Gutzlaff broke off with the NMS in 1828 because they refused to send him to China. He made several trips in the 1830s, sailing along the coast of China, traveling as far north as Tianjin, distributing Christian literature. He recorded his voyages in A Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of china, 1831, 1832 and 1833. When Morrison died in 1834, Gutzlaff replaced him as an interpreter and secretary of the East India Company (EIC) in Guangzhou. While in Macau, Gutzlaff translated the Gospel of John and the Epistles of John into Japanese, with the help of Otokichi, Kyukichi, and Iwakichi, who were shipwrecked apprentice sailors who drifted to Cape Flattery, Washington, USA. They were sent to Macau by John Mclaughlin of the Hudson Bay Company, a British trading firm. The manuscripts were sent to a printing firm in Singapore.
Gutzlaff was the magistrate of Ningbo in 1841 and Zhenjiang in 1842. He helped the EIC to negotiate the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 and 1843. Gutzlaff then settled in Hong Kong. Forbidden to enter China by the treaty agreements, Gutzlaff formed the Chinese Union in 1844 to employ Chinese evangelists to work in Guangdong. His aim was to have Christian bodies or unions (which would be assisted by their counterpart associations in Europe) in every province. He raised enthusiastic support from Germany through his voluminous writings, but in China, to his disappointment, Gutzlaff discovered that many of the Chinese preachers were unconverted opium-smokers and criminals who had duped him by selling the evangelistic literature to the printer, who then resold it to Gutzlaff.
Gutzlaff died in Hong Kong at age 48 before he could correct the situation, but he was instrumental in attracting other German missionaries to China. His writings on China included the two-volume work Sketch of Chinese History and China Opened.
]]> Karl Gutzlaff’s career was intertwined in the intricate matrix of Sino-Western relations, which featured pressure upon the rulers in Beijing to unlock China’s doors to free trade and to the propagation of the Christian faith. Obsessed with keeping a tight grip on their people, China’s leaders resisted outside intrusion and insisted upon their right to control de-stabilizing Western imports.Evangelical Christians believed that more freedom for commerce would also entail increased liberty for foreign messengers and their converts to spread and receive the gospel of Christ. Nor were some of them unwilling to assist foreign powers in their attempt to apply political and even military force when persuasion and diplomacy failed. To make matters worse, many missionaries initially supported the Taiping rebellion, with its apparently strong “Christian” component, and would have rejoiced to see the Qing dynasty toppled.
Many times, Gutzlaff flouted the laws against preaching the Christian faith within China, making repeated forays to evangelize and to distribute Christian literature, which was contraband. Citing the favorable response of the common people, he mocked their magistrates’ attempts to enforce the decrees of the emperor. He paid Chinese employees whom he hired to distribute Bibles and tracts illegally among the masses.
Gutzlaff in some ways resembled the modern-day evangelical entrepreneurial sort of missionary. Though he began as a member of a missions society, he soon hived off to obey what he thought was God’s special leading in his life. For most of his career as a missionary, he launched out on his own, free from supervision, fully convinced that he was right, almost impervious to criticism, and depending upon direct links with supporters back home. In time, of course, he founded his own organization, the Chinese Union.
From his youth, Gutzlaff demonstrated pride, self-will, a tendency towards exaggeration, unbounded optimism which frequently defied reality, and unwillingness to heed criticism or submit to authority.
Convinced that only Chinese believers would be able to carry the gospel effectively to their people, Guztlaff strongly advocated, and practiced, what we would now call “indigenous missions”. Why spend money on an expensive foreigner when you can hire a local, especially since he already knows the language and customs of his people? Imagine his heartbreak when many of his trusted workers turned out to be frauds.
A master communicator in many languages, Gutzlaff carried on an extensive correspondence with Christians in Europe and America, inspiring them with dramatic stories of his colorful campaigns to evangelize Western Christians to donate to his projects, even when evidence of their effectiveness was spotty at best. Exaggerated claims of conversions further inflated expectations, which were then crushed when his numbers were effectively challenged.
Many of Gutzlaff’s contemporary critics asked, What is “conversion,” anyway? Does it consist of a head knowledge of vital doctrines, plus an avowed intention to follow Christ? Or does true faith show itself in a solid understanding of the gospel accompanied by consistent Christian living? Holding the former “minimalist” view, Gutzlaff was happy to see Chinese memorize the Creed, Lord’s Prayer, and Ten Commandments, and then agree to distribute Bibles, books, and tracts - for a salary. Other missionaries looked for more than intellectual assent and some formal association with a Christian organization, and questioned the validity of untested professions of faith by people with hardly any other knowledge of the Bible. Their criticisms of Gutzlaff stemmed partly from this very different understanding of what marks a person as a truly converted Christian.
Gutzlaff remains controversial also because he, perhaps more than any other contemporary missionary, played a variety of roles that could not but confuse the Chinese he meant to serve. He was took repeated trips on vessels engaged in the opium trade, though he abhorred it; he sought out information on the cultivation of tea in order to break China’s monopoly on its growth; he helped the British win the first Opium War and then served as Chinese secretary for the British administration of Hong for many years, all the while presenting himself to his supporters at home as a missionary.
This confusing mix of activities did a great deal to fuel Chinese suspicions of Western Christian’s intentions and of Christianity itself.
We can understand why many criticized him, but why did so many succumb to his charms?
Partly because he possessed many remarkable attributes and was himself an extraordinarily effective missionary to the Chinese. Gutzlaff became unusually fluent in several dialects of Chinese, so much so that he was regularly taken for a native speaker, though perhaps from a different region of the country. He wore Chinese clothing and mastered Chinese etiquette.
Well educated in biblical languages, Gutzlaff translated parts of the New Testament into Thai and the entire Bible into Chinese. Building upon the pioneer work of Robert Morrison, William Milne, and their Chinese helpers, he worked with several other missionaries to produce a revision of Morrison’s work. In later years, he revised both this version and his own translation of the New Testament in a style that was considered the most accessible to Chinese readers.
He studied Chinese history, geography, and culture so well that he could author authoritative scholarly and popular books to educate Westerners. The title of one of them, Opening China, was chosen by Jessie Lutz as the title for her biography because of its double meaning: Gutzlaff was providing information to British officials who sought to expand trade and diplomacy with China, but he was also trying to “open” China to the minds of Westerners. He also composed many works on Western civilization in Chinese to broaden the horizons of narrow-minded scholars.
He even learned how to govern like a Chinese mandarin - only an honest one. After serving as guide, spy-master, and negotiator for the British in the first Opium War (1840-42), Gutzlaff administered the important port city of Ningbo so well that later missionaries benefited from his reputation among the people as a fair and decisive arbiter of justice. The Chinese knew that he held their interests in his heart and sought their welfare.
His passion for the evangelization of China’s millions motivated Christians in Europe and America to establish several dozen missionary societies and send workers to China, and his conviction that Chinese could best spread the gospel to their countrymen moved him to form the Chinese Union. In short, he mobilized both foreign and Chinese Christians to participate in the great task of reaching China with the truth. Perhaps his greatest legacy was the lasting impact he made upon J. Hudson Taylor, who inherited Gutzlaff’s vision and adopted many of his methods, with modifications gleaned from Gutzlaff’s bitter experience.
Perhaps most important of all, he loved the Chinese, and they knew it.
Ted Choy started his education at the Bethel church grade school, then went to Hong Kong with his brother to attend St. Joseph’s College (a junior high school) and then LaSalle College ( a senior high school), both run by Roman Catholic priests. An indifferent student, he later regretted his lack of ability in Chinese and in English.
After going through a dark period, he committed himself to Christ towards the end of high school. During a revival meeting held in Hong Kong in the 1930s by the evangelist Dr. John Song, Choy dedicated himself to full-time Christian service. He first enrolled in Jia (Chia) Yuming’s seminary in Nanjing, but war conditions forced the school to close, so he transferred to the Canton Bible Institute (C.B.I.), which had moved from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.
He graduated in 1939. Then he traveled to the U.S. with some of his teachers, who were returning on furlough, and entered the Evangelical Free Church Seminary in Chicago, Illinois (now called Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). After graduation from Trinity, he entered Wheaton College for further biblical and theological studies, supporting himself by working at odd jobs.
His career at Wheaton was interrupted when he volunteered to join the U.S. Marine Corps as a specialist interpreter. The Marines sent him to North China, where he also helped with Youth for Christ meetings for Chinese young people. After World War Two ended, he returned to Wheaton to complete his college degree. There he met Leona Spryncl, a second-generation Czech immigrant. They were married in 1947, right after Choy received his B.A.
Returning to Hong Kong in 1948, Choy took a position as pastor of the Swatow Christian Church in Kowloon. Three sons - Richard, Clifford, and Gary - were born during that period. Choy accepted a position to teach in a seminary in Singapore for one year, then sailed to the U.S., where he began studies in the School of Religion of the University of Iowa, receiving an M.A. in 1955.
As an international student Ted Choy could sympathize with others who had come from foreign countries to study in the United States. He and his wife joined International Students, Inc. (ISI), concentrating upon Chinese students for six years from their base in Washington, D.C. This work involved extensive travels to colleges throughout the country. Starting from a home Bible study, the Chinese Christian Church of Greater Washington, D.C. was formed, with the Rev. Moses Chow as the first pastor.
In 1962, the Choys left ISI and co-founded (with Moses Chow) a new ministry for Chinese students, Ambassadors for Christ, Inc. (AFC). Besides traveling to visit students, they opened their home to Chinese, using warm hospitality as a way to demonstrate the love of God. The ministry soon outgrew their home, however, and a generous gift from two Christian ladies (Christiana Tsai and Mary A. Leaman) enabled them to purchase property in Paradise, Pennsylvania, for the permanent headquarters for AFC, which was dedicated in 1971. Ted Choy served with AFC until his retirement in 1981, during which time he saw the rapid growth of both the ministry and the number of students coming from China.
The next phase of the Choys’ ministry began even while Ted was still serving with AFC. Soon after China began opening its doors to Western tourists, Leona joined one of the first tours. She took along some English-Chinese scriptures, as well as some Chinese Bibles, just in case she would have an opportunity to share them. People eager to read anything in English quickly exhausted her supplies of the bilingual books, but she wondered how she would find anyone who could use the Chinese Bibles.
A fellow Westerner on the tour, who had been a missionary in China, had arranged to meet with an old pastor whom she had known years ago. Leona packed all her Bibles into a shopping bag and went along. The reception they received by Christians desperate for the Word of God overwhelmed her, and left an indelible impression. Much of the rest of the book describes subsequent visits by both Ted and Leona, mostly to house church Christians, who joyfully accepted Christian literature, especially Bibles, and asked for Ted to share his knowledge of God with them. Reading Choy’s autobiography, one is struck by their willingness to endure hardship, including illness, in order to serve this expanding church
These were the heady days of rapid church growth, when Christians were still widely persecuted but refused to slacken in their devotion. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Choys made a dozen trips, often to isolated and hard-to-reach places, in order to minister to hungry souls. They even went to Hainan Island, at that time still a remote destination, to share the Gospel. Ted’s experience, and his extensive biblical knowledge, made him a valuable resource to churches bereft of pastoral care and teaching, while his fluency in the Shantou dialect gave him access in regions where he had spent his youth.
In the 1980s, Leona organized tours to China, some of them for Christians, on which Ted accompanied her. They also used the postal service to send cassette tapes and Christian literature to Christians in China, until that became risky. Ted set up an “English Teaching Center,” which established links with people in China wanting to study English, using specially-published books, cassettes, and a magazine. Relationships with a university in Shanghai led to exchange programs for American Christian students, who were able to befriend and share their faith with their Chinese classmates. On rare occasions, they gave money to help pastors and their families in need.
As his autobiography, written by his wife Leona, clearly shows, Ted Choy was greatly assisted by Leona throughout his ministry. Their marriage of 45 years was a model of partnership in service, in which their different gifts and abilities were
Ted Choy died in 1992 after a life replete with varied, but always faithful, service to Chinese in the U.S. and in his home country. His career illustrates the crucial function that overseas Chinese Christians have served in the growth and maturation of what may now be the largest group of Protestant Christians in the world.
]]>At Christmas time of 1942, he brought greetings from the pope to the American and British troops held in the concentration camp in Italy. On 6 Jul 1946, the Vatican decided to establish an embassy in China. Riberi, appointed consul, arrived in Shanghai on 14 Dec. He presented his credentials to President Jiang Jie Shi (Chiang Kai-shek) in Nanjing on 28 Dec and expressed the hope that Jiang would defeat the Communist Party of China. In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was established, Riberi remained in Nanjing as an ordinary citizen of Monaco but continued to function privately as the Vatican’s consul and a leader of the Chinese Catholic Church. He implemented Pope Pius XII’s policy toward China forbidding Chinese Catholics to support the new government.
In Mar 1951, when the coadjutor of Nanjing, Li Wei Guang, and priests, nuns, and 793 church members expressed their support of the new government, Riberi sent letters of opposition to bishops in the various dioceses. He was expelled from China in Sep 1952 but stayed in Hong Kong for 13 months. He went to Taiwan in Oct 1953, established diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Taiwan in November, and became the Vatican’s consul to Taiwan with a consulate in Taipei. He left Taiwan in 1959 and became the Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland. In 1967 he was made a cardinal.
]]>David Gordon Anderson was born on August 29, 1908 in Taizhou Prefecture in Zhejiang Province (present-day Taizhou City); his parents were early Inland Mission medical missionaries. His father was Dr. John A. Anderson (韓湧泉醫生), who boarded a ship from England in November 1889, arriving in China on December 14th; his mother, Dr. Alexandrina Ross (盧醫生), also came to China from England, arriving on April 14, 1893. On October 22, 1895, the two were married in Shanghai, and subsequently went to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province to undertake medical missionary work. In 1897, they moved to Taizhou in Zhejiang to participate in the construction of a Gospel hall, men’s and women’s hospitals, as well as several clinics. They worked saving the sick and spreading the Gospel continuously until retiring at the end of 1924.
Dr. and Mrs. Anderson raised four children, of which David was the eldest. At a young age, under his parents’ guidance, he believed in the Lord and entered the Inland mission’s Zhifu School in Yantai, Shandong Province. After graduating, David Anderson returned to England to attend university; he followed in his parents’ footsteps and studied medicine. In 1927, at the Keswick Convention, he took another step in understanding God’s plan for his life, and dedicated his life entirely to the Lord.
Anderson’s fiancée, Miss Marjorie E. L. Kerr (蓋爾姑娘), also grew up in a Christian household. After becoming a believer under her parents’ guidance, she aspired to go abroad to spread the Gospel. As a young woman, she entered the University of Edinburgh in Scotland; at a Christian fellowship at school, she gave herself over to the Lord, asking the Lord to guide her life. After completing her master’s degree at Edinburgh, she became a teacher. In 1933, when she and Anderson were at a lively Christian meeting, the Lord gave them clear guidance to go preach the Gospel in China. They responded to God’s call, and joined the Inland Mission, setting off from England in 1934 and arriving at Shanghai in March. After some introductory study of the Chinese language, Anderson was dispatched to work at the Wilmay Memorial Hospital in Changzhi, Shanxi Province; Miss Kerr was sent to work in Xiangyuan, to the north of Changzhi. On March 26, 1935, one year after their arrival in China, they were married in the city of Tianjin. After their wedding, the two returned to Wilmay Memorial Hospital to do medical missionary work.
Wilmay Memorial Hospital opened in 1931, and at that time was the only modern hospital in southern Shanxi, serving seven counties and towns as well as rural areas with a total population of about two million. When Anderson arrived, he joined Dr. & Mrs. Paul E. Adolph (竇潤生醫生夫婦), Dr. & Mrs. E. Warren Knight (賴靈生醫生夫婦), two nurses, Miss Doris M. L. Madden (馬光啟姑娘) and Miss Marguerite Dickie (翟松美姑娘), and three missionaries, Miss Gertrude Trudinger (杜岫雲姑娘) and Mr. & Mrs. James A. Dunachie (鄧賴思夫婦); in addition were a local staff of about 20 people, including Dr. Beh (貝醫生), nurses, anesthetists, and men and women evangelists. Those working at the hospital shared the workload and helped each other. Dr. & Mrs. Adolph were in charge of the resident physicians and patients’ treatment and surgery. When Anderson first arrived at the hospital, he worked as Dr. Adolph’s assistant. Mr. & Mrs. Dunachie were the hospital’s managers, responsible for the various chores. Dr. & Mrs. Knight were responsible for outside work; they usually worked by setting up a mobile hospital in a nearby city or town, treating patients and preaching. Especially at the times of major festivals, they would take their mobile hospital out to the people, with concurrent treatment of patients and preaching in a tent. Miss Trudinger worked with the women at the gospel halls and several women’s prayer meetings. In order to get mothers to hear the Word, Miss Dickie came alongside them to aid, care for, and teach their children. Each Sunday, it fell to Mrs. Adolph to teach the children’s Sunday school. In addition, the hospital staff often went with their Chinese colleagues to prisons, where they shared the Gospel with male and female prisoners, teaching them through the Gospel to reform their ways.
After Anderson’s marriage, the Knights moved on to Linfen Hospital. Subsequently, Anderson assisted Dr. Adolph with the management of the hospital, taking over direction of the mobile hospital, which was quite a major task. In the summer of 1935, Dr. Helen R. Neve (倪忠道女醫生) was dispatched from England to join them. In the midst of this period of raging war, Anderson and his colleagues not only saved innumerable people from bodily peril, but also were an instrument in the salvation of millions of souls.
At the end of September 1936, Dr. Adolph returned to the United States for advanced studies, and it fell to Anderson to direct the hospital’s operations. In 1937, the civil war came to an end, the Nationalists and Communists came together to fight the Japanese, bringing society to relative calm, and the hospital’s medical and missionary work also gradually returned to normal. Unfortunately the good times did not last, for shortly thereafter came the July 7 Incident of 1937, which exploded into the Second Sino-Japanese War. That year on November 8th, Taiyuan in Shanxi fell, and the Japanese army continued south to occupy Taigu, Pingyao, and other areas. The Eighth Route Army in Shanxi, which was engaged in guerilla warfare with the Japanese in mountainous areas, was locked in a life-and-death struggle against the powerful invaders, but its casualties were much more numerous than those of the Japanese. Consequently, attending to wounded soldiers became the medical missionaries’ primary task. The three doctors of the Wilmay Memorial Hospital spared no effort in saving the lives of wounded Eighth Route Army personnel. Despite shortages of medicine and equipment, with loving Christ-like hearts, the doctors put forth their full effort to save them. Miss Rose S. Rasey (芮美恩), a nurse who personally went to work at a hospital on the front lines, wrote, “Every day the Lord gave me strength to face many difficulties; there were times when I knelt on the ground taking care of them [the wounded]. I was almost unable to stand up straight anymore. I asked the Lord to give me the grace and hope necessary to save even more people” (“Selfless Love”《捨命的愛》, p. 274). Of course, in the midst of saving lives, they still did not forget to hang big pictures of Gospel stories on the walls to comfort the sick and wounded.
