THE STORY OF 
CC.Z*t& WORK IN CHINA 







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The Story of the C.E.Z.M.S 
Work and Workers 
in China 

With Numerous Illustrations 



BY 

IRENE H. BARNES 



PREFACE BY THE 

REV. HANDLEY C. G. MOULE, D.D 

Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge 
Second Edition 

Xonfcon 
MARSHALL BROTHERS 

KESWICK HOUSE, PATERNOSTER Row 

AND 

The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society 
9, Salisbury Square 





FIRST EDITION 
JUNE, 1896. 

REPRINTED, 

NOVEMBER, it 



PBEFACE 



I HAVE been permitted to read Behind the Great Wall 
in the proof-sheets. It appears now in the full dress 
of publication, and goes to make friends in the world, 
the ever-widening world, thank God, of those who read 
missionary literature. I venture to predict for it a large 
circle of grateful friends and a rich fruit-bearing from 
amongst them. For assuredly they will find in this book 
a message which will do admirably well those two works 
always necessary to the kindling and sustaining of mis 
sionary zeal the clear and full conveyance of facts, and 
the gentle yet powerful application of the appeal. 

For me, China has for long years been a household 
word in the most literal sense. I was still a boy when 
I saw my beloved brother, now Missionary Bishop in 
Mid-China, go forth " for the Name s sake," at the age 
of nearly thirty, in December, 1857. And in less than 
four years another dear brother, now his Archdeacon, 
followed him, in a sailing vessel, which rounded the Cape, 
and was months on the way. From those days to these 
I have always seemed to see China, and to hear it, and 
have indeed learned to love it through these loved and 
honoured ones, and now through their children, who are 
missionaries in their turn, and through many another 
friend, close to my heart in Christ. Yes, for one who has 
never sailed to the Far East, I have seemed to know China 
well in some respscts, after these nearly forty years of the 



vi PREFACE 

" household word." Yet when I read Behind the Great 
Wall I have found myself, in page after page, furnished 
with quite new sets of facts, presented with quite new 
aspects of Chinese life, and brought face to face with 
both incidents and persons full of the newest and deepest 
interest. 

I thank God for this record of His work through the 
"C.E.Z.M.S.," and through those devoted Guniongs (the 
reader will soon be familiar with that word) whom it has 
sent out in the Lord s Name. The climax of interest is 
reached in the closing pages, which put almost visibly 
before us the blessed martyrs of Hwa-sang, and stir the 
inmost soul to tears, and prayers, and new zeal for the 
Lord Jesus, over their glorified names. But the whole 
book is in keeping with that close. For all along it 
records the patient work and labour of love through 
which the martyr spirit breathes as truly as it did oil 
that awful morning of death and glory. 

One most delightful chapter will be prized by many 
that which tells of the Native women- workers ; and 
again, that which deals with medical work ; and the 
singularly interesting story of Mrs. Ahok. But I will 
not particularize further. 

" Goe, little boke," and the Lord of Grace and of 
Missions go with thee. Go, to the quickening of our 
faith, love, hope, and self-dedication to Him. Go, to the 
strengthening of the work of the much-blest Society 
from which thou hast thy origin. Go, to be the Master s 
messenger to those who shall be the messengers of His 
choice to the women of vast and needing China. 

H. C. G. MOULE. 
RIDLEY LODGE, CAMBRIDGE, 
June 1st, 1896. 



CONTENTS 



Pat-e 

INTRODUCTORY . 1 



CHAPTER I 
A GLANCE AT THE LAND . 



CHAPTER II 
THE VOYAGE AND THE LANGUAGE 21 

CHAPTER III 
VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 30 

CHAPTER IV 
CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS .... 42 

CHAPTER V 
THE STORY OF MRS. AHOK GO 

CHAPTER VI . 
THE CRY OF THE CHINESE CHILDREN 91 

CHAPTER VII 
CHINESE GIRLHOOD : ITS WAYS AND WOES . . 99 

CHAPTER VIII 
THE GIFT OF HEALING 113 

7 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTEE IX 

Pflffe 

GATHERING STORMS 124 

CHAPTEE X 
THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG ..... 137 

APPENDIX 

THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA .... 159 
INDEX AND INFORMATION 177 



INTRODUCTORY 

" I icanted help, and then I called for thee 
I called and waitedand then called again : 
Oh ! could it be that I should call in vain ? " 

C. P. 

IN the year 1880 the Regulations of the Church of 
England Zenana Missionary Society were drawn 
up. It was then that a few important words were 
inserted at the earnest desire of that honoured friend of 
Foreign Missions, the Rev. Henry "Wright, and of other 
wise and loving counsellors : 

" THE SOCIETY MAY, IP IT SEEM ADVISABLE, ENGAGE IN 
SIMILAR WORK IN OTHER HEATHEN AND MOHAMMEDAN 
COUNTRIES." 

So runs the clause framed by those who expected that 
the Lord would soon open doors of opportunity for 
women s work in other fields than India only. And 
their holy anticipations were realized. In 1882 came 
pressing appeals which could not be lightly set aside. 
Members of the C.M.S. Committee and other influential 
friends of the Society at home, C.M.S. bishops, mission 
aries and workers abroad wrote to the C.E.Z.M.S., urging 
upon it the claims of China s ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY 

MILLION HEATHEN WOMEN. 

Sir "William Hill, our honoured and now much 
mourned friend, received letter after letter pressing 
upon him the importance of the call, and he in turn 

1 E 



2 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

pleaded with us that we would not leave our C.M.S. 
brethren in sight of these myriad women idolaters, 
whom they were forbidden by Chinese etiquette to visit, 
and who in their secluded lives were therefore opsn only 
to the reach of women evangelists. In a letter dated 
October 5th, 1882, he wrote to a friend of the Society 
thus : 

" I am much obliged for your kind letter and the striking allu 
sion made by your friend to the taking up of Mission work in 
China, which is as singular as the way in which it came to me. 
The Bishop of Hong Kong spoke to me about medical missions for 
South China, and left with me reports to read on the subject- 
About a fortnight after, Miss Foster (now Mrs. Fagg), a seven 
years missionary with Mr. and Mrs. Stewart at Foo-chow, brought 
me a letter of introduction from Dr. Murdoch, at Foo-chow, asking 
me to take up Foo-chow, and giving instances of female mission 
work. I could not but feel that G-od was calling us to extend our 
work in that great empire. I believe I could get four missionaries 
for China and Japan for next year. God is, I believe, bidding us 
go forward. "VVe hope to discuss the question next month, preceded 
by a devotional meeting the last week in this month." 

Such a solemn question of extension in the far East 
was indeed sufficient to send the C.E.Z.M.S. Committee 
to its knees in prayer for guidance. The claims of India 
were paramount and all-important. Not one pound of 
money, not one single worker must be lost to India for 
the sake of work even in the twin continent. But the 
question was one that must be spread before the Lord ; 
and a special meeting for prayer was convened, its sole 
purpose being to seek definite guidance, not by counsel 
with each other, but by humble waiting upon " the only 
wise God." 

On October 30th, 1882, two days before the regular 
November Committee meeting, a gathering took place 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

in Sir William Hill s house at Kensington, he himself 
presiding. The room was full of the friends of both 
Societies, amongst those present being the late James 
Stuart, Esq. (then the honoured Secretary of the 
C.E.Z.M.S.), the Eev. Gilbert Karney and Colonel 
Stewart Black, C.E.Z.M.S., the late Eev. William Gray, 
the Eev. F. E. Wigram and Eugene Stock, Esq., C.M.S., 
etc., etc. Not a word of discussion took place. Not a 
voice was raised except in prayer and the reading of 
God s Word. The memory of that season spent in His 
presence, inquiring His mind and conferring with Him 
self alone, will never fade from the minds of those who 
treasure it as a sacred recollection. The late Eev. William 
Gray read with peculiar fervour and emphasis Numbers 
ix. 15-23. The little company was led into the very 
sanctuary of the Lord as it took up the attentive and 
believing attitude of the children of Israel who were 
guided by the moving Pillar, and journeyed only " at 
the commandment of the Lord." 

Deep and strong came the sense of responsibility as 
we remembered the words of the Lord Jesus, how He 
said, " Go ye and teach ALL nations." Fervent were the 
petitions for wisdom which rose from all parts of the 
room. The meeting separated in silence. 

The following week was it surprising ? there issued 
from the C.E.Z.M.S. Committee this resolution, subse 
quently agreed to unanimously : 

" The Committee having taken into consideration the proposals 
received from influential quarters for extension to China and 
Japan, and the suggestion that work should be undertaken in 
E.jypt, are of opinion that the funds at their disposal at present 
are not sufficient to enable them to overtake the pressing calls 
from India ; but that if special funds are sent to them for these 
extensions, of sufficient amount to warrant their commencement 



4 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

of the work, they will rejoice in being thus enabled to carry out 
the extensions contemplated in the second paragraph of the regula 
tions." 

Meanwhile, more and more urgent became the corre 
spondence from and about China. An appeal reached 
us from members of the C.M.S. Committee urging us " to 
assist Mrs. Stewart, the wife of one of our (C.M.S.) 
missionaries at Foo-chow, in the very important work 
she has on hand in training and superintending native 
Bible-women, arid in visiting Chinese ladies of position 
a work already commenced, and not without result." 
And in a letter addressed to the Committee by the Rev. 
F. E. AVigram, then Hon. Sec. C.M.S., we were told : 

" We have strong confidence that if you will accede to our re 
quest, and announce your readiness to take up this work in Foo- 
chow, provided funds for the purpose are forthcoming, you would 
receive a response which would indicate how lively an interest in 
the vast empire of China exists in England, not only amongst your 
supporters, but amongst many who, were this particular field taken 
up by you, would at once become your supporters." 

In the May-June issue of INDIA S WOMEX (the organ 
of our Society), "A Special Appeal" was written, on 
behalf of a China Fund, and every reader asked to make 
this a matter of earnest prayer. At the same time they 
were also urged to give their opinions on what was 
" certainly not merely a Committee responsibility," but, 
one to be shared by every member of the C.E.Z.M.S. 
Gladly, too, we inserted a letter from Gordon S. North- 
cote, Esq., as typical of the many received from outside 
and independent sources. This letter was written to the 
editor of a local paper, and part of it runs as follows : 

" As your readers are doubtless aware, the social condition of 
woman in China, as in other Oriental countries, is one of degrada- 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

tion, and, unlike her more fortunate sisters in Christian lands, she 
does not hold her proper place in society. As a rule, the sexes in 
China are kept strictly separated, even brothers and sisters being 
prevented from freely associating, after the former commence their 
studies. 

" To the poorer classes of women there is, and has been for some 
time, an easy access, and native women are being trained la- mis 
sionary ladies to go out and teach their neighbours. It is earnestly 
desired that efforts be put forth to reach the richer classes. But 
the better class of women are. as a rule, kept entirely secluded 
from view, and until quite recently no foreign lady could penetrate 
into the inner apartments of a Chinese household. 

" Two or three years ago, owing to the dangerous illness of the 
wife of the Viceroy of the Metropolitan Province of China, the door, 
hitherto closed against foreigners, and the influence of Christianity, 
was opened by an American lady medical missionary, whose profes 
sional advice was sought ; and it is most important that we should 
not let the opportunities now given us of shedding the Gospel light 
abroad in the Chinese family circle pass away from us unimproved. 
It is only those who have lived and laboured among the Chinese 
who really are competent to say anything about the ignorant and 
darkened condition of the Chinese women. But all who are con 
scious of the influence of mothers over their children, and so over 
society at large, for good or for evil, cannot but feel a firm convic 
tion that were the women of China gained over to Christianity, 
the rest would soon follow them. 

" With a view to bringing about this glorious result, the Church 
of England Zenana Missionary Society, working in co-operation 
with the Church Missionary Society, have been urged to extend 
the sphere of their labours to China and other places, and this they 
consent to do, if special funds are sent to them for these exten 
sions, of sufficient amount to warrant their commencement of 
the work. . . . 

" Trusting that your readers may be found willing and able to 
help in some way or other the furtherance of this worthy object, 
and thanking you for the insertion of this letter, 

" I am, Madam, yours faithfully, 

" GORDON S. NOUTHCOTE. 

"TEMPLE HILL, EAST BUDLEIGH, SOUTH DEVON, 
" February 28th, 1880." 



6 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

And were we " warranted " to commence ? 
An extract from the C.E.Z.M.S. Committee Minutes, 
July 4th, 1883, runs thus : 

" Presented statement of the China Fund, showing cash received 
to date, 418 Is. 2tZ., with promise of 150 in September, and as 
money has still to be received from the results of a meeting at 
Croydon, and a sale of work there, it was thought that the 700 
which had been decided upon as the minimum on which it would 
be prudent to go forward w r ould be speedily attained. The Secre 
taries were authorized, on the completion of the amount, to enter 
into negotiations with the Secretaries of the C.M.S. with reference 
to the arrangements for sending out Miss Gough." 

Within a few months from the date of that memorable 
Prayer Meeting, 700 had been sent in as a special " China 
Fund " the exact sum which, after deliberation, had 
been decided upon as the minimum on which it would 
be prudent to go forward ! 

And so, on October 4th, 1883, when the large room of 
the Polytechnic Institution, Regent Street, was filled with 
a company of more than 900 sympathetic and praying 
friends, the C.E.Z.M.S. held a Valedictory Meeting to 
take leave of its first missionary to China, and said fare 
well to. Miss Gough in these words : 

" The circumstances under which you, Miss GOUGH, are going 
forth to Foo-chow, are so remarkable as to form an epoch in the 
history of our Society. Hitherto, although its constitution clearly 
provided for extension, its work has been confined to India. More 
than once have we been invited to help in reaching the women of 
China, but the way has never been clear till now, when, almost in 
spite of ourselves, but in obedience to what has seemed to be an un 
mistakable call, we are sending thither our first missionary. And 
it is surely a token for good that this first missionary should be 
the daughter of one who for thirty-one years has laboured for the 
C.M.S. in that vast empire, and a lady who herself was born in 
China, who has spent the greater part of her life there, who has 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

laboured there for Christ, and who is already familiar with the 
written language of the country. Not quite four years have passed 
since you ministered at the deathbed of the lamented Bishop 
Russell, and now you are yourself sent forth to take up like work 
for the same Lord among the millions of that vast empire. "We 
send you, at the request of the C.M.S., to assist Mrs. Stewart of 
Foo-chow in the training of her Bible-women, whose services are 
much in demand, and in the visitation of Chinese ladies, for which 
important work there is an ever-increasing number of opening 
doors. Go, and the Lord be with thee ! " 



CHAPTER I 
A GLANCE AT THE LAND 



Dr. Morrison, the first Protestant Missionary in China, was in 
early life a counting-house clerk. When about to embark on his 
missionary enterprise a fellotv-clerk, with an ill-suppressed air 
of ridicule, sneeringly remarked, "And so, Mr. Morrison, YOU 
really expect that YOU will make an impression on the idolatry 
of the great Chinese Empire. 1 1 " No, sir" said Morrison with 
solemnity; "I EXPECT GOD WILL." 

From " Toils and Triumphs," by H. W. ELLIS. 




GREAT China the antipodes of 
Great Britain teeming, million- 
peopled "Land of Sinim," how little we 
English men and women concern 
ourselves about it ! Perhaps we 
drink its tea every afternoon ; 
probably we wear its silk every 
day; and certainly, though we 
may not always recognise it, we 
are indebted in a thousand ways to that ingen 
ious, industrious, enduring people so far away. 
But, widely separated as we are, and ignorant of 
each other as we remain, how can we grow en 
thusiastic over the eccentric and conservative 
Chinese family circle over the sea ? 

Let us give a glance at the land three thou 
sand miles Eastward Ho. 

The first thing we notice is that the " Great 
Middle Kingdom, "as its inhabitants proudly term 
it, believing China to be the centre of the earth, 
the world s metropolis, is bounded on the north 
by a miracle of Chinese engineering. Over 



10 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

highest hills, through deepest valleys, across rivers and 
every other natural obstacle runs the Great "Wall, 
1,259 miles in length, 25 ft. broad at base, 15 ft. wide 
at summit. Such a poem in stone, brick and cement 
is surely a monument to the patience, industry and per 
severance of its builders, who thus, ages ago, success 
fully raised an insurmountable barrier to invasion from 
their Tartar foes. 

Behind that Great Wall exists a wondrous empire, the 
most ancient in the world. Its eighteen provinces cover 
an area of 5,300,000 square miles, a surface eighteen 
times as large as Great Britain. Its fourteen hundred 
and sixty walled cities, besides innumerable towns and 
villages, are so densely populated, its river-craft is so 
crowded with human life, that it would take nineteen 
years for all the Chinese to walk past a given point in 
single file at the rate of thirty a minute, day and night. 
For China contains nearly 400,000,000 souls. Behind 
the Great Wall lives ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE PERSONS 

BORN INTO THE WORLD ! 

" Heaven above and Soo-chow and Foo-chow below " is 
the Chinaman s proverb for expressing his admiration of 
the natural beauties of his country, which he certainly 
cannot exaggerate. Mountains in all their stately 
grandeur and ever-changing charms ; climbing woodland 
slopes and rushing torrents ; fertile plains spread with 
corn like a cloth of gold, or emerald with paddy fields, 
or verdant with tea groves ; avenues of feathery bamboo 
and forests of pine ; tropical vegetation of every hue, 
from deepest crimson to palest yellow, everywhere en 
circled and enriched by wild flowers as familiar and 
beautiful as our own English treasures of hothouse or 
hedge camellia, stephanotis, myrtle and honeysuckle 
such are the gifts flung : 



A GLANCE AT THE LAND 11 

" . . . unrestrained and free 
O er hill and dale and valley sod ; 
That man at every step may see 

The footprint and the stamp of God." 

Glancing next at the people themselves, we find the 
Chinese workman content to live on rice and vegetables 
costing three-halfpence per diem, to dress in plain blue 
cotton blouses and roomy trousers (always of one shape 
and make), fastened with pieces of twisted calico for 
buttons, straw sandals, price one halfpenny a pair, and 
considering himself "passing rich" on wages varying 
from 3d. to 6d. a day. A broad-brimmed bamboo hat 
shields his shaven forehead from the sun, and a huge, 
stiff cape of palm-tree, fibre-like thatch protects him 
from the rain. Engage him as your " boy," and, wind 
ing his " pigtail " round his head, as a housemaid tucks 
up her skirt to scrub, or, funnier still, pocketing it, he will 
set to work, carrying out his favourite motto, " Can do." 

Chinese men of the upper class are dressed in brilliant 
flowing robes, their feet encased in black satin boots with 
white felt soles, and their hair, shaven off their foreheads, 
is braided behind into one long tasselled queue, inter 
woven with coloured ribbons, reaching almost to the 
ground. 

Our Chinese friends represent to our Western minds all 
that is quaint and comical in manriers and customs. 
Apparently they live at the centre of Topsy-turvydom ! 
They put on their hats in order to show respect ; they 
shake their own hands instead of those of their friends 
whom they meet. The Chinaman s house is built round 
his garden ; the carpenter he employs saws wood from 
instead of towards himself ; and when the " Celestial " 
invites us to a feast at his house he will write a letter in 



T2 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

columns which we must read backwards. The note 
will probably be written on a long slip of bright red 
paper, and run thus : "On the - - day a trifling enter 
tainment will await the light of your countenance." If 
it be a lady guest who is invited to the feast, the wife 
will single her out for special honour, and throughout 
the twenty-five courses will feed her with choice morsels 
of ham stewed in honey, fish with pickled fir-cones, 
a tenderly boiled slug, etc., etc., from her own bowl 
with her own chop-sticks. And although all that 
is left uneaten will be whipped back into the centre 
bowl as the next course appears, it will be the height of 
rudeness and ill-breeding to refuse any item of such a 



menu 



The ancient Book of Rites regulates Chinese manners, 
and is the cause of their unchangeableness. The cere 
monial usages of China have been estimated at 3,000. 
Everything is done by precedent. Every official in the 
empire must assume his winter or summer costume on a 
special day, of which notice is given in the Pekin Gazette, 
by a statement that the emperor has put on his winter 
or summer hat. Then all the world in China must do 
the same. 

Women, no less than men, are the slaves of custom. 
Etiquette forbids a Chinese lady to walk out of doors. 
But it is unnecessary, since etiquette has first made her 
a cripple ! For at six years of age almost every girl in 
China has to undergo the bandaging of both feet, in order 
to reduce them to the correct and fashionable size. A 
lady s shoe measures two and a half inches in length. To 
render them capable of wearing such minute cases, the 
feet are tightly bound, the four small toes being tucked 
under the sole of the foot, of which after a time they 



A GLANCE AT THE LAND 13 

become a part, and the heel brought forward. The ex 
cruciating agony endured, while for two years the foot 
is crushed, stops growing, and practically dies, can better 
be imagined than described. When at last the process 
is complete, the Chinese lady, swaying and tottering 
along on her great-toe and heel, is considered as graceful 
in her movements as the " waving of the willow trees," 
and she is complimented on her " golden lily feet." 




A Chinese Lady s Foot in its Binder and Shoe compared with an 
Englishwoman s Shoe. (From a Photo.) 

" What a good mother she must have had ! " say her 
friends, of a girl whose feet are particularly small. 
When a girl is to be married, the question is not, " Is 
she good, clever, beautiful ? " but, " What is the size of 
her feet ? " 

Betrothed so early that it is no uncommon thing for 
a boy of eight to have as " wife " a baby-girl only six 
months old, the bride-elect is carried off by her future 



14 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

(generally unkind) mother-in-law to live with her. Once 
married, many Chinese women of good birth do not leave 
home for years together. It is improper for them to 
speak to a man. They have not been considered worth 
educating, and therefore their lives are spent in an end 
less, aimless round of embroidering their shoes, painting 
their faces, eyebrows and eyelashes, building up and 
decorating their hair, binding and rebinding their feet, 
cooking sweetmeats, nursing their children, and smoking 
often, alas ! though secretly, the opium pipe. 

Throughout their careers, women are regarded as 
" moulded out of faults." If a husband is driven to 
make mention of his wife, he speaks of her as his "dull 
thorn," or by some equally uncomplimentary term. It is 
not at all uncommon for husbands to punish their wives 
severely ; sometimes, no doubt, under great provocation, 
for Chinese women, untaught, unloved, uncared for, have 
all the faults and failings of unreclaimed natures ; but at 
others for little or no reason. The question, " Does your 
husband beat you?" is very commonly put to English 
married ladies by Chinese women. 

Obedience and propriety are the ideal, the religion of 
Chinese womanhood. Buddhism teaches her that there 
is no heaven for one so worthless as a woman ; but there 
is the faint possibility that after a virtuous life and 
having passed through eighteen hells, she may be re 
born on the earth as a little boy. She worships her 
ancestors on her bridal day by prostrating herself before 
memorial tablets placed upon a shelf in her room, and 
perhaps burns incense sticks from time to time in front 
of an " altar to heaven and earth " built in her garden. 

The interior of the women s apartments, always at the 
back of the house, is never very inviting. No con- 



A GLANCE AT THE LAND 15 

trivance for warming the rooms by means of fires or 
stoves exists, except that found in the " bang" or brick 
bed, on which the inmates lie and sit. The Chinese 
know nothing of the enjoyment of their "ain fireside"; 
they rely on quilted and fur garments and fire-baskets 
for warmth in winter. Even on a bright day the room 
is dim, and the absence of carpets and fireplaces, and of 
windows, renders it cheerless. Instead of being always 
rectangular, the doors are sometimes made round, leaf- 
shaped, or semi-circular ; and it is thought desirable they 
should not open opposite each other, lest evil spirits find 
their way in from the street ! For this reason, too, the 
narrow Chinese streets are not laid out straight. Each 
house makes a slight angle with its neighbour, it being 
considered rather unlucky to have "them exactly even. 
The general arrangement of a Chinese city presents a 
labyrinth of streets, alleys, and by-ways, very perplexing 
to a stranger who has neither plan nor directory to guide 
him, nor number upon the houses or shops to direct him. 

Buddhism and Confucianism, the two idolatrous re 
ligions of China, as they are practised, foster all that is 
evil in the Chinese character, which by nature is essen 
tially superstitious, cruel, cunning, and avaricious. 
However good the maxims of Buddha and Confucius 
may be, they have taken no moral hold upon their 
followers. 

So great is the sin and want of anything like morality 
or righteousness among the people, that in the course of 
a single year in China 10,000 men are executed ; and 
this without the slightest show of feeling on the part 
of those who pronounce sentence. To a Chinaman, 
however, death is perhaps preferable to imprisonment in 
a Chinese dungeon. 



1 6 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

A Chinaman has little pity in his heart. He will 
bargain with a drowning man before trying to save him. 
Yet, those treated unkindly in their lifetime are 
honoured after death ; and a dutiful son will stint him 
self for years in order to present his parents with a 
really handsome coffin on their sixty-first birthday, 
since it is customary thus to prepare for decease. The 
dead are not buried at once, but the coffins, which are 
like trunks of trees hollowed out, are placed in open huts 
on the hill-sides, and kept there sometimes for months, 
till " a lucky day " comes when they will bury them. 

Miss Leslie thus describes the extraordinary scene in 
the suburbs of Foo-chow, around the C.E.Z.M.S. house, 
The Olives : 

" Such curious little paths there are all about here. It 
is always like crossing a common, only the common, 
instead of having furze bushes, has graves all over it ! 
They seem to cover the whole country. You see a hill 
side in the distance with a few Scotch firs upon it, looking 
as if the rest of the trees had been cut down and their 
stumps left ; but when you get near you find that what 
you thought stumps are all grave-stones. There are 
numbers of them quite close to this house ; we have to 
pass through them wherever we go. And there are 
numbers of unburied coffins, too, among the graves, 
some in little houses built for them others with only a 
slight basket-work roof. Is it not a sad country ? " 

When the funeral procession is formed, a man carry 
ing a long streamer of white cloth, known as the " soul- 
cloth," marches in front, followed by two men bearing 
banners, on which are inscribed sentences implying a 
hope that the deceased may be enjoying himself in the 
company of the blessed. After these comes a man hold- 



A GLANCE AT THE LAND 17 

ing up a white cock, which is supposed to summon the 
soul to accompany the body; and behind him follow 
two sedan chairs, in the first of which is carried the 
ancestral tablet of the dead man, and in the second his 
portrait. Supporting themselves by the shafts of these 
sedan chairs, two of bhe principal mourners drag them- 




Sign-post erected at the entrance of a House to indicate that a death 
has occurred and to avoid evil influences. 



selves along. As the procession advances, paper-money 
is scattered on all sides to appease the hunger of any 
destitute ghosts which may be haunting the road. 
With the coffin a pot of rice is lowered into the grave, 
and grains and tea are scattered over it. As the grave- 
diggers shovel in earth, the priest takes the white cock, 



18 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

and, standing at the foot of the tomb, makes the bird 
bow thrice towards the coffin. This strange rite is re 
peated by the chief friends of the deceased, and the 
" soul-cloth " is then burned to ashes. 

Ancestral worship consists chiefly in burning incense 
and papsr representations of money and clothes, and 
whatever else the spirits can be supposed to want in the 
spirit world, before memorial tablets or at the graves. 
As much as thirty millions a year are spent by the 
Chinese upon their dead. But then, if the spirits are 
not kept quiet with gifts, they might return to earth 
and avenge themselves. So it is well to keep them in a 
good temper. One peculiarity of the spirits is that they 
can only fly straight ; so, if a father has murdered his 
baby-daughter (a not uncommon occurrence), he walks 
back to his house in zig-zag fashion, so that the little 
spirit may never find its way home and avenge his 
cruelty. 

While Confucianism is the basis of the social life and 
political system of China ; while temples crowded with 
images of Buddha expounding his doctrine to attentive 
listeners abound everywhere in China, 1 all the educated 
Chinese, theoretically at least, are atheists or fatalists. 
There flows through China to-day " a full, unchecked 
torrent of human depravity, a kind and degree of moral 
degradation of which an adequate conception can scarcely 
be formed." 2 

The Chinese disregard of truth has, perhaps, done 
more to lower their character than any other fault. 

1 Taoism, the third religion which holds sway in China, does 
not make the same pretension to popularity as do the other two 
faiths. 

2 Prof. K. K. Douglas. Society in China, 1894. 



A GLANCE AT THE LAND 19 

They feel no shame at being detected in a lie, nor do 
they fear any punishment from their gods for it. In. 
addition to this want of moral backbone, and the 
cowardice with which a superstitious dread of spirits 
imbues them, the Chinese character is in thousands of 
instances undermined and ruined by the fearful habit of 
opium-smoking. In one great city, Soo-chow, as many 
as seven out of ten of the men are opium smokers. And 
this means that the craving has so fastened itself upon 
the victim that he will literally sell himself, soul and 
body, for the drug. He becomes an emaciated living 
corpse. His only home and dying bed is the opium den 
and couch. 

Yes, to the Asiatic traveller " Far Cathay " is an in 
tensely interesting problem. Whether looked at from 
an historical, commercial or political point of view, it 
cannot fail to strike him as being the most remarkable 
country in the world. But to the CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY, 
China with its vast multitudes of heathen, its dark 
systems of religion, its degradation of woman, its dis 
regard of human life, and the sin and suffering of its 
poorer classes stowed as ballast on steamers, crowded 
like cattle on sampan boats, from birth to old age " is a 
heart-rending, soul-stirring spectacle. 

A million a month are dying without GOD. Fourteen 
hundred of them have sunk into Christless graves during 
the last hour. Thirty-three thousand will pass to-day 
for ever beyond our reach. Despatch a missionary to 
morrow, and one million and a quarter of immortal souls 
for whom Christ died will have passed to their final 
account before he can reach their shores. A low wail of 
helpless, hopeless misery, li a cry as of pain," is arising 
from China one-half of the heathen world. What shall 



2O 



BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 



the answer be from you? from me? Has it pierced 

our ears ? Has it moved our hearts ? 

* * * * 

Some among us have heard that cry, and "counting 
not their lives dear unto them " have entered the great 
walled land, prepared to lay them out or lay them down 
in winning China for Christ. In yonder glory there is a 
martyr-band whose crown of rejoicing in the day of the 
Lord Jesus will be a cluster of firstfruits of the Gospel 
from far Fuh-kien. And to-day a little company of 
women are still teaching and winning, yearning over 
and bringing to the Saviour s feet their Chinese sisters 
who for long years have " sat in darkness and the 
shadow of death " BEHIND THE GREAT WALL. 




