William Milne (April 1785 – 2 June 1822) was the second Protestant

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

sent by the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

to China, after his colleague, Robert Morrison.Wylie (1867), p. 12-21 Milne served as pastor of

Christ Church, Malacca zh, 基督堂 , image = Firstchurchmelaka.JPG , imagesize = 250px , landscape = , caption = Christ Church, Malacca , location = Malacca City, Malacca , country = ...

, a member of Ultra-Ganges Mission, the first Principal of Anglo-Chinese College, and chief editor of two missionary magazines: Indo-Chinese Gleaner (English), and Chinese Monthly Magazine (). Due to Milne's distinguished role in his missionary field, the University of Glasgow granted him a

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

(D.D.) in 1820.

Early life

Milne was born in Braeside of Cults, a village few miles south to

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settleme ...

, in the rural parish of

Kennethmont Kennethmont (archaically Kinnethmont) is a village in the Marr area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately south of Huntly. It has a population of approximately 470 people. Kennethmont children attend Kennethmont Primary School and the Gord ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area inclu ...

, Scotland. His father died when he was only six years old (1791), and his mother taught him at home. While he was still very young, he worked on a farm for a period of time before being apprenticed to a carpenter under training of Adam Sievwright. While excelling at carpentry, he also was reported to have distinguished himself by his profanity learned when was a shepherd boy.

Conversion

According to Milne, he had "a natural predilection for books." When he was young, Milne memorized the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and Thomas Wilson's Mother's Catechism, but had no impact from them, rather as Milne later said, it was for the purpose of "to be equal with my neighbours, and to avoid the displeasure of the minister of the parish." About thirteen years of age, Milne experienced "a partial reformation," which was effected through: 1) the reading of tracts and Christian books, 2) two pious Christian examples, 3) hope of salvation through prayer, 4) fear of evil and danger, and 5) the sufferings of Christ symbolized through the Lord's Table. From then, Milne started to attend Sunday schools and prayer meetings. In 1801, by the age of sixteen, Milne experienced conversion. Soon after his conversion, Milne decided to leave the Church of Scotland, and to join "another body of Christians" which was evangelical and with edifying preaching. As a result, in 1804, Milne was received as a member of a

Congregational church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

pastored by George Cowie at Huntly.

Missionary career

About 1809, he applied to the

. After conferring with a group of ministers at Aberdeen, he was sent to

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite ...

, where he studied under

David Bogue David Bogue (18 February 175025 October 1825) was a British nonconformist religious leader. Life He was born at Hallydown Farm, in the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland, the son of John Bogue, farmer, and his wife, Margaret Swanston. ...

for three years. Ordained as a missionary to China on 16 July 1812 at Rev. John Griffin's church at

Portsea, Portsmouth Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. Portsea Island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all t ...

, Milne proposed "to go from house to house, from village to village, from town to town, and from country to country, where access may be gained, in order to preach the Gospel to all who will not turn away their ear from it." Milne was married to Rachel Cowie, daughter of Charles Cowie, Esq. of Aberdeen, at St. Leonard's on 4 August 1812. They soon departed from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

for the Cape of Good Hope on 4 September 1812. The Milnes stayed at the Cape of Good Hope with John Campbell for a few days, and they did not arrive in Macau until 4 July 1813. Milne, with his wife and infant child were expelled by the Roman Catholic priests there after three days, and he left for

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

, where he was able to begin study of the Chinese language. His observation regarding the difficulty of an English-speaker acquiring the Chinese tongue has been frequently repeated: "Learning the Chinese language requires bodies of iron, lungs of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah." After six months with Robert Morrison as his first and only help that had come to join the work from England, he took Morrison's advice to visit

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

and the Chinese settlements in the Indonesian archipelago. Milne agreed and traveled south, distributing tracts and books, finally returning to Guangzhou on 5 September to spend the winter of 1813–1814 there. Milne spent most of his missionary career in the British

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Com ...

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has bee ...

, beginning in the Spring of 1815. He set up a printing press and school, continuing to preach the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

to the local Chinese. In January 1816, Milne visited

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the M ...

, and established a printing press there also. Milne was also the first Principal of The Anglo Chinese College at Malacca. He collaborated more with Morrison to produce the second complete Chinese version of the Bible, translating the books of Deuteronomy through Job.

Liang Fa Liang Fa (1789–1855), also known by other names, was the second Chinese Protestant convert and the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. He was ordained by Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary in the Qing Empire. ...

, converted to Christianity in 1815 and baptized by Milne, became the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. Liang Fa later became renowned as the author of the Christian literature that inspired

Hong Xiuquan Hong Xiuquan (1 January 1814 – 1 June 1864), born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary who was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdo ...

and the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It last ...

. In these years Milne published a translation of the

Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor In 1670, when the Kangxi Emperor of China's Qing dynasty was sixteen years old, he issued the Sacred Edict (), consisting of sixteen maxims, each seven characters long, to instruct the average citizen in the basic principles of Confucian orthodo ...

. His 1819 tract "The Two Friends" became the most widely used Chinese Christian tract until the early twentieth century.Suzanne Wilson Barnett and John King Fairbank, ed. ''Christianity in China: Early Protestant Missionary Writings.'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Harvard Studies in American-East Asian Relations, 1985). . Milne was remarkably prolific for one who came to literary work so late in life, and twenty-one Chinese works are attributed to him. Several were of substantial length; one was the ''Chinese Monthly Magazine'' (察世俗每月統記傳 Chashisu Meiyue Tongjizhuan), the first Chinese language magazine in the modern sense of the word; that ran from 1815 to 1822 and totaled several hundred pages. In addition, he produced two substantial books and a Malacca periodical in English.

