A Christmas Treasure

Ever since I started researching missionary history, I have encountered, and been pleasantly surprised by, meeting and connecting with generous people of all kinds. People who have shared their knowledge and time with me, been interested in my findings, and rooted for me – motivating me to keep researching and writing the history of my great-grandparents. All of you who have taken the time to comment on this blog and share your thoughts on the material I am researching, sent me tips and articles, and offered your reflections on what I have gathered so far.

Today, I want to send a special thank you to one particular person. Through this blog and through connecting with the EÖM (the Evangelical Mission in East Asia), I have – as you may have read here previously – had the good fortune of getting to know Karin Stålhammar Hansson, who has written a book about her missionary grandparents. They served with the same mission as my great-grandparents and were active during the same time period. There are several mentions of our relatives having attended the same mission meetings, so we know that they were colleagues and that they met. Although I have not yet seen any mentions of Karin’s grandparents in the letters my great-grandparents wrote (but who knows what I may discover as I continue to go through them all).

Karin and I also met in person at the Gothenburg Book Fair in September this year to talk about our shared history and the process of writing about it. Karin then told me that she had a large collection of books and missionary papers, old Chinese Bibles, and more materials she would like to pass on to someone who could make use of them. She thought they might be of value to my research, and I was absolutely thrilled that she thought of me.

And then, a few weeks ago, a large cardboard box arrived at my house. And what a box of treasures it was!

Karin had sent me so many fascinating items from her grandfather’s library. I was completely captivated and immediately began going through the material.

I opened the books and noticed that many of them were marked with the owner’s name – primarily Mina Stålhammar, Karin’s grandmother. The collection included several editions of Sinim’s Land (ranging from 1876 to 1961), numerous volumes of The Chinese Recorder, an annual report titled China’s Millions, various Bibles, and books such as Broomhall’s In Quest of God, published in 1921, as well as many smaller publications.

During my first inspection of the box, there was a small book that caught my attention, written by F.B. Meyer, whom I know had met with my great grandfather Robert Bergling and written an article about him (see here).

When I opened the dark blue cover of the book, with its titel “Saved and Kept” written in gold letters, I was more than surprised to see another familiar name on the first blank page – Nils Svenson. F.B. Meyer had dedicated this book to Nils Svenson, with the words: Nils Svenson with my keen wishes. (Though I am not sure I read the third word right – I read it as “keen” but feel free to comment if you think it says something else!) Now, Nils Svenson, was my great grandfather, (father to my grandmother Edna). He immigrated to America in 1905 as Nils Svenson and later came to change his name to Nils Styrelius, after having married my great grandmother Olga in China.

This was a real coincidence and a clear indication that Karin’s and my relatives knew one another well enough for Nils to have given the book, once signed by F. B. Meyer, either to Mina or to Gustaf Adolf Stålhammar. Alternatively, he may have passed it on to their children, since the book was intended as “a counsel to young believers and Christian Endeavorers”.

In his foreword, Meyer writes: “these words have been written, largely for my young sisters and brothers of the Christian Endeavour Society on each side of the Atlantic; and also for all who deisre to know the secret of being SAVED AND KEPT”.

I looked up Christian Endeavour Society and noticed that it still exists today. Christian Endeavor began in 1881 as a pioneering youth society for all kinds of Protestants. F. B. Meyer was a contemporary supporter of the wider evangelical youth movement and traveled frequently to America to connect with this and other movements. I assume it could have been during one of those visits that he met my great-grandfather and dedicated his book to him, as my great-grandfather lived in America for four years before setting out as a missionary in China in 1909. Nils was very active within the missionary movement there. But, then again, Nils could also have been present during a sermon by F.B. Meyer in Sweden, upon one of the pastor’s visits here, before Nils left for America.

It is such a rare chance though, that this book would find its way from the hands of F. B. Meyer to my great-grandfather, then on to Karin’s grandparents, and finally arrive on my doorstep more than 100 years later.

And I really felt that Karin was right when I called to thank her and tell her about my discovery: ‘Well, then it has finally arrived home”.

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