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North Honan is ah irregular triangle lying in North Latitude 35 and East Longitude 112, and is just opposite the northern part of S. Carolina. The western border is mountain- ous, the east a level plain, and on the south the Yellow River decides from time to time where the boundary shall be between North and South Honan.
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS. The rising tide of missionary interest in Queen's College. Kingston, and Knox College, Toronto, in the early eighties of last century, caused the former to undertake the support of Dr. J. F. Smith, and the latter, that of Rev. J. Goforth, on the foreign field. Korea was first thought of, but Dr. Hunter Corbett of Shantung, persuaded the Foreign Mission Committee that North Honan was the more inviting field. Choice of Field. . __ ' . Accordingly Mr. Goforth was ordained as the first missionary to that section of China, on October 13th, 1887. Accompanied by Mrs. Goforth he started for China on January 19th, 1888. Chef 00 was chosen, temporarily, as a base of operations. By December of that year, Dr. and Mrs. Smith, Miss Sutherland, Dr. Win. McClure and Rev. D. MacGillivray, had arrived there. In September 1888, Dr. Smith and Mr. Goforth, accompanied by two experienced missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M , Rev. A. H. Smiih, md ,Rev. F. M. Chapin, went on a tour of inspection to North Honan. South Chihli, North Honan, a portion of South Honan and southwest Shantung, were visited and the choice of North Honan as the most suitable field was confirmed. It was recommended that the cities of Changte, Weihwei, and Hwaiking, be occupied as soon as possible. Again, in the autumn of 1889, Dr. McClure and Mr. Goforth, aided by helpers kindly loaned to them by the American Board missionaries, made the first attempt to open up North Honan for permanent occupation. They worked for a time in each of the following cities: Changtefu, Hsiinhsien, Taokou, and Weihweifu. All glasses of the people seemed friendly ; many books were sold ; thousands heard the Gospel and the sick thronged the First Visit. , ' . . . , physician as in the days of the Master. By the end of 1889 the Mission base had been moved from Chefoo in eastern Shantung", to Linch'iug chou in western Shantung. This was a decided advantage as the latter place was much nearer Honan. That year the Mission was reinforced by the arrival of Rev. J. H. and Mrs. MacVicar, Rev. M. and Mrs. MacKenzie, Rev. J. and Mrs. MacDougall, Miss Margaret I. Macintosh and Miss Jennie Graham. In February 1890, the Honan Presbytery of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, was formed at Unc li' ingchou. Immediately afterwards, Dr. McClure and Mr. MacGillivray left to tour in the Changte district and Dr. Smith and Mr. Goforth in the Weihwei district, of Honan. The innate conservatism of the Chinese literaly had asserted itself during the interval, so that everywhere the reception was in marked contrast to that of the former visit. The hostility in Changte cit}' became so pronounced that it was deemed wise to withdraw to Shwei Yieh, forty-five li to the West. Their enemies followed the party thither and they were ordered out of Shwei Yieh, but the doctor, having operated on a harelip, refused to budge until it was healed. They went to other centres only to meet with similar opposition. Dr. Smith and Mr. Goforth had fared better, but the enemy Hostility. was at work. The gentry at Hsiinhsien tried to persuade the magistrate to expel them, but Dr. Smith had operated on the eyes of one of the latter's chief men, Chou Lao Ch'ang, and had restored his sight. Consequently the gentry were ordered to leave the missionaries alone. How providential that God, in such a famed idol centre as Hsiinhsien, should convert Mr. Chou, restore his sight, and use the words of that eloquent old man ever since to thresh idolatry as with a flail ! The same magistrate, Mr. Hwang, protected the missionaries during their visit to Taok'ou. At Weihwei the reception was cold, but there was no open hostility. On the advice of experienced missionaries, who thought that the opposition in large centres, in this notoriously hostile province, would be too great meanwhile for us to overcome, we I decided to secure footholds in smaller places. Ch'mvang. in Chaugte prefecture, and Hsinchen in the Weihwei prelecture, both accessible by river. were selected as the best sites. In the late autumn Ch'uwang. mr of 1890, Mr. MacGill iv ray and Dr. McClure rented premises in Ch'uwaug and moved into them. But they had scarcely settled down when a mob rushed in and made off with every thing the brethren possessed, except the kitchen stove. The British authoiities took the matter up and by March 1891 a favourable settlement was arrived at, by which it was