Carstairs Douglas (The Amoy Mission--1840-1951)

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Memorials of Douglas Carstairs
Missionary of the Presbyterian Church of England at Amoy, China
1877
"By John M. Douglas, of London and Upper Norwood, One of his Brothers"

Carstairs Douglas accomplished an amazing amount during his relatively short life (he died of cholera in Amoy in 1877, at age 47). I was fortunate to locate and purchase one of the rare copies of the "Memorials," which include a biography, many of his letters, and letters written about him, as well as a couple of pages of his Amoy dictionary.

Click the links below for excerpts from his Memorials.
Note: the bookseller in London told me that the book had his signature. I thought that was amusing how could Carstairs have signed the memorials printed after he died?!

CONTENTS
Part 1. LIFE, EDUCATION,TRAINING, OBJECTS, HABITS,WORK
Part 2. Extracts from his LETTERS
Part 3. PREFACE to his AMOY DICTIONARY
Part 4 Extract from AMOY DICTIONARY
Part 5. His CLOSING DAYS, by REV. WM.McGREGOR, Amoy
Part 6. His MISSIONARY CAREER, by REV. W. S. SWANSON, Amoy
Part 7. Extract from LETTER of REV. DR.TALMAGE, Amoy
Part 8. Extracts from LETTERS of REV. H. L. MACKENZIE, Swatow
Part 9. Missions in China of PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND;STAFF, STATIONS,and LONDON OFFICE-BEARERS
Part 10. Statistics of whole PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA, and of the SHANGHAI MISSIONARY CONFERENCE

Part 1. Notes of his LIFE, EDUCATION and TRAINING, OBJECTS, HABITS, and WORK, by one of his Brothers
Phonography/Temperance Elocution & Public Speaking Character While Student Hebrew, Greek, Ordination, China Music for Chinese, Chinese Dictionary & Accuracy Health: Long Walks in China Discipline and Training His Presbyterianism President of Chinese Missionary Conference Chinese Oppression, Opium, Coolies His Death; Self-Sacrifice

