fAH. 
 
 CHINA 
 
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 1889. 
 
 THE LEYS 
 
 Meslojan jfoveion flDissionac'j 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 THE 
 
 CENTRAL CHINA LAY MISSION, 
 
 THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 BAXLEY : 
 
 Printed by J. S. Newsome, Caxton Buildings, Commercial St. 
 
THE CENTRAL CHINA LAY MISSION. 
 BY THE SUPERINTENDENT. 
 
 Lay Missions both at home and abroad are rapidly coming to the 
 front. At home, the Joyful News Mission has demonstrated, by its 
 vigorous growth, both the actual need and the abundant supply for such 
 an Agency to be found within the pale of Methodism. 
 
 Abroad the need is vaster, and the supply should be proportionately 
 greater. Of our Mission fields none perhaps have been more blessed of 
 God in their Lay Missionaries than China. The first Wesleyan Mission- 
 ary was a Yorkshire Local Preacher, an unpaid Lay Evangelist, who 
 worked his way to China, and thro’ God, laid the foundations of the 
 Canton Mission. In Central China too, one of our best Missionary 
 Evangelists was moved to come out at his own charges, and for i o years 
 has laboured hard as a Lay Evangelist, distributing more Tracts in 
 Central China than perhaps any other Missionary ordained or unordained. 
 But no man has been so manifestly used of God for the development 
 of Lay Evangelism in China generally as the Rev. I. Hudson Taylor. 
 The China Inland Mission of which he is the Director, has, besides 
 sending 300 Missionaries into the field, to a greater or less extent 
 quickened every other Mission in the Country. Its undenominational 
 character has gathered around it Missionaries from every important 
 section of the Church of Christ in Great Britain, and as might be ex- 
 pected, Methodism is not without its representatives. Some of these have 
 already joined the Baptists, others, though not connected with our own 
 Society, still retain their early love, and have only joined the Inland 
 Mission for lack of a Lay Mission in Methodism. To meet this want 
 in Central China, two Agencies have been called out during the past 
 four years, so that British Methodists desirous of continuing their con- 
 nexion with their Mother Church, whilst labouring as Laymen in the 
 farther East, have now before them two doors of entrance to that field. 
 One is that of the Central China Lay Mission, the other that of the 
 Foreign Department of the Joyful News Mission. The latter, though 
 later in the field, is perhaps the more widely known throughout the 
 Home Churches. As regards government and organization it approaches 
 nearer to the China Inland Mission than the former, but as its principles 
 have been so extensively published in the “Joyful News,” the present 
 paper will bear more upon the Central China Lay Mission. 
 
4 
 
 This Mission was first commenced some four years ago. The need 
 for such an Agency had pressed upon the Missionaries of the Wu-Chang 
 District for years, and had once and again been represented to the 
 Parent Society ; but a straitened exchequer prevented the Society in 
 creasing its responsibilities, and hence arose, thro’ the call of God, the 
 Lay Mission to Central China. The need then felt still continues, and 
 year by year becomes more pressingly urgent ; its full representation is 
 the due of the Methodist Church. 
 
 The vastness of the field of a Missionary in Central China is rarely, 
 and then but vaguely, realized by Christian people in England. The 
 language he speaks is more widely understood and commands a larger 
 population than perhaps that of any other Mission field on the face of 
 the Earth. Unintelligible in Canton and along the South East Coast, 
 his Mandarin dialect, fluently spoken, will yet carry him beyond Peking 
 on the North and from Nanking on the East to the very frontiers of 
 China Proper on the West, and thus afford an access to some 200 millions 
 of the people. 
 
 To meet the spiritual need of this immense population the Wesleyan 
 Methodist Churches of Great Britain have for years past only had one 
 small Mission of eight men in Central China. True the position they 
 occupy is one of the most commanding Missionary Centres in the world, 
 but the very occupancy of such a post involves an obligation to go for- 
 ward which we may not disown. 
 
 To two of his brave band of Evangelists Mr. Wesley wrote: ‘It is not 
 expedient to break up more ground than you can keep, to preach at any 
 more places than you and your brethren can constantly attend. To 
 preach once in a place and no more very seldom does any good : it only 
 alarms the Devil and his children, and makes them more upon their 
 guard against a first assault.’ 
 
