\N>^*^'i 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. ^' 
 
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 Purchased by the Hammill Missionary Fund. 
 
 BV 3427 .G5 A3 1893 
 Gilmour, James, 1843-1891 
 ■ James Gilmour of Mongolia 
 
 Number 
 
JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 

James Gilmoi'r of Mongolia 
 
 HIS DIARIES LETTERS AND REPORTS 
 
 EDITED AND ARRANGED r,Y 
 
 RICHARD LOVETT, M.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'NORWEGIAN nCTlRES' ETC 
 
 WITH THREE PORTRAITS, TWO MAPS AXD 
 FOUR ILLVSTRATIOXS 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 56 Paternoster Row, 65 St Paul's Chukchyard 
 1893 
 
Christ, in Thee my soul hath found, 
 And found in Thee alone, 
 
 The peace, the joy I sought so long. 
 The bliss till now unknown. 
 
 1 sighed for rest and happiness, 
 
 I yearned for them, not Thee ; 
 But while I passed my Saviour by, 
 His love laid hold on me. 
 
 Now none but Christ can satisfy. 
 
 None other name for me ; 
 There 's love, and life, and lasting joy, 
 
 Lord Jesus, found in Thee. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The object of this volume is to enable the reader to appre- 
 ciate in some degree the life-work and the character of one 
 of the greatest missionaries of the nineteenth century. 
 James Gilmour was known to a very wide circle of friends, 
 and no one came within the sphere of his personal influence 
 without learning to love him. By his book Among the 
 Mongols, published in 1882, he became known to a still 
 wider circle, and by it he brought the claims of foreign 
 missionary work before the minds of many who had 
 hitherto given little thought to it, and enabled them to 
 form a juster estimate of the quality of the men who were 
 giving themselves to such service. During his two fur- 
 loughs, in 1882 and in 1889, he visited many of the Con- 
 gregational Churches of Great Britain, and wherever he 
 went he imparted to his large and numerous audiences 
 much of his own burning enthusiasm and robust faith and 
 confident hope in God. 
 
 The responsibility of attempting to catch and place on 
 permanent record the essential qualities of a strong and 
 
6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 versatile personality like his is very great. It is rendered 
 even more so by the impossibility of setting forth the true 
 success of his life in long lists of converts, and in wide 
 areas of heathenism brought under the sway and power of 
 the Gospel. Success of this kind was in the good provi- 
 dence of God largely denied him. And yet this book will 
 have altogether failed in its purpose if it docs not enable 
 the reader to see very clearly that success in the highest 
 and best sense James Gilmour attained to the full. He has 
 set before this generation a noble example of absolute 
 devotion to duty, of self-sacrifice that shrunk from no cost 
 in the service of the Mongols and the Chinese, of steady 
 perseverance in a hard pathway, even when the eagerly 
 longed and prayed-for tokens of progress were not vouch- 
 safed. 
 
 Hence the real secret and value of his life — as it is in 
 the case of every strong life — consists much more in what 
 he ivas^ than in what he did. ' As the man is, so is his 
 strength,' and James Gilmour's bow abode in strength 
 because he had cultivated his mind, because he had dis- 
 ciplined his spirit by prayer, by constant study of Scripture, 
 by close walking with God, and because, when he gave 
 himself to the service of Mongolia, he kept nothing back. 
 
 This being so, it has been felt a wise and right plan 
 to let him tell the story of his life's experience and work 
 in his own words wherever possible. He was very methodi- 
 cal in his habits, and regular and full in correspondence. 
 Almost all his regular correspondents so valued his letters 
 
PREFACE 7 
 
 as to preserve them with great care. Consequently a large 
 mass of manuscript material has been entrusted to the 
 author. James Gilmour 's Diary, very full in many parts, 
 covers his whole missionary life. His reports sent home 
 to the London Missionary Society were often very ela- 
 borate, and rich in pictures of Mongol life and thought. 
 To his inner circle of relatives and friends he unveiled 
 his very heart, and a large number of these letters have 
 been freely placed at his biographer's service. Ifence it 
 has been possible very often to give not merely the out- 
 ward record and the official story of work done and suffer- 
 ing endured, but to unfold side by side the inner story of 
 his heart — his hopes, his fears, his disappointments, his in- 
 terpretation of life's experience — and in these portions, we 
 venture to believe, the true benefit of his life for the reader 
 will be found. He had no idea, of course, when writing 
 the Diary and the private letters that they would ever appear 
 in print, and they exhibit no evidence of painstaking com- 
 position. The judgments passed upon men and things 
 have none of that careful balancing which characterizes so 
 much of what is written for the press. But his writings 
 possess a far richer quality than the highest literary finish. 
 They come straight from his heart, and they enable us to 
 see him exactly as he was. 
 
 James Gilmour was in many respects a strong man. He 
 had very clear and decided views. These not unfrequently 
 differed from opinions held by fellow-workers. The diypr-j. 
 gence of view sometimes occurred upon matters of grayest,: 
 
8 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 importance, as, for example, the whole conduct and policy 
 of missionary enterprise in China. In all such cases the 
 author's aim has been to enable the reader to know exactly 
 w^hat James Gilmour said and believed ; and this is a further 
 reason why, wherever possible, such views are set forth in 
 his own words. 
 
 This is an age which likes large and quick returns. 
 Even in the field of missionary enterprise there is often an 
 impatience of work that does not obviously and demonstra- 
 tively trumpet forth its achievements. It is well, perhaps, to 
 be reminded, as we are by the life of James Gilmour, that 
 God not unfrequently calls — that it may be part of His 
 gracious purpose to call — His servants to lives in which 
 faith has to endure the severest strain, and in which the 
 highest glory is the bright example set before those who 
 are to follow and to gather in the harvest. China and 
 Mongolia will be won for Jesus Christ. Buddhism will 
 lose its hold upon the Mongols, and they too shall stretch 
 out their hands to God. But it will not be done in a day. 
 It will come only after the Church of Christ as a whole 
 sets itself to the great enterprise with the courage, the 
 steadfastness, the self-denial, the quenchless love to Christ 
 and to men exemplified in the whole career of James 
 Giimour. 
 
 The author has to acknowledge most valuable help 
 from many quarters in the preparation of this memoir ot 
 his old_cpll_ege^friend. His. thanks are due first of all to 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 Mr. Alexander Gilmour and his two brothers, for much 
 most useful information, and for entrusting to him a very- 
 large collection of letters written to different members of 
 the family. Also to the Rev. S. E. Meech of Peking for 
 securing and sending on promptly the eighteen vclumes of 
 Diary, accompanying them with most helpful reco\ ections 
 of his own, and a number of highly characteristic letters 
 written by Mr. Gilmour to himself and the Rev. G. Owen 
 of Peking. Old student friends — the Rev. J. Paterson of 
 Airdrie, the Rev. T. T. Matthews of Madagascar, the Rev. 
 H. W. Florance of Lisburn — and many others have sent 
 letters, and in some cases supplied special reminiscences. 
 The Directors of the London Missionary Society generously 
 placed the whole official correspondence from the pen of 
 Mr. Gilmour, in their possession, at his disposal. Dr. 
 Reynolds of Cheshunt College and Dr. Smith of Tientsin 
 have contributed some pages of very helpful recollections, 
 and the Rev. T. Bryson not only supplied some helpful 
 facts, but also sent home the negatives fiom which two of 
 the portraits have been prepared. Many others have 
 allowed the author to inspect and make extracts from 
 letters ; and to read others which, if not suitable for inclu- 
 sion in the life, have \et enabled him to catch some features 
 of character or to learn some facts not elsewhere preserved. 
 The Rev. W. Hopkyn Recs, since 1883 a fellow-worker in 
 the North China Mission, has read a large portion of the 
 volume in proof, and the Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson has 
 looked carefully at special sections of it. 
 
lo JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Mr. Gilmour's papers printed in the Chinese Recorder 
 have also been drawn upon, and in addition to the use 
 made of them in the body of the book, three have been 
 printed in extenso in the appendix. They have been 
 selected partly because they arc excellent specimens of 
 Mr. Gilmour's literary style, and partly because of the 
 exceptional interest of the subject-matter. 
 
 The portrait which stands as frontispiece represents 
 him in the native dress which he invariably wore in 
 Eastern Mongolia ; it was taken only a few days before his 
 last illness. The maps and other illustrations will, it is 
 hoped, aid the reader in following the Mongolian journeys 
 and in realising more accurately some of the conditions of 
 his life and work. 
 
 It only remains to commend the work to Him whom 
 James Gilmour fervently loved, and faithfully served. May 
 He cause this life to redound to His glory, to the develop- 
 ment of Christian life, and to the furtherance of that great 
 missionary enterprise so close to the heart of the servant 
 He has called home to Himself! 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 HAPTER PACE 
 
 I. Early Years and Education 15 
 
 II. Beginning Work 46 
 
 III. Mongolian Apprenticeship 55 
 
 iV. The First Campaign in Mongolia . . . . 88 
 
 V. Marriage 98 
 
 VI. 'In Journeyings often, in Perils of Rivers' . . 105 
 
 VII. The Visit to England in 1882 134 
 
 VIII. Sunshine and Shadow 154 
 
 IX. A Change of Field 176 
 
 X. Personal Characteristics as Illustrated p.y 
 
 Letters to Relatives and Friends . . . . 228 
 
 XI. Closing Labours 256 
 
 XII. The Last Days 298 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. A Chinese Execution in Mongolia . . . .313 
 
 II. Chinese Emigration 320 
 
 III. The Mongolian Language 327 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Portrait of James Gilmour from a Photograph 
 
 TAKEN IN Tientsin on April 1891 . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Portrait of James Gilmour when a Student at 
 
 Glasgow University To face p. 12 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Mongol Encampment 109 
 
 A Mongol Camel Cart 139 
 
 A Chinese Mule Litter 156 
 
 James Gilmour Equipped for his Walking Expedition 
 IN Mongolia in February 1884 159 
 
 James Gilmour's Tent 245 
 
 Portrait of James Gilmour from a Photograph taken 
 AT Tientsin in his Ordinary Chinese Costume 
 
 To face p. 192 
 
 MAPS 
 
 1. Map Illustrating James Gilmour's Journeys on the 
 
 Great Plain of Mongolia 54 
 
 2. Map Illustrating James Gilmour's Labours in Eastern 
 
 Mongolia , 179 
 
For readers of James Gilmour oj Mongolia not familiar 
 with Among the Mongols, a new Edition of that Work 
 has been prepared, bound uniformly with this Volume, 
 and with the Map of Mongolia inserted which was 
 omitted from the popular Half-crown Edition. The 
 published price is Three Shillings and Sixpence. 
 
James GiliMour of Mongolia 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 
 
 James Gilmour, of Mongolia, the son of James Gilmour 
 and Elizabeth Pettigrew his wife, was born at Cathkin on 
 Monday, June 12, 1843. He was the third in a family 
 of six sons, all but one of whom grew up to manhood. 
 His father was in very comfortable circumstances, and 
 consequently James Gilmour never had the struggle with 
 poverty through which so many of his great countrymen 
 have had to pass. Cathkin, an estate of half a dozen 
 farms in the parish of Carmunnock, is only five miles from 
 Glasgow, and was owned by Humphrey Ewing Maclae, 
 a retired India merchant, who resided in the substantial 
 mansion-house on the estate. There were also the houses 
 of a few residents, and a smithy and wright's workshops, 
 for the convenience of the surrounding district. James 
 Gilmour's father was the occupant of the wright's shop, as 
 his father had been before him. 
 
 His brother John, one of three who have survived him, 
 has furnished the following interesting sketch of the family 
 life in which James Gilmour was trained, and to which he 
 
1 6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MOXGOLIA 
 
 owed so much of the charm and power which he mani- 
 fested in later years : — 
 
 ' Our grandfather, Matthew Gihnour, combined the 
 trades of mason and wright, working himself at both as 
 occasion required ; and our father, James Gilmour, con- 
 tinued the combination in his time in a modified degree, 
 gradually discarding the mason trade and developing the 
 Wright's. Grandmother (father's mother) was a woman 
 of authority, skill, and practical usefulness among the little 
 community in which she resided. In cases requiring 
 medical treatment, she was always in request ; and in 
 order to obtain the lymph pure for the vaccination of 
 children she would take it herself direct from the cow. 
 She was also a neat and skilful needlewoman. 
 
 * Matthew Gilmour and his wife were people of strict 
 integrity and Christian living. They walked regularly 
 every Sunday the five miles to the Congregational Church 
 in Glasgow, though there were several places of worship 
 within two miles of their residence. I have often heard 
 the old residents of the steep and rough country road they 
 used to take for a short cut when nearing home tell how 
 impressed they have been by the sight of the worthy couple 
 and their family wending their way along in the dark 
 winter Sabbath evenings by the light of a hand-lantern. 
 Our parents continued the connection with the same body 
 of worshippers in Glasgow as long as they resided in Cath- 
 kin, being members of Dr. Ralph Wardlaw's church. It 
 was under his earnest eloquence, and by his wise pastoral 
 care, we were trained. 
 
 ' The distance of our home from the place of worship 
 did not admit of our attending as children any other than 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION xf 
 
 the regular Sabbath services ; but we were not neglected 
 in this respect at home, so far as it lay in our parents' ability 
 to help us. We regularly gathered around our mother's 
 knee, reading the impressive little stories found in such 
 illustrated booklets as the Teachers Offering, the Child's 
 Companion, the Children's Missionary Record (Church of 
 Scotland), the Tract Magazine, and Watts' Divine Songs 
 for Children. These readings were always accompanied 
 with touching serious comments on them by mother, 
 which tended very considerably to impress the lessons 
 contained in them on our young hearts. I remember how 
 she used to add : " Wouldn't it be fine if some of you, when 
 you grow up, should be able to write such nice little stories 
 as these for children, and do some good in the world in 
 that way ! " I have always had an idea that James' love of 
 contributing short articles from China and Mongolia to the 
 children's missionary magazines at home was due to these 
 early impressions instilled into his mind by his mother. 
 Father, too, on Sabbath evenings, generally placed the 
 " big " Bible (Scott and Henry's) on the table, and read 
 aloud the comments therein upon some portion of Scripture 
 for our edification and entertainment. During the winter 
 week-nights some part of the evening was often spent in 
 reading aloud popular books then current, such as Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin. 
 
 ' Family worship, morning and evening, wa? also a most 
 regular and sacred observance in our house, and consisted 
 of first, asking a blessing ; second, singing twelve lines 
 of a psalm or paraphrase, or a hymn from Wardlaw's 
 Hymn-book ; third, reading a chapter from the Old Testa- 
 ment in the mornings, and from the New in the evenings ; 
 
 B 
 
18 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 and fourth, prayer. The chapters read were taken day by 
 day in succession, and at the evening worship we read two 
 verses each all round. This proved rather a trying ordeal 
 for some of the apprentices, one or more of whom we 
 usually had boarding with us, or to a new servant-girl, as 
 their education in many cases had not been of too liberal 
 a description. But they soon got more proficient, and if it 
 led them to nothing higher, it was a good educational help. 
 These devotional exercises were not common in the dis- 
 trict in the mornings, and were apt to be broken in upon 
 by callers at the wright's shop ; but that was never enter- 
 tained as an excuse for curtailing them. I suppose people 
 in the district got to know of the custom, and avoided 
 making their calls at a time when they would have to 
 wait some little while for attention. Our parents, however, 
 never allowed this practice or their religious inclinations to 
 obtrude on their neighbours ; all was done most unas- 
 sumingly and humbly, as a matter of everyday course. 
 
 ' Our maternal grandfather, John Pettigrew by name, 
 was a farmer and meal-miller on the estate of Cathkin, 
 and was considered a man of sterling worth and integrity. 
 Having had occasion to send his minister, the parson of 
 Carmunnock parish, some bags of oatmeal from his mill, 
 the minister suspected from some cause or other that he had 
 got short weight or measure. The worthy miller was rather 
 nettled at being thus impeached by his spiritual overseer, 
 and that same night proceeded to the manse with the 
 necessary articles required for determining the accuracy of 
 the minister's suspicions. When this was done, it was found 
 there remained something to the good, instead of a de- 
 ficiency ; this the miller swung over his shoulder in a bag 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 19 
 
 and took back with him to the mill, as a lesson to the 
 crestfallen divine to be more careful in future about chal- 
 lenging the integrity of his humble parishioner's transactions 
 
 * While James was quite a child the family removed 
 to Glasgow, where our father entered into partnership 
 with his brother Alexander as timber merchants. During 
 this stay in Glasgow mother's health proved very un- 
 satisfactory, and latterly both she and father having been 
 prostrated and brought to death's door by a malignant 
 fever, it was decided to relinquish the partnership and 
 return to their former place in the country. James was 
 five years old at that time. When he was between seven 
 and eight he was sent with his older brothers to the new 
 Subscription School in Bushyhill, Cambuslang, a distance 
 of two miles. Here he remained till he was about twelve, 
 when he and I were sent to Gorbals Youths' School in 
 Grecnsidc Street, Glasgow. We had thus five miles to go 
 morning and evening, but we had season-tickets for the 
 railwa}^ part of the distance, viz. between Rutherglen and 
 Glasgow. Thomas Neil was master of this school. We 
 were in the private room, rather a privileged place, com- 
 pared with the rest of the school, seeing we received the 
 personal attentions of Mr. Neil, and were almost free from 
 corporal punishment, which was not by any means the 
 case in the public rooms of the school — Mr. Neil being, I 
 was going to say, a terror to evildoers, but he was in fact a 
 terror to all kinds of doers, from the excitability of his 
 temper and general sternness. 
 
 ' Here James usually kept the first or second place in / 
 the class, which was a large one ; and if he happened to be 
 turned to the bottom (an event which occurred pretty often 
 
20 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 to all the members of the class with Mr. Neil), he would 
 determinedly endeavour to stifle a tearful little " cry," thus 
 demonstrating the state of his feelings at being so abased. 
 But he never remained long at the bottom ; like a cork 
 sunk in water, he would rise at the first opportunity to his 
 natural level at the top of the class. It was because of his 
 diligence and success in his classes while at this school, I 
 suppose, more than from any definite idea of what career 
 he might follow in the future, that after leaving he was 
 allowed to prosecute his studies at the Glasgow High 
 School, where he gained many prizes, and fully justified 
 his parents' decision of allowing him to go on with his 
 studies instead of taking him away to a trade. At home 
 he prosecuted his studies very untiringly both during session 
 and vacation, 
 
 ' After entering the classes of the Glasgow University 
 he studied in an attic room, the window of which overlooked 
 an extensive and beautiful stretch of the Vale of Clyde. I 
 remember feeling compassion for him sometimes as he sat 
 at this window, knowing what an act of self-denial it must 
 have been to one so boisterous and full of fun as he was to 
 see us, after our work was over of an evening, having a 
 jolly game at rounders, or something of that sort, while he 
 had to sit poring over his books. 
 
 ' James was not a serious, melancholy student ; he was 
 indeed the very opposite of that when his little intervals of 
 recreation occurred. During the day he would be out about 
 the workshop and saw-mill, giving each in turn a poking 
 and joking at times very tormenting to the recipients. 
 If we had any little infirmity or weakness, he was sure to 
 enlarge upon it and make us try to amend it, assuming 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 21 
 
 the role and aspect of a drill-sergeant for the time being. 
 He used to have the mid-finger of the right hand extended 
 in such a way that he could nip and slap you with it 
 very painfully. He used this finger constantly to pound 
 and drill his comrades, all being done of course in the height 
 of glee, frolic, and good-humour. This finger, no doubt by 
 the unlawful use to which he put it, at one time developed 
 a painful tumour, to the delight of those who were in the 
 habit of receiving punishment from it. James pulled a 
 long face, and acknowledged that it was a punishment 
 sent him for using the finger in so mischievous a manner. 
 
 ' There was a pond or dam in connection with the saw- 
 mill. In this James was wont to practise the art of 
 swimming. I remember he devised a plan of increasing 
 his power of stroke in the water. He made four oval pieces 
 of wood rather larger than his hands and feet, tacking straps 
 on one side, so that his hands and feet would slip tightly 
 into them. But my recollection is that they were soon dis- 
 carded as an unsuitable addition to his natural resources. 
 He was fond of hunting after geological specimens, getting 
 the local blacksmith to make him a pocket hammer to take 
 with him on his rambles for that purpose. He seldom cared 
 for company in these wanderings among the mountains, 
 glens, and woods of his native place and country. He 
 would start early in the morning, and accomplish feats of 
 walking and climbing during the course of a day. Indeed, 
 none of his brothers ever thought of asking James to go 
 with them in their little holiday trips, knowing that any- 
 thing not the conception of his own fancy was but very 
 rarely acceptable to him ; and he was never one who would 
 pander to your gratification merely to please you. 
 
2Z JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 * James was fond of boating. Once he hired a small 
 skiff near the suspension-bridge at Glasgow Green, and pro- 
 ceeded with it up the river. Having gone a good way up, 
 the idea appears to have taken him to endeavour to get the 
 whole way to Hamilton, where, father having retired from 
 business in 1866, our parents were now residing. This 
 proved to be a very arduous task, as in a great many 
 places on that part of the Clyde there is not depth of 
 water to carry a boat. He managed, however, to accom- 
 plish the task by divesting himself of jacket, stockings, 
 and shoes, and pulling the boat over all such shallow 
 and rocky places (including the weir at Blantyre Mills, 
 where the renowned African missionary and explorer. Dr. 
 Livingstone, worked in his boyhood), until he reached the 
 bridge on the river between Hamilton and Motherwell, a 
 distance of eleven miles or more from Glasgow in a straight 
 line, and much more following the numerous bends of the 
 river. Here he made the boat secure and proceeded home, 
 a distance of a mile, very tired and ravenously hungry. The 
 great drawback to his satisfaction in this feat was his fear 
 of the displeasure the boat-owner might feel at his not 
 having returned the same night, and the rough usage to 
 which he had subjected the boat in hauling it over the 
 rocky places. He was much delighted, when he arrived 
 with the boat down the river during the day, to find that 
 the man was rather pleased than otherwise at his plucky 
 exploit, telling him that he only remembered it being 
 attempted once before. 
 
 ' During part of the time James attended college at 
 Glasgow University, the classes were at so early an hour 
 that he could not take advantage of the railway, and so had 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 23 
 
 to walk in the whole way. This was an anxious time for 
 his mother, who was ever most particular in seeing to thq 
 household duties herself, and always careful that her children 
 should have a substantial breakfast when they went from 
 home. I remember some of those winter mornings. Amidst 
 the bustle of making and partaking of an early breakfast so 
 as to be on the road in time, mother would press him to 
 partake more liberally of something she had thoughtfully 
 prepared for him ; he would ejaculate : " Can't take it — no 
 time ! " and if she still insisted he would add in a solemn 
 manner : " Mother, what if the door should be shut when I 
 get there } " which, being understood by her as a scriptural 
 quotation, was sufficient to quench her solicitations. 
 
 * To avoid the worry of getting up so early, it was decided 
 after a time that he should take advantage of an unlet 
 three or four apartment house in a tenement which belonged 
 to father in Cumberland Street, Glasgow. So a couple 
 of chairs, table, bed, and some cooking-utensils were got 
 together, and James entered into possession, cooking his 
 own breakfast, and getting his other meals there or outside 
 as his fancy or inclination prompted. Here I think he 
 enjoyed himself very much. He had plenty of quiet time for 
 study, and he could roam about the city and suburbs fon 
 experience, recreation, and instruction, visiting mills and 
 other large manufacturing industries as he was inclined. 
 
 ' After our parents had removed to Hamilton, James took 
 lodgings in George Street, a regular students' resort when 
 the old college was in the High Street. It is now removed 
 to the magnificent pile of buildings at Gilmorehill, in the 
 western district of the city. The site of the old one in the 
 High Street which James attended is now occupied by the 
 
24 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 North British and Glasgow and South-Western Railway 
 Companies.' 
 
 James Gilmour left England to begin his Mongolian life- 
 ^ work in February 1870, and then commenced keeping a 
 diary, from which we shall often quote, and which he care- 
 fully continued amid, oftentimes, circumstances of the 
 greatest difficulty until his death. He gives the following 
 reasons for this practice at the time when he was living in 
 a Mongol tent learning the language, hundreds of miles 
 away from his nearest fellow-worker : — 
 
 ' I think it a special duty to my friends, specially my 
 mother, to keep this diary, and to be particular in adding 
 my state of mind in addition to my mere outward circum- 
 stances. In my present isolated position, which may be 
 more isolated soon, any accident might happen at any 
 moment, after which I could not send home a letter, and I 
 think that by keeping my diary punctually and fully my 
 friends might have the melancholy satisfaction of following 
 me to the grave, as it were, through my writing.' 
 
 In the record of his first outward voyage he included 
 a sketch of his early life, which we briefly reproduce here, 
 as the correlative and complement of the picture outlined 
 by his brother : — 
 
 * The earliest that I can remember of my life is the 
 portion that was spent in Glasgow, before I came with my 
 parents out to the country. Of this time I have only a 
 vague recollection. Then followed a number of years not 
 very eventful beyond the general lot of the years of child- 
 hood. One circumstance of these years often comes up 
 to my mind. One Sabbath all were at church except the 
 servant, Aggie Leitch, and myself She took down an old 
 copy of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with rude plates, and 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 25 
 
 by the help of the pictures was explaining the whole book 
 to me. I had not heard any of it before, and was deeply 
 interested. We had just got as far as the terrible doings 
 of Giant Despair and the horrors of Doubting Castle, when 
 all at once, without warning, there came a terrible knock 
 at our front door. I really thought the giant was upon 
 us. It was some wayfaring man asking the way or some- 
 thing, but the terror I felt has made an indelible impression 
 on me. 
 
 * When of the approved age I went to school, wondering 
 whether I should ever be able to learn and do as others 
 did. I was very nervous and much afraid, and wrought so 
 hard and was so ably superintended by my mother that I 
 made rapid progress, and was put from one class to another 
 with delightful rapidity. I was dreadfully jealous of any 
 one who was a good scholar like myself, and to have any 
 one above me in class annoyed me to such a degree that I 
 could not play cheerfully with him. 
 
 ' The date of my going to college was, I think, the 
 November of the year 1862, so that my first session at 
 Glasgow University was 1862-63, The classes I took 
 were junior Latin and junior Greek. In Latin I got about 
 the twelfth prize, and in Greek I think the third. The 
 summer I spent partly in study, partly in helping my father 
 in his trade of a wright and joiner. 
 
 ' During 1863 and 1864 I lived in Glasgow, and worked 
 very hard, taking the first prize in middle Greek and a 
 prize in senior Latin, as well as a prize for private work 
 in Greek, and another for the same kind of work in Latin. 
 This last I was specially proud of, as in it I beat the two 
 best fellows in the Latin class. Next session (1864-65) I 
 took a prize in senior Greek. I got nothing in the logic, 
 but in moral philosophy in 1865 I was one of those who 
 took an active part in the rebellion against Dr. Fleming, 
 who, though he was entitled to the full retiring pension, 
 
26 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 preferred to remain on as professor, taking the fees and 
 appointing a student to do the work. We made a stand 
 against this, and were able to bring him out to his work ; 
 but it was too much for him, and he died in harness, as he 
 had wished. 
 
 ' In English literature I made no appearance in the 
 pieces noted by the students, but came out second in the 
 competitive examination, which of course astonished a 
 good deal some of the noisy men who had answered so 
 much in the class and yet knew so little. I was really 
 proud of this prize, as I was sure it was honestly won, and 
 as I also felt that from my position in class I failed to get 
 credit for anything like what I knew. This session I went 
 in for the classical and philosophy parts of the degree, and 
 got them. I enjoyed a happy week after it was known 
 that I had passed ; and the next thing I had to look for- 
 ward to was going to the Theological Hall of the Congre- 
 gational Church of Scotland, which met in Edinburgh 
 in the beginning of May. The session at Edinburgh I 
 enjoyed very much. I had not too much work, and used 
 at odd times to take long walks and go long excursions. 
 I was often on the heights, and about Lcith and Porto- 
 bello.' 
 
 The Rev. John Paterson of Airdrie, N.B., Gilmour's 
 most intimate college friend at Glasgow, thus records his 
 recollections of what he was in those days : — 
 
 ' I first made James Gilmour's acquaintance in the 
 winter session of 1864-5 at Glasgow University. He came 
 to college with the reputation of being a good linguist. 
 This reputation was soon confirmed by distinction in his 
 classes, especially in Latin and Greek. Though his advan- 
 tages had been superior to most of us, and his mental 
 calibre was of a high order, he was always humble, utterly 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 27 
 
 devoid of pride or vanity. No doubt he was firm as a roci< 
 on any question of conviction, but he was tender in the 
 extreme, and full of sympathy with the struggling. He 
 was such a strong man all round that he could afford to 
 give every one justice, and such a gentleman that he could 
 not but be considerate. One day a country student through 
 sheer nervousness missed a class question in the Junior 
 Humanity, though the answer was on his tongue : the 
 answering of such a question would have brought any man 
 to the front, and with a sad heart he told his experience to 
 Gilmour, whose look of sympathy is remembered to this 
 day. He always seemed anxious to be useful, and he suc- 
 ceeded. During our second session, a brother of mine 
 married a cousin of his, and this union led to a closer 
 intimacy between us, and in future sessions we lodged 
 together. 
 
 'Throughout his college career Gilmour was a very 
 hard-working student ; his patience, perseverance, and 
 powers of application were marvellous ; and yet, as a rule, 
 he was bright and cheerful, able in a twinkling to throw off 
 the cares of work, and enter with zest into the topics of the 
 day. He had a keen appreciation of the humorous side of 
 things, and his merry laugh did one good. Altogether he 
 was a delightful companion, and was held in universal 
 esteem. One of Gilmour's leading thoughts was unques- 
 tionably the unspeakable value of time, and this intensified 
 with years. There was not a shred of indolence in his 
 nature ; it may be truthfully said that he never wilfully 
 lost an hour. Even when the college work was uncon- 
 genial, he never scamped it, but mastered the subject. 
 He could not brook the idea of skimming a subject merely 
 
28 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 to pass an examination, and there were few men of his 
 time with such wide and accurate knowledge. 
 
 ' UnHke many of his fellows, he did not relax his 
 energies in summer. During the recess he might have 
 been seen wending his way from the old home at Cathkin 
 to the college library, and returning laden with books. 
 His superior scholarship secured for him excellent certifi- 
 cates and many prizes, both for summer and winter work, 
 and it was noticeable that he shone most in written exami- 
 nations. On one occasion, in the Moral Philosophy class, 
 which then suffered from the failing health of the pro- 
 fessor, the teacher pro tem. appended, as a criticism of an 
 essay of Gilmour's on Utilitarianism, the words, " Wants 
 thoroughness." This was a problem to the diligent student, 
 who tackled his critic at the end of the hour, and apparently 
 had the best of the argument ; for he told me afterwards 
 that he had puzzled the judge to explain his own verdict. 
 There was a strong vein of combativeness in him ; he liked 
 to try his strength, both mentally and physically, with 
 others ; and it was no child's play to wrestle with him in 
 either sense, though he never harboured ill-feeling. He had 
 the advantage of being in easy circumstances, but was 
 severely economical, wasting nothing. He had quite a horror 
 of intoxicating drinks. On one occasion, perhaps for reasons 
 of hospitality, some beer had found its way into our room : 
 he quietly lifted the window and poured the dangerous 
 liquid on the street, saying, " Better on God's earth than in 
 His image." 
 
 ' As the close of his career in Glasgow drew near, some 
 of us could see that all through he had been preparing for 
 some great work on which the whole ambition of his life 
 
MARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 29 
 
 was set. He always shrank from speaking about himself, 
 and in those days was not in the habit of obtruding sacred 
 things on his fellow-students. His views on personal deal- 
 ing then were changing, and became very decided in after 
 years. Earnest, honest, faithful to his convictions, as a 
 student he endeavoured to influence others for good more 
 by the silent eloquence of a holy life than by definite 
 exhortations, and I feel sure his power over some of us was 
 all the greater on that account. When it became known 
 that Gilmour intended to be a foreign missionarx-, there 
 was not a little surprise expressed, especially among rival 
 fellow-students — men who had competed with him to 
 their cost. The moral effect of such a distinguished scholar ,y' 
 giving his life for Christ among the heathen was very 
 great indeed. To me his resolve to go abroad, though it 
 induced a painful separation, proved an unspeakable bless- 
 ing. The reserve which had so long prevailed between 
 us on sacred things began to give way, and much of our 
 correspondence during his residence at Chcshunt College 
 was of a religious turn, though still more theological than 
 practical. 
 
 * The last evening we spent together before he left for 
 China can never be forgotten. We parted on Bothwell 
 Bridge. We had walked from the village without speaking a 
 word, burdened with the sorrow of separation. As we shook 
 hands, he said with intense earnestness, " Paterson, let us 
 keep close to Christ." He knew Him and loved Him much 
 better than I did then ; but about nine years ago, after 
 hearing good news from me, he wrote to say that for 
 twelve years he had prayed for me every day, and now 
 praised God for the answer.' 
 
3o~ JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 In the diary from which we have ah'eady quoted Gilmour 
 thus concludes the sketch of his education : — 
 
 ' Near the close of the session of 1867 I opened negotia- 
 tions with the London Missionary Society, the consequence 
 of which was that I was removed to Cheshunt College in 
 September of that same year. Here (1867- 1868) a new 
 experience awaited mc — resident college life. At Glasgow 
 we dined out, presented ourselves at classes only, and did 
 with ourselves whatever we liked in the interval. At 
 Cheshunt it was different. All the students live in the 
 buildings of the college, which can accommodate forty. 
 Of course I felt a little strange at first, and even long after 
 had serious doubts as to the settlement of the question, 
 Which is better, life in or out of college ? The lectures, as 
 a rule, were all in the forenoon. 
 
 ' The summer vacation I spent in studying for the Sopcr 
 scholarship, value twenty pounds, which was to be bestowed 
 after examination. 
 
 ' I commenced the 1868 and 1869 session at Cheshunt 
 very busily, and in addition to the class work and the Sopcr 
 work, read some books which gave almost a new turn to my 
 mind and my ideas of pastoral or missionary life. These 
 books were James's Earnest Ministry, Baxter's Reformed 
 Pastor, and some of Bunyan's works, which, through God's 
 blessing, affected me very much for good. 
 
 'The Sopcr examination should have come off before 
 Christmas, but it did not, so that I remained over Christmas 
 at Cheshunt, grinding away as hard as I could. I was 
 longing eagerly for the time when the examination would 
 be over, that I might the more earnestly devote myself to 
 the work of preaching and evangelising. Well, the 
 examination came and passed off satisfactorily, and I got 
 the twenty pounds. 
 
 ' Now was the decisive point. Now had I come to 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 31 
 
 another period, when there was an opportunity of going on 
 a new tack ; but I found myself tempted to seek after 
 another honour, the first prize in Cheshunt College. In my 
 first session I had got the second only, and now I had an 
 opportunity of trying for the first. It was a temptation 
 indeed, but God triumphed. I looked back on my life, 
 and saw how often I had been tempted on from one thing 
 to another, after I had resolved that I would leave my time 
 more free and at my disposal for God, but always was I 
 tempted on. So now I made a stand, threw ambition to 
 the winds, and set to reading my Bible in good earnest. 
 I made it my chief study during the last three months of 
 my residence at Cheshunt, and I look back upon that 
 period of my stay there as the most profitable I had. 
 
 ' In September, 1869, 1 entered the missionary seminary 
 at Highgate, and also studied Chinese in London with 
 Professor Summers. I went home again at Christmas, and 
 on returning to London learned that I could go to China as 
 soon as I liked. I said I would go as soon as the neces- 
 sary arrangements could be made, and February 22, 1870, 
 was fixed upon as the date of my departure.' 
 
 In this brief and rapid manner James Gilmour sketched, 
 with not a few most characteristic touches, the first twenty- 
 six years of his life. He enables us to see the quick, merry, 
 receptive lad, developing, after a brilliant collegiate course 
 and a careful training in theology and in practical Christian 
 life, into the strong, resolute missionar>^ No one who 
 knew him during this time failed to perceive the force of 
 his character and the charm of his personality. The 
 writer first came under his influence during his second 
 session at Cheshunt. He was then in the prime of his early 
 manhood, in the full possession of physical and intellectual 
 
3a JAMES CILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 vigoUf, and his soul was aflame with love to the Saviout' 
 and to the perishing heathen. 
 
 He retained, moreover, the love of fun, the high spirits, 
 the keen enjoyment of a good joke, and the constant readi- 
 ness for an argument upon any subject under the sun, 
 which had endeared him to his comrades in Glasgow. 
 Every Cheshunt man of that day readily recalls, and re- 
 joices as he does so, the memory of his good-natured prac- 
 tical joking, of his racy and pointed speeches upon all 
 momentous ' house questions,' of his power as a reciter, and 
 of his glowing personal piety. To know him even slightly 
 was to respect him ; and to enter at all into sympathy 
 with him was to love him as long as life lasted. 
 
 There are many reminiscences of those Cheshunt days, 
 from which we can cull only a sufficient number to enable 
 the reader to understand what manner of man he then was. 
 These are drawn from the letters of his fellow-students, 
 and from their recollections of his sayings and doings. 
 ' How well,' writes one, ' I remember his coming to Ches- 
 hunt ! I was acting-senior at the opening of that session, 
 and, according to custom with the new men, went to his 
 room to shake hands with him. He said, "Who are you?" 
 I told him. " What do you want ? " I told him I had 
 come according to custom to welcome him, and held out 
 my hand, whereupon he put his hands behind him and 
 said, " Time eno' to shake hands when we've quarrelled. 
 But where do you live } " " Immediately over your head." 
 " Then look here," said he, " don't make a row ; " and so we 
 parted. Dear old fellow ! his memory makes life richer.' 
 
 Another writes : ' He was a good elocutionist. He was 
 also a keen debater, and so fond of argument that he would 
 
// ' 6CtCi..^^^fUuyy' 
 
 . ^a/K^ Oi^i^ti^ fyy^^ioMv/f^ &. 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 33 
 
 not hesitate to take opposite ground to his own cherished 
 convictions and beliefs, simply for the sake of provoking 
 discussion. So earnestly and logically (for he was a good 
 dialectician) would he carry on the discussion that it was 
 difficult to believe that he did not really hold the opinions 
 for which he so pertinaciously contended. Sometimes 
 this habit of mind reacted very amusingly upon himself, as 
 the following will show. The subject fixed one Friday 
 evening for debate in the discussion class was, " Have 
 animals souls ? " Though fully accepting the common 
 belief that they have not, Gilmour, purely for the sake of 
 argument, took the affirmative, and with such enthusiasm 
 pleaded his cause that he brought himself to believe, as he 
 told me afterwards, that animals have souls.' 
 
 ' At no time during his residence at Cheshunt could 
 there have been any doubt as to Gilmour's piety or conse- 
 cration to the great work of his future life ; but during the 
 second year it must have been manifest to all who knew 
 him intimately that there was a deepening and broadening 
 of his spiritual life. As I look back over the interval of 
 years I can see that it w^as then he began to reach the 
 high-water mark, in Christian life and devotion which was 
 so steadily maintained throughout his career in China and 
 Mongolia. An apostolic passion for the salvation of his 
 fellow-men took hold upon him. He would go out in the 
 evening, mostly alone, and conduct short open-air services 
 at Flamstead End, among the cottagers near Cheshunt 
 railway station ; seize opportunities of speaking to labour- 
 ers working by the roadside or in the field through which 
 he might be passing. He became very solicitous for the 
 conversion of friends in Scotland, and would come to 
 
34 JAMES GIL} f OUR OF MOXGOLIA 
 
 my study and ask mc to kneel and pray with him that 
 God's grace might be manifested to them, and that His 
 blessing might rest upon letters which he had written and 
 was sending to them. The ordinary style of preaching 
 towards which students usually aspire lost its attractions 
 for him, and his sermons assumed more and more the 
 character of earnest exhortations, and addresses to the 
 unconverted. When he knew what was to be his field of 
 labour after his college course was over, how solicitous he 
 was to go out fully prepared and fitted in spiritual equip- 
 ment ! The needs of the perishing heathen were very real 
 and weighed heavily upon his heart, and he was very 
 anxious to win volunteers among his college friends for this 
 all-important work. How he longed and prayed for China's 
 perishing millions only his most intimate friends know.' 
 
 The Rev. H. R. Reynolds, D.D.,for the past thirty years 
 the honoured President of Cheshunt College, has recalled 
 some of his early recollections of James Gilmour. 
 
 ' Though brusque and outspoken in manner, he was in 
 many respects reserved and sh)', and very slow to show or 
 accept confidence. We all felt, however, that underneath 
 a canny demeanour there was burning a very intense 
 enthusiasm, and that a character of marked features was 
 already formed, and would only develope along certain 
 lines, settled, but not as yet fully disclosed to others. 
 
 ' There was not a particle of make-believe in his com- 
 position. He shrank from praise, and was obviously 
 anxious not to appear more reverential or wise or devoted 
 than he knew himself to be. He even used, because it was 
 natural to him, a rugged style of expression when speaking 
 of things or persons or institutions which for the most part 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 35 
 
 uplift our diction and generally induce us to adorn or make 
 careful selection of our vocabulary. He rapped out expres- 
 sions which might have suggested carelessness or irrever- 
 ence or suppressed doubt, but I soon found that there was 
 an intense fire of evangelistic zeal and an almost stormy 
 enthusiasm for the conversion of souls to Christ. 
 
 'Some special services were held at Cheshunt Street 
 Chapel, in which Gilmour took part, and the part was at 
 least as demonstrative, perhaps more so, except the music, 
 as that of the modern Salvation Army ensign or com- 
 missioner. He started from the chapel entrance, on the 
 Sunday evening, when considerable numbers were as usual 
 parading the country street, and bare-headed approached 
 every passer-by ^vith some piquant, vigorous inquiry, or 
 message or warning. In the main, his bold summons was, 
 " Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ .' " The entire 
 population in the thoroughfare was stirred, and uncompli- 
 mentary jeers mingled with some awe-struck impressions 
 that were then produced. 
 
 'During the year 1869 he had those interviews with the 
 late Mrs. Swan, of Edinburgh, which led to his choice by 
 the London Missionary Society, at her instance, to reopen 
 the long-suspended mission in Mongolia. For a while he 
 remained in Peking preparing himself by familiarity with 
 the people, their ideas, their language, and religion, for 
 those almost historic bursts into the great desert and across 
 the caravan routes to the huge fairs, and the renowned 
 temples, to the living lamas and famous shrines of the 
 nomadic Mongols, incessantly acting the part of travelling 
 Hakim, itinerant book vendor, and fiery preacher of the 
 Gospel of Christ.' 
 
36 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 In the year 1869 the poHcy of the London Missionary 
 Society in the education of its students was very different 
 from that which now obtains. After a course at a theo- 
 logical college of two, three, or four years, according to the 
 literary attainments of the man at the time of his acceptance 
 by the Directors, he was sent to the institution at Highgatc 
 designed to give training suitable for the special require- 
 ments of the embryo missionaries. In theory this institu- 
 tion was admirable ; in practice Gilmour and others, much 
 as they esteemed the principal, the Rev. J. Wardlaw, found 
 
 it or thought they found it — very largely a waste of time. 
 
 The year 1869 saw the beginning of an investigation 
 which ended in closing the missionary college at Highgate, 
 and in the steps that led to the enquiry Gilmour took a 
 leading part. One of his contemporaries at Highgate has 
 thus described his influence upon both his fellow-students 
 and the institution to which they belonged. 
 
 'I first met Gilmour at Farquhar House, Highgate, the 
 London Missionary Society's Institution, where in those 
 days missionary students spent their last six months before 
 going to the field. Some spent the time in studying the 
 elements of the language of the land to which they were 
 o-oing ; others attended University College Hospital, for the 
 purpose of getting a little medical knowledge ; while all tried 
 to make themselves acquainted with the history of the people 
 among whom they were to labour. Courses of special 
 missionary lectures, which were highly valued by the men, 
 were delivered by the Rev. J., afterwards Dr., Wardlaw. 
 
 * Some of us were at Highgate a day or two before 
 Gilmour came up from Scotland ; and as his fame, or 
 rather reports about him, had reached us from Cheshunt 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 37 
 
 College, we were all very anxious to meet with him. 
 When he did arrive we were, I think, all more or less dis- 
 appointed, and yet I doubt if any of us could have told why, 
 except that he was not the man we had pictured from the 
 reports we had heard. When he walked quietly into the 
 library I, for one, could hardly believe that the almost boyish- 
 looking, open-faced, bright-eyed young man was really 
 Gilmour. His dress made him appear even more youthful 
 than he was, while there was an aspect of good humour about 
 his face and a glance of his eye revealing any amount of fun 
 and frolic. A great writer has said : " Nature has written a 
 letter of credit on some men's faces, which is honoured almost 
 wherever presented." James Gilmour's was a face on which 
 Nature had written no ordinary letter of credit ; for there 
 was a sense in which one might very truly have said that 
 his " face was his fortune." Honesty, good nature, and true 
 manliness were so stamped upon every feature and line of 
 it, that you had only to see him to feel that he was one of 
 God's noblest works, and to be drawn to the man as by a 
 magnetic influence. 
 
 ' Gilmour was a puzzle to most of our fellow-students, 
 and they could not quite make him out. By some he was 
 regarded as very eccentric, which is another way of saying 
 that he preserved a very marked individuality, and always 
 had the courage of his convictions. They did not seem 
 to understand how so much playfulness and piety, fervour 
 and frolicsomeness could dwell in the same person. Long 
 before we parted, however, in January, 1870, I feel certain 
 that all had .come to have not only a profound respect, but 
 also a real heart-love for " dear old Gillie " ! 
 
 'The night before Gilmour left Highgatefor the Christmas 
 
38 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 vacation we were all in his study, when someone, remarking 
 on the risk he was running in going home to Scotland 
 by sea, instead of by train, said in a jocular way : " Suppose 
 the steamer is wrecked and you get drowned, to whom do 
 you leave your books, Gilmour ? " " Yes," he said at once, 
 " that is well thought of. Come along, you fellows, and 
 pick out the books you would like to keep in memory of 
 me, if I never return." Of course we only laughed and 
 said it was all a joke ; but he said, " It is no joke with me, 
 I mean what I say ; " and so he did. He was in dead earnest, 
 and nothing would satisfy him but that each should pick 
 out the book or books he would like to have if he never 
 returned. He then turned to me and said : " Now, I 
 leave the rest to your care, and if I never return I want 
 all on this shelf sent to my father and mother, and you 
 can do anything you like with the rest." Had anyone else 
 acted in that way, we should have certainly suspected that 
 he had gone " queer " ; but it was Gilmour, and we all 
 understood the straight, matter-of-fact way in which he 
 went about everything he did. 
 
 * Through a misunderstanding, as we afterwards dis- 
 covered, the students at Highgate came into collision with 
 the Directors of the Society over the studies to be pro- 
 secuted. Additional classes were arranged, and these some 
 of us declined to attend. This act of rebellion, as it was 
 regarded at the Mission House, had to be put down with 
 a firm hand, and a special meeting of the Board of 
 Directors was called to deal with us. 
 
 ' The night before we were to meet the Board we met 
 in Gilmour's study, to settle what we were to say to the 
 Directors when we met them. One only of our number, 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 39 
 
 when he saw that there was Hkcly to be a rather serious 
 interchange of ideas between us and the Directors, caved 
 in completely, and would have nothing further to do with 
 our resistance. 
 
 ' When we met the Board Gilmour made his defence in 
 his frank, straightforward way, and, I am afraid, upset some 
 of the Directors very much by his plain speaking. They 
 did not know the man, and regarded him as one of the 
 ringleaders in rebellion, and, of course, were not in the 
 humour to do him justice. But when we met the sub- 
 committee appointed to deal with us the misunderstanding 
 came to an end, and they admitted that we had been in the 
 right in objecting to the extra classes thus imposed.' 
 
 During these last months in England James Gilmour 
 paid much earnest heed to the culture of his soul. Just 
 before he sailed for China, he set forth his inner experience 
 and his keen sense of the difficulties of the course upon 
 which he was embarking in the following letter to a Ches- 
 hunt friend : — 
 
 * Companions I can scarcely hope to meet, and the feel- 
 ing of being alone comes over me till I think of Christ and 
 His blessed promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the ^ 
 end of the world." No one who does not go away, leaving all 
 and going alone, can feel the force of this promise ; and 
 when I begin to feel my heart threatening to go down, I 
 betake myself to this companionship, and, thank God, I 
 have felt the blessedness of this promise rushing over me 
 repeatedly when I knelt down and spoke to Jesus as a 
 present companion, from whom I am sure to find sympathy. 
 I have felt a tingle of delight thrilling over me as I felt His 
 presence, and thought that wherever I may go He is still 
 with me. I have once or twice lately felt a melting sweet- 
 
40 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ness in the name of Jesus as I spoke to Him and told Him 
 my trouble. Yes, and the trouble went away, and I arose 
 all right. Is it not blessed of Christ to care so much for us 
 poor feeble men, so sinful and so careless about honouring 
 Him ? the moment we come to Him He is ready with His 
 consolations for us ! 
 
 ' I have been thinking lately over some of the induce- 
 ments we have to live for Christ, and to confess Him 
 and preach Him before men, not conferring with flesh and 
 blood. Why should we be trammelled by the opinions 
 and customs of men } Why should we care what men say 
 of us } Salvation and damnation are realities, Christ is a 
 reality, Eternity is a reality, and we shall soon be there in 
 reality, and time shall soon be finished ; and from our stand 
 in eternity we shall look back on what we did in time, and 
 what shall we think of it .'' Shall we be able to understand 
 why we were afraid to speak to this man or that woman 
 about salvation .'' Shall we be able to understand how we 
 were ashamed to do what we knew was a Christian duty 
 before one whom we knew to be a mocker at religion ? 
 Our cowardice shall seem small to us then. Let us now 
 measure our actions by the standard of that scene, let us 
 now look upon the things of time in the light of eternity, 
 and we shall see them better as they are, and live more as 
 we shall wish then we had done. It is not too late. We 
 can secure yet what remains of our life. The present still 
 is ours. Let us use it, It may be that we can't be great, 
 let us be good ; if we can't shine as great lights, let us 
 make our light shine as God has made it to shine. Let us 
 live lives as in the presence of Christ, anxious for His 
 approval, and glad to take the condemnation of the world, 
 and of Christ's professed servants even, if we get the com- 
 mendation of angels and our Master. The " well done ! " is 
 to the faithful servant — to i\\Q faithful, not the great. Let 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 41 
 
 us watch and pray that we may be faithful. It is a little 
 hard to be this, and to care little for man. 
 
 ' Yesterday afternoon I preached here at home, and took 
 the most earnest sermon I had, " Behold, I stand at the door 
 and kjiock" Well, in doing so, I thought I was acting quite 
 independently of man ; and even after I had preached it, 
 thought I would not care for man. But one man praised it, 
 and I felt pleased, and, as might then be expected, felt a little 
 hurt when a friend called this morning and told me that 
 what I gave them yesterday was no sermon at all. Now, if 
 I had been regarding Christ alone, I would not have been 
 moved by either the one or the other of these criticisms ; 
 and I wish that I could get above this sort of thing, and 
 get beyond the attempt at pleasing men at all. Why 
 should we confer with men ? ' 
 
 James Gilmour was ordained as a missionary to Mon- 
 golia in Augustine Chapel, Edinburgh, on February lO, 
 1870, and, in accordance with Nonconformist custom, he 
 made a statement about the development of his religious 
 life from which we take the following extract : — 
 
 * My conversion took place after I had begun to attend 
 the Arts course in the University of Glasgow. I had gone 
 to college with no definite aim as to preparing for a pro- 
 fession ; an opportunity^ was offered me of attending classes, 
 and I embraced it gladly, confident that whatever training 
 or knowledge I might there acquire would prove serviceable 
 to me afterwards in some way or other. 
 
 ' After I became satisfied that I had found the " way of 
 life," I decided to tell others of that way, and felt that I lay 
 under responsibility to do v/hat I could to extend Christ's 
 kingdom. Among other plans of usefulness that suggested 
 themselves to me was that of entering the ministry. But, 
 in my opinion, there were two things that everyone who 
 
 / 
 
42 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 sought the office of the ministry should have, viz., an 
 experimental knowledge of the truth which it is the work 
 of the minister to preach, and a good education to help 
 him to do it ; the former I believed I had, the latter I hoped 
 to obtain. So I quietly pursued the college course till I 
 entered on the last session, when, after prayerful considera- 
 tion and mature deliberation, I thought it my duty to offer 
 myself as a candidate for the ministry. 
 
 ' Having decided as to the capacity in which I should 
 labour in Christ's kingdom, the next thing which occupied 
 my serious attention was the locality \y\\QXQ. I should labour. 
 Occasionally before I had thought of the relative claims 
 of the home and foreign fields, but during the summer 
 session in Edinburgh I thought the matter out, and decided 
 for the mission field ; even on the low ground of common 
 sense I seemed to be called to be a missionary. Is the 
 kingdom a harvest field ? Then I thought it reasonable 
 that I should seek to work where the work was most abun- 
 dant and the workers fewest. Labourers say they are over- 
 taxed at home ; what then must be the case abroad, where 
 there are wide stretching plains already white to harvest, 
 with scarcely here and there a solitary reaper ? To me the 
 soul of an Indian seemed as precious as the soul of an 
 Englishman, and the Gospel as much for the Chinese as 
 for the European ; and as the band of missionaries was few 
 compared with the company of home ministers, it seemed 
 to me clearly to be my duty to go abroad. 
 
 ' But I go out as a missionary not that I may follow the 
 dictates of common sense, but that I may obey that com- 
 mand of Christ, " Go hito all the zuorld and preach." He 
 who said "preach,'' said also, " Go ye into diUd preach" and 
 what Christ hath joined together let not man put asunder. 
 
 ' This command seems to me to be strictly a missionary 
 injunction, and, as far as I can see, those to whom it was first 
 delivered regarded it in that light, so that, apart altogether 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 43 
 
 from choice and other lower reasons, my going forth is a 
 matter of obedience to a plain command ; and in place of 
 seeking to assign a reason for going abroad, I would prefer 
 to say that I have failed to discover any reason why I 
 should stay at home.' 
 
 On February 22, 1870, James Gilmour embarked at 
 Liverpool upon the steamship Diomed, and thus fairly 
 started on the work of his life. Among his extant corre- 
 spondence is a long letter which describes the voyage 
 to China, and the way in which he utilised the oppor- 
 tunities it afforded for trying to do his Master's will. 
 
 ' We sailed from Liverpool, and my father saw me off. 
 The passengers were few— nine or ten. We had a cabin 
 each. There was a Wesleyan medical missionary named 
 Hardey going out to Hankow. We soon drew together. 
 The doctor of the ship was a young fellow from Greenock, 
 and had been at Glasgow College when I was there last. 
 Among the 1,200 we had not stumbled upon each other. 
 The married man was something or other in the Consular 
 service. A young lady passenger was the daughter of a 
 judge in China. A young man was going out to try his 
 fortune in China : his qualifications were some knowledge 
 of tea and a love of drink. Another decent young fellow 
 was going out to China as a tea-taster. Another young 
 fellow was going out to Australia via Singapore. Thus, 
 you see, I was the only parson on board ; and as the ship's 
 company was High Church, and I a Dissenter, it may be 
 seen that we did not fit each other exactly. Some of the 
 passengers were so High Church that one of them told 
 me he thought we Dissenters were sunk more deeply in 
 error than the Papists. 
 
 ' The captain was a sensible kind of rough seaman, and 
 I at once volunteered my services as chaplain, and was 
 
44 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 accepted, though with some caution. He evidently thought 
 me too young to be trusted with a sermon ; the Church of 
 England prayers I might read, and he put into my hands 
 a book with a sermon for any Sunday and holy-day 
 in the year. I took the book and said I would look 
 through it. The Bay of Biscay was calm when we crossed 
 it, but on Sunday morning we were tumbling about off the 
 Rock of Lisbon. As I could hardly keep my legs, I did 
 not think we should have had service ; but we crowded into 
 the smoking-saloon (we were afraid to venture below, for 
 sickness), and I read prayers. Next Sunday I read a 
 sermon from the book. All the Sundays after that I gave 
 them my own, and, as I was under the impression that 
 they had not heard much plain preaching, did my best to 
 let them hear the gospel pure and simple. I half suspected 
 they did not quite like it. It was hinted to me that they 
 complained of my preaching. The next Sunday came, 
 and, under the impression it might be the last time I would 
 have the opportunity, I made the most earnest and direct 
 appeal to them I possibly could. I was not a little 
 thankful and astonished when, soon after, in place of being 
 asked to shut up, I was thanked for it, and assured it was 
 the best I had given them, and told that it was a w^aste 
 of, &c., &c., for me to go out as a missionary — I should have 
 stopped at home. After that I had no trouble with the 
 passengers, and we got on well together. 
 
 * As for the men, from captain to cabin-boy there were 
 about sixty. Among these was one earnest Christian 
 man, a German and a Baptist. He was a quarter-master. 
 He was a little peculiar in appearance, and spoke English 
 not quite smoothly. On one occasion, when some of the 
 passengers were laughing at something he had done and 
 said, the captain happened to pass, and, seeing what was 
 up, remarked that the man was a first-rate fellow — he never 
 caught him idle. If you except this man, the captain, 
 
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 45 
 
 and the boy, the whole ship's company swore Hke troopers. 
 So universal was the vice that the men, I almost think, 
 were hardly aware that they did swear. I was puzzled. 
 Sometimes when I went out in the morning I would hear 
 a volley of oaths coming from the mouth of a man who 
 had been talking quite seriously with me over-night. 
 
 ' Few of the men came to the service, and as they would 
 not come to us we went to them. Hardey and I, usually 
 in the evenings, conducted short little services in the fore- 
 castle as often as we thought desirable. We were always 
 well received and listened to respectfully. I think I may 
 say safely that all on board had repeated opportunities of 
 hearing the gospel as plainly as I could put it, and a good 
 many had something more than mere opportunities. After 
 it was dark I used to go out and get the men one by one, 
 as they sat in corners during their watch in the night. All 
 they had to do was to be within call when wanted, and 
 many a good long talk I have had with a good many of 
 them. Of course, my object in accosting them was re- 
 ligious conversation, and this I usually succeeded in having; 
 but on many occasions, that we might be quite on a footing 
 of equality, I had in return to listen to their yarns. The 
 man on the look-out was a frequent victim. I was always 
 sure to find a man there, generally alone, and never asleep. 
 The man, also, was changed at regular intervals, so that I 
 knew exactly when I would find a fresh man. When I 
 talked to the look-out man, I used to keep a sharp look- 
 out myself, lest by distracting his attention I should get 
 him into trouble. Many a good hour have I stood at the 
 prow as we passed through the warm Indian Ocean, till 
 my clothes were wet with the dew of night ; and then I 
 would find my way down to my cabin about midnight, 
 with my head so full of the ghost-stories I had just heard 
 that I was really afraid I might meet a real ghost coming 
 out of my cabin.' 
 
46 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 BEGINNING WORK 
 
 In 1 817 two missionaries, the Rev. E. Stallybrass and the 
 Rev. W. Swan, left England to begin Christian work 
 among the Buriats, a Mongolian tribe living under Russian 
 authority. At Selenginsk and at Onagen Dome they 
 laboured for many years ; but in 1841 the Russian Emperor 
 ordered them to leave the country. From the command 
 of the autocrat there was no appeal, and the mission came 
 to an end. But in the good providence of God the two 
 missionaries had translated the whole Bible into Buriat ; 
 the Old Testament being printed in Siberia in 1840, the 
 New Testament in London in 1846. Notwithstanding the 
 suppression of the mission, the Word of God in the Mongol 
 tongue continued to circulate among the people. 
 
 It was to the reopening and development of this mis- 
 sionary work among the Mongol tribes that James Gilmour 
 consecrated his life. He was appointed, in the first instance, 
 to the London Mission at Peking, and that centre formed 
 his first base of operations. He continued also a member 
 of that mission until the close of his life. He reached the 
 Chinese capital on May 18, 1870. At once he settled 
 down to hard and continuous work at the Chinese language, 
 endeavouring also from the first to discover the best means 
 
BEGINNING WORK 47 
 
 of restarting the Mongol Mission. The very full diary 
 which he kept lies before us as we write, and enables us to 
 understand the varying progress and hindrance, encourage- 
 ment and despondency of this time. 
 
 'June II, 1870. — Mr. Gulick advises me to pay little 
 attention to the Chinese and go in hot and strong for the 
 Mongolian. I am not quite sure that he is not right, after 
 all. However, I mean to stick into the Chinese }^ct for a 
 time to come with my teacher and to mix among the people 
 as much as I can. I went out to-night and with the gate- 
 keeper and two of his companions had a lot of talk, in 
 which I learned a good lot. I hope to benefit largely by 
 this pleasant mode of stud)'. Perhaps by this means I 
 may be able to do them good. Lord grant it ! ' 
 
 '■June 12, 1870. — I am to-day twenty-seven }'ears of 
 age, and what have I done } Let the time that is past 
 suffice to have wrought the will of the flesh. The prospect 
 I have before me now is the most inspiriting one any man 
 can have. Health, strength, as much conscious ability as 
 makes one hope to be able to get the language of the 
 people to whom I am sent, a new field of work amon"- 
 men who arc decidedly religious and simple-minded, left 
 pretty much to my own ideas as to what is best to be done 
 in the attempted evangelisation of Mongolia, friends left 
 in Britain behind me praying for me, comfort and peace 
 here in the prosecution of my present studies, the idea that 
 what 1 do is for eternity, and that this life is but the short 
 prelude to an eternal state, the thought that after death 
 there shall break on my view a thousand truths that now I 
 long in vain to know — these thoughts and many others 
 make my present life happy, and in a manner careless as 
 to what should come. In time may I be able to do my 
 part as I ought, and may God have great mercy upon me! ' 
 
48 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 On June 22, 1870, the news of the Tientsin massacre 
 reached Peking. A Roman CathoHc convent had been 
 destroyed and thirteen French people killed. Very great 
 uncertainty prevailed as to whether this indicated a further 
 purpose of attacking all missions and all foreigners, and 
 for a while things looked very dark. It was a time in 
 which the nerve and courage and faith of men were severely 
 tried, and splendidly did Gilmour endure the test. While 
 unable to escape wholly from the fears common to all, his 
 reply to the counsels of worldly prudence and selfish dread 
 was advance in his work. When others were wondering 
 whether they might not have to retreat, he, alone, in 
 almost total ignorance of the language, entirely unfamiliar 
 with the country, went up to the great Mongolian plain, 
 and entered upon the service so close to his heart — personal 
 intercourse with and effort for the Mongols. 
 
 How trying a season this was his diary reveals. Under 
 date of June 23, 1870, the day after the first tidings of the 
 outbreak had been received, he writes : — 
 
 'The Roman Catholic missionaries have suffered severely, 
 and the Protestant missionaries are not in a very safe 
 condition. We are living on the slope of a volcano that 
 may put forth its slumbering rage at any moment. For 
 example, people ask why there is no rain, and blame the 
 foreigners for it ; and should a famine ensue, we may fare 
 hard for it. Now is the time for trying what stuff a man's 
 religion is made of We may be all dead men directly ; 
 are we afraid to die .-' Our death might further the cause 
 of Christ more than our life could do. We must die 
 some time or other ; now that we have a near view of its 
 possibility, how can we look forward to it ? God ! do 
 Thou make my faith firm and bright, so that death may 
 
BEGINNING WORK ^g 
 
 seem small and not to be feared. Help me to trust Thee 
 and Christ implicitly, so that with calm mind I may work 
 while Thou dost let me live, and when Thou dost call me 
 home, let me come gladly.' 
 
 The further entries in his Diary at this time depict 
 his inner experience from day to day : — 
 
 'July lo. — Rose 6.20. Dull morning, rained a little. 
 Felt uncomfortable at the idea of being killed ; felt troubled 
 at the idea of leaving Peking. How am I to pack and 
 carry my goods.-* Felt troubled at remaining in the midst of a 
 troubled city, with a government weak and stupid. How is 
 my mission to get on beginning thus ? O God, let me cast 
 all my care upon Thee, and commit my soul also to Thy 
 safe keeping. Keep me, O God. in perfect peace ! Rain 
 made a thin meeting this morning, but all was quiet. In 
 afternoon went with Mr. Edkins to the west ; things un- 
 commonly quiet and peaceful. 
 
 '/ufy 12. — While others are writing to papers and trying 
 to stir up the feelings of the people, so that they may 
 take action in the matter, perhaps I may be able to do 
 some good moving Heaven. My creed leads me to think 
 that prayer is efficacious, and surely a day's asking God 
 to overrule all these events for good is not lost. Still, 
 there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he is 
 doing nothing, and this feeling, I am sure, makes us give 
 undue importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying 
 over or even to the neglect of prayer. 
 
