"The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest."-Luke x. 2. OF CHAPTER V The Mission in China 1 F all the religious and philanthropic works in which Mr. Matheson was interested, the one that to himself was most important and by which he was best known to his own Church and to the Christian public generally was the China mission. From its first beginning in 1847 to the time of his death, a period of more than fifty years, he was officially connected with its management, first as treasurer, and then, from 1868 on to the close, as convener of committee. During all these years he served the Church and the mission with unflagging devotion, winning from the first and holding to the end the complete trust and love of the Church at home, and of the missionaries, who, one and all, were proud to call him their chief. During so long a period of service there were, of course, many vicissitudes in the history of the mission. Difficulties, both financial and administrative, 1 We are indebted to Rev. J. C. Gibson, D.D., of Swatow, and Rev. Thomas Barclay, M.A., of Formosa, for their kindness in compiling the greater part of this chapter. arose from time to time. New opportunities called for new developments and fresh departments of work. Times of war or disturbance caused many anxious hours. The continuous growth of the mission and of the native churches founded by it-a growth altogether beyond the most sanguine hopes of its founders-added every year to the burden of responsibility and anxiety resting upon the Convener. But there were no embittered discussions and no lasting cleavages of opinion. In a work whose chief features were steady growth and harmonious development there are happily few striking incidents or dramatic events to furnish material for the narrator of the story of the chief actor in it. It is impossible to write with any fulness the history of Mr. Matheson's convenership, but some of its aspects may be indicated and some of its guiding principles may be put on record to be held in loving remembrance. In the year 1845 the reconstituted Presbyterian Church in England decided to adopt China as their field of foreign mission work, and instructed their committee to look out for suitable men to go as missionaries.1 At that time Mr. Matheson made the tour to India and China described in chapter ii. On his return in 1847, at the request of Dr. 1 The story of the mission has been told by Rev. Jas. Johnston in his book China and Formosa, with the Story of a Mission, to which readers are referred for fuller details. The Memoir of Rev. Wm. C. Burns should also be read, especially chapter xi. (then Mr.) Hamilton and others, he put in writing some of the facts gathered and the views formed during the visit, bearing upon the plan for the proposed mission to the heathen.1 On his own mind the visit seems to have left an indelible impression, and the experience gained was of immense advantage to him in his future work in this connection. With fresh, eager eye and with a singularly sensitive and kindly heart, he had seen the multitudinous life of India and China, which can hardly fail to touch the most careless. Native life in its marvellous variety as in India, or in its still more impressive uniformity as in China, with the continual suggestion of a far-drawn past underlying all, and throwing over its most vivid scenes the pathos of the fleetingness of life, makes a strangely keen appeal to any sympathetic mind who looks upon it in the spirit of Christianity. Mr. Matheson was very much impressed with India as a mission field, and with the missionary institutions at work there. "These institutions," he writes, "were chiefly educational, at least such always interested me most, the opportunity being seized for instilling into the minds of the young truth, which, when offered in later life, one cannot doubt has to contend with stronger prejudices and a more confirmed apathy. I would like to add, too, that India is an open field for missionary labour. Every missionary that comes from it tells the same . . 1 See chapter ii., page 73. ΙΟ |