 And yet this is what we are practically doing in Central China. 
 The daily congregations in the Hankow and Wu-Chang Chapels, num- 
 bering from 1000 to 1500 a day for five days in the week are composed 
 of persons from all parts of the Province and many from still more 
 distant places. They hear the Gospel preached, they buy a Christian 
 tract, they return to their home, but not being sufficiently acquainted 
 with the momentousness of the message, nor sufficiently awakened to 
 seek further light, they continue only the more steadfastly in their wor- 
 ship of Heaven and Earth, the highest form of devotion they have any 
 clear conception of, or, it may be, seek further instruction from the 
 ubiquitous Roman Catholic Missionary. And yet this public proclam- 
 ation of the Gospel in the city Chapels of this great Missionary Centre 
 may not be discontinued. Already it has been the means by which 
 
3 
 
 hundreds of souls have been won to Christ ; but this very success in 
 Hankow and the neighbourhood has prevented the resident Missionaries 
 carrying the war further on into the enemy’s camp. The claims of yearly 
 increasing Churches for pastoral care, the preparation of Christian liter- 
 ature, the Medical, Educational and other charitable concomitants of 
 Missionary Work in a great centre so occupy the brethren residing there 
 that they cannot traverse the great waterways of the Han and the Yangtze 
 in pursuit of partially awakened men, and as a consequence 6o out of 
 the 68 Counties in this one Province of Hoopeh, which is itself half as 
 large again as both England and Wales, have been left without a single 
 Protestant Missionary of any Society to follow up the work of the Central 
 Stations, — to say nothing of the 170 millions of Mandarin-speaking 
 people in other Provinces. It was more especially to meet this want that 
 the Lay Mission was Established. The present staff, including Mr. Mitchil, 
 who, this year, has however lent his services to the Hankow and Kwang 
 Chi Circuits, numbers 10 Missionaries, 7 Foreign and 3 Native : of these, 
 7 are in full w'ork, 3 preparing for it. The 7 include Dr. Morley, who is 
 in charge of the Teh Ngan Hospital, and Mr. Mitchil, who for the present 
 year is taking Circuit Work. Thus there are but 5 Evangelists in actual 
 service at the present time ; yet the Report of the past year is the most 
 promising hitherto presented. 12 inquirers have been given as the first- 
 fruits of this Service. None of these is yet baptized, but having given 
 evidence of the working of the Spirit of God on their minds, and having 
 a desire to flee from the wrath to come, their names have been registered 
 as on trial for Church Membership, and they are now being visited from 
 time to time for the purpose of instruction and confirmation in the faith. 
 The need of such visitation has, even the last few days, been made pain- 
 fully apparent. In and around the Village of To Pao Wan, 200 miles 
 up the River Han, a few names were received during last year, books 
 were distributed, instruction given, and one of these sent his idol to a 
 neighbouring temple: they were commended to God, and the Missionary 
 left. Soon afrer his departure, an epidemic broke out in that neighbour- 
 hood, and the wife of Mr. Wu, who had abandoned his idolatry, in her 
 anxiety and terror pressed and prevailed upon her husband to recall the 
 abandoned image. Another of these inquirers is a Doctor, who in visiting 
 his Patients is, according to Chinese etiquette, pressed to take tea and 
 tobacco, and, alas ! a whiff of the opium pipe too, for that has now in 
 many places become the mark of a generous hospitality, even in rural 
 districts. To these pressing invitations he has yielded, and tho’ still free 
 from the craving, has approached dangerously near the precipice. The 
 rest of the inquirers we found engaged in a trade so linked with idolatry 
 that only one of them came to Christian w'orship. After earnest re- 
 monstrance Mr. Wu returned his idol to the temple. Dr. Wang handed 
 
6 
 
 his to the Missionary, and will, we hope, abandon opium for ever. But 
 these temporary lapses attest the need of frequent oversight, a need 
 which received additional erriphasis from a letter which came to hand a 
 few days before we started on our journey : it is from the oldest of our 
 three Chinese Colporteurs, and refers to a Mr. Chia, another inquirer, 
 300 miles to the East of the village referred to above, near to the market 
 town of Hwang Sz Kang on the South bank of the Yangtze. This man 
 has shown himself a more intelligent and earnest seeker after God than 
 those on the Han river, but the letter informs us that as he is ripening 
 for baptism the Roman Catholics in that neighbourhood, hearing of his 
 desire to become a Christian, have been visiting him and are now seeking 
 to win him to their Communion; and our native brother through whose 
 instrumentality he was first awakened naturally urges a speedy admission 
 into the Church. 
 
