Robert Samuel Maclay | |
|---|---|
 Missionary to China, Japan and Korea | |
| Born | (1824-02-07)February 7, 1824 |
| Died | August 18, 1907(1907-08-18) (aged 83) |
| Religion | Methodism |
Robert Samuel Maclay, D.D. (simplified Chinese:麦利和;traditional Chinese:麥利和;Pinyin:Mài Lìhé;Foochow Romanized:Măh Lé-huò; February 7, 1824 - August 18, 1907) was anAmericanmissionary who made pioneer contributions to theMethodist Episcopal missions inChina,Japan andKorea. He served as the first president ofAoyama Gakuin University.
Robert Samuel Maclay was born on February 7, 1824, inConcord, Pennsylvania, one of nine children. His parents, Robert Maclay and Arabella Erwin Maclay, ran atanning business in the local community.[1] His father, a respected member of theDemocratic Party, was raised up in thePresbyterian faith but became actively involved in theMethodist Episcopal Church, dedicating himself to spreading the Gospel, his mother an immigrant from the north of Ireland who shared her husband's religious devotion.[2]
Maclay enteredDickinson College in the fall of 1841 and was elected into the Belles Lettres Society.[1] As a college student he was highly influenced by his professor Rev.John McClintock. He graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree on July 10, 1845, and at his graduation he presented a commencement speech entitledThe Rule and End of Life.[2] Later Maclay received hisMaster's degree was subsequently honored with aDoctor of Divinity. One year after his graduation, Maclay was ordained in the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[1]
Maclay's ministry within theUnited States was brief. Throughout the 1840s, many American churches experienced a growing concern for the expansion of mission work overseas, and at that time the Methodist Episcopal Church suffered a split into two conferences due to the controversial issue overslavery. Maclay avoided the internal struggle of the Church and responded to the overseas mission call. On September 10, 1847, he was appointed as a missionary toFuzhou, China.[2]
Four hundred millions! Who are they? Our brethren; bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.What are they? Heathen, athwart whose gloomy night of error no ray of light ever shines;idolaters, bowing down to senseless images, the workmanship of their own hands.What are they? Men, created by God; fallen, ruined, helpless; victims, morally, of a foul and relentless malady; sinking into guilt and woe unutterable, inconceivable;immortals, objects of the divine compassion, subjects of Christ's mediation, into the mysteries of whose redemption angels desire to look, and for whose eternal salvation all heavenly intelligences are moved with a profound and ceaseless solicitude.
On October 12, 1847, Maclay, together with another Methodist missionary Rev.Henry Hickok, boarded the "Paul Jones" and set sail for China. They arrived in Fuzhou on April 12 the next year,[2] reinforcing the mission work that had been commenced by Revs.Moses Clark White andJudson Dwight Collins.[3] On July 10, 1850, Maclay andHenrietta Caroline Sperry were married inHong Kong by BishopGeorge Smith.[4] The newly wedded couple returned on August 14 to the mission field in Fuzhou,[5] and the next year they had their first child Eleanor Henrietta Maclay. The Maclays had five sons and three daughters in total, four of whom died at a young age.[2]
In their first years in China the Mission was slow in progress, faced with strong enmity and plagued with health problems. For ten years after the arrival of the first Methodists to Fuzhou, not a single convert was won. And of the twelve missionaries that had been sent before 1851 only the Maclays remained in the field by 1854; others had either died or returned to America. While the first years were primarily preparatory, significant achievements were made, however, in the educational work. By May 1849, three days schools for boys were founded, each with an attendance of twenty pupils. In December 1850, Mrs. Maclay opened the first mission school for girls, which employed a native teacher to teacher lessons in reading, writing, singing, geography, and arithmetic, by incorporating Bible stories, Christian doctrines and hymns. These schools were successful not only in providing education, but also in improving the relationship between the Chinese and the Methodist missionaries.[2]
Shortly after the establishment of schools, Maclay and other missionaries purchased premises in and outside Fuzhou for use as chapels. Eventually, these missionaries acquired a level of fluency which permitted them to preach in the local vernacular. On August 3, 1856, the first Methodist church in East Asia, theChurch of the True God [zh] (真神堂), was erected at Yangtou (洋頭); and on October 18 the same year, the second church was built on the south bank ofRiver Min, theChurch of Heavenly Peace (天安堂). On July 14, 1857, Maclay baptized the first Chinese convert connected with the Methodist Episcopal Mission, a 47-year-old man named Ting Ang (陳安).[6]
While in China Maclay published two books:Life Among the Chinese with Characteristic Sketches and Incidents of Missionary Operations and Prospects in China (1861)[7] and anAlphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow Dialect that he completed with Rev.Caleb Cook Baldwin (1870).
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) (Original from the New York Public Library)In 1871, Maclay returned to theUnited States and was appointed superintendent of the newly founded mission inJapan. Maclay arrived inYokohama on June 12, 1873, and immediately set about learning theJapanese language and seeking converts. He became an integral part of theWesleyan mission in Japan, helping to found and serve as first president of the Anglo-Japanese College (now theAoyama Gakuin) in Tokyo. While serving in Japan, Maclay was asked to travel toKorea to survey the possibility of a Methodist mission there. In June, 1884, Maclay made a brief visit toSeoul, where he acquired the permission of the king to begin medical and educational mission work. He declined leadership of the mission, though, and returned to Yokohama.
Maclay retired from the mission field in 1887 and returned toSan Fernando inCalifornia. He became the dean of theMaclay School of Theology (named for his brother SenatorCharles Maclay), and spent the rest of his life as an educator. Maclay died on August 18, 1907, inLos Angeles,California.
Maclay had been married twice. On July 10, 1850, he was married to Henrietta Caroline Sperry inHong Kong; on June 6, 1882, he was married secondly to Sarah Ann Barr inSan Francisco. There were no children out of his second marriage. His youngest sonEdgar Stanton Maclay (1863–1919) was a historian. His brotherCharles Maclay was a state senator of California. His nephews included JudgeRobert Maclay Widney, a founder of theUniversity of Southern California, and Dr.Joseph Widney, the second president of theUniversity of Southern California.
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