CHAPTER II 
THE VOYAGE AND THE LANGUAGE 

" Oft, use me for Thy glory ! Thy harvest fields are ichite, 
And blinded souls are rushiny on away into the niglit. 
Oh, lend me voice a few more days to point them to the Light ! " 

E. H. WILLIS. 

T71UH-KIEN (" happily established "), one of the small- 
-L est of all China s eighteen provinces, is a country 
in itself. In size it equals England without Wales. 
Its population of 14,000,000 is distributed in towns and 
villages of 1,000 to 100,000 inhabitants, and these lie so 
closely crowded together that within one hour s walk of 



22 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

Dang-Seng (a C.E.Z.M.S. station in the south) EIGHT Y- 
six such " hamlets " may be visited. A sea-board 
province, washed by the waters of the China Sea and 
Pacific Ocean on the south and east, it is bordered on 
the north-west by the famous Bohea hills that supply 
the bulk of the black tea sold in our English market. 
One of the most familiar sights in Fuh-kien is the con 
stant stream of tea-carriers to the ports ; men and women 
trudging down the steep winding footpaths of the moun 
tain sides, carrying their tremendous loads 80 to 100 
Ibs. of tea on each end of a bamboo pole, balanced across 
their shoulders, after the fashion of an English milk 
man s " yoke." The glorious river Min flowing between 
Swiss-like scenery through Fuh-kien forms its great 
water highway for traffic to all parts. This province 
contains, perhaps, the most vigorous, restless, enter 
prising, and yet most heathenish population of China. 

Although the whole number of places in the province 
of Fuh-kien where Protestants have opened their work 
in one form and another is now over two hundred and 
fifty, under seven separate Societies, countless towns 
and even districts are still unreached by the Fiih-yin 
(Glad Message). It was in view of the dire need of 
millions of unevangelized heathen women that the 
C.E.Z.M.S. yielded to the earnest pleas that reached 
them, and in 1883 sent their first " Chinese " missionary, 
Miss Gough, now wife of the Rev. J. C. Hoare, Ningpo, 
to the help of those honoured servants of God now called 
up higher, the Rev. Robert "W. and Mrs. Stewart at 
Foo-chow. 

Foo-chow, the capital of Fuh-kien, with a population 
of 600,000, at the mouth of the Min, is one of the five 
treaty ports opened so reluctantly to the hated foreigners 



THE VOYAGE AND THE LANGUAGE 23 

in 1842, and was first entered by the C.M.S. in 1850. 
Ten years of missionary effort in this dark, idolatrous 
city passed amid psrsistent opposition and unbroken dis 
couragement, and without one conversion. To-day (1896) 
upwards of 6,000 have been baptized in Foo-chow city 
and district, and 7,000 are under instruction ; there are 
more than 200 native teachers and 190 schools in the 
Fuh-kien province, and to those headquarters at Foo- 
chow we have been enabled to send altogether since 1883 
thirty-eight lady missionaries to be located in any of the 
nine Hiens (counties) where the need is greatest. 

Reminiscences of the first voyage out, as given by 
some of our Fuh-kien band, show that the missionary 
spirit effervesces and overflows on board the English 
vessel long before the Chinese shore is reached. Writing 
from the s.s. Derbyshire, Dec. 7th, 1890, an outgoing mis 
sionary says : 

" "We thought two services in the day would be 
enough for the men, and were surprised when the 
steward brought a message from the boatswain to say 
that if the ladies were going to have singing in the 
evening, they would like to come. So we had a third 
happy service on the poop-deck, plenty of hymns, and 
a missionary sister spoke earnestly and clearly about 
receiving the Lord Jesus on board the ship of our lives 
as our Captain, of the Bible as our Chart, of the Holy 
Spirit as our Compass, and then asked the kind of Cargo 
we were carrying. When the meeting was over, five of 
us went to our cabin to pray that the words of the 
others who were talking singly to some of the men 
might be blessed. In a little while a sister came in 
with a very bright face to tell us that one for whom we 



24 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

prayed has quite decided to live for Christ s service now. 
You can fancy how glad this news made us ! " 

When once at her destination " behind the Great 
Wall," our missionary has to wrestle with Dictionary 
and Manual for many a day, and then will have con 
quered only one dialect. 

Certainly a Chinaman ought never to be at a loss 
for a word, since his generous mother tongue supplies 
him with a vocabulary of forty thousand, each repre 
sented in writing by a different pictorial character. Six 
thousand of these must be learned by any one who 
wishes to talk intelligibly. And this means exercise for 
throat as well as memory, for some of those absolutely 
necessary characters have sixteen different meanings 
each, according to pronunciation or tone of voice. 

A character in Chinese does not mean a letter, but 
stands for a word. Originally these characters were 
pictures : as, for instance, the Chinese way of repre 
senting " peace " was by a picture of a woman being 
extinguished ! But these pictorial characters are now 
mere signs, so like each other, and yet different in some 
small particular, that it is very difficult to carry the 
difference in memory. Yet, to read a book the Bible, 
for example in Chinese, means that you know every 
character used in the book. Mrs. Stewart, writing soon 
after her arrival in China, tells us : 1 

" Even the characters that I think I know as well as 
possible I quite forget, unless I keep going over them 
continually. The servants begin to understand me, but 
sometimes the man-cook looks surprised and amused, and 
then I discover that I have been telling him to put 

1 Robert and Louisa Stewart, p. 154. 



THE VOYAGE AND THE LANGUAGE 25 

carrots in the pudding, when I thought I was saying 
raisins. And another day, I thought I was assuring him 
that in England we put sugar in our puddings, and 
found out that I had said soup ! The word is the same ; 




Idol Shrine by wayside and Oven for burning all waste written or printed 
character, for which the Chinese have great reverence. 

the tone you say it in makes the difference. Every 
syllable has seven tones." 

Miss Leslie, in a letter home, graphically describes 
lessons with her Chinese tutor : 



26 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

" Hammering away at the tones is all we are doing 
at present ; this sort of thing : the teacher says Eng 
in a high voice, and I have to imitate him ; then he says 
it in a low, firm voice then in an ascending way, like 
asking a question, then in four other ways each meaning 
something different. He goes over this about fifty times, 
and then chooses another monosyllable, and the whole 
thing begins again. You don t understand what the 
meanings are generally ; so you can fancy what unin 
teresting work it is, and one cannot ask any question 
to make a variety because the teacher doesn t under 
stand a word of English. There is a sing-song Table 
of Tones which would sound very amusing to you. 
It is composed of 15 initials and 33 finals which 
you put together, and when you have gone through it 
you have said 33 x 15 = 495 syllabic sounds ; these mul 
tiplied by the 8 tones gives you 3,960. That makes 
one see the use and importance of the things, but they 
certainly are very tiresome at first. Lectures on the 
language before coming out would be delightful for mis 
sionaries." 

Our lady missionaries during their first year would 
perhaps heartily endorse Dr. Milne s opinion : "To ac 
quire the Chinese is a work for men with bodies of brass, 
lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of 
eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives 
of Methuselah!" 

If the " tones " are such a difficulty for the educated 
foreigner to acquire, the " characters " prove an almost in 
superable obstacle for their ignorant native women pupils 
to learn. And one of the most valuable traces of the late 
Rev. R. "W. Stewart s work in China and for China is 
the introduction of the " Romanized colloquial " or Ro- 



THE VOYAGE AND THE LANGUAGE 2~J 

manized system of writing Chinese. 1 Through Mr. 
Stewart s labours and enthusiasm the New Testament 
has been published by the British and Foreign Bible 
Society in Roman character in the Foo-chow vernacular. 
Of " Stewart s system " the founder himself writes to 
Dr. Wright on June 24th, 1895. as follows : 

I can truly say that the success we are now seeing 
surpasses my expectations. My wife yesterday had in 
her Sunday class a country woman, naturally distinctly 
stupid, who for three months had learned this system. 
My wife had not seen her for three or four months ; she 
then could not read a word of her Bible, but now she 
held aloft a (Romanized version) New Testament, and 
cried, I can read it all ! I can read it all ! I am so 
happy ! A station class of women learning Romanised 
can begin to read the New Testament, spelling the words 
over slowly, at the close of six weeks, and therefore in 
the remaining six weeks (of the three months training 
given), whilst learning to read, they are at the same 
time being taught the life of our LORD, and at the end 
of the three months can not only pass an examination, 
but, besides being able to read the whole of the New 
Testament when they leave the school, can from time to 
time write an account of their work to their teacher." 

It is not surprising that Mr. Stewart should " beg on 
behalf of Kien-ning " for a Romanized version in its 
dialect, so materially different from that of Foo-chow. 

" They are worse off than we are," he writes, " for they 

1 For illustrations of old and new systems, and an interesting 
account of the translator, see The Bible Society Monthly Reporter, 
Sept., 1895. 



28 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

have no colloquial character, and the C.E.Z.M.S. five 
ladies now in the district have, in consultation with out 
C.M.S. man, drawn up a system. They (two of them) 
have also given the last twelve months up to translating 
the New Testament into this Romanized colloquial. This 
means tremendous labour. . . . They have spared 
no pains, keeping a special Chinese teacher for the pur 
pose and testing his colloquial by trying it with the 
native women. . . ." 

It was peculiarly significant in the light of after- 
events that this last request should have been made on 
behalf of those who were his murderers. 

The manuscript has been completed, and since the 
honoured writer of the above was called up higher, the 
Bible Society, recognising in the translator s death a call 
to " redouble its efforts to spread the gospel of love among 
these misguided Chinamen," who " never knew a God 
who was not as cruel as themselves," determined to print 
the New Testament in the Kien-ning dialect, without 
waiting for funds. 1 

Often have come requests for prayer from China for 
the men who have taught our missionaries the language. 
At Nang-wa recently the Eev. H. S. Phillips (C.M.S.) 
had the joy of baptizing Mr. Sia, the native teacher of 
Miss Newcombe, of the C.E.Z.M.S. He says : 

" His face shone with a light that seemed more than 
natural. An immense crowd of heathen were present, 
among them five or six other teachers. It was a tre- 

1 The Dublin Mission friends have subscribed sufficient money 
for the Gospel of St. John as their memorial to Mr. and Mrs. 
Stewart. 



THE VOYAGE AND THE LANGUAGE 29 

mendous step, and one almost trembles for him, were 
one not sure that in spite of the persecution which will 
certainly come, his childlike faith in the Saviour will 
carry him through. As far as man can see, he is most 
thoroughly converted." 

This teacher, Sia-Sing-Sing, was the means of Miss 
Newcombe and Miss Johnson spending a night within 
the walls of Kien-ning city, which has been closed for 
twelve years against any Christian teachers. 



CHAPTER III 
VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 

" ITE went round about the villages, teaching. 1 MARK vi. 6. 

" Telling of His salvation from day to day." Ps. xcvi. 2 (P.B.V 




o 



A Village Woman s Head-dress. 



NE of the ex 
periences of the 
lady missionary in the 
Fuh-kien province is 
itinerating among the 
numerous villages that 
surround Foo - chow, 
Kucheng, and other 
mission centres. Her 
adventures are always 
more or less exciting, and, although sometimes they may 
be a little alarming, are certainly unique. The following 
descriptions of itinerating tours are a sample of what 
may be found in the jottings and journals, the home- 
letters and reports of each C.E.Z.M.S. missionary from 
her first day in " the field " to the present moment : 

" Our visits to these villages are not without their 
touches of humour. The usual greeting between the 
hours of 2 and 6 p.m. is, Have you eaten your dinner 
yet ? When we are invited to come in and drink tea, 
we are subjected to a whole volley of questions, such as : 



VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 31 

Can your eyes see treasure in the earth ? Do you throw 
your deceased relations in the river instead of burying 
them ? (this coming with great horror from people given 
up to ancestral worship). Do you shave the outskirts 
of your head and eyebrows ? You who have so much 
silver in your country, why do you not wear earrings 
and bracelets ? How many children have you ? and 
then hearing we are not married, How happy you are ! 
Did you come over to this country in a sedan chair ? 
etc., etc." 

Visiting what we would term one house literally 
means going in amongst twenty to thirty women, so 
that hours could be spent in one house alone. In China 
it is possible to have living together two or three 
daughters-in-law and two or three grand-daughters-in- 
law, with their husbands and children. Here is a descrip 
tion of one excursion to the village of Cui-Kau, about 
thirty miles from Kucheng, made in the summer of 1887 
by Miss Inie Newcombe and Mrs. Stewart : 

" The road goes right over the hills, most beautiful 
scenery all the way. For the first few hours, however, 
we saw but little, as the rain came down in torrents, such 
as we seldom know at home, and we were obliged to have 
the rain curtains down. It made the path very slippery 
for the coolies, and we got on but slowly. Indeed, Mrs. 
Stewart s front coolie stumbled down in quite a serious 
corner, but he held bravely on to the chair until the 
third coolie could help him up, and then what might 
have been a serious accident was prevented. 

" Next morning we spent in the house, doing a little 
Chinese, and talking to the women who came to see the 
foreign ladies and the new house. The visitors amused 



32 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

us by their questions. If a stranger joins our group who 
has not heard the former questions, some one gives her 
a rapid summary of what they have heard, beginning 
with our ages. They examine our clothes ; the way our 
hair is arranged, and our watches are an endless source 

O 7 

of wonder. They do enjoy listening to the tick, tick/ 
and trying to imitate the sound. It is some time before 
they can listen to a little talk ; but by patience we 
always get a hearing at last. 

" Next morning we started on a round of visits to the 
different Christian houses. Patience (a native Bible- 
woman) was our guide. "We did not keep count of the 
houses, but we did not get through till nearly two 
o clock, and we did not pay long visits. At each house 
we were provided with tea, cakes, and sweetmeats not 
simply one, but each woman in the house brought in her 
tray, and we had to take something off each dish. As 
there were often three or four women in a house, this 
hospitality became alarming, particularly as they will 
not take a refusal. Fortunately it is not a breach of 
etiquette to pocket what you cannot eat ; and we had 
afterwards a good laugh over the assortment of goodies 
we turned out as the spoil taken in our morning s 
visiting. 

" "We cannot thus dispose of tea, and it became serious 
to think of the amount we must have got through that 
day, though Ave only took a couple of mouthfuls from 
each cup." 

Meals and feasts are certainly among the trials of 
itinerating ! 

In one house, "little bowls were brought in with china 
spoons full of some liquid, and queer-shaped objects float- 



VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 33 

ing about. Upon attacking these bravely we found they 
were made of paste filled with chopped cabbage (I think). 
They were sweet and rather nasty. Fortunately," says 
Miss Leslie, "it is quite polite to pass on things to your 
neighbours, so you can very politely get rid of anything 
you like. You can imagine that a tiny boy who was 
near me had his bowl always well filled ! One little 
scene I shall never forget ! A dish of little shell-fish was 
brought in. We saw in each other s faces a kind of look 
which meant, Yes ! it must be done ; but let me get up 




A Chinese Cook. 



some courage first ! when quickly the hostess seized one 
with her chop-sticks, and it was at Miss Strong s lips. She 
opened them very bravely, but I must say it would have 
been worth a photographer s while to have been on the 
spot to catch her expression." 

Spending a week in travelling by sedan chairs from 
village to village, crowds of heathen women flock together 
to see the guniongs (i.e., unmarried ladies). On one 
such trip a missionary relates that about one hundred 
came into the room where she was going to sleep, and 

D 



34 



BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 



again in the morning before she was up. It is then, 
amongst those great crowds of women, that the sense of 
"death" all around and utter incapability of meeting 
such intense spiritual need is borne in upon the soul of 
the guniong. As recently as 1895 one of our itinerating 
missionaries tells us : 

" Yesterday, when we were having dinner, a poor old 
heathen woman came up to see us, and before we could 
stop her, she had knelt down to worship us. It seemed 
awful to think of such darkness." 

We take these jottings from the private pocket diary 
of another of our band visiting the river-side villages on 
the Min : 

" April 30. Started in a junk ; the sail broke, but 
soon another boat was hailed, and ourselves, fellow- 
passengers, and pigs, were soon on board. Wind against 
us ; delayed six hours a good way to get to like Chinese 
cakes, for we had nothing else to eat. Afternoon and 
evening, women kept coming in ; never-ceasing opportu 
nities to be instant. 

" May 1. A disturbed night of thunderstorm and rain. 
The latter poured into our premises, but our convenient 
board (bed) soon was moved into shelter. To-day 
visited a village three Us off more like four ordinary 
villages . . . such crowds of women I think I have 
not yet seen. 

" May 2. Started early walking, as no chairs could be 
found. Had a long steep climb ; stopped at a village for 
chairs, had very good times with the women. Very 
rough and steep paths leading us down again to sea-level 
here. Arrived in the afternoon, rather tired, but crowds 



VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 35 

of men on one side and women on the other awaited us. 
As soon as our bowls of rice were finished we went in to 
them. 

"May 3 and 4. No time to write. Up early, awakened 
by our friends on the ladder. We ate our rice amongst 
many observers. The tianq-dong (guest-room) filled with 
women only. After two hours we left them, and went 
into the village itself, the catechist coming with me. 
First one idol temple, then another, we saw filled twice 
over. A third opportunity of speaking from a shop 
window, having retired there for our rice. Stopped 
three times on the way back . . . though many 
others asked us to wait, there was no time. One s heart 
ached for the numbers of old women so near eternity 
who had never heard of Christ." 

Deeply interesting and very graphic accounts of vil 
lage visiting have appeared in India s Women from time 
to time (see Index). But some of our missionaries while 
on furlough have supplied fresh details for our pages 
regarding this important branch of work. 

" Last June " (1895), says Miss Codrington, u I and my 
Bible-woman visited a mountain village in answer to an 
earnest invitation. A little furnished house was placed 
at our disposal, every attention shown ^ us, and we spent 
a most blessed and happy week there. 

u We were both surprised at the knowledge of God 
shown by the women, as well as by the unusually loving 
welcome given us. No foreign missionary had stayed 
there before. Who had told our heathen sisters so much 
of the Good Tidings ? One dear woman had been on a 
visit to Sa-Yong the previous year. There she heard 
about Jesus. God opened her heart to receive the Word, 



36 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

and she went back to her village, like the Samaritan 
woman of old, to tell what the Lord had spoken to her, 
and to invite others to come and see. There is quite a 
nice little church of men and women in that village now." 

Miss B. Newcombe has kindly written for our pages a 
graphic retrospect of wayside sowing and reaping in 
Fuh-kieii. 

" Kien-ning-fu, capital of a large prefecture in the 

N.W. of the Fuh-kien province, is a city that has been, 

from its first contact with Christianity, determinedly 

opposed to it ; so here in the seat of war we may well look 

for the Victory that hath overcome the world, and we 

shall not look in vain. The dragon may war and his 

angels, but, praise God ! in this nineteenth century and 

in China it is true, as ever, they prevail NOT (see Rev. 

xii. 7, 8). Many years ago an attempt was made to plant 

the Gospel in this city. A small house was rented, and a 

native catechist, with one or two helpers, sent to occupy 

it. At first all seemed promising well. There was daily 

preaching in the front hall opening on to the street, and 

many Gospels and tracts were sold in the city. But the 

yearly examinations were coining on, and students from 

all the district round were gathered in the city. These 

men, moved with hatred at the sight of a Jesus Hall 

in the very midst of their city, took unto them certain 

vile fellows of the rabble, and gathering a crowd, set the 

city on an uproar. They assaulted the Jesus Hall, and 

utterly demolished it, and bringing out the catechist in 

charge (Mr. Ling, husband of Chitnio) and his helpers, 

they beat them and otherwise treated them so cruelly 

and shamefully that the catechist nevei recovered, but 

died shortly afterwards. Among the ruins of the Jesus 



VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 37 

Hall the literary men of Kien-ning city erected a 
memorial tablet, with, an inscription of four words, 
Chue cia, cong ciang, which means Abolish the false, 
keep the true ; and underneath an explanation relating 
how they had abolished the false foreign doctrine, and 
how they were determined to keep the true old Con 
fucian doctrine, and never, never to allow " the foreigners 
Jesus " to have a hall in their city again. The dragon 
warred and his angels, and it almost seemed as if they 
had prevailed. But God s Word still stands true. They 
prevailed NOT. How then was the victory won ? 

" The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with 
hands ; so to-day, although there is as yet no Jesus 
Hall of wood or stone in that city, yet there is a living 
temple where He dwells. The first convert from that 
city, an educated man of good family named Sia, on the 
day of his baptism took the Christian name of Cong- 
ciang, the last two of the four characters mentioned 
above Keep the True, giving as his reason that these 
words, which had for so long stood in that city bearing a 
false witness, he would like to have the honour of bear 
ing now as a true witness to Jesus not the foreigners 
Saviour, but the Saviour of the world and indeed 
his witness in that city has been brave and faithful. 

" I would like to give another instance of the victory 
that hath overcome, this time not from a great city, but 
from a country village, and one which was indeed also a 
stronghold of Satan. When we first visited the village 
of Uang-tiang about five years ago, truly it did seem to 
be tremendously under the power of Satan. In no place 
do I remember meeting with so much opposition and 
unconcealed hatred. Many a time have we walked up 
and down the streets and lanes of that village, and no 



3 8 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

one would ask us into their houses. They seemed deter 
mined to have nothing to do with us, would not listen to 
our words or buy our books. To-day how is it with that 
village ? There is scarcely a house in it where we are 
not welcome visitors. I look back now to an afternoon 
when in that village a crowd of heathen women gathered 
c7ow round the foreign sisters, and listened eagerly for 
hours to the old, old story of Jesus and His love, which 
was such a new, new story to them. And surely the 
loving heart of the Saviour was moved with compas 
sion as He saw the tears trickling down those hard, 
furrowed cheeks when they listened for the first time to 
the truth, He loved me, and gave Himself for me ; He 
saved others, Himself He cannot save, and heard the 
deep-drawn sighs and the exclamations, How good He 
was ! How we ought to love Him ! or, How He must 
have loved us ! from those who knew little enough of 
love in their lives. 

"Last July the first two converts from that village 
were baptized, both women. There are from fifteen to 
twenty who meet together every Lord s Day (although 
they have as yet no teacher), to worship God and to pray 
to Him. Their little prayer-meetings (for they cannot 
read enough to use a form of prayer) are very touching 
and real. There are no silent members they all pray 
one by one. 

" 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25, had a remarkable fulfilment in that 
village. A heathen man came in, and was so moved at 
the way they all prophesied, each one lovingly and 
earnestly entreating him to put his trust in God, and 
then, making him kneel down and kneeling around him, 
all prayed one by one, asking for the one thing that God 
would save this brother, that on his return home the 



VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 39 

same evening (to another village four miles away) he 
destroyed all his idols, and wrote to the Mission at Nang- 
wa asking that some one might be sent to teach him. 
His family since then have also believed. 

" To what is the change in this village of Uang-tiang 
due ? What have been the tools in the mighty hand of 
God? One poor man s prayers, and one poor woman s 
life. At Nang-wa, nine miles away, there is a weekly 
Christians prayer-meeting, at which they bring their 
petitions unitedly to God. I so well remember, time 
after time, one poor old infirm man praying, God, 
bless my Uang-tiang village, and in the book of 
Requests and Answers which was faithfully kept week 
by week, looking back we could see recorded, Meng- 
geng asked prayer for Uang-tiang ; Meng-geng asked 
prayer for Uang-tiang. Surely the joy in harvest 
will be his. Then in Uang-tiang itself lived a very poor 
woman who heard the Gospel and believed through a 
relative. The persecutions she had to go through, and 
the meekness and gentleness with which she bore all, her 
love, her earnestness, and her never-ceasing entreaties to 
all whom she knew to come and prove for themselves 
how good her God was to those who trusted in Him, 
have not been in vain. She has indeed gone on her 
way many a time weeping, bearing forth her seed, 
and can we not almost see her coming again with joy, 
bringing her sheaves with her ? 

During six months five of our missionary sisters have 
visited as many as sixty villages. When writing home 
in 1895, the Rev. R. W. Stewart said, in reference to the 
band of C.E.Z.M.S. ladies working happily under his 
direction in the districts around Kucheng : " For eight 
years there was not one lady worker, and now we have 



4 o BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

four centres worked by nine ladies. Some one will say : 
Nine ladies ! what a number ! I must therefore explain 
that these two districts are together about equal in size 
to Wales, and far more populous. Is nine ladies then a 
large number for such a region ? Why, you would have 
as many as that in your village Sunday-school at home ! 
We do badly need nine more; may they soon come!" 
These nine "are overtaxing their strength they are 
working too hard," he said. " If you do not go and help, 
they will die ! " 

Little space remains in which to tell of visiting in 
the city an equally important, equally urgent, and, 
thank God, equally encouraging work. Miss F. Mead, 
who in 1890 accompanied Mrs. Ahok on her sudden 
homeward journey to Foo-chow, as the first lady to 
respond to that Chinese lady s earnest appeal for more 
missionary sisters, in addition to day-school work, has 
devoted herself to patient house-to-house visitation of 
middle and high-class women in the city, with most 
cheering results. In the short space of three years she 
had paid 962 visits in Foo-chow, and when it is remem 
bered that in some cases as many as forty persons dwell 
in one house, it will be seen how large an area has been 
sown with GOSDG! seed. During Miss Mead s enforced 
absence from China in 1895, Miss Leslie, and afterwards 
Miss B. Cooper, continued this work with untiring and 
prayerful energy, not only entering the many doors 
open already, but gaining entrance to many more. 

One of these workers stationed at Foo-chow says : 

"Another inhabitant of this house is a good old 
Christian servant whose duty it is to go in the morning 
and find out at what houses we can teach in the after- 



VISITING IN THE VILLAGES 4! 

noon. She said to me the other day, Guniong, when the 
visiting first began, I used to be turned away at one 
house after another. I went on trying and praying, and 
at last perhaps two liutle houses would consent to have a 
visit. Now, when you and I talk about where to go, 
there are so many to choose from, and so many invita 
tions, that we don t know where to begin. We must 
have some more guniongs I she said, and I most heartily 
agree with the dear old thing. It is perfectly impossible 
for one person to enter one-tenth of the open doors here ; 
and though I have not been two months in this work 
yet, I am already longing for more women s and girls 
schools to be started." 



CHAPTEE IV 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 

" An Oriental gentleman, after listening to an able address from 
a native pastor, made the following comment : Once a forest was 
told that a load of axeheads had come to cut it down. It does not 
matter in the least, 1 said the forest; they will never succeed. 
When, however, it heard that some of its own branches had become 
handles to the axeheads it said, Now ice have no longer any 
chance. 1 So, said this man, as long as ice had only foreigners to 
deal with, tee were safe ; but now that everyichere our own country 
men are enlisted on that side., certainly our faiths are doomed. 1 1 
From "A New Thing," by F. WILLIAMS, C.I.M. 



of all 




who have been brought 



The Wife of a Mandarin in Foo- 
chow, visited by Miss Mead, 
surrounded by the inevitable 
accompaniments of a Chinese 
lady : viz., her pipe, cup of tea, 
fan, etc. 



OEVEN-EIGH 

to Christ in China have been 
won by the efforts of converted 
Chinese. In a little pink book 
let called A Voice from China, 
by which the beloved Mrs. 
Stewart of Foo-chow "yet 
speaketh," we find the high 
value set upon native agency 
by those who best knew the 
needs of " great, dark, hungry 
China." Of all methods, the 
one which lay nearest Mrs. 
Stewart s heart, and on which 
.she expended a lifetime of 
labour and love, was the train- 

42 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 43 

ing of native Bible-women. As patiently as any infant- 
school teacher in England, did Mrs. Stewart teach these 
classes of converted Chinese women simple texts and 
prayers and portions of God s Word day by day, that 
they might become missionaries to their fellow-country 
women. Writing in 1886, she said : 

" This we felt to be the best hope for reaching the 
vast numbers filling the numerous towns and villages 
throughout our province, and accordingly some eight 
years ago we commenced a small Training Home in the 
city of Foo-chow. 

" At first only three women could come, but after some 
years the effort was so far successful that we had to 
build a house to hold twelve, and later on, to our great joy, 
we were obliged to put up for them a still larger house, 
to hold twenty-four, and it has since been always full. 

" Our first object in the Home is to teach the Christian 
women themselves the truth more perfectly, and then 
to train them to teach others, and to express their 
thoughts clearly. 

" Practical training they also get by visiting in the 
heathen villages round about. This work originated 
with themselves. At our daily mid-day prayer meeting 
these dear women had long been pleading with God on 
behalf of their heathen sisters in the ^ surrounding vil 
lages." 

It was in this interesting and deeply important work 
that the first C.E.Z.M.S. missionary to China, Miss 
Gough, was called to share ; and in 1885, within two 
years of her arrival in the country, she tells us : 

" At the end of February we re-opened the school (the 
Chinese New Year holidays being over), with our number 



44 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

increased to 20 ; and, at the close of the term (June 27, 
1885), we had 23 women in the school. 

" These we had divided into three classes for some of 
the lessons. Mrs. Lloyd has been teaching the first class 
in Exodus, and Chitnio the third class in New Testament 
history. My class the second is composed of seven 
women, whom I have taught from a book called the 
Picture Bible, which gives some of the principal facts of 
Old and New Testament history. Our study has been 
the former. 

"Four hours in the week Chitnio and I teach the 
Romanized colloquial to a large class of the women, and 
in the evenings Chitnio has the whole school together 
for a Scripture lesson from St. Luke s Gospel. 

U I am often cheered by the warm interest which 
many of the women in the school seem to take in this 
work (though only five or six of the elder women actu 
ally go out to visit), and by the warm welcome which 
they always give to any heathen women who come to 
see the school. 

" They often remember their heathen country-women 
in prayer, and I look upon the village work as a very 
important part of their training for future work in the 
mission-field." 

The name of Chitnio, or Mrs. Ling, the widow of a 
clergyman of the Church of England, who as a catechist 
in Kien-ning city was tortured almost to death for 
JESUS CHRIST S sake, often occurs in our missionaries 
letters. This Bible-woman of Foo-chow, a devoted, 
whole-hearted convert, has most touchingly told her own 
life-story in English. 1 Part of it runs thus : 

"Chitnio s Story." India s Women, March, 1892. 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 45 

" One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I 
see. 

" I was twelve years old when I went into the school 
at Singapore. 1 My family were all heathen ; I had never 
heard a word about God or Christ. I was very earnest 
in worshipping the idols, and very, very ignorant. My 
mother died when I was eleven. Two of my cousins 
went into the Chinese Girls Mission School, of which I 
had never heard. It is Miss Cooke s school, open for 
heathen girls to be taught there about the way of salva 
tion. My cousins had been in the school about two 
months when my aunt told me about it, and asked me 
if I would like to go there too. I was very glad, and 
quite surprised, and said, Is there a girls school ? What 
is it for ? and what do they teach ? 

" My aunt said, They teach you to read, to write, to 
sew, and to cook. 

I was quite delighted, and wanted to go at once. I 
asked my father if I could go. 

" My father said, As long as I live, I will not let you 
go. If I die, I should not see you ; then you may do 
what you like. 

" A few weeks after that he died, knowing nothing of 
the doctrine of Christ. We never heard anything of the 
doctrine before the last twenty-six years. I am so 
thankful to God for that school ! I was glad and happy, 
instead of being sad, when my father died. I thought 
now I could go to school nobody would hinder me. 

