Calvin Wilson Mateer, forty-five years a missionary in Shantung, China

by D. W. Fisher

Difficulties did not end when the young missionaries arrived at their destination. The people were not friendly; the conveniences of life were few; the loneliness and isolation were exceedingly trying; but the young missionaries were undaunted and pushed their work with splendid courage and faith. Mr. Corbett soon became a leader in evangelistic work, but Dr. Mateer, while deeply interested in evangelistic work and helping greatly in it, felt chiefly drawn toward educational work. In 1864, one year after his arrival, he and his equally gifted and devoted wife managed to gather six students. There were neither text-books, buildings, nor assistants; but with a faith as strong as it was sagacious Dr. and Mrs. Mateer set themselves to the task of building up a college. One by one buildings were secured, poor and humble indeed, but sufficing for a start. The missionary made his own text-books and manufactured much of the apparatus with his own hands. He speedily proved himself an educator and administrator of exceptional ability. Increasing numbers of young Chinese gathered about him. The college grew. From the beginning, Mr. Mateer insisted that it should give its training in the Chinese language, that the instruction should be of the most thorough kind, and that it should be pervaded throughout by the Christian spirit. When, after thirty-five years of unremitting toil, advancing years compelled him to lay down the burden of the presidency, he had the satisfaction of seeing the college recognized as one of the very best colleges in all Asia. It continues under his successors in larger form at Wei Hsien, where it now forms the Arts College of the Shantung Christian University.

Dr. Mateer was famous not only as an educator, but as an author and translator. After his retirement from the college he devoted himself almost wholly to literary work, save for one year, when a vacancy in the presidency of the college again devolved its cares temporarily upon him. His knowledge of the Chinese language was extraordinary. He prepared many text-books and other volumes in Chinese, writing some himself and translating others. The last years of his life were spent as chairman of a committee for the revision of the translation of the Bible into Chinese, a labor to which he gave himself with loving zeal.

Dr. Mateer was a man of unusual force of character; an educator, a scholar and an executive of high capacity. Hanover College, of which Dr. D. W. Fisher was then president, early recognized his ability and success by bestowing upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1903 his alma mater added the degree of Doctor of Laws. We mourn that the work no longer has the benefit of his counsel; but he builded so well that the results of his labors will long endure, and his name will always have a prominent place in the history of missionary work in the Chinese empire.

Dr. Fisher has done a great service to the cause of missions and to the whole church in writing the biography of such a man. A college classmate and lifelong friend of Dr. Mateer, and himself a scholar and educator of high rank, he has written with keen insight, with full comprehension of his subject, and with admirable clearness and power. I bespeak for this volume and for the great work in China to which Dr. Mateer consecrated his life the deep and sympathetic interest of all who may read this book.

Arthur Judson Brown

156 Fifth Avenue, New York City, April 13th, 1911

PREFACE

When I was asked to become the biographer of Dr. Mateer, I had planned to do other literary work, and had made some preparation for it; but I at once put that aside and entered on the writing of this book. I did this for several reasons. Though Dr. Mateer and I had never been very intimate friends, yet, beginning with our college and seminary days, and on to the close of his life, we had always been very good friends. I had occasionally corresponded with him, and, being in hearty sympathy with the cause of foreign missions, I had kept myself so well informed as to his achievements that I had unusual pleasure in officially conferring on him the first of the distinctions by which his name came to be so well adorned. As his college classmate, I had joined with the other survivors in recognizing him as the one of our number whom we most delighted to honor. When I laid down my office of college president, he promptly wrote me, and suggested that I occupy my leisure by a visit to China, and that I use my tongue and pen to aid the cause of the evangelization of that great people. Only a few months before his death he sent me extended directions for such a visit. When—wholly unexpectedly—the invitation came to me to prepare his biography, what could I do but respond favorably?

It has been my sole object in this book to reveal to the reader Dr. Mateer, the man, the Christian, the missionary, both his inner and his outer life, just as it was. In doing this I have very often availed myself of his own words. Going beyond these, I have striven neither to keep back nor to exaggerate anything that deserves a place in this record. All the while the preparation of this book has been going forward in my hands my appreciation of the magnitude of the man and of his work has been increasing. Great is the story of his career. If this does not appear so to any reader who has the mind and the heart to appreciate it, then the fault is mine. It, in that case, is in the telling, and not in the matter of the book, that the defect lies.