II. Some of the things to which this association would give its attention: (1.) A thorough study of the missionary spread of Christianity to discover what have at different times. been its elements that have appealed most to the nations it has been seeking to win; what have been the pitfalls into which it has fallen; and what lessons it has to give for the work in China. Such study would naturally cover the following: (a) Conquest of the Roman Empire, as Harnach has made in his "Expansion of Christianity." (b) Conquest of Europe, leading up to a statement of the dominant note of present-day Christianity in the West. (c) A sympathetic but yet critical study of the spread of Christianity in mission lands where it has met with the largest success, e.g., Uganda, Korea, South Sea Islands; or its most signal failures, e. g., anciently in Northern Africa; or its greatest difficulties, e.g., in contact with Mohammedanism. (d) A similar study of the present status of Christianity in India and Japan. (e) A study of the immediate, and also of the more permanent, results of mass movements towards Christianity and of the causes which led up to them. (f) An equally sympathetic and critical study of the spread and results of Roman Catholic missions and of the methods used in the lands to which they have gone. (2.) This study of the spread of Christianity in other lands and under other conditions should lead up and help to a solution of the problem or what, exactly, is meant by the Christianization of China; to help to clarify ideas as to just what should be emphasized as important to this result; and to unite all, as far as may be possible, in emphasizing essentials, an emphasis in danger of oversight through either ignorance or carelessness at present. (3.) A thorough study of the missionary spread of the great missionary non-Christian religions-Buddhism, Mohammedanism, etc.—and of religious conditions in China, both past and present. This would naturally cover the spread of Buddhism in China and Japan, of Mohammedanism in India and China, of Confucianism and Taoism in China, and of Confucianism in Japan. It also incidentally would elicit information of the present status of Mohammedanism in China and of Jewish communities that are said to exist here, of either of which the average missionary knows but little. (4.) Create and make accessible to all a Christian apologetic suited to China's needs to-day, one that will take note of the need for an intellectual conquest of China. The missionary should have ready to hand the best answers to agnosticism aud materialism that Christian scientists have to offer. (5.) If there is to be an “Oriental type" of Christianity, as many believe there will be, that is not an exact reproduction of the Christianity of the West in its emphasis, its ritual, and its government, the association would be in a position to watch the course of events and help in maintaining essentials. (6.) The association should, from the entire mass of tracts and other Christian literature, select such works as are of widest usefulness and stamp them, just as the Educational Association does for educational works, with its imprimatur. It should also make a careful study of the needs along literary lines and arrange for the production of such books as are needed by the men best qualified for the work. This would do away with the present chaotic state of Christian literature in Chinese and save much needless waste of both money and time. (7.) There are many special problems that have never been attempted effectively, and that would come within the province of this association. The following are instances: (a) City evangelization. Beyond street-chapels little or nothing has been done, and many feel that the usefulness of these is not very great. (b) The institutional church. Is it needed? Has it been really tried? Would it facilitate a most difficult work? (c) Can a closer union be made between the churches and the Y. M. C. A. than has been done in the West? (d) Ways and means of holding graduates of our schools who have either become Christians in school or have at least been made favorable to Christianity. (e) The same for patients in the hospitals and dispensaries. (f) The carrying on of evangelistic campaigns under the auspices of the association. (g) The problem of efficient country evangelization. An outline such as this cannot be complete in the suggestions it offers, but it would seem to show that there is important work to be done that will never be done at all unless through some such organization as the one proposed. It only remains to be said that membership must not be restricted to those in directly evangelistic work, but open to all who are engaged in the Christianization of the Chinese, whether in China or abroad. In Memoriam: Rev. D. W. Chandler BY REV. F. OHLINGER N December 21st, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rev. D. W. Chandler, formerly connected with our Foochow (China) mission, passed on to the higher service and equipment. It is doubtful whether our Board of Foreign Missions ever sent out a man more signally qualified for a difficult work than was. our departed brother for the work in China as he found it. By the time Brother Chandler had, by dint of faithful touring in the work, acquired a preaching knowledge of the language, the Chinese church had reached a critical point in its development. The principle of self-support had been quite generally adopted by both the ministry and laity as in itself correct, and the only question on which differences of opinion arose was the question how far self-support might then be required of the Chinese church. The Foochow conference was organized in 1877. Higher education received special attention, and in due time the Anglo-Chinese College, and the Women's Training School, were added to the agencies for carrying on the growing work. In all these Brother Chandler took a deep interest and rendered efficient service. His enthusiasm and fidelity were contagious. It was understood that intimate friendship with him meant chiefly better work and greater self-denial. In 1880 we elected him to preside at the session of the conference. When failing health finally made his return to America necessary, profound regret was expressed. It was a rare privilege to be present when the Rev. Huong Pau-seng, our Foochow delegate to General Conference, visited Brother Chandler last summer. Although these two brethren had not seen each other for a quarter of a century, they conversed almost as freely as if they had worked side by side all these years. In a letter to the writer, Brother Huong alludes to his visit at the bedside of Ceng Seng-sang (teacher Ceng) as one of the special delights of his trip around the world. While no one could wish that his sufferings had been prolonged even for a day, yet many will be the tears shed in distant China when his death is announced and all hope of seeing his face once more in this world is cut off. Amid a lingering illness, extending over fifteen years, he was wonderfully sustained by divine grace. On Thanksgiving day the writer saw him once more, and as usual enjoyed a brief season of spiritual converse and prayer. He fully realized that the end was near and rejoiced in the prospect of final release. His faithful wife and four sons were at his bedside when he fell asleep. To the last moment his mental faculties continued their intense activity. The funeral services were attended by President Angell, of the University of Michigan, and by other prominent citizens. His pastor, Dr. Stalker, spoke in a most fitting manner on "The Tools Our Brother Worked With ;" the writer spoke of him as "The Conscientious Missionary, the Lover of Nature, and the Tireless Student." A goodly number enjoy a larger thought-world to-day because they came in contact with the mind of D. W. Chandler. Ο In Memoriam: Mrs. C. Hartwell. N December 7 occurred the death of Mother Hartwell, the widow of the late Rev. Charles Hartwell, of the American Board Mission in Foochow. On the following day the funeral was held with impressive services in the city and on the south side where interment was made. The occasion of her death was a fall resulting in a broken hip and weeks of suffering, from which she was too feeble to rally. Her maiden name was Hannah Louisa Plimpton. She was born on a farm in Sturbridge, Mass., U. S. A., June 30, 1823. She entered Mount Holyoke Seminary in 1845 and graduated in 1848. Her class was the last to graduate under Mary Lyon. She was teaching for the next ten years, first in West Haven, Conn., then in southern Illinois at a place now called Duquoin, in Perry county. In 1858 she became the wife of Rev. Lyman B. Peet, who was the second missionary to enter Foochow to work under the American Board in 1847. In 1871 she returned to America with her husband and their four children, and they made their home in West Haven. Mr. Peet passed to his heavenly reward in 1878. The youngest daughter having died in 1874, the mother had the three remaining children to plan for when the cost for their education was at its highest. Her eldest child graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1883, and in 1884, with this daughter and her husband, Rev. Geo. H. Hubbard, she returned to Foochow for missionary work. In 1885 she became the wife of the Rev. Charles Hartwell, who died in 1905. It is remarkable that she lived with her first and second husbands the same length of time-nineteen years. After 1884 she had but one furlough in the U. S., and that was taken in 1890-1. In 1900, the time of the Boxer trouble, she spent a few months in Japan. With these exceptions the last twenty-four years of her life were spent in China. From the first to last, fifty years of her life, one may say, were spent for China; for the long furlough at home was spent in preparing a son and daughter for work here. Counting twenty years of work for her son, Rev. Lyman P. Peet, in Foochow College, and twenty-four years for her daughter as missionary for China, added to her own fifty years, gives a total of ninety-four years. The second son, Dr. Edward W. Peet, as a physician in New York, has done a great deal of missionary work with the Chinese of that city for the past eighteen years; so one might well say her gift to China is a hundred years of missionary work. She started a woman's school at Ponasang in 1885 in a little school house originally built by Mr. Peet for a day-school. Even at the age of more than three score and ten it was her pleasure to teach in Foochow College three-and-one-half hours a day, and the students she taught then will ever hold her in loving remembrance and rise up with her children and many friends to call her blessed. Among her farewell messages is this one to the students of Foochow College : May all the school boys have a message in their own hearts and deliver it to all they come in contact with. I hope they will be a blessing to their country, their schoolmaster, and each other. Another message in keeping with her life was, "Give my love to everybody." Her very last words were spoken Sunday morning at the time for going to church: "Goodbye everybody, goodbye all." Her health had been remarkably good, and when she rose Friday morning, November 13, it was with the purpose to prepare to return to Pagoda Anchorage in the afternoon. Her fall and broken hip made it impossible, but many times during the days that followed she thought she must be going, must dress and fold her clothing; and when a piece of bed clothing had been folded by her active hands she would say: "Take it away," or "I want to go," a suggestion for the following lines: "Take it away," this earthly, time-worn tent, So long a joy, but now 'tis sorely rent; 'Tis many days that I have been alive To count the years to full four score and five; I fain would fold it up and fully count My day's work done, and now would gladly mount The river death, that separates from God. Its waters cold I fear not now to pass, I enter gates of pearl and into light G. H. H. |