LIFE: MOTHER; UNIVERSITY CARSTAIRS DOUGLAS was born at Kilbarchan Manse, Renfrewshire, upon the 27th December, 1830, the youngest of a large family; another son being the Rev. George C. M. Douglas, D.D., Principal of the Free Church (Divinity) College, Glasgow, and all the other survivors being workers in the Church. Their father, the Rev. Robert Douglas, who passed a long and useful life as minister of that parish, was a man of learning as multifarious and extensive as his library, which not only filled two rooms appropriated to it, but overflowed the whole house. His thoughtful conversation constantly and pleasantly distilled his knowledge into the minds of those around him, especially the young, to whom he loved to expound his curiously varied knowledge and ripe conclusions in quaint, interesting, and brief remarks which were never forgotten. He educated his sons at home during their younger years, and in this he was efficiently aided by his good and wise wife. She was descended from a long line of ministers, and made full and profitable use of the library which surrounded her. Left a widow in 1847, she joyfully encouraged Carstairs in giving himself to China, and watched his every movement there. Her house was his home in all his holidays as a student, and his furloughs as a missionary. She greatly contributed to form his active, accurate, decided habits. And he tenderly returned her love and care. During all his wanderings he never once missed writing to her by the homeward mail. She died about ten days after he last set out for China.
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He played as a child and learned as a boy amid the paternal wilderness of literature, from which he extracted much enjoyment and varied knowledge, being a great reader and digester of books, without being a bookworm. When old enough he went to the University of Glasgow, as his five brothers had previously done. There he studied from October, 1845, till April, 1851, and at the end of each of these six yearly sessions he received prizes. Several of these were first prizes, some in classes, and some in special competitions. These distinctions were earned in every department of study, but chiefly1 in the later years, in logic, mathematics, and natural philosophy, ending in the degree of M.A., taken with honours. His University long afterwards recognised his learning by bestowing on him the degree of LL.D. While a student at Glasgow he was much under the ministry of the late Rev. William Arnot, whose great acquirements, genial kindness, and manly practical wisdom, had singular influence among young men; and he benefited much by a weekly Greek Testament class, which Mr. Arnot taught.
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LIFE: PHONOGRAPHY; TEMPERANCE.
During these years in Glasgow he was fortunate in enjoying the close friendship of various young men who have since been eminent, and it was his habit to learn something from everybody. Two of these (fellow-students of an older brother), who are now Professor Sir William Thomson and Professor James Thomson, with their able father, at that time the Professor of Mathematics, all of them in the Glasgow University, were among the early disciples of phonography, then newly invented. Carstairs caught their enthusiasm for it, and cultivated it to the last, holding it in high esteem, not only in its short-hand form, which has almost superseded every other, but in its general principles and as an instrument of learning. He found it to be of remarkable use for catching and recording the Chinese sounds, ? which vary in singular ways, and which need to be much more accurately discriminated than in western languages, where a word can generally be understood, and bears the same meaning, though pronounced in every variety of tone; whereas the same Chinese word is made to express several entirely distinct meanings, according to the tone employed in pronouncing it.
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LIFE: ELOCUTION & PUBLIC SPEAKING.
He studied Divinity at the Free Church College, Edinburgh, for the required course of four years (sessions 1851-5), where, besides paying close attention to the ordinary studies he devoted much time and thought to three special subjects. The first was temperance (that is, total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, unless medicinally), the principles of which he studied closely, and perseveringly carried out ever after, with full conviction of great personal comfort and advantage. And he laboured hard to disseminate them among his fellow-students, organizing a strong society among them and another in the University, which were of great use. He kept up his temperance reading to the end of his life, supplying himself with new publications of mark on its various aspects, and he did what he could for the cause, publicly and privately, in Europe and in China. Probably the last temperance meeting he addressed was at Shanghai, when he advocated the cause with great earnestness, during the general conference of missionaries there just two months before his death. The second subject was elocution, in which he took regular lessons for years, and carefully put them in practice, making his reading and speaking singularly clear and effective, though quiet. The third subject was public speaking, for which he became a member of the Speculative Society, an Edinburgh debating club, celebrated for generations as a training school for speakers, many historic names being on its rolls. It then was—and probably still is occasionally attended by some of the leading counsel of the day, and even sometimes by judges of the Supreme Court, which keeps up the tone of the society. Most of the members were young counsel. He carefully prepared for its frequent meetings, and constantly took part in the debates, gaining thereby readiness, accuracy, and clearness in ex-tempore' statement. All these acquirements were so thoroughly made his own that they seemed to be natural to him, whereas they were really the results of skilful and persevering cultivation.
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LIFE: CHARACTER WHILE STUDENT.
While in Edinburgh he took part in a great many meetings, both evangelistic and temperance, and taught in Sunday Schools for the roughest class of boys. He did this not only for the sake of the good to be done by them, but with a direct view to the great good to be got by himself from them, judging that to win and keep the attention of miscellaneous meetings, (where the audience were not restrained by the conventionalities and solemnity of a church), and of street Arabs, was a sure training for success with congregations at home or with heathens abroad. The temperance meetings he very specially valued in this point of view, and used to describe the advantage of seeing other speakers better received than himself, and of thus learning his defects and getting over them. There he learned to use that pellucid arrangement of simple and generally Saxon words which the common people understand, and which every audience loves, because the meaning of the speaker is fully apprehended without effort. For few things had he a greater contempt than the use of scholastic words in preaching, however useful they are in study.

He was a member during his later sessions at Glasgow of the Free Church Students' Missionary -Society, and in Edinburgh of the similar society connected with his college. In these he took a very deep interest and they doubtless cherished and intensified the missionary or aggressive spirit which was to rule his after life. The students' Saturday prayer meetings, suggested by Dr. Duncan, the well-known missionary to the Jews and Professor of Hebrew, were greatly enjoyed by him. "Even then," writes his fellow student and friend, the Rev. D. Maccoll, now of Kensington, for many years one of the most laborious and successful of home missionaries, "the devotional element was a very marked feature in his character. With all his boyish love of harmless mirth there was a deep under-current of devotion that never got long out of sight. This ceaseless happy godliness was doubtless at the root of a rare and beautiful characteristic, his shrinking, with what seemed a physical sensitiveness, from any gossip, and his almost girlish modesty and purity of mind."
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During his vacations he spent a good deal of time abroad and elsewhere from home, partly as a tutor in families, always widening his knowledge, and cultivating personal tact and address, on which he set great value, as instruments of usefulness too often wanting.

HEBREW, GREEK, ETC.; ORDINATION; CHINA.
He was a good linguist in classics, modern languages, and Hebrew. His father's linguistic acquirements and special love for developing the relations and connections of languages with each other, prepared him for excellence in these things, and doubtless helped him subsequently to achieve his great eminence as a scholar in the languages of China. Amid all his labours he never allowed his earlier knowledge to be lost, and habitually read his Greek Testament and Hebrew Bible. Both were used by him, according to his custom, during the first hour or two of his rapidly fatal illness.