Honour

The

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

conferred on him the honorary degree of

(D.D.) on 26 November 1820. William Milne's Headstone

Family

Rachel Cowie Milne gave birth to six children for William, but two of them, David (''d.'' 4 May 1816) and Sarah (''d.'' 10 April 1817) died in infancy. Among the four surviving children, Rachel Amelia is the eldest, and the twin sons, Robert George and William Charles. Farquhar was born when Rachel Cowie Milne was suffering from a serious illness, and was baptized at Rachel's dying bed. Rachel Cowie Milne died on 20 March 1819 at Klebang, Malacca, leaving her will that her Amelia might receive proper education. William Milne buried Rachel in Malacca. After William Milne's death in 1822, his four surviving children were sent back to England, to receive further education under the care of Rev. Andrew Reed (1787–1862). Both Robert George and William Charles Milne graduated from

Homerton Academy Independent College, later Homerton Academy, was a dissenting academy in Homerton just outside London, England, in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Background In 1695 the Congregational Fund was set up in London to provide for the education of ...

and

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on lon ...

of Aberdeen University. Later, William Charles followed his father's steps and became a missionary to China being sent by London Missionary Society, and a tutor to British translators in China. William Charles died in 1863 and was buried in a Russian cemetery at Beijing. Robert George Milne served as a Dissenting minister in Lancaster, and died in 1882. Chinese College Malacca

Works in Chinese

* A Farewell Address. 3 leaves. Batavia, 1814. * 求世者言行眞史記. "Life of Christ." 71 leaves. Canton, 1814. * 進小門走窄路解論. "Tract on the Strait Gate." 10 leaves. Malacca, 1816. * 崇真實棄假謊略說. "Tract on the Sin of Lying, and the Importance of Truth." 5 leaves. Malacca, 1816. * 幼學淺解問答. "A Catechism for Youth." 37 leaves. Malacca, 1817. * 祈禱眞法注解. "Exposition of the Lord's Prayer." 41 leaves. Malacca, 1818. * 諸國異神論. "Tract on Idolatry." 7 leaves. Malacca, 1818. * 生意公平聚益法. "On Justice Between Man and Man." 10 leaves. Malacca, 1818. * 聖書節註十二訓. "Twelves Short Sermons." 12 leaves. Malacca, 1818. * 賭博明論略講. "The Evils of Gambling." 13 leaves. Malacca, 1819. * 張遠兩友相論. "Dialogues Between Chang and Yuan." 20 leaves. Malacca, 1819. * 古今聖史記集. "Sacred History." 71 leaves. Malacca, 1819. * 受災學義論說. "Duty of Men in Times of Public Calamity." 13 leaves. Malacca, 1819. * 三寶仁會論. "Three Benevolent Societies." 32 leaves. Malacca, 1821. * 全地萬國紀略. "Sketch of the World." 30 leaves. Malacca, 1822. * 鄉訓五十二則. "Twelves Village Sermons." 70 leaves. Malacca, 1824. * 上帝聖教公會門. "The Gate of God's Church." 30 leaves. Malacca. * 靈魂篇大全. "Treatise on the Soul." 183 leaves. Malacca, 1824. * 聖書節解. "Commentary on Ephesians." 104 leaves. Malacca, 1825. * 神天聖書. "The Holy Bible." Malacca, 1824. * 察世俗每月統記傳. "Chinese Monthly Magazine." 7 Volumes, 524 leaves. Malacca, 1815–1821.

Works in English

* ''The Sacred Edict'', containing sixteen maxims of the emperor Kang-he, amplified by his son, the emperor Yoong-ching; together with a Paraphrase on the whole, by a Mandarin. pp. 299. London, 1817. * ''A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China, (Now, in Connection With the Malay, Denominated, the Ultra-Ganges Missions.) ''Accompanied with Miscellaneous Remarks on the Literature, History, and Mythology of China, &c. pp. viii, 376. Malacca, 1820. * ''The Indo-Chinese Gleaner''. Containing miscellaneous communications on the Literature, History, Philosophy, Mythology, &c. of the Indo-Chinese nations, drawn chiefly from the native languages. Christian Miscellanies; and general news. Malacca, 1817–1822. This Magazine which came out quarterly was edited, and for the greater part written by Dr. Milne.

References

Bibliography

* Robert Morrison, ''Memoirs of the Rev. William Milne, D.D.'' (1824) * Robert Philip
''The Life and Opinions of the Rev. William Milne, D.D., Missionary to China''
(1840). * Daniel H. Bays, ''Christian Tracts: The Two Friends,'' in Suzanne Wilson Barnett and John King Fairbank, eds., ''Christianity in China: Early Protestant Missionary Writings'' (1985) * Brian Harrison, ''Waiting for China: The Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, 1818–1843, and Early Nineteenth-Century Missions'' (Hong Kong University Press, 1979) * Christopher Hancock, ''Robert Morrison and the Birth of Chinese Protestantism'' (T & T Clark, 1979) * Baiyu Andrew Song, ''Training Laborers For His Harvest: A Historical Study of William Milne's Mentorship of Liang Fa'' (Wipf & Stock, 2015).

External links

* * *Milne
A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China
* Morrison
Memoir of William MilneWilliam Milne, BDCH
*Baiyu Andrew Song
"To the Joy of the Church, and the Honour of Christ": A Case Study of Personal Evangelism in Early Chinese Mission
" Journal of Global Christianity 1.2 (August 2015). (In English, Chinese, French, Persian and Spanish)

at

Nanyang Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to: Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean) * Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea ;China * Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...

" (in Chinese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Milne, William Congregationalist missionaries in China Congregationalist missionaries in Malaysia Converts to Calvinism British expatriates in China English Congregationalist missionaries Translators of the Bible into Chinese Missionary educators 1785 births 1822 deaths British evangelicals English evangelicals 19th-century translators Missionary linguists