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 BV 3420 .C5 M68 1878 
 Moule, Arthur Evans, 1836- 
 
 1918. 
 The story of the Cheh-kiang 
 
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BISHOP RUSSELL. 
 
THE STORY 
 
 CHEH-KIANG MISSION 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
 
 REV. ARTHUR E. MOULE, 
 
 C.M.S. Missionary at Ningpo and Hang-choiv ; Author of '■'■ Four Hundred Millions^'' &c. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 SEELEY, JACKSON, & HALLIDAY, 54, Fleet Street. 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY HOUSE, Salisbury Square. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 Printed by JAS. TruscotT & SoN, 
 
 Suffolk Lane, City. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 |M;jiMil[|HE following "Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission" 
 Mj^g^ was written in compliance with a suggestion from 
 KSB^CT head-quarters by my brother, the Rev. A. E. 
 Moule, in the midst of his duties, whilst discharging my 
 " lack of service " at Hang-chow. He would have been 
 glad of the advantage of leisure to render it more complete 
 and more graphic than it is. 
 
 I have assisted in the duty of passing it through the press ; 
 and can only thank God that a missionary narrative, in which 
 I must needs feel so earnest and loving an interest, has been 
 so well and candidly given. 
 
 / Brethren, pray for us ! 
 
 George E. Moule. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FACE 
 
 Chap. I. — Thk Field. 
 
 The Province of Cheh-kiang — Population and Area — Rivers and Canals — 
 Products — Mountains — Climate — Open to Travelling Missionaries . . 3 
 
 Chap. II. — Early Days. 
 
 China and the C.M.S. — Arrival of Smith and McClatchie — Arrival of 
 Cobbold and Russell — Wars and Treaties — Mission-house at Ningpo — 
 First Baptisms — Itinerant Preaching — Miss Aldersey — The Romanized 
 Colloquial — Tsz'-k'i and the San-poh District — Work of Gough and G. 
 Moule — Opium Refuge — Burdon occupies Hang-chow — T'ai-p*rng Re- 
 bellion 10 
 
 Chap. III. — Later Days. 
 
 The T'ai-p'ing Rebels at Ningpo — Their ravages in the Province — Eastern 
 Lakes Mission — G. and A. Moule alone in the Mission — Bao — The Western 
 Hills — Hang-chow re-occupied — Varied labours — Reinforcements — Bishop 
 Alford's visit — Russell and Gough again in Cheh-kiang — Work at Shaou- 
 hing and Hang-chow — Consecration of Bishop Russell — Ordination of 
 Native Clergy 46 
 
 Chap. IV. — Difficulties and Disappointments. 
 
 Troubles from rumours and alarms — Disappointments with regard to 
 inquirers — Sunday Observance — Support of Native Christians — False accu- 
 sations against the Missionaries 81 
 
 Chap. V. — Triumphs and Hopes. 
 
 Christian Deaths — Liberality of Converts — Has the Mission failed? — A - % 
 Call for Help 97 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 I. — On Fung-shui 103. 
 
 II. — Recent News from Hang-chow 107 
 
 III.— A Chinese Flower Ballad 115 
 
 IV. — Chronological Table, Statistics, &c. 125 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAG« 
 
 Bishop Russell Front'upiece 
 
 A Pa on the Tsaoungo River . . . . . . . . . 6 
 
 Ningpo, from the West Gate i8 
 
 Bao, the First-Fruits of Ningpo 20 
 
 Tsz'-k'i 30 
 
 Bridge near Tsz'-k'i 31 
 
 Kwun-hae-we Church 36 
 
 The Opium Hospital in Hang-chow ........ 40 
 
 The City of Yu-yaou, looking down the River towards Ningpo . . 44 
 
 Salt Gate, Ningpo 53 
 
 Stephen Dzing 55 
 
 Buddhist Priests 61 
 
 Hang-chow 64 
 
 Tong-wu, the East Lake 68 
 
 Church and Mission House at Hang-chow 76 
 
 Tao-tai .84 
 
C II E K I A N 
 
J (> 
 
 32' 
 
THE STORY OF 
 
 THE CHEH-KIANG MISSION, 
 
 RESOLUTION 
 
 passed at a Conference held in Ningpo, under the presidency 
 of the Bishop of Victoria, Nov. 8, 1848 : — 
 
 " That the Province of Cheh-kiang, occupying a central 
 position with reference to the rest of China, and numbering 
 a population of more than twenty millions, amongst one- 
 third of whom the Ningpo dialect is spoken, with but slight 
 modifications, forms a vast field of labour, likely to absorb 
 all the present available labourers of the C.M.S., and that 
 it seems, therefore, advisable that the efforts of the C.M.S. 
 should now be mainly directed towards planting a strong 
 Mission over this extensive region." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ''Twenty men could well be employed by the C.M.S. in and 
 around Ningpo." — Extract from a letter of the Rev. W. A. 
 Russell, dated December, 1852. 
 
 Twenty men ! Yet during the twenty-eight years which 
 form the Jifetime thus far of the Cheh-kiang Mission, only 
 fifteen clergy of the Church of England have ever laboured in 
 this field. These fifteen include the late Bishop Smith and 
 the two present Bishops of South and North China. And 
 reckoning in our list the wives of the missionaries and other 
 missionary ladies who have worked in Cheh-kiang under 
 the Church Missionary Society, so far from having twenty 
 labourers at the same time in any part of the field, only 
 twenty-eight in twenty-eight years have come to the help of 
 tlie Lord against the mighty foes of 20,000,000 souls ! 
 
 But it is not so much to complain of the past that this Story 
 of the Mission is compiled as to stimulate, if through God's 
 grace it may be so, zeal for the future. And let us pass at 
 once, therefore, to the inspection of the field. 
 
f PEjiiesi 
 
 'OIT ^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. \niZOl.miQ%l, 
 
 THE FIELD. 
 
 A people numerous as the octan sands, 
 And glorying as the mightiest of mankind ; 
 Yet where they are, contented to remain : 
 From age to age resolved to cultivate 
 Peace, and the arts of peace; turning to gold 
 The very ground they tread on, and the leaves 
 They gather from their trees ypar after year. 
 
 HE province of Cheh-kiang, or "Crooked River," 
 is the smallest of the eighteen provinces of 
 China Proper, and yet one of the most popu- 
 lous. Twelve provinces have a smaller popu- 
 lation than Cheh-kiang ; and its neighbour, 
 Fuh-kien, with an area larger by 12,000 square 
 miles, had in 18 12 an estimated population of only fourteen 
 millions as compared with twenty-six millions, the population 
 of Cheh-kiang. The mountainous character of Fuh-kien 
 accounts, no doubt, for this difference in population. 
 
 The area of Cheh-kiang is 39,150 square miles ; that is to 
 say, England, v/ith her northern counties — Northumberland, 
 Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, and Yorkshire— cut off. 
 Yet Lancashire, with the Midland and Southern counties of 
 
 B 2 
 
The Story of the Cheh-kiang Missiott. 
 
 England, would provide a sufficiently large diocese for one 
 Bishop to work with a band of thirteen clergy — the whole 
 number, including the Native clergy, on the roll of the So- 
 ciety's Cheh-kiang Mission at the present date.* 
 
 " Cheh-kiang measures about 260 English miles from east 
 to west, and about 380 from north to south. It is bounded on 
 the north by Kiang-su, the chief province of China, and the 
 most celebrated for its wealth and products ; on the south by 
 Fuh-kien ; on the east by a wild, rugged sea-coast ; and on 
 the west by the provinces of Nganhwui and Kiang-si. It is 
 equal in size to the entire kingdom of Portugal, and twice as 
 large as Denmark ; and the Emerald Isle could float within its 
 boundaries." 
 
 Mr. Milne, from whose interesting Life in China the above 
 paragraph is quoted, gives extracts from Chinese official docu- 
 ments descriptive of the characteristics of the population. To 
 mention those only of the districts in which at present the 
 C.M.S. is labouring : "The natives of the Ningpo department 
 are given to the cultivation of fields or letters. The people of 
 Shaou-hing are diligent, frugal, and fond of learning. Hang- 
 chow is famous for having all the greatest as well as the 
 dearest curiosities in the world. Merchants from all quarters 
 flock thither." 
 
 This is nearly literally true. In the course of two or three 
 afternoons I have met within the walls of the city, besides 
 Manchow Tartars forming part of the garrison, and natives 
 of Ningpo, Shaou-hing and T'ai-chow, all within the province 
 of Cheh-kiang, natives also of Sze-cheuen, Hu-peh, Ho-nan, 
 Kiang-su, Kiang-si, and Kwang-tung. " The manners of the 
 people of Hang-chow," proceeds this native writer, " are 
 
 * Other Protestant Churches are at work in the province, with an aggregate of 
 labourers considerably larger than this. Our duty, however, is but slightly affected 
 by this consideration. 
 
The Field. 5 
 
 polished, and their education is of the first stamp. It has 
 crowds of literati in its population." 
 
 Since this was written the withering plague of civil war has 
 swept over the great capital of Cheh-kiang ; vast numbers of 
 its inhabitants were destroyed ; and perhaps four-fifths of its 
 buildings were levelled to the ground. But it has rapidly 
 revived during the past twelve years ; and this native estimate 
 of the character of the city and its inhabitants still in a mea- 
 sure holds good. 
 
 " The province of Cheh-kiang has," writes Milne, " from 
 olden times been the theatre upon which some of the principal 
 acts in Chinese history have been performed." The Ningpo 
 River, eighty li above the city, bears the name now of Yaou, 
 now of Shun, the two semi-mythical patriarch emperors of 
 four thousand years ago. Shun, the Cincinnatus of China, 
 called from the fields to reign, is said to have ploughed his 
 father's acres with an elephant not far from the city of Yu- 
 yaou, forty miles west of Ningpo ; whilst two or three miles 
 outside the walls of Shaou-hing stands the tomb of the 
 Emperor Yu, " the Chinese Noah," as some call him, who is 
 said to have subdued the deluge which inundated China four 
 thousand years ago. 
 
 This province contains water-ways of great extent and im- 
 portance. The country round Ningpo and Shaou-hing is 
 accessible almost everywhere to an itinerating missionary 
 traversing in a boat the countless canals. The southern and 
 south-western districts, including the T'ai-chow, Wen-chow, 
 and King-hwa prefectures, are hilly, and travelling must be 
 performed chiefly on foot or in sedan chairs. The great river 
 T'sien-t'ang, fifteen miles wide at its mouth, and fully two as 
 it sweeps past the walls of Hang-chow, is the same which, as 
 the Crooked River (Cheh Kiang), gives a name to the whole 
 province. Its upper waters, which enter our province from the 
 
The Field. 
 
 south-west in three main streams, furnish means of communi- 
 cation with eight other provinces.* 
 
 The plains watered by these numerous streams and canals 
 produce, especially round Ningpo and Shaou-hing, vast quan- 
 tities of rice ; four varieties of that grain being raised in the 
 Ningpo plain. The province produces also wheat and barley, 
 maize, a little sorghum, and the sugar-cane, besides cotton in 
 the districts reclaimed from the sea ; a crop which helped to 
 relieve the distress in England during the American war. 
 Other crops are, many varieties of beans, peas, roots, and 
 seeds which serve both as food and for the manufacture of oil. 
 Hemp and tobacco are also grown ; the green tea plant covers 
 the hills, a northern aspect being preferred by the planters ; 
 and countless mulberry groves feed innumerable *' precious 
 ones," as the Chinese call the silkworms, in this, one of the 
 chief silk-producing provinces of the empire. 
 
 Amongst fruits the apricot, the peach, the plum, the pear, 
 and the cherry, inferior though they are in quality, remind one 
 of home ; and of the rest may be mentioned the orange, 
 though not equal to that of Fuh-chow and Canton ; the pH-pa, 
 or loquat, a kernelled, juicy fruit, in taste somewhat resembling 
 the gooseberry ; the arbutus, finer far and more juicy than in 
 England ; and the persimmon, a luscious autumn fruit. 
 
 Alas ! large tracts of good ground, once covered with grain, 
 glow now in early summer with the baneful bloom of the 
 blood-red poppy. The Indian poppy plant bears a white 
 
 * Chinese canals have no locks. When a boat has to pass from one level to 
 another — e.g., from a canal to a river — it is usually hauled with capstans, or by 
 buffaloes, over part of the bank, sloped for the purpose by masonry or earthwork, 
 and covered with moistened and slippery clay. The hawsers, of bamboo split and 
 twisted, are fastened either round the stem of the boat, or to a strong beam crossincr 
 it near the prow. Our cut is from a photograph of a Fa, or portage, connecting- 
 the canals of the Shaou-hing plain with the River Tsaou-ngo, which falls into Hang- 
 chow Bay, S.E. of the Ts'ien-t'ang River. 
 
8 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 flower ; but the produce of both red and white, fair though 
 the flowers be to the eye, is ruining this noble land. 
 
 The hills of Cheh-kiang, though not so lofty and extensive 
 as those of Fuh-kien, yet call for special notice. Native books 
 give elaborate descriptions of the Sze-ming-shan, a mountain 
 range, rising to the W.S.W. of Ningpo, and its ramifications 
 stretching through the districts of Ningpo, Tsz'-k'i, Fung- 
 hwa, Yu-yaou, Shang-yu, and Ning-hai. It is reckoned in 
 Taouist books as ninth in the order of the thirty-six lofty 
 mountains of China, and no less than 280 peaks are numbered 
 in the chain, each one having a distinctive name. 
 
 In winter time these noble hills, rising sometimes to the 
 height of 3,000 feet above the sea, are occasionally covered 
 with snow, the thermometer marking from ten to fifteen de- 
 grees of frost. The drifts lie long on the higher hill slopes ; 
 and some days after the plain is free from snow, the distant 
 jagged outline of mountain tops glitters white against the clear 
 blue frosty day. 
 
 In spring the sun's reviving fires clothe as by magic these 
 hill ranges with flowers. Azaleas of several shades of rose 
 colour, as well as yellow, and here and there a rare snow-white 
 blossom, carpet the hills of Cheh-kiang from base to summit. 
 Westeria festoons the rocks ; and hawthorn, dwarf lilac, and 
 dog violets remind one of home. Meanwhile on the spring 
 breeze is heard the cuckoo's song, and on the hill-side 
 
 " The mavis and merle are singing." 
 
 Spring soon glows into summer ; and the full summer sun, 
 the thermometer now standing often at 100 degrees in the 
 shade, looks down on these hills and plains. The hills are 
 well-nigh stripped of flowers by the great heat, save where in 
 the woods lilies white and fragrant, or the tiger lily and a 
 brown variety flourish by the mountain streams. But in the 
 
The Field. 
 
 plains below, the rice crops are ripening fast under the fiery 
 blaze. Then comes autumn, very sickly and dangerous in its 
 early days, but from the middle of October to the latter end of 
 December possessing an atmosphere the most delightful and 
 invigorating. 
 
 Then by sea, by river and canal, or on foot, the missionary 
 must travel who will thoroughly evangelize this province. To 
 the native mind either route is fraught with danger. Pirates 
 by the first, river thieves and smugglers by the second, and 
 mountain robbers by the third, threaten the traveller. ** Ah ! 
 the load of anxiety which must lie on the mind of the governor 
 of Cheh-kiang ! " Yet in truth, considering the extent and 
 character of the country, most foreign travellers have enjoyed 
 marvellous immunity from danger by day and by night. In 
 the years 1855 and 1856, Mr. Cobbold, of the C.M.S., and 
 Mr. Rankin, of the American Presbyterian Mission, made two 
 extensive tours through the interior of the province, visiting 
 thirteen walled cities ; and similar tours have since been made 
 without serious danger or hindrance, by land or by water. 
 
 How singular the contrast is here between conservative 
 China and liberal Japan ! Mr. Warren, in his interesting 
 narrative of a Pedestrimi Tour in Japan made in the spring 
 of the year 1875, informs us that whilst everything foreign is 
 popular and current in the interior of " Dai Nippon," from 
 lucifer matches and blacking up to portraits of the Queen 
 of England, framed and glazed for three cents, yet " to pass 
 from town to town, and village to village, ostensibly to preach 
 the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, zvould not for a moment 
 be tolerated by the authorities^ Yet here in obstructive, 
 exclusive, self-satisfied China tours of evangelists and colpor- 
 teurs have been for well-nigh thirty years but little restricted, 
 and of late even the residence of missionaries in the interior 
 has been officially recognised and allowed. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 EARLY DAYS. 
 
 'Tis thus they press the hand and part, 
 
 Thus have they bid farewell again ; 
 Yet still they commune, heart with heart, 
 
 Linked by a never-broken chain. 
 
 //. Bonar. 
 
 HE first thought of a Mission to China was formed 
 very early in the history of the Church Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 So far back as the year i8oi, or two years only 
 after the formation of the Society, the Committee consulted 
 with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the subject, but the way 
 seemed then to be entirely closed. In 1824, when Dr. Mor- 
 rison was in England, the Committee communicated with him 
 as to the openings for a Mission in China ; but then also the 
 establishment of such a Mission seemed impossible. In 1837 
 the late Rev. E. B. Squire was sent on a tentative mission, 
 and resided some time both in Singapore and in Macao. He 
 was compelled to return to England after two years' work ; 
 and it was not till the year 1844 that the first Church of 
 England missionaries were commissioned to occupy a definite 
 post on the mainland of China. 
 
 The Society was encouraged, nay, well-nigh compelled, to 
 commence the Mission to China, by the receipt (from one who 
 
Early Days. 1 1 
 
 wished to be known only as ek.ayiaTOTepo'^, " less than the 
 least ") of the liberal donation of ^6,000 consols. 
 
 This donation, offered and accepted exclusively for China, 
 was made shortly after the arrival of news of the ratification 
 of the treaty of Nankin, which opened to foreign trade and 
 residence the five ports of Shanghai, Ningpo, Fuhchow, Amoy, 
 and Canton. 
 
 The Rev. G. Smith (afterwards first Bishop of Victoria, 
 Hong-Kong) and the Rev. T. M'Clatchie reached China on 
 November 25th, 1844. Mr. M'Clatchie proceeded at once to 
 Shanghai ; and after labouring there for eight years, his health 
 gave way, and he returned to England. He returned to China 
 in 1864; and at the present date he is still at work in the 
 Mission which he was permitted to found so many years ago. 
 
 Mr. Smith meanwhile was instructed by the Committee to 
 visit the five consular ports already named, and to report to 
 the Committee as to the comparative facilities for missionary 
 work in each. 
 
 During this exploratory tour, he spent the summer and 
 early autumn of 1845 at Ningpo, residing in a native house 
 within the city walls from June 17th till September 28th. He 
 hoped to have made this city his permanent station, having 
 enjoyed many interesting opportunities during his short stay 
 of spreading the knowledge of the Gospel among the friendly 
 citizens. 
 
 Failure of health, however, compelled his retirement, and he 
 thus, in a regretful farewell, summed up the advantages of 
 Ningpo as a mission field : — 
 
 (i) It affords a promising sphere for quiet missionary work 
 amongst a superior population in one of the finest and largest 
 cities of the empire, and without the deteriorating influence 
 of an extensive trade with foreigners. 
 
 (2) It presents peculiar facilities for the planting of out- 
 
1 2 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 stations, and for making periodical visits to the surrounding 
 country, as the growing exigencies of the Mission may here- 
 after render expedient. 
 
 More than two years elapsed before, acting on this favour- 
 able report, the Society was able definitely to adopt Ningpo 
 and the province of Cheh-kiang generally as a mission field. 
 
 Nearly thirty years ago (May 13, 1848) the Rev. R. H. 
 Cobbold and the Rev. W. A. Russell reached Ningpo. 
 
 They found seven missionaries already on the spot — one 
 from the English Baptist Society, the rest Presbyterians and 
 Baptists from America, of whom the first to arrive had been 
 already nearly five years connected with Ningpo. 
 
 Their names, in order of seniority, were as follows : — Drs. 
 Macgowan and M'Cartee, Rev. R. Q. Way, M. S. Culbertson, 
 T. H. Hudson, J. W. Quarterman, and E. C. Lord. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that after the lapse of thirty years 
 six out of the nine pioneers of the Ningpo Mission (Mr. 
 Russell and Mr. Cobbold being added to the list) are still 
 living. Two (including the honoured Bishop and leader of 
 the C.M.S. Missions in North China) are still in Ningpo ; one 
 in Shanghai, one in Japan, one in England, and one in the 
 United States ; and one of the two who are no more died of 
 confluent small-pox, and not directly from the influence of the 
 climate. The climate is to many constitutions exceedingly 
 trying, as the after history of the Mission will show, and it has 
 proved fatal to not a i^^N. But the above fact stands out from 
 the annals of the Ningpo Mission to encourage the faith of 
 some who may have hitherto shrunk from China as if it were 
 equally dangerous with the fever-bound coasts of East and 
 West Africa. 
 
 It is difficult for residents of the present day to imagine the 
 state of things in Ningpo thirty-four years ago. In these 
 Ningpo streets, where English and American ladies now walk 
 
Early Days. \ ^ 
 
 to and fro on their errands of mercy unmolested, where house- 
 to-house visitation is practised, and where girls' schools and 
 classes for heathen women are held, here, only a generation 
 ago, a strange event was witnessed by some natives who are 
 now catechists of our Society. An English lady, Mrs. Noble, 
 the widow of the captain of the Kite transport, which was 
 wrecked in Hang-chow Bay, was carried about the streets 
 in a cage and exhibited to the populace. And at Yu-yaou, 
 where there is now a flourishing American Mission, and within 
 ten miles of which begins the San-poh Mission district, now 
 presided over by a Chinese pastor in full orders — at Yu-yaou 
 the Chinese general, Yuh-kien, after flaying and burning alive 
 a foreigner caught during the war of 1841, destroyed himself 
 in despair at the capture of Ningpo by Sir Hugh Gough. 
 
 That war opened China. British manufactures and Indian 
 opium, the latter then still contraband, poured in by five great 
 gates. It is a delicate matter for Christian missionaries to 
 pass in by a war-forced entrance ; and yet it would have 
 been false modesty had they refused to take advantage of 
 such a door. 
 
 Their position was rendered still more anomalous when by 
 the Treaty of T'ien-tsin and Convention of Peking, signed in 
 i860, together with special facilities granted to missionaries, 
 opium was reluctantly admitted as a legal article of commerce. 
 Opium, which had formed so mighty a factor in the fomenta- 
 tion of war ! War, which had opened China ! China, needing 
 the Gospel in all her wide provinces ! Can Christian mis- 
 sionaries consent to be introduced at Court by the opium 
 trade, against which they must ever protest } Such conflict- 
 ing thoughts must often occur to a sensitive mind. And yet 
 the answer seems simple enough. God, in His loving mercy, 
 ever delights to bring good out of evil. And Christian mis- 
 sionaries dare not hesitate to be the almoners of God's mercy. 
 
14 The Stoiy of the CheJi-kiang Mission. 
 
 Or, to borrow the simple argument of the Bishop of Peter- 
 borough in reply to the Duke of Somerset's anti-missionary 
 tirade, " British subjects might enter China under the treaty, 
 and were equally entitled to protection whether they sold 
 cotton or Bibles." 
 
 It cannot be denied that these wars and their consequences 
 have served to intensify the dislike and suspicion entertained 
 against foreigners by the ruling classes ; but it is probable 
 that, in consequence of the exclusive policy of China and 
 her intolerable arrogance, nothing but a series of humiliating 
 defeats, such as she experienced in 1841-42 and 1858-60, could 
 have opened her brazen gates, and have brought to the 
 more amenable and friendly common people the blessings of 
 honest commerce and Christian truth. 
 
 The C.M.S., at all events, did not hesitate on this subject ; 
 and as soon as the news arrived of the signing of the Treaty 
 of Nankin, the Committee resolved that no time should be lost 
 in seizing the opportunity thus providentially afforded for 
 commencing a Mission in China. 
 
 In 1845, as has already been recorded, Shanghai was occu- 
 pied by Mr. M'Clatchie, and in May, 1848, Mr. Cobbold and 
 Mr. Russell reached Ningpo. It is to the Ningpo Mission, 
 with its important and interesting offshoots, Hang-chow and 
 Shaou-hing, that the reader's attention will be specially 
 directed in the following pages. 
 
 This history may be divided into two portions — a division, 
 though somewhat arbitrary, yet sufficiently accurate to justify 
 its use. 
 
 The first is that which intervened between the close of the 
 first war with England and the suppression of the T'ai-p'ing 
 rebellion. During the second, which reaches to the present 
 time, China has been recovering from the effects of that 
 rebellion, and growing more and more confident of her ability 
 
Early Days. 1 5 
 
 to measure swords once again with foreign powers. Neither 
 of these periods can be considered really favourable for mis- 
 sionary work ; yet through the whole thirty years God has 
 owned and blessed His servants' work. 
 
 Even had the political conditions been as much in their 
 favour as they were the reverse, there were inevitable diffi- 
 culties of another kind, which should never be forgotten in 
 reviewing the career of our early missionaries and estimating 
 their present success. Ignorant of the Chinese language, totally 
 unacquainted with the social habits and religious beliefs of the 
 people, without church or school, without a single native 
 Christian to sympathize with and aid their efforts, with a 
 "teacher" of the language indeed, but one who needed in- 
 struction himself in the art of communicating what was of 
 first necessity — a knowledge of his vernacular — finally, with 
 no definite instructions from the home Committee as to a plan 
 of operations, such were the circumstances under which our 
 first missionaries began work in Cheh-kiang. 
 
 Yet already four native catechists, of from ten to eighteen 
 years' standing, have been ordained, one to the priesthood, 
 three to the diaconate ; and the chief church in Ningpo, no 
 longer large enough to accommodate the growing congrega- 
 tion, is to be relieved by a chapel- of-ease near the Bishop's 
 residence ; and native ministers lately admitted to deacon's 
 orders will, it is hoped, in process of time assume the pastorate 
 of these two congregations. 
 
