China by H. W. Miller

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 21, 1907

China

By H. W. Miller

SIN YANG CHEO, HONAN.—The Chinese say that when one wants to write an essay, it is necessary to fill up with Chinese sentences, and then write them off as fast as possible, before forgetting them. We have found this true, to a great extent. This is the only way to learn the literary style. By a study of rhetoric, literature, and grammar, in English, one is able to write by a literary method. In China there is a literary style to the language, but no grammar

from which to learn it, so the only thing to be done is to memorize some of the best literature produced. Then in writing one can call up an example for comparison as to the arrangement of words in a sentence.

A committee of some of the oldest students of the Chinese language met together last summer, and have retranslated the four Gospels. We have just received this book from the press, and it is undoubtedly the best production yet put forth, since it has a definite arrangement all through the text, and will be looked upon as the standard style of the future Mandarin language. Since receiving it, I have memorized a chapter of Matthew's Gospel each day. Even in this new edition we have found the same old errors with reference to the translation for “soul,” the word used being one that means to the Chinese an ethereal spirit that can not be seen. In the old edition this term is used in translating Rev. 6:9, also 20:4. In both cases the prophet John says that he saw the souls. Surely the Lord sometimes allows men to go beyond their reason, that the truths of the Bible may not be covered up; for in some cases error lies so close to truth, in their translation, that were it not for some of these instances, the real truth might be concealed from some.

Brother and Sister Allum are beginning to talk Chinese to the help here. They are just the right age to learn the language, and we only wish that we had as many such young men and women as are in one of our schools, all studying the language, preparing for mission work here in China.

It made our hearts glad to meet Brother and Sister P. J. Laird. They came up to Sin Yang Cheo, and paid us a visit, before going to their field in Hunan. Brother Westrup was here, also, and we had a blessed time together. Brother Laird has his heart set on spreading this message just as far as possible among the missionaries of his former society. There are about three hundred of them.

We invited Brother Laird to speak on Sabbath to the Chinese. They understood him very well. And we conversed together, and found that our dialects were very similar, the Hunanese being well understood here, and the Hunanese being understood in Hunan. In fact, the Mandarin language is to China like English to the world. Nearly everywhere you go in the empire there are some who understand it, and in the fifteen provinces it is the spoken language.

Brother Laird had a small tract translated while in Japan, by a scholar who has accepted present truth there. Dr. Perrine-Laird has adapted herself already to the Chinese food, and seems to enjoy it.

At present we are living in an ordinary Chinese house that has not been overhauled, while the printing-office is being built. Things go very slowly at best, since securing the deed is a long, tedious process, it having to go through the hands of so many officials. Brother and Sister Westrup have just gone up to Shang-tsai Hsien. Dr. and Mrs. Selmon were down to Hankow last week, and stopped a day with us. We see each other only about once in three months, and we make good use of the time.

All of us here have had malaria, but were sick only from one to three days with it. Owing to the wet season in this part of Honan, malaria has been more prevalent than for years, and has been of the severest type. We are all feeling well now. H. W. MILLER.