made plain that our missionaries had a right to reside in Houan. Houses were secured at Hsinchen, too, so that before the end of 1891, several families were resident within the field which the Canadian Presbyterian Church had set out to bring into subjection to our L,ord and Saviour. At the beginning: of 1892, the evangelistic and medical work was being widely extended. That year was a record one at the Ch'uwang hospital, with twenty-eight thousand treatments, fifty-four of these being successful cataract operations. The Gospel was preached in all the surrounding villages and preaching tours were made to populous centres in Honan and Chihli provinces, as far as one and two hundred from the central station. In February of the same year, for the first time, work was carried on at the Hsiinhsien fair.That place being the most famous idolatrous centre in North Honan, preaching to its great crowds of pilgrims, Hsiinhsien . . . has ever since, year by year, been an important factor in the evangelizing of the whole field. In the autumn of 1892, Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm, Dr. L,ucinda Graham and Mr. Grant came to Honan as new recruits. But ill-health had caused the MacVicar and MacDougall families to return to the homeland. The same year saw all the missionaries moved into Honan and housed at Ch'uwang and Hsinchen.
All through 1893 the w r ork in all departments continued to expand with ever-widening influence. The hate and prejudice of many were giving way to a spirit of enquiry. Nevertheless, the great mass of the people were against all that the Mission sought to promote. One symptom of this was the scurrilous pamphlets which appeared, libelling us in the vilest words of which the Chinese language is capable. Another was the continued hostility of the Changtefu gentry guild in trying to hinder us even from Changtefu. entering the city. Notice of these conditions was sent to the British minister, Sir Nicholas O'Connor. His prompt and energetic action went far to give us an entrance into Changte, for it took away from the people that fear of the scholar and official classes, which had np to this time, kept them from offering any property to us. The immediate result was that dozens of places were offered to the Mission and one of these, the beginning of the present Changte compound, was secured in 1894. A combination of circumstance tended to stay the progress of the cause during the year 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Gofdrth, Dr. and Mrs. McClnre all returned to Canada on furlough ; Dr. Smith was invalided home in June. Later, Mrs. Malcolm and Dr. Lncinda Graham fell victims to cholera, and Dr. Malcolm and Miss Macintosh also returned for a time to Canada. War had been declared between China and Japan.
Though the war was still in progress, Mr. Goforth and Dr. Malcolm returned to Honan in April 1895. Rev. J. A. Slimmon, who had been with the China Inland Mission since 1884 and now joined our staff, accompanied them. In May, Mr. Goforth commenced the permanent occupation of Changtefu as a new mission centre. This was the third, and as events proved, the first permanent mission centre in North Honan. Changte, as seen at the outset, was one of the places chosen for a mission centre. It was of Changte Station. strong opposition at first encountered there, which caused a less important site to be accepted ; the real objective had always been this prefectural city. On the land already purchased, houses, small but sufficient, were ready by October and Mrs. Goforth moved from Ch'uwang. Mr. MacGillivray and Dr. Menzies (who had joined the Mission during the year) also moved to Changte. The first foreign woman to reside at this- centre aroused the Chinese curiosity to the highest pitch. With a view to winning as many as possible the gateway was open daily and all the day. It might truly be said that preaching continued from daylight till dark and even after dark. This was very exhausting work, but we believe that it was the foundation of the success which has attended the effort to extend the Kingdom from Changte station. Enquirers soon began to appear, comiug both from the city and the surrounding country. The Roman Catholics began to interfere with our converts, but with little success. During the year twelve persons were baptized and twenty-nine recorded as catechumens. Among those now baptized were Mr. Chou and his son, Mr. Wang, the graduate, and his son, also Mr. Ch'eng and Wang Fu Lin with his brother. The practice of inviting- promising church-members to accompany the missionary touring, with only their travelling expenses paid, was instituted at this time. The Mission was strengthened by the arrival on the field of Rev. Kenneth MacLennan, and Mrs. MacL,ennan, in the spring, and Dr. Dow, Dr. James Menzies, and Rev. R. A. Mitchell, in the autumn.