 '/u/f 22. — A good deal troubled about the present state 
 of matters. I don't exactly know how to estimate rumours 
 and reports, and this may cause me more uneasiness than 
 there is any need for. Still, I don't know. At times I feel 
 a great revulsion from being killed, at other times I feel as 
 if I could be killed quietly, and not dislike the thing much. 
 Sometimes the tone of those about us is hopeful, and that 
 
 D 
 
so JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 causes hope also. Sometimes the prospect of a speedy 
 removal, a half flight, comes upon me with great force, and 
 to see all its annoyance, not to speak of the danger, is not 
 pleasant at all. Oh for the simple, childlike faith that can 
 trust all things to God and leave all care upon Him ! 
 Ought we not to have it ? Is God not the same God now 
 that He was when He delivered His people from Egypt, 
 and His saints from the hands of their enemies, from 
 the mouth of the lions, and the fiery furnace } Cannot 
 God keep us yet — will He not do it ? But then comes the 
 thought, perhaps God does not wish us to live, but to die. 
 Often has He allowed His saints to be slain. What then } 
 Well, as the men in the furnace said of God, " Will He care 
 to defend us? if not, be it known unto you we will not yield." 
 I might have died in childhood, in youth, before conversion, 
 and if then, alas ! alas ! I can remember the time when 
 the pains of hell got such a terrible hold upon me that I 
 would have gladly changed places in the world with anyone 
 who had the hope of salvation. Death, life, prospects, 
 honour, shame, seemed nothing compared with this hope 
 of salvation, which I was then without. " Could I ever be 
 saved ? " was the question ; " \\'ould I ever have the hope 
 
 that I knew others had V^ Had I died in darkness God 
 
 be thanked, the light has shined forth, and I have the hope of 
 eternal life. May God make me more Christlike, and give 
 me stronger hope ! Well, then, this hope I have ; from this 
 fearful pit I have been delivered ; in the light I now walk. 
 God I call my Father, Christ my Saviour, heaven my home, 
 earth and the life here the entrance to real life. If there is 
 anything in our faith or in our belief, then heaven is as 
 much better than earth as it is higher than earth, and our 
 soul's life is insured from all harm. If a man is insured 
 against all possible harm, why should he be afraid ? Not 
 one hair of our head shall perish ! O Lord, help me to live 
 this faith and to be in this frame of mind. In this city are 
 
BEGLXyiKG WORK 51 
 
 many foreigners, who came here to Icarn the language. &c., 
 and man\- of them have no great hope of heaven. They 
 seem calm enough, and are no doubt calm enough ; shall 
 the courage of the world, shall the courage of scepticism, 
 shall the courage of carelessness be greater and produce 
 better fruit than the courage of the Christian ? O Lord, 
 preserve me from the sin of dishonouring Thy name 
 through fear and cowardice ! Let us be bold in the Lord! ' 
 
 By the end of July 1870, Gilmour had reached a fixed 
 resolution to go to Mongolia as soon as the necessary 
 arrangements could be made. A severe test had been 
 applied to him, and the way in which he met it gives the key 
 to the whole of his after life. He used the trial as a help 
 onwards in the path of duty, and the chain of events which 
 would have led many men to postpone indefinitely the 
 beginning of a new and hard work only drove him the 
 more eagerly into new fields. The reasons that influenced 
 him are set forth in his official report written many months 
 later. 
 
 * After the massacre at Tientsin, very grave fears pre- 
 vailed at Peking ; no one could tell how far the ramifications 
 of the plot might extend, and it was impossible to sift the 
 matter. The people openly talked of an extermination, 
 and claimed to have the tacit favour of the Government in 
 this ; nay more, the Government itself issued ambiguous, if 
 not insinuating, proclamations, which fomented the excite- 
 ment of the populace to such an extent that the days were 
 fixed for the " Clearing of Peking." The mob was tho- 
 roughly quieted on the first of the days fixed by a twenty 
 hours' pour of tremendous rain, v/hich converted Peking 
 into a muddy, boatless Venice, and kept the people safely 
 at home in their helpless felt shoes, as securely as if their 
 feet had been put into the stocks. This was Friday. 
 
$1 JAMES ClLMOVR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Tuesday was the reserve day ; Saturday and Sabbath one 
 felt the tide of excitement rising, and on Monday morning 
 the Peking Gazette came out with an Imperial edict that 
 at once allayed the excitement, and assured us that there 
 was no danger for the present. 
 
 * We had then to draw breath and look about us calmly, 
 and the general conclusion that the " Old Pekingers " came 
 to was that the French would be compelled to resort to 
 force of arms to gain redress. The attitude of the Chinese 
 people and Government made them think so, and so they 
 determined to wait on quietly in Peking till things should 
 get thick, and then it would be time to go south. I think 
 I may safely say that everyone drew out an inventory of 
 his things, and not a few had their most necessary things 
 packed " on the sly," and were ready to start on short notice. 
 
 ' Up to this point I stood quietly aside ; but now 
 was my time to reason, and on the data they supplied I 
 reasoned thus : " If I go south, no Mongol can be prevailed 
 on to go with me, and so I am shut out from my work, and 
 that for an indefinite time. If I can get away north, then 
 I can go on with the language, and perhaps come down 
 after the smoke clears away, knowing Mongolian, and 
 having lost no time." I felt a great aversion to travelling 
 so far alone, and with such imperfect knowledge of the 
 language, but as I thought it over from day to day I was 
 more and more convinced that to run the risk of having to 
 go south would be to prove unfaithful to duty, and so I 
 conferred no longer with likings or dislikings, resolved to 
 go should an opportunity offer, and in the meantime 
 worked away at Chinese. 
 
 ' By-and-by a Russian merchant turned up ; he was 
 going to Kiachta, so I started with him. I could not go 
 sooner, as it was not safe to travel in the country before the 
 Imperial edict was issued ; to wait longer was to run the 
 risk of not going at all.' 
 
100 
 
 English Miles. 
 200 300 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR's JOURNEYS ON THE GREAT 
 PLAIN OF MONGOLIA 
 
55 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 
 
 The name Mongolia denotes a vast and almost unknown 
 territory situated between China Proper and Siberia, con- 
 stituting the largest dependency of the Chinese Empire. 
 It stretches from the Sea of Japan on the east to Tur- 
 kestan on the west, a distance of nearly 3,000 miles ; and 
 from the southern boundary of Asiatic Russia to the 
 Great Wall of China, a distance of about 900 miles. It 
 consists of high tablelands, lifted up considerably above 
 the level of Northern China, and is approached only 
 through rugged mountain passes. The central portion 
 of this enormous area is called the Desert of Gobi. 
 
 A kind of highway for the considerable commercial 
 traffic between China and Russia runs through the eastern 
 central part of Mongolia, leaving China at the frontier town 
 of Kalgan, and touching Russia at the frontier town of 
 Kiachta. Along this route during all but the winter 
 months, caravans of camel-carts and ox-carts attended by 
 companies of Mongols and Chinese are constantly passing. 
 The staple export from China is tea ; the chief imports are 
 salt, soda, hides, and timber. 
 
 The west and the centre of Mongolia is occupied by 
 nomad Mongols, They have clusters of huts and tents in 
 
56 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 fixed locations which form their winter dwelh'ngs. But in 
 summer they journey over the great plains in search of the 
 best pasturage for their flocks and herds. They are conse- 
 quently exceedingly difficult to reach by any other method 
 than that of sharing their roving tent life. In the south- 
 eastern district of Mongolia there are large numbers of 
 agricultural Mongols who speak both Chinese and Mon- 
 golian. The towns in this part are almost wholly in- 
 habited by Chinese. 
 
 The winter in Mongolia is both long and severe ; in the 
 summer the heat is often very oppressive, and the great 
 Plain is subject to severe storms of dust, rain and wind. 
 
 Buddhism is all-powerful, and the larger half of the 
 male population are lamas or Buddhist priests. ' Meet a 
 Mongol on the road, and the probability is that he is 
 saying his prayers and counting his beads as he rides 
 along. Ask him where he is going, and on what errand, 
 as the custom is, and likely he will tell you he is going to 
 some shrine to worship. Follow him to the temple, and 
 there you will find him one of a company with dust-marked 
 forehead, moving lips, and the never absent beads, going 
 the rounds of the sacred place, prostrating himself at every 
 shrine, bowing before every idol, and striking pious atti- 
 tudes at every new object of reverence that meets his eye. 
 Go to Mongolia itself, and probably one of the first great 
 sights that meet your eye will be a temple of imposing 
 grandeur, resplendent from afar in colours and gold.' 
 
 'The Mongol's religion marks out for him certain seem- 
 ingly indifferent actions as good or bad, meritorious or 
 sinful. There is scarcely one single step in life, however 
 insignificant, which he can take without first consulting 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 57 
 
 his religion through his priest. Not only does his religion 
 insist on moulding his soul, and colouring his whole 
 spiritual existence, but it determines for him the colour 
 and cut of his coat. It would be difficult to find another 
 instance in which any religion has grasped a country so 
 universally and completely as Buddhism has Mongolia.' ^ 
 
 It was to the herculean task of attempting single- 
 handed to evangelise a region and a people like this that 
 James Gilmour addressed himself His early journeys are 
 fully set forth in Among the Motigols, and we do not pro- 
 pose to repeat them here. Our object rather is to depict, 
 so far as possible, the inner life of James Gilmour, and 
 the real nature of the work he accomplished. He left 
 Peking on August 5, and reached Kalgan four days later. 
 On August 27 he started for his first trip across the great 
 plain of Mongolia to Kiachta. A Russian postmaster was 
 to be his companion, but, to avoid travelling on Sunday, 
 Gilmour started a day ahead, and then waited for the 
 Russian to come up. Here is his first view of scenes he 
 was so often in later life to visit. 
 
 * Sabbath, August 28. — Awoke about 5 A.M. just as it 
 was drawing towards light, and saw that we were right out 
 into the Plain. 
 
 * I am writing up my diary, with a lot of people looking 
 into my cart. I have just given them a Mongol Catechism, 
 and I hope it may do them good. God, do Thou bless it to 
 them ! Would I could speak to them, but I cannot. I am 
 glad to be saved the trouble of travelling to-day. My 
 mind feels at rest for the present. I am looking about me, 
 and having my first look at the life I am likely to lead, 
 
 ' Among the Mongols, p. 211, 
 
58 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 There are several more Mongol dwellings within sight, 
 plenty of camels, horses, and oxen. The Mongols have 
 a tent of their own, and the " commandant's " tent has also 
 been put up. A Mongol has just come up and changed 
 his dress, his cloak serving him as a tent meantime. I 
 am hesitating whether to try to read in my cart or go off 
 a little way with my plaid and umbrella. 
 
 ' Had not a very intellectual or spiritual day after all. 
 Went in the afternoon away to the east. Had a good 
 view and a time of devotion at a cairn from which an eagle 
 rose as I approached. Returned to the camp and bought 
 milk and some cheese. Intended to make porridge, but 
 the fire was not good on account of the blowing, so I drank 
 off my milk, ate some bread, and went to sleep.' 
 
 The journey across the desert, including a visit to Urga, 
 occupied a month. It was full of intense interest for the 
 traveller, and many of the most abiding impressions of his 
 life and work were then received. His diary reveals the deep 
 yearnings of his heart for the salvation of the Mongols. 
 Under the date September 1 1, 1870, he writes : — 
 
 ' Astir by daybreak. Camels watering ; made porridge 
 and tea. This is the Lord's day ; help me, O Lord, to be 
 in the spirit, and to be glad and rejoice in the day which 
 Thou hast made ! Several huts in sight. When shall I be 
 able to speak to the people? O Lord, suggest by the 
 Spirit how I should come among them, and guide me in 
 gaining the language, and in preparing myself to teach the 
 life and love of Christ Jesus ! Oh, let me live for Christ, 
 and feel day by day the blessedness of a will given up to 
 God, and the happiness of a life which has its every circum- 
 stance working for my good ! ' 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 59 
 
 His constant rule was to rest from all journeying, so far 
 as possible, on the Sabbath. After another week's experi- 
 ence, on September 1 8 he thus records his impressions : — 
 
 * Encamped just over the plain we saw at sunset last 
 night. We arc some distance from the real exit, but not far. 
 This is the Lord's day ; God help me to be in the spirit 
 notwithstanding all distractions. Oh that God would give 
 me more of His Spirit, more of His felt Presence, more of 
 the spirit and power of prayer, that I may bring down 
 blessings on this poor people of Mongolia ! As I look at 
 them and their huts I ask again and again how am I to go 
 among them ; in comfort and in a waggon, with all my things 
 about me ; or in poverty, reducing myself to their level ? 
 If I go among them rich, they will be continually begging, 
 and perhaps regard me more as a source of gifts than any- 
 thing else. If I go with nothing but the Gospel, there 
 will be nothing to distract their attention from the unspeak- 
 able gift. 
 
 ' 8. 1 5 A.M.-3. 1 5 r.M. Good long walk. Met camels and 
 came upon a cart encampment, estimated at one hundred 
 and seventy. Know where I am on the map. There is a 
 camel encampment where we are. Two huts from which 
 comes fuel. Read to-day in II Chronicles xvi. God never 
 failed those who trusted in Him and appealed to Him. 
 God was displeased with the King of Judah because, after 
 the deliverance from the Lubims, Ethiopians, &c., he trusted 
 to the arm of flesh to deliver him from the Syrians. Do 
 we not in our day rest too much on the arm of flesh .-' 
 Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old ? Do not 
 the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole 
 earth, still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who 
 put their trust in Him } Oh that God would give me more 
 practical faith in Him ! Where is now the Lord God of 
 Elijah ? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him. God 
 
6o JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 give me some of Elijah's spirit, and let my power be of God, 
 and my hope from Him for the conversion of this people. 
 
 ' It is nothing to the Lord to save by many or by them 
 that have no power. Help me, O God, for I rest on Thee, 
 and in Thy name I go against this multitude ! ' 
 
 Kiachta, on the southern frontier of Siberia, was 
 reached September 28, 1870, and there Gilmour was at 
 once plunged into a series of troubles. The Russian and 
 Chinese authorities would not recognise his passport, and 
 he had to wait months before another could be obtained from 
 Peking. He found absolutely no sympathy in his work. 
 He knew next to nothing of the Mongol language. Yet 
 with robust faith, with whole-hearted courage, with a re- 
 solution that nothing could daunt, he set to work. A 
 Scotch trader, named Grant, was kind to him, and found 
 accommodation for him at his house. At first he tried the 
 orthodox plan of getting a Mongol teacher to visit and 
 instruct him. Before he secured one he used to visit such 
 Mongols as he found in the neighbourhood, trying to acquire 
 a vocabulary from them, asking the names of the articles 
 they were using, their actions, and all such other matters as 
 he could make them understand. But his loneliness, his 
 ignorance of the language, the inaction to which he was 
 condemned, partly by his difficulty in getting a suitable 
 teacher, and partly by the uncertainty as to whether the 
 authorities would allow him to remain, told upon his eager 
 spirit as week after week passed by, and he became subject 
 to fits of severe depression. Here is a picture of one of 
 these early days. He had been trying to talk with a 
 Buriat carpenter, in a place called Kudara, not far from 
 Kiachta :^ 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 6l 
 
 ' After getting my quota of words I walked through the 
 town. The main object in it is the church, a large white- 
 washed structure built by Mr. Grant's father-in-law when 
 he was a rich man. He was made poor, comparatively speak- 
 ing, in one night by a great fire which burnt up all before 
 it. In addition to the church are some streets of Cossack 
 houses, desolate enough looking, the streets desolate 
 enough at best, but rendered much more so this morning 
 by the snow melting in th6 sun, which is still high, and 
 manages to thaw away all the snow that falls in places 
 where it shines, though it was frost all day in the shade. 
 Passing the town I made for the river, which rolled on 
 quiet and cold. Passed through large orchards of apple (?) 
 trees ; doubled about, went to the extreme west, got on a 
 hill, and came round home again in time for dinner at 
 4 P.M. I felt very lonely, and not having a teacher I am 
 thrown idle, as it were, a great part of the day after I get 
 my words. It is true I am taking notice of all I see, but 
 it always occurs to me that this is not furthering the 
 Mongolian Mission in any direct way. I often think of 
 what Dr. Alexander said in his charge at my ordination : 
 " You do not go to discover new countries." Would I had a 
 teacher, that the language might go on full swing ! To-day 
 I felt a good deal like Elijah in the wilderness, when the 
 reaction came on after his slaughter of the priests of Baal. 
 He prayed that he might die. I wonder if I am telling 
 the truth when I say that I felt drawn towards suicide. I 
 take this opportunity of declaring strongly that on all 
 occasions two missionaries should go together. I was not 
 of this opinion a few weeks ago, but I had no idea how 
 weak an individual I am. My eyes have filled with tears 
 frequently these last few days in spite of myself, and I do 
 not wonder in the least that Grant's brother shot himself. 
 Oh! the intense loneliness of Christ's life, not a single one 
 understood Him ! He bore it. O Jesus, let me follow in 
 
62 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Thy steps, and have in me the same Spirit that Thou 
 hadst ! 
 
 'Read papers in the evening (Oct. 5). So Jones of 
 SingrauH is dead ! I heard him in Exeter Hall, May, a 
 year or two ago, and heard a good deal of him through 
 Dr. Evans, of Cheshunt College. I am persuaded he was 
 a missionary among a thousand. When he returned to his 
 station he found that during his absence matters had got 
 out of order a good deal, and he set about putting them 
 right. Now he is dead! How prodigal God seems of His 
 workers — Hartley, Jones, both A i, both gone. God's ways 
 are not ours. We would have preserved these two at all 
 risk and expense, but God takes them away, and it seems to 
 us as if He were hurting His own cause. God knows best, 
 but to 2is it is a great mystery.' 
 
 Two days later he received a letter telling him of the 
 death of a brilliant young Glasgow student, and he enters 
 in his diary comments which received only too complete 
 an illustration in his own subsequent career : — 
 
 ' Another splendid student going from college to the 
 grave. This is a thing of common occurrence with refer- 
 ence to Glasgow College, and, if I am not mistaken, I have 
 seen it somewhere publicly commented on. Men, poor 
 it may be, strive through college with a mind and deter- 
 mination beyond their circumstances and bodily strength, 
 fight a great battle wuth poverty and more clever students, 
 resolute to take the first place if possible, and just as the 
 college is finished with them, and sending them forth to the 
 field of life decorated with all the honours it can bestow, 
 the fond Alma Mater has to keep on mourning and drop 
 her tear over an early grave. 
 
 ' Are the young men to blame ? Who can be restrained 
 by the cold-blooded calculation of preserving health ? 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 63 
 
 "There is my opponent, I'll thrash him if I can ; better to 
 toil out my life-blood drop by drop than let it mount to my 
 cheek as a mantle of shame when I find myself defeated 
 when I might have been victorious." Then they conscien- 
 tiously work themselves to death. If they did not work as 
 hard as they do, and refrain from recreation as they do, 
 they would have in their breasts the uneasy feeling that 
 they have not done as much as they might have done ; 
 and what noble nature can be content to live under that 
 accusation written against them by the supreme court in 
 their own breasts .'' 
 
 * Several times I have resolved to refrain for health's sake, 
 but in a short time found such an uneasy feeling about not 
 doing as much as I might, that I had to give it up and 
 go at it. I never feel that I have done as m.uch as I might, , 
 and when I am doing most I feel best.' 
 
 Very dissatisfied with his progress, and stung one day 
 by a remark of Grant's to the effect that he did not seem to 
 speak Mongolian readily, Gilmour changed his plans. He 
 resolved to go out upon the Plain, and persuade some 
 Mongol to allow him to share his tent. On December 13, 
 1870, he left Kiachta and journeyed out into Mongolia to 
 the first cluster of tents, named Olau Bourgass. There he 
 found a friendly Mongol. ' Grant's contractor. Found 
 him at his prayers. He motioned me to sit down, and 
 when his devotions were finished he gave me a warm 
 welcome. He lives alone in his tent, having nothing to 
 care for but the horses for the courier service, and a couple 
 of lamas ^ to attend to his wants, one of whom goes with the 
 letters when they come. We talked, and I learned a great 
 
 ' A lama is a priest of the^lama section of Bviddists. More than half the 
 population of Mongolia are lamas. 
 
64 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 deal, when at last I broke my mind to him, and was glad 
 to find that he received it favourably. I settled to remain 
 there during the night. Nothing very remarkable hap- 
 pened except that we were invaded by a great blustering 
 lama, intoxicated. He came ramping into the tent as 
 if he would have knocked everything down. After a time 
 he went away and lodged in the next hut. I went to bed 
 about ten and slept well, though my feet were cold towards 
 morning.' 
 
 The next three months were passed mainly in this 
 tent. Gilmour used, whenever possible, to return to 
 Kiachta to spend the Sunday at Grant's house ; but by 
 enduring the hardships and suffering all the inconveniences 
 of ordinary Mongol life he rapidly acquired the colloquial, 
 and he also made an indelible impression upon the minds 
 and hearts of the natives, who ever afterwards spoke of 
 him as ' Our Gilmour.' He saw Mongol life as it was, free 
 from all the illusion and romance sometimes thrown around 
 it. He became intimately acquainted with the various 
 Mongol types, and he began to enter into the native 
 habits of thought. His diary contains many a scene like 
 the following : — 
 
 ' I gave the lama a book on Saturday, and when I 
 came back on Tuesday I found he had read it through 
 twice. He set upon me with questions, getting me to 
 admit premises, and then reasoned from them. Christ 
 being at the right hand of God was a great point with him 
 If God has no form, how can anyone be at His right 
 hand } Then, again, if God is everywhere, Christ is every- 
 where right and left of God, and how can that be ? 
 
 ' The omnipresence was a staggerer. Was God in that 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 65 
 
 pot, in the tent, in his boot ? Did he tread upon God ? 
 Then was God inside the kettle ? Did the hot tea not 
 scald Him ? Again, if God was inside the kettle, the kettle 
 was living ! And so he held it up to the laughing circle as 
 a new species of animal. I asked him if a fly were inside 
 the kettle, would the kettle be alive ? " No," he said ; " but 
 a fly does not fill the space as God must do." " Well, then, ' 
 said I, " is my coat alive because I fill it ? " This settled 
 the question.' 
 
 In March 1871 he visited Selenginsk and Onagen 
 Dome, the scene of the labours of Stallybrass and Swan 
 from 1 8 1 7 to 1 84 1 , and then he took a run into Siberia, cross- 
 ing Lake Baikal and visiting Irkutsk. At the latter place 
 he reviews the past few months : — 
 
 ' Another week has passed over my head with many 
 hopes and fears. This day, a week ago, I was nearing 
 Ana in doubt as to many things ; now I am in Irkutsk, 
 having my path marked with mercies. In many points of 
 my journey I expected difficulties which might have stop- 
 ped me short in my path, but all these have disappeared, 
 and I am here, having succeeded beyond expectations. 
 One thing is not right : my readiness to forget the ways in 
 which God has helped me. Sometimes for weeks and 
 months I look forward to some crisis which is coming ; it 
 comes off well, and in two days I am as if I had forgotten 
 that to which I had looked forward with so much appre- 
 hension. In this manner I am not only guilty of ingrati- 
 tude, but lose much joy and strength of faith and hope. 
 What should make me more happy than the thought of 
 the helps and deliverances that God has vouchsafed me ; 
 and in troubles present and to come, what can give me 
 more faith and courage than to remember that out of such 
 troubles I was delivered before ? 
 
66 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 * One thing I sometimes think of. I left Britain with 
 no intention of travelling ; I expected to settle down quietly 
 and confine myself to a circle I could impress. This plan 
 has been completely changed and overruled. Two months 
 have I been in Peking ; two weeks have I been in Kalgan; 
 a month have I been in the desert ; a month have I been in 
 Kudara, a small Russian frontier military post ; a month 
 and a half have I been in Kiachta ; two months have I been 
 in Mongolia ; and now two weeks have I been travelling in 
 Russia. A year and a month have elapsed since I left 
 home, and during that time I have been walking to and 
 fro on the face of the earth, and going up and down in it. 
 In this way I have not found my life at all dull, but very 
 stirring. Indeed, many people would have left home to 
 travel as I have done. I sought it not ; it came, and I 
 took it. So as yet I have no hardships to complain of. 
 To see the places and things I have seen — Liverpool, 
 Wales, Rock of Lisbon, Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Port 
 Said, Canal, Suez, Red Sea, Cape Gardafui, Indian Ocean, 
 Penang, Straits of Malacca, Singapore, Hong Kong, 
 Shanghai, Tientsin, Peking, Kalgan, Desert, Urga, Kiachta, 
 Russia, Baikal, Irkutsk — only even to see these, men wil 
 make long journeys. I have seen them all without seeking 
 them, with the exception of Baikal and Irkutsk. These 
 are all by the way, and I dwell upon them as proofs that 
 God, in sending His servants from home and kindred, often 
 gives them pleasure and worldly enjoyment on the way, 
 which He does not promise, and which they have no right 
 to expect.' 
 
 After another but briefer sojourn at Olau Bourgass he 
 set out on his return journey, visited Urga, then crossed 
 the great plain on horseback in the course of fourteen days, 
 and reached Kalgan on June ii. After a rest there he 
 made two excursions into Mongolia, visiting Lama Miao 
 
MONO OLIA N A PPRRN TICESHIP 67 
 
 one of the great Mongol religious centres, in the first ; and 
 occupying some weeks with a further spell of Mongol tent 
 life during the second. 
 
 His diary, under date of September 22, 1871, while he 
 was resting at Kalgan, thus sums up his experiences :— 
 
 ' I desire to-day to look back on the way by which the 
 Lord has led me for the last year. In September 1870 I 
 was looking out eagerly, anxiously for someone who was 
 going to Russia, that I might go with him. I could find 
 no one. I made it a subject of prayer, and at last, when I 
 was on my knees, in came McCoy to tell me of a Russian 
 who was going up without delay. I saw the Russian, and 
 arranged to go, and started. " While they are speaking I 
 will answer them." 
 
 ' On the journc)' between Peking and Kalgan I was 
 alone, I may say, and could speak little Chinese, yet I got 
 on very well ; and though my money was in a box on the 
 back of a donkey, yet it came in all safe, none lost. In 
 Kalgan I had difficulty at first about finding camels, but 
 at length the Russian postmaster turned out to be going 
 home. The time when was uncertain, quite ; his departure 
 depended on the coming of his successor. I prayed about 
 this, and one day was informed that the successor had 
 arrived much sooner than was expected, and that we were 
 to start in a day or two. We did start, and after a pro- 
 sperous journey arrived safely at Kiachta. 
 
 'There I found Grant and Hegemann,two Englishmen. 
 I went to live in Grant's country house at Kudara. A 
 difficulty arose about a teacher. I prayed about this, and 
 strolling along came upon a tent in which was a man who 
 was out of employment, and he being educated, I engaged 
 him to be my teacher. In Kiachta, after some delay, I got 
 a teacher, but not to my satisfaction. After I had been 
 with him a time Grant remarked one day that I did not 
 
68 JAM^S GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 seem to be making much progress in the language. This 
 stung me to the quick, and made me go down into 
 Mongolia. Here I was directed to the tent of Grant's 
 contractor, and with him I made arrangements to live. I 
 thank God for not permitting me to get a good teacher in 
 Kiachta. Had I got a good teacher there, I would simply 
 have remained there, and I am sure would not have 
 learned half as much of the language as I did in the tent 
 at Mongolia, would have got none of the insight I gained 
 into the style of Mongolian life, and would not have got 
 the introduction I had there to numerous Mongols. At 
 the time I was immensely chagrined that I could not get a 
 proper teacher, but now, after the lapse of only a few 
 months, I can see good reason for thanking God for lead- 
 ing me by that way. This should teach mc to trust God 
 more than I do when things seem to thwart my 
 purpose. 
 
 ' Again, I was under a great disappointment about the 
 delay that occurred in the sending of my passport from 
 ] 'eking. In consequence of its not coming I was unable 
 to go to Urga with Lobsung and Sherrub in February. I 
 felt it much at the time, but some months after (in June) I 
 learned that these men with whom I wanted to go suffered 
 excessively on the road ; so much so that, had I gone with 
 them, I might have got my feet frozen and died with the 
 cold. Here again I have to praise God for not giving me 
 my own wa\'. 
 
 "Thy way, not mine, O Lord; 
 However dark it be." 
 
 • Then, again, I had long desired to visit the scene of 
 the former Siberian Mission, and through the mercy of 
 Providence I was permitted to do this. My journey back 
 through the desert also was marked by mercies. Truly I 
 may stand and say. 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 69 
 
 "When all Thy mercies, O my God, 
 My rising soul surveys, 
 Transported with the view, I'm lost 
 In wonder, love, and praise.'" 
 
 After his wanderings even Kalgan was a haven of rest, 
 and he had secured there a base of operations. ' Now,' 
 he writes, ' that I have got my study window pasted up, 
 and a nice little stove set going, it seems so comfortable 
 that it would be snug to stay where I am. But comfort is 
 not the missionary's rule. My object in going into Mon- 
 golia at this time is to have an opportunity of reviewing 
 and extending my knowledge of the colloquial, which has 
 become a little rusty consequent upon its disuse to a great 
 extent while here, trying to get up the written.' 
 
 All who are even superficially acquainted with Chinese 
 matters know how difficult it is to acquire the colloquial, 
 and still more the written language, Mongolian is not 
 nearly so difficult, but it presents a task needing vigour of 
 intellect and strength of will. Both of the.se Gilmour pos- 
 sessed in a measure far above the average. 
 
 'In the written,' he states on October 7, 1871,'! am 
 still far from at home. Most of the Bible I can read slowly 
 and at sight. Many words I can write. I think I could 
 write a bad letter myself alone. The other day I did so. 
 My teacher said it was well written, and said also he re- 
 joiced in the progress of his .scholar ; but I put this down to 
 mere politeness.' 
 
 During this visit he stayed in the tent of a Mongol 
 named Mahabul, who lived there with his wife and an 
 only son, a lama. They were all much addicted to the 
 use of whisky. 
 
70 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ^ October 14, 'yi. — To-day rose before the sun, read 
 words, wrote at the account of my journey from Urga, went 
 to the mountain for devotion, revisited the silver worker, 
 who is making the bride's ornaments, dined, visited the 
 Norying's lama son, who fell from a horse and broke his 
 leg, had tea, and went to visit tents a mile or two to the 
 south. There found, as master of the tent, a blackman (a 
 layman) I had seen before, and as visitor a lama I had 
 left in Mahabul's tent when I went out. From one thing 
 to another we got to speak of God and His book. At last 
 they asked me to read them a portion, I read in English 
 a few verses, and then gave them the parable of the Prodigal 
 Son in Mongol colloquial. I also gave them a specimen 
 of a sermon, and explained shortly the nature of God, when 
 they all seemed pleased. The lama finished up the thing 
 by saying, " Your outward appearance differs from us, but 
 inwardly you agree with us." Coming home I felt amply 
 repaid for all the uncomfort and solitude, and leading a 
 Mongol life, by the comparative ease with which I can 
 converse with them, and the manner in which they wonder 
 at my proficiency in the colloquial.' 
 
 In his official report he rapidly summarises the achieve- 
 ments of the last nine months : — 
 
 ' By the middle of February I had a limited knowledge 
 of the colloquial, picked up from listening to and joining 
 in the conversation going on among the inmates of the 
 tent at Olau Bourgass, and those with the numerous visitors 
 who took occasion to call on my lama, who was rather a 
 famous man. At the end of February the lama returned 
 south to Urga, and I went back into Russia, and got a 
 Buriat teacher. This individual, however, turned out so 
 incredibly lazy, and I felt .so dull alone in my large 
 comfortable rooms, after the friendly bustle and crowd of 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP ' 71 
 
 the little tent, with its cheery fire, that I could not stand it. 
 So I got my teacher and myself into a tarantass, and went 
 off to visit the scenes of the former mission in Siberia. 
 My teacher proved very useful. He spoke Russian ver>^ 
 well, I spoke Mongolian to him, and thus we travelled, 
 the doubtful wonder of all Russians, who could not under- 
 stand how a man not born a Buriat could get acquainted 
 with that language, and yet know no Russian, Afte 
 visiting the converts, partly for the sake of diverting the 
 curious eyes of the Russians from the great aim of my 
 journey and partly in the traveller's spirit, I turned west- 
 ward and crossed the Baikal on the ice, and remained a 
 few days in the capital of Siberia, Irkutsk. On returning 
 to Kiachta I found another teacher, and went out for 
 another month into Mongolia and tent life. All the while 
 that I was in Mongolia I used to return to Kiachta once a 
 week, usually on Saturday, and abide in the land of habi- 
 tations till Monday. 
 
 * Early in May I started for the south I had intended 
 to remain over the summer in Urga, but unexpected diffi- 
 culties turned up, and led me to decide on going down to 
 Kalgan at once. From Urga to Kalgan (600 miles) 
 was done on horseback, accompanied by a single Mongol ; 
 and as we carried no luggage, we had to depend on the 
 hospitality of the Mongols for lodging and cooking, or, as 
 they call the latter, " pot and ladle." 
 
 ' In this way I saw a very great deal of tent life 
 during the twelve or thirteen days the ride lasted. I got 
 into Kalgan just two days before the rainy season came 
 on (June 15), and having, after difficulty, secured a teacher, 
 passed the summer in Kalgan studying the book language 
 and practising writing. In October I went up again to 
 the grassland and spent some weeks revising my knowledge 
 of the colloquial and observing the difference between the 
 northern and southern manner of speaking. I finally left 
 
72 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Mongolia in a furious storm on the morning of November i, 
 and re-entered Peking November 9.' 
 
 Gilmour on his return was naturally an object of great 
 interest to all the missionary and to some of the official 
 community. He soon settled down to the study of Chinese, 
 and to such mission work as he could usefully engage 
 in during the winter at Peking. A letter to the writer, 
 under date of January 21, 1872, enables us to realise 
 somewhat the life of this period : — 
 
 ' My dear Lovett, — Though t acknowledged receipt of 
 your last welcome epistle, I am aware I owe you a return, 
 and here it is ... I have thought that perhaps an account 
 of how a Sabbath goes in Peking might not be uninter- 
 esting, and I'll just confine myself to to-day. Well, this 
 morning, on getting up, I found my stove was out. This is 
 a very unusual thing, but it just happens once, say, in three 
 weeks. The thermometer was about 5°. The first thing 
 after getting dressed was not to call my servant, as you 
 might suppose, but to go in quest of letters. A mail had 
 come in the night before, but I had returned home too 
 late last night to see it. So I went over to Dr. Dudgeon's 
 house before he was up, prowled about till I found the 
 mail, but there was nothing for me. I returned to my 
 cold room, and was there till the breakfast-bell rang. I 
 board with Edkins, and to go there is a pleasant break in 
 the monotony. 
 
 ' On coming back to my quarters I found the room full 
 of smoke, doors and windows open, my boy on his knees 
 fussing about the stove, and saying. Moo too poo shing — "the 
 wood won't do." I saw at once that that would not do for 
 me, so I buttoned up my coat and went out on to the great 
 street for a walk. The street on which we live, the Ha Ta 
 Mun (great street), runs north and south, and a cold wind wag 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP T^ 
 
 blowing down the road, carrying clouds of dust with it. 
 Through the dust, however, were visible the paraphernalia 
 of two funerals, one going north, the other going south. 
 They met just opposite our place. That going south was 
 much the grander of the two, and had a long procession of 
 people carrying emblematical devices, honorific umbrellas, 
 drums, gongs, and musical instruments. Ever and anon 
 a man took quantities of paper discs with square holes cut 
 in the centre and scattered them to the north wind. The 
 papers are supposed to represent cash, and were scrambled 
 for eagerly by the urchins, though they could be valuable 
 only as waste paper. In the procession also was carried 
 the chair in which the deceased used to ride, his mule cart 
 also figured conspicuous, and then came the mourners. 
 
 'As you know, mourning garb in China is wJiite, and I 
 noticed that some of the mourners had adopted a neat 
 device. All Chinamen who can afford to be warm in winter 
 wear robes lined inside with fur. A rich robe is lined 
 with fine material, but the common thing is white lamb- 
 skin. Well, these fellows simply become turn-coats for the 
 time, and put on their fur robes inside out, and thus were 
 in the fashion. The coffin itself was laid in a magnificent 
 bier towering high, surmounted by a gilt top piece, hung 
 with silks, and borne by forty-eight bearers. 
 
 ' Of course everything has to make way for the funeral. 
 The Peking streets are very wide, and at the same time very 
 narrow. In the centre and high up is a cart road with an 
 up and a down line, along the sides of this are ditches and 
 holes, beyond these ditches and holes is another way more 
 or less passable, and beyond that again the shops. The 
 funeral procession took the crown of the road, crept along 
 at its snail's pace, while the traffic took to the side roads. 
 
 * After a good long walk among stalls and wheelbarrows 
 I got back to my abode, found a good fire, and that it was 
 high time to go to the Chinese service, I don't understand all 
 
74 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 I hear, but I understand some, and make a point of hearing 
 one and sometimes two Chinese sermons on the Sabbath. 
 An old Chinaman was preaching, and I could see from the 
 manner of the congregation that he was securing the fixed 
 attention of his hearers. Before the sermon was ended there 
 was a bustle at the door, and in came three Mongols with 
 my Chinese card. They were asked to wait till the service 
 was concluded, then I took them to my quarters and had 
 some conversation with them. One of them had come for 
 the doctor, and wished to get cured of so prosaic a disease 
 as the itch. 
 
 * Before I was finished with them, my servant came to 
 say that another Mongol had called for me and was waiting 
 for me in Edkins's. When I went over I found an old 
 Mongol, a blackman, fifty-eight years of age. This layman 
 was named Amasa, and has been in the habit of paying 
 Mr. Edkins visits every winter when he comes down to 
 Peking. Last year he did not come, and we were concluding 
 that he had died. Of course we were glad to see him. I 
 got him into my room and we had quite an afternoon of it. 
 The old man knew a good deal about Christianity, and I 
 gave him what additional instruction I could. Of all the 
 Mongols I have seen he is, perhaps, the most ready to receive 
 instruction. 
 
 ' It was quite late in the afternoon before he left, and I 
 had just time to take a walk at sunset and be back in time 
 for dinner. Immediately after that the people began to 
 assemble for evening service. This is held every Sabbath 
 evening in Mr. Edkins's parlour. Upwards of twenty usually 
 compose the congregation. The missionaries take the 
 service in turn. After service the mass of the congregation 
 separated, but one man came with me to my room, and 
 there we sat talking till midnight, when my visitor rose to 
 depart. 
 
 • There, you see, I have given you the history of one 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 75 
 
 Sabbath in Peking. It is a pretty fair sample of what goes 
 on here very frequently. However, when I find myself free 
 on the afternoon I accompany Mr. Edkins to some one of 
 the two chapels, which are in distant parts of the city. I do 
 not go so much to hear him preach as to have his conversa- 
 tion on the way there and back, and, as you may suppose, 
 we sometimes stumble upon an argument, and this makes it 
 quite lively.' 
 
 The self-denying and arduous labours of his first sojourn 
 in Mongolia had given to James Gilmour a knowledge of 
 the language and an acquaintance with the nomadic Mon- 
 gols of the Plain far in excess of that possessed by any 
 other European. But even then, as also at a later date, the 
 question was raised whether more fruitful work might not 
 be done among the agricultural Mongols inhabiting the 
 country to the north-east of Peking. Hence, on April i6, 
 1872, he started on his first journey through the district in 
 which in later years the closing labours of his life were to 
 be accomplished. He spent thirty-seven days in this pre- 
 liminary tour, and travelled about 1,000 miles. 
 
 Gilmour's first estimate of this region as a field of mis- 
 sionary enterprise, expressed on April 25, 1872, remained 
 true to the end, even though in later years the exceptional 
 difficulties of work among the nomads induced him at last, 
 as we shall see, to settle among the agricultural Mongols : — 
 
 ' Though I saw a good many Mongol houses, yet I 
 must say, I do not feel much drawn to them in preference 
 to the nomad Mongols. The only possible recommenda- 
 tion I can think of is that, coming among them, I might go 
 and put up for some days at a time in a Chinese inn. This 
 would save me from great trouble in getting introductions, 
 
76 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 and it might be less expensive. The great objection I 
 have to them is that, though a mission were estabhshed 
 among them, it would be more a mission in China than 
 anywhere else. The Mongols in these agricultural villages 
 speak Chinese to a man, and I cannot help feeling that, 
 since there are so many missionaries in Peking speaking 
 the Chinese language, these Mongols fall to them, and not 
 to me.' 
 
 Soon after his return from this trip into Eastern Mon- 
 golia, Mr. Gilmour sent home an elaborate report upon 
 the conditions and prospects of the Mongol Mission. He 
 deals with the whole question of the work, showing why, 
 in his opinion, the agricultural Mongols should be evan- 
 gelised by Chinese missionaries. Mr. Edkins and others 
 thought that Gilmour should undertake that labour, but 
 after having seen more than any missionary of both regions 
 and classes of Mongols, on the ground that he was the 
 man ' who had to go and begin,' he decided for the Plain. 
 
 Even at this early date Mr. Gilmour urged repeatedly 
 and strenuously upon the Directors the pressing need he 
 felt for a colleague. And thus early began the long 
 series of seeming fatalities that prevented him from ever 
 receiving this joy and strength. Partly from the needs of 
 the Peking Mission, and partly from respect to a notion 
 which the American Board of Foreign Missions had that 
 their occupancy of Kalgan, on the extreme southern limit, 
 constituted all Mongolia into one of their fields of work, 
 the Rev. S. E. Meech, Mr. Gilmour's old college friend, who 
 had been designated as his first colleague, was stationed 
 at Peking. With reference to this, in closing the report 
 above referred to, Gilmour wrote : — 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 77 
 
 ' Mr. Meech's perversion from Mongolia to China is 
 much to be deplored. I think it would be wrong in me not 
 to inform you of the true state of matters, and to remind you 
 that it is little short of nonsense to speak of reopening the 
 Mongolian Mission so long as there is only one man 
 in the field. I am fully aware of the difficulty of finding 
 suitable men, and most fully sympathise with you, but 
 don't let us delude ourselves with the idea of Mongol 
 Mission work progressing till another man or two come 
 and put their shoulder to the wheel. All that I can do I 
 am quite willing to do, but my own progress is most 
 seriously hampered because I am alone.' 
 
 His whole subsequent life is evidence of the splendid 
 way in which Gilmour justified these words, yet perhaps 
 no legitimate blame can be laid at the door of the Directors 
 of the London Missionary Society. Both the friends and 
 the critics of missions are sometimes more ready to tabulate 
 converts than to ponder and estimate aright the difficulties 
 and drawbacks of the work. But in any estimate of the 
 comparative success and failure of the Mongol Mission it 
 should be borne in mind that Gilmour never really had a 
 colleague. He never even had a companion for his work 
 on the Plain, except his heroic and devoted wife. And in 
 later years circumstances over which the Directors could 
 exercise little or no control successively deprived him of 
 the fellowship, after a very brief experience, of Dr. Roberts 
 and Dr. Smith. 
 
 In the summer of this year, in the company of Mr. 
 Edkins, he visited the sacred city of Woo T'ai Shan, a 
 famous place of Mongol pilgrimage. 
 
 An amusing illustration of his well-known love of argu- 
 ment occurred on this trip. In Mr. Edkins he found a 
 
78 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 foeman in all respects worthy of his dialectic steel. 
 Chinese mules will only travel in single file, even where 
 the roads are wide enough to allow of their travelling 
 abreast, and as Gilmour's went in front of that ridden by 
 Mr. Edkins, he used to ride with his face to the tail of his 
 beast, and thus the more readily and continuously conduct 
 the argument then engaging their attention. 
 
 In November he tried the experiment of living at the 
 Yellow Temple in Peking during the winter, in order that 
 he might meet and converse with the numerous Mongols 
 who visit the capital every year. Here he not only made 
 new friends, but he also frequently renewed acquaintance 
 with those he had met on the Plain. These visited him 
 in his compound, and were occasionally a weariness and 
 vexation to him, inasmuch as they very frequently severely 
 tried his patience, without affording him the comfort of 
 knowing that the good tidings of the * Jesus book ' were 
 finding an entrance into their dark minds and hard hearts. 
 In a letter to an intimate college friend, the Rev. T. T. 
 Matthews of Madagascar, which he wrote, November 21, 
 1872, he vividly describes this part of his work, giving some 
 of his typical experiences : — 
 
 ' I am writing in the Yellow Temple, about a mile and 
 a half from Peking, and three or four miles from our mission 
 premises, I have rented a room, brought my Chinaman 
 servant, and live as a Chinaman, all but the clothes and the 
 paganism. The reason of all this is that near here, and in 
 this temple, numerous Mongols put up when they come 
 from Mongolia to Peking. Our premises being three or 
 four miles away, and in a busy part of the town, the 
 Mongols can't easily find our place ; so if they can't come 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 79 
 
 to me I just go to them. I came here yesterday, and 
 can't tell yet how I may get on. Mongols are shy in 
 Peking, and even out here a little difficult of access ; but I 
 must do what I can, and have patience. 
 
 ' Just now a company of eight or ten have arrived and 
 put up, three or four of them in the same court with me, 
 the others in a place close by. These are likely enough 
 to come to see me ; of course I'll go and see them. You in 
 Madagascar, I suppose, can't realise what it is to be a 
 missionary to a people whom you can't approach without 
 difficult}^ Here t^ne difficulty does not end ; those I can 
 catch don't care one straw for Christianity. They have a 
 system which quite satisfies them, and what more do they 
 want .'' Such is their feeling, so you see I have got quite 
 plenty to do ; a hard enough task, even the human part of 
 it. But don't mistake, I am not bewailing my lot, for that 
 I have neither time nor inclination ; I am only telling you 
 about my state. 
 
 * I don't believe much in people talking about what they 
 mean to do in the future, but perhaps you will permit me 
 to say that I would like to start for Mongolia again in 
 February or March. I have got a sheepskin coat, so need 
 not fear the cold. I perhaps may take with me a stock of 
 made-up medicines for specific diseases which are common, 
 and this may make an introduction in some cases at least. 
 Dr. Dudgeon has on our premises in Peking a hospital well 
 attended by Chinamen, and I go there sometimes and see 
 how he doses them. 
 
 ' Now let me tell you a little about the inner life of 
 Mongols. People travelling through Mongolia wake up in 
 the morning as their camel-cart passes some rural encamp- 
 ment ; they rub their eyes and say, " How pleasant it would 
 be to live in Mongolia like these Mongols, free from care 
 and the anxiety of busy life. They have only their sheep, 
 &c., to look after." This reflection is accompanied with a 
 
So James gilmour of Mongolia 
 
 sigh when they reflect on their own hard lot. Now the 
 fact of the matter is, these travellers know nothing about it. 
 They may print as much as they like about the pastoral 
 felicity of the simplicity of Mongol life ; it is all humbug. 
 Last night, two Mongols whom I know well, a petty chief 
 named " Myriad Joy " and his scribe named " Mahabul " 
 (I can't translate this last), came into my room, and we 
 had a tea-spree there and then. The two have been for 
 fifteen days in Peking on Government duty, and last night 
 their business was finished, and they were to mount their 
 camels and head north this morning. The chief gets 
 from Peking about 30/. a year, the scribe about 4/. ; and 
 when they come thus on duty their allowances, though 
 small, enable them to make a little over and above their 
 salaries. The chief can stand no small amount of Chinese 
 whisky. I suspect he is deep in debt, and am sure that he 
 could pay his debt two or three times over if he only had 
 the money it took to paint his nose. The scribe was one 
 of my teachers in Mongolia. I lived in his house some 
 time, and know only too well about his aflfairs. He is 
 hopelessly in debt. He had a large family once, but now 
 they are all dead except one married daughter and one 
 lama son about seventeen years of age, and good for nothing. 
 His " old woman," as the Mongol idiom has it, is still alive, 
 and fond of whisky, like her husband. If they had only been 
 teetotalers they might have now been comfortable ; such, at 
 least, is my impression. I shall say nothing about what I 
 saw in his tent, and confine myself to last night and this 
 morning. 
 
 ' Drinking my tea last night, Mahabul (the scribe) says 
 to me : " My chief here won't lend me nine shillings to buy 
 a sheepskin coat for my old woman, therefore she must 
 be frozen to death in the winter ; my chief won't lend me 
 anything, other people he lends." The chief said nothing 
 for a while ; but the scribe went on harping on this string, till 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 8i 
 
 at last the chief launched out right and left on his scribe, 
 shouting loud enough for all the compound to hear. The 
 scribe took it coolly, and stopped him, saying : " Enough, 
 enough ; it is past, it is past ; my old woman can die, all die ; 
 no matter." This did not soothe the irate chief at all, and 
 a minute or two later a furious quarrel broke out between 
 them about something else. The storm raged a long time, 
 and in my room too, while they were my guests ! After 
 some time the scribe left the room to attend to the camels, 
 when the chief confided to me his opinion of his scribe. 
 Later the chief left the room, and the cribe confided to me 
 his opinion of his chief ; and I must say that the two seemed 
 well matched, with very little to choose between. The 
 freedom with which they spoke of each other was partly to 
 be accounted for by the fact that both were more or less 
 drunk. 
 
 ' The chief squared up his accounts with the people 
 about here, and showed me in the scribe's absence a small 
 parcel of silver which he had reserved for use on the road. 
 He showed it mc under strict injunctions not to tell the 
 scribe. The scribe had more difficulty in squaring up Jiis 
 account The last item that stuck in his throat was a little 
 bill his son had left. This son had started a day or two 
 before, and of course the father was responsible for the 
 debt. How he was to pay it he did not know, as he had 
 not a single cash about him. The Chinaman of the place 
 threatened to detain him, and the scribe laughed a bitter 
 laugh at the idea. After a great row they went off to 
 sleep. 
 
 ' This morning early the scribe was at me before I \\^as 
 dressed. It was the small debt again. The Chinaman 
 knew better than to seize the man ; that would not have 
 paid ; he seized his coat, and actually was detaining that 
 as ransom for a sum equal to fourpence English ! He 
 made a direct appeal to me to pay it, and of course I did it ; 
 
 F 
 
82 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 though I was a Httle disgusted with the man's meanness, as 
 I had given him a present of money amounting to about 
 i/. a few days before. This son of his is a great eyesore 
 to me. He is a young lama, about as wicked a boy as I 
 know. His brothers died of consumption, and this fact 
 enables him to do anything he likes with his parents. If 
 they refuse anything, he has only to feign sickness, and they 
 are in a huge state over him. He is a thoroughly bad lad. 
 Will not work, will not study, will do nothing but make 
 trouble and expense for his parents. Just fancy ! His 
 father and mother are poor as church mice ; and when his 
 father was coming to Peking the boy must beg to come too, 
 and the father like a fool must take him, and be at great 
 expense for travelling, &c. One thing made me furious. 
 Out of the money I gave him he spent about 4^-. or more 
 buying his good-for-nothing son an elegant snuff-bottle. 
 In short, the man's folly makes it utterly useless to help 
 him. I once before relieved him from threatened deten- 
 tion for debt for the amount of twopence-halfpenny, just 
 after I had made him a present, and I expect perhaps to 
 have to do so again. What astonishes me is that the 
 Mongols can get into debt so far. I don't believe my 
 Mongol can pass a single man he knows without being in 
 danger of being dunned for some hopeless debt or other. 
 And yet his debt does not seem to distress him. He is 
 most distressed because people will not lend him more 
 money. 
 
 ' The last of the chief was rather rich. He is (he says) 
 to have a profitable piece of Government w^ork in hand 
 in spring, and on the strength of that wanted me to lend 
 him now a shoe of silver, about 15/., to be repaid to me in 
 spring. Of course I did not. He then, though my guest, 
 kept on saying, " Heart small, heart small," which pretty 
 much amounts to saying, " Coward, coward." He finally 
 took revenge by offering to lend me a shoe of silver in 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 83 
 
 spring, but of course I declined. A pretty pair they are ! 
 If what they say be true, in spring they may make a good 
 thing of it ; but this has happened to the scribe before, and 
 in two months after he was as poor as ever. In short, they 
 are fooHsh and thriftless. 
 
 ' While I have been writing this letter I have overheard 
 my Chinese servant saying, in reply to a question from a 
 Chinaman, " There is such a thing as a preaching letter : you 
 can preach by a letter." So I am going now to preach. 
 Don't get weary ; stick to it. Don't be lazy, but don't 
 be in a hurry. Slow but sure ; stick to it. We have no 
 great effort to make, but rather to stick to it patiently. " No 
 good luork is lost" Sir William Thomson used to say in 
 his philosophy class, and it is eminently true in our case. 
 (I wish these Chinamen would hold their tongue.) All 
 our good work will be found, there is no doubt about that. 
 All I am afraid of is that our good work will amount to 
 little when it is found. (These Chinamen are a bore.) 
 I sometimes think that if all we say be true, as it is, that 
 men at last shall stand before God — and we shall see them 
 after they know that all we say is true — and they will pitch 
 into us for not pitching into them more savagely ; for not, 
 in fact, taking them by the "cuff" of the neck and drag- 
 ging them into the kingdom of God. I speak now of our 
 countrymen and foreigners. As regards heathen, they too 
 shall stand revealed ; and their mud gods also, and rotten 
 superstitions, shall stand revealed : how then shall we feel 
 when they shall look at us and blame us for not waking them 
 up more vigorously .^ An infidel has said that if he could 
 believe that men's future state depended at all upon what 
 was done in this life, he would let nothing hinder him from 
 being up and at men. He would be content to be counted 
 a madman — anything, if only he could do anything to make 
 men's state better in the world to come. (I wish these 
 Chinamen would shut up ; I came here to meet Mongols, 
 
84 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 and I am like to be flooded out by Chinamen whose lan- 
 guage I only half understand.) 
 
 * Now, zve believe : how much do we do ? Are there not 
 some men whom we might stir up who now escape ? Could 
 we do more ? Are not souls valuable enough for us to 
 face anything if only wc can save some ? Let us look to 
 the end, or rather let us look at the present. In the room 
 in which I now write (the Chinamen have gone) is Jesus, 
 where you read this is Jesus : He stands and looks to us. 
 He has given up the clean heaven, and walked here and 
 lived among dirt and poverty, in solitude, misunderstood, 
 without one intelligent friend ; He has borne the scorn of 
 men. He has been put to the horrible and shameful death 
 of the cross, all to save us and others. We trust Him, He 
 saves us ; and all He asks is that we should tell men about 
 what He has done ; and is there one man we meet to whom 
 we shall not speak ? shall Christ look to us in vain to declare 
 simply what He has done ? Perish the thought ! Whatever 
 may be between us and speaking to men, let us go through 
 it. If it be a foreign language, remember Christ lived thirty 
 years in preparation. If it be hardship, cold, poor food, 
 scorn, slight, deaf ears — never mind, go ahead. Christ looks 
 to us to go ahead, or come ahead, for He has gone through 
 it all. Trouble, hardship, trial, suffering, — all will soon pass 
 and be done. And is there a trouble or hardship we have 
 yet surmounted for Christ's sake that does not seem sweet 
 to look back on .'' Then, come what likes, let us face it ; or, 
 if we be overwhelmed, let us be overwhelmed with undaunted 
 faces looking in the right direction. By the mercy of God 
 may we be saved ; and if saved how splendid it will be — 
 no trouble, no trial, no indigestible beef and brick-tea : every- 
 thing better than we could wish it, and complete joy, 
 
 ' All this is not imagination or rhetoric, but really before 
 us ; so, by the strength which Christ gives, let us go on to 
 it. Pray for nic, I pray for you ; and if we don't meet 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 85 
 
 on earth, you know the trysting-place, " the right-hand 
 side!'' 
 
 It can readily be seen that, under conditions of the kind 
 sketched in this letter, time was not likely to hang heavily 
 on his hands. Interviews like the following were held from 
 time to time, and were not only encouraging and hopeful 
 but reacted strongly upon his own heart and brain : — 
 
 * This afternoon (Sabbath, November 24), I met 
 Toobshing Baier in the dispensary of the London Mission 
 Hospital. At first I could not remember the man. The 
 face I knew. After a time his name came out without, I 
 flatter myself, his perceiving that I was fishing for it. 
 He was most anxious to see the doctor's medical instru- 
 ments and appliances. After he had seen quite a number 
 of these, he came to my room, and we sat down for a 
 talk which lasted nearly from 5 to 7 o'clock. He began 
 by reading a part of the rough draft of the new trans- 
 lation of St. Matthew in Mongolian, which happened 
 to be lying on my table. He suggested that in place of 
 " prophet," a word which has been transferred bodily, we 
 should use juotig beclikty. He also remarked that our 
 translation of " the foal of an ass " was not the thincr, and 
 gave the word he thought was right. He was accompanied 
 by a young lama, who agreed with him in this suggestion. 
 The lama seemed well up, read Mongolian as easily as 
 Toobshing himself, and when Toobshing gave the Thibetan 
 word iox juoug beclikty, the lama looked over his shoulder, 
 spied a book on a shelf, took it, found the place at once, 
 and showed me the Thibetan and Mongolian side by 
 side. 
 
 'Shortly after this Toobshing set himself up and pro- 
 posed questions and cases such as : 
 " Is hell eternal ? 
 
86 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' " Arc all the heathen who have not heard the Gospel 
 damned? 
 
 ' " If a man lives without sin, is he damned ? 
 
 '" If a man disregards Christ, but worships a supreme 
 God in an indefinite way, is he saved or not ? 
 
 * " How can Christ save a man ? 
 
 ' " If a man prays to Christ to save him morn and even, 
 but goes on sinning meantime, how about him ? 
 ' " If a man prays for a thing, does he get it ? 
 
 * " Do your unbelieving countrymen in England all go to 
 hell ? 
 
 * " Are there prophets now ? 
 
 ' " Is a new-born child a sinner ? 
 ' " Is one man then punished for another's fault ? 
 ' " Has anybody died, gone to heaven or hell, and come 
 back to report ? [A Mongol has !] 
 
 * " Did Buddha live ? " and so forth. 
 
 ' [Answer, He lived, but did not do what is now said of 
 him.] 
 
 '"If so, how do you know that the account of Christ is 
 not made up in the same way ? Could not the disciples 
 conspire to make the Gospels ? " 
 
 ' To these and all other questions I endeavoured to give 
 proper answers ; and this, our most delightful and profitable 
 talk, lasted till there was just time for me to snatch a 
 hasty meal before the usual service at 7.30 P.M.' 
 
 Discussions of this nature were calculated to deepen 
 thought and to promote heart-searching on the part of the 
 Christian worker. They also illustrate some of the special 
 difficulties which missionaries in China and India have 
 to meet. With an elaborate religious ritual and literature, 
 both Buddhist and Hindu can often, and do often, object 
 against Christianity many of those, sometimes obvious, 
 
MONGOLIAN APPRENTICESHIP 87 
 
 sometimes subtle, difficulties which the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ alone can remove, and which it removes by sanctify- 
 ing and dominating the heart. 
 
 In February 1873 Gilmour visited Tientsin for the 
 first time since he passed through it on his arrival in China. 
 Here he took part in several readings, temperance meetings, 
 and religious services. At one of the readings : — 
 
 * One joke happened. I was asked to give a recitation at 
 a penny reading for sailors. The piece was " The Execution 
 of Montrose." I got up in tragic style, said, 
 
 " Come hither, Evan Cameron," 
 
 with the appropriate beckoning action, when a sailor in 
 the middle of the audience responded to the call, pressed 
 his way out of the passage, and was making for the platform. 
 I could not stand this, so I uttered a yell, and rushed off 
 to hide myself, and it was some time before the audience 
 and speaker could compose themselves for a fresh start. 
 Next day we were told that the unfortunate sailor was 
 beckoned to come hither from all parts of the ship.' 
 
88 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA 
 
 In 1873 Gilmour resumed his visits to the Plain and on 
 March 1 5 he was at Kalgan, writing, ' No appearance of 
 getting away to the north. I promenade daily the streets 
 and accost Mongols, but with no success as to getting 
 camels, or even a horse to hire as far as Mahabul's. A day 
 or two later Mahabul arrived in Kalgan on his way to 
 Peking, and by his aid Gilmour secured two camels, and 
 on March 24 he started north, reaching Mahabul's tent on 
 the 28th. He at once endeavoured to secure the services 
 of a Mongol named Lojing, and the usual series of delays 
 and vexations occurred. 
 
 ' To-day (March 29) I got impatient and went for a 
 walk. Came back, and Lojing came and said he would 
 go. Felt relieved ; he wants me to come back this way, 
 and I consent, though I would rather not. He came back 
 in the afternoon, saying that he could not get off his 
 engagement to read prayers with some other lama for 
 Gichik's soul,' so that we cannot start before Thursday at 
 noon. Mahabul's wife gave him some whisky, and he went 
 to the officers and got drunk. He waited for a camel which 
 was offered for sale. The camel came when I was out. 
 
 ' The son of the chief referred to on page So, who had recently been 
 killed by a fall from his horse. 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA 89 
 
 He was drunk, did not watch it, so it drifted away before 
 the storm. A boy on horseback was sent after it. "When 
 it came it was a perfect object, yet they asked twenty tacls 
 for it. He is to go after a camel to-morrow. He was so 
 drunk that, remembering Gichik's fate, I am uneasy to 
 think of his riding my tall camel. O Lord, give me 
 patience ! ' 
 
 This and the three subsequent journeys over the Plain, 
 made in the course of 1873, were full of incident illustrative 
 of the difficulties of the work, the peculiarities of the people, 
 and the restless energy and indomitable perseverance of the 
 missionary. But the limitations of space forbid us to 
 linger ; we extract a few notes from the diary. It was on 
 the second of these journeys, while at Lama Miao, that he 
 witnessed the ' Mirth of Hell,' as he calls it, described in 
 Aviorig the Aloiigo/s, Chapter XI. 
 
 ^ April 19, 1873. — To-day had more provocation from 
 my Mongol, and my earnest prayer is that I may be able 
 to stand it all, and not get soured in temper and feeling 
 against the Mongols. I must have patience. Some 
 knowledge of camel's flesh also would help me not a 
 little. As it stands, I feel an incompetent " duffer." ' 
 
 ^ May 6. — Travelled parallel to the road in a stupid 
 manner over hill and dale, because Lojing chose to consider 
 it a nearer way. The way was no nearer at all and much more 
 steep. At last got to a lot of tents down in a hollow, 
 called the "Great Water" (^l)iJia Ossd). Had quite a lot 
 of people. One lama the most provoking child (25 years 
 old) I think I ever met. He was a perfect nuisance ; even 
 the tone of his voice I could not abide. This individual 
 came to my tent even after I was down in bed. I was glad 
 he was done for once. Next morning he was in my tent 
 
90 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 before I was up, remarking, " What a great sleeper you 
 are ! " Last night he had remarked, " How early you go to 
 bed ! " I am afraid he is the most empty, poor fellow I 
 have known.' 
 
 ^ May 13. — To-day also occurred another of my lama's 
 conspicuous stupidities ; after asking the road to a set of 
 tents where dwelt friends of his own, he suddenly left the 
 road and began the ascent of a steep hill. I asked where 
 he was going. He said to the tents. I followed .some 
 distance, and then from the convergence of paths judged 
 that there was no pass where he was going, and accordingly 
 shouted to him to stop. Stop he did, and also looked 
 thunder. I asked him, " Have you travelled this way 
 before } " " No," said he. " Come this way, and follow 
 the road." " You go that road," said he, " I go this road." 
 " Nothing of the kind," said I. " You come here, and we'll 
 get to tents." He came ; but then and there began one of 
 his intolerable tirades against me, saying how disobedient I 
 was, and that t/iis was Jiis ow7i native place, heknow. What 
 a bad man I was ! He had hardly finished his fury when 
 lo, behold, close before us, right in our path, the very tents 
 we were looking for ! He is, to use a Mongol idiom, 
 " Stupider than stupid."' 
 
 ^ Sept. 12. — We are now in a diphtheria district. I go 
 into it, and hope to remain some time, trusting myself to 
 the hands of God. I am safe enough in His hands. If He 
 can forward mission work more by my death than by my 
 life. His will be done.' 
 
 ^ Sept. 18. — To-day let pass me, as all were starting 
 from the temple, about six men and three women without 
 telling them of Jesus.' 
 
 At the close of the year Mr. Gilmour sent home another 
 elaborate report, a large portion of which appeared in the 
 Chronicle of the London Missionary Society for December 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA 91 
 
 1 874. We extract here a few paragraphs not then printed 
 for obvious reasons. There was still a difficulty with the 
 American Board, and there was still in London some 
 inability to grasp the exact bearing and the full needs of 
 the situation. The first extract is given here simply be- 
 cause it illustrates the noble unselfishness of Gilmour's 
 character, and the way in which he persistently refused to 
 be stopped by hindrances that would have barred the 
 road against most men. He supplied a statement of 
 account showing that even with the most rigid economy 
 he had exceeded his allowance by iiotaels, equivalent to 
 from 25/. to 30/. 
 
 ' This leaves me with a deficit of 1 10 taels ^"i, cents, and 
 explains how it is that I ask next year's (1874) grant to 
 be raised to 1 50 taels at least. I had only two courses 
 open to me, either to use up the grants for 1872 and 1873, 
 and stop without accomplishing all I could, or to make 
 full proof of my ministry and exceed the grants. Con- 
 sidering the cause more important than silver, I chose the 
 latter course, and, despite the most rigid economy, exceeded 
 to the above amount. Present circumstances enable me 
 to make up the deficit from my own private purse, and I 
 don't ask to be refunded, but I don't know that I shall be 
 flush of money next year, and do ask that the grant may 
 be not less than 150 taels, which is the lovv'est estimate I 
 can make. 
 
 * As proof of the reasonableness of my request, and of 
 my anxiety to avoid drawing on the funds of the Society 
 beyond what is absolutely necessary, I may be allowed to 
 state that this year, in addition to making up the lacking 
 110-63 taels, I walked afoot behind my caravan in the 
 desert for iveeks, to avoid the expense of purchasing another 
 camel.' 
 
92 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 On the question of Christian literature he placed on 
 record some wise words, as needful now almost as when 
 he penned them, in order to correct the notion that it 
 is enough simply to place into the hands of a heathen a 
 copy of the Word of God in his native tongue. The reply 
 of Candace's eunuch, ' How can I understand unless some- 
 one shall guide me ? ' meets the missionary of to-day, as it 
 met Philip in the days of old. The practically unanimous 
 opinion of the Shanghai Conference held in 1890 shows 
 that the same need is still strongly felt by the missionaries 
 of all the societies. 
 
 ' In addition to the Scriptures and the Catechism, I 
 think small simple books containing little portions of Scrip- 
 ture history or little portions of Scripture teaching would be 
 very useful. The Bible is all very well for those who have 
 advanced a little, but there is very little of the narrative 
 portions even — the simplest parts of the whole book — 
 which you can read without encountering terrible names 
 of persons or places, or quotations from the prophet Isaiah 
 or Jeremiah. When a Mongol comes upon these he feels 
 inclined to give up in despair. Even in China my experi- 
 ence has been that people are slow to buy a complete 
 gospel, even at less than the paper on which it is printed 
 costs, while they will buy with avidity very small books at 
 almost their full value. 
 
