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^^-^ KNIGHTS Vv''''''!v'

^^_ OF JHE LABARUM,

BEING STUDIES IN THE LIVES OF

JUDSON, 1)UFF, MACKENZIE AND 'mACKAY

Bi^HARLAN P. BEACH

Hducational Secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement

for Foreign Missions; formerly Missionary in China r j

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CHICAGO / '

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS . 1896

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Copyright, 1896, by the

Student Volunteer Movement

FOR Foreign Missions.

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EXPLANATORY

This little book does not claim to be a collection of fin- ished biographies. Like a volume on India, issued a year ago, "The Cross in the Land of the Trident," it is in- tended as an outline text-book for Mission Study Classes, whether conducted by the Student Volunteer Movement, or carried on by Young Peoples' Societies and women's missionary organizations. The condensation of material and the use of bold-faced type and italics are due to the de- sire to facilitate the acquisition of leading facts and to sug- gest topics and sub-topics for further reading. The en- thusiastic approval of many among the thousands who have used the similarly prepared book above mentioned, has en- couraged the autVi,\5r to again make use of this style of writ- ing, faulty though it may be from a typographical and literary point of view.

The author hopes that in addition to a mastery of these outline facts, the user will read the fuller, and hence more living and interesting, volumes from which he has derived most of his information. Several readings have been sug- gested by chapter or page at the close of each chapter, and in classes some of these, at least, should be read and re- ported upon as valuable side-light material. Only thus can the greatest profit be derived from these studies.

Leaders of classes should possess a full biography of each of the lives outlined here, and the following are suggested as the best now in pri>jl: : "The Life of Adoniram Judson,"

by his son, Edward Judson, 1SS3, A. D, F. Randolph & Co., New York; the two-volume-in-one edition, published by the American Tract Society of New York, of "The Life of Alexander Duff, D. D., LL. D.," by George Smith, LL.D., 1879; "John Kenneth Mackenzie, Medical Miss- ionary to China," by Mrs Bryson, Fleming H. Revell Company, New York and Chicago ; and, "A. M. Mackay, Pioneer Missionary of the Church Missionary Society to Uganda," by his Sister, 1890, A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York.

The principal reason why these four have been chosen from among the many mighty men on the mission field is that they represent four different lines of missionary effort, as well as four different countries. A broader view of missionary life is thus secured than would have been the case if representatives of one land or of one phase of work wei-e studied. This will partly account for the omission of some missionaries equally famous, though additional rea- sons for choosing these rather than others have also been operative. Thus the latter part of LiyiJ^ngstone's life, like that of Dr Peter Parker's, was only indirectly missionary, and both had severed their connection with missionary or- ganizations. Again, Bishop Patteson and Dr Paton are omitted, because both of them labored in a field which has comparatively little connectiojial interest for American stu- dents, while in the case of Dr Paton, an additional reason for neglecting so marvelous a life is the fact that it has not yet reached its completion.

September, i8g6.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

I. Judson's Life from 17SS to 1816 . . 9

11. The Judsons' Burman Work ... 22

III. Duff's Early Life and Educational

Work ...... 36

IV. Duff as a Promoter of Missions . . 49

V. The Man Mackenzie, His Field and

People^ ...... 6-5

VI, Mackenzie, the Medical Missionary . 76

VII Mackay's Early Life and His African

Field ...... 89

VIII. Mackay's Parishioners and His Work . 10 1

¥

Xabarum, tbc sacrcfe militaris 8tan^a^^ of tbe earl's Cbrietian IRoman JEmpers org, was first a^optc^ bsConstantinc tbc Great after bis miraculous vision in 312. . . . B Special Guard of flftv solMers was appointed) to protect tbe sacred standard.— ]£nc^clopaebia3Brittanica.

fl determined not to ftnow ani^tbing among ^ou, save Jesus Cbrist, and bim crucified. ... II bave fougbt tbc good figbt, II bave flnisbed tbe course, H have fcept tbe faitb ; benccfortb tbcrc is laid for me tbe crown of righteousness.

—St. Paul.

UbT2 servants will pass over, evcrv man tbat is armed for war, before tbc Xord to battle— mumbecs xxxti. 27. ^

•4*'

KNIGHTS OF THE LABAKUM

JUDSON'S life from 17SS TO 18 1 6

IN MEMORIAM. REV. ADONIRAM JUDSON. BORN AUG. 9, I78S. DIED APRIL 12, 185O. MALDEN, HIS BIRTHPLACE. THE OCEAN, HIS SEPULCHRE. CONVERTED BURMANS, AND THE BURMAN BIBLE, HIS MONUMENT. HIS RECORD IS ON HIGH.

The above insciiption, found on a marble tablet in the Baptist church at Maiden, Mass., constitutes one of the interesting relics of America's early missionary history. Another, found in this same Boston suburb, is a wooden, two-storied and dorni»-j(ted house embowered in trees, the birthplace of " The Apostle of Burma."

Parentage. The person thus commemorated was the eld- est of four children. The father^ true to his Hebi^ew name, Adoniram, "Lord of height," was more like a Hebrew patriarch or Roman censor than fathers of to-day. Erect, above the ordinary height, grave and taciturn, stately and awe-inspiring, he occupied the lofty position of Congrega- tional minister in the old-time New England community. It was his to command in the parish, and especially in his home, where he ruled as absolute monarch. Not am- bitious for himself, he inordinately desired to see his child- ren achieve greatness. To this end he largely threw the son on his own resources, and constantly held before him the possibility of becoming great. Christianity ^vas to the father a thing surely proven and demanding immediate obedience, and any attempl^to question it was tantamount

lO THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

to rebellion. In general his life was marked by inflexible integrity and uniform consistency, and called forth from the young Adoniram the phrase, "honored parent," as well as inspired in him self-reliance and overweening ambition. Paternal influence doubtless accounts for the stately cour- tesy and the dignified literary style of Judson's later years.

His mother, Abigail Brown, seconded her husband in his ambitious schemes for the boy ; yet of her Augustine's words are also true : " This name of my Saviour, Thy Son, had my tender heart, even with my mother's milk, devoutly drunk in, and deeply cherished; and whatsoever was with- out that name, though never so learned, polished, or true, took not entire hold of me."

Anecdotes of His Boyhood. A sort of forcing system, of which in later life Judson did not approve, made of the child of three a reader in the Bible, and when four, a preacher to children, his favorite hymn being, "Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord." He is a philosopher and as- tronomer at seven, as he lies on his back at midday en- deavoring to learn, by means of a hole in his hat, through which he long gazes at the sun, whether or not it moves. The problem was solved, but the boy could not tell the process. Later his success as riddle guesser brings him a whole book full of them, an arithii^tic.

Preparatory and Collegiate Education. The coming of this book, which his father's praise and the fact of its being difficult made delightful, began his educational career. Arithmetic establishes his reputation. Navigation follows at ten years, and soon thereafter his odd hat, and proficiency in the classics studied at the grammar school, w^on him the nickname, "Old Vergil dug up." For leisure houi's, he indulges in a mUangc consisting of Ben Jonson's plays, novels of Richardson and Fielding, and theological works.

His studies, which he enjoyed far more than play, suf- fered a prolonged and almost fatal interruption at the age of fourteen, and for the first time he calmly considered the meaning of life. During convalescence, castle-building made him a nineteenth century Alexander weeping for un- conquei'ed worlds. Better impulses allured him to a life of Christian usefulness, lived to th« glory of God ; but as that

LIFE FROM 17SS TO I S 16 H

meant being a Christian, and as he was determined to be- come a great man, these thoughts he foolishly set aside.

Providence College — the present Brown University — received Adoniram at sixteen, he having entered as sopho- more. President Messer has testified, in a letter to Jud- son's father, to "a uniform propriety of conduct, as well as an intense application to study," while a classmate had "no recollection of his ever failing, or even hesitating in recita- tion." Qiiite naturally, therefore, and in spite of six weeks of teaching during senior year, he graduated with the vale- dictory in 1S07. Unfortunately these years brought him in contact with French infidelity which so permeated educa- tional centers at that time. Yielding to the flood, and es- pecially to the arguments of a witty and talented upper- classman, Judson became a professed deist and looked for- ward to the law as an open door to political preferment, or to the stage as a field for his dramatic gifts.

Teacher and Author. Two weeks after receiving his B. A., Judson opened the "Plymouth Independent Academy," his father being then pastor in that historic town. His application during this 3^ear must have been unremitting, as, in addition to his school duties, he published two text- books, " The Elements of English Grammar," and "The Young Ladies' Arithmt;^c," which, though exhibiting the "ingenious literary enterprise and perseverance" of their author, were of no great pedagogical value.

Judson's Conversion. In August, 180S, less than a week after closing his academy, he mounted a horse and set out on a tour through the North "to see the world." Fulton's newly invented steamboat and the charming scen- ery of the Hudson greatly interested him, but questionable scenes soon followed. Arriving in New York, he joined a band of strolling players in order to prepare himself for dramatical writing. He said later of these experiences : "We lived a reckless, vagabond life, lodging where we could, and bilking the landlord when we found opportunity. . Before leaving America, ... I made a second tour over the same ground, carefully making amends to all whom I had injured."

His Damascus came sooa'^fter leaving New York, when

12 THE JUDSONS, BUKMAN PIONEERS

he returned to Connecticut for his horse. A godly young minister, supplying his uncle's pulpit at Sheffield, greatly impressed him. This added force to his father's severity and his mother's grief, exhibited when he told them, before leaving home, of his deistical beliefs. The night after leaving Sheffield, his room in the inn adjoined that of a dying young- man whose futui'e prospects disturbed his sleep. He tried to banish "superstitious illusions" by the thought of what his deistical college friend would say if he were cognizant of such fears. The morning brought the news of the young man's death and the crushing intelligence that the dead man was no other than this same college idol. Thunder-struck, Judson gave up his tour and turned Plymouth-ward, his mind deeply impressed with the need of salvation, but with the scales still unremoved from his eyes. Professors Griffin and Stuart of Andovcr 6"^/;/ zVz a /-^ advised him to enter that institution. This he finally decided to do, "not as a pro- fessor of religion and candidate for the ministry, but as a person deeply in earnest on the subject, and desirous of ar- riving at the truth." Having become somewhat proficient in Hebrew, Judson was able to enter the iniddle class at Andover, and here it was that the light came ; though it was only the clearest evidence of the truth of Christianity and an increasing need of the Saviour Iffat caused the conquered infidel to say, "My Lord and my God." December 2, i8o8, \vas the date of this momentous decision, but not un- til the following May did he unite with his father's church. Andover "Divinity College" Life, 1808-1810. Judson's conversion ended forever his old life of doubt and political and literary ambition. His supreme desire now was to know how he could order his life so as to best please God. That this thought might be constantly before him, he in- scribed on several constantly used articles, '•''Is it pleasing to God? " His letters at this period glow with earnest de- sires after holiness and with whole-souled consecration to Christ's service. Without raising the question, he felt that he must devote his life to the ministry in some form. When as a student he went out to preach, his sermons were " solemn, impassioned, logical and highly scriptural, with- out much of the hortatory, and' with no far-fetched figure or

LIFE FROM 17SS TO 1S16 I J

studied ornament of phrase." These addresses were rarely Avritten : for, "why should I spend my time in attempting the correctness and elegancies of English literature, who expect to spend my days in talking to savages in vulgar style? Why not cultivate extempore speaking altogether, when that will soon be my only mode of preaching for life ?"

His ifttcrest in missions began in September of his senior year, when he read Buchanan's "Star in the East." Later he did not consider this sermon remarkable, but at the time it produced a powerful effect on his mind, prevented his studying for several days, inflamed his mind with romantic ideas and sent him through the students' I'ooms declaiming on missions. The overdrawn pictures in Syme's "Em- bassay to Ava," added fuel to the flames and ended in a highly wrought enthusiasm, which never died. It was some time after this — in Februaiy, 1810 — that the decision w^as reached. During a solitary walk in the woods behind the seminary, the dfliculties in the way seemed so great that after ineditating and praying on the subject, he inclined to give it up, when the force of Christ's last command so overwhelmed him that he resolved " to obey it at all hazards, ybr the sake of pleasing" the JLord Jesus Christ." His "passion for missions" was so great tlm he became a man of one idea, and was soon the leading advocate of the cause at Andover.

The First American Volunteer riovement. Most of the men drawn around him were from Williams College, where in a grove and under the shadow of a haystack the missionary fire was kindled among American students. In 1808 they had signed a constitution whose first, second, fifth and sixth articles pledged them to train themselves for missionary service, to personally establish a mission or mis- sions among the heathen, to admit none as members who were under obligations preventing their going on a mission, and to hold themselves ready to go when and where duty might call. Judson did not sign this constitution until 181 1, but speedily allied himself with them in prayer and in an active missionary propaganda in other colleges and semina- ries and in the churches whet:^- called to preach. Most of the members had in mind temporary service and a mission.

14 THE JUDSONS, BUHMAX PIONEERS

to American Indians, but Mills, and especially Nott and Judson, desired Asia's conversion and a lifelong service.

Judson and the A. B. C. F. M. The American Board, though the first foreign missionary organization in America, had its forerunners. The Massachusetts ISIissionary Society, formed in 1799, altered its constitution so that in 1S04 it was free to take up work abroad. Doctors GrifHn and Wor- cester had urged most eloquently the claims of the heathen, while several thousand dollars had been sent from America to Carey and others. A missionary magazine, a predeces- sor of the American Board's "Missionary Herald," was published in 1803. Notwithstanding these facts, Judson and his associates were the ones who were the occasion of forming America's first foreign missionary organization.

In pursuance of t/ieir policy to interest influential clergy- men in missions, a number of professors and ministers met in Professor Stuart's house at Andover, June 25, iSio, to whom their desire to enter on the work was made known. Their fervent prayers and serious deliberations led the next day to the foi-mulation of a plan for a board as Doctors Worcester and Spring rode in a chaise to Bradford. There the representatives of the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut Congregational jfi^ssociations were to meet. An appeal to the Association, written out by Judson and signed also by Messrs Nott, Mills and Newell, asked coun- sel concerning their inissionary duty, the field to be occu- pied, and the organization under which they were to work. Judson and the others were there to advocate the scheme. On June 29, iSio, a report was adopted and the first board of commissioners elected, though not until September 5, was the board finally constituted. The four petitioners were encouraged to go abroad as soon as possible.

To France and England. Judson, in the desire to place himself and companions on missionary soil, had written in April to Dr Bogue, in charge of the London Missionary So- ciety's institution at Gosport, inquiring about India and Tar- tary as mission fields and asking assistance in preparation therefor. The Board having been formed and feeling unable to proceed alone, requested Judson to go to England and confer with that society concerning a co-operative work, and

LIFE FROM 1788 TO 1816 1 5

to secure and transmit to the Board "ample and correct information relating to missionary fields, the requisite prep- arations for missionary service, the most eligible methods of executing missions and generally whatever may be con- ducive to the missionary interest."

His voyage in the "Packet," his capture by a French privateer, imprisonment at Bayonne, escape therefrom, sev- eral weeks residence in France, during which time he travelled in one of Napoleon's carriages, his examination of the dark side of French life, ending in a sermon at a masked ball, constitute one of the exciting pages of his eventful history. Its value to him in later years he grate- fully records.

Arriving ht England he w^as very cordially received by the London Society, but his ardent wish to reach the field made him somewhat recreant to his duty. He not only did not make the investigations upon which he was to report to the Board, but finding that concert between the two societies was impracticable, he secured an appointment to India for himself, Nott, Newell and Hall, who took Mill's place in the list. At the meeting following his return, the Board ■were practically forced to commission and support the four candidates ; oth^wise they might have gone out under the London Society. Judson's pertinacity on this occasion received a mild censure which years afterward gave rise to a heated and profitless controversy, regretted in his calmer moments.

Counter Currents. Mr Judson met with other obstacles also. In 1809 he had received appointment as tutor in Providence College and later w^as asked to become a col- league of Dr GriflSn in Park Street Church, the largest in Boston. In spite of his father's disappointment and the tears of mother and sister, he refused these flattei"ing posi- tions and set his face resolutely duty-ward. An apparently more serious obstacle was his delicate constitution \vith a tendency to consumption. His rigid adherence to three rules of health ^ — frequent inhalations of large quantities of air, daily sponging of the entire body in cold water, and systematic and vigorous walk'jpg, — enabled him to meet the health requirements of the Board and to reach a goodly age.

l6 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

Embarkation and Voyage. When before the General Association at Bradford, Judson had been waited on by a fascinating Bradford Academy graduate, and ten days hiter an acquaintance began which ended in marriage on Feb. «;, 1812. The following day he and Messrs Nott, Newell, Hall and Rice were ordained in Salem, whence he sailed on the 19th for Calcutta, commissioned "to labor in Asia, either in the Burman Empire, or in Surat, or in Prince of Wales Island, or elsewhere." On board the brig "Cara- van" were Newell and his illustrious wife, Harriet; the others sailed from Philadelphia on the ship "Harmony."

7^/ie appeara7ice of Judson^ then in his twenty-fourth year, is thus described : "He was at this time small and exceedingly delicate in figure, with a round, rosy face, which gave him the appearance of extreme youthfulness. His hair and eyes were of a dark shade of brown. His voice, however, w^as far from what w^ould be ex- pected of such a person and usually took the listener by surprise," so much so that a London minister, hearing him read a hymn, said of it : " If his faith is proportioned to his voice, he will drive the devil from all India."

During the vo}age much time was devoted to the study of baptism. This was taken vip as npreparation for the time w^hen converts from heathenism with their families would be in his care, and also because he wrongly supposed that the Serampore Baptists, with whom he was to live for a time, would attack his pedobaptist views. Careful study, which in the case of many equally critical missionary students has led to different conclusions, caused him to accept the Bap- tist views. Hence, soon after his arrival in India, he and his wife were immersed, and Judson resigned his connec- tion with the American Board, its missionaries and churches, — a heroic step which caused him deepest pain. Mr Rice was the only one of their company who shared his views, and he soon after returned to America to agitate and effect by voice, as Judson did by pen, thefortnation of what is now the Americatt Baptist Missionary Union^ one of our strongest boards. This step marked the beginning of the marvellous growth of that dciiomination.

Rejected of flen. Compelled by conscience to leave the

LIFE FROM 1 788 1:01816 17

American Board, he was not wholly acceptable to his Bap- tist friends. Dr Carey felt that the luxurious upbringing of Americans unfitted them for the privations of mission- ary life, and so looked askance at him. The East India Company, too, fearing that the arrival of so many recruits would embarrass them in certain questionable practices, de- creed their return to England, though by a kind providence the Judsons were allowed to go to Mauritius. Thence, two months later, they returned to Madras. They had planned to start a mission on Prince of Wales Islrfnd, but to avoid deportation to England, they were obliged to fliee, and the only vessel available was bound for Rangoon. This crazy craft they regretfully boarded, as they regarded a mission to that city with great horror.

Arrival at Rangoon. The voyage was dangerous, but the Judsons finally reached Burma July 13, 1813. Their feelings after going ashore were among the most gloomy and distressing that they had ever known. The house Jirst occupied was outside of the city walls near the execution ground, the cemetery and the dumping ground, and was exposed to robbers and wild beasts. Rangoon itself was then a poorly built, dirty, undrained city of 10,000 inhabi- tants, and was inters^ted by muddy creeks. Later, they lived within the wal'lsy not far from Burma's most famous temple, the Golden Dagon Dagoba, glorying in eight of Buddha's hairs.

They were not the Jirst But'man workers. In 1S07 the English Baptists sent two men thither and later two others, one being William Carey's son Felix. The London mission sent two men in iSoS, but their work ceased within a year. Mr Chater, a Baptist, had prepared a Burmese St Matthew, and Felix Carey accomplished something as linguist, vaccinator and printer. He was the only one there in 1813, and his subsequent wild career hindered mission- ary work in the E^npire.

The Burman Field. Burma, now an Indian province, was then an independent and absolute despotism in spite of its inany councilors and kingly advisers. Its "Lord of Life and Death," " Owne^f the Sword," ruled a territory over 1000 miles long ancf 600 in breadth. The Nile-like

l8 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

plain of the Irawadi, — a future key of Asia, — the forest cov- ered hills and mountains were then largely undeveloped, and intercommunication was difficult save by water. Its valuable timber lands were beast-infested and contained in some districts still fiercer men. Its inhabitants, incorrectly supposed by Judson to equal our own population at that time, were the prey of their governors, the "Eaters "of provinces. Law was always on the side of the largest bribe, while torture and diabolical punishment awaited the poor litigant.

The religion which Burma's apostle had to meet was Buddhism of the southern type, unrelieved by the theistic and soteriological hopes of China and Japan. Monasteries were on every street, and priests were reckoned as one out of thirty of the population. The doctrines most commonly remembered were connected with merit, which affected their transmigrations and their cheerless doctrine of Nir- vana. In spite of this atheistic atmosphere, Yule could thus describe the Burmans : "They are cheerful and singularly .alive to the ridiculous : buoyant, elastic, soon recovering from personal or domestic disaster. With little feeling of patriotism they are still attached to their homes, greatly so to their families ; . . . Though ignorant, they are, when no mental exertion is required, inquisitive, and to a certain extent eager for information ; . . . temperate, abstemious and hardy, but idle, with neither fixedness of purpose nor perseverance." Such a people might have been reasonably easy to reach, as there was no hereditary priesthood, caste, nor isolation of women ; but the oppo- sition of rulers and the death penalty which threatened those who turned from Buddhism, were tremendous obsta- cles. A comparatively rich literature, a religious termi- nology and compulsory primary education for boys were an aid to the missionary ; but on the other hand, Burma had not a few stubborn disputants who, in their extrava- gant tenure of Idealism and Nihilism, would put Berkeley and Hume to shame.

Plan of Campaign. Though young Caiey was absent, the Judsons did not confront tht$ Gibralter alone ; for they knew intimately Him in whom they believed, and placed

],1FE FROM 1755 TO 1S16 I9

themselves in His hands as implicitly iis did their Seram- pore brethren, who spent tifteen days in prayer over one of the early steps in connection with the Burma Mission.

Mrs Judson says that at Jirst they had but one plan,, that of learning the Burmese most thoroughly. Later, Jud- son gained such command of the classical Pali as to fully equip him for his work. This was a difficult task. No English speaking teacher, dictionary nor adequate grammar was at hand, so that they had to blaze their way. Bent over a book-covered table beside a venerable pundit whose head was wrapped in a handkerchief and his loins with a cloth, the two chattered, read and took notes all day long. Meanwhile Mrs Judson acquired the tongue more rapidly, if less scientifically, while superintending the work of the house. Carey had so impressed upon Judson the value of accuracy in speech, that he delayed longer than wise, per- haps, before conducting public worship and doing zayat preaching. These duties did not begin until he had been in Bm"ma nearly six years, though mvich personal work had been done from the beginning.

The language mastered, work must be planned in ac- cordance with Judson'' s deep-seated co7ivictions. Bur- man Buddhism taugh^that there was "no God to save, no soul to be saved, and no sin to be saved from." The oppo- site of these three doctrines he believed with his whole soul. He felt, moreover, that no Burman could reach heaven wdio did not realize his sin and flee to the Saviour. When they began their work not one of Burma's millions, so far as Judson knew, was a believer in Christ, nor even an earnest inquirer ; and as they stood alone in that land, the crushing responsibility of their position deeply solemnized them. They believed, however, that here and there about them was a person so led by Providence and so influenced by the Spirit that if the story of salvation could reach him., he would accept it. To discover such persons was their task.

