\iasm BvYShsS 13 XG Goruell University Library Dthaca, New York CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Libra’ ry BV 3415.B8 M artyred missionaries of the China inlan iii 1924 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES OF THE abn. INLAND, MISSION CAV WU + ¢ ae sa2a1gstquossy ‘apis yows uo ajod [[e} ¥ sey pue uaaios padyy-uoseip aq} puryaq spuvys Avaajes ayy (‘gz1 ‘d aag) ‘0061 '6 Ainf{ uo Yeap 0} nd osaM UaIpTIYo pur satreuorsslY Fr aovld sty vy ‘IS-NVHS ‘NA-NVOA-IVL LV NANVA S.NUISH-NA YONUAAOO FHL ARTYRED MISSIONARIES OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION Wirs a REcORD OF THE ERILS & SUFFERINGS OF SOME WHO ESCAPED WITH PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS é EpITED BY MARSHALL BROOMHALL, B.A. LONDON: MORGAN & SCOTT, 12 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C. CHINA INLAND MISSION, NEWINGTON GREEN, N. MCMI ®&® Ge, Wasen BY3SHIS Bb \N \4 3-9 In Loving Memory of THOSE MEMBERS OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION WHO SUFFERED MARTYRDOM DURING THE SAD CRISIS OF 1900 AND IN Grateful Weeognition OF GOD’S GREAT GOODNESS TO THOSE WHO WERE MERCIFULLY DELIVERED O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance . . . The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, The flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water . . And there was none to bury them.—Ps. lxxix. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, That they may rest from their labours ; For their works follow with them.—Rev. xiv. 13. PREFACE To the many bereaved hearts, and to the many more who during the past sad months have suffered with us, and have cheered and upheld us by their beautiful trust and by their loving sympathy, by their gifts for the distressed missionaries and converts, and by their earnest prayers, we pen a few lines in preface to this record of hitherto unwonted experiences. And let our first note, even now, be one of thanksgiv- ing and praise to Gop; “Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood . . . to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever, Amen.” Let us say with the Psalmist, “I will sing unto the Lorp as long as I live: I will sing praise to my Gop while I have any being. Let my meditation be sweet unto Him. I will rejoice in the Lorp.”—Ps. civ. 33, 34, R.V. Is if not a glad thought that our meditation may be sweet unto Him to whom we owe our all for this life, to whom we owe the blessed prospect of our eternal home in His presence? We thank Him for the grace that won for Himself our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ whose memory is so precious to us, and to whom grace was given to finish their course with joy and the ministry committed unto them; no fruitless ministry was theirs! many of those who were led to Christ by them share with them the martyr’s joy and the martyr’s crown. Their Lorp trusted them with great trial, and by His grace they proved trust- vill MARTYRED MISSIONARIES worthy. Who will follow in their train as they followed their Saviour and King? We have lost much in losing such fellow-workers, but all we have lost the Lorp Jesus has gained, and do not our inmost souls say, He is worthy. We cannot forget His words, uttered on the eve of His own martyrdom, “ Father, I long (lit.) that those whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory.” Shall we regret that His longing is fulfilled ? But ah, poor China has lost many of her best friends, native and foreign! Will not some hear the voice of the Master calling them to go out and take the place of those called higher, to shepherd the flocks now scattered and bereaved, and to gather the fruit of the life-work as well as of the terrible suffering and death of our native and foreign brethren and sisters who have gone to their reward ? Gop has made no mistake in what He has permitted ; His interest in the spread of Christ’s kingdom is greater than ours; our hearts cannot but ache for the places left empty, and for the shepherdless Christians, and we are thankful for the record that “Jesus wept.” But we trust our omnipotent Lorp, and are sure that His tender heart would not have allowed such trials had there been any easier way of securing the fuller triumphs of the Gospel. The Apostle Paul rejoiced to fill-to-the-full (lit.) his share of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh for the sake of the Church. Let us pray that the record of these sufferings may stimulate us to greater self-denial, andethat Christ’s people in the home-land may share in the coming blessing, and let us never forget that a million a month in China are dying without Gop. J. Hupson Taytor. Davos, December 1900. EDITOR’S PREFACE THE China Inland Mission was formed in 1865. Through thirty-three years, during which its members itinerated in all the interior provinces of China, some of them crossing and recrossing the whole country, and the entire number carrying on for many years settled work in fourteen pro- vinces, we have gratefully to record that no member of the Mission suffered death by violence or accident. The first to suffer was Mr. Fleming, who was murdered in November 1898 in the province of Kuei-chau. During the sad crisis of this year the China Inland Mission has been called to bear the heaviest loss of any Society. Of the one hundred and twenty-seven adults and the forty-four children known to have been killed among the Protestant Missionary Societies, the China Inland Mission has lost fifty-two adults and sixteen children, while the worst is feared for six more adults and four children (Mr. and Mrs. S. McKee and one child, Mr. and Mrs. I’Anson and three children, Miss Aspden and Miss M. E. Smith). As we have received no confirmation of their death, we have not included memorial notices, though we fear there is no hope as to their having escaped. This loss has chiefly fallen upon the province of Shan-si, where of the eighty-nine missionaries of the China Inland Mission in the province at the time forty-one are known to have been killed, and the x MARTYRED MISSIONARIES same is feared for the six more mentioned above. To these must be.added the many native Christians in connection with the Mission; their number will probably never be fully known. While we mourn for the faithful labourers taken from us, we cannot but recognise the mercy which has limited the loss of life in the China Inland Mission to only three provinces. Had not the crisis been precipitated before the plans of the Chinese Government had been completed, which was to have been the ill-omened intercalary eighth moon, in all probability few foreigners would have escaped to tell the sad story. When we think of what might have been the loss among the eight hundred members of the Mission and other Societies, we cannot but recognise with thankfulness the restraining goodness of God. The present volume only deals with these three pro- vinces in which life has been sacrificed —Shan-si, Chih-li, and Cheh-kiang, and the one province Ho-nan, where, though all Mission property has been destroyed, and the missionaries were in most imminent perils and dangers, all have been marvellously delivered. The magnitude of the crisis imposes strict limits upon the record. Only the briefest memorial notices have been possible, and many interesting letters could not be included. Of the memorial notices some are reprinted from China’s Millions, some are new, or rewritten as circumstances have enabled us to give more details from the China side. Where little has been said about their work in the Mission- field, this has been occasioned by the brevity of their time of service, or because those most competent to write con- cerning their colleagues have perished with them. The plan pursued has been to group all memorials and letters geographically. Two maps are given, one show- EDITOR'S PREFACE xi ing at a glance the stations of the China Inland Mission, the other—specially prepared—with the routes taken by those who escaped marked in red. The route of each party has a different sign and can be easily followed. To facilitate reference to places, an index of the route map is given. The spelling of all places throughout the book is uniform with the route map. By reference to the general index it is possible to trace all the information of importance concerning each person, which space would not permit repeating in each individual case. Some interesting information is given in the Appendix, where will be found, besides other articles, the complete record of all messages by cable received by the Mission during the crisis, and a diary of the chief events of the present year, compiled from the China Blue-Books, The Times, and the North China Herald. In this book no attempt’ has been made to minimise China’s crime; nor, on the other hand, have we failed to gratefully record the kindly acts of many of the Chinese officials and people. The records of perils and sufferings are given substantially as they were written by the sufferers themselves without the willing suppression of any known facts. With regard to those who have been killed, nothing can be gained by the narration of harrowing details. In most cases they appear to have been put to death speedily. In consequence, however, of statements which have repeatedly appeared in print, which have either intentionally stated or by a cruel carelessness in the use of language have implied outrage, which reports have caused untold anguish to many, we feel it necessary to definitely say that so far as facts are yet known, such statements or insinuations are untrue and without foundation. b xil MARTYRED MISSIONARIES Would that the dark chapter of this terrible crisis had not been made darker by the awful Blagovestschensk massacre, and by the conduct of certain troops in Peking, which, according to the Rev. A. H. Smith, who was present, led to the wells being choked with women who had com- mitted suicide. But aghast as we are in the presence of such facts, one’s blood runs cold to read of a certain firm in Birmingham which makes money out of idols manufactured for China. They have recently stated that “a member of the firm is at present in China, and the fruits of his visit, combined with the present period of dulness, will soon be seen in a fresh supply of Chinese idols more hideous in design and turned out in larger numbers than ever.” To massacre and murder the body, or to help damn the soul, which is worse? Governments doubtless have their duty in China at present, but in judging let us remember Christ’s injunction, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” In conclusion, acknowledgment is made of Mr. Marcus Wood’s kind help in furnishing all the information sent officially from Shanghai, of the free use of what was collated by Mr. Goodall for the Memorials in China’s Millions, and of many valuable suggestions and much loving assistance from my Father. MarsHaLL BROOMHALL. Cuina Intanp Mission, January 1901. CONTENTS PAGE Preface by Rev. J. Hupson Taynor, M.B.GS. . ; : . vii INTRODUCTORY THE CRISIS IN CHINA: Its CAUSES AND IssuEs Chinese Patriotism — Opium—Policy of grab—Empress Dow- ager’s polity—Concessions—Roman Catholicism—Famine —Missions and the crisis—Problems of reconstruction i 3 THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI Classification of missionary operations—Governor Yii-hsien and the Boxers 17 SOUTH SHAN-SI THE SWEDISH MIssIONARY SOCIETY Warned by officials—Governor Tuan’s oa Mr. G. Parker’s letter 22 SOUTH CENTRAL SHAN-SI In MEMORIAM Miss E. Whitchurch, Miss E. Searell, Mr. and Mrs. McConnell, Mr, and Mrs, J. Young, Miss A. King, Miss E. Burton, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Kay, Miss F. E. Nathan, Miss M. R. Nathan, Miss E. M. Heaysman, Miss E. Dobson, Miss E. Hurn, Mr. and Mrs. G. Peat, Mr. A. Woodroffe, Mr. D. Barratt, Mrs. E. J. Cooper, Miss H. nee Miss M. Huston, Mrs. A. E. Glover . 24 xiv MARTYRED MISSIONARIES EscAPE FROM P’ING-yao TO HANn-KOW Mr. Saunders and party—Riot—Flight—Robbed and beaten— Death of Miss Rice—Three times across the Yellow River —Lodged in prison—Death of Mrs. E. J. Cooper and Miss Huston—Han-kow 3 : EscaPE FROM LU-CH’ENG Mr. E. J. Cooper and party—Yii-hsien’s Paine Pree to his mother Escape From Lu-AN Rey. G. E. Glover’s story : en to face with death— Hunger and nakedness . F : Miss Gates’s story: Empress Dowager’s edict—Flight—Robbed —Only weeds to eat—Attempt to burn: to trample to death—As prisoners—Attempt to poison—In good hands at last—Death of Mrs. E. J. Cooper and Miss Huston EscAPE FROM KIE-HIU TO P’ING-YANG-FU Miss French’s story: Riot—Flight to Yamén — Kindness of the official ‘ : : ESCAPE FROM P'ING-YANG TO HANn-KOW Mr. Dreyer and party—Native Christians attacked—Boxers and officials in league— Rumours of war— T’ai-yiian-fu and other riots—Ordered to leave—Fate of fellow-missionaries —Flight—Attacked by Boxers—An anxious journey— Friendly officialk—Faithful native Christians . ‘ NORTH CENTRAL SHAN-SI The T’ai-yiian-fu massacre—Fen-chau massacre—Letter from Mrs. Atwater In MEMORIAM Dr. and Mrs. Wm. Millar Wilson, Miss J. Stevens, Miss M. E. Clarke, Mr. and Mrs. Lundgren, Miss Eldred, and Former Fellow-labourers . PAGE 67 77 81 89 101 103 126 129 CONTENTS NORTH SHAN-SI Holiness Union and C.I.M. workers—Story of So-p’ing mas- sacre In Memoriam Mr. and Mrs. Persson, Miss J. Lundell, Miss J. Engvall, Miss M. Hedlund, Miss M. Johansson, Mr. E. Pettersson, Mr. N. Carleson, Mr. O. A. L. Larsson, Mr. G. E. Karlberg, Mr. Ogren ‘ ‘ : ‘ . THE PROVINCE OF CHIH-LI The T’ien-tsin bombardment and Paoting-fu massacre In Memoriam Rev. Wm. Cooper, Mr. and Mrs. B. Bagnall Shut up in Cheng-ting-fu CAPTURED BY THE BOXERS Mr. Green and party—Danger—Flight to mountains— Dis- covered—Hiding in a cave—Shot by Boxers—Prisoners— Turned adrift—Desolate—Betrayed—Bound and carried on poles—A Boxer council—A friend in need—A trans- formation THE PROVINCE OF CHEH-KIANG The day before the massacre—The K’ii-chau and Ch’ang-shan riots. F é : ‘ F . : ; ‘ In Memoriam Mr. and Mrs. D. B. Thompson, Miss J. Desmond, Miss E. Man- chester, Miss E. Sherwood, Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Ward, Miss E, A. Thirgood. [Mr. Fleming}—Children’s Memorial xv PAGE 144 148 153 155 160 161 183 186 XV MARTYRED MISSIONARIES THE PROVINCE OF HO-NAN Résumé of the work—A comparison between Shan-si and Ho-nan THE SHE-K’I-TIEN Riot Dr. G. Whitfield Guinness’ story: Riot—In hiding—Attempts to escape—Searched for by Soldiers—A step between me and death—Our mysterious protector—Home in sight— Letters written during the riot TH SIANG-CH’ENG TROUBLES Our day of trouble and of God’s deliverance. Mr. Gracie’s story: The storm gathering— Flight — Mobbed — The Lord’s provision—Safe at last 3 RIoTS AT CHAU-KIA-K’EO AND SI-HUA Mr. Lack’s story : Premises plundered—Flight by night . Mr. Shearer’s story: Riot—-Escape to Yamén—Suspense — Prayer answered—Flight to T’ai-ho—A kind friend From SIN-AN TO T’AL-HO Perilous journey of three Swedish lady missionaries—In the hands of robbers—Big Knife Society—The robbers’ village —A faithful native—Weary i a ica Welcome at T’ai-ho ; : ; ; THREE WEEKS’ DANGERS AND DELIVERANCES Mr. Argento’s experiences : Rioted—A struggle in the dark— Attempts to burn him—Beaten—Left for dead—A hun- dred and forty miles on a stretcher—Pursued by Boxers— A friend at last My Escarg FROM SIANG-CH’ENG Mr. Bird’s escape—Flight—Robbed—Deserted—Taken prisoner —A run for life—aA friendly official. Letters from Mrs.- Talbot and Mr. Ford ; PAGE 203 206 218 223 225 230 236 244 CONTENTS Xvil CONCERNING THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS Progress of Missions— Persecution in Peking—Letters from Elder Si—Four letters from C.-c.-h_—Details of persecu- tion in Shan-si—Shan-si Christians, by Miss French— Ho-nan Christians, by Messrs. Conway and Gracie—Minister Conger’s letter—Future developments, by Mr. D. E. Hoste CAUSES FOR THANKFULNESS Restraining mercies—Kind acts of officials— Viceroy a PHen RPP OW bp chih-tung—Governor Tuan—Lan-chau Tao-tai, ete. APPENDICES Complete Set of Mission Cables from China Diary of Events from January 1, 1900 A Chinese Statesman on Opium : China’s Apologia. Text and Translation . A Boxer Placard ; Letter to The Times by Mr. Sloan, eon of 0. IM. Official Status of Missionaries . Lady Missionaries in the Interior Missionaries and Looting . Missionary Societies in China Detailed Statistics of all Missionary Societies in each Province GENERAL INDEX . InpDEx To Rourrt Mar . PAGE 257 285 293 298 301 302 304 306 309 312 313 315 316 325 329 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Yii-hsien’s Yamén in T’ai-yiian-fu . ‘ . Frontispiece Terraced hills in Shan-si Group of Shan-si workers who escaped A Christian helper, and a Shan-si cart road T’ai-yiian-fu city wall, gate, and a ruined bridge T’ai-yiian-fu sacred tree, temple, and bell Group of native Christians at Chau-kia-k’eo Group of Ho-nan workers , Chapel and boys’ school at She-k’i-tien Street and river at Chau-kia-k’eo A Missionary Palimpsest Group of Hung-tung Church officers Mr. Kay, Elder Ren, Evangelist Li Group of Ta-ning native Christians Cave dwellings in Shan-si Text of China’s Apologia PORTRAITS Miss E. Whitchurch, Miss E. Searell, Miss E. M. Heaysman, Mr. and Mrs. J. Young . : Mr. and Mrs. McConnell, Miss E. Burton, Miss A. Eldred, Miss A. King Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Kay and family Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Peat, Miss E. Dobson, Miss E. G. Hurn, Miss F, E. Nathan, Miss M. R. Nathan Mr. D, Barratt, Mr. A. Woodroffe . 55 102 103 126 127 204 205 222 223 255 262 263 268 269 302 24 25 40 41 54 XX MARTYRED MISSIONARIES FACING PAGE Mrs, E. J. Cooper, Mrs. A. E. Glover, Miss M. E. Huston, Miss H. Rice 64 Mr. Wm. S. Fleming ‘ 65 Mr. and Mrs. Lundgren, Miss M. E. 2. Clarke, Miss J. Stevens 128 Dr. and Mrs. Wm. Millar Wilson 129 Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Pigott and son, Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Stokes 140 Mr. and Mrs. J. Simpson, Mr. A. Hoddle, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Beynon 141 Mrs, Persson, Miss Engvall, Miss M. Hedlund, Miss A.J Pais Miss J. Lundell 148 Mr. Persson, Mr. N. Carleson, Mr. a E. Karlberg, Mr. O. A. L. Larsson, Mr. E. Pettersson 149 Mr. and Mrs. B. Bagnall and family 154 Rev. Wm. Cooper . 155 Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. 8. Green and family 160 Miss Jessie G. Gregg 161 Mr. and Mrs. D. B. ieee Miss J. noe Miss E. Manchester, Miss E. Sherwood ‘ 184 Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Ward, Miss E. A. Thirgood 185 MAPS Cuts, showing all the stations of the C.I-M. up to June 1900. ‘ : 4 ‘ 3 ‘ To face page 1 Route Map, with routes taken by Missionaries who escaped marked in red é At end of volume MARTYRED MISSIONARIES OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION BensaMin BaGNaLu Francis Epira NatHan Emity BaGnaLi May Rost NatHan Davin Barratt P. A. OcREN ELIZABETH BuRToN Winuiam GRAHAM Prat MILDRED CLARKE Heren Prat Witiram Coorer Hartiz Rick Marearet Cooper (Mrs. E. J.) Eprra E. SearEun JOSEPHINE DESMOND EpitH SHERWOOD Epita Dosson JANE STEVENS ANNIE ELDRED Emma ANN THIRGOOD Fiora Constance GLOVER Davip Barrp THOMPSON Eniza Mary Heaysman AGNES THOMPSON Emma Gzroreiana Hurn Winiiam Minuar Witson, M.B., Mary E. Huston O.M. Duncan Kay CHRISTINE WILSON CAROLINE Kay Emity E. B. WuitcHurcH ANNIE Kine ALFRED WOODROFFE Anton P, Lunp@REN JoHn Youne Exsa LunpGRen ALicE Youne Erta MancHesteR G. FREDERICK WARD Grorce McConneLL Erta Warp IsaBELLA McConneLu Associates N. CAaRLESON O. A. L. Larsson Miss J. ENGVALL Miss J. LunpELn Miss M. Hepiunp S. A. PErRsson Miss A. JOHANSSON Mrs. PERsson G. E. KarLBere E. Parrersson Children Guapys BaGNaLL Mareretta Prat BRAINERD COOPER Mary Prat FaitH GLOVER JESSIE SAUNDERS VERA GREEN IsaBEL SAUNDERS JENNIE Kay Epwin THOMPSON Mary Luriry Sipyvey THOMPSON Epita Lutiey HERBERT WARD KennetH McConneLb ALEXANDER WILSON Unconfirmed Marra ASPDEN Marearet E. Suir Mr. anp Mrs. OC. S. ANSON AND THREE CHILDREN Mr. anp Mrs. Stewart McKEE aND ONE CHILD MARTYRED MISSIONARIES OF OTHER PROTESTANT MISSIONARY SOCIETIES Soctety for the Propagation of the Gospel Rev. 8, M. Brooxs Rev. H. V. Norman Rev. C. RoBrnson English Baptist Missionary Society Rev. 8. W. Eywats Miss B, C, Rennant Rev. AnD Mrs, Hersert Dixon Rev. anp Mrs. W. A. M‘CurRracH Rev. anp Mrs. F.S. Wurtenouse Rev. anp Mrs. T. J. UNDERWOOD Rev. anp Mrs. G. B. FartHine Miss Stewart WITH THREE CHILDREN The Sheo Yang Mission Mr. anp Mrs. T. W. Picorr AND Son, WELLESLEY Mr. anp Mrs. SToKES Mr. Jonn Ropinson Dr. ano Mrs. A. E. Lovirr AND ONE CHILD Mr. anp Mrs. Simpson Miss DuvaL Miss Coomps The British and Foreign Bible Society Rey. AnD Mrs. W. T. Brynon, WITH THREE CHILDREN Unconnected Mr. A. Hoppe The Christian and Missionary Alliance Mr. anp Mrs. E. ALSon Mr. anp Mrs. O. ForsBerG Mr. anp Mrs. C. BLoMBERG Mr. anp Mrs. A. BIncMaRK Mr. anp Mrs. E. ANDERSON Mr. AARBERG Miss E. Erikson Mr. FrEepstrom ? Mr. A. E. Pauu Mr. anp Mrs. O. NorEn Mr. anp Mrs. F. Nystr6m Mr. anp Mrs. M. Nystrému Miss Hanna Lunp Miss M. Luyp Mr. STERNBERG ? ALSO TWELVE CHILDREN The Scandinavian Missionary Alliance Mr. C. J. Luzer (others missing) The Swedish Mongolian Mission Mr. anp Mrs. HELLSBERG Mr, WauLSTEDT (others missing) MARTYRED MISSIONARIES xxiil The American Board Rev. anp Mrs. E. R. Atwater Rev. anp Mrs. D. H. Ciapp AND FOUR CHILDREN Rev. F. W. Davis Rey. anp Mrs. C. W. Price Rev. H. T. Prrxin AND ONE CHILD Rev. G. L. WILLiamMs Miss Brrp Miss A. A. GouLp Miss PartRIDGE Miss M. S. Morrinn The American Presbyterian North Rev. anD Mrs. F. E. S. Stucox Dr. anp Mrs. C. V. R. Hoper AND THREE CHILDREN Dr. G. Y. TayLor LETTERS OF SYMPATHY GRATEFUL recognition should be made of the many private and official expressions of sympathy which have been received during this time of deep sorrow and sad loss through which the China Inland Mission, in common with other Societies, has been called to pass. As these letters addressed to the Mission as a body express what is felt for each sufferer individually, a few are printed here for the sake of all the relatives and friends of those who have been taken from us. From THE Rev. B. Barine-Goutp, Secretary of the Church Missionary Society Dear Mr. Stoan— .. . With much prayerful sympathy have I followed (since allowed to see the newspaper) the harrowing accounts which have reached us from China, and most keenly do I sympathise with the bereaved families of your missionaries who have received the martyrs crown, and with your Society in the appalling blow which has fallen wpon you. I cannot but believe that all that is occurring will, in God’s good providence, be overruled for the further opening out of China to the Gospel message. May many be raised up, filled with a double measure of the Divine Spirit, to take the place of those who have fallen. Kindly assure your Board of my profound sympathy.—Ever most truly yours, B. Bariwe-Goup. From THE Rev. WILLIAM DALE, Secretary of the English Presbyterian Missionary Society My pear Mr. Woop—At the valedictory meeting last night, Mr. Connell, our convener, made a very sympathetic reference to the heavy losses of your Mission in China, and suggested that I as secre- tary might convey the sorrow and the prayers of the great meeting for the safety of the survivors still in peril of your Mission bands. No LETTERS OF SYMPATHY XXV formal resolution was passed, but Iam sure I interpret the feeling of the largest valedictory meeting we have ever had, when I write to you in tts name and tell you that we English Presbyterians sorrow with you in your sorrow, and with you pray for a great blessing to follow all the present confusion and bloodshed in China.—Yours most truly, Wu. Dare. FROM THE FRIENDS’ FoREIGN MIssIoN ASSOCIATION MINUTE Whilst recording our thankfulness for the safety of our own missionaries, who have all arrived in Shanghai, our sympathy is awakened for owr friends of the China Inland Mission, whose wide- spread work has necessarily involved its missionaries in special danger in this crisis, We deeply sympathise with them, and with the be- reaved relatives and friends in the loss of valuable lives laid down in the cause of Christ. Our continued prayer is, that these things that have happened, painful as they are to our human feelings, may ultimately be seen to result in the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that the glorious work of proclaiming His salvation in China may speedily be resumed, without some of the hindrances which have existed in the past. From THE LONDON Missionary SOCIETY RESOLUTION The directors desire to express to their fellow-workers in China connected with other Missionary Societies their deep sympathy in the sorrows through which they have been called to pass during the present troubles. Especially would they convey to the committees of the American Board, the Baptist Missionary Society, the China Inland Mission, the Presbyterian Missions, and the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel and other missionary organisations, their very sincere and fraternal condolences in the loss of many valuable and noble lives among their missionary staff. They are well aware that those who have thus won the crown of martyrdom for Christ would have been foremost in rejoicing that they were counted worthy to lay down their lives in the service of their Lord. They are also assured that as the Saviour’s cross and passion were followed by His glorious resurrection, and by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the martyrdom of His servants will also bear rich fruit for the salva- tion of those who put them to death. They would venture, therefore, while sharing in the sorrows which naturally follow the removal of honoured workers under such tragic conditions, to pray that the Xxvi MARTYRED MISSIONARIES Societies which have been bereaved may have occasion speedily to see that God is giving them special blessing in proportion to their present sorrow, and that their Missions may have a richer and more joyous fruitfulness in the future than they have ever yet known. R. Warpitaw THomupson, Foreign Secretary, L.M.S. From THE Moravian Mission BoaRD TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION Dear Breroren— ... With many who are lifting up hands for you to the God of all comfort, we beseech Him that great and lasting blessing may come out of these heavy afflictions. May He be a very present help in trouble to all your missionaries and the native Chris- tians. . . . The Master Builder may permit the taking down of some stones, but His foundation standeth sure, and His temple shall rise the higher and stronger and more glorious. Writing on the Anniversary of the commencement of the Reforma- tion, we cannot forbear to quote one verse from Luther's favourite psalm: “ Be still, and know that Iam God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” We trust the storm will soon have passed over, but through all the God of Jacob is your refuge, yea, the Lord of Hosts is with you.—We are, dear brethren, faithfully yours in the Lord, (Sigd. by) Taz Members or tHe Moravian Mission Boar. From THE Rev. Dr. E. E. JENKINS, Honorary Secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society My pear Mr. Broomuart—Strong expressions of condolence have reached you from sister Missionary Societies on the appalling losses your Mission has sustained. As I know the work of your brethren and have met them in China, I have read the telegrams and informa- tion from other sources bringing details of the Boxer persecution with intense and most painful interest. Please accept this expression of my deepest sympathy and the assurance of my incessant prayers that even these terrible fires of trial may rather purify than consume the glorious work of the China Inland Mission. To me it never appeared brighter, never more honowred, than now when from its ranks God is adding martyrs to His great army. Give my Christian love to Mr. Hudson Taylor, whose faith has been for many years the inspiration of us all. Phil. 4. 