 ' Chinamen themselves notice this, and when surrounded 
 by a crowd I have heard them remark laughingly, 
 " Small books go quick." Remembering my instructions, 
 which among other things say, " Pause before you trans- 
 late," I have hitherto refrained, but now have a very small 
 illustrated narrative in the press, another also illustrated in 
 manuscript, and other two not illustrated in contemplation. 
 If I find funds — the Peking branch of the Tract Society is 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA 93 
 
 bankrupt just now — and get them out, you shall have speci- 
 mens. Probably they won't look well, being first attempts, 
 but you need not be ashamed of the Mongol of them, as they 
 have been written under my direction by a " crack " native 
 scholar, and carefully revised by Schereschewsky, who is a 
 general linguist of good ability, and has paid so much 
 attention to Mongolian that he revised the Gospel by 
 Matthev/ in conjunction with Mr. Edkins, and is at present 
 at work on a Mongol dictionary.' 
 
 Medical missions were only in their infancy in 1874, and 
 Gilmour in the same report describes what many another 
 has felt. He illustrates also one of his fixed principles, 
 viz.; always do sometJiing ; and never let the work stop 
 simply because you cannot do what is ideally the best. 
 
 ' I know very little about diseases and cures, but the 
 little I do know is extremely useful. Almost every Mongol, 
 man and woman and child, has something that wants put- 
 ting right. To have studied medicine at home would have 
 been a great help, but though I cannot hope now ever to 
 gain a scientific knowledge of the subject, I am glad that in 
 our hospital here I have a good opportunity of learning 
 much from Dr. Dudgeon, and all I can do now is to make 
 the best of this good opportunity. I am told that pro- 
 fessional men at home are suspicious of giving a little 
 medical knowledge to young men going out as missionaries. 
 I sided with them till I came here, but here the case is 
 different. At home it is all very well to stand before the 
 fire in your room, within sight of the brass plate on the 
 doctor's door on the opposite side of the street, and talk 
 about the danger of little knowledge ; but when you are 
 two weeks' journey from any assistance, and see your 
 fellow-traveller sitting silent and swollen with violent tooth- 
 ache for days together, you fervently wish you had a pair 
 
94 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 of forceps and the dangerous amount of knowledge. And 
 when in remote places you have the choice of burying 
 your servant or stopping his diarrhoea, would you prefer 
 to talk nonsense about professional skill rather than give 
 him a dose of chlorodyne, even though it should be at the 
 risk of administering one drop more or less than a man 
 who writes M.D. to his name would have done ? 
 
 * I speak earnestly and from experience. No one has 
 more detestation than I have for the quack that patters 
 in the presence of trained skill ; but from what I have seen 
 and known of mission life, both in myself and others, since 
 coming to North China, I think it is a little less than 
 culpable homicide to deny a little hospital training to men 
 who may have to pass weeks and months of their lives in 
 places where they themselves, or those about them, may 
 sicken and die from curable diseases before the doctor could 
 be summoned, even supposing he could leave his post and 
 come.' 
 
 During the summer of 1874 James Gilmour continued 
 his itinerating work among the nomads of the Plain. He 
 met with much to discourage him, but he steadily enlarged 
 his knowledge of the people and his acquaintance with the 
 best methods of work among them. How difficult it was 
 to adapt ordinary methods of teaching to their habits may 
 be judged from the following sketch : — 
 
 ' My tent is not only my dwelling-house and dispensary, 
 but also my chapel. I always endeavour to instruct the 
 visitors and patients as far as I can. Preaching to Mongols 
 is a little different from preaching at home — a little different 
 from preaching in China even. You can get a congregation 
 of heathen Chinese to listen for, say, twenty minutes, or half 
 an hour, or even longer ; but begin to preach to a lot of 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA 95 
 
 Mongols, and they begin to talk to each other, or perhaps 
 to ask you questions about your dress and your country, 
 
 ' The nature of their own service is partly to blame for 
 this. When a Mo-ngol sends for a lama or two to read 
 prayers in his tent, the inmates, though present, don't think 
 it necessary to attend much to what is going on. Though 
 they did attend, they would not be able to understand, so 
 talking goes on among them pretty much as usual. If I 
 were to stick myself up and begin, and start off sermonising 
 to them, I would be treated much as they treat their own 
 lamas ; so I confine my preaching to conversations and 
 arguments — a style of teaching which I find secures their 
 attention ' 
 
 Many, too, are the sketches in his letters and diaries of 
 the men he met. They are all drawn with that remarkable 
 and largely unconscious power, which he possessed so 
 fully, of being able to see very vividly the striking points 
 and details of passing events, and of enabling those to 
 whom he wrote, by his aptly chosen words, also to see 
 exactly what passed before his eyes. One or two out of 
 many examples must suffice : — 
 
 'This season (1874) I met a deaf and dumb man. He 
 was uneducated, but of great quickness and intelligence. He 
 could converse easily and readily with his fellow-Mongols 
 by signs, and I could ask many simple questions and 
 understand his answers without trouble. His perception 
 was remarkable. While sitting in the dusk outside my 
 tent, a messenger came from his father's tent to tell him 
 that some of the sheep were missing. A single turn of 
 the hand followed by a glance around, as if search- 
 ing for something, was all that was requii-ed. He had 
 been sitting quietly in the circle, looking at us talking ; but 
 the moment the communication was made he uttered an 
 
96 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 inarticulate sound betraying great excitement, knocked 
 the ashes out of his pipe, stuck it into his boot, threw him- 
 self into the saddle, and rode off into the gathering dark- 
 ness to search for the lost sheep. All agreed that he had 
 an extra share of intelligence, and he was evidently regarded 
 as a capable and useful member of the community. 
 
 ' One of the sad sights seen was that of a sick Chinaman 
 near his end. He was one of a company of four, who went 
 about dressing skins of which the Mongols make garments. 
 He had been an opium taker, and an incurable diarrhoea 
 had seized him. At the time he was lodging with the 
 Mongol for whom the party had come to dress skins ; but 
 the Mongol, seeing he would die, and fearing trouble and 
 expense over his death, ordered him off the premises. 
 Borrowing an ox cart, his companions had him conveyed 
 away some five or ten miles, jolted in the rude vehicle and 
 suffering from the blazing sun, to a place where some 
 Chinese acquaintances were digging a well. They had a 
 tent of their own, most likely a poor ragged white cloth 
 affair, open to the winds and pervious to the rain ; and in 
 this the poor man hoped he might be permitted to die. It 
 was the dark side of the picture. The glorious summer, the 
 green and flowery plains, the fattening flocks, the herds exult- 
 ing in the deep pastures, the gay Mongols riding about, the 
 white tents bathed in the sunlight and gleaming from afar. 
 In the midst of all this, a feeble man, far from home and kin, 
 sick unto death, cast forth from his poor lodging, and seek- 
 ing for a place to lie down and die in. The Mongols are a 
 hospitable race, but pray ye that ye may not get sick on 
 their hands. 
 
 ' On the whole I have been very well received every- 
 where, and have been treated with great confidence. I have 
 sometimes wondered at the readiness with which they take 
 medicine from the hand of an utter stranger. One reason 
 why they are ready to trust me, doubtless, is that going 
 
THE FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MONGOLIA 97 
 
 among them, they can go round my tent and see that 
 there is nothing secret and terrible behind it ; they enter 
 it and see all that is in it. They know and see that I am 
 utterly in their power, and, perhaps, reason that I am there, 
 with no intent to harm, because if I made trouble I could 
 not move another step without their consent. 
 
 ' In the shape of converts I have seen no result. I have 
 not, as far as I am aware, seen any one who even wanted 
 to be a Christian ; but by healing their diseases I have had 
 opportunity to tell many of Jesus, the Great Physician.' 
 
98 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 During the year 1873 James Gilmour devoted much 
 thought to the natural and all-important question of 
 marriage. Uncommon as he was, in so many ways, it 
 was, perhaps, to be expected that in this great undertaking 
 he would depart from ordinary methods. The Rev. S. E. 
 Meech had married, in 1872, Miss Prankard, of London. 
 After the return of Mr. Edkins to England, in May 1873, 
 Mr. Gilmour went to board with Mr. and Mrs. Meech. 
 There he saw the portrait of Mrs. Meech's sister, and often 
 heard her referred to in conversation. Towards the close 
 of 1873 he took Mrs. Meech into his confidence, and asked 
 permission to enter into correspondence with her sister. 
 The following most characteristic letters show the course of 
 subsequent events : — 
 
 ' Peking, January 14, 1874. 
 
 ' My dear Parents, — I have written and proposed to a 
 girl in England, It is true I have never seen her and I 
 know very little about her ; but what I do know is good. 
 She is the sister of Mrs. Meech, and is with her mother in 
 London. Her mother supports herself and daughter by keep- 
 ing a school. One of the hindrances will be perhaps that 
 the mother will not be willing to part with her daughter, 
 as she is, no doubt, the life of the school. I don't know, 
 so 1 have written and made the offer, and leave them to 
 
MARRIAGE 99 
 
 decide. If she cannot come, then there is no harm done. 
 If she can arrange to come, then my hope is fulfilled. If 
 the young lady says " Yes," she or her friends will no doubt 
 write you, as I have asked them to do. . . . You may think 
 I am rash in writing to a girl I have never seen. If you 
 say so, I may just say that I have something of the same 
 feeling ; but what am I to do .'' In addition I am very easy- 
 minded over it all, because I have exercised the best of my 
 thoughts on the subject, and put the whole matter into the 
 hands of God, asking Him, if it be best to bring her, if it be 
 not best to keep her away, and He can manage the whole 
 thing well.' 
 
 By some mischance this letter was delayed, and Mr. 
 Gilmour's relatives were startled, one March day in 1874, 
 by receiving from an entirely unknown lady in London a 
 letter, containing the unlooked-for statement : ' Your son, Mr. 
 Gilmour, of Peking, has asked my daughter to write to you, 
 telling you of her decision to join him as his wife. She 
 has wished me to write to you for her, and will be pleased 
 to hear from you when you feel inclined to write.' 
 
 The friendly intercourse that followed soon convinced 
 Mr. Gilmour's family, as any knowledge of Emily Prankard 
 herself soon convinced all who made her acquaintance, that, 
 however unusual it might appear, this was indeed one of the 
 marriages made in heaven. By both parties God's blessing 
 and guidance were invoked, upon both His benediction 
 rested, and, after a brief separation in this world, they are 
 now both enriched with the fuller knowledge and the 
 perfect joy of the life beyond. 
 
 No time was lost in the arrangements for Miss Prankard's 
 departure to China. In a letter to his mother, dated 
 October 2, 1874, Mr. Gilmour writes; — 
 
 G 2 
 
loo JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 * You have seen Miss Prankard, but you have not told 
 me what you think of her. She was delighted with her 
 visit to Scotland and with you all. You will be glad to 
 hear that I have had some delightful letters from her, I 
 wrote her, and she has written me in the most unre- 
 strained way concerning her spiritual hopes and condition, 
 and though we have never seen each other, yet we know 
 more of each other's inmost life and soul than, I am quite 
 certain, most lovers know of each other even after long 
 personal courtship. It is quite delightful to think that 
 even now we can talk by letter with perfect unreserve, and 
 I tell you this because I know you will be glad to hear it. 
 I knew she was a pious girl, else I would not have asked 
 her to come out to be a missionary's wife, but she turns 
 out better even than I thought, and I am not much afraid 
 as to how we shall get on together.' 
 
 In the course of the autumn of 1874 Miss Prankard 
 sailed, and in a letter to the writer, December 1 3, 1 874, 
 Gilmour thus refers to the close of his unusual but satis- 
 factory courtship : — 
 
 ' I was married last week, Tuesday, December 8 ! 
 
 ' Mrs. Meech's sister is Mrs. Gilmour. We never saw 
 each other till a week before we were married, and my 
 friends here drew long faces and howled at me for being 
 rash and inconsiderate. What if you don't like each 
 other? How then t It is for life ! As if I did not know 
 all this long ago. Well, the time came, the vessel was due 
 at Shanghai, but would not come. Mr. Meech and I went 
 down to Tientsin and waited there a fortnight, but no 
 tidings. At last, on the evening of Sabbath, November 
 29, a steamer's whistle was heard miles away down the 
 river. It was Mr. Meech's turn to preach. After sermon 
 he and I walked away down the river side to see what w c 
 
MARRIAGE loi 
 
 could see. After a while a light hove round the last bend, 
 then a green light, then the red light, then came the three 
 lights of the steamer ! We listened. It was the high- 
 pressure engine of the steam launch which is used to lighten 
 the deep-sea steamers before coming up the narrow river. 
 Fifteen minutes more and she was at the landing stage. 
 A friend went on board. Miss Prankardwas on board the 
 Taku, which was still outside the bar, waiting for water to 
 bring her over and up to the settlement. The lighter was 
 going to unload and start down the river at five A.M., and 
 Meech and I went in her. About eight A.M. we met the 
 steamer coming up, and when she came abreast we saw 
 Miss Prankard on board, but could not get from our 
 vessel to hers. The tide was favourable for running up, 
 and they were afraid to lose a minute, so would not stop 
 the steamer ; we did not get on board till we reached the 
 bund at Tientsin about eleven A.M. We started for Peking 
 next day, got there on Thursday, and were married follow- 
 ing Tuesday. 
 
 ' Our honeymoon is now almost over. I am to have 
 only a week of it. I hope to start with Meech on a 
 mission trip to the country on Tuesday next' 
 
 Miss Prankard's first view of her future husband was 
 hardly what she might have expected. Mr. Meech has 
 also sketched that scene on the river. 
 
 * The morning was cold, and Gilmour was clad in an 
 old overcoat which had seen much service in Siberia, and 
 had a woollen comforter round his neck, having more 
 regard to warmth than to appearance. We had to follow 
 back to Tientsin, Gilmour being thought by those on board 
 the steamer to be the engineer ! ' 
 
 Two letters may be quoted in this connection. The 
 first was to one of his most intimate Scotch friends. 
 
102 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' London Mission, Peking, 
 
 'January 31, 1875. 
 
 ' My dear , Your kind, long, and much-looked-for 
 
 letter dated May 12, 1873, a-"d August 21, 1874, reached 
 me on January 9, 1875. Many thanks for it, but I think 
 it would be quite as well in future to send me half the 
 quantity in half the time, if you really find you cannot 
 write me oftener. As I was married on December 8, 
 1874, to Mrs. Meech's sister, that lady, Mrs. Gilmour, had 
 the great pleasure of reading your earnest, long, and 
 reiterated warning to me not to have her. Your warning 
 came too late. Had you posted your letter on May 12, 
 1873, it might have been in time, as the first letter that 
 opened our acquaintance was written in January 1874. 
 If nothing else will have effect with you, perhaps the 
 thought that you might have saved me from the fate of 
 having an English wife may have some effect in moving 
 you to post your letters early, even though they should 
 not be so long and full. 
 
 ' About my wife : as I want you to know her, I introduce 
 you to her. She is a jolly girl, as much, perhaps more, of 
 a Christian and a Christian missionary than I am. I don't 
 know whether I told you how it came about. I proposed 
 first to a Scotch girl, but found I was too late ; I then put 
 myself and the direction of this affair — I mean the finding 
 of a wife — into God's hands, asking Him to look me out 
 one, a good one too, and very soon I found myself in a 
 position to propose to Miss Prankard with all reasonable 
 evidence that she was the right sort of girl, and with some 
 hope that she would not disdain the offer. We had never 
 seen each other, and had never corresponded, but she had 
 heard much about me from people in England who knew 
 me, and I had heard a good deal of her and seen her 
 letters written to her sister and to her sister's husband. The 
 
MARRIAGE 103 
 
 first letter I wrote her was to propose, and the first letter 
 she wrote me was to accept — romantic enough ! 
 
 ' I proposed in January, went up to Mongolia in spring 
 rode about on my camels till July, and came down to 
 Kalgan to find that I was an accepted man ! I went to 
 Tientsin to meet her ; we arrived here on Thursday, and 
 were married on Tuesday morning. We had a quiet week, 
 then I went to the country on a nine days' tour, and 
 came back two days before Christmas. We have been 
 at home ever since. Such is the romance of a matter-of- 
 fact man, 
 
 ' You will see that the whole thing was gone about 
 simply on the faith principle, and from its success I am 
 inclined to think more and more highly of the plan. 
 Without any gammon, I am much more happy than ever 
 even in my day-dreams I ventured to imagine I might be. 
 It is not only me that my wife pleases, but she has gained 
 golden opinions from most of the people who have met 
 her among my friends and acquaintances in Scotland and 
 China. My parents were scared one day last year by re- 
 ceiving a letter from a lady in England, a lady whose 
 name even they had not known before, stating that her 
 daughter had decided to become my wife. Didn't it stir 
 up the old people ! They had never heard a word about 
 it ! My letter to them, posted at the same time with the 
 proposal, had been delayed in London. The young lady 
 went to Scotland, and was with them two weeks, and 
 came away having made such an impression on them 
 that they wrote me from home to say that " though I 
 had searched the country for a couple of years I could not 
 have made a better choice." 
 
 * Perhaps I am tiring you, but I want to let you 
 know all about it, and to assure you that you need not 
 be the least shy of me or of my English wife. She is a 
 good lassie, any quantity better than me, and just as handy 
 
104 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 as a Scotch lass would have been. It was great fun for 
 her to read your tirade about English wives and your 
 warning about her. She is a jolly kind of body, and 
 does not take offence, but I guess if she comes across 
 you she will wake you up a bit.' 
 
 The other letter was to Miss Bremner, and referred to 
 the part Gilmour was to take in her marriage in 1883 
 to his brother Alexander : — 
 
 ' Now as to your affair, a much more serious matter. 
 Alex has said something about my part. I want to take 
 part, but only such a small part as will make it true to say, 
 "assisted by the brother of the bridegroom." It is for you 
 and Dr. Macfadyen to say what that small part shall be ; 
 all I have to say about it, the smaller the better. 
 
 ' My experiences of the ceremonies of social Christianity 
 have been mixed a little. In England I baptised a child 
 by a wrong name, and had actually to do it again. In 
 China on a similar occasion I began by saying, " Friends, 
 God has given you this child," when the seeming father 
 stopped me, and explained that God had not given them_ 
 this child, but he himself had picked it up in a field where 
 it had been exposed. 
 
 ' I think I married only one Chinese couple, and to this 
 day I doubt if either the one or the other uttered a syllable 
 where they should have said, " I do." In my own case I 
 think I must have said " I will " in a feeble voice, for my 
 wife when her turn came sung out " I will " in a voice that 
 startled herself and me, and made it ominous how much 
 will she was going to have in the matter. Wishing you 
 all blessings, 
 
 ' Believe me yours truly, 
 
 * James Gilmour.' 
 
lo; 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 'IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS' 
 
 The year following the marriage, owing to the absence of 
 Dr. Dudgeon on furlough, was spent almost entirely in 
 Peking. In his absence Mr. Gilmour took charge of what 
 may be called the unprofessional work of the hospital, the 
 purely medical superintendence being in the hands of 
 Dr. Bushell of the British Legation. He varied this work 
 and the routine of ordinary mission duties by an occasional 
 trip to other centres where fairs were being held, in the 
 company of Mr. Murray, of the National Bible Society of 
 Scotland, for the purpose of selling Christian books. There 
 was often a very keen friendly rivalry as to which could sell 
 the most, and not unfrequently very large quantities of 
 tracts and booklets were thus put into circulation. 
 
 Early in 1875, with the object of enabling his colleagues 
 and his friends among the other missions which have centres 
 in Peking the better to realise what life in Mongolia was 
 like, he set up his Mongol tent in the compound, a-nd 
 invited them in companies of five or seven to partake of a 
 Mongol dinner, cooked in Mongol fashion, and served as 
 on the Plain. His diary records that five such entertain- 
 ments were necessary, the utmost limit of the tent accom- 
 modation being reached on each occasion. 
 
io6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' The guests came,' we are told, ' at the appointed time, 
 and the fire of wood was lighted in the middle of the tent. 
 While the guests sat around on felt spread upon the 
 ground, Gilmour proceeded to cook the millet and the 
 mutton which furnished the feast. When all was ready a 
 blessing was asked and the meal was eaten. On one 
 occasion a reverend gentleman was called on to ask the 
 blessing, but declined, feeling apparently that what he was 
 expected to eat was not of such a quality that he could 
 ask a blessing on it. Gilmour used often to refer to this 
 with much amusement, though at the time he felt some 
 chagrin.' 
 
 In 1876 the Mongolian trips were resumed. No col- 
 league had yet been secured for him, and, with a bravery 
 and consecration beyond all praise, Mrs, Gilmour accom- 
 panied him. This she did not once simply. For the first 
 journey the novelty of the experience and the conviction 
 that she could at any rate help to preserve her husband 
 from the feeling of utter loneliness, which had been so 
 hard to bear in past years, were powerful reasons. But 
 she went a second and a third time. She went after the 
 novelty had worn off, after she had learned by very stern 
 experience how hard and rough the life was, after previous 
 exposure had told but too severely upon her physical 
 strength. And thus she deserves the eulogy passed upon 
 her by her husband : ' She is a better missionary than I.' 
 Comparisons of this kind are obviously out of the question. 
 But it would be hard to find a more beautiful illustration 
 of true wifely affection than the love for her husband that 
 made her willing to share his Mongol tent as readily as 
 the Peking compound. And if James Gilmour manifested 
 
IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 107 
 
 a Christlike love for the ignorant and stolid Mongols, so 
 also did the delicately nurtured and refined lady who, in 
 order to do her part in winning them to the Saviour, 
 endured privations, faced perils, and bore a daily and 
 hourly series of trials so irksome and so repugnant that 
 no motive short of all-absorbing love to Jesus Christ is 
 strong enough to account for her endurance. 
 
 Here are some pictures of what this life meant to Mrs. 
 Gilmour. The first journey which they took together 
 lasted from April 4 until September 23, 1876, one hundred 
 and thirty-six days being passed in Mongolia itself. 
 
 •On the evening of April 25 we came upon our 
 servants' tent, already pitched beside some Mongol tents 
 near a stream. Our things were unloaded from the 
 Chinese cart, which soon drove off and left us fairly 
 launched out on the Plain. We had two tents — one for 
 ourselves and one for our servants. They were both alike, 
 made of common blue Chinese cloth outside, and of 
 commoner white Chinese cloth inside. It was originally 
 intended that our tent should be private for our retirement 
 and for Mrs. Gilmour's use ; but w^e soon found that 
 this idea could not be carried out. The Mongols are so 
 much in the habit of going freely into everybody's tent in 
 Mongolia that we found we could not retain our tent to 
 ourselves without running risk of offending them by our 
 seeming haughtiness. That they should think us uncon- 
 genial and distant would have been an obstacle to our 
 success among them. So we made a virtue of necessity, 
 and kept open house in the literal sense of the word. At 
 our meals, our devotions, our ablutions, there they were — 
 much amused and interested, of course. It was sometimes 
 annoying to have them so much and so constantly about, 
 but there was no help for it, and soon we began to care 
 
ic8 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 little for them, and took their presence not only as a matter 
 of course, but without being disturbed by it. 
 
 * One advantage of this sort of public life was that Mrs. 
 Gilmour, being almost constantly in the presence of the 
 spoken language, picked it up very accurately and very 
 rapidly. It is hardly possible to conceive a better plan of 
 becoming easily and well acquainted with any language 
 than that of thus living where it is impossible not to hear 
 it in almost constant use. 
 
 ' Another advantage of this sort of public life was that 
 one gained the friendship of the people. This perfect free- 
 dom of intercourse pleased them much, and even conciliated 
 those not very friendly inclined. It was quite common to 
 hear visitors remark that, while other foreigners in Mongolia 
 are distant and harsh, these people were gentle and acces- 
 sible, and that such friendly people did a great deal to 
 remove the unfavourable impressions made by other less 
 considerate travellers. 
 
 ' Our sojourn extended to the end of August, giving us 
 a little over four months at a stretch of tent life. In that 
 time we had experience of many kinds of weather. At 
 first it was cold. Even in May ice was to be seen in the 
 mornings. Then came heat, premature and burning, and 
 all the more trying for ourselves and cattle on account of 
 the lack of rain. Then we had a furious tempest, which 
 raged for about thirty-six hours, overturning our covered 
 cart and threatening to sweep ourselves and our tents away. 
 We had to load down our tent ropes with bags of earth, 
 stones, sod, the bodies of our carts, wheels, boxes, and 
 anything we could find, and even then we had but a 
 precarious existence. Every now and then, by day and 
 by night, there would arise a shout from the one tent 
 or the other, and amid the roar of the wind we heard 
 cries for the hammer and the spare tent pins. We 
 managed to fix ourselves without being blown away, and 
 
IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' in 
 
 when the storm was over we patched our riven tents, and 
 were thankful we had weathered it so well. Then came 
 the summer rains — late in season, it is true, but great in 
 strength- — pouring and lashing and roaring, the great drops 
 bursting through our rent cloth, broken up into spray 
 and looking like pepper shaken from a box. We had 
 waterproof sheets, but it was next to impossible to keep 
 anything dry. While the rain lasted we sat huddled in 
 our rain cloaks, or, spade in hand, cut new channels for 
 suddenly extemporised streams and pools that grew larger 
 and continued to come closer to our bedding and boxes. 
 As soon as the sun returned, there was a general drying ot 
 garments, mattresses, and sheepskin robes. The heat was 
 perhaps the most trying of our meteorological experiences ; 
 but even that passed away at last, and before we had left 
 the plains night frost had reappeared, covering the pools 
 about well mouths with thin sheets of ice. 
 
 ' Later in the season, one afternoon, the loungers in the 
 tent looked out and remarked, " The Mandarin has come," 
 and gave place to a richly dressed, corpulent Mongol, who 
 entered the tent, followed by one of his servants. Saluta- 
 tions over, he soon showed his colours and unmasked his 
 batteries. He had come to fight, and we both went at it 
 tooth and nail. He had read a good deal, and had come 
 evidently prepared and primed, not in any spirit of un- 
 friendliness, but under the evident conviction that a better 
 case could be made out for Buddhism than for Christianity, 
 The tent was crammed with eager listeners, and we reasoned 
 together from the Creation to the finish, including ail 
 manner of side issues and important questions. It was a 
 long time before he could be convinced that our Jesus was 
 not spoken of and made known in the Buddhist classics. 
 When he was at length satisfied (on that point), he wanted 
 to know about the Trinity ; how men could get good ; how 
 it was right that men should escape punishment due to 
 
112 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 their misdeeds by praying to Jesus ; why God allowed 
 animals, such as starving dogs, to lead a life of suffering ; 
 why God did not keep sin from entering the world ; how 
 could Jesus come, when it is said He is always with us ; 
 and how about the souls who died before Jesus came. 
 
 ' At last the sun got low, and the Mandarin, with many 
 words of friendship, rode away, promising to come another 
 day. But he never came.' 
 
 In a later journey they had a very narrow escape from 
 one of the frequent perils of this tent life : — 
 
 * In Mongolia we had one rather serious adventure. 
 The south edge of the Plain is famed for storms, and the 
 night we camped there, just after dark, began one of the 
 fiercest thunderstorms I can remember having seen. The 
 wind roared, the rain dashed, the tent quivered ; the thunder 
 rattled with a metallic ring, like shafts of iron dashing 
 against each other, as it darted along a sheet-iron sky ; the 
 water rose in the tent till part of our bed was afloat. It 
 was hardly possible to hear each other speak ; but amid 
 and above all the din of the tempest rose one sound not to 
 be mistaken, the roar of rushing water. There was a river 
 to right of us, but the sound came more from the left. 
 Venturing out, I found there was a great swift-flowing river 
 on both sides of us ; that we could not move from the little 
 piece of elevated land plain on which we had our tent ; and 
 that a few inches more water, or an obstacle getting into 
 the path of the upper river, would send the full force of the 
 current down on our tents. Flocks, herds, men are said to 
 be swept away now and again in Mongolia, and for an hour 
 our case seemed doubtful ; but about 1 1 P.M. the storm 
 ceased and the danger was over, and, though we had hardly 
 anything left, we went to sleep, thanking God for His 
 preserving mercy ' 
 
* tM JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 113 
 
 Courageous, undoubtedly, Mrs. Gilmour was ; her ex- 
 ample of self-sacrifice in the Master's cause was lofty in 
 itself, and is stimulating to every Christian mind. Yet it is 
 to be greatly feared that the first of these journeys aggra- 
 vated, if it did not actually develope, the disease from 
 which she ultimately died. She found the ceaseless round 
 of millet and mutton so unpalatable as at the last to be 
 able hardly to eat at all ; and experience of tent life was 
 needful before she could realise how absolutely devoid 
 it was of almost everything that a European lady looks 
 upon as essential to daily existence, and thus make adequate 
 preparation for the life. Yet, in 1878, she not only accom- 
 panied her husband again, better equipped by reason of 
 previous experience, but she also took with her their infant 
 boy. 
 
 The winter of 1876 in Peking was devoted to work more 
 or less directly bearing upon the Christian conquest of the 
 nomad tribes. 
 
 ' Since returning from Mongolia I have had here a 
 teacher whom I had come from the plains. I read some 
 Buddhist classics with him, then had him write to my 
 dictation some of the more striking incidents narrated in 
 the Book of Daniel ; then finally had him write for me 
 an explanation of the way of salvation through Jesus. 
 The extracts from Daniel were written mostly with the 
 idea of accustoming him to my dictation ; but the expla- 
 nation of Christianity was a tract that I had long wanted 
 to write, in which I sought to make it as plain as possible, 
 not only that Jesus does save, but also that there is no 
 salvation through any other name. The Religious Tract 
 Society has consented to print for me both the extract 
 from Daniel and the explanation of Christianity * 
 
 H 
 
114 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 During 1877 the ever-recurring question, inevitable, 
 perhaps, and yet very paralysing to any steady progress, 
 as to whether it was really worth while to continue labour 
 in such a sterile field, came up once more for discussion. 
 In an elaborate report, designed rather to elicit the views 
 of the home authorities than to express his own, dated 
 August 18, 1877, Mr. Gilmour depicts rapidly and clearly 
 his relations, on the one hand, to the workers in the station 
 of the American Board at Kalgan, and, on the other, to his 
 colleagues of the North China Committee of the London 
 Society. The American Board had sent out another 
 missionary, and Mr, Gilmour was at first inclined to the 
 view that, although working independently, they might yet 
 act practically as colleagues. 
 
 * In addition, the new man. Rev. W. P. Sprague, and I 
 one day undertook to climb a mountain together, and, by 
 the time we got half-way up, we discovered that our ideas 
 about working together quite agreed, and that there was 
 a fair and good prospect of our making good harmonious 
 colleagues in one work, though we belonged to different 
 societies and hailed from different nations. Here, then, the 
 thing seemed to be accomplished ; here was a colleague 
 ready to my hand, or I to his.' 
 
 But Mrs. Gulick, a most energetic and enthusiastic 
 missionary to the Mongols, died, her husband was invalided 
 to Japan, and Mr. Sprague found himself with the whole 
 mission on his shoulders. 
 
 ' If things are to remain as they are, it amounts pretty 
 much to this, that in the warmer months of the year I can 
 travel through parts of Mongolia teaching the Gospel and 
 dispensing medicines ; the rest of the year I can turn my 
 
IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, iN PERILS OF RIVERS ' i 1 5 
 
 attention to Chinese work in Peking. This is a pleasant 
 enough arrangement for me, but it is not a very vigorous 
 prosecution of the work of the Mongol mission. On the 
 other hand, such is the fewness of people to be reached in 
 Mongolia that it is only by alternating these periods of 
 deprivation with seasons of activity among the Chinese 
 that a man can keep his spirit alive. 
 
 ' As regards the opinion of other members of the Com- 
 mittee here, I have never called for any formal expression 
 of it, nor have they (the members of Committee) ever 
 been invited to discuss the question of the Mongol mission 
 in committee, but I know their individual opinions in an in- 
 formal way. Messrs. Meech and Barradale don't say much ; 
 Mr. Owen thinks we will never do much in Mongolia 
 working upon so distant a base as Peking ; Mr. Lees 
 thinks it a pity to take up such a seemingly unproductive 
 field while so many more promising fields call for atten- 
 tion ; he moreover thinks that the only way to do much 
 for Mongolia is through China ; Dr. Edkins thinks I spend 
 too much time and labour over the Mongols, his idea being 
 seemingly a combination of Mongol and Chinese work, 
 with a preponderating tendency towards Chinese ; Dr. 
 Dudgeon has always regarded the Mongol mission as 
 hardly practicable. 
 
 ' On the principle, however, of Soiv beside all zvaters, 
 and Thou knoivest not ivliich shall prosper, this or that, per- 
 haps it is well that the Gospel should be exhibited to the 
 Mongols also, and if anyone is to go to Mongolia, perhaps 
 many people would have more disqualifications than myself,' 
 
 In 1877 there was what seemed to be a very hopeful 
 development of Christian work in Shantung, and Mr. 
 Gilmour and Mr. Owen visited that district and baptized a 
 large number of converts. Still later. Dr. Edkins and Mr. 
 Owen, on another visit, baptized some two hundred people. 
 
 H 2 
 
ii6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 With reference to this latter ingathering Mr. Gihnour wrote, 
 * I much regret that we have not some definite system of 
 putting men on a period of probation. . . . About these 
 two hundred I have nothing to say, but of the hundred odd 
 Mr. Owen and I baptized in November I have to admit 
 that, making all allowances, some of them cause me more 
 anxiety than satisfaction.' There was, unfortunately, only 
 too much ground for this fear. Ultimately the movement 
 dwindled almost as rapidly as it had developed, and with 
 little permanent benefit to the missionary cause. Shan- 
 tung had been devastated by famine, locusts, and cholera. 
 Missionaries brought relief to the stricken people, giving 
 both money and food. Large numbers were drawn towards 
 the new religion by this example of its deeds, and most 
 of the converts had professed Christianity in the hope of 
 getting something by its means. But this incident brought 
 to a head a divergence of view as to the whole conduct 
 of affairs in the Peking mission between the two older 
 missionaries. Dr. Edkins and Dr. Dudgeon, and their three 
 younger colleagues, Mr. Gilmour, Mr. Owen, and Mr. 
 Meech. Into this strenuous and protracted controversy 
 we do not propose to enter. Both parties were actuated 
 by high and honourable motives ; both were able to express 
 their views pointedly, and with all appropriate force. In 
 the end the view advocated by Mr. Gilmour triumphed. 
 This was that, so far as possible, no pecuniary inducement 
 whatever, either by way of payment for services, or even 
 employment in connection with the mission, should be 
 allowed to influence a Chinaman's judgment in the accept- 
 ance of Christianity. Gilmour could take an active part 
 in the discussions only during his winter residence in 
 
IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 117 
 
 Peking. But the reader who has followed its history so 
 far will be quite prepared to learn that he made up for 
 the infrequency of his participation in the controversy 
 by the energy which he displayed when he did so. And 
 in depicting Gilmour as he was, it is essential that he 
 should be seen when opposing no less than, as he much 
 preferred to be in all matters affecting the welfare of the 
 mission, in the heartiest concord with his colleagues. 
 And yet his keenest opponents would cordially assent to the 
 following statement by one who took an active part in all 
 the discussions. It is mainly for the purpose of empha- 
 sising this testimony that the matter is referred to here. 
 
 'When in Peking Gilmour took his full share in the 
 debates which were constantly arising. Although he could 
 and did argue to the extremest point, and very hot and sharp 
 words might be spoken during the discussion, he harboured 
 no bitterness of feeling against his opponents. After ex- 
 cited argument he would get up and say, " Nevertheless I 
 love you." Nor were these empty words. He was kind, 
 and willing to help all, and was doing acts of service con- 
 tinually for those who opposed him most.' 
 
 Towards the close of 1 878 the Rev. J. S. Barradale, of 
 the Tientsin Mission, died, leaving the Rev. J. Lees alone 
 without a Chinese-speaking helper. Mr. Gilmour sym- 
 pathised deeply with him in his loss, and wrote to say that, 
 so long as Mr. Lees was thus left alone, he would be glad 
 to make two trips annually to his country stations, either 
 witk him or for him. Mr. Gilmour's journal of this work 
 is not only a record of the willingness with which he added 
 gladly to his own heavy labours in order to assist a 
 colleague ; but it also gives some most realistic pictures of 
 
ii8: JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 what ordinary life in China is Hke, and under what condi- 
 tions evangelistic itineration there is carried on. Some of 
 the districts visited had just been devastated by a severe 
 famine. 
 
 ' From Tientsin to Hsiao Chang is five days' journey. 
 Three hours out from Tientsin we came upon some dogs 
 feasting on a corpse lying at a cross-road. The dogs 
 belonged to cottagers near, but no attempt was made by 
 the owners to keep them away ; no one took the trouble to 
 bury the body or cover it up even. Later on we passed 
 through one famine-devastated district. Half the houses 
 in the villages were unroofed ; large tracts of land were 
 untilled ; the landscape was almost entirely destitute of 
 animal life ; travellers were nowhere to be seen ; round the 
 villages the little stacks of straw and fuel were not to be 
 seen ; the lanes were silent ; no dogs, no cocks and hens, no 
 pigs ; no groups of children playing or running after the 
 foreigner as he passed by ; and the words of Scripture came 
 to my mind, " the land desolate without inhabitant." We 
 continued to pass these desolations for about sixty English 
 miles. We stopped a night in one of these ruined villages, 
 and Mr. Lees took me round the place to see the nature 
 and extent of the destruction. Closer inspection revealed 
 even more ruin than a mere traveller's passing look would 
 detect ; for, evidently, some care had been taken to leave 
 house walls and boundary walls on the street standing, so as 
 to hide some part of the destruction, and thus make things 
 look better than they really were. 
 
 * Natives of the place gave us numbers, which showed 
 the population was then estimated at not much, if any, 
 more than half the former population. It was expressly 
 stated, however, that the missing half were not regarded as 
 all dead ; very many were dead, had died in the place, but 
 many had gone elsewhere — in most cases no one knew 
 
' IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 119 
 
 where. Of these some few would doubtless return ; but it 
 is to be feared that the mortality in a hard year among 
 famine refugees is very large, and of those who left their 
 homes and native places, the few that may eventually 
 return will be very few, I fear. 
 
 ' Doesn't the Bible say that it is a harder fate to die of 
 famine than to die by the sword — to die stricken through for 
 want of the fruits of the earth ? But of all those who died 
 in the famine in North China there is one class whose case 
 is perhaps more distressing than ordinary. A large number 
 of people seem to have died just as the harvest — a plentiful 
 one — ripened. Through all these hard dreary months, 
 when, day after day, month after month, they looked for 
 and longed for rain, those I now speak of struggled through, 
 kept up hope, fared hard, hoped eagerly, and at last saw 
 the rain come, saw the crops flourishing, saw them beginning t/ 
 to ripen, congratulated themselves and others on the pro- 
 spect of abundant food and better days. But they were to 
 see it with their eyes, but not to cat thereof. As far as 
 could be gathered from the natives themselves, the case 
 would seem to be thus. 
 
 ' The great mass of the population was much reduced 
 in bodily strength by the long period of half-starvation 
 they went through ; summer and early autumn came with 
 the rains and the attendant ague, which last — the ague — still 
 more reduced the strength of their already emaciated frames. 
 You can imagine them, with lean faces and hungry eyes, 
 tottering about the fields, and counting the days that must 
 yet elapse before the grain would ripen. The rage of 
 hunger was no longer to be borne ; they anticipated by a 
 few days the ripening ; took the grain, still a little green — 
 perhaps sometimes very green — and put it into the pot. But 
 here again was another difficulty. The fuel used is grain 
 stalks, and the famine deprived them at once of food and 
 fuel. Green grain they might cook, but green-grain stalks 
 
I20 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 would not burn. Fuel was thus deficient ; and was it 
 wonderful if, as they stood round the pot, and the fuel was 
 deficient, their patience should fail them and they should 
 fall upon the food half cooked ? That was bad enough ; 
 but that is not all. The Chinese have nearly as little self- 
 control as children ; and is it to be wondered at if, when at 
 last, after long months of the slow torture of unappeased 
 hunger, they found a full meal before them, they should 
 have eaten to the full } When a man emaciated from 
 having gone through a famine, and further enfeebled after 
 repeated prostrations by ague, at length rises up and gorges 
 himself with farinaceous food, half ripe and half cooked, 
 the consequences are not difficult to divine. Diarrhoea and 
 dysentery set in, and became fearfully prevalent — not only 
 prevalent, but peculiarly fatal. To make matters worse, 
 medicines in that part of the country are dear ; the people 
 were too poor to get medical help, and great numbers who 
 had lived to see the famine end and prosperity return lived 
 only to see the prosperity, and to die when it touched them. 
 The famine fever in summer seems to have been fearfully 
 prevalent. It is said that in a single courtyard two or 
 three people would be lying about the gate, two or three 
 under the shadow of some house, two or three more inside 
 the house — all stricken down with fever. The air of some 
 villages is said to have been loaded with the effluvia to 
 such an extent that one riding along the street perceptibly 
 discerned the taint in the atmosphere. The fever was 
 deadly too, but evidently not so deadly in proportion as 
 the autumn dysentery. Frequently, when talking to a boy, 
 we would hear he was an orphan, and, on inquiry, he told 
 that his father had died in autumn ; frequently, in talking 
 to a woman, we would hear that she was a widow, and, on 
 asking when her husband died, the reply was, " Autumn." 
 
 ' We reached Hsiao Chang in a snowstorm on Saturday 
 afternoon. A few of the people, doubtless, heard of our 
 
' IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 121 
 
 arrival ; but those of the other villages probably did not 
 know we had come ; so that our being there, perhaps, did not 
 materially increase the number of the congregation that 
 assembled next day (Sunday). Sunday was a dull, uncom- 
 fortable day ; the ground covered with snow ; the sky still 
 covered with clouds ; no sunshine ; yet there was a congrega- 
 tion of about one hundred and thirty, of whom eighty 
 (about) would be women, and fifty (about) be men. The 
 next Sabbath, January 26, was still dull ; the congregation 
 numbered about two hundred and eighty — men, say, one 
 hundred and thirty ; women, say, one hundred and fifty. 
 Mr. Lees took the women into the chapel. I took the men 
 outside in another court, and preached to them from a 
 terrace which gave me a commanding view of my congre- 
 gation. Mr. Lees had too little ventilation, I had too 
 much of it ; but both of our congregations listened well, 
 though there was no sun, though the cold was intense, and 
 though stray flakes of snow wandered slowly down among 
 us as we worshipped. The next Sabbath, February 2, 
 was fine. All except adherents were excluded, and the 
 congregation numbered about eighty men, and one hundred 
 and twenty women. Twelve men and seven women were 
 baptized. 
 
 ' The most novel feature of the work I noticed was the 
 eagerness displayed to learn and sing hymns. Sometimes 
 poor old women, from whom we could not extract much 
 Catechism information about the unity in trinity and other 
 theological mysteries, brightened up their old wrinkled 
 faces when asked if they could sing, and when asked to 
 give us a specimen of their singing, would raise their 
 cracked and quavering voices and go through " There is a 
 happy land," or " The Great Physician," or " Safe in the 
 arms of Jesus," a good deal out of tune here and there, it is 
 true, but on the whole creditably as regards music, and 
 with an apparent earnestness and feeling that was hard to 
 
122 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 witness with dry eyes. And if the old women sang thus, 
 what of the young people ? They seemed to revel in 
 hymns. The old, big, orthodox hymn-book used in our 
 chapels got a good deal of patronage and attention ; but 
 their great favourites were those in a small collection of 
 the Sankey revival hymns translated (with a few excep- 
 tions) and published by Mr. Lees. These hymns contain 
 good gospel, seem to be easily learned, and are set to tunes 
 which the Chinese seem never to sing themselves tired of. 
 The preachers have mastered a goodly number of them, 
 and teach them to all comers ; but, Mr. Lees being a singer, 
 of course, when he arrived, there were high singing festivals, 
 and the practice at evening prayers was sometimes so 
 vigorous and prolonged that the tympanum of one of my 
 ears began to show symptoms of defeat. These hymns I 
 regard as a most powerful auxiliary to the other Gospel 
 agencies at work, and I hope a great deal of good from 
 them. 
 
 * Every Chinaman wants looking after. Even the best 
 and most trustworthy men are all the better for being well 
 and carefully superintended. In fact, the better a man is, 
 the better he pays for being well looked after. The present 
 state of country mission work in North China calls for 
 careful supervision in an especial degree. Unforeseen 
 circumstances arise that need prompt action where a wrong 
 course of action may be disastrous ; something or other 
 happens that dismays the whole of the little Christian com- 
 munity ; something or other happens that lifts them up into 
 pride ; the Christians are like little islands of Christianity 
 isolated in a vast ocean of heathenism, and the waves seem 
 to threaten to swallow them up. The missionary, simply 
 by going and putting in an appearance, or by giving a little 
 simple advice, or by speaking a few words of encourage- 
 ment, or by devising a few simple methods, or making a 
 few simple arrangements, can often keep the Church out of 
 
* IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 123 
 
 moral danger, infuse new hope and courage to the members 
 and preachers, and, under God, put fresh life and vigour 
 into the whole concern. As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth 
 a man the face of his friend ; and this is true in an especial 
 degree of a missionary and his preachers and converts.' 
 
 In the course of a subsequent tour in the same district, 
 in 1880, he gives in his diary a sketch of a sermon preached 
 by Liu, his Chinese helper, one which may be taken as a 
 specimen of the best class of address given by a converted 
 Chinaman to his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 ' Liu's subject was from Revelation, " Whosoever will, 
 let him take of the water of life freely." He went into an 
 elaborate detail about the use of water, washing, laying 
 the dust in a room being swept out, (a la Bunyan) making 
 a sinking sand hard and good for a cart and man to travel 
 on. Finally, he got to a couple of good stories about a 
 man who got drunk and had his face blackened, so that 
 when he came home his own father did not know him and 
 would not let him in, and when he saw himself accidentally 
 in a mirror he did not know himself His drunkenness 
 had completely changed his appearance and voice even. 
 
 ' So God made us in His own image, but sin has terribly 
 changed us. Purified by the Holy Ghost we may again 
 be like ourselves and God. 
 
 ' The service lasted about two hours and ten minutes. 
 The story parts of the sermon were very effective.' 
 
 A later entry in the diary runs : * Had service. Preached 
 " Jesus saves," the sermon for the heathen of that name.' 
 One who often heard him preach in China gives the follow- 
 ing estimate of his power and method in delivering his 
 message : — 
 
 * As a preacher Gilmour was most unconventional. His 
 
124 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 sermons were direct talks, without any attempt at rhetoric. 
 They were plentifully illustrated, largely from events in 
 his own experience. Laughable allusions or quaint ways 
 of putting things were frequently used. While there was 
 not much attractive in the manner of the preacher, the 
 directness of his remark and his evident earnestness always 
 made his sermons appreciated and enjoyed. The Chinese 
 were always glad to hear him, and words he used to speak 
 are often referred to.' 
 
 Writing on one occasion to a friend in England being 
 educated for the Christian ministry, who had just taken one 
 of the higher degrees at the London University, he said : — 
 
 * I don't think our work is so much unlike, after all. 
 You witness for Christ, so do I ; and though you are in a 
 Christian country and I in a heathen land, human nature is 
 human nature, and not so different as might be supposed. 
 You may, pray you may, see more fruit of your work than 
 I do, but your trials, and difficulties, and temptations will be, 
 no doubt are, pretty much the same as mine. May the 
 Lord help you and bless you now and for ever ! I hope He 
 will help you to have ever a heart ready to preach simply the 
 I simple Gospel to your hearers, half of whom, perhaps, know 
 almost nothing of salvation, though they have been listen- 
 ing to sermons about it all their lives, and would not 
 know in the least to which hand to turn if they were 
 aroused and became anxious to be saved. I'll give you a 
 text, which I think peculiarly suitable for you, now a 
 graduate. Isaiah 1. 4 — " The Lord God hath given me the 
 tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a 
 word in season to him that is weary." I like to dwell on 
 this text. Learning should not make deep sermons, hard 
 to be understood ; on the contrary, it should be all employed 
 
IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 125 
 
 to make the road simple and clear. Forgive me for 
 exhorting you so, but I can't refrain from it when I think 
 of the many learned men I know at home and here who 
 employ their learning in giving learned sermons, nof in 
 making the way simple and plain.' 
 
 The sermon referred to in the extract quoted above from 
 the diary is based on Matt. i. 21. It was never written 
 out ; but the notes of it lie before us, and we quote them 
 as an illustration of his way of addressing both Chinese 
 and English audiences. It may interest the reader to 
 endeavour to make out from it the line of thought, and any 
 who may have heard him preach or speak will find it easy 
 to recall /wzv he preached it. 
 
 ' Matt. i. 2 1 . ' He shall save people from their sins.' 
 
 ' Talk to a man, he admits he is sinner ; by-and-by he 
 will break off and become good. 
 
 ' He does not really know what sin is. Egypt ! 
 
 * It is a disease; if you get it can you leave it off? 
 Your blood is tainted. 
 
 ' It is a jfire ; once light it, you can't quench it, it 
 smoulders and breaks out afresh. 
 
 ' It is an evt'l root, evil weed, can easy sow, not extirpate. 
 
 ' Sin is like the current above Niagara. 
 
 ' It becomes a /lad/t Indulgence makes habit grow. 
 
 ' It is like 3. sj>ii/cr ; one thread after another binds up a 
 
 ' Such is sin — murder, robbery, theft, adultei-}-, unclean- 
 ness, lying, covetousness, hatred, anger, malice, want of 
 love to God or man. 
 
 'Many of these sins you not accused of, but you 
 have sin : sin is fatal, can you free yourself? /es/fs is to 
 do it. 
 
126 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' Disease, fire, root, current, habit, fly. Tlie man cannot 
 free himself : Jesus must set him free. 
 
 ' Not only from He//, but from sin. 
 
 ' Suppose you were freed only from Hell, and transported 
 to Heaven, could you be happy ? Who would be your 
 companions? 
 
 ' Ignorant (wicked) man in company of learned (holy). 
 
 'A Tientsin vagrant became chair-bearer; had clothes, 
 etc., but only for a day ; he was soon naked again. 
 
 ' Christ does not transport to Heaven only. 
 
 ' Disease. — Not die from it ; He cures it. 
 
 'Fire. — Not consumed by it ; He quenches it. 
 
 ' Root of evil ; He clears from the ground. 
 
 ' Niagara. — He lifts you out of the current on to an 
 island. 
 
 * Ha/)it. — He sets you free from it. 
 
 ^Spider sf/y. — He not only takes from the spider ; but He 
 sets it free from the toils, 
 
 'Jesus gives second nature ; you are born again. 
 
 ' But upon one condition, your consent. The disease is 
 severe : you must obey doctor ; if you do not submit to 
 operation ; not take bitter drugs ; then he does not heal. 
 
 ' Lead a man to Peking : not come, not follow : leave 
 him : lead to heaven, paths of holiness not follow, not reach. 
 
 ' Has Christ saved you } If yes, visible to self and others. 
 He is not only an object of respect, admiration : He is the 
 doctor into whose hands you put your soul for treatment. 
 
 ' Tivo brotJiers, Kite, Loe, Pet Dog. 
 
 ' fo/m of HattJiozv's Liu, see Chronicle ; dead v. alive ; 
 sick (of fever) v. whole. Is it last time? Mongols feel 
 queer. 
 
 ' Missionaries. Mongol doctor who had not courage 
 to treat himself. 
 
 ' 6". 6". Teacher : Paul : be a castaway. 
 
 'Christ Matt. i. 21-23. 
 
'IK^ JOURNEYINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS' I27 
 
 * Any religion good enough. No : no religion breaks 
 bondage of sin : go down to death in sin's slavery. Only 
 Jesus can save from sin. Ask, and He'll do it.' 
 
 During the winters in Peking he still used every effort 
 to get at the Mongols frequenting the capital. 
 
 'The Mongols who visit Peking connect themselves 
 with two great centres. "The, Outside Lodging," which is 
 about a mile or more north of the north wall of Peking, 
 and is also called the " Halha Lodging," because it is the 
 great resort of the Northern Mongols, and the " Inside 
 Lodging," which is near the inside of the south wall of 
 the Manchu City of Peking, is situated close behind the 
 English Legation, and is also called the " Cold Lodging ; " 
 this name being probably due to the fact that in the open 
 space in this "Inside Lodging" a good many Mongols 
 camp out in their tents, in place of hiring courts and rooms 
 from the Chinese. These are the two great cefitres for 
 Mongols in Peking. Many of them lodge in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, and even those who lodge in other parts 
 of the city frequent these two centres ; so that, if any one 
 wants to know whether or not any individual Mongol has 
 come to Peking, he seeks him at one or other of these marts. 
 
 ' In the winter of 1879-80 I set up a book-stall, with a 
 Chinaman to care for it, at the Outside Lodging, going 
 myself, as a rule, every second day. This winter I followed 
 the example of the pedlars, and, hanging two bags of books 
 from my shoulders, hunted the Mongols out, going not 
 only to the trading places, but in and out among the lanes 
 where they lodged, visiting the Outside Lodging first and 
 the Inside Lodging later in the day. The number of 
 Mongols outside the city became latterly so small that it 
 was not visited very often ; but during the Chinese eleventh 
 and the first part of the twelfth month, the number of 
 
128 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Mongols to be met with at the Inside Lodging was fair, and 
 the number of books disposed of altogether, both outside 
 and inside the city, amounted to seven hundred and fourteen. 
 
 ' In many cases the Mongols, before buying, and not 
 unfrequently after buying, would insist on having the book 
 read, supposing that they got more for their money when 
 they not only had the book, but had me let them hear its 
 contents. Of course I w^as only too glad to have the 
 opportunity of reading, v/hich readily changed to oppor- 
 tunity for talking ; and in this way, from time to time, 
 little groups of Mongols would gather round and listen to 
 short addresses on the main doctrines of Christianity. 
 Several men whom I accosted seemed familiar with the 
 name of Jesus, and had some knowledge of Christianity. 
 Some bought the books eagerly ; some not only did not 
 buy themselves, but exhorted others not to buy ; some 
 openly spoke against Christianity ; but a great many of 
 those who listened to an address or took part in a conver- 
 sation evinced interest in the subjects spoken of, and 
 remarked that salvation by another bearing our sin was a 
 reasonable doctrine. As the purchasers of these books 
 hailed from all parts of Mongolia, the tracts thus put into 
 their hands will reach to even remote localities in the west, 
 north, and east, and my prayer is that the reading of them 
 may be the beginning of what shall lead to a saving know- 
 ledge of the truth in some minds. Hoping for some good 
 result, I had my address stamped on many of the books, 
 to enable such as might wish to learn more to know where 
 to come. 
 
 ' In some cases, Mongols wishing to buy books had no 
 money, but were willing to give goods instead ; and thus it 
 happened that I sometimes made my way home at night 
 with a miscellaneous collection of cheese, sour-curd, butter 
 and millet cake and sheep's fat, representing the produce 
 of part of the day's sales,' 
 
' IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS > 1 29 
 
 A short time before he returned to England on his first 
 furlough he drew up a report, in which he places on record 
 some of the results of his ten years' experience of Mongol 
 life and habits. 
 
 * On one occasion I was living some weeks in a Mongol's 
 tent. It was late in the year. Lights were put out soon 
 after dark. The nights were long in reality, and, in such 
 unsatisfactory surroundings as the discomforts of a poor 
 tent and doubtful companions, the nights seemed longer 
 than they were. At sunrise I was only too glad to escape 
 from smoke and everything else to the retirement of the 
 crest of a low ridge of hills near the tent. This, perhaps 
 the most natural thing in the world for a foreigner, was 
 utterly inexplicable to the Mongols. The idea that any 
 man should get out of his bed at sunrise and climb a hill 
 for nothing ! He must be up to mischief ! He must be 
 secretly taking away the luck of the land ! This went on 
 for some time, the Mongols all alive with suspicion, and 
 the unsuspecting foreigner retiring regularly morning after 
 morning, till at length a drunken man blurted out the 
 whole thing, and openly stated the conviction that the 
 inhabitants had arrived at, namely, that this extraordinary 
 morning walk of the foreigner on the hill crest boded no 
 good to the country. To remain among the people I had 
 to give up my morning retirement. 
 
 ' The Mongols are very suspicious of seeing a foreigner 
 writing. What can he be up to .-' they say among them- 
 selves. Is he taking notes of the capabilities of the 
 country ? Is he marking out a road map, so that he can 
 return guiding an army .-• Is he, as a wizard, carrying off 
 the good luck of the country in his note-book ? These, 
 and a great many others, are the questions that they ask 
 among themselves and put to the foreigner when they see 
 
 I 
 
130 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 him writing ; and if he desires to conciliate the good-will 
 of the people, and to win their confidence, the missionary 
 must abstain from walking and writing while he is among 
 them. 
 
 ' On another point, too, a missionary must be careful. 
 He must not go about shooting. Killing beasts or birds 
 the Mongols regard as peculiarly sinful, and anyone who 
 wished to teach them religious truth would make the 
 attempt under great disadvantage if he carried and used a 
 gun. This, however, is a prejudice that it is not so difficult 
 to refrain from offending. 
 
 ' The diseases presented for treatment are legion, but 
 the most common cases are skin diseases and diseases of 
 the eye and teeth. Perhaps rheumatism is the disease ot 
 Mongolia ; but the manner of life and customs of the 
 Mongols are such that it is useless to attempt to cure it. 
 Cure it to-day, it is contracted again to-morrow. Skin 
 diseases present a fair field for a medical missionar}\ They 
 are so common, and the Mongolian treatment of them is so 
 far removed from common-sense, that anyone with a few 
 medicines and a little intelligence has ample opportunity 
 of benefiting many sufferers. The same may be said of the 
 eye. The glare of the sun on the Plain at all seasons, 
 except when the grass is fresh and green in summer, the 
 blinding sheen from the snowy expanse in winter, and the 
 continual smoke that hangs like a cloud two or three feet 
 above the floor of the tent, all combine to attack the eye. 
 Eye diseases are therefore very common. The lama 
 medicines seem to be able to do nothing for such cases, 
 and a few remedies in a foreigner's hands work cures that 
 seem wonderful to the Mongols. 
 
 * In many cases, when a Mongol applies to his doctor, 
 he simply extends his hand, and expects that the doctor, 
 by simply feeling his pulse, will be able to tell, not only 
 the disease, but what will cure it. As soon as the doctor 
 
IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 131 
 
 has felt the pulse of one hand, the patient at once extends 
 the other hand that the pulse may be felt there also, and 
 great surprise is manifested when a foreigner begins his 
 diagnosis of a case by declining the proffered wrist and 
 asking questions. 
 
 ' The question of " How did you get this disease ? " 
 often elicits some curiously superstitious replies. One man 
 lays the blame on the stars and constellations. Another 
 confesses that when he was a lad he was mischievous, and 
 dug holes in the ground or cut shrubs on the hill, and it is 
 not difficult to see how he regards disease as a punishment 
 for digging, since by digging worms are killed ; but what 
 cutting wood on a hill can have to do with sin it is harder 
 to see, except it be regarded as stealing the possessions of 
 the spiritual lord of the locality. In consulting a doctor 
 too, a Mongol seems to lay a deal of stress on the belief 
 that it is his/crfe to be cured by the medical man in ques- 
 tion, and, if he finds relief, often says that his meeting this 
 particular doctor and being cured is the result of prayers 
 made at some previous time. 
 
 ' One difficulty in curing Mongols is that they frequently, 
 when supplied with medicines, depart entirely from the 
 doctor's instructions when they apply them ; and a not 
 unfrequent case is that of the patient who, after applying 
 to the foreigner for medicine and getting it, is frightened 
 by his success, or scared by some lying report of his neigh- 
 bours, or staggered at the fact that the foreigner would not 
 feel his pulse, or feel it at one wrist only, lays aside the 
 medicine carefully and does not use it at all. 
 
 ' In Mongolia, too, a foreigner is often asked to perform 
 absurd, laughable, or impossible cures. One man wants to 
 be made clever, another to be made fat, another to be 
 cured of insanity, another of tobacco, another of whisky, 
 another of hunger, another of tea ; another wants to be 
 made strong, so as to conquer in gymnastic exercises ; most 
 
 I 2 
 
132 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 men want medicine to make their beards grow ; while 
 almost every man, woman, and child wants to have his or 
 her skin made as white as that of the foreigner. 
 
 * When a Mongol is convinced that his case is hopeless 
 he takes it very calmly, and bows to his fate, whether it be 
 death or chronic disease ; and Mongol doctors, and Mongol 
 patients too, after a succession of failures, regard the afflic- 
 tion as a thing fated, to be unable to overcome which 
 implies no lack of medical ability on the doctor's part. 
 
 ' Of all the healing appliances in the hands of a foreigner 
 none strikes the fancy of a Mongol so much as the galvanic 
 battery, and it is rather curious that almost every Mongol 
 who sees it and tries its effect exclaims what a capital 
 thing it would be for examining accused persons. It would 
 far surpass whipping, beating, or suspending. Under its 
 torture a guilty man could not but " confess." Some one 
 in England has advocated the use of the galvanic battery 
 in place of the cat in punishing criminals, and it is rather 
 curious to note the coincidence of the English and Mongol 
 mind. 
 
 ' The Mongol doctors are not, it would seem, quite un- 
 acquainted with the properties of galvanism. It is said 
 that they are in the habit of prescribing the loadstone ore, 
 reduced to powder, as efficacious when applied to sores, and 
 one man hard of hearing had been recommended by a lama 
 to put a piece of loadstone into each ear and chew a piece 
 of iron in his mouth ! 
 
 ' Divination is another point on which Mongols are 
 troublesome. It never for a moment enters their head that 
 a man so intelligent and well fitted out with appliances as 
 a foreigner seems to them to be cannot divine. Accord- 
 ingly they come to him to divine for them where they 
 should camp to be lucky and get rich, when a man who 
 has gone on a journey will return, why no news has been 
 received from a son or husband who is serving in the army. 
 
' IN JO URNE YINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS ' 133 
 
 where they should dig a well so as to get plenty of good 
 water near the surface, whether it would be fortunate for 
 them to venture on some trading speculation, whether they 
 should go on some projected journey, in what direction 
 they should search for lost cattle, or, more frequently than 
 any of the above, they come, men and women, old and 
 young, to have the general luck of their lives examined 
 into. Great is their amazement when the foreigner con- 
 fesses his ignorance of such art, and greater still is their 
 incredulity. 
 
 * The great obstacles to success in doctoring the Mongols 
 are two : — First : most of the afflicted Mongols suffer 
 from chronic diseases for which almost nothing can be 
 done : Second : in many cases, where alleviation or cures 
 are effected, they are only of short duration, as no amount 
 of explanation or exhortation seems sufficient to make 
 them aware of the importance of guarding against causes 
 of disease. But, notwithstanding all this, many cures can 
 be effected on favourable subjects, and the fact that the 
 missionary carries medicines with him and attempts to 
 heal, and that without money and without price, aids the 
 missionary cause by bringing him into friendly communi- 
 cation with many who would doubtless hold themselves 
 aloof from any one who approached them in no other 
 character but that of a teacher of Christianity.' 
 
134 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1 882 
 
 From 1880 onwards Mrs. Gilmour suffered severely from 
 illness, and medical advisers recommended at length the 
 rest and change of a visit to England. Mr. Gilmoiir's 
 furlough was also nearly due. Consequentl}^, in the spring 
 of 1882, he and his family returned to England. This 
 visit was helpful and memorable in many ways. The rest 
 so thoroughly well earned was greatly enjoyed. The 
 return to civilisation, the society of loved relatives and 
 friends, the comforts of ordinary English life, and the 
 change of thought and occupation which these involved — all 
 reacted happily and refreshingly upon both Mr. Gilmour 
 and his wife. 
 
 But a sojourn at home is not by any means a season of 
 entire rest for the jaded worker. The Churches constantly 
 need the stimulus and awakening that are best supplied by 
 the men who have been filling the hard places in the field. 
 Gilmour also was so full of enthusiasm for his work, and 
 so eager in his desire to benefit the Mongols, that he 
 would doubtless have found for himself many opportunities 
 of pleading their cause, had not the authorities of the 
 London Missionary Society, following their usual custom, 
 furnished him with a long list of deputation engagements. 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 135 
 
 Into these he threw himself with an energy that very 
 greatly enlarged the circle of his friendship, secured very 
 many new supporters for the missionary cause, and ob- 
 tained for himself, on the part of many, a devout, prayerful 
 sympathy for the remainder of his earthly service. 
 
 He had brought with him a large quantity of manu- 
 script material dealing with his twelve years of Mongol 
 life and experience. From this he prepared the volume 
 which was published by the Religious Tract Society in y 
 April 1883, under the title o{ Among the Mongols. 
 
 The book was very cordially welcomed by the press, 
 and we single out for quotation a portion of one review 
 which stands out pre-eminent not only for its literary 
 quality, but also as placing on record the impression James 
 Gilmour was able to make upon men entirely ignorant 
 of him and his work by the simple narrative of his ex- 
 periences. It appeared in the Spectator for April 28, 1883. 
 
