The Legacy of James R. Rohrer

eorge Leslie Mackay (1844–1901) was among the most of his death. Presbyterian youth groups can be spotted wearing Gremarkable of the late Victorian era. Dur- T-shirts bearing Mackay’s likeness, along with his motto, “It is ing his three decades in (1871–1901), he received little better to burn up than rust out.” Christian parents can read chil- substantive assistance from other Canadian missionaries yet, at dren to sleep with tales of Mackay printed in cartoon storybooks, the time of his death, left a community of more than 2,400 bap- while a seemingly endless stream of newspaper articles, art prints, tized communicants and a much larger body of regular hearers postcards, posters, wall calendars, mugs, and medallions recalls who attended more than sixty churches led by full-time native his life. Preachers in Taiwan frequently draw upon his book, From preachers.1 Mackay (pronounced “muh-KIGH”) established a Far Formosa (1895), for sermon illustrations, and politicians have hospital, a school for girls, and “Oxford College,” his training appealed to his memory to promote various agendas. center for native church leaders. Just as important, as one of only Indeed, the legendary Mackay at times threatens to eclipse three known missionaries in nineteenth-century China to have the historical . As the Canadian who became “the married an indigenous spouse, he left behind descendents who son-in-law of Taiwan,” Mackay has served as a useful icon for continued to play leading roles in Taiwan’s Presbyterian Church Taiwanese nationalism, a symbol of the warm ties binding the after his death. island to the Western democracies.3 Christians in Taiwan often Mackay’s achievements have been largely overlooked by invoke him, with little historical justification, as the one who modern historians of mission. During his lifetime, however, Ca- brought democratic ideals to Taiwan, a champion of the rights of nadian publications hailed him as one of the greatest evangelists Taiwan’s tribal indigenes, and an early proponent of Taiwanese since the apostolic age.2 In Taiwan, where Christians constitute independence. The actual complex history of his career deserves roughly 5 to 6 percent of the populace, George Leslie Mackay to be better known, not only by scholars of mission, but also by remains a widely known folk hero. Every day thousands of people Taiwanese Christians in search of a usable past. pass by wall-size photographs of Mackay and his students at ’s , one of the most respected Childhood and Education medical facilities in the island. In 2001 the government in Taiwan issued a commemorative postage stamp to mark the centenary George Leslie Mackay was born March 21, 1844, in Zorra Town- ship, Upper , the youngest of six children of George James R. Rohrer is Associate Professor of History at the and Helen Sutherland Mackay. His parents had emigrated to University of Nebraska–Kearney. He teaches Ameri- Canada in 1830 from Dornoch in Sutherlandshire, , an can religious history and the history of . area reeling from the harsh Highland Clearances. Sutherland From 1993 to 1998 he taught history in Taiwan under was a hotbed of evangelical dissent from the Church of Scotland. the auspices of the United Church Board for World The common folk flocked to revivals sparked byNa Daoine (“the Ministries. —[email protected] Men”), itinerant Gaelic lay preachers who called upon the people to be born again and who prophetically attacked landlords and ecclesiastical moderates for their injustice against the poor. Com-

October 2010 221 mon people listened also to controversial evangelical ministers From 1867 to 1870 Mackay attended Princeton Seminary, of the established Kirk, such as the fiery John MacDonald, the at the time a favorite choice for North American Presbyterians so-called Apostle of the North, who often visited Dornoch on planning careers as foreign missionaries. At Princeton he became his missionary journeys.4 devoted to Charles Hodge and participated in the Committee of Most Zorra settlers were displaced Highlanders with strong Inquiry, a student organization that investigated mission theories evangelical leanings. The Mackays and their neighbors clung and sponsored visiting missionaries from around the world. tightly to their religious traditions. For many years they contin- Mackay later recalled how he “ransacked” the library’s collec- ued to use Gaelic at home and in worship, and the “family altar” tion of mission books and heard missions debated “a thousand was a central part of their routine. Mackay later recollected the different ways” during these years.8 importance of daily prayer and worship with his parents, and Upon graduation he offered his service to the Canada especially the influence of his mother, who taught him the West- Presbyterian Church as a foreign missionary and then sailed for minster Shorter Catechism by heart while he was still a small child. Scotland to meet another boyhood hero, Alexander Duff. During In 1834 a zealous evangelical named Donald McKenzie received the winter of 1870–71 Mackay sat through Duff’s historic lectures ordination from the Presbytery of Glasgow as a missionary to on evangelistic theology and often visited Duff’s home. He also Canada. The Gaelic-speaking McKenzie settled in Zorra in 1835, studied Hindustani and considered offering himself to the Scot- where until 1872 he shepherded one of Canada’s largest Pres- tish or American Presbyterians as a missionary