A MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO CHINA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1956, 20 August 1891, Page 35

A MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO CHINA.

John Kenneth Mackenzie, the founder of the first Government medical school in the Chinese Empire, was born at Yarmouth in 1850. He came of a mixed parentage ; his fathfer was a Scot from Ross-shire, his mother a Welshwoman from Breconshire. While he was still in his infancy, his parents removed to Bristol. There he was brought up ; there he was educated, and there he was led to make religious truth the subject of inquiry by hearing an address delivered by Mr D. L. Moody, the American evangelist. Casting about for some means of helping on the work of the Gospel, he fell in with a volume entitled "The Double Cure; or, What is a Medical Mission?" Its perusal deeply impressed him, and he resolved, with his parents' consent, to give up the " business situation " he then held, and begin the study of medicine, with the view, at the end of his course, of going out to China as a medical missionary. In October 1870 he accordingly entered the British Medical School, and at the expiration of four years' diligent, preparation obtained the diplomas of M.R.C.3. LontfoD, and L R C.P. Edinburgh. Various influences had already drawn him towards China as his future field of labour ; and in 1874 he offered his services to the London

Missionary Society for medical mission work in Hankow. They were gladly accepted; and on the Bth of April 1875 he took leave of his parents, and soon after sailed from England. Mackenzie's first care was to learn tne language spoken by its people, while he took his part in the duties ofj the hospital and dispensary established by the Mis-, eionary Society. His educational process was as follows:— "My teacher, Yang by name, is a very happy, light-hearted fellow, a Christian. He teaches me thus: 'We sit down together with the same book, he calls over a word, and I try to imitate him ; my mouth is forced into all sorts of odd shapes, and I struggle on. The idea is first to gat the proper sound, the meaning afterwards, and then (probably the most difficult) to learn the*characters« We go on for about three hours, until I am tired of repeating sounds after him." The young missionary's life was at this time full enough. Besides his hospital and medical work — besides hiß linguistic work— he preached and prayed on board the ships which came to Hankow for trading purpose 3. "We had a delightful meeting on board the steamer last night, he writes. "The captain invited us to tea, which we had on deck. It was a very solemn meeting, full of God's spirit. The captain spoke at the close, and said that for many years he bad been a Christian, but had never "before felt so much that he was a sinner." In another steamer he speaks of about 14 men having become Christians. " This is the last tea-ship of the season ; may it be the most blessed 1 " As soon as his progress in the language permitted, Mackenzie began to preach to the Chinese. He- found v it no easy task ; for there is no people on the earth so intensely conservative or so supremely ignorant. When you ask them what they worship, they will reply, says Mackenzie, that "heaven and earth are the greatest, and parents the most honourable." They will not, as a rule, admit that they worship idols, though they indubitably do so. Their contempt for foreigners is colossal. "In walking along the streets selling books and gospels, a respectable shopkeeper will call you into his shop saying he wishes to buy a book. You enter, and he will immediately laugh in your face, saying he wants no books, and make some insulting remarks about you." But they will also resort to violent measures. Mackenzie and his colleagues were sometimes stoned. On one occasion they were set upon by a mob which began to drag them down to the water's edge, while from the opposite side of the river a storm of missiles was rained upon them. Happily, by exercising great firmness and patience, they effected their eEcape. In 1879 Mackenzie removed to Tien-tsin, where he laboured for several years with : ever-increasing success in his capacity of a two-fold healer— physician and evangelist. Though not a man of brilliant intellect, there was in him a reserve of strength, a fine patience, an elevation of soul, which deeply impressed all with whom he came in contact. He made many friends and won much confidencs. The Emperor recognised his services with the Star and Ribbon of the Double Dragon. The Viceroy, whose wife, the Lady Li, he had successfully treated in a dangerous illness, heaped upon 1 him favours. And so he went on his way, doing with rare energy and selfedenial the work (and there ,was plenty of it) that (( f ell to his hands, when a severe attack of inflammation ;of the lungs carried him off, after a week's illness, on Easter Day, 1888. . This rapid sketch of a nobly useful life is founded on an interesting and well-written volume, "John Kenneth Mackenzie, Medical Missionary to China," written by Mrs Bryson, of the London Mission, Tien-tsin, author of " Child Life in Chinese Homes," &c.