;' ^mi!i' %ii;i,: -:;:!;::. ii::'::^;:::::::- : ofmicff^ flV 3415 .S6 1907 Soothill, William Edward, 1861-1935. A typical mission in China A MISSION IN CHINA X u Pi X u H u Pi o ^ SEP 26 1951 ^ A TYPICAL MISSION IN CHINA By W. E. SOOTHILL TRANSLATOR OF THE WKNCHOW NEW TESTAMENT AUTHOR OF " THE STUDENT'S POCKET CHINESE DICTIONARY ' COMPILER OF THE WENCHOW ROMANISED SYSTEM ETC. New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinbukgh HER WITHOUT WHOM THE WORK HEREIN RECORDED WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED, AND TO THE TWO FROM WHOM WIDE SEAS DIVIDE. PREFACE This book is written chiefly for those who, through many years, have loyally lent their support to the work recorded in the following pages, and whose right it is to know more fuUy that their faith has been met with faithfulness. It was commenced eighteen months ago in response to repeated requests, and with numerous and prolonged periods of interruption, its compilation has occupied the spare moments of that length of time. Herein are recounted some of the experiences met with, and methods followed during nearly a quarter of a century's work amongst the Chinese, a work that has been rewarded by nearly ten thousand conversions, and an increasing confidence in the universal advent of the Kingdom of God. Its principal object is to depict our own Mission, as typical of many others. In addition five chapters will be found at the end, giving in brief an account of the Chinese religions, religions so involved and mutually intermingled that close investigation and considerable reading have been necessary to anything like a clear and succinct delineation. The whole closes with a short history of Christianity in China. It is the misfortune of a book of this character that great demands are made on the first personal pronoun. If the reader finds that letter too oft repeated, his sympathy is craved in consideration of the number of times it has been suppressed. Chapter and verse for passages quoted have not been deemed necessary, but grateful acknowledgment is hereby made of help received from Williams' " Middle Kingdom," viii PREFA CE Legge's " Religions of China " and his " Chinese Classics," Canon MacClatchie's " Chinese Cosmogony " and his " Yih King," Eitel's " Lectures on Buddhism," Sir Monier Williams' " Buddhism," Balfour's " Chwang-tsz," the China Missions' Handbook, and Abh€ Hue's " Christianity in China." To my brother, the Rev. Alfred Soothill, B.A,, I am in- debted for seeing this book through the press. As he has never been in China he undertakes a large responsibility, and I cheerfully leave him to bear the brunt of all criticism, both of his errors and my own. Methodist Free Church Mission, Wenchow, China, February 1906. CONTENTS PAGE I. Introductory: The Missionary .... 13 II. Pioneering . 24 III. Evangelization 37 IV. Church Organization 57 V. Pastoral Visitation 75 VI. Discipline . 92 VII. Types of Converts 100 VIII. Native Sermons 121 IX. Women's Work 135 X. Medical Work 149 XI. Opium 164 XII. Educational 178 XIII. Bible Translation 194 ix CONTENTS—Continued PAGE XIV. Typical Temples . 208 XV. The Native Religions: Their Founders 228 XVI. The Native Religions: Confucianism 238 XVII. The Native Religions: Taoism 255 XVIII. The Foreign Religions: Buddha; Mahomet 271 XIX. The Foreign Religions: Christianity . 284 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Our City Church Frontispiece East Suburb and Twin Pagodas 28 On the Road 48 Our District Meeting Representatives, 1904 ... 72 In Prison 82 Our Mission Boat 112 Crystal Lily Church 128 Mrs. Soothill's Thursday Class 138 New Blyth Hospital 156 Opium Smokers 168 Our College 190 Our Students, 1906 192 Dr. Morrison and His Translators 196 Confucian Temple, Peking 244 One of the Cycle Gods 266 The Buddhist Trinity 276 xi A MISSION IN CHINA INTRODUCTORY: THE MISSIONARY " " Many are the called, but few —choose. / The first requisite of a Mission is a missionary, and the first essential of a missionary is his " call." Training may add much, but, apart from that inward call which presses from the resist- ing heart the hard-wrung response, " Here am I, Lord, send me," training profiteth Uttle. How many are the called God alone knows. How few are the chosen every missionary knows too well. As with swelling heart he looks around on his vast parish, and down upon his own feeble hands, what would be his despair without the conviction that God had sent him ! Yet the number of men in and out of the ministry, who have at one time or another heard the call, resisted it until they " made sure," and lived to regret when too late is far from small. A President of the Free Church Council, for instance, a man honoured