Samuel E. Boyle was an American Reformed Presbyterian missionary who served in South China, particularly Guangdong Province, from the mid-1930s until the Communist victory in 1949. He later became a pioneering translator of Reformed Christian literature into Chinese and a missionary in Japan, where he continued his ministry for some years.
An artist
Sam Boyle's artistic talent emerged at an early age. As a boy, he amused himself by drawing in the church Psalters during services. After several weeks of this activity, the minister announced from the pulpit that the unknown artist should remove his handiwork, much to his mother's embarrassment.
By high school, Boyle had discovered that he could draw quickly and with remarkable realism. He developed his skills through a correspondence course in cartooning and soon began what appeared to be a promising career as a political cartoonist with the Topeka Daily Capital. In later years, this gift would prove invaluable in missionary work. His drawings would open doors for the Gospel, entertain synod gatherings, and delight countless children, who remembered his ability to transform even a simple line into a complete picture. At the time, however, the young cartoonist was full of confidence in his own abilities and far removed from his mother's private prayer that he might one day serve in China.
That changed through the preaching of Rev William Robb, a missionary to South China. Under Robb's ministry, Boyle experienced a profound Christian conversion and dedicated his life to missionary service.
Boyle graduated from Geneva College in 1929 and from the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1932. As he prepared to leave for China, his mother finally revealed that she had been praying for thirty years that her son would become a missionary there.
Before departing the United States in 1934, Boyle married Grace Bell, the first of three wives, which was a record for a Presbyterian minister. That same year the couple sailed to South China as missionaries of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA).
Following a period of Chinese language study, Boyle developed an innovative style of evangelism that made full use of his artistic abilities. He would set up an easel in busy marketplaces and begin drawing Biblical characters and scenes while writing Chinese characters alongside the illustrations. Curious shoppers gathered to watch. As the crowd grew, Boyle would develop the pictures and present the Gospel message, adding further drawings and text as he spoke. The approach proved highly effective.
The Boyles worked in the West River (Xi Jiang) region of Guangdong Province, including the area around Tak-hing (modern Deqing) and neighbouring mission stations.
Cheung Chau
Like many missionaries working in South China, the Boyles spent their summer holidays during July and August on Cheung Chau Island. The island's Residents' Association regularly organised social events and concerts for visiting missionaries and residents. Rev Boyle received a mention in a concert programme of August 1936, when "rare art treasures" consisting of coloured cartoons of well-known island personalities, drawn by him, were auctioned for charity. The cartoons proved extremely popular and, together with a collection taken during the evening, raised more than $50 towards the cost of repairs to the Association’s Assembly Hall.
From 1940 onward, Boyle became increasingly involved in Christian publishing and translation. That year, six years after arriving in China, he began translating J. Gresham Machen's influential work Christianity and Liberalism into Chinese with the assistance of a Chinese colleague. He also undertook the translation of other important Reformed theological works.
In August 1941, shortly before the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, the Boyles returned to the United States on furlough. His translation work was interrupted by the war. During this period he suffered a personal tragedy when his wife Grace died in 1943. They had a son called Scott.
In 1945 he married Grace Robb, daughter of Rev William Robb, whose preaching had played a decisive role in his conversion many years earlier. The marriage produced four children: Margi, Tricia, Chris and Bill.
The Boyles returned to China in 1947, resuming work at Takhing in Guangdong before moving to Canton (Guangzhou) in the spring of 1948. There Boyle established a mission church on Wei-xien Road and resumed his translation projects.
In early 1949, Boyle joined forces with the Chinese Christian scholar Charles H. Chao in founding what became known as the Reformation Translation Fellowship. Together they launched a Chinese-language publication, Christian Reformed Faith Monthly, which was distributed to pastors throughout China while they continued translating Reformed theological literature.
As Communist forces rapidly advanced across South China, the Boyle and Chao families left Canton for Hong Kong. In August 1949 they settled on Cheung Chau Island, basing their work at 22 Peak Road*, where they continued their translation ministry.
Japan
The following year brought another major change. In the autumn of 1950, Boyle, then aged forty-five, joined Charles Chao, Miss Mary Adams and Miss Rose Huston in launching a new RPCNA mission work in Kobe, Japan. Learning Japanese in middle age was a formidable challenge, but Boyle approached it with determination. He later remarked that television helped him master the language used in everyday life, enabling him to understand speech in markets, railway stations and on the streets. Through perseverance and faith, he gradually adapted to Japanese culture and ministry.
From 1951 to 1956, Boyle and Chao worked side by side in Japan. In recognition of his missionary service in both China and Japan, Geneva College awarded Boyle an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1956.
In 1961, Rev Boyle and his family concluded their missionary service in Japan and returned to the United States.
By this stage of his life, Boyle had witnessed the translation and publication of more than eighty titles of Reformed theological literature, an achievement which gave him great satisfaction.
Retirement USA
