Collins Family

When, at the beginning of the year 1890, the Rev. J. S. Collins was put in charge of Lo-ngwong, and took up his residence in the district, he found much to distress him. The district had previously been superintended by Archdeacon Wolfe from Fuh-chow, but he was. only able to visit it occasionally; consequently the native pastor and other agents did not have that close and constant supervision which was so necessary. As a result, quarrels and dissensions were sadly prevalent, and constituted a great stumbling-block to the work among the Heathen. This is illustrated by a remark made to Mr. Collins, "The Christians abuse their neighbours. We can do that without changing our religion." In some cases, too, the work proved to be only of a surface character. As an illustration of what was met with, Mr. Collins told of a visit he paid to Tiong-tang, where in one large clan out of seven brothers six had been baptized:-
My first visit there was the sign for a storm such as I have seldom encountered. One of the brothers had been expelled from the Church on a charge of false witness, though he had previously held a position as Churchwarden (or what corresponds to the office out here), and the bitterness against all in authority was intense. With open Bibles they met me text for text, with bitter words and angry looks and gestures. I waited and prayed. At last the chance was given and they listened till the word given me brought from the second brother the angry retort, "There was only one Jesus, and He was God, but I am a man," but it had shown him our standard, and his own conscience had shown him how far short he had fallen of it, as he confessed months afterwards with words of humble apology.
But encouraging incidents were not lacking. Sungkia, being situated on an island three miles to seaward, had escaped the unhappy contagion of discord, and was described as "the one bright spot" in fee district. Mr. Collins wrote:-
The two leading men are in themselves pictures of what the love of Christ can make this people, and an evidence that there was a true and real work from the very first here. Just before I came an attempt had been made by the Heathen to compel the Christians to subscribe to a new idol temple. The richest man on the island is a Christian, and, led by him, they stoutly refused, and held their own. Not only so, but they did more. The island was reached by a stone causeway, covered at high tide. The chief village on it extends for half a mile along the side of the island facing the mainland. At the upper end, opposite the new temple, is the old causeway, so that to cross from the lower end of the village, a long detour had to be made. The Christians refused to subscribe to the temple, but to show their public spirit, offered to build a second causeway at the lower end of the island. This was done, and I was taken to see the new causeway as a triumph, which, indeed, it was.
And of a former member of the congregation at Uong-buang who had lately removed to Lo-ngwong, and whose zeal was a great encouragement, Mr. Collins wrote:-
Living in the Roman Catholic quarter of the town, he refused to go with his neighbours, who invited him, either to worship or to gamble, and his reputation reached the ears of the priest, a Spaniard, who sent for him, and talked with him for two hours, questioning him on both the Old and New Testament history. Astonished at the answers of so rough a man, he asked him how many years he had read in school. 'I never was at school,' said the man. 'Where, then, did you learn all this?' 'From reading my Bible.' was the answer, and the priest was silent. Then he showed him the crucifix in the chapel. It impressed the man, but in an unexpected direction. To some minds his answer would be shocking, but to him, himself recently an idolator, it came quite naturally. 'What a pity,' he said, 'to make an idol of the Lord Jesus Christ for the heathen to laugh at!'
Mrs. Collins was warmly welcomed in visiting the homes of the Christian women, but meetings of women were not possible, owing to the prevalent animosities.
During the next few years the work was extended in several directions. A little hospital was opened at Lo-ngwong under the charge of the head student of Dr. Taylor's hospital at Fuh-ning; a boarding-school for boys was established with sixteen pupils, and also, a Women's School; and work among a community of lepers living outside the North Gate was set on foot by the help of the Mission to Lepers, which supplied the stipend of the leper catechist who lived among them. He was the only Christian in the village when he died, in 1895, but there were one or two earnest inquirers. Later a number of the lepers were baptized; a church was built in the village by means of funds contributed through the Mission to Lepers by two Dublin ladies; and afterwards an American lady, through the same Society, provided the money for building a Home for the untainted children of lepers (which was built close to the Mission compound), and also for its endowment.

The Collins Family

Ethel Frances Collins

Helen Mary Emily Collins

Herbert Stratford Collins

James Stratford Collins

Philip Rowland Collins