James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reportsGilmour, James
Religion
James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reports
Gilmour, James
Gilmour, James, 1843-1891; Missions -- Mongolia
'For some weeks I went out at a certain hour to take care of
Gilmour's stand while he went and got a "refresher" in the shape of
some indigestible pudding made of millet-flour with beans for
plums. He generally left me with a patient or two requiring some
lotion in the eye or some wound to dress. Then I, being a
new-comer and a typical "foreign devil" (being red of hair and in
complexion), always brought a large following down the street with
me, and attracted a great crowd round the stand. At first it was
not pleasant to sit there and be stared at without being able to
speak to them; but after a while I got very interested in the
different faces that came round. On one occasion I noticed the
crowd eagerly discussing something among themselves, giving me a
scrutinising look now and then. Now and again one would turn to his
fellow and rub his finger across his upper lip as if he was feeling
for his moustache. I had only been here a week or so then, and knew
very little of the language; but I listened attentively, and at
last I heard them speaking the Chinese numerals, and then it all
dawned upon me that they were inquiring about and discussing my
age; so I up with my fingers indicating the years of my pilgrimage.
I never saw a crowd so amused. "Ah, ah!" they said, and opened
their eyes, highly delighted that I was able to tell them what they
wanted to know. Then I had my turn, and, pointing to a man here and
there in the crowd, I used what little of Chinese I had in guessing
their ages.
'But the sights of misery, suffering, and wretchedness which gather
round Gilmour's stand are simply appalling. His work seems to me to
come nearest to Christ's own way of blessing men. Healing them of
their wounds, giving comfort in sickness, and at the same time
telling them the gospel of Eternal Salvation through Jesus Christ.
One day that I went I found Gilmour tying a bandage on a poor
beggar's knee. The beggar was a boy about sixteen years of age,
entirely naked, with the exception of a piece of sacking for a loin
cloth. He had been creeping about, almost frozen with cold, and a
dog (who, no doubt, thought he was simply an animated bone) had
attacked him.
'The people here are desperately poor, and the misery and
suffering one sees crawling through the streets every day is
heart-rending. I have not a doubt that I am in a real mission
field, and thank God that He has given me the opportunity to do
something towards alleviating some of this misery. But what about
the work as regards the saving of souls and establishing of a
Church? I can only speak of the work in T· Ss[)u] Kou. It is in its
initiatory stage. All the Christians and adherents can sit round
the four sides of my table. But I am highly pleased with them.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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