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32 THE
RECOLLECTIONS OF DR. MATEER, OF
CHINA.
By Rev. Geo. W. Chalfant.
On the evening of the second day of the
battle of Gettysburg Dr. C. W. Mateer
sailed in company with Dr. Hunter Corbett
for his distant fioi.i nt uw r"-1?
_ MV.u Vi inuui ill V/UUia.
The voyage occupied more than five
months, and they did not learn of the issue
of the great battle for a period of
nine months.
The coasting vessel on which they
made the journey north from Shanghai
was wrecked in the Shantung Peninsula.
Although entirely ignorant of the
language they were sheltered by the
plain people on the coast and enabled to
reach their desination at Chefoo, not
many miles distant.
Teng Chow Fu, on the gulf of Pe Chili,
fifty miles north of Chefoo, was his appointed
field of labor. Horo bo boroQ~
soon as he had acquired a sufficient mastery
of the language, the evangelistic and
itinerating work of a foreign missionary,
but at the same time also what was his
great life work?the founding and development
of a Christian college.
He did not propose to establish a
charity school. The students must be for
the most part self-supporting. He would
not teach the English language?because
he would have been soon overwhelmed
with young men seeking to qualify themselves
for service with foreigners, already
coming in considerable numbers to the
coast cities. His young men must be educated
for the service of their own people.
He had to create or translate most of
the text-books for the college curriculum.
He had to teach many of his students
trades by which they could earn their
ouyyuiu ne naa to estanusn a grade of
scholarship and manhood that would win
the respect of all cultured people. All
this and more he accomplished.
In a few years the great viceroy, Li
Hung Chang, sent him an offer, repeated
from year to year, of a government appointment
for life to every young man
holding a diploma from his college. Yet
it Is worthy of note that not one of his
graduates accepted this tempting offer.
Left to their own unbiased choice they
proposed to become teachers of their own
people at a salary not exceeding three
dollars per month, or pastors of native
churches, who rarely received more than
five dollars per month.
Two of these men we heard preaching
to large conerreeratinns wnti tv
^ O TT *vu iiiaicci
by our side to translate the discourses
line by line, our judgment was that in
dignity and force, in exposition of the
Scriptures and application of the truth
these men were the peers of our best
American preachers.
The graduates of this college are sought
after by the missions of all lands and
churches in the provinces where the Mandarin
dialect is spoken?perhaps nearly
half the empire, including Manchuria. The
government employs all it can get in the
imperial colleges now being established.
The future historian may record that the
: PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUTF
greatest event of the twentieth century I
has been the awakening of the Chinese i
people from the sleep of ages. In that ;
event and its momentous results to the I
world's progress and the final triumph of
the Kingdom of God the college of Teng
Chow Fu. now the Union College of Wei
Hsien, and Dr. Mateer, its chief founder, j
will have no mean part."?The Westmin- j
ster.
LIFF A niCPIBI IKIET
Sooner or later we find out that life is
not a holiday, but a discipline. Earlier or I
later we all discover that the world is not
a playground; it is quite clear God means
it for a school. The moment we forget
that, the puzzle of life begins. We try to ;
play in school; the Master does not mind i
that so much for its own sake, for he likes j
to see his children happy, but in our play- j
ing we neglect our lessons. We do not j
see how much there is to learn, and we \
do not care, but our Master cares. He ;
has a perfectly overpowering and inex- [
plicable solicitude for our education; and
because he loves us, he comes into the
school sometimes and speaks to us. He
may speak very softly and gently, or very
loud. Sometimes a look is enough, and
we understand it, like Peter, and go out |
at once and weep bitterly. Sometimes
the voice is like a thunder clap startling
a summer night. But one thing we may
be sure of?the task he sets us to is never
measured by our delinquency.
The discipline may seem far less than
our desert, or even to our eye ten times
more. But It is not measured by these;
it is measured by God's love; measured
solely that a scholar may be better educated
when he arrives at his Father's.
The discipline of life is a preparation for
meeting the Father. When we arrive
there to "behold his beauty" we must
have the educated eye; and that must
De trained nere. we need much practice
?that we shall "see God." That explains
life?why God puts man in the crucible,
and makes him pure by Are.
SAFE IN HIS HAND.
There is a finality about the past that
always gives a touch of solemnity to the
passing of the year; the opportunities
are gone, as are the failures and temptations.
There is in these hearts of ours
that which craves something new; a new
start is always hopeful. We grow tired
of work and the everlasting monotony of
life, and the wish to begin over is a natural
one. If we only could.
It is here that the Gospel comes in with
its great good tidings. In Christ all things
are new. The heart is made new; born
again as a little child. It is dead to the
old life and thrilling with a new life?
eternal life. Old chains are broken. Old
habits are dead. The face is set toward
the morning, and the duties of the day
uic Laiven up wkd 11 new irusi in mm wdo
maketh all things new.
"Hid in the shadow of his hand;
Oh, blessed hiding place!
Or on the sea or on the land
That promise doth all fear efface;
Hid in the shadow of his hand."
He that has more knowledge than
judgment is made for another man's use
more than his own.?William Penn.
I. January 6, 1909.
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