Great missionaries of the church

Front matter

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Preface

The admirable Introduction to this volume, from the pen of my friend, the Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., makes a formal preface unnecessary. I wish, however, to acknowledge the kindness of those who have made this book possible by their timely aid.

My best thanks are due to the proprietors of that excellent Christian paper. The Congregatioualist, in whose columns eight of these sketches have already appeared, for permission to republish them, together with fifteen others, in permanent form. As a fittingr recognition of the invaluable aid I have received from Mrs. Josephine A. B. Goodnow of Dubuque, Iowa, her name has been placed on the title page.

vi PREFACE.

I have also received valuable assistance in the matter of data, and in other ways, from Mrs. Mary E. Logan, late missionary in Micronesia ; Miss Clementine Butler, Newton Centre, Mass. ; the Rev. James Mudge, Lowell, Mass., late associate of Bishop Thoburn in India ; the Rev. Ross Taylor, New York ; and Mr. James D. Creegan of Brooklyn.

I wish also to acknowledge many courtesies from the publishers at whose suggestion the book has been prepared, and who have, through their artistic and mechanical work, left nothing to be desired.

The reader will miss the names of some famous missionaries of this century ; but the plan of the book will be seen, w^hen it is observed that we have representatives from seven denominations and sixteen mission lands. To include all the missionary heroes of our time would require several volumes.

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If these sketches help to deepen sympathy for missions, and to increase gifts to the cause, and if they may be the means of leading some of our young people to follow the example of these noble men, who have given their all to build up Christ's Kingdom, they will have fully answered the purpose for which they are now sent forth.

Bible House, New York, May ID, 1895.

Introduction

I CAN scarcely conceive of a more useful book for young- people to own and study than this most interestingf volume of missionary biography.

If it is a vitally necessary thing for young Christians who would develop the most intelligent type of religious character to know the lives of the apostles of old, and to become familiar with their acts as recorded by the pen of inspiration, it is scarcely less important that they should study the later and no less thrilling acts of later apostles of the church.

In this volume the acts of the apostles are continued in graphic and interesting chapters. Young people everywhere, whatever their age or sex (for there is many a young man and woman with heart fresh

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X INTRODUCTION.

and un furrowed, though the brow may be wrnikled by three-score years and ten), enjoy stirring adventures, Hvely incidents, and heroic stories.

No less Interesting to every healthy mind is a well-written biograghy, a story which tells of the actual hopes and fears and joys and acts of a living man. This volume combines the excellences of the spirited story of adv^enture, and the graphic biography of real men and women. What more happy combination could be found ? The biography in almost every case is a story of adventure ; the story of adventure is a biography — a life history of some ofreat man or woman.

After having taken a long journey through many missionary lands, my deliberate and often recorded opinion has been that, if we seek for heroes to-day, we will find them, for the most part, on missionary soil. Not that many a humble, inconspicuous life is not lived most heroically at home. I would not belittle with a sing-le adjective of faint praise the splendid devo-

IXTRODUCTfON. XI

tion of humble Christians, But if we are speaking of conspicuous heroism, of hves which God has marked as eminent examples to the world, we must look for them very largely on the frontier of our own land where our home missionaries have gone, or in the dark nations of the world to which our foreign missionaries are carrying the light of gospel truth.

I am olad to record aeain that missionary work in all the various Protestant denominations, in all parts of the world, is, in my e)'es, the most promising and hopeful feature of modern civilization. For the enlargement of commerce, for the spread of civilization, for the uplifting of humanity, for the redemption of the world, there is no such force as that which is exerted by the Anglo-Saxon missionaries of the cross, the ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If this opinion is true of the average missionary to-day, at work in the foreign field, and I believe it is, how doubly true is it of the great missionaries of the

Xll INTRODUCTION.

church, Patteson and Carey and Neesima and Wilhams and Taylor and Livingstone.

