CONTRACTIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. Lon. M. S., or London Missionary Society. C. M. S., or Church Missionary Society. Eng. B. M. S., or English Baptist Missionary Society. A. B. C. F. M., or American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. South. B. C., or Southern Baptist Convention. B. F. M. P. C., or Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. A. E. B. F. M., or American Episcopal Board of Foreign Missions. M. S. M. E. C., or Missionary Society of Methodist Episcopal Church. S. D. B. M. S., or Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society. Rhen. M. S., or Rhenish Missionary Society. Neth. M. S., Netherlands Missionary Society. NOTICES OF DECEASED MISSIONARIES. 377 The worth and labors of some of those mentioned in this list have long been known to the Christian public, and those who have deceased saw only the commencement of a great work. Dr. Morrison was much encouraged at the prospects of more laborers, a short time before his death. Dr. Milne and Mr. Collie ardently longed and labored diligently for the coming and extension of the kingdom of Christ in China; and Mr. Stevens had laid himself out to assist in perfecting the version of the Scriptures, for which he was eminently qualified: but these all died without seeing much to promise the speedy diffusion of the gospel. Few men in the missionary corps have exceeded Edwin Stevens in sound judgment, steady pursuit of a well-formed purpose, and willingness to take any place which Providence pointed out to him in the work he was engaged in. He was employed nearly three years as seamen's chaplain at Canton and Whampoa, before entering the service among the Chinese, and his labors in that department were highly acceptable to those who frequented the port. He took two voyages up the coast in 1835, and had embarked in the Himmaleh, when he died at Singapore, January, 1837, just as he was ready to sail. The warm-hearted, humble piety, and singleness of purpose of Mr. Dyer, were also well known to every one engaged with him. His long and assiduous labors to complete a fount of Chinese metallic type, amid many obstacles and hindrances, were prompted by his sense of the importance of the enterprise, and the hope that when once finished, books could be printed with more elegance, cheapness, and rapidity than in any other way. He lived to see it brought into partial use, and to satisfy himself concerning the feasibility of this plan. The Rev. Alanson Reed, of Bangkok, and Rev. Samuel Wolfe, of Singapore, lived too short a time to accomplish much, for they had hardly learned the language, but their lives and labors, hopes and prayers, were devoted to the same great object of doing good to China. If the impulses of private friendship, and the esteem generally entertained for Dr. Abeel, should prompt a notice of his character and labors, it would soon extend to many pages; they are well worthy the fuller notice which it is to be hoped will be given in his memoir. Female missionaries have also done much, and will do more, in this work, which requires minds and labors in large variety. Mrs. Mary Morrison, Mrs. Boone, Mrs. Dean, Mrs. Ball, Mrs. Shuck, Mrs. Doty, and Mrs. Pohlman, have all died in China; and others equally zealous, as Mrs. John Stronach, Mrs. Hobson, and Mrs. Fairbrother, have deceased in the missions out of China, or on the voyage home for the recovery of their health. Let not these casualties deter other Christian ladies from assisting in the good cause, or be laid to the climate of China. Hardly any two of them died of the same disease, and none of them from any which could be called tropical, though it may be that the climate had weakened their ability to resist disease. Before closing this brief sketch of Christian missions among the Chinese, it may be well to mention some of the peculiar facilities and difficulties which attend the work. The business of demolishing heathen society, and reconstructing it on Christian principles, is a great and protracted undertaking, and is to be commenced in all communities by working on individuals. The opposition of the unregenerate heart can of course only be overcome by the transforming influences of the Spirit, but the intellect must be enlightened, and the moral sense instructed by a system of means, before the truths of the Bible can be intelligently received or rejected. This opposition is not peculiar to China, but it will probably assume a more polemic and argumentative cast there than in some other countries. The proud literati of China are not disposed to abase Confucius below the Savior, but rather inclined to despise the reiteration of his name and atonement, as a seesaw about "one Jesus who was dead, whom we affirm to be alive." In the account given by Mr. Medhurst of his labors, is a notice of a tract written against him by a Chinese, in which he argues, "that it was monstrous in barbarians to attempt to improve the inhabitants of the celestial empire when they were so miserably deficient themselves. Thus, introducing among the Chinese a poisonous drug, for their own benefit to the injury of others, they were deficient in benevolence; sending their fleets and armies to rob other nations of their possessions, they could make no pretensions to rectitude; allowing men and women to mix in society and walk arm in arm through the streets, they showed that they had not the least sense of propriety; and in rejecting the doctrines of the ancient kings they were far from displaying wisdom: indeed, truth was the only good quality to which they could lay the least claim. Deficient, therefore, in four out of the five cardinal virtues, how OBSTACLES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS IN CHINESE MISSIONS. 