In 1938 the Wilmay Memorial Hospital was filled over capacity with the injured and sick; there was too little space inside, so that many patients had to be treated outdoors. To respond to these needs, they built another hospital in Lucheng, which David Anderson was also responsible for overseeing. According to hospital records, in that period the two hospitals had space for five thousand outpatients, in addition to capacity for over five hundred inpatients. This heavy workload of saving the dying and healing the wounded caused Anderson to overexert himself, but he silently labored on, persevering through the crises, treating thousands of sick and wounded with his own hands. On June 6, 1939, before reaching the age of 31, he succumbed to untreated typhoid which he had contracted from a patient. He left behind a young wife, a four-and-a-half-year-old firstborn daughter, and a younger daughter less than a year old. In order to save the lives and souls of Chinese, Anderson made great sacrifices, even to the point of sacrificing his own young life.
]]>John Song was born in Hong Chek Village, Putian, Fujian Province on September 27, 1901, the sixth child and fourth son of Sung Xue Lian, a Methodist pastor. Given the name Zhu En (“God’s Grace”) at birth, he later took on another name, Shangjie (“Noble and frugal”). Song’s father was idolized and imitated by the young boy, who himself was known as “little pastor” because he accompanied his father and even preached to his classmates.
After primary and secondary education in mission schools, he was sent to America to study Bible and theology in preparation for Christian ministry in China.
When he arrived in the United States, however, he chose to study chemistry instead, enrolling in Ohio Wesleyan University in 1920. Despite working at several manual jobs in factories and fields, he completed his work for the B.Sc. in three years. Overwork seems to have contributed to the onset of piles, for which he underwent surgery, but which afflicted him for the rest of his life and finally led to his death. After graduating in 1923, he entered Ohio State University, from which he earned a Master’s degree in Chemistry in 1924 and Ph.D. in 1926, winning high academic honors all along the way.
Although he briefly held a position as assistant professor of chemistry and was offered teaching posts at Peking University and elsewhere, in 1926 he honored his early commitment to study theology and entered Union Theological Seminary in New York. There he continued to read broadly; translated the Dao De Jing into English; and explored philosophy and history on his own. He was at first influenced by his theologically liberal teachers, but everything changed when he underwent a dramatic conversion while attending evangelistic meetings in January, 1927.
Fully transformed, Song zealously evangelized his professors, warning them of eternal punishment if they did not repent. They were not amused, and had him locked up in an insane asylum, where he proceeded to read the Bible through forty times in seven months. He was released through the efforts of an American pastor, and returned to China in 1927.
After some hesitation, he finally married Yu Jin Hua (“Jean”) in December, 1927. At first, Song taught chemistry and Bible at Methodist Christian High School in Fujian to help put his younger brother through college, engaging in evangelism on the weekends, but resigned after one year. Meanwhile, the Guomingdang (KMT; Nationalist Party) became unhappy with him for refusing to have his students bow to the picture of Sun Yat-sen, and initiated a campaign of rumors, threats, and opposition that lasted for the rest of his ministry, even though he always taught that Christians must obey the government.
He joined up with an evangelistic band and traveled around the province, preaching and teaching in small, rural churches for three years, at the request of the Methodist Bishop of the region. In 1930, the bishop appointed him to study the literacy and mass education program of James Yen (Yan Yangchu) near Beijing, but he cut short his visit because he did not think that this effort would bear spiritual fruit.
He joined the Bethel Worldwide Evangelistic Band in 1930 and served along with Andrew Gih, Frank Ling, Philip Lee, and Lincoln Neh in northeastern, northern, and southern China. The foreign women running the mission wrongly suspected him of diverting funds to his own use and intending to set up an independent ministry, so they forced him to leave the mission in 1933, after which he decided to become a fully independent itinerant revivalist and evangelist.
For the next eight years, he tirelessly traversed the roads and rails of China, and made five epic journeys (1935-1940) to Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Indonesia, as well as the Japanese-occupied island of Taiwan. Preaching in large churches and small, in major cities and rural villages, he attracted huge crowds, many thousands of whom were deeply moved by his preaching, and responded with weeping, open confession of sin, and expressions of commitment to Christ. He battled both external opposition, including slander and threats of death, and internal church division and strife, not to mention his own physical weakness and pain, but he kept pushing on, passionate in his desire to see people come to saving faith in Christ.
His preaching came from the Bible, which he studied carefully, reading eleven chapters daily. He employed parables, real-life stories, and his own personal testimony as illustrations of biblical truths. Sometimes he would call for volunteers to ascend the platform, then hang placards around their necks with specific sins (“lying,” “stealing,” “adultery”) written on them. Quite frequently, he rebuked specific wrongdoing, often pointing out or naming church leaders whose misdeeds he had learned about from their church members. He wrote that a preacher must speak on: “Repentance; Heaven and Hell, and the cross and the blood of Christ;…hating of sin and complete consecration; … being filled with the Holy Spirit; …the life of faith, as well as… love… In addition, one must live a life of hope.” In particular, he stressed the necessity of Christians to follow in the footsteps of Christ, bearing the cross of suffering with faith and joy. The return of Christ figured largely in his preaching, as did reminders that soon all our needs would be more than fully supplied in a New Heaven and a New Earth.
To make a more lasting impact, he organized several Bible conferences, some of them lasting a full month, in which he would expound the entire Bible, book by book. His oral inst ruction was supplemented by his published testimony and some sermons in several volumes, as well as articles in Christian periodicals.
An excellent actor, Song would play the parts of the various biblical characters whose story he was telling. He paced back and forth across the stage; used “props” such as a small coffin to represent the dark mass of sin within each of us; broke into song or prayer in the midst of his sermons; and otherwise kept his audience enthralled. He composed many songs, which he would teach the congregation to sing with him.
Everywhere he went, John Song sought earnestly to promote church unity. He attacked abuse by leaders; exhorted members to forgive and love each other; and taught them how to follow the meekness of Christ in their relationships with each other.
Beginning in December, 1931, John Song exercised a truly stunning ministry of physical healing through prayer. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people were delivered from all sorts of illnesses, infirmities, and addictions after he prayed for them. These miracles were witnessed by countless people, many of them originally skeptical of this aspect of John Song’s ministry. Opium addicts received instant delivery. Smokers kicked the habit “cold-turkey.” Those possessed by evil spirits were delivered. Blind people received their sight; the lame walked; disabled limbs were healed; leprosy cured instantly.
John Song did not, however, give precedence to physical well-being. At each meeting, he first preached a sermon on the need to repent and to trust fully in Christ for salvation, insisting that full repentance of sins must precede lasting healing. Nor did he emphasize spiritual gifts, but stressed faith in Christ and holiness of life.
Especially after his peremptory dismissal from the Bethel Band, he was understandably wary of domineering foreign missionaries. In his diaries, he criticized those who opposed his ministry because they were either envious or ignorant of his message; those who lived comfortably, even luxuriously, in the midst of poverty and suffering; those who looked down on their Chinese co-workers; and especially those with liberal theological views. His experience at Union Theological Seminary had thoroughly disillusioned Song, even as it alerted him to the fundamental differences between liberalism and traditional biblical Christianity.
