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 THESE EOm YEARS 
 
 A 
 
 REVIEW OF THE CHINA MISSION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 S^artV of Ipnglan^, 
 
 1847 to 1886. 
 
 FEOM EEPOET TO SYNOD, 1886, 
 With Bho,rt Statement to _ Date. 
 
 LIVEBPOOL : 
 
 0. TINLINa AND CO., DEINTEBS, VICTOBIA 8TEBET. 
 
 18 91 , 
 
 4 - 
 

THESE EORTY YEARS 
 
 BEING A 
 
 REVIEW OF THE CHINA MISSION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ^tjesb^l^rmn nf ^nglanit, 
 
 1847 to 1886. 
 
 FEOM EEPOET TO SYNOD, 1886, 
 With Shokt Statement to Date. 
 
 LIVEEPOOL ; 
 
 C. TINLING AND CO., PEINTEES, VICTOEIA STREET. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/thesefortyyearsOOunse 
 
KEVIEW OF THE CHINA MISSION, 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 1847 to 1886. 
 
 Fokty years have nearly passed since what was then 
 the “Presbyterian Church in England” chose the 
 Empire of China as the field for the operation of its 
 Foreign Mission. The close of four decades of this 
 mission history seems to your Committee to be a fitting 
 time for reviewing its past, and again bringing 
 prominently before the Church the remarkable blessing 
 with, which the Lord has followed all this work, the 
 method under which it has been carried on, its present 
 most interesting condition, the prospect before us in the 
 altered circumstances of the Chinese Empire, and the 
 responsibility and privilege to which we are now called. 
 The point we have reached is critical, well fitted for such 
 a review, and for renewed loyalty, devotion, and self- 
 denial. 
 
 EEV. W. C. BUENS. 
 
 Your first Missionary was ordained by the Synod of 
 1847, at Sunderland. The Committee for more than a 
 year had prayerfully waited for an agent, and the Eev. 
 W. C. Burns was the answer given. He landed at Hong 
 
4 
 
 Kong in November of the same j^ear, and remained there 
 two years and three months, living in the midst of the 
 native population, studying the language and customs of 
 the people. He then made excursions on the mainland, 
 along with native assistants, to make a first attempt at 
 evangelising. He afterwards visited Canton, which with 
 other four sea-ports were the only parts of the Empire 
 then open to Missionaries. Christianity was at that 
 time hardly visible in the Chinese Empire, excej)t in the 
 persons of the Missionaries. There operations were 
 most rigidly confined to the open ports and a few miles 
 beyond them. Outside these strict limits the preacher 
 of the Gospel hardly ever went ; and, as our first 
 Missionary found out, when those limits were trans- 
 gressed, the native authorities arrested him at once, and 
 sent him back to the nearest open port. The area of 
 sowing was extremely limited, and reaping-time seemed 
 to lie away in the immeasurable distance. Shanghai, 
 really in mid-China, was the limit on the North. 
 Approach nearer than that to the Governing centre was 
 rigidly forbidden and jealously guarded. With sullen 
 and ill-concealed disgust the Chinese Government yielded 
 only to force. Their Empire had been during all its 
 long past hermetically sealed apainst the foreigner. His 
 progress eastwards had been noted ; and at first, with 
 arrogance and scorn, his approach to China was spurned ; 
 and this policy only gave way when the logic of superior- 
 force comj)elled it to do so. The exclusive spirit and 
 policy Avere still there, and not an atom of progress in 
 
the way of penetrating the Empire was made till the 
 shock of the next collision forced the Chinese rulers to 
 open a few more ports, and to make free to foreigners 
 the magnificent waterways of the Yang-tsze. 
 
 AMOY MISSION. 
 
 In the year 1851 our first Missionary found himself, 
 by God’s providential leading, at Amoy, one of the five 
 open ports. Our Mission work had now a location ; and 
 for the last five-and-thirty years the name of this, our 
 earliest station, has been almost a household word in our 
 own Church and in Scotland. Here, the coast-line was 
 pierced, and inland work was begun. Mr. Burns, with 
 two or three warm-hearted and zealous native Christians, 
 recently brought to a knowledge of the truth, Avas among 
 the first to storm the breach and penetrate beyond the 
 ports. xAmongst the industrious farmir ‘• (ifh of 
 inland towns and villages, and away from t ■ ■•la-hness 
 and bustle, and vice of the commercial sea-ports, was 
 found a wonderfully congenial soil for the Gospel seed. 
 True to its early traditions, and on the lines then laid 
 down, the Mission of this Church has always found its 
 field away from the ports. Seeking onward and inland, 
 it has ever been and still is. Such a field demands no 
 ordinary amount of labour on the part of its agents. 
 Long and toilsome journeyings by land and water, 
 privations and difficulties, burning heat and raging 
 storm, are only a few of those things that necessarily 
 accompany such work. A review of the letters sent home 
 