379 could they expect to renovate others? Then, while foreigners lavished money in circulating books for the renovation of the age, they made no scruple of trampling printed paper under foot, by which they showed their disrespect for the inventors of letters. Further, these would-be exhorters of the world were themselves deficient in filial piety, forgetting their parents as soon as dead, putting them off with deal coffins only an inch thick, and never so much as once sacrificing to their manes, or burning the smallest trifle of gilt paper for their support in the future world. Lastly, they allowed the rich and noble to enter office without passing through any literary examinations, and did not throw open the road to advancement to the poorest and meanest in the land. From all these, it appeared that foreigners were inferior to Chinese, and therefore most unfit to instruct them." To these arguments, which commend themselves to a Chinese with a force that can hardly be understood by a foreigner, they often add the intemperate lives and reckless cupidity of professed Christians who visit their shores, and ask what good it will do them to change their long tried precepts for the new fangled teachings of the Bible? The pride of learning is a great obstacle to the reception of the humiliating truths of the Gospel everywhere, but perhaps especially in China where letters are so highly honored and patronized. The language is another dif ficulty in the way of the diffusion of the Gospel, both on the part of the native and the missionary. The mode of education among the Chinese is admirably fitted for the ends they propose, viz. of forming the mind to implicit belief and reverence for the precepts of Confucius, and obedience to the government, which makes those ! precepts the outlines of its actions, but it stunts and almost incapacitates the intellect for independent thought on other subjects. The language itself is an unwieldy vehicle for imparting new truths, either in writing or speaking, not so much because it is not copious enough for all these purposes, but because of the additional burden every new character or term imposes upon the memory. The immense number, however, who read and speak this language, reconciles one to some extra labor and patience to become familiar with its forms of speech, and ascertain the best modes of conveying truth by books and preaching. Besides the difficulties mentioned in the preceding extract, and those growing out of the language and literary notions of the Chinese, there are few peculiar obstacles now in the way. The five ports afford free access to two or three millions of people, and their environs to more than twice that number, all of whom, except those about Canton and Macao, are tolerably well disposed to foreigners, when they understand what is said to them. Congregations are now collected, and truth explained to them with a good degree of acceptance every Sabbath, and all that is wanted to get more congregations is more preachers; and long before missionary labors are accomplished in all the ports, the whole land will afford every choice of climate and position. God, too, has wondrously opened the way for the extension of intercourse, ånd his promises are surety for the accomplishment of the work thus begun. Facilities for learning the language are constantly increasing. Dictionaries, vocabularies, phrase books, grammars, and chrestomathies in all the dialects, will soon be prepared; and the list now is not small. They have all, with few exceptions, been made and printed by Protestant missionaries. Churches have increased since the first one was formed in Canton in 1835, and some of them are served by native evange lists, two of whom, Liang Afah and Tsin Shen, are acceptable, educated, earnest preachers of the gospel. The number of persons baptized by all the missionaries is not definitely known, but they form even now a nucleus for a regular congregation. The future is full of promise, and the efforts of the church with regard to China will not cease until every son and daughter of the race of Han has been taught the truths of the Bible, and has had them fairly propounded for reception or rejection. They will progress until all the cities, towns, villages, and hamlets of that vast empire, have the teacher and professor of religion living in them; until their children are educated, their civil liberties understood, and political rights guaranteed; their poor cared for, their literature purified, their condition bettered in this world, and the knowledge of another made known to them. The work of missions will go on until the government is modified, and religious and civil liberty granted to all, and China takes her rank among the Christian nations of the earth, reciprocating all the courtesies due from people professing the same faith. |