Calvin Wilson Mateer, forty-five years a missionary in Shantung, China : $b a biographyFisher, D. W. (Daniel Webster)
Religion
Calvin Wilson Mateer, forty-five years a missionary in Shantung, China : $b a biography
Fisher, D. W. (Daniel Webster)
Mateer, C. W. (Calvin Wilson), 1836-1908; Missionaries -- China -- Biography
Personally I shall ever esteem it one of the greatest blessings
of my life that it has been my privilege to have enjoyed
the friendship, and of being a colaborer with this great
man for nearly fifty years. More than forty years ago it
was my privilege to spend with him weeks and months on long
itinerating journeys, preaching daily to hundreds who had never
heard the gospel, and at no place finding Christians to cheer
our hearts. Often after a long day of exhaustion, preaching in
the open air at great markets and on crowded streets, in the
evening we would kneel together at the inn and earnestly pray
for God’s richest blessing upon our efforts to bring men to a
saving knowledge of the truth. Often the thought came into our
mind, Can these dry bones live? Shall we live to see Christian
churches established and shepherded by Chinese pastors? His
unwavering faith in the ultimate and universal triumph of the
gospel in China was a tower of strength to all associated
with him. When the news of his death reached me at our inland
station, the thought rushed into my mind: “Know ye not that
there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?”
The world will ever seem more lonely without him. His sympathy
and help could always be counted on in every kind of true
missionary work. His labors were crowned with success and honor
continuously, until he was summoned by the Master to a higher
and wider sphere where his saints serve him.
It seems to me that the man who is entitled to be heard next is the
Rev. Dr. W. M. Hayes, now of Tsingchow fu, but formerly—after the
resignation of Dr. Mateer—the head of the Tengchow College. There is
no one of his associates on the mission field in whom Dr. Mateer had
greater confidence; and for years they were in such constant contact
that they knew each other most thoroughly. A few days after the burial
a memorial service was held at Wei Hsien, and at this Dr. Hayes made
an extended address before an audience including the students of the
college. The respective lines of thought which he first elaborated were
his faithfulness to Christ’s service, his resolution, his attention to
great matters, and his industry. In the conclusion he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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