" Before I went into the school some people had told 
me, You may learn what they teach you, only do not 
become a Christian ; the doctrine is very bad. I did not 

1 The late Miss Cooke s FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE EAST 
SOCIETY School. 



46 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

know what it was. I think the same story told to me 
must be believed now. They said when a Christian died 
his eyes were pulled out, and his feet and hands cut off. 

" I had been six months in the school when suddenly 
the light of Jesus Christ shone into my heart. I believed 
Him, and wanted to be baptized. 

" Some of the girls came in to tell me that my aunt 
was very, very angry with me. I knelt down to pray 
before I went out to see her. I asked God to give me 
help and strength, that I might be faithful, and not 
deny Christ. I told my aunt that I believed in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and wanted to be baptized. 

" My aunt begged me not to be baptized, and wanted 
me to go home with her. 

" My second aunt, my third brother, my cousins all 
came to the school to see me, and tried as hard as they 
could to persuade me to go home for a few days for the 
Chinese New Year. 

" If I had gone they would never have let me come 
back again to the school. I think it was wonderful how 
God helped me, and kept me faithful all the time. 

" My aunt was so sad she cried till one of her eyes 
became quite blind. She is still living in Singapore. 
She has heard this doctrine, but is not converted. My 
brother, my friends and relations, were all quite angry 
with me. They did not give me my clothes, or money, 
or anything. 

" I was baptized when I was twelve years old, but 
never went home. The school fed me and clothed me, 
till Miss A.L.O.E. (i.e. the late Miss Tucker) supported 
me. 

" I was married when I was twenty-three to a Chinese 
clergyman in Foo-chow, belonging to the C.M.S. Mission, 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 47 

who came to Singapore to marry me ; and I came with 
him to China to work for the Master. When I had been 
married two years my husband left me, and went to 
glory in heaven. He was a very good, earnest, and 
faithful man. His work is finished he is most happy 
now in that beautiful, blessed home above. 

"I feel really that the Lord hath called me to come 
here to be a witness for Him to these people." 

Those who met Mrs. Stewart will remember how 
delighted she was to find a ready listener for stories 
of her unique Boarding School for married women, 
" some of them learning lessons with baby in arms ; 
many of them, with true heroism known to G-od alone, 
had walked weary miles with their poor little feet, as 
they called them." 1 

The poor little mother enters upon a life so utterly 
different from anything ever before experienced, that it is 
small wonder if for a week or two her stupidity seems 
hopeless. But after a time a brighter look comes into 
the dull features, and it becomes an intense joy to the 
guniong to watch the gradual development of each pupil 
from week to week. 

Miss Strong, in sketching for our pages her work in 
the Bible- women s School, Foo-chow, says : 

" With regard to the period of preparation, it may 
seem strange to some that we are able to get married 

1 For the first two years of missionary life in China, the guniong, 
when itinerating, is always attended by a Christian Chinese Bible- 
woman, who acts as her interpreter as well as escort. The Bible- 
women cost 6 a year only, travelling expenses included. What 
a good investment of 6 ! 



48 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

women to leave home, and reside with us for two years 
(the usual time of training). In China, however, this is 
not considered peculiar ; and then we have, of course, 
the co-operation of the husband, who is not unwilling 
that his wife should be taught. 

"At the outset of the training such little books are 
made use of as the Ong-Dak (a simple catechism), the 
Hundred Texts, and the Bible Picture Book all of which 
are a preparation for the study of the Word of God 
itself, our aim being that these dear women should have 
the sincere milk of the Word. From reading (in the 
Romanized colloquial) we go on to writing ; and in the 
spring of 1894, out of twenty-four women under train 
ing, I had a large class who were patiently working at 
their copybooks, and looking forward eagerly to the day 
when they would be able to write letters to the guniong 
from their homes in the country. And has that aim 
been fulfilled ? Yes, indeed very precious is this news 
from a far country, which lies before me as I write in 
the shape of letters from one and another who has been 
through the school, and is now bearing witness for her 
Master in some dark city or town. One dear little 
woman, a catechist s wife, writes : I want you to pray 
for me, that Grod s Holy Spirit may help me to be a 
light to lighten the unbelievers. She is working in a 
large city, two days journey from Foo-chow, where there 
is very great darkness. 

" But above all other things we desire that our dear 
sisters may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. 

" One sister, Uong-Daik, had been with us some time, 
and had, we felt sure, given her heart to the Lord. Yet. 
in spite of her great diligence, something seemed to be 
lacking in her life. She was not increasing in the 




49 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 51 

knowledge of God, and so her words failed to have any 
effect upon others. One of the missionaries, who took 
her out one day to visit a heathen village, said : She 
knows what to say to the people, but her heart is not in 
it. We made her a matter of special prayer, and after 
a while both Chitnio and I noticed a very great change 
in Uong-Daik her life seemed quite different. Later 
on she again accompanied the same missionary to some 
heathen homes, and the latter said : She is so changed 
now. She spsaks to the people as if she longed that they 
might accept the truth. Uong-Daik is now established 
as Bible-woman in the village of Liang-Au, where she 
is doing excellent work in teaching a small Girls Day- 
School, and visiting the surrounding heathen homes. 

" Another matter, for which we have special cause to 
be thankful, is that so many of the women, while in 
school, learn to unbind their feet. "We do not make 
unbinding a compulsory matter, but rather seek to show 
them that it is a Christian duty to do so. And we find 
that the very act of giving up, for conscience sake, this 
custom (so dear to the heart of a Chinese woman) has a 
bracing effect upon her own character, and cannot fail 
to render her influence more telling upon others. 

" When a woman or girl whose feet have been bound 
a long time is going to set them free, she has generally 
to lie down for three weeks or so before she is able to 
stand upon them in their altered circumstances. If the 
bones are broken, the foot never recovers completely ; 
and, as this is very often the case, they have generally 
to be bound in a certain degree, but in a very different 
way. The feet soon become much larger, and the shoes 
worn are quite another shape. 

" It must not be supposed that all the women who 



52 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

undergo training become Bible-women in the strict sense 
of the word. Probably less than one-third of those who 
leave the school are supported by foreign agency. What 
about the others ? After their two years of school-life 
they return to their homes but what a difference do 
we see ! Visiting the home of such a woman, we find 
her spending her spare time in quietly going in and out 
among her heathen neighbours, or, on Sundays, gather 
ing them together, and teaching them the precious 
truths she has herself learnt in school. Who shall at 
tempt to place a limit to such influence ? As I write, 
the face of one such dear woman rises up before me. 
We called her in school the Diang-Daing Huoi-Mu, 
Diang-Daing being the name of her village. I visited 
her there one day after she had left us. Her worldly 
goods were very few, but she was rich in faith, and her 
untiring energy in passing the truth on to others was 
beautiful to witness. 

" Those who are destined to become Bible-women have 
a longer time of school-training, then a period of testing 
in their own homes, before being finally appointed to 
their work. Several of those in the group (p. 49) taken 
June, 1894, have since left the school, and are now doing 
valuable work as Bible-women in various centres. But, 
oh ! how they need our prayers ! Surely, when we 
think of the awful darkness which surrounds them, we 
shall not forget to pray that God may make out of 
each one of these weak women an instrument whom 
lie can use among the heathen to open their eyes, 
and to turn them from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God. " 

Of Kucheng Training School for Women, Miss New- 
combe wrote in January, 1891 : 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 53 

" The Women s School, Kucheng city, which ac 
commodates thirteen women, has been my special charge 
during last year. 

" We have a very earnest Christian woman as matron, 
a daughter of one of the first of our native clergy 
men. 

" Last January six women passed out of the school. 
One, a schoolmaster s wife, returned to her husband to 
be, I trust, a blessing among the women and girls of the 
place where he is working. One young woman is teach 
ing a school in the country, while a third has been em 
ployed by me in the foundling work. The other three 
have gone to Foo-chow Women s School for further 
teaching, and to make room for a few more of the too 
numerous candidates for admission to the Kucheng 
school. 

" In the spring severe influenza visited the school. 
Two of the women were very ill indeed ; I feared they 
would not have strength to rally. I went in to one, 
and she said Guniong, don t be sad about me ; my body 
has no psace, but my heart is full of peace, for Jesus is 
there to comfort me (the Foo-chow term for sickness 
is no peace ). 

" When I went on to the other room, the sick woman 
looked up to thank me for coming to see her, and said, 
Don t be anxious about me; I am not afraid, nor am 
I anxious about anything. The Holy Spirit is in my 
heart, and talks to me of Jesus. 

At Sa-Yong, an experiment in training her Chinese 
sisters was made by Miss Codrington in 1893. 

Station Classes were formed, and we are glad to be able 
to give an account of them from Miss Codrington s own 



54 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

pen, written in March, 1886, while in England, when 
invalided home. 

" What is a Station Class 1 ? A question often asked me. 
"Well ! we owe the idea to our American sisters, and the 
plan of getting women inquirers together for a period 
of three months to teach them the outlines of Gospel 
truth, and then send them back to their own homes to be 
voluntary workers among their own people, has been 
tried with marked success in South Fuh-kien and other 
parts of China by lady missionaries of various Societies. 

" The first distinct class of the kind in our Mission was 
opened at Sa-Yong in December, 1893, when we received 
six women, wives of Christians or inquirers, feeling very 
weak and insufficient in ourselves for the new task, but 
relying on the never-failing presence and power of our 
GOD. 

" Since that time till June, 1895, twenty-two women 
have been under instruction at Sa-Yong, other classes 
have been opened in different centres, and with humble 
and grateful hearts we thank GOD for what He hath 
wrought. 

" What can women learn in three months ? Another 
frequent question. Not very much, truly, of head know 
ledge, but enough to teach them about GOD, to convince 
them of their need of a Saviour, to lead them to JESUS, 
and to enable them to point others to the Saviour they 
have found. We begin with the Creed, Lord s Prayer, 
Ten Commandments, the Hundred Texts, and other Scrip 
ture teaching follows. But I think you will understand 
our Station Classes better if in imagination you spend a 
day with us and see what goes on in our dear, large 
rambling Chinese house where we live with our grown- 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 57 

up family. Soon after daybreak the women are astir. 
Two whose turn it is see to the preparations for break 
fast, another vigorously sweeps out the court, one sits on 
a bench looking after the babies and repeating her 
lessons in a monotonous sing-song, while the rest turn 
out the bedrooms. It is pleasant to hear the merry 
laughter and chatter that goes on as they bustle about. 
At 7.30 breakfast is served, and by 8.30 all are in the 
schoolroom for study, and strangely discordant are the 
sounds that reach our ears ; every woman singing her , 
lesson at the top of her voice, and all in different keys ! 

" A bell rings for prayers at 9 o clock, and we will go 
down and take our places at the head of the table. 
Some one chooses a hymn, Awake, my soul! is a great 
favourite, and then follows a short, simple talk on some 
verse of the Word, or a sentence from the Lord s Prayer, 
and the matron usually closes with prayer. Then the 
women and I adjourn for lessons to a class-room up 
stairs, to leave the schoolroom free for our little day- 
school girls. We begin with repetition, two texts and 
a page of the Catechism are usually repeated without 
mistake, and then explained, after which we turn to 
St. Mark s Gospsl, and each woman repeats in turn the 
incident from our Lord s life taught in class the day 
before, with the chief lesson to be drawn from it. It is 
wonderful how well some of the women do this, though 
others again need much questioning to draw out what 
they remember. We are supposing now a class which 
has been taught for about six weeks ; the poor ignorant 
minds are beginning to wake up and to take in slowly 
and wonderingly the strange, sweet story of a Saviour s 
love patiently repeated to them day by day. How fresh 
and quaint the familiar Bible incidents sound in their 
Chinese dress from the Chinese lips ! 



58 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

" And how changed are the faces of these dear women ! 
Look at that old woman ! she cannot tell you very 
much, but she loves the Bible stories. Ask her, Who 
is Jesus ? and see the bright smile as she answers, He 
is my Saviour. You would scarcely recognise that face 
if you had seen it six weeks before ! And so a happy 
hour passes quickly away. At eleven o clock they go to 
the matron for study ; dinner is at twelve, and at two 
they are taught the Picture Bible by the matron for 
an hour. From four to six o clock, supper time, they 
are free to do their own needlework, and after supper 
preparation begins till nine o clock bed, with a break for 
prayers at half-past seven. I always visit them in the 
evening, and encourage them to talk over the day s work ; 
sick ones are doctored then, and opportunities are given 
for a special word to meet the special need of each soul. 

" On Fridays we have a prayer-meeting, in which all 
are encouraged to take part. Saturday afternoons are 
holidays, but any who volunteer are allowed to go out 
two and two to visit in the village. Sometimes three 
or four couples will go, but we never urge them, wishing 
it to be a willing service. In the evening we meet and 
hear what success they have had. These are such 
happy times, and much prized by the women. We are 
sorry, and so are they, when the three months are over and 
good-bye must be said. Very touching was the testi 
mony of one dear old woman the day before she went 
back to her home last June. We were all gathered 
together, when she pressed close with tears in her 
eyes, saying, Guniong, I want my name changed. 
Why ? I asked. Because, before I came here I was 
the devil s child, now I am altogether God s child, and I 
don t want my old heathen name any more ! She had 



CHINESE WOMEN THEIR OWN EVANGELISTS 59 

unbound her feet in token of her sincerity a few days 
before. We called her Daik-ong (received grace), and 
now I hear she is in heaven. 

" Do these women witness for Jesus in their homes ? In 
most cases we can thankfully answer Yes, and they are 
a real help to us in our work afterwards, acting in many 
cases as honorary Bible-women in their villages. Miss 
Tolley told me of one girl, only seventeen, and very shy. 
who, nevertheless, had courage to go visiting with her, 
and spoke so nicely to the heathen crowds of what she 
had learnt while at Sa-Yong. In another village the 
testimony borne to the changed life of one woman was 
very real. She used to scold all day before she became a 
Christian, and now she scarcely ever finds fault ! and 
not only so, but this woman will walk a distance of three 
miles to carry her message to other villages on feet 
which, though unbound, are still only three inches long ! 
Don t your feet pain you ? I asked one day, as we toiled 
together up a steep, rough mountain path in the hot sun. 
Yes, she said, but it is nothing ; Jesus has made my 
heart so glad, I want to tell others ! 

" In conclusion I will mention a plan which we tried in 
our Sa-Yong class last spring with very satisfactory 
results. We invited two of our former pupils young, 
intelligent women to stay with us again, and taught 
them to read and write the Romanized character intro 
duced by Mr. Stewart. In three and a half months they 
were able to read their New Testaments, and to write a 
clear, intelligent letter. Thus equipped with the sword 
of the Spirit, we feel they themselves have gained a 
permanent blessing, and are more fitted to teach their 
poor ignorant sisters. Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, 
but unto Thy Name give glory. 



CHAPTER V 
THE STOEY OF MRS. AHOIv 

"For this same purpose have I raised thee up, that Im f/ht show 
MY POWER in thee, and that MY NAME might be declared: 

ROMANS ix. 17. 



story of Mrs. Ahok, the wife and now the 
_ widow of a Chinese Christian mandarin of Foo- 
chow, is one full of deep significance as well as in 
terest. It is a unique biography in the annals of " the 
Land of Sinim." As such it craves a larger space than 
we can give. The following is but an outline of fasci 
nating and faith-invigorating facts that might well fill a 
volume. 

Until the year 1890 there resided in the city of Foo- 
chow a rich tradesman, who, by his acts of benevolence, 
had purchased for himself the title of Mandarin. 1 Nearly 
forty years before Mr. Ahok had been a " house-boy " 
(i.e. butler) in an English gentleman s household at 
Amoy. Mrs. Syme, his mistress, interested in all her 
Chinese servants, and anxious for their eternal welfare, 
had taught them English, using the Bible as her text 
book. The impressions made under the power of the 
Holy Spirit never faded from the young man s mind, 
though he shortly afterwards left his situation. Setting 

1 Mr. Ahok s official rank of Intenclant of Circuit was bestowed 
on him after his subscription of several thousand dollars to the 
Chief Mandarin for the relief of distressed widows and orphans. 

60 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 6 1 

up in business as a shopkeeper at Foo-chow, he prospered 
so that his store became one of the largest and most 
flourishing in that city. Twenty years, however, passed 
by, and then came a letter of deepest gratitude from Mr. 
Ahok to Mrs. Syme. He had renounced his belief in 
idols ; the light was dawning on his soul. He began to 
have faith in the Christian s God. 

Miss Foster, a lady missionary sent by the Female 
Education Society, was at that time taking charge of their 
Christian Chinese Girls Boarding School at Foo-chow. 
Mr. Ahok, anxious that the rich heathen wife he had 
married should receive instruction, sent an urgent request 
to Miss Foster that she would come to his house and 
teach Mrs. Ahok. Miss Foster agreed, and began to give 
her regular lessons. But the Day-dawn broke very 
slowly in that dark Chinese heart. Speaking of her 
in 1890, when in England, the late Mrs. Stewart re 
marked : 

" I first knew Mrs. Ahok thirteen years ago in China 
as a heathen worshipping idols, and have often found her 
house full of idols, incense being burnt before them. 
Mrs. Ahok had no desire to learn of our God ; she only 
wished to know something of our language. Miss Foster 
answered that, unless she could teach her the Bible, she 
could not spare time to give her other instruction. Mrs. 
Ahok consented to have the Bible read, to her ; and when 
Miss Foster could not go, I took her place. Our hearts 
were often discouraged, fearing this Chinese lady would 
always love her idols more than God." 

One day, however, Miss Foster found, on her arrival 
at Mrs. Ahok s beautiful mansion (see frontispiece), that 
her pupil had invited a number of her lady friends to 



62 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

meet the English missionary. From that day a most 
interesting class was begun, and continued for some time 
amongst these ladies. 

A few weeks elapsed, and Miss Foster, to her surprise, 
received a visit from Mrs. Ahok, accompanied by some of 
her servants. After a few minutes conversation, Mrs. 
Ahok suddenly asked if she might stay in the house for a 
few weeks. Miss Foster, astonished at such a request, 
reminded Mrs. Ahok of her own luxurious home, and told 
her that she, being only a missionary and not rich, could 
not give her all the comforts and luxuries to which she 
was accustomed, and then asked her why she wished to 
come. " Well," replied Mrs. Ahok, " what your book 
says is very nice indeed ; but I want to come and live 
with you, to see if you do as it says." 

On hearing this, Miss Foster, of course, could not refuse, 
and Mrs. Ahok became a guest at the Mission House. 
But the visit ended abruptly. A messenger came only a 
few days after to say that Mrs. Ahok s adopted son was 
very ill. The rich merchant s wife had been married 
twelve years without a child, and consequently, accord 
ing to Chinese custom, a boy had been adopted as son 
and heir. Mrs. Ahok at once returned home, but per 
suaded Miss Foster to accompany her. At the request of 
the English doctor who had been summoned, the English 
missionary remained for eight or nine days as nurse in 
that heathen Chinese home. Daily she asked Grod to 
restore the child, and, in answer to her prayer, her skilful 
nursing was rewarded by Charlie s complete recovery. 
This naturally made a deep impression on the house 
hold. 

But, although Miss Foster had day by day taught 
those around her that the Christian s God would hear and 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 63 

answer the prayer of faith, she was rather startled when 
Mrs. Ahok one day said with much earnestness, " You 
tell us your God will give you all you ask ; so now I want 
you to ask Him to give me a son ! " 

Miss Foster gently explained that God does not always 
answer prayer in the exact way desired, since it is not 
always for His people s good to give them the thing 
they wish ; and that they should ask only according to 
His will. The Chinese lady listened, but held to her 
desire ; and, w T hen asked what she would do if God 
granted her request, replied that the child should be at 
once baptized. And so each day, while Miss Foster re 
mained at Foo-chow, she knelt at the Throne of Grace 
with this remarkable petition. 

And so it was. Within a twelvemonth October 19th, 
1881 a son was born, and Miss Foster, summoned at Mr. 
Ahok s urgent request, was almost the first to hold in 
her arms the God-given child ! Great was the rejoicing 
at the event, " from the first day he was called Hung- 
Gau-nie-giang " (the Christian s doctrine child), and was 
baptized, receiving the name " Heaven-come " in addition 
to the Europaan familiar title " Jimmy," by which he is 
usually known ! His mother, at her own baptism after 
wards, chose for her Christian names, " Ambassador 
Patience," " for," said she, " I desire to become an am 
bassador for Christ, and I know I shall need patience" 

It was in this remarkable manner that God opened the 
door for carrying His Gospel to numbers of the captive 
Chinese ladies of Fuh-kien. They eagerly gathered in 
Mrs. Ahok s house to be taught the " Jesus doctrine." 
Corning in one day to the ladies apartment, where Miss 
Foster was surrounded by an attentive group of wealthy 
women, members of the large Chinese household, the 



64 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

merchant mandarin himself, Mr. Ahok, knelt in their 
midst, and in simple language asked God, in the name of 
Jesus, to convert from heathenism all his family, naming 
each one. Soon all but one of the eight for whom he 
prayed were baptized Christians ! not the least remark 
able being his own stepmother, the grandmother of the 
" God-given child," who was a very bigoted heathen, and 
during the illness of the adopted son had been most as 
siduous in burning incense to her idols to counteract the 
bad influence as she deemed it of the missionary s pre 
sence and prayers. In the summer of 1882 she also con 
fessed at baptism her faith in Christ. Mrs. Ahok and two 
other relatives were baptized at the same time, Mr. Ahok s 
baptism having taken place the same year at the London 
Missionary Society s Church, by Mr. Eage. 

Mr. Ahok came out boldly on the Lord s side. He 
was the first Chinese trader to close his stores on Sunday. 
Carefully marking on calendars every seventh day, the 
Christian s day of rest, he gave them to his customers 
and employes, and made them understand that in future 
his shop could not be opened on these days, in obedience 
to the command of the Christian s God, whom he desired 
to serve. It was a step beset with tremendous difficulties, 
but he did not retract. 

Mr. Ahok wrote thus about it (in English) to Mrs. 
Sj^me, then in Edinburgh : 

" My store is closed on Sundays, which commenced 
from the beginning of the Chinese New Year. All my 
employes were afraid that the condition of my business 
would not be as well as last year if my store is closed 
on Sundays, but I did not allow the displeasure word 
of any one to keep me from setting an excellent example 



THE STORY OF MRS. AHOK 65 

in my business. All my employes do not, as I wish, stay 
in my store on Sunday to join me in prayer, and I hope 
you will pray God to help me in inducing them to serve 
Him and follow His doctrines." In 1888 he was able, 
however, to report to the same friend : " On Wednesday 
evening at seven o clock we have service and preaching 
at my shop. Many of the heathen come in to listen, and 
all the men on the premises. We often have over forty 
present. Altogether we have service and preaching five 
times a week at different places. You will be glad to 
hear of the conversion of one of the head men in my 
shop. He was always much opposed to Christianity." 

In 1885 Miss Gough wrote home : "I generally go to 
Mrs. Ahok s house twice a week to give her an English 
lesson, and I have been pleased by .the interest which 
she takes in talking over in Foo-chow dialect the mean 
ing of what she reads in the English New Testament 
and Peep of Day. She is one of the most intelligent and 
refined Chinese women that I have yet met, and it is 
really a pleasure to teach her. She seems truly desirous 
of being a servant of the Lord. I very much hope that 
through her I may in time be able to obtain introductions 
to the ladies of some of the wealthy Foo-chow families." 

This hope was realized, for in 1886 Miss Gough 
writes : " During the past twelve months God has 
graciously given us opportunities for work amongst the 
upper classes. We have been received in a very friendly 
manner at sixteen houses, and in some of them our 
message is listened to with much interest. 

"My first visit to the city (where many of the wealthy 
families reside) was paid last August (1885), when Mrs. 
Ahok went with me to four houses. At one I was in- 



66 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

troduced to a family of the name of Law, which, as is 
often the case here, consists of four generations living 
together. They are very wealthy people, and the son 
of the old lady of the house was an official of rank, but 
died some four years ago. His widow still lives there, 
and she has four sons, two of whom are married. Six 
great-grandchildren complete the family, with the usual 
large staff of servants and slave-girls." 

Meanwhile Mrs. Ahok s earnestness and courage in 
speaking for Christ among the ladies of her own rank 
was daily increasing. Of another visit to one of these 
ladies, Miss Grough writes : " The old lady of the house 
received us in a most friendly manner, and after we had 
sat in state for a little while in the entrance hall, she 
invited us into her room, and drawing a seat close to 
us, she listened most attentively while Mrs. Ahok read 
and talked. I am sure it would have rejoiced your heart 
to hear how nicely and simply she spoke to the old 
lady and her grand-daughter, a nice young girl of about 
sixteen. You would indeed have felt that the patient 
teaching given to Mrs. Ahok had not been in vain. I 
was so pleased to hear a simple little allusion, which she 
put in, to the time when she herself cared for none of 
these things." 

From a letter written by Mr. Ahok in January, 1888, 
we find how the Holy Spirit continued His work with 
power in that Chinese household. " Next Sunday will 
be the Chinese New Year s Day, 1 and there will be a 

1 The Chinese reckon a year by twelve lunar months, inserting 
an extra month into every fourth year to square the Calendar. 
Consequently New Year s Day is a very movable feast, varying 
from January 22nd to February 20th. 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 67 

meeting held in my house in the afternoon at 3 o clock. 
I have asked many of the Christians and my heathen 
friends to come. I began the Week of Prayer last 
Chinese New Year, and I hope we shall carry it on every 
year now." A beautiful contrast this to the usual cele 
bration of the coming in of the year in heathen Chinese 
households, where sacrifices are offered to propitiate the 
gods of heaven and earth and the deceased ancestors 
amid salvoes of noisy crackers to frighten away evil 
spirits, followed by endless festivities, feastings, and 
theatrical entertainments, the wildest excitement and the 
most uproarious hubbub prevailing everywhere ! 

The Missionary Review, U.S.A., for January, 1889, 
gave a very interesting description of the ceremonials 
attending the funeral of the mother of Mr. Ahok. This 
lady died at the age of eighty-six, about eleven years 
after embracing Christianity : 

" We are informed that about eleven years ago Mr. 
Ahok s mother had quite a protracted struggle deciding 
whether she would become a Christian or remain a Bud 
dhist. Since his conversion Mr. Ahok has had preaching 
Sunday afternoons at his residence, as well as mid-week 
social meetings and family prayers. His mother used to 
alternate between these services and the worship of the 
idol which had for so many years deluded her. While 
continuing this practice she had a go od opportunity to 
compare the two religions. One day, after attending 
Christian worship, she said to her friends : You may 
take my idol away ; hereafter your God shall be my God, 
and your Saviour my Saviour. And the joy which 
shone in her countenance showed that she had indeed 
found JESUS. The idol was presented to Bishop Morrill 



68 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

when he was here in 1883. From the time of her con 
version this aged Chinese lady had a bright evidence of 
acceptance with God, and became more and more estab 
lished in the faith during her few remaining years. 
Through her influence Mrs. Ahok s mother, who still 
survives, was also constrained to turn from idols to the 
true and living God." 

In September, 1889, Miss Davies (now Mrs. Knox) 
gave the following interesting sketch of a day s visiting 
with Mrs. Ahok, which is an eloquent testimony as to 
the truth of her conversion, and also depicts the Chinese 
lady s life : 

" Dear Mrs. Ahok is such a contrast to her heathen 
sisters certainly grace has done wonders for her ; and 
the same God who has done so much for her can do it, 
and we believe is going to do it, for many more. 

" I brought out my concertina and sang hymns, and 
then Mrs. Ahok explained them, and talked beautifully 
to the women. She told them how once she had wor 
shipped idols, but that God had called her out of dark 
ness into His marvellous light, and how it had utterly 
changed her life. 

" I have just paid a visit with Mrs. Ahok. Last 
Sunday week she was staying with some of her rela 
tions in the city for a day or two ; she came to the 
service at Back Street Clmrch, and afterwards took me 
to dine with her at her friends house. 

" When we arrived, four ladies very grandly dressed, 
with plenty of paint and hair ornaments, came to wel 
come us. They bowed, and said a lot of polite things, 
and then asked us into one of their bedrooms, where we 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 69 

waited till dinner was ready. I wish I could describe 
the dinner ! but Chinese food is quite beyond description ; 
you need to taste it to appreciate it. This was not at 
all a feast, but an ordinary midday meal. We each had 
a bowl of rice, and there were about a dozen small bowls 
in the middle of the table, from which we helped our 
selves with our chopsticks. 

" Unfortunately I was a visitor, and was looked after 
by everybody. I had to ask Mrs. Ahok to explain that 
foreigners come to a point when they cannot go on 
eating. When I declined, they would say it was my 
extreme politeness ; and when I contradicted that, they 
would say sadly it was because they had prepared such 
bad things. , 

" Even Chinese dinners come to an end, and at last 
we went back to the bedroom. Chinese ladies sit 
nearly always in their own rooms. And what are their 
occupations ? It is really too sad, the aimless, useless 
lives they live. They drink tea, smoke, and gossip, and 
occasionally embroider shoes. How one longs that they 
should hear the story of the Saviour s love, and give 
their lives to Him who died to save them ! 

" We went to two houses, and I felt thankful for the 
faithfulness of Mrs. Ahok. Of course every visit began 
with a lot of politeness, drinking tea, and assuring them 
we could not smoke ; but afterwards she spoke to them 
so nicely about the Gospel. I played my concertina, and 
sang, Jesus loves me and Come to Jesus. It is 
difficult to know how much they take in, as they inter 
rupt to say something polite, or to ask one to take more 
tea. I must say their politeness is very trying ; it seems 
such utter nonsense, and one would like to come straight 
to the point. But Mrs. Ahok says that, in visiting 



7 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

heathen houses, we must conform to their customs a 
little, or they will not ask us to come again. 

" About half-past two we went to Mrs. Ahok s relations 
and had a midday meal. It was not dinner ; that did 
not come till much later. We spent most of the time in 
talking about our Master s message ; but, oh, how often 
we were interrupted by the most trivial questions ! How 
old were we ? what was the foreign country like ? etc., 
etc. 

"At six o clock we had a feast. What endless, in 
describable courses we had to go through ! The ladies 
were interested when I showed them my little temper 
ance badge, and Mrs. Ahok explained to them what it 
meant ; I am glad to say she never takes wine. After 
dinner we again went into one of the bedrooms. There 
they talked and gossiped for a long time, after which 
they played to me on a native instrument, and I played 
my concertina and sang hymns. They remained drink 
ing tea, smoking and gossiping until past eleven 
o clock." 

Miss Clara Bradshaw (now Mrs. Millard), at work in 
Foo-chow in 1890, was invalided home that spring. 
Wonderful to relate, at two days notice Mrs. Ahok pre 
pared to come with her to England ! Her husband not 
only consented and approved, but sent her as his sub 
stitute to plead with English Christians for China. " I 
shall never forget." said Miss Bradshaw, "the bright 
way in which Mr. Ahok faced all the dangers and diffi 
culties of the journey upon which he was sending his 
wife. When he said good-bye at the anchorage, he 
said he did it gladly for the sake of getting more 
workers for China." 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 7 1 

In writing to his friend Mrs. Syme at this time, he 
said : 

" You will wonder how Mrs. Ahok could leave me and 
the children to go so far, but in China we think leaving 
her aged mother, now seventy-three years old, of most 
importance. . . . Not one China woman out of one 
hundred would have been willing to make the journey ; 
and truly it was by God s grace alone that she undertook 
so wonderful a journey. She is very desirous to aid 
G-od s work in this land by interesting your people in 
the people of China. This country has such a vast popu 
lation, 300,000,000 or more ; one-half have not enough 
to eat ; many are starving, without food for the body or 
food for the soul." 

