Chapter II: Beginning Work

In 1817 two missionaries, the Rev. E. Stallybrass and the Rev. W. Swan, left England to begin Christian work among the Buriats, a Mongolian tribe living under Russian authority. At Selenginsk and at Onagen Dome they laboured for many years; but in 1841 the Russian Emperor ordered them to leave the country. From the command of the autocrat there was no appeal, and the mission came to an end. But in the good providence of God the two missionaries had translated the whole Bible into Buriat; the Old Testament being printed in Siberia in 1840, the New Testament in London in 1846. Notwithstanding the suppression of the mission, the Word of God in the Mongol tongue continued to circulate among the people.

It was to the reopening and development of this missionary work among the Mongol tribes that James Gilmour consecrated his life. He was appointed, in the first instance, to the London Mission at Peking, and that centre formed his first base of operations. He continued also a member of that mission until the close of his life. He reached the Chinese capital on May 18, 1870. At once he settled down to hard and continuous work at the Chinese language, endeavouring also from the first to discover the best means of restarting the Mongol Mission. The very full diary which he kept lies before us as we write, and enables us to understand the varying progress and hindrance, encouragement and despondency of this time.

'_June 11, 1870._--Mr. Gulick advises me to pay little attention to
the Chinese and go in hot and strong for the Mongolian. I am not
quite sure that he is not right, after all. However, I mean to
stick into the Chinese yet for a time to come with my teacher and
to mix among the people as much as I can. I went out to-night and
with the gate-keeper and two of his companions had a lot of talk,
in which I learned a good lot. I hope to benefit largely by this
pleasant mode of study. Perhaps by this means I may be able to do
them good. Lord grant it!'

'_June 12, 1870._--I am to-day twenty-seven years of age, and what
have I done? Let the time that is past suffice to have wrought the
will of the flesh. The prospect I have before me now is the most
inspiriting one any man can have. Health, strength, as much
conscious ability as makes one hope to be able to get the language
of the people to whom I am sent, a new field of work among men who
are decidedly religious and simple-minded, left pretty much to my
own ideas as to what is best to be done in the attempted
evangelization of Mongolia, friends left in Britain behind me
praying for me, comfort and peace here in the prosecution of my
present studies, the idea that what I do is for eternity, and that
this life is but the short prelude to an eternal state, the thought
that after death there shall break on my view a thousand truths
that now I long in vain to know--these thoughts and many others
make my present life happy, and in a manner careless as to what
should come. In time may I be able to do my part as I ought, and
may God have great mercy upon me!'

On June 22, 1870, the news of the Tientsin massacre reached Peking. A Roman Catholic convent had been destroyed and thirteen French people killed. Very great uncertainty prevailed as to whether this indicated a further purpose of attacking all missions and all foreigners, and for a while things looked very dark. It was a time in which the nerve and courage and faith of men were severely tried, and splendidly did Gilmour endure the test. While unable to escape wholly from the fears common to all, his reply to the counsels of worldly prudence and selfish dread was advance in his work. When others were wondering whether they might not have to retreat, he, alone, in almost total ignorance of the language, entirely unfamiliar with the country, went up to the great Mongolian plain, and entered upon the service so close to his heart--personal intercourse with and effort for the Mongols.

How trying a season this was his diary reveals. Under date of June 23, 1870, the day after the first tidings of the outbreak had been received, he writes:--

'The Roman Catholic missionaries have suffered severely, and the
Protestant missionaries are not in a very safe condition. We are
living on the slope of a volcano that may put forth its slumbering
rage at any moment. For example, people ask why there is no rain,
and blame the foreigners for it; and should a famine ensue, we may
fare hard for it. Now is the time for trying what stuff a man's
religion is made of. We may be all dead men directly; are we afraid
to die? Our death might further the cause of Christ more than our
life could do. We must die some time or other; now that we have a
near view of its possibility, how can we look forward to it? God!
do Thou make my faith firm and bright, so that death may seem
small and not to be feared. Help me to trust Thee and Christ
implicitly, so that with calm mind I may work while Thou dost let
me live, and when Thou dost call me home, let me come gladly.'

The further entries in his Diary at this time depict his inner experience from day to day:--

'_July 10._--Rose 6.20. Dull morning, rained a little. Felt
uncomfortable at the idea of being killed; felt troubled at the
idea of leaving Peking. How am I to pack and carry my goods? Felt
troubled at remaining in the midst of a troubled city, with a
government weak and stupid. How is my mission to get on beginning
thus? O God, let me cast all my care upon Thee, and commit my soul
also to Thy safe keeping. Keep me, O God, in perfect peace! Rain
made a thin meeting this morning, but all was quiet. In afternoon
went with Mr. Edkins to the west; things uncommonly quiet and
peaceful.

'_July 12._--While others are writing to papers and trying to stir
up the feelings of the people, so that they may take action in the
matter, perhaps I may be able to do some good moving Heaven. My
creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a
day's asking God to overrule all these events for good is not lost.
Still, there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he is
doing nothing, and this feeling, I am sure, makes us give undue
importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying over or even to
the neglect of prayer.

