THE magnitude of the work that now claims our attention is great. The whole world must be evangelized; for “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations” before the end comes. There are even now signs of the end. There are wars and rumors of wars. Nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There are famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. But the end is not yet; for the four angels of Rev. 7: 1-3 are still holding the four winds of the earth, and will continue to hold them until the servants of our God have been sealed in their foreheads. But the difficulties are multiplying, and dangers are increasing. Lawlessness abounds, and in consequence the love of many waxes cold. Yet the work will be accomplished; for God, who can not lie, has spoken. However, it must be done amid many perplexities, privations, and trials. But despite the dangers, perplexities, trials, and sufferings, the work must be done, and God’s redeemed children are the ones to do it. The servants of God will be sealed. That is to say, the truth-loving, honest-hearted ones of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues will hear and heed the message11of life, and will be “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created” them, and in their characters, formed in “righteousness and true holiness,” will bear the seal of the living God. Being thus sealed, they shall take their places among those who will not die, but while yet living will be “caught up” “to meet the Lord in the air.”
But perhaps some will say, This great work will be accomplished during the “loud cry” of Rev. 18: 1-4, after God has poured out his Spirit upon his servants and handmaidens, and in consequence “servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven,” and “by thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given.” And thus reasoning, they excuse their present inefficiency, and wait for God to send the loud cry to arouse them from their dormancy and send them out into the harvest-field. If there be such, they are deceived. The necessary preparation of heart is not in consequence of the loud cry, but the loud cry is in consequence of the necessary preparation of heart. He who neglects the needful preparation, can not receive the refreshing that “shall come from the presence of the Lord,” and therefore can not become an active participant in the glorious work that immediately precedes the end. The mighty evangelizing work of the loud cry will be done only by those who have been born again, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;” those who “are not under the law, but under grace,” and hence who labor not with “the spirit of bondage” and fear, as servants, but with the spirit of love and freedom, as dear children. They will be those who “have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,” whose dependence is not on the arm of flesh, but in the living God; and thus equipped, they will meet the perplexities and dangers incident to their work, with a calm, unflinching courage, knowing whom they have believed, being persuaded that he is able to keep that which they have committed unto him against that day. Love for Christ will incite them to action; the wisdom of Christ will guide them in action; confidence in Christ will sustain them in trials, and in the truth of Christ they will triumph.
Now in view of the fact that only those who have experienced a complete change of heart and know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, can have an active part in the great evangelistic movement of the last days which we call the loud cry, we hold that it is of prime importance to preach with emphasis, clearness, and frequency the great fundamental Bible doctrines of the exceeding sinfulness of sin; of the vicarious death of Christ; of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the sinner the moment he believes; and of the believer’s privileges in Christ—in short, righteousness by faith. For it is these doctrines, carefully expounded and presented in love with heavenly unction, that lead directly to the conviction and conversion of the sinner. They are doctrines that are fundamental to any work of revival and reformation whose results are thorough and permanent; because they deal not with that which is transitory and superficial, but touch the mainspring of human action. They cure the disease by removing the cause. They cleanse the stream by purifying the fountain. Therefore they can not be neglected without a distinct decline in spiritual life. The logical and necessary result of neglecting them is the filling up of the church with those who have only a knowledge of the letter of the law, but who have never been converted, and who are sources of darkness and weakness rather than light and strength. Or otherwise stated, it produces that lamentable condition of the Laodicean church which is so graphically described in Revelation 3. Self-righteousness, denominational pride, and spiritual blindness follow.
Let us throw our thought into the form of syllogisms thus:—
Whatever is essential to the conversion of souls, is essential to any work that can be performed only by converted men and women.
The doctrine of righteousness by faith is essential to the conversion of souls.
Therefore, the doctrine of righteousness by faith is essential to any work that can only be performed by converted men and women.
The great evangelistic work of the loud cry is a work that can be performed only by converted men and women. Therefore, the doctrine of righteousness by faith is essential to the great evangelistic work of the loud cry.
Again: any work which can be performed only by converted men and women will be greatly promoted by the preaching of that doctrine which is essential to the conversion of souls.