Their methods were simple. Judson did not believe that he was first a promoter of civilization, then an educa- tor and finally a herald of salvation. The last function w^s pre-eminently his, --^d to accomplish his work he made large use of eye-gu5e and ear-gate. The Word of

20 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

God mvist, at the earliest possible moment, be accurately translated into the tongue ot the people, and comprehensive and concrete statements of truth be sown in every promising field. Burman ears must also be filled with the saving mes- sage. Unlike many missionaries, Judson thought that the most strategic point of attack was the citadel of Mansoul instead of the weaker walls of Childsoul ; hence, work for adults consumed most of his time.

The pair well knew that a C/iristian atmosphere was essential to the growth of the exotic with which they were entrusted. "God is love" must be taught through "I am love," and their lives in home and church, in zayat and in palace, must teach this, instead of relegating the duty to nicely framed mottoes. Tender sensibilities, strong affec- tions, undying love were the saps through which they de- termined to zigzag toward Burman fortresses.

The Burman Mission in 1816. This, then, was the situation at the beginning of this year. Felix Carey had seceded from the mission, leaving the Judsons as the sole evangelizing force in a land containing several millions of Buddhists and heathen. Behind them were the Baptists of Ainerica, awakened to self-consciousness and missionary zeal largely through Judson. He in, his twenty-eighth year and his wife a year younger, they had ah'eady gained tol- erable mastery of the language, but no usable tract, gram- mar, dictionary, or portion of Scripture had yet been pub- lished, nor was there a single Protestant convert to preach through Burman lips evangelical Christianity. But God was there and in them ; and their hopes, founded on His sure promises, flooded the eastern horizon with prophetic glory.

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Conant : The Earnest Man, (1856), Chs. i-xii.

Doivlmg: The Judson Offering, (1S47), Pp. 1-44.

Eddy: The Three Mrs Judsons and Other Daughters of the

Cross, (1S60), Pp. 43-73. Encyclopaedia of Missions, (1891 ), Articles Adoniram and Ann

Hasseltine Judson and Burma. _ Hervcy: The Story of Baptist Miss^^ns, (1884), Chs. xii, xiii.

LIFE FROM 178S TO 1S16 21

Johtiston : Life of Adoniram Judson, (18S7 ), Chs. i-vii.

Mrs A. H. yudson: Mission to Burmah, (1823).

Edzvard yudson: Notable Baptists: Adoniram Judson, (1894), Chs. i-iv.

Knoivlcs : Ann Hasseltine Judson, (1835), Chs. i-vii.

Page: Noble Workers, (1875), Pp. 201-209.

Pie r son : New Acts of the Apostles, (1S94), Pp. 105-110.

Ptfcr and Maccrackcv : Lives of the Leaders of Our Church Uni- versal, (1879), Pp. 837-842.

Pi't>nan: Heroines of the Missionary Field, Pp. 278-293. Ladj Missionaries to Foreign Lands, Pp. 13-64.

Richards: Adoniram Judson, (an Epic ; 1889), Pp. 1-18.

Stuart: Lives of the Three Mrs Judsons, (1851), Pp. 13-iSo.

Thomson: Great Missionaries, (1S62), Pp. 2S1-290.

Vanguard of the Christian Armv, Pp. 77-89.

Walsh: Modern Heroes of the Mission Field, (1882), Pp. 63-75. Wycth: Missionary Memorials : Ann H. Judson, (1894).

Yonge: Pioneers and Founders, (1890), Pp. 1 17-128.

Edvjard Judson : The Life of Adoniram Judson, (1883;. Early Years, Ch. 1. ; Consecration to Missionary Life, Ch. 11. ; Voy- age to Burmah, Ch. iii. ; Burmah, Ch. iv. ; Life in Rangoon, Ch. V.

»

II

THE JUDSONS BURMAN WORK

His name alone is a tower of strength to the missionary cause; but his name is not alone. He was the center of a family group, to which, so far as I have read, no parallel can be found in ancient or in modern history. Ann, Sarah and Emily Judson — all three, noble, intellectual and Christian women, all three devoted and af- fectionate— sympathized with and shared in all his labors, rose to his height, and shine even beside him. — Rev W. S. Mackay, in the "Friend of India."

Story of the Years. A missionary experience, extend- ing over nearly four decades, cannot be fully condensed into a few pages ; yet Dr Judson has himself left a brief "Auto- biographical Record of Dates and E'ients," which will aid us in fixing on the salient points of hife career, with that of his devoted wives. Roughly outlined, their Burman life falls into six periods.

/. At Rangoon^ 181J-182J. This period has already been partly described. In 1816 Judson, being kept from work by illness, prepared "Grammatical Notices of the Burman Language," and his first tract, "A View of the Christian Religion." In October they were reenforced by the Houghs. 18 1 7 was marked by the completion of his translation of Matthew and the beginning of a Burman dic- tionary. 1818 was a sad year for them. Dr Judson had been broken down by four years of overwork on the lan- guage, in translating and in book-making ; so he resolved to try a sea voyage to Chittagong, the southeast point of India proper, where were some Burmese-speaking converts of the Serampore Mission. Hesirposedto reorganize that scattered church and bring back Uelpers who could conduct

BURMAN WORK

23

worship in Burmese ; but the expected short voyage was lengthened to about nine months, during which time Judson was driven to India and barely escaped death by fever and starvation. Mrs Judson suffered equally during his ab- sence. All suppposed tliat her husband had been lost at sea. Government persecution assailed Mr Hough, who was rescued by her great tact and personal influence. Then cholera swept over the city and the Houghs proposed leav- ing. She was temporarily expecting to go with them, but at last decided that she would not desert the station while there was the least chance of her husband's return. Two new families came out in the fall.

In April of the following year public worship and zayat preaching' he^a.w. This was followed in June, 1819, by the baptism of t\\e\Y Jirst convert^ Moung Nau, nearly six years after beginning w^ork in Rangoon. A number of others including the philosopher, Shwa-gnong, becoming inquirers, the viceroy became alarmed and the work was stopped. Judson and Mr Colman resolved to go the Em- pei^or in person and appeal for toleration, an eventful jour- ney of two months resulting in nothing. Being unable to secure the lives of converts, Judson determined to transport them to Chittagong, where they would be under British pi'otection. Their Nvillingness to endure persecution and their request that he delay until a church of ten members was formed prevailed, and he remained, though the Col- mans went thither to prepare a place of refuge. Mrs Judson's health being shattered, they were forced to go to Calcutta, where a three months' rest at Seranipore was a refreshing oasis in their lives. Relief was only temporary, and a few months after their return home, Mrs Judson was obliged to sail for England and America, where she did much to create interest in the mission and to gain recruits.

During her absence he went, in 1822, with their newly arrived physician to Ava. His skill in removing cataracts had attracted the Emperor's notice, and an imperial sum- mons brought them to the Golden Foot. Dr Price's ability secured to them an invitation to reside at the capital. Af- ter five months there, during which time Judson secured mission premises and pre'j^d home the claims of Christ on

24 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

princes, higher officials, and the Emperor himself, he re- turned to Rangoon. While awaiting for ten months the return of Mrs Judson, he completed on July 12, 1S23, his translation of the New Testament, together with an epitome of the Old Testament, intended to serve as an in- troduction to the New.

2. Prisoner at Ava and Oung-pen-la^ 1824-1826. The auspicious beginning of their life in Ava was early shrouded in gloom. The war cloud between England and Burma, due to the sheltering of Burman refugees in Chittagong, soon burst. As all white foreigners at the capital were re- garded as spies, Dr Judson was seized on June 8, 1S24, and an experience began equalled in suffering only bv that of some early church and Catholic missionaries. Ilis official com?nunicatioti on the subject is as follows: "Through the kind interposition of our Heavenly Father, our lives have been preserved in the most imminent danger, froin the hand of the executioner, and in repeated instances of most alarming illness during my proti'acted imprisonment of one year and seven months — nine months in three pairs of fetters, two months in five, six months in one, and two months as prisoner at large. Subsequent to the latter period, I spent about six weeks in the house of the north governor of the palace, who petitioned for my release, and took me under his charge ; and finally on the joy- ful 2ist of February last [1826] I took leave with Mrs Judson and family, of the scenes of our sufferings." JVo ■mention is here made of the horror of those eleven months at Ava ; of the march to Oung-pen-la, which was so severe that one of their number died on the road ; no hint of the suspense due to their belief that they had been removed from the capital to be offered as a sacrifice to insure victory over the English ; no suggestion of the filth, the heat, the hunger, the thirst, the lion cage, the deathly silence of the three o'clock hour, the nightly stringing on a bamboo pole, the "tender mercies" of the "Father" of the prison which w^as well named Let-ma-yoon^ i. e., Hand, shrink not; no such blood-cui-dling narratives as Mrs Judson's " The Ka- thayan Slave : " no ; these details were left for others to record and any who choose n^^ find them in Gouger's

BURMAN \VOKK 2^

*' Narrative of Imprisonment in Burma." Enough for this sufft^rer that he was privileged to bear in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

J. At Amherst^ 1826-182^. The war resulted, among other things, in the cession of the Tenasserim Provinces, and to escape Burman despotism the Judsons took the re- maining four of their eighteen converts to Amherst, a new British settlement selected by the Commissioner and Dr Judson. Soon after arriving, he was asked to accompany the British envoy to Ava to negotiate a commercial treaty. This he only consented to do when assured that an effort Avould be made to insert a clause securing religious liberty to the Burmans. It was a trying experience. Ava w^as a hell full of awful memories ; his days were filled with di- plomatic wrestling which secured nothing in the Avay of religious toleration ; and worst of all, during his absence his wife died of a fever from which his presence might have saved her. This terrible loss was followed just six months later by his little daughter's death, whom he left beside her mother underneath the hopia-tree and removed to Maulmain.

4, Maubnain^ 1822-184^. Amherst proved to be less •desirable than this if^w town, the headquarters of the British army, and so the mission was transferred thither. The years there were most useful ones. Beginning with t/ie ascetic period oi his life, they were brightened by red- letter days like those when Dr Judson baptized the one- hundreth Karen convert, and later — t\ventv-t\vo vears after landing in the country, — the one-hundreth Burman disci- ple. They witnessed in 1S34 /lis second marriage^ fruit- ful in work and bringing to his home eight children. They also saw the publication of some of his most valuable works, notably the New Testament and the quarto edition of the Burtnan Bible^ and some of his best minor com- positions. He did not remain all the time in Maulmain. Journeys to Rangoon, Prome, Tavoy, Calcutta, a second "time with his family to Bengal, and later to the Isle of France, resulted in improved health and new impulses to ■work all along the line. {

J. In the ho?ne land, 1^^-1846. For thirtv-three vears

26 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

Judson had never seen a ship sailing out into the west with- out intensely longing to fly homeward; yet a stern regard for duty had Icept him at his post. Finally, as his wife's life seemed at stake, he decided to return, though he took with himtwoBurman teachers, with whom he was to work each day on his dictionary. Reaching the Isle of France, Mrs Judson was so much better that the pair heroically determined to separate that he might return to his work, and he actually sent the teachers back, expecting soon ta follow them, A relapse, however, caused him to follo\v his original plan. On reaching Napoleon's prison island, the gentle spirit departed'and the body was laid away on St Helena's soil. As the bereaved hero approached Bos- ton, he fell to worrying as to how to find a lodging place, little dreaming that thousands of homes longed for the priv- ilege of receiving him, and that the nine months of his stay in America would be one continuous ovation, eagerly chronicled by the press, both secular and religious. Yet his presence brought some disappointment. A severe throat affection prevented prolonged public speech so that he was compelled to talk in a whisper to one who repeated it to the immense audiences. Moreover, his third of a century in Burma, had, as often happens with missionaries, unfitted him for the English of the platform, and an additional dis- appointment was his unwillingness to narrate his foreign adventures, especially the experiences of Oung-pen-la.

Nevertheless, these months brought the freshening of thought and religious life, so necessary to the missionary, enkindled in all denominations a new flame of missionary zeal, and more important to him, acqitainted him ivith Emily Chiibbuck^ whom he married June 2, 1846. Within six weeks thereafter they turned their faces towards Burma^ accompanied by five new recruits, and were wafted onward by a mighty volume of earnest prayer.

6. Sunset years^ 1846-1850. On their arrival, the su- perior opportunities for finishing the dictionary, as also Jud- son's desire to be in the regions beyond, impelled them "to leave the twilight of Maulmain in order to penetrate the denser darkness of Rangoon," though "it seemed harder for him to leave Maulmain for R^ingoon than to leave Bos-

BURMAN WORK 2^

ton for Maulmain." There, in a gloomy brick structure, which its many inhabitants caused them to call "Bat Cas- tle," Judson worked like a galley-slave on his dictionary, while his wife applied herself to Burmese and to writing the story of her predecessor's life, characterized by Bishop Walsh as "one of the most exquisite biographies in the language." Governmental intolerance prevented any open religious work and made secret meetings extremely diffi- cult. Then Bat Castle became a hospital, whose sick in- mates could not secure nourishing food, being reduced on one occasion, though unwittingly, to a dinner of rats, which in their ignorance they declared excellent.

A desire to make at Ava one more appeal for religious toleration and the advantage to the dictionary from such a residence, were thwarted by the awful cry at home of re- trcnc/ifnent and even Rangoon had, for that reason, to be deserted. At Maulmain he completed the English-Burmese part of his dictionary and had brought the other part well on towards completion. Family joys, succeeded by his wife's serious illness, were followed by a lung affection of his own. Dysentery and congestive fever made a long sea- voyage necessary, and he bade his wife a last adieu on April 3rd. Some da^jl^of agony and then, after the fare- well words, " It is done ; I am going, . . , Take care of poor mistress," he fell asleep as quietly as a child, on April the 12th, At eight o'clock that evening the larboard port was opened and the body of him whose life had been bread cast on Burman w^aters was committed to his much loved ocean, three days distant from his adopted home.

The three firs Judsons. Before considering Judson's character and work, a glance should be taken at that noble trio, without whom his life would have lacked much of its effectiveness, and whose loss to the cause of missions would have been irreparable. Only a few items can be added to those already given ; the rest must be gained from their excellent memoirs.

I. Ann Hasseltine^ 1812-1826. Born at Bradford, Mass., December 22, 1789? her early years were marked by a restless, roving disj^ba^ition ; moreover she was very vivacious and intensely fond of society. When at sixteen

38 THE JUDSONS, BUR.MAN PIONEERS

she ^vas converted, she threw herself with equal ardor into the service of her JVIaster, and after graduating at Bradford, while teaching for several years, her one aim was to bring her pupils to Jesus.

In Burffia she supplemented her husband's labors by studying the language of the Siamese, thousands of whom lived at Rangoon, and by translating into that tongue the Bur- mese Catechism, a tract, and St Tvlatthew. She also taught schools of native girls, held women's meetings, and cultiva- ted, for missionary reasons, the societv of ladies of rank. As sharer of her husband's ifnpr/son/?ie?it ?>\\c is best known. " She followed him from prison to prison, ministering to his "wants, trying to soften the hearts of his keepers, to mitigate his sufferings, interceding with government officials or with members of the royal familv. For a year and a half she thus exei'ted herself, walking miles in feeble health, in the dark- ness of the night or under a noonday sun, much of the time with a babe in her arms." When forbidden to see her hus- hand, she would write on dough made into a cake and con- cealed in a bowl of rice, or send messages of affection on a roll of paper inserted in the nose of a coffeepot. The lives of others besides Dr Judson and manv prison ameliora- tions were due to her tact and import»dnitv. In Amherst^ while Judson was in Ava, it was she who built their home and two schoolhouses in which she taught girls and gath- ered the native converts for Sabbath worship. When in her thirty-seventh 3'ear she died, with no missionarv near her, after a sixteen davs' illness. Burma was thus deprived of a woman of great refinement, marked intellectual power, unexampled devotion, dogged perseverance and earnest piety.

2. Siirah Hall, 1S34-184J. She was born at Alstead, N. H., Nov. 4, 1S03. From the age of ten, when she wrote a poem upon the death of Judson's first child, she had a great enthusiasm for missions. Of singular beauty, English friends declared her to be "the most finished and faultless specimen of an American woman that they had ever known." The years of wedded life made her a valued assistant of her first husband, the sainted Boardman, mis- sionarv to the Karens, and after Ivis death she continued for

BURMAN WORK 29

thi'ee years her important work as school teacher and itiner- ator through marshes and jungles and mountains. Her schools were so famous that later educational appropria- tions by the English Government stipulated that the schools, should be conducted on the plan of Mrs Boardman's at, Tavoy.

She was no less a treasure to Dr Judson. Her fluent use of the Burmese^ extending even into the dithcult realm of prayer, enabled her to impressively conduct women's prayer meetings and Bible classes and to translate Part I of "Pilgrim's Progress," several tracts, twenty of the best hymns, four volumes of "Scriptural Qiiestions for Sunday- schools," and a series of Sunday cards. She likewise ac- quired the Peguan and superintended the translations into it of the New Testament and the best Burmese tracts. Her ability as a xvriter of poetry was above the ordinary, as is shown by her pathetic lines w^ritten shortly before her death when she expected to part from her husband at the Isle of France.

J. Emily Chubbuck^ 1846-18^0. She was born at Eaton, N. Y., Aug. 22, 1S17, and died at Hamilton in the same state, June i, iS!^4. Few American authoresses have been reared in a harder sclp-gpl than '•'•Fanny Forester ^^' whom Judson first met while being vaccinated at Philadelphia. The acquaintance began with his chiding her for wasting her talents on books written in a lighter vein. Her defense was that she did this as they were more salable, and it was a necessity in order to support her family. This explanation completely won his heart and he engaged her to write a life- of his second wife. Before it was finished, the charmed watch which he sent her, as he had to Ann and Sarah, made her his wife, much to the scandal of the literary world, who felt that she was throwing herself away on "an old mis- sionary," and of the friends of missions, who feared the effect of an alliance between the founder of the movement and a writer of fiction. Aside from the debt owed her for her account of Mrs Sarah Judson, she is the main source of information concerning her illustrious husband, and has given the world such missionary brilliants as "The Kathayaii. Slave" and "Wayside Prtjching."

30 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

Judson's Private Life and Character. He was a man

of large inteUectual power ^ a fact evinced by his early life and by his missionary sei'vices, as well as by his contact w^ith civilians, military men and diplomats of India, among whom he stood like a second Schwartz. Indeed, had he wished to make money and win fame, he would have ac- cepted an important government position under the Eng- lish. Marked ability of this sort is naturally accompanied by atnbitio?i. This striking trait of his early life remained after conversion, but was sublimated into a desire to lay foundations in new fields, to furnish a nation with a Bible, and to secure the largest possible results from the mission's work. Behind his ambition lay a zviil of singular strength backed by indomitable perseverance. A course once ap- pearing to be pleasing to God, no temptation could turn him from it, least of all those connected with personal ease. The possible danger connected with such traits, that of self sufficiency and unwillingness to ask advice, did not in- jure his usefulness.

His ho7nc life has been veiy attractively described. With his childf'en he was at once a mentor and a rollicking boy. His letters to them are a combination of the comic and the serious. No one of his wives hacLany reason to feel that she was anything but sole possesor of his heart, and rarely has the role of lover been prolonged with greater delicacy and sincerity. Daily walks together, little notes pinned on the curtain, to be read on awakening before his return from his morning run, bright chits scribbled surreptitiously and sent home when delayed beyond the usual time, were indi- cations of his daily regard, while in sickness he was the nurse and health-giving sunshine.

Judson -was an Israel in prayer. "He asked not as a duty, nor even as a pleasure, but he asked that he might receive. ... It was a common thing for him to ask until he received, in his own consciousness, an assurance that his requests would be granted." Another writes : "His best and freest time for meditation and prayer was while walking rapidly in the open air. He, however, attended to the duty in his room, and so well was this peculiarity understood that when the children heard the somewhat

BURMAN WORK 3 1

long, quick, but well-measured tread up and down the room, they would say, ' Papa is praying.'" Such prayer was winged by a suilime faith in God. "He believed that Burma was to be converted to Christ just as much as he believed that Burma existed," and in personal need his trust was like Abraham's, reposeful as that of a child in its father's arms. His '•^ heavcnlv-miiidedjiess'" %\xwq^ ^\&xy one who knew him. His earthly treasures wei"e above, and there dwelt his Saviour and God ; naturally, therefore, his conversation, and especially his hours of meditation, transported him through azure depths to heavenly mansions.

No true saint can be passive, and Judson certainly was a vigorous foe to natural sin. His ambition was curbed, his will brought into subjection to godly majorities, and grow- ing conformity to Christ's will was attained, — but all only by a strenuous struggle and persistent trust. It occasionally went to an ascetic extreme^ as when, after the awful strain of imprisonment and his wife's death, he gave all his prop- erty to the Board, burned up official letters of commenda- tion, declined the degree of D. D., spent wrecks among the beasts in the jvmgle, and like a Trappist monk, sat for hours beside a grave. Yet such times were exceptional and bet- ter circvmistances ga\"'!^"iim renewed brightness, though he never gave up the spiritual longings incited by IMadame Guyon's writings.

Judson's Work. Years ago the Baptist Board testified that they had sent no missionary from this country who yielded more implicit compliance than he to all their regu- lations. Residents in the East testified, at the time of his death, to his remarkable ability in various spheres.

I . Relation to felloxv jnissionaries. Some said that Judson was unsocial. As a matter of fact, his view of the value of time prevented his spending much of it in stealing that of his colleagues. It is true, also, that he strongly op- posed the massing of missionaries at one point, and his uni- form desire to scatter them over the field seemed to many to mark an ascetic mind. If, however, they were in afflic- tion he "was their Barnabas, and thoughtful attentions, such as securing portraits of absent children and presenting them to their parents, showed h* genuine interest in them.

32 THE JUDSONS BURMAN PIONEERS

2. Attitude to~vard the Board. In general it was ideal ; yet he often forgot that board secretaries are only the ser- vants of a denomination, — oftentimes dead so far as mis- sionary interest is concerned, — and his letters to them on more than one occasion are not to be imitated. Thus, his letter virtually denouncing them because they had not pub- lished the dark side of the situation abroad, would probably not have been so severe had he occupied their position. So, too, his upbraiding them for the consequences of re- trenchment might have been somewhat more temperate.

J. Intercourse with Europeans. It is said that Judson preached but one English sermon in his thirty-seven years in Burma, though when British soldiers at Maulmain were seeking salvation, Judson ministered to them. He was nat- urally fond of society and proved its ornament when he could do so without neglecting his work. It was simply his whole-hearted devotion to the Burmese that caused him to abjure English preaching, teaching in English, and English reading and society. If he erred it was on the safe side of a subtle temptation. The same reason is his only justification for opposing Trevel3^anism, or the Romanization of oriental tongues, which found in Duff 'so ardent an advocate.