to India.9 In April byterian congregations while continuing to perform missionary 1871, however, he received instructions from the Committee on duties in nearby counties. Under his leadership Knox Church Missions in Canada to return home to receive ordination. On in Embro became something of a “school for prophets.” During June 14, 1871, the General Assembly of the Canada Presbyterian Church, meeting in Quebec, appointed him their first overseas missionary, with instructions to choose a field in China in consulta- tion with the English Presbyterian missionaries in Amoy. Weeks By the age of ten the young later, a seasick Mackay was bound for the Orient on the steamer George Leslie Mackay had America. Except for two furloughs, in 1880–81 and 1893–94, he decided that he, too, would would spend the remainder of his life in Taiwan, dedicated to the task of building an indigenous church led by native preachers. become a missionary. Mackay later honored William C. Burns, Charles Hodge, and Alexander Duff by naming chapels in Taiwan in their memory. Assessing their precise influence upon his missionary work, the course of his long pastorate, McKenzie watched nearly fifty however, is difficult, for Mackay never committed his own mis- young men from his congregation enter the ministry as pastors siological principles to writing in any systematic fashion. In 1877 or missionaries, among them George Leslie Mackay, whose father and 1890 he characteristically skipped the important Shanghai served the congregation as a ruling elder for twenty-five years.5 missionary conferences held by Protestant missionaries in China, Mackay was only a few months old when his family fol- and throughout his life he showed a marked aversion to corre- lowed McKenzie into the Free Church of Canada. Although the spondence with other missionaries. Even in his private journals ecclesiastical disputes that divided the church in Scotland did not he rarely engaged in theological reflection, leaving us in many exist in Upper Canada, the evangelical leanings of the settlers led cases to read between the lines and to conjecture about his ideas. them to sympathize strongly with the Scottish dissenters. Mis- Still, a few significant influences clearly stand out. First, sionaries from the Free Church of Scotland, such as Robert Burns the blend of evangelical piety and Baconian science that suf- of Paisley and his nephew, the revivalist William C. Burns, soon fused his early years stayed with him.10 Mackay was a lifelong visited Zorra, where the people generously contributed funds amateur naturalist who invested a great deal of energy teaching to support the Free Church back home. Burns became Mackay’s his students the rudiments of geology, zoology, anatomy, and childhood hero, and the Mackay family closely followed his career botany as an essential component of their evangelistic work. after he went to China as a missionary of the English Presbyterian Mackay always insisted that the argument from design was the Church.6 By the age of ten the young George Leslie Mackay had most effective way to convince Chinese people of a sovereign decided that he, too, would become a missionary. God, and that evangelistic preaching ought to begin with the Mackay attended Knox College in from 1864 to doctrine of creation. 1867. Knox professors conceived of the school as a missionary Second, while never formally disavowing Presbyterian- institution for training evangelists. Mixing evangelical piety ism, Mackay always exhibited the characteristics of a religious and Scottish Common Sense philosophy, the Knox curriculum dissenter who placed his own sense of God’s will ahead of stressed Scripture, biblical theology, and natural science as the denominational loyalty. Throughout his career he exhibited a essential elements of Christian higher education. Knox students fierce independence from the mission committee in Canada, and learned that sound scientific methods inevitably support the he consistently opposed establishing formal Presbyterian gov- authority of the Bible, and that knowledge of natural science ernment in Taiwan as an unnatural “accretion” that should not is vital to effective evangelism. Classmates later remembered be forced upon converts by foreign ecclesiastical authorities. His Mackay as a serious scholar. He especially relished geography, personal scrapbook suggests that he identified with such diverse geology, and natural science and participated in the Knox Liter- evangelists as William Booth, De Witt Talmage, and Dwight L. ary and Scientific Society, which met monthly to present essays Moody, men more renowned for achieving spectacular results and debate controversial topics.7 As a missionary, Mackay drew as preachers and organizers than as theologians.11 heavily upon his Knox experience as he built his own training Third, Mackay, like Duff, regarded the training of native school for native preachers, modeling his lessons upon the Knox clergy as his single most important task, and he repeatedly curriculum and incorporating the lyceum format of the Literary declared that only Chinese Christians could build a church in and Scientific Society into his own teaching methods. China. But unlike Duff, who targeted upper-caste Indian youth

222 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 and emphasized the importance of rigorous Western education, first with a native tutor loaned by the English Presbyterians in Mackay identified more with the common people of Taiwan and Amoy, he began his ministry by studying Chinese characters and sought to adapt the Gospel as much as possible to local patterns the spoken language for as many as sixteen hours a day. Blessed of thinking. Mackay preached and taught only in the island’s with a prodigious memory, he learned to write one hundred new dominant Hokkien language, and he selectively adapted West- characters daily and spent the balance of his time practicing his ern education to suit the immediate practical needs of his native reading and speaking with anybody who would listen to him. preachers. For him, all missionary work, including medical and After only a few weeks his first tutor ran away, but Mackay had educational ministry, was ancillary to evangelism. already met a young literati, Giam Chheng Hoa, who agreed to Perhaps Mackay owed most to the evangelical tradition of move in with him and become his new teacher in exchange for the Scottish Highlands, to Donald McKenzie, and to his boyhood religious lessons. Giam and Mackay forged a deep symbiotic hero, William C. Burns, who had gained notoriety among China relationship grounded upon unfeigned mutual respect and ad- missionaries for his itinerating ministry through the countryside miration. The course Mackay pursued would have been impos- of Fujien Province. Mackay, too, became famous for itineration sible without this foundation. His first convert, and later the first and for his desire to live ordained native pastor, Giam among the common folk knew the island intimately. of Taiwan. Throughout his In a very real sense he became career he stirred controversy Mackay’s teacher and was by criticizing other foreign the catalyst for the conver- missionaries and insisting sion of the other first four upon indigenous leadership recruits. Throughout the first in every facet of ministry. It several years of Mackay’s is tempting to see his cadre ministry, this group marched of Taiwanese preachers as barefoot together through- a parallel to Scotland’s Na out northern Taiwan, dis- Daoine, a zealous group of pensing Western medicine, lay itinerants whom Mackay pulling teeth, preaching, and regarded as superior to any establishing chapels.14 seminary-trained Presbyte- The growth of Mackay’s rians from the West. movement was phenomenal, Mackay’s identification suggesting that social con- with the common people of ditions in North Formosa Taiwan led him in 1878 to were unusually favorable marry Tiu Chhang Mia, the Mackay Family, ca. 1890 for conversion. But Mackay’s seventeen-year-old adopted granddaughter of his first female con- personality and tactics also played a crucial role in his success. vert, Thah-so. “Chhang-a” would play a vital role in his ministry Having launched his itinerating campaign, he often passed weeks throughout the remainder of his life. Believing passionately that at a time without contact with other Westerners. If he suffered the people of Taiwan were equal to Westerners, he married his culture shock, his journals do not reveal it. Instead, he seems to own daughters, Mary and Bella, to native preachers and spent have relished his growing intimacy with the band of men who his life attempting to preserve the independence of his movement traveled with him day and night. As they walked, and whenever from Canadian control. Although Mackay was not completely free they rested, Mackay taught his recruits Bible, theology, natural from the ethnocentric biases that typified Victorian Christians, science, and materia medica; they in turn taught him the details of his deep love for Taiwan was authentic. It would be difficult to their culture and “how to speak like a Chinese” person. Never find any other missionary of his era who more clearly exempli- staying in one place for more than a few days at a time, they spent fied the principles of missionary identification.12 less than six months in the port of Tamsui, Mackay’s ostensible headquarters, during his entire first seven years on the island. Early Ministry in Taiwan Mackay believed that his wandering lifestyle imitated Jesus. He certainly was familiar with the example of William C. Burns. Mackay’s career falls neatly into two major phases. The first But unlike Burns, who had almost no converts to show for his extends from his arrival in Taiwan in December 1871 until his years of itineration, Mackay had already established seven chapels first furlough in 1880, by which time he had already become a and had more than seventy baptized followers by the end of his celebrity in Canada. The second extends from his return to Taiwan third year in Taiwan. By the time he returned to Canada for his in 1881 until his death twenty years later. During the first phase, first furlough, his so-called peripatetic school had trained some Mackay launched an amazing itinerating ministry that quickly two dozen preachers who weekly proclaimed the Gospel to more reaped impressive results. The consummate pioneer missionary, than a thousand regular hearers. Many foreign observers noted he chose as his field the previously unoccupied north end of the the remarkable devotion that existed between the missionary island because he longed for freedom to follow his own meth- and his followers. To them Mackay was not so much the agent ods and to learn by trial and error. Remarkably, by the end of of a foreign religion as a prophet and spiritual father.15 his first summer in Taiwan he already had a cadre of dedicated But where did other Canadian missionaries fit within such converts who remained faithful leaders throughout their life- a movement? Mackay regarded his visible success as incontest- times, and these became the nucleus of a rapidly growing move- able proof of both divine blessing and the wisdom of his meth- ment that more closely resembled an indigenous Chinese sect ods. Throughout his life he stubbornly resisted any pressure than a Presbyterian mission.13 from Canada to change his ways, repeatedly leading him into Mackay had extraordinary linguistic abilities. Working at conflict with church leaders at home. The mission committee