 These cases all show how needful it is to have a considerable and 
 increasing staff of men to watch over and care for newly awakened souls: 
 and as these multiply the area of broadcast sowing and of aggressive 
 evangelism will of necessity be narrowed, unless large reinforcements 
 are thrust out into the field. And yet wherever we go in these aggressive 
 movements, we meet with numbers of men who from one quarter or 
 another have heard something of the Gospel message. One will bring 
 a Testament he has purchased from a Bible Colporteur, which he has 
 been unable to understand ; another will give the name of a Missionary 
 he has heard preach in Hankow ; a third will tell you that he has been a 
 patient in one of the Mission Hospitals ; a fourth will produce a Christian 
 book presented to him at some examination ; others, though never having 
 heard the Missionarj', will follow you for a book, as an old man did the 
 other day, and say that they too are engaged in a like charitable work, or, 
 as another man did to-day, will purchase a few sheet tracts for gratuitous 
 distribution, or after you have finished your address will urge you to go 
 on and tell them more. These cases, tho’ not infrequent, are still the 
 exception, the great mass of our hearers being indifferent to the message, 
 asleep in worldliness and sin; yet in almost every street-congregation one 
 or two will be found who show a thoughtful attention to the word spoken, 
 and seem not far from the Kingdom of God. The question then is, shall 
 this generation pass away with but a glimmer of the dawn, when, if the 
 Church of Christ were but true to her Lord it might enjoy the full blaze 
 of Gospel light ? Shall the seed sown by Protestant Missionaries be 
 gathered into Roman Catholic garners ? Shall a selfish love of ease 
 debilitate the Home Churches and ruin a possible harvest of souls in 
 foreign lands ? 
 
 That such may not be, these Lay Missions have been established, 
 and that the Home Churches may be incited to more vigorous effort and 
 
7 
 
 to a more entire consecration on behalf of the heathen world, the work 
 of a Chinese Lay Missionary is here pourtrayed. But before touching 
 on their work, a word or two as to the workers. The brethren of the 
 Lay Mission are men truly converted to God: moved by the love of 
 Christ they are willing to spend and be spent for the Chinese, and are 
 inwardly conscious of a divine call to this work. They are well borne 
 witness to in the circuits from which they have come, and have already 
 had fruit to their ministry there. They know their Bibles well, and have 
 at least had a good English education ; they are men of robust health 
 and of good constitution; they are willing by the help of God to remain 
 unmarried for six years; and are prepared to rough it as Chinese Evan- 
 gelists must do, and yet be happy in roughing it. Native houses, hard 
 fare, and plenty of work, these are the conditions. A fixed, but moderate, 
 allowance is guaranteed. This fixing a given sum fcr the brethren has 
 been objected to by some who would rather follow the method of the 
 China Inland Mission, and divide all receipts amongst the Missionaries 
 without guaranteeing any fixed sum. This may be a more excellent way, 
 and if so we would cheerfully follow it; but that still remains to be proved, 
 and in the run of years the brethren of that Mission seem to have a 
 pretty clear idea of the amount they are likely to receive. To men of 
 the right mettle this is a matter of slight moment, and a voluntary sur- 
 render of a part of their due allowance may even prove a more healthful 
 exercise than leaving the sum unfixed, and dividing whatever comes; and 
 it is well understood that any brother desirous of receiving a smaller sum 
 is quite at liberty to do so. A few examples of this sort on the part of 
 laymen possessed of some private means would be of immense benefit 
 to the Mission. Then as to the non-guaranteement of a fixed amount, or 
 the “faith principle” as it has come to be termed, there is no doubt that if 
 the funds of the Lay Mission should fail, and appeal have to be made to 
 the brethren in active work, that they would gladly meet the emergency 
 rather than abandon their work. What that work is we may now go on 
 to say. Its general characteristics may be gathered from past reports of 
 the Lay Mission, which the Treasurer, Mr. J. R. Hill, of York, will be 
 glad to supply : but fuller details may here be added. 
 
 The first two years of the Missionary’s life are mainly occupied in 
 the study of the language, and examinations are conducted at the close 
 of each year. The brethren do not however confine themselves to study, 
 but, as ability to speak is acquired, they exercise their gifts either in the 
 nearest Chapel or in Evangelistic journeys taken along with Chinese 
 colleagues. On the expiry of the first two years, they give themselves 
 wholly to the work of Evangelism, and from Hankow as the centre, go 
 forth, two and two, one native and one foreigner, brethren in one common 
 
8 
 
 Lord, to the innumerable towns and villages around within a radius of 
 loo or more miles. A suitable selection of Christian tracts is made, 
 and these, along with their bedding and change of linen and a few books, 
 constitute their baggage on such journeys. 
 