4. Judson and the Government^ Again and again he looked toward Ava as the only human hope for Christi- anity. To gain toleration he would do almost anything. So,, also, he rendered valuable aid to England, with the hope that this Christian power might forward the cause. The personal salvation of rulers was constantly on his heart and to the Burman sovereign and the future king of Siam came faithful words of warning and Christian counsel. While he inculcated obedience to rulers when not involving sin, he received secret inquirers who came to him contrary to official orders.

5. Translator and author. Here Judson was almost peerless. His views of translation required such a repro- duction of the Bible as the English Revised Version, and, thanks to such principles, rare linguistic ability, and his "lust for finishing," his Bible will long be what Luther's has been to Germany. Many missionaries have owed their rapid and accurate progress in t"^ language to his " Gram-

BURMAN WORK 33

matical Notices of the Burman Language," — a marvel of campactness and lucidity, — and more still are indebted to him for his monumental dictionary. Tracts of his are not of uniform value. Thus his first one, "A View of the Christian Religion," if rendered into other tongues, would mildew in missionary book-rooms, while "The Golden Balance," written when Judson had become more Burman- ized, would attract all Buddhists holding the doctrines of the "Lesser Vehicle."

6. The itinerant. Unwillingly Judson was compelled to forego this dangerous and fatiguing, but to him exhilar- ating, form of work, indulging in it only as a health-change, so to speak. He was accompanied on these tours by a number of converts, who were sent off to the right and left to meet and report to the missionary a few da^'s later.

y. As preac/ier. Preaching was to Dr Judson a per- fect delight, though much of it was conversational and be- fore an audience of one. A most interesting picture of this latter w^ork is given in Mrs Judson's "Wayside Preach- ing." In public address, "his preaching was concrete. He did not deal in vague abstractions. Truth assumed in his mind statuesque forms. . . . Behind his words when he preached lay^he magnet of a great character," and native audiences were swayed by his words as the Welsh were by Christmas Evans.

8. The pastor. This most difficult task, involving the care of volunteer or paid assistants, was felicitously per- formed. He had the knack of getting the utmost out of church-members and helpers, and his wise leadership held them to him most closely. In financial matters he shrewdly managed them, giving them differing sums at irregular in- tervals, the total for a year being the amount voted by the Mission ; but his way of dispensing it raised the recipients- above mere expectant and fault-finding hirelings.

9. Self-propagation of the work. Judson's plan was to choose promising boys and young men and personally fit them by daily morning instruction for teachers and minis- ters. He also favored schools of primary or practical theo- logical education. He writes thus upon this subject : "I am really imwilling to placi|?young men who have just be-

34 THE JUDSONS, BURMAN PIONEERS

gun to love their Saviour, under teachers who will strive to carry [them through a long course of study, until they are able to unravel metaphysics, and calculate eclipses, and their soul become as dry as the one and as dark as the other. I want to see our young disciples thoroughly ac- quainted with the Bible from beginning to end, and with geography and history, so far as necessary to understand the Scriptures, and to furnish them with enlarged, enlight- ened minds. I would also have them carried through a course of systematic theology. . . . And I would have them well instructed in the art of communicating their ideas by word and by writing."

General Results of his Life. Did Judson turn from the attractions of the law and the drama, from an instruc- torship in Brown University and the wide usefulness of the "biggest church in Boston," to throw his life away as a missionary.? The American and Baptist Boards, over 7000 converted Karens and Burmans gathered, at his death, into 63 churches and cared for by 163 missionaries and native assistants, a grammar and dictionary as stepping stones to early usefulness to many, leaves of life scattered widely for the healing of the nation, an entire Bible in exact and perspicuous Burmese, streams of influence reaching out into Siam and even to the Jews, a stalwart character moulded by Christ, and a perennial example of devotion to the "Greatest Work in the World," left to all the church — all of these either partially or wholly the fruitage of that magnificent "throwing away," are a convincing reply.

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Conant: The Earnest Man, (1856), Chs. xiv-xxvi.

Doivling: The Judson Offering, (1847), Pp. 45-294.

£ddy: The Three Mrs Judsons, (i860). Pp. 207-333, 251-270.

Encyclopaedia of Missions, (1891), Articles Adoniram, Sarah H.

and Emily C. Judson. Hervey: The Story of Baptist Missions, (1884), Chs xiv-xvii. Johnston: Life of Adoniram Judson, (18S7), Chs. vin-xx. Ed-ward Judson : Notable Baptists : Adoniram Judson, (1894), Chs.

BURMAN WORK 35

Mrs K. C. yttdsoit : Sarah Boardman, (184S).

Kendrick: Emily Chubbuck Judson, (1S60). Especially Chs.

XIV-XXVI.

Kno-ivles: Ann Hasseltine Judson (1S35), Chs viii-xviii. Missionary Review of the World, April, 1S94, Pp. 259-261. Page : Noble Workers, (1875), Pp. 209-224. Piper and Alaccrackcii : Lives of the Leaders of Our Church

Universal, (1879), Pp. 842-S49. Pitman: Heroines of the Mission Field, Pp. 96-122. Richards: Adoniram Judson, the Apostle of Burma, (an Epic,

1889), Pp. 19-103. Stuart: Lives of the three Mrs Judsons, (1851 ), Pp. 1S3-356. Thomson: Great Missionaries, (1862), Pp. 291-29S. Vanguard of the Christian Army, Pp. 87-132.

Walsh: Modern Heroes of the Mission Field, (1882), Pp. 75-94. Wayland: Memoir of Rev. Dr. Judson, (1853), Vol. I., Pp. 178 to end of Vol. II.; especially I., Chs. x., xiii., and II., Chs.

II., III., VI. -X.

Wyeth: Missionary Memorials : Sarah B. and Emily C. Judson, (1894).

Yonge : Pioneers and Founders, (1890), Pp 129-171.

Young: Modern Missions and Their Triumphs, (18SS), Pp. 79-89.

Edzvard Judson : The I>^ of Adoniram Judson, (1S83). Life ia Rangoon, Ch. vi. ; Life in Ava and Oung-pen-la, Ch. vii. : Life in Amherst and Maulmain, Chs. viii-x. ; Visit to America, Ch. XI. ; Last Years, Ch. xii. ; Posthumous Influence, Ch. xiii.

w

Ill

DUFF S EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORK

That tall figure, crossing the street and looking thoughtfully to the ground, stooped somewhat in the shoulders and his hand awk- wardly grasping the lappet of his coat, is Alexander Duff, the pride of the college, whose mind has received the impress of Chalmers' big thoughts and the form of his phraseology. Under Chalmers, he w-as, in St Andrews, the institutor of Sabbath-schools and the originator of the Students' Missionary Society. — liev y. W. Tay- lor, of Flisk.

Early Years. Almost at the geographical center of Scotland, the home of great missionaries, lies the little town of ^Moulin, near which was born on the twenty-fifth of April, iSo6, Alexander Duff, one of the foremost apos- tles of this century. Scott calls Perthshire, in which Mou- lin is situated, "the fairest portion of the northern king- dom," a claim made good by its forests and fertile straths, its rivers and lakes, mountains and glens. And that eighty by seventy mile shire was full of worthy memories also ; for did it not contain the Killiecrankie, Tippermuir and Sheriffmuir battlefields.^ and did it not possess memorials of Bruce and Queen Mary and Rob Roy as well as boast of connections in Scott and Wordsworth.? Of this home shire Duff writes in later years : "Amid scenery of unsurpassed beauty and grandeur, I acquired early tastes and impulses which have animated and influenced me through life."

James Duff and Jean Rattray. James Duff, was it is

true, a

"dalesman, child of rock and stream;"

but he was as much more as Carlyle's father was more than a mere stonemason. He and Jean before their marriage were electrified by the new spiritual life bi-ought one com-

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 37

munion Sabbath into their services by the sainted Charles Simeon, who had come up from the house top overlooking the beautiful Backs between King's College and the river Cam, and who changed their pastor into an evangelical leaven. When Duff visited Cambridge many years after, he enjoyed a long interview with this evangelical Anglican, whom he considered his spiritual ancestor.

While his mother's early influence was much valued, Duff wrote in later years of the powerful effect exerted upon his life by his father. His Sabbath-schools and the weekly meetings at his own home, when his Scripture ex- positions and rapturous prayers carried the hearer to the very gates of heaven, his peculiar power of winning the 3^ovmg through the picturing of Bible truth, and especially the moving manner in which he set forth the bleeding, dy- ing love of the Saviour, ineffaceably impressed themselves on his son. James Duff was, in turn, held by the spell of his reconverted pastor's spirit and by the silent fellowship of the old divines whose works contain the "sap and marrow of the gospel" and were fragrant with "the flavor of Para- dise." The influence of such a father is thus testifled to : "In the sharpness and cleai"ness with which he drew the line between the mercl^r expedient and the absolutely right and true ; in his stern adhesion to principle at all hazards ; in his ineffable loathing for temporizing and compromise, in any shape or form, where the interest of ' Zion's King and Zion's cause' were concerned; in his energy of spirit, promptness of decision, and unbending sturdihood of char- acter ; in the Abraham-like cast of his faith, which mani- fested itself in its directness, simplicity and strength, — in all these and other respects he always appeared to me to realize fully as much of my own beau-ideal of the ancient martyr or hero of the Covenant as any other man 1 ever knew^. . . . Oh that a double portion of his spirit were mine, and that the mantle of his graces would fall upon me!" .

Duff's Education. As the Moulin "dominie " spent more time on watch-repairing and fishing than on instructing the school children, Alexander was sent at the early age of eight to a better school between Dunkeld and Perth. Three

3S ALEXANDER DUFP', INDIA'S EDUCATOR

years there prepared him for the Kirkmichael school, whose reputation commended it to his father. He had the good fortune to live under the roof of its accomplished master, Mr ^Nlacdougall, and to count among his schoolfellows some prominent men of a later day. Duff as dtix of the school was put forward on state occasions to read the Odes of Horace, and left it to afterward exclaim, "What would I have been this day, had not an overruling Providence di- rected me to Kirkmichael school ? " Another year at Perth Grammar School, where he was again dux^ had much to do with his later educational work, as he here came under the influence of a born teacher, Mr Moncur. This man's first act as master was to summon the janitor and bid him sink in the Tay the entire outfit of torturing tawse, after which "he asked why the generous youths entrusted to him should be treated as savages." This was the germ of Duff's Indian school management and the animus lying behind the address "To the Native Gentlemen of Calcutta" who had in their hatred conspired to kill him.

At St. Andreivs, Scotland's most venerable University, Alexander was entered at fifteen. In spite of its bleakness and the hermit-like isolation of its students, the future mis- sionary received here the strongest lYnpulses of his life. It was not so much the fact that he sat at the feet of men like Dr Hunter, the Latinist, and Dr Jackson, the scientist, nor that he came off with the highest honors in Greek, Latin, logic and natural philosophy, as it was contact with one of the greatest of his countrymen, which made St Andrews his Arabia. The captivating eloquence of Chalmers, the advent of a man of genius whose pi-esence was a liberal education in itself, and the delightful freshness of his spirit- ual life as it emptied itself into the Dead Sea of formal re- ligion, were epoch-making elements in the life of all the students. Coming from the wynds of Glasgow and his miracle-w^orking there. Duff was inspired to do like him, and so organized Sabbath-schools and private circles for Bible study. Before leaving the University, Duff could say : " I have personally visited all the lower classes in town, and did not find twenty ''Vildren who were not attend- ing some school or other." ^ ^^

EAKI.V LIKK AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 39

Other Educational IttJJuences than those named were ahnost equally helpful. Books were the delight of his heart. In childhood the "Cloud of Witnesses" with which his father saturated his mind, the "Day of Judgment" and "The Skull" of Dugald Buchanan, a Perthshire Ossian, filled him with mingled emotions of hatred and awe. When at fifteen he left the Grammar School of Perth, he carried with him Johnson's "Rambler" and, more important still, a pocket copy of "Paradise Lost," the daily reading of which unconsciously brought into his thought and modes of expression their formative power. Thus there entered into his fibre the elements so prominent in his life, — "the Gaelic Buchanan and the English Milton, the Celtic fire and the Puritan imagination, feeding on Scripture story and classic culture, colored by such dreams and experiences, and directed by such a father and teacher."

The Missionary Call. The dreams above alluded to, were in a sense the precursors of his missionary decision. The first vision was a personal rendering of Buchanan's " Latha Bhreitheanais" in which he stood before the Judge at the Last Day. The effect ^vas such that it evoked an earnest cry for pardon and led to an assurance of forgive- ness through the blooft of Jesus. The second w'as a more direct intimation of the will of God, who descended in a heavenly chariot and called to the Scotch laddie sleeping in the blae-berries by the burn side, " Come up hither ; I have work for thee to do." His father's teachings were de- cidedly missionary in their tone. "Pictures of Jugganath and other heathen idols he was wont to exhibit accom- panying the exhibition with copious explanations, well fitted to create a feeling of horror towards idolatry and of compassion towards the poor blinded idolators, and inter- mixing the whole with statements of the love of Jesus."

When in St Andrews this childish interest broadened under the missionary enthusiasm of Dr Chalmers, and through the friendship of students like Urquhart, his room- mate. They and others organized the Students' Missionary Society, Duff being librarian. Their object was to study foreign missions with the^urpose of learning of the needs of the non-Christian world, Chalmers abetting their effoi'ts

40 ALKXANDEll DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

by a monthly lecture on missions in the town-hall. The society was the parent of the most famous missionaries of the country. Marshman and Yates from India and Mor- rison with his story of China, added their quota by firing the men with apostolic zeal. Duff not only succeeded in getting missionary books read by others ; he also read much himself and it was when he had perused the elaborate arti- cle, "India," in Brewster's " Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," that his soul first felt the fascinating spell of a land that was to bind itself around his whole being.

As the Established Church of Scotland had no mission- aries in any field, — in spite of the motto of the first Con- fession, "And this glaid tydingis of the kyngdome sail be precheit through the haill warld for a witnes unto all natiouns, and then sail the end cum," — the interest thus aroused seemed likely to be ineffective. But the spirit of missions was abroad and the Church awoke. Dr Inglis at home and Dr Bryce in Calcutta had brought the General Assembly in 1824 to agree to establish in India an educa- tional woi"k, and in 1828 Duff was asked to head the enter- prise. How the young student met the question is seen in letters written to Dr Chalmers and to other friends. He counts the cost and after deliberatel^^j^yeighing the cons and pros he feels the weight of the latter and writes : ' ' May the former considerations not only be weakened, but be ut- terly swept out of existence. O Lord, I feel their little- ness, their total insignificancy, and for the sake of promot- ing Thy glory among the heathen, I cordially, cheerfully embrace the latter : yea, if such were thy will, I am ready to go to the parched desert or the howling wilderness, to live on its bitter herbs and at the mercy of its savage in- habitants."

He had decided this important matter alone; for he concluded that the present inquiry rested almost solely be- tween himself and his Maker. His fathers' disappoints metit and objections were answeied from his own state- ments when dealing with missions as an abstract matter, and he begins to pray that his son may approve himself not merely a common soldier of the cross, but a cham- pion. Duff overcomes his mother's natural affection thus :

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 4I

"Beware of making an idol of me. While you feel all the tenderness of parental love, ... be earnest in prayer to God that Satan may not tempt you to raise me to an undue place in your affections, lest God, in his holy dis- pleasure, see fit to remove me not only to India, but to the land of skulls and sepulchres. Think then, ponder, pray over these things, and may God Himself guide and direct you into the ways of peace and heavenly i-esignation." But the matter had its exalted aspects, and his lettei's, as also his addresses, picture the lofty vocation of the missionary, and parents and audiences forgot the sacrifice in the exceeding weight of glory.

Preparation for Departure. Quaint Patrick Lawson, ■whom Duff used to visit annually for the sake of his "rich and racy biblical talk," abruptly asked him one day whether he intended to marry. His negative reply elicited some sage advice : "Be quietly on the look out ; and if in God's providence, you make the acquaintance of one of the daugh- ters of Zion, travei'sing, like yourself, the ^vilderness of this world, her face set thitherward, get into ,friendly con- verse with her." The old Bunyan's counsel was acted upon, and in Edinbui^^h he found such a person in Anne Scott Drysdale, of \v«om Dr Smith writes: "Never had even missionary a more devoted wife. Sinking herself in her husband from the very first, she gave him a new strength, and left the whole fulness of his nature and his time free for the one work of his life."

Conference with gentlemen who had been in India, study- ing the religion and character of the Hindus, inspecting the best conducted schools in the Scotch Athens, and conferring with the Committee who had the Indian Mission in charge, filled his days before sailing. The ordination trials over and Dr Chalmer's eloquent ordination sermon delivered, he and his wife sailed in October in the "Lady Holland." As the result of his own preference and the ignorance of the Committee, he went forth with no restrictions save one — which he disregarded soon after he reached India — and so was free to do what his good judgment dictated.

"In Perils of Waters. '.V Just off the English coast, they encountered a derelict, which proved a true omen of the

42 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

voyage. While taking on a cargo at Madeira, a storm drove the ship to sea. A three weeks' delay gave Duff op- portunity to look about the island and also to do some preaching. Re-embarking, they w^ere saved from pirates by the presence of a frigate. Driven almost to the coast of South America, they finally -were just about rounding the Cape of Good Hope, when in a heavy sea and in the dark- ness the ship ran on the rocks off Dassen Island. The ex- citement was intense and it was then that the effect of Duff's preaching and daily inorning worship became evident. Through exciting experiences all were landed on a penguin island by daybreak, and soon thereafter they were rescued by a brig of war sent from Cape Town. The incideni ivJiich most affected Djtff's future in connection with this wreck was the destruction of his entire library of eight hundred volumes, with the sole exception of his Bagster's Bible and a Psalter, which were picked up by a sailor un- injured though wet. His journals, notes, essays and mem- oranda— the harvesting of his student days — were also lost and all this produced in him the conviction that "human learning must be to him a means only, not in itself an end."

Once again on the ocean, they were no less unfortunate. Beaten out of their course, overcome-almost by a hurricane when off Mauritius, they finally reached the banks of the Hooghly only to become the victims of a cyclone which a second thne wrecked them. A merciful deliverance brought them to the land and to a heathen temple, where they were allowed to rest, as they were not received in the homes of the caste-ridden inhabitants. From this place of discomfort they were soon removed to Calcutta, where they were hos- pitably received and early met the principal residents, both missionary and diplomatic.

The Calcutta of 1830. This tall and handsome man of twenty-four, "with flashing eye, quivering voice, and rest- less gesticulation, . . . heir of Knox and Chalmers, had to begin in the heart of Hinduism what they had car- ried out in the mediaevalism of Rome and the moderatism of the Kirk of the eighteenth century." What were the conditions obtaining when he began his work in India ?

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 43

Strange to say, no one was able to accurately tell him. Merchants and government officials were intent on one thing, the securing at the earliest moment of a competency en- abling them to return home ; and hence their knowledge of the city and its inhabitants was gained in their offices or stores and in their daily drive on The Course. The mis- sionaries there had never fully defined the situation, but Duff accompanied them everywhere, w^atching them deal with the natives under most diverse circumstances. More- over, he made friends with merchants, zemindars, rajahs and Brahmans, and from native lips, through English and Bengali, learned the problems which he must meet.

Calcutta then had a population of about half a million while within a radius of ten miles was an estimated one of two millions. Within the city were \nany yorin^- jnen who ivlshed to learn English^ lai'gely as a stepping stone to mercantile or governmental employment. To meet this need and higher objects, adventurers, Eurasians and Arme- nians had given instruction mainly in the language alone. In 1S17 David Hare and the famous Rammohun Roy es- tablished the first English seminary in India, " The Hindoo College of Calcutta.", This had lost all its capital soon after Duff's arrival, aifd the Calcutta School Society, asso- ciated with it and intolerant of Christianity, had perished. Measures providing for useful education and calculated also to "raise the moral character of those who partake of its advantages," were proposed by the directors of the East India Company, but when the medium of instruction was discussed, an angry struggle took place between the advo- cates of Sanskrit for the Hindus and Arabic and Persian for IMuhammadans, and those who desired to use English, as the sole medium for higher education.

Missionaries outside the city had advocated a Christian and English higher education before Duff's advent, but in the capital itself little Christian and educational work had been accomplished. Sati, infanticide, the choking of the dying with sacred mud, idolatry, caste, human sacrifice and thuggery still flourished. Though The Baptist, Orissa General Baptist, Church ,:\svl London Missionary Societies were laboring there, three years before his coming there

44 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA S EDUCATOR

were only fifteen converts in the city as the result of ten years' ^vork, while not more than five thousand children were in school. When he landed, "not more than five hundred of these learned English, and that after the strait- est sect of secularists of the Tom Paine stamp."

Duff's Educational Plan. Negatively it was two-fold, not to do as the Home Committee had directed him, and not to imitate his predecessors in India. This decision would seem presumptuous in the extreme, were it not sup- ported by such exhaustive and conclusive reasoning as may be found in "India and Indian Missions" and by the un- anwerable argument of later results.

He states it positively and germinally in these words : "While you engage in directly separating as many precious atoms from the mass as the stubborn resistance to ordinary appliances can admit, we shall, with the blessing of God, devote ovu- time and strength to the preparing of a mine, and the setting up of a train which shall one day explode and tear up the whole from its lowest depths," More specifically :

1. The object of Duff's educational project was to for- w^ard in the best way the accomplishment of three aims : preaching to adults; educating the* young; furnishing a Bible and suitable literature. Fully educated natives seemed to him the key to the problem, and his institutions were to furnish these.

2. The kind of school best fitted to do such work was one of high grade, but as raw material was at first lacking, he was obliged to begin with a lower class of work.

J. The place for such a plant was then Calcutta, since it met best his three conditions, — a dense population from which to draw pupils, a desire on the part of many of these people to avail themselves of western learning, and the absence of hostile prepossessions against European super- vision. Moreover, Calcutta was then the skull of India, and its brain, rather than its heart, was what he aimed to win.

4. Pupils were to be di'awn from every class, pro\ided they showed the proper ability and docility; but Duff pre- ferred to receive those of higher rank or caste, believing that if he could raise up one KncfX he would be worth ten

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 45

thousand illiterate peasants. Bruhmans, so rarely sought by other missionaries, he looked upon with special favor for this reason.

J. ^fediuvi of instruction. No man believed more than he in the value of the vernacular. Every student of his must know it well ; but for advanced studies he boldly and contrary to government opinion and missionary usage, de- cided upon the English. Bengali was objectionable in that experiment had shown that it was impossible to keep students longer in such schools than was sufficient to get a mere smattering of an education. Such schools, moreover, attracted a poorer class of students, who were not poten- tially so valuable to India. Again, Bengali was the language of neither law nor religion and its terminology was too meager to serve as a vehicle of western thought, even if it possessed such books. Sanskrit was not chosen for the following among other reasons : it was not so perfect an instrument for conveying Ein-opean knowledge ; it was more difficult for the student to acquire than English ; be- ing considered divine, three-fourths of the people were for- bidden to learn it ; hardly any European \vorks were trans- lated into it ; its terminology carried with it superstitious or false ideas. The very process of learning English, on the other hand, brought in with the new terms new ideas and truths, and opened up to the student an unsurpassed literature.

6. The studies pursued were to be first the Bible, — every student having some Bible work each day, — and then every variety of useful knowledge, first in elementary forms, but later ascending to all branches of western culture. In all these studies religion was to be the animating spirit.

