The story of the Methodist Message—Declare His Praise in the Islands

October is the birthday month of Methodist Message (MM). In this special feature, we focus on the work of the early Methodists in Singapore and Malaysia through the lens of MM. The Methodists, following Wesley's example, were always plugged into the issues of the day, working to improve education and social equality, and sharing the gospel. It is not lost upon us that MM serves as a precious record of God's faithfulness to the Methodists here. Today we hope that MM, in both its print and digital formats, will continue to play this role, to edify and inspire the Methodist community and beyond.

So runs the tagline under the masthead on the cover of the inaugural issue of The Malaysia Message (TMM) in October 1891, precursor of the Methodist Message that you are reading now. Where was this tagline derived from? Google gave the answer in a flash—it is from Isaiah 42:12 (KJV):

This quote plainly expressed the defining purpose and earnest conviction accompanying the foreign missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Mission (MEM) to our shores more than 100 years ago. TMM was founded as a broadcast to keep their supporters back home apprised of their work and news in this far-flung region. Published monthly, except for two breaks during World War II and immediately after (from Jan 1942 to Nov 1946, and for 10 months in 1947), TMM is probably the longest-running compendium of Methodist church history in Singapore and the region, tracking 131 years to date.

The first issue carried a sober reminder that faith and resolve alone could not always surmount the difficulty of acclimatising to the tropics. The two greats of Methodism in Singapore, Bishop William F Oldham and Bishop James Thoburn, both featured in it—Oldham had returned to America where his health was "improving",

Thoburn had "been obliged to lay down work for several weeks, and take to the mountains for rest". While their absences were temporary, J C Floyd, TMM’s first editor, had to bid farewell permanently after only four issues. Struck down by a "serious illness", his physicians had advised him "restoration to health is very improbable in this climate", and that he should "immediately return to a colder region".

With Floyd’s departure, W G Shellabear became editor in Feb 1892. However, shortly after, his wife’s health necessitated their temporary return to England: apparently England’s "bracing air" would do more for her than "even the salubrious air of Tanjong Katong".

Shellabear was manager of the American Mission Press (AMP) which he founded in December 1890. AMP operated from a “dwelling-house at the corner of Selegie/ Sophia Roads", moving later to 28 Raffles Place where the Methodist Book Room, which opened in November 1893, was also located. AMP was the printer/publisher of TMM from its inception, and was officially renamed Methodist Publishing House in October 1906. Shellabear deserves acclaim not only for his Malay writings and Malay translation of the Bible published by AMP, but for periodically stepping up as TMM editor until as late as December 1915.

One of TMM’s first-articulated aims was "to promote individual growth in grace and the advancement of the cause of righteousness in this part of the world". Ignoring denominational differences, TMM not only published MEM news but also contributions from other denominations like the English Presbyterian Mission (EPM) and Anglicans. News came from all over—besides Singapore and Malaya, missionaries wrote in from British North Borneo, Batavia and Sumatra. EPM once reported that the Sultan of Johore gifted "an excellent site for our Mission buildings at Bandarmabarami, Muar along with a sum of $1,000, a third of the total estimated cost of $3,000".

In Oct 1891, TMM cost 75 cents for 12 monthly issues. Four months later, the price had been fine-tuned: 75 Mexican cents in the Straits Settlements, 1 Mexican dollar "elsewhere in the East", 2s 6d "in the British Isles" and 60 American cents "in America". Remarkably, the numerical values remained almost unchanged for the next 50 years! How did TMM sustain itself, apart from donations and gifts?

Subscription rates, Jan 1892

In October 1891, a Women’s Christian Temperance Union existed, with the aim of "striving to free the world from one of its most blighting evils—the evil from intoxicating drinks". Among other acts of service, visits to pauper and leper hospitals were reported.

Other institutions in place were St Andrew’s House "to train the young in Christian lines"; a Children’s Home; an Industrial Home on Sophia Road for "destitute women and girls"; a Prison Ministry with segregated preachings to Malay, Chinese and Kling groups; a Sailors’ Ministry; and the Epworth League (precursor of Methodist Youth Fellowship).

The early issues of TMM yield substantial insight into the deplorable societal problems, customs and practices of that era. For example, an opinion piece in October 1891 advocated one day of rest in a week as "God’s gift to the labouring man" which was not the norm then. For more than a decade, TMM fearlessly condemned opium consumption, trafficking, and the attendant evils of gambling and drinking. Citing the spread of opiumsmoking from China to all over Indo-China, Siam, the Straits Settlements, Malaysia, Burmah and India, a correspondent in May 1892 denounced British officials for allowing opium to be grown in India and teaching the natives "to smoke, so as to increase revenue".

In July 1892 Shellabear wrote: "[In] God’s battle against opium and lust… final victory is sure. It is just as certain that the opium traffic will soon be abolished as it is that slavery was abolished 100 years ago." Time proved his confidence right: in the early 1900s, the British Parliament decreed that India must cease all opium exports to China except for medicinal purposes.

In Nov 1891 the issue contained two advertisement pages, as the editor wrote drolly:

One regular advertiser that became a household name was Robinsons and Co., Outfitters, 26 & 27 Raffles Place.

In June 1904, TMM boldly advised the Governor of Singapore to "observe the sacred character of the Sabbath" and not schedule "official visits of inspection and pleasure trips" on that day.