 Stronger and more enduring than the first flush of a mis- 
 sionary's early ardour, there remained to sustain the faith and 
 vigour of the first workers in this field the stimulating and 
 cheering thought of the glory and universal adaptability of 
 the Gospel of the grace of God, and the daily sight of a great 
 city, and wide-spreading plain, inhabited by hundreds of thou- 
 sands of immortal souls, living all without hope and without 
 
1 6 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 God in the world. And the same faith and hope and pitying 
 love have thus far sustained the Mission, and must be the 
 strength and the motive of all future successful work. 
 
 Mr. Cobbold and Mr. Russell, on their arrival at Ningpo, 
 after being hospitably entertained for five days by Dr. Mac- 
 gowan of the American Baptist Mission, found temporary 
 lodgings in a large Taouist temple, near which stand now the 
 Bishop's house and the Mission Boarding-school for Girls, 
 with the dwelling-house of Miss Laurence the superintendent. 
 And in this same neighbourhood are rising the buildings for a. 
 Mission college to be superintended by Mr. Hoare, and the 
 chapel-of-ease alluded to above. 
 
 One of the priests of that temple still survives, white-haired 
 and somewhat decrepit, but vividly remembering his former 
 guest, and now honoured neighbour, the Bishop ; his regard 
 for him being intensified by the fact of the Bishop having 
 saved his life when the city was stormed by the T'ai-p*ing 
 in 1861. 
 
 The same green, stagnant ditch bounds the walls of the 
 monastery, the same great shrubs of the olea fragrans stand 
 within its walls, and scatter on the September air the same 
 perfume which astonished and enchanted the senses of our 
 early missionaries in the autumn of 1848. The temple, de- 
 nuded of its idols by the iconoclastic T'ai-p'ing, and turned for 
 a while into a military hospital during the troublous autumn of 
 1862, has recovered some little of its gaudy adornment and 
 numerous pantheon. And the old priest has not yet rejoiced 
 the Bishop's heart by putting to his guest of twenty-eight 
 years ago the question, '* What must I do to be saved t " 
 
 The missionaries began at once the study of the language, 
 and took frequently long walks to the skirts of the nearer hills. 
 They thus practised their limited vocabulary, and became 
 aware of the great number of towns and villages in the wide 
 
Early Days. i^ 
 
 plains around the city, amongst which, at the present date, 
 the Church Missionary Society alone has as many as nine 
 out-stations. 
 
 During the autumn of 1868 a house was secured in a crowded 
 part of the city. This house, " the Kwun-gyiao-deo," or 
 " Kwun-bridge-head " House, still continues in the occupancy 
 of the Mission. It was fitted up somewhat in foreign style, and 
 was inhabited through many seasons successively by Messrs. 
 Cobbold, Russell, and Gough as bachelors, and then by Mr. 
 and Mrs. Russell, by Mr. and Mrs. G. E. Moule, and by Mr. and 
 Mrs. Fleming. It is occupied at present by the Mission 
 Boarding-school for Boys ; but it is hoped that eventually it 
 may become the parsonage for the native pastor of our con- 
 gregation in the southern district of Ningpo, affording accom- 
 modation at the same time for day schools and other work. 
 
 This house will be remembered throughout eternity by not 
 a few. It lies on a busy thoroughfare, and within a stone's 
 throw of the main street of the city. By day and far into the 
 night the clink and ring of smiths' and tinkers' hammers close 
 by, and the busy hum from the neighbouring tea-shops are heard. 
 The air is close and oppressive ; but in a summer-house above 
 the roofs the missionary, weary with study, or heated with 
 argument or exhortation, could inhale the fresh breezes borne 
 from the sea, ten miles distant eastward, or from the beautiful 
 amphitheatre of hills north, west, and south. 
 
 The erection of this summer-house brought the missionaries 
 into early collision with one of the great superstitions of the 
 Chinese. The neighbours, hearing of the proposed turret, 
 and seeing the preparations for its erection, called on the mis- 
 sionaries and informed them that the tall tower could not be 
 allowed. The fiing-s/mi^ of the neighbourhood would be 
 
 * "Wind and water," the Chinese phrase for local good or ill fortune. See 
 Appendix. 
 
 C 
 
Early Days. 19 
 
 destroyed. The work must cease. The missionaries argued 
 and remonstrated, but in vain ; until Mr. Russell, with the 
 ready wit of his countrymen, discomfited the foe, and turned 
 their indignation into merriment, by proposing, as a compro- 
 mise, that the Mission should keep the wind and the neigh- 
 bours the water. The deputation withdrew and the work was 
 finished. Very many of the Christians in Ningpo heard the 
 Gospel first in this house, and very many, alas ! of the heathen 
 of Ningpo will have their mouths shut at the last day by the 
 remembrance of the preaching-room at the Kwun-gyiao-deo. 
 " Who is sufficient for these things .^ " * 
 
 In the hall of this house, just three years after the opening 
 of the Mission, two native converts were baptized, onef of 
 whom still survives, faint (from dangerous and it is feared in- 
 curable illness) but pursuing, and'earnestly desirous of working 
 still for his Master; the other, who will be named more than 
 once in this story, Bao Yuoh-yi, passed, we trust, to his rest in 
 the autumn of 1874. " This admission oi two amidst this vast 
 population," writes Mr. Cobbold, "may appear a small matter 
 in the eyes of many ; but v/e know Who has said that He 
 does not despise the day of small things, and the little one 
 may become a thousand. The Lord hasten it in His time ! " 
 The Rev. F. F. Gough, who joined the Mission in the spring of 
 1850, stood witness with Mr. Russell at this interesting service. 
 
 Meanwhile vigorous itineration in the neighbourhood of 
 Ningpo was begun by Mr. Russell. It is a task calling forth 
 mingled sighs and thankfulness to look back a quarter of a 
 century and recall the early aspirations of these eager labourers. 
 
 * The picture opposite shows the canal running east and west through Ningpo. 
 The turret belongs to the chapel of the American Baptist Mission. The high roof at 
 the extreme left is that of the Buddhist convent of T'ien-yin, close to Mr. Gough's 
 house. The Kwun bridge spans the canal at a point a few hundred yards beyond 
 the turreted chapel. 
 
 t He has since died in peace, 1877, 
 
 C 2 
 
BAO, THE FIRST-FRUITS OF NINGPO. 
 
Early Days. 
 
 The- Secretaries, when introducing the journals of the mis- 
 sionaries from time to time, speak of the "anxiety with which 
 they wait to see how it may please God to bless the working 
 of the Mission ; whether the process will be slow, or whether, 
 considering the pressing necessities of this numerous and long 
 shut-up people, it may be His pleasure to hasten its develop- 
 ment." How mysterious God's dealings have been ! At 
 Fuh-chow the missionaries, one after another, prayed and 
 worked and waited for eleven long years without one conver- 
 sion, and now the converts number about i,6oo. At Ningpo 
 the early days were full of promise. " Full of hope for China " 
 — thus the Secretaries characterize Mr. Russell's early letters. 
 " I cannot help feeling," writes Mr. Russell in 1852, " that the 
 Lord is having His way prepared amongst this people, and 
 that ere long, if spared, we shall be privileged to see His truth 
 telling largely upon them." Yet, after the lapse of twenty-eight 
 years, including those who have died and some few who have 
 been excommunicated, the baptismal roll of our Cheh-kiang 
 Mission numbers scarcely more than 700. 
 
 Mr. Russell thus speaks of his country preaching : "For the 
 last few weeks I have been in the habit of going out once or 
 twice a week into the neighbouring villages and towns, dis- 
 tributing tracts and preaching. Had I had physical power, 
 each day I might have addressed some twenty different 
 assemblies, varying in number from 50 to 200 persons, who in 
 most cases would have listened attentively to me for half an 
 hour. It will be interesting to you to learn that Bao Yiioh-yi, 
 one of our converts, accompanied me on these excursions, and 
 frequently addressed his countrymen in so clear and impressive 
 a manner as to draw tears from my eyes." 
 
 This is a department of missionary labour the most attrac- 
 tive perhaps, because the most directly evangelistic, in which 
 a missionary can engage ; and as it has been carried on all 
 
22 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 through the life of the Mission, let us follow the missionary 
 and his zealous native helper Bao, and watch them at their 
 work. To-day their preaching-place is a tea-shop, to-morrow 
 a corner of a crowded street, or the courtyard of some country 
 hamlet, or the shade of some tree by a canal bank. The pre- 
 amble to the discourse is all complimentary. 
 
 " What is your honourable surname } " says the missionary, 
 accosting some senior amongst the knot of listeners quickly 
 assembling to see and hear a foreigner. 
 
 " My disreputable name is Yang. And your distinguished 
 name, foreign sir 1 " 
 
 " My poor name is Loh." 
 
 " What may be your honourable age } " the missionary asks 
 again. 
 
 " I am but young ; my age is sixty-eight." 
 
 " Sixty-eight ! Can you add another sixty-eight to your life, 
 venerable sir V 
 
 " You flatter me," he replies ; " who can live so long as that V 
 
 " Why not } See this camphor-tree ; it is five hundred years 
 old at least. Why are men so short-lived and trees so endur- 
 ing t But if it be so as you say, my venerable friend, if half 
 your journey is over, what place do you hope to reach at the 
 end } As your proverb says — 
 
 ' This world is very well as a rest-house ; 
 But not as our abiding home,' 
 
 We are but pilgrims and strangers ; our home is heaven. 
 You say of yourselves that you are * heaven born, heaven 
 sustained ; that on heaven you depend for life and food.' 
 The heavenly Ruler, then, is your Father in heaven ; and you, 
 as children on foreign travel, should hope to return home 
 thither after a while. Is not your hope, venerable sir, and 
 yours, honourable friends (turning to the crowd), to go 
 thither ? " 
 
Early Days. 23 
 
 " To be sure," they reply ; " but who can go to heaven ? " 
 " What difficulty is there in the way ? The good go to the 
 good place, as you all say, and the bad to the bad. Virtue 
 surely has its reward and vice its punishment. Are none in 
 your honourable village good ? '* 
 
 " Oh," they reply, '' everywhere there are bad and good." 
 " Indeed," rejoins the missionary, " in all foreign countries 
 we cannot find one good person ; and I have heard it said that 
 even in your honourable country there are but two good 
 people known of, * one dead, one not yet born.' " This raises a 
 loud laugh, when by the witness of a Chinese proverb all the 
 world is accounted guilty before God. 
 
 " Now, my friends," proceeds the missionary, " it is guilt which 
 makes us short-lived, which has brought death into the world, 
 and which fills even the longest life with sorrow. It is this which 
 makes us fear that we cannot reach home. It is this which makes 
 all men fear death. We all have sin ; and sin, as you know% 
 must be punished. Confucius says, ' If you sin against heaven, 
 there is no place for prayer.' What is to be done .? You, my 
 old friend, are like yon westering sun. Your day is far spent, 
 the night cometh. And you, my friends, young and old, 
 remember your proverb, Who knows in the morning what may 
 happen at night } Is there no remedy for sin, no salvation, no 
 Saviour .? Will fasting serve, or penance, or almsgiving } Or 
 does the maxim hold. When you know your fault, be sure to 
 amend, and perhaps you may escape destruction } Or can Con- 
 fucius save you, or Laou-tsu forgive your sins, or Sakya-muni 
 Buddha — he, too, a foreign sage — could he take sin away ? 
 No, these were all moral teachers, preachers of virtue ; but 
 if you see a man drowning in this canal, will you save him by 
 shouting to him, or quoting Confucius to him, or telling him 
 that he ought not to have fallen in .? No, forsooth ! Bring a 
 rope, or a ladder, or jump in boldly and save the drowning 
 
24 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 man. Ah ! what we want is salvation first, and then exhorta- 
 tion. Now such a rehgion preach I unto you." And from this 
 vantage ground " the sweet story of old " is told plainly, fully, 
 lovingly. 
 
 " Jesus, the Son of God, gave Himself a ransom for all ; out- 
 weighing in value all the human race, even as a good silver 
 dollar exceeds in value a base brass coin." 
 
 " All very good," shouts out a man on the outskirts of the 
 crowd, '' all very well ; but this doctrine comes from abroad ; 
 and it is you foreigners who bring us opium." 
 
 " My friend," interposes the catechist, '' do you buy lucifer 
 matches } Do you wear foreign calico } Is it not plain that 
 some foreign things are bad and some good t Even "supposing 
 that the Christian religion were proved to be foreign, it would 
 not of necessity follow that it is bad. But just see how foolish 
 we Chinese are ! Suppose a pedlar were to come to your 
 village with two packs of merchandise, one beneficial to body 
 and mind, and freely distributed to all applicants; the other 
 ruinous to a man's whole being, and yet an article for which a 
 heavy price is demanded. For the latter thousands and 
 millions are willing to sacrifice fortune and life ; but for the 
 first, few will even stretch out a hand to receive it as a gift. Is 
 not*this what we are doing.? We reject Christianity because 
 we fancy it is foreign, and greedily consume opium though 
 we know it to be foreign." 
 
 " Well, well," retorts this same critic, " but the fact of the 
 matter is, that we in the middle kingdom have Confucius, and 
 you in the West, Jesus." 
 
 " My friend," replies the missionary, " Confucius and Jesus 
 cannot thus be compared together. The people of your 
 honourable country resemble a man walking along a difficult, 
 narrow, dark, and slippery path, with a precipice on either side 
 ten thousand feet in depth. One false step and you are over. 
 
Early Days. 25 
 
 and no power, device, nor ingenuity of your own can save you. 
 As you enter on this path, a wise friend gives you a lantern, 
 by using which you may perhaps avoid some of the dangers 
 of the way. This is Confucius ; the lantern is his canonical 
 books. Have you used this light, and undeviatingly followed 
 the moral teaching of the sage t " 
 
 ** No, no," they all exclaim. '' None of us have done so ; 
 none can follow his doctrine." 
 
 " Ah, my friends, then you are already falling into the dark 
 and terrific pit of destruction, and neither Confucius, Mencius, 
 nor all the sages can save you. Only the power and wisdom 
 of God can save. Christ Jesus is that power; Christ Jesus is 
 that wisdom." 
 
 " But," continues the missionary, " remember that Christian- 
 ity is not a foreign creed. We foreigners are but letter-carriers 
 and heralds. The letter, the message, comes from heaven. 
 3ee the setting sun. Is it a native sun or a foreign sun } " 
 
 The crowd laughs. " We suppose you foreigners, too, are 
 warmed by it." 
 
 " Certainly so. There are native and foreign candles, but 
 only one sun. And when day dawns and the sun is up, blow 
 out your candles. And so Avhen the doctrine of Jesus comes, 
 then all human creeds are needed no longer. O my friends ! 
 while ye have light, believe in the light. Come, believe in 
 Jesus." 
 
 " Where is this Jesus t " earnestly asks an old woman 
 seated at a house-door within hearing. "How must I pray to 
 Him } " 
 
 " Don't you know," replies the preacher, " that, as your pro- 
 verb says, ' Three feet over the head of every one is God ' } 
 Now Jesus is God, and is everywhere present. In your bed- 
 room or sitting-room, or in the open air, you can find Him. 
 Pray, trusting in His merits, and you will be heard. No 
 
26 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 candles, or incense, or offerings are required to propitiate God ; 
 only trust in the Life and Death of Jesus and you are safe. 
 And then as a thank-offering give to Him henceforth the 
 ' threefold sacrifice,' not of * fish, flesh, and fowl,' as you do 
 to your idols, but the lip of truth, the uncorrupt life, the 
 clean heart. These you cannot give in your own strength. 
 
 * Go shake yon mountain-range ; 
 Man's nature who can change?' 
 
 But God will give the Holy Spirit if you ask Him, and change 
 your whole heart and life. " 
 
 Tea is now brought from several houses, and tracts are sold 
 or given away according to the missionary's discretion. The 
 audience is invited to the nearest chapel, the crowd breaks up, 
 and the missionary and his assistants pass on to another 
 village. 
 
 Our missionaries were greatly encouraged during the year 
 1852. The catechist Bao was deploring on one occasion to a 
 heathen neighbour the many obstacles in the way of Christian- 
 ity. The neighbour interrupted him and begged him to recall 
 the state of things only two years before. " Then," he said, 
 " you remember how reluctant the people of Ningpo were to 
 allow their children to go to foreigners' schools ; whereas at 
 present if a hundred schools were opened they would be filled 
 to overflowing. Formerly also the women were all speaking 
 against foreigners when they passed along the streets, whereas 
 now they say that they are better behaved than the Chinese." 
 Mr. Russell also himself records the growing friendliness of 
 the people, and that the number of regular attendants at the 
 chapels was steadily increasing. 
 
 Mr. Gough, though laid aside for a while by fever and 
 obliged to seek rest and change in Chusan, was able to take 
 charge of Mr. Cobbold's boys' school when he left for England 
 
Early Days. 27 
 
 in the summer of 185 1. Mr. Cobbold rejoined the Mission 
 with Mrs. Cobbold in 1853. In 1852 Mr. Gough himself was 
 obliged by illness to return to England ; and Mr. Russell, thus 
 left single-handed, was joined by Mr. Jackson from Fuh-chow. 
 In the autumn of the same year Mr. Russell married a lady, 
 a ward of Miss Aldersey's, who had come to Ningpo with 
 Miss Aldersey when she began Mission work in that city. 
 Mrs. Russell, with a perfect mastery of the Ningpo vernacular, 
 which she began to learn at the age of fourteen, and possess- 
 ing a thorough acquaintance with the habits and notions of the 
 Chinese, has been now for a quarter of a century one of the 
 most efficient workers in the Mission. 
 
 About this time Miss Aldersey, living at her own charges, 
 and aided in her work by the Female Education Society, 
 through her connection with Mr. Russell's family and her long 
 residence under his roof, though not a member of the Church 
 of England, became, to a certain extent, associated with 
 the C.M.S. Mission. Our present out-station at Tsong-gyiao 
 originated in an effort of hers. And she frequently visited the 
 San-poh plain, where also she had agents lent to her by our 
 own and other societies, and which is now our most important 
 country district. So deep and lasting was her affection for 
 these fields of her labours and prayers, that when providen- 
 tially called to Australia in i860, she named her colonial 
 home, whence in the year 1866 she passed to the skies, 
 Tsong-gyiao. 
 
 Mr. Russell writes thus of her departure from Ningpo, April 
 10, i860: "She has left behind her at Ningpo a name which 
 will never be effaced from many grateful hearts, for whose 
 good she has so long and so faithfully laboured." 
 
 That name is fragrant still in Ningpo ; that example is 
 still a stimulus to many a worker ; and her prayerful seed- 
 sowing in the hearts of Ningpo girls is bearing fruit. Several 
 
28 TJie Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 baptisms have recently taken place of women who in child- 
 hood attended Miss Aldersey's school. One of these, a young 
 Avidow, is now (1876), under Miss Laurence's superintendence, 
 conducting a girls' school in Tsong-gyiao itself. 
 
 Early in the history of the Mission, the necessity was felt of . 
 reducing to writing the vernacular of Ningpo, a task hitherto 
 unattempted. Mr. Russell believed he had ascertained that 
 not more than five per cent, of the adult population could 
 read intelligently the literary language of China. By him, in 
 concert with other missionaries, a system now called the 
 Romanized colloquial was constructed. A phonetic ortho- 
 graphy, following for the most part the continental pronunci- 
 ation, was adopted as its basis. 
 
 Bishop Smith, writing in the spring of 1852, speaks of the 
 " rapidity and accuracy with which teachers, pupils, and even 
 servants had learnt to write and read in the Roman and also 
 in the Italic letters. Portions of the Liturgy and of the 
 Gospels had been translated and printed, or rather each 
 separate copy stamped on Chinese paper with types made of 
 horn, and containing the various initial and final letters or 
 double letters of which Chinese words, all monosyllables, are 
 formed." During Mr. Cough's temporary absence in Chusan 
 (May, 185 1), a school-boy v/ho had accompanied him wrote 
 to Messrs. Cobbold and Russell a capital letter following this 
 system of orthography, giving an account of his studies, his 
 walks, the illness of one of the boys, and other matters, which 
 was read aloud without any difficulty. So clear was it that 
 Mr. Russell's teacher shook his head, and gravely remarked 
 that that letter was certainly not written by a boy, almost 
 implying that some supernatural agency had been employed. 
 Bishop Smith, however, "could not feel so sanguine as to 
 hope that the system has such advantages, or will acquire 
 such a general prevalence, as to supersede the Chinese literary 
 
Early Days. 29 
 
 style, in raising a Christian literature, as this latter style is 
 capable of being read in every province ; and being an ideo- 
 graphic form of writing is also capable of conveying Christian 
 truth to the reading population of one-third of the human 
 race." 
 
 Possibly in estimating the intelligence of readers too 
 severe a test has been applied. The Chinese literary style is 
 meant for the eye and not for the ear ; and a book may be 
 perfectly intelligible to the mi7id of a reader, though with his 
 tongue he cannot readily give its meaning in the colloquial. 
 Just as a scholar who can read a Greek or Latin author with 
 ease and enjoyment, might yet find it beyond his powers to 
 read off a page at sight into idiomatic English. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Romanized colloquial has done a great 
 and good work, and will probably live and grow. The system 
 was introduced into Mission schools in 185 1. In 1852 Mr. 
 Russell was associated with Mr. Rankin and Dr. M'Cartee 
 (both of the American Presbyterian Mission) in translating 
 the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular. In the same year 
 Mr. Gough, for a short time, joined the translation committee. 
 In 1854 Mr. Russell, with the assistance of the Rev. W. A. P. 
 Martin, of the American Presbyterian Mission, published the 
 four Gospels and two of the Epistles in the same style. Since 
 then many have laboured in this literary field ; and amongst 
 the Ningpo colloquial books printed in Roman character may 
 be mentioned. Genesis, Exodus, the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, 
 and the complete New Testament with references, the Com- 
 mon Prayer-book, Pilgrim's Progress, the Peep of Day, Line 
 upon Line, and Lines Left Out ; some volumes of Sermons, 
 Catechisms, Stories for Children, a Manual for the Lord's 
 Supper, Hymn-books, Geographies, &c. 
 
 In February, and again in July, 1855, attempts were made 
 to rent a Mission-house in the rich and proud district city of 
 
Tsz'-K'l (locally z-ky'i, nearly zl-chee.) (From a Photograph by Major Watson.) 
 
Early Days. 
 
 31 
 
 Tsz'-k'i, lying twelve miles N.W. of Ningpo.* Each attempt 
 was foiled. " The hostility of the people," writes Mr. Russell, 
 " was apparently called forth by the supposed connection be- 
 tween missionaries and the opium traffic." 
 
 On one occasion a mass meeting was held in the Confucian 
 temple, and but for the timely withdrawal of Mr. Russell 
 violence would probably have been offered. A footing was at 
 
 BRIDGE NEAR Tsz'-K'l. (From a Photograph by Major Watson.) 
 
 length obtained in i860 ; and at the present time the Tsz'-k'i 
 congregation meets in a commodious church built by the 
 
 * Tsz'-k'i — Mercy Stream — is some twelve miles from Ningpo, on a branch of the 
 river whose tides flush the canals that penetrate its suburbs. In the picture we have, 
 on the narrow waters of one of them, a group of native boats with their bamboo- 
 woven roofs. One, half-uncovered, is laden with empty wine jars. Another, beyond, 
 its roof in front closed with a semi-circular mat woven in a pattern, is a private, or 
 perhaps a hired, passage boat — such as those used by missionaries for itinerating ; 
 and which then becomes their inn and conveyance in one, bed, board, books, and all 
 being contained in it, though its low roof does not permit them to stand up. The 
 hills behind are intersected by passes, which lead into the populous San-poh plain. 
 
32 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 contributions of foreigners in China, and is ministered to by a 
 Chinese pastor in deacon's orders. But it has ever been a 
 hard and discouraging field. The sharp and humihating de- 
 feat of the Chinese army in 1842 rankles still in the memories 
 of some of the older inhabitants, and may perhaps account in 
 part for their unfriendliness. The British garrison of Ningpo, 
 under Sir Hugh Gough, hearing of a meditated assault on 
 the city by a Chinese force assembled at Tsz'-k'i, resolved to 
 anticipate the attack by advancing on that city. A member 
 of our Christian congregation there has more than once 
 related to me the fight on this occasion, which he witnessed 
 as a boy. The panic produced by the shrill British bugles 
 sounding from the hills which embrace the city on three sides, 
 the rockets hissing from afar, and the agility of the red coats 
 in pursuing the flying Chinese were most graphically described. 
 The pursuit did not cease till the whole rabble army was 
 hurled over the steep pass, Ch'ang-k*i Ling, down into the 
 plain of San-poh. A temple crowning the pass, and used as 
 a military post by the Chinese, was burnt by the English. 
 Twenty-five years after the event it was still partly in ruins. 
 A missionary passing it on his return from San-poh was asked, 
 with much bitterness, by one of the resident priests, who, he 
 supposed, had burnt it. " The Long-haired, I should imagine," 
 said the missionary, meaning the T*ai-p*ing rebels, commonly 
 known by that name. " No," replied the angry monk, " the 
 Red-haired." * 
 
 Difficulty of another kind was encountered in trying to 
 plant a Mission at the district city of Fung-hwa, twenty miles 
 south of Ningpo ; and though a school was for a while opened 
 in one of its suburbs, it was afterwards abandoned. The 
 place, however, is now occupied by the China Inland Mission. 
 
 * "The Red-haired" is a nickname specially applied to the Dutch, but extended 
 often to all foreigners. 
 
Eai'ly Days. 33 
 
 It was in 1855 that our missionaries were providentially 
 led to the great plain of San-poh. Mr. Gough, accompanied 
 by the Rev. J. L. Nevius, visited the plain in the autumn of 
 that year, and during the same season he made a second visit 
 with Mr. Russell, attended by the catechist Bao. This fine 
 district, containing a population of nearly half a million of 
 souls, lies off the usual track of travellers by the great water- 
 ways, and has been seldom visited by any foreigners except 
 missionaries. 
 
 It is an alluvial plain, the sea still receding from its shores, the 
 land thus laid bare being swiftly covered with crops of cotton. 
 A village, lying now well-nigh bosomed amongst the hills, 
 and separated from the sea by eight miles of densely-peopled 
 and richly-cultivated plain, still bears a name significant of 
 its having been a harbour in ancient days. Noble peaks, 
 from 1,000 to 2,000 feet high (Sea-view Cliff and Beetling 
 Brow Hill being prominent), rise from the plain in a fine 
 curve from east to west. Eastward the ridge is lost in the sea, 
 reappearing at a distance of twenty-five miles in the beauti- 
 ful outlines of the Chusan Archipelago. The people of this 
 district are, to quote Mr. Russell's account, '' bold, communi- 
 cative, independent, and irascible, by no means awed by a 
 foreigner, and ever forward to question or oppose." 
 
 Mr. Russell, preaching once in a large town named Yang- 
 van on the folly of idolatry, spoke of the sun as one of God's 
 glorious works, but by no means an object of worship. A 
 tall man, his face glowing with excitement, with a voice of 
 thunder, exclaimed that all the foreigner had been saying 
 about sin and salvation was true, but it was monstrous to 
 deny that the sun is a god, and that he would not listen to 
 him for a moment. Mr. Russell endeavoured to pacify his 
 assailant, but all his arguments served only the more to excite 
 him. 
 
 D 
 
34 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 Mr. Sing,* the catechist, a man of ready wit and speech, and 
 withal a firm grasp of Divine truth, interposed, and begged 
 leave to speak. 
 
 " My friend," he said, " I once thought as you do ; but I 
 have learnt to think of the sun only as a lantern lent to us by 
 the good God. And please consider the subject in this way. 
 How can the sun be a god } We Chinese keep the birthday 
 of the sun on the 19th of the third month. Now, the true 
 God has neither beginning of days nor end of life. But 
 please tell me, what do we mean by a day f Do we not mean 
 the sun's journey across the heavens from east to west — sun 
 and day are both denoted by the same word in our language ; 
 from whence then, if our notion is correct, came the two months 
 and nineteen days before the sun was born 1 " 
 
 The irascible sun-worshipper disappeared, much abashed, 
 behind the laughing people, like the sun itself retiring behind 
 a cloud. But after a while he appeared again with a cup of 
 tea in his hand, which he presented to Mr. Russell, with a smile 
 on his face, as a kind of peace-offering. Mr. Russell thanked 
 him, and having drunk the tea, told him that though they had 
 differed about the sun he hoped they would henceforth be 
 good friends, and he invited him to the district cbapel. 
 
 The missionaries met on one of their visits to San-poh a 
 young man, a leader of the Wu-we sect, a kind of reformed 
 Buddhists, said to have originated in the province of Shan-tung 
 about 100 years ago. They worship no images, but reverence 
 the characters signifying heaven, earth, emperor, parent, and 
 teacher. They are vegetarians, and some members also 
 practise celibacy. One of their strange observances is the 
 holding of the breath till the devotee is black in the face, and 
 life well-nigh extinct. Some have been known to do this for 
 nearly half an hour. Meanwhile they imagine that the soul 
 
 * Now in priest's orders, and pastor of the district. 
 
Early Days. 35 
 
 has gone out into the unseen world, collecting information, 
 which on his recovery the devotee divulges oracularly to the 
 congregation. 
 
 This young man, who was an office-bearer of this sect, 
 appeared to receive the truth in the love of it. Mr. Russell 
 speaks of him as ** for Christ prepared either to live or die." 
 With tears we must read these words. They bring to our 
 memory one of the great sorrows of the Cheh-kiang Mission ; 
 though not, alas ! a solitary case of disappointment. This 
 man ran well for a time, and was employed for several years 
 as an assistant catechist. The T'ai-p'ing rebellion, whose 
 history we are now approaching, proved to be a turning-point 
 for the worse in his character and life. He fell into gross sin. 
 He was excommunicated, and though twice restored upon his 
 apparent contrition, he has again gone back, and the rumour 
 reaches me whilst I write that he has become a Buddhist 
 priest. Let the prayers of the readers of this story rise as 
 one to God that this fair and cheering fruit of twenty years 
 ago may not be finally blighted by the dcceitfulness of sin 
 and the malice of Satan. 
 
 The headstrong character of the San-poh people exposed 
 the missionaries to considerable peril in the early days of the 
 Mission. The attempt to buy a piece of ground outside the 
 south gate of Kwun-hae-we, one of the chief cities of the plain, 
 was met by an uprising of the populace, and but for the prompt 
 interference of H.B.M.'s consul at Ningpo the purchase would 
 have been prevented. One of the ringleaders in that riot is 
 now the leading Christian in those parts, and a lay member of 
 the Native Church Committee for the Ningpo district. Upon 
 the plot of land then acquired there stands now a commodious 
 church, with a parsonage for its native pastor (Rev. Sing 
 Eng-teh, ordained priest in 1876), a school-house, and rooms 
 for the missionary, attached. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Missiojt. 
 
 The church was erected with the contributions of foreigners 
 at the open ports of China, collected through the kind advocacy 
 of Bishop Alford, who in 1868 visited and confirmed at this 
 station. The work in San-poh grew, and within a year from 
 the first visit of the missionaries, Mr. Russell had the privilege 
 of administering the Lord's Supper to eight converts. 
 
 KWUN-H^-WE CHURCH, 
 
 Meanwhile, in Ningpo, as the result of eight years' labour, 
 Mr. Cobbold reported that 60 had been baptized, of whom 
 32 were communicants. Shortly after this, in 1857, Mi"* Cob- 
 bold returned to England with his family, his health much 
 affected by the climate. 
 
 In 1858 the Mission was strengthened by the arrival of Mr. 
 and Mrs. G. E. Moule. So small was the number of workers 
 
Early Days. 37 
 
 that Mr. Moule was, of necessity, soon engaged in active work ; 
 and before he had well learnt the colloquial we find him, 
 by the desire of his seniors, visiting San-poh in the spring 
 of the following year. In April, 1859, he had the privilege 
 of baptizing six adults in the Kwun-hse-we chapel. In the 
 spring of i860, Mr. Gough (who rejoined the Mission with 
 Mrs. Gough in 1854) being pre-occupied with the care of 
 opium patients, Mr. Moule was associated with Mr. Russell in 
 the revision and enlargement of the version of portions of 
 the Prayer-book previously printed in the colloquial. Two 
 identical editions were now published, the one in Chinese 
 character, the other in Roman. My brother about this 
 time took charge also of Mr. Gough's school of orphan boys, 
 having already succeeded Mr. Russell in the care of his large 
 day-school. He had also entrusted to him a class of four 
 lads, of whom three had passed through the above-mentioned 
 day-school, and who were being prepared for the duties of 
 schoolmaster or catechist. After many hopes and fears, it is 
 pleasant to be able to record the ordination of three members 
 of the class on Trinity Sunday last (1876), by their old friend 
 and instructor. Bishop Russell, and the useful employment of 
 the fourth as master of Mrs. Russell's day-school. 
 
 About this time letters of unusual interest were received 
 from Mrs. Gough, describing her husband's work and her own. 
 
 Near the south gate of Ningpo Mrs. Gough had opened a 
 girls' school, with 25 children. These girls were carefully 
 instructed by Ruth, a Christian teacher, w^hom we shall meet 
 with again in the course of this history. Ruth had a brother- 
 in-law, an earnest and promising evangelist in the pay of 
 Miss Aldersey, but who was cut off in the midst of his use- 
 fulness after only a few years' service. This young man — ■ 
 *Eo Jing-ziu — worked chiefly at Li-ky*i-du, near Tsong- 
 gyiao, the station alluded to above. His prayerful, diligent 
 
^S The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 labours seemed well-nigh fruitless when^ he died ; but the 
 " corn of wheat " then " brought forth much fruit." A man, 
 self-righteous and well-pleased with himself, heard Jing-ziu 
 preaching in the open air on the Ten Commandments — 
 that " rule with its ten divisions," as another of the catechists 
 delighted to call them, alluding to the Chinese foot-rule 
 which is divided into ten inches — a rule constructed by God 
 for measuring " the long and short," the excesses and defects 
 of men's hearts. Convicted of sin, and led by the Holy Spirit's 
 gracious power to the Saviour, he became a devout Christian ; 
 and through his voluntary labour one of the most hopeful 
 of the Society's out-stations, that at the Lake, was formed 
 some years later. 
 
 While Mrs. Gough was busily engaged with her schools, 
 Mr. Gough was suddenly overwhelmed with an unexpected 
 call on his patience, thought, and time. An Indian civilian, 
 led by conscientious motives to relinquish his office as a col- 
 lector of the opium revenue, soon followed up this act of self- 
 denial, by placing at the Society's disposal for the benefit of 
 opium smokers in China the savings of his official life, 
 amounting in all to upwards of i^3,ooo. Mr. Isenberg, 
 C.M.S. missionary at Bombay, and Dr. Smith, Bishop of 
 Victoria, were the means of conveying the views and wishes 
 of the earnest donor to the Society. By a remarkable coin- 
 cidence, just as the news of this donation reached Ningpo, a 
 large number of opium smokers from the King-hwa depart- 
 ment, in the heart of our province, some seven days' journey 
 distant, came up to seek relief from foreign doctors. As no 
 regular practitioner could receive them, Mr. Gough, after much 
 prayer and consultation, took the sufferers into his compound, 
 and in the course of three months, from Feb. 17th to May 
 22nd, i860, he admitted in succession 133 patients, each one 
 paying a deposit of two dollars. The anxiety and the strain 
 
Early Days. 39 
 
 on tact and temper were very great. The patients, under the 
 influence of the craving for the drug, which is usually at its 
 height a few days after the pipe has been laid aside, resorted 
 to every kind of expedient to obtain relief. Baskets were let 
 down from the upper windows of the temporary hospital, in 
 which opium was placed by friends in league outside ; window 
 bars, intended to obstruct them, were broken and cleverly 
 spliced so as not to attract attention ; violent quarrels took 
 place, the result of the restraint and the craving ; false keys 
 were used ; and the communication between Mr. Gough's 
 dwelling-house and the hospital was one night stopped by 
 the patients. Many went back to their evil practices when 
 released from trial and restraint ; but some, it is hoped, were 
 permanently cured. All had the Gospel preached to them, and 
 one was baptized before he left. There were not a few who 
 with sincere gratitude bade farewell to their Christian bene- 
 factor ; and two catechists sent down to the district some 
 months later reported that about one-third of the cases ap- 
 peared to be still abstaining from the evil habit. 
 
 In 1869 another attempt was made by Mr. Russell, and an 
 opium hospital was opened under the care of the late Dr. 
 Meadows. In 1871 Dr. Gait came out, specially appointed to 
 commence an opium refuge in Hang-chow, to be supported by 
 the fund already mentioned, supplemented by a grant from 
 the Church Missionary Society, and by medical fees for ser- 
 vices rendered to residents. In this hospital, from that time to 
 this. Dr. Gait has worked patiently and efficiently. He has 
 experienced to the full Mr. Gough's trials of fifteen years 
 ago ; but he has not been without encouragement in his ardu- 
 ous work. From fifteen to twenty opium patients have been 
 received and discharged cured every month ; and four thousand 
 out-patients, afflicted with other maladies, have been treated 
 free of all charge every year. The moral effect of these efforts 
 
40 
 
 The Story of the Cheh-kiatig Mission. 
 
 is great and growing. They serve to show that no connection 
 exists between Christian Missions and the opium trade. 
 They utter a continual though silent protest against the 
 trade. The missionaries are seen to be well-wishers of the 
 Chinese, Christian truth is scattered far and wide, and friendly 
 hearts and open houses are multiplied in city and country. 
 
 ^^^:^ 
 
 THE OPIUM HOSPITAL IN HANG-CHOW. (From a Photograph by Dr. Gait.) 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gough, the latter greatly shattered in health, 
 in all probability through the strain and trial of the abundant 
 labours of the spring and summer, returned to England in the 
 autumn of i860 ; and four days only after reaching home 
 Mrs. Gough was taken to her rest and reward. "Our readers," 
 write the Secretaries, " will this year miss the interesting 
 
Early Days. 41 
 
 contributions for which we have been indebted to a hand 
 and a heart transferred now to a happier world ; but her 
 works will follow her." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fleming, who joined the Mission in i860, were 
 soon engaged in active work. 
 
 On Nov. 8th, 1858, at a conference held under the pre- 
 sidency of Bishop Smith, it was resolved that "we consider 
 the immediate occupation of Hang-chow as a second basis 
 (after Ningpo) of missionary operations as very expedient. 
 From Hang-chow a course of systematic co-operation might be 
 carried on with the brethren at Ningpo in a common and 
 united advance on the interior of the empire." 
 
 Acting with great promptitude on this resolution, Mr. Burdon 
 (who had joined the Shanghai Mission in 1853) left Shanghai 
 for Hang-chow on a tentative mission, Jan. i8th, 1859. To 
 his thankful surprise he was allowed, without a word of objec- 
 tion, to pass the Custom-house ; and even in the city and 
 suburbs of Hang-chow he was allowed to walk about without 
 molestation in his foreign dress. He lived in a boat outside 
 the city till the beginning of March, when Mr. Nevius, of the 
 American Presbyterian Mission at Ningpo, visited Hang-chow, 
 hopingto open a Christian book-shop in the cityunderthe charge 
 of native catechists. In concert with Mr. Nevius, Mr. Burdon 
 succeeded in renting two small rooms in a monastery on one 
 of the hills within the circuit of the city wall ; and here he re- 
 sided, with few intervals, till November. Mr. and Mrs. Nevius 
 lodged for a time in rooms connected with the great pagoda 
 of the Six Harmonies, four miles beyond the city gate ; but 
 they subsequently moved to a monastery near Mr. Burdon's 
 residence. 
 
 The authorities made no sign of opposition, the people 
 were friendly, and numbers of visitors came daily to listen 
 and to converse. Hang-chow was formally adopted by the 
 
42 The Story of the CJieJi-kiang Mission. 
 
 l^arent Committee as a station ; reinforcements were voted 
 from Ningpo ; two of the ablest catechists, Bao and Stephen 
 Dzing, were to have joined Mr. Burdon ; and Mr. Fleming, 
 who was expected from England, was designated as his foreign 
 colleague. But the time of visitation for Hang-chow was not 
 yet. The British fleet, carrying the Treaty of 1858 for 
 ratification, was repulsed from the mouth of the Peiho ; and 
 amidst the excitement resulting from this unexpected and 
 untoward event, Mr. Nevius' residence in Hang-chow was for- 
 mally objected to by the Chinese authorities, Mr. Burdon 
 being alluded to also in their letter of remonstrance. Mr. 
 Nevius was requested by his consul to withdraw, and shortly 
 after Mr. Burdon also left the city. In the autumn, however, 
 (Oct. 19th, 1859), we find him once more en ronte for Hang- 
 chow, resolved not to abandon the post without one further 
 trial. He spent just one month there, and then the attitude 
 of the authorities became so menacing, and the danger to the 
 two catechists left by Mr. Nevius so serious, that, having no 
 church to watch over, and no prospect of an open door, he left 
 finally on Monday, Nov. 28th, 1859. 
 
 Seven years later the writer visited this great city in com- 
 pany with iMr. Burdon. The once magnificent *' heaven on 
 earth " had been withered meanwhile by the devastating 
 T'ai-p'ing inroad and all the horrors of three sieges. It was 
 with great difficulty that Mr. Burdon could identify the site 
 of the monastery in which he had spent those months of 
 gallant pioneer work in his Master's name. 
 
 In the autumn of i860, after the march of the allied forces 
 on Peking, and the ratification of the treaty within its walls, 
 Mr. Burdon went again to Ningpo from Shanghai, with the 
 intention of revisiting Hang-chow, but that city was then 
 threatened by the T'ai-p'ing, and the design was of necessity 
 abandoned. 
 
Early Days. 43 
 
 In the spring of 1861 we find him once more in Cheh-kiang, 
 where, in association with Mr. Fleming, he undertook the super- 
 intendence of our station at Yu-yaou, commenced during the 
 previous autumn. 
 
 Advancing thence, on the 4th of March the missionaries 
 succeeded in renting a house in the great city of Shaou- 
 hing, one hundred miles west of Ningpo, and the capital of 
 the department in which Yu-yaou lies. Here Mr. Burdon 
 spent the summer of 1 86 1, one of unusually oppressive heat. 
 Mr. Fleming paid occasional visits to the city, but Mr. Burdon 
 was for the most part alone, assisted indeed by one of the 
 Ningpo catechists, Sing, and by his Chinese teacher, but 
 without any foreign companionship. That summer's work 
 was not in vain, as the story of the Shaou-hing Mission will 
 prove. 
 
 Two adults, an elderly man and his son, were baptized 
 in the city in the month of September; and in July, 1862, 
 I find that I wrote as follows : " Three adults and one infant 
 were baptized in Grace Church to-day ; one of them is a 
 young woman, a native of Shaou-hing, another fruit of Mr. 
 Burdon's short but self-denying campaign in that city." That 
 campaign was cut short by the advance of the T'ai-p'ing 
 insurgents. 
 
 My wife and I joined the Mission in August, 1861, falling 
 upon troublous times. Within six weeks after our arrival 
 the panic caused by the news of the T'ai-p'ing successes 
 began, and war and confusion succeeded, agitating the whole 
 province for three long and eventful years, and rendering close 
 application, especially to the study of the language, a difficult 
 task. 
 
 Mr. Burdon returned to Ningpo in November. He fell 
 back slowly and reluctantly. Compelled to leave Shaou-hing 
 by the enemy at the very gates, he paused at his old station. 
 
Early Days. 45 
 
 Yu-yaou. The fires of the approaching army were seen from 
 the hills, and sadly and unwillingly he retired on Ningpo ; 
 and all through the days of anxiety, danger, and bloodshed 
 which marked the fall of that city, he shared with his brethren 
 their labours and their perils. 
 
 The inroad of the T'ai-p'ing, occurring as it did just fourteen 
 years after the commencement of the Mission, and exactly 
 midway between it and the present time, may serve as a 
 halting-place in our narrative. In Mr. Hobson's words (quoted 
 from a letter dated Dec. 28, 1861), ''Our beautiful vineyard 
 at Ningpo has been uprooted, though, thank God, not de- 
 stroyed, by the wild boar out of the woods." 
 
 The whole Mission, when the danger was past and the 
 storm had spent itself, called, if not for replanting, yet for re- 
 organization. And a new chapter will be required to describe 
 the later years of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Russell, now in failing health, after fourteen 
 years' continuous labour in China, had been urged by the 
 Secretaries to return home for a season ; but they felt unable 
 to desert their post in the hour of danger, and determined 
 '* to wait, if the Lord permit this, till the crisis shall have 
 past." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 LATER DAYS. 
 
 King of Glory, King of Peace ! 
 With the one make wars to cease, 
 With the other bless Thy sheep — 
 Thee to love, in Tnee to sleep. 
 
 Herbert. 
 
 HORTLY after our arrival in Ningpo I took a short 
 tour into the surrounding country with my brother. 
 Everywhere the anxious question was asked, as 
 under the shadow of some impending calamity, 
 Is there any danger .? Will the ** Long-haired " come } 
 
 The walls of Ningpo, which when we started were in their 
 normal state of silence and neglect, fluttered on our return 
 with flags all round the five miles' circuit. From that date 
 (Oct loth, 1861) the panic increased in intensity and confusion 
 till Dec. 9th, when the city was taken. One by one the 
 towns between Hang-chow and Ningpo were falling, and each 
 ebb-tide brought down the river crowds of boats filled with 
 panic-stricken refugees. The garrison now bestirred them- 
 selves. Gunpowder was manufactured in large quantities ; a 
 shed where forty men were engaged in the manufacture blew 
 up ; and Mr. Jones, whose house almost adjoined it, with two 
 other missionaries, was engaged all night long in striving to 
 alleviate the agony of the dying men, the whole number having 
 
Later Days. 47 
 
 been fatally injured. On the parapets of the city wall great 
 logs of wood three or four feet long, and armed with iron or 
 wooden spikes, were to be seen, fitted with ropes and pulleys, 
 waiting to descend in fury on the heads of the assailants. 
 Meanwhile the missionaries in the city began to lay in pro- 
 visions for a siege, expecting a long imprisonment within the 
 walls. Yu-yaou, in which the small Mission-house was being 
 prepared for our occupation, fell, and Tsz'-k'i, only twelve 
 miles off, surrendered ; the smoke of the burning of Tsz'-k'i's 
 glory, the great Ts'in-taou Kwan (Temple) blackening the 
 northern sky. On Saturday, December 7th, the pennons of 
 the T*ai-p*ing vanguard were descried from the walls of 
 Ningpo. A missionary with his binocular sighted them first, 
 and passing the glass to the commander of the gate, he bade 
 him look. The soldier gazed a while, and then, returning the 
 glass, with eyes and hands upraised, he shouted " Oh ! oh ! ! 
 oh ! ! ! " with a louder and yet louder scream, as he saw the 
 long-dreaded and all too terrible foe actually at hand. The 
 rebel army came quietly up, and disdaining the wild cannonade 
 from the walls — the guns loaded with too small balls, and 
 depressed to bear on the foe, the balls rolled harmlessly out 
 before the roar was heard — prepared for an assault on 
 Monday. 
 
 In gallant style they swam the moat, and running under 
 the walls, with tables covered with mattresses over their heads, 
 they received unhurt the threatening logs ; in an instant 
 their scaling-ladders were planted, and they had gained a 
 footing on the walls. The garrison broke and fled, and in two 
 hours' time the city was taken. It was a morning of profound 
 anxiety for the missionaries. The T*ai-p*ing leaders had pro- 
 mised to respect foreign houses ; but their army consisted 
 mainly of wild lads trained to bloodshed from childhood ; and 
 discipline, especially in the flush of victory, was not to be 
 
48 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 expected from such a rabble. The Mission-houses were in 
 great peril. In one, Mr. and Mrs. Russell with Mr. Burdon 
 had the anxious charge of a girls' school, and of many 
 refugees. In another, my brother was alone, with the boys' 
 school and several Christians under his protection. The 
 veteran Baptist missionary Mr. Hudson, who also remained 
 in the city, had his premises crowded with fugitives. 
 
 Bands of rebel soldiery, men and boys, burst into the Mis- 
 sion compounds ; and it required all the courage, tact, and 
 patience of the missionaries to prevent the forcible dragging 
 away of their pupils. The boys under my brother's care were 
 already tied together by their hair-plaits before he could come 
 to their help, and were rescued with extreme difficulty. The 
 arrival of a rebel officer who knew foreigners, alone, under 
 God, prevented serious mischief. The other missionaries, 
 most of whom were tarrying outside the city, came in as soon 
 as it was possible, and stood by their brethren during those 
 anxious days. By order of Sir Henry Parkes and the 
 commander of the Scout man-of-war, just thirteen days after 
 the capture of the city, all missionaries were requested to 
 withdraw from the city ; and with the help of passes from the 
 T*ai-p*ing leaders they were able to remove a portion of their 
 furniture, and to carry with them beyond the walls not only 
 all the Christians, but also large numbers of people who had 
 fled to the Mission compounds for protection. 
 
 The memory of those kind deeds has not yet, after fifteen 
 years of chequered history, quite faded from the grateful hearts 
 of some of the people of Ningpo. At the time a Taouist 
 priest expressed his great surprise at the love of Christians. 
 Two things had astonished him — the asylum for refugees, 
 supported by contributions of Chinese and foreign merchants, 
 and of which Mr. Green, of the American Mission, and myself 
 had charge ; and the fact (to quote his own words) that " if 
 
Later Days. 49 
 
 one of your people is missing, you don't rest till he is re- 
 covered." 
 
 As soon as the excitement had in some measure subsided, 
 the missionaries anxiously consulted together as to their duty 
 at such a crisis. Direct Mission work amongst the T'airp'ing 
 themselves was contemplated and attempted. But their ex- 
 tremely illiterate character made the distribution of books 
 well-nigh useless ; and their frequent removal, their gross 
 immoralities, added to their growing insolence and hostility, 
 made the work discouraging in an unusual degree. 
 
 Two of our out-stations were for the present untouched by 
 the tide of war — those, namely, at Kwun-hae-we and Tsong- 
 gyiao — and these places were visited by the missionaries. At 
 Tsong-gyiao in these dangerous days, with T'ai-p'ing soldiers 
 looking on, two persons professed faith in Christ crucified, and 
 were baptized by my brother. 
 
 Mr. Burdon, with him as a companion, started for San-poh 
 and Shaou-hing on December 24th, returning without harm 
 on the 31st. Their object was to see after Mr. Burdon's Mis- 
 sion-house, in which, with the clinging hope of an early return, 
 he had left behind all his furniture, books, &c., when he retired 
 in November. They were also especially anxious to bring 
 away a Christian, one of two natives who had volunteered 
 to remain in charge. The missionary's property had almost 
 disappeared. A few books remained ; and a T'ai-p'ing soldier 
 was discovered smoking opium, with his head pillowed on some 
 volumes of Alford's New Testament. The Christian, however, 
 was found, and brought down safely to Ningpo. In February 
 Mr. Burdon and I visited San-poh, taking rice for the half- 
 starving Christians, and administering the Lord's Supper '* to 
 the comfort " of fifteen Chinese. Though molested twice on 
 the way, no serious harm followed. Meanwhile the rebel 
 garrison in Ningpo grew bolder and bolder. Stray shots were 
 
 E 
 
50 Tlie Story of the Cheh-kiang Missio7i. 
 
 fired over the river, and one entered a Mission school-room on 
 the further shore — through God's kind care — ^just at the dinner 
 hour when the school-room was empty. One of the mission- 
 aries was threatened with a spear, and stones were thrown at 
 the houses under the city wall. 
 