7. The method of instruction was then new in mission schools. It was in accordance with the "Intellectual Sys- tem" and is practically the method pursued in our best pub- lic schools of to-day. The alphabet was taught to classes, even this work being made a keen intellectual contest. " In- structors," prepared by Duff and used for several decades thereafter, carried the student by logical and simple steps from point to point until he could study westei"n text-books as readily as students in out colleges.

46 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

8. The begi}ining oi this work occurred July 13, 1S30, less than seven weeks after his arrival. In a hall secured for him by Rammohun Roy, five young men recommended by him appeared. The plan as laid before them, approved itself to them and to their friends, so that in three days one hundred and five were enrolled. Expecting to classify these on the following day, he was prevented by the appearance of two hundred new applicants. As the hall accommo- dated but one hundred and twenty, — later, accommodations for two hundred and fifty were secured, — and as the nvimber of candidates increased during the next week, Duff was able to sift his students and to secure a ^vritten promise from parents that they would pay for the books used and would see that their sons were present punctually and for a prolonged period, thus doing away with the instability of other mission schools.

When the institution thus organized was_/brwa//y opened and the stvidents were asked to read in the Bible, there was danger of a revolt ; but the counsel of India's Erasmus, Rammohun Roy, — himself a student of the Bible in its original tongues, — and Duff's matchless persuasiveness, won the day, as was also the case when the Lord's prayer was first used. Lack of qualified teachers, habits of lawless- ness, absence of thought so common to rote students, had to be met, but St Andrews' first scholar, debater and essay- ist was equal to the labor. Possibly no missionary teacher has so enthused and re-created oriental students in a year as did he. The result of a public exhibition of the work done by them in a twelvemonth was the only thing talked about in Calcutta for days thereafter, and Duff had at a bound passed from his Rubicon to the chair of dictator in the realm of missionaiy education, though Pompey was still unconquered.

g. So7ne other results may be noted. Of Duff's first students one-fourth were Brahmans and there were very few of low caste. These young men vv^ere being daily influ- enced to give up their false beliefs, no matter whether the impulse came from the first two English letters and word learned, o— x, ox, or from the reading of Paul's Canticle of Love. Naturally the cry of "Hinduism in Danger!" fol-

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORK 47

lowed and chronic boycotts, succeeded by greater triumphs, were experienced. In spite of opposition Duff soon had the joy of seeing four converts, one of them an exceed- ingly influential Brahman,

A wider work was also being accomplished. Duff's ob- ject lesson had given birth to scores of somewhat similar seminaries, whose duly qualified teachers were in inany cases his own students. Sii Charles Trevelyan had not been a week in Calcutta when, in 1831, he threw himself into Duff's ranks. His talented brother-in-law, Macaulay, was the Law Member of the Council a little later, and he, too, felt the spell of the young Scotchman. These three inen were nobly backed by Lord William Bentinck and the result of the agitation was the decree of 1835^ "^ which the Governor-General sanctions in the Government institu- tions Duff's system almost in its entirety, though lacking its religious element. One year afterwards the Government English schools were doubled in number. Sir Charles later attributed much of this Renaissance to him, while a prom- inent Indian writer says that Macaulay's greatest work — greater even than his Warren Hastings and Clive essays, — "was to be the legislative completion of the young Scot- tish missionary's polic,^"

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Catholic Presbyterian, Article Alexander Duff, Vol. III. ; Pp.215 ^• Duff: India and Indian Missions, (1840), Chs. iv, vi. W. P. Duff: Memorials of Alexander Duff, D.D. Encyclopjedia of Missions, (1891), Article Alexander Duff. Free Church Record, April, 187S, Pp. 95, 96.

Good Words, Article Educational Work of Duff', Vol XIX., Pp 307 ff. Lai Be/iari Day : Recollections of Alexander Duff', D.D.,LL.D.,

(1S79), Chs. i-iv. Pierson : New Acts of the Apostles, (1894), Pp. 128-132. T. S>nt/k: Alexander Duff", D.D., LL.D., (1883), Chs. i-iii. Vermtlye: The Life of Alexarti^r Duff, (1890), Chs. i-iv.

48* ALEXANDER DUFP", INDIA'S EDUCATOR

G. Siiiiih: The Life of Alexander Duff, D. D. LL. D., (1S79). The Boy and Student, Vol. I., Ch. i. ; The First Missionary of the Church of Scotland, Vol. I., Ch. 11. ; The Two Ship- wrecks, Vol. I., Ch. III. ; Calcutta as it Was, Vol. I., Ch. iv. ; Beginning of the Work, Vol. I., Chs. v, vi. ; The Renaissance in India, Vol. I., Chs. vii, viii. ; Work for Eurasians, Native Christians and Europeans, Vol, I., Ch. ix.

IV

DUFF AS A PROMOTER OF MISSIONS

Wherever I wander, wherever I stay, my heart is in India, in deep sympathy with its multitudinous inhabitants, and in earnest longings for their highest welfare in time and in eternity. — Duffs latest published -Mords.

Other Labors in India, 1830=1834. Jungle-fever, con- tracted during a journey to Takee to inspect his branch school, followed by dysentery, almost as fatal as cholera before ipecacuanha had been used as a specific against it, gave Duff a much regretted furlough. Yet in these four years in India he had accomplished much. Besides the cen- tral work already mentioned, he had delivered lectures which set the young mind of India thinking on religious topics ; in their deb.iijThg societies and elsewhere he had agitated the establishment of a national system of female education; India's first modern medical school, grown ta be the largest in the world, came into existence largely be- cause of testimony before the Educational Committee given by Duff and his I3rahman pupils, who had so imbibed his spirit that they were ready to commit the awful sacrilege of dissecting a human body ; the germ of the Doveton Colleges,, so helpful to despised Eurasians, was nourished by their best friend. Duff ; he had proposed his masterly scheme for a United Christian College, later realized in Madras foo.- Southern India, but foolishly and expensively rejected at this time because of English sectarian controversy ; his ap- peal for vernacular education, so sadly needed by ninety- two per cent, of the children of Bengal, required for its continual agitation a free organ of expression, and so the "Calcutta Christian Obser^J^er" had come to birth ; TreveU

50 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

yanism, or the Romanization of East Indian languages, — numbering two hundred and forty-three phis a larger num- ber of dialects, — was so dependent upon him that its author, Sir Charles, writes : " The turning point of the controversy was marked by the publication of three papers by Dr Duff, in the first of which the possibility, practicability and ex- pecfiency of substituting the Roman for the Indian alphabet was discussed, and in the last two a practical scheme for that purpose was worked out in detail, and objections wei^e answered. . . . They settled the system on its pres- ent basis, and may be read to this day with interest and advantage."

From his part in this controversy and his roll of cham- pion of the Anglicists, we must not imagine that he was opposed to true oriental scholarship and the cultivation of the vernacular in higher education. Bengali received its greatest impulse at that time from Duff's institution, where the despised language was enriched from contact with west- ern thought and was systematically cultivated in the inter- ests of Bengal's evangelization. In regai'd to Orientalism, all that Duff criticised and opposed was a pseudo- Orientalism ^y^Ync^v failed to see all that ^vas valuable in such literature, and yet stoutly argued that govermnent money should be expended on costly works in oriental tongues which it was necessary to pay men to learn to read. More- over, he felt that a worse wrong had been done India than that of waste ; heathenism had been endowed, while Christi- anity had been set back by such action. The folly of Orient- alism, such as was shown in the medical college contro- versy, was also opposed. His high appreciation of a true oriental scholarship is set forth in one of the finest para- graphs of his valuable pamphlet, the "New Era of the English language and English Literature in India."

But the man had been more directly ivor king for Chris- iianity also. He was a staunch and aggressive worker in the line of Bible and Tract distribution. When the first writ of Jiabeas corpus was served and the character of mission- aries was in consequence assailed, the Highlander, rather than the Bishop of Calcutta, came to the rescue. St An- drew's Kirk^ the official "cathedral" of the Scotch, was

PllOMOTEK OF MISSIONS 5 I

in bad repute. Legal wars had been carried on between its chaplain and the Bishop of Calcutta, concerning a steeple first, then over its weather-cock, and last of all concerning a second service argued for by the junior chaplain. As a result it had lost its members a-nd wa.s a scandal to Christi- anity. Dr Bryce, returning to Scotland, threw the care of this church on Duff, thus giving to the city such preach- ing as it had never heard before. A happy sequel to his labors there was his admonition to one of his parishoners, an employer of five hundred natives, who allowed them to ivork on Sundays ^ as was coinmon at that tiine. The result of this advice ^vas the payment of Sunday wages without requiring its work to those who would make their labor on other days more profitable. Thus what a bishop had failed to do through a pledge to abstain from Sabbath desecration, was done by the quiet advice of a missionary, and Sabbath keeping began.

Before setting sail on the "John M'Lellan, " Alexander Duff had seen all these forces in motion and his beloved in- stitution had become "a complete Arts College^ includ- ing the thorough study of the Bible as well as the evidences and doctrines of natural and revealed religion," the annual examinations of whij^ were among the notable events of the year. What larger work can any young man of twenty- eight hope to accomplish }

Five years in Britain, 1835-1839. During the voyage the convalescent improved the opportunity thus afforded by reading the entire Bible through three times. The result of this comparative and repeated study was an enthusiastic conviction that "missionary work is merely preparatory to the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit." He did one other thing of importance on the journey ; he outlined a plan for reaching every presbytery with the missionary message. To us this seems commonplace, but Dr Chalmers gives him the credit of being the first man to present personallv a cause in such a manner. Of the many results of this stay in the home-land, only three are here named.

I . Results coming from missionary oratory. In this di- rection Dr Duff has probably had no equal, either in Europe or America. Received ioldly by the Committee on his

52 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

retiiin, he was first called sternly to account for presenting his work before some friends in a private house. The Con- vener's censure was promptly turned into victory and the Scotch of London wished to hear him. He had scarcelv made a beginning there when his old enemy, jungle-fever, laid him low. But t/ic General Assembly of iSjj was soon to meet in Edinburgh's box-like Tron Church, and he felt that he must be heard there or die. The opportunitv being given Duff — who was just off from a sick-bed and spoke against the advice of his physician, — he arose, and after passing beyond the stage when his friends felt that he would drop to the floor, gave utterance to a flood of ora- tory which furnished to schools and elocutionary manuals for many yea«rs one of their best models. For between two and three hours he held the vast audience captive beneath his commanding eloquence. Callous lawvers and lords of session, churchmen and laity of every degree, were moved to tears, and when the tumult of emotion had sub- sided, the venerable Dr Stewart said: "Moderator, it has been my privilege to hear Mr Fox and Mr Pitt speak in the House of Commons, that grand focus of British eloquence, when in the very zenith of their glory as statesmen and ora- tors. I nov/ solemly declare that I never heard from either of them a speech similar or second to tliat to which we have now listened, alike for its lofty tone, thought and sen- timent, its close argumentative force, its transcending elo- quence and overpowering impressiveness." At one blo\v he had struck off the locks of heretofore unwilling church doors and every one svished to hear this new Chr}'sostom. Tw^ent}' thousand copies of his speech published by the As- sembly's order, as well as almost every newspaper in the realm, scattered broadcast the masterful oration.

Read to-dav^ it cannot produce the impression originally felt. We live in the age of knowledge, and missionary ad- dresses are not the novelty that they Mere then. Notwith- standing, one reading now the ruins of that production, and especially its peroration, is stirred with the grandeur of his theme, — India, India for Christ, India through the Chris- tian use of education, and all this the privilege of godly Scotland ! His blood-earnestnes'ji, due to agonizing prayer

PROMOTER OF MISSIONS 53

like that of Knox, save that he longed that God would give him India ; periods unconsciously molded in the form of early favorites of his, Chatham, Burke, Erskine and Can- ning ; his prophet-like utterance and utter disregard of modern laws of elocution ; the impression given that he was the spokesman of his Master in behalf of perishing millions ; the final supernatural effect produced by his whis- pered peroi'ation : these are some of the points which struck the hearer most forcibly. And other notable efforts, like that at London and his famous Vindication of the Mission at the Assembly of it>37, were marked by similar traits, though he later ir.ade a more liberal use of satire than in his first address.

If one proof of the Athenian orator's power was the cry, " Let us go against Philip ! " Duff was a Demosthenes ; for an Act was passed recommending him to the churches and advising that in each congregation an agency for prayer and the propagation of missionary intelligence be created. Less pleasant resvdts were calls extended to him from churches of various degrees, including the famous Grey- friars, and urgent requests that he give up India. It pained him that people should even suppose that he would "re- treat from the front of uie battle into the easy and }et respec- table comfort of the baggage." Aberdeen honored itself and him by conferring the degree of D. D., and this to a man under thirty in a land where the letters are more than "semi-lunar fardels" and are never carelessly bestowed.

2. As an organizer ., even more satisfactory results were secured. From the Orkneys to Solway Firth there was no considerable district which he did not visit and organize, so far as possible, the presbyteries and churches into missionary branches of the foreign work. The first Ladies' Society in Scotland and its imitators were due to him. Financial aid to the missionary work of the Church increased fourteen fold during the years that this Celtic firebrand flamed on Scotia's hills.

The result which seemed to him personally the most im- portant, was the securing of strofig recruits. His own sti'ength and the large results of his four years in India drew to him some of the choicest men from the Universities, —

54 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

John Anderson of Madras, and Doctors Mitchell and Smith, \vho were to become so powerful in India, as well as those almost-persuaded men who remained behind to hold the ropes, such as the sainted McCheyne and the talented Guth- rie. Instead of being the Church of Scotland's sole represen- tative as in 1S30, when he was ready to return, eight others were there laboring ; the Church had in its hands his " Vin- dication," which demanded of the Assembly that they send out to races like the Hindus their best educated ministers and ablest preachers ; and divinity students the world over had material for serious meditation in his most popular writing, "Missions the Chief end of the Christian Church; also the Qiialifications, Duties and Trials of an Indian Missionary."

Back to Calcutta, 1839, 1840. Duff's journey to India was a profitable one to him. Going by the Ov'erland Route, he was delayed z'« ^^v// _/(9r a month. Besides review- ing the remains of a mighty Empire, he sought an interview with the Patriarch of the Coptic Church, being anxious to see if "life could be breathed into the shriveled skeleton of so fruitful and so noble a mother of churches." The Pa- triarch listened w^ith interest to si"i^;estions concerning the use of the Bible and the publicat.on of tracts, and when an institution for higher education was broached the old man assented and asked Mr Lieder, the missionary accom- panying him, to draft a plan for his more careful inspec- tion. Duff's desire has since been partly accomplished by the noble efforts of American missionaries. The corner- stone of the first English Church in Alexandria, on its great square, was about to be laid, and Dr Duff performed the re- ligious part of the ceremonies. Later this child of the Covenant and lover of Ben Nevis, went into the solitudes of Sinai for a fortnight. Conversing with the monks of St Catherine's Convent through Hindustani, confirming his own faith through a careful study of the topography of the mountain, which could be touched as his own Grampians could not, ascending the peak where Moses stood when the Divine Law was given him, he repeats many times on a Sabbath day the Ten commaui^lments and luxuriates in a flood of sublime and spiritual reflections.

PROMOTER OF MISSIONS 55

The Suez steamer came early in February, 1S40, and the Duffs duly reached Bombay^ where they enjoyed the fel- lowship of their fellow missionaries, the famous John Wil- son, Robert Nesbit, his old St Andrew's fellow worker, and Murray Mitchell, one of his Scotland recruits. Duff comforted them in the misfortunes attending their first Parsi conversions, and made a careful study of the conditions in western India. Thence they took a teak-built vessel to Cal- cutta, stopping on the way at Alangalore^ — where a visit with the eccentric Basel missionary, Hebich, kept Duff talk- ing until almost dawn, and at Madras where were their own recruits, Anderson and Johnson. The interest taken by Duff in the conversion of old St Andrews school into the germs of what is to-day the great Christian College of Madras, and in John Anderson, — who with John Wil- son at Bombay and himself at Calcutta constituted the basal triangle of missionary educational work in India, — was great and fruitful. Later they sail for the Hooghly, where a May cyclone again alniost destroys them.

Second Stadium in India, 1840-1850. The first decade of his missionary life had laid down the lines which he af- terward followed ; hence his later years can be passed over more rapidly.

Duff had hardly had time to look about him on landing' and note English signs of native druggists and surgeons, a beau- tiful Gothic church presided over by a high caste Brahman brought to Christ from atheism through his efforts, and the magnificent college buildings and mission house where he was to live surrounded by nearly seven hundred enthusiastic pupils, before he found himself plunged into a conjiict ivith the Governor- General^ Lord Auckland. In his absence, the liberties fought for by himself and others, which resulted in the use of the English tongue and the study of western science in public institutions of learning, had been taken away and given to the Orientalists, and error was again en- dowed. In three bold letters he arraigns his Lordship at the bar of universal reason and before the Judge of Lords. While the letters availed nothing, another protest against the public support of heathf^iism and a plea for a Christian education had been uttered;

56 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

Though the institution under its four gifted colleagues had made great progress, it was ripe for a i'eorga7iization looking toward the one spiritual end of the conversion of students, the ultimate overthrow of the Brahmanical system and the suhstitution of a self-propagating native Church. While at home he had been a student of the latest educa- tional ideas, and to his buildings, library and apparatus, he now pi'oceeded by a normal class and by privately training those already acting as instructors in the college, to raise up a body of thoroughly trained teachers, — an attempt so successful that the Government and missions from Burma to Sindh speedily carried off his graduates. Note-books were discouraged and Duff aimed to get into his students' minds clear and correct conceptions with the ability to ex- press them.

For three years he held a Sunday class for Bible study among the clerks in public offices, with encouraging spiritual results. For his old graduates who desired the elevating companionship and intellectual stimulus of their old in- structor, Duff held a week-day evening lecture, when works of men like Guizot and John Foster were discussed. Older and less favored tne7i were aided by weekly lectures on moral and religious themes. The ivoes of child-marriage and widowhood made an appeal to his vigorous pen. The Krishnaghur movement and its sect of Worshippers of the Creator so interested him that he investigated the matter, and ttvo new stations were added to Takee. Meanwhile at the college most of the time of the missionaries was spent in teaching, convei'sing, preaching, translating, pre- paring tracts and praying together, while Duff's nine hun- dred students were receiving at their hands a thorough and Christian training.

The Disruption of 1843^ though it was not unexpected, was a terrible blow to Duff when it came. While at home he had claimed that missions lay outside the realm of party, but with the formation of the Free Church, he and his col- leagues felt that they must cast in their lot with the off-shoot. This meant the giving up of an institution finely equipped, much of it with his own privafce means, to the Established Church and the beginning ovel again, with little hope of

PROMOTER OF MISSIONS 57

assistance from a struggling church at home. But Dr Duff was master of the hour in India. Friends were raised up and in 1844 a hall devoted to idol revelries was secured and the new institution began with a thousand pupils. His magnanimitv forbade his starting a work too near his old institution ; hence this less central heathen hall. Similarly SI man who could move all Calcutta by his " Voice from the Ganges,"— four lectures given in the town hall on the rea- sons for separating from the Established Church, — had lit- tle ditHculty in building a church for the members of the new denomination, and when it fell down, he speedily raised twice as much for a new one costing $60,000.

Other efforts of this period were the development of the branch schools, by which natives were evangelizing the ru- ral districts; the editorship of the liberal "Calcutta Re- view" of which he was one of the three founders, — a the- saurus of valuable information concerning India ; — a ser- mon preached after the deadly summer of 1S44, which partly accounts for the largest single hospital in the world and the ten others which later followed ; and raising money for a Knox monument in Edinburgh and again for starving Highlanders.

Personal ?natters Vv'cre the attempt to kill one whose Institution was turning out Christian graduates to the threat- ened subversion of Hinduism, — an attempt met by his tact- ful letter and turned to his advantage, — and the crushing intelligence of the t/ert'//^ of Tho?7ias C//t7//«e/'5, whose suc- cessor he Avas strenuously urged to become. In spite of appeals from presbyteries and the General Assembly itself, Duff resolutely turned from so great an honor that he might "retain in the view of all men, the clearly marked and distinguishing character of a missionary to the heathen abroad," — a conclusion which gave the utmost joy to all classes of the Indian community, not excluding the Brah- mans, whose appeal is a strange commentary on Duff's fas- cinating power and on Brahmanical inconsistency. While his colleagues agreed that he ought not to desert India, they thought it wise for him to return and organize the Free Church Mission scheme. Dr Duff yielded to their views as well as to those of iKs physician and after a most

58 ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOR

interesting tour through India, that he might know the sit- uation and drink in inspiration from the haunts of men whose life stirred his blood, he embarked and reached Edin- burgh at the end of May, 1S50.

Second Visit Home, 1850-1855. Financially Dr Duff was sorely needed, though a week of collecting had re- moved a previous deficit of $27,500. Such sporadic efforts would not do. Duff had on shipboard evolved a scheme which he hurried to the Assembly to advocate. Though his five addresses did not secure his four points, — a day of humiliation and prayer for the Church's neglect of the heathen, regular weekly subscriptions for missions, a rule of proportion concerning the objects aided, and a synod in. which to try the experiment, — he was granted a quarterly Association in every congregation to forward these objects. Sent forth by this "Foreign Missions Assembly," he went everywhere establishing associations for prayer, informa- tion and the quarterly collection of subscriptions. The re- sult of this prolonged campaign, extending into all parts of Scotland and into England and even Wales, — where he spoke at one time to over fifteen thousand, — was the estab- lishment of his far-reaching scheme in five hundred out of the then seven hundred of the Free' Church congregations.

The distinguished honor of being Moderator of the As- sembly of 1 85 1 and his part in ^o. famous Educational Despatch of July ^ 1834^ are worthy of mention. The lat- ter service was of incalculable value to India. Attending for hours each day sessions of the Committee with fellow- witnesses like John Stuart Mill and Prof H. H. Wilson, and cross-questioned on more than one occasion for five hours at a stretch, in the presence of persons like Ma- caulay, Disraeli and Gladstone, his educational and edi- torial experience gave his words weight. The result was that he and Mr Marshman worked out the educational part of the Despatch of 1854. His "handiwork can be traced not only in the definite orders, but in the very style of what has ever since been pronounced the great educational charter of the people of India." By it were secured Government inspectors, universities like that of London, secondary schools, improved primary an ^^ indigenous schools, grants-

PROMOTER OF MISSIONS ■ 59

in-aid of all, degrees of the same for all in any institution who attain to a certain standard, normal schools, school- books, scholarships, public appointments, medical, engi- neering and arts, colleges, and also female schools. The grants-in-aid proposal, so fruitful in good, was urged by Duff "as the only just alternative, if the state persisted in refusing the Bible to be taught, under a conscience clause, in its colleges, as the Koran and the Vedas are taught."

