +rooms in our own living-court supplied the only accommodation for these +station classes, and as each group scattered it was almost immediately +replaced by other eager inquirers. + +A small inner court containing two good rooms was set apart for the use +of the girls' school. Every term brought an increase in the numbers, and +it was soon evident that more suitable accommodation was essential if we +were to meet the growing need. Though we knew it not, the necessary +provision was already made. We sat together one evening in a shady spot +adjoining our premises, sharing our home letters; we opened one to find +it contained a cheque from a friend who could know nothing of our need, +marked: "For use in any necessary buildings." The very spot on which we +sat, later on proved to be the site of the John Holt Skinner Memorial +Court in the new school buildings. By the next term Chinese rooms, +providing for the accommodation of sixty, were erected; the old +school-court was given over to women's station classes, and we saw scope +for the realisation of our wildest dreams. The work amongst the men was +increasing in a similar proportion. Mr. Wang, who was in charge when we +arrived at Hwochow, was now appointed Deacon of the Church, and +afterwards Elder. We soon recognised in him a man of no ordinary +influence. Like Barnabas, he was "a good man filled with the Holy +Spirit," and like him might well be called the "Son of Consolation." + +The large numbers who were baptized upon profession of faith each year +entailed many responsibilities--new families to be visited, more +visitors to be received, marriages and funerals to be attended. Cases of +persecution, real or supposed, called for many hours of patient +listening, and, withal, the constant stream of city women who desired to +inspect all that was going on, parents to see children in the school, +friends and relatives of opium patients, who lost no chance of visiting +the member of the family under treatment, changed the once quiet house +into a beehive of activity. + +In many Shansi houses there is a large, well-built room, open to north +and south, which is set apart for the observance of the prescribed +family rites connected with ancestral worship. Here are the wooden +ancestral tablets, image of the soul and tangible symbol, erected to the +memory of the deceased, affording thereby a fixed object for filial +piety. This room on our compound was dedicated as a church for public +worship; enlarged once, and again the second time, it still proved too +small for our growing congregation. + +The strain attendant on such a rapid development was severe, but each +year found us supplied with increasingly able help from our Chinese +co-workers. We found ourselves driven to the practical testing of the +principle: "When the pressure of the work is too heavy, then extend the +work," and we found it to be sound and workable. Each term some extra +responsibility was thrown off on to the shoulders of willing helpers, +that we ourselves might be free to undertake fresh enterprises. + + + + +MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT + + "It is Jesus who has introduced into virtue a + passion before which vice is not condemned but + consumed as by fire."--Rev. CARNEGIE SIMPSON. + + "Round the cape of a sudden came the sea, + And the sun looked over the mountain's rim: + And straight was a path of gold for him, + And the need of a world of men for me." + ROBERT BROWNING. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT + +BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HER LIFE FROM WIDOWHOOD + + +ONE direct result of the lack of foreign workers was the appointment of +Mrs. Hsi to the oversight of the women's work in Chaocheng. During her +husband's lifetime she had been eager to learn all she could, and had +with difficulty mastered some of the Chinese characters. She often +expressed to him her desire to learn more, but he told her to remember +that the need for her to attend to the domestic side of the large +establishment at the Middle Eden was essential, and her life until his +death was largely a busy domestic one. + +Not entirely, however, was this the case. When it became necessary to +open a Refuge for Women in the city of Hungtung, it was to his wife that +the Pastor looked for help, and she, there and in other places, did a +truly Christlike work. It was in the city of Hsugo that she accomplished +her most difficult task. It seemed as if the devil had a special power +there, and Pastor Hsi was almost in despair. Man after man, amongst them +some of his most trusted helpers, fell into sin, or were overcome by +difficulties in that place. + +How to hold it at all was a problem. He solved it by sending his wife, +and alone she went to live six days' journey from the place where he +was, and for the first time the work in Hsugo was successful. + +Almost immediately after her return home, Pastor Hsi developed the +illness from which he never recovered. He was at work on some Refuge +accounts when he felt unwell, and his spirit became conscious that the +messenger had come with a command "that he must prepare for a change of +life, for his Master was not willing that he should be so far from Him +any longer." + +For nearly six months he lingered still, making preparations for the +journey ahead; he gave directions for the temporary closing of the +Refuges, recognising, doubtless, that the time while he was still on +earth, but unable to exercise control, might be an even more perilous +period than that which would follow his death. Mrs. Hsi herself fell +ill, and so seriously that her life was at one time despaired of. She +was barely able to stand the fatigue of the public funeral to which +hundreds gathered, yielding to their grief and sobbing as children who +had lost a parent. She herself was bowed with sorrow, for they had been +truly one in God's service, but strength was sent to her through a dream +in which she saw her husband, in glory beyond her imagining, and with +him the boy who had been their only son and had died in childhood. When +she desired to join them he rebuked her, saying: "Nay, but you must +return"; and obedient, she turned her back on the heavenly glory and +faced "the need of a world" of sin. + +Mrs. Hsi was now to realise to the full the unfortunate position of a +childless widow. According to the custom of the country, the nearest +male relative on her husband's side should have been her protector, but +this duty devolved on a nephew who was an opium smoker, gambler, and +unregenerate heathen, and what should have been protection took the form +of persecution. + +Elder Si, her brother-in-law, took over the control of the opium refuges +and the preparation of the medicine used. Days of prayer and fasting +always preceded the compounding of the drugs which were prepared in +Pastor Hsi's own home, and sent out in the form of pills. It was in +connection with the medicine that Mrs. Hsi's first difficulties +occurred. Large quantities of the various ingredients were stored at +Middle Eden, and the said nephew claimed possession of this stock, +declaring his intention of defending his rights by stabbing any one who +dared to touch it. + +The time came when the drugs were required, and arrangements were +quietly made for the removal of the material to the home of Elder Si. +Before touching the goods, Mrs. Hsi called the young man to her, and +addressing him by name told him to fetch his knife, as she intended to +carry out her husband's wishes and supply the Refuges with the necessary +medicine without delay. Abashed, and half-ashamed by her self-confidence +and dignity, he muttered excuses and left her presence with an apology. + +Nevertheless, it required all her wits and most of her time to prevent +this ne'er-do-weel from robbing her of all she possessed. Opium he would +eat, his gambling habits were strong, and how could she prevent him from +stealing that which, as one of the family, he could partially claim as +his own? The problem weighed upon her mind and she decided that division +of the land, each taking half the produce of the farm, was the only +solution. Even so she was not safe; there is a Chinese proverb which +says: "It is hard to deal with a thief who is one of the family," and +she proved it to be true. If she left home for a few days she would +return to find her door broken open, her clothes stolen, and her grain +visibly less. Although the Chinese law would offer her redress, she, by +reason of Christian principle and the example of her husband, never +appealed for help to an earthly tribunal, but daily prayed: "Lord, have +mercy on him, and change his heart." + +In the early days of her faith, Mrs. Hsi had earnestly desired to unbind +her feet as witness that she was a Christian, but her husband, fearful +lest any should be misled to regard Christianity as conformity to +foreign customs rather than to a change of heart, was strongly opposed +to her doing so. He strictly forbade the binding of children's feet, but +saw no need for outward change of shoe in the foot already disfigured. +During his lifetime she yielded to his wish, but after his death refused +to let her mature judgment be held in abeyance by the dead hand of the +past, and did that which she felt was a testimony to many of her weaker +sisters. She unbound her feet and adopted a normal shoe and sock, and +many who had made her supposed attitude on the question an excuse, now +followed her example. + +In order to give the Gospel to Hwochow Mrs. Hsi had parted with the most +valuable of her worldly goods, and when the call came for the second +great renunciation in response to the need for a woman worker in +Chaocheng, she was ready to move into that city, knowing as she did so, +that by leaving the family home she would finally close the way of +return. She well knew that no seal on the door would prevent her nephew +from stealing her goods, and her worst fears were realised when, a few +years later, on the occasion of the erection of a memorial stone to +Pastor Hsi, she revisited what had once been Middle Eden. All was gone, +and she was thankful to hurry away and leave the scene that could only +cause her pain. + +On entering her new sphere of work, the missionaries at Hwochow assured +her that all the love and sympathy which she had promised Mr. Taylor +years before should be given to the first ladies who came to that city, +was now to be bestowed on her. The loyal affection of the Chinese Church +was hers, for she is regarded by them with an admiration and reverence +which they consider the right of so worthy a woman. She knew that she +could count upon a welcome, but it was a costly step. + +City and village visiting, weekly classes for inquirers, and a Women's +Opium Refuge occupy Mrs. Hsi's time in Chaocheng. A sentence easy to +write, but only He to Whom the offering is made can know the cost at +which ladies, with the refinements of their class, give themselves to +the Christlike work of rescuing the opium sots who find their way to +the Refuge. Women of the lowest moral type at times appear, dirty, +coarse, and repulsive, and yet gladly and graciously they are received. +The lady in charge will sleep with them in order to comfort and pray +with them during the night watches, and no service is too menial for +these saintly women to render. The impression made is never forgotten by +those to whom they minister; and even if they return again to the ways +of sin, the vision of that gentle lady with her kind heart will remain, +a reflection, faint it may be, yet a reflection of the love of God, ever +ready to welcome the wanderer from the far country. + +[Illustration: A WOMAN OPIUM SMOKER. + +_To face page 82._] + + + + +THE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER + + "I know that, because of this money-grasping, + trade-compelling feature of England's dealings + with my country, millions of wretched people of + China have been made more miserable; stalwart men + and women have been made paupers, vagrants, and + the lowest of criminals; and hundreds of thousands + of the weaker ones of my race--mainly among the + women--have been sent to suicide graves. All this + because gold and territory are greater in the eyes + of the British Government, than the rights and + bodies of a weak people."--H. E. LI HUNG-CHANG. + + "O my brothers and all my friends, + If you would hearken to good advice, + Avoid the poppy juice for ever and aye, + As it is a plague most noxious and vile! + It will eat out your minds, + It will rot away your vitals, + It will shrivel up your bowels, + It will make you walk as a leper, + It will cast you into prison, + It will send you to your death!" + H. E. LI HUNG-CHANG. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER + + +THE first man to enter the Opium Refuge in Hwochow, as patient, was +named Fan of the village of Southern Springs. He came from a once +wealthy clan, now reduced through opium smoking to comparative poverty. +He had not yet reached the stage of positive want, but that condition is +never far from the habitual heavy smoker, and should he continue a few +years longer, beggary will be the ultimate fate of his wife and family. + +The temptation was at his very door, for all the best-watered land +surrounding Southern Springs was given up to poppy cultivation. During +the time when the plant was in flower, the village nestled amidst some +hundreds of acres of exquisite iridescent bloom. The beauty was +shortlived, even as the seeming prosperity of the grower, and but a few +days later Southern Springs stood amidst bare brown fields of dry poppy +heads, scarred by the cutter's knife, exuding in thick drops the +poisonous juices--a striking picture in the eyes of all men of the fate +awaiting the smoker, who, lulled by the insidious charm of the +fascinating drug, would finally be the only one unable to see himself a +hopeless, helpless, degraded wreck. + +At the close of three weeks' treatment in the Refuge, Fan returned home +a new creature, restored in body and mind, and with a heart renewed in +hope. In his own immediate family were several members, victims as +himself of the deadly drug, and amongst these was his nephew, adopted +into the family on the footing of a son since death had robbed him of +the last boy who might pay the filial sacrifice of tears and +lamentations at his tomb. Moreover, his wife's keen intelligence and +strong will were gradually being subjugated by a growing apathy, result +of her secret habit. On these two Fan urged a plea to give the Refuge a +trial, and his nephew, impressed by the evident good result in his +uncle's case and the assurance that the treatment had induced very +slight suffering, pronounced himself willing to try the experiment; his +wife, on the other hand, repudiated with scorn any such suggestion. +Another few weeks saw the young man return to Southern Springs loud in +praise of all he had seen and heard in Hwochow. He recounted all his +experiences, every detail of the treatment, the number of pills +swallowed, and the care with which the strength of the pills was graded +from the powerful "Pill of life" to the lesser "Pill of strength" and +the final "Pill of restoration." + +He also knew by heart a number of verses from the New Testament, and +could sing hymns written by Pastor Hsi on the subjects of salvation and +the sin of opium smoking, several of which numbered twelve verses in +length. + +All this caused much stir in the village, and became the general subject +of conversation when the men were home from the fields, during the +twilight hour devoted to social intercourse. He was referred to as a +competent authority on all matters relating to the ways and habits of +those "foreign devils" who went to and fro between the various stations +which they had opened, and even penetrated into the villages amongst the +homes of any who were rash enough to risk having them under their roof. + +Both uncle and nephew had secretly entirely changed their opinion +concerning the foreigner and the Christian doctrine which he inculcated. +Fear had given place to confidence, and one or other would frequently +walk the four miles to Hwochow on a week day, or better still on Sunday, +to sit an hour with the Refuge-keeper, whom it was hard indeed not to +trust, and who always had some good matter to unfold and kind, earnest +words with which to help a man in the hour when his old vice threatened +to ensnare his soul afresh. Little sympathy was to be gained at home. +Mrs. Fan still took opium, endangering her husband's and nephew's +principles as they returned, weary from work, to a room reeking with the +odour so attractive to them. + +She was a woman of no ordinary character, exceptionally intelligent, +strong-minded and wilful, capable in every duty which falls to the +woman's share in the home; by nature hard working and ambitious, in +physique of a pronounced Jewish type. Not easily led, and impossible to +drive, she flew into such a passion when her husband ventured to tell +her that two lady missionaries had arrived, and were prepared to +receive women as patients in the Hwochow Refuge, and gave such rein to +her tongue that he, poor man, was thankful to escape beyond earshot of +her loud recriminations and curses. + +If his words were silenced we may believe that his actions were speaking +louder and more effectually, for influences stronger than the woman +realised were even now at work, preparing to overturn all her +preconceived prejudices and hatred of Christianity and its followers. + +The climax came more suddenly than could have been anticipated, +revealing to herself and others the extraordinary change of viewpoint +which had been silently working during weeks of apparently unchanged +opposition. + +On returning from the fields one evening, Fan found his wife in an +unusual state of activity, whilst the three little girls who constituted +his family formed a tearful group on the _kang_. With characteristic +abruptness Mrs. Fan delivered the information: "I am preparing to go to +the city Opium Refuge." Scarcely able to credit her statement the +husband stood aghast, and she explained: "It is no good, the children +are taking it too." + +A terrible statement, yet true, for whereas she knew that she had often +pacified the tiny baby's fretfulness by puffing a few whiffs of the +smoke into its mouth, she had that day made the discovery that, as soon +as she herself lay down to sleep off the effect of her dose, the two +elder girls would seize on the opium pipe and share all they could get +from it, so that already, unknown to herself, the craving was well +developed in them. + +To the Refuge they must all go, and the next evening saw a cart at the +door into which were being stowed various bundles of clothing wrapped in +blue-and-yellow cloths, each bundle having attached to it a small piece +of scarlet cotton to ensure luck on the journey. Flour and millet for +food, and other necessaries were piled up behind the cart, and the +children were packed inside and told to keep quiet, for they were +leaving at night to avoid the jeers of the villagers. The father sat +upon the shafts, the mother cross-legged inside, and after an hour's +drive the city gates were sighted, and soon the party was welcomed at +the Mission House. + +A very few days in the Refuge served to largely alter the tenor of Mrs. +Fan's mind. The woman who took charge of her was a kind, +confidence-inspiring body, with nothing of the "foreign devil" about +her. She would hear no harm of the missionaries, and flatly denied that +children were enticed on to the premises to be done to death by foul +means, or that the foreigner's blue eye could see corpses in their +coffins, or that magic incantations were used by means of which all who +drank their tea must become their followers. + +All these questions and many others relating to the personal character +of the strange beings were asked during the long night watches when +sleep evades the opium patient, and the nurse helps to while away the +dreary hours by satisfying her curiosity. Then at dawn the longed-for +dose of medicine is administered, after a prayer that the "medicine may +heal her body, and the blood of Jesus cleanse her soul," and she may +settle to a doze which daily becomes more natural and peaceful as the +body returns to a normal condition of being. + +Mrs. Fan saw that much was introduced by the foreigner in the wake of +Christianity which her alert mind recognised as being all to the +advantage of women. Even the old Refuge-keeper could read a little, but +she was quite dull and slow, whereas without much trouble Mrs. Fan +herself could master quite a number of new characters every day, and a +few hours had been enough for the initial lesson of reading the large +print rhyme: + + "There is but one true God, the Heavenly Father He, + Who feeds and clothes and pities me. + The only Saviour, too, who can my sins forgive, + I trust and hearken to His word, Jesus my Lord and Saviour. + Jesus loves the sinner, Jesus pities me, + He gave His life, He washed me clean, He verily hath loved me." + +It was quite evident that a certain amount of education lay within her +own grasp, and quite unlimited possibilities were open to her three +daughters. The sinfulness of binding up the feet of girls was touched +upon, and a strong determination took form in her mind that her girls +should be among the first who would have natural feet in the +neighbourhood, in spite of the lurking fear that all three might be left +as old maids upon her hands if no man might be found bold enough to risk +the disgrace of a wife with normal feet. A short length of white cotton +material was procured, and the three little ones were soon free of +compressing bandages, each wearing a pair of calico socks and little +red-and-yellow shoes, ornamented on the toe with a grinning, whiskered, +tiger's face. + +These girls were all destined to lives of signal usefulness in the +Church. Two of them labour still as teachers and evangelists among their +own people; the third was early prepared by intense suffering and deep +wrongs to be removed by death to the realm where the "wicked cease from +troubling and the weary are at rest." + + + + +THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL + + "Happy the pure in heart, for they shall see God." + + "A white bird, she told him once, looking at him + gravely. A bird which he must carry in his bosom + across a crowded public place--his own soul was + like that! + + "Would it reach the hands of his good genius on + the opposite side, unruffled and + unsoiled?"--WALTER PATER. + + "To radiate the heat of the affections into a + clod, which absorbs all that is poured into it, + but never warms beneath the sunshine of smiles or + the pressure of hand or lip--this is the great + martyrdom of sensitive beings--most of all in that + perpetual _auto-da-fe_ where young womanhood is + the sacrifice."--O. W. HOLMES. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GREAT FURNACE FOR A GREAT SOUL + +BEING THE STORY OF AI DO + + +MRS. FAN'S second daughter came into the world under the shadow of +sorrow, for apart from the fact that she was a girl, whereas a boy had +been ardently desired, her first lusty yells revealed the fact that she +was born with a tooth visible. This was well known by every woman in the +village to indicate antagonism to her mother's life, and disaster would +surely ensue were she not promptly drowned or thrown out to perish by +the riverside. + +Her fate seemed sealed, but that a woman seeing what a dear little baby +she was, was moved with pity, and declared herself willing to take the +responsibility of asserting that the child was hers in order that the +demons which were ordering these events might be deceived, and thus her +real mother would escape the fate which threatened her life, if the baby +were not killed. + +An incredible amount of ingenuity is expended in China on deceptions +practised to mislead the _gwei_ or demon, whose influence you have cause +to fear. Being a malignant spirit, his object is to hurt that which you +specially value, therefore it is well to deceive him into thinking that +your precious son is only a useless girl, or even a little animal. This +is not difficult to manage, for the _gwei_, though powerful to work +evil, is a simple creature, and it is sufficient for him to see earrings +dangling from your boy's ears to make him think he sees a girl, or if +you call the child by some such name as "puppy," "little pig," "kitten," +or "goat," he will quite fail to perceive that the object of your +affection is two legs short of what one might be led to expect. + +When a _gwei_ has really determined to injure your child, it is +sometimes necessary to kill a dog and wrap your boy in its skin, that it +may be perfectly evident to the whole spirit world that if you are +bestowing any affection, it is only on a valueless beast. In the case of +Mrs. Fan's little girl, no _gwei_ could reasonably be supposed to attach +much value to her, and it was therefore sufficient for this neighbour to +pronounce herself willing to stand in the place of a mother. She was +allowed to live, and with painful frankness given the name of "One too +many." + +After the month spent in the Opium Refuge, Mrs. Fan often saw the lady +missionaries either at Hwochow or in her own house, and when they were +joined by a lady who had no previous knowledge of the Chinese language, +Mrs. Fan was asked if little "One too many" might come and live with the +missionary so that her childish prattle should help the newcomer in +recognising the difficult sounds and tones. She was now eight years old +and permission was readily granted, so to Hwochow she went and became an +inmate of the Christian household there, her name being altered to the +now appropriate one of "greatly loved"--in Chinese, Ai Do. + +The years passed by, and little Ai Do won the love and approval of all. +She received her education in the girls' school, and there grew up in +her the ambition to be a teacher, as her elder sister was. At fourteen +years of age she sat one Sunday evening reading her Bible, and came to +the words: "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; man looketh on the outward +appearance, the Lord looketh on the heart." She stopped and pondered, +realising with the force that can only come with conviction of the +Spirit of God, that while in "the outward" no one had fault to find with +her, yet the Lord looking on the heart saw her full of sin and +unreconciled to Him. In that hour her peace was made, and henceforth she +served and trusted God through all the vicissitudes of her short life. +She remained a pupil in the school until the year 1900, when Miss +Stevens and Miss Clarke went to Taiyueanfu, never to return. It was a +reign of terror during which rapine and murder stalked unhindered +through the land, and young women fled to the remotest districts where +they might claim a shelter. + +The matter of Ai Do's marriage had been under consideration for some +time, she having now reached the age when custom exacts that this +important matter should be settled. Various suitors presented +themselves, but in most cases there was some hitch which prevented the +engagement from being finally settled. In one case the man lived on the +other side of the river, and this would cause difficulty in the girl's +frequent journeys from one home to the other; in another, the matter of +the sum required as dowry could not be finally fixed; in a third, she +would have been required to worship idols. + +Amongst the number was a young man, favoured by Mrs. Fan but known as a +wild and dissolute youth, and the missionaries who had cared for Ai Do +so many years refused their consent to the engagement. Now they were +dead, and Mrs. Fan had scope for the exercise of the domineering will +which made her ruler of the home, for while she was an enthusiastic +follower of the Church she had never given evidence of personal +conversion. + +It was certainly advisable that a young woman of Ai Do's age should not +be unmarried at that difficult time. Christians went in daily peril of +their lives, and the soldier was scarcely less to be dreaded than the +Boxer. + +"No one uses good iron to make nails, and no one will use a good man to +make a soldier," says a Chinese proverb, which has been proved to be +only too true in many cases. + +Hastily, and almost secretly, the formalities of the engagement were +performed, cards were exchanged which fixed the contract, and the +earrings, rings, and silk and satin garments were brought from the +bridegroom's home. Ai Do had heard much of this man, and his