 On Monday, April 14th, Mr. Burdon finally left our pro- 
 vince, having been invited by Bishop Smith to accompany him 
 to Peking. That visit resulted in the formation of a perma- 
 nent Mission of the C.M.S. in the capital, Dr. Lockhart, a 
 well-known medical missionary of the L.M.S., having been the 
 first to enter the city. Mr. Burdon was honoured thus once 
 more as a pioneer of the Church Missionary Society. 
 
 Mr, Fleming, though in failing health, engaged diligently in 
 itinerating work through the limited districts still open for 
 such efforts near Ningpo. 
 
 On Easter Day, April 20th, Mr. Russell administered the 
 Lord's Supper to the foreign members of the Mission in the 
 hall of a small house which had been rented as his residence 
 upon his quitting the city in December. " It was a solemn and 
 touching service," thus I wrote about this time ; " a long time 
 will elapse before we hear that dear and honoured vgice 
 again." Seven years, in fact, all but three months, elapsed ere, 
 with health only partially restored, our dear friend once more 
 joined the Mission. Mrs. Russell's serious illness made their 
 immediate return to England now imperative, though her 
 husband long hesitated to leave whilst the future hung still so 
 doubtfully in the balance. Nothing, however, could now be 
 gained by further delay. The missionaries, with their converts, 
 had all removed to the foreign settlement, and were under the 
 protection, so far as God would be pleased to use it, of the 
 ships of war. 
 
 On April 23rd one of the rebel chiefs reached Ningpo direct 
 from Nankin, with the rank of feudal-king conferred by the 
 
Later Days. 51 
 
 T'ai-p'ing sovereign Hung Siu-tseuen. He was received with 
 great exultation, and salutes with ball-cartridge were fired 
 through the rigging of the French and English gunboats 
 anchored off the city. The admiral at Shanghai was applied 
 to for protection ; and as Mr. and Mrs, Russell in the ship 
 Harvest Home dropped down the Ningpo river they met the 
 Encounter sloop of war and two gunboats steaming in from 
 Shanghai, with Captain Dew on board, and bringing a message 
 from the admiral to the effect that the English neutrality must 
 cease if such lawless proceedings continued. 
 
 The tide failed the Harvest Home, and Mr. Russell landed, 
 and ran back to the Mission-house to inquire the reason for 
 the arrival of the squadron. He left again at night, and four 
 days after a time of great danger and anxiety began. A price 
 of one hundred dollars was said to have been put by the chiefs 
 on every foreigner's head. All communication with the city 
 was cut off, whilst the rebels, knowing that their time was 
 come, and exasperated by the gathering of the hill-men against 
 them, ravaged, burnt, and murdered through the surrounding 
 country in the most awful manner ; and columns of smoke by 
 day and the glare of fires by night marked the work of blood- 
 shed and devastation. Many Christians in the country were 
 in extreme peril, but none were actually killed. 
 
 A night attack on the settlement was now expected, and for 
 ten nights the missionaries, helped by their native servants, 
 kept watch by turns. The suspense closed at last. On Satur- 
 day, May loth, at 9.50 A.M., on the advance up the river of the 
 imperialist flotilla, shots were fired over the Encounter' s bows 
 from guns near the Salt Gate.* The vessel replied with a 
 broadside. The gun-vessels moored at the North and East 
 Gates and two gunboats under way opened fire at the same 
 time with their heavy guns. 
 
 * One of the six gates of Ningpo. See picture overleaf. 
 E 2 
 
52 TJie Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 The T'ai-p'ing garrison returned the fire vigorously ; balls 
 passed over the houses in which the missionaries with their 
 families were living, or fell splashing in the rice-fields close by. 
 It was not till near 3 P.M. that two small storming parties of 
 blue-jackets and marines, numbering only 150 in all, gained a 
 footing on the wall. The first-lieutenant of the Encounter, a 
 nephew of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, fell dead as he cheered 
 on his men, and the captain of the French gunboat was 
 mortally wounded. An overwhelming column of insurgents 
 advanced along the wall to sweep away the handful of English, 
 but a shell from the Encounter made them pause and waver, 
 and panic soon spread amongst their numerous host. Mean- 
 while the West Gate, their only safe line of retreat, was reached 
 by shells from the A^^j-^r^?/, which kept up a vigorous fire thgugh 
 she had already been *' hulled " by some sixty-eight cannon- 
 balls from the rebel batteries ; and the chiefs seeing this gave 
 the order to retire. The whole force, variously reckoned at 
 from 20,000 to 70,000 strong, poured out in wild confusion, 
 and by 6 P.M. the city was in the hands of the allies. That 
 was a night of anxiety indeed. The city was all aglow with 
 fires ; the small Cantonese garrison, thrown, well-nigh forced, 
 in by the allies, was timid and irresolute. Would the great 
 rebel host gather heart and recover the city by a night attack } 
 The missionaries watched again and prayed ; and the Sunday 
 morning broke in peace. A gunboat steamed ten miles up the 
 river, and found that the T'ai-p'ing had not paused in their 
 headlong flight till one division found a halt at Tsz'-k'i in the 
 north ; whilst the other, refused admission into the southern city 
 of Fung-hwa, continued its flight further still. On May 13th 
 the former proud city, spared on its first capture, was seen in 
 flames. Now terrible news reached us of bloodshed and burn- 
 ing, and the Christians in the country were in sore peril. 
 Many San-poh Christians managed to reach Ningpo in safety ; 
 
SALT GATE, NINGPO. (From a Photograph by :\rajor Wai.so.i.) 
 
54 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 but the catechist Bao stood at his post till, on the 26th he, too, 
 was obliged to fly. Twenty thousand San-poh men turned 
 against the rebels, and at first successfully, but in the end the 
 rebels gained the upper hand, and the eastern end of the great 
 plain was laid waste with fire and sword. 
 
 On May 26th my brother and I, with our families, moved 
 back into our city home; and on June ist, after six months' 
 silence, Grace Church heard once more the voice of praise and 
 prayer. The first duty was to endeavour to re-organize and revive 
 the work so rudely rooted up and scattered by the war. My 
 brother had charge of the Sunday services, of the theological class, 
 and of the Mission generally. Mr. Fleming and I on alternate 
 week-day evenings attended the city chapel opened for preach- 
 ing to the heathen, and on alternate Sundays ministered to 
 the congregation at Tsong-gyiao. The men-of-war in har- 
 bour having no chaplain, much of our time was occupied in 
 ministering on board and in visiting the sick and wounded. 
 
 On June 5th the little church, just lifting its head from the 
 dust, was cast down and deeply saddened by the removal on 
 the same day of two labourers, Stephen and Ruth, whom we 
 could ill afford to lose. Stephen Dzing was the intelligent and 
 earnest catechist, whose history is familiar to many friends of 
 Missions from the Narrative of the Conversion of a CJiinese 
 Physician, compiled by my father, the Rev.. Henry Moule, and 
 reviewed in the CM. Intelligencer for August, 1868. Of Ruth 
 (Lu-teh), the mistress of a girls' school at this time under Mrs. 
 G. Moule's care, my sister writes : " I had a joyful hope in 
 Lu-teh's death as I had in her life. She longed to be with the 
 Lord ; she was delighted to have the Bible read to her — ' The 
 words of Jesus,' she said, * give me such joy in my heart.' " 
 
 But the time for quiet work and active reconstruction of 
 the once flourishing Mission was not yet. The missionaries 
 all suffered much from illness during the excessive heat of the 
 
Later Days. 
 
 55 
 
 summer of 1S62 ; and after a short stay in the neighbouring 
 hills, they returned to find Ningpo shaken again with panic at 
 the second approach of the T'ai-p'ing. Yet signs were granted 
 of God's mercy in the midst of judgment. The number of 
 inquirers increased. The catechists Bao and Dzang visited 
 the southern country districts, and were everywhere received 
 thankfully by the afflicted people. A rich man invited them 
 
 ' /^ 
 
 STEPHEN DZING. 
 
 to dine ; and on the Sunday, seeking a quiet place amongst the 
 hills for prayer and meditation, they met with a party of 
 devotees, nine women and a man, worshipping the God of 
 Thunder. They spoke to them earnestly for some time, till 
 at last all replied, " What you say is clearly true. And now 
 what is to be done t May we worship the true God with 
 you V And there on the quiet hill-side, the Thunder God 
 sitting silent and senseless near, and Jehovah bending to 
 
56 TJie Story of the CheJi-kia7ig Mission. 
 
 listen, they all joined in worship. Bao had his Bible and 
 Prayer-book with him, and spoke on the history of Cor- 
 nelius. " Paul would have baptized them all on the spot," 
 said Bao, in relating the circumstances. 
 
 In September the T'ai-p'ing in very great force poured 
 through the passes of the southern mountains, and taking 
 Fung-hwa as their base, marched on Ningpo. The city was 
 shut up ; the missionaries and their families — the mother and 
 the infant — were in the city. Escape was scarcely possible, 
 and danger imminent. The garrison to man a wall five miles 
 in circuit consisted of scarcely more than the storming party 
 of May. Treachery was rumoured within the city, the guards 
 at the gates were to be overpowered from inside, and the 
 advanced bands of the T'ai-p'ings were seen in the suburbs and 
 fired at by the British marines from the walls. 
 
 On the 19th, the Tsong-gyiao Christians came to Ningpo 
 in great alarm, having escaped with their lives by but a few 
 minutes. A friendly neighbour lent a boat, the tide just 
 turned for the ebb ; the strong arm of Bong S-vu,* the maker 
 of boat-roofs of bamboo, afterwards an efficient catechist, 
 sculled the crowded boat. The rebels sighted the fugitives 
 and fired after them as they swept down the river ; but they 
 escaped, and we heartily thanked God for the deliverance. 
 
 On the 26th relief arrived from Shanghai, and on Oct. 9th 
 Fung-hwa was retaken by the gallant Captain Dew of the 
 Encounter, upon which the whole rebel host retired finally 
 from the immediate neighbourhood of Ningpo. The British 
 loss was twenty-three wounded, some being dangerously 
 hurt 
 
 The T'ai-p'ing armies, exasperated at their defeats, now 
 threatened the San-poh plain again, and took Tsz'-k'i for the 
 
 * D%ao was the good man's name; but he usually went by the name given him 
 in the text of Bong S-vu, or Boat -roof maker. 
 
Later Days. ^y 
 
 third time. A panic prevailed at Ts6ng--gyiao, which lies only 
 eight miles south of one of the chief passes leading from the 
 great plain of San-poh. On November i6th I visited the station, 
 and strove to comfort the alarmed congregation by begging 
 them, (i) to pray for those actually suffering ; (2) to trust in God 
 alone ; (3) to remember that earth is not home ; (4) to rejoice 
 in the prospect of the eternal rest. Fifteen adults were bap- 
 tized in the Ningpo Mission during this troublous year. 
 
 The close of the year was darkened by various anxieties ; 
 amongst the rest, the unsettled state of mind shown by our 
 four prceparandi, all of whom were for a time shaken in their 
 allegiance, and disconnected with the Mission. One by one, 
 however, after a shorter or longer interval, they returned to 
 duty ; and we have reason to hope the sequel has shown that 
 *' the root of the matter " was in them, though the effect of 
 these trying times on very immature spiritual life was for a 
 while so disastrous. 
 
 On the other hand a sign of God's presence and blessing 
 was granted to lighten the darkness. My brother was visited 
 by two earnest inquirers from the Lake twelve miles south of 
 Ningpo ; and on going to see them at their home, subse- 
 quently, he found a little band of believers, the fruit of God's 
 blessing on the unpaid labours of Bong S-vu, their kinsman. 
 He had early taken his family to the Lake for safety from the 
 marauding T'ai-p'ing, and during these months of confusion 
 and peril he was laying the foundation of what is still, and, 
 we trust, will ever be, a Mission blessed of the Lord. The 
 first-fruits of this station, the two fishermen Peter and Andrew, 
 were baptized January i8th, 1863. 
 
 On February 2nd the whole foreign community at Ningpo 
 was saddened by the death of Dr. Parker, an active and able 
 medical missionary. He sank under the effects of a strange 
 accident, a bridge giving way under his horse as he was riding 
 
5 8 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 over it from one of his two hospitals for natives. " Jesus is 
 very near me," he said in his lucid moments ; '* Are the harps 
 ready ? " in his delirium. 
 
 On February nth, guided by a strong medical certificate, 
 we decided, though in great sadness, to recommend the imme- 
 diate return to England of Mr. Fleming, who had suffered 
 severely from repeated attacks of dysentery. He left with his 
 family on February 1 6th, 1863, and from that date till 
 May I, 1864, an anxious period of fourteen months' duration, 
 my brother and I were alone in the Cheh-kiang Mission ! 
 
 On March 14th, 1863, the great city of Shaou-hing was 
 wrested from the T'ai-p*ing by Chinese levies trained and led 
 by French officers, and assisted by advice from Captain Dew. 
 Lamentable loss of life attended this siege ; and the mis- 
 sionaries especially deplored the untimely death of Lieut. 
 Tinling, a gallant and most amiable officer of the Encoimte7% 
 who was on a visit to the siege-works. Large numbers of 
 foreign adventurers of indifferent character were enlisted at 
 this time to join in the final attack on Shaou-hing ; and for 
 months after the victory the province was infested with bands 
 of these men levying black-mail on boats and travellers gene- 
 rally, and making the name of foreigner an abomination in 
 the eyes of the hitherto grateful and friendly people. On more 
 than one occasion my brother, when itinerating, was stopped 
 and challenged by armed foreigners of this description. 
 
 I commenced systematic itineration northwards from 
 Ningpo in the spring of this year, and the field tended to 
 expand, chiefly through providential guidance, to the south- 
 west and west. 
 
 My brother's health seriously failed during the summer, 
 and he left Ningpo early in August to try the effect of a trip 
 to Chefoo, returning after an absence of five weeks much 
 refreshed and invigorated. 
 
Later Days. 59 
 
 The autumn was darkened, however, by a visitation of 
 cholera ; many sailors and marines from the ships of war were 
 carried off by this and other diseases ; and no less than 
 eighteen out of the little band of native converts died during 
 the year. Bishop Smith visited the Mission — his last visit as 
 it proved— in May, and confirmed thirty-three candidates ; and 
 at Tsong-gyiao there was much encouragement, the communi- 
 cants numbering eleven, and the system of weekly church 
 offerings being set on foot. 
 
 My brother visited San-poh in October, and found the 
 beautiful plain terribly devastated, but the people in some 
 degree more amenable to the preacher's message, being broken 
 and humbled by their calamities. 
 
 My wife and I suffered so much from the heat of this summer 
 that we were ordered for a month to Hong-Kong to recruit our 
 health, and the other Missions suffered greatly from sickness. 
 But a heavier trial than bodily weakness fell on the Mission at 
 the close of this year. The senior catechist, Bao, annoyed at 
 charges * brought against himself and his family with respect 
 to the appropriation of spoils left behind by the fugitive T'ai- 
 p'ing, suddenly threw up his employment, and separated him- 
 self from the Church, returning to his business as a tailor, and 
 even working for some months on Sundays. For more than a 
 year he angrily rejected the affectionate and earnest entreaties 
 of his native brethren to return to the Lord. Repentance and 
 restoration were granted at last ; and for nine years after this 
 sore calamity he was spared to work again for his Master. 
 But he never recovered fully his former energy and zeal ; 
 neither could the Mission repose the same confidence in him, 
 
 * These charges, brought in the most public manner by a native Christian, were 
 inquired into, with the result that nothing was proved beyond a certain want of 
 judgment. I made known this result to the Christian community as clearly as 
 possible. But the mere wijuiry into his conduct appeared to our Brother a serious 
 affront.— G. E. M. 
 
6o The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 nor commit to his charge the responsibilities of former years. 
 But lights succeeded the shadows, and God was not always 
 chiding. Early in 1864 the native Christians in Ningpo and 
 Tsong-gyiao promised the rent of a Mission-room at the 
 Lake and the pay of a chapel-keeper, if our Society would 
 provide a catechist. The offer was gladly accepted, and the 
 Lake station formally inaugurated. I paid many visits to 
 this station, and itinerated in the neighbourhood during the 
 next two years, preaching in all the towns and villages on the 
 shores of the Lake. 
 
 With the permission of the Home Committee, a sanatorium 
 was secured in the western hills during the spring of 1864. 
 This pleasant place, a little Buddhist monastery called the 
 Lotus Convent, having been damaged by a hurricane, which 
 destroyed its guest-rooms, — and the resident monk, who was 
 also landlord, being unable, and withal not very eager to 
 repair it, since its shrine no longer attracted worshippers, — the 
 ruins were let at a moderate annual rent to the Mission, on 
 condition that we made such repairs as we wished. The 
 temple itself was not leased to us ; but when we proposed to 
 borrow it as a place of worship, the monk himself assisted in 
 removing the idols it contained to another building.* In their 
 stead we hung up a copy of the Ten Commandments ; and 
 furnishing it with a chandelier and some benches, we were pro- 
 vided with a suitable chapel for daily and Sunday services, 
 at which many heathen often were present. 
 
 The place has refreshed and reinvigorated many a weary 
 labourer. The quiet retirement ; the blue heavens above, and 
 the green hills around ; the sound of rippling brook or sing- 
 ing bird ; the flash of summer lightning ; the echoing storm ; 
 the cry of roaming deer at night ; and the indescribable beauty 
 
 * The picture, from a fine photograph by Major Watson, represents two Buddhist 
 priests at the celebrated monastery at T'ien-t'ung, in the Eastern hills. 
 
BUDDHIST PRIESTS. 
 
62 The Stojy of the Cheh-kiaiig Mission. 
 
 of the carpet of flowers in spring-time, are pleasant and refresh- 
 ing sights and sounds indeed after the toil and dust and 
 oppressiveness of a great city. 
 
 But far better than this, the Hill Lodge has been, we trust, 
 the birthplace of more than one soul ; and it has facilitated 
 the establishment of three out-stations amongst the hills, 
 namely, at Tsong-ts'eng, Da-le, and Gao-san, connected with 
 which there are now from twenty to thirty communicants ; 
 and each station is, we trust, a spot of Divine light amidst the 
 spiritual darkness of these beautiful hills. 
 
 During the spring of 1864 many alarms were experienced in 
 Ningpo on account of the sallies of the T'ai-p'ing from Hang- 
 chow, in which city, after the fall of Shaou-hing, they made a 
 long and stubborn stand ; and it was not till April, two full 
 years after their expulsion from Ningpo, that they finally 
 abandoned Hang-chow, and, not long after, the dark cloud of 
 war and confusion passed from Cheh-kiang. 
 
 The history of the T'ai-p'ing rebellion has been written by 
 other pens, and must not detain us here. Very conflicting 
 views have been held, both by missionaries and by others 
 interested in China, as to the true character of the movement, 
 and as to its probable results, had not Western powers inter- 
 fered, and thereby secured the defeat of the enterprise. It is 
 a touching fact that Leang Afa, the first-fruits of modern 
 missions in China, a convert of Dr. Morrison's, expressed to 
 Bishop Smith his confidence in the true Christian character of 
 the leader, Hung Seu-tseuen ; and very recently Dr. Yates, 
 of Shanghai, who was brought into very close connection with 
 some of the leaders of the movement, has expressed in print a 
 somewhat similar view. And to some this would seem a 
 sufficient reason why Christian powers should have helped, 
 instead of hindering, the attainment of their ambitious design. 
 
 But there is another side to the question. Not to dwell on 
 
Later Days. 6 
 
 the fact that England at the time of the rebelHon was in 
 treaty with the reigning dynasty, very many well-informed 
 authorities incline to the belief that already, before their con- 
 tact with Western powers, the T'ai-p'ing hosts had come to 
 consist chiefly of the offscouring of many provinces with but 
 a slight leaven of earnest men possessed of a purpose, and 
 resolution to carry it out ; had lost such Christian character as 
 they ever possessed ; had blasphemously added to the Bible 
 so-called new revelations ; and had marked their victorious 
 progress with murder, rapine, and frightful barbarities. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Valentine arrived in May, just one month 
 after the expulsion of the T'ai-p'ing from the province. After 
 the summer, a season marked again by cholera and many 
 deaths, the province was in a measure pacified, though the 
 insurgents were still formidable in the neighbouring province 
 of Fuh-kien. 
 
 About this time our attention was once more directed 
 towards Hang-chow. The impulse came from two of our 
 native helpers, Miao and Dzang, who, after reporting a visit 
 they had paid by the missionary's desire to the western hills, 
 asked leave to recommend the extension of our work to the 
 great cities lately freed from the insurgents. These cities, 
 particularly Shaou-hing and Hang-chow, they remarked, were 
 once proud and self-satisfied indeed, and refused to receive the 
 Gospel. But now, after their intense sufferings and humili- 
 ation, surely there must be repentance. " Strike the iron, 
 sir, while it is hot. Cannot we do something for Hang- 
 chow } " 
 
 My brother pointed out to his friends the gravity of the 
 proposition. The work at Ningpo was of prime importance ; 
 that work Avas developing on all sides. Tsz'-k'i was re- 
 occupied ; a second station in San-poh was commenced, and 
 the Mission was weak even for its actual undertakings. My 
 
jj.jji|j|||i!|[||||i6^ 
 
 1! 
 
 Il 
 
 
 
 
 in! ':ir-w 
 |jf*,|- ' 
 
 IP 
 
 llilll':: 
 
 rt'%'\'#"'':l 
 
 f; 1-1 
 
 
 .m 
 m 
 
Later Days. ^^ 
 
 brother was often out of health ; I had been only three years 
 and Mr. Valentine but four months in the Mission. 
 
 " Sir," they replied, '* this may be God's opportunity ; let 
 us not allow it to slip." 
 
 My brother turned to the elder of the two brethren, the 
 catechist Dzang — a man advanced in years, with feeble health, 
 and having an aged mother residing with him. 
 
 "Mr. Dzang, it is impossible for me to leave Ningpo, but 
 will you go to Hang-chow ? " 
 
 " I will go," he replied, " God helping me." 
 
 My brother — having subsequently ascertained that no other 
 Protestant Mission at Ningpo was at the time able to make the 
 attempt, and having received about the same time unexpectedly 
 the offer of a large native house to rent or purchase in the city 
 of Hang-chow, gathering assuredly that the Lord had called 
 us thither — started on an exploratory visit in November, 1864, 
 intending at any rate to settle a catechist in one of the cities.* 
 
 Twenty-nine years earlier (October 13, 1835) the well- 
 known pioneer missionary. Dr. Gutzlaff, when replying to the 
 Society's letters of inquiry as to the openings for mission work 
 in China, wrote thus : " As a place of preparation, I propose 
 Singapore ; as a station in China, Hang-chow, in Cheh-kiang, 
 
 * The view of Hang-chow is taken from high ground five miles north of the city. 
 A low hill within the walls, near the South Gate, is crowned with some famous 
 temples, some tea-houses, and other buildings. On the right is the famous Si-hu, or 
 West Lake, surrounded by picturesque hills or petty mountains, containing in their 
 valleys great convents and temples of Buddhists; on the left appears the broad 
 Ts'ien-t'ang River, or Cheh-kiang, which gives its name to the province. Hang-chow, 
 now twelve miles in circuit, with great suburbs beyond the walls, had, in the 12th 
 century, more than twice that area. For more than a hundred years it was the 
 capital, or Kinsze, of the Chinese dynasty of Sung, whilst the Mongols, established 
 at Pekin or Cambalu, were consoliJating and extending their conquests. They be- 
 came masters of all China on the capture of Hang-chow, which, not lono- after, was 
 visited by Marco Polo, under the orders of Kublai Khan, in whose "Travels" the 
 glories of the Kinsze, or Kinsay, give matter for two chapters of glowing panegyric. 
 
 F 
 
66 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 an immense city on the Ts'ien-t'ang river ; but this must be 
 left to circumstances brought on by the mighty hand of God." 
 Bold and hopeful words, for there was no treaty then, and 
 China's brazen gates were shut. And now the time had 
 arrived. We decided on renting the offered house, which is 
 still, after chequered years, in the occupancy of the Mission ; 
 and a preaching-room was secured in a busy street close by. 
 Periodical visits were paid to Hang-chow by my brother in 
 the winter and spring of 1864-5 \ whilst, encouraged by our 
 advance, the American Presbyterian Mission at Ningpo com- 
 menced a mission in the city, arriving in January, 1865. In 
 the autumn of that year my brother moved his family to Hang- 
 chow, a journey of considerable risk and anxiety, but accom- 
 plished, through God's mercy, without mishap, and missionary 
 residence has been uninterrupted since that date. 
 
 But we must return for a short time to Ningpo. I had 
 the great joy of baptizing twelve adults at the Kwun-hae-we 
 station on one day in the autumn of 1865 ; and in the city and 
 country alike there was progress and encouragement. Regular 
 itinerancies were planned in definite districts ; and in the 
 spring of 1865 Mr. Valentine took part in this work, paying 
 frequent visits, Mrs. Valentine accompanying him, to the Lake. 
 The catechist Bao rendered most efficient help to Mr. Valen- 
 tine during these preaching tours. 
 
 In the early autumn of this year the persistent hostility of 
 the people of Tsz'-k'i was greatly abated by the opening of a 
 dispensary in the C.M.S. Mission-house within the walls of 
 that city. Dr. M'Cartee, a veteran and able member of the 
 American Presbyterian Mission, most kindly offered his time 
 and skill for this work. I accompanied the doctor on his 
 weekly visits ; and on some occasions as many as a hundred 
 men and eighty women were found waiting for relief. Christian 
 instruction was given to the patients before they were admit- 
 
Later Days. 6y 
 
 ted by ticket into the consulting room. The result of a three 
 months' campaign was very cheering ; and no difficulty was 
 experienced in exchanging the Mission-house for larger and 
 more commodious premises in the spring of 1866. 
 