'_July 22._--A good deal troubled about the present state of
matters. I don't exactly know how to estimate rumours and reports,
and this may cause me more uneasiness than there is any need for.
Still, I don't know. At times I feel a great revulsion from being
killed, at other times I feel as if I could be killed quietly, and
not dislike the thing much. Sometimes the tone of those about us is
hopeful, and that causes hope also. Sometimes the prospect of a
speedy removal, a half flight, comes upon me with great force, and
to see all its annoyance, not to speak of the danger, is not
pleasant at all. Oh for the simple, childlike faith that can trust
all things to God and leave all care upon Him! Ought we not to have
it? Is God not the same God now that He was when He delivered His
people from Egypt, and His saints from the hands of their enemies,
from the mouth of the lions, and the fiery furnace? Cannot God keep
us yet--will He not do it? But then comes the thought, perhaps God
does not wish us to live, but to die. Often has He allowed His
saints to be slain. What then? Well, as the men in the furnace said
of God, "Will He care to defend us? if not, be it known unto you we
will not yield." I might have died in childhood, in youth, before
conversion, and if then, alas! alas! I can remember the time when
the pains of hell got such a terrible hold upon me that I would
have gladly changed places in the world with anyone who had the
hope of salvation. Death, life, prospects, honour, shame, seemed
nothing compared with this hope of salvation, which I was then
without. "Could I ever be saved?" was the question; "would I ever
have the hope that I knew others had?" Had I died in darkness--God
be thanked, the light has shined forth, and I have the hope of
eternal life. May God make me more Christlike, and give me stronger
hope! Well, then, this hope I have; from this fearful pit I have
been delivered; in the light I now walk. God I call my Father,
Christ my Saviour, heaven my home, earth and the life here the
entrance to real life. If there is anything in our faith or in our
belief, then heaven is as much better than earth as it is higher
than earth, and our souls life is insured from all harm. If a man
is insured against all possible harm, why should he be afraid? Not
one hair of our head shall perish! O Lord, help me to live this
faith and to be in this frame of mind. In this city are many
foreigners, who came here to learn the language, &c., and many of
them have no great hope of heaven. They seem calm enough, and are
no doubt calm enough; shall the courage of the world, shall the
courage of scepticism, shall the courage of carelessness be greater
and produce better fruit than the courage of the Christian? O Lord,
preserve me from the sin of dishonouring Thy name through fear and
cowardice! Let us be bold in the Lord!'

By the end of July 1870, Gilmour had reached a fixed resolution to go to Mongolia as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made. A severe test had been applied to him, and the way in which he met it gives the key to the whole of his after life. He used the trial as a help onwards in the path of duty, and the chain of events which would have led many men to postpone indefinitely the beginning of a new and hard work only drove him the more eagerly into new fields. The reasons that influenced him are set forth in his official report written many months later.

'After the massacre at Tientsin, very grave fears prevailed at
Peking; no one could tell how far the ramifications of the plot
might extend, and it was impossible to sift the matter. The people
openly talked of an extermination, and claimed to have the tacit
favour of the Government in this; nay more, the Government itself
issued ambiguous, if not insinuating, proclamations, which fomented
the excitement of the populace to such an extent that the days were
fixed for the "Clearing of Peking." The mob was thoroughly quieted
on the first of the days fixed by a twenty hours' pour of
tremendous rain, which converted Peking into a muddy, boatless
Venice, and kept the people safely at home in their helpless felt
shoes, as securely as if their feet had been put into the stocks.
This was Friday. Tuesday was the reserve day; Saturday and Sabbath
one felt the tide of excitement rising, and on Monday morning the
Peking Gazette came out with an Imperial edict that at once allayed
the excitement, and assured us that there was no danger for the
present.

'We had then to draw breath and look about us calmly, and the
general conclusion that the "Old Pekingers" came to was that the
French would be compelled to resort to force of arms to gain
redress. The attitude of the Chinese people and Government made
them think so, and so they determined to wait on quietly in Peking
till things should get thick, and then it would be time to go
south. I think I may safely say that everyone drew out an inventory
of his things, and not a few had their most necessary things packed
"on the sly," and were ready to start on short notice.

'Up to this point I stood quietly aside; but now was my time to
reason, and on the data they supplied I reasoned thus: "If I go
south, no Mongol can be prevailed on to go with me, and so I am
shut out from my work, and that for an indefinite time. If I can
get away north, then I can go on with the language, and perhaps
come down after the smoke clears away, knowing Mongolian, and
having lost no time." I felt a great aversion to travelling so far
alone, and with such imperfect knowledge of the language, but as I
thought it over from day to day I was more and more convinced that
to run the risk of having to go south would be to prove unfaithful
to duty, and so I conferred no longer with likings or dislikings,
resolved to go should an opportunity offer, and in the meantime
worked away at Chinese.

'By-and-by a Russian merchant turned up; he was going to Kiachta,
so I started with him. I could not go sooner, as it was not safe to
travel in the country before the Imperial edict was issued; to wait
longer was to run the risk of not going at all.'