It only remains to be said that this most interesting subject is treated by its authors in a way worthy of their theme. With this book in his hands, no one can say that missionary biography is dull, stale, and uninteresting. No one will yawn over insipid pages, or read only from a sense of duty these charming chapters. If more light and more knowledge are the great prerequisites for larger interests and larger gifts, then I believe that this volume will do not a little to kindle to a brighter flame the interest of Christians in missionary themes.

Already the fire has begun to blaze in many a young heart. In a multitude of young people's conventions no theme to-day is so interesting as the missionary theme. No subjects so stir the hearts and quicken the pulses of a host of young disciples as those connected with the winning of the world to Christ. This book will supply the fire of enthusiasm with the

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one fuel that is needed — the fuel of information.

If this result is accomplished, then the missionary treasuries will feel the influence of this book. To some extent the mountainous debt should be scaled down, and the treasuries, refilled as this volume goes from family to family on its blessed mission of information and inspiration.

FRANCIS E. CLARK.

Boston, April %, 1895.

Contents

CHAPTER

PAGE

Preface v

I. Bishop Patteson

The lives of some men are an atmosphere into which we cannot enter without feehng braced and invigorated. Such was the hfe of John Coleridge Patteson, possessing as it did the attributes of real manhood, unswerving allegiance to right, and a human tenderness. The poor heathen, for whose sake he gave up all, were the most unpromising material to be found in the wide world for conversion into citizens of the kingdom of heaven. But the faith of Patteson was constantly strengthened by witnessing the spiritual beauty and fidelity of those who in due time sat at the feet of Christ, clothed and in their right mind.

John Coleridge Patteson was born on April I, 1827. His father, John Patteson, was a lawyer of no mean repute. His mother was of the Coleridge family, and her line was distinguished by the philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. To the future bishop she gave her family name ; and to those who knew him best, not only as a boy, but afterwards when he had reached man's estate, he was known as " Coley." Consideration for others, kindness and sweetness of nature, were his leadino- characteristics.

While at Eton he was profoundly impressed by a farewell sermon which Bishop Selwyn preached in October, 1841, at Windsor, where the bishop had acted as curate. When callincr on his mother to bid her farewell, that eminent prelate and missionary said, with a kind of prophetic anticipation, " Lady Patteson, will you give me Coley ? " and the boy said he would

BISHOP PATTESON. 5

like some time to go with the bishop. Meantime his school-hfe was arduous and successful. At Oxford, where he entered with deep interest into the religious movements of the day, he obtained, in 1849, a classical second class, and subsequently a fellowship.

His examination for his degree was followed by a tour in Germany and Italy. In 1853 ^^ '^v^s ordained, and took the curacy of Alfineton. Here his sweet manner and musical voice helped to win the hearts of his people ; but general society he never liked, small talk he declared he could not manufacture, and morning callers were the plague of his life.

On the 19th of August, 1854, he joined in welcoming the bishop of New Zealand, who came to visit Encrland after twelve years of work, during which he had founded his church, organized its government, and planned his system of missionary aggression on the five groups of islands which he combined under the collective name of Melanesia. As early as 1848 Bishop Selwyn had visited these islands ; and he soon perceived that it was vain to think of dealing- with them by planting a resident English clergyman in each of them. He also believed that no church could take effectual root without a native clergy ; and he accordingly determined upon the plan to bring boys from the islands to New Zealand, to educate them there in St. fohn's College, and then send them home to become teachers of their countrymen.

But what was now necessary was a man who should be able to " rouofh it" amonof the islands, and yet take up with spirit and ability the education and training of the islanders themselves. In quest of such help Bishop Selwyn visited England again, and now followed up the thought of 1841, by asking .Sir John Patteson, "Will you give me Coley ? " His words fell upon a mind in the young man himself already charged with the subject ; and in March, 1855, he left, his villagers deploring his departure, and sailed for New Zealand.

