Dixon Edward Hoste

Dixon Edward Hoste Missionary to China Born 23 July 1861 England Died 11 May 1946 London, England

Dixon Edward Hoste (23 July 1861 – 11 May 1946) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and the longest lived of the Cambridge Seven and successor to James Hudson Taylor as General Director of the China Inland Mission, (from 1902 to 1935).

He was the son of Major General Dixon Edward Hoste (see Dixon Hoste disambiguation page). He was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and at the age of 18 was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. In 1882 he experienced conversion under the influence of Dwight Lyman Moody.

In 1883 he became interested in the work of the China Inland Mission, and was the first of the Cambridge Seven to apply to work with this mission, and after some delay was accepted, sailing for China in 1885. He was sent to Küwu (presumably Quwo), to the south of Linfen in Southern Shanxi. In 1886 he was ordained as a pastor by Hudson Taylor, and moved to Hungtung (now Hongdong or Hongtong) to work with Stanley Peregrine Smith who had opened an opium refuge there at the invitation of Pastor Hsi. He worked under Xi, wore Chinese clothes, ate Chinese food, and tried to get an insight into the Chinese mind. Hoste is credited with making the Chinese churches apply the indigenous principles of self-government, self-support, and self-propagation. This threefold motto was later adopted by the Three-Self Patriotic Movement after missionaries were expelled from China.

In 1893, he married Gertrude Broomhall, daughter of CIM General Secretary Benjamin Broomhall and his wife Amelia, (Hudson Taylor's sister). Because of ill-health Mr Hoste visited England in 1896 and then spent some time in Australia before returning to China. During his appointment as General Director of the China Inland Mission he was based in Shanghai, and after internment there by the Japanese Army from 1944 to 1945, returned to England where he died in 1946 at the Mildmay Nursing Home. His wife had died in Shanghai in approximately 1943.

Works

• 36 Steps to Christian Leadership (1999)
• If I am to Lead (1968)
• The Insight of a Seer: Selections from the Writings of Hudson Taylor's Successor
• Why I Have Joined the Bible Union of China (1921)

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Further reading

• Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission

Protestant missions to China Background Christianity Protestantism Chinese history Missions timeline Christianity in China Nestorians Jesuits Protestant missions in China 1807–1953 People Robert Morrison Hunter Corbett Gladys Aylward Pearl S. Buck Thomas Cochrane Jonathan Goforth Karl Gützlaff Eric Liddell Robert Samuel Maclay Lottie Moon Gideon Nye Timothy Richard Cambridge Seven Hudson Taylor (more missionaries) Missionary agencies OMF International/China Inland Mission LMS ABCFM CMS M.E.M US Presbyterian Mission (more agencies) Impact Bible translations into Chinese Medical missions in China Manchurian revival Chinese Christian colleges Chinese hymnody Chinese Roman Type Minnan Roman Type Foochow Roman Type Anti-footbinding Anti-opium Pivotal events Taiping Rebellion First Opium War Second Opium War Unequal treaty Yangzhou riot Tianjin Massacre Kucheng Massacre Boxer Crisis Xinhai Revolution Chinese Civil War WWII People's Republic Chinese Protestants Feng Yuxiang Liang Fa Keuh Agong Samuel Lamb Wang Ming-Dao Watchman Nee Xi Shengmo Sun Yat-sen John Sung Allen Yuan