6 
 
 by our Missionaries will furnish few, if any, details of 
 such trials. They have ever maintained a most strict 
 and unusual reticence regarding them ; but the Com- 
 mittee and the Church know them. The wonder is that 
 more of our men do not break down under such a severe 
 strain. And the Church must remember that labour 
 like this, surpassed by that of no other Mission, must 
 ultimately tell on the physical powers of your agents. 
 The inland work in this part of China was then first 
 begun when Mr. Burns and his companions broke ground 
 in the village of Pechuia, some twenty miles distant 
 from Amoy, across an arm of the sea. The wonderful 
 future of this field they could not then forecast. But a 
 rich blessing marked the inception, for in 1854 the power 
 of God’s Spirit was remarkably seen in this village ; and 
 a work of grace permanent and fruitful Avas the result. 
 It seemed as if the Master by this initial blessing wished 
 to cheer His servants, and to point them to the sphere 
 their operations should take. The initiative thus set 
 has been followed all through the subsequent course of 
 the work ; not only by this Mission, but also by the other 
 Missionary bodies working throughout the Empire. 
 
 MISSION CENTEES. 
 
 The principle underljdng this action was that the 
 Mission should be carried on from a fixed base, some 
 place of prime importance, and working out from this 
 centre its operations should gradually proceed bj^ steady, 
 well-organised and persistent action over as much of the 
 surrounding country as could possibly be reached. To 
 
7 
 
 the first Missionaries sent out this principle seemed that 
 which could best accomplish the end desired, because it 
 suited the conditions of the people of China, and adapted 
 itself to the necessary requirements of an advancing 
 cause. In the first instance the work was purely and 
 simply evangelistic. The next steps were the baptising 
 of native converts, the gathering of them into congrega- 
 tions, and the providing of Church privileges for these 
 small Christian communities. 
 
 NATIVE AGENCY. 
 
 Then there arose the important question of Native 
 Agency. At the beginning, the most zealous, and 
 apparently best equipped men among the natives them- 
 selves, were appointed to this important department. 
 The most meagre training was all that could then be 
 given to such men. And yet among them there were 
 not a few who were men of mark and force, and who did 
 a noble work when we think of what they were and the 
 difficulties with which they had to contend. Your Com- 
 mittee has encouraged from the very outset what is the 
 outstanding feature of this Mission, the developing and 
 ■fostering a properly organised Native Church. They 
 realised and fully approved what has ever been the 
 prevailing idea in all their operations — the planting of a 
 Church in China that was to be really and truly 
 Chinese — not an exotic, but a Church of Christ, Chinese 
 in worship, discipline, and government. And when the 
 first attempts at training a native agency were made in 
 
8 
 
 Amoy, they heartily encouraged and supported the 
 brethren in initiating such work. The prominence given 
 to this department at the very beginning arises from the 
 absolute necessities of the situation. 
 
 TKAINING COLLEGE. 
 
 In the equipping and managing of this native agency 
 your Missionaries have found a principal part of their 
 work. To these native agents and the realness and 
 efficiency of their work the success of the Mission is 
 mainly owing. They are thoroughly acquainted with 
 their own countrymen’s modes of thinking and living, 
 and have an insight into the motives, ideas and life of 
 those who profess any interest in Christ, which even the 
 most experienced Missionary can, only in a less degree, 
 possess. Experience has proved that the most conscien- 
 tious, thorough, and telling work is always got from 
 earnest Christian Natives who have the best educational 
 furnishing that could be given them. To preach the 
 Gospel in China, and to present and defend it as it must 
 be presented and defended amongst a quick-witted and 
 very practical people, who are always ready to find out 
 and make for the weak points in the preacher’s armour, 
 requires men of real spiritual life, good intellectual 
 powers, and competent theological furnishing. This 
 work of training was begun by Dr. Carstairs Douglas, at 
 Amoy, at first necessarily in a very small way ; but 
 gradually it has been developed and fostered until the 
 colleges at all our centres are sending out men who, in 
 
9 
 
 addition to the first of all requisites — a warm and earnest 
 piety — are educated and trained for the great and im- 
 portant sphere of spreading Gospel light and knowledge. 
 
 ELEMENTAEY SCHOOLS. 
 
