On the 6th of December Rev. John Lloyd, of the American Presbyterian
mission, died of typhus fever after an illness of two weeks. Mr. Talmage
makes this record of him:
"Dec. 8, 1848. Rev. John Lloyd was born in the State of Pennsylvania on the
first of Oct., 1813, which made him thirty-five years, two months, and five
days at the time of his death. He was a man of fine abilities. His mind
was well stored with useful knowledge and was well disciplined. He was
most laborious in study, very careful to improve his time. He was
mastering the language with rapidity. His vocabulary was not so large as
that of some of the other brethren, but he had a very large number of words
and phrases at his command, and was pronounced by the Chinese to speak the
language more accurately than any other foreigner in the place. They even
said of him that it could not be inferred simply from his voice, unless his
face was seen, that he was a foreigner. He was a man of warm heart, very
strong in his friendship, very kind in his disposition, and a universal
favorite among the Chinese. I never knew a man that improved more by close
intimacy. His modesty, which may be called his great fault, was such that
it was necessary to become well acquainted with him before he could be
properly appreciated. But it has pleased the Master of the harvest to call
him from the field just as he became fully qualified to be an efficient
laborer. What a lesson this, that we must not overestimate our importance
in the work to which God has called us. He can do without us. It seems
necessary that He should give the Church lesson upon lesson that she may
not forget her dependence upon Him."
Early in 1849 the brethren were called to mourn the loss of one of the most
devoted pioneers of the Amoy mission, the Rev. William J. Pohlman.
Mr. Talmage writes: "Feb. 8th. On Monday night at twelve o'clock I was
called up to receive the sad intelligence that our worst fears in reference
to Pohlman were confirmed. He perished on the morning of the 5th or 6th
ult. He embarked on the 2d ult. from Hongkong in the schooner Omega. On the
morning of probably the 5th, at about two o'clock, she struck near Breaker
Point, one hundred and twenty miles from Hongkong. A strong wind was
blowing at the time, so that every effort to get the ship off was
unavailing. She was driven farther on the sand and fell over on her side.
Her long boat and one quarter boat were carried away, and her cabin filled
with water. The men on board clung to the vessel until morning. The
remaining boat was then lowered. Those of the crew who were able to swim
were directed to swim to the shore. The captain, first and second
officers, and Pohlman entered the boat end those of the crew who could not
swim also received permission to enter. But a general rush was made for
the boat, by which it was overturned, and those who could not swim, Pohlman
among the number, perished. The captain attempted to reach the shore by
swimming, and would have succeeded, but was met by the natives. They were
eager for plunder, and seized the captain to plunder him of his clothes.
While they were stripping him of his clothes they dragged him through the
water with his head under, by which he was drowned. About twenty-five of
the crew succeeded in reaching the shore in safety. After being stripped
of their clothes, they were permitted to escape. Afterwards, on arriving
at a village they were furnished with some rags. After suffering much from
fatigue and hunger they arrived at Canton, overland, on the 17th ult. This
event has cast gloom again over our small circle. But one month previous
to his death, Pohlman with myself had closed the eyes of dear Lloyd. Oh,
how deeply we do feel, and shall for a long time feel this loss."
"Feb. 11th. On Sunday afternoon our new church was consecrated to the
worship of the only true God, the first building built for this purpose in
Amoy. Mr. Young preached the sermon. It was also a funeral sermon for Mr.
Pohlman. The house was crowded with people. Very many could not get into
the building. There was some noise and confusion. I think the majority,
however, were desirous to hear."
In a letter to Drs. Anderson (Dr. Anderson was one of the early Secretaries
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.) and De Witt,
speaking of Pohlman's death, he says:
"Our hearts bleed. God has seen fit to send upon us stroke after stroke.
Oh, when will He stay His hand? But we will not murmur. It is God who
hath done this. His ways are inscrutable. We gaze upon them in mute
astonishment. We may quote as peculiarly applicable to our present
circumstances the remarks which this brother made at the grave of him who
was called away a month previous. 'Death,' said he, 'is always a sad
event, and is often peculiarly distressing. It is so in the instance before
us. There is a sad breach in our little circle at this station. Situated
as we are here, every member of our small society tells upon the happiness
of the whole. Our number is limited and less than a score. We have few
bosom friends, few to cheer and encourage us, few to whom to tell our
sorrows and our joys. Here we are far away from those we love, away from
dear friends and kindred and those tender associations which make society
so delightful at home. Hence we feel deeply any breach made in our little
circle. In proportion as our number is diminished in the same proportion is
there a decrease in the endearments of friendship and love. More
especially is this the case when the departed was possessed of social
virtues and qualified to make all around him agreeable and happy. We mourn
also for these poor deluded heathen. They have sustained an incalculable
loss. I feel it impossible to give an adequate description of his
character. He felt that in laboring for the heathen he was engaged in a
work of the highest moment. Thereto he bent every energy of mind and body.
That which, by receiving the word of God, we are made theoretically to
acknowledge, by the dispensations of His Providence-we are made practically
to feel, that man is nothing-that God is All in All.'