In America, 1854. Interjected into this stay at home came an epoch-making three months in the States and in Canada. Brought here by Mr Stuart of Philadelphia, he was received in a terrific snow-storm by seventy ministers at eleven at night. This was a presage of the tremendous enthusiasm with which he was greeted from Boston to St Louis, and from Montreal to Washington. Whether preach- ing before Congress or talking to a Sunday-school class, he was everywhere the hero of the hour. The impression left by his stay^ — during which he was the animating spirit of the first Union Missionary Convention held on this continent, — is thus described : ' ' Dr Duff is obviously labor- ing under ill-health, and his voice, at no time very strong, occasionally subsides almost into a whisper. In addition to this drawback, he has Jone of the mere external graces of oratory. His eloquence is unstudied ; his gesticulation uncouth, and, but for the intense feeling, the self-absorption out of which it manifestly springs, might even be consid- ered grotesque. Yet he is fascinatingly eloquent. Though his words flowed out in an unbroken, unpausing torrent, every eye \vas riveted upon him, every ear was strained to catch the slightest sound. Indeed, while all that he said was impressive, both in matter and manner, many passages were really grand." As to the effect on our missionary spirit, he stands perhaps above even our own Judson and the saint of the New Hebrides, Dr Paton.

But such a nervous strain, amounting to a "living mar- tydom," could not long continue, and he left America with an LL. D., money for a new college in Calcutta, and an order to go to the water cure of Great Malvern.

Third Term in India, 1856-1863. A winter spent in southern Europe, Syria anc/* Palestine, a return to Edin-

6o ALEXANDER DUFF, INDIA'S EDUCATOIl

burgh for a glorious September, and then the Duffs again leave for their field. Passing through central India, he ar- rived at Calcutta in February, when the mutterings of the storm which was to burst in 1857 were beginning to be heard. During the awful period of the Sepoy Mutiny he was the careful observer and chronicler, the man who stood unmoved in the most dangerous part of the city and who could say after the most critical night, "I have not enjoyed such a soft, sweet, refreshing sleep for some weeks past," and the preacher, who, when the danger ^vas past, deli\'ered by request a Thanksgiving Sermon, — one of the grandest oratorical efforts of his life.

Three evcjits of special importance broke in upon the routine of his college work. One was the establishment of his Caste Girls' Day School, an institution of the g'"eat- est worth to the higher classes. A second was the j^art Duff played in the origin of the famous Calcutta University, established by the Government. The real headship of this institution lay in his fertile and wise brain, though he de- clined to become its Vice-Chancellor. A third matter was his ivithdra'jcal, after nearly a third of a centurv, to home service. Not even the cry "C'^^^ne home to save the mis- sion ! " would have moved him,'><Ad not his old enemy, the dysentery, which a voyage to China did not remove, com- pelled his consent. Again Calcutta was stirred. Scholar- ships were established in his name ; portraits and busts of him were secured for educational institutions ; addresses from different classes of the community poured in upon him; and his countrymen raised a fund of $55,000, upon the interest of which he afterward lived. With the well- merited eulogies of Sir Henry ISIaine and Bishop Cotton to remind India of brilliant service ringing in his ears, this veteran sailed to the shores of Africa to begin at Lovedale his labors as Director of the Free Church Missions.

Closing Years, 1864-1878. A dream of Duff's had been a sort of Protestant Propaganda College in Scotland, and now with his other duties he attempted to realize it. The first step was a missionary professorship in the Free Church Institution, — he had years before gotten an American Sem- inary to establish one, — and when money was raised he was

PKOMOTKR OK MISSIONS 6 1

the only person worthy to occupy it. Unfortunately he did not live to see the establishment of his Missionary Institute nor Missionary Qiiarterly, though his lectureship is giving the world such books as Monier-Williams' "Buddhism."

Full of labors as professor of Evangelistic Theology, as Director of the Foreign Missions of his Chuixh, — greatly to their enlargement — and as general missionary adviser to America and Britain, were the fourteen years preceding 187S. Then, on February twelfth, from his books which he loved so well, — Carlyle, De Qiiincev, ISIilton, Cowper, Hooker and the rest ; — from his friends, who deemed his presence an inspiration ; from his Kirk, of which he was a chief ornament ; from bonnie Scotland, which he loved with an undying passion ; from his Indian friends and old pu- pils, with whom he lived in spirit ; from a world, one of whose most useful factors he had been, — God called him home and he vras not.

His funeral brought together about the bier magistrates of various ranks, the four Universities and the Royal High School, — professors and students, — and, for the lirst time in history, the three Kirks and their Moderators, together with representatives of the English, American and Indian churches. Laid to rest bv }?eer. citizen, missionary and min- ister, his life furnished the theme for half of the pulpits in Scotland on the following Sabbath. Well spoke a woman who saw his body lowered into the grave, "His coffin should be covered with palm branches ;" for a Christian conqueror was this Alexander, and he could in very truth sing Paul's pajan of victory, "I have fought the good fight, I have fin- ished the course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day."

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Catholic Presbyterian, Article Alexander Duff, Vol. III., Pp. 215, ff. Duff: Indian Rebellion; Its Causes and Results, (1S5S).

Missionary Addresses, (1850), I., II., III.

Missions, the Chief End of the Christian Church, (1839).

New Era of the English Language and English Literature in India, (1835). -}

62 ALEXANDER DUFF, IXDIA's EDUCATOR

W. P. Duff: Memorials of Alexander Duff, D. D. Especially Pp. 32-70.

Encyclopivdia of Missions, (1S91 ), Article Alexander Duff.

Lai Behari Day: Recollections of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL. D., (1S79), Chs. v., IX., X., XVI.

London Qiiarterly, Article Alexander Duff, Vol. LIV., Pp. 93, £f.

Proceedings of the Union Missionary Conference, Held in New York in May, 1854.

T. Smith: Alexander Duff, D. D., LL.D., (1S83), Chs. iv-x.

Vermilye : The Life of Alexander Duff, (1890), Chs. vi-xvi.

G. Smith: The Life of Alexander Duff, D. D., LL.D., (1879). Agitating for Missions in Britain, Vol. I., Chs. x-xii. ; Return to Calcutta, Vol. I., Ch. xiii. ; Second Term in India, Vol. I., Ch.xiv. to Vol. II., Ch. XIX. ; Second Furlough in Britain and America, Vol. II., Chs. xx-xxii. ; Last Term in India, Vol. II., Chs. xxiii, XXIV.- Final Years in Scotland, Vol, II., Chs.

XXV-XXIX.

THE MAN MACKENZIE, HIS FIELD AND PEOPLE.

It was not merely an enthusiasm for humanity that touched Mac- kenzie's heart and made him -willing to give up his life for the bene- fit of the millions of China. Men ha^•e done noble deeds under the stimulus of philanthropy, but a higher motive than this ^vas the mainspring of his life, and that was a consuming love for his Di- vine Master.— il/^'5 M. F. Bryson.

Early Days. In the isle so clear to England's late poet laureate arid to her Queen, near its western- end, lies the decayed town of Yarmouth. In that out of the way, fen- begirt place was born on the twenty-fifth of August, 1850, John Kenneth Mackenzie, destined in after years to prove one of the most important factors in the medical and mis- sionary history of China. V But he did not long remain in that land of downs and forests and picturesque watering- places ; for in infancy his parents took him to the home of his boyhood and youth, the mercantile city of Bristol, sev- enty miles to the northwest of his native Isle of Wight. In this city, which had in 1497 sent forth John Cabot to dis- cover in Nova Scctia the mainland of North America, and where in 1S3S was built the first trans- Atlantic steamer, the boy Kenneth received those impulses which made him first a Christian, then an active worker for his Master, and finally a medical niissionary.

The north of Scotland gave him a staunch Presbyterian father, while southern Wales furnished him with a beloved mother. His biographer is probably correct in saying that "to his Highla7id blood doubtless he owed a certain reti- cence of manner, combined with an intensity of feeling, which in a marked degree characterized his likes and dis- likes." The Welsh blood in hii-veins may have aided him,

64 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

as it usually does those of that nationality, in gaining a facile use of one of the most difticult tongues of the world, and it very probably had much to do with that love of preaching which colored his medical work.

His boyhood was passed in the helpful. Christian sur- roundings of a Presbyterian elder's home, so that religion Avas affecting him even before he was conscious of the fact. Not that he was a boy saint, however ; for he had a hasty temper and was outspoken in defending any position which he might take, while as a pupil in Dr Stone's private school he disliked study, preferring the active sports of boyhood to irksome books.

At fifteen he left school and became a clerk in a mer- chant's office. He now began to appreciate the opportun- ities which he had hitherto partly wasted, and spent his spare hours in instructive reading. He also availed him- self of the advantages of the Christian Association, which by its manifold activities has been so beneficial to many young men.

Beginnings of His Ctiristian Life and Usefulness. The unconscious workings of the Spirit in his early years became intensified on two momentous days, both of them times of special interest in the Ji\ssociation. The first of these was a certain May Sunday in 1867, when the topic of the Bible-class had been "A Good Conscience." It was an unusually impressive hour and at its close Mr Moody, then visiting England for the first time, made an address. Though he rose for prayers and dated his earnest desire for a spiritual life from that day, he was not one of the fifteen who then decided for Christ. Months of alternate struggle and discouragement followed until the anniversary of Mr Moody's address arrived. W. Hind Smith, the Lon- don Y. M. C. A. Secretary, delivered the address before the Association on that day, and at the solemn moment when he asked the young men to openly accept or I'eject Christ, the decisive hour for Mackenzie had struck, and from that time he was Christ's. On the w^ay home, he and three companions stopped on a hill top, and like the Japa- nese youths of Kumamoto, dedicated themselves to be hence- forth trustful, leal-hearted followers of their Master. Four

LIP^E, FIELD AND PEOPLE 65

months later Kenneth united with the Presbyterian Church of Bristol and came under the moulding influence of that powerful preacher and earnest Christian, Rev Matthew Dickie, to whom he became greatly attached.

Young Mackenzie did not wait long before he engaged in active ivork ; for he could not conceive of a true Christian who was not about his Father's business. First crucifying his pride by chstributing tracts on a crowded thoroughfare, he later became leader of a band of workers who held open- air services, visited lodging-houses, taught in ragged schools and, as occasion offered, spoke at religious meetings and preached in outlying villages.

Mackenzie soon became conscious of his unfitness for these higher forms of work, and so \\& see him organizing a mutual Christian training school. In a broken-down cow-shed, two miles out of town, a little group of them would meet at five in the morning to read and criticise specially prepared sermons. His discourses were of great excellence, and this work, together with the ardent prayers poured forth as they knelt on the earth floor of the cow- house, enabled him to engage in the winter theater services. His ardent soul could rest in nothing but the most active service of the lowest, s(>^hat he is seen at one time win- ning a notorious king of thieves, at another bringing to the. feet of Jesus attendants at the Midnight Mission.'

Interest in Missions. The Christian workers with\ whom he came in contact w^ere a source of rich blessing to him. One of these. Colonel Duncan, he felt a special love for, and to him he confided on his way home from a theater service a secret desire which had come into his heart, to engage in foreign missionary work. This wish had been begotten of the Spirit, through the reading of b^ograph^es^ of William Burns and Dr James Henderson, both laborers; in China. Mr Duncan was very sympathetic but advised him, in view of his youth and limited education, to spend a number of years in a medical school in preparation for medical service abroad. Mrs Gordon's little book, "The Double Cure ; or What is a Medical Mission.^" was loaned him with the result that he felt that God would have him give up business and study mciSicine.

66 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

When he laid this proposition before his parents, he found them unwilHng to consent to such a plan. Going to the Colonel with this obstacle^ he proposed that young Mackenzie, John Gordon, whose wife had written " The Double Cure," a Bristol surgeon named Steele, and him- self, should lay the matter before the Lord in prayer. This plan had scarcely become operativfe before his parents' ob- jections disappeared. So at the very begining of his mis- sionary career, he learned one of the secrets of his fruitful life, the power of prayer and the special value of united supplication for definite objects.

Preparation for Medical Service. Though without the basis of a college course, young Mackenzie had unusually good opportunities for securing a thorough medical train- ing. For four years at the Bristol Medical School, and later taking special work in the Royal Opthalmic Hospital in London, he passed in Edinburgh his Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians examinations, while at Lon- don he obtained the diploma of Member of the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons. During these years he had not intermit- ted his Christian work, — though naturally it was lessened in amount, — nor had his interest in missions decreased.

V

Appointment under the London flissionary Society.

Before going to Edinburgh, Mackenzie had heard a stirring address from Rev Grffiith John, one of China's greatest missionaries. This only increased his interest in that field, and when at the Scotch capital, he interviewed Dr Lowe, of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. Mr Bry- son, Mr John's colleague, was eventually questioned and the need of Hankow seemed so great that he decided for China, though on the very day on which he offered himself to the L. M. S., he had two appointments brought before him for decision. With his early impatience and ignorance of the necessary routine of missionary organizations, he fret- ted because an immediate reply did not come from the So- ciety. As soon as possible, however, he was gladly wel- comed and appointment followed.

His co7tscientiousncss caused him to lay every matter before the Lord, so that the date of his sailing and the ques- tion of marriage were both ifhade matters of prayer. The

LIFE, FIELD AND PEOPLE 67

Society rather unwisely advised his starting in April — a step which they afterward regretted because of fever con- tracted in his first summer, — but he assented. Mr John's advice concerning the advisability of not marrying until after he had been in China for two years, that he might get well grounded in the language and in his niedical work before the additional cares of a family came upon him, was also heeded.

Journey to China. Bidding his parents a sad adieu on April 8, 187!^, he went up with his brother to London where he had time to attend once more Mr Moody's meet- ings. He had a few weeks before enjoyed a "never-to- be-forgotten" interview with the great evangelist, and all through his life he carried the memory of his evangelical zeal and activity.

Boarding the "Glenlyon," he left London, April tenth. His social nature soon gained him the friendship of sailors and passengers, with whom he was equally at home as quoit-player or preacher. Reading such books as Carlyle's "French Revolution" and Macintosh's "Leviticus" occu- pied his time, except that he meditated on the life before him with deep heart-searchMig. Thus he writes one Sun- day : "I have had sweet ciJmmunion with God this even- ing, and have enjoyed much comfort from the study of the Word to-day. I see that there are no tw^o courses ; it must be all for Christ, or else the soul gets dead and cold. Do- ing everything for His glory, and making His glory our object in every matter, — then only is there joy and peace. O Lord, may it be thus with me ! "

Hong Kong was reached on May twenty- fifth , Shanghai on the third of June, and then after a river voyage of 600 miles up the Yang-tzu, he arrived on Jvme eighth at iiis new home in Hankow.

Life in Hankow. China welcomes are peculiarly de- lightful, and in Mackenzie's case he was received into a -very select circle, whose crown were Mr and Mrs Griffith John. As Bible translator, preacher, missionary champion and author of some of the most widely useful tracts in the language, Dr John was an incalculable aid to the young missionary. Mrs John, too, \vas indefatigable in her ef-

68 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

forts to aid all, especially the sailors on the tea-steamers who are so numerous during the tea season. Into her work Mackenzie entered the fir'st Sunday after his arrival, and during his three years in that city he was a large factor in a work which resulted in many conversions.

His first Monday saw him settled and beginning in ear- nest the study of the language^ a process thus described : the teacher and I "sit down together with the same book. He calls over the words and I try to imitate him ; my mouth is forced into all sorts of odd shapes, and I struggle on. The idea is first to get the proper sound, the meaning after- wards, and then — probably the most difficult — to learn the characters. We go on for about three hours, until I am tired of repeating sounds after him." This study was unfortu- nately interfered with by the pressure of medical' work, as was the time for exercise, so that as the result of his own ex- perience he writes to a young physician who came out years later: " If I were you I would not touch medicine for at least a year, but give your whole strength to the language and to looking after your own health. Medical mission- aries are usually forced into medical work from the begin- ning, and then have to lameot it ever after. Get a good foundation laid in the language, and take plent}^ of exer- cise in the open air." By utilizing spare moments, Mac- kenzie was able, after two years, to say that he enjoyed a Chinese sermon as much as one in English, and his biogra- phy tells of times when he could get a good look into the Classics and find joy in William Burns' incomparable ver- sion of the "Pilgrim's Progress." In the absence of larger opportunities for language study, he comforted himself in the significance of his Chinese na7nc. This in Hankow w^as represented by three characters, Ma-kun-ge, Ala being his surname, the ^/c« meaning "root" and the ^<? mean- ing "to relieve." It was his business, therefore, if true to his root, to relieve others' woes.

The street chapel was a place which the Doctor visited as often as possible, there to watch one of the most successful Chinese preachers do his work. The motley company of coolies, tradesmen and scholars to whom Mr John would try for two hours at a time tclimpart one great idea, gave him a

LIFE, FIELD AND PEOPLE 69

valuable lesson and made him feel that ordinary discursive preaching was a sheer waste of time, and that no great results were to be expected unless one were willing to settle down to patient persevering work which the Spirit might use.

Mackenzie was wise enough to do what many mission- aries neglect ; he tells very vividly of visits to such places as the hall where the horrors of the Buddhist Hades are displayed in most gruesome fashion, and other matters con- nected with Chinese religion were also investigated.

An event occuring while at Hankow had its large influ- ence upon Mackenzie's life. While engaged in Christian work at Bristol he became acquainted with Miss Millie Travers, a fellow worker, and later they were engaged. In 1876 he felt that the time had come for their union, and she accordingly came out to Shanghai, where they were married on the ninth of January, 1S77. She was a true help-meet for him, and he greatly enjoyed his home and the joint work which they were now able to do. But her health was an uncertain quantity and in less than two years \vhen their home had been brightened by the birth of their only child, Margaret Ethel, family complications and personal matters caused Mackenzie to ask to be sent to a new station in Ssu Chuan. The Socie* decided not to establish work at that place, but re-appointed him to Tientsin, the port of Peking in North China.

Transfer to North China. During these three years and a half Dr Mackenzie had won golden opinions for his art from all classes of the community and from the native Christians, who rarely see a physician so ready aiid anxious to help in the spiritual work of the mission. It was with pain, then, and in the midst of sorrowful adieus, that he left the city in March, 1S79. The presence of Bp Schereschew- sky and a consequential Salt Commissioner, relieved the tedivmi of the voyage, and when on the ocean they stopped a little at Chefoo, thus giving Mackenzie a glimpse of Dr Brereton's hospital. Thence to the bar off Taku, past its mud forts and into the sinuous Pei-Ho, seeming to him like a mill-stream meandering through fens, when com- pared with the majestic Yang-tzu, Son of the Ocean. The bund at Tientsin was reached ori-the twelfth and the party

70 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

were most cordially received by members of the mission. His life here is in many ways a repetition of that at Han- kow, save that it was far more momentous, as will be seen later.

Influences Affecting flackenzie's Life. It may be well to note here some of those influences which had a develop- ing effect on his life, for with him there was constant growth.

Men xvere his teachers xery largely. Contact with earn- est believers had a quickening influence upon him. The Cambridge Band stopped at Tientsin on their way to Shansi and their meetings and conversations gave him the greatest single impulse of his life, perhaps. A brief acquaintance with one of the most talented of England's young physi- cians, so early to yield his saintly life to Chinese service, Dr Schofield, was an experience of a life-time. So, too^ was converse with the hero of Mongolia, a missionary Robinson Crusoe and evangelical exile, James Gilmour. One cannot help seeing in his after life the deep impress of these men and of Chinese Gordon, whose unique views he so fully expressed to Mackenzie.

Akin to these influences m ':;re those coming from the printed page. Bp Pattison, from the South Seas, inspired him ; devotional writings of men like Murray were care- fully digested and became part of his spiritual fibre ; but above all other books, the Bible stood as the one pre- eminently loved. The writer well remembers his library with its rows of volumes, and the comparatively few which w^ere well worn. One of his choice souvenirs is a set of old Bengel's "Gnomon," quaint and pithy, which Mac- kenzie had marked copiously. As his life ripened and spiritual discernment grew clearer, even Bengel and Mur- ray were neglected in his absorbing love of the Word itself, so that at the end he was the man of one Book. How much he used this friend may be judged from the fact that a new copy of the Bible which had been his but three months, had been marked in every part, and in many portions care- fully studied.

Providences were Mackenzie's teachers also. Nothing drove him to God so effectually as obstacles. No matter

LIFE, FIELD AND PEOPLE 7I

whether the difficulty was a critical operation, money for a hospital, particular kinds of cases which he preferred to have in his care, the hostility of natives inflamed to hatred by stories, or any other burden, his hour of weakness was "the wished, the trysted hour" when he was sui'e his Lord would fulfill his promises. The prayer-life thus engen- dered was one of the marked characteristics of the man. His Bible had prayer-slips in it ; his letters are full of ex- hortations to prayer, or objects for which he wishes defi- nite petitions offered. In one letter he proposes a plan for interesting little groups of Christians at home in particular Chinamen for whom prayers were needed, their interest to be sustained by frequent letters of information concern- ing them. The peculiar circumstances of his wife's health, which bereft him of her Mobile she still lived, had a most hallowing influence over his remaining years.

It must be confessed that his last months saw the growth of ajt ascetic element which was not quite healthful. In his early years in China, he had been scrupulous about ex- ercise, and after reaching Tientsin, he had attributed his ex- cellent health to horse-back riding, as also to tennis, skating and walking, of which he was very fond. Toward the close of his life he withdrew '• .'nore and more from society, — having tried in vain to exercise a Christian influence in that way, — and gave up games and riding. Yet he was not exactly morbid ; he was rather eaten up by his zeal for his work and for his Saviour, from whom he could not bear to be long separated by even so thin a veil as that of the Christian's daily environment. Christian friends of deep spirituality had a growing value to him, and it was a pleasure to spend his time with them in Bible reading and prayer.

Relation to Others. To the people whom Mackenzie had left in England, he looked, in the earnest hope that they might be influenced to become helpers of the woi^k abroad. When in 1SS3 he took his only furlough home, he was pained to see how little the children of God cared for their lost brethren and sisters in China ; yet this did not prevent his being a useful speaker to home audiences, not only along missionary lines but also in the awakening or

72 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

development of spiritual longings. His father's letters coming to him in China were much prized and aided him greatly.

Mackenzie never forgot his obligations to foreigners in China. The work for crews on tea-steamers at Hankow, and his temperance and evangelical efforts for the marines and sailors who wintered at Tientsin constituted part of his service and were very fruitful. In the latter city, Mackenzie was often aided by surgeons connected with gunboats or vessels, and for these some effort was made, though with little success. Fellow missionaries of every denomination were stimulated by his earnest prayers and by his strong hold on the Bible. A special quickening like that men- tioned by Mrs Bryson in his Hankow life, and the yearly wave of blessing received at the Week of Prayer services at Tientsin or Peking, marked upward bounds into a broader and higher life.

But his students and patients were his especial burden. For them his heart yearned and day and night his thought was how he might be most influential in winning them for Christ. The life of a genuine Christian and the truths of inspired Scripture were the two things which he was anx- ious to bring into heart contact wi'^h them. Few men have been so happy in Bible class work as he. Deep interest in the truth and the living out of this truth were the points which he impressed, both of which were to be attained only through the help of the Spirit.

In God's providence Dr Mackenzie was thrown into in- timate contact with the real, though not nominal. Emperor of China, the Viceroy Li Hung Chang, To this man he fearlessly testified of the truth which is in Jesus, though with the result that the oriental Bismarck regarded him highly for his works' sake, but esteemed him mad in matters of re- ligion. Many other lesser servants in Ctesar's household came under his influence, but without a single conversion ; indeed, no high oflicial in China can be a consistent Chris- tian since his official duties must include idolatrous worship.