 In China, from the earliest times, a great value has 
 been set on Education. But while this is so, the com- 
 mon education of the country is of the most miserable 
 kind. It consists almost entirely of the constant re- 
 peating inemoriter of the wonderfully sapless Chinese 
 classics ; and the mind of the pupil instead of being 
 opened is cramped and virtually crushed. In addition 
 to this these schools are heatlien to the core ; and it 
 was felt from the beginning that a Christian school for 
 the children of the converts was an absolute necessity if 
 the growung church w'as to have any solid or permanent 
 standing in the country. And the best and most intelli- 
 gent of the native Christians are increasingly anxious to 
 be free from the necessity of sending their children to 
 the heathen school, and to secure for them a sound 
 Christian education. Congregational day-schools were 
 established so far as the Mission had power to do so. 
 But from the outset, and on till the present day, the 
 Missionaries had to contend with the great difficulty of 
 the want of properly trained teachers. The very growth 
 of the Church stands in the way of this want being 
 supplied. There is such a demand for pastors and 
 preachers that the best men — all of them, and more 
 than can be got — are required to meet it. And these 
 
10 
 
 are in some cases tlie very men most fitted for the post 
 of school-teachers. In more than one of the Eeports 
 from our several centres, the great want is described to 
 be a sufficient number of men to act as Preachers, and 
 then a sufficient number of men to act as school Teachers. 
 To meet this call, your Committee have sent out two 
 Missionary Teachers who are now located at two of the 
 centres. It may also be stated under this hoad that a 
 laudable effort has been made on the part of the Chinese 
 Christians to help in the support of these Christian 
 schools. They can do more than they have yet done in 
 this way, and it is confidently expected they will do more 
 if satisfactory arrangements can be made for establishing 
 a greater number of ,'properly-equipped Congregational 
 schools under competent Teachers. 
 
 EDUCATION OF GIELS. 
 
 Your Committee record with deepest thankfulness 
 to God wdiat has been done in the matter of Education 
 ou Girls. This work was begun at Swatow by the 
 Missionaries’ Wives thirteen years ago, and has ever 
 since been cairied on under the same charge and with 
 remarkable results. Amoy some years later began the 
 same work, and now it is carried on at all the centres. 
 It is reckoned that not far short of one hundred young 
 women have gone out from these schools and been 
 married to Christian husbands, showing in their homes 
 what Christian families should be. Women in China 
 are a great power, and it is almost impossible to estimate 
 
11 
 
 the immense force for good that is thus being created in 
 China. The Women’s Missionary Association, whose 
 work your Committee value most highly, have through 
 their agents gone most heartily into this department. 
 The fruit already gathered has been abundant and 
 precious. It is only the harbinger of a richer harvest 
 yet to come Such already have been its effects that 
 Chinese parents who in old times seldom gave a passing 
 thought to the education of their girls are now getting 
 their eyes opened to the value of such education, and are 
 prizing it highly. There are more applicants for admis- 
 sion to these girls’ schools than tlieir limited space can 
 accommodate. And the ladies are now beginning to insist 
 on parents paying for their girls as their means will 
 admit, a step which could not be taken at the beginning. 
 
 MIDDLE SCHOOL. 
 
 The only other point that your Committee have to 
 notice under this head is the Middle School, a link be- 
 tween the Theological Colleges and CongTegational 
 Schools. In these latter were sometimes found promis- 
 ing youths whom, from their character and attainments, 
 the Missionaries would willingly have transferred to the 
 to the Colleges. But they were too 3'oung to be sent 
 there. In other cases young men were admitted to the 
 Colleges whose preliminary education was so scant that 
 a great amount of time was spent in giving them ele- 
 mentary instruction. To meet these difficulties Middle 
 Schools — intermediate between the ordinary schools and 
 
12 
 
 the Theological Colleges — have been established. In 
 them the pupils are required to pay a small fee as they 
 are able ; and so tliey arc as nearly self-supporting as 
 the circumstances will permit. 
 
 MEDICAL MISSIONS. 
 
 There is another department of Mission work to 
 which your Committee look with great thankfulness and 
 increasing hope. No record of this Mission has been 
 more outstanding than that of its Medical Mission. 
 This was begun at a date when less was thought or said 
 about Medical Missionary work than is said and thought 
 about it to-day. The London Missionary Society was 
 the first British Mission to cultivate this department in 
 China, and the names of its earliest Medical Mission- 
 aries — Hobson, Lockhart, and Hirschberg — are house- 
 hold Avords in the spheres where they wrought. One 
 American Mission, that of the American Board, was also 
 early operating on this line. Our own Mission follow’ed 
 whth its first Medical Missionary in the year 1849. The 
 succession has been worth}' of the noble cause, and the 
 I’esults have been really marvellous. It Avas speedily 
 seen that a lever of immense force Avas noAV in the hands 
 of the Mission. This kind of practical benevolence 
 broke dovai the prejudices of this exclusive people, 
 tluiAved their frozen hearts, and proved to a proud 
 arrogant people who despised all men and things coming 
 from regions outside the boundaries of their great 
 
