Chapter XV: Preface (9)

We have previously seen that Dr. Mateer’s brother John became the superintendent of the mission press at Shanghai in 1872. He continued in that position until 1876, when he returned home. For a good many years he was in business in the United States, and then he returned to China and took charge of the mission press of the American Board at Peking. In April, 1900, Dr. Mateer was called by telegraph to come to that city as quickly as possible, on account of the dangerous illness of his brother; but John died the day before his arrival. In a letter to the surviving brothers and sisters Dr. Mateer, after describing the funeral services, added:

It is evident that his work here in the press was highly
appreciated. He was also held in high esteem by the members of
the other missions, and was well and favorably known in the
American legation. Several of the speakers said that John’s
life was a well-rounded and successful one, achieved in the
face of great difficulties. From the standpoint of worldly
wisdom his life could scarcely be called successful; but from
the spiritual, it certainly was. In this regard he was probably
superior to any member of the family. His mind was clear to
the end and filled with confident hope. As his disease grew
more serious he showed no fear, and to the last he faced death
without a tremor. May God give unto each of us who remain grace
to face the king of terrors with the same triumphant faith. We
buried him in the foreign cemetery, just north of the city, in
the most beautiful spot in that cemetery, and just by the side
of Rev. Mr. Morrison of our mission.

It did not fall to the lot of Dr. Mateer to have any experience of perilous adventure and of hairbreadth escapes such as have come into the lives of missionaries in uncivilized lands, and even in China. Still he by no means escaped serious risks. In his earlier itinerations he was several times threatened with attacks from individuals or crowds, and sometimes he armed himself in order to defend himself from assault. The second year of his residence in Tengchow, because of negotiations going forward for the renting of a house near the south gate, a meeting of as many as a thousand people composing the most influential clan in the city assembled in one of the temples, and demanded of the officials permission to kill the man who controlled the house, and the foreigners; but the excitement passed away without any open outbreak. In the summer of 1867 there was a great scare at Tengchow over the approach of a body of “rebels.” These were in reality robbers, consisting of the dregs left behind at the suppression of the Tai-Ping rebellion, who burned and laid waste large districts of country, and mercilessly slaughtered the people. Their approach to Tengchow had so often been reported that nobody knew what to anticipate; but at length they, sure enough, made their appearance in the neighboring country. The inhabitants crowded into the city by thousands, bringing with them donkeys, cattle, and everything that could be hastily removed, so that not only the houses, but the streets and vacant places were crammed with them, the mission premises not being excepted. Julia found in the situation a fine opportunity to give the gospel to the women; and her husband was equally diligent among the men, though he was unfortunately hampered by the absence of his Chinese assistant. A British war vessel called early in the scare and offered to remove the missionaries to a place of safety; and later the “Wyoming,” a United States naval vessel, anchored out in the bay, where she could bring her guns to play, if necessary, for the protection of American citizens. Happily, after five days of this state of things the rebels again vanished, but not without leaving in their trail sickness and desolation. The missionaries do not seem to have been much alarmed at any time during the excitement, though no one could tell what might happen.

In 1870 there was a cruel massacre of a large number of French Roman Catholic missionaries and of some others at Tientsin, and much valuable mission property was destroyed. The news of this spread rapidly over north China and kindled the animosity of the natives against foreigners to such a degree that the situation in many localities became very dangerous. At Tengchow rumors of plots to wipe out the missionaries there were frequent, and the native Christians and others who were friendly communicated to them information that justified serious apprehension. A meeting of all the members of both the Baptist and the Presbyterian station was called, and then another the next day, and by an almost unanimous vote it was declared that it was the duty of all to take refuge in Chefoo or elsewhere until the danger was substantially ended. Dr. Mateer in these meetings advocated brief delay and further inquiry, but when he found himself in a minority of one, he yielded his judgment to that of all the others. Just as soon as possible a message was sent to Chefoo for a ship to come up and take the families to that place, and a couple of British vessels promptly responded. All valuables that could be quickly packed and easily removed were shipped; and the premises at Tengchow were placed in charge of as trusty Chinese as could be obtained for the purpose, and a promise was given by the chief official of the city that he would see that constables watched the property. Dr. Mateer did not go on the ship, but remained a day along with a Baptist missionary in order to complete the arrangements required for the proper keeping of the houses and goods, and then he followed on horseback down to Chefoo. The prompt appearance of the ships in the harbor and the removal of the missionaries seem to have made a most wholesome impression on the people, and the excitement soon subsided, and a rather general desire prevailed, even among the non-Christian Chinese, that they should return. The American minister at Peking also greatly gratified the refugees and their fellow-laborers from the United States by the to them somewhat novel experience of his taking an earnest practical interest in their welfare. He advised them to return to Tengchow, and solicited the privilege of sending them back on an American warship. After an absence of about a month Dr. Mateer went thither on a preliminary trip, and was pleasantly surprised at the friendly altitude of the people. In due time the other missionaries and their families followed; but at the meeting of the synod which ensued a little later he was compelled, after a brief sojourn at Tengchow, to go down to Shanghai and remain there for a year and a half in charge of the mission press. Just how real was the danger that caused this temporary flight to Chefoo, and how imminent, is a secret that perhaps no man clearly knew, and which certainly the missionaries never ascertained. Writing in his Journal, just after his return, concerning his reluctant acquiescence in the vote of all except himself in favor of going, he says:

