The conference at Shanghai in 1907 approved the report on the New Testament and decided to proceed to the revision of the Old Testament, and appointed an executive committee to select the men to do this work. The members chosen were the same five who had served toward the close of the revision of the New Testament, with the exception of a new translator needed because one of the old committee had gone home. Dr. Mateer was especially anxious that they might be saved from the necessity of breaking in and training several inexperienced members. Of course, he had foreseen that he would probably be selected, but when informed that this had been done he reserved his decision until he knew of whom besides himself the committee was to consist. To Dr. Goodrich of the American Board, with whom he had been so intimately associated, he wrote several times, urging him to accept; and in one of these letters he said: “There is a variety of reasons why I am perhaps as loath as you are to do this work. So far as money, reputation, or personal taste goes, I should rather do other work. But then it seems as if duty calls to this. Neither you nor I can ignore the fact that the experience and training of all these years have fitted us in a special manner for this work. We can do it better and faster than new men.” He was again made chairman, and as such he proceeded to distribute the first of the revision work, for which he selected Genesis and certain of the Psalms. He began his personal labors at the opening of the year, and in the summer the committee assembled at Chefoo to consider what had then been accomplished. The Goodrich and the Mateer families went into residence during their projected stay, and took for this purpose a house occupied usually as headquarters for the school for the deaf, Mrs. Goodrich, because of the condition of Mrs. Mateer’s health, having charge of the housekeeping. The meetings were held in a little chapel of the China Inland Mission, in the neighboring valley. It was while so situated that Dr. Mateer was stricken with his fatal illness.

In a letter which he addressed “To the dear ones at home,” on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, he said:

God has also blessed me in enabling me to accomplish several of the leading purposes of my life. From my boyhood I longed for a liberal education. My next great desire was to give at least forty years to work in China. Soon after I came to China I began educational work on a very small scale, but aspired to raise up a college that might be a power for good. I early formed the purpose of becoming an adept in the spoken language, and in aiming at this saw the need of a text-book for learning the language, and set about making it. All these purposes I have been enabled, by the blessing of God, to accomplish. My great work for the last ten years has been to lead in the translation of the Bible into Mandarin. This has been a most trying and laborious task, which is not yet completed. The New Testament is nearly done, but whether the Old Testament will be completed, who can tell? My desire and hope is to complete it. To prepare a mature and approved translation of the Bible for the use of two hundred and eighty millions of people will be for the glory of God in China.

XIV
INCIDENTS BY THE WAY

“There are many trials and self-denials in missionary life, but there are also not a few compensations and some advantages.”—LETTER “TO THE DEAR ONES AT HOME,” at his seventieth birthday.

The statement just quoted is general, and admits of application in the case of every faithful foreign missionary; but Dr. Mateer meant it especially as an expression of his own experience. In the story of his life work as already here told we have seen it constantly exemplified. There, however, still remain other instances that deserve permanent record. In speaking of them as “incidents by the way,” and in gathering them into a single chapter, I do not mean to indicate that they are unimportant. Some of them concerned the depths of his life. But his work after he reached China was chiefly along the lines that have been traced in the preceding chapters, and those matters now to be related, however important, were incidents by the way.

Of the trials that overtook him, none were so keenly felt as his bereavements. Only two or three of these can be mentioned here,—such as occurred within the circle of his own relatives out in China. The first was the death of Mrs. Capp, the sister of Mrs. Julia Mateer. This occurred on February 17, 1882, at Tengchow. She went down into the shadows with the tender ministrations of her sister and of Dr. Mateer. In writing to a brother of her deceased husband, he said:

On Sabbath afternoon,—yesterday,—we buried her on the hill west of the city, with other missionary friends who have gone before her. She was greatly beloved by the Chinese, and there were few of the Christians here who did not weep to part with her. Mr. Mills conducted the funeral service in English, and made some excellent remarks, admirably adapted to the occasion. One of our native elders made a very effective address in Chinese. Her work is done, and it is well done. Her memory will not soon die amongst the Chinese in this city and neighborhood. We will miss her, oh, so much,—her help, her counsel, her genial society, her spiritual power! Her school will miss her the most: her place in it cannot be filled. She was ready to die, and strong in faith, yet she longed to live, not that she might enjoy life, but, as she several times said, that she might save some more souls. She repeatedly assured us of her joy that she had come to China, and declared that she had never counted it a sacrifice, but a privilege. I told the Chinese over her coffin to imitate her as she did Christ,—her zeal and earnestness in all duty, and her untiring endeavor and desire to save souls.

Sixteen years later, almost to a day,—February 16, 1898,—Julia finished her earthly work and entered into the heavenly rest. I have already mentioned that sorrowful event in the life of Dr. Mateer, and said something of her character. Her biography is soon to be given to the world in a distinct volume. Under these circumstances it would be superfluous to make any extended record concerning her here. It is due, however, to her husband to quote at least a part of one paragraph from a brief memoir of her written by him shortly after her death. In telling of her varied labors and achievements he said this, which so far as it was known to her in life, must have been an immeasurable satisfaction: