The Reluctant Minister

Memoirs by David W. Torrance

Torrance

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498232913
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

"Here are the details of an amazing life.... This is a book well worth reading."--Very Revd John Miller"A work rich in human interest, redolent of the grace of God, and completely honest in describing both the author's struggles with a sense of call to ministry, and the highs and lows of subsequent pastoral experience."--Angus Morrison, Church of Scotland Moderator, 2015-16

Chapter 1

Early Days

“Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name”. “Sing to the Lord, for he has done (and will do) marvellous things”. These words of Psalm 103, and 98, which my father loved, encourage us to praise the Lord for his love, his salvation and all the blessings which he showers so continually upon us. They express my gratitude to God for the privilege of being born into a happy Christian home and for the blessings of God which have surrounded my life.

I was born to devoutly Christian parents, for which my siblings and I have always been profoundly thankful to God. Our parents prayed for each of us before we were born, dedicating each one to the Lord to be set aside for the furtherance of the Gospel. As a result each of us has grown up with a strong faith in the Lord and have never doubted Him. Largely as a result of their prayers, their teaching and example, all three of their sons entered the ministry and all three daughters married ministers. Two of their daughters, Grace and Margaret, together with their husbands served for several years as missionaries in Central Africa; in Malawi and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Mary’s husband, Dr Ronnie S. Wallace, served first as a parish minister in Scotland then as a professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, U.S.A.

Both my parents, following their conversion, individually answered the call to go as missionaries to China.

Father

My father came from farming stock. He was born in Muirhead Farm, Harthill, Lanarkshire. My grandfather was a dairy farmer. He earned his livelihood travelling around Harthill selling milk, butter and cheese, both of which were made on the farm. Father was the eldest in a family of two sons and three daughters.

The family worshipped in the Kirk of Shotts, a church which many years before had witnessed the greatest spiritual revival which Scotland ever experienced and which in subsequent years led to revivals in other parts of Scotland.

Father was converted in his late teen years, through a neighbouring Free Church minister, Mr Shaw. With his conversion he felt the call to the ministry and to the mission field. Unlike two cousins, Dr David Torrance who went as a missionary doctor to Tiberias, Israel and the Revd John Torrance who went as a missionary to India, my father’s family belonged to what was known as the ‘Auld Kirk’, or Established Kirk, the Church of Scotland. His cousins were Free Kirk.

At that time, our Scottish Foreign Missions all belonged to the Free Kirk. The Auld Kirk had none. This immediately caused my father a dilemma. Although he was converted through a Free Church minister whom he respected and loved, it was too big a thing in those days to cross from the Auld Kirk to the Free Kirk. At the same time my grandfather, despite being a religious man with his own theological library, said to my father that if he went into the ministry of the Auld Kirk at home, he would pay for his way through college, but if he went to the mission field, he would not give him a penny!

My father, convinced that he was called both to the ministry and to the mission field, was therefore dependent on grants and scholarships. Accordingly he studied at Hulme Cliff Methodist College in Derbyshire and (as then named) Livingstone College, London. He was much attached to his parents and later on they did help him financially. He kept his allegiance to the Church of Scotland.

Having been inspired by the work of David Livingstone in Africa, Father first thought to go to Africa with the London Missionary Society (LMS). However the door closed and at 24 years of age he went to China with the China Inland Mission (CIM). He left Scotland in 1895 and arrived in January 1896. After language study near Shanghai he was stationed in Chengdu in the interior Province of Sichuan. He soon gained a remarkable grasp of the language and customs of China, working both in the city and in the outlying district. He served the mission for 15 years after which certain difficulties arose which led him to resign from the CIM and return to Scotland, but not before he was asked to consider taking over the work of the American Bible Society as Superintendent for West China.

When he was in Scotland he attended the famous World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910. During the conference he was officially offered and accepted the post of Superintendent of the American Bible Society for West China, based in Chengdu. After his return to China he was fully exonerated in regard to the difficulties that had arisen and the Mission apologised for certain false and slanderous accusations which had been made. He, thereafter, along with my mother, had very happy relations with the CIM.

