Project North China

Lessons Learned:

• Look at open doors and needs as opportunities.
• Be faithful where God places you. He spent thirty years in China
• Use your gifts for God
• Keep others informed about your work and country
• Get busy for God and He will provide you with your needs (“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33)

Preparation: Elijah C. Bridgman was born into a devout Massachusetts family with Pilgrim roots. He became a Christian at age 11 in the early stages of the Second Great Awakening. While attending a newly-founded evangelical seminary, Bridgman heard of Robert Morrison’s letter asking the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to send two missionaries to join him. With the support of merchant D.W.C. Olyphant, the American Board chose Bridgman to work with the Chinese and David Abeel to work with foreign sailors in China. The two men arrived in Guangzhou in 1830 and became acquainted with Morrison and Liang Fa. Abeel died of illness within a few years, but Bridgman spent the next three decades in China.

Vocational Ministry: Bridgman was a scholarly man with a gift for translation and literature. With Morrison’s encouragement, he founded The China Repository, an English language magazine that informed foreigners about China. Bridgman edited the monthly for nearly 20 years and published many articles criticizing the opium trade. To inform Chinese about the West, Bridgman founded The East West Exchange, a Chinese-language periodical, and he wrote a well-received history of the United States. He also founded a boys’ school and taught Liang Fa’s son. 

After the First Opium War, Bridgman worked as a translator and advisor for the American government during the treaty negotiations. He was part of the First Missionary Conference, which met in Hong Kong in 1843. The conferees agreed to produce a new Bible translation with a much-needed, unified Christian vocabulary. However, as the work progressed, a sharp dispute arose, initially over the term to use for “God”. In the end, two versions were produced that differed in selection of the term for God and in style. The Bridgman/Culbertson Version, preferred by Americans, was more literal and used “Shen” for God. The Delegates/LMS Version, preferred by the British, was more classical and used “Shangdi” for God. (So sharp was the dispute that work on a true union version would not begin for another 50 years.) This translation work occupied much of Bridgman’s time until his death in Shanghai in 1861.

Family Ministry: God provided the scholarly Bridgman with an educational pioneer for his wife. In 1845, 39-year-old Eliza Jane Gillet arrived in Hong Kong with two other single women missionaries. Within two months Eliza became the 44-year-old bachelor Bridgman’s wife and helpmate. The couple adopted two girls, and after their move to Shanghai in 1847, she opened the first Protestant school for girls in that city. After Bridgman’s death, Eliza moved to Beijing, where she opened yet another girls’ school. Health reasons forced her to move back to Shanghai, where she opened her final girls’ school and died there in 1871.

Quotation: The 50th anniversary of Morrison’s arrival was celebrated by the Christian community at the Bridgman home in Shanghai. Bridgman wrote: “As the years roll on, during the next coming half century, His truth, if we rightly read the promises, will make achievements, bright and glorious, beyond anything witnessed by his people on earth since the days of the Apostles and primitive martyrs. China can be no exception.”

Comments

No comments yet.

Leave a comment