A Unto Elmpintt ttt ieatli 
 
 TRIBUTE 
 
 to 
 
 a 
 
 MiUtam tEimnn ffigg 
 
 MISSIONARY 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/voiceeloquentindOOunse 
 
A memorial §>mrire 
 
 held 
 
 BY THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 REFORMED CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 in the^ 
 
 CHAPEL OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1927, at 3 P. M. 
 
 COMMEMORATING 
 
 THE LONG AND FAITHFUL SERVICE OF 
 
 HiUtam E&uittt Ifng 
 
 MISSIONARY TO JAPAN AND CHINA 
 DIED AT SEA, MARCH 3, 1927 
 
 SERMON WAS PREACHED BY 
 SECRETARY ALLEN R. BARTHOLOMEW, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 PROFESSOR GEORGE WARREN RICHARDS, D. D., LL. D., Presiding 
 PRESIDENT CHARLES E. CREITZ, D. D., Offering Prayer 
 
REVEREND WILLIAM EDWIN HOY, D. D., LL. D. 
 
Ifyt Irittg Seaii ffrt 
 
 “He died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still ” 
 Hebrews 11:4 (Moffat Translation) 
 
 JT was my privilege to live and labor in the closest fellow¬ 
 ship with our dear Dr. Hoy for a period of almost forty 
 years. Our souls were knit with a friendship that will never 
 die. This man of God, early in life, was chosen by the Lord 
 as an Apostle to the Far East, and he continued faithful in 
 His service until death. I know the burdens he carried on 
 his heart for the Church he loved. He was one of the most 
 self-effacing missionaries with whom I ever came in contact. 
 His heart was in his work, and the size of it can he seen in 
 his great achievements. He had a simple, childlike faith, 
 unswerving, enthusiastic, and in the strength of it he lived 
 and died for the Master. No task was too great for his will¬ 
 ing soul to perform. He was an untiring worker. He gladly 
 spent and was spent for others. He did not count his life 
 dear unto himself. His writings breathe a religious depth 
 and fervor that is seldom found in current literature. Do 
 you wish to know the secret of it? There is a law in the 
 natural world that the amount of light and heat a planet 
 receives, depends on its nearness to the sun. The nearer it 
 is to the sun the more light and warmth it receives. This 
 same law holds in the spiritual world, and finds a living 
 proof in the life of our missionary Hoy. He lived near to 
 
6 
 
 HIS MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH 
 
 Christ, and his whole career was aflame with the light of 
 Jesus. Of a truth it may be said of him, “He was a bright 
 and shining light” among the children of men. 
 
 His Message to the Church 
 
 It is my wish that you shall hear Dr. Hoy, and not me, 
 speak at this Memorial Service. He has a message for us 
 as I re-read it from his many letters which are a rich legacy 
 to the Church. Some one must write the story of the life and 
 labors of this man of God during the long period of forty- 
 two years. There is a wealth of material at hand for this 
 purpose. I know of no missionary who has made a richer 
 contribution to the cause of Foreign Missions. There is a 
 current of soul-agony coursing through all his writings. He 
 had an intense passion, a quenchless thirst, for souls. And 
 this made itself manifest as soon as he came in personal con¬ 
 tact with the heathen world. He agonized in tears with God 
 and the Church for help to lead men to Christ. You cannot 
 get away from this compelling power. The key-note to it all 
 I find in the words: “Let us continue to grow. To stand still 
 with present attainments is not worthy of us. We can do 
 much better work than we are doing.” 
 