13 
 
 “ middle kingdom,” one of the most powerful evidences 
 of what the Gospel really is. The men sent to this work 
 have been real Missionaries, eminent on the Missionary 
 line as well as eminent in their own profession. They 
 commended themselves and their message to the crowds 
 who came to seek healing benefits at their hands. Your 
 Committee cannot attempt to sum up the good that has 
 been done directly to the patients themselves. What it 
 is may be supposed — it cannot be fully told — when it is 
 remembered . that there are now five fully-equipped 
 Hospitals under the charge of this Mission, and that 
 about 20,000 patients are attended to in these every 
 year. Nor is this all. Of the patients a large number 
 have already professed their faith in Christ, and are 
 members of His Church, for these Hospitals have in 
 every true sense been really Missionary Hospitals. But 
 perhaps the most influential result of all has been that 
 this department has been the great factor in opening uj) 
 the Empire to us and to others. When the history of 
 our Mission comes to be written, it will be surprising to 
 find how many of our Churches are the product of our 
 Medical Mission. Patients from all quarters come to 
 the Hospitals. While there, by God’s grace, their minds 
 and hearts are opened to receive the Gospel. They 
 return to their homes and become heralds of that 
 precious Gospel. The leaven works and a little company 
 gathers. They thirst for more instruction, and the 
 Preacher or Missionary is sent for and visits them. The 
 Station is opened and the little one grows, and its further 
 
14 
 
 development goes on till a Christian congregation is 
 organised and at work. Such is in brief the history in 
 many a case. And still further, and on another line, the 
 benefit from this department is seen and felt. To some 
 hitherto unvisited town or village the Missionary or the 
 native agent in his itinerary work comes. He cannot 
 forecast wliat his reception may be. His experience of 
 such work makes him wonder little if it is anything hut 
 courteous or kind. Suddenly some one who has been 
 treated by the Missionary Doctor comes round, or 
 perhaps the relatives of such make their appearance. 
 The whole aspect changes, and a ready and courteous 
 kindness, begotten of the gratitude for benefit secured, is 
 at once shown. How many such tales have the letters 
 of our Missionaries recorded ! And the area of this 
 influence itself is widening, while the influence itself is 
 intensifying. It touches not only the lower and the 
 middle, hut, as well, the governing and upper classes of 
 the country. In instances already recorded we have 
 had the highest officials in the region of our own work 
 in China showing their gratitude and goodwill for this 
 department of our work in most unmistakable and 
 tangible ways. Our Hospitals are now becoming 
 Medical Schools, and Christian young men are taught 
 and prepared for medical work in a country where such 
 work is most needed and valued. Many of these show 
 great aptitude for the profession, and their work cannot 
 but prove an immense boon to their own country and 
 people. 
 
15 
 
 THE PEESS. 
 
 There is still one other method employed, which is 
 fraught with great promise. At Swatow, under Mr. 
 Hibson, and in Formosa, under Mr. Barclay, the agency 
 of The Press is most actively used. In the former place 
 work that would be creditable to large printing firms at 
 home has been, and is being, turned out by the Chinese 
 workmen, under Mr. Gibson’s superintendence. Formosa 
 is quickly following on in the same track. At both 
 centres a Periodical is published, which contains an 
 account of the most interesting Church news and other 
 matter. These papers are pushing their way, and are 
 already becoming a power, not only in the districts 
 where they are published, but beyond these. A number 
 of electros have, at request of your Convener, been most 
 kindly gifted by the Eeligious Tract Society ; and, as 
 soon as possible, these Periodicals will be illustrated. 
 
 We have now detailed the several methods employed 
 in our field. This detail shows hoAv fully equipped our 
 Mission is in all its departments. The equipment has 
 been the growth of these forty years. It is the result of 
 painstaking labour on the field, and loyalty to the work 
 by the Church at home. Its growth has been gradual 
 and slow, measured by the extension and requirements 
 of the field. 
 
 Our first and oldest centre was A:uoy. It is now one 
 of four great centres in China. In order of time Swatow is 
 the next, a centre that dominates a field larger than even 
 
16 
 
 the extensive held of Amoy. Then comes Formosa, 
 Oldened in 1865, covering with its operations half of that 
 magnihcent island, where onr Missionaries have been 
 and are so largely blessed. The last centre established 
 in China proj^er is that in the Hak-ka country, inland to 
 the west of Swatow, where a vigorous and most suc- 
 cessful work is now carried on. And, although not in 
 China, yet closely allied to it, we have work at 
 Singapore, amongst the large Chinese population of that 
 important cominercial mart. In China itself, at all our 
 centres, our Mission is fully equipped in each of the 
 departments already named ; and the work was never 
 more promising than it is at the present moment. 
 
 What its outcome has been will be seen from the 
 statistics appended to this Eeport. But there are one or 
 two outstanding features which, in a review such as your 
 Committee are now making, must have special 
 prominence. 
 
 THE NATIVE CHUECH. 
 