The great evangelistic work of the loud cry is a work that can be performed only by converted men and women. Therefore, the great evangelistic work of the loud cry will be greatly promoted by the preaching of that doctrine which is essential to the conversion of souls.
The doctrine of righteousness by faith is essential to the conversion of souls.
Therefore, the preaching of the doctrine of righteousness by faith will greatly promote the evangelistic work of the loud cry.
Then is it not clear that the way to advance the glorious message most rapidly is to give to this great soul-saving doctrine its proper place in the very forefront, and keep it there? That it has been neglected in other years is attested by the present state of spiritual decline. The sorrowful description given by the Faithful and True Witness in his message to the Laodiceans (Rev. 3: 14-22) is accurately fulfilled in the present-day church. The Lord said it would be so, and we see that it is so now, at this very time. But the same Lord that foresaw this condition and forewarned us, has also pointed out the remedy. He says, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” “Gold tried in the fire” is love and faith; “white raiment” is the righteousness of Christ, which is reckoned to all who believe; and the “eyesalve” is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is the remedy he offers. And what is it when expressed in a single phrase?—Righteousness by faith. This is the remedy for a church that is lukewarm and spiritually blind. It is God’s remedy, which he himself has prescribed. Let us apply it, and we shall be aroused from our condition of inaction, and be prepared to go forward with the message to the waiting world. Let us apply it to ourselves, each individually. Do this first. Then we shall be prepared to preach it to others, we ourselves having been previously set right with God. And when the righteousness of Christ becomes incarnate in his church, then the glorious work of the loud cry will begin.—The Southern Watchman.
War — Then Peace!
By Lephia Bryant Larson
LEPHIA BRYANT LARSON
Bow your heads, Christians, the war-cloud descending
Reveals to your souls that the end draweth nigh.
Nations are angry, and Satan is sending His spirit abroad with loud, fiendish cry:
War! war! O! the heart-breaking anguish
That little word gives to those who have known,
And to those who to-day in dark prisons languish,
Suffering and dying for crimes not left their own!
Bow your heads, Christians, the cloud bursts in fury,
And nations are killing the best of their land.
Sweethearts and wives are weeping and praying
As the troops march away at their country's command.
Bow your heads, Christians, all shall be done
As foretold in God's blessed Word;
The signs are fulfilling in earth, moon, and sun,
And soon shall appear our dear Lord.
O, look away, Christians, look toward heaven,
From whence shall come thy longed-for release.
The signs are fulfilling, the warning is given,
We soon shall behold the great Prince of Peace!
The nations are angry! O, are we ready
To meet the dread times that are fast drawing on?
Can we hear, with strong faith, the words of the angel
That shall speak from God's throne, “It is done”?
The Dead Man’s Key
A STORY is told of an English minister who, being called to pray by the bedside of a dying man, sought to take him by the hand, in token of their agreement in offering united prayer. The sick man withheld his hand, keeping it under the bedclothes, and the minister prayed without it. Presently the man died, and then, as his hand was uncovered, the mystery was explained—he was holding in his hand, with the grasp of death, a key—the key of his safe where his money was kept.
The Lewiston Journal tells of a man in Durham, Maine, who was very penurious and a very determined man. He died at an advanced age. On his deathbed he kept his right hand closely clutched. As he drew his last breath, he tightened his hold. Everybody there knew what he held in that hand. It was the key to the chest in which he kept his gold.
As his nerveless hand unclosed, the key dropped from it, and clattered against the bedside. As if to hold it even after he was dead, the miser had tied the key about his wrist by a strong cord, which he grasped as long as life remained.
He could not take his gold with him, but he kept the key. They buried him as he was, with the key to his money chest tied about his wrist.
“And what became of the gold?” “O, the heirs have taken care of that just the same! They split open the chest with an ax, and divided the gold, and let the miser keep the key about his wrist.” He is moldering in the grave, and the key is resting beside him. “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”
“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—The Common People.
Are All the Children In?
Are all the children in? The night is falling,
And storm-clouds gather in the threatening west;
The lowing cattle seek a friendly shelter,
The bird hies to her nest;
The thunder crashes; wilder grows the tempest,
And darkness settles o’er the fearful din;
Come, shut the door, and gather round the hearthstone;
Are all the children in?