 A Pioneer in School Work 
 
 From the leadings of the divine providence, we know 
 now that Dr. Hoy was destined to be the pioneer missionary 
 of our Church in educational work in the Orient. In the 
 fall of 1885, after one of the evening sessions of Potomac 
 Synod, Brother Hoy, then on the eve of his departure for 
 
A PIONEER IN SCHOOL WORK 
 
 7 
 
 Japan, sat in conversation with that peerless teacher, Dr. 
 Thomas G. Apple. During their conversation, Dr. Apple 
 said: “Well, Brother Hoy, I suppose after you get out 
 there you will start a college and a seminary?” The words 
 fell like a seed upon fruitful soil. “On my way to Japan,” 
 Dr. Hoy wrote, “the question of mission schools was ever on 
 my mind.” From that time forward he determined to con¬ 
 vert the idea into actuality. However, neither of these two 
 men were aware that their hopes and purposes were in 
 answer to prayer. In far-off Sendai, there was a servant of 
 Christ, the Rev. Masayoshi Oshikawa, who carried on an 
 independent work in the north of Japan. It became plain 
 to his mind that in order to spread the Gospel message, he 
 must have help, both in men and means. He went to Tokyo, 
 and made his needs known to the United Church of Christ. 
 About this time our Board of Foreign Missions issued an 
 appeal for a third missionary. Student William Edwin Hoy 
 applied, and he was sent out in the fall of 1885. By a 
 strange providence, upon his arrival in Japan, he was met 
 by Mr. Oshikawa who soon got his consent to locate at 
 Sendai. Imagine the two strangers on that long journey of 
 250 miles! Unlike the two men on the way to Emmaus; they 
 knew that Christ was by their side; and like them, the fire of 
 a holy cause burnt in their hearts. 
 
 The Humble Start 
 
 What led these men of faith and prayer to start the 
 Sendai Training School, and to maintain it at a cost of much 
 toil and self-sacrifice? They saw the need of pastors and 
 evangelists to enter the open door of service. They felt that 
 
8 
 
 THE HUMBLE START 
 
 the specific work of the Church was to cover the earth with 
 the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. They 
 knew that the fountain head of the Church’s wisdom and life 
 centers in the Theological Seminary. As the little streams 
 that start from the mountain top form the rivers which water 
 the plains below, so the school of the prophets determines 
 the character and life of the Church. With these real con¬ 
 victions at hand, to inspire confidence in their new work, 
 they began in a humble way to instruct a few young men 
 of piety and ability. To the credit of brother Hoy let it be 
 said, that he fed and clad six poor students for the first year 
 at his own expense. He met them in an old dingy house, in 
 a solitary part of the city, without stove in the winter save 
 the little heat from a charcoal fire. 
 
 Now the task was no longer to find his sphere of labor, 
 or to gather students, but to acquaint the Church with the 
 needs of the work. His appeals for help were ever on a high 
 spiritual plane. “I am more and more convinced of the value 
 of prayerful forethought and systematic self-denial—and 
 it is scriptural, too. For God’s sake let us try whether it will 
 not succeed. It will take time and labor. And for every 
 4 growth ’ the seed must surely be sown somewhere by some¬ 
 body. My own success is, of course, beyond controversy. 
 Others can and ought to practice the same on a small scale, 
 at least; and many persons will do so, if we work the matter 
 earnestly and faithfully.” 
 
 He Challenges the Church 
 
 He had a burning zeal for the Tohoku Gakuin, now 
 North Japan College. One of the proofs of it is still stand- 
 