12.—Believe me, yours in the fellowship of our great Master, affectionately, E. E. JENELNs. B. Broomhall, Esq. MAP OF CHINA Sh 4 1. All Protestant Mission Stations in China up to June 1866, when the Gi.M.was founded (they numbered fifteen) These are underlined in black. ewing 2. The Stations of the China Inland Mission which(with the exception of Ning-po & Fung-hwa)have been opened since June I866. These are printed in red. os ° KUR-TSIj VUN-NAN-FU © wf CNW A alia aca CHINA INLAND MISSION Scalo of Milos IO 200 Fe a 800 — 100° __Lungitude East of Greenwich = fe 105 - - Nw if o Kwei-lwa-cheng, 7Kalf an TA- TUNG X = i i oTsurt-hua oe orehping j | PEKING U H ot : Ta-ning,o Sileng chen | KIB-C g | ua Ring atu 6 hangwu She The uan 7 AD rig le Dk a: es 9 Lange Tong ais Son Hen TM “sy z 2: VJ TUNGCHAU \a-yang oO lten-ch sa) pean G ne : Sra r| ° Ing kia N- S ~~} 9 Suitang CT © kwervancG ° GAN- SHUN ( o Mh-shan -. | s™. - a“ a KWEI-LIN ws ‘ olung-chan ,- x. - mL a Sarg Hsien! tren \ Siang-clien sour nie Fg ro? ole yy TL vA Tis ° PAO-TING TSI-NAN “ - TUNG AN By chee \ jsim-cHau{ HOu-CRAU ) 5 Po Pi00, PINGGYANG gl g -Kubwu rmtaur tang-chary: "Oo - efi uin-eh’eng_ U7 Wevhian g ON an 4 Veh. 4 9" Stay oa Tin-kong \ uu AY Sam Dat Ria ka” horv- chat fa % _ wok RO \ Be: kuan Tat-ho -" ‘ ° She ki tien \ , . s, Yoru nang \ "6 AN Kash Qveo)) Naloné LAUHIGANO Fan-ch ‘eng pee) BF H w V2 1 bret “KANG / 4 eet Vn ef OFi- - ae Chang pho . Eon Aon 1YueRchau ug tite HBL x Shaown CR TA NOUN) ome Yunghain, lin’) tha hing Ss as ~ nN 7\ » ‘ / KU AN G-" ~ San Vig ay \ sion UL. ENGLAND (Same Scale) e LONDON Stantords Geog Estab*London INTRODUCTORY THE CRISIS IN CHINA: ITS CAUSES AND ISSUES In the course of two years I travelled 8000 miles in inland China, and passed beyond its western official frontier into the mountain region occupied by the tributary Mantze tribes—rigid Buddhists of the Lamaistic type, and in the course of these journeys visited seventy- three Mission stations. In all, men and women, leading pure and exemplary lives, were striving under enormous difficulties to make known the Gospel. Everywhere an increasing hostility to foreigners was apparent, with causes such as the practical seizure of Chinese territory by certain Western Powers, the disastrous influence of the “ Hu nan Tracts,” the dread of a cataclysm of ancestral wrath following the introduction of railways, and of the overturning by the Christian propaganda of the social order which is the legacy of Confucius; the increasingly vigorous demands of the Roman niissionaries for temporal precedence, and their interference with litigation on behalf of converts to such an extent that it is at times impossible for a heathen to obtain justice in his own courts—and the inarticulate unrest produced by the fermentation of the Western leaven. The problem of China, religiously as well as politically, is now upon us. Into her archaic and unreformed Orientalism the Western leaven has fallen for good or evil. Western civilisation, that strangely mingled cup of blessing and cursing, has been offered to her, and she rejects it. The Gospel has been offered to her in a foreign dress and interwoven with treaty obligations, and it has brought not peace, but a sword. Events call a halt in missionary operations—a halt not to admit defeat, but to bring up overwhelming reinforcements. The plan of campaign may have to be revised. . . . British generals and soldiers have learned much in a year of war in South Africa. Are the armies of the Cross to learn and unlearn nothing by forty years of warfare in China? The word “retreat” is now on the lips of many, but the Church of Christ cannot, dare not, retire from the blood-drenched battlefields of the Far East, so long as the Captain of our salvation is in the front, and men and women are ready to fight and die under His banner. But this service requires our best and ablest men, and loving women of discretion and mature judgment. From a Paper read at the Church Congress in Newcastle by Mrs. Bishop. INTRODUCTORY THE CRISIS IN CHINA: ITS CAUSES AND ISSUES In 1898 the Royal Geographical Society of England pub- lished a Historical Atlas of the Chinese Empire showing the political boundaries of China’s many dynasties from B.c. 2205 to the present time. A nation must have a wonderful history for this to be possible, and such a history indicates unusual characteristics. The knowledge of this unexampled past has begotten in the Chinaman a pride of nation peculiar to himself. It is not easy for the ordinary European, with his love of change and admiration for the lightning-like rapidity of modern inventions and discoveries, to appreciate Chinese patriotism, with its tenacious love of unchanged traditions. In some respects their minds and ours are in perfect contrast. We almost worship the new, while they reverence the old. The pride of an old English county family in its genealogies and heraldry is known among us. This is magnified a hundredfold in the Chinese clan, with the ancestral hall and tablets ever before them as the chief object of their venera- tion. Their national pride is the aggregate of millions of such families, encouraged by a history besides which that of every other nation is dwarfed. When Bismarck and Gladstone died some one remarked that we were passing from the days of great men to the days of clever men. This might have been a Chinese comment. They acknowledge we are clever in mechanical invention, but to them that does not spell greatness any 4 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES more than a modern schoolboy’s knowledge of certain scientific facts proves his mental superiority to Newton, to whom these facts were unknown. The railway passenger travelling at sixty miles an hour may be a cripple, while the foot passenger may be an athlete. To a Chinaman the mere rate of progress proves nothing unless it be a lack of dignity. Whether travelling by express or on foot be better is not argued here. These references are only made to reveal the Chinese point of view, and to help to a better appreciation of that national temper which resents all foreign intrusion. It may be asked, with such a people what have been the causes which have occasioned these recent troubles? A statement of what we believe these to have been does not imply that all are harmful. All progress is distasteful to the Chinese mind, and contrary to his education. To us Abraham may be an example of faith, without necessitating our adoption of his nomadic life. Not so with a Chinaman. How Confucius dressed or took his food is to him almost as important as the spirit of his teachings. Any change from the habits of the past is a departure from his stereotyped example. From the commencement, then, we may be sure that the adventurous enterprise and push of European and American traders were not welcomed. Had our commercial relation- ship been free from blame, it is still most probable that China would have put obstacles in the way of national intercourse. How much more so when, under the English flag, unprincipled men commenced to smuggle opium into the country. Chinese conservatism and pride do not free us from blame. It was certain that the misunderstandings natural to people so widely separated by birth and education, should be intensi- fied by the iniquitous trade we permitted and afterwards supported. War ensued, and the conquered Chinese were compelled to make concessions and pay indemnity. We do not say that without a struggle the Chinese would have opened their country to foreign trade. We do not know what might have been, but we do say that it is an unspeak- INTRODUCTORY 5 able shame and a national disgrace that opium should have been the casus bellt. The evil consequences which followed cannot be over- estimated. The possibility of winning a happy and cordial relationship was hopelessly lost. That bitter element was introduced which has made all subsequent intercourse un- welcome. Distrust and hatred only led to further trouble, which resulted in more pressure from Europe and fresh con- cessions from China. Then, only three years ago, came the fatal act, the seizing of Kiao-chau by the Germans. From every point of view this was an error. Seized in consequence of the murder of two German missionaries, a mistrust of missions was engendered, and a storm of anger aroused against every- thing foreign. It awoke the greed of the European nations, and the policy of “ grab” ensued. China had already lost Macao, Hong-kong, Formosa, and her suzerainty of Korea. Manchuria was slipping from her grasp. Now Kiao-chau, Port Arthur, and Wei-hai-wei, three invaluable harbours, were taken from her, and the partitioning of China became the talk of Europe. China was not ignorant of this. The writer has seen maps of China published in Chinese, with the suggested “ spheres of influ- ence ” of each European Power clearly defined. These were circulated among the people, and lost nothing by translating the words “spheres of influence” by “ dependencies.” Was it to be expected that the Chinese Government would calmly ignore the book published to the world under the title of The Break-up of China? Should we respect them if they had ? At Peking two forces were at work. One, the reform party, under the Emperor himself, which sought To meet such aggression by internal development, by the educa- tion of the masses, the purification of the administration, and peaceful international relationship. ... In the conservative party, with the Empress Dowager at its head, foreign aggression engendered the opposite spirit—a spirit of resistance. They looked upon every effort at reform on European lines as uncalled for, and as a pandering to the aggressor... They determined on armed resistance, and extensive 6 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES arsenals at Shanghai, Foo-chow, Tien-tsin, and Wu-ch’ang were busy day and night manufacturing modern weapons of warfare, and great bodies of troops were massed in and around Peking.! The Empress Dowager’s coup d’éat is known to all. With power once again in her hands, she determined on the mad policy of war. In November 1899 she issued an edict, from which the following are extracts :— Our empire is now labouring under great difficulties, which are becoming daily more serious. The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other in their endeavours to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories. They think that China, having neither money nor troops, would never venture to go to war with them. They fail to understand, however, that there are certain things to which this empire can never consent, and that, if hardly pressed upon, we have no alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause. It is our special command, therefore, that should any high official find himself so hard pressed by circumstances that nothing short of a war would settle matters, he is expected to set himself resolutely to work out his duty to this end. Or, perhaps, it would be that war has already actually been declared. Under such circum- stances there is no possible chance of the Imperial Government con- senting to an immediate conference for the restoration of peace. It behoves, therefore, that our viceroys, governors, and commanders-in- chief throughout the whole empire unite forces and act together without distinction or particularising of jurisdictions, so as to present a combined front to the enemy, exhorting and encouraging their officers and soldiers in person, to fight for the preservation of their homes and native soil from the encroaching footsteps of the foreign aggressor. Never should the word “Peace” fall from the mouths of our high officials, nor should they even allow it to rest for a moment within their breasts. With such a country as ours, with her vast area, stretching out several tens of thousands of li, her immense natural resources, and her hundreds of millions of inhabitants, if only each and all of you would prove his luyalty to his Emperor and love of country, what, indeed, is there to fear from any invader? Let no one think of making peace, but let each strive to preserve from destruction and spoliation his ancestral homes and graves from the ruthless hands of the inyader. Let these our words be made known to each and all within our dominions. 1 The writer, who spoke to many of the troops under Tung-fu-hsiang when they were passing through Shan-si, on their way to the coast, received only one answer to the question, ‘‘ What are you going to do?” It was this, ‘We are going to turn the Germans out of Kiao-chau.” INTRODUCTORY t Meanwhile other forces were at work among the people. Concessions had been obtained for the opening up of rail- ways and mines. Land had to be bought, and frequently by compulsory sales. The European and American agents were doubtless upright in all their transactions, and paid handsomely for all land bought. The seller, however, only received a small portion of the sum paid. The Chinese officials appointed to conduct negotiations pocketed the larger share. That the foreign surveyors were ignorant of this and blameless, did not lessen the wrongs of the people. They cursed the foreigner and his railway, as a new means whereby unprincipled officials were enabled to squeeze them. Graves also had to be removed, the feng-shui was ignored, the good luck of districts was spoiled. Drought and famine followed,—conclusive proofs of heaven’s displeasure. Another important cause of irritation was the policy pursued by the Roman Catholic Church. Without passing any criticism upon the priests as men, the policy of the Church as a Church stands revealed to all. On March 15, 1899, after years of pressure, by the help of the French Minister in Peking they obtained an edict from the Chinese Govern- ment granting official rank to each order in the Roman hierarchy. Bishops were given the rank of viceroy, vicar- generals, and archdeacons, the rank of provincial treasurer or tao-t’ai, etc. That the policy of Protestant missions is radically different from that pursued by the Roman Catholic Church is conclusively proved by the fact that all Protestant missions refused this official status when the Chinese Govern- ment subsequently offered it to them (see Appendix G). The Roman Catholics, who have ever been ready to assist their adherents in lawsuits, by means of this official status were enabled to more powerfully support their people, oppose the mandarins, and generally interfere in Chinese political and legal matters. That unprincipled men were led to seek entrance into the Roman Catholic Church simply to obtain the priests’ help in courts of law is only what could be expected under such circumstances. Local difficulties assumed serious proportions, and an Anti- 8 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES Romanist feeling was soon engendered. One who has lived eighteen years in China says :— Neither the territorial greed of European nations, nor recent floods and famine, nor disturbance of geomantic influences by mining or railway engineers, nor yet the preaching of the Gospel, was the im- mediate cause of the Boxer rising. The immediate cause was oppo- sition to Roman Catholicism, and the place where the trouble began was in K’i-chou, in Pao-ting-fu. These then are some of the factors which have led to the present rising. The favourable occasion was not wanting either. The rains had failed and the people were face to face with a serious famine. “The city officials were at their wits’ end, having exhausted all the resources of their religious systems, of geomancy, etc., in the hopes of securing rain. Repeated fasts were proclaimed, sacrifices made at all the famous temples and shrines, live frogs were buried at the various springs, the south gate of the cities were closed, but all in vain.” It needed but the suggestion that the “foreign devils” were the cause, and the fiercest passions of men would be unloosed against the supposed enemies of their country. Had not foreign powers obtained concessions by force of arms? Had not opium been forced upon them and millions of their money drained from the country? Had not valuable harbours been ruthlessly seized, and were not rail- ways and mines disturbing the spiritual forces of the country? Were not the Roman Catholics overbearing in their conduct, and were not missions in general teaching men to neglect the gods of their ancestors? Had not drought and famine come to prove Heaven’s displeasure ? The Chinese Government could not have chosen a time more suited to their purpose. The Boxer movement, “originally anti-dynastic, then anti-Catholic, was cleverly laid hold of by the Government and turned into the van- guard of the Imperial movement against Europe.” That the Chinese Government is responsible for the sad massacres which have taken place, and answerable for INTRODUCTORY 9 the deliberate attempt to exterminate the foreign element in China, is proved beyond a doubt by Imperial edicts and other documents in the possession of the Allied Govern- ments, and by the testimony of Chinese officials and natives in many parts of the Empire. Perhaps the blackest edict of all was one short preg- nant sentence telegraphed all over China by the Empress Dowager during last June. A friendly native in a brigadier-general’s Yamen confidentially handed a copy of this to one of our Ho-nan missionaries. It was as follows:— Yang-ren pih shah, yang-ren Cut huei ki shah. The foreigners must be killed, even if the foreigners retire, they aust still be killed.’ This much is said to roughly indicate the causes which have occasioned the sad rising in which the China Inland Mission, with other societies, has suffered so severely. No reference has yet been made to the criticisms which accuse Missions of being the cause of all this trouble. The important distinction between the policies pursued by Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions has been already sufficiently well indicated by the remarks made as to their respective attitudes towards “official status.” Nevertheless this vital difference is utterly ignored by most critics. The papers which give themselves most freely to this are papers which refuse to insert replies from the friends of missions. Cases could be cited, were it necessary, but as Mrs. Bishop, the well-known Asiatic traveller, recently said, “The mistakes of missionaries is a phrase which by repetition has acquired solidity, but which when examined is found to have a rather vague basis.” Viewed from the spiritual standpoint there is no desire to controvert the fact that the conflict between good and evil prevails in China as it ever has done and will do in this world. That truth would only triumph over evil 1 It is reported that when this telegram was despatched to the south of China the one word shah, to kill, was altered to pao, protect. Upon investi- gation two high officials, Hsii-ching-cheng and Yiian-ch’ang, confessed to having altered this telegram. For this humane act they were both cut in half. 10 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES through sore conflict, Christ fully recognised when He said, “ Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law : and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” That Christian Missions have aroused this antagonism in China and that a stern conflict of life and death has begun there, the Church of Christ must unreservedly acknowledge. That the principalities and powers of darkness have inspired the anti-foreign spirit with deadly spiritual animosities is only what the servants of God could expect from the enemy of souls. But to regard the present movement as the result of missionary errors is absurd. Dr. Griffith John, than whom there is no one more qualified to speak on Chinese questions, says :— It is the height of folly to look at the present movement as anti- missionary. It is anti-missionary as it is anti-everything that is oreign. The man who looks upon the missionary as the cause of the present trouble is simply blinded by ignorance or prejudice, or both. The movement is first and last an anti-foreign movement, and has for its aim the casting out of every foreigner and all his belongings. This is a point of great importance, a point that we cannot afford to lose sight of for a moment at this time. The best answer to all such criticism is that given by St. Paul when writing to the Corinthians, “ Need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? Ye are our epistle.” Native converts are to-day still the seal of the Apostleship of God’s servants, as the present crisis has proved beyond controversy. Criticisms similar to those which abound to-day, were made regarding mission work in India after the Mutiny. One beautiful illustration of what missions have done which this China crisis has revealed, will be read by all with deep interest. Accompanying a cheque for £110 was the following letter to Mr. Scott of Messrs. Morgan and Scott :— INTRODUCTORY 11 MetTH. Mission, Poona, Inp1a, September 6, 1900. My prar Mr.Scorr—Pandita Ramabai’s Mukti’s Church has allotted to several missions operating in N. China sums of money to help in restoring the recent losses to missions and Christian communities there, being a portion of the church tithing and self-denial fund, which it is hoped will be acceptable as a token of their fraternal love and prayerful sympathy in this time of distress, through our common God and Saviour. I ask you to kindly take the trouble to forward the amount, with such explanation as I have given, on behalf of the 300 widows and others of Mukti’s Church. The crisis has come, and the Church of God is face to face with stupendous questions as to reconstruction. “Never before in the history of missions have such difficult and delicate questions called for an answer. The work in the largest mission field in the world is paralysed.” To sit down and take comfort in the now famous words of Tertullian that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” will never solve the problems which confront us. If these words be true, we must look for a revival in our own midst as well as in China where the martyrs’ blood was shed. We must look for a fuller life, a more earnest zeal, a deeper consecration, and a more solid determination that the cause of Christ in China must be carried forward at all costs. The present time is a time for earnest prayer. Momen- tous issues are at stake. Hundreds of lives have already been sacrificed, but upon the settlement yet to be made, depend not only the lives and happiness of thousands more, but the whole future of mission work in China. Our hearts go out meantime in deepest sympathy to all native Christians. He who bade His disciples “ Pray ye that your flight be not in winter” knows what the present sufferings of His people are. Hundreds and thousands driven from their homes in summer, are now hiding among the mountains or in other places, homeless and destitute, without food or suitable clothing, during the bitter months of a North China winter. A Shan-si native Christian, writing on September 19, says, “Very many of the Christians have been without food and clothing since the 12 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES commencement of the persecution, and at the present time rain has not yet fallen. The Christians are helpless, and those who have not been killed by Boxers will die of famine and cold. I have ventured to take tls. 200 (£30) of the money which was left in my hands and have sent it to P’ing-yang to be distributed amongst the suffering Christians ” (see p. 269). Should we not call to mind the words of our Lord, “Except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved, but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened,” and pray that He who mercifully shortened the days of trial before may graciously do so once more? But when peace has been restored what will be the attitude of the Church of Christ towards the renewed opportunities? China can never again be what she has been. The very movement set on foot for the expulsion of the hated innovations has done more during the last few months to defeat itself than many years of international intercourse could possibly have accomplished. Peking has been almost reduced to ashes, the Emperor and Empress Dowager have become fugitives, the palaces of “the Son of Heaven” have been turned into barracks for the foreign soldiers, the Temple of Heaven has been profaned by the foot of the “barbarians,” the ancestral tablets of all the emperors of the present dynasty have been sent to Europe, the Han-lin college and library—the very citadel of the scholastic pride of China——have been burned — burned by the flame of anti-foreign passion kindled by the Empress Dowager herself. “ Wickedness has overthrown the sinner.” What the destruction of Jerusalem did in making the old order of Judaism im- possible, this cataclysm has in measure done for China. For the greater freedom and boundless opportunities which we believe in answer to prayer God will give, the Church should arouse herself. In America a notable conference has recently been held, composed of delegates from all the foreign missionary societies in the United States and Canada which had work INTRODUCTORY 13 in China. The report of that gathering should be studied by all interested in China. The report says :— Clear, strong, and unanimous was the note that God will over- rule this disturbance for the furtherance of the Gospel, that just as the most successful era of missionary work in India followed the Mutiny in 1857, so will a new day for China date from the Boxer riots of 1900, that not only should every destroyed station be rebuilt, but that plans should be made for reinforcements and increased expenditure, in order that the Church of God may seize the coming strategic opportunity to win China for Christ. The Church of God is called upon to-day to arouse her- self, to prepare for an opportunity which, if neglected, may never come again. Sir Robert Hart in his article in the Fortnightly Review on the present troubles says :— That the future will have a “yellow” question—perhaps a yellow “peril”—to deal with, is as certain as that the sun will shine to- morrow. How can its appearance be delayed, or combated, or by an action taken now turned into harmless channels? ... If the Powers could agree among themselves and partition China at once... it is possible that the peace-loving, law-abiding, industrious Chinaman might be kept in leading strings . . Or if, in spite of official opposition and popular irritation, Christianity were to make a mighty advance and so spread through the land as to convert China into the friendliest of friendly Powers, and the foremost patron of all that makes for peace and goodwill, that too would prick the Boxer balloon and disperse the noxious gas which threatens to swell the race-hatred programme and poison and imperil the world’s future. . . . Nothing but a partition—a difficult and unlikely international settlement, or a miraculous spread of Christianity in its best form—a not impossible, but scarcely-to-be-hoped-for, religious triumph will defer, will avert this result. Is either the one or the other within the limits of practi- cal politics or practical propagandism ? The first question is for the Governments to settle, the second for the Church of Christ. It rings in our ears as a distinct challenge. What shall the answer be? That it is within the limits of practical propagandism must be true, or Christ would never have left His people the command, “ Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” To us belongs the responsibility of rising to the possibilities of faith and consecrated action. We are not straitened in Christ but in our own affections. Oh that 14 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES the Church of Christ would rise and come “to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” The land of China has be- come consecrated by the blood of His servants. The lives laid down call for fresh volunteers. The sufferings of the faithful native Christians plead afresh the Macedonian cry, “Come over and help us.” “ Above all the Saviour pleads with hands which were pierced for our redemption, pleads by His agony and bloody sweat, by His cross and passion, and by that coming of the Holy Ghost which is the inspiration and strength of missions that His Church at last will rise as one man to obey His last commands—yea, pleads with her that the measure of her love to her brethren may be noth- ing less than the measure of His own.” THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long ; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.