THE ASSAULT UPON HEATHENISM. It was becoming increasingly evident that Christ was to find a place in the hearts of many of the people. As time passed there came with it a growing confidence in His messengers and their message. The crowds of patients which thronged the Ch'uwang dispensary afforded a splendid opportunity for the sowing of the good seed. From all the centres occupied, tours were constantly made, into the surrounding country. This year, 1896, was marked by an effort on the part of the Roman Catholics to win over some of our Church members to their communion. This necessitated more frequent visitation of Christian communities as well as more attention to station classes designed to instruct church members and catechumens. Mr. Go forth had a four days' debate, before a Chinese audience, with the Italian Roman Catholic priest, Father Brambillo, which was concluded by the priest losing his temper and using language which did not much honour his ecclesiastical robes.
A couple of years later Mr. Goforth again met him, under similar circumstances, at Hsiaochai, Little Fort, and vanquished him. This victory terminated once for all the frequent boastings of the priests, that the Protestants were afraid to meet them in debate and also the dissemination of many false stories about Protestants. This year two lady workers, Miss Pyke and Miss Robb,* reached the field. The following year, 1897, saw an aggregate attendance at station classes, of eighty-seven men and seventeen women. Two missionaries, with fifteen Chinese helpers, attended the Hsunhsren fair and obtained good Progress. & audiences both in the mat tent and on the mountain-side. Several of those who heard seemed deeply interested and gave in their names. At Changte the Chinese Christians undertook the support of Mr. Hoa, as an Kvangel- * Later became Mrs. Dr. Menzies.
20 CANADIAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSION.
fist, at a salary of about two dollars gold per month. T evangelists from Shantung province, Messrs Li. Ma and Tu rendered valuable service during these years when our own Mission had not yet been able to train men for such work. It was still necessary, too, to have close supervision of all Chiuese workers, so that it was not expedient to send out Chinese to preach without a misMonary accompanying them. Mr. MacGillivray went to Canada on regular furlough in May. Mr. and Mrs. MacLennan withdrew from the field in April, on account of the illness of the latter. On a request of, Presbytery for reinforcements, Rev. J Griffith and Dr. P. C. Leslie joined our staff in November. Mr. Griffith, having left Canada hurriedly, had not yet received ordination. He was accordingly, ordained by the Presbytery of Honan, at Chang- tefu, on December 29th, 1897. Mr. MacKenzie also returned from furlough. In September 1898, occurred the coup d' Hat nf the Kin- press Dowager. Gathering about her a strong force of sol- diers she seized the person of the Emperor Kwang Hsu, whom proposed reforms she regarded with consternation, and made him sign his own sentence of retirement. Then followed a conservative, reactionary policy which affected the fortunes of the whole Empire. Mr. Sliinmon's absence from Hsinchen for six months and that of Dr. Malcolm for the large part of the year, greatly curtailed the work there. Willing Hearers. Messrs. Goforth, MacKenzie, Grant. Mitchell and Griffith, with a large number of Chinese helpers, preached and sold Gospels and tracts at the Hsiinhsien fair where they met with a much better reception than in any previous year. Heathenism was here face to face with the Gospel of God's redeeming grace in Christ, but with all its wiles it could not prevent the True Light from entering some darkened hearts. These men would return to their own districts to study the books which they had secured and to give the new-found faith a trial.
THE ASSAULT UPON HEATHENISM. 2 1
A PARTY ON THEIR WAY TO HURN INCENSE IN TEMPLE AT HSUNHSIEN 浚县.