Are all the children in? The night is falling.
When gilded sin doth walk about the streets.
O, “at the last it biteth like a serpent!”
Poisoned are stolen sweets.
O, mothers, guard the feet of inexperience,
Too prone to wander in the paths of sin!
O, shut the door of love against temptation!
Are all the children in?
Are all the children in? The night is falling;
The night of death is hastening on apace;
The Lord is calling, “Enter thou thy chamber,
And tarry there a space.”
And when he comes, the King in all his glory,
Who died the shameful death our hearts to win,
O, may the gates of heaven shut about us,
With all the children in.
—Selected.
A Catechism for Parents
By Mrs. V. J. Farnsworth
MRS. V. J. FARNSWORTH
1. WHAT caution has the Lord given to parents? “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life.” Deut. 4:9, first part.
2. What other duty is enjoined on them in the same verse? “But teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.”
3. Where should the word of God be found? “And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” Deut. 6:6.
4. How should God’s Word be taught to the children? “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” Deut. 6:7, first part.
5. When should they be taught? “And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deut. 6:7, last part.
6. What caused King David to trust in God? “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.” Ps. 44:1-6.
7. What did God especially enjoin to be taught to the children? “For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children.” Ps. 78:5.
8. If the Word of God is taught as he commanded, what will be the result to the children? “That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.” Ps. 78:7, 8.
9. What example have we in the New Testament as the result of teaching the Word of God to children? The life of Timothy.
10. In what had Timothy been instructed from his childhood? “And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Tim. 3:15.
11. From whom did he receive his first lessons in faith? “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” 2 Tim. 1:5.
12. What is said of Timothy’s father and mother? “Then came he [Paul] to Derbe and Lystra; and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek.” Acts 16:1. The fact is stated that Timothy’s mother was a believer, “but his father was a Greek,” from which we may conclude that he had not embraced the Christian religion. What a testimony is the life of this young man, so full of faith and courage, to the faith and teachings of a Christian mother! What an encouragement to those mothers who do not have the help of the husband and father in training their children for the Lord!
Gardening for the Children
By Anna Cliff White
ANNA CLIFF WHITE
Every home should have a garden, and every child in the home should have his share in that garden. Turn into the lap of mother earth the quiet, studious child, who, to the detriment of his health, loves his books better than exercise. Interest him in the great book of nature; give him simple lessons in botany, and awaken his mind to the wonderful lessons of life that may be gleaned from seeds and plants. Dress him in plain, easy-fitting garments, and let him delve in the wholesome dirt, and inhale the pure air and glorious sunshine, and your sickly student will develop a strong physique, with mind and thought brighter and broader for the body culture he has received in his mother’s garden. Your boisterous, romping, shouting child will develop qualities of gentleness, loving-kindness, thoughtfulness, and intelligence as he cares for his little corner of treasures, and meets each day some new phase of life which absorbs his growing thoughts. Teach the children to take an interest in natural things, fill their small minds with the beautiful and wonderful things of God’s creation, and there will be no room for the world’s evil to creep in later.
Henry Ward Beecher advised:
“Always encourage your child to pursue gardening. A boy that can bury a chipmunk after he is dead, can plant a gladiolus; after it is once planted, there is nothing to be done but to keep the bed weeded; as soon as the plants blossom,13they are so gorgeous that the boy is sure to be very proud of them. You can get them for a small sum apiece, and so can furnish, for a few shillings, a bed of gladioli that will blossom more than two months, and be pre-eminently gorgeous. Then give him a little instruction, and let him try something else: a row of poppies, perhaps; they sow themselves. Get the French poppy, which is single, but runs through the most exquisite range of color,—all combinations that you can imagine,—also the perennial poppy, which soon becomes an established root; in their time the poppies are so gorgeous that every one who comes near them has to put on smoked glasses, as it were. They fill a child’s eye. They are for him a magnificent success. Every one admires them; and this admiration excites his ambition. The boy, who goes through that one summer, and finds every one spontaneously praising what he has done, generally has the horticultural fever; and when he has once caught it, he never recovers!”
