The Virginia enterprise., 1907-12-20

'n1' Sly, he is author OF
standard works in Chinese and upon
emma in English His magazine con-
tr'Dutlons have been legion Withal,
at 80 years of age, he is as fresh and
zeallui and busy as ever, and still
looked up to for the last word upon
obscure Chinese subjects.
Another veteran, type of New
England at it's best, is President D. z.
Sheffield. of the North China Union
college, Tung Chow. To tell of his
literary labors, ranging from his uni
versal history through a long list of
publications to his present work of
Bible translation. would be to out
line a 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
cultured gentleman and good compan-
ion, 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 society, an overflOWing
Welshman: Drs. Wherry and Mateer,
OF the Presbyterian board; Dr.. Sim
mons, Of the Southern Baptist board.
The romantic story of Bishop Scher-
escheWsky, the famous Chinese
scholar who died a few months ago in
Toxic, demands page, and not
paragraph. When I saw him recently,
although paralyzed and scarcely able
to speak intelligibly, he was working
on complete set of references for
his Chinese Bible. He was IA years
old, when he died in the chair where
he sat for the % years of his paraly
sis; during which time he had trans
lated the whole Bible into easy Wenli,
or Mandarin, which is the written lam
guage of three-fourths of all the peo-
pie in China His Old Testament
Mandarin is issued by both the Bible
societies. For seven years he worked
eight hours day, seven days in the
week, on the translation and revision
OF this classical version. He called it
his ''two-fingered Bible" because he
had laboriously written it on type
writer with only two fingers on his
paralyzed hands that he could use at
all. Not alone for his splendid bat
tie against affliction was Bishop Schef-
eschewsky famous; his ability as a
Chinese scholar, and as linguist gen
orally, was almost uncanny. He was
Lithunian Jew, and when past his
majority he went to America, where
he became a Christian and a clergy
man in the Protestant Episcopal
| church Even before he was accepted
as a missionary he had determined to
translate the Bible into Chinese. Dur
ing 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 was finally
obliged to accept. When saw him he
said, after outlining some translation
projects which he had hoped to under.
take: But l am weary. want to 60
home, and I 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.
American Cnurchmen Abroad.
Just now the west seems to be
flooding the east with missionary au-
thorities and religious leaders. The
tour of President Charles Cutherbert
Hall, Of Union Theological seminary,
| New York. through India and China,
has been a notable triumph. DR.. Hall
seems to possess rare genius for i'm
pressing his personality upon people.
Mr.. Charles Alexander, the famous
singer of the Torrey-Alexander evan
gelistic combination, has been in the
east for his wife's health. During a
visit to missionary relatives at Pakhoi
he demonstrated the power of a win
some personality over even people of
an alien tongue. At Hongkong he
held the largest religious meeting in
the city's history, and at Manila he
spoke in both the Methodist and Pres
byterian churches. A week later. as
my ship was entering Hongkong har-
Dor by night launch passed, full of
men singing Justify, The glory song"
Considering that this was Hongkong,
the incident was notable echo of the
Alexander meeting. Nor were the
singers Y. NJ c. A. men; the working
force of that organization has gone to
Canton, to attend the marriage of Sec.
retary c. c. Rutledge, of Philadelphia,
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 Jubilee in
India, at the end of last year. the
Worlds Student federation convention
in Toxic in May and the centennial
celebration of Chinese missions in
AprilMay. I have chanced to meet
personally, or to strike the trail of.
Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, of Philadel-
phia; Secretary Lloyd, of the Protes-
tant Episcopal mission board; Secre-
tary Barton; of the American board:
Secretary Fox of the American Bible
society; Secretary MacKay of the
Canadian Presbyterian board; John R.,
Mott, of the International Y. NJ. c.. A.
President Goucher, of the Woman's
university, Baltimore; two Methodist
editors, Dr. Parkhurst, of lions Her.
aid, Boston, and Dr. RAIDER, of the
Western Christian Advocate; John B.
Slemah, of the Washington Y. Nj. C.
A., and dozens of other friends of for
eign missions, clerical and lay.
The missionaries are now having
foretaste of the visitation they expect
when that committee of so American