On the other hand, when he came across self-denying, humble missionaries, he commended them freely. Sometimes their willingness to live among the Chinese, eating and dressing like the locals, and serving faithfully for many years, greatly moved him. He gladly welcomed the cooperation of foreigners in his revival and evangelistic efforts, and rejoiced when some of them openly repented of their unbelief and sin. His friendship with the Rev. William E. Schubert was a great mutual blessing.
John Song shared the perilous conditions of his fellow citizens. He did not shrink from traveling into combat zones, or preaching with enemy planes flying overhead. In the midst of extreme poverty, he himself lived simply, even ascetically. He insisted upon traveling third class on the train, when he could have afforded better seating. When given money for travel expenses, he typically returned it, or donated most of the funds to someone in greater need. Wearing a plain Chinese-style scholar’s gown and carrying a tattered leather briefcase, he stayed wherever he found a welcome or a place to rest, no matter how uncomfortable.
The anal fistulas which he acquired while studying in America flared up whenever he taxed his body too much, which was often. This “thorn,” as he called it, caused him indescribable pain, sometimes forcing him to preach sitting down or even lying on a bed on the platform. He was aware that his own bodily frailty helped to curb his pride and remind him of his sins, especially his short temper.
At various points in his life, and especially towards the end, he realized that he had neglected his family, being gone from home eleven months of the year, including each time his wife gave birth. For the last three years of his life, as he recuperated from six different surgeries outside of Beijing, he exhorted others to spend more time in prayer, believing that he had relied too much on his own strength and not enough upon God.
His marriage had been arranged by his parents, and entered into only with reluctance and reservations, but he sought to bring his wife to faith in Christ. Together they had three girls and two boys, who were all given biblical names.
John Song’s ministry shared some features with the work of other independent Protestant evangelical preachers in the first half of the 20th century, such as Wang Mingdao, Leland Wang (Wang Zai), Marcus Cheng (Chen Chonggui), Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng), Andrew Gih (Ji Zhiwen), and theologian Jia Yuming. They all remained free of formal ties with Western missionaries, though most would cooperate with like-minded foreigners on occasion; held to a similar evangelical theology (sometimes also called “fundamentalism”); and aimed primarily to bring people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, build a church composed of believers, and advocate holiness of life, in expectation of the return of Christ.
Song’s distinctives included his confrontational style and ruthless denunciation of sins and of liberal theology; a willingness to confess and ask forgiveness publicly for losing his temper; effective prayer for healing; a unique combination of a simple faith with intellectual brilliance; the organization of evangelistic bands; unusual skill as a dramatic communicator in a variety of media, including song and the written word; and the huge numbers of people who were affected by him.
]]>John reached Khanbaliq in 1342. Later he reported that the Franciscans were received hospitably, that the cathedral and several churches established by Monte Corvino still existed, and that the physical needs of the Franciscans were supplied by the imperial court. In 1345 he left Khanbaliq for Europe, traveling by way of India; he was plundered of his imperial gifts for the pope in Ceylon but arrived safely in Avignon in 1353. In 1354, John was made bishop of Bisignano. Soon after, he became a royal chaplain of the king of Bohemia, who had been recently confirmed as the Holy Roman Emperor. As royal chaplain, John wrote a Chronicle of Bohemia, containing a report of his travels to Asia.
After graduation from a military academy in Japan, where he had met Sun Yat-sen, Chiang become an enthusiastic supporter of the Chinese revolution, and joined the Tongmenghui (Sun’s organization), Chiang returned to China to participate in the revolt. He eventually became a trusted associate of Sun, who appointed him founding commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1918, when Chiang also joined the Nationalist Party (KMT [Kuomingtang] = GMD [Guomingdang]). He succeeded Sun in 1925 as leader of the KMT upon Sun’s early death. In 1926-1927 he unified much of the country, defeating warlords and breaking with the Communist Party, whose members he purged from the KMT.
He formed a Nationalist government in Nanjing in 1928, with himself as virtual military dictator, though many democratic and modernizing reforms were undertaken during the so-called Nanjing Decade (1927-1937. He continued to seek to eliminate the communists, despite Japan’s increasing encroachments and domestic calls for stiff resistance to the Japanese. Finally, after the Xi’an Incident in 1936, he was forced to enter into an uneasy alliance with the communists in order to fight the Japanese. He led the Republic of China during the Second World War, and was elected President of the Republic of China in 1948, but was forced to retreat with many members of his government and army to Taiwan in 1949.
Once in Taiwan, he not only purged the Nationalist Party of all Communists but also many corrupt members and exterminated the many communist agents who had been sent to the island, but also brutally suppressed the Taiwanese independence movement, earning much resentment as a result. His capable and honest son, Chiang Ching-kuo (Jiang JIngguo), helped to restore his father’s reputation by attempting to clean up corruption, introduce democratic forms, and modernize the economy, with Kai-shek’s full support.
Since the facts of Chiang’s career are well known and easily accessible, the rest of this article will concentrate upon his personal life and the credibility of his profession as a Christian.
His mother, a devout Buddhist, sought to inculcate the tenets and practices of her faith in her son from his infancy. As a child, he was known for his tendency to assume command of others, expecting obedience. The death of his father when he was very young forced his mother to work hard to support her son. As he watched her dealing with unscrupulous people, an intense rage started to burn in him, and he began to see himself as part of an exploited people - China, carved up by foreign powers; Han Chinese, ruled over by corrupt Manchus; the relatively poor, taken advantage of by the rich. He reacted by turning in upon his own resources, spending a great deal of time alone, surrounded by mountains and streams and meditating upon his next move.
At the age of fifteen, he was married to a nineteen-year old, basically illiterate woman, Mao Fu-mei. The couple seem to have been close for the first two months of their marriage, but Chiang’s mother rebuked him for uxoriousness, Fumei dutifully distanced herself, and the two drifted apart.
While in Japan, he not only acquired a taste for its cuisine, which was healthier than Chinese food, but also became fluent in the language. In 1911, after leaving Japan, he was backed by a powerful patron in Shanghai, Chen Qimei, who became like a father to him, as did Sun Yat-sen after Chen was assassinated. Chiang soon became known for personal self-discipline and for the order and discipline of the regiment under his command. For a number of years he lived mostly in Shanghai, where he became acquainted with a number of secret societies, with whom he formed lasting ties. Some sources stress the nationalist, anti-Manchu thrust of these societies, while others emphasize their cruelty, corruption, and criminality, especially in the case of the Green Gang.