— Rom, viii. 35-39. THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI THE province of Shan-si, situated to the west of Chih-li, is more than equal in area to England and Wales, and has an estimated population of from ten to twelve millions. Missionary work was commenced in this province in 1876 by the China Inland Mission. During 1877-78 the province was visited with a terrible famine. During this time of suffering, large sums of money sent from England and America were distributed in relief. The liber- ality then shown broke down much of the anti-foreign prejudice, and missionary work opened with and has con- tinued under favourable conditions. More recently the province has become notable in commercial circles through the important concessions obtained by an English and Italian syndicate for working coal and iron mines, in which minerals the province is especially rich. Missionary operations in this part of China may be roughly grouped under four divisions, and under these, accounts are given of those who were martyred and of those who have escaped. 1. The South; worked by the Swedish Mission, which is affiliated with the China Inland Mission. 2. The South-Central; from K’ii-wu to Ping-yao, worked by the China Inland Mission only. 3. The North-Central; with T’ai-yiian-fu, the provincial capital, for its centre, worked by the Baptist Missionary Society, the American Board, the Shou-yang Mission, and a British and Foreign Bible Society representative. 4. The North; worked by the China Inland Mission, c 18 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES the Holiness Union Mission affiliated with the China Inland Mission, and the Missionary Alliance. The Shan-si people are naturally of a less excitable disposition than their countrymen in many other parts of China, and during the more than twenty years of mission- ary work in this province, there has not been serious trouble before this year. Why then has Shan-si—exclusive of course of Chih-li, where such serious fighting took place —now suffered more severely than any other province ? The answer reveals the power of the officials in swaying the people for good or evil, and also emphasises their responsibility. Yii-hsien, “the father of the Boxers,’ when Prefect of Tsao-chau, in Shan-tong, had organised a band of men he called “ The patriotic harmony fists.” In March 1899 he was rapidly promoted to be Governor of the Shan-tong province. On December 31 of the same year the Rev. 8. P. Brook, of the 8.P.G., was murdered, and on January 5, 1900, Yii-hsien was summoned to Pekin, and Yiian- shih-kai took over his seals of office. Sir Claude Macdonald, in his despatch to the Tsung-li Yamén on January 17, says: “The whole of the present difficulty can be traced to the attitude of the late Governor of Shan-tong, Yii-hsien, who secretly encouraged the seditious society known as ‘the Boxers.’” Nevertheless, and in spite of protests from the Am- bassadors at Pekin, Yti-hsien, the degraded (!) governor of Shan-tong, was appointed Governor of Shan-si on March 15, 1900. He took with him to Shan-si bands of Boxers from Shan-tong who, mounted and armed, travelled throughout the whole province, stirring up the people and instructing them in the Boxer arts. Local circumstances at that time made the Shan-si people specially ready to respond to the Governor’s plans. There had been a prolonged season of drought and the usual crops had failed. The people, instead of being busily engaged upon their farms, were idle, hungry, and discon- tented. They were face to face with a serious famine. THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI 19 Heaven must be displeased, for if not, why was the rain withheld? The gods were angry because hundreds of the Christians had ceased to worship them, their luck was bad because foreigners were violating their feng-shui in intro- ducing machinery for coal and iron mines, and by survey- ing for railways. Specially superstitious, they were easily persuaded into believing in the Boxers’ magical powers and invulnerability. Perhaps, as was asserted by some, the foreigners were the cause of all their calamities——they certainly were of the opium curse,—what better than to embrace their opportunity, welcome these invulnerable Boxers, learn their arts themselves, and make a clean sweep of all concerned? The rowdy element present everywhere soon joined them, and the more respectable people, being unarmed, had no power to resist. Even the mandarins could do nothing, for they soon found the Government would not support them in their efforts to crush the rising. During the early days of the trouble many of the officials commenced to suppress the Boxers, and even threatened to test their invulnerability with a foreign rifle, but finding such a course would and did bring down upon them the Governor’s displeasure, they had practically no other course but to yield. To the credit of several officials be it said, that they warned the missionaries of the danger, and assisted some to escape,’ and the prefect of Fen-chau-fu even went so far as to protest against Yii-hsien’s commands. The Boxers went about with flags bearing the inscrip- tion Feng Chi Mich Kiao-—“ By Imperial command ex- terminate the Church,” and at first limited their hostilities to the native Christians. They were organised into three classes :— 1. To fight for the Empire. These were sent to Pekin. 2. To fight for the gods. These were to attack the missionaries and native Christians. 3. To fight for their homes. These were to stay and defend their own native villages. Elder Si of the Hong-tong Church was the first to be 1 See pp. 22, 286. 20 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES attacked. The Boxers entered his home and seriously wounded him by a sword-cut in the side. One of Dr. Miller Wilson’s last acts as a medical missionary was to travel from Ping-yang-fu to the elder’s home, a distance of about twenty miles, to do all that could be done to save the elder’s life. It is not yet known whether he recovered or not. Mrs. Hsi, the widow of the late pastor Hsi, was attacked and robbed in her home, and she and her aged mother were both badly beaten. Although the attacking party were arrested, larger bands of Boxers came, and the mandarin had no other course than to liberate them. When, however, word came from Pekin as to the state of matters there, the Boxers were let loose upon the foreigners, and regarded them as the special object of their attacks. With what sad consequence the following accounts show. Some critics have blamed the missionaries who escaped for leaving their posts in time of danger, other critics have blamed the missionary authorities for not recalling them earlier. Such criticism reveals ignorance of the real situation. Those who read the following pages will see that none were afraid to die, and none left their stations until actually driven out. All who did escape literally knew what it was to die daily, and many of them suffered more than those who were speedily relieved by death from suffering and agonising suspense. One who was spared, in a letter to her parents, when speaking of those who died upon the road, said: “I need not conceal the fact that when journeying, a few more of us would have gladly gone. However, the Lord has seen fit to spare us for some purpose.” We are sure that God has been glorified by the death of His servants, and His grace has been magnified by the Christ-like spirit in which all these sufferings have been endured. The letters, most of them not written for publication, and some of them private and to personal friends, reveal a spirit which should be an inspiration to all who read them. The one quoted above, in the same letter said: “The sufferings and privations we endured THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI 21 cannot be told, and I do not want to dwell upon them. The Master suffered, so must we follow in His footsteps, at least it is reserved for some to do so. May He accept how we bore it for His name’s sake. I can truly say— even for the little ones of the party—no hatred seemed to be felt. Those of the children who knew a little compared it to how Jesus was treated, and spoke about the naughty soldiers who treated Jesus badly.” Mr. and Mis. Saunders’ little Jessie, aged seven, who died on the road, said when they were stoned and beaten, “ They treated Jesus like this, didn’t they, mother?” To continue the above quotation, the writer said: “Please do not be surprised or frightened if you see wild reports in the papers. It is a time of hatred against the Chinese, and many are therefore glad of any excuse to abuse them. Thank God, we bear them no malice, and can truly say, ‘ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” It may be asked, how has the information regarding the fate of many of those who have been murdered in Shan-si been obtained? The sources have been many, and we believe in no case have the Mission authorities at Shanghai regarded any as being murdered without authentic informa- tion. We are specially indebted to one noble native Christian, a man of considerable ability, who has done yeoman service. This man, whose name we do not publish, has organised a secret service with native Christians as his helpers, who have, at the risk of their lives, travelled throughout Shan-si to obtain all the information possible, and to succour any if not too late. Four of his letters are published on pp. 264-268, which letters bear convincing testimony to the faithful and noble service performed by these brave fellows. For the sake of clearness, all memorial notices and letters concerning this province are arranged under the four divisions mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. 22 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES Division IJ.—THE SweEpisH MISSION One of the members of the above Mission, Mr. Blom, was sent for by an official, who informed him that he had been commanded by the Tao-t’ai (the Intendant of Circuit) to acquaint Mr. Blom with what had taken place at T’ien-tsin, and to request that all the Swedes should leave at once. He said that the Empress Dowager, hoping matters would be successful, had commenced to organise the Boxers, and had notified all officials that foreigners were no longer to be treated as guests. This, of course, only has one meaning according to Chinese diplomacy. The Tao-t’ai,’ however, promised Mr. Blom that he and his friends should have a special passport and escort, on the ground that Sweden was not likely to be involved in the war. Not realising the seriousness of the situation, however, the Swedish friends made no hurry about starting, but eventually were obliged to leave in great haste, by reason of the pressure brought to bear upon them by the officials, who refused to be in any way responsible should they delay even another day. Sometime previous to this, they had received a large sum of money for the training of evangelists, and this money, not having been used, they left in the charge of a trusted native Christian, for the help of any missionaries who might be in need. This money was God’s merciful provision for not a few, as the letters printed on pp. 265, 267 show. Having started, they made their way into the neighbour- ing province of Shen-si, crossing the Yellow River at Ta- king-kuan, and so safely reached Si-an-fu, the ancient capital of China, and the present provincial capital of Shen-si. Here they were most kindly treated by the Acting Governor Tuan. The courage and courtesy of this official are altogether beyond praise (see p. 286). At the risk of his life he dared to disobey the Imperial edict, which he 1 This official has since been degraded. THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI 23 suppressed and issued a counter proclamation of his own, in which these words occurred, “If you kill these unprotected and weak foreigners it will be neither humane nor valorous.” Words such as these indicate a nobility and independence of mind which would do credit to any people, and are a revelation as to the possibilities possessed by this nation, which is in danger of being misjudged, because a few powerful and evil men have stirred up the viler passions of an easily-deceived people. No fewer than ninety foreigners owe their lives to Governor Tuan’s noble conduct. Many of these received from him presents of tea, provisions for the road, and even personal keepsakes in the shape of old and rare Chinese coins. By his orders they were safely escorted even through territory not properly under his jurisdiction, and he also telegraphed to Viceroy Chang-chih-tong for a gunboat to be sent up the Han river to meet these travellers, who journeyed by boat from Kin-tze-kuan. This friendly action was probably the means of saving the lives of not a few, as Mr. Parkeyr’s letter, quoted below, shows. Belonging to this Mission were three Swedish ladies, who were working in North Ho-nan, in a district connected with the South Shan-si work. The story of their escape, as told by Miss Anderson, one of the three, will be found under the Ho-nan Province section (p. 230), as it geo- graphically belongs to that province, although officially connected with the South Shan-si Swedish Mission. Extract from Mr. George Parker’s letter, illustrating the good result of Governor Tuan’s telegram to Viceroy Chang- chih-tong :— On the highway between Hankow and Si-an is a wedge of Ho-nan with a mart—Kin-tze-kuan. The Hsie-t’ai (major) Leu sent a birthday present to the Chen-t’ai (colonel) at the now notorious Nan-yang-fu. The Chen-t’ai passed on a telegram from the Empress Dowager containing the order, ‘‘Wherever you meet with foreigners you must kill them, and if they attempt to escape, you still must kill them.” The Hsie-t’ai assured me he had not seen the telegram that his messenger Su had brought and allowed to be freely copied. He 24 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES sent another messenger to the Nan-yang Chen-t’ai asking for definite orders, and promised to protect us five days longer. This man brought back a proclamation, a despatch, and a letter. The proclama- tion licensed riot. The despatch forbade protection, and added that Ho-nan does not recognise the Yang-tsi agreement. The letter ordered utter extermination. He permitted our escape next day and promised that all the property, about 200 cases for Kan-su and Shen-si stations, as well as our own things, should be preserved, unless he were superseded or a band were sent purposely to work destruction, such as the governor had threatened against the Italian missionaries at Kien-yang, a fortified village near Nan-yang. We purposed to escape during the five days’ grace along with the Duncan Shorrock party, but the assurances of the Hsie-t’ai both to them and to us caused us to delay to help the parties that were following them a day or two behind each other. The third party, Mr. Folkes (the Swedish Mission) from Shan-si, arrived an hour later than the returned messenger, and we left next morning with them. After our boats had started, the Hsie-t’ai gave the Chen-t’ai’s letter to his subordinate, the Tien-tsong (lieutenant). He immediately ordered twelve militia to mount horses and fetch us back. Before dark the Hu-peh gunboat from Chang-chih-tong met the party, so that when the twelve horsemen found that our protectors were more numerous and better armed than themselves, they returned and reported that they did not dare to attempt the arrest. Thus we are able thankfully to record that all the members of the Swedish Mission, together with all Shen-si workers, were safely escorted to Han-kow. This, under God, is entirely due to the firm attitude of the officials concerned. Division Il.—Soutu Central SHAN-SI' The report of this district unhappily is awful. Of the missionaries of the China Inland Mission labouring here thirty-one have been called upon to suffer the loss of their lives, while nineteen have escaped to Han-kow. Brief memorial notices of those martyred are given below, followed by accounts of the escape of others as told by some members of the several parties. MISS EDITH SEARELL. MISS EMILY WHITCHURCH. MISS E. M. HEAYSMAN. MR. JOHN YOUNG, MRS. ALICE YOUNG. To face page 24. MISS L, BURTON, MISS A. KING MISS: A. ELDRED. MR. AND MRS, G. MCCONNELL, To face page 25- THE PROVINCE OF SHAN-SI 25 The names of those known to have been martyred in this district are :— Miss Whitchurch, Miss Searell. Mr. and Mrs. child, Kenneth. Mr. and Mrs. Young. Miss T, A. King. Miss E. Burton. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Kay and child, Jennie. Miss F. E. Nathan. McConnell and Miss M. R. Nathan. Miss E. M. Heaysman. Miss Dobson. Miss E. G. Hurn. Mr. and Mrs. Peat and two children, Margretta and Mary. Mr. Woodroffe. Mr. D. Barratt. Mr. P. A. Ogren. Belonging to this district but martyred in Tai-yiian-fu and near Fen-chau-fu (see Division III. p. 126) :— Dr. and Mrs. William Millar Wilson and child, Alexander. Miss. J. Stevens. Miss M. Clarke. Mr. and Mrs. Lundgren. Miss A. Eldred. Belonging to this district but martyred when travelling, or died in consequence of wounds and ill-treatment :— Mrs. E. J. Cooper and child, Brainerd. Miss H. Rice. Miss M. E. Huston. Ellen and Alice (daughters of Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Saunders). Mary and Edith (daughters of Mr. and Mrs, A. Lutley). Mrs. A. Glover and infant, Faith. Still living, and being protected in Tai-yiian-fu :— Mrs. P. A. Ogren. Miss E. Chapman. Mr. Graham McKie. Miss M. HE. Way. For information concerning those belonging to this dis- trict who escaped, see p. 66. The following brief memorial notices of the above honoured dead have been written by their personal friends, with the desire that God whom they served may be magnified. We would earnestly commend to the prayers of God’s people the bereaved parents, orphaned children, and sorrowing relatives, nor would we forget the scattered native Christians now without their beloved leaders. 26 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS EMILY WHITCHURCH Hrao-1, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom at Hiao-i on June 30, 1900. While we rejoice that now “they see His face,” we sorrow for the precious lives cut short in the midst of faithful, joyous service, and for no one more than our beloved sister, Emily Whitchurch, whom we were privileged to know very intimately, and whose life has been an inspiration to all her fellow-workers, as well as a sweet savour unto God, and the means of salvation to many poor, dark Chinese. About sixteen years ago she heard from Mr. Hudson Taylor’s lips of the need of China; it was God’s call to her, and, with the loving, glad, childlike obedience which always characterised her life, she responded—terrible as the thought of going was to her at first—“If Thou art calling me to go, I know Thou wilt give me strength, and I am willing.” Miss Whitchurch reached Shanghai in April 1884, and shortly after went to Chefoo, where, for a few years, she was engaged in work at the School for Missionaries’ Children, in con- nection with the late Mrs. Russell. With loving intensity and devotion these two sisters laboured in faith and prayer, and many are the testimonies to the deeply spiritual work done— every girl in the school professing to be a Christian when they gave up the work—as well as the splendid educational standard attained by the school during their management. Meanwhile they did what they could for the Chinese women, and several were converted ; but their hearts yearned to go forward to the more needy ones beyond, and, in the autumn of 1887, they were set free from school work and went to Hiao-i in Shan-si. There dear Miss Whitchurch has laboured “ more abundantly ” ever since, with the exception of one short visit home about six years ago. God has graciously owned and blessed her service of love; and the many precious souls saved, demons cast out, sick ones healed, opium smokers reclaimed, testify how mightily God can use one yielded life. Her trust in God was uniformly simple and strong, which made her like a sumbeam to every one round her. She enjoyed trusting and serving Him, and, in times of physical weakness and intense trial of various kinds, her child-like faith rose triumphant over every obstacle. As we think of the beloved home-circle who mourn her loss, the MEMORIALS 27 many friends who feel the poorer now she is gone, and the sorely bereaved native Christians to whom she was everything, our hearts bleed. We cannot understand all our Father allows to happen ; we can only trust His love and wisdom, and wait to know. May He who came to bind up the broken-hearted pour into these wounded hearts His own comfort. E. JANE JUDD. Working at a neighbouring station to Miss Whitchurch, it was my privilege to meet with her constantly. It was always a joy to see her at our house with her bright cheerful counte- nance, and times spent at Hiao-i have proved of real spiritual refreshment. It would not take her long, wherever she went, to win the affection of the Chinese, and those who once made her acquaintance never forgot her; they would remember words she spoke to them, and I have known many occasions when such words had deeply affected their lives. But one thinks of her more specially surrounded by beloved Christians for whom she had laboured in prayer and taught for so many years. In the mornings and evenings she would gather the opium patients around her to teach them passages of the Scriptures. Those who had been in the Opium Refuge some days would repeat all they had learnt before, and then she would carefully explain the meaning to them. This was kept up after they had broken off opium and left the Refuge. It was touching to see elderly men, young men and children, coming in at all times of the day to repeat their lesson. The Scriptures were as the voice of God to Miss Whit- church ; they shaped her life, and she had confidence in their power to purify and to convert, hence such emphasis on this branch. In the light of what has since happened how clearly God’s guidance may here be seen. She says in a letter which only reached us after she had laid down her life: “ You will rejoice to hear that four have repeated Matt. v. vi. vil. since my return,—at Chong-kiai two, at Peh-sing-u two.” The read- ing and repeating of Scriptures formed part of the Sunday worship, every one present being expected to repeat some verse or verses. Jt was her joy to visit the church members and inquirers in their village homes. Good old deacon Heh would accompany her, and so together they would labour for souls. Very beautifully she would teach them to bring all their troubles and needs to God in prayer. Eva FRENCH. 28 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS EDITH SEARELL Hrao-1, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom June 30, 1900. On May 8, 1896, after a year spent at the Chefoo School in teaching music, Miss Edith Searell reached Hiao-i, where for four years she was to work with all the powers of her energetic character, and then lay down her life. She was amongst the first to go out to China in connection with the C.I.M. from New Zealand. Her excellent ear for music and her good training in that art enabled her to acquire the language with great rapidity, so that she very soon became a help to Miss Whitchurch in the work of the station. She would surprise the Chinese from other parts by her accurate imitation of their different local dialects. Hers was a warm, affectionate nature and ready for any sacrifice. Where it was in her power to give help to any, she would give it ungrudgingly, and her more than ordinary abilities often put her in the position of being able to do so. There seemed to be nothing in the practical line of house- keeping which she did not know, and often when visiting one and another of our Shan-si stations, if comment had been made on the excellence of the bread or of some jam, the answer would be: “I got the recipe from Miss Searell.” She was so ready to help, and it was characteristic of her that with the letters which reached us after the date of the Hiaoi massacre a parcel of fly-papers was found for one of our number. Her whole heart was in her work, when staying at Hiao-ii How often in the day I would find her in the women’s room teaching them and speaking to them earnestly about God. She was very merry, and would amuse them much at times, and by her friendly way win their hearts. Thus from morning till night she was busy. What with teaching, dealing out the medicine for the opium patients, visiting, and housekeeping, there was not an idle moment. Yet in the times put apart and kept for prayer our two dear sisters give us a beautiful example. Herein lay their strength,—every member of the church, inquirer, opium patient, was pleaded for by name. In every difficulty God’s guidance was sought. How often I have written to them MEMORIALS 29 about needs in my own work, feeling sure that they would help by their prayers. Constantly were they appealed to by the natives to come and pray for some sick one, and the prayer of faith was repeatedly honoured. When the warmer season came and the Opium Refuge was closed, Miss Searell finding herself free, delighted to go to the villages and visit the people; great also was their delight to see her come, for she made herself so entirely one of themselves, taking interest in all their affairs large or small, enjoying their food, making friends with the children and teaching them hymns and verses, so that there was no constraint. Mrs. Lo, the Bible-woman, often accompanied her. Miss Searell was not robust, years back she had suffered very much from asthma and pneumonia, and retained this tendency to the end, but this did not prevent her from doing more work than many strong people. In May of this year when on her way to P’ing-yang, to a conference of workers, she became seriously ill with an attack of pleurisy, which prevented her attending the meetings, but though weakened by it she resumed her work on her return to Hiao-i, and we find from her own letters that she was engaged in village visiting up to her last Sunday on earth. One of her last undertakings was to superintend the construction of a baptistery, which with her great love of flowers she had bordered with flower beds. We heard afterwards from one of the Christians, that after they had been killed, the bodies of Emily Whitchurch and Edith Searell were laid in this same baptistery. “Till He come.” Most thankful have we been to read in their letters, written only so shortly before death, of the wonderful peace and rest which filled their hearts amid already alarming circumstances. “They loved not their lives unto death.” Eva FRENCH. Extracts from one of her last letters, dated June 28. You speak in your letter of the possibility of one place- being safer than another; I think, dear Eva, from the human standpoint all are equally unsafe, from the point of view of those whose lives are hid with Christ in God all are equally safe’ His children shall have a place of refuge, and that place is the secret place of the Most High. . . . “A mighty fortress is our God,” and in Him we are safe for time and for eternity. Shall we murmur if we have less of time than we expected? “The less of time, the more of heaven.” “The briefer life, earlier immortality.” 