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What to do while you are waiting

March 8,  2009  - Dale

In the years between the Great Revival of the 1700s and the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, a great movement of enthusiasm and deep commitment developed in Europe and Britain. Some of the energy went into reforms at home. Anti-slavery movements, and working conditions for example.

But the newly discovered lands to the east had captured the imagination of thousands of Christians. Missionary Societies were formed. Christians were challenged,  trained, and sent out as missionaries. In many cases entering new lands on the heels of the East India Company, or the Dutch East Indies Company or following traders and government officials.

One of the great destinations was China. The pioneer of Bible translation in China was sent by the London Missionary Society and worked as a translator and linguist for the East India Company in the trading base of Canton. Despite bans by the Chinese government on the printing of Christian literature, Robert Morrison wrote a Chinese grammar and dictionary and translated the whole Bible into Chinese.

But China remained closed to missionaries until 1842. So Malacca, Penang, Singapore and Batavia became bases for missionaries preparing to enter China. From the mid 1830s Walter Medhurst  was one of the most experienced of the missionaries, having arrived in Batavia in 1822. He was an evangelist as well as a printer.

Printing had been a major ministry of the base in Malacca, and now Batavia also became a centre for printing.  168,600 books were published by the Batavia mission press between 1823 and 1836. The press employed workers to cut out of wooden blocks the thousands of Chinese characters needed to print in Chinese.

Medhurst and others in the mission started an orphanage, Parapattan, in 1833, which celebrated its 175^th anniversary last year. Schools were established in Malay and Chinese. Young men were taught trades, especially printing. Tracts were distributed, services held, mission trips to other islands and through Java were undertaken.

Towards the end of the 1830’s Batavia became a gathering place for missionaries in waiting. In some ways Medhurst was the attraction with his experience and ability to work with others. It must have been an interesting time. Missionaries had come from Congregationalist, Methodist, Baptist, Dutch Reformed, American Episcopalian, Lutheran and other backgrounds, with a variety of missionary societies.

No doubt there were tensions, but there was also a great spirit of wanting to see people turn to Christ, of wanting the gospel to be made known in the language of the people. The fruit of this was not only found in Java but especially in China with the flourishing missions that developed later in the 19^th century.

Dale

Read the whole story in Changes and Chances.