"God's dealings with this mission would seem to be enough to arouse our
Church. Heretofore He has given success to His servants. He has given us
favor with the authorities and with the people. The Church has seemed to
be satisfied with this. She has thanked God for His smiles, but has made
little effort to increase the number of her laborers as fast as the demand
for them increased. Now God is trying another plan. Her laborers are
dying off and the question comes to her, not merely whether she will
advance or not, but, whether she will retain that which she has already
gained. She has volunteered in a glorious warfare. Will she hold the
positions she has won, and make further conquests, or will she permit her
soldiers to die at their posts without being replaced, and thus retire from
the field? Important interests are at stake. The honor of our Church is
at stake. The salvation of souls is at stake. It is a crisis with our
mission. We cannot endure the thought that the labors of those faithful
servants who have been called home shall be in a great measure lost by
neglect. We have received lately impressive lessons of the uncertainty of
human life. The thought steals over us that we, too, are liable at any
moment to be cut down in the midst of our labors. This liability is
increased by the amount of labor which necessarily devolves upon us. Now
we are only two in number. As for myself I am only beginning to stammer in
this difficult language. This, too, in a field where there is labor enough
to be done to employ all the men you can send us. You will not think it
strange then that we plead earnestly.
"Our new church edifice was completed soon after Brother Pohlman left for
Hongkong. As he had done so much of the work in gathering the congregation
and had originated the idea of the building and had watched its erection
with so much interest, we were desirous that he should be present at its
consecration. We therefore delayed opening the building for worship until
we received the definite news of his death."
In an address on "Reminiscences of Missionaries and Mission Work,"
delivered by Dr. Talmage during his later years, he refers to the early
missionaries at Amoy in these words:
"The men God gave the Church were just the men needed to awaken her
missionary spirit and shape her mission work. So for laying the foundation
and shaping the plan of the structure He would have us erect at Amoy He
gave us three men, just the men needed for the work,-David Abeel, William
J. Pohlman and Elihu Doty. The more I meditate on what they said and wrote
and did and suffered in the early days of that work, and see whereunto it
is growing, the more am I impressed with the fact that they were wonderful
men, just the men for the time, place, and circumstances, and therefore
evidently God's gift.
"Dr. Abeel was the pioneer of the Amoy Mission. During the greater part of
the years of his manhood, he struggled with disease, and his whole life on
earth was comparatively short, yet the Lord enabled him to accomplish more
work than most men accomplish during a much longer life. His last field of
labor was Amoy, entering it in January, 1842, when the port had just been
thrown open and while the British army was still there, and leaving it in
January, 1845. In that short time, notwithstanding interruptions from
sickness and of voyages in search of health, or rather to stave off death
till others were ready to take his place, he laid a good foundation, doing
a work that told and was lasting. I met him only once. It was at his
father's house in New Brunswick, after his work at Amoy-after all his
public work was done and he was only waiting to be summoned home. When I
afterwards went to Amoy, I found his name very fragrant, not only among
Europeans and Americans, but also among the Chinese. He had baptized none,
but a goodly number of those afterwards baptized had received their first
impressions concerning Christianity and their first instructions therein
from him."
"Messrs. Doty and Pohlman with their families came from Borneo to Amoy,
arriving in June, 1844, about six months before Dr. Abeel was compelled to
leave. We have heard of places so healthy, that it is said there was
difficulty to find material wherewith to start cemeteries. Amoy, rather
Kolongsu, where all the Europeans then resided, in those days was not such
a place. It is said that of all the foreign residents only one escaped the
prevailing fever. The mortality was very great. In a year and a half from
the time of their arrival at Amoy, Mr. Doty was on his way to the United
States with two of his own and two of Mr. Pohlman's little ones. The other
members of their families--the mothers and the children, all that was
mortal of them--were Iying in the Mission cemetery on Kolongsu; and to
'hold the fort,' so far as our Mission was concerned, Pohlman was left
alone, and well he held it. He had a new dialect to acquire, yet when
health allowed, he daily visited his little mission chapel, and twice on
the Sabbath, to preach the Gospel of Christ. He was a man of work, of
great activity. When I arrived at Amoy in 1847, he was suffering from
ophthalmia. Much of his reading and writing had to be done for him by
others. I was accustomed to read to him an hour in the morning from six to
seven. Another read to him an hour at noon from twelve to one. He was
still subject to occasional attacks of the old malarial fever. Besides all
this he was now alone in the world, his whole family gone, two of his
little ones in his native land, then very much farther away from China than
now, and the others, mother and children, sleeping their last sleep.
"Yet he was the life of our little mission company. Do you ask why? He
lived very close to God, and therefore was enabled to bow to the Divine
will, to use his own language, 'with sweet submission.' Pohlman's term of
service, too, was short. He was called away in his thirty-seventh year.
His work at Amoy was less than five years. It, too, much of it, was
foundation work, though he was permitted to see the walls just beginning to
rise. Two of the first converts were baptized by him, and many others
received from him their early Christian instruction. The first, and still
by far the best church-building at Amoy, which is also the first church
building erected in China expressly for Chinese Protestant Christian
worship, may be called his monument. It was specially in answer to his
appeal that the money, $3,000, was contributed. It was under his
supervision that the building was erected. To it he gave very much toil
and care. The house was nearly ready when he took his last voyage to
Hongkong, and he was hastening back to dedicate it when God took him. His
real monument, however is more precious and lasting than church-buildings,
as precious and lasting as the souls he was instrumental in saving, and the
spiritual temple whose foundation he helped to lay. There were many who
remembered him with very warm affection long after he was gone. Among them
I remember one, an old junk captain, who in his later years, speaking of
heaven, was wont to say, 'I shall see Teacher Pohlman there; I shall see
Teacher Pohlman there.'"