reputation +was such as to cause her the gravest misgivings. The household which +she was to enter as a bride would not require her to join in the +offering of nuptial sacrifices to idols because her future mother-in-law +had come under the sound of the Gospel, but more than this can scarcely +be said. The son to whom she was engaged had been brought up on a regime +of such extreme indulgence as can only be met with amongst an Oriental +people. His mother had never once restrained him in a childish +selfishness nor a manly vice. From a spoilt, inconsiderate, wilful +childhood he passed to a cruel, passionate, licentious manhood; finally, +he took to opium smoking and ruin threatened the home. His mother reaped +a bitter harvest of sorrow from the planting of those wasted years, and +now her urgent plea was: "My son is good at heart, and a virtuous bride +will soon work a reform in him." + +Every relation and friend and neighbour had a say in the transaction, +only Ai Do must not be consulted, and though she weep and plead to be +left unmarried for a time yet, her tears and supplications can cause no +effect. In vain were the silver ornaments and fine clothes displayed +before her; she refused to take food and wept bitterly, not with the +conventional tears of the Chinese girl bewailing her virginity and +begging that she may not be torn from the shelter of her maiden home, +but with a real horror of the fate which awaited her. + +The day dawned when she was dressed in the scarlet bridal clothes, a +voluminous embroidered satin gown over all; this came with the sedan +chair which was to carry her to her future home, being hired for the +occasion. Scarlet shoes were on her feet, a high tinsel crown on her +head, and covering her tear-stained face was a scarlet veil. In +accordance with the custom which demanded that the forehead of the bride +must be perfectly smooth, her front hair had been dragged out by the +roots and left her with an aching head. + +At last all was ready, and she was in the embroidered sedan chair and +caught the last glimpse of the familiar faces. They disappear, and alone +she meets a cruel, loveless, unknown world. + +A Chinese village wedding is a terrible ordeal for the bride. Her life +until that day has been guarded from every contact with the outer world, +and she has never spoken with a man outside the family circle. Her +arrival at her mother-in-law's home is the signal for a wild rush of +rough men to surround her chair. The curtain is lifted, insolent faces +stare, her personal appearance is commented upon in vile terms, her feet +being specially noticed because the artificial compression of this +member has resulted in giving it sexual importance in a woman's +appearance. Ai Do had a normal, unbound foot, and had to listen to lewd +insinuations levelled at her on this subject. All the while she must +patiently sit and wait until the appointed women of the bridegroom's +family are ready to conduct her indoors. The waiting is often for a +considerable time, for these new relations are going to make her feel +that she is a most unimportant and undesirable person, and her +mother-in-law is not even going to see her until the next day; +moreover, the longer she waits, the greater her chances of longevity. + +When at last she is told to leave her chair she is followed by a crowd, +and holding the end of a scarlet sash which is thrust into her hand, she +finds herself in a courtyard where the ceremony is to take place. + +In accordance with the contract made by the middleman, she is not asked +to worship heaven and earth nor the tablets of her husband's ancestors, +but two cups of wine are placed on the table, and she and her bridegroom +must each take one and sip the wine, the cups being joined together by a +scarlet thread. When this ceremony is over, she follows her bridegroom +to a room, still led by the sash, and when he enters he stands upon the +_kang_ and by walking around it demonstrates his position as head of the +new home. + +Meanwhile the chair-bearers are clamouring for her dress, as another +young woman is waiting for the same gown and chair, and delay may cause +trouble. The bride is assisted on to the _kang_ by the women, her +husband having departed to make merry with his friends, and the ragged +opium smokers who carried her there leave, one wearing the crown of +tinsel on his head, laughing and joking at much which they have seen and +heard. From the moment that she is seated upon the _kang_, the bride +becomes the centre of attraction to an insulting crowd. Her shoes are +stolen, but knowing that this is likely she has provided herself with +additional pairs. For hours she sits there and hears the remarks made. +One will whisper that she is married to an irresponsible idiot, others +will tell her that he is blind or dumb, and knowing how often the +middlemen deceive, she waits with dread the moment when she will see for +herself more than she was able to do on arrival. At last the room is +cleared, and she has to face the final ordeal when she is left alone +with a totally unknown man. Even the hours of darkness are not +respected, and every youngster in the village has the right to enter the +courtyard at any hour of the night, tear down the paper windows, and +heap shame upon her head. + +Christianity and the influence of the foreigner has done much to +revolutionise the wedding customs, but all this and more was endured by +Ai Do, and she found herself withal the wife of a depraved and vicious +man. + +It was indeed a deliverance when the Hwochow girls' school reopened and +Ai Do was invited to teach in place of her elder sister, whose family +claims had increased so as to prevent her holding the post as formerly. +School was opened in a small courtyard which adjoined our own, and +twenty girls entered as pupils. Ai Do had all the characteristics of a +natural leader, and she easily controlled the girls and was much beloved +by them, for she had a kind disposition and the hidden sorrows of her +life had made her both strong and tender. + +I think that her life in school was a time of unmixed happiness to her, +but the holidays had to be faced and contact with the man whom she could +only strive not to hate. His opium smoking habits increased, and the +pinch of poverty was felt in the home from which he was able to steal +so cunningly every article of value which might be exchanged for money +and spent on the drug. + +A great joy came into Ai Do's life with the birth of a little son, and +she realised for the first time that matrimony was not solely a horror, +since it brought so much compensation in its train. The child was +publicly dedicated to God, and was its mother's joy for six brief +months. + +At the end of that time, in the hot weather, it sickened with dysentery, +and in spite of her prayers and entreaties that she might be allowed to +deal with the disease as she had seen me deal with similar ailments, she +had to endure the torture of seeing it operated upon by a heathen +Chinese doctor, whose method of treatment was to use long needles which +he ran into its tender flesh. The needles were of course unclean, and +the child's death was doubtless hastened by the shock thus sustained. + +She was spared the last sorrow of seeing its body thrown out to be +devoured by dogs and wolves through the fortunate advent of her father, +who insisted at her request that decent burial be given. This was a +cause of thankfulness for her to her life's end. + +A year later, when her second son was born, the home was in a pitiful +condition. All the land which provided daily bread for the family was +gambled away, furniture and clothes had been sold or pawned for opium, +the wages she earned were all turned to the same use, and the poorest, +coarsest food was all that was procurable at a time when her strength +was quite insufficient to the strain imposed upon it. + +As soon as the required month of purification was over, she returned to +us and then received all the care that love could suggest, but we soon +saw that she was going to escape from our poor, inadequate efforts to +protect and comfort her, into the care of the only One who could save +her from further sorrow. Phthisis took a rapid hold of her constitution, +and her strength daily declined. During this time she for the first time +opened her heart, and spoke out her sorrows and sufferings and those +deepest wrongs she had suffered which women have from time immemorial +hidden as a shameful secret. She spoke it all out now, and left me with +a determination that henceforth any one placed as she was should find an +advocate and protector in me to the extent of my ability. + +Three months later she was carried back to her home, a dying woman, to +end her days. We were able to ride out and see her almost daily, and +once we found her very happy because in a dream she had seen a messenger +who called to her to cross the river, and when she shrank back I had +been there to assure her that angels would receive her to her Heavenly +Home. + +That day her husband came into the room, and in my presence she for the +last time pleaded with him to leave the ways of sin and seek forgiveness +through repentance. To our care she committed her child, asking that we +would see that it was brought up as a Christian, and she also begged us +to insist on a Christian burial for herself. To the schoolgirls she sent +the message that they must meet her in her Master's presence, and a few +hours later "the bells of the city rang out for joy, and it was said to +her: 'Enter into the joy of thy Lord.'" The wail that went up from the +schoolgirls when I told them, I shall not forget; she was the first of +our company to pass over. Two days later the pupils of her class and +ourselves gathered with the family for a simple service in the courtyard +of her home. On the coffin the words were written at her own request, +"Until He come"--symbolic of the hope which sustained her through those +years of suffering, and kept her eyes ever upward turned to the promise +of the great day of deliverance. A congregation of some hundreds +assembled to see the unique sight of so many girls mourning for a +teacher and following the bier to the border of the village. The girls +and their parents showed their appreciation of Ai Do and her work by +presenting a large banner to the school in her memory. It was unveiled +on their behalf by the elders of the Church, and above the names of one +hundred girls who had been her pupils were inscribed the words: "She +rests from her labours, and her works do follow her." + +We returned to take up the work which she had left, but with heavy +hearts, and the school and my study seemed empty without her presence. I +missed her help in consultation over difficulties and dealings with the +raw material which came into our hands at the beginning of each term. + +Who could replace her? Her friend and companion who had helped her +during the past months was the only one to whom I could look, and she +was seemingly of too retiring a disposition to bear such +responsibility; but the "trees of the Lord are full of sap," and if a +leaf has fallen there is always a fresh one developing to replace it, +and Ling Ai was preparing for a development which was going to make her +that which she still is, my faithful and beloved fellow-missionary in +this place. With her quiet, gentle spirit she has won the confidence of +her pupils, and made possible for me that which apart from her +comradeship would have been impossible, the establishment of a large +school and training-college where in happy fellowship Chinese young +women are working together for the women and girls of their country. + + + + +THE POWERS OF DARKNESS + + "What name hast thou? And he said, Legion!" + + "Whensoever the impure spirit goeth out from the + man it passeth through waterless places seeking + rest; and not finding it there, it saith-- + + "I will return unto my house whence I came out; + + "And coming, findeth it empty, swept and adorned. + Then goeth it and taketh along with itself other + spirits more wicked than itself--seven, and + entering it, findeth its dwelling there; and the + last state of that man becometh worse than the + first."--The Gospel according to Luke. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE POWERS OF DARKNESS + +BEING A RECORD OF SOME OBSERVATIONS IN DEMONOLOGY + + +THE Chinaman, though perhaps the most materialistic of Easterners, is no +exception to his neighbours in the large place which the occult takes in +his outlook. For him, the physical world is peopled with spirits good +and evil, capable of exercising the most far-reaching influences on the +fortunes of men. These spiritual beings are bound up in the forces of +nature, and combine to constitute that geomantic system known by the +Chinese as _Feng-shui_ (wind and water), by reference to which, matters +of human life, inasmuch as they are designed to court the good +influences and avoid those which are inauspicious to the man, the time, +and the place, are decided. + +The Chinaman can never experience the feeling of complete solitude which +the Westerner knows in wild and lonely places; for him the hillside, the +ravine, and the mountain gorge are peopled with presences best described +as fairies, though in nothing resembling the light-hearted beings which +this description generally conveys to the Western mind. To him they +present the appearance of aged, venerable beings, short of stature, +with white beards. Country, town, and human habitations are alike +haunted by psychic beings whose condition cannot be exactly expressed by +the word _spirit_, neither form of Chinese belief admitting of the +conception of a pure spirit without matter. + +These beings may be grouped into three classes. _Gwei_ is the term most +constantly used by the common people to indicate the being whose +influence is feared by all, and who receives from every family some +measure of propitiatory sacrifice. We read in the _li chao chuan_,[6] or +_Divine Panorama_, that "every living being, no matter whether it be a +man or an animal, a bird or a quadruped, a gnat or a midge, a worm or an +insect, having legs or not, few or many, all are called _gwei_ after +death." + +Apart from these are the _shen_, which have been defined as _emanations +de la nature personnifiees_, not, as the _gwei_, spirits of the dead, +but an emanation of nature clothed with a personality. They possess +varying degrees of intelligence and power. Their interest is not only in +the affairs of men, to the knowledge of which they have access, but also +in the secret springs of human action. They reside in man as well as +amongst men, and witness to his good or evil works before the tribunal +of heaven. The classics of Chinese literature, recognising this, urge +upon readers the duty of decorum, purity, and care even when unseen by +human eyes and according to the teachings of Confucius; one of the +characteristics of the Princely Man is the discipline he will exercise +upon himself when alone. + +Other spiritual beings are those who, by their ascetic practices, have +attained to a life higher than that of humanity; it will endure through +many centuries, and they are free to live in the pleasant places of the +earth with considerable licence to enjoy good things, yet free from the +material claims which govern human life. These are known by the term +_hsien_, and are referred to above as fairies. Each and all of these +beings touch the destinies of man at various points. + +It is, however, in the important events of life--birth, marriage, and +death--that the interference of the spirits is strongest, and such +occasions are used by the sorcerer as a means of extorting money from +his unfortunate victim. In the _Divine Panorama_, we read that: "It is +not uncommon at the time of reincarnation to see women asking to be +allowed to avenge themselves in the form of _gwei_ before being changed +into men. On their case being examined, it is found as young women they +have been seduced or have been betrayed in other ways, such as the +husband refusing after marriage to fulfil his promise to support the +girl's parents, and in consequence of her disgrace the woman has +committed suicide." From that moment terror has dogged the steps of her +husband, and he has gone in hourly fear of sickness, accident, or sudden +death. If he be a student, the day of examination presents terrors +calculated to ensure failure, for he knows that the _gwei_ has power to +hold his mind in subjection so that he cannot write his competitive +essay. The only hope he has of release is the taking of a vow, whereby +he undertakes to study and make known _The Divine Panorama_ or _precious +record_ transmitted to men to move them, being a record of examples +published by the mercy of Yu Di, that men and women living in this world +may repent them of their faults, and make atonement for their sins. The +punishments described include all the most painful tortures of which +Chinese ingenuity can conceive. Truly, idols are the work of man's +hands, and they that make them are like unto them! + +Sculptural art also has left nothing undone to represent the god as +animated by the worst passions of man, but skill and ingenuity must +inevitably stop short of the final act necessary to convince man that +communication is possible between him and the spirit world. In order to +bridge this chasm a class of men and women called sorcerers (_mo-han_ +and _sheng-po_) has come into being, whose work it is to be the +spokesmen of the gods. With deliberate intent and elaborate ritual they +develop the mediumistic gift, and learn how to attain conditions of +frenzy and of trance during which period the body is controlled by a +spiritualistic force. Not only as the medium of the gods, but also as a +resting-place for longer or shorter periods to the homeless, unclean +spirit, do these sorcerers serve. At tremendous physical cost--for the +medium is never long-lived--they accumulate great wealth, exorbitant +sums being demanded in recognition of services rendered when freeing a +family or village from the visitations of a tormenting _gwei_. When +sickness enters his home, the Chinaman's instinct is to attribute it to +any cause rather than a natural one; his appeal on such occasions is to +the sorcerer whose time is largely occupied in giving what is called +medical advice, but is in reality the practising of the rites of +exorcism. Sometimes he will declare that the spirit of a sick person has +strayed from the body, and means will be set on foot to secure its +return. A woman I know, whose boy had apparently died from typhoid +fever, was told that his spirit had been enticed away by a god whose +shrine was built on the mountain side near the city where she lived. She +took the child's coat and walked to the temple; here, standing before +the idol, she burned incense and begged that the boy's spirit might be +restored to her. Holding the child's coat open to receive it, she swayed +to and fro, and with heart-rending cries besought it to return. She +waited until she felt her request had been granted, and with a movement +as though to enfold the little wandering ghost, she clasped the coat in +her arms and swiftly returning home, laid it upon the lifeless body. The +child revived, and is alive to this day. + +Frequently, after supplication to the gods, the clothes of the patient +are carefully weighed; a procession is then formed in which one of the +sorcerers holds a mirror directed backwards, others, wearing scarlet +aprons, carry brooms and with slow and mystic movements sweep widely on +either side with the intent of gathering up the wandering soul. +Meanwhile crackers are fired to the weird sound of a minor, falsetto +lilting. After a considerable journey over the countryside they return +to prove the success of their venture. For this the clothes of the sick +man must be reweighed to see whether the weight of the spirit has been +added to that of the patient's garments. Should the smallest discrepancy +be detected all is well, and after feasting and opium the _mo-han_ +pockets his fee and departs, frequently leaving a prescription behind +him, the results of which may be more or less harmful. Whatever the +result, nothing will shake the faith of the people in these degraded +villains, for they can, by threatening to call in the intervention of +the gods on their behalf strike terror to the heart of any man, and once +having sought aid of the sorcerer, the family is pitiable indeed. + +In a case which came under my personal observation, the spirit of a +young woman from a village at some distance from the one in which I was +staying, who had recently died in childbirth, was said to have returned, +having found herself in difficulties in the spirit world for lack of +means to defray the necessary expenses. Illness became so prevalent that +necromancers were called in and agreed that a medium must be employed. +The spirit made its requirements known, and by promising the sacrifices +ordained, the family passed under a bondage from which none dared to +emancipate himself by omitting the prescribed rites. Night after night, +at the medium's command a table was spread at the cross-roads, on which +were laid the fantastic foods suitable to the requirements of the +departed spirit. Gold and silver paper money was plentifully burned, +crackers were fired, and following the medium, a party of men left to +place earthen bowls containing grains at various corners of the roads. + +Nothing but the deliverance of Christianity, or a daring known to few, +can set free those who have been entangled in such practices. + +I saw this medium whilst under spirit control. Before a table +elaborately decorated on which incense burned, she threw herself into +extraordinary contortions, quivering and shaking, her finger and thumb +forming a circle, whilst the little finger vibrated continuously. She +sustained a perpetual chant in the peculiar spirit voice, the minor +strains of which I find it impossible to describe. A relative of the +deceased acted as questioner, and she dictated the terms by the +fulfilment of which the spirit consented to a reconciliation. + +Another manifestation of mediumship may be found in the more or less +conscious yielding of the personality to a controlling spiritualistic +influence, known as _demon possession_. Remarkable cases have come under +my own personal observation, and all incidents which I quote have been +witnessed by foreign missionaries who are prepared to vouch for their +accuracy. Those brought to my notice by reliable Chinese are too +numerous to include in this book, but the fact that men and women who +lay themselves open to demoniacal influences become possessed, is +beyond dispute. In many cases the possession follows upon a fit of +uncontrolled temper, such as is not uncommon amongst the Chinese; in +others it is connected with the taking of a vow on the occasion of +illness in the home, when service was promised to some particular god; +or again, it has been undoubtedly connected with the neglect to +completely remove idols from the home of a Christian. + +In yet other cases, a spirit may take temporary possession of a human +body in order to find a means of expression for some important +communication, and after delivering its message leave the person +unconscious of that which has taken place. An instance of this occurred +in a family with which I am intimate. The eldest daughter was married +into a home where she received ill-treatment from her mother-in-law. For +several years she was systematically underfed and overworked, and when +at last she gave birth to a son we all expected she would receive more +consideration. The hatred of her mother-in-law was, however, in no +degree abated, and when the child was a month old she brought her +daughter a meal of hot bread in which the girl detected an unusual +flavour which made her suspicious. She threw the remainder to the dog, +and before many hours had passed both the unfortunate girl and the dog +were dead. + +Her father was away from home at the time, the young men of the family +meanwhile carrying on the work of the farm. A few days later her +brothers and first cousins, strong, vigorous young farmers, being +together in the fields, her cousin, aged twenty-two, suddenly exhibited +symptoms of distress. He trembled and wept violently. Those with him +becoming alarmed at so unusual a sight went to his assistance, intending +to take him home. He wept, however, the more violently, saying: "I am +Lotus-bud; I was cruelly done to death. Why is there no redress?" Others +of the family were by this time at hand, and recognising the effort made +by the girl's spirit to communicate with her own people whom she had had +no opportunity of seeing in the hour of her death, spoke directly to +her, as though present. Telling her the facts of the case, they +explained that all demands must remain in abeyance until her father's +return, when the guilty party would be dealt with by her family whose +feeling was in no sense one of indifference. In about an hour's time the +attack passed, leaving the young man exhausted and unconscious of what +had taken place. + +The criminal law of China can only be put in action under such +circumstances by the girl's own family undertaking a long and expensive +lawsuit, the result of which may end in the punishment of the criminal, +or may terminate in quite a different way. In this case the demands took +the form of a requirement, the granting of which constituted a tacit +acknowledgment of guilt. The demand in fact was that a funereal monument +should be erected in memory of the dead girl. This constituted so +uncalled-for an honour paid to one in her position, as to be a public +recognition that redress was due to her, and a law case was avoided. + +It may be remembered that in the first chapter of this book an incident +is recorded of Mrs. Hsi herself being tormented by a demon which had +gained its power over her, by reason of neglect to completely destroy +all idols at the time when they were removed from the home. Such a case +is not singular. + +Our first woman patient in the Hwochow Opium Refuge became interested in +the Gospel, and on her return home destroyed her idols, reserving +however the beautifully carved idol shrines which she placed in her +son's room. Her daughter-in-law who occupied this room, a comely young +woman, desired to become a Christian and gave us a warm welcome whenever +we could go to the house. About six months later we were fetched by +special messenger from a village where we were staying, to see this girl +who was said to be demon possessed. We found crowds of men and women +gathered to see and to hear. The girl was chanting the weird minor chant +of the possessed, the voice, as in every case I have seen, clearly +distinguishing it from madness. This can perhaps best be described as a +voice distinct from the personality of the one under possession. It +seems as though the demon used the organs of speech of the victim for +the conveyance of its own voice. She refused to wear clothes or to take +food, and by her violence terrorised the community. Immediately upon our +entering the room with the Chinese woman evangelist she ceased her +chanting, and slowly pointed the finger at us, remaining in this posture +for some time. As we knelt upon the _kang_ to pray, she trembled and +said: "The room is full of _gwei_; as soon as one goes another comes." +We endeavoured to calm her, and to make her join us in repeating the +sentence, "Lord Jesus, save me." + +After considerable effort she succeeded in pronouncing these words, and +when she had done so we commanded the demon to leave her, whereupon her +body trembled and she sneezed some fifty or sixty times, then suddenly +came to herself, asked for her clothes and some food, and seemingly +perfectly well resumed her work. So persistently did she reiterate the +statement that the demons were using the idol shrines for a refuge, that +during the proceedings just mentioned her parents willingly handed over +to the Christians present these valuable carvings, and joined with them +in their destruction. From this time onwards she was perfectly well, a +normal, healthy young woman. + +Upon recovery from illness a woman I knew yielded herself to the lord of +hell for a certain period, during which time she was under a vow to wear +black garments, to perform certain rites as required by the devil, and +to chant instead of speaking. She told me once that she knew all I could +tell her of the Lord of Heaven and of the death upon the cross of His +Son, but that she served the lord of hell, and