 *We have a difficulty in passing judgment on this 
 book. It is possible, even probable, that the impression it 
 has made on us is individual to this reviewer, and due to 
 an accident which, with other readers, will not repeat itself. 
 •Having time, and an interest in nomads, he read a page or 
 two, and read on, and read on, for five hours, till he had 
 finished the book, — which is much too short, — fascinated, 
 lost, carried out of himself and England. He was in 
 Mongolia, sitting under a blue-cloth tent, with savage dogs 
 howling around, and gazing outside, through the doorless 
 doorway, on a vast panorama of poor tufted grass, stretch- 
 ing away to huge black hills in the distance, and Tartars 
 on camels, Tartars on horses, Tartars on springless, 
 unbreakable ox-carts, hastening up to the encampment ; 
 while inside he listened to a quiet Scotchman, resignedly 
 
136 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 yet clearly explaining everything in a voice there was 
 
 the puzzle. Where in the world had the reviewer heard 
 that voice before, with its patient monotone, as well known 
 as his oldest friend's, its constant digressions and " reflec- 
 tions," its sentences so familiar, yet so new, sentences 
 which, as each topic came up, he could write before they 
 were uttered. " James Gilmour, M.A." Never knew him, 
 or heard of him ; yet here was he, talking exactly as some 
 one else had years ago talked a hundred times. So 
 oppressive at last became the will-o'-the-wisp reminiscence, 
 that the reviewer stopped, after an account of the Desert 
 of Gobi, and deliberately read it through again, in search 
 of a clue which might reawaken his memory. It was all 
 in vain, and it was not till another hundred pages had 
 been passed, always under the impression of that bewilder- 
 ing reminiscence, that he exclaimed to himself, " That's it ! 
 Robinson Crusoe has turned missionary, lived years in 
 Mongolia, and written a book about it." That is this 
 book. To any one who, perhaps from early neglect, does 
 not perceive this truth, our judgment will seem erroneous ; 
 but to any one who does, we may quite fearlessly appeal. 
 The student of Robinson Crusoe never expected that 
 particular pleasure in this life, and he will never have it 
 again ; but for this once he has it to the full. Mr. James 
 Gilmour, though a man of whom any country may be 
 proud, is not a deep thinker, and not a bright writer, and 
 not a man with the gift of topographical, or, indeed, any 
 other kind of description. He thinks nothing extra- 
 ordinary, and has nothing to say quotable. There is a 
 faint, far-off humour in him, humour sternly repressed ; but 
 that, so far as we know, is the only quality in his writing 
 which makes him litterateur at all. But Heaven, which 
 has denied him many gifts, has given him one in full 
 measure, — the gift of Defoe, the power of so stating things 
 that the reader not only believes them, but sees them in 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 137 
 
 bodily presence, that he is there wherever the author 
 chooses to place him, under the blue tent, careering over the 
 black ice of Lake Baikal, or hobnobbing in tea with priests 
 as unlike Englishmen as it is possible for human beings to 
 be, yet, such is his art, in nowise unintelligible or strange. It 
 may be, as we have said, that it is an individual impres- 
 sion, but we never read, save once, the kind of book in 
 our lives, did not deem it possible ever again to meet with 
 this special variety of unconscious literary skill. We are 
 aware of a dozen shortcomings, of a hundred points upon 
 which Mr. Gilmour ought to have given light, and has 
 not ; but there has been, if our experience serves us at all, 
 no book quite like this book since Robinson Crusoe ; and 
 Robhison Crusoe is not better, does not tell a story more 
 directly, or produce more instantaneous and final convic- 
 tion. Heaven help us all, if Mr. Gilmour tells us that he 
 has met any unknown race in Mongolia, say, people with 
 the power of making themselves invisible, for Tyndall will 
 believe him, and Huxley account for them, and the Illus- 
 trated London Neivs publish their portraits — in the stage of 
 invisibility. We do not say the book is admirable, or per- 
 fect, or anything else superlative ; but we do say, and this 
 with sure confidence, that no one who begins it will leave 
 it till the narrative ends, or doubt for an instant, whether 
 he knows Defoe or not, that he has been enchained by 
 something separate and distinct in literature, something 
 almost uncanny in the way it has gripped him, and made 
 him see for ever a scene he never expected to see. 
 
 ' We do not know that we have any more to say about 
 the book. Its merit is that, and no other ; and we do not 
 suppose anybody ever proved Robinson Crusoe^ s value by 
 extracts. But we must say a word or two about the 
 author and his subject. Mr. Gilmour, though a Scotch- 
 man, is apparently attached to the London Mission, and 
 seems to have quitted Pekin for Mongolia on an impulse to 
 
138 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 teach Christ to Tartars. He could not ride, he did not 
 know Mongolian, he had an objection to carry arms, and 
 he had no special fitness except his own character, which 
 he knew nothing about, for the work. Nevertheless, he 
 went, and stayed years, living on half-frozen prairies and 
 deserts under open tents, on fat mutton, sheep's tails par- 
 ticularly, tea, and boiled millet, eating only once a day 
 because Mongols do, and in all things, except lying, steal- 
 ing, and prurient talk, making himself a lama. As he 
 could not ride, he rode for a month over six hundred miles 
 of dangerous desert, where the rats undermine the grass, 
 and at the end found that that difficulty has disappeared 
 for ever. As he could not talk, he " boarded out " with a 
 lama, listened and questioned, and questioned and listened, 
 till he knew Mongolian as Mongols know it, till his ears 
 became so open that he was painfully aware that Mongol 
 conversation, like that of most Asiatics, is choked with 
 doubles entendres. As for danger, he had made up his mind 
 not to carry arms, not to be angry with a heathen, happen 
 what might, and — though he does not mention this — not 
 to be afraid of anything whatever, neither dogs nor 
 thieves, nor hunger nor the climate ; and he kept those 
 three resolutions. If ever on earth there lived a man who 
 kept the law of Christ, and could give proofs of it, and be 
 absolutely unconscious that he was giving them, it is this 
 man, whom the Mongols he lived among called "our 
 Gilmour." He wanted, naturally enough, sometimes to 
 meditate away from his hosts, and sometimes to take long 
 walks, and sometimes to geologise, but he found all these 
 things roused suspicion — for why should a stranger want 
 to be alone ; might it not be " to steal away the luck of 
 the land " .'' — and as a suspected missionary is a useless 
 missionary, Mr. Gilmour gave them all up, and sat end- 
 lessly in tents, among lamas. And he says incidentally that 
 his fault is impatience a dislike to be kept waiting ! ' 
 
§. <? 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 141 
 
 The book met with a ready and wide acceptance. It 
 soon ' found its public' It was only to be expected that 
 many of the friends and supporters of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society would welcome it. And there are others, 
 like the reviewer, who ' have time and an interest in 
 nomads,' who were certain to consult it. But in addition 
 to these special classes the book did good service in some 
 cases, by deepening the impression already made by other 
 first-rate delineations of missionary enterprise and endur- 
 ance, and in others by creating respect for missions and 
 missionaries in minds hitherto strange to that feeling. In 
 various editions very many thousands of the book have 
 been sold during the nine years which have passed since 
 the publication of the first edition. 
 
 The success of his book led to the suggestion that he 
 might easily find much useful employment for his pen. 
 He did contribute some papers to the Sunday at Home, 
 Pall Mall Gazette, and other publications. But in this, as 
 in all other enterprises, loyalty to the great work of his life 
 ruled him. He soon came to the conviction that he ought 
 not to take time from the work of winning souls, and 
 spend it in writing papers and books — and from the 
 moment of that decision he put mere literary work 
 resolutely aside. 
 
 *I feel keenly,' he wrote in 1884, on his return to 
 Peking, 'that there is here more than I can do, and 
 writing must go to the wall.' And as late in his life as 
 1890 he added, ' I could have made, and could now make, 
 I believe, money by writing, but I do not write. I settle 
 down to teach illiterate Chinamen and Mongols, heal their 
 sores, and present Christ to them.' 
 
143 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Towards the end of 1882 James Gilmour entered upon 
 a long series of meetings on behalf of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, consisting of sermons and addresses to 
 Sunday School children on the Sunday, and speeches at 
 public meetings during the week. A long series of his 
 letters written to his wife between November 1882 and 
 March 1883 is still extant, and they form an impressive 
 record of the work considered suitable for a wearied mis- 
 sionary at home in search of rest and change. He visited 
 Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Liverpool, Kilsyth, Hamilton, 
 Paisley, Dundee, St. Andrews, Arbroath, Lytham, Aber- 
 deen, Montrose, Manchester, Hingham, Cambridge, Norfolk) 
 and Southampton. And this list exhausts only a portion 
 of his excursions on the effort to stimulate and develope 
 the faith and the zeal of the churches at home. His wan- 
 derings brought him into contact sometimes with relatives, 
 sometimes with old college friends, now grave pastors fast 
 hastening towards middle life. The meetings he attended 
 always added to the circle of his friends, for none could 
 hear his ringing voice, and feel the clasp of his hand, and 
 pass under the influence of his ardent enthusiasm on behalf 
 of the great enterprise of the modern Christian Church 
 without receiving an impression never likely to be effaced. 
 
 He in turn experienced a strong and abiding spiritual 
 refreshment from this renewal, after twelve years' absence, 
 of touch and fellowship with the Christian life of Great 
 Britain. His earnestness deepened, he studied with in- 
 tensest interest movements like the Salvation x'\rmy, then 
 coming into great prominence, and other agencies for 
 improving the religious life of the nation, and he rejoiced 
 in all fellowship with other disciples of the Lord Jesus 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1S83 143 
 
 which had for its aim the strengthening of the life of 
 faith. 
 
 He rejoiced greatly when at infrequent intervals a 
 Sunday came upon which he was entirely free from 
 engagements. Such rare occasions he utilised very fully 
 for spiritual edification. He was somewhat hampered in 
 his possibilities on these days by the fact that his tempo- 
 rary home was at Bexley Heath, and his strong Sabbatarian 
 views never permitted him to travel by rail or omnibus on 
 the Lord's Day. The following letter shows how he passed 
 one of these days. 
 
 'Yesterday being a fine day I left home at 7.15 A.M., 
 walked to London (twelve miles), got to Spurgeon's at 10.30. 
 Had a permit from a seat-holder, was close to the platform, 
 heard a good earnest sermon, was introduced to Spurgeon 
 in the vestry after service, went home to one of his deacons 
 for dinner, there met an American who had under Mr. 
 Moody been converted from drunkenness to God, and 
 whose craving for drink was as instantaneously and as 
 thoroughly expelled as the devils by Christ of old. After 
 dinner visited Spurgeon's Stockwell Orphanages, then 
 walked to Camberwell and dropped in, in passing, at the 
 Catholic Apostolic Church and heard a sermon from a man 
 who would have described himself as an Apostle, I suppose, 
 and who ridiculed in a gentle and mild way the idea that 
 all men were to be partakers of the Gospel blessings which 
 he seemed to think were the special property of what he 
 called " The Church " ; walked on to Lewisham, heard 
 jMorlais Jones : and then walked home in the moonlight, 
 arriving here footsore and weary about 10.20 P.M. I 
 enjoyed the day very much, all but the last four or five miles 
 home at night. I am thankful to find myself so strong. I 
 had a warm bath and slept like a top.' 
 
144 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Those who were privileged to entertain James Gilmour, 
 if congenial, and the old friends who were fortunate enough 
 to secure him for even a brief period, often experienced his 
 power of vivid and entrancing narration. His twelve years 
 of service had been very full of varied and uncommon 
 experience, and when in the vein he could make the hours 
 pass almost as minutes, ' During this furlough,' writes Dr. 
 Reynolds, ' I had several opportunities of intercourse with 
 him, and listened to several of his addresses on the pro- 
 gress and need of missionary enterprise in the north of 
 China and Mongolia, and was profoundly impressed by his 
 earnestness, but I was more deeply moved when in quiet 
 tete-d-tete he unveiled some of his special experiences. I 
 should like to mention one. He once had great hope of 
 the conversion to God of a Mongol, who had given him his 
 entire confidence, and who was suffering from cataract in 
 both eyes. Gilmour felt that this was a case in which 
 surgical help might restore the sufferer to at least partial 
 sight, and he made arrangements that in the escort of a 
 Mongol the patient should find his way to the medical 
 institution at Peking. He started on the pilgrimage when 
 Gilmour, with his brave young wife, were encamped in a 
 great temporary settlement of Mongols, who were in a 
 state of considerable' fanatical excitement against the new 
 faith and its foreign teacher. Gilmour said, " We prayed 
 night and day for the success of this experiment, and we 
 arranged to cover all expenses connected with the arrange- 
 ment." Alas ! wind laden with dust, and blinding heat and 
 other apparent accidents conspired against the poor sufferer, 
 and when the necessary time had elapsed after the opera- 
 tion and the bandages were removed, the patient was found 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 145 
 
 to be stone blind. The Mongol companion stirred up the 
 poor fellow's suspicion by telling him that he knew why the 
 Missionary had sent him to Peking. " I saw," said he, " the 
 jewel of your eye in a bottle on the shelf These Christians 
 can get hundreds of taels for these jewels which they take 
 out of our eyes." 
 
 'When the blind man was brought back to Gilmour, his 
 companion spread his suspicions and exasperating story in 
 the entire district, and the fanatical hatred was augmented 
 into seething and murderous passion, and our dear friends 
 were in imminent peril for several weeks. If they had 
 ventured to escape, it would have been a confession of a 
 vile conspiracy with the Peking doctors, and a signal for 
 their massacre. They remained to live down the ominous 
 and odious charge, and in continuous effort to justify the 
 simplicity of their motives and the purity and beneficence 
 of their mission. 
 
 ' Deeply moved, as I was, by the story of this hair- 
 breadth escape, I asked Mrs. Gilmour more about those 
 fearful weeks of suspense, and she assured me that they 
 had been perfectly calm, and that they were entirely re- 
 signed to God's will, whatever it might be.' 
 
 ' Many other trials of faith and patience were described 
 by Gilmour, without one touch of self-approval or self- 
 admiration, and the only trouble that haunted him was 
 that the results of his long journeys and of his various 
 missionary enterprises had been apparently so few.' 
 
 It was certain that James Gilmour's power as a 
 speaker would be utilised for the great event of the London 
 Missionary Society's year, the annual meeting at Exeter 
 Hall. This fell, in 1883, on May 10, and he was the last 
 
 K 
 
146 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 speaker. This involved waiting about two hours and a 
 half for his speech, and corresponding exhaustion on the 
 part of the audience. But none who were present will 
 forget the rapid way in which he secured the attention ot 
 his hearers, and the ease with which he held it to the close. 
 He chose to speak of work in China, rather than in 
 Mongolia ; the recent publication of his book helping 
 among other reasons to determine this choice. Part of the 
 speech deserves reproduction here, because it outlines very 
 sharply the work that engaged much of his time while 
 resident in Peking, and because nowhere else can such a 
 realistic, sparkling, and lifelike picture of the preaching 
 work of the Peking mission, and consequently more or less 
 of all preaching in great Chinese cities, be found. 
 
 ' In Peking we have three chapels. A chapel there is 
 merely a Chinese shop, put into decent repair, and a sign- 
 board stuck over the top. The Chinese are very fond of 
 giving themselves very high names. You will come to a 
 man sitting in a little box scarcely big enough for himself 
 to turn round in, and if you read his sign, it is some flowing 
 name about a hall ; it may be the " Hall of Continual 
 Virtue," or something of that kind, or the " Hall of the 
 Five Happinesses." So our title above our chapel just runs 
 in the native idiomatic style, and it is the " Gospel Hall.' 
 Inside there is not very much to see. The counter has 
 been cleared away and the shelves, and, in place of the 
 mud, a brick floor has been put down ; and then there are 
 forms arranged for the sitters, and there is a low platform 
 for the speaker. I do not know how it happens, but it 
 does happen, that up in the left-hand corner of the chapel 
 — and it is always the left-hand corner — there is a table 
 and two chairs, and on that table there is a teapot and a 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 147 
 
 set of cups, because in China everything is done with tea. 
 You must ahvays begin in that way. These chapels are 
 open six days in the week in the afternoon. 
 
 ' Now, supposing you come in at the door, the natural 
 thing for the missionary seems to be just to walk up to this 
 table and sit down, and then the next thing is to get 
 a congregation. Sometimes there is no difficulty about 
 getting it, if it happens to be a fair day or there is a crowd 
 in the streets. They simply pour in : but the tide goes 
 different wa\-s sometimes, and does not pour in ahvays like 
 that. I want to give you just a fair, square, honest idea of 
 what the thing is. Sometimes the congregation will not 
 come in, and sometimes, after a little while, one man looks 
 in at the door and .sees a foreigner, and he is off. He has 
 seen quite enough and does not want to see any more ; 
 and if you were to ask him what he had seen, he would 
 not say he had seen a foreigner ; no, he would say he had 
 seen " a foreign devil." And, friends, you would not be 
 very much astonished that some of those ignorant men 
 coming from the countr)- are alarmed when they see a 
 foreigner, if }-ou could only imagine the terrible lies that 
 they circulate about us there ; about how we take out 
 people's hearts for the purposes of magic, and steal people's 
 eyes to make photographic chemicals, and administer medi- 
 cines to bewitch them generally. I say that, if the first man 
 who comes to a chapel on an afternoon is a man who has 
 heard these things, you cannot be astonished that all you 
 see of that man is his back and his pigtail as he goes away. 
 Another man sometimes comes — a bolder man, and 
 he comes in, and the most natural thing for him seems to 
 be to walk up to the table and sit down on the other 
 side, and there you and he are a pair. The proper thing 
 is to pour him out a cup of tea : that is etiquette, and 
 the etiquette seems to be that he should not drink it. 
 
 Sometimes, after the service begins, I see the native 
 
 K 3 
 
148 JAMES QILMOVR OP MONGOLIA 
 
 preacher come slyly up, as if he did not mean anything at 
 all ; and he walks up to the teapot, and lifts the lid quite 
 quietly, and slips that tea back into the pot again, and 
 puts on the lid and warms it up, and it is ready for the next 
 man who comes. 
 
 ' If you get into conversation with one man, the con- 
 gregation is, for the most part, practically secured, because, 
 though a Chinaman is very much afraid of being spoken 
 to directly by a foreigner, most Chinamen are very curious 
 to overhear any conversation that may be carried on ; so 
 if you are speaking to him, in comes another man to listen, 
 and if you can get other men to come in and listen over 
 each other's backs, very soon more come in than the 
 original speaker cares to overhear his private conversation ; 
 and when that step is reached, it is time to go to the plat- 
 form and ask the hearers to sit down and begin the regular 
 service. Sometimes nobody comes in, and then you have 
 to try something else, and that is to go and sit down a 
 little nearer the door, and sometimes, in that way, gradu- 
 ally a few people come in. But then in Peking sometimes 
 there is a great north-west wind blowing ; and I think that 
 is about the hardest thing on a man's congregation before 
 he gets it, because, when the weather is unfavourable, there 
 are not many people about, and so we have to adopt 
 another plan. We do not go on to the streets, but inside 
 the chapel the native preacher and I do our best to sing a 
 hymn. I say do our best, because sometimes these native 
 preachers do not succeed in singing very well ; however, 
 we succeed in making a noise, and that is the thing that 
 draws. The people look in, and see what they suppose to 
 be a foreigner and a native chanting Buddhist prayers. In 
 they come ; they have not seen that before, and they sit 
 down, and, as soon as the hymn is through, we have the 
 opportunity of telling them the contents of the hymn ; and 
 there you have your sermon ready to your hand. 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 149 
 
 * But suppose you have got your congregation, it is not 
 all smooth-sailing water. Sometimes there are interrup- 
 tions. Sometimes, just when you have the ear of youi 
 audience, all at once a tremendous row happens just out- 
 side the door, and the congregation jump to their feet and 
 rush out to see what is going on. I could have told them 
 if they had only asked me. No doubt, some unwise China- 
 man, in place of coming straight in and sitting down, stood 
 on the outskirt of the crowd on tiptoe. A city thief coming 
 along says, " Ah, there is my man," and he walks quietly up 
 to him with a pair of sharp scissors, cuts off his tobacco pouch, 
 and goes off with it. Of course, as soon as the man misses 
 the pouch, his first impulse is to grab his next neighbour ; 
 that neighbour remonstrates, and then a fight commences. 
 
 ' Sometimes a funeral passes, and that is almost as 
 serious an interruption as a fight ; because, although a 
 Chinaman does not think much about his soul after he 
 dies, he thinks a vast deal about his dead body, and, in 
 order to be perfectly sure that he will not be cheated by 
 the undertaker, he buys his coffin before he is sick, and 
 sees that he has a good bargain. And so, having a good 
 coffin, he wants a good funeral ; and it is said some men 
 spend nearly half of their fortune in having a grand pro- 
 cession when they are carried to their grave. When one 
 of these enormous funerals, with a procession sometimes 
 a quarter of a mile long, comes by, it is a very bad job 
 for your congregation. Out they go to have a look at it. 
 
 'Then the interruption is sometimes another thing, and 
 this last one is a more difficult case to settle. When one 
 of the upper ten thousand in China has a marriage, they 
 want to have a great exhibition ; and after they have 
 bought the furniture, they get and hire a great many men, 
 and have them dressed to carry that furniture in procession 
 along the streets and show it to their neighbours. First 
 comes a great wardrobe, and then a little cupboard, a 
 
I50 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 washstand, a square table, and all sorts of furniture. Now 
 when that comes, what are you to do ? They have been at 
 the expense of paying for an exhibition for their neighbours 
 to see, and they feel that it would be unneighbourly if they 
 did not step to the door and look out and see the things 
 carried past, and there goes your congregation. Some- 
 times unusual interruptions happen. I remember once a 
 woman put her head in at the door. Women do not come 
 to these chapels often — I am very glad they do not. That 
 woman put her head in at the door, and I saw danger. 
 She glared round the place, and then she spied one man, 
 and she shouted out something at him : " Come out of 
 that ! " and, friends, he came out of that, in a big hurry, 
 too. He disturbed us very considerably. It was not the 
 woman so much as the man — we all pitied him as he went out. 
 'Those audiences are very mixed, and they are very 
 curious to your eyes. Sometimes I see those audiences, 
 most of whom we do not know anything about, listening to 
 what I have to tell them, quite as still as you are now — 
 their pipes out, the smoke cleared away. They lean for- 
 ward and listen just as still as audiences in this country 
 sometimes listen when the preacher, in an interesting dis- 
 course, is coming up to a division of his subject. And, 
 friends, let me tell you what it is that makes them listen 
 best of all — it is the central doctrine of the truth of Christi- 
 anity. When we come to tell them of how Christ left the 
 surroundings of heaven, and came to spend so many years 
 in such very poor, unsympathetic company on earth (and 
 that is a subject that a missionary sometimes can talk 
 feelingly upon when he has been in a foreign country for 
 some time), when we can tell them that, and then come to 
 the last and greatest part of all : how Christ allowed Him- 
 self, for love of man, to be nailed to the cross, and not only 
 that, but kept in Him that gentle spirit that made Him 
 pray for' those who were putting Him to death— oh, friends, 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND /A^ 1882 151 
 
 when we come to that and tell them of it — I know that a 
 Chinaman is degraded, corrupt, sensual, material, but he 
 has a human heart ; and when you can get at the heart, it 
 responds to the story of the Cross. We want to do some- 
 thing in drawing the net, and so, on this table in the corner, 
 there is a pile of books, and as it gets towards the time to 
 close, I say to the friends, " Now, you will soon be going 
 away to your evening meal ; and as I am a foreigner, pro- 
 bably you have not understood all that I have said ; " and 
 then I say, " Now, before you go, there are a number of 
 books upon this table, where you will find the whole of this 
 subject put down in black and white ; will you just come 
 up and have a look at the books before you go ? " We want, 
 if possible, to establish a point of contact with them, and so 
 to get a little private conversation, as it were. If you ask 
 them to come up and look at a book, and they ask the 
 price of it, you have an opportunity of talking to them, and 
 some of these men not only buy the books, but they read 
 them and come back for others. 
 
 ' Now, how does the matter stand ? These heathen have 
 been in our chapel, and we have taken the opportunity 
 of putting some of the truth into their hearts ; but I know 
 a good part, much, it may be, of what the man has heard 
 when he goes out — well, it is stolen away, or it is trampled 
 under foot ; but some part of it remains. 
 
 ' And now I can come to the practical part. I have 
 not been trying to entertain you, but I have been trying 
 to interest you, and what I want to impress upon you is 
 this : after those men have left the chapel you can do 
 as much for their conversion as we can do in China. I 
 want you to pray for the conversion of these men to 
 whom we in Peking, and others in other parts of the world, 
 are the means of communicating these truths of Christ. I 
 believe it is not only the earnestness of the missionary that 
 is going to produce results, but it is your earnestness here. 
 
152 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 We are your agents, and I believe, fervently, we shall have 
 results there in direct proportion to the measure of your 
 earnestness here. I believe I am speaking to the right 
 people when I ask you to pray. Unprayed for, I feel very 
 much as if a diver were sent down to the bottom of a river 
 with no air to breathe, or as if a fireman were sent up to a 
 blazing building and held an empty hose ; I feel very much 
 as a soldier who is firing blank cartridge at an enemy, and 
 so I ask you earnestly to pray that the Gospel may take 
 saving and working effect on the minds of those men to 
 whose notice it has been introduced by us. Not long ago, 
 at the close of a local anniversary, when we had been hav- 
 ing a meeting, as we were going home, three of us got off a 
 tram-car — two ministers of the locality and myself — and, as 
 we were walking along, one said : " Ah, Gilmour, it is all 
 the same over again ; it is just the old thing ; you mission- 
 aries come, and you have an anniversary, and the people's 
 earnestness seems to be stirred up, and you ask their 
 prayers, and it looks as if you would get them, but," he 
 said, " you go away, and the thing passes by and is just 
 left where it was before." I do not think that was quite 
 correct. I think my brother was labouring under a tem- 
 porary fit of the blues, and I was very glad to find his com- 
 panion said it was not quite correct. What I want is this, 
 to go back to my work feeling that there are those behind 
 us who are praying earnestly that God's Spirit would work 
 effectually in the hearts of those to whom we have the 
 privilege of preaching. If you pray earnestly you can but 
 work earnestly, and then you will also give earnestly ; and 
 I do not think we can be too earnest in the matter for 
 which Christ was so much in earnest that He laid down His 
 own life.' 
 
 The month of June and part of July was spent at Mill- 
 port, a watering-place on the west coast of Scotland, near 
 
THE VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1882 153 
 
 the lovely scenery of Arran. On July 4 he ascended Goat- 
 fell, and in so doing had an adventure which might have 
 had very serious consequences. He started late, lost his 
 way, but finally reached the summit at 8.45 p.m., and then, 
 as he notes in his diary : ' Fog came on nearly at once 
 with rain and thunder. Sat in the lee of a dripping rock 
 on a wet stone and looked at a couple of acres of fog and 
 granite boulders. Very dark and cold about midnight, the 
 time wore on very slowly, more rain dripping, and fog. 
 At 2 o'clock A.M. I began the descent, and in a short while 
 it was light enough to sec. Came on all right, and saw 
 where I had missed the way. ... I have not caught cold. 
 I was wet all night, but kept wrapt up in my plaid and as 
 warm as I could manage. Next day the minister con- 
 gratulated me on being seen alive after my Goatfell adven- 
 ture.' 
 
 On September i the return voyage to China began, 
 and Peking was reached on November 14. 
 
154 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 In Peking the old familiar round of mission duties 
 recommenced, Gilmour after his absence of eighteen 
 months was the same man, and yet not the same. He 
 yearned for fruit in the conversion of souls, and he began 
 to devote himself with more eager self-denial than ever to 
 the winning of Chinamen's hearts for the Saviour. The 
 winter of 1 883-1884 was spent in Peking, and his diary is 
 full of incidents illustrative of the time and effort he gave 
 to dealing with individuals. 
 
 In February, 1884, he made one of the most remark- 
 able of his Mongolian journeys. He visited the Plain, 
 travelling on foot, and thus subjecting himself to risks and 
 hardships of a very serious order. But he had good reasons 
 for his method, and he sets them forth with his usual clear- 
 ness. Possibly no other journey of his life more strikingly 
 testifies to his strict sense of duty, the unsparing way in 
 which he spent himself in its discharge, and his eager desire 
 to win souls. 
 
 ' On this occasion, partly owing to the shortness of the 
 time at my disposal, which made it hardly worth while to 
 set up an establishment, and partly owing to the peculiar 
 season of the year, which would have made it difficult to 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 157 
 
 find pasture for travelling cattle, I determined to go on 
 foot, without medicines, in a strictly spiritual capacity, and 
 not seeking so much to make fresh acquaintances or open 
 up new ground as to revisit familiar localities and see how 
 far former evangelistic attempts had produced an}' effect. 
 In addition there were some individual Mongols who have 
 been taught a good deal about Christianity, and on whom 
 I wished once more, while there was still opportunity, to 
 press the claims of Christ. 
 
 'Five cold days in a mule litter brought me to Kalgan, 
 and another day in a cart took me up over the pass and 
 landed me in a Chinese inn on the Mongolian plain. This 
 inn has no separate rooms ; the guests all share the ample 
 platform of the kitchen, and sleep on straw mats laid over 
 the brickwork, which is heated by flues leading from fires 
 on which their meals arc cooked. The Chinese innkeeper 
 was an old friend of mine, and he permitted me to share 
 his room with him. From this, as a centre, I was able to 
 make expeditions to four Mongolian settlements. 
 
 ' My first visit was made to a lama whom I ha\c known 
 for years, and who has been instructed in Christianity by 
 others, both before and since I made his acquaintance. He 
 is a man of influence, wealth, and leisure, and, though a 
 priest, has a wife and child. I spent almost a whole day 
 with him, and hardly know what to think about him. He 
 seems to admit that there must be a God of the universe, 
 and admits that Christ may be a revelation of Him, but in 
 the same sense in which Euddha was. From one part of 
 his conversation I was almost led to believe that he had 
 been praying to Jesus, but I could get him to make no such 
 admission. I fear that the inquiring spirit of former years 
 has given place to a spirit of indifference. He has every- 
 thing he wants, he has little or no care, seemingly ; he is 
 content to let things drift, and keeps his mind easy. If he 
 were only waked up he might do much for his countrymen. 
 
158 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' My second visit was to a temple and cluster of tents, 
 where I found some old acquaintances ; was politely re- 
 ceived, but nothing more. 
 
 ' My third visit was to another cluster of tents, where I 
 was at once hailed as the doctor, and, nolens vo/cns, com- 
 pelled to examine and prescribe for a number of diseases. 
 Some cures accomplished years before explained the enthu- 
 siasm of the friends there, but for spiritual results I looked 
 in vain. 
 
 ' My next expedition was to a place some miles — say 
 eight — away. Some }'cars ago, in stormy weather, Mrs. 
 Gilmour and I, soaked out of our tent, had found shelter in 
 the mud-house of a Mongol, who refused to take anything 
 for the use of his building, remarking that we would be 
 going and coming that way afterwards, and that then wc 
 might give him a present of some foreign article or other. 
 I had sent him a few things, but had never since personally 
 visited him, and when I reached the settlement I was 
 grieved to find that the old man was dead. His son, a lad 
 of twenty-three, had succeeded to his estate, and his small 
 official dignity and emoluments, and received me in a most 
 remarkably friendly way. He was just starting from home, 
 but on seeing me gave up all idea of his going away, and, 
 insisting on my staying in his tent for the night, spent the 
 remainder of the day with me. 
 
 ' Next day, slinging on one side a postman's brown bag 
 containing my kit and provisions ; on the other an angler's 
 waterproof bag, with books, &c. ; and carrying from a stick 
 over my shoulder a Chinaman's sheepskin coat, I left my 
 landlord drinking the two ounces of hot Chinese whisky 
 which formed the invariable introduction to his breakfast 
 turned my face northwards, and started for a twenty-three 
 miles' walk to the settlement which, for some summers in 
 succession, has furnished me with men and oxen for my 
 annual journeys. Now the Mongols are familiar with the 
 
JAMES GILMOUR EQUIPPED FOR HIS WALKING EXPEDITION IN 
 MONGOLIA IN FEBRUARY 1884 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOlV i6i 
 
 Russians, who, as tea-agents, reside in Kalgan ; they have 
 seen many passing foreign travellers on horses, camels, and 
 in carts ; they have seen missionary journeys performed 
 on donkeys and ox-carts ; but I think that that morning 
 for the first time had they seen a foreigner, with all his 
 belongings hung about him, tramping the country after 
 the manner of their own begging lamas. There were few 
 people to meet on the road, but those I did meet asked the 
 customary questions in tones of great surprise, received my 
 answers with evident incredulity, and, for the most part 
 rode away muttering to themselves, You eldib eem, which 
 may be translated to mean, " Strange affair."' My feet, 
 through want of practice, I suppose, soon showed symptoms 
 of thinking this style of travelling as strange as the Mongols 
 did, and were badly blistered long before the journey was 
 over. 
 
 ' An occasional rest and a bite of snow varied the 
 painful monotony of the few last long miles ; the river was 
 reached at last, and, crossing it, I was soon in front of the 
 cluster of huts I had come to visit, and on looking up I 
 was agreeably astonished to find that the first man to come 
 out to meet me was the mandarin of the district. He was 
 soon joined by others, and, rescued from the dogs, I was 
 escorted to his tent, seated before the fire, and supplied with 
 a cup and full tea-pot. I had intended to drink tea in his 
 tent only for form's sake ; but his tea was good, the snow 
 seemed only to have increased my thirst, the man himself 
 was sincerely friendly ; under the circumstances my stoicism 
 broke down, and the mandarin's tea-pot was soon all but 
 empty. Meanwhile, his tent had been filling with friends 
 and neighbours, to whom the news of my arrival had spread, 
 and in a little while I had round me a representative from 
 nearly every family in the village. Among the others came 
 my two servants — the priest and the layman who had 
 driven my ox-carts for me. Escorted by these I went to 
 
 L 
 
i62 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 another tent, rested there awhile, and then moved into a 
 mud-built house. The priest I had come to visit was busy- 
 lighting a fire which would do nothing but smoke, and the 
 room was soon full. Finding him alone, I told him that I 
 had come to speak to him and my other friends about the 
 salvation of their souls, and was pressing him to accept 
 Christ, when a layman I also knew entered. Without 
 waiting for me to say anything, the priest related the drift 
 of our conversation to the layman, who, tongs in hand, was 
 trying to make the fire blaze. Blaze it would not, but sent 
 forth an increasing volume of smoke, and the layman, in- 
 visible to me in the dense cloud, though only about two 
 yards away, spoke up and said that for months he had been 
 a scholar of Jesus, and that if the priest would join him 
 they would become Christians together. Whether the 
 priest would join him or not, his mind was made up, he 
 would trust the Saviour. By this time the cloud had 
 settled down lower still. I was lying flat on the platform, 
 and the two men were crouching on the floor — I could just 
 see dimly the bottom of their skin coats — but the place was 
 beautiful to me as the gate of heaven, and the words of the 
 confession of Christ from out the cloud of smoke were 
 inspiriting to me as if they had been spoken by an angel 
 from out of a cloud of glory. 
 
 ' But neighbours came in, duty called the blackman 
 (layman) away, the evening meal had to be prepared and 
 eaten, and it was not till late at night that I had oppor- 
 tunity for a private talk with him who had confessed Christ ; 
 and even then it was not private, because we were within 
 earshot of a family of people in their beds. 
 
 ' Of all the countries I have visited Mongolia is the 
 most sparsely peopled, and yet it is, of all the places I have 
 seen, the most difficult to get private conversation with any 
 one. Everybody, even half-grown children, seems to think 
 he has a perfect right to intrude on any and all conversa- 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 163 
 
 tion. Bar the door and deny admittance, and you would 
 be suspected of hatching a plot. Take a man away for a 
 stroll that you may talk to him in quiet, and you would be 
 suspected of some dangerous enchantment. Remembering 
 that one must always have some definite message or busi- 
 ness to perform when he travels, and hoping to be able to 
 do something with this same blackman, I had purposely 
 left, in the Chinese inn, some presents which I could not 
 well carry with me, and after a day's rest the blackman 
 and I started to bring them. That gave us twenty-three 
 miles' private conversation, and a good answer to give to 
 all who demanded, " Where are you going ? " " What to 
 do ? " He gave me the history of the origin and growth 
 of his belief in Christ. I taught him much he did not 
 know, and at a lonely place we sat down and lifted our 
 voices to heaven in prayer. It was the pleasantest walk I 
 ever had in Mongolia, and at the same time the most 
 painful. My feet broke down altogether. It was evident 
 I could not walk back again the next day, so, acting on 
 my follower's advice, by a great effort I walked into the 
 inn as if my feet were all right ; we bargained for a cart, 
 and, the Chinaman not suspecting the state of my feet, wc 
 got it at a reasonable rate. Mongols and Chinese joined 
 in explaining to me how much time and labour I would 
 have saved if I had hired a cart at first, taken everything 
 with me, and not returned to the inn at all. From their 
 point of view they were right ; but the blackman and I 
 looked at the thing from a different standpoint. We had 
 accomplished our purpose, and felt that we could afford to 
 let our neighbours plume themselves on their supposed 
 superior wisdom. 
 
 * Another day's rest at this place gave me what I much 
 wanted — an opportunity for a long quiet talk with the 
 mandarin of this small tribe. I was especially anxious to 
 explain to him the true nature of Christianity, because the 
 
164 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Mongol who professes Christianity lives under his jurisdic- 
 tion, and I felt sure that a right understanding of the case 
 might be of service in protecting the professor from troubles 
 that are likely to come to him through men misunder- 
 standing his case. The mandarin came. On my last visit 
 I had been the means of curing him of a troublesome 
 complaint over which he had spent much time and money ; 
 in addition, I had brought him a present from England, 
 He was perfectly friendly and exceedingly attentive, and 
 at the close of the conversation asked some questions 
 which I thought evinced that he had somewhat entered 
 into the spirit of the conversation. He is a man of few 
 words, but from what he said I hope that he feels some- 
 thing of the truth of Christianity. 
 
 ' My next expedition was to a mandarin of wealth and 
 rank, whose encampment occupies a commanding site on 
 a mountain-side overlooking a large lake, I found him 
 at home, and, as he knows well the main doctrines of 
 Christianity, my main mission to him at this time was to 
 try and rouse him to earnestness of thought and action in 
 regard to his personal relation to Christ, We spent great 
 part of the afternoon in earnest talking, and I was much 
 pleased with the manner in which he, from time to time, 
 explained to another mandarin, who was there as guest, 
 doctrines and facts which were alluded to in our conversa- 
 tion. Next morning he started on a journey connected 
 with the business of his office, and I returned to my friendly 
 quarters where I had left my belongings. 
 
 ' I felt it laid upon me to visit two lamas at a temple 
 some seventy miles from where I was, and started next 
 day, 1 reached the temple in three days, and found that 
 both the lamas I had come to see were dead. So, as far 
 as they were concerned, I was too late. Both on the road, 
 however, and at the temple itself, I had good opportunities 
 for preaching and teaching. I met some interesting men, 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 165 
 
 and not only in tents where I was entertained as guest, but 
 sometimes out in the open desert, stray travellers would 
 meet me, dismount from their horses, and give me occasion 
 for Christian conversation. Five days completed this round, 
 and after another day's rest I started back for Kalgan, 
 escorted for ten miles by him who had professed Christ. 
 We walked slowly, as we had much to say. Arrived at the 
 parting place, we sat down and prayed together. I then 
 left, and the last I saw of the poor fellow, there he was, 
 sitting in the same place still. I reached Kalgan without 
 adventure, and returned to Peking on March 21, having 
 been away just over a month.' 
 
 Possibly the most touching comment upon this extra- 
 ordinary journey is to give some of the brief entries which 
 refer to it in the diary. 
 
 'February 19, 1884. — Started in a litter for Mongolia. 
 Good talk in inn with innman.' 
 
 'February 23. — Went to Mr. Williams. My letter had 
 not reached them. No one knew I was coming.' 
 
 ' February 25. — Over the Pass to Barosaij.' 
 
 ' February 26. — Spent the day with Tu Gishuae. Urged 
 on him the mternal proof of Christianity — the change of 
 heart.' 
 
 ' February 28.- — Shabberti, Boyinto Jaugg^ has desire 
 to become scholar of Jesus.' 
 
 'March i. — Walked here. Feet terribly bad. Snow 
 on the road. Great thirst. Bad ma Darag met me. Tea 
 in his tent. Boyinto's confession in the smoke of the 
 baishin' ^ 
 
 ' March 2.— Sabbath. Quiet day. Much talk with all. 
 The Lord opened my lips.' 
 
 ' March 3. — Walked to Barosaij with Boyinto to bring 
 
 ' Fire in the centre of the tent. 
 
i66 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 my presents. Talk about Christianity. Prayer in the 
 desert. Feet terribly bad, oh, such pain in walking.' 
 
 ' March 4. — Carted back.' 
 
 ' March 7. — Hara Oss. Walked back here. Called on 
 Tu Lobsung. Talk. He knew the way to heaven, but 
 said, " Tell it to some of the younger ones." " You go first," 
 I replied. "You most need to know."' 
 
 ' March 8. — Terrible feet. Got to Chagan Hauran.' 
 
 ' March 14. — Boyinto accompanied me to Chagan 
 Balgas with his pony. Saw him sitting as long as I was 
 in sight. Feet bad.' 
 
 'March 21. — Left Pei Kuan at 4 A.M. Dark and snow. 
 Terrible march over slippery stones. Nan Kou at 7 A.M. 
 No donkey on such a snowy day. Hired the next twenty- 
 seven li. Stiff march. Shatto at 11.35. Terrible march 
 to Ching Ho at 3 P.M. Terrible march to Te Sheng Men. 
 Home at 6.10. Prayer Meeting. Thanks be unto God for 
 all His mercies.' 
 
 Early in 1885 Mr. Gilmour's heart was rejoiced by the 
 tidings of the baptism of Boyinto, the Mongol to whom 
 reference has been repeatedly made above. Although 
 Gilmour's was not the hand to administer the rite, un- 
 doubtedly the conversion was the result of his work. On 
 January 26, 1885, he received a letter from the Rev. W. P. 
 Sprague, of the American Mission at Kalgan, part of which 
 we quote. 
 
 'Kalgan: Jan. 14, 1885. 
 
 ' Dear Brother Gilmour, — I hasten to tell you the very 
 good news. Boyinto of Shabberti was baptized by my 
 hand this day into the Church of Christ, here at Kalgan, 
 in the presence of our assembled church and congregation. 
 I'm sure you will rejoice and thank God more than any of 
 us. And I never saw our Christians so happy to receive 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 167 
 
 any one into the Church. The only thing I regret is that 
 it should not be your hand instead of mine to administer 
 the sacred rite, 
 
 * I wrote you of his visit to us a month ago, and his 
 application to join the Church here, and our satisfaction with 
 his appearance. He turned up again yesterday morning, 
 and spent all day with us. In the afternoon we had, by 
 previous appointment, a union meeting of upper and lower 
 city congregations, as a continuation of week of prayer 
 meeting, because the interest was so great. Mr. Roberts 
 preached, and in the after part of meeting, when two or 
 three others had risen for prayers, I asked Boyinto if he 
 wanted to ask Christians to pray for him, and he arose and 
 expressed his desires, including wanting to be baptized very 
 plainly. We called church meeting at close of the service, 
 and proceeded to examine him for admission to Church. 
 He answered so well as to please every one, making some 
 happy hits, as when asked what sort of a place heaven 
 was, replied, " I haven't been there — how can I tell .-* " 
 Then said, " Would any one pray to go there if it were not 
 a good place ^ " But his straightforward, open simplicity 
 was refreshing. There seemed no reason for thinking he 
 was other than an honest believer — seeking to follow Jesu? 
 in all things. The native church members first responded 
 with enthusiasm that he was a most fit candidate for 
 receiving to the Church, and expressed great delight at 
 finding a Mongol who loved and trusted our Saviour. So 
 we felt with Peter, " Can any man forbid water that these 
 should not be baptized ? " The others then asked me to 
 baptize him on the morrow, when w^e were to have another 
 union meeting at our place. And could you have seen his 
 rising and answering my questions, give assent to creed 
 and covenant, and then see him remove his cap and bow 
 his head reverently and receive the water of baptism, your 
 heart would overflow with gratitude and praise to God for 
 
i68 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 this first fruit from Mongolia. After prayer we sang '*' From 
 Greenland's icy mountains," changed to " From Mongolia, 
 &c.," and we felt it as never before. 
 
 ' Though God has thus given us great pleasure in 
 gathering this first fruit, still I feel, and we all feel, that the 
 honour of the work belongs to God, and the reward to you 
 and others.' 
 
 During 1884 and 1885 the regular work of the Peking 
 mission occupied almost the whole of his time, the Rev. 
 S. E. Meech being in England on furlough, and most of his 
 duties therefore falling upon Mr. Gilmour. During his 
 stay in England he had attended many of the Salvation 
 Army meetings, and had caught much of their spirit. He 
 had also come to the conviction that men needed to be dealt 
 with individually rather than in the mass. Hence he gave 
 much time to conversation, to teaching single persons the 
 Christian catechism and the New Testament, and en- 
 deavouring, by talking and praying with them, to lead them 
 to a knowledge of the truth. From six in the morning 
 until ten at night he was at the service of all comers. In 
 the afternoon he attended one or both of the Peking 
 chapels, preaching if there were the opportunity, but always 
 eagerly on the alert for any individuals showing signs of 
 interest in the Gospel, It had been the custom of the 
 missionaries to reserve the Sunday evening for an English 
 service, devoted to their own spiritual refreshment. This, 
 which was held in the mission compound, he ceased to 
 attend, even although his absence sometimes made it im- 
 possible to hold the service, in order that he might find time 
 to read and talk and pray with his Chinese servants. Fre- 
 quently the meal-time would find him thus engaged, but the 
 
SUNSHINE AND, SHADOW 169 
 
 meal had to wait until his visitor had left, or until the inter- 
 view came to its natural close. He ceased to read all news- 
 papers except those distinctively Christian. He found no 
 time for books, as he felt that direct work for the Chinese 
 should fill the hours he might otherwise devote to reading. 
 He became more wholly than ever the man of one book — 
 the Bible — and so absorbed did he grow in this close dealing 
 with souls that in the earlier stages of his wife's illness 
 he felt constrained to place it before even her wish that 
 he would remain by her at periods of severe suffering and 
 weakness. 
 
 * December 9, 1883.— At chapel met Wang from a place 
 300 li away down in the country. He had heard a sermon 
 there two or three years before which he remembered, and 
 could quote. I began the service, and brought him up here 
 to my study. We were talking when another man, Jui, 
 came in from 130 H north of Peking. He had to run away 
 from home on account of misconduct. These two kept me 
 till dark.' 
 
 In a letter to the Rev. S. E. Mcech, dated November 9, 
 1885, Mr. Gilmour refers to a number of these individual 
 cases in which he has been interesting himself, and the 
 way in which he has dealt with them. It illustrates his 
 method of close and careful dealing with each native. 
 
 ' Ch'ang attends Sunday and Friday services. My 
 opinion about Ch'ang is that he wants mission employ. 
 He has no expectation of that from me, and little from 
 Rees. I think, too, that he does not mean to break with 
 Christianity or with us, and I faintly hope that his experi- 
 ences with us will do us good, though they have been most 
 painful to us. I think you'll find him much more tractable 
 
I70 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 than he would have been had he fiot been through these 
 troubles with us. 
 
 ' Hsing has had the devil putting philosophic doubts 
 into him. I have pressed him to pelt the devil with 
 Scripture, as our Master did. 
 
 * Li, shoemaker, I do like. He cannot stay to Sunday- 
 service. I take him before service therefore. 
 
 * Fu does well. Last Friday he remained after prayer- 
 meeting, and talked till 9.40 about all manner of things 
 secular and sacred. He has most pleasant remembrances 
 of Emily — Emily, too, liked him. 
 
 'Jui Wu, the powder magazine man, is in a more hope- 
 ful case. He may come all right yet.^ 
 
 'Old Tai nearly went, but will now, I think, remain till 
 you come. He wants to tiffin with me on Sundays, and 
 enjoys much four, five, or six small cups of good strong 
 tea with milk and sugar. He is growing in grace. 
 
 ' Young Tai I am detaining after his father goes and 
 reading with him and teaching him. He gives up his 
 trade for the day, and I want to give him a good day. 
 
 'Chao Erh attends well and is improved in circumstances. 
 
 * Lu Ssu is in his old trade, and doing well. He comes 
 on Sundays when he comes. He was the man I hoped 
 least of, and as yet he pleases me almost most. 
 
 * Lama comes to-morrow to finish reconstructing Mon- 
 gol catechism. I may go on a two months' journey to 
 Mongolia, starting in December. I'll have to see the 
 children to Tientsin in February, and want to meet you, 
 
 ' Hsiis as they were.- 
 
 ' I am very much encouraged and thankful about the 
 little Church. I can honestly say that I have tried to do 
 
 ' Fu is now (1892) an evangelist, and Jui Wu a dispenser, in the Chi Chou 
 Mission. 
 
 ^ Father and son ; the only native preachers in tlie West City of Peking 
 at that time. 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 171 
 
 my best for it during your absence, and God has encour- 
 aged me a good deal in it. I have reaped some that you 
 have sown, and have endeavoured to sow something for 
 you to reap when you return. 
 
 * I sometimes have deep fits of the blues when I think 
 of the children, but their mother was able to trust Jesus 
 with them, and why should not I ? 
 
 * The Mongol work, too, has entered on a new phase, 
 and that opens up a new future for me. It is a formidable 
 affair. I don't think I'll go to Kalgan or that region. I 
 fear no doctor would stay with me there. I may go away 
 North-east. I can hardly tell yet. Meantime, with God's 
 help, I hope to do another month's work in Peking, and 
 then hand the thing over to Rees once for all. Most of 
 my books I'll sell. What use are they to me ? I never 
 have time to read them, and am not likely ever to have.' 
 
 The letter just quoted was written after the sad event to 
 which we must now refer. Towards the close of the summer 
 of 1885 Mr. Gilmour awoke to the fact that one of the 
 heaviest sorrows of his life was coming upon him. For some 
 years past Mrs. Gilmour had been subject to severe attacks 
 of pain. The visit to England and the rest and change of 
 the old home life had in a measure restored her. But 
 hardly were they comfortably established in their old Peking 
 quarters ere some of her most trying symptoms reappeared. 
 With that brave heart and resolute spirit characteristic of 
 her whole missionary career, for a time she gave herself to 
 the duties of the mission and bore her full share of its 
 anxieties and toils. But gradually she was constrained to 
 recognise that her active work was over. From the first 
 she had thrown herself whole-heartedly into missionary 
 service. She could converse fluently with the Mongols, 
 
172 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 having acquired their language in the same way as her 
 husband, by enduring repeatedly all the privations of life 
 in a Mongol tent. She had impressed them by her fond- 
 ness for animals, by her gentleness of spirit, and by her 
 evident interest in all that bore upon their own welfare. 
 In Peking she had laboured hard among the women and 
 girls, both in the matter of education and also of direct 
 religious instruction. A very bitter element in her cup of 
 sorrow was the conviction gradually forced upon her that 
 her power to do this work was fast slipping away. In a 
 letter to her sister, Mrs. Meech, then in England, dated 
 May 2, 1 885, she gives the first clear expression to this feel- 
 ing : ' I would have written before, but I have been ill for 
 about six weeks ; not actually ill, except one week, but not 
 able to do anything except the children's lessons and the 
 harmonium on Sundays sometimes. All the rest has had 
 to go. I am sorry, but it can't be helped. How long it 
 will last I don't know. I can't get stronger, so I must be 
 content to be tired. I am nothing more than weak, and a 
 great many people are that. There has been a grand 
 revival here. It seemed to pass like a mountain torrent, 
 while I had only to look on and see. My only wonder was 
 that people had lived so long without the happiness that 
 they might have had for the taking. I didn't want to go 
 to the meeting, I felt so weak and unable to bear the 
 tension of spiritual excitement. But as it was it didn't 
 tire me at all, but made me love a lot of the people. May 
 the Chinese feel the flood tide of new life that has come 
 into Peking ! And they must, there can be nothing to 
 hinder it.' 
 
 The reference in the last part of this letter is to a great 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 173 
 
 deepening of spiritual life that took place among the 
 missionaries, and also among some of the European resi- 
 dents in Peking. 
 
 The first explicit reference by Mr. Gilmour to his 
 coming sorrow occurs in the Diary ; but in his report, sent 
 home a month later, and dated August 4, 1885, he wrote : 
 ' Mrs. Gilmour is very ill, and now very weak. I fear all 
 hope of her recovery is taken away. Her trouble is a run- 
 down, but the serious complication is her lungs. We are 
 at the hills in a temple with another family, the Childs. 
 Mrs. Child came out in the same ship with Mrs. Gilmour, 
 when, as Miss Prankard, she came first to China. Mrs. 
 Child renders invaluable service to the sick one.' 
 
 In the Diary the following entries show the course of 
 sorrowful events : — • 
 
 'July 4, 1885. — It really dawns upon me to-day in such 
 a way that I can feel it that my wife is likely to die, and I 
 too feel something of how desolate it would be for me with 
 my motherless children sent away from me. Eh, man ! ' 
 
 ' August 22. — Emily spoke of being sometimes so happ)'. 
 She is quite aware now she cannot recover.' 
 
 'September 13, Sunday, Peking. — Emily saw all the 
 women. She felt very weak to-day. Remarked at 7 P.M. : 
 " Well, Jamie, I am going, I suppose. I'll soon see you there. 
 It won't be long." I said she would not want me much 
 there. She said fondly she would. " I think I'll sit at the 
 gate and look for you coming," Said she has been out for 
 the last time. Asked me not to go to chapel, but went.' 
 
 'September 17. — To-day, in the morning, I promised 
 Emily that I would remain home from the chapel and give 
 her a holida}'. She was so pleased. W^e had a most en- 
 joyable afternoon. She wa3 so happy. She sat up for an 
 
174 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 hour or so, and we conversed about all things, the use of 
 the beautiful in creation, &c.' 
 
 All the next day Mrs. Gilmour slowly sank, and soon 
 after the midnight of September i8 passed peacefully 
 within ' the gate.' The story of the closing scene was thus 
 told by her husband : — 
 
 'Peking: Saturday, September 19, 1885. 
 
 ' My dear Meech, — Emily crossed the river last night, 
 or this morning rather at 12.15. 
 
 ' I was called in from the Friday evening prayer meet- 
 ing just as it was concluding, and found her with laboured 
 breath and fixed eyes. For a time we thought it was all 
 to end at once. After a time she got over it. 
 
 ' 10 P.M. was a repetition of 8 P.M.'s experience. 
 
 ' At 12 midnight she w^as labouring much in her breath, 
 coughed a very little cough, and all at once the rapidity of 
 her breath nearly doubled, suddenly her hand fell over 
 powerless, her eyes became fixed, there was some difficult 
 breathing, and with Mrs. Henderson on the one side of the 
 bed, which had been moved when we came from the hills 
 into the sitting-room, she departed. 
 
 ' During these four hours she spoke little ; once or twice 
 she called for milk, but for the most part contented her- 
 self with assenting or dissenting to and from my remarks 
 and suggestions by moving the head. 
 
 'At 10.30, seeing me sleepy and desiring to sleep her- 
 self, she asked me to go and lie down, but I said I would 
 not do so while she was so ill. 
 
 ' I asked her if she felt all safe in the hands of Jesus. 
 She nodded her assent. 
 
 ' Some month or six weeks ago we two had talked 
 about everything to be done in case of her death, the 
 children, etc., and not only then, but more than once we 
 had talked over spiritual things, because we feared that 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 175 
 
 when the end came she might not be able to speak. I am 
 glad we did so. During these four hours she was either 
 in such great distress, or, when free from distress, was so 
 tired and eager to sleep, that talking was hardly possible. 
 
 ' The " Rest " she so longed for she has now got. 
 
 ' I treasure what she said one day when she had been, 
 I think, reading her wall text, " To me to live is Christ, to 
 die is gain," when I asked her if ^/^^ felt it so. She said she 
 did, and often would remark that to go would be far better 
 for her, but she was so eager to get well for my sake and 
 that of the children. For herself, too, she was more and 
 more enchanted with the beauty God had put in the world. 
 On Friday I went in, she waved her hand and said, " What 
 beauty !" It was some flowers on the table. A bunch of 
 grapes, a beauty, filled her mouth with praise to God for 
 all His goodness to her. The post waits. Funeral Monday. 
 
 ' Yours in sorrow, 
 
 ' J. GiLMOUR.' 
 
 Mrs. Gilmour was buried on September 2r. Her 
 faith was clear and strong. Uncommon as their courtship 
 had been, the subsequent married life was very happy. She 
 was the equal of her husband in missionary zeal and 
 enthusiasm, and he himself bears testimony to the unerring 
 skill which she possessed in gauging the moral qualities of 
 the Chinese. She gave much time and labour to Christian 
 work among the women and girls in Peking ; and her 
 husband was greatly helped in his work during the nearly 
 eleven years of married life by her sound judgment, her 
 strong affection, her loving Christian character, and her 
 entire consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
176 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 A CHANGE OF FIELD 
 
 During 1885 James Gilmour gradually reached the con- 
 clusion that a change of field was desirable. He was 
 aware that friends and colleagues more or less qualified to 
 form an opinion had urged upon him the advisability of 
 labouring in Eastern Mongolia among the agricultural 
 Mongols. No one knew so well as himself the advantages 
 and the disadvantages of this plan. The reasons that finally 
 led him to a decision were noble and characteristic. It was 
 a hard field, and no one else could or would go. The Mongols 
 of the Plain were to some extent benefited by the American 
 Mission at Kalgan ; those dwelling in Eastern Mongolia 
 were without a helper. Considerations like these, as he 
 tells us, decided his new course of action. 
 
 'In these circumstances my mind has turned away 
 north-east from Peking, where people are not so scarce, 
 and where the Mongols live as farmers. I have been to 
 that region twice. I knew some people who came from 
 that region. As soon as Mr. Rees returns from Chi Chou 
 I hope to go again. A doctor might be induced to settle 
 somewhere there, and though it would be hard a bit, a 
 family might live there too, which I don't think would be 
 possible on the plain beyond Kalgan. 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 177 
 
 ' I am fully aware of the difficulties. They are : — 
 
 'I.I have no proper Chinaman to take with me. More 
 than half the population is Chinese, and I could not do 
 well without a Chinaman. 
 
 ' 2. It is a new district and will take time to work up. 
 
 ' 3. It is not easily reached from Peking or anywhere 
 else, and will be a very isolated part. 
 
 '4. It is rather a rough and unsafe district. 
 
 ' I know all these, but feel, in reliance on God, like facing 
 the thing as the best and proper thing to do. There are 
 inns all about, and though for some time a private location 
 may not be secured, we can still go about among the people. 
 My main hope, though, is in settling down somewhere as a 
 head centre, in close contact with the people, so that I 
 earnestly desire that the doctor should come. If he is 
 unmarried I would be glad to see him to-morrow. Could 
 you not get a doctor who would be willing to remain single 
 till a location could be secured ? After a location has been 
 secured let him marry if he likes. 
 
 * I think that the region I have in my mind would make 
 a good centre for a doctor, and that he would have plenty 
 of practice among Mongols and Chinese, especially if he 
 could start a hospital for in-patients. 
 
 ' I am very glad that the Mongolian region around 
 Kalgan has shown signs of bearing fruit. It has strength- 
 ened my faith much. I am also glad that God has acknow- 
 ledged in some degree my work here in Peking, and I feel 
 more hopeful than ever I did. God, too, has cut me adrift 
 from all my fixings, so that I feel quite ready to go any- 
 where if only He goes with me.' 
 
 Mr. Gilmour entered upon this new departure on the 
 understanding that a medical colleague should be sent to 
 him at the earliest possible moment. This responsibility 
 
 M 
 
178 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 the London Board assumed and endeavoured to discharge. 
 The result was a severe trial to the faith, not only of the 
 solitary worker but to all interested — and they were many — 
 in the fate of the new mission. As we shall see later on, 
 when a congenial and competent medical colleague reached 
 him, and was entering with vigour and hope upon the 
 work. Dr. Mackenzie of Tientsin suddenly died, and before 
 the immediate and urgent claims of Tientsin the claims of 
 Mongolia had to give way. But in estimating the success 
 of both missions, that on the Plain, and that in Eastern 
 Mongolia, it must never be forgotten that what Gilmour 
 considered essential, the presence and help of a medical 
 colleague, was never in the Providence of God granted to 
 him for any length of time. In the account he gives of his 
 first visit to the region as its missionary — he had been 
 twice before on visits of inspection — he dwells upon this 
 necessity. 
 
 'I left Peking December 14, 1885, and re-entered 
 Peking February 16, 1886, so that my absence from here 
 was just two months. The part of Mongolia I went to is 
 situated 800 li, or say 270 English miles, north-east by 
 east of Peking, and, at the usual rate of 90 li (or 30 miles) 
 a day, is nine days distant. This is not the part of 
 Mongolia near Kalgan. Kalgan is north-north-west of 
 Peking, five days' journey. 
 
 ' Whilst I was considering my plans a Mongol appeared 
 in Peking who was willing to take me to his home, and I 
 went with him, hoping thus to get introduced to a district 
 of country, an introduction being both necessary and help- 
 ful. Ta Cheng Tzu is the name of the place where, 
 through his introduction, I was located from December 23, 
 1885 to February 9, 1886. I had a room in an inn. I spent 
 
♦KALGAN xi 
 
 
 
 
 _4o< 
 
 PEKING 
 
 ,Tung chow Yangpin^* ^^:.£~ "" 
 
 
 GULF OF 
 
 P E ' G H I L I 
 
 
 M G 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR'S LABOURS IN EASTERN MONGOLIA 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD i8i 
 
 some days at the home of my Mongol friend and made two 
 journeys to other places, but Ta Cheng Tzu was my head- 
 quarters. It is a small market town, with a daily fair. 
 The surrounding neighbourhood is peopled with Mongols 
 and Chinese in about equal proportions. The Mongols are 
 mostly lords of the soil, and style the Chinese slaves, that 
 is in the country. The real trade of the whole locality is 
 in the hands of the Chinese. The Mongols all speak 
 Chinese, and the town resident Mongols have, many of 
 them, forgotten Mongolian, and laugh at themselves as not 
 being able to speak their own language. < 
 
 ' The country is like Wales in this respect, that, though 
 Mongolian is the native language, the coming language 
 and the language that is affected and sought after, is 
 Chinese. Well-to-do Mongols have Chinese teachers for 
 their children, and read Chinese well. During my stay 
 there I sold more Chinese than Mongolian books, and 
 talked more Chinese than Mongolian, though my inter- 
 course was largely with Mongols. 
 
 ' Opium is largely grown there, so is tobacco, and large 
 quantities of whisky are manufactured and consumed. It 
 was partly a famine year. At a little distance from Ta 
 Cheng Tzu the harvest had failed, and I think the line of 
 preaching that seemed to impress the hearers most was one 
 that reasoned with them about the growth, manufacture, 
 and use of these three, being so contrary to Heaven's 
 design in giving land and rain to grow food, that it was 
 not to be w^ondcred at if, seeing how the land and rain 
 were perverted, God should send short rations. Evil 
 speaking, vile language, made a fourth subject which natu- 
 rally came in for notice, and on all these four subjects I 
 scarcely ever spoke without gaining the nearly universal 
 concurrence of my little audiences. 
 
 ' The great theme, however, was Christ, and I think 
 that most men in that little market town, and a great 
 
1 82 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 many of those who used to come to the fair, both heard 
 and understood the great gospel truth of salvation in 
 Jesus. 
 
 ' Eager to see some more of the country, and in the 
 hope that I might be able to talk to him on the way, I hired 
 a Mongol to carry my bedding and books, and made a 
 descent on a village thirty miles away. The general cold 
 of the winter was aggravated by a snowstorm which over- 
 took us at the little market town, and I have no words to 
 tell you how the cold felt that day as I paraded that one 
 street. I sold a fair number of books, though my hands 
 were too much benumbed almost to be able to hand the 
 books out. I made some attempts at preaching, but the 
 muscles were also benumbed — that day ivas a cold day. 
 
 ' I was turned out of two respectable inns at Bull Town 
 because I was a foot traveller, had no cart or animal, that 
 is, and had to put up in a tramps' tavern because I came 
 as a tramp ! 
 
 ' Next journey I made I hired a man and a donkey. 
 The donkey was my passport to respectability, and I was 
 more comfortable too, being able to take more bedding 
 with me. I was warned against going to Ch'ao Yang, sixty 
 miles, the roads being represented as unsafe ; but I went 
 and found no trouble, though there was a severe famine in 
 the district. I spent a day each at two market towns on 
 the way, and two days in Ch'ao Yang itself. 
 
 'The journey home I made on foot, a donkey driven by 
 a Mongol carrying my bedding and books. I adopted this 
 plan mainly to bring myself into close contact with the 
 Mongol. He proved himself a capital fellow to travel 
 with, but as yet has shown no signs of belief in Christ. As 
 we did long marches my feet suffered badly.' 
 
 In a private letter written at this time he enters a little 
 more fully into what he had to endure. 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 183 
 
 ' I had a good time in Mongolia, but oh ! so cold. 
 Some of the days I spent in the markets were so very cold 
 that my muscles seemed benumbed, and speech even was 
 difficult. I met with some spiritual response, though, and 
 with that I can stand cold. Eh ! man, I have got thin. I 
 am feeding up at present. I left my medicines, books, &c., 
 there, and walked home here, a donkey carrying my bag- 
 gage, a distance of about three hundred miles, in seven and 
 a half days, or about forty miles a day, and my feet were 
 really very bad. 
 
 * At night I used to draw a woollen thread through the 
 blisters. In the morning I " hirpled " a little, but it was 
 soon all right. I walked, not because I had not money to 
 ride, but to get at the Mongol who was with me.' 
 
 These graphic pictures enable us to realise how Mr, 
 Gilmour began the last great missionary enterprise of his 
 life. He returned to Peking, and then had to pass through 
 that severe trial which comes to almost all missionaries 
 in the foreign field, which is often one of their heaviest 
 crosses. His two eldest boys were sent home for education. 
 They sailed from Tientsin March 23, 1886, the diary for 
 that day containing the brief but significant reference; 
 ' At 6.45 A.M. came all the friends once more, at 7.30 cast 
 off, and the vessel slowly fell out into the middle of the 
 river. Oh! the parting!' But at 8.30 on the same 
 morning the sorrowful father had started on his solitary 
 return journey to Peking. Bereft now of both wife and 
 boys he was to pass the rest of his career in China, except 
 for the brief intervals of residence in Peking, in the cheer- 
 less, noisy, uncongenial quarters of an ordinary Chinese 
 inn. The return of the Rev. S. E. Meech in April 1886 
 set him entirely free from mission work in the capital. 
 