30 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES CONCERNING THE HO-TSIN FRIENDS Information received from Miss Ulf regarding Mr. and Mrs. McConnell and child, Mr. and Mrs. J. Young, with Misses Burton and King, also native servant. During the 5th Chinese moon (May 28-June 26) Mr. and Mrs. McConnell, accompanied by Misses Burton and King, left Ho-tsin to spend the summer amongst the hills, at a place called San-heo, about 20 & from Ki-chau. At that time everything was peaceful in the immediate and surrounding districts, and remained so for several weeks, till news of the Boxer movement was propagated, and the anti-foreign proclamations of the Shan-si Governor were issued. About the 16th of the 7th moon (July 12), Mr. McConnell and family decided they had better leave the hills, and so they prepared to return to Ho-tsin, and cross over into the Shen-si border. It is presumed that they were joined by Mr. and Mrs. John Young. No trouble was encountered until they got within a few Jz of Ho-tsin, where a band of men met them, and began to pillage their effects. Thereupon, Mr. McConnell sent his servant to the Yamén to ask for assistance, which was peremptorily refused. Anticipating further trouble they did not enter Ho-tsin, but passed on their way towards the Yellow River. They had only gone a short distance when a band of mounted soldiers overtook them, and led My. McConnell to understand that they had been sent as escort from the Yamén. They advised that instead of taking the main road to Yu-men-k’eo, a quieter road, and a nearer, should be taken to a place called Ts’ing-kia-uan, where a ferry-boat would be provided. Mr. McConnell, knowing that the Yu-men-k’eo people occasionally were turbulent, acceded to the suggestion. Arriving at Ts’ing-kia-uan, the soldiers said they had not come to protect them, but to murder them, except they desisted from worshipping God and preaching against idolatry. Mr. McConnell was then dragged from. his mule and despatched with a sword, his wife and child, it is said, meeting with a similar fate. Mr. McConnell’s little boy Kenneth was heard to say, “ Papa puh chuen shah siao Kennie” (Papa does not allow you to kill little Kennie). Miss King besought the murderers! to desist, saying, ‘‘ We have come to do you good”; and seeing that the men were relentless, she embraced Miss Burton, and, clasped in one another's arms, they were put to death. At the same time a man and his wife (believed to be Mr. and Mrs. Young) were seen to clasp one another, as they were put to death in a similar way. The native servant, K’eb-t’ien- 1 These men were hired by three military graduates, who are Boxers, and well known (see p. 265). MEMORIALS 31 hsuen, declining to recant, also met with a violent death. Thus perished in all eight persons, seven foreigners and one native. News of the tragedy first reached Miss Ulff through a native servant, who was the bearer of a package of silver from Han-ch’eng, addressed to Mr. McConnell. This man, who was in the habit of carrying letters, and was well known as connected with foreigners, attempting to return to Han-ch’eng and report how he had heard of the massacres of eight persons, had been challenged for daring to go to Ho-tsin. Boatmen and soldiers surrounded him when he got back to the river, and it was only after they had received blackmail to the amount of four taels that they would allow him to return. Several days after Miss Ulff succeeded in getting an inquirer Pao- ch’ong to take a letter from her teacher K to a Mr. T 42 well-to-do inquirer at Ho-tsin, from whom she received in reply the details of the murders. (See letter attached.) Copy of a letter unsigned, but believed to have been written by Mr. T- an inquirer of Ho-tsin, to a Mr. K- (Miss Ulff’s teacher), in answer to one from him, in which he says -— A short time ago, Mr. Robertson, from Kiang-chow, passed through to Han-ch’eng. He started early in the morning, and a band of robbers followed him, but fortunately they did not overtake him. Later the Governor of Shan-si issued a proclamation, of which I send you a copy, which reads as follows :—“ The foreign religion is detest- able because it despises the gods and harasses the people. If you are desirous of doing your duty, then you are good people. The Boxers will burn the houses of all Christians, and kill them. Your calamities are very near. Let all mandarins and under officials who are protect- ing your bodies exhort all followers of the foreign religion to recant. If you do not, your after repentance will be too late. Is it not the height of goodness to turn away from the false and revert to the right? This proclamation is for the information of all. Let all tremblingly obey.” On account of this proclamation the Yamén people have taken possession of all the goods and Mission premises at Ho-tsin. On the 15th of July Mr. and Mrs. McConnell and child, with the two ladies, Misses King and Burton, also Mr. and Mrs. Young of Ki-chau, with K’eh-tien-hsuen, came down from Ki-chau. On arriving at Si-yai- k’eo they were attacked and surrounded, and on the 16th of July they were decoyed to the banks of the Yellow River, where they were all killed, At this time men’s hearts are shaking with fear. We cannot rest night or day. All Christians and inquirers are being persecuted. 32 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MR. AND MRS. GEORGE McCONNELL, AND SON KENNETH Ho-ts1n, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom on July 16, 1900. Mr. George McConnell originally came from the North of Treland, but was engaged as a home missionary in Dundee when he offered jor China. He was one who met the Scotch Council at its first meeting in October 1889, and after acceptance, sailed for China in January 1890. He was designated to the Shan-si province, where he commenced work in Si-chau. From one of his letters, telling of the first baptisms there, we quote the words : “T have been almost three years in China. They have been blessed years, and not one thing has failed of all that our Father has promised.” Subsequently he opened the station of Ho-tsin, and in December 1894 married Miss Isabella Gray, who went to China from Dundee in 1892. We first met our brother on his furlough in 1897, and were much drawn to him by his sympathetic, kindly spirit, which influenced several to think of China. The work at Ho-tsin lay very near his heart, and many here learned to pray for it, and to enter into fellowship with the workers there. At the very time our beloved brother and his wife were called upon to suffer death for Christ’s sake, we were rejoicing in the news which had come from him of blessed results appear- ing after a time of cloud and shadow. In this letter he tells of crowds attending the services, of three out-stations being opened, and of fifty-one persons who one evening entered their names as inquirers ; deepening interest was appearing among the upper classes, for some of whom he leaves us a legacy of special prayer. In taking up this burden, let us give God thanks for the work which our brother and sister have done on earth, especially for the little company gathered into His name in Shan-si. Gro. Granam-Brown. Mrs. George McConnell, née Bella Gray, was born at Gray’s Lane, Lochee, about forty years ago. She was brought up in a Christian atmosphere in her family life. Her three elder sisters were young women of exceptionally bright Christian MEMORIALS 33 character, and devoted workers in the Master’s service. Their influence told powerfully on Bella, who early gave herself to the Lord and came out very decidedly on His side. Very soon, however, she was bereft of her three dear sisters, one after another fading and passing away from her side. Her father and mother also died, leaving her, except for a brother, desolate and alone. Through this terrible succession of heart-breaking bereave- ments Bella stood fast by Jesus, and grew in Christian character and earnestness. For many years she wrought in a Children’s Meeting and in the Congregational Missions connected with Dud- hope Free Church, of which the late Rev. Andrew Inglis was at this time minister, a man full of evangelistic fervour and earnest- ness. It was in connection with one of these Missions—Pole St. Mission—that she became acquainted with Mr. McConnell, he being missionary there for a year or so previous to commencing his work in China. After going out to China and becoming the wife of Mr. McConnell, she had sore trials to endure. First, the crushing news came to her of the death of her only and beloved brother ; and not very long after, her first child, a little girl eleven months old, was cut off after a few days’ illness. These repeated heavy trials told sadly upon her, and soon her health broke down altogether, and Mr. McConnell, having obtained leave for fur- lough, brought her home to Scotland. When Mrs. McConnell left for her second journey to China, about two years ago, accompanied by her husband and her darling son Kenneth, she was greatly improved in health, and was eager and joyous to enter on the work ayain. After resum- ing the work at Ho-tsin her health again broke down, and she was seriously ill for a time; but again she rallied, and her latest letters were full of gratitude to God for the success that was attending their efforts. Never was there any hint of impending danger or trouble. Mrs. McConnell had a rather delicate and fragile frame, but the great work in which her husband and her- self were engaged was so dear to her, that, to the surprise of all who knew her, she stood its trials and difficulties (and they were not few nor small) most marvellously. “She hath done what she could.” ANDREW GRAY. Text mentioned in Mr. McConnell’s last letter “T trusted in Thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in Thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”—Ps. xxxi. 14-15. D 34 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MR. AND MRS. JOHN YOUNG Ki-Caav, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom on July 16, 1900. Mr. John Young was a Scotsman and applied to the C.I.M. in 1894. After a course of study in the Glasgow Bible Training Institute, he sailed for China in October 1896. When he was first appointed to Shan-si, I had the pleasure of escorting him from Shanghai to that province. Although he had only had a few months’ study of the language at the Training Home in Gan-k’ing he had made exceptional progress. It was soon ap- parent, from the rapid way he picked up words and phrases from the muleteers and others during that his first journey, that he had considerable linguistic ability. After his arrival in Shan-si he was appointed to Ki-Chau, a lonely station among the hills, where the solitude would have been almost unbearable had he not found, like Moses, that when he came “to the back of the wilderness he came to the mountains of God.” It was about a year before we next met, and then when asked to say a few words to the Christians, he surprised us all, both natives and foreigners, by the ease and fluency with which he spoke. Well within his first three years in China he had passed all the six examinations prescribed by the C.I.M.—a feat accom- plished by but few. On April 1, 1899, he was married to Miss Troyer, and returned once again to his station Ki-Chau, looking forward to a long period of useful service. These hopes were not to be ful- filled. Had he been spared, there is little doubt but that he would soon have gained a position of influence both with the native Christians and among his fellow-missionaries. He was a man of considerable promise, and of a humble, pleasing disposition. To human sight such a hopeful life so soon cut short is a great mystery, but God’s ways are always right, And love is o’er them all, Though far above our sight. MARSHALL BROOMHALL. Mr. H. W. Frost writes :— “Mrs. John Young (who went out to China as Miss Sarah MEMORIALS 35 Alice Troyer) was born in Indiana, U.S.A., in 1871. From the earliest days of her Christian life she had the thought of being a missionary. She never lost this desire to serve the Lord, and when the opportunity finally offered, she sought and obtained training at the Gospel Union Bible Institute at Abilene, Kansas. “Upon the first day of January 1896 she set forth upon her way to China. After the study ofthe language at Yang-chau, she was designated to Shan-si, first at Lu-ch’eng and then Lu-an. It was in this place she met Mr. John Young.” Of her life in China Miss Gates, with whom Mrs. Young was associated previous to her marriage, says: ‘Mrs. Young’s work in China commenced with self-denial. She and Miss Huston were great friends and had hoped to work together, but they were glad for Christ’s sake to be appointed to separate stations where they were needed. The Chinese language was little trouble to Mrs. Young. She soon picked up enough to make a start and the rest came easily. She was always delighted to use what she knew in telling of a Saviour’s love, and thus made rapid progress. “The native Christians were very fond of her and she of them, and it was her delight to get away to the villages amongst the Christian women. She loved to go to the different villages around, starting early in the morning with a Christian woman, and spending the whole day telling of the Lord she so truly loved and served. “She was thoroughly unselfish. I call to mind her speaking at one of our evening meetings with the natives. The subject was 1 Cor. xui. She read and expounded from this, but on coming to the words, ‘Love seeketh not her own,’ she quite broke down and had to leave the room. Her words and manner made a deep impression upon the dear natives, and were much blessed to my own soul. Her whole life whilst with me was most helpful, her one desire being so to live that at any moment she should be ready for the return of her Lord. She loved to dwell on this theme, and talked much to the natives about it.” Extract from one of Mrs. Young’s last letters, dated July 5 I feel I must write you a few words at this time. We are so quiet here that we can scarcely realise the trouble you are having down on the plain. But I know that the God of Peace will keep your hearts and minds. The winds may blow, and the waves may roll high; if we keep our eyes off them to the Lord we shall be all right. . . . May God bless and keep you all. 36 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS ANNIE KING Ho-tsin, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom on July 16, 1900. Born March 16, 1870. There is evidence that in her youthful days Miss King was the subject of deeply religious impressions, although her actual decision for Christ took place, it is believed, after she had reached her twentieth year. From the time of her conversion to God she might almost be said to have entered on her missionary work, for she showed at once that passionate love for souls which eventually in 1898 led her to China. It was at Chesterfield that she first began to work, and although her time was then largely occupied by business duties, yet the variety of things attempted and accomplished in her leisure hours was truly remarkable. The Ragged Schools were, perhaps, the chief attraction. Her heart went out to the friend- less children, and her kindness and ready tact gave her immense influence over them. So marked, indeed, was her success that a proposal was made to her to continue in Chesterfield as a home missionary. But already she had heard the call to the “white fields afar”; and the cry of the heathen was a burden on her heart. In September 1896 she entered on her preparatory studies at Doric Lodge, and two years later, on September 22, 1898, the great longing of her spirit was gratified, and she set sail for China, together with Miss Burton, whose companionship and friendship had been one of the many joys of those happy years. It may be mentioned that a Chesterfield friend—one prominent in Christian work, and especially in the work of the Ragged Schools—wished to have the privilege of defraying the greater part of the expense of her outfit, and also, later, contributed generously to her support, wishing, he said, to regard her as being in some sort the repre- sentative of her old fellow-workers. The very first entry in her diary shows with how joyous and praiseful a spirit she began her voyage, and the praise-note was never absent from her letters; indeed, “Rejoice in the Lord” was the password of her Christian course. B. and I made our way to our cabin, and unitedly knelt in prayer, thanking and praising God for the wonderful way He had undertaken for us in the much-dreaded parting hours ; it was indeed wonderful how He took away the sting, and gave such deep, rich joy that words will not describe it. MEMORIALS 37 “Praise the Lord” is the first word from her on reaching Shanghai. Praise the Lord, I am really in China. . . . With all truth I can write that what I have found here far exceeds my highest expectations ; the Lord has been true to His promise, ‘“‘I will go before you!” She adds (and how welcome now must be the clear, firm statement of her confidence), ‘‘I don’t know what the future holds for me, but, whatever comes, J know I have obeyed the will of our God.” Miss King entered speedily and heartily into the new manner of life, and it is evident from her brightly-written and vivid descriptions that no sacrifice was counted too large, no personal inconvenience and discomfort too great if only she might win for Christ the dark souls around her. It seems clear that she was at once a favourite, and probably the personal tact and friendliness of the messenger accounted in part for the ready acceptance of her message. We had such a good time; our chapel was crowded out at every meeting. It did one’s heart good to see so many who had left their idols of clay to worship the true God. How interestedly they listen, too, saying—#ich ting teh hao (the more you hear the better it is). We have a meeting for the women and children every afternoon, they are so pleased to come... . In spite of a stammering tongue and a limited vocabulary the Lord gave to-day a very blessed time, and He has said, ‘‘ My Word shall not return void.” Often I wish I could have come before... . It is so nice to be in this village, where the people trust us, and love to hear of Jesus, for whose sake and the Gospel’s we have come. ‘There are numbers of villages where the name of Jesus is unknown, all in heathen darkness, without a ray of light. To Annie King there was the ever-present consciousness, amid all discouragements, “He 1s the Almighty. . .. Praise the Lord, nothing is impossible with Him! ... O that their eyes were open to the beauty there is in Christ Jesus; His great, great love; His great sacrifice for sinful, erring man; His patience as He pleads for entrance into hearts He has purchased with His own precious blood. What wondrous love! what mighty love! and how true it is— The love of Jesus, what it is None but His loved ones know.” Of the ‘“‘untold peace and joy” in her own heart it would be easy enough to give further evidence, but space forbids many quotations. There is little indication, up to the very last letters, that any serious symptoms of danger had been noticed by the happy group at Ho-tsin ; instead, there is the eager looking forward to the near return of the Lord Himself. Lucy A. BENNETT. 38 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS ELIZABETH BURTON Suffered martyrdom on July 16, 1900. To write a brief memorial notice of Miss Burton I find mine a task of sadness, Yet in the tribute-wreath here offered there need be only a spray of cypress, the rest shall be white lilies. Like God’s people of old, with the willow branches we bring palms. We have not to moan over defeat and death. Here was a life of victory all through—victory over adverse circumstances, over many disadvantages and difficulties, and victory in its final witness. Her life has not ended. In the new call to faithfulness, in the deepened impulses to loving devotion, in the quickened purposes which are ours as we think of her, we find hers to be still a ministrant influence. My earliest recollections of Miss Burton are of a bright, lively, if somewhat shy girl in the Sunday School of my first pastorate at Sale, Manchester. She was brought to definite decision for Christ by a letter sent to her in common with other members of a Young People’s Society. Quite early in her Christian course she showed signs of a pertinacity of character often evidenced in after-days. Desiring to enter upon active service, she applied for a Sunday School class ; but there was not one vacant, and half jocularly she was told that unless she made a class of her own there could be no place found for her. Somewhat to the surprise of the officers, this young girl marched up to the school-door a week later with five mites whom she had herself gathered together. “I’ve made my class, please, as you told me,” was her quiet remark, and forthwith she was installed as a teacher. After a year or two of steady work in school and church she attended a missionary meeting in Manchester, and was much stirred. Conscious of deficient education, she undertook a course of special study at home, and laboured with persistent effort. After due consideration, she applied for admission to Doric Lodge Training Institute. This training was invaluable in deep- ening and strengthening her both mentally and spiritually. At length, in September 1898, her long-cherished hopes were realised, and after a farewell meeting at Oakfield Chapel, Sale, she sailed for China. In what spirit she faced the future her own words will indicate :— MEMORIALS 39 I should like you to have been at the ship, or rather on the docks, when we started. Those on the shore were singing, and we, too, were singing: ‘* Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest.” I at once began to think : “The past behind,” and now only a memory ; ‘‘the future unknown”; but “Jesus we know, and He is on the throne”; and in my heart all this day there has been a calm joy and intense peace, altogether unspeakable. Just imagine, after nearly six years’ waiting I am on my way to China. I still feel as though Iamdreaming. Ihad such a loving, cheery letter from dear mother this morning ; she informs me that though she feels the parting keenly, yet she feels it isan honour conferred upon her by God to have Him choose her child for this work. It is an honour! but oh, I feel so inade- quate, so weak, and yet I hear Him say, ‘‘Go in this thy might, have not I sent thee?” Yes, He has sent me; ifeverI felt God has called me in my life, I feel it to-night. In this spirit of child-like trust she lived and laboured for about two years and a half, chiefly in Shan-si. Her picturesque letters are full of brightness and hopefulness, and give evidence of steady growth in character on all its sides. One paragraph will show how she realised the unseen Friend’s presence :— Jesus is very real to me out in this land, and I would not change my present lot in spite of loneliness and occasional hardships. Truly, He more than makes up. And now I can understand the people, and they me a little, the joy is very great. Ease and luxury cannot make up for the real and lasting joy one has in this land. The love for the people is great, but when it is returned it is all the more precious, and the Chinese do love, in spite of what some people say. Her character was sweet and simple and strong. She hada clinging, loving nature and quickly won the love and confidence of her friends. Yet hers was no weakly emotionalism. She was dominated by a high, strong purpose, and possessed considerable energy and practical common sense. Her faith in God was wondrously direct and simple, but—or should one not rather write and therefore—was firm and rock-like. Love, deep, lasting love was the mainspring of her nature ; love for God, for her friends, for her work. Those who knew her most closely, believed that in this combination of qualities there was material for an exceptionally fine and useful missionary. We thank God for her, knowing that He has worked His work in and through her. We refuse to think that a broken pillar is the emblem of her career, God has no broken pillars. He has trans- planted flowers. And the fragrance of this flower is still glad- dening and helping many souls. His servants still “serve Him.” And the service of this martyred maiden is being rendered not only in heaven but here on earth in the many lives uplifted, purified, gladdened, and inspired by her faithful, loving character. CarEy BONNER. Sunpay ScHoon Union, 56 Otp BaILey, E.C. 40 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MR. AND MRS. DUNCAN KAY AND DAUGHTER JENNIE Kt-wu, Saan-si Suffered martyrdom on August 30, 1900. By the death of Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Kay, the China Inland Mission has lost two of its best workers. After a period of work in the region of the Yang-tsi Valley, owing to ill-health, Mr. Kay was obliged to go to the North. Here they were permitted to labour for eleven years, and by them the Gospel has been extensively preached in the district round K’ii-wu. Mr. Kay was a born evangelist, and in nothing did he delight more than in preaching the Gospel. Possessed of a more than ordinary knowledge of the language, both written and spoken, and with special gifts as a speaker, he could always have an interested hearing, not only from outsiders in the open-air work, but in a special degree from the native Christians in the more regular Church services. He had paid great attention to the art of illustration—an art especially valuable in China— which gained for him considerable fame as a popular preacher. I remember being surprised when I first saw the many books he had filled with cuttings, all being illustrations he had collected for use in preaching. He has impressed his personality upon the native Christians he had gathered round him, and one or two of them have learned from him the gift—most highly to be coveted—the gift of clear and faithful preaching. Not less successful was he as a school teacher. As the Church grew, the question as to the education of the Christian children pressed upon him. After some years of careful and painstaking labour, he had a school, admired by all for its tone, excellent discipline, and good scholarship. At the last public examination at which I was present, several of the lads astonished their wondering parents, and foreigners too, by the way they construed and demonstrated on the black-board the forty-seventh problem of the first book of Euclid. The elder lads had been encouraged in Christian work and had already become acceptable speakers in the open air. In all this work he was well supported by Mrs. Kay, who was regarded as one of the best speakers in the province. The women’s side of the work, of course, fell to her, both in the city and the villages which she constantly visited. Jennie. Thomas. Stewart. MR. AND MRS. DUNCAN KAY AND FAMILY, Jennie died with her parents, the others are at school in Chefoo. To face prge 40. MISS M. R. NATHAN. MISS F. E. NATHAN. MR. AND MRS. AV: (Go, REBAT. MISS DORSON, MISS E.G, HURN, To face page 41. MEMORIALS 41 The following extracts from two of her last letters reveal not only the motherly instincts of her heart, but true Christian nobility in face of great danger. There is no panic-stricken fear, but calm dependence upon God under circumstances which would try the most courageous. She says :— “The news is alarming, and it makes one feel sick to think of what may be the result of all this, but God knows. I do feel badly when I think of our dear children at Chefoo—not for their safety, but in case they might be left without their parents. You will not blame me for feeling like this to-night—I do not always feel so. I havea feeling of grudge in my heart to go just yet, especially when itis only to satisfy evil men or even the Empress Dowager.” To another she wrote :— “Mr. Kay will not leave here till he is driven out. The natives are so good and have declared that they will stand by us till death, if needs be. We have had many friends from the street to comfort us and to tell us not to be afraid. It is from outsiders we fear. Our trust is in God. J want to give you my home address in case we should be taken home to glory. If anything should happen to us, God will make a way for our dear children at Chefoo. J have a desire in my heart towards them—that is to be spared for their sake—but His will be done.” No further testimony is needed to Mrs. Kay’s Christian character than the foregoing extracts from her letter. These two able and faithful workers have finished their course, and their works do follow them. Mr. Kay’s eager, energetic spirit had already severely overtaxed his bodily strength, and several times I have known Dr. Millar Wilson to seriously warn him of the probable consequences if he would persist in going beyond his strength. One of his last works was the publication in book form of the hymns of the late Pastor Hsi, a work greatly valued by the Christians in the North. The loss of such tried and experienced workers is distressing to contemplate. If the way were open for new workers to go, and the men were ready, it would be years before they could be as well qualified as those whom God has permitted to be martyred; but God’s ways are not our ways, and while sorrowing at the personal loss and for the loss to China, the comfort is that they have entered into rest; and as for China, we may be sure that if God buries His workmen He will carry on His work. MARSHALL BROOMHALL. 