Wednesday, July 16, 2025

It is the 16th of July 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I would like to begin by stating that, of course, it was Lord Denethor and not Théoden who did the gross eating. All further throw-away comments about Lord of the Rings, Frodo, Bilbo, and Dumbledore will be vetted through someone before I overheat the 1517 servers by getting the emails. In all seriousness, I do love the good-natured comments and corrections.

Another one of my favorite things is the odd easter egg hidden in history books- like the one I came across recently in Christopher Reed’s Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937. We read “China’s Gutenberg revolution started off far from auspiciously. The First Chinese type cutter and letterpress printer, the shadowy Cai Gao, was banished from Canton to labor in Malacca for his involvement with the Protestant missionaries.”

Whoa whoa wee wow. What? Shadowy, banished, Protestant missionaries?

Let’s go! He was Cai Gao, and not only are Chinese names often difficult for westerners, but this was the 19th century, when some first contact between East and West, and rival alphabet and translation issues made things a little tricky. We’ll stick with the westernized name “Cai Gao” for our man- he was born in 1788, the second of 3 boys born into relative wealth.

Cai Gao- born in 1788- was sickly and ill-tempered, but also known for his calligraphy- a skill that would pay off later. When his father died in a shipwreck along with the family fortune in the South Sea, the family was ruined. His older brother was put in debtors' prison.

Here in the early 1800s, there were the beginnings of Protestant Missions to China, and before Hudson Taylor became the name associated with the Mission to China, it was the Englishman Robert Morrison. Morrison’s own story is worth telling on this show sometime, but he was a leading sinologist and early pioneer in Protestant missions to China with the London Missionary Society. He would eventually get work with the East India Company, where he could do legitimate business transactions and then set up a printing office to get tracts and parts of the Bible published in Chinese.  

Hearing about Cai Gao’s brother in prison, he offered to pay the debt and give the three brothers jobs. By 1808, the brothers were all working for him and attending his Sunday services. Cai Gao would show interest in the faith, but was fired for quarreling with another worker in the office.

Morrison was able to hire him back by 1810 to work in another print shop associated with the London Missionary Society. His “shadowy” work in printing and as the beginning of “China’s Gutenberg revolution” came from his ability to blend traditional Chinese printing (and yes, the Chinese had a printing system like Gutenberg well before Gutenberg- but with 1,000’s of characters in Chinese instead of the 100’s in the Latin alphabet it wasn’t feasible). Cai Gao helped Morrison blend the older Chinese method of carving characters into wood with the modern press and was thus able to print quickly and more efficiently.

Cai Gao continued to show interest in the Christian faith, by 1812 reading the Bible aloud in Morrison’s home services, and brought his idols to Morrison, wanting them to be destroyed. I wish we had more primary sources for their relationship- Cai Gao would ask to be baptized, and Morrison would rebuff him, wanting either evidence of faith or a strong confession of faith. It seems to have troubled Morrison that Cai Gao wanted to be baptized secretly so as not to upset his brothers.

But in 1814, after writing a confession of faith, Morrison decided to baptize Cai Gao. The two made their way to a remote hillside on the coast of Macau, where on this, the 16th of July in 1814, Cai Gao became the first person baptized by a Protestant in China.

Within a few years, as tensions were rising (with both the native Chinese and the earlier arriving Roman Catholic Missionaries) the printing office of the East India Company was raided and Cai Gao had to flee to Malaysia where he met up with Liang Fa (sometimes called the second convert of Protestant missionaries in China) where they worked with William Milne.

Unfortunately, the health issues that plagued Cai Gao would catch up with him, and he would die in 1818 at 30 years old. But his legacy is in printing and the evangelization of the Chinese, who Reed called “the shadowy Cai Gao,” was the first person baptized by Protestant missionaries in China on this, the 16th of July in 1814.  

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and, Holy Cow! That’s the music of Ecclesiastes! From chapter 9:

13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
    than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war,

    but one sinner destroys much good.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 16th of July 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by our very own Dumbledore meets Gandalf meets Dr. Strange and the Wizard of Oz - he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who understands the offense- it’s like if you confused Cactus Jack and Mankind- I’d be writing in fast to you, too… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.