**Tbe mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church was established in the foil of 1847. ' It has had an average number of four or five fSunilies. In 1867 it baptized tiM first convert in connection with its labors. In Au- gust, 1866, a brick church, called tfie * Church of the True God,' the first substantial church building erect- ed at Fub-chau by Protestant missions, was dedicated to the worship of God. It is located near Tating, on die main street, in the southern snbtrbs, about two thirds of the way between the Big Bridge and the city. In the winter of the same year another brick church, locsted on the hUl in the suburbs on the sooth bank of the Min, was finished and dedicated-, called the ' Church of Heavenly Rest' In the fall of 1864 this mission erected a commodious brick church on East Street, in the city. Its members reside principally on the hill on which the Church of Heavenly Rest is built. One fiunily lives at a country station ten or twelve mfles from Fuh-chan. This mission has re- ceived great and signal encouragement in several coun- try vilUges and filming districts, as well as in the
city and suburbs. It has some eight or ten country stations, which an more or less regularly visited l^ the foreign missionaries, and where native helpers are appointed to preach regularly. It has a flourishing boys* boarding-school, and a flourishing girls' board- ing-schod, and a printing-press. At the dose of 1868 there were twenty-six probationary members of its na- tive churolies, and nin^-nine in ftdl communion. It employs ten or twelve native helpers. It has estab- lished a system of regular Quarteriy Meetings and an Annual Conference in conformity with the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church" (Doolittie, Social Life of the C^ineee, N. Y., Harper and Brothers, 1866, 2 vols. 12mo). There were, in 1864, 26 stations, 69 missionaries, 6 churches, 24 chapels, 861 church mem- bers ; 12 boarding-schools, with 876 scholars ; 20 day- schools, with 486 scholars (see StaiUUce of SoeUtUSj below).
According to the "Directory of Protestant Missions in China," issued in June, 1866, from the press of the American Methodist Episcopal Mission at Fuh-cbau, the statistics of Protestant missions were, in 1866, as follows:
SttUutia of the various Stationt,
SxATion.
Canton
Hong Kong
Swatow
Amoy
Ta-kao (FonnoBa).
Fuh-chan
NIngpo
Shanghai
Hankow
EinUaog
Ghefoo ,
Tnngchau ,
Tientain
Pekin
Kaigan
'i
li
Total in 1866 : ordained missionaries, 97 ; lay mis- sionaries, 14; missionary ladies, 98; whole number of missionaries, 204; number of native helpers, 206; number of members received in 1866, 282 ; whole num-
8iatit^i€$ qfSodetiei,
Soonrnn.
American Board of CommiMloDers for Foreign MlfBionB (Canton, Fob-) Chan, Tientain, Pekin, Kalgan) j
American Baptirt MlMionary Union (Swatoir, Ningpo)
American Methodist Epbcopal Chnrch Sonth (Shanghai)
American Methodist Eplioopal Mission (Fuh-chan)
American Protestant Eptooraal Bfission (Shanghai, PeUn)
American (Q. &) Presbyterian Mission (Canton, Ningpo^ Shanghai,) Chdboi Tongt^ban, Pddn) /
American Reformed Dutch Mission (Amoy)
American Southern Baptist Convention (Canton, Shanghai, Tnngchan)
American United Presbyterian Mfaulon (Canton)
Britidi and Foreign Bihle Society (Shanghai)
Bedhi Ladles* SodetT(Hcng Kong)
Chinese Evangelisation Society (Nfaigpo)
Chinese ETan^elization Society of Berun
Chnreh Missionary Society *
Baptist lOsslon...
h
!
ISngUsh Baptist
English Methodist New Connection (Tlentdn),
EraogeUeal Missionary Sodety of Basle (Hong Kong)
KngHah Pieehyterian Missko (Swatow, Amor, Ta-kao, PeUn)
Bd^Mi United Methodist Free Chorefaea (Ningpo)
En^bh Wesleyan Mission (Canton, Kinklang, Hankow)
HoDg Kong Diooesan Female School (Hong Kong)
London ]£slooary Society ((Canton, Hong Kong, Amoy, Shanghai,!
Hankow, Tientsin, Pekin) i
Naliooal Bible Society of Scotland (Pekin)
Khenlsh Missionary Society (Hong Kong)
Bodety for promoting Female Edacation In the East (Hong Kong)
tJntted Presbyterian Chnreh of Scotland (Ningpo)
17 10 5
'i
80
6 8 2 1 6 4 8
19 4 8 6
IS 4
11 1
«T
3
4 1 1 5
8 6
19 8 2 6
81
28
80
10
69
807
847 148
60 143 814 14 16 200 878
678 100
CHINA
254
CfflOS
ber of nattye memberB, 8142. One of the most re- markable awakenings that is known in the whole his- tory of Protestantism of China took place in 1866, in connection with the oat-stations of the Tientsin mis- sion of the English New-Connection Methodists, espe- cially at Lou-Leing, where, in September, 45 persons were admitted to baptism. The converts added to the mission churches of the London Society, in Shanghai, and the province of which it forms the capital, num- bered, during the year 1866, 189. An event of con- siderable importance for the Protestant missions of Cliina is the establishment of a monthly religious pa- per in the English language (the Miuionary Recorder) by the missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Fuh-chau.
4. Greek Misnons. — A mission of the Greek Church was established by the Russians in Peidn nnder the reign of Peter the Great Its object, until recently, was limited to the spiritual care of a colony of Russian subjects, who had been captured on the Amoor and set- tled near Pekin. A treaty between China and Russia authorized the Russian government to keep six mis- sionaries at Peldn, changing them once in ten years, with the right of having a few students to learn the Chinese and Manchoo language, and to obtain a gen- eral knowledge of Chinese affairs. A letter from one of the American missionaries in Pekin, in the Boston Mimonary Herald (February, 1865), states that ''the Russian missionaries in Peldn now labor devoutly for the Chinese in the country as well as in the city. It is an interesting fact, and one wliich marks a diffSsr- ence between them and the Roman Catholics, that they translate and use the sacred Scriptures. Their version of the New Testament into Chinese is now in print in this city [Pekin]. They have obtained also from the Engli^ missionaries the version of the Bible by Messrs. Swan and H ally bras, and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the use of their ministers to the Mongolians, and the versions of the New Testament published by the same society for the use of their missions in Russian Manchuria." In 1866, the Pekin mission numbered about 200 converted Cliinese and Tartars. See AmmcU American Cydopm- diafor 1865, s. v. China.