The year 1899 opened with much promise; a more ready hearing was given to the preaching of the Gospel than ever before and, though there was much unrest within the neighboring provinces of Chihli and Shantung, comparative quiet prevailed in Honan. The attitude of the Chinese . „, generallv, was one of greater cordiality than the Storm. & J ' & J hitherto, and additions to the number of catechuens were more rapid than in any previous year in the history of the Mission. Weihweifu and Hwaikingfu were visited frequently and for long periods throughout the year. At the former city, land suitable for a compound was examined by two of the missionaries and reported upon at the annual meeting of Presbytery in 1900. Station classes for men and women, held at the several stations, had an aggregate attend- ance of one hundred and sixty-seven and fifty-seven re- spectively. Early in the year, the hsicn magistrates and other officials, who were assembled at Ch'uwang to receive the
22 CANADIAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSION.
The first chapel erected with Chinese funds was this year opened at Touknng. The Bell-Smith Chapel, presented by Mrs. Goforth, to Changtefu station, also to be used for preachin.
，，， city, wuan. ended with increasing disturbances in Shantung and Chihli provinces, but these had not as yet extended to Honan except in so far as a general state of unrest prevailed here. Rev. T. C. Hood arrived in Honan in the autumn of the year and applied himself diligently to the study ot the Ian guage. Miss Dr. Wallace also came to assist in work among women and was similarly engaged until she joined the party going north in the summer of the following year.
24 CANADIAN PRESBYTKRIAN MISSION.
a widespread outbreak in the North and East, and commanding missionaries resident in the interior to flee for their lives. Drs. McClure and Menzies and their families, together with Miss Dr. Wallace, were already on the river, half-way to Tientsin, for a needed rest. Warnings of the coming storm fortunately reached them in time to save The Flight. , , , , the party and enable them to escape eastward into Shantung province, where the elements of disorder were being held in check by Governor Yuan Shih K'ai. After much hardship and many adventures, which might any day suddenly have resulted in a terrible tragedy, they reached Chefoo in safety. Those remaining in Honan were less for- tunate. Hemmed in on all other sides, an attempt to reach Hankow overland alone remained as a possibility. Mr. Murdoch MacKenzie and Dr. Leslie and their families, to- gether with Miss Margaret Macintosh and Dr. Dow, effected their escape from Ch'uwang and, going west to Changtefu. there joined Mr. Goforth and family, Miss Pyke and Messrs Griffith and Hood. Next day, June 28th, the whole partv started south on ten freight carts, with straw-mat awnings arranged to shelter as much as possible from the blazing sun. At the Yellow River, three engineers in the employ of the Peking Syndicate, together with Messrs. Slimmon and Mitchell and their families, were overtaken. Though seldom far separated, the two parties continued to travel separately. For ten days careful management and night departures from hostile cities saved the refugees from attack, but on July 8th, after lying on the defensive all the preceding night, the Changte party fell into a cunningly-laid trap. But few minute- of struggle were required to place them at the mercy of the armed multitudes attacking them. Mules were first killed or wounded ; then the missionaries were attacked. Mr. Goforth and Dr. Leslie were severely wounded ; Mr. MacKenzie and Mr. Griffith received less dangerous sword-slashes. All were drenched with blood and supposed that the last moment had come, when suddenly the attacking force, unable to keep their compact to defer the looting until the foreigners had been killed, began to fight among them- selves for the spoil. Quick to seize the opportunity, so providentially given, the party abandoned everything and fled, Dr. Leslie, the only one unable to move, being dragged on to a cart which a servant was fortunately able to release from the tangle and drive away from the scene. Though afterwards held up at the points of swords and daggers, robbed of clothing, watches, rings, etc., by inferior bands of looters, they succeeded in escaping a distance of nearly two miles. Here they were compelled to sit down in the dusty road, surrounded by shouting mobs of unsympathetic onlookers, and thus to spend the whole of that burning July Sabbath in hunger, thirst and vain surmises as to what the end would be.