42 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS FRANCES EDITH NATHAN Ta-NING, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, August or September, 1900. When Miss Edith Nathan first heard her Master’s voice calling her to service in the foreign field, her desire was to go to Africa. Soon, however, it was made plain that it was not there that the Lord had need of her. She applied to the China Inland Mission in 1894, and sailed for China the following September. After the preliminary time of study at Yang-chau, she was in 1896 designated to Ta-ning, Shan-si. There she was joined in 1899 by her sister, Miss May Rose Nathan. Of the circumstances attending their martyrdom we, as yet, know nothing. Up to the 8th July there had been no disturbances at their station. In a letter to Mr. Dreyer (P’ing-yang), dated that (Sunday) evening, Miss Nathan wrote: “Thank you for writing to us and telling of your position. We are in peace, praise God, but we do long for news of you all. The suspense of not hearing is hard to bear. Will you write by messenger all news. Have you heard of the T’ai-yiian people? Our Hiao-i man has not returned. We expected him yesterday, and hope he will bring definite word. I am writing you, because of Mr. Lutley being ill, not to trouble him. Will you please write us of the welfare of friends North and South, and of any arrangements you think we ought to make in case of you all leaving the province? I believe we shall be quite safe here as regards the Ta-ning people, but if outsiders come the case might be altered. Si-chau people are not so friendly or so lao-shih (honest, simple-hearted). We have very faithful men about us, who will do their best in case of trouble. . . . I hope I shan’t be ordered off anywhere; if my Christians are in trouble I trust I may be allowed to stay and help. . . We continually remember you all in prayer. On Saturday the natives and we spent the day in prayer.” It was with deep anguish that I received, on September 24, the sad tidings of Miss Edith Nathan’s martyrdom. Together we had left the home country, and laboured as colleagues for about two years, until our paths diverged. We were privileged to be located in a district where for some years there had been a flourishing church, the members of which gave us a most hearty welcome. In this encouraging sphere she laboured with untiring. MEMORIALS 43 love and energy for the salvation of the Chinese. During the winter months, when the agricultural labour was virtually at a standstill, she took the opportunity of making prolonged visits in the villages, and day by day would sit in tailor fashion on the hard northern kang (brick bed), teaching the women the way of salvation, often till late into the night. During spring and autumn she conducted Bible classes for some of the inquirers, who were invited to the Mission premises. Her familiarity with the Chinese relations, with their endless ramifi- cations, was a wonder to not a few; she invariably placed a new inquirer in his correct clan and family, and would inspire confidence in him by asking after the various members of his household. This gift—and it was a distinct gift with her—was of great service in her work. Her love for the Ta-ning Christians was very deep, and in her letters to England she frequently made reference to her attachment to them. In one of her last letters, written after returning from a holiday, she says: “I arrived home last night to find it very hot; had such a welcome from the natives. Li and Hsii came out a long way to meet us, and all seem so glad to see us back—and am I not glad to be here ! There is no place like Ta-ning ; how I love it and the people!” In another letter, after giving expression to a deep desire to do more for the native, she adds: “One never knows, with the unsettled state of affairs, how long foreigners may be permitted to stay in China. One does long for the native Church to be on the right foundation—Christ Jesus.” Such an one we, with our human sight, would gladly have kept for Christ’s service on earth; but He “seeth not as man,” and though we cannot understand His dealings, yet— Where reason fails with all her power, There faith prevails and love adores, FLORENCE C. BROOMHALL. Extracts from one of her last letters. If “the very hairs of our head are all numbered,” then no man can touch us unless our Father willeth. . . . From earthly powers we shall get very little help, if the Empress Dowager is secretly using these men to rid China of the foreigners. Yet we know the Lord removeth kings. May He indeed keep our hearts in peace, His own perfect peace. We intend staying in Ta-ning. With this drought and the prospect of a famine one does like to be among the Christians. We can help them by our prayers and sympathy. 44 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS MAY ROSE NATHAN Ta-NING, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, August or September, 1900. Born May 28, 1870; brought to Christ, 1890; offered for China, January, 1898; satled for China, January, 1899; taken home August or September 1900. How different are the associations in the lives of these young missionaries with these words: ‘Offered for China.” In some cases they were so full of joy, it was just the natural outcome of a heart full of the love of Christ that they should want to rush to the darkest, unhappiest place in the world to tell it out. To others, and these perhaps deeper natures, the sense of sacrifice was so intense that the offer meant keenest pain, and dear May was one of these. Not that it was a less willing offering to the Lord, rather was it an overwhelming sense of the greatest love of all that constrained her, and some like her, to break away from the tender ties of home. Very few knew all it cost her to leave home and mother, but He who counts His children’s hairs is not unmindful of such sacrifices. It was in relation to this parting that, in her first letter to me, May wrote: “I am sure Pll be glad ‘some day’ that I had something worth giving up for His sake.” A good education at school and college had developed natural gifts, and May Nathan was a very successful teacher, and this power we believed God would use and bless in China. While at the Training Home her presence was a great stimulus to a teacher, for she was so eager over Bible study and appropriated so rapidly what was put before her either of mental or spiritual food. Mrs. C. T. Fishe, who travelled out with her, wrote: ‘It was such a pleasure on our voyage to have dear May Nathan with us. Each day it was my privilege to help her with Chinese study, over which she was exceptionally quick, throwing herself into it with keen enthusiasm. Our party had various times of both private and more public gatherings for prayer and Bible reading, and in common with two or three more, May had some children’s meetings. I cannot recall any special incidents, but her bright, vivid personality remains with me as a very fragrant MEMORIALS 45 memory, whether on board ship or the time in Shanghai when we were getting into native dress, and went to see her start for the North. I had some bright, characteristic letters, full of joy in her: work, and now that the Master has called her higher, it is with joy she now beholds Him.” A few extracts from her own letters tell the undercurrent of thought on the voyage: “I do see so forcibly that one’s un- controlled self does dishonour the Lord Jesus. But I am under His control, am I not? Of course I know I claimed it, and I am sure He is working out what it means in my life. It is His business to hold the reins and mine just to answer to them, as you said to me only a month ago. “Tt is good of the Lord to have kept me from being intensely home-sick as well as sea-sick; of course one does sometimes naturally just hunger after one’s own mother, but all anxiety about her and for her He has taken away, and I can indeed say ‘IT have proved God answers prayer.’ It is such an encourage- ment for me as I go to China to prove God in every new cir- cumstance. “Just arriving in the harbour of Hong-kong, my /irst sight of China, some one asked me just now how I felt about it, but I did not make my feelings public. Daily Light for this morning says, ‘I have betrothed thee unto me for ever . . . in mercy,’ and ‘ Who shall separate from the love of Christ?’ One does so fear the separation from the dear ones at home that the very thought of the inseparability of Christ from oneself is a rock thought.” May’s joy at being sent straight to her elder sister was very great, and each letter told of diligent study and increasing longing to be able to tell out the goodness of salvation. Inter- spersed with her bright descriptions of the new life were many sentences that proved how God was dealing with her and leading her closer to Himself. We little thought the rapid ripening was not for service down here, but in the courts above. ‘Thy way, not mine, O Lord.” GRACE ELIZABETH SOLTAU. Extract from one of her last letters We hear the McConnells have no silver, and I know the Youngs have very little. We are sending the former a little. Good old Deacon Wang said: “Of course as long as ever I have anything I will share it with you”—but there is no need for that. 46 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS MARY HEAYSMAN Ta-NING, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, August or September, 1900. Miss Heaysman was born at East Grinstead in Sussex on July 29, 1874, and left with her parents for Australia in 1884. Shortly before leaving England, in response to an appeal at a Children’s Service, to the surprise of all who knew her shy and timid nature, she came forward, and from that date she has always regarded herself as dedicated to God’s service. In 1894 she wrote from Australia saying that Mr. Thomas Cook’s mission had been blessed to her. At this time she took a decided step forward in her religious life. In November of the same year she received her call for foreign work, and applied to the Mission in 1895. At this time she was worshipping in connection with the Society of Friends. After some training at “Hope” College, Adelaide, under the Rev. W. L. Morton, she was accepted, and sailed for China in 1897. From Yang-chau she proceeded to I-ch’eng, where she laboured with Miss Chapman under Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Kay’s direction. Writing from there she says: “It was so good of dear mother to let me go, and much as I miss her company and much as I feel being away from her, I cannot feel sorry for coming, or wish myself back. This is such a dark land, no one can under- stand how great the darkness till one comes and lives here. The name of God is unknown. ._ . It is indeed an honour and privilege to be allowed to carry the glad tidings of Jesus and His love to these poor dark souls.” Just before the outbreak of the present troubles, she was removed from I-ch’eng to take up work with the Misses Nathan at Ta-ning. . . . She retained a strong affection for all connected with her home in England, and wrote once that she could never sing “Jerusalem my happy home” without insensibly connecting that old home with it. Her mother writes, “I thank God our precious one is Safe Home.” Her last letter to me was headed, “There shall be showers of blessing.” I. HEAYsMAN. MEMORIALS 47 It was my privilege to make the acquaintance of Miss Heaysman when in the Yang-chau Training Home. She being of a quiet retiring nature, few knew or understood the deep true life under the silent surface. Being designated to the same province, and our stations only lying two days’ journey apart, we travelled together. We separated at Ping-yang-fu, but kept up our friendship by frequent correspondence. Nearly two years elapsed ere I visited her in her station. It was a pleasant surprise to see the good progress she had made in the language, and gratifying to hear of the number of women who had broken off opium, and of the many villages which had thus been opened to the Gospel. She and her companion Miss Chapman took turns at a month’s work in the station with the women, and a month’s visiting among the villages around, where they sought to deepen the knowledge of the Gospel among those who had previously broken off opium at the refuges. Our dear sister’s work may have been short, but it was the beginning of great things for some, and God, who has promised, “T will water it morning by morning,” will perfect that which was begun in many hearts, that fruit may be found after many days as a result of the seed sown by her. T have often thought that over their little home at I-ch’eng as it lay amongst the hills, should have been written, “ Separated unto Himself,” so constantly and faithfully were they engaged in seeking to win souls for the Master. In May 1900 she came to the P’ing-yang-fu Conference, and from there proceeded to Ta-ning, her new station. Writing from there on July 8 (probably her last letter), she says: “It is very good of the Lord to have sent me here; we are all so peaceful. We cannot help feeling concerned about every one else. Ta-ning seems likely to be free from any disturbance. Should anything arise, the native Christians would do all in their power to help us. What fine men Pastors Chang and Kii are.” Once before, during a little local trouble, the Christians had said to the ladies there, “Before the people touch you they will have to kill us.” Their faithfulness is testified to by the pathetic news that “the three ladies at Ta-ning have been killed, to- gether with over ten of the native Christians, and some of the houses have been burned and others robbed.” 1 E. GUTHRIE. 1 A group of the Ta-ning Christians will be found facing p. 268. 48 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS EDITH I. DOBSON S1-cHAv, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, August or September, 1900. Edith Isabel Dobson was converted in 1889, shortly after commencing work as a hospital probationer. In the Hospital she received an all-round training, which fitted her for the work God was calling her to do in China. For the last two years she held the post of Matron. In the year 1890 a missionary from China, speaking at a meeting in the church of which Miss Dobson was a member, spoke so strongly of the discomforts connected with missionary life in that land, and of difficulties of the language, that she said, “If I ever go to the foreign field it will not be there.” In the Y.W.C.A., however, the great need for workers in the foreign field was brought constantly before her, and in 1891 she gave her life to God for China. In November 1894 she sailed for China, and, a day or two after reaching Shanghai, went to Chefoo, arriving in time to help the late Dr. Douthwaite nurse the wounded soldiers from Wei-hai-wei. The next two years were spent principally in ministering to fellow-missionaries at Chefoo and in the Sanatorium. Being appointed to Si-chau in Shan-si, she travelled with Mr. and Mrs. Saunders as far as their station. Upon arriving at Si-chau she had immediately to proceed to Ta-ning and nurse her former friend, Miss Nathan, who was recovering from an attack of typhus fever. Did God permit them to enter into His presence together ? Writing to a Y.W.C.A. Branch she says: “Strangely enough I am in the same province as that in which the missionary lived who first discouraged me; and though there are hardships and difficulties, the more than counterbalancing joys are not to be described in words.” From this time on, we read from the tone of her letters and journals she was indeed drinking in the Master’s spirit of love, sympathy, and sacrifice, counting it great joy to minister to those who were sick in body or soul. We look back with thankfulness and see her naturally careless, ease-loving disposition transformed by the Holy Spirit into one of glad self-denial aud love for those around her. We gather from her letters that the last two years have been times of real delight in her God-given work and of MEMORIALS 49 fellowship with Christ. The deepened tone made our hearts glad, and now we see how quickly the Master was preparing His servant. God has called her to share that deepest fellowship of suffering. We know she would join in some words she quoted in a letter :— God never does or suffers to be done But we ourselves would do if we could see The end of all things here as well as He. In her last letter, April 26, after writing about the un- settled state of China she says: “We are in the Lord’s hands, and well we know naught can come to us without His permission, so we have no need to be troubled: it is not in my nature to fear physical harm, but I trust, if it came, His grace will be all- sufficient.” We rejoice to know that this will have been abundantly realised before she went in to see the King. E. A. As I take the pen to write a few words about our dear sister Miss Dobson, I am thinking how much better one and another of those who worked with her could tell us of her love to her Master and devotion to His work, but that little group has been “counted worthy,” and together won the martyr’s crown. What if some of the Chinese among whom she laboured could speak to us? I know what they would tell. They would speak of weary journeys taken by her to tend them in sickness and of words of comfort and cheer spoken. When at home, besides giving attention to a girls’ school, she would be receiving many patients who came to her for help, and thus get oppor- tunities of preaching the Gospel. She showed a more than ordinary aptitude in the study of the language. What always struck me in her, was her evident desire to do well all that she found to do. Her capacities a3 nurse enabled her to render service to many of her fellow-missionaries, and in one case when I helped her, I can speak of the pleasant atmosphere of kindness which her presence brought. Not only did she attend to her patient but took upon herself many of the household duties, thus rendering herself doubly valuable. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Eva FRENCH. 50 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS EMMA GEORGIANA HURN SI-cHAU, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, August or September, 1900. Hers was a consecrated life; hence its gentle power. “She was a very quiet girl,” her sister writes,“ but her influence and power amongst those she came in contact with in business was wonderful. I think the one great point with her was, never to say ‘No’ to anything her Master wished her to do.” I first met her in 1895 at the Folkestone Y.W.C.A., where we were both spending our holidays. It was her brightness and sincerity, and the reality of her Christian life that attracted me. She was at that time engaged in a house of business in Bedford ; but whilst longing to take up definite work for the Master, either hospital or missionary, as soon as the way should be made clear, she was ever ready to do the little things that lay close at hand. During her stay at the Y.W.C.A. she was always ready to speak a cheery word to the lonely, to help in welcoming the newcomers, or in singing or speaking at the mission meetings. In endless little ways she showed plainly to all around whose she was and whom she served. With some other friends we often made little excursions together, and many and pleasant were the walks and talks we all had. One of our number was called home about eighteen months later, after a long and painful illness, and now our beloved friend, Miss Hurn, has passed through much suffering into the presence of the Lord, whom she so dearly loved and faithfully served, to receive the martyr’s crown, and the “ Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” In one of her letters after reaching her station she wrote :— Si-chau, November 3, 1898 :—“ ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.’ I can truly say they have followed me. God has given me health and strength and helped me in the study of this difficult language. I am just now able to understand a little of what these dear people say, but I do long to be able to speak freely with them. Pray that I may soon be able to speak, and that I may be greatly used in His service, and bring glory to His Name. MEMORIALS 51 “T feel there is the same need here as at home—to be willing to speak or pray when the Lord wants us to. Satan wants to keep our mouths closed as much in the Chinese language as he did in the English ; so please pray that I may never lose an opportunity of witnessing for my Master who has done so much for me.” M. B. Our hearts are full of loving memories of dear Georgiana Hurn, born .at Peckham Rye, on July 6, 1868, and “born again” in July 1890. She was accepted for training at Doric Lodge, and entered at the Easter term of 1896. During the three months’ summer vacation she took charge of the Assembly Hall Branch of the Y.W.C.A., and continued in this work for some months. All the girls loved her and brought their troubles and difficulties to her as to a friend, who was always ready to give loving sympathy and counsel; while several of them were led to know the Lord as their own personal Saviour. As we look back upon the time she spent amongst us, the one thing that stands out clearly above all else is, that prayer was the key-note of her life, and that the steady, quiet power, which was hers in a marked degree, was born of constant communion with the Lord. A fellow-deaconess used to say, that ‘it was no use to talk over difficulties with Georgie unless you were willing that the talk should end in taking it all to the Lord in prayer.” Her life was so controlled by the love of Jesus, that she con- tinually testified to the truth that “Love thinketh no evil.” In her position as monitress there were many opportunities for the exercise of patience, and of obedience to the command: “‘Eixhort one another daily.” It is the testimony of the one who knew her best, that her daily life was a constant witness to the keeping power of the Lord Jesus, for never during the session spent together could she recollect anything in word or action which was dishonouring to the Master. Miss Hurn left us to enter the C.I.M. Home, and after a little time spent there, sailed for China, January 3, 1898. The letters from her far-distant station breathed the same spirit of prayer as that which had characterised her here. And now the news has come that she is in the presence of the King! We rejoice for her, and we pray for China that soon that poor dark land may be won for Christ. S. B. Durr, Lady Superintendent, Doric Lodge. 52 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MR. AND MRS. W. G. PEAT Si-cHav, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, August or September, 1900. William Grahame Peat was a native of Hamilton, and it was while engaged in an architect’s office there, that his Master’s voice called him to work in the foreign field, “honouring him,” as a friend expressed it, “with a commission to the heathen in China.” He sailed on December 1, 1887, as one of the hundred missionaries given to the C.I.M. in answer to prayer during the course of that year. In his native place he was a zealous worker for the salvation of souls in connection with St. John’s Free Church,—of which he was a member,—and the Hamilton Christian Union. One who knew him well at that time has kindly given us the brief notice which we print below of that bright morning of his day of service. In China, where he worked with like fervour, his sphere was first at P’ing-yao in Shan-si, and then after his marriage with Miss Helen Mackenzie, in March 1891, at Si-chau, also in that province. At Si-chau they made their home, and there they served—with an interval of a furlough in Scotland, June 1896 to September 1897—until from the happy interests of their little flock they were called to the fuller service of their eternal home. With them were gathered their two children, Margretta, aged seven years and nine months, and Mary, three years and ten months. We knew him and still speak of him as “Willie Peat.” There was nothing about him that one wishes to cover. Surrounded at home by religious influences he was always of quiet and gentle demeanour, timid somewhat, but bright withal. Conversion sweetened and strengthened the good in him, and made him strong where men thought him weak. Physically, he never seemed robust, but faith in God gave to him an energy not always displayed in Christian work by stronger men. The work which lay to his hand—in kitchen meetings or in the evangelistic choir—he gave himself to with all his heart, and his zeal knew MEMORIALS . 