Page 29 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 29
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
June it was reported that large numbers of Boxers had entered the town and that night they were
planning to burn Chefoo and Tianjin to the ground.
The British Consul had arranged for a gunboat to be anchored right opposite the schools, and the
school boats as well as a steam launch were lying ready moored so that the 200 people on the school
compound could be taken off as quickly as possible at the first sign of trouble. It was expected that
the first attack would be on the settlement some distance from the school. A German and a French
gunboat soon joined the British one and a United States ship also lay at anchor below the school
ready to take them to Japan if necessary.
Esther was 15½ at this time and to her and her friend Ella Reid (later Ella Ritchie) it was all very
exciting. Every night they went to bed with their bags packed and rowlocks under their pillows. The
senior girls had all learned to row and would be needed if the boats drawn up on the shore in
readiness were to be used. Ella's comment years later was that they all thought it would be great fun
to be taken off to Japan.
In Yangzhou where George Andrew was responsible for the welfare and safety of all CIM missionaries
along the Great Canal, there was no feeling of it being "fun", and it was not by any means quiet. On
the last Saturday night in June a disorderly crowd, very difficult to manage, came into the chapel in
Yangzhou. Rumours spread that all Mission houses were to be burned and all missionaries killed.
On Sunday morning a telegram from the Viceroy in Nanjing which was posted up on the chapel door
as a proclamation by the three Yangzhou magistrates, made the troublemakers hesitate to go further.
However, an Imperial Commissioner who arrived soon after at Yangzhou ordered the officials to
protect foreign property but not the missionaries.
The friendly magistrates, feeling that their hands were now tied, begged George to get all missionaries
out as quickly as possible as they could not now be responsible for their lives, though they promised to
protect the property until they could return. So George sent all the new workers and other ladies off
to Shanghai, and with them his small son Alf, now three years old. Jessie refused to leave her
husband, but when pressure from the magistrates increased and the British Consul ordered all women
to leave, she went with Mrs. Cox as far as Qingjiang, a much safer city and nearer to Shanghai. Dr.
Cox and Mr. Orr remained on in Yangzhou with George.
AN APPRAISAL
The history of those terrible days has been written up in detail by others, so it is unnecessary to do so
here. Many Chinese Christians proved the sincerity of their love for the Lord by giving their lives for
His sake rather than recant in order to save them. Amazingly, others who had hesitated before, now
openly joined the Church and confessed Christ as Lord and Saviour.
In time it all passed over and missionaries returned to their places of work. Once again it proved true
that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church". In the years that followed the Church grew
not only in numbers, but also in spiritual strength as mature Chinese Christians received gifts of the
Holy Spirit and used them "for the upbuilding of the Church".
Fifty years later Mr. Robert Gillies wrote of that period, "A new era had dawned. Awed and humble,
with natural pride of race at last dwindling in their own souls, missionaries found themselves called
upon to be co-workers with Chinese men and women who had hazarded their lives for His Name. All
had suffered loss and many bore in their bodies the marks of pain and suffering. The work began on
29
Amy Moore
June it was reported that large numbers of Boxers had entered the town and that night they were
planning to burn Chefoo and Tianjin to the ground.
The British Consul had arranged for a gunboat to be anchored right opposite the schools, and the
school boats as well as a steam launch were lying ready moored so that the 200 people on the school
compound could be taken off as quickly as possible at the first sign of trouble. It was expected that
the first attack would be on the settlement some distance from the school. A German and a French
gunboat soon joined the British one and a United States ship also lay at anchor below the school
ready to take them to Japan if necessary.
Esther was 15½ at this time and to her and her friend Ella Reid (later Ella Ritchie) it was all very
exciting. Every night they went to bed with their bags packed and rowlocks under their pillows. The
senior girls had all learned to row and would be needed if the boats drawn up on the shore in
readiness were to be used. Ella's comment years later was that they all thought it would be great fun
to be taken off to Japan.
In Yangzhou where George Andrew was responsible for the welfare and safety of all CIM missionaries
along the Great Canal, there was no feeling of it being "fun", and it was not by any means quiet. On
the last Saturday night in June a disorderly crowd, very difficult to manage, came into the chapel in
Yangzhou. Rumours spread that all Mission houses were to be burned and all missionaries killed.
On Sunday morning a telegram from the Viceroy in Nanjing which was posted up on the chapel door
as a proclamation by the three Yangzhou magistrates, made the troublemakers hesitate to go further.
However, an Imperial Commissioner who arrived soon after at Yangzhou ordered the officials to
protect foreign property but not the missionaries.
The friendly magistrates, feeling that their hands were now tied, begged George to get all missionaries
out as quickly as possible as they could not now be responsible for their lives, though they promised to
protect the property until they could return. So George sent all the new workers and other ladies off
to Shanghai, and with them his small son Alf, now three years old. Jessie refused to leave her
husband, but when pressure from the magistrates increased and the British Consul ordered all women
to leave, she went with Mrs. Cox as far as Qingjiang, a much safer city and nearer to Shanghai. Dr.
Cox and Mr. Orr remained on in Yangzhou with George.
AN APPRAISAL
The history of those terrible days has been written up in detail by others, so it is unnecessary to do so
here. Many Chinese Christians proved the sincerity of their love for the Lord by giving their lives for
His sake rather than recant in order to save them. Amazingly, others who had hesitated before, now
openly joined the Church and confessed Christ as Lord and Saviour.
In time it all passed over and missionaries returned to their places of work. Once again it proved true
that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church". In the years that followed the Church grew
not only in numbers, but also in spiritual strength as mature Chinese Christians received gifts of the
Holy Spirit and used them "for the upbuilding of the Church".
Fifty years later Mr. Robert Gillies wrote of that period, "A new era had dawned. Awed and humble,
with natural pride of race at last dwindling in their own souls, missionaries found themselves called
upon to be co-workers with Chinese men and women who had hazarded their lives for His Name. All
had suffered loss and many bore in their bodies the marks of pain and suffering. The work began on
29