HE CHALLENGES THE CHURCH 
 
 9 
 
 ing. I refer to the John Ault Memorial Dormitory, paid 
 for at a great sacrifice by Mr. and Mrs. Hoy with a small 
 inheritance received from her parents. And all this time 
 the Church at home was turning a deaf ear to his appeals. 
 Indeed certain members of the Board tried to persuade him 
 that he should preach, rather than teach, the truths of the 
 Gospel. To this he replied: “For the future good of Japan 
 and the progress of God’s kingdom I had rather lay down 
 my life for the Gakuin than for the present preaching of 
 the Gospel, and I speak and make my vow advisedly. My 
 resolution is made simply in the love and fear of Almighty 
 God. I have lost time and energy by trying in vain to get 
 help from home. God forgive me for the delay. In a new 
 and more intense struggle I shall find my monastery, my 
 absorption in my Father’s call is certain. Hundreds here 
 are witness to its reality. Some one must do the work and 
 bear the burden. I am ready, Lord Jesus, I am ready. I 
 shall neither argue nor urge any longer. I go to work.” 
 And so he did, with a breaking heart, and the result was his 
 health was undermined and he had to quit work for a sea¬ 
 son. Indeed his health was so much broken, superinduced 
 by living in an unfit Japanese house, that he took the Board 
 to task for not exercising more faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 There was a time, in the early years of our work in Japan, 
 when some people in the Church, and I infer also certain 
 members of the Board, had the mistaken idea that the mis¬ 
 sionaries should not erect foreign houses, but live in Japan¬ 
 ese houses. It was to combat this false notion that Dr. Hoy 
 made this statement: “There is legislation enough to support 
 twenty missionaries, but not enough action to support five. 
 Talk! Talk! School boys’ talk! But to act well requires the 
 
10 
 
 HIS DEMANDS WERE REASONABLE 
 
 Grace of God.” Only a Secretary of a Board, with a zeal 
 for God and a love for souls, can fully appreciate a piercing 
 arrow like that, for it is only too true, and we might just as 
 well admit it, that if all the motions and resolutions of a 
 Board or General Synod were actions, the glory of the Lord 
 would flood the world and all men could see the salvation 
 of our God. 
 
 His Demands Were Reasonable 
 
 I want to bear testimony to one outstanding virtue in 
 the demands of Dr. Hoy for help, and that is he was never 
 extravagant in his plans. They were always extremely simple 
 and economical. Look at the modest home he occupied at 
 Sendai. Recall the plain old school buildings. When the 
 time came for the erection of these buildings there was evi¬ 
 dently a desire on the part of the Board to provide on a 
 larger scale for the future expansion of the school. This 
 meant delay and it was so construed by Dr. Hoy. I find 
 that he took the Board to task for it. He wrote: “Some of 
 you are planning an elaborate building for the future. 
 Nonsense! Now is the time for us. The future of Japan 
 belongs to the native Christians. Our Mission is entitled 
 to a good theological seminary: and without one, we should 
 be merely an assistant mission to the others. We have a 
 grand theological inheritance and individuals, and we can 
 make it count for much in Japan. Surely it were a noble 
 thing for us to start, equip, and donate a theological semin¬ 
 ary to the Japanese Christians. This can be done if the 
 Reformed Church will give us now $5000. This is not a 
 large sum to ask for such a work from so large a Church as 
 
OUR FIRST EXCHANGE OF LETTERS 
 
 11 
 
 ours. May not we realize our fondest hopes? Somehow I 
 feel that these $5000 will be raiser! soon.” Thank God the 
 Church did respond as is evident from this dulciana strain 
 in a later letter: “It is with feelings of gladness that I note 
 the increasing interest m our little Training School. You 
 know I began it in faith, God has been with it and is now 
 raising up helpers at home. Blessed be His name. To 
 labor for the Japanese in the name of Christ is a source of 
 great spiritual joy.” 
 
 Our First Exchange of Letters 
 
 After I became a member of the Board of Foreign 
 Missions and its Secretary in June, 1887, I wrote my first 
 letter to the Japan Mission, Brother Hoy was then the Sec¬ 
 retary, and he replied on August 24th in a most cordial 
 spirit: “Your first letter came yesterday. I read it to the 
 members of the Mission. We all felt that a new missionary 
 brother was writing out of the fulness of his heart, and that 
 the new Secretary has a soul of love for souls. We welcome 
 you, then, as our new official correspondent, and more than 
 that, as a personal friend and correspondent in the holy 
 cause of Foreign Missions. We pray God’s blessing upon you 
 and your office. May the Lord give unto us all His grace to 
 do His will in Japan.” 
 
