Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-16
ON THE TRAIL OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY

Of the foremost woman educators in Amer
lea.
The fame of Rev Dr. W. A. p Martin.
Chlna's Oldest missionary. is known where
ever men read thoroughly about China.
He was long head of the imperial uni
versity; he is author of standard works in
Chinese and upon China in English. His
magazine contributions have been legion.
fresh and zealful and busy as ever, and
still Looked up to for the last word upon
obscure Chinese subjects.
Another veteran, type of New England
at its best, is President D. u. Sheffield of
the North China Union College, Tung Chow.
To tell of his literary labors, ranging from
his universal history through a long list of
publications to his present work of Bible
translation, would be to outline great life
work for any man. Yet, these have been
a mere phase of his educational and direct
missionary effort At once dry Yankee
and a cultured gentleman and good COM
panion, DR.. Sheffield is worth travelling a
long way to know. In the same group with
him must be classed the famous Timothy
Richards of the Christian Literature So
ciety, an overlooking Welshman; Drs.
Wherry and Matter of the Presbyterian
board; DR.. Simmons of the Southern Bap-
fist board.
The romantic story of Bishop Scher-
eschewsky, the famous Chinese scholar who
died few months ago in Toxic, demands
page, and not paragraph. When l saw him
recently, although paralyZed and scarcely
able to speak inteligibly. he was working
on a complete set of references for his
Chinese Bible He was seventy-four years
old, when he died in the chair where he sat
for the twenty-five years of his paralysis,
during which time he had translated the
whole Bible into easy Wenli, or Mandarin,
which is the written language of three
fourths of all the people in China. His Old
Testament Mandarin is issued by both the
Bible societies. For seven years he worked
eight hours a day, seven days in the week,
OF. the translation and revision of this clas-
clio 10 o111 n@ tic
Bible" because he had laboriously written
it on typewriter with only two fingers on
his paralyzed hands that he could use at all.
Not alone for his splendid battle against
nous; his ability as Chinese scholar, and
as lingulst generally, was almost I'M
canny. He was Lithuanian Jew, and
when past his majority he went to America,
where he became a Christian and clergy
man in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Even before he was accepted as a mission
airy he had determined to translate the
Bible into Chinese. During the six months
voyage out he learned enough Chinese to be
able to write it acceptably when he arrived
at Shanghai. Twice he declined the bishopric,
which he finally obliged to accept.
When l saw him he said, after outlining
some translation projects which he had
hoped to undertake: But l am weary. !
want to go home, and 1 hope the good Lord
will send for me soon" Not many days
later l was shocked to learn that he had
quietly passed away while at his labors.
Just now the west seems to be flooding
the east with missionary authorities and
religious leaders. The tour of President
Charles Cutherbert Hall of Union Theolog-
zeal Seminary, New York, through India
and China, has been a notable triumph
Dr. Hall seems to possess a rare genius for
impressing his personality upon people. Mr..
Charles Alexander, the famous singer of
the Torrey-AleXander evangelistic combina-
ton, has been in the east for his wife's
. health. During a visit to missionary rela-
tives at Pakhoi he demonstrated the power
of a winsome personality over even people
of an alien tongue. At Hongkong he held
the largest religious meeting in the city
history, and at Manila he spoke in both the
Methodist and Presbyterian churches. A
week later, my ship was entering Hong
kong harbor by night launch passed full
of men singing Justify, The Glory Song"
Considering that this was Hongkong, the in
cident was a notable echo of the Alexander
meeting. Nor were the singers Y. NJ. c. A.
men: the working force of that organza-
ton has gone to Canton to attend the mar
rage of Secretary c. c. Rutledge of Phila-
delphia to Miss Edmunds of Baltimore.
There are three special reasons for the
presence of so many American churchmen
in the orient at this time; the Methodist
missionary 1uollee In lndla' at the end of
last year, the worlds student federation
convention in Toxic in May and the centen-
NAL celebration of Chinese missions in
April-May. | have CHANGED to meet per-
sonally, or to strike the trail of Bishop
Cyrus D. Foss of Philadelphia, Secretary
Lloyd of the Protestant Episcopal mission
board, Secretary Barton of the American
board, Secretary Cox of the American Bible
Society. Secretary MacKay of the Canadian
PRESBYTERIAN board, John r. Mott of the
Information Y. NJ. c. A, President Gou-
cher of the Woman's University, Baltimore;
two Methodist editors, DR.. Parkhurst of