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[Illustration: W. J. Elmslie]
SEEDTIME IN KASHMIR:
A MEMOIR
OF
WILLIAM JACKSON ELMSLIE,
M.A., M.D., F.R.C.S.E., ETC,
LATE MEDICAL MISSIONARY, C. M. S., KASHMIR,
BY
HIS WIDOW;
AND
HIS FRIEND, W. BURNS THOMSON,
MEDICAL MISSIONARY.
LONDON:
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.
1875.
PREFACE.
It would have gratified me had this memoir of Dr. Elmslie been placed,
at an earlier date, in the hands of his friends; but circumstances, that
need not be recorded here, caused delay.
An earnest desire was expressed that it should be published, at the
latest, by Christmas; and, in meeting this wish, I have found it
impossible to afford Mrs. Elmslie, who is in India, an opportunity of
revising the work,–to the value of which she has contributed
largely,–prior to its publication; and so I regard myself as responsible
for the selection and setting of the matter it contains.
I owe thanks to those who have sent me reminiscences of Dr. Elmslie, or
who have accommodated me with the use of letters which they received
from him.
I trust this brief memoir of a manly, earnest student; a dutiful son; a
devoted medical missionary; and a true, steadfast friend, may be blessed
to do good, in answer to the much prayer that has accompanied its
preparation.
W. BURNS THOMSON.
MEDICAL MISSION-HOUSE, 1 RAMSAY GARDENS,
EDINBURGH, _December 1874_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. EARLY LIFE 1
II. SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LIFE 8
III. MEDICAL STUDENT LIFE IN ABERDEEN 17
IV. MEDICAL STUDENT LIFE IN EDINBURGH 30
V. JOURNEY TO INDIA 45
VI. FROM CALCUTTA TO KASHMIR 54
VII. KASHMIR–ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 70
VIII. WORK IN KASHMIR 87
IX. WAYSIDE MINISTRIES AND WORK IN AMRITSAR 117
X. SECOND YEAR'S WORK IN KASHMIR 133
XI. WORK IN CHAMBA 157
XII. THIRD YEAR'S WORK IN KASHMIR 173
XIII. VISIT TO CALCUTTA, AND WORK IN AMRITSAR 200
XIV. FOURTH YEAR'S WORK IN KASHMIR 209
XV. WAYSIDE MINISTRIES AND WORK IN KASHMIR 225
XVI. THE TRAINING OF NATIVE MEDICAL MISSIONARIES 238
XVII. FEMALE MEDICAL MISSIONARIES 246
XVIII. HOME VISIT 251
XIX. LAST YEAR'S WORK IN KASHMIR 259
XX. LAST JOURNEY AND DEATH 271
XXI. CONCLUSION 279
MEMOIR.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY LIFE.
On the 29th June 1832, the subject of this memoir was born in Aberdeen
to James and Barbara Elmslie. Their eldest child, a little girl, had
been taken from them shortly before his birth, so the mother called
William her "son of consolation," and most tenderly did she cherish this
first-born son during the early years of his life. The family was in
tolerably comfortable circumstances, as the father a boot-closer, was a
clever tradesman, and had plenty of work. William's earliest memories
were of a home in which his mother's presence was always pre-eminently
felt as the source of comfort and love. Mrs. Elmslie was no ordinary
woman. She was blessed with a vigorous intellect, a large measure of
common sense, much ingenuity and forethought, and a certain combination
of qualities that gave her the power to interest, to warm, to comfort,
and to command; and all was pervaded by the spirit of an unostentatious
Christianity. Her childhood had been spent among the sea-faring people
of Cromarty, amidst those scenes now made familiar to the world by Hugh
Miller's sketches of his early home. Her father, William Lawrence, as
captain of a vessel which sailed to all parts of the world, had an
adventurous history; and the details of his experience, fresh in her own
memory, were graphically conveyed to her boy; and it was his delight to
sit beside her and listen to these wonderful stories. He thus imbibed
much useful information; his imagination was stirred; and the spirit of
enterprise unconsciously fostered. The quiet life in Aberdeen was varied
by occasional visits to his paternal grandfather at Ballater, and deep
and fruitful impressions of the beauties of nature were gained amid the
grand mountain scenery of his native land. As William was delicate, when
a child, he was not much given to the romps of other boys; but preferred
staying beside his mother, who was always to him a treasury of comfort
and knowledge.
Having, through industry and economy, succeeded in saving a little
money, William's father, with the view of improving his fortune, removed
with his family to London; but, as might have been foreseen, the change
was not a happy one. A stranger in the mighty crowd of busy men, he soon
found that money was not more easily won there than in his native
country; and after struggling on for a year, without meeting the hoped
for tide of prosperity, his health failed, and he became seriously ill.