 In this same letter Dr. Hoy made a confidant of me, by 
 telling me of the sweet secret in his heart; and since so long 
 a time has now elapsed, and he himself many years ago 
 made public the secret, I feel at liberty to tell you what it 
 was: “As you well know I came to Japan as a single mis¬ 
 sionary. This arrangement, however, is not to last much 
 
12 
 
 IN FAVOR OF A UNITED CHURCH 
 
 longer. I am now engaged to Miss Ault of our Mission, and 
 we are to be married on the 27th of December.” After those 
 two loving hearts were united as one at the altar of marriage, 
 they made a new and complete surrender of their lives to 
 God in service for the Japanese and Chinese and they were 
 faithful in their holy calling until the time of his departure 
 suddenly came at sea on March third, during his last voyage 
 to the homeland. ■ 
 
 In Favor of a United Church 
 
 Dr. Hoy from the very beginning of his work in Japan 
 was in favor of a United Church of Christ for the Japanese 
 Christians. He did not hesitate to say that “Christ and souls 
 have become a thousand fold more to me than the Reformed 
 Church, and as a foreign missionary I could serve almost 
 any Board.” It was his conviction that the Japanese were 
 coming out strongly for one Church in Japan. At that time 
 a prominent elder of our Church wrote to him urging the 
 organization of a Reformed Classis, to which he replied: 
 “Impossible just now. Pity that man or woman or Church 
 whose personal sense of mine would withhold an offering 
 to Foreign Missions because we have no distinctively 
 Reformed Classis in Japan. The T am the resurrection and 
 the life ’ is more than this dead charity.” There can be no 
 doubt but that the spirit of Jesus, exemplified in the work of 
 Foreign Missions, is the great unifying principle among 
 Christian workers in all lands. It certainly has been the 
 impelling influence to unite Christians on the Mission Fields 
 into the one Church of Christ. Those united Churches of 
 Christ in Japan, China and India, are a standing rebuke to 
 
HE HAD A PASSION FOR SOULS 
 
 13 
 
 the divisive forces at work among the believers in America 
 and Europe. If the work of Foreign Missions had no other 
 results to show, this bringing together of Christians into one 
 Church of Christ would be an object lesson to those who do 
 not believe in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace, 
 but prefer to live apart in their own separate camps. 
 
 He Had a Passion for Souls 
 
 If ever there was a foreign missionary with an evangel¬ 
 istic zeal and devotion, that man was our Dr. Hoy. He made 
 frequent trips on foot with his associate Rev. K. Yoshida. 
 On one of these pedestrian trips he writes: “It was our aim 
 to visit people in their homes and bring the Gospel to them 
 in a most direct way. With Bibles and tracts in our knap¬ 
 sacks and ‘the holy hope of youth’ in our hearts, we began 
 a week’s most earnest work. The first evening we held a 
 lecture meeting. This was well attended and a great deal of 
 interest was manifested. The next day we visited farmers 
 and talked with them about Jesus. In the evening a man who 
 was deeply impressed threw open his large house and invited 
 the neighbors to come in. We had a pleasant social gather¬ 
 ing first, and afterwards a good religious meeting. I feel 
 confident much good was done then and there. A man who 
 was to receive baptism came some six miles to see us and to 
 meet us. But he would not consent to being baptized there. 
 We must come to the village, and he and his whole house¬ 
 hold would be baptized in the presence of all the villagers. 
 So early the next morning we went to his house. At three 
 o’clock that morning the earnest old man had sent out a youth 
 on horseback to call the people of the neighboring hamlets 
 
14 
 
 HE BLAZED THE PATH OF DUTY FOR US 
 
 to the Christian meeting at his home. The simple joy and 
 zeal of this old man was, I think, an inspiration to Brother 
 Yoshida and myself in our sermons. In the presence of this 
 early congregation I baptized the three couples of that house¬ 
 hold—grandfather and wife, son and wife, and grandson 
 and his promised wife. It was an impressive scene, and we 
 tried to press home upon our audience the beautiful spirit 
 of it all. Thus we went from village to village, from house 
 to house, bringing the word of God, and receiving many 
 more invitations to preach in private houses than we could 
 accept.” He concludes his letter with these significant words: 
 “A careful estimate seems to point out that seven-eighths of 
 the people live in the country, in villages and towns. Oh! 
 What a field of immortal souls! I long to go to them with 
 the simplicity of the gospel. Pray for them.” 
 
