A Typical Mission in China Author:William Edward Soothill Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n PIONEERING " We remember the fleshpots which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; bu... more »t now our soul is dried away." Pioneering, in any line of life, involves difficulty, distress, discouragement, and especially is this the experience of a pioneer missionary's early years. Nor is he generally dowered with buoyant hope above his fellows, though, happily for himself and his work, his call has shaken his soul to unwavering steadfastness, and enriched him with a calm trust, sufficient for triumph over obstacles that often, even to himself, seem insurmountable. The thought of the sublime faith and perseverance of that great man, Robert Morrison, and of those who followed him, is ever an inspiration to the successful, and a tonic to the depressed worker. Robert Morrison was indeed the chosen of the Lord, the Apostle of China. Setting out a century ago, in 1806, he was, if it be possible, in even worse case than St Paul when he went forth to preach Christ to the Mediterranean world. Paul had with him Barnabas and Mark ; he was well acquinted with the languages required, and generally found friends and hearers already versed in and attached to the Sacred Book which he expounded. Not so with Robert Morrison. To his lot it fell to come out alone, with never a fellow-worker to cheer, nor a Chinese believer to welcome him; with little knowledge of the language, no Word of God from which to preach, and perhaps, worst of all, with the knowledge that there were at least three hundred million people who wanted neither him nor his message, and yet to whom he was sent, single-handed. Hopeless task ! Fatuous presumption I Impossible attempt! ' Do you think you can convert the Chinese ? " " No, but God can." The su...« less