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S.P.G. Missionary in North China And Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of North China LONDON: 34 Great Castle Street, Oxford Circus, W. OXFORD: 106 S. Aldate's Street NEW YORK: THOMAS WHITTAKER, 2 and 3 Bible House |
Chapter I. Heathen China
Chapter II. Heathen China and Christian England
Chapter III. The English Church Enters China
Chapter IV. Heathen China and Christian England Again
Chapter V. The English Church Enters Peking
Chapter VI. The Church in South China
Chapter VII. The Church in Fuhkien
Chapter VIII. The Church in Chehkiang
Chapter IX. The Church in the Yangtse Valley
Chapter X. The Church in Western China
Chapter XI. The Church in Shantung
Chapter XII. The Church in Chihli
Chapter XIII. Inter-Diocesan Organization
Chapter XIV. The "Open Door"
IT was said, I believe by the late Bishop Lightfoot, that the study of history was the best cordial for a drooping courage. I can imagine no study more bracing and exhilarating than that of the modern expansion of the Church of England beyond the seas during the past half century, and especially since the institution of the Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions. It is only when these matters are studied historically that this expansion comes out in its true proportions, and invites comparison with the progress of the Church in any similar period of the world's history since our LORD'S Ascension into heaven.
But for this purpose there must be the accurate marshalling of facts, the consideration of the special circumstances of each country, race and Mission, the facing of problems, the biographies of great careers, even the bold forecast of conquests yet to come. It is to answer some of these questions, and to enable the general reader to gauge the progress of Church of England Missions, that Messrs. A. R. Mowbray and Co. have designed a series of handbooks, [v/vi] of which each volume will be a monograph on the work of the Church in some particular country or region by a competent writer of special local experience and knowledge. The whole series will be edited by two men who have given themselves in England to the work and study of Foreign Missions-Canon Dodson, Principal of S. Paul's Missionary College, Burgh, and Canon Bullock-Webster, of Ely.
I commend the project with all my heart. The first volume, which I have been able to study in proof, appears to me an excellent introduction to the whole series. It is a welcome feature of missionary work at home that we have now passed into the stage of literature and study, and that the comity of Missions allows us to learn from each other, however widely methods may vary. The series of handbooks appears to me likely to interest a general public which has not been accustomed to read missionary magazines, and I desire to bespeak for it a sympathetic interest, and to predict for it no mean success in forming and quickening the public mind.
EDGAR ALBAN.
HIGHAMS,
WOODFORD GREEN, ESSEX,
November 10, 1907.
FEW facts in modern history are more arresting or instructive than the rapid extension of the Church's responsibilities and labours in the colonial and missionary fields; yet, until recently, few facts perhaps have been less familiar to those who have not deliberately given themselves to a study of the subject.
It has therefore been felt that the time has come when a series of monographs, dealing with the expansion of the Church of England beyond the seas, may be of service towards fixing the popular attention upon that great cause, the growing interest in which constitutes so thankworthy a feature in the Church's outlook to-day.
The range of this series is confined to the work in which the Church of England is engaged. That story is too full to allow of any attempt to include the splendid devotion, and the successful labours, of other Missions of Christendom. But, for a fair understanding either of the Christian advance generally or of the relative position of our own [vii/viii] work, a knowledge of those Missions is essential; and it is in the hope of leading some of its readers to such further comparative study that this series has been taken in hand.
The Editors have tried to keep in view the fact that, while the wonderful achievements here recorded have been accomplished in large part through the agency of our Missionary Societies, yet these Societies are, after all, only the hands and arms of the Holy Church in the execution of her divine mission to the world.
They have directed their work, as Editors, simply to securing general uniformity of plan for the series, and have left each writer a free hand in the selection of material and the expression of opinion.
T.H.D.
G.R.B.-W.AUTHOR'S PREFACE THE following pages--begun in hospital in England, continued on shipboard, and finished amid the distraction of resuming active work in the mission-field--are so manifestly incomplete that they must be their own apologists. The criticisms they embody have at least the merit that they are not newly-invented, and have rather gathered force than lost it during the last eighteen years.
Limits of time have made parts of the book disproportionate, limits of space have led to the exclusion of much interesting matter--which can, however, be read in the various books named in the Appendix. No attempt has been made at uniformity of spelling for the Chinese names. Wade's system of Romanization is the only one which could have been adopted; and its adoption would have rendered the names of people and places already familiar to many in existing publications quite unrecognizable.
[x] Neither the General Editors nor the Publishers can be held responsible for faults due to the author's incapacity; while the fact that the latter cannot have the benefit of consultation with the Editors, nor the opportunity of seeing his work in proof, may perhaps mitigate criticisms otherwise well-deserved.
FRANK L. NORRIS.
Yungch'ing,
Diocese of North China,
June, 1907.