 He Blazed the Path of Duty for Us 
 
 With an ever deepening sense of the vastness of the field 
 in Japan and the ripening of the harvest this dear brother 
 broke out in this severe but just rebuke: “For myself I will 
 not work many years longer for a Church that refuses to 
 be obedient to the plainest voice of God. We are doing 
 our duty to the utmost and we have a God-given right to 
 expect both Board and Church to stand by us. We have 
 hardly enough courage left to make known our wants, for it 
 is in vain to make any request. There is a terrible sin some¬ 
 where, or else there is no God. Don’t you know that this 
 lethargy of the Home Church hangs like a millstone around 
 my neck? If people loved God or really believed in God 
 and wished to follow Him, they could not neglect that larger 
 
SEEKING HEALTH IN CHINA 
 
 15 
 
 and darker portion of the human race which is in the dark¬ 
 ness of idolatry. I care not for doctrine; I would not hght 
 two seconds for a catechism or creed, but I believe in Christ 
 as a personal Redeemer, and I own the right of the heathen 
 world to the love of the so-called Church of God. These souls 
 hang upon my conscience, and the sinful neglect of our 
 Home Church also clouds my spirit. Yours at the throne of 
 grace for a sick Church and a dead world. Oh, God, how 
 can Thy people remain so blind and so listless in this work 
 of bringing a sin-sick world to Jesus!” Brethren, the voice 
 of our brother’s blood is crying unto heaven, and will not be 
 silenced. “By his faith he is speaking to us still.” I find 
 comfort for myself in the thought, that in spite of all the 
 handicaps that were thrown around the years of Dr. Hoy in 
 Japan the results since prove that he was right in blazing the 
 path of duty for our Church and the Board, and how faith 
 wrought with his works and by works his faith was made 
 perfect. 
 
 Seeking Health in China 
 
 It was in March of the year 1898, that he wrote to 
 Dr. Callender, then Secretary of the Board, that the mem¬ 
 bers of the Mission, and many other friends both missionary 
 and Japanese, had advised that he should rest a few months 
 and seek a change, in order to find relief and a cure, if 
 possible, from the increasingly severe attacks of asthma, “So 
 I expect to go to China in a few days. Seeking rest and a 
 change, I may also perhaps obtain new light on how and 
 where to locate a Mission in China.” 
 
 A month later he wrote that the vacation was doing him 
 
16 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF A NEW MISSION 
 
 much good. The asthma had not troubled him since he left 
 Japan. What he saw and heard in Shanghai was of great 
 use to him in mental and spiritual things. He began to write 
 a series of eighteen letters on China for the Church papers, 
 which gave the Board and the Church an insight into the great 
 spiritual needs of the people of that vast empire. Then and 
 there the Lord was calling him. He wrote to the Secretary: 
 “I cannot get rid of the idea that God is calling me here; but 
 I do not wish to do anything in undue haste. This new con¬ 
 viction is not a mere impulse; nay, it is rather a stern sense 
 of duty. China, compared with Japan, is exceedingly 
 repulsive to me as a place of residence. This feeling, how¬ 
 ever, makes me the more careful to watch for the leadings of 
 the Holy Spirit. It is time for our Church to take hold of our 
 proposed Mission in China; the sooner, the better.” 
 