 The first of these to be dealt with is the Organisa- 
 tion of the Native Church. Our agents have, from the 
 beginning, felt that the native Church, to be stable and 
 aggressive, must be organised as well as extended. 
 Congregations, when strong enough, elected their own 
 Elders and Deacons, and carried on their spiritual and 
 temporal affairs in an orderly manner. These native 
 office-bearers were new to the work, but it is remarkable 
 how soon they took to it. On them largely depended 
 the purity of the Church ; and discipline in their hands, 
 
17 
 
 in the face of the social conditions of China, must be 
 prompt, decisive, and impartial. Man}^ of them have 
 been most worthy occupants of their office, and fewer 
 disappointments and failures have occurred than might 
 have been epxected, when it is remembered what they 
 were, and how new such work was to them. At our 
 several centres we have to thank God for the many most 
 worthy men who have been Elders and Deacons in the 
 Native Church. 
 
 PEESBYTERIES. 
 
 While this work of Organisation of Congregations 
 was proceeding, our Colleges were growing into 
 something worthy of the name, and these two causes 
 together made our agents feel that they must face the 
 question of a Native Pastorate. In some cases 
 congregations were ready to assume the responsibility of 
 supporting their own pastors, and the men were being- 
 trained in our Colleges, who might, when called to it, be 
 set apart to the office. Another step remained to be 
 taken, and the Presbytery of Amoy was created in 1863. 
 Our Missionaries at our oldest centre have ever wrought 
 in heartiest and closest ecclesiastical union with the 
 agents of the American Pieformed Church, and when the 
 Presbytery was formed it was done in conjunction with 
 these honoured brethren. It is the Presbytery of a 
 Native Church, and in it our American brethren and our 
 own agents sit and vote, on a parity with the ordained 
 Native Ministers of both Missions. This Union of 
 
18 
 
 Presbyterian Clmrches in the mission-field was for the 
 first time realised at our oldest centre. It has been 
 maintained most closely and warmly without a single 
 hitch, while the bond that binds our agents to our 
 Church remains as strong as ever. Your Committee 
 thank God that they have been honoured by Him to 
 contribute their own happy experience of such union as 
 an aid to the solution of this most important question, 
 which is now engaging the anxious attention of the 
 Missionary Body. 
 
 Five years ago the Presbytery, or Swatow was 
 created, and soon we hope to hear that a similar step has 
 been taken in Formosa. 
 
 Already in China we have five native Pastors, who are 
 entirely supported by their own congregations, and there 
 is every prospect of a speedy increase of this number. 
 
 GKADUAL EXTENSION. 
 
 Your Missionaries have, as already stated, ever 
 kept before them, as the end to be aimed at, the 
 extension of the work through the length and breadth of 
 the regions covered by the dialects they speak. They 
 have always believed and acted on the belief that the 
 best way to attain this end is to work out from centres 
 where the preparatory educational work can be properly 
 attended to, and to plant a Native Church, organised, 
 self-supporting, and aggressive. They have developed 
 a system of Christian Giving, which has already borne 
 fruit, and will furnish more in the future. Their 
 
19 
 
 accummulated experience, and their growing insight 
 into the peculiar conditions of their field, make them feel 
 more strongly than ever that, however tempted, they 
 must abide by their methods. The results that have 
 already followed are most wonderful, for in all China 
 there has been no success so great as that in the 
 quarters where our Missionaries are located, if you take 
 into account the force that has been put forth. We share 
 that success Avith the honoured Churches and Societies 
 that are working side by side wdth us, and whose 
 methods and ours are identical. 
 
 Our churches and stations on the mainland of China 
 are now extended over a tract of country 500 miles in 
 length, by 100 to 150 miles in breadth, they cover the 
 Southern and Eastern parts of Formosa, and four Sta- 
 tions are found in Singapore and its vicinity, nearly 100 
 in all. We have over 80 NatWe Preachers, and 50 Students 
 of Theology. We have 16 Ordained and 7 Medical Mis- 
 sionaries w'ith tAVo Missionary Teachers, Avhile the 
 Women’s Missionaiy Association of our Church has 
 7 Ladies in the field. 
 
 The testimony from all our centres is that the 
 prospects were never brighter than they are now. Our 
 Missionaries write most hopefully. The detailed Pieports 
 from the several centres, published in the ‘ Messenger,’ 
 show the progress that has been made during the year. 
 i\Iore than 200 adults have been added to the member- 
 ship, and every other item is a record of progress. The 
 
20 
 
 cry that comes from China now is for more native labour 
 and for more prayer and sympathy. Our staff is, with 
 the exception of Amoy, as strong as the resources at our 
 disposal will permit ; and everything seems ready 
 for a new advance and for still further progress. 
 
 PEAYER. 
 