 During this year my wife conducted a Bible-class for heathen 
 women near the South Gate of Ningpo, and with the assistance 
 of Mrs. Valentine two day-schools for girls were carried on ; 
 and the nucleus of a girls' boarding-school was formed by my 
 wife with the help of friends in England. At this time also 
 her Manual for the Holy Cormnimion and Stories for Children 
 in the vernacular were brought out. The boys' day-school 
 was full to overflowing ; and with the sanction of the parent 
 Committee we were now commencing a boarding-school for 
 boys. Meanwhile, with Mr. Valentine's constant help, the 
 daily chapel preaching was kept up ; and in order to counter- 
 act the tendency to neglect the great city for the attractive 
 and ever expanding country work, regular visits were paid 
 to the Christians' houses, notice being given beforehand of the 
 pastor's intended call, and the heathen neighbours being 
 invited to attend the proposed service. 
 
 I began early in this year a Sunday morning address to the 
 foreign-drilled Chinese troops, which has been continued, 
 with some interruptions, for eleven years. 
 
 In Hang-chow, amidst some opposition and more than one 
 instance of open violence offered to our catechists, there was 
 yet much to cheer, and to confirm the belief that the work 
 was indeed of God. On Whit-Sunday, 1866, five converts 
 were baptized ; and the average attendance at Sunday services 
 was forty in the morning and twenty-five in the afternoon. 
 In the summer of that year my brother edited the occasional 
 Church services in Ningpo colloquial, and Mr. Valentine super- 
 intended the printing of this necessary work. 
 
 Some special instances of consistency and patient endu- 
 
 F 2 
 
.: Alt k 
 
 •im,SiSssissmi!* in .ii' Mi A'i 
 
 wm ml/: 
 
Later Days. 69 
 
 ranee under persecution, cheered the missionaries in the 
 autumn of this year ; particularly the case of an aged man at 
 Yang-van in San-poh, blind and in extreme poverty, who yet 
 refused a sum equal to about £\\y the proceeds of the ances- 
 tral land of his family, which fell that year to his share in the 
 usual system of rotation. The performance of ancestral wor- 
 ship being the necessary condition of enjoying his share, he 
 declined it, saying that '* he had better beg than sin." 
 
 In January, 1867, the Mission was strengthened by the 
 arrival of Mr. Gretton and Mr. Bates. Mr. Gretton proceeded 
 at once to reinforce the Hang-chow Mission ; and my brother, 
 who had been invited home by the Secretaries a year pre- 
 viously, but had been unable then to leave, cheered now by 
 Mr. Gretton's arrival and by the promise of Mr. Russell's 
 immediate return, being also much reduced in health after nine 
 years' continuous work on the field, decided, after anxious con- 
 sultation with his brethren, to take this opportunity of going. 
 
 Mr. Valentine consented to proceed to Hang-chow to take 
 charge of that important station in concert with Mr. Gretton ; 
 whilst Mr. Bates and I remained at Ningpo. 
 
 Mr. Bates left Ningpo on April 23rd for the Lake * station, 
 and resided there for some weeks, living thus amongst the 
 people for the sake of the better facilities for learning the 
 
 * Tong-iuu, the East Lake, represented in the picture, is some twelve miles from 
 Ningpo, with which it is connected by canals, and is used by a large population of 
 sea-fishermen as a haven and place for refitting their vessels. The sea is about 
 twelve miles distant by the river from the point where the Ningpo canal reaches it, 
 and the fishing smacks on their way homeward are hauled by windlasses from 
 river into canal, and again from canal into lake, over embankments with sloped 
 sides. The wharves of densely peopled towns are sheltered from the wind by a 
 kind of mud breakwater planted with willows. Such a town is shown to the left of 
 our cut,' its crowded dwellings clustering on the lower slopes of the steep hill, and 
 its little harbour enclosed by the line of low willows. This is Dao-kong-san, the home 
 of three Christian brothers, Peter, James, and Andrew, the first members of what is 
 now a growing Church at the Lake. 
 
70 The Story of the Cheh-kiajig Mission. 
 
 colloquial. This, his first residence out of the city, has been 
 also the field in which much of his missionary time and energy 
 has been expended. And God has given him to see a blessing 
 on his work. A second station at *En-ling was opened just 
 before his residence there ; and recently a third station. Da- 
 song, on the sea-shore ten miles distant, has been added by 
 Mr. Bates himself. 
 
 Mr. Russell's return was delayed by unforeseen hindrances 
 for two long years ; and these years were filled full of anxiety 
 and trial for the younger missionaries, who were now the only 
 representatives of the Society in Cheh-kiang. Yet light broke 
 in, as in former years, from time to time, on the darkness. 
 A poor woman was struck to the heart, apparently, under a 
 sermon on the burning bush. " I have been a bush for forty- 
 two years," she said, with a singular application of the great 
 vision, " in God's sight, and why not burnt .? " 
 
 During the whole of 1867 I was the only clergyman in 
 priest's orders in the Mission, and this necessitated my visits 
 not only to the out-stations in the Ningpo district, now 
 amounting to eleven, but also to the far-off city of Hang-chow. 
 And when in the autumn of this year Mr. Valentine's health 
 completely gave way, and to save his life an instant return to 
 England was necessary, I felt more than ever constrained to 
 visit Hang-chow, if by any means I might, through united 
 prayer and consultation, strengthen Mr. Gretton in his post of 
 solitude and extreme difficulty. The only native of Hang- 
 chow who could help the missionary had been guilty of mis- 
 conduct and broken off his connection with the Church, and 
 other cases of trial had occurred at the same time. 
 
 This year the number of communicants in the province rose 
 from 118 to 143, and the adult baptisms numbered thirty- 
 three. In the city of Ningpo there were signs of life, the 
 latter part of St. John i. — brother leading brother, and friend 
 
Later Days. 71 
 
 his friend, to Christ — being in a measure exemplified amongst 
 us. The catechist Miao gave very efficient help to the Mission 
 at this time. 
 
 On February 22nd, 1868, the Bishop of Victoria (Dr. 
 Alford) visited Ningpo, and spent a fortnight in the Mission, 
 travelling to some of the chief out-stations, as well as to Hang- 
 chow, confirming more than 100 candidates, and conferring 
 priest's orders on Messrs. Gretton and Bates. The Bishop was 
 much struck with the advanced knowledge of many of our 
 native agents, and expressed his opinion that in this respect, 
 as well as in general character and efficiency, more than one 
 was a fit subject for holy orders. The Bishop's kind interest 
 in the Mission, shown in the substantial form of funds raised 
 through his advocacy for the erection of a Mission church in 
 San-poh, has been already alluded to. 
 
 In the summer of 1868 I began the study of the Thirty- 
 nine Articles with the catechists. This was continued by Mr. 
 Gough during my subsequent absence, and finally completed 
 at the close of 1875. The autumn of this year was one of well- 
 nigh unprecedented sickness amongst the natives ; and two of 
 our catechists were removed by death ; and what with failing 
 health and growing anxieties, the return at last, after seven 
 years' absence, of Mr. and Mrs. Russell in December, 1868, 
 and in January, 1869, of Mr. Gough, after eight years, was 
 thankfully hailed by the whole Mission. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ensor's three months' stay at Ningpo, on their 
 way to Japan, whilst waiting the arrival of Mr. Russell, 
 who had been appointed secretary of the C.M.S. Missions in 
 China and Japan, was a help and refreshment to us all, as Mr. 
 Ensor entirely relieved us of the responsibility of the English 
 service for the residents. 
 
 The veteran senior members of the Mission being once 
 more on the spot, with the full consent of the Mission, and 
 
'J2 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 under a strong medical certificate, I felt justified in accepting 
 the Home Committee's invitation to return for a while to 
 England with my family. We left in February, 1869, after 
 seven years and a half of service in the field. 
 
 Mr. Gough had been partly detained in England by his 
 share in the revision for the British and Foreign Bible Society 
 of the version of the New Testament in colloquial recorded 
 above,* and its publication with references, a v/ork which has 
 been of the greatest value to Christians throughout the pro- 
 vince. Mr. Gough had married in 1867 the widow of Mr. 
 Jones, a devoted missionary, who died at sea on his return to 
 England from Ningpo in 1863. 
 
 Mrs. Gough returning thus to her former field of labour was 
 able at once to enter on her work. Mr. and Mrs, Gough have 
 been abundant in labours " in season and out of season " ever 
 since ; and Mrs. Gough, with the assistance of her daughters, 
 and of their governess Miss Bear, has done much for the 
 heathen women and girls of Ningpo. Three schools and two 
 classes have been carried on, besides the superintendence of 
 a Bible-woman, and the general care of the members of the 
 Church. Mr. and Mrs. Russell meanwhile established, on a 
 definite and satisfactory basis, many missionary agencies which 
 had long been contemplated, and sanctioned by the Home 
 Committee, but delayed through the weakness of the mis- 
 sionary staff". Amongst them were the boys' and girls' board- 
 ing-schools for the children of Christians, and the Opium 
 Refuge. The Catechists and senior Christians were at this 
 time gathered weekly for consultation on Church matters. 
 Mrs. Russell began again to work amongst her heathen 
 neighbours, and being successful in relieving the ailments of 
 their wives and children, she gained a wide influence, which 
 resulted, for not a few, in their finding the Physician of the 
 
 * See page 29. 
 
Later Days. 73 
 
 soul. Mr. Russell was much pleased with the band of native 
 helpers which he found on his return to the Mission. " They 
 have left," he writes, " on my mind the conviction that they 
 are thoroughly in earnest, and admirably adapted to their 
 work. .They seem to have two great qualifications for effi- 
 ciency among their own people, viz., a very remarkable 
 acquaintance with the Bible, and a thorough knowledge of 
 the habits and customs of their own countrymen ; indeed, 
 as a native agency they seem to be everything one could 
 desire." 
 
 Early in 1870 my brother and his family returned to the 
 Mission, and proceeded at once to their old station. Hang-chow. 
 They were accompanied to Ningpo by Miss M. Laurence, 
 who came out with the special object of superintending the 
 boarding-school for girls. Miss Laurence made rapid pro- 
 gress in the acquisition of the colloquial, and was soon able 
 to engage actively in her work. Since that time it has ex- 
 panded ; tw^o day-schools in the country, and the work of a 
 Bible-woman at the Lake, are under her superintendence. 
 This kind of work in the neighbourhood of Ningpo might be 
 almost indefinitely multiplied, were strength and pecuniary 
 means at hand. Both the boarding and day-schools are 
 centres of attraction for the parents and female friends of the 
 girls, who would otherwise come rarely if ever under Christian 
 influence. Miss Laurence has engaged also in literary work, 
 and has published a simple catechism, and a translation of 
 Lines Left Out. The Bishop, wTiting in the autumn of 
 1875, speaks of the boarding-school as ''progressing in a very 
 satisfactory way. There are twenty-four pupils, who read 
 and write the local dialect with care and accuracy, and have a 
 fair acquaintance with the Chinese character. They know 
 a great deal about the Old and New Testament, are as far 
 advanced in arithmetic as children at home of the same age. 
 
74 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 and, in addition, they learn needlework, braid-making, and 
 other useful acquirements." 
 
 In March Mr. and Mrs. Palmer joined the Mission, and 
 Mr. Palmer worked for some time in the northern districts of 
 Ningpo, in concert with Mr. Russell. In April, on my 
 brother's arrival in Hang-chow, Mr. Gretton proceeded to 
 Shaou-hing with the view of re-opening that station. This 
 great city, nearly 2,000 years old, dating from its first foun- 
 dation, had already heard the sound of the Gospel during 
 Mr. Burdon's brief stay. The "joyful sound" had been 
 rudely hushed by the sound of the trumpet and the shout of 
 battle. Would the people receive the glad tidings more 
 willingly now after their years of misery and desolation } 
 
 Du Halde describes this city in glowing terms. " It is 
 situated," he says, " in one of the most beautiful plains in the 
 world. There are canals in every street, and no city so much 
 resembles Venice as this, though it is vastly preferable to 
 Venice in that the canals are filled with very clear running 
 water." Shaou-hing must have sadly deteriorated since Du 
 Halde's day, for though the countless ramifications of the 
 canals in this vast plain are filled indeed with pure pellucid 
 water, yet the city itself has nought but stagnant, black, and 
 unsavoury water-ways, one fruitful source, no doubt, of the 
 frequent attacks of illness from which the missionaries have 
 suffered. Mr. Gretton's health gave way in the autumn of 
 1 87 1, and he was obliged to return to England. During his 
 residence in Shaou-hing he had employed as catechist one of 
 Mr. Burdon's first converts baptized in 1861 ; and thus, ten 
 years after the first sign of a crop, the first-fruits, if one may 
 say so, was employed in the re-sowing of the seed. 
 
 Mr. Valentine meanwhile, who, with Mrs, Valentine, had 
 returned to the Mission in November, 1870, had proceeded to 
 join Mr. Gretton at Shaou-hing, and he remained alone at 
 
Later Days. 75 
 
 that station till Mr. Palmer joined him late in the autumn of 
 1 87 1. After three years of praying and working God granted 
 a great blessing to this Mission. Mr. Valentine, writing on 
 the Anniversary of the First Day of Intercession for Missions, 
 December 20, 1874, mentions the baptism of seven persons on 
 that day, and ascribes the ingathering to the prayers offered 
 on December 20, 1873. He contrasts thus the early days of 
 his work with this joyful harvest : " Two years ago, when my 
 brother Palmer was here (Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, in shattered 
 health, had been obliged to return to England in the autumn 
 of 1873), and we with our wives joined the prayer-offerers 
 all over the world, there was but one native Christian in com- 
 munion with our Church ; there was no catechist [the one 
 named above had departed this life in peace], no preaching- 
 room, no out-station, no school. Now we have two catechists, 
 a promising out-station, a boys' day-school, a well-attended 
 preaching-room, and, to crown all, we require at last two 
 figures to represent the number of Christians, and almost feel 
 emboldened to look forward to the time when three figures 
 will be required." Since that date seven more have been 
 baptized, and the baptismal roll numbers seventeen men and 
 women and some children. 
 
 Bishop Russell visited and confirmed in this station during 
 the autumn of 1875, and writing at the close of that year a 
 description of his visits to all the stations within the bounds 
 of his great diocese, he speaks thus : " Of all the stations of 
 our Society which I have visited during the year I was more 
 impressed with the reality of the work at Shaou-hing than 
 elsewhere. The peculiar character of the people, who are 
 bold, independent, and warm-hearted, may partly account for 
 this. But surely there is something more ; surely the good 
 Spirit, who worketh when and where He pleaseth, has been 
 pleased to manifest His presence and His power in this place 
 
Later Days. Jj 
 
 in especial manner and for a special purpose. Were it right 
 and becoming to venture an opinion, I should be inclined to 
 hope that as the natives of this city are scattered widely over 
 the Chinese empire, it may be the will of the great Head of 
 the Church to originate a work here which hereafter may have 
 the most important bearings on the general evangelization of 
 the empire." 
 
 Since that letter was written the work has not progressed 
 so rapidly as was at one time anticipated. The inquirers are 
 not numerous. One or two cases of inconsistent conduct 
 have saddened the missionaries, and Mr. Valentine's health 
 has become impaired. But we yet believe that those joyful 
 baptisms were the first large drops, faUing in stillness, before 
 the full shower of blessing sweeps up on the wings of the 
 heavenly wind, and refreshes city and country. 
 
 We must retrace our steps in this chronological narrative 
 of the Cheh-kiang Mission, and describe briefly, in conclusion, 
 the most important event in the history of the Mission, which 
 the mention of Bishop Russell suggests by anticipation. 
 
 We rejoined the Mission in December, 1871, and I resumed 
 my itinerations and my wife her work amongst heathen 
 women and in schools. Dr. and Mrs. Gait arrived by the 
 same steamer, and proceeded at once to Hang-chow to open 
 the Opium Hospital described above. The Hang-chow Mis- 
 sion Church was opened on the last Sunday of 1871. Just 
 three-fourths of the expense of building this Church was con- 
 tributed by friends of the missionaries — at Cambridge, Oxford, 
 Hampstead, Dorchester — and by supporters of the Mission- 
 ary Leaves Association. The C.M.S. grant furnished the 
 remainder. It will seat about 150 worshippers. The hospital, 
 a building transferred from the Old Mission Compound, 
 was erected in the following year. Mr. and Mrs. Elwin 
 had joined Mr. G. Moule at Hang-chow in December, 1870, 
 
yS The Story of the Cheh-kiang Missioji. 
 
 and remained there till the autumn of 1874, when, just as Mr. 
 Elwin was, with great earnestness and hope, beginning active 
 evangelistic work in the city and country, he too was struck 
 down with serious illness, and was obliged to return to England. 
 
 The frequent mention of illness, suffering, and removal in 
 this narrative suggests strongly the trying nature of the 
 climate ; and a far larger staff is absolutely necessary in order 
 to keep in efficiency the present missionary agencies, when so 
 many changes have to be provided for.* 
 
 In the spring of 1872 Mr. Russell was invited to England, 
 to be consecrated Missionary Bishop of the Church of Eng- 
 land Missions and Congregations in North China, the many 
 difficulties in the way of the accomplishment of this important 
 step towards the consolidation and expansion of the Society's 
 work having been at length removed. The consecration took 
 place in December of that year, and in May, 1873, the veteran 
 missionary was welcomed back as Bishop of that now wide- 
 spread and flourishing Mission which he had been permitted 
 to commence just a quarter of a century before. 
 
 The Bishop held confirmations in all the chief centres of the 
 Mission in Cheh-kiang during the following autumn ; and in 
 November he assembled his clergy for discussion of many most 
 important points connected with their work. Two station 
 churches, those at Kwun-hae-we and Tsz*-k*i, were opened by 
 the Bishop in June, 1873, and May, 1874. Much unexpected 
 delay, however, was experienced in the ordination of native 
 catechists, a step which it was hoped would have immediately 
 followed on the Bishop's arrival in his diocese. The great dis- 
 proportion between the native contributions towards the sup- 
 port of the Church and the Society's outlay for the same purpose, 
 seemed a reason for delay ; and the organization of native 
 
 * See page 1 1 for the author's deliberate opinion of the climate of Cheh-kiang 
 compared with some other fields. 
 
Later Days. yg 
 
 Church committees was also supposed to be a necessary prelimi- 
 nary to ordinations, that they might stimulate if possible the 
 private Christians to greater liberality, and ascertain in some 
 tangible form the feeling of the congregations as to the pro- 
 posed ordinations. 
 
 On June 6th, 1875, however, the Bishop, with great joy 
 and thankfulness, admitted to deacon's orders Sing Eng-teh, 
 the senior catechist in the San-poh district. The ordination 
 took place at his station, Kwun-hae-we. My brother from 
 Hang-chow, who preached the ordination sermon, J. D. Valen- 
 tine from Shaou-hing, and I myself from Ningpo, were present. 
 The church was filled to overflowing, and fifty Chinese received 
 the Lord's Supper. The new deacon preached to a full church 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 In February, 1876, the first meeting of the Ningpo District 
 Church Committee was held under the presidency of the 
 Bishop. One native clergyman, seven catechists, and eighteen 
 elected lay representatives were present. The practical result 
 of the meeting was that they bound themselves to provide for 
 the current year one-sixth of the money required for native 
 Church expenses, or about;£'25 in English money. 
 
 On Trinity Sunday, June ii, 1876, the Bishop held an ordi- 
 nation in Grace Church, Ningpo, admitting to priest's orders 
 the Rev. Sing Eng-teh, pastor at Kwun-hae-we, the Rev. W. 
 Brereton, of the Peking Mission, and the Rev. J. C. Hoare, 
 who had joined the Ningpo Mission in February. Mr. Hoare 
 is a son of Canon Hoare of Tunbridge Wells, the well-known 
 and long-tried friend of the Society. 
 
 At the same time three of our catechists were admitted to 
 deacon's orders, namely, Wong Yiu-kwong, at present master 
 of the boys' boarding-school, of which Mr. Gough has exer- 
 cised the superintendence, with indefatigable care and pains, 
 for four years past ; 'O Kwong-yiao, catechist at Tsz*-k'i: and 
 
8o The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 Dzing Ts-sing, a son of Stephen Dzing, who will assist Mr. 
 Gough at Grace Church. 
 
 And here with the laying of this, one of the top-stones of 
 the native Church so far as foreign agency is concerned, 
 though it is in truth but the foundation-stone of the native 
 Church so far as native organization and self-government are 
 considered— here we may well pause in our story of the Cheh- 
 kiang Mission. 
 
 The years thus rapidly passed in review (1871 — 1876) have 
 been as closely crowded with events, bright and dark like the 
 hours of an April day, as were the earlier years of the Mission 
 which have been more elaborately detailed. The sound of the 
 Gospel in preaching or teaching, in city or in country, has, we 
 may say, never ceased through the Society's Missions in Cheh- 
 kiang during the daylight hours, and sometimes far into the 
 nights of these months and years. But the machinery has 
 been the same, and the agencies such as have been described 
 above. 
 
 Before bidding farewell, however, to this Mission, let us 
 gather up into two brief closing chapters some few missionary 
 events not detailed above, illustrative of the trials and triumphs 
 of the Cheh-Kiang Mission. 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. 
 
 O send me light to do Thy work, 
 More light, more wisdom give ; 
 
 Then shall I work Thy work indeed, 
 While on Thy earth I live. 
 
 So shall success be mine, in spite 
 
 Of feebleness in me; 
 Beyond all disappointment then. 
 
 And failure, I shall be. 
 
 The work is Thine, not mine, O Lord, 
 
 It is Thy race we run ; 
 Give light, and then shall all we do 
 
 Be well and truly done, 
 
 Bonar, 
 
 EARNED superciliousness, contempt for its foreign 
 origin, the accusation of atheism, and the want of 
 state sanction, formed," says Neander, ** the chief 
 obstacles to Christianity during the first two cen- 
 turies in the Roman world," and these obstacles are strangely 
 reproduced in China during this nineteenth century. But we 
 must notice first some of the more extraneous influences which 
 indirectly oppose the work. And here the credulous and 
 easily swayed character of the Chinese must be specially 
 named. Particularly during the summer months, when, from 
 the excessive heat, men and women and children sit out of 
 
 G 
 
82 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Missio7i. 
 
 doors till nearly midnight, talking and striving to wile away 
 the weary hours, news is an article of absolute necessity. And 
 this article, if not procurable in a genuine form, must needs 
 be forged. Among the sixteen summers of my connection 
 with the Ningpo Mission, at least twelve have been disturbed 
 with rumours. And very shortly after the foundation of the 
 Mission this phenomenon was noticed — a phenomenon injuri- 
 ously affecting missionary work, not merely because the dis- 
 turbed state of men's minds at such times unsuits them for 
 careful attention to preaching, but also from the fact that 
 foreigners generally, and missionaries amongst them, are 
 almost always implicated in these rumours. 
 
 For instance, in the spring of the year 1852, Ningpo and 
 the surrounding country was seriously agitated by a petty 
 rebellion. The people of the Lake and the Fung-hwa districts, 
 exasperated by official extortions, rose three several times — 
 destroying first the house of a salt monopolist, then sacking 
 ^^yamun^ of the magistrate at Fung-hwa, and finally demo- 
 lishing the residences of two of the principal magistrates in 
 Ningpo, and burning the house of the chief collector of taxes. 
 The defeat of the troops in the country by these insurgents 
 was attributed by the magistrates, so the rumour went, to the 
 help and influence of that philanthropic lady, Miss Aldersey, 
 who happened to have gone into the country with Mr. Russell 
 at this time for change of air. She was said, in fact, to have 
 supplied the rebels with arms, or with strategic advice, or 
 
 both. 
 
 Again, in July, 1854, Ningpo was greatly agitated by the 
 arrival of a corvette, sent from Macao to demand redress 
 for some insult to the Portuguese flag said to have been 
 offered by Cantonese at Ningpo. The corvette actually bom- 
 barded the city, much to the alarm and indignation of the 
 
 * Public office. 
 
Difficulties and Disappointme7its. 83 
 
 people. On the evening of July loth, the day of the bombard- 
 ment, Mr. and Mrs. Russell, wearied with the heat of the day, 
 sallied forth to seek fresh air outside the city walls. " On 
 reaching the Salt Gate," writes Mr. Russell, " our usual way of 
 exit, and seeing it closed, we asked if it could be opened for 
 us. Two Canton men amongst the crowd assembled round 
 the gate, hearing this request, stepped forward, and in a state 
 of great excitement exclaimed, * Whoever dares to open this 
 gate shall lose his head ! ' " Our friends, seeing the temper of 
 the men, prudently resolved to retrace their steps ; but the 
 Cantonese, exasperated by the Portuguese attack, and includ- 
 ing all foreigners in one category, followed them, brandishing 
 their swords, and crying, " Let us kill them ! " This they pro- 
 bably would have done had the Ningpo men in any way 
 countenanced the attempt. They, however, at once exclaimed, 
 " Don't ! don't ! " And the missionaries were escorted home 
 by the friendly citizens, these angry soldiers still with blood- 
 thirsty rage walking near, and threatening with their swords. 
 Through God's grace Mr. Russell restrained himself from one 
 angry word or gesture, which might have led to fatal conse- 
 quences, and they reached home in safety. 
 
 A year or two later, on the sudden arrival in the river of a 
 number of Cantonese war junks, and the landing of 2,000 men, 
 the rumour spread that all foreigners were to be exterminated. 
 Time, place, and hour were mentioned for the murderous attack. 
 The missionaries met daily for prayer, and after the prayer- 
 meeting a vigilance committee was convened with closed 
 doors. Some of the missionaries actually moved in alarm 
 and haste to Shanghai, others made elaborate preparations 
 for defence. One, however, at least, presented an undaunted 
 front of Christian courage. Miss Aldersey, refusing to move 
 because of mere rumour, after making all prudent preparation 
 for her own departure and that of her school were the peril to 
 
 G 2 
 
TAO-TAI, OR INTKNDANT, OF THE THREE DEPARTMENTS OF NINGPO, SHAOUHING, AND 
 TAICHOW. (From a Photograph by Major Watson.) 
 