Nevertheless acquiescence was one of the hardest trials of my
life. My mind was filled that night with a tumult of emotions;
and I did not sleep a wink till the morning light dawned. I did
not know how much I loved Tengchow, and perhaps I overrated the
damage our leaving would do to our own cause here, especially
to our schools. I am not sure, however, that I did. The future
remains to be seen. God may, and I trust he will, turn it to be
a blessing both to us and to the native Christians. Aside from
the question of the actual amount of danger at that time I felt
a strong aversion to going in any case, unless when my life was
in such instant peril that there was no possible doubt.... I am
not yet convinced, however, and though I do not wish to make
any rash vows, yet I think that I will not fly from Tengchow
again unless there is a great deal more imminent danger.

When, in 1894-95, the war between Japan and China raged, Tengchow being a port on the sea, and not far from Japan, was of course likely to be a place directly involved in the hostilities. The missionaries elected to remain at their post, and asked the consular agent of the United States at Chefoo to notify the proper military official of their presence, number, calling, and nationality, and to say that in case of attack they would hoist the American flag over the mission premises, and that if the Chinese found themselves unable to defend the city they would exert their influence to have it surrendered without loss of life. The Japanese did come, and they, as a diversion from the seizure of Wei-hai-wei, bombarded the place on three successive days. As to this, Dr. Mateer says in his autobiographical sketch for his college classmates, “I watched the progress of affairs from the lookout on top of my house, but escaped untouched, though eight shells fell close around the house, and one went over my head so close that the wind from it made me dodge.”

During the Boxer uprising of 1899-1900, though the movement originated in Shantung, the missionaries and native Christians of that province suffered less than in adjacent provinces. The reason for this is that after the murder of Brooks in 1899, the anti-foreign governor, Yu Haien, was at the solicitation of the missionaries and the Foreign Office removed. Unfortunately he was not deposed, but was merely changed to Shansi. This accounts for the terrible carnage there. The new governor of Shantung, the since famous Yuan Shih K’ai, did his best to hold the Boxers in check in his own province, and in the main was successful. The prompt and efficient action of Consul Fowler, of Chefoo, in removing the missionaries from the interior also helped to save life. Still it was bad enough in the western parts even of Shantung. The native Christians in many places were robbed, beaten, and so far as possible compelled by threat of death to disown their faith. The story of the destruction of the property of the mission at Wei Hsien, and the narrow escape of the missionaries, through the courage of one of their number, is about as thrilling as any that is told of that period of widespread burning and carnage. In the eastern side of the province, beyond ominous excitement at such places as Tengchow and Chefoo, there was no serious disturbance. Probably this was due in part to the wholesome respect which the Chinese living not too far from the sea had come to feel for foreign war vessels, and for the troops which they could promptly disembark.

Just before the siege of Peking began Dr. Mateer had made his visit to that city, to bury his brother John. The earlier part of 1900 he remained at Tengchow quietly at his work, and sending his orders just as usual for supplies needed by the college and personally. In July, by order of the American consul, the missionaries were brought down to Chefoo on a gunboat. Dr. Mateer and Mr. Mason Wells, however, lingered behind for a while. It was vacation, and Dr. Mateer occupied his time with the Mandarin version. Among the Chinese a wild rumor gained some currency that he was leading an army of many thousand men to relieve Peking; and the fact that his _fiancée_ was shut up there gave at least piquancy to the report. Later he went on down to Shanghai, and there spent six months on the Revision Committee; and so he did not get back to Tengchow until June, 1901, when the Boxer uprising was at an end.

In a communication which he published in “The Herald and Presbyter” later in 1900, he gave at considerable length his views as to the causes of that dreadful outbreak. These do not differ essentially from the ideas which have come to be generally accepted in the United Stales. The missionary propaganda he frankly acknowledges to have, by the very nature of its message, aroused the malignity of evil men; and this also to have been much aggravated by the habit of Roman Catholics of standing between their converts and the enforcement of Chinese laws; but he denied that this was the main cause. He holds that the outbreak was chiefly due to the traditional hatred of foreigners; to the territorial aggressions of the western nations in China; to the ill treatment of Chinese abroad and in their own ports by foreigners; and last, but by no means least, to the German operations in Shantung, consisting of their revenge for the murder of some German priests, the occupation of Kiao-chow, and the survey and building of a railroad through the province. The high-handed encroachment of Russia in Manchuria and the construction of a railroad through that province, and the guarding of it by Russian troops, added fuel to the flames. Summing up, he says: “The whole movement is anti-foreign,—against all nationalities and occupations, ministers of governments, consuls, merchants, missionaries, teachers, and engineers, railroads, telegraphs, churches, schools, and Christian converts,—everything in short that is in any way connected with the detested foreigner. It is the conservatism of old China rising up and bracing itself for one last desperate struggle to suppress the new China that is supplanting it.”

