)£ BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF rSANG CttOU LETTERS OF DMRTHUR PEILL I: V 34-2.7 OlarneU Unwcratta Blihratg CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library BV 3427.P37 The beloved physician of Tsang Chou :lif 3 1924 023 221 488 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023221488 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The Beloved Physician of Tsang Ghou LIFE-WORK AND LETTERS OF DR. ARTHUR D. PEILL, F.R.C.S.E. EDITED BY HIS FATHER REV. J. PEILL LATE MISSIONARY IN MADAGASCAR ILLUSTRATED. London : HEADLEY BROTHERS BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT, E.G. f'NtVCUi.l I Y BV3M07 HEADLEY BROTHERS, PEINTEKS, LONDON ; AND ASHFORD, KENT. ARTHUR PEILL. One of God's saints ! A joyous man ! A gallant man ! A gentle man ! A man among men, — Too soon, it seemed to us. Relieved from duty here below. But our short sight can not discern The wider workings of the Master's will. We know His will is Love; And, in the fuller light of day. We, too, shall say : " He knoweth best." The Master needed him For higher work above. And took him to Himself In tenderest love. But that great work. To which his life was given. Shall still go on, and on, until The leaven he dropped into the Night, Has spread through all that land. And lifted it From Darkness into Light. vIitL \\uiu. CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory xiii. CHAPTER I. Letter from Hsiao Chang, 1899 - - i The New Mission Station at Tsang Chou — Travelling in North China — Life at Hsiao Chang — Efforts at Self-Support — Boxers before 1900 — ^Preparing for Work at Tsang Chou — ^Tsang Chou at Last — ^Temporary Hospital — Interest- ing Patients. CHAPTER II. Among the Boxers, Letter written in 1900 40 Making Friends — Mr. Yu — Building the Hos- pital — Boxers again — Yen Shan — Curious Boxer Beliefs — Effects on the Work — Getting Dan- gerous — Boxer Drill — Courage of the Bible Women — Excitement Spreading — Poisoned Wells — Alarming News — Closed in — Last Pa- tients — Boxer Organisation and Credulity — Lively Times — Diplomatic Tennis — Distin- guished Vistors — ^A Council of War — A Touching Incident — Hopes and Fears — Leaving us to our Fate — Forming Plans — Midnight Escape — On board H.B.M.S. OHando— At Wei-Hai-Wei— In England once more. CHAPTER III. Revisiting ruined Stations - - - 75 Visit to Tsang Chou — ^Hearty Welcome — ^A Pathetic Sight — A Desperate Pass indeed — A Startling Coincidence — Recovered Treasures — ^Magistrate's Experience and Plans — Yu again — Conduct of the Christians — ^Massacre at Yen Shan — ^Marvellous Escapes — Courage of the Martyrs — Intercourse with Europeans, viii. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. CHAPTER IV. The Story of 1902 ----- 98 Rebuilding — Interesting Cases — Triumphant Return to T'sang Chou — Chole^ — Harvest Festival — Visit to Dr. Main — Acting the Choir Master. CHAPTER V. A Great Day in Tsang Chou — Opening of THE Roberts Memorial Hospital - - 106 A Great Change — Preparations — ^The Specially Invited — ^Those Entitled to the Feast — ^A Thou- sand Guests — Various Classes Represented — The Address — ^The Christians' Day — A growing Work — The Women's Hospital. CHAPTER VI. The Story of 1903 115 Patients Treated — Indispensable to the Magis- trate — From a dozen Counties — ^What have we stood for — Signs that our Work is not Vain — Mission House on Fire — A Drop in a Bucket — Notes and Comments. CHAPTER VII. 129 Letter written in 1904 - - - The Compound — Some Foreign Visitors — Chinese Callef s and Chinese New Year — Signs of Progress — Bits of Biography — Feeding the Poor — The Winter Class-^Visit of the Deputation. CHAPTER VIII. 155 The Story of 1904 General Remarks — The Summer School — Training of Medical Students — Relation of Local Training to Union Medical College — Additions to Hospital Buildings — Health of Mission StafiE — ^The Russo-Japanese War — ^The Coolie Question. CHAPTER IX. Letter written in March, 1905 - - - The Night of Ignorance-^The Gloom of Heathen- ism — ^The Bright Side — Starlight — ^The Coming Dawn — ^The Rising of the Sun — His Work- manship, a brief Biography — A Vast and Con- tinual Opportunity. 170 CONTENTS. ix. CHAPTER X. Medical Education in China (from the point of view of an Inland Mission Station) - igo The Need of Medical Education — What are ■we Doing Locally ? — Relation of Union Medical College to the Needs of an Inland Medical Mission — A Need the Union College does not Meet. CHAPTER XI. Newsletter for 1905 ----- 197 General Remarks on the Year's Work — In- teresting Cases — Confidence — Gratitude and Goodwill — China's Awakening — Opportunity Golden and Glorious — Hopes and Indications for the Future — ^The Magnitude of the Struggle — " He that Glorieth let him Glory in the Lord." CHAPTER XII. The Spiritual Awakening in Tsang Chou, 1905-1906. - - - - - - 232 How it started — The Hospital Students — An- swered Prayers — Harmony — ^Witnessing — Pre- pared to Revile the Bible — ^Things soon Began to Hum — ^What is a Miracle ? — Volunteers wanted — How the Devil Tempted Cheng Kuang Tsai but was Beaten — ^The first United Meeting — ^The Students' Testimony — ^The Beginning of Greater Things — ^The great Lesson of the Meeting — Some practical Results — The Preach- ing Fever — Experiences Varied and Interesting — ^Among the Soldiers — A Memorable Sunday — Invocation of Evil Spirits — The Welsh Revival — A Stirring Night in the Eye Ward — ^The Story of Yu — ^The Joy that Men may Share with Heaven — Crowded to the Doors — ^Mr. Yu's Testimony — ^A Glimpse of Greater Things — A Curiosity Widening Circles, etc. CHAPTER XIII. From Village to Village - - - - 267 CHAPTER XIV. He WAS NOT ; for God took him - - - 273 Skeggleswater — A Soliloquy - - - 292 " There's not a man in Tsang Chou but would give Dr. Peill anything he might ask him for." — Mr. Yu. "For leagues along the banks of the Grand Canal his is a name to conjure with." — fleii. Arnold Bryson. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Dr. Arthur Peill and Mrs. Peill - - Frontispiece Travelling in China, etc. .... 6 Some of our Protectors - - - - 29 The Governor Pays us a Call, etc. - - - 41 The Man who Risked his Life for us - - 67 The Tsang Chou Refugees at Wei Hai Wei - - 73 Much Negotiation Required, etc. - - - 77 Ruins of Hospital, etc. - - - - - 78 Boxer Leaders, Beheaded Afterwards - - 80 Yen Shan Christians, a Remnant - - - - 88 Hospital Gateway on Opening Day, etc. - 106 First Arrivals, etc.- - ... log General Jen ... . . no One of the Supported Beds .... nS The Doctor's Happy Home, etc, - - - - 129 The Doctor's Treasures at Work - - 130 The Winter Class .... 146 Arrival of the Deputation, etc. . . - - 148 The Doctor with Hospital Staff, etc. - 159 Sweetheart Travellers on Way to Pei Tai Ho - 165 Dr. Hwang and Daughter .... 181 Men Nurses, etc. - ... 1^3 Nurses of Women's Hospital ... 222 Hospital Waiting Room Chapel .... 277 Dr. Peill in Chinese Inn .... 288 INTRODUCTORY. A DESIRE has frequently been expressed that the Circular Letters, written by Dr. Arthur Peill during his life in China, should be given a more permanent form, and made accessible to a larger circle of readers. The present volume is an attempt to meet that wish. Along with these letters, small books of photographs, taken by himself, were sent from time to time to the friends who regularly supported beds in his hospital at Tsang Chou. Some of these are reproduced here. This is not intended in any sense to be a life of Dr. Peill. His letters and diaries, and the innumerable photographs he took, would furnish most interesting material for such a life should it ever be called for. All that it is intended in this short chapter to do is to give, in briefest outline, such a sketch of his early years as seems necessary to the full appreciation of the letters which follow. Arthur Davies Peill was born on February nth, 1874, in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar ; he was educated at the School for Sons of Missionaries at Black- heath, and at the University of Edinburgh ; the ten short, eventful years of his missionary life were spent in North China ; he died on October i8th, 1906, of enteric fever, at Kirin, in Manchuria, where his remains xiii. xiv. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. lie buried in the Russian cemetery, overlooking the Sungari river. So brief was his life span, so varied his experiences. He was a precocious child. Living in a native village in Central Madagascar, this already keen, open-eyed boy very quickly picked up the language from his nurses, and at two years of age was able to carry a message given to him in English, deliver it in Malagasy, receive the answer in Malagasy, and give it back to his mother in English. He was bi-Ungual from his cradle, or rather from his nurse's back. Passing over the intervening years, there came a day when, in the drawing-room of the Blackheath School for Sons of Missionaries, the parents, committing their two boys to Him who was now to be to them all that father and mother could no longer be, had to leave them, with sad hearts behind smiling faces, and go far off to the Gentiles. This parting made a lifelong impression on Arthur's mind. The school days were on the whole very happy ones. Always strong, healthy, full of life and energy and fun, Arthur easily made friends, and quickly adapted him- self to his environment. The grandparents were not far away, and their cultured home, at Anerley and Rich- mond, was always open to the boys. Upon a youth of such social instincts, the companionships of school-days could not but exert a very potent influence ; but, while he had many very dear and lifelong friends among his schoolfellows, his chief and inseparable companions were his brothers. He always spoke with great pride and affection of the Blackheath School and the " Black- heathens " of his day. As an elder brother, those best able to judge would say he was ideal. In January, 1891, he passed the Matriculation Exam- ination of the London University and left the school. INTRODUCTORY. xv. His mother had returned to England in December, 1890. It was during a conversation she had with him at this time that the way of life became clear to the boy. He had lived till then the happy, careless life of boyhood, never seriously thinking much of deeper things, though hearing much about them. The talk that day became very intimate. It was of the Saviour, of personal trust in Him as the essential element of true faith, carrying with it the forgiveness of sin and the power of a new life. " And is that all ? " he asked, in astonishment : " Just to trust Jesus ; just to believe in and to love Him ? " " That is all," was the answer. In childlike faith he took the step, consciously yielding up his will to Christ. It was a new birth. There came to him a joy and a peace never thenceforward lost. With the simplicity of a little child he entered into the Kingdom of Heaven. And that simple, realising faith was characteristic of the whole of his after life and work. It became necessary to decide on his future career. It was evident that his tastes drew him towards the medical profession, and in May, 1891, he was entered as a medical student in the University of Edinburgh, where his mother and brothers made a home with him for the next three years. A very happy student life he had in Edinburgh. He was always bright and cheery, and his coming into a room was like the entrance of a sunbeam. Dullness could not long stay in his company. High-spirited, energetic, optimistic he always was. He expected the best and usually got it. The Morningside Congregational Church soon became the spiritual home of the family, and Douglas Mackenzie, its first minister, Arthur's loved and trusted friend xvi. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. and adviser. The Church life ran side by side with the University life and the two were mutually complementary. A Young People's Christian Endeavour Society was started, the first in Edinburgh, if not, as I believe, in Scotland. Arthur was a foundation member and its second president. This Society soon commenced a Gospel Mission at the village of Slateford, about three miles from the city, and it was in connection with this that his first attempts at anything like preaching were made. Like everything he did, the preaching was of a most unconventional character. So original were his speeches and prayers that some of the older people were shocked to hear slang expressions occurring in them freely, but so humble and truly reverent was the spirit that breathed through all he said that criticism died, and the boy- like, straightforward homeliness of the language lent an additional charm and greatly attracted those of his own age. There was a breeziness about all he did that refreshed the listener like a breath of fresh air. The Endeavour Society undertook the maintenance of a native evangelist in India, and in order to raise the necessary funds various expedients were tried. Among the most successful of these waS a public enter- tainment given by the members. In addition to music, gymnastic and acrobatic feats were an important item on the programme. Enduring friendships were made at this time, and it was in connection with this Society that the first definite drawings towards Foreign Mission work were felt. It was here, too, that he met the lady who afterwards joined him in China and made him such a charming missionary home. The medical course was then four years. At the end of that time, when only twenty-one years of age. he had taken his degrees in medicine and surgery (M.B., INTRODUCTORY. xvii. CM.), and after a year's work at the Mildmay Hospital, Bethnal Green, was ready to begin the Hfe work to which he had already dedicated himself, and for which, during the latter part of his course, he had been consciously preparing. We had all naturally thought of Madagascar as a possible field for his energies ; but the way to China was made so clear that there was no doubt in his mind that this was God's choice for him. How completely he yielded himself to that Divine and Holy Will, how gladly and unreservedly he consecrated all his powers to the supreme task set before him, his diaries and personal letters clearly show, and the following pages will, to some extent, reveal. His life — alas, so short ! — was a very strenuous one, filled with ever-increasing effort to bring the full benefits of the Gospel to the bodies and the souls of the Chinese amongst whom he laboured, and by whom he was so greatly beloved and revered. He was first stationed, as locum tenens for Dr. Sewell McFarlane, at Hsiao Chang (pronounced Shou-jang), an inland station, 200 miles south-west of Tientsin, where he laboured from the autumn of 1896 to May, 1899. The letters will now tell their own story. xvi. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. and adviser. The Church Ufe ran side by side with the University hfe and the two were mutually complementary. A Young People's Christian Endeavour Society was started, the first in Edinburgh, if not, as I believe, in Scotland. Arthur was a foundation member and its second president. This Society soon commenced a Gospel Mission at the village of Slateford, about three miles from the city, and it was in connection with this that his first attempts at anything like preaching were made. Like everything he did, the preaching was of a most unconventional character. So original were his speeches and prayers that some of the older people were shocked to hear slang expressions occurring in them freely, but so humble and truly reverent was the spirit that breathed through all he said that criticism died, and the boy- like, straightforward homeliness of the language lent an additional charm and greatly attracted those of his own age. There was a breeziness about all he did that refreshed the listener like a breath of fresh air. The Endeavour Society undertook the maintenance of a native evangelist in India, and in order to raise the necessary funds various expedients were tried. Among the most successful of these was a public enter- tainment given by the members. In addition to music, gymnastic and acrobatic feats were an important item on the programme. Enduring friendships were made at this time, and it was in connection with this Society that the first definite drawings towards Foreign Mission work were felt. It was here, too, that he met the lady who afterwards joined him in China and made him such a charming missionary home. The medical course was then four years. At the end of that time, when only twenty-one years of age, he had taken his degrees in medicine and surgery (M.B., INTRODUCTORY. xvii. CM.), and after a year's work at the Mildmay Hospital, Bethnal Green, was ready to begin the life work to which he had already dedicated himself, and for which, during the latter part of his course, he had been consciously preparing. We had all naturally thought of Madagascar as a possible field for his energies ; but the way to China was made so clear that there was no doubt in bis mind that this was God's choice f,t^r him. How completely he yielded himself to that m^ine and Holy Will, how gladly and unreservedly he /onsecrated all his powers to the supreme task set befo% him, his diaries and personal letters clearly showj and the following pages will, to some extent, rev^i_ His life — alas, so short ! — was a very strenuous Q^ri&, filled with ever-increasing effort to bring the full T^enefits of the Gospel to the bodies and the souls of ty^e Chinese amongst whom he laboured, and by whom he' ^^as so greatly beloved and revered. He w%s £j-st stationed, as locum tenens for Dr. Sewell McFarla^^e, at Hsiao Chang (pronounced Shou-jang); an inla'nd station, 200 miles south-west of Tientsin, where |he laboured from the autumn of 1896 to May, 1899./ T^ letters will now tell their own story. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. CHAPTER I. 0;TTER from HSIAO CHANG, 1899. T AST VKifnter was a very happy one on the whole for ihoih. my wife and myself. We both kept very wellfi and had plenty to keep us busy. Our staff at Hsiadj Chang had been reinforced in the autumn by the corojling of Mrs. Meech and her grown-up daughter ; also by? the arrival of a new lady worker. Miss Harr6 came t;^o live with us, having rooms in the same house and t^Soarding with us, so that we saw a great deal of her, '^ind she was a very pleasant companion for my wife. The^y worked at Chinese together, too, and so mutually heWped one another. I passed my second year's exam, in Ch'^inese in December and worked hard during the rest of thf 'J winter and early spring at my third year's work, as I 'Vished to try and pass my third exam, before leaving H^siao Chang for my appointed station at Tsang Chou, orn the Grand Canal, where the new headquarters of the X.M.S. Yen Shan Mission now are. Dr. Macfarlane, for whom I have been acting as locum tenens at Hsiao Chang for the last two and a half years, returned from furlough this spring, so that I was set free for other work as soon as he arrived at Hsiao Chang. 2 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Chinese New Year fell this year on the The New ^^^^ ^f February, and just before it came Mission station . , . . ^ i^ ri,«„ atTsangChou. -J^ I went on a cart-]Ourney to Tsang Chou, to. have a look round the place and have a share, along with ifiy future colleague, Rev. D. S. Murray, in choosing a good s!t^for our houses and the hospital. Perhaps I had better expi^in iirst.in afew words, how it is that the headquarters of the Ten Shan Mission came to be at Tsang Chou. It must be about four years now since Mr. Murray, with his wife an^ .^wo children, left Tientsin to go and reside permanently uX the Yen Shan- Tsang Chou district. Before that time We district had been worked as an out-station of Tientsin, HJit it was felt that the time had come for a man to reside? there per- manently, so Murray went. Beginnings of wiork there resulted from Rev. J. Lee's famine relief v\isitations many years ago. Dr. Roberts, late of Tientsin,l and his sister, used to pay somewhat frequent itineratiSj^g visits to the district, and were much interested in the ^^rogress of the work there, as no doubt they both still are, \though Roberts is now in heaven, and his sister with her Vfather in England. ', This interest resulted in the friends of Dr. Roly'erts subscribing upwards of £300 for the erection of a hospital in the district in memory of Dr. Roberts, of Tientsin, ai.iid it was to this new work that I was appointed when ti he L.M.S. sent me out nearly three years ago. I hsi d, however, to go and take Dr. M.'s place for a whifte, the time being lengthened subsequently on account o^f his deputation tour through Australia and New Zealand* All this while there has been a crying need for medicalV work in the district, not least on the account of our missionaries there, as Mrs. M. has been seriously ill and had eventually to be ordered home for treatment, whilst M. himself was prostrated last winter by an LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 3 attack of typhus fever. It is felt too, that a medical mission there will be of immense value in helping on the Christian work in the whole district; and one only regrets that we couldn't have started in with hospital and dispensary a year or two ago. Up till now, M. has been living in small and tem- porary quarters inside Yen Shan city, but for many reasons it has been thought wise to put our permanent head- quarters at Tsang Chou, which is a flourishing and busy city on the banks of the Grand Canal, thirty miles east of Yen Shan and ninety miles south of Tientsin. We meanwhile are to retain our quarters in Yen Shan as a sort of secondary headquarters for the W., N.W. and S.W. parts of the district. At present there is very little work to the west of the canal from Tsang Chou, but we hope to expand in that direction too, now that we are located in that |)lace. The work as a whole is very flourishing, and particu- larly sound. M. is very strong on self-support, and is training the Christians to do a good deal more for them- selves than most missionaries have yet attempted out here. He is also very strict with regard to those admitted by baptism into church-membership, and requires a long and satisfactory probation, at least a year, besides a good notion of the fundamental truths of Christianity and some idea of Scripture generally. It is very interesting to listen to the candidates being examined for baptism. I remember seeing one man who was awfully nervous and for some time wouldn't come into the room at all. Eventually they got him to come in, but it was quite painful to see how nervous he was. M. asked him, amongst other things, where it was that Jesus had won salvation for us. Without waiting to think, the poor chap said : " In the garden of Eden ! " He got on all right after a bit, though, and knew quite a lot. 4 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. There are now 400 or 500 church members in the district, I believe, and quite a large number on probation, besides lots more who attend services occasionally and are interested, but who are not reckoned in any statistics of the work. The people begin this year to support a native pastor out of their own pockets. Besides this they have supplied most of their own little chapels and schools, and pay all the current expenses of same, viz., fuel, oil, etc., besides providing for themselves in other ways which I mustn't go into at present. Just one instance of the kind of thing that goes on here and there, and produces that interest in Christianity which I said the statistics did not take account of. A young man, in a village not far from Yen Shan, recently became a Christian. His old father got very angry and tried various plans to get him to give it up, but all in vain. At last he told his son that, if he still persisted in following Christ, he would bury him alive, and fixed a date for his son to make up his mind by. This burying alive is not very uncommon, and a Chinese father has the old Roman father's right to do as he pleases with his children. Thus a daughter who has been an unfaithful wife, or has dishonoured her father's name before marriage, is quite likely to suffer death at her father's hands, or to be made to commit suicide by him ; and I have heard of fathers burying alive, in one case a grown-up idiot son, and in another a son who gambled and in other ways was a disgrace to the family. Well, the day arrived, and the young fellow was led by his old father to the edge of the deep hole, which was to be his grave if he refused to give up Christianity. A sorrowful group of relatives stood round who had tried in vain to shake the old man's determination. " Will you give it up ? " " No, father ; you can bury me in there if you like, but I can't give up Jesus Christ." LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. $ Unexpectedly the old man burst into tears, the family group returned home, and we confidently await results. Thank God for young fellows like that out here in heathen China ! Our work lies not only in the cities of Yen Shan and Tsang Chou, but in a score or more of country towns and villages as well, besides itinerating work in the district generally, and I am looking forward to my new sphere in spite of all its responsibility and probable hard work. And yet it is a wrench to leave Hsiao Chang. We have been very happy there, and it has been a splendid training ground in mission work and methods for me, both as regards medical mission work and the more general mission work as well. The Reeses have been invariably kind and helpful to us, and I shall be sorry to lose their companionship. The Meeches, of course, we didn't get to know so well, though they also have pleasant associations in our minds. I am also very sorry to leave some of the native helpers. One really gets to love some of them, and to regard them quite as true and dear friends. One or two especially I regret leaving and shall enjoy meeting again, no doubt, as opportunity offers. The hospital assistants and I have always got on amicably together. One of them is to come to me at Tsang Chou to help in the work there, and perhaps one of the more recently joined assistants there too, so that I shall not have to begin and train assistants de novo. I went to Tsang Chou just before Chinese New Year, to help choose and buy land upon which to build our houses and hospital. There was only one plot available at any reasonable price, and that was on the side of the Canal opposite to the city, but close to a good ferry and otherwise convenient. It was a lot of about six English acres, and we had to buy the whole or none at all. 6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Eventually we bought it, therefore, and now M.'s home and mine are finished and ready for us to occupy. The hospital is not yet begun, and can't be till the rainy season is over, nor can we get bricks for a short time yet. We hope to make a start at it this autumn, though we don't expect to finish till some time next year. Meanwhile I shall probably start work in some temporary quarters, rented for the purpose, so that I expect lots of crowding and inconvenience for the first few months. The journey to Tsang Chou from Hsiao 7''?T*'^^ Chang takes three days in a cart, the nights China. being spent in Chinese inns. Fortunately the weather was not too cold, and there was no snow, so roads were good, and we made pretty good going. Between thirty and forty miles a day, travelling from long before daylight (say 4 a.m.) till dark (about 7 or 8 p.m.), is fairly good journeying. The carts are heavy wooden affairs with no springs whatever, drawn by two mules harnessed tandem. If the cart goes fast, the jolting gives you fits, and your head is unmercifully banged, first against one side and then against the other, whilst your liver pounds up and down, until you begin to wonder whether you won't come loose inside and get yourself inextricably tangled up in those regions. If it goes slow, the journeying becomes so tedious that one's glad of almost any amount of discomfort, after a while, if only one can get on a bit. The nights are spent in what are by courtesy called inns, though in England they would not even be tolerated as stables. They contain no furniture usually, beyond a dirty table, and perhaps two old chairs, often only one chair and a little form. One end of the unpapered, unceiled room is raised a foot or two from the level of the rest of the floor, and on this " kang " one's bedding I — TRAVELLIXG IX NORTH CHIXA. 2.— UNEQUALLY YOKED. LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 7 is spread, and the night is passed in more or less dis- comfort, according as the weather is too hot or too cold or just comfortable, and as the vermin may elect to conduct themselves. A chap is usually so awfully hungry and tired at the end of a day's journey, however, that the " pic-nicky " kind of meal, and the unusual couch become luxuries, and a deep, peaceful sleep brings uncon- sciousness of all that is unhomelike, until the " boy's " voice in the morning rouses one to another day of bumps and jolting. It is just possible to read good large print in the cart, if roads are good and one is not going too fast, but it doesn't take very long to make most folks' eyes ache, and the journey becomes more tedious than ever, especi- ally as the scenery is all much the same wherever one goes — just an expanse of brown, ploughed fields in winter, and of green crops in spring, with here and there a few trees. A dust storm is quite a common incident . of travel, and any sort of wind is usually sufficient to raise dust enough to fill one's eyes and mouth, and nose and ears, and eyebrows and moustache, and hair, until one becomes a ludicrous spectacle, even to one's nearest and dearest. There is usually a stop at about mid-day for feeding the animals and oneself, a wayside " inn " being the stopping-place. When I got to Tsang Chou, after three days of the above sort of thing, I found that M. was not expected from Yen Shan till the next day ; also that the town was full of Chinese soldiers, and that inns and carts were being requisitioned for the use of the troops. There had been some trouble with the Germans down at I Chou Fu in Shan Tung, and troops were being sent down there. A lot of soldiers shared the little inn I was stay- ing in ; they wanted to requisition my cart until they understood that it was a foreigner's and not available.. 8 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The day before, I had been to see a very finely decorated temple outside the N.W. corner of the city. It was built with money collected by a man who used to be an agri- cultural labourer. His mother was very ill, and he vowed to repair the old temple on this site if she got better. She did recover, but he had no money, so he cut off his right hand in public before a crowd, stopping the bleeding by dipping the stump into boiling oil. He then went round, showing the stump and collecting money. In four years he had collected thousands of taels (seven taels to £i), and then he built this fine temple. I saw the man himself, but he kept his arm up his sleeve, so I didn't see that. The man I went with was one of our Tsang Chou deacons, and he told me that, before he became a Christian, he was one of those who had contributed thereto. After the land-buying affair was all Hsiao Chane settled, M. came back with me to Hsiao Chang on a visit, and we had a jolly time of it all together there. No patients come to hos- pital at Chinese New Year, so we close for two or there weeks and all have a good old time, unless there are arrears of correspondence to be written up, etc., etc., as is usually the case with me, alas ! We had long discussions re the plans of our new house at Tsang Chou, but eventually we made a plan that we thought would suit us, and the house is now built and awaiting our home-going. Hospital soon opened again however, and I settled down to hard work at the language and in the hospital, broken by an occa- sional gallop on the pony, football-kicking with a little " socy " ball bought in Tientsin, tennis, etc., or by something more serious in the way of a bad midwifery case, important operations, difficult medical cases, and so on. LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 9 On Sundays I went out to various outstations to preach and got quite to enjoy it. One of our new converts lately, when asked why Adam and Eve were forbidden the fruit from the tree in the midst of the garden, said it was because God wanted all that for himself ! Which reminds me of a little boy I heard of not long ago, who was asked why John the Baptist wore a girdle round his waist, and answered : " To keep his trousers up." There is no time for frivolity however, if I am to give you aU the news, so I must hurry on. Things went on busily but quietly, and I was hoping to get all the work for my third exam, finished, and the exam, passed before we left Hsiao Chang, when baby made her appearance on the morning of April 15th. Everything went off beautifully, and the little one came just in nice time, since, had she been a week later the Rs. and Ms. would have left for the Annual Meetings in Tientsin, and there would have only been Miss H. left to help during the first few days. The 15th was Saturday. The next day I was to preach my exam, sermon before Messrs. R. and M., so as to try and get the whole exam, over before they left for Tientsin. It was not to be, however. I was just going along to the chapel to preach, when I was called to a bad poisoning case up the street, almost certainly suicide, though I couldn't get any very definite account of the affair, and the folks themselves seemed a good deal mystified. Instead therefore of preaching a sermon, I was busy working a stomach-pump in a dirty little Chinese room. All efforts proved useless, and the poor woman died, after we had just begun to have some slight hope of pulling her round. They had not decided on calling us in until the poison had been at work for a good long time. The only cause that I could get for her suicide, if that is what it was, was lo THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG SHOU. that the day before, she had got into a fit of anger with her nephew, for stealing about twopence from her daughter at a theatrical performance they were attending together. There was no other opportunity for taking my exam, just then, and I had therefore to put it off until R.'s return, hoping to take it then, a hope which was doomed to disappointment however. A. was recovering very nicely, and all going well, when the Rs. and Ms. left us. I was practically left alone to mind the hospital, stew Chinese, superintend the building of the new lady's house, and generally boss the Mission, although the latter didn't mean very much, unless things occurred out of the ordinary run, as there were competent native preachers with me. No sooner were the folks well away, than Miss H. got ill with a bad attack of sciatica and lumbago, and was absolutely confined to bed, in spite of all we could do, for several weeks, so that instead of her nursing A. and baby, I practically had to nurse the whole lot of them. To make things worse, it wasn't long before the native "amah," or nurse, took ill too, so that baby practically devolved upon me, as the extra strain began to tell on A. and I had to stop her doing as much as she wanted to do. The climax came, when a secret society in the district began to create disturbances, and threaten to come and exterminate the foreign devils and all their followers, burn the houses down, and so on. Imagine " dis poor chile " holding a council of war in one room, with the most trustworthy of our preachers, expecting an attack any time, one or two of the helpers sitting with drawn swords over their knees ; and then, half an hour afterwards, bathing the baby, changing its clothes (to what awful things a " poor missionary " sometimes has to come !), seeing my various patients LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. ii comfortable for the night, giving medicines, washing bottles, and trying to keep my temper. The sudden changes of occupation were really too ludicrous some- times, and we couldn't help laughing at it all. I think the best way to give you a good idea of those days will be to copy out of my note-book the scrappy information dotted there, enlarging and explaining a little where necessary. This will also give you a very good idea of the jumble of occupations. The Rs. left on April 22nd, and the Ms. on the 24th. The " row " with the secret society didn't begin till the 9th May. Meanwhile I had been busy in the hospital, looking after the building, nursing A. and Miss H., besides working at the language. I'll just tell you about Sunday, April 30th, before going on to the secret society trouble. There being sufficient preachers that morning to supply all the nearest out -stations, I set off with a young hospital assistant to an empty shop up the street, and we started preaching to all who would stop and listen. I had begun this Sunday preaching some weeks before, after reading that book " In His Steps." Hadn't time during week- days for anything of the kind, but often had time on Sundays. Somehow open-air preaching has always gone rather against the grain with me, and I have too often shirked it. Even here in China I felt glad that my work was amongst the hospital patients, so that I didn't need to preach out of doors. But after reading that book I had to do something, so got hold of this young hospital assistant, who was usually free on Sundays, and after prayer together we set off and preached at the four cross roads in the middle of the town. I found him glad of the opportunity, his heart having evidently been prepared for it before I spoke to him. Afterwards we got the loan of an empty shop facing the 13 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. street, which was cooler than standing in the sun. The folks were very nice, listened pretty attentively many of them, offered us tea, and so on. Then this young fellow asked me to go to his village and preach there, so the last Sunday before the row I went there and had a large and most attentive audience. After preaching for some time we went Self Sumjort. ^^*'^ ^° °^^ compound chapel, arriving just in time for the close of the service. The preacher was Mr. Pao, who is R.'s right hand man there, and a very fine fellow. For my last year or more he was hospital assistant and preacher, and I found him invaluable. After the benediction he began to talk to the people about a Chinese Self-support Society, which he and the other preachers and leading men had begun to form, and invited all to join and subscribe to it. Of course this was all with the glad consent of the mission- aries, as you can imagine it would be. His speech to them was very good. I only wish I could translate it well and give it you in full, but that is impossible. " Some say," he said, " that the time for self-support has not yet come. I should like to ask what time ? What do such people mean when they say this ? Suppose for instance that in a family, the elder sons were to wait till their younger brother had grown up before they began to show their respect and gratitude to their father and mother, what sort of behaviour would that be ? Yet that is what we Christians do, if we wait until the church is stronger and more numerous before we help to support God's work. Some say we are too weak yet to attempt it, but by starting thus we do not imply that we are at once going to support the whole native church, we are only making a beginning. You have seen," he went on, " the bough of a shrub bent down to the ground, and earth heaped round and over it close to where it joined LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 13 the parent root. Then, when the shoot has struck its own roots into the soil, the gardener cuts it off altogether, and it supports itself. This is an apt illustration of what we are doing by starting the Self-support Society." In speaking to me about it a few days before, and asking what I thought of it, I had said : " Why, the Chinese are men too, and ought to support themselves, not always be weakly dependent on the foreigner like babies." He brought this into his speech, and made a strong point by it. He also told of a neighbouring mission (A.B.C.F.M.), where four students in the theological college had started a Self-support Society by each subscribing one tiao (about one shilling) a year. They were ridiculed at first, but persevered, and now that Society raises nearly 1,000 tiao, and has bought land, the products of which are sold, and the profits devoted to the interests of the church. You may imagine how I enjoyed listening to all this. He then called for volunteers, and asked them to give in their names, and the amount of their subscriptions. I could see that he was anxious for the success of the scheme, warmed up after his eloquent appeal, and perhaps a little apprehensive lest his hopes should be disappointed. There was a little pause, and rather trying suspense, when at last our old, half-bhnd compound scavenger piped up, and asked to be put down for a yearly sub- scription of two tiao. Pao's face lit up at once, and his eyes glistened, as he said : " In olden times there was an aged man in the temple one day, who recognised the infant Jesus, and took Him in his arms, saying that now he could depart in peace, having seen the Saviour of man- kind. Be of good cheer. Loo Sheng, old man," he said, " this child, that you have been the first to take in your arms and welcome, will yet grow to be a great joy to you, before it is time for you to depart." 14 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. It was really most touching, and I felt the tears come to my eyes as I know many another there present must have done, although they were " only Chinese," as some folks put it, and had many of them only been Christians a very few years. After that subscribers volunteered rapidly, the Society's ranks soon began to fill, and I think about 130 tiao had been promised before the cl9se of that day. A good start for self-support, though of course a lot had already been done in the way of supplying chapels, etc., before ever this Society was started. It was rather a joke that day about the women. The men had volunteered freely, but no women had said anything. Pao therefore asked them why it was, were the men subscribing too much ? By this time the sub- scriptions had gone down to one tiao, or less, as the poorer members, or stingier ones, chimed in. This was too much for one old lady, so she promptly shouted out : " Put me down for two tiao," and other women also joined in. Boxers as ^"^^ "«'«' ^°'' ^^^ " ^^^ " =" first observed 9th May. This afternoon the three chief by a foreigner native preachers, and the Hsiao Chang elder, e ore 1900. came to consult with me about open-air preaching at a yearly fair that was being held for a few days in a village a few miles away. To-day several Christians went there to preach, but were reviled and obstructed by some members of a secret society, called the " I'Ho Chuan," or " United Boxers," which has been coming more and more into evidence around us here of late. The men who had gone to preach were not accredited preachers, but earnest, though somewhat uneducated and ignorant men for the most part, who had gone to the fair on their own account to preach Christianity as well as they knew how. It is possible some of them may have said something unwise, and calculated to cause offence to LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 15 heathen listeners, but we never got any very definite history of such offending, and certainly it could not have accounted, or begun to account, for the apparently already intended and well organised agitation that began to come to our knowledge that day. The men made no resistance, but came back quietly, and the question now was, should more preachers go to-morrow to the fair, or not ? Even- tually we decided to send two able and experienced men, who were to go alone, and begin preaching quietly and unostentatiously, so that it might be seen whether or no the Boxers were serious in their opposition, and whether they really meant to put a stop to the preaching. The two men went, therefore, and began very quietly by speaking to one or two men who were sitting resting on the outskirts of the crowd. A group soon gathered round them, and they were preaching to the gathering, when up came a lot of the Boxers, armed with big sticks and other weapons, and began reviling, threatening, and generally going on in such a way as to preclude any attempt at argument or reasoning. To prevent a certain attack, the two men got into their cart quietly, and came straight home ; whilst the Boxers mounted the platform on which the theatricals take place, loudly proclaimed the fear in which they were held by the Christians, their intention to attack Hsiao Chang, kill the foreigners, burn their houses, etc., etc., and called upon those present to join them in this undertaking, for which they said they had the secret commands of the Empress Dowager. Apparently they expected the Christians to come in a body and preach, fighting, if the opposition continued, and their failure to act thus was made much capital of, and the ignorant crowds called upon to see how afraid the Christians were, and so on. We decided to wait and see what the Boxers did at the fair next day, meanwhile getting ready a letter i6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. to be sent to the local magistrate, whose name was Ling, setting forth the whole matter, and asking him to take the affair in hand, this letter to be sent on the afternoon of the nth, if things didn't improve. My note-book says : " The watchman meanwhile instructed to keep on the look-out all night, and earnest prayers sent up to God. Not much Chinese done to-day, but saw good many patients, e.g., man with bony tumour of face ; another with Bell's Paralysis, and a lot more." The man with the tumour had been most unfortunate, poor chap. He had first come to Hsiao Chang a year before, but I was away at the Annual Meetings in Tientsin. He went on to Pang Chuang, forty miles away, but Dr. Peck was also away. Lately he returned to Pang Chuang, but Dr. Peck was just leaving for home on furlough, so he came to Hsiao Chang again. By this time the tumour was large and deep rooted, and under the circumstances I didn't feel justified in operating. He was an old man of sixty-three. Poor fellow ! How one wishes there were more doctors in this great land ! Lots of serious cases the last few days, including a man burnt by roof of brick kiln falling in on top of him. He was so badly burnt that there was no hope of saving him, and I had to send him away. It would never do for a patient to die in hospital, if it can possibly be helped, as the Chinese would say I killed him because I wanted to cut him up and make his heart into medicine. Thursday, May nth. — Letter sent to local magistrate, but answer not at all satisfactory. Men from the fair bring news of the Boxers going on worse than ever and rumours growing rife all round. Boxers going about armed with sticks, knives, etc., boasting of what they're going to do to us and the native Christians, and inviting everyone to join them. Purpose writing to County magis- LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 17 trate to-morrow, therefore. He is Ling's superior, and may take prompt action perhaps. Finished another of the books for my third exam., writing letters for out mail, etc. Miss H. ill in bed, and baby not well either. Prospect getting lively, and the preachers think we ought to put on watchmen inside and outside the compound ; as it is possible we may be attacked soon, unless the magistrates do something to prevent it. They think too that we ought to ask a few of our Christians who understand the use of weapons, sword, spear, gun, etc., to come along and bring their arms with them, so that we may have a bodyguard in case of an attack. After long discussion, I somewhat unwillingly consented to this, unwillingly, because I thought it would be better if we were just to trust God for protection. I wish you who read this would think this matter over, and let me know what you think would have been the right thing to do under the circumstances. It was of course understood all along that such body- guard should act strictly and only on the defensive, and that everything else should be tried before weapons : were resorted to, they only being used in the last ex- tremity. When I tell you that there was a girls' school on the compound, concerning which it was rumoured that the Boxers had said unpleasant things, you will perhaps realise my difficulty in the matter more. I think that, under the same circumstances, I should probably do the same again, but am open to further instruction in the matter, and want such instruction badly. Friday, May i2tk. — Revising work for exam. Saw several out-patients, including a case of hip-joint disease. Letter back from County magistrate, saying that he is instructing the local one to hurry up, and protect us, and arrest the disturbers. No word from local man all day. Several Christians who have been trained in the use of 1 8 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. weapons came along to-day to protect the compound, and everything was got ready in case of attack. Watchword chosen for the night, and watchmen going round all the time. A man who came on a good horse, and was about the hospital and the restaurant outside most of the day, was suspected of being a spy, so was not allowed to go away at night, but slept in the restaurant. In evening had very nice little prayer-meeting with the preachers. Took evening prayers with the hospital in-patients, and spoke on our God as compared with all heathen so-called gods and spirits. Native nurse ill, also baby, so A. and I had a lively time of it. Temperature to-day, 8g° F. in the shade. Saturday, May i;^th. — Peaceful night last night, and no disturbers. Our men parading front compound all night with guns and swords, etc., till 3 a.m. Chinese nurse ill still, so Mrs. R.'s sewing-girl voluntarily came to the rescue and stayed to help through the night. Very plucky, considering that an attack was threatened by the Boxers and considered quite likely by nearly everyone. She said : " What does my little life matter ? I'm not so important as all that," and would take no remuneration. Miss H. worse again and in much pain, but both she and A. very plucky the whole time, and quite cool. I found out afterwards that the preachers had got ready a litter for Miss H. on the back verandah, and Chinese outer garments for us to put on in case of attack and necessity for flight. The plucky fellows went round with swords all night, till about 3 a.m., and told us not to be afraid, as they would all be dead before any harm reached us. In morning had weekly deacons' meeting, then worked at Chinese until time to see out-patients. Quite a number of serious cases. Apparently the row is quite local yet. LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 19 as out-patients still come from places not far away, though the in-patients are wanting to get away home out of danger. Perhaps too they think the day-time safe enough. A letter came from the local magistrate to-day, but it is most unsatisfactory, and shows no tendency on his part to try and stop things. He says one of the leaders of the Boxers is in his city at present, and another soon expected (meaning I presume that they are under his eye and we need not fear), also that the armed vitupera- tors of Tuesday and Wednesday were only expressing their disdain at hearing " the doctrine." He advises me not to listen to idle stories ! Answer returned appropriate to his letter. Miss H., the nurse and baby, all ill still. Prayer meeting with the helpers in afternoon. I led, and read about the apostles out of Acts iv. and v. Nice meeting. Saw several more patients in afternoon. Sunday, May 14th. — Morning service taken by one of our best preachers, Mr. Chang, who spoke finely on Jesus coming to the disciples over the stormy sea. " Grand thing about Jesus is that He knows just when to come, not in first watch, because then the disciples wouldn't have realised their need of Him ; not until all trust in themselves was gone did He come to them and save them from their distress." God was watching us, he said, and would come at exactly the right time, and deliver us — let us be faithful then. In afternoon went out to a neighbouring village, with the young hospital assistant mentioned previously, and preached to quite a large crowd. It was the young chap's native village. People very attentive and brought us tea afterwards. Saw several out-patients : woman with bad consumption, man with dyspepsia, old man with glaucoma, and so on. Our Chinese nurse fell into a sort of heavy sleep, from 20 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OP TSANG CHOU. which she could not be roused. A woman in the same room with her got a bad fright over it, and asked me to come along and see her. Did so, stuck pins into her without effect, but at last some whiffs of strong ammonia woke her up again. Monday, May x$th. — Still no word from local magis- trate. Rumours worse than ever, and Boxers still violent, and said to be collecting men and arms for an attack. We find that one of the leaders is the local magistrate's cousin, and is constantly in his yamen. The magistrate listens to his cousin instead of to us, and of course is hoodwinked into minimising the whole affair, and will do nothing for us for fear of offending the Boxers. The fair at which the whole thing began over now ; but another starting to-day in a neighbouring village. Discussed the question whether any of us should go and preach there or not. All this time the Boxers are making immense capital out of our "cowardice and terror," in not going to fight them, not going to fair to preach, etc., etc. Decided to wait till Wednesday, see if letter comes from local magistrate, and whether the Boxers are going on in the old style at this new fair or not. If preachers go, then at most three and unarmed. This latter course seems the only proper thing to do ; but a lot of the more ignorant Christians were just longing to go in a body and have a pitched battle with the Boxers, capture their leaders, etc., and it took a good deal of tact on the part of the preachers to restrain them, and show them a better way. Very busy day to-day. Chinese in morning, but my teacher getting restless, and can't settle down to work for thinking of and discussing the row. Then to hospital. Man with large, ulcerating tumour behind ear, lots of eye cases, etc. In afternoon did an iridectomy, and excised a warty tumour. LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 21 Tuesday, 16th. — Letter from local magistrate about noon, enclosing a document drawn up by the Boxers accusing the " Jesus^religion " people of oppressing the common folk (!) and wanting to meet us face to face before the magistrate. Just think how completely he must have been under their control and influence. Apparently, as we hadn't been there to meet the Boxers, not knowing even at that time that they wanted thus to meet us, the magistrate had settled the case to his own satisfaction, and let them off with a warning not to do it again ! We were just trying to express our amused indignation at this neat way of settling things, when in rushed an old, old preacher, who lives in the village where the fair was being held, out of breath and panting with excitement and wrath, to say that the Boxers had kidnapped one of our Christians who had been quietly attending the fair, and had carried him off by force. After a while we calmed him down enough to get particulars, and found that this man was about to preach, but the old man had stopped him in accordance with our agreement of the day before. Just then however, these Boxers had come along armed and carried him off. They had then gone to the old preacher's house and demanded an entrance, but the old fellow got out the back way, jumped over the wall, got his donkey and came along post-haste, riding bare-back I believe. His wife followed, and said the Boxers had been to the house for him again after he'd left, but she had convinced them that he was not there. We sent off a hospital assistant on donkey-back to the city to try and find out where our man was being taken to. He got wind of their movements somehow, and came back in the evening to say that they had avowed their intention of carrying him off to the Lin Ching district. 22 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOV. about 100 miles to the south, where the head-quarters of the Society were. We had no clue as to their idea in taking him oflE, but found afterwards that they thought he was a more important man amongst us than he really was ; and probably they thought he would do well as a hostage in case of any action of ours against them, and perhaps also they wanted a ransom for him. We also sent a letter to the County magistrate again late that night — it takes an awful time to write a Chinese official letter — and I wrote a note to R., telhng him about things, and asking him to hurry up and come along. The carts were going early in the morning to meet him at a place about thirty or forty miles away on the Grand Canal, so the carter took the letter. So far the County magistrate has been acting on the information he gets from the local one, so that he has not helped us at all. Hope this last letter will wake him up. Kidnapping is a capital offence in China. All seem to think an attack to-night possible, and preparations made for hurried flight, if necessary. Lots of watchmen going round inside and outside compound. If the Boxers come they will probably do so by the south, and we hope to escape towards the north. All .uncertain ; but safe in God's hands, whatever comes. The day before we had sent away the armed men on the compound, as their food was expensive and things had seemed quieter for a day or two. The watchmen that night were mostly unarmed therefore. That evening we had one of the best prayer meetings I've ever attended. We were praying for the kidnapped man, that he might be given wisdom and tact, and, if God willed it, a speedy deliverance. The men's prayers were so full of faith and true Christian spirit that I felt sure we were being heard, and said confidently : " I shan't be at all surprised if he comes back to-night unhurt." LETTER FROM USA 10 CHANG. 2j That evening my chief hospital assistant had come in from a fortnight's preaching and heaUng at one of our distant outstations, where a cause was being estabhshed. He was full of enthusiasm as he gave a short account of his work there. Several had apparently become Christ- ians — God had helped him wonderfully with his medical and surgical cases, and he had done quite a lot of opera- tions. Oh, for time, talent, and opportunities for training a lot of such men to act as country evangelists ! One man is not sufficient to do that work properly though. If Ernie (his brother) could come out and work with me, that would just be splendid. I was up most of the night. Letter came from the County magistrate, between 2 and 3 a.m., to say that he's sent a special messenger "to make secret inquiries." Why can't he take our word for it, the old idiot ? In the afternoon took weekly prayer meeting in the chapel. Sang " Safe in the arms of Jesus," which went splendidly; and "The Son of God goes forth to war," and read John xxi. 15-19. Oh, the discussions we had those days ! I had to let my teacher off, he could think and talk of nothing but the row. To-day talked of going to the city, and trying, if possible, to compel the local magistrate to send soldiers after the kidnappers, but will wait for further news from the County magistrate first. Meanwhile our poor Chris- tian is being taken farther and farther away, and we seem powerless to help. God can set him free though ! Several interesting out-patients in hospital to-day. In-patients not all gone yet either. Wednesday, May lyth. — In morning still undecided as to whether I should go and interview Ling (the local magistrate) or not. He probably could find out our man's whereabouts, if he wanted, but he still listens to that wretched cousin of his, who is at the bottom of the whole affair. Oh, that I could go and hold a pistol to his 24 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. head, and make him either send at once to the rescue of our man, or deliver one of the Boxer leaders to us, or come himself to Hsiao Chang and be security for the safety of the whole. I couldn't persuade myself however, that any such course could be either wise or right. We were still discussing things, and praying for guid- ance, when in rushed the stableman to say that the kidnapped man was back again, and wanted to see us ! He had been set free the evening before, about the time we were praying about him, but had been to his own home first, and not come on to us till morning. We quickly gathered in my study to hear his account, i.e., the native helpers and myself. He had behaved finely throughout, so far as I could gather, and our prayer for wisdom for him had certainly been answered. He had spoken " the doctrine " to them too, and, as he made no resistance, they neither bound nor ill-used him. Took him to a village outside the city where the local magis- trate lives, then to the west suburb of the city itself, to an inn which was a sort of Boxer headquarters, and then to another place on the road towards Lin Ching. At this last place they met an influential Boxer, who entirely disapproved of this latest move, and said it went against his conscience to carry off an innocent man like this ! He threatened to leave the Society, unless they let him (our Christian) off and allowed him to go home again. They wouldn't listen however, but resumed their journey. About dark they halted, and again discussed the situation, eventually setting him free to return home, on condition that he would take us a message requiring us to pay 500 taels and stand the Boxers theatricals, on pain of extermination and the burning of our houses. He also had to promise to go and meet them at the fair on Thursday, i.e., the day after we saw him, with our answer to these terms. LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 25 Just then, however, we didn't mind about anything else, but held a thanksgiving meeting for his safe return. You should have heard those prayers from the lips of poor " John Chinaman " ! There wasn't a dry eye as the poor chap who had been carried off returned thanks, in a broken voice, and prayed that this experience of God's love and care for him might result in increased faithfulness and devotion through all his coming days. I've no doubt he'll be a better Christian now than ever before, which shows how Satan sometimes is a little too clever, doesn't it ? That afternoon I took a rest, and read one of the most awful fairy stories out of the " Arabian Nights," so as to get my mind off the events of the last few days and prevent my thinking about the coming ones. We had lots of serious and interesting out-patient cases too. It's wonderful how the numbers keep up still, in spite of all the rumours and disturbances. Thursday, May 18th. — Yesterday we discussed as to whether Lao Ming should go to the fair and meet the Boxers again or not, Lao Ming being the Christian who was kidnapped. I strongly advised his going, not only because he had promised, but also because I wanted to get some way arranged by which we might meet the leaders of the Boxers and try to talk the whole affair over quietly, seeing that so far we are all in the dark as to their ideas about us, or their reasons for making such a disturbance. We only knew that they were at the fair day by day vowing to come and slay us, etc., etc., etc. Lao Ming not liking to go again, we laid the matter on him solemnly as one to be solved by God's guidance. Letter sent early this morning to county magistrate notifying Lao Ming's return. Lao Ming went to the fair, as he felt it the right thing to do after all. We sent 26 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. two men with him to see how things went. They didn't start till late in the afternoon however, and found the Boxers had left the fair when they arrived and were in the village. The local constable, to whom they applied for directions as to where to find the Boxers, wouldn't let them meet them, but offered to go as go- between. He returned to say that it was no use our trying to talk with the Boxers, and that the latter said they would not see us at all unless the 500 taels were brought. They gave us till to-morrow to bring it. Very considerate, wasn't it ? In the late afternoon the Rs. and Dr. M. arrived, having received my letter the night before, had no sleep, started very early, and come along as fast as possible. All fearfully tired. Lao Ming and the two men safe back at night with above message. R. going into circum- stances of whole affair, but too tired to do much to-night. Magistrates still doing nothing effectual. Friday, May igth. — Council of war in the morning. Native helpers think the Boxers sure to come soon now, especially as we made no reply to their demand for the 500 taels. We learnt afterwards that they probably would have attacked but for the arrival of the Rs. and Ms. You see they didn't know quite how many had come, nor what weapons they might have brought, so still hesitated. Then, too, our Christians were coming back again to the rescue, and new ones coming too, with all the weapons they could gather, till we had almost 100 armed men on the place, who would have made a pretty spirited resistance in case of attack. Some of them came from thirty or forty miles away when they heard of our trouble. Women also came in from long distances to condole with Mrs. Rees and the other ladies, in spite of all the danger and disturbance. It was really touching to see their devotion. LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 27 A lot of the Boxers have come to Hsiao Chang to-day, and are up the street having a confab. — twelve or fifteen of them — besides the few who live in the place. Letter sent to the County magistrate definitely putting all the responsibility of the whole affair on to his shoulders. He sent back letter to say the Boxers had repented, and there was no need to fear. Afterwards learnt that he had been believing the local magistrate's " Boxer-inspired " accounts, and had no idea of the real gravity of the situation. This he eventually acknowledged. Sent off telegram to British Consul in Tientsin ; nearest telegraph station a day's journey away. Dis- cussed ladies leaving for the neighbouring A.B.C.F.M. Mission at Pang Chuang, forty miles away, but they didn't want to, and Mrs. R. was already knocked up after yesterday, besides Miss H. being ill in bed, and A. unfit to go long journey in cart. Had jolly game of tennis with A. and Dr. M. in the afternoon, and singing songs in the evening. Put on extra watch- men at night, and it was agreed to fire a gun as signal in case of attack. Someone, who didn't understand this order, let off his gun to try it, and a lot of us congregated on the front avenue to find out what was up. This sort of thing happened more than once during those days, so helped to keep us lively. Saturday, May 20th. — Last night had an alarm, Boxers collecting up street, shot fired which was thought to be a signal. Several more at intervals later on. Mrs. R. and children came over to our house, where A. and Miss H. were. Very nice little prayer meeting to- gether. This sort of life worth living, if only for the sense of God's nearness and sufficiency, and the new admiration that springs up in one's mind for one's comrades in trouble. The ladies were most plucky, Miss H. under very trying conditions, as she was in 28 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. bed all the time. This night A. was coolly busying herself in getting things ready in case we had to escape in haste. She was afraid the supply of baby's food might cease from the strain and bustle, so was quietly filling bottles with milk, barley water, etc., putting various necessaries into a little handbag, and getting ready to clear out at once. Just as plucky and collected as she could be ! R., Dr. M. and I remained on watch outside for several hours. Each watchman had an escort of several armed men, as he paraded the compound, our young table boy being one of them, armed with a long spear ! I think this sort of thing is doing us all good, though we shall be glad when it's all over. God is very real to us now-a-days. That night the R.'s pet dog died, and the children's grief was quite pitiful to see. Strange to see how troubled they were over this loss, whilst the things that troubled us hardly affected them at all, the armed men being more a source of amusement than anything else. We had a post-mortem on the dog next morning, before its solemn burial. Sunday, May zist. — The preachers didn't go out to the out-stations to-day, on account of the row. Feared kidnapping, amongst others things. Nice Chinese service in the morning, and English one amongst ourselves in the afternoon. Hear there are Boxers up in the town, and bands of them coming in from distant places. Rumours very rife, and difficult to get certain information about anything. Home mail in evening. Monday, May 22nd. — Alarms again last night. Bodies of eight to twelve men seen walking round outside com- pound. Our men inside watching. No attack however. One of their chief leaders in Hsiao Chang town to-day, and our henchmen badly wanted to sally out and catch SOME OF OUR l='ROTECrORS LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 29 him, but we wouldn't let them, as of course we wish them to have no possible handle against us. Our protectors drilling in the evening, and divided into squads to take turns on duty. Amongst their weapons are a jingal, or two-man gun (one man holding the muzzle on his shoulder while another aims and fires it), also a bow and arrows, a long sword-blade on a pole, a sort of halberd, guns and pistols of various ancient kinds, spears, chains with steel knobs on them for swinging blows at people, and various other bloodthirsty looking instruments. Tuesday, May 23/4^. — Local magistrate came to Hsiao Chang ; went to an inn up the street and called the leading men in the place together on some pretext or other (although we afterwards found out that his real intention was to visit us, as he'd had communications from the capital of the province, the result of our telegram to the Consul). In course of conversation, he apparently said that we foreigners asked for protection, but the Boxers had no intention of hurting us (that cousin still !). Our Christians were stupid, he said, and we foreigners were easily gulled by them ! R. sent his card, inviting him to come along and see us. He came, and we had a good square talk with him, and opened his eyes a bit. He evidently was taking things too lightly. I got a good snapshot of him as he crossed the compound. He says he'll reconsider the whole affair, but we could get no promises out of him. He was evidently much em- barrassed, and spat about on the carpet, whilst smoking, in a very reprehensible manner. In evening I was busy writing out a statement of recent events for R. The Boxers still going on as before at the fair, and no steps taken to stop them or protect us. They are getting more and more violent, and we hear of reinforcements coming to them from other places. 