Sickness and Death. While still in his full vigor, his Master called him. On Monday, March 26, 1888, he was smitten down with a fever, Vhich later threatened to be-

LIFE, FIELD AXD PEOPLE 73

come small-pox. Less than six days of patient suffering, ■of last farewells, especially pathetic in the case of his chief native assistant, formerly a student at Philips, Andover, iind then on Easter morning, "very early," "when it was y-et dark," he ascended from his couch of pain on Chih Li's cheerless plain to the Paradise of God. Tientsin, meaning the Heavenly Ford, had been to him but the inn of a trav- eler journeying to Jerusalem, but his passing that way had drawn multitudes to him. What wonder then that when this "most important man in Tientsin" died the last words marked in his Bible befoi'e his sickness were fulfilled in him, "And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem •did him honor at his death."

Mackenzie's Field. Before passing to the considera- tion of the special work which made him great, a glance should be taken of his held. China, with its teeming mil- lions is one of the most favorable places in the world for the medical missionary. Mackenzie's first home was al- most in the geographical center of the Middle Kingdom ; indeed, IIankow,with its sister cities of Wuchang and Han- yang, on the confluence of the Han and Yang-tzu, is known as the "Heart of the ^npire." There at the center of its commerce and at the iieadquarters of anti-foreign influ- ences which have been responsible for much of the rioting and outbreaks of recent years, Medicine stretched forth her beneficent hand to still hostility. Hankow, with its 750,000 inhabitants huddled together in the narrow lanes characteristic of central and southern China, swept often by floods, and the perpetual victim of epidemics of all sorts, needed him when he came, but with that rejection of the best so fatal to the Chinese, it was necessary for him to earn his laurels before he wore them. Threading its nar- row alleys and burrows, he was every one's friend, even when deadly diseases threatened his own life. Nor did he confine his labors to the great city. Frequent tours in the country by boat or on foot on narrow dikes, made among people who more than once stoned and beat him, as well as lauded his virtues and feasted him. brought the healing hand and Christ-like voice, so attractive to simple-minded folk, into close contact with/them.

74 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

When summer malaria or overwork drove him from his post for needed rest, he enjoyed greatly the mountain scen- ery of the lovely Lu-Shan, where a foi'eign bungalow shel- tered him, or the quiet of the lakes, and especially the luxury of being at last in a place where he and his wife could walk about without the following of the elsewhere omnipresent, curious crowd of gaping on-lookers.

A less interesting country greeted him when he transfer- red his work to the northern end of that large plain of north- eastern China whose fertile fields contain a population al- most three times as great as that of the United States. In the winter season resembling an almost treeless expanse of clay colored soil, relieved by countless gi'oups of grave mounds and frequent villages, this plain suddenly assumes a tropical aspect when the rains and fiery sun of summer cover it with heavy crops and abundant pools. In the winter Mackenzie would occasionally don his fur cap and warm Chinese foot-gear, and mounting the heavy spring- less cart of the north, run out into the villages and towns Avhence his patients had come. What cared he for the bed- lam and vermin of inns and their brick beds, when he could reach gi-ateful patients, who were f^nly too glad to receive the Christain Tai-fu, Great-father T But in the north he had no beautiful Lu-Shan to which he could flee in time of sickness ; instead, the mouth of the Pei-ho, with its mud flats and homes of pilots, was his place of refuge and furnished him with pure air and sea breezes as their only attractions.

His People. We shall see in the following chapter of what sort they were, medically considered. But as he met them di)y by day they at once attracted and repelled him. Their duplicity and honesty, conservatism and conservation of the best as they apprehend it, cruelty and tenderness, atheism and many gods, and a host of other qualities ex- pressed by similar antonyms, were his constant study. His general estimate of them is thus recorded: "The more I know of the Chinese, especially of their educated men, the more I feel that there is a mine of wealth here. The leaven will take long to spread, but it is already at work. The inhabitants of the Pacific Islands are rapidly influenced

LIFE, FIELD AND PEOPLE 75

in comparison Avith the Chinese, but though the process here will be slower, it will be far mightier in results."

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Burns: W. C. Burns, (1S70).

Coltman: The Chinese, (1S91 ), Chs. i-vii.

Douglas: Society in China, (1894), Chs. vi, vii.

Encyclopedia of Missions, (1891), articles J. Kenneth Mackenzie, and China, especially Pp. 255-264.

E. 1,1. : The Chinese ; Their mental and Moral Characteris- tics, (1877).

General Encyclopedias, articles Hankow and Tientsin.

Gordon: The Double Cure; or, What is a Medical Mission?

Henry: The Cross and the Dragon, (1885), Ch. iii.

Holcomb : The Real Chinaman, (1894).

James Henderson, ( 1873).

Leisure Hour, Vol. XL., Pp. 777, ft'.

Robson: Griffith John, (1S89 ).

Smith: Chinese Characteristics, (1894),

Bryson: John Kenneth Mackenzie. Early Days, Ch i. ; Student Life and Voyage to China, Ch. 11. ; Life in Hankow, Ch. iii. ; His Northern Horile, Ch. viii. ; His Inner Life, Chs. xiv., XV. ; Last Things, Ch. xvi.

VI

MACKENZIE, THE MEDICAL MISSIONARY

A little while for winning souls to Jesus, Ere we behold His beauty face to face ; A little while for healing soul diseases, By telling others of a Saviour's grace.

— Lilies sent JSIackenzic by Dr Sc/iojield's -^vidozv.

Chinese Views of fledicine. Dr Mackenzie labored in a land where medicine was studied quite widely and where men of education acted as physicians. In order to appre- <:iate more fully the value of his work, we should glance, at least, at the conditions which surrounded him in his work.

Surgery^ whicli in so many lands has become an art Avhile medicine is still a phase of superstition, has never been developed in China. "Surgical operations are chiefly confined to removing a tooth, puncturing sores and tumors with needles, or trying to reduce dislocations and reunite fractures by pressure or bandaging. Sometimes thev suc- cessfully execute more difficult cases, as the amputation of a finger, operation for a harelip, and insertion of false teeth. Turning in of the eyelashes is a common ailment, and nati^•e practitioners attempt to cure it by everting the lid and fastening it in its place by two slips of bamboo tightly bound on, or by a pair of tweezers, until the loose fold on the edge sloughs off." From the sixth century B. c, the surgeon has placed great reliance upon acupunc- ture and the moxa.

Perhaps one reason why the Chinese have made so little progress in surgery is the fact that they have made no use of dissection and depend for their knozvledge of anatoiny upon a copper model of a man, pierced with numerous

AS MEDICAL MISSIONARY 77

holes and inscribed in different places with the names of the pulses, and upon two other anatomical figures made in 1027 A. D. to illustrate the art of acupuncture.

Their theory of disease might seem to us unique, did we not remember more senseless theories prevalent among other uncultured nations, and the further facts that in Greece, "the mother-land of rational medicine," the "tem- ple sleep" and its dreams were the basis of priestly prescrip- tion. Hippocrates, whose name stands first in ancient medicine, held tenaciously to the theoretical notions of the four elements, — hot, cold, wet and dry, — and to the Hip- pocratic humors. The hardly less famous Galen placed great confidence in the doctrine of critical days, which he believed to be influenced by the moon, and seems to have relied more on amulets than on medicine. According to Chinese authorities disease is due to a "disagreement of the yin and the yang^ [the male and female principles of Chi- nese philosophv], the presence of bad humors, or the more powerful agency of evil spirits, and until these agencies are corrected medicines cannot exercise their full efiicacy." It is also supposed to be due to the onset of the five elements, — water, fire, wood-, metal, earth, — or to their wrong reaction. '^

Their materia medica presents a strange conglomera- tion of useful, useless and harmful ingredients. A list of 442 medicinal agents shows that 71 per cent, are vegetable, iS per cent, animal and 11 per cent, mineral. If one were to peep into celestial gallipots he might find such surprises as snake-skins, scorpion stings, rhinoceros-horn shavings, moths, oyster-shells, human and silk-worm secretions, tiger bones, etc. These and their effective remedies are nicely accommodated to the particular one of the nine classes of diseases with which the patient is afflicted.

Native Practitioners. The Chinese Dr Rhubarb does not arrive at his dignities without effort. His course of study is not definite, though it includes the mastery of cer- tain treatises of acknowledged weight, many of them de- scribed in Wylie's "Notes on Chinese Literature." The prospective doctor is also suppposed to have gotten hold of some manuscript medical works of a physician of repute

78 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

and to have looked, at least, at the diagram which presents popular opinion concerning the inner economy of man, a diagram much i-esembling the cross-section of an egg en- closing a pine-cone and half a dozen angle worms. No diplotiia is needed, the practitioner being kept in check by one of the sections of the Government Code which exacts various penalties, even to the beheading of the physician, of him who causes the death of a patient by departing from established forms.

Diagnosis is considered the main point by the doctor. Coming to the patient in some state, he sees the disease^ as the phrase for the operation is translated. "The right hand is placed upon a book to steady it and the doctor, with much gravity and a learned look, places his three fingers upon the pulsating vessel, pressing it alternately with each finger on the inner and outer side, and then making with three fingers a steady pressure for several minutes, not with watch in hand, to note the frequency of its beats, but with a thoughtful and calculating mind, to diagnose the disease and prognosticate its issue. The fingers being removed, the patient immediately stretches out the other hand, which is felt in the same manner." With few questions concerning his symptoms, the doctor proceeds it) write out the numer- ous ingredients of a prescription which is pretty sure to contain decoctions measuring into the pints or quarts, be- sides powders, boluses, pills or electuaries. This done and the fee — "golden thanks" — received, he departs to return no more unless invited. As for the victim — who is literally a patient, — he may have resorted to the lot in order to learn what physician to employ. If so, the same man is asked to return again. In case he has bargained with a doctor to cure him in a certain time, he lays aside all work and ceases to eat that he may give his entire time to swallowing horse doses of all sorts of concoctions. If at the expira- tion of the time, he is not cured, a new physician is called in and eventually the patient dies or recovers.

Chinese Hospitals. Before the introduction of Chris- tianity into the Empii'e, these "were unknown, unless one considers fovmdling hospitals and lazarettoes as such. In the latter the poor leper can secure a fairly comfortable

AS MEDICAL MISSIONARY 79

close to his wretched life by the payment of a sufficiently large fee. In the foundling hospitals the visitor chiefly re- marks the dirt, the large mortality and the fact that the babies never ciy, being constantly drugged.

Hackenzie's Two Hospitals. To such a medical need he had come to minister, but he w^as pained to find at the outset a deeply-seated prejudice against foreign medicine. The fact that foreign physicians ask questions of a patient instead of learning his condition from the light and heavy pressui'e on the inch, bar and cubit pulses of the two wrists, as well as the stories about foreigners' gouging out native eyes and hearts, with which to make medicines, telescope lenses and famous elixirs, had strengthened the ever-present conservatism into a virtual Chinese Wall which had first to be overthrown.

1. Tlic Haiikoxv Hospital. This was all ready to hand, having been cared for since iS66 by Drs Reid and Shearer. The building, erected at the joint expense of the foreign community, native merchants and the London Mis- sion, is thus described by Mackenzie : "The hospital is a fine, substantially-built, roomy building, very well venti- lated and arranged. On the ground floor at the back is the chapel, seating about 2^ people ; here there is preaching every morning to patients and to any others who may drop in from the streets. In front of the chapel is the dispensary and consulting room, where the patients are seen, a vestry for the missionaries, and a room in which the resident assistant lives. On the upper story are two large wards, two small ones, and a good-sized ward for foreigners ; the naval surgeon sends his worst cases here. Outside the general building is a woman's ward and two other small buildings, used as schoolrooms, with the porter's lodge. Ti"ees are planted all round the building, so that it has quite a pleasant appearance."

2. The Tientsin Hospital. When he arrived at this port the Mission had no hospital, though a medical work had been carried on since 1S69, by a native dispenser, trained in Peking by Dr Dudgeon. Dr Mackenzie found this man withovit foreign drugs, and practicing much after the native fashion. Himsel:^, without money to buy medi-

So KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

cines, he could only sit down and try to adjust his tongue to the new dialect, while he united with his colleagues in. earnest prayer that God would open a door of escape from their financial dilemma. These prayers resulted in the de- termination to draw up a petitiofi to Jiceroy Lt^ "set- ting forth the advantages of establishing a hospital for the benefit of the Chinese, telling him what had been done else- where in medical missionaiy enterprise, and soliciting his aid." Although this memorial was written in perspicuous Chinese and pi'esented by the very influential American, Mr W. N. Pethick, it received no attention.

Prayers, however, were doing their work. At the prayer-meeting of the Mission on the first of August, the topic was, "Ask, and it shall be given you," a promise which those present agam pleaded in the matter of the me- moi^ial. As the meeting was breaking up, a courier from the Viceroy arrived wnth the request that Mackenzie would hasten with Dr Irwin to his residence, to attend his wife. That morning a member of the British Legation had been \vith the Viceroy, and noticing that he was sad, inquired the cause. When informed of Lady LVs serious illness^ he suggested that foreign physicians be summoned. His excellency objected that it would 'te impermissible for her to be attended by a foreigner, but his good sense finally overcame immemorial custom, and the two physicians wei'e called. Prayer was the more instant when so critical a case was undertaken, and God was pleased to use their ef- forts to the recoveiy of the illustrious patient. During convalescence Mackenzie suggested that Miss Dr Howard, then in Peking, be invited to remain at the lady's residence until she had entirely recovered. This resulted in the es- tablishment by Lady Li of a woman's hospital, which was placed in Dr Howard's charge, and soon passed into the hands of the Woman's Society of the Methodist Board North.

While Mackenzie was still attending Lady Li, he and the community physician, Dr Irwin, gave an exhibition of foreign surgery in the presence of the Viceroy, which even more favorably impressed him. He had appointed these two men as physcians to his own family, and when

AS MEDICAL MISSIONARY 8f

the question of salary came up, Mackenzie asked that none be given him, but that instead the expense of his medical work be defrayed. At first a room outside the official office was set apart for medical purposes, but as this was found to impede public business, a quadrangle in one of the finest temples of the city was assigned him. Thither and to other yamens in the city he went on a handsome pony provided by the Viceroy, attended by a groom and a military official appointed to escort him. The temple was three miles from his house and proper religious work could not be done at such a distance ; hence plans were made for a hospital building on the London Mission premises. Subscriptions, coming mainly from wealthy Chinese patients, enabled him to erect one of the finest hospitals in North China.

This building has been thus described : " It is erected in the best style of Chinese architecture, and has an ex- tremely picturesque and attractive appearance. The front building, standing in its own courtyard, is ascended by broad stone steps, which lead from the covered gatewav to a verandah, with massive wooden pillars running along its whole length. A hall divides it into two portions. On the right side and in front is a spacious dispensary, which, thanks to the liberality^of the Viceroy, is wanting in noth- ing, rivaling any English dispensary in the abundance and variety of the drugs, appliances, etc. ; behind this is a roomy drug store. On the left of the hall is a large waiting-- room, with benches for thejconvenience of the patients, and- used on Sundays and other days as a preaching hall. Be- hind, and to one side, is the Chinese reception-room always to be found in a native building. The rooms are very lofty, without ceilings, leaving exposed the huge painted beams,, many times larger than foreigners deem necessary, but the; pride of the Chinese builder,

"Running off in two parallel wings at the back are the surgery and wards, the latter able to accommodate thirty- six in-patients. The wards in the right wing, four in num- ber, are small, intended each to receive only three patients. The wai'ds are all furnished with kangs instead of beds, as is the custom in North China. These kangs are built of bricks, with flues running underneath, so that in

82 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

winter they can be heated ; the bedding is spread upon a mat over the warm bricks." This building was opened in the presence of the Viceroy and representatives of different consulates, and the following Sabbath a thanksgiving ser- vice was held there, attended by members of the various Tientsin churches. '

riackenzie's Assistants. The plant having been se- cured, proper assistants were required. With so few Christians to select from, it became a matter for earnest prayer, just as had the erection of the hospital. When se- cured they needed to be trained, and all this work fell upon Mackenzie's shoulders.

As in every port, and especially where a river is ice- bound for three months each year, thus necessitating the stay in the city of surgeons of various gunboats, it was easy to secure volu7iteer assistants. Some of these men were extremely helpful medically, though as they did not kno^v the language and were in many cases not Christians, they did little for the spiritual side of the work.

The First Government Medical School. A more com- petent company of assistants was needed than his dispen- sers constituted ; hence when the Government recalled the students sent to America under Yiing Wing's Educational Commission, Mackenzie petitioned the Viceroy for eight of them, and with them the first Government Medical School liegan. While it was a joy to teach these bright fellows, and though Mackenzie was assisted by Dr Atterbury of Peking, the community physicians and the surgeons on duty at Tientsin and later by two medical colleagues, the brunt of the work fell on the Doctor himself. The eight proved apt students, and after completing a full course, they received buttons corresponding somewhat to those of civil officials of the Empire.

What to do with the graduates was then the problem. Receiving government appointments, they found them- selves under the corrupt officials of army and navy, whose peculations drained off all the medical appropriations, thus leaving them only practitioners of the old sort to compete with on the basis of native medicines, which were cheap and so obtainable. This was a deep disappointment to them

AS MEDICAL MISSIONARY 83

and to their instructor, and only a week before his death, when asked about his students, Mackenzie said that it was his intention to close the medical school soon. Happily this was not done, as that period was the darkness before dawn, and his successor was able to report a better state of things.

Statement of Cases. Dr Mackenzie's general practice presents the ordinary features of Chinese hospitals. Out- door patients^ as usual, were unsatisfactory, as medicines are often taken in doses many times greater than pi'escribed, proper care and diet are almost impossible, and the native custom of running to another physician, if relief is not im- mediate, militates against successful treatment. The com- monest diseases thus treated wei'e, — stated in descending or- der of frequency, — dyspepsia, chronic rheumatism, asthma, ringworm and bronchitis. In-door patients were in the wards about three weeks on an average, thus securing most favorable health conditions, and furnishing an admirable opportunity for religious impression and instruction. Dis- eases of the eye were most common, and then followed those of the digestive system, of the bones and joints, of the respiratory and the nervgus systems. Of operations, the inost common were those performed on the eye, after which came amputations, dislocations and fractures. This ab- stract hardly gives a fair account of the diseases of China ; for, like Dr Parker, who in 1834 "opened China to the gospel at the point of his lancet," Mackenzie sometimes selected his patients, taking in those whom native practi- tioners could not aid, and rejecting those cases ^vhich were chronic or hopeless.

Opium ivork was made much of, though he hardly kept a refuge for these unfortunates. Out of an experience with nearly a thousand such patients, Mackenzie writes : " The habit of opium smoking, prolonged for any length of time, plays havoc with the man's natural energy, rendering him indolent and enervated. Few, in this condition, can, un- aided, combat the craving for opium and effectually reform. The attempt is often made, but as often ends in disappoint- ment. For a time they persevere, but when the intolerable craving, accompanied by extreme bodily depression, with

84 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

violent achings of the joints and muscular pains, sets in, they fly to their old enemy, and drown themselves in opium stupor." Concerning the treatment, he says: " There is no medicinal specific guaranteed to cure ; the object aimed at is to relieve symptoms as they arise, and so to help the patient back to health and freedom. I always tell them the medicine given them is to relieve the pain and craving, but they are to pray to God and believe in Jesus, to get the de- sire taken away from their hearts, and new hearts given to them."

Of course uitusual cases were encountered, and he smiled many a time at medical incidents in native practice. Thus he notices a physician pretending to remove worms from teeth to cure toothache ; another thrusts a needle many times into the gastric region to cure dyspepsia ; a young fellow comes for treatment, from whose arm a piece has been cut out and administered to a sick father as an in- fallible remedy; a girl of six is seen, upon whose stomach is laid a large toad, while doses of scorpion-sting broth are given. On one occasion he was called to see a man who was laid out in his grave clothes, and whose daughter urged him not to delay his demise, as she was ready for his death. In still another case he is summoned to a man w^ho had been some time in his coffin. He removes a tumor weighing twenty-five pounds ; he gives sight to two girls blind from birth because of cataract, and as a result a church of more than a hundred members springs up ; he amputates a girl's foot, leaving her a heel to w^alk on ; he attends a Taoist priest who had his ears nailed for two days to his temple door to raise funds for its repair ; he inserts a silver tube in a man's windpipe, with the result that he gained the reputation of giving men two mouths.

The Question of Fees. Mackenzie felt strongly on this matter. From the poor he did not wish to receive anything, and in general, to avoid the imputation that his work was a mere matter of business, he refused remuneration. But he made it very clear to well-to-do patients that they owed a debt of gratitude for healing received, and from such he received enough so that he laid by for the hospital a reserve fund of over $10,000.

AS MEDICAL MISSIONARY 85

Spiritual Element [in flackenzie's Work. His one

aim in coming to China was "to make medicine the hand- maid of the gospel, seeking, through the administration of medical relief, to advance the cause of our Lord and Mas- ter Jesus Christ, thus combining the healing of the body with the curing of the soul, in accordance with the words of Scripture, ' And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God, and to heal the Sick.' " We saw in the previous chapter that Mackenzie was a believer in Chaucer's doc- trine that the teacher of Christ's lore and that of his apos- tles must first follow it himself. Looking to other lines of effort, we find the following especially emphasized.

1. He considered prayer an essefitial part of his strength. Opium patients and others, as has been stated, were bidden to pray for their double healing, while the Doctor himself never attempted an important operation without special prayer for the needed skill. He believed that every medical missionary should be a faith healer in this sense : "He should give all the attention possible to his case, use every means he can think of, every agency or drug that he knows of ; but he should also do so in humble dependence upon God for His blessing."

2. PreacJiing was noT merely a part of his work; it ■was one of the most important items in the day's program. He usually did some of it himself using such passages as the prodigal son, the barren fig tree, blind Bartimeus and the palsied borne of four, as his texts. During the entire time that patients were in the waiting room, someone was either talking or preaching to them.

3. But such formal work was less profitable than con- versational and instructional work with individuals and little groups. One looking in upon the wards any after- noon might see knots of patients gathered about one or two beds listening to one of the hospital helpers as he spoke of the love of Jesus or tried to teach them the elements of Christian truth. He writes: "Portions of gospels and tracts are scattered about the wards, and as we pass from patient to patient, dressing wounds and attending to the wants of all, we question them upon the books by their side and exhort them to think of the truths of Christianity,

S6 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA's PHYSICIAN

and thus have innumerable opportunities for individual dealing."

4. To prepare assistants for such work, Mackenzie em- phasized the Bible class. The work was very interesting because made as conversational as possible. One class was held daily, except Sunday, for three quarters of an hour in the morning; another, on Tuesday evening, was used to gather up the work of the week and for drawing the net ; a third on Friday evening was for helpers and Christians only ; and still another was held on Sunday, when often people from the missionary ranks would drop in to enjoy his teaching. Much prayer accompanied these exercises and in addition the medical students were encouraged to hold private meetings by themselves.

5. The Doctor tried, also, to keep hold of patients who had become impressed with the truth, but who had gone to distant ho7nes. At one time, he employed a special helper to visit such cases ; at another, he himself went out touring to find such men, though the fear of neighbors that he had come to collect money from former patients, sometimes made the process of locating them difficult. Usually he was received most warmly by those who regarded him as their physical saviour, and as their dearest friend.