53 no tiring. This the more surprised us as we considered him somewhat frail in body. In zeal and consecration going beyond most young Christians, the customary sharp criticism fell on him, only to find him going steadily on, feeling perhaps the injustice of it, but making no plaint. Here, as always, the joy of the Lord was his strength. His was a sunny faith, for salvation to him was a treasure, and he rejoiced in it. Love made him share his joy, and sharing it, he kept it, aye, and keeps it still. J.B. M. Helen Mackenzie was born in Ordiquhill, in Banffshire, and was the daughter of deeply religious parents, who early sought to lead their children to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A brother writes of her as follows :— Leaving home at an early age, she was for several years engaged as a travelling companion, visiting all the principal countries in Europe. An intelligent observer of places and events she certainly was, as any one could testify who was long in her company. For some years previous to joining the C.I.M. she was wholly engaged in obscure and unofficial Mission work in Edinburgh, the “‘Carrubber’s Close” Mission having a special claim upon her sympathy. She was a most earnest worker during Moody and Sankey’s visit to this country, and later, when Messrs. Fullerton and Smith took up the work, she laboured incessantly. Some of the lowest quarters of Edinburgh were constantly visited by her, and I have known of her sitting up whole nights with some poor wretch in these hovels, soothing a fevered brow and trying to reclaim her from a life of vice and sin. She had for long a desire to go out to the Foreign Mission field, so when the opportunity came of joining the C.I.M. she embraced it eagerly and went out just twelve years ago, going first to Gan-ren, in Kiang-si. In 1891 she was married to Mr. W. G. Peat and went to Shan-si. She was full of enthusiasm, and withal had such a gift of tact and common-sense. She loved China and the Chinese, and towards the close of their furlough three years ago, looked forward to their “ going home” again. G. M. Extract from one of Mr. Peat’s last letters The 15th of the Chinese month is mentioned here as the date for our destruction. But we are in God’s hands, and can say, “I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” 54 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MR. ALFRED WOODROFFE Yo-yane, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, summer 1900. Our brother, Alfred Woodroffe, was converted to God in February 1889. After a course of training under Dr. Guinness he was accepted by the China Inland Mission in June 1897, and sailed for China in the following September. After several months at the Gan-k’ing Training Home he was appointed to the province of Shan-si. There he worked for a short eighteen months, and then it was granted him, at the early age of twenty- eight, to seal his testimony by death. His last few weeks on earth were full of anxiety and suffering. Shortly before his death he wrote, “The great wonder is that I am still here in the midst of so many whom I am sorry to say would rejoice to see the blood flow.” Compelled to leave the city, he took refuge among the mountains. Here he wandered about during the day where he was not likely to be seen, and during the night took shelter in caves nearer the city where the wild beasts were less to be feared. The last letter from him told of his great hardships,—his feet being cut and bleeding with his weary wanderings,—but finished with the words, ‘* we count them happy that endure.” Of him it may truly be said he was “destitute, afflicted, evil entreated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth.” Mr. Alfred Woodroffe was born at Loughborough, Leicester, where he spent the greater part of his life. After his conversion he became a member of the Baptist Church there, and took an active part in various forms of Christian work in connection with that congregation. Early in his Christian course he knew what it was to suffer as a Christian and be thrust out upon the world, but the hard- ships of his way seemed to have done nothing in diminishing the joy of his heart. The three years before he entered college were spent at Cardiff, where he became a member of the Tredegarville Baptist Church. His time at Cardiff was well occupied with study and FS ASyy sovf of ‘AAAONGOOM GANATV ‘YI “LLVUNVE GIAVG “VW “SS aSnd 220f OF *palp puv paerayns yerreg “A Pue ayorpoory “TT IVI} asay} se yons Ss] Suowre sea IT “MONS JO TIVA LHOIIS V YWALAV IS-NVHS NI STH GaovuidaL MEMORIALS 55 evangelistic work. He took great interest in the Town Mission, and for two years went regularly to a branch of Dr. Barnardo’s Homes to address the boys. Previous to his being accepted by the O.I.M. he had three years’ training at Harley and Cliff Colleges. Leaving England in September 1897, it was barely three years he was permitted to serve Christ in China; but these were by no means fruitless years. Latterly he made a number of preaching tours, of a month or six weeks each, around his station at Yo-yang, in some cases visiting places entirely new to the missionary. His was a loving nature; he had been moulded by the text: “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” He loved mankind ; he loved the Chinese. A man of prayer and intense piety, he walked with God, inheriting the promises. He regarded himself as given up to the Lord. I remember him saying at one time that since he had entirely yielded himself up to God, he had enjoyed much more blessing in his work and had been more successful in winning souls. I cannot do better than give an extract from a letter of his, dated February 1899, to show the spirit of the man and the martyr. It was written just after an adventure with a Chinese mob, during which he got battered about and only escaped after great struggling :— “ At the present time there is in China a clever man, U-man-tsi by name, who is working out a systematic scheme to blot out the name of Foreigner from the land. The Chinese Government have actually rewarded him, and made him a great man in the eyes of the people. To what result? One cannot tell; but only this month we had news of an old missionary being killed. Are we also called to suffer? Are we called to die? The poor, feeble heart says: ‘Oh, no; never.’ But, to bring blessing into the world, what has it always meant? What to the Saviour ? What to the Apostles? ‘This is the way the Master went ; should not the servant tread it still ?’” Our brother was called upon to tread in this way; and we believe he gave his life, not grudgingly, but freely. For him, we may be sure, there was light in the valley, and for the other martyrs also who met their death with the same high faith. ARTHUR H. CHAPMAN. 56 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MR. DAVID BARRATT Yo-yane, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, summer 1900. David Barratt was accepted as a candidate by the Australian branch of the C.LM. He reached Shanghai in the spring of 1897 and proceeded to the Gan-k’ing Training Home. I can well remember the warm welcome and hearty hand-grip he gave those of us who reached Gan-k’ing the following autumn. He was always ready to help, and even while in the Training Home was very zealous for the salvation of the Chinese. His earnest- ness in prayer, his readiness to assist in any way, and the touching appeals in his letters to his friends, all sprang from a deep sense of the needs of the people around him. In the spring of 1898 he left Gan-k’ing for the north of China, and in December of the same year I was again privileged to meet him at the city of Kiehiu. Here with Mr. Lutley’s help, Graham McKie, Alfred Woodroffe, David Barratt and I spent several months at study. Although Mr. Barratt always found the study of Chinese difficult, the perseverance and prayer conquered, and he was always “ready” to speak a few words for his Saviour. Early in 1899, after the P’ing-yang-fu Conference, we spent a fortnight together in work among the hills, where he has since laid down his life. This trip revealed his real character. The many discomforts and trials seemed hardly ever to move him, his faith and assurance in God kept him cheerful and happy amid the most trying circumstances. All thought of personal discomfort and inconvenience was lost in his intense desire that as many as possible should hear the joyful news. Once when, in order to reach a certain city before dark, we had to pass several villages without stopping to preach or sell books, he felt it keenly. Soon after this trip he was stationed at Yo-yang with Mr. Woodroffe. His letters gave encouraging reports of his journeys and work among the schoolboys or opium patients. The last letter I received towards the end of May spoke of the threatening troubles and of the disturbances round Hung-tung. His closing MEMORIALS 57 words were, “I am like the ox, ready for cither—the plough or the altar.” After writing this letter he accompanied Mr. William Cooper on his journey toward the coast, as far as Lu-an. Here on June 29, at night, he and one or two faithful native Christians fled to the hills for safety. Among these hills at T’ang-ch’eng he passed away, in consequence of his sufferings and privations. His last letters, although written under the shadow of the dark cloud so soon to burst, and with the full knowledge of what had happened at T’ai-yiian-fu, were full of faith and confidence, knowing that whatever happened all would be well. A. J. The following are some extracts from his last letter :— Letter to Dr. Hewett, July 6, 1900 We took some of the half-hundred “fear nots” of God this morning and had a blessed time indeed. I send you a few, especially helpful to Christians now. .. . An hour ago Deacon Si, who knew you in T’ai-yiian, came to tell you of the awful things in T’ai-yiian, etc. The news nearly made me faint, but His peace filled, and still does fill my soul. .. We got together after he had left and prayed about matters, and sang Je-su-liag O,— “Te leadeth me.” I never knew its full meaning till this hour. . . It seems the whole affair comes from the Empress Dowager. The Empire is evidently upside down. Now “ Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” is written on the old Middle Kingdom. Our blood may be as a true cement (for the foundation), and God’s kingdom will increase over this land. Extermination is but exaltation. God guide and bless us! “Fear not them which kill,” He says, “are ye not of much more value than many sparrows.” “ Peace, perfect peace,” to you, brother, and all at Lu-ch’eng. “We may meet in the glory in a few hours or days,—a nearer way than to go to Lu-ch’eng. . . . Not a sleep, no dinner, a quiet time with God, then sunset and evening bells, then the dark (moonlight), and I know there will be “No moaning at the bar when I put out to sea,” because “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee.” Let us be true till death. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” 58 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MRS. E. J. COOPER Lu-cH’ENG, SHAN-SI Died on August 6 at Ying-shan Hsien, about 100 miles north-west of Han-kow, in consequence of injuries received when travelling. My acquaintance with Mrs. E. J. Cooper began in 1887, when she (then Miss M. Palmer) was called to the Mission field at the same time as myself. We did not know each other; our calls were different, although to the same work, and on the 20th October 1887, as members of the China Inland Mission and also of “the Hundred” called that year, we sailed for China. Miss Palmer had a real missionary spirit, and though suffering much from sea-sickness all the six weeks of the voyage, did what she could when able to speak to souls around her. We landed on the 5th December in Shanghai, and after spending four months at Yang-chau to learn a little of the language, we returned to Shanghai to begin work in the Home. This Home is intended for our workers as they pass up and down to and from the inland work; but members of other missions often stay with us, and by many of these friends my dear fellow-worker is very lovingly remembered. She was ever kind and loving to all; and did all in her power to help the Chinese servants. In 1891 she was married to Mr. E. J. Cooper, who had joined the Mission in 1888, and as he was engaged in directing the building of our new Home, being an architect, they continued to live in Shanghai, and did a good work among the sailors who landed there. Their house in the compound was a very happy centre for these men, who so much need help when on shore; and a good many date their conversion from the evenings spent with the Coopers. After a time they (the Coopers) were stationed at Han-kow, where a new Home was to be built. She and her husband would have much preferred inland work among the Chinese, but the building was needed, and seemed to be “ the next thing” the Lord had for them to do. Their eldest little girl was born in 1892, and in 1893 or 1894 they went to Che-foo, again to superintend mission buildings— this time schools for the children of missionaries—and Mrs. Cooper had charge of the Sanatorium for a season. Two children MEMORIALS 59 were born at Che-foo, of whom one, little Jackie, died when about eighteen months old. It was arranged in 1897 for Mrs. Cooper to come home with her two little girls, and Mr. Cooper to follow in a year’s time. It seemed a wise plan, as she had felt the death of her little boy very much. It was a great joy to meet my dear fellow-worker again in this land. She and the children spent part of the time at Brighton with Mr. Cooper’s parents, and part in Scotland with old friends; and in February 1898 Mr. Cooper joined her. A year and eight months passed all too quickly, and in November 1899 they again left for China. In addition to the two little girls they now had a very precious baby boy, Ernest Brainerd, who was born December 30, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper hoped now to get among the people, and when they reached Shanghai, it was arranged, after a short delay, that they should go to Lu-ch’eng, in Shan-si, where Mr. and Mrs. Dugald Lawson had been working. Amy, the eldest little girl, remained at Che-foo school; Edith and Brainerd went with their parents. The journey there was a very long and weary one. They remained at Lu-ch’eng until last July, when they and the two lady missionaries working with them, Miss Rice and Miss Huston, and also Mr. and Mrs. Saunders and their children, and other friends from P’ing-yao, had to leave owing to the dis- turbances in that neighbourhood. Their journey to Han-kow was terrible; they were driven from village to village, in the sun, and deprived of all they possessed. Three of the ladies and two of the Saunders children died on the way, one of the ladies being my dear friend. Little Brainerd died on reaching Han-kow, so the mother and her two little boys are now together at rest “till he come.” Few knew how earnestly dear Margaret Cooper took the Mission and all its needs to the Lord in prayer ; nothing was too small to be remembered. May all who read this very imperfect notice remember it is such workers that are needed in dark, sad China; and will they ask the Lord in His good time to send forward other workers to take the places of those who have fallen in the work? The work is His and must go forward. KATHERINE I. WILLIAMSON. Extract from Mr. E. J. Cooper's Letter to his Mother (see p. 80) Although wounded and suffering, Maggie said to me, “If the Lord spares us, I should like to go back to Lu-ch’eng if possible.” Devoted soul,—she never turned in purpose and desire to win some of the Chinese for Christ. 60 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS HATTIE RICE Lu-cH’enc, SHAN-SI Suffered martyrdom, July 13, 1900. Miss Hattie Jane Rice was a native of Massachusetts, U.S.A., and was born in 1858. In 1888 she attended the Northfield Convention, where she heard Mr. Taylor speak upon the subject of service in China. It was there and thus that the Lord met her face to face, and from that experience she went back to her home a changed woman, and with no other desire than to follow Him who had spoken to her into the regions beyond. No sooner had she reached this point than obstacles seemed to multiply, and, finally, days of discouragement came, which brought great darkness to the soul. At this crisis a kind friend came to her and suggested her going to Mr. Moody’s Bible Training School at Chicago, telling her, at the same time, that her church stood ready to provide the necessary means. In December 1892 she started for China, and after a time at Yang-chau was designated to Lu-ch’eng, Shan-si. Miss Rice was associated here with Mr. and Mrs. Lawson, but when they left for furlough in 1896 Miss Huston was designated as her companion. Shortly before the trouble Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Cooper had been appointed here. Few stations in Shan-si had brighter prospects before them than this one, but the band of faithful workers were soon to be honoured by the privilege of suffering for and with their Lord. In July the Edict of the Empress Dowager to persecute and kill the foreigners went forth, and Yii-hsien, the governor of the province, took up the mandates of his royal mistress to fulfil them to the greatest possible extent. Thus the weary flight began (see p. 70). Between Kao-p'ing and Tse-chau Miss Rice became so exhausted by the sufferings through which she had passed, that she declared she could go no farther. Here she was cruelly beaten by the Boxers. Happily she did not suffer long, for as her heart was weak she soon succumbed. Thus poor China lost a friend whose prayers and service for its salvation had meant not less than infinite good. H. W. Frost. MEMORIALS 61 I feel it a great privilege to write something about my dear friend Hattie Rice, and yet words do not come freely to tell of her who was so truly His in all things. It was in the spring of 1895 I first made her acquaintance, when I returned to China after my furlough. From the first her quiet gentleness struck me as something out of the ordinary, and as I came to know her I found her one who truly walked with God and sought to glorify Him in all things. How she loved the Lord and trusted Him! It was always a great lift heavenwards to me to be in her company even for a little time. All loved and honoured her, both the native Christians and fellow-workers. She was oue we all looked up to, and felt the helpfulness of her quiet influence. Always a busy worker in the villages, I am sure there are many who have been led to know Jesus as their Saviour through her instrumentality. During the autumn and winter of 1895 she was much alone (Mr. and Mrs. Lawson were home on furlough). Then it was that the Lord spoke to her through those words, ‘if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, etc.” Blessed by these words she was from that time forward increasing in her work amongst the dear women and native Christians. In time of deep trial she was a great comfort to me, and always ready with some word to help and encourage. And now she rests from her labours, and great will be the crown of rejoicing CAROLINE GATES. Miss Rice was a worker in a neighbouring station to ours, and my wife and I have known her for six years past. For about two years we were pastoring the station in Mr. Lawson’s absence, paying monthly visits to Lu-ch’eng. Miss Rice bravely carried on the work alone, which must have been no light strain to one naturally nervous as she was. That she could do this was owing to her deep heart-rest in the Lord. She was much respected by the people and most conscientious in steady plodding work, both among the opium patients at Lu-ch’eng and in visiting the church members in their homes in the country. STANLEY P. Smiru. 62 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MISS MARY E. HUSTON Lu-cHenc, SHAN-sI Suffered martyrdom, August 11, 1900. Miss Mary Elizabeth Huston was born in the State of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1866. In 1894 she entered the Gospel Training School at Abilene, and was a fellow-student with Miss Troyer, afterwards Mrs. Young. In December 1895 she sailed for China, and after some time of study at the language at Yang-chau she was appointed to Lu-an, Shan-si, where she came into the companionship and under the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Smith and Miss Gates. After this time, it was arranged that Miss Huston should proceed to the station of Lu-ch’eng, and become associated there with Miss H. J. Rice. This arrangement proved to be a most suitable and happy one, and a friendship was formed between Miss Huston and Miss Rice which ripened more and more, and became ever increasingly helpful to each. Through varying changes of station life, these two sisters went on in their service, sometimes in trial and sometimes in more open blessing, but always in the joy of the Lord. Then there fell suddenly upon them the heavy stroke of persecution, and in the terrible heat of summer, when the workers would fain have sought something of quiet and rest, Miss Huston and her companions were forced to flee. The story of this journey is told elsewhere (see p. 70). Miss Rice, her companion, was beaten to death and she severely wounded. Miss Huston, after doing what she could for the body of her dead friend, made her way towards Tse-chau. On the way there she met some men who had been sent by the official to give her some garments and to bury Miss Rice. Miss Huston was then taken to a temple where the gods were con- sulted as to her fate. The decree being favourable she was spared, and was carried on a stretcher until she rejoined the other members of the party from whom she had been separated. Two days before reaching Han-kow the gentle spirit took its flight heavenward and homeward. The precious remains were taken to Han-kow, and there laid to rest in the foreign cemetery to await the coming of the Son of God. H. W. Frost. MEMORIALS 63 Miss Huston was very bright and affectionate. She was always ready to shower love on all who came within her reach. She thus soon won the love of all around her. From the first the children loved her dearly, and long ere she could make herself fully understood she gathered the little ones round her on Sunday afternoons and taught them what she could. It was sweet to hear the little school-children call her “auntie.” They would climb on her knees and kiss her just like English children do, playing with her clothes and fondling her. Though quick with the written language, she found the spoken more difficult, but her bright and loving ways with the natives spoke more than her words. When able to speak she had classes with the women opium-patients and later she visited the villages around, which by her and Miss Rice were thoroughly worked. Through her loving ways not a few were caught in the great Gospel net and truly saved. When she, Miss Rice, and Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Cooper left Lu-ch’eng for that long journey to the coast, many of the dear native Christians were present. Some of them begged them not to go, saying they were sure they would be killed on the road. They said, “Stay, and we will die with you here, we will not deny the Lord.” It was with heavy hearts they told the native Christians that the best thing for them was to scatter and hide if possible. On that dreadful journey after she had been most cruelly treated, she said to me again and again, that it was a great joy to her to be counted worthy to have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. I had the sad honour of being with her when she passed away to glory, two days before we reached Han-kow. CAROLINE GATES. Miss Huston joined Miss Rice during the time of loneliness, and their hearts were much drawn to one another from the first. A woman with a big warm heart, devoted to children, she found scope for her motherly love and unselfishness in nursing up the opium patients when under her care. She worked hard at the language and made good progress. Latterly she spent much time in the villages, and we could hardly ever get her to Lu-an, even for a day’s holiday, owing to her reluctance to leave her work amongst the Chinese women. STANLEY P. SMITH. 64 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES MRs. A. E. GLOVER ‘Entered into rest,” Shanghai, October 25—after privations and sufferings endured in the flight from Shan-si. Flora Constance Kelly was the second daughter of the Rev. J. A. Kelly. Born on New Year’s Day, 1872, she was the child of much prayer, and her father and mother, from the very first, dedicated her to the Lord. Her nature was singularly loving and pleasing, and her enjoy- ment of life, as a girl, intense. It was just at the time when the world held out the strongest fascinations that she gave up trying to serve two masters, and very definitely and unwaveringly yielded herself to the Lord Jesus. From this time she realised the need of entire separation, and every trifle which came between her and her Lord was let go. Her growth in grace was marked and rapid; her witness for Christ, by life and word, clear and unmistakable. With an intense love for the Word of God, her one and great, desire was to know Him. Christ was not only her foundation but her goal ; the ‘‘chiefest among ten thousand,” the “ altogether lovely.” As with St. Paul so was it with her: “This one thing Ido.” She seemed to realise more than most the shortness of this little life, and weighed everything in the light of eternity, longing for, and living in constant expectation of, the return of the Lord. When her father left Dover in 1892 for the parish of Preston (xobalds, near Shrewsbury, she engaged very actively in the Lord’s work—in deep dependence on the Spirit’s power alone, —holding classes and meetings for men and women, and visiting. Most remarkably were her efforts owned of God, and many in that little place rise up to-day and call her blessed. Her lovely gentleness, strong faith, humility, and heavenly-mindedness were very marked. All loved her. Here it was, in 1894, that she became engaged and married to the Rev. A. E. Glover, M.A., then one of the Rev. Prebendary Webb Peploe’s curates. One of the links which drew them strongly together was their common desire to work for Christ in China, each having received the “call” to go, quite independently of the other. After ten months as private chaplain at Cally, near Gate- house, N.B., Mr. Glover left for China in 1896, where he became attached to the China Inland Mission, and was located with MISS MARY E. HUSTON. MISS HATTIE RICE. MRS. E. J, COOPER. MRS. a. E, GLOVER. To face page 64. MR. W S. FLEMING. (See p. 198.) To face page 65. MEMORIALS 65 Mr. Stanley Smith (one of the “Cambridge Seven”) in the city of Lu-an, in the province of Shan-si. A year later Mrs. Glover and her little boy and baby girl joined him, and from that time to the spring of this year she, with her husband, has gone quietly on, working at the language, holding classes for the women, and visiting. How little she thought that for only three brief years of her life was she to have the joy of holding up Christ before the Chinese, and that it should be by her death rather than by her life she should magnify Him there! On p. 81 will be seen Mr. Glover’s account of the outbreak of hostilities in Lu-an, and of their consequent flight on July 6. Of the horrors of that forty days’ journey we need not now speak. But most marvellously, most miraculously, did our prayer-hearing God deliver them. There was, as one of His servants expresses it, ‘a great volume of prayer” in all parts of the world going up for them. Mr. and Mrs. Glover and the two little ones arrived at Han-kow on August 14 in safety, but very shattered in health after their terrible sufferings. Here, at the C.I.M. Home, they were surrounded by love and kindness, and were carefully nursed. To use Mrs. Glover’s own words: “The sufferings are almost forgotten. All is deep praise to God, for the experience has been so blessed—the experience of His power to cover and keep in perfect peace, only seeing glory when face to face with death—the experience of His tender carrying and enabling love when brought nigh unto death on the road. All has been a blessed experience of Him.” Four days after their arrival at Han-kow their little daughter (Faith Edythe) was born, but the little one only survived her birth eleven days. Mrs. Glover’s progress towards recovery, though slow, seemed sure and well maintained. So much so, that a few weeks later she was able to be removed to Shanghai. Here, however, a change for the worse set in, and on October 26 her parents, who were looking forward to the joy of seeing their child so shortly, received a cable saying, ‘Mrs. A. E. Glover is with Christ.” Truly we can add “far better,” as we think of her with her ‘ martyred friends and fellow-workers, now with the King— “abundantly satisfied ”»—‘‘faultless before the presence of His glory.” This young life has not been thrown away. Christ has been magnified by it, and she has left behind her a lovely memory which must stimulate all who knew her, like her to “ Press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” KATHARINE A. M. KELLY. 