Later he was also made Superintendent of the British and Foreign Bible Society for West China, although continuing to be Superintendent of the American Bible Society, from which he drew his salary and later his pension. Both Societies were based in Chengdu. The American Bible Society also had an office in Chungking for which Father was also responsible. Father was extremely happy in his new work. Clearly his transfer to the American Bible Society was the hand of God. On the first of August 1911, he married my mother, who until then was a single CIM missionary based in Kwan Shien, which was some thirty miles, or a day and half journey travelling on foot, to the west of Chengdu, at the foot of the mountains which bordered Tibet. Mother, although very happy to join my father in his new work, found it quite a wrench to leave the CIM.

In China marriages took place before the British Consul. Thereafter the couple proceeded to a church service. The British Consul told her that whereas she had duly signed the required forms prior to the church service, her husband had signed the required forms the day before! Hence, Mother used to joke throughout their marriage, saying that my father was married to her the day before she was married to him!

If Father was required to do or write something he always endeavoured to do it right away. Procrastination or delay was not in his nature. I often teased him after he returned to Scotland, as when he required to make a journey by train he would book a seat on the train a few days before. On the day of travel, however, he always arrived too early at the station, so often he caught the train before, and because he had not reserved a seat, had to stand!

In his new post Father was his own master and had the freedom to be the pioneer missionary that he was. He worked tirelessly preaching and, with his Chinese colporteur helpers, distributing Bibles and portions of Scripture. He wrote many of his own Gospel tracts and never, as my mother used to say, lost an opportunity to preach the Gospel.

Pandas and Other Interests

My father had a great interest in history, as the Tribute on the next page indicates. He had permission from the authorities to open and explore many of the ancient tombs, and he helped to establish the Museum of West China in Chengdu. He also introduced Western bulls to the mountain people.

From his frequent trips to remote areas he brought back stories of ‘unusual bears’. Others were interested in such animals, such as Hugo Weingold who obtained a panda cub in 1916. However my father had seen them and written of them in letters before that. In 1916 he had been in those areas for twenty years. Of course, no Westerner ‘discovered’ giant pandas, the local peoples knew about them!

The following letter by John Hykes, Agent Secretary for China of the American Bible Society, was treasured by the family (the same thoughts were reflected on his final exit and farewell from China):

Tribute to the Rev. Thomas Torrance, 1920

Dear Mr. Torrance,

I, on the eve of your departure for Scotland on a well earned furlough, wish to assure you of my unqualified satisfaction with the manner in which you conducted the work of Szechuen Sub Agency. During the nine years this field has been under your supervision your personal sales have amounted to 243,677 books and those of your native staff to 908,873 – total of 1,153,490. Such a result in circulating the Scriptures could only be achieved by regular, persistent, unremitting hard work. Your devotion and zeal have commanded my admiration and I often felt worried over your prodigal expenditure of strength and energy. In your work you have been a man of one aim, to distribute the Word of God as widely as possible among the people of Western Szechuen. By this I do not mean that your object has been merely to sell large numbers of books, but to make the purchasers wise unto salvation by explaining to them God’s message of salvation through Jesus Christ. I thank God that you never missed an opportunity of preaching to the low and high and that you have always been an evangelist. I know that your efficient help in evangelistic services of many different denominations in Szechuen has been blessed by God and greatly appreciated by missionaries. It does not surprise me that I have frequently had from Szechuen missionaries the highest possible commendation of your character and your work. Recently one said to me “Everybody, both Chinese and Foreigners, in Szechuen love Mr. Torrance”.

Your pure life, your high sense of honour and your loyalty to the right have commanded my highest admiration ever since I had the pleasure of knowing you. Your relations to the Chinese have been ideal. You inspired them by example and influenced them by love. I am aware of your friendly relations with officials from governor down, and how they sought your counsel and advice. In the good influence you exercised over them, I am sure you served the cause of Christian missions.

I am very pleased that you have been able to devote some of your holiday vacations and leisure time in investigating the cave burial places dating back over 3,000 years; and this to throw light on an ancient people and civilisation. I am sure that both the home management as well as myself are proud of our “missionary antiquary” as you are dubbed in a late number of the Record.

I wish you and Mrs Torrance and the four lovely children a very happy visit in the home country. I cannot think of any greater pleasure than having you associated with me in work until I am ready to put off the harness.

Yours very sincerely

John R. Hykes, Agency Secretary

In the years that followed he and his helpers distributed many millions of Bibles and portions of Scripture, and over one million in his last year. It was said of him when he retired in 1935 that no one had done more to further the Gospel in West China.

Return to Scotland

Because I left China when I was three years old I do not remember life in China. My earliest memories are of London Zoo which we visited before travelling north to Scotland. The family by then included six children, and we returned to Scotland in 1927. Because of considerable unrest in China, it was thought too dangerous for the family to return to China, so the family remained in Scotland and Father returned to China alone. It was a very difficult decision for my parents who loved each other and a difficult decision for my mother who had felt such a strong call to China. Father would be absent from the family for seven years. He had opened up work in the mountains among the Quiang people and felt that his work must continue. Mother felt that a continuance of her missionary calling was to ensure that the family grew up to love and serve the Lord.

Father finally returned to Scotland in 1935. Aged 64 he was still very active and preached fairly regularly in various churches as well as serving in a number of locums, particularly during the war, sometimes for two years at a time.

Until the end of his life he was a passionate evangelist. He carried Gospel tracts in his pockets and where possible never lost an opportunity to witness to Christ. He could be surprisingly frank and to the point, both in preaching and in personal conversation with others. Yet he had a kindly, gentle, winsome manner and I was never aware of anyone ever being annoyed or upset by what he said. He often preached for me in my first parish. My elders told me that he would say to them, when talking before a church service, “I hope none of you gentlemen indulge in the disgusting habit of smoking”, knowing that probably all of them did! However in expressing his own abhorrence of smoking he would say it in a loving way with a sense of humour, so that none were offended. They were very fond of him.

Over the years he influenced a remarkable number of people or was a means of their conversion. One well known minister of the Church of Scotland was converted through my father. One Sunday evening after preaching Father arrived home and put on his slippers. He then, to my astonishment, pulled a tobacco pipe out of his pocket. I said, “Dad you have started smoking!” When he pulled out six pipes and two tobacco pouches, I said in my astonishment, “Dad you have stolen them!” He explained that the minister in whose parish he was preaching told him that he could not give up the habit of smoking. My father in his direct way said, “Let us kneel down and ask God to deliver you and fill you by his Spirit”. In rising from his knees Dad said, “Now give me your pipe and tobacco”. That was this minister’s conversion to Christ. Quite often he would call and visit my father. He said one day to me during a meal that his great regret in the ministry was that he did not meet my father years earlier.

Father had a deep influence on us all. From him, as from mother, we felt that to be a Christian was to witness to Christ and evangelise.

Mother

My mother also was converted in her teen years and with her conversion felt the call to mission and evangelism. Soon she felt the call to Overseas Mission and to China. She studied at Redcliffe College, Chelsea and then in the CIM Mission’s Training Home at Grove Park, London. Like Father she was 24 years old when, in 1907, she arrived in China. After language study, again near Shanghai, she was stationed in Kwan Shien, thirty miles west of Chengdu at the foot of the mountains bordering Tibet. She married Father four years later. They had three daughters and three sons, Mary, Tom, Grace, Margaret, James and myself. The family came back to Scotland in 1927.

Whereas Mary, my oldest sister was born in Shanghai, my two other sisters, two brothers and myself were born in Chengdu, in the Province of Szechuan. Despite her family commitments with six children, mother was asked to lead weekly Bible studies for some thirty nurses in the Canadian School, and teach in the Canadian girls’ school and a men’s college. She taught Bible, grammar, history and literature.

The family left China in 1927 at a time of deep political unrest. Shortly prior to our return to Scotland, a Canadian missionary doctor had been k...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Dates
• Chapter 1: Early Days
• Chapter 2: Military Service: 1942-1946
• Chapter 3: Call and Preparation for Ministry: Prior to 1946
• Chapter 4: University: 1942-1943, 1946-1953 and other Academic Work
• Chapter 5: Ministry and Evangelism: 1942-1953
• Chapter 6: Call to Evangelism: Tell Scotland
• Chapter 7: Livingston 1955-1969: Part 1
• Chapter 8: Livingston 1955-1969: Part 2
• Chapter 9: Aberdeen Summerhill: 1969-1977
• Chapter 10: Earlston: 1977-1991
• Chapter 11: Retirement
• Appendix 1: Reflections on Ministry
• Appendix 2: The National Bible Society
• Appendix 3: Israel