 The Beginning of a New Mission 
 
 The members of the Board had wrestled for a number 
 of years with the question, “Shall we establish a Mission in 
 China?” It is a long and painful story to me, and I shall 
 not weary you with it. However, I must tell you, that I see 
 the guiding hand of Providence in the planting of our China 
 Mission. Of its beginnings, struggles and progress I shall 
 not speak, except to say that Dr. Hoy chose the Province of 
 Hunan, the last one of all the provinces in China to open its 
 doors to the missionary and recently the first one that closed 
 it to the missionaries. There are three words that tell the 
 story of our China Mission. They are sacrifice , service and 
 success. I prize it as a great honor and a rare privilege that 
 my labors as Secretary should be coeval with the origin of 
 
A DISPLAY OF HEROISM 
 
 17 
 
 the work of our Church in China. Before he settled at 
 Yochow City we hear Dr. Hoy saying: “Let us not be 
 afraid to work hard for these people. Jesus died and was 
 made alive forevermore for just such people, as well as for 
 you and me; but they may never learn of it in some parts of 
 China unless you and I are willing to tell them what Christ 
 has done for the whole world.” With an unfaltering courage 
 he wrote during the time of the Boxer Troubles, “Let us not 
 close our eyes to the fact that in China, during the last four 
 months, we may find many an example worthy of a St. Paul 
 —Love to God and simple obedience to His will and com¬ 
 mands should be enough for us in going forward into China.” 
 
 A Display of Heroism 
 
 The heroic element has ever been dominant in the mis¬ 
 sionary career of Dr. Hoy. Let me refer to one instance 
 only. For some time after his arrival at Yochow he was 
 alone; Mrs. Hoy and the children did not join him until a 
 year later. He lived in a small rented house, having covered 
 the cracks in the wall with paper and old quilts. Four times 
 in three months he was molested by robbers. The officials 
 sent 20 soldiers to guard the house, but he wrote, “These slept 
 and we were never safe.” One night a robber dug through 
 the back wall, went up to the boy’s room and tried to get in. 
 The boy heard him, yelled at him, and came running into the 
 room where Dr. Hoy slept. He went with the boy to see how 
 the thief had made his way into the house. He wrote: “I 
 found a Chinese sword. This I took into my room and 
 placed it near my little cot. Just before falling asleep again, 
 I reached out and touched the cold steel. Somehow the cold 
 
18 
 
 SEPARATION FROM LOVED ONES 
 
 chills crept all over my body and the phrase, Tn perils of 
 robbers,’ flashed through my mind.” This was the experience 
 of our missionary before we had purchased the London 
 Mission Property. Do you blame him for modestly asking, 
 “Where can I find a home for my family so eagerly waiting 
 to join me in China? The little house occupied by Brother 
 Cromer and me, without any yard, and with its surroundings 
 of indescribable filth and odors, would be out of the question. 
 Must my family remain another year in Japan? That I 
 could not think of at all. What was to be done?” My dear 
 friends, we do not know, we cannot tell, the denials, the 
 hardships and the deprivations of this servant of the Lord. 
 
 Separation from Loved Ones 
 
 One of the painful experiences in the work of Missions 
 is the separation of the workers from their loved ones in the 
 homeland. The true missionary, as did Dr. and Mrs. Hoy, 
 enters the foreign field for life. There he buries himself in 
 his work. I know the agonies in human hearts that must be 
 lived down on the part of parents and children in their life 
 service in the Orient. To the honor of Dr. and Mrs. Hoy be 
 it ever said that this trial did not ruffle them. They knew 
 they could not serve their Master fully and not remain at 
 their post of duty. That Dr. Hoy was devoted to his work in 
 China, loved the people and the very soil of Lakeside, is 
 voiced in his own words: 
 
 “0 Lakeside! thee I love; From earth and sky above; 
 
 Thy charms appear, From lake and mountain there, 
 
 From trees and flowers fair, From birds in purest air, 
 
 Joys fill the year.” 
 
FINE CHARACTER TESTS 
 
 19 
 
 Dr. Hoy had left instructions with me, that if he died at 
 Yochow, he wanted to be buried there. 
 