Of the remarkable experiences and providential deliver- ances of the next two or three days : the strange night in Nanyangfu city, the accidental separation of Mr. Griffith and little Paul Goforth from their companions, the Re-union. with them twenty-four hours later bearing fifty taels of silver which seemed to have been verily picked up on the road and which delivered the whole party from great danger ; of these things and of the re-union with the engineers and other missionaries who had escaped the attack, and from whom great help and kindness was received later, it is impossible to speak in detail here. They have been recorded elsewhere, though unfortunately not yet in a form easily accessible to those interested in the subject. Once across the border into Hupeh province, protection was fairly well assured from the great Viceroy Chang Chih Tung, by whose orders houseboats were prepared to carry the refugees down the Han River to Hankow, which city was reached on July 21 — twenty-four days after the departure from Changtefu. From Hankow the party proceeded at once by steamer to Shanghai, seeing on the way many evidences of the fact that like a match to gunpowder, one unwise official act might have set the whole Yangtse valley in a blaze, in sympathy with North China.
On July 27th, 1900, the Presbytery of Honan met in a most unusual place (380 Honan Road, Shanghai) and after being constituted immediately passed the following resolu- tion : — "That we, the members of Honan Presbytery, as our first act after the recent terrible events in Honan, do hereb\ express our profound gratitude to God for the marvellous deliverance vouchsafed, whereby every member of the Mis sion, male and female, escaped to the coast with their lives ; and do hereby solemnly reconsecrate ourselves to God's service in behalf of the salvation of China." In view of the dark political outlook in China it was deemed wise that tho^e most severely wounded, and also several other members of the Mission, should proceed at once to Canada. Messrs. Slimmon and Mitchell joined the British forces in Tientsin as interpreters, the latter leaving his bride to reside in Shanghai. Messrs. Griffith and Hood went to Chefoo to continue language-study, while Dr. McClure also located in the latter place in order to attempt the opening up of communications with the suffering Christians in Honan and to look after other interests of the Mission. All others returned to the homeland. Meantime, in Honan, many Christians were terrorized, robbed and tortured, and some left in a very distressing condition. To these were forwarded by couriers, such small amounts of silver as the disturbed state of the country would allow. As the months passed, famine conditions began to prevail in the province and famine fever broke out in some districts. Women and children were openly sold for trifliug sums and many died of starvation.
Our Mission to China
Dr. Don MacLeod is minister at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Trenton ON, and has written ma
ny articles for history and other publications. He is also the author of a book on George Murray and is currently writing a book about Dr. Stanford Reid.
The first overseas field of the Canada Presbyterian Church was Taiwan, then called Formosa, and at the time a province of the Chinese Empire. By sending out George Leslie MacKay in 1871.
By 1880, with the home visit of George Leslie MacKay from Formosa, all that was to change dramatically. And in the mid-1880s the cause of foreign missions was becoming a dominant concern for many young people, galvanized by the example of the so-called "Cambridge Seven"
Urged on by student groups at Queen's and Knox theological colleges, the General Assembly of 1887 appointed Jonathan Goforth of Knox and James Fraser Smith of Queen's (Smith with degrees in medicine and theology) to open a second Canadian Presbyterian field in China. Goforth had a special burden for Honan, a province legendary for its anti-foreign feeling. Smith was supported by the Students Missionary Society of Queen's College, Kingston. The two men — Jonathan with his bride Rosalind — arrived on the China coast (in Chefoo, for language study) in 1888. Not lingering they made their way as pioneers into the interior and on to Honan.
Literally, Honan in Chinese means "north of the river." The Canadian field, contested sharply by Hudson Taylor for his China Inland Mission in a handwritten letter to Goforth on file in the United Church Archives, was actually north of the Yellow River.