He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Glasgow, on the 7th February, 1855, and was ordained in that city a fortnight later, in St. Matthew's Free Church, by his friend Mr. Arnot, two or three months having been abated from his last session to allow of his sailing for China in March, 1855, with the Rev. W. C. Burns.
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LIFE: MUSIC FOR CHINESE; HYMNS; METHOD.
When young he learned a little music, and while a student in Edinburgh he, with some fellow-students, attended a class for singing church music, which was then beginning to attract more attention than formerly; and, under the skilful direction of Mr. Hatcly and others, he learned not only to sing with correctness, but to understand the principles of the best congregational psalmody. He took with him to China a good concertina, selecting it as a portable instrument, on which he played well. And while in China he caused endless supplies of sacred music books and hymn-books to be sent him, in every good edition he could hear of, and also procured an American organ, in which he delighted. The Chinese service of song was the object of these studies, which he had much at heart. He took part in composing a Chinese hymn-book, which is popular among the converts, and was the joint work of several missions. And he got up a sol-fa music-book for it, adapting good tunes to the native voice, which does not easily sound semi-tones. From this book, when time allowed him, he taught not only the students in the Training Institutions, but the children in the juvenile schools, with much success, and with enjoyment to himself as well as to the receivers of a musical education so novel, and so much in advance of their national music. He thought the choice of good hymns and music, and the good singing of them, was most important, not only for attracting and instructing men, but for glorifying God; and though such music, like life, must sometimes be sad, he thought it should mainly be cheerful, vigorous, stirring, and even joyful, as a Christian's life should be. His own feelings were kept under great control, but they came out strongly v when singing by himself, as he might often be heard to do, from the endless stores in his memory. The Book of Praise, so carefully compiled by Sir Roundell Palmer (Lord Selborne), was his special favourite.
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LIFE: CHINESE DICTIONARY & ACCURACY.
He was able to accomplish all these things and many others, by habits of incessant activity and self-discipline. He used up every fragment of time, enjoying life amazingly, with-a keen zest for society, in which his genial cheerfulness-made him always welcome to old and young; and he had a strong appreciation of the beautiful in nature and art. But he allowed nothing to turn him aside from whatever tasks he allotted himself for the day, all of which were minutely pre-arranged in his mind, just as his routes were in the maps which he accumulated wherever he went, and which he mastered like a Prussian staff-officer. (One of his last letters, received some weeks after his death, asks for two good, modern maps of the seats of war in Bulgaria and Armenia, to be sent him at once.) During his last furlough he was busy on his dictionary, the huge Manuscript folios of which accompanied him on each of his many journeys to visit the churches and plead the cause of China from Cornwall to Caithness. No week-day passed without work upon it. When with his relations he gave eight hours daily to it, whatever else might be in hand. And when the last sheet had passed through the printing press he at once bade farewell to those he loved at home, and started for his beloved China.

This dictionary he began for his own instruction in the Amoy language, utilizing the materials collected by his predecessors, and gradually forming the resolution to produce a nearly perfect work. To this he devoted constant attention at every spare moment for many years, which resulted in a royal octavo of 612 pages, published in 1873 by Trubner & Co., of London, entitled, "Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy."

For his own account of the language and of the undertaking I refer to an extract annexed from his preface to the dictionary, and to an extract from the dictionary itself, taken at random, giving the needful information about a single monosyllable, which shews the curiously complex nature of the language, and the character of the work. There are very many such monosyllables, many of which received and needed much longer explanations.
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LIFE: HEALTH; LONG WALKS IN CHINA
An experienced missionary writes, "His accuracy in almost every department of knowledge was very remarkable. He seemed to have made himself master of every subject that he had studied, and one felt that any information obtained from him could be most thoroughly relied upon. This was specially so in all Chinese subjects. His knowledge of the language was not merely popular, but, profound and critical. He seemed to be able to trace the words away back through the intricacies and windings of their past history, and catch their original meanings with a power only obtainable by hard and thorough study. And yet he was exceedingly modest, and willing to receive hints and suggestions from his juniors." Others write in the same strain. But he was somewhat impatient and peremptory with people who expressed opinions on matters in regard to which they had not informed themselves.

