1900 - Edith Searell

June 30, 1900

Xiaoyi, Shanxi

Edith Searell.

Edith Searell, a New Zealander from Christchurch in the South Island, was martyred at Xiaoyi along with Emily Whitchurch. Searell sailed for China in 1895. As she boarded the ship in New Zealand, a friend mentioned that she did not know how long it would be before she saw Edith’s face again. She replied, “Well, there is nothing I would count a greater honour than to wear a martyr’s crown.”[1]

Edith had a struggle of faith before she finally settled on God’s call to missionary service. On one hand her physical frailties seemed to make a call for such work impossible, but on the other hand she continually felt the tug of the Holy Spirit in her heart, leading her to take the step of faith to China. She wrote:

“God said to me, ‘Go to China,’ and there arose before my mind’s eye all the difficulties—the need of funds and of bodily strength (for I was not very robust then), and the opposition—all these different things seemed to rise up on one side; but the Lord undertook everything.”[2]

Being a skilled musician, Searell’s trained ear helped her to learn Chinese quickly and accurately. It was said “she would surprise the Chinese from other parts by her accurate imitation of their different local dialects.”[3] For the first year she was stationed at the China Inland Mission’s school at Yantai in Shandong Province, where she taught music. In May 1896 she joined Whitchurch at Xiaoyi, thus becoming the first missionary from Australasia in Shanxi Province. It was said of Edith Searell, “Hers was a warm, affectionate nature and ready for any sacrifice…. There seemed to be nothing in the practical line of house-keeping which she did not know.”[4]

Searell labored for the Lord right up to the time of her death. From

“morning till night she was busy. What with teaching, dealing out the medicine for the opium patients, visiting, and housekeeping, there was not an idle moment…. Herein lay her strength—every member of the church, inquirer, opium patient, was pleaded for by name. In every difficulty God’s guidance was sought.”[5]

In May 1900 Edith became seriously ill with pleurisy. During her time in China she also struggled with asthma and pneumonia. One of her last letters, dated June 2, 1900, was to fellow missionary Eva French. She wrote,

“You speak in your letter of the possibility of one place being safer than another. I think, dear Eva, from the human standpoint all are equally unsafe; from the point of view of those whose lives are hid with Christ in God, all are equally safe! His children shall have a place of refuge, and that place is the secret place of the Most High…. Shall we murmur if we have less of time than we expected? The less of time, the more of heaven.”[6]

Edith Searell’s work on earth was done, and her reward awaited her. When the mission premises were attacked by a raging mob all the Christians who were still on the compound were called together for prayer. After

“Committing themselves to God they commenced to sing, and in the midst of their songs of praise the mob burst in and beat them to death with pieces of broken furniture, finally throwing their bodies into the baptistery…. Several of the Christians who endeavoured to protect the ladies were severely wounded, while others were done to death in the villages.”[7]

1. China’s Millions (August 1900).
2. “In Memoriam—‘Martyrs of Jesus’: Three Australian Workers,” China’s Millions (February 1901), 19.
3. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 28.
4. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 28.
5. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 28.
6. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 29.
7. Marshall Broomhall,  In Quest of God: The Life Story of Pastors Chang & Ch’ü, Buddhist Priest & Chinese Scholar (London: China Inland Mission, 1921), 154-155.