 My own observation constrains me to say that the mis¬ 
 sionaries, for a high and holy purpose have gone forth at the 
 greatest sacrifices in order to sow the seed of truth in minds 
 void of it, and to kindle flames of light in hearts cold with¬ 
 out it. It is not easy to live in a distant clime, and work 
 among strange peoples and under trying circumstances. But 
 many a missionary does this and makes the best of it. Dr. 
 Hoy did it, without a murmur ever escaping from his lips. 
 He gave his life for the Japanese and Chinese and he was 
 glad to do it. And why did he do it? Hear him: “When I 
 stand before our students, I feel in the depths of my heart 
 that God is breathing into them a new life, and that He will 
 guide that life. There will be strength given to that life for 
 the nation. I see the future sweep of its power as it surges 
 around me. No one can destroy for me the vision of the 
 New China, which God has impressed upon myself forever; 
 for He has called this empire for His own purpose in His 
 Kingdom.” And again let Dr. Hoy speak: “Surely in the 
 light of history, we may believe that China has been spared 
 and is now being prepared for a special spiritual purpose 
 by Him, whom we call the God of History and whom we 
 gladly serve; and I believe that he who serves well here serves 
 doubly, because from China, when once redeemed, must go 
 forth mighty forces that will affect the whole human race.” 
 
 Fine Character Tests 
 
 Dr. Hoy had a thankful heart. He was ever apprecia¬ 
 tive of the kind words and loving deeds of his friends. “I 
 
20 
 
 FINE CHARACTER TESTS 
 
 must express my appreciation of what the Board and other 
 friends have done for my wife and children in the homeland. 
 A friend who is a friend in God is a friend indeed, and shows 
 a sympathy that uplifts the soul in the hour of trouble. Had 
 it not been your promptness in remitting to my family, the 
 education of our children would have been much more diffi¬ 
 cult than it was. In our hard, rigid economy we came to rely 
 upon your promptness and you never failed us. Frequently 
 also your advice to my family was of great service to us. 
 For all these things, and more, we all join in thanking you 
 and our God.” 
 
 Dr. Hoy had a spirit of humility that one feels in reading 
 his annual personal reports. “As I stand before the teachers 
 and students my limitations in language and knowledge, in 
 spiritual power and insight, and in touch with all the phases 
 of life in China, bring that form of discouragement which 
 prompts and tempts a man to step out and make room for a 
 better preacher; but God keeps me in my place and I do the 
 best I can, realizing that without the Lord Jesus Christ one 
 can do nothing. It is the Holy Spirit that quickeneth. If 
 one preaches in his own strength he may well despair; and 
 there is danger of thinking that one’s proud strength is as the 
 might of the Lord. Thence cometh a sound of words worse 
 than sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.” 
 
 Dr. Hoy was also conscious of his own ability to serve 
 the Lord in his own day and generation. In the year 1911 
 the Board had granted him a furlough, but he did not accept. 
 He had only four regular furloughs and a three months’ 
 vacation, in his forty-two years of service as a missionary of 
 the Church. “As I look upon the situation and feel keenly 
 the demands of the work and failure from home to meet them 
 
FINE CHARACTER TESTS 
 
 21 
 
 adequately, it would be a sin for me to leave now—such a sin 
 as to render me exceedingly unhappy at home and interfere 
 with my best usefulness there. The best time of my life has 
 come. The heavy outside work that was so necessary during 
 the first years at Yochow City and later at Lakeside has been 
 done. I am much freer today than formerly for better work 
 in school and in Church, and I long to keep the privilege of 
 further unbroken service in the field.” 
 