1 84 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 He had already acquired the needful experience of his new 
 field of labour, and on April 22, 1886, he started anew for 
 Eastern Mongolia. It is neither necessary nor desirable to 
 enter into any very detailed description of the next three 
 years. In many respects day after day was occupied with 
 the round of ever recurring and similar duties, but it is 
 desirable to enter, if we can, with some minuteness into his 
 inner life, and to lay bare the spiritual sources and springs 
 of his outward actions. It is in these, in our judgment, 
 that the true beauty, the abiding lesson, and the great 
 success of his life consist. And this he has enabled us to 
 do. In a private, not an official, letter to the Rev. R. 
 Wardlaw Thompson, the Foreign Secretary of the London 
 Missionary Society, he indicates his actions and the motives 
 that were impelling him so to act, during the summer of 
 1886. Differences of opinion arose with his fellow mis- 
 sionaries as to the wisdom of his methods and the sound- 
 ness of his judgment. Those who differed most strongly 
 from him knew little or nothing by personal observation 
 and experience of the conditions of work either on the 
 Plain or at Ch'ao Yang. But no question ever did or ever 
 could arise as to the absolute consecration of his heart and 
 life to the work of winning souls. The truth of the 
 words in one of his official reports was manifest to all : 
 * Man, the fire of God is upon me to go and preach.' 
 
 ' The past four and a half months has been a time of no 
 small trial and spiritual tension. Since April 22 I have 
 had no tidings of the outer world. An agent of the Bible 
 Society, who was selling books in the district, was with me 
 for a month, but he had gone out before me, so that when 
 we met he had no news for me, but wanted news from me. 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 185 
 
 ' Some men, who gave promise of believing in Jesus, 
 have fallen away, and I have a haunting suspicion that it 
 was one such man who, on the morning of Sunday, June 6, 
 stole my beautiful copy of the revised Bible, leaving me till 
 now with only a New Testament in English. I had much 
 difficulty in procuring that Bible, and wasn't it heartless of 
 a Chinaman to steal it for the leather binding, for which 
 even he could have hardly any use ? I said not a single 
 word to anyone in the town about it, as I feared that 
 making trouble over it would hinder me in future, by 
 making innkeepers afraid to receive me, lest they should 
 be held responsible for such losses. I can hardly say 
 though, that, at first at least, I took joyfully the spoiling of 
 my goods. Secret tears testified to my sense of the loss, 
 but falling back on the faith that all things work together 
 for my good, I was comforted, and gave the more earnest 
 heed to the New Testament. 
 
 ' Then the Chinese would ask, " How many people have 
 believed and entered the religion since you left Peking?" 
 and .such questions kept before my mind painfully how 
 slowly things move, and drew out my soul in more 
 painful longing for God's blessing in the conversion of 
 men. 
 
 ' In the beginning of July I must have got a touch of 
 the sun. Nearly all that month I was ill, but just then was 
 the great annual fair at Ch'ao Yang, so, ill and all, I had 
 the tent put up daily and dispensed medicines. My as- 
 sistant, however, had to do most of the preaching ; I had 
 not much strength for that. The first three weeks in 
 August I had diarrhoea and dysentery. I was at Ta Cheng 
 Tzu. There was no fair, and but poor market gatherings, 
 but, weather permitting, we put up our tent daily and did 
 good work. Paul says (Gal. iv. 19), " My little children, of 
 whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you," 
 and he is right. It is a carrying of men in prayer until the 
 
1 86 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 image of Christ is formed in them ; and how many of them 
 prove abortions ! 
 
 ' One of the converts at Ta Cheng Tzu caused me no 
 little anxiety. I knew that he professed to be impressed 
 last winter. He said he wanted to call on me in my inn 
 and tell me his difficulties. I was eager to get home, but 
 as he said he would have no leisure before a certain date, 
 1 waited till then, nearly a week, for almost no other 
 purpose than to see him. He never came, and I trudged 
 back to Peking downcast about him. 
 
 ' This year when we came to Ta Cheng Tzii on our way 
 to Ch'ao Yang, on going to his place for breakfast (he 
 is one of two brothers who own and manage a restaurant, 
 and both of them, and a third brother, are members of a 
 sect which forbids opium, whisky, and tobacco), we were 
 shown into the more private part, and he and his brother 
 and the cook set upon us to inquire more fully about 
 Christianity, how to enter it, etc. etc. This took me by 
 surprise, and made me so glad that my breakfast for the 
 most part remained uneaten, though we had travelled eight 
 hours that morning. In the evening I did not go for a 
 meal, and my assistant on going was met at the door by 
 the inquirers, and so engaged in conversation about Chris- 
 tianity that darkness set in, the cooking range was closed, 
 and the establishment shut for the day before they were 
 finished. My man had no dinner. Next day we went on 
 towards Ch'ao Yang thankful and happy. These restaurant 
 people had a few days before been visited by the Bible 
 Society's agent, and had derived much Christian benefit 
 from his Chinese assistant. 
 
 ' Our interview with the restaurant men was on Monday. 
 In Ch'ao Yang next Sunday, just six days after being, so 
 to speak, on the mount of transfiguration with these China- 
 men, on dismissing the few hangers-on that remained at 
 the close of the afternoon preaching, and stepping down 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 187 
 
 from the little vantage-ground from which I had been 
 speaking, one of the audience said he would go home 
 with me to my inn, as he had come with a letter to me 
 from Ta Cheng Tzii from the Bible agent. I went to 
 the inn, read the letter, and found that he and his Chinese 
 helper had differed, and he had come to Ta Cheng 
 Tzu seeking me. He needed and asked my help, so next 
 day I started for Ta Cheng Tzu, and on arriving there 
 found that the little place was full of the news of the 
 quarrel between the Christian foreigner and the Chris- 
 tian native. That was bad, but, worse still, on going to 
 the restaurant I found the earnestness of the inquirers 
 gone, and one of them said openly, " If this is the sort of 
 fruit that Christianity bears, what better is it than any 
 other religion ? " 
 
 * In a later visit paid in May they seemed colder still, 
 and the place where I had hoped to gather fruit seemed 
 barren and hopeless. 
 
 * In August we again visited Ta Cheng Tzu. I was 
 blue. The fever of July, the defection of the Mongol 
 donkey man, who failed to come for us, the diarrhoea, 
 which on the journey changed to dysentery, being baffled 
 in attempting to find suitable quarters in Ta Cheng Tzii, 
 and the chilled hearts of the restaurant men, made our 
 entrance not cheerful. On the way my assistant and I 
 had talked over matters, and resolved by prayer and en- 
 deavour to see what could be done for the restaurant men. 
 Just ten days after our arrival the eldest brother called on 
 me in my inn and said, "To-night I dismiss my gods, 
 henceforth I am a Christian. I am ready to be baptized 
 any day you may be pleased to name." 
 
 * I cannot say what a relief these words brought me. 
 There still remained anxieties in his case, but in a day or 
 two things came out all right, and day by day in public in 
 the restaurant he might be seen studying his catechism 
 
1 88 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 when unemployed, and speaking for Christianity to all who 
 asked what book that was, 
 
 ' He is a leading spirit, though a poor scholar, and was 
 the deacon or head of the branch of the sect in Ta Cheng 
 Tzu, called Tsai li ti. There are some twelve or sixteen 
 members. Most of them joined the sect through his 
 endeavours, and he is eager to rear up Christianity in the 
 same way. You will partly understand now how anxious 
 I am about him. If he goes on all right, we may soon have 
 a little company of believers there. If he falls away — well, 
 all things work together for my good. 
 
 ' One thing that moved these restaurant men towards 
 Christianity was an incident which happened in their 
 establishment last winter. A half-drunk Chinaman reviled 
 me badly one evening at dinner. He laid to my charge 
 many bad and grievous things. Though they were utterly 
 false as regards me, they might be quite true of some other 
 foreigner whom he may have met. It was useless to reason 
 with a drunken man over a case of mistaken identity, so I 
 said nothing, ate my dinner, paid my bill, and went to my 
 inn. The restaurant men were very wroth \vith the man, 
 they told me afterwards, and felt like "going for" him 
 themselves, and never forgot what they were pleased to 
 call my patience. In God's providence this little incident 
 seems to have been an important factor in impressing them 
 with favourable ideas of Christianity. 
 
 * Another thing which seems to have impressed them 
 was their seeing me this August, day by day at my post in 
 my tent, carrying on the work, when they knew I was ill, 
 and, according to their ideas, should have been in bed. I 
 was not really so ill as all that, but that was their idea. 
 I would be very glad to have another reviling and another 
 attack of dysentery if the same results would follow. 
 
 ' The profession of the other adherent at Ta Cheng Tzu, 
 and the moving of the hearts, seemingly at least, of other 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 189 
 
 two men who live at a distance, and had to leave for home 
 suddenly before receiving full instruction, but of whom I try 
 to have hope, have all moved my heart and seem answers to 
 a great longing I had been crying to God about, namely, 
 that He would give me power to move these heathen. Oh 
 that He would do it ! 
 
 ' I have felt it my duty to become a vegetarian on trial. 
 I don't know whether I can carry it out. The Chinese 
 look up so much to this supposed asceticism that I am eager 
 to acquire the influence a successful vegetarianism would 
 give me, and I am trying it in true Chinese style, which 
 forbids eggs, leeks and carrots, &c. As far as I have gone 
 all is well. I am a little afraid that the great appetite it 
 gives may drive me to eat till I become fat. We'll see. 
 
 ' The mothers bringing their babies moves me much. 
 It reminds me of scenes in Peking when another and 
 more skilful hand ministered to their diseases ; then the 
 picture of the family surroundings fills itself up, and I have 
 to seek a place where to w'eep. 
 
 ' Altogether it is a sowing in tears. The district is not 
 an easy one, the life which the work entails is a hard one. 
 There is no hardship or self-denial I am not ready to "go 
 in for," but I want you to understand me and let me have 
 your sympathy.' 
 
 This long extract, not too long we venture to think, as 
 enabling us to see into the heart of the man, raises several 
 points of great moment. Nothing could illustrate better 
 his eagerness to get into close touch and perfect sympathy 
 with the people. He had long before adopted the native 
 dress of an ordinary shopkeeper or respectable workman. 
 He now adapted himself, as far as possible, to the native 
 food. He lived on such as the poor eat. Often he would 
 take his bowl of porridge, native fashion, in the street, 
 
I90 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 sitting down upon a low stool by the boiler of the itinerant 
 restaurant keeper. The vegetarianism referred to was, as 
 he indicates, very thoroughgoing and in accord with Chinese 
 ideas. 
 
 The great poverty of the people also pressed upon his 
 attention the enormous waste induced by whisky drinking, 
 and by the smoking of tobacco and opium. The sect Tsai 
 li ti referred to was a small organisation among the Chinese 
 for endeavouring to secure entire abstinence from all three. 
 It did not seem tolerable to him that the level of Christian 
 morality and practice with regard to these things should be 
 lower than that of the heathen. Famine often visited those 
 parts, and he came to hold the view that men could hardly 
 pray, * Give us this day our daily bread,' with any hope of 
 a favourable answer, or even reasonably expect God's 
 blessing upon their tillage of the soil, while they con- 
 tinued to use a large part of the grain produced in the 
 manufacture of strong drink, and while they continued to 
 set apart large districts for the cultivation of tobacco and 
 opium. Hence, at first, he made entire abstinence from all 
 three an indispensable requisite for admission into the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 It was hardly to be expected, perhaps, that his colleagues 
 in the North China Mission would be able to see eye to eye 
 with him on these points. With regard to opium the 
 opinion as to abstinence is unanimous. With regard 
 to the other two, the prevailing opinion was that, however 
 desirable entire abstinence may be, it is not authori- 
 tatively commanded, and ought not to be made an indis- 
 pensable qualification for baptism. 
 
 It seemed to some of them that there was danger of 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 191 
 
 the heathen confusing Christianity with their own Tsai H ti. 
 In reply to such a suggestion Gilmour wrote : ' My hearers 
 not know the difference between Tsai li ti and Christianity ! 
 Thanks be to God, this whole town and neighbourhood has ^ 
 rung with the truths of Christianity. Children, men, shop- 
 boys, and, of all people in the world, a lad gathering grain 
 stumps in the fields a long way off — it has been my lot to 
 hear them repeat sayings of mine, when they saw me, and 
 did not think I could hear them.' 
 
 Into this controversy as a mere discussion we have no 
 desire to enter. But to enable the reader to know Mr. 
 Gilmour exactly as he was it deserves more than a passing 
 reference. The following may be taken as an example of 
 many letters that passed on this subject. 
 
 ' I start perhaps on Tuesday, Pardon me for expressing 
 myself on one matter — the Chinese teetotal business. You 
 and some of my colleagues seem to me as if I could not 
 move you on this question. It is a great grief to me. I 
 think you are not right in your ideas about this. I sup- 
 pose you can beat me in argument. I am still more than 
 ever convinced that teetotalism is fight and needful for the 
 success of native Christian life in China. We have some 
 painful instances here of that among the natives — specially 
 two — one of the two hailing from Tientsin. 
 
 ' I don't know your Tientsin Church history, but if it is 
 anything like ours here you would find men standing 
 nowhere almost as to Christian character, who but for 
 drink and its concomitants might, humanly speaking, have 
 shone. And yet these are men to get whom out of sin 
 Christ died — brethren, for whom Christ died. 
 
 ' Pardon me again when I take a short cut to what I 
 want to say : " / believe zvere Christ here now as a mission- 
 
192 JAMES GILMOVR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ary amongst us He would be an enthusiastic teetotaller and a 
 non-smoker." 
 
 ' Tobacco is comparatively a harmless matter, but it is 
 not so unimportant as it seems to us foreigners. Whisky- 
 should go, and I feel that the Chinese would be quite 
 ready, if led, to turn both whisky and tobacco out together. 
 They are born brothers in China, useless, and acknowledged 
 to be such ; harmful as far as they are anything, and com- 
 paratively expensive. 
 
 ' I would like to see you start in your church an anti- 
 tobacco and whisky society ; voluntary, of course, in a 
 church established as yours on the old lines. Though I 
 stand alone, I believe the flowing tide is with me. 
 
 'Wishing you many souls in 1887, and eager that no 
 minor difference of opinion should hinder our prayers. 
 * Yours I-hardly-know-how-to-say-what, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 In the Chinese Recorder, for which he had been in 
 the habit of writing for many years, he published a paper 
 in which he set forth with great clearness and fulness his 
 views on this important matter. It deserves a place in the 
 story of his life because in it he has sketched, as no one 
 else could, himself, and some of his later methods of evan- 
 gelistic address, 
 
 ' In December, 1885, in a district of North China new 
 to me, I found myself preaching to a small crowd of 
 Chinese and Mongols in a small market town. I was in 
 a lane leading on to the main street. At my back was 
 a mud wall, in front and at both sides was the audience, 
 within hearing was the main street, above, a bright sun 
 made the place warm and cheerful. After listening a 
 while the audience wanted to know how good seasons 
 
O^Lu^t/^ UA <ff^^^^*^» U/nJlajftu:, 
 
 ^^-/^ — ctC/C^-Cy /'6'/c<./C^«^c-t^-^V/ 
 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 193 
 
 could be secured. To the truths I had been preaching 
 they had Hstened with respect and fair attention, but at 
 the first opportunity for speaking they wanted to know 
 how to get a good harvest. 
 
 * At first I paid Httle attention to this question, but 
 after a Httle while it was asked again, and that by several 
 men in succession, and I soon found that the people of the 
 place had little room for anything else in their thoughts. 
 There was good reason for it too. Their last harvest had 
 been a poor one. Three-tenths was about the yield. They 
 too with their three-tenths were comparatively well off. 
 Some distance from them the yield had not been more 
 than two-tenths, and a little beyond that again, there were 
 fields which had been sown, but never reaped. There had 
 been nothing to reap. Nothing had grown. I passed 
 some of these fields afterwards and saw them. Was it 
 wonderful then that the main thought in their minds should 
 be the harvest failure, and that they should be mainly 
 anxious to know how to secure a good season next year ^ 
 Looking at my audience I saw that nine-tenths of them 
 were poorly clad. Nearly one-half of them were quite 
 insufficiently clothed, and many were in garments suited 
 to summer weather only. I was in a sheepskin coat and 
 felt shoes, and even thus was not too warm, and could not 
 help thinking how cold they must be, in their torn clothes 
 and ordinary shoes. In addition to this they seemed 
 hungry. I dare say perhaps one-half of them were in actual 
 suffering from deficiency of food. 
 
 'Taking these things into consideration, I did not 
 regard their great and often-repeated question, " How about 
 the harvest .-' " as impertinent, and set myself to answer it. 
 When the question was again asked 1 replied by asking 
 another, namely, " Do you think you deserve good harvests ? " 
 This question usually made them stare and ask, " Why 
 shQuld not we deserve good harvests ? " and I would 
 
 N 
 
194 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 reply, " In the first place, because of that tobacco pipe inyour 
 moutJiP A laugh of incredulity would usually pass round 
 the audience, but when done laughing, and asked to con- 
 sider the folly of spending money buying a pipe and 
 tobacco when the smoker was shivering in his rags, and 
 hungry, and especially when asked what was the good of 
 smoking, they laughed no more. When pressed to say 
 where the tobacco came from, they would admit that the 
 cultivation of tobacco took up no small proportion of their 
 better-class land, and when pressed to say how much land 
 was given up to tobacco cultivation, they would admit, 
 what did not seem to have occurred to them before, that 
 the amount of land given up to tobacco cultivation was 
 very large. How large it was I had no conception till 
 the following summer, when, walking round the suburbs, 
 I would look over the low mud walls of their gardens, 
 and be amazed at the expanse of land covered with the 
 great, broad green leaf of the flourishing tobacco plant. 
 
 • Putting these things before my audience, they would 
 admit that the cultivation of tobacco was a misuse of a large 
 portion of their better land, that in cultivating and using 
 tobacco they were doing what was wrong, and hindering 
 heaven from feeding them. Heaven had given them good 
 land and good rains for the purpose of growing food. The 
 growth of tobacco was defeating heaven's purpose, and as 
 long as they did so, what face had they to ask for good 
 seasons .-* To take good land and plant it with tobacco, 
 with what face could they ask heaven to send rain, seeing 
 that if rain came, what grew would not be grain but 
 tobacco, a thing which they themselves to a man admitted 
 was no use at all ? And so my audience would admit that 
 as preliminary to getting or even expecting a good haryest 
 was the discontinuance of the use and growth of tobaccQ. 
 
 * In the course of a year and a half of outdoor preach- 
 ing - in streets and at fairs, and private conversation with 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 195 
 
 individuals, I never met an audience that defended tobacco 
 as useful, and do not think I met more than three indi- 
 viduals who had anything to say in its defence. Almost 
 everyone, smokers included, admitted its uselessness. Many 
 do not seem to have thought the cultivation and use of it 
 any harm, or having any bearing on the question of food 
 supply and good harvests ; they usually regarded it as 
 simply a piece of extravagance on their own part, which 
 had no bearing on anything or anybody beyond themselves. 
 But when pointed out to them they readily admit that 
 tobacco cultivation lessens the production of grain, and as 
 readily admit that the wrongdoing in this misuse of land 
 is likely to further harm the harvest by offending heaven 
 into being unwilling to send rain. I myself never used to 
 look on smoking as any great evil, till led into this district, 
 and thus forced to study the subject. In England I had 
 never seen tobacco grown. A smoker there spends a few 
 coppers, and smokes ; what harm does he do .-' Does not he 
 increase trade and help the revenue .-* His smoking seems 
 to harm no one but himself Such were my thoughts. 
 But in this district I see the cultivation of tobacco limiting 
 the supply of grain, thus raising the price of food, and con- 
 sequently making men go hungry. In addition I see men, 
 women, and sometimes children, in rags and hungry even, 
 with pipes and tobacco, and when they complain of heaven 
 not supplying them with enough food to eat, it would be 
 less than honest not to point out to them that the fault 
 lies not with heaven, but with themselves, and that part at 
 least of the scarcity of grain they experience is due to the 
 cultivation and use of tobacco, which throughout that whole 
 region is very excessive. 
 
 ' I have dwelt thus at length on the tobacco question, 
 not because it is the most important of the three things 
 here spoken of, but because many good brethren have not 
 been able to see with me on this point. They feel, as I 
 
196 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 used to do before I went to that region, that tobacco 
 smoking is a small affair, not worth raising into promi- 
 nence or the region of conscience or Christian duty at all. 
 These brethren have not seen how things work. I feel 
 sure that almost any missionary placed as I was would 
 have done exactly what I have done, taken a stand against 
 this excessive growth and more excessive use of tobacco, 
 for, not content with what they grow, they actually import 
 quantities of it. Tobacco is not the greatest cause of 
 poverty and hunger in the district, but it is a much greater 
 factor in poverty than would at first be supposed. But for 
 its use in that district a large number of men, women, and 
 children, who are deficiently clothed and fed, would be 
 warm and sleek. Christ taught men to pray, " Give us this 
 day our daily bread." It must be wrong to make hundreds 
 of men, women, and children go half clad and half fed, 
 simply that eighty or ninety per cent, of the adults of that 
 district may indulge in tobacco, a thing, according to their 
 own admission, utterly without use, and for the continu- 
 ance of which they can give no reason, further than that 
 they have acquired the habit and find it difficult to give it 
 
 up- 
 
 * A more serious question, however, is the whisky. In 
 
 going into that region I was amazed at the quantity of 
 whisky used. I used to lodge in an inn and take my meals 
 in an eating-house. There, twice a day, I had an oppor- 
 tunity of studying the drinking habits of the country. 
 Almost every man who entered the eating-house first 
 called for a whisky warmer. Supplied with that, he would 
 go out and buy his whisky, coming back he would set it in 
 the charcoal fire to warm, and then slowly drink it from 
 the tiny wine cups common in China, inviting me to join 
 him, and wondering at a man who could evidently afford 
 it, not treating himself to two ounces of whisky, and won- 
 deringf still more when he learned that I did not use tobacco. 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 197 
 
 It would be an exaggeration, but not a great exaggera- 
 tion, to say that every man who entered the eating-house 
 began his meal by drinking whisky. In replying to the 
 question put by my street audiences as to how they 
 were to get good harvests, I would ask them, after 
 finishing the tobacco question, " How about your whisky 
 drinking ? " Frequently they would anticipate me in this, 
 and say, "If tobacco is wrong, how about whisky?" 
 To convince them of the wrong of whisk)' was never 
 difficult. To ask good harvests from heaven, then take 
 grain given by heaven for food, and turn it into whisky, 
 they did not need me to tell them this was wrong. And 
 there in that district it is a very crying wrong. The 
 quantity used is immense. Not only does it seem so to 
 me, but natives from other parts of China are struck by 
 the excessive use of it. 
 
 ' The first time I travelled in the district, I was struck 
 by the manner in which they described the size and amount 
 of trade of towns about which I made inquiries. Such 
 and such a place had or had not a distillery and pawn- 
 shop. Such and such a town had so many distilleries, and 
 so many pawnshops. One travelling about the country 
 soon notes that nearly every imposing trading establish- 
 ment with grand premises seen from afar is either a dis- 
 tillery or a pawnshop, or both combined. The bank notes 
 current among the people are issued, at but a small per- 
 centage, by distilleries and pawnshops. The first crop to 
 ripen in the district is barley, and that, the natives will tell 
 you, all goes to the distillery. On the road you will meet 
 large carts drawn by six or seven mules. The load is 
 grain, and of these carts a large number are owned by 
 distilleries, and go round the country collecting grain, 
 from which to brew whisky. One of the first things to 
 be heard in the morning after daylight, in a quiet market 
 town, is a peculiar beating ot a wooden drum. Ask what it 
 
198 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 means, and you will be told it is such and such a distillery 
 calling its hands to breakfast. Ask how many hands they 
 have, and you may find that one establishment has some 
 sixty or seventy men who eat their food ! The whisky trade 
 is simply enormous. It is out of all proportion to every 
 other trade. The women as a rule do not drink, the men 
 do all the drinking — the males I should say, for not a few 
 boys acquire the habit of taking whisky to their meals 
 long before they can be called men. A very few men do 
 not use whisky at all. The poorer agricultural labourers 
 drink it only when they can get it, and just as much or 
 as little as they can get. Many men take regularly two 
 ounces — Chinese ounces — to each meal. Many take more. 
 Many well-to-do people drink half a catty per day. Others 
 drink a whole catty.' Some drink a catty and a half a day. 
 A small proportion of the male population find drinking a 
 greater necessity than eating. These are usually elderly 
 men, but as I write I can think of two men, both young, 
 and both Mongols, on^ a priest, the other a layman, who 
 have arrived at this advanced stage of whisky drinking. 
 
 ' This excessive use of whisky has impoverished many 
 families, and has demoralised many men. It has caused 
 many quarrels, and given rise to many lawsuits. The evil 
 caused by whisky is apparent to all, but custom requires 
 that friends should be honoured by being offered whisky, 
 business should be transacted over whisky, and the general 
 saying is that without whisky nothing can be done. A 
 farmer, for example, adding a few rooms to his buildings 
 must supply his masons and joiners with whisky. Thus in 
 universal use, the quantity consumed is immense. The 
 quantity of grain used in the distilleries is almost beyond 
 J computation, and I don't remember ever meeting a China- 
 man who did not admit that to distil whisky was to do evil. 
 They ask me how to get good harvests. I tell them : 
 
 ' A Chinese weiglit equal to one pound and a third. 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 199 
 
 " Give up abusing the grain you have got, before you ask 
 for more. If heaven sees you taking a large part of your 
 superior land for raising the useless tobacco, and taking a 
 very large proportion of the grain sent you as food, and 
 using it not to eat, nor to feed animals, but distilling it into 
 the hurtful whisky, do you think heaven, seeing all this 
 waste going on, is likely to hear your petitions and increase 
 the supply of what you now waste so large a proportion ? 
 If you bought food for your child, and he ate only halt 
 and threw the other half to the pig, would you be likely 
 to buy him more just then, even though he might say he 
 was hungry ? " This reasoning seems quite satisfactory 
 and convincing to them, and never fails to secure their 
 expressed assent. 
 
 ' As to opium I never find it necessary to say much. 
 All admit it to be only and wholly bad. Yet the quantity 
 grown in the district is immense. In the early spring the 
 very first movement of cultivation is the irrigation and 
 working of the opium land, and at the season nearly all 
 -rhe best land blazes with bloom of the poppy. It is a sight 
 to see the country people going to the markets with the 
 " milk " in bowls and basins, and the buyers and sellers of 
 it riding along, each with a weighing-balance stuck in his 
 belt. Government restriction there is none, the duty im- 
 posed is not very heavy, and public opinion raises no voice 
 against it. It was originally grown, say the natives, so as 
 to keep money from going out of the district in buying 
 imported opium, but the more it was grown the more it 
 was used, and now the quantity raised and smoked is 
 immense. There is a small proportion of farmers who 
 have good land, suitable for growing opium, but who do 
 not grow it. But these men are few, and as a general rule 
 the very best pieces of land are set apart for the cultivation 
 of opium. The common conscience of the people tells 
 them this is a wrong thing. When therefore they ask how 
 
200 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 to get a good harvest, they themselves acknowledge that 
 the reply is just, which says, " First leave off the waste of 
 heaven's grace involved in the growth and manufacture of 
 opium, whisky, and tobacco, and then, and not till then, 
 will it be reasonable for }'ou to ask heaven for more 
 bountiful harvests." 
 
 ' ' In connection with all this, there is another fact that 
 must not be forgotten. Drinkers of whisky, and smokers, 
 especially of opium, the better the year is, the more they 
 indulge. In a poor year they use less whisky and opium ; 
 the better the year, and the cheaper tobacco, whisky, and 
 opium are, the more they use, so that in place of making a 
 proper return to heaven for a good year, they only take 
 the opportunity afforded them of running deeper into 
 waste and wrong-doing. Is this the way to get better 
 harvests .'' Considering the excessive growth and consump- 
 tion of tobacco and opium, and the excessive manufacture 
 and use of whisky, what could any honest, straightforward 
 man say to the people, when they earnestly asked how 
 they were to get good harvests, but " Repent, and cease tJiis 
 great waste " .-' And thus from no deliberate plan of mine, 
 but from the plain leading of circumstances, it came to pass 
 that I felt compelled to call upon the inhabitants of the 
 district to lay aside the use of not only opium but also of 
 whisky and tobacco, as one of the first steps toward wor- 
 shipping the true God. Many friends have demurred to 
 my making tcctotalism an essential of Christianity, and 
 many more have still more strongly demurred to my taking 
 such a pronounced stand against the use of tobacco. The 
 position of my friends is exactly the position I held myself 
 before going into that region, but after going to that 
 region and seeing just how things were, no other course 
 seemed open to me, but to demand in all who wanted 
 to do right the abandonment of the whole three ; and 
 I am convinced that almost any other missionary placed 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 201 
 
 in the same circumstances would have taken the same 
 stand. 
 
 ' This position too commends itself to the native mind, 
 and the native mind, quite apart from me, and before my 
 going into the district, had already risen up in protest 
 against these abuses, and, in some parts of the country 
 there, the Tsai li ti sect boasts not a few members. The 
 main practical doctrine of this sect is. Yen chin pu tung — 
 abstinence from tobacco, whisky, and opium. The very 
 existence of this sect, and its flourishing condition there, is 
 a plain indication of what serious-minded natives felt about 
 the excessive use of these three things. Friends say that I 
 am putting this self-righteousness in place of faith in Christ 
 and the practice of higher duties. I do nothing of the sort. 
 Beginning with the Chinaman where I find him, and 
 answering the questions which he insists on asking first, I 
 appeal to him to give up what he admits to be wrong- 
 doing, sin {tsao nieh), as the first step in ceasing to do evil 
 learning to do well, and coming into right rclation.ship with 
 God through Christ. Some friends are much alarmed lest 
 this should lead to self-righteousness. There is no danger 
 of that. The danger lies all the other way. To leave 
 Christians drinking whisky and smoking tobacco in that 
 region, would be to preach forgiveness of sin through 
 Christ to men who were still going on in the practice of 
 what their conscience told them was sin, and all must 
 admit that this would never do. The condition of things 
 in that region is such that I have no hesitation in saying 
 that a man, to be honest in obc)'ing God by refraining from 
 what is wrong, must throw up his connexion with these 
 three things, tobacco, whisky, opium. 
 
 ' In that region. It will be noticed that I have carefully 
 confined my remarks to the state of things in that region. 
 That region is peculiar in producing within its own bounds 
 almost all that is necessary for life and luxury even. It is 
 
202 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 peculiar too in having just exactly as many inhabitants as 
 it can support, no more, no less. When the population in- 
 creases too much it overflows into Manchuria. When the 
 population is less than the full complement, it is instantly 
 replenished by fresh arrivals from the South. The produc- 
 tion of tobacco, whisky, and opium, not only reduces a 
 large proportion of the inhabitants from comfort to misery, 
 but also reduces sensibly the number of inhabitants. But 
 for these three things many more men could find a living 
 within the bounds of the district. Is notthat little district an 
 epitome of the world ? Is what is true of that district not 
 true of the whole world ? Opium is a bad thing anywhere 
 and everywhere. About that there need be no debate. 
 Whisky and tobacco reduce the comforts and the number of 
 the population there — is their effect not the same on the world 
 in general ? Is it not true that but for tobacco and whisky 
 there would be food and clothes for a much larger popula- 
 tion ? And if so, do not tobacco and whisky take the bread 
 out of men's mouths and the clothes off their backs ? And 
 if so, has not every smoker and drinker a part in this sin .'' 
 Christians pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." Does 
 not consistency require them to desist from defeating this 
 prayer by smoking and drinking, and thus reducing the 
 amount of the total production of the necessaries of life .'' 
 
 'Tobacco seems harmless. It is less harmful than 
 opium and whisky by a long way. But its production 
 sensibly reduces the supply of grain and cotton, and thus 
 hinders the feeding of the hungry and the clothing the naked. 
 Good earnest Christian men smoke and drink. Evan- 
 gelists and pastors owned of God in the salvation of souls 
 smoke and see no harm in it. The reason is they have 
 never seen how the thing works,, and don't know the 
 harm it does. I feel sure that if they could see with 
 their own eyes men, women, and children, hungry and in 
 rags, when but for tobacco and whisky they might be 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 203 
 
 well fed and well clothed, these same good brethren, 
 whose example is quoted against my position, would be 
 the first and most earnest to say, " I will neither smoke 
 tobacco nor drink whisky while the world stands." ' 
 
 At a later date, not from any change in his views, 
 but in deference to the views of others, with whom he was 
 always anxious to work in harmony, he modified his plans 
 so far as not to make the use of whisky and tobacco 
 absolute bars to admission into the Christian Church. 
 
 His brethren also were opposed to the ascetic mode of 
 life he adopted, and the extreme of hardship which he so 
 often and so willingly encountered in his work. But he 
 himself often said, and there are many references in his diary 
 to the same effect, that the kind of life he was living in the 
 interior was quite as healthy, and quite as conducive to 
 longevity, as the ordinary and certainly much more comfort- 
 able life of a missionary at Peking. While it may be true 
 that the exposure and sufferings of twenty years had so 
 weakened him as to leave him powerless when seized by 
 the last illness, yet the labours of twenty such years spent 
 in the service of God and the service of man are surely 
 the seeds from which there shall yet spring a rich harvest 
 to the glory of God and to the blessing of the dark and 
 degraded Mongols and Chinese. 
 
 By the close of 1886 three main centres of work had 
 been selected in the new district — Ta Cheng Tzii, Ta Ssii 
 Kou, and Ch'ao Yang — all three being towns of some im- 
 portance. Mr. Gilmour used to spend a month or so in 
 each town, visiting also the neighbourhood, especially those 
 places where fairs were held, and where consequently the 
 people came together in large numbers. He had a tent 
 
204 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 which he used to put up in a main thoroughfare, and there 
 he stood from early morn until night healing the sick, 
 selling Christian books, talking with inquirers, preaching at 
 every opportunity the full and free Gospel of salvation. 
 His constant and consistent life of Christlike self-denial 
 in the effort to bless them told even more upon the be- 
 holders than all these other things combined. His corre- 
 spondence is full of sharp and clear pictures of his daily 
 toil, and of his spiritual experiences. 
 
 ' CIlUio Yang, May 14, 1886. — The people are very poor 
 here. Last year the crops were not good. When the 
 leaves come out on the trees, the poor people break off 
 branches and eat the seeds of the elm-trees. I saw one 
 woman up a high tree, taking down the seeds. She took 
 off half the door, laid it up against the tree, went on the 
 cross-bars like a ladder, and so got up. She threw down 
 the little branches and twigs, and her three children below 
 gathered them up. The elm seeds are just ripe now. They 
 are the size of large fish-scales ; when the wind blows they 
 come down like snow. 
 
 ' I met three lamas going to a far-off place to worship. 
 Every two or three steps they lay down flat on the ground, 
 then got up other two or three steps, then prostrated 
 themselves again. They did not know about Jesus saving 
 people, and thought they would save themselves in that 
 way. Poor people! yet they don't like to hear about Jesus 
 saving people. They want the credit of thus saving them- 
 selves. 
 
 ' September 3. — At Ta Cheng Tzia we had seven days 
 and seven nights' rain. It was a great flood. The river 
 rose and washed away about a hundred acres of land and 
 forty or fifty houses. For two days the river floated down 
 house-roof timbers, beams, &c. One poor man pulled down 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 205 
 
 his house to save his timbers, and the house fell on him and 
 killed him. It was pitiful to see the river washing away- 
 good land, two square yards falling into the roaring flood 
 at a time. The Chinamen did nothing : only stood and 
 looked at it. Lots of walls and many houses fell down. 
 One house in the court next our own fell down one morn- 
 ing after the rain was all over. The people had just time 
 to jump out at the window. No one was hurt. Our room 
 did not leak much, but the outside of the wall towards the 
 street fell down. The inside of the wall still stood, so our 
 room was whole. Chinese walls are all built in two skins. 
 The one may fall and the other stand. 
 
 ' October 25. — God has given the hunger and thirst for 
 souls : will He leave me unsatisfied ? No, verily. I am 
 reading at night, before going to bed, the Psalms in a small- 
 print copy of the Revised Bible, holding it at arm's length 
 almost, close up to a Chinese candle, to suit my eyes ; for 
 I cannot see small print well now, and I find much strength 
 and courage in the old warrior's words. Verily, the Psalms 
 are inspired. No doubt about that. None that wait on 
 Him will be put to shame. He is here with me. 
 
 'November 17. — Wc start about the fifth watch (6 A.M.), 
 get to the fair early, spend the day on the street ; it is late 
 before we get quiet, and I fear it is now well on towards 
 the third watch. I am in first-class health, though my 
 feet and socks are in a decidedly bad way. The country- 
 is not at all safe, but we have as yet been preserved. Some 
 days ago, two men who slept on the same kang with us, 
 and started a little earlier than we did, were robbed. We 
 overtook the travellers arranging themselves after the 
 interview. I was annoyed at not getting away as soon as 
 they left. God so arranged it, you see. 
 
 ' I have got a step nearer to God lately. It is this : I 
 do not now strive to get near Him ; I simply ask Christ to 
 take me nearer Him. Why shouldn't I .'' Does not Christ 
 
2o6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 save men from distance from God and bring us near ? Peace, 
 Blessing, and Poiver, by Haslam, sent me by an old college 
 mate in Scotland, was the means used. This chum tried 
 my soul much when I was at home last. I think I was of 
 use to him, and now he has been of much use to me. Let 
 us sow beside all waters. 
 
 ' My attitude now here is that of Psalm cxxiii. 2-4. I 
 feel that God can perforin for, by, or rather use me as His 
 instrument in performing, if He has a mind to ; so I am 
 looking for His hand, gazing about among the people that 
 come to my stand to see the ones God has sent. I feel as 
 helpless as a Chinese farmer in a drought ; but when God 
 opens the heavens, down it will come. Amen.' 
 
 Mr. Gilmour returned to Peking on December 13, 
 having been away nearly eight months. The tabulated 
 results of this missionary campaign were : 
 
 Patients seen (about) ....... S)7i7 
 
 Hearers preached to ....... 23,755 
 
 Books sold 3,067 
 
 Tracts distributed 4, 500 
 
 Miles travelled ......,, 1,860 
 
 Money spent .... I20'92 lat'ls = (about) 30/. to 40/. 
 
 He adds, 'And out of all this there are only two 
 men who have openly confessed Christ. In one sense it 
 is a small result ; in another sense there is much to be 
 grateful for. I have to part with my assistant, and am 
 uncertain about whom to take in his place. My travelling 
 arrangements have broken down, and I am perplexed in 
 more ways than I have patience to write about ; but 
 
 Where He may lead I'll follow, 
 
 In Him my trust repose, 
 And every hour in perfect peace 
 
 I'll sing, "He knows, He knows." 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 207 
 
 After a visit to Tientsin and a brief rest in Peking, 
 largely occupied with preparations for his next sojourn in 
 Mongolia, he started on January 25, 1887. At Ta Cheng 
 Tzii he secured a kind of home, so as not to be exposed to 
 all the discomforts and drawbacks of inn life, hoping also 
 that a fixed centre might forward the preaching of the 
 Gospel. Two rooms were taken for a year. I'hey were 
 situated at the inner end of a little trading court, around 
 which were a tin-shop, a rope-spinner's room, and a stable. 
 In one corner there was a pigsty. ' When first I saw it I 
 almost refused to occupy it ; but really there is no help for 
 it, and finally we took it for a year.' It is always difficult 
 to secure premises in a Chinese town, and exceptionally so 
 under the limitation of money and of suspicion and dislike 
 to which Christian missionaries arc always exposed. * It is 
 only a lodging for me,' Mr. Gilmour continues, ' convenient 
 for seeing converts or inquirers. The court is much too 
 small, and the place not sanitary. But don't be in the least 
 uneasy. My health is quite as safe there as in the best 
 premises in Peking. I intend to occupy them for a month 
 at the beginning of the Chinese year, and ten or fifteen 
 days in the fourth, seventh, and tenth months. I hope also 
 to come to some arrangement for a lodging in Ch'ao Yang. 
 In Ta Ssu Kou I am simply in an inn, and pay at the 
 usual rate for the nights I am there.' 
 
 A letter to his boys, dated March 24, 1887, depicts the 
 kind of scene he so often witnessed, and the routine of work 
 which would have proved so irksome but for the love and 
 peace with which the Saviour filled his soul. 
 
 * Mai Li Ying Tzii is a very wicked place. There 
 were no less than fourteen large tents set up for gambling, 
 
2o8 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 and, in addition, some thirty or forty mat-tents for gam- 
 bling. I was there three days. The first day people 
 were shy. The second day they were not much afraid. 
 The third day I had quite a lot of patients. We sold a 
 good few books, preached a good deal, and doctored a 
 number of patients. From there we went to Bo-or-Chih, 
 starting in the dark and travelling seventeen English 
 miles before breakfast. After we had travelled ten miles 
 we came to a little town just as people were opening 
 their doors. A seller of chieh Jao, that sticky stuff, had 
 just set out his wheelbarrow with his pudding. We 
 each bought a great piece, wrapped it in a c/iiett ping 
 (a thin scone), and travelled on, eating it. That was 
 our breakfast. Arrived at Bo-or-Chih, we set up our table 
 at once, and, after preaching for a short time, patients 
 came round us in crowds, and kept us busy till late in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 ' The inn in which I am staying now is owned by two 
 men, brothers, both of whom are opium smokers. The 
 inn has a good trade, but it is all no use : it all goes to 
 opium, and no good comes of it. There are two barbers 
 connected with the place, and they both drink and gamble, 
 so that they are in rags and poverty, though they have a 
 fairly good business. It is so painful to see men degraded 
 thus when, but for drink and gambling, they might be well 
 off. 
 
 ^ April 2?), 1887. — For the last week I have been very 
 busy at a great temple gathering, which lasted six days. 
 Such crowds of people came, though it was only a country 
 district. It was the great religious event of the year for the 
 neighbourhood, and how do you think they do .-* They hire 
 a theatrical company to come and act six days in a great 
 mat stage, put up for the occasion in front of the temple. 
 Theatrical exhibitions are the religion of China. These 
 shows are supposed to be in honour of the idols in the 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 209 
 
 temple. The people think the gods will thus be pleased, 
 and give them good seasons, health, etc. 
 
 •What a crowd of women came to worship at the 
 temple on the great day of the festival ! Till noon that 
 day women only were allowed to enter : no men. How 
 the women were dressed — in all the colours of the rainbow, 
 red trousers being especially prominent ! How they moved 
 along on their little feet ! Walk you along on your heels 
 — as I have seen you do — and that is just how they move. 
 
 ' No end of gamblers came too. There were twenty- 
 six, or so, large tents put up to gamble in, and about as 
 many straw-mat booths, and they all had plenty of trade. 
 Eh, man, it is sad to see the utter worldliness of these Chinese. 
 They soon found me out. I had my tent put up in a 
 quiet place away from the bustle.' In front is the great 
 flying sign, " The Jesus Religion Gospel Hall." At the one 
 end, " God the Heavenly Father ; " at the other, " Jesus the 
 Saviour." They found me out, not because they wanted 
 to hear me preach, but to get medicine. Oh, the numbers 
 of suffering people I saw and attended to ! I used to go 
 out early in the morning, and be there all day, most of the 
 time so busy that there was no time to eat. To get food I 
 had to steal away because everyone would want me just to 
 attend to him or her before I went. When I had attended 
 to that one there was another, and so on. I was able to 
 cure a number of them, and got preaching a good deal too. 
 I sold a number of books. It was the first time that a 
 missionary had ever been there, and it was difficult to 
 make them understand.' 
 
 It is, as a rule, by direct dealing with individuals that 
 the best results of Christian work in China are obtained, 
 and to this Mr. Gilmour was always ready to make every- 
 thing give way. In season and out of season, at any hour 
 ' See the illustration on p. 245. 
 
210 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 of the day or night, he was at the service of inquirers 
 The sight of a seeking face could banish his most ex- 
 hausting feeling of fatigue, and nothing so swiftly dis- 
 pelled the depression, from which he so often and so 
 severely suffered, as the sight of a heathen coming to be 
 more perfectly instructed about ' the doctrine.' Here are 
 one or two such scenes : — 
 
 ' In the eighth month we had great pleasure in finding 
 Mr. Sun much advanced in knowledge, and confessing his 
 Christianity with great boldness. Before we left he was 
 baptized, and one or two others were coming forward as 
 inquirers — notably one man, who is a member of a sect, 
 was making earnest inquiries. These men seem to be 
 following after righteousness in their own half-instructed 
 fashion. These sects are strong in numbers in some parts 
 of the district, and, if God should give us some of these 
 men as converts, we might hope for rapid progress among 
 their companions. The last that I heard of this man, he 
 was coming to Mr. Sun, asking many questions. He 
 lodged with us one night, and I invited him to breakfast 
 with me in the morning. He was declining on the plea 
 that he was a vegetarian. It was with much satisfaction that 
 I was able to say in reply, " So am I." 
 
 ' The Tsai li ti are strong in Ch'ao Yang. I have 
 been praying and working to gain them for a year and 
 more. One evening a deputation of two men called upon 
 me in my inn, and said they had come representing many 
 who wanted to know about Christianity. They, the Tsai li 
 ti, had been watching me ever since I had come to Ch'ao 
 Yang. They had listened much and often to our preach- 
 ing, and now they had come to make formal inquiries. I 
 .gave them such information as I thought they needed, and 
 we got on well enough till they asked me to refute a slan- 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD zw 
 
 dcr. The slander was to the effect that in a chapel 
 in Peking, the preacher would, when he finished preaching, 
 get down off the platform and have a smoke ! I had to 
 admit that this was no slander, but a true statement. I 
 had a good deal to say in explanation of it ; but, alas ! the 
 men came no more.' 
 
 To form any just estimate of Mr. Gilmour's work in 
 Eastern Mongolia, it is needful constantly to bear in mind 
 that it was practically a new departure. So far as we know, 
 he is the only missionary in China connected with the 
 London Missionary Society who adopted in toto not only 
 the native dress, but practically the native food, and, so far 
 as a Christian man could, native habits of life. His average 
 expense for food during his residence in his district was 
 tJircepencc a day. This rate of expenditure was, of course, 
 possible only because he adopted vegetarianism. His 
 practice acted and reacted upon his thought, and he came 
 at this time to hold the view, for and against which a great 
 deal may be said, that it was a mistake for Chinese 
 missionaries to live as foreigners — that is, to wear foreign 
 dress, arrange their houses and furniture as nearly as 
 possible in European style, and eat European food. Both 
 on its economical side and also as impressing the mind 
 and heart of the Chinese, he believed that his was the more 
 excellent wa}'. 
 
 Most of his co-workers at Peking and Tientsin did not 
 agree with him. As agreement would have involved, per- 
 haps, following his example, under conditions that differed 
 widely from those of Ta Cheng Tzu and Ch'ao Yang, this 
 difference of opinion was only what was to be expected. 
 It is referred to here only as a well-known fact, and no 
 
 o 2 
 
21 2t JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 story of Mr. Gilmour's life could be trustworthy which did 
 not represent the decided way in which, when he felt that 
 loyalty to his work and loyalty to his Master constrained 
 him, he could and did act in direct opposition to the 
 wishes and views of brethren whom he fervently loved. 
 
 It became needful from time to time for him to justify 
 his actions to the home authorities. Not that this was 
 in any way needful from any doubt or lack of support on 
 their part. But with regard to methods upon which there 
 was marked divergence of view in the missionary com- 
 mittees abroad it was needful that a man like Gilmour 
 should put his motives and reasons clearly before the 
 governing powers. It is doing him bare justice to say 
 that from this task he never shrank. The following 
 extracts are from letters to the home officials of the 
 London Missionary Society and they enable us to appre- 
 ciate accurately the standpoint of the man whose thought 
 they express. Writing in the light of the suggestion that 
 perhaps he was putting a more severe strain upon his 
 health than the efficient discharge of his difficult duty de- 
 manded, he says : — 
 
 ' I feel called to go through all this sort of thing, and 
 feel perfectly secure in God's hands. It is no choosing of 
 mine, but His ; and, following His lead, I have as much 
 right to expect special provision to be made for me as 
 the Israelites of old had in the matters of the Red Sea, the 
 manna and water in the desert, the crossing Jordan, and 
 the fall of Jericho. 
 
 i • • One thing I am sure of. The thousands here need 
 salvation ; God is most anxious to give it to them : where, 
 then, is the hindrance ? In them ? I hardly think so. In 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD :3r.3 
 
 God ? No. In me, then ! The thing I am praying away 
 at now is that He would remove that hindrance by what- 
 ever process necessary. I shall not be astonished if He 
 puts mc through some fires or severe operations, nor 
 shall I be sorry if they only end by leaving me a channel 
 through which His saving grace can flow unhindered to 
 these needy people. I dare not tell you how much I 
 pray for. ■ • 
 
 ' It is the foreign element in our lives that runs away 
 with the money. The foreign houses, foreign clothes, foreign 
 food, are ruinous. In selecting missionaries, physique able 
 to stand native houses, clothes, and food, should be as 
 much a sine qua non as health to bear the native climate. 
 Native clothes are, I believe, more safe for health than 
 foreign clothes ; they are more suited to the climate, more 
 comfortable than foreign clothes, and so dressed, a Chinese 
 house is quite comfortable. In past days I have suffered 
 extreme discomfort by attempting to live in foreign dress 
 in native houses.' 
 
 And yet James Gilmour had nothing of the fanatic 
 or bigot about him. At the period of his life with which 
 we are now dealing, his severest trial was the loneliness 
 due to his having no colleague. Whenever his brethren 
 ventured to address remonstrances to him, they were due 
 largely to the conviction that entire isolation, such as he 
 had to endure throughout his Mongolian career, must tell 
 adversely upon his temperament. But in judging the 
 character of the man it only heightens our love and respect 
 for him that he did not allow the utter and successive 
 failures of all efforts to secure him a colleague to hinder the 
 work. No man more readily and more constantly acted 
 upon the principle of doing the next best thing, His idea 
 
214 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 of satisfactory conditions for the work was never reached ; 
 but this never led him for one day to relax his own efforts 
 or to loosen the strong hand of his self-discipline. 
 
 To any reader who has carefully followed the previous 
 pages it must have become abundantly evident that Mr 
 Gilmour believed in God's present and immediate influence 
 in the passing events of daily life, and that the right atti- 
 tude of life is one of absolute dependence upon, and sub- 
 mission to, the will of God. His diaries abound with proofs 
 of this. He is delayed one morning in starting from his 
 inn, and is annoyed. An hour or so later he overtakes the 
 travellers who started earlier, and finds them just recovering 
 from the assault of a band of robbers. The delay was 
 God's providential care protecting him from robbery. And 
 yet no man was ever less under the spell of religious 
 fatalism. All that active effort and promptitude of mind 
 and body could effect in the service of life he freely and 
 constantly expended in his work. And indeed there lies 
 before us a long letter written at Ta Ssu Kou on March 15, 
 1888, asking for an official proclamation from the Chinese 
 authorities at Peking affirming ' that Christian worship 
 is an allowed thing, and that native Christians are not 
 required to contribute, or are exempted from contributing, 
 to idol and heathen ceremonies, such as theatricals, or the 
 building and repair of temples.' The proper official docu- 
 ment was applied for at Peking, and in due time obtained. 
 
 On March 24, 1888, James Gilmour was rejoiced by the 
 seeming fulfilment of his heart's most eager desire — the 
 arrival at Ta Ssu Kou of a fully qualified medical colleague. 
 Dr. Roberts. We have seen how repeated had been his 
 entreaties, how earnest his yearnings after this essential 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 215 
 
 factor in the success of his mission. For a month he en- 
 joyed to the full the uplifting of congenial fellowship and 
 of skilled help. Then came a blow, harder almost to endure 
 than the previous solitude. 
 
 'Two days ago,' he writes under date of April 21, 
 1 888, ' a man pushed himself in among the crowd 
 round my table as I was dispensing medicines in the 
 market-place here, and announced himself as a courier 
 from Tientsin. When asked what his news was, he was 
 silent, so I led him away towards my inn. On the way I 
 again asked what his news was. He groaned. I began to 
 get alarmed, and noticed that he carried with him a sword, 
 covered merely with a cloth scabbard. This looked war- 
 like, and I wondered if there could have been another 
 massacre at Tientsin. Coming to a quiet place in the 
 street I demanded his news, when he replied, " Dr. Mackenzie 
 is dead, after a week's illness." At the inn we got out 
 our letters from the bundle, and found the news true. In 
 a little Dr. Roberts looked up from a letter he was reading 
 and said he was appointed to the vacancy. Then the full 
 extent of my loss flashed upon me. Mackenzie dead — 
 Roberts to go to Tientsin ! One of my closest friends 
 dead — my colleague removed ! 
 
 * Forty-eight hours have elapsed, and I am just coming 
 right again. I have been like a ship suddenly struck in 
 mid-ocean by a mountain sea breaking over it. You know 
 in that case a ship staggers a bit, and takes some time to 
 shake clear and right herself 
 
 ' As to Mackenzie. His friendship I very keenly appre- 
 ciated. The week of prayer in January 1887 we spent 
 together in Peking. The week of prayer in January 1888 
 we spent together in Tientsin. These were seasons of 
 great enjoyment. On parting we spoke of having a week 
 
2i6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 together again in April 1889. That is not to be. The full 
 extent of the loss will take some time to realise. 
 
 ' The prospect of Dr. Roberts settling permanently here 
 in the autumn gave light and brightness to the outlook. 
 My faith is not gone, but it would be untrue to say that I 
 am not walking in the dark. I shall do my best to hold 
 on here single-handed ; but I earnestly hope that I am not 
 to be alone much longer. Something must be done. 
 There is a limit to all human endurance. 
 
 ' Amid many storms we are holding on our way, and 
 making progress among the Chinese. Of the Mongols 1 
 have nothing cheering to report. They come around and 
 daily hear the Gospel ; but, as yet at least, there it ends. I 
 look into their faces to see whom the Lord is going to call, 
 but have not seen him yet apparently. Meantime, I am 
 getting deeper and deeper into Chinese work and connec- 
 tions, and sometimes the thought crosses my mind that my 
 knowledge of Mongolian is not employed to its best 
 advantage here. On the other hand, I see more Mongols 
 here than I could see anywhere on the Plain.' 
 
 God's ways of dealing with His work and the workers 
 are often very dim and obscure to finite understanding. 
 Humanly speaking, no man in China could less easily be 
 spared than Dr. Mackenzie ; no man in all that vast 
 empire more needed the joy of fellowship than he to whom 
 it had just been granted. But the indomitable spirit shines 
 clearly through the words of Gilmour : ' It would be 
 untrue to say that I am not walking in the dark. I shall do 
 my best to hold on here single-handed.' Seeing God's hand, 
 as he did, in these sorrowful events, and believing that Dr. 
 Roberts also was following the path of God's will, he turned 
 again to his lonely tasks. But it was at a heavy cost. His 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 217 
 
 health was giving way faster than he reaHsed. The views 
 of his brethren at Peking, that he would break down under 
 the strain of the isolation, were to some extent justified. 
 The home authorities did what they could, but nearly a 
 year elapsed before Dr. Smith, who was appointed to 
 succeed Dr. Roberts, reached Mongolia, and when he did 
 so his first duty he felt was to order Mr. Gilmour to visit 
 England for rest and change. But meanwhile he went 
 bravely on. Like his Master, * he endured the contradiction 
 of sinners against himself,' and when ' he was reviled, he 
 reviled not again.' 
 
 'We left Ch'ao Yang,' he writes under date of September 
 3, 1888, * August 10, attended markets, got much rained in, 
 and reached Ta Cheng Tzia August 20. There I found that 
 one of the Christians had possessed himself of my bank 
 book and drawn about fifteen taels of my money which I 
 had banked at the grocer's. The delinquent turned up 
 next day, walked in, and hung up his whip as if nothing 
 had happened. At the moment I was dining, and he sat 
 down beside me. I asked him quietly why he had treated 
 me so. He said I might be easy in mind ; he had money 
 and cattle he would pay me. " Go, then, and bring me the 
 money ; till you do so, don't come to me again." Off he 
 went. Days passed and nothing was done to repair the 
 mischief Meantime, the scandal was the talk of the small 
 town, and the scornful things said were so keen that Liu, 
 my assistant, got quite wild. He was indignant that I did 
 not go to law with the man, who all the while was swelling 
 about on a donkey bought with the money he stole from 
 me, and using the most defiant and abusive language 
 towards me (not to my face, happily). The roughs of the 
 place began to be insolent, and a drunken man came and 
 made a scene in our quarters, Liu redoubled his attack 
 
V 
 
 2i8 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 on me, and even threatened to go home to Shantung if I 
 would do nothing but pray — a course of action on my part 
 which irritated him much. Li San, the head Cliristian there, 
 joined him in saying I ought to make a show of power. I 
 asked the two to read at their leisure Matt. v. 6, 7. Liu 
 warned me that I was in personal danger. The man was 
 panic-struck and highly nervous. I arranged an expedition 
 to a place some 90 li away, but got rained in and could not 
 go. Finally, the offender sent an embassy desiring peace, 
 and, the day before we left, a respectable deputation of 
 mutual friends, Christian and heathen, found its way one by 
 one to my room, coming thus not to attract attention, and last 
 of all came the thief According to pre-arrangement I asked 
 him, as he entered, what he had come for. He walked up to 
 the wall, knelt down, and confessed his sin in prayer to God. 
 The end of the matter is, he gives me one donkey and the 
 promise of another, is suspended as to membership for twelve 
 months, and is forbidden the chapel for three months. 
 
 ' I am not bright about Ta Cheng Tzu,as you may sup- 
 pose. Worse than the stealing case is that of the head man, 
 Li San, who says that he was promised employment before 
 he became a Christian ! The ten days we passed there we 
 were the song of the drunkard and the jest of the abjects ; 
 but the peace of God passes all U7iderstanding, and that 
 kept my heart and mind. We put a calm front on ; put 
 out our stand daily, and carried ourselves as if nothing had 
 happened. 
 
 ' The great thought in my mind these days, and the 
 great object of my life, is to be like Christ. As He was in 
 the world, so are we to be. He was in the world to manifest 
 God ; we are in the world to manifest Christ. Is that not 
 so ? Iniquities, I must confess, prevail against me ; but 
 as contamination of sin flows to us from Adam, does 
 not regenerating power flow into us from Christ .'' Is it 
 not so .-" 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 219 
 
 Meanwhile work was going steadily forward and some 
 impression was being made. He made a flying visit to 
 Tientsin and Peking in the autumn, but was soon back at 
 his post. In his report of work for the year he is able to 
 point to progress. 
 
 * 1888 has been a tumultuous year. In December, at 
 Cha'o Yang, there was a sudden irruption of men and boys 
 to learn the doctrine. Evening after evening we had from 
 twenty to fifty people in our rooms to evening worship. 
 We hardly knew how to account for it, but did all we 
 could to teach as many as we could. The cold weather 
 finally did much to stop the overcrowding, but there was 
 good interest kept up among many till the end of the 
 year. 
 
 ' The baptisms for the year were, at Ta Cheng Tzii, 
 two ; Ta Ssu Kou, two ; Ch'ao Yang, eight ; total, twelve 
 adults, all Chinese. 
 
 ' One man has been put out, so that the numbers stand 
 as follows : Ta Cheng Tzu, four ; Ta Ssii Kou, three ; 
 Ch'ao Yang, nine ; total, sixteen, all Chinese. 
 
 ' Three adults, Chinese, were baptized ten days ago, 
 and I hope to baptize two children next Sunday ; but we 
 have almost no promising adherents here at present. There 
 are three entire families Christian, with Christian emblems 
 on their door-posts ; another family is Christian, but cannot 
 fly the colours on the door-posts because the grandfather 
 who has half the building is a heathen. 
 
 * In still another family, where only the husband is 
 Christian, they have the Christian colours, but the family is 
 heathen. 
 
 ' My heart is set on reinforcements. Can they not be 
 had ? I had hoped Dr. Smith would have spent the winter 
 with me, but he did not. All the grace needed has been 
 given me abundantly, but I don't think there should 
 
220 JAMES GTLMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 be any more solitary work. I don't think it pays in any 
 sense. 
 
 ' In addition, it is almost time I had a change. My 
 eyes are bad. Doctors hesitate over m}' heart, say it is 
 weak, and that its condition would affect seriously an 
 application for life assurance. This winter I have gone in 
 for a cough, which is not a good thing at all, and it would 
 be well for the continuity of the work that there should be 
 a young man on the field. 
 
 ' Don't be alarmed, though, and don't alarm my friends. 
 The above is for your own private information and guid- 
 ance. I still regard myself as in first-rate health. 
 
 ' I am not satisfied that we seem drifting away from the 
 Mongols. At present, though lots of Mongols are around, 
 our work is all but entirely Chinese. I am still of opinion 
 that our best way to reach them is from a Chinese basis. 
 This may involve a matter of years ahead, and therefore it 
 is that I am eager to see the future of the work provided 
 for by being joined by a younger man or men. 
 
 ' Meantime I am trying to follow very fully and very 
 faithfully the leadings and indications of God. I have had 
 times of sore spiritual conflict and times of much spiritual 
 rest, and my prayer is that you and the Board may in all 
 your arrangements and plans for Mongolia be fully guided 
 by Him. Oh that His full blessing would descend richly 
 on this district ! ' 
 
 Dr. Smith reached Mongolia in March 1889, and for 
 the first time met his colleague. He has placed on record 
 for use in this biography his account of that first meeting. 
 On reaching Ch'ao Yang, Dr. Smith found that Mr. Gilmour 
 was not there. ' I followed the innkeeper,' he writes, ' to see 
 the spot where my devoted colleague had spent so many 
 lonely hours. We came to a little outhouse, with a kind 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 221 
 
 of little court in front of it, not many yards wide. The 
 outer door was locked by means of a padlock ; but the 
 innkeeper soon found an entrance by simply lifting the 
 door off its wooden hinges, and then we were in the ante- 
 room or rather kitchen. In it was a built-in cooking- 
 pan, an earthenware bowl, and a wooden stick resembling 
 a Scotch porridge-stick ; and some brushwood which had 
 been brought in to be in readiness when he next arrived 
 at that inn. One of the two rooms, which lay on each side 
 of this ante-room, was locked, and we could not open it, 
 but through the chinks of the door I could see abundant 
 traces of Gilmour. It was specially refreshing to see some 
 genuine English on one of the boxes ; it was " Ferris, 
 Bourne, & Co., Bristol," the people from whom he used to 
 order his drugs. My servant and I decided to take up our 
 quarters in the next room, which was evidently the 
 servant's room. We soon managed to make ourselves very 
 comfortable, and there was an unspeakable relief in at last 
 being in a place which belonged to the London Mission, 
 rented of course. We had to spend the Sunday there. 
 Mr. Sun, the box-maker, soon came round, and seemed 
 genuinely glad to see me, and offered to make all arrange- 
 ments for the further stage of our journey. We then dis- 
 charged our carts, and I sent with them my letters for 
 home. 
 
 * After spending the Sunday in company with the 
 Christians there, we set out on the Monday morning with 
 a local carter for Ta Cheng Tzu, a distance of about twenty- 
 three miles. We crossed a hill)' and sparsely populated 
 district, reminding me of some of the bleaker scenery in 
 Scotland. On reaching the town we at once drove to the 
 
222 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 new private mission premises. It was a little house sur- 
 rounded by a straw fence. Quite a crowd of rough-looking 
 people followed us in. One of the doors had been stolen, 
 and altogether it looked so unprotected that I decided to 
 take up my quarters in a little Mongol inn, where Mr. 
 Gilmour formerly lived. Next day I expected to meet 
 Gilmour, and the two Christians there were fully expecting 
 him. In the evening we had quite a levee ; Li San and 
 the other Christian, vv^hom Gilmour used to call " Long 
 Legs," sat drinking tea in my room for some time, and were 
 very friendly ; they were evidently trying to ingratiate 
 themselves with mc ; I did not then know how disgrace- 
 fully they had behaved to Gilmour, nor did I know the 
 anxious business which was bringing Gilmour there at that 
 time. 
 
 ' Next day or the following, I forget exactly which, I 
 was sitting in my room, when a young man arrived, my 
 servant being out at the time. I could not make him 
 out at first, not being able to understand what he said ; 
 but he had such an evident air about him that he had some 
 kind of business with me that it at last dawned upon me 
 that he must be Mr. Gilmour's servant, and this was at once 
 confirmed on the arrival of Lin Seng, my servant. He had 
 been sent on ahead to announce Gilmour's arrival. It had 
 been blowing a dust-storm all day, and on that account I 
 hardly expected Gilmour, but now there was no doubt. 
 
 ' About four o'clock that afternoon Gilmour arrived, and 
 I shall never forget that first meeting. I had pictured 
 quite a different-looking man to myself I saw a thin man 
 of medium height, with a clean shaven face, got up in 
 Chinese dress, much the same as the respectable shop- 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 223 
 
 keepers in that part of the country wear. On his head was 
 a cap lined with cat's fur. I was struck by the kindly but 
 determined look on his face. He greeted me most 
 cordially, and I remember he said, " I am glad to see 
 you." He looked worn out and ill. I at once gave him 
 his letters. 
 
 ' After arranging his things and seeing his men comfort- 
 ably settled and getting over his first interview with the 
 Christians there, he came up to my room in order to spend 
 the night with me. We sat to all hours of the morning, 
 chatting about things at home, and about his boys, whom I 
 had seen before leaving Scotland. 
 
