Allan Charles Wilfred (1 results)

First edition, first impression, of this biography of two Chinese ministers of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society: Chu Shao Ngan, the first Protestant convert in central China; and Lo Yu Shan, credited with securing a religious foothold in Hunan province in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion. Chu (1836-1899) was baptized in December 1861, several years after the society's arrival in China in 1853, and spearheaded the growth of its Wuchang mission. "In preaching to the Sunday congregations of Christian worshippers he was also a master. He was noted for his wealth of illustration, drawn from all imaginable sources. Everything that he read contributed to his preaching, and the way he brought out a higher and spiritual meaning from some ordinary circumstance was really wonderful. So thoroughly equipped was he, and so skilful in argument, that scholars have been known to advise new-comers not to enter into debate with him, but to wait until some other preacher of inferior ability addressed the audience" (p. 45). In the second half of this work, Lo (1861-1903) is represented as the archetypal redeemed soul, turning from a troubled and decadent life to the service of the Methodist movement in Hunan province. Lo helped "open up" this "stronghold of superstition and heathenism" (p. 112) in the 1890s and early 1900s, and was particularly active in the vicinity of the birthplace of Mao Zedong. Their biographer, Charles Wilfred Allan (1870-1958), entered the ministry in 1895 and helped produce the Mandarin Union Version of the Bible, an early 20th-century translation produced to meet the needs of all Protestant denominations in China. Duodecimo. Half-tone portrait frontispiece, similar plate. Original blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered and decorated in gilt, top edge gilt. Spine toned, boards bright, front inner hinge repaired, top edge rubbed: a very good copy.