Griffith John

Griffith John was born on December 14, 1831, in Swansea, Wales. His father died when he was a child, and the family was poor. He was raised in a Welsh-speaking home and attended the local Congregational chapel. At the age of fourteen, he was converted during a revival. He was a bright boy who left school early to work. He soon began to teach in the Sunday school and to preach in the villages. He studied at a college in Brecon and at Bala, and he felt a call to be a missionary.

He offered himself to the London Missionary Society and was sent to China in 1855. He arrived in Shanghai and worked there for several years. He learned the language with great ability and began to preach to the Chinese in the streets. In 1861 he moved to Hankow, in the central province of Hubei, a major river port on the Yangtze. It was a rough place with a large floating population, and he saw there a great opening for the gospel. He settled in Hankow and remained there for more than fifty years. He became known as the apostle of central China.

He was a tireless preacher. He rose early, walked the streets and preached in chapels, on the riverbanks and in the market places. He spoke in the local dialect and was admired for his fluency. He also traveled far into the interior, journeying up the Yangtze River and into Hunan, a province that was hostile to foreigners. He met with much opposition, and was stoned and nearly killed more than once. He pressed ahead and established stations in the cities of central China. He also started schools, hospitals and a printing press.

His greatest literary work was the translation of the Bible into Chinese. He worked on a version of the New Testament in the Mandarin language, which was published in 1885, and on the Old Testament in later years. His work on the Bible helped to make the Scriptures available to millions of people in their own tongue. He also wrote hymns and books, and he published a book on the life of Christ. He was a good friend of other missionaries, among them Hudson Taylor, and he worked with them.

He was also a social reformer who spoke against the opium trade. He saw the destruction that it caused among the Chinese and spoke boldly against the British traders who sold the drug. He urged the British government to end the traffic. He took the side of the Chinese people when he thought they were wronged by foreign powers. He also supported the education of women and the abolition of foot-binding.

His weaknesses were those of a man of strong will. He could be stern and demanding and was sometimes sharp with fellow missionaries. He also suffered the loss of his wife, Margaret, in 1869. He remarried and had a family, and several of his children died young in China. He bore the sorrows with faith. He experienced the strain of constant labor and the dangers of the Boxer period, though he was largely spared by that time.

He retired in 1912 and died the same year, after more than fifty years in China. He was eighty years old. His work laid the foundation for the churches of central China and gave the Chinese a Bible in their own tongue. His life shows what can be done by a man who gives himself without reserve to one city and to one people for a lifetime.