6. The propag-ation of this evangelical crusade con- stituted one of Mackenzie's important duties. In 1S86 the Medical Missionary Association of China was established, as also its organ, "The Medical Missionary Journal." Mackenzie's work had been so intensely evangelical, that it became perfectly natural to ask him to edit its evangelis- tic department, and during the last fifteen months of his life, he contributed often to its pages. In one of these arti- cles, "The Evangelistic Side of a Medical Mission," he urges every medical missionary to engage personally in such work for these five reasons : he can best influence his own patients ; his assistants w\\\ be, under God, largely what he makes them ; unless he attends to it, the full value of the medical mission as a Chistianizing agency will not be developed ; his own spiritual life requires it ; and it en- ables the physician to soar above the daily drudgery and the depressing influences of continuous labor among dirty and

AS MEDICAL MISSIONARY Sf

sin-saturated wretches who throng missionary hospitals and dispensaries.

Tsung erh Yen Chih. This phrase, so often used by Mackenzie, and meaning a concise summary of what has been said or written, is not in his case exhausted when we say of him that he was a man placed in a providential re- lation to Li Hung Chang, who largely through his agency adopted modern medicine for army and navy, thus giving it entrance into the family of the Emperor himself, and fa- vorably impressing many officials of high rank with the fruits of Christianity. Another man in his position might, perhaps, have done as much as he in such a direction. His service to the great cause which he represents lies in the magnificent object lesson of his godly life, and in the bright and cheerful Christianity which he represented to his medical students and to the medical missionaries of China, who knew him only to admire and emulate his spiritual qualities.

He has given us f/ie g'lst of that successful life in these words: "One of the best ways in which the medical mis- sionary can influence his patients is by keeping up the spirit- ual life of his assistants ^v encouraging them to prayer and the frequent study of the Scriptures. Of course, he can only aid them as he is himself abiding in Christ, and draw- ing strength and life from his Saviour. He cannot give what he has not himself got. The knowledge of this should stimulate us to a constant and close walk with God. It is of little account for us to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our assistants or patients until the great cry of our hearts is, ' Lord, fill me ! ' and then when we are full, from us will go forth streams of living water to those around."

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Century Illustrated Magazine, August 1896, Pages 560-571. China Mission Hand-Book, (1896), Medical Statistics. Coltman : The Chinese, (1891 ), Chs, viii-x.

Creegan and Goodnoxv : Great Missionaries of the Church, (1895), Ch. X.

88 KENNETH MACKENZIE, CHINA'S PHYSICIAN

Doolittle: Social Life of the Chinese, (1865), Vol. I., Ch, v.

Douglas: Society in China, (1894), Ch. viii.

Doivkotmt : Murdered Millions, (1894).

Dudgeon: The Diseases of China, (1877).

Encyclopaedia of Missions, (1891 ), Article Medical Missions.

Foster: Christian Progress in China, (1SS9), Pp. 162-188.

Hanbury : Science Papers. (1876), Pp. 211-277.

Henry : The Cross and the Dragon, (1SS5), Ch. xiv.

Lockhart: The Medical Missionary in China, (1861), Chs. vi-x.

Lo-we : Medical Missions, (18S7), Ch. v.

Mabie : In brightest Asia, (1891 ), Pp. 91-95.

Missionary Review of the World, September, 1896, Pp. 664-680, 697.

Smith: Chinese Characteristics, (1894 ), Chs. xi., xvi.

Smith: Contributions to Chinese Materia Medica, (1871 ).

Stevens and Markwick : The Life of Peter Parker, M. D., (1896), Chs. VIII., IX.

Tenney : The Triumphs of the Cross, (1895), Pp. 613-617.

Williams: The Middle Kingdom (1882 ), Vol. IL, Pp. 118-134.

Bryson : Johh Kenneth Mackenzie. Country Work and P©rse- cution, Ch. iv. ; Overcomimg Prejudice, Chs. vi., vii. ; Medi- cine and the Viceroy, Ch. ix. ; Chinese Medical Students, Ch. XI. ; XII. ; Strange Phases of Chinese Life, Ch. xiii. ; Medical Review of Mackenzie's Wsrk. Appendix II. ; Spirit- ual Side of His Work, Appendixes III., IV.

VII

/

MACKAY'S early life and his AFRICAN FIELD

His beauty and extraordinary gentleness, together with his won- derful aptitude for picking up all kinds of handicraft, speedily in- gratiated him with the workmen, . . . When he appeared on the scene he was accosted with the question, "Weel, laddie gaen to gie's a sermon the day?" and the invariable reply (in which there was something like prophetic instinct) was, " Please give me trowel ; can preach and build same time." — A»ecdoie of Mackay at three years.

Birth. Alexander Murdoch Mackay's sister, Mrs Har- rison, vividly describes that snowy 15th of October, 1849, when one of Africa's greatest benefactors first saw the light. His father, — geographer, Geologist and author, as well as Free Chijrch minister, — i.vfurrounded in his study by gazet- teers, atlases, and books of travel, while on a nail hangs a map of Africa, and from the walls Disruption worthies and stern reformers look down. The infant Alexander, brought in by his nurse Annie, is unnoticed until she has listened to a geographico-missionary discourse on central Africa. This story is an essentially true one and ends with a prophecy when the father says : ' ' The gospel banner will yet be planted at the very heart of this continent, al- though not likely in your day nor mine, Annie ;" to which the good nurse replied, "But may be it'll be in your son's, sir ! and wha will say he'll nae hae a han' in it?"

Birthplace. Alexander spent his early years in the high- lands of Scotland at the little village of Rhynie, located inland in Aberdeenshire. Surrounded by the scenery of the Grampians and living at the foot of picturesque Tap o' Noth, the child could not but be responsive to influences which have helped make pure, strong and efficient many

9© ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA S ENGINEER

of his countrymen. Rhynie is a pastoral and sparsely set- tled district whose inhabitants, of Pictish origin, have al- ways been strongly wedded to religion. Iron was in their blood, simplicity marked their lives, and independence their thoughts. The Bible was their household book and God their supreme and daily ruler. These Bible loving neigh- bors, his pious nurse, the heathery slopes of Noth, rippling burns running through the peat moss, whirring moor-cocks, bleating sheep and modest flowers constituted his early and helpful environment.

Parentage. Far more vital in their influence upon him than these surroundings were his parents. Alexander Mac- kay was to his son what James Mill was to John Stuart, though happily religion was not lacking either in Mr Mackay's life or in his conversation. An ardent student and a born teacher, he found time in his secluded parish to prepare various scientific books, but it was a greater delight still to instruct his boy who until fourteen knew no other teacher. He was a conservative educator, believing that mathematics and the classics were the best foundation for a general education. He had the rare faculty of making in- struction inteiesting and rote-lear^ning had to give place to clear reasoning. Alexander responded to such an instruc- tor with a craving for knowledge which found its keenest satisfaction in long walks which were voyages of discovery in the world of nature. Other studies were also included in this peripatetic school, and the two often occasioned wonder as they paused while the father demonstraed in the sand by the roadside a geometrical proposition, or traced the probable course of the Zambesi. Minute observation and thoroughness were so enforced by this teacher that Mackay might have echoed John Stuart Mill's boast, "Mine was not an education of cram." Nor was it confined to material and speculative matters ; for the cottage prayer-meetings and "catechising," where the Scriptures and Shorter Cate- chism were explained, gave the boy deep insight into the thoughts of godly men and of God himself.

If the father was Mackay's teacher, his mother ^ Margaret Lillie, of Huguenot descent, was the moulder of his char- acter. She possessed much literary and linguistic ability,

EARLY LIP'E AND AFRICAN FIELD 9I

— extending even to the Hebrew, — and so was an additional aid to Alexander, who not only acquired her style, but at the same time drank in tales of Disruption and Seceding heroes with the same eagerness accorded to stories of Huguenot martyrs. These recitals were usually followed by the injunction,

" O 3'e who boast In jour free veins the blood of sires like these, Lose not their lineaments."

Mrs Mackay made Sunday the happiest day of the week. After the Bible and catechism lessons were successfully mastered came the reward, "a missionary story," which she told most interestingly. In her childhood she had been deeply moved by a missionary sermon and the account of that experience gave Mackay oue of his Jirst missionary imptilses. Mrs Mackay's life was saturated with Scripture and Alexander imbibed it most eagerly ; though not until her death in his sixteenth year, when she left him her Bags- ter's Bible with the dying message to " ' Search the Scrip- tures,' not to read them only, but to search^ and then he would meet her again in glory," did he make them the guide of his life. ^

Boyhood. The influences already named produced their natural fruitage. Intellectually he was precocious. He read the New Testament fluently at three ; at seven, "Para- dise Lost," Russell's "History of Modern Europe," Gib- bon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," and Rob- ertson's " History of the Discovery of America" were his text-books, after which his reading lesson was the leading article in the newspaper fully explained by his father. Euler's Algebra falls into his hands when he is eight and opens up a fairy world to him. D'Aubigne's "Reforma- tion," and indeed every other work that he found were fairly devoured.

I?t practical things^ also, he was an eager learner. At three he imitates stone masons'; at four when told to bring a heavy bar, he carries it by lifting it one end at a time and going around it. At nine years he feels that he is old enough to have a printing press, because Luther has said that "Printing is the latest and greatest gift by which God en-

92 ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

ables us to advance the things of the Gospel ;" to which the boy added : "Skill takes no room in the pocket, . and some day I might find it useful." The press was bought and years afterward did " advance the things of the Gos- pel" on the shores of Victoria Nyanza. From eleven to thirteen years of age books were thrown aside and the gar- den and farm, the pony, locomotive engines, machinery and handicrafts of every description, occupied his thoughts. Though at fourteen he took up his books again at the Aber- deen Grammar school, even there the art of photography and the ship-building yard had a perfect fascination for him.

His spiritual life was always deepening, thanks to his mother's care. A strong sense of rectitude, dating from his fifth year and the Brig o'Bogie where nurse Annie threw the leather "tawse" into the water, Sunday teachings, parish catechisings, "Pilgrim's Progress' and Mrs Mackay's pray- ers were used by the Spirit to draw him to God.

All the while that broader touch of the luorld, so often denied country children, came to him. The best literature and periodicals, which he was required to read, made him a cosmopolitan, and his father's fame brought to the manse men like Hugh Miller and Sirs Roderick Murchison and A. Ramsay, who were greatly attracted by the boys' skill in map-drawing and type-setting. Men and women of the Drumtochty type also had a hardly less marked influence on him, provincial though they were.

Life In Edinburgh. Mr Mackay desired his son to be a minister, and the mother would gladly have seen him a missionary, but to neither of these was he inclined. Ma- chinery and engineering were his deepest love, and when his father's financial limitations were a baiTier to his enter- ing on these studies, he went to Edinburgh and taught three hours a day to meet his expenses while studying. Two years, spent in the Free Chtcrch Trai?iing College for Teachers^ — where he was marked ninety per cent, on the Bible, Geography, History, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geome- try, Latin, Greek, School Management, Skill in Teaching and Theory of Music, and where he won prizes for draw- • ing, — were referred to in Africa as being of great benefit. The next four years were busy ones. Engineering and

EARLY LIFK AND AFRICAN FIELD 93

kindred sciences were studied at the University for three years and one year was devoted to Surveying and For- tification. Meanwhile, besides his teaching and attendance on evening lectures, he spent the afternoons at Leith en- gaged in practical engineering,

Sundays were days of equal activity. At the church of Dr Horatius Bonar, who fostered in him "habits of rev- erent and constant fellowship with God, and daily study of the Holy Scriptures," he gained weekly strength. The af- ternoons found him conducting childrens' meetings or in mission halls, and in the evening he was a regular teacher at the Sunday-school connected with Dr Guthrie's Origi- nal Ragged School.

In Germany, 1873-1876. November ist saw him en route for Berlin whither he went to master the German language as the key to its valuable lore, to perfect himself as an engineer and, above all, to "use every opportunity of diffusing scriptural truth and of winning souls for Christ." He readily secured a good position as draftsman on loco- motives and portable steam engines in a large engineering firm, and found his fascinating employment tempting him to forget God. His felU|l»v' draftsman, moreover, were infi- dels and blasphemers, but he made this an occasion for do- ing personal work among them, for which he seeks Mc- Cheyne's equipment : " Some believers are a garden that has fruit trees, and so are usful ; but we ought also to have spices, and so be attractive." Soon promotion came and he was made head of the locomotive department, with a larger sphere of influence.

Mackay's religious life and usefulness were greatly deepened and enlarged by notes of Dr Bonar's sermons, sent weekly by his sister, and especially by the friendship of Court Preacher Baur, who was drawn to the young Scotch- man and invited him to live at his own home as his "dear son." Not only did this give him exceptional opportunities for learning German, but it also brought him into contact with the highest Christian society of Berlin, including the sister of Prince Bismarck. At the Bible readings given at Dr Baur's and through the Bible Class held on Sunday evenings he secured and imparted much good, especially in

94 ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA S ENGlNliER

connection with American students. Other activities, such as personally inviting men to church and distributing tracts to cabmen, filled his leisure hours. What his life was re- ligiously is described by a. jour?ial kept at this period^ the pages of which are filled with sentences like these: "O for nearness to God ! God grant me I pray Thee, a deep spirit of humility — the broken will and the contrite heart." " Slept in again. No time for prayer or reading God's Word in the morning. Yet the Lord is gracious to me." . . " Attaining day by day to a little more child- like faith in Jesus, and therefore joy and peace." "Teach me, my Saviour, to speak to lost souls in love." "Lord, bless abundantly two or three grains of seed sown. What an idle day ! " . . " Since I came to Berlin I have been enabled to study much of the Word of God, and to find something of the inexhaustable mine of pure gold it contains. If I had been at home, surrounded by so many sacred influences, the probability is I might not have made so much progress. One thing above everything, I must make my Christianity a practical thing. ' It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

The Missionary Call. Withiji six weeks after reaching Germany this call came to young Mackay. For some years he had not read nor thought much on missions, as his pro- fessional studies had crowded the subject into the back- ground. In December an address on Madagascar by Dr Burns Thomson came into his hands, and this appeal, to- gether with his mother's early injunction, "If the call comes to you, take care that you do not neglect it," and Dr Baur's deep interest in missions, so fired him with mission- ary zeal that he called it "a new conversion."

Other considerations also entered in. The texts coupled by his mother in his boyhood, "If ye love me, keep my commandments," and, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations ;" her quotation of Dr Duff's words, "The advance- ment of the missionary cause is not only our duty and re- sponsibility, but it is an enjoyment which those who have once tasted would not exchange for all the treasures of the Indian mines, for all the laurels of civic success, and for all the glittering splendor of coronets. It is a joy rich as

EARLY LIFE AND AFRICAN FIELD 95

heaven, pure as the Godhead, lasting as Eternity ;" the old map of Africa, with the Mountains of the Moon lying like a huge caterpillar across his future field; the "Nile problem" which he and his father discussed so frequently ; his puzzling over the reason why the Church Missionary So- ciety should secure its agents in Germany instead of in Eng- land ; the charm of " Livingstone's Travels;" his Christ- mas letter of 1S66, in which he says, "I shrink from the ministry. . . . Besides it seems to me there are al- ready too many ministers. Three or four wasting their energies in each little parish of Scotland may satisfy a de- sire for sermon hearing, but is attended, I fear, with little good;" the elaborate trivialities of modern life because of which an able writer savs, "His brave and active nature would have beaten itself to death against the bars of Euro- pean conventionality ;" above all, his sister's letter of Decem- ber II, 1873, accompanying Dr Thomson's address: — all these were successive missionary impulses, culminating in w^hat he deemed the voice of God calling him to Madagascar.

To be called meant immediate action to Mackay. The select Christian circle in which he moved were informed of his intentions, and Dr ^aur encouraged him to be an engineering missionary. -TLicentious, drunken and infidel Berlin was a training school preparing him to combat idola- try. The study of Malagasy was enthusiastically, if un- wisely, prosecuted. He sees clearly that "if Christianity is worth anything it is worth everything," and that he will be fit to win souls only so far as he attains deep spirituality and abiding fellowship with his risen Saviour. In 1S75 a tempting professional offer came to him, which he declined as one article of his creed ran : " It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live." He accepted, however, an engagement at Kottbus, sixty miles southeast of Berlin, and there employed his spare hours in sending to all the clergy of the Empire the German version of Bonar's "Words to Soul Winners," and also arranged for the translation at his own expense of "Grace and Truth."

Correspondence with Missionary Societies and Ap- pointment. As Mackay's interest had been aroused through Madagascar, he wrote first to Dr Bonar and sought a posi-

96 ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

tion under the London Missionary Society on that island. Dr Bonar thought mission work and engineering difficult ideas to combine, and Secretary Mullens wrote, "that at that time the island was not ripe for his assistance." Mac- kay was not daunted, for he had "one word against such a problem, 'Jehovah Jireh !' " What he wished was an op- portunity to wed civilization and Christianity in Africa, to execute works such as railways and mines, largely through natives trained in religion and science ; in a word, he wished to supplement the work of other missionaries, not to sup- plant it. This desire was ultimately satisfied ; for on a bit- terly cold night in December, 1875, after finishing "How I Found Livingstone," his eye fell on an old copy of the Edinburgh Daily Review" in which the Church Mission- ary Society appealed for pioneers to go into Uganda in response to King Mtesa's invitation sent home by Stanley. Though after midnight, Mackay immediately wrote to the Society offering his services. Having heard of this corres- pondence, Dr Duff urged him to wait for an opening in the African missions of the Free Church of Scotland, or else to join the Established Church of Scotland's Mission on Lake Nyassa. But it was t^o late, for in the same mail came a letter from the C. M. S. Secretary accepting him as their missionary to Uganda, with the understanding that he was to combine industrial work with religious teaching. And so he turned from the church of his fathers to the Es- tablished Church of England and its society, the greatest Protestant missionary organization of the world.

Preparation for Sailing. As Mackay was to sail in April, the succeeding weeks were filled to the brim with preparations. Captain Grant, Speke's companion in Equa- torial Africa, whose birthplace was scarcely fifty miles from Rhynie, gave invaluable advice, and grandly seconded by the C. M. S., this youngest member of the pioneer party of eight provided for his own and their needs. A boat for the Victo- ria Nyanza had to be secured with an engine of his own de- signing, the boiler of which was made of welded rings. He must learn more of practical astronomy and the use of the sextant ; printing offices and photographers must be visited for last lessons ; vaccination and the use of the stetho-

KARLY LIFE AND AFRICAN FIELD ^^

scope were yet to be learned, as also the details of iron- puddling and coal-mi«ing. During these weeks "there was no such word as holiday in his vocabulary ; his mission was to him a whole-souled passion and every hour was turned to practical account in picking up useful arts" Believ-- ing it not at all likely that eight Englishmen starting for* Africa would all be alive at the end of six months and that- "one of us — it may be I — will surely fall before that," but assured that "it is His cause — it must prosper, whether I be spared to see its consumation or not," he stepped aboard the steamship " Peshawur " on April, 27, 1876, and bade a last adieu to Enp-land.

En Route to Uganda. An uneventful voyage of seven thousand miles brought him on Alay 30th to Zanzibar, and soon thereafter on the main land his African career began. Alore than two years elapsed before he reached the shores of his inland sea, during which the kaleidoscope of his life exhibits him in all sorts of combinations. He is first ex- plorer of the rivers Wami and Kingani ; then caravan leader, slave exterminator, dying man, road maker, bridge builder, blacksmith, physician, ox driver, and preacher on Sunday when all tools were droned. Now he is wading chest deep in a swamp : again he is burrowing through the dense reed tunnels of hippo and rhinoceros trails, and a third time while waiting for a rope with which to lasso a stump, on the opposite side of a swift stream and so make a bridge,. we see him taking a copy of "Nature" out of his pocket in order to master " Haeckel's Theory of Pangenesis, or the- undulatory theory of molecules in organic life." In salt- and waterless deserts, in unhealthful mangrove forests, on«- salubrious highlands, he thirsts and feasts and starves, sleep-- ing nights, after he has written up his journal, in tents^ hen-houses, huts whose floors are mire, cow pens and ira the open air among zebras, giraffes, leopards, lions, ele- phants and more troublesome pests, such as gnats, mosqui- tos, scorpions, and ants of every variety. Decamping car- riers, avaricious leviers of tribute with whom one must sometimes haggle for days, insolent chiefs, who for the lux- ury of lighting a parlor match exact a fine of twenty-five cloths, frequent thefts, a vast family speaking a babel of

9S ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

tongues none of which Mackay fully understood but whose mouths must be daily filled, even in the wilderness, chiefs with whom he entered into brotherhood and children who loved him, — these were his companions and this the pioneer who opened up a road 230 miles in length toward Victoria Nyanza.

When on June 13, 187S, he could shout his Thalassa ! on the southern shores of the lake he was by no means home. His fellow missionaries, Lieut Smith and O'Neil, had been murdered on the island of Ukerewe and no one dared go with him to treat with their murderer. He ac- cordingly went alone and returned only after the African bond of blood brotherhood had been cemented. Then kos- mos must be made out of tl>e chaos found in Kaduma's huge hut where the valuable property of the expedition had been piled together in hopeless confusion, — a ten days' task. The Daisy must be patched and later remade, and gimbals turned, on which Mackay's pocket compass may move, be- fore he can set sail on a lake as large as Scotland. This sea of storms wrecked their little craft within a week. Two months passed before they could get away again, and it was not until November 6th tlaat he finally reached his appointed field.

Uganda.* Stanley, whose challenge to Christendom led to the formation of the mission, called this most influ- ential native kingdom, "The Pearl of Africa," a name which it deserves, as it also does that given it by the Arabs, "The Land of the Grave." Lying along the northwest shores of the greatest inland sea of the world next to Lake Superior, it covers with its dependencies a territory as large as Missouri, or as New England with an additional Connec- ticut. While it lies under the equator, its altitude, — 4000 feet and upward above the sea level, — and frequent rains

*The natives call their country Bu-Ganda, U-Ganda being its TiaiTie in Suahili, the language of "the coast region. Similarly they call themselves Ba-Ganda (singular Mu-Ganda), and their language Lu-Ganda, while in Suahili the people are known as Wa-Ganda and their speech as Ki-Ganda. As the early missionaries learned Sua- hili first and as it was understood at the capital, these terms are often used indiscriminately.

EAULV LIFE AND AFRICAN' FIELD 99

make the climate cool, the annual temperature ranjj^ing from 50° to 90° F., though it rarely rises above 80^ and seklom sinks below 60° at night.

The country is described n?, he\\v:[^\n some parts a plain, but mainly a succession of hills, between which lie im whole- some swamps through ^\•hose masses of reeds and papyrus slimy streams slowly straggle. Some of the hills have a tropical appearance, due to the lianana plantati(jns. iVlost of them, however, are covered by a tangle of elephant grass tifteen feet high, impenetrable save by mice and ele- phants. These jungles harbor enormous pythons and in- numberable wild beasts, of which the natives most fear the plantation-eating buffalo, and are vocal with the terrible plague of mosquitos. One standing on a hill top at sun- set forgets, however, every disagreeable feature and is over- powered by the glory and transcendent delicacy of color on cloud and hill and lake.