The Important Period
By E. M. Barrett
THE first seven years of a child’s life are the most important in his entire existence as far as his future mental development is concerned. The normal child not only gains physically, in this time, one half his adult height and one third his adult weight, but has gained more knowledge of the external, material world than he will gain at any other period of his existence. This is a destructive as well as a constructive age, with instincts which nature has provided for the purpose of coming in contact with the material world. The intelligent, sympathetic mother and father can do more in the way of intellectual awakening at this period in nature’s school, than all the teachers in the common schools in later years. In fact, the teacher is handicapped unless the child has been trained to observation before school age. Thus instructed, the childish instincts have had their day, and he has stored away a host of impressions for future use.—E. M. Barrett.
What Shall We Eat?
Instinct Alone not a Safe Guide in the Selection of Food
“Eat ye that which is good,” says our infallible Guide. By instinct alone, man is not capable of determining between good and evil. Even the beasts of the field have the pre-eminence over man in this respect. A beast would never try to quench its thirst at a pail of beer, or satisfy its hunger by eating tobacco leaves, pickles, mustard, or pepper. Yet it is not uncommon to hear man say, “This is good whisky. This is good beer. This is good tobacco,” etc., thus calling evil good.
The children of Israel despised the pure food given them in the wilderness,—the very bread from heaven, prepared by angel hands, and said, “There is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” “Our souls loatheth this vile bread.” They longed for the leeks, onions, and flesh-pots of Egypt. They lusted after evil things, choosing the evil instead of the good. These things are written for our admonition; for as surely as we are controlled merely by the taste, by instinct, we shall follow their example, and call the good food the Creator has prepared for us evil, and the evil he tries to withhold, we shall pronounce good. Human nature has undergone no change. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
We need an unerring guide. Such a guide we find in the Word of God. But we can not follow the example of those who have lived before us. Doing so accounts for polygamy and many other errors. The Jews came to Christ, asking, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” To this he replied, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” At the beginning God made man and woman, and said, “They twain shall be one flesh. . . . What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” To understand the marriage relation, we must go to the creation before sin entered the world.
In order to understand what to eat, we are also referred to the beginning. When God made the plants, he provided for them in the soil and air the elements needed for their sustenance. They still adhere to the divine plan. The lily, although surrounded with filth, sends its roots beneath it, gathering to itself the elements it needs to make up its snow-white purity.
When God made man, he placed him in a garden, surrounded with trees bearing all manner of fruits, then said to him, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” He was to select his food from the simple products of the earth. These were the foods created for man, to be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth; for it is sanctified—set apart by the Word of God and prayer. In the absence of these foods, or where there exists a scarcity, or where there is a lack of knowledge as to their use, man is justified in appropriating the coarser foods, the herbs of the field,—foods that were designed for animals whose digestive tracts enable them to digest them.
Man is even justified, in the absence of both fruits and herbs, to slay and eat. After the flood when all vegetation was destroyed, God said to man, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” This may be considered an emergency diet to be used only in the absence of purer and better food, or until the earth should again produce her bounties. Good sense should lead man to discard the harmful, and choose the good,—the herbs of the field if nothing better can be obtained. But when fruits, grains, and nuts can be obtained, these should be selected in preference to all else, because they are the foods created for man at the beginning; therefore the food best adapted for his needs. That which is good may not at first taste seem good to a perverted appetite. This is wholly a matter of educating the taste, but it is possible to undergo a complete change, so that we shall hate the things we once pronounced good, and love the things we once pronounced evil,—in other words, shall pronounce good what God's Word pronounces good, and pronounce evil what he pronounces evil. “Fix upon that course of life which is best, and custom will render it the most delightful.” The tobacco devotee can not understand why that which seems such a comfort to him should be despised by me. He thinks I am practising great self-denial by abstaining from its use. He does not know that it would be an act of self-denial on my part to use tobacco.
So the man sitting by my side, seeing me eat the simple products of the earth, may think I am making a great sacrifice, but not so. I am able to detect flavors in these products that he with his palate calloused with irritants, as pepper, mustard, tobacco, etc., can not possibly detect.
All have gone astray. We have wandered every one to his own way. The forsaking of our ways, or habits, is hard, but the sacrifices which we are called upon to make are merely so many steps toward the path of life, peace, true happiness, and health. Had we never forsaken God's ways, sacrifices would never be necessary.