above his fellows, in his opening address con- fessed with intense emotion, " For myself, my greatest mistake in life is that I did not go out as a missionary. I would give the world now to have done it." Of such the ministry knows not a few. Thank God for the noble work he and they have done at home ; the kingdom of heaven is richer for it ; but " their urgent message to younger brethren is, Quench not the Spirit." Nor need this message be confined entirely to the one who has heard the Voice, for it applies with equal force to ministers and others who take it upon themselves to hinder the direct action of the Spirit. Ministers of the Gospel are the mainstay of Missions. Few know as well as the missionary what self- sacrifice they cheerfully make for the extension of the kingdom of heaven abroad, but unbounded though their sympathy is, 14 A MISSION IN CHINA not all of them display it wisely. Nearly a quarter of a century ago, an able minister, whom we will call " D.D.," for he had been honoured with that degree many years, hearing of my offer for China, urgently advised me not to go there, but, if I must be a missionary, to go to Japan, as the Japanese were so very much pleasanter to Uve amongst than the " dirty Chinese." A young minister, eminently fitted for the field, once offered for a certain Mission. By request he consulted two ministers of experience, and both ventured to " quench the Spirit," on the ground that he had received special training for the home work—as if his special training would have been wasted abroad! Again, the condition of mind of many who ought to know better, is evidenced by a left-handed compliment once paid to a very intimate friend of mine, by a minister for whom I have a high esteem, and who, if he has any recollection of the incident, will forgive my introducing it here for purposes of general enlightenment. Standing on the steps of Exeter Hall, out of the kindness of his heart, he said, " I am surprised you " went to China. Why, you would have done well at home ! Alas, poor Yorick ! Misunderstood by the heathen abroad and his friends at home. As if any decent missionary goes out through fear of failure in England ! What young man of twenty-one is troubled with such fears ? Are they not the fruit of riper experience ? Let no blame attach to the above-named minister for this attitude of mind. His views were not uncommon a few years ago, but are, we trust, now dying out along with the " romance of Missions." Happily we are, at last, reaching the practical, business stage, and Mission Boards see clearly that a man only suited to an inferior post at home is hardly fit to be the chosen representative of the Church amongst the intelligent and critical races of the Orient. Given, then, the call and the willing surrender, there can be no regrets. Should death come soon, 'tis but an earlier and a higher call, a more complete surrender. Should, as sometimes happens, not life, but only a part of it—the sacrifice of buoyant health—be the price of his vocation, then, the loss of the whole being greater than the loss of its part, a grateful heart still gives thanks for the much or little that can be done with what is left. None the less, however, is it the duty of every Missionary INTRODUCTORY: THE MISSIONARY 15 Society—with funds too limited for the pressure of its claims, much less of its dreams—to make health a question of moment. Moreover, its responsibility to its supporters, and even to the applicant himself is sufficiently weighty, without adding an unnecessary failure to the burden. Residence in a tropical climate may speedily develop an already existing organic disease, which in a milder zone might have lain dormant for a lifetime. Hence, the Board must accept its Medical Officer's advice, or dismiss him. Albeit, he who has definitely surrendered himself to the call, will recognise that doctors are not infallible, and will not com- placently submit to the first adverse medical opinion he receives. There are men at home who have hidden their joy at escape behind half a sheet of doctor's notepaper, without any attempt to seek confirmation, or otherwise, from a prac- titioner of wider experience, perhaps, who has liimself lived on the field to which they were called. There are other men, who, in defiance of medical advice, have gone abroad to live lives of useful service, some even improving in health thereby. Let him, therefore, who has heard the Divine Voice calling, not lightly hearken to a human voice forbidding. Though not suited to one field, he may be to another ; and even should human opinion finally close all other doors, there yet remains open at home a door, " great and effectual," for serving the field abroad.