Worn out with constant watching and care Mrs. Elmslie was seized with
typhus fever, of so malignant a type, that their one servant fled from
the house in terror. The picture of the little household is most
touching. The father is still prostrate through weakness; the mother
raves in the delirium of fever; and the only attendant is a child eight
years of age! His sense of responsibility; his distress at witnessing so
much suffering; and his alarm, caused by the mysterious mutterings of
his much loved mother, broke in rudely upon the sweet dreams of
childhood, and set him face to face with stern realities. But matters
grew worse. A physician had occasionally dropped in upon them, and now
his aid is indispensable; but where is he to be found? The servant, who
might have told, is gone; the mother is unconscious; and the father does
not know; and so the brave boy sallies forth to seek him in the crowded
streets of London! As he wanders along he scans eagerly the face of
every one who seems like the friend he so much needs, but in vain; the
busy stream of human beings rushes past unheeding, and he feels utterly
desolate and in despair. Unable longer to bear up, he stands still, his
young heart bursting under its accumulated sorrows, and through his
tears sends up to heaven the cry, "God help me!" That is the burden of
his prayer. The lessons of his mother bear fruit in the hour of trial.
Right speedily comes the answer. A passer by stops, asks what is wrong,
and the child explains. He is directed to a house close at hand, where
he finds not a doctor merely, but a friend,–a friend whose unwearied
care and kindness are never to be forgotten. Soon after, William too was
prostrated by the dreadful fever; but this good physician watched over
him and never remitted his generous kindnesses–which were administered
in every needful form–till he saw the little family safely away from the
great city on their return to Aberdeen. When Dr. Elmslie arrived in
London on his return from India in 1870, one of his first visits was to
the house of this friend, but he was not there; and he could not
discover whether he still lived, or had gone to reap his reward from Him
who said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these,
my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
Strange to say, William's father seemed to give himself little thought
about the education of his boys, and insisted that William should follow
his own humble trade; and so the child was fully set apart to the
service of St. Crispin when only nine years of age. It was impossible
the slender youth could attempt any heavy kind of work, and so of
necessity he stood, in his new calling, on a platform a grade higher
than that occupied by the venerable Carey, who boasted that he was only
a "_cobbler_." "He excelled," writes Mr. William Martin, "specially in
the finer departments of the work, which required great care and
attention; and many a weary hour he spent at it, when other boys were
fast asleep, that he might earn sufficient to pay his fees and augment
the comforts of the mother whom he loved so well." William soon became
so expert that he was able to turn out a greater quantity of first-rate
work, in a given time, than almost any competitor. This not only
sensibly improved the domestic finance, but won for him a little
leisure, which he devoted to his much loved books.
It is good to bear the yoke in one's youth; but it was placed on William
so early, and pressed so heavily, that had it not been for the
encouragement of his mother, and his own unconquerable energy, he must
have remained ignorant of even the rudiments of learning. His mother did
all she could to cheer and help him; she often read aloud to him, and
got others to read, and in the evenings young friends frequently gave
him a share of what they were picking up at school. Thus he struggled on
for some six years before he entered the grammar school. Yea, the duties
of the trade lay hard upon him all through the time he was at school,
and continued even while attending the University; long, indeed, after
they ceased to be needful for his own support, for he gained a bursary,
and had good private teaching; but as the father's health declined, and
his eyesight became weak, the more the work was thrown over on the
dutiful son. But his application never flagged. To save time and help
himself forward, he used to fix his book in the "clambs" (an instrument
employed for holding the leather), and placing them conveniently in
front of him, he learned to pick up right quickly a sentence from Zumpt,
or a line from Homer, or any other book, and thus he stitched and
studied for long weary years; and so successfully, that before he had
reached the end of his Art's course, he had gained five prizes in
various classes, and a bursary. He used to refer to those days of
subjection to his father's will–of hard uncongenial work and repressed
desires–as a time of much mental and moral discipline. He learned
patience, perseverance, self-control, the value of time, and
faithfulness in discharging duty, however irksome. In going through his
daily drudgery in obedience to his father, he learned the invaluable
lesson that his life must be ruled, not by what is _pleasing_, but by
what is _right_.
William Elmslie could not recall a time when he was without thoughts,
more or less serious, regarding divine things. From his earliest years,
his mother earnestly sought to convey to him some of her store of
spiritual knowledge, which was her only riches. Many passages of
Scripture she repeated to him, till even when a very little boy he knew
them as familiar household words. The Westminster Shorter Catechism was
rendered precious to him all through life by her simple loving
expositions, and her quaint homely illustrations, drawn largely from her
own observation and experience. But it was not till he was fourteen
years of age that he came savingly to know Jesus. At that time, the
instructions of his mother received impressiveness through the faithful
dealing of his Sabbath School Teacher, who, in private personal
intercourse, pressed upon him the necessity of a new heart. Two passages
were made particularly useful at this time, and these were ever after
much prized. The first was, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. v. 8). The second,
"Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through His poverty might be
rich" (2 Cor. viii. 9). Although at this time, William came in contact
with a real living Saviour, his faith was very feeble; but, as it was
faith unfeigned, it grew. Religion became more satisfying to him than it
had ever been. He got pretty clear glimpses occasionally of his pardon
and acceptance in Immanuel; these multiplied and brightened till the
settled conviction of his life became–"_My beloved is mine, and I am
His._" He had been a dutiful son all along, but there was now a new
principle infused into his obedience that sweetened all the elements of
bitterness. He learned, when serving from love to his Father in heaven,
that if called to sacrifice in one direction, he reaped joys in another;
and that, after all, the way of _right_ is a way of pleasantness and a
path of peace.