DIVISION IV.-NORTH SHAN-SI

There are three Societies engaged in work in this district: the Swedish Holiness Union in association with the C.I.M., the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the C.I.M. We deeply regret to say that ten members of the Swedish Holiness Union were murdered near So-p'ing on June 29. This terrible tragedy almost blots out this mission, for only two members who were working in Si-ch'uan and two who were at home on furlough have escaped.

Their names are as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Persson.

Miss J. Lundell.

Mr. E. Pettersson.

Mr. N. Carleson,

Mr. O. A. L. Larsson.

Miss J. Engvall.

Mr. G. E. Karlberg.

Miss M. Hedlund.

Miss A. Johansson.

Of the following members of the C.I.M. at Ta-t'ung no certain information is to hand, but the worst is feared.

Mr. and Mrs. S. McKee.
Miss Aspden.

Mr. and Mrs. C. S. I'Anson.
Miss M. E. Smith.

Of the twenty-three members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance it is known that seventeen fled across Mongolia and safely reached a point on the Siberian railway. Here they received moneys which their Society cabled to them, enabling them to continue their journey in comfort. Three of this mission, Mr. and Mrs. C. Blomberg and another name unknown, suffered martyrdom with the members of the Holiness Union.

For most of our information regarding this district we are indebted to a native who has been in the employ of the Holiness Union friends for about eight years, and is known to be a consistent Christian man.

China the two following accounts.

We have received from
There is some divergency

in the details, but they substantially agree. printed that they may be compared.1

Both are

Wang lan-pu arrived at Mr. Brooks' house in Peking on Wednesday, September 19. He had been in hiding for two months on the way, and just escaped with his life. On arriving at Peking his last thousand cash was forcibly taken from him by European soldiers at the city gates. He tells the following story:

The Swedish Holiness Union Conference was convened this year in the city of So-p'ing-fu towards the end of June. The workers as a rule met on June 24, the same day as the convention of the Mother Church in Sweden. Thirteen persons in all were present; besides the ten members of the Holiness Union there were of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Mr. and Mrs. C. Blomberg and one child, also another brother whose name Mr. Wang did not know.

On the morning of a certain day during the Conference the people of the street became exceedingly rowdy, and we heard this cry among others," All foreign places in the neighbourhood are burned, why not burn this also?" Messrs. N. Carleson and S. A. Persson then went to the Yamên and saw the mandarin, with whom they were on very friendly terms. He at once advised all the missionaries to seek shelter in the Yamên, which advice was acted upon.

At first the officials promised to send them by carts to Kalgan, but later in the day they withdrew this promise. At noon of that day the Mission premises were looted by the mob and then set fire to. The servants, Christians, and others friendly to the foreigners were then thrown into the fire by the rioters and burned to death. Wang lan-pu, while being tried, fainted, and thus he escaped the flames. Having made his escape he went to the mandarin, who gave him tls. 10 and ordered him to leave the place immediately, which he did. He believes that the official was friendly, and would have saved the missionaries if it had been in his power.

Later on in the day the missionaries in the Yamên were made prisoners and put into irons. They were kept thus for two or three days and were sent under escort to the coast, but after having travelled only three miles from the city they were surrounded by Boxers and soldiers, when they all were massacred. (The date is believed to be June 29.)

Wang lan-pu learned the facts of this terrible disaster from others, but he has no doubt as to their reliability.

1 Wang lan-pu's story has since been substantially confirmed by Changru-feng, a native Christian helper, who reached Tien-tsin about October 19. This man says it is reported that the Ta-tung friends had gone to T'ai-yüan-fu.

L

Mr. Mills, at Tien-tsin, has been able to gather the following particulars from the same man :

In

The trouble first arose because of the excessive drought. Hun-yüan prayers and processions for rain were unceasing, and the foreigners were reported to sweep away with a yellow paper broom the approaching clouds. Also the meetings held were said to be to pray to God that it should not rain. On the 20th May 1 there was a great annual fair at Hun-yüan, and on that day the mob came battering at the doors of the Mission house. They eventually broke in and the foreigners fled to the Yamên, where they were effectually protected and treated with great kindness. The mandarin said, however, that it would be impossible to protect them if rain did not fall, and advised their going on to Ying-chau. He gave them tls. 300 (£40), probably as compensation for loss of property, and they went escorted to Ying-chau. There they found Mr. Karlberg. He did not at first think it well to go on to the approaching Conference at So-p'ing, fearing the rowdy element at Ying-chau would take the opportunity to loot and destroy their place, but just about that time Boxers appeared in the city and began to post up threatening placards. Things got worse and the magistrate, who was very friendly, advised their leaving for a time, and they went on to Sop'ing. Two days later the mob attacked the Mission premises, but the magistrate succeeded in preventing their doing much damage, and ordered Wang lan-pu, who was left in charge, to pack six or seven boxes, which were put in the Yamên for security; he himself then started for So-p'ing. At Tso-yün he arrived in time to see the Mission house there in flames. Some Church members were in the Yamên being protected by the mandarin, who was supplying them with food and bedding. On arrival at So-p'ing he found thirteen foreigners and one child. There were also many native Christian members gathered for the Annual Conference, which is held yearly at the same time as one in the Mother Church in Sweden, on June 24. Everything was still quiet, but Boxer placards were being widely posted up, and there was much excitement. After full discussion the foreigners decided, as danger similar to that experienced in their other stations seemed increasingly imminent, that they had better all go to Kalgan if they could get an escort from the mandarin. agreed to by him, but before they could get away the mob gathered and burst into the house. The missionaries all escaped to the Hsien Yamên by back ways. Their house was looted and burned. After