 ' For the next day he arranged the dreaded interview 
 with Li San down at the mission premises. Gilmour 
 warned me that it would be a long-winded affair, and 
 wished me not to expect his return for a good number of 
 hours. After waiting a long time I went down to see how 
 the interview was progressing. Li San and Gilmour were 
 sitting on the kang, in tailor fashion on each side of a 
 low table, and Li San was singing hymns ; but there was 
 a strange look upon his face, as if he did not altogether feel 
 like singing. Gilmour said to me in English that they had 
 not come to business yet, and Gilmour was determined 
 that Li San was to say the first word, so Gilmour invited 
 him to sing hymn after hymn, and then I left. The whole 
 idea seemed to be to get money out of Gilmour, and when 
 he found that impossible he threatened to come down to 
 Tientsin to accuse Gilmour to his missionary colleagues, 
 of having broken his promise to give him employment. 
 Gilmour had no recollection of having done so ; he said 
 to me that possibly one of his previous assistants may 
 
2-24^ JAMES GtLMOUR OF MONGOLIA . 
 
 have on his own responsibility led Li San to form that 
 idea. 
 
 * Long Legs was also dogging Gilmour for money, and 
 altogether they worried him ; but he settled up everything 
 The premises were resold, and as Gilmour put it, " it was 
 the funeral of that little church." They were threatening to 
 prevent our leaving the town, as there seemed some doubt in 
 Gilmour's mind as to whether we would be able to get a cart ; 
 these fears were disappointed ; Li San got a cart for us.' 
 
 Before Dr. Smith had passed many days in the society 
 of Mr. Gilmour it became clear to the practised eye of the 
 medical man that his colleague had been overstraining his 
 health and strength. Notwithstanding his buoyancy and 
 occasional high spirits all through his long years of work, 
 James Gilmour had been subject to spells of severe depres- 
 sion. There are a very large number of brief entries in his 
 diary to that effect. ' Felt blue to-day ' is a frequent 
 phrase, followed soon in the great majority of instances by 
 words indicating a speedy recovery. Special events, that 
 from time to time had a direct adverse influence upon his 
 work, developed this state of mind rapidly and profoundly. 
 The inevitable recall of Dr. Roberts, already described, is a 
 case in point, and the diary at that season contains entries 
 like these : 
 
 '■April 26, 1888. — These last days have been full of 
 blessing and peace in my own soul. I have been able to 
 leave things at Ta Cheng Tzij, and my colleagues all in 
 God's hands.' 
 
 ' May 7. — Downcast day. No one to prayer.' 
 'May 9. — In terrible darkness and tears for two days. 
 Light broke over me at my stand to-day in the thought 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 225 
 
 that Jesus was tempted forty days of the devil after His 
 baptism, and that He felt forsaken on the cross.' 
 
 ' May 27, Sunday. — Service, Romans xii. Present, four 
 Christians. Great depression.' 
 
 The most constant force acting in the direction of 
 mental depression was what appeared to him like the want 
 of immediate success. He longed with an eager and 
 almost painful intensity for signs that Gospel light had 
 broken in upon the mental darkness of the men with whom 
 he was in daily contact. He yearned for evidence that 
 the love of Christ was winning the love of Chinese and 
 Mongol hearts, as a mother yearns over her children. Hope 
 deferred as to his medical colleague, ever recurring difficul- 
 ties defeating all his efforts to secure suitable premises for 
 his work, failure on the part of natives whom he had begun 
 to trust, and all these things over and above the ceaseless 
 strain of his daily toil, are more than sufficient to account 
 for the state in which Dr. Smith found him. 
 
 To those who knew him best, and who could appraise 
 at their true value the toils and trials and disappointments 
 of his daily lot, the wonder was not that he broke down ; 
 it was rather that physical collapse had not overtaken him 
 sooner. There are many kinds of heroism, but it may be 
 doubted whether any touches a higher level than that ex- 
 hibited by this patient sower of the seed of life on the 
 sterile field of Mongolia, bravely continuing to do so until 
 imperatively urged to cease for a season, not by his con- 
 sciousness of failing power, but by the alarm and influence 
 of his medical co-worker. 
 
 When the decision was once taken, it was acted upon 
 
 P 
 
226 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 promptly. March 26, 1889, was the day, and Peking the 
 place. On April 4 he left Peking, and on the 20th he 
 sailed from Shanghai. He arrived in London on May 25. 
 
 This visit to England in 1889 was a great refreshment 
 bodily, mental, and spiritual, to the overwrought labourer. 
 The voyage itself, enforcing rest from all ordinary avoca- 
 tions, by removing Mr, Gilmour from the depressing sur- 
 roundings amid which he had spent so much of the last 
 three years, began the restorative process. He was begin- 
 ning to feel in himself great benefit from the change even 
 by the time he reached London. But the six years which 
 had passed since he last walked the London streets had 
 left their mark upon him. He had drawn to the utmost 
 upon his physical and spiritual strength in the service of 
 those for whose conversion he lived and toiled. He had 
 been through the deep waters of personal affliction when 
 his wife passed into the sinless life. The many toils and 
 hardships of the passing years had drawn deep furrows 
 upon the cheery face, and the eyes showed evidence of the 
 mental and spiritual strain. 
 
 So sudden was the resolution to return, and so prompt 
 his action upon it, that few knew even of the probability 
 until he was actually here. On May 27, 1889, the writer 
 was sitting in his room, overlooking the pleasant garden 
 that brightens up the north-eastern corner of St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, in conversation with a gentleman, when a 
 knock came at the door and a head appeared. Not seeing 
 it very clearly, and at the same time asking for a minute's 
 delay while the business in hand was completed, the head 
 disappeared. As soon as the first visitor departed a man 
 entered and stood near the door. I looked at him with 
 
A CHANGE OF FIELD 227 
 
 the conviction that I knew him, and yet could not recall the 
 true mental association, when the old smile broke over his 
 face, and he burst into a laugh, saying, ' Why, man, you 
 don't know me.' ' Yes, I do,' I replied, 'you're Gilmour ; but 
 I thought that at this moment you were in Mongolia.' But 
 when I was able to scrutinise him closely I was shocked 
 to see how very evident were the signs of stress and strain. 
 It was not wholly inexcusable, even in an old friend, to 
 fail to instantly recognise in the worn and apparently 
 broken man, thought to be hard at work many thousands 
 of miles away, the strong and cheery Gilmour of 1883. 
 
 Carrying him off home, we talked far into the night, not 
 because his host thought it a good thing for the invalid, 
 but because he was so full of his work and its difficulties 
 and its pressing needs, and what he hoped to do on behalf 
 of Mongolia by his visit home, that there seemed no pos- 
 sible alternative but to let him talk himself weary. And 
 how splendidly he talked ! He pictured his life at a 
 Mongol inn. He ranged over the whole opium and whisky 
 and tobacco controversy. He gave, with all the dramatic 
 effect of which he was so great a master, the story of how 
 he forced home upon the Chinese and Mongols, until even 
 they admitted the force of the reasoning, how natural it was 
 that famine should visit them when they gave up their land 
 to opium, and their grain to the manufacture of whisky. 
 He gave in rapid dialogue his own questions, the native re-' 
 joinders, and he so vividly pictured the scene that his hearer 
 could fancy himself standing under the tent, surrounded by 
 Chinese and Mongols, and assenting, as they did, to the 
 earnest and far-reaching conclusions of the speaker. 
 
228 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AS ILLUSTRATED BY 
 LETTERS TO RELATIVES AND FRIENDS 
 
 This break in active work affords a convenient occasion 
 for exhibiting in a still stronger light, by means of selections 
 from his correspondence, some important sides of James 
 Gilmour's character. He was a good correspondent and wrote 
 freely to his relatives and friends. We have quoted largely 
 hitherto from his official reports and from letters that refer 
 to the condition and progress of his life-work. But it is in 
 the letters addressed to the circle of relatives and most 
 intimate friends that he reveals more fully the deeper side 
 of his life, and the strong and tender affection of his nature. 
 He corresponded regularly with his parents until the 
 earthly tie was broken by the death of his mother in 1884 
 and of his father in 1888. His letters to the latter were 
 very beautiful, especially those designed to strengthen his 
 faith in the closing years when he had passed the eightieth 
 milestone. The tone of the correspondence may be judged 
 from the following examples : — 
 
 ' Peking : Friday, January 23, 18S5. 
 
 *My dear Father, — So this must in future be the head- 
 ing of my letters — no longer my dear parents. Mother 
 has gone. Yours of November 21 reached me this after- 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 229 
 
 noon, or evening rather. As I came home from the 
 chapel I found a beggar waiting at the gate. I thought 
 he was going to beg, but he did not. Inside I found the 
 gate-keeper waiting at our house door for a reply note, to 
 say that the letter had been delivered. I went to my study, 
 and was praying for a blessing on the chapel preaching 
 when Emily came. I let her in. She had your letter in 
 her hand. It had come by Russia, and the Russian post 
 sometimes sends over our mail by a Peking beggar, paying 
 him of course. 
 
 ' I have not had time to think yet. On my heels came 
 in men for the prayer-meeting we hold in our house on 
 Friday evening, and till now I have been almost continu- 
 ously engaged. It is now 10.20 P.M. It so happens that 
 this week I am much behind in my sermon preparation for 
 Sunday, and it also happens that I am going to preach on 
 ivJiole families believing on Christ. What brought this 
 subject to my mind is one of our old Christians who is 
 dying, the only Christian in his whole family. His great 
 grief is that they (his family) remain heathens. In addition, 
 too, a Christian father admitted to a missionary the other 
 day that he had not taught Christ to his daughter who had 
 just died. Preaching on this subject I will have something 
 to say about my own dear, good, anxious mother, and of 
 how she used to say when I was a boy, " What a terrible 
 thing it tvill be if I see yon shut out of heaven ! " She did 
 not say terrible ; " unco " was her word. 
 
 ' I have not yet had time to realise my loss, and cannot 
 think of the Hamilton house as being without her. Eh, 
 man ! you know how good a mother she was to us, and I 
 have some idea of what a companion and help she was to 
 you. You two had nearly fifty years together. You must 
 feel lonely without her. Fathers and mothers are thought 
 much of by the Chinese, and you, at my suggestion, were 
 most heartily and feelingly prayed for by the Chinese at 
 
230 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 our prayer-meeting to-night. You would have felt quite 
 touched could you have heard and understood them.' 
 
 There is a special interest attaching to the sentence 
 used frequently by his mother. On page 41 he refers to 
 his conversion, but no record appears to have been pre- 
 served, giving any detail or fixing with any exactness the 
 date. But his brothers have a conviction that his constant 
 recollection of the oft-repeated and well-remembered words, 
 'What an unco thing it will be if I see you shut out of 
 heaven ! ' was one of the most potent influences in bringing 
 about his conversion. The letters immediately following 
 were written during the last two years of his father's 
 life. 
 
 ' Let us not be disturbed at all about our not having 
 more communication. I pray often for you and remember 
 you more frequently still, and feel more and more that 
 earth is a shifting scene, that here we have no permanent 
 place, that heaven is our home, that your wife — my dear 
 mother — has gone there, that my wife has gone there and 
 is now in the Golden City, and that, sooner or later, you 
 and I will be there, and that, when there, we'll have plenty 
 of time to sit about and talk all together in a company. 
 Lately I have come to see that we have but to put our- 
 selves into the hands of Jesus and let Him do with us as He 
 likes, and He'll save us sure and certain. He can make us 
 willing even to let Him change us and train us. 
 
 ' You are eighty years old. I am proud of you. I like 
 to think of your life. Mother told me, when I was a lad, of 
 some of your early struggles. God has been with you and 
 guided you on through all to a good old age of honour and 
 respect and love. Trust Him and He'll not leave you. 
 Depend upon it, God has something better for us in the 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 231 
 
 world to come than He has ever given us here. And it is 
 not difficult to get it. God wants to give it to us all ; offers 
 it to us, and is distressed if we don't take it. We have 
 only to go to Christ and ask Jesus to make it all right for 
 us, and He'll do it. I know you are in earnest. Jesus will 
 turn away no earnest man.' 
 
 Mr. Gilmour senior acted as steward of the little store 
 which his son by rigid economy was amassing for the 
 benefit of his children. Scotch thrift was well exemplified 
 in them both. But in the course of 1887 James Gilmour 
 became troubled about this accumulation of even that 
 small sum which he could call his own. In his lonely 
 introspective Mongolian life the possession of money came 
 to wear in his view the aspect of distrusting God. At this 
 juncture the London Missionary Society was in a some- 
 what serious state as regards funds. A special appeal had 
 been sent out indicating that if additional funds were not 
 forthcoming, some fields of work might have to be given 
 up. James Gilmour's response was an order to pay over 
 anonymously the sum of 100/. to the general funds of the 
 Society, and 50/. to that set apart for widows and orphans. 
 
 ' March 16, 1887. 
 
 * My dear Father, — Some explanation is due to you of 
 the order to pay the London Missionary Society 100/. of my 
 money as a contribution to their funds. 
 
 ' The money that I have in the bank is the result of 
 long and, much of it, of self-denying savings on my part 
 and the part of my late wife — more on hers than mine, 
 perhaps. When she died, and I was going off to this 
 remote and isolated field, it was a comfort to me to think 
 that in the event of my death there was a little sum laid 
 past which would help my sons to get an education. I 
 
232 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 have added to that sum all I could from my house-furni- 
 ture sale, &c., and it has reached a good figure — the exact 
 sum I cannot yet tell — I have not yet had your account 
 for 1886. 
 
 * Some time ago God seemed to say, " Entrust that money 
 to My keeping ! " and, as days went on, the command 
 seemed to get more loud and be ever present, so much so 
 that finally I could not read my Bible for it or pray. I 
 had no resource left but to obey ; I did not like to give it 
 up ; but finally it has appeared to me that God is only 
 keeping the funds for the lads and that He will arrange for 
 them to have them all right when they are needed. How 
 He can do this I need not ask. He may, for instance, keep 
 me alive for the sake of the lads. In one sense it seems 
 an unwise thing not to be laying up something for the 
 children's education ; but that is only one side of it. 
 God seems to ask me to trust Him with my children, and 
 I trust Him with them. They are far from my care and 
 control, and I know such painful cases of the children of 
 missionaries growing up unbelievers that I dare not do 
 anything that seems to me not to be putting them fully 
 into God's care and up-bringing. 
 
 ' In addition, I am exhorting people here to become 
 Christians, by doing which they throw themselves and their 
 children outside of the community. I tell them to do it, 
 and trust God's protecting them in troubles and helping 
 them in difficulties ; and I can hardly do that if I have 
 not faith in God myself for me and mine. 
 
 'Again, I need God's help and blessing much in my 
 work here, and I do not seem to myself to be able to 
 expect it if I do not trust Him. So please regard the 
 money removed as not lost, only put into a safer bank.' 
 
 The following letter, also dealing with money matters 
 from the Christian point of view, is so striking in many 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 233 
 
 ways that it has been deemed advisable to quote it in 
 extenso : — 
 
 * Ch'ao Yang, Mongolia : May 6, 1888. 
 
 ' My dear Father, — Enclosed please find some directions 
 about the disposal of my money. These arrangements 
 are so contrary to my previous arrangements that some 
 explanation is due to you and to my brothers. Here they 
 are. 
 
 * In my mission work out here I am much thrown upon 
 God. The field is a very hard one. The superstitions are 
 like towns walled up to heaven. The power of man avails 
 nothing against them. As far as man is concerned I am 
 almost alone. I turn to God. I hear the words, " Not by 
 might nor by power, but by My Spirit," saith the Lord. I 
 trust Him. I call upon Him. I commune with Him. He 
 comes near me. I ask Him to convert men. There are 
 conversions, a few true, as far as I can judge. But there 
 seems some barrier between God and me to a certain 
 extent. Thinking round to see what it can be, I hear a 
 voice saying, " Can't you trust Me with the money you have 
 laid up for your children t " I think over it. I pray over 
 it. I say, " I may die and the boys need the money." God 
 replies, " If you trust Me with it, don't you think I'd give 
 them it as they needed } " I say, " But my father and 
 brothers might not see it so, and might not like the idea of 
 destitute orphan children on their hands." God replies, 
 " With Me for their banker children are not destitute, and 
 if you prefer father and brothers before Me, you are not 
 worthy of Me," Then I say, " What will you have me do .'' " 
 God says, " Give Me the money ; I'll see they have all that 
 is necessary." I dare not disobey. I don't want to dis- 
 obey. I am so much exercised over the spiritual well-being 
 of the boys, that I gladly do anything that will make them 
 in any sense more specially proteges of God. I am alarmed 
 
234 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 at the fate of some missionaries' children who have not 
 turned out godly men. Preserve the boys from this ! 
 
 ' This is no sudden resolution. I have thought and 
 prayed much over it. I can delay this step no longer without 
 feeling I would be refusing to follow God's guidance. I feel, 
 too, that God has so many ways in which He can bless the 
 lads and me, that in making this arrangement I am running 
 no risk. The only thing I am not quite clear about is the 
 detailed disposition of the money. Meantime, it seems to 
 me that I can best use it for God in this mission here. I 
 mean to bank it in Peking, in the first instance, and use it 
 for renting or buying premises. 
 
 ' As to the general principle of having money for our- 
 selves or children, I do not think God asks us all to put all 
 we may have or get thus in His keeping, or asks me even 
 to put all into His keeping in this especial manner. You 
 know the money was originally saved from the salary 
 given by the mission, and in this sense is peculiar. Money 
 that I had earned by trade, or otherwise come by, I do not 
 think God would ask me to dispose of it so. But His 
 voice seems very plain in this present case. 
 
 ' My salary I shall still have paid to mc, and the chil- 
 dren's remittances shall come as usual. If I live I guess 
 this will be enough for the education of the lads. If I die, 
 the lads are not destitute. Even in a worldly sense, and 
 quite apart from this sum which I am banking with God, 
 and which I am sure He'll repay with compound interest 
 when needed, if left orphans they would be in some sense 
 provided for by the London Missionary Society, which, 
 though it gives no pensions to any one, yet yearly raises 
 funds and gives money to broken-down old missionaries, 
 widows, and orphans. I don't suppose it is much or 
 enough, but it is something. I say this that you may not 
 be troubled should your faith be weak or waver. 
 
 * I hope that these arrangements may not seem unwise 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 235 
 
 to you, and will commend themselves to you far enough to 
 have your consent if not your warm approval. For myself 
 I am thankful that God has given me faith enough to trust 
 Him so. It has taken time to come to this. Myself is a 
 small matter — it takes more faith to trust for one's children. 
 Just fancy old Abraham offering his Isaac. Just fancy, 
 God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Let 
 us respond to God's love. 
 
 ' Your loving son, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 Incompliance with his wish a sum amounting to several 
 hundred pounds was sent out to Peking and there banked 
 by him. Had not the many difficulties which Chinese 
 habits placed in the way prevented the completion of 
 negotiations, there is hardly any doubt that James Gilmour 
 would have himself spent this money on his own mission- 
 field. He died before any of the negotiations for pre- 
 mises which he had commenced reached a successful 
 issue. As he had not specified in his will that this sum 
 was to be devoted to mission work, the trustees of his boys 
 have had no alternative, and have felt it their duty to con- 
 sider it a part of his estate, the income of which should be 
 devoted to the education of his sons. But the intention 
 of James Gilmour was clear and well known, and it 
 is to be hoped that the interest felt by many friends in his 
 life and work will prove strong enough to secure a per- 
 manent home for the mission as a memorial of its founder, 
 and on the site of his glad and self-sacrificing toil. 
 
 A year or two later, in a letter to his boys, he seeks 
 to enforce the duty of careful, systematic giving to 
 God. 
 
236 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' Ch'ao Yang : August 19, 1890. 
 
 * I wonder if you are giving a tenth of all the money 
 you get to God, I think it is a right thing to do and a 
 good thing. Mamma did it : I do it : and God never let us 
 want for money. I would be glad if you would like to do it. 
 But don't do it merely to please me. Don't do it except 
 you can do it gladly. God likes people to do things 
 gladly. I am quite sure you would get blessing by it. 
 Money given to God is never lost. And it is easier to 
 begin the habit now than later. 
 
 * When you give it to God you can put it into the 
 London Missionary Society box ; it would only be fair to 
 give some little part of it at the collection at the church to 
 which you go. You could give some of it for destitute 
 children. It does not matter much where you give it. I 
 think the London Missionary Society has the best claim. 
 Think over it, boys. Jesus died to save us : surely we can 
 show our gratitude by giving Him some of our money .-* ' 
 
 Later letters to his father outline for us his religious 
 experience, and enable us to realise something of the 
 spiritual experience of these years. 
 
 ' Ch'ao Yang : March 29, 1887. 
 ' I am wondering how you all are. God has been draw- 
 ing me nearer to Him these last weeks, and I am living in 
 the hope that He will bless me and my work largely some 
 day. There is much ignorance to be removed, much sus- 
 picion, much misunderstanding of me as a foreigner, and I 
 am hammering away as hard as I can. There are moun- 
 tains of difficulty to be removed, but I am trusting in God 
 to remove them, and these last days I have had much 
 peace and joy in my heart thinking of God's love to me 
 and the salvation of Jesus. I have no doubt at all about 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 237 
 
 my being His, and sometimes the great hope is almost too 
 much to realise. But I am often at the same time down- 
 cast that I cannot see more people here converted, and I 
 think that, if God has a favour to me and delights in me, 
 He can well move the hearts of these people to believe in 
 His Son, and choose out people to come and help me in 
 my work. I am sometimes lonely here, and wish I had a 
 friend to talk to and tell all my troubles, and then I think 
 that Jesus is such a friend, and so I tell Him all my griefs ; 
 but I would like to have a colleague. 
 
 ' I hope, my dear father, that your heart is contented and 
 happy in Jesus. Only let Him arrange all things for you 
 as regards your soul, and He'll do it all right. He can be 
 trusted. Heaven is not far away ; we'll soon be there ; 
 comfort your heart. Won't it be too blessed to be again 
 with our wives, freed from all that is earthly, and suffering, 
 and surrounded by nothing but what is nice ! This is no 
 dream : it is real ; it is true ; it is kept for us ; it will be 
 ours. We'll see it soon ; you and I will be there together. 
 It may be some time before we are there together ; but 
 years soon pass. Cheer up, my father ! 
 
 * We miss much by not living near to Jesus — taking 
 Him at His word and expecting that He'll do all we need 
 done for us both in saving us and in making our hearts 
 good. Jesus is real and heaven is real, and our share in 
 heaven, if we trust and follow Jesus, is real. You say you 
 are busy : so am I. You have cares : so have I. Go 
 ahead and look after your work and business ; but you'll do 
 it all the better that your heart is at peace with God and 
 at rest in Jesus. I find that the closer I am to Jesus the 
 better I can meet and bear all troubles, trials, and diffi- 
 culties, and you will find the same true if you try. 
 
 ' I feel quite lifted up to-night. I have a room to 
 myself This is the first time I have had a room to 
 myself since leaving Peking, January 25. It is pleasant to 
 
238 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 be private a little. This room is private to me alone only 
 after (say) 8 P.M., when I am left in peace. I hope to have 
 this room for three weeks. 
 
 ' I am afraid, if you saw the room, you would not think 
 it much of a place. To-night, too, I have a pillow. For 
 over three weeks I have rested my head on some folded- 
 >/ up bag or article of dress : to-night I have a pillow, Christ 
 had not where to lay His head. In all things I am still 
 better off than He was. If I could only see souls saved I 
 would not care for the roughing it.' 
 
 In a letter later in the same year to a missionary 
 
 colleague in a distant field Mr. Gilmour unveils still further 
 
 his religious history : — 
 
 ' Mongolia : October 7, 1887. 
 
 * Yours of May 3 1 to hand three or four days ago. 
 The China Inland Mission has a lot of good men in it. It 
 does a good work. It is warm-hearted devotion that wins 
 souls and gets God's approval. My experience has been 
 different from yours, happily. All along I have gone on 
 V/ the " headlong for Christ " way of things here, even when 
 preaching to the most intellectual English and American 
 audiences, and they have received me royally. Man, 
 God has waked me up these last years to such an extent 
 that I feel a different man. I sometimes wonder now if I 
 was converted before. I suppose I was, but the life was a 
 cold, dull one. Just the other day Jesus, so to speak, put out 
 His hand and touched me as I was reading a hymn, some- 
 thing about desiring spiritual things and passing by Jesus 
 Himself. I wanted His blessing more than I wanted Him. 
 That is not right. Lately, too, I have become calm. 
 Before I worked, oh so hard and so much, and asked God 
 to bless my work. Now I try to pray more and get more 
 blessing, and then work enough to let the blessing find its 
 way through me to men. And this is the better way 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 239 
 
 It is the right way. And I work a lot even now. Perhaps 
 as much as before ; but I don't worry at the things I can- 
 not overtake. I feel, too, more than I did, that God is 
 guiding me. Oh ! sometimes the peace of God flows over 
 me Hke a river. Then it is so blessed, heaven is real. So 
 is God : so is Jesus. Our lot is a great one. 
 
 ' Try not to fly around so much : take more time with 
 God. Be more in private prayer with Him, and see if He 
 will not give you a greater spiritual blessing for your 
 people. After all, the great want, as I gather from your 
 letters, is the spiritual blessing on the people. Ask it, man, 
 and you'll get it. God's promises are sure. I am trying 
 to combine the China Inland Mission, the Salvation Army, 
 and the L.M.S. I have a great district, and a hard one, 
 all to myself. There is said to be a young doctor on his 
 way out to me. I am writing by this mail for three 
 young laymen. Non-smoking and tectotalism are con- 
 ditions of Church membership. I have seen no foreigner 
 since January 25, and am not likely to see one till 
 December 5. My mails take an enormous time to reach 
 me, and two sent in June and July from Peking (eight days 
 off) have never come to hand at all. I am baffled, battered 
 and bruised in soul in many ways, but, thank God, holding 
 on and believing that He is going to bless me. 
 
 ' Eh, man, never talk of not going back. Go back, though 
 you can only do half work ; go back, and work less and pray 
 more. That is what you need. I have been a vegetarian 
 for over a year. I find fasting helpful to prayer. Two 
 books by Andrew Murray, Wellington, Cape Town — 
 Abide in Christ, With Christ in the School of Prayer — have 
 done me much good. May blessings be on your dear wife 
 and children ! Yours, hoping to have a good long holiday 
 with you in heaven, 
 
 James Gilmour. 
 
240 JAMES GILMOVR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Some years earlier in his career he had written a letter 
 of brotherly remonstrance to one who, in a moment of 
 depression and without any adequate cause, felt himself 
 slighted. The same spirit breathes through both, but is 
 richer and fuller in the later letter. God had been teaching 
 James Gilmour in a hard, but a fruitful school. 
 
 ' I know of your zeal in working at home as well as 
 abroad, and I am greatly grieved to find you think you are 
 badly treated. I think it is very unfortunate that any 
 agent should have that feeling about his Society, L.M.S. or 
 other. I am alarmed, too, my dear fellow, to find you 
 express yourself so strongly. It is hardly the thing. 
 Would Christ have said that ? I do hope you will pardon 
 my speaking so, but you know sometimes a rash word 
 does more harm than a deed even. And I am anxious 
 that you should have a peaceful mind. / know your value, 
 and wish to see you nearly perfect. Let me remind you 
 of a thing we both believe, and a thought I have often 
 been comforted by. Jesus has suffered even more for us 
 than we can ever suffer for Him, and what you do in 
 raising funds and endeavouring is done, not for L.M.S., but 
 for Him, for Him, and He sees and knows and won't 
 forget, but sympathises and appreciates, and at the end 
 will speak up straight and open for His true men. I often 
 lug portmanteaus, walk afoot, and, as the Chinese say, 
 " eat bitterness," in China and in England. I am not 
 thanked for it, but He knows. No danger of being over- 
 looked. Now, don't be " huffed " at my lecturing you, and 
 don't think I must think a lot of myself to suppose that I 
 am running up a bill of merit, like a Buddhist, and think I 
 am Jesus's creditor. My dear fellow, you know better 
 than that. I point out to you and remind you of the only 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 241 
 
 way I know to be persistently useful, and at the same 
 time happy.' 
 
 But of all the relationships of life — son, brother, friend, 
 ambassador for Christ — that which most naturally, most 
 profoundly, and most beautifully reveals his very heart is 
 when he writes as the loving father to his distant mother- 
 less boys. A large number of his letters to them have 
 been entrusted to the hands of his biographer. Many of 
 them touch upon subjects too sacred for publication. They 
 deal with those closest of earthly ties in which not even 
 intimate friends can legitimately claim a share. But 
 it was felt that they reveal a side of his nature and 
 character that ought not to be entirely hidden in any 
 picture of his life. For this reason a somewhat extensive 
 selection has been made from this tender and helpful 
 correspondence. When it first began the lads were too 
 young to read the letters themselves, but he wrote long 
 accounts of his work to be read to them, and it is pleasant 
 to see how keen his eye became in noting such things as 
 were likely to amuse them and to arrest their attention. 
 Some of the letters are written in big letters resembling 
 printed capitals. The brief, childlike letters that were 
 sent to him by them were bound up into a paper volume, 
 which he carried about with him during his Mongolian 
 wanderings, and in looking them over he found an unfail- 
 ing solace and refreshment. He often illustrated his own 
 letters to them by rough but effective sketches of persons 
 and things which he saw. The death of their mother had 
 brought the lads and their father very near to one another, 
 and although lost to sight, they always thought and spoke 
 of the dear one who had gone as still of the family, as in 
 
 Q 
 
242 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 perfect happiness, and waiting only God's time to reunite 
 them in the happy life of heaven. 
 
 When it was decided to entrust them to the care of an 
 uncle in Scotland, Mr. Gilmour set out the desires he 
 cherished with regard to their training. It is only to be 
 regretted that similar plans are not formed and acted upon 
 in the training of all children. 
 
 ' The laddies are here with me now, and I am both 
 father and mother to them. To-night I darned three 
 stockings for them when they went to bed. You see I 
 have been away two months, and in a week or two I may 
 have to part from them for ten years, so I am having a 
 little leisure time with them. I sometimes do feel real 
 bad at the idea of the two orphan lads going away so far ; 
 but then the promise of Christ that no one leaves parents 
 or children for His sake, without being repaid manifold, 
 comforts me by making me believe that God will raise up 
 friends to comfort them wherever they may be. 
 
 ' Cheer up ! The two worlds are one, and not far separate. 
 Mrs. Prankard, I hear, won't have Emily's name mentioned. 
 We here go on the other tack, and the children are all day 
 long talking about what mamma did and said, and ad- 
 ventures we had together. And why not? The tears 
 come sometimes : let them, they do no harm, are a relief 
 more than anything, and the time is coming when God will 
 wipe away all tears from our eyes. 
 
 ' I wish them to be Christ's from their youth up. I 
 wish them to get a good thorough education, not too 
 expensive, to be able to read, write, and spell well. Should 
 either of them turn out likely, I might be able to let both, 
 or that one have a college education, but I don't want either 
 of them to go there if they don't show adaptation for it. 
 
 ' What I want of you is something money cannot buy, 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 243 
 
 motherly and fatherly care in Christ for the desolate lads, 
 whose whole life in time and eternity too may largely 
 depend on how they are trained and treated during the 
 next few years. I am not rich, but I can support my boys. 
 This Christian care and love, however, is what is not to be 
 had for money, so I beg it. 
 
 ' I had five hours' conversation with one Chinaman at a 
 stretch the other day. I think he was not far from the 
 kingdom of God at first, and I believe he is nearer now. All 
 these things take time, and I am most anxious to be with 
 the children much these last days. Oh, it is hard to think 
 of them going off over the world in that motherless fashion ! 
 We were at mamma's grave yesterday for the first time since 
 September 21. We sang "There is a land that is fairer 
 than day," in Chinese, and also a Chinese hymn we have 
 here with a chorus, which says, " We'll soon go and see 
 them in our heavenly home," and in English, " There is a 
 happy land." The children and I have no reluctance in 
 speaking of mamma, and we don't think of her as here or 
 buried, but as in a fine place, happy and well.' 
 
 Here are a few short extracts from the earlier letters : — 
 
 * Cheer up, my dear sonnies ! We shall see each other 
 some day yet. Tell all your troubles to Jesus, and let Him 
 be your friend. I, out here, think often of mamma and her 
 nice face, and how good she was to you and to me. You 
 will not forget her. She sees you every day, and is so 
 pleased when you are good lads. We'll all go some day 
 and be with her, won't that be good ? Meantime, Jesus is 
 taking care of her, and will take care of u.s. 
 
 ' Sometimes, when I am writing a letter to you, and 
 come to the foot of a page, and want to turn over the leaf, / 
 I don't take blotting paper and blot it, but kneel down and 
 pray while it is drying. 
 
 Q 2 
 
244 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' I am going away, too, in a few days ; then I'll have no 
 one but Chinese to speak to. Never mind, I'll just tell 
 Jesus all my affairs ; I cannot go away from Him. He is 
 never too busy to talk to me. Just you, too, tell Jesus all 
 your troubles. He sees both you and me.' 
 
 From the longer letters we select three or four, and 
 give them exactly as they were written. From them the 
 character of many others, from which only brief extracts 
 can be taken, may be judged. 
 
 ' Ch'ao Yang : April lo, 1887. 
 
 ' My dear Sons, — I am well and thankful for it. I am 
 getting on w^ell too, thank God. I have had terrible 
 weather lately though. Daily I have my tent — it is only a 
 cloth roof on six bamboo poles — put up in the market-place. 
 We have had three days' wind. Eh, man, the first day the 
 dust was terrible. But I had lots of patients and re- 
 mained out all day. At last we had to take down our tent. 
 It could not stand. The tent was carried to the inn, but 
 we remained with our table till evening. You would 
 hardly have known us for dust. But patients came all 
 the time. Next day the tent was blown down twice. 
 Once a man's head got such a smack with the bamboo 
 tent pole, but he said nothing and took it quite pleasantly. 
 A peep-show man near us got his show blown down and 
 scattered about. He gathered it up and went home to his 
 inn. 
 
 ' I am so glad that the people like us and trust us and 
 come about us for medicines. Women came too. Boys 
 came too. Just now the school boys have holiday for the 
 fair, and they stand for a long time together looking at me 
 doctoring the people. What the boys like to see is a 
 glass bottle of eye medicine which I bring out and set up. 
 Then I dip a glass tube in and press an india-rubber bulb. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 247 
 
 The air comes out in the water in bubbles and rises up to 
 the surface, and the boys are so delighted to see it bubbling. 
 They will wait a long time and like to see it ever so often. 
 They are sometimes troublesome, then I send them away. 
 When they are good I shove the glass tube deep down 
 into the bottle, and they are so delighted to see the air 
 bubbling up from the bottom. 
 
 ' When a man comes to have a tooth pulled even the 
 men are delighted, and advise him to have it out. They 
 want to see the fun. Mothers send their little boys for 
 medicine, and I am so pleased with some of the little lads. 
 They are so modest and so polite, making a deep bow as 
 they go away. Always be modest and polite, my sons, and 
 people will love you and treat you well. 
 
 * The boys buy a lot of books too, and I preach to them 
 earnestly, because in ten years to come they will be men, 
 and if they know about Jesus now they may more easily 
 become Christians some day soon. You, Jimmie, know 
 Jesus ; does Willie? Teach him. Mamma is not here to 
 teach him, and I am far away. You are his big brother. 
 Teach you him like a good laddie as you are. 
 
 * The other day when I was preaching a man was 
 standing behind me with a little black pig under his arm. 
 He wanted to hear me preach, but the pig would not be 
 quiet. He held its mouth shut, but the little pig would 
 still manage to give a squeak now and again. At ast it 
 would not be quiet at all, and he had to go away with it. 
 I could not help smiling at him. There is an old man 
 here in my inn. He is owner of the inn. His son manages 
 the inn. The old man is not very old. He is about sixty- 
 five. But he used to be a great opium smoker. A year or 
 more ago he had a very serious illness and gave up his 
 opium, but he had wrecked his health by his smoking. 
 He cannot now live many- months. He can hardly speak 
 plainly now. He comes to see me in my room, and I try 
 
248 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 to tell him about Jesus, hoping that he may be saved. He 
 listens, but he is not very bright in his mind. I hope he 
 may pray to Jesus. 
 
 ' The other day I had to pull my own tooth. It was the 
 back tooth and had been painful for days. There was no 
 one who could do it for me, so I sat down with a little 
 Chinese looking-glass before a candle, got a good hold of 
 it with the forceps, and after a good deal of wrenching out 
 it came. He zvas a deep-pronged fellow, and he did bleed. 
 I was so thankful that God helped me to get it out. I can 
 sleep now all right. 
 
 ' Our Mongol donkeyman wants to be a Christian. I 
 hope he is sincere, but he is very slow and dull at learning. 
 There are three other men here who are learning about 
 Jesus too, but it is too early yet to say much about them. 
 A good many people learn some, then stop. But it is late 
 and I must go to bed, else I won't be able to preach and 
 doctor all day in the market-place at the fair to-morrow. 
 
 ' Praying that God may bless you, my sons, and sending 
 you much love, ' I am your affectionate Father, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 ' Ta Cheng Tzu : Sept. 3, 1887. 
 
 ' My dear Sons, — I am well, and thankful for it. The 
 three Christians here come daily to evening worship. 
 There are here others who want to be Christians, but who 
 have not courage enough. One man's wife won't let him 
 be a Christian ; she says she will kill herself if he does. 
 Another man is in the same case. He is a Chinaman, his 
 wife is a Mongol. Still another man has a Mongol wife, 
 and she kept him back. The other day he came and con- 
 fessed Christianity. His wife does not consent, only says : 
 " We'll see." Another man's father hinders his son from 
 Christianity. The lad is a very nice lad. 
 
 * Yesterday was the day when people make offerings of 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 249 
 
 food and fruit at the graves. One of the Christians was 
 sent to do so. He brought the melon here, and we ate half 
 of it with him. 
 
 ' Still another man is forbidden by his father to be a 
 Christian. That is, in all, five men are Christians at heart, 
 and read our books and are learning Christianity, but do 
 not confess Christ in this one place. Do you know what 
 Jesus says about such people (Matt. x. 32-39) } Jesus 
 says that, if they obey others rather than Him, they are not 
 worthy to be His disciples. I am praying for all these 
 people. I ask you, too, to pray for these and all like them, 
 that they may be able to confess Christ. It is difficult for 
 men in China to be Christians. How different with you ! 
 We all want you to be Christians. Your father and friends 
 all help you to be Christians, and if you are not Christians 
 we are all distressed. 
 
 ' Boys, do be true to Jesus. In your words and deeds 
 honour Him. Make His heart glad. Jesus wants your 
 love. He loves you and died for you. You cannot but 
 love Him if you think how He loves you. Good-bye. Mean- 
 time I am just going to breakfast, and then for a day 
 on the street, trying to tell the people about Jesus. God 
 bless you, my dear lads ! 
 
 ' It is now afternoon. I write a few lines. A lad in a 
 shop here has a tame dove. He has painted it all over 
 different colours. It looks absurd. I don't like to see it 
 sitting about the shop. Doves look so happy flying about. 
 Mamma, too, liked to see birds on the trees and houses wild, 
 not kept in cages. 
 
 ' I guess you are just about getting your breakfast. 
 Here it is about 4 P.M. With you it should be 8 A.M. 
 Saturday ; I wish I could see you. My love to you, my dear 
 sons. May you always, both now and when grown, be 
 boys and men that know and love Jesus ! I pray for you. 
 Your loving father, * James Gilmour.' 
 
250 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 In August 1884 a third son was given to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Gilmour, whom they named Alexander. In 1887 spinal 
 trouble developed, and in December of that year he died. 
 ' Though often ill,' wrote his father when announcing the 
 death to the uncle after whom he had been named, * his life 
 was a happy one. It is now happier than ever. Thanks be 
 to God that there is, and that we know that there is, a 
 bright and happy life beyond. Let us make that the great 
 meeting-place for ourselves and our children and friends. 
 May it stand before us as a joy ! As ever and anon one 
 and another goes there, may we feel that we have more 
 and more interest there ! Let us live looking to the joy set 
 before us ! ' This baby-brother is the Alick referred to in 
 the following letter : — 
 
 'Ta Cheng Tzii, Mongolia : February 11, 1888. 
 
 ' My dear Sons, — I am well, and thankful for it. I got 
 here two days ago. I had such a cold time of it on the 
 road ! I never felt the cold so much before. 
 
 * People here are very busy. This is the last day of the 
 Chinese year. 
 
 ' To-morrow is the first day of the Chinese year. Every- 
 body is buying all sorts of food, because the shops do not 
 open for some days after the new year. They are very 
 busy, too, scraping off the old papers at the sides of their 
 doors and pasting up new papers. They (the papers) are 
 red, and look fine at first with the great black Chinese 
 characters written on them. But the sun after a while 
 takes the colour out of them. 
 
 ' They are busy, too, pasting up the new gods in their 
 houses. They (the gods) are sheets of paper with pictures 
 of gods on them. Every house has a god of the kitchen. 
 They send him to heaven, as they think, by burning him. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 251 
 
 They burnt the old one last Saturday. They are putting 
 up the new one now. They think that when he is burnt 
 he goes to heaven and reports to a god what he has seen 
 in the house during the year. I ask them if I burnt them 
 would they think they were going to heaven .'' They buy 
 sticky sugar-cakes to give him so that he may be pleased, 
 and not tell on them for doing evil things. They think 
 too, that the sugar sticks his lips together, so that when he 
 wants to tell on them he can't get his mouth open ! Isn't 
 it all very silly and very sad } The shopkeepers, too, paste 
 up a " god of riches," thinking that thus they will become 
 rich ! 
 
 ' To-morrow (Sunday) I hope to baptize a man. He is 
 a Chinaman. That will make four Christians here. They 
 all have faults and weaknesses, and I am not very easy in 
 my mind about them. Pray that God may make them 
 better and make them grow in grace. Pray, too, that God 
 may convert more of the people. Pray, too, that God may 
 give us a house of our own to live in. People here are 
 afraid to let us have a house. Now that Dr. Roberts is 
 coming, we will need a house. He is coming in six or 
 seven weeks. Then he stays two months, and goes back 
 to Tientsin for a while again. We saw the Christian at 
 Ta Ssvi Kou as we passed. The Ch'ao Yang man we have 
 not seen yet. 
 
 ' I have made all your letters to me into a book, and 
 have them with me. Your letters are nice to read, and 
 show great improvement in the writing. I am going to 
 keep all your letters this year too and bind them. You 
 may like to see them when you grow big. The last letter 
 from you is dated October 27. 
 
 * My dear sons, I think of you often and pray for you 
 much. 
 
 ' You have a photo of mamma's grave. Little Alick's little 
 mound is close to mamma's, on the side nearer little Edie's. 
 
252 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Mamma's and Alick's coffins touch down below. They He 
 together. But mamma and AHck are not there. They are 
 in heaven, with its golden streets and its beautiful river, 
 and its trees of life, and its beautiful gates, and its good, 
 loving, kind people, and Jesus and God. They are having 
 such a nice time of it there ! 
 
 ' My boys, don't be afraid of dying. Pray to Jesus, do 
 the things He likes, and if you die you will go to Him, to His 
 fine place, where you'll have everything that is nice and 
 good. I don't know whether you or I will go there first, 
 but I hope that by-and-by we'll all be there, mamma and 
 Alick and all. I like to think of this. Meantime let us 
 be doing for Jesus all we can, telling people about Him 
 and trying to persuade them to be His people. Are your 
 schoolfellows Jesus' boys ? Do you ever tell them of 
 Him .'' Tell them, my dear sons. 
 
 ' I hope to get letters from you in about a month. 
 
 ' Good-bye, my dear boys. 
 
 ' May you be good and diligent, and then you'll be 
 happy. Jesus can make you glad. 
 
 * Your loving Father, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 Mrs. Meech had shown much motherly kindness to her 
 little nephew Alexander, and only a few months after he 
 had died she herself lost a little son. Mr. Gilmour, on 
 hearing the sad tidings, wrote to her as follows : — 
 
 'Mongolia: March 25, 1888. 
 
 ' My dear Mrs. Meech, — Many congratulations and 
 condolences with you. Your little son has gone to Emily. 
 She'll look after the little man as you looked after her 
 little man. Just fancy ! we have family connections in 
 heaven not a few, and ever increasing. I hope you are 
 now getting better and going on all right. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 253 
 
 ' I am much cheered by the good news of soul movements 
 in the West Mission. May they continue and increase ! 
 
 ' With many prayers for you all, and kept in constant 
 remembrance of you all by the date block, 
 
 * Yours in loving sympathy, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 « May 30, 1888. 
 
 * I am doctoring a little homeless lad's head here. I put 
 on ointment all over it to-day. He cried. I said I had 
 medicine that would stop the pain, and brought out six 
 cash — one farthing — and told him to go and have a bowl 
 of buckwheat meal strings. All laughed, he stopped crying, 
 and did not seem to feel the pain after that. Most of the 
 people in the town are much impressed with the improve- 
 ment in the boy's head. Before he came to me I saw a 
 Chinese medicine-man poking at the lad's head with a 
 straw. When he came I rubbed on ointment with my V 
 finger. The bystanders were much pleased to see I was 
 not averse to touching the poor dirty lad's sore head. Jesus 
 touched a leper, and I like to do things like what Jesus 
 would do. That is the right way, boys. Always think 
 what Jesus would have done, and do like Him.' 
 
 ' Mongolia : Sept. 9, 1888. 
 
 ' My dear Sons, — I am out on a journey. I knew letters 
 were being sent me, and hoped to meet them. A long 
 way off I saw a red umbrella, the sun shining through the 
 oilcloth. The thought passed through my mind, " Can that 
 be the messenger .^ " But I forgot all about it, reading a 
 book as I walked along. All at once I heard, " He's come," 
 and looking up, saw the red umbrella close at hand. It 
 ivas him. The messenger returns to-morrow, I had had 
 no letters for eighty days. 
 
2 54 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' I wrote you last on August 2. Since then several men 
 have professed Christ, and one man has been baptized. 
 
 ' One of the Christians at Ta Cheng Tzu stole my bank- 
 book and drew money of mine, amounting to about 3/. 
 He says he is penitent, and we have put him on a year's 
 probation to see how he does. He is a lazy man. Long 
 ago I said, " If you are lazy, some day the devil will make 
 you a sinner," and so he did. Had he been a diligent man 
 he would not have been poor, and would not have stolen. 
 Diligence is a good thing, laziness is a bad thing. A 
 good Christian cannot be lazy, because he knows Jesus 
 does not like lazy people. I may write you again in a few 
 days. Hoping next mail to get a letter from you (there 
 was none this mail), and asking God to bless you in 
 everything, and guide you in all your life, 
 
 ' I am your loving Father, 
 
 'James Gilmour' 
 
 'Ch'ao Yang, Mongolia : Saturday, November 17, 188S. 
 
 ' My dear Sons, — On the street to-day I saw a crowd 
 standing. I went up to see what they were looking at, 
 and found two Chinese gentlemen showing off a trained 
 bird. One of the men stood down on the street. The 
 other put three little flags so that they stuck on the wall. 
 The bird then flew away, caught up a flag, and came flying 
 back to its master in the street, carrying the flag in its bill. 
 It looked very clever. Every time the bird brought a flag 
 it was rewarded by being fed with some nice food which it 
 liked. It was very pretty to see it. But after all it was a 
 very trifling employment for two grown gentlemen to be 
 engaged in. Even the crowd of ordinary Chinese seemed 
 to think so. 
 
 I don't like to see birds in captivity. It is pretty to 
 see them wild flying about, and to hear them singing, but 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 255 
 
 I pity them in cages, and tied by string as the Chinese are 
 fond of doing with them. When I see birds tied I often 
 think of mamma who used so much to Hke to see them 
 wild. 
 
 ' I remember one day in Mongolia mamma stopped me 
 from plucking a flower ; she said it looked so pretty grow- 
 ing. Another time a beetle flew and alighted somewhere ; 
 mamma said, " It is so glad that it is alive, don't hurt it." 
 
 * I am a good deal distressed to see the boys in the 
 market-place. They steal just as much as ever they can 
 from the sellers of straw and fuel, pluck out handfuls from 
 the bundles and run away not at all ashamed. If the 
 owner does not chase them they get off" with it. If he 
 throws down his load and runs after them they drop the 
 plunder, the owner picks it up, and no more is said 
 about it. 
 
 ' In summer little naked boys follow people carrying 
 fruit in open baskets and steal it as they can : it all 
 seems so dishonest, and no one seems to care. On the 
 street lots of people will see a thief stealing a man's pipe 
 and never say a word, because it is not their business.' 
 
 ' I often think of you and pray for you. You do not 
 forget mamma, I am sure. She is with Jesus. Be you 
 His lads, and do your lessons well, and He'll guide you all 
 through life. Be diligent and careful lads, and you'll grow 
 up useful and honoured men. Constantly tell Jesus all 
 your affairs. 
 
 * Goodbye meantime, my boys. 
 * Much love from your affectionate Father, 
 
 * James Gilmour.' 
 
256 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 CLOSING LABOURS 
 
 James GilmoUR remained in Great Britain less than eight 
 months. The society of his boys was a great deHght to 
 him. He rejoiced in renewed intercourse with relatives and 
 old friends. His religious convictions and his own spiri- 
 tual life deepened still more. He went to a considerable 
 number of meetings to speak on missionary work and 
 needs, and he everywhere produced a great impression. 
 
 Referring to this visit, and especially to his intercourse 
 with the boys, a near relative writes : — 
 
 ' It was a time full of interest and pleasure. What a 
 variety of moods, from the frolicsome to the pathetic, he 
 displayed ! But evidently his wife's death had laid hold 
 upon his very soul, and there seemed so much more of 
 sadness and tenderness than on his former visit, when he 
 had enjoyed her bright companionship. On one occasion, 
 referring to a medical missionary who had brought his 
 wife home from China hopelessly ill, and who was expect- 
 ing the end, he said : " Eh, man, he little knows the 
 terrible dark valley he has to come through, and if Christ 
 is not with him he will be undone ! " He spoke the words 
 as though he were again going through his own agony, and 
 then added : " But if Christ is with him he will come out of 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 257 
 
 it with victory, and Christ will be dearer. But he has no 
 idea what he has to face, though he thinks he has." 
 
 * He had looked forward to spending part of his time 
 with his sons at Millport, where he had spent June and 
 July 1883 with his wife and boys on his former visit. So 
 we went there for a month, and they had a good time 
 boating, and walking, and reviving old memories of the 
 happy home circle. The thought of reunion was always 
 made prominent. The boys must ever remember his 
 earnest efforts to lead their thoughts heavenward, and 
 they do think of heaven as a very real place. 
 
 ' While at Millport he spent several nights in pasting up 
 texts on every place likely to catch the eye ; on stones 
 and gateways and fences all round the island. He felt he 
 must work while time was granted to him. I had noticed 
 him making paste, but thought nothing of it. I had heard 
 the sound of a softly closing door at midnight, but thought 
 it must be fancy. It had gone to my heart to feel his icy 
 cold hand when he gave me his morning greeting. I 
 noticed the little texts pasted up, but never thought of 
 them as his work till the next day, when he began to make 
 more paste, and then the whole thing came to me like a 
 flash. I begged him with tears not to go out in the cold 
 night air, and said that I knew God would rather have him 
 stay in his warm comfortable bed and get well and strong. 
 He answered so kindly : " Sister, it pains me to grieve you." 
 But he finished his work nevertheless. 
 
 * He was always wonderfully considerate, and grateful 
 for any attention. Sometimes, when he saw me unusually 
 tired, he would go and get an extra pillow and make me 
 r^st on the sofa, or when we came to the table he would 
 
 R 
 
258 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 place me in a comfortable chair and pour out the tea him 
 self, or he would say : " Sister, take a cup yourself first, then 
 you will be able to help us." 
 
 ' On the day before he left us to return to China he 
 really said his farewell. We had finished dinner, and when 
 he went out he stood and looked in through the window at 
 the happy faces still around the table. He threw a kiss, 
 and then his feelings overcame him, his lip quivered, the 
 tears came to his ejes, and he hastened away. Later in 
 the day, when I was speaking hopefully of seeing him 
 again, he answered : " I shall see your face no more." 
 
 * I know he felt very much giving up the comforts of 
 civilised life, but he set his face to it. It touched me much 
 the last evening he was with us, when, after I had to 
 remind him two or three times of some business it was 
 needful for him to attend to before he would go, he said : 
 " I can hardly drag myself away from this bright cosy 
 scene." 
 
 ' His was a rarely sensitive soul. It pained him to hear 
 any one speaking evil of another. I have seen him turn 
 deadly pale when he has heard any one impute a wrong 
 motive. He longed for more of the spirit of Christ among 
 men. How he longed, too, for more workers in the Mission 
 field ! Many a time he would say, after a walk through 
 Hamilton on a Saturday evening: "Just think! In a 
 little town like this there are men preaching at every other 
 street corner, and I am alone in all of those hundreds of 
 square miles in Mongolia ! What you people are thinking 
 of I cannot imagine ! " ' 
 
 In a correspondence which he conducted with the 
 daughter of one of his former professors there is very much 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 259 
 
 that reveals how deep and strong his religious life had 
 become, and how he had noted the current of renewed 
 spirituality which is evident now in all sections of the 
 Evangelical Church. 
 
 From this correspondence we have been permitted to 
 cull some beautiful and helpful passages. 
 
 'Glasgow: November iS, 1SS9. 
 
 ' May He Himself lead you into closer and closer 
 communion with Him, and give you in very full measure 
 His joy and His peace ! For myself and for you, I 
 pray that we may be more captivated with Him and His 
 friendship. You know, I suppose. No. 565, " In the Secret 
 of His Presence," in the 750 edition of Sankey. No. 
 328, " O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found," is one I 
 like too, as being the expression of partly experience and 
 partly aspiration. He is truly the true source of true 
 satisfaction. May we be led to trust Him more largely in 
 all the things of our lives ! I am sure, too it will be the 
 things where we have trusted Him most and been most 
 consecrated in His service that we shall value most when 
 we look back on life from the end. May you be largely 
 satisfied with His blessing and Himself!' 
 
 ' November 20, 1889. 
 
 ' I wonder if your experience is anything like mine — 
 that I have often got less benefit than I had hoped from 
 special withdrawals from common surroundings to get 
 more into the presence of the Lord. One or two promi- 
 nent instances of this have happened to me. I am glad 
 He can be found anywhere, and that He is easy of access 
 always with favourable or unfavourable surroundings. 
 
 'About feeling — never mind that at all. Things are so 
 whether we feel them or not. Let us take God at His 
 
 R 2 
 
26o JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 word, and not consider our feelings. God refuses no one 
 who comes to Him in sincerity. Let us be sure of this. I 
 once heard Spurgeon say a good thing : " When doubts or 
 the devil comes and says, ' You are not saved ; you are 
 not right with God,' I go to Him and say, 'If I never 
 came before, I come now ; if I never trusted before, I trust 
 now.' " That cuts off all doubts about the present as stand- 
 ing on the past, and gives a fresh start. 
 
 'All over the kingdom there is a hunger and thirst 
 among many for a life of greater nearness to God ; a feeling 
 not only of the need of God being more of a daily, hourly 
 reality and factor in our life, but that without Him more 
 real and present life is not a satisfactory thing. When 
 this feeling takes possession of one, we do not need to give 
 up things as denying ourselves for Christ, so much as that 
 we are changed in attitude towards many things. We 
 drift away from them. Things that were gain to us we 
 count loss for Christ. Our aims are different. May our 
 lives be more fully taken captive thus ! To a life lived 
 thus, death is not a breaking off of anything ; it is an en- 
 largement of sphere.' 
 
 ' Hamilton : December 5, 1889. 
 
 ' All I know about the process is just going to God and 
 telling what I want, and asking to be allowed to have it. 
 " Seek, and ye shall find ; ask, and ye shall receive." I know 
 no secret but this. . . . God understands His scholars, and 
 knows how to teach each one. Different scholars may 
 require different ways. We may trust ourselves in His 
 hands, only let us be earnest students. I have at different 
 times been quite surprised how a book, or a friend, or a 
 remark conveying just the teaching needed at the time has 
 been brought into my way. Yes, none teach like Him.' 
 
 'December 25, 1889. — Oh that we may be more com- 
 pletely given over and up to Him, to be used at His plea- 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 261 
 
 sure and as He pleases ! Oh for more faith in Him ! My 
 lads are, I think, enjoying themselves ; I commit them to 
 Him ; but eh ! ' 
 
 ' J miliary i, 1890. — Just returned with my two lads 
 after a day spent in London seeing my ship, the " Peshawur " 
 The ship is full. My berth is not in a good place — but it 
 is not bad, after all, and it is not for long. . . . You'll have 
 lots of need of wisdom, and Jesus is made unto us wisdom 
 as well as other things. . . . He'll teach you all right. 
 Don't let us refrain for fear we make mistakes. The 
 greatest mistake we could make would be to do no- 
 thing. . . . 
 
 ' Everyone is amazed to see me look so well. It is 
 remarked on all round. I feel remarkably well too. . . . 
 
 ' May God be pleased to use me in His service ! ' 
 
 His heart was in Mongolia. At the very earliest 
 moment which the medical authorities and the Directors of 
 the London Missionary Society would sanction he re- 
 turned. He sailed for China on January 9, 1890. As the 
 steamer was running down the English Channel he wrote a 
 letter to an old college friend just returning to England 
 whom he had not seen for twenty years, and whom he was 
 very sorry to miss : — 
 
 ' In answer to yours of November 19 I directed an 
 envelope to you long ago. It has lain in my writing-case 
 ever since, often seen but always taken precedence of by 
 the thing that stepped in before. Now's your turn. I'm 
 sorry you'll not see me in England. I sailed yesterday 
 My health has been restored, and I am off again. 
 
 * You say you want reviving — Go direct to Jesus and 
 ask it straight out, and you'll get it straight away. This 
 revived state is not a thing you need to work yourself up 
 
262 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 into, or need others to help you to rise into, or need to 
 come to England to have operated upon you — Jesus can 
 effect it anywhere, and does effect it everywhere whenever 
 a man or woman, or men and women ask it. Ask and ye 
 shall receive. 
 
 ' My dear brother, I have learned that the source of 
 much blessing is just to go to Jesus and tell Him what 
 you need. I am delighted to hear you say you need 
 blessing, because I know there is plenty and to spare with 
 Jesus. Oh for an outpouring on all parts of the L.M.S. 
 missions ! 
 
 'There is so much that I would like to say that it is 
 hardly worth while beginning to say anything ; so I'll simply 
 commend you to Jesus in all His fulness.' 
 
 On January 21, 1890, when nearing Port Said, he 
 wrote : — 
 
 'We have excellent company on board. Never had 
 such a very pleasant voyage. Some of the First Salooners 
 come to our Bible readings. Those who are unfriendly to 
 Christianity are careful to give no cause of offence and are 
 polite. So far our voyage has been an exquisite picnic. 
 Knowing well what is before us, we still rejoice in the 
 present Elim and calmly trust for the future. I went on 
 board with a "tremendous cold." So did two or three 
 others. Mine, as I expected, went with the exposure. . . . 
 No one teaches like Him who also was the first of preachers. 
 In daily, hourly, humble communication with Him you 
 will want for no wisdom and for no guidance and for no 
 shepherding. Rejoice in that you have Him to manage 
 everything for you.' 
 
 He reached Peking on March 14, 1890, and on 
 March 24 started again for Mongolia. He entered upon 
 his last spell of work with a good heart and with high 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 263 
 
 hopes. Dr. Smith was to be his medical colleague. 
 While in England Mr. Gilmour had visited Cheshunt 
 College, and had there fired the heart of Mr. Parker with 
 the desire and purpose of being his colleague. He was 
 looking forward to his speedy arrival. During his absence 
 in England Dr. Smith had paid one brief visit to Mongolia 
 by himself, and another, still briefer, in the company of the 
 Rev. T. Bryson of Tientsin. Meanwhile the work had 
 been going on slowly and steadily under the care of the 
 native helper, Mr. Liu, and of some of the converts. We 
 now follow the storj^ of this last year's work as it is told in 
 Mr. Gilmour's letters and reports. On May 9, 1890, he 
 wrote to the Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson : — 
 
 * I have been all over the district, spending a month at 
 Ch'ao Yang. There we were privileged to baptize four 
 adults, one a woman, and one child, all Chinese. Two of 
 these were young men who have been under instruction 
 for eight or nine months, and are very pleasing cases 
 indeed. The other two were a man and his wife, who is 
 the first woman who has had courage to be baptized in 
 this district. These last are an outcome of the medical 
 work. They live in a small hamlet where the first 
 beginning of an interest in Christianity took its rise from a 
 man who came to me in the market-place with a bad sore in, 
 his leg, which had been caused by a wound from his own 
 harvest sickle. The sore was cured, and friendly relations 
 sprung up with the whole hamlet, and I am thankful to 
 hear that, though only one family has put away its idols, all 
 the neighbours are friendly. 
 
 ' In Ch'ao Yang there are several inquirers. Some of 
 the Christians give great satisfaction, others are not so 
 satisfactory. One man, a Christian, tells me that his wife' 
 
254 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 was possessed by an evil spirit, and to please her and cure 
 her he had to allow the re- establishment of the worship of 
 that spirit for her benefit. No sooner was this done than 
 the woman was cured ! Such things are firmly believed in 
 by the Chinese. 
 
 ' A most pleasing incident in our experience at Ch'ao 
 Yang was a visit from a well-to-do farmer who lives some 
 twenty li from the town. He has been friendly and an 
 inquirer from the first. He has made no profession of 
 Christianity, but says he reads his New Testament regu- 
 larly, and prays. He has also taught two men in his 
 neighbourhood. The one is a carpenter. The other is a 
 farmer. They know the Catechism, observe the Sunday, 
 and meet with Mr. Feng for worship. Both of these men 
 we saw, and their story seems true. Feng came and spent 
 a day with us. I asked him why he did not make an open 
 profession of Christianity. His reply was that he lives 
 with his parents, as all Chinese do, and that he cannot 
 arrange his house disregarding them, who with his wife 
 and children are still heathen. He has been able only 
 partially to do away with idols in his own house. Outside 
 too of his own house heathen pressure is so great that, he 
 says, were he to join Christianity it would be no use for him 
 to live ! He says he lacks the courage single-handed to 
 meet all the persecution that would descend on him were 
 he baptized. Meantime he is instructing those about him 
 in the hope, apparently, that were there several together 
 they could better stand the trouble. It is an interesting 
 case, but not at all satisfactory. My hope about him is 
 that, if he keeps conversant with the Word of God, the 
 Spirit may give him no rest till he has courage to take his 
 stand and make his confession. 
 
 'We had a splendid month in the market-place. Chinese 
 and Mongols in plenty, both to preach to and to heal. One 
 Mongol betrayed a most intimate and full knowledge of 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 265 
 
 Christianity. The drought gave good opportunity of speak- 
 ing of many things, and in most cases we had respectful 
 attention. It was a Jiard month's work. Seven till noon 
 or a little after was our market time ; the afternoon private 
 patients, the evening inquirers, makes a very long day, 
 which begins at daylight and does not end till after the 
 second watch of the night has been set. The Chinese 
 usually secure a rest just after noon, but frequently just 
 then some patient would turn up, and put an end to quiet. 
 In most cases the strain is relieved by holidays through 
 rain and storm ; but even this was wanting this time, so we 
 had almost uninterrupted work. 
 
 • I am more than ever eager to have the medical work 
 given over to a medical man. One day in Ch'ao Yang a 
 man came swaggering across the open space in the market- 
 place. People pointed towards him and laughed. He was 
 laughable, the ridiculous part of him being a straw hat 
 which was an imitation, caricature rather, of a foreigner's 
 hat. I could not help laughing. It was no laughing 
 matter, though. He was a messenger from the cavalry 
 camp just outside the town. He had come to take me to 
 treat two soldiers who had received bullet-wounds in an 
 encounter with Mongolian brigands. I had never seen a 
 bullet-wound in my life, but I knew I could do more for 
 the wounded men than any Chinese doctor ; so I went. The 
 wounds were then forty-eight hours old, and I dressed them 
 as best I could, paying a daily visit for about a fortnight. 
 Two wounds, though deep, were merely flesh ; with these I 
 had no difficulty. The third was a bone complication. I 
 knew nothing of anatomy, had no books, absolutely nothing 
 to consult ; what could I do but pray t And the answer was 
 startling. The third morning, when in the market-place 
 attending to the ordinary patients, but a good deal preoc- 
 cupied over the bone case, which I had determined should 
 be finally dealt with that day if possible at all, there tottered 
 
266 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 up to me through the crowd a live skeleton, the outline of 
 nearly every bone quite distinct, covered only with yellow 
 skin, which hung about in loose folds. I think I see him 
 yet — the chin as distinctively that of a skeleton as if it 
 had bleached months on the plain. The man was about 
 seventy, wore a pair of trousers, and had a loose garment 
 thrown over his shoulders. He came for cough medicine, 
 I think ; if so, he got it ; but I was soon engaged fingering 
 and studying the bone I had to see to that afternoon. I 
 was deeply thankful, but amidst all my gratitude the thing 
 seemed so comical that I could not help smiling, and a 
 keen young Chinaman in the crowd remarked, in an under 
 tone, " That smile means something." So it did. It meant, 
 among other things, that I knew what to do with the 
 wounded soldier's damaged bone ; and in a short time 
 his wound was in a fair way of healing. I was and am 
 very thankful ; but, after all, I am more impressed than 
 ever with the fact that things are badly out of joint when 
 there are lots of Christian doctors at home, and abroad 
 too, and I, knowledgeless, am left to do the doctoring 
 in a large district like this quite beyond the reach of 
 medical help, not only for the natives but even for myself 
 should I need it. 
 
 ' A grim commentary on these wounds was the fact that in 
 leaving Ch'ao Yang I was to pass through a brigand-infested 
 district — so badly infested that travellers have abandoned 
 the road. As saith the Scripture, " The highways were un- 
 occufried, and the travellers walked through byways." I 
 had avoided this road twice, and was ashamed to avoid it 
 again, so we went straight through it. We saw no one to 
 harm us, but a week ago it was just as likely that I should 
 to-day have been lying on a Chinese kang, trying to dress 
 my own wounds, as that I should have been sitting here 
 writing to you, 
 
 ' I am at present waiting for Dr. Smith, whose last word 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 267 
 
 to mc, dated Tientsin, April 9, was that I should cither see 
 him or hear from him here between June 6 and 12. 
 