October 2010 223 wanted Mackay to accept additional missionaries and to build assemblies at churches and public meetings throughout , a more traditional mission compound in Tamsui. Beginning Quebec, and the Atlantic Provinces. Contributions for his work with James and Jennie Fraser in 1874, it sent out a series of mis- poured into the Presbyterian mission fund, money that he used sionary couples to assist Mackay. These newcomers soon found upon his return to Taiwan to construct a home for his family, themselves marginalized from the actual life of the community, build larger churches, open a boarding school for girls, and con- Mackay leaving them alone in Tamsui to learn for themselves the struct Oxford College as a training center for native preachers. language and to establish their own roles.16 Except for the last For the rest of his life Mackay would itinerate only twice a year, couple, William and Margaret Gauld, none of the “assistants” the remainder of his time spent teaching and directing affairs at stayed long in the island. “headquarters” in Tamsui. Mackay considered the Frasers, who had small children, a But celebrity and increased wealth proved a mixed blessing, major nuisance. The mission committee in Toronto instructed for with it came mounting pressure from home to expand the him to build a Western-style home for the couple, to give up his Canadian presence and establish a more normal Presbyterian ill-conceived efforts to go native, and to lodge with the Frasers mission. He received especially strong pressure from the Women’s until a “charming” Canadian lady could be sent out to share Foreign Missionary Committee, which wanted to send single his work. Although Mackay grudgingly built the house, he cat- women teachers to assist him.19 Throughout his career Mackay egorically rejected the rest of the committee’s wishes.17 Instead, engaged in a constant battle to keep funding from Canada without strings attached. He demanded freedom to set mission policy without intervention, threatening to resign and take all of the converts with him if not granted autonomy. The mission Nothing resembling the committee in Toronto knew that the irascible missionary was typical Victorian mission not bluffing. For twenty years he successfully blackmailed them compound existed during into giving him free rein to pursue whatever policies he pleased. As a result, nothing resembling the typical Victorian mis- Mackay’s lifetime. sion compound existed during Mackay’s lifetime. His goal was to see his community develop into a fully self-governing and self-propagating native church upon his own death. To this end, at the suggestion of his students, in May 1878 he married Tiu he would allow only one missionary couple at a time to come Chhang Mia, a “little sister” who was well known to all the na- out from Canada to assist him, and he made it clear that these tive preachers. It was a brilliant move on Mackay’s part, sealing newcomers would be required to serve under the supervision with holy matrimony his unusual mode of living. Never again of native Christians. These assistants were allowed to study would Canadian leaders urge him to settle down with other language, plant gardens, help maintain the buildings in Tamsui, missionaries. Instead, “Chhang-a” at first itinerated with Mackay write letters home, and perform small tasks assigned by Mackay. and his students and became the revered spiritual mother of the But they did not engage in direct evangelism or teaching native growing movement. church leaders, responsibilities that Mackay kept tightly in his own hands and shared with chosen native Christians.20 Furlough and Settling Down The real heart of the Christian community in North Taiwan was the expanding network of chapels in the interior of the is- Marriage and the arrival of his first daughter, Mary, in 1879 land. These were the exclusive preserve of the native preachers, required lifestyle adjustments. His first furlough in 1880–81 whom Mackay himself trained and appointed. Critics charged marks the start of the second, or “domestic,” phase of his min- that Mackay was unfaithful to and acted as a istry. Leaving their infant daughter in Taiwan with Chhang-a’s bishop over the native church. Mackay angrily rejected the no- grandmother, Mackay and his young wife sailed to Canada on a tion that Western institutions could be simply transplanted to world tour, visiting Malaysia, India, the Holy Land, Rome, Paris, Taiwan by fiat. To be lasting, church polity would have to evolve London, and Scotland before arriving in Zorra six months later. gradually out of the “inner workings” of the Chinese mind. In For Tiu Chhang Mia, not yet twenty, this first trip away from home the meantime, he insisted, Christians in North Formosa already and first encounter with the world church must have triggered enjoyed authentic self-government without the creation