President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D.D. Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D.D., Robert B. Forman, Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D.D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D.D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.
Directors: Rev. George Mooar, D.D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Howell, Rev. John Kimball, A. L. Van Blarcon, Esq., George Harris, Esq., and the Secretary ex officio.
Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E. Palache, Esq.
JEE GAM ON THE MISSION IN CHINA.
[The sixth anniversary (eighth year) of our Chinese Schools takes place next Sabbath, April 24th. The following address has been prepared by Jee Gam to be delivered on that occasion. I forward it as a sort of first instalment in our plea for the commencement of a work greatly needed, and capable, if rightly carried on, of yielding most blessed results.—W. C. P.]
In China proper, exclusive of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, etc., there are eighteen provinces, among them Kwong Dioung, of which the well-known city of Canton is the capital. This province embraces 77 districts, and almost all of our Christian Chinese come from four of these districts, which lie in a cluster about eighty miles south-west of Canton, and 100 miles west of Hong Kong. To these districts our young men expect to return, and many of them already have returned. Their faith has often been tried, but they have stood firm, and have often come forth victorious, because the Lord Jehovah has been with them.
I wish I could tell you all about the trials and persecutions of these converts; but time will not permit, so I will briefly relate the story of the marriage ceremonies of Lee Fon and Quong Jo. These two brethren went home some three years ago. Not long after they had arrived the time for their marriages was undesignedly appointed on the same day. When they learned of this, and found that the day for their marriages could not be changed, they were very much grieved, for they did not wish the ceremony to be performed in a heathen manner. The principal rites of a Chinese wedding are the worshiping of ancestors, and of the household gods. The bride and bridegroom are married separately at their own homes. After the marriage of the bride, she is taken to the home of the bridegroom. Then both worship the ancestors together.
Within a distance of eighteen miles there were only two Christians—one of them a native preacher. The help of these men was very much needed. There being such a long distance between them, it would have been impossible for the native missionary and the convert to attend both ceremonies. So Quong Jo decided to stand alone, and oppose his brothers and relatives, who were urging him to worship the ancestors. He would not do this. They reviled him, and threatened to compel him. He still stood firm, for the Lord was with him even there, alone in that heathen village. Finally they left him to himself to worship whatever God he pleased. When the time came to place the offerings before the ancestral tablets, Quong Jo turned the opposite way, and prayed aloud to the true God whom he had learned to worship in America. He was closely watched by a crowd.
At the same time the marriage of Lee Fon was taking place in his own village, about ten miles from Quong Jo’s home. The native preacher and his convert were invited a few days previous, and arrived early in the morning of the day of the marriage. As soon as they entered the reception hall of the village, the cry on the streets was: “Two barbarians have come to the wedding.” Fifteen minutes afterwards the hall was filled. Among those present were teachers and professors who had come to argue with the so-called “barbarians.” For several hours the argument was kept up, but each of these followers of Confucius was, in turn, silenced. His brothers and relatives, who had been the chief persecutors, now said, “We will let you worship the foreign Jesus.” After this contest the missionary and the native convert returned with the bridegroom and his friends to his home, where the marriage ceremony was concluded by prayer and praises to God, instead of the worship of ancestors. Thus these two battles for the right were gained by four Christians.