Her own reason for coming she gave in these simple 
words : 

" You know how many people in China have never 
heard of Grod. They are living in Darkness and have no 
light ; they are worshipping idols and living a life of 
fear ; they have no peace. There are so few people to 
speak to the women, and in so many houses the women 
are willing to listen. A whole year passes away, and 
then one lady comes ; another whole year, and perhaps 
two more ; then some get ill and have to go home ; and 
I thought the people in England have so much light, 
surely they do not know that so many people in China 
are dying, dying without Grod ; and if I go and tell them 
myself, perhaps they will believe it." 

The difficulties of such a journey to a Chinese lady 
can hardly be understood by an English woman. Un- 



7 2 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

able to walk any distance owing to her tiny, crippled 
feet having to be carried from place to place, and to 
mix freely with strangers she was keenly tempted to 
return, and especially when at Hong Kong some of her 
husband s heathen friends tried to frighten her by point 
ing out the trials that awaited her in England. 




An Idol Slirine on a tree by tbft roadside. 

As she listened, she told us the thought of her happy, 
peaceful home, husband, little boy, dear old mother, all 
came so vividly before her mind that she quite longed 
to go straight back ; but just then she remembered a 
story she had heard from the Bible, that when God told 
Jonah to go to Nineveh, to give a message from Him, he 
got frightened and refused to go, and God was angry 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 73 

with him. Nothing could be worse than that, she 
thought ; and, turning to her friends, she said : 

" You need not speak to me any more. If there were 
a thousand more dangers in the way than you say there 
are, still I would go ; for I believe God has called me to 
do it." 

Her first meetings were in Ireland, where she had 
thirty-one in thirty days, and excited a deep interest 
in all who heard and saw her. Then she crossed over 
to England ; and, during the months of May and June, 
1890, spoke at about seventy meetings, her one theme 
the misery of her Chinese sisters, who were like " lost 
sheep," imploring all who could to li go quickly and save 
them." She had no desire to visit any of the wonderful 
sights of England ; her only wish was to see as many 
Christian people as possible. 

" Give me two meetings a day, if you like," she said. 
" No matter if I am a little tired ; I want to tell every 
one I can about China, and then go quickly home." 

Her simple, childlike trust in God was a constant 
lesson to those who were with her. 

" God will teach ms what to say," " God will give the 
needed strength," were words constantly on her lips ; 
the secret of the bright, happy smile that lit up her face 
in spite of great bodily weakness and pain from her poor 
crippled feet. 1 

1 Miss Gordon-Gumming, who gives a most interesting descrip 
tion of a dinner-party to which she was invited by Mr. Ahok in 
1879, says of her hostess (Mrs. Ahok) : " She is emphatically lily- 
footed. Her feet are literally only two inches long, which is 
considered a superlative beauty." Wanderings in China, p. 153. 



74 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

The late Mrs. E. "W. Stewart constantly accompanied 
Mrs. Ahok on her tour, acting as her interpreter, and 
those present who listened to the eloquent and touching 
appeals of the missionary and her Chinese sister in the 
faith can never forget the unique and heart-stirring 
spectacle. At the Annual C.E.Z.M.S. Meeting in May, 
1890, Mrs. Stewart, when introducing Mrs. Ahok, spoke 
thus of " her deep longing desire to bring the knowledge 
of God to the women living in Foo-chow " : " For some 
years she has visited with this object in the city, and 
she has introduced the ladies in connection with this 
Society into many homes of rich mandarins in the city, 
where otherwise it would have been impossible to gain 
entrance." 

Mrs. Ahok addressed the meeting in Chinese, which 
was rapidly interpreted by Mrs. Stewart. We can only 
quote here a few of the deeply touching utterances : l 

" I should like you to remember that women in China 
are going to ruin ; it is a matter of life and death. I ask 
you to go and save them. One thing specially fills my 
heart with pity as I think of my sisters in China the 
time of their death. I have myself been with those who 
were passing out of this life into unknown darkness 
They murmur that they see evil spirits coming for them, 
and say, I see this and that other spirit, so that one 
attendant dare not stay in the room alone with them ; 
there must be five or six people. They say the evil 
spirits are filling the room, and coming to take away 
that poor soul. Sometimes as the watchers beside the 

1 For full report of Mrs. Ahok s address see India s Women, 
July, 1890, p. 182. 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 75 

dying hear the cry of an owl, of which they have great 
fear in China, they think it is a messenger from the 
other world calling the soul of the departing one. The 
reason of this terrible dread and anguish of mind is that 
they do not know the love of God, but worship evil 
spirits. 

" I will give a few words of my own experience. 
Some years ago I worshipped idols, just as these women 
do now, and seemed to be quite under the power of the 
idols ; but now, thanks to God s great mercy, He has 
delivered me. My husband s mother, who had also 
become a Christian, died about two years ago. Her 
death was calm and peaceful, very different from that of 
which I have just told you." 

Before leaving England Mrs. Ahok wrote a most 
touching appeal to her " SISTERS IN ENGLAND," in which 
she said : 

" I have come from China from Foo-chow and come 
to England for what business and what purpose ? The 
road here was very difficult, sitting in a boat for so 
long ! Very tiresome it was to be on the rough sea, 
with winds and waves, for the first time ! 

" My servant (Tiong Chio) and I have come here. We 
are strangers ! We raise our eyes and look on people s 
faces, but we can see no one we know no relative, no 
one like ourselves all truly strange ! I left my little 
boy, my husband, my mother all this : for what pur 
pose do you think? It is only entirely for the sake of 
Christ s Gospel I have come. 

"It is not for the sake of seeing a new place and new 
people, or any beautiful thing ; we have in China quite 
close to us new places beautiful places. I have never 



76 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

seen them yet, so why should I come so far to see other 
places? ... It was God s Holy Spirit that led me 
to come. He wanted me to do what ? Not to amuse 
myself, but to ask and invite you to come to China to tell 
the doctrine of Christ. How could you know the needs 
of China without hearing them ? How could you hear 
unless I came to tell you ? Now you can know, for I say 
the harvest in China is very great, but the labourers are 
so few. ... I am only here for a very little, then I 
must go back to Foo-chow, where there are so many large 
houses full of ladies ; the workers are so very few now. 
At this time only one guniong (Miss Da vies) is there to 
visit all the great city houses. She is not enough to 
reach so very many, and it is sad that in these mandarin 
houses their ears have never yet heard the doctrine. The 
ladies all have tiny feet they cannot walk ; besides, the 
customs are so strict and so hurtful. They are not 
allowed to see guests, so missionaries are still outside 
their doors cannot enter the women s part of the houses, 
therefore they have never heard the happy sound of the 
Gospel of Christ, and are truly pitiable. 

" Now I pray God to cause, whether guniotigs (un 
married ladies) or sing-sang-inongs (married ladies) 
quicldy to go and enter these houses with the Gospel. 

" Now I ask you, raise up hot hearts in yourselves and 
quickly help us. 

" First : Will you come back to China with me ? 

" Secondly : If you cannot, will you cause others to, by 
sending them, and doing what you can to help them to 
come? 

" DIONG AHOK." 
Letters came to her from time to time from China, 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 77 

giving good accounts of all her family. The dear old 
mother was always in her thoughts ; she was so frail 
and weak, she feared something might happen to her 
while she was so far away ; but for her husband she 
felt 110 anxiety, he was always so strong and well. 

At last, however, rumours of his illness came. " Very 
slight," he wrote, and hoped that his wife would not be 
anxious about him ; but she felt that she must return 
immediately. The way seemed wonderfully prepared 
for her by the Lord. Most earnestly she prayed, even 
with tears, that He would show her how she could go 
back to China, for she could not travel alone, as neither 
she nor her servant could speak English. 

A young lady Miss Mead who had heard Mrs. 
Ahok s earnest appeal for workers at Prince s Hall, 
offered to accompany her to China, and join in the 
work of winning precious souls for Christ from among 
the Chinese ladies. On June 27th, 1890, she, with Mrs. 
Ahok and the servant, sailed from Liverpool to return to 
China vid Canada. Many friends assembled at Euston 
Station that summer morning to bid farewell to that 
dear Chinese sister and her brave young companion. 
As the train moved off, all joined in singing, " God be 
with you till we meet again ! " Many of those who 
bade good-bye to Mrs. Ahok will recall her bright smile 
as she said she hoped to come to England again, and 
then it would be with her husband. 

Mrs. Ahok, though suffering much from sea-sickness 
crossing the Atlantic, wrote : 

" I greatly thank the Lord for His goodness, for the 
stewardess is a worshipper of God, and is very kind to 
me and my servant." 



jS BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

At Vancouver there was a delay of some ten days, 
which was at first a great disappointment to Mrs. Ahok, 
as she was so anxious to reach home. She wrote that 
they were sorry the China steamer did not come ; but 
added that she felt sure it was God s will they should be 
detained there, as she was asked by a minister of one of 
the churches to speak at some meetings. She addressed 
six meetings altogether, and great interest was aroused, 
not only in the mission work in China, but also in the 
Chinese residents at Vancouver ; for she so awakened 
the sympathy of her hearers that they determined to 
do what they could for those living in their midst. 

Three new branches of Missionary Societies arose from 
her few days visit there. 

Little did this first Chinese Christian lady-traveller 
dream that she should not rejoin her husband until 
they met on the heavenly shore ; for in a letter received 
after she had left England, he still wrote of his illness 
as " slight," saying, " This slight illness has greatly 
benefited me, and drawn my heart much nearer my 
Saviour." And again he speaks with pleasure of his 
wife s visit to England, thus : 

" I realize how great God s grace is in allowing Mrs. 
Ahok to visit England ; and I am so thankful to all the 
Christian friends who have helped and been kind to 
her." 

But he became rapidly worse, and letters from friends 
at Foo-chow told us they were praying he might be 
spared, if it was God s will, just to see his wife once 
more. But the Lord saw it was best to call him home 
before her arrival. 

Chitnio Mrs. Ling told us of his death : 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 79 

" I saw him before he died, ... so weak and thin, 
quite changed. . . . He looked at me and said, Mrs. 
Ling, may God give you more knowledge and under 
standing this year. The Lord is with you always ; He 
is always with me too. I said, Thank you very much ; 
have you not a word for Mrs. Ahok ? He said, No ; I 
leave her to the Lord. Just let Grod do what He thinks 
best. " 

When the travellers reached Hong Kong, Miss Meacl 
heard the sad news of Mr. Ahok s death, but she was 
not permitted to tell the poor widow ; her friends parti 
cularly wished it kept from her till she reached home. 
He fell asleep in Jesus on the llth of August, and it 
was not till about ten days later that Mrs. Ahok and 
her companions arrived at Foo-chow. 

In China it is customary among the better classes to 
keep the body in the home hermetically sealed in its 
coffin for seven times seven days, the coffin being re- 
varnished each seventh day, at the last having the 
appearance of a finely lacquered casket. Mrs. S. Moore 
Sites, of the American Mission, in a tiny In Memoriam 
booklet, says : 

" The seventh day fell on a Sunday, and at 2.30 each 
Sabbath a memorial service has been held in the largest 
reception hall, at the back of which in a smaller hall 
stands the coffin. Four children and grandchildren, all 
dressed, in sackcloth, and seated on a straw mat on the 
floor beside the big coffin, while daughters-in-law and 
other female friends, dressed in coarse unbleached mus 
lin, sat about weeping silently or with loud lamentation. 
. . . Our minds went out over the wide sea towards 
Mrs. Ahok, still far away in mid-ocean, journeying home- 



So BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

wards, all unconscious of the irreparable loss she had 
sustained. . . ." 

Of that sad home-coming she writes herself : 

" When I arrived in Foo-chow, at the anchorage, I saw 
some friends and relations to welcome me, but did not 
see my husband. I was rather doubting and uneasy 
why he did not come. I inquired about him. They 
said he had been very ill, but he was better. He cannot 
walk. Dr. Sites, my friends and relations were with me 
in the house-boat. We were singing and praying. Be 
fore I arrived at Jardines (the landing-place) Dr. Sites 
told me, Mr. Ahok is with Jesus now. I felt like a 
mountain fall down into my heart when I heard it. I 
could not believe it. It does make me so sad when I 
think of him. He was such a strong man, and quite 
well when I left him ; it is impossible for me to think 
he is not here. But I know it is God s will. I have 
so many things to trouble me, but God has comforted 
me." 

What wonder that at first she was stunned and over 
whelmed with sorrow, and that again and again she 
wailed, " Oh, if only I could have seen his face once 
more, and told him all I have done in England ! " Yet 
though finding herself suddenly alone in the world, with 
heathen relations causing trouble, and heathen friends 
whispering, "Alas! those who leave the ways of our 
ancestors, and follow after the gods of foreign countries, 
must incur the just punishment we predicted our gods 
would send upon them!" Mrs. Ahok s faith did not 
fail. She was able to testify shortly afterwards at the 
C.M.S. Annual Conference, where she spoke for a few 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 8 1 

minutes to the women, that although her husband was 
taken, the peace of God was still hers. 

A letter of sympathy, signed by nearly five hundred 
lady friends of the C.M.S. and C.E.Z.M.S., was sent to 
their bereaved Chinese " sister in Christ," assuring her 
that 

" "We have prayed and will pray that our God, who is 
the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, will 
comfort you, and be a God to you, and a Father to your 
fatherless son. . . . We bless God for your coming 
to England. "We have learned to know and love you. 
Your words are not forgotten. One sister has gone with 
you, we send this. by the hands of three more. 1 We 
know others who were led by your words to offer them 
selves for Christ s work in China. Two of these are now 
being trained for the mission-field. This will cheer your 
heart." 

Miss Leslie, who read this address by sentences, Dr. 
Sites translating, says when writing home afterwards : 

"Poor Mrs. Ahok ! she is very much changed, no 
wonder, and quite broke down when we were with her. 
She recovered herself wonderfully while Mr. Lloyd prayed 
in Chinese, and then in English, and then she made 
a sweet little speech, in which she said how much she 
valued the expression of so much sympathy; that though 
we had brought the words and signatures from England, 
she felt they came to her from her heavenly Father ; that 
though so much sorrow had come to her, she shall never 
regret having gone to England, but of course she feels 

1 Miss WELLER, Miss LESLIE, and Miss STRONG. 

G 



82 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

the wound in her heart when she thinks of her loss. 
In the meantime tea and biscuits were brought in, and 
we saw her boy, Jimmy, and the adopted son Charlie, 
nice little fellows with white knobs on their caps and 
white threads in their long plaits, which show that they 
are in mourning for a parent." 

Mrs. Ahok s written reply 1 was touching in its sim 
plicity, and the spirit of Christlike submission it breathed. 
We can quote but a few sentences. 

" I thank you all very much for your sympathy. . . . 
After leaving England I reached Foo-chow at the end 
of the seventh moon, and then heard that my beloved 
husband had left this world and been called home by God 
to His kingdom in heaven. At that time I was very sad 
and distressed, and my distress was the greater because I 
had no one to carry on our business. I feel that during 
this time of trial God has been testing my heart, and 
just now I can do nothing but pray moment by moment 
for God s grace that one day I may again meet my 
husband in heaven. 

" Now because I cannot carry on trade myself, there 
fore I have determined to close our business and pay all 
debts, and the British Consul has kindly acted for me in 
this matter. 

" My hope is that God will enable me to sell this house 
in which I am living, and then I shall have a compe 
tency. It is because I fear that I shall not have enough 
to feed, clothe, and educate my children that I wish to 
sell this house. As soon as I have done this, I think I 
shall be able with the missionary ladies to visit the houses 

1 See India s Women, Jan. 1891, p. 297. 



THE STORY OF MRS. AHOK 83 

of the gentry, and have worship with the Chinese ladies, 
and exhort them all to embrace Christianity. Thus I 
shall be doing the Lord s work. I trust you will all pray 
for me, and also for those who do not yet believe. I 
constantly pray for you, and trust that at some future 
time an opportunity may be given to me of again visit 
ing England and America to work for the Lord. This is 
the true desire of my heart. 

" At this time I seem to have no heart to write, but I 
send this letter to you to express my thanks. Another 
day I may write again. 

" My two little children send their greeting, and I add 
my own. After my return home, an additional trouble 
came upon me, because my mother was called home to 
God. But, so far as she is concerned, death must be 
reckoned happiness. She, with my husband, earlier 
than myself, are enjoying the eternal bliss of heaven. 

" I will thank you to give my salutations to all the 
sisters and ministers whom I know. 

" Mrs. Tiong (nee Sia) pays her respects. 

u 5th Moon, 25th day" 

Mrs. Tiong will be remembered as the faithful maid 
who braved the long journey with her mistress, and 
who, as Mrs. Ahok expressed it in her appeal to English 
women, " raised her eyes and looked in people s faces, but 
could see no one she knew all truly strange " in this far 
country. This maid left England with a sorrowful 
heart. She, too, made an appeal for China. In the house 
where she stayed she managed to make the servants 
understand, with tears, that the women of her own 
village were living utterly in darkness yet no one was 
ready to come to them. 



84 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

The heathen relatives wished to persuade Mrs. Ahok to 
put off the funeral till next year, as they said some 
mischief would overtake her and her little boy if she did 
not follow their advice ; but in a letter to a friend in 
England Mrs. Ahok says : 

" My husband is going to be buried next Saturday, the 
15th of this month. The heathen say this will be a very 
bad year ; and if I do carry out this plan, harm will come 
to me or Jimmy. But I am not going to listen to what 
they say ; he is going to be buried on the day I men 
tioned in this letter." 

Mr. Ahok was buried the day she named. A Christian 
service was held first at his own house. Chinese repre 
sentatives from the three Missions in Foo-chow were 
present, and the service was conducted by Mr. Ahok s 
Chinese pastor and Dr. Sites. Amongst the many loving 
and pathetic words spoken as tribute to the memory of 
the Chinese Christian philanthropist, none were more 
telling than those by the Rev. "Woodin. He referred 
to instances where he had met Christians far away from 
Foo-chow, whom greatly to his surprise he found on 
inquiry had been led to Christ through Mr. Ahok s 
teaching, of his bountiful aid to the Community Hospital, 
and self-sacrificing psrsonal interest in it, by daily walk 
ing there in the early morning dawn, and gathering the 
employes and such patients as were able to come to 
gether, and praying with them, and seeing that all the 
suffering ones were having their wants attended to. 1 

1 A wing has been added to the Community Hospital as a 
memorial to Mr. Ahok, and two Missionary lady nurses, the Misses 
Chambers and Barr (C.E.Z.M.S.), appointed. Mrs. Ahok visits this 
hospital, and has a women s meeting there every week. (See 
chap, viii., " The Gift of Healing.") 



THE STORY OF MRS. AH OK 83 

Dr. Sites told of the closing hours and dying tes 
timony. 

" On the Saturday evening before Mr. Ahok died I 
came up to the sick-room. As I approached the door I 
heard singing, found half a dozen Christians about his 
bed. I joined them in the hymn, and when it was 
finished I asked Mr. Ahok if it was not too much noise. 
He said, No, nguai ceng huang hi (I am very happy). 
Siong-Da ong ceng duai (God s grace is very abundant). 
. . . He was suffering much pain. I said, Lo beng, 
do you feel that the Everlasting Arms are underneath 
you, or have you any fear ? He answered clearly, 
Nguai ceng bing ang (I have great peace.) I asked, 
Whence does this peace come ? and he replied, It is 
God s free unmerited gift to me. . . . Putting my 
arms about his little son I said, Have you any message 
for Jimmy ? He looked up wistfully at the child, and 
while affection s tear trickled down his wan face, he 
replied, I have committed him to God ! Dr. Sai Sek Ong 
repeated, Only Christ, and the dying man responded, 
Truly, only Christ ! As we repeated Stephen s words, 
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, he ceased to breathe, and 
our Mr. Ahok of the past was no more ! " 

Not only did Mrs. Ahok find herself a widow on her 
arrival in Foo-chow, but to add to her bereavement, her 
husband s heathen relations had take*n possession of his 
property. It is the law in China, when inheriting 
property, to go through a legal form, embodying a 
religious ceremony of heathen worship, and converts 
have had on other occasions to prove whether they 
" esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
the treasures " of this world. 



86 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

Then the shop was in an unsatisfactory state, an 
adopted son at the head of it ; who although a professing 
Christian, and not an idolater, never went to church, and 
now began to give Mrs. Ahok a great deal of trouble. 
(It appears there were four adopted sons before the real 
one was born.) One of our workers wrote : 

" When the affairs are really wound up (everything 
takes a very long time to settle in China), it is feared 
Mrs. Ahok will have very little to live on, but she will 
be really much happier than she is now, surrounded by 
heathen and bad relatives. She will have two children 
to support at least her own boy, Jimmy, and the last 
adopted son, Charlie. There is a grandson, too, son of 
the eldest adopted son, who is now dead. The family 
relations of the Chinese are indeed perplexing and tire 
some." 

A few months later (1894) we have this interesting 
little peep of Diong Ahok among her missionary sisters. 

" Mrs. Ahok celebrated her forty-fourth birthday the 
other day, by having all of us guniongs to supper with 
her and her step-daughter and step-granddaughter. All 
Chinese food, except slices of bread, which she had con 
tinually handed round knowing our peculiar tastes ! 
She is always most kind and thoughtful about us. She 
also had a white tablecloth put on the table, which was 
very complimentary, but makes me more nervous than 
ever with chop-sticks. She is so happy now that there 
are guniongs at the hospital, and visits them regularly 
once a week." 

At the time of the war between China and Japan, 
April, 1895, Miss Leslie wrote : 



THE STORY OF MRS. AHOK 87 

" A few days ago, Mrs. Ahok came to take me to the 
house of the richest merchant in Formosa, whose wife 
was, of course, very much troubled on account of the 
war. It was a wonderful picture of what God hath 
wrought. There was this old lady sitting tucked up on 
a big, square stool, looking the picture of misery and 




Fac-simile of a Letter to English Christian Ladies, written l>y Mrs. Ahok in 
December, 1894, on quaintly decorated sheets of rich coloured paper. (For 
translation, see India s Women, June, 1895.) 



perplexity, evidently not having done much that day in 
the way of psrsonal ablutions (!), her slave girl standing 
beside her holding the pipe every now and then to her 
lips. And there, beside her, sat dear Mrs. Ahok, fresh, 
and bright, and cheery, talking away and trying to put 
hope and comfort into her friend s heart ; she herself 



88 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

not in the least disturbed by all the rumours of wars. 
We have been much struck by her calmness day after 
day. She has had many visits from troubled Chinese 
lady friends, anxiously asking if any news had reached 
her through her English friends, and has had many 
opportunities of witnessing by life and lip to the peace 
of God which passeth all understanding. 

" We are very much interested in watching her in 
fluence over the young wife whom her adopted son, 
Charlie, married last year (September, 1894). She 
conies from an entirely heathen family, and had heard 
nothing whatever of the way to heaven. Of course, she 
finds in dear Mrs. Ahok a most kind mother-in-law, who 
has won her love, and it is very sweet to see them 
together. She had many presents from heathen relatives, 
such as incense-burners, etc. Mrs. Ahok quietly told her 
she need not use them in her house, which is under the 
protection of the true God. She then encouraged her to 
begin learning to read, and they are now going through 
the Gospel of St. Matthew together. The little wife 
proves a most gentle and teachable pupil. May I ask 
your special prayers for her ? 

" You will like to know that we have at last been 
invited to the house of Mr. Ahok s daughter, the prettiest 
house I have seen in Foo-chow. We were received very 
kindly, and my little Sing-sang-niong (i.e. Bible-woman) 
was listened to with much interest. It was just a little 
Chinese family party the lady herself, her daughter, 
her husband s brother s wife, and, alas ! the second wife 
her husband has recently taken. 

"I think, perhaps, this trouble is softening her, and 
making her remember what she learned long ago in the 
American Mission School where Mr. Ahok placed her." 



THE STORY OF MRS AH OK 89 

Another glimpse of this singularly interesting Chinese 
lady is associated with that sorrowful day of the Hwa- 
sang martyrdom in August, 1895. Miss Leslie writes in 
her journal of that date : 

u Dear Mrs. Ahok has just been in, and we have had 
a very sad and tearful talk. She was so truly fond of 
Mrs. Stewart, and knows her whole family. She was 
very deeply grieved, and spoke of what her feelings 
were at the funeral, seeing all those graves and coffins, 
and at the hospital when she took the little wounded 
baby in her arms. Mrs. Stewart spent all the morning 
of her last birthday on earth in the boarding-school and 
Mrs. Ahok s house, visiting all the class-rooms and 
dormitories, and giving up her dear little baby to be 
handed about from one to another by the delighted girls. 
After she had left, Mrs. Ahok said, Su Sing-saiig-niong 
(her Chinese name) truly loves me ; she spent the time 
in my house as if it were her own home ! Mrs. Ahok 
and I will never forget that happy, happy morning." 

Perhaps of all scenes we have traced in the life of our 
Chinese sister, none will bring the reality of her con 
version more vividly to our hearts than a touching 
incident with which we close our Story of Mrs. Ahok. 

One more thing I must tell you about her," says her 
constant fellow-labourer, Miss Leslie. " On the last 
evening of our year, I was sitting alone in my room 
writing. Mrs. Ahok came in and chatted a little. Then 
she said so sweetly, This is the last night of your old 
year ; shall we pray together a little ? Would you like 
it ? and then prayed with and for me so very lovingly 
and beautifully. You can imagine that the tears came to 



90 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

my eyes. It touched me so to think of this dear Chinese 
sister acting just as one s mother might have done ! 
Nothing could more fully cheer my loneliness than to 
hear such prayer from one who had once been a 
worshippsr of idols. It sent me on into the new year 
with those words in my heart : I will very gladly 
spend and be spent, if only to bring another Chinese 
lady so near to God. " 




CHAPTEE VI 
THE CRY OF THE CHINESE CHILDREN 

" Only a little Chinese girl 

Drowned in the floating tide ! " 

JESUS said, " FEED MY LAMBS." ST. JOHN xxi. 15. 

NEAR a pool in Foo-chow a stone is inscribed, 
" GlKLS MAY NOT BE DROWNED HERE." 

Yet although infanticide is prohibited by Chinese 
law, it is not considered a crime by Chinese morality. 
" There is no country in the world," says Dr. Robert K. 
Douglas, Professor of Chinese at King s College, London, 
" where practice and profession are more widely sepa 
rated than in China." And it would seem true, since we 
know that in some provinces of the empire thirty out of 
every hundred infant girls are put to death. 

Recently a traveller extended his inquiries to forty 
different towns and villages, and found that the per 
centage was between seventy and eighty down to ten, 
giving an average of about forty per cent, of all girls 
born in these places as being murdered. The examina- 



92 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

tion was conducted in as fair a manner as possible, and 
persons of all classes were questioned as to the number of 
children whom they knew to have been killed, either by 
themselves, their relatives or neighbours. One of eight 
brothers told him that only three girls were left among 
all their children, sixteen having been killed. On 
another occasion this traveller says : " Wishing to obtain 
the testimony of the assembled villagers, I put the 
question publicly, What number of female infants in 
this village are destroyed at birth ? The reply was, 
More than one-half. : 

The people always say that the food and clothes 
expended on a girl are wasted, as shortly she will be 
sold to be the wife and daughter-in-law of another family. 
For if the child is not thrown out to die in some shed, or 
into some pool, it often happens that a woman will bring 
her own little girl and exchange her for another who 
can be a wife to her son. 

A little fellow about eight years of age came to a tiny 
Christian school regularly, carrying a wee baby-girl in 
his arms. He was asked whether it was his sister, 
whereupon he looked shy and did not answer. " She is 
his wife," said his brother. On being asked why so 
young a baby had been taken from its mother, the boy s 
mother explained that she had a baby of about the same 
age, and as another woman wanted a wife for her son 
they had exchanged. Only as her baby was not so fine 
as this one, she had to give a dollar and some cakes into 
the bargain to make things more fair and oven ! 

Inland and around Kucheng infanticide is fearfully 
common, while in Ping-nang and some of the country 
villages it is much worse. 



93 

"It is dreadfully sad," wrote the loving -hearted 
Elsie Marshall in one of her home letters, " that the 
Chinese think so little of their baby-girls. It is not so 
bad in every part of China, but here (in the Fuh-kien 
province) they throw any number of children into the 
river, which we cross every time we go into Kucheng 
city, and they have been seen floating on the water." 

Miss Inie Newcombe wrote home in 1889 : 

" I shall not easily forget the horror with which I 
once listened to an old woman, in an out-of-the-way 
village far up in the country, counting over the number 
of little babies she had destroyed. Six poor little waifs 
we have already rescued. If there were some one who 
could give more time to this work, numbers might be 
saved yearly, and trained in our loving Saviour s ser 
vice." 

Miss Newcombe began at first with two or three, who 
were brought to her as soon as her intention became 
known ; and shortly afterwards she wrote the following 
touching account of them : 

" I shall indeed be thankful if I can arouse your 
prayerful interest in these poor little waifs and strays 
the neglected and uncared-for little girl-babies. In 
this town alone (Kucheng) between 700 and 800 little 
girl-babies under one month old are left yearly at 
the asylum opened by the Government for the preven 
tion of infanticide. 1 Babies left there are sold to poor 

1 Miss C. F. Gordon- Cnmming, in her Wanderings in China, 
tells us that the Government Foundling Hospitals are rows of 
dirty, damp cells, where, without a pretence to cleanliness or 
comfort, wretchedly poor women are established as wet-nurses on 



94 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

families, who in this manner get a wife for their sons 
for almost nothing; and, in order to support their 
strange child, often give up their own girl-baby to the 
same fate. Short as the time is since I came to China, 
I could not describe the misery I have seen among such 
baby-wivespoor, miserable little things of a year old 
or more, scarcely the size of an ordinary new-born in 
fant, their bodies covered with loathsome sores. Inquire 
how they are fed, and you will hear these children have 
scarcely tasted milk, but have been fed, or rather 
starved, on rice. If they survive they are turned into 
household drudges, and rarely do they know what a 
loving look or word means. 

" In addition to these 700 or 800, or more none know 
how many all through the country girls are deliberately 
murdered at birth ; the parents, for some reason or another, 
not caring to take advantage of the asylum. It is our 
earnest desire to rescue as many as we can of these little 
ones, to give them a Christian home, and bring them up 
for the service of Jesus Christ. 

" Our party now consists of ten little girls. Of these 
one is already safe in the arms of Jesus. Another, we 
fear, will be difficult to rear. It was found on a hill-top, 
just as the father was about to throw it down a hole. 
By the time it was brought to us it seemed nearly half- 
dead." 

a monthly wage of about $l,with a trifling additional allowance 
for getting the baby s head shaved. Each receives charge of two 
or more, poor, starved babies! It is needless to say that the miser 
able children are horribly neglected, and the sound of their cease 
less, pitiful wailing is heard even before we enter this abode of 
infant misery. Here the death-rate is, of com-se, enormous ; and 
about a coolie-load of dead babies per diem is carried out of the 
hospital to receive uncoffined, unrecognised burial. 



THE CRY OF THE CHINESE CHILDREN 95 

Tn 1891 Miss Newcombe wrote again : 

" It is with difficulty we keep our number of little 
foundlings from increasing more rapidly. It is becoming 
very necessary to have some settled home for these little 
waifs. The last nine months I have had four of them 
living with me in my native house in Kucheng. The 
other six are out in the city and neighbourhood, in 
charge of different women." 

Room for the tinies was made in a small house next 
door to the guniongs* house, The Olives ; and, towards 
the end of 1891, Miss Nisbet became " mother " to the 
wee waifs. 

" Here inside The Olives is a pretty picture," writes 
Miss Hessie Newcombe : " five little, tiny dots gathered 
round a lady, singing Jesus loves me/ and There is 
a happy land. As we stand watching and listening, 
suddenly the little tongues are hushed, the little, restless 
limbs are quiet, as one by one they climb on Miss 
Nisbet s knee, lean their heads on her shoulder, and 
repeat their evening prayer. One small mite takes the 
opportunity for a special cuddle." Miss Nisbet had at 
this time thirteen of these rescued girls under her care, 
and a house was being built to accommodate forty the 
workers believing that He, whose is the silver and gold, 
would Himself supply all that was needed to provide for 
His lambs. (For the small sum of 3 10s. a little girl- 
baby can be supported for a whole year.) 

Miss Codrington, a few months later (1892), speaks of 
the tiny inmates of the "Birds Nest," as Miss Hessie 
Newcombe liked to call the new Home now built at the 
top of the little hill outside Kucheng city : 



96 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

" I do love our wee foundlings. We had them all to 
tea on Miss Nisbet s birthday, and made them romp like 
English babies. It was so funny to see their usually 
solemn little faces brimming over with fun." 

These rescued babies are very dear to the hearts of 
the Fuh-kien band of C.E.Z. missionaries. Miss Elsie 
Marshall wrote home : 

" The little orphans in Miss Nisbet s home are such 
darlings ! Two little girls are twins, and were saved 
from being buried alive. A Bible-woman met a man 
carrying them in a basket, and asked him what he was 
going to do with them. He said, Bury them ! So 
she asked him to give them to her, and he was quite 
willing." 

Here is part of a very sweet little letter, written as 
recently as June llth, 1895, from Kucheng, by Miss 
Hessie Newcombe, to Eachel Smyly, second daughter 
of Dr. W. Smyly, which we cannot forbear quoting : 

" MY DEAR LITTLE FmEND, 

" Miss Smyly has written to me, telling me you are 
collecting money to support a baby-girl in China, and 
that you wanted me to choose one for you, that you 
might have as your own little baby to be clothed and 
fed with the money you send out. Soon after I got this 
letter, I went to a place called Sa-Yong, where Miss 
Codrington is working for Jesus. She told me the fol 
lowing story : 

A few weeks ago one of the little girls came to 
school crying. I asked her why she was crying. She 
said, " God has given mother a little baby-girl, and she 



THE CRY OF THE CHINESE CHILDREN 97 

says she does not want it, and will put it in the river 
and drown it." Then the little girl looked up into my 
face and said, " Will you take the baby, and not let it 
die ? " I told her God had given mother the baby, and 
she ought to take care of it herself she must run and 
tell her mother this. " But I know mother will put it 
in the river," said the child as she went sadly home. 
The chapter I was reading in the Bible that day was 
Isaiah Iviii., and it said in verse 7, " That thou bring the 
poor that are cast out to thy house." I thought at once 
of that poor little baby, and I thought I heard God s 
voice telling me to take the child. I sent a Christian 
woman to the house where the mother lived. She found 
the poor baby lying on the ground, crying under the 
bed, hungry and cold, with no one to love it or care for 
it. She brought the child back to me. We fed it with 
some warm milk, and put some nice warm clothes on it, 
and got a Christian woman to nurse it for us. 

" When Miss Codrington told this story, I thought of 
you at once, and told her I knew of a little girl in 
Dublin who would like to adopt this baby as her own. 
. . . I hope you will daily pray for your baby, that 
she may grow up God s little child. 

" Your friend, 

" HESSIE NEWCOMBE." 

As may be supposed, at the time of the terrible mas 
sacre on August 1st, 1895, and the subsequent departure 
of the workers from the country districts, much anxiety 
was felt as to the safety of the little inmates of the 
"Birds Nest." But Miss Codrington was able to report 
on her arrival in England : 

"In answer to many inquiries about the Kucheng 

H 



98 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

foundlings, I should like to say that when I left China 
the seven eldest children, aged from five to eight years, 
were safe in the city chapel at Kucheng, where they 
were being well cared for by their Christian nurses. 
Eight more, all under five years, were in a village home, 
near Dong-gio, where they had been placed last year to 
be near Miss Gordon. Two devoted Christian women 
have charge of them, and the head catechist of the 
district lives close at hand. The remainder wee babies 
are scattered throughout the district, in the care of 
their several foster-mothers. All were safe and well, 
and no anxiety need be felt about them. Our Father 
will care for these forsaken little ones." 

In April, 1896, Miss Codrington is glad to tell us more 
about the nestlings : 

" My last news from China said babies were all well, 
and Miss Nisbet was expected back in a week s time to 
proceed to Kucheng at once, as that station is now open 
for ladies work." 



CHAPTER VII 
CHINESE GIELHOOD: ITS WAYS AND WOES 

" This is no romantic story, 
Not an idle, empty tale ; 
Not a vain, far-fetched ideal, 
No, your sisters woes are real, 
Let their pleading tones prevail. 1 

F. E. H. 

CHINESE girls, what a girlhood is theirs! Little 
\~J enough for them of free child-life, of the light of 
love ! Yet though their natural growth of character be 
suppressed, like that of their "lily feet," in the atmo 
sphere of heathen homes, they expand and blossom in 
the warmth of Christian care and affection. 

Five years ago Miss I. Newcombe could write of two 
girls day-schools in the country, besides a day-school for 
women and girls at the village of Teuk-ling, opened at 
the request of the pupils themselves. At the same time, 
thirty girls who had come from thirty different homes 
in about twenty villages were settled in the Christian 
Girls Boarding School at Kucheng. 

One of our workers, writing in January, 1892, says : 

" A girl whom we miss sorely to-day is Ching-ong ; 
she left us to be married in the New Year. She is a 
Christian, and has gone to shine for Jesus in the midst 

99 



100 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

of a city noted, even among these godless heathen cities, 
for its wickedness and deeds of darkness. Does she 
shine ? Everything in the house is changed ; peace and 
quietness have taken the place of quarrels and fightings. 
This is the testimony of the heathen around. Besides all 
this, she has brought a little heathen cousin to church, 
and taught her to read our children s hymns." 

At the close of that same year, Miss Hessie Newcombe 
wrote : 

" This May the Master s call came to one of our little 
Sunday scholars, and, thank God, found her ready, the 
first-fruits from Dik-dio gathered home to the heavenly 
garner. She was ill altogether only about four days. 
When Miss Nisbet went to see her, she said she was not 
afraid, because Jesus Christ was with her. The night 
she died a look of fear came over her face. Her father (a 
native Christian) asked her what was the matter. Oh, 
she said, I see God, and He is calling me, and I am so 
ashamed. Her father bent over her and said : Creep 
under the feet of Jesus, and then you will have nothing 
to fear. Almost immediately her expression changed to 
one of perfect peace, and in a few minutes our little 
eight-year-old Christian was carried home to her 
Saviour." 

The next winter (1893), Miss Weller tells of a Day- 
School at Kucheng started in this way : 

" One girl, of about fifteen (the betrothed of an idiot !), 
was prevailed upon to come to the school, though for 
some time she was the only day-scholar. She proved to 
be a most diligent pupil. The Holy Spirit was influenc 
ing her heart, and she was being drawn very close to 




5 3 



CHINESE GIRLHOOD 103 

Christ. At the end of four months she began to bring 
others, and soon they joined as regular scholars. We 
trace the beginning of our day-class to this one little 
girl s prayer and effort. " 

Mention has been made of the Boarding School for 
Heathen Girls established by Miss Leslie at Foo-chow in 
1893. This is a unique venture of C.E.Z.M.S. workers 
in China. It was begun at the suggestion of Miss Mead, 
who was anxious that the little girls in her day-school 
in the city should have some opportunity of learning 
more about Jesus after they reached an age when it is 
considered improper for a " bound-footed " girl to be seen 
walking in the streets. The school was opened in a 
house belonging to Mrs. Ahok, outside the walls of 
Foo-chow city, on Nantai Island, and adjoining her own 
large Chinese residence. The house was built by Mr. 
Ahok in English fashion, in order that he might pay 
his European and American friends the compliment of 
entertaining them in their own surroundings. It was 
found to lend itself admirably to the needs of the school, 
and Mrs. Ahok gives valuable assistance in it, teaching 
some of the classes twice a week, and giving advice as to 
Chinese customs, the making friends of the parents, etc. 
She is a great favourite with the girls, and constantly 
sends in little presents to please them : one day, a tray 
full of pretty flowers for their hair ; another time, tempt 
ing little bowls of food. 

Writing on April 6th, 1893, Miss Leslie says of this 
valued native co-worker : 

" Mrs. Ahok is quite well, and comes in here nearly 
every day. This morning she gave me a great deal of 
advice about the school. She said : L ai Guniong, you 



104 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

must ask the matron to write out some rules very 
clearly, and put them on the schoolroom wall. If you 
don t do this, the little heathen girls will give you a 
great deal of trouble; they will spit, gamble, smoke, 
write on the walls, etc. And then she promised to come 
in once a week for an hour to teach and question the 
children on a catechism, which they will learn to repeat 
to her, and she will explain the meaning. She is going 
to allow the girls to visit her house every Sunday after 
noon for a little service." 

" Of course," says Miss Leslie, " we (Miss Lee and I) 
expscted very few at first, and were quite satisfied though 
only four chairs passed through our gates en that open 
ing morning. However, not long after, the number rose 
to thirteen, and during the following terms to nineteen, 
and then how happy we were over our nice little flock ! 
Now (December, 1894) we have thirty-nine, and more 
coming, and have rented a house in the garden formerly 
occupied by fifteen of Mrs. Ahok s relations, who moved 
into a more distant house at her request, in order that we 
might enlarge the school, and now a new dormitory and 
eating-room are being built. (In 1895 the number rose 
to forty-five, and this year, 1896, to fifty-five.) 

" Our idea in opening this school was that it should be 
filled by girls from the middle classes, whose parents 
should meet most, if not all, of the expense of their food, 
and we have some of these. But we found that we were 
intended also to have poorer children, for God has put 
into the hearts of people in England, Ireland, and 
Tasmania, to send money for the support of children 
willing to learn and not able to pay ; and so Miss Mead 
from the city, and Mrs. Ahok and Miss Stevens from 
the villages, have sent us children of both the " bound- 



CHINESE GIRLHOOD 105 

footed " and large -footed classes, and we take in and 
teach all. 

" You can have no idea how nice our schoolroom looks, 
with its Chinese texts on the wall, and big maps all over 
characters, and the row of dumb-bells in a rack ! And 
still less can you imagine how bright and interested 
those little faces look or how fond you can get of the 
scamps ! 

"The books we teach in the school are the Bible, 
Prayer-book, Hymn-book, Peep of Day, Bible Picture 
Book, Three, Four and Five Character Classics, etc. 
The children have just been singing, I am so glad that 
Jesus loves me, and I am sure that it has been sung 
from the heart in that schoolroom. When we think of 
the heathen homes from which these girls come, and 
those to which they will go when they are married, we 
earnestly desire much fervent prayer for them, for their 
difficulties will be tremendous, and Satan will try his 
hardest to quench those little lights burning in the thick 
heathen darkness. 

" Last. Sunday I had a nice chat with Cio Guang. 
She very much wants to unbind her feet, and her mother 
is willing, but her grandfather will not hear of her 
doing anything so disreputable. All classes, except 
women of bad character and those who work in the 
fields, bind their feet. Even the poorest children have 
their feet bound. Sometimes they do not take much 
trouble about it ; but the price the Chinese parents get 
for their girls when they sell them into other families as 
future daughters-in-law depends very largely upon the 
size of their feet." 

Cio Guang was baptized by Archdeacon Wolfe in the 



106 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

city church, on July 1st, 1894 ; her Christian name is 
Seu-Ong, which means "To receive grace." "We ask 
much prayer for her. She was married the following 
year, Christmas Day, 1895, to a man who, though a 
nominal Christian, is still, it is feared, far from the king 
dom of Grod. 

At the close of 1895 Miss Leslie returned home with 
Miss Codrington, who had sufficiently recovered to be 
able to make the voyage, but still needed care and 
nursing. The following interesting letter soon reached 
her from Seu-Ong : 

" A hundredfold of complete happiness and peace to 
the great person L ai-Guniong, who is the greatly loved 
and reverenced of your pupil. The pupil s heart is very 
sad because she does not at all understand why the 
guniong so suddenly separated from the pupil. At the 
time when I was in the school I greatly sinned against 
the great person of the guniong. I hope that the 
guniong beseeches Grod for me to forgive my sin. I 
cannot again go to the school to read books. My heart 
is very sad, because my mother has arranged to call me 
to leave the school. My heart is very sad. I have said 
very many words for my mother to hear. My mother is 
not willing. Truly it cannot be helped. My mother 
also sends greeting to the guniong. Your kindness is 
great as a mountain. I cannot recompense the guniong s 
kindness, but I hope that the very great Lord recom 
penses for me the guniong s love. May the Heavenly 
Father greatly bestow grace upon the guniong! Daily 
and nightly I earnestly desire that the guniong will 
quickly come again to China. I hope that the guniong 
always prays for me. When I separated from the 



CHINESE GIRLHOOD 107 

guniong it was just as if my heart was willing to open 
wide. 

" The pupil SEU-OXG respectfully presents these char 
acters." 

But to return to our story of the school. Miss Leslie 
continues : 

" We have two sisters in the school who brought back 
a message from home this term that the younger may 
have her feet unbound, but not the elder. The reason 
is that the mother, who has been under teaching for 
some time, is enlightened, but dares not unbind the elder 
girl because her marriage has been arranged, and it 
would be considered dreadfully dishonourable the most 
atrocious piece of dishonesty to let her feet get any 
bigger after that ! " 

One of the earliest day-pupils was Ceu Die, a hump 
backed daughter of some rich people next door to the 
school. The child used to be carried into school on the 
back of her woman-servant, and she was the first to set 
the example of unbinding her feet. Mrs. Ahok had often 
talked with the mother about the things of God, and 
she was most willing that her daughter should learn 
from Christian books, and also helped to pay for another 
girl to become a boarder in the school. She not only 
gave her free consent to the unbinding of her child s feet, 
but made the large shoes herself and sat up all one night 
to finish them, so that the guniongs might have the 
pleasure of seeing her come to service the next Sunday 
with Christian feet. 

" The girl s health improved wonderfully. She is very 
seldom seen on her servant s back now, but moves about 
quite actively with the others. Her mother continually 



108 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

speaks of this with gratitude, and says that her girl 
never worships idols now, but always prays to G-od when 
she goes to bed, and asks a blessing before meals." 

In one or two little character-sketches Miss Leslie 
brings some of the girls in her boarding school vividly 
before us, giving glimpses of Chinese girlhood, its ways 
and woes. 

" NGUK IENG. Such a bright, clever little girl, hardly 
ever misses a character in the daily repetition ; a dear 
child too, but how your heart would ache to see her 
mother-in-law, 1 when she comes to see her, binding up 
the poor little feet 2 so tightly that the tears come 
running down. 

" LEK Muoi is another child who has attended the city 
school ; there is an earnestness about her I like. Poor 
little thing, she is engaged to a dumb man ! Her com 
panions twit her about it sometimes when they are in 
teasing moods, and she cries sorely." 

But in spite of their crushed lives, little Chinese maids 
can be very lovable. 

" SANG Muoi is a sweet little girlie of eight. I simply 

1 Since the above was written we learn that Nguk leng s mother- 
in-law, terrible to say, has developed leprosy. Though not yet so 
afflicted as to be separated from her family, she can never again ; 
of course, visit the school. Nguk leng s eyes fill with tears at the 
mention of her, she seems truly to love her, and when she goes 
home for the holidays, reads to her and tells her all she has been 
learning during the term. 

2 Unbinding of the feet cannot be made obligatory on entering 
the school, as the object of gaining the heathen girls would be 
defeated. 



CHINESE GIRLHOOD 1 09 

long to catch her up and kiss her as she stands before me 
twice every day, her hands drawn down into the wide 
sleeves this is politeness and the little fists put to 
gether and shaken as she says, Good-morning, -and 
Good-night, Lai Guniong Bing-ang, in her sweet wee 
voice." 

God has unmistakably set His seal of blessing on this 
venture of faith and labour of love, by giving visible 
results. "We can understand the joy with which Miss 
Leslie says : 

"I shall never forget the day when Hong Chai and 
Cio Ing came to me and asked to be prepared for baptism. 
They had come to my room to chat with me as the girls 
often do ; just as they were leaving, Hong Chai nudged 
Cio Ing, and said, Muong gong, muong gong = Just say, 
just say, and very hesitatingly they told me that they 
had received the truth into their hearts and could never 
think again of any worship but that of the true God. 
Cio Ing was baptized soon afterwards, but poor Hong 
Chai has to wait ; her parents expressed it, bek neiig ng 
king = other psople are not willing, meaning the 
family into which she is engaged ; so she is praying, 
preparing and waiting. Hok Chai will be married in 
due time to a Christian with her parents full consent, 
happy little girl ! " 

It was a very joyful Sunday on March 24th, 1895, 
when at the service in Mrs. Ahok s house the Archdeacon 
baptized Cio Ing and Hok Mi and Hok Mi s mother, all 
from the city. Cio Ing was the head girl in the school 
at that time, a great help and blessing in every way. 



HO BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

proving by her daily life that she was " Christ s true 
and faithful servant." But 

" Just as I came away from Foo-chow," says Miss 
Leslie, "this poor girl was suddenly thrown into dis 
tress. The mother of the heathen man to whom she had 
been engaged when a little child, died, and he claimed his 
bride. (Chinese sons are obliged to marry within a hun 
dred days after the death of a mother, or are not allowed 
to do so for two years.) So in October, 1895, she was 
married, and is now living with her husband s heathen 
relatives in Foo-chow city. "We pray that she may be 
salt and light to them. It was wonderful, but there 
were no idolatrous ceremonies at their wedding. Cio 
Ing s family have given up ancestral worship. They 
gave me, without being asked, the tablets erected for the 
worship of her father s and grandmother s souls. Cio 
Ing herself has lately written me the following pathetic 
letter : 

" This letter is from the pupil Cio ING, greeting to the 
great English Teaching Lady Lai. I earnestly desire 
that God protect and help you with peace. I very 
earnestly desire that the teaching lady may again 
come to China. I have obtained the teaching lady s 
great love. Now that you have returned to England I 
daily and nightly think of you ; I wish to see your face, 
but this great sea hinders. I can only now always beg the 
Heavenly Father s blessing that your body may have 
strength. What you formerly taught me in the school, 
I can remember it all in my heart, because Gtod has 
greatly bestowed grace upon me, causing me to be able 
to believe the doctrine of the Gospel. Another cause of 
thankfulness is that the teaching sisters, Miss Lambert, 



CHINESE GIRLHOOD III 

Miss Bushell, 1 and Miss Lee are very kind in relieving 
me and my mother, and my young brother. The things 
that you guniongs do are according to the mind of the 
Saviour s loving heart you help people to obtain salva 
tion. I invite you to look at Proverbs xix. 17. Truly 
it is to lay up riches in heaven. Now I greatly thank 
God s grace ; on the Saviour s birthday, Archdeacon 
Wolfe baptized my brother. This year he has become 
changed and become good. I do not know whether next 
year he will be able to go to school or not. If you please, 
teaching lady, will you pray for my mother and 
brother? I earnestly desire that God will provide all 
that they need for body and soul. Very unfortunately 
my mother is not greatly intelligent ; she does not fully 
understand the doctrine of Jesus ; her body is often feeble. 
My heart is very sad about my own affairs ; I also wish 
to spaak to the teaching lady about them. On the 
22nd day in the 8th month of the Chinese year, at the 
Ang-tai-gio chapel, I was married ; on the next day I 
went to my husband s house ; on the 17th day of the 9th 
month he left to go to Ning-taik ; he will come back next 
year in the 1st month. Very unfortunately his heart is 
hard ; I can only beg God to influence his heart. My 
husband does not wish me to leave the house and go to 
the Women s School ; I am very willing to offer up my 
whole self to be used by Jesus, because I have received 
the Saviour s grace and cannot bear to disobey His will ; 
if you please, guniong, pray for me. About Foo-chow : 
Towards the end of the year the city greatly obtained 
grace bestowed by God. Very many people came to 
worship God. I think all the things recorded in Acts ii., 

1 Missionaries of the FEMALE EDUCATION IN THE EAST SOCIETY. 






112 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

iii., and iv. are being now fulfilled in China. I think the 
matter of Su Sing-sang, Su Sing-sang-niong (Mr. and 
Mrs. Stewart), and all the guniongs receiving hurt has 
turned to great benefit. 
" Now I greet you. 

"<Cio ING. " 



CHAPTEE VIII 
"THE GIFT OF HEALING" 

" All genuine missionary work must be in the highest sense a 
healing work." MACKAY OF UGANDA. 

" The unevangelized ivorld has about one doctor to every three 
millions of people. The medical mission God s modern gift of 
healing holds the key that unlock* the door of entrance for the. 
Gospel. And it affords a new field for the sisterhood of Christ. 1 

A. T. PIERSON, D.D. 



TBANGE to say, in a country where crucial examina- 
tions attend each step in a literary career, no 
diploma of any kind is required in order to practise 
medicine, so that the majority of native medical prac 
titioners in China (such, at least, as are not out-and-out 
quacks) are men who have failed in the scholastic line ! 

After this, perhaps, we need not be surprised to find 
that as soon as a Chinese physician has made up his mind 
that a particular bone or muscle is in a state of inflam 
mation, he thrusts a substantial steel needle into the part 
affected, and stirs it ruthlessly about. * The treatment for 
dyspspsia is even more calculated to produce danger and 
disorders than that applied to the joints and bones. A 
Chinese doctor does not hesitate to thrust the needle into 
a patient s stomach or liver, and the system of blistering 
wounds thus caused adds considerably to the danger sur 
rounding the operation. 



114 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

In a list of some 440 eccentric remedies enumerated in 
a Chinese standard medical work may be found such 
curious items as " dried silkworm moth, parasite of mul 
berry trees, asses glue, birds nests, black-lead, asbestos, 
dogs flesh, and tortoise-shell " ; while preparations of 
"red marble, old copper cash, human bones and blocd, 
dried toads and centipedes," and innumerable kindred 
horrors, hold a conspicuous place in the Chinese phar 
macopoeia. 

Native dispensaries, at best, cannot be regarded as very 
valuable institutions, and the patients, if cured by acci 
dent, may be said to recover in spite of their doctor and 
his repulsive often torturing remedies. 

" In speaking of medical mission work among the 
Chinese," says Mrs. H. S. Phillips (nee Hankin), " it is 
well to remember that they themselves have no idea of 
anatomy, physiology, or medicine. One method for 
curing diseased parts is to cover them with a thick, dirty 
plaster, looking like mud or chopped-up seaweed ; and by 
thus concealing the sore, to expect it to recover. 

" Or, again, to give an instance from real life. When 
walking close to our C.E.Z. mission house at Dangseng 
(Hing-Hwa), I noticed a man feeling the pulse of a poor 
load-carrier. Thinking that he was probably a doctor, I 
walked up and listened to their conversation. 

" After feeling both pulses, the doctor said : You see 
that pond? Yes. The mound of grass beyond? 
Y 7 es. Take this stone and throw it beyond the mound. 
This was solemnly done. To-night, after you havo 
eaten your supper, come out to this spot, take these three 
stones, and throw them beyond that mound. Do not 
carry very heavy loads. 



"THE GIFT OF HEALING 115 

" The fee was paid, and the patient went home, be 
lieving that the three stones would work wonders for 
him. I walked on a little way with the doctor, and 
asked from what complaint his patient was suffering. 
Consumption, was the answer. And will throwing 
those stones cure him? I asked. I do not think so, 
was the reply. And after a little talk about the Jesus 
doctrine, we parted. This is only one of many like 
instances. 

" Before the Medical Mission work was opened in Hing- 
Hwa, the C.E.Z. ladies at Sieng lu and Dangseng used to 
relieve many minor cases. We often found that with 
God s blessing some who before had been resolutely set 
against religion were touched and softened, and in some 
cases really converted. 

" Our C.E.Z. ladies have found that a case of teeth- 
forceps has often been really useful, and after a good 
number of extractions have heard a remark like this : 
The foreigner s instruments are good, surely her doctrine 
must be good also ; and the spaaker has come up and 
listened attentively while the Gospel was being preached. 

" One interesting case comes to my mind ; that of a 
man whom we always called Foot-hurts. He came to 
the C.E.Z. house at Dangseng and asked if we would cure 
him of a terribly ulcerated leg. Miss Witherby volun 
teered to see what clean dressings w.oulcl do. An old 
Christian man said to me at prayers that night, 
Guniong, you must not cure " Foot-hurts " ; he is a bad 
man, and hates the religion. When the church was 
being built, he went about spreading false reports and 
trying to make mischief ; you must not try to cure 
him. I explained the Bible view of such men, and 
asked them to pray that he might be converted. Foot- 



Il6 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

hurts came regularly every morning, and while Miss 
Witherby (who at that time was unable to speak the 
language) was dressing his leg, I told him of the love of 
Jesus. For weeks there seemed no apparent change in 
the limb, but gradually meanwhile his heart softened ; 
then his leg became better, but not before Foot-hurts 
was a regular attendant at church, and was telling in all 
the villages around of the true God he had learned to 
worship. 

" At the beginning of 1895 we were very much cheered 
by the appointment of Dr. Van Someren Taylor to Hing- 
Hwa, and Miss Tabberer and I gladly offered to go to the 
city and help him to opsn his dispensary. The work 
was most interesting, and from the very first God s bless 
ing seemed specially to rest upon it. Crowds came, some 
to be cured, others to bring their friends, or to see what 
was happening, all, without exception, willing to listen to 
the Gospel ; and coming as they did from all parts of the 
country, one felt that the seed was being scattered widely. 
I spent the first three days in the waiting-room, talking 
to the people. One old man came whose sight had been 
ruined by the ignorance of some Chinese doctor. Another 
very poor man had cut away part of his eyelid himself, 
and he showed us the knife he used. Another, a little 
child, was carried in to have its eyes attended to, and 
suspended from its neck was an egg, in a coloured string 
bag, hung there to keep off the devils ! Numbers of 
lepers had to be refused. How sadly we had to say, We 
can do nothing for you. And over and over again they 
implored us to save them, thinking if only they offered 
enough money perhaps we should relent, 

" A Gospel service is now held daily before any work 
is begun." 



" THE GIFT OF HEALING" \\~ 

If Mission dispensaries are such valuable adjuncts to 
missionary work, one cannot surely over-estimate the 
blessing of Mission Hospitals amongst the sufferers of 
China. 

In December, 1892, Miss Frances Johnson wrote : 

" We have this year taken a house at Nang-wa, in the 
Kien-ning Prefecture, and opened a Women s Hospital 
in connection with Dr. Rigg s medical work. 

"Nang-wa is not a walled city, but a busy market 
town ; at one time a great place for the tea trade, as the 
large empty tea hongs (places where the tea is prepared 
for market) testify. Boats are continually passing 
through it on their way to and from the great cities of 
Foo-chow and Kien-ning. We opened the hospital in 
May with one patient, a dear old woman, who recovered 
rapidly, and received the message gladly, promising she 
would continue to pray to the True Glod, and give up 
worshipping idols when she went home." Seventeen 
patients were admitted the following year. " Our 
hospital," says Miss Johnson, " is not by any means 
built on the newest approved style ; it was just a large 
empty shed belonging to our house. We had to floor it, 
and put up a few partitions. The walls of the women s 
sitting-room were made bright with red and green 
Scripture scrolls in gold papsr Chinese ^character. 

" The visit of Miss Rodd and Miss Bryer to Nang-Chong 
in June brought in no fewer than eight patients ; a party 
of six from one village ! One young woman in rapid 
consumption has just returned to her village to die the 
sting of death gone ; so happy and bright, rejoicing in 
the Saviour. We have great cause to be thankful for 
the treasure our God has given us in our Chinese Bible- 



I IS BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

woman. L. throws herself heart and soul into winning 
souls for the Master. She loves the patients, and does 
things for them that are not really her work, and that 
no outsider would do for any money, and she puts up 
patiently with all the trouble they frequently give her. : 

In 1894: Another patient, daughter-in-law to the first 
received, was converted during her stay in the hospital. 
The whole family have since become Christians, but this 
young woman is the brightest. 

" Another patient was a poor little woman who lived 
in a house full of men father-in-law, husband, brother-- 
in-law, and uncle all sunk in the vice of opium-smok 
ing. "What wonder that she, too, fell a victim ? She 
had had several children, who all died in infancy ; the 
last a boy of a few years old had been sold for an 
opium debt ! She heard of Him who had come to set 
the captives free, and she longed to be delivered. Miss 
Rodd and Miss Bryer visiting her village for the first 
time with the Gospel pitied her, and offered to take her 
back with them to Nangwa to be cured. She got 
through the cure marvellously easily, looking so cheer 
ful all the time, a great contrast to most people under 
such circumstances. It was G-od who helped her, she 
said. She heard eagerly the story of the Saviour s love, 
and went home determined by His grace to serve and 
confess Him. We have heard good accounts of her. 
Her brother-in-law has since been cured, and I hear her 
husband has also lately given up opium-smoking. Will 
you join us in praying that they may be kept ? " 

Pages might be written to depict the awful scenes 
connected with the deadly opium evil with which our 



"THE GIFT OF HEALING" 119 

missionaries are brought in contact. The late Miss Hessie 
Newcombe in one of her home letters remarked : 

" I much doubt if there is any place where the opium 
has not penetrated. I can only speak from experience of 
this province. One of my own teachers compared its 
ravages to the last plague of Egypt ; as she said, there 
was scarcely a family without one victim to this awful 
scourge. "When she questioned me with horror as to the 
report that this poison came from England, I did not 
dare to tell her the whole truth: that our Christian 
Government obtained a portion of its revenue from the 
sale. I only said that there were men in England and 
elsewhere who love money more than God, but that 
truly Christian people were very sorry for the Chinese." 