30 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Numbers of heathen families up the street are burying, or otherwise disposing of, their valuables ; and some are leaving the place with all their goods, as they expect a big disturbance here, and fear being involved in it. The danger is that the numerous thieves and highwaymen, and bad characters about, will join the Boxers for the mere sake of loot, and just take whatever they can lay hands on. Wednesday, May 24th. — In morning came a special official from the capital of the province, a man called Chu, and of high rank. Our telegram left on Friday ; was sent from the nearest telegraph station on Saturday morning. Consul immediately went to see Viceroy, who telegraphed to capital of province. Two mounted men sent off at once to our local magistrate to stir him up, reaching him on Monday, with the result that he came along on Tuesday (though he didn't tell us why, and we didn't know at the time), whilst on Wednesday this high official arrived, having come by cart, accredited with power of life and death. Seems a nice, genial fellow, and " quick in the uptake." Rapidly went over all our correspondence with the magistrates, and heard our views on the subject ; wouldn't stay to dinner, because then the local magistrate might say we had bribed him and he didn't give him a fair hearing. I snapped him, too, as he was leaving, and got a good photo. We hope now for a speedy settlement of all this upset and annoy- ance. In the afternoon I took a lot of photos of our " protectors " in various groups. Some are very good. Thursday, May 25th — In morning packing, printing photos, etc. Shall have to be leaving Hsiao Chang very soon now. Up nearly all night again. Boxers gathering to the South of us, we hear on good native authority. Lots of heathen from our town leaving the place with their baggage. Heard their carts rumbling off till after LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 31 midnight. We can't help hoping there will be no attack, as surely they daren't, now they know this special man has come down. Can't be too careful though, so watching redoubled. Friday, May 26th. — Our native preacher, Mr. Pao, sent one of my old hospital patients (who has be- come a Christian, and has been one of our watchmen all this time) , disguised as a beggar, to two of the villages where the Boxers are said to have been gathering, to see what they really are doing. He actually went into the temple where they were living, saw and noted their weapons (mostly old and obsolete like ours), counted the men there, and so on. Only fifteen to twenty at that place, but we heard that numbers were on the move, either going or coming, and it's awfully hard to get any reliable information. These score or so of men were living on what they could gather from the frightened villagers, who were getting heartily sick of them. No big bodies of men in any of the two or three villages visited. Perhaps scattering now the affair has taken this, for them, unfavourable turn. That afternoon we got a scare, by the news that the special official had accepted a bribe from the magistrate, and gone straight back to give a garbled version of the affair to headquarters. His cart had been seen return- ing. We therefore sent a letter into the city to him to find out if he was still there or not, but had to wait till late for an answer. Found he was there all right and making quiet investigation into the whole affair. His cart had gone back, but it was only his cart, and he was not inside. Such is life in China ! > Saturday, 2yth. — Letter from Chu in evening, to say the innkeeper in the west suburb had confessed to harbouring Boxers, and been beaten ; the " bosses " of the fairs, where the Boxers had harangued and threatened, called 32 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. up and reprimanded. One of the chief leaders in hiding, and not yet found. The magistrate's cousin apprehended, reprimanded and well reviled by the magistrate ; and the man who pointed out Lao Ming as a Christian the day he was kidnapped, called up for examination. He i supposed to have sent word to the armed Boxers in the village above mentioned, as they have all left double- quick. Things going slow, as even this special man is afraid to precipitate a riot, unless he goes slowly and keeps quiet till he gets an opportunity. Sunday, May 28th. — Nice home mail in. Sort of farewell service in morning, at which R., Dr. M. and I all spoke briefly. I on : " He that believeth on the Son hath life;" "Lay hold on eternal life." Also said farewell to my many good friends here. English service in afternoon, and afterwards had a nice little dedication service for baby. Nothing further about Boxers. Preachers went out as usual. Tuesday, ^^ih. — Packing all morning. Left in carts about 3 p.m. Had tremendous salutes fired by our " army," and went away in great style. Crowds of well known faces about, but all regretting our departure under such inauspicious circumstances. Sorry to leave them all, but not sorry to get away from all the strain of the last few weeks. Oh, for peace and quietness for a while ! Very hot day, and carts stuffy. Before we left a proposal was made by some mediators that we should go and meet the Boxer leaders in the city, the magistrate to give us all a feast. Not good enough ! We insist that the chief leader, not the cousin but another man (we didn't know then that the cousin was the chief), be delivered up to the magistrate,, for him to deal with as he likes. And so we left Hsiao Chang. Things turned out better than we'd hoped eventually, and we got the choice of LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 33 two alternatives offered us by the special official, who, after careful examination, has found the affair really a very serious one, and our facts not at all exaggerated. The one alternative was to have all the four chief leaders beheaded. The other was that the magistrate's cousin (who had been at the bottom of the whole thing) should be sent away in chains to another province ; the others to make a full apology and write out a guarantee for future good conduct and give it to R., besides a confession of guilt ; and the headmen of villages where fairs are held to guarantee absolute liberty and safety to Christians at such fairs, or not to hold them at all. This, as coming from the special envoy himself, not from us at all, we considered very satisfactory, and accepted the latter, stipulating that, since the magistrate had done nothing for our protection, he should pay for the " feed " of our protectors, which was agreed to and done. I brought A., baby and Miss H. up here repanng or ^^ p^. ^g^. jj^^ ^^^ North China Sanatorium Q^^^ by the sea, and after a little over a week with them, left for Tientsin and Tsang Chou. At the latter place I found our houses nearly finished, and M. feeling pretty lonely and seedy. We went to Yen Shan together, and also to one or two out-stations, where we spoke to gatherings of Christians. The rains had come on though, and they badly interfered with our plans. One day we were caught in a rain storm, soaked, and had to go through water up to the cart axles before we could reach home. Such is summer rain out here. The roads become rivers, not to say lakes, in a few hours. I had to leave M. again before long though, in order to get off my drug and instrument orders. In Tientsin I had long confabs, with Dr. Smith, who helped me much in my ordering, and I hope to be able to get the 34 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. things out before the river ice stops traffic for the winter. If not I don't know what I shall do, and shall just have to borrow what I can from Smith for use during the winter. The money at my disposal for drugs and instruments is not nearly enough for properly equipping a hospital. Alderman Roberts of Manchester was out here in spring with his daughter, to see his son's grave in the little foreign cemetery in Tientsin. He took a great interest in the projected Tsang Chou Hospital, and is likely to add something more to the building fund there- for. This addition will be most welcome, and I do hope we shall be able to get a hospital built and equipped worthy the memory of the man whose name it is to bear. Well, I came up here to Pei Tai Ho again, after getting my order off, and stuck in to work at Chinese after a few days much-needed rest. Passed my third and last Chinese exam, about a month ago and got 87 per cent., which was more than I expected. My examiner, one of them that is, told me I fully deserved every mark and had done very well, so I felt quite elevated. Directly afterwards I was pressed into being one of two secretaries of a Missionary Conference held here, and that kept me busy for a long time, so that I haven't had very much holiday, though I've been here a good while. We only wait now for the plans of the new hospital, which are being drawn out by Mr. Bryson from a rough plan I made, which I expect he will somewhat alter and improve, and then we will go to Tsang Chou and start building it I hope. Have met lots of nice folks here : Canadians, Americans and British. The R.s came for a while, but returned three weeks or so ago. I got a postcard from R. the day before yesterday, saying they had reached Hsiao Chang safely, but " Boxers causing much trouble. Hsu and Ma (two of the former leaders) as violent as LETTER FROM HSAIO CHANG. 35 ever. Burnt a Roman Catholic chapel, and tried, but failed, to burn one of ours. They come openly to Hsiao Chang carrying flags, and revile us badly. We trust in Higher Powers." October 21st, 1899. — London Mission, ^Ts^*^^"" "^^^^S ^^°^= "^'^ Tientsin, N.C. Please note above change of address. Here we are in our new house in this just-established station. Arrived over a week ago in splendid health and spirits, after a busy time of shopping, etc., in Tientsin, where one gets anything now-a-days, from soap and candles to ironmongery for the hospital, including coal, potatoes, cooking-stoves and so on. Have got nice plans for the new hospital, drawn out by Mr. Bryson, the architect of our mission out here. Splendid, but I'm afraid our present money won't any- thing like build it all, though there is nothing about it that will not be really useful, if not almost necessary. It is too late now to do much before spring. Couldn't get bricks burnt in time, but hope to get the carpentry work done in the winter and so be able to build fast- in spring. Meanwhile we have rented a nice place in the city in which to carry on work till the hospital is ready. Folks here seem friendly, and patients seem likely to be numerous. Expect to begin in a few days now, as soon as can get the place in order. At present have only got a few drugs, bought from the Tientsin Hospital, and a very poor supply of instruments and appliances. Hope however to get out some things from home before we are ice-bound for the winter, though it was not possible to order in proper time and they may not arrive soon enough. Please remember us in your prayers, away here in this centre of darkness, that we may be enabled to let our light so shine that men may see our good works and 36 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. glorify our Father in Heaven. Many thanks for prayer in the past. News lately from Hsiao Chang teUing of quieter state of things, though not yet quite undisturbed by the Boxers. Whole country here in North very dry — no rain for long time, and fear of semi-famine in spring. We are praying for rain. _, It being impossible to get the hospital Hospital, built and ready for use before summer, October- 1900, at earliest, on arrival at Tsang Chou December. ^^ ^^ ^^^^ began to look about for suitable temporary premises. These were soon provided for us in a most convenient locality just outside the small south gate of the city, and they are roomy enough to admit, not only of out-patient dispensary accommodation, but also of wards for the reception of a few in-patients of both sexes, and of rooms for the two hospital assistants brought with me from Hsiao Chang. Of course considerable alterations were necessary before we could commence work, but ere long patients were coming in considerable numbers daily, and the wards began to fill with operation cases. From the first we decided to charge a small fee for each visit paid to the dispensary. Now, after two months' trial of the plan, all are agreed that this charge, small though it be, has materially affected the numbers of those coming to us for treatment, and there is no doubt that patients would have been considerably more numerous had treatment been given free. There is much to be said on both sides of the " fee " question as it affects a medical mission, but, lessened numbers notwithstanding, we feel that, in this district at least, the time has come for a start towards self-support even in doctoring. We have, therefore, determined to follow in the medical part Mr. M.'s fine example LETTEjR from liSAtO CtiAHC. j? in the rest of this mission's work, and, like him, have resolved to strive perseveringly after an increasing measure of support from the Chinese themselves. The wisdom of charging fees when beginning new work in a new district was questioned in some quarters, but we have as yet seen no reason to regret the decision upon which we have acted, and hope that the money thus received may in time become an appreciable aid towards the current local expenses of the hospital. From the first God's hand has been with us, and His blessing, earnestly prayed for, has descended on the work. Patients healed or relieved spread the news amongst their friends, and in spite of heavy snow, bitter cold, fees, and the approaching Chinese New Year time, nearly 500 new cases have been seen, and 1,000 visits paid to the hospital. We have treated thirty in-patients, and five names have been entered on the inquirer's list of those who, so far as can be ascertained, are really earnest in their desire to become Christians. Others have been influenced more or less deeply, although here, as elsewhere, it is impossible to estimate in figures the amount of real good done. All this in just over two months' work, and in what after all are only inconvenient and straitened quarters. For in-patients especially our present accommodation is quite insufficient, and many have had to be sent away as we had nowhere to put them. All agree in predicting a great increase of patients after the New Year, and the outlook is distinctly bright and encouraging. We are well received by the people, who have been most friendly from the first, and no trouble worth mention has occurred to mar the pleasantness of this prelude to medical mission work in Tsang Chou. It is with thankful hearts for past mercies that we look forward to the coming years of work for God and man in 38 THE BELOVED PHYSlCtAU OP TSANG CHOV. this vast and needy district, and the certainty of God's continued presence in this work, begun by Him, fills us with great hopes and great confidence for the future of the Roberts Memorial Hospital, and the medical mission, of which we trust it may be the fitting centre. The materials for the building of that hospital are already collected and ready, and we only now await the departure of the frost before starting in earnest to build as much thereof as funds in hand will allow. Our first in-patient was a young man Interesting named Han, from a village a few miles away. A native " doctor " had stabbed his heel deeply with a dirty needle, on account apparently of rheumatic pain in that locality. The heel suppurated in consequence, and he was brought to the hospital on a litter in a state of intense suffering and prostration, his old mother standing beside him trying hard to keep back her tears. The inflammation had extended to the bone, and his stay in hospital had thereby been much prolonged, though he is now almost healed and will soon be going home. We rejoice to know that the family, of which he is the only son, have unitedly decided for Christianity, viz., his father, mother, himself and wife. They have already burnt their idols, and their names are now entered on our inquirers' roll. For these firstfruits we thank God and take courage. Another very interesting case is that of a high military official, a Mohammedan, who came to the dispensary with double cataract. After being told that an operation would almost certainly restore vision he still hesitated to come in, and waited a while longer at home, sending friends however to see whether the foreigner was curing anyone, and whether he might safely entrust himself to his care. Apparently these inquiries resulted satisfactorily, as he soon came again to the dispensary and signified his LETTER PROM HSAlO CHANG. 39 willingness to come as an in-patient and undergo opera- tion. The immediate result of the operation was good, and for a month he saw clearly. His gratitude was very- real and touching, but alas, complications set in, and another operation became necessary. In this God's blessing was conspicuously manifest, and vision is now slowly returning to his eye. During his lengthened stay in hospital he has learned much of the Gospel, and must now be " not far from the kingdom." It is our earnest prayer and belief that he may soon be wholly converted and acknowledge Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Many other cases are interesting, but I must not enlarge on them here. It is pleasant to know that our presence in Tsang Chou has already resulted in sight to some who would else have been blind. Our prayer is that the number of such " enlightened " ones may increase as the days go by, and still more that a mighty multitude of the spiritually blind around us may yet live to bless God for the " Roberts Memorial Hospital." O' CHAPTER II. AMONG THE BOXERS — LETTER WRITTEN IN igOO. |F the work of the winter 1899-1900, and of the following spring, I cannot now speak in detail. We were very happy in it all and in each other. Our houses we found very convenient and comfortable ; the people were friendly and agreeable ; the place itself interesting and in some places even pretty. Above all, the work prospered and gave promise of greater things still. In the autumn of 1899, we had started a temporary hospital in the city of Tsang Chou, where I saw patients daily and preached to them, treated them and did what I could for them generally. We got a sort of " ward " fixed up too, and took in-patients, did operations : tumour- removing, abscess-opening, amputations, cataracts, iridectomies, entropions, and all the rest of them. Many interesting people and many interesting cases, of which I have no time to speak, did we see. Women came too, and we got a little ward for them which was usually chock- full, mostly eye cases. Spectators too we had, but they were generally well-behaved, and many were friendly. Sometimes a man would come just to Friendf listen to the preaching, but that was only occasional. The patients however listened very attentively, and many an earnest talk I had with them, sometimes just a few, other times quite a crowd. It took them some time before they really had confidence in the THE MAGISTRATE PAYS US A CALL. (See page ig). MR. YU, THE CONFUCIAN SCHOLAR. AMONG THE BOXERS. 41 foreigner and his drugs and knives, but gradually pre- judices were overcome, and much really friendly feeling won, the value of which we were to find out before many months had sped. Bright, cheery smiles and salutations were often given me on my way to and fro, and gradually faces became familiar, ^yere watched for and welcomed, until the stranger became an acquaintance and almost an institution. It was about a quarter of an hour's walk from our houses into the city street where the hospital was, and as the canal intervened I had to cross and recross daily, till the ferryman, and ferry-stall keepers, who sold cakes and meat and sweets, became almost friends, though I didn't know how much so till afterwards. The Mohammedan colony in the city and district is both numerous and powerful. The men are as a rule larger and braver than the Chinese proper, and much more independent and self-reliant. God was very good to us in giving us many friends among them. During all the time of patient-seeing and ""■ "■ friendship-forming I was also working at Chinese, and of course had a teacher to help me. He was a young man, a Chinese B.A. called Yu, and was related to many of the most influential families in the county, and acquainted with almost everyone who was anything at all in Tsang Chou. Mr. M. had first come across him at Yen Shan, where Yu went to obtain certain books, and remained to learn much of the Gospel and eventually to become a Christian, in spite of the strongest pressure that his family and friends could bring to bear on him. One thing they could not dispute. He had been a confirmed opium-smoker, and a clever good-for-nothing, opinionated and difficult to get on with. Under the influence of Christ he gave up opium-smoking, after many a hard struggle and an occasional relapse, 42 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. began to spend his time usefully and in all respects to improve. All this there was no one to deny. After my trip to Tsang Chou about the land, M. returned with me to Hsiao Chang for Chinese New Year, and Yu accompanied him. He and I travelled on the same cart, and he told me something of his struggles, and spoke of spiritual difficulties in a way that I very seldom heard anyone, much less a Chinese, speak. From that time sprang up a warm friendship, and I was glad to get him as my teacher when I got to Tsang Chou, and the more so as he was a fine Chinese scholar, not so stereo- typed as most, and eager to learn as well as impart. In connection with the hospital he was invaluable. He was eager to help and knew everyone, helped to get the temporary premises and a proclamation from the magistrate recognising the hospital and forbidding disturbance. He constituted himself a sort of voluntary hospital evangelist too, slept in the ward when not too full, and spoke faithfully and wisely to the patients, especially the more intelligent ones, with whom he was particularly competent to deal. He was much interested in the anatomy book that I was reading in Chinese with him, but greatly astonished at its surprising revelations of the complexity and minute detail of the human frame ; and his respect for foreign learning increased with every page. His family affairs seemed to be gradually coming right again, and his people more friendly to Christianity, much to his joy and encouragement, but he was never- theless a marked man, whom everyone knew as a friend of the foreigners and a Christian. B 'Id' th ^" *^^ spring of 1900 we begun to build HospiS. " again, this time the " Roberts' Memorial," in memory of Dr. Fred. Roberts, of Tientsin. His father, Alderman Roberts of Manchester, devoted a considerable sum of money to this object, and friends AMONG THE BOXERS. 43 of the family joined, until about £500 was raised, and the hospital begun. It was to be worthy of its noble name- sake, and no end of trouble was taken with the plans, whilst M. surpassed himself in using the funds to the best advantage in his purchase of bricks and timber and lime, and the multifarious other necessities of house- building in China. Reliable contractors were obtained for the work, and two men took it together. They had an eye to future prospects, so exerted themselves to please, and as many of the workmen were Christians from our country out- stations, and almost all of them country men, as distinct from the rowdier townsfolk, the building went on rapidly and quietly, and everything promised well. It was quite a little colony that we had around our houses and in the partly finished hospital. Scores of workmen, bricklayers, water-carriers, stone-cutters, carpenters, matting weavers, and I don't know what besides. Our clerk of works was an old preacher called Wang, a reclaimed and regenerated opium smoker, who remembered the Tai-ping rebellion, and the battles and bloodshed round Tsang Chou when the rebels advanced on Tientsin. Then there was a sort of manager called Chen, whom M. had picked up and reclaimed in Yen Shan, and gradually advanced as he proved his value, until now he was competent to take much of the responsibility off M.'s shoulders, and was simply invaluable. He was a carpenter and contractor himself, and his local and technical knowledge made him just the man we wanted. It was he who bought the materials, but for safety's sake, and to prevent unfounded stories from any one who might be jealous, his accounts were checked by Wang and another, and M. controlled the whole. 44 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. M. thought and provided for everything, constantly surprising me with some new idea and improvement, until the hospital became a thing of beauty, and promised to become as much ornamental to the neighbourhood, as it was to be useful to the people and convenient for the work. We just gloried in that hospital, and thought lovingly of all it was going to be and do in the years that lay on ahead. I remember, one beautiful evening, climb- ing on the top of the still unfinished operating room, and from that height looking round on the unfinished buildings below. What a lot of suffering was to be alleviated, what a power for good this " Roberts Memorial " was to be ! Years of happy, useful service stretched away in an unbroken vista into the future. Would the Boxers spoil it all ? Boxers For the Boxers had at length become an Again. important factor in our situation. They first began to give us trouble in some out-stations away to the south, near the borders of Shan Tung, by threatening and annoying the Christians, and spreading rumours of dreadful things to come. Gradually evil rumours became rife all over the country, and placards were posted up here and there. In March I went with M. to Yen Shan, he to conduct winter classes, and I to see patients from the city and surrounding villages. They came in hundreds in spite of the rumours. A few days later I went on alone to Ching Yuin, a little country city near the Shan Tung border. There too patients came in crowds, and I walked about quite unmolested. Not long after I got back to Tsang Chou however, M. started on a trip to the western out -stations. One day on the road he passed quite a crowd of would-be Boxers, standing out in the fields and invoking their chosen spirit to enter them and take possession. For AMONG THE BOXERS. 45 whole days on end these poor deluded fellows would thus call upon their god. Now and then one of them would fall down in a sort of trance, and rise up again in a frenzy to seek a weapon and rush round, a terror to all. This sort of thing was going on all over the country side. Every village came to have its Boxers, whose numbers rapidly increased as people found that there was little attempt at repression, and that it was dangerous to hold aloof. The scattered communities of Christians were everywhere threatened, but no actual violence used, as the time had not yet come. Soon the Boxer scare found its way to Tientsin, and we heard all sorts of rumours about the ongoings there. Things there were checked for a while however, and just in the lull time Miss B., my wife and I, went up to Tientsin to attend the annual meetings. We rode in rickshaws through the native city without seeing any sign of extra ill-will, and about a fortnight later did the same again, also with seeming safety. We got back to find that things were Yen Shan. x+- ■ u-u u j gettmg worse m our own neighbourhood. A week or two after our arrival in Tsang Chou, word came from Yen Shan that our chapel there was to be burned on a certain date. M. replied that he would be there that day to see it done, and kept punctually to his promise. He found the city and district in a ferment. The magistrate's proclamations against the Boxers were torn down wherever seen, and Boxer placards were every- where. Even the women had caught the frenzy and had formed an association to co-operate with the men. That day had been named as the one on which the foreigners' house and chapel were to be burned, and all the city knew it. M., after some searching and persuasion, found workmen whom he started on the job of repairing the compound walls. One passer-by 46 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. after another stood and watched with open mouth, till ere long the news had spread in all directions that the foreigner was building and not the least afraid. That little move did as much as anything else to quiet the city for a time, and gradually this initial squall blew over. About that time, and near Yen Shan, two BeltT ^°''^'' ^^^^^ °^ Boxers began to discuss as to the relative merits and powers of their patron spirits. From words they got to blows, and one of the rival captains was left dead upon the field, whilst many on both sides were wounded. At another village near by, the candidates for " Boxer- ship " chose for their god a celebrity called Chu, or the Pig-Lord. So successful were their invocations that, when possessed, they grovelled nose down in the soil, so much to the disgust of their fellow-villagers that they said if that was Boxerism they would have none of it. Of course all this could not but have some Effects on re i^ j.l_ re • £ • • j ., „, , effect on the affairs of our mission and the Work. native church. In most districts new candidates for enrolment as " inquirers " (preparatory to baptism which is given after a year or more satisfactory probation), became fewer and fewer, till they were almost nil ; but in one or two of the worst districts these can- didates were more numerous, and of a better class of men, than they had had there before. Many of the recent inquirers too stopped coming to service, and practically broke off connection with us ; but of the older inquirers and of the baptised members there was hardly one who gave up the faith, and they stood firm and grew in grace, though their eyes were, at least partly, opened to the terrible things to come. Satan was revealing himself in his true colours in those days, and those whose eyes had been opened to see the King AMONG THE BOXERS. 47 in His beauty preferred to suffer and die for Him, rather than to revel in riot and bloodshed with His enemy. We can only faintly imagine the courage of these people, and the trials they had to bear. The women especially, remembered the stories they had heard of the atrocities committed on their sex in the days of the Tai-ping rebellion, and similar iniquities were freely threatened in their hearing by the brutal and domineering Boxers, who were only biding their time. In one village I heard of, whilst the few Christians were sitting inside their little chapel, a notorious bully outside began to sing in sarcastic and terrible tones the hymn he had heard them singing with far other thoughts. " Happy day ! Happy day ! " sang out those rasping notes, and a burst of cruel laughter sent a shiver through their hearts. This sort of thing, repeated continually and accompanied by open threats and bitter persecution, was the lot of many of our converts, whilst the great shadow loomed up darker and darker day by day. Whilst M. was in Yen Shan I was busy jj^ '°^ in Tsang Chou, and there too the trouble began. Shortly before there had been a furious fight at a village called Ma-lien-po, about eight miles from the city, between the Boxers and the Catholics. Many were wounded on both sides, and the ill-feeling engendered spread far and wide. I well remember one morning my teacher coming in in a great state of mind. He had been up to the Yamen to see if things were really as bad as folks said, and found that it was true about the youths with swords, although so far no blood had been shed, and the Christians were stiU unmolested. But he had hardly reached the place, when a Yamen friend of his came along and led him away, saying this was no place for him. Before he had gone more than a few steps however, one of the rowdies 48 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. recognised him and rushed at him, thrusting at him with his sword, and only with difficulty being restrained until Yu could escape from his vicinity. This made a profound impression on Yu, as no doubt it would on anyone. But strange to say, this was the only case in which violence was attempted on any of our Christians in Tsang Chou. The fact was that the ill-feeling was largely directed against the Catholics, and as we have suffered a lot from the same quarter, both in Tsang Chou and Ma-lien-po, not from the foreign priests, but from some of their unworthy church members, the Boxers almost looked on us as fellow-sufferers, and left us alone for the time. One young man for whom I had done two small opera- tions sent to tell me not to fear, he would himself protect me, and being a Boxer, he asked me if I would like him to come and let me see him go through his drill. He also offered to send me a charm to ward away evil. It was a common saying that the Jesus-religion people were quiet and well-behaved ; and even the most rabid of the Boxers at that early stage said that they would go for the Catholics first, and then consider what to do with us. The lack of rain made things worse. Only a summer shower fell every now and then to raise one's hopes of more, but the big rain never came, the wheat crop came to nothing, and the later grains could not be sown. In some ignorant quarters this lack of rain was attributed to us, whilst the Boxers said the powers above were angry that China suffered foreigners and their innovations so long, and stopped the rain on that account. I remem- ber one day an old woman looking daggers at me as I passed, and snapping out the suspicious question : " Why doesn't it rain ? " as if I knew quite well, and could send it if I liked. AMONG THE BOXERS. 49 But my journeys to the hospital came to a stop for a day or two when the tumult in the city rose to its height. One day I was returning along the Canal bank at a good quick walk, when I passed three evil-looking young fellows going the same way at myself. They commenced laughing and jeering as I passed them, and said something about my being afraid. At this I slowed down my pace and walked leisurely on just in front, but they were evidently egging each other on, and the jeering and laughing got louder. Gradually they closed up behind, and then made a nasty rush round me. Immediately I turned on them, and asked them what they meant and why they conducted themselves in such an unseemly manner. They looked rather sheepy, and were rather taken aback, but muttered something about " doing nothing " and " only walking along." I pointed out to them that I had done nothing whatever to irritate them, and that I should be glad if they would walk along decently. Directly afterwards I reached the ferry and went across, but they had followed to the bank and stood there laughing, so I went by a different road the next day, and as soon as my in-patient cases permitted, i.e., in a day or two after, I took the oppor- tunity of doing some work at home for a while. At this time however, the proper magistrate returned, and the city quieted down. His firm conduct put an end to open Boxerising at the Yamen gates, and did much to check the local growth of the movement, but every here and there, through the city and in all the villages round. Boxer drilling went on, more or less secretly, and the people were quietly educated, till there could only be one result. „ „ .„ Coming from hospital I, on several Boxer Drill. . ° ■^, . , , occasions, saw young boys going through part of the drill, and they even menaced me now and then 50 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. with their imitation swords and spears ; but I laughed it all off as fun, and the people remained friendly. From Yen Shan, M., before returning to Tsang Chou, had made a little tour of our out-stations. Looking back now, it seems a risky thing to have done, but his thoughts were all with his people, and he cared not for himself. I have no doubt that he did untold good by his bright faith and sound wisdom, and that many hearts were strengthened through him ere the fiery trial came. On one occasion he was seated on the shaft of his cart, when they suddenly turned a corner and came right on a band of Boxers, drilling and brandishing their spears. But they only scowled and reviled, and the cart passed safely on. The three or four Chinese Bible women. Courage of who were in charge of the women's work Bible Women, till Miss B. had learnt the language, were conspicuous for their courage and devotion. At a time when most respectable women dared hardly go out of doors, their minds were so filled with the need of their more ignorant Christian sisters in the outlying country stations, scared and harried by rumours and tortured by awful fears, that they insisted on setting out in different directions on their donkeys, against M.'s advice, and doing what they could to instruct and strengthen their fellow-Christians. Honour to whom honour is due, and many of these noble Chinese, both men and women, for the native preachers too stuck at their posts, have a high place on God's roll of glory. But everywhere the movement made xciteraen headway, and everywhere the steps taken to suppress it were wholly inadequate. The Tsang Chou magistrate, Shang, was untiring in his efforts, but his yamen too was affected, and many AMONG THE BOXERS. 51 of his underlings against him. The garrison in Tsang Chou had been greatly reduced, until there were only fifty horse- men in the camp, whUst the Boxers were everywhere. Rumours and placards were rife and of the wildest and most alarming description. One day a man was shouting round our compound for a child that had been lost, and who was said to be locked up in our cellar. Rumour said that the child was recovered, but told his father that he had left a little companion in the cellar, who was suffering terrible things at our hands. Some soothsayer up the street had given the father of the former child a charm> by whose virtue his child was delivered from the hands of the foreign devils. We had quite an exciting episode in the hospital one day about that time, which might have led to a riot had the little one not been soon found. A mother came with two little children for treatment as an out-patient. Whilst talking in the women's ward, one little youngster strayed, and the woman came up to me and asked me where he was. Of course I knew nothing, but recognising the danger, I tried to comfort her and set several people searching. The woman went out and told all she met of her loss, but couldn't find her child. Just as a little crowd was gathering, and by the good providence of God, a neighbour woman came along with the missing one, who had gone to her home in the company of her own child. Another half-hour might have made a big difference. It began to be noised abroad that the oisone foreigners were poisoning wells by putting medicine in them, and so thoroughly was this believed that in every village a guard was set over the well at night, and sometimes a small company of men would sit up to watch over a single well. In this"matter too, we nearly came to grief. Amongst the materials bought for the building operations were many S2 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. hundredweights of tar, packed in old kerosene tins. A friendly neighbour, who was a sub-o£[icial in the yamen, had kindly allowed us to use water out of his well for soaking all the bricks, etc., and workmen were constantly going backwards and forwards from this well, carrying the water also in old kerosene tins, which in China become useful in an infinite variety of ways. Some of these stupid fellows took the empty tar tins, carried them to the well, lowered them into the water, and contaminated the whole supply. The iridescence could be seen from the surface, and the animals would not drink the tar- flavoured fluid. The Chinese have a great aversion to the smell of tar, and call it stinking oil, one of those very many instances in which Chinese and Westerns are at variance. Evil-disposed people at once began to talk : The well had been poisoned ! Why let the foreigners use it ? and so on. An unfriendly or unscrupulous man might have made much of an incident like this, either to rouse bad feeling against us, or to get some money compensation ; but our friend treated the matter most magnanimously, told us by all means to use the well as much as we liked, and silenced the scandalmongers before the affair had reached any importance. Of course we had sent at once to explain and apologise; and we took occasion, by M.'s forethought, to present him with a little gift of choice eatables and tea from Tientsin, ordered before this unfortunate occurrence took place, a little attention which gave him " face " and considerable gratification. His name was Hu, and we were to know more of him in the future. And then came news in the Tientsin NMre"*^ papers, and vague rumours through the Chinese; a big fight at Jen Chiu between Imperial troops and Boxers, Boxers gathering all the AMONG THE BOXERS. 53 more thereafter, and vowing dire vengeance against both the opposing troops and all foreigners, but bending their united energies to attack Hsien Hsien in force, and massacre all the Catholics in that region. Then news of the destruction of the Paoting-fu railway, murder of engineers, surrounding of foreigners in Paoting-fu itself, massacre at Cho Chou, near Peking, extra marines land- ing in Tientsin, relief forces going out in search of missing Belgian and French engineers, fight between small force of Cossacks and Boxers near Tu Liu, between us and Tientsin, and wounding, if not death, of several of the Russians, and their falling back on Tientsin. Then the fat was in the fire with a vengeance, and we knew that the storm was bursting. Two or three weeks before, when we were leaving Tientsin, we had heard of the cruel murder of one of Mr. Grant's preachers in the Tung An district, and of another of his Church members. Now came news of the looting of our Tung An head- quarters, and the gallant rescue of Mr. and Mrs. Grant and their child, by Mr. Currie of the railway, who had gone up the line on a trolly when even the troops and volunteers were not allowed to sally out from Tientsin, and taken them off not an hour too soon. They reached Tientsin in safety at midnight, but an hour after they left their house, the Boxers searched it and burnt it to the ground, going on, in disbelief of their escape, to search the country side. Two telegrams came to tell us not to try escape Tientsin- wards, as the city was full of Boxers, and the cities between that place and Tsang Chou in the hands of Boxer bands. A letter came through to the same effect, and we knew what it said was true. Our next information came by the Chi Chou courier, who had sent his bag of letters in a friendly silver-boat in which a relative of his was travelling. He had been 54 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. searched repeatedly himself en route, and would have been slain at once if he'd had the letters. Of his friend and the boat we heard nothing, though he waited several days for their arrival. Our letters were returned from the Imperial post office, with the information that they could not be sent, and that one of the postal couriers had been killed. The brush with the Cossacks was spoken of everywhere as a glorious Boxer victory, and a little boy shouted at M. one day : " Beaten, Beaten." But still Tsang Chou itself remained wonderfully quiet. The Boxers were north of us about Paoting-fu, west in the Hsien Hsien region, north-east towards Tientsin. They were coming up the Grand Canal from the south, and were rampant round Yen Shan and the south-east districts. Only to the east was there quiet to some extent, and there only because it was almost desert and the popu- lation nearly nil. But no way of escape seemed open to us, . °^^ and for a while we seemed safest where we iiii were. Moreover our departure would be the signal for a massacre of the Christians in all probability. We heard of massacres more frequently now in the direction of Peking and Tientsin, and the people began to get thoroughly frightened, not Christians only, or especially, but all respectable folks, as they knew the Boxers would never draw the line at the Christians when the looting and killing began, but that no one's life would be safe, and business utterly ruined. So some folks came in from the country for protection within the city walls, and others left the city for quieter places outside. Many went to the waste lands, where there were neither houses nor crops, and a general feeling of panic took hold of a people who knew not God and feared they knew not what. Cart hire became almost AMONG THE BOXERS. SS impossible, and prices fabulous. One rich man paid 100 taels (one tael equals two to three shillings) for a cart to take him out of the city. Carters got scared and would not stir for love or money. The price of grain, which had been high, came down with a steady run, as people sold their stock and collected ready money. The price of silver went up by leaps and bounds in consequence, and paper notes were at a discount. M. quietly got off all the church funds to Yen Shan for the coming needs of our people there, and we got in nearly all our silver from the native banks in the city. Patients had almost ceased coming, but ^^f.* . the week before we left I had done two Patients. cataract operations, and the two old women operated upon left in haste when barely healed. A little boy with hip disease also left among the last, and there's not much hope for him now, poor chap. A few days before we left came a man with a huge tumour in his neck. He was going to commit suicide, if not cured, and had come to us as a last resort. I believed I could relieve him of his enemy, but dared not do it at that time, as I feared we would have to leave, and the hospital per- haps be attacked before his wound had healed. I therefore put him off for a week, and saw him again no more ! My last patient was a man who came to my house the night before we left, and bought a truss for himself. I gave it him half price because he was poor, but left the money on my study floor when I had to flee, and only hope the poor fellow hasn't been murdered for having a foreign article upon his person, as many a man has been since, were it only a box of matches. Boxer ^^^^ "^ow ^^ ^^^ storm reached its height Organisation we discovered how well the rising was and Credulity, organised, and how orderly was the seeming disorder. Every village we knew of for scores of miles S6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. had its little band of Boxers. Here and there were headquarter stations, each with its own little cluster of villages. Cities were divided up into sections, and each section had its band, their headquarters perhaps being in some neighbouring village away from the magistrate and camp. A small village would have twenty to thirty Boxer bravos, and a large one anything up to eighty or a hundred. There were the most diverse rumours in circulation with regard to their practices. One I remember was to this effect. The candidates for Boxership were rolled up in mats and laid on the floor of the company's place of meeting. One of the leaders then took a sword, and boldly thrust the point through the mat and the person contained inside. If he was a true Boxer, the mat would be unrolled only to disclose an empty space, and the full-fledged brave would be found in the road outside the building. If, on the other hand, the candidate was not a true Boxer, then the unrolled mat disclosed a serpent cut in half, whilst the discredited follower would himself lie safe and sound in the same place as his more fortunate, or unfortunate, competitor. This sort of thing was widely believed, and even wilder stories were swallowed without an effort. The Women's Boxer Association was also to the fore in all sorts of incredible tales. The members of this highly- patriotic organisation were to be seen flying through the realms of space, wafted along on the air of the upper heavens. A fropos of this, I heard months after in Wei Hai Wei, of one of the men in our first Chinese Regi- ment, who said he had seen, during the taking of Tientsin, a girl in Boxer uniform rise in the air as high as a house roof. It didn't avail her much anyway, and I believe she was straightway slain. But for the boasts of invulnerability there was probably a less mysterious foundation. No doubt many of these AMONG THE BOXERS. S7 men were skilled in sword play, and in various tricks of attitude and muscle-tension, which enabled them to escape unwounded when a less skilful person would have been injured. I heard of one soldier, who, in a spirited combat with a Boxer leader, a warlike Buddhist priest, struck him again and again without effect, until, by a sudden downward swish, he caught the man's foot un- awares, and nearly severed it at the ankle. In some way too the Boxer leaders were able to impose upon their followers with regard to bullet invulnerability, though whether it was done by graduated charges at carefully measured distances, or in some other skilful way, one can only vaguely conjecture. Of the fact that bullets appeared to strike men and fell harmless at their feet there can be no manner of doubt, as I heard the story from many competent eye witnesses ; and the entire trust of vast numbers of Boxers, in spite of much proof to the contrary, could only have been inspired in some such way. At a fort not far from Tsang Chou, a Boxer boasted his invulnerability to the soldiers' foreign bullets, and the Chinese commandant, thinking to teach these Boxers a lesson, let him try, and dropped him dead. But several more came up to take his place, until the commandant, out of pity for their folly, refused to shoot any more. And the same thing was repeated over and over again in various ways during Admiral Seymour's march on Peking. At the headquarters, they burnt incense to their Boxer deities, and went through ordeals of various kinds, before being admitted to full membership. There too they planned their cruel massacres, and from thence, when actual fighting with Europe, America and Japan commenced, were drafted the picked men for the front, whilst others were told off to guard communications. 58 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. forward intelligence and supplies, intercept letters and messengers, destroy telegraphs, search boats and carts, massacre Christians and foreigners, and burn down foreign houses and mission stations. And very thoroughly they did their Lively devil's work. In many districts barriers Times. _ ,11 were erected across the roads, and every passer-by stopped and searched. The road to Tientsin was especially guarded, and everyone stopped and turned back. One day it was a dealer in mules who came back with his story of their tyranny. He was going to a sale in Tientsin, but had not been allowed to pass. At other times we heard of merchants sent back, then of Chinese soldiers on their way up from the south. Then caine the still more serious tidings of a party of Roman Catholic priests, whose boat on the canal had been stopped, one or two of their number killed, whilst the rest had escaped into beds of reeds, and were hiding there, destitute and almost doomed. About Tientsin we heard all sorts of stories, and knew not what to believe. First it had been captured and occupied by the Boxers, who had destroyed the chapels, murdered the Christians, and were massing for an attack on the settlement. Then we heard that the Boxers had been invited to assemble in a large courtyard for parade, and had there been surrounded by Imperial troops and held prisoners in the city. On Thursday, June yth, came our last letter from Tientsin. It was from Rev. A. King of our Mission in Tientsin, and arrived sewn up in the messenger's sleeve for safety. He had been several times searched on the way, but allowed to pass when nothing was found on him. The letter told of the critical state of things in that port, the constantly arriving foreign marines, the slackness of AMONG THE BOXERS. $9 the authorities in putting down the rising, the utter impossibihty of our escape to Tientsin, the looting of one of our Tientsin outstations, outside the city to the south, and the gathering of native Christians into the Tientsin foreign settlement for protection from their bloodthirsty enemies. Mr. King advised us to seek safety in flight down the canal to the south, not knowing, as we did, the dangers of that route. Friday, June 8th, was my last day at the hospital. Most of the patients had gone, and the remaining ones were well enough to be left to the care of my assistants. No out-patients had come for days, and I had much to do at home. Our servants and workmen were getting scared, and the city was stirred to its depths. The workmen talked of leaving, and some of them actually went, without asking for their wages or telling anyone. Others slept out in the fields at night, fearing a night attack on our mission station by the Boxers, who now occupied the chief place in the mind of almost every- one. M. had the men in and tried to cheer them up, as any stoppage of the building would be noted by eager eyes and reported all over the district as a proof of the foreigners' helplessness and fear. Everyone wondered why we went on building, and considered it a proof that we didn't fear the Boxers, and had probably some secret and awe-inspiring reason for such inexplicable confidence. So for that day the building went on, though the workmen's numbers grew rapidly less. But the buildings had reached a stage which justified smaller numbers. The roofs were finished, the compound wall nearly complete, and little but carpenter's work left to be done, so things weren't as bad as they might have been, and a few workmen about the place were enough for our purpose. 6o THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. That afternoon we all turned out for a ^ipomatic game of tennis, both for diplomatic and the usual reasons. There were always people watching us, and more than ever in those restless days. Our compound was always open to visitors, and the building was a great attraction. By this time too we had planted many trees and flowers, laid out our gardens, and made a rockery of huge cinders from the neighbouring brick kilns. So the compound itself was a sight for the curious, and brought us many visitors. It would have been giving ourselves away to shut up the place too early, and we soon became adepts at bluffing. One wonders what those placid spectators thought as they watched us enjoy our game. They knew the city was terrified, probably they themselves were too, unless they were Boxers also, as no doubt some of them were. They knew the Boxers were everywhere, that there was a big headquarters camp within eight miles of our houses, that our lives and property were in the gravest of terrible danger, and yet here were these four poor "devils" laughing and shouting, and making merry as if nothing unusual was happening. What could they think ? They knew nothing of our Father in Heaven, in whom we relied hour by hour. We knew He could keep us from the " terror by night and from the arrow that flieth by day " ; but they were as blind as Gehazi of old, and knew nothing of the " ever- lasting arms." They looked at our houses, but saw nothing special there ; they searched the compound, but found no hidden guns. So they came to believe, as was only natural in the circumstances, that we had mines beneath our floors, and that the whole erection would blow up whenever any foe dared to enter. We saw them try to peep into the cellar one day, but fortunately the door was closed. So AMONG THE BOXERS. 61 we kept it locked, and the rumour spread that explosives were down there too. Our servants and others heard these rumours in the streets, and they no doubt kept us free from molestation by thieves and looters and evil characters to no inconsiderable extent. That same day we had a visit from five Distinguished ^^ ^j^^ ^., notables, which we could not Visitors. -^ . ' , 1 . explain at the time, nor have we been able to do so since. Happening to look out of a window towards the bank of the canal, I spied this little group of silk-clad gentlemen, picking their way over the fields in the direc- tion of our houses. They were holding foreign umbrellas over their heads to keep off the sun, and had no doubt chosen the way across the fields in order to escape public notice of their visit to the foreigners. M. was busy in his study, so I ran and told him of their coming, and then went out to meet them and see what they could want. But they only came out of courtesy, so far as we could gather, and we invited them to tea and biscuits, showed them books and microscope and opera glasses, and everything else we thought would interest them. I remember well, on M.'s verandah, how pleased and astonished they were when we got them to look at surrounding objects with the opera glasses inverted. One of them was a high official in the yamen, another a leading Manchu in the city, many members of whose family were fiery Boxers, and he himself not above suspicion. Another was an expectant Taotai from Paoting-fu, who had come to Tsang Chou on business, whilst the other two were also of high rank and of good position in the city. We thought they had come to warn us perhaps, or to oifer in some way to help. But never a word about the Boxers and the all-prevailing topics of the day passed the lips of any one of them, and we took the tip and 62 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. treated the Boxers as beneath consideration. They spoke of the hospital work, of friends who had been cured there, of various other subjects of general interest, and then took up their fans and " specs " and went. The Manchu, I remember, knocked the floor to see if it was hollow beneath, and asked us if it were reaUy so, but that was the nearest we got to the subject in all our minds. Why ever did they come ? Was it to see if we were frightened, or to see what preparations we had made ? Or was it out of sheer and uncontrollable curiosity ? Or was it perhaps, really out of friendship, as one feels he must see a comrade ere he dies ? Saturday, gth. — In place of our usual , ° Church business, this Saturday we held a council of war to decide what had best be done under the increasingly dangerous circumstances. It was a difficult question, and none the easier for the fact that the local Boxers had not yet shown themselves actively hostile. We knew that there were many Boxers among the yamen people, and that the contents of any letter we might write to the magistrate would speedily become common property. There was no special and overt act of enmity of which we could complain, only rumours and probabilities, and we feared lest an appeal for more rigorous suppression might only succeed in exciting hatred and violence. Besides, we knew that the Boxers were everywhere and innumerable, whilst the Tsang Chou garrison was unusually smaU, only fifty men, and already the magistrate was doing as much as could be expected of him. We felt however, that it was only right to draw his attention in some formal way to our situation, so that he would not be able to make the excuse later on that we had not applied to him. We therefore wrote a short letter, summarising the present condition of affairs and AMONG THE BOXERS. 