Here he wrought earnestly in the schools

BISHOP PATTESON. 7

until i860, when, despite his modest reluctance, he obeyed the earnest requisition of Bishop Selwyn, and agreed to undertake the episcopal office. In this year, i860, he assumed the direction of the Melanesian mission, and founded a mission-house at Mota. He was consecrated bishop on February 24 ; and from this time for ten and a half years remained in sole charge of the missions of the Church in the islands. Lady Martin gives the following brief description of the consecration service : "I shall never forget the expression of his face as he knelt in the quaint rocket. It was meek and calm and holy, as though all conflict was over, and he was resting in divine strenofth. It was altogether a wonderful scene — the three consecrating bishops, all noble-looking men, the goodly number of clergy, and Hohna's fine, intelligent, brown face among them, and then the long line of island boys and of St. Stephen's native teachers and their wives, — all living testimonies of mission-work." Bishop Patteson was now formally in-

Stalled in the chapel of St. Andrew as head of the college. Miss Yonge says : " It was in his private classes that he exercised such wonderful influence, his musical voice, his holy face, his gentle manner, all helping to impress and draw even the dullest."

Putting down his natural fastidiousness, he gave dignity to the very humblest of his duties. Some idea of his many-sidedness may be had from the following letter : " I can hardly tell you how much I regret not knowing somethino- about the treatment of simple surgical cases. If I had studied the practical, bled, drawn teeth, mixed medicines, it would have been worth something. Many trades need not be attempted ; but every missionary ought to be a carpenter, a mason, something of a butcher, and a good deal of a cook."

The incessant labors and occasional dangers of his life were relieved by his vivid interest in his work, and by his enjoyment of a climate which was to him highly genial. The spirit of fun, which had had free play in his boyhood, did not depart from him

Bisrror patteson.

during' his episcopate, and it found fittest openings in the innocent festivities amone the natives. He taucjht them to play cricket. They showed a marvellous eagerness for knowledo^e, and labored like the smallest English children at the mysteries of the alphabet. Patteson could not bring himself to consider the poor, unen- Hghtened heathen as under special condemnation ; rather, he rejoiced in hope of the glory of God fulfilled in them when the light of the gospel shall shine in their hearts. He was a believer in the love of God.

Early in 1870 Bishop Patteson was struck down by a severe and dangerous attack of internal inflammation, and it was evident that his unremitted exertion was carrying him with great rapidity into an early old aee. With darkened countenance, and frame prematurely bowed, he went to Auckland for advice. His ailment was declared chronic, but not necessarily fatal. He began to be aware that there must be a change in the amount and character of his work. He says : — lO GREAT MISSIONARIES.

" I think I shall have to forego some of the more risky and adventurous part of the work in the islands. I don't mean that I shall not take the voyages, and stop about on the islands as before ; but I must do it all more carefully, and avoid much that of old I never thouo-ht about."

He mended very slowly ; but he determined to return to Melanesia. He completed his circuit of the islands in October, and, arriving at Norfolk Island, resumed his old mapping of the day for teaching, study, and devotion, never forgetting correspondence in its turn. He worked " from before 5 a.m. till soon after 9 P.M., when I go off to bed quite tired. I am very seldom alone. I may do a great deal of work yet, rather in a quieter way than of old."

His mind continued to act, however, with unabated interest upon all portions of his work, and also upon Hebrew philologically viewed, upon the events of the year at Rome and on the French frontier, and upon theology. On April 27, 1871, he set

BISHOP PATTESON. II

(Hit for his closing- voyage. At Mota, the missionary headquarters, he recognized a great progress. Christianity had so far become a power and habit of hfe, that he felt warranted, notwithstanding all his strictness about the aciministration of baptism, in giving that sacrament to young children. After quite a visit at Fiji, he leaves there, having baptized 289 persons, and visits other groups of islands. His experience is generally pleasant, but it is checkered by rumors of crime and retaliation for crime in connection with the labor traffic. Returninof to Mota, he makes record of a concourse of people flocking to be taught. " I sleep on a table ; people under and around me."