Another of the trials that touched deeply his heart was the contact into which he was brought with the sufferings of the people through famine. In 1876, 1877, and 1878 there was great scarcity in the general region of Tengchow, and consequently the prices for food rose so high that it was impossible for the poor to obtain the necessaries of life. Dr. Mateer, as also other missionaries, helped them to the extent of his ability, and became the almoner of charitable people who sent money from western lands to buy food for the famishing. But in 1889 he was brought face to face as never before in his life with destitution in China. The inconstancy of the Yellow River was one cause of the terrible disaster. Twice within about a third of the nineteenth century it had changed its bed; and as a consequence, finding its new channel too small to carry off the waters in times of heavy and protracted rain, it had repeatedly flooded vast districts, often to a depth of several feet, carrying destruction to the mud walls of the buildings and desolation to the cultivated ground. Drought also in a portion of northwestern Shantung had prevailed to such an extent as to prevent the growth and maturing of grains and vegetables. At last a climax was reached by these disasters; and it was recognized by missionaries and others as so awful in its character and so vast in its sweep that a Famine Relief Committee for Shantung was organized, and an appeal was made for help from Great Britain and the United States, and from the southern ports of China. At least two hundred thousand dollars came in response, and it was especially in connection with the distribution of this that Dr. Mateer was brought into direct personal contact with the suffering. Districts were assigned to missionaries and others, and a careful canvass with the aid of reliable helpers was made. They ascertained that many tens of thousands of the people had wandered away from their homes, either to seek food or at least to leave to the more feeble and helpless such sustenance as might yet remain. No one ever was able to form a definite idea of the number who had died from starvation, either on their wanderings or at their places of residence. The canvassers found multitudes trying to sustain life by eating the husks of grain, the seeds and roots of grasses and weeds, the bark of trees, and the blades of wheat. Some of those who had been considered rich had provided themselves with poison, so as to take their own lives when they must come to the point where to live would be to see their children perish from starvation. The allowance furnished by the relief fund to an individual was fixed at about a cent a day in all ordinary cases, and it was ascertained that on this allowance at least a hundred thousand lives were saved. On some old, faded Chinese sheets of paper, closely written with his own hand, the record of a part of Dr. Mateer’s experiences in the famine canvass, out in northwestern Shantung, has come down to us. As it is all now a thing of the remote past, there probably would be no good in recording the dreadful details here. It is a story of children reduced to skeletons, eager to lick up every crumb as big as a pinhead that fell from the bit of coarse bread given them; of men and women falling down on their knees and begging for food for their families, and bursting into tears at the prospect of relief; of the sale of wives and daughters to procure something to eat; of unburied corpses, and of graves just filled with those who have perished. He said under date of April 9, 1889: “It is the hardest work I ever did in my life. To look all day long on a continual succession of starving people, and to be beset by their entreaties to enroll more names than you can, is very hard on the nerves. There is no end to the starving people.” Again, May 17, he said: “After seven weeks and two days I am at last about to leave for Tsinan. We have now enrolled about thirty-three thousand, and the work of enrollment in this place is finished.” What as to the religious outcome? The impression made upon multitudes even in excess of those who received aid was most favorable to Christianity. One of the leading Chinese assistants in the work wrote to the people who furnished the aid: “This must be the right religion. If not, why is it that the followers of other religions do not do such things?” Thus they were willing to examine into Christianity, and the more they examined, the more they believed, until they were converted to Christ. As an ultimate outcome, several hundred were received into the churches.

The controversies which he had with some of his fellow-missionaries in China were a serious trial to him. He was not by inclination “a man of war,” but in connection with the prosecution of the missionary work in which he was engaged in common with his brethren, questions of great practical and immediate importance arose, and as to some of these he had strong convictions that were at variance with those of other wise and able men on the field. It was best for the cause that these should be thoroughly discussed, and there was much that could be fairly and earnestly urged upon either side. All that could be rightly demanded was that the “fighting” should be open and honorable, and that it should be conducted in such a manner as not to hinder the missionary work or to descend into personal controversy. Dr. Mateer, as to ability and efficiency, stood in the front rank of those who were giving their lives to the evangelization of China. It was his duty to express his views on these questions, and to do this in such a way that no one could misapprehend them. If any fault could be found with him in this matter, perhaps it would be that he saw his own side so vividly that he was not always able to recognize the entire force of that which was said in favor of what ran counter to it. Those who knew him well and appreciated the greatness and tenderness of his heart waived the sting which sometimes seemed to be in his words; but perhaps some others who were not so well acquainted with him occasionally winced under its pungency. Everyone who was concerned in these discussions, long ago has come to recognize him in these as an earnest, capable man, trying to do his duty as he saw it.

By far the most protracted of these controversies was over the word that ought to be used in Chinese to express the idea of God. Under date of November 4, 1865, he made this entry in his Journal: “This week I had a note from Mr. Mills, saying that a proposition was current at Peking to get out a Union New Testament in Mandarin, and to use in it _Tien Chu_ for God, and _Sheng Shen_ for Holy Spirit, and that all but Mr. ⸺ had signed it. I cannot sign it at all; I am utterly opposed to any such a proceeding. I cannot conscientiously use these words.” That was his first gun in a battle that for him completely ended only with his life. His contributions to the discussion were sufficient to be in substance, as we have already seen, gathered into a separate volume. In 1907 his “Letter Book” shows that he was still remonstrating against a request to the Bible societies to employ for God and for spirit Chinese terms that violated his convictions. His very last recorded utterance on the subject was in a letter dated November 17, 1907. In it he expresses his gratification that in an edition of the New Testament for China, issued by an English Bible society, they were “to use the terms _Shen_ and _Sheng Ling_ for God and Spirit.” He added: “This suits me. These and these only are the right terms, and despite all appearances will ultimately win in the really orthodox and evangelistic church of China.” It is not improbable that the drift of opinion for various reasons as to this was against him; but it was in this faith that he died.

As to his part in the discussion concerning what came to be known as “Methods of Missions,” no more need be said here than that the men who took part in this were alike seeking the best solution of a difficult problem, and never wavered in unbroken fellowship and confidence as comrades in the larger work of giving the gospel to China. It was not until 1905 that Dr. Mateer published his book on this subject, and then only when urged by some of his associates.

In the battle as to English in the college, Dr. Mateer had to yield to the majority who came into control after the removal to Wei Hsien. He was great enough not to allow the new policy to chill his love for the institution, or to stay his hands from such help as, in addition to his occupation with the Mandarin version, it was possible for him to lend either by influence or money, or even by physical toil. In his final relations with the college he proved himself to be still its loyal and generous supporter.

It has often been remarked that one never meets a foreign missionary who has thrown himself or herself unreservedly into the work who is unhappy. They are human, and feel their trials often keenly; but their faces shine with an inward peace, and they rejoice over the one sheep, or the many, whom they have found in the wilderness and won to Christ. When Dr. Mateer advanced in age, and thought of what he had helped to accomplish for the evangelization of China, he must have felt a satisfaction such as seldom possesses a soul. In view of this supreme joy it almost seems out of place here to tell of the “incidents by the way” which ministered to his pleasure. One of these consisted of the signs of appreciation shown him by men or bodies of men whose commendation meant something worth while. We have seen how the missionaries on the field trusted and honored him by calling him to leadership in several most important enterprises looking toward large and permanent results. But others besides missionaries recognized him as worthy of their honors and trust. Hanover College in 1880 conferred on him the doctorate of divinity. In 1888 the University of Wooster, for his “attainments, literary and scientific, philosophical and theological, and for his success in his work as a Christian missionary and teacher,” gave him the doctorate of laws. At the centennial of his alma mater in 1902, Washington and Jefferson College also conferred on him the doctorate of laws, in recognition of his “distinguished ability and service as a scholar and minister of the gospel.” In 1894, the British and Foreign Bible Society by making him an honorary foreign member gave him an exceptional distinction. In August, 1898, his lifelong friend, Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, who had been called to the headship of the new Imperial University planned for Peking, wrote to him, asking whether he would accept the deanship of the school of engineering; but in reply he declined, on the dual ground that he was under obligation to continue in his missionary work and in the translation of the Scriptures. In December of the same year he received from the “superintendent” of the new Imperial University at Nanking an invitation to become the “head master” of that nascent institution. Coming as this did directly from that high Chinese dignitary, it was an extraordinary mark of respect and confidence; but this also he declined, and for the same reasons as in the preceding case. In writing of these offers he said to one of the secretaries of the Board of Missions:

Both these positions offered me a salary much greater than
a missionary gets. Though not now doing much active work
in teaching in the college, I yet feel that my work and
influence here are very important. Having embarked in the
work of Bible translation, I cannot turn my back upon it,
unless the conditions of the work itself constrain me to do
so. Also I am anxious to preach,—especially to work in revival
meetings amongst the native churches. I also value highly the
opportunity I have to preach to the students of the college.

One of the minor but notable honors that came to Dr. Mateer was the celebration of his seventieth birthday at Wei Hsien. The Chinese have a curious custom as to the birthday of the emperor, and perhaps of other distinguished persons; they celebrate it a year, a month, and a day in advance of the true date. This custom was followed on the occasion of Dr. Mateer’s seventieth birthday. An eyewitness has given the following graphic description of the affair:

“The alumni and students of the college planned the “birthday
party”; and a most elaborate affair it was. In the morning
a long procession of hired rejoicers, with gay banners and
doleful native bands, marched into the compound from the
city and were reviewed at the great gate by Dr. Mateer and
the college faculty. Wasn’t it a fortunate thing that the
doctor-of-laws hood of Dr. Mateer agreed so well with the
Chinese idea of crimson as the most appropriate color for any
celebration? At the chapel, which was packed to the limit
with natives and out-of-town guests, presentation speeches
which none but Orientals would ever have sat through, and
responses were made, world without end. The most successful
native pastor in this part of China, who was once Dr. Mateer’s
table boy, spoke first. The highest officials of the country
were present in all their grandeur, looking properly haughty
and impressive,—though I shall never cease feeling that the
typical expression of dignity and authority in China resembles
the lime-in-the-mouth look more closely than anything else.
If a concrete argument for the existence of the college were
necessary, I can think of none better than a look at the
alumni. Such splendid, manly fellows they were, with keen,
intelligent faces! Some have become wealthy business men, who
show their appreciation; and many are native pastors and
teachers. A double quartet of college students furnished the
music; and it was remarkable how well they sang the complicated
part tunes. They have had no regular training, but have kept at
it by themselves, and have surprised us all by their progress.
But for the music, the real, soul-uplifting music, give me the
native band! Imagine several bagpipes and flutes, diminutive
drums, and two or three toy trumpets which sound only one note;
and then conceive of each player carrying on an independent
enterprise, and you may know something about the Chinese native
band. It is too rare for words. Large bunches of firecrackers
fastened on tripods, and cannon crackers, were used all through
the festivities, so that it seemed exactly like the Fourth of
July. A Chinese feast was given to all the invited guests, and
the rabble from the villages near by encamped on the compound
and ate the lunches they had carried about with them all
morning in their handkerchiefs. It was a great day for the
college, and a great occasion for the village people; but most
demoralizing to language study. The gold-embroidered, scarlet
banners were so many and so immense that since that one day in
the church no place has been found sufficiently large to hang
them.”

In the general section of China where he lived he made many journeys. Over that part of Shantung situated to the east of the Yellow River he traveled often, and far and wide. Several times he visited Peking. Once, as we have seen, he went down the Grand Canal, to Nanking, and the lower Yangtse. Frequently he steamed up and down the coast to Shanghai, and once as far south as Ningpo. But those immense and populous provinces situated in the west and south of China he never visited, not because he was not interested in them, or could not afford the expense, but because he could not spare the time. In the spring of 1868 the “Shenandoah,” an American war steamer, came to Tengchow on its way to Korea, where search was to be made for any survivors that might remain from the “General Sherman,” lost there two years before. The “Shenandoah” wanted an interpreter, and by general consent the duty seemed to fall on Dr. Mateer, so that he fell constrained to accept, though the health of his wife and other affairs rendered this very inconvenient. The cruise lasted about six weeks, and carried them to several places on the west coast of Korea, and among these to the river Pyeng Yang, since so familiar to readers of missionary journals, and to those who followed the Japanese troops on their march against the Russians in the recent war. That was then a “forbidden land” to foreigners, and the expedition found it difficult to get into peaceable or forcible communication with officials or other natives, and accomplished almost nothing. In the light of the fuller present knowledge of that politically unhappy but religiously hopeful country the observations of the interpreter or of any of the other persons belonging to the expedition are now of little interest.

Dr. Mateer came back to the United States only three times on furlough during the more than forty-five years that intervened between his sailing for China in 1863 and his death. The first of these absences from China began in May, 1879, and ended about the first of January, 1881. Under the rule of the Board of Missions he was entitled to a furlough home long before that time, but he felt that he could not sooner leave his work. He also held the opinion that there is usually no sufficient reason to justify this privilege to a young missionary so early as is established custom. His wife, on account of health, had preceded him some six months. He came by way of Japan, and brought with him two Mills children, their mother having died. They crossed the Pacific on a slow vessel, but the voyage was delightful, and in about as great a contrast as is possible with his experience on the ship which originally carried him to China. He was made more than comfortable and the captain went out of his way in order to show him courtesies. On arrival in the United States his time was spent in the main as by other home-coming missionaries,—in family reunions, visiting here and there, preaching to churches, addressing ecclesiastical meetings of various sorts, seeking recruits among theological students, and other engagements,—the total of which so completely fill up the time that little is left for real rest and recuperation. To this customary list he added two other items,—a period spent in attending medical lectures at Philadelphia, and a hasty trip across the Atlantic to England and to Paris.

His second furlough extended from July, 1892, until October, 1893. He went and came by the Pacific route, and was comfortable on these voyages. Julia was with him. During that sojourn in the United States, in addition to the occupations usually engrossing the time of a missionary on furlough, he went to Chautauqua and studied Hebrew in order to fit himself better for revision work. He also made at the World’s Fair at Chicago that exhaustive examination of machinery, and especially of electrical appliances, of which Dr. Corbett, in the quotation previously given, has told us. One of the greatest pleasures that came to him on this leave of absence was the privilege of once more seeing his mother, then advanced in years. In the last of his letters to her that have come down to us he mentions that he and Julia are at the writing just going into the harbor at Chefoo, and he concludes by saying: “We are very glad that we are at the end of our journey, and back again in China. This is where our work lies, and this is where we ought to be.” It was on his arrival at Tengchow that his students gave him that royal welcome already described.

On September 25, 1900, he was married to Miss Ada Haven, who had been for many years a missionary of the American Board at Peking, and as such was recognized as an accomplished Chinese scholar and a successful and highly esteemed teacher in the Bridgman School. Her engagement to Dr. Mateer briefly antedated the siege of Peking, and she was one of the company of foreigners of whose fate the western world waited with bated breath to hear during the midsummer of 1900. In her book, “Siege Days,” she has given an inside view of the experiences of herself and of many others, and as such it has not only a passing but also a permanent interest and value as a record of that remarkable episode of madness on the part of the “old” China. After the relief of the city and a little season of recuperation from the strain of the siege, Miss Haven came down to Chefoo, and the marriage took place in the Presbyterian church at Chefoo, Dr. Mateer’s old friend, Dr. Corbett, performing the ceremony. As his wife, Ada rendered him valuable assistance, by taking part in the preparation of the smaller book of “Mandarin Lessons.” She also greatly helped the committee on the Mandarin version of the New Testament by making a Greek and English concordance of their first revision. For eight years they two walked together; and he had from her in his literary labors, as well as in other ways, an inspiration and often a direct help of which the world outside of their home can know very little.

His last furlough extended from June, 1902, to August, 1903. Dr. and Mrs. Mateer came to the United States by way of the Siberian railroad and the Atlantic, so that when he arrived in China on his return he had a second time gone around the world. In a letter written to me in April, 1908, he says, “We went home seven years ago by the Siberian railroad, and it was exceedingly comfortable,—much more so than traveling in an ordinary Pullman car.” Perhaps in the interval that had elapsed the recollection of the discomforts that attended the first stage of that journey had somewhat faded from his memory; or he may have had in mind only the part that lay through Siberia proper and in European Russia. A Chinese naval officer who had often come to his study to talk over various matters had expressed a desire to take him and his wife over to Port Arthur in a gunboat when they started on their homeward route. The officer intended by this only one of those empty compliments which Orientals are accustomed to pay, without any thought that the offer involved would be accepted. Dr. Mateer was himself the soul of truth and honor, and, being such, took what this officer said to him at its face value. So, in this case, he sent word of acceptance of the offer, but an answer came back that “after all, it would be inconvenient to take them just then, and that orders had been left with a Chinese junk to take them.” The junk could not come in to shore and they had to go out in a rowboat. When they went aboard, they found that there was no cabin,—nothing, indeed, at their command but a little hold about breast-high, stowed full of Chinese baggage, some of it consisting of malodorous fish and onions. In order to make room for them, the onions were piled in stacks just above on the deck; but even this change left for human occupation merely about a cube of five feet. The boat was crowded with Chinese passengers, and it poured down rain, from which the Mateers could protect themselves only by hoisting an umbrella over the hatchway which was at the same time their only source of ventilation. It was not until the third day that they reached Port Arthur.

It was characteristic of Dr. Mateer that under these conditions he spent every moment of daylight in putting final touches on the manuscripts of the “Technical Terms” and of the “Chemical Terms,” so that these might be mailed immediately to the printer. They came very near missing the train, and if this had happened they would have been compelled to wait a week for another opportunity. The railroad had but recently been completed at that end, and no regular schedule as to service had yet been established; but with many delays and with various inconveniences, after a week, they reached the point at which they overtook an express train bound for Irkutsk. This was luxury indeed, compared with the beginning of the journey. From Irkutsk onward the commendatory language of Dr. Mateer was justified by the accommodations. The Mateers visited Moscow and St. Petersburg; then came on to Berlin, and thence, successively, to Düsseldorf, Cologne, Paris, and London, the latter place brilliant with preparations for the belated coronation of King Edward, which took place while they were there. From Liverpool they crossed the Atlantic to Halifax, and then entered on their American vacation.

A part of the furlough he spent in efforts to secure endowment for the Shantung College. In the prosecution of this work he visited various churches, and in Pittsburg he remained for six weeks. It was during this furlough that he sat as a commissioner from his presbytery in the General Assembly at Los Angeles. Among other celebrated spots which they included in their itinerary was the Yosemite Valley. But the part of the furlough that probably afforded them both the most unalloyed pleasure was spent in a visit to the region of the “old home.” His wife, in a letter, tells the story thus:

Ever since our marriage it had been the cherished plan of
my husband to take me on a wedding journey when we got to
America,—a carriage journey, to see all the spots familiar
to his childhood. By planning with this in view we were able
to spend the anniversary of our wedding in Mechanicsburg,
with Calvin’s cousins. One of these made a feast for us. Many
were the reminiscences exchanged,—a happy binding of past
and present. In a day or two we started on the long-promised
journey, in a “one-horse-shay,” a journey of several days,
our stops at noon, and again overnight, always being with
friends of his childhood. But the friend to which most of all
he wished to introduce me was his beloved old Long Mountain;
and as I looked first at that, and then at his glowing face, I
saw whence, next to his Bible and catechism, he had drawn his
sturdy love of truth and freedom. Either on that journey, or on
subsequent trips from Mechanicsburg or Harrisburg, we visited
all the localities familiar to his childhood,—his birthplace,
where the wall that used to seem so high to him now appeared
so low to the white-bearded six-footer,—the brook where the
clover mill used to stand,—the Silver Spring church, where he
was baptized, and its adjoining graveyard, where lie many of
his old Scotch-Irish ancestors, under quaint inscriptions....
It rained hard the day we visited the battle field of
Gettysburg. This trip we took in company with an old friend of
Calvin’s, a veteran of the war. Not less interesting were the
surroundings of his second home, the “Hermitage.” Almost more
noteworthy than the house was the big “bank-barn,”—the mows for
hay, the bins for grain, the floor where he used to ride on
horseback around and around over the grain in order to thresh
it, the old workbench, and, above, the swallows’ nests. The
rush of memory was so strong that the white-haired missionary
could not keep back the tears. He showed me the little old
schoolhouse, the stream near by, the old flour mill, within an
inner room of which he and his boy companions used to meet on
winter evenings around a “ten-plate” stove for debate. Another
place of great interest was the old haunted churchyard, the
fence of which he had mounted to fight his battle with the
ghosts, and from which he got down a conqueror, never more to
fear the face of man or devil.

But the most sacred of all the spots which they visited was the grave of his mother, in the cemetery at Wooster, Ohio.

From Seattle they sailed to Japan, and thence after a short season of fellowship with the venerable translator of the Old Testament, Bishop Schereschewsky, and with other friends, they came back to Tengchow.

XV

FACING THE NEW CHINA

“China is a great land, and has a great future before it. I am
thankful that I have had the opportunity to do what I could to
make it what it ought to be. The Church of God is bound to have
a great triumph here, with great trials in the process.”—LETTER
TO JAMES MOONEY, November 27, 1906.

When Dr. Mateer wrote that letter, the new China had not come. Nor has it yet appeared. The utmost that can be said confidently is that there are signs of a spring thaw in the vast sheet of ice that for so many centuries has held that country in fetters. Some great rifts can be seen in the surface and sounds that are indicative of movement can be heard. People who stand on the shore, and some of those who are on the ice, are shouting, “Off at last!” It seems scarcely possible that the apparent thaw shall not continue until the streams are cleared and the land is warmed into new life by the ascending sun. But how long it will be before this is accomplished it is almost useless for the best-informed men to attempt to forecast. When the ice does really go, will it be with a sudden rush that will carry with it great injury to much that is well worth preserving? Or will the change come so quietly and gradually that the ice will sink without a tremor, and the frost will gently melt away into waters that only freshen the soil? Probably the new China is not far away; as sure as progress is the law of civilization and enlightenment in the world, it cannot be postponed much longer. Dr. Mateer lived long enough to recognize the signs of its approach, and while he was glad because of this, he also was deeply anxious.

His direct acquaintance with the old China extended over the long period of forty years,—from his arrival at Tengchow in 1863 to his return from his last furlough, in 1903. During the five years immediately preceding his death he was face to face with the signs indicative of the China that is to be. He was therefore exceptionally qualified to speak intelligently concerning the present situation in that country; for it is not the man who now for the first time finds himself there, amid the demand for railroads, and telegraphs, and up-to-date navy and army, and schools, who is most competent to interpret the movements of the hour. We are more likely to learn the whole truth if we turn to veterans like Sir Robert Hart and Dr. W. A. P. Martin and Dr. Mateer, who by almost lifelong experience know the real mind and heart of China; which surely, notwithstanding the occurrences of to-day, have not been completely changed. On the one hand, there can be no doubt of the love which Dr. Mateer had for the people of China. To promote their welfare in this world as well as in the next he gave himself to the uttermost all his long time of residence among them, and when death confronted him at last, his only reluctance to obey that call of his Master was because he would be unable to complete what he regarded as perhaps his greatest service for them. As we have already seen, in his explanation of the causes of the Boxer outbreak, notwithstanding his heartbreak and indignation for the horrors and outrages perpetrated, he lays bare the secret of it, as consisting in part of the wrongs done by foreign nations and persons to China and the Chinese. There were hundreds and perhaps thousands in Shantung who revered him as a father, and confided in him as they did in almost no other human being.

I mention this side of his attitude because there is another that must be brought out here so clearly that no failure to see it is possible. He never allowed himself to be blinded as to radical faults of the most serious nature in the Chinese. It was about the same time as his entrance on his missionary work that Americans were set agog by the “Burlingame Mission,” and indulged in very extravagant notions of the civilization of old China and very rosy anticipations of the future. Even missionaries caught the fever of the hour, and for home publication wrote articles that seconded this view. This was so completely foreign to the reality, as Dr. Mateer saw it, that he responded with an elaborate article in which he calmly punctured these current notions. It was the fashion then to regard the Chinese as leading the world in past ages, but in his opinion in none of their boasted achievements do they deserve such credit. Largely they have been imitators; and in the realm of their own inventions and discoveries and organizations they have seldom shown themselves capable of making the applications that ought to have been so patent to them that they could not miss them. Perhaps—writing as he did in reply to overdrawn appreciations on the other side—he may have fallen into the opposite mistake, to some degree. Perhaps also in later years he would not have gone quite so far in the direction he then took; but he never wavered in his opinion that in the lapse of ages during which the Chinese had lived so exclusively within themselves, characteristics that are racial have been developed, some of which must be overcome, and others of which must be immensely transformed, before China can take her place among the advanced nations of the world. Also, ignorance, prejudice and superstition stand in the way, and cannot suddenly be dispelled. He continued to believe that, notwithstanding the present rush to introduce western appliances, the hatred of the foreigner, except among a minority, remains in the heart of officials and people. He believed too that, because of their faithlessness to obligations which they had assumed toward other governments, the apparent aggressions of foreign nations were not always and altogether without a measure of justification. Chinese law he considered to be still so much a mere whim of officials, often corrupt, that the time has not yet come for an American citizen, whether missionary or merchant or mechanic, to be left safely to the uncertainties of a native court.

Dr. Mateer was one of the leading “makers of the new China.” It is because of his “Mandarin Lessons” that it is now, in comparison with the olden times, so easy to acquire the language; thus not only the missionary but also the agents of modern civilization are helped to gain speedy access to the people. He was the first to plant a college in the great province of Shantung, the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius, and still the center to which the race turns as that from which has emanated their most dominant cult. He took the lead, even of all the missionary colleges, in the place which he assigned to physical science. With his own money he built a museum which he described as “a kind of polytechnic, for exhibiting foreign sciences and machinery to Chinese students and visitors.” There they could see the appliances of steam and of electricity at work, including a model railroad, and the telephone and telegraph. When the governor of the province organized his university at the capital, it was the man whom Dr. Mateer had made his successor in the college at Tengchow who was at first placed at its head, and five of the graduates were chosen to fill chairs in the new institution. He prepared text-books in mathematics, for which there is an enormous demand in the schools which are supplanting those of the olden time. To him more than to any other individual is due the translation of the New Testament into a form of the language which is just as intelligible to the man who can read but little, as to the educated; and which cannot be widely circulated without starting upward tendencies more mighty than those of railroads and western machinery. It would be preposterous to claim for any one person that he has been the maker of the new China; but there are not very many who, as to the mighty transformation apparently not far distant, rank so high up as Dr. Mateer.

Thus far in holding him up as one of these leaders I have not mentioned his influence as an effective missionary in the sphere usually occupied by the representatives of the gospel; and for the reason that, as to this, he is a sharer with a multitude of others. At present there must be about four thousand men and women—ordained ministers, and lay men and women—in that line of Christian service in China, and there are about two hundred thousand Chinese Christians. These, though scattered far and wide among the hundreds of millions of the population, are sufficient to be powerfully felt on the side of genuine progress. Though in rapidly lessening numbers, their presence stretches back to the coming of Robert Morrison, a hundred years ago. Dr. Mateer’s own judgment as to the relation of the missionary work to the present situation is well worth attention. In an article written by request, about nine months before his death, he said:

The nation is in a state of transition which, when compared
with her past and her traditions, is nothing short of
marvelous. Who would have predicted thirty-five years ago that
such a state of things as the present would so soon prevail?
God has used a variety of powerful forces to awaken China from
her long sleep, not the least of which have been the presence
and influence of the missionary. Aside from his main business,
which is the conversion of individuals and the upbuilding
of churches, he has had a powerful influence in a number of
important matters. First, his residence in all parts of inland
China has done far more than is generally known to remove
prejudice and to familiarize the people with foreign ideas
and things. Second, he has been a main factor in starting the
anti-foot-binding movement that is now sweeping over the land.
Third, he has been the chief mover in the remarkable anti-opium
reformation that is now enlisting the utmost effort of the
Chinese government. Lastly, in the intellectual awakening, and
in starting the wonderful educational propaganda now being
pushed forward by the government, he has been a potent factor.
Missionaries have made the text-books, and the graduates of
their schools have set the pace for this remarkable movement;
and this has been done notwithstanding the intense prejudice
that exists against Christianity and its professors.