Welcome to this special episode of China Compass, from Macau in the South China Sea. After mentioning my appearance this morning on Crosspolitic, I introduce a new series called “Wangyi’s Prison Pulpit” by looking at what he wrote regarding True Freedom during seasons of persecution:

Wangyi wrote: “I hope God uses me, by means of first losing my personal freedom, to tell those who have deprived me of my personal freedom that there is an authority higher than their authority, and that there is a freedom that they cannot restrain, a freedom that fills the church of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.”

 

Next, I share a few fascinating details about the little city-state of Macau:

Macau: Las Vegas of the East, Reclaimed Land, Longest Bridge, Most Dense City, etc

 

Third, I talk about “The Legacy of Pastor Lucky”, who died January 20, 2007:

Read more at China Call Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/chinacall/p/the-legacy-of-pastor-lucky

"Pastor Lucky has been obsessed with China all his life. No matter where he serves, he always has an unsolvable Chinese complex. When China just opened up in the early 1980s, he went to mainland China to preach the gospel to his own flesh and blood, build churches, and train preachers…

Morrison was the first Christian missionary to come to China. He served in China for 27 years, translated the Chinese Bible, and later died in Macau. Pastor Ji often took his friends to see his cemetery because he felt that Morrison loved China. The scripture engraved on Morrison's tombstone comes from Revelation 14:13: "From now on, blessed are the dead in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, for the fruit of their works will follow them." I believe that Pastor Ji, who has worked silently for the gospel of China throughout his life, is also remembered by the Lord."

 

Finally, I talk about China’s first missionary, Robert Morrison, and his book, The Memoirs of William Milne, which I released today on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJBRN3FB?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520

I first stumbled on the relatively unknown story of William Milne when researching Robert Morrison, one of the more famous missionaries in China's history. However, Milne was Morrison's equal in many ways. They served in many of the same places (Canton, Macau, Malacca). They seemed to share the same level of fluency in Chinese. Both were Bible translators, and they corrected each other's work. One possibility as to why Milne is lesser known is that he died so young, yet Morrison lived to see the Chinese Bible through to completion.

When I found Morrison's edition of Milne's Memoirs, I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to both read and republish. In reality, people are more likely to read about Milne if Morrison commends him to them. The book also turned out to be an exciting window into the minds of both men. There is an intimacy to this work that cannot be reproduced in a normal biography. 

This book imperfectly (it is representative, not exhaustive, of his words and actions) tells the story of William Milne’s family and his sacrificial efforts to plant the Gospel in hostile soil by translating, printing, and shipping (literally) God’s Word far and wide throughout the Chinese diaspora.

Ironically, Milne's one relatively well-known quote about the difficulty of learning Chinese is not found in these pages, and so I share it here. He stated that learning Chinese is. . .

“a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring-steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!”