In October 1906, it published an article listing what Christianity had done for social progress:

"First, Results manifest in individual character—temperance reform, deliverance from the opium habit, restraint upon gambling, higher standards of personal purity, the discrediting of self-inflicted torture or mutilation, the cultivation of industry and frugality.

"Second, Results affecting family life— improvement in the status of women, restraint of polygamy, and concubinage, the checking of adultery and divorce, the abolition of child-marriage and widowburning, the protection of children from infanticide, foot-binding and other cruel customs.

October 1931 issue, 40th anniversary of TMM

"Third, Results of a humane and philanthropic tendency—suppression of slavery, abolition of cannibalism, [and] brutal punishments, promoting prison reform, arresting cruel sports, assisting the poor and indigent, relieving victims of famine and plague, erecting schools, opening dispensaries and hospitals, founding leper asylums, establishing orphanages, …promoting cleanliness and sanitation, instilling a peaceful and law-abiding spirit, introducing modern scientific methods."

Another was Anglo-Chinese School. Its advertisement in Nov 1891 brimmed with information, but perhaps the most persuasive selling-point was the assurance that

Ruminations like Shellabear’s August 1892 editorial reflect the early missionary’s burden:

"'Faith without works is dead'... The individual who was once untiring in his efforts to save men from sin, but has relapsed into the easygoing Christian, meeting the sinner on equal terms and hob-nobbing with the enemies of Christ, may have the name of living but is already dead; and the Church where the sinner and the careless and the half-hearted can sit in comfort week after week without being disturbed by the pricks of conscience, is ready to perish. … Is there no drunkard to be saved, no profligate to be pleaded with? Are not our streets lined with hellish temptations, and shall we sit within our four walls and 'sing ourselves away' in self-complacent religiousness, while our own countrymen all unheeded are treading the thorny path which leads to the destruction of body and soul?"

He concluded that the church should organise itself for street evangelism, to "patrol streets" and "visit drink-shops" to "beseech the fallen men who frequent them to give up their life of sin". We sense his exasperation when he wrote, "The story that missionaries live lives of ease and do nothing is continually cropping up in newspapers published on the [m]ission field. These papers find their way to the homelands... We have but one defence… Let any man or woman, of any nationality, at any hour of the day, call on any missionary and find out what he is doing, and then make such statements he feels warranted in doing, giving time and place and the name of the missionary concerned. … We make the above proposition for two reasons—(1) we believe that unworthy missionaries should be expelled and (2) we wish to encourage truthfulness in those who write about missionaries."

Despite announcing in Oct 1906 that no more advertisements "except perhaps those of Mission Schools and the Methodist Book Room" would appear, this commitment was broken from Jan 1930. Generally, TMM, post-war, possessed a more sober tone with mainly factual news reports and none of the levity seen in some of the pre-war issues. What might have raised a smile were the peppy taglines of some beverage advertisements.

Besides church-planting, TMM bears record to the many schools founded by the Methodists in Singapore and beyond.

That school rivalry existed as far back as September 1893 is inferable from a report that boldly, if a bit harshly, referenced the education system of the Roman Catholic church: "The parents of the Eurasian boys who attend St Joseph’s Institution have had the courage to demand a better English training for their sons, and complain that the advantages offered there are much inferior to those afforded by the

Anglo-Chinese School and Raffles Institution. English, instead of French brothers, and a better equipped boy at the finish is the gist of their most reasonable request. … But for the Reformation, England and America would be today where Spain, Portugal, Brazil and many other Roman Catholic countries now are. It remains to be seen whether the parents …will have the pluck to send their boys to other schools, should their demands be rejected."

In Oct 1947, summing up the achievements of 40 years of missionary work in Sarawak, a contributor noted that the mission had been a pioneer in the field of education, bringing about "intelligent and healthy" young people, upheld moral standards despite the Second World War and "led people into a world of hope and of eternal glory".

Bishop Edwin F Lee, at the opening of a new Methodist Girls’ School in Pahang in Sep 1947, espoused learning the English language as a way of unifying people, "to develop a sense of worldwide community and brotherhood".

Although the war in Europe began in 1939, TMM was published up to Dec 1941. Nothing published even hinted of the imminent Japanese invasion. The only ostensible problem was a paper shortage due to the war in Europe—TMM responded by reducing pages in Oct 1941 and compressing Nov/Dec 1941 into one issue.

Although the Japanese surrendered in 1945, TMM did not regroup until Dec 1946. Regrouping must not have been easy—only Aug and Dec issues were published in 1947.

In Jun 1953, TMM was renamed The Methodist Message, principally because the name "Malaysia" was considered anomalous after the Burma Annual Conference joined the Methodist fold. The cover of Jun 1953 presented a picture of the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth II and a Coronation Day Song was specially composed as our tribute. While the sun has set on her reign on 8 Sep 2022, the issue reminds us today that we were then a British colony.

But we should need no reminders of our immeasurable debt to the missionaries who braved long sea voyages and the merciless tropics to obey God’s call. May Methodist Message long continue to thrive as a chronicle of how we are paying our debt forward.

Are you always on the lookout for a juicy story? Do you silently correct other people’s grammar? Can you spot a typo in an instant? Are you a sharpshooter—with your smartphone or DSLR? Is doodling or illustration your passion but you have nowhere to publish your art?

Consider putting your skills to use to make Jesus known and be part of the team behind Methodist Message, a publication that started more than 130 years ago.

Let’s talk!

Write to communications@methodist.org.sg

The Malaysia Message was renamed The Methodist Message in June 1953 and featured the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II on the cover