This was

the work of destruction the mob went to the Yamên and demanded that the foreigners be given up to them that they might kill them. This the Hsien magistrate refused to do, but to pacify the mob he declared that he had orders to send them to Peking to be killed there, and to give colour to his words he had the blacksmith make manacles 1 We have good reason to believe that this date should be June 19.

and five of the men of the party were handcuffed. The mob seemed satisfied and dispersed. About 10 o'clock that same evening Wang lanpu was taken out of the Yamên by Manchu soldiers and Boxers and beaten and left for dead. Before daylight, however, he recovered, and two men finding him helped him to escape from the city. When he was about 13 miles from the city he was told that on the night he left all the foreigners had been killed by Manchu soldiers and Boxers, and that their heads had been put up on the city wall. The Church members and servants suffered in like manner at the hands of these same ruffians. This was on the 3rd day of the 5th moon, i.e. May 30.1

On the day previous at Ying-chau the mandarin had tried to save the Christians, and had given them carts to take them to So-p'ing. The Boxers, however, turned them back into the Mission premises with the carts and carters, and they were all burned together. Among those who suffered at Ying-chau were the mother and little girl of the narrator.

At Hun-yüan he heard that none of the native Christians had suffered martyrdom, but that they had lost everything they had. At Tso-yün it was reported that all of the Christians had been taken to Ta-tong and there, with a hundred others, natives and foreigners, Protestants and Catholics, had all been put to death. While Wang lan-pu was being detained at Fu-ping it was commonly reported that all the foreigners at Kuei-hua-ch'eng had been killed, and so fierce were the Boxers against everything foreign that even vendors of matches were said to have been killed, and no one was allowed to wear anything of foreign-made material.

1 We have good reason to believe that the real date was the 3rd of the 6th moon, i.e. June 29.

"All members of the Swedish Holiness Union killed." So sounded the first message that met me on my arrival home from China. But what suffering, pain, and sorrow were represented in those few words only God knows. Among those ten devoted workers who were called to lay down their lives for the Gospel, were two who, as I write, rise very vividly before me. Miss Engvall and Miss Lundell were in Yang-chau at the same time as myself, and though we only spent six weeks together, the memory of their lives will always remain with me as an inspiration and a call to seek those things which are above. Strong and faithful, meek and lowly, ready for any service, bright, cheerful, and shining for Jesus all the day-truly we who knew them thank God for them. JANE AF SANDEBERG.

STOCKHOLM, December 1900.

TEN SWEDISH HOLINESS UNION MISSIONARIES

BY MR. JOHN RINMAN, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

The blood of Christ's faithful witnesses in China "speaketh better" than anything else for the extreme need of China's evangelisation. Amongst a painfully large number of martyrs, there was a group of ten who had to lay down their lives for their brethren, when they-so far as we know-were gathered together in conference in the city of So-p'ing-fu. They all belonged to the Swedish Holiness Union, and were associated with the C.I.M.

It was Mrs. Rinman's and my own great privilege to visit these dear friends in October 1899. We had then some days of happy, unbroken fellowship with them, at the feet of our blessed Master. We shall never forget the eagerness with which they listened, and the hunger and thirst with which they received the message from the Living One. The discourses about things more directly touching the work were exceedingly helpful, and the beaming joy with which our friends sang their hymns left lasting impressions on our minds.

These friends had a splendid staff of native helpers. When I saw both the missionaries and their helpers at work in this district I thought as never before of the fact that "He gave evangelists."

He was

Mr. Nathanael Carleson was the oldest in the field. born in 1867 in the province of Nerike in Sweden. His father, still alive, is a godly man, and a member of the Council of the Swedish Holiness Union. 1 John i. 9 was the word by which Nathanael got the assurance of salvation, and when he in 1890 felt the call to go to China, he wrote: "The assurance that God wants me in China brings such an unspeakable joy to my heart." At the end of the same year he arrived in China, where he proved to be a practical and energetic worker. He had the undisturbed confidence of all his fellow-labourers, and was often called "Nathanael, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." When he went out for the second time he left his wife and two children behind him in Sweden. Now they are left behind in

life. The Lord bless them!

Mr. Edv. Karlberg went to China in 1896. Before leaving Sweden Mr. Karlberg did a good work on the island of Gotland.