 One secret of the success we have recorded is to be 
 found in the fact that, from the first, there has been a con- 
 siderable number of believers who made special prayer 
 for the work in China. Wherever the Eev. Mr. Burns had 
 evangelised, in Scotland or in Canada, there were those 
 who followed him with loving interest, and bore him up 
 in the arms of faith. There can be no doul)t that this 
 has contributed greatly to the opening u^d of our work in 
 China, and the manifest blessing attending it. It is 
 no doubt true that, in our Church in England, there are 
 not a few who, in the same way, have the mission of the 
 Church laid on their hearts for private prayer. Would 
 that their numbers Avere still more increased ! Many also 
 feel that from the pulpits of our Churches more definite 
 supplication might be offered for the Workers and the 
 Work in the Foreign Field. 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 The Committee are thankful for the amount of pe- 
 cuniary sujAport which the Church has provided. But 
 as the Avork extended OA’er so wide a field, the expenditure, 
 as may be expected, grew somewhat greater in ratio than 
 the income, and a chronic annual deficiency has been 
 
21 
 
 the result. In Scotland an auxiliary was formed long 
 ago, and from this source not only are the salaries of 
 several of the Missionaries regularly provided, hut most 
 valuable and generous gifts have been made as occasion 
 required, sometimes to meet deficiencies, more frequently 
 to promote extensions. Besides these, several large do- 
 nations and large legacies have been received, so that 
 the Committee can set up an Ebenezer, saying, “ Hitherto 
 hath the Lord helped us.” There is, however, a call for 
 steady increase in Congregational support, as well as for 
 important gifts from friends who are prosperous. 
 
 VVe have reached a critical point not only in our 
 history as a Mission, but in that of China itself. In our 
 last annual statement we were deploring the outbreak of 
 war between France and China. The theatre of that 
 conflict was within some parts, and very near to other 
 parts, of our field. The minds of the people w< y- 
 
 where disturbed, and panic and excitement p.. , d. 
 Our brethen and sisters in Formosa had to flee to the 
 mainland. It was with great reluctance they took this 
 step, and all would have remained most readily if that 
 had been considered wise. Dr. Anderson and Mr. Thow 
 did remain, and with noble patience did what they could 
 to carry on the work. The war is over, and all our fears 
 have been disappointed. The members of our Formosa 
 staff are back again, and with good cheer and heart are 
 most busily prosecuting their work. Compensation for 
 injury done during the war in some parts of our Swatow 
 district has already been made, and quiet prevails. 
 
22 
 
 Everywhere over our wide field is heard the voice of hope 
 and heartiness. And not only so, but these political 
 events are forces acting on the whole Chinese empire. 
 We do sincerely hope her Government may not from the 
 result of the French war estimate their own power at a 
 at a greater value than it really represents. But the 
 days of her exclusiveness are ended, and the wedges are 
 entered which Avill open up old China. The Missionaries 
 have come with their work to the front in a way we 
 hardly expected. That work is now described as a 
 powerful factor in quarters where once it was despised. 
 We are, as it were, entering on a new era, and with 
 forces stronger and better marshalled than they ever 
 were. We have a Native Church spreading and strength- 
 ening, a Church that has established at its own cost a 
 Mission in Eegions beyond, manned by Native Agents, 
 which also offers to provide and maintain new openings, 
 if we on our part, can supply Preachers to carry on the 
 work. Our Mission has been honoured in the past. 
 The Lord of Hosts hath been witli us, and safely guarded 
 this growing Native Church in the midst of trial and 
 persecution and danger ; and He will be w'ith us still. 
 Your Committee are persuaded that the Church, having- 
 set her hand to this w^ork, will certainly not now turir 
 back ; and having regard to all the solidity and healthi- 
 ness that have marked their Mission in its methods and 
 operations, they confidently commend it to the prayer 
 aird sympathy and support of a Church that has so 
 lovingly and loyally maintained it in the past. 
 
23 
 
 THE MISSION IN 1891. 
 
 Notwithstanding the gradual increase in the Con- 
 gregational support of the Mission, and the large dona- 
 tions and legacies in recent years, among which may he 
 noticed Mr. D. P. Wood, of St. John’s Wood, London, 
 ^3,000 ; Mrs. MacKenzie of Thurso, a legacy of ^2,50U, 
 and Mr. Sturge, of Birmingham, of the Society of 
 Friends, a legacy of ^5,000. The financial situation of 
 the Mission is at the close of this year exceedingly 
 critical — as there is a prospective deficiency of about 
 £5,000. 
 
 This state of things has arisen from no rash or 
 extravagant expenditure ; on the contrary, the Com- 
 mittee have for several years been most careful in 
 regard to every item, and they have been most rigid in 
 their sanction of expenditure abroad. Still the Work is 
 that of a living Agency, and if the Church has been en- 
 trusted with so important an enterprise, and the Lord 
 has placed His seal of approval upon it, and further, if 
 year by year the Synod has deliberately sanctioned what 
 the Committee was attempting, it is not easy to withdraw 
 from such important operations, nor in any case to crip- 
 ple them until the case is very plainly placed before the 
 Church. 
 
 China is now more open for the Gospel than at any 
 former time ; there have been, it is true, certain out- 
 breaks of lawlessness in mid-China, and at the extreme 
 
24 
 
 north of the Empire, some Mission Stations have been 
 wrecked, and deplorable loss of life amid great barbarities 
 have resulted, but there is the greater call for those who 
 have been put in trust with the Gospel for such a people 
 to go forward. 
 