his servant she remained, +only giving up her peculiar dress and manner when the time of her vow +had expired. + +The yielding of personality to the possession of a spirit no doubt +seriously weakens the will power. Many cases are on record of those who +once delivered, like the man in the Gospel from whom the evil spirit had +been cast out, unconsciously again prepare the empty house to receive +the evil guest, and whose latter state is worse than the former. + +It was to a woman, terror of the district in which she lived, that a +Chinese evangelist was called. After prayer in which he and some +inquirers took part, the evil spirit in obedience to their command +departed. A few weeks later on yielding to violent temper, she fell into +a worse state than before. The missionary of the district was this time +begged to go himself. As soon as he entered the room the woman threw +herself upon the _kang_, rolling about in seemingly great agony. The +Chinese helper, Mr. Li, rebuked the spirit, saying: "We ordered you to +leave. Why have you returned?" "I could find no dwelling-place," was the +answer, given with extraordinary rapidity, in the curious spirit voice. +"Find me a place to rest, and I will leave at once." "We have come," +said Li, "to command you to leave, not to find you a place." Upon this +the woman laughed and clapped her hands, and in the struggle it seemed +as if the powers of evil were in the ascendancy. As she still chuckled +with amusement, Li said: "Let us sing a hymn," and immediately the voice +replied: "I too can sing," and forthwith shouted some theatrical songs. +Mr. Li then prayed, but there was seemingly no power and the voice also +mockingly prayed. The missionary then interposed, saying: "I have not +come here to hold intercourse with demons," and forthwith +authoritatively commanded the demon to leave her. There was a struggle, +and she fell down unconscious on the _kang_. + +She came to herself in a normal condition and apologised to the +missionary for her state of deshabille. Faithfully and sternly he +rebuked her for sin and for giving place to the devil. She recognised +her fault, and was from that time a changed woman. + +An evil spirit has been known to claim a young girl as its possession, +forbidding her marriage under severe threats. It was in such a case that +a demon, driven from a man who had become a Christian, went to a village +eight miles distant and possessed a young woman. Speaking through her, +it forbade her marriage and manifested itself in the same manner as it +had done in the man from whom it came, compelling him to perpetually rub +one side of his face and head until there was no hair left there. When +questioned as to whence it came the demon replied by giving the name of +this man, and to the question: "Why have you left him?" replied: "I have +been turned out, for that man has become a Christian." + +Two methods of exorcism are used by the sorcerers--defiance and bribery. +The Christian method is that of commanding the evil spirit in the Name +of the Lord Jesus Christ to release the victim. + +Some have been set free from the power of a tormenting spirit who have +not been subsequently kept free, through refusing to yield to the +control of the great Spirit of Liberty. Pastor Hsi, than whom none +better understood the conflict in the Heavenly Places, in earlier days +would cast out demons from all the possessed who were brought to him, +but in later years as experience grew, he refused to do so unless idols +were destroyed, and he had reason to believe there was a sincere desire +to obey the commands of God. He doubtless saw, as others have done, the +futility of temporary relief during which, in that mysterious way so +graphically described in the Scriptures, the demon wanders in waterless +places, joining himself to others more evil than he. + +Pastor Hsi learned to distinguish between the greater and the lesser +demons. With the latter he would deal summarily, but not so with the +former. "This kind," he would say, "goeth not out but by prayer and +fasting;" and thus he would prepare himself for an encounter with the +powers of evil. + +Young believers, doubtless impressed by the Pastor's command over +unclean spirits and perhaps sometimes eager for a similar power, were, +as in the instances recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, in serious +danger. Pastor Hsi urged them not lightly to undertake the casting out +of demons. He had been faced by the awful realities of the spirit world, +and on one occasion at least, by reason of a thoughtless word, had been +troubled by the very demon he had cast out and which attached itself to +his person. + +The experiences recorded here may be unfamiliar to many readers, and +some will doubtless think that madness, hysteria, or epilepsy may +account for them. To such I would suggest the following points for +consideration: Firstly, the striking, detailed resemblance between the +cases seen now in heathen lands and those recorded in the Scriptures; +secondly, the complete and lasting restoration resulting from prayer +and from the command in the Name of the Lord Jesus that the demon should +depart; thirdly, the appalling sense of the reality of the conflict with +the evil one at the moment of supreme test, as the missionary is called +upon to prove his personal faith, and to give the command which shall +decide whether God or demon remains conqueror on the field. + +When the promise was given by Christ that His witnesses should cast out +demons, it was with the foreknowledge that such equipment was essential +to those who obeyed His command to disciple the nations. Let the signs +following be a reminder to weary warriors that the Captain of our +salvation is actively leading His hosts; and to the indifferent and +half-hearted who profess and call themselves Christians, let it be a +matter for serious reflection that there exist churches in many heathen +lands, the members of which have not lost their first love and faith, +and against whom the enemy has come with his whole strength. + +A feeble conflict may provoke a feeble resistance, but it behoves the +aggressive warrior to prepare for the fight of his life when he invades +the enemy's territory, where the conflict is not with "mere flesh and +blood, but with the despotisms, the empires, the forces, that control +and govern this dark world." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[6] _The Precious Regulations_, a book written under the Sung Dynasty. +Its main tenets are derived from Buddhism, though some writers inscribe +the book among the Taoist documents. Its sub-title explains its +contents: "A precious record of examples published by the mercy of Yu Di +(the Jade Emperor to whom is entrusted the superintendence of the world, +the Jupiter of the Taoists), that men and women may repent them of their +faults and make atonement for their sins." It includes a description of +the Ten Courts of Hell and the judgments pronounced therein. + + + + +THE LIFE STORY OF PASTOR WANG + + "Happy the meek; + For they shall inherit the earth." + + + "The labourer whom Christ in His own garden + Chose to be His helpmate." + DANTE. + + + "He went out to seek wisdom, as many a one has + done, looking for the laws of God with clear eyes + to see, with a pure heart to understand, and after + many troubles, after many mistakes, after much + suffering, he came at last to the truth."--H. + FIELDING HALL. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE LIFE STORY OF PASTOR WANG + + +IF Pastor Hsi may be spoken of as the Paul of the Shansi Church, +Barnabas finds his counterpart in Pastor Wang of Hwochow. + +Though possessing none of the peculiar gifts which made Hsi a leader +amongst foreigners and Chinese, he has exercised a remarkable personal +influence upon hundreds of lives, winning by consistency and sincerity +those with whom he has come in contact. On our first arrival we found +him already in charge, conducting the Sunday services and generally +caring for the Church members. + +His unfailing courtesy, consideration, and tact simplified many +difficult situations, and the exercise of his natural gift for gathering +people around him and drawing out the best in them soon resulted in a +rapidly growing work. He was almost immediately chosen as Deacon, and +before long the office of Elder was given to him. All turned to Mr. Wang +in difficulty, sought his advice in perplexity, and by the unanimous +desire of the Church he was in 1909 ordained Pastor at Hwochow. + +He has developed his gifts in the school of adversity, for trouble +overtook him in his childhood when his father died only a few years +before the great famine which was to sweep over the province of Shansi. +Poor they always were, and his love for his mother was intensified as he +saw the self-sacrificing devotion with which she earned enough by her +spinning to enable him to continue his schooling. At the age of fifteen +he was married, and on the bride's arrival the falsity of the middleman +through whom the engagement had been long ago contracted was revealed, +for the bride was a helpless cripple and a serious burden on the already +overpressed household. + +Food soon began to be scarce, for the rains failed and the prospect of +the wheat harvest was poor. They endured and hoped, being mercifully +saved from the knowledge that they must now enter upon a period when the +inhabitants of Shansi should touch the depths of human suffering and +call on death to end their woes. No pen can fully describe the horrors +of that time. When summer and autumn crops had failed the rains were +still withheld, and despair seized on all as they saw the impossibility +of sowing the wheat for next year's harvest. + +The delicate bride, unable to withstand the privations of that time, +soon died, and Wang's sister was married, so that he and his mother +remained alone to care for each other. The poor young sister lived but a +very short while in her new home, and the circumstances of her death +were so tragic that Wang felt unable to forgive the man who had been her +husband. After many years, when circumstances brought this man to his +home, he realised that Christ's command to forgive those who have +offended against you required of him a complete change of feeling +towards this once hated brother-in-law, and he invited him to share his +food as a sign of forgiveness and reconciliation. + +Every month the distress became more acute; weeds, leaves, bark of +trees, and even some softer kinds of wood were used as food, but numbers +were dying and of the one hundred and twenty families which inhabited +the village, at last thirty only remained. The dead outnumbered the +living, and compelled by hunger the latter were driven to sustain life +by feeding on the former. + +Wang saw his mother's vain endeavour to supply some kind of food on +which they might subsist, and his heart was torn to see her deprive +herself even now that there might be more for him. + +When the famine was at its worst, the most tragic blow fell. His mother +one day told him it was her wish that he should accompany several +neighbours to a near village where lived a relation. In those days none +dared to travel alone, lest in their weak, half-starved condition they +should fall a prey to man or beast. The pretext given was the +possibility of obtaining the loan of a little grain from the aunt who +lived there. Beggars were many and givers few, and he wondered at his +mother entertaining any hope of such good fortune. + +He went, however, only to return a few hours later, empty-handed. As he +entered the courtyard, heart-sick with disappointment, he called for +his mother and received no answer. Doors and windows were locked on the +inside, and sick with apprehension he called the neighbours to his help. +On bursting open the door, they saw her body swinging from a beam in the +dim recesses of the cave. The errand had been an excuse to get him out +of the way, while she performed this act which was the last expression +of her love to him. She had chosen this solution of their impossible +position, hoping that, relieved of her presence, he might be able to +endure till coming harvest. + +The body, wrapped in matting, was laid in an empty cave. There was no +money for a coffin, and many were waiting like hungry wolves to eat the +uncoffined dead; moreover, the boy and his uncle were too weak to drag +the body to the burying-ground. + +The months passed, and still the arid, sun-baked earth refused to bear +any green thing, and the despairing people longed for rain which never +came. The second year of drought had come and gone, and there was now +nothing sown in the fields, but on the seventh day of the fourth moon of +the fourth year of the Emperor Kwang Hsue, the longed-for rain fell and +hope revived. + +At this time also a stranger came to the village registering the names +of survivors, and announcing that foreigners had arrived and were +distributing grain that the fields might be sown for an autumn crop. + +The worst of the famine was over, but the terrors of famine fever had +yet to be faced, and when the longed-for grain had ripened there were +in many houses none left to eat it, for whole families had been wiped +out. + +Wang now naturally became an inmate of his uncle's home, and gradually +the conditions of greatest horror were relieved. As soon as strength had +sufficiently returned, they made coffins and prepared to bury their +dead, that the required rites should not be lacking which should bring +consolation to those who had entered the land of shades without the +necessary honours having been paid to their memory. Not only for the +coffins was money required, but also to pay the fees of the geomancers +who must decide the site of the graves and an auspicious day for the +funeral. In this one family, thirteen coffins were made and graves dug +in accordance with the following plan: The four quarterings of the +celestial sphere were borne in mind, respectively governed by the Azure +Dragon, Red Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise, these being +identified with East, West, South, and North. The graves should face the +south, with White Tiger on the right and Azure Dragon on the left, as +these respectively control wind and water. + +On the day of the funeral the son, dressed in coarse white cloth, with +unhemmed garments, white twists plaited with the hair of his queue which +he wore over his chest, and his head unshaven, walked as chief mourner, +the wailing relatives following the bier. In due course, paper money and +other articles were burned for the use of the deceased, and fire +crackers were exploded to ensure the soul and the mortal remains +against the attacks of demons. The next year in early spring on the day +known as _Pure Brightness_, in accordance with national custom, Wang, +dressed in white, again visited and repaired the grave. For three years +he wore signs of mourning in his dress, and abstained from all +festivities. Thus he strove to leave undone nothing which filial piety +could contrive, to make easier to his mother her sojourn in those +mysterious realms whither she had passed. + +For the next few years he worked as a silversmith in his uncle's shop, +this latter being a generous, kindly man, on whom the responsibilities +of business life sat only too lightly, for an illness revealed the fact +that the profits were not sufficient to meet the interest due on the +rapidly accumulating debts. + +Moreover, the sick man, with failing health, had gradually acquired the +use of the fatal drug known as "foreign smoke," which some years +previously had been first introduced from distant lands, and was gaining +ground every year as a profitable crop in the best soil. One ounce a day +had become the necessary allowance for the sick man, and to Hwochow the +nephew constantly went in order to buy the needful supply. He tells how +he walked between the poppy fields and heard the chant which always +accompanied the sowing of the plant: + + "Of ten acres, fateful plant, thou claimest eight, + Thus only two are left for ripening grain; + From distant lands thou wert brought here, + And hast devoured the best of China's sons." + +Of famine, of typhus, and of the raids of wild beasts, the inhabitants +of Shansi had tasted the full terrors, but now this more insidious foe +was working havoc in their midst. Amongst the villagers it already +counted its victims: one young man had recently died as a direct result +of its use, for after taking his accustomed dose he had so lain down +that a portion of his wadded clothes was touching the lighted stove. +Shortly after, his mother entered the cave to find this, her only son, +burned to death, the charred corpse being all that remained to tell the +tale. Another neighbour had gradually parted with all his possessions, +and when nothing else remained on which to raise money, he took his +young wife and sold her to an innkeeper in whose house she was not +mistress of her actions and had no choice but to obey her purchaser. +Nothing could save her, and the tragedy of that broken heart still +awaits His judgment Who judgeth righteously. + +The duty of preparing the pipe for his uncle devolved on the young man, +and before long he himself was a victim of opium. + +Meanwhile the uncle was weaker than formerly, and a neighbour strongly +recommended Wang to visit the China Inland Mission station at Hwochow to +ask for some medicine, and this was how he first heard the Gospel story. +He was cordially received by the evangelist, and given a dose to be +administered according to regulation, and told to pray earnestly for his +uncle; this he conscientiously did, kneeling in the courtyard, and +saying: "Heavenly Father, have mercy on my uncle." The next day, the +sick man was better, and continued so for many months. + +Troubles soon thickened around Mr. Wang. When his uncle died he found +himself responsible for business and home, and overwhelmed by debts. + +The great spiritual crisis of his life was at hand. He had from +childhood pursued, by what broken light he had, an ideal which was +intensely real to him. In the five relationships wherein his teachers +had instructed him as to conduct, he had endeavoured to be blameless: as +subject to ruler, son to father, younger brother to elder, husband to +wife, and friend to friend. He had worked beyond his strength to clear +himself of debt, and when his best endeavours proved futile he had sold +his goods and distributed their price amongst the creditors. Having +taken the vow of an ascetic, for years he was a vegetarian. +Nevertheless, all had failed, and he bitterly reproached himself with +having fallen into the sin of opium smoking. + +Now it happened that a certain man, jealous of Pastor Hsi's success, +opened a rival opium refuge in which he treated patients according to +the Pastor's methods, but with medicine of his own making. The scheme +was a contentious one, and the man a cause of friction and difficulty to +the Christian community. It was to this Refuge that Mr. Wang, now thirty +years old, poor, sad, and dispirited, came as a patient. He found here a +man who, according to the established tradition of the opium refuge, +received even a degraded class of men into his house in order to care +for them, and performed many menial tasks in the discharge of his duty +towards them. Also the good news of the Evangel was proclaimed in the +house. If the preaching were not sincere but proclaimed a Christ of +contention, it behoves us to rejoice that even so Christ was preached, +for Mr. Wang heard something of the life of Jesus, His love, and His +humility, and thought that he saw the very spirit of the doctrine +exemplified in the man who ministered to these unfortunate patients. His +heart was overwhelmed by the love of God; and the beauty of Christ, +after which he for so many years had blindly felt, lest haply he might +find, was now revealed to him. On the ninth day, for lack of money, he +was obliged to cut his treatment short and return home; but henceforth +nothing could separate him from the love of God. + +The rumour of his conversion soon spread, and many visited the workshop +where the silversmith sat at his daily occupation, questioning him, +hearing his story, and taking note of the great change in him. From the +first he exercised a great influence on men, and soon a few were joining +with him morning and evening for prayer and reading of the Bible. + +The last month of the year--a period dreaded by the Chinaman whose +liabilities exceed his assets--found him in great straits. A fever had +laid him low, but as soon as strength returned sufficiently to sit up in +bed and work he was plying his trade once more, and it was thus his +creditors found him when they came to press their claims. + +The Chinese universal system of debt does not allow for the exercise of +mercy, as each creditor is himself a debtor, and his object in securing +payments is to relieve the pressure brought to bear on himself by his +own creditors. Nevertheless, the sight of the sick man forcing himself +to work, and the reputation he had for integrity so affected them that +they left the house again, begging him to reserve his strength and free +his mind from immediate anxiety on their account. Health and strength +finally returned, and intercourse was established with the Hwochow +missionaries, which resulted in his baptism. By the year 1900 a group of +Christian men and women formed the nucleus of a church in the village. +Mr. Wang this year became a widower for the second time, the wife he had +taken some years previously dying in childbirth, leaving him the care of +two small children. The newborn babe it was impossible for him to rear, +and he gave it away to a friend whose wife had lost her own child and +now took this one to her breast. + +As the dangers of that fateful year thickened and news came of +persecutions and massacres, the Church trembled and wondered how she +would endure. Finally it became known that Boxers were marching on the +village. Mr. Wang was recognised as leader of the local Christians, and +to him they would certainly come. He called his little boy and girl to +kneel with him in the cave, and committed the matter to God. At sunset, +a sound of rushing wind was heard and a violent thunderstorm burst on +the district. Hail, wind, and rain were followed by a terrific +cloud-burst which swept man and beast away in its irresistible violence. +The narrow mountain roads were completely carried away by the course +of the waters, and the Boxers never came. + +[Illustration: PASTOR WANG. + +_To face page 136._] + +It was a great spiritual experience for Mr. Wang, to whom God spake not +in the thunder nor in the storm, but in a still small voice which +asserted His boundless claim on the life preserved from danger. From +that time he was conscious of a new strength and power, which resulted +in his shortly giving up his trade of metal-worker to take charge of the +Hwochow Men's Opium Refuge. That position he still holds, and thanks to +him the good name and repute of this institution is widespread. All his +noblest gifts find their full development in the work which makes hourly +claims on patience, forbearance, devotion, longsuffering, meekness, and +all those qualities which are bound up in the one characteristic of +love. From amongst the men in his charge a steady stream return home to +destroy idols and subsequently request baptism. When the question is +asked: "How came you to believe?" the answer will be: "I owe it to +Pastor Wang, who taught me about Christ and taught me to pray." His +methods are not those of the evangelist who gathers in the crowds, but +one by one he wins them to the Lord. In one particular only did I hear +him censured by a Christian, and that was on the occasion of his +ordination to the pastorate. A Church member protested that a stronger +man than Wang Bing-guin was needed for the work. "See my case," he said. +"When, as you know, I was recently the subject of persecution, I came to +Elder Wang for assistance. He listened to my story and urged me to pray +and have patience. This I did, but matters only got worse, and I +returned to insist on his taking action on my behalf. Would you believe +that he spoke of nothing more practical than prayer and patience again? +On the third occasion, when I had very nearly made up my mind to go +straight to the Mandarin, he only urged: 'I fear that prayer and +patience are your only lawful weapons, my brother.'" + +The opinion of the heathen regarding Mr. Wang was forced upon my +attention in a rather startling way. We were preaching one day to a +group of village women, and as an old lady in the crowd heard us +explaining that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," +she said: "Those words are untrue, for I knew a man who never spoke a +false word and never did an unkind deed." Interested, we asked who he +was, and she replied: "Oh, he afterwards followed your Church; his name +is Wang Bing-guin." + + + + +A VISIT TO THE BASE + + "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye are needing + all these things." + + + "I would be undone if I had not access to the + King's chamber of Presence to show Him all the + business."--RUTHERFORD. + + + "Dear children! + Let us not be loving in word nor yet with the tongue, + But in deed and truth." + The First Epistle of John. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A VISIT TO THE BASE + +FROM WHENCE WE ARE AGAIN SENT FORTH WITH FRESH SUPPLIES + + +IT was with mixed feelings that we came to realise that the days were +few until that experience known as "taking furlough" was to be ours. + +It was indeed hard to leave our post. England seemed so far away, and +the thought of having to readjust oneself to English ways and English +dress was not inviting. The desire to see relatives and friends pulled +toward the West, but I realised that an even stronger magnet was drawing +me with tremendous force to remain in the land of the Celestial. + +It was arranged that two experienced missionaries, the Misses Higgs and +Johnson, should join Miss Mandeville who had been with us for nearly two +years, during our absence. A year of strenuous effort on their part in a +post requiring the exercise of tact and forbearance, enabled us to see +marked progress in the work upon our return a year later. + +In order to carry out our plan of advance new buildings were necessary, +and a consultation was held as to the sum required. On the most +economical computation this would certainly be L500, and we left for +England with the hope and prayer that if it were for the glory of God +this sum might be forthcoming. + +The months passed by, and sums various were contributed. We were due to +leave England in March, and we were still far short of the required +amount, when in February, my friend and Pastor, Dr. Campbell Morgan, +arranged that I should have an opportunity of telling the members of +Westminster Chapel of the work in Hwochow. It was Sunday morning and the +usual collection for Church expenses had been taken, but at the close of +the service Dr. Morgan announced that those who wished to do so might +send contributions to him, which would be forwarded to me. Thanks to the +generosity and kindness of those concerned, we left for China with our +L500 less L50. In March we started on the interesting journey through +Siberia, bringing with us that which was of more value than much gold, +Miss French's younger sister, Francesca, to join us in our missionary +work. + +We reached Moscow, that fascinating city with its churches, Kremlin, and +numerous historic interests. We seemed to be at the parting of the way +where East and West meet and merge. Partly for the sake of economy and +partly for the interest of being more with the people of the land, we +decided to travel, not by the _train de luxe_, but by the Russian daily +post train. We were thus able with comfort to do the journey from London +to Peking for L20 each, whereas by the International train L35 is +required for fare alone. + +How keenly we enjoyed it all! The wide, roomy railway compartments, the +slow, steady movement of the broad gauge train, enabling one to read and +write with comfort; the rush with a tin kettle for hot water from the +huge tanks with unlimited supply, provided at each station; the buying +of the day's provision from the peasants who crowded to the platforms +with eggs, butter, and milk; the reading aloud of some Russian book in +the Slavonic surroundings, which contributed so much to make its +disconcerting unexpectednesses seem the natural expression of the +Russian temperament. + +How delightful it all was; but when we reached Manchuria Town and found +ourselves in the midst of Chinese, we felt the thrill which comes with +the first sight of home. A few more days, and we were in Peking. + +We walked in the acres of parkland which surround the Temple of Heaven, +and saw its blue-and-yellow-tiled roofs outlined on the azure of the +Eastern sky. We stood in the pavilion where the "Son of Heaven," +fasting, rested before he proceeded to pray for his people in the double +office of priest and king. + +What gorgeous scenes the midnight skies have witnessed where the altar +raises its marble carvings and mystic symbols to the open vault of +heaven. No sign of idolatry is visible; here he worshipped Heaven and +Earth, and bowed before the Supreme Ruler, praying for the millions of +his people to whom he stood as father. A magnificent conception! The +mind of man could scarcely rise higher in ethics of worship, as in +solemn splendour the beasts are slain, and the prostrate Emperor under +the starlit sky calls upon the unknown god. Confucius seemed to realise +the unbridgeable chasm between the offender and his judge when he said: +"If a man have offended against heaven, there is none to whom he can +pray"; and here the ruler of this great people prayed, but with a +recognition of limitation which brought him, later on, back to the +familiar idol shrines with an offering of incense and acceptable gifts. + +From the quiet dreams of that place, we returned to the hustle and +bustle of native city life. Our rickshaw men, with marvellous speed and +agility, were soon rushing us through the crowds of peddlers shouting, +yelling, and calling on every passer-by to purchase their goods. +Beggars, scarcely recognisable as human beings, knocked their foreheads +on the ground, beseeching us to give them some cash. The moral support +of a policeman is inadequate to the task of protecting the newcomer who +has yielded to an impulse of pity. + +On we rushed through massive gates, where we ran serious risks of an +overturn in meeting a string of heavily laden camels, with sonorous bell +hanging to the neck; brightly and gaily dressed ladies passed and +repassed in rickshaws; men on horseback, coalheavers, foreign women on +bicycles, shining motor-cars, and glass-panelled, silk-upholstered +carriages composed a moving picture, with the gates and huge enclosure +of the forbidden city as background. From the pandemonium of Chinatown +we swung into Legation quarter, where macadamised roads take the place +of cobblestones, and for this you call down blessings on civilisation, +the rubber tyres of your rickshaw running rapidly and smoothly over the +way. Without transition, you pass from East to West. The Wagon-Lits +Hotel's fine buildings face you, large foreign shops abound, at night +electric lights will blaze over the streets still filled with +pleasure-seekers, thoughtless and forgetful, though the words written in +days of siege can be clearly descried on the broken fragment of Legation +wall: "Lest We Forget." + +At the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank we entered to transfer money which was +to enable us to erect those longed-for buildings in Hwochow. Whilst I +was transacting my business, a voice behind me addressed Miss French by +name, and the cashier looked up quickly. Immediately upon the conclusion +of my business he asked: "Is that Miss French of Taiyueanfu? Fifty pounds +have been lying to her account for three years, and we have been +unsuccessful in tracing her whereabouts." Identity having been fully +established the money with interest was paid to us, and with our L500 +complete and some extra, we journeyed homewards. A strange coincidence +you say! Yea, verily, unless "we take our courage in both hands, and +call it God." + +After a train journey for the next two days, came slow travelling from +Taiyueanfu to Hwochow. Long and weary days, in which one takes many hours +to accomplish thirty miles, turning in at night to a Shansi inn. A +wonderful place it is, carried on with the minimum of expense and +trouble to the owner, whose responsibility ends when he has provided you +with a kettle of boiling water in an absolutely empty room, the walls +and ceiling of which are dirty beyond description. In the courtyard are +a few sheds where your mules are stalled for the night, while horses and +donkeys, kicking and braying, vie with _insecta_ in enlivening for you +the hours of darkness. Meanwhile your landlord has sent to ask whether +you are requiring food. The bill of fare offers _mien_,[7] with +accompanying condiments of salt, vinegar, and red pepper. Should you be +a _bon vivant_ you will ask for onion and a few bean sprouts, though +this entail the reckless expenditure of the further sum of one penny. +You lodge a protest at such extortionate charges, for, as your servant +remarks, "at such a price we cannot afford to eat." Two sticks cut from +a tree serve for table cutlery. "I hate luxury," said Goethe, "it kills +the imagination." Here imagination flourishes. Through the dirt and +grime of the wall I can decipher a poem which tells me that when I come +to reckon with my landlord, my account will be as flowing river. Other +scrawls eulogise him, and assure me: "Whoever sleeps upon this _kang_, +sleeps in peace." (I must have been an exception!) An idol, half-torn, +hangs in one corner of the room, and in another I discover a Christian +tract. Who has passed this way before me? I am aroused from my reverie +by the sound of a voice, which utters, without seeing the humour and +pathos of the remark: "The foreign devil is reading characters." I turn +to see an eye filling the space of a torn piece of window paper, +shamelessly scrutinising me, and as I do so the intruder withdraws to +discuss with the muleteers my failings, virtues, and intimate habits. +Long before light the men are calling us, and we arise, anxious to lose +none of the cool morning air. Delays occur, for last night a portion of +the harness was pawned to pay for the men's supper. Either we supply the +necessary money to redeem the pledge, or wait there indefinitely. We +first declare that nothing will make us produce that sum which they are +not entitled to receive until the journey's end, but both they and we +know that a compromise must be effected. Alas, it is already light and +the sun rises glorious, but to-day we are to reach home, and nothing +seems hard. A short stay for dinner, and at sunset the gates of Hwochow +are visible. I cannot describe these homecomings; the welcomers and +welcomed know, and that is enough. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[7] Vermicelli--cut with a knife. + + + + +THE BUILDERS + + "The house is not for me, it is for Him. + His Royal thoughts require many a stair, + Many a tower, many an outlook fair, + Of which I have no thought, and need no care. + Where I am most perplexed, it may be there + Thou makest a secret chamber holy--dim, + Where Thou wilt come to help my deepest prayer." + GEORGE MACDONALD. + + "Toil, workman, toil; thy gracious Lord + Will give thee soon a full reward; + Then toil, obedient to His word, + Until He come. + + Sing, pilgrim, sing; Christ's mighty Hand + Will bring thee safe to that bright land; + Then sing--it is thy Lord's command-- + Until He come." + ANON. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BUILDERS + +RELATING HOW THE SUPPLIES WERE USED + + +IN an incredibly short space of time our compound was overrun by a gang +of one hundred men from the province of Honan. The land in Southern +Shansi has been too fertile and yielded too rich a crop of opium to +leave us good workmen; when therefore we want work quickly and well +done, we inquire for a Honan or Shantung man. + +Our helpers searched the countryside for likely trees, which were felled +and in a few days made their reappearance as pillars and beams. Old +buildings were bought, demolished, and sorted into usable and unusable +material, so that as the walls went up the empty spaces about the city +increased in number. + +Before dawn each morning we were aroused by the beating of a loud gong +which called the men to work. This work they might not leave until the +last streak of daylight had faded, except for the brief space allowed +for breakfast and dinner, when huge cauldrons of a sticky mass of boiled +millet was ladled out in generous portions. Millet is the cheapest grain +food procurable, and the Shansi man cannot thrive upon it; to the Honan +man it is the staff of life, and in consequence their rate of wage is +lower. + +A race of giants they were, handsome, magnificently built, and well +skilled in the use of their simple tools. In the use of the adze they +were particularly proficient, and able to plane a section of wood to +within a hairbreadth of thickness by the use of this alone. They liked +to use it for the most delicate work, so certain are they of their +accurate manipulation, and on one occasion when I supplied a bandage to +bind a wound on the finger of a workman who had met with a slight +accident, as I turned to take up my scissors, the head carpenter, +without a trace of humour on his face, stepped forward with a four-foot +long adze, and offered to sever the calico. + +Heavy work requiring the combined strength of several men, such as the +beating in of foundations, or the lifting of a great beam, was +accompanied by the sound of the weirdest rhythmic chant, sustained for +hours if needs be. + +A night watchman was employed, who in accordance with the custom of the +country constantly beat a loud gong, by means of which any intending +thief is made aware that all are not asleep. The English policeman's +rubber sole, and the Chinese watchman's noisy methods, strange to +relate, attain the same ends. + +On one occasion, hearing blood-curdling yells at midday, we inquired and +were told that a workman had caught a tramp, red-handed, in the act of +stealing his tools. Our informant described him as aged, starved, and +infirm, "truly pitiable," and strung up by his thumbs to a beam. The +sound of those yells made us fear that something akin to the famous +death by slow degrees, so constantly referred to in Chinese +jurisprudence, was being carried into effect at our very door. Pastor +Wang, the merciful, was already interceding on the man's behalf, and we +sent a peremptory message that the thing must stop. Our desire was +acceded to, and the wretched victim made his escape, more terrified than +really hurt. + +The next reminder of the incident was the following item in the +builder's final account: "To missing tools, unclaimed in accordance with +missionaries' loving heart, 2s." + +One of the minor expenses connected with our building operations was the +inviting of guests to a succession of feasts. The occasion of the +stamping of the contract in the _Yamen_, which marked the conclusion of +the middlemen's responsibility in the purchase of property, was +celebrated by a handsome meal, to which all in any way connected with +the transaction were invited. + +The necessity of conciliating our neighbours to the inevitable trouble +which the dust and litter of building would entail upon them, caused us +to spread another feast, to which all who could shelter beneath the term +"neighbour" were asked. + +By the building contract we found ourselves obliged to conform to the +customary requirement made by workmen that every tenth day we should +provide a "reward for work," which, in fact, amounted to supplying one +pound of white flour and a handful of vegetable to each workman. This +arrangement ensured pleasant relations between the men and ourselves, +for each time they were our guests grievances were forgotten and a fresh +start made. The swinging of the huge beams of the church roof was the +occasion for extra festivity. + +This custom of inviting guests does much to smooth over difficulties, +and is customary, not only in matters of building, but also on numerous +other occasions. For instance, the autumn rains swelling the river +necessitate the use of a ferry boat for about two months of the year. +The expense of this is met by public subscriptions from the more +important people of the city, and a small fare for each passenger. Those +whose names appear on the subscription list are invited to an annual +banquet given by the ferrymen; I have often wondered what would happen +were some simple soul to accept the invitation, which in reality is only +intended to serve as a reminder that subscriptions are now due. + +It is part of the convenient social system of this land that no woman +would presume to put in an appearance on such occasions. Throughout the +building operations the only part of the feast in which we were +privileged to share--which privilege was unquestioningly granted--was +the payment of all expenses. + +How glad we should have been to find such an easy solution to the +problem of the importunate widow. This aged lady entered a claim for two +stones occupying nine square feet of waste land, to the sale of which +she declared her consent had never been given. The matter had been +referred to middlemen who decided in our favour; nevertheless, we +learned to dread the daily tap, tap, of her stick, and the shrill squawk +of her strident voice as she came with fresh deeds (some of them dating +back to former dynasties) of which she demanded the examination. She was +generally accompanied by friends, all of whom were prepared to support +her claim. + +I have seen her stand by the workmen, and with her nagging tongue drive +them, and the foreman, almost to despair. It was impossible to recognise +her rights even to the extent of feasting her, so we endured until the +walls were built, and then to compensate her for her trouble handed her +the equivalent of 2s., which sum she accepted, but every time we meet +her she reminds us that we are occupying land which belongs to her. + +The first autumn frosts saw a large expanse of waste land, which had +formerly lain around our compound, transformed into a neat series of +courtyards, and a spacious church occupied seventy feet of the main +street frontage, providing sitting accommodation for a congregation of +six hundred. In all, we had erected fifty _gien_[8] of room space, in +addition to the church. + +Thanks to an unusually profitable rate of silver exchange which held +during these few months, and owing to the faithful oversight and +scrupulous economy of Pastor Wang and his helpers, our L500 proved +sufficient to meet all necessary requirements of Church, School, Bible +School, and Dispensary. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] The space between two beams in a Chinese building. + + + + +WOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL + + "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." + Motto of the Hwochow Bible School. + + + "Cornelius halted at a doorway in a long, low + wall--the outer wall of some villa courtyard, it + might be supposed--as if at liberty to enter, and + rest there awhile. He held the door open for his + companion to enter also, if he would, with an + expression, as he lifted the latch, which seemed + to ask Marius, "Would you like to see it?" Was he + willing to look upon that, the seeing of which + might define--yes! define the critical + turning-point in his days?"--WALTER PATER. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL + +WHICH TELLS HOW A LINK WAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN WESTMINSTER AND HWOCHOW +BIBLE SCHOOLS + + +AMONGST the courtyards which constituted our new premises was one into +the walls of which was inserted a stone, engraved with the words in +Chinese and English: "Women's Bible School. Erected by the Congregation +of Westminster Chapel, London. Jesus said: 'I am the Way, the Truth, and +the Life.'" + +The women's rooms had never been large enough to hold those who were +anxious to come, and now at last suitable premises were going to make +possible the fulfilment of a long-cherished plan--that of giving +adequate training to suitable women. + +It seemed a long step from the days when, freely roaming around the +villages, we taught some of these women the very first character they +knew, spelling out with them the text: "God so loved the world that He +gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not +perish, but have everlasting life." The next step had been attendance at +a station class for twenty days, sometimes repeated yearly but never +leading to advanced work. In our new premises we divided the students +into three groups: Firstly, those attending a ten days' course, who +served as training-ground to a second group of more advanced women who +had passed the initial stage, and who now entered for the two years' +course of Bible training and practical experience as evangelists. +Thirdly, a picked few who, having received more regular teaching, were +able to continue their own studies and help to superintend the work of +the juniors, especially on the practical side, meanwhile giving a +considerable portion of their time to aggressive evangelistic work. + +Foremost amongst these was Mrs. Liang, mother of Ling Ai, the +headmistress of the girls' school. Strong, true, a woman of no ordinary +ability, little escaped her penetrating glance. It was in middle age +that she first heard the Gospel, an indirect influence of the opium +refuge work; for Mrs. Liang had never smoked opium, nor had any member +of her family. A neighbour, however, had, and on her return from the +Refuge she produced with pardonable pride the copy of St. John's Gospel +which she had bought, and better still, could read. It was hard for Mrs. +Liang to see the former degraded opium smoker ahead of her in learning, +and she persuaded her husband to give her the needed help. She borrowed +the book and started at the first chapter. She had not been to the +Mission House nor had she seen the missionaries, but before she met them +she had met their Lord. It was but one more proof that "the words I +speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life," and the Holy Spirit +illuminating the written pages brought home to her its meaning. "He +came unto His own, and His own received Him not," she read, and how can +I say what took place? She tells me that she was convicted of sin, and +that she found her Saviour. + +[Illustration: WOMEN'S BIBLE SCHOOL. + +Mrs. Hsi on the left, sharing a book with Miss French. Mrs. Liang on the +right, sitting at Miss Cable's left. + +_To face page 160._] + +Intercourse with Miss Jacobsen was soon established, and under Mr. +Cheng's influence her husband also believed. Mrs. Liang was baptized, +her own feet and Ling Ai's were unbound, and the latter became a pupil +in the girls' school. + +Mrs. Liang herself lived quietly at home until the year 1900. At that +time the local Boxer leader was a near neighbour of hers, and he was +prepared to kill these well-known adherents of a foreign religion. On +recovering consciousness, however, from the trance which preceded the +issuing of inspired orders, he uttered the surprising words: "Return +each to your own place; let each busy himself with his own affairs." Not +daring to disobey his followers scattered, and the small group of +Christians was safe. Ling Ai has described the experiences of those days +in the following words: "For months we were as those whose hair is bound +around the neck, not knowing at what moment we should be called upon to +die, but after our deliverance we united in saying: 'We have been under +the shadow of the Almighty.'" + +When we came to Hwochow Mrs. Liang, realising our difficulties, was one +of the first to come to our assistance, and quickly endeared herself to +us by her thoughtful, kind, practical ways. + +To the work of preaching she gave herself with unusual energy and +devotion, so that to-day there are few women in Hwochow who do not know +her, and scarcely a courtyard that has not been visited by her. + +Assisting Mrs. Liang is Mrs. Bah, who the first time I saw her refused +to have any intercourse with us. She was the senior wife of a wealthy +man who had died early, leaving the two widows to arrange matters as +best they could. The younger one smoked opium, but was the proud +possessor of a son who by law was the property of the elder wife, but it +was obvious that to the younger was due the honour of introducing a son +and heir to the house. + +The fact that Mrs. Bah the younger at last became a Christian and left +her evil habits, did not make the elder woman more friendly, though she +had in time to confess that life was easier for both under the new +conditions. After some time the Christians of the village received her +permission to use a cave in her spacious court for worship, in return +for their offer to put it in repair. "It can do no harm," she argued, +"and repairs are badly needed." Every evening they met to read the Bible +and pray, and Mrs. Bah, prompted by curiosity, took her spinning to +within earshot. She understood little, but the reiteration of the words +"Heavenly Father" puzzled and interested her. "If it really be the +Heavenly Father whom they worship," she reasoned, "they should be in the +best room." The thought grew upon her until a change was effected, and +to this day Mrs. Bah's guest-room is the village church. She soon left +her spinning-wheel to join the worshippers and gradually came to the +triumphant belief, weak at first, but taking slow shape, that "the +attitude of the soul to its Maker can be something more than a distant +reverence and overpowering awe, that we can indeed hold converse with +God, speak with Him, call upon Him, put--to use a human phrase--our hand +in His, desiring only to be led according to His will." This was the +spiritual story of Mrs. Bah. + +I could tell of many others and the theme is tempting, for by so many +and such varied paths have these comrades travelled. To mention only our +youngest student who at the age of sixteen, member of a heathen family, +heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ from an elder sister, a patient of the +Women's Opium Refuge. She determined that as far as in her lay she would +be a Christian. Yielding to her wishes, her parents engaged her to the +son of a believer. After her marriage, when her entrance to the Bible +School was suggested we demurred, but agreed to her attending a station +class, only to discover that once more the Spirit of God had +accomplished that of which we knew nothing. This young woman, who had +only heard the Gospel from a sister who herself did not believe, had +been truly converted. Reference to the curriculum in Appendix A will +make it clear that the subject which has the pre-eminence is Bible +study. The students prepare the books there mentioned, and during the +years they are with us cover also the course indicated by Dr. Campbell +Morgan's Graded Bible, which Miss French has translated for their use. + +The instruction of inquirers in the village centres is undertaken by +those women evangelists who have completed their course. In places to +which they are invited by the local church they hold classes of ten +days' duration, following the course of study as in the central station. +By this means a large number of women are under instruction, and +heathens are brought in contact with the messengers of the Cross. + +City and village visiting forms an important branch of the training, and +last but not least, classes taken under criticism, when it falls to the +lot of the missionary to ask the questions which might occur to a +heathen audience, and to impress upon the students the necessity of +clear presentation of the Gospel. It is desirable that they should +express the things which have gripped them in an individual way, not +adopting a Western colouring but using to the full their Eastern +knowledge: "Originality is like a fountain head; orthodoxy is too often +only the unimpeachable fluid of the water company." + +The prodigal son, for example, naturally smoked opium in the far +country, and the Chinese pictures so represent him. It was not, as we +have supposed, in her confidence that oil would be supplied that the +widow's faith was exemplified, but rather in her willingness at Elisha's +command to go forth on a borrowing expedition when she was already so +deeply in debt. + +We are sometimes treated to illustrations truly Eastern in character, as +the following example will indicate. It was accepted by the audience as +a solemn exhortation, as was the preacher's intention, the missionaries +being the only ones present to whom the humorous side was evident. The +subject was the importance of a whole-hearted acceptance of the Gospel, +and the foolishness and uselessness of a half-hearted belief. A man, we +were told, was begging by the roadside; he was very ill, and a passing +doctor had pity on him, and gave him some medicine which the man +promised to take. Questionings, however, arose in his mind as to the +reliability of the said doctor, and yet he could not but take the drug, +as he felt so ill. A compromise was decided upon, and he took half the +dose. For a few hours he felt wonderfully well, and rejoiced in his +restored condition; towards night the pain was more acute than before, +and he was at his wits' end. How he regretted his folly, for his illness +was certainly more serious. A few months later the same doctor, +travelling over the same road, met the same man now reduced to a bag of +bones. + +"What!" said he; "are you not the man to whom I gave medicine last time +I came this way?" + +"I am," he replied, "and I have been much worse ever since." + +"Worse!" exclaimed the physician; "how is that?" + +"I only took half the dose," said the man; "I did not venture to take +the whole." + +"Alas! alas!" he replied, "how terrible! Your illness is the result of +parasites attacking your vitals. That medicine would have killed them +all. Had you taken the full dose you would have been well; had you +tasted none there would have been hope for you. You took a small dose, +and the parasites were sent to sleep, and later, when the effect of the +drug had gone over, they awoke more lively than ever. Having once tasted +of the drug and experienced its effect, nothing will induce them to be +trapped a second time. Return home, and prepare for a lingering death." + +In the moral drawn, the folly of an endeavour to serve two masters was +made clear--a truth which all present felt to have been powerfully +interpreted. + + + + +THE DRAW NET LET DOWN INTO THE SEA + + "Take up God's inspired word anywhere you like, + and while we are called upon to adore the + sovereign counsel of God and to say constantly + that it transcends and surpasses all that we can + do and all that we can expect, yet He does not + bring the season of refreshing without engaging + His children to help Him. The splendour of the + grace may sometimes conceal man's effort, but it + never cancels it."--Rev. ELVIT LEWIS. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE DRAW NET LET DOWN INTO THE SEA + +AN ACCOUNT OF FRESH EFFORTS TO REACH THE MULTITUDE AND BRING THEM TO +DECISION + + +METHODS in mission work are many, and the diversities of gifts bestowed +by the one Spirit are manifest in the striking variety of means put +forth to bring to a knowledge of Christ the people of the lands in which +the members of His Church are called to work. + +The teacher rejoices to see the change brought about by discipline and +regular life in those committed to his care. The doctor, exercising his +gift, succeeds where others have failed in establishing confidence and +friendly relations which prepare a road for those who follow. The +itinerant missionary sacrifices the comfort of a settled dwelling to +carry the Gospel to those who dwell outside the radius touched by the +central station. + +By the exercise of his peculiar gift, each expresses the longing that in +the hearts of the people he sees around, without God and without hope, +may take place that greatest of miracles called conversion. +Nevertheless, every missionary has ever to guard against a most subtle +and deadening influence which may be likened to poisonous gas in the +enemy's country, lulling him to a condition wherein the idolatrous +practices of the people around, instead of stirring him to greater +activity, come to be regarded as customs of the nations amongst whom he +lives, deplorable but interesting practices. + +The horror experienced on first seeing men bow down to wood and stone +may give way to a complacency which ceases to expect an immediate +response to the quickening and convicting power of the Spirit of God, +and philosophises on the gradual emergence of light from the kingdom of +darkness. The deadening of that vitality which drives a man to the +seeking of the lost is one of the master-strokes of the enemy of souls, +and one which no man doing spiritual work can afford to ignore. + +The sense of this urgency, and a great desire that our Chinese +fellow-workers might realise the fullness of their vocation as +evangelists, emboldened us to move in what was then a somewhat new +direction so far as North China was concerned, by the holding of a six +days' Mission for women in our new church in the spring after its +dedication. + +Miss Gregg of Hwailu, in the Province of Chihli, when travelling through +Shansi some years previously had conducted meetings for schoolgirls in +several stations, upon which the blessing of God manifestly rested. From +that time plans were being matured in the minds of the missionaries at +Hwochow for a Mission to women in that city at the earliest possible +date. The erection of a church building which could hold the number +expected made that dream a possibility. The city and villages were +visited by the women evangelists, placards were posted on the walls, and +every effort was made to widely advertise. Prayer was offered throughout +the Church that God would so prevent us in all our doings that we might +see His salvation. + +The men gladly undertook the arrangements for catering, made necessary +by the fact that women cannot go to the shops to buy food for +themselves, and this department was splendidly managed. We prepared to +receive three hundred guests, and about three hundred and fifty took +advantage of the invitation, who, with schoolgirls, Bible School +students and helpers, provided a resident congregation of little short +of five hundred. They came long distances on donkey-back, in carts, or +even walking many miles. + +Large numbers of heathen, attracted by the unique sight of so large a +concourse of women, swelled the numbers at the daily evangelistic +meetings, and it was an inspiration to see the new church packed with +women and girls quietly and reverently listening to the Gospel message. +A room was set apart where silence was observed, that those who wished +to do so might pray without fear of disturbance. A band of helpers was +appointed to teach the passage for the day, and outside the church in an +adjoining court was a book-stall, and here a brisk trade was done in +hymn-sheets, gospels, and block-printed texts. + +The elder scholars, anxious to do their part, acted as stewards; each +one had charge of some part of the building, so that should a baby cry +and threaten to divert attention, she could carry the small offender to +an adjoining room and keep it there until such time as it was prepared +to enjoy the larger gathering. One of the "old girls" took charge of +small children, and managed her creche so successfully that we were +undisturbed by the younger portion of the community. + +Each morning before seven a gong sounded and all assembled for prayer. +After breakfast a short Bible-reading was given, the subject chosen +being the sevenfold "I Am" of St. John's Gospel. These meetings were +simple and evangelistic, and many testified to blessing received as they +saw afresh all the wealth laid up in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and +the Life. + +It was to the eleven and four o'clock meetings that the crowds gathered. +While the congregation was assembling a choir of schoolgirls sang hymns, +and after reading of Scripture and prayer by a Chinese lady, the address +was given by Miss Gregg. The women listened intently as she talked, and +illustrated her remarks by objects so familiar. The fan used for +winnowing the grain is, I think, now never used by those who attended +without the thought asserting itself afresh that thus He will separate +the wheat from the chaff. + +This Mission accomplished all that we had hoped. Christ the Redeemer was +revealed to some who, in obedience to the wishes of the head of their +household, had passively substituted Christianity for that system of +idolatrous observances which had constituted their religious life. + +Christ the Master laid His claim upon some who had believed, but never +served. + +Even heathen women, listening to the earnest, convincing words, were +startled to a realisation that the offer of salvation with which they +were faced compelled a decision on one side or the other, that the +detached view with which they had hitherto regarded Christianity could +no longer be maintained. Amongst the schoolgirls were some, daughters of +Christians, who were in precisely the same position as girls in a +homeland. They neither doubted nor questioned, but they now realised +that the whole matter had assumed a personal aspect, and the individual +spirit was summoned to an audience with its Maker. + +The Evangelists, Bible women, and ripe Christians amongst us suddenly +saw the fields white, and every dilatory thought which suggested the +perennial excuse: "There are yet four months and then cometh the +harvest," was silenced in a sense of immediate urgency: "I must be about +my Master's business." This gathering affected a wide area, for our +visitors came from the counties of Hungtung, Chaocheng, and Fensi, now +all gladly welcomed by the Hwochow church, and missionaries from those +districts came to share with us in the campaign. + + * * * * * + +Six years have passed, and once more a Mission for women is advertised +to be held on the occasion of an idol procession which brings thousands +into town from the neighbouring villages. This time our own evangelistic +band was sufficiently strong to undertake the speaking to an audience +almost entirely composed of heathen, who now heard, not from a +foreigner, but from their own people, of the Truth as it is in Jesus. +Once more we saw decisions made and the evidence of the working of God's +Spirit. + +Thus was a further step taken in aggressive work amongst the women, and +a further impetus given to the self-propagation of the Gospel, and to +the fulfilment of the prophecy of Pastor Hsi that even Hwochow should +see a Resurrection morning. + + + + +LIFE AMONGST THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND + + "Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters!" + CONFUCIUS. + + + "All within the four seas are brethren." + CONFUCIUS. + + "Society and solitude are deceptive names. It is + not the circumstance of seeing more or fewer + people, but the readiness of sympathy, that + imports."--EMERSON. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LIFE AMONGST THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND + +RECORDING HOSPITALITY SHOWN TO US BY THE OFFICIAL CLASSES + + +IN the centre of every Chinese city stands the _Yamen_, where resides +the Mandarin, addressed as "Father of the people," before whom their +wrongs must be laid, and who, as direct representative of the central +Government, exercises autocratic power. His word is law, a man must +kneel in his presence when addressing him, and it is a penal offence to +enter his private dwelling-court unsummoned. His term of office is +limited to a few years and a change of official entails the removal of +his whole suite. The new Mandarin will bring with him his secretaries, +underlings, men and women servants, and the prosperity of a city will +largely depend upon the personal attitude of the "Great Man" to matters +of reform. + +Our intercourse with the Hwochow _Yamen_ has been frequent, and owing to +the strong attitude taken by the leaders of the Church against +interference in law cases where Christians are concerned, it has been of +a purely social character. + +My first visit was in answer to a request from the Mandarin that I would +go to see his wife who was suffering from acute toothache. I was +requested to make preparations for an extraction, and was informed that +if it suited my convenience I should be fetched that same afternoon. +Accordingly, I made ready and in due course the _Yamen_ carriage +arrived, a springless, but elegantly upholstered cart, and accompanied +by a woman servant we started. Ahead of us an outrider, dressed in a +long gown, wore a hat of the inverted bowl shape, decorated with a +spreading scarlet tassel. Behind followed other retainers, and thus +escorted we passed in triumphal procession through the quiet Hwochow +streets. After many bumps and anxious moments as we splashed in and out +of mud-pits, we turned into the wide space which surrounds the outermost +entrance of the _Yamen._ Here crowds of men were reading the latest +proclamation pasted to the walls, whilst others, talking earnestly, +discussed the case tried that very day, of the poor man who in vain +sought redress from the rapacity of his wealthy neighbour. He had knelt, +and laying his forehead to the ground at the feet of the Mandarin +pleaded for justice, but only to find that his condemnation was a +foregone conclusion. All these groups were scattered by the yells of our +outrider and the cracks of our carter's whip, and the sellers of cooked +food gathered their piles of little bowls and swiftly set them out of +harm's way, for the habits of _Yamen_ retainers are well known to the +populace, and there is little satisfaction to be had when complaints are +presented and compensation for destroyed goods is claimed. With +ever-increasing speed and corresponding agony, we were driven up the +steep ascent which leads to the outer courtyard, where after a +preliminary bump down two steps we found ourselves on comparatively +smooth ground, and rolled along a broad, high, paved path leading to the +second great archway where our conveyance came to a standstill, and we +waited whilst our cards were taken and presented to the ladies we had +come to see. Many soldiers were standing about, and various instruments +used in the punishment of prisoners were fastened to the walls as +warning to all who passed that way. A very few minutes and we were +invited to leave our cart and follow the man appointed to conduct us to +the innermost court where the _Tai-tais_[9] lived; slaves attended us on +either side, whilst the retainer went ahead carrying our scarlet cards +breast high before him. + +A vista of courtyards opened one from another, and we saw a number of +little ladies in charming, brilliant, butterfly-like garments coming to +meet us with odd, graceful, stilted movements. Everything must from this +point be done according to the strictest etiquette, so the _Tai-tai_ of +least rank came first to meet us, and led us back to where stood the +head wife, in whose presence we respectfully removed our eyeglasses and +made a bow. + +There were a large number of women about, for this Mandarin had two +wives besides several daughters-in-law. We were invited to a +reception-room where carpets, felts, tables, and chairs were all scarlet +in colour, and here were served with delicious fragrant tea and small +cakes, in which were mixed rose leaves, nuts, and sugar. All the +preliminary questions required by good manners were first asked--our +respective "venerable ages" and details of our various near +relatives--but soon curiosity overflowed into many inquiries concerning +our "honourable country," and we were helped to more tea and cakes, and +begged to make ourselves at home. We, on our part, led the conversation +back to matters concerned with the object of our residence in this +country, and received from our hostess extravagant compliments upon our +extraordinary ability and learning, the reputation of which, they said, +was well known to the Mandarin. + +The object of my visit was then mentioned, and I was asked to see the +tooth, of which, being very loose, I recommended the extraction, and was +able to assure the patient that the pain would not be very great. Many +of the younger women gathered around her, comforting her, and covered +her eyes that she might not see the forceps; they begged her to remember +that the pain would soon be over, and as soon as I could induce her to +open her mouth, I removed the troublesome member. "How wonderful!" they +all exclaimed. "Why, it did not hurt at all!" + +After such a surgical triumph, long-neglected and half-forgotten pains +were remembered by the bystanders, and all the ladies on my next visit +came to me with some complaint. We sought to awaken in them the sense of +those far deeper ills which they so little realised, finding once more +that in following the method of Christ a sense of need had been +awakened: "Ye seek Me because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. +I am the bread of life." + +As soon as the operation was over, we suggested that we must be +returning home, but this could not be allowed until we had partaken of +further refreshment, and servants appeared with delicacies--meat balls +in gravy, flavoured as only a Chinese cook can flavour, lotus seeds in +syrup, luscious fruits, sweetmeats, and a drink of apricot kernels, +sweet to excess. The meat balls were daintily wrapped in pastry, and as +she helped me to some of these, the _Tai-tai_ said: "I think you do not +care for pork." I replied that we did not as a rule eat much pork. "I am +so glad," she said: "these are fowl, and therefore you can eat them +without fear." A few days later we heard that the head cook was under +severe punishment and incarcerated in a dungeon, because he had not +taken the trouble to find out what were our special tastes in matters of +the table, and had served pork in place of fowl! Some years later he was +a patient in our Refuge, and told Mr. Wang that he would like to make a +feast for us. We thought this extremely kind of him, considering what he +had suffered on our behalf, and he was asked to our kitchen to prepare +the food, while we invited some friends to share it with us. I think he +was a man of preconceived ideas rather than a genius at making +inquiries, whatever his talent in the culinary art, for he said he knew +foreigners liked sweet things, and he served us twenty or more courses +of the sweetest food it has been my good fortune to eat! + +Our visit proved to be the commencement of a most friendly intercourse. +A few days later the outrider, cart, and retainers were at our door +again, this time escorting the ladies who had come to return the call. +They enjoyed the outing considerably, as is easy to see they would, when +one remembers that they had lived three years in Hwochow and had now +crossed the threshold of their home for the first time during that +period. They could have no intercourse at all with the bourgeoisie of +the town, and apart from visitors staying at the _Yamen_, enjoyed no +social life. + +In due course we were invited to an "eight times eight" feast, +consisting of elaborate courses, in which the sweet, the fishy, and the +meaty alternated in bewildering miscellany, whilst our vision was +delighted by the elegant dishes, the lovely coral china, the pure form +of the many-branched candlesticks, and, above all, the graceful, gay +little ladies who manipulated the difficult, slippery food with such a +masterly command of their nimble chop-sticks. Here for the first time I +tasted the delicious birds'-nest soup, gelatinous in consistency and +fishy in taste, being, in fact, a mass compounded of seaweed and small +fish into a nest by a sea-bird. + +So far all was well, but we came home faced by the difficulty that it +was now our turn to offer a return feast which must be equally elegant. +There was only one cook in the city who was capable of the preparation +of a suitable repast, and he was in their employ, and though some +surprising things are possible in China, we did not see how we could +secure his services to cook a meal for his own mistress. We were, +therefore, thrown back upon our slender resources, and decided that an +English dinner-party was the only possible solution of the problem. Here +at least we were treading upon familiar ground, and were free from the +snares of Chinese etiquette. We need have no fear of giving offence to +our guests by placing the fish upon the table with its head toward that +quarter which would indicate their position to be of military instead of +civil rank, and many other equally subtle and delicate questions would +now have no terrors for us. We felt it incumbent upon us to do all in +our power to please the eye as well as the palate, and while we fully +realised our inability to delight our guests with such beauty as that to +which they were accustomed, we did our best. Salmon is a great asset, +being decorative as well as tasty, and only the hard-pressed know the +many uses of a tin of sardines. Jelly is a certain success, and the last +plum-pudding from home, cut into dice and blazing in a blue flame, looks +mysteriously clever. A bottle of cochineal is worth its weight in gold +on such occasions, and the _piece montee_, which none but an expert +could have recognised as spinach, beetroot, carrot, and yam tinted pink, +would have done no discredit to Benoist. The novelty of handling spoon +and fork, and even so dangerous a weapon as a knife, did much to enhance +the pleasure of the meal. + +The conversation was now much more intimate than on the earlier +occasions, and both sides felt free to ask questions on matters which +had excited curiosity. "Does the sun ever shine in your country?" asked +the _Tai-tai_. "I have heard that England is a land of shades." "When I +left my home in Szechwan I was very homesick. Are you?" inquired another +lady, but before I could reply, her companion answered for me: "The +ability of these ladies is so great that they would be incapable of such +feelings." A guest of their own, who had spent much time in Shanghai, +was thoroughly conversant with foreign dress and manners; she described +the former with great originality, but admitted that even she was +baffled by one thing: "The spotted webbing with which foreign ladies +cover their face, is it worn for purposes of concealment or as an aid to +the eyesight?" My answer that it served to keep the hair in place +carried no conviction, for she had already remarked that though combs +are so much in evidence in the foreign woman's coiffure, she seemingly +makes little use of them! + +The conversation turned to the subject of a proclamation recently issued +which forbade the binding of children's feet: "Alas, the people of China +are not so easily governed as those of your honourable country," +lamented the chief _Tai-tai_. "The Mandarin finds it impossible to +enforce this one order, whilst he read in last week's paper that in +England a man is imprisoned for refusing to send his child to school, +for omitting to vaccinate it, and the article even stated that a parent +is punished for refusing to call a doctor to see a sick child, even if +it be a girl; but the newspapers are full of fabulous tales!" + +The next few months saw a growing intimacy and a constant exchange of +presents. We were often able to indulge in the famous delicacy of +buried eggs, of which the not unpleasant, slightly ammoniated flavour is +so much appreciated by the Chinese. Once we were faced by a real +difficulty on the occasion of receiving a present of meat, when +conscientious Mr. Fu, fearful lest we should shelter under a liberty of +conscience whereby we would eat and ask no question, hastily came to +warn us that this had been offered to idols before being presented to +us. Under these circumstances we had no option but to crave leave to +refuse a present whereby a brother might have been caused to stumble. + +How little we dreamed of the trouble which would so soon break over the +official classes with the overthrow of the Empire, and the establishment +of a Republic. I remember the last visit we paid to those friends, and +our departure from the _Yamen_ in the brilliant moonlight, whilst huge +lanterns lighted our path through the archways and great gateways. As we +left the huge enclosure the guard fired the first night watch. "Except +the Lord keep the city the watchman watcheth but in vain." That night +the Revolution broke out in Hankow, and the next time we saw our +hostesses they were in terrible distress, imploring our permission to +make our house their shelter, should the hatred of the mob break forth +and their residence be rioted. They were in a most defenceless position, +for the Mandarin had taken a journey to Taiyueanfu, and did not return. +He was one of the old school, and faithful to the traditions of the +Manchus whose court he had accompanied to Sianfu in the flight of 1900. +It was still far from certain which party would gain the ascendancy, +and he, as most of his class, wished to refrain from an expression of +opinion until the situation was clearly defined. This, however, was not +allowed, and during the massacres of the Manchus in Taiyueanfu he was +arrested, and made to declare himself. + +He held the Hanlin degree, the highest honour to which the Chinese +scholar is admitted, the Emperor himself conducting the examinations. +Faced by his enemies and fearing summary execution, he sheltered himself +behind the age-long reverence for scholarship which exists in China as +in no other country: "Death has no terrors for me," he calmly said, +"but, alas, that such a scholar should be lost to China!" No armed +bodyguard could have afforded him such protection as this transference +of insult from his own person to the learning he represented. No man +present was prepared to strike a blow at the embodiment of the Divine +Right of Scholarship. + +He lived to return to Hwochow, where he faced death a second time and +was dragged through the streets by an angry populace, but finally +escaped and with his wives reached a place of safety. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[9] The polite term for the wife of an official. + + + + +THE REVOLUTION OF 1911 + + "For an event to be great, two things must be + united--the lofty sentiment of those who + accomplish it, and the lofty sentiment of those + who witness it. No event is great in itself, even + though it be the disappearance of whole + constellations, the destruction of several + nations, the establishment of vast empires, or the + prosecution of wars at the cost of enormous + forces: over things of this sort the breath of + history blows as if they were flocks of wool. . . . + Hence the anxiety which every one must feel who, + observing the approach of an event, wonders + whether those about to witness it will be worthy + of it."--F. NIETZSCHE. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE REVOLUTION OF 1911 + +AND HOW WE WERE AFFECTED BY IT + + +THE revolution of 1911 burst on us like a bolt from the blue. One day we +were mildly interested at the signs of trouble in far-removed provinces, +and the next, the thing was in our very midst. The first intimation of +local disturbance met me in the shape of a contingent of men, parents of +some of my scholars, who were introduced to my presence with the +startling information that they had come to fetch away their daughters, +not daring to leave them in a marked place such as the girls' school +would inevitably be, and afraid to delay, lest roads should become so +dangerous that their removal would be impossible. I had no option but to +agree, and at earliest dawn the next day a few carts and a string of +donkeys conveyed them from a side door as quietly and unobtrusively as +possible. + +Two days later the news of a massacre of the Manchu population of +Taiyueanfu reached us; and in accordance with the request of the parents, +we hastily scattered all the remaining pupils whose homes were nearer at +hand, and the whole city yielded itself to a condition of panic when +every wild report was spread and believed. + +The little group of foreigners in this town is popularly supposed to +have access to the most far-reaching sources of information on matters +national and international; therefore when we saw fit to scatter our +resident pupils to their homes, the city concluded that secret +information had been conveyed to us of trouble ahead. That same night, +whilst we slept peacefully in our beds, terror so seized the populace +that every young woman who had a village home to which she could +withdraw, fled to it. Where horse or donkey was not available they +escaped on foot, carrying the bundle which held their clothes, and the +gates being shut at dark, numbers climbed down the steep incline of the +city wall rather than risk the dangers which they feared might threaten +them in the town. + +Certainly an anxious time was ahead for all of us. Postal service was +interrupted, and we were completely cut off from intercourse by post or +telegraph with the outer world. It was uncertain whether the movement +would declare itself anti-foreign or anti-Christian, anti-dynastic or +anti-Republican. Such uncertainty was felt on this latter political +point, that it was a difficult time indeed for the large number whose +plain object was to be on the winning side, whichever it might be. Even +the commander of the military forces, sent to restore peace in a +neighbouring city, provided himself with the badge of either party, that +he might, at the city gate, affix that which was representative of the +predominant feeling. The Chinaman has for so long held the view that +politics are no individual concern of his, seeing that statesmen are +paid to give their time and brains to the consideration of such +questions, that it would seem unnatural to be expected to have an +opinion on such a technical matter as to whether the Government of the +land should remain Imperial or become Republican. + +On our compound were collected seven foreign women and about a dozen +Chinese girls whose homes were in distant towns, varying from the +borders of Mongolia in the north to places twelve days' journey by road +in the south. + +Much anxious thought was devoted to the question of how the various +members of our community could be placed in safe keeping, should it +become imperative for us to leave the place. + +Finally, Sir John Jordan's recall of all British women and children +reached us, and feeling it our duty to obey orders, we hastily boarded a +few girls in suitable Christian homes, and left with the others by the +North road. A long line of nine litters swung through the great archways +of the city gates, soon after dawn on 4th December 1911, to convey us to +our nearest point on the railway line, five days' journey away, passing +_en route_ through a city where we knew that a trustworthy Christian +family would take charge, _pro tem_, of some of our Chinese girls. + +It was with relief that we saw the distant railway embankment, which +indicated to us that we had reached the end of our litter journey, and +might now expect to be shortly whirled back to the midst of Western +civilisation. + +The time-table indicated 9 a.m. as the hour of departure for the morning +train, and long ere this our shivering group assembled on the bleak +platform. We were evidently not to be kept waiting, for the train stood +ready on a siding, and our slight baggage was soon placed in the racks +of the only third-class carriage attached to a goods train. Those who +have spent years away from the sight of a train will understand the +sense of luxury with which we seated ourselves, and waited to hear the +whistle which would be the sign of our departure, and feel the swift, +easy movement which would carry us over so many miles of road almost +without a trace of weariness. Our number had increased to about twenty +foreigners, assembled in response to Sir John Jordan's command from +various stations, and pleasant conversation so engaged the time that +impatience was under control, even though the sun was high in the +heavens and still the train was stationary. Our servants, who had heard +much of the marvels of steam-engines, still sat on patient heels at the +edge of the platform; but doubt of the superiority of this Western +notion gained on their minds as the sun passed the meridian and they, +with twelve miles to walk for their night's lodging, left us still +standing motionless. "A train is a handsome thing to look at, and the +amount of iron used in its manufacture must be immense, but for +practical purposes give me a cart," was the report they brought home to +inquiring friends at Hwochow. In the afternoon we steamed away, under +escort of a young man who had just been appointed Secretary of the +Foreign Office in the provincial capital by the new revolutionary +party. His qualifications for the post consisted chiefly in the fact +that, having been employed by a foreign firm as piano-tuner, he could +make himself understood in the English tongue on simple subjects. + +As far as the station of Yangchuen all went well, but here fresh delay +and the unwelcome announcement from our escort that a battle was in +progress farther down the line, the metals were required for the +conveyance of soldiers, and he must beg of us to make ourselves as +comfortable as possible for the night in our compartment. Protest was +useless, and we had to submit to see the engine detached and ourselves +abandoned, a useless derelict, on a rusty siding. The Secretary of the +Foreign Office supplied us with hard-boiled eggs and biscuits, and made +his exit, leaving in charge of the gentlemen of the party a packet of +silver which he begged might be handed to his mother. By morning +stationmaster, guards, porters, and clerks had all vanished from the +scene, for the news had come of a reverse to the Revolutionary forces. + +Four days and nights we stuck to our third-class carriage and our +siding; for part of the time, trains thundered past carrying men to the +front, and we were informed that the famous regiment called +"Dare-to-die" had gone to crush the Imperial troops. With a thrill we +saw these brave warriors pass, but a brief period sufficed to dispel +"the great illusion," and twelve hours later the same men were dashing +back to Taiyueanfu, carrying a terrible tale. "Had we stayed longer we +should have been dead men; the bullets were falling in our midst." The +officer, however, gave a different explanation of their return. "Poor +chaps, they are worn out, and I must take them back to get a night's +rest," he said. No one cared for our plight, as cold, hungry, and +deserted we watched the weary day pass to night, and the yet more weary +night give place to a dreary dawn. Such experiences are not to be +desired, for they who know China best, and the anti-foreign feeling +which may at any time manifest itself, are aware how quickly such a +position may become critical. + +One thing only besides our miserable carriage had been left on the line, +and that was three trolleys. The hour dawned on the fourth day when our +exhausted patience refused further service, and we determined those +trolleys should be made to carry us and our goods to some inhabited +region, be it friendly or inimical. That day and the next we spent +racing down and crawling up the gradients of the line to Niangtzekwan. +The "Dare-to-dies" boasted of having mined the line, and this did not +conduce to ease of mind in being the first to travel over it, especially +when we rushed through long tunnels. The line is one which taxed the +ingenuity of engineers to the utmost in its construction, and is one +succession of light bridges spanning deep chasms, tunnels, and long +gradients. Luckily for us, we were travelling in the downhill direction, +else our journey had been impossible. If the brave "Dare-to-dies" were +too hurried to leave the line mined, they had taken time to destroy it +in some places, and once a broken-down engine blocked our path. The +fleeing soldiers had found the engine-driver preparing to take in water, +but they would have none of his lagging ways, and compelling him to +drive ahead, were soon forced to abandon the useless locomotive. Each +such obstacle was a lengthy hindrance, and the kind gentlemen of our +party were obliged to organise a breakdown gang to overcome the +difficulty. Our trolleys, with all the baggage, had to be transferred to +another line. Effort and energy were not spared, and the following +midday brought us face to face with the first engine carrying Imperial +soldiery towards Taiyueanfu. At Niangtzekwan Pass we were under the +Dragon flag once more. The houses of the foreigners there were +completely wrecked, and my recollection of that place is a land of +feathers, contents of the beds of the Frenchmen who had left their +homes, and would return to find nothing but a heap of ruins and a litter +of broken glass, china, and furniture, smothered in feathers and +presenting a sad wreckage of what had once been a home. That evening we +reached an inn where food--warm, satisfying food--was to be had, and +twenty-four hours later we steamed into Tientsin station, greeted by a +hearty cheer from a friendly group, for we had been missing and untraced +since we left Yutze. + + + + +CHANGED CONDITIONS + + "The Master said: The people may be made to follow + a path of action, but they may not be made to + understand it."--CONFUCIUS. + + + "I have seen a Chinese graduate of a Western + university, dressed in proper Western clothes, in + his dress-suit, with an opera hat crushed under + his arm, beseeching the goddess of mercy in her + temple, with many rich gifts, to give him a male + child."--Rev. C. SCOTT. + + + "From time to time Jesus was offered a place in + the Pantheon, but Christianity perceived that the + Pantheon was the place for dead gods."--Dr. JOHN + HUTTON. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +CHANGED CONDITIONS + +WHEREIN SOME, THOUGH FOLLOWING A PATH OF ACTION, FAILED TO UNDERSTAND IT + + +THE very week that the British Minister issued passports for women to +re-enter Shansi saw us in Tientsin on our way inland. Those precious +documents which enabled us to return to our work were eagerly received, +and we lost no time travelling over the familiar ground. How easily and +smoothly we now sped over the iron rails as compared with our former +journey; we need now take no interest in gradients, nor fear that the +train would not start at the appointed hour, nor convey us to our +destination. + +We found ourselves in a strange country. In place of the dragon, the +five-colour Republican flag was everywhere in evidence, which by the +Chinese is thus explained: China's eighteen provinces are represented by +the red line, Manchuria by the yellow, Mongolia by the blue, Ili, +Chinghai, and Sinkiang by the white, and Thibet by the black; the ideal +of the Chinese republic, a united territory, being indicated. + +Soldiers in semi-foreign uniform lined up on each station platform to +salute the train, remaining at their posts until the puffing monster +was out of sight. At Taiyueanfu were further surprises. No man wearing a +queue could enter the city. Should he make an effort to do so, the +soldiers guarding the gates speedily removed the appendage with a pair +of large scissors. + +The shops vied with one another in having the very latest "Republican" +goods; the buttons one bought were "Republican"; all school-books were +changed to the latest "Republican" editions; the cloth trade mark was +"Patriotic." Everything was Republican, and we began to realise that +China, far from being the conservative country we had thought, was one +of the most progressive. + +As we came to districts where the regulations had been less severely +enforced, we found the queue replaced by the most extraordinary +head-dress; the hair, varying in length, was sometimes braided and +sometimes held in place by a strip cut from a petroleum tin, and bent to +a semi-circle. The more wealthy members of society affected a style +similar to that of an English schoolgirl, the flowing locks reaching to +the shoulders and held from the face by a circular comb. Others allowed +the tresses to fall as nature dictated, keeping them of such a length +that with very little trouble the plait might again appear, for as some +remarked: "Who knows, maybe we lose tails to-day, and heads to-morrow!" + +The hats were even more wonderful. In place of the neat, circular cap, +every shape and size was to be seen. Round hats like a pudding-bowl, +straw hats, hard oblong hats, soft hats, home-made hats, erections of +cardboard, giving proof that some devoted wife or mother had done her +best to copy with the means available, probably only cardboard and +paste, a tall hat, which her lord described as having seen on some +journey towards Western communities. Women's dress was likewise being +revolutionised, and skirts were extraordinary. One young lady whom I +met, desiring to be more up-to-date than the rest, wore the so-called +foreign dress back to front, and was far more satisfied with her +appearance than the charming little lady who accompanied her, dressed in +the dignified, elegant attire of her own people. + +Not only had the style changed, but travelling south we missed the +bright-coloured clothes which had always added a touch of beauty to the +landscape. We discovered that with the introduction of the Republic, +sumptuary laws were being enforced which commanded the exclusive use of +earth-coloured garments for the men, and forbade the wearing of silver +ornaments to women. Proclamations followed one another in rapid +succession, several of which were framed with a view to altering the +standing of the army. From ancient days China has regarded the soldier +as belonging to the lowest grade of society; the highest place is given +to the scholar, and next to him the farmer, who on account of his labour +for mankind ranks high. The artisan is placed third, but the trader, +seeing that he only distributes and does not produce, comes just before +the soldier, who neither producing nor distributing, but only +destroying, ranks lowest in the social scale. One proclamation stated +that no one was to say that it was _infra dig._ to enter the military +profession. It certainly needed some such move on the part of the +authorities to add to the prestige of the army. A few days before the +recruiting agents had been through the district. "Only those wearing the +queue will be enlisted" was the, to us, amazing dictum. Upon inquiry we +found that former aspirants had given considerable trouble by running +home when the labour became too arduous. As the donning of military +uniform necessitated the removal of long hair, it was obvious that the +new brigade would be freshers, and, as our informant said: "Never having +left home before they will not know the way back!" + +The next order forbade us to speak of any day as "unlucky." Now from +time immemorial, some days have been regarded as good and others as bad +for such important events as weddings and funerals; in fact, almost +every day of the year is controlled by some fortunate or untoward +influence, governed by the conjunction of the "Celestial Branches" and +"Earthly Stems," complicated with innumerable elemental antipathies and +affinities. + +As an example may be mentioned _wood_, which is antagonistic to _metal_, +but has an affinity for _fluid_ from which it draws its sustenance, +whereas the metal forged into an axe serves for its destruction. + +The "Earthly Stems" are represented by symbolic animals, and have +zodiacal signs and control of certain hours. Of the twenty-eight +zodiacal constellations, seven are infelicitous and no one will risk +entering upon a new venture on these days. To repair the kitchen stove +on a day when fire was in the ascendancy might cause a conflagration, +and to go to law on the day when water is the controlling element is +equally foolish, for the tendency of water is to fall, and this may be +the fate of the overdaring litigant. On a day controlled by the snake it +would obviously be foolhardy to start on a journey, for with such a slow +traveller as your controlling genius the journey might be impeded. + +The calculations necessary for the correct adjustment of these various +influences provide a livelihood for astrologers and fortune-tellers, but +this proclamation, at one fell swoop, attempted to abolish their +profession. The order was issued, and I suppose in time the yellow paper +faded in the sun; some read it, many talked of it, but they still chose +the day which according to their calendar was the auspicious one, and no +man hindered them. + +Other proclamations followed in due order: there was to be no music at +weddings or funerals, only good cash was to be used, women were to +unbind their feet, and brides were not to wear embroidered gowns. We +listened respectfully, as in duty bound, and waited for the pendulum to +swing. + +Upon one point, however, the powers were insistent. The Western calendar +must take the place of the lunar. The actual change of date was a small +matter, but this alteration upset the whole organisation of Chinese +life. The New Year season is one which ensures to the Chinese family its +annual gathering, and all the subsequent festivals date from that, the +greatest. The orders were too insistent to be trifled with, and we, in +common with all the government schools, closed to enable our pupils to +be at home for the 1st of January. New Year scrolls were exhibited +outside every front door, but apart from this, the day passed unnoticed. +Instead of paying and receiving calls, inviting guests and enjoying the +family gathering, business was carried on as usual. The first day of the +first moon, however, found the populace given up to revelry, shops were +closed, it was impossible to buy food, and the children in school +rebelled at the decree which separated them from their parents at such a +time, and longed for the golden days of the past. Before another New +Year it was quite evident that proclamations were useless, and we +joyfully returned to the old order, and now all keep the first day of +the first moon as our festival. + +Compulsory education was talked of, even conscription was whispered, and +yet we had no criminal code, and no one could touch a neighbour of ours +who, angry that her daughter-in-law presented her with a girl instead of +the longed-for boy, took the child and dashed out its brains. The child +is her property, and she has power of life and death in her hand. + +The new Mandarin was a native of Shansi, the old rule that a man might +not act as magistrate in his own province having been repealed. He was +not as his predecessor, carried in a sedan chair, but walked, or rode in +a cart as a commoner. He wore cotton clothes in place of the gorgeous +silk and satin embroidered gowns, and when he sent to invite us to dine +with his wives, his card was foreign except for the characters written +upon it. + +Our first visit to the _Yamen_ under the new regime revealed some of the +many changes which had taken place during the last year. No longer were +we escorted by outriders, but hired for ourselves one of the few carts +that Hwochow boasts. The _Tai-tais_ were dressed in black, relieved by +fancy crochet work shoulder capes, of varied hues. The teacups were of +white china, decorated with a bunch of forget-me-nots, and the +well-known words: "A present for a good boy." The feast menu was as +before, but instead of the beautiful china and Eastern decorations, we +sat round a glass petroleum lamp and ate delicacies worthy of a better +setting from plates of that familiar pattern, white with a border of +blue. The exquisitely polished table was covered with a piece of white +calico, a knife and fork lay beside the chop-sticks, and last but not +least, the Mandarin, to add to our pleasure, ordered his servants to +bring out the gramophone, which during dinner poured forth a selection +of London street songs and Chinese theatrical music. Conversation was +drowned, and we were able the more to observe. In place of +scroll-decorated walls, brilliant paper met our gaze at every turn, +white enamel basins and bowls replaced all the flowered china on which +we had lavished so much admiration. After dinner we were not offered the +water pipe, but cigarettes, all expressing surprise that we could refuse +so foreign an indulgence. The Chinese proverb to the effect that "A +wayfarer does not repair the inn nor the Mandarin his official +residence," was for once in fault--the workmen had been busy! We spent +a very pleasant hour with the family after dinner, receiving as on +former occasions the utmost kindness and courtesy. + +The classical writings of Mencius were for a time excluded from the +schools as teaching reverence for kings and rulers, a doctrine not to be +tolerated in the most republican of republics. + +The friendly attitude of some of the leaders of the revolutionary +movement towards Christianity lent colour to a widely spread impression +that republican government necessitated a change of religion. Some +favoured the Protestant, some the Roman Catholic Church, others +preferred the "No-god society," which gained many adherents as being +more modern. + +Even the Church was affected by the prevailing craze, and the wearing of +the queue and non-observance of innovations was regarded as sin by the +ignorant and superstitious. I heard a new convert warned by a Church +member that sickness in his home might well be due to his rooted +objection to calendar changes. + +This attitude of mind, happily for us, lasted only a few months, but it +was followed by another serious danger when the question of introducing +the Confucian Ethical Code as a state religion was brought forward. This +would have imposed limitations on Christians, Mohammedans, and others, +the alternative suggestion being that Christianity should be given this +status, in which some saw far greater perils. Meetings of the Chinese +Protestant Church forwarded petitions to the Central Government, +protesting against both proposals and craving only religious liberty, +and the danger was averted. + +The habit of revolution is a pernicious disease of the human mind, and +once acquired hard to throw off. Our political horizon has been draped +in storm-clouds ever since 1911, and our local social plans liable to +disintegration on account of rumours calculated to disturb the mind of +the people. White Wolf, Wolf King, and other robber chiefs have +announced their intention of visiting us. Our walls have been inscribed +with the terrifying announcement that "White Wolf is a devourer of +sheep," which in Chinese, by a play on the last word, can be understood +to mean: "White Wolf is a devourer of foreigners." A bold sketch of a +drawn sword was added that no doubt might be in our minds as to the +bloodthirsty intention of the threat! Mohammedan rebellions to the west, +Mongolian raids to the north, have alternated with the political +difficulties brought about by international negotiations, to add to the +sense of insecurity inevitably resulting from the removal of the very +central foundation of governmental stability--the "Son of Heaven"--to +whom four hundred million subjects bowed in reverential obedience. + +Transition periods are difficult, and China has been troubled by those +who in their enthusiasm for change have lost the sense of proportion, +and sought to revolutionise much that is dearer than life itself to many +of their countrymen; nevertheless, this great nation, permeated with +ideals so free from sordidity, will surely carve for herself a future +worthy of her past. + + + + +ANOTHER PORTRAIT GALLERY + + "In tragic life, God wot, + No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: + We are betrayed by what is false within." + GEORGE MEREDITH. + + "Oh Christians, at your Cross of Hope a hopeless hand was clinging." + E. B. BROWNING. + + "After all what would he have had to sacrifice had + he followed Jesus? He would have had to give up + his house in Jerusalem. He would have had to + renounce society; but society would soon have + forgotten him, for society has a short memory for + people who for any reason have fallen out of it. + That is what he would have lost, and what would he + have gained? He would have had those walks with + Jesus across the fields, and he would have heard + Him say: 'Consider the lilies.'"--MARK RUTHERFORD. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ANOTHER PORTRAIT GALLERY + +WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO SOME WHO HAVE FAILED + + +TO the student of human nature the fact that man so often fails to +respond to the highest ideals set before him comes with no shock. In the +early Church men who had run well were easily hindered, and in the +greatest series of biographies we possess, we see portrayed faithfully +the faults and failings of those who now form the great cloud of +witnesses, and are shown at the same time the possibilities of such +lives when brought into vital touch with the Divine. + +The generous, impulsive David, the man God's own heart, was capable of a +tragic fall; Peter and John, privileged to personal intercourse with the +Lord, in the hour of crisis were amongst those who forsook Him and fled, +and Demas, "who loves this present world," is ever a disappointment to +Evangelist, who hoped that for him such dangers were over. + +For the fact remains that the natural characteristics of the man are +strong forces, and that while Grace can, and does, make possible the +"new man in Christ Jesus," we remain each in our own order, and perhaps +no point is so vulnerable as that wherein has taken place greatest +change. + +The emergence from heathendom is a difficult process, during which time +habits, vices, and superstitions cling to a man's soul with a tenacity +that would cause us to abandon all hope, were it not that monuments of +grace abound to prove that the power and dominion of sin has been +shattered. + +Sometimes the enemy will entrap a young Christian when there is illness +in the home, and under pressure he will fly to magic incantations and +heathen practices, in order to get deliverance from the malignant spirit +which he still believes has power to torment him. Many a convert has +fallen on the occasion of a funeral. It takes more faith than a +Westerner can realise, to defy the legions of _gwei_ which at that time +threaten your home and its inhabitants with numberless ills; and +strength of mind is required to resist heathen relatives who accuse you +of slighting the deceased. + +The test is a severe one and may well make a strong spirit quail, +especially when, as so often happens, several members of one family will +die in rapid succession, quite evidently to us by reason of the agency +of natural laws which govern physical life, but to the Chinaman, a clear +manifestation of the power enjoyed by demons whose pleasure it is to +torment men. Even the very dead may rise from the grave to confront you +with horrid vengeance, should the body not have been buried with full +rites as required for the laying of the spirit. Most subtly has the +enemy caused many a man's downfall when his unmarried daughter has died, +and he has found himself confronted with angry relatives and irate +villagers, when he proposed to bury the body with the deceased of his +own family. By the rule of ancient custom a spirit bridegroom should be +found for this girl, or, as an unattached spirit, she will inevitably +return to her neglectful relatives and trouble them in numberless ways +in order to bring her pitiful condition to their remembrance. In one +way, and one way only, can the ghost be pacified. A bridegroom of +suitable age, likewise deceased, must be found, and all marriage +ceremonies be conducted with due pomp, a memorial tablet being placed in +the scarlet chair in which the bride should have sat. Clothes, +furniture, and presents, all made of paper, go with the chair to the +home of the deceased bridegroom, and are there received by living bridal +attendants. A feast is spread, and all make merry until a few hours +later when mourning apparel is donned, and to the sound of wailing two +coffins are placed side by side in the family tomb. The paper clothes, +presents, and marriage-contract are burned, and thus ascend in smoke to +the spirit world. The bodies may have been kept for years before a +suitable match could be made, but from the day of the funereal nuptials +the two families regard themselves as, or even more, intimately related +than they would have been had an actual marriage taken place.[10] + +It is easy to say that nothing so frankly heathen need ever raise a +question in the mind of a convert, but severe persecution and the +responsibility of every misfortune that may occur in his village will be +his, if he defy public opinion and introduce an orphan spirit to the +Valhalla where his ancestors, for countless generations, have never +failed to receive the rites of filial service. + +The missionary knows the importance of keeping ideals high by precept +and practice, and that his best way to help the young believer is by +emphasising the big claim that Christ makes on a man. That claim once +apprehended will create in the man's heart an everlasting +dissatisfaction with anything lower. + +Sad as is the case of a young believer falling into sin, how much more +tragic that of a man who abandons Christ after many years of service, +allowing sins, which he had overcome, once more to have dominion over +him. It is an awful reality of life that the point on which a man has +most conspicuously conquered is likely to be his weakest, for the enemy +plays a waiting game, + + "And where we looked for palms to fall, + We find the tug's to come,--that's all." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Nieh came early under the influence of Pastor Hsi. He was a man of +conspicuous ability, business capacity, and influence. In early days he, +too, had smoked opium, but when he left that habit, he became a +Christian and an earnest student of the Word of God. Few could speak +with such power as he, and at any conference where he was present, +eager, interested crowds would gather to hear him. Many have been led to +Christ by his influence, and he seemed a man raised up of God to carry +on the work of the late Pastor Hsi. He administered the opium refuges +with great ability, and the work of the Church for many years prospered +in his hands. Every one turned to him for advice and help, and when the +Boxer troubles broke out, it was to Mr. Nieh that both Christians and +officials looked in their hour of need. "He was marvellously helped +until he was strong," and then, as to Uzziah of old, came the decline. +Power he loved, and in the position in which he found himself, holding +office in the Church, was able to exercise it in many directions. + +Only God knows at which period the spiritual decay set in, which +silently, and at first quite invisibly, began a work which has ended in +the complete downfall of this man on whom the hopes of so many were set. +A desire to increase the prestige of his name, and love of popularity +led Mr. Nieh, as opportunity occurred, to lend his influence in +law-cases and village disputes on behalf of unworthy men, with the +motive of self-aggrandisement. Slowly but surely the material overcame +the spiritual in his life. + +At this hour he is no longer even a member of the Christian community, +having publicly repudiated his former profession of faith. He even +smokes opium again, and finds his power and influence to be a thing +wholly of the past. Extraordinary trials have come to him in family and +personal life, but he remains hardened and untouched. The light has +gone from his face, for he has ceased to walk in the Light, but as we +look on his dissatisfied appearance, hope revives that he, having tasted +so deep of earthly bitterness, may yet be found amongst the suppliants +for mercy at the throne of God. May it be in the midst of life, and not +only in the hour of death that he will witness the great confession: +"Thou hast conquered, O Galilean." + + * * * * * + +There is a failure which is partial success, and under this, I think, +may be placed Yen Keh-dao, who, when once he was clear of opium himself, +bought up eagerly every opportunity that presented itself for +evangelistic work. He had fallen so often, and been obliged to return to +the Opium Refuge time after time, until new birth had made him a new +creature. Now at last he seemed firm where formerly he had been +powerless to resist temptation. When he at his own expense entered his +name for a two years' course of theological training, we all hoped that +a future of considerable usefulness lay before him, but before that +period was over, the craving was on him again and he had fallen into +open sin. Another effort, and he was free once more, and then again he +fell and soon was lying very ill with typhus fever. Christian men +visited him and prayed with him, and he, for so long as consciousness +lasted, prayed earnestly; then delirium, and in a few hours death +released his spirit from the body of its humiliation. According to man's +statistics, he is tabulated a failure--"one more devil's triumph and +sorrow for angels"--but there are many who loved him, and who look up +in expectation to see him "pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne." + + * * * * * + +"Puppy's mother" has lived at the door of our mission premises since +they were first opened. She, according to the custom of the country, is +only known as the mother of her child, so having elected to call her +daughter "Puppy," she must needs be "Puppy's mother" throughout the +town. She has known the three generations of missionaries who have lived +here, and has been dressmaker to them all. No one has been more +deliberate in her choice of heathendom over Christianity than she, and +no one has lent a more willing ear to the scandalous lies circulated +concerning the foreign women, even although she has seen enough of their +intimate life to know such stories to be fabrications. + +She nourishes a secret regard for Mrs. Liang, in whom she recognises a +woman as intelligent as herself, and a match for her in every respect. +It was to Mrs. Liang she confided one day that there seemed little +inducement to repent and be saved, if going to heaven would entail +associating with foreigners for all eternity. Until two years ago she +was a healthy, sturdy woman, scarcely feeling the weight of her seventy +years. A slight dimness of eyesight caused her to raise her charges for +dressmaking on the plea, peculiar to Chinese logic, that old age made +her movements slower and more uncertain, and whereas three days were +once sufficient to make a garment, and make it well, now after six days' +work it was still far less well finished off than formerly. So we have +submitted to extra charges for inferior work, for old acquaintance' +sake. + +Then a long and painful illness laid "Puppy's mother" low, and for +months we did not think that she could recover. Nevertheless, her +excellent constitution did finally assert itself, and now she is walking +about again, leaning on a stick and on the shoulder of a small +grandchild, one of Puppy's offspring. She is curiously softened, and +told us once that she had endeavoured to pray, but could not remember +the sentences we had taught her. + +Time, age, and weakness work many transformations, and we feel as though +the veil of flesh were wearing thinner, and the spirit within feeling +its way out of gross darkness towards the light. