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

by D. W. Fisher

Dr. Mateer was one of the leading “makers of the new China.” It is because of his “Mandarin Lessons” that it is now, in comparison with the olden times, so easy to acquire the language; thus not only the missionary but also the agents of modern civilization are helped to gain speedy access to the people. He was the first to plant a college in the great province of Shantung, the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius, and still the center to which the race turns as that from which has emanated their most dominant cult. He took the lead, even of all the missionary colleges, in the place which he assigned to physical science. With his own money he built a museum which he described as “a kind of polytechnic, for exhibiting foreign sciences and machinery to Chinese students and visitors.” There they could see the appliances of steam and of electricity at work, including a model railroad, and the telephone and telegraph. When the governor of the province organized his university at the capital, it was the man whom Dr. Mateer had made his successor in the college at Tengchow who was at first placed at its head, and five of the graduates were chosen to fill chairs in the new institution. He prepared text-books in mathematics, for which there is an enormous demand in the schools which are supplanting those of the olden time. To him more than to any other individual is due the translation of the New Testament into a form of the language which is just as intelligible to the man who can read but little, as to the educated; and which cannot be widely circulated without starting upward tendencies more mighty than those of railroads and western machinery. It would be preposterous to claim for any one person that he has been the maker of the new China; but there are not very many who, as to the mighty transformation apparently not far distant, rank so high up as Dr. Mateer.

Thus far in holding him up as one of these leaders I have not mentioned his influence as an effective missionary in the sphere usually occupied by the representatives of the gospel; and for the reason that, as to this, he is a sharer with a multitude of others. At present there must be about four thousand men and women—ordained ministers, and lay men and women—in that line of Christian service in China, and there are about two hundred thousand Chinese Christians. These, though scattered far and wide among the hundreds of millions of the population, are sufficient to be powerfully felt on the side of genuine progress. Though in rapidly lessening numbers, their presence stretches back to the coming of Robert Morrison, a hundred years ago. Dr. Mateer’s own judgment as to the relation of the missionary work to the present situation is well worth attention. In an article written by request, about nine months before his death, he said:

The nation is in a state of transition which, when compared with her past and her traditions, is nothing short of marvelous. Who would have predicted thirty-five years ago that such a state of things as the present would so soon prevail? God has used a variety of powerful forces to awaken China from her long sleep, not the least of which have been the presence and influence of the missionary. Aside from his main business, which is the conversion of individuals and the upbuilding of churches, he has had a powerful influence in a number of important matters. First, his residence in all parts of inland China has done far more than is generally known to remove prejudice and to familiarize the people with foreign ideas and things. Second, he has been a main factor in starting the anti-foot-binding movement that is now sweeping over the land. Third, he has been the chief mover in the remarkable anti-opium reformation that is now enlisting the utmost effort of the Chinese government. Lastly, in the intellectual awakening, and in starting the wonderful educational propaganda now being pushed forward by the government, he has been a potent factor. Missionaries have made the text-books, and the graduates of their schools have set the pace for this remarkable movement; and this has been done notwithstanding the intense prejudice that exists against Christianity and its professors.

Of the fact that he was face to face with a state of things that promised tremendous changes he was fully conscious. No man could have been more alive to his environment during these last years of his life. May 2, 1905, he wrote to a generous friend in the United States: “The state of things in China to-day presents a great contrast with what it was when I arrived here forty-one and a half years ago. Then everything was dead and stagnant; now all is life and motion. It is just fairly beginning, it is true, but there is the promise of great things in the near future.” September 1, 1907, in another letter to a friend, he says: “This great and massive people, so long below the horizon of the western world,—a misty, unknown land,—is looming large in the east, and the eyes of the west are on it. China is awakening from the sleep of ages. Her senses are still dull, benumbed by the traditional customs and conservative follies of the past, but her eyes are opening more and more, day by day. It is true she still wants to sleep on, but she cannot. The clamor of the world’s progress dins in her ears. Giant hands are shaking her. Specters fill her imagination and groundless fears make her troubled. She essays to rise, but has no strength. She is growing frantic at the realization of her own weakness and incompetence.”

CELEBRATING DR. MATEER’S SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY

Facing the new China he, while gladdened on the whole by the outlook, yet saw grave dangers in the way. Some of these are due, in his estimation, to characteristics that have rooted themselves very deeply in the spirit of the people at large. In his article on “Education in China” he said:

It is a peculiarity of the Chinese character that they are very hard to convince of the utility of a new thing, and must always be doubly sure before they decide to act; but as soon as the decision is made, they at once grow recklessly impatient for the consummation. The old educational methods and ideals are now abolished and the government is rushing headlong into new and hitherto untried measures. They issue commands to their subordinates without providing the means of carrying them out. The result is a chaos of more or less futile effort, attended by burdensome taxes and illegal exactions that produce disaffection and rebellion. The lack of competent teachers handicaps the whole movement. To the eye of a western educator most of their primary and secondary schools are little short of a farce. Mission schools have trained a large number of competent teachers, but in most cases the prejudice against Christianity is so strong that heathen schools will not use them. This prejudice is much stronger in the secondary schools than it is in the provincial colleges and universities. The high officials generally take more liberal views, and they are free from the social ostracism that prevents a small official or a private gentleman from employing a Christian teacher.

On account of the characteristics just described, while he rejoiced in the immense progress which Christianity was making both in the conversion of increasing thousands and also in its indirect influence over multitudes more, he had anxieties as to the near future of the church in that land. Writing to one of the secretaries of the American Bible Society, in January, 1906, he said: “If I understand the signs of the time in China, it will not be many years—I put it at ten to fifteen—until the Chinese church will declare her independence of the missionaries, pay her own expenses, and make her own creed.... What this creed will be, will depend very much on the kind and number of preachers we train in the meantime.” The speeches made at the Chinese Students’ Alliance, held at Hartford, August 24, 1910, both by the Chinese and by Americans, indicate a very strong tendency in this direction.

In view of the entire situation, national and religious, he iterated and reiterated that the most imperative duty of missionaries in China at present is the training of native preachers and teachers on a scale and in a manner that will fit them to meet the emergency, and to take advantage of the opportunity for the evangelization of the land and the starting of the church that soon must be, on a voyage that will not, through lack of chart and compass and proper guidance, wreck itself on the way. Here are some of his deliberate utterances within the last three years of his life: