"Most emphatically they need something which shall awaken the moral sense, create the fear of God, and adjust and strengthen the conscience. This is absolutely indispensable to any degree of true advancement in any department of the nation, for without a regard for truth, honour, and righteousness, what can be done?"
— Alexander Williamson
Source: Journeys in North China, Manchuria, and Eastern Mongolia, Vol. I, Introduction (1870)
Cultivate oneself, rectify one's mind, fear Heaven, and heed its commands.
Views: 435
"We need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Swatow, as in Kilsyth, to turn the souls of sinners from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We need this, and this God has promised to prayer — true prayer. Who among us has the spirit of prayer! They are mighty who have this spirit, and weak who have it not."
— William Chalmers Burns
Source: Letter to his mother from Swatow, March 1857, in Islay Burns, Memoir of the Rev. Wm. C. Burns (1870)
Prayer, Duty, Ministry
Views: 416
"Our reading of the Word of God makes it inconceivable to us that the Holy Spirit should be willing, even for a day, to delay His work. We may be sure that, where there is a lack of the fulness of God, it is ever due to man's lack of faith and obedience. If God the Holy Spirit is not glorifying Jesus Christ in the world today, as at Pentecost, it is we who are to blame. After all, what is revival but simply the Spirit of God fully controlling in the surrendered life? It must always be possible, then, when man yields. The sin of unyieldedness, alone, can keep us from revival. But are we ready to receive Him? Do we value the Giver and the gift sufficiently? Are we ready to pay the price of Holy Ghost revival?"
— Jonathan Goforth
Source: By My Spirit (1929), ch. XIII "Indispensable Factors in Revival"
"On Sunday, the 24th, the day proclaimed for the burning, we went to church as usual, arranging that horses should await us in the compound for escape in case of need. ... Over four hundred Christians gathered, and earnest were the prayers that went up for strength, guidance, and protection. The last hymn sung was "Soldiers of the Lord, arise!" ... Then the congregation quietly dispersed, to meet again no more for months, and then but a broken fragment."
— Dugald Christie
Source: Thirty Years in Moukden, 1883–1913 (1914), ch. "The Boxer Madness, 1900," p. 138
Faith, difficulties, heart
Views: 361
"To accompany this issue with an apology would almost seem out of place. Truth is one, and while we seek to promote its advancement in science, we are but preparing the way for its development in that loftier knowledge, which as Christian men and missionaries, it is our chief desire to see consummated."
— Alexander Wylie
Source: English preface to the Supplementary Elements of Geometry (1857), quoted in Henri Cordier, "Life and Labours of Alexander Wylie", Chinese Researches (1897)
Creator, Soul, Value, Equality
Views: 377
"The space, the silence, the darkness, the loneliness all produced a state of consciousness when the accepted values of life seemed readjusted, being found to be curiously different from those accepted by day in the busy throng. Day uttereth speech, but night showeth knowledge; and we have remained wiser women for the meditations of those Gobi nights."
— Mildred Cable & Francesca French
Source: Through Jade Gate and Central Asia (1927), ch. "Gobi Nights"