LETTER FROM OAKLAND, CAL.
BY REV. GEO. MOOAR, D.D.
There is little more for me to do in noting down my observation of the work of A. M. A. among the Chinese here than to indorse the statements made by the Rev. Dr. McLean in the April number of this magazine. As far as the school work for the Chinese in the English language is concerned, the honor of beginning it belongs, I think, to Mrs. Elizabeth L. Lynde, now deceased, a member of the First Congregational Church in this city at the time. Her heart, which was singularly alert in behalf of the neglected and unfortunate, set her in the year 1867 to teaching two or three Chinese at her house. These were servants in families. Meantime the boy employed in my own house—since favorably known as our chief helper in missionary work, Jee Gam—was spelling out, by the aid of my little girls and their mother, the mysteries of our English language, and little by little learning the great mystery of godliness. Interest deepened in the two or three who were thus drawn together. So, Mrs. Lynde's little class was transferred to our chapel, and soon became a prominent and hopeful department of our Sunday-school. It was a rare pleasure given me to receive, in 1870, the first three Chinamen known as admitted to membership by confession of faith in an English-speaking church in this land.
For several years I had the opportunity of direct participation in this new missionary movement, often taking my place as teacher of the new alphabet and guide to the pronunciation of many unphonetic words. At first there was novelty about it and it was comparatively easy to obtain even the numerous teachers which this work requires. But as the novelty wore off it became more difficult to find and keep volunteers in sufficient numbers. Besides, a demand arose for more than the hour of the Sunday-school service. The eagerness to learn and the increasing acquisition of some called for a more constant and continuous drill. So has come about the system of schools carried on, under the American Missionary Association's appropriations and our California gifts, by the "California Chinese Mission."
I bear glad witness to the large measure of devotion with which this work has been conducted. It is precisely the kind of work to bring out the best qualities of Christian character in those who are responsibly engaged in it. The motives for engaging in it drawn from any other than the purest Christian fountains are few indeed. The men and women, who, within my knowledge, have given their time and heart to it, have long been among my "evidences of Christianity." To the poor the Gospel has been preached by them. Several of those most interested during the early years, as superintendents or teachers, have been laid aside or have "gone home." But there can be no doubt that the Master has said to them, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of my disciples, ye have done it unto me."
For this is pre-eminently the work which makes its appeal to the few. To sustain it pecuniarily as well as otherwise, must pertain to those who give, hoping for nothing in kind again. Those here who would give, perhaps, to help Africans on the Congo, cannot always be appealed to in behalf of this cause. A worthy Christian friend who has charge of a Sunday-school consulted me about a gift he was interesting his scholars to make to some missionary. Whom could I suggest? It was natural, being on this Pacific sea, to suggest a laborer in northern China. It was amusing to see how quickly he dropped my suggestion as if it were something very hot. Why, it would not do at all to mention China in that school. It would kill his darling missionary proposition completely. This illustrates not by any means a universal feeling here, but a feeling which is quite too prevalent. And there are many who would help to teach the Mongolians if they were to be taught where they belong, who would be almost offended to be asked to help in their education here. So all the more admirable, in the face of public sentiment here, is it that so many noble workers and givers have been found to sustain this work. For is not this, of all others, the enterprise which "takes the gold right out of the country?"
I overheard an intelligent gentleman, a member of Congress, and born in my native Massachusetts, express the duly considered opinion that the Chinese mind is so organized that it cannot be expected to entertain the Christian ideas. It illustrated the sad fact that it takes a long time for even Americans to entertain and be molded by those ideas. This gentleman might easily have found scores of humble servants and laborers of this "unassimilable" race in his own city who had come as truly in the power of Him, who is the Truth, as any of us. For it is the testimony of all who are acquainted with the facts that as large a proportion of those Chinese who take the Christian name "adorn the doctrine" as do those who take that name from among the Caucasian families. Indeed, the proportion may, perhaps, be larger. For what can ordinarily induce a Chinaman to espouse the Christian standing here unless it be the genuine appreciation of Christian truth and the response of his heart to the love of God as shown in the cross of Christ?