资料内容所涉时间从1860年美北长老会派遣的传教士初次到达山东登州境地始至1960年左右止。约计文字资料3000余万字，图片1000余帧。主要涉及工作文件、往来书信、学术文章等三部分内容，包括美北长老会、英国浸信会、加拿大联合教会等西方教会早期在华籍医传教的情况、工作年鉴以及记录其派遣的传教士在华期间工作进展、杰出人物、特殊事件评价、人物生平等；传教士、传教医师与其同事、友人、家人间书信的往来以及家人、朋友为其撰写的人物传记；传教士在华期间著作，包括第一位只身来济、为齐鲁医院的创建做出了重要贡献的美北长老会传教士Jasper Scudder McILvaine(麦尔文)的著作《Grammatical Studies in the Colloquial Language of Northern China, Especially Designed for the Use of Missionaries》（1880，《中国北方口语语法研究》），及其与父母、亲友的亲笔书信影印件；齐鲁医院创始人聂会东在华期间在历届中华博医会年会上的讲话，发表在《柳叶刀》、《博医会报》上的学术文章、工作报告以及学术著作等，如《Inorganic Native Drugs of Chinanfu》、《Diseases of the Conjunctiva as met with in Tsinan》，著作《Ophthalmological Terminology》、《Diseases of the Skin》、《化学辨质》等。
2006 年，我曾访问日本北海道大学。那座大学的创办人是美国农学家克拉克博士（Dr. William Smith Clark），他在教学的同时也秘密地传播基督教。虽然他在日时间只有短短八个月，但日本人为纪念他，在大学校园里树立了他的铜像，学校有以他命名的克拉克会馆，学校的校训是他的话（“男儿当自强”，英文 “Boys, be ambitious！”），甚至北海道大学的徽记也是克拉克的头像。
John Livingston Nevius (4 March 1829 – 19 October 1893) was, for forty years, a pioneering AmericanProtestantmissionary in China, appointed by theAmerican Presbyterian Mission; his missionary ideas were also very important in the spread of the church inKorea. He wrote several books on the themes of Chinese religions, customs and social life, and missionary work.
Nevius was born on a farm halfway between the villages of Lodi and Ovid in the "Lake country" of western New York state. It was an idyllic country location surrounded by fields and meadows with a nearby spring of pure water, and Lake Seneca, "gleaming through the trees", only 2 miles distant; he was the son of Benjamin Nevius, of Dutch descent, and his wife Mary Denton. He was educated at the college in Ovid, then at Union College in Schenectady, then, from 1850, atPrinceton as a prospective minister in the Presbyterian Church.[1]
In 1853, Nevius married Helen Coan and, on June 15 of that year, the couple set off, as missionaries, on an arduous 6-month sea voyage to Ningpo, in the Che-Kiang province of China, arriving in the spring of 1854. He and his wife immediately set about learning the language, and Nevius's subsequent interest in the phenomenon of spirit possession was sparked off by conversations about the supernatural with his language tutor, Mr. Tu; the Chinese had a strong belief in the reality and power of the spirit world that was part of ananimistic tradition going back thousands of years (see Chinese folk religion).[1][2]
The Revd. and Mrs. Nevius were soon travelling and preaching, as well as setting up missions and schools, studying and writing. In 1861 the couple moved to Shantung province, where most of their Chinese missionary work would be undertaken. They spent some time in Tung Chowand dispensed medicine to the locals during the 1862 cholera epidemic there. John also trained missionaries and helped to establish the country's first Synod which took place in Shanghai in 1870, while Mrs. Nevius set up a boarding school for girls.[1]
In 1871, they moved to Cheefoo and built a house there called "Nan Lou". In 1873, John embarked on a taxing 600-mile missionary tour by foot, finding rest and sustenance at whatever establishments he could find along the way. In 1877, there was a famine in the province of Shantung (the "Great North China Famine"), and he played a pivotal role in raising funds, setting up a food distribution centre and organising a relief corps from quarters at Kao-Yai. Famine struck again in 1889, and Nevius's abilities were, once more, called upon.[1]
Nevius continued with his missionary work to country areas until 1887, travelling thousands of miles, often under arduous conditions of terrain, weather etc. In 1890, he travelled to Korea and, although he stayed for only 2 weeks, his "Nevius Plan" (see below) was subsequently adopted and led to rapid growth of the church there.[3] He died suddenly, at home, in October 1893, and was buried in the cemetery at Chefoo.[1]
Nevius was the author of several books covering the subjects of Chinese religions, spiritual practices and social and political life, spirit possession and missionary work; his wife also wrote an exhaustive biography (see bibliography).
After questioning the methods of western missionaries of his time, Nevius took up the Venn-Anderson principles of "self-propagation, self-government, and self-supporting" in a series of articles in the Chinese Recorder journal in 1885, which was later published as a book in 1886,The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches.[4] Nevius called for discarding old-style missions and the adoption of his new plan to foster an independent, self-supporting local church. He criticized the missionaries' practice of paying national workers out of mission funds, believing the healthy local church should be able to support its own local workers.[5]
The missionary principles formulated by Nevius later became known as the "Nevius Plan", and were a development of the existing ideas of Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson.[6] When AmericanPresbyterians began their work in Korea, the new missionaries invited Nevius to advise them. Embracing his method, the Korean mission enjoyed great success, although it did not gain similar popularity in China. The Nevius Plan outlined the following:[7]
Christians should continue to live in their neighborhoods and pursue their occupations, being self-supporting and witnessing to their co-workers and neighbors.
Missions should only develop programs and institutions that the national church desired and could support.
The national churches should call out and support their own pastors.
Churches should be built in the native style with money and materials given by the church members.
Intensive biblical and doctrinal instruction should be provided for church leaders every year.
^David L. Larsen. The Company of the Preachers (Kregel Publications, 1998) p. 523.
^Weber, Hans-Ruedi (2000), The Layman in Christian History: A Project of the Department on the Laity of the World Council of Churches, London: SCM Press, p. 350
^Broomhall, Alfred James (1982), Hudson Taylor & China’s Open Century Volume Three: If I Had a Thousand Lives, Littleton, CO: Overseas Missionary Fellowship
^Ung Kyu Pak. Millennialism in the Korean Protestant Church (Peter Lang, 2005) p. 96.
^Terry, John Mark (2000), "Indigenous Churches", in Moreau, A. Scott (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, pp. 483–485