63 asking how many troops he had in the city in case of need, thus indicating that we looked to him for protection, and held him responsible. Yu was told off to write it, and it was the last letter he wrote for us. Our action towards the authorities being decided upon, we next discussed our own plans. The hospital assistants and preachers urged speedy departure from Tsang Chou, both for themselves and for us, though one young fellow expressed a desire to stay on and die preach- ing to the very Boxers themselves. All were urged to speak their minds freely, and to refrain from judging one another at a time like this, when circumstances were so very unusual, and the consequences of our actions so important to others besides ourselves. It was fully recognised that we could not decide for each other, and that each much decide for himself. The consensus of opinion amongst our Chinese Christians was, that we Europeans were best away, that our presence endangered not only our own lives but those of the Christians too. They refused to leave unless we were provided for, and urged that we would only serve as a rallying point, and so bring about a greater massacre, whilst our continued presence drew more attention upon the Christians in general. Their statement we felt to be true, but what were they to do ? and how were we to get away without carts ? It was impossible. After a little discussion, and some heart-felt prayer, it was decided to wait and see what answer the letter would bring, and meanwhile, think things over. But we saw it would be safest to scatter soon, and get away in batches. The question was. How ? and Where ? That we could only leave to God, and our sole hope and trust were in Him. The MS. ends here. I now quote from letters to the family written at the time. 64 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Monday, June iith. — Our letters sent e ers ^^^^ Thursday all came back from the Returned. „ , , t. Post Office on Sunday, the Boxers near Tientsin having refused the carrier leave to go through. Should we have to leave here God will show us when and how, and point out to us the way and place of escape. If he means us to die for Him, which none of us as yet begin to feel likely— certainly A. and I have no pre- monitions — I think we shall be prepared to do so bravely and trustingly, but of course we don't anticipate such an end yet. The 91st Psalm has been a comfort to us the last few days, and we are seeking to " dwell in the secret place of the Most High." How fresh and new the Psalms are at a time like this ! A. and Miss Bartlett are the bravest of the brave, and give not the least sign of fear, though we tell them all. Thank God for a wife like mine, who really is a help and strength just when such help and strength is needed. These times are good for one spiritually, making one unselfish, drawing one nearer to God in penitence and prayer, and revealing so fully the uniqueness of our God as a Help and a Shield. I was much touched yesterday by an Incident '"^ incident that was comforting too, in that it showed that God has not let our work here be in vain. Do you remember that patient with the double cataract, the old general, a Mohammedan called Liu, that I spoke about when we first began our work in the hospital here ? His case was a very peculiar one. I operated on one eye, and for a month he could see ; then sight failed, and he got blind again in spite of a second operation. The good eye became inflamed and painful, and though cataractous and blind before, became now really diseased, and hurt him very seriously. We did all we could for him, and often spoke to him of Jesus, AMONG THE BOXERS. 65 prayed for and with him, and apparently he came to see that we really sought his good. Several other members of this family were benefited by treatment in hospital during this time. Apparently the pain has now left him. It appears that the dear old chap, far from forgetting or being annoyed with me, is really very concerned about us, and has been praying to God about us, and even weeping that we should have come so far, with such good intentions, and yet be treated so badly by those whom we had come to benefit. He therefore sent his son yesterday with a plan of escape for us. Wasn't it nice of the old man to think of us like that ? Meanwhile we think it wisest to remain here ; but if necessity arises this may be God's way of escape for us. Practically no patients come to the HopMand hospital, and the in-patients have all left, being afraid to come just now. The well- disposed and respectable people of the place are mostly, I believe, genuinely sorry for us, and think what a pity it is that such nice buildings should be destroyed, and the good hospital work put an end to. No doubt we have a good many well-wishers, but they are very afraid for themselves just now, as they believe that if the Boxers come in force it won't end with the sacking of the foreigners' houses, but will probably mean much more. We long for news from the outside world, but fear letters are being intercepted. Have had two telegrams, but only to say approach to Tientsin is impossible, and the situation growingly dangerous, which we partly knew before ; and advising us to flee southwards without delay. We think of sending a man to Tientsin, on the chance of his getting through, and we have a man here who seems really to want to go. Thank God for some of our 66 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Christians at this time. We have not many here, but some of them are fine fellows. All the trouble just now seems to be to the north and north-east, especially about Tientsin and Peking. The general who bossed Hsiao Chang way last year came to Tsang Chou last night, and his soldiers are coming to-day we hear. We are sending him a letter, asking him to leave troops here to protect us. That may be God's way of delivering us. If not, we don't want any soldiers. We are just waiting on God for guidance day by day, and He is sure to give it. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." But I mustn't write more. This letter has to go in the shoe sole of our messenger, so there won't be any too much room. It is very plucky of him to try and get through at all, and one doesn't want to add to his risks. Miss Bartlett writes : — " That evening we had a group of Chinese in the compound. I was wheeling little baby Winifred round the garden in her perambulator, her Chinese nurse being too frightened to come out, and the dear little mite was innocently handing flowers to the company of Chinese who followed us ! fiven the most evil-looking amoijg them could not help but smile at and talk to her, and some were evil-looking indeed." Tuesday, June 12th. — Packing. All sorts of rumours. Servants very frightened in the morning about 5.30. The cook had been up the street to pay a bill, and a man had said : " Run away, they're coming." He ran here out of breath, and scared the women and others awfully. They were crying, and baby's nurse asking for poison. I went out and tried to quieten them, saying we were all right for a day or two yet, as the Boxers were not ready here, and dare not come in small companies. I found them rolling up bedding and packing for dear life. I gave the men a good talking to, especially charging them to THE MAX WHO RISKED HIS LIFE FOR US. AMONG THE BOXERS. 67 look after the women, and not to be such cowards as to run off by themselves. They gradually calmed down. Our worst danger just now is panic ; it just brings on calamity from those who otherwise wouldn't dare to touch us. All the workmen have gone, and one of eaving us ^j^^ watchmen. The contractors have gone to our fate. ° too, and without their money. Poor beggars ! Han came over early and said that the magis- trate had been out all night on the watch, the streets very excited last night but better this morning. Beggars have begun stealing things and are getting cheeky. The water-carrier came as usual of his own accord, to make things look natural, though he isn't a Christian. AH our Christians are provided for in some way or other now, thank God. The temperature is 101° in the shade, with a hot wind. Liu Chih Ting, the richest Mohammedan orming here and owner of the bank, came again in the afternoon to discuss our escape with us. He came in a fine cart with beautiful mules. We showed him over the houses. He pitied our forlorn condition, and wanted us to send our goods to the pawnshop in the city for safety, but could not arrange it, besides, it too is quite likely to be sacked in case of a row. He promises that four carts shall come to-night and a few soldiers. We are to escape to Chi Kou on the coast, sixty miles from here. The carts are to come for us about midnight. Liu told us there are three thousand Boxers at a place about eight miles from here. The magistrate is trying to keep them back till we are gone. He says there are three million Boxers in these four provinces, and the Mandarins cannot control them. Strong edicts are coming for protection of foreigners, Liu says, to all ofl&cers 68 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU, and yamens. (These were the edicts, altered in Peking from " exterminate " to " protect " the foreigners, for the alteration of which a high official in Peking risked, and actually lost, his life, but which were the means of saving many precious lives.) After Liu left I photographed the hospital and compound. Also took one or two photos to try and frighten the onlookers and hangers-about at the front gate. We dared not be seen packing by daylight, so had to wait till dark. I went into the store room in the dark to get a jar of Liebig, and found too late that it was Keating's ! We found it useful. Here I quote from a letter of Mrs. Peill's, Midnight written on H.M.S. Orlando, off Taku, scape. June i8th, 1900, very vividly describing the actual escape from Tsang Chou, supplemented from notes written by Arthur at the time. The notes are in brackets. We have been brought here in a most wonderful way. God has led us all along and given us strength to beair the strain. We left Tsang Chou at 1.45 a.m. on the 13th June (Wednesday), dressed in Chinese clothes. The magistrate sent four hundred soldiers and one hundred outriders to take us safely to the camp, where he and his men were living. The carts were promised for midnight, and we were sitting waiting for them to come for us (very trying to one's faith and nerves waiting, especially as it got on towards two o'clock in the morning), when in rushed a soldier with Chinese garments over his arm, beckoning to us to put them on as quickly as possible. He wouldn't speak a word for fear of the Boxers. He was sort of gasping with fear, and his eyes starting out of his head. (He had met Boxers on his way to us, and they had tried to prevent his coming.) AMONG THE BOXERS. 69 At last he said : ' You must go now, at once. They are coming. Don't speak a word.' I flew for Winifred (baby, fourteen months old), who was sleeping, while Arthur flew for Mr. M. I picked baby and the quilt up wholesale, for I knew we were going to have a journey on the water in a fishing boat, so baby must have wraps of some sort. After that I flew to the back verandah, where everything was packed ready to go, at least the most necessary things, for we only had a small Gladstone bag each, and a small handbag for baby with things I would need in the cart. Well, I sat down on one of the wooden provision boxes, after getting baby, and grabbing two small tins of sand- wiches we had made, a bottle of milk I had prepared for baby, and a bottle of distilled water to mix with the tinned milk for her. I placed these at my feet, and would not move till someone came for them ; for if they had been left behind, what would my baby have done ? Mr. M. came in, and I said to him, whatever you do bring as many tins of condensed milk as possible ; and I told Arthur the same. They got what they could, happily enough to last till I got here, which relieved me greatly. (We found A. in back verandah with baby ; eider- down quilt over her, and looking like a mother hen brooding over her chicks. She told me not to forget the brown bag with baby's things in it. I went to the bedroom for it, and when I returned A. was gone. Got my black handbag with silver in it. Looked wistfully at my camera ! Someone gave me the brown bag. I took out a packet of corrosive lint from the black bag, and put in four small tins of milk and one or two bigger ones. I then went out and found A., who was by this time in the cart outside the compound. The soldiers looked very scared.) 70 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. There were only two carts (the usual thing is one cart for each person), covered in Chinese fashion, so that at night you can be quite hidden, but in the day one can be seen through the netting windows. Mr. M., Miss B., our helmets, Mr. M.'s bag of money and docu- ments, were in one of the carts, with one of our boys on the shafts with the carter. Arthur, baby and I, and Mr. M.'s boy's wife, were in the other cart, with our other boy on the shafts with the carter. Oh, what a squash ! how cramped ! Arthur held my hand, and said : ' Don't be frightened, little one, God will keep us safe, as He has done all along. Just ask Him to give you strength.' I did pray, and felt relieved, and quietly strengthened ; for, remember, we were walking right into the Boxers' hands — we knew we were, for they were waiting for us at the ferry. Fancy, at the ferry we had to have the mules unhar- nessed, and to have the carts wheeled on to the ferry- boat with the Boxers all round us ! (Ferry quiet. Boxers sitting armed up in tea shop by river side. Carts were got quickly on to the boat, and then slowly, oh, so slowly, across.) And although we had all those soldiers they were awfully scared, for three men had been kiUed by the Boxers that day in Tsang Chou — our postmaster, a preacher, and somebody else, and a carter had had his nose cut off. Things were getting very bad. (These Boxers were only waiting for their leader, who arrived a few hours after we had left.) When we got safely to the magistrate, he was white with fear, and his carters did not want to go with us at all, nor did the soldiers either. It looked blue ; but we prayed on, and God put things right. We travelled all night, with an escort of soldiers on horseback, and all the next day till six o'clock in the evening, when We arrived at the Chi Kou forts on the coast. AMONG THE BOXERS. 71 (When we arrived at the camp, near the east gate of the city, we were shown into a small room, where were General Mei and the magistrate Shang, who were waiting for us : Mei green and ill-looking with terror, Shang rather nice looking. General Mei told us that his soldiers had just arrived that day, and had to go on to Hsien Hsien, but he had taken advantage of their presence to save us. Had they not been there, he said, he could have done nothing. The magistrate that very day had been obliged to set a notorious Boxer free, because the Boxers in large numbers had gathered in the yamen court and used threatening language. He had himself to take refuge in the camp. Good for us those orders from Government had come in, urging protection of foreigners, as Liu had told us in the afternoon ! While we were talking, a man came in to say that the Boxers were gathering, and we had better lose no time getting off. We thanked the officials, and went off in the two carts, one of which was General Mei's, and the other the magistrate's own. Both drivers were theirs too. We travelled quickly, with strong escort of horsemen, through the east gate towards Chi Kou. Fine animals, and fast pace. Started about 3 a.m.) From Chinese Christians, who joined them at Chi Kou, they learned that, in nearly every place they had passed through on the way, the Boxers had been either just before or just after them, so that they had, as it were, " threaded their way between these Boxer bands." " This was none of man's guiding," says Miss B., " but the unseen hand of God, and the Lord going before us." From Chi Kou we wrote a letter to one of the men-ot war, off the Taku forts, and got one of our servants and a soldier to take it in a small fishing boat. We waited at Chi Kou from Wednesday evening till Saturday morning. The Vice-Admiral sent a steam launch, which got in Friday night, but the tide was too low for boats to go to it 72 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. or for it to come near. It was a joy to see that launch arrive ! We got up at three o'clock next morning, and went off in a fishing boat. Oh, how relieved we were ; for there were Boxers not a few in Chi Kou too. On board Vice-Admiral Bruce ordered us on this H.M.S. ship, and every one has been most kind, Orlando. although SO busily occupied. We were on board here when all the men were preparing for battle ; it was interesting to see them. They were preparing to take the Taku forts. They went off to the Admiral's ship to join the others going ashore. The first firing began at 12 p.m., and lasted six hours, happily with success. If we had not got these forts, the Chinese would have stopped communication and provisions between Tientsin and here, and aU the Tientsin and Peking folks would probably have been lost. Oh, it is a fearful affair ! Grand news just come. Two thousand men have arrived on a North German Lloyd ship, so perhaps we will now be able to capture Tientsin. We have a Chinese ship out here in front of us which has just been captured. She is not allowed to move, or we will fire on her. All Chinese boats coming up are searched and hindered, in case they are carrying pro- visions or ammunition. You can't imagine how exciting it is. Don't be anxious, God is truly watching over us. On June i6th, Arthur had written from the Orlando, off Taku, saying : " All safe, after exciting time. Situation developed rapidly to acuteness, and, by wonderful pro- vision of God, we all got safely away and are here on board this ship. Lost everything, except the clothes we have on, but God will provide." Wei Hai Wei, June 26th. M., Miss WeiHaiWei ^^ ^- ^"^ ^' *° '^^ """^^^^^ °* ^^^^' are all here and safe, so far as anyone can be safe in China now. Folks treat us very kindly, AMONG THE BOXERS. 73 and we are apparelled in clothes belonging to half-a-dozen or more people, including Mrs. Bruce the admiral's wife. Captain Warrender of the Barfieur, Lieutenant Jefferson and others of the Orlando, and several friends here, both missionary and civilian. Captain Warrender actually found on his ship a box of violet powder for baby ! What can not be found on a British man-o'-war ? We are anything but unhappy, and are able to " take joyfully the spoiling of our goods." After all, when one knows that God is sure to make up a hundred fold in other ways for what we suffer or lose in His service, it is very foolish and quite unnecessary to worry about our clothes, books, instruments, furniture, etc., being in the hands of the Boxers, isn't it ? I should like to have a peep at Tsang Chou now, and see what the Boxers have done there, especially to know how our Christians are getting on. We got them all away in twos and threes before we left, by boat, or donkey cart, or on foot, and, as far as we know, none of them have come to any harm. M. made up his mind that he would see them all safe away before he left, and I felt sure that God would arrange things so that he might have his heart's desire. Only two old Christians were there to see us off, and they were to leave directly we were gone. The last batch we got away about 1.30 a.m., and the soldiers came for us ten minutes after. We are here, by the mercy of God", and I am in charge of the. Naval Sick Quarters, at a salary of £240 a year, terminating at a fortnight's notice on either side. I am the only doctor on the island, and feel it my duty to remain here, as things are at present, until God opens His mind to us with. regard to the future. We expect a lot of wounded in from Taku in a day or two, and are making extensive preparations. This is apparently to 74 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. be a sort of base hospital. Of course I cannot very weir tackle all the wounded single handed, but God will arrange that too ; and there are two men available in case of need, one the surgeon of the gun boat here, and the other an Army Surgeon-Major, on the Mainland, attached to the Chinese regiment. The salary from this Government appointment I propose to put on one side, and ask the L.M.S. about the spending of it later. It may come in useful for restarting our mission at Tsang Chou in the happy days to come. We are here as refugees, and should have to be here anyway. Vice-Admiral Bruce asked me to take this on, and it is better than being idle. The party remained at Wei Hai Wei till once^ore September. In the meantime troops had been arriving for the relief of the Legations at Peking, and the military authorities took over the base hospital at Wei Hai Wei. The country remained closed to foreigners, so they all came home, reaching England in safety on November 2nd, 1900. The ten months in the homeland were mostly spent in Edinburgh. In addition to deputation work, Arthur took the opportunity to read up for, and pass with credit, his F.R.C.S. degree, his special subject for which was ophthalmology, eye diseases being so very common in China. In September, 1901, he returned to China, this time accompanied by his brother. Dr. E. J. Peill, who was appointed to Peking. CHAPTER III. REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. — LETTER FROM TIENTSIN, JANUARY, 1902. TVyTY brother Ernest and I arrived safely in Tientsin ■*■•*■ on the 9th November, after a rather uneventful voyage. We were heartily welcomed by our fellow missionaries in Tientsin, and soon settled down in Dr. Smith's house, where we were temporarily making our abode. After a few days came a meeting of the District Committee, to discuss various important matters that could not wait over till the Annual Meetings in spring. The gathering lasted several days, and was very interesting, and, on the whole, enjoyable. Things are so changed since the last District Committee Meetings I attended, and in many instances work has to be begun again, practically de novo. The building that awaits us in the coming spring is terrible to contemplate ; houses, hospitals, chapels, schools, out-station chapels by the dozen, await re-erection, and there are so few of us to look after it all. I feel particularly bad about it, as it is more than likely that I shall have to superintend some of it myself. I wonder how any of you at home, ordinary laymen like myself, with practically no experience of house-building, would hke to be put in charge of the building of one or two fair- sized foreign houses and a hospital, all orders and 76 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. instructions, etc., to be given in a language you were not by any means thoroughly at home in. Suppose the roofs fall in in two or three years' time, and the Society is put to a lot more expense in consequence, it will be jolly for me, won't it ? However, one can but do one's best, and there's no one else to do it, as M. will be busy in Yen Shan probably, so there's nothing else for it, and it's no use growling. The Meetings over, M. and I set out T^^'* *°Ch '^^ ^ *°"'" *° °^^ district, Tsang Chou, Yen Shan, Ching Yiin and parts of a few more counties. We travelled in Chinese carts, and altogether did about 300 English miles, at an average rate of three or four miles an hour. We took a servant with us, and some foreign stores, but otherwise were quite " Chinesey," living in Chinese inns, which are simply mud- huts as a rule, and wearing Chinese sheep-skins, etc., etc. One learns to excuse the Chinaman's dirt on a tour like this. Water is scarce and dirty, and fuel to heat it too expensive for the ordinary Chinese purse. Soap is almost unknown, and clean white towels are quite so. The dust is very abundant, and the weather very cold. No fires, except small charcoal-dishes, in shape not unlike an ordinary basin, in which glowing pieces of charcoal are placed. Paper windows with many holes, imperfectly fitting doors, cold mud floor and bare mud walls, combine to make one unwilling to remove one's clothes, and the bitter freezing cold of winter encourages folk to pile on all the clothes they have, and keep them on, dirty though they be. And yet it's wonderful how comfortably one can get along, in spite of all these drawbacks ; and we had a most interesting and enjoyable trip. At first we had intended going to Tsang Chou in a boat, down the Grand Canal, and the boat was hired, and all ready for a start, when hard frost set in, and the river was blocked I.— MUCH NEGOTIATION REQUIRED. 2— TSANG CHOU GRANDEES FEASTED ON OPENING DAY. {No. 2. See page log.) REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. 77 with ice. We waited on board a day and a half, but no thaw came, so we had to hire carts at an exorbitant rate and go by land. Of course the carters soon got wind of the block on the river, and foreseeing an unavoidable resort to carts, put up prices in consequence. And then, natur- ally also, we had only just left Tsang Chou in the carts when the thaw came, and our boats reached Tsang Chou only a day or so after our carts. Such is life in China ! An escort had been awaiting us at a place forty miles or so from Tsang Chou, but hearing of the ice-bound state of the river, and not knowing our further plans, they had returned before our arrival, only leaving two men to wait in case we came overland. This escort was not needed, so far as safety was concerned, but the magistrate insisted on sending it as a mark of due respect. On nearing the city of Tsang Chou, on VJelco e °^^ third day out from Tientsin, a further escort came out to meet us, in charge of the man who led our escort to Chi Kou on the coast last year, when we were escaping from the Boxers. He had been promoted in consequence, and is apparently full of good- will to us. We were conducted to the nicest house in the city, belonging to the family of our last year's friend, Mr. LiUj who risked his own life on our behalf last year. There we were given a splendid feast, and the magistrate called on us and shared in the repast. I took a photo of the magistrate, M., Mr. Liu, and his brother (who speaks German and a little English), seated at table. We had knives and forks, table-cloth, etc., in proper foreign style, and cooking, etc., ditto. -Our hosts were most friendly and cordial, and seemed really glad to get us back, though it is not easy to gauge their true thoughts upon the whole business. Anyway, they cordially hate the Boxer movement, and realise what folly it was, and how much trouble it has brought in its train. 78 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The magistrate is very eager to raise all our compensa- tion locally, because then, he and his district won't be called on to contribute to the general indemnity fund ; and they would rather pay up an amount of which they know the exact sum, and understand the reason for, than be liable to heavy charges, which they neither know the probable extent of, nor truly understand the reasons for. Our indemnity has been largely raised by fines levied on the Boxers in the neighbourhood, the people who did not follow the Boxers, though they did nothing to stop them in most cases, only being mulcted, so far as we can gather, for small amounts. The magistrate had already collected large quantities of wood, etc., for rebuilding, and a lot of our looted bricks have been returned, though in very damaged condition. We hope to start re-building, as soon as the frost is away, and trust that hospital and houses may be ready for use again by next autumn at latest. It was rather a pathetic business looking A Pathetic u ■ j x. ■ g. . over our poor old rums, and remembermg our many happy associations therewith. Many of the walls are still standing, though some are cracked and will need to be pulled down. The roofs, floors, etc., are entirely gone. We had an even nearer shave last year than we had thought, if that be possible. The magistrate, Mr. Liu, and General Mei, whom we also saw and talked with several times, were all full of it, and expressed great surprise, as well as satisfaction, at our marvellous escape. General Mei said : " If it hadn't been for your Jesus you never could have escaped." As we were leaving, he put his hand on my shoulder, and said : " Don't you be troubled, you're bound to prosper, your Jesus is with you ! " This is all the more interesting, when one remembers that the magistrate, General Mei and Mr. Liu, to say nothing of others, are all trying to make out that he ,. — RUINS OF HOSPITAL. 2. — I, EVEN I ONLY, AM LEFT. Old deacon, now blind and insane, beside tomb of his martyred relative REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. 79 personally had the chief hand in our escape. It is really amusing to hear how they make light of others' share in the matter and magnify their own. The magistrate several times bewailed the fact that he did not know at the time that we spoke Chinese, or else he would have come himself to see us about escaping, instead of sending Mr. Liu, who was more used to meeting foreigners, surely a very eloquent testimony to the cleanness of our hands from interference in law-suits, etc. It appears that in the evening, after Mr. PassTlndee'd Liu's afternoon visit ta us to tell us of the preparations made for our escape, things had got so serious that no one dared to come to our aid. The Boxers were in possession of the city; the magistrate had been compelled for his own safety to flee to the soldiers' camp and leave the Yamen to the Boxers. Mr. Liu had very nearly been attacked on his way back from visiting us. The ferry was held by the Boxers, who were there awaiting the arrival of a great chief, who was expected that day from a place down the Grand Canal. The whole city swarmed with armed men and violent Boxers, and had this chief, Wang Chi Chen, arrived up to time, we should, humanly speaking, have been beyond chance of rescue. But the chief was delayed; a colonel called Yuan Shi Tan volunteered to lead the soldiers, who came to escort us across the ferry and through the city to the soldiers' camp ; and we eventually crossed the ferry, in face of the waiting and irresolute Boxers, just three hours before their villainous leader arrived. With him came a horde of followers, and altogether the Boxers in the city and suburbs were estimated at 20,000 men ! For some days the magistrate, Gen. Mei, the soldiers, and all who were not heart and soul with the Boxers, were in grave danger. The Boxers had the favour of the 7 8o THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Empress Dowager, and other of the highest authorities in the land ; orders had come to aid them and kill the foreigners ; the soldiers were afraid, because they, along with almost all the Chinese high and low, believed, to some extent at least, in the pretension of the Boxers to supernatural powers and invulnerability to bullets, etc. For days they swarmed in the streets, bragging and swaggering, while all who could flee fled, and the magis- trate and General Mei, with their 500 soldiers, remained shut up in their camp. The Boxers demanded large sums of money from General Mei, and in other ways became so intolerable, that at last he decided to fight them what- ever came of it, as things looked as bad for him as they well could, the Boxers having a grudge against him for previous fights in which Boxers had been killed, and for aiding in our escape. So, asking for a brief delay till he could collect the money they demanded, he sent messages to a neighbouring General, General Fan, and asked him to come to his aid. This he at once did, and then unitedly they attacked the Boxers in the city streets, and killed hundreds of them there. Various other battles followed in places round about Tsang Chou, and probably about two thousand Boxers were killed. There were numerous interesting details of the fighting, which sounded more like the middle ages than the twentieth century, but I mustn't dilate on them here, or this letter will be far too long. Colonel Yuan greatly distinguished himself, and seems to have been in his element, slaughtering on all hands with his big sword. One blow of his split a Buddhist priest, who was leading some of the Boxers, from the crown of his head far down through his chest. We met him several times at Tsang Chou, and it was most interesting listening to his graphic accounts of the fighting, while his vivid acting and gesticulation made all seem so real. I'm afraid he is not REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. 8i a very saintly character, but his fine brute courage and love of fighting stood us in good stead last year, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for coming to save us when no one else dared. At that time the great chief, Wang Cokcidenfe. ^^^^ ^^^"' escaped. But a strange thing happened whilst we were in Tsang Chou. His head arrived from Paoting fu the day after we did, and was stuck up for aU to see at the ferry, where the Boxers were waiting for him that night of our escape. It is a strange coincidence, and the whole city regarded it as a heaven-sent punishment. He was caught in the mountains near Paoting fu, in company with a wretched woman who posed among the Boxers as a " Living Buddha." The interesting events of our trip are so many and varied that I almost despair of telling them, and hardly know where to begin and when to stop. We got a few relics of our former Treasures. possessions, VIZ., M.'s syphon for making soda-water, seltzer, I think the right name is. Colonel Yuan brought it along one day, saying he'd got it from the big Boxer stronghold near Tsang Chou. It was in perfect order. Later a native doctor came in, with my laryngoscope and a set of tooth forceps, both incomplete, which he says the grateful Chinese soldiers whose wounds he treated gave to him. They also are said to have looted them from the Boxer stronghold. We also heard, though not indisputably, that our bicycles had been recovered from the same place, and then carried off by the Germans when they came to Tsang Chou. Who knows ? It was an awful muddle. Our books were thrown into the river, a thousand of M.'s and several hundreds of mine, so the fish should be more clever and difficult to catch than 82 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. ever ; and if the popular theory is correct, they should be better brain-food than usual too ! Magistrate's The magistrate told us a most interesting Experiences event of his earlier days, which seems to and Plans. have helped to pre-dispose him in our favour. He was returning from Formosa, where his official duties had taken him, and was travelling in a steamer belonging to the China Merchants Co., when their ship was run into and speedily sunk by a great English mail steamer. The weather was rough, and it was not easy to pick up survivors. The magistrate, whose name is Shang, was in a little boat along with one other Chinese, and the thing that astonished him was, that the big mail steamer delayed her journey a whole day, sailing round and round the scene of the disaster, until he and his companions in distress were saved. On board he was kindly treated, examined to see if he was injured, and given warm beef-tea and clothes, etc., and finally safely landed at Shanghai. He was full of this story, and told it us at least twice. He is very keen to start a college for foreign learning in Tsang Chou as soon as possible. It has been decided by Government that the Tsang Chou College is to be central for the six neighbouring counties, each of which is to have a lower-grade College as well. Shang is most anxious that M. should help him, and has asked him to draw up a scheme of study, recommend text- books, etc. This is happening now all over the land, and the missionaries are being turned to, naturally, as the fittest and best leaders in the new development that must take place. The great difficulty I fear will be in the providing of suitable teachers in the schools so universally to be founded. This new demand will make good openings for our high school boys and others, and it will probably REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. 83 become increasingly difficult to get good men for preachers, though the men who do go in for this preaching work will be better men than before one hopes. It seems as if we shall soon have to raise their salaries though, as their class-mates, who accept government posts in these new schools, will of course be better paid than we could afford as a mission. The Society will need all the money you can let them have for this great North China Mission, so think of the great opportunities before the missionaries here now, and give to the work all you can. In Tsang Chou we met a lieutenant of Mei's, a man called Chang, such a bright earnest Christian. He had been dismissed from two regiments for his outspoken Christianity before Mei took him on, but he seems to be a persona grata to Mei. He comes regularly to service, and has often conducted the service himself, whilst his praise is in all mouths. One Sunday, when we were there, he brought along a comrade in arms, who was also seeking the true light, and seemed a very nice fellow too. Lots of old patients came along to see me, and attended Sunday service ; among them two or three cataract and other eye cases who had been cured of blindness. Many of my old patients had been persecuted by the Boxers for the mere fact of having consulted a foreign devil, but none that I heard of were severely injured or killed, I'm glad to say. Our adventures last year have at least done one thing, they have advertised us, and I was known and called by name in every street I passed through. It looks as if there were going to be a boom in hospital work as soon as we can start again. . A very interesting story was that told us u again. ^^ ^^ ^^^ teacher Yu. He left us just a day or so before we left Tsang Chou, at the repeated and urgent request of his old father. His home 84 THE BELOVED PHVSlClAN OP TSAMG CHOV. is about five miles from the city, in a village called the " Village of the Yu family." He had suffered a good deal of persecution from the other members of his family for Christ's sake, but they could say nothing against the patent fact that, from a poor opium sot he had been converted into a useful member of society, and this they all acknowledged. He had not been home very long before the Boxers came to kill him. He got his wife and others to kneel with him, and prayed to God for safety. He says, thereafter all fear left him, and he felt that if it were God's will to save him, he would not be found of the Boxers, whether he stayed in his house or went out, whilst if it was God's will he should die, he could not in any way escape, and was ready to suffer for his Master. Then, when the Boxers were surrounding his house, he stepped out and walked boldly through the advancing crowd. Most were strangers and didn't know him, but one was a man whom he recognised as having been a patient at the hospital, and he expected nothing better than that this man would recognise him. But he didn't, or if he did he said nothing, and Yu got safely through to a river-bed near by, from whence he could watch proceed- ings. He saw a tumult, and thought it was his wife and child being killed, but found afterwards that it was a heathen man and woman who had been killed in mistake for him and his wife. It is contrary to our ideas to leave one's wife like that, but it is ingrained in the Chinaman's mind that a woman is his inferior, and not to be treated as a man should be under similar circumstances. Even among the Christians this is still largely the case, and no doubt will be yet for many years to come. So the poor women have often been separated from their husbands, and left to take care of themselves under extreme press of danger, though often they found safety in the homes of their own mothers, or of other heathen friends. REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. 85 After this, Yu set off for Tientsin, intending to join the other Christians there in the foreign concessions. But Tientsin was closely invested, and he could not pass the lines, so, to save his life, he had to enlist in the Chinese soldiery, and hoped against hope that he might not be opposed to the English. This was just before the attack on the native city, and to his dismay he found himself fighting the Sikhs and other Indian troops. His astonish- ment at their courage and dash was very amusing, and he, along with many more of the Chinese, look upon the black men more as fiends or ogres than as men like them- selves. He says they cared nothing for ditches or water, or reeds or bullets, but came on with a fierce delight on their faces that to the Chinese in front of them seemed more than human. So they broke and fled. Thereafter Yu returned to Tsang Chou, where the Boxers had now been defeated and dispersed. Thence he went off further down the canal, and fought against the Boxers there in several sanguinary fights, though the losses were nearly all amongst the Boxers ; then he returned again to Tsang Chou, and was there when the Germans came. I wish I had time to tell you of their doings, and the thoughts and fears and plans of the Chinese officials and people there anent, but I really must refrain. The Germans came several times. The first time, magistrate, general, officials, merchants, etc., all fled precipitately. The remaining two occasions they stayed, but did all sorts of things to propitiate the terrible foreigner. They longed more than they could tell that we had been there to help them. The Chinese interpreters with the Germans were mostly villains of unusual calibre, and extorted and lied and bore false witness iri all directions. The German officers, they say, were almost invariably reasonable and polite, but they were at the mercy of their interpreters 86 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. to a large extent, and the common soldiers were hard to keep in hand and were a terror to the country-side. Yu told me that one day some soldiers came over the bridge near his village, and the whole place went into a panic of terror. The women actually left their wee babies on the floor, crying at this unusual neglect, and themselves tried to crawl under the brick bed, a thing of course impossible, as this erection is no more to be crawled under than a brick wall is. And when a German soldier came rushing with outstretched hands after a chicken, which took refuge in Yu's yard, his poor wife and female relatives thought that their last hour was come. Yu himself picked up the squalling baby on the floor, and walked out with it, realising that he could not prevent them doing what they liked, and not being so afraid of foreigners as most were. The little one crowed to the soldiers and smiled to them, until a great hairy " barbarian " came and kissed it, when the contact of his prickly lips and chin upset the youngster's brief tranquillity, and sent him off again into louder yells than ever. There are many more interesting adventures of Yu's, creditable and discreditable, but I mustn't stop to dilate thereon. He unfortunately took to opium again, and has just recovered from the effects of breaking the habit once more, let's hope for good and all. Truly in some ways it is harder to live for Christ than to die for Him, but I think Yu is on the right track again now, and there was a good deal of excuse for him. He did a foolish thing about his compensation. The magistrate asked him for a list of the losses. He was busy when the message came, and asked a friend to make up the list for him. This the friend did on a rather extravagant scale, and the list was sent in unrevised. Yu was called before the magistrate, Shang, and he REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. B? hadn't even been over the Hst himself, silly duffer ! The magistrate thought the amount too much, and taking the list, began to question him about it item by item. Yu answered as best he could, though he ought to have acknowledged that he had not drawn up the list himself. This would have laid him open to misunderstanding, but would have been better in the end than what eventually followed, because the magistrate, seeing his hesitation, quietly changed Yu's list for someone else's, and read out an item or two from this other list. Yu, knowing no better, tried to account for the items as mentioned, until the magistrate came down on him like a thousand of bricks and drove him from his presence. Served him jolly well right for being so idiotic, but there was no real evil intended by Yu, and he has rather ruined his repu- tation by this folly. Pretty smart of old Shang, wasn't it? On the whole our Christians, both in Conduct of -T> /-'u J -«r ct- J Christians Tsang Chou and Yen Shan, and in one other district round there, have come out of it all wonderfully well. Out of the bitter trial of last year's martyrdom and persecution they have come triumphantly ; and out of this year's harder trial, when they have necessarily been much neglected, with preachers killed, missionaries away, older Christians, deacons, etc., almost exterminated, and opportunities on all hands for revenge, extortion and extravagant claims for com- pensation, — out of this year's even more searching trial, I say, they have come more clean-handed and with a more Christlike spirit than we could have dared to hope. Over 230 of our Christians were cruelly slain, and then the tide turned, and our Christians had the upper hand to some extent over the still unpunished murderers of their nearest and dearest. But not one Boxer suffered 88 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. death, or even injury, at the hand of our Christians, except in cases where, like Yu, they joined the regular soldiery in legally resisting and putting down the Boxers. The spirit of many may be expressed in the simple words that I heard from the lips of one old man at Tsang Chou, who had suffered much for his faith. He said he didn't know much about Christianity, but as he understood it, it is a religion of long-suffering under oppression and wrong. Jesus endured suffering much worse than any we can have to bear, and not only bore it patiently Himself, but taught His twelve disciples to do so likewise, and we are to follow Him and not bear enmity. He was a poor ignorant old chap, but he'd imbibed a good deal of the spirit of Christ when he could suffer and speak of it like that. From Tsang Chou we went to Yen Shan. Y ^^^ou'^* * There we found arrangements well advanced for the payment of compensation to the Christians. They have already had about half of it paid out to them, and we hope the rest may be paid this year (Chinese). It was in Yen Shan that the Christians suffered so terribly, over 200 being killed in Yen Shan city and county alone. We went over the desolate ruins of our compound there, and saw the place at the gate where our fine old preacher Shao was killed, along with a few more of our Christian helpers. Their mangled bodies were thrown on to the flames of the burning buildings, and the unconsumed remains buried in the city well near by. This has since been repaired, so there is no telling where their bones now lie. We also visited the public execution ground for criminals, where forty of our Christians, if not more, were most cruelly done to death. Some were cut to little pieces for fear of their rising from the dead, and the pieces thrown E- Z i. mj- _ epistle to a close. Our building compen- sation affairs are not wholly satisfactory yet, but we hope they will be ere long, and expect to begin on houses and hospital in early spring, and have them finished before autumn. Meanwhile I am using the little interval for work, and hope to brush up Chinese and 96 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. make some further progress therein. My year and a half away has not helped me in this respect. Two French soldiers, one of them converted through mother in Madagascar, and the other interested, come to see us pretty regularly. They think a lot of father and mother. A Protestant German soldier also comes, so I hope to learn some French and German as well. I give the German half an hour four times a week, and he gives me half an hour. The Germans are surveying all over Southern Chili, and Northern Shantung, and making elaborate maps. They are spending vast sums at Kiao Chow. It looks as though they may eventually seek to possess the land, in which case a little German would come in very useful. We had a most interesting visit and talk with one of these German surveying officers at Tsang Chou. He called in one evening, and was very friendly — Lieutenant Baron somebody or other, I forget what. He says he always looks for the Christians on his travels, as only the Christians tell the truth. He told us lots of interesting things. Just one incident, to show how little the average foreigner understands the Chinaman. He says the officials everywhere have orders to treat the surveyors kindly and provide them rooms. Naturally in some places he was given a good Chinese inn to sleep in, but they are mere mud huts, with mud floors and walls, paper- windows, brick bed, etc., so he at once thought this was a studied insult to him, and walked out in a great state. Went into the neighbour's house, and asked them to let him have their house for the night. This, he says, they always did at once; and he told us of the good nature and kindness thus shown to him being so different from what one might expect. Of course, as you can easily understand, the poor beggars were in such a fright that they were REVISITING RUINED STATIONS. 97 willing to do anything they were asked if only they were allowed to live, especially as the Baron had an escort with him armed to the teeth. The Germans in Yen Shan got out the idols from the temples here and there and stood them by the road-side. Then galloping past, they slashed at them with their swords, cutting off noses, ears, hands, and finally head, and leaving dismembered images to be replaced by the priests who escaped from the Boxer hordes, though I suppose there were some Buddhist priests perhaps who were not Boxers. One priest was seized by some larky Germans and harnessed to a cart, a burly Teuton sitting on the shaft and belabouring the toiling victim amidst roars of laughter. No doubt in most cases these priests deserved all they got, and more, as they are regular low-down villains very often, but the above was going it rather too far, wasn't it ? Of course the officers weren't like that, and men will have larks sometimes, just as boys will be boys. The trouble was that the Germans could not get hold of the right men to punish in most cases. The Christians were scattered and afraid to come forward, as who was to prove that they were Christians ? The interpreters were villains, and false Christians soon came forward when they saw it paid. CHAPTER IV. THE STORY OF I9O2. "DEFORE coming to China I was under the impression that life in this country would be monotonous. The strange delusion was short-lived however, and the events of the past year have not tended to revive it. It is six years now since I set foot in the flowery land, and certainly dull monotony has not been one of my few missionary hardships. In fact one is more likely to weary of the constant variety, and to long for a season of quiet steady work, than to grumble at the sameness and tame- ness of one's lot. So frequent and rapid have been the rng:. changes in the surroundings and circum- stances of the Tsang Chou staff during the last year that the mere adaptation of ourselves to our environment has taken up a lot of time. Never before have we come into such close and intimate contact with Chinese ofificialdom and its methods. Our wits have been sharpened, our experience widened, our patience has had plenty of healthy exercise, and our gastric functions have triumphed, after severe and prolonged conflict, over extraordinary quantities of edible curiosities. It has been our irritating lot to learn for ourselves the truth that " the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." Not that we were altogether ignorant of their devices, but in such a morass of lies, deceit and cunning, 98 THE STORY OF 1902. 99 it was necessary to pick our steps, and suffer seeming loss, rather than with avenging feet to follow into the mire our would-be friendly foes. In August the magistrate Shang left Tsang Chou to take up another post, and since then we have had entirely satisfactory relations with our local magnate and the local ofhcials and gentry generally. The year has been divided, so far as I myself am concerned, between Tientsin and Tsang Chou, with brief interludes spent in Yen Shan, Shanghai and Hang Chou. Looking back upon it one thing stands out above all else. We have built up again the ruins of our houses and hospital. In the early months this task loomed up before us in gruesome laboriousness. Its aspect of gloom was deepened by the annoying delay of the magistrate Shang in starting work, and its complexity increased by the discovery of his contractor's duplicity and the sight of his workmen's bungling. The situation soon became intolerable, and the control of affairs had to be taken from the magistrate's hands, his contractor got rid of, and his whole collection of bunglers dismissed. We then had to extract money and materials enough from the magistrate to finish things up for ourselves, and all had to be done without open break or suspension of " friendly relations." Compared with this the finding of new contractors and workmen was an easy business, and at last, in the first week of June, we got really to work at rebuilding. But our diplomatic strife with the magistrate's shifting and trickery went on till the end of August, and even then we had to choose between a financial deficiency and an open break and law-suit with this man, who, in igoo, had done so much to save our lives. We chose the former, believing we did right to do so under the circumstances, and that time will only make the wisdom of this course more clear. lOO THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Constant urging and remarkably good weather enabled us to get the houses finished by the end of October, but the hospital was only completed in December, and its furniture is hardly all made yet. (Feb.) This account is far too brief to give any adequate idea of what this year has meant to us in the way of involved calculations, wearisome wrangling, sun-baked overseeing, travelling, perspiration and platitudes, yet nothing more is needed, for it is all over, these troublesome details have faded into oblivion, and we are left with only the solid satisfaction of buildings erected and valuable experience gained. This then has been the chief work of the year for both Mr. M. and myself, but it has not been quite all. In the first few months, which were mostly spent in Tientsin, I was busy studying a science text book in Chinese with a view to the training of students, but all such useful pre- paration has had to be put aside since June. In the summer there was a fairly active medical work carried on in our former temporary quarters, and quite a number of serious operations undertaken. But that, too, had to go as rebuilding intricacies became more engrossing. Perhaps the following cases are worth n eres g special mention : Early one morning a young man was brought in with a severe bullet wound of the abdominal wall, inflicted by robbers on the Grand Canal just a few hours before. We were fortunate in finding the bullet at once, and the wound healed without trouble. Subsequently we discovered that the patient came from Ku Cheng, where there is an out-station of the Chi Chou Mission, and that his uncle was an " inquirer " there. He left with protesta- tions of the deepest gratitude, and seemed earnest in assuring us that he would inquire further into " the THE]STORY OF 1902. 101 doctrine," and that he 'was going to become a Christian himself. One of the new boys in our little day-school in Tsang Chou I found to be suffering from long-neglected and incurable tubercular disease of the arm, necessitating amputation. He made a good recovery, and I was delighted lately to hear that some of the local church members had taken pity upon his poor widow mother and himself, and were subscribing sufficient between them to support him at our boarding school in Yen Shan. He seems to be promising well. The last case I will mention here is that of a man who was assaulted by a band of ruffians, cut severely about the head, and otherwise maltreated. The matter came before the Tsang Chou magistrate, Shang's successor, and he decided to send him to us, the defendants to support him until his recovery. By this time his wounds were in a state of filth beyond description, but he rapidly recovered under rational treatment, and we eventually became the recipients of a donation to the hospital from the defendants, who gratefully recognised that we had saved them from a charge of murder and its consequences. The case was satisfactory, apart from the saving of a life, for the indication it afforded of the new magistrate's friendly feeling and confidence in our work. The plan of charging a small fee in every case, except the most destitute, has been strictly adhered to, and the amounts so collected have been useful in helping to meet current hospital expenses. I do not append any summary of statistics as, except for a few weeks, the medical work has only been a secondary consideration during the year, and has been discouraged and evaded as much as possible. But a word of praise is due to my assistant, Mr. Huang Shu Tang, who has proved so efficient during the last six 102 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. months that I have been freer than I ever expected possible to devote time and energy to the buildings, and business connected therewith. The great event of the autumn was the Triumphant triumphant return to our long lost homes Return to ^^ ^^^ ^^^.^.^ j ^y^^^ g^^fj_ YV^g jgft Tsang Cnou. . ° them m June, 1900, four adults and a child, fleeing by night through the midst of foes, and leaving all behind us. We came back to their restored and welcome shelter on a beautiful day in November, 1902, seven adults and four children, with a whole city-full of professing well-wishers, not to mention the countryside. That past now seems like an evil dream, and it is hard to reconcile it with this present. Only the gaps in the church remain to bring back the memory of its woes, but those reminders are with us yet, for the gaps are hard to fill. Any report of the past year in North Cholera. China must take account of the cholera; for that terrible scourge devastated city after city, and village after village was left mourning in its wake. In a neighbouring sub-prefecture it laid low ten thousand people, and for months, wherever we went, we found the people benumbed and awestruck in its presence. In many quarters it was taken as a punishment from Heaven for the sins of the Boxer year. It was freely spoken of in the Yen Shan district as a great act of justice upon the murderers of the martyrs ; and by most of the Christians themselves it was regarded with satisfaction as a baring of God's arm for vengeance, after both Europe and China had signally failed to right their wrongs and avenge the spilt blood of their dearest and best. It was very generally noticed that almost none of the Christians suffered, and that the disease was most fatal in THE STORY OF 1902. 103 notorious Boxer centres. This we repeatedly heard re- marked upon by men from widely separated districts. My one trip to Yen Shan during the year Festival ^^^ ^*^^ ^^® purpose of attending the early harvest-gathering in June. This was a highly encouraging assembly. Over 300 Christians collected to it in that stronghold of Satan's power, and the leading gentry of the city were present at their own request, to show approval of the " Jesus-religion " and of the conduct of its followers. Whilst in Shanghai to meet my family, I jj jy. . took advantage of a few spare days to visit the famous medical mission, carried on in Hang Chou by Dr. Duncan Main, of the C.M.S., and his colleague. The bare fact that the hospital and its off- shoots give employment to a hundred persons will indicate the magnitude of his work, but it can give no adequate conception of the organising abiUty and super-abundant energy, patiently applied through long years, that have made such a great result possible. I learnt many valuable lessons from my stay with Dr. Main, which I hope to turn to good account in Tsang Chou, but the chief result of my visit was the inspiration and uplift that came from that splendid demonstration of what it is possible for a medical mission in China to become, and of what God can do in and through the medical missionary whose heart and life are yielded to Himself. There is not space in this report to do more than mention the training work carried on by Dr. Main and Dr. Kember, helped by capable physicians whom they themselves have taught : the Leper Home on the beautiful West Lake, almost all of whose inmates are happy-hearted Christians, the Convalescent Homes for men and women upon a hill above the lake, the bright and cheery opium refuge, and the great Hall where on Sundays the largest congregation 104 TBE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. in the city gathers to hear the gospel, and where, almost every night of the week, some meeting is in progress for the evangelisation, instruction or amusement, of workers, patients and the city folk at large. It was a memorable trip for me into China of the old picture books, a land of boats and waterways and cormorants, of rice and silk and mulberry trees, quite unlike the northern plain with its dusty roads and bumpy carts, its millet, wheat and " kao liang." But the people were the same, crowds and crowds of them everywhere, ignorant, dirty and heavy-laden, without hope and without God in the world. Oh, for more medical missions among them like Dr. Main's at Hang Chou ! Just before Christmas I spent a day or cting t e ^^^ -^ ^^ out -station to the west of Tsang Choir-master. ° Chou, called Nin Chu Shih. Here about forty Christians from eleven different villages had gathered for a Christmas service and tea-meeting. They were mostly very ignorant, but anxious to learn, and would sing hymns and listen to instruction far on into the night, not only on Sundays, but every other day of the week also. Having spent some time one night in teaching them hymns, I had left them for a little rest, but through the curtained doorway heard them practising a well-known favourite, and torturing the tune to a degree that soon made rest impossible. They knew it was not right, but agreed wjth one who said : " Never mind, we'll all sing wrong alike, then it won't sound so bad, and, when someone comes who can teach us, we'll learn how to sing it properly." Of course I had to go out and put them right, but the unconscious pathos of that remark has sometimes set me thinking since, because we have so many would-be Christians just in that same condition, unable to teach themselves and correct their own mistakes, but willing to be taught and glad to welcome any who THE STORY OF 1902. 105 will show them a better way. The fields indeed are white unto harvest, but the labourers are few. Whole districts are without even a Christian school teacher, far less a preacher or Bible-woman, and the maturer Christians, from whom such workers might have come, were killed almost to a man two years ago. So much teaching is needed of those who remain, and the few who can do it have their hands too full as it is. Mean- while, there are open doors on every side, and numbers waiting instruction and shepherding in all parts of the district. " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He thrust forth labourers into His harvest ;" and let each be faithful and diligent in doing all His will. In conclusion, I should like to say what a joy my brother's presence for so many months in Tsang Chou has been to us both. His unfortunate ill-health has kept him from making the most of the opportunities which life in an inland station affords for language study and experience of mission methods ; but the time has not been lost, and he will always have wider views on work in China, as the result of these early days among the inland people, than would have been his had he spent his time in Tientsin. CHAPTER V. A GREAT DAY IN TSANG CHOU. — THE OPENING OF THE ROBERTS' MEMORIAL HOSPITAL. /^NE of our guests said it was the biggest function he had ever witnessed in the city, and we felt quite disposed to believe him. It was even said that a larger crowd gathered to the opening of the hospital than had gathered to its sacking and destruction, and this may well be so. God, no doubt, saved us then in order ™ "^^^ that we might be present now, and so have this fine opportunity of seeing how even Boxerism is but one of the " all things " that work for good to the people of God. Without taking too literally the statement of a Mohammedan who called the other day and gave it as his opinion that, of the crowd who came to the opening, nine-tenths were Boxers in 1900, we may well believe that, of the spectators in particular, the great majority were also present in that capacity when our buildings were destroyed. And yet now it would be sheer prejudice and folly to disbelieve entirely in their protestations of admiration and friendship, and their tokens of goodwill, though it is easy enough of course to make too much of them. Yes ! things are changed very greatly here since those days when darkness and cruelty were over all the land. I.— HOSPITAL GATEWAY OX OPENING DAY. z— VIEW OF NEW HOSPITAL. A GREAT DAY IN TSANG CHOU. 107 and now the Sun of Righteousness is shining out again, and His rays are winning entrance into many hearts and homes prepared by sad experience in the gloom to welcome and receive the light. There were, doubtless, many reasons why folk flocked to our Opening Day, but I think the chief one was that the people were really glad to make amends. Our friendliness left them no " face " at all unless they did so, in view of the way we had been treated in the past, but we beheve also that they have learnt to understand better our purpose in coming here, and to appreciate more fully than before the value of the work carried on. „ ,. Be all this however as it may, we had a Preparations. ... ., , ,,„, great time on that i6th February, 1903, when the built, destroyed and rebuilt Roberts' Memorial Hospital started at last on its work of mercy. For days before our helpers had been busy preparing for the great event. Forms and chairs, tables and teapots, ornaments, lanterns and many things besides had to be borrowed for the occasion, to say nought of the full-dress garments donned for the day by our band of helpers. Like the Egyptians of old the lenders lent readily, and we only needed to ask to have our needs supplied. We calculated at first on three or four hundred guests, but that was far too low. Notices of intended gifts in the form of congratulatory tablets, silk and red cloth hangings adorned with high-flown flattery inscribed in velvet and gold, with presents of scrolls and of dainty edibles, all came flocking in so fast that our modest ideas were far outrun, and we came to be deeply thankful that we gave only ten days' notice of the ceremony and its date. Many would-be well-wishers had only a day or two's warning, and these, with numerous others, could not prepare gifts in time. There is reason to believe that another ten io8 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. days notice would have made the affair too big for us to manage. The guests were of two main classes : — (i) Those invited specially, and (2) those who, having brought tablets, hangings or scrolls, were thereby entitled by Chinese custom to a feast at our expense. The former class were not invited by us I *t i*^"* ^ personally, as it would have been incorrect for us to represent ourselves as of so much importance, but the ten leading gentry ' of the city, including our friend of 1900, Mr. Liu, were good enough to issue invitations in their own name and over their own signatures, in the most kind and courteous way, entreating all their friends to come and join them in felicitating and doing us honour. This invitation was printed, and sent out by the magistrate's own runners to the leading men in all the towns and villages around, even the gentry in Yen Shan, thirty miles distant, receiving these evident tokens of goodwill to us on the part of all the light and leading in Tsang Chou. Of these invitations the vast majority were accepted, the refusals being considerably fewer than even the most sanguine had expected. But if there were plenty of these invited Those entitled ,1 j. • 1 i i j.i. to th F t ones, there were certainly no less of the other class, and, as notice came of several hundred Mohammedans desiring to accompany their big tablet, of scores of vegetarians coming with theirs, of crowds and crowds of people coming to represent village groups, etc., etc., etc., we began to wonder whereunto this thing would grow, and how, without help from our im- poverished L.M.S., we were ever to feast all our guests. The ingenuity of our helpers was taxed to the utmost in devising ways and means of lessening the numbers without offence, and the kind good sense of the people themselves was also very apparent. Hundreds came 1^ i^«4i^ i\4 '- . - . «. -,f- .-iL^^ ^HHI ^^^fpj^yi .H:-VJI:\;.^f ^IBk^ ^Hvt nUJC^ -FIRST .ARRIVALS. -WE ESCORT THE GENERAL GAILY IX. A GREAT DAY IN TSANG CHOU. 109 who would not take food and went away empty to save us expense ; a leading man in the city brought his tablet himself to save us the tip to the bearer ; and the General in command of this district, General Mei's successor, sent great quantities of expensive delicacies in advance, ordering the men who brought them to make plain that unless they were accepted in toto he himself would not come near the place. One's recollections of the day itself are rather mixed, and distinctly difficult to make clear to others in a brief account like this. First at any rate, there was sunshine, a glorious sunny day. Then there was the bustle of final preparation before the guests arrived. The food-shop people, with whom we had contracted for the feast, were up all night getting ready, and busy still from dawn and daybreak on till dark again. A contingent of soldiers arrived from General Jen to keep order and line a way through the crowd. These gradually increased till there must have been sixty, all to be fed, but not a man too many. Our servants in the houses were busy cooking food, since we were each to give a foreign dinner to the great ones, fifteen in M.'s house and fifteen in mine. He enter- tained the military, and I the civil magnates, whilst the rest of the guests were accommodated in the hospital, the women's waiting room being reserved for the use of our Mohammedan friends, who had also special kitchen, special cooks and special food. A large mat-shed in the men's compound G ta"^*° increased our available space, but in spite of all we could do our utmost capacity was exceeded, and it says a great deal for all concerned that a thousand guests were feasted on that first day without any visible sign of impatience or discontent. Our helpers must have been nearly dropping with fatigue, M.'s no THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. ankle had not recovered from a severe sprain, the guests were too numerous to receive individual attention, and many had to wait long for their food, but throughout the day there were courtesy and smiles on every side, and all seemed genuinely pleased with the whole course of events. An hour or two before noon the chief guests began to arrive, and amid the hum and bustle of fast -gathering crowds of spectators, the noise of Chinese music, the brazen bray of the General's " foreign " band, the constant rattle of crackers, and the dust from ten thousand feet, M. and I stood for hours to receive a never-ending stream of visitors, and bent our British backbones as neatly as we could in response to the graceful undulations of group after .group of well-wishers. All classes were represented in those Renresent d throngs that gathered to do us • honour. The civil officials were headed by the magistrate himself, who laughingly " opened " the big front door of the waiting-room with a key handed to him for the purpose. The mihtary officials were there, led by the General in person. The Manchu garrison and colony was also represented, and its Commandant was perhaps the most demonstrative of our many friends that day. The gentry of the city were present in full force, and celebrated the occasion by bringing a huge tablet upon which was engraved the new name by which they have chosen to designate us, and by which our compound here is in future to be known. The name is " L6 Shan Yuan," and may be translated into English as : " The compound of those who delight to do good," a name eminently suitable and proper for a Christian mission station, but one that needs a lot of living up to if it is not to be said with a sneer. This tablet now adorns our big north gate. GENERAL JEN A GREAT DAY IN TSANG CHOU. in But the guests we were most delighted to see and entertain were the middle class folk of the city and district, whom it is so important and difficult to reach and enlighten under ordinary circumstances. And of these there were hundreds and hundreds, the humbler literati, the shopkeepers, bankers, well-to-do farmers, village elders and headmen of village groups from all the countryside. There were also city gentry from Yen Shan, the Ahungs, or priests of the Mohammedan mosques, the chief and staff of the local vegetarians, the education officials of the city, as well as former patients and other humble friends, who squeezed through the crush, as they found opportunity, to present their congratulations face to face. Even the very beggars had clubbed together to bring a token of their goodwill, led by their interesting chief, whose life has more than once been prolonged through our medical work here in Tsang Chou. No doubt the gift received in return would more than pay their expenses, but we did not feel inclined just then to criticise too severely. The walls were gay with hangings long before the festivities closed — men's waiting-room, eye ward, big ward, special surgical ward and dressing-room being hung all round with silks and satins, red cloth, and scrolls inscribed with gilded characters in phrases gilded too. The magistrate's tablet for the big hospital gate is a real work of art, and its inscription may perhaps be best translated as : " Benevolence, equal and universal." Altogether we received twelve tablets, about sixty large hangings, a number of scrolls and quantities of food, the last being all used up in the course of the festivities. The dinners in our respective houses were pronounced a great success, the guests having reached satiety with whole courses yet untouched. Mr. M. and I as the 112 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. hosts, not only of those who feasted in our houses, but of all the others too, were continually being called away to receive new comers, or to visit the wards where relays of guests were feasted the whole day through. In the men's lafge waiting room, which had been converted for the day into a well-appointed and spacious reception room, we welcomed our guests, received and returned their formal bows of congratulation, and gave tea to as many as could find room there till their feast had been made ready. From here too we sallied out to meet distinguished visitors, and to receive the tablets as they were borne towards us on gaily decorated sedan chairs, whilst my brother, Dr. E. J. P., took snapshots from a post of vantage on the wall. It was in this room too that one of our Chinese helpers read a short address, formally acknowledging all the kindness shown to us and returning appropriate thanks, and then going on to show how originally God made of one family all the dwellers upon earth ; how we had become divided by language, race and climate, prejudice, suspicion, and many a thing beside ; and how we were only now beginning to be united again. This union was the result of Chris- tianity, with its teaching of our common God and Father, our common human need, and our common Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our work here was to make these facts known, and so to further the glory of God, the salvation of men, and the knitting of aU mankind in common bonds of brotherhood and love. This address was exceedingly well received and elicited favourable comments in many quarters. Needless to say it was M.'s idea, and I should like just here to acknowledge how greatly the hospital is indebted to his practical wisdom and labour of love for its present state of effectiveness. A GREAT DAY IN TSANG CHOU. 113 But even Mr. M. could not have managed without the funds from home, and our hearts turn with mingled gratitude and sorrow to Miss Roberts and the other relatives of " Roberts of Tientsin," as we think of the money sent out by them and of their, and our, recent loss in the departure of Dr. Roberts' father to be with his son in the presence of the Lord. There is a silver lining in the thought of that union, surely, that transforms the whole dark cloud. Th Ch • f • ■^"^ ^^^^ ^^^^ account must be stopping. Day. "^'*"* as it is already long. The 17th was the Christians' Day, and the i8th was Ladies' Day, in connection with the women's hospital. We had delightful services with the Christians, who had come from far and near, and the events of the day before acted as a tonic to drooping spirits, and enabled them to reahse that God is indeed directing the affairs of His Kingdom even where so lately all seemed lost. This great function, and its widespread Work*^"^ fame, have brought us prominently before the public of a district the size of Wales, in which this is the only hospital. Our work increases day by day, and our staff is too small to cope with it effectually. We have forty-five beds for in-patients, and have had them all full, and patients sleeping on the floor as well. We did fifty operations in the first three weeks. With no desire whatever, since all is so important, to minimise the need in other places, it is only right that the Board should realise that they now have a hospital in Tsang Chou as large as any they have yet had in North China, with opportunities before it at least as great as any to be found elsewhere. This is of God and not of man, and it is first and last to Him that we look for all needed supplies in staff and funds. Thanks be to Him for all His goodness ! 114 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. It is interesting to note how the women's H * tai""*"* hospital flourishes. The money for this has been collected by Mrs. A. D. Peill, and she hopes to be able to build a larger one as soon as it seems likely that our staff can overtake the work. At present we all have our hands entirely full. There are ten beds for women, and more than twice that number might be taken in had we accommodation and workers enough. These ten beds are constantly full, and increasing numbers of women come freely as out-patients. The ladies of our little circle here see the women daily in the wards, and we have a bible-woman in charge who gives her entire time to work among the patients. God is indeed with us ; there is no doubt of that. It is good to see how your clouds in the Homeland are melting away too. You'll soon be out of debt now, and able to strengthen the hands of those who even now can hardly overtake the work in hand, yet have the haunting vision still before them of work waiting to be done on every side. CHAPTER VI. THE STORY OF I903. TT was with difficulty that we were able to urge on the workmen and have aU ready by the i6th February — the opening day of the hospital. Of the events of that occasion an account has already been written, and a few words must suffice for them here. For that day at least, the foreigners and their good works were prominently before the minds of a great multitude of the people, and we have since found reason to beheve that the good impression then made was both enduring and deep. AU the officials and gentry graced the occasion by their presence, and we had the pleasure of meeting, to the number of some hundreds, with influential men of aU classes, representing the entire hght and leading of the county, besides many hundreds more of our less prominent neighbours, whilst outside was gathered a dense mass of spectators from miles around, who no doubt took mental notes of this change from 1900, of the confidence of their leaders in our work, and of their ap- parently genuine goodwill to ourselves. General and military officers, magistrate and Yamen staff, commandant and leading men of the Manchu colony, Mohammedan priests and nabobs, Confucian scholars and gentry, vegetarians led by their chief, bankers, merchants, farmers, shop-keepers, vUlage elders. ii6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. pawn-brokers, beggars, all were there, and new ideas to the advantage of our work must have been seething in their minds as they saw the extensive preparations for the healing of the sick, heard something of our deeper reasons for being here, and united in cordial fellowship with representatives of the despised " Jesus-religion," to find them at least well-meaning, and considered by some of their leading men to be worthy of respect. Gratifying as all this was it is easy to make too much of it, and it is with truer satisfaction that one reviews the work of the year, and realises that the impressions produced on that auspicious day have been widened and deepened since. The only hospital in an area the size of * " Wales, our scope has not been small. Disease in its protean forms recks no more of caste and creed here than it does in other places. City and hamlet, mansion and hovel, own its fell sway in Tsang Chou too. So the general comes for treatment for his ear, and sends an officer to the wards with malaria, and a couple of privates to be cured of bullet-wounds. A Mohammedan nabob brings a wife with indigestion, and a deaf friend who proves to be a eunuch from the palace in Peking. A colonel of troops quartered near us adopts this as his regimental hospital, and the doctor as physician to his home. A queer old Manchu mandarin, a bit of a quack himself, asks for cures for headache and earache, and a preventive of boils, and sends two httle empty bottles for other useful drugs. The gentry in the city are besieged by acquaintances for unnecessary intro- ductions to their friend the doctor, and are thus continually being reminded of our work and brought into contact at first-hand with the results. A prominent banker has a child with hare-lip ; the leading pawnbrokers have defective eyesight and want spectacles ; their head clerk o THE STORY OF 1903. 117 has a cataract ; the Mohammedans are always j&ghting, and their wounded are brought here ; well-to-do homes see dark clouds of trouble lift with the saving of an opium suicide ; a traveller from Manchuria, returning from work on the railway, falls seriously ill on the road, and is glad to be taken in and cared for till strong enough to resume his journey; pitiful wrecks of humanity haunt the hospital gate, and are sometimes greatly the better for food and clothes, treatment and teaching received within its walls ; a notorious robber comes under good influence while seeking to " lie low " under our wing ; runaway carts and badly fractured limbs end in weeks of unexpected instruction for two respectable old farmers ; and a bullet from the rifle of a Manchurian brigand results, after many months, in special opportunities of Bible study for a proud Confucian scholar. Indispensable To the Yamen and the magistrate we are to the fast becoming indispensable. Cases of Magistrate. assault and battery, of terrible injury in- flicted in fits of unreasoning fury, of brothers mutually slashed in order to bring trouble on a third man at whose door their wounds are laid, these, and such as these, involve a county magistrate in a maze of anxiety and trouble in a country where crime and violence are attributed to his incompetence, and made a pretext, if not for his removal, then at least for extorting a bribe. A few deaths may well spell ruin, and he welcomes the institution which tends to minimise his risks, and feels grateful when he sees, restored to ruddy health a man upon whose gaping wounds, not many weeks before, he had gazed with somewhat gloomy apprehension. Of such medico-legal cases we have had a variety. One man, roused from his mid-day sleep by the knife of a drunken neighbour, had received ten different wounds. Another, brought in chains, was drawing near to death. ii8 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. not on account of the wound which maimed himself, but because the hfe of the man he fought was flowing fast away. The face of a poor young woman had been pushed into boiling oil by a coward who had quarrelled with her husband ; and the latter, in trying to save her, was badly scalded too. She made a surprising recovery, and her husband too healed well. These were only a few of our Yamen patients, but space fails to tell of the rest, among whom were personal friends of the magistrate, subordinate officials, and even the poor wretch who gives the beatings, and is ready, for a small consideration, vicariously to receive them too ! The patients in general came from a dozen D ""^ *c ti counties, with stray cases from perhaps as many more, nor were even Europe and America neglected, since we had, as visitors, a German judge from Kiao Chou, who formerly resided in New Guinea, and admired Chalmers and the Governor Macgregor ; a member of the Italian Army Medical corps and two Italian priests ; a director of Messrs. Pearson and Son, on a journey of inspection with his wife ; members of that Company's staff in Honan ; and, not to mention any others, our friend, Mr. Edmund Cousins, of Tienstin ; whilst it was our privilege to care for, on his journey to Peking, a sick member of the A.P.M. in Chi Nan Fu. Opportunities like these mean responsibility, and of many crowding questions there are two that demand reply. (i) What have we stood for to all these folk ? What we have It gladdens one's heart to answer that we stood for. have stood for Jesus Christ, and for the truth and beauty of His religion. One man notices the harmony and cheery mutual helpfulness of the entire hospital staff, and makes a THE STORY OF 1903. 119 mental note of the difference between this and the state of things in the large business with which he is connected. He is struck by the way we pray, and starts doing so himself, morning, noon and night. Many a patient and patient's friend looks wonderingly on while some poor, foul, ulcered Hmb, or a dirty, mal- odorous wound is gently cleansed and dressed, and associ- ates, perhaps unconsciously, what he has seen and will see again, with what he daily hears. A friendly magnate from the city brings a nephew of Chang Chih Tung to call. In the course of a look round the hospital and a visit to the wards, one notices their use of medicinal snuff, and a disinclination to breathe whilst in sight of the bandaged inmates. " Are you not afraid of falling sick yourself ? " they ask. " Isn't it infectious ? " " I'd like to see a whole day's work," says one, " but wouldn't I run a risk ? " Risk or no risk, this foreigner runs it here and thus for the sake of Jesus Christ. " What is this religion of Jesus that brings an utter stranger to tend the sick and suffering, whom we ourselves, their countrymen, neglect without a thought ? " That question is not asked in words as yet, but a seed has been sown, and God is the husbandman. A beggar, exhausted with dysentery, lies down beside the road to curl up and die like a dog. The chief thought of his " neighbour," upon whose land he lies, is to hustle him somewhere else before his breath is gone, so that another than he may incur the burial expenses and pay the " squeeze " extorted by the local constable. This little wavelet from the sea of China's misery has washed up, however, by a lighthouse. Kind hands carry the poor wastrel in, and his last hours pass in peace. There is no unseemly strife over Ms quiet burial, and to some of those who talk it over afterwards, even a beggar has become, to some extent, a brother for whom Christ died. 120 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. In opposition to the widespread ideas of foreign immorality has been estabhshed surprising confidence in our work for the gentler sex, and the readiness shown by respectable women to come as in-patients, and undergo even severe operations, has been one of the most hopeful and encouraging features of our work. Few things help so quickly to break down prejudice, and start men talking soul to soul, as a surgical deliver- ance from loathsome disease when accompanied by kindly interest and attention. One old man with early cancer of a long loose under-lip, arrived one day by appointment just as all had been prepared. He took chloroform easily and suffered no discomfort on awaking, so that, within perhaps an hour of arrival, he was sitting up on his bed in the ward examining his somewhat tight but comely lip. " Well," said he, in complete bewilderment, " that man must really be a god. I only came here a little while ago, and here I am already as good as cured, nor have I even felt a single twinge." He listened gladly to the preaching whilst his sewn lip healed together, and in a few days left for his village, but with new thoughts both of the True God who is a Spirit, and of the way in which He must be worshipped by those who seek His face. A poor young fellow, almost friendless and far from home, needed constant attention when he developed violent fever in addition to a surgical pomplaint. One night, as, whilst the others slept, his uneasy, aching limbs were being sponged, he said, with tears in his eyes, that no one had ever cared like that for him before, and in broken accents went on to say that he believed in Jesus and knew He must be good. It would be easy to multiply examples of what our presence here has meant, but space forbids any more. IHE STORY OP 1903. 121 There have been times when one wondered whether, in view of the crowds of inquirers left untaught for lack of workers, the medical mission was not largely a waste of time and strength, but longer experience brings the conviction that this work too is good, and that God has need of the hospital as well as of out-station classes. Our presence and work are a great apologetic for our doctrine, and Sunday after Sunday, as well as in daily preaching, we hear our hospitable wards and willing hands appealed to as proofs and examples of Christ's teaching, and find them received as cogent arguments by many types of men. (2) Are there signs that our work is not vain ? Signs that I* is cheering to have found at least our work some, though we know there are many is not vain. others that the future will yet reveal. There is, for instance, the old man, a lukewarm believer for years, who came in almost fainting one day in March, his clothes all drenched with blood. His head had been run over by a heavy manure cart, and how he ever survived to tell the tale, let alone to come on foot four miles to the hospital, going faster than the cart could follow, is yet a mystery. He was still crying " Father, Father " with his failing breath, as he had done all the way, when we put him under chloroform and repaired his injuries. Within twenty-four hours he was trying to sit up, full of enthusiasm for God who had heard his cries. This only deepened as he found his hostile wife and family softening under Christian influence during their attendance on him here, and his delight and gratitude were so spontaneous and unaffected that the whole ward came in some degree to share it, and his own is not the only family for whom those days in hospital were the beginning of better things, whilst he himself has done a lot of earnest preaching and we hope will still do more. 122 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. We are slow to baptise inquirers, and in this matter the hospital is no exception to the other branches of the mission. But one man, who had been in an extra long time, was baptised at Christmas-time, and a good few more may be looked on as hopeful inquirers, as well as several women. Much good work has been done in teaching the patients to read, and as the book used is the catechism, frequent opportunities arise for explaining the Gospel. Many patients leave with a fair working knowledge of the elements of Christianity, whilst many more can repeat from memory a varying number of its pages. There can be no doubt as to the genuineness of much of the interest awakened, and we badly need efficient means of following up the good work thus begun. Amongst others, an of&cer in a neighbouring regiment was deeply though quietly influenced. A bright, winning youngster from Chi Kou (the village on the coast to which we escaped in 1900), was eager in committing to memory the catechism as well as several hymns, and long before he left could repeat all, word for word, and sang quite cheerily. A home, half-way to Yen Shan, was opened to the gospel through a sweet blind maiden of seventeen, whose sight was restored after several opera- tions, and whose family are now not only grateful but ready to welcome the planting of an out -station in their village had we only a worker to send. But even where spiritual results are not seen there cannot but be pleasure in recalling the relief we have been able to give from aggravated physical distress. One thinks of two women with huge tumours of the gums, who for years had suffered miserably from disease and attempted cure in perhaps nearly equal degree. Who can tell the satisfaction of setting such prisoners free, or THE STORY OF 1903. 123 think, without heartfelt gratitude, of their gratitude and joy. An old lady who had been blind for twenty years started pummelling those about her when she found her sight restored, out of sheer and otherwise inexpress- ible delight. A small boy with stone in the bladder was relieved by its removal from intense and daily agony, and his poor mother, whose soul had for years been thereby tortured, had no words to express her thanks. The pathetic and dog-like thankfulness of a poor, simple house-drudge, neglected by her husband, and sup- planted by a rival on account of blindness from cataract now successfully removed, only serves to emphasise the hard lot of China's women, though one cannot but be glad that her rival having become blind also, her selfish but crushed old husband was only too glad to welcome her home. It was some satisfaction also to be able to remove a cataract for a near relative of General Fan, who, after such splendid service against the Boxers, came to so sudden and untimely an end in 1900 at the hands of our Indian troops. There is surely encouragement also in the proofs given during the year by the officials and gentry of Tsang Chou of their friendship and appreciation. And among them we think especially of the late magistrate, Ming Ta Lao Yeh. His recent and sudden death came as a blow to us all, and we joined the gentry of the city with genuine sym- pathy in paying tribute to his memory. We know on the best authority that this man repeatedly and emphatically commended ourselves, our work and our religion to the crowds who attended his courts, and that he exhorted the gentry to keep up our mutual good 124 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. relations, and to see that they helped us all they could, as our presence in Tsang Chou was for the good of the city, and our work deserved support. Not long before his death he spoke of instituting a subscription list on our behalf, which suggestion has not been forgotten, but seems likely to bring us welcome help before many months are over. One day last summer a man came hurriedly to tell me that the magistrate had arrived and was looking over the hospital. He had come without any ceremony and was in the wards and speaking to the patients before any of the helpers knew it. He told one of the better- class patients that he ought to give a good subscription to our funds, and was apparently pleased with his inspec- tion, as he was most cordial in his appreciation, and the same day sent four sacks of millet to be used as we thought best. On another occasion he sent twenty taels of silver (£2 IDS.), and he undertook to be responsible for the death of any paupers who might come to us in desperate or moribund condition. When cholera was threatening he came to ask our help, and wanted information concerning simple rules and remedies which he might publish widely through the district. Quite recently a neighbouring county magistrate has expressed a desire that we should start both school and dispensary work in his city also, and it is not difficult to trace the source of his information. The present official has only lately come, but he is very distinctly friendly, and we have already been able to help him in the case of the knife-gashed brothers referred to above. A sad death under chloroform might have been serious also in its results on our work, had it not been for the THE STORY OF 1903. 125 prompt and ready aid of a city elder, who spared neither time nor trouble on our behalf. It was a silver lining to the cloud, that, when the disquieting news was made known in the wards, not a single patient left us, and indeed their chief idea seemed to be concern at this trouble for the staff. ... . „ But a still more striking demonstration Mission House x -j j ■, ■ ■■ .,, on Fire. Widespread and genmne goodwill was afforded by an event, which, fortunately for us, turned out more alarming than serious. One Sunday, just before service, the Murrays' house was found to be on fire. The smoke was soon traced to its source, a smouldering beam in the roof, which had just been safely extinguished, when, emerging into the daylight by a hole cut through to the loft, we found our compound the centre of converging streams of people. The fire alarm had sounded in the suburb close at hand, and had gone from street to street to the furthest parts of the city. Within a bare half-hour a colonel had arrived with horsemen from a couple of miles away, sent by the general to keep order and see that no looting was done. Within the hour several fire-brigades had come upon the scene, whose swarming crews and gaudy banners, twelve-foot poles and quaint old pumps, made a scene to be remembered as they mustered near the gate. We found that firemen's etiquette allowed no brigade to leave until their brother firemen had arrived, so that it was not till we had greeted and formally tendered our thanks to the leaders of five different but massed brigades, that at last the crowds dispersed, and we were free to wash our blackened faces and see to the entertainment of some of the city fathers who had come post-haste to our rescue as soon as they heard the news. 126 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. As at the opening ceremony, here again we found all sections of society represented, and Vegetarians, Mohammedans, Manchus and Chinese proper united to help us in our need. Some of the gentry were heads of the different fire brigades and came in undress uniform so as better to lend a hand in fighting the flames. We cannot be too thankful however that their aid was not required, and it only remains to add that no tipping was needed or looked for, and that next day's round of calls, for formal thanksgiving, served as a unique and profitable introduction to Chinese society ways for our new and welcome colleague. But when all is said and done as to the B "^"k t" work of the hospital in Tsang Chou, one is only too painfully aware that our work, in proportion to the need, is much less than a drop in a bucket. Vast areas are scarcely touched, though within a half-day's journey, and other means must be used if they are to be reached. A journey to our southern counties before the hospital was opened both showed us what might be done and to some extent how to do it. A little feeble dabbling by untrained but earnest evangelists has met with such success, both medically and otherwise, as to make us long more than ever for an itinerating and branch-dispensary system, but the inexor- able demands of the hospital have tied us tightly down. The need is as vast as China, the opportunities as numerous as her people, hut, until a medical colleague is forthcoming, we are tied hand and foot to our base. A few miscellaneous notes must bring o es an ^-^s report to a close, and first a word of praise to the four young assistants, whose steady intelligent industry and willing mutual help have THE STORY OF 1903. 127 done so much to ensure success for our work and a ready hearing for our message. Our hospital evangehst and gatekeeper are good fruits of Dr. Smith's work in Tientsin, and even the very cooUes are Christians in more than name, so that we have worked more as a happy family than as a mere hospital staff, and our morning meetings for bible study and prayer have conduced to this result also. A class has been held for the assistants along modified ambulance lines, and they have made considerable progress in efficiency and independence. Our rule to admit as assistants only men guaranteed by their church makes it difficult to add to their number, though it greatly increases their worth. Doctor and assistants alike have had their regular share of the preaching, to both out and in-patients, whilst other native helpers and the Rev. D. S. Murray have given us their greatly valued aid. The matron in the women's wards has done the preaching there, with very welcome help from Mrs. Murray. During the year we have built a commodious and very convenient inn, which is also a food-shop for the patients and an annexe to the wards, and the funds are now in hand for isolation rooms, thanks to the cheering and generous efforts of friends in Edinburgh. There is clamant need for an opium refuge (cost about £70), and still more for a branch dispensary in Yen Shan which would cost about the same. The private wards of the hospital have been used for the women's quarters, and though there are funds for a women's hospital (increased this year by a legacy of ;fioo), we have been so pressed with the work already in hand that we do not feel justified in increasing our in-patient accommodation till there is promise of further skilled aid. Here again a medical colleague is a real and pressing need. 10 128 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The health of the foreign staff this year has been considerably broken, and would probably have been worse but for rest at Pei Tai Ho. Amongst the hospital employees also there have been break-downs from over- work. The presence of my brother, Dr. Ernest, and his wife, during the early months of the year, was a source of strength to us all ; and though poor health and work at the language prevented any regular help in the hospital, there was more than one occasion when a patient in dire need was saved by the hands of two men where one alone might have failed. The end of the matter is hope and joy. Joy in spite of unworthiness — hope in face of the need. We are thankful on every remembrance of God's wonderful goodness in the past, and look forward trustfully to the future, knowing that He awaits us there and will provide for us according to His love. ,._THE DOCTOR'S HAPPY HOME. 2.— HIS TREASURES. CHAPTER VII. LETTER WRITTEN IN I904. TT sometimes seems to me as if a missionary's life were a very full one, which touches other lives at an uiiusual number of points and angles, but no doubt every life must appear very complex when we sit down and think over the influences radiating from it to the world around, or converging upon itself from its own environment. We hear a lot now-a-days about x-rays and n-rays, and various other kinds of silent, little-understood though none the less potent influences, but surely these become of almost minor interest when we think of the rays emanating from our own and other lives, whose action and reaction God alone can follow, but which, in silence though irresistibly, are changing our inmost souls. Here are we, a little company of Britons, The Compound. ^ , ., .. , , occupying a group of buildings enclosed with a compound, from which some of us at least, hardly stir from one week's end to another. Within these waUs are houses, garden, hospital, chapel, stables, carpenters' shop, girls' school, servants' rooms, workers' rooms, wells for water, tennis court, and other things too numerous to mention. To it come Christians from the out-stations, and to attend the various services, scholars for the school, patients for the hospital, teachers for the language, 129 I30 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. learners, sellers of cloth and plants and flour, and Would-be contractors for buildings and bricks, as well as officials and city folk coming to visit, or bringing their visitors to have a look round. A good many foreigners drop in in the course of six months, mostly missionaries travelling to and from Tientsin, but also various others of differing nationality. It is a resort of city bankers wanting cheques in exchange for their silver, of inquisitive villagers who gaze open-mouthed at all they see, of small boys to tease the monkey and run off with fruit and flowers, of stray dogs after meat scraps, and cats after chickens, whilst a pole cat has designs on the children's rabbits, and hfe's monotony is varied for the ladies by an occasional harmless snake. Within this charmed enclosure we find most of our recreation : the cycle track is a path round the front garden, our tennis-court a well made threshing floor, trees do as targets for a Chinese bow and arrows, and the houses are convenient goal posts for the football when one wants a little exercise in winter. In fact it's really wonderful what a lot of interest can be found in this place, and one only hopes the coolies may find their compound as interesting in South Africa, though I fear they hardly will. Win and Dorothy find the compound a garden of delights. Here they dig their heap of sand, pull about or are pulled by refractory sheep and lambs, bury their poor dead chicks, find food for their rabbits, fraternise with the cowmen, help mother to pick the flowers, try to keep away from the well, and, when Uncle Ernie comes, are borne round in happy triumph on his bike. I mentioned their sheep and lambs, and thereby hangs a tale, perhaps I should say hang tails, though certainly not taels. Dorothy was passionately devoted to those O LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 131 lambs, and prayed for them every night : " O Lord," she was heard to say, " do bless them and keep them safe. Peep round the corner Lord, and see that they're all right ; they're in beside the carriages." Not long after, the cowman brought a second sheep along, which Dorothy soon included in her petitions, feeling sad that it was lambless and forlorn. So she asked that it might " have two wee lambs, like Gipsy " (the other sheep), and sure enough, when she went out in the morning the queer little lambs had come, to her own and Win's unspeakable dehght. But when she thought next of the monkey, and prayed for two babies for it, the monkeys didn't come. Her heart was so filled with the lambs though that she soon got over that, and perhaps the monkey wasn't so lonely after all. They are a bright, happy little couple, my two small daughters (now respectively five and three), and they fill the house with interest and sunshine. Their mother and Miss MacPherson are hopelessly cracked on them, and you'll be thinking I am also if I go on longer thus. But it's only fair that little Win should have a line as well. A few days before Messrs. Cousins and Bolton reached us in the course of their tour, Mr. M. was hurrying on some building to be used for the accommodation of Christians from out-stations. He spoke in simple language, adapting his explanations to her limited capacity, whilst he told of the gentlemen who had come across the sea and would soon be here, etc. " Oh," said Win, " we call them the Deputation ! " At present I am here alone as regards the foreign staff, the rest being at Pei Tai Ho, by the sea. We took the ladies and children there when we went to Tientsin in June to attend the Annual Meetings. M. and I returned thereafter, but he has since been ill, and I was 132 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. glad to get him away from here for a thorough rest and change. Malaria and dysentery were the final agents in his breakdown, but he has not been his usual self for months. It doesn't pay to keep stations undermanned, and the best men are the ones who suffer most thereby. The L.M.S. owns two cottages at Pei Tai Ho which we and the M.'s are renting. It is splendid for the babies to meet so many other foreign children, and to have the change to sands and hills and sea from the monotony of life even in this compound. In fact, it's good for us all, and I am hoping for a month of it myself before starting in to the heavy work of another winter. The hospital nominally closed almost a week ago, but a couple of in-patients are not yet fit to leave, and I'm staying on to write up accounts and records and catch up with my correspondence, as well as to put in some Chinese study and extra classes with my assistants. Am also buying timber for the women's hospital and for rooms for the assistants, and have been nearly the whole of this morning over details of locks and hinges, varnish, glass, oil and paint, sizes of windows and all the rest of it, with our head carpenter and the accountant. We were interrupted in the middle by a friendly visit from the postmaster, and the young English-speaking telegraphist from the city who would be delighted if someone would help him to talk better. The garden is full of flowers just now, but is rather too much for the gardener, and is luxuriously untidy in con- sequence. In June the hollyhocks were lovely, long rows of them, growing six feet high, and all shades from pure white to dark crimson. Pinks, convolvulus, pomegranate blossom, yellow lilies, honeysuckle, portu- lacca, sunflowers and zinnias are the most abundant of the summer flowers, whilst in spring we have roses, lilac LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 133 and fruit-blossom, and in autumn King Chrysanthemum reigns supreme. We rear our own chrysanthemums from last year's plants, and have literally scores of healthy babies, which by autumn will be beautiful plants for potting, each with five or six large blooms. Labour is cheap, and our gardener fond of his work, so we can do much at little expense, whilst the vegetable garden justifies itself. Each year sees us further out of the Foreign depths of inland China, and nearer to the world in which you live. Besides the telegraph we have now a daily post, timed to leave Tientsin one daj?' and reach here the next. We hear the whistles of steamboats on the canal, though these are not yet available for ordinary passenger traffic. And a German engineer of the Tientsin-Chinkiang railway, who came some days ago for medical treatment, tells me we would have trains running between here and Tientsin within eighteen months were the final negotiations only satis- factorily concluded. The station is to be on the other side of city and canal from us, but from it we should be able to reach Tientsin in a few hours, instead of say forty- five. One day last February, Mr. Wilson from Peking came to Tsang Chou from Tientsin on his bike, and after a a week-end here, did the return journey in seven hours — supposed to be eighty miles — but that was very good going, and he was in fine condition. Another of our foreign visitors was Mrs. Bryson of Tientsin, who has written the L.M.S. gift book for 1904, on the North China Martyrs of 1900. She came here for material, our mission in Yen Shan and the surrounding districts being, perhaps, the richest mine of martyrology in China. M. helped her very considerably out of 134 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. our record, compiled in Chinese for the Church, and I gave her numerous photos, some of which may appear in the volume. Mrs. Bryson, with her son and Mr. M., visited some of the places most intimately connected with the martyrs and conversed at first-hand with some of the folk who remain. Dr. W. A. Young and his wife from Moiikden have also been our guests, and the latter was the last non- Russian lady to leave that city after the war broke out. They have interesting stories of the Russians, which however I mustn't stop to tell. We sometimes see Dr. Arthur Smith in his travels to and fro, and always enjoy his flsdng visits, as he is even more interesting than his books. (" Chinese Character- istics," " Village Life in China," etc.) The last to be mentioned in this connection is Dr. J. M. Robson, of the Methodist New Connexion Mission. His story is worth a letter to itself. He left Tientsin on his bike last spring for the inland station, near Lao Ling, where their annual meetings were held this year, arriving just before they closed. Nothing daunted by his previous difficulties he set off on the same machine to Chi Chou, where my brother E. J. is stationed. Again he was long on the road, yet again he determined to persevere. So, after a day or two in Chi Chou, he started out for here. His tyre speedily punctured on the outskirts of an immense country fair, where he was hustled by the inquisitive and somewhat mischievous spectators of his efforts at repair, and might have found things very awkward had he not been carried off, before them all, by one of the Chi Chou Christians, who came along with his cart. This good Samaritan took bike and rider to his home, from whence Dr. Robson came on the next morning and reached us four days later, having in five LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 135 days walked and pumped, and repaired and ridden about 100 miles. After a short rest here he again essayed to continue, but his tyre burst beyond hope of cure with a bang like a pistol shot. He then decided to return with the Brysons by boat down the Grand Canal, so, after a pleasant little visit which we at least enjoyed, he set out again in peace. But even now that peace was not to continue, and before Tientsin was reached his boat was sunk by collision with a heavy river-junk. He managed how- ever not only to escape himself, but also to rescue the boatman's wife who would otherwise have perished, and eventually got all his things saved except his coat and hat. This loss necessitated an unrehearsed arrival in blanket and towel rig, but he finally reached his home in safety, where he developed mild but annoying smallpox ! It was an eventful journey. Chinese New Year brings a break in our Chinese Callers ug^al routine which is always looked New Year forward to with pleasure. This year it fell in the middle of February, and was more than ordinarily welcome, because it brought my brother and his wife on a visit to us from Chi Chou. They travelled by cart, the canal being frozen, and it was good to see them again. The days just after the first of the month are busy days in China. Calls and callers are the order of the day, and one must be prepared to do nothing else for almost an entire week. On New Year's Day itself come the servants, the workers about the compound, hospital staff patients, and batches of neighbouring Christians, who solemnly ask for each of the family and solemnly bow to each in turn, saying : " New happiness, new happiness." The recipient bows in reply and wishes : 136 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. " The same to you," whilst the babies look in in great surprise and wonder whatever's up. Then, on the second, begins the official calUng. All day long carts come rumbling at intervals through the gate, big red cards are sent before them, and in robes of fur and satin which make our clothes look poor, city dignitaries are ushered in, and the smiling and bowing begins. We bow too and wish them happiness, wrangle politely over seats, pour out tea mid protesta- tions, urge to cake and sugared biscuits, and after a little talk on current topics, a sip of tea, and further bows, we escort our caller to his chariot, whilst he seeks to turn us back from every door. It is all very interesting at first, and one sometimes gets a chance to sow a seed, but after some days it palls upon one very badly, especially as we have to receive each guest in our great coats and fur caps as a kind of con- cession to their inborn, and quite intelligible, idea that short and tight clothes are disrespectful, since to them they mean undress, whilst calling rig should be full dress parade. As I say it gets monotonous, and as one cannot settle to any steady work it is not surprising that when, after many calls, B. had delightedly taken off his outdoor garments and settled in an easy chair to read, my mis- chievous young brother should alter his voice, and in loud Chinesey tones in the adjoining guest-room ask, as guests sometimes did ask, for our colleague. When one thinks of the book and pipe once more wearily laid aside, and of smile and warpaint donned again at this further call of duty, it seems natural that jeers and derision should end in a tussle on the floor, and one is only thankful that all was straight again by the time the next friend called. You see we're youngsters still in heart, though I am thirty now. LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 137 But we also go and call ourselves, and that is perhaps more interesting. Quaint little interviews they are, and you'd laugh if you could see us. Such bowing and wrangling, and pushing and excusing over who shall go first through a doorway, over seats and the seat of honour, over tea and who shall pour it, over escorting and how far the host shall come. It really is most ludicrous, till one gets used to it, and then it seems the natural thing to do. And the interesting talks ! For instance, a new Manchu commandant has come, ignorant, bigoted and stiff. But he finds we are in good odour here and receives us politely when we call. One day in conversation M. was speaking of the treatment of the wounded and non-combatants in war, and showing how the Chinese suffered by not conforming to international usage in this respect, e.g., in 1900. He said that some of the Chinese officials hadn't even a glimmering of light on the question, and instanced how during the China-Japan war in 1895, whilst helping to organise Red Cross work, he had had occasion to interview the then Tientsin Taotai on the subject. He had explained to that able worthy, who is now one of China's most prominent men, that the object in view was to succour the Chinese wounded, when his hearer burst in with the surprised inquiry : "Why, but of what use are the wounded ? They can't fight." (Im- plying : " Let them die.") " Yes, of course," assented our Manchu : " what use are they anyway ? " So the wind was taken clean out of M.'s sails for the moment, as he'd expected a very different answer, from brain, if not from heart. When the old gentleman returned our call I was careful to show him round the hospital, and I think he was impressed. Anyway he showed up well over the deputation's send-off, as you'll see if you have patience to read on. 138 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Opium is the curse of many of the gentry. One day I had four young scions of the local families here, who came together to thank me for an amputation successfully performed on a youth in whom they were interested. During a brief talk they all confessed to opium smoking, entirely of their own accord, said also that they wished to get rid of it, and asked if I could take them in and break it off. But I had to say I had no accommodation, though I hope some day we shall. They couldn't be treated satisfactorily along with the other in-patients, even if the wards had not been full, but need a separate building and strict supervision and seclusion. The magistrate's daughter-in-law came several times for treatment, and on one occasion her husband and brothers accompanied her. The four brothers were sons of a neighbouring official, and I was interested to learn that they were on their way to Tientsin, to join various schools in connection with the new education so generally in vogue there now. I had a good straight talk with them about life in Tientsin, its dangers, and the Saviour, whilst Mrs. M. and A. entertained their sister and her companion. Some of you will be sorry to hear of the death of General Mei, the man who had so much to do with our escape in 1900. He died at his post in the province of Shantung, and we sent funeral scrolls to jhis family. How much he really understood of Christian truth I do not know, but he himself told me how he read our Christian books at night when he couldn't get to sleep, not to act as soporifics of course, but because he was genuinely interested. One comes across signs of progress in all igns o directions [now. General Ten, who was so frogress. ' j > friendly over the opening of the hospital, was promoted in the spring, and a bright, young-looking LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 139 officer took his place, who is the type of man Yuan Shih Kai is seeking for his army. This man, General Lei (pronounced Lay), had been to Berlin and Paris in the suite of the Minister to Germany, and keenly regretted that he'd had neither time nor opportunity to visit London too. He was quick and alert in his movements, and also in speech and ideas, and talked away most intelligently upon a variety of topics. He could read and write fluently, which General Jen couldn't, nor were soldiers of the old regime expected so to do. And he had also held civil appointments as well as military. Unfortunately his stay was brief, as he was sent to Paotingfu to drill and organise the new troops for the north as soon as he had reorganised the military affairs in this district. But I got a chance to help him, because in a struggle with a restive horse he sprained his ankle badly, and asked my help to get him better in time to fulfil an important engagement with the Viceroy. He wrote to thank me afterwards, and I hope we did him good. The present General, Tuan, is a pleasant fellow outwardly, independent and outspoken, but I haven't seen much of him yet. He came direct from the seat of war in Manchuria, and had had spies in Port Arthur to find out what the Russian losses really were in that first torpedo attack. We had a striking proof of progress when staying recently with Dr. Hart in Tientsin. His Anglo-Chinese College held its first annual sports while we were there, and to see those young fellows run and jump was really most encouraging. They entered into it all so heartily, ran as hard as ever they could, and cheered each other to the echo. In the open mile a British " Tommy " won, and a big Sikh came in second. They hardly liked to lay hands on the former, though they cheered him lustily, but they closed around the Indian and slapped him on HO THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. the back ! And these young fellows are, many of them, sons of the better-class families in Tientsin. The senior champion was a nephew of the well-known Taotai Tong, and the fathers of many others are influential men. All this was on the Saturday. But it was finer still on the Sunday morning, in the Anglo-Chinese service, to see Dr. Hart's two senior students deliberately mount the platform, and in simple Enghsh, broken by emotion, confess themselves before their fellows as followers of Jesus Christ and believers in His doctrine. The senior champion was in the audience, in spite of rain and stiffness, and perhaps ere this, he too may have made the great decision. Dr. and Mrs. Hart are doing a splendid work. My first assistant is an earnest Christian, with China's best interests at heart, and I like to see the light in his face, and the enthusiasm of the man, when he meets with signs of progress. One time it is as he tells me of a Sunday preaching trip. The six student-assistants were divided into threes, each of which, on alternate Sundays, went to preach in some neighbouring fair or village, until the wheat-harvest was gathered and people became too busy in their fields. His face was simply beaming as he told me how he and his companions had been received on one such trip. Forms and tables were brought out for them, tea prepared, and a crowd assembled, some even leaving their fields. The elders kept their children quiet, and the whole village sat, or stood and listened, whilst the three young disciples gave their message and bore their testimony for the Master. And when the time had come to return they were honourably escorted to the outskirts of the village, and invited to come back and preach again. This is not an isolated instance. Things have changed since 1900, and, the people are willing now to listen and no longer ridicule and cavil as they did. The door is LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 141 standing open that leads to these people's hearts, but the labourers are few. " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest " is the cry on the lips of us all. Will you not join us in this prayer and do what you can to get it answered ? Only recently the same man, Huang Shu Tang, has been to Tientsin and Paotingfu on business, in the first to get our hospital report (Chinese) through the press, and in the second to try and find a teacher for our school. And again he returns with heart on fire, full of praise for what his eyes have seen. New schools in Tientsin, industrial schools, medical college, run by the Chinese themselves, public reading rooms, where all sorts of Chinese newspapers, etc., may be seen and read for a fee of twenty cash (say twopence), a new desire for learning abroad, Christian truth even in English " Readers " from Japan, encouraging edicts from the Empress, large growth in the church in Paotingfu, and substantial progress there towards self-support. All this, and more besides, has made his heart right glad. Perhaps he takes a rosy view, but then the rosy view is the right one ! Disappoint- ments will, no doubt, surely come, but Christ is leading on, and our place is with Him in the fore-front looking forward to certain victory, whilst we know that even the seeming disaster will be over-ruled for good, and that Satan and all his legions are subservient, even in rebellion, to Him whose name we bear. Since the foolishness of 1900 Buddhism in this region has remarkably declined. In recent journeys M. has seen fine temples in decay, and even being puUed to pieces and their bricks and stones built into private houses. It is rare to see a well-kept temple, and even priests are scarce. One of our preachers returning from a great annual temple fair, which has been the headquarters of the incense trade in this region for many years, reports the 142 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. general conviction that both trade and fair are dwindling, and though he still saw many signs of superstition, yet devotees were said to be fewer every year. Men went about there on hands and knees with saddles and bridles like donkeys, or cut pieces out of their thighs as large as the palm of one's hand, quite regardless of streaming blood. Some of these were under vows in regard to a parent's illness, and did it to get them cured. Some were bumping their heads on the ground at every pace they went, others at every ten, with a man to mark the intervals. But even in this stronghold of rampant Buddhism there was interest in Christianity. One old lady in particular was an inter- gJ ^ ° . esting case a propos of this whole question. She was formerly a keen devotee, and had a name for sanctity in the neighbourhood, so much so indeed that she has fifty to sixty women disciples. Our preacher found this lady a most intelligent inquirer after the truth. She had read almost the whole of the Bible, in which she was deeply interested, and asked for further instruction. She was also teaching what she had learnt to her disciples, who spoke of following her if she became a Christian. The preacher, who is apt to look too much on the dark side of Chinese character, was impressed with her sincerity, and is very hopeful about her. But we ought to have someone to send there, and we haven't a worker to spare. Not a single Bible-woman have we who could help that little band, nor even a lady missionary to stay there awhile and teach them, and the preacher who told us of her is full of work elsewhere. He was itinerating, when he came across her in the course of a preaching tour. In the same district, away to the west of Tsang Chou, is another interesting " hopeful." He is a well-to-do merchant who came as an inquirer about a year ago. LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 143 We never could find out much about him till the above preacher visited his home and made inquiries on the spot. Now it appears that in 1900 he was a trusted retainer of a very high and notorious official who came to a bad, but presumably well-merited end in connection with the rising. He was told off by his master to escort a favourite concubine to an appointed place of safety, but when half-way on his journey, sent back all his master's carts and servants, hired others convenient for his purpose, and took the woman off to be his wife. There have since been children of this union, and he is naturally anxious that his deed should be kept quiet. Perhaps some idea of protection may have led him to come to us, especially as the Catholics in his neighbourhood don't scruple to shield their followers. At any rate he soon found we didn't do so, but the truth had entered his heart, and he now seems truly interested and repentant. His brother, well-known as a local bad character, murderer, adulterer, gambler and opium sot, we took into the hospital to break off the opium, at his own and his brother's entreaty. He stuck to the fight manfully and left us cured of that curse. He has since left off his evil ways, frequents no more his old resorts, and has broken with his former bad companions. There is room for the hope that he is really a new man in Christ Jesus, but this only time can prove. It is most interesting to trace the histories of some of these Chinese Christians, even of those who, as they come and go in the compound, seem the embodiment of uneventful commonplace. Take for instance our present gatekeeper. He is the man who, in 1900, whilst still a heathen and with every- thing to lose, bravely took a whole Christian family into his own home for shelter and kept them there through a period of extreme peril, telling his neighbours, who n 144 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. urged and threatened, that he would rather die with these Christians than drive them out. One of those so rescued was the preacher mentioned above, and another is now one of my students in the hospital. After the storm was over the old man became an inquirer, found a Saviour, Who, in turn, rescued him, and has since so " adorned the doctrine," that when a gatekeeper was wanted for this " Compound of those who delight to do good " (the name chosen for us by the city gentry), he was chosen and is proving not unworthy. Our chapel-keeper in the city heard the gospel first from Gilmour, whom he met while on a journey, in Peking. But his business demanded constant travel from place to place and province to province, so that he never saw Gilmour again. But he never forgot what Gilmour told him, and looked for years for another to teach him, till at last he found us here in Tsang Chou, came regularly to the services, became an earnest Christ- ian, and is doing really well. His one desire was that his children and wife might be Christians too, and when the last left out, his youngest daughter, seemed slow in coming in, he was impatient enough to give her a beating to make her hurry up ! You see there is a humorous side to our work, as well as the dark and bright ones, and we have many a laugh or quiet chuckle over quaint and unexpected aspects of life and work in China. Not long ago we had a case of resuscitation from apparent lifelessness by tracheotomy and prolonged artificial respiration. Some time after, in talking of Jairus's daughter and Christ's miraculous power in raising her from the dead. Dr. Horner, our temporary but very welcome lady doctor from Manchuria, said to the women to whom she was speaking : " No mere man could do that, could he ? " " Oh, yes," said one, " Dr. Peill could ! " LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 14S There are three other things I want to ..