4 SOCIETY OF INQUIRY; $ # 3fitoncet(m 3^deo/. 'Sfemtnazy. # 5 I —•»*© ©£«««•— <^k | JYo. 1/6*1 J ft####################M tjf ^*6-0?+ ^ S+<Za^£j /?#/ illi -- - — — , / _ j Division CVf*C, Shelf, Section Boofc, ( „ — ^ seB ' 1 9 r \ f- ' r* 4 * m > * Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/lifeopinionsofreOOphil_O V TO DR. AND MRS. REED, OF WYCLIFFE CHAPEL, AS THE FIRST FRIENDS OF THE MILNE FAMILY IN LONDON; AND AS THE AVOWED FRIENDS OF CHINA; THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED, FROM POUNDSFORD PARK, WHERE IT ORIGINATED, BY THEIR FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. — THE LIFE AND OPINIONS REV. WILLIAM MILNE, D. D., MISSIONARY TO CHINA, ILLUSTRATED BV BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF ASIATIC MISSIONS, FROM PRIMITIVE TO PROTESTANT TIMES ; INTENDED AS A GUIDE TO MISSIONARY SPIRIT. BY ROBERT PHILIP, AUTHOR OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BUNYAN AND WHITEFIELD THE EXPE- j RIMENTAL GUIDES, ETC. “The Lord said, I took thee from the sheep-cote, from following the sheep, and have made thee a great name.” Samuel. PHILADELPHIA: HERMAN HOOKER—CHESTNUT STREET. 1840 . Wm. S. Young, Printer. CONTENTS. Chapter I. William Milne’s Early Life - 9 II. William Milne’s Missionary Spirit 32 III. William Milne at Gosport - 48 IY. Mr. and Mrs. Milne’s Voyage - 81 V. Mr. Milne’s First Appeals from China - - 105 VI. Mr. Milne’s Reception in China 119 VII. Mr. Milne’s Visit to Java - 130 VIII. Joint Labours in China - - 143 IX. The Malacca Mission - 156 X. Miscellaneous Labours - - 199 XI. Milne’s Estimates of Chinese Character - - 219 XII. Chinese Opinions - - 228 XIII. Missionary Events - - 239 XIV. Mrs. Milne’s Death - • 263 XV. The Widower’s Closet - 295 XVI. The Mission Family - 312 XVII. Jewish Witnesses in China - 323 XVIII. Apostolic Missions in Asia - 334 XIX. The Asiatic Nestorians - - 350 XX. The Syrian Mission Schools - 360 XXI. The Origin of Christianity in China - - 366 XXII. The Asiatic Prester John - 378 XXIII. The Lamaism of Asia - 388 XXIV. A Voice from the Tombs of Morrison and Milne, to the Schools of the Prophets - 399 XXV. The Syrian Churches in India - 414 XXVI. The Opium Crisis - 428 PREFACE. Had the Author known of any one in England, accus- tomed to write for the press, who had even the half of his own knowledge of Dr. and Mrs. Milne, he would not have become their biographer, notwithstanding all his love to their memory, and all his zeal for China. His health forbade equally, the excitement of living over again the days of his youth, and the research necessary in order to illustrate the Opinions of Dr. Milne on the ancient Christianity of China. The last was the chief difficulty: for our Ecclesiastical History does not even furnish a clew to the history of the Syrian Church in Asia, although she eclipsed both the Greek and Roman in numbers and purity, during the middle ages. The fact is, the Syrian Church had no influence on the Re- formation: for Melancthon failed to enlist her patriarch against the Pope, and Luther, to establish her orthodoxy; , and thus our historians took no interest in her ancient faith or fame. This created a blot as well as a blank in our literature; and he must be no ordinary scholar who can remove either now. It is unnecessary for the Author to say, that he has not scholarship to be the annalist of this first and great- est Missionary Church in the world. He has done, however, in a small compass, all that he was capable of doing,—blended with the life of the second Protestant Missionary to China, graphic sketches of the Primitive and Nestorian Missions, which penetrated or skirted that mighty empire, “ the Land of Sinim.” Graphic is, VI PREFACE. perhaps, too strong a name for his sketches; loaded as they are with quotations in all styles. This appearance of pedantry was, however, inevitable. He would have been deemed visionary, apart from a host of vouchers. Besides, the list of historical authorities may furnish some future student with what the writer had not, a clew to the subject. His object is, however, to interest ordi- nary readers; and, therefore, he ought not to be tried for more than he attempted. He has not written for the learned, but for those who have read and thought less than himself about Asiatic Christianity. Whatever pa- rade of learned names, therefore, meets the eye in this work, it is to prevent incredulity, not in order to gain credit for erudition. To the friends of Missions, he would say, —This book presents, in the character of Dr. and Mrs. Milne, a model which may be held up to any young man or woman, who is contemplating Missionary work. It ex- hibits an imitable example, as well as one worthy of imitation. Such a book was much wanted. The Churches also do well to study the influences