Difficulties and Disappointments. 85 
 
 become imminent, remained quietly at her post, and saw the 
 danger pass over. It was in this case something more than 
 mere rumour, arising solely from the fear or fancy of the people. 
 The Cantonese, in fear, perhaps, of an attack from foreigners, 
 had proposed to the Taotai their simultaneous massacre, which 
 would have been attempted but for the remonstrance of a sub- 
 ordinate mandarin. 
 
 In the year 1859, and again in 1866, the city and country 
 round were agitated with rumours of kidnapping. Foreign 
 ships were said to be anchored outside Chinhai, the district 
 city at the mouth of the Ningpo river, and agents from these 
 ships were said to prowl about the suburbs at night with 
 sacks, which they suddenly threw over the heads of unsuspect- 
 ing passers-by ; the sack was drawn tight, the man gagged, 
 and carried perforce into a boat, and so out to sea. The 
 rumour was plausible because of the notorious atrocities con- 
 nected with the Macao coolie trade ; and no sooner was it set 
 moving than it grew and extended with alarming rapidity. 
 Foreigners were to be exterminated as a retaliatory measure. 
 My brother and sister on their way through the streets to 
 attend the Mission prayer-meeting were wondered at for their 
 boldness. " What ! " said the people, '' do they dare to walk 
 about still.?" Indignation meetings were held in the City 
 Temple, adjoining Grace Church, and it was resolved to begin 
 the attack on foreigners by demolishing this church. Through 
 God's kind care, on that very day Mr. Russell had succeeded in 
 proving the falseness of one of the circumstantial accusations 
 of kidnapping which had caused the agitation, and this 
 probably contributed to allay the excitement. A man, named 
 Nyi Tsing-hoe, had been suborned to appeal to Mr. Russell, 
 as the only person in Ningpo of sufficient influence to procure 
 the release of three friends of his, who, he asserted, had been 
 attacked and " bagged " by foreigners two nights previously, 
 
86 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Missioji. 
 
 while he alone had escaped. Mr. Russell took down in writing 
 his story, and escorted him to the British Consulate. But on 
 the following day he voluntarily confessed the imposture, and 
 disclosed the names of his accomplices. The foreign consuls 
 thereupon demanded from the Chinese authorities proclama- 
 tions explanatory of the whole affair ; and the excitement 
 soon passed away, the people resuming their former friendly 
 demeanour. Their hostile temper had sprung up at the time 
 of the repulse of the British and French embassies at the 
 mouth of the Peiho early in the summer. When tidings 
 arrived of this disaster the walls were placarded with inflam- 
 matory notices, and the missionaries were in considerable 
 danger. 
 
 In the summer of 1867 Hang-chow was seriously agitated 
 by similar rumours ; and on this occasion, as missionaries were 
 the only foreign residents in the city, the danger affected 
 them exclusively. The Church Mission was said to have 
 " children in pickle," who had been decoyed into the Mission 
 premises. The Presbyterian Mission was said to have enticed 
 women into the compound, and then to have drowned them in 
 a rain-water tank which the resident missionary in his innocency 
 had just completed. The missionaries were obliged to go in 
 a body to the magistrates, and demand proclamations denying 
 these foolish tales, and pacifying the people. These were 
 granted ; but the missionaries were requested not to go out at 
 night if possible except in sedan chairs. 
 
 All the stations in the province were agitated with rumours, 
 more or less truculent, during the summer after the massacre 
 of Roman Catholic missionaries and their converts, and other 
 foreigners, at T'ien-tsin (June, 1870). A mob burst into the 
 Mission-house at Shaou-hing, excited by divers tales as to the 
 evil deeds of foreigners, and as to their approaching extermina- 
 tion. They were much taken aback by finding Mr. Gretton 
 
Difficulties and Disappointments. 87 
 
 quietly directing the carpenters in their work ; and they left 
 half-ashamed, half-reassured by his quiet and friendly de- 
 meanour. During that summer the danger was real, and God's 
 good providence alone preserved His servants from harm. In 
 Hang-chow the anxiety was all the greater because the trien- 
 nial examinations for the degree of keu-jin, attracting a con- 
 course of at least 10,000 literati to the city, took place whilst 
 it was at its height. In Ningpo vigilance committees were 
 again formed, and some persons were inclined to leave for 
 Shanghai. 
 
 In 1873 (Sept. i) the missionaries in Hang-chow were greatly 
 alarmed at the sudden arrest by the magistrates of all the 
 persons who had sold them land or houses, together with their 
 agents. So bold, though withal cowardly, an attack could 
 only be met by consular interference. The British and 
 American Consuls promptly repaired to Hang-chow ; and by 
 their intervention great good, through God's blessing, came 
 out of the apparent evil. Proclamations were issued in which 
 foreign residence was officially recognized, and rumours to the 
 contrary were declared to be punishable. 
 
 A year later the Mission-houses of the Southern American 
 Presbyterian Mission, whose prominent position on the city- 
 hill had occasioned the attack, were, after friendly negotiation, 
 removed to another site, the entire expenses, amounting to 
 some 10,000 dollars, being provided by the magistrates. 
 
 In 1874 there was imminent danger of a rupture between 
 China and Japan, and it was feared that other foreigners 
 might be involved in the results of the enmity against the 
 Japanese. The summer of 1875 ^^^^s an anxious one, follow- 
 ing as it did just after the treacherous murder of Mr. 
 Margary. This summer (of 1876) has already produced its 
 quota of rumours. The three cities — Hang-chow, Shaou-hing, 
 and Ningpo — have been disturbed by the mysterious disap- 
 
88 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 pearance of the " pig-tails " or hair-plaits of men and boys, 
 snipped off, so the common talk is, by unseen shears wielded 
 by evil spirits. Those who are thus shorn are said to die after 
 intervals varying from 3 to 130 days. Women also are said 
 to receive by some unseen process Chinese characters stamped 
 on the skin, and those thus marked soon die. 
 
 Some ascribe these rumours to the Buddhist and Taouist 
 priests, who, not wearing the hair-plait themselves and there- 
 fore safe from the insult, are driving a merry trade from the 
 sale of charms to be attached to the queue. The magistrates 
 ascribe these stories to the secret political societies, which 
 they so much dread, and they have issued strong proclamations 
 quieting and reproving the people. But the same tendency 
 prevails in this case also to implicate foreigners. 
 
 The "hair-plait" is a badge of conquest, the mark of sub- 
 jection to the present dynasty. Many think that the shearing 
 it off mysteriously points to a change of dynasty. This will 
 very probably take place, should the rumours which, as I write, 
 once more fill the air of war with England prove true. 
 
 A country so vast, so ignorant, without the benefit of any 
 trustworthy medium for the transmission of news, with a 
 people so easily swayed by false stories, while so deaf and 
 callous to the joyful sound of God's true Gospel, has little to 
 remind one of the picture of the Apostolic Churches : " They 
 had rest, and were edified ; and walking in the fear of the 
 Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." 
 Yet amidst all God has been working, and has not left His 
 servants without witness. 
 
 But before I finally leave this part of our subject, I must 
 notice briefly some of the i7tteriial difiiculties and disappoint- 
 ments encountered by the missionaries. 
 
 One great trial arises from the exhibition of mercenary 
 motives in inquirers and in baptized members of the Church. 
 
Difficulties mid Disappointments. 89 
 
 The hope for some employment, boldly stated or bashfully 
 and slowly developing, or the application for pecuniary aid in 
 starting a business, or in times of want and sickness, produce 
 a depressing and disappointing effect on the minds of many. 
 Mr. Cobbold very early in the history of the Mission, April 
 29, 1855, writes thus : 
 
 " A continual source of sorrow to me here is, that on the 
 reception of candidates, there seems nearly always to be a 
 looking for employment from us, and a dependence on us ; 
 and this necessarily brings with it a suspicion of the sincerity 
 of those received. Self-supporting Christians are still a great 
 desideratum." 
 
 The WTiter remembers well the great pleasure which he 
 felt at an unexpected visit from an apparently anxious 
 inquirer. I conversed with him for more than an hour. He 
 asked many questions, and listened with great interest to my 
 answers. 
 
 " Now, may I ask one question more," he said, " before I 
 leave.?" 
 
 " Certainly," I replied. 
 
 " Have you any employment for me .?" 
 
 I was struck dumb for the moment more with grief than 
 anger, and could but bow him out of my study, with perhaps 
 too complete disappointment at the discovery of what I took 
 to be his only motive, but which may possibly have been the 
 prominent one out of many. This is a subject which re- 
 quires for its right treatment peculiar wisdom, tempered with 
 love. Without doubt many Chinese have been gainers in a 
 pecuniary point of view, and for the time being, by joining 
 the Mission. But surely their losses, or at least their risks, 
 must in some way equalize, if not counterbalance the gains. 
 Otherwise it is difficult to accoufit for the very small number of 
 converts. If to profess Christianity be the high-road to 
 
90 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 lucrative employment, and to the enjoyment of foreign pro- 
 tection and influence, why are not our converts reckoned by 
 myriads instead of by units ? 
 
 But in very deed the losses of an honest and consistent 
 Christian, and thank God the Cheh-kiang Mission numbers 
 such in its ranks, are not small. He loses all share in the 
 lands attached to the ancestral hall of the family. He loses 
 to a greater or less extent the respect and affection of his 
 relatives. He finds it hard to borrow money or obtain other 
 substantial aid in times of need from old friends and helpers. 
 His name, in some instances, is struck off the family roll — a 
 disgrace inflicted only on adulterers or other notorious evil 
 livers, and which is said to incapacitate the disgraced person 
 and his posterity from competing at the public examinations 
 for literary degrees. He is put in fact " out of the syna- 
 gogue " ; and he shares also the opprobrium which foreigners 
 incur to so great an extent. He is looked upon, however 
 erroneously, more as a foreign subject, an alien, an outcast, 
 than as a respectable citizen. And in all probability an 
 attempt at the expulsion of foreigners, or the temporary with- 
 drawal of foreigners in time of war, would result in persecution 
 and insult offered to Chinese Christians. " In one or two 
 instances," I find I wrote in my annual letter for 1866, when 
 describing the rumours as to the extermination of foreigners, 
 which were rife during that year, " the native Christians have 
 been warned in a significant manner of the fate awaiting them 
 after the expulsion of their foreign protectors." 
 
 Then a consistent Christian is necessarily tried in another 
 way. He keeps Sunday holy, and sacrifices thereby a 
 seventh of his wages and gains, and often loses all chance of 
 employment by his countrymen ; or if he is an employer of 
 labour, seriously injures his business, giving in this manner an 
 equally real and valuable pledge of his sincerity as if he had 
 
Difficulties and Disappoijitments. 9 1 
 
 sold all that he had, or parted with a seventh or other large 
 proportion of it at the Lord's bidding. 
 
 The extreme difficulty of the whole question of Sunday 
 observance in such a country as China is probably but little 
 realized at home. On the one hand, the missionary is con- 
 strained to set before inquirers God's positive command, given 
 first of all, and for the whole human race, in Eden. That 
 commandment is committed to memory by the catechumen, 
 and at his baptism he solemnly promises to keep God's day 
 holy. The decalogue is publicly read in his hearing in the 
 Communion Service, and he is instructed to join solemnly 
 in the prayer, "Incline our hearts to keep this law." The 
 Church, as it were, both to catechumens and to her sons in 
 full communion, declares that the observance of a day of 
 rest is no mere Church ordinance, but a Divine institution 
 and of perpetual obligation. 
 
 And even if the missionary adopted the theory held by the 
 late Archbishop Whately, that the Sabbatic law is positive 
 and not essentially moral, yet who would venture, as a faith- 
 ful minister of the Church, to allow a convert from heathenism 
 to neglect a great Church ordinance such as this — more espe- 
 cially when he reflects that of all nations on the earth probably 
 none more require to be " pulled and turned round," as Herbert 
 expresses it, by a spiritual Sabbath rest, than do the worldly, 
 gain-seeking Chinese } 
 
 As God's law, therefore, as the Church's ordinance, and as 
 an institution especially necessary for the Chinese, we are con- 
 strained to preach and enforce Sunday observance. But then 
 think of the difficulty we encounter ! I do not dwell on the 
 apparent absence of legislation on this subject in the New 
 Testament ; I do not pause to speak of the possible non- 
 observance of the Lord's Day by the early Christians, or of 
 Constantine's partial legislation ; I do not attempt to calculate 
 
92 TJie Story of the CJieh-kiang Mission. 
 
 the influence of the evil example constantly before the eyes of 
 Chinese residing at the ports — the example of the deliberate 
 profanation of the Lord's Day by foreigners bearing the 
 Christian name ; I would merely remind the readers of this 
 narrative that, reckoning the whole of China together, you 
 will find only one Protestant Christian in every 35,000 of the 
 population, and the courage, determination, and self-denial 
 required for so minute a minority to keep the Lord's Day in 
 the face of such a majority will be, I trust, appreciated and 
 sympathized with by Christians to whom "the Sabbath" is 
 indeed " a delight," but to whom it is no self-denial to observe 
 the day of rest. And that particularly when it is remembered 
 that in the adverse majority are usually included all the poor 
 Christian tradesman's customers, and brother craftsmen too. 
 
 These several points should be borne in mind, not merely 
 by the unsympathizing sneerer at " rice Christians," but also by 
 missionaries and friends of Missions, who are too often cast 
 down or indignant at the development of mercenary motives 
 in inquirers or converts. 
 
 And there is another point of anxious importance in the 
 same connection. Indiscreet charity has a sure tendency to 
 retard, if not to discourage, that first duty of the native churches, 
 to care for their own poor. This duty they acknowledge ; but 
 when it is performed on so much grander a scale by the 
 foreign missionary, they contentedly and slothfully neglect 
 the duty themselves. But if too lavish almsgiving retards 
 native charity, is it not equally true that to refuse from some 
 rigid principle all appeals for relief from poor Christians will 
 have the sure tendency to bligJit native liberality t Example 
 is ever louder-tongued than precept, and almsgiving will stimu- 
 late Chinese liberality at least as fast as alms-preaching. 
 '' Give to every one that asketh of thee ; and from him that 
 would borrow of thee turn not thou away." These are solemn 
 
Difficulties and Disappointments. 93 
 
 words, which may be judiciously expounded according to the 
 analogy of Holy Writ, but which cannot be ignored. 
 
 Doubts also arise not seldom in the minds of the mission- 
 aries as to the genuine faith of the native Christians, when 
 they find them eager to obtain foreign aid or protection in 
 cases of persecution. One would like to see instances of the 
 "joyful taking of the spoiling of goods," of "counting it all 
 joy to fall into divers temptations," of accounting it " a gift to 
 suffer for Christ, as well as to believe in Him." 
 
 The knowledge of the tolerant and almost laudatory clauses 
 referring to Christianity in the treaty of T'ien-tsin accounts, 
 however, for much of this tendency in native Christians. It 
 requires much prayerful consideration before the missionary 
 can decide how to act in such cases. It may be right and 
 best in every sense for the individual Christian patiently 
 to endure persecution. It may be just and best for the 
 general benefit of Missions to claim the protection guaranteed 
 by treaty. It is well sometimes to remember that the broad 
 aegis of the Roman name which St. Paul not once nor twice 
 held over his own head, sheltering no doubt thereby the 
 threatened Christians as well, worked probably far more 
 promptly and efficiently than the treaty of T'ien-tsin. And 
 as the great apostle hesitated not to use this protection, much 
 as we must deplore the too great eagerness in seeking the 
 missionary's aid on the part of Chinese Christians, yet we dare 
 not on this account wholly doubt the genuineness of their 
 faith. 
 
 Then a third and last hindrance to Mission work must be 
 briefly noticed — that, namely, which arises from permanent 
 and abiding slanders, differing essentially from the evanescent 
 stories which I have enumerated above. 
 
 The following extract from my journal letter dated Decem- 
 ber loth, 1867, will give the reader some idea of two of the 
 
94 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission, 
 
 most potent of these slanders : " Whilst visiting one of the 
 San-poh Christian families an old man, a headman of a branch 
 of the clan, came in to converse. * Pardon me,' he said, ' if in 
 my weakness and simplicity I ask about a few things which I 
 don't quite understand with reference to your honourable doc- 
 trine.' * Father, say on,' I replied. ' Well,' he said, * some 
 people will have it that when Christians die the foreign minis- 
 ter is instantly informed of it, and down he hastens, extracts 
 the eyes and liver of the departed, who then, and not till then, 
 is interred. Of course I don't believe this,' he said — really 
 believing it all the time, or at least fearing it to be true — ' but 
 people say so.' I laughed, and gazed at him till he laughed ; 
 and I then commenced an elaborate reply. I told him how 
 amazed I was that the Chinese with their great intelligence 
 were so ready to believe any silly tale ; I told him that the 
 story probably was originated by Buddhist and Taouist priests 
 under Satanic influence, afraid of their craft in danger ; I 
 asked him why the surviving relations had no quarrel with the 
 guilty worm ' fretting their enshrouded forms,' instead of with 
 the innocent missionary ; I reminded him that pirates abound 
 on whom, with the assistance of foreign gunboats, and not on 
 much loved and mourned for Christian friends, such acts might 
 be practised ; I told him that after six years' toil I had not 
 extracted one eye. I asked him how I, with but one pair of 
 legs, could step to the four quarters of the compass in one day 
 should deaths of Christians occur at such places and at the 
 same time ; I told him that the whole story was a falsehood, 
 and that I was vexed and ashamed thus to descend to argu- 
 ment on such a subject ; but that I repeated such arguments 
 as his own countrymen had felt to be convincing, and simply 
 to satisfy his honourable doubts. The old man exclaimed 
 that his heart was wholly satisfied. ' But hear me,' he said ; 
 * if I ask you one more question, be not offended.' ' Speak 
 
Difficulties and Disappointments. 95 
 
 freely, father,' I said. * Well,' he said, * I hear that you forbid 
 ancestral worship. Can that be right ? ' ' Allow me to ask a 
 question in reply,' I said. ' How many times a year is the 
 ancestral feast spread ? ' ' Four times at most,' he replied. 
 * What, then, is to become of the hungry ghosts of your distin- 
 guished progenitors during the 361 days which remain in each 
 year.? Again, if the good go to the good place, will your 
 good ancestors forsake ambrosial food for your cabbage ? If 
 any of them, alas ! are in the place of woe, they cannot come 
 out to feast on the steam of your pork. Once more, how 
 many neglect or disobey their living parents } and after their 
 deaths are very diligent in worshipping them, and offering 
 them food, which after a while fills their own undutiful stomachs. 
 Filial piety is fair and of good report, and Christianity very 
 strongly inculcates its observance. But your observances seem 
 to me the shadow without the reality. And, worst of all, you 
 fail to worship the Father of our spirits, the great God of 
 heaven.' " 
 
 These slanders and misconceptions possess marvellous vita- 
 lity ; and, though answered and exposed again and again, still 
 domineer over the minds of the people. I have known several 
 cases in which hopeful inquirers have gone back, simply 
 through the reiteration in their ears of these foolish stories by 
 anxious relatives and friends ; and time and growing know- 
 ledge alone can abate the misconception about ancestral 
 worship — a misconception so plausible that the Jesuits under 
 Ricci's guidance at the close of the sixteenth century declared 
 the custom to be civil and secular, and as such tolerated it in 
 their converts. This view was supported by Pope Alexan- 
 der VII. in 1656, opposing thereby the infalHble decree of 
 Innocent X. in 1645, who had declared such worship idolatry,* 
 
 * Papal authority, however, since the commencement of the i8th century has 
 condemned ancestral worship as idolatrous. 
 
g6 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 and the Emperor K*ang-hi in 1700 authoritatively announced 
 that *' the customs of China are poHtical." 
 
 Such are some of the difficulties and trials which a mission- 
 ary in China has to encounter. The list is by no means 
 complete. I might have referred at greater length to the 
 opium traffic ; I might have noticed the cold neutrality with 
 which many foreign residents in China regard and treat Mis- 
 sions, but those enumerated above are amply sufficient to 
 account for failure and discouragement so far as human power 
 and instrumentality are concerned, and are surely sufficient to 
 prove that in the face of such opposition the real conversions 
 and solid success which the missionaries have been permitted 
 to see possess a miraculous origin : " The excellency of the 
 power has been not of man but of God," to whom be all the 
 glory! 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TRIUMPHS AND HOPES. 
 
 Here imperfection still, at happiest case, 
 
 Besets the work and labourers ; few and lone 
 They labour often; the good seed is sown' 
 
 In weakness ; friends grow faint, and enemies 
 Shout o'er their halting ; but before the Throne 
 
 They shall behold the end with glad surprise — 
 
 The numberless redeemed, all kindreds in the skies 1 
 
 H. C. G. M. 
 
 HE parting word addressed by the Rev. Charles 
 Bridges to one of the members of the Cheh-kiang 
 Mission on his leaving for Ningpo, may well preface 
 this short closing chapter : *' Remember," he said, 
 " one soul is worth more than a king's ransom ; yea, more 
 than the whole world's wealth." 
 
 One soul saved and safely housed in the heavenly garner, 
 by the efforts of twenty-eight labourers through twenty-eight 
 years, and after the expenditure of very much money, and of 
 countless prayers and thought and toil, would yet overpay 
 the outlay in glory to the Lord and the eternal bliss of the 
 soul. The Cheh-kiang Mission can point to many such men 
 and women who lived Christian lives and died Christian deaths, 
 and who will be, the missionaries trust, their joy and crown of 
 rejoicing at the day of the Lord. 
 
 Some of such instances have been mentioned in the body of 
 the narrative, and one or two more are enumerated here. 
 
 H 
 
98 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 In the spring of 1859 died a poor man named Long-hwu, 
 at Kwun-hae-we. My brother questioned his nearest neigh- 
 bour as to the circumstances of his death, and from the ac- 
 count given he had a strong hope that he was really accepted 
 through the Saviour's merits. His neighbour visited him and 
 prayed with him morning and evening ; and Long-hwu repaid 
 the kindness by earnest exhortations to his friend, " Never to 
 waver in his adherence to the truth." And so he peacefully 
 passed away, and was buried in the presence of his heathen 
 relatives without any idolatrous rites. 
 
 On May 3rd, 1868, I received the tidings of the death of an 
 old deaf man named Simeon. The catechist who brought 
 the tidings wept at his death. " Sir," he said, " old Simeon 
 put us all to shame by his earnestness and zeal." He was bent 
 upon bringing others to church, and his last words to his son, 
 now a Christian and a lay member of the District Church Com- 
 mittee at Ningpo, were : " If you wish to meet me again in peace, 
 believe the doctrine of Jesus, and attend the Mission Church." 
 The old man had received the truth two years before, at once, 
 on hearing it preached by the wayside, a remarkable hunger 
 having been created in his soul some time previously, and this 
 hunger all unsatisfied by fasting and idolatrous rites. He 
 clapped his hands with joy when point after point of reproof 
 or comfort was shouted into his ear by the preacher. He was 
 found to have burnt a cross into his wrist to remind him of 
 his Saviour's love ; and after living a short two years of happy 
 Christian faith, he passed thus in peace to the presence of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Of Stephen Dzing's departure Mr. Russell writes : " His 
 death was happy and triumphant ; in the closing hours of 
 his life he committed himself with confidence into the hands 
 of that Lord and Saviour whom he had so evidently and in- 
 telligently loved and so zealously served." 
 
Tritimphs and Hopes. 99 
 
 In August, 1875, the first-fruits of the Da-song out-station, 
 on the seashore, south-east from the Lake, died. When on his 
 death-bed he heard that the catechist from the Lake could 
 hardly come down in time to see him alive. " Ah, well," he 
 said, " salute him for me ; we shall meet in heaven ! " 
 
 But in life too, as well as in death, the marks of love, that 
 first and last of true Christian graces, were not wanting in the 
 Cheh-kiang Christians. The Hang-chow Mission, the Lake 
 Mission, the Long-deo-dziang Mission in San-poh, all owe 
 their origin, and in some instances their support, to Chinese 
 missionary spirit and Christian liberality. 
 
 The contributions of the Christians generally have not been 
 so liberal as the missionaries could have wished, neither are 
 they all giving " to their power." 
 
 About »X'200 a year, or say £aa, from six hundred Christians, 
 the amount of contributions for church and offertory funds, 
 gives an average of one shilling and fourpence per annum for 
 each Christian. But this sum is considerably multiplied when 
 the loss of one-seventh of their earnings willingly incurred by 
 many Sabbath keepers is taken into account. 
 
 Some few instances of liberality have occurred. A site 
 for a chapel, and half the expense of erecting a small Mission 
 building on the ground (amounting in all to about £\i 
 sterling), have lately been contributed by a woodcutter in the 
 Western Hills, only lately raised above the pressure of ex- 
 treme poverty. 
 
 And now, after all, is there any ground for the cavil 
 that Mission work in China, the Cheh-kiang Mission in 
 particular, exhibits the picture of lamentable failure, and 
 sheer waste of money and toil } Thank God, there are other 
 missions at work in the province besides the Church Missionary 
 Society ; — three English — the Baptist, the China Inland, and 
 the United Methodist Free Church Missions ; and three 
 
 H 2 
 
100 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 American — the Baptist, and the Northern and Southern 
 Presbyterian Missions. Yet^ all told, the converts scarcely 
 number 2,000, or not so much as one in every 10,000 
 of the population. Is this failure } Shall the useless enter- 
 prise be abandoned 1 God forbid ! The very thought is 
 treasonable to the Christian faith. And, besides, that Word 
 which never goes forth and returns void, preached for thirty 
 years in city and country, in church and chapel, in crowded 
 markets and by the quiet wayside ; that instruction in schools ; 
 those tens of thousands of tracts and Scriptures sold or given 
 away ; those prayers for this beautiful province, rising morn- 
 ing, noon, and night from so many Christian hearts during the 
 ten thousand days of the history now under review, are not, 
 have not been, lost. They may be hidden, but they cannot 
 perish. Whence come the bloom and fragrance and glory 
 of the flowers and foliage of spring and summer .'' Whence, 
 but from the small seed hidden in the dark earth } Thence 
 in the rare warm days of early spring a few precocious blos- 
 soms rise and open as harbingers of the glory to follow. 
 Here, too, in Cheh-kiang the present band of Christians shows 
 but as the early violet and snowdrop of winter's last days. 
 But soon those blossoms here and there are succeeded by the 
 sheets of hyacinths — 
 
 " As the heavens upbreaking through the earth." 
 