 ' Yesterday, Sunday, June 8, had a pleasant day. The 
 three Christians here have grown. Two of them have been 
 through a good deal of trouble and stood it well. The 
 farmer, who has been very ill, guessing we would be here, 
 came in and spent the day with us. They seem very 
 earnest.' 
 
 The beneficial result of the home visit of 1 889 was very 
 evident at this time. It had arrested the ' running down,' 
 from which he had severely suffered. It had enabled him to 
 renew old friendships, and to form new ones. His whole- 
 hearted devotion to the difficult work of his life and the 
 wonderful intensity and depth of his faith had touched the 
 hearts of many faithful men and women at home, who 
 gladly responded to his oft-repeated request, * Pray for me 
 and for the conversion of the Chinese and the Mongols.' He 
 renewed his interest in the broad current of the world's 
 life. We have seen how some years previously he gave up 
 all reading but the Bible. Now, while he studied the 
 Bible with all his old eagerness, he had various newspapers 
 sent to him, he rejoiced in the receipt of books sent by 
 friends — especially those bearing upon the culture of the 
 soul — and he kept his eye upon the religious and social 
 movements of the day. 
 
 The selections from his correspondence which follow 
 illustrate these changes in him. He modified his mode of 
 life in Mongolia. Having given up vegetarianism on his 
 homeward voyage he did not resume it upon his re-entrance 
 on Mongol life. He remained a total abstainer, and his 
 hatred of opium, whisky, and tobacco continued as strong 
 
268 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 as ever, although he did not now make abstinence from 
 the two latter a test of Church membership. He reserved 
 more of the Sunday as a day of rest, taking only the 
 religious services with the Christians and inquirers, and not, 
 as formerly, setting up his tent on the street. The old 
 careworn look disappeared, his form regained much of its 
 former life and spring, and his face filled out, his smile 
 resumed the brightness of old, and the voice came back to 
 a good deal of its early clearness. All these evidences of 
 a change for the better served to augur many years of 
 happy work. In a letter to a friend he playfully alludes 
 to the twenty or thirty years of labour yet remaining, and 
 he often — half in jest and half in earnest — asserted that life 
 in the interior was so healthy that he should probably out- 
 live his fellow-workers at Tientsin and Peking. 
 
 By the mail that conveyed the letter quoted on page 
 263 he also wrote to an Edinburgh friend : — 
 
 ' Do you know Adolphe Monod's Farewell} It was sent 
 to me lately by Rev. C. New, of Hastings, an old Cheshunt 
 fellow-student. I have enjoyed it all, but most, I think, 
 chapter xii., " Of Things not seen." A volume of sermons, 
 entitled The Baptism of the Spirit, and other Sermons, by 
 Mr. New, I have enjoyed intensely. To the meek child- 
 like spirit desiring the sincere nourishing of the Word 
 nothing, I think, could be more helpful. . . . If ever you 
 send a book to the boys, let it be one that will do their 
 souls good. 
 
 ' I may be filling my life too full, but between medical 
 work and spiritual work I have barely time to sleep, and I 
 find that, for any hope of continuance of work, I must have 
 time to sleep. For the last month I have been getting up 
 at 4.30 A.M., and our evening worship and after con versa- 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 269 
 
 tion was not over till, say, 9 or 9.15 or 9.30, or even, once 
 or twice, till 10 p.m. Then it would take us some time to 
 square up the day's affairs, and spread out my bedding. 
 In the daytime I used to bolt my door, determined on an 
 hour's quiet ; but often this was in vain. I would hear 
 some poor cultivator come for medicine ; he had a long 
 way to go home, and I could not but let him in and attend 
 to him. 
 
 ' Yesterday, as no one knew we were here, I escaped at 
 5.30 and made for the hot springs, twelve miles away. I 
 walked there and back, and in consequence to-day am lame 
 on my feet — badly blistered. I had a grand day — so quiet. 
 Going, I sat down behind a mud wall and read the four 
 first chapters of Hebrews. Arrived, I had my bath, then 
 got an empty room in an inn, had sleep, dinner, tea, and 
 read the rest of Hebrews. I never saw so much in Hebrews 
 before. . . . On the road I had a four-mile conversation 
 with a farmer, who finally said he believed Christianity was 
 true. We have baptized six in all since I returned, five 
 adults and one child — all Chinese. " Be not weary in well- 
 doing. In due time we shall reap, jf we faint not." We 
 are on God's side. God has need of us. Oh let us be 
 such as God can take pleasure in ! Faithfulness and love 
 to Him are what He wants. Surely we can let Him have 
 these two. Oh that it might be that everyone in every 
 contact with us might feel the spiritual touch ! Would 
 not this be ideal Christian life ? May He work it in us ! 
 
 ' Have you been to any Salvation Army efforts ? I always 
 felt better for going, but latterly did not go much — I could 
 not stand the " row." I am eager that you should identify 
 yourself with some soul-saving agency. If it really is a 
 soul-saving concern, I don't think it matters very much 
 what it is.' 
 
 On July 21, 1890, he wrote to the same friend : — 
 
 ' Since July 3 we have had most extraordinary weather 
 
270 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 for this part — rain and dull ; there have been only four or 
 five days when I could go on to the street with my tent. 
 I am therefore not so busy. In addition, Dr. Smith has 
 joined me, and as he does all the indoor medical work, I am 
 still less busy, and so I can write you more at leisure than 
 usual. 
 
 ' The rain reached a climax on Saturday night, July 19. 
 Till then, roofs and walls held out well. There were leaks 
 in places, but nothing serious. We thought it had cleared 
 off. Not a bit of it. The wind changed, it is true, but the 
 rain came down in torrents, the ceilings — all reeds and 
 paper — began to give way. Ever and anon splash came 
 a bag of water, as the paper burst in different places, and 
 Dr. Smith and I had a lively time of it shifting our boxes 
 and bedding to dry spots. By dusk it was serious. I was 
 just about my wits' end when a Chinaman put his head 
 into my room, and said with a grin, half in jest, half in 
 earnest, " There is a tent standing idle out in that room, 
 why not put it up in your room 1 " The idea of putting up 
 a tent in your bedroom seemed so- absurd that we had a 
 good laugh over it ; but after thinking over it awhile, and 
 thinking out how the tiling could be done, we actually did 
 it. It covered two-thirds of my kang, and a little space 
 on the floor where I put my boxes. The inner corner of 
 the tent I put up to cover my stock of books and medi- 
 cines, lit my lamp, brewed a pot of tea, and, squatting on 
 my feet, called in Dr. Smith. He said I looked "just like 
 an opium-smoker." Dr. Smith had a portable iron bed- 
 stead. On the top he put floor mats and a waterproof, 
 and, without undressing, we went to bed. After a little a 
 great crash was heard. Some part of the buildings had 
 come down. In the rain and dark it was not easy to see 
 what it was, but we at last found there had been more 
 noise than real damage. We were thankful when day 
 dawned. 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 271 
 
 * The Chinese suffered much more than we did. Such 
 a rain happens so seldom — once in three or four or five 
 years — that houses are not roofed to resist it ; the Chinese 
 deeming it cheaper to take the wetting than to spend the 
 extra money it would take to make the house stand such 
 an extra rain, 
 
 ' In the wet weather I have been going into the 
 Chinese Psalms, and have been much struck with the 
 happy state of those who " fear the Lord," " trust in the 
 Lord," and who, under a variety of expressions, are de- 
 scribed as being on the Lord's side, and under His 
 protection. 
 
 'And all these promises we can take for ourselves. 
 Did you see in Tlie Christian some time ago a story from 
 Annan, of an old woman who was on the point of being 
 sold out for not paying her rent .-' She had no money. 
 Her son was in America. A neighbour, thinking it strange 
 that her son had not sent her money, asked to see her 
 letters. There was one with a Post-office Order for 7/. los. 
 in it. She had had it for some time, but thought it was only 
 a picture. When cashed she was in funds. Wasn't she a 
 stupid old woman .? To be bankrupt, with an uncashed 
 P.O. Order in her possession ! How often we are much 
 more stupid than she ! To be fearful, anxious, troubled, 
 cast down, when we have all the promises of God in our 
 possession, ready for our use. 
 
 ' Let us cash our cheques. Nay, we have not only 
 God's promises, but God Plimself for our portion. Why 
 should we be spiritually bankrupt ? 
 
 * Another thing I notice is the difference subjective 
 states make in reading the Psalms. Sometimes I go over 
 a Psalm and see little in it. At another time I go over 
 the same Psalm and find it full of richness. How impor- 
 tant it is to have the light of the Holy Spirit in our 
 Scripture reading ! ' 
 
272 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ^ July 30. — The little Wordless Book you sent soon fell 
 into the hands of a Chinese convert, who asked to be allowed 
 to carry it off. He wants to speak from it. He likes it 
 because it gives him carte blanche, and lets him say just 
 what he likes. . . . 
 
 ' How full the Psalms are ! These days I am going 
 through them in Chinese, as I said ; I take one each 
 morning and commit some verses of it carefully. Then, 
 during the day, as time permits, I read a few more. How 
 one the soul of man is ! When dull and cold and dead, 
 and feeling as if I could not pray, I turn to the Psalms. 
 When most in the spirit, the Psalms meet almost all the 
 needs of expression. And yet deluded men talk of the 
 Bible as the outcome of the Jewish mind ! The greatest 
 proof of the Divine source of the book is that it fits the 
 soul as well as a Chubb's key fits the lock it was made 
 for. . . Now I am off to the street with my tent.' 
 
 ' Mongolia : July 28, 1890. 
 
 ' My dear Meech, — Dr. Smith came here July 2. The 
 rains set in immediately on his arrival, and we have had it 
 since. The spiritual rain has not come yet, nor are there 
 any signs of it. When it does come may it come like the 
 physical rain ! Glad to see you have been having some. 
 May you have much more ! Make the valley full of ditches, 
 brother, and then look out for the flood. Do you think 
 we'll be able to go up to Him at last and say, " We did our 
 part, but you did not do yours, Lord " ? Eh, man ! Elijah 
 called down fire with a short prayer, but his servant 
 made six vain journeys to the summit only to return with 
 the discouraging news — nothing. May the good Lord, who 
 knows our frame and remembers we are dust, give us a little 
 now and again, at any rate, if only to keep us going mean- 
 time ! Eh, man ! there will be no lack on His part. He'll 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 273 
 
 shine up all right, not only to perform, but to succour His 
 servants who trust in Him.' 
 
 'July 28, 1890. 
 
 ' My dear Owen, — I know worry should be an unknown 
 element in a believer's experience. I am eager to have done 
 with it. I thank Him for much of its absence. But dis- 
 satisfaction with the present state of things is not worry, but 
 legitimate soul-longing, and the death of that would be a 
 bad thing. 
 
 ' I can hardly tell how I am. Since Dr. Smith came I 
 have taken little note of inward things or outward either. 
 It is very pleasant to have him here, and as the best sign 
 of digestion is not to know one has a stomach or a digestion, 
 is the best sign of spiritual health not to know one has a 
 soul at all ? . I wonder is this so ? His presence has made 
 a difference. Duty has kept me living quietly in good 
 lodgings, with only such work as I can easily do without 
 any over-rush, and the prospect of another month like it ! 
 I fear I am not such company to him as he is to me. 
 
 * We have had terrible rains ; the rivers were not crossed 
 for five or six days, and, even after that, two men were 
 swept away on two separate days — four men, in all, from 
 this one town alone. 
 
 ' I know you pray for us here. Eh, man ! if the thing 
 would move, if the rain would come ! " As the eyes of 
 servants" etc. (Psalms cxxiii., cxxvi.). I often read these 
 Psalms together. And then I think what would please me 
 best as a master would be to see my .servant going ahead, 
 energetically, and faithfully, and loyally with his work, not 
 moping about downcast. Then is not this what God wants 
 in us ? So here goes cheerily and trustfully.' 
 
 ' August 10, 1890. 
 ' I cannot say God gives me all the victories I want, 
 but He keeps me in peace and faith, and that is not a little 
 
 S 
 
274 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 thing. My devotional reading lately has taken the form 
 of the Chinese Psalms, and Schereschewsky's high Chinese 
 notwithstanding (for which may he be forgiven), they are 
 very refreshing and strong. How like are the heart- 
 longings and soul-breathings of the old Judcan hunted 
 outlaw — brigand, if you like to call him so — to the heart 
 and soul feelings of the educated Occidental of the nine- 
 teenth century ! Poor old Moses, another outlaw, what 
 a battered old life he led, but what a grand soul, and how 
 wonderfully he outlived it all, and was quite hale when 
 called to die! How his people troubled him ! — so like the 
 Chinese Fancv Moses going up the mountain to die 
 alone. It is so nice to have a later glimpse of him in the 
 New Testament alongside of Elijah, who too was once 
 under a c'oud. God does not keep up things. "As far as 
 the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our 
 transgressions from us." Love to all. 
 
 'Jame.s Gilmour.' 
 
 ' Ch'ao Vang, August 19, 1890. 
 
 My dear Sons; — I have just got here after a very hard 
 journey of four days. It is summer and the rains are on ; 
 the roads are very bad. 
 
 Our first adventure was in a deep narrow gully going 
 up a mountain. We met a cart coming down. There 
 was no room to pass and no room to turn back. What were 
 we to do ? One of the carts had to be pulled up the bank. 
 Neither would go up. Both carters sat and looked at 
 each other. Our cart was heavy, the other cart was light. 
 After looking at each other awhile the other cart was 
 pulled up and our carter helped him down again after we 
 had passed. 
 
 ' Our next adventure was in a river. The leading mule 
 sank in a quicksand. The carter, shoes and all, jumped 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 275 
 
 into the water ; in a few seconds I had stripped all but a 
 cinglet and pants, and was in the river too. We got out 
 after a little while. 
 
 ' Next day we stuck in a quagmire. We hitched the 
 mules to the tail of the cart, pulled it out, then dug a new 
 road in the side of the ravine and got past. 
 
 ' The third day we upset our cart in a very muddy place 
 early in the morning, and got caught in a thunder- shower 
 in the afternoon. The fourth day we stuck in a mud-hole 
 half a mile from the end of our journey, and when we got 
 to our inn found our rooms in possession of a crowd of 
 people doing a wedding. 
 
 ' One thing made the journey very pleasant : it was this. 
 Just as we were starting, one of the Christians, a Chinese 
 farmer, but a man who is poor and dresses and eats very 
 poorly, came and gave me two tiao, about 3^. 2d., to give 
 to God. I was so glad to see him do it, and no doubt God 
 was glad too. Then at the end of the journey, when we 
 were stuck in the mud-hole and could not get out, up came 
 one of the Christians, took off his stockings and shoes, 
 went into the mud and helped us out. The country was 
 very beautiful all the way — just at its best' 
 
 In a letter to another correspondent he depicts what is 
 involved in Chinese travelling during the wet season : — 
 
 ' The last thing we had to do was to make a journey of 
 eighty miles. You would soon do that in England. Here, 
 in August, it is no easy matter. It is just the time when, 
 on account of the rains, no one should travel, and no one 
 does travel who can help it. Carts would not go. I had 
 to find my way home from a cart inn the night before we 
 started along a newly rained-on muddy Chinese street in 
 the dark. Next day I had much brightness shed on the 
 journey by one of the Chinese Christians — a poor man with, 
 
:76 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 oh, so poor a coat — giving a donation to print Christian 
 books. It amounted to about ;3'i.oo (one dollar) in all, but 
 it meant a lot of self-denial to him ; and as I passed, a little 
 later, the drought-parched district where he lived, and looked 
 at the poor fields, I wondered where he got the money. I 
 suppose God gave him the heart to give it Starting a 
 journey with such a bit of light made it cheery. 
 
 ' We travelled at those eighty miles four days, and 
 rested one Sabbath, five days in all. Within three-quarters 
 of a mile of the end of our journey our cart stuck in a mud- 
 hole. We had passed, shortly before, the cottage of a Chris- 
 tian, and, after we had been some half-hour or more in that 
 hole, this Christian suddenly appeared on the scene. He is a 
 great fellow for being neat and clean. In a few moments he 
 was in the mud, ordering about the carter, shouting at the 
 mules, and lifting at the stern of the cart. Even the mules 
 felt there was some new factor added to the problem. They 
 made a new effort and out the cart came. Would you 
 credit it ? A cart had been upset there some days before ; 
 it was said they had lost some thirty shillings in silver. The 
 natives, hoping to find the money, literally dug up the high- 
 way and left a pit there. We did not know this, thought it 
 was an ordinary pool, and drove straight into it. The Chris- 
 tian touch at the beginning of the journey, and the little 
 Christian adventure at the end, made the journey and its 
 remembrance quite pleasant. 
 
 ' I am now reading Moule's Veni Creator, which came 
 a few days ago. What helps me most just at present is 
 the Psalms. I take a few verses every morning (almost), 
 and learn off the Chinese translations of them. I never 
 knew there was so much in the Psalms before. I believe 
 that even at the end of a long life, this (discovery of more 
 and more in God's Word) will hold true of all the Bible, and 
 then for the beyond there is the Inexhaustible Himself — 
 satisfaction for the present and plenty for the future. 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 277 
 
 * The endless sorrows and sufferings of this people here 
 come home much to me. I see much of their bodily- 
 suffering, and in some feeble measure bear their sorrows and 
 carry their griefs without being able to relieve them much. 
 How dead and dark they are to things spiritual ! ' 
 
 Dr. Smith, who spent some weeks with Mr. Gilmour 
 during this summer, has sent the following most interesting 
 sketch of his daily life at this period. They were together 
 for the most part at Ta Ssu Kou. 
 
 * He always got up at daylight, folded up bedding, and 
 then began reading. About six a man arrived, selling hot 
 millet and bean porridge. He bought two bowls of this 
 for early breakfast. He continued reading Chinese, gene- 
 rally aloud ; and when he came to a difficult word he re- 
 peated it again and again, in order to impress it upon his 
 memory. About eight he had breakfast, consisting of 
 Chinese rolls and a cup of cocoa. 
 
 * At nine he went to the street with his tent, Mr. Liu, 
 the native preacher, accompanying him. One of the inn- 
 servants assisted the latter in carrying tent and medicine 
 boxes and in erecting same. The tent was erected in 
 a broad street at the back of our inn, where a daily 
 market was held. The medicine boxes were placed on 
 a little table, in front of which stood a wooden form and 
 another at the side. The patients were seated on these. 
 Any difficult cases were sent to the inn to be treated 
 by me. On the table were also a number of copies of 
 various tracts and portions of Scripture. Mr. Gilmour 
 dispensed medicines, talked and preached as the oppor- 
 tunity offered. 
 
 * About one he returned to the inn, and had dinner, con- 
 sisting of meat, etc., which was bought at a Chinese cook- 
 
278 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 shop. About three we generally took a walk to the coun- 
 try. We used to go out to look at the various crops, and 
 Mr. Gilmour would chat away to one and another whom we 
 met on the road. He was generally recognised, and in the 
 most friendly way. I have a very pleasant recollection of 
 these times ; often our conversation would turn to home, to 
 our boys and friends. Sometimes he would tell me about 
 his student friends, while at other times he used to tell me 
 of his deputation work at home, and about the various 
 people he had met there. 
 
 * Often a gentleman would come up and ask, " Where are 
 you going } " to which Mr. Gilmour would reply, " We are 
 cooling ourselves ; we are going nowhere." It was always 
 a mystery to people what we could possibly mean by taking 
 walks to the country. One day two lads followed us for 
 some miles across some low hills, anxious to know our busi- 
 ness, and getting well laughed at by their friends, poor 
 fellows, on their return to the town. 
 
 * One thing about Mr. Gilmour always impressed me 
 deeply— his wonderful knowledge of the little touches of 
 Chinese politeness, and his wonderful power of observation. 
 He loved the Chinese — looked upon them and treated 
 them as brothers, and was a man who lived much in prayer ; 
 and in this lay his great power as a missionary. 
 
 'When he met a Mongol he would exchange a few 
 words of Mongol with him, and it was wonderful to see 
 the man's face light up as he heard his own tongue. All 
 the Mongols knew that he could speak their language, and 
 as one of the few who did. 
 
 * As we returned to the town and were walking along 
 the street, many of the passers-by would bow ; and here and 
 there a shopkeeper would give him a friendly bow. Some- 
 times he would buy a few peaches or apples, and not un- 
 frequently he would give a sweetmeat vendor two cash 
 for two sweets, handing one to me. 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 279 
 
 * About half-past four we returned to the inn, and then 
 as a rule, some people would be there waiting to see him 
 Mr. Sun, the box-maker, used often to come to read the 
 Scriptures with Mr. Gilmour, and then they would discuss 
 various points ; Mr. Sun giving his opinion, and then Mr 
 Gilmour putting him right. Sometimes an outsider would 
 drop in, and then, not unfrequently, Mr. Sun would talk to 
 him about the Gospel. 
 
 ' About six Mr. Gilmour had some cocoa and bread. 
 At the time of the lighting of the candles Mr. Gilmour had 
 made it a rule for the Christians to assemble for evening 
 prayers, and, accordingly, they all turned up then. A 
 Chinese table was placed in the centre of Mr. Gilmour's 
 room, and three wooden forms were placed round the table 
 for the accommodation of the preacher and the Christians. 
 Mr. Gilmour and I used to sit on chairs at the vacant side 
 of the table. On the table stood two Chinese candle- 
 sticks, each surmounted by a Chinese candle. A Chinese 
 candle is made from the castor bean, and is fixed to the 
 candlestick by running the iron pin on the latter into a 
 hollow straw in the end of the candle. Then we also had 
 a Chinese oil lamp. The upper vessel is simply a little 
 earthenware saucer, containing a little oil, and in it lie some 
 threads of cotton (a cotton wick). This is made to project 
 over the edge of the saucer and is then lighted. The lower 
 part of the lamp is simply an earthenware receptacle, in 
 which the oil for replenishing the lamp is kept, and, while 
 in use, the little lamp is supported in it. This often used 
 to remind me of the parable of the virgins, and in reading 
 that parable by the light of such a lamp one is able to 
 make it very realistic to Chinamen. 
 
 ' Our evening worship consisted in first singing a hymn, 
 Mr. Gilmour leading. Then Mr. Gilmour offered up a 
 short prayer ; after which we read a chapter either in the 
 Old or New Testament, reading verse about. Each man 
 
28o JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 had a copy of the Scriptures. Then Mr. Gilmour gave a 
 Httle address on the chapter ; after which we had another 
 prayer — one of the Christians being asked this time. Then 
 another hymn and the benediction. 
 
 ' Usually one or more of the Christians would remain 
 chatting with Mr. Gilmour. As soon as they had gone we 
 had a cup of cocoa together. Then Mr. Gilmour and I 
 used to have evening prayers together. He used to read a 
 chapter from a little book by Mr. Moule, and then we both 
 prayed. 
 
 ' After this we used to sit chatting together until bed- 
 time, and so ended a day.' 
 
 In August 1890 Dr. Smith lost his wife, who as Miss 
 Philip had become known and beloved by a large number 
 of friends of the London Missionary Society, both in Great 
 Britain and Australia. He had also become so ill that the 
 ensuing weakness, together with the great shock of his 
 wife's sudden loss, compelled him, early in 1 891, to return 
 to England on a visit. Before doing so he was able to 
 take Mr. Parker, the young and active colleague appointed 
 to assist Mr. Gilmour, out to Mongolia, reaching Ta Ssu 
 Kou on December 5. Greatly encouraged by the arrival 
 of his young helper, Mr. Gilmour was grievously dis- 
 appointed by the enforced return of Dr. Smith, and the 
 indefinite postponement of the hospital scheme that was so 
 near to his heart, and upon which he always asserted, in 
 his judgment, the ultimate success of the mission depended. 
 But discipline of this kind only drove him back more 
 entirely upon God. In a letter to Mr. Owen, dated 
 December 29, 1890, he writes : — 
 
 About myself I have lots to be thankful for. I am 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 281 
 
 mostly in the light, sometimes very sweetly. Sometimes, 
 though, it is cold and dark ; but I just hold on, and it is all 
 right. Romans viii. I find good reading in dull spiritual 
 weather, and the Psalms too are useful. When I feel I 
 cannot make headway in devotion, I open at the Psalms 
 and push out in my canoe, and let myself be carried along 
 in the stream of devotion which flows through the whole 
 book. The current always sets towards God, and in most 
 places is strong and deep. These old men — eh, man ! they 
 beat us hollow, with all our New Testament and all our 
 devotional aids and manuals. And yet I don't know. In 
 the old time there were giants — one here and there. Now 
 there are many nameless but efficient men of only ordinary 
 stature. 
 
 ' Brother, let us be faithful. That is what God wants. 
 What He needs. What He can use. I was greatly struck 
 by one saying of Mrs. Booth's. It will not be so very 
 different there (in heaven) to what it is here. I guess she 
 is right. I guess there will be differences of occupation 
 there as here, and I guess that our life here is a training 
 for life and work there. Oh the mystery ! How thin a 
 wall divides it from us ! How well the secret has been 
 kept from of old till now ! May the richest blessings be on 
 you and yours and your work ! 
 
 * Yours affectionately, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 The year 1891 found Mr. Gilmour hard at work as 
 usual, in good health and spirits, and with the hope and 
 apparently the prospect of many years of service before 
 him. And yet, just as the summer was beginning, he 
 was called to the presence of the King, and to the per- 
 fect work and fellowship of ' the Church of the firstborn.' 
 Had he been able to choose his fate he would hardly have 
 
282 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 wished it other than it was. His work in Mongolia was 
 steadily growing ; slowly, it is true, but yet gaining a 
 strength and impetus that will abide, and has well begun 
 the conquest of Mongolia for Christ. Though practically 
 without a medical colleague, and actually without the 
 hospital for which he had so toiled and prayed, he was 
 cheered and strengthened by the constant presence and 
 fellowship of Mr. Parker. His letters are all in a cheery 
 and buoyant strain, and, although referring not unfre- 
 quently to the future life, without a hint or a suspicion 
 that he was in any degree conscious of the rapid way in 
 which the days of his earthly life were running out. In a 
 letter to Mr. Thompson, dated January 7, he says, * You 
 will be glad to hear I am in good health and spirits.' 
 
 To Mr. Owen he wrote on March 2 : — 
 
 * Does God not mean to have a medical man here ? I 
 wonder ! Wondering, I tell Him as I tell you, and try to 
 leave it with Him, and in very great part do leave it to 
 Him too. It is good to have His calm mercy and help. 
 How's your soul, brother? I'll tell you how mine is — 
 eager to experience more of the Almighty power inworking 
 inside. Eager to be more transformed. Less conformed 
 to the world. Eager to touch God more, and have Him 
 touch me more, so that I can feel His touch. 
 
 ' I am distressed at so few conversions here. But again 
 sometimes very fully satisfied in believing I am trying to 
 do His will. That makes me calm. I am scared at our 
 property venture, but again trust in God, and the fears 
 subside. The world to come, too, sometimes looms up 
 clear as not far distant, and the light that shines from 
 that makes things seem different a good deal' 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 283 
 
 From other letters that remain we catch glimpses of 
 the course of his action and thought during these last 
 weeks. During the year 1869 he met in Edinburgh Mrs. 
 Swan, the widow of one of the pioneers of the Mongol 
 Mission of 18 17 to 1841, and that interview gave the chief 
 direction to the work of his life. In March 1891 he heard 
 of Mrs. Swan's death, and he wrote to Miss Cullen, her 
 niece, the following letter : — 
 
 * I sent you a post-card acknowledging receipt of your 
 kind letter of December 10, saying that Mrs. Swan had 
 passed away on November 22. I had not heard, and just 
 then I had not time to write. I am now at the east end 
 of my district, three days' journey from where the mail 
 reached me. 
 
 * I am much moved to think that letter to me was her 
 last. And there is a fitness that it should be so. " Baptized 
 for the dead," as the phrase is. In some sense I am suc- 
 cessor to her work, and it was not out of keeping that her 
 last letter should have been to the field which all along 
 had such a large place and keen interest in her heart, 
 where so many more good works found a place. I often 
 think of all the kindness and friendship I have experienced 
 at her hands, both on my visits to Edinburgh and through 
 letters. Missionaries miss such lives much when they are 
 removed. I need not speak to you, who knew her so well, 
 of what a charming hostess she made, and of how, even in 
 her old age, all her great and abiding earnestness had run- 
 ning through it all so much happy Scotch humour. 
 
 * I had no idea Mrs. Swan was so old. Eighty-one, she 
 did not look old except about the last time I saw her, and 
 then I had no idea her age was so great. She has gone ; but 
 for many years to come, if I am spared, I shall from time 
 to time revisit her in her house in Edinburgh, and see her at 
 
284 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 the table with the quiet Jane moving noiselessly around, or 
 see her seated at her desk in the corner, writing letters. Re- 
 member me very kindly to your father — fit brother for such 
 a sister. Their separation cannot be very long at the 
 longest. For that matter of it, those of us who are here 
 longest must soon be gone, and when the going comes, or 
 looms before us, let us look not at the going, but at the 
 being there' 
 
 Having paid considerable attention to the work and 
 methods of the Salvation Army, the publication of In 
 Darkest England interested him greatly, and on March 9 
 he sent in a letter the following trenchant criticism, all the 
 more noteworthy because of his strong sympathy with much 
 in the Army that others find it hard to accept. 
 
 ' Got here Saturday. Had a good Sunday with the 
 Christians. To-day it snowed, and thus we have had time 
 to put our house in order. I have read Booth's scheme in 
 the Revieiv of Rcviezvs. I am greatly puzzled. It is so far 
 a departure from Booth's principle of doing spiritual work 
 only. It reads well, but Booth must know just as well as 
 I do that much of the theory will never w^ork in practice. 
 What I dislike most in it is, it is in spiritual things doing 
 exactly what it attempts to do in secular things — namely, it 
 threatens to swallow up in a great holy syndicate no end 
 of smaller charities which have been and are working 
 efficiently. Again, the finally impenitent are to be cast off 
 Yes, that is just the rub. It will leave the good-for-no- 
 things, many of them cast out as before. Nor will Booth's 
 despotism do in the long run. But I am for the scheme 
 and for old Booth too ; but, nevertheless, there is both a 
 limit and an end to all despotism and despotisms. But I 
 am more favourable to the scheme than these words would 
 seem to indicate,' 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 285 
 
 Mr. Parker, who bids fair to be a successor after Gil- 
 mour's own heart, in his first report of his experiences in 
 MongoHa gave a bright and hopeful view of his colleague. 
 
 ' On arriving at Ta Ssu Kou we found Gilmour very 
 well indeed ; looking better than he did when I saw him in 
 England. He was jubilant over our coming, and it has 
 been a great source of happiness to me to know that God's 
 sending me here has up till now given happiness and com- 
 fort to one of His faithful servants. I have had a slight 
 taste of being left alone, and I must confess Gilmour has 
 had something to endure during the last few years. 
 
 'We are living in hired rooms of an inn. Gilmour is 
 not in this courtyard. I have been alone here with my 
 Chinese boy for the last five weeks (Dr. Smith being in 
 Ch'ao Yang until a few days ago). I have been unable to 
 get a proper teacher at present. Gilmour's student has 
 been teaching me. He speaks distinctly. With him I 
 have made very fair progress. I hope in a few days to 
 secure a proper teacher. 
 
 ' Another thing which has taught mc a good amount of 
 the Chinese I know is having to give orders to my Chinese 
 boy in house-keeping generally. I am thankful to God for 
 past experiences in my life, though they were rather rough ; 
 for here I find they come in very usefully. I had to teach 
 my boy how to cook and do things generally. It was 
 rather an amusing piece of work, seeing that I knew nothing 
 of the language. Each order I gave him was a comedy in 
 two or three acts, all played out in dumb show. In telling 
 him what I wished purchased I was obliged to imitate 
 sounds which are peculiar to certain beasts and birds, 
 which when he understood, he announced that fact by 
 opening wide his eyes and emitting a loud " Ah ! " which 
 was generally followed by the name of the thing indicated 
 bellowed forth at the top of his voice as if I were deaf 
 
286 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Also he in turn, when he had anything to tell mc, always 
 stood in the centre of the room and went through a whole 
 performance. On one occasion, when he wished to tell me 
 that a certain dog had stolen the day's meat, the perform- 
 ance was so amusing that, when he had got through, I asked 
 him what he was trying to say, in order that I might once 
 more see the fun. 
 
 ' Forgive me for taking up your time with such frivolous 
 things. But I have picked up much of the language in 
 that way, although at the cost of being grimed with soot 
 and burning my fingers. All that is now past, and the boy 
 is very useful, and, although now a heathen, I am hoping that 
 by my influence he may be led to know the love of Jesus 
 Christ. I am very glad that I came straight out here. I am 
 sure I shall learn the language (of \.\\q people, perhaps not 
 of the books) better than in the frontier cities. I am con- 
 stantly forced to try and speak. Every day I have some 
 visitors here whom I must try and entertain. I feel stupid 
 at times with them, and perhaps they think I am ; but, 
 nevertheless, each day's experience is adding to my vo- 
 cabulary. And when so learnt, I know that people will 
 understand me when I speak. 
 
 * Gilmour is doing a valuable work. Every day he goes 
 to the street and sets out his table with his boxes of medi- 
 cines and books. He has three narrow benches, on one of 
 which he sits, the other two being for his patients. Of the 
 latter he has any amount, coming with all the ills to which 
 humanity is heir. It is a busy street, not of the best 
 repute, for it is where all the traders in second-hand clothes 
 and dealers in marine stores spread out their wares. 
 
 ' For some weeks I went out at a certain hour to take 
 care of Gilmour's stand while he went and got a " re- 
 fresher " in the shape of some indigestible pudding made 
 of millet-flour with beans for plums. He generally left me 
 with a patient or two requiring some lotion in the eye 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 287 
 
 or some wound to dress. Then I, being a new-comer 
 and a typical " foreign devil " (being red of hair and in 
 complexion), always brought a large following down the 
 street with mc, and attracted a great crowd round the 
 stand. At first it was not pleasant to sit there and be 
 stared at without being able to speak to them ; but after a 
 while I got very interested in the different faces that came 
 round. On one occasion I noticed the crowd eagerly dis- 
 cussing something among themselves, giving me a scruti- 
 nising look now and then. Now and again one would turn 
 to his fellow and rub his finger across his upper lip as if he 
 was feeling for his moustache. I had only been here a 
 week or so then, and knew very little of the language ; but I 
 listened attentively, and at last I heard them speaking the 
 Chinese numerals, and then it all dawned upon me that 
 they were inquiring about and discussing my age ; so I up 
 with my fingers indicating the years of my pilgrimage. I 
 never saw a crowd so amused. " Ah, ah ! " they said, and 
 opened their eyes, highly delighted that I was able to tell 
 them what they wanted to know. Then I had my turn, 
 and, pointing to a man here and there in the crowd, I used 
 what little of Chinese I had in guessing their ages. 
 
 ' But the sights of misery, suffering, and wretchedness 
 which gather round Gilmour's stand are simply appalling. 
 His work seems to me to come nearest to Christ's own way 
 of blessing men. Healing them of their wounds, giving 
 comfort in sickness, and at the same time telling them the 
 gospel of Eternal Salvation through Jesus Christ. One 
 day that I went I found Gilmour tying a bandage on a 
 poor beggar's knee. The beggar was a boy about sixteen 
 years of age, entirely naked, with the exception of a piece of 
 sacking for a loin cloth. He had been creeping about, 
 almost frozen with cold, and a dog (who, no doubt, thought 
 he was simply an animated bone) had attacked him. 
 
 * The people here are desperately poor, and the misery 
 
288 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 and suffering one sees crawling through the streets every 
 day is heart-rending. I have not a doubt that I am in a 
 real mission field, and thank God that He has given me the 
 opportunity to do something towards alleviating some of 
 this misery. But what about the work as regards the 
 saving of souls and establishing of a Church ? I can only 
 speak of the work in Ta Ssu Kou. It is in its initiatory 
 stage. All the Christians and adherents can sit round the 
 four sides of my table. But I am highly pleased with 
 them. 
 
 The letters of this period have a very tender and sacred 
 association for all who received them, since they reached 
 England after the telegraphic tidings of James Gilmour's 
 death had brought sorrow to his many friends. They 
 came, in a sense, like a message from one ' within the 
 veil' Some of these refer to the books he was reading, 
 and from which he had derived benefit ; some depict phases 
 of his experience ; some bear directly upon his work and 
 its needs ; all possess the solemn value and are read in the 
 clearer light imparted to them by Death. 
 
 The first was written to one of his brothers. 
 
 * Do you know In the Volume of the Book, by Dr. Pente- 
 cost? It is A I. I have just read it. It is not a dear 
 book. Read it, man, by all means. It gives zest to the 
 old Bible. I am reading through the New Testament at 
 about the rate of a gospel a day, or two epistles. Rapid 
 reading has advantages. Close study of minute portions 
 has other advantages. All sorts of reading are valuable. 
 Go for your Bible, brother. There is no end more in it 
 than ever you or I have yet seen. I am going for it both in 
 Chinese and English, and it pays as nothing else does. In 
 ]Qsvis \s diW fulness. Supply yourself from Him. May the 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 289 
 
 richest blessings be on you from Him ! Heaven's ahead, 
 brother. Hurrah ! ' 
 
 The next was to the Edinburgh correspondent from 
 whose letters we have previously taken extracts. 
 
 'This mail was sent off February 2. It came back 
 the same day. The man was scared by robbers. He 
 leaves to-morrow. We are well. We are idle. Would 
 you believe it ? It is Chinese New Year time, and 
 I cannot go on the street with my stand. No people : 
 soon will be. We are thankful for the rest. It won't 
 last long .... Oh, it is good to have Jesus to tell 
 all to. May He be more of an intimate friend to you and 
 to me ! The troubles of this earthly life are not few. How 
 many were Paul's ! I am reading Farrar's Life and Work 
 of Paul. It puts much new light on the epistles. What a 
 time the man Paul had of it ! Yet he called them " light 
 afflictions." How much lighter arc ours ! And the same 
 heaven he looked to is for us — the same crown — not to him 
 only, but to all who love the appearing of Christ. You 
 love Him. Rejoice and be glad. I am so glad that the 
 crown is not only for such as Paul, whom we cannot 
 hope to imitate, but for those (ii. Timothy iv. 8) who have 
 loved His appearing. We do that, don't we? May the 
 joy set before us enable us to endure, when endurance is 
 needed ! May your heart rest in Him ! May your soul 
 cling to Him ! May His light always shine on your path ! 
 May I always, even in dark days and dark times, have His 
 light in my heart and soul ! Don't regard me as one 
 always on the sunny heights, but as one often cast down, 
 often in much feebleness, in much unworthiness, and falling 
 so far short of my own ideal. But it is good to thmk that, 
 in Christ, we are perfect, that He makes up all. 
 
 * Parker and I read Holy of Holies, vAi^xs. together. It is 
 
 T 
 
290 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 a good book. Meantime, he and I are three days' journey 
 separate, and may be so for a month to come yet. I hope 
 he Hkes it. It is a Httle hard on him, but I had to come 
 here on mission business, and, if needed, will return to him 
 at any time. Looking again at Heb, vi. 4-6.' 
 
 His correspondent had asked him about this passage, 
 
 ' It is said — it is impossible to " renew them again to 
 repentance." Docs it not seem clear that what is described 
 cannot be the case of one who has the repentant heart .'' I 
 think so decidedly, and that passage has no bearing on the 
 
 sinner who repents No one will come to harm who 
 
 commits himself to His keeping. And no one will lack 
 leading who has God for his guide. If I could only hear 
 of or from the friends I pray for, that they had given 
 themselves over to God's keeping, I would be at rest and 
 thankful. You are trusting in Him. You will not be 
 ashamed. He wilP take care to supply every needed 
 blessing at the right time and in the right way. 
 
 ' Some day, I believe we shall stand in Eternity and 
 look back on Time. How ashamed we then shall be of 
 any want of trust and of any unfaithfulness ! May He 
 help us to look at things now in tJiat light, and how to do 
 as we then shall wish we had done ! . . . 
 
 ' I would be glad if you would send me half a dozen 
 copies of the Wordless Book. Two copies fell into the 
 hands of robbers and were thus lost. . . . 
 
 ' I shall be glad to have the Life of Fait Ji. You might 
 mark any passages that strike you.' 
 
 In a letter to the Rev. J. Paterson, dated April I, 
 he writes : — 
 
 ' It helps me much out here to get the best consecrated 
 literature, and to get it early. Men in the most difficult 
 and dangerous fields should be the best armed and equipped. 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 291 
 
 Some of these books open up new treasures to me in God's 
 Word. I do not use them in place of God's Word, but as 
 openers to the treasures.' 
 
 In almost the last letter from him received by his 
 brother Alexander and dated April 24, 1891, the following 
 passage occurs : — 
 
 ' T/ie Practice of the Presence of God, being conversations 
 and letters of Brother Lawrence. Please send a copy to 
 yourself, John, Matthew, Paterson, Miss Gowan, and ten 
 copies to me, charging all costs to me, of course. It is by 
 a Roman Catholic : don't imitate his Roman Catholicism, 
 but his practice of the presence of God.' 
 
 In April Mr. Gilmour journeyed to Tientsin, and was 
 unanimously elected to preside over the annual meeting of 
 the North China District Committee of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society as chairman. His last communication to 
 the home Society, with the exception of one brief note upon 
 a matter of committee business, was a post-card, dated 
 April 20, 1 89 1, received in London some weeks after the 
 tidings of his death. It runs : — 
 
 ' Arrived here yesterday. The world keeps shrinking. 
 Left Ta Ssii Kou Monday 8 A.M. Tuesday noon dined 
 in a border Mongol village, in a Mongol's inn, served by a 
 Mongol waiter, in presence of a number of Mongols. Got 
 to London Missionary Society's Compound, Tientsin, 
 Saturday, 5 P.M. Our headquarters are just five days 
 from the extended railway. Am in A i health, everybody 
 says so here, and that truly. Meantime am in clover, 
 physically and spiritually With prayers for the home end 
 of the London Missionary Society's work. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 J. Gilmour - 
 
292 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Just thirty-one days later he was lying dead in the 
 same compound. How the interval passed is told by those 
 who enjoyed those closing days of lofty spiritual fellow- 
 ship. Had it been foreseen that the end was so near, the 
 fervour and impress! veness and help of his presence could 
 hardly have been increased. Before, however, passing to 
 the details of this last month, the following letters are 
 given in exienso, as they form the last lengthy sketches of 
 his work drawn by his own hand. 
 
 'Tientsin, L. M.S. : April 20, 1891, 
 
 ' My dear Mrs. Lovett, — I guess you are at the bottom 
 of 10/. from Clapham Congregational Church Working 
 Society (Ladies). Ar'n't you ? If so, thanks. If not — I 
 was going to say you ought to be — but my courage fails 
 me. Anyhow, you can read and please forward the en- 
 closed with my best thanks to the friends. I got here two 
 days ago, and am here for a short time. The railway has 
 gone out eastwards, is still going, and has now a station 
 near me in Mongolia — near me being five long days' 
 journey ; but that is near, as near and far go here. 
 
 ' I have many grateful and many prayerful remem- 
 brances of England and English friends, and a vivid 
 remembrance of your kindness when I was with you. My 
 regards to your parents. I hope you and your husband 
 and children are all well. I heard of Mr. Lovett being 
 in America — American Pictures on the stocks ? 
 
 ' I had intended to write you a nice letter, but it won't 
 come, and the letter must go as it is. Please read into the 
 remaining blank sheet all the feelings and good wishes I 
 should express and do feel, and next time I write you, may 
 it not be in the ebb tide, at the end of a mail. 
 
 Your husband's a Director. I do hope they are sending 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 293 
 
 me a doctor. If he can do anything in the matter, I wish 
 he would. 
 
 ' Yours, dried up and feeling dumb, 
 
 •James Gilmour.' 
 
 Enclosed in the above was the following letter, dated 
 March 10, and addressed to ' The Clapham Congregational 
 Church Ladies' Working Society.' 
 
 'Dear Friends, — Many thanks for your handsome 
 donation (10/.), notice of which has reached me last night. 
 I am told you want to hear from me. All right. I am 
 just back from a month's raid into Ch'ao Yang. Had a fine 
 time. Good weather and plenty of work in the market- 
 place. Baptized four adults, three being women — all 
 Chinese. It is the day of small things truly, but I am not 
 a little encouraged, over the women especially. That now 
 makes four Christian families in Ch'ao Yang or its imme- 
 diate neighbourhood. The two wives baptized this time 
 have Christian husbands. It has all along been our prayer 
 that the unsaved relatives of the saved might be saved. 
 
 ' Mrs. Chu's husband was baptized a couple of years 
 ago. She consented to his taking their two children to me 
 to be baptized, but she herself would have nothing to do 
 with Christianity or Christ. This time she got over her 
 difficulties. I was much pleased, especially as she had 
 annoyed her husband a good deal last year about his 
 having been beaten about his Christianity. She also had 
 her little child baptized. Pray that God may keep and 
 help them in all the many complications that will arise on 
 acocunt of their Christianity, living as they do in a com- 
 posite family, the ruling powers of which are heathen. 
 
 ' Mrs. Ning is a model wife. They are poor. Her 
 husband cannot dress in good clothes, but is always as 
 
294 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 neat as a virtuous wife, skilful with her needle, can make 
 him. She mends so neatly. I once discarded a vest 
 (Chinese) and gave it to her husband. He took it home, 
 and later on I saw him swelling about in it quite like a 
 neat old gentleman, though I was almost ashamed to give 
 it him. 
 
 ' They have had family worship in their home for a 
 year or two — they say. We went to baptize her. It was 
 such a small, poor house, but so very nice inside. Mother 
 and grown daughters and little girl, with father and grown 
 son, all sleep on a little brick platform, hardly big enough 
 for me — one man. She and the grown daughter support 
 the family by needlework — making horsehair women's 
 head fittings, which the father sells, when he has nothing 
 more to do. 
 
 ' The son is epileptic and can earn nothing, and is, in 
 addition, a great eater. He is a good man and a Christian 
 As we entered, the son and daughter went out. The 
 mother and little daughter were baptized. The father did 
 not wish his big daughter baptized. When she is married 
 she will get a heathen mother-in-law, who will go for her 
 and make her worship idols. So said the father. In a 
 few days the father came back, saying that out of fear of 
 the coming mother-in-law he had not had his daughter 
 baptized, but that his daughter had pressed him so hard 
 that she was as formidable, as the mother-in-law. The 
 daughter says she'll stick to her God and let them stick to 
 theirs, and so she was baptized. She has a hot time before 
 her. Chinese mothers-in-law are no joke. Pray for the 
 lassie that : — {a) she may be steadfast ; ih) she may be 
 wise ; ic) she may be gentle in her resistance ; id) enabled 
 by God to endure ; and that the mother-in-law may be 
 restrained. God can do all things. 
 
 ' Here, in Ta Ssu Kou, two of the Christians have wives 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 295 
 
 very much opposed to Christianity, and give their husbands 
 hot times. Remember the husbands, please, and all such 
 in their shoes, in prayer, and may the darkened women 
 themselves be enlightened. You have no notion how 
 deeply sunk in superstition the women are. Still another 
 Christian has a wife whom he has to allow to worship a 
 weasel, because the woman shows symptoms of being 
 possessed by the beast if she does not worship it ! 
 
 ' The other day a woman came to my stand in the 
 market-place, saying that " Mr. Yellow " troubled her. 
 " Mr. Yellow " turned out to be the weasel, and she firmly 
 believed her sickness was due to the beast. 
 
 ' We are badly in want of a lady medical man in this 
 district. Don't you know of one who would do .'' Are 
 there none of you who could study medicine and go out 
 as doctors to some of the many needy places ? Much was 
 hoped for this district from the late Mrs. Smith, but God 
 took her. Any one who comes here should have good 
 health, and not fear seclusion from foreign company. I 
 would suggest that a couple should come, a medical and 
 a non-medical. There is a house which could be got for such 
 a couple, only I don't see how they could get on without 
 knowing some Chinese. Perhaps some one of the Peking 
 or Tientsin ladies already speaking Chinese would volunteer 
 to be a medical lady's companion. Would that God 
 would stir some of you up ! Meantime, thanks for the 
 money. Thanks also for the prayers which I take for 
 granted you let us have. You might also pray for a 
 woman who has a very good, quiet. Christian husband, but 
 herself has such a temper that she cannot in decency take 
 on a Christian profession. Eh, man ! eh, man ! it is curious 
 that I, a widower, should be left to look after women's 
 souls out here, when lots of women are competing for 
 men's situations and businesses at home. I guess things 
 
296 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 will come right some day, though I may or may not 
 
 see it. 
 
 ' Very gratefully, 
 
 ' Yours sincerely, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
 On May 8 he sent the following note to Mrs. Williams, 
 the wife of the Rev. Mark Williams of the American 
 Board. Their Society happened to be holding its annual 
 meeting at the same time in Tientsin as the London 
 Society. Mr. Gilmour was just entering his fatal illness 
 as he penned these lines, the last, we believe, that he 
 wrote. They are a beautiful testimony to the strength of 
 his affection for the Mongols to whom he and his wife had 
 ministered so well long before, and on whose behalf they 
 had suffered so much and so deeply. Standing as he was 
 on the borderland of the heavenly country, he recalls the 
 hard toil of his early days, and he leaves to those who 
 must carry on to a successful issue, not only his work, but 
 also the great enterprise of winning all China for Jesus 
 Christ, this as a last legacy — the fruit of his prayer, his 
 faith, his toil and his utter self-sacrifice — namely, the 
 conviction that the need of China is ' good, honest, quiet, 
 earnest, persistent work in old lines and ways.' 
 
 ' Tientsin : May 8, Friday. 
 
 * My dear Mrs. Williams, — Thanks for returning the 
 photos. Not having delivered them to you personally, I 
 feared that in the present whirl of people and business 
 they might have been mislaid, or even not reached you. 
 
 * It is a great pleasure to see you here at this time. 
 Many memories of past times and days come up. Though 
 never again likely to see Kalgan, I often in thought go 
 
CLOSING LABOURS 297 
 
 along its narrow, hard streets, and its up and down side- 
 ways, call in at your house, see all your faces, even that of 
 the youthful Stephen, and the studious Etta ; and often go 
 up over the Pass into the grass land. 
 
 ' It is like a rest for a little while beside the palms and 
 wells of Elim to meet you all here. 
 
 ' Your peaceful, happy family fills me with gratitude to 
 God. May He bless them all (your children), and lead 
 them not only into paths of peace and pleasantness, but of 
 useful service for Him ! You and your husband seem well. 
 May many useful years of ripely experienced labour be 
 yours ! 
 
 ' Lately, I am being more and more impressed with the 
 idea that what is wanted in China is not new " lightning " 
 methods so much as good, honest, quiet, earnest, persistent 
 work in old lines and ways. 
 
 ' With many grateful memories of all old-time Kalgan 
 kindness, and hoping to see a note from you, or Mr. 
 Williams, say once a year or so, and with prayers for you 
 and all Kalgan-wards Mongols, 
 
 ' Yours, cheered by the vision of you all, 
 
 'James Gilmour.' 
 
298 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE LAST DAYS 
 
 At Tientsin James Gilmour was the guest of Dr. 
 Roberts — for too brief a time his colleague in Mongolia — 
 and the doctor's sister, who kept house for him. The 
 story of the closing days cannot be better told than in 
 their words. To Miss Roberts fell the sorrowful task of 
 sending the news of their irreparable bereavement to the 
 two motherless lads in England. 
 
 ' Tientsin : June 6, 1 89 1. 
 
 ' My dear Willie and Jimmie, — You will wonder who I 
 am that call you by your names and yet have never known 
 you. ^ 
 
 ' But I thinkjiwheh you hear that your dear father spent 
 the last five weeks of his life with my brother, Dr. Roberts, 
 and myself, perhaps you will not be sorry to get a few lines 
 from an unknown friend. It is now many weeks since we 
 received a letter from Mr. Gilmour saying he hoped to be 
 able to attend the annual meetings in Tientsin, and who 
 would take him in ? My brother replied at once, saying 
 what a real pleasure it would be if he would stay with us. 
 And so he came, and about a fortnight before the time, of 
 which we were all the more glad. He looked the very 
 picture of health on his arrival, and was in excellent spirits; 
 many remarked how very well and strong he looked. 
 
 ' I remember well the day he arrived, it was a Saturday 
 
THE LAST DAYS 299 
 
 afternoon. I suggested that he should have some dinner 
 at once, but, thoughtful-like, as your father always was, he 
 said, " No, thank you, I have already had all I want ; I shall 
 not require anything more till your next ordinary meal." 
 
 * By-and-by we showed him his room, " whose windows 
 opened to the sun-rising." We had made it as pretty and 
 comfortable as we could, and brightened it with freshly 
 cut flowers. The next day I noticed he had taken the 
 tablecloth off his writing-table, and in the evening he 
 handed it to me, saying, if I remember rightly, " Here, 
 mademoiselle, is your tablecloth. I am afraid of inking it 
 You had better put it away." I was grieved, and begged 
 he would use, and ink it, too, for the matter of that ; but 
 it was no use, not on any account would he spoil my cloth, 
 and therefore would not use it. 
 
 ' He seemed very happy with us, and I think thoroughly 
 appreciated the homelikeness of his surroundings after his 
 lonely life in Mongolia, and the dismal rooms of a Chinese 
 inn, and it was such a pleasure to minister to his comforts 
 in every possible way we could think of 
 
 ' He used to spend his days, as a rule, in the following 
 way : — 
 
 * After .^Ipreakfast he would write letters. At 10.45, 
 after a cup of cocoa, he would go over to the hospital, 
 returning at i o'clock to dinner. This over, he would go 
 back with my brother to see the in-patients. At 4.30 we 
 would all have tea together, after which he would make 
 calls, or go for a walk, or talk over committee matters with 
 Mr. Lees or Mr. Bryson, Many evenings he would be 
 invited out, or would be at a meeting, or would spend it 
 
 • quietly at home ; and so the time went by till meetings 
 began. Then the whole day till 4 P.M. was spent in com- 
 mittee, and at six Mr. Gilmour had a Bible-class for an 
 hour with the Chinese preachers who had come to attend 
 some of the meetings. 
 
300 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 ' These were nearly over when your father began to 
 complain of feeling done up and of having fever. The 
 following Sunday he was in bed. This was only eleven 
 days before he died. On Monday, however, he was better 
 and up, and was able to be with us all day, and took the 
 Communion with us all in the evening. Then we chatted 
 together for some time and sang hymns, amongst others, 
 " God be with you till we meet again ! " No. 494 in Sankey's 
 Songs and Solos. 
 
 ' In this connection let me tell you some of Mr. 
 Gilmour's favourite hymns in the book just mentioned. 
 Amongst these were Nos. 494, 535, 150, 328. I dare say 
 you would like to learn them and sing them for his sake. 
 
 * Your dear father was only in bed ten days before the 
 end came, and all this time he spoke but little. He was 
 too feverish and ill to want to talk or to listen : he just lay 
 quietly, bearing his sickness with remarkable patience. One 
 day, observing he was a little restless, I went to his bedside 
 and asked him if he wanted anything. " No, nothing," 
 was his reply, " only that the Lord would deliver me out of 
 this distress." 
 
 ' The last few days his mind was not clear, but all his 
 wanderings were about his work. It was the last day but 
 one of his life ; he was more restless than usual, trying all 
 the time to rouse himself, as if for a journey, when he 
 looked up and said, " Where are we going ? " 
 
 ' " To heaven," I answered, " to see the Lord." 
 
 ' " No," he replied, " that is not the address." 
 
 ' " Yes it is, Mr. Gilmour," I said again. " We are going 
 to heaven ; would you not like to go and see the Lord 
 Jesus ? " 
 
 ' Then he seemed to take in the meaning of my words, 
 and reverently bowed his head in assent, his lips quivered, 
 and his eyes filled with tears ; and he was quieted, like a 
 weary child who has lost his way and finds on inquiry that 
 
THE LAST DAYS 301 
 
 only a few more steps and he will be at rest and at 
 home. 
 
 * The next day, his last, was still more restless. At 
 one time he seemed to be addressing an audience and 
 earnestly gesticulating with his hands ; and, with as much 
 force as he could command, he said : " We are not spending 
 the time as we should ; we ought to be waiting on God in 
 prayer for blessing on the work He has given us to do. 
 I would like to make a rattling speech — but I cannot — 
 I am very ill — and can only say these few words." And 
 then he nodded his head and waved his hand, as if in fare- 
 well to his listeners. 
 
 ' It was seven o'clock in the evening when my brother 
 saw the end was not far off, and at once we sent for all the 
 other members of the Mission that all might watch with 
 him in this last solemn hour. He was unconscious the 
 whole time, and his breathing laboured. 
 
 ' The two doctors battled for an hour and a half to 
 keep off Death's fatal grasp, but to no purpose : the Lord 
 wanted His faithful worker, and we could not keep him, 
 though we wanted him much, and knew that Willie and 
 Jimmie in England needed him more. 
 
 ' Gradually the breathing became quieter and quieter, 
 till at last, about 9.30, he just closed his eyes and " fell 
 asleep," with the peace of Heaven resting on his face.' 
 
 In a letter sent by Dr. Roberts to Dr. Smith, who was 
 then in England, a few further particulars are given. 
 
 ' He preached one Sunday evening a very solemn 
 sermon on " Examine yourself," and no one can soon forget 
 the way he preached. During the annual meetings he was 
 extra busy. Everyone remarked what a good chairman 
 he made, and in the devotional meetings from 9 to 
 9.30 A.M. he was always ready to lead in prayer or speak a 
 
302 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 few words. Freshness, to the point, and to the heart — cha- 
 racterised all he did or said. In the evenings he conducted 
 services for the native preachers present at the annual 
 gathering, and to these meetings he took one foreigner each 
 night to assist in the speaking. 
 
 ' It was at the close of this busy week, when tired out, 
 that he got the fever which eventually carried him home. 
 The fever was very irregular in type, but after some days 
 I felt it was an exceptional type of typhus fever. Great 
 weakness of the heart was a characteristic feature all 
 through his case, and but for this sad complication I believe 
 he would have been alive to-day. Weak action of the 
 heart was an old enemy of his. For the first week of his 
 illness he did not feel very poorly, and we had many chats 
 together, and some pra)^er and reading of God's Word every 
 night nearly. But in the second week his temperature 
 went up to 1 06°, and, though it came down under anti- 
 pyretics, he seemed never to regain his former ground. 
 His mind became more and more clouded. Parker took 
 the night nursing, my sister the day, and I sat with him 
 when time allowed. On Thursday, May 21, the day on 
 which he died, he was very delirious all day, though he 
 knew us all. I did not give up hope till 7 P.M., when his 
 heart failed him in spite of active stimulation. It was then 
 that we all gathered round his bed. I did my utmost with 
 the help of Frazer to avert the sad end ; but ere long, 
 seeing our efforts were vain, we ceased, and sat in his room 
 and saw him gradually and very peacefully pass away, his 
 breath getting feebler and feebler till he closed his eyes 
 and fell asleep in Jesus.' 
 J The funeral took place towards evening on May 23, 
 
THE LAST DAYS 303 
 
 1 89 1. It was a lovely afternoon, and the sun shining 
 brightly lent additional force to the words of John Bunyan 
 which were printed upon the simple sheet containing the 
 hymn to be sung at the grave : ' The pilgrim they laid in 
 an upper chamber whose window opened towards the Sun- 
 rising.' The coffin was borne to the grave by two relays 
 of bearers ; the first consisted of three European and three 
 native preachers ; the second, on the one side, of the Rev. 
 S. E. Meech, his brother-in-law ; the Rev. J. Parker, his col- 
 league, and Dr. Roberts ; and on the other Liu, his faithful 
 Chinese preacher and helper, Chang, the tutor of the 
 theological class at Tientsin, and Hsi, his courier, a native 
 of Ta Ssii Kou. His last resting-place immediately adjoins 
 that of his dearly loved friend, Dr. IMackenzie, and the 
 service at the grave was conducted by the Rev. Jonathan 
 Lees and the Rev. J. Parker. Chang offered prayer, and a 
 farewell hymn was sung. 
 
 Sleep on, beloved, sleep, and take thy rest ; 
 Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast ; 
 We love thee well ; but Jesus loves thee best— - 
 Good night ! Good night ! Good night ! 
 
 Until the shadows from this earth are cast ; 
 Until He gathers in His sheaves at last ; 
 Until the twilight gloom be overpast — 
 Good night ! Good night ! Good night ! 
 
 Until we meet again before His throne, 
 Clothed in the spotless robe He gives His own, 
 Until we know even as we are known — 
 Good night! Good night! Good night! 
 
 Little Chinese boys who had known and loved Mr. 
 Gilmour came forward and threw handfuls of flowers into 
 his grave, loving hands laid upon the coffin a wreath of 
 white blossoms on behalf of the now orphaned boys far 
 
304 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 away, and the simple but beautiful service was closed by a 
 spontaneous act on the part of the Chinese converts present. 
 Pressing near the grave of him whose heart loved China 
 and the Chinese with a fervour and an enthusiasm that 
 may have besn equalled, but certainly have never been 
 surpassed, they sang in their own tongue the hymn begin- 
 ning, ' In the Christian's home in glory.' 
 
 The labourer had entered into the rest he had so often 
 seen by the eye of faith, ' There remains,' he wrote, less 
 than a year before his death, ' a rest. Somewhere ahead. 
 Not very far at the longest. Perfect, quiet, full, without 
 solitude, isolation, or inability to accomplish ; when the 
 days of our youth will be more than restored to us ; where, 
 should mysteries remain, there will be no torment in them. 
 And the reunions there ! Continuous too, with no feeling 
 that the rest of to-day is to-morrow to be ended by a plunge 
 again into a world seething with iniquity, and groaning 
 with suffering.' 
 
 Many pages might be filled with loving eulogies of 
 James Gilmour. But the best of all is the simple story of 
 his life. Yet two or three references to his work and 
 influence must here find a place. 
 
 From the pen of Dr. Reynolds comes this weighty 
 testimony : — 
 
 ' The end of his career came all too suddenly, and in 
 gathering together my impressions of it as a whole, I am 
 convinced that I have seldom seen a man so entirely 
 possessed by a grand idea, so utterly persuaded that we 
 had a debt to pay to the heathen world, so invincibly sure 
 that Christian faith and life was the one supreme need of 
 
THE LAST DAYS 305 
 
 these regions beyond our circle of light. Few men have 
 cast the bread upon greater waters, have sown the seed 
 over a wider area, or had to mourn more sadly over those 
 heart-breaking months which intervene between the seed- 
 time and the harvest. Impartial critics have recognised the 
 intense honesty, the shrewd wit, the faculty of vision, the 
 power to tell the story of his rare experiences with such 
 verisimilitude as to force upon the reader a ready acqui- 
 escence in every detail of his narrative. But his Christian 
 brethren saw a deeper vein than this in Gilmour's achieve- 
 ments. He was ablaze from first to last with a passionate 
 desire to set forth Christ in His majesty and mercy, in all 
 His power to heal and to command. I had unexpected 
 opportunities of finding how tender and affectionate his 
 nature was ; how grateful and enthusiastic his love to his 
 Hamilton home, to his father, mother, and wife, and how 
 faithful and loyal he was to the society and the brother- 
 hood of his Alma Mater.' 
 
 The Rev. G. Owen, at a memorial service held in Peking 
 very shortly after Mr. Gilmour's death, gave a sketch of his 
 character and work, and thus summed up his life : — 
 
 * He spared himself in nothing, but gave himself wholly 
 to God. He kept nothing back. All was laid upon the 
 altar. I doubt if even St. Paul endured more for Christ 
 than did James Gilmour. I doubt, too, if Christ ever 
 received from human hands or human heart more loving, 
 devoted service. 
 
 * If anyone asks, " Would it not have been better if Mr. 
 Gilmour had taken more care of himself and lived longer ?" 
 I would answer : " I don't know. His life was beautiful, 
 and I would not alter it if I could. A few years of such 
 
 U 
 
3o6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 service as he gave Christ are worth a hundred years of 
 humdrum toil. We need the inspiration of such a h'fe as 
 his. Heaven, too, is the richer for such a man and such a 
 life. The pearly gates opened wide, I have no doubt, to 
 receive him. Angels and men gave him glad welcome, 
 and what a smile would light up the Saviour's face as He 
 received His faithful servant home ! " 
 
 * And he being dead yet speaketh. He says, " Be 
 faithful, work hard, for the night cometh when no man can 
 work. Be earnest, for life is brief; be ready, for life is 
 uncertain." But why did God call him away in the midst 
 of life and work ? I don't know. Possibly work here is not 
 of such importance as we think. Or there is more im- 
 portant service elsewhere waiting for such men as Mr. 
 Gilmour. He has been faithful over a few things ; he has 
 been made ruler over many things, and has entered into 
 the joy of his Lord.' 
 
 Mr. Parker wrote to the sons of his late colleague on 
 June 6, 1 89 1 : — 
 
 ' It is sad that my first letter to you should be to tell 
 you about your father's death, of which no doubt you have 
 heard long ago. . . . The last photographs of yourselves 
 which you sent out he always had where he could see them. 
 Whenever he travelled he took them \<\\\\ him. At 
 Tientsin during his last illness he had them on a low side 
 table, just on a level with his bed, so that as he lay there 
 he could see them. ... He was very happy, and died 
 like a faithful soldier who had finished his work. It is 
 sad dear boys, to lose a father such as he was, but it is a 
 crreat blessing to have had such a father, one so brave, so 
 couran-eons, one who for the sake of Christ suffered bodily 
 discomfort and pain, suffered terrible loneliness that he 
 
THE LAST DAYS 307 
 
 might win some of God's sinning children back to their 
 Father's arms. He Hved and suffered for the Mongols, 
 and though God denied him the honour of baptizing even 
 one of them, yet so faithful was he to his work that he 
 toiled on to the very last. " Faithful unto death " are 
 words fully exemplified in your father's life.' 
 