Amid all his mental activity he was studiously careful of bodily health. He loved exercise, especially walking, rowing, and swimming, and never omitted to secure a large daily share of it. His walks were remarkable for their length and quickness. Always pale in colour and somewhat spare in form, his activity and vitality were unfailing, and his health, like his good temper, was absolutely unbroken from childhood till he went to China.
It remained generally good till within about two years of his short fatal illness, except what he suffered from those diseases of climate which assail most Europeans under the sun of South China, and which, with his incessant labours, had undoubtedly weakened his constitution, especially during the last two or three years, and prepared him to succumb more readily to the final attack. In China, as elsewhere, he kept up his habits of exercise and temperance, and many were his long marches over its hills and valleys; often twenty miles, and more, by moonlight.
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LIFE: VALUE FOR DISCIPLINE AND TRAINING
The following extract from one of his letters, dated Amoy, 22 December, 1869, gives an example of these. " I am quite up to my usual strength, I just got back last night from my first two-week country visit of the winter, having been away thirteen days at Anhai, Kwan-Kio, and Chin-chew ; I visited also a new place, where a station is growing up, called Siong-si, at the mouth of the Chin-chew river. My long walks on this journey have been as follows: Friday 20 miles, Saturday 20 miles, Wednesday 27 miles, Thursday 17 miles, Friday 9 miles, Saturday 37 miles, Tuesday 20 miles. The 37 miles of Saturday were in two halves, with seven hours quiet sitting in the Chapel between, and included of course about five hours of moonlight walk, distributed between the morning and evening ; and y?t I was quite able for the whole of a heavy Sabbath's work at Anhai, after getting a night's rest. Surely, that does not look like the itinerary of an invalid? I hope to have a good deal of such work in the winter, and so to get fully set up for the summer."

A brother missionary "writes," He was famous for the long journeys he used to perform on foot in his missionary tours. * * * * He had a very intimate acquaintance with all the best walks among the rugged Amoy hills, and it was a special delight to him, when he could get arty of the younger missionaries to join him, to ramble over them, and through their quiet valleys."

Another writes, "One of the most delightful features in his missionary character was his exceeding helpfulness towards younger labourers. He had ever a cheery and encouraging word for them, delighted to furnish them with books, to explain difficulties and answer questions, and would rouse them up to physical exercise when they were inclined to over study. Above all, his own example was a daily stimulus to diligence, perseverance, method, and concentration in the work of a missionary."
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Others have written of his life-work as a missionary preacher of the gospel. But this notice is designed to shew what manner of man he was, and how he became, or rather made himself, what he was, so fitted to be specially useful, by special preparation and preservation of every faculty of body and mind. If he excelled, it was greatly through this completeness. And any young man who has energy and perseverance to use the same means may attain to many of the same excellences. It is remembered of him that when a student he used to hold up the example of the careful Jesuit training, and the consequent Jesuit success, and to maintain that our good cause much better deserves such training, and, however good in itself, cannot expect to succeed by means of agents who are merely taught intellectually, but are not trained for their special work.
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LIFE: HIS PRESBYTERIANISM STRONG BUT LIBERAL.
He always had a high appreciation of the wisdom and liberality, kindness and skill, with which the mission in China of the Presbyterian Church of England is managed by the gentlemen who take special charge of its affairs, and who devote to its service so much of their precious time and great experience in business.