When first Chen Qimei and then Sun Yat-sen died while Chiang was still young, he lost both of his father figures; his grief was real and deep. For the rest of his life, he once again chose to rely upon no man but himself.
Chiang Kai-shek cannot be understood apart from his intense commitment to the Chinese nationalist revolution, in its republican and not communist form. His early exposure to communism on a visit to the Soviet Union in 1923, and then the growing struggle with the Communists for struggle within the KMT, resulted in a profound aversion to Marxist-Leninist politics, even though he saw the need to re-organize the KMT along strict Leninist lines and followed Sun’s socialistic economic tendencies. He strongly believed that communism was inimical to Chinese culture and would prove disastrous for the Chinese nation. His refusal to resist Japanese aggression until he had suppressed the communists was based upon a fundamental strategic conviction, and not a personal rivalry with Mao Zedong.
When forced by domestic or American pressure to forge an alliance with the Communists, he did so with great reluctance and reserve, and never fully committed himself or his resources to that union.
As a young man, Chiang was known as a promiscuous womanizer, despite being married and having a son. (He had also adopted another son, Wei-guo, the progeny of a close friend and a Japanese woman, though some believe he was also Chiang’s natural offspring.)
His first marriage fell apart as his wife, who did not share China’s passion for politics and revolution, complained of his frequent and long absences. He often beat her, and at least once dragged her by her hair down a flight of stairs. Finally, the two settled upon a relatively amicable divorce, though his wife grieved deeply. Chiang Ching-kuo was their only son. Besides his first wife, and after their divorce, Chiang was reported to have several concubines, one of whom, Zhang Ah Feng (Chen Jieru; “Jennie”) he seems to have married in 1921. At this time, he contracted a form of venereal disease.
Not long after, he fell in love with Song Meiling, whom he had met on several occasions. There seems to have been a political deal worked out through the mediation of Meiling’s sister Ailing, wedding the Son family wealth and connections to Chiang’s military and political assets. When Chiang sought to marry Song Meiling, daughter of the wealthy financier T.V. Song, the strong Christian identity of the Songs meant that their daughter could not be joined to a non-believer. Meiling’s mother asked Chiang whether he would become a Christian. He replied that he would not change his religion just to marry Meiling, but he would read the Bible and pray for God to show him what he should do. Permission was granted, but Methodist church law forbade a church wedding between a Christian and an unbaptized person; it was also doubted whether Chiang had been properly divorced from his first wife, and there were persistent rumors about Jennie, whom Chiang had sent off to America without divorcing. Chiang produced proof of his divorce and discounted all stories about Jennie. Bishop Z.T. Kuang went to the Songs’ house to pray for the couple and pronounce a blessing upon them after a lavish civil ceremony on December 1, 1927.
Thenceforward, Chiang read his Bible daily (starting with the Old Testament), prayed privately, and knelt with his wife to pray. He resisted her efforts to persuade him to become a Christian, since he still had doubts and was not yet committed. Bishop Kuang answered his many questions, but did not press him to make a premature decision to follow Christ. In the midst of a campaign against a rebellious general, Chiang found himself surrounded, with capture and death imminent. He spotted a local Christian chapel, entered it, and told God that he would become a follower of Christ if he survived. A heavy snowstorm impeded his enemy’s advance, and Chiang’s forces gained the victory. He was baptized by Bishop Kuang in 1930. When asked why he had become a Christian, he replied, “I feel the need of a God such as Jesus Christ.”
In addition to his wife’s impact, he had perhaps also been influenced by the Christians in his government, since seven out of ten high officials in Nanjing were believers.
Quickly, Song Meiling became an essential source of strength and support. She helped Chiang keep up with world news, reading and digesting English publications daily; introduced him to Western literature, music, and culture; served as personal advisor, ambassador, and interpreter; and taught him English well enough so that he could both understand and speak the language, though this was not known by more than one or two Westerners until long after his death. Pretending to wait for the interpreter to finish before he responded, he could actually use that time to reflect on what he had heard and prepare his reply.
Their marriage, though outwardly harmonious, was sometimes marked by conflict and tension, aggravated by Meiling’s extravagance, domineering personality, and probable infidelity, as well as by his intense emotions, bad temper and inability - or unwillingness - to engage in marital sexual relations.
Though he indulged Wei-guo, he was quite stern towards his natural son Ching-kuo, constantly exhorting him to improve his calligraphy and exercise strict self-discipline. During the brief alliance of the KMT with Soviet Russian communists, Chiang sent Ching-kuo to Moscow to be educated. The young man became known for his hard work and his utter devotion to the Marxist-Leninist revolution; his public denunciation of his father as a traitor after the purge of Communists in 1926 was sincere, and led to a deep split between them for several years. Upon Ching-kuo’s return to China, however, he rapidly became his father’s most trusted aide and second-in-command, especially after the retreat to Taiwan.
Close friends and associates have borne abundant testimony to Chiang’s daily Bible reading, prayer, and open affirmation of his faith in Christ. Some contemporaries say they noticed that after his baptism he seemed to believe less in force and more in conciliation. After gaining his release from his captors in Xi’an, he stated that he had been strengthened during his ordeal by reading the Bible and entrusting himself to God’s care, so that he did not fear death and thus would not give in to their threats and demands. “The greatness and love of Christ burst upon me with new inspiration, increasing my strength to struggle against evil, to overcome temptation and to uphold righteousness…” He further claimed that he forgave the two main perpetrators because of the example of Christ on the Cross.
A visitor to his house in Chongqing was stunned by time of family prayer after dinner, during which the General asked God for strength and energy for his soldiers and himself; requested that God would help the Chinese people not to hate the Japanese; and calmly placed himself and his nation in God’s hands, imploring divine wisdom to know how to serve God the next day.
Chiang’s Christian commitment found expression in his diaries; his public statements; regular church attendance; and the open support of both Chinese and foreign Christians. One of the most public manifestations of his ethical convictions in his early years was the New Life Movement, an attempt to reform Chinese civilization and morals on the basis of Confucian principles, with some admixture of Christianity. Chiang and his wife poured enormous energy, time, and resources into this campaign, for which he solicited the help and support of Christian missionaries. They generally approved of the project, and in some places it took on a Christian flavor. The invasion of China by Japan put a virtual end to this ambitious undertaking, as it did so much else that the Nationalist government was attempting.
In later years, Chiang was heavily involved in the translation and publication of Streams in the Desert into Chinese, and worked closely with John C.H. Wu’s translation of the New Testament, going over the draft and making suggested corrections many times. The front piece of Wu’s version of the Psalms indicates that it was produced “under the editorial supervision of Chairman Chiang.” Wu found enough material about China to write a 265-page book on his spiritual life, published in 1975. His diaries reveal his constant reliance upon God for wisdom and strength. Western missionaries who knew him in Taiwan report that he seemed humble, gentle, and genuine in his faith when they saw him in church each Sunday, and had no reason to doubt the sincerity of his Christian profession. This assessment was shared by his personal chaplain. Though the general populace of Taiwan were surprised to see a large cross at the head of the funeral cortege, and to read at the opening of his will that he had been “a follower of the Three Principles of the People and of Jesus Christ from his youth,“ those who had known Chiang were not.
On the other hand, some of his ideas, actions and personal characteristics seem to belie the depth of his faith, or at least its impact upon his conduct. Chiang read widely in the Confucian classics and in Chinese history, and believed strongly in the value of China’s culture heritage, especially Confucianism. His Christian sermons seemed unclear on the distinctions between personal salvation and national recovery.
His long and consistent alliance with the Shanghai underworld made him complicit, at least to some degree, in their corruption and cruelty; likewise, his reliance upon his own secret police, which engaged in countless acts of brutality. Reports of corruption on a grand scale by his wife’s family call his own integrity into question, though he had no power to control them; still his nepotism is undeniable. His decision to breach the levees of the Yellow River in order to stall the advance of the Japanese, and then again to halt the Communists, led to the deaths of thousands and deprived many more of their homes and livelihood. Though his role in the military suppression of Taiwanese dissent in the infamous February 28 incident is unclear, his active oversight of the ensuing White Terror is well established.
Chiang’s positive character traits included extraordinary personal courage, a huge capacity for work, a very strong will, and immense stamina.
On the other hand, he was notorious for refusing to take advice, or even to seek the counsel of advisers. He brooked no disagreement, and would fly into a rage when criticized. A mediocre military leader, he issued orders from afar without any real knowledge of battlefield conditions, and then altered his plan without notice. More than once, he ordered loyal troops to fight to the death, knowing that their resistance was fruitless. Some of his closest companions considered him to be an arrogant egotist. There is evidence that he often said one thing and did another, or said one thing to one person and something else to another. Though he projected an image of imperturbable calm in public, he could cry like a baby behind closed doors.
His lifelong commitment to Confucianism makes some wonder whether his fundamental faith was more a matter of traditional Chinese ethics than Christian belief. Did his extraordinary self-control in public stem from dependence upon God, or upon the inner strength he had long learned to cultivate?
In defense, many have argued that Chiang’s autocratic leadership style is simply the norm for Chinese, and can be found in some of the most outstanding Chinese church leaders even today; that he was surrounded by mortal enemies and spies, and could really trust no one; that his murderous purge of communists in Shanghai was undertaken only after his enemies had formed a rival government, committed atrocities and put a price on his head; that war compels one to make decisions that will cost many lives, in order to save more people; that he matured in his Christian character as he grew older; and that a Christian’s true heart can be known only to God. If his private diaries, public pronouncements, consistent support of Christian churches and foreign missionaries, and active involvement in the production of Christian literature which we have noted above mean anything, then we may perhaps say that Chiang Kai-shek’s Christian career represents the halting, stumbling, but steady pilgrimage towards the Celestial City of a sinner saved by grace.
]]>Rabban Sauma and Markos decided to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they arrived at Maragha, Markos was consecrated metropolitan bishop of China (ca. 1280). Two years later (1282), he was elected patriarch of the East Syrian Church. Barhebraeus informs us that he knew no Syriac, but his abilities in the language of the Mongols was more important. Together with the Mongol Il-Khan, he sent his old teacher Rabban Sauma to Paris on a mission to expore cooperation and peace between the Mongols and the Western powers. Mar Yaballah III guided the church through the tumultuous reigns of eight Mongo Khans of the Il-Khanate of Persia. He died, probably on 13 Nov 1317. Shortly after his death, his biography was written in Persian. It survives in a Syriac translation.
In earlier years he preached regularly in the Street Chapel. He was, for many years, the able and painstaking Mission Treasurer; and he examined hundreds of books and tracts offered to one publishing house or another for publication. He had a prominent part in the establishment of the North China Tract Society, later merged into the Religious Tract Society for North and Central China, and for many years prepared a regular portion of its Sunday School Lesson Helps. He was always a faithful and wise counselor on Boards of Managers of Union and other institutions, and took a strong interest in the development of the new Peking University, and the Union Language School. He found keen pleasure in helping new missionaries over hard places in acquiring the Chinese language and examining them in the work accomplished.
Dr. Wherry’s scholarship was of a high order, and was maintained by constant reading and study to the very end, thus enabling him, through wide versatility, to render a varied service to Mission and community. Linguistically and scientifically he was well equipped for the pursuit, enjoyment, and employment of the broad interests of his mind and heart, while a profound faith in God and personal acquaintance with Him through His Son Jesus Christ gave him such a grasp on the things of eternity that he could calmly rest in the faithful performance of duty that he thought God had given him and await with assurance the ultimate development of the Kingdom of God in China and in all the world. Among all his labors, by no other will he be so long remembered as by his share in the revision, or new translation, of the entire Bible into Wenli. Having maintained and improved his early familiarity with the original tongues, and devoted himself zealously to the acquisition of the Wenli style, and having been a member of the committee from the beginning to the end (a period of twenty-eight years), his part in giving God’s Word to the educated men of China will remain, in a special way, Dr. Wherry’s monument. His one great longing was to live long enough to put the finishing touches to this work, and his prayer was granted in the completion of the proof-reading, to which he gave minute personal attention. His work was completed, and his mortal remains were laid to rest with hands clasping a Chinese Bible, while another copy was laid upon the lid of the casket..
Dr. Wherry’s manner of life was of the simplest. Left alone in China for more than half his long period of service through the return of wife and children to America about 1892, whence Mrs. Wherry never found herself able to come back, he declined all offers of a home with others in Peking, yet remained genial, considerate, and benevolent. Socially unobtrusive, he was yet cheerful and entertaining in company, which he thoroughly enjoyed, having a large fund of amusing stories always at command. He could not resist the appeal of the street-beggar, or the impecunious delinquent, and few applicants for “letters of introduction” were ever turned down. His prayer-meeting talks and prayers, whatever the theme of the meeting, almost invariably urged the duty of charitable treatment of Chinese faults and failures in the hope of reformation and redemption. He was ever ready with words of sympathy in sorrow, and with cordial appreciation of work done by his younger colleagues, to whom his unaffected words and example often pointed the way and inspired them to yet higher attainments.
