The great difficulty of the synod was the language, and this was indeed no small embarrassment. As I was moderator, I felt it more than any other. It was all I could do to tell what was going on at times. If it had not been for the practice I had through the summer in Shanghai, I should have been quite lost. The most interesting discussion we had was on the qualifications of candidates for the ministry. The native members insisted that they must learn English, and the foreign members opposed. The native brethren finally carried their point. The discussion at some points of its progress was really exciting, and not a little amusing.
The next meeting was held at Chefoo, and as the retiring moderator he preached the opening sermon. In his Journal he says: “I had prepared the sermon quite carefully, having written it all out, and so had to read it. It is the only sermon I ever wrote out fully in Chinese. I found reading a Chinese sermon very awkward and embarrassing.” A committee of which he was a member had been appointed by the preceding meeting at Ningpo to prepare for deliberative bodies a compendium of technical terms,—for the lack of which in Chinese they had been seriously hindered,—and also to formulate rules of order. They made a report which was approved, and authorized for use in the synod and in the presbyteries.
One other excerpt from the records of his pen must conclude the story of his work in the synod, though it was continued down through his subsequent years. He said:
Delegates, officially deputed, were present from the mission of the Presbyterian Church South; also from the mission of the United Presbyterian Church in Scotland; and from the independent Presbytery of Amoy, composed of the missions of the American Dutch Reformed and the English Presbyterian Churches combined. They all expressed a desire for mutual coöperation, and for the ultimate union of all the Presbyterians in China into one Chinese Presbyterian Church. A committee was appointed to correspond with the various Presbyterian bodies or missions in China, and prepare the way for an ultimate union. This union may not be accomplished for many years, but that it should come as soon as practicable seems to be the almost unanimous opinion of all concerned.
In 1907 one long advance was made toward the realization of the desire so earnestly expressed by that synod a third of a century before. After preliminary consultations extending over a number of years, representatives of eight distinct missions, operated by as many different Presbyterian denominations of Europe and America, met together, and constituted “The Presbyterian Church of China,” and also offered a welcome to any other Chinese churches of like faith and practice to unite with them. Dr. Mateer thought that on account of the size of China and the consequent expense of travel and variety of speech, it would be better to make two ecclesiastical bodies out of this material. Belonging to the new organization, there were, besides the foreign missionaries, about a hundred native ministers, and forty thousand communicants. Dr. Mateer was not a member of the body which met to declare and organize this union; but, being present, he was invited to sit as a corresponding member. Under the regulations of his American denomination, the names of ordained foreign missionaries entering such new churches on the foreign field as that just mentioned are enrolled in the minutes of the home General Assembly on a separate list; and these ministers are entitled to be received by the presbyteries without the examination required of those who come from other denominations in foreign countries. This was the ecclesiastical status of Dr. Mateer when he died. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church in China; but he was still enrolled by the church of his fathers.
The highest of all the organizations within the Presbyterian system is the General Assembly. Its supervision, within constitutional limits, extends over synods, presbyteries, and individual ministers and churches, and it has other distinct functions pertaining to the entire denomination throughout the world. Dr. Mateer was a commissioner from his presbytery in China to the Assembly which met in 1880 in New York; and again to the Assembly which met in Los Angeles in 1903. In this last he was nominated for moderator, but failed of election, for reasons not in any way disparaging to him. It is well understood that an election to that office is contingent on so many incidental things that the choice can seldom be foreseen. Local influences at Los Angeles were strongly thrown in favor of the successful candidate, meaning by these the representation in the Assembly and the Presbyterian visitors from all the Rocky Mountain country and from the Pacific coast. Besides, to many of the commissioners Dr. Mateer was a man but slightly known. His work had been great, but it had also been quiet. Nor when on his furloughs had he in speaking to the churches won renown by bursts of missionary eloquence. He made a very creditable run for the moderatorship, and was beaten by a man of high standing in the church. He was appointed chairman of the Judicial Committee.
XI
THE SHANTUNG COLLEGE
“While I live I cannot cease to have a vital interest in the college.... I cannot bear to be wholly away from the college to which my life has been given.”—LETTER TO SECRETARY BROWN, April 10, 1907.