66 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES NAMES AND SUMMARY OF THOSE WHO ESCAPED FROM SOUTH CENTRAL SHAN-SI (Division II.), ACCORDING TO THEIR PARTIES. Party I— From P’ing-yao Rev. A. R. and Mrs. Saunders Mr. A. Jennings. and four children. Miss Guthrie. Making a party of eight who started from P’ing-yao and travelled to Lu-ch’eng, where they joined Party IT. Party I.—From Lu-ch’eng Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Cooper Miss Rice. and two children. Miss Huston. Making when joined by the P’ing-yao party fourteen in all. Party [11.—From Lu-an Rev. A. E. and Mrs. Glover Miss C. Gates. and two children. Making a party of five. These were joined at Sin-yang by parties I. and IL, whence they journeyed together to Han-kow. Of these nineteen, fourteen reached Han-kow after a journey terrible beyond description. Mrs. E. J. Cooper, Miss Rice, Miss Huston and two children, Ellen and Alice Saunders, were murdered or died in consequence of ill-treatment when travelling. Brainerd Cooper passed away shortly after reaching Han-kow, and we grieve to hear that Mrs. Glover, and babe born only four days after arrival in Han-kow, have also joined the martyred throng. AN ESCAPE FROM P’ING-YAO 67 Party IV.—From Ping-yang Mr. and Mrs. A. Lutley and two Miss Edith Higgs. children, Mary and Edith. Miss E. C. Johnson. Miss E. Gauntlett. Miss A. Hoskyn. Mr. and Mrs. F. C. H. Dreyer. Miss R. Palmer. Miss A. F, Hoskyn. Miss K. Rasmussen. Miss E. French. Making a party of fourteen. The route taken by this party was quite different during the earlier stages from that taken by parties I. IL. and ITI., but they joined the same road at Cheng-chau (see map). In the mercy of God all these reached Han-kow with the exception of Mr. and Mrs. Lutley’s two children, Mary and Edith, who died and were buried on the road. Without further introduction beyond this brief classi- fication for the sake of clearness, we give the following per- sonal narrations of some of those who have escaped. Such a record cannot fail to awaken the deepest interest and the earnest prayers of all God’s people for that country for which these sufferings were patiently endured. PARTY I AN ESCAPE FROM PING-YAO TO HAN-KOW By Rev. A. R. SaunpERs ‘He declared unto them how the Lord had brought him forth.” ‘And he said, Tell these things unto James, and to the brethren.” Cuina INLAND Mission, Han-kow, CHINA, August 23, 1900. DeaR Mr. BroomuaLtt—By the good hand of God upon us we have been permitted to arrive here in safety. A terrible journey we have had, as you will see from the enclosed copy of a letter I have written describing it. Two of our darling children have been taken from us, and oh! how we miss them. We cannot doubt God’s love and His 68 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES wisdom. He doeth all things well. How we longed that they might all be spared through that terrible journey. Dear E. J. Cooper too, his loss is great, but the Lord wonderfully sustains him. We are hoping to go on to Shanghai soon, when my dear wife and children are able to be around again. At the earnest request of Dr. Griffith John, Mr. Gillison, and other dear friends here, I have written the letter of which the enclosed is a copy, and by the French mail I sent the first copy direct to the Editor of The Times, and I now send this copy to you... . I firmly believe that God has brought us safely through that we might magnify His name, and I desire the record of His mighty dealing with us to go far and wide. The more I think of it the more wonderful it seems that we are here. ALEX. R, SAUNDERS. The letter referred to above we here reprint in full from The Times for September 29, 1900. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES S1r—The “Boxer” agitation in the Northern Provinces of China has for some time past occupied the attention of the people of England, and friends in Han-kow have urged me to send you an account of a journey we were compelled to take from the Northern Province of Shan-si through Ho-nan and Hu-peh to Han-kow. The Boxer Rising We did not anticipate much trouble in Shan-si from the Boxers till we heard that Yii-hsien, the degraded Governor of Shan-tung,. had been appointed to fill a similar office in Shan-si. Our fears were not groundless, for the Boxers followed close on the heels of Yi- hsien, if they did not actually precede his arrival in Shan-si. The first indication we had of their presence in the province was the appearance in several cities of a poster which informed the people that the present drought was due to the presence of the Protestant. and Roman Catholic missionaries, who taught the people to leave idolatry and the worship of ancestors, and that before long the armies of Heaven were to make war against and exterminate the propagators of these religions, and calling on all to aid in carrying this out. Immediately after this poster appeared, the house of an elder in the Hung-tung Church was attacked and looted, and the elder badly injured. Threats followed that certain chapels were to be burned, but for a considerable time things remained quiet. The station where we have carried on missionary work without any manifestation of unfriendliness on the part of the people for the past thirteen years is P’ing-yao—a city centrally situated in Shan-si about sixty miles south from the capital, Tai-yiian-fu. We were con- AN ESCAPE FROM PING-YAO 69 sidered the most secure from trouble of all our stations in Shan-si, owing to the decided action of the local magistrate in issuing a pro- clamation condemning the Boxers, The P'ing-yao Riot All went well with us till Tuesday, June 26, when our place was attacked and looted, and we, with our four children, had to escape to the Yamén. The attack was sudden and unexpected, and there are, perhaps, two causes for the precipitation of events. First, a high official returning to the south of the province from paying a visit to the new Governor was passing through P’ing-yao, and, seeing the proclamation that had been issued by the local magistrate, advised him to withdraw it, as such would not be favoured by the new Governor. On Monday, June 25, the proclamation was washed off the walls by order of the magistrate, and the next night we were attacked. Secondly, a communication was received by the magistrate from the new Governor stating that China was at war with foreign nations and the Imperial troops had joined the Boxers in efforts to drive the foreigners out of China, and calling on the people to aid them. A private communication was also received instructing the magistrate to withdraw all protection from the foreigners. Private as well as public communications get to be known by the people in China, and the result of such communications as the above becoming known can be well imagined. Our street chapel inside the city was first attacked. The doors, windows, furniture, and books were all piled on the street and burned. They then came to our mission compound in the west suburb, and, after breaking down a portion of the wall, they looted the place. We took our four children from their comfortable beds, and, without even dressing them, we carried them to the Yamén. On arrival there we were told that the official could give us no protection, and it would be best for us to leave P’ing-yao at once for quieter parts. After some further talk it was thought best that we should go under official escort to Tai-yiian-fu, and a start was made at daylight. The flight—Ping-yao to Lu-ch’eng In the villages we passed through en route the youthful recruits of the Boxer society were practising their mysterious art quite openly on the streets, but we passed on without any molestation. On Thursday afternoon, June 28, we got within seven miles of Tai- yiian-fu, where we met a convert who told us that we had better not go there, as the large compound of the Shou-yang Mission had been burned the night before, and Miss Coombs burned to death. He also told us that all the foreigners (over thirty, including children) had taken refuge in one of the houses of the English Baptist Mission, occupied by the Rev. G. B. Farthing, which at that time was surrounded by 70 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES several thousands of people, who were to set fire to it that night, leaving the inmates no chance of escape. The city gates were closely guarded by soldiers to prevent the escape of either foreigners or native Christians. In the face of such facts, it would have been madness for us to go on to Tai-ytian-fu, so we turned southward again and set our faces towards Lu-ch’eng—a city in the Lu-an-fu district, 133 miles south- east from P’ing-yao, where there is a station of the China Inland Mission, occupied by Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Cooper and the Misses Huston and Rice. We experienced great difficulty in reaching that city, having lost the escort that had been given us for Tai-yiian-fu only. In one village at the entrance to the hills we were attacked three times in the inn where we were staying by a band of Boxers. We had to pay a sum of £5 to the man in charge of the Imperial courier stables at that place to escort us safely out and on to the next stage, and in this way we had to buy protection nearly all the way to Lu- ch’eng. We arrived at that city on Thursday, July 5, and stayed until Saturday, the 7th, when that station also was rioted. The mission station at Lu-an, thirteen miles distant, had been rioted the same morning, and the missionaries there had already started for Han-kow. We asked the magistrate at Lu-ch’eng to give us an official docu- ment entitling us to an escort from city to city right through to Han- kow, but the same reply was given us as at P’ing-yao (that he had received orders to withdraw all protection from foreigners), and we had to start on our long journey of nearly 700 miles through what in the past few weeks had become an enemy’s country without any escort whatever. From Lu-cWeng to Ch’ang-tz Our party when we started from Lu-ch’eng was composed as under :— Alexander R. and Mrs. Saunders and four children, Miss Guthrie (of Ping-yang), and Alfred Jennings from P’ing-yao; E. J. and Mrs. Cooper and two children, Miss Huston, and Miss Rice from Lu-ch’eng, or in all fourteen persons, including six children. The youngest of the children was eighteen months and the eldest seven and a half years, We had to leave secretly at midnight, and we walked all night, carrying on our backs the younger of the children. Our baggage was all carried on two donkeys, one of which we never saw again after leaving Lu-ch’eng. Soon after daylight on Sunday morning we reached a village where we hired donkeys on which the ladies and children were to ride four miles, but when we had gone about half that distance we were met by a band of nearly 200 men who had come out from the village just ahead of us and who robbed us of all we had, donkeys, silver, and goods, and taking even the clothes we were wearing. Most of us were left with only a pair of Chinese trousers on, the upper half of our AN ESCAPE FROM P’ING-YAO 71 bodies and our heads being entirely unprotected from the awful burning of a July sun. We trudged on as best we could, carrying the smaller children, the others walking, and all of us exposed to the full blaze of a semi-tropical sun, all that and the two following days, through village after village, where we were subjected to the most«cruel treatment, till we reached the nearest city, Ch’ang-tz, forty miles from Lu-ch’eng, where we hoped to get official help and protection. Although we were now almost naked, without either shoes or stockings even, the people would not believe that we had no silver secreted about us, and we were beaten most unmercifully in the hope that such treatment would bring some confession as to where the silver was secreted. The people of one village would follow us to the boundary of the next, stoning us and throwing hard lumps of clay and beating us on the back and head with sticks and bricks, and this was kept up almost incessantly from village to village for the whole of those three days. In one village Mr. E. J. Cooper was dragged to the outside of the village by a rope and left by the roadside as dead. If we sat down anywhere to rest a little while we were stoned and beaten all the more, and the only rest we got was under cover of dark- ness, when we retired to some lonely spot and slept on the hard ground outside. Even then we were disturbed once at midnight by a gang of men who came out from a village to seek us, and, finding us asleep in an open field, compelled us to move on. The first two days we had nothing to eat and no one would even give us water to drink, and we were compelled to drink of any water we came to, and sometimes it was only a dirty, stagnant pool. Towards evening of the second day we were stoned into a large market town, and, sitting down by the side of the main street, we told the people that we could not go farther till we had something to eat. They did their best to get us out of the village, but we refused to go, and at last they gave us some bread and water and then escorted us safely out of the town. When we had gone about two miles, a man, altogether unknown to us, came up with us, and after some con- versation he took about three dozen hard-boiled eggs out of a bag he carried and gave them to us, so, even at this unfriendly time in China, God raised up friends to succour us. Ch’ang-tz to Kao-p’ing At the next city—Chang-tz—the magistrate had evidently already heard of us, for on arrival at dusk we were met outside the city by some of his underlings, who told us that we could not go into the city, but the magistrate would give us carts and would have us escorted to the boundary of his district. We told them that we could not go on till we had a few hours’ sleep and a little food. After a while they brought us some bread and water, and after partaking of this we went to sleep by the roadside near the city wall, but even there we were not free from molestation, stones being thrown at us 72 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES from the city wall. About midnight the carts and our escort came, and we were hurried on to the boundary of that county, from which place we had to walk to the next city—Kao-p’ing—fifteen miles farther on. A little money was given us by the magistrate at Ch’ang- tz with which to buy food, but we had not gone more than a mile when we were robbed of it, and were again without either food or money. Slowly we trudged on with sore and weary feet for a day and a half through unfriendly villages, receiving the same treatment as before, till on Thursday, July 12, we reached Kao-p’ing. One night we took shelter in an unused house by the roadside, but we had just got settled in when some men came with lanterns and said it was a pity that the children should remain all night without some food, and that they had come to take us to a place where we would get food and shelter. As we had eaten nothing all day we gladly followed the men, but when we got to the village we found the streets lined with people carrying lanterns and torches, who had come out, even at that late hour, to glare at us, and we saw at once that there was no intention to give us either food or shelter. At first we suspected treachery, but they led us on right out of the other end of the village and sent us on the road again. We afterwards learned that, on the following day, they were to have a rain procession and did not want us to be passing through their village the same day lest we brought ill luck. At this stage of our journey we were again stripped of some of the few garments we had, and I was left on the road completely naked, but fortunately I was supplied with a garment at once. Mrs. E. J. Cooper’s death at a later date was largely due to the exposure caused by the loss of her upper garments at this time. Kao-p’ing to Tse-chau We reached Kao-p’ing, north suburb, about noon, and being extremely hot we could walk no more on our blistered bare feet on the burning sand, so we lay down under a tree till it became cooler. About 4 P.M. we went to the Yamén, followed by a howling mob that completely filled the large courtyard. After explaining the object of our visit we had a quantity of bread thrown down to us as we sat on the ground in the courtyard, and a bucket of cold water was brought with which to quench our thirst. I insisted that we should be properly escorted to the next city and not to the boundary of the district only, and this they promised to do, but, like most official promises in China, with no intention of carrying their word out. We were supplied with carts and hurried on the same night without any rest, and we were as before left by our escort at the boundary. It was then about 10 pm. of Thursday, July 12, and we walked on to find a quiet spot to rest for the night. Early next morning Mr. Cooper and I went on to a village a mile distant to hire a cart on which Miss Rice, who could walk no farther, and the children could ride. We had in our AN ESCAPE FROM PING-YAO 73 possession 700 cash, equal to about 2s, and, leaving 200 of these cash with Mr. Jennings, we took the remaining 500 to pay for the cart. Passing through the village to the farther end, where the inn was, we were overtaken by some men, one of whom gave me a sharp blow with a stick and snatched the money from us, the others drove us on with sticks out of the village and separated us quite from the rest of the party. After we had left the party it began to rain, and Mr. Jennings with the ladies decided to move on to a little empty hut by the roadside, fifty yards distant, and there await our return with the cart. Death of Miss Rice Misses Huston and Rice said they would go more slowly and join them as soon as possible. Just as the ladies had settled into this hut a number of men came up, and, beating them with sticks and whips, drove them on through the village in the direction we had gone, and they came up with us a few miles farther on. Misses Huston and Rice were now left behind, and, it being impossible for us to go back to their help, we deemed it best to push on to Tse-chau, the nearest city, twenty miles off, and ask the official there to send a cart back for them. We learned afterwards, when Miss Huston rejoined our party in Ho-nan, that Miss Rice was beaten to death by the road- side that day. Miss Huston also received very serious injuries, which resulted in her death nearly a month later, just two days before we reached Han-kow. They even ran a horse and cart over her to break her spine. At Tse-chau Twenty long miles on foot in a pouring rain was no easy day’s work for the ladies and children, but we pushed on and reached Tse-chau, the border city of Shan-si, about 11 pm. We passed through many towns and villages, and it was in this district our suffering reached its climax. This is one of the districts where the Peking Syndicate have been planning to open mines and railroads, and the people seemed infuriated at the action of one of the Syndicate’s agents, who had spent some time there last year making observations. Taking these observations had ruined the feng-shui, and so caused the drought this year. Unfortunately, they thought I was this person, and my life would certainly have been taken that day had I not been able to prove in each village we passed through that I was not the person they took me to be. As we went along the roads, crowds would follow us, and several times most of us were lying on the ground with men pounding us most unmercifully with sticks and even bricks. In the villages the howling mobs would shout as we walked along, “ Yes, that is he. Kill him. Beat the foreign devil to death,” etc. In every village I had to single out a few gray-haired men and address them as follows: These men think that I am a man who was here last year on mining business, but I can prove that I am not. 74 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES 1. He could not speak Chinese and I can, and you understand me. 2. His hair was cut short and I have a queue, and a queue the length of mine, as you all know, could not growin a year. The people were convinced, and a queue saved my life. In one village they had bound my hands together intending to tie me up to a tree and beat me to death. Even the dear little children were not spared, and sore and swollen were our bodies when we arrived that night at the city gate of Tse-chau. They refused us admittance to the city, so we slept in the gateway. Next day I sought to see the official, but we were denied that privilege, and we were not even permitted to enter the city, but had to remain in the gateway till noon. We were told that the Roman Catholic cathedral there had been destroyed two days before, and the soldiers were guarding the city gates to prevent the escape of the priests. The enmity of officials and people alike seemed to be chiefly directed against the two classes—Roman Catholics and mining and railroad engineers—and we had all along the road to prove that we were neither one nor the other, but being Protestant missionaries we were allowed to escape with our lives and advised to make all haste to Han-kow. Having our children with us was usually enough to prove that we were not Roman Catholic priests. From Shan-st into Ho-nan At Tse-chau we got a road-pass and, as we supposed, an official document entitling us to an escort from city to city right through to Han-kow, but we afterwards learned that it was a paper stating that we were to be conducted as common criminals. At noon of Saturday, July 14, we left Tse-chau on mules with common wooden pack-saddles only, and the torture the ladies endured riding on the animals for two days to Huai-k’ing, in Ho-nan, no one could describe. They are in bed now at Han-kow, being treated medically for the sores caused at that time. We reached Huai-k’ing and were treated tolerably well by the officials there and at our next stopping- place, Wu-chi. There were many of the better classes who had much sympathy with us, but dared not show it too much, fearing the anti-foreign officials. We had now suffered eight days’ cruel treatment at the hands of the Chinese in Shan-si only, and the sole cause was a vicious governor setting the hands of the rabble loose on a number of defenceless men and women who are foreigners. We had now travelled 140 miles, mostly on foot, with very little food and no proper rest, and our bodies exposed to the full power of the sun, but from this point onwards we suffered no more at the hands of the people. Three times across the Yellow River From Huai-k’ing on for the next fifty miles we had good treat- ment, and travelled in carts which, though far from comfortable AN ESCAPE FROM PING-YAO 75 (we had neither bedding nor straw with which to pad the carts), protected us from the sun, and the sores on our feet began to heal. Money was supplied us at Wu-chi freely, and we began to hope for a rapid journey to Han-kow. Disappointment met us, for at Yong-tse, fifty miles east of Huai-k’ing and on the south bank of the Yellow River, the magistrate would not pass us on as, he said, the official document we had got at Tse-chau was not a proper one. We had no other course open to us but to return to Wu-chi. On our return there we found Miss Huston, who had been brought on by the Tse-chau magistrate, and who was very badly wounded in the head, the brain being actually exposed. The Wu-chi hsien magistrate told us that he could do no more for us than to escort us to the south bank of the Yellow River, and leave us there to make our own way to Cheng-chau, where we could go to the Yamén and ask assistance. Carts were again provided and we went to the north bank of Yellow River, and there we were deceived by our escort, who left us and returned with the carts to Wu-chi, leaving us in a hopeless condition—the Yellow River to cross and no passport. We remained on the bank of the river two days and one night with but very little hope of getting across unless we got an official pass, but at last, on Sunday afternoon, July 22, the man in charge of the ferry told us to get into a courier boat, and we crossed, being put ashore about 100 yards below the proper landing-stage. Cheng-chau to Sin-yang We walked thirteen miles to Cheng-chau and went direct to the Yamén to plead our cause. The magistrate himself came out to see us, and he proved to be very anti-foreign. He stamped his feet as he spoke to me, and said: “Fortunately for you an edict has come to- day ordering that all foreigners be sent under escort to Han-kow, and I can send you on. Had you come here yesterday I would have had you all killed; now there is no need to kill you.” He had the necessary document written, and we were sent on by cart, but as common criminals, lodged every night, men, women, and children all together, in the common gaols with only a division of wooden bars between us and the chained criminals of China. This treatment continued for six days till we reached K’io-shan, where we were taken to a temple, and the mandarin’s wife sent round sweetmeats for the children. At Sin-yang, the border city of Ho-nan, which we reached on Monday, July 30, we were treated well and clothes were given us. We stopped at Sin-yang three days, because soldiers were passing through en route for Peking, and it was feared that if we met them on the road trouble might arise. It was here, too, that we overtook Mr. and Mrs. Glover, two children, and Miss Gates, who had fled from Lu-an the day before we left Lu-ch’eng, and we learned from them that they had met with similar treatment to ourselves. We found in passing through Ho-nan that it was our greatest pro- 76 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES tection from the wrath of the people to let them know that we were Protestants, and on arrival in Han-kow we learned that the mission- aries of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, driven from Ho-nan earlier, had a similar experience. In the Hu-peh Provinces Now we had come to the Hu-peh Province, ruled over by Chang- chih-tung, and we were treated well by all the officials, and instead of travelling as before in carts, we had sedan chairs provided for us. We found, too, that the native Christians were in favour with the officials, and the rest of our journey to Han-kow was accomplished in comparative comfort, arriving at our mission house on Tuesday morn- ing, August 14, in all forty-nine days since we left P’ing-yao. In addition to Miss Rice, whose death I have already mentioned, four others of our party died on the way. Two of our own dear children died from fatigue and want, and were buried in Ho-nan. Mrs. Cooper and Miss Huston died in Hu-peh after terrible sufferings, and their bodies were sent on to Han-kow by the officials. Mr. Cooper’s baby died soon after arrival in Han-kow from the effects of the journey. It is a wonder to all that any of us ever reached this place, but we know that our escape has been due to the marvellous power of God on our behalf, in protecting us these many days when we were exposed to the sun without any covering whatever, so that there was not one case of sunstroke among us, proving the promise, ‘‘ The sun shall not smite thee by day.” Our way, too, was opened up some- times in almost a miraculous manner, for all of which we give God the praise. We feel also that great credit is due to the Viceroy of Hu-peh, Chang-chih-tung, who persistently telegraphed to the Governor of Ho-nan that safe-conduct should be given to foreigners passing through that province, and we trust that his firm attitude on behalf of foreigners at this time will not be forgotten by the Powers when the China question is being settled—Yours truly, ALEX, R. SAUNDERS, China