 They travel chiefly by native boat, and work along the great water- 
 ways of the rivers Yangtze and Han and their many tributary streams, 
 branching off here and there to market towns away from these water 
 courses, when they hire wheelbarrows for their baggage and themselves 
 go afoot. On these road journeys they stay at native inns, which are 
 neither very comfortable nor very costly. If a man can but adapt him- 
 self to a chop-stick diet he can get on fairly well for 8d. or lod. a day, 
 which sum includes shelter, lighting and table d’hote, though the shelter 
 is not so good as that of many a stable, nor the lighting equal to that of 
 a farthing candle. 
 
 Several hours in the day are spent in the streets of the towns. 
 With a handful of tracts and Testaments the Missionary sallies forth, 
 and, finding some open space where the street traffic is not interfered 
 with, he takes his stand, and if in foreign dress is at once surrounded by 
 passers by, together with the shopmen of the neighbourhood. If in 
 native dress, his congregation, though generally a quieter one, gathers 
 more slowly. As the people are collecting he offers his tracts for sale, 
 explains their purport, and chats with immediate b}standers. The crowd 
 is soon gathered; then he begins a brief address, and unfolding some of 
 the cardinal truths of religion, he reasons of righteousness, temperance 
 and judgment to come, closing with an earnest appeal to the conscience 
 of his hearers, and urging them to turn from the vanities of idolatry and 
 sin to the living and true God. 
 
 His congregation now numbers 40 to 60 persons of all ages and all 
 grades of the non-official classes : immediately around him stand a few 
 little street arabs, with baskets on their arms for gathering sticks for fuel ; 
 close by a batch of school-boys, often apt to be somewhat noisy ; then 
 the apprentices from the neighbouring shops, and then, in the outer circle 
 of the crowd, a very promiscuous gathering of the people of the neigh- 
 bourhood : the honest, open-faced, sunburnt farmer; the sharp-featured, 
 sunken-eyed, sallow-cheeked, opium smoking, Yamun runner; the sleek, 
 stout, thriving merchant; the lean, hungry, shabbily-dressed schoolmaster; 
 the drowsy, listless, placid priest of Buddha; the self-assured, self-satis- 
 fied, self-conceited Confucianist — a strange and motley gathering stand 
 before the preacher and hear, some for the first time, some for the tenth, 
 the Words of this Life; and when the power of God comes down upon 
 preacher and people, the stillness of the crowd, the close attention, 
 the earnest gaze assure them both that the kingdom of God has come 
 
9 
 
 nigh unto them. A few books are disposed of, a few questions asked 
 and answered, and the native colporteur takes up the theme, and with 
 perhaps a slowly melting audience once more presses home the truth. 
 Then, after a few more questions and a few more sales, the two Evan- 
 gelists move on to another standpoint, and thus from point to point they 
 encompass the city, returning to their inn or boat well-nigh worn out 
 both in body and mind to commit to the Lord the work commenced 
 in His Name. 
 
 On rainy days, and sometimes on fair ones too, every shop in a 
 street is visited, one taking one side, one another, opportunity being 
 thus afforded for closer and more friendly intercourse — or for more rude 
 and cutting rebuff. Invitations to the inn or boat for more private con- 
 versation are but rarely availed of, though now and then an inquirer turns 
 up ; and if we but live and labour in the Spirit of Christ these will 
 doubtless multiply as our visits are more frequent and our stay more 
 protracted. 
 
 This rough hard work is at present a breaking up of fallow ground, 
 to be followed in successive months and years by the continued scattering 
 of the seed until the reaper overtakes the sower, and both rejoice together. 
 For the foreign Missionary it is a high-class school for the study of 
 patience, calmness, self-control, for the display of a ready wit, for the 
 test of a credited enthusiasm, for the exercise of a desperate faith, a 
 patient hope and a fervent charity ; for his native colleague perhaps 
 the best Training College in the Mission field. To some at home it may 
 seem as though a man were burying himself alive, for him to give himself 
 to such a life as this, hidden away from his own countrymen, and week 
 after week seeing none of the Missionaries of the District ; but to those 
 engaged in it, trying, as it is at times, it gives a sense of freedom, a scope 
 of influence, a possibility of service immeasurably broader than those of 
 our old avocations in England. For six months in the year the weather 
 is on our side, and this outdoor work is health-giving and enjoyable; for 
 four it means a severe battle with the elements. The fierce rays of a 
 tropical sun in the summer and the bitter biting winds of winter demand 
 both robustness of constitution and firmness of determination in the 
 prosecution of this service. 
 