 The Committee thoroughly believe that there is 
 nothing required but what our Church is quite able to 
 provide. But it needs a deeper interest to be awakened 
 and a more adequate idea of the magnitude and impor- 
 tance of the Mission in which the Church is engaged. 
 
 The Amoy Centre, with Chin-Chew on the north, 
 and Chang-Poo on the south, both of which were opened 
 to the Mission after serious difficulties, and much believing 
 prayer, is a field affording work for a much larger 
 staff than is possible for us to send, but the Native 
 Christlvn element is well developed. Native Pastors, 
 locally supported. Native Evangelists, Native College, 
 Middle School, and Primary Schools, are all doing excel- 
 lent work, and our Ladies of the Women’s Missionary 
 Association are most active and faithful. So urgent is 
 the need for more workers that Miss Graham, our 
 Missionary Lady at Chin- Chew has, at her own charge, 
 got out three more ladies to aid her efforts. Mr. G. M. 
 Wales, recently appointed Lay Evangelist, and ordained 
 to the Eldership, is attached to Chin-Chew. The Medical 
 Mission is strongly represented at this centre, there 
 being 3 Hospitals and 4 Medical Missionaries in full 
 work. 
 
25 
 
 The SwATOw Centre covers a large and populous 
 area, and Stations are established in several important 
 places, requiring the constant personal supervision of 
 the Missionaries. The Medical Mission of Swatow has 
 a great reputation, the Hospital is well appointed, and it 
 is a place which has been the spiritual birthplace of 
 many. At the large city of Chao-Chow-Foo there is 
 another Medical Mission which, though still in its 
 infancy, has an importance attached to it from its his- 
 tory, and from the marked answers to prayer. The 
 Printing Press has been well developed in this 
 centre, and here also the Women’s Missionary Associa- 
 tion has done enterprising and self-denying work. 
 
 The Hak-Ka Centre, among a highland people, is 
 fully equipped with all departments ; long evangelistic 
 tours are made periodically ; the Medical Mission does 
 valued work, and the Women’s Missionary Association 
 is well represented. 
 
 The Formosa Centre has long been under- 
 manned, and has to some extent suffered by it. But 
 in addition to the Head-quarters at Taiwan-Foo, an 
 important step has been taken by establishing a sub- 
 centre at Toa-Sia, further north. The second Medical 
 Missionary will remain there ; a Hospital has been 
 opened, and is already doing admirable work. All de- 
 partments of the Mission are in full operation, and the 
 Women’s Missionary Association has three Ladies doing 
 excellent work. 
 
26 
 
 During the present year, 1891, work has been 
 steadily advancing; the Lord has indeed blessed it, 
 and the adult communicants at the Five Centres will 
 number, it is expected, 4,000. 
 
 The annexed Tables of Statistics to 31st December, 
 1885 and 1890, and the Tables showing a condensed 
 view of the Financial position wDl be read with interest, 
 but the Chronic Deficit has now, we regret to say, 
 mounted up to £5,000, unless the effort now being made 
 shall bring relief. 
 
 The Working Staff of The Mission. 
 
 December 31, 1885 1890. 
 
 Missionaries 16 . . 19 
 
 Lay Evangelists — .. 1 
 
 Medical Missionaries 6 . . 9 
 
 Missionary Teachers 2 . . 2 
 
 Missionary Ladies 7 . . 15 
 
 Native Pastors 6 . . 8 
 
 Native Preachers 73 . . 106 
 
 Students at Colleges 55 .. 41 
 
 Congregations Organised 95 .. 134 
 
27 
 
 .Sitmiimni of Jinantml position. 
 
 INCOME. 
 
 1885. 
 
 
 1890. 
 
 From Congregational 
 
 .. £5,620 
 
 
 £6,699 
 
 Juvenile Fund 
 
 . . 1,910 
 
 
 1,791 
 
 Scottish Auxiliary 
 
 .. 2,376 
 
 
 2,909 
 
 Glasgow Free Church Students . , 
 
 530 
 
 
 52u 
 
 Legacies 
 
 900 
 
 
 1,574 
 
 Colonial and Continental 
 
 194 
 
 
 5 
 
 Donations 
 
 .. *4,269 
 
 
 2,532 
 
 Sundries 
 
 173 
 
 
 178 
 
 For India 
 
 221 
 
 
 110 
 
 
 £16,223 
 
 
 £16,321 
 
 Dr. Balance forward to 1886 
 
 . . 1,641 
 
 
 
 
 „ Do. do. 1891 
 
 
 
 2,954 
 
 
 £17,864 
 
 
 £19.275 
 
 * Includes Donation, £3,000. 
 
 
 
 EXPENDITUEE. 
 
 1885. 
 
 
 1890. 
 