*' P°^ *^^1 y°^ about as briefly as I can, and then this screed must end. And the first is our feeding of the poor. Last year's harvests were bad, and distress was very general. Starving villagers had no help but to beg, and hunger and hard frost did a deadly work. One Sunday, coming back from our service in the city, we saw two beggars lying dead in the crowded street, one on each side, within a few yards of each other. I asked how long they'd been dead, and was told by a passer-by : " That one was still alive yesterday ! " Somehow or other M. raked together a fund, and for three days at the worst part of the year we let it be known that we'd feed all who came, on condition they brought their own basins and ate their supply on the spot. The rendezvous was our city premises : men in one court, women and children in the other. Oh, those ragged masses of humanity ! The broken basins, and the hungry eyes ! Old, old men, half blind and tottering, the halt, the lame, the blind, and all the rest, were there in many hundreds, 300 the first day, and 700 to 800 on the second and third. A very decent captain or major from the garrison came willingly with a squad to keep order, and managed things quietly but firmly without undue violence or bluster, seeming glad to lend a hand in doing good. Huge boilers were borrowed from a distillery, and a ton and a half of millet made into enormous jars of porridge. From these jars the steaming food was ladled with big tin water-balers, and with these the deacons, and helping Christians, filled the miscellaneous assortment of broken china held out for a supply. Each recipient might come again with empty basin as often as he or she liked, until " Little Mary " had had enough and nature's " abhorred vacuum " was reaJly and truly fiUed. 146 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. It was a real joy to see the smiles on little faces as they found their basins full, or sat down on a handy doorstep to stow away their prize. In fact it was good all round : good for the deacons and Christians to have such work to do, good for us to see it done, good for the hungry ones, and good for the Church, and I think the Church's Lord, who prompted it, must have thought it good too. But it only lasted for three days, and the winter lasts four months ! Others, however, were stirred by this example, and in a smaller degree did ditto, so perhaps some were able to eke it out till the spring wheat brought relief. The second thing is our winter class, -j"*"^ If, outside the Church, the masses were starving for need of daily food, it is equally true that inside the Church the people are starving too, not however in this case for the loaves and fishes, but for the Bread of Life. In the martyrdoms of 1900 nearly all our teachers and deacons were " promoted," and their remnant has necessarily been quite inadequate to cope with the needs of the Churches. And the more so since most of the surviving members were the ignorant and inexperienced ones, who had only quite recently been admitted when the Boxer storm broke. Workers are our clamant need, and everything waits till they come ; preachers, school teachers, Bible-women, deacons, are wanted everywhere. So we shut the hospital a week or two longer at the Chinese New Year holiday, and turned its wards into barracks for the Christians and its waiting-rooms, etc., into class-rooms. A hundred and fifty came in from all directions, and stayed about three weeks, bringing with them their own grain. Of these about forty were women. We all settled down to teach them, and they were divided into classes each meeting every day, and with appointed hours also for private study, meals and general meetings. LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 147 Mrs. M. and my wife took the women with the help of the more intelligent amongst them. The few available preachers had their own classes also, and M. held classes for the workers. I had a class of the more advanced Christians on Matthew's Gospel, and enjoyed it very much. I only hope they got as much good as I did. Besides all this we had morning and evening meetings, singing practice, and special meetings on Sundays. It was a busy, helpful time, and we rubbed in a good deal of doctrine I feel sure, including practical things like regular giving, self-support, and the Christian's duty to his wife and family, his neighbours, his Church and his district, let alone to China and the world at large ! A quiet spirit of hard work and enthusiasm grew up amongst them during those weeks, and some of the general meetings were seasons of special uplift. M. has since, in his journeys, found cause for rejoicing over the results, and one cannot but feel absolutely certain that such steady and earnest sowing must bring in a rich reward. M. is in his element in work of this kind, and the virtue that comes out of him to all those needy souls must certainly have its origin in the Divine, if only because the supply is so constant and timely, so abundant and full of power. But the strain is very great, and both he and Mrs. M. were very tired before the end. My share in the work was varied by one of the servants developing smallpox, and by attempts at isolation, in China, without an isolation ward, a need now so happily rectified, thanks to the kindness of friends in Edinburgh. Since the Chinese have no idea whatever of infection and its dangers, attempts at isolation lead to diversions of various kinds, from scoldings to would-be sympathisers who go in to condole with the sick, to hauling of the vic- tim's attendant out of the crowded and interesting meeting in which he was greatly absorbed, oblivious of the fact £48 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. that he was a danger to the community and disinclined to beUeve it when told. One very promising old man died during the course of the meetings. He was a B.A. (Chinese), and had only recently, after satisfactory probation, been admitted to Church membership. The schoolboys looked forward to the occasion of his baptism because he was so utterly bald, and wore a queue fastened to his cap, but Murray circumvented them by telling the old fellow he need only move his cap a little backwards, as that was quite sufficient. He was in my class, and died after a brief illness (though not as a result of my instruction), and not before I had formed a respect for his zeal and a liking for his simple earnest ways. He had been weakened by the hardship of grinding poverty and leaves a lonely widow. We finished up with a series of exams, in which the results were tested, and the most likely men and women were selected for a continuation class which went on for some weeks longer, and from which the learners eventually went forth to preach in needy districts. The third and last event to be chronicled '^' tation ^^ *^^ ^^^^^ °^ *^^ deputation to our district. They came by boat from Chi Chou, with my brother and his wife as escort, and as they could only spare us a bare five days, two of which were mostly spent in travel, you may guess we had a lively time.* Our guests arrived on Wednesday, May i8th, in the early afternoon, and we met them en famille at the ferry near our compound. The general sent a band to grace the occasion, and with Christians, native helpers, hospital patients and many spectators, we made up a goodly throng. After a quiet, restful evening of conversation and reading and prayer, came a day of hard travel to our * The members of the Deputation were Rev. G. Cousins and Rev. W. Bolton, M.A. I._ARR1VAL OF THE DEPUTATION. z.~ WELCOME TO TSANG CHOU. LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 149 centre, thirty miles off, in Yen Shan. We had previously discussed various methods of demonstrating by painful experience the pleasures of Chinese travel, but in talk they also ended, since our hearts melted in the genial presence of our visitors till we gave our comfortable buckboard for their sole and only use and bumped along in cheerful misery in the cart. At Yen Shan we found ourselves the centre of a quite elaborate show. First came the Christians, some distance out, to greet us, then swarms of other spectators, and then the local garrison who lined out along the road, their banners flying in the breeze, trumpets blowing and men saluting as we passed. The gentry and ofiicials had prepared a special booth, outside the city gate, where the deputation was received with every honour and supplied with cakes and tea. It was very hot and dusty, and as our guests had donned their waterproofs out of deference to the Chinese robes, they really did " suffer hardship " after all. I fear I can laugh very heartily even yet over a picture in my mind of Mr. Bolton perspiring through the crowds and dust in his long black waterproof, and when patience and endurance could stand no more, asking in tones not easily forgotten : " Is this really necessary ? " But I only laugh from sympathy, knowing exactly how he felt from my own similar experiences. It's not easy for a Briton to be " all things to aU men " when the majority of his neighbours are Chinese, if only because our western nature cries aloud for what we deem common-sense, in place of the elaborate externals of decorum and propriety that mean so much out here. The band of local gentry escorted us on foot through a mile or so of streets until we reached our premises, where we in turn provided tea and chatted till they took their leave. One of the courts had been roofed and lined with ISO THEIBELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. matting, and made a commodious hall in which to hold our gatherings. After a call from the colonel of the garrison, just in from a journey round his district, and a meeting for the Christians already in from the outstations, M. and I went the round of the neighbouring inns, which were crowded out with our people from the surrounding towns and villages. Next morning an assembly of nearly 400 gathered in for the big general meeting, and listened with eager interest to the strangers who had come so far. M. and I translated, and both of the visitors spoke, giving messages of strong encouragement and hope. I think the remem- brance of the martyrs had deep hold on all hearts, and it was good for the survivors to hear these new voices in their midst, and to realise the bond of union that exists between themselves here in inland China and their fellow-believers beyond the sea. Some dozen or more were baptised in that meeting, and an air of hopefulness was abroad that augured well for the future and cheered us on in our work. Other events of the day were a most useful and interesting conference with the Chinese helpers, visits to the ruins of our former premises, to the execution ground and to the Church's wheat fields, and a survey of the various buildings in course of erection for mission use. In the early morning, M. and I had called round on all the gentry who had met us the day before, but their considerate and friendly politeness in professing entire unworthiness to receive us enabled us to leave cards at a score of houses, though we only entered one. The ex- ception was the garrison colonel, who received us with every mark of honour and lined up his men to salute us as we left, within a few yards of the little room in that very court where some of our martyrs were confined LETTER WRtTTEM W 1904. 151 before being led out to execution ! The troops that lined out again next morning to speed the departing guests were also within a stone's throw of the execution ground, where human relics are still evident though beyond hope of identification. The return journey was uneventful, but it was pleasant to get back, and I think our compound was appreciated after the discomforts and bustle of the outing. My brother had taken charge of the hospital, which made it possible for me to go away, and I am thankful for the opportunity this afforded for a very instructive trip. After sundry refreshing ablutions a!nd a cup of after- noon tea we gathered in my study to discuss our work and needs. Our views were listened to with sympathy and patience, and jotted in the inevitable books, and we felt we were fellow-workers together in God's service, helping one another to find the best ways of doing His wiU and of bringing to His feet these teeming myriads that surround us here on every hand. The next day, being Sunday, was spent in comparative peace. Messrs. Bolton and Cousins took turns with the services, and in addition there were communion services, the unveiling of a tablet in the wall of our city chapel to the memory of our martyred Tsang Chou preacher, a most interesting conference with native helpers, and an account from Mr. Cousins at night of their journey hitherto. Monday was the busiest day we had, and M. and I began at 7.30 by calling, on behalf of our guests, upon all the leading people of the city. We must have gone round to a score of different places, being politely deemed too great to be asked in, and there were one or two footmen out as well taking cards to others of less degree. " The City " had intimated a desire to send the deputation off in style, but it was etiquette for them to call on the city dignitaries first. So M. and I went instead of them, as 153 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. has just been stated above, and thanks to the kindly pohteness shown, were able to get back in good time. Then I took the deputation over the hospital and talked with them over its work. I badly want a colleague, and they suggest I attempt less work. But it's not for lack of their sympathy, or their kind appreciation, but just because, though Christ expects us each one to do our duty, as yet we are not doing all we can. All this time the Christians had been assembling for the big meeting in the tent, a large mat-house erected for the purpose. There were about 300 present, and again much good was done. After dinner and a rest we were on the move again, and a scene commenced to which I can't do justice. We knew that the city was going to send the depu- tation off, but little did we realise what they were in for. Only a few yards from our gate, and in the middle of the road, we found a table spread with tea and cakes and wine, whilst the neighbours who surrounded it came forward with bows and smiles to urge the dainties upon our visitors and wish them a pleasant journey. This experience was repeated before we reached the ferry, and on the other side began again, till at last we emerged from our suburb upon an open space, and could mount our carts and make some faster headway. But the tables, and well-dressed groups of friendly attendants thereon, began again as soon as we reached the city and continued at short intervals until we reached our chapel. This had been transformed by the Chinese helpers into a fine reception room with handsome carpets and decorative scrolls, hanging lanterns and flowering plants, whilst chairs and tables were set in order round the sides, and an assembly had gathered within its walls that reminded Mr. B. of the Arabian Nights. The three LETTER WRITTEN IN 1904. 153 chief officials of the city were there, viz., magistrate, general, and Manchu commandant, and all the leading gentry. " Red buttons," " blue buttons," " white " and " brass buttons," " peacock's feathers," embroidered silks, and all the rest of it. And the friendliness was so unaffected and unmistakeable that we could all take pleasure therein. They told the deputation that they couldn't say all this was done for them, because they didn't in fact know much about them yet, but it was done to show how much they thought of us, and how much they appreciated the work we were doing here. They also, in discussing beforehand whether they should appoint an escort to see our party through the crowded streets, had finally decided not to do so, since an escort is not needed amongst a friendly people. After a little time together in the chapel we went on past further tables, and through another crowded street, accompanied by all this distinguished company on foot, to a landing stage on the bank of the canal, where a houseboat was in waiting for the trip to Tientsin. And there they all look leave of us with good wishes for the journey. But even that was not the end of it, as we were soon to see, for the bank was lined with drawn-up troops for quite a long distance. Salutes were fired, and banners flew, and the bandsmen rent the air, whilst we dropped down the stream before them all, and returned the farewells of general and Manchu chief, who had left the jetty on horseback to appear at the head of their men. The deputation said they'd seen nothing like it any- where, and it really was a remarkable expression of goodwill. When Chang Chih Tung, the great Viceroy, passed through here some months ago, he had nothing like such a demonstration as that. " You know," said iS4 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OP TSANG CHOU. the general to M., " they wouldn't do this for me." It was no mere of&cial ceremony, for the shopkeepers joined in, and those tables in the streets meant more, perhaps, than the assembly in the chapel. Anyhow, we thank God for it, and pray it may be used for His glory, and ourselves enabled to use all the influence He gives us in the service of Him and of our fellow-men. It is nice to know that, just this morning, the magistrate and two of the gentry have called and brought a donation to the hospital, whilst they say the general too has a similar errand to come on. And here I must now be stopping, with a mere state- ment that our annual meetings and conference with the deputation in Tientsin were full of interest and instruction, and that we feel sure their visit has already borne good fruit, and will increasingly do so in the days and years ahead. CHAPTER VIII. THE STORY OF I9O4. TT has been an interesting and varied year in many ways, but a year of great irregularity in hospital routine. I myself have only had seven and a half months General °^ hospital work proper, and statistics Remarks on have Suffered in consequence, but statistics Year's Work are not everything, and a medical an a IS ics. missionary has much to do in addition to caring for his patients. Gradually the conviction comes home to me, that " medical missionary " and " medical man " are far from synonymous terms. In some real sense every man one meets is a " patient." Each one of the uncounted thous- ands with whom one is brought into some sort of contact during the year is better, or worse, for the glimpse so gained of a professed representative of the Master. And to each of those burdened, sin-stricken hearts there ought to have come some haunting, sweet suggestion of the presence of that Master Himself to set him athirst for more. That word " missionary " implies all this, and our " patients," reckoned thus, are beyond the utmost reach of mere statistics. And yet statistics have their place and use all the same, and last year's have been more encouraging than I expected, in spite of the numerous interruptions. We have I5S iS6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. had 330 in-patients, and the operation list totals 477, as against 455 the year before, neither total including the minor surgery or ordinary out-patient work. Beggars have been fewer, and suffering from poverty less evident, one reason for this being found in the plentiful harvests that have gladdened all our hearts, and another in the shipment to South Africa, under comparatively luxurious conditions, of so many who would otherwise have had to beg or steal. Their absence removed perhaps the most harrowing and difficult part of our work, and enabled us to do considerably more than we otherwise could have done for the few bits of human flotsam and jetsam that the yellow sea of China's millions threw up at our hospital doors. At times the wards were very full, far more so than we had contemplated when the buildings were erected. One day I had the occupants of the wards all counted and found that there were 103 in quarters provided for 50 ! Of these, 75 were actual in-patients, almost all operation cases, and the rest were their so-called nurses. The preaching in the wards has been a source of peculiar pleasure to me, and my heart has often been cheered by the sight of those eager, friendly faces as I thought of the glorious message it was given to me to bring. Of the interruptions already mentioned, a mere enumeration must suffice, especially as accounts of two of the mpst interesting have already been sent home, viz., the winter class, for which the hospital buildings served as barracks and meeting-rooms, and the visit of the deputation, with the subsequent conference and committee meetings that took place in Tientsin. In the summer we closed for two months to make time for much-needed cleaning and repairs, as well as the opportunity for a holiday by the sea for the assistants and myself. THE STORY OF 1904. 157 In the autumn the heavy field-work, consequent upon the abundant harvest, kept folk too busy to attend to either their own or others' complaints till the threshing- floors were bare, and then the rush that followed was absorbing all our time and strength when an urgent call from a sister mission left no option but to go to their aid. This was the English Methodist New Connexion Mission, in Lao Ling, sixty miles to the south of us and across the Shantung border. My wife went with me, and for some days her hands especially were full of work for the sick ones, but health soon returned to the stricken household, and in ten days we were back again in Tsang Chou. It was a great pleasure to have it in our power to bring such timely help, and to enjoy, in pleasant surroundings, the luxury of being so really useful. Nor must we forget to be thankful for the help so freely given to ourselves. Thanks to God for all His goodness and ever-sufficing grace. Thanks too to kind friends at home for sustaining prayer, financial aid and letters of welcome sympathy. Our colleagues we have come to count upon for help of many kinds, but special mention should perhaps be made of Mrs. M.'s faithful and valued help in evangelistic work amongst the women. There is still another lady of whom we think with special gratitude. Dr. Mary Horner of Moukden, whom the storm in the north drove away from her own sphere of work in that city, and whom her own kind heart brought here, by God's direction, to fill for a while the gap that was awaiting Miss M., and to win her way in a few short weeks not only into the hearts of her temporary colleagues, but also into those of the women in our out-stations so weary with waiting and watching for the teacher who never came ! We hear she is back now in Moukden within sound of the answering guns. May God keep her IS8 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. day by day in the hollow of His hand, and enable her to shine brightly there for Him, even in the war-cloud's gathering gloom. A new departure this year has been the preparation and distribution among Chinese officials and gentry in the district round about us, of a report in Chinese of our work during 1903, with information as to our aim and methods. This has resulted in considerable enlightenment, and in an increasing number of donations for our work. During the summer holiday, four of the Summer student-assistants and one of the hospital Pei Tai^Ho evangelists attended a summer school, on Northfield lines, convoked by Mr. Tewks- bury of the A.B.C.F.M. at Pei Tai Ho. Here, in commodious quarters, on a sunny hillside sloping to the shore, surrounded by oaks and pines and fanned by refreshing breezes from the mountains and the sea, these young fellows came into contact with native Christian workers from perhaps a score of different centres, under the leadership of earnest, vigorous teachers, both foreign and Chinese. Perhaps no one, who has not Hved in a country village of this great North China plain, can realise what this meant to youths who have lived from childhood, without a glimpse of hill or sea, in a land where the scattered Christians are few and far between, and even the monotonous brown of field and farmstead is less depressing to the mind than the dead level of narrow vision and blighting ignorance in the minds of its swarming people. As they met with fellow-Christians' from Manchuria and Shantung, and made acquaintance with their brothers from Peking and Paoting Fu, Christianity became a more glorious fact and Christian unity a present possess- ion. Under wise instruction and careful study the Bible began to reveal to them depths hitherto unknown, I —THE DOCTOR WITH HOSPITAL STAFF. 2— STUDENT ASSISTAXTS. THE STORY OF 1904. 159 whilst to these children of the dusty plain and brown mud village came a glimmer of earth's beauty and of ocean's grand expanse ; the " everlasting hills " were round about them. Surely the Master rejoiced in the budding promise of their hearts, as these new thoughts burst into life within them, to make possible revelations grander and more far-reaching still. I for one am heartily grateful to those who made this delightful transformation scene possible, and, if this is to become an annual treat, I should like to strongly recommend it to the prayers and pockets of all who are interested in the native Christian workers of North China. A more serious attempt has been made Training this year than formerly to give regular Medical instruction to the six student-assistants. Students. upon whom devolves so much of the regular work of the hospital. They have been through the elementary anatomy and physiology required for a standard ambulance course in England, with various additions to meet the special requirements of our work. They have also studied carefully the muscles of the upper extremity, have learnt some rudiments of dis- pensing, materia medica and pharmacy, as well as a smattering of elementary medicine and surgery. Their resulting growth in eflSiciency has been distinctly gratifying, and many cases that I should last year have had to treat myself are now satisfactorily left to them. Whilst I was away in Lao Ling, a man was brought to the hospital with a severe fracture of both bones of the leg. I came back to find it properly set and put in splints, nor did I need to alter anything. In due course they put up the leg in a plaster case and the man did very well. They all take turns at chloroform administration, and in the above case, and some few others, have done so in my absence. Opium suicides I rarely see, simply 12 i6o THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. hearing that such cases have come, been saved and gone again. They also do numerous small operations, and are gradually gaining confidence in such work. All surgical dressings are left to them, with very few excep- tions. My motto throughout the year has been : " If you would have men trustworthy, trust them ! " They get training of other kinds also. Mrs. P. has been teaching them English, and one man, Hsieh En Tseng, who learnt English for a year in Tientsin, can now speak intelligibly and indeed almost fluently, and is beginning to study English text-books on his own account. He is considered by the Chinese to be the best English scholar in the city, better far than the teacher of English in the local government school, and has been asked to take private pupils in this subject. A propos of the government teacher, we notice that he carefully avoids us, and hear that he quaked in his shoes when M. was asked by the Tientsin Prefect, on a recent tour of inspection in this district, to examine the scholars in their English. He was mightily relieved when the fact of its being Sunday made it inconvenient for M. to go, and has no doubt begun to think Sunday observance a very commendable custom ! This man Hsieh I purpose to send to the Union Medical College in Peking, as soon as it is open, in the hope that he will some day prove himself well worthy of the best training the mission can bestow. Our daily morning prayers in the hospital have taken the form of modified Christian Endeavour meetings, and we have been through the whole of the New Testa- ment during 1904 and part of 1903. This meeting has been attended by the gatekeeper and evangelists as well as by the students, and of late months by the boys of the boarding school too. Some of the more earnestly THE STORY OF 1904. 161 inquiring patients have also dropped in, and I have often been encouraged in this httle gathering by evident signs of the Spirit's presence and power. The assistants also take part in preaching regularly to both in and out-patients, and have several times been out on Sundays to tell the glad tidings in neighbouring villages ; whilst Huang Shu Tang, the senior student, has also taken his regular turn in conducting Sunday services and Bible-classes, and in the general work of the mission. A new departure has been the formation of an Essay Circle and Debating Society which has already held several meetings of great interest, and promises to become of real educational value. In all these matters, Mr. Huang has been the leading spirit, and I cannot be too thankful for his earnest conse- cration and for his consistent life. The above attempts at training have made one thing abundantly clear. The students must be released from a great part of the routine work of the hospital if they are to have time for serious study. For months on end the wards have been so fuU, operations so many, and " dressings " so numerous, that the men have been too tired by evening to read, and even the daily lecture has had to be abandoned. Two remedies are, therefore, to be tried in the year that lies ahead : — (i) The restriction of the numbers of in-patients to the actual number of beds in the wards, instead of allowing them to pack in like sardines as heretofore. (2) The appointment of regular nurses, men chosen for Christian character and reliability, who shall also act as ward evangelists and be trained to change all surgical dressings, be responsible for the cleanliness and order of the wards, and generally carry on the routine work of the i62 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. hospital. Each such nurse, as regards the treatment ol the patients under his care, to be responsible to a specially appointed student. The first rule will necessitate much hardening of one's heart, and can only be carried out in the firm conviction that the present hardship to the few will result in future blessing to the many, in the time ahead when branch dispensaries and hospitals can be established under the care of the students now being trained. In view of all that has been written above Local Training i* ^^ perhaps advisable to state in what to Union relation this training work stands to that Medical College goon to be carried on in the college in >n Peking. ^^^.^^ First, then, let me say that I am fully in sympathy with the work to be done in Peking, and hope to send at least one (and as many more as the Society's grants will allow), of my present students thither. But I confess I am not at all sanguine as to the Society's grants being sufficient to cover the expenses in Peking of all the men we need. The fee for the five years' course there, exclusive of food and travelling expenses, is at the rate of fifty taels per student per annum, or two hundred and fifty taels for the full course of five years. If I send up four men from here it will mean that the L.M.S. has to pay 200 taels per annum, or 1,000 taels in the five years, for fees alone, besides as much again, at least, for board, i.e., 2,000 taels for the full course of four men, with no really certain guarantee that any one of them will continue faithful to the mission thereafter, and in spite of the fact that, after their training, their services will have to be paid for at a much higher rate of salary than the mission has paid out here yet. They cannot pay their own fees, or their own food expenses in Peking, for the simple reason that they are all THE STORY OF 1904. 163 from poor homes, mostly married and the fathers of little children. Nor is there as yet much hope that the native church will contribute to their support. There are too many calls elsewhere, and so much other important work just waiting to be done. The Government Medical CoUege in Tientsin pays men well to come as students, nor are these men tied down rigidly to government service ; the majority, when trained, do what they please. We shall have to compete against this college in Peking. Here in Tsang Chou I must have assistants in any case, and meanwhile must train such men myself, there being no supply of ready-trained men available. Not only so, but we badly need men for a series of out-station branch hospitals, and for medico-evangelistic tours in our vast district, which is as large as the whole of Wales. There seems to me no probability of such men being available in sufficient numbers from Peking for the next ten years at least, unless the leopard is going to change his spots and the L.M.S. grow affluent. Nor is there much likelihood that, even in ten years the native church wiU be in a position to pay the salaries such men might fairly ask. Nor indeed are such highly-trained men needed for the work we at present require. AU cases too serious for treatment in a branch hospital will be sent to the base hospital here in Tsang Chou. AU this, of course, may be met by the question : " Why not train a lower grade of men in Peking too, who shall have a shorter course and lower fee, or possibly not any fee at all ? " But here again I am sceptical as to the Society's ability to support in Peking a sufficient number of such men to meet our needs (especially in the next few years), in addition to its quota of the higher-grade students for i64 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. whom it will also be providing. Even should there be no fee charged for the second-grade men, there will be needed at least fifty or sixty taels per man per annum for food and travelling expenses. Nor are these the only considerations. The sending of such m«n to Peking deprives us of their work in the hospital and mission here during the period of their training. It also lessens the number of men available, since those chosen for the shorter course would, as a rule, be poor men, married and with families, with a rooted dislike to go so far from home. The training of two grades of students in the same institution will also introduce an element of invidious distinction, and will complicate the teaching arrange- ments very considerably, unless the distinction is to be largely nominal and the classes the same for all. In which case such distinction becomes misleading and unfair. In view of the above considerations I must still prepare to do what I can for our own local needs, whilst ready to send to Peking all the men the L.M.S. will support there, and hoping for the time when one of the new Peking doctors, perhaps young Hsieh En Tseng himself, will come back hither to help me in giving our students here a more satisfactory and thorough training than any I alone can bestow. Or perhaps God has some other plan still, whith as yet we cannot see. During the year two convenient isolation Additions wards have been erected, each enclosed in Build^es ^*^ °^^ little yard, with small kitchen, etc., adjoining. Their cost was almost entirely met from funds collected in Edinburgh by Miss F. G. McFarlane, with generous help from the Morningside Congregational Church Christian Endeavour Society. We have also added four convenient living rooms, each to accommodate two or three students, with one large THE STORY OF 1904. 165 general study and class-room, the whole enclosed, with kitchen, fuel-house, etc., in a nice roomy compound containing already a tennis court and possibly hereafter gymnastic apparatus also. The cost of these rooms has been met partly by a generous donation of £40 from Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Walker, of Glenn Hall, near Leicester, partly by another generous gift of £^6 from the above-mentioned friends in Edinburgh, and partly from the general funds of the hospital. Their total cost has been about ;£i20, and that of the isolation wards another £40. In addition, we have built three commodious women's wards, with matron's rooms and the necessary outhouses, at a cost of about £225, affording accommodation for some thirty patients. Of these, the cost has been met from funds collected by my wife, with the addition of a legacy of £100 from her father, the late John McFarlane, Esq., J. P., of Edinburgh. This has been worse during the past year Health of than has been the case since we came to live gj^g. ^ ° in Tsang Chou. Mrs. M. was ill in the spring with bronchitis and rheumatic fever. Mr. M. I had to order off to Pei Tai Ho after a rather alarming break-down in the summer. Mrs. P. has had somewhat broken health during the year, her speciality being sub-acute rheumatism. The children of both families have had a fair share of lesser ailments, and even Mr. B. and myself have had to succumb on more than one occas- ion. For some occult reason Mr. B. was even ill in Pei Tai Ho, but to the rest of us our seaside holiday brought health and vigour, as well as stimulating contact with many fellow-workers from a good many provinces of the Empire. It is good to have such an opportunity of discussing work and methods with other missionaries, and the quiet i66 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. chats and conferences tend to remove the prejudice and friction that come from isolation in narrow spheres of work. There are still two subjects that one feels almost bound to touch on, since they are so prominent in all your thoughts at home — The war and the coolie question. _. „, As to this there is little to be said. Our 1 lie War. i i t_ work can hardly be said to have been affected by it, except that it sent us Dr. Homer, and has resulted in the occasional advent to our wards of men returning from work on the railways and forts in Manchuria, and taken ill in the course of their journey home. Very early one morning I was called up to receive a very evil-looking foreign refugee from Port Arthur, but he only wanted travelling expenses as far as Tientsin, and that one was glad enough to give. The indifference of the people and gentry is somewhat remark- able even to us, but they get little reliable news, and are not yet fully awake to the tremendous issues involved. The coolie question affects us, at present, O * ti °° '^ more closely than the war, and, for our eyes, the practical benefits loom up large in the foreground and the theoretical objections are dim and vague in the distance beyond. It seems as if in England the background alone receives attention, but here there is no smallest sign of slavery, no faintest note of the oppression of the foreigner. Indeed, England's credit is rising in the districts round about us, because of the kind treatment and honest dealing with which the coolies have hitherto met. A letter received quite recently in a village a few hundred yards from our compound, from a coolie who has already reached South Africa and begun working in the mine, has nothing but praise for the way he has been THE STORY OF 1904. 167 treated, for climate and work and food. He advises others to come out too. The city magistrate, the most enlightened man we have had in that position yet, has issued a proclamation heartily favouring the scheme. The gentry are more or less apathetic, but seem to think the whole thing rather good than bad. The families of those who have gone are delighted, since they get their allowance regularly, and never had such an experience before. A poor man, one with a large family, came to me in the hospital and begged me to cure him of a skin disease, on account of which he had been rejected from South Africa. He wanted very badly to go. He said their land was too scanty to support them all, and he was cruelly treated by his step-mother, who made his life a burden, and had even broken his medicine bottle and torn up his ptescription paper the day before out of sheer spite and cruelty. How much right have comfortable people like ourselves to stop these poor folk from bettering themselves ? One is inevitably reminded of some who, in the "martyr year" of 1900 and thereafter, raised their voices to protest against compensation, yet took little or nothing from their pockets to succour the poor folk who had lost their all. A great responsibility rests upon us if we remove this means of an honest livelihood from men like the one instanced above, and we must do far more than yet we are doing to make hfe less a misery to so many of China's millions. Is not the slavery they endure in China more truly worthy of the name than the freedom of a roomy compound and the liberty to earn in three short years a competence for Ufe ? i68 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU, Guarantee the conditions ; provide against the abuses that will inevitably arise ; protest against restrictions upon wise methods of Christian teaching; by all means let us do these. But on what pretext could I prevent that poor man going, or a thousand others like him, if I knew that the conditions would be faithfully carried out ? Numbers of Christians have already gone, and we hear of their crowded Sunday services, in the very compounds of the Rand, from the Chinese Christian teacher who conducts them. So far we have not ourselves recommended men to go ; we wait to see how the conditions are going to be fulfilled. But the native Church Council here is unanimous in its verdict as to the good working of the scheme about us and the favour it is meeting all around. In the summer I paid a visit to Chinwang-tao, the port from which the coolies from North China are sent out. Two hundred clean and happy-looking coolies, looking neat and tidy in their new rig-out, were embarking on the steamer which was to take them out to the big ship in the offing. They answered questions readily enough and seemed so far contented with their lot. Hundreds more were awaiting inspection, courteous employees showed us over the barracks in course of erection near the shore, and these looked as if they would be airy and large enough when finished, though in much confusion at the time. I did not see anything to cavil, at though I went in a critical mood. In fact I have approached the whole question with the bias against it created and fed by regular reading of the Spectator and British Weekly. Nor do I yet see my way to entire approval, though it seems to me that those who have seen least of the actual working of the scheme are the loudest in condemning it. THE STORY OF 1904. 169 Certainly truth and right are not all on one side. There is a Chinese side to it all, as well as a British one, and the standpoints of the starving Chinese coolie and of the " magistrate," or ruler, of an overpopulated and impoverished county, should be taken into fair consider- ation along with those of mine-owners and politicians, philanthropists and Kaffirs. CHAPTER IX. LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, I905. npHIS letter is intended to be an informal and more interesting talk about the work going on round us here, which shall fill in the bare skeleton of the Report and make those dry bones live. If only one could make you see as we do the needs of this people day by day, you too would long to bring them to the Master and rejoice with us in His power to transform their hearts and lives. Let me break up this talk into sections, and begin with " The Night of Ignorance " as we see it all around. The ignorance of the masses about us , * '*^ ° comes to be taken as a matter of course. Ignorance. until a little quiet thinking reveals its gloomy depths, or the quaintness of some otherwise com- mon experience stirs the mind to a comprehending flash. Last year we printed a report of our work in Chinese, and distributed it in the city and district. One day the assistant magistrate came to bring a small donation, and in the course of conversation he referred to the report and to various hints on hygiene that had been included in it. He said that since reading the remarks upon personal cleanliness he had begun to wash his chest, as well as the usual face and hands. But he always used hot water, and never touched soap. Would cleanliness like this result in longevity ? 17" LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH. 1905. 171 He explained the warmer climate of South China by the assumption that the land there was of lower level than in the north. Were not valleys warmer than hill- tops ? And had he not read in some paper that the deeper one digs a mine the warmer it gets at the bottom ? He was greatly surprised to hear that at the poles day and night were sometimes much alike, and either dark or light together. Whilst working for a few days with a local scholar, who was taking my own teacher's place, some incident in the book we were reading led to talk about sorcery and magic. He spoke of imaginary creatures called paper men and straw horses, which may be obtained by charms and used to hurt one's enemies, though the danger may be avoided by using the blood of pigs and dogs, or other unclean beasts, and smearing it above the doors and windows. He told me that in this city, in 1900, even literati and officials were afraid of these ridiculous monsters, and took elaborate precautions lest they should enter into their homes. Such precautions consisted in cutting out little dogs of black paper, to stand on the window-sills and bite or bark at the enemy, and of a bowl of water into which the paper men might fall, be soaked, and so destroyed ! Just a glimpse here, is there not, of a nation at grips with fear, still ignorant of " the Father, who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love." One gets these glimpses in the hospital as well as in the study. One day two stalwart grey-haired brothers brought a poor little wizened hunchback, over whom they bent in tender solicitude as they besought me to cure him of the almost hopeless malady which was threatening his life. " You see, doctor," said they, " we are just two 172 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. lonely old widowers, and he is our only hope. If he dies there'll be no one left to worship at our graves when we're gone, and we're growing old and weak." They thought that all their hope after death depended on the life of a little cripple, knowing nothing of their risen Lord. And this ignorance of the elementary facts of Chris- tianity is realised a little more vividly, when one hears of a friendly and interested inquirer describing the three persons of the Trinity as the Heavenly Father, Moses and Mary ; and of the man who claimed to be a Christian, though suspected of ulterior aims, who, upon examination, was found to hold the view that Jesus was the father of the Lord of Heaven, His own father being Adam and His mother Eve ! So ignorant are the common people that all new methods of teaching, and even the Government schools, are branded at once as foreign, and suspected accordingly. One reason for official insistence upon the worship of Confucius in such schools is just the proof thus given to the people that the institutions are genuinely Chinese. But there are darker effects than those Heathenism above to be traced to this all-pervading want of knowledge, especially of the truth as found in Christ Jesus. In the hard times a year ago, in one of our outlying districts, the daughters of starving families were being bought up by the rich, to be held as slaves till old enough to be sold at a profit as wives. A sad-faced man in the hospital, after all means short of amputation had been tried in vain for the cure of a serious disease of his knee, went out determined on suicide rather than risk the life-long misery of a poor cripple in a heathen land. Not long ago, a man was carried in who had been stabbed, and all ripped open, for the sake of a paltry LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, 1905. i73 shilling. He had lain for half a day by the roadside, there being found not even a Samaritan, till a soldier patrol brought him in to die. A girl was brought to us with her throat cut, just as we were finishing a heavy day's work in the operating room. Subsequent inquiry elicited the following details. Her father is a younger scion of the leading family in Tsang Chou, a bad character, continually in trouble, and eking out his other means of livelihood by pestering and threatening his more well-to-do kinsmen. The arrival of a new city magistrate was his grand opportunity. He at least could lose nothing by a lawsuit, and, by making common cause with the Yamen underlings, he might perhaps share in their extortions from the rich but simple- minded relative he had chosen as his prey. But the magistrate proved a tartar and clapped him into prison, whilst his hoped-for victim escaped. Not to be beaten, he consulted with his wife, and she commanded their two young daughters to take opium and go die at the rich man's door. As a general rule in China the rich man would then have been in trouble, as the onus would be laid on him of proving his innocence, and opportunity thus given to whole grades of official sharks to extort bribes for ensuring his safety. But the daughters proved refractory, and another plan was tried. Their food was drugged with arsenic, and after the meal they were taken by their mother to the house of the sore-tried kinsman. Outraged nature could stand no more, and one poor creature vomited. Alarmed at the prospect of failure, the heartless woman slashed this girl's throat several times with a razor, and strangled the other with her own hands then and there. But even so she was disappointed. The magistrate for once was an honest man and hungered not for bribes. He asked : " If this woman would do thus to her own. 174 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. what may she not do to others ? " The father is still in prison, but the girl, though saved from death, is a wreck in mind and body as the result of her awful experiences. " The dark places of the earth are full of cruelty ; " so it would appear that this is one of them, in spite of the ethics of Confucius. In my last letter, I mentioned a visit I had had from the son of one of the local gentry in company with several of his friends. Though still young they were all slaves to the opium habit, from the curse of which bondage they expressed a wish to be freed. Not having accommodation for such cases I could not offer to take them in, so had no chance of testing their sincerity. But since then that son has attempted suicide by opium and was saved by my assistant here. Since the death, last year, of our old friend General Mei, his eldest son has followed him to the grave. This son was a reprobate opium sot, and the family has sunk into poverty and disgrace. It is painful to see so often these idle sons of successful fathers ruined even in youth by this curse. But there is a bright side, even in heathen- Side ■ s^rliffht ^^^' ^^^ ^* ^^ pleasant to turn to it now after the gloom we have just been considering. There are stars in even the midnight sky to remind us of the sun. One man, now an earnest Christian, told me that his first reason for believing in Christianity was the hope it alone held out of One to whom he might safely commit his children when his own aid availed no more. They must have been an affectionate family ; for he told with quiet enthusiasm how the reading of the second part of the " Pilgrim's Progress " had helped considerably to win them all for Christ. LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH. 1905. 17S In an interesting talk with our former city magistrate, he told us how he had often pitied the water-carriers in winter, as they filled their buckets from holes in the frozen river, or wheeled their loaded barrows along the slippery, wind-swept streets. He said he didn't care to help the beggars because they would not help themselves, but these toilers, who, with chapped hands and ill-shod feet, worked hard for an honest living, were fit subjects for friendly aid, and he went on to tell us what he had done for them only a day or two before. He sent notices through the city summoning all water- carriers to meet him at the Drum Tower between 10 and 12 o'clock, when he would give them each a little help toward their New Year festivities. Each was to come with his barrow, or carrying-pole, and each, after receiving his gift, was herded into an open space, and kept there under surveillance, lest he should come round a second time ! He gave away a sum equivalent to about £13 sterling, being gd. each to the " eight-bucket men," yd. each to the " six-bucket men," and so on in proportion. But of course these sums have a far larger buying value here than their equivalent in Britain. He said his heart felt " exceedingly happy " when the money was all disbursed. One afternoon, I saw among the outpatients a " pro- digal son," who had run away from his wealthy home in Shantung and found his way north to Harbin. There he contracted a disease of the eyes which resulted in hopeless blindness. But his friends in the " far country " had the grace to subscribe funds for his return, and a man who found him stranded in Tientsin had taken pity on him and was actually seeing him home ! They dropped in here en route to see if the eyes were curable. One is fain to cap this story, for the credit of Christian England, with this other of an unknown British soldier. Let's hope it may meet his eye ! In one of his country 13 176 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. tours, M. attended the long-delayed funeral of an indistin- guishable heap of martyr ashes, and was visited thereafter in his room by a group of heathen village elders. In conversation with one of them, he found that the man had been profoundly impressed by a case he had come across in Tientsin, in the days when foreign troops policed the streets. An old Chinese had fallen from his rick- shaw, and lay seriously injured in the road. He was picked up by the British policeman standing near, who bathed his wound, supported him till he could walk, and then escorted him all the way home to his village some miles away. His kind act produced an impression which is bearing good fruit still. I have no space for more than a passing reference to cases that have come under notice during the year of patients who have been helped to come to hospital, and even supported whilst here, by the subscriptions of neigh- bours and friends ; and will close these peeps at the bright side of heathenism with the following little incident : — In my last letter I told of a man who had been the trusted servant of one of the great officials who perished in 1900. He had been told off to escort his master's favoijrite concubine to a place of safety in those troublous times, and seized the opportunity to carry her off to his own home, where they seem to have been living happily ever since. Not long ago this stolen wife came, along with her present mother-in-law, to be treated for an affection of the eyelids. She seemed a gentle, modest soul, only anxious to be cured as soon as possible, so that she might return to the little child at home of whom her mind was full. The treatment necessitated a painful operation on each of the upper eyelids, and our usual custom is to do only one at a time, since the pain is often severe. But she begged to have both done together, so as to shorten LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, 1905. 177 her absence from the little one. Yielding at last to her entreaty, we promised she should have the second done as well, if she still wished it when the first had been finished. But she endured it without once even shrinking, and then begged the assistant who was operating to go on as he had promised, tactfully praising him for his skilful fingers which had caused her no pain at all. Of course it was painful, but she was very soon cured of her trouble and rejoicing once more in the possession of the little one for whom she so willingly suffered. So much for the " starlight," but what of the " dawn ! " Are there signs that it is breaking for this dark land of prejudice and gloom ? And is there any promise of the sun ? Yes, the day is breaking at last, and we rejoice in the growing light. We see it in the wide-spread hunger for The Bright knowledge and in the growing seriousness Side: The ^^^^ efiiciency of attempts at education. Comings Dawn. In Tientsin, 5,000 students belonging to a score or more of schools and colleges, listened, in well-ordered ranks, on the Empress Dowager's birthday, to an address on patriotism from the Viceroy. Those colleges are almost all entirely new the last few years, and there are many more in other cities of the Empire. Night schools are being started for the use of shop folk who cannot learn by day. Quite a number of men are going to Europe, America and Japan, to see for themselves, at first hand, something of the boasted civilisation of the West ! Books on western subjects, and an increasing number of newspapers, are finding their way even into inland towns and villages, and the quaint information that filters through to the tea shops is sometimes distinctly refreshing. The other day I was told of one man who, in describing the speed of trains in England, to which 178 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. country he once went as a servant, had stated that one in which he was sitting had actually travelled so fast that he could not bring to his lips the food he was trying to eat ! Perhaps he had his back to the engine and his hand was left behind ! Another man, having seen the glass roof of St. Pancras station in a magic lantern picture, explained the presence of trains under it by sajdng that these " fire-wheel-carts " were very valuable, and had to be kept under glass for fear of the damp, since England was a very rainy country. In the hospital one meets men from Manchuria (in- cluding Port Arthur and Moukden, and even Harbin), who have worked there on forts and railways. Others have been in Honan doing work for the Peking Syndicate. Some have friends in South Africa, others think of going as coolies for the French in Indo-China, or for Germans in Shantung. The postmaster and the postman's brother, the telegraph clerk who tries to speak English, govern- ment students from the city college who can say " What is your name ? " and other more or less travelled and progressive people, have come within reach of our influence. The magistrate's young brother quite recently stumped me over the French for a match (allumette), and wanted me to listen and see if he could count one to ten correctly in German ! He also asked how we pronounced that word which expressed " what foreigners do to those of whom they are very fond." His vivid explanations left no doubt that he meant " kiss," but what he said (he had been taught it as the word which had that meaning) was something quite unique. There is a growing demand for foreign medicines, and unscrupulous drug stores reap a rich harvest out of the easy credulity of the well-to-do, whilst true medicine is being discredited by their quackery. I wish I could start an honest drug shop, but as yet we have neither the LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH. 1905. 179 capital to stock it, nor a man to spare to run it if we had. Condensed mUk is finding favour as a kind of strengthening food in the eyes of many who feel ill and weak, and it makes a pleasant change from their own very limited range of hght diets. But here again, abominable mixtures are put up in imitation of standard brands, and very few seem to care whether motherless babes die in consequence or not. In our outstations there is a growing cry for medical aid, and an encouraging tendency to pay for what they get, which makes one eager to help by training students for branch-hospital and touring work. Industrial schools are being started, and cheap looms imported from Japan to enable the local people to weave cloth from foreign yarn. Even the prisoners are being talked of in this connection, and some kind of start was recently made in the city prison to teach them a useful trade. The new magistrate has introduced street police, and we hear burglary has been lessened in consequence ; and the other day I laughed to see along the street, notice- boards, bearing in Chinese a direction to keep to the left, and in English the weird legend : " To and fro by the LEFT." Yes, there's no doubt about the breaking of a new day for China, but we look for something better than the dawn. All this activity and effort will only result in greater corruption and disaster, unless there be indeed the promise of the sun. This sick man of the East needs, above all else to-day, the rising of the Sun of Righteous- ness, in whose wings alone is the heahng that can cure his crowding ills. What signs have we that it is indeed e ising i\xzx Sun that now dawns on the " hills of 01 the oun. T ang ? Few, perhaps, in view of the many shadows around us, and yet enough to give us hope i8o THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OP TSANG CHOU. and cheer. A sunbeam is a sunbeam even when it only filters through a keyhole. One needs but to open the door to flood the room with Ught. Already the door in China is opening ; we get more than keyhole glimpses of the sun. Light is streaming in through chinks which are widening day by day, and the stiff, rusty hinges, and clinging growth of centuries gone by, can no longer avail to keep back this awakening people from their quest of the right and true. The future then is ours, if we will but work and wait ; for, in spite of all hindrance and weary misconceptions, that quest leads on to God. Some indeed have already found Him. Let me instance just a few. There is a poor but cheerful labourer, with eyes bleared by chronic disease, whose devotion to his meek-eyed, hard-working, but often sickly wife has several times attracted my attention. The pathetic way in which he comes and tells me that that woman is feverish again, or that the mother of his son has a bad headache, will I please do what I can for her, betokens a tender regard quite unusual in this woman-despising land. One day he came in for an operation for the improve- ment of his sight. He greatly feared the pain, but tried to comfort himself with the thought that, if Jesus could endure the agony of crucifixion for him, he himself could surely stand an operation. Fortunately it was not so painful as he'd feared. One day, in the mid-day interval, when he and other workmen were taking their usual rest, I came across him unexpectedly, and found that he was reading and explaining the first page of the catechism to some of his heathen fellow-labourers. Of course he is far from perfect, but little signs like these imply new hfe within. A man from whose orbital cavity I had to clear the entire contents, so as to remove a malignant tumour, became interested in the gospel and seemed to understand. DR. HWANG AND DAUGHTER. LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, 1905. 