These sacrifices and self-denials are not created by God. But the satisfaction and joy once experienced by adopting the good, makes it easier ever after to forsake that which is evil.—Australasian Good Health.
Hygiene of the Japanese
THE unique progress of Japan and the remarkable efficiency of its people in everything they undertake suggest some interesting questions as to the influence of diet and personal hygiene on national welfare. The British Medical Journal says that the Japanese themselves attribute their high average of physical strength to a plain and frugal diet, and the system of gymnastics called jiu-jitsu, which includes a knowledge of anatomy and of the external and internal uses of water.
Although during the period of their ascendancy the Samurai kept the secret that their great physical superiority was due in a great measure to the internal and external use of water, the belief that if used liberally and intelligently, water is an infallible weapon against disease is now generally held. By those who go in for jiu-jitsu an average of one gallon a day is drunk. It is noteworthy that rheumatism is almost unknown in Japan; it is probable that the absence of meat from the diet, combined with the use of plenty of water, accounts for this immunity. Bathing is indulged in frequently even by the poorest. In the matter of diet they are frugal to a degree, rice being the staple food in every Japanese house, and appearing at every meal. Japanese troops have often made record marches on a diet consisting solely of a little rice.
The Japanese appreciate above all things the value of fresh air; night and day they keep their windows open and their rooms ventilated, and they do not fear drafts or damp air. Breathing exercises are an important part of their physical training—deep, careful breathing, which is 'only acquired by practise.—N. Y. Times.
Nothing Is Ever Finished Here
NOTHING is ever finished here. Life and time do not agree together. Life demands eternity for its unfolding. Die when we will, there is something that remains undone. . . . Nothing is ever finished here. That is the reason Jesus most frequently connected “life” with “everlasting” and “eternal.” . . . The voice has grown still just as it was about to sing a song sweeter than its sweetest. Just as the man is best fitted for accomplishment, he begins to decay. However many his years upon earth, he who does not attain to the resurrection, says our Lord, “shall not see life.”— Interior.
Memories of Robert Morrison
By E. H. Wilbur
E. H. WILBUR
It was my privilege to visit the tomb of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China. He was buried in the old Protestant cemetery in Macao. This city belongs to Portugal, and is on a small island near the mainland, forty-five miles southwest of Hongkong, and ninety miles from Canton. When Mr. Morrison came to China in 1807, he stopped at Macao before going to Canton, and the next June, after nearly nine months of hard study of the Chinese language, he was compelled to return to regain his health. The latter part of August he went back to Canton, but as all the English were compelled to leave that city the following November, he again took up his residence in Macao.
PRAYA GRANDE, MACAO, CHINA
It was at this time that he became acquainted with Miss Mary Morton, to whom he was married Feb. 20, 1809. But so strong was the opposition of the Chinese and the enmity of the Roman Catholic missionaries, that he decided to go to Penang and continue his work. Then it was that the East India Company offered him the position of translator of Chinese at a salary of five hundred pounds (about twenty-five hundred dollars gold) a year. This he gladly accepted, as, being engaged in commercial work, he would be permitted to live in either Macao or Canton, and could proceed with his study and work of translation. It also provided a liberal means of support. During the years that followed, his time was about equally divided between Canton and Macao.
Sometimes he was compelled to retire to the latter place for safety, and at other times for the sake of his own health or that of his family. After spending several months of each year at Canton as translator for the East India Company, it was a relief again to be with his family in Macao, to enjoy the refreshing sea breezes, and to have more time for vigorous work on his God-given task of translating the Holy Scriptures into the Chinese language. The first portion to be printed was the Acts of the Apostles, one thousand copies of which were issued in 1810. Other portions were printed later, but under great difficulties, as the Chinese government had made it a capital offense to print books on another religion.
Mr. Morrison had repeatedly urged the missionary societies in England and America to send other workers. The first to come were Mr. and Mrs. Milne, of England, who arrived at Macao, July 4, 1813. But as they came as missionaries, the Roman Catholics influenced the Portuguese authorities to forbid their remaining in Macao, and the Chinese officials did not permit them to stay long in Canton. By this time Mr. Morrison had the entire New Testament printed in Chinese, and it was decided that Mr. Milne should take a good supply of these for distribution in the Chinese settlements at Penang, Malacca, and other East India cities, and look up a suitable location for a mission headquarters, where a printing plant could be set up and an Anglo-Chinese college established.
The trip was eminently successful. A good opening was found at Malacca, and Mr. and Mrs. Milne were permanently located there, a school opened, and later a printing outfit put in.
In 1819 Mr. Morrison, aided by Mr. Milne, completed the task of translating the entire Bible into the Chinese language. The news of the accomplishing of this great work was received with rejoicing by the Christian people of Europe and America. From this beginning a number of other translations have been made, and so great is the demand for the Bible in China to-day that the presses of the American Bible Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society have this year found it difficult at times to print Bibles fast enough to fill their orders.
June 10, 1821, Mr. Morrison's pleasant home in Macao was suddenly broken up by the death of his companion. A son and a daughter, with the bereaved husband, mourned their loss. The Chinese would not permit Mrs. Morrison to be buried in the hills, nor the Catholics in their cemetery, so a company from the English factory purchased a plot of ground to be used as a Protestant cemetery, and her remains were reverently laid there to rest. Mr. Morrison resumed his work with a sad heart, and not long after this sent his two children to England in care of friends.
In 1823 he had the satisfaction of seeing his Anglo-Chinese dictionary published. It filled six large quarto volumes, each equaling in size a family Bible. It contained 4,995 pages, and recorded 40,000 words expressed by Chinese characters. In getting material for this book he had collected a Chinese library of several thousand volumes, which he took with him to England, and placed at the disposal of missionaries. In the “homeland” he was greeted with honors. After his years of almost ceaseless toil in China, he hoped to find some rest, but so cordial was the reception to his native land, and so many the invitations for him to lecture on China, that he had but little time to himself. Not only in England, but in France, Ireland, and Scotland he endeavored to arouse Christian people to the importance of sending missionaries to the Orient.
During his two years' residence in England he was married to Miss Eliza Armstrong, of Liverpool, and in the summer of 1826 they returned to China. They had a tedious voyage of five months. (Now the voyage from England to Canton requires about six weeks.) He again took up his duties at Canton as interpreter, but because of the opposition of the Roman Catholics and Chinese officials he was not permitted to preach publicly. This, however, only impelled him to vigorously proceed with the more enduring work of carrying the gospel by means of the printed page. But it was not long before he was prohibited from printing in Macao, though they could not prevent him from distributing the literature printed from the press connected with15the Anglo-Chinese college at Malacca.
In what strong contrast the work of the Roman Catholic clergy stands to that of Robert Morrison! While he was bending every energy and giving his very life that the people of China might have the Word of God, the bishop at Macao issued an anathema against any one who had intercourse with Mr. Morrison or received his books, and to-day in Macao, as in many other countries, when the people are approached with the Holy Bible, the answer is, “I am a Catholic, and am not allowed to read that book.”
But Mr. Morrison, with undaunted courage, continued his work until, when worn out by years of almost ceaseless toil, he fell a prey to fever directly caused by exposure, and died at Canton, Aug. 1, 1834. His remains were brought to Macao, and laid by the side of his wife. The following words inscribed upon his tomb are so effaced by time that they can now be read only with difficulty:—
“Sacred to the memory of Robert Morrison, D. D., the first Protestant missionary to China, where, after a service of twenty-seven years cheerfully spent in extending the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer, during which period he compiled and published a dictionary of the Chinese language, founded the Anglo-Chinese college at Malacca, and for several years labored alone on a Chinese version of the Holy Scriptures, which he was spared to see completed and widely circulated among those for whom it was destined, he sweetly slept in Jesus. He was born at Morpeth, in Northumberland, Jan. 5, 1782, was sent to China by the London Missionary Society in 1807, was for twenty-five years Chinese translator in the employ of the East India Company, and died at Canton, Aug. 1, 1834.”
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.”
Any one desiring to read further on this subject would do well to secure the book by Wm. J. Townsend, entitled “Robert Morrison, the Pioneer Chinese Missionary.”
