“‘Then has the Lord met with a loss thereby?’ ‘No, but Meroz has.’
“‘Is Meroz, then, to be cursed therefor?’ ‘Yes, and that bitterly.’
“‘Is it right that a man should be cursed for having done nothing?’ ‘Yes, when he should have done something.’
“‘Who says that?’ ‘The angel of the Lord; and the Lord Himself says (Luke 12:47); “He that knew his Lord’s will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.”’”
|Danger and Loss.| In 1871 two of the stations of the Rhenish Society were destroyed by a fanatic mob who accused the missionaries of desiring to poison all those who were not Christians. Again in 1898, stations were destroyed by robbers and rebels. Fortunately the Boxer uprising in 1900 left the property of this mission almost untouched and the missionaries returning after it was safe, were able to begin almost where they had left off.
At Tungkum the society has a large hospital, whose superintendent had in 1899 twenty thousand consultations. The latest reports gave two thousand five hundred church members divided among seven stations, at which there are twenty-three missionaries. In 1873 the Rhenish Society took over what remained of Gützlaff’s mission.
|A Missionary Scholar.| Among the missionaries of the Rhenish Society was Doctor Ernest Faber, a scholar of immense learning, who, after being in the service of the Society for eight years joined the General Protestant Missionary Society. He is especially famous for his translations of the Chinese classics and it was said of him that he spoke a better Chinese than the natives themselves.
|A Chinese Saint Paul.| The Berlin Society has two separate fields of labor in China. The first is in the Province of Canton, near the missions of the Basel and Rhenish societies. The mission has its record of loss and persecution during the native uprisings and also its stories of victory. In its early history the station at Thamschui was the scene of a cruel attack. The mob was led by a young man blowing a trumpet and calling to his followers to exterminate the foreign devils, who meanwhile fled from house roof to house roof and finally escaped. Subsequently this young man was converted and became a powerful evangelist who like Saint Paul endeavored with all his power to build up that which he had hitherto torn down.
|In Time of Famine.| The second station of the Berlin Society is in the Province of Shantung. In consequence of the assistance given during the famine in 1889, when over $200,000 was distributed and over one hundred thousand lives saved, many became interested in Christianity as the religion which inspires deeds of kindness and mercy; and during 1890 it is said that over a thousand persons were baptized whose attention was drawn to the religion of Christ by the fact that the missionaries were so prominent in securing this aid and distributing it. In this work and its reward the Berlin Society had a part.
The following letter from a missionary of the Berlin Society describes vividly a Chinese city and gives an account of the work of the Christian evangelist.