CHAPTER XXI.

MISSIONARY LIFE IN CHINA.

A Sea-voyage a good Preparation for Missionary Life.-First Impressions on Shore.-Novelty succeeded by Monotony.-Longing for Home.— Missionary Houses, Mode. of Living, Salaries, Servants, etc.-Importance of Female Laborers.-Married and Unmarried Missionaries.-The Study of the Language with a Native Teacher.-A Missionary may be Useful from the very first.--House-keeping, and a Missionary's Home as an important Centre of Influence.-Chapels and Chapel-preaching. — Itinerations in the Interior. The great Difficulty of communicating Christian Truth in a Heathen Language.-Distribution of Tracts, and the Manner in which they are received.--The natural Effect of a correct Apprehension of the true Character of the Gospel.

A SEA-VOYAGE is in many respects a good preparation for the life-work of a missionary. Separated both from his father-land and the one to which he is looking forward for a home, a wanderer on the wide waste of waters, it is a time for solemn thought, to examine one's motives, to estimate aright the character and value of life and its pursuits, and to gather strength and courage for future duty. Cut off from all intercourse with the busy world at large, he finds himself in a little world having a character peculiar to itself, where he is brought into the closest contact with his fellows, studies human nature in new aspects, and finds abundant occasion for the exercise and cultivation of patience, forbearance, sympathy, and self-control. Here the strongest attachments are formed, and the most decided antagonisms developed, not only between ship-masters and passengers, but between the passengers themselves. The voyage is looked back to by some as the most delightful episode of their lives, and by others as a most vexatious and unendurable imprisonment.

A MISSIONARY'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

315

These experiences refer to the long voyages in sailing-ships, where passengers are necessarily brought into the closest relations with each other. In the shorter voyages of ocean steamers, which carry a large number of travellers, and have extensive accommodations, passengers can choose their own associates according to their natural affinities.

The monotony and privations of life on ship-board are to many persons almost compensated by the pleasure of going ashore in a foreign land. After being tossed for months on the restless ocean, it is a delight to tread terra firma anywhere, especially in places where every object is novel, or strange, or picturesque. To a missionary, the first introduction to the land of his choice has new elements of delight. He does not come on shore simply to enjoy the novelty of the scene, to satisfy his curiosity, or gather interesting or useful information. This is to be his future home. Hither his affections have flown, and clung by anticipation. The new race of men which he looks upon for the first time with a peculiar and absorbing interest, he has already learned to love. He has come to labor with and for them, and for Christ.

If his destination is a mission-station already established, he has the additional pleasure of being met and welcomed by his colaborers; and the happiness of this meeting is heightened by its being so thoroughly reciprocal. The arrival of new recruits is hailed by missionaries on the ground as an evidence of remembrance and sympathy at home, and as a direct answer to the oft-repeated prayer that God would send forth laborers into his harvest. The glow of health mantling their cheeks, and the fire of zeal beaming in their eyes, add new strength and hope to those who have been bearing the burden. and heat of the day. The new-comers are perhaps entire strangers, and bring no news of individual homes and firesides; but they can speak of a common country, of revered instructors and halls of study, of the loved church of their choice, and of the work to which they have given their lives in obedience to the call of the Master.

But the novelty of the missionary's position soon passes away, and he settles down to the monotony, toil, and trials of every-day duties. He feels the want of home society and recreations, and the stimulus and excitement of coming into daily contact with the active busy world. He may discover that his associates are without those elements of congeniality which form the basis of warm and confiding intimacies and attachments. The language is perhaps found very difficult, and intercourse with the natives vexatious and annoying. Under these circumstances, nothing but a strong motive can keep the mind fixed to its purpose. Merchants may be willing to expatriate themselves for a few years, from the powerful motive of acquiring wealth; solacing themselves for a time by the excitement of their active employments, the society of those similarly situated with themselves, and the hope of soon returning to their native land to enjoy a life of ease and affluence. The only motives which can make a missionary contented and useful are earnest love for his work, and sympathy with those for whom he labors. Individuals may, and I believe some do, leave home to engage in this work without a just conception of its true character, and without counting the cost-influenced in part, though unconsciously, by a love of adventure, or romantic interest, or temporary enthusiasm. Such persons are apt very soon to become disappointed and disheartened, and to work simply from a sense of duty. Some have found that they had made a mistake before even the outward voyage was over. Whenever it comes to this, that a man performs his work as a drudgery, regards his having become a missionary with regret, labors with a kind of halfheartedness, makes very little progress in gaining a knowledge of the language or influence with the people, and pines for home, the sooner he goes home the better: the more pity he ever came away.