 Thus far the Lord has raised up for us a Chinese Colleague for 
 every European Evangelist ready for work, and native brethren thus 
 trained are acquiring a fitness for pastoral work as years go on, and as 
 the Churches now being gathered in increase and multiply. 
 
 It is our hope and purpose to avoid the heavy expenditure incurred 
 in Mission buildings in past years; rather would we by the help of God 
 train newly-awakened and converted souls to steady self-reliance, and 
 
lO 
 
 foster thus a healthy and self-supporting Church. In aggressive move- 
 ments we lay down no hard and fast lines, rather follow as we are led ; — 
 where the Spirit of God is working, there would we go. Generally 
 speaking however our principle of action would be “ from near to far,” 
 and “ first near, then far,” only covering so much ground as we may 
 hope to revisit with some measure of frequency. Such in brief is the 
 Evangelistic work which God has given to Methodist young men in 
 China; and scores, nay hundreds, of men are needed for it. Who then 
 is willing to consecrate his services thus unto the Lord ? 
 
 But besides this Evangelistic agency, other branches of Christian 
 work are proposed by the Lay Mission. A Medical Department has 
 already been commenced and a Ho.=pital opened in the Teh Ngan Pre- 
 fecture, and it is not too much to hope that every one of the ten 
 Prefectures in Hoopeh will, in a few years’ time, have each its Medical 
 Missionary. The Station already occupied really belongs to the Parent 
 Society, and as Dr. Morley is remarkably fitted for aggressive work, and 
 as remarkably ready to do it, it is hoped the Parent Society will soon be 
 able to meet the responsibilities of the Stations under her charge, and 
 set free the Lay Medical Missionary for a further advance. Few spheres 
 of usefulness are more to be desired by earnest Christian Medical 
 Students than that of Medical Missionary in Central China. 
 
 But if the body of Christ is rightly to represent her head, there is 
 other work to be done in this vast and needy field. There is poverty to 
 be relieved, age to be cared for, the blind, and the orphan, and the out- < 
 
 cast, and the lost to be gathered under the wings of Jesus, if a perfect 
 Christ is to win the admiration of these Easterns and to outshine Con- 
 fucian glory. A very feeble commencement has been made on behalf 
 of the blind, but there is hope of help ere long in this endeavour. The 
 rest plead patiently and mutely for a loving, living ministry which seems 
 so long in coming. 
 
 In conclusion, if the thought of these 200 millions of souls, all 
 speaking the same language, and all accessible to the Missionaries of 
 Central China rested on our hearts as they do on the heart of our Saviour, 
 we should as a Church, that is we should each one as an individual 
 member of that Church, surely do more for their salvation than we are 
 doing at present. 
 
 It is true there are other Societies at work in this great field, but the 
 question with us is, “Are we as a Church doing all we can for their 
 salvation when w’e only send some eight or ten ordained and the same 
 number of Lay Missionaries, with a few ladies, to Evangelize and save 
 them ? ” 
 
1 1 
 
 Let the praying men and women of Methodism lay this matter to 
 heart, and each of us ask his own heart. Have I wrestled in prayer as 
 earnestly and effectually as I might that the Missionaries in the field, 
 both native and foreign, may be willing to count all things loss for Christ, 
 and become all things to all men, that by all means they may save some ? 
 
 • Have I pleaded with God to send more labourers to Central China 
 as faithfully and perseveringly as I ought ? * 
 
 Let the educated sons and daughters of well-to-do Laymen, whose 
 every blessing temporal and spiritual has been received within the pale 
 of Methodism, ponder this matter in the light of eternity, and each one 
 honestly ask the question. May not God have some work for me to 
 do in that country? Is there any sufficient reason why I should 
 not offer myself for this work ? Would not my life be more effectively 
 spent, if thus devoted to the extension of Christ’s Kingdom in China 
 than it is likely to be in England ? Is He not even now calling me to 
 this ministry ? God grant to each one an eye so single that in replying 
 to these questions our whole body shall be full of light ! 
 
 * There is a Prayer Union for Central China, of which the Secretary will be glad 
 to send particulars to any one de.siring them. Address Rev. J. W. Brewer, Liskeard, 
 Cornwall. 
 
 
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