Inland Mission, Ping-yao, Shan-si, North China. Han-kow, CuHina, August 18. P.S—On arrival in Han-kow the surviving members of the party were nearly all suffering from a severe attack of dysentery, but were at once put under medical treatment and all are progressing favour- ably. AR. S. THE LU-CH’ENG PARTY a PARTY II THE LU-CHENG PARTY By Mr. E. J. Coopzr Our station at Lu-ch’eng is one of the three forming an isosceles triangle, the apex of which is Yii-wii, Lu-an and Lu-ch’eng being each about thirty miles from it and thirteen miles from each other. Mr. and Mrs. Glover and Miss Gates were stationed at Lu-an, Mr. and Mrs. Lawson and Dr. Hewett at Yii-wii, Miss Rice, Miss Huston, and ourselves at Lu-ch’eng. God’s Preparation Very soon after our arrival at Lu-ch’eng we were looking forward to seeing the Rev. William Cooper, our district being the last for him to visit in Shan-sii He had entered the Province by way of T’ai- yiian-fu and visited a large number of stations. When it was known what day to expect him, the monthly meeting of the Yii-wii Church was arranged, and invitations sent out to both the other churches to be present at it. I went with quite a number of the Lu-ch’eng Christians to Yii-wii, and I was greatly struck with the zeal and devo- tion shown by them in walking thirty miles each way, and providing their own food, in order to be present at these meetings. Some came from a village even ten miles farther away. Mr. Cooper’s words were greatly appreciated by all. He seems to have been apprehensive of coming trouble by reason of the long-con- tinued drought. The keynote of his message was the likelihood of the churches in China being called upon to suffer for Christ. At the Lu-ch’eng monthly meeting held a week later, at which he was present, he spoke on the great change in the Apostle Peter’s character, comparing the words he spoke to our Lord when he was told of the coming cross, and his epistles, which are so full of reference to fellow- ship with Christ in suffering. It cannot have been long after Mr. Cooper left us, before we had news from Mr. Bagnall of the breaking up of the railway by the Boxers at Pao-ting-fu. Signs of Trouble Ahead A day or two after the arrival of this news, the first signs of coming trouble appeared at Lu-ch’eng. An anonymous placard, purporting to come from the Boxers in Shan-tong, was posted on the East Gate. The Protestant and Roman Catholic religions were charged with being the cause of the long-continued drought, and the people were told 78 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES that the gods had come down to the hills to give supernatural powers to those who would exterminate the Christians or destroy the religions. It then went on to say that foreign steamers had all been destroyed at the coast, and that France was in a state of great trepidation on account of the feats of the Boxers, and that the subjects of Russia, England, America, and Germany and Japan had all been driven into the sea. It closed with an appeal to the people to join in the movement, otherwise they would incur the penalty of death. Yii-hsien’s Responsibility This naturally caused great excitement in the city. I sent a copy of the placard to the magistrate and received a courteous reply, in which he said he would look into the matter. Nearly a week after- wards a favourable proclamation was posted outside his Yamén, but the original placard was not taken down. The officials at this time seemed, on the whole, to be favourable to us and to be willing to protect us. We had a striking instance of this at Lu-an. Miss Gates was at this time alone in the station, Mr. and Mrs. Glover having gone to Shun-teh with the intention of proceeding to the coast, though they had subsequently to return. Word came to me that a riot was threatened at Lu-an in connection with the rain procession, which was to pass the doors of our premises. Owing to the exceptional drought a number of villages joined to send to the Water Dragon Mountain, some distance away, to fetch a bottle of sacred water to be scattered outside the city walls, and on their return from the mountain they would be met by thousands from the city and villages, and it was most probable that they would attack our own and the Roman Catholic premises. I called the attention of the magistrate of Lu-an to this procession. He sent mea reply promising to send soldiers for our protection. As a matter of fact he and another civil magistrate and also a military mandarin were themselves present with a number of soldiers outside our house. After such action as this we had good reason to believe that we were safe in the district. It was, however, but a week later that the same magistrate sent word to Mr. Glover, who had returned in the meantime, to say that he had secret orders to withdraw all protection from foreigners. These secret orders, no doubt, came from the source of all the trouble in Shan-si, the Governor of the Province, Yii-hsien. We, at Lu-ch’eng, had no idea of the serious nature of the situation until Mr. Saunders, of P’ing-yao, arrived with his family, Miss Guthrie and Mr. Jennings, on Thursday, July 5. Their coming to us created a great stir in the city, and the three soldiers whom they brought with them no doubt told the story of the doings at T’ai-yiian-fu. As the story of what transpired subsequent to the arrival of the party from P’ing-yao has been given in Mr. Saunders’ THE LU-CHENG PARTY 79 letter on p. 70, only the few closing sentences of Mr. E. J. Cooper’s account can be printed here. True to His promise He gave grace more abundant. Those who suffered most, endured the most patiently. Truly to all outward appearance we were as “the offscouring of all things,” and “a spectacle to men and to angels,” and yet in the hours of greatest suffering there was no sign of defeat, and after I have seen what I have of God’s grace in those who have thus laid down their lives for Him, these verses in Romans viii. 35-37 (R.V.) have a new meaning—“ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” “This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.” God’s dealings, so mysterious and inexplicable, can yet be borne when we remember that it is for the glory of God, and that the Son of God may be glorified thereby, and that the Lord Jesus calls us by name and loves us with an everlasting love. On August 14, we arrived in Han-kow, and the mortal remains of my wife and Miss Huston were laid in the cemetery, there to await the redemption of the body at the coming of the Lord. Three days afterwards our little boy Brainerd was laid beside his mother. We feel it indeed a solemn thing to be brought through such experiences as these and saved from the very gates of death. May the Lord give us grace to live in greater measure as seeing those things which are invisible and eternal ! By special permission Mr. E. J. Cooper’s private letter to his parents is given below. This letter cannot be read without calling forth the thanksgivings of many for the grace of God bestowed upon His servant when passing through such deep waters of affliction. From Mr. E. J. Cooper to his Mother Han-kow, Cuina, August 18, 1900. It is now nearly three months since I wrote you last and as yet I have no letter from home, my last arriving about the end of May. I believe a cable was sent from Shanghai last Tuesday to London. If this was so, you will have learned that dear Maggie has gone to sleep in Jesus. I may as well tell you the worst first. She died at Ying- shan, about 100 miles from Han-kow, on August 6, after a month’s pain and suffering for Christ. 80 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES The Lord has honoured us by giving us fellowship in His sufferings. Three times stoned, robbed of everything, even clothes, we know what hunger, thirst, nakedness, weariness are as never before, but also the sustaining grace and sirength of God and His peace in a new and deeper sense than ever. We fled from Lu-ch’eng on July 6 and reached Han-kow (700 miles’ overland journey) on August 14. My strength will not allow me to enter into details as to the journey. The escape of any of us is a wonderful thing, and the story is so remarkable that Han-kow friends have asked one of our number to write to The Times describing it. It probably will go by the mail, and I think it is likely to be printed, but in any case a copy shall be sent to you next mail,+ Dear Maggie’s body was kindly sent down to Han-kow by the Ying-shan magistrate and was buried here last Tuesday (August 14), another of the party, Miss Huston, who had died still nearer to Han-kow from the effect of wounds received in Shan-si, being laid beside her. Dr. Griffith John conducted the service. Dear wee Brainerd, who had come through in a wonderful way, was, within a few days of Han-kow, attacked by sun diarrhea, and after his arrival here rapidly sank and peacefully fell asleep yesterday at 2 am. Dear, wee boy, so changed, oh! so thin. He was buried yesterday evening in the same grave as his dear mother. Billow after billow has gone over me. Home gone, not one memento of dear Maggie even, penniless, wife and child gone to glory, Edith lying very sick with diarrhoea and your son weak and exhausted to a degree, though otherwise well. I have been at the point of death more than once on the road. In one village, after a heavy stoning with brickbats, they put ropes under me and dragged me along the ground, that I might not die in the village itself. And now you know the worst, mother, I want to tell you that the cross of Christ, that exceeding glory of the Father’s love, has brought continual comfort to my heart, so that not one murmur has broken the peace of God within. If God spared not His own Son—all is love—but now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Although wounded and suffering, Maggie said to me, “If the Lord spares us, I should like to go back to Lu-ch’eng if possible.” Devoted soul, denied by her Master of doing the work so near to her heart, she never turned in purpose and desire to win some of the Chinese for Christ. The Lord has accepted her desire and honoured her in her death for Him. How much it means to me, I hardly realise, and do not know how the Lord will guide. China is in confusion, and probably a twelve- month, at least, must pass ere inland work can be resumed. All missionaries are called to the coast and find terminus in Shanghai. I heard 200 were in our compound there, and this is but a quarter of our number. For a few days, at least, we must stay here 1 See p. 68. FROM LU-AN TO HAN-KOW 81 on Edith’s account, and after that I hope the Lord may open up some haven of rest where we may both recruit. I shall not be fit for work for some time... . . . . The London Mission and others in Han-kow have been most kind to us, Out of a party of fourteen who left Lu-ch’eng six have died or been beaten to death. PARTY III FROM LU-AN TO HAN-KOW Rev. G. E. GLovEr’s Letter to his Parents August 17, 1900. It is only through the infinite mercy of God that you see my hand- writing again. Since you last heard from us, we have been literally “in deaths oft,” and have experienced deliverance after deliverance where all hope of escape seemed cut off. This record (necessarily now only a running diary of events) will, I trust, be a simple reminder again and again that “the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and that He knoweth them that trust in Him.” Lu-an to Shun-teh and Back I will go back to June the 6th. Owing to the continuance of the drought, a rain procession attacked our place shortly after midnight. They passed on, however, without doing any real mischief, but it was sufficient to show me the temper of the people’s mind, and came to me as a distinct warning from the Lord to take dear Flora away to a place where she would be set free from such a long nervous strain as she would be subjected to were I to keep her at Lu-an! After much careful waiting on God, we decided to leave at once for Chefoo, and started June 9 for T’ien-tsin with two mule litters. Reached Shun- teh, June 18, to find it in a very disturbed state. The Griffiths kindly received us, but we had to keep out of sight the eleven days we were there. News from Pao-ting-fu got worse and we found the road to T’ien- tsin impossible, as it was held by the Boxers. Decided to return to Lu-an and if things got really bad at the station to take the southern road through Ho-nan, which as yet was reported peaceful. Ten miles from Shun-teh we were stoned and captured and given over to death at a place called I-cheng, but the Lord delivered, after a manner which I cannot account for except on the ground of direct 1 Mrs, Glover gave birth to a daughter at Han-kow on August 18, G 82 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES unseen interference. I contrived to get off a line to Mr. Griffith at Shun-teh by one of our muleteers, asking him to get me an escort from the mandarin; but he sent back word to say that the city was rioting and they were themselves fleeing that day to Lu-ch’eng. That is the last we have heard of them. They never got to Lu-ch’eng, and we can only fear they were all killed.t I must not dwell on the series of trying incidents and escapes we had on the way back to Lu-an. A mile from I-cheng we were detained and only let go on payment of fifteen taels, which enabled us to secure an escort from Wu-an. Got back to Lu-an on July 3. Found that Miss Gates, who had chosen to remain on at the station during our absence, had lately been much exercised as to what to do owing to the increasingly disturbed state of the city, and had decided to flee to the hills. Officials Protect Lu-an Mission Premises An uproarious rain procession of some 10,000 people had passed our doors the Sunday previous and threatened attack; but the three highest officials in the city guarded the place in person, and the attack was averted. Next day, July 4, word came from Mr. Cooper of Lu-ch’eng that Mr. Saunders and family, with Mr. Jennings and Miss Guthrie of Ping-yao, had been rioted and lost all, and were escaping to Lu- ch’eng. I saw then that at any moment our own stations might be similarly dealt with. Meantime the reports on the street grew more bitter and menacing, the very day (18th of 6th moon) being fixed for our destruction. I went to the Yamén to know whether these reports had any foundation of truth in them, resting, as we heard they did, upon a secret edict issued by the Empress Dowager, that all official protection was to be withdrawn from foreigners. The mandarin refused to see me, but his deputy assured me suavely that there was nothing to fear, it was only mere talk, etc. However, that night he sent a messenger to say that he had a private communication to make, if I would send a man round to him but not come myself on account of the notice my presence would attract. All our natives had gone, except two—Sheng-min and Pao-ri, and I sent the former, who brought back the mandarin’s message to the effect that he had secret orders to withdraw all protec- tion from us, and that we were therefore no longer to look to him in any emergency that might arise. We might do as we chose about going or staying, but if we chose to go, he would not give us openly the escort we asked, but would send the soldiers secretly to follow us. We never saw these men, and it is doubtful if they were ever sent. In Flight We left Lu-an at daybreak, Friday, July 6, in the mule-litters hired to Chau-kia-k’eo. From there we intended to go on by boat. 1 They were rescued (see p. 160). FROM LU-AN TO HAN-KOW 83 Terrible as the experience was which prevented us from carrying out this intention, yet we saw in it the over-ruling hand of God, as had we gone on to Chau-kia-k’eo we must certainly have all been killed. We had to pay 10,000 cash to get out of the city gate. Every few hundred yards our litters were detained by troops of men, who wanted money before they would let us go on. In this way, we made thirteen miles, getting as far as Hau-tien, where we put up for the mid-day meal and rest. We were not allowed, however, to leave. People began to come in from all the villages round, and to be very loud and abusive in their talk, The Hau-tien people also came, in the old spirit of hostility. It was decided to demand 200 taels (£30) before they would let us go. What was lacking in silver was to be made up in value by our personal effects) This was not enough. During the night—the memory of which is a nightmare—they held a council to put us to death. A mock trial was gone through and we were brought in guilty. When morning broke we were ordered into our litters and taken in a sort of sacrificial procession, to the beat of a gong at regular intervals, to a place outside the village. Face to Face with Death The road was lined on either side with spearmen, and nearly every male carried some implement or weapon. At a given signal they then fell upon our litters and fought like wild beasts over our baggage. Before the mélée I jumped down with Hedley, but dear Flora with Hope were literally buried under a heaving mass of human ferocity. I never believed she could possibly come out alive. To my amaze- ment she presently came out, and Hope with her, pale and dishevelled, but perfectly calm and uninjured. Miss Gates, 100, was miraculously kept. Amid fiendish noise and fighting, the spoiling of our goods went on, till all were disposed of. The people then went off, leaving us to our surprise alone and untouched. Thanking God for the life that was yet whole in us, we wandered back to the village, and sat down to wait for Sheng-min, who with Pao-ri had elected to come with us on our perilous journey. The riff-raff began again to collect around us, and we were thankful when at last he came. The only thing we could now do was to walk on in the forward direction. To go back to Lu-an was certain death. So we went on towards Kao-p’ing. We were presently surrounded by a following of evil men from Hau-tien and a crowd from a village we were nearing, all of whom were armed with agricultural implements. For several hours we sat by the roadside near a little food-shop, hemmed in by these people, who freely discussed our death, sharpening their instruments on stones before our eyes. In Hunger, Nakedness, and Peril At last the long suspense was ended by their suddenly seizing us 84 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES and with cruel violence tearing the clothes from our bodies. Where garments did not readily give way, it was as if we were being torn in pieces. Flora and Miss Gates were stripped of their upper garments, the dear children had nothing left to them except their combinations, while I myself was stripped naked, my socks only being left to me and a flannel binder. Again, to our surprise, they went no further. No attempt was made to take our lives, though I do not doubt they longed to do so. Pao-ri gave me a pair of old pants, and some one in the crowd threw me a beggar’s coat of filthy rags, and in these I went till I got to Kao-p’ing, where the rags were exchanged for an old gown of a Yamén official, who recognised me as one of the two pastors who had recently been preaching near the city. We were then told to move on, and we wandered to the next village, where we were met as before by large crowds, who became noisy and abusive and were clearly bent on mischief. They told us to take a certain road where evidently they meant to attack us, the measured beat of the gong having already begun. But the Lord’s Providence led us by a side path down to a torrent bed. As soon as we began to take this path, the whole procession came to a dead halt, and not a single man ventured to follow us—to this hour I cannot tell why—and soon we were left alone. It was now night with a bright moon. On we walked until we came upon four men, sitting by the way, armed with mattocks, and waiting for us As soon as they saw us they got up and told us to follow them toa temple, where we should get a good night’s shelter. On our refusal they became abusive, de- manded money, or failing that, they would take our last garments from our persons. We again refused, indeed we had not a cash on us —and they then fell savagely on all except me, my beggar’s rags were not worth taking—and snatched their remaining upper garments. Flora and Miss Gates were thus stripped to the waist. I remonstrated with the men, and to our surprise they sullenly threw the women’s garments back. After some further angry talk they went off to fetch more men, and as soon as they were out of sight we fied along the torrent-bed till we came to a grave-yard, where we lay down under the shadow of the yews and slept till midnight. Then we got up and tramped across country to hide in the Wang-fang hills. We found a depression on the top of one of the highest points, and here we crouched down together and were soon asleep again, despite the bitter cold. The next day was Sunday, July 8. The sun soon became hot and we had no shelter from the heat on that mountain height. Our thirst became intense and the heat at last unbearable. A river ran at the foot of the hill and we sent Sheng-min to see if he could get us water. He never returned to us. Meantime dear Flora seemed in danger of succumbing, and as Miss Gates was nearly fainting I felt we must go to the water and get under shelter somewhere, even if it meant discovery. At last we reached the river, thick with yellow FROM LU-AN TO HAN-KOW 85 mud, but to us as sweet as the purest well-water. Then we lay down to rest under trees in a cemetery near by. In a small temple not far off worship was going on, and soon a mandarin’s procession came out and passed along to the spot where we were lying. They turned to see who we were, and in a few moments a cart was at our side with an official and two Yamén runners, who told us at once to enter it, as they had been sent by the Lu-an mandarin to find us and take us to Kao-p’ing, from whence we were to be sent on to Han-kow. Here for the present my narrative must stop. Next week I hope to give the remainder of our forty days’ wanderings. We arrived here (Han-kow) Monday night, August 13, but were not taken off the boat till the next day near noon. Friday, August 18, dear Flora was graciously delivered of a girl about 7 am. It is another miracle of Divine love and power that after such extraordinary hardships and sufferings neither mother nor child seemed to have suffered physical injury. Baby is a beautifully healthy-looking child. Dr. Parry (of our Mission) is delighted at her appearance, and reports most favour- ably of her condition as well as of dear Flora’s. Hedley and Hope are suffering from sun-fever, but are better to-day. Hedley is very thin. We long for home-news, having starved for close upon three months. It is feared that only Lu-an, Lu-ch’eng, and P’ing-yao friends have escaped massacre in Shan-si, and even of these Miss Rice was murdered, Miss Huston died of her wounds, Mrs. E. J. Cooper and infant son also succumbed.!—Fondest love to each and all, your most affectionate son, ARCHIE. Mr. Glover's Letter Continued August 31, 1900. I am sorry for the long interval that has come in to separate the two portions of the story of our escape from Shan-si. Since the date of our last letter it has pleased the Lord to call our precious little infant to Himself. She passed away on Tuesday last (August 28), eleven days old. Dr. Griffith John conducted the funeral service in the dining-room at nine the next morning ; and Mr. Bruce of Hu-nan, and Mr. Tull of Shen-si, kindly went with me to the cemetery, carrying the tiny coffin. The grave lies close by the other Shan-si graves (Mrs. E. J. Cooper, her infant son, and Miss Huston’s), all from the Lu-an district, the memorial here, “till He come,” of “lives lost for His sake and the Gospel’s” in China. I left off at the point where we were discovered in our resting-placc under the trees of a grave-yard, Sunday, July 8, noon. The Yamén cart (a small covered one) was there, and we were ordered to enter it. At first I refused, thinking it to be a ruse of the Boxers to carry us 1 We regret to add that both Mrs. Glover and child have since passed away. 86 MARTYRED MISSIONARIES off to death. But the papers had the official seal, and seemed genuine enough, and besides, I thought that, if it was for death, well, we should die anyway; for we could not possibly live on, tramping the road as beggars (by this time I looked as professional a beggar as ever tramped in China), and if the matter was bond fide, then it was of the Lord, and we should live to praise Him. This latter thought took hold of me, as a true hope and expectation, and was, I believe, divinely given. I never lost it, even under circumstances where all escape, from a human point of view, was utterly cut off. It sustained me, strengthened me, and kept me in perfect peace, even when I was brought near to fainting. O the comfort of the “exceeding great and precious promises” breathed into the heart by the Holy Spirit Himself at such times ! We had lost our Bibles when we lost our all. I could almost say, we lost our all when we lost our precious Bibles. For the first time in my life, I had no Bible of my own. But, blessed be God that I could say then, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart.” Though we often had literally only “the bread of affliction, and the water of affliction” for our bodily needs, yet, as the Spirit brought to our remembrance the things that Christ had said, spiritually we fed upon saintly fare. I think the last article of ours that we saw in the hands of the wicked men who robbed us was dear Flora’s tiny pocket Oxford Bible, which she had put in her pocket for the road. If only we had had that! Flora pleaded with the man to give it her back, but in vain. We decided to enter the cart, putting our trust in the Lord. True, it was bare boards and a rough road ; but it was shelter from the heat and progress towards the goal. We were halted at Wang-fang for the mid-day meal, where we were taken to the inn. You have often heard us speak of Wang-fang. Many a happy visit have the Lu-an workers paid to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chin. The people became very excited when they saw us, and swarmed to the inn. It soon became clear that we were in the hands of Boxers. The door of the room we.were in was guarded by a Boxer, and hundreds of men were there wearing the Boxer badge. Time wore on, and the Yamén people did not come for us; several hours passed, and still no move. Mean- while there was a good deal of activity outside, and we could hear from their talk what it meant. We were to be killed there, and Mrs. Chin was to be brought across from her house (which had been looted of everything the night before) and put to death with us. I did not know it at the time, but Miss Gates told me afterwards that we were to have been burnt to death, and that wood was already being brought in for the purpose. It seems, however, that our Yamén escort did not wish to be compromised. I have every reason to believe they were in heart against us, and with the Boxers. It seems to have been arranged between them that the officials should put the animal in the cart, and drive off before we had time to mount, thus leaving us FROM LU-AN TO HAN-KOW 87 behind at the mercy of those murderers. Miss Gates providentially overheard the plot being discussed, and insisted on our all getting into the cart before the inule was put in. The officials were furious; so were the people; for it was a complete frustration of their plans. They cursed us freely, but they were obliged to take us on. The Boxers ran along in crowds, hooting and cursing, and saying, “We will see what will become of them when they get to Yin-ch’eng.” Yin-ch’eng to Kao-p’ing Arrived at Yin-ch’eng, we were driven into a large inn-yard, and taken to a room, where they wished to lock us in.