THE CHRONICLE

OF THE

London Missionary Society.

I.

1-The Protestant Missions of Hong Kong.

THE

BY THE REV. E. J. EITEL, PH.D.

HE different Missions of Hong Kong, with their outstations on the adjacent mainland, have up to this day gathered no less than 2,200 native Christians under the banner of Christ, of which number more than 1,400 are regular attendants at the Lord's Table. This is the result total of over thirty years up-hill work. Small as it may appear to those who expect great things in the harvest-field of the Lord, it will yet be seen to be something to be thankful for, if they will but consider how many years it took Protestant Missionaries to find out the right way of going to work in this field of labour; and that even now all we Missionaries are doing is but sowing in weakness, planting the good seed with patience, looking to the Lord of the Havest to send rain and sunshine to give His blessing to the work and to bring on in His own appointed time the day of harvest, distant as it may be.

Looking back over the past history of Hong Kong Missions, reviewing the early growth of the several German Missions, the London Mission, St. Paul's College and the Church Mission, with its schools for boys and girls our attention is immediately arrested by four remarkable characters, centres of missionary activity, around which the varied events, failures, successes of Hong Kong Missions naturally group themselves. These four personages are, to arrange them in chronological order: first DR. GUTZLAFF, the originator of all the German Missions in South China; next DR. LEGGE, the founder of the London Mission churches of Hong Kong and Poklo; then BISHOP SMITH, the founder of St. Paul's College and Church Mission work here; and finally Miss BAXTER, the indefatigable worker among Chinese women and orphans, among the destitute and outcasts of all nations.

DR. GUTZLAFF.

The first in the field was DR. GUTZLAFF. He had been sent by a Dutch Society first to Java, then to Siam, where he laboured among Chinese immigrants, and with his remarkable linguistic talent learned the Fohkien dialect in a short time. Having lost his wife and child by death, and inherited a small fortune, he disdained working among the scattered Chinese emigrants at Siam, and set his heart on Missionary work in China. His Society declined sending him there, but he, nothing daunted, took passage in a Chinese junk; and on arrival in China, finding it impossible to effect an entrance, enlisted as Chinese interpreter on opium ships. In this capacity he travelled up and down the Chinese coast for several years, all the time hard at work at a translation he made in the Chinese character of the whole Bible, preparing also many tracts in Chinese, all of which he had printed at his own expense, using every opportunity that offered to distribute copies of the New Testament and his tracts. He never approved of the opium traffic, and readily took service with the English Government in 1839, which, at the outbreak of the war with China, was glad to avail itself of Gützlaff's services, he being then, next to Mr. Morrison and Mr. Thom, almost the only European in China who combined with an excellent knowledge of the Chinese written language a thorough practical acquaintance with several dialects. He acted as third interpreter throughout the negotiations resulting in the treaty of Nanking in 1842, was for some time superintendent of Chusan, and finally accepted the post of Chinese Secretary, to which the Hong Kong Government appointed him in 1843, and which he retained to his death. As soon as he had settled down in Hong Kong he set to work, combining with his official work the most energetic missionary labours. Every morn ing from seven to eight he gathered round him at the Government offices large numbers of Chinese, to whom he expounded the Scriptures in the Fohkien dialect; then, after a hasty breakfast in his office, he gave another Bible lecture to Chinese, speaking the Punti or Hakka dialects. Every evening, after office hours, he went out into the town or villages, preaching among the Chinese, or worked at home finishing his translation of the Old Testament. From the number of those Chinese who attended his Bibleclasses he selected the most attentive and sent them with bags full of New Testaments and tracts into the interior, to the most distant provinces, parcelling out among them the whole of China, supplying them with passagemoney and paying them a salary of six dollars per month, out of his own pocket at first, and afterwards with the additional aid of contributions he received for the purpose from America and Europe. No wonder the Govern

ment offices were thronged with anxious inquirers for the good things to be obtained at Gützlaff's Bible-classes. He had at one time 366 such colporteurs, or rather preachers as he called them, who came and went with the utmost regularity, starting from Gützlaff's office with bags full of Bibles, travelling-money, and directions for the route, and returning at the proper time with well-written journals of travels they had never made, sketches of sermons they had never preached, and lists of converts they had never baptized. Poor Gützlaff! he believed them all to be inspired with his own holy zeal; he translated their hypocritical reports couched in the most fervent strains of piety and devotion, and sent them to all parts of the world asking for the support of his "Chinese Union," as he called this host of sham evangelists, which he verily believed was destined to win the whole of China for Christ. Poor Gützlaff! the very Bibles he bought from the Chinese printer with his hard-earned money and handed to the members of his Chinese Union were sold by them to the printer, who resold them again to Gützlaff. He was too charitable to find serious fault with his men, though he did not trust them altogether, for it was one of the principal features of his plan for the conversion of China that his colporteurs should make their journey in the interior under the supervision of foreign missionaries. But these missionaries, as soon as they began to understand the language, also began to see the hollowness of this Chinese Union, which in Europe was supposed to be an association of voluntary, unpaid preachers of the Gospel, and which they found to be an army of mercenary hypocrites; they protested against Gützlaff's credulity, warned him against impostors, and finally exposed the whole sham, whilst yet retaining their esteem for Gützlaff's own Christian character and well meaning, though injudicious zeal. Thus this missionary bubble burst, and Gützlaff survived it but a short time. He died in 1851, having just returned from a short visit to Europe, where he had succeeded in establishing several missionary societies for the conversion of China. He died; but, thanks to his energetic spirit, the missionaries who came out to join him had gone through an excellent training-school in their connection with the Chinese Union. They had received a thorough acquaintance with the Chinese, their language and their vices; they had learned, from the failure of this Chinese Union, to discard the dreams of a speedy conquest of China through paid agents; they had resolved to settle down to quiet, steady work in church and school, laying in earnest perseverance the solid foundations of Christian family-life, to build up thereon a Christian churchlife, and to trust to these native churches to bring forth the preachers and agents who shall conquer China for Christ in the time appointed.

DR. LEGGE.

The next man who came into the Hong Kong Mission-field after Gützlaff, and who for many years laboured side by side with him, though working on an entirely different plan, was Dr. Legge. After many years of tuitional labour in connection with the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, Dr. Legge removed to Hong Kong when China was formally opened through the Treaty of Nanking. Dr. Legge arrived here in 1843. He was too sober and practical a man to ever indulge in dreams of such a speedy evangelization of China, or to be taken in by empty professions of faith and devotion, as was the case with Gützlaff. Patient, steady work was his motto, and he persevered in his work, preaching in chapel, teaching in schools, superintending a printing press and type foundry for the printing of Chinese Bibles and tracts, and burning the midnight lamp over his translations and commentaries of the Chinese Classics. And his work had a blessing on it. Out of his preaching in his Chinese chapels-two of which were built by native subscriptions, and in which he was effectually supported by a native pastor of his own training, whose preaching powers he often likened to those of Spurgeon-out of his preaching in these chapels gradually arose a native church which is not only self-supporting, but supports by its own contributions another native church, with its pastor founded in the interior. Out of the English services which Dr. Legge used to hold on Sundays in his drawing-room arose the church and congregation now called Union Church. Out of the Theological Seminary, or so-called Anglo-Chinese College, founded by him in 1848, and which he carried on for many years with unflagging zeal till the patent failure he met with convinced him that it was a mistake to take heathen boys, pay them, feed them, clothe them, and give them a liberal English education, and then expect them to go forth as humble, self-denying preachers, or become faithful pastors of native churches-out of this educational failure arose the plan he urged upon the Hong Kong Government, and which, being adopted, led to the establishment of the present Government Central School. Out of the tracts he printed and sent inland through members of his church arose the six churches now established in the Poklo district. And last, though not least, out of his translation and commentary to the Chinese Classics, many a missionary not only learns to understand the Chinese language and Chinese mode of thought, but takes the very materials best adapted to be forged into weapons of spiritual warfare. Dr. Legge was always a plodding worker, and he is still at work. May God spare his life and enable him to finish the work he has still in hand!

(To be continued).

-The Mission in New Guinea.

WING to the universal interest which has been awakened by the opening up of NEW GUINEA to the civilization and Christianity of Europe, most of the information which reaches this country finds its way into the public press by means of the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society or through private sources. It may, therefore, be presumed that the friends of the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY are acquainted generally with the events which have transpired in New Guinea during the period which has elapsed since we last laid before them the journals of Messrs. MacFARLANE and LAWES. Both of these brethren have been prosecuting their exploratory journeys-the former has ascended the FLY RIVER to a distance of 160 miles in the Society's steamer Ellengowan; the latter has penetrated twenty miles into the interior of the country adjoining PORT MORESBY, and travelled 100 miles over ground which had never before been trodden by the white man. As the result of these expeditions, an apparently firm friendship has been established between the missionaries. and the natives of the interior. It is, moreover, satisfactory to find that behind the barren coast of PORT MORESBY there are healthy uplands, with tropical vegetation, good population, and plenty of food. At the date of our last advices (February 18th) the Rev. W. Y. TURNER was on the point of leaving Sydney in order to take up his position in connection with the new Mission.

So far, however, as mission purposes are concerned, the castern end of New Guinea is still a terra incognita. It has long been the Directors' desire that a visit of inquiry should be made in that direction; and we have much pleasure in announcing that such an expedition has been undertaken by our valued friend, the Rev. A. W. MURRAY, who has already rendered good service to the Mission in its earlier stages. On the 19th of April Mr. Murray left England for Sydney, where he will join the John Williams, and, in company with the Rev. SAMUEL ELLA, proceed in her to the LOUISIADE and D'ENTRECASTEAUX groups of islands, and to other localities in the neighbourhood of CHINA STRAIT. The object of the proposed visit is to ascertain whether suitable spots are to be found in those districts for the occupation of native teachers, and the commencement of missionary work in the far eastern limits of the great New Guinea continent. The following extracts have been selected from Mr. Macfarlane's journal of his voyage up the FLY RIVER. Two gentlemen, Lieut. Chester and Mons. d'Albertis, engaged in scientific exploration, were accommodated with passages in the Ellengowan :