THAT MOST DISCOURAGING BOY BECAME PIONEER TO CHINA!

(Broomhall, Marshall. Robert Morrison – A Master Builder taken from Continuing Steadfastly – January 2001). Years ago a manufacturer of Scotland told the Sunday School teacher of a class of poor boys that he would get them each a new suit of clothes. The worst and most unpromising boy in the class was a lad named Bob. After a few Sundays he was missing. His teacher searched for him, and found his new clothes torn and dirty. The manufacturer gave him a second suit, but after attending once or twice, Bob again absented himself. Utterly discouraged, his teacher reported to the manufacturer that they must give up on him. But he wanted to try him once more, and gave him a third suit if he would promise to attend regularly. Bob did promise, and attended faithfully, and later found Jesus as his Saviour. The end of the account is that that discouraging boy – that forlorn, ragged Bob – became the Rev. Robert Morrison, the great missionary to China, who translated the Bible into the Chinese language, and by so doing opened the Kingdom of Heaven to the teeming millions of that country! (“Church of Scotland’s Children Review”). ROBERT MORRISON – PIONEER TO CHINA One day in the year 1806, five young men gathered in an open meadow on the grounds of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. For some time they had met twice a week to pray. However, this time something unique happened. Their meeting was interrupted by a thunder storm which drove them to take cover under a nearby haystack. As they continued their prayer under its shelter, they were touched by the Lord concerning the tremendous need for Christianity to spread abroad into Asia. That prayer meeting, known as the “Haystack Meeting,” became a monumental occasion in Christian history. It was the inception of the spread of Christianity to China. Although none of the five who prayed under the haystack that day ever set sail for China, the Lord heard their petition, and responded by burdening a zealous twenty-five year-old Robert Morrison from England. The next year he boarded an ocean-liner bound for China. He had one goal – to spread God’s Word to China. His resolve to evangelize this harsh, uninviting land was absolute. He wrote, “If we go, we must have the sentence of death in ourselves, not to trust in ourselves but in the living God.” For a Westerner to penetrate China was not an easy task. Morrison was opposed on three fronts: by English merchants, by the Chinese government, and by Portugese Catholicism. In 1807, after a ghastly sea voyage of 220 days, Morrison finally reached China. His first task was to learn the Chinese language in order to translate the Bible, because he knew its indispensible role in the spread of the Gospel. Morrison soon found out that any foreigner caught trying to learn Chinese, along with the one teaching the language, would be guilty of a capital crime and be sentenced to death. Eventually, he hired a teacher, but because of the danger, he had to pay exorbitant fees for the instruction. During the lessons, the Chinese instructor would carry a pair of women’s shoes and pose as a teacher of shoe-making. As a precautionary measure, the teacher also carried poison to swallow in the event that he should be caught – it was better to die by poisoning than to suffer the pains of a Chinese prison. After learning the language, Morrison initiated his translation work and later took a translating job with the East India Company to support himself. Though his wife joined him for a time while in Macao, life was lonely and tiresome. He quickly became a recluse and regularly toiled 13-14 hours a day. By age forty-one, his wife and closest friends from England had all passed away. Concerning this he wrote: “Those I loved most are taken away. The heathen around me are, by the institution of their country, inhospitable and void of affection for strangers. I do not repine – but so solitary as I am rendered, is not a desirable condition. Yet, oh how much have I to be thankful for! God save me from being ungrateful to Him.” It took him about 7 years to complete his New Testament translation with an accompanying dictionary. Following this he engaged in preparing it for the press by tediously carving wood blocks one by one. The blocks were subject to consumption by insects and the elements alike. Once when his work was nearly complete, a fire demolished all his painstaking work, forcing him to begin again. Even though the Chinese government outlawed publishing the Bible, he still found a way to have his work printed. Like so many other self-sacrificing grains of wheat to follow, Morrison never saw the harvest of his labour. During his first ten years in China he bore only one fruit, and for his entire time in China he baptized less than ten people. He was so moved when he baptized his first convert that he wrote, “May this be the firstfruits of a great harvest; one of millions who shall be saved from the wrath to come.” As he lay dying in 1834, he told those few Chinese who were with him, “One hundred years from now you’ll see the harvest ten thousand times.” As a grain of wheat, Morrison pioneered the way for the Lord’s new move in China. He is a remarkable pattern to all those who aspire to follow the Lord. His vision and commission to evangelize China was surely his response to the transmission of the Lord’s burden echoed by those in the “Haystack” prayer meeting nearly one year prior to his departure. He was succeeded by an influx of missionaries from the West, a number of whom would pay the ultimate price of martyrdom. QUOTES & PRAYERS: ROBERT MORRISON Yet, oh how must have I to be thankful for! God save me from being ungrateful to Him. If we go, we must have the sentence of death in ourselves, not to trust in ourselves, but in the living God. I desire to be found actively engaged in my proper duties, waiting for the coming of my Lord.