of for- a mix of emotions. At each stop they explored historical sites, mal Presbyterian structures. Every one of the churches elected mosques, temples, and cathedrals. Everywhere they visited the elders, and he was in constant contact with these leaders, with missions of different Christian denominations. The trip convinced whom he deliberated in all matters confronting the community. Mackay that his own methods were the best for Taiwan, giving He likewise consulted the preachers constantly, and in 1885 he him ammunition that he would later use when answering critics and a group of elders together laid hands on Giam Chheng-Hoa of his mission. and another early preacher named Tan He, ordaining them as Although Mackay’s marriage was controversial, his family the first two native pastors in Taiwan. Henceforth these two men and the local people of Zorra embraced Chhang-a warmly. Unable sat with Mackay and any ordained Canadian assistant in regular to speak any English, she initially feared Mackay’s departure for “mission councils,” discussing policy together. For Mackay, the his obligatory missionary tour of the Canadian churches. By the reality of shared governance mattered more than strict conformity time he returned from his first round of visits, however, her shy- to Presbyterian polity.21 ness had vanished. She informed him that she felt comfortable Mackay himself handled virtually all of the instruction at with his family and that he could travel for as long as he needed. Oxford College, lecturing daily on topics ranging from biblical Dubbed “Minnie” by the locals and the Canadian newspapers, studies to geography to natural science and medicine. His ad- she became a favorite at gatherings of Zorra church women.18 vanced students assisted him with teaching younger students During his furlough Mackay received an honorary doctor of how to read and write Romanized Chinese. In fact, the school divinity degree from Queen’s University and addressed packed more closely resembled a lyceum than a Western college. Each

224 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 student was regularly assigned composition and debate topics, withdrawn.” This time landing in Vancouver, the missionary which they would deliver as formal speeches that were critiqued was dumbfounded when his wife and Koa Kau were not permit- by peers as well as by Mackay. Twice a year, before and after each ted to disembark until a head tax had been paid. Although the term at school, he took his most advanced students on lengthy matter was soon cleared up, Mackay spent the rest of his time itinerating trips into the interior of the island, to give them experi- in Canada speaking out against racism and demanding an end ence preaching in public and facing opposition. The training at to discrimination against Chinese immigrants. As moderator of Oxford College was not designed to instill a liberal arts education, the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1894, he had a very visible but rather to equip self-confident preachers, teachers, and healers platform from which to thunder his opposition to anti-Chinese who would soon hold responsibility for chapels of their own. prejudice in Canada, as well as his faith in the complete equality The boarding school for girls, designed to equip Bible women of Chinese Christians.23 and Christian wives, was likewise under native leadership. Tiu During his furlough, the Sino-Japanese War dramatically Chhang Mia herself, assisted by some of the older Bible women, transformed the situation of the Christians in Taiwan. Claimed served as headmistress and surrogate mother for the girls, who as a colonial prize by the victorious Japanese, Formosa was to came from churches throughout the mission field. In a controver- become a showcase of ’s ability to administer an empire sial pamphlet addressed to the Presbyterian women of Canada, as efficiently as the Western powers. Although Mackay stated Annie Jamieson, wife of Mackay’s third assistant John Jamieson, his optimistic belief that the change in government would ul- timately prove a blessing, the transition brought a host of new problems. Perhaps most obvious was the Japanese insistence that all educational and medical facilities on the island conform to modern Western standards. To survive under Japanese rule, Mackay clearly would need to adjust his missionary methods to satisfy colonial administrators. We will never know how successfully Mackay would have adapted to the new reality. Late in the winter of 1901 he discovered a small lump in his throat that turned out to be an aggressive cancer. British physicians at Tamsui and the mainland were helpless to arrest the progression of the disease. On the afternoon of June 2, 1901, George Leslie Mackay breathed his last. As word of his death spread from church to church, a stream of mourners descended upon Tamsui, where Mackay’s body rested in a Oxford College at Tamsui glass-faced coffin in Oxford College. Young and old crowded around the coffin, reaching out to touch his defended Mackay’s refusal to accept Canadian women teachers. face. His daughter Bella described the scene in her diary, noting Tiu Chhang Mia, Jamieson observed, toiled away day after day, that “young men wept like a child as well as old men, women “while ladies in Canada know nothing . . . of what she is accom- and children. Some would remain weeping over the coffin for a plishing.” Chhang-a knew “just how to deal with her own people.” whole hour, then they would go out of the room, then they would She “works away training girls, helping women, attending to the re-enter again and weep more bitterly than before.”24 wants of students, caring for and thinking of everyone but herself. Giam Chheng Hoa presided over the burial of his dear- She is known and loved by converts throughout the whole field.” est friend. Eighteen of the oldest preachers and elders carried Jamieson confessed that she had initially resented Chhang-a the coffin to the grave that Mackay himself had selected years but in time came to understand the wisdom of Mackay’s posi- before. The cemetery was too small to hold all of the mourners tion: “While the Doctor is busy arranging matters or preparing that gathered from around the mission field, including more than messages in front of the house, people will be out back pouring three hundred non-Christian dignitaries who came to honor the stories into her sympathetic ear. I would gladly relieve her, for I fallen missionary. Many converts from distant stations could not am sure she is often tired, but then who of them all would dream arrive in time for the burial. For days they streamed into Tamsui, of coming to me? I did not grow up among the people. I have not to sit beside Mackay’s grave and weep, as Bella recorded, “like been to their homes; I do not know their children and aunts and one having lost a father.”25 uncles and neighbors, and all about their family troubles. How could they be expected to come to me?”22 Legacy

Second Furlough and Death For all his unusual characteristics, George Leslie Mackay was very much a man of the Victorian age. He shared his era’s tendency to In 1893 Mackay and Chhang-a returned to Canada on a second rank races and cultures along an evolutionary scale, sometimes furlough, this time bringing with them their three children and asserting the inferiority of the island’s indigenous tribal peoples a young student named Koa Kau, a future son-in-law whom to the dominant Chinese populace. His journals occasionally Mackay wanted to introduce to the Canadian church. He left engaged in the sort of Orientalist representations of Asian civi- behind the Gaulds, only recently arrived in Taiwan, who were lizations that modern students of culture seek to avoid. He was still unable to speak the language. The furlough, he informed the no champion of interreligious goodwill, confidently predicting mission board in Toronto, would prove that the native preachers the future annihilation of Buddhism, Taoism, and other forms of were fully able to sustain their church alone “if all foreigners were “heathenism” with triumphalistic certainty. His acerbic attacks

October 2010 225 upon Roman Catholic “papistry” were only slightly less virulent. reorienting their lives around the new community that he had Despite his flaws, to a degree that has been rare in any period of called into existence. Possessing an authoritarian temperament, history, George Leslie Mackay allowed himself to truly encounter as his critics correctly charged, he exercised his power to carve and to be transformed by the people he sought to serve. During out for the native Christians a degree of autonomy and freedom his first weeks in Taiwan, as he drove himself relentlessly to learn perhaps unparalleled among China missions of his day. That the language, he recorded in his journal that he wanted “no bar- he is still lionized in Taiwan by Christians and non-Christians riers” between himself and the people. This desire to become one alike, long after most other Victorian missionaries have been with the people, to identify with them as wholly as he possibly forgotten or deconstructed, testifies to the enduring bonds that could, deeply touched many of those whom he encountered. mutual affection and respect can forge between people of sharply Thousands responded by accepting his Lord as their own and different cultures.

Selected Bibliography Mackay’s mission correspondence is located in the United Church of McDonald, Graeme. “George Leslie Mackay: Missionary Success Canada Archives in Toronto, along with valuable correspondence of his in Nineteenth-Century Taiwan.” In Papers on China, vol. 21. Canadian assistants. The Jennie Fraser Papers are especially helpful. His Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ., East Asian Research Center, personal journals are preserved at in Tamsui, Taiwan. 1968. Copies are also held at the Taiwan Theological Seminary Archives in Taipei. Rohrer, James. “Charisma in a Mission Context: The Case of George Leslie Mackay in Taiwan, 1871–1901.” Missiology: An International Works by George Leslie Mackay Review 36 (2008): 227–36. 1895 From Far Formosa: The Island, Its People and Missions. New York: ———. “George Leslie Mackay in Formosa, 1871–1901: An Interpretation Fleming H. Revell. of His Career.” Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 47 (2005): 3–58. Works About George Leslie Mackay ———. “Mackay and the Aboriginals: Reflections upon the Ambiguities Ion, A. Hamish. The Cross and the Rising Sun: The Canadian Protestant of Taiwanese Aboriginal Christian History.” In Christianity and Missionary Movement in the Japanese Empire, 1872–1931. Waterloo, Native Cultures: Perspectives from Different Regions of the World, ed. Ont.: Wilfred Laurier Univ. Press, 1990. Cyriac K. Pullapilly, pp. 263–75. Notre Dame, Ind.: Cross-Cultural Keith, Marian. The Black Bearded Barbarian: The Life of George Leslie Mackay Publications, 2004. of Formosa. Toronto: Board of Foreign Missions, 1912. Mackay, R. P. Life of George Leslie Mackay, D.D., 1844–1901. Toronto: Board of Foreign Missions, 1913. Notes 1. Much of this article is based upon the author’s examination of and the Evangelization of the Scottish Highlands, 1700–1850,” Mackay’s journal, held at Aletheia University in Tamsui, Taiwan, International Bulletin of Missionary Research 21 (April 1997): 67–72. and the Correspondence Relating to the Formosa Mission in the On the Na Daoine, see especially George Robb, “Popular Religion Presbyterian Church of Canada Board of Foreign Mission Papers, and the Christianization of the Scottish Highlands in the Eighteenth held at the Archives in Toronto, Canada and Nineteenth Centuries,” Journal of Religious History 16 (June 1990): (hereafter UCC Archives). The photograph of the Mackay family 18–34. on p. 223 of this article is from R. P. Mackay, Life of George Leslie 5. Obituary of George Mackay, dated March 21, 1884, preserved Mackay, D.D., 1844–1901 (Toronto: Board of Foreign Missions, 1913), in George Leslie Mackay’s scrapbook. I wish to thank Mackay’s p. 35. The picture of Oxford College on p. 225 is from George Leslie granddaughters, Anna, Isabel, and Margaret Mackay, of Toronto, Mackay, From Far Formosa: The Island, Its People and Missions (New for graciously sharing this with me. On McKenzie, see the material York: Fleming H. Revell, 1895), facing p. 291. in the Donald McKenzie vertical file at the UCC Archives. On the 2. Agnes M. Machar, “An Apostolic Missionary in China,” Catholic Scottish community of Zorra, see Graham Leslie Brown, “The Scottish Presbyterian 29 (May 1881): 332–41. Settlement in West Zorra Township, Oxford County” (M.A. thesis, 3. When the directorate general of posts of the Republic of China Univ. of Western Ontario, 1970); William M. Campbell, Zorra (Boston: issued a Mackay commemorative stamp in 2001, the cachet cited Sherman, French, 1915); Marjory Harper, Emigration from North-East his “unselfish devotion to Taiwan” and the directorate’s desire “to Scotland, vol. 1, Willing Exiles (Aberdeen: Aberdeen Univ. Press, 1988), strengthen the bonds of friendship between Taiwan and Canada.” pp. 191–239; W. A. Mackay, Pioneer Life in Zorra (Toronto: Briggs, 1899), 4. On MacDonald, see John Kennedy, The Apostle of the North: The Life and and, by the same author, Zorra Boys at Home and Abroad (Toronto: Labours of the Rev. John Macdonald, D.D. (Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Briggs, 1900); W. D. McIntosh, One Hundred Years in the Zorra Church Publications, 1978). The Sutherland clearances are well described in (Knox United, Embro) (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1930); and W. A. Ross, John Prebble, The Highland Clearances (London: Secker & Warburg, History of Zorra and Embro: Pioneer Sketches of Sixty Years Ago (Embro, 1963), pp. 57–124. On the evangelical movement in the Highlands, Ont.: Embro Courier Office, 1909). The Woodstock Public Library, see Allan I. MacInnes, “Evangelical Religion in the Nineteenth- Woodstock, Ontario, also has a very useful local history file. Century Highlands,” in Sermons and Battle Hymns: Protestant Popular 6. On Burns, see Islay Burns, Memoir of Rev. Wm. C. Burns, D.D. (New Culture in Modern Scotland, ed. Graham Walker and Tom Gallagher York: Robert Carter, 1870), and Edward Band, Working His Purpose (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1990), pp. 43–68; Terence P. Out: The History of the English Presbyterian Mission, 1847–1947 (London: McCaughey, “Protestantism and Scottish Highland Culture,” in An Presbyterian Church of England, 1948), pp. 4–72. On the Free Church Introduction to Celtic Christianity, ed. James P. Mackey (Edinburgh: in Canada, see Barbara C. Murison, “The Disruption and the Colonies T. & T. Clark, 1989), pp. 175–205; and several essays by Donald E. of Scottish Settlement,” in Scotland in the Age of the Disruption, ed. Meek: “Evangelical Missionaries in the Early Nineteenth-Century Stewart J. Brown and Michael Fry (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Highlands,” Scottish Studies 28 (1987): 1–34; “Evangelicalism and Press, 1993), pp. 135–50, and Richard W. Vaudry, The Free Church in Emigration: Aspects of the Role of Dissenting Evangelicalism in Victorian Canada, 1844–1861 (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Highland Emigration to Canada,” in Proceedings of the First North Press, 1989). American Congress on Celtic Studies, ed. G. MacLennann (Ottawa: 7. Knox College Literary Society Records, Archives of the Presbyterian Univ. of Ottawa Press, 1988), pp. 15–36; and “Protestant Missions Church in Canada, Toronto. In addition to Vaudry, on Knox College,

226 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 Who has been winning souls Native missionary evangelists like Slavik Rad- and planting churches in chuk have won millions to Christ and planted Russia and the former USSR thousands of new churches in Ukraine, Q. since Communism collapsed? A. Russia and other former Soviet states.

Who provides financial Since 1991 Christian Aid has expended millions of dol- support for native mis- lars to support Slavik Radchuk and other native mis- Q. sionary evangelists in A. sionaries who conduct huge evangelistic campaigns and Russia and other countries of the reach millions through radio and TV broadcasts in the Russian former Soviet empire? language which is understood in 15 countries of the former USSR.