which formed the character of these distinguished Missionaries, if they would not send forth drones nor wasps into the field. Whatever, therefore, may be thought of the Au- thor’s opinions on this subject—and no one is at all re- sponsible for any of them but himself, —the Churches will, to a certainty, hold up to all future candidates for Missionary work, the example of William and Rachel Milne; and all proper candidates who study it, will, as certainly, look to their respective Churches for such friends as lie found in Huntley, and she in Aberdeen. R. P. Kingsland, 1839. MEMOIRS OF REV. W. MILNE, D. D. CHAPTER I. WILLIAM MILNE’S EARLY LIFE. “His decision of character rendered him an eminently devoted Missionary. Considering the disadvantage he laboured under, from the want of an early literary education, what he effected is astonishing .” —Rev. Robert Morrison, D. D. If Leang-A-Fa possess any susceptibility, he could not witness, unmoved, nor unprofited, the scenery of Kennethmont, in Scotland, where William Milne, his spiritual father, “ followed the ewes.” It is hardly either sublime or beautiful scenery; but there is enough of both in it, to make any one feel that a Shepherd boy, of even ordinary talents, who is out in all weathers, could not be utterly uninfluenced by it. William Milne certainly was not. I am not quite sure now, that I have stood ivith him upon the corner of the hill above Reeskhouse, when we were boys, admiring the hoary grandeur of “the Tap of Noth,” and the silvery windings of “the bonny Bog- gie,” in the valley between the hill and the moun- tain; but I remember well the mutual zest, with which we often talked of those scenes, “O’er the hills and far away,” when we met in England. We had both mused, as well as played, upon the same spots; and sat upon the same gray-stones and mossy hillocks, gazing at old Noth, the throne of the clouds; and at the ruins 2 10 MEMOIRS OF THE of old Reeskhouse, the castle in the valley. Our lips and hands had often been “as blue as blaaverts,” with blackberries gathered amongst the same hea- ther-knolls and etnach-bushes. Besides, these spots were dear to us both, as ground hallowed by the memory of our Pastor, Mr. Cowie, of Hunlly, who sometimes preached and catechized in the neigh- bourhood; and by the labours of his elders, who often visited the Sabbath Schools in turn. We had thus been under the same teachers, although not in the same School; and retained an equal love to them. The Nathaniel-like spirit of John Leslie; the Ezekiel-like sublimity of Saunders Sievwright; the Paul-like shrewdness of William Smith, and the Jacob-like unction of James Cruickshank, had alter- nately awed and interested us. They loved us too, from the time they saw any thing hopeful about us: —perhaps, even before. This pleased us then, and it amazed us afterwards. We only thought of them then as the best men in Huntly, amongst many good men: but when we first met in England, we spoke of as men for we had found no paral- them wonderful ; lels to them any where, in the same rank of life. We thus discovered, that our minds and character had been brought into contact with genius as well as extraordinary piety, although we knew it not at the moment. I mention these circumstances distinctly, because 1 know the influence they had upon the mind of my friend. They gave, indeed, no romantic nor sentimental cast to his mind: but both the mourn tains and the men helped to render his young spirit thoughtful and solemn, when he began to read and pray amongst the sheep-folds. Even then, he felt REV. W. MILNE, D. D. 11 that it was sublime “ to sit on the brow of the hill, reading the lives of the Martyrs; admiring J,heir pa- tience and fortitude in suffering; and seeing them overcome their enemies, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” He adds, “I longed that God would honour me, some time or other, thus to confess his name, and bear my testimony to the truth.” 11 The expression , seeing the Martyrs,” in this record of his feelings, means more than even the vivid reali- zation of their sufferings, which reading at the fire- side can produce. He was reading amidst such hills and valleys as the Scotch covenanters suffered amongst: — for it was “The Cloud of Witnesses,” not “Fox’s Book of Martyrs,” that awoke his emo- tions. He had thus around him, such lofty moun- tains as they had watched and worshipped upon, and such lonely woods and glens as they had been hunted in: and besides all this, the Christians he knew best, and loved most, were just such men in character and spirit as the holy men in “The Cloud of Witnesses,” It was, thus, Cowie, Leslie, Sievwright, Smith, and Cruickshank, (his Pastor and Teachers,) he saw be- fore him, when he peopled the wilds of Kennethmont with images of the Martyrs.