Dr. Wherry passed away on the 30th of December, 1918. Great loss was felt, yet all those who knew him rejoiced in his peaceful, triumphant home-going “to be with Christ, which is far better.”
]]>After a brief illness, Mrs. Hayes died in the home of her son Egbert, in Shanghai, January 3, 1925. She was survived by her husband, with whom she had lived for more than forty-two years, two sons, Newton and Egbert, and two daughters, Grace and May, all of whom became missionaries in China.
Dr. Willard Lyon (1863-1943), formerly Secretary of National YMCA in China, in remembering of her, wrote:
Across the screen of memory alternating pictures of Mother Hayes come and go, revealing her cheerfulness in bearing physical suffering, her unassuming simplicity and wholesomeness, her courage in meeting difficulties, her activities as a peacemaker, and her unwavering devotion to what she was convinced was for her the will of God. But no group of views is adequate to show the manifold beauty of the character which, by the grace of God, she had developed while with us. What she will have become, when once more we shall be permitted to see her face to face, who can picture? Surely in the realm of Freedom and Light to which her spirit has flown, her personality will continue to expand and the charms of her character will grow in their power to bless others. “What we are to be is not apparent yet, but we do know that we are to be like Him.”]]>
In 1915, in cordial co-operation with the women of other missions, she planned and established the Women’s Union Medical College, of which she was chosen Dean, first for some years in Beijing, then in Tsinanfu (Jinan), to which place the college, by general agreement, was transferred to form a part of the Medical College of Shantung (Shandong) Christian University. In all these plans and changes Dr. Leonard impressed her associates with her rare judgment and foresight, ability to see the point-of-view of others, and fine unselfishness in subordinating personal preferences, ease and comfort to the general advantage. And the staff of the University at Jinan (Tsinanfu) came, in the few months of her life among them, to admire and love her as she spent strenuous days in the transfer, the building and the reorganization of the medical college as department of the university.
As for her old mission, North China, and the members of its Peking Station who were most intimately associated with Dr. Leonard for many years, her departure was felt keenly. In council, in administration, in emergency, Dr. Leonard they saw her to be “one of the strong men of the mission,” while remaining a woman of tender sympathies, of warm friendships, and of spiritual devotion. Always ready to bear more than her full share of the burdens, and with amazing patience with details, she yet refused to allow routine to kill joy or limitations to obscure vision. In presenting her missionary cause to the home constituency, or discussing its many problems with secretaries of the Board, she so showed herself mistress of facts and principles as to convince the doubter and arouse the interested to enthusiasm. She hated shams and pettinesses, low ideals and narrow partisanships, but was staunchly loyal to her convictions and her friends. Three times she had bravely bore the experience of helpless weakness and faced the prospect of leaving dear friends and loved work while in the full maturity of strong womanhood, and she endured with equal courage the weariness and the suffering of the her months. Less emotional than many in her religious life, she was known nevertheless for her strong, simple faith in Jesus Christ as her own personal Savior, her alertness to the spiritual opportunities of her profession, and the keen interest which she took in every department of mission work.
Doctor Eliza E. Leonard died on October 17th, 1924, after months of pain and weakness, mourned by her friends and remembered by many Chinese students and associates.
]]>Huang Su’e was early on identified with the education of girls. Shortly after the Emma Jones’ Girls’ School was opened in Hongkou, Shanghai, in 1876, she was called to be a teacher and to help in the management of the school. In 1881, when St. Mary’s Hall was founded at Jessfield, a suburb of Shanghai, Huang [not married yet] was appointed its first headmistress by Bishop Schereschewsky. She held this position until 1891 when she resigned upon marriage. During those early years, Huang’s wisdom and administrative ability helped greatly in building up the new institution.
On August 23rd, 1888, Huang Su’e married *Francis Lister Hawks Pott (1864-1947), an Episcopal missionary in China from 1886 to 1941, president of St. John’s College/University from 1888 to 1941 and a leading figure of the Chinese Anglican Church (中華圣公會 Zhonghua Shenggong Hui). The wedding was held in the chapel of St. John’s College.
As the wife of the President and also a teacher herself at St. John’s, Huang Su’e [Mrs. Pott] shared a keen interest in the welfare of the institution and contributed greatly to its development. An old St. John’s alumnus, Dr. Z. T. K. Woo, Director of the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, wrote of her:
To all the boys she was ever ready to give her kindly advice and a helping hand, and to the young boys she was most motherly, taking a lively interest in their aims as well as their games. All boys who had been sick could tell how carefully she always looked after their comfort and soothed them with cheerful words, as she made it her duty to visit the boys on their sick list. Mrs. Pott was also a most skillful and sympathetic teacher. Those boys who had the privilege of studying under her were impressed with her resourceful and genial way of conducting the class, for she was full of wit and kindness and the boys were unknowingly kept in good behavior and obedience. Her kindly nature promoted a healthy spirit throughout the student body, and for commencement day preparations and for other social function, she was ever the leading spirit; the boys vied with each other in offering their service.
Mrs. Pott also carried on evangelistic work in the nearby villages. For the shelter of girl-babies neglected by their ignorant mothers, Mrs. Pott founded St. Mary’s Orphanage with the money she raised among her friends. She also started the “Gate Sunday School” for the village children and mill workers. She was one of the pioneers of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Mission, which was established in Shanghai in 1893 during the visit of Mrs. Mary Abbot Emery Twing (1843-1901), Founder and Honorary Secretary of the American Episcopal Woman’s Auxiliary. One other result of her visit to Shanghai was the increased interest in the work among the women of China, which she aroused in the hearts of the church women of America by her letters written from the field and by personal talks after reaching home. For a number of years Mrs. Pott was the President of the Jiangsu Branch of the Women’s Auxiliary and in that capacity directed its work for the evangelization of the women of the province. Mrs. Pott was an impressive and resourceful speaker and a thorough scholar of the Bible.
In both public and private life, Mrs. Pott was a model Christian, devoted to her husband and her children, helpful to the needy, kind to her friends, cheerful and self-denying, untiring in all good work. Mrs. Pott died on May 11, 1918.
]]>Before leaving Beijing on 16 Jul, Metello recommended the three Jesuits with expertise in calendrical matters to the emperor, who subsequently hired them. De Souza engaged in clandestine religious work and learned of his appointment as bishop of Beijing (Episcopus Pekinensis) on 19 Dec 1740. He was consecrated in Macau and returned to Beijing.
In 1742 Pope Clement XIV issued the final bull prohibiting the practice of Chinese rites, the Ex Quo Singulari. De Souza announced it only in 1744 through a pastoral letter and notices in the three churches in Beijing, after strong urging from the Vatican.
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