" One very interesting case," says Miss Johnson, " oc 
curred shortly before we closed the hospital at Nangwa, 
after the sad events at Kucheng last summer (1895). A 
mandarin s widow, who had taken opium for seventeen 
years and in great quantities, came to us to break it off. 
From the first she laid hold on the fact that it was only 
the power of the true God that could avail to do what 
was an impossibility with men. She had a very painful, 
trying time. More than once she gave orders for her 
chair to be called to go home next day. One night, 
when at her worst, she accused us of deceiving her, 
saying it was impossible she could ever give it up ; this 
attempt to do so was killing her. But before the next 
day she slept a little, felt better, and persevered. Cer 
tainly nothing but the grace of God carried her through. 
While with us she joined in prayer every day, attended 
Sunday service in the hospital hall, was much interested 
in reading the Bible (she was an educated woman), and 



120 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

before she left she was convinced of the truth, and deter 
mined to follow it. Her return to the yamen (residence) 
of her relative, the Viceroy of Kien-ning, only made 
her see more clearly the difference between her old 
religion and Christianity. She made no secret of her 
convictions, and tried to persuade her people to read the 
Bible. But the only one willing to listen or join her in 
prayer was her little daughter, who is betrothed to the 
Mandarin s son. Before she left us to return to her dis 
tant home in the dark province of Hunan she told us, 
I am very sad at leaving all of you, but I can never 
again be altogether sad, for I have now the peace of 
Jesus in my heart. 

But in ministering to the suffering multitude behind 
China s Great "Wall, the missionary encounters stranger 
forms of disease than even the terrible afflictions of 
leprosy, ulceration, blindness, and the atrophy of the 
opium victim. To quote again Miss Hessie Newcomba. 
In a paper written shortly bsfore her death she asks : 

" When you go to China, what will you have to face ? 
The outward and visible things ; the dirt, discomfort, 
contempt, and ridicule these things we share alike with 
the traveller and the merchant. But what has a mis 
sionary, just because she is a missionary, to face ? You 
can sum it all up in two words GOD and the Devil." 

Miss Gordon Gumming, in Wanderings in China, re 
marks (p. 166) : 

The Chinese have distinctive names for true insanity, 
and for hysteria, catalepsy, etc., and they draw the line 
quite distinctly between these and devil, or spiritual 
possession, as it is invariably called both by heathens 



"THE GIFT OF HEALING" 121 

and Christians. It really appaars as if some of the 
miraculous signs and wonders which prepared the way 
in the earliest days of the Church in Judea were in some 
little measure permitted to the infant Church in China." 

Miss Wedderspoon, writing from Foo-chow, November, 
1895, says : 

" One interesting young woman whom Miss Coopsr is 
visiting was at one time possessed with a devil. When 
first found, she was lying on a bad, refusing to eat. 
Her relatives had consulted the idols, but of course 
nothing had bsen done for her. Miss Cooper had prayer 
with them, and spoke of Jesus power to cast out devils. 
The girl quieted, listened, and at last prayed herself. A 
few days after the father became ill, and they said the 
devil, having left his daughter, had entered into him, and 
he was to die ; they would neither go to a doctor nor 
persuade him to eat. The idol had said he would die, so 
why trouble further? Miss Cooper had much prayer, 
the devil was cast out, and the man is recovering." 

The Ahok Memorial Wing for Women in the Com 
munity Hospital just outside Foo-chow city, on the island 
of Nantai, is an especially interesting sphere of work for 
Christ. Writing to the C.E.Z. Committee in May, 1895, 
the Rev. R. W. Stewart said : 

" You have two more workers in Foo-chow who must 
not be forgotten, Miss Barr and Miss Chambers ; they 
are stationed in the native hospital, which is under the 
care of Dr. Rennie, who gives the ladies full scope for 
influencing the patients ; were it actually a Mission- 
hospital, they could not have greater freedom in speak 
ing to and teaching the inmates. Although they only 



122 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

reached Poo-chow last March, they are able already to 
make themselves very fairly understood in Chinese, and 
when I saw them the other day they told me how happy 
they were, and what a splendid sphere of work they had 
found. 

" At Dr. Eennie s suggestion, a Sunday service was 
begun on their arrival, and now it is often hard to find 
room for the number who attend it. On Tuesday, too, 
there is a service conducted by Mr. Banister ; and our 
old friend, Mrs. Ahok, holds a weekly meeting for the 
women patients in the room where her good husband 
used to speak to the men." 

And in November of the same year Miss Chambers 
herself writes : 

" Our work here is most happy and encouraging. The 
number of women is increasing, and all are so ready to 
listen to the Message of Peace ; and we believe that 
many receive it into their hearts, and go back to their 
homes to tell others of the love of God. When visiting 
the villages, other C.E.Z. missionaries are sure of a good 
reception if they meet any one who has been in the 
hospital." 

A missionary at Foo-chow, who, as an onlooker, writes 
to a friend, says : 

" I must tell you a little of what is going on for God 
in the Chinese hospital since He sent our two missionary 
sisters there. You know, of course, that the hospital is 
supported by the community out here for the benefit of 
the Chinese, the wealthy of whom also contribute to its 
funds. Mr. Ahok took a deep interest in it, and you 
have heard of the new wing for women added by money 



" THE GIFT OF HEALING" 123 

collected by Mrs. Stewart as a memorial to liim. It was 
a great joy to us when this was finished, furnished, and 
the two missionary nurses settled in. Dr. Rennie has 
given them every opportunity of doing all they can for 
the souls as well as for the bodies of the patients, and 
you would rejoice indeed with us could you see all that 
is being done. In the chapsl on Sunday mornings there 
is now a well-attended class for men ; in the afternoon a 
service for all ; on Tuesday evenings a class for the 
Chinese medical students ; on Friday Mrs. Ahok s ser 
vice with the women. And at any odd time in the day 
you may go in and find one of those bright sisters with 
her big white apron on, sitting with open Bible in a 
corner of one of the wards, a crowd of women and chil 
dren around her as she reads and tells of the Great 
Healer and of the country where there shall not be any 
more pain. I once heard it said, The nurse is always 
to be adjective to the missionary, and I am sure these 
sisters have it so, though they are by no means careless 
in their nursing duties. Dr. Rennie has more than once 
spoken to me in praise of their efficiency, but, of course, 
we rejoice most over that which affects the soul-welfare 
of those under their care. They have been much en 
couraged in saving opium-smokers already, and the 
other day Miss Barr was telling me of a woman who 
went home so full of the love of Christ that she per 
suaded her husband to come and hear for himself ; and 
now these two have given up their bread- winning occu 
pation of beating out metal for making idol paper- 
money, and brought a book of sacred writings, which 
they used to think most precious, in willing exchange 
for the Bible." 



CHAPTER IX 

GATHERING STORMS 

" IX PERILS IX THE CITY " 

"Often has God shown that even where human hate builds huge 
wall* against the truih. and human wrath build* hot fires for its 
witnesses, He has much people ; and that the faith that fears not, 
can face the foes of God ami of His Gospel with unfaltering fixed 
ness of heart, still witnessing to the cross." 

A. T. PIERSOX, D.D. 

IT is not surprising that Satan, the great dragon of 
China, being stormed in his citadel should hurl back 
thunderbolts and fiery darts. From time to time the 
Prince of the power of the air stirs up a tempest of 
psrsecution that breaks upon the heads of God s brave 
witnesses in the " Land of Sinim." Yet, perhaps, in no 
other part of the mission field has " the wrath of man " 
been more signally made to " praise " Him, or the selfish 
and cruel aims of fanatical heathen been more remarkably 
turned to account for the furtherance of that kingdom 
they sought to destroy. Divine history continually re 
peats itself. "The devil blows the fire and melts the 
iron, and then the Lord fashions it for His own pur 
poses." 

One of the first outrages on our missionaries took 
place as long ago as 1892. Miss B. Newcombe and Miss 
Johnson, at the invitation of an old man whose son had 
taught one of them the language, courageously entered 



GATHERING STORMS 125 

Kien-ning city, and opsned up work in Ceng-Wa. 
Suddenly a mob attacked and took possession of the 
little house they occupied, drove our sisters out by force, 
and literally tore the place to pieces, nothing being left 
but the four outside walls. Miss Johnson s story of this 
alarming and exciting time is told in India s Women, 
August, 1892. It seems that placards had been posted 
all over the city, saying that foreigners had arrived, and 
that they had made away with a literary man and had 
beheaded a boy. The people were called upon to turn 
them out. 

This riot was followed quickly by a more serious 
one in Kien-ning city, where the C.M.S. hospital was 
destroyed, and Dr. Bigg barely escaped with his life. 
Mr. Stewart, writing of these events the following sum 
mer, said : 

" You know how your ladies were driven out of one 
city and the English doctor driven out of another. 
Your ladies at Nang-AVa were warned that the rioters 
were coming down upon them and would wreck their 
house. What did they do ? They knelt in prayer, and 
rose saying, God can defend us. They took every right 
precaution, sending away the two who could not speak 
the language, and packing their things on the boat to 
prepare for sudden night, if it should be necessary. 
There those who spoke the language, waited quietly to 
meet the danger. Two nights passed, and no rioters 
appeared, and then they found that God had changed 
the purpose of these men. These ladies left the place for 
a time, and were not only allowed to return, but wel 
comed with open arms by the women of the cities." 

But a greater storm was gathering. Soon it broke. 



126 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

The walled city of Kucheng, with 60,000 inhabitants, a 
hundred miles inland, N.W. of Foo-chow, became one of 
the first outposts of the Foo-chow Mission, and the head 
quarters of the Eev. E. W. and Mrs. Stewart, with some 
of their band of C.E.Z.M.S. workers. A tributary of the 
river Min flows outside the wall, and beyond it rises a 
slops called in Chinese " the little hill of righteousness." 
Here, both C.M.S. and C.E.Z. have a mission settlement, 
houses and schools, the centre of evangelistic work in a 
district thickly crowded with towns and villages. 

Kucheng, or " Ancient Field," as the name signifies, is 
a quiet old place ; the people all have a sleepy look, pro 
bably from the fearful habit of opium-smoking, which is 
freely indulged in. The city lies on the banks of a 
beautiful winding stream, surrounded by bold and lofty 
hills far away in the heart of the Fuh-kien highlands. 

Mr. Stewart would often remark that had they 
searched the world through they could scarcely have 
found a more healthful or beautiful spot than that 
which God had chosen for them, just outside the walls of 
Kucheng. 

" We have been having some rather exciting times 
here lately," wrote the Eev. E. W. Stewart on April 8th, 
1895. " Ten days ago, I was called up at four o clock 
in the morning by our native clergyman and other 
Christians, who had crossed the river to our house to 
bring the startling news that the Vegetarian rebels were 
expected at daylight to storm Kucheng, and that the 
gateways of the city were being blocked with timber 
and stone as fast as possible. 

We have for a considerable time been aware that the 
Vegetarians were recruiting in large numbers, and the 




** >s 



127 



GATHERING STORMS 129 

expectation that something of this kind might happen 
led the better-class people to subscribe large sums for the 
rebuilding of the city wall, which in many places had 
fallen down ; the gates, too, had been either broken or 
were gone. 

" At the time when the alarm was given, we had, with 
women, girls, and children, nearly one hundred sleeping 
in our compound. 

" The rebels expected in an hour ! What was to be 
done ? 

As we talked, and prayed, and planned, the dawn 
began to break ; then came the rain in torrents. What 
part this played in the matter, I don t know ; but as we 
saw it falling heavily, and remembered the Chinese fear 
of getting wet, we said to one another, That rain will 
be our protection. 

" At daylight we roused the schools, and after a hasty 
meal, all left in a long, sad procession to make their way 
across the river in a small ferry-boat, which came back 
wards and forwards for them, until at last the whole 
party had reached the other side. It was a long busi 
ness all in the rain and then the wall had to be 
climbed by a ladder, for by this time the blocking of the 
gateways was complete. Near our chapel the wall had 
not been rebuilt to its full height ; and the chapel ladder, 
the only one to be obtained, just reached to the top. 
This was one of many incidents that showed us that the 
hand of God was controlling everything. The next day 
that part of the wall was built to its proper height, and 
the ladder would have been several feet too short, and 
we could never have got the women, with their cramped 
feet, and the children over the wall. 

"For the next three days, the wall was guarded by 



130 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

bands of citizens, posted at short intervals from one 
another, and armed with the best weapons they could 
find; but, indeed, they were poor things. Old three- 
pronged forks, centuries old, to judge by their appear 
ance, with movable rings on the handles to shake, and so 
strike terror to the hearts of the foe. Eusty, too, were 
their swords, and rarely to be seen; we watched the 
proud possessors washing them in a pool and scraping 
them with a brick ; the majority had no scabbards, not 
that the braves had thrown them away, but they had 
lost them. One I examined had a useful sort of scabbard ; 
it covered all but the last couple of inches of the blade, 
so you could stick your enemy without the bother of 
pulling it out a good thing if you were in a hurry. 
Those three days whilst the city was straitly shut up 
were anxious ones. Then the gates were open. What 
took place between the Mandarin and the Vegetarian 
leaders, we do not know ; but no one believes that we 
have seen the end of the matter, such a serious affair 
cannot be so easily patched up ; probably we have as yet 
had but the beginning. 

" Our girls and women s school have, of course, been 
disbanded, and your ladies have left for Foo-chow I 
need hardly say, very sorely against their will. It was 
hard for them to leave their loved work and their many 
friends amongst the Chinese ; but they saw clearly it 
was best, for they could not help them in the event of a 
disturbance, and might rather hinder their flight and 
make their concealment more difficult. Our Consul 
wrote, strongly urging that this step should be taken, 
and the American Consul wrote to his people in the same 
strain ; so the ladies have gone very obediently but very 
sadly, all of them wishing they were men, and so not 
obliged to retreat. 



GATHERING STORMS 131 

"But I think they see, in all that is happening, the 
finger of God pointing to a cessation of their work for a 
time, perhaps, that they may leave Him to work alone. 
When they come back, they may be astonished to find 
the wonders that the Spirit of God has done in their 
absence." 

Mrs. Stewart in her last letter home, 1 dated from 
Hwa-sang, says : " It was a most strange affair alto 
gether, but it was really the Japanese crossing south and 
threatening to bombard Foo-chow that gave the Vege 
tarians courage to threaten an attack on Kucheng. 
They are really rebels against their own Government. 
The present Government is so hated by the people that 
there would certainly be a rebellion if there seemed any 
hope of success. God has wonderfully answered prayer, 
however, and restored peace ; and already we see signs 
that God is going to bring good out of all the evil. In 
many places there is a greater spirit of inquiry than ever 
before." 

The following sketch from Miss Stevens pen in Tlie 
Missionary at Home and Abroad, 2 written immediately 
after the terrible event of August 1st, shows the position, 
progress, and prospects of the work at the moment of the 
terrible " Vegetarian " outbreak, on August 1st, 1895 : 

u My home is in Tasmania, and in 1890 I was led to 
offer for Mission work in China. Having been accepted 
by the Australian Branch of the C.E.Z.M.S., I was sent 
out by the Foreign Mission Branch of the Y.W.C.A., 

1 fiobert and Louisa Stewart, p. 209. For account of siege and 
flight read ibid., pp. 47-57. 

2 Edited by the Eev. H. B. Macartney, M.A., Oct. No., 195. 



I 3 2 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

Hobart, in August, 1891. ... At Poo-chow I was 
met by two ladies of our mission, Miss Strong and Miss 
Leslie, and was taken to The Olives (C.E.Z.M.S. 
House). ... As I look back on the past four years 
I see wonderful changes in the work ; every part has 
grown. Archdeacon AVolfe is still working in Poo-chow 
city and in his large district of Hok-chiang, assisted by 
his daughters. In this latter place, whole villages are 
renouncing their idols, embracing Christianity, and 
pleading hard for more teachers, who, alas ! are not yet 
forthcoming. Mr. Lloyd has gone home on furlough; 
and the Eev. W. Banister has taken his place at the 
College, and has also the Christian Boys and Heathen 
Boys Schools under his charge. Mrs. Banister has the 
Bible Women s and the Heathen Women s Schools. Miss 
Bushell s (F.E.S.) School for Christian Girls is full to 
overflowing. Our C.E.Z.M.S. work has opened out. In 
Foo-chow we have a Heathen Girls Boarding School 
with about fifty pupils ; an excellent Women s Hos 
pital (Memorial Wing added to Community Hospital), 
which was recently built with money collected for this 
purpose by Mrs. Stewart, and where we have two lady 
nurses, Miss Chambers and Miss Barr. Many are the 
dear women who are led to the Saviour there. Miss 
Leslie is extending the work in the city, and in addition 
to the Day School, which we have had for five or six 
years, she is opening a class for heathen women. In 
1892 I began itinerating among the many villages 
scattered all over the island of Nantai. I have always 
been warmly welcomed, but there are still numbers 
of villages untouched for want of more workers. Many 
new ladies came out from England during these four 
years, and were scattered over the province. Miss Annie 



GATHERING STORMS 133 

M. C. Gordon (of -Australia) was appointed to the large 
district of Dong-gio, where she laboured most faithfully 
till her sudden call Home. In 1893 I went down to 
the wharf to welcome a large party, among whom 
were Miss Nellie and Miss Topsy Saunders, Lena (Mrs. 
Stewart s nurse *), with Mildred, Kathleen, Herbert and 
Evan Stewart. The nurse and children returned with 
me to The Olives to await Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, who 
were on a Mission tour in Canada. On their arrival, 
about five weeks later, they proceeded with the Misses 
Saunders to Kucheng to take up the work Mr. Banister 
was leaving. 

" At the Chinese New Year, 1894, I went to Kucheng 
for rest, and to see the work. I was present at a large 
baptismal service, when Mr. Stewart received about 
eighty converts into the church. I shall never forget 
his earnest manner as he spoke to each one separately. 
I also attended their Annual Native Conference, to which 
numbers came. On Sunday afternoon we went to the 
Leper Asylum (built by Mr. Banister), where, in the 
neat little church, Mr. Stewart preached, and held just 

1 Helena Yellop, a bright young Irish girl, brought up in Mrs. 
Smyly s well-known Elliott Home, Dublin, and, in common with 
all her school-fellows, devoted to Mrs. Stewart. In 1893, when 
returning to their work via Canada, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart placed 
their four little children two girls and two, baby boys in their 
faithful nurse s care, to make the long journey from Dublin 
to Kucheng. A trustworthy servant, on her arrival in China, 
Lena proved that she was a true missionary at heart, by making 
every effort in spare hours to learn the language, in order that 
she might be able to talk to the women who came to the house, 
and she truly longed after their souls to bring them to Christ. 
Her life laid down to save the little infant in her care indeed 
justified the epitaph motto chosen for her grave, " Faithful unto 
death." 



134 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

a simple little catechetical service. I was much touched 
by the bright, earnest prayer of one poor man, whose 
face was so marred that it had lost all resemblance 
to the human face, and yet the light of heaven was 
there. 

" During my visit, Miss Elsie Marshall arrived. She 
had been studying the language at Funning until Mr. 
Stewart s return, and at once commenced itinerating 
in a large district. Just at this time also Miss Flora 
Stewart was passing her examination, after which she, 
too, was assigned a similar district. 

"In November, 1894, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, with 
their wee baby, came down to Conference, but returned 
at once, as the Vegetarians had already commenced 
their disturbances. Then again in March the ladies 
had to fly from Kucheng, but at Cui-Kau received 
a message from Mr. Stewart to return, as danger 
was over. Lena and the children came on to The 
Olives, and in another week s time Mrs. Stewart ar 
rived with baby, the Misses Saunders, Miss "Wade, Miss 
"Weller, Miss Gordon, and Miss Marshall having had 
once more to fly. They remained about a week, and 
then went to our Sanatorium on the Kuliang Hills 
(above Foo-chow) until Mr. Stewart came down to the 
C.M.S. business meeting. Then, as all was quiet once 
more, he took most of them back only Miss Weller and 
Miss Wade staying behind." 



CHAPTER X 



THE CHAEIOT OF FIEE ON HWA SAXG 

" Kven the .seeming waste of precious lives has leen but the 
breaking of the costly flask, filling the world with the odour of 
unselfishness and heroic piety, and prompting to its imitation." 

DR. A. T. PIERSON. 



I 



"T will be seen that the 
storm which burst at last 
on Hwa-sang, the summer 
resort of the Kucheng 
band of missionaries, was 
not altogether without 
warning. But all dan 
ger at that time appar 
ently was over, and work 
in Kucheng had been re 
sumed since May, when 
Mr. Stewart arranged 
that the usual rest time 
in the great heat of July 
and August should be taken 
on the cool, refreshing hill 
side, where the little village 
of 500 inhabitants lies, 2,000 
feet above the walled city. 
Built against the steep moun 
tain-side, the lower houses of Hwa-sang are supported 




Rev. Robert VV. Stewart, C M.S. 

(Late Corresponding Secretary to the 
C.E.Z.M.S.) 



I 3 8 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

by long props or pillars to keep them up to the level of 
the street. No path crosses the ravine : the only road 
to Kucheng runs round the head of the valley, turning 
sharply over the spur of the mountain exactly opposite 
the village. Climbing this long, steep ascent from Ku 
cheng city, the first sight which greets the eye on reach 
ing level ground is that of the two little houses of the 
C.M.S. and C.E.Z.M.S. Sanatorium, standing a hundred 
yards from the main road on a picturesque plot a little 
headland as it were in the sea of waving bamboo. 1 

No place in China is more suggestive of calm, rest, and 
refreshment than this lonely spot, at an early hour of 
a midsummer morning. And true spiritual and mental 
rest the band of missionaries had found this year. Day 
after day they had gathered in close communion, refresh 
ing one another s souls in the study of God s Word. 
Utterly wearied in body, they had been so uplifted in 
spirit, that those who were present say that they were 
like the " days of heaven on earth." The little com 
pany had arranged to spend that week in meetings 
similar to and simultaneous with the Keswick Con 
vention in England. The subject was " Old Testament 
Battles," illustrating the leading thoughts for each day, 
which were, : Confession," " Always Zealous," " Always 
Trusting," "Always Christ in us," "Always Praying," 
" Always Praising," " A Continual Burnt Offering made 
by Fire." The day previous to that on which so many 
were to be suddenly "caught up," brought a Bible 
reading on the Transfiguration, and the meeting ended 
by all repeating together the Dedication prayer : " Here 

1 For this graphic sketch we are indebted to The Dublin Univer 
sity Missionary Magazine, Memorial No., Oct., 1895, edited by 
Rev. T. A. O Morchoe, M.A. 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 139 

we offer and present unto Thee, Lord, ourselves, our 
souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacri 
fice unto Thee." 

Early on the morning of the 1st August, the children 
were astir, gathering flowers for little Herbert s birth 
day picnic that day. Miss Annie Gordon was reading 
her Bible under the trees, when about a quarter past six 
o clock, the silence of the woods was broken by harsh 
yells. At first the bamboo wood hid the approaching 
band, who were coming up the steep ascent on the 
Kucheng side of the hill. 

" Mildred and I," says little Kathleen Stewart (aged 
11), " were just outside the house on a hill we called 
The Garden, picking ferns and flowers because it was 
Herbert s birthday, and we were going to decorate the 
breakfast table. AVe saw men coming along, and at first 
I thought they were dang dang (load men). Milly saw 
their spears and told me to run, but I was so frightened 
I lay on the grass, thinking perhaps they would not see 
me. The men did see me, and took hold of me, and 
pulled me by my hair along towards the house. Just as 
we arrived there I fell down. They then began beating 
me." 

Struggling out of their grasp, brave little Kathleen 
rushed into the house after her sister, who had given the 
alarm that the Vegetarians had come. Her assailants 
followed immediately. Some entered the bedroom occu 
pied by Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, and striking down Mrs. 
Stewart, who was at the door, next killed her husband, 
first telling him that their object was not to obtain money, 
but to take his life. Poor little Herbert they wounded 



1 4 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

terribly, attacked and killed the nurse, Helena Yellop, 
who was bravely trying to hide the baby under her 
clothes, and then killed Miss Nellie Saunders, who with 
her sister had been sleeping in the house. She was 
knocked down at the nursery door, on her way to rescue 
some of the children. Miss Topsy Saunders, meanwhile, 
had joined the C.E.Z. sisters at the back of their house-, 
and with them had laid down her life. 

Mildred and little Kathleen were in the same room, 
the door of which was bolted. Kathleen at once got 
under the bed. Milly was about to follow, when she 
thought, " If I do that, the men will know there is 

O 7 

somebody here, because the door is locked ; I will unlock 
the door and lie on the bed, perhaps they will only see 
me, and not look under the bed for any others." This she 
did. " Soon," says little Kathleen, " the men broke open 
the door, opened the drawers, smashed windows and 
things, pulled off all the bed-clothes, then began beating 
Mildred, and cut her with their swords ; afterwards they 
left the room." In spite of the terrible gash on her 
knee, dividing the joint, and which long afterwards en 
dangered her life, Mildred got up, and went to the nur 
sery with Kathleen, and together the brave little girls 
succeeded in pulling the wounded year-old baby from 
under the nurse s dead body, and rescuing also their 
baby brother Evan, who was only slightly hurt, from 
the burning house. The murderers discovered kerosine 
oil on the premises, which they sprinkled about the houses, 
so that they burned fiercely. Kathleen pathetically says : 
" I took baby first, and laid her down outside ; then 
went back for Evan ; then we all five went down past 
the guniongs 1 house, which was all in a blaze, into the 
little wood. After waiting there a little while, I saw 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 14! 

Miss Codrington with a Chinese man. I called out to 
her, and the Chinese man came and carried Herbert to 
Miss Hartford s (a missionary of the American Society, 
staying in a small house near by) ; I carried baby while 
Mildred and Evan waited in the wood. I then went 
back, and carried Evan to Miss Hartford s. As I was 
going back for Mildred, I met her trying to walk, but 
she had only come a few steps when she fell down. 
Then I beckoned to a Chinese man, and he carried her to 
Miss Hartford s." 

The heroism of these children at such an awful 
moment was undoubtedly inspired. Consecrated to God 
for China from their birth, and trained in the atmosphere 
of self-sacrifice and holy courage, they followed in their 
now sainted parents footsteps. Of one of them, a Chris 
tian native remarked, after the terrible scene was over, 
" Truly she has greatly received the Holy Ghost ! " Not 
one word of reproach or resentment did they utter. On 
that very evening of the first of August, little Mildred, 
sorely wounded, her parents and friends cruelly mur 
dered, could not settle to rest, for she wanted to pray 
and to plan that those gaps in the ranks might be filled 
up. When some one said that one of the ladies would 
bring the children home to Ireland, " No one can be 
spared from the work now," she said ; " the stewardess 
will help us to take care of the very little ones." So 
earnestly did she long that the people who had dealt so 
cruelly with her and hers should be led to the Saviour ! 

Before the children left the burning house they saw 
the ladies of the adjoining house killed before their eyes. 
The C.E.Z.M.S. House was a few yards on one side be 
yond that of the Stewarts , oblong in shape, and with 
doors only at the front and back. "When the first shouts 



142 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

were heard, Miss Codrington, startled by the frightful 
yells, went to the door to see what it was, thinking it 
must be a village fight, but was met by Miss Gordon, 
who had been reading outside, who said, " I m afraid 
something very serious has happened." Just then a 
man suddenly ran up with a spear in his hand, but they 




Miss Hessie Kewcombe. 

succeeded in fastening the door in his face. Had the 
others been up and dressed, all might have escaped into 
the brushwood that grows up to the very door ; but the 
two gave up their chance of immediate escape to help 
the other three to dress Miss Hessie Newcombe, Miss 
Flora Lucy Stewart, and Miss Elsie Marshall, who were 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 143 

still in bed at the time. The Vegetarians surrounded 
the house and watched them through the windows. 
They all gathered in Flora Stewart s bedroom, and 
finding escape through the windows impossible, as the 
spear-men were guarding them, they quietly knelt in 
prayer, Miss Hessie Newcombe leading. The men at last 
broke into the room they were in, not hurting them 
at first, but gathering up all the plunder they could find. 
Then the ladies got out at the back of the house, and 
found themselves surrounded by the main body of the 
murderers. Escape was clearly impossible ; nearly 
eighty men were around them. 

The men asked for money, and said they would not kill 
if they gave them $2,000. Miss Codrington assured 
them they had no money. Even then their captors were 
unwilling to kill the ladies, and spoke of binding them 
and carrying them off to hold them to ransom. An old 
native of Hwa-sang pleaded for their lives ; but the 
leader of the band, who carried a red flag, came up and 
ordered them to kill at once. The four, Flora Codring 
ton, Elsie Marshall, Lucy Stewart and Annie Gordon, 
stood close together. Miss Codrington called out to the 
others not to be afraid : " Sisters, never mind, we are all 
going Home together ! " Acting on the advice she gave 
the others, to fall at the first blow, and to lie still, in 
hope of being left for dead, she fell, terribly wounded in 
face and neck, arm and thigh. The other three who 
fell with her were Miss Elsie Marshall, clinging to her 
Bible to the very end, though the hand with which she 
grasped it was nearly severed, Miss Gordon, and Miss 
Stewart, whose deaths must have been instantaneous, 
and all but painless. Miss Hessie Newcombe had left 
the group, in her intense anxiety to get to Mrs. Stewart, 



144 



BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 



and her body was found at the foot of a neighbouring 
embankment of earth. 

When Miss Codrington recovered consciousness, she 
lay still till the murderers retreat horn and all sounds 
had ceased the whole terrible scene was enacted in less 
than sixty minutes and then, rinding the house 011 fire, 




Miss Lucy Flora Stewart. 

attempted in her terrible condition to draw away the 
precious forms of her sisters from the flames ; and then, 
her strength failing, she made her way to Miss Hartford s 
house. Miss Hartford herself had been attacked by a 
Vegetarian just outside her house. Her teacher s wife 
bravely interfered to save her, and her Christian man- 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 145 

servant seized the spear, and wrestled with the murderer 
while she escaped. 

The only other foreigner at Hwa-sang, the Rev. H. S. 
Phillips (C.M.S.), was staying in a native house, separated 
from the other missionaries houses by a small hill. He 
had arrived only nine days before, from the N.W. of the 
province, to spsnd one of the hot months with the 
Stewarts, and as there was not room in their cottage, had 
taken a bedroom in this neighbouring house. Hearing 
a noise, and breaking away from friendly natives, who 
held him back by force, he hurried up the hill. 

