SOTW 3 Annotated for LDS Ch. 39 China Adrift

While in the British Isles, “on March 13, 1840, John Taylor went with Joseph Fielding to hear a lecture on the so-called Opium War with China. The war had begun as a result of China's efforts to keep opium out of the country and to expel British merchants who persisted in importing it. Fiercely opposed to the war, the irate speaker proclaimed that China had a right to keep the drug out and that the British were guilty of all manner of corruption. Fielding and Taylor were "well satisfied with the Lecture." The spirit of the address, wrote Fielding, "is that the Pagan Chinese have far more noble Principles than the Christians, so called, who will grow or sell anything, even [the] Souls of Men for Gain. . . . The Americans have protested against the Conduct of the British in attempting to blockade, etc. I pray God to turn all these things to his own Glory & that Truth may triumph (James B. Allen, Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker, Men with a Mission, 1837-1841: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles, p.97 – 98)."

“It is interesting to note that the restored Church made an initial effort at a China mission within a decade of the opening of China to the "west." At a special conference August 2, 1852, Hosea Stout, James Lewis, and Chapman Duncan were called by President Brigham Young to carry the gospel to China. The brethren left Great Salt Lake City October 20, 1852, and sailed from San Francisco, March 8, 1853. They, too, arrived at Hong Kong, April 27, 1853-the British settlement and base acquired as a result of the Opium War of 1842 (Dr. G. Homer Durham, “The China Mission,” Improvement Era 1941)”.