 And Spiritual light, too, is "sown for the righteous." This 
 Gospel seed-sowing shall result in a rich in-gathering of flower 
 and fruit to God's glory. 
 
 This very era in the Mission, this happy result of Bishop 
 Russell's episcopate, the foundation of a native ministry, these 
 first-fruits of what will be, we trust, under the same honoured 
 guidance for many years, and to be succeeded perhaps then 
 by a line of native bishops — a large harvest of native pastors — 
 
Triumphs and Hopes. loi 
 
 these signs of blessing and progress, instead of making foreign 
 work less needed, rather intensify the long-uttered cry, "Come 
 over and help us." Our Society, when a native ministry is 
 really set on foot, will only be set free for her more legitimate 
 work, the work of evangelization. And what a field lies before 
 us in this province alone ! 
 
 In only three out of the eleven capitals of departments of 
 the province is the Church Missionary Society represented. 
 Four out of the remaining eight are unoccupied by any mis- 
 sion ; and there are besides 75 district cities with populations 
 varying from 5,000 to 50,000 each within the bounds of the 
 province. Ningpo's gr^at circuit has not yet been fully ex- 
 plored and evangelized. Shaou-hing's matchless plain, acces- 
 sible everywhere, calls importunately for evangelists ; and 
 Hang-chow, with the Grand Canal touching her northern wall, 
 and the great Ts'ien-t'ang river reaching with its upper waters, 
 south-west and southwards into the interior, presents bound- 
 less opportunities for aggressive work. Shall University 
 Missions be sent to Central Africa alone } Shall India's 
 great cities absorb the best zeal of England's missionary sons .^ 
 Does China, with her ancient civilization and venerable phi- 
 losophic literature, present no attraction for the Christian 
 scholar, the faithful soldier of Jesus Christ } In the year 1848 
 the Church Missionary Society " thanked God that at length 
 three graduates from the universities were on their way to 
 China" (two only for Cheh-kiang, however). Twenty-eight 
 years have passed and only three more have been added to 
 the staff of the Cheh-kiang Mission from Great Britain's seats 
 of learning. *' Friends of the cause of Christ," wrote Mr. 
 Squire forty years ago, just at the close of his effort to pene- 
 trate China, " remember China ! In your missionary sermons 
 and addresses let her have a prominent place." 
 
 It may be that yet some time of sowing and weeping must 
 
102 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 elapse before the reaping. It may be that the sharp plough- 
 share of war must yet again pass and repass over the land. 
 It may be that by direct influence of the Holy Ghost, so wide- 
 spread a spiritual hunger shall be created in the minds of this 
 great people as to lead to widespread application for the bread 
 of life. It may be that the walls of Jericho have been com- 
 passed long enough, and that it requires but the united shout 
 of the Church in prayer to cause them to fall flat. It may be 
 that, in the words of an American missionary who knows 
 Cheh-kiang well (Mr. Dodd of Hang-chow), " the wires are laid, 
 we wait but the flash from heaven." If but the Church awake 
 to her duty and arise in her might, and take pity on this fair 
 province of this great empire, it may be soon, it shall be some 
 day, that Ningpo, the " City of the Peaceful Wave," shall 
 worship the Prince of Peace ; Shaou-hing, the " City of Per- 
 petual Prosperity," under the blissful reign of the King of 
 Righteousness, shall enjoy " quietness and assurance for ever"; 
 and Hang-chow,* the *' Terrestrial Paradise," shall know in 
 very deed what Canaan knew of old, "days of heaven on 
 earth." 
 
 * Lit., Ship-island ; it is coupled with Suchow in a popular verse which describes 
 them as Heaven here below. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 L— ON FUNG-SHUI. 
 
 The superstitious system of Fung-shui and the religious 
 observance of Ancestral Worship are very closely connected ; 
 and a brief outline of each is added here, drawn in part from 
 able treatises on these subjects by Dr. Yates of Shanghai, and 
 Dr. Eitel of Hong-Kong. 
 
 Fung-shui means literally " wind and water," and some say 
 that it is so called " because it is a thing like wind, which you 
 cannot comprehend ; and like water, which you cannot grasp." 
 But this is vague and superficial. 
 
 The formulated system of Fung-shui has four divisions : Li, 
 the general order of nature ; Su, her numerical proportions ; 
 KHy her vital breath and subtle energies ; and Hing, her 
 form or outward aspect. The harmonizing of these four 
 would appear to constitute a perfect ''fung-shui "/ the contrary 
 will produce calamity. 
 
 Three points are insisted upon by the professors of this art, 
 in which truth and error strangely mingle : (i) That heaven 
 rules the earth ; (2) That both heaven and earth influence all 
 living beings, and that it is in man's power to turn their in- 
 fluence to the best account for his own advantage ; (3) That 
 the fortunes of the living depend also on the good-will and 
 general influence of the dead. In direct connection with this 
 third point comes in ancestral worship. 
 
104 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 Under Li, or order in nature, the Chinese, beheving as 
 implicitly as the Duke of Argyll, though not quite so intelli- 
 gently, in the Reign of Law, make much of the number 5. 
 There are five elements — metal, wood, water, fire, earth ; five 
 planets — Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury ; five viscera ; 
 five colours ; five kinds of happiness ; and the five relations — 
 viz., those of prince and minister, father and son, husband and 
 wife, elder and younger brothers, and friend with friend. As 
 to the Sti, or numerical proportions of nature (closely con- 
 nected with the Li), ancient and modern Ftmg-shiii literature 
 are at variance. At the time of the Yih King, the most 
 Ancient of the Chinese Classics, they recognized six elements. 
 The modern system of Fung-shui, formulated by Choo-he (the 
 great commentator on Confucius) and by others during the 
 Sung dynasty (a.d. 1126 — 1278) endeavoured to harmonize 
 the two, and taking 10, or twice 5, as the sacred number 
 for heaven, and 12, twice 6, or 8 and 4, the numbers of the two 
 sets of mystic diagrams known to the ancients, as the sacred 
 number for earth, they constructed 10 heavenly stems and 
 12 terrestrial branches, and from their combination composed 
 the cycle of 60 names, which is used now to designate suc- 
 cessive years. 
 
 A clever geomancer, well versed in this intricate but mean- 
 ingless array of formula, imposes with ease on his ignorant 
 and superstitious customers. 
 
 The Chinese think that the soul of man is twofold. They 
 distinguish an aniimts and an aninia ; the first is the breath of 
 heaven, and at death returns thither. The anima is the mate- 
 rial, or animal element, and returns to earth at death. The 
 common people, modifying this doctrine, suppose that the 
 dead are chained to the tomb by the material soul, and that 
 the spiritual nature hovers round the old home, and therefore, 
 as there must be an action and reaction of the two souls on 
 
Appendix I. 105 
 
 one another, the comfort of the corpse makes the earthly soul 
 complacent, and flashing complacency to the spiritual soul 
 produces in some unseen way prosperity in the home of the 
 living. It is said that in Hong-kong Chinese who wish to 
 obtain some favour from foreigners will actually sacrifice and 
 pray in the foreign cemetery, so as to secure the good offices 
 of the spirits of the departed in influencing the living. It is 
 said also that in cases of rebellion, the first step taken by 
 government is to send secret agents, who discover the tombs 
 of the ancestors of the insurgent leaders, and then proceed to 
 open them, scatter the contents, desecrate the graves, and 
 insure thus calamity from the disturbed and annoyed spirits 
 on their living and rebellious representatives. 
 
 It will be impossible to enumerate here all the steps neces- 
 sary to secure the quiet repose of the corpse and the con- 
 sequent luck of the house. The tomb must be guarded from 
 all noxious influences, which come chiefly from the north. 
 Trees are planted, or mounds raised to ensure this ; water 
 also, as an emblem of wealth and affluence, should be near ; 
 and straight lines in paths or watercourses must be avoided 
 as unlucky.* 
 
 The connection between ancestral worship and Fimg-shiii 
 will, however, be sufficiently clear without further detail. 
 And in very deed it presents the Chinese virtue of filial piety 
 in a somewhat unamiable light. The long days spent in the 
 land given them by the Lord God seem to imply the exist- 
 ence of at least some genuine honour for parents amongst the 
 Chinese. But there is a vast admixture of selfishness in the 
 practice. It is rather from the fear of evil consequences to 
 the survivors than from loving care for the dead that sacrifices 
 are offered and tombs are so carefully tended and visited. 
 
 * See also the Chapter on Superstitions, in the author's Four Hundred Millmi, 
 (Seeley.) 
 
io6 TJie Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 And it will be seen that whilst Fiuig-sJiiii is a formid- 
 able obstacle to railways and other modern improvements, 
 since some lucky tree or mound or tomb will meet and resist 
 the bewildered contractor every hundred yards or so, the 
 system of ancestral worship is a tremendous obstacle to 
 Christianity. It has the sanction of very ancient observances ; 
 it has the far stronger sanction of the virtue of filial piety, of 
 which it seems to be the sure expression ; and it has the yet 
 stronger motive of self-preservation and self-aggrandizement. 
 Christianity, forbidding and condemning this practice as 
 superstitious and idolatrous, encounters a mighty foe, which 
 the almighty power and wisdom of God alone can overthrow. 
 
 The question has often been asked with much earnestness 
 and anxiety, by both missionaries and Chinese converts, 
 whether some Christian rite may not be substituted for 
 ancestral worship ; which, while omitting and condemning all 
 that is merely superstitious, idolatrous, or utilitarian, may yet 
 rescue the Christian religion from even the appearance of 
 sanctioning the neglect of filial piety. 
 
II.— RECENT NEWS FROM HANG-CHOW. 
 
 The want of leisure mentioned in the preface seems to have 
 deterred the author from recording at length any of the cases 
 of conversion and spiritual experience which have occurred 
 during the thirty years of our Mission. 
 
 Biographical sketches, for example, of Stephen Dzing, of 
 Sing Eng-teh and his three clerical brethren, Wong Yiu- 
 kwong, Dzing Ts-sing, and *0 Kwong-yiao, or of Matthew 
 Tai, the artist-catechist, would have added much to the inte- 
 rest of the narrative, if they could have been inserted. 
 
 The following brief narrative, communicated by me for 
 insertion in the CM. Gleaner^ is given as a specimen, no 
 doubt of extraordinary interest, of the manner in which God's 
 providence overrules and assists the efforts of His servants in 
 seeking out His scattered sheep : — 
 
 A letter received from my brother Arthur two days ago contains 
 news of an interesting awakening near Hang-chow. 
 
 In order to make the contents of his letter intelligible, it will be 
 well to prefix an extract or two from a paper he sent me some months 
 ago for a local purpose. He writes : — 
 
 " During the summer and autumn of 1876 one of our catechists 
 (Matthew Tai, the artist), accompanied by two young men who are 
 preparing for Church work, made very frequent visits to the suburbs 
 outside the gates called Peace Gate and Periwinkle Gate, nearest my 
 house." 
 
io8 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 The region on this side of Hang-chow is a plain, bordering on the 
 River Ts'ien-t'ang, from which it is protected by a system of dykes, 
 one of which forms a continuous road, some thirty miles long, lead- 
 ing to Haining, a walled city at the head of Hang-chow Bay. The 
 plain, devastated by the T'ai-p'ing invasion fifteen years ago, has 
 been gradually recovering, and is now nearly everywhere covered 
 with tillage, the husbandmen living in hamlets or single cottages, 
 surrounded by mulberry orchards and groves of -bamboo. Close to 
 the city, and bordering the portions of the dykes nearest to it, are 
 the suburbs referred to, consisting mainly of the shops and dwellings 
 of the tradesmen with whom the countrymen buy and sell. So ter- 
 rible were those years of war that education ceased for the time, and 
 amongst the cultivators of these plains we find only the young and 
 the old able to read, the middle-aged having been, in their boyhood, 
 too much occupied with the dangers of the time to care for books or 
 literary honours. 
 
 " Still (my brother continues) our zealous agents sold a good many 
 books and tracts, and, taking advantage of the public tea shops, they 
 had good audiences to preach to on almost every visit. After some 
 time, as a few persons seemed interested in the Gospel, they begged 
 me to hire a small room, in which earnest inquirers might meet for 
 conversation. The room (hired and fitted up at private cost) was 
 opened last winter, and at first no definite fruit appeared to result 
 from it. One day, however, the catechists and pupils were reading 
 with me when word was brought that a gentleman from outside the 
 city wanted to see Mr. Tai (Matthew, the artist). After two hours' 
 absence, Matthew returned, bringing the visitor to see me. He was 
 a tall man, six feet high, and he described himself as a schoolmaster, 
 from a district seventy miles to the south of Hang-chow, who, having 
 business in the city, had left his school under the care of a friend, 
 and was now lodging near our Mission-room. Passing it one day, he 
 noticed the words on our sign, or notice-board, ' Holy Religion of 
 Jesus,' and asked what they meant. Being directed by an old 
 woman to my house, he came at once to us, and began, with great 
 apparent eagerness, to drink in the word of life. So rapidly did he 
 learn the truth, and so strange was his intelligence, that both the 
 catechists and myself at first felt sure he must be a Christian in dis- 
 guise." 
 
Appendix II. 109 
 
 He goes on to say that investigation proved that this was not 
 the case. In a few days he returned to his village, Matthew lai 
 accompanying him, in order to see for himself whether the stranger's 
 account of his circumstances was correct. The latter welcomed the 
 visit, but stipulated that nothing should be said for the present by 
 Matthew about religion, lest the four elder brothers of the inquirer 
 should take alarm, and prevent his return to Hang-chow. The 
 stipulation was observed, and they came back together to Hang- 
 chow. After spending a fortnight in study, Mr. Tsiu ( Chow in the 
 common dialect of China) once more went home to tend his silk- 
 worms. 
 
 " He went, purposing to hide his light again, but God ordered it 
 otherwise. He arrived on Saturday night. Next day, the weather 
 being fine, every one was out gathering mulberry leaves for the 
 market but Tsiu, who stayed at home, reading the Bible in secret. 
 His brothers, hearing of his strange idleness, came over on Monday 
 to upbraid him. He now boldly confessed that he was a believer 
 in the Heaven-sent religion of Jesus, and that, in obedience to God's 
 command and the custom of the religion, he was henceforth to keep 
 one day in seven holy. Then gathering courage, with constant 
 prayer for the Holy Spirit's help, he began to talk to his friends. 
 Every day during his three weeks' stay at home people came to see 
 him. Three of his dreaded brothers came amongst the rest to hear. 
 The head of a vegetarian sect declared that he would give up all and 
 become a Christian. Sometimes they sat till midnight, our friend 
 reading chapter after chapter of the Bible, and explaining as well as 
 his own brief acquaintance with it would allow. His journal is now 
 before me, and in it he has noted all the chapters read by him. 
 Some of his hearers copied out the Lord's Prayer and grace before 
 and after meals. Some learnt by heart a short form of prayer, others 
 the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments. Every evening 
 four or five, and on one occasion eleven, persons knelt with him in 
 prayer." 
 
 My brother's joyful surprise at this remarkable work was at this 
 time tempered with no litde apprehension of the fickleness of the 
 apparent converts, and the animosity of their unconverted neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 From time to time during the six months or more since the nar- 
 
1 10 The Story of the CJieh-kiang Missioji. 
 
 rative reached me from which I have been extracting, his letters 
 refer to the work, and ahvays in a way to encourage the hope that it 
 was in the main genuine and lasting. In one of them he mentions 
 the fact that in six households the idol of the kitchen furnace had 
 been voluntarily displaced and destroyed. In another, that four or five 
 boys had been expelled from the village school, because they refused 
 to conform to idolatrous usages, and that it was becoming known in 
 the country round that many in the village were forsaking the cus- 
 tomary worship and embracing the religion of the foreigner. But I 
 was by no means prepared for so speedy and so hopeful a gathering 
 of first-fruits as he now tells me of. 
 
 The village in question is called Da-kyien-kyH (nearly Da-keen-chee), 
 which for convenience I will render Great Valley Stream or Great 
 Valley. It lies among the mountains, some seventy miles south or 
 south-west of Hang-chow, on the right bank of the river, in the district 
 {Heen) of Chu-ki. My brother writes (date October 8) :— 
 
 " The work at ' Great Valley,' (which I described to you in my 
 letter quoted above), and which I almost regretted writing, for fear it 
 should prove a false hope, has thus far, through God's great mercy, 
 disappointed all our fears. I trust it is of Him, and it will stand. 
 Hearing through the summer a good account, I promised to go down 
 late in September, and baptize on the spot any who might be suffi- 
 ciently prepared, instead of having them up here. The inquirer 
 (Tsiu) who has been the means of awakening so many, and whom I 
 propose to employ on probation among the Chu-ki hills, was bap- 
 tized here (Hang-chow) on September 2. He went home at once 
 and prepared the inquirers \ and Matthew Tai followed him on my 
 return from Shanghai, spending eight days at the village. Mr, Sedg- 
 Mdck and I started on October ist; I very unwell, so that I could 
 hardly walk to the place of embarkation [on the river, by an arm of 
 which they were to reach their object]. We got out at Pondhead, 
 sat awhile, and then walked on to I-kiau. The boat was very slow, 
 and next morning at daylight we were at least thirty miles from our 
 bourne, Great Valley Stream, that is at a place some fifteen miles 
 north of the city of Chu-ki, with an adverse wind and current. So we 
 jumped ashore with Sedgwick's teacher and servant and two porters, 
 and started for Chu-ki. The scenery is exceedingly beautiful, and as 
 we neared the city, which lies nestling on the south of a fine ridge 
 
Appendix 11. in 
 
 of hills, with a beautiful clear stream flowing past the walls, S. thought 
 it the most beautiful scenery he had seen in China, and he has 
 travelled much in Fuh-kien and Kwang-tung. We reached the city 
 at 3.10 P.M., very hot and tired, and after selling many tracts on the 
 great bridge, we started in three chairs (sedans) for the other fifteen 
 or sixteen miles. Grand hills came in sight as we moved south- 
 ward. As the night fell we saw men with flaming torches catching 
 fish and crabs in the ponds and by the banks of the shallow stream. 
 At 9.30 we reached Li-p'u, a town about five miles from our object. 
 Here inquiries were made as to the Christian's house at Great Valley. 
 ' Oh,' said one, ' we have heard of that man ; about thirty or forty 
 people are following him.' No one, however, could direct us surely 
 to his house, and as all would be in bed before we could arrive, we 
 reluctantly decided to sleep at Li-p'u, and got into a queer place, 
 partly open to the sky, where we slept upon two tables. At dawTi I 
 was up, and by 7.30 a.m. we reached Great Valley, and were cordially 
 welcomed. 
 
 " After a good wash and breakfast in the upper room rented by 
 the Christians {i.e. catechumens) as a school-room and chapel, I 
 began work, and from 9.30 till 4 p.m., save dinner-time, I was engaged 
 in questioning the candidates, and hearing them repeat what they had 
 learnt. Some knew the whole Catechism quite perfectly, and all had a 
 remarkable amount of Christian knowledge, and apparently earnest, 
 hearty faith. I almost tremble to think of the number. There were 
 nine men, five women, two boys, and two infants accepted. The 
 men were the three elder brothers of Tsiu (whom he so feared last 
 April), their three cousins on the father's side, a maternal cousin, and 
 two young men of other families. The women were Tsiu's wife and 
 sister, his second brother's wife, and the mother and the wife of one 
 of the cousins. The boys were the two eldest children, and the 
 infants the youngest children of Tsiu and his fourth brother respec- 
 tively. They wished all their children— that is to say, two girls in 
 one case, and two boys and a very young daughter-in law in the 
 other — to be baptized also ; but I deferred these, as too old to count 
 as infants, and too young to answer for themselves. One of the 
 adult candidates has a fierce father, who hates his earnest efforts to 
 keep holy the Lord's Day, and another has an uncle, who wishes to 
 compel his taking part in ancestral feasts ; but both seem firm in their 
 resolve. Sedgwick was greatly interested, and asked questions through 
 me. 
 
 " One of the women has a bad temper, and we hesitated long in her 
 
1 1 2 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 case. She spoke with singular earnestness, admitting her fault, and 
 not in the least objecting to its discussion, but asking minutely how 
 far anger might go without sin. ' May I cry if I am vexed ? May 
 I holloa at the children if they are naughty ? I do pray for the Holy 
 Spirits help!' I could not reject her, and she came very happily, 
 with her eldest boy and her baby. She repeated her lesson very 
 well, and is very intelligent. The old mother of the three cousins 
 spoke very warmly of the Saviour's love. Her memory, too, is 
 excellent. Her three sons can all read very fairly indeed. Their 
 ages are respectively thirty-seven, twenty-five, and twenty. The 
 second son, of thirty-five, still wavers. I quite hope that at least 
 one of these three may be a useful agent some day. 
 
 " At 4 P.M. we went for a walk, and, to the astonishment of the 
 people, cHmbed the highest peak in the neighbourhood — about 
 1, 800 feet high, I fancy — and with a grand view. We prayed (S. 
 and I) on the top for 'Great Valley Stream' lying at our feet. At 
 night we had prayers in the family hall, lent for the purpose. About 
 150 people were present, some old men, from a mile and a half off, 
 having come in on purpose. I spoke long on the Sabbath from the 
 Evening Lesson (St. Luke vi. i — 20), in connection with Creation 
 and Redemption. Some grumbling occurred from an opium-smoking 
 brother of a candidate : ' Well,' said he, * my brother is going to 
 join you, but I won't.' 
 
 " On Thursday, October 4th, I rose early, and had special prayer. 
 Soon Matthew Tai appeared, anxious. There were rumours of a 
 feast at midnight, and of plots to defeat the foreigner. M. T. and 
 others went out to reconnoitre, and soon came back, saying that one 
 candidate had been decoyed home by his father, and tied up to 
 prevent his baptism. I could not wait, and at 8 a.m. we held service 
 in the hall. Just as I began, in ran the escaped son, looking so 
 pleased. The neighbours had interceded, and got him released ; and 
 the father himself was outside the hall when we finished, and I had 
 a word with him. It was a solemn service. Oh, may it have been 
 owned and ratified in Heaven ! and may the inward and spiritual 
 grace accompany the baptized to the end ! We left immediately 
 after, got a bamboo-raft at Li-p'u, a small boat at Chu-ki, and so to 
 our own boat by 10 p.m., and home at last (on Friday night), after 
 the rapid walk from Lkiau [described elsewhere, just in time to be of 
 use in tending his dear wife, who, exhausted by nursing, had been 
 taken suddenly ill in a way that for the time occasioned great anxiety. 
 He proceeds : — ] Some persecution seems almost inevitable, and 
 
Appendix II. 113 
 
 the idea has tried me much. But I am able better to-day (October 
 8th), I trust, to commend them all to God, on whom they have 
 beheved." 
 
 In a subsequent letter, dated 2 7th October, my brother gives some 
 further information. He writes : — 
 
 " I have just returned from a trip into the country In the 
 
 boat, Matthew Tai read to me a very long letter just received 
 from Luke 'Tsiu, the leader of the band of twenty Christians, old 
 and young, at Great Valley. [Luke is the schoolmaster, whose con- 
 version took place in consequence of his accidental visit to the 
 neighbourhood of our preaching-room in the suburbs of Hang-chow.] 
 I had not heard of them for nearly three weeks since their baptism, 
 and I was rather anxious. It now appears that, on the occasion of 
 one of their great feasts — the 9th day of the 9th month — the gentry 
 and headmen of the village held a council of war ; and sent the 
 village constable to summon Luke before them. He declined to 
 go do\vn, telling the constable that, as he was guilty of no crime, he 
 could not be summoned in that way. Then two leading members of 
 the clan came up, and, with angry threats, ordered him to come. He 
 still refused ; * but,' said he, * if you, sirs, wish to hear this doctrine, 
 suppose you come to me, to our upper room.' [The room hired as 
 a school and worship-chamber.] They actually went, more than 
 twenty of them filling the room. They then, through a scholarly 
 spokesman, attacked Luke ; first, as to the unity of the Deity, and 
 then, as to Confucius and the Lord Jesus, [their respective claims 
 on a Chinaman's reverence]. Luke gives Matthew Tai his arguments, 
 which seem to have been both bold and good. He used his Bible 
 well ; and he says that, before his opponents came, he knelt and 
 ^prayed specially for the Holy Spirit's guidance. He also showed 
 them the Toleration Articles of the Treaty. 
 
 "Upon this they said: 'Well, at all events, you have joined the 
 foreigners ! ' ' How, when, and where ? ' was his reply. ' You 
 ought, at least, to have appeared before the Headmen.' 'Why,' he 
 rejoined, 'if I have not done wrong?' Then, after much altercation 
 amongst themselves, they one by one went down-stairs and dispersed ; 
 having failed, through God's great mercy, so far, to find cause for 
 violence. It seems to me a remarkable and cheering event ; though 
 one cannot tell what they may try next. But God will lovingly 
 guard His own ! I think it will be wise to leave Luke as much 
 
 I 
 
114 '^^^^ Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 alone as possible ; only having him up [to Hang-chow] for instruc- 
 tion from time to time/' 
 
 My brother's excursion had not reached as far as " Great Valley," 
 having been limited to a visit to Pondhead and the neighbouring 
 town of Heard's Weir. 
 
 G. E. M. 
 
III.— A CHINESE FLOWER BALLAD.* 
 Freely Translated and Annotated by G. E. Moule. 
 
 There is a popular moral ballad, in doggrel Chinese verse, entitled, 
 "The Precious Scroll of the Flower-names." It consists of twelve 
 stanzas of twelve lines each, commencing each with the name of a 
 flower which blossoms about the time of one of their annual feasts. 
 There are twenty-four of these feasts, some of them lunar, some which 
 depend upon the sun. 
 
