A graduate of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) college, Islington, Moule arrived in Ningpo (Ningbo) with his wife in 1861. He participated in the General Missionary Conference in Shanghai in 1877, delivering a paper; “The Relation of Christian Missions to Foreign Residents.” in 1881 he became secretary of the Shanghai district of the CMS. A few years later he was appointed archdeacon and assumed administrative responsibility for the entire work of the CMS in China. In addition to his administrative work, he engaged in local missionary work in Ningpo, Shanghai, and Hangchow (Hangzhou).
When he returned to England in 1894, he left a congregation of 180 members with five schools and seven Chinese teachers. As a part of his ministry in Shanghai, he introduced expatriates to the work of Christian missions and showed them how it contributed toward “Christianizing, civilizing, and education in Western knowledge.” Three of his major books are The Glorious Land (1891), New China and Old (3d ed., 1902), and Half a Century in China (1911). He also wrote extensively for the church papers Intelligencer and Gleaner. He and his wife had six sons, several of whom served in education and church-related ministries.
Attribution
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright (c) 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of The Gale Group; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.
Sources
- Arthur Evans Moule, The Story of the Cheh-kiang Mission of the Church Missionary Society (4th ed., 1891), Half a Century in China: Reflections and Observations (1911). The Chinese People: A Handbook on China (1914). Arthur Evans Moule, Missionary to the Chinese: A Memoir by His Six Sons (1921). See also Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society (1899).