Q. How is Christian Aid financed? For more than 50 years Christian Aid Mission has been A. Christian Aid is supported entirely by sending financial help to indigenous evangelistic ministries freewill gifts and offerings from Bible- based in unevangelized countries. Currently more than believing, missionary-minded Christians, 700 such ministries are being assisted in Asia, Africa, Latin churches and organizations. America and Eastern Europe. They deploy more than 75,000 native missionaries who are spreading the gospel of Christ Q. Are other indigenous missions in need among unreached people within more than 3000 different of financial help for their missionaries? tribes and nations. A. Christian Aid is in communication with Christian Aid Mission more than 4000 indigenous missions, some P. O. Box 9037 based in almost every unevangelized country Charlottesville, VA 22906 on earth. They have over 200,000 missionar- Christian . . . because we ies in need of support. All Christians who love the brethren. 434-977-5650 believe in Christ’s “Great Commission” are Aid www.christianaid.org invited to join hands with Christian Aid in finding help for thousands of native mis- When you contact Christian Aid, ask sionaries who are now out on the fields of the for a free copy of Dr. Bob Finley’s world with no promise of regular financial book, THE FUTURE OF FOREIGN support. MISSIONS. see Brian J. Fraser, Church, College, and Clergy: A History of Theological him. He had never before witnessed such intimacy and devotion Education at Knox College, Toronto, 1844–1994 (Montreal and Kingston: between a missionary and native Christians. See Shore, The Flight McGill-Queen’s Univ. Press, 1995); Michael Gauvreau, The Evangelical of the Lapwing: A Naval Officer’s Jottings in China, Formosa, and Japan Century: College and Creed in English Canada from the Great Revival to (London: Longmans, Green, 1881), pp. 204–5. See Rohrer, “George the Great Depression (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Univ. Leslie Mackay,” for additional contemporary testimonials of this Press, 1991); and D. C. Masters, “The Scottish Tradition in Higher nature. Education,” in The Scottish Tradition in Canada, ed. W. Stanford Reid 16. Jennie Fraser deeply resented Mackay’s attitude, thinking him (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976), pp. 248–67. “unkind . . . to leave us in a strange land as he does. He won’t do a 8. Mackay to Thomas Wardrope, April 23, 1891, Foreign Mission thing but train the helpers.” Jennie Fraser to Maggie Wells, July 8, Correspondence, UCC Archives (hereafter FMC). On Princeton and 1875, Jennie Fraser Papers, UCC Archives. missions, see Daniel B. Calhoun, “The Last Command: Princeton 17. George L. Mackay to William McLaren, undated 1875, FMC. Theological Seminary and Missions (1812–1862)” (Ph.D. diss., 18. In addition to Mackay’s journals and scrapbook, this paragraph draws Princeton Theological Seminary, 1983), esp. pp. 183–234. upon a Mother’s Day “Radio Talk,” dated ca. 1932, written about 9. Mackay, From Far Formosa, pp. 20–21. On Duff, see Michael A. Laird, Tiu Chhang Mia by her daughter-in-law Jean Ross Mackay. A copy “Alexander Duff, 1806–1878: Western Education as Preparation of this document was graciously given to the author by Mackay’s for the Gospel,” in Mission Legacies: Biographical Studies of Leaders granddaughters. of the Modern Missionary Movement, ed. Gerald H. Anderson et al. 19. Mackay to William McLaren, August 4, 1883, FMC. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1994), pp. 271–76; William Paton, 20. In a characteristic letter to William McLaren, chairman of the mission Alexander Duff (London: George H. Doran, 1923); and George Smith, committee, Mackay rejected instructions that he assign James Fraser The Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. (New York: American Tract a larger role in training native students: “I intend to have . . . young Society, 1878). men traveling as usual with me over whom the other brethren in the field 10. On the impact of Baconianism on evangelical religion in the early will have no control. You know men don’t think alike, and as I have nineteenth century, see Theodore Dwight Bozeman, Protestants in an such clear evidence of God’s blessing attending my mode of procedure, I Age of Science: The Baconian Ideal and Antebellum American Religious will yield to no man” (emphasis Mackay’s). Mackay to McLaren, June Thought (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1977). 10, 1876, FMC. 11. Mackay’s scrapbook. 21. Mackay to Foreign Mission Committee, December 10, 1888, FMC. 12. On this theme, see Jonathan J. Bonk, The Theory and Practice of 22. Annie Straith Jamieson, Some Things That Should Be Known to the Missionary Identification, 1860–1920 (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Ladies of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society in Canada (Hong Press, 1989). Kong, 1888), p. 9. 13. I develop this point more fully in “George Leslie Mackay in Formosa, 23. Michael Stainton, “Mackay and the Poll Tax” (paper presented at the 1871–1901: An Interpretation of His Career,” Journal of the Canadian Canadian Asian Studies East Asian Conference, LaMalbaie, Quebec, Church Historical Society 47 (2005): 3–58. November 2007). 14. The crucial role played by Giam Chheng Hoa is clearly described 24. The diary is quoted by Bella Mackay in a letter to “My dear Uncle, in Mackay’s manuscript diaries, which bring the organizational Aunt, Cousins,” July 12, 1901, in the possession of Mackay’s dynamics of the movement into sharp focus. granddaughters. A slightly different version of Bella’s letter was 15. Henry Noel Shore, a British naval officer who had observed many published in the Presbyterian Record and is preserved in the Mackay China missions, spent a month traveling with Mackay in 1880. Shore vertical file, UCC Archives. was “astonished” by the “adoration” Mackay’s converts showed 25. Ibid.

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