Such was the nightly preparation of the invalid for his long, laborious, uncomplaining days. On August 6 we have several thoughtful pages on difficulties of theology: " How thankful I am that I am far away from the noise and worry of this sceptical yet earnest age."

Sailing on the 20th, he sends to Bishop

Abraham an interesting summary of the state of things at Mota. The bishops, his brethren in New Zealand, jointly urged him to pfo to Eno^land ; but he declined. The slave traffic still casts a dark shadow across his path. " I hear that a vessel has gone to Santa Cruz ; and I must be very cautious there, for there has been some disturbance almost to a certainty." On September i6 he finds himself off the Santa Cruz group : "I pray God that if it be his will, and if it be the appointed time, he may enable us in his own way to begin some little work among these very wild but energetic islanders. I am fully alive to the probability that some outrage has been committed here by one or more vessels. I am quite aware that we may be exposed to considerable risk on this account, but I don't think there is very much cause for fear ; first, because at these reef islands they know me very well, though they don't understand as yet our object in coming to them, and they may very easily connect us white people with the other

BISHOP PATTESON. I 3

white people who have ill-treated them. Still, I think if any violence has been used to the natives to the north face of the large island, Santa Cruz, I shall hear of it, and so be forewarned."

Accordingly, to Nukapu he went. Four canoes were seen hovering about the coral reef which surrounded the island. The vessel had to feel her way ; so, lest the men in the canoes should be perplexed, he ordered the boat to be lowered, and when asked to go into one of the native boats, he did it to disarm suspicion, and was carried off toward the shore. The boat from the schooner could not get over the reef. The bishop was seen to land on the shore, and was then seen alive no more. After a while Mr. Atkin was struck with an arrowhead from the islanders in the canoe ; but, in spite of suffering and weakness, he crossed the reef to seek the bishop. A canoe drifted toward them ; the body of a man was seen as if crouching in it. They came up with it, and lifted the bundle wrapped in matting into the -boat ; two words passed, "The body." Then it was hfted up and laid across the skyHght. The placid smile was still on the face ; there was a palm-leaf fastened over the breast, and when the mat was opened there were five wounds.

This is an almost certain indication that his death was vengeance for five of the natives. " Blood for blood " is a sacred law almost of nature wherever Christianity has not prevailed, and a whole tribe is held responsible for one. Five men in Fiji are known to have been stolen from Nukapu ; and probably their families believed them to have been killed, and believed themselves to be performing a sacred duty when they dipped their weapons in the blood of the bishop, whom they did not know well enough to understand him to be their protector.

The next morning the body of John Coleridee Patteson was committed to the waters of the Pacific, Joseph Atkin, reading the burial service, even though then recognizing his own sign of doom in a

BISHOP PATTESON. I 5

body stiffened from a poisonous arrow which caused his death.

No summary can do justice to the character and career of Bishop Patteson. In him were singularly combined the spirit of chivalry, the glorious ornament of a bygone time ; the spirit of charity, rare in every age ; and the spirit of reverence. It is hardly possible to read the significant but modest record of his sacrifices, his labors, his perils, and his cares, without being vividly reminded of St. Paul, the prince and model of all missionary laborers, without feeling that the apostolic pattern is not even now without its imitators, and that the copy in this case recalls the original. The three hicrhest titles that can be criven to man are those of martyr, hero, saint ; and which of the three is there that in substance it would be irrational to attach to the name of John Coleridge Patteson ?

II. TITUS CO AN, Missionary to Hawaii

Born Feb. i, iSoi ; Died Dec. i, 1S82.

TITUS COAN.

II.

A BELT of island coast-line extending from north to south a hundred miles, and from one to three miles wide, dotted with groves and seamed by deep mountain chasms and scoriaceous lava-fields, varied by plains and hills of pasture-land, upon which feed herds of wild cattle — a land inhabited by 15,000 natives, grouped in villages of two or more hundred people, vicious, shameless, yet tractable, slaves to their chiefs, and herdino- tog-ether like animals — to this parish, occupying the eastern third of the island of Hawaii, was sent in 1835 the young missionary, Titus Coan.

In the town of Killingworth, Conn., he was born of old New England stock, Feb. I, 1 80 1. His boyhood was passed upon his father's farm, and he attended the villaee schools. Later he went to a miUtary school ; after this was employed as a teacher in Western New York ; and in 183 1, through the influence of his cousin, the Rev. Asahel Nettleton, he entered the theological seminary at Auburn. While Mr. Coan was in the seminary he gave much time to revival effort, and success attended his labors. He was licensed to preach April 17, 1833. On Aug. 16, 1833, he was sent to Patagonia by the American Board, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Arms ; and for four months they niade an earnest but unsuccessful attempt to communicate to the ferocious nomads something of their message. The savages threatened them with death ; and it was only by stratagem that they made their escape, and boarded a chance vessel, and returned to New London, Conn., in May, 1834.

Mr. Coan had been unable to receive any communication from his family or from his fiancee, Miss Fidelia Church, during his absence ; and the uncertainty of his fate had been the source of the deepest anxiety to them. After this trial came the joy of reunion, which was celebrated by the marriage of Mr. Coan and Miss Church on Nov. 3, 1834.

On December 5 they embarked at Boston for Honolulu. At diat time the Hawaiian Islands seemed at the very ends of the earth, and the trip was a six months' voyage around Cape Horn. Neither Mr. Coan nor his bride then had any idea of returning to their native land. They arrived at Honolulu, June 6, 1835, and were welcomed by the missionaries then assembled at their annual meeting. The field in which Mr. Coan was to labor was Hilo — now a thriving town, then in almost absolute retirement ; and for many years after his arrival there were no roads, no bridges, and no horses in Hilo, and Mr. Coan was oblicred to make his tours on foot. Mr. and Mrs. Coan were delighted that their future home was to be upon the beautiful bay of Hilo, called after the visit of Admiral Byron, Byron's Bay, and adorned with the cocoa-pahn, whose lofty plumes rustled in the fresh sea-breeze. Upon reaching the island, Mr, Coan found several schools established by the different missionaries, and that about onefourth of the natives could read. There were a few hopeful converts, and a little church of thirty-six members, Mr. Lyman and his wife were then on the ground, having settled at Hilo in 1832 ; and there they remained until the death of Mr. Lyman in 1884, after an unbroken residence of fifty-two years. They had charge of a boarding-school, and much labor at the home station ; while to Mr. Coan, robust in health and a fervid speaker, the preaching and the touring were naturally assigned. In three months' time he beo-an to speak in the native tongue ; and before the year closed he had made the circuit of the island by canoe and on foot, a trip of 300 miles. He preached fortythree times in eight days, examined twenty schools, and more than 1,200 scholars; conversed personally with multitudes, and ministered to many sick persons, for he was something of a physician. He had at that time a daily school of ninety teachers, and Mrs. Coan one of 140 children.

In 1835 Mr. Coan said, " I have literally no leisure so much as to eat, finding myself constrained to preach, at times, twice before breakfast." During his tours through the island in 1836, the natives rallied in masses to hear Mr. Coan preach. The blind were led ; the maimed, the aged, and invalids were brought on the backs of their friends. Among the converts was the high priest of the volcano. He had been an idolater, a drunkard, and a murderer ; but he became penitent, and, wath his sister, the haughty, stubborn high priestess of the volcano, entered the church.

In 1837 the great interest became general throuehout all the islands. Fifteen thousand people, scattered up and down the coast for a hundred miles, could not be reached by one man ; and so whole villages gathered from miles away, and made their homes near the mission-house.

Hilo was crowded with strangers. Little cabins studded the place like the camps of an army, and the population increased to 10,000 souls. The old church was packed with a sweltering" and restless mass of 6,000 souls. A new church near by took the overflow of 2,000, while hundreds pressed about the doors.

The revival was at its height Nov. 7, 1837. T^"^^ crescent beach, dotted with native booths, reaching up into the charming groves behind, was in peaceful security. It w^as the hour of evening prayer. Suddenly a great cry and wail arose, and a scene of indescribable confusion followed. The sea, moved by an unseen hand, had suddenly risen, and the volcanic wave fell upon the shore like a bolt from heaven. In a moment hundreds of people were strueSfline with the billows. " There was no sleep that night ; but the next day the meetings went on with renewed power, and through all the week, as the sea gave up one after another its dead, and the people bore them to their resting-places, the

Spirit sent home this new sorrow with divine effect."

No one knew his people better than Mr. Coan ; but it was only by an exact system that he was able to care for his parish of 15,000 souls. His work was done by " drawing lines in the parish ; by dividing the people into sections and classes ; by attending to each class separately, systematically, and at a given time." Although thousands professed conversion during the years 1836-183 7, only a small proportion of these had been received into the church. Over these converts Mr. Coan kept a vigilant watch ; and, after a lapse of three, six, nine, or twelve months, selections were made for admission to the church.

The first Sunday of July, 1838, was a memorable one in the history of missions. On that afternoon 1,705 men, women, and children were baptized, and about 2,400 communicants sat down together at the table of the Lord, a scene that has had but one parallel since the day of Pente- . cost, and that was in connection with the labors of the Rev. Dr. Clough in India. In speaking of this scene, Mr. Coan said, " The memorable morning came arrayed in glory; the very heavens over us and the earth around us seemed to smile. From my roll each name was read ; and after all were seated, I passed back and forth between the lines, sprinkling each individual, until all were baptized." During the three years ending April, 1840, 7,382 persons were received into the church at Hilo. Between the years 1864 and 1868, six churches were built and set off from the old one, and each was under the care of a native preacher. Hawaiian money and labor have added many churches to this number ; and, in visiting the islands in 1870, Mr. Stoddard writes of these "pretty little meeting-houses, looking as though they had been baked in a lot, like a sheet of biscuits."

After an absence of more than thirty-five years, during which time Mr. Coan had baptized by his own hand 1 1 .960 persons, at the invitation of the American

TTTUS CO AN. 2 J

Board he returned, with Mrs. Coan, to the United States. The visit was full of interest ; but the hoped-for restoration of health did not come to Mrs. Coan, and soon after their return to Hilo she died, Sept. 29, 1872.

Mrs. Coan's work was ever constant and tireless. She was a woman of hio-h social and intellectual cultivation, and missionary work for her was a sacrifice. To her patient, unselfish, loving- spirit was due a great part of her husband's success. While Mr. Coan was intent upon his great work as a missionary, he was not insensible to the scenes of natural beauty and grandeur about him. The scientific world is fortunate in having had upon the ground for nearly fifty years, when such volcanic forces were at play, one whose courage was equalled only by his graphic skill in portraying the most imposing of phenomena. One fruit of the faithful training- of Mr. Coan is the growth of beneficence in the churches. More than $10,000 have come to the United States from the Hilo church.

This item adds strength to the statement of Lorrin A. Thurston, in a recent article in the North American Revieiv : " The direct financial advantao^es accruinor to the United States and its citizens, which they would not have received but for the treaty of 1876, have more than repaid, dollar for dollar, all loss by the United States through remission of duties under the reciprocity treaty."

Whence came this matter of political treaties and civilization to Hawaii ? Surely throuo-h the American missionaries who first introduced Christianity and refined institutions to its people, prominent among whom was the Rev. Titus Coan, who, after a pastorate of forty-eight years, died at Hilo, Dec. I, 1882.

III. Missionary to Turkey

WILLIAM GOODELL.