181 I found the tumour could not be completely got rid of, and had to tell him quietly that he might not have long to live, recommending him to find out all he could about the world to come, and the way to its peace and joy. He said he was learning that, and liis wound being almost healed, he soon afterwards left for his home some eighty miles away. Being near the English Methodist Hospital, in Lao Ling, he went there for the treatment still required, and greeted me gladly when I had to go there too to the aid of a bedridden family. Dr. Jones of that mission informed me that his cheery faith and hopefulness had been an inspiration to his staff ; and it did me good to see his bright face and to learn from his own lips that he was now rejoicing in hope of the better life beyond. A poor leper, just the other day, after I had been telling of God's love and of His wonderful plans for our future, came and bumped his head on the floor at my feet. " Oh, doctor," he said, " your words sink right into my bones. How could poor folk like us ever have heard this gladden- ing news, unless such as you took all this trouble to bring it to our ears." I believe that man was in earnest, and that there's heaven in store for him when his trials here are done. He listens eagerly still to all that we can tell him. Such instances might be multiplied, but perhaps a better proof still will be found in a brief biography of my head assistant, Mr. Huang Shu Tang. Some fifteen years ago, a delicate over- lhf^° Brief"" S^°'^^ ^°y °^ twelve was attending, in Biography. Tientsin, a Confucian school of the ordinary Chinese type. He had been adopted by an uncle, though his own father and mother were still alive, and spent his time between the school and the two homes, both thus open to him. His Confucian teacher was an opium sot, and died of disease thereby aggravated. i82 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. For six months the boy was in consequence idle, and soon began to forget what little he had acquired. Meanwhile a school had been started near by in con- nection with the L.M.S. church at Ma Chia Kou, and his uncle determined on sending him there : first, to learn if there were any promise of scholarship in the lad ; and second, because the school was free. In the streets around the mission premises Christianity was an object of vile gossip and derision. The young scholar was told that he would be given medicine to make him stupid, and in that state would fall an easy prey to the missionaries' dark designs ; the foreigners would want his mother for evil purposes ; and unnamable horrors were perpetrated in the cellars below their houses. But nevertheless he went, and began to make some progress. On Sundays he attended a Bible-class, but only as a matter of form, till one day the Chinese who was teaching found fault with the boys' neglect of their Sunday lessons, and told them they would be punished if they did not do better in future. This was the beginning of more careful Bible study for young Shu Tang ; and the more he read the more he wished to know. Miss Roberts taught them to pray, and he began to find his prayers answered. Answers in trivial things, like requests for success in his work, led to greater faith and growing interest, until he found himself believing in the new doctrine, and only believing more firmly still as he inquired further into it. The persecution with which he met only roused his soul to opposition, as he realised that the slanderers were wrong and the Christians in the right. At last, in reply to exasperating ridicule, he boldly stated his intention of becoming a Christian, and went to speak to his teacher LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, 1905. 183 about receiving baptism. Being asked why he wished to join the church, he said that he had now been a year in the school and understood to some extent the truths he had been taught there. He recognised Jesus as his Javiour and knew he could not get free from sin without Him. And he wished to be free of sin. His teacher referred him to Mr. Lees, who found him well prepared as to knowledge, but considered him too young, in view of the antagonism to Christianity of all his relatives. He told him to get his uncle's leave first, and then he could be baptised. Young Huang went home to this hopeless interview, but met, as he expected, with disapproval, and even with the threat that he would be thrown into the river should he take any such foolish step. But he told them he ought to obey God rather than them, and was prepared to take the consequences. He told Mr. Lees that they could only after all hurt his body, his soul being beyond their reach. His people could not say Christianity was actually bad, but they feared the neighbours' talk and ridicule. Mr. Lees was still unwilling to baptise the eager youth, but when on the following Sunday young Huang came out to the front with five others who were that day to be admitted to the church, and begged earnestly and reso- lutely to be baptised with them, he wavered, and finally, upon a native helper, who knew the family, undertaking to make things right with them, the lad was received into fellowship and solemnly baptised. His people accepted the inevitable and did not resort to violence. He stayed on at school for a while and became a special protege of Miss Roberts. Serious illness resulted in a long stay in hospital, where the kindness of Dr. Roberts and his sister to the lad took effect on his aunt and uncle's hearts, the latter being also 184 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOV. laid under obligation to the doctor by the cure of an affection of the eye. His sisters were sent to the mission schools, and the whole family brought into kindly touch with the missionaries and their work. Upon his recovery he was sent by Miss R. to the fine college of the A.B.C.F.M. at Tung Chou, which has now become the Union Arts College for North China. There he received a sound education (including trigonometry, conic sections, chemistry and physics), besides help in Christian work and growth from the Y.M.C.A. and the meetings connected therewith. Only last month I met in the train an EngUsh-speaking Chinese, who attends Dr. Hart's Anglo-Chinese Church in Tientsin and is now senior student of the government " Imperial Medical College " in that city. He knew me from having heard me speak at a meeting, and in course of conversation told me that he too had been at Tung Chou, and that Huang had been his friend. He told me how much he thought of him and what a splendid fellow he was. He said that Huang's nickname in the college was " Pastor Huang," on account of his earnest spirit and blameless life, and finished by saying that, when Huang was in Tientsin in 1901, he used to say of him that he was the only really good man in that city. This last, though of course an exaggeration, shows perhaps from what a bitter and critical spirit " Pastor Huang " had wrung respect, not for himself alone, but for his Master also. He was in his seventh year at Tung Chou when the events of 1900 brought education, for awhile, to an end there. The boys were sent to their homes not long before the Boxer storm burst upon us, and when young Huang reached his family, it was to find them thoroughly alarmed, and every door closed tight against him. Some suggested he should recant, but this he could not do. He felt he would rather die. But his presence might LETTER WRITTEN W MARCH. 1905. 185 involve all in disaster, so he went off alone to the Settle- ments, where Mr. Bryson and Dr. Smith took him in, and he eventually became one of the large party of missionaries and Christian Chinese whom Mr. Edmund Cousins, of Messrs. Jardine, Mathieson & Co., so generously be- friended and hospitably entertained during the siege. His one idea at this time was to manifest in every way he could his gratitude to God, and to those who were now befriending him, as long as his life was spared. But he expected soon to die, since what could such a handful do against so numerous an enemy ? So he worked hard as a common coolie, making barricades, carrying shells in a rickshaw to the naval guns under fire, and making himself useful in many other ways. The bullets whistled round him, and shells burst close beside, but in his heart was peace and joy. The work in the open air was good for his weak lungs, and he slept, mid the roar of the guns, the deep, healthful sleep of the navvy. To save others the cost of his keep, he went out as house-boy to a quick-tempered British officer, who understood even less of Chinese than his new domestic did of English. The consequent misunderstandings led to unpleasant times for the one who couldn't hit back, but he meekly blames his own stupidity, although he confessed to me that his master was not exactly what he understood as a Christian. Later he had charge of the commissariat department for the Christians who lived on the London Mission compound, a position of difficulty in those half-starved times, since folk are apt to blame their caterer, even when he does well to find any food at all. The native city taken, he and two others went off to find their relations and see how they had fared. Of the three only two returned, nor has that lost one been ever l86 THE BELOVED PttYStClAN OP TSaMG CHOtt. heard of since. Huang found his people all alive and well, except his mother and a brother, the former's nerves being affected by the terrors of that time, and the latter having been shot by a stray bullet through the head, whilst out looking for cartridges to play with. Their home however was gone, burnt down by the Wei Hai Wei regiment, so it was hardly a joyful reunion after all. For some time he lived with his people. Then when work was reorganised, he taught the school of which he was once a pupil for a year, in Tientsin, and then, at Miss Roberts' request, came with me to Tsang Chou in 1902 to help in the work of this Roberts Memorial Hospital. The three summer holidays from Tung Chou, which he had spent in the Tientsin hospital as an assistant of Dr. Smith's, proved an excellent preparation for the work he was now to do, and he soon became my right hand man. Not long before, he had married a daughter of the Christian ex-secretary of a high Chinese official, and his wife's young brother came with him to be trained for medical work. His wife had had a good education in a Christian high school in Tientsin, and is an earnest Chris- tian worker, so far as home duties and health allow. Since that return in 1902 to our ruined houses and hospital I have had many and varied opportunities of watching and testing my friend. I have seen his patience and tenderness in the home, where he has not only had to nurse his wife and child through serious illness more than once, besides assisting me in an operation on her neck, but has also had to chloroform his father twice, for the removal of malignant tumour of the jaw, and to nurse him too, through the tedious days that followed. I have seen the light in his face as he told of preaching tours, and know what the patients think of his tact and sympathy. To the students he is an example of almost LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, 1905. 187 all I wish them to become, and throughout the whole mission he is regarded with affection and respect. I have seen him, at the end of a trpng journey, get down from his cart and start earnestly preaching to the crowd that had gathered round. He started the debating society, stirs up others to interest in news of the world around them, is always hungry for newspapers and books, and rejoices in all that makes for enhghtenment and progress. One day, after an unreasoning and fur'ious servant had dashed in with a large knife to kill me, I found that Huang had captained the little band of hospital students, and mounted guard till the poor deluded feUow had left the premises. He had neither dared to lift his eyes to mine, or his dagger to stab me, but stopped short within a foot of me till the crucial moment passed, when he was easily disarmed, and the danger was over. I was mercifully preserved from injury, and felt that the experience was well worth while, since it resulted in a league of the Chinese helpers, to see to it that no unworthy man in future should be retained in mission employ for want of some courageous soul to point him out and risk the consequences. What one alone might shrink from the league would tackle together. In all this Huang was leader, without even a suggestion from the foreign staff, and we have lived in a healthier atmosphere ever since. The Chinese Church is beginning at last to act and take thought for itself, and to find that it is not a mere foreign importation dependent on foreign supplies, but native to the soil and responsible for itself. In this new Church of China Huang is ready to take his place. May there soon be many like him, to become to this backward and bewildered people their leaders into light and liberty and life ! 188 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Enough has perhaps been said to show Coltt^^ar^ that Christ is at work in China, but let me Opportunity emphasise, in closing, the vast and continual opportunity the hospital work affords for making Him known by word and deed to those who know Him not. During the year we have had, in the women's wards, at least two notorious members of the " Red Lamp Brigade," the girls' and women's section of Boxerdom. It was a pleasure to return them good for evil, and to be able, so conspicuously, to show them a better way. The same may be said of a man who came in with his ankle-bones crushed to fragments. He had been caught, by the man he was wronging, in the act of flagrant sin, and had been carried out bound to the yard, where his feet and legs were battered with a club upon a block of stone. One foot had later to be amputated, and his recovery was slow, but he heard all the more on that account of the deadly nature of sin, and of the Saviour abundantly able to make us clean and set men free. One afternoon came a man who had been set upon and robbed of all that he possessed at the time, whilst on his way from Manchuria to his home a long way south. He said he was rich at both ends, but a beggar where he stood. He owned land and property north and south, but had no means of reaching either. We saw no reason to doubt his tale, and it was pleasant to send him on his way in peace. A soldier almost dying of acute dysentery, far away from friends and home, made a good recovery in the ward, where we supplied him with attendance and food. We know he heard the gospel here, and are content to leave the seed so sown to God. Cart accidents tore the sole off a small boy's foot, and the cheek and eyelids from a carter's face, but both were LETTER WRITTEN IN MARCH, 1905. 189 saved from lingering agony, and probably permanent disablement, by the treatment which our presence here alone made possible for them and such as they. There is no time to dwell on the many other cases that have resulted just as happily during the year now past. Health has been restored and useful life again made possible. To all the Gospel has been preached, and they know by their own experience the power and reality of its influence in the lives of those who preached it, and who spent much time and trouble in trying to do them good. What a glorious message we have, you have, for all these needy folk. Healing for aching bodies, vision for eyes long blind, help for despised and outcast suffering ones, new lease of life for the suicide, new strength for the mangled breadwinner, new hope for despairing wife and widowed mother. All this your prayers and gifts are daily making possible. All this, and even more. For Christ is here in China, and we see His hand at work. To the two who came to ask Him in Judsea : " Art Thou He, ... or look we for another ? " the Master's answer was : " Go your way and tell . . . what ... ye have seen and heard." The news those two took back is our joyful news to-day; for to these poor also the Good Tidings is being preached and we see with our own eyes that it is not being preached in vain. It is good to have such work to do, such a message to proclaim, but the responsibility is often overwhelming. Will you not pray for us as you have never prayed before, and so help to strengthen our weak hands, and share with us the joy of meeting, in the power of our risen Christ, the great and golden opportunity before us day by day ? CHAPTER X. MEDICAL EDUCATION IN CHINA. npO be practical, and to speak to the point on a matter like the above, some amount of personal, more or less bitter, experience is absolutely necessary. The From the Point importance of the subject, and the fact of View of an that much experience has been mine, in a Inland Mission variety of forms and degrees, since I was pitched headlong, more than eight years ago and only a few days after arriving in North China, into the work and charge of an inland medical mission, must be my justification for the expression of my views in this paper. I. The need ^et me begin with the need for Medical for Medical Education as it presents itself to me here, Education. a.nd, no doubt, to many another like me. The work centering in Tsang Chou (eighty miles south of Tientsin) as headquarters, embraces a district larger than Wales, including seven or eight " hsien," throughout which are scattered between twenty and thirty outstations, each with its own regular meeting-place for worship, and a much larger number of villages in which our Christians live. The base hospital here is the only one in the district, though the English Methodists have one in Lao Ling, just beyond our southern border. MEDICAL EDUCATION IN CHINA. 191 In former years Dr. Roberts of Tientsin, and later I myself, have itinerated in this district, and there is good reason to believe that thereby the work was greatly benefited and much prejudice removed. Not only so, but a strong desire for further visits was aroused both in Christians and heathen, and a confidence as to the foreigner's good intentions won, which has helped to produce results that gladden one's heart, so that we long to see such itineration going on in every part of our field. The native church of the district, as represented by their own Church Council, is even more eager for this than we ourselves, and takes every opportunity of pressing it, as a matter of vital importance, upon all whom it may concern. When the " L.M.S. Deputation " met with our company of local workers here last year the urgency of this matter was specially laid before them by the best of our mission preachers. But as yet we can do nothing to help them. The work at headquarters has grown to such an extent, and patients crowd in for operation in such overwhelming numbers, that the whole strength of the staff is taxed to meet the needs of the hospital, and the outstations are left forlorn. Nor is there any prospect of a different state of things in the future ; in fact very much the reverse. Each patient cured is a peripatetic advertisement, and the work grows larger year by year. Here then in brief, are our needs as an inland medical mission : — 1. Efficient colleagues, either foreign or Chinese, for the base hospital, who can help in training medical evangehsts, and take their full share of all the work and responsibiUty now devolving upon the medical missionary. 2. Branch dispensaries and hospitals in selected 14 192 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. outstations, where they may be central for considerable areas, yet not too remote from the base. 3. Soundly-trained medical evangelists, to take charge of such outstation hospitals, and to be supported outside of foreign mission funds. 4. A regular system of visits and itineration by the doctor and his colleagues, to link together the base and branch hospitals, and keep all efficiently working. 2. What are we Perhaps this is hardly a typical station doing locally to upon whose experience to draw for light in meet this need a problem like this. Our losses in 1900 or wor ers. (about 250 martyrs), were so terribly severe that we had hardly a worker left, and even the elder school-boys were almost exterminated. Starting in 1902 with two young hospital students, one almost, and the other quite, new to the work of a medical mission, I have gradually added to their numbers as opportunity arose, until now there are eleven. My rule is not to take any one on unless guaranteed as a promising and trustworthy specimen by the native Church Council. The preachers and deacons who com- pose this useful body have the good of the cause at heart, and can now be depended upon to choose with real judgment so far as character is concerned. This is a far more satisfactory plan than that of choosing assistants for oneself out of a heterogeneous lot of aspirants, ranging from the nephew of one's Chinese teacher, or the son of a colporteur, to the illiterate hospital coolie who has managed to make himself handy. Of course the youths are usually poor (generally scholars from the boarding school), and cannot pay a fee for their tuition. They are therefore given grants in aid, on a rising yearly scale starting with five " tiao," Tientsin cash, per month, and increasing one " tiao " per annum. I— J[EX NURSES i-AX OUT-PATIENT. MEDICAL EDUCATION IN CHINA. 193 The present arrangement is that they shall go through a four years' course, and they give a written promise to work four years for the mission after their term of training is complete. It very soon became evident that these men could not do any regular and serious study so long as the routine work of the hospital devolved entirely upon their shoulders. After seeing Dr. Main's work in Hangchow, I decided to follow his plan of using a distinct and separate grade of men as hospital nurses, and now the in-patients are divided up into lots of eight or nine each, each lot having its own " clerk " and " dresser " who supervise its " nurse." For these nurses I again made application to the Church Council, and am very gratified with their choice of men for this somewhat anomalous and difficult post. There are now four male and two female nurses in constant employ. This arrangement has made satisfactory class work possible, and we have now regular teaching in medical subjects, Chinese subjects and English, the latter however being only for convenience in dispensing, etc. I hope that in a few years, from this little group of hospital students, we shall be able to send out men in couples to take charge of out-station hospitals and dispensaries, as fairly competent medical evangelists. They have already a close and friendly connection with the native Church Council, of which they should one day be members, and they are preparing for definite mission work, taking a full share of all the evangelistic as well as of the medical work of the hospital. Cases which they have learnt they -cannot wisely tackle will be sent in to the base hospital for treatment, whilst I and my head asssistant will aim at regular visits and itineration to encourage and supervise. 194 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. It may also be possible hereafter to arrange for regular summer sessions for them, to allow of further and special instruction, or of a system of alternation by which they may assist in the base hospital and have charge of a branch one by turns. So much then for our present local efforts. Their inadequacy must be painfully evident, not least to the poor deluded individual who presumes to attempt so much single-handed. ^ If our Boards cannot give us medical 3. The Relation ,, . . • .1. x i of the Union Colleagues we must tram them for ourselves Medical College on the field, and it is just here that the to the needs of an" Union," or other central and thoroughly Mand Medical equipped modern medical college, can help the over-worked medical missionary in the interior. The men who go through a five years' course in such a College, as we hope the " North China Union Medical College " in Peking, for instance, will become, should be fit to take their stand as medical men and act as colleagues to the foreigner in a base hospital, as his fellow-teachers in a training school for medical evangelists, and even as medical missionaries themselves in the smaller country mission stations. My father, the Rev. J. Peill, of Madagascar, when in charge of extensive country work there, was delighted with the help in this capacity rendered him by a diplomate of the Mission Medical College in Tananarive, and no doubt, in the not far distant future, the same will be the experience of many a China country missionary too. If men will come back from such a College training to work in mission employ, they will probably be men of sohd worth and must be treated generously. Let us go ahead in this matter in faith. Give these men the best training in every way that we can ; pray and toil for their MEDICAL EDUCATION IN CHINA. 195 spiritual growth and enlightenment, and according to our faith we shall receive. Should finances allow, I purpose sending the pick of my eleven students to Peking, in the hope that they will return when their course is finished to lighten my burden here, and help in preparing many to go out into all this district with healing for body and soul. 4. A need the There is then a vast field left unreached Union College by the College, except indirectly as indicated does not meet, above, and it will be many a long day before inland China has no useful work for the medical evangelist, by which term I mean, a man who will work under pastor, or doctor, or native church, for such salary as the native church or local fees can supply, for the benefit of remote and struggling out-stations, and the physical and spiritual salvation of the million homes of misery hidden away in the myriad clustered villages of the plain. Such men can be trained in connection with the base hospital mentioned above, either by two foreign medical missionaries working together, or by the usual one, with the help of a Chinese colleague (or colleagues) from the College. It is hardly to be expected that such college-trained men, who will be fit to rank with foreigners, will find it worth while, or even right, to put themselves at the disposal of the native church, to work for minute salaries in obscure and remote country villages. They will feel themselves fit for greater things, and we shall only get the best out of them if we trust them and give them their heads. The time has gone by in China for the native workers to be the mere tools of the foreign missionary. But that is another subject, and I must not leave my point. Nor does it seem likely that these two grades of workers can satisfactorily be trained in the same institution. 196 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The usefulness of the medical evangelist must largely depend upon his close and intelligent connection and co-operation with the native church in his district, and this would be apt to suffer by long residence in a distant city, under wholly new and surprising conditions. Not only so, but the extra work of training two separate sets of men would fall heavily upon the teachers in the college, and lessen their time for the literary work which we hope they will make a point of. And it will be difficult to preserve in Chinese eyes any radical distinction between such sets of men, when both are sent out to practise from the very same institution. No, the training of medical evangelists should be the work of the staff of a base hospital, and to that end every such staff should be suitably strengthened and equipped. Only so can we at all satisfactorily meet the immense and ever more clearly recognised need of the masses of inland China for the work of double healing in which it is our glorious privilege to be engaged. The present awakening in China means, besides a thousand and one other things, that the sick and ailing will wake too to the fact that we can help them. That is partly why we're getting deluged here. The need for foreign medicine, and especially for surgery, is more clearly felt by the people every day. This need for medical evangelists then is no merely temporary or local need. The product of all our colleges will be but as a drop in a bucket, and the wisest way to turn such product to account is to enlist these men as fast as we can, and in as many places as possible, in this work of reduplicating themselves, and thus providing, in at least some small degree, a supply of those who, like their Master, shall preach the gospel to their countrymen and " go about doing good." CHAPTER XI. NEWS LETTER FOR I905. 'T'HE year has been one of growth and develop- ment in every direction. There have been more General Remarks ^'^■P^*^^'^*^' "^ore out -patients, more opera- on the Year's tions, increased income from fees, larger Work and measure of local support, more preaching xpenences. ^^^ teaching, and more evident spiritual result, than in any previous twelve months. Three new women's wards, built with funds collected by Mrs. Peill, have been available for use, and have largely increased our accommodation for in-patients, so that we have now eighty, instead of only fifty beds. A convenient little residence has been built for the head assistant, Mr. Huang and his family, and has already resulted in better health for the latter. The private wards, which were formerly used for the women, have been recently re-arranged, and have now be- come the opium refuge for which we have waited so long. An attempt has been made towards a hospital laundry, which should gradually result in less heart-rending towels and soft-goods generally. The " hospital inn " and " food-shop " has been con- ducted on a far more satisfactory basis than heretofore, and in addition to constant and varied usefulness, has resulted at last in substantial benefit to the funds of the hospital, Z97 198 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Thanks to the isolation wards, a possible epidemic in the girls' school was limited to the first case, and they have also been proving very useful in various other ways. Our new lady missionary. Miss Berry, has already made herself useful among the women in-patients, and by teaching the students English, whilst Mr. and Mrs. Murray and Mr. Bryson have, as usual, given frequent and valued aid. This has been distinctly below the average, th Staff ^ regards both children and adults, and but for a change to Pei Tai Ho in summer, there might have been serious break-down. Perhaps the most alarming event in this direction was the scratching on the face by a rabid kitten of my little daughter Dorothy. The poor little beast had just bitten two Chinese, who said nothing about it tiU afterwards. Careful investi- gation revealed distinctly suspicious symptoms, and all three wounded were therefore taken to the Pasteur Institute in Tientsin. Here the kitten was definitely proved to have been mad, and its three victims each underwent a thirty-six days' course of treatment, the Institute v^ry generously charging nothing for the two Chinese and only a comparatively trifling fee for little Dorothy. All went well, and as yet there has been no further development. The sad death only a year ago of the daughter of a neighbouring missionary, from hydrophobia following the bite of her own pet little puppy, makes the whole affair more solemn, and deepens one's feeling of gratitude to God that wee Dorothy was spared. _^ „ The harvests round about us here have been unusually good, and beggars have been less numerous than usual, partly for that reason, and partly because, as stated last year, so many have been shipped to South Africa who would otherwise have swelled their vagrant ranks. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 199 With regard, in passing, to the coolie Question '^ question, I have seen no reason yet to alter the views expressed thereon in my report last year, but very little additional information has been available locally upon which to base further views. There seems little doubt that the people hereabouts do not consider the coolies to be suffering any special hard- ships in South Africa, so far as their treatment is con- cerned, nor do the few letters I have been able to see from the Rand give any such impression. But one gets amusing hints of the Chinese point of view from such incidents as the following : — M. asked a Chinese gentleman who was calling here one day what he thought about the coolies going to Africa. He received the naive, but serious, reply : " Well, you know, it's really a very good thing ; we've got rid of so many rascals in this way that the idea has been quite a success ! " A villager in one of our out -stations was heard exclaim- ing upon the merits of the scheme, and was able to convince his listening friends when he told them with enthusiasm that, not very long before, he had in this way delightfully disposed of a burdensome, idiot son ! There have been rumours of ill-health and many deaths amongst those who have gone out, but these fatalities are not ascribed to any ill-treatment, but to the effects of working in damp places underground. They have however been sufficient to deter many in this district from seeking employment in Africa, and, though large numbers are still going out from North China, I believe there are fewer coming forward than at first. Chinese ^^ ^^^ more immediate interest to the Military hospital have been the Chinese military MancBuvres. manoeuvres, held in the autumn at Ho Chien Fu, the first manoeuvres on any large scale of the rapidly developing modernised army of China. 200 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Being all so new and mysterious and surprising, it is little wonder that these proceedings induced a marvellous crop of rumours in minds so steeped in memories of Boxerdom, and so ignorant of modern progress, as those of the country yokels for many miles around. They wildly stated that the troops of thirteen foreign nations were to share in the coming fight, and pictured the awful scenes to result from the licence of such crowds of soldiers. Others spoke of anti-dynastic risings, and of the manoeuvres being only a cunning ruse to mask the massing of the rebels. Our departure (to the Pasteur Institute in Tientsin) was construed as hurried flight, the result of special news of coming danger, and Mr. M.'s continued presence accounted for by the explanation that he did not fear to die ! The farmers feared for their standing crops, and that they would be prevented from sowing wheat for early harvest. Many people who lived in the vicinity of the battle-ground left their homes and fled^to the south, and on all hands unrest was general. All this made a great difference in the number of our patients, as Ho Chien Fu is only thirty-five miles west, and people concluded we were sure to be involved should any real trouble occur. Had the latter half of the year been as busy as the first we should have been simply overwhelmed in the autumn, but this " manoeuvre respite " was truly providential, in that it left us time for the revival of which I have to tell further on. ^jjgj. These manoeuvres mean very much, not Significance to China alone, but to all the world as well. of the Henceforth China can no longer, in the eyes Manoeuvres. ^j ^j^^ western nations, be the same sick man of the East that she was two years ago. She is now a considerable and fast-developing military power that will have to be reckoned with. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 201 And further, there is now becoming rapidly available in China an army capable, under an able leader, of making him master of the situation. Whether that leader is to to be the Emperor, or one of the greater Viceroys, or some as yet " Great Unknown," the future alone can show. But that future is big with possibilities. May I use this bit of convenient space for ^° making a little statement. It might appear, in reading the following pages, to one unacquainted with the facts, as though most of the work going on in Tsang Chou centred in and around the hospital. This of course is far from true, but our different shares are indistinguishably blended, and it is impossible to speak of one's own work long without touching on that of another. And in this unity we rejoice. I must not go to another heading without IVTcdica.! Education * ^^P^^ review of the teaching work of the year just past and of matters connected with it. Perhaps those not interested in this subject will skip the next two pages. During the year there have been twelve students in training for longer or shorter periods, though pressure of ordinary hospital work in the spring and early summer, and the revival in the later months, made havoc of regular classes. Ten of these students were examined in July, in Anatomy, Chemistry, Physiology, English and Chinese subjects, and most of them did very well. Two of them acted as pupil-teachers in English and Chemistry respectively, and the Chinese subjects were taught by the hospital pundit who is also my own Chinese teacher. Of these twelve men, two have now gone for the full five years' course to the Medical Union College in Peking, after a preliminary grounding in Physics, Chemistry and Zoology, during the last four or five months, at the North China Union Arts College at Tung Chou. 202 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. This latter institution now provides the instruction necessary to prepare intending students for entering the Union Medical College, and the two bid fair to form together a very satisfactory training ground for the mental equipment of a proportion of China's future doctors under earnest Christian influence. This is no small task to have undertaken, and one cannot but be thankful for the men, whose indefatigable energy and patient tact have been used by God to accomplish so much against overwhelming odds. A trip in the early part of the year, to A Trip to attend a meeting of the Board of Managers Tung Chou. of *h^ Medical College in Peking, gave me a welcome opportunity of seeing things for myself, and as I also visited Tung Chou, which is only some fifteen miles from the capital, I was able in both places to get first-hand information, and thus to get into living touch with every part of our medical training work in North China. I was fortunate enough to be shown all The Govern- over the Government Medical College CoUec-e-^A^^ (Tientsin) by one well fitted to give me Comparison. information, and an opportunity was thus afforded me of comparing our mission plant and facilities for medical education with those of the Chinese Government. All I will say here is that we have nothing to be ashamed of in the comparison, and that, as things at present stand, there is no doubt whatever in my mind as to which graduates will have had the better training. But even so, I am stiU quite firmly MSkaf" convinced that there exists to-day, and Evangelists. ^^^^ exist for long years to come, a need for andther type of medical man in China of a humbler, less be-coUeged grade. These men I would NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 203 style medical evangelists, would train in a country centre for branch-hospital and out-station dispensary work, in close connection with a base hospital like the one which we are working here. China is so huge, her medical need so overwhelming, that no one college can more than begin to supply her requirements. Again, in an essentially village population such as surrounds our inland centres, the benefits certain to accrue to all branches of the work from the judicious planting out of branch dispensaries and hospitals is simply incalculable. This is just the kind of work the medical evangelists would be fitted for, both by environment and training, and their own close connection with the local church that supplies them will make their support and oversight much easier than it would be otherwise. These views have already obtained the willing support of the North China District Committee ; and I hope that before long the Board wiU see its way, perhaps from the Eldorado of the Arthington Bequest, to make suitable provision for the training of such men. It was upon this subject that I wrote the paper for the Educational Association of China, at its last Triennial Meeting in Shanghai. But let us away from these dry bones of education to a few of the many interesting cases which have come under our notice in the hospital in the busy year now gone. Those who read the brief biography at Interesting *^^ ^^^ °^ ^^^^ year's report of my assistant Cases— Mr. Huang may remember the mention Suffering not made there of his adopted father. This in vain. fine-looking old man has been a patient here now, off and on, for about two years. He developed a malignant tumour of the lower jaw, necessitating the removal of the whole of one side of the bone, and repeated 204 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. recurrences in the neck have made necessary several very serious operations. He was not a Christian before he came here, though well-disposed latterly to the truth, but his son has found cause to rejoice, even in the midst of all the sorrow his father's affliction has caused him, in that both the old man and his genial, buxom wife have learnt to believe in Christ. And a visit to his home in Tientsin revealed the cheering fact that others of his relatives, who before had been strongly adverse, were now willing to give heed to his teaching. What a difference this change of heart has made to the prospect of his father's shortening days. Upon my return to Tsang Chou in 1901, "Thank j found in the little mission day-school a lost arm." ^^Y with disease of the elbow and arm so extensive that nothing short of amputation below the shoulder was sufficient to save his life. For a few years he did well enough and continued in the school, but then further tubercular mischief started in lungs and remaining wrist. His father being dead, and he the only surviving hope of a poverty-stricken mother, the outlook was sufficiently miserable to excite general pity amongst our local Christians. His health was made the subject of per- severing prayer. Tonics, repeated scrapings under chloroform, open-air, fixation by splints and plaster, extra feeding, and other things were tried as need arose, and treatment continued for long periods with partial success, but the personal factor was unsatisfactory. In other words, he was a naughty boy, and used his poor hand surreptitiously to hit his schoolfellows and in other forbidden ways. Gradually however, his character changed_. From being conceited, untrustworthy and disobedient, he became humble, true, and ready to follow advice. From being NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 205 only pitied he came to be loved. Prayer on his behalf became more earnest and general. The means used were more satisfactorily responded to, till now his hand is soundly healed and freely usable, whilst his general health is very satisfactory, and he has become a new man in Christ Jesus also, and a respected example to many. Only the other day he stood up in a crowded public meeting and thanked God for his lost arm and weary months of sickness. " For now," said he, " I understand that only in this way was it possible for God to save a reprobate like me." One day a sturdy youth came into the Smokers ward with a broken pipe-stem in his hand and a woe-begone look on his face. He had been leading an ox to water, sucking nonchalantly at his long pipe the while, when the animal took fright and bolted suddenly, squeezing him violently between its own body and a wall, and knocking the pipe right in through the back of his mouth, till the large jade mouthpiece was protruding under the skin below and behind his ear. It was cut down on and removed, and he rapidly healed, and left hospital cheery and grateful, though apparently no more interested in the gospel than he had been when he came. Blood-poisoning Another day an interesting old Manchu from the came with a badly poisoned arm. Some Talons of a days previously he had been out hunting "^ ■ with his falcons, when one of them, alighting on his forearm, had driven its talons deep in through the skin. The results of the accident were very severe, and it was only with difficulty his arm could be saved, and long before it healed. Another time I was asked to go across to ^ i^^v* « the M.'s to see the head nun, or Sister- Cathohc Nun. Superior of the Roman Catholic Mission here, a pleasant-looking Chinese woman about forty years of 2o6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. age. She had previously come to us for treatment herself, but had now brought her elder sister, a grey-haired old lady, a nun like herself, who was hopelessly blind from glaucoma. She had come from a place to the north of Tientsin, and not far from a Medical Mission, so I naturally inquired why she hadn't gone there when her eyes first began to give trouble. She said she had heard of the hospital there, so had asked a mission schoolboy all about it. " The doctor," said this hopeful, " treats all eye cases himself. He takes each eye from its socket, puts it right, and then returns it, after which you wear a bandage for eight days and then can see as well as ever before." It was all very convincing and circumstantial, but jthe bare idea of having her eyes lifted out was enough to prevent her going, and now she is blind for life. After long -^ ^oy of sixteen and a girl of fifteen, who Blindness, had been blind for twelve and ten years Sight. respectively, may perhaps be mentioned also. Sight in each case was restored by operation, and it was pathetic to see the excitement in the ward when the bandage was removed and the new-found vision tested. A little eager group surrounded the boy as I held my hand up before him. He saw the fingers clearly enough, but was too ignorant to count even two, having never perhaps associated the number in his mind with the sight of any two objects. What a world of interests now lies open to those eyes that at last can see ! "He spat on One more, and then I must leave these the ground and folk and get on to other things. She was a and anointed poor old soul from a distant out -station, sent the eyes of the in and supported whilst here by my col- blind." league Mr. B., whose well-developed sense of the humour in things ^Chinese had been stirred thus effectually by her story. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 207 She had long been suffering from a chronic disease of the eyes, which led to imperfect vision and great discom- fort, but of late things had gone from bad to worse until she was nearly blind. It was at this stage that an earnest, but ignorant and somewhat hare-brained. Christian in her district was called in to see if he could help. He had been markedly successful, according to report, in exorcising demons from people in the neighbourhood who were said to be possessed, and in some cases of other ailments too, and his methods are said to consist for the most part in the simple prayer of faith. In this case he followed literally the Master's example, and spitting upon the ground, he made clay by mixing the earth and saliva, and rubbed it into her eyes ! But her vision, alas, was only altered for the worse ; and when B., not long after, was touring in that district, he just told her to come here. Her eyes were too far gone for any immediate great improvement, but long treat- ment helped her vision not a little, and she left some weeks ago feeling happier for her visit, and with hope of better vision in the future. There are scores of other cases just as interesting as these, but it's time to be getting on. Confidence During the year there has been a marked Gratitude and increase in the appreciation locally of our Goodwill. work, and it has been a pleasure to meet with signs of gratitude and goodwill from many of our former patients and their friends. L^ng Increasing confidence is apparent in the Subscription long subscription list, remarkable not so L'®'- much for the amount of money raised, as for the number (over 100) of residents in the neighbourhood who have made contributions to it. " We should like to give more," the donors say, ", for the work is very 15 208 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. good, but we cannot afford to give as much as we feel your cause deserves." Of course a lot of this is blarney, but we didn't even get blarney not very long ago ; and if polite phrases from a Chinese farmer or tradesman are acccompanied by even a single silver dollar, one is abundantly justified in a cheering hope that there's more in them than words. It has come to be the natural thing to bring suicides to us, and the sick and wounded also, from the yamen, whilst the soldiers come here freely, to be cured of their complaints, or healed of the crippling conse- quences of severe beating and neglect. Kindly Aid During a big fair in the city last spring and Friendly we had difficulty in finding a suitable Welcome. preaching-place, until a man, not in any way connected with the church, came and offered us the use of a shop he had there ; and when this proved incon- venient, the good fellow went still further and put at our disposal a very suitable mat shed erected specially, on a good site, in connection with the fair. For this he refused to take any remuneration whatsoever, and said that it gave him pleasure to assist in any way he could people who were doing so much good in the place as we were. We have more than once taken visitors to see the city pawn-shop, and various other sights about the place here, and have invariably been received with cordiality, all seeming to do their very best to show their friendship and appreciation. The hospital students have of late been much out preaching in the villages and hamlets of the neigh- bourhood. They tell me that wherever they go they find, if not some one who recognises them personally, then at least a hearty welcome for the sake of the work with which they are identified. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 209 It has been pleasant too, to receive Vis^rr '"^^^ occasional visits from strangers who were staying in the city, either on business, or whilst visiting their friends. One of these was the prefect of Tientsin, a high official, on a tour of investiga- tion into the whole subject of industrial schools. These he was having established in the cities throughout the prefecture, and was evidently full of the enterprise in hand. He talked interestingly of the kinds of work most suitable, listened carefully to M.'s views upon the matter, and came to dinner a few days later to talk things over again. He expressed admiration of the work being done in the hospital, and went over every part of it, and left with the promise of a donation which, alas, has never been received. Since then he has been promoted to another part of the province and we have seen his face no more. Another caller was a Mohammedan, a ,,.,,. . Tientsin millionaire, who has already nlillionaire. •' started several schools and readmg-rooms in that city, and shown interest in much that makes for enlightenment and progress. He too went all over the hospital and seemed to be really interested. The Influence ^^^^^ another was also a well-known man of a Cataract in Tientsin, deeply interested in the spread operation. Qf Western learning in China and prominent in various ventures towards that end. He too seemed interested in all he heard and saw, expressed unqualified approval of our influence in the neighbourhood, and not long after sent along a donation of twenty taels (about ;f3). His old tutor had been cured by us of total blindness from double cataract, and this had evidently predisposed him in our favour. He is anxious that a reading-room should be started in this city, and would like us to co-operate therein. 2IO THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The very fact that such men are brought to call on us by their friends, and consider it worth their while to come and see us, is a sign in itself of considerable interest and confidence in our doings. A Welcome ^* ^^^ been a source of the deepest satis- Changeinour faction to see proofs on every hand of a Chinese Helpers, welcome change that is taking place in the relation between ourselves and our Chinese helpers. Hitherto they have been far too much mere employees, with little interest in the work as a whole, beyond their own personal and material aims, but, thank God, this is rapidly all being altered. They are now more and more coming to regard their work as done for Christ, and themselves as fellow-workers with us for Him. It naturally follows that they are realising fast their own identification with His cause, and their individual responsibility to Him for its good name and helpful influence. Oh, the comfort that all this means to a staff overwhelmed with present duty, yet conscious of new and golden op- portunities wherever attention is turned ! One comes to know something of the joy and relief that must to some extent have cheered the Master's sorrow, when at last He could say to His disciples ere He went : " Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends." Gratitude of ^^ ^^ particularly pleasing, in this con- Former nection, to recall the enduring gratitude of Patients. many poor sufferers whom it has been our delight to relieve. One such is a Mohammedan in the city, who was cured of double cataract. He makes a point of coming to see me, with a little present of sweetmeats, at least every Chinese New Year. A great, burly fellow, he enters the room and is persuaded at last to sit down, but is pleased NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 21 1 to believe himself wholly unworthy to take tea in my august presence. He simply tells me how grateful he is, and. explains how his sight regained has meant the con- tinued well-being of six or seven persons. He says he knows there are no fairies or genii, but that if indeed there were, then I am the only specimen in the region round about. He says he regards me as the great benefactor, and that my beneficence reaches up as high as heaven, and extends without bound or limit. To change this embarassing subject I ask him about his work, and warn him against any extra exertion or the strain of shouting angrily. To this he makes the humble plea that such care is quite impossible, and pathetically laments that the nature of his work necessitates loss of temper, and that, as he has to oversee the weighing of loads of grain, he really couldn't get on at all without much vociferation. He is told that we are simply trying to obey our Master and do what He would do. He replies that the Moham- medans in the city often speak of Christ and say how good He is, judging His religion and its virtues by what they know of our work here. He says he himself often speaks of us in the crowded street where he works, and tells to all and sundry of what we have done for him. Another old man with the same complaint A Famous r .,, . , ^ . IS a famous coniurer, with a nickname Conjuror. ■" meaning that he licks creation south of the capital, and one at least of whose many pupils has gone on tour to Europe. But his blindness sadly interfered with his means of livelihood, and he came here doubtingly to see if anything could be done for him. His vision was restored after several operations, and his stay meant light to his dark soul too ; for he became quite interested in the Good News he was told, and entered his name as an inquirer. With the help of his sons who had 212 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. nursed him whilst here, and a partner, who was here in the ward for treatment also, he gave us several most interesting entertainments, and would not hear of any remuneration. One day the old gentleman hesitatingly inquired whether his means of livelihood was incompatible with a profession of Christianity, and one was glad of the chance to reassure him and to have further talk on the matter with him. Just the other day we heard that he now begins his exhibitions by a short oration to the crowd assembled round him, telling them the story of his blindness and its cure, and recommending to his astonished hearers the missionaries and the Jesus religion that they preach. " What more ^^^ ^^^ ^^^* summer, when about to leave can I do to show the dispensary after a hot afternoon seeing my gratitude out-patients, my attention was arrested ° ° ■ by the beaming face, and general air of well-being, of a poor man who not so long before had been a source of anxiety to us all. He suffered much from gangrene of the foot, and, as amputation above the ankle would make it impossible for him to live except as a miserable beggar, an attempt was made to save a stump upon which he could get about without artificial aids. For months the wound refused to heal in spite of all we could do, but extra food, perseverance and prayer, were in the end effectual, and he is now as vigorous as ever. As he came towards me that afternoon he blurted out his desire to know what further he could do to show God he was grateful. He said : " I regularly pray, and thank God in my prayers, but that is not enough for me. What can I further do ? " With a glad heart I turned him over to our preacher, Mr. Yang, and thanked God myself for this new and precious token that our work is not in vain in the Lord. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 213 It is surely only here, in this land of t TV* ^j ' contradictions, one could meet with an yet Married. experience like the following. A year or more ago an old gentleman came to see me who was much concerned about his only son. This child, a well-grown lad of ten, was his only hope of leaving any posterity, and suffered from a troublesome complaint which made the old man anxious. A small operation was all he needed to put him right again, and I advised his father to send him here for this purpose. But to this there were unforeseen difficulties. The hopeful had a wet nurse from whom he drew nourishment daily ! It appeared that his father was so anxious for his welfare that he provided him milk diet on the premises, and the boy was now so tightly tied to his foster-mother's apron-strings that he could not come to us without her. So the two were accommodated in the hospital inn, and the necessary treatment satisfactorily carried out. Last October I was informed that this boy, now twelve years old, had been married with great pomp two days before, and wished to do the usual thing and come and bump his head to me, since he regarded me as his bene- factor, and the old father too was genuinely grateful, incorrigible miser though he be. He came in flowing robes of silk, embroidered front and back, since his father had spent a considerable sum in buying him rank as an official. An untidy servant laid on the fio.or a dirty red cloth mat, and the youngster dropping upon his knees knocked his head on the ground. It was all decidedly amusing, but when in addition I learnt that his wife was a strapping young woman of eighteen, and that she was to live with her mother-in-law whilst her husband still stayed with his wet nurse, I felt that it was quite imperative to have 214 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. his photograph. Unfortunately the plate was poor, so I trust he'll call again. Just one more case, and then I'll hasten "After many on. This man was a beggar, a ragged, B*^^ ~ (fth tangled, woe-begone object, who wearily Prodigal Son. propelled himself with a knee and two hands and besought us to cure him of his agony. This arose from an acutely suppurating leg, consequent on a deep and long-neglected dog bite. He was taken in, and soon made much more comfortable. As he healed he listened to the preaching day by day, though without apparent benefit, till one day I saw him listen, with a rapt and eager face, whilst M. spoke of the prodigal son and the Father's wondrous love. His expression was so new and striking that it stirred me to pray in faith, and to commend him to the special attention of a man who preached in the ward. All that was years ago. He healed well, and we found him steady work, but his vagrant soul rebelled, and he left soon after for the distant north and passed out of sight and mind. But just the other day I heard that he had called, a long time afterwards, to see me, and though I was not in, he had called to thank the preacher, and told him his story as follows. He had gone to Manchuria and found work with the Russians, and made money by diligent toil, and was now on his way to his home away south, a changed man, and a beggar no more. He wished to thank the friends who had done so much to help him, and had never forgotten the preaching, of which he had now learnt considerably more from a mission he attended in Manchuria (Presby- terian). He was a clean, well-clothed, and happy fulfil- ment of the promise to those who cast their bread upon the waters, and we know he's not forsaken by the Great NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 215 Father of prodigal sons, though since then we have heard of him no more. , No report from China for 1905 could be Awakening— ^* ^^^ complete without at least some Opportuni^, passing reference to the transformation Golden and taking place in the minds and ideals of this Glorious. , ^ people. Inland missionaries like ourselves, engrossed in our own absorbing occupations, cannot but feel now and then like the naturalist busy among the pools of a flat, far- stretching shore, who at length looks up from his treasures in the rapidly deepening waters to find his surroundings changed, transformed as in a moment. Where before had lain the vast expanse of ribbed sand and low wet rocks is now a tide that is flowing fast, and will soon be the mighty deep. For with us too, is the flowing tide which will soon be " waters to swim in." But He is with us " whose way is in the sea," so there is nought to fear. Indeed we can rejoice, since now, as long ago, " these waters come . . . that all things may be healed," and " everything shall live " wherever the waters come. This change is particularly due to Russia's defeat by Japan, and far, far more than anyone knows, to the hundred years of missions to be celebrated next year in Shanghai. The causes are many and varied, too much so for this Report, so let us pass on to the local data which make evident its presence. Local Signs of ^ur relations with the officials and gentry the Great of the place are becoming more cordial Change. ^^^ intimate. Conversation runs increas- ingly on local and national efficiency and progress, and the basis of true reform. The magistrate tells of establishing schools and appro- priation of temples for the purpose. He narrates how he 2i6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. has ordered ancient idols to be overthrown and buried unceremoniously in a hole in the ground, standing by, himself, to see that it was done ! The general tells of his struggle with military abuses and stern suppression of gambling and opium-smoking among the men whom he commands. And the battered victims of his iron rule crawl along to be healed in the hospital, unconscious and quite unwilling proofs of their chief's sincerity. The gentry lament their opium habit and ask about its cure, and several already express their intention of coming to our refuge when the winter cold is past. The high priest of the vegetarians here talks of joining with us to start an " Anti-Opium League," a scheme in which the general too is deeply interested. The Mohammedan mullahs have subscribed to the hospital in the name of their own loved mosque, and the other day, by special request, I spent the after- noon in explaining the rudiments of Anatomy and Physiology to some of the Chinese physicians and gentry of the district. Do vou ^°* ^°°S ^gP 3-11 English-speaking clerk consider me from the telegraph office in the city came to qualified see me and ask my advice. Since the toteac ? government has decided not to hold the examinations which have formed from dim antiquity the educational ladder of the nation, it has now become im- perative for the scholars of the present to seek some means of instruction in Western subjects. To meet this need the government in this province has instituted a University, and several grades of schools. But the high school in this city is entirely inadequate for the numbers now in search of such instruction, and already it is patent, if the school is|[not enlarged, that some other institution must be started. Some of the gentry. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. at; realising this, had approached the telegraphist tentatively, and he came that I might try him and give him an opinion as to whether he was fitted to teach English. He was also very anxious that we should start a school, and so give folks here a chance of learning our language properly ; or, at least, that one of us should formally agree to oversee the teaching in the suggested institution in the city should it ever come from theory into existence. The poor man's English, though, is ludicrously insuffi- cient, and all of us are far too busy to help. Nor do we know of a single efficient teacher available for such work, so great is the demand for such men. These government schools have already resulted in a new generation of youths, eager to acquire the English language and to make progress in Western learning. On landing from a houseboat at a small ScholTrr°* ^i^y °" ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^' ^ ^^^ politely accosted by three tidy looking schoolboys, who evidently wished to be as friendly as they could, and who informed me that they belonged to the newly started government institution in that place. They had already discovered my name and nation, perhaps from the servants or boatmen, and seemed eager to listen to all I would tell them, and to improve the opportunity of meeting a foreigner who could make himself understood in their language. In Tsang Chou, too, there is now a fair company of these lads, many of whom are friends of the hospital students, and often attend services in our meeting-room. During the summer vacation a number A ^'^S^} ^^^ of government students returned to Opportunity. their homes here from Tientsin and Paotingfu, and the opportunity thus afforded was seized by one of my students, now in Peking, 2i8 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOV. who could speak and read English well. He had for some time desired to start a Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation on the lines of the one in Tientsin, but the lack of young men with any interest in Christianity had prevented the carrying out of the scheme. He then hit on the notion of an English mutual improve- ment society, for all interested in the study of that language, and with my gfad consent, he posted up placards explaining his idea. His own reputation as a better English scholar than even the government teacher made his plan acceptable to many, so that every week evening for several weeks, at our chapel in the city, there gathered a band of from twelve to twenty of the brightest young men in the place. On Sundays, their leader, Mr. Hsieh (the ^ student mentioned above), asked me to Bible-class. speak to them about Christianity, using as much English as they were able to understand. This I was only too glad to do, and we held two delightful meetings in my study where, introductions over and tea having been discussed, we were able to talk heart to heart about John iii. i6, and the next time, on prayer and its pattern. Unfortunately I had to leave for my holiday before the third Sunday came round, but Mr. Hsieh continued the meeting himself, and finished the Lord's Prayer which I had only half explained to them. That prayer and the text, John iii. i6, they committed to memory in English and wrote out to carry away, nor can we doubt that the explanations prayerfully added will be blest to their lasting good. They willingly bowed the knee in prayer to the Great Father of us all, and when the vacation ended, and it was time for them to go, they expressed the hope that when next year comes we should meet like that again. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 219 Essay and ^^^ mission students' essay and debating Debating society has been copied by scholars in the Society. (,i^y^ ^jj(j ^g even hope that, before very long, some neutral place may be found where they and we can meet in common to make short work, if that be possible, of misunderstanding and prejudice. Not long ago we caught a thief who had A thief, and been stealing in the hospital, and as it was V7hat was done . , i • j x with him necessary to make an example m order to check frequent pilfering, we sent him, reluctantly, into the yamen, believing that this was a case where leniency would only result in wrong-doing. But our reluctance died a natural death when we heard that an industrial school for its inmates has been started in the prison, and we sent a note to beg the magistrate to send our thief in thither. His mother and other relatives, who were coming to ask for mercy, received the news with delight, in the hope that their hitherto helpless and quite incorrigible loafer may now be taught a trade, and become a useful member of the family instead of its constant worry. A Prisoners' -^ large prison school of industry that I School of saw in Tientsin was a model of efficiency Industry. ^jj^j discipline, so that the hope we cherish for this man is more than fond delusion, especially as there are people interested in seeking his soul's good too. First let me thank with all my heart Hopes and ^^le friends of our work and of China, Indications for , .„. -i , ■ 1 •, , the Future. whose willing and timely generosity has given me a colleague. That he should be my brother Sidney is a matter of deep joy to us all, and will tend to lasting harmony and happiness. That his ■wife should be a devoted missionary worker, with special hospital training and experience, is good cause for thanks- giving and dehght. But the source of truest satisfaction 220 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. after all is in the knowledge that God is not doing all this for nothing, and that the future holds greater things in store for us, and richer blessing than we yet have known. The good hand of our God is upon us, and His work is bound to prosper more and more. As I write our new colleagues are already in Shanghai, and we hope to have them with us ere the present month is gone. A prime necessity for the future is the establishing and perfecting of a permanent hospital staff, as distinct from the medical students. No satisfactory curriculum for the latter seems possible till this object is attained, and it bids fair to occupy, for two or three years to come, a large measure of both attention and time. A matter to be kept in mind and prayed for is that of government recognition for our institutions and their graduates, both in Peking and throughout the empire. Some plan of affiliation and inspection will need to be developed, and there is need of a great deal of tact and wisdom in seeing this business through. A uniform medical nomenclature for mission and government books, etc., is also much to be desired. It will never do to forget again in China, though it has often been forgotten in the past even by us missionaries, who might have been wiser, that the Chinese are not an inferior race to be despised and disregarded, but a nation born again in the last few years. The boycott against America, the riot in Shanghai, the cancelling of concessions to foreigners and deter- mination to do things for themselves — all these are signs of the times in China, and plain for all to read. This spirit of independence and patriotism is abroad in the churches too. There will be little patience among his Chinese helpers for the foreign missionary who shuts his eyes to it, especially among his ablest men. There is danger of open disruption where the foreigners will NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 221 insist on blind obedience. Autocracy in the church will have to go, and the young blood must be given rein. Rightly guided this spirit will make our churches a power in the land ; unwisely checked and irritated it will bring discord, division and hate. Pray for us all in China to- day ; for critical times are upon us. Magnitude Yes, we need to " put on the whole ar- of the mour of God that we may be able to stand Struggle. against the wiles of the devil." For, Hke Paul of old, we too " wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world." And what a dreadful darkness it is that their rule results in round us ! It meets us wherever we turn. Amongst our servants the awakening conscience of the native church has disclosed much that was formerly hid from us. ■ Deceit, obscenity and evil influence are some of their delinquencies. That the student's aim had been to make a living, and preachers preached for money, we heard from the lips of these very men themselves not many weeks ago, when with shame and true contrition they confessed their sin before God. But if this be true of those " within the pale," what of those that are still without ? One wonders if it be possible to give any adequate impression of the darkness which enshrouds these people's hearts. No need to go beyond the hospital to find the brooding gloom. One way ^^ *^^ women's wards it is always present, to get rid of That young woman who appeals to the an invalid. doctor SO earnestly to heal her many sores was stabbed with a knife by her husband, egged on by his cruel mother. Protracted illness and wretched suffering have made that tyrant hate her, and she fears that nought but perfect cure will make her life worth living. 222 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. "Dear Mother Come into the women's waiting-room mine ! Was and look at that sad little group. The ever such pathos of it effects even the bystanders, ' from the lips of one of whom is burst- ing the exclamation underlined above, as we begin to make an inquiry. For the young girl is full of a loathsome disease beyond the surgeon's aid, whilst the woman beside her, her mother-in-law, uncovers a hopeless cancer. And the woman's son (the young girl's husband), is dying of consumption. We can do little or nothing for them ; they have come to us far too late ; but as they go hopeless from the saddened room, out into the darkening night, other hearts are aching too, aching for the love of which this is but a glimpse, the sorrow of China Christless. Oh these Imagine a day of broiling heat, and a Suffering stuffy little room. A woman Ues on the Women of dusty kang who has lain there, in agony, '"*■ long. The usual old women have done their worst — a little life has fled — and the foreign doctor is called too late, for the end is close at hand. His patient sighs her last faint breath as her poor dead babe is born. Attempted ^^^ night, at bedtime, I was called to Suicide of the big waiting-room, where a strange sight Three met my eyes. The room was full of people Sisters. massed, roughly, in three groups, each with an unconscious girl in its centre whom students were endeavouring to revive. Her friends were actively rubbing her limbs, and holding lamps and lanterns, whilst the students were busy with tube and hypodermics, or performing artificial respiration. The whole night passed in the fight with death, but only two recovered, and their weary mother went home at dawn with her living and her dead. The story runs NURSES OF WOMEN'S HOSPITAL. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 223 briefly thus. Not long ago the girls' father died. He was a Manchu in the city, and had lived on his regular allowance from the throne, as so many Manchus do. But when he died their portion was embezzled, and starvation loomed ahead. Unable to obtain either mercy or justice, their frantic mother urged them on to suicide, and they swallowed each a heavy dose of opium. The one who died was the one who arrived most conscious, but she strenuously resisted every effort made to save her till deprived at last of her senses by the drug. " It's only -^ Chinese gentleman from Tientsin, in my Eyes Tsang Chou on business, one day brought Perspiring." along his son to us for treatment, and in the course of a long and interesting talk he told us the following story : A once well-to-do family of his acquaintance had been gradually reduced to poverty. Father and mother died, and their destitute children were adopted by various relatives. But no one wanted a wee girl of four, so that when a man offered to buy her, although his intentions were easily guessed, there was no one to say him nay. Our visitor heard of the sale some time after, and also that the poor child was having her feet bound tight and being taught to sing lewd songs. He knew what this meant, but it's all too common, and he might have let things be, had not a little detail touched his heart and roused him to interfere. He was told that the child was cruelly treated, and beaten when she cried, but that she was a clever little thing, for when she could no longer restrain her tears as they squeezed her tiny feet, she would say to the wretch about to strike her : " It's only my eyes perspiring." The pathos of it stirred his heart. He bought her from her master, and, having loosed the little feet, he took her home to his wife. But there are many, many other mites whose eyes " perspire " in vain. 16 224 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The Last The men's wards, too, reveal dark depths Resort of the for those who care to see them. Take Incurable. |.]jjg elderly man and his grown-up son who are begging the doctor's aid. Examination has shown inoperable cancer, but they are loth to believe things hopeless. At last the old man quietly asks : " How long have I to live ? " He is told, perhaps six months. " If so, I'll just settle up my affairs and then take a dose of opium. I can't go on suffering any more what I've endured long enough already." The determined tones are unmistakable, and we speak of the world beyond. His son is also in need of treatment, so we offer to take him in and support them both for at least ten days whilst they listen to our message. But no, they decide to go back home, and we've heard no more about them. The " prince of this world '■ has " blinded their eyes," and they know not the value of Light. Here is a man sent in from prison where His Mother j^g j^g^g been for the last three years. He Executed used to be rich, and owned much land, but lost all by riotous living. A confirmed debauchee and opium sot, he was also an inveterate gambler, and sponged on his relatives for all his wants until they were thoroughly sick of him. He repeatedly beat his mother because she would give him no more ; and such a menace did he become to her that she accused him to the magistrate and begged to have him executed. He was put under arrest for unfilial conduct, and even in the prison he soon became the leading spirit, and terrorised his fellows so that they acknowledged him as head, giving him his " squeeze " out of all their friends brought them. The woe-begone object yonder was shot in the dark, in a quarrel, the gun being fired point-blank, pepper- ing lips and chin with pellets and knocking out some teeth. NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 225 The " relics " of another fight were sent us by the magistrate. One man had a horrible gash in his head, and a broken leg and shoulder ; his brother and nephew being also injured by blows from an iron fork. Two brothers had divided the inheritance between them, but one went fast to the bad. Having squandered his own share he badgered his brother to give him part of his, and when he found his pleading vain he took to threats of murder. These also proved of no avail, so he came one night with his sons, and having tempted out his unsuspecting relatives by making a noise at their door, the cowards floored them one by one as they came across the threshold. But that pale worn man in the corner Love-sto^. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^ sadder story still. He is a pedlar, who oft in his wanderings came to a neighbour's door, and fell in love with the pretty maid who stole out to buy his wares. She also fell in love with him, and they sought to arrange a marriage. But her father would not hear of it, and forbade the young man the house ; yet they nianaged to meet in secret still, and at length they tried to elope. Pursued and overtaken, the girl was brought back home, but, in spite of all her father's care the lovers found a' way, till the outraged parent could stand no more, and prepared to make an end. With the help of friends he seized his victim and bound him hand and foot, and laying his legs on something hard they battered them with clubs ! The story goes that the poor young girl threw herself into the river, but others say her father did it secretly, so as to have a " human life " on his side in the lawsuit that was bound to follow. Both versions are essentially Chinese, and either may be true. How pitilessly these ignorant sufferers are imposed on by worthless, unscrupulous quacks ! In his dire distress. 226 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. and to hasten recovery, many a sick breadwinner is pre- pared to risk much, but, oh, the useless misery, the actually harmful torture so many needlessly bear, in order that some greedy wretch may earn dishonest gain. One man, who needed but a simple _ ^^ ' .' „ operation to change his whole horizon, had been fleeced for years before coming hither, and here are some of his " medicines " : — 1. FUl a white cock's intestine with musk. Burn to ash with charcoal, and eat all the ash so produced. Do ditto three days running. 2. Within a cock's intestine stow the following ingredients : (i) The heads of two small tortoises, male and female, (2) a snake, (3) a scorpion, (4) a lizard, (5) a frog, and (6) a centipede. Fry in cotton-seed oil till brittle — then eat. 3. Every day, for one month, swallow six little frogs alive ! ! Surely no one who reads this letter can picture the poor fellow crawling round after small batrachians, without fervently thanking God for what Christ and His teaching have done for the medical profession of Christen- dom, and without some really earnest effort that China's doctors may know Him too. Nor is it the doctors only who need His transforming touch. An Early Call ^^^ morning the old general paid us a and an Old two hours' call at the merciless time Man's of 6.20 (!), but his talk was so varied and Pessimism. ^^^ ^^ interest that we grudged neither bed nor breakfast. Towards the close he spoke of China's future, and the problems he was now too old to face. With a veteran's pride he spoke of wounds in leg and arm and side, and told of fights with Taiping rebels and the tribes of the far North- West. But the glory had departed from China now and she hadn't a NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 227 patriot left. The old men were dead who were worth their salt, and the new generation were hirelings. With just a veneer of reform and patriotism they sought only to line their pockets, and there was not a single official left who was worthy the nation's trust. He spoke with a quiet melancholy that made his visit memorable, and in estimating the present outlook his views should have due place. Yes, it would seem a mad idea to think of ^tiiJ"***"*^^ transforming China. The spiritual " rulers Missionary. ^f the darkness of this world " are enthroned throughout the land. Officialdom, social life, the people's homes and individual hearts, all own their blighting sway. The reform so evident all around us may mean merely outward change, and, still, those powers of the night hold China in control. Of what avail is all our toil, and why this fond delusion ? But we're not so mad as we seem. Jesus, looking upon His disciples, says now as He did of yore : " With men it is impossible, but not with God ; for with God all things are possible." " He that ^^ ^ write, the icy grip of winter is over all glorieth, let the land. No boats can move on the frozen him glory waters, and the fields are bare and bleak, in e or . ^-^^ abundant life of the coming year is held down, it might seem, for aye. But soon the tender blades of wheat will burst through the hard, brown furrows, and the lightest whisper of the soft, south wind send ripples o'er the river. Already the hope of the coming spring is rising in every heart, and we know that each freezing north-west blast is likely to be the last. Yes — life is sure to vanquish death, and light to conquer darkness, and with us is the Lord of Light and Life risen Victor o'er the grave. He has breathed already about us here the very breath of life, and, in place of the 228 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. " darkness which may be felt," there shines the hght of day ; for a great revival has broken out and is spreading far and near. One night, about three months ago, all The Revival ^^^ ^^^ q£ ^j^g hospital students were met and the , ^ a , ^ . , i Hospital. Ill 3, room for prayer. At first there were only six of them who joined in this daily meeting, but then at length two others came, and " Happy Pavilion " stayed out alone. This last was a youth of uncertain temper, at loggerheads with all, and as they prayed that he too might join them, his anger daily rose. At last he asked them what they meant by praying so for him, and told them all to let him be and not to make him so unhappy. Each day when the little band collected in one of the students' rooms, " Pavilion " would go off alone to sit and sulk in his own. Ere long he could not even sit, but restlessly paced the compound, revolving angry, bitter thoughts within his troubled soul. A student only lately come had wished to act the peace-maker, but the others told him the quarrel was old, and ordinary measures hopeless. That night, however, as the eight were praying, " Pavilion " entered too ; the crisis had come at last, and God had answered prayer. The man who had taken the lead in saying that commonplace means were hopeless, now took the lead once more. " Don't blame each other at all," he said, " but's let's all confess to God." And this they did, with loud crying and tears, to rise at last in joy ; and then they confessed to one another, and harmony reigned supreme. Their new-found enthusiasm broke all bounds, and the revival had broken forth. Mr. Yang, our trusted Chinese preacher and my colleague's right-hand man, had been used of God to help these young men much, but he would be the very first to give glory to God alone. For the whole thing has been NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 229 SO manifestly the work of the Holy Spirit. From a band of ordinary, common-place lads, with largely mercenary aim, and scarce visible spiritual life. He has transformed them into channels, unselfishly 37ielded to Him, through whom He pours His mighty power on the thirsty souls about them. They preached in wards and waiting room, in the kitchens and in the inn. Night by night in nearly every room was the sound of earnest prayer, and very soon the results were seen in every part of the compound. The Spirit's power, convincing of sin, brought con- trition to new hearts daily. Men and women, boys and girls, in meetings formal and informal, in groups or individually, broke down into sobbing and tears, and then went forth in the Spirit's power, themselves the living proofs, to tell about the Saviour's love to all whom they could reach. But I hope to tell of all this more fuUy in a letter about the revival, so wiU say no more about it here except as regards the patients. For they too were affected deeply. The man, above mentioned, who beat " h^h Tv ^^^ mother, and was sent by her to prison, mother." ^^^ °^^ of the early fruits of God's grace sent to quicken our faith for more. He left without leave for home one night and interviewed his mother. He told her that what he had learnt whilst here had opened his eyes to his sin, that now he knew how wicked he'd been and was sorry for the past. Would she forgive him and take him back ? But, not yet knowing the power of Christ, she was loth to believe it true, so he went with the story of his repentance to the headmen of his village. The chief of these was a Christian too (the father of one of my students), and after explanation and due inquiry they agreed to guarantee him. They therefore interviewed the magis- trate and went surety for the prodigal, and now he lives 230 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. with his reconciled mother, and both of them are glad. Since then he has often come to see us, though twenty miles away, and attends Christian worship, during the week and on Sundays, in the home of the village elder. One man, on whom we were just about to A Rather operate, burst into tears as he lay on the Incident table, not from fear, but because of his sins. He seemed to be genuinely repentant, and the small operation over, went home to make friends with a brother with whom he had long been at feud. Since then we have heard, independently, of his earnest, though as yet ignorant testimony, and hope to see him back ere long for further instruction and healing. An Just after an evening service I was about Unselfish to leave a ward, when one of the patients ^^- stepped forward and begged me to do him a favour. I quite expected the usual thing, some new thing for himself, but was glad when he turned to another sick one and begged my aid for him. The latter was not a friend of his, yet he spoke for him like a brother, and only those who have had much to do with Chinese patients can realise all that means. At one time there were ten in one of the * ^^ ® wards who gave in their names as inquirers. In another ward there were several more; whilst in the third (the eye ward), there appeared to be not a single man who was not deeply interested. The women, too, were greatly stirred, but I must write no more. Both time and space would fail to tell of how these people prayed. " Oh Lord, let his blindness come on me, if only my friend may see," was the earnest prayer of one eye patient for his neighbour just alongside. Another stood up in a crowded meeting to thank God, with genuine emotion, for the grievous, and perhaps incur- able affliction which had brought him here to be saved, NEWS LETTER FOR 1905. 231 He knew that we could do no more, but his thanks were quite sincere. Then he knocked his head on the chapel floor to emphasise his pleading, and begged us all to pray much for him as he went back to preach the Gospel. Since then we have heard of the great impression that man has made in his village, and know that he did not speak vain words, and that God indeed is with him. We have seen enough in the last three months to know that God is with us. We know that this is His Day of Grace, and that nought can withstand His power. And so we see the victory coming over all the hosts of darkness, and realise, as never before, the things that God makes possible. Even now, in our distant out- stations, the good work is going on, and in ever widening influence ; and from other centres too, the " leaven of the kingdom " will permeate this land, " till every part is leavened," and Christ alone is King. Thank God for His transcendent love and His transforming power ! But we have still our part to do, and we must do it now. The greatest need of this awakening empire is her need for our Leader — Christ. May He not look to us in vain to give His love its way ! CHAPTER XII. THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU, I905-I906. AT last it has come, the revival we sought, and far ■^ beyond our asking. We cast longing eyes on Wales no more, but rejoice with her rejoicing, because, in China too, the Lord is visiting His people. Revival is hardly the word to use, for we work in virgin soil. It is rather the lifting of a veil from eyes till now beclouded, the new response of awaking hearts to the " still small voice " within. For some days Mr. Yang had been deeply Started concerned about the state of the hospital students. During the week of the L.M.S. Chinese annual meetings they had been impressed by the evident power of God's Spirit in our midst. But now those meetings had long gone by, the delegates had departed, yet the students seemed no further on than they were two weeks before. They attended then as listeners only — was nothing more to come of it ? Quietly Mr. Yang had got them to start evening prayer together in their rooms, and he often came along himself to help as best he could. But now, here was this fortnight gone, and nothing much had happened. Was their interest to be a fleeting thing ? Would it gradually fade away ? He prayed silently on and waited. 232 SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 233 There were nine hospital students in St j^°f^''*' residence at the time, and at first only six met for prayer. The other three held aloof. One was a youth of stunted development and somewhat un- certain temper (known to us foreigners as " The Dwarf "), who had estranged himself from many. Efforts at peace-making failed repeatedly, and the breach grew wider at every failure. When the last-joined student wished to try what he could do, " Little Yang " had told him the case was hopeless and his worry only vain. Of the others, one was the " Variegated Dragon," a clumsy country bumpkin with a certain amount of obnoxious pride in his sole merit of Chinese scholarship, and the other a youth called Chao Pei Lan, the youngest of them all, who had been hesitatingly received as a self-supporting student under circumstances which cannot be detailed here. His heathen father had begged that this favour might be done him to save his clever son from going wholly to the bad. Of the six who met for daily prayer, " Little Yang " was a younger brother of Mr. Yang, our head preacher; and the other five were Chang Lan Ting, already the better for his new responsibility as senior ; the last- joined, Tien Chih Yuan, who had been an assistant preacher ; a handsome, bright feUow called Wang Chang Ling ; a capable, honest-John sort of lad called Cheng Huang Tsai ; and a quiet little plodder, Lin Yu Wei. One night, towards the end of the Pj.^ j.g fortnight, Chao Pei Lan and the " Varie- gated Dragon " could resist no longer and joined the Uttle band. But the " Dwarf " grew ever more bitter and angry as day by day went past. He burst in on the others to ask them what they meant by praying and making him miserable, and sat gloomy in his lonely room whilst his fellow-students sought God's blessing for him as well as themselves. 234 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. His uneasiness grew till he could no longer sit still, but paced restlessly to and fro in the compound whilst the others were at prayer. And then the climax came. After a Sunday of extraordinary interest, November 12th, 1905, the students met as usual before going off to sleep. And the dwarf came in and joined them ! For a moment no one spoke. Then " Little Yang " broke the silence suddenly, saying : " Not a word of talk to each other ; let all kneel and confess to God ! " They knelt and prayed and wept for long. God's spirit was working in their hearts and they let Him have His way, Mr. Yang came along to join them in prayer and heard the unwonted crying. A look through the window showed all on their knees, the Dwarf broken down with the rest. Yang didn't enter, but returned to his room beside himself with gladness, and caught himself actually shouting aloud : "Thank the Lord! Thank the Lord ! ! Thank the Lord !!! " The students rose at last from their knees to make up all their quarrels, and next day a couple of them were seen going off across the fields. They were enemies seeking a quiet spot to unite their hearts in prayer. At early morning prayers next day they were full of their cheering story, and full of the Power, so divine, that had swept away their discord. Several spoke of their own new sense of sin. They had never, hitherto, realised that they were really sinners, and had rather plumed themselves indeed on being above the average. But now they felt how bad they were and sought the Lord's forgiveness. We heard not long after of Chao Pei Lan Rev^^th*" ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ openly expressed disgust at Bible. Christianity and his entire disbelief in the Bible. He had held the latter open in his hand, and had said that only the rules of the place pre- SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 235 vented him from reviling it in token of contempt. But that morning he said he now knew there was a God, who heard and answered prayer. He said he had made many good resolutions, but there were serious difficulties ahead, and finished by asking all there present to re- member him in prayer. This band of united and earnest young Be"anV°H ra ™^" ^°°^ began to make things hum. For a while the ordinary routine of the hospital went on as usual, and classes were held as before, but the leaven was working in all directions, and we speedily found indications of its action. The longed-for revival had really come, which has meant so much for Tsang Chou. That very night, November 13th, there M' * 1'^?* were stirring scenes in the women's hospital. A poor girl had had her leg amputated in the morning, and towards evening seems to have taken a chill. The other patients in the ward were greatly disturbed and excited. They spoke, but the poor girl answered not ; her jaw was locked they said. The old wiseacres shook their heads and said that she would die. The nurses sent for the student in charge, and he went off for the doctor, who asked as to pulse and temperature and the other usual things. Then, finding nothing of special moment, he told the student to give some medicine, and after instructing the lad to return if needful, he thought no more about it. But the students didn't take things so easy. Cheng Kuang Tsai, who had been to see the doctor, went off for the more experienced " Little Yang," and they went to the ward together. The women were fussy and some- what frightened, but the youngsters told them to stop talking and pray instead. This they at once began to do, together and aloud, and the room was filled with unwonted sounds of ignorant, earnest pleading. 236 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Yang gave the patient her dose of medicine, and in a few moments she was herself again and wanting to eat some food. The impression made on all there present was immediate and immense. The two students preached for full two hours to the eagerly listening women, and at two a.m., when they came to an end, were importuned for more ! On the wall of that ward hangs a picture of Christ raising the widow's son, and this " modern miracle " was compared with that, and considered by these women just as wonderful ! Some days before the glorious 12th, o un eers volunteers had been asked for from the Wanted. students to preach to the patients m the ward and in the nearer villages. It was explained that forced preaching was almost useless and that only really willing men were wanted. Some of the older ones had already been doing this work, but to the youngsters it was an ordeal. Chao Pei Lan and the Dwarf and quiet Yu Wei had kept silence, but Cheng Kuang Tsai had said : " I want to do it, and indeed I've tried, but all my ideas go when I get on my feet, and I've nothing left to say." He was told that most of us have had the same experience and encouraged to persevere. It was only a few days after that he preached till two a.m., and at morning prayers a day or two later still he told the following story : — He had been very keen to preach to the Devil Tempted o^t-patients, but couldn't squeeze in edge- Cheng Kuang ways. So many were full of the same Tsai but was desire that he never got a chance. He the*end"' went without his dinner at last, in hopes to do it then, but found one of the nurses going strong and waited a while in vain. Impatient, he left and took some food, but hurried back again, and SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 237 now, at last, he got his chance and stepped up on the rostrum. His subject was Sin, and he was just getting set, when he stopped to look for a reference. The little pause was fatal. The " Variegated Dragon," as keen as himself, stepped up on to the platform, and in a moment was oblivious to everything else in the zeal of preaching the Gospel. Poor Kuang Tsai thought : " Oh, he'll be done in a minute ; he must have made a mistake ! " But soon he saw that no end was in sight, and he left in anger and bitterness. He had had so much trouble to get his chance, and his friend (?) had so thoughtlessly robbed him. He told his troubles to some of the others, who said that God was just testing him, and soon he saw all in a different light, prayed hard, and won a victory which gave him joy and peace. His enthusiasm was good to see, and he found out that the " Dragon," so far from meaning any harm, was in blissful ignorance of having so rudely snapped the thread of his earnest friend's discourse. At that same morning meeting the advance in Chao Pei Lan was a wonder to all who heard him. He solemnly calculated the difficulties ahead, in heart and home and prospects, and deliberately looked from these to God Who, he knew, would see him through. But the influence of all these doings u 't d M ti ^^^ reaching rapidly further still. Novem- ber 15th was Wednesday, when the united week-evening meeting is held for aU sections of the mission. In the city on the other side of the Grand Canal are the Training Institute for evangelists and teachers, and the boarding-school for boys. Some inkling of what was going on had already reached folk there, but as yet they had had no opportimity of judging 238 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. for themselves. So all were agog with interest, and either wondering, doubtful, or cynical. The hospital waiting-room, which we use as a chapel (no other having as yet been provided), was crowded to the door. All sections were represented : — Training Institute, boys' and girls' schools, hospital staff and in-patients (men and women), house and out-door servants, local Christians and native helpers, with some women under training as Bible-women ; there they were packed together, to see they knew not what, with results to themselves and to China that none could prophesy. Mr. Yang led, reading 2 Thess. i. 11, 12, and after a few telling words, asked the hospital students to testify to the power of God as they had come to experience it for themselves. The O116 after another these young fellows Students' rose, though most of them had never spoken Testimony. jj^ public like this before, and simply related the events of the last few days as they have been outlined already above. They spoke of their new conviction of sin, and of the power and joy in their hearts, giving proofs of the truth of what they said from their actual personal experience. After an interval of earnest prayer for those who were still to speak, Chang Lan Ting got up, and told of his desire for opportunities of witnessing for Christ. He had asked God to show him what there was for him to do, and his prayer had been answered at once ; for on going just after to see the doctor, one of his servants had spoken of his own and his fellow-servants' desire to meet for prayer, were there only someone to lead them, and, on his return, a nurse in the women's hospital had said they would welcome his help also there. He wished to surrender himself to God for this and any other work that was given to him to SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 239 do. Others followed, and the meeting grew in impress- iveness and interest. j^^ Mr. Chi, of the Training Institute, asked Beginnings for help for his students there, and arrange- of Greater ments were made to leave opportunity for a *"^®' meeting the next afternoon. The hospital students were let off classes " for at least the next three days," to act as the Spirit led. Then we sang with earnestness, " Even me," and the meeting was just being closed when up rose the " Dragon," far back in the room, his features working strongly with emotion, and said he shouldn't be able to sleep unless he said what was then in his mind. Emphasising his words with awkward gestures, a big Bible tight gripped in both hands, he said to all present that if they wanted God's Spirit they must pray in faith that they would receive. He went on to say that as regards opportunity for witnessing, there was no need to worry waiting for that, since opportunity waited already on every hand for the man who was ready to use it. Even an ordinary meeting, or a simple little talk with a friend, was a golden opportunity for witnessing to God's grace. And " Little Yang " followed, saying it would be a mistake to appoint men definitely to speak to the students across the river. Let each man do as the Spirit led him, and his witness came spontaneously from his heart. The Great Prayer followed. Then Mr. Yang, in a few Lesson of impressive words, drove home the great the Meeting. jesson of that meeting. " This that you have seen and felt," he said, " is the Holy Spirit's power, of which we've always heard so much and seen so very little. There, yonder, is the Dwarf, whose hand was lately against all. He went the other day to pray in quiet with his enemy. There is Pei Lan who, the other day, was prepared to 17 240 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. revile the Bible. There are my brother and the ' Varie- gated Dragon,' just the other day no better than dumb ninnies. Why, I used to leave the room, when my brother tried to preach to the patients, because I couldn't bear to see him make such a fool of himself. But now what has happened ? And how has it come about ? This is none other than the Spirit of God Himself, Who is present here in power. Do we believe in Him ? Do we desire Him ? Let us search our hearts, and make up our minds, and yield ourselves up to His Will." Some The fire was well alight now in all con- Practical science, and developments were too numer- Results. Q^g j_Q allow of detailed chronicling. During the next two days several others came out decidedly, notably Chao Ru Lin, the mission accountant, and Tien Lien San, a hospital coolie. Mr. Chao is the business man of the Church, and his consecration a matter for deepest thankfulness. In the practical carrying out of self- support schemes his clear head and business instinct will be increasingly valuable, and he is as great a gift to the Church in one way as Mr. Yang is himself in another. In the Training Institute there had also been develop- ments, and several had decided for a life of consecration and progress under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Whom they recognised as a Living Person now dwelling in their hearts. Mr. Chi, of the Institute, was a tower of strength from the first and in glad accord with the highest interests of the work. The native annual meetings, referred to above, had been greatly blessed to both him and Mr. Yang, as well as to some of us foreigners. The Preaching Meanwhile the preaching fever was Fever. growing day by day. Singly, or in little bands, the students went out to the villages round SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 241 from both institute and hospital. Soon the older school- boys went out too, then the class of Bible-wonaen, and ere long the smaller boys were represented also ; and even the girls in the school would have gone had they been permitted to do so. Chang Lan Ting went and preached in a ^ . shop in the city, where he was laughed at, were Varied ^^^^ quietly listened to. Some of the and younger enthusiasts went to a village near Interesting. ^y^ ^^^ were reviled by some drunken roysterers, who made fun both of them and their preaching. They returned crestfallen and breathing out wrath, desirous to have the men punished, but were laughed at for their notions of what disciples were to do under persecution, whilst Mr. Chi told them God was sure to have good for them in it if they would only trust Him and pray on. This they did, and their faith was much stimulated next day, when a deputation of village elders came along of their own accord, to apologise for the rowdies' conduct and assure them of a hearty welcome if they would only come again ! Many of their experiences we found most entertaining and full of interest, but they cannot be related here. In an appendix to this account will be found the story of one day's outing, which is full of suggestive detail and may be taken as thoroughly typical of the kind of work thus done. It covers the doings of only four, and for only half a day, but that same day many others were preaching also in a number of different directions ; and so it was day by day. Everywhere there are people prepared to listen. A Christian or inquirer wiU ask some willing worker to his home, and seek his friends and neighbours that they may hear the Truth ; and already, in several places around us, there is talk of a regular meeting. 342 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Among Good work was done among the the soldiers too, in this and other ways. Soldiers. Some of them heard the gospel as out- patients, or were preached to in the inn. Students visited the barracks and called in at various outposts, to be everywhere well received and heard with quiet attention. . But that Sunday was memorable for a Memorable great deal more than the village preaching Sunday. described in the appendix. A number of (Nov. 19th.) scholars from the government school attended the afternoon meeting, where special pains were taken to give them and other non-Christians some idea as to Who the Holy Spirit was, and how it is possible for men and women to yield to and be filled by Him. An illustration was used from the Boxer tenets. Men and women in 1900 spent weary Invocation (j^ys and weeks in invoking the indwelling Spirits °^ fierce and violent spirits. They would posture and " kotow " from morn till dewy eve, calling upon the name of the one upon whom they had fixed their choice. They went on till at last the frenzy seized them, then rose, like souls possessed, to brandish swords, and dress in red, and fight bereft of fear. It was common report that youths and maidens most easily responded to these spirits' influence ; the reason given to account for this being that their hearts were less corrupted, and could be more wholly yielded up for the spirits to possess. If it were common practice, and well-accepted fact, that evil spirits could thus dwell in people's hearts, controlling all their actions and direct- ing all their life, how much more is it possible, and how infinitely better, to yield to the Spirit Who alone SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 243 is good and great, and seek His holy presence to direct and rule one's life. The It was a good and useful meeting, and Welsh was followed by another, which had been Revival. specially arranged for at our premises in the city, for telling the boys and students there about the Welsh revival. That too was a very helpful meeting and closed with much earnest prayer. A Stirrinff ^^* *^^ greatest events of that memorable Night in day took place after dark set in. The the Eye nurse in charge of the men's eye ward, " ■ a deacon in the church, had been one of the first to receive a blessing, for which his consistent life had prepared him. He diligently set to work at once to bring his patients to Christ. One night he was seen by the doctor through the window as the latter was going a round after dark. He was speaking so earnestly to the patients sitting round him that the doctor paused a while beside the window, getting a glimpse through the shutters of the listeners' attentive faces, and catching a few sentences of the story of the Crucifixion being told to hearing ears. On that eventful Sunday in question Mr. Sun had been praying with his patients on the subject of sin, when one man asked in startled tones : " How is it that I've never before felt troubled at the mention of sin, yet now feel very wretched and perspire in every pore ? " He asked Mr. Sun to pray for him, then more talk, then prayer again. Then he prayed himself with fervour and power, other patients soon joined in, and the ward was filled with the sound of prayer ascending On every hand. That first man's name was Mr. Tien, and he rapidly grew in knowledge and power. His influence in the place 244 'THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. was strong and helpful, and he left for his distant home resolved to live for his new-found Lord, and spread abroad His truth. Across the river, in our city premises, of Mr Y wondrous things were doing that night too. For days past special prayer had been rising from many hearts for one man, Mr. Yu. He is a man of many attractive qualities, a fine Chinese scholar and B.A., well-known in the district round, and a scion of one of its best-known and most influential famiUes. Years ago, before 1900, Mr. M. got hold of him, and helped him to break off opium. Temptation was very strong however, and Yu some- what easily led. , He has had to be broken off half-a-dozen times since, though it is significant that there has always been someone ready and willing to take pains to help him again. His sharp, witty tongue and tender, generous heart, have made him popular, and even beloved, whilst they have also been the means of getting him often into trouble. As Chinese teacher to one after another of the foreign staff he has become an institution, and has enjoyed more than ordinary facilities for getting a true insight into the religion of Jesus Christ. His adventures and escapes in 1900 would make a thrilling book for boys, which sisters, fathers and mothers too, would find hard to leave alone. This man, the native annual meetings had stirred to his very soul. Half-way through he refused to attend any more, since he saw whereto it would lead, and in this connection it is fitting to mention the following suggestive fact. Although baptised for many years, and so qualified by Church membership for communion, he had never once touched the bread nor drunk the wine, from a feeling SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 245 that his beUef was not whole-hearted and his obedience incomplete. Much well-meant, but often tactless, effort on the part of those who loved him only tended to annoyance and discomfort, till his life became a burden. For weeks he was wretched, and found no comfort for the strife going on within. His restlessness was such that, as he himself put it : "It was just as if there were nails in my shoes, and spikes wherever I sat." He Gave ^^^ ^^ determined that he would never Himself yield and gave himself resolutely over to Resolutely to to the devil. His difficulty was not that the Devil. j^g ^j-jjj^.^ beUeve, but that he wouldn't surrender to God. At the morning service, which was impressive and solemn, Mr. Yang had been thinking of his friend, and prayed that the Spirit would use this appeal to overcome Yu's opposition. But he sat it through and resisted stubbornly still. He was present at the meeting re the Welsh revival, but kept on saying " No." That meeting over, Mr. Yang and some others, including two or three of the hospital students, stayed behind to help in the good work going on among boys and In- stitute students, and to see if they could not get a chance to help their friend Mr. Yu to decision. But the hours passed, with no encouragement so far as he was concerned, and at last, it being about midnight now, they felt they could do no more. Mr. Yang was greatly discouraged, and felt almost hopeless about it, since, so evidently, Yu was resisting wilfully, growing more stubborn as time went on. But before they left, Yang said : " Well, anyhow, let us have a prayer before we separate," and out of common courtesy Mr. Yu knelt down with the rest. He set his jaws tight though, and made up his mind that nothing whatever should move him. 246 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. One and another prayed — including mortal^en some of the school-boys present, and then, may share at last, a broken sound came from the with heaven's ijps of Yu. In intermittent gasps he prayed ttronff^ and cried aloud for mercy, confessing sins of many years, in an agony of weeping, whilst the listeners wept in company out of joy and sympathy. The little band returned that night with a joy beyond words to express, and were talking things over in Yang's little room, when the door flew suddenly open, and in burst Mr. Sun the " nurse," clapping his hands for glee, his somewhat dull and impassive face lit up and radiant. He refused to hear a single word till he'd told them what had been happening in the Eye Ward, and then, in turn, he gladly listened to their news of Mr. Yu. That night they could hardly sleep for gladness, and next day the good news spread, till every part of the mission community had been affected by it. Crowded ^^ Monday evening the ordinary meeting to the was crowded to the doors, and many scores ^°°''®- of eager people awaited something new. And they were not disappointed. Mr. Yang led the meet- ing, and when it was well begun, he called upon Mr. Yu to speak, then sat down in his place. Anything more impressive than that quietly-spoken testimony anyone who knew Yu's former record could hardly hope to hear. He rose near the' back of the room and _ "^"y " ^ spoke clearly and simply out . His difficulty, he said, had not lain in unbelief, because he had known the truth only too well. He made up his mind to resist the Spirit because he realised what surrender would mean, and feared and hated the consequences that would follow if he yielded to God. The devil had shown him a list of his sins, complete SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 247 and very distinct, and had said he would give him un- limited credit, if he decided to stay with him ; but if he elected to side with God, he (the devil) would see that he suffered for it, and would dog his steps with every kind of annoyance and trouble and pain. And Yu had said he would stick by Satan. Many prayed with him and exhorted him, to be hated for their pains. He had tried to hinder the schoolboys and students, and laughed their new-found zeal for God to scorn. One specially earnest young fellow he warned to take care that " his cake was not scorched " by the fire now burning within, and had told him that this was no Spirit of God but that he was becoming insane. He knew all the time that it was the Holy Sprit, but he was determined to have nothing to do with Him. Twice, when students and schoolboys were crying for their sins, he himself had cried with them from sympathy ; but his own heart was ever more steadfastly shut against every entreaty and warning. When the passage was read of things being hid from the wise and only revealed unto babes, he said : " All right ; I'm one of the wise, so this thing is not for me." He asked those who sought him to let him alone till nearer the Judgment Day, and had determined to live with a heathen relation to escape their well-meant efforts. At the Sunday morning service Mr. Yang had been saying that it was impossible for the worldly-minded to receive the Spirit of God, and he himself had retorted, deep down in his heart : " Then I'm a worldly-minded man, and I do not want God's Spirit ! " After this Chang Lan Ting had pursued him outside the compound gate, and led him off to see a relative, a patient in the women's hospital. He had found her deeply interested in the truths of the gospel, and was greatly surprised at the change ; 248 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. but although he acknowledged the Spirit's might he was none the less His foe. All day the bitter strife went on. He had locked his jaws, refused to pray, and resisted steadily. Last night, when the time for parting came, only Chinese politeness saved him from refusing to kneel with the rest. Then, when his very teeth were set, and his will bent on stern resistance, a Power, unseen and not his own, had compelled unwilling prayer. The door of his heart was forced ajar, and the Spirit had won the fight. He stood amazed at this wondrous force that had swept his defence away, and in less than a moment made an end of all his cherished plans. He said he still felt weak from' the struggle, and. from a kind of violent spasm that had seized him at the moment when his will was overcome, as if an evil spirit had torn him ere it left. Just now he did not feel so much as if he'd conquered sin, but rather as if his self was dead, and evil desire withered. And then he described in vivid language. Faces ^^^ ^° quietly and humbly, how before him as he spoke just then, appeared as it were two faces. The one was the face of the enemy, full of baffled rage and hate, and bearing on his evil brow the shame of his defeat. The other was the face of Christ, full of compassion and wondrous love, yearning over him with gracious desire to bless. And he said : " I wish to bow my head whilst He lays His hand on me ; and I want to give myself to Him for Him to do with as He will." At the same meeting Mr. Tien of the Eye of Greater Ward also spoke and prayed with power, Things. ^iid the meeting lasted for nearly three hours ; whilst we began to realise God's mighty purpose, and to know that this revival must have A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANC CBOV. 249 issues beyond ourselves, and be fraught with priceless blessing to untold souls beside. Mr. Yu's new influence for good was ^ . . potent from the first. That very night the men-servants came along to his room to look at him and see what this wonder meant. He has always been a favourite in the kitchens, so the oppor- tunity before him now was great, and he used it in humble dependence on the Spirit of God in his heart. The results were soon apparent in Bible study and prayer, in interested attention at daily meetings and a better spirit generally. Night by night till after midnight the men met in Yu's room for instruction, till even these souls, so hard to reach, were feeling after God. Across in the Training Institute Yu's arcles'"^ witness bore fruit too, and Mr. Lu, the boys' school teacher, was greatly helped by him. But time would fail to tell of all that happened day by day. Night after night like scenes were repeated. On all hands the Spirit's work was seen, till we knew that all this was not for us alone and the time had come to carry the blessing to others. The preaching in villages near at hand had ceased to be enough. Four of the hos- pital students went for a week-end to a western out- station. They came radiant, full of enthusiasm, and the missionary fervour grew. After special prayer, and a solemn talk, '■Separate me volunteers for a longer tour were asked for, Barnabas and Saul." 'w^^o ^elt themselves called to this service. Five men responded, viz., Mr. Yang, his younger brother, Tien Chi Yuan, and Chao Pei Lan, along with Mr. Kuo, the assistant teacher in the Institute, whose striking story cannot be written here. So they were set apart for this work and commended to God in prayer. 250 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANO CHOV. ^ On December ist this party left for a Missionary tour to the south and east, and for a month Tour. iigi^j meetings in place after place, returning on January 2nd. There is not space for many details of their doings, well -v^orth telling though they are. From the very first, at Yen Shan, their work was greatly blessed. Nor did they go to any place in vain. At Yen Shan they met the Rev. A. G. ^^^. Bryson, just returning from a most timely. Yen Shan. ^^^ providentially preparatory, round of the very places they themselves were to visit. In that city, some thirty miles S.S.E. of Tsang Chou, a gathering was in progress of the native church council of the district, and preachers and deacons from all the surrounding out-stations had assembled to attend it. Some news of the wonderful doings in Tsang Chou had reached these people's ears, and Mr. B. himself had had letters about it, and had seen and heard Tien Lien San, the hospital coolie, at an out-station recently visited. (This man had left Tsang Chou to attend his grand- mother's funeral, but had taken his fire with him and made a sensation at home. In the httle village church he had boldly spoken out, and many were deeply im- pressed.) Into this collection of expectant and wondering friends came, towards evening, the little revival band. That night, after a very impressive service, aU scattered to their rooms, and soon each one of the Tsang Chou five has his own little cluster round him. The night passed, with very little sleep, in talk and earnest prayer. Many wept freely, especially Yang's patriarchal father, a deacon in the church at Yang Chia Chi. Next morning, — but I will continue the story in the words of Mr. B. himself. He was present, and in his report he says : " After a hymn had been sung, Mr. Yang spoke a few brief sentences, dwelling on the great SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 251 hindrance to the Holy Spirit's power, sin in the life of the Christian, and calling upon the meeting for a full surrender of the individual will to Him. There was a brief pause, and then Mr. Yang's old father, a respected deacon and Christian of many years' standing, broke out into a pathetic plea for mercy and forgiveness. He laboured under strong emotion, and his voice came in deep gasps, until at last he broke down utterly and sobbed like a little child. " Then simultaneously a conviction of sin Thi "^^"^^ seemed to fall upon every heart in the Happened. chapel, and in a moment the place was shaken with the sobbing of strong men, crying aloud to God for mercy. It was a never-to-be-forgotten experience, and we separated for the duties of the day with a subdued sense of God's power, such as none of us had felt before. " Early in the day the session of the Church Council took place, and with a short interval lasted well on into the afternoon. At the evening meeting, and during the services of the next day (Sunday), the Holy Spirit was present with great power, and every worshipper received a new vision of the glory of the Spirit-filled life. Some of the individual testimonies were very striking and filled my heart with unspeakable thankfulness. During the day two outsiders in the congregation were convicted of sin and accepted God's forgiveness, while two others, whose names had been erased from the church roll for unworthy conduct, returned to the fold and confessing their unfaithfulness with strong crying pled to be res- tored to church fellowship." Mr. Huang Shu Tang, the head assistant in the hospital, was then in temporary charge of the needy work in Yen Shan, and he too was deeply moved and used in saving others. Each station visited had its own difficulties 2S2 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. and special characteristics, but we cannot enlarge on these here. And in every place there was blessing, close fol- lowing on earnest prayer. But a few words must be said about ™. Yang Chia Chi, the home village of Yang and his brother. Their old father returned from the Yen Shan revival with a soul on fire with God. He told of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and of His wondrous power, till his ignorant neighbours were lost in amaze, and wondered where all this would lead. When the preachers came the village turned out to see what this great spirit was like, expecting vaguely they knew not what, their imaginations coloured by the events of. 1900 and by Boxer rites and theories. The Jeerer But the first day passed in quiet, and next Stopped day Yang's elder brother began to jeer : " Is his Jeering. ^^^-j ^U your Holy Spirit ? " said he, " I don't think much of this ! " The little band were a bit cast down and took to earnest prayer. Little Yang and Tien Chih Yan went off across the fields for quiet, and knelt out on the open plain to cry aloud to God. The following day the blessing came, and the brother who had jeered was the very first to cry with tears and ask for God's forgiveness. ^ One old man, kneeling on the floor, Old Man's determined not to rise until the Holy Determined Spirit came in answer to his prayer. He '■^y*''* vvas of an obstinate, straight-up-and- down kind, likely to have no more to do with the matter should his prayer seem to remain unanswered, and the inexperienced students rather trembled for the consequences, whilst the old man pled with God in strong entreaty. A number had all been praying to- gether, but one and another ceased, and again and again the old fellow re-started in fear lest the rest should rise. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 253 Then he too, at last broke down into tears, with deep conviction of sin, and his true repentance and joy in salvation showed he had not pled in vain. Little Yang sought out and talked with What jj-g friends, one of whom was a man called Makes me _, . , , Shiver so ? " Chi, who could not understand about the Spirit so could not believe Him real. " Do you want to believe ? " said Little Yang. " Yes, I do," was his friend's reply. " Really ? " " Yes, really." " But have you reckoned what His coming will mean, and what it may possibly cost you ? " He quoted Christ's words about leaving all and following Him, which rather startled his hearer. " Oh," said he, " but I can't leave home ; there's no one else to look after things ! " He was told he need only be willing to do whatever God asked of him, and that God was wise and loving and worthy of his trust. " All right then, I really want to believe," and the two began to pray. It was not long before, in great amazement, he asked what it was that made him shiver so, and how it happened that he shook with fear at the thought of all his sins. He then began to pray with power and became an altered man. Men who had previously shunned the meetings now asked to be counted as inquirers, and day by day the interest deepened among the villagers. The Results "^^^ revival preachers visited six centres, of the working out from these to numerous minor Missionary out-stations. Preaching to the heathen "'■ was also as marked a sign of the new life in these places as it was, and- is, in Tsang Chou. The results were quite incalculable by any mere statistics, nor indeed has any attempt been made to tabulate the good work done. But there is a new spirit of life and activity in the Churches, and a new sense of responsibihty and unity, which will make self- 2S4 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. support a mere matter of time, and self-propagation spontaneous and genuine. What e t ^^ Tsang Chou, meanwhile, there was on mean- much earnest prayer for the work going while in on in the out -stations, and quiet teaching sang c ou. ^^^ preparation of a fresh batch of interested ones for the reception of God's grace. The pity is there were all too few who were ready for a blessing. The curse of ignorance that lies on this land hinders reform in every direction, and even the power of God's own Spirit is badly fettered by it. So every Christian must become a teacher and impart what he learns to others ; for only so can these myriads be reached and their hearts prepared for the Gospel. But the absence of Yang and his little band left a terrible gap at headquarters, and ill-health laid several others low, including most of the foreigners. So things began to languish somewhat, though stirred by the news from the front, and at last we almost began to wait for the little band's return. The fire of all those earlier meetings was gradually dwindling. Mr. Yu was a tower of strength through this time and worked finely among the servants, backed up by Lan Ting and Cheng Kuang Tsai and others of the students. The preaching round about went on with incidents full of interest. The Christmas Church gather- ing was a great success, and twenty-one were that day baptised, but we felt that God had more to give and dissatisfaction grew. On January 2nd the missionary band 'Ttfi^*'"™ returned, and their story stirred every Missionaries. heart. The desire grew for greater blessing till the " Week of United Prayer," for which the series of topics was used as arranged by the Evan- SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 253 gelical Alliance, with its daily gatherings for special prayer from January 7th to January 14th. „ g .. On Sunday night, January 7th, the bless- Abundantly—" ijig came beyond our expectation. The The Week leader spoke on Peter's call ; what he lost of United ^y following Christ, and what he gained, and pled with all to make their choice, for the same Lord called to-day. Then we knelt, and one by one we prayed for rather over an hour, men and women joining in who had not been heard before. As the earnestness deepened two or three began together, and the sense of sin grew generall and intense. One of the women's hospital nurses cried aloud with tears for forgiveness, and others spontaneously followed, till as it seemed in a moment the room was filled with the sounds of a mighty repentance. It was a scene that will live in the memory, and the sound like the roar of the sea. Strong men were crying in spiritual agony, tears pouring down their cheeks and even forming little pools on the floor beside their knees ! Oblivious to all that was going on around them, men were praying with a fervour that words cannot describe, and in the midst, for hours, Mr. Yang knelt like a statue with a light on his face that was divine. As time went on a few strangers came, y ont -^ arrived to seek treatment for their you fray ■■ for Me?" eyes, and with mingled awe and amusement and surprise they knelt beside the others. By-and-by one and another went about amongst the rest, seeking those to whom they felt they might be useful, and one of these knelt down beside the strangers. He talked and prayed with a servant there who badly needed help, and was just about to go elsewhere when one of the newcomers clutched his arm. " Why don't you pray for me ? " he said, " I've come one hundred li. There's no 18 2S6 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. one praying for me ! " So he was prayed for then and there, and attended meetings regularly after. And who can tell when the seeds so sown will produce their golden harvest ? The old mission pundit close beside was ,," , , filled with holy ioy, in striking contrast to Man's Joy. -Kl u v. i his nearest neighbour whose cheeks were wet with tears, and his features worked hard to express the delight that made speech incoherent and breathless. At last, in the belief that this had gone on ^^ H^H' ^°^S enough, there was a call to rise and be Part Back. Seated, and in telling words Mr. Yang was led to insist on the need for thorough surrender. Some students had instanced the case of those who built on the foundation with hay and stubble, who yet were saved, even though as by fire, and in this way would like to have made an excuse for incomplete con- secration. Yang solemnly warned us that what God wanted was neither words nor tears, but a steady resolve, and earnest effort to obey and follow Christ. It was close upon II p.m. before that meeting closed, and it began at 5.30. From that meeting onwards began a Proeression striking progression in the minds and prayers of the people, which filled one with awe, and gave a distinct impression of the wisdom and might of God. That first night the people were mostly concerned about personal guilt and cleansing. On Monday they had started, with keen solicitude, to pray for the saving of others, and were full of trouble for the need and sin of their friends and families. A Useful C)n Tuesday came a fall of snow, so the Fall of meeting was divided, the people living across Snow. jn tl^g (.jty meeting separately there. As it happened this furnished opportunity for special deaUng with M.'s students and the schoolboys ; whilst in the home compound the spirit of prayer grew more earnest, SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 257 and wider in its sweep. Both days the torrent of prayer poured forth from scores of throats together, and none could question the deep sincerity of the men and women concerned. Meanwhile too, many fine opportunities were found for leading troubled souls to Christ, and one stood amazed at the simple ease with which, in that time appointed, a heart could be helped to God. On Wednesday the prayer was more ^flZ j;^ striking still, in this land till of late un- and Splendid .?,'., . ^ ^ Patriotism. patriotic. Mighty gusts of prayer almost literally shook the room : — for the Emperor, Empress Dowager, and China ; for the High Commis- sioners to Europe too, that they might be led to give due place to the influence of Christ in their report to those who sent them ; and for all Christians in the " eighteen Provinces" who, that day, were praying for " Nations and their Rulers," that this subject, especially in regard to their native land, might be deeply laid upon their hearts. A man went round to some of those kneeling, fearing they might not yet be ready to join in this prayer because not yet at peace themselves, but he found them praying with power and fine enthusiasm, having given themselves to God. The whole meeting, men and women, rose when asked who would make this a regular subj ect for prayer, and the singing of national hymns that night stirred one's blood to hear and see. The True Church Christ in China means new and splendid of Christ not patriotism, and concern for the nation's the " Imperium well-being. So far from becoming the inlmpeno" t,-- t j. ■ ^i,*- 1, so Obnoxious Impenum tn Impeno that is such a to Patriotic bugbear to many, it is safe to say His Hearts. enhghtened Church will create the best and most loyal people in all the Chinese Empire. 