 Dr. Hoy threw his whole soul into the work. He was 
 relentless in his efforts to lift up the Church that we might 
 see the dire needs of a dying humanity as he saw them and to 
 do real sacrificial giving for the sake of Him who gave all 
 He had, even His very life blood for the redemption of the 
 whole world. At the close of his twenty-five years of service 
 he wrote in his report to the Board: “The world is tired of 
 him who does his duty as a mere official, and is hungry for 
 the living man. It wants more than a talker; it seeks the 
 prophet. It wants more than a wooden sign post—it longs 
 for a great heart who knows the ways of God, who knows 
 the Lord in the travail of His own soul, and who glories in 
 the Cross. If Christ be not formed in me, then will my 
 preaching and my teaching be in vain. If the holy splendors 
 of grace shine not through my life, I cannot lead men to seek 
 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; if my look, and my act, 
 and my word, come not forth from love as a stream as clear 
 as crystal, I cannot point with might in the Spirit to the love 
 of God the Father; and if my relations with men are not 
 tempered in the joy and peace of God, all my testimony will 
 not bring men together in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. 
 This ideal today is thrust upon me with the weight of years, 
 and woe is me, if I fail to strive to attain what I know is only 
 
22 
 
 HIS LAST MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH 
 
 too true in missionary life in Japan and China.” 
 
 His Last Message to the Church 
 
 This is not the time and place for me to speak of the 
 present critical situation in China. Our own Mission has 
 been hard hit, the hardest of any Church. Of all the Prov¬ 
 inces in China, Hunan has made the cleanest sweep of the 
 missionaries—its best and truest friends. However, these 
 servants of Christ were not driven out by the local people, 
 but by imported agitators. What the future has in store for 
 our Church in China no one can tell. In one of his last letters 
 to me, Dr. Hoy has left a testimony that we do well to heed 
 at a time when there is so much distress in China, as well as 
 disheartenment among some of our own Church members. 
 He wrote: “Whatever may come to us, please remember that 
 Mrs. Hoy and I do not regret our having served so long in this 
 land. Service has been joy. One year and a half ago we 
 returned to a Changed and Rapidly Changing China. We 
 may be too old to readjust ourselves to the new environment; 
 but surely this inability must not embitter us. Both God and 
 man have been gracious to us all our years in this land of the 
 Tar East.’ In all our efforts we have tried to hold up Christ 
 and Him crucified; and we still believe in Him who was sent 
 into the world to save those who will receive Him. Should 
 we be driven out tomorrow, our labor in the Lord has not 
 been in vain. In these discouraging days there are many in 
 China who by letter and by personal calls testify to what the 
 Christ preached or taught means. For all this we take heart 
 and rejoice for the service the Lord has owned. Let not the 
 Board and the Church become discouraged. God’s right arm 
 
HE WAS A MODERN PAUL 
 
 23 
 
 of salvation has not been shortened. The Church still lives.” 
 
 He Was a Modern Paul 
 
 Dear Brethren : Our beloved friend and co-worker has 
 come to the end of his life’s journey. The time of his depart¬ 
 ure, or embarkation, was at hand. Our Church has lost much 
 by his untimely death. He was true to the call of God, loyal 
 to the service of humanity, and faithful unto death. And 
 here I find the crowning glory of his life. I regard Dr. Hoy 
 as a Modern Paul. The portrayal of his missionary expe¬ 
 riences is not unlike that of the great apostle to the Gentiles. 
 He did not live for self, but for service. He left a will, but 
 no estate. He gave away all he had, but he kept his soul. 
 When I think of his work in time, his influence on the world, 
 and his reward in heaven, I am led to confess, u There is one 
 thing in the world better than making a living, and that is 
 making a life.” This is the real motive in the lives of all true 
 Christians. Will you not join me in the wish: 
 
 “I ask no heaven, till earth be Thine, 
 
 No glory-crown while work of mine remaineth here. 
 
 When earth shall shine among the stars, 
 
 Her sins wiped out, her captives free—Her voice a music 
 unto Thee, 
 
 For crown, more work give Thou to Me, Lord here am I.” 
 
 Amen. 
 
BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 SCHAFF BUILDING 
 
 1505 RACE STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA.