The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-07-04

| you have the environment for the max
ing of a man ready for any deed of valor
| and capable of any endurance. Matthew
| Tyson Yates never forgot his debt to the
! simple home in which he was born and
reared. DR.. Taylor truly says, "Why the
| State has been so prolific of eminent men
is not difficult to explain. The condi-
tons of good ancestry, simplicity of life,
| necessity for labor, familiarity with ma
| ture, religious training, and freedom from
| grosser temptations have all been met in
| thousands of her old-fashioned country
| homes.'
At the age of eighteen he told his
| father that he was determined to have
| an education even if he had 'to make
| brick by moonlight to pay his way.
| His father, who was not able to educate
| his ten children, agreed to give him lib
| erty to go to school on his own RESPONSE
| bIlity when he was nineteen, and prom
| Used to assist him some. Rev. +. w.
Dowd recommended Wake Forest Hill
Academy. then taught by Mr.. G.. w.
| Thompson. and the young man went
| there two years. He felt the call to
preach. and tried to shake it off, but
could find no peace. Mr.. Thompson and
| Rev. Samuel Wait became interested in
| him. and President Wait urged him TO
come to Wake Forest College, and when
the future missionary replied that he WIS
twenty-one years old and did not
Wait. with the rare intuition into men
for which he was noted, replied, "Never
mind, never mind. where there is a will
there is a way. The State Convention
will help you; come to college; come next
session." He went, the convention did
take care of him, Wake Forest edu-
Gated him, and he was indebted to it
$3.50 upon his graduation. 1t was the
best Investment, if we leave out every
consideration except pecuniary, Wake
Forest ever made, for DR.. Yates made
money later in life and gave to the en-
dowment and students aid fund ut least
six thousand dollars. But that is the
smallest return, and is so treated by Dr.
Taylor.
The Mission Board accepted him in
1916, and on October 18th, in the city of
Raleigh, the missionary was ordained
1t was at the meeting of the Baptist
State Convention, and notable occasion
'The enthusiasm aroused by these inter
esting services, like n fertiliZing wave,
flowed over North Carolina and into 9th
err States" writes DR.. Taylor "The
long latent sense of obligation to the
heather was for the first time awakened
in many hearts. For Yates was the
first missionary to go from North Caro-
lima to foreign land" The Raleigh
Association unanimously resolved that
''this body adopts Brother Matthew T.
Yates as our son and missionary 10
China, and that we, MS body of Chris
tians, will give him Il competent support
during his stay or life" Before leaving,
the ardent young man was married to
Miss Eliza f. Moring, of Chatham
county, of whose zeal, education and
womanly graces too much can never be
said. With a party Of missionaries Mr..
Yates and his wife left their native land
embarking April Goth, 1917, at Boston
and reaching Shanghai on the 18th Of
September. They did not know soul in
oil Aei, l. 4
a word of Chinese. and it was the day
of pioneer missionary work in China
where no human eye could see any hope
in converting the almond-eyed Worship
pers of their ancestors. OF the trials over
come, of the difficulties surmOunted, of
the encouragement that were not al
lowed to discourage, and the hardships
and perils that preceded the dawning Of
the days of accepted and glorious sue
cess, DR.. Taylor tells us mainly through
extracts from letters written by the mis-
sionary and his wife. l regret that the
limits of this article do not permit even
a reference to them. 1t is enough to say
that by the testimony of such men as
DIR. Lambuth, Missionary Secretary of
the Methodist church, he wrought IL
work and attained a position that made
him the central figure of Protestant mis-
sionaries in the Shanghai district embrace
ing forty million people. He preached
every day, usually five to seven times Il
day; he learned the language and gained
the confidence of the natives; he built
schools and churches; wrote tracts in
the native tongue and dialect, of which
he early became Il master; compiled Il
dictionary and wrote Easy Lessons in
Chinese translated the New Tesla
ment; directed the work of his church
successfully without help after the first
few years, and accomplished n multi
tude of other things possible to no man
who had not conservation of spirit in
the body Of perfect animal. He was
the best speaker of the Chinese language
who has gone to China from America.
nd fbic oova him aoriuor from hon.