258 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. The Oil Thursday the subject was Foreign True Missions, and the people were ready for it. Imperialism. jjj-g jyj 'g brother is a missionary away in New Guinea; Mrs. P.'s in Central Africa; Dr. P.'s father and mother have worked long in Madagascar ; and all of us have many links with the foreign mission field, so it was not very difiicult to enlist awakened hearts. One spoke of the revival in Northern India, another of the Betsileo revival in Madagascar, and Mr. Yu, with graphic eloquence, gave the gist of a letter from Jennings of Khama's land and the story of Shemolokai. This obscure old saint has worked for years in the marshes near Lake Ngami, and has formed a series of little churches, a written language, and the beginnings of a literature, amongst a tribe of dwellers in tiny huts on the fever-ridden islets of the swamps. He has fever every other day but Sunday, yet he has not missed a service on Sunday for years. The prayer that followed was quite God and beyond words to describe. One felt the Together. comfort of knowing, without a shadow of doubt, that things were well with old Shemolokai, and that Bartlett and McFarlane, the Peills and Jennings, and many more besides, were being blessed by God that very day in answer to our prayer. One felt that prayer was indeed a power, united prayer irresistible, and that God and man thus linked together could save the world with ease. The singing grew daily more hearty and inspiring, and a few new hymns and choruses were written by Chinese, or translated by Mr. M., as outlets to praise and joy. Consecration for God to use in His work came naturally into prominence, and forty or fifty volunteered for service just when and where God wills. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 259 Mr. S. J. W. Clark, of Upton, Chester, c/ k '^f ^ was present at that meeting, and said that Chester. i* resembled Welsh revival meetings he'd attended in all but the language used. His messages came with power, being translated to the people, and were greatly used of God, and his whole unexpected but opportune visit was a veritable God-send. The rest The rest of the week saw further blessing of the and further earnest prayer, the meetings Week. being quieter than at first and fuller of helpful teaching. The spirit of faith in God and His power had made nations as easy to pray for as mere individuals ; and " FamiUes," " Schools and Colleges," "Y.M.C.A.," "Government Students," "The Jews," " Home Missions," and a great deal besides were prayed for intelligently and purposefully. Sunday 14th was a day of unusual interest ; a fitting close to the whole eventful week. In the morning Chao Pei Lan was Jm. ilth — baptised, on confession of faith in Christ, The close and gave a striking testimony of the way of the Qod had dealt with him. Communion Prayer"" Service followed, and hearts were deeply stirred. In the afternoon we had a crowded gathering for praise and testimony, and very many spoke. Servants, hospital coolies, students, women, patients, preachers, school-boys and others told of what they had learnt and experienced, whilst we knew that God was amongst us indeed, and mighty to bless and save. One man was concerned that, whilst he Some o e ^^^^ plenty of tears for his own sins and Testimonies. ^ •' need, he had none for the state of his own home church. He came from a distant city. 26o THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. A man from the Training Institute said : " The joyful thing is that we're all so united now ; " and another, that the men in his room had become like so many brothers. The feeling of many might be fairly summed up in the words of another, who said: " The great thing is I have overcome self in the power of Jesus Christ." An old woman said : " I used to be sad because of my many difficulties. I cannot read and cannot sing, but am happy and thankful now because willing to follow Christ." Little Yang said : " Do not laugh at me when I say that we can save China. Prayer can do it, and we can pray ! " Chao Pei Lan said : " True, God can use even one person to save China, only let us never forget that it's not the man, but God in the man that does it." Mr. M. said: " In former days, since 1900, there has always been, as it were, a grave before my eyes. Now that grave has gone, and in its stead is the vision of a Church triumphant." There was widespread heart-searching about the old folks at home and duty to wives and children. Many expressed a resolution to witness for Christ in their families, and grieved that they had done so little to shine for Him before. So closed, in hope and faith and love, that wondrous " Week of Prayer," and soon the folk were scattering wide to their homes for Chinese New Year. In a day or two the hospital wards were almost empty of patients and the busy activities of the central station were nearly ' at a standstill. A review of events reveals God's hand , p^^'*^ divinely ordering. A conference in August at Pei Tai Ho, of Chinese workers from many missions, had sown the seeds that will yet bear ftuit in other places also. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 261 The Annual Meetings in October, of L.M.S. Chinese workers, were held this year in Tsang Chou and afforded just the needed soil for the seeds sown at Pei Tai Ho. They brought together workers from most of our stations in North China, and tended, in spite of some awkward moments, very greatly to mutual esteem. And the " still, small voice " spoke straight to hearts, both foreign and Chinese. Mr. B.'s round of the southern out-stations was a striking preparation for the revival preachers' tour that followed, and their Mhut at Yen Shan during the sitting of the local Church Council could not have been better timed. The return of these " missionaries " just before the " Week of Prayer " was again divinely ordered, and that wonderful " Week of Prayer " itself was strangely providential. To it came Mr. Clark with first-hand news of Wales and Keswick, brought here in spite of other plans by the Guiding Hand above. And then the attraction of kith and kin, so potent at Chinese New Year, drew these Christians out to their scattered homes with their hearts aflame for God. They shone in their villages for Him with results only partly known, but even the little heard as yet fills our hearts with hope and joy. They had special opportunities too in the usual winter classes. Each winter, when " New Year " comes OlMSM round. Christians gather to the larger out-stations for instruction, and in these so-called winter classes the Tsang Chou people found a glorious chance to pass their blessing on. Revivals on a smaller scale soon followed here and there, and so the good work grew and spread from widely-distant centres. 262 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. A One would like to tell of much beside did Wonderful space and time permit. The dreams these Prayer. simple peOple had and the lessons they learnt from them ! The hunger after the Word of God, and surprising power in prayer ! One man, whose prayer was overheard on " Nations and Rulers " night, after earnest pleading for the special subjects, let his thoughts go forth on wider wing, and here is the result : — He prayed for King Edward the peacemaker, for bless- ing on his efforts ; and for the general election in Eng- land, that the people might choose right men. He prayed that France might turn to God ; and that the German Emperor might rule his own land well, and not disturb the peace of the world by seeking aggrandisement abroad. He prayed that land-grabbing might cease, with its attendant discord. And then he prayed for the Czar of Russia, that he might do the right, and for the bureaucracy too, that they might be unselfish, that all might put the people's good before their . own enrichment. He then went on to make petition for his own official and influential relatives, whilst all around, in mighty volume, rose the prayer of the congregation. H d tried Another man was helped to full surrender to Pray by the prayer of the patient from the eye for a Year ward. He said he'd tried to learn to in am. pray for a whole year, with the preacher in his village to help him, but had not been able to make any progress, and was very much discouraged. Yet here was a mai^ but a few weeks in hospital and hitherto totally ignorant, whom the Holy Spirit had taught to pray with power from the moment of His coming. The wealth of illustration too was quite remarkable, and it was good to hear in belated China the phenomena of electricity and magnetism used to elucidate Christian truth. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 263 When are Mr. Yang, condemning unworthy motives y^^**^***" amongst the Chinese workers, compared the Performing preachers who harboured them to a per- S^*''^? forming bear. His master gives him a tasty morsel at the end of every trick, but finishes up with something absurd which the bear will never do, the reason being that he knows quite well he'll get no reward for doing it. Like him are preachers who only preach as a means of liveUhood ! Mr. Yu compared some mission students to bags being filled with mincemeat. Much care is taken in putting it in, and the meat is good and nourishing, but a time comes when the whole falls flop for want of vertebrae. It is Christ who gives the needed backbone ; all, apart from Him, is vain. Without Him men leave mission employ for worldly occupations, and will even imperil immortal life for half a crown more per week. He also combated the too common notion that individuals could not expect to maintain their fervour apart from crowds and meetings, by saying : " It isn't a case of the charcoal fire going out when its embers are scattered, but rather of the one little red-hot piece that sets all the cold ones glowing." Mr. Chi said that men were a good deal like silkworms, bound fast in cocoons of sin which with careful toil they themselves had spun till helpless in their meshes. Like them we need a new strong life to free us from our prison, and send us forth on new-found wings to enjoy the air of heaven. He compared Christ and Christians to a magnet and iron filings. The nearer the filings are to the magnet the closer they stick to each other, and the further they are removed therefrom the less they hold together. It is not the noise of the wind in the wires that carries the unseen message, and the quiet voice in the hearts of men is better than many sermons. 264 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Reasons why the As to these, for which some are sure to Revival Came, ask, we need hardly mention the grace of God which Ues in and behind it all. " The wind bloweth where it listeth," and the Spirit is here. Yet it may not be amiss to state some pre-disposing causes. The martyrdoms of 1900, and the refining of the Church by trial, with the rich experience gained by those whose faith came out victorious. A deepening desire for spiritual life, and dissatisfaction with present conditions, especially since the news of the Welsh Revival which has been kept before the people. This desire was not confined to the foreigners, but strong in the Chinese too. Growing union between our Chinese fellow-workers and ourselves ; better understanding and mutual confidence, furthered by social evenings, debating society and native church council, medical aid in numerous times of need, and common interest in the work of God around us. It is hopeful and cheering that this spirit of union is reaching out beyond individual mission centres, and is binding together not only different parts of the same mission but also the various missions throughout North China. Special prayer for revival in connection with the work, growing steadily more purposeful and earnest. Prayer was made together and individually by both British and Chinese. Compacts were made, a la Matthew xviii. 19, between individuals of both nations, and we know that many in the far home-land were praying specially for revival here too. No doubt the prayer that rose from Wales was a potent factor also. The Workers' Summer Conference at Pei Tai Ho, and the L.M.S. " Chinese Annual Meetings " in October, were undoubtedly steps in the forward march which helped greatly towards revival. At the latter especially, the free discussion, and open treatment of mission abuses, did SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN TSANG CHOU. 265 much to let all bad blood out and remove unworthy suspicions. The way was cleared for mutual trust and hearty fellow-working. The net result is Life ! Life in church about^ilw ^^^ schools and hospital, at headquarters Net Result. ^-^d far afield. One new, common, throb- bing Life, linking all the separate parts, bringing to each a sense of individual responsibility, and to all some vision of organic interdependence and the vital need for oneness ; a Life that has its source in Christ and links us all with Him. .pjjg Our students have been learning some Phenomena Physiology, and one of the first things they of Life.— Its learn is this : All living things are character- Characteristics, .gg^ ^y ^^^ following phenomena :— Power of Movement ; Power of Assimilation ; Power of Growth ; Power of Reproduction ; Power of Elimination. Translate these into spiritual terms and you have the results of revival : — . Movement, apparent on every hand in Physiology.— *^^ ^^^® ^^^ active Church; Assimilation, Characteristics apparent in Bible-study, in prayer and of Living widened interests ; Growth, going on in every part far faster than we can provide for ; Reproduction, in embryo out-stations in several new directions ; EUmination, in sins and hindrances cast out of people's hearts, and old-standing abuses done away to the lasting good of the Church. The Life is seen not only in these, but in the Power which makes these spontaneous. o Ch' f ^^^ chief regret is that all too few were Regret, and ready for the blessing. Alas, for this veil Requests for of ignorance so hard to take away ! The Prayer. majority of those revived are youths as yet untrained, or Christians of maturer years, too ignorant 266 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. as yet. The handful of men fit to act as leaders is too small for the vast opportunity, and we need the prayer of all God's people for the work that lies ahead. Mr Yane's ^^ ^^^ special prayer for Mr. Yang, who Danger. The has lately broken down with consumption. Students' that his life may be spared and his health "^ ^' restored for greater service still. And for five of the students gone to Peking to the Union Medical College, that they may let their light shine out and grow in grace and power. Next year will be the looth year of A Hundred Protestant Missions in China, and still the Years of Missions. need of this great land is simply over- whelming. The missionary societies are doing what they can, and yet 'tis but " five barley loaves and two small fishes." " What," in the face of China's need, " are they among so many ? " And yet — and yet — the Lord is here — and we are His disciples. He waits to break the bread of life, and, through us, feed these millions. Shall we not yield ourselves to Him with all our puny efforts, and seek His blessing on these " loaves " and on our tiny " fishes ? " So consecrated and so blest, vast needs will but inspire us to go forth humbly, sent by Him, with " bread of life " for all. Let us then look for greater things throughout this land of Sinim, because our Lord is waiting now to bless us more and more. Will those who read our cheering news join us in glad thanksgiving, and pray that we may work aright to pass the blessing on ? And let us all with one accord besiege the gates of heaven, till China's millions, born again, are " celestials " indeed. CHAPTER XIII. FROM VILLAGE TO VILLAGE. pERHAPS an account of the doings of some of us, on Sunday, November 19th, will best serve to indicate the sort of work that went on. The same day a number of parties went out in ypica various directions, but we shall only deal with one of them, a foursome, made up of the following : — Mr. Chao the mission accountant, who knew of some likely places. Little Yang and Chao Pei Lan of the hospital, and one of the foreigners. They went first along the river bank to the north west outskirts of the city, and called at a general dealer's store beside the ferry there. An old Here dwelt an old gentleman who fifteen Patient of years ago took his young son to Dr. Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie, in Tientsin, with serious hip- Mackenzie's. J. T^, , J • xl_ J i- disease. They stayed m the wards for more than three months, and Dr. Mackenzie's kindness and attention won the heart of the father, though treatment proved unavailing, and the son eventually died. The father could read, and studied the Gospels, believed and was baptised, bringing Christian books back with him. "Restore in For years he kept up a secret interest, meekness, though not identified with the church ttyselMMf afterwards started in Tsang Chou, till one thou also night in the Boxer year he stole out into be tempted." the night, and having thrown his books into the muddy river repudiated all connection with Christ. a67 268 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. That day our party took him a new set of books and had a friendly talk, but the numerous interruptions of customers made a long chat inconvenient, so, with a hearty invitation to call at the mission they left him and went their way His family, especially a grown-up son, who was in the shop that day, are strongly opposed to renewed connection with Christianity. And the poor old fellow is halting 'twixt two opinions. Their next destination was the village of O rt "tv ^^ inquirer, a pedlar of haberdashery, called Kuo. This man came out some distance to meet them and called to them as they emerged from the city suburb. He led the way first to an open space near the house of a friend in that locality, and the latter brought out forms and a table and poured them out some tea. A small crowd gathered with the usual rapidity, and they soon had an interested audience, as one after another they stood to address them and gave them their message from God. Quite a number bought gospels for them- selves or for others, including a group of old ladies, whilst one of the listeners exhorted these last not to use these good books for their patterns, as these were the books of the Holy God, to be treated with reverence accordingly. They then went on their way to the , ,. inquirer's own village, being pursued by a man for more books. Near Mr. Kuo's house they again preached to a group who listened with quiet attention, and then he asked them to enter his home, and provided some light refreshment. A Tvoical ^* ^^^ ^^^^ ^ little three-roomed hut, Chinese and typical of millions. The two end rooms Village Home open off the one in the middle, which in ( ort a). ^^^^ opens out to the yard, and serves as kitchen and pantry combined as well as the family shrine. FROM VILLAGE TO VILLAGE. 269 The Shrine ^^ front of the door, in a carved wooden and the frame, were the pictures of four different Household deities, with an incense stand in front ° ^" of it, and a rough gong at the side. The gong is sounded to invite the deity to possess the chosen image, and the worshipper bumps his head on the ground, burns incense, and makes vows and oblations. A separate httle picture was the representation of the god who cures eye-diseases, and the incense-burner full of ashes before it proved that its aid had been often sought. In a corner near the door was a picture on the wall of the dread little kitchen god, who reports on all domestic concerns, and is offered sticky concoctions as the yearly time comes round for him to go and report to his chief. The idea, of course, is that his " jaw " will " stick," and family failings be hid. The sadness of it all was only emphasised by contrast with the revival. They spoke to their host of the One True God, and urged him to seek to know Him, when all other gods would be found unnecessary and cleared away as useless lumber. •pjje Then and there the " eye-curer " had a Eye-God's lighted match applied to him by his owner ; ^"d- and it was suggested that in future the family might try the hospital instead. It is hard for a respectable woman to f-^'^^If, take the first steps towards becoming a Little Woman. „, . . -.t • , , 1 , ■, Christian. Neighbours tongues are ob- scene and merciless, and the foreigners commonly credited with base designs. A lot of this talk is merely vicious and idle, but some colour of truth is given to it by the statements of servants and others from the ports, who describe the immorality of their masters and no 270 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. doubt exaggerate freely. But Mrs. Kuo came shyly in to welcome them, a very hopeful sign of her own and her husband's sincerity. By this time it was long past noon, and Unworthy ^^^ foreigner set off for home, his com- panions having arranged to meet others of our staff and go on with them elsewhere. In hopes of meeting these reinforcements the others decided to turn back also, and Mr. Kuo escorted them out some distance. Conversation turned upon his motives for becoming a Christian. He himself said he had noticed that the Christians seemed prosperous and happy, and as his own luck had been very bad he had begun to think it might be well to become a Christian also. After he had left, further inquiry elicited the information that he had been oppressed by a relative for some years back and could not get even with him. Possibly some vague idea of being able to pay off old scores if his luck changed, or some ignorant hope that he might use foreign influence to quiet his enemy, determined his first advances. And God condescends to let even motives like these guide the first steps of many towards the Truth that unites men with Himself ! There is a spiritual evolution going on in r"i t"* ^^® hearts of people round us that is fascinating and wonderful to contemplate. But we must not dilate on it here. Having met the reinforcements iri the mission " buckboard," our friend came on towards home, with a youth who had started to act as guide but was not needed now the junction had been effected. This youth was the elder brother of one of the house- servants, and had been a ricksha puller in Tientsin, where he had sown his wild oats broadcast and come to grief generally. FROM VILLAGE TO VILLAGE. 271 His father and brothers regarded him A Brand with suspicion and displeasure, now that he Burnine ^^^ returned without means of UveUhood to depend for support on them. But Mr. Chao the accountant, who belongs to the same village, had taken an interest in the young fellow, whose bitter experiences had done him good. He arranged that he should come and live with his brother here to do any- day labour that might be going, and to give his special attention to the religion that alone could save him. Mr. Chao himself took pains to teach him, and he already knows a good deal of the Truth and gives very pleasing promise of becoming a changed character. He is printing this account as it is finished sheet by sheet, and that little walk that Sunday helped him on the upward way. As the two passed not far from a shrine, On the lY^^Qy turned aside to visit it. It is built at Dilemma ^^^ grave of a former high priest of the sect of " Heaven and Earth," and has a wide reputation in the district as a fount of healing for disease. There is, therefore, a fair amount of rivalry and back- biting over the post of shrine custodian, for besides having a snug little cottage and a very easy berth, this dignitary fattens on the gifts of the sufferers who come thither seeking relief. Some of the students had talked with the present guardian, and wished the foreigner to try and help him too. As he knocked at the door behind the shrine he became aware of a woman just rising from her knees, and saw signs of tears and anguish plainly written in her comely face. She said the caretaker was out, and in the greatness of her sorrow burst out with the reason for it. She said she was afflicted with acute internal pain, which made life unbearable at home but left her at this shrine. She had therefore come to stay here, seeing the man in charge 19 272 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. was old and grey, and he had allowed her to share his room, and the pain had not once recurred. But ugly rumours had got abroad, and neighbours' tongues were foul. Just before he entered two men had come to make jokes at her expense, which could not but make her feel pained and angry whether she kept silence or reviled them. And what was she to do ? She had just been burning incense and kotowing at the shrine, but was still as undecided as before. He tried to say a few words of comfort, and told her to try the hospital, to which she assented gladly then, though she has not been seen there yet. As he left, two old ladies were descending from a cart, and their servant was waiting to buy them some incense, that they might burn it before the shrine and crave relief of some malady. CHAPTER XIV. HE WAS NOT ; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. Letter written by his father at Tsang Chou, November, 1906. ' I *HE pen that wrote the story of the Roberts Memorial Hospital at Tsang Chou, and whose last work was the report of the revival, has been laid down, and the hand that used it is at rest. At far-away Kirin, in Manchuria, on Thursday, October i8th, Dr. Arthur Peill died of typhoid fever. His last word, twice repeated, two hours before he died, uttered with a beaming face and in a clear, strong voice, was the one name : " Immanuel." He came back out of a state of uncon- sciousness, speedily passed into unconsciousness again, but during a lucid interval of a few moments left us this last word, showing where his hopes were resting as he passed away into the unseen. He had been far from well aU the summer, suffering from brain fag. The last work he did was the report of the revival, which was such a joy to him and has been such a help to many. His brother Sidney arrived in time to set him free to do that work, and then to get away from Tsang Chou for a little change. In April he attended the District Committee meetings in Peking. He was suffering from sleeplessness, headache, sickness, and inability to bear the light, but it was hoped the change would do him good. Owing to Dr^ Smith's retirement 274 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. from the Mission at this juncture it became necessary to arrange for the carrying on of the hospital and Medical Mission at Tientsin. Dr. Peill volunteered to see after this, and made arrangements for the carrying of it on by his own chief hospital assistant from Tsang Chou, himself supervising the work for a short time until Dr. Peck, who had generously offered to keep things going until per- manent arrangements could be made, was able to do so. This saved the hospital at Tientsin from losing the Community grant, which is its chief financial support. Hig His health did not improve, and he was Joarneyto ordered to take a complete rest by the sea Manchuria. at Pei Tai Ho, the North China health resort, during the summer months, where his parents from Madagascar joined him and his brothers, and a delightful family reunion took place. At the end of the summer, still being far from well, and a chance offering of a country tour with Dr. and Mrs. Young of the Scotch Presbyterian Mission, who were going in search of a suitable centre for a new mission station in Manchuria, his medical advisers thought this an ideal trip for him, giving him open-air exercise, change of scene, absence of all responsibility, and congenial company; and so, on September nth, he bade us all good-bye and started in bright spirits for the trip from which so much was hoped. Communications were received from him from time to time, describing the route taken, rejoicing in the beauties of nature aU around him, saying how much good the change was doing him and how kind Dr. and Mrs. Young were to him. In a letter to his wife from Pan Shih Hsien, dated September 23rd, Sunday evening, he says : " This may get through to you in a roundabout way from here, so I think it is worth trying. This journey is fine and doing me much good. Got in here last evening after four days' hard travel from Kai Yiian (Dr. Young's station in HE WAS NOT; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 275 Manchuria). We crossed the borders of the old hunting forest yesterday morning, and we are now in Kirin Province. . . . Am keeping well and free from headaches, etc. Off to Kirin to-morrow, about sixty miles ; will take three days we expect. Am enjoying it all finely, and the Youngs are very good to me. Young wouldn't let me attend any services here, so I went out this morning and up a big hill about two miles to the south-east of the city, 1,100 to 1,200 feet high. Most lovely autumn colours, hill very steep, lots of fine wild grapes — good to eat, black, and fine flavour. A regular vineyard the northern slope was, the densest tangle I ever pushed through. Splendid views — hills upon hills all round, with cultivated valleys and wooded slopes, the city away below with big Roman Catholic Church and spire dominating, a fine busy place, and lots of promise I should think." Thus, with affectionate messages to dear ones, picturing them on their way down the Grand Canal to Tsang Chou, the letter closes. To his brother at Oxford, he writes on September 30th from Kirin : — " I am far frae ma hame, as you will see if you look up Kirin on the map. Lonely place this, on the bank of the Sungari river, down which the rafts of Manchurian pine come from over towards Korea. We have been travelling through magnificent scenery in Chinese carts, over passes every now and then, brilliant with the autumn tints of maple, oak and ash. Lovely fish in the rivers, which are clear and swift-flowing, so unlike our muddy rivers in the Chili plain. " The trip is doing me real good I believe, though I'm not right yet, and have been sleeping badly. Any mental excitement, or even sustained interest in anything, seems too much for my poor, stupid head. It is so feeble to be laid on the shelf like this and mighty humiliating. Send 276 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. up petitions for me, that I may soon be quite right again and j&t for a harder day's and year's work than ever. There is so much to do, and there are so few to do it. And yet how true it is : ' Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' Oh, for His Spirit to be poured out upon the Christians of China and upon all us workers in this land, until we trust not in ourselves at all, but trust mightily in Him, and learn the secrets of availing prayer and effort. What a tremendous nation this is, and what an immensity of need lies before us ! Oh, to take real advantage of the present opportunity, and in nothing to be dismayed. We expect to leave here on Tuesday (this is Sunday), and go on touring in Young's district. I mayn't go home till he lets me." These words are his last written message to us. On October 12th a telegram came from „ _ ,. Kirin telling that Arthur was " down with typhoid fever, conditions favourable," and that it was now the thirteenth day. His wife and brother lost no time in starting' for Kirin ; but, alas, arrived to find the funeral already over. All the care and nursing that loving and skilled hands could give were his. Dr. and Mrs. Greig (in whose house he lay). Dr. and Mrs. Young, a Russian doctor, two trained Russian male hospital nurses, did all that human skill and thoughtfulness could do. But his time was come, his work was ended ; he heard the home- call and was with the Lord. All that was mortal of him was laid in a lonely spot in the Russian cemetery at Kirin, and his busy, tired brain is at length at rest. The news of his going came to his fellow- th *N ° workers here at Tsang Chou, and to his parents (who by his urgent desire had come to spend the winter months with him and his family in their own home and in the midst of their work), as a sudden and terrible blow. Messrs. Yang and Yii, about whom HOSPITAL WAITING-KOOM CHAPEL. WITH PHOTO OF DR. PEILL. (" He being dead yet speaketh.") HE WAS NOT ; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 277 SO much is said in the report of the revival, felt his loss very keenly, and for a time a feeling of despondency fell upon them, and indeed upon us all. The inhabitants of Tsang Chou were deeply moved by the news : Christians, Mohammedans, and heathen alike. Great A deputation from the gentry and notables Memorial of Tsang Chou visited Mr. Murray, and Service. expressed a desire that a memorial service should be held, to which they would invite all the chief people of the city and district. Accordingly a great tent of matting and cloth was erected in the mission compound, no mission building being anything like large enough to hold the number of people expected to attend. A recent photograph of Arthur was enlarged, framed, and hung over the pulpit in full view of all, decorated with flowers according to Chinese custom. Early in the forenoon on Tuesday, November 6th, the district magistrate, military officers, officials of every class, and gentry of the place, began to arrive, dressed in robes of ceremony, to pay their respects to the fellow mission- aries and relations of Dr. Peill. By two o'clock this was all over, and the big tent crowded with people, great numbers being unable to gain admittance. The district magistrate, the colonel of the troops stationed here (the general being away at the annual grand review in Honan), officials of all degrees, the city fathers, representatives of the Mohammedan colony, bankers, merchants, shop keepers, and a host of minor dignitaries, together with a large company, of Christians, filled the place, those in front all in official robes, the military band being drawn up outside the tent. When the district magistrate entered he bowed three times before Arthur's portrait ; and when I entered and ascended the platform all the officials rose and bowed to me to express their sympathy. Here were Confucians, Budd- 278 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. hists, Mohammedans, Christians — Manchus and Chinese — men of all creeds and of none — high and low, rich and poor, met in one body to do honour to the memory of the beloved Doctor who had done so much for them, and been so kind and helpful to many of them or their friends in times of trouble and sorrow. It was indeed a remarkable demonstration, and all the more so when one remembers that ten years ago Tsang Chou was one of the most bitterly anti-foreign cities of the province. The service was of a simple character, entirely in Chinese, Mr. Chi, tutor of the Mission Institute, presiding, and I am indebted to Rev. Arnold Bryson for the following summary of the proceedings. Summary ^^- Bryson spoke of Arthur's early life, of the birth and childhood in Madagascar, his Addresses. Blackheath school days, studies in Edin- burgh, call to China, his coming to Tsang Chou, and love of the place and the people here. Pastor Yang, in the name of the Church and the Christians generally, delivered a most touching address. He said how difficult it was for him to speak of one who was such a dear friend of his on such aH occasion as this, and indeed he felt that in twenty minutes it was quite impossible to give any adequate idea of all that Pan Tai Fu (Arthur's Chinese name) was to him. Then he proceeded to name and illustrate four things characteristic of Arthur's spirit and work, as follows : — I. His great heart of love for the Chinese. Our idea of love, he said, is quite different from his. We love those who love us, and there is an end of it. He loved the loveless. The beggar with revolting ulcers who came to the hospital gate he treated with his own hands. " Such love as this," he said, " I had never seen before, and I have been thinking for days, and can find no flaw in his HE WAS NOT ; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 279 character. His whole Ufe was just the expression of the love in his heart." 2. The attractive power of his love. It was like a magnet, drawing the people into the hospital at Tsang Chou from far and wide. People came here to be treated from districts far away, some from places where there were other hospitals at their doors — not because they did not beUeve in the skill of the doctors there, but because they had heard of the Tsang Chou doctor's loving, fatherly care of his patients. And when he volunteered to help the Tientsin hospital in May, and new patients were no longer being received here, patients followed him thither for treatment, eighty miles away. 3. The strength of his influence. One could not be in his company without feeling better. His goodness was infectious ; for good always, never for evil, it spread as an infectious disease spreads through a large family, and al) who came within its radius felt its power upon them. 4. Proofs of his goodness, (i) No one ever heard him criticise the faults of others, whether those others were foreigners or Chinese. Short-comings in others seemed always lost sight of by him, and when others criticised anybody he always found out and spoke of the good in them. (2) He did not discriminate between Chinese and foreigners. The Chinese were his brothers, and his heart and soul were filled with longings for China's good. (3) His devotion in the work of the hospital was unsparing. He would sit up late at night with patients, sharing the burden with the nurses and students, just like one of themselves, glad to do the very lowliest service for the sick and suffering. Testimony of The Tsang Chou District Magistrate, Local Officials Mr. Chao, then came forward to bear and Gentry. j^jg testimony to Arthur's self-sacrificing example. He said that in Dr. Peill, though a 28o THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. foreigner, a good man came to Tsang Chou ; and that he was what they all saw him to be because he believed and lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ (a remark- able testimony from a heathen) . Mr. Chen, senior representative of the gentry of the city, said Dr. Peill's faith must indeed have been strong to bring him all the way from England to do such a work in China. His life and the work he did would never be forgotten in Tsang Chou. Mr. Tung, one of the gentry of the city, told an incident which had come under his own notice, of a man who fell from his donkey and was seriously injured. He was carried to the hospital; the Doctor received and treated him, and he was cured. Wishing to show his gratitude, this man came to bump his head on the ground and do obeisance, bringing a personal gift to Dr. Peill and asking what more he could do to show his gratitude. He refused, the gift, according to his invariable rule, and raised the man up to prevent his head bumping, saying : " Go and try to help others who are in need, as you yourself have been helped here. That will be the very best thanks you can give me." "That incident made a great impression on me," he said, " and showed the spirit in which Dr. Peill's work was done." Mr. Murray followed this up by saying ^' ^ that there are 130 mission hospitals, not counting dispensaries, now at work in China. " Why are these doctors here ? What have they come to do ? " he asked. " They are here to show God's love to a suffering, sinful world. If there had been no Gospel, there could have been no Christianity, there would have been no hospitals and no Pan Tai Fu for Tsang Chou." The motto of Dr. Peill's life, he said, was love — " Love HE WAS NOT ; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 281 thy neighbour as thyself " — and he practised this every day ; and this love of his was rooted in God's love in Jesus Christ. Not for reputation did he come to Tsang Chou, not with the idea of accumulating merit, not for money ; but because, as the Chinese proverb puts it: " The Supreme loves all His creatures," and the Christian doctrine teaches us to love our neighbours as ourselves. Mr. Murray also took advantage of the occasion to refer to the brevity of life, quoting the beautiful Chinese saying that those who build their hopes on this life are like the swallow building its nest on a tent (soon to be taken down), and so pointing them to the " house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Mr. Yu, the scholar, had prepared a f p^"^" poem in Arthur's honour, which was sung at this service, and copies of which, as well as of the passages of Scripture read on the occasion, were given to all the principal people present. The substance of this was, something as follows : " The hero left his family and home. He feared not toil nor difficulty. His lifelong aim was the serving of , men ; his profession, to carry the green bag, i.e. to be a doctor. For him 10,000 miles was nought if he might bring blessing to Tsang Chou. Many buildings he erected. He brought the dead to life, and clothed dry bones with flesh. Apt alike at surgery and at medicine he healed disease of every kind. Himself he spared not, day or night, in wind or rain, with his own hands binding up loathsome sores. Life is but a dream, and now his work is done. To fill Tsang Chou with prosperity and joy, this was his chief desire. His aim still unfulfilled, he has been called away ; but in heaven his spirit still surely yearns for blessings upon Tsang Chou. Magistrate, gentry, scholar, tradesfolk unite in one to honour him here to-day ; for truly he was one kin with us. Boundless 282 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. was his grace and virtue. A sweet-smelling fragrance his name is still." Address by -^^ the close I rose, Mr. Murray kindly Dr. Peill's translating, to thank the people for Father. ^j^^g expression of their sympathy with us all, and especially with the family in our bereavement, and also for this sign of their appreciation of the character and . work of our dear one who had lived and laboured so long in their midst. I asked — why did Dr. Peill come to Tsang Chou, and what was the meaning of his strenuous and unselfish life among them ? The motive of my son's life, I said, was Jesus Christ, ,and all he accomplished was the result of his firm faith in the Gospel he both preached and lived, and which he beheved with all his heart could save China. Speaking of the motive which had impelled Arthur to became a medical missionary, rather than to settle as a doctor at home, I told them that on my way to China I spoke to a meeting of Christians one Sunday morning in the L.M.S. Church in Hong Kong. Before I rose to speak on that occasion the Chinese pastor of the church had, by way of introduction, told the audience that my wife and I were on our way from Madagascar, where we had been working as missionaries for many years, to visit our three sons, all of whom were medical missionaries in North China. At the close of the service one of the deacons of the church, a wealthy Chinese gentleman, came up to me and said : " I want to ask you a question, and it is this — how is it that your three sons, all of them medical men, should every one of them volunteer to come all the way to China as missionaries, while my two sons, both of them medical men, and both of them Christians too, are content to have good practices here in Hong Kong, and do not seem to feel the claims of their heathen HE WAS NOT; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 283 fellow-countrymen upon them for Christian missionary work at all?" What could I reply but this, that it was not for me to judge ; God uses his servants in different ways, and He has work for all, though not all of the same kind. My sons had felt this missionary work to be God's call to them, and they had, feeling His claim upon them for this work, not been disobedient to the heavenly vision. This led naturally up to a word to the Christians of Tsang Chou, urging them more earnestly than ever to preach the Gospel to the heathen all around them ; for so would they the most truly perpetuate the memory of their friend who was gone, whose greatest joy was to make known the love of God to all around him always. The End ^^^- Murray played Beethoven's Funeral of the March on the piano very beautifully ; and Service. g^^ ^Yie close of the proceedings the magis- trate, officials, and gentry rose in a body, politely bowed to me several times, and to Arthur's portrait, and then slowly retired from the tent, the band outside performing military music. Many of them had never heard so much about Christianity and the Gospel before in their lives, and all certainly carried away much food for reflection. Let us hope that impressions made that day may be fruitful and abiding. Arthur has gone home. He is where P^*^^ he often longed to be. We sorrow for him in- deed, and our hearts are very heavy and sore with our loss. For him we know it is well ; but his home- caU has left a great blank in the work at Tsang Chou, and his place will be hard to fill. Early in the year Dr. Sidney Peill with his wife, herself a trained nurse, came out to help Arthur, who was finding the strain on him too much for one man to bear. They were sent out and are supported by private friends. 284 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. the funds of the Society not making it possible for the Directors to send help themselves. Scarcely had they arrived, when, on account of Arthur's breakdown, the whole of the hospital work devolved upon them. Although arriving just in time to ease the few last weeks of their brother's work at Tsang Chou, they were too late to prevent the breakdown they had so feared for him. They clearly realised how much each week's delay in their arrival meant of overstrain for him, and did all they could to reach him in time ; but it was not to be. The hospital was carried on till the end of June, and then closed for cleaning and necessary repairs. It was then hoped that the work would be resumed at the begin- ning of September, and plans long thought over and discussed be then put into operation. Man proposes ; God disposes . The plan Arthur had so much at heart, and so eagerly and constantly advocated, and for the carrying out of which indeed, his brother came to join him, viz., the training of medical evangelists here at Tsang Chou, and the thorough training of the permanent hospital staff, is now rendered again impossible unless another medical man be sent to join Dr. Sidney — and a man without knowledge of the language would be three or four years before he could do much teaching of students — so great a loss is that of a missionary with ten years' knowledge of the Chinese language and people, and ten years' experience behind him. The ^od buries His workers, but His work Money goes on ; and so it will doubtless do at Problem. Tsang Chou. We can all be done without. If He calls one of His servants to rest He can call and fit another to fill up the breach and take the empty place. Behind this work of His King- HE WAS NOT : FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 285 dom are infinite power and endless resources. But medical mission work here in China is kiUing ; for the doctor is expected not only to do the work, but to raise most of the funds for the carrying of it on as well. Humanly speaking, it was this necessity, coming on him in addition to the heavy daily strain of his hospital work, in itself far too much for any man to bear, that killed Arthur. Mackenzie and Roberts died young, and now Arthur Peill, after ten years' work in North China, has followed them at the early age of 32^ years — in his prime, when, humanly speaking, his best work ought to have been yet before him — killed with overwork although physically very strong, and till recently, hardly knowing what sickness meant. The amount that the Society can provide for the carrying "on of the hospital and work here at Tsang Chou is only about one-third of the actual annual ex- penditure. The rest has to be raised by the doctor him- self. This involves long hours of writing — letters, reports, etc., necessarily stolen from the hours of sleep, to keep friends interested in the work and informed of its needs. In a place like Tsang Chou, far away from the ports and where the work is new, I suppose there is no other way ; but it uses up men with cruel rapidity. In coast towns and in Peking the necessary funds can be raised by the medical missionary attending paying patients or holding pajdng posts, in addition to the carrying on of his own hospital and other mission work, or by contributions from the community. This, as in Peking for instance, may avoid the necessity for too much writing, but makes demands of another kind on a man's strength of a not less exacting kind. Often times a missionary doctor thus raises annually for the carrying on of his Society's work a great deal more than the amount of his own salary. 286 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. It requires much self-sacrifice to be a Is it jy jj J, medical missionary of our London Mission in North China in these days of annual deficits and consequent cutting down of grants, already far too small to meet pressing needs of the work. It is no wonder that the strain, sooner or later, tells very heavily on the workers. These brave men bear it uncom- plainingly, but is it right that they should have to do it in order to keep the work going ? Should not the fact that they have to do this stir up those who believe in and support their work to strive more earnestly to make it unnecessary ? A word to those who loved him and ch ^^j"'^ have helped him so faithfully all these and Work. years may not be considered out of place, nay, perhaps ought to be said here. His character was many-sided. Physically robust and energetic, he could dive and swim with the strongest. He was a leader in the cricket field, batting and bowling well. At golf he could drive a ball with the best. In lawn tennis he was thoroughly at home. A friend who played against him often at Pei Tai Ho during the summer, on hearing of Arthur's death, wrote : "I can hardly realise that never again will that keen, bright face meet me over the tennis net, as it did so often last summer." Fond of all sports and manly exercises, he always shone in them. With his work it was the same. Passing his London Matriculation and his final medical examinations in Edinburgh at the earliest possible ages, he did well in all his classes, obtaining several medals and a bursary. After his providential escape from the Boxers in 1900, having three months to spare in Edinburgh, he read up for, and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. A pile of F.R.C.S. examination papers found HE WAS NOT ; FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 287 in his desk seems to suggest that he tested himself by them from time to time in order to keep up his standard of efficiency. In looking through his diaries I find entries day after day of very serious operations, undertaken without help and as a part of the regular daily routine, operations, some of them, that none but a specialist would think of undertaking at home, and for which the London or Edinburgh specialist would expect and receive his fifty or hundred guinea fee. His friend Mr. Yii, in his poem, speaks of Arthur raising the dead. He meant this quite literally ; for he knew that once in the middle of the night Arthur was called up to see a man who had just died of diphtheria in the hospital inn. He hurried thither, found the man indeed dead, the heart's action having ceased for some time. A rapid tracheotomy and recourse at once to artificial respiration restored animation. The man recovered, and Mr. Yii and all the others believed that the doctor had raised the dead. This case was typical of the man. He was so ready, so on the spot, so all there, so capable of quick decision and prompt action, so daringly confident when he saw a thing must be done, and always ready to meet an emergency. He was keen at sports, he was omnivorous in his reading, he was unceasing in his profession, he was keenly inter- ested in everybody, but he was all this in order that he might thereby further the work of the Gospel. If he made a chance acquaintance, his first thought was — how can I help him to Christ, or, what help can he give me in winning men for Christ ? He had the true " passion for souls." In his charming open-hearted way he would talk so naturally and spontaneously to those he met about Christ that nobody could possibly take offence, and the thing that gave him the greatest joy while he was unable 288 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. to do any work at Pei Tai Ho was the assurance, from many sources, that the report of the revival had been a real help and stimulus to other workers. Crossing the ferry here the other day with Mr. Bryson, the ferryman, a Mohammedan, said : " Ever since I saw the portrait of Pan Tai Fu on Tuesday (at the memorial service), my eyes have been full of tears." " Why ? " inquired Mr. Bryson ; " were you treated in the hospital ? " " No," he said, " but I was one of those who helped the Christians to escape during the Boxer trouble in 1900, and when Dr. Peill returned he remembered, and he was always so kindjto me." The smile, the cheery word, the kindly greeting — that probably was all, but how characteristic of Arthur ! It tells much of the secret of his influence here. He was always so genial, and so thoroughly unconventional, and put people at their ease at once. At the Union Church, Tientsin, the Sun- A Public ^ ^j^gj. Arthur's death, the Rev. Miller Testimony. ^ \ 1 r , ■ Graham took for his text Luke xxiv. 51, and preached on the many kinds of separation which we have at various times to face, and at the close he asked the congregation to rise while he added a special tribute to the memory of a beloved fellow-worker from whom they had all just been separated by death, from which the following is an extract : — "I feel that I cannot close this service to-night without giving some expression to the keen sense of loss which the Kingdom of God has suffered through the sudden and lamented death of Dr. Arthur Peill. A true son of the Kingdom has passed from us. To know him even a little was to love him. He was so entirely unconventional, so thoroughly human, so genuinely sympathetic, that he made friends easily, and I should think was without enemies. To come into HE WAS NOT: FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 289 touch with him was, for some, to have for ever afterwards an entirely new conception of the Christian missionary. His apostolic devotion to his work, his whole-hearted consecration to the service of his Master, his amazing vitality and almost boyish enthusiasm, his deep dis- paragement of himself and his keen appreciation of the worth of others, endeared him to all who knew him, and made some of us not a little ashamed of ourselves in his presence, while we could not but feel stimulated by his noble example. He was a man all heart, and it was inevitable that a nature like his should be profoundly affected by the widespread religious movement which visited his station last year. He put his whole strength into such work, and could not fail to suffer in consequence. . . . I have never known a missionary who seemed to forget himself so completely in his work. He lived in the very heart of his Chinese people, and took infinite pains to interest outsiders in the people he loved and for whom he laboured. That so promising a career has been so early closed is an irreparable loss to China, and adds another illustrious name to those of Roberts and Mackenzie gladly given for her redemption. . . . All such separations from us are ascensions to God. Parted from us they pass into the presence of the King, there to continue their work as we do, ' till the day break and the shadows flee away.' " The feeling of his brother missionaries is expressed in the following : jj . y " This Committee wishes to put on record of the its sense of the great loss sustained by the North China whole North China field in the death of our Conmiittee. beloved colleague. Dr. Arthur Peill. His genial and brotherly disposition, his manliness combined with humility, won for him the respect, admiration and love of every one, Chinese and foreigner. Christian and non- 290 THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF TSANG CHOU. Christian alike. His skill and devotion to his profession made his name known and honoured throughout a wide region of country, while his ardent zeal as an evangelist, his abounding labours and believing prayers were manifestly used of God in the gracious revival among his students and patients, and in the Tsang Chou churches, during the winter of 1905 and 1906. His name will always be associated with those of Mackenzie and Roberts, three of the most spiritually minded and most successful medical missionaries ever sent out by the London Missionary Society." The Secret Writing this here in Arthur's study , I almost of his feel as though he were looking over my Influence. shoulder now, and I ask myself : Dare I write more ? I think he would not really disapprove. Much has been said that might seem to be praise of him. He would have shrunk from this, none more than he, therefore I must say more. Let me take you to the source of all his gifts and power, to the place where the power that moved him was generated, for it was not his own. The other day I found his prayer list. It was a revela- tion to me. He brought his work constantly before God. He prayed for his patients and Chinese helpers individually and by name regularly. Here are long lists of his relations and friends, even passing acquaintances some of them, arranged to be prayed for regularly — friends of other days, Blackheath, University, and Morningside friends, as well as those of later years — all had their place in his intercession. His colleagues of the same station, of neighbouring stations, of other missions, he prayed for regularly by name, as well as for missions and missionary work of all societies all over the world. The names of many of you who helped him in his work are also here. And he prayed for wisdom and direction in the employ- ment of all moneys commited to his charge, whether private HE WAS NOT : FOR GOD TOOK HIM. 291 money or for mission purposes, always keeping exact and careful accounts of all these. He prayed for his servants too, for some French soldiers he had known, for medical missions, bringing details of his life and work before God, and never forgetting his " own folk" as he styled them, some of the details of his prayers for whom are deeply affecting. I have dared to lift this veil ! It is that you may see the real source of his influence. He was a man of God, a man of prayer ; and he prayed to his Father with the humility and simplicity, straightforwardness and uncon- ventionality of a child. In Arthur Peill the London Mission in North China has lost, not only a highly-trained and skilful doctor and an enthusiastic missionary worker, but also a saintly soul, humble as a little child, with the very lowhest opinion of himself, ever seeking for and seeing the good in others, possessed of a patience that never seemed to fail and a confidence in God that was the hourly stay of his life, always putting first things first, caring even more for the healing and saving of the souls of men than for the curing of their bodies, to which he bent all his powers. What his own folk have lost — ah, that can never be known to any but themselves and God ; only his going home has made heaven a more real and desirable place to them than it ever was before, and it seems so much nearer. Qui procul hinc, the legend's writ. The frontier grave is far away, Qui ante diem periit, Sed miles, sed pro patria. ♦ " SKEGGLESWATER "—A SOLILOQUY. Written on board a House-boat at Te Chou, Good Friday, 1905. The reeds at the edge of the lonely pool On a moor-land drear and vast ; The curlew's call and the plover's cry, The chill of the cloud-filled, darkening sky. From the treasure-house of Memory, Come to me out the past. At the further side, see, a heron stands. Companion in solitude. As he fishes, half hidden among the reeds. From the heather I watch him where he feeds. Till, resting awhile from his eerie deeds. He sees where I intrude. I follow the lift of his slow-beat wings. And note how his long legs lie ; But soon, he's a speck in the distant grey, Now, like my dear ones, he's far away. And I am alone with the closing day To long and dream and sigh. Until soon I find I'm alone with God, Not really alone at all; And, if this is true concerning me. It is true of you beyond the sea; Our loneliness flies as we bend the knee. Though the shades of night may fall, • Skeggleswater is a lonely tarn on the Westmorland Moors, near Staveley, where he spent many happy holidays with his grandparents as a boy. 392 " SKEGGLESWATER." 293 Sundered far, o'er thousand leagues of ocean Restless waves between us roll. Yet, scenes from the byegone days enthrall Our pensive minds, as, at even-fall, Their well-loved memory we recall, And soul is knit to soul. And we all, by Love's golden chains, are linked To God's All-conquering Son. Earth's separations but prepare For the great reunion, some day, there. Where He's making ready the mansions fair. When the work of earth is done. A. D. P.