"These sort of men, before he came into this Country, having feigned many crimes against the Priests which Preached the Faith of Christ, had raised a bitter persecution against them; which God of his goodness did turn so much to their good, as they had permission to teach and preach publickly the Law of Christ."
— Martino Martini
Source: Martino Martini, De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654); English tr. Bellum Tartaricum, or the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Empire of China (London: John Crook, 1654), p. 205
Empire, monarch, dark age, faith, sacred, land, idol, civilization, suffering
Views: 214
"In short, the ruin is almost entire, the work of forty years is nearly annihilated; the courage of missionaries, nevertheless, is not on the wane; we shall begin over again, assured of success in the end, for “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians;” unless God design to punish unhappy China, that has abused His grace for centuries. Let us hope that He will grant pardon, so many persons, even among the mandarins, are innocent of the atrocities committed. We love, and will ever love, our poor people of China; pray for them and for us."
— Alphonse Favier
Source: Letter of Bishop Alphonse Favier accompanying his siege journal (1900), in The Heart of Pekin: Bishop A. Favier's Diary of the Siege, May–August, 1900, ed. Jos. Freri (Boston: Marlier & Co., 1901), pp. 16–17
Suffering, hatred, rebirth, Christ, forgiveness, reconciliation
Views: 285
"After the suppression of the Jesuits, Amiot remained in Beijing. Following the death of François Bourgeois, head of the French mission, in 1792, the aged Amiot often visited the tombs of his Jesuit companions to pray and meditate, and carved their epitaphs; news of the French Revolution so distressed him that his health declined, and from September 1792 he could no longer go. On October 8, 1793, news of King Louis XVI's execution reached him; he celebrated Mass for the deceased king and died that night or the following day, October 9, 1793."
— Wikipedia (after Rochemonteix and Pfister)
Source: Wikipedia, "Jean Joseph Marie Amiot", section "Later life and death"
Property, Bible, Mother Church, Destiny, Heaven
Views: 236
"Julia Brown Mateer (d. 1898) reached Tengchow, Shantung, with her husband Calvin Mateer early in 1864 and founded and ran a boys' boarding school. Teaching music in the school and in the church, where she trained the choir, she prepared a hymn-and-tune book: a question-and-answer statement of the principles of vocal music with progressive exercises, followed by a large collection of church tunes and hymns in a modified system of shaped notes. The book circulated widely, and she later revised it. "She sang her voice away teaching the Chinese to sing," her biography's foreword says. "She never lamented it.""
— Robert McCheyne Mateer, Character-Building in China (1912)
Source: Character-Building in China: The Life-Story of Julia Brown Mateer (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1912), Foreword and pp. 71–72
Hymns, Truth, Cross, Savior, Precious Blood, Life, Benefit
Views: 290
"In the weeks that followed, I had many opportunities to glimpse the greatness of this man, a brilliance that even his humble appearance could not conceal. So, when he asked me that autumn, 'Are you willing to unite with me and dedicate your life to China?' I answered without hesitation, 'I am willing.' But a few days later, he said again, 'Can you assure me that you will always allow me to put my Lord and His work first, even before you?' Before answering 'Yes, I am willing, forever,' my heart skipped a beat, for—wasn't this the kind of devout person who had guided my prayers all along?"
— Rosalind Goforth
Source: The Life of John the Old Man
Great, life, first, willing, piety
Views: 262
"It was a lesson ever to be remembered: to be willing to be defrauded rather than to fight, even when it is right to do so from the human standpoint, for "I have been crucified with Christ," not only dead to sin, but also to that which is right, and to lay down all, so that the life of Christ may be manifested. ... May He enable me continually to reckon myself to be dead unto sin and alive unto God."
— Dora Yu
Source: God's Dealings with Dora Yü, a Chinese Messenger of the Cross (1928)
Sanctification, believer, Holy Spirit, holiness, Christ
Views: 274