He was a Presbyterian minister, always ready to uphold Presbyterianism as the best combination of freedom and order, besides being most ancient and Scriptural; and nothing delighted him more than to explain to occasional objectors of other denominations, who had never looked outside of their own Church, that their systems were local and single-tongued, while his was naturally polyglot, and indigenous throughout the Protestant world. But no one was less bigoted or less ecclesiastic; none was more ready in co-operation and fellowship with other Christians of all Churches— English, American, and foreign—undeterred by differences of form, provided they held the Head.
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At Amoy, from about the year 1844, public worship in English for the benefit of the resident English-speaking community has been regularly kept up every Sunday morning, the missionaries in turn conducting the service. It so happened that none of the missionaries at Amoy were Episcopalians, but a good many of the residents were ; and in order that the worship might be more agreeable to them, there has for a number of years been also an evening service, at which the English Church Service is used. Some of the missionaries do not take part in this, but though no lover of episcopacy or of the liturgy, Dr. Douglas heartily joined in the work, and thought it was both useful and right to do so, if he could thus commend, Christ to those who preferred to worship with that form. No doubt some stricter Presbyterians, as well as some high Anglicans, will equally condemn the practice as highly improper,—but will do so for opposite and mutually destructive reasons.
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A PRESIDENT OF CHINESE MISSIONARY CONFERENCE.
In the same spirit he always found it easy to co-operate with good men of all denominations—and they found it easy to work with him—as was well shown at the great Conference of all the Protestant Missions in China, held at Shanghai in May, 1877, which he and others had long been labouring to bring together. There were then in China 307 missionaries, from about 30 British, Irish, Continental, American, and Canadian churches or societies, 21 of which, employing about 285 missionaries, were represented at the Conference, where above 100 deputies assembled, and unanimously elected two presidents, one an American, Dr. Nelson, and one European, Dr. Douglas. This was about two months before his death. Such a testimony to his value, given unanimously by the best qualified and most unbiased judges, is much prized by his relatives. A list of missions is annexed, with their numerical strength and the dates of their entering on Chinese work. Some of them began in the Chinese Colonies, long before any access was allowed to China itself. (See particulars p.75-6).
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The iniquities, oppressions, cruelties, and wrongs of Chinese rule grieved him to the heart, inflicted and initiated and maintained as these are, not only by the State and the great officers, but by every official, down to the pettiest policeman or soldier, because violence, falsehood, and wrong produce direct profit to all and each in turn; whereas, if the right were to rule, they would be told, as John the Baptist x told the soldiers, " Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages"—a text of which he often said mere European life could not show the meaning, but which every Chinese understood. He lived so much among the Chinese that he constantly saw these things in their sad, though often grotesque, detail. And he grieved to mark the progressive decay of a once great people, dying of the corruption that pervades, or rather constitutes, its political and social life. But withal he trusted that Christ's righteousness would exalt the Chinese nation, great not only in number, but in physical and intellectual qualities, to its proper high place among the nations of the earth.*
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*The Christian converts frequently suffer much from the local authorities and their minions, to whom any pretext for plunder is too often welcome. The converts are also on many occasions grossly persecuted and openly plundered by their neighbours, without redress. Yet the gospel teaching and worship has been, and is, first set up, at almost every new station of this mission by the Chinese converts themselves, as volunteer and unpaid workers, and of their own accord. The building up of the congregations is, to a considerable extent, effected in the same way. They call in the missionaries to show them the way of God more perfectly, and superintend them; and their numbers grow wonderfully, though every worldly consideration is against joining them. Their courageous, patient perseverance and devotedness give promise of a great future.

CHINESE OPPRESSION AND PEOPLE, OPIUM; COOLIES.
The Opium trade he abhorred and the wicked kidnapping of coolies for Cuba, the Guano Islands, &c. Missionaries see these evils close at hand, and know their horrors as we, far away, can never know them. Sad that they should be carried on by men bearing the Christian name!
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All his work, from an early age to the end, was vivified by a strong and steady faith, which gave present substance and constant power to the things not seen as yet, and diffused itself as a joyous life through his whole existence. He heartily adopted the common sense argument of Paul, that without a sure faith their missionary life would have been folly; but, knowing Him whom they believed, it was the highest wisdom and the greatest happiness. "China for Christ!" his favourite phrase, was always at his heart.

DEATH: WORKED OUT; SELF-SACRIFICE.
He died at Amoy on 26th July, 1877, of cholera, after twelve hours' illness, in the same room where he had for many years spent most of his home life, writing, studying, and sleeping there. His funeral next day, in the cemetery on Kolongsoo, was attended by the whole community.

Since the above was written, two photographs have arrived, representing him, with others, in groups of the Shanghai Missionary Conference, and giving us the last look of him on earth. They represent him as greatly worn and aged, so sadly changed since he left us four years and a half ago, that we must always grieve over his refusal to take the rest he needed. Evidently he has sacrificed himself to the strong feeling which he often expressed to us, that what was to be done for China should be done quickly. And who shall say that he was wrong?

A selection of his private letters from China to his mother and other relations are annexed, illustrating his work, ways, and feelings. Some of the most interesting are about sailors, whom he loved to care for, whether Scotch, English, or foreign, not in a distant or official fashion, but with a warmth of personal effort that gained their hearts.
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See his account of Amoy language (p. 45), and specimen of his dictionary (p. 47).
1, Threadneedle Street, London, 15th February, 1878
Part 2 Carstairs Letters

WE NEED YOUR HELP!
   The John Otte Memorial on Gulangyu Islet finishes with, "This stone may crumble, his bones may become dust, but hs character and deeds are imperishable.” But too many characters and deeds will be forgotten if we don't record them while those who remember are still with us. Please E-mail to me stories and photos for the Amoy Mission site (and planned book) so present and future generations can appreciate the character and deeds of those who served in the Amoy Mission.
          Thanks!
Dr. Bill   Xiamen University MBA Center
E-mail: amoybill@gmail.com
Snail Mail: Dr. William Brown
Box 1288 Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian PRC   361005