 Salaries 
 
 . £8,150 
 
 
 £10,096 
 
 Premiums to Widows’ and Orphan’s Fund 130 
 
 
 165 
 
 Passages out and home 
 
 716 
 
 
 461 
 
 Outfits 
 
 135 
 
 
 198 
 
 Deputation Work 
 
 170 
 
 
 204 
 
 Home Charges 
 
 737 
 
 
 951 
 
 Interest on Overdraft 
 
 158 
 
 
 175 
 
 Sundries 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 Foreign Expenditure — ■ 
 
 
 
 
 Amoy 
 
 . 1,059 
 
 
 1,914 
 
 Swatow 
 
 
 
 848 
 
 Hak-Ka 
 
 969 
 
 
 372 
 
 Formosa 
 
 
 
 777 
 
 Singapore 
 
 
 
 300 
 
 India 
 
 210 
 
 
 200 
 
 
 £14,432 
 
 
 £16,719 
 
 Dr. Balance from 1884 
 
 3,432 
 
 
 — 
 
 „ Do. 1889 
 
 — 
 
 
 2,036 
 
 
 £17,864 
 
 
 £18,755 
 
 Deposit of Glasgow Students’ Contri- 
 
 
 
 
 bution, per contra 
 
 
 
 520 
 
 
 
 
 £19,275 
 
28 
 
 Statistics of Mission for Year 1885. 
 
 Centres. 
 
 ’ 
 
 ip 
 
 CB 
 
 £ 
 
 si § 
 
 a 
 
 < 
 
 Received to Com- 
 mnnion, having 
 been baptised in 
 infancy. 
 
 Received by 
 
 Certificate, 
 
 Restored to 
 
 Communion 
 
 cc 
 
 Excommunicated 
 during 1885. 
 
 1 Died in 1885, I 
 
 Gone elsewhere, 
 
 Communicants, 
 
 Dec. 31, 1885. 
 
 Children baptised 
 in 1885. 
 
 Total baptised 
 
 I children. 
 
 Members 
 
 under suspension. 
 
 Total membership 
 
 adults and children 
 
 Amoy 
 
 754 
 
 36 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 
 775 
 
 50 550 
 
 49 
 
 1374 
 
 Swatow . . 
 
 791 
 
 80 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 — 
 
 22 
 
 S 
 
 851 
 
 46 286 
 
 74 
 
 1211 
 
 Hak-ka . . 
 
 191 
 
 2] 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 7 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 203 
 
 8 63 
 
 25 
 
 291 
 
 Formosa. . 
 
 1317 
 
 129 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 21 
 
 — 
 
 26 
 
 1 
 
 1412 
 
 108 800 
 
 80 
 
 2292 
 
 Singapore 
 
 49 
 
 10 
 
 — 
 
 23 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 71 
 
 4 28 
 
 1 
 
 100 
 
 Total. . 
 
 3102 
 
 276 
 
 16 
 
 35 
 
 20 
 
 45 
 
 10 
 
 67 
 
 25 
 
 .3312 
 
 211 1727 
 
 229 
 
 5268 
 
 Statistics of China Mission for Y^ear 1890. 
 
 Centres. 
 
 Communicants, 
 Dec. 31, 1889. 
 
 Adults baptised, 
 1890. 
 
 Baptised in in- 
 fancy. and received 
 to Communion, 
 
 1 1890. 1 
 
 Received by 
 Certificate, 1890. 
 
 Restored to 
 Communion, 1890. 
 
 Suspended during 
 the year. 
 
 1 Died during- 1890. 
 
 1 Gone elsewhere. | 
 
 1 Communicants, 
 
 ; Dec. 31. 1890, 
 
 Children bapti.sed 
 
 1 during 1890. 
 
 Total baptised 
 children. 
 
 Members 
 under suspension. 
 
 Total membership, 
 
 ' adults and children 
 
 Amoy. . . . 
 
 947 
 
 52 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 11 
 
 1006 
 
 42 
 
 642 
 
 36 
 
 1684 
 
 Swatow . . 
 
 981 
 
 80 
 
 13 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 13 
 
 1048 
 
 43 
 
 469 
 
 138 
 
 1644 
 
 Hak-ka . . 
 
 279 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 312 
 
 10 
 
 116 
 
 37 
 
 465 
 
 Foimosa.. 
 
 1259 
 
 25 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 37 
 
 42 
 
 8 
 
 1211 
 
 44 
 
 1056 
 
 168 
 
 2417 
 
 Singapore 
 
 106 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 41 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 139 
 
 11 
 
 56 
 
 6 
 
 201 
 
 1 
 
 j 
 
 Total. . 
 
 3572 
 
 222 
 
 32 
 
 60 
 
 5 
 
 53 
 
 84 
 
 57 
 
 .3716 
 
 160 
 
 2339 
 
 375 
 
 [ 
 
 6411: 
 
 1