July 13, 1876

Sunday May 14, l876. -- I found myself in the city of Tientsin, on my way from Peking to Shanghai, and destined to wait three days for the first steamer going out. I had come down from the Capital on the day previous in one of the dull old springless carts which are so extensively used as a means of transportation in North China. A wearisome, dreary ride it was, in the dust and wind and blazing sun, through a desolate and parched up country, on which no rain had fallen for five months. Indeed rain or snow is a very uncommon thing in the vicinity of Peking during the winter months, and everything becomes dry and choked with dust. There is a wet season, however, which begins about July, when it rains like Noah's deluge, and in a few hours transforms the blinding dust into one mass of miry mud. I have had a little experience of both seasons, and I unhesitatingly affirm that neither one is to be preferred.

One little incident on the way down I may relate. Several criminals had recently been beheaded in Tientsin for robbery, and their heads were suspended on the roadside as a terror to evil doers. The carter called my attention to them as we passed, and I got out of the cart to inspect one of them more closely. It was tied by the queue inside a small basket, which was hung on a crooked, slender pole. A ghastly looking object it was, the features having changed to black through the action of the sun's rays. As I was gazing upon it with mingled feelings of pity, solemnity, and horror, the carter burst into a laugh, as though he regarded the whole thing as decidedly funny. Such is the apathy and stolidity of the Chinese.

So, as I was saying, I found myself detained in Tientsin for three days. The first day being the Sabbath, I was glad of the opportunity to attend the English services in the little church near the northern limits of the Foreign Settlement. The services are conducted by the missionaries in alphabetical order. There was also a Union service of all the native Christians at the same hour in one of the chapels in the city. While it was going on, a fire broke out in the vicinity, and burned up the Chinese arsenal. -- Several thousand stand of arms, and a large quantity of cartridges, shot, etc., had been stored away in it, and were of course a total loss. Fortunately the powder had been removed only a day or two before, but several persons were reported as killed or injured by the bursting of shells. The Viceroy, Li Hung Chang (the most powerful official in China to-day) summoned the mandarin in charge to his presence to give an account of the fire, but the poor man was so terrified that it is said he attempted to destroy himself by rushing into the blazing ruins rather than obey the mandate. He was rescued, however, and forced into the Viceroy's presence, and it is not at all improbable that he will atone for the conflagration by the loss of his unfortunate head.

In the afternoon I was greatly interested in a Chinese Bible class held in the dining room of the missionary with whom I was stopping, Rev. J. H. Pyke. Mr. Pyke's personal teacher, who is also employed as a native preacher, has a profound knowledge of Christianity and is thoughtful and earnest in his study of the Bible. Part of the lesson was on the water being changed into wine, and one point which came up was of unusual and somewhat novel interest. When Jesus' mother tells him, "They have no wine," he replies abruptly, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." To the Chinese, whose notions of filial respect and piety are of the very strictest order, such language for a son to employ towards his mother naturally seemed rather shocking; and not one in the class could explain it. The teacher, who of course knew nothing of the original Greek, on being interrogated gave it as his opinion that the rendering of the passage was incorrect, especially as he had seen a different translation in another version. Mr. Pyke brought out his Greek Testament for examination and sure enough the verse literally read, "Woman, what (is it) to me and thee?" The words to be supplied evidently referring to the fact of the wine having been exhausted. Thus the point was quite nicely elucidated, and I felt ashamed of myself that I had read the Scriptures with such inattention as not to have noticed the passage before.

Monday, May 15th. -- In the afternoon I accompanied Mr. Pyke to his chapel in the city. We walked across the country a mile or more to the Ho Men, or Fire Gate, near which the arsenal was burned down on the day previous. The ruins were still smoldering, and a crowd of Chinese were hovering about. Though the surrounding space was thickly covered with houses, the fire did not extend to any of them, as they were built, roof, walls and all, of mud, which, dry as it may become, fortunately has no igneous property. Mr. Pyke and I clambered up on the city wall and followed it around to the East Gate, just inside of which is his chapel. The wall of Tientsin is a mile square, and almost the entire space enclosed is covered with buildings, while more than half the city is outside of the walls. The town is old and dirty, and its wall in a dilapidated, tumble-down condition. Just outside of it, around a great part of the city, runs an open sewer, six or seven feet in width, and several feet in depth. In many places it is literally full of a green, stagnant putrid mass of corruption, which infects the surrounding atmosphere to a degree intolerable to anybody but Chinamen. The public road to Peking lies right along by the side of it, and is so narrow that in very few places is it possible for two carts to pass each other. Between the road and the wall is a row of shops in which the Chinese stand all day driving bargains or complacently waiting for customers; while on the opposite side their private dwellings come down to the very edge of the horrible moat. -- Once every year it is cleaned out, and then by coolies who dip up the reeking mass into buckets with their ladles, and carry it out into the fields adjacent. A trying time for noses that must be, I'faith. And this is the city of Tientsin, the Lord of Heaven.

When we reached the chapel we waited a long time for a congregation. Two or three men came in and sat down, and Mr. Pyke began to talk to them. They did not seem interested, and the warmth of the afternoon had a sensibly drowsy effect upon them. But the speaker held on until he had fairly aroused their attention, and others began to pour in

from the street. Mr. Pyke succeeded in throwing himself heart and soul into his subject and seemed to talk with no effort at all. I was profoundly interested and deeply moved at his plain, practical, forcible method of presenting gospel truths to the darkened minds of the poor heathen before him. His topic was Noah's flood, and he drew a vivid picture of the scenes connected with the building of the ark and the destruction of the "world of the ungodly" by the waters of the deluge. The old preacher warning his countrymen and people in vain of the coming catastrophe -- the ridicule and scorn which they heaped upon him during a hundred and twenty years -- the consternation which fell upon them when the rain began to pour down and "the fountains of the great deep" to be broken up -- the confusion and terror with which they were driven from their drowning homes to the hills and from the hills to the highest mountains -- their despair as they beheld the waters rising higher and higher, the doors of the ark hopelessly closed upon them, and themselves swept off one after another by the merciless flood -- all was portrayed by the speaker before the minds of his audience as graphically as if it had been represented on canvas. Then came the application to those who are forewarned, through the gospel, of the coming judgments of God against sinners, but refuse to take heed. This last part of the discourse was powerful as the first part was vivid and impressive, and the deep and earnest attention which was given to the very close showed that the speaker was not soaring above the minds of his hearers, but that, heathen though they were, they not only understood clearly everything that was said, but were greatly impressed by it. The discourse was a solid hour in length, and at the close the room was pretty well filled by an orderly, respectful and deeply attentive audience.

I will add that Mr. Pyke has been studying the Chinese language only two years and a half, and that on this occasion his discourse was entirely unpremeditated, no previous preparation having been given to it. Had I not heard him myself, I should have deemed it incredible that one under such circumstances could preach the sermon he did. And indeed not one missionary out of twenty could have done it; but that is the way he preaches every day, and there are other missionaries in Tientsin as earnest and zealous as he. Surely the day will come, in God's own good time, and through His gracious blessing, when the fruit of their devoted labors shall appear, and a glorious harvest of souls be gathered into the kingdom of Christ.

(Concluded next week)