William Nesbitt Brewster () (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1916) was an American Protestant Christian missionary to China. Brewster spent 26 years in China (1890–1916) and translated the New Testament into the Hinghua language by adopting the

Hinghwa Romanized Hinghwa Romanized, also known as Hing-hua̍ báⁿ-uā-ci̍ (興化平話字) or Báⁿ-uā-ci̍ (平話字), is a Latin alphabet of the Putian dialect of Pu-Xian Chinese. It was invented by William N. Brewster (蒲魯士), an American Methodi ...

writing system. Brewster is remembered today as one of the early founders of the

Hinghwa Puxian (Hinghwa Romanized: ''Pó-sing-gṳ̂''; ), also known as Pu-Xian Chinese, Puxian Min, Xinghua, Henghwa or Hinghwa (''Hing-hua̍-gṳ̂''; ), is a Sinitic language that forms a branch of Min Chinese. Puxian is a transitional variety of ...

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

Early life and mission to China

Born in Clark County, Ohio, Brewster graduated from Boston University in 1888 with a Doctorate in Theology. In 1889, the Methodist Episcopal Church dispatched Brewster to Singapore with the status of a missionary, however due to his difficulty in acclimatizing to that region he was redirected to the Foochow Church Mission Station instead. It was during this period at the Foochow Mission where Brewster became acquainted to Miss Elizabeth Fisher and they subsequently married.

Missionary work in the Hinghwa Prefecture

In 1890, Brewster was transferred to the

(present day

Putian Putian or Putien (, Putian dialect: ''Pó-chéng''), also known as Puyang (莆阳) and Puxian (莆仙), historically known as Xinghua or Hing Hwa (), is a prefecture-level city in eastern Fujian province, China. It borders Fuzhou City to the nor ...

) Prefecture to evangelize at that region. It was during this period when Brewster first began learning the local Hinghwa language and, in order to facilitate the missionary work, developed the

alphabet. From 1892 to 1900, Brewster translated the New Testament Bible into the Hinghwa language and set up a local store known as the ''Hinghua Industrial Mission Press'' where the printing of Bibles were conducted. In his leisure time, he established facilities such as a Gospel Bookstore, Western Secondary school (still in existence today), and the Hanjiang Xingren Hospital (predecessor of the present day Hanjiang District Hospital). Brewster also created a local orphanage center, smoking rehabilitation facility, social welfare center and also established several industries such as the Xingshan Shipping Company (興善輪船公司), a Flour factory. The Brewsters also participated in the great Hinghwa revival during 1909 which left a lasting impact on Chinese Christians such as John Sung who would later become a pastor and evangelist. Brewster also exported local specialty products such as the Litchi chinensis to the United States and helped organize the Hinghwa church members in their plans to immigrate to the Sarawak region of Sibu beginning from 1912. In 1916, Brewster returned to the United States and died a few months later at the age of 53.

Works

*''The Evolution of New China'' (1907) *''The Cost of the Christian Conquest'' (1908) *'' A Modern Pentecost in South China'' (1909) *'' Straws from the Hinghwa Harvest'' (1910) *'' The Methodist Man’s Burden'' (1913)The Methodist man's burden (1913)
William N. Brewster, New York city, Press of the Methodist book concern. Retrieved January 28, 2015

Notes and further reading

External links

The Legacy of William Nesbitt Brewster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brewster, William N. 1864 births 1917 deaths Methodist missionaries in China Methodist writers Methodist missionaries in Singapore American expatriates in China American Methodist missionaries