"I went first," he says, " past the Stewarts cottage by 
the foot of the hill, where I met Mr. Stewart s teacher 
hiding in the brushwood. He begged me not to go up 
to the house. I thought I would at first get as near as 
possible, and thus see more clearly what was happening. 
I crept through the brushwood to a spot on one side of 
the cottage, where I had a clear view of the front and 
side, but could not see the back where our martyred 
sisters were lying, already surely dead, as I heard no 
sound. In front, the Vegetarians were running back 
wards and forwards looting ; but, seeing no European, I 
hoped that all had escaped. I had not been sitting long 
when the retreat horn sounded, and they began to leave, 
and the house was fired. Directly the Vegetarians had 
left, I came down, and found one of Mr. Stewart s ser 
vants, who led me to Miss Hartford s cottage." 

There for the first time he learnt the awful news, 
and immediately set to work to bind up the wounds 011 
Mildred, poor little Herbert, and Miss Codrington. Has 
tening then to the burning houses, he found and covered 

L 



146 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

up with bark, to protect them from the already fierce 
sun, all that was mortal of those who had been caught 
up in the fiery chariot to meet their LORD. 

Then came a terrible time of waiting. It was not 
until 7.30 p.m. that Dr. Gregory, of the American Mis 
sion, could arrive and attend to the wounded. Even 
then it was not until 3 p.m. on the following day, 
August 2nd, that they could start for Cui-Kau, the 
nearest village on the river Min where boats could be 
obtained. From three o clock in the afternoon they pro 
longed that terrible and difficult march all through the 
night of the 2nd August, during which the little birth 
day boy, Herbert, so terribly wounded, " fell asleep " and 
joined his parents. " How glad father and mother will 
be to see him ! " said brave, suffering Millie, when told of 
his death. An awful march it was, fifteen miles down a 
steep mountain side, so steep, that in places an ordinary 
traveller prefers to leave his carrying-chair and climb, 
and then ten miles further before the boats were reached. 

As the sad remnant of our missionary band wound its 
way down from Kucheng to Foo-chow, at a wayside inn, 
where the little company rested an hour or two for 
supper, a native woman, who could hardly be called " an 
inquirer," came to Miss Codrington s bedside and said, 
" Sister, don t think all your work is spoilt ; the Ku 
cheng women are weeping, they are so touched. Now 
many will believe ! " Let such a saying from almost 
heathen lips forbid for ever the murmur rising in our 
Christian hearts : " To what purpose is this waste ? " 

"It was most touching," wrote Eev. H. S. Phillips 
afterwards, "to see the sympathy of the Christians as 
we passed along the road ; and as we realized that, but 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 147 

for the grace of God, they too might be poor, dark Vege 
tarians, we were convinced that what Kucheng wants is 
not Gatling guns, but the Gospel of the living Christ." 

A relief party had been sent down at once from Foo- 
chow. Mr. Banister and Archdeacon "Wolfe took all sorts 




Miss Anna Mary Christina Gordon. 

of provisions in their boat, little realizing how few they 
would meet to whom they could minister. It was touch 
ing to see the little girls, though faint from want of 
food themselves, caring tenderly for their tiny brother, 
Evan, three and a half years old, throughout the rest 
of the journey. None of their clothing, except that 



148 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

which they wore, had been rescued. Evan was in his 
little night-things only, on that journey lasting from 
Thursday to Sunday, and Kathleen carried baby Hilda 
in her arms a great part of that time. 

They arrived at Foo-chow at 12.30 a.m. on August 4th. 
The scene at the landing-stage was very solemn and 
impressive. Numbers of the English population were 
gathered together, almost breathlessly waiting to hear 
who had been saved. Mr. Banister spoke beautifully ; 
he said, " Nearly all of them are in Heaven ; ten 
and then he read the names aloud to end the sus 
pense. 

The sufferers were taken to the hospital, and care 
fully attended to by Dr. Rennie, Miss Barr, and Miss 
Chambers in the nice airy rooms. Remarkable it was 
that this hospital (Women s Wing), built through dear 
Mrs. Stewart s exertions, should- have opened its doors to 
receive her children ! Kathleen was exhausted, but baby 
would not leave her till Miss Fleming came in Chinese 
dress, and baby was happy in her arms. Miss Codring- 
ton and Mildred had to be carefully nursed. They both 
say they felt no pain till after they reached Foo-chow. 
Baby followed her mother a few days later; all the 
kindness and love could not keep her here. For a long 
time Mildred hovered between life and death, and it was 
feared that amputation would be necessary. But in 
answer to fervent prayer, both she and Miss Codrington 
made a wonderful recovery from their wounds, and be 
fore the year closed all the survivors of that terrible day 
were in England. 

The funeral was at 5 a.m. on August 6th. The ser 
vice was held in the mortuary chapel of the English 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 



149 



Cemetery at Foo-chow. One of our C.E.Z. sisters 
writes : "I should think that all the foreign gentlemen 
in Foo-chow city were assembled there. In the centre 
was a black draped box, smaller than a coffin, and on it 
the names of Robert and Louisa Stewart, and the words, 
Lovely and pleasant in their lives, in their deaths they 




Miss Elsie Marshall. 

were not divided. The last part of the service was read 
around the large grave where, side by side, only sepa 
rated from each other by a low, brick partition, rested 
those ten precious forms. It reminded us of the long 
bedroom at Kucheng, where, separated by light wood 
partitions, we often slept together. There was a wealth 



150 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

of beautiful white wreaths to cover each coffin, and each 
bore a text chosen by Mr. Phillips. 1 

The so-called " Vegetarians," who enacted the fearful 
deed, were really the members of " The Eight Diagrams 
Guild," a secret rebellious organization. It has tran 
spired since that they had been incited to open action by 
a Chinese necromancer, Tang Hwai, or " Long Finger- 
Nails," a clever impostor who had gained immense in 
fluence over the superstitious leaders. For a fortnight 
previously, meeting them in some hidden mountain fast 
ness, he had been urging them to assert their ascendency 
over the local magistrates by some deed of violence, and 
cast lots for the choice of one out of three raids: 1. To 
attack and plunder the foreign houses at Kucheng ; 
2. To attack and kill a rich -man in his house at Tang 
Teuk, a neighbouring village ; 3. To attack and murder 
the foreigners at Hwa-sang ; in each case carrying off 
all that was valuable as booty. For three successive 
nights the lot fell on Hwa-sang, and a band of 120 men 
was told off to carry out the evil plan. After it was 
over, the murderers threw off all disguise, and their 
pretended Vegetarian vows, had a feast of pork and 

1 Miss HESSIE NEWCOMBE, whose leading characteristic had 
been spirituality of mind, and whose principal theme of conversa 
tion was the Lord s Eeturn, " The Master is come, and callethfor 
thec." 

Miss FLORA STEWART, whose unselfishness and sympathy made 
her memory most fragrant, " Receiving the end of your faith, 
even the salvation of your souls." 

Miss ANNIE GORDON, whose faithfulness and fortitude in lone 
liness impressed all who knew her," Where I am, there shall also 
My servant be." 

Miss ELSIE MARSHALL, whose young bright life sparkled with 
devotion to God and His work," She asked life of Thee, and Thou 
gavest it, even life for ever and ever." 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 151 

chickens, and took a new name for their society. Mea 
sures were at last taken by the prefectured authorities, 
many of the murderers were imprisoned and then 
hanged, and the rebel camp was broken up. 

Miss Ellen Smyly, who started at once from Dublin to 
bring the three children home, in a deeply interesting 
journal detailing her voyage and visit to Foo-chow, 
said : 

" There is in the city a Christian watchmaker. His 
wife is a most earnest Christian Bible-woman, who visits 
in Foo-chow with Miss Blanche Cooper. This man 
obtained leave to go to the prison and visit the four 
men (Vegetarians) who are shut up there. They are in 
separate cells. He saw them all four. You know they 
are supposed to be the leaders, and one of them is the 
man called Long Finger-Nails, who held the red flag, 
and when some of the murderers hesitated, said, You 
know your duty ; kill them all. So many have prayed 
that they might hear of salvation before they died. The 
Christian watchmaker told them of the thief on the cross, 
and also told them how we said, like the Lord on the 
cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do. The wife asked me if we would like to send 
them a message. I said, Tell them from me that we 
freely forgive them, for we know it was the devil in 
them that had caused them to do it. The children have 
frequently said this to me. They feel no resentment. 
Their great desire is to be guniongs." 

" I will sow her unto Me in the earth." The words of 
an ancient Divine prophecy echo in our hearts to-day. 
That shattered Mission compound and those martyr-fires 
of Hwa-sang, that quiet grave in God s acre at Foo-chow 



] 5 2 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

are but tilled land into which the Divine Husbandman 
has cast His " precious seed " amid weeping. For from 
Kucheng, yes, from the uttermost part of China, HE 
" shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing His 
sheaves with Him." Even now "the golden glow of 
harvest is glimmering through the gloom." Archdeacon 
Wolfe wrote in January, 1896, of a greater spirit of 
inquiry among his people than he had ever before wit 
nessed. Congregations of men were overflowing the 
churches, and in one instance in Foo-chow, seventeen 
heathen women of their own accord had tottered into 
a native church, eager to learn " the Jesus doctrine." 
Even in the remote districts south of Hing-hwa the same 
stir was taking place. Again it would appear that the 
blood of the martyrs is to become the seed of the Ch-urch. 
The vast dark empire will be indeed transmuted into the 
" Great Flowery Land," when His footsteps are heard in 
it, for 

" Love, joy, hope, like flowers 
Spring in His path to birth." 

If we His heralds only do His bidding, myriads of this 
million-peopled country " Behind the Great Wall " shall 
one day become meet citizens of the true Celestial Land. 

" Tf 



" Our one petition ever since has been that for every 
life laid down ten more may come forward," writes a 
C.E.Z. missionary, and her words have been caught up 
and echoed and prayed over till many have offered and 
some are on their way out to be " baptized for the dead." 

None of the C.E.Z.M.S. workers were permitted to 
return to the districts outside the port of Foo-chow until 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 153 

news had been received from the British Consul that all 
fear of fresh danger was quite at an end. At the 
beginning of March, 1896 (see Our Stations and Staff, 
p. 175), full permission to re-enter the Kucheng district 
was received from the same authority. Every door was 
therefore again opened. The native Christians had been 
preserved, and the number of heathen inquirers was daily 
increasing. 

Four C.E.Z.M.S. ladies fell at Hwa-sang ; each of these 
had charge of a separate district around Kucheng so large 
that their utmost efforts could not cover it. If God 
answers this tenfold petition 1 of each ten, two will take 
up the special work of one of the sisters who died at 
Hwa-sang, the other eight will find fields of labour as 
vast in other parts of the province. 

We are indebted to the Rev. H. S. Phillips, C.M.S., 
for the following concise epitome of needs in one pre 
fecture only : 

AN UEGENT APPEAL. 

Kien-ning Prefecture is the central northern prefec 
ture of Fuh-kien, coming up between the prefectures of 
Fuh-ning and Shau-wu, but stretching farther to the 
north. It contains seven counties, each larger than 
average English counties, in which five separate dialects 
are spoken. It is absolutely necessary to have a band 

1 Miss Ellen Smyly, sister of the late beloved Mrs. Stewart, has 
started a " GUNIONG FUND," the thought having come to her : 
When this pra3 T er is answered, and the forty ladies offer them 
selves to the Zenana Society, the next question will be, Where is 
the money ? Surely there are three thousand people who care 
enough to give 1 each? Correspondence should be addressed to 
Miss E. S. Smyly, 35, Fitzwilliam Street. Dublin; or Mrs. Watson. 
Hurstwood, Woodford, Essex. 



154 



BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 



of ladies to reach the women speaking each dialect. At 
present only one dialect is touched by the C.E.Z. out of 
these five, viz., the most widely spoken, Kien-ning, 
and the band is far too small to overtake in any way 
Kien-ning work. 

Needs which the C.E.Z.M.S. ought to supply : 

1. KIEN-NING dialect. Two ladies for educational 

work. One fully qualified lady doctor. (This 
latter is urgent.) 

2. KIEN-YANG, a county 2,800 square miles, without 

one Christian woman. Three ladies to start 
with. 

3. TSUNG ANG. Three ladies. 

4. SUNG Ki. Three ladies. 

5. Last, but not least, CHING Ho (Csng Wa). Three 

ladies. 

Some of these might not be able to start work at once, 
but several could, and those whom the Lord leads to 
think of this work should enter training at once, and 
be ready for the opportunities in this prefecture. Only 
ladies can reach Kien-ning women, and only C.E.Z. ladies 
can supply this need, as Kien-ning is an exclusively 
C.E.Z. sphere. It is most unlikely that their needs will 
ever be otherwise met. 

Ladies who offer for work in Kien-ning should be 
strong, and willing to rough it, and spiritually ready for 
emergencies. 

Beloved Mrs. Stewart would repeatedly say : " If we 
could only give to friends at home the faintest idea of 
what it means to be a heathen, especially to the women 
and girls, I do not think we should have to plead long 




MAP OF THE FUH-KIEN PROVINCE. 

(C.E.Z.M.S. Stations indicated by +) 

Although one of the smallest of Ch na s eighteen provinces, the area of Fuh-kien equals 
thao of Eng and (without Wales), und contains a population of 20,000,000. 

155 



THE CHARIOT OF FIRE ON HWA-SANG 157 

for workers. It seems too terrible sometimes when we 
see what they have to endure, and feel all the time it 
need not be." 

No, it need not be. 

The band of Vegetarians, when their desperate deed 
was done, took a sheet from one of the beds, and, making 
a banner of it, wrote in the Chinese characters : " China s 
Dragon goes to war with the Christians Jesus." Little 
did those poor blinded heathen men understand the truth 
of that significant inscription they waved aloft in the 
triumph of their enmity ! 

The Son of God goes forth to war also. We know who 
will be the victor. The Great Overcomer will yet lead 
captive in the train of His triumph those who, subdued 
by His will and reconciled by His redeeming love, shall 
build again the faith they once destroyed. But He would 
not go alone. For whom is He waiting ? For you ? 
For me ? For our means ? For our substitute ? 



Behind the Great Wall a million a month are dying 
without God. And it need not be ! Behind the Great 
Wall thousands of Chinese women are living and dying 
without Christ. And it need not be ! 



" The restless millions wait 

That Light that dawning maketh all things new. 
Christ also waits ; but men are slow and late. 

Have we done what we could ? Have I ? Have you ? 

" A cloud of witnesses above encompass iis ; 

We love to think of all they see and know ; 
But what of this great multitude in peril 
Who sadly wait below ? 



158 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

" Oh, let this thrilling vision daily move us 

To earnest prayer and deed before unknown, 
That souls redeemed from China s land may join us, 
When Christ hrings home His own." 




THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 

OUR STATIONS AND STAFF FROM 1883 TO 1896 

THE following brief chronological sketch of our past 
history in China may be interesting to those who 
read "BEHIND THE GREAT WALL." 

Our first " Chinese " missionary, Miss (TOUGH, arrived 
at Hong Kong on December 8th, 1883, and was warmly 
received by the Bishop of Victoria and Mrs. Burdon. 
At daybreak on December 10th, she proceeded to Foo-chow 
by a coasting steamer, and arrived there on December 
13th. In the following July, the Rev. R. W. and Mrs. 
Stewart arriving in England, brought encouraging 
reports of Miss Gough and her work. 

Miss Gough s first report appeared on p. 314 of India s 
Women, 1884. At the time of the French and Chinese 
engagement of forces at Foo-chow, when English ladies 
had to take refuge on board an English gunboat, our 
missionary, under God s loving protection, was quietly 
pursuing her language studies at Ningpo, and in October 
had safely returned to the port, hopeful that her work 
would continue (as it did) undisturbed. 

Very earnest appeals now began to be addressed to us 
by the Rev. R. W. and Mrs. Stewart, that we should 
send Miss Gough a colleague in her work at Foo-chow. 

159 



160 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

They undertook, at the request of the Committee, to 
bring the claims of our China Fund before Christians at 
home. And thus the Fuh-kien band became specially 
connected with Ireland. Funds were guaranteed by the 
Irish Y.W.C.A. and other friends of Mrs. Stewart. In 
1893 the Ladies Auxiliary (C.E.Z.M.S.) of the Dublin 
University Fuh-kien Mission was started, which, in 
1895, sent out its first two representatives, Miss MOXGAN 
and Miss GARDINER. 

Miss (rough s second and deeply interesting report 
appeared in November, 1885. She speaks of spending 
happy hours week after week in visiting with Bible and 
concertina among the heathen women in numberless 
villages, and also many families of high rank and 
position in the city ; she was generally accompanied by 
Mrs. Ahok, who, under her teaching, became a more 
and more earnest and whole-hearted follower of Christ. 
Called away, however, by her marriage with the Rev. J. 
C. Hoare, M.A. (C.M.S.), to another sphere of labour in 
Ningpo, Miss Gough left behind her many open doors. 
On October 18th, 1886, Miss I. and Miss H. NEWCOMBE, 
two young Irish ladies who had been able to offer them 
selves freely to the Foo-chow Mission, sailed for this 
station. The sisters landed at Foo-chow on a Saturday, 
and took their first lesson in the language on the 
Monday morning a practical proof of their zeal ! 

Under the title, " A Call from Fuh-Ning-Fu," in 1887 
two letters from Dr. and Mrs. B. Van Someren Taylor 
were issued in India s Women (the organ of the C.E.Z.M.S.) 
(p. 215), each an urgent plea for " one or two " more 
ladies to be sent out quickly to the rapidly growing field 
of work. And in the March Number of India s Women 
we find that, "As we go to press an urgent letter reaches 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z M.S. WORK IN CHINA l6l 

us from the Rev. F. E. Wigram, dated Foo-chow, May 
3rd, 1887, in which., after pointing out all the needs of 
Fuh-Ning-Fu and Kucheng, he adds, I do earnestly 
trust that the Lord will enable your Society to send out 
and occupy these two stations promptly. ; 

This was accompanied by a " very important docu 
ment " an appeal signed by all the missionaries of 
Foo-chow, male and female, to the American and English 
Societies for employing women as missionaries, urging 
that in all places where Europeans were established in 
that province, ladies should be sent out. 

Urgent appsals from individual missionaries followed 
closely on the receipt of this memorial. The Rev. W. 
Banister, of Kucheng, wrote : 

"Nine missionary ladies in the whole of the vast 
empire of China, representing the activity and the 
missionary zeal of the Church of England ! two in 
Hong Kong, four in Foo-chow (hundreds of miles from the 
former), two in Mid-China, and one in the far North, 
each little band separated by hundreds of miles of inter 
vening heathenism. Is this enough ? Would 
it be thought enough to have a little band of labourers 
at Aberdeen, another at Birmingham, and one each in 
London, Paris, and Berlin?" 

The Rev. R. W. Stewart, under date June 2nd, 1887, 
" asked leave to add his voice to the general cry " : 

" The field for ladies work in our Mission is simply 
enormous. Not only are there those wealthier homes, 
into a number of which my wife has now access, and 
which can only be reached by ladies for even our 
Bible- women cannot get into them but there is also the 
whole field covered by our Mission, and in which there is 

M 



!62 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

scarcely any woman s work (comparatively speaking) 
being done, owing to lack of lady workers." 

His letter contains the following practical state 
ment : 

" I fully believe that 50 per annum would be sufficient, 
plus a teacher s salary of 12 per annum, and of course 
itinerating expenses when she is able for it. If she adds 
to this her dressmaker s bill, she will know just what 
her total expenses would be. I do not know much about 
the last item, but it certainly need not be as large as at 
home. Missionary ladies dress very quietly, and do not 
go in for tennis parties or things of that kind. They 
have not time, or, at any rate, they ought not to have. 

"If any lady wants to come out to the Foo-chow 
heathen, and only requires what will keep her comfort 
ably in all things needful, you will see from above the 
proper amount." 

At that moment the two C.E.Z.M.S. stations in China 
were Hong Kong, where Mrs. Ost, the wife of the Rev. J. 
B. Ost, C.M.S., was our honorary missionary, and Foo- 
chow. In November, 1888, the editor of India s Women 
is able to say : 

li It is just a year since the appeal, Come over and 
help us, was published in our magazine with the signa 
tures of thirty-five missionaries and missionaries wives 
at Foo-chow, including the Misses Inie and Hessie New- 
combe, who at that time represented our Society in 
China. Since then Miss BBADSHAW and Miss DA VIES have 
arrived in Foo-chow, and Miss JOHNSON is on her way 
thither. Our number is thus raised to five in the Fuh-kien 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 163 

province, besides the three going forth to Shanghai 
and Ningpo." 

The " three " here referred to are the Misses Newcombe, 
who, in answer to earnest appeals from Bishop and 
Archdeacon Moule of Mid-China for " two lady mission 
aries," went to commence work at Shanghai just as two 
years before their two sisters went forth to Foo-chow. 
An anonymous donor, to whom our Society owes much, 
founded this mission by a special gift ; and at the 
urgent request of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hoare, Miss FRENCH 
was sent to Ningpo. 

Interest in China and our work there was by this 
time becoming so wide-spread that the good news was 
announced in our little periodical that " the sums sent in 
to the Foreign Missionary Branch of the Y. W.C.A. in 
Tasmania since July, 1887, amounted to 66 16s. 3c?., so 
that the Association hopes to undertake the support of 
one missionary under the C.E.Z.M.S. in China." The 
Tasmanian Branch owed much of its vitality under God 
to its energetic Chairman and Treasurer, Mr. and Mrs. 
George Fagg. 

But so far did the demand for workers exceed the 
supply, that Miss Inie Newcombe writes in the summer 
of 1889 :- 

"Next autumn we can only send , workers to Lo- 
Nguong by sacrificing, to a great extent, the country 
work in Kucheng. And at the spring meeting of our 
Ladies Union it was proposed and passed that the 
Zenana ladies should extend on into Lieng-Kong and 
Hokchiang, two large districts, where as yet there has 
been no missionary to the women. 

" Six ladies are absolutely inadequate to take charge 



1 64 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

of such a vast field of work. AVork in Foo-chow city 
among the ladies, and occasional help in the Bible- 
woman s School, will take at least one missionary. Ku- 
cheng, simply to carry on the work already started, 
not to mention extension, will require four two for the 
women s and girls school work in the city, and evange 
lization work in the city and neighbourhood, and two 
more for visiting the country stations ; that leaves only 
one out of the six for Lo-Nguong, Hokchiang, and Lieng- 
Kong. Each district ought to have, to begin with, two 
ladies ; and as the work extends, more would be needed. 
And there are really only four of the six who know 
enough of the language to be able to begin work. If 
these women are to be reached we must have more 
workers." 

Amongst the arrivals on furlough in the spring of 
1890 came Miss Braclshaw from Foo-chow, accompanied 
by Mrs. Ahok, whose story we have given on p. 61 
" BEHIND THE GTKEAT WALL." 

Mrs. Ahok was the wife of a Mandarin, and the second 
lady member of high-class Chinese society who had ever 
come to Europe, the other being the wife of an ambas 
sador recently accredited to our court. Her sole object 
was to stir up the ladies of England to come out as mis 
sionaries to her country-women. 

Amongst the numerous meetings which Mrs. Ahok 
addressed, one in the Guildhall, Cambridge, on May 
23rd, deserves special mention. In spite of its being 
arranged at very short notice, the audience crowded the 
room to welcome the brave, indefatigable Chinese lady. 
The chair was taken by Sir Charles Aitchison, and the 
speakers were, besides Mrs. Ahok, Mrs. Stewart, Pro- 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 165 

fessor Babington, and General C. G. Robinson. Twelve 
University men acted as stewards, and by their kind 
efforts contributed greatly to the success of the meeting. 

After spending nearly four months in England and 
Ireland pleading for missionaries, Mrs. Ahok returned to 
China on June 27th, her departure being hastened by 
the news of her husband s illness. She was accompanied 
by Miss Florence MEAD, C.E.Z.M.S., who volunteered to 
undertake the journey to Foo-chow, vid Canada, at a few 
weeks notice. 

At the Annual Dismissal in October, 1890, three more 
workers for China were bidden God-speed thus : 

" The Committee have selected you, Miss STRONG- and 
Miss WELLER, from among those who have had the ad 
vantage of the year s training at The Willows, to pro 
ceed to the Fuh-kien province ; and more recently they 
have gladly accepted your offer, Miss LESLIE, to go as an 
honorary worker to the same field. Our widowed sister, 
Mrs. Ahok, will hail your coming as a proof that her 
pleadings with her English sisters have not been in vain. 
Our little band of consecrated labourers in Foo-chow and! 
at Kucheng will also bid you welcome in the Master s 
Name." 

In 1891 four out of a band of eighteen of our mis 
sionaries were assigned to China, and were dismissed 
at the Mildmay Conference Hall on October 2nd with 
these words : 

" It is appropriate that your destination, Miss CODRING- 
TON, should be in the Fuh-kien province ; for it was 
by the lips of Mrs. Ahok that the Master s call came 
which finally led you to decide to offer for foreign 
missionary work. It will cheer our widowed sister s 



1 66 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

heart to see in your arrival a fresh proof that her 
appeals for workers have not been in vain. 

" Yon, Miss BEYER, have been appointed to work in 
China as the representative for the present of a friend, 
who hopes that she may herself some day be allowed 
to labour there. The exact part of the Fuh-kien 
province in which you and Miss Codrington will be 
called to labour will be determined by the Ladies Con 
ference, which meets in November. 

" You, Miss DERRY, are going to devote your experi 
ence gained in nursing to the service of Christ for 
the Chinese women in the hospital at Foo-chow. You 
will work under the direction of the medical man in 
charge of the hospital, who will welcome you as a 
helper in the Master s name. 

" Your name, Miss BODD, has been added to our list. 
After years of patient waiting on the Lord, the desire 
of your heart has been granted. Without any action 
on your part, friends have offered to provide what is 
required for your passage to China, and your mainten 
ance there while working with the Misses Newcombe 
and Miss Johnson in the N.W. of the Fuh-kien province." 

During this year changes took place in stations and 
staff. Ningpo disappeared from the list, to be replaced 
by Kien-ning. The marriages of Miss Clara Bradshaw 
to Mr. Millard, of Miss Davies with the Rev. H. C. 
Knox, C.M.S., and of Miss French with Dr. Daly, of 
Ningpo, left gaps in our roll of missionaries, though 
in each case their sphere only was changed. 

Much interest attached to our Chinese reinforcements 
at the Autumn Dismissal of 1892. We quote from 
the instructions read at that farewell meeting : 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 167 

" With the exception of Miss HOOK, whose offer of 
service was an open one, those whom we are sending 
out this year volunteered especially for China. "We 
surely cannot be wrong in tracing this steady flow of 
missionary interest in the direction of the Fuh-kien 
province to the visit of Mrs. Ahok. The immediate 
result was small, but our sister s hopeful words, They 
will come, are being verified. Again, we cannot fail 
to note the spacial power which has accompanied the 
appaals of Rev. R. W. and Mrs. Stewart for labourers. 
More than one-half of those who are about to sail 
for China this year, as well as others still under training, 
received the definite call through their lips. Through 
them, too, in more than one instance, individuals and 
congregations have been stirred up to claim the privi 
lege of maintaining them. Three of you, Miss ELSIE 
MARSHALL, Miss HAXKIN, and Miss STEWART, as daughters 
of evangelical clergymen, have enjoyed both the advan 
tage of nurture in Christian homes and the varied 
experience of well-worked parishes. You also, Miss 
LLOYD, are willingly yielded up at the Master s call by 
parents who rejoice in this fruit of their prayers and 
early training. Your recent visit to Ireland has led to 
your adoption by Y.W.C.A. Branches in Tyrone as their 
representative. In the same way you, Miss LEE, go forth 
as representing and supported by the Y.W.C.A. of Limer 
ick. Both you and Miss BURROUGHS have had valuable 
preparation for the foreign field in connection with the 
Irish Church Missions and other Christian work." 

Disturbances in the Empire of China in the spring 
of 1892 brought the C.E.Z.M.S. work there into promi 
nence. India s Women for August (p. 341) contained 



1 68 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

a letter from Miss Johnson, written in April, describing 
the outrage at Ceng-wa in the Kien-ning prefecture. 
Although the work was interrupted for a time, our 
missionaries were providentially preserved, and their 
way opened into many other towns and villages. The 
three headquarters of the C.E.Z. Mission in China still 
remained Foo-chow, Kucheng, and Kien-ning. 

In the same year, 1892, a remarkable document 
reached the office of the C.E.Z.M.S. : a sheet of paper 
which, from its colour, might have been dyed with 
the rich red azaleas which cover thousands of miles of 
the "Land of Flowers," written up and down with 
Chinese characters, and enclosed in a floridly decorated 
envelope. Here is the translation : 

" A petition, presented by Li-Sie-HIi (tlie Notice superin 
tendent) on behalf of all the Christians connected with 
Ping-Nang Native Church Council. 

" "Whereas your humble servant, Li-Sie-Mi, having 
been appointed by the Church, is in charge of the 
congregation which assembles at Tong Kio, and is 
also (Native) superintendent of the district of Ping- 
Nang. In my visitation of the out-stations I have 
seen the great opportunity (i.e. for the Gospel) there 
is in every place where there are many who are deeply 
in earnest in their solicitude for the truth, and in their 
investigation of the Scriptures. This truly is a great 
sight. Since I was appointed to the office of superin 
tendent I have seen how all the Christians in every 
place have increased in knowledge of the truth and 
edification. There are many women who are Christians, 
both old a-nd young, who beg the English Church to 
appoint lady teachers to reside in the Ping-Nang district, 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 169 

who will direct and conduct the work amongst the 
women, and visit all the congregations, and instruct 
them (the women) in the "Word of God and teach them 
to pray, that thus they may all understand the doctrine 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

" To the English Society for "Women, to all the 
pastoresse* and venerable ladies (who direct the Society). 

" Trusting you will grant this petition, a joint petition 
from all the members of the Ping-Nang Native Church 
Council." 

Ping-Nang is a district 400 miles in extent, about 
twelve miles wide by about twenty long, containing a 
teeming unevangelized heathen population. In appor 
tioning the work of the C.E.Z.M.S. ladies, however, 
one only could be spared to be Christ s witness to the 
women of this great district. Miss GORDON, the daughter 
of an active member of the Zenana Committee in 
Queensland, Australia, who set sail for China in 1891, 
began in 1893 to visit Ping-Nang from her head 
quarters at Kucheng, and in 1894 established herself 
at Dong-gio, the chief station. 

At the close of December, 1893, our stations in China 
numbered seven, and our missionaries twenty-eight, 
six new workers having been dismissed to the Fuh-kien 
province. 1 Five of the number were to be maintained 
in the field by friends at home. Holy Trinity, Leicester, 
sent out Miss TABBERER as its second representative^ 
and St. John s, Blackheath, supplied Miss WITHERBY as 
number two of its congregation in the foreign field. 
Miss COOPER, Miss TOLLEY, and Miss CHAMBERS set sail 

1 The Fuli-ning prefecture is specially reserved for C.M.S. 
ladies. 



170 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

also for China, together with Miss BARE, who was 
appointed as a missionary nurse to take charge of 
the new female ward in the Foo-chow hospital, under 
the charge of Dr. Rennie. 

The Eev. E. W. Stewart, who since 1887 had been 
the valued Corresponding Secretary to the C.E.Z.M.S., 
had now. with his devoted wife, sp3iit a two years 
furlough for the benefit of his health in stirring many 
in England, Ireland, America, and Australia to offer 
for the work and to contribute for the support of workers 
in China. They returned to Kucheng in 1893, to receive 
a hearty welcome from the Fuh-kien band of C.E.Z.M.S. 
missionaries old and new, which they had so largely 
reinforced by their indefatigable labours and appeals. 

The grave condition of affairs in China during the 
early part of 1894, whilst the great empires of the far 
East were shaken with war, caused the Committee to 
delay the departure of Miss Wedderspoon. the sole re 
inforcement for the Fuh-kien Mission that autumn. 
But including Miss WEDDEKSPOON, Miss STROXG, at home 
for the benefit of her health, and Miss Hessie NEWCOMBE, 
then on her way out after furlough, the band of C.E.Z.M.S. 
missionaries at the end of 1894 numbered thirty, three 
entirely honorary, four not drawing full allowance from 
the Society, fourteen supported in whole or part by 
special gifts, with a staff of Bible-women and teachers, 
and nine C.E.Z.M.S. stations had been established. 

Much anxiety was felt, and much prayer called forth 
that year for our missionaries in the Fuh-kien province. 
And, kept in peace without and within, never have they 
written more brightly. 

In April, 1895, Kucheng was the scene of a riot, 
described by Mr. Stewart in the July number of India s 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 17 1 

Women. The Christian community, numbering 100, 
found refuge within the city. For three days it re 
mained straitly shut up ; then the rebels retreated, and 
by the advice of the Consul the ladies went to Foo-chow, 
Mr. Stewart remaining behind. 

On April 21st he wrote hopefully that all was peace, 
and soon after this the ladies returned to their work in 
Kucheng. 

During the two hottest months, the missionaries 
usually go to the hills, and in Hwa-sang (Flowery Hill). 
a hill village six miles from Kucheng, representatives of 
the C.M.S. and an American Society were staying on 
August 1st. Five C.E.Z.M.S, ladies were also there 
Miss Hessie Newcombe, Miss Elsie Marshall, Miss Flora 
Stewart, Miss Gordon, and Miss Codringtoii. Of the 
other ladies belonging to Kucheng and the neighbour 
hood, Mies Nisbet was on furlough in Australia, and 
Misses Weller and Rochfort Wade (Kttcheng), Misses M. 
Newcombe and Burroughs (Sang-Yong}, and Miss Tolley 
(Miss Codrington s companion at Sa-Yong}, had not at the 
time of the attack returned from the neighbourhood of 
Foo-chow. 

The story of the massacre that took place on August 
1st at Hwa-sang is told in " BEHIND THE GKEAT WALL." 
Four C.E.Z.M.S. missionaries were called up higher 
Miss Hessie Newcombe, Miss Annie Gordon, Miss Elsie 
Marshall, and Miss Flora Stewart. We had never before 
lost a single missionary by death in China. Loving 
hands laid to rest all that was mortal of these four 
martyred sisters in Foo-chow cemetery on Monday, 
August 5th, 1895. 

The terrible event was immediately regarded by all 
workers for Foreign Missions as a special call to prayer. 



1 72 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

On Tuesday evening, August 13th, the great hall of 
Exeter Hall was filled, at the invitation of the C.M.S. 
and C.E.Z.M.S., with an assembly in which were repre 
sentatives of the S.P.G-., the Baptist Missionary Society, 
the Presbyterian Church of England Missions, the China 
Inland Mission, and other Societies. The object of the 
meeting was simply to afford the friends of Missions an 
opportunity of assembling for united prayer on behalf of 
the Chinese Missions, and especially on behalf of the re 
latives and friends of the martyred missionaries of Ku- 
cheng. Sir John Kennaway presided, and with him on 
the platform were the Right Rev. Bishop Moule, of Mid- 
China ; the Rev. W. W. Cassels, Bishop-designate of 
Western China ; the Rev. Llewelyn Lloyd, a former 
missionary in Kucheng ; the Rsv. H. E. Fox (successor 
of the Rev. F. E. Wigram as Hon. Clerical Secretary of 
the C.M.S.) ; Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Governor of 
South Australia, and many other clerical and lay sup 
porters of Christian Mission work. The invitation to 
prayer gave the names of the victims thus : 

" WITH CHRIST." 

Eobevt Warren Stewart, C.M.S. 

Louisa K. Stewart, C.M.S. 

Hessie Newcombe, C.E.Z.M.S. 

Elsie Marshal], C.E.Z.M.S. 

Harrietts Elinor Saunders, C.M.S. 

Elizabeth Maud Sauuders, C.M.S. 

Flora Lucy Stewart, C.E.Z.M.S. 

Anna Mary Christina Gordon, C.E.Z.M.S. 

Herbert Stewart. 

Hilda Sylvia Stawart. 

Lena Yellop. 

[Kucheng, August 1st, 1S95. 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 173 

The meeting opened with the hymn, " God, our 
Help in Ages past," the General Confession and well- 
chosen Collects, and the whole tone was solemn and 
trustful. 

Representatives of all the great missionary organiza 
tions took part in the meeting, which closed with the 
whole audience singing on their knees, " When I survey 
the wondrous Cross." Bishop Moule, of Mid-China, 
pronounced the Benediction. 

On November llth Miss Leslie and Miss Codriiigton 
arrived safely in England, the progress of the latter 
towards recovery wonderful, her courage and hope of 
returning to China unshaken. 

A letter dated Foo-chow, August 28th, 1895, was re 
ceived during the same month, signed by twenty-two 
C. E.Z. missionaries, pleading earnestly for reinforce 
ments. We extract the following as typical of its spirit 
and tenor : 

" We all want to make, through you, a strong appeal 
to our sisters in Christ in the homelands, and to ask, 
Who is coming out to fill up the sad gaps in our 
ranks ? . . . 

" Just before this dreadful thing happened, it seemed 
as though doors were being opened wide everywhere ; we 
all in our several districts were longing, praying, and 
writing to ask for more workers. 

" I have set before thee an open door, and 110 man 
can shut it. We believe that our God is going to turn 
this masterpiece of Satan s to His own glory, and to the 
increase of His kingdom. Surely He must have some 
wonderful harvest in store from the precious lives laid 
down. We are asking the Master for ten, to take the 



174 BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 

place of each one of our dear C.E.Z. sisters ; this is forty 
altogether." 

At the General Committee held on Wednesday, De- 
cembsr 4th, Miss Leslie, C.E.Z. M.S., Foo-chow, and Miss 
B. Newcombe, C.E.Z.M.S., Nang-wa, were introduced to 
the Committee, and gave extremely interesting accounts 
of their work. Both pressed the desirability of new 
ladies going out to China as soon as possible. 

A telegram from Archdeacon Wolfe, and letters from 
the Eev. W. Banister, one of them written on the 
journey between Kucheng and Foo-chow, were read, 
requesting that additional ladies might be sent out 
three for Lo-Nguong, and four for Hing-hwa. After 
consideration, it was resolved that the new missionaries 
appointed to China, whose departure was deferred in the 
autumn, might be allowed to proceed to Foo-chow, in 
company with ladies of the C.M.S., on January 17th, in 
order that they might be acquiring the Chinese language 
in that city. These missionaries were not to be located 
in country districts without the authority of the Home 
Committee. Passages on the Rome, P. and 0., were 
taken for Misses Gardiner, Wathen, and Mongan, for 
China. 

In the February number of India s Women (1896) the 
following Committee note was inserted : 

"Letters were read from the Revs. W. Banister. J. 
Martin, and H. B. Macartney in reference to the Fuh- 
kien Mission. Mr. Banister willingly accepts the Com 
mittee s invitation to undertake psrmanently the office of 
Corresponding Secretary, in the place of the late Eev. E. 
W. Stewart, with whose policy and methods of working he 



THE STORY OF C.E.Z.M.S. WORK IN CHINA 175 

is heartily in accord. Mr. Martin, on being asked by the 
Conference to take charge of the Kucheng district, ex 
presses his heartfelt sympathy with the Society s work, 
and his desire to carry on the work there on the lines 
laid down by his deceased brother. He asks the prayers 
of the Committee in entering on this responsible charge. 
It is hoped that the ladies may soon return to their work 
at Lo-Nguong and in the Hing-hwa district, but it is 
feared that some months must still elapse before the 
Kucheng district can be reoccupied. Miss Hankin (who 
is engaged to the Eev. H. S. Phillips, C.M.S.) and Miss 
Johnson, Nang-wa, are on their way to England, and it 
has been thought well that Miss F. M. Lloyd and Miss 
Tolley should go for a short change to Japan. Miss 
Bryer and Miss Rodd are doing useful literary work on 
the Romanized form of the colloquial spoken in the 
Kien-ning district, and Miss Weller is filling the office 
of house-mother at The Olives, Foo-chow, with great 
advantage to the work and the workers. 

" A telegram has been sent to Melbourne from Foo- 
chow, sanctioning the return of Miss Nisbet to China in 
January, and accepting the offer of service of Miss 
KINGSMILL, of Tasmania, who is able to go at her own 
charges." 

On March 30th, 1896, Miss Codrington writes : 

" I have just had letters from China containing the 
welcome news that the dear sisters have been allowed to 
go back to their stations. Miss M. Newcombe and Miss 
Burroughs had left for Kucheng city, Misses "Witherby 
and Tabberer for Dang-seng, Miss Hook for Lo-Nguong, 
Miss Wedderspoon to follow later. The Nang-wa sisters 



1 7 6 



BEHIND THE GREAT WALL 



were waiting for Dr. Bigg, and Miss "Weller was remain 
ing in Foe-chow till she had welcomed Miss Kingsmill 
from Australia, and instructed her in the duties of house 
mother at The Olives. Miss "Wade was hoping to go 
up to Kucheng with Miss Nisbet, and Miss Tolley, who 
with Miss Lloyd had not yet arrived from Japan." 



INDEX 



A. 

AHOK, THE STORY OF MRS., pp. 60-90. 

India s Women, 1884, p. 316 ; 1885, p. 325 ; 1889, p. 108 ; 1890, 
pp. 110, 157, 182, 183 ; 1891, pp. 10, 11, 41, 297 ; 1893, p. 547 ; 
1895, p. 538. 

Eobert and Louisa Stewart, pp. 75-80, 97, 166. 
A Remarkable Answer to Prayer, by Lady Bcaujolois Dent 

(C.E.Z.M.S., Id.). 

AUSTRALIAN AUXILIARY (C.E.Z.M.S.). 
India s Women, 1889, p. 54. 

B. 

BIBLE WOMEN, pp. 42-59. 

India s Women, 1885, p. 324 ; 1886, p. 317 ; 1887, p. 304 ; 1888, 

p. 318; 1891, p. 40; 1894, p. 569. 

A Voice from China, by the late Mrs. Stewart (C.E.Z.M.S., Id.). 
Six Years among the Women of China, by the late Miss Hessie 
Newcombe (C.E.Z.M.S., Id.). 

C. 
CHITNIO, THE STORY OF, pp. 44-47. 

India s Women, 1884, p. 315 ; 1892, pp. 99-102. 
CHINA, DESCRIPTION OF, pp. 1-18. 

CONVERSIONS, pp. 28, 35-38, 65, 67, 99, 100, 108, 109, 110, 120, 121. 
India s Women, 1888, p. 319 ; 1892, p. 557 ; 1893, pp. 281, 550, 

557, 564. 

For His Sake (E.T.S.), pp. 176, 179, 182-185. 
His Witnesses (C.E.Z.M.S., 1.9.), pp. 26, 37, 51, 53. 

D. 
DUBLIN AUXILIARY (C.E.Z.M.S.), p. 160. 

177 



i 7 8 



INDEX 



F. 

FOOT-BINDING, pp. 12, 13, 51, 73, 76, 105, 107, 103. 
India s Women, 1888, pp. 318, 320. 
For His Sake, p. 43. 
FOUNDLINGS, pp. 93-98. 

India s Women, 1891, p. 41 ; 1892, p. 46 ; 1893, p. 127 ; 1895, p. 

206. 

Robert and Louisa Steicart (Marshall Bros.), p. 99. 
For His Sake, pp. 48, 122, 126. (Picture of Tower into which 

living infants are thrown.) 
His Witnesses, pp. 17, 27. 
FEASTS AND FOOD, pp. 12, 32, 33, 69, 86. 

India s Women, 1887, pp. 303, 305; 1890, p. 108. 
For His Sake, pp. 41, 191. 
FUH-KIEN, DESCRIPTION OF, p. 21. 
FOO-CHOW, WORK IN, pp. 23, 122, 132. 

Women s Work in the Fufi-kien Province^ China, No. 1, April, 
1890 (C.E.Z.M.S.. Id.). 

H. 
HWA-SANG, pp. 137-151. 

Grace and Glory Hica-sany, Aug. 1st, 1895 (C.E.Z.M.S., Id.) 
HOSPITAL, FOO-CHOW (see MEDICAL MISSION WORK). 

I. 
IDOLATRY, pp. 14. 18, 67, 71. 

India s Women, 1895, pp. 31, 32, 133. 

For His Sake, pp. 58. SO, 91. 157. 
INFANTICIDE, pp. 91, 93, 94. 

India s Women, 1889, p. 333 (see FOUNDLINGS). 

K. 

KUCHENG, DESCRIPTION OF, p. 126. 

Six Years in China, p. 16. 

His Witnesses, p. 10. 
KUCHENG, RIOTS IN. pp. 126-131. 

India s Women. 1892. pp. 341-349. 545, 550 ; 1893, p. 258 ; 1895, 
p. 294. 

For His Sake, p. 195. 

His Witnesses, p. 55. 



INDEX 179 

L. 
LANGUAGE, CHINESE, pp. 24-23. 

Robert and Louisa Stewart, pp. 153-161 (Romanized Colloquial). 
For His Sake, pp. 32, 38, 45. 

M. 
MEDICAL MISSION WORK, pp. 113-123. 

India s Women, 1886, p. 317; 1891, p. 44; 1895, p. 553; 1894, 

pp. 231, 556. 

For His Sake, pp. 168, 210. 

Stories about China, by Annie R. Butler, pp. 34-46. 
Opening of M. M. Work, Hing-hwa, by Alice Hankin (C.E.Z. 

M.S., Id.), pp. 6-9. 
MANNERS, CHINESE, pp. 11, 12. 
MASSACRE, pp. 142-145. 

O. 

OPIUM SMOKING, pp. 14, 19, 118, 119. 
India s Women, 1893, p. 557. 
His Witnesses, p. 51. 

S. 

STATION CLASSES, pp. 54-59. 
SCHOOLS, pp. 99-112. 

V. 
VISITING IN VILLAGES, pp. 31-41. 

India s Women, 1885, p. 325; 1886, p. 316; 1887, pp. 61, 301 ; 
1890, p. 119 ; 1893, p. 557 ; 1894, p. 83 ; 1895, p. 132. 

Robert and Louisa Sreivart, p. 177. 

For His Sake, pp. 147-151. 

His Witnesses, pp. 36, 43. 

Women s Work in the Fuh-kien Province, No. 2 (C.E.Z.M.S., Id.). 
VOYAGE OUT, pp. 23, 24. 

For His Sake, pp. 24, 26, 27, 39. 

W. 

WEDDINGS, pp. 13, 14, 111. 

For His Sake, pp. 42, 62, 95. 



Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. 



Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. 

(In co-operation with the Church Missionary Society.) 
patroness. 

H.R.H. THE DUCHESS OF CONNAUGHT. 



3DrtstUcnt. 

THE COUNTESS OF DARNLEY. 



LADY AITCHTS^N. 

MRS. J. D. BOURDILLON. 

LADY CHESNEY. 



LADY DYNEVOR. 



MRS. A. H. HEYWOOD. 
LADY KKNNAWAY. 
MRS. ROBERT MACLAGAN. 
t MRS. F. N. MALTBY. 



LADY MONIER-WILTJAMS. 

THE DOWAGER LADY NAPIER OP 



G 



THELAIVY HENRIETTA PELHAM. 
LADY ROBINSON. 
* MRS. SANDYS. 
t MRS. STUART. 
MRS. F. E. WIGRAM. 



MRS. HENRY WRIGHT. 



(Committee. 



CT V a C\ainnan-J. D. TREMLETT, ESQ., LATE I.C.S. 



t* MRS. BANNISTER. 

MRS. BARLOW. 
8 MRS. H. B. B( SWELL. 

MRS. E. BRODIK HOARE. 

MRS. BURROUGHS. 
t MISS DENNY. 

MRS. WILLIAM GRAY. 
t MRS. HASKLL. 

MRS. P. IRELAND-JONES. 



MISS LANG. 

MISS LAWRENCE. 
* MRS. ROSS I.OWIS. 

MRS. D. J. McNKlLE. 
* MRS. PIPER. 

MRS. P. V. SMITH. 

MRS. HENRY TROTTER. 

MRS. ROBERT TROTl KR. 

MRS. ROBERT WILLTAMS. 



IJonorarg treasurer. 

COLONEL ROBERT WILLIAMS, M.P. 

Sctrctartrs. 

MAJOR-GENERAL C. G. ROBINSON (Honorary). 
COLONEL G. R. STKWART BLACK. COLONEL R. F. LOW1S, FINANCIAL (Ifon.).! 

Clerical Secret arg. 

REV. GEORGE TONGE. M.A., 129, PETaEBTOif ROAD, CANONBUEY, N. 

Central Association Sccretarg. 

t MISS MULVANY, 6, PAKE VILLAS, CHAELTON ROAD, BLACKHEATH, S.E. 

Secrctarg in Cfjargt of publications. 

t MISS DONA L. WOOLMKR. 

Secrrtarg Superintendent of Pjome. 

MRS. BARDSLEY, MANOB HOUSE, LEIGH ROAD, HIGHBUBY, N. 

Cratoclltncf Stcrrtarg. 

MRS. GREAVES. 

?&onoraru fflefcical &efmrs. 

SIE WILLIAM H. BROADBENT, BABT., M.D., 84, BROOK STBEET, W. 

J. L. MAXWELL, ESQ., M.D., 49, HIGHBUEY PABK, N. 

GEORGE LAWSON, ESQ., F.R.C.S., OCDLIST, 12, HABLET STBEKT, CAVENDISH 

SQUABE, W. 

Committee. 

E. R. MORRIS. ESQ. 
MAJOR-GENERAL C. G. ROBINSON. 
J. D. TREMLETT, ESQ. LATB I.C.S. 

F. P. WEAVER, ESQ., M.D. 
COLONEL ROBERT WILLIAMS, M.P. 



COLONEL G. R, STEWART BLACK. 
C. E. CHAPMAN, KSQ., LATE I.C.S. 
MAJOR-GEN, (i. HUTCH1NSON, C.B., 

C.S.I. 
COLONEL R. F. LOWIS. 



Bankers. 

WILLIAMS DEACON AND MANCHESTER AND SALFORD BANK, 20, BIBCHIN 
LAHE, LONDON, E.C. 

Member of Candidates Sub-Committee, t Member of Publications Sub-Committee. 
Member of House Sub-Committee. 

1 Contributions in aid of the Society to be paid to the FINANCIAL SECBETARY, 9, Salisbury 

Square, London, E.C. 

180 



CHURCH OF ENGLAND ZENANA MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

For full information as regards the Society s Stations and Work 
in India, China, and Ceylon see " PURPOSE, PRINCIPLES, AND 
PROGRESS," supplied gratis, and also 



Society s /lfcaga3ines. 

India s Women and China s Daughters, published monthly, price 
\d. It is well illustrated, and contains information of the Society s 
work at home and abroad, special topics of missionary interest, etc. 

Daybreak, a magazine for the young, eight pages quarterly, 
price Id. 

There are also a series of booklets, etc., published at intervals 
by the Society, of which a list is given (see Advertisement pages). 
These can be obtained from the Office, 9, Salisbury Square, E.G., or 
of any Bookseller. 



Society s TKHorfc an& ^financial IRee&s. 

At the close of 1895 the number of European Lady Missionaries, 
Assistants in Local Connection, Bible Women, Native Teachers, 
and Workers under the Society numbered 913. No fewer than 
5,834 Zenana houses were being visited, 4,665 of their inmates 
receiving instruction. The total number of pupils in Boarding, 
Day, and Sunday Schools was upwards of 8,000, whilst patients 
attending Hospitals and Dispensaries during the year numbered 
180,838. To support this work without extension, the Society re 
quires an annual income of 35,000, in addition to the contributions 
of the native Christians and Government Grants. 



Society s /llMssionaries in Cbina. 

The following is a list of China Stations and Missionaries as 
they were located at the time of the massacre at Hwa-Sang, 
August 1st, 1895, alphabetically arranged : 



WORKER. 


Dr^TKICT. 


WORK, ETC. 


Miss Barr 


Foo-chow . 


Nurse in Ahok Memorial AViiif 






Community Hospital. 


Miss Burroughs . . 


Sang-Yong 


Studying Language, Teaching in, 






Day School. 


Miss Bryer .... 


Nang-Wa . 


Translating New Testament inta 






Kien-ning Dialect. 


Miss Chambers. . . 


Foo-chow . 


Nurse in Ahok Memorial Wing 






Community Hospital. 


Miss Codrington . . 


Sa-Yong . 


Women s Station Class and Itiner 






ating. 


Miss Cooper .... 


Lo-Nguong 


Studying Language, Visiting in 






Villages. 



WOKKKK. 


DlhTHICT. 


WOKK, KTC. 


Miss Fleming . . 
Miss Gordon. . . 


Nang-Wa . 
Ping-Nan g 


Itinerating in Villages. 
Itinerating, Visiting in Vil 
lages. 


Miss A. Hankin . . 


Dang-Seng 


Women s Station Class, Visiting 
in Villages, Medical Missions. 


Miss Hook . . 
Miss F. Johnson . . 


Lo-Nguong 
Kien-ning . 


Itinerating in Villages. 
Nursing Women in C.M.S. Hospi 
tal (outside City Wall). 




Foo-chow . 


Heathen Girls Boarding School. 


Miss Leslie .... 


n 


Heathen Girls Boarding School, 
Visiting in City. 


Miss Lloyd .... 


Sieng lu . 


Women s School (Christian), Wo 
men s Day School (Heathen). 


Miss Mead ... 


Foo-chow . 


Visiting Ladies in City (on fur 
lough). 


Miss Marshall . . . 
Miss B. Newcombe . 
Miss H. Newcombe . 
Miss M. Newcombe . 


Kucheng . 
Nang Wa . 
Kucheng . 
Sang-Yong 


Itinerating in Villages. 
,. (on furlough). 
Christian Girls Boarding School. 
Station Class, Itinerating in 






Villages. 


Miss Nisbet .... 


Kucheng . 


Foundling Home (the "Birds 






Nest ") (on furlough). 


Miss Rochfort Wade 
Miss Kodd .... 


Kucheng . 
Nang-Wa . 


Studying Language. 
Translating New Testament 






(with Miss Bryer). 


Miss Stevens . . . 


Foo-chow . 


Visiting in Villages, Business for 






up-country Workers. 


Miss F. Stewart . . 


Kucheng . 


Itinerating in Villages. 


Miss Strong .... 


Foo-chow . 


Bible Women s Class (on fur 






lough). 


Miss Tabberer . . . 


Dang Seng 


Studying Language, Teaching 






Station Class. 


Miss Tolley .... 


Sa-Yong . 


Studying Language, Helping 






Miss Codrington. 


Miss Wedderspoon . 


Lo-Nguong 


Studying Language. 


Miss Weller .... 


Kucheng . 


Christian Girls Boarding School. 


Miss \Vitherby. . 


Sieng lu . 


Studying Language, Helping 






Miss Lloyd. 



N.B. The honoured name of the late Rev. B. W. STEWART, C.M.S., as 
COUUESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE C.E.Z.M.S., is inseparably connected 
with the above list of the Society s workers in China. For many years 
he was thus officially identified with the C.E.Z.M.S., which keenly 
mourns the loss of so valuable a counsellor and co-worker. Those who 
have read "BEHIND THE GREAT W T ALL " will recognise the names in 
the above list of those who on Aug. 1st, 1895, joined the " noble army 
of martyrs," and will realise how important and wide are the four gaps 
made in our narrowed ranks. For the need of reinforcements see page 
153 of our Story. 



182 



Church of England Zenana Jttissionapy Society, 

9, SALISBURY SQUARE, LONDON, E.G. 



PUBLICATIONS. 

"His Witnesses." Kucheng, August 1st, 1895. A Record of some of the 
Martyrs of the Fuh-kien Mission. By H. F. TURNER. This book, 6i pages, cr >\vn 
8vo, contains a brief notice of the lives of Miss Hessie Newcombe, Miss Elsie 
Marshall, Mis? Flora L. Stewart, and Miss M. A. C. Gordon, the four Missionaries 
of the C.B. Z.M.S. who were martyred at Hwa-Santr, August 1st, 1895, with Extracts 
from their Journals and Letters. Illustrated from Fuotographs. Price Is. 

Price Is. 6<i. post free, in paper and cloth boards. 

More Stories from Mother s Note-book. By LUCY I. TONGE. Fcap. 4to, 80 pp. 

Price 6d. per Packet. 
Assorted Books. Seven copies. Securely packed in ornamental wrapper. 

Price 6d. 

China. A Story in Six Parts. 
Manual of our Missions. 64 pp., Maps and Illustrations. 

Price 4d. each. Fifty (not less) Half-price. 
ndia s Daughters. A Service of Song, with Music. 

Kardoo. A Service of Song, with Music. Words of Hymns only, 2s. per 100. 
Zenana Children. A Reading for Lantern Lectures, with Music. 

Price 3d. Lithographed wrapper, Illustrated. 48 pp. 

Early Work amongst the Muhammedan Women of the Mysore. By M. A. T. 

Pn ce 2d. 

Missionary Reminiscences of A.L.O.E. By Rev. Dr. WEITBRECHT. 

Price 1d. each, or 7s. per 100. 
A Visit to Andul. By Miss E. G. SANDYS. 

Autobiography of a Zenana Doll, The. By Miss CARKY. Third Edition. 
Barrackpore ; or, How the Seed Grew. By U. S. O. 
Blind. By Miss A. SHARP. With Addendum by S. S. H. 
Daybreak in the Majha Country. By Miss HANBURY. Second Edition. 
Gleanings: Eight Pithy Papers. By A.L.O.E. 
Grace and Glory. Hwa-Sang, August 1st, 1895. 
Inside the Zenana. By Mrs. HASELL. Sixth Edition. 
In Memoriam. Kucheng, August 1st, 1895. A Sermon preached by Rev. 

J. W. MARSHALL, M.A. 
Is it True? By F. S. Third Edition. 
Little Gomi: Her Schooldays and Marriage. By Miss CAREY. Fourth 

Edition. 

Living Waters in Dry Places. By Miss HANBURY. 
More about Indian Widows. By Miss JACKSON. 
On the Afghan Frontier. A Plea for Medical Missions. By Dr. CHARLOTTE 

WHEELKK. 

Opening of Medical Mission Work in Hing-Hwa. By Miss HAN KIN. 
Our Missions. 1. Tinnevelly. Map and Illustrations. 
Pevi s Story. By Miss CAREY. 

Plea for the Widows of India. By Miss WAUTOX. Third Edition. 
Punjabi School Girls. Third Edition. By A. D. 
Kami s Doll in her Indian Home. Second Edition. 
Remarkable Answer to Prayer. By Lady BEAUJOLOIS DENT. 
"Rescue the Perishing." By a Native Worker. 

Six Years among the Women of China. By the late Miss H. NEWCOMBE. 
Shall I go 1 By Miss GRACE E. WILDER. 

183 



Sound of Abundance of Rain, A. By Miss PARSLEE. 

-That Nothing be Lost;" or, Daybreak Workers Union. By Mrs. BAB- 

TwentyYears Ago. By Miss E. G. HALL. Second Edition _ 

What is a Zenana? By Colonel BOLLAND, R.E. Sixth Edition. Revised 

ami Knlm-ired. With Map. 

Woman s Work in the Fuh-kien Province, China. 

Yet Not I; or, the Story of Aunt Fan. With Portrait of Dr. lanny Butler. 
By U. S. O. Third Edition. 

One Halfpenny each, 4\d. per dozen, 3s. per hundred. 
Children s Quarterly Illustrated Little Books. 
No. 1. A School Girl s Story. By Miss E. G. SANDYS. 
No. 2.-Quaing Sing s Dream. By E. M. P. 
Ko. 3. Fatma and her Schoolfellows. By A. D. 

Miniature Booklets. Children s Series, Illustrated. 

Snow White. By Miss CAKEV. 

Shushilla. By Miss SANDYS. Second Edition. 

Tale of a Bee. By Miss L. C. M. MOOPKR. 

Broken Jars, The. Bv the late Mr*. WEITBRECHT. Second Edition. 

May She become a Widow. By Miss DEWAK. 

The Little Afghan. 

Pity the Poor Indian Widow. By Miss SANDYS. 

The Last Chapter in the Story of Little Gomi. By Miss CAREY. 

Hymn Sheets for Meetings. Is. per 100. Series A, B, C, D. 
Drawing-room Meeting Cards, is. per 100. 



GRATIS. 



Purpose, Principles, and Progress. 

Monthly Cycle of Prayer. 

What is a Zenana Mission? 

An Outlook. 

Women s Meetings for Intercessory 

Prayer. 
The Relief Campaign. 



"Z": C.E.Z.M.S., What is it? 
India s Need of Lady Medical Mis 
sionaries. 
Subscription Slips. 
Collecting Cards, Boxes, etc. 
Latest Statistics, May, 1896. 



MAGAZINES. 

"Jn&ia s TOlomen anb Gbina Daughters." 

The Magazine of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. 
The Current Volume contains, in addition to General News of the C.R.Z.M.S., At 
Home and Abroad. Correspondence, Illustrated Talks with our MNsintmvie-, also 
Article*, Bible Studies, and Poetry, by the following writers: Kev. H. E. Fox, Rev. 
T. A. GuHNhY, Mrs. GBAY SKIPWITH, and others. 

Illustrated, and Issued Monthly. 

24 pages. Price Id. per Number ; Is. per Year, or 1s. 6d. post free from the Society s Office. 



A Quarterly Illustrated Magazine for Young People. 

^Specially representative of the Daybreak Workers Union giving Reports of Bands, 
Nonces of Exhibitions, Meetings, Correspondence, etc., and containing a Quarterly, 
Bible-Searching Competition. 

16 pages, price Id. 



PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE BOCIKTY, 9, SALISBUBY SQUARE, E.G., AND BT 

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LIMITED, LONDON. 

184 













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BV 3415 B3 1896 TRIM 

Barnes ? Irene H* 

Behind the Great Wall 140101 






BV 3415 B3 1896 TRIN 
Barnes, Irene H. 
Behind the Great Wall 



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