WORK DEVELOPMENT
RELATING HOW WE SOUGHT TO ENCOMPASS THE WORK, AND THE WORK ENCOMPASSED
US
THE events of 1900 resulted in an extraordinary quickening of interest
amongst those who had a contact of some kind with Christianity. We very
soon found ourselves quite overwhelmed by the many openings and
opportunities which presented themselves on all sides. Hitherto
untouched villages begged for a visit, idols were destroyed by those
into whose homes we had never penetrated, leaders in the Church were
begging us to devise some means by which the women might be taught,
fathers were prepared for any sacrifice so that their daughters might be
received as scholars.
For some time, at vast expenditure of strength, we attempted by
travelling in different directions to spend, at any rate, one or two
days in the various centres we were begged to visit. Each month we
became more strongly impressed with the fact that the work of
evangelisation was being carried on with tremendous aggressive force,
not by us, but by the native Church, we being unable to even follow up
the openings made by them.
Such a mass movement afforded an unparalleled opportunity, provided
sufficient teaching were given to establish and build up in the faith
those who believed; but if left to itself, this large numerical increase
might prove a serious menace to the spiritual life of the Church. We had
to seriously consider our ways. Should we contribute our small part to
the widespread preaching of the Gospel and visiting of those who had
already heard through the Chinese evangelising agencies, or should we
leave to the Chinese Church the responsibility of propagating itself,
reserving ourselves to "preparing saints for the work of ministering"?
Chinese Christians going from place to place spread the Good Tidings
more effectually than we could hope to do, and where such conditions
exist, it is surely an indication that the people of the land should
hear the Gospel first from the lips of their own countrymen. Moreover,
the Government was seriously considering the establishment of girls'
schools, and we had to decide as to whether the work amongst the young
should be an unimportant branch of our scheme of missionary activities,
or whether our schools should be established with the object of becoming
training-centres for Christian helpers.
We were faced with this fact: unless we trained some Christian teachers,
the education of the young would be in the hands of heathen; no small
matter when the exalted position of the teacher in China is borne in
mind; and the, if possible, more urgent fact, that unless we seriously
prepared some Chinese missionaries we should go from year to year,
decade to decade, with no trained Chinese staff. The material was there,
and the Chinese Church was supplying young men and women, earnest
devoted servants of Jesus Christ, who, given the training and granted
the blessing of God, could do a work which it would be impossible for
the most earnest Westerner to accomplish. Chinese of the Chinese, with
neither linguistic nor climatic difficulties, understanding the minds of
the most subtle of people, they enter their work with a flying leap
which we may envy, but cannot attain. The Holy Spirit will deal with
them as He does with us, and recognising them as fellow-workers together
with God, we shall cease to hinder them by perpetual criticism and
doubt. Faults they will have, as we, and while of a different order, who
shall say that these failings make them in God's sight more unfit for
the work of preaching the Gospel than ours have made us?
We therefore accepted the form of ministry which pressed with strongest
necessity on us, and from the free and irresponsible life of the
itinerant missionary, accepted the calling of teachers, and allowed
ourselves to be tied to the numberless claims and responsibilities of
institutional life. In addition to the girls' school, a plan was formed
whereby we agreed to accept married women for terms of varying
length--twenty to thirty days--as far as possible classifying them
according to ability and previous knowledge. The teaching was graded
from the first elements of Christian doctrine to fairly advanced New
Testament classes. From amongst the first groups of women who came to
us, it was evident that some were capable of receiving a far more
advanced training, and the zeal they exhibited in teaching the little
they knew on their return home, promised future usefulness. Two small
rooms in our own living-court supplied the only accommodation for these
station classes, and as each group scattered it was almost immediately
replaced by other eager inquirers.
A small inner court containing two good rooms was set apart for the use
of the girls' school. Every term brought an increase in the numbers, and
it was soon evident that more suitable accommodation was essential if we
were to meet the growing need. Though we knew it not, the necessary
provision was already made. We sat together one evening in a shady spot
adjoining our premises, sharing our home letters; we opened one to find
it contained a cheque from a friend who could know nothing of our need,
marked: "For use in any necessary buildings." The very spot on which we
sat, later on proved to be the site of the John Holt Skinner Memorial
Court in the new school buildings. By the next term Chinese rooms,
providing for the accommodation of sixty, were erected; the old
school-court was given over to women's station classes, and we saw scope
for the realisation of our wildest dreams. The work amongst the men was
increasing in a similar proportion. Mr. Wang, who was in charge when we
arrived at Hwochow, was now appointed Deacon of the Church, and
afterwards Elder. We soon recognised in him a man of no ordinary
influence. Like Barnabas, he was "a good man filled with the Holy
Spirit," and like him might well be called the "Son of Consolation."
The large numbers who were baptized upon profession of faith each year
entailed many responsibilities--new families to be visited, more
visitors to be received, marriages and funerals to be attended. Cases of
persecution, real or supposed, called for many hours of patient
listening, and, withal, the constant stream of city women who desired to
inspect all that was going on, parents to see children in the school,
friends and relatives of opium patients, who lost no chance of visiting
the member of the family under treatment, changed the once quiet house
into a beehive of activity.
In many Shansi houses there is a large, well-built room, open to north
and south, which is set apart for the observance of the prescribed
family rites connected with ancestral worship. Here are the wooden
ancestral tablets, image of the soul and tangible symbol, erected to the
memory of the deceased, affording thereby a fixed object for filial
piety. This room on our compound was dedicated as a church for public
worship; enlarged once, and again the second time, it still proved too
small for our growing congregation.
The strain attendant on such a rapid development was severe, but each
year found us supplied with increasingly able help from our Chinese
co-workers. We found ourselves driven to the practical testing of the
principle: "When the pressure of the work is too heavy, then extend the
work," and we found it to be sound and workable. Each term some extra
responsibility was thrown off on to the shoulders of willing helpers,
that we ourselves might be free to undertake fresh enterprises.
MRS. HSI'S SECOND GIFT
"It is Jesus who has introduced into virtue a
passion before which vice is not condemned but
consumed as by fire."--Rev. CARNEGIE SIMPSON.
"Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,
And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:
And straight was a path of gold for him,
And the need of a world of men for me."
ROBERT BROWNING.