 In his first letter from Mongolia after his prompt 
 return to carry on in a like spirit of faith and devotion the 
 work from which Mr. Gilmour had been summoned away, 
 Mr. Parker depicts the grief of the native Christians on 
 learning their loss. ' The sorrow of the converts here (Ch'ao 
 Yang) at the news of Gilmour's death was very touching 
 Grown-up men burst into tears and sobbed like children 
 when they were told he was dead. All along the route where 
 Gilmour was such a familiar visitor, in the market-place, 
 and at their fairs, the first question they asked as soon as 
 they saw me was, " Has Mr. Gilmour come ? " And at my^ 
 reply there was always great astonishment, accompanied 
 by expressions of sorrow. Every day at evening prayers I 
 can hear Gilmour's name mingled with their petitions. 
 The Christians here have sent a letter of sympathy to his 
 two boys. 
 
 * Here in Ch'ao Yang there are any amount of Mongols, 
 not nomadic, tent-loving, but settled here, and hence they 
 do not have to be sought. Right in the centre of the town 
 is an immense Mongol temple with two or three hundred 
 priests. Every day I have several of the priests in here, 
 and yet I have heard again and again that this mission is 
 misplaced. Some such words often pained the heart that 
 is now still in death. But this is, and shall be, essentially a 
 Mongol mission in this, that as the best efforts of dear 
 
3o8 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Gilmour were for making Christ known to the Mongols, my 
 best endeavours shall be to this end. But if some hungry 
 Chinaman, standing by as I hold out the bread of life to his 
 Mongol brother, seeks to eat of it, he shall have it, and be as 
 welcome as the other.' 
 
 The letter to the children referred to in Mr. Parker's 
 report is a fitting description of James Gilmour's life, and 
 he himself would have desired no other panegyric. It 
 came from the hearts of men on whose behalf he had given 
 his very best, and it shows how strong a hold he had 
 obtained upon their affection. 
 
 ' We respectfully enquire for the peace and happiness 
 of your excellencies, our brothers Gilmour, also for the 
 peace of your whole school. In the first place Pastor 
 Gilmour in his preaching and doctoring at Ch'ao Yang, 
 north of the Pass, truly loved others as himself, was con- 
 siderate and humble, and had the likeness of (our) Saviour 
 Jesus. Not only the Christians thank him without end, 
 but even those outside the Church (the heathen) bless him 
 without limit. We, who through Pastor Gilmour have 
 obtained the doctrine of the second birth, and received the 
 grace of Jesus, had hoped with Mr. Gilmour to have 
 assembled on the earth until our heads were white and in 
 the future life to have gone with him to heaven. Little 
 did we think we should have been so unhappy. He has 
 already gone to the Lord. We certainly know he is in the 
 presence of the Lord, not only praying for us, but also for 
 you our brothers. 
 
 ' We pray you, when you see this letter, not to grieve 
 beyond measure. We hope that you will study with in- 
 creased ardour, so as to obtain the heavenly wisdom, like 
 Solomon, and that afterwards you may come to China, to 
 
THE LAST DAYS 309 
 
 this Ch'ao Yang, to preach the Gospel widely. As the 
 father did, may the sons follow, is our earnest desire. 
 ' Signed by the Ch'ao Yang Christians, 
 
 ' Liu MAO LIN (preacher). Liu i (your father's servant). 
 ' p'ang tien k'uei. sung kang. 
 
 ' Wang sheng. Ch'u wen yuan. 
 
 * NiNG FU TUNG. CHANG CHEN, 
 
 ' Chang wan Ch'uan. Chang mao chi, 
 ' Chang kuei. Ning kuang chen. 
 
 ' Chiang sheng. Liu cho. 
 
 ' Wang hui hsien. T'ien te ch'un. 
 
 ' Hu te.' 
 
 Here, then, we leave him. If the story of his life fail to 
 touch the heart, to deepen faith, to exalt our estimate of 
 renewed human nature, and to revive enthusiasm in work 
 for Christ at home and abroad, the fault must be in him 
 who has tried to tell it, and to set in order the facts. 
 
 God's ways are ofttimes dark. James Gilmour had often 
 felt this, and, to those who knew him, it seemed as though 
 he were taken just when God's work needed him most, 
 when the first-fruits of the coming harvest were being 
 gathered, when his knowledge of the Chinese and the 
 Mongols, and their knowledge of him and affection for him, 
 were beginning to tell. But God knows best, and nothing 
 can deprive the Church of Christ of the splendid self- 
 sacrifice, of the noble perseverance in the path of duty 
 of the bright example of courage, devotion, enthusiasm for 
 souls, and patient continuance in well doing shining so 
 clearly through all the long years of toil. Love, self- 
 crucifixion, Jesus Christ closely followed in adversity, in 
 loneliness, in manifold perils, under almost every conceiv- 
 
3IO JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 able form of trial and hindrance and resistance both active 
 and passive — these are the seeds James Gilmour has sown 
 so richly on the hard Mongolian Plain, and over its 
 Eastern mountains and valleys. ' In due time we shall 
 reap if we faint not' His work goes on. He is now 
 doing the Master's bidding in the higher service. There, 
 we must fain believe, he is finding full scope for those alto- 
 gether exceptional spiritual affinities, and powers and capa- 
 cities which stand out so conspicuously all through the 
 story of his inner life. Upon us who yet remain rests the 
 responsibility of carrying forward the work he began, of 
 reinforcing the workers, of bearing Mongolia upon our 
 prayers until Buddhism shall fade away before the pure 
 truth and the perfect love of Jesus Christ, and even the 
 hard and unresponsive Mongols come to recognise the 
 truths James Gilmour so long and so faithfully tried to 
 teach them — that they need the Great Physician even more 
 than they need the earthly doctor, and that He is more 
 able and willing to heal the hurt of their souls than the 
 earthly physician is to remove the disease of their bodies. 
 
 Is not the real lesson of James Gilmour's life twofold .-• If 
 it be looked at from the point of view of results, it should 
 give clear and vivid ideas of the unwisdom of being cast 
 down by the absence of results in face of the difficulties of 
 missionary work in China. It is to be feared that there 
 are still large numbers of good Christian people who believe 
 that for the conversion of Chinamen and Mongols all that 
 is requisite is to put into the hands of the heathen a copy 
 of God's Word in their native tongue, and then preach to 
 them the good tidings of salvation. No man in this, or in 
 any past generation, has done this more faithfully than 
 
THE LAST DAYS 311 
 
 James Gllmour, No man ever believed more firmly 
 in the truth that it is ' not by might nor by power,' 
 but by the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, that the 
 intellect and conscience and heart of the heathen are to 
 be subdued to the Saviour. No man ever wrestled more 
 eagerly and fervently in prayer on behalf of the ignorant 
 and sinful, and yet his avowed converts can be numbered 
 on the fingers. Does this prove that God is unfaithful } 
 Does this tend to show that the enterprise is hopeless .'' 
 Or has God been teachiYig us, by the life of one of His 
 ablest and truest servants, the lesson of patient continuance 
 in the path of His commands, whether He blesses or 
 whether He withholds? Is He not proclaiming to His 
 Church the need of a self-sacrifice in all its vienibers com- 
 mensurate with that displayed by James Gilmour and others 
 who like him have not counted their lives dear unto them- 
 selves in the struggle with heathenism } Some must go in 
 the ' forlorn hope.' Some must lay down their lives in pre- 
 paring the highway of our God. * Herein is the saying true, 
 One soweth and another reapeth.' But succeeding toilers in 
 the Mongolian field, as the direct result of James Gilmour's 
 sowing, will be able in days to come to apply to themselves 
 our Lord's words, ' I sent you to reap that whereon ye 
 have not laboured : others have laboured, and ye are 
 entered into their labour.' 
 
 If the life of James Gilmour be looked at altogether 
 apart from the results that can be entered in tables of 
 statistics, how splendidly inspiring it is ! Faithful to his 
 Master, faithful to his work, although the Master seemed 
 to delay the blessing, although the work wore down the 
 worker. * I,' said St. Paul to the thankless Corinthian 
 
312 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Church, 'will most gladly spend and be spent for your 
 souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the 
 less ? But be it so.' And in the Epistle to the Romans he 
 applied to the Jews who were resisting the Gospel the 
 ancient words of Isaiah : ' But as to Israel He saith, All 
 the day long did I spread out my hands unto a disobedient 
 and gainsaying people. I say then, Did God cast off His 
 people } God forbid.' Nor will God cast off the Israel of 
 China, or the Mongols who gave to the faithful teacher re- 
 spect, attention, and in a way the love of their hearts, but 
 who as yet have not surrendered those hearts to their true 
 Lord. James Gilmour, in season and out of season, 
 in almost constant solitude, in superabounding physical 
 labours that often overburdened him, and once nearly 
 broke him down, in the long disappointment of the most 
 cherished hopes, and under the constant strain of what 
 would have crushed any but a giant in faith, lived a life 
 which, if it taught no other lesson, was yet well worth 
 living to teach this — that Jesus Christ can and does give 
 His servants the victory over apparent non-success, after 
 the most vehement and long-sustained effort to secure 
 success, and that this is the greatest victory possible to 
 renewed and sanctified human nature. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 I 
 
 A CHINESE EXECUTION IN MONGOIIA 
 
 January 4, 1889, was a bitterly cold day in Mongolia. I had 
 hardly got my table, forms, and medicine boxes out to the stand 
 on the street, when it became apparent that there would be 
 nothing done on the street that day. The temperature must 
 have been very low, but that can be borne. What could not be 
 borne was the cold wind which swept the street. A patient or 
 two came, and with chattering teeth told their complaints. As 
 soon as I had with trembling hand given the required medicine, 
 off the man would go, navigating his way up the street against the 
 wind, trying to avoid the blast by keeping in the shelter of pro- 
 jecting walls and protuberant buildings, standing now and again 
 in more protected nooks to recover breath and warmth before 
 venturing out into the next exposed space. It was no use. With 
 benumbed fingers I packed my books, got a beggar to carry 
 my medicine boxes back to the inn, and sent a man for the table 
 and forms. 
 
 There was a walk I had wanted to take long before, but had 
 been prevented by patients from taking. This day seemed 
 favourable for it. No one who could possibly stay indoors was 
 likely to be out in such a wind, and yet with brisk walking it was 
 easy to keep fairly warm. My way lay past the military head- 
 quarters of the place, and not far from the Hsien Yamen. There 
 was a stir among the soldiers, saddled horses were being led 
 about, and banners floated in front of the great gate of the 
 
314 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 barracks. As I came near the Yamen there seemed to be a 
 stream of people pouring into it, and a friendly Chinese asked 
 me if I too had come to see the bustle (je-?tao). ' What bustle ? ' 
 ' The execution, of course.' I had never heard of it, but joined 
 the stream and found myself in the outer court of the Yamen. 
 A small crowd stood about the low, narrow doorway of the great 
 prison, near which were placed a table and two chairs. A larger 
 crowd was gathered in an open building, where was a more im- 
 posing table and more chairs with some drapery, significant of 
 authority. The open court was partly filled with a crowd of 
 townspeople, mostly young, among whom petty traders were 
 selling flour, tea, and sweetmeats. 
 
 In the distance on all hands I could hear them saying, ' He's 
 come, too, to see the bustle.' More friendly people came up ac- 
 costing me with, ' Doctor, you've come to see the bustle.' And 
 of these some would go on to consult me about their diseases, or 
 tell me how the last dose of medicine they had from me had 
 affected them. New-comers, joining the crowd, asked eagerly, 
 ' How many ? ' They were answered, ' One.' 
 
 Many of the crowd soon got tired of waiting. It was bitterly 
 cold, and the fact that only o}ie was to be led forth seemed to 
 disappoint them. Not a few soon left the place. The utter 
 frivoHty of the people was distressing. Solemnity seemed ab- 
 solutely wanting. I seemed to be the only one there who had 
 any sympathy for the forthcoming victim ; and at last, ill able to 
 bear the frivolous talk, I left the Yamen, having first learned that 
 the place of execution was in the river-bed outside the South 
 Gate. I had not gone far when I met the cavalry, who were to 
 form the escort, coming up the street in double line, looking 
 brave with red banners. As they passed one of the braves 
 dropped something or other belonging to him, and one of the 
 crowd picked it up, and, running after, handed it up to him. A 
 bystander near me, after scanning closely the turnout, said, 
 ' Humph ! not one of them at home, all gone to Manchuria.' I 
 learned afterwards that they had not gone so far as Manchuria, 
 but were only at a place a short distance off, trying to catch some 
 mounted robbers. Though they had been trying for about a 
 month, success had not attended their efforts. 
 
A CHINESE EXECUTION 315 
 
 The South Gate looks out upon a square mile or so ot waste 
 land, desolated by a river, whose stream for most of the year is a 
 mere rivulet, but which, when flooded by the great summer rains, 
 roars over the whole space from the city gate to the solid moun- 
 tains opposite, leaving, when it retires, a dreary expanse of stones 
 and sand. To one standing at the gate there was visible, less 
 than a quarter of a mile away, a rude shed standing on a plot of 
 sand just beyond a straggling plantation of willows. No one was 
 near it. The north-west wind was sweeping the sand across the 
 plain. Close by the gate a small crowd of boys, with their hands 
 up their sleeves, crouched in the shelter of a house. Not far off 
 from the crowd of boys a table and two or three chairs were lying 
 on the ground. Countrymen were coming straggling across the 
 plain on their way to the market to sell their loads of brushwood 
 fuel. I walked out to the shed, and coming back saw some 
 movement beginning. The table and chairs were being carried 
 through the willow plantation towards the shed, catching on the 
 bushes as they passed. I had been looking at the crowd among 
 the willows when a voice close at hand invited me not to go 
 away, but to come and see the 'fun.' Looking towards the 
 sound I was startled to find I was in the presence of the execu- 
 tioner, carrying a great two-handed sword or knife, the handle 
 appropriately ending up in a carved human head. A couple of 
 minutes later, the cavalry with their red bravery wound in sight, 
 and close behind them was an ordinary farm cart drawn by two 
 small lean horses and an ox. A number of men were seated on 
 the cart ; three or four of them were holding in position at the tail 
 of the cart a pale haggard man about forty- eight years of age. 
 His hands were tied behind his back, and, rising some three feet 
 above his head, a perpendicular superscription, written on white 
 paper in great Chinese characters, and affixed to a stick thrust 
 down his back, wavered in the wind. 
 
 The crowd, which had somewhat increased by this time, left 
 its shelter for a close look at the prisoner, then scampered away 
 by a short cut through the willow plantation to take up a good 
 position and get a good view. There was no need to hurry. 
 The cart, slow at best, had to pass through a bed of sand drifted 
 on to the road, and there the lean animals came nearly to a 
 
3i6 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 standstill. Arrived at the place the prisoner and his guards dis- 
 mounted and stood in a little group just in front of the shed. I 
 found myself just opposite the prisoner. He was a tall, pale, 
 starved Chinaman. He was in fetters. His trousers were in rags 
 to such an extent that they in no way concealed his person. 
 For upper garment he had a ragged wadded jacket. His bare 
 arms were bound with a rope behind his back. Moisture trick- 
 ling from his nose had formed an icicle, which hung from the 
 thin black moustache on his upper lip. The hair on his un- 
 shaven head had grown long. He stood erect, but whether 
 of his own strength or held in position it was impossible to tell. 
 Numerous hands grasped him so tightly that it is doubtful if he 
 could have made a voluntary movement, and part of his erect 
 bearing was doubtless due to the strength of the grasp with which 
 one man held the root of the pigtail. There he stood. No one 
 spoke to him. He spoke to no one. The only sign of concern 
 in the proceedings he betrayed was that twice he cast sharp eyes 
 towards the shed. He was a miserable picture. Apart from 
 everything else, the bitter cold alone must have to a great extent 
 benumbed him. 
 
 In a little the crowd began to say, ' No appearance of the 
 mandarin yet ; ' but there was not long to wait. A smart swift cart 
 soon drew up behind the shed, the mandarin entered through the 
 doorway left in the matting at the back, the guards shuffled the 
 prisoner forward towards the front of the shed, made him duck 
 his head to the mandarin, and then with some noise and shouting 
 hurriedly hustled him off to a greater distance. The crowd 
 surged about, and I could see nothing. A moment or two later 
 I caught a glimpse of a group of men crouching round a kneeling 
 figure, holding him at extreme arm's length, and averting their 
 faces and keeping their heads as far away as possible. The 
 crowd surged again, there was a sound such as I have heard from 
 a butcher's cleaver when splitting open a carcase ; the crowd was 
 still for a moment, then began rapidly to disperse, and there was 
 the man's head lying on the sand, the features unchanged, except 
 only the eyes closed. The trunk it was impossible to see for a 
 crowd of youths and boys who pressed close round it. The 
 mandarin climbed into his cart and drove off. The crowd scat- 
 
A CHINESE EXECUTION 317 
 
 tered quickly, young and old remarking with glee and approval, 
 'Wasn't that knife sharp ! ' Two men, after fixing the end of the 
 pigtail to the long hair near the brow, slipped a ten-feet pole 
 through the loop, and carrying the head thus, started for the 
 Yamen. Finding that blood still dripped, they, by a movement 
 of the pole, wiped it on the sand and slowly went off. 
 
 Meantime the carcase was being freed from the fetters and 
 stripped of its rags. The cord which had bound the arms was 
 tied to the ankles, and two men, asking each other, ' Where's the 
 pit ? ' began to drag the body, breast downwards, along the sand. 
 The jacket, which had not been removed, covered the neck, and 
 the hand of one disentangled arm left a trail on the sand as it 
 was dragged along. The 'pit' was a slight depression a few 
 yards off, close to the highway, and there in a little hollow two 
 men began to heap sand over the body. One lad, with a knife, 
 attempted to cut a piece of flesh from the neck. He was not 
 interrupted, but did not succeed, and the men who were per- 
 forming the burying merely asked him why he did not use a sharp 
 knife. The crowd asked what he wanted it for. The lad replied, 
 ' I had a use for it.' 
 
 But the wind was cold. The bustle was over. The crowd 
 had gone. The shed was being taken down. The table and 
 chairs were being carried off. One of the men burying said to 
 the other, ' I'll finish this ; you go and see to the things getting 
 back — one table and two chairs.' The ground was frozen. No 
 hole had been dug. To cover a corpse by heaping up the loose 
 sand unfrozen on the surface was not easy, especially in a high 
 wind. The dead man's bare heels would peep through, and I 
 went slowly off, leaving the man at his unfinished task. A few 
 days later I passed the place and found someone had taken the 
 poor little miserable rope from the ankles, and the blood- 
 saturated, ragged, wadded jacket from the shoulders, the heels 
 still staring through the sand like two stones. At a later visit 
 the heels were still there and the dogs had gnawed one of the 
 arms. 
 
 The head I never saw again, but the pale face I have seen 
 often since. It has appeared to me repeatedly. I had never seen 
 an execution before, and I don't think I want to see one again. 
 
31 8 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 The most horrible part of the whole thing was the utter want of 
 feeling. No one seemed to have an atom of pity. The crowd 
 seemed glad of the excitement, and no one seemed to care a 
 straw for the man's soul, or to sympathise with the poor wretch 
 in his dire extremity. The only remark approaching considera- 
 tion for the prisoner was that made by a little boy who, somewhat 
 awe-struck at the idea, asked me if the dead man would go about 
 the next world wanting his head. I may be doing the Chinese a 
 wrong in saying so, but the impression left on my mind by the 
 crowd of spectators was that, if they had any feeling about the 
 matter, it was that the show was tame, because only one man was 
 beheaded. 
 
 So far the eye-witness. 
 
 All I could learn about the man was that he was one of a 
 band of robbers who had sacked a silversmith's shop, killing a 
 man in the process. Two of the band had been executed before. 
 This was the third. All agreed in saying he was guilty and 
 deserved his fate, and with this thought most likely dismissed his 
 case from their minds, this being all the more easily done on 
 account of the small amount of belief they have in the life to 
 come. .But it makes a missionary feel very solemn to look at a 
 man who within a minute will have gone out of this world, and 
 seen the realities of the world to come. Where is that man's soul 
 now? 
 
 Executions are frequent in Mongolia. The country is in a 
 chronic state of danger from armed and mounted robbers. Their 
 depredations are frequent. The fear and annoyance and loss of 
 property these brigands cause steel people's hearts against them. 
 To a brigand at large everybody is affable and polite, fearing his 
 vengeance, but a Chinaman has no sentimentality to throw away 
 on a captured brigand. 
 
 In another part of Mongolia a double execution took place a 
 little while before that mentioned above. One was that of an old 
 man, who, it was said, voluntarily took on himself the guilt of his 
 nephew and died in his stead. Mitigating circumstances were 
 connected with this case, and the demands of the law were 
 satisfied with merely slaying the man ; his head was not carried off. 
 The prisoner's friends provided a coffin and had previously feed 
 
A CHINESE EXECUTION 319 
 
 the executioner to sew on the severed head and deliver them the 
 complete body. More mitigating circumstances still were con- 
 nected with the other case, that of a young man, so he was not 
 beheaded, but only strangled — a punishment which was regarded 
 as much less dreadful than decapitation. 
 
 The warrant for every execution has to come from the Fu city, 
 and every condemned man must be led forth to death imme- 
 diately on the arrival of the warrant. No delay is admitted. The 
 courier with the warrant arrives the day before and takes up his 
 abode two or three miles from the city. Messengers go on 
 with the information, and when the courier arrives with the fatal 
 document everything and everybody is in readiness. The execu- 
 tioner seems to live under no opprobrium. He is well known in 
 the town, gets a little more than half a dollar for every head he 
 takes off, and has, in addition, the monopoly of buying all the 
 dead horses, mules, and donkeys in the city. So it is said. But 
 I have found things in China to differ so much from Chinese 
 descriptions and accounts of them that I hesitate to record any- 
 thing for the correctness of which I have no better authority than 
 Chinese report. 
 
 A few days after the execution a man came to my stand to 
 consult me about his right arm, which he said pained him. Baring 
 it to the elbow he asked if I did not think that arm should be 
 strong. Trying to diagnose his case I asked him his occupation. 
 He gave me a curious look, and said he would tell me some other 
 time ' on the quiet.' Something in his face and something in 
 his manner struck me as strange, and it slowly dawned on me 
 that this must be the man whom I met carrying the great 
 two-handed chopper on the way to the execution ground on 
 January 4. 
 
 Numerous as are the executions in Mongolia, all condemned 
 prisoners do not pass under the headsman's knife. Current 
 report says that many cases are settled by subjecting prisoners to 
 such neglect and hardship that they die before their case is finally 
 decided. It is easy to see to what abuse this practice is liable. 
 I know a wealthy man who had a law plea with a number of poor 
 men. Three of his opponents died in prison, and report says 
 that their death came through hard treatment, the result of the 
 
320 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 rich man's bribery. This is an extreme case, though, and such 
 success has its counterbalancing drawbacks. The dead men's 
 friends watch for their revenge, and the poor rich man dare not 
 go about his native village after dark, and can venture nowhere 
 without an escort. The prison mortality in Mongolia is very 
 high. In front of one Yamen not long ago I counted four- 
 teen square coffins, each containing the corpse of a prisoner. Of 
 these some doubtless deserved their fate, but it is almost as 
 certain that others again were innocent victims of injustice and 
 oppression. I wonder if all the prisons of China are alike ! If 
 so the aggregate of misery endured in these places throughout the 
 empire must be appalling. English prisons may need reforming 
 in some ways, but compared with Chinese prisons they are 
 palaces. Confucianism has done much for China, but as regards 
 prison management it is an utter failure. When Christianity 
 begins to be a felt power in the nation, China will have to amend 
 her prison discipline. 
 
 II 
 CHINESE EMIGRATION 
 
 Our steamer was lying in a port of South China, discharging 
 rice brought from Shanghai, and taking on board cargo for 
 Europe. On the morning of the third day numbers of China- 
 men, with small quantities of baggage, began to take up their 
 station on the covered wharf alongs'ide of which our ship was 
 placed. By about nine o'clock the wharf was crowded, leaving 
 only room enough for the coolies to pass along with loads of 
 goods, which were being rapidly dropped down into the capacious 
 hold of the vessel. Till noon and even later the loading went on 
 with no interruption other than that caused by one or two rushes 
 made for the ship by the waiting crowd. These rushes were 
 promptly met and successfully resisted by the officers and crew, 
 some of whom, it was noticed, were armed with short sticks 
 resembling policemen's batons as to size and shape, but which 
 were in reality only pieces of firewood selected from a pile of 
 
CHINESE EMIGRATION 321 
 
 bundles which had already come on board and been stowed on 
 deck. Rough and ready, however, as these truncheons were, they 
 did good service, and though not harshly used, kept the decks 
 clear till the loading was completed. Rumour had got about 
 among us, the European passengers, that the cargo would be all 
 in by some time shortly after midday, and we were waiting about 
 to see how our Chinese fellow-passengers would get on board. 
 About half-past two in the afternoon we were suddenly startled 
 by a noise as of hundreds of voices shouting simultaneously 
 in great excitement, and mixed with it the rush and trampling 
 of many feet. Hurrying to the saloon door we found a deluge 
 of frantic men rushing along the planks leading to the ship, 
 jumping from the end of the gangways on to the deck, and 
 streaming down the hatchways into the hold, and in a few seconds 
 the flood of human beings had spread itself over the whole of 
 those parts of the ship which had been abandoned to it. The 
 clamour and bustle seemed if anything to increase, and the babel 
 of sounds was deafening, coming up even from under the saloon 
 through the gratings of the ventilators. The eagerness of the 
 Chinese to get on board was intense, and they carried everything 
 before them by mere weight and numbers, coming in not only by 
 the entrances prepared for them, but pouring over the bulwarks 
 where that seemed a more direct way. A most easily embarked 
 cargo was this living freight ; those on duty with their short sticks 
 had only to cease defending the ship, and in poured the flood. 
 
 The first thing many of them did on coming on board was 
 to throw down a mat on the first space of unoccupied deck 
 they found, and they would then stand by contentedly regarding 
 the rush of men with dirty feet passing over their mat, and 
 trampling it into unsightliness, seemingly not annoyed at the 
 destruction of the mat as long as they could thus claim for their 
 use on the voyage the place it covered. A vast deal of bustle 
 took place in getting on board the baggage they had with them. 
 For 800 men the whole amount was very small, but in the terrible 
 hurry in which all was being done, the embarkation of the 
 baggage was a confusing business, all the more so as the owners 
 seemed anxious lest, when they were engaged over their goods, 
 some one else should occupy the positions which they had 
 
 X 
 
322 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 claimed. There were a good many bamboo chests, but the bulk 
 of the possessions of these passengers seemed to consist of 
 baskets of provisions, cooking pots and little stoves, water in 
 wooden casks and earthenware jars, of which last one broke in 
 coming on board, charcoal, fruit such as oranges, and, in one or 
 two instances, small coops with live chickens. 
 
 It soon began to appear that the immense hurry and rush with 
 which all the coming on board had been marked was not uncalled 
 for. In about half an hour, or perhaps forty-five minutes after the 
 gangway had been abandoned to the waiting crowd, the steamer 
 began to cast off from the wharf and swing out to her anchor. 
 The embarkation had not yet been completed, but what remained 
 had to be done by means of small boats, and involved a good 
 deal of dangerous-looking climbing on the part of the passengers, 
 and a good deal of troublesome hoisting of their belongings. On 
 returning to the saloon we found that, while we had been staring 
 at the stampede, the British Consul had arrived and left cards 
 for the lady passengers. As soon as all the Chinese seemed to 
 be on board, measures were taken to inspect them. They were 
 all sent up out of the hold, massed on one part of the ship, and 
 made, one by one, to pass in review before the assembled officials, 
 the British Consul, himself, standing and counting each one as he 
 passed, and stopping the procession now and again to question 
 some boy or other emigrant whose case seemed to call for remark. 
 
 The Chinese officials, of whom two were present, one repre- 
 senting the local land authorities, took the inspection more easily, 
 one of them sitting quietly on a folding chair which his atten- 
 dants had brought with them, and both of them leaving the real 
 work of inspection to their underlings. Behind these officials, at 
 the place of inspection, stood a few Chinese, said to be on the 
 outlook for fugitives, but the review passed quietly off, and no 
 fault was found with any of the eight hundred who were leaving 
 their country. In the whole company there were only three children 
 and five women, one of these last being recognised by the 
 bystanders as having displayed great trepidation as she came, 
 with hurrying yet hesitating step, up the sloping plank which 
 formed the narrow bridge over the yawning chasm between the 
 wharf and the ship's side. The passengers passed muster all right. 
 
CHINESE EMIGRATION 323 
 
 The personal counting even of the exact British Consul failed to 
 make out one too many, the doctor detected no symptoms of 
 disease, the sixteen Chinese cooks were called up and put in an 
 appearance, the cooking ranges stood in an imposing row close at 
 hand, the other arrangements and provisions seemed to give 
 satisfaction, and the Customs officials, British and Chinese, after 
 making their adieus and wishing us a good voyage, descended to 
 their boats and pulled away. Getting up our ladder and anchor 
 we stood out into the river, and, after watching the intricacies of 
 navigation in piloting a large ship through a crowded anchorage 
 in a swift current, we found the shore of China rapidly receding, 
 and were at full liberty and leisure to realise our position. 
 
 On coming from the north towards this Chinese port rumour 
 began to be current among the crew that we were to take in some 
 seven hundred Chinese passengers. Immediately after our arrival 
 we found the report confirmed, and among the evidences we 
 had of its truth were men setting up cooking ranges on deck, 
 and a foreigner engaged with measuring tape and note-book 
 calculating the superficial area of the deck and holds, after 
 deducting the space occupied by steam winches and other 
 encumbrances. Report too had it that for every nine superficial 
 feet of area we were entitled to carry one passenger, and we soon 
 learned that the inspection and numbering of the crowd on board 
 resulted in our being declared to be a few within the number 
 which the vessel might legally carry. And so there we were 
 with some seven hundred and ninety-eight Chinese and fifty- 
 seven Europeans — a boatload of eight hundred and fifty-five in 
 all. Going down into the hold — the forehold especially — was 
 an impressive sight. The whole of the immense space seemed 
 occupied with reclining human beings, here and there could be 
 discerned a long line of baggage, the top of which was also covered 
 with men. The smell was strong, the heat oppressive, and the 
 fluttering of the fans, which every one seemed to possess, made 
 the place seem as if it were an immense cave whose dim depths 
 were filled with bats about to take wing when disturbed by 
 the entrance of the visitor. Here and there might be seen a 
 company lying round a lamp smoking opium, and as the eye 
 became more accustomed to the darkness the sides of the hold 
 
324 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 could be seen to be hung with parcels and baggage suspended on 
 sticks inserted in the open plankwork which protects the skin of 
 the ship from being damaged by the cargo. The passengers were 
 evidently pleased with their quarters and had laid themselves 
 down over the entire space ; leaving no lanes for walking, so that 
 comers and goers had to make their way out and in by treading 
 on their neighbours' mats. Though so closely packed, these 
 nearly eight hundred men behaved very well during the eight 
 days they were on board. It says a great deal for the peaceable 
 nature of the Chinese, that though they must have been a great 
 inconvenience to each other, not more than once in two days did 
 disagreements among them go so far as to give rise to fights hi 
 which wounds were received which needed surgical skill to dress 
 them. Only one man's case seemed alarming, and he came along 
 the deck, as was remarked, ' bleeding like a pig ' from a wound in 
 the head, and on another occasion four men presented themselves 
 together, with bleeding evidences of a fray. All that we could 
 learn about these cases was that they had originated in one man 
 occupying the place or drinking the water belonging to another. 
 Quite as likely, however, the quarrel arose from gambling, which, 
 on account of being a fruitful source of trouble, was strictly pro- 
 hibited, but no doubt indulged in, as it is an amusement dear to 
 the heart of Chinese under most circumstances, and possessing 
 attractions almost irresistible to men situated as our companions 
 were. Though I went among them frequently and at unsuspected 
 times, I saw very little of this vice among them, and it was quite 
 wonderful and pleasant to see how harmless and quiet these 
 hundreds of strong men were during the days and hot nights 
 while they were crowded together in enforced idleness. In the 
 daytime they used to swarm up out of the holds and perch, like 
 birds, on any little projection or slope that afforded firm footing, 
 and, though most of them were labourers, a few could read, and 
 some of them I found engaged with Gospels and Scripture parts, 
 with which they had been supphed before coming on board. As 
 their language was of the south, and mine of the north, I was able 
 to hold only very limited conversation with them. 
 
 The only periodical excitement they had was the serving out 
 of rice and food at meals, which was accomplished in an orderly 
 
CHINESE EMIGRATION 325 
 
 manner by an arrangement of tallies. One of the sixteen cooks 
 would seat himself on the rail of the ship just beyond the immense 
 pot, his back to the ocean and his face to the company, and, as each 
 basket was presented, he would dig up, with a spade, the proper 
 allowance of rice, deliver it into the basket, and the bearer would 
 go off seemingly satisfied. One little excitement, which came in 
 by way of an extra, was a fall of rain which cleared the decks 
 somewhat, and was a drawback to the pleasure of those who had 
 secured deck places, but it did little harm, as there were awnings 
 all about, and some of the men actually went and stood under 
 the streams of rain water that poured down where the canvas 
 collected it. 
 
 To the officers and crew engaged in the navigation of the ship 
 this crowd of men everywhere among their feet must have been a 
 great annoyance, but it was very pleasing to see the patience and 
 gentleness with which the Chinese passengers were as a whole 
 treated throughout the entire voyage. One day there was an un- 
 usual stir among the crowd, and we found that their tickets were 
 about to be taken. Agents, under whose care, evidently, they 
 shipped, supplied each man with the necessary paper ; it was 
 collected in due form and found all correct, except in the case ot 
 one or two, for whom a compromise was arranged or for whom a 
 friend paid. 
 
 Arrived at Singapore, the officers of the ship having already 
 collected tickets, the landing of the passengers was a matter which 
 concerned themselves and their agents only. The agents took 
 possession of the gangway and collected tickets from the men as 
 they went ashore, enforcing their demands by physical force when 
 necessary, one man in particular coming in for smart and rough 
 handling. 
 
 Of the whole company, some two hundred, who were bound 
 for Penang, were let down the other side of the vessel into boats, 
 conveyed away beyond our sight, and, when the steamer was about 
 to leave, reproduced in the same manner as they had disappeared. 
 Whether this disposal of our fellow-voyagers was for the com- 
 fort and economy of our companions themselves, or to secure the 
 rights of the shipping agents who managed them, was not quite 
 manifest. After passing Penang, and getting rid there of the last 
 
326 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 Chinaman, the ship was much more comfortable, and we could 
 breathe more freely. 
 
 As to the commercial aspects of Chinese emigration much 
 might be said. There are those who don't want the Chinese to 
 come to their country because the Chinaman would reduce wages. 
 There are others, again — the capitalist, for instance — who would 
 welcome him for that very reason, and his plea is that the China- 
 man would not reduce wages so much as draw to and keep in the 
 country manufactures which have gone or are going to other 
 countries, which can turn out goods cheaper because wages are 
 lower. The capitalist is fast inclined to regard Chinese labour 
 pretty much as a new factor in trade, and, while admitting that 
 Chinese labour would temporarily affect the existing interests of 
 some classes, just as railways and power-looms affected stage- 
 coaching and hand-weaving, contends that in the long run cheap 
 Chinese labour would increase the wealth and prosperity of any 
 country in the same way as they were increased by the introduc- 
 tion of the locomotive and other steam machinery. If, however, 
 anyone does not wish Chinamen to leave their country and invade 
 other countries, let him bear a hand and assist missionary enter- 
 prise in China ; for as soon as that great country is Christianised 
 and enlightened enough to set about developing its resources, 
 there will be good wages and wealth for the Chinaman at home, 
 and he will be under no necessity of going abroad. In some 
 places might spring up industrial and mining centres where there 
 are now only a few goatherds living in miserable huts, and were 
 the resources of the country only fairly developed it would not 
 be too sanguine to expect that three men would be able to live in 
 comparative wealth where one now drags out his existence in 
 poverty. If, therefore, anyone has an objection to the Chinaman 
 going abroad, let him send the Gospel to China, as being the 
 most direct way of making that country so attractive to its inhabi- 
 tants that they will be likely to stay at home. 
 
 But there is a distinctly religious side to the question of 
 Chinese emigration ; and it is earnestly to be hoped that if they 
 are permitted to enter any country they may receive fair and just 
 treatment, and be allowed to see Christianity bearing itself with a 
 friendly aspect tow^ards them. Sending the Chinese to foreign 
 
THE MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE 327 
 
 countries is doubtless one of God's ways of sending the Gospel 
 to China, and if even a fair proportion of these emigrants were to 
 return to their native land impressed with the sincerity of Chris- 
 tians they had met abroad, and feeling that they had been treated 
 kindly in the land in which they were strangers, a powerful gain 
 would have been accomplished towards the ultimate conversion 
 of China. Nor is it too much to hope that of those who go 
 as adventurers to Christian lands many should return them- 
 selves Christian, and become sources of Christian influence to 
 others. 
 
 Ill 
 THE MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE 
 
 Mongolia lying contiguous to China, the question is often 
 asked, ' Is the language of the Mongols anything like that of 
 the Chinese ? ' The answer to this question is, ' No, the languages 
 of the two countries are quite distinct and have nothing to do with 
 each other.' To know Chinese is no help to the understanding 
 or acquiring of Mongolian, and a knowledge of Mongolian i<: no 
 help in understanding or acquiring Chinese. These two languages 
 are about as different as they well could be ; for while Chinese 
 is monosyllabic, has no alphabet, and has many dialects, so 
 different as not to be understood beyond the bounds of the 
 districts Avhere they are spoken, Mongolian abounds in words of 
 many syllables, has an alphabet, and varies so little in the matter 
 of dialects that a Mongolian, no matter where his native place 
 may be, has no difficulty in making himself understood in any 
 part of the vast plain over which the Mongolian-speaking popula- 
 lation is scattered. Mongols, in listening to each other, can 
 usually tell the district to which they belong, and it sometimes 
 happens that words in vogue at one place are not so much used 
 in other localities. A very curious and very rare example of this 
 occurred one day when two Mongols, one from the east and the 
 other from the west, met in my room, in Peking. They had no 
 difficulty whatever in talking till one of them used a localism with 
 which the other was unacquainted ; but I think this was the only 
 
328 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 instance in which I have seen one Mongol unable to understand 
 another. 
 
 The question too is frequently asked, ' Is Mongolian an easier 
 language than Chinese ? ' It is a much easier language than 
 Chinese, but the facilities and apphances for acquiring it are so 
 much less that after all a grown-up foreigner can make almost as 
 much progress in the spoken Chinese as in the Mongolian. As 
 to the written language, Mongolian being alphabetic is incompar- 
 ably easier of acquisition. What first strikes a stranger on hearing 
 Mongols speak is the quantity of gutturals and aspirates which 
 they utter, so much so that their speech seems mostly gasping and 
 sputtering. In addition to this the speaking is generally so rapid 
 and the words run together so well that it is difficult to distinguish 
 individual words at all. 
 
 What strikes a foreigner on becoming acquainted with the 
 language is the disproportionately large part occupied by the verb. 
 Little attention is paid to persons and numbers, but by changes 
 and additions in the w^ay of terminations a great variety of signi- 
 fications are indicated which in other languages, English for 
 instance, necessitate the use of additional words. In tenses, 
 moods, and participles the Mongolian verb is very much like the 
 verbs of other languages, but any verb by a change in its last 
 syllable can indicate the idea of ^ since. ^ For instance, when the 
 final syllable of the verb ' to come ' is changed, the signification 
 thus conveyed is that of 'since coming.' When this changed, final 
 syllable is repeated, the meaning is ' m consequence of continual 
 coTtiifig.' Another change of the final syllable, without increasing 
 the length of the word, conveys the meaning of ^when,' as ^ 2vhen 
 he came.' Still another change and the meaning is ' if,' ' if he 
 comes' Another charige indicates a ^ continjial habit,' ?Lr\d in the 
 case of the verb to come, when applied to a man, would mean 
 that he was a ' constant visitor' Still another change of the same 
 syllable would indicate that the man referred to would be ' likely 
 to cofne.' All these, be it remembered, are simply changes of the 
 last syllable without lengthening the word. By a change which 
 involves the lengthening of the word by one syllable is indicated 
 the idea of something taking place ' in consequence of his:, 
 coming.' 
 
THE MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE 329 
 
 Most active verbs in Mongolian have a passive form, accusa- 
 tive or permissive form, and a form which might be termed 
 reciprocal or gregarious, as it indicates action performed by two 
 or more persons, such as that of men talking together, as in con- 
 versation or bargaining, or of a company of men escorting a 
 friend. 
 
 But not only is the Mongol colloquial remarkable for the 
 flexibility of its verbs ; it has several verbs for which it would be 
 difficult to find verbal equivalents in other languages. For 
 example, there is a verb the literal translation of which would be 
 * To act in this fashion^ or ' to thus,' and another which means 
 ^To act in thai fashion,'' both of these verbs being usually accom- 
 panied by appropriate gesture. * To hozv ' is a very much used 
 verb, one part of which is the idiomatic way of asking a man how 
 much he paid for a thing, the phrase being in this case elliptical. 
 But perhaps the verb which appears most extraordinary to a 
 stranger is that which signifies ^ To do a thing fairly well.' 
 
 In matters not relating to verbs Mongolian colloquial has no 
 special advantage as compared with other languages, and it 
 labours under the burden that encumbers some other Oriental 
 languages, namely, in having a complete set of honorific terms 
 which must be used in addressing superiors and persons to whom 
 it is desired to show respect. In such a case, in place of saluting 
 a man on his arrival by asking him if he * travels' well, it is neces- 
 sary to inquire if he 'progresses ' well. In place of asking if his 
 ' body ' is well, the state of his ' corporation ' must be inquired 
 after, and in place of offering him tea and food he must be invited 
 to ' partake ' of refreshment. And so on throughout a great part 
 of the entire vocabulary. This set of ' honorific terms ' is perhaps 
 the most troublesome part of the language, and certainly that 
 which any straight-speaking foreigner has least patience in acquir- 
 ing and learning to use. 
 
 A good deal has been said about the alliteration of the Mon- 
 golian language, and where this comes most into play in the 
 colloquial is in the case of the participles of the verbs and the 
 ablatives of the nouns, the vowels of the terminations in these 
 cases depending on the vowels in the main part of the word. 
 
 As to construction, the accusative goes before the verb, the 
 
330 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 adjective before the noun, and, for the most part, sentences are 
 run out to an indefinite length, consisting of an indefinite number 
 of participial clauses strung together like the links of a chain. 
 For instance, when asked, ' Where having reached are you come ? ' 
 a Mongol might reply, ' Having mountedmy horse, having crossed 
 the plain, having alighted at tents, having drunk tea, I have 
 returned.' 
 
 Between the colloquial and the written language of Mongolia 
 there is a wide chasm which it does not seem easy to bridge over. 
 In English there is no great difficulty in Avriting down whatever 
 may be said, whether the utterances may be such expressions as 
 are used in common conversation, or the studied sentences of the 
 orator. To a foreigner there seems no reason why spoken Mon- 
 golian should not be committed to writing just as it is uttered. 
 But the Mongols do not write colloquial, and any attempts I have 
 seen made to have them write the spoken language have not been 
 successful, and, strange as it may seem, a learned Mongolian priest 
 gave up the attempt to produce a colloquial version of the Lord's 
 Prayer after spending most of the working part of two days on 
 the task. Doubtless the inability of the Mongols to write or read 
 colloquial is partly owing to the fact that they are unaccustomed 
 to it, as the main difference between the forms of the language as 
 written and spoken is that the spoken is shortened and contracted, 
 like pebbles rubbed smooth in the current of daily use, while the 
 written is full and formal, like blocks of stone hewn out angular 
 and square. 
 
 At first sight a line of Mongol writing seems like a knotted 
 cord, all the more so as it is perpendicular, not horizontal, like 
 English. The Mongols themselves compare their writing to a 
 stream of water poured out from a jug, for instance, and this 
 native comparison is not a bad one. The lines read downward, 
 beginning from the left, and thus it happens that the beginning of 
 a Mongol book is, like that of an English one, where the end of a 
 Chinese book would be. 
 
 If a Mongol is asked how many letters there are in the 
 alphabet, he replies there are twelve radicals, but these are not 
 regarded in quite the same light as the letters of our own 
 alphabet, and a child, in learning to write, is taught a series of 
 
THE MONGOLIAN LANGUAGE 331 
 
 syllables of which a Mongolian teacher would probably say there are 
 seventy-two. In some arrangements of these syllables made by 
 foreigners they amount to over a hundred, but it is more con- 
 venient for foreign purposes to treat the language as truly alpha- 
 betic. Here again there is a difference of arrangement possible, 
 one writer making seventeen consonants, seven vowels, and five 
 diphthongs, while in another dictionary all the words of the lan- 
 guage are arranged under twenty different initials. In Mongolian 
 writing there are no capitals, but many of the letters have an 
 initial, a middle, and a final form, to be used according as they 
 stand at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. A practical 
 printer once remarked that Mongolian, having no capitals and no 
 italics, could be printed from a very small font of type. Mon- 
 golian and Manchu writing are so much alike that the question is 
 often asked. Are they the same ? Manchu, as to its spoken lan- 
 guage, is quite different from Mongolian ; but the alphabets of 
 the two are very much alike, so much so that, with a very little 
 change, Manchu type can be used to print Mongolian. The 
 Manchu type character is slim and graceful, the Mongolian is 
 heavy and thick-set, and even by the uninitiated the Manchu can 
 be distinguished by its having a number of marks on the back or 
 right-hand side of the column, which are not found in Mongolian 
 writing. Roughly speaking, there is about as much difference 
 between the Mongolian and Manchu character as there is between 
 French and English writing. 
 
 Of the written language of Mongolia there are three styles. 
 These are, first, the style of the sacred books, being that in 
 which the translations of the Buddhist scriptures are made. The 
 main characteristics of this style are stiffness and the literal 
 translations of foreign idioms. Second may be placed the style 
 in which Government documents are written, its main charac- 
 teristics being formality and the use of uncommon words. 
 Lastly comes the correspondence style, or that in which letters 
 of friendship and business documents are written. This last 
 style differs from the sacred style in being free from stiffness, 
 and in being pure Mongol, and from the second, or ofiicial 
 style, in being much simpler and nearer to the ordinary spoken 
 language. 
 
332 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 This is not the place to give an account of the Hterature ot 
 Mongolia, but it may be remarked in passing that, outside of the 
 sacred books and Buddhist liturgies, there is very little in the 
 shape of literature to be found in the Mongolian language. The 
 book collector may find numerous manuscript copies of parts of 
 Buddhist scriptures, some histories of famous monks, and a few- 
 tales written with the purpose of enforcing Buddhist doctrines, 
 but secular writings are very hard to find, religion having taken 
 such entire possession of the Mongolian mind that it is thought a 
 waste of time to write and copy anything that has not a religious 
 value. 
 
 THE END 
 
INDEX 
 
 ALE 
 
 Alexander, Rev. Dr., saying of, 59 
 
 Amasa, an inquirer, 74 
 
 American Board, report on relations 
 
 with, 114 
 Among the Mongols, publication of, 135 ; 
 
 Spectator s review of, 135 
 Audiences, Peking, 150 
 
 Baik.\l, Lake, 63 
 
 Baptisms at Shantung, 115; Ta Cheng 
 
 TzCi, Ta SsLi Kou, Ch'ao Yang, 219 
 Barradale, Rev. J. S. , death of, 117 
 Bible, theft of a, 185 
 Blind Mongol, story of a, 144 
 Boating adventure, a, 22 
 Bookselling to Mongols in Peking, 127 
 Boyinto, baptism of, 166 
 Brj'son, Rev. T. , visits Mongolia, 263 
 Bu'riat Bible, the, 46 
 Buriats, Mission to, 46 
 Bushell, Dr., 105 
 
 Cathkin, birthplace of J. Gilmour, 15 
 Ch'ao Yang, fair at, 185 ; labours at, 204 ; 
 
 inquirers at, 219 ; work at, 263 
 Cheshunt College, J. Gilmour at, 30 
 Child, Mrs. , kindness of, 173 
 Chinaman, a sick, in Mongolia, 96 
 Chinese audiences, 150 
 Chinese Christians, letter from, to sons 
 
 of J. Gilmour, 308 
 Chinese emigration, 320 
 Chinese execution, 313 
 Chinese funerals, 73, 149 
 Ckitiese Recorder, the, extracts from, 192, 
 
 313. 320, 327 
 Christian literature, remarks on, 92 
 Chu, Mrs., a convert, 293 
 Controversy as to conduct of the Peking 
 
 Mission, 116 
 Conversion of J. Gilmour, 39, 230 
 Courtship, a strange, 98 
 
 Daniel, Book of, translation from, 113 
 Deaf and dumb Mongol, a, 95 
 
 Diary, J. Gilmour's reasons for keeping, 
 24 ; on his early life, 24 ; on his inner 
 experiences, 47 ; on Tientsin massa- 
 cre, 48 ; on Mongolian experiences, 
 55; yearnings for salvation of 
 Mongols, 56 ; on deaths of students, 
 60 ; on Mongol life, 62 ; review of 
 the past, 67 ; interview with Toob- 
 shing Baier, 85 ; on lamas, 89 ; on 
 famine districts, 118 ; on Liu's 
 address, 123; on Mongols in Peking, 
 127; extracts from, on journey on foot, 
 154 ; on illness of his wife, 173 ; hard 
 toil, 204; on depression, 224 
 
 Diseases, Mongol, 130 
 
 Divination, Mongol, 130 
 
 Doctors, Mongol, 130 
 
 Eastern Mongolia entered upon, 176 
 
 Economy of J. Gilmour, 91 
 
 Edkins, Rev. Dr., service with, 74 ; visits 
 
 Woo T'ai Shan, j-j ; argument with, 
 
 77; on Mongol Mission, 115; at 
 
 Shantung, 116 
 Emigration, Chinese, 320 
 Execution, Chinese, 313 
 ' Execution of Montrose,' the, recitation 
 
 of, at Tientsin, 87 
 Exeter Hall, speech at, in 1883, 146 
 
 Famine districts, description of, 118 
 Feng, Mr., an inquirer, 264 
 Funerals, Chinese, 73, 149 
 
 Galvanic battery, Mongol view of, 
 130 
 
 Gilmour, Alexander, 250 
 
 — James, sketch of his ancestry, 15 ; at 
 school, 19 ; at Glasgow High School, 
 20 ; his student life, 20 ; humour of, 
 20 ; mode of swimming, 21 ; rambles 
 of, 21 ; boating adventure,- 22 ; early 
 breakfasts, 23 ; his course at Glas- 
 gow University, 23 ; his reasons for 
 
334 
 
 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 keeping ;\ diary, 24 ; his own sketch 
 of early Hfe, 24 ; takes his degree at 
 Glasgow, 26 ; recollections of, by Rev. 
 J. Paterson, 26 ; his scholarship, 28 ; 
 his horror of drink, 28 ; goes to 
 Cheshunt College, 30 ; at liighgate, 
 31 ; author's description of, 31 ; remi- 
 niscences of, 32 ; Dr. Reynolds' early 
 recollections of, 36 ; anecdote of, as to 
 his books, 38 ; his inner e.\pericnce, 
 39 ; evangelistic work, 41 ; his ordi- 
 nation, 41 ; his conversion, 41 ; his 
 reasons for becoming a missionary, 
 42 ; embarkation of, 43 ; voyage to 
 China, 43 ; services on board ship, 44 ; 
 arrives at Peking, 46 ; extracts from 
 Diary, 47 ; twenty-seventh birthday, 
 
 47 ; depression at Tientsin massacre, 
 
 48 ; decides to go to Mongolia, 51 ; 
 first visit to Mongolia, 55 ; his yearning 
 for salvation of ^Iongols, 56 ; rests on 
 the Sabbath, 57 ; troubles at Kiaehta, 
 58; at Kudara, 58; remarks on deaths 
 of fellow-students, 60 ; lives in a tent, 
 61 ; masters Mongolian, 62 ; visits 
 Selenginsk, Onagen Dome, Lake 
 Baikal, Irkutsk, 63 ; personal review, 
 63 ; at Olau Bourgass, Urga, Kalgan, 
 Lama Miao, 64 ; delay of passport, 68 ; 
 his room at Kalgan , 69 ; his progress 
 in Mongolian, 69 ; extracts from his 
 report, 70 ; letter to the author on life 
 in China, 72 ; tour among resident 
 Mongols, 75 ; report on Mongol 
 Mission. 76 ; asks for a colleague, 76 ; 
 visits Woo T'ai Shan, 77 ; his love of 
 argument, 77 ; lives at the Yellow 
 Temple, 78 ; letter to Rev. T. T. 
 Matthews, 78 ; his description of inner 
 life of Mongols, 79 ; remarks on sincer- 
 ity, 83 ; interview withToobshingBaier, 
 85 ; goes to Tientsin, 87 ; a curious 
 joke, 87 ; again at Kalgan, 88 ; diffi- 
 culties with his servant, Lojing, 8g ; 
 his statement of account, 91 ; his 
 economy, 91 ; remarks on Christian 
 literature, 92 ; on medical missions, 93 ; 
 describes difficulty of securing a Mongol 
 congregation, 94 ; meets a deaf and 
 dumb Alongol, 95 ; his marriage, 98 ; 
 boards with Rev. S. E. Meech, 98 ; 
 letter to his parents telling of his offer 
 of marriage, 98 ; letter to the author 
 announcing his marriage, 100 ; de- 
 scri]ition of his wife, 102 ; at 
 Peking Hospital, 105 ; sets up Mon- 
 gol tent in his compound, 105 ; his first 
 journey with his wife, 107 ; encounters 
 a storm, T08 ; visited by a mandarin. 
 
 in; a narrow escape, 112; translates 
 from Book of Daniel, 113 ; his report 
 on relations with North China Commit- 
 tee, 114; visits Siiantung, 115; con- 
 troversy as to conduct of mission, 
 116 ; tour in famine districts, 118 ; at 
 Hsiao Chang, 121 ; description of his 
 preaching, 123 ; notes of a sermon by, 
 125 ; his efforts to reach Mongols in 
 Peking, 127 ; sells books, 127 ; his 
 descrijjtion of Mongol life, 129; on 
 Mongol diseases, 130 ; returns to Eng- 
 land, 134 ; publishes Amori^ the Mon- 
 gols, 135 ; deputation work, 142 ; 
 spends a Sunday in London, 143 ; 
 speech at E.xeter Hall, 146 ; his stay at 
 Millport, 152 ; adventure on GoatJell, 
 152 ; returns to China, 153 ; journeys 
 on foot, 154 ; at Kalgan, 157 ; visits a 
 lama, 157 ; in a mandarin's tent, 161 ; 
 meets first Mongolian convert, 163 ; 
 extracts from Diary, 165 ; labours in 
 Peking Mission, 168; a man of one 
 book, 169 ; meets with Wang, 169 ; 
 letter to Rev. S. E. Meech on converts, 
 169 ; illness of his wife, 173 ; his letter 
 on death of his wife, 174; decides to 
 go to Eastern Mongolia, 176; diffi- 
 culties of the work, 177 ; his first visit, 
 178 ; his opinions on use of opium, 
 tobacco, whisky, 181 ; hardships of, 
 182 ; the parting with his boys, 183 ; 
 letter to Re\-. R. W. Thompson on his 
 action and motives, 184 ; visits Ch'ao 
 Yang, Ta Cheng Tzu, 185 ; tries vegeta- 
 rianism, 189 ; his views on teetotal- 
 ism, 192 ; labours at Ch'ao Yang, 
 Ta Cheng Tzu, 204 ; reads Psalms in 
 Chinese, 205 ; results of his campaign, 
 206 ; starts on another journey, 207 ; 
 letter to his boys, 207 ; letters on ex- 
 penditure, 212 ; his dependence on 
 God, 214 ; remarks on death of Dr. 
 Mackenzie, 215; robbed at Ta Cheng 
 Tzti, 217 ; his report for the year, 219 ; 
 state of his health, 220 ; his fits ot 
 depression, 224 ; return to England, 
 225 ; interview with author, 226 ; letter 
 to his father on his mother's death, 
 228; remarks on heaven, 230; gives 
 100/. to L.M.S. , 231 ; letter on money 
 matters, 233 ; letter to his boys on giv- 
 ing, 236 ; to his father on spiritual 
 experience, 236 ; sketch of his religious 
 history, 240 ; letters to his boys, 241 ; 
 remarks on their training, 242 ; letter 
 to Mrs. Meech on death of her son, 
 252; his sojourn at Millport, 256; 
 letters on his religious life, 259 ; sails 
 
INDEX 
 
 335 
 
 for China, 261 ; letter to a brother 
 missionary, 261 ; the voyage, 262 ; 
 letter to Rev. R. W. Thompson on his 
 last year's work, 263; his devotion, 
 267 ; changes in his views, 267 ; letters 
 to Edinburgh friend, 268, 289 ; troubles 
 arising from rain, 270 ; his use of 
 Chinese Psalms, 271 ; letter to Rev. 
 S. E. Meech on revival, 272 ; to Rev. 
 J. Owen, 273, 280, 282; to his sons. 
 274 ; on Chinese travelling, 275 ; Dr. 
 Smith on daily life of, 277 ; his cheer- 
 fulness, 282 ; letter on death of 
 Mrs. Swan, 283; his criticisms on In 
 Darkest England, 284 ; Mr. Parkers 
 description of, 285 ; his remarks on 
 St. Paul, 289 ; on Hebrews vi. 4-6, 
 290; post card to L.M.S. , 291 ; letter 
 to Mrs. Lovett, 292 ; to Clapham 
 Ladies' Working Society, 292 ; to Miss 
 Williams, 295 ; his last letter, 296 ; 
 Miss Roberts' letter to his sons telling 
 of his death, 298 ; Dr. Roberts' an- 
 nouncement of his death, 301 ; his 
 funeral, 302 ; estimate of his character, 
 304 ; testimony of Dr. Reynolds, 305 ; 
 of Rev. J. Owen, 306 ; summary of his 
 life, 310 
 Gilmour, Mrs. , marriage of, lor ; bravery 
 of, 106 ; her first journey, 107 ; a narrow 
 escape, 112; her self-sacrifice, 113; 
 her illness, 134; her sufferings, 171; 
 her death, 174 
 
 — James, sen., 16 
 
 — John, his sketch of his brother, 15 
 
 — Matthew, sketch of, 16 
 
 — Family, the. Sabbaths of, 16 ; worship 
 of, 17 ; at Glasgow, 19 
 
 Glasgow University, J. Gilmour at, 20; 
 
 site of, 23 ; deaths of students of, 60 
 Goatfell, adventure on, 152 
 Grant, a trader, kindness of, 58 
 
 Hardey, Rev. Mr., 43 
 
 Hegemann, 65 
 
 Highgate, L.M.S. College at, 31 
 
 Holy oj Holies, the, 290 
 
 Hsiao Chang, services at, 120 
 
 Hymns, Chinese fondness for, 121 
 
 — Mr. Gilmour's favourite, 300 
 
 Kalgan, experiences at, 64 ; rest at, 
 
 69 ; revisited, 88, 157 
 Kiachta, 58 
 Kudara, Gilmour at, 58 
 
 Lama Miao, 64 
 
 — visit to a, 157 
 
 Lamas of Mongolia, the, 61 
 
 Letter of Chinese Christians to Rev. J. 
 
 Gilmour's sons, 309 
 Letters of J. Gilmour to — 
 
 K-ev. R. Lovett, on life in China, 72 ; 
 
 on his marriage, 100 
 Rev. T. T. Matthews, 78 
 His parents, announcing his offer of 
 
 marriage, 98 
 His mother, 99 
 
 Scotch friends, on his wife, 102 
 Miss Bremner, 104 
 
 Rev. S. E. Meech, on converts, 169 ; 
 on death of his wife, 174 ; on 
 revival, 272 
 Rev. R. W. Thompson, on his 
 motives, 184 ; on his last year's 
 work, 263 
 His boys, 207, 241-245, 274; on giv- 
 ing, 235 
 His father, on death of his mother, 
 228 ; on heaven. 230 ; giving sub- 
 scription to L.M.S., 231 ; on 
 money matters, 233 ; on his spiritual 
 e.\'perience, 236 
 Mrs. Meech, on death of her son, 252 
 Missionary brother, 261 
 Edinburgh friend, 268, 269, 289 
 Rev. G. Owen, 273, 282 
 Miss Cullen, on death of Mrs. Swan, 
 
 283 
 His brother, 288 
 Mrs. Lovett, 292 
 Clapham Ladies' Working Society, 
 
 292 
 Mrs. Williams, 295 
 Li San, a convert, 218 ; difficulties with, 
 
 222 
 Literature, Christian, remarks on, 92 
 Liu, sermon by, 123 
 Liu Seng, a ser\'ant, 222 
 Lobsung, 68 
 Lojing, a ser\-ant, difficulties with, 88 
 
 /;/ Darkest England, criticisms of, 284 
 • Inside Lodging,' the, 127 
 Irkutsk, 63 
 
 lOKE, a curious, 87 
 
 Jones of Singrauli, death of, 60 
 
 Mackenzie, Dr., death of, 215 
 Mahabal, a Mongolian, 69, 83 ; anecdote 
 
 of, 80 
 Mai Li Ying Tzfl, description of, 207 
 Mandarins, visits of, iii ; visits to, 161 
 
 163, 164 
 Medical missions, remarks on, 93 
 
336 
 
 JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA 
 
 MEE 
 
 Meech, Rev. S. E. , station of, 76; 
 
 marriage of, 98 ; describes nieeting 
 
 witli Emily Prankard, loi 
 Millport, sojourn at, 152, 256 
 Missionary, reasons for becoming a, 42 
 Mongol congregation, difficulty of 
 
 securing a, 94 
 Mongol habits, report on, 129 ; dislike of 
 
 privacy, 107, 129 ; of shooting, 130 ; 
 
 doctors, 130; divination, 130 
 Mongol Mission, report on, 76 
 Niongolia, first visit to, 55 ; lamas of, 61 
 Mongolian convert, the first, 163 
 Mongolian language, the difficulties of, 
 
 69, 327 
 Mongols, inner life of, 79 
 ■* Myriad Joy,' anecdote of, 80 
 
 New, Rev. C. , sermons by, 268 
 Ning, Mrs., a convert, 293 
 North China Committee, relations with, 
 114 
 
 Olau Bourgass, 61, 64 
 
 Onagen Dome, 46, 63 
 
 Opium, opinion on use of, 174, igo 
 
 Ordination of J. Gilmour, 41 
 
 ' Outside Lodging,' the, 127 
 
 Owen, Rev. G. , on Mongol Mission, 
 
 115; visits Shantung, 115; testimony 
 
 of, to J. GJlmour, 306 
 
 Parker, Rev. Mr., arrival of, 280; de- 
 scription of J. Gilmour, 285 ; his 
 letter to J. Gilmour's sons, 307 
 
 Passport, delay of, 68 
 
 Paterson, Rev. J. , recollections of J. 
 Gilmour, 26-29 
 
 Peking, excitement at, 52 ; a Sabbath 
 in, 72 
 
 Peking Mission, work of, 148 
 
 Pentecost, Dr., in the Volume of the Book, 
 288 
 
 Pettigrew, J., anecdote of, 18 
 
 Philip, Miss (Mrs. Smith), death of, 280 ' 
 
 Practice of the Prcicnce of God, the, 290 
 
 Prankard, Emily, 99 ; marriage of, loi 
 
 — Miss, marriage of, 98 
 JEriviicy,_Mqngoljiislikej2f, 107, 129 
 
 Psalms in Chinese, use of, 205, 271 
 
 Rain, troubles caused by, 270 
 
 Reynolds, Dr. H. R. , early recollections 
 of J. Gilmour, 36 ; on special experi- 
 ences of, 144 ; his estimate of J. 
 Gilmour, 305 
 
 Roberts, Dr., arrival of, in China, 214; 
 on death of J. Gilmour, 301 
 
 — Mi.ss, lettter to J. Gilmour's sons, 
 
 Sabbath in Peking, 72 
 
 Sabbaths of Gilmour family, 16 
 
 Sankey hymns, Chinese fondness for, 121 
 
 Selenginsk, 46, 65 
 
 Sermon, notes of, by J. Gilmour, 125 
 
 Shantung, visit to, 115 
 
 Smith, Dr., arrival of, 217; first meeting 
 with J. Gilmour, 220 ; visits Mongolia, 
 263; on J. Gilmour's daily life, 277; 
 death of wife of, 280 ; return of, 280 
 
 Spectator, review oi Amonq the Mongols, 
 
 13s 
 Sprague, Rev. W. P., 114; on baptism 
 
 of Boyinto, 166 
 Spurgeon, Rev. C. H., interview with, 143 
 Stallybrass, Rev. E. ,46 
 Sun, Mr., a convert, 210 
 Sunday in London, a, 143 
 Swan, Rev. W. , 46 
 Swan, Mrs. , death of, 283 
 
 Ta CnfeNG TzO, description of, 178 ; an 
 inquirer at, 186; labours at, 204; 
 home at, 207 ; thief at, 217 
 
 Teetotalism, views on, 191 
 
 Tempest, a furious, 108 
 
 Theatricals, Chinese, 208 
 
 Tientsin massacre, the, 48 
 
 Tobacco, opinion on use of, 174, 190 
 
 Toobshing Baier, interview with, 85 
 
 Travelling in China, 275 
 
 Tsai-li-ti, the sect, 188, 210 
 
 Urga, 64 
 
 Voyage to China, the first, 43 
 
 Wang, meeting with, 169 
 Whisky, opinion on use of, 174, 190 
 
 Yellow Temple, the, 178 
 
 Spottisivoode &^ Co. Printers, New-street Square, Loudon 
 
Pnncelon Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 01085 1790 
 
 
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