Psalmody in Foochow.
By Rev. C. S. Champness, M. E. Mission, Foochow.
The three Missions working in Foochow city and the northern part of Fukien province are happy in having possessed in the earlier part of their career a band of missionaries who performed most useful service in translating and writing hymns for the Chinese church. These Missions have always worked very harmoniously together, and much useful work has been done on union lines in the province.
I purpose giving here some of the hymns which are widely sung in all the three churches.
Fukien province was fortunate in having been the working ground for some years of the great evangelist and hymn-maker, William C. Burns, the mighty mission preacher of Kilsyth, Scotland, who at the call of God left all and came to China. He was the first translator of many of the hymns which are found in all Chinese hymnals, as used all over China. He evidently believed in Luther's principle of enfolding Christian doctrine in popular hymns. Besides the many excellent translations of English hymns that he produced, Burns also wrote several original hymns in Chinese for the special purpose of teaching Christian doctrine in a form which could easily be retained in the mind of the people. The first of the popular hymns of Foochow hymnals that I would mention is his well-known hymn
"Narrow is the Road."
- 行至天堂永活所在
者門者路窄窄阻碍
入門行路者𠆧頂少
或驚追逐或驚𠆧笑
- 欲至天堂私慾着棄
仅着細膩嘴目共耳
件件所做着照法度
約束七情哀樂喜怒
- 莫貪錢財金書寶器
莫害別𠆧自家得利
伓通亂講毛實其話
着學老實伓通奸詐
- 驕傲其心着變謙卑
着憑四字愛人如己
着梨服事眞活上帝
着認耶穌莫驚羞恥
- 惟獨罪𠆧盡去軟弱
行至半路常常欲歇
懇求天父時刻施恩
助我直頭行至天堂
This hymn is a good example of a colloquial hymn, using Chinese characters in a certain way to express colloquial words. Such a use of Chinese characters is of course strongly condemned by the literati, who object to characters being used to express purely colloquial words and sounds, but it is necessary if we are to produce Christian literature in a form that the people