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Deh had fallen so low through opium, that it was to save her from +positive starvation that we admitted her to our household once more. She +had been one of the failures of our Women's Refuge, and had sunk deep +into the degradation which accompanies opium smoking in a woman's life, +pressed as she finds herself to raise the money necessary for the price +of her drug. + +[Illustration: "PUPPY" AND HER MOTHER. + +_To face page 218._] + +For three years she kept herself respectable under our roof, living +amongst Christian women and joining in their prayers and hymn, night and +morning, but not a trace of the softened, repentant spirit could one +see, and finally a distinct retrograde movement accompanied with +physical disability forced us to send her home. I despair of Mrs. Deh +except when I look into the face of her daughter, the good, pure girl +whose life's prayer it is that her mother should be saved. She cannot +admit that this one thing she hopes for on earth should not be granted +to her. Her eyes are always full of tears when she speaks of her mother, +and when I see them I know they must, with strong entreaty, be pleading +the cause of the poor sinful woman before the Presence of the Divine +Majesty at whose right Hand stands the Friend of Sinners and the Man who +was "acquainted with grief." + + * * * * * + +"Flower of Love" became one of my pupils at the age of twelve, and +attended school for six years with unfailing regularity. Bright, happy, +and full of girlish enthusiasm she yielded her heart to Christ, and with +her girl companions rejoiced in her new-found joy. A horror of great +darkness fell upon her soul when the news was broken to her that her +parents had contracted for her a marriage with a heathen man, and +yielding to uncontrollable grief, she became seriously ill. Remembrance +of the promises of God, and the resilience of youth, caused her to +arouse herself; she returned to school, and begged that all would pray +that the impossible might happen, and this engagement be broken. + +Prayer was answered, and to me was granted the joy of telling Flower of +Love the good news. "My life shall henceforth be wholly for God," was +her reply. Months passed, and when the Revolution of 1911 broke out, her +parents once more sought for her a heathen husband, a man whose wealth +was accumulated by wrong-doing, and before any step could be taken +Flower of Love was his bride. For months she struggled alone in the +city to which she had been taken, and then his orders were given that +intercourse with foreigners must cease. The fight was too hard, and +weary she yielded and allowed herself to drift with the tide. To-day, in +her husband's house, where men are too frequent visitors, she seeks to +get from the life she has to lead what pleasure she can. She is beyond +my reach, but her broken heart will yet, I believe, find a resting-place +upon her Saviour's breast. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[10] This remarkable custom is declared by Marco Polo to be peculiar to +North China. + + + + +PREACHING THE GOSPEL, HEALING THE SICK + + "You make a very great mistake in thinking + Christianity is a religion. It is not a religion, + it is a person."--Words of a converted Mohammedan. + + "Lord! how wouldest Thou deal with this sick man--in body, or spirit?" + S. VINCENT DE PAUL. + + "A sick person does so enjoy hearing good news." + FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +PREACHING THE GOSPEL, HEALING THE SICK + +TELLING OF THE DAILY ROUTINE + + +LIKE the apostle of old, the missionary must be ready, however heavy the +claim upon his time, to receive all who come. + +At any hour of the day, we may hear the clatter of sticks upon the +ground indicating that some of our neighbours, whose minute feet prevent +them from walking unaided, have found their way through the open front +door and brought some friends to see the house of the foreigner. + +The Chinese woman is an inveterate sightseer, but unfortunately the +attractions of Hwochow are not many; there is no end, however, to the +marvels found within the walls of the Mission compound. + +The leader of the party is frequently our old friend, Goat's Mother, the +members of her clan being numerous and of an inquisitive nature. + +The well-favoured Goat, aged five years, wears a brilliant yellow cotton +jacket, on which are sketched in bold brush work every species of +venomous insect. On his left shoulder is a scorpion, while centipedes, +beetles, and other forms of poisonous insect life cover his back and +chest. To his right shoulder is stitched a diminutive pair of +red-and-green trousers. The yellow coat is his protection from stings +and bites, the tiny trousers from measles, and longevity is secured by a +heavy silver padlock, which hangs from his neck by a silver chain. + +With much assistance from the Bible-women the whole party climb the few +steps leading to the verandah, and exhausted by the effort, gratefully +accept our invitation to be seated in the guest-room. + +Tea is offered, but we know better than to press them to partake of any +refreshment, for these women have been warned on no account to let food +or drink pass their lips while under our roof, lest by a magic spell +they find themselves compelled to become Christians. + +The room is furnished in conventional Chinese style--a square table with +scarlet embroidered table-skirt, and backed by an ornate arrangement of +banner, scrolls, vases, and teacups, with stiff chairs on either side. +Our guests' first observation is to remark upon the surprising +cleanliness of the apartment, the next is to ask where we sleep, and the +third is to comment freely upon our personal appearance. + +"Have you turned sixty yet?" I am asked, and much surprise is expressed +at the information supplied by Goat's Mother that I have not yet seen my +fortieth birthday. "It is the white hair that makes her look so old," is +the comment offered in explanation of my fair complexion. + +Goat's Mother has brought her relations on a promise that they shall +see the foreigner's bedroom and "little iron tailor,"[11] hear the +musical box, and be allowed to inspect the enormous saucepan in which +the school food is made, ending up with a visit to the rooms where the +women read the Bible. + +Before, however, these favours can be granted, as she well knows, the +party must be prepared to give its attention to the one topic upon which +the missionaries never fail to speak. This proves to be more interesting +than they had anticipated, for one wall of our guest-room is decorated +with pictures which illustrate interesting stories, the application of +which throws light upon that problem which confronts every human heart: +"How can the burden of sin be removed?" + +The time passes quickly and most of the wonders have been seen, when a +piercing yell from the young Goat indicates that the limit of his +patience has been reached. The orders of this small autocrat allow of no +question, and further intercourse is impossible, for his shrieks will +not cease until his wishes have been complied with. The whole party +rises, and we follow them, urging them to "walk slowly" and to come +again on Sunday. "We will come, we will come," several answer, but +others are deep in a discussion as to what provision is possible for our +old age, seeing that we have neither husband nor son. + +As they disappear through, the street door, they meet a fresh group +entering who are in turn received by the Bible-women. Thus, from day to +day, the Word is preached and cast as bread upon the waters. Sometimes +a woman will return in a few days to hear more, and sometimes, years +later, in a remote mountain hamlet a woman will greet us with a smile, +surprised that we do not remember her visit to our house, when, as she +reminds us, we told her about Jesus, the Son of God. + + * * * * * + +With those women who come as patients to the dispensary, we enter upon a +more intimate relationship. The payment of their fee entitles them to +three visits, of which they take full advantage and often come under our +care for a much longer course of treatment. + +They are an interesting crowd with their varied complaints. A child +whose arm has been badly scalded months before, and who has received no +treatment during that period but an application of rat oil and charred +matting, is in a revolting condition, a pitiful sight indeed. A young +woman who has lost her eyesight attributes her affliction to a fit of +violent temper, when for a whole day she worked herself into a frenzy, +and cried until the power of sight was gone. The victims of tubercular +disease, the scourge of North China, never fail to appear, some +evidently having fallen a prey to that form known as the "hundred days' +illness" which will carry off an apparently healthy subject in three +months. + +At stated periods, children may be brought for vaccination. The method +of inoculation for the prevention of smallpox is said to have been +introduced into China by a philosopher of Szechwan, and has been +practised since the year 1014. Vaccination is now freely practised by +the Chinese doctors whose fees are generally 50 per cent. higher for +boys than for girls, the lives of the former being of so much greater +value. + +The extraction of teeth is a popular diversion, and the tooth is +carefully preserved by the patient, in order that with the other earthly +remains it may be laid in the coffin on the day of her death. + +Amongst the number are some whose diseases are hard to find, as in the +case of one family whose several members persistently reappeared with +such infinitesimal ailments that we felt compelled to tell them that no +further treatment was necessary. The answer we received was, that the +head of the house having become interested in Christianity had signified +to his wife his desire that she should be under treatment for a whole +year, in order that she might receive continued instruction in the +Scriptures. They thought the dispensary would serve as the best +face-saving subterfuge, therefore she said: "If there be nothing more +serious, will you wash my ears!" + +Broadly speaking, the patients only recognise two categories of +illness--one described as "fire," and the other as "chill." Their chief +desire is for a diagnosis which shall clearly state under which heading +their particular ailment should be classified, and we often receive a +message to the effect that "inward fire" is causing trouble, and the +sufferer would like medicine such as was given to her on the tenth day +of the third moon, three years previously, which had wonderful +fire-extinguishing properties. + +Having been accustomed to the Chinese doctor and his methods, our +patients, begging that the best may be done for them, assure the +helpers that merit will be accumulated by those who work towards this +end. All are surprised to find that a uniform fee is charged and that +there is no opportunity for bargaining, as the regular physician writes +prescriptions for first, second, or third-rate medicine, according to +the purse. + +[Illustration: THE TEACHING STAFF. + +(_See page 233._) + +_To face page 228._] + +The male and female principle in nature, by which all things are +produced and which has been called the "warp and woof of Chinese +thought," forms the basis of Chinese medical science, and every line of +treatment must be in accordance with the laws laid down by this +dualistic principle. + +Unfortunately, many of the more nutritive articles of diet, such as the +fowl and the egg, are frequently denied to the sick woman as falling +under that principle which makes them unsuited to many of her illnesses, +and while it is admitted that sleep is essential to a sick man, the +female patient must not be allowed to indulge in it except at night. +Milk is renowned for its heating properties, and is most unwillingly +consumed by the tubercular patient, who believes her disease to fall +under the heading of "fire" and knows that anything so heating will only +feed the flame. Had pears, cooked or uncooked, been ordered she would +fully have appreciated the wisdom which prescribed them. + +All these startling innovations are carefully and intelligently +explained by the dispensary helpers and normal students who take the +practical side of their course in First Aid, Home Nursing, and Invalid +Cookery, in the dispensary. Their labours have not been in vain, and the +presence of the Great Physician has often been manifest in the midst, +as weary, heart-sick women whose ills were beyond our help have found +healing and, touching the hem of His garment, been made perfectly whole. + +As the patients scatter, the students impress afresh upon their memory +how, and in what quantity, the medicine should be taken. Only too often +the printed directions are entirely disobeyed, and the week's supply +swallowed in one dose, on the strength of that unanswerable argument +with which we wrestled in the days of childhood: + + If one dose = improvement, + Twenty doses = x, _i.e._ complete cure. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[11] Sewing-machine. + + + + +A CASKET OF JEWELS + + "Happy is she who hath believed that there shall + be a perfecting of the things which have been + spoken to her from the Lord!"--The Gospel + according to Luke. + + + "There is nothing more divine than the education + of children."--PLATO. + + + "The fate of empires depends upon the education of + children."--ARISTOTLE. + + + "Take heed that ye despise not--offend not--forbid + not--one of these little ones."--The Commandment + of Christ. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A CASKET OF JEWELS + +BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE GIRLS' SCHOOL + + +MRS. HSI has never replaced the ornaments she sold thirty years ago. Had +she heard the story told of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, I fancy her +thoughts would have found expression, when she lately visited us and saw +the many courtyards occupied by women and girls, in the famous words of +the Roman matron: "These are my jewels." The interest on that first +small gift is incalculable, and can never be tabulated in human +statistics. An attempt to record the many activities of the Hwochow +Mission station as it now stands, would be incomplete without some +detailed account of the Girls' School and Normal Training College. + +The schools occupy four courts, and the ages of the pupils assembled +range from the smallest, who is only five, to young women of over +twenty. The Teaching Staff consists entirely of women, all of whom have +been trained here, and we shall perhaps get our best view of them at the +Teachers' Meeting held weekly in the Principal's room. A glance will +reveal the strong individualities here represented, and these twelve +young women cover as many varieties of temperament. Here all matters +connected with the school are mentioned, and it is striking to see the +various view-points taken. The loving nature which would lead, but never +drive, a rebellious child; the puritan, who will smile at no +infringement of the law, and whose stern eye has been even known to call +the Principal to order; the quick glance of the woman whose type reveals +an inevitable leader, the stern disciplinarian, and the easy-going, +good-natured woman--all are here, their diversity of gifts revealing the +unity of the One Spirit. Ling Ai and I alone know how much we have to +thank God for the friendliness of their mutual relationships. As to +myself, the loyalty, love, and unity of my band of fellow-workers is my +joy and crown. + +Thrice already has the staff been increased by graduates qualifying from +the Normal Training Class, and our students have included some from the +borders of Mongolia--a journey of twenty days--from Shensi, Honan, and +Chihli provinces, in addition to those from all the China Inland Mission +schools in Central Shansi. + +The education given in the school is arranged to cover the double course +required by Chinese and Western standards. The capacity for memorising +possessed by the Chinese is well known. A Chinese classical scholar's +memory is so trained for retentiveness that one who became a Christian +was able, with ease, to commit to memory five chapters of the New +Testament each day. Were it not for this capacity the mastery of Chinese +would be an impossibility, for a small child of ten years old, in +addition to ordinary general subjects as taught in an English school, +is required in a term of three months to learn to write and recognise +five hundred new Chinese characters, and by the time she has completed +her course can repeat by heart the greater part of the New Testament, +Psalms, and the classical works of Confucius and Mencius. + +The Chinese are extraordinarily observant, and it is difficult to +mention anything which has escaped their notice. Nevertheless, the +classification of their observations in a scientific form of nature +study is an entirely new method to them, though this gift, once +developed, should cause China ultimately to rank high in the world of +science. The girls' restricted surroundings have yielded new joys since +they learned the delight of an observation beehive, the ramifications of +an anthill, and the notes and habits of the birds which visit us. A +thorough knowledge of the Scriptures is considered of primary +importance, and only girls who by Christian character give promise when +trained of being missionaries to their own people, are accepted as +Normal Students. During the course outlines of Old and New Testament are +studied, with detailed work of selected books. The students are required +to prepare their own analyses of various books, following the system of +Dr. Campbell Morgan's Analysed Bible. + +The many classes which constitute the Elementary and Secondary schools +form the training-ground for the necessary practice in teaching, which +aims at being very thorough. The first lesson, given in the presence of +a critical audience, is no small ordeal to the student who after +elaborate preparation with diagram, blackboard, plasticine, or +sand-tray, will realise when the moment of free criticism comes, that in +her nervousness she has omitted to make any use of that on which she had +bestowed so much labour. Gradually, however, a new class emerges from +utter helplessness into an encouraging self-confidence and +resourcefulness. + +[Illustration: SOME KINDERGARTEN SCHOLARS. + +_To face page 236._] + +A visitor to the school could see ten or twelve classes at various +stages on the high road of learning, each under the control of a capable +young Chinese woman, before the Kindergarten room is reached. + +Here, with merry shouts, the sixteen babies are all keen to display the +glories of the dolls' house, and all anxious to sing their action songs, +show their plasticine modelling, paper-plaiting, and fancy drill; still +possessing the child's heart, and therefore fearless of criticism. Each +one covets the role of spokesman to relate the travelling adventures of +the doll, which spends but little time in the house and is constantly +undertaking long and difficult journeys. From this intrepid traveller +they have obtained most of their geographical information. + +Long hours of work are the order of the day in a Chinese school, the +terms being short owing to the exigencies of the extreme climate. The +wheat harvest falls in June, and it is necessary that wives and +daughters should fulfil their obligations to the home during this busy +season. + +The month of September brings the eagerly looked-for day when by cart, +donkey, litter, or even on foot, from north, south, east, and west, +the small travellers wend their way to Hwochow. The babies of the +Kindergarten not infrequently sit in the panniers, slung across a +donkey's back, or in baskets which a man will carry balanced on his +shoulder. Each party on arrival passes through the room where Mr. Gwo, a +capable deacon, sits at the receipt of custom, and thence to the +guest-room where a respectful bow is made to the missionaries and head +teacher. + +The next visit is to the dispensary where Fragrant Incense, my head +assistant in this department, conducts a strict inquiry into personal, +family, and village health, and where newcomers are being vaccinated. + +"I hear that your uncle has smallpox," may be the alarming accusation. + +"It is not worth speaking of," answers Snowflake. + +"Have you been to the house?" + +"A few times," says the puzzled scholar, quite unable to trace the +connection between her uncle's attack of "heavenly blossoms" and our +unwillingness to admit her to the school court. + +Once a girl has entered the school premises it is not to leave them +again for the period of the term, and all that is necessary to fulfil +the conditions of her life is supplied in this little world. + +One of her first visits will be to the bank where an account is opened +in her name, it being one of the school rules, in order to avoid loss, +that no girl may keep her own money; any found on her person or in her +box being forfeited. Every Saturday afternoon eager young depositors can +be seen drawing sums varying from one to fifty cash for shopping +purposes, or with a view to the Sunday service collection. At the same +hour the school shop is open, under the care of a teacher with a senior +pupil as assistant. + +"What do you stock?" a newcomer will ask the young saleswoman. +"Everything," is the bold answer, and indeed the few necessities of a +Chinese schoolgirl may all be supplied. Materials needed for shoemaking, +hemp for making string which is required in attaching soles to uppers, +pretty silks for embroidery, thimbles, needles, hair ornaments, +safety-pins, bright-coloured cord with which the Chinese girl holds +every hair in place at the top of a long thick plait, which is her mode +of head-dress; chalk, with which to whiten her calico socks, and the +acacia pod, the bean of which serves as soap. All the requisites in +stationery can be purchased, and it is amusing to see the Chinese +brush-pen being carefully tested by minute prospective buyers. A +newcomer will try in vain to get goods on credit, relying upon her +father's generosity at an early date. "No," is the answer; "come again +when you have the cash." + +In another room the lending library is attracting large numbers. Here +again a teacher, helped by a pupil, is changing or renewing books. With +surprising skill any blot, stain, or torn page is discovered, and for +years the books will pass from hand to hand with but little damage done. + +The range of literature is fairly comprehensive, extending from +world-wide favourites such as _Little Lord Fauntleroy_, _Christie's Old +Organ_, _Just So Stories_, and the _Wide Wide World_, which are eagerly +passed from hand to hand--for every one reads them several times--to +such works as _The History of the Dutch Republic_, _Biographies of Great +Men_, Works on Social Economy, and many books of reference. For the +translation of these, and many other works into the Chinese language, we +are indebted to the Christian Literature Society. At the sound of the +head teacher's gong, all business ceases, and the girls proceed to the +playground, where all enjoy swings, seesaw, and games. + +Sunday opens with the delight of an extra hour in bed, and the wearing +of best clothes. Sunday school and Public Service are enjoyed even by +the smallest, and precede the happy hour when parents and near relatives +may see the scholars. At its conclusion all are hungry for the dinner, +which, though later than usual, proves well worth waiting for, +consisting as it does of the popular white bread and vegetables. The +afternoon closes with a service of praise. + +Three times a day the children assemble in the large dining-hall for +meals. Over one thousand pounds of flour are used each week, and about +one hundred pounds of vegetables, in the preparation of the food. The +bread is steamed and eaten hot, and the midday meal generally consists +of flour and water, made into a paste, rolled out very thin, and cut +into long strips which are boiled for a few minutes, and when cooked +resemble macaroni. If a man's greatness consists in the small number of +his needs, the Chinaman must rank high. A bowl and pair of chop-sticks +is the sum total of the table requirements of each girl; a cotton wadded +quilt and a small, bran-stuffed pillow comprise her bedding, and a +cotton handkerchief will hold her neatly folded wardrobe. A child +usually owns no toy, and many have never thought of an organised +youthful festivity until they spend their first Christmas Day in school. +With bated breath they hear from their elders of the joys in store, and +watch secret preparations for presents to class teachers and +missionaries. Excitement reaches its highest point when, with silent +footstep, they creep into our courtyard in the winter dawn to sing +Christmas carols, and in place of the temple gongs and weird music of +heathen rites, the air rings with joyful strains as class after class +takes up the refrain: "Oh come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!" The +reputation of the evening illumination and Christmas-tree is so +widespread, that two small newcomers were heard encouraging each other, +eight months before this event, to endure with patience in hopes of +seeing the glorious sight, and becoming the possessors of a threepenny +doll. + +Nearly five hundred girls have already passed through the school, and +every few years we have made an attempt to gather them together for an +informal conference; unfortunately, the distances are so great, and +family claims so many, that only a very small proportion have been able +to attend, and we have supplemented these by instituting an Old Girls' +Guild which includes a prayer union whose members receive a quarterly +circular letter. + +The postal system does not reach most of the villages, so the letters +must be entrusted to reliable messengers who may be going that way, and +who are requested by words on the envelope: "Be so kind as to trouble +yourself with this letter and deliver it into the hand of the Mother of +Heavenly Bundle." The young woman whose identity is thus hinted at is +but one of perhaps twenty, whose offspring bear this name in the one +village. Below are the mystic words: "The name is presented inside." On +the left side of the envelope is the urgent command: "Quick as fire! +Quick as fire!" Thus nothing is omitted but the name of the addressee. + +From early days an effort has been made to impress upon the students +that a Christian community is only justified in so far as it partakes of +the nature of a centrifugal force, extending its influence in every +direction. The interests of students have been much enlarged by the +residence in their midst of girls from other provinces, who are followed +with prayerful interest when they leave us to enter their varied spheres +of work. Beyond this, the scholar's widened sympathies find their +expression in the zeal with which they follow missionary activity in +other lands. Most earnest thought is given to the choice of destination +of the sums reported in hand by the missionary treasurer. The +Evangelical Union of South America, British and Foreign Bible Society, +Pandita Ramabai, and Dr. Zwemer in Cairo have all received +contributions, and latterly money has been sent to supply Testaments for +the soldiers on active service. Nevertheless, the consensus of general +opinion is, that the Moslem situation is at present so critical that all +available funds must go to meet that need. Small indeed the sums may +appear on a subscription list, but few gifts are, I think, more +thoughtfully given and more prayerfully followed. + +The money is contributed in various ways, the two most important being +the school working party and the takings of the Debating Society, where +debates and lectures are always sure of a full house. + +The instinct for personal aggressive Christian work finds an outlet in +the following ways: The annual fairs and idol processions held in the +town bring large crowds of women visitors, and afford a great +opportunity for the senior scholars to take their part in preaching, as +also the evangelistic service held each week for Dispensary patients. +The Sunday School classes of small children are taught by elder girls, +and the annual Summer Campaign has provided scope for all those who have +a will to work. At the close of the spring term, every girl who so +desires is entrusted with a printed Course of Study, suitable for the +elementary instruction of village women. At Sunday and weekday classes +these are taught by the elder scholars of the village, even the younger +children being able to take their part in helping the women to memorise +a verse. + + * * * * * + +In order to secure the highest spiritual and mental efficiency amongst +those who, by the nature of their calling, are constantly responding to +the claims made upon them, we have instituted a Teachers' Summer School, +to which are invited all former students now holding posts as teachers +in Mission Schools. The month of August is devoted to this delightful +gathering when, on the footing of fellow-workers, free from the +restrictions attendant on school discipline, we meet for Bible and +secular study. The curriculum of the coming term is discussed, +difficulties considered, some new educational subject is studied, and an +invaluable atmosphere is created. + +In the silence of the moments of spiritual communion, lives are +dedicated afresh to the service of God; by contemplation of the Word, +fresh ideals are apprehended and more of the wisdom that winneth souls +is learned, by which a band of workers is equipped anew for any manner +of service, wholly at His command. The various activities recorded above +each contribute a part to the upbuilding of character and the training +of those who will be the future missionaries, mothers, and teachers of +their people. + +We desire that, rejoicing in the abundance of life which Christ came to +bestow, they may by sacrificial service gather around them many who will +say: "Happy the people whose God is the Lord!" + + + + +THE TREASURE HOUSE + + "Who ranks higher than others in the Kingdom of + the Heavens?" + + "In solemn truth I tell you that unless you turn + and become like little children you will in no + case be admitted into the Kingdom of the Heavens." + + "Whoever shall occasion the fall of one of these + little ones who believe in me, it would be better + for him to have a millstone hung round his neck + and be drowned in the depths of the sea." + + "Their angels in heaven have continual access to + my Father in heaven." + The words of the Lord Jesus Christ. + + "The hope of the glory of God includes the + responsibility of rejoicing. If we really have the + anointed vision which sees through the travail to + the triumph, and is perfectly assured of the + ultimate triumph of God, it is our duty in the + midst of the travail to rejoice evermore, to cheer + the battle by song, and shorten the marches by + music."--Dr. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE TREASURE HOUSE + +WHERE THE READER IS SHOWN THE LAPIDARY AT WORK + + +MY study is perhaps to me the most sacred spot of the entire compound. +Situated in the midst of the school court, it is accessible to teachers +and scholars alike. For more than a decade this room has been sanctified +by numberless confidences, many too sacred to record. + +At any hour of the day, or after dark when it is easier for the girl to +knock unseen at my door, I may hear the words, sometimes timidly +whispered: "Has the Teacher time to let me speak to her?" A welcome +being extended my young guest will usually begin to talk upon general +topics, and after a considerable time will gently hint that there is +also one small matter in particular of which she wishes to speak. On +receiving encouragement she proceeds to unfold the matter, which may +vary in gravity from a message conveying a request that employment +should be found for a neighbour of hers, to a tearful pleading that I +will use all my influence to prevent her parents from engaging her to a +heathen bridegroom; it has even been to tell me of a brother who, +having entered a College in the provincial capital, is now in jail and +likely to lose his life for revolutionary tendencies. + +It is during the hour when the schoolgirls are at play, or in the +evening when they are in bed, that the teacher will come to me who +desires to be certain of no interruption. One whose father was formerly +a deacon, but having relapsed into opium smoking has lost his office and +Church membership, comes with her sad story. "How can I hope to +influence my scholars when this sin is in my own home?" she asks me; and +goes on to tell of the downward steps taken, and of the good mother who, +with herself, has done all that love could suggest to save the father +from public disgrace. A letter from her distant home will sometimes +bring her when the work of the day is done, that together we may share +its contents. How plain it is to me, that this scorching furnace of +shame which seals her lips and makes her blush before her own pupils, is +the very test she requires for her perfecting. I know that this is a +spiritual crisis when in the thick darkness she will either meet with +God, or losing the hope whereby we are saved will grow cold and +indifferent. + +It is always a personal refreshment when Fragrant Clouds or Pearl Drops +comes to see me. A warm friendship exists between these two senior +Normal Students, strong, robust young women, prospering in body as in +soul. Pearl Drops, keenly humorous, is a famous mimic and I once had the +delight of, unnoticed, joining an audience which she was fascinating by +her mimicry of an old man well known to us all. Fragrant Clouds is a +more serious type, and entered the High School here in answer to her +prayers to God for many months, at a time when innumerable obstacles +barred her way. She has proved "barriers" to be "for those who cannot +fly," and possesses that quiet dignity and confidence which tells of +character formed by difficulties overcome. She knows the "All great" to +be the "All loving too," and is strong. + +Little Goodness is the boldest girl in the school. She is only five +years old, but will any moment that she can run away from the +Kindergarten Court unseen push open my door, and show me with great +delight and most disconcerting self-assurance some treasure she has +found--a grub, or maybe some one else's new handkerchief. The frown I +summon to my aid when the offence is repeated more than once a day, is +rather a failure, but poor Goodness has had to learn by sterner methods +that the teacher's word is law. It is not easy to be stern with her for +she is a most fascinating little creature, and yet her parents wanted +her so little that she was found, as a wee babe, buried alive. With +difficulty her life was saved by the missionary to whom she was taken, +who has cared for her ever since. Her most serious offence in this +school, and a cause of scandal to the whole Kindergarten, was the +helping of herself to five cash from the collection plate when it was +handed to her in the Sunday service. + +When a new graduate who has been faced for the first time by her class +appears at my door, I know before she begins to speak that her errand is +to inform me she has found herself to have accepted a burden and +responsibility which she is utterly incapable of bearing. I make no +great effort to hide my amusement, and call to her remembrance the +complete assurance with which she was prepared to enter upon her career +during her last term as a Normal Student. I also tell her I have been +expecting this interview and, needless to say, from the humorous side we +naturally turn to the serious. + +Teachers are constantly coming to me for advice as to the best method of +dealing with those symptoms of original sin which cause small children +to bewilder their elders by the utter depravity of their moral nature. +What, for example, could I say to Kingfisher who was heard, when praying +audibly, to petition heaven that Rosebud with whom she had quarrelled +might lose all her good marks? + +The weeping Butterfly was peremptorily ushered into my presence, accused +of using bad language. I could see by the expression on the teacher's +face that it was no trifling matter. She had said: "Chrysanthemum, when +you walk it is like the hopping of a frog." She had thus compared a +fellow-scholar to an animal, a form of speech which in Chinese, as I +well knew, amounts to a curse. + +Peach Blossom, ever since the first day she came to me has been a care +and responsibility. Conscious of her good looks and of her capacity to +secure a following of devotees, she has conducted her small court with +increasing joy to herself, and annoyance to me and my Staff. It was +impossible to ignore her presence, and while she was scrupulously within +the rules and regulations of school discipline she somehow managed to +sail so near, and yet avoid, the point of defiance that we were baffled. + +I am sometimes called upon to fulfil the vocation of motherhood in a +very real sense, as when I have to announce to some child who has no +mother that the arrangements for her engagement are about to be +completed, but that her father, who feels he could not expect her to +speak of such a matter, has asked me to find out her desires regarding +the proposed bridegroom. After an inevitable tear, shed at the +suggestion that she must some day leave her father's home, she asks me +if I am satisfied with the plan; on my answering in the affirmative her +face brightens, though she conventionally begs me to use my influence to +dissuade her father from any such intention. I, seeing that no +difficulty presents itself, change the subject and bring her a few days +later the gifts and silver ornaments which indicate that all is settled. +She, having no mother to do the necessary grumbling at the inferior +quality of the bridegroom's presents, comes to my room later on, and +says: "I have been examining these, and perceive that the silver used is +not pure in quality." Having shown that she, though motherless, is not +easily taken in, she accepts my exhortation to be a good child and to be +thankful for what she has, and without further ado begins her +preparations for the day when she will "change her home." + +The more modern parent is sometimes desirous that his daughter, who has +reached years of discretion, should from time to time correspond with +her fiance. The letters all being sent to the girl's father, he +forwards them to me, and the fear lest any fellow-student should know of +so immodest a proceeding always leads the girl to read them in my room, +and place them in my hand for safe keeping. It was enlightening to +receive a request on one occasion that I would, at the close of term, +return "those letters which are of no possible use." I knew to what she +referred, and mentally noted that the "useless" paper found a very safe +place in the recesses of her luggage! + +[Illustration: LING AI, HER CHILDREN, AND HER MOTHER, MRS. LIANG. + +_To face page 252._] + +Tragedy is interwoven with the life of almost every woman in this land. +Disappointment at her birth finds its only consolation in the +recognition of her value in the home as family drudge. Only as mother of +her son does she enter on an inheritance of sufficient consideration to +make her well worth the clothes she wears and the food she consumes. + +How pathetic it is to see the efforts put forth by a child whose school +life has been interrupted to endeavour to find some means of paying the +necessary fees! One girl of thirteen, by making hair-sieves during the +summer months renders it possible for her father to send her to school; +and many weave during the holidays all the cloth necessary for their own +clothes. One little girl who had no other means of helping herself, +gleaned so industriously that she gathered sufficient for her first +month's expenses, only to find one day that her little hoard had been +used by her opium-smoking father for his own indulgence. + +Even the high ethics of Confucianism can recognise no higher position +for woman than one of obedient dependence throughout life. In youth +she must be subject to her father, in middle age to her husband, and in +old age to her son. The revolutionary power of Christianity has +established a new order, and in the Christian community we see her +welcomed in babyhood, cared for in childhood, and receiving the honour +due to her womanhood when she becomes a bride. I have been amazed at the +sacrifices I have seen made by parents for their daughters. I have known +a father, too poor to afford the hire of a donkey, carry his little girl +nearly thirty miles to school. I have known the only bedcovering in the +home to be spared for the use of the little daughter during term, and a +man to endure the winter cold with the scantiest clothing that his child +might be warmly clad. + +One class, a small one, has outstripped me in the race, and graduated to +a higher school to render service more needed there than here. I can +think of each one with joy as in the Great Teacher's Hand, learning +lessons which as yet are beyond me. + +The one it seemed I could least spare was needed by Him, and since most +of this book was written my beloved Ling Ai went to serve, face to face, +the Lord she loves. + +The intimate sympathy required to enter into the joys and sorrows of so +many lives is perhaps the heaviest strain laid upon the missionary, and +the mental discipline necessary to hold all in right proportion can only +be exercised where there is true adjustment of spiritual vision, whereby +we see "through the travail to the triumph, perfectly assured of the +ultimate victory of God," and rejoice, "cheering the battle by song and +shortening the marches by music." + + + + +CONCLUSION + + "That Church controls the future which can demand + of her members the greatest sacrifices."--Dr. JOHN + HUTTON. + + "When earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and + dried, + When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died-- + We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it--lie down for an aeon or + two, + Till the Master of all good workmen shall put us to work anew. + + And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame; + And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame; + But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star, + Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They are." + RUDYARD KIPLING. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +CONCLUSION + +BEING A REVIEW OF THE PRESENT SITUATION + + +IT is now thirty years since foreigners came to reside in Hwochow, +during which time three generations of women missionaries have succeeded +each other. The period has been divided accurately at the fifteenth year +by the Boxer riots and massacres. The many who have helped in varied +ways to make this work possible may rightly ask; "Is not this period +sufficient to establish a self-propagating Church independent of +foreigners?" + +It would be hard to over-emphasise the need of the wisdom required at +the stage immediately preceding the final lapse of total responsibility +upon the shoulders of the native Church, that the move should not be +made too hastily or at an inopportune moment; even more emphatically, +that the Church should not be driven to establish on a factional basis a +so-called independent sect in opposition to the foreigner, in order to +secure the freedom and control for which it was ripe. Faith, hope, and +courage, without which the pioneer missionary's work must inevitably +fail, find their counterpart in the spirit of wisdom and understanding +required for the proper adjustment of the new relationship, whereby the +Chinese Christian, not in word, but in deed and in truth, may take +precedence. It is easy to gain ready acquiescence to this theory of +equality, but as was immediately evidenced when the strong and +independent Pastor Hsi arose, the situation in its practical bearing is +not easily handled. + +A word to the intending missionary: Be ready to lay aside your +preconceived ideas as to how the Gospel should be preached, how Church +matters should be handled, discipline enforced, and your own position in +the Church. + +Come as a learner, and men who were Christians before you emerged from +childhood will give you the benefit of a ripe experience, and if you +prove worthy of it, admit you to fellowship in service. + +In view of the preceding chapters, few words will serve to review on +general lines the situation as it has developed during these thirty +years in Hwochow. + +The first fifteen called for unremitting effort in breaking up new +ground, broadcast sowing of the seed, and establishing between Chinese +and foreigner some measure of confidence. The second period has been one +of reaping from the very commencement. Extraordinarily rapid development +on every hand brought about new conditions which in turn necessitated +new methods, so that the missionary is no longer the main instigator of +Church activities, but takes his place in a large and far-reaching +organisation. + +The work of evangelisation and all elementary teaching require no +foreign help, but we still seem to be necessary for the organisation +which is giving training and advanced teaching to the men and women whom +we hope to see equipped in every respect as well, and better, than we +ourselves have been. + +All non-institutional work amongst men is already in Chinese hands. +Pastor Wang and eight deacons take entire oversight of the Church of +nearly four hundred members, the examining and accepting of candidates +for baptism, as well as arrangements for Sunday services in each of the +eight out-stations, where the local Christians have, at their own +expense, supplied a building for public worship where daily service is +held. In addition to this, the entire evangelistic organisation, +Elementary Boys' School and Opium Refuge, form part of their +responsibility. + +The more aggressive work includes a Chinese Evangelistic Society +entirely free from foreign money and control, the object of which is to +open up new districts, preach at fairs, and widely distribute Gospels +and tracts. + +In the busiest thoroughfare of the city, a preaching hall is daily +opened which is freely frequented by merchants and travellers. + +The systematic instruction of men, both Church members and inquirers, is +supplied by means of short station classes held at convenient times by +the Pastor, or by some foreign missionary whom he may invite. + +With the exception of the Elementary Boys' School just mentioned, the +men's institutional work is carried on in the neighbouring city of +Hungtung, where, under the presidency of the Rev. F. Dreyer, a Bible +Training Institute for men has been established. The students are drawn +not only from our own, but other provinces, and during the two years' +course a careful and thorough training is given in theoretical and +practical work. A long preaching list is served by these men in +conjunction with a large band of local preachers. To Mr. Dreyer's +influence amongst these men we, as many other stations, owe some of our +best helpers. The Hungtung institutional work is supplemented by a +Higher Grade School for boys, the pupils of which are largely drawn from +the fourteen Elementary Schools scattered throughout the district. Mr. +E. J. Cooper, assisted by Chinese graduates of Weihsien University, is +responsible for this department. Many former pupils are in charge of +village schools, the examining and superintendence of which is conducted +from the centre. It is thus possible for the sons of Church members to +obtain a thorough and Christian education in their immediate +neighbourhood. The necessary demands for institutional work for the +several counties mentioned throughout this book, are thus met by the two +stations of Hungtung and Hwochow. United with these to form a General +Allied Council to secure unity of action in all far-reaching +enterprises, and to avoid multiplication of work (though each local +church remains independent and self-governing), are the stations +situated in the cities of Chaocheng, and Yoyang, now severally in charge +of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Taylor and Mr. and Mrs. F. Briscoe, whose time is +occupied with pastoral and evangelistic work. + +Mrs. Hsi still remains in Chaocheng, and carries on her work amongst the +women of that city. She, in company with Mrs. Liang and three others, +has been chosen by the Church to be set apart to the office of +deaconess. She is now sixty-four years of age, and her physical strength +is visibly failing. + +Mrs. Hsi's life and example is one of the treasures of the Shansi +Church. She has served faithfully and long in active Christian work, and +she recently told me that she is now giving herself to prayer and +fasting more than was possible during the most active period of her +life. + +For this effectual share in the present conflict, for her love and +friendship, and for her continued presence amongst us, we give thanks +unto God. + + * * * * * + +Thus we believe the Church has been rooted and established, no longer +propagated by any external energy, but whose seed is in itself. + +The dream is so far fulfilled. More than thirty years ago Mr. and Mrs. +Hsi, in faith, brought their small offering as a child once offered his +barley loaves and laid them in the Master's Hand, Who gave thanks and +blessed. + +In these pages the story is recorded of the sower, the waterer, and the +reaper, who laboured in tears and in joy. + +Of the increase which God alone can give, no human record can tell, but +told it shall be in the day when those from every nation, kindred, and +tribe shall unite to ascribe honour and glory unto Him who liveth and +reigneth for ever and ever! + + + + + "So have I dreamed! Oh may the dream be true! + That praying souls are purged from mortal hue . . . + And grow as pure as He to Whom they pray." + HARTLEY COLERIDGE. + + + + +APPENDIX + +CONTAINING + +BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL COURSE OF STUDY + +AND + +SPECIMEN QUESTIONS OF THE NORMAL TRAINING COLLEGE FINAL EXAMINATION +PAPERS + +(_INSERTED BY REQUEST_) + + + + +HWOCHOW WOMEN'S BIBLE TRAINING SCHOOL + +_COURSE OF STUDY_ + + +FIRST TERM + +Book of Genesis. + +Gospel according to St. Luke or St. Mark. + +Acts of the Apostles, chapters i. to ix. + +"A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible." + +Reading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese +Character. + +Arithmetic. + +Singing and Memorisation of Hymns. + + +SECOND TERM + +Book of Exodus, Numbers, and 1 Samuel i. to xvi. + +The Gospel according to St. John. + +The Epistle of St James. + +"A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible"--(_continued_). + +Reading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese +Character. + +Arithmetic. + +Singing and Memorisation of Hymns. + +PRACTICAL WORK.--Assist in conducting Elementary Classes for Women. + + +THIRD TERM + +Book of Leviticus, Joshua, and 1 Samuel xvii. to xxxi.; Ezra and +Nehemiah. + +The Gospel according to St. Matthew. + +The Epistle to the Hebrews. + +"A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible"--(_conclusion_). + +Studies in Christian Doctrine. + +Reading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese +Character. + +Arithmetic. + +Singing and Memorisation of Hymns. + +Memorisation of Psalms. + +_Pilgrim's Progress._ + +PRACTICAL WORK.--Conduct Elementary Classes for Women, Teach under +Criticism, City and Village Visiting. + + +FOURTH TERM + +Book of Judges, Ruth, Esther, and 2 Samuel. + +Life of Elijah and Elisha. + +Acts of the Apostles, chapters x. to xxviii. + +Studies in Christian Doctrine. + +Arithmetic. + +Singing and Memorisation of Hymns. + +Memorisation of Psalms. + +_Pilgrim's Progress_, Part II. + +PRACTICAL WORK..--As Term III. + + + + +CHINA INLAND MISSION NORMAL TRAINING COLLEGE, HWOCHOW, SHANSI + + * * * * * + +_SPECIMEN QUESTIONS_ + +(Drawn from Final Examination Papers, 1915) + +SCRIPTURE + +What answer did Christ give to the following questions?--"What must we +do that we may work the works of God?" "How can this man give us His +flesh to eat?" "Hast thou seen Abraham?" "How can a man be born when he +is old?" + +Name five incidents in the Gospel according to St. John which +illustrate the statement: "He knew what was in man." + +Name some of the abuses in the Corinthian Church, and briefly state how +Paul dealt with each. + +What period of human history is covered by the Book of Genesis? + +Briefly trace the degeneration of the Individual, the Home, and the +Nation, as recorded in the Book of Genesis. + +Give an outline of the Book of Ezra. + +State briefly the teaching of Christ on the following +subjects:--Fasting, Riches, Rewards, and the Forgiveness of Sin. + +The establishment of the Church by Constantine proved to be its +spiritual loss. Quote five verses from Scripture to show this might have +been anticipated. + +Mention four reasons which conduced to the spread of the Gospel in the +days of the Early Church. + + +HISTORY + +State clearly the advantages and disadvantages of Feudalism. + +What do you know of the Spartan methods of treating children? + +What do you know of the following:--Chaucer, Rienzi, Savonarola, Simon +de Montfort, Gladstone, Li Hung-chang, Bruce? + +What do you understand by the term "Ostracism"? + +Who were the combatants in the following battles:--Crecy, Hastings, +Marathon, Bannockburn, Waterloo? + +Give an account of the causes which resulted in the Crusades, or in the +French Revolution. + + +PHYSIOLOGY + +What are the various uses of the Cerebrum, Cerebellum, and Medulla +Oblongata? + +Explain the process of "Hearing." Illustrate with diagrams. + +What do you know of the Crystalline Lens of the Eye? + +What is meant by "Long Sight" and "Short Sight"? + +What is the cause of each, and how may each be remedied? + +Give a list of the Cranial Nerves. + + +ZOOLOGY + +Draw a diagram of the Blood Vessels of a Fish. + +State clearly the main divisions of Zoology, and in detail those of the +Bird Family. + +Give a detailed account of the Ant and its habits; illustrate with +diagrams. + +Describe the Fauna of the Arctic Regions. + + +CHEMISTRY + +What weight of each of the following compounds is necessary to prepare +50 litres of Oxygen?--Water, Mercuric Oxide, Potassium Chlorate. + +Explain the principle of the Dewar bulb. + +Define the term "Acid." Enumerate the characteristics of a "Base." + +Two compounds were found to have the following compositions: = 43.64 per +cent. phosphorus = 56.36 per cent. oxygen = 56.35 per cent. phosphorus = +43.65 per cent. Show that the Law of Multiple proportion holds in this +case. + +CLASSICAL ESSAY SUBJECTS.--"The Path may not be left for an instant; if +it could be left it would not be the Path. On this account the superior +man does not wait until he see things to be cautious, nor see things to +be apprehensive."--CONFUCIUS. + + + MORGAN AND SCOTT LTD., 12 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, LONDON, E. C. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor +Hsi's, by A. 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