The soil \?> fertile and produces indigenously plantains, cotton, coffee and tobacco. It is also friendly to sweet po- tatoes, beans, tomatoes, rice and Indian corn. The last, which has been the principal cereal, yields from three hun- dred to five hundred fold-tJ^ The best time for sowing is at the period of the equinoctial rains, yet as it showers nearly every night, one can sow and reap on any day of the year. Below the surface lie iron in abundance and inexhaustible deposits of china clay. When the soil is turned up its de- caying vegetation causes malaria, which disease is ever pre- sent, though not so deadly as the scourge of smallpox and the plague.

Early Visitors to Uganda. Speke and Grant were the first Europeans to reach this land. The former resided at the capital from February to July in 1863 and suggested it as a possible field for missionary effort. An officer of Col Gordon's again reached Uganda in 1S74, but it was H. M. Stanley's visit in 1S75 that was most memorable. King Mtesa received him hospitably, while Stanley, filled with the spirit caught from Livingstone, set before the King the claims of Christianity, and had written for him in Arabic the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule and "Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself."

lOO ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

Mtesa showed his interest by observing the Christian as well as the Mohammedan Sabbath and urged the explorer to secure Christian teachers for his people.

In response to this monarch's request, we see standing before him in November, 1S78, a Scotchman in his thirtieth year, whom Stanley, eleven years later, described as a " gen- tleman of small stature with a rich brown beard and brown hair, dressed in white linen and a gray Tyrolese hat," "with calm blue eyes that never winked," — "the best mis- sionary since Livingstone."

SUGGESTED READINGS.

Colville : The Land of the Nile Springs, (1895), Ch. iv.

Creegan and Goodnoiv : Great Missionaries of the Church, (1895), Ch. XVII.

Drummond : .Tropical Africa, (1888), Ch. in.

Encyclopaedia of Missions, (1891 ), Articles Africa, Church Mission- ary Society, and Alexander M. Mackay.

General Encyclopaedias, Article Uganda.

Harrison: Story of the Life of Mackay of Uganda, (1891 ), Chs. i-iv. ^

Larned: History for Ready Reference, (1S95), Vol. V., Article Uganda.

Portal and Rodd: The British Mission to Uganda in 1893, (1894), Pt. I., Ch. VIII.

Stanley: Through the Dark Continent, (187S), Vol.1., Chs. ix.,

XII., XVI.

Harrison: Mackay of Uganda, (1890). Boyhood, Ch. i. ; Life in Edinburgh and Berlin, Ch. 11, ; On the Road, Ch. in. ; Arrives in Uganda, Ch. iv.

VIII

mackay's parishioners and his work

He was one of those few who look fearlessly forth and seem to see the face of the living God. He never despaired of any person or any thing. Qiiiet he was, and strong and patient, and resolute, and brave ; one on whom jou might depend. He endured fourteen years of Africa, . . . fourteen years of contradiction of men, black and white, fourteen years of dangers, fevers, sorrows, disappoint- ment— and in all and through all he was steadfast, unmovable ; a true missionary, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

— Rev R. P. Ashe, "Two Kings of Uganda."

The Baganda. Looking out from the temporary prem- ises which had been occupied by Mr Wilson, Mackay's fellow-laborer and his predecessor by sixteen months at the capital, one could seet^dn the hill-side well tilled gar- dens surrounded by tall tiger-grass fences and containing the beehive-shaped grass or straw huts of the Baganda. These houses are described as having doors facing the ascent, with clay ridges to prevent the flood of water from running into them. Their roofs are double, so that there is a good circulation of air. "The sleeping place is curtained off with bark cloth, and bedsteads are used, consisting of a framework of branches, which rests on stakes driven into the ground, and which is covered with fine grass and a mat. A large piece of bark cloth forms the coverlet. A square is marked off by four logs in the middle of the house for a fireplace, and the cooking-pot rests on three stones." Here ai'e prepared the two meals of each day, consisting of ba- nanas or plantains, beef, goat's flesh or fish, liberally suple- mented by the national drink, banana cider. After the hands have been washed with a banana stem sponge, these meals are eaten in a little porch, around a space covered with green leaves.

102 ALEXANDER JMACKAV, UGANDA S ENGINEER

A glance at the Baganda themselves shows us a peo- ple belonging to the Bantu race, though differing widely from other negroes in their habits. They are possessed of some line qualities, and exhibit considerable skill as work- ers in iron, brass and copper, in dressing skins and in bas- ket making. The field work is left for the women, who often dress with great neatness. Their long robes are fab- ricated of fig-tree bark or of calico, and ornaments of va- rious sort are \vorn about the neck, wrists and waist. Soap, made from plantain peelings, is used by the higher classes and their robes are sometimes of snowy whiteness. The women are the barbers, and they, as also the men and chil- dren, are shaved entirely about once a month. The higher classes are idle, a trait characteristic to some degree of all.

Socially these people are divided into clans, distinguished by clan animals, which are practical!}^ their totems. Woman occupies a subordinate position and polygamy prevails. The peasants are little better than slaves, being attached to some master, whom, however, they have a right to choose. Slaves are possessed by all classes, even the peasaitts. Their condition can be guessed from the preference of the women of a vanquished tribe v^ho all preferred death to slavery. Different communities prey upon each other, soldiers following their chiefs to battle much as in feudal times. Even in neighborhoods where all are supposed to be friends the weak could be openly robbed, with no redress. Laxvs were Draconian, and even the cutting off of hands, feet, ears, nose, or lips was considered a minor punish- ment. Gross offences against society were avenged by hacking to pieces with sharp strips of reed, or cutting off the limbs, after which the luckless victim was slowly roasted.

Their religion included a belief in Katonga, a supreme Creator, but as he was said to have delegated his authority to spirits, hibares^\X\ey were most highly regarded, especially Mukasa, the Lubare of the lake. Spirits of the earthquake, of thunder, and of various other natural phenomena, as well as of certain persons, were feared, though no worship beyond the erection of roadside shrines and the suspension of charms and amulets on doors or on the person seemed to be given them.

PARISHIONERS AND WORK IO3

Uganda's Roya! Family. A legendary Kintu was the reputed founder of the monarchy, though Captain Speke be- lieves the government to have been established only nine generations ago. The royal family are of Bahuma extrac- tion. Mtesa^ the first king known to the Europeans, and who received Mackay, was a capricious and sometimesblood- thirsty ruler, deserving his name, vv^hich Reclus translates as "he who makes all tremble." The same authority says that he had seven thousand v.ives ; but of these, as of every king's harem, only two possessed regal power. These were the Namasole or Qiieen mother, and the Lubuga or Qiieen- sister, one of the princesses. The king appointed his own chiefs and council and was more or less despotic, as was his prime minister and judge, the Katikiro. On the whole, Mtesa showed himself a man of considerable sympathy and enlightenment, and helped, rather than hindered, the mis- sionaries in their work.

His son, jShvanga^ the present ruler, succeeded his father in 1SS4, being then eighteen. He was vain, weak and vic- ious. Subject to fits of almost demoniacal madness, the missionaries were often in danger of their life, while bloody persecutions were once ar^again visited on their converts. Alackay was the person who was most necessary to him, though in July, 1887, even he was driven away to the south of the Lake. Though temporarily dethroned at the time of the revolution, he, more than his father, has been a vital factor in the spread of Christianity in Equatorial Africa.

Summary of flackay's Work in Central Africa. In l8y8 Mackay begins missionary buildings. Knowing Sua- hili, he prints Scripture portions in that tongue. He also reads and explains them to the people, aided by Mtesa and the Katikiro. . . . iS'/g witnesses arrival of French Catholic priests, w^ho denounce the missionaries as liars. Embassy sent by Mtesa to England. From June to Novem- ber great peace," jSItesa ordering chiefs, pages and soldiers to learn the alphabet, and Mackay being on visiting terms with all the chiefs in the capital. In December, Mukasa, representing the Spirit of the Lake, influences Mtesa to re- turn to heathenism. Mackay is so active in his opposition to witchcraft that he is called Anti-Mukasa. . . . 1880

I04 ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

is a year of great trial. Arabs circulate report that Mac- kay is an insane murderer. Though missionaries are in great clanger, they teach lads who come to them. . j88i. New era begins in March, when embassay returned from England. Poitions of New Testament, hymns and texts are tentatively translated. . . . 1882. First five converts of the mission are baptized and the French priests depart. . . . l88j. Mackay had now printed the Lord's Prayer, Creed, Decalogue, a Text-book of Theology and Selected Texts bearing on duties of subjects and sovereign, as also spelling sheets in Luganda. Two of Mtesa's daugh- ters learners and one is baptized. Twenty-one Christians meet around communion table. Mackay builds the "Elea- nor," at south end of lake, doing the work himself.

. 1884. Mtesa dies and trouble arises with Mwanga's accession. At close of the year eighty-eight had been bap- tized in all, and two of Mtesa's daughters and one grand- daughter were in the church. The Lubuga, or Queen-sister, a baptized Christian. . . . 188^. Beginning of j^erse-, cution, three boy converts being roasted to death. New English missionaries not arriving, Mwanga invites back the French priests. Bishop Hannin-gton murdered in October. Mackay's life, often in danger, is spared on account of his mechanical skill. In November first sheet of Matthew in Luganda printed. . . . j886. The year of "The Great Tribulation." the church in exile. In spring bitter perse- cution breaks out and fifty or sixty Romanist and Protest- ant converts, who die of fire or the sword, display a forti- tude unsurpassed in Apostolic times. Midnight interviews continue, and twenty baptisms take place within a month of the martyrdom. Dr Junker, a Russian traveler, is aided by Mackay to escape from Mwanga. . . . i88y. Mac- kay alone in Uganda. In March entire Luganda Matthew corrected in manuscript. Expelled to south of lake and never returns. Gordon takes his place at the capital.

. J 888. Year of revolutions, the first ^one due to Mwanga's attempt to destroy Christian ofiicers. Mwanga exiled and Kiwewa king, with Romanist and Protestant as two chief officers. Temporary religious freedom and pros- perity broken by second rebellion — Mohammedan . Mission-

PARISHIONERS AND WORK IO5

aries again expelled Uganda. Mackay offers exiled Mwanga protection. . . . i88g. Romanists advise Mvvanga's forcible restoration. Protestants, advised by Mackay not to use force, join Romanists before his reply is received. A third revolution meanwhile ends in Kiwewa's death and Kal- ema's enthronement. Mwanga, at first unsuccessful, as a penitent suppliant, beseeches Mackay to reinstate him. Christian army vanquishes Kalema and Mwanga is restored as king, with Protestant Kagwa Apollo as prime minister. The king appeals to British East African Company. Mac- kay revises his Luganda St John, prints, constructs wagon for hauling boat timber, and finally finishes its steam engine and pumps. In August Stanley with Emin and Soo peo- ple visits him, . . . i8go. Mwanga makes treaty with Germans leading to division among Christians. Mission- aries advise submission and church prospers until torn with grief by news of Mackay's death which occurred in Feb- ruary. A detailed account of these years is full of interest, but only leading features of the master workman's charac- ter and labors can be touched upon.

Some Personal Characteristics. Social qualities^ so necessary to a pioneer, ^u^e quite prominent in Mackay. From the children who instinctively gathered about him, to Lkonge, Smith and O'Neill's murderer, and the two im- perious kings of Uganda, there was not one, unless it were the Arabs, who did not yield before his winning friendli- ness. Mackay's bravery was equally marked, and few men have been called upon to so frequently exhibit it. His resolution was such that the king involuntarily exclaimed at a signal exhibition of it, "Mackay, you are a jnanl" Marvellous ferseverance was his and with Carey he could explain much of his success by, "I can plod." Trained during the first two years in the school of patience^ he exhibited it when his colleagues utterly lost theirs. Dili- gence is absolutely necessary where one lives in an at- mosphere of interruptions, and here Mackay is a model for the moment miser. Foresight, to which he attributed much of his countrymen's success in engineering, characterized his entire missionary life.

African experiences did not destroy his ititellectuality.

Io6 ALEX^\NDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

"Books! Mackay has thousands of books; in the dining- room, bedroom, the church, everywhere. Books ! ah, loads upon loads of them ! " is the ejaculation of a Zanzibar head- man, quoted by Stanley. These volumes covered the field of African discovery, the latest scientific utterances, the strongest secular periodicals, the best devotional and theo- logical writings, and current religious and missionary mag- zines, among which he especially values "The Missionary Review of the World," — all these enlivened by produc- tions as widely different as "Helen's Babies," and the plays of vShakespere. Africa by its many problems marvellously broadened a mind already admirably trained.

The hidden life of IMackay was deep and vital. The Sible was the man of his daily counsel, and he speaks of Alford's New Testament as falling to pieces in his hands. An old African letter of his reads : "I feel every day that it is only by prayerful reading of much of God's own Wo^rd that I can in an}^ way succeed in living as a Christian. It is just as hard here as in Berlin, or anywhere else, to keep in the right path." Like every missionary, he learned on the field, as never at home, the power of prayer. Alone often, and amid dangers th;it made the bravest quail, he was not alone, for he communed with the Almighty in the secret place, and like William of Orange, was "calm in the midst of storms." His prayer life, linked on to the study and teaching of the Word, begot in him a Paton-like trust in God.

A life so dowered, and so reenforced by divine grace, could only be a co?isecrated one. Work he must while it was day ; work always and with every one, though most profitably perhaps with evening Nicodemuses, despised Samaritan women and youthful Davids of the court. So consecrated was he to Africa that only a month before his death, when it was proposed that he return to England, he replied, "But what is this you write — 'Come home?' Surely now, in our terrible dearth of workers, it is not the time for any one to desert his post."

Mackay's Program. The eightfold aim underlying his labors seems to have been : to disarm the prejudice felt by most newly visited tribes, especially in a land where

PARISHIONERS AND WORK IO7

Arab slavers have terrorized the people ; to win their abid- ing friendship, and, so far as possible, enter into blood- brotherhood with influential chiefs ; to destroy the depend- ent, beggarly spirit entertained toward the missionary ; to render noble and manifestly useful manual labor, so de- spised by influential Africans ; to enter perpetual protest against cruel and unjust laws ; to do everything possible to drive out Africa's triad of evils, rum, slavery and war; to educate in everything the nation; above all and in all, to win by his teachings and life, souls for Uganda and for God.

Tne Mechanical Missionary. As an industrial mis- sionary I\Iackay felt that he could do his work best. It is true that his letters repeatedly speak of the irksomeness of such a ministry, and he even went so far as to attempt to remove a disability existing in the case of laymen, by study- ing for orders in the Church of England. Yet sober re- tlection induced him to continue in his less exalted sphere labors which were so signally blest. His grimy hands, whirling luthe and grindstone, marvellous machine which charmed paper so that it talked, the unending application of rotary motion, so largely unknown to the Baganda, were object lessons which oftcjijuelicited clapping of hands and the chorus Makay litbarel Makay lubare dalail — Mac- kay is the great spirit, he is truly the great spirit !

The usefulness of his service commended him to king and subject alike. Repaired guns, healed bodies, — for Mac- kay was perforce a lay physician, — the wonderful cart upon which he could with one hand move a tree that 200 men had wasted their strength upon, the well on a side-hill spit- ting out through a battered pump pure water, bridges and roads, monster flagstaff for the king, the two royal coflhis, especialy the Xamasole's, as large as a cottage and requiring many workmen and a month of Mackay's best strength, — these and a host of other miracles wrought by the canny Highlander, made him indispensable. He was not only alwavs busy, but he so often spoke to the people of the no- bility of work, its utility and necessity, that they called him Mzungu-zva Kazi^ w4iite man of work. "His readiness of resource in emergency (for which his training as an en- gineer had peculiarly fitted him)," was most useful to the

lo8 ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA'S ENGINEER

Mission also ; for because of it starvation was repeatedly held at bay, and in times of hostility, even life was spared. His labors as an industrial missionary justified — at least for uncivilized lands — his thesis: " Mechanical work is prob- ably as legitimate an aid to missions as medical ; nor do I see why one should not be as helpful to missionary work as the other, except for the difficulty of getting out of the rut our ideas run in." Lovedale in South Africa conspicuously emphasizes Mackay's view.

Among the People. Their presence in Mackay's house or shop, by night and by day, left little time for visits among them ; but when such opportunities offered he gladly embraced them. Eating with them in their tiny porches, journeying with friend and foe, gave him glimpses into their speech and life and thought, which were denied him when his foreign environment made thein the questioners and learners. If his companions were Christians, he was in a third heaven of bliss. Their upbuilding and his joy in the converts reminds one of Paul's experiences. Nor could he hold his peace when heathenism was rampant, as ■when the fleet of fourteen canoes in which he sailed robbed three Buzongora canoes. His pi'otest and threat to spear the captain of the fleet unless the property was restored, caused robbers and robbed to be stronger friends than be- fore. This was the same fleet whose belief in potent charms was shattered by the missionary who bought one, discoursed on its Aveakness and on God's power and then proved his words by burning it in a fire lighted by a small pocket lens, — a good illustration of his method of teaching and preaching.

At Court. Naturally such a man was frequently called to stand before kings ; though much to his relief, his col- leagues, especially the witty O'Flaherty, relieved him of much of this labor. Of course he was a priest of civili- zatio7i there. At one time bringing in and explaining a glazier's diamond and an ox yoke, Mtesa says, "There must remain nothing more for white men to know — they know everything." At another, Mackay writes out a list of san- itary regulations intended to prevent and stay the terri- ble ravages of the plague, and Uganda suddenly begins to clean house. In general he embraces every proper oppor-

PARISHIONERS AND WORK IO9

tunity to amplify a text which greatly impressed the king, "My forefathers made the wind their slave ; then they put WATER in the chain ; next they enslaved steam ; but now the terrible lightning is the white man's slave, and a a capital one it is too !"

But destructive work needed to be done before the king- dom was free to enter upon the higher civilization. Super- stitions^ especially those connected with the Neptune of the lake, the great Mukasa, bound king and peasant with steel fetters. Mackay boldly takes his stand on the Scriptures, and as a "Servant of Almighty God," begs the king to have nothing to do with the lubare. In Socratic style he makes all admit that if he is a god, there are two gods in Uganda, the Almighty and Mukasa; if he is a man, — the one in question was a woman, he afterwards learned, — there are two kings in the land, Mtesa, whom all honor, and Mukasa, who pretends to be supreme, and who practically incites to rebellion. Though the witch had her way with the king, the people could say nothing in answer to such logic.

Hardly less obstructive to Africa's civilization is slavery and the Scotchman goes boldly before the greatest slave hunter of his day where, ^ith Huxley's plates to illustrate the circulation of the blood, "he dwelt on the perfection of the human body, which no man can make, nor all the men in the world ; and yet the Arabs wished to buy a human being with an immortal soul, for a bit of soap ! " The interested king, can only add as a corollary to this demonstration, "From henceforth no slave shall be sold out of the country."

As a preacher of righteousness Mackay is a second Paul before Agrippa. Diplomatic, fearless of death, con- stantly appealing to " the Book," he illustrates and en- forces the truth of God, whether it bears on subjects perse- cuted for righteousness' sake, religious liberty for all faiths, or kings' vices and their need of a Saviour. Adversaries were at court, especially the Arabs, who regarded the mis- sionary as their worst foe because opposed to slavery. Mac- kay is again a Paul answering Islam's Tertullus, and right- eousness and truth are vindicated. Alas that such preach- ing found in Mtesa and Mwanga an Agrippa and a Felix !

no ALEXANDER MACKAY, UGANDA S ENGINEER

The Wider Court. Mackay's voice was heard in Chris- tian Europe. Africa's open sores and her "heart disease," needed foreign physicians. Chapters xii., xiv.-xvi. of " Mackay of Uganda," are wise utterances of a missionary statesman, and they were heeded. Ah'eady the measures pleaded for have been partially adopted, namely, limitation in sales of arms, ammunition and rum, increased vigilance along the coast, a cordon of police in the interior, and im- proA'ed communications with Central Africa. The railroad to the Lake, 657 miles long, has already reached Dunan- tabe, and cheapened transportation — which formerly cost $1400 a ton and countless lives — will soon change Uganda.

Mackay has been charged with interfering 'with Afri- cati politics^ but this interference was in the interests of outraged humanity and international justice. Tempting offers to become an officer under General Gordon and the Imperial East African Company were not accepted, because he ^vas not so much a British citizen as an embassador of the Prince of Peace appointed to Central Africa to estab- lish there the Kingdom of Heaven. To this cause he sum- mons Christendom's best blood in his last message.

flackay's Passing. A real^ king of Uganda, Carlyle's canny man, had done his work. The excalibar, wrought by his mechanical genius, was to disappear from the mighty Lake. Chiefs and commoners — become members of his Table Round, the Church Council — had caught his spirit. On February Sth, 1890, the summons came to the exile at Usambiro. Fever, Africa's executioner, silenced the crafts- man and the expositor of John's Gospel, and after four days of delirium, in which solicitude for converts, plans for future work, and longings for fresh laborers found ex- pression, the soul of St Paul of Uganda, flitted upward to the dear home land.

"All hail the power of Jesus' name" was sung by Ba- ganda boys over his open grave, and then they went back to establish the 200 churches of to-day, to build a cathedral ac- commodating 7000, and to invite the multitudes who are now pressing into the Kingdom. Hannington wrote from the northeast of the lake : "Mackay's name seems quite a household word ; I constantly hear it, but of the others I

PARISHIONERS AND WORK I I I

scarce ever hear a word." Similarly, Jephson, one of Stan- ley's officers, writing of the southwestern lake region, says : "For many days before we reached his Mission, we heard from the natives of jNIackay, nothing but Mackay — they seemed to care for and know no one else. Such a man cannot die in Africa ; and in Britain, when in May of 1S95, the first detachment of ladies to enter Uganda and five new men were sent to reap in the fields where jVfackay had sown, his old letters were the clarion note which sounded the charge. "He being dead yet speaketh."

SUGGESTED READINGS.

A$hc : Chronicles of Uganda, (1894), Pp. 55-143.

Two Kings of Uganda, (1SS9), Ch. xxiii.

Church Misssionarv Gleaner, May, 1S96.

Church Missionary Intelligencer, April and May, 1S96.

Drummojid: Tropical Africa, (1S8S), Ch. iv.

Encyclopedia of Missions, (1S91 ), Articles Church Missionary So- ciety and Alexander M. Mackay.

Harrison : Story of the Life of Mackaj of Uganda, (1891), Chs. vi-xxi, t,

Lar)icd: History for Ready Reference, (IS95),^^ol. V., Article Uganda.

Latimer: Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century, (1S95), Ch. yii.

Lugard: Rise of Our East African Empire, (1S93 ), Vol I., Chs.

VII., VIII.

Peters: New light on Dark Africa, (1890), Pp. 379, ff. Reclus: Uniyersal Geography, Vol. X., Pp. 88, ff. Stanley: In Darkest Africa, (1890), Vol, II., Pp, 423-431. White: The Deyelopment of Africa, (1890), Chs. v., vi., ix. Wilson and Felkin : Uganda, (1883), Vol. I., v., vii., viii. Harrison: Mackay of Uganda, (1890), Description of the People,

v., VII. ; Tide ebbs and flows, Chs. viii. ; Tribulation, Chs.

ix-xi. ; African Problems, Chs. xii., xiv-xvi. ; Last Things,

Chs. xiii., XVII.

Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries

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