I am glad to say that, as far as my experience and observation go, such cases have been very few in China. Missionaries generally acquire a growing delight in the work, even in

MISSIONARIES' MODE OF LIVING.

317

the most difficult, discouraging, and unhealthy fields; and are rather prone to stay too long, to the detriment of their health and permanent usefulness, requiring to be urged, and sometimes almost forced away by their brethren.

Missionaries generally live at first in native houses, altered and fitted up in some degree in accordance with our ideas of comfort and convenience-putting in a few glass windows in place of the paper ones, and substituting boards for the flooring of a few rooms in the place of cement or brick. As soon as practicable, permanent houses are built somewhat after our own style of architecture.

Our mode of living is similar to that at home. China furnishes nearly every article of food which we find in our own country. The native mode of preparing and cooking it is, however, very different from ours, and, in many respects, not suited to our tastes and habits. Most missionary families have an American cooking-stove, and servants are taught to prepare food according to our way, so that our tables and meals correspond very nearly to what we have been accustomed to at home.

A great deal is said in some quarters about the luxurious manner in which missionaries live in the East, occupying "palatial dwellings, employing a large number of servants, and riding on the shoulders of the men to whom they are sent to preach the Gospel."

Such remarks are so common that a reference to them needs no apology.

In China our usual allowance for buildings is from twelve hundred to two thousand dollars for a house. This will furnish us with a plain dwelling, inferior in style and accommodations to most country parsonages at home.

As for servants, there is no caste, as in India, almost necessitating the employment of from six to ten different persons in a family, but we generally think it desirable to employ about three, though some have but two, and some have managed to get along with one. It should be understood that

in

our circumstances are very different from those of home. Instead of having water brought to the kitchen by pipes, or supplied by a well and pump conveniently situated, our servants are often required to bring water for washing and cooking, etc., a distance varying from several rods to a quarter of a mile or more. Instead of having the convenience of the market-wagon calling at the door every day, the cook is often obliged to walk one or two miles to buy his meat, vegetables, and groceries. In Chinese cities we have no arrangements for receiving our letters at every corner, and delivering them any place where we may wish to send them; and if we have communications to send to other parts of the city or country, we must either waste our time in taking them ourselves, or send a special messenger. In going from place to place, we would be glad to make use of street cars if we had them, but we must forego this luxury. We would not feel that we could afford to hire a carriage, even if there were roads and carriages. We generally prefer to walk when we are not too tired or ill to do so; but when ladies or gentlemen are obliged to use a conveyance where boats are not to be had, they adopt the same mode of travelling that natives do, rich and poor, and engage a sedan at the rate of about twenty cents per hour, or a dollar a day; and the bearers are very glad to get the employment. Being accustomed to take a great deal of out-door exercise, and requiring it, I have made comparatively little use of sedans, but would regard it as exceedingly unwise and injurious for all missionaries to follow my example.

The salaries of the missionaries of the various societies of the United States generally range from eight to twelve hundred dollars a year. This sum is not fixed as pay, or as an equivalent for their services, but as a mere competency for their support, while they give their labors and themselves to the work which they have undertaken. This salary for a missionary and his wife is much lower than many, if not most, young unmarried clerks receive the first year of their coming out to China.