BARRING the unsuccessful attempt of Conrad Lange, of Herrnhut, to enter China (1742) as a missionary, the beginning of Protestant missions in this empire dates from 1807, when Robert Morrison, a young man of twenty-five, was sent out by the London Missionary Society. In 1805 this institution firmly resolved to open gospel work among the Chinese, purposing as their first, and what proved to be their most effective, stroke to give the people of this land the Word of God in their own language,—a task which in those days seemed to many to be beyond the range of possibility. Up to that time only one Englishman had learned the Chinese language, and the conviction was general that men of the West could not acquire an adequate knowledge of it.
But in the year 1806 Messrs. Morrison and Brown were appointed, and directed to begin the study of Chinese, assisted by Young-sau-tak, a native of China then in England. Dr. Vanderkemp, a tried missionary in South Africa, was asked to join them, chiefly on account of his age, in consideration of the respect the Chinese pay to old age. He, however, did not feel that God called him out of Africa into China, and so declined. Mr. Brown also soon declined, and thus the work of enlightening almost one third of the human race fell to one single man—Robert Morrison. But he was as Gideon's band sifted by God, and then led to a great triumph. Assisted by his Chinese tutor, a Chinese harmony of the Gospels, Paul's epistles, and a Latin-Chinese lexicon, Mr. Morrison succeeded in gaining considerable knowledge of the Chinese language before leaving England.
In the month of January, 1807, he set sail, not for Penang according to the original plan, but for Canton; and owing to England's attitude toward foreign missions, he was obliged to go to China by way of America, where he formed the acquaintance of James Madison, then Secretary of State, who gave him a letter of introduction to the consul in Canton. He reached Macao, China, Sept. 4, 1807, where his presence was immediately detected by the Roman clergy, whose bigotry forced him to seek a more congenial place. Going to Canton, less than one hundred miles to the north, he secluded himself there, adopting for a time the dress and manners of the Chinese, until he saw that both the natives and his own countrymen avoided him.
THE GREAT GATEWAY TO PEKING
On account of trouble between the British and Chinese authorities, Mr. Morrison, in the year 1808, was compelled to go back to Macao, where, despite his danger from Catholics, Chinese, and the English themselves, he continued in his quiet, patient way to pursue his studies, having for his fixed object the translation of the Bible and the creation of a Christian literature for China. Dr. Milne very fittingly says of him, “The patience that refuses to be conquered, the diligence that never tires, the caution that always trembles, and the studious habit that spontaneously seeks retirement, were best adapted for the first Protestant missionary to China.”
Near the close of the year 1808 Mr. Morrison married Miss Morton, the daughter of John Morton, Esq., then on a visit to Macao; and on the same day he received an appointment as translator to the English manufacturing company at Canton. This made him financially independent, and at the same time it afforded him opportunity to use his Chinese. Other men might have been led astray by such opportunities, but not so with Robert Morrison; he never swerved from his settled purpose—to give China the Word of God. He pursued his studies assiduously; and as he had opportunity, he taught orally a few Chinese whom he gathered to himself behind locked doors. During this same year he prepared a grammar and part of the New Testament for the press, but the publication was deferred until later. In 1810 Mr. Morrison amended and revised the copy of The Acts of the Apostles he brought with him from England, but at great cost and risk of punishment. The next year (1811) witnessed the revision and enlargement of his Chinese grammar, but its publication was delayed until 1815, when the East India Company took it in hand. It was in this same year that he wrote his first Chinese tract on the subject of Redemption, to which was added in the following year a translation of the Gospel of Luke, which came out about the time a Chinese imperial edict was issued making the printing of Chinese books and the preaching of the gospel capital offenses. Many Roman Catholic missionaries, especially in Peking, were silenced and sent out of the country, but Morrison silently labored on, being seconded about this time by the arrival of Mr. Milne (July, 1813), whose labors, especially in Chinese colonies in the surrounding lands, proved a great success.
In the latter part of 1813 Mr. Morrison saw the New Testament translated into Chinese, and in the following year the first native convert was baptized. An English-Chinese lexicon was soon completed, and four years later, after hard, confining labor, the long-wished-for result was attained; namely, the entire Bible in Chinese, a copy of which he was permitted to present in person to the king of England during a visit which he made to England in the year 1824. His wife having died of cholera in Canton in 1821, Mr. Morrison married a second wife while in England, and returned to China in 1826.
Thus it is seen that for twenty years Morrison was the soul and center of Protestant missions in China. During these years his labors had been both incessant and arduous, yet the actual results, as far as the salvation of the Chinese was concerned, seemed virtually nothing. Had he pursued the wrong course? and was his life work a failure? If converts determine the answer to this question, we must reply in the affirmative. But we must look deeper. Many lives have been buried deep in the soil14of humanity, and few, if any, fruits have appeared until years have rolled by; and then, as by magic, these very lives as it were have come forth in an abundant harvest. So it was in the case of Robert Morrison. All the twenty-five years he spent in China were years of sowing; the harvest came later, and other hands gathered the grain. He had seen only a very few Chinese turn to God, but his work of translating the Bible, etc., brought near to China as never before the kingdom of God. Instead of blessing a few Chinamen, he blessed and continues to bless the entire Chinese race.
Robert Morrison fell asleep Aug. 1, 1832, just as his labors were beginning to bear fruit. He died in China, where the power and the fragrance of his life still remain.
About the time of his death a local persecution burst forth, and scattered the little company of native believers who had come to the light of the gospel through Morrison's labors. This was the situation when Dr. Medhurst, in 1835, arrived in Canton, to build on the foundation so well laid by Morrison.
This is a sketch of the history of Protestant missions in China for the first twenty-five years. Seemingly the great Middle Kingdom was still untouched, and people of the West felt themselves safe and at liberty only in the few treaty ports; and so in their effort to invade China proper the missionaries had gone to the hosts of Chinese settled in the Malayan Archipelago, where they studied the language, preached the gospel, founded schools, thus laying the foundation for a large work in the mother country. Twenty million pages of printed matter had been distributed, and in 1838 ten thousand children had passed through the mission schools.
But China itself must be entered; and, as is always the case, God had an instrument to lead the way. He moved upon the heart of Gützlaff, a German missionary sent out by the Netherlands Missionary Society, who, though in poor health, repeatedly risked his life by land and by sea. He traveled up and down the coast of China distributing tracts and other reading matter by the thousand without harm or molestation, to the great astonishment of the whole world. This led to an extended trip by Dr. Medhurst, whose colportage labor up and down the coast was the great step which prepared the way for a general missionary movement on all China, which has grown until to-day, instead of one society with a very few workers, there are forty-five or fifty different societies represented by about two thousand workers, assisted by more than six thousand native helpers. The stations and out-stations number about three thousand. Instead of being confined to a few treaty ports along the coast, they are scattered until every province of this great land has been entered.
For all this success we have every reason to be thankful to God, who has so marvelously wrought for this and other heathen lands within the last century. Many who sat in darkness have been brought to the salvation of our God. On the other hand, this world-wide missionary movement is the great sign and a necessary condition of our Lord's soon return, since it prepares the world for the advent message which makes the coming of Christ both expedient and urgent. And it is in this hour and for this crisis that we as a people have been called. China is ready for the message, and Christ bids us “go.”
