Griffith John

Griffith John (December 14, 1831 – July 25 1912) was a Welsh Christian Congregationalist missionary to China and a pioneer evangelist with the London Missionary Society (LMS). He was also a writer and a translator of the Bible into Chinese.

Missionary career

John was born at Swansea, Wales. He studied for the Congregational ministry at Brecon College, Wales and Bedford Academy, England and was ordained in 1855. That same year he married his first wife, Jane Griffith, a missionary's daughter. After ordination he offered himself for service in Madagascar. But he was persuaded by the LMS to accept appointment to China and the newly wed couple made the voyage to Shanghai arriving in September 1855. Griffith John served in China for 55 years. Jane died in 1873.

He was brought up a Congregationalist, and at the age of eight was admitted to full membership of his chapel. When only fourteen he delivered his first sermon at a prayer meeting; at sixteen he became a regular preacher, and was subsequently trained at the Brecon Congregational College for the ministry. In 1853 he offered his services to the London Missionary Society, and after two years' training sailed for Shanghai in 1855. An inveterate itinerator, he became well known for his extensive missionary journeys into the Chinese interior - journeys that sometimes stretched to 5,000 km or more. He was among the first to begin Protestant missionary work in Hupeh, Hunan, and Szechwan. John set up schools, hospitals and training colleges with a permanent base at Hankou.

In 1861 he went from Shanghai through the provinces of central China, which he was the first Christian missionary to penetrate, and he claimed that with his colleagues he had established over 100 mission stations in Hupeh and Hunan. In July of that year he had moved to Hankou, which remained his base until his final departure from China in 1912 although in 1863 he was in Wuchang; and in 1867 Hanyang. John, fluent in both spoken and written Chinese, made a major contribution to the Chinese church as author, translator, and preacher. A powerful and eloquent speaker, he was popular with the Chinese, who would gather in great numbers to hear him preach. He was notably successful in training and mentoring numerous Chinese evangelists. He was also a prolific pamphleteer, authoring numerous popular tracts and serving for many years as chairman of the Central China Tract Society.

In 1890 he was a founding member of the Permanent Committee for the Promotion of Anti-Opium Societies. Fellow committee members were prominent missionaries John Glasgow Kerr MD, American Presbyterian Mission in Canton; BC Atterbury MD, American Presbyterian Mission in Peking, Archdeacon Arthur Evans Moule, Church Missionary Society in Shanghai, Henry Whitney MD, American Board of Commissioners for foreign Missions in Foochow, the Rev Samuel Clarke, China Inland Mission in Kweiyang and the Rev Arthur Gostick Shorrock, English Baptist Mission in Taiyuan. [ Lodwick, Kathleen L. Crusaders Against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China 1874-1917 (University Press of Kentucky) [http://books.google.com/books?id=gT42B-69owoC Online version at Google Books] [ISBN 0813119243] ] They resolved to continue their opposition to the opium traffic, urging Christians in China to arouse public opinion against it. The desire of the missionaries that their ideas be carried out caused them to form “continuation committees” that were assigned tasks to assure that action would be taken on whatever matters had been approved by the conferences.

He acquired an intimate knowledge of the Chinese language and literature, and translated the New Testament and a great part of the Old into more than one Chinese dialect. John wrote a Mandarin translation of the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs, as well as a Wen-li New Testament, published in 1885. Elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales for 1889, he declined the honor, remaining instead in Hankou among the Chinese that he loved. In the Yangtze valley he founded a theological college for native preachers, which bears his name. The University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of D.D. (1889) in recognition of his service to the Chinese. During a career spanning 60 years, John left China only three times, returning finally to England in January 1912.

Works

* John, Griffith (1907). [http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CTWE/B3659880X/ A Voice from China] London: James Clarke &Co. -University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, China Through Western Eyes

References

Further reading

*1911|article=Griffith John|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Griffith_John
*R. Wardlaw Thompson, "Griffith John: The story of fifty years in China", London, 1906
*Noel Gibbard, "Griffith John: Apostle to Central China", Bridgend, 1998.
*"Hudson Taylor & China’s Open Century Volume Six: Assault on the Nine"; Alfred James Broomhall; Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1988

Persondata
NAME=John, Griffith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Missionary in China
DATE OF BIRTH=December 14 1831 –
PLACE OF BIRTH=Swansea, Wales
DATE OF DEATH=1912
PLACE OF DEATH=