 The twelve flowers are the Camellia, Apricot, Peach, Rose, Pome- 
 granate, Lotus, Balsam, Quey or Olea fragrans. Aster, Hibiscus, 
 Lichi (a southern fruit-tree), and Lammay, a delightfully fragrant 
 shrub i^Chimonanthes fragrans^ Williams). Of these, the Lotus, 
 Balsam, and Aster are herbaceous ; the other nine are shrubs or 
 trees. 
 
 Prefixed to the stanzas is an exhortation to the reader not to con- 
 found them with common tales or playbooks, but to read them out 
 seriously and clearly, so that all may hear and understand. Then 
 follows the invocation, " I betake myself to Amidabha Buddha " ; 
 — Amidabha, " the Buddha of the Western heaven," being the most 
 popular Buddha with Chinese worshippers. Next comes a couplet 
 to this effect : — 
 
 ** The fine Book of Flower-names is opened to-day ; 
 All Buddhas and Poosas be with us, we pray." 
 
 * Extracted from the Church Missionary Gleaner for October, 1877. 
 I 2 
 
1 16 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 Poosas are Buddhist saints (in Sanscrit, Bodhisattwa), who, in the 
 process of transmigration, are but one remove from the perfection of 
 Buddha. 
 
 The successive stanzas inculcate virtue in the different social 
 relations. For instance, the first reminds daughters-in-law of their 
 obligation to their husband's parents. Let them think that they in 
 turn may become mothers-in-law. Dutifulness at home wall be re- 
 garded by Lord Heaven, and is much better than pilgrimage to 
 Buddhist convents. 
 
 In the following stanzas, children, husbands and wives, brothers 
 and other relatives, neighbours, the rich, childless people, and other 
 classes are successively exhorted or condoled with. The wicked are 
 warned against insolence, and all are called to repentance and 
 conversion to Buddhism before it is too late. 
 
 The epilogue in four lines runs thus : — 
 
 " Now here this fine book of the Flower-names ends ; 
 Honour father and mother, my worshipful friends I 
 If this Flower-name lore you receive in your spirit, 
 To build Buddha's tower were not so great merit." 
 
 The ballad, printed in the cheapest mantier, sells for less than a 
 halfpenny, and is much read and learnt by heart. It occurred to us 
 that a simple Christian tract, cast in the same form, might become 
 popular, and if so, serve as a useful harbinger of other Christian 
 books. Our idea was readily caught by Matthew Tai, a native of 
 Ningpo, formerly an artist and public singer, but converted to the 
 faith, and baptized in 1875 at Hang-chow. He limited himself to a 
 hundred Hues, namely, four as a prologue, and eight for each of the 
 twelve months. The months are all named, and some of the feasts. 
 The Buddhist principles of his model are met by dissuasives, both in 
 the prologue and in the body of the poem. He appends a brief 
 prayer to God for pardon, protection, and salvation, together with a 
 few words on prayer, and on the words God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. 
 To crown his work, we persuaded him to design a title page, which 
 consists of a border of flowers enclosing two figures, a singer and a 
 
Appendix III. 1 1 7 
 
 flute-player, praising God. A native type-cutter and printer pub- 
 lished it for us in very nice style for the sum of a halfpenny (ten 
 chefi) a copy. It has since been reprinted at the Shanghai Mission 
 Press. 
 
 The native ballad and our Christian imitation are alike in Chinese 
 lines of seven syllables. Each syllable being an integral word, 1 
 found it easier to give the spirit and sense of the original in English 
 — line for line though not quite word for word — in a longer measure. 
 The Chinese lines are not rhymed throughout. Generally one 
 couplet in each stanza is rhymed. 
 
 The Chinese year is made up of twelve lunar months, an inter- 
 calary month being added once in four years. The year commences, 
 accordingly, on a different day from year to year, ranging from 
 January 23rd to February 20th. 
 
 Here follows the Christian ballad. 
 
 [The title on the wrapper is — 
 
 " A Fine Song to Awaken the World ! " 
 
 In small type are the words — 
 
 " {Let) the sound be heard on h'lghy* 
 
 with the name of our Hang-chow Mission Chapel, " Si?i-ih Dang," 
 Hall of one Faith, and a little square seal engraved, " Faith," sub- 
 joined.] 
 
 A SONG TO AWAKEN THE WORLD. 
 
 {A Flow er-fiame for each verse.) 
 
 When the Flower-name Song is first opened by you. 
 Be sure you part clearly the false from the true ; 
 And whoso would sing this world-wakening ditty. 
 To invoke Amidabha, it were a great pity. 
 
1 1 8 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Missiofi. 
 
 I. 
 
 In the first moon Camellia is budding so fair, 
 When all the world bids you a happy new year ; 
 And every one looks in this year to speed well, 
 But the old yearns transgressions they list not to tell. 
 They drink, and they stare at the lanterns^ so gay. 
 And their thought is of money, to gather each day. 
 But money can't ransom a life-time of sin; 
 After death the requital is sure to begin. 
 
 II. 
 In the second moon Apricot blows for mid-spring,^ 
 And the shops all so busy are new-opening. 
 To market and haven the merchants troop in, 
 And every one hoping the red gold to win. 
 Burning incense,^ all go life and luck to implore ; 
 O strange ! that sane men should dumb idols^ adore ! 
 They pray for good fortune, and know not 'tis ill ; 
 Such folk greatly anger the mighty God still. 
 
 III. 
 In the third moon the Peach-blossom smiles on the feast,^ 
 When simple and gentle to th' hill-side*^ all haste ; 
 At the tombs of their forefathers duly to bow. 
 Offer cates, and libations, and tinseF enow. 
 For they deem that this sacrifice proves a good son, 
 No matter how ill other duties are done. 
 Oh ! to follow the right, and from error keep clear ! 
 The main thing is truly our Lord God to fear. 
 
 ^ The Feast of Lanterns falls on the 15th of this moon, the lanterns being ex- 
 hibited for a few days before and after the festival. 
 
 ^ Mid-spring — lit., " Spring divides '' — one of the twenty-four annual feasts. 
 
 ^ Lit., " Men and maids bum incense, and pray for good fortune and long life." 
 Incense, a constant ceremony in Buddhist worship. 
 
 * "Dumb idols" — lit., "senseless Poosa." The term Poosa, or Buddhist saints, 
 being here, and commonly, applied to any object of worship represented by idols. 
 
 ^ "The feast," namely of 1 s'mg-min, is a solar one, but frequently falls in the third 
 month. It is the principal season for visiting and worshipping at the tombs. The 
 other is in autumn. 
 
 ^ " The hill-side" — lit., the tombs, which are chiefly in the hills. 
 
 '' " Tinsel," paper covered with pewter-foil, and folded to represent silver ingots 
 and coin. One of the colloquial names for the sacrifice is " soup and rice," from 
 two of the articles universally offered. The " libations " are of rice wine. 
 
Appendix III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the fourth moon sweet Roses with summer^ come in ; 
 The swains with main strength to plant paddy^ begin. 
 And they hope that the harvest this year will be good ; 
 But for winds and for showers^^ they 're beholden to God. 
 Since kind Heaven, like a father, sends food at our need, 
 Continual thanksgiving is but His meed. 
 But to run to the temples and Poosa to pray, 
 'Tis to dine at next door and thank over the way. 
 
 v. 
 In the fifth moon Pomegranate greets Midsummer's sun," 
 When each chapman his debtors is mindful to dun. 
 To pay our just debts we all know we are bound : 
 But to pay off our sin's debts, oh, who can be found ? 
 Don't go on in bewilderment sinning yet more, 
 But do, if you can, day by day, quit the score. 
 Your soul, while you think not, once summoned away, 
 Must pine in earth's prison full many a day. 
 
 VI. 
 
 In the sixth moon the Lotus^^ gleams fair from the lake ; 
 Honour father and mother for piety's^^ sake. 
 Thy mother toiled sore, though the air was ablaze, 
 To nurse and to feed thee through weary dog-days.^* 
 Thy parents' kind goodness thou ne'er wilt repay ; 
 And our Father in heav'n is far kinder than they. 
 
 ® L'lh-hia, " commence summer," is one of the four chief festivals. It is the signal 
 for beginning rice cultivation. 
 
 ^ Paddy, an Indian word for the rice plant, is dibbled into the prepared and flooded 
 field, from the seed plots which are made and sown about this time. 
 
 10 « vV^inds in season and rains genial," a common phrase inscribed, f.f ., on the 
 roofs of temples and on votive tablets before the idols. 
 
 " Tivan-yang, " perpendicular sun," the name of a feast, the fifth of the fifth 
 moon, approximately Midsummer. It is one of the three annual pay-days. 
 
 '2 This month is called after the Lotus, which, blooming first now, waves its 
 beautiful pink or white blossoms over pond and lake till the frosts come on. The 
 literal version of the phrase is, " the Lotus shines through the water's heart," /.<?., by 
 reflection : an idea which is continued metaphorically in the reciprocal duty of parents 
 and children. 
 
 '^ Piety, i.e., filial piety, one of the five virtues. (See i Tim. v. 4.) 
 
 '* " Dog-days," Fuh-tien " brooding weather," when the strong heat broods, as it 
 were, on the earth. 
 
1 20 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 Ungrateful to Heaven, perdition 's our doom \ 
 Yet Jesus's suretyship lightens the gloom. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In the seventh moon Balsam-flowers^^ redden the ground ; 
 When the devil lays snares, simple souls to impound. 
 Then in street and in lane they say penitent prayer,^^ 
 And heaps of bright tinsel blaze up in the air. 
 Unthinking, high Heaven's just wrath we call down ; 
 Choosing error for truth, sure we merit His frown. 
 If the world its vain customs will never forego, 
 There 's a fiery duAgeon awaits them below. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In the eighth moon sweet Quey flowers^^ perfume the feast, 
 When the pink of our scholars go in to the test ; ^^ 
 Hoping well to high office through learning to come, 
 Gild their forefathers' name, lift the old house at home.^^ 
 But the glory of this world flies vainly away ; 
 'Tis a stage, and mere puppets we 're acting our play.^*^ 
 Yet obey Heaven's edict, trust Jesus's word. 
 And win joy evermore in the House of the Lord. 
 
 '* The Balsam, or Phoenix-fairy, springs up freely year after year in crevices of 
 the pavement in temple courts and similar places. 
 
 *^ Cholera and other epidemics prevail sadly in this month, and are attributed to 
 the malice of forlorn ghosts, for whose repose services are accordingly performed in 
 all parts of the city. These include " penitential forms" and offerings of food placed 
 on tables in the streets, paper clothes suspended from the walls, and tinsel money 
 burnt by way of conveying it into Hades. 
 
 '■^ Sluey-hnuay or Olea fragrans, a delightful shrub, scents the air everywhere about 
 the time of the mid-autumn feast. It is associated with the literary profession, and 
 in fact comes into flower at the season when the periodical examinations are held in 
 each provincial capital twice in every three years. 
 
 '^ Lit., " Everywhere the Flowering-talents (Baccalaurei) go up to the provincial 
 arena." This "arena" at Hang-chow receives as many as ten or twelve thousand 
 "bachelors" at each examination. A limited number, only about a hundred, of 
 masters' degrees are distributed on each occasion. 
 
 '^ Lit., " To illustrate their ancestors, and glorify their own gate-wall." Before 
 the court-yard wall, in which is the chief gate of the house, graduates of the second 
 degree are allowed to erect a pair of flag-staves in token of their degree. 
 
 ^^ In China Punch and Judy is called " the little theatre." This is the figure in 
 the verse. The line reads literally, " Just like a play acted by puppets." 
 
Appefidix III. 1 2 1 
 
 IX. 
 
 In the ninth moon gay Aster^i blooms ; winter is near ; 
 And their warm wadded clothes high and low must prepare. 
 All we ask for is victuals and clothing enow ; 
 When we 're full we reck little how swift the days go. 
 But next year, when the feast of Two Nines^^ comes again, 
 Wlio can say that this body '11 be living here then ? 
 Can you tell in the morn what at eve shall befall ? 
 To repent is too late when death 's come once for all. 
 
 X. 
 
 Hibiscuses in blossom ! tenth moon's Little Spring ! 
 
 Now home the rich harvest loads briskly they bring. 
 
 Fill the barn, feed the body — there 's all our concern ; 
 
 To nourish our spirits, ah ! when shall we learn ? '^* 
 
 Pray you, sirs, to seek Heaven betimes now apply ; 
 
 Find a moment to heed the good news from the sky. 
 
 Faith in Jesus's Gospel from sin can release. 
 
 Bring us safe to Heaven's hall, fill our souls with sweet peace. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Th' eleventh moon opens the sweet Lammay^^ bloom ; 
 Be you needy or rich, winter 's certain to come.^^ 
 If you 've gold in your purse, wear your sables so fine ; 
 But poor labouring folk at the snow-fall repine. 
 
 2' Aster comes first and then Chrysanthemum, just as autumn is beginning in 
 earnest, and the morning dews begin to suggest hoar frost. One name, kyohy is 
 given to both flowers in Chinese. Aster suited our line best. 
 
 "^ The ninth of the ninth month, called Chung-yang feast. 
 
 ^ Hibiscus, a free-growing shru-b, with a crowd of pretty pink or white blossoms, 
 something like hollyhocks. The lovely autumn weather gives the name, " Little 
 Spring," to this season, like our own Allhallows summer. The great rice harvest 
 begins now. 
 
 2* These two lines run literally, '* Store up grain, ward off famine, 'tis (all their) 
 concern. (They) care but for the fleshly body, care not for the soul." 
 
 ^ Lammay, or "Waxen Almond, is a very fragrant wax-coloured flower, that 
 blossoms before its leaves on a shrub reckoned by the Chinese as a kind of flowering 
 almond. Its botanical name is given by Dr. Williams as Ch'nmnanthes fragram^ and 
 it is really no kin to the almond or May. 
 
 2^ The winter solstice, a time of distress, both because of the cold and the near 
 approach of the reckoning day at the end of the year. 
 
122 The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 The sorrows of this life will soon pass away, 
 But the state of hereafter lasts many a day.^^ 
 While there 's nobody thinks, " What a sinner am I ! " 
 Swiftly doomsday comes on when 'tis too late to fly. 
 
 XII. 
 
 In the twelfth moon the Almond-tree^^ spreads its sweet flowers \ 
 
 The new year and Heaven's kingdom come fast with the hours. 
 
 As the creditor reckons our debt's full amount,^^ 
 
 So God of our souls for life's sins takes account. 
 
 And can one of the Poosa^^ my soul's debt discharge ? 
 
 Or a holy man bail me and set me at large ? 
 
 No ! there 's no one but Jesus, His cross, and His worth, 
 
 Can save and convey me to heaven from earth. 
 
 On the last leaf of our little book follows, "A Convenient Form, of 
 Prayer," with this note : "At all times and places it is allowable to 
 pray, with quiet mind and sincere intentions. In prayer there is no 
 need to use incense, candles, or the like (absolute requisites in 
 Buddhism). Only one should rely on Jesus." The prayer reads : 
 " I thank God for protecting me. I pray God to pity me, forgive 
 my sins, grant me in this life clothes, food, and peace ; and, besides, 
 give me the Holy Spirit to guide me from error to truth, to believe in 
 and obey Jesus, so as to save my soul, and after death attain eternal 
 bliss. My prayer is all in dependence on Jesus' merit. This is my 
 sincere heart's- wish." 
 
 The principal words in this prayer are then briefly explained 
 thus : — 
 
 " Shang-tl (God) in this form is the Lord Creator of heaven, earth, and all things, 
 
 ^ Lit., " We know not, the future world, how we shall fare." Our version ventures 
 to express the implied length of the state after death. 
 
 '^ " M^)'-flowers," i.e., white and pink varieties of the double almond or apricot, 
 richly fragrant, open now. 
 
 '^ The last days of the year are the great season for settling accounts. After 
 New Year's day no bill is presented till next quarter-day, 
 
 •^^ Poosa, saints of Buddhism ; holy men, sages, or saints of Confucianism. 
 
Appendix III. 123 
 
 Himself without beginning or ending. It does not mean Tu-hivang Shang-tl and the 
 other (idols) that we are accustomed to hear of. 
 
 " Jesus is God's only-begotton Son ; who, under our Chinese Han dynasty, was 
 born into the world and made man, and in man's stead paid the ransom of sin ; 
 therefore is He called Jesus, a name which means the Lord who saves the world. 
 
 " The Holy Spirit is spoken of with reference to the Three Persons in the one 
 Divine substance. His name implies His power to convert men from error to 
 truth." 
 
 Matthew Tai is a Ningpo artist about forty-five years of age. 
 
 Some twenty-five years ago he made, at the request of his friend 
 Sing Engteh, now a Christian Presbyter, but then, like himself, an 
 artist, some clever sketches of Chinese trades and occupations, after- 
 wards published by the Rev. R. Cobbold in his "Pictures of the 
 Chinese, drawn by themselves." Eng-teh, not long after, became a 
 Christian, but Matthew had yet many years to spend in heathenism. 
 His occupation as an artist and musician combined proving lucrative, 
 he became dissipated, and indulged in opium-smoking and wine, 
 without, however, reducing his family to utter poverty. 
 
 In 1 86 1 he fell into the hands of the Taiping rebels, and remained 
 a captive for many months. During this time some Christian books, 
 found in the house occupied by his captor, attracted his attention ; 
 and subsequently other circumstances seem to have given him un- 
 easiness under his conviction of sin and apprehension respecting the 
 future. He was known to one of our Catechists, Miao, whom he 
 respected, and who used to exhort him, but without immediate effect. 
 Some ten years ago he visited Hang-chow, then recently freed from 
 the rebel scourge ; and with his young son as apprentice, began a 
 prosperous business there. At length, about the year 1873, alarmed 
 at the growing expense of his opium-pipe, he resolved to leave it oft', 
 and had succeeded in doing so about the beginning of 1874. It was 
 in June of this year that his meeting me in the street reminded him 
 of almost forgotten impressions, and led him to seek an interview. 
 In this he expressed his conviction of the truth of the Gospel and of 
 his need of it as a sinner, and I had to check his eager desire for 
 
124 '^^^ 5/^rj of the Cheh-kiang Mission. 
 
 speedy baptism by telling him of the " cost " of discipleship, and ad- 
 vising him to seek in God's Word a fuller knowledge of the Saviour 
 before he pledged himself unreservedly to be His soldier and servant. 
 He began at once to act on his belief by refusing to paint the effigies 
 at ancestral rites — hitherto a large proportion of his business — and 
 also by endeavouring to leave off wine, as he had already left off 
 opium. 
 
 After some seven or eight months' trial I baptized him, with his 
 young apprentice-son John. A few months later his wife, too, was 
 baptized by the name of Mary, so that they are now an united family 
 of Christians. John has been a Christian pupil for the past two 
 years. His father, after continuing his trade for half a year, was 
 taken as a probationary Catechist ; and both father and son have 
 shown much zeal in making the Gospel known. They are maintained 
 by private friends in England. 
 
 It was whilst still living by his trade that Matthew brought me one 
 day a tiny sketch of the Five foolkh Virgins shut out. Its Chinese 
 air and clever drawing pleased me, and I suggested that he should 
 illustrate other parables in the same way. He has supplied several 
 such drawings as illustrations to a Chinese periodical, published by an 
 American missionary at Shanghai ; and a selection of them were 
 published in the CImrch Missio?iary Gleaner of 1877. 
 
IV.— CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE CHE-KIANG 
 MISSION. 
 
 1836 Rev. E. B. Squire sent out on a mission of inquiry to China. 
 
 1842 Treaty of Nankin opened five ports — Canton, Amoy, Fuh-chow, 
 
 Ningpo, and Shanghai ; and ceded Hong-kongto Great Britain. 
 
 1843 Anonymous gift of ;^5,ooo to start China Mission. 
 
 1844 Revs. G. Smith and T. M'Clatchie sailed for China, June 4th. 
 
 1845 M'Clatchie commenced Shanghai Mission. 
 Smith visited Ningpo and other ports. 
 
 1848 Rev. R. H. Cobbold and W. A. Russell began Ningpo Mission, 
 
 May 13th. 
 
 1849 Rev. C. Smith consecrated Bishop of Victoria, Hong-kong. 
 
 1850 Rev. F. F. Gough to Ningpo. 
 
 1 85 1 Easter-day. First two converts at Ningpo baptized. 
 Romanized colloquial introduced in Mission schools. 
 
 1853 Rev. J. S. Burdon joined Shanghai Mission. 
 Bao Yuoh-yi, first Ningpo catechist. 
 
 1854 Four Gospels and two Epistles published in Roman colloquial. 
 
 1855 Hy the end of this year sixty converts enrolled. 
 
 1857 Sanpoh district, near Ningpo, occupied. 
 Rev. R. H. Cobbold quits China. 
 
 1858 Treaty of Tien-tsin opened China and proclaimed religious liberty. 
 Rev. G. E. Moule to Ningpo. 
 
 Bishop Smith's visitation — 32 confirmed. 
 
 1859 Many conversions in Ningpo Mission. 
 
 Burdon to Hang-chow; compelled to retire in i860 by renewed 
 hostilities. 
 
1 26 The Story of the Cheh-kimig Mission. 
 
 i860 Tsz'-k'i (Z-ky'i) occupied. 
 
 Portions of Prayer-Book published in the Ningpo colloquial. 
 
 Gough opened Opium Refuge at Ningpo. 
 
 Rev. T. S. Fleming to Ningpo. 
 
 At the end of the year 140 baptized persons, 84 communicants. 
 
 1861 Rev. A. E. Moule to Ningpo. 
 
 Burdon and Fleming began Mission at Shaou-hing. 
 Shaou-hing and Ningpo taken by Taiping Insurgents. 
 
 1862 Hang-chow taken, and nearly all Che-kiang held by Taipings. 
 Ningpo re-taken in May. 
 
 Burdon to Peking, where he founded a Mission. 
 Stephen Dzing died June 5th. 
 
 1863 Jan. 1 8th, first baptisms at Eastern Lake. 
 Fleming compelled by ill-health to quit China. 
 Bishop Smith's visitation — 33 confirmed. 
 
 1864 Mission begun in the Western Hills. 
 
 G. E. Moule to Hang-chow — recommenced Mission. 
 Rev. J. D. Valentine to Ningpo. 
 
 1865 End of the year — 292 baptized, 77 communicants. 
 
 1866 Whit Sunday. Six converts baptized at Hang-chow. 
 
 1867 Rev. J. Bates to Ningpo. 
 
 Rev. H. Gretton to Hang-chow. 
 
 During the year 33 baptized. Communicants 155. 
 
 1868 Bishop Alford's visitation — 91 confirmed. 
 
 1869 Boarding schools for children of Christians fairly started at Ningpo ; 
 
 also a temporary Opium Refuge. 
 
 1870 Gretton re-opens Shaou-hing Mission. 
 
 Rev. R. Palmer, Rev. A. Elwin, and Miss Laurence to Ningpo. 
 Massacre of R. C. Christians at Tien-tsin. 
 Elwin to Hang-chow. 
 1871" Dr. Gait to Hang-chow. Hang-chow Church opened. 
 
 1872 December 15^— Rev. W. A. Russell consecrated first Missionary 
 
 Bishop in North China. 
 
 1873 Bishop Russell's first visitation — 126 confirmed. 
 Opium Refuge at Hang-chow. 
 
 1874 December 20th — Interesting baptisms at Shaou-hing. 
 
 1875 June 6th — Sing Engteh ordained deacon at Kwun-hse-wei, Sanpoh. 
 
 1876 Rev. J. C. Hoare to Ningpo. 
 
 First meeting of Ningpo District Church Committee. 
 
Statistics, &c. 127 
 
 1876 June nth, Trinity Sunday— Ordination of Wong Yiu-kwong, 
 
 'O Kwong-yiao, and Dzing Ts-sing at Ningpo. 
 
 1877 Rev. J. H. Sedgwick to Hang-chow from Hong-kong. 
 Interesting work at Great Valley, 70 miles from Hang-chow, 17 
 
 adults baptized. 
 
 PRESENT STAFF OF C.M.S. IN THE CHEH-KIANG 
 PROVINCE. 
 (The year annexed to each name is the date of first departure for China.) 
 Ningpo Right Rev. Bishop W. A. Russell, D.D., 1847. 
 
 Rev. F. F. Cough, M.A., 1849. 
 
 Rev. J. Bates, 1866. 
 
 Rev. J. C. Hoare, B.A., 1875. 
 
 Rev. Sing Eng-teh, Nati've (ordained 1875). 
 
 Rev. Wong Yiu-Kwong, '\ 
 
 Rev. 'O Kwong-Yiao, \-Nati'ues (ordained 1876). 
 
 Rev. Dzing Ts-Sing, ) 
 
 Miss Matilda Laurence, 1869. 
 Hang-choiv . .Rev. George E. Moule, B.A., 1857 (^^ home). 
 
 Rev. Arthur E. Moule, 1861. 
 
 Rev. Arthur El win, 1870 {at home). 
 
 Rev. J. H. Sedgwick, 1874. 
 
 Dr. James Gait, 187 1. 
 Shaou-hing. .Rev. J. D. Valentine, 1863. 
 
 Rev. R. Palmer, 1870. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE CHEH-KIANG MISSION. 
 
 Native Native 
 
 Christian Christian Native Native 
 
 Teachers. Adherents. Communicants. Scholars- 
 
 Ningpo and out-stations 24 478 245 168 
 
 Hang-chow 3 58 29 28 
 
 Shaou-hing 2 29 14 14 
 
 Total 29 565 288 
 
 210 
 
 [N.B. — These statistics are for 1876. Later returns are not yet com- 
 plete, except for Hang-choiv, ivhich shozv 6 Natiz^e Christian teachers, 
 102 adherents, 36 communicants.'] 
 
LONDON : 
 Printed by Jas. TruscotT & SON, 
 Suffolk Lane, City. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA