Church History, Volume 3 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 3 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
congregations of old standing, greatly deteriorated for want
of pastoral care, but still using the Heidelberg Catechism. At
Banjermassin, in A.D. 1835 the Rhenish Society founded their
first station in Borneo, and wrought not unsuccessfully among
the heathen Dyaks. But in A.D. 1859 a rebellion of the Mohammedan
residents led to the expulsion of the Dutch and the murder of all
Christians. Only a few of the missionaries escaped martyrdom, and
subsequently settled in Sumatra.
§ 184.6. The work in =China= began in A.D. 1807, when the London
Missionary Society settled Morrison in Canton, where he began the
study of the language and the translation of the Bible. Gutzlaff
of Pomerania, in A.D. 1826, conceived the plan of evangelizing
China through the Chinese converts, but, though he continued his
efforts till his death in A.D. 1854, the scheme failed through
the unworthiness of many of the professors. The war against the
opium traffic, A.D. 1839-1842, opened five ports to the mission,
and led to the transference of Hongkong to the English. The
Chinese mission now made rapid strides; but the interior was
still untouched. The conflict between the governor of Canton
and the English, French, and Americans, and the chastisement
administered to the Chinese in A.D. 1857, led the emperor, in
A.D. 1858, to make a treaty with the three powers and also with
Russia, by which the whole land was opened up for trade and
missions, and full toleration granted to Christianity. Popular
hatred of strangers, and especially of missionaries, however,
occasioned frequently bloody encounters, and in A.D. 1870 there
was a furious outburst directed against the French missionaries.
During a terrible famine in North China, in A.D. 1878, when more
than five millions perished, the heroic and self-sacrificing
conduct of the missionaries brought them into high favour.
Throughout China there are now 320 organized Christian
congregations with 50,000 adherents under 238 foreign
missionaries.--After seclusion for three centuries, =Japan=,
about the same time as China, was opened by treaty to European
and American commerce, notwithstanding the opposition of the
old feudal nobility, the so-called Daimios. In A.D. 1871 the
mikado’s government succeeded in overcoming completely the power
of the daimios and setting aside the shiogun or military vizier,
who had exercised supreme executive power. European customs were
introduced, but the rigorous enactments against native converts
to Christianity were still enforced. A cruel persecution
of native Christians was carried on in A.D. 1867, but the
Protestant missionaries continued to work unweariedly, preparing
dictionaries and reading books. The Buddhist priests sought
to get up a rival mission to send agents to America and Europe,
whereas many of the leading newspapers expressed the opinion that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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