By June 2, 1892, the Presbytery of North Honan of the Presbyterian Church in Canada was formally organized. The eight who constituted the Presbytery were an impressive group and their names were all later to have great significance for the church in China:
Goforth, Grant, MacGillivray (the famous linguist and editor), MacKenzie, MacVicar (the son of the Principal of Presbyterian College, Montreal), Malcolm, McClure (the father of Dr. Bob) and Smith. They were an outstanding gathering of Canada's finest and brightest young men, deeply committed to the spread of the gospel in China.
That vision was tested by the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when the missionaries were forced out to the coast, fortunately without any martyrdoms. On return, the mission, which had been centered in Chuwang, spread out over the Honan plain, establishing stations and medical facilities in cities such as Weihwei (where Dr. McClure operated a hospital) and Changte, where the Goforths located. In 1908 revival touched the Canadian field after Jonathan Goforth visited Korea and experienced what had happened there. "
The 1911 Revolution ended the Chinese Empire and there was chronic civic unrest and banditry.
he First World War exposed the moral collapse of the Western powers. Bandits roamed the countryside and James Menzies, an outstanding medical missionary, was shot while running to protect some of the single women in their residence in Hwaiking. It was a dangerous time. Goforth was released by his Presbytery to wider ministries, one of which was to serve as Chaplain to a war lord and baptize thousands of military personnel. As church union became an ever livelier issue, the North Honan Mission, growing more theologically inclusive, felt more and more pulled to the Unionist position.
In 1925 the field joined the United Church of Canada and two years later the North Honan Presbytery became a founding unit of the Church of Christ in China, an organization which brought together most of the main-line Protestant mission churches in China.
In the redistribution that followed Church union in Canada, the continuing Presbyterians retained the north Formosa field, whose missionaries (led by George Leslie MacKay's son George W.) were generally theologically more conservative than North Honan.
Jonathan Goforth, who remained Presbyterian, at the age of 70 went to Manchuria and there with Allan Reoch and E. H. ("Ted") Johnson joined with an existing Irish Presbyterian mission to establish a new China field.
All of this ended as Goforth returned home and the Japanese invaded first Manchuria (1931), then China (1937), and finally Pearl Harbor. Attempts to open a new field in Yunnan, where "Mac" Ransom was sent in 1946 after the Second World War, were aborted by the Communist "liberation" three years later.
The Canadian Presbyterian Church made a profound impact on China, both in Taiwan and on the mainland. Today, Henan — the current spelling of Honan — is one of the more Christianized of the thirty provinces that make up the People's Republic of China. The majority of believers appear to have identified with house churches, rather than the government sponsored "Three-Self Movement." Many of the revival principles espoused by Jonathan Goforth seem to have deeply penetrated the Henan church.
As one traveling evangelist recently noted after spending some weeks in the province: "The prayers of the young Christians were particularly powerful. The Holy Spirit descended in great power and everyone experienced Pentecost. Once again my fellow-workers were filled with the great love of the Lord. They knelt down to pray and praise the Lord without ceasing."
It has been over a hundred years since those first missionaries from Canada entered North Honan. They came from a quickened church, afire with missionary zeal, to a land of terrible darkness. Perhaps the receiving church needs now to rekindle the fire that the sending church once had.
========Dr. Robert Morrison, sent out in 1807 by the London Missionary Society, was the first Protestant missionary to China. He made the first translation of the Bible into Chinese. Our Canadian Presbyterian Church has three missions, North Honan, South China, Shanghai, with the following stations in each :
Changte 彰德 Wei Hwei 卫辉 Hwai King 怀庆
Tao Kyou 道口 Wu An 武安 Hsiu Wu 修武
Kong Moon 江门广东
The Province of Honan is situated in North Central China. It was the original "Middle Flowery Kingdom" bordering on the classic ground of Confucius, and has been one of the bitterest opponents of, and the last but one province to hold out against the entrance of the Christian missionary.
The Provincial Capital is Kai Feng Fu. In this province alone, there are 1846 cities, towns, and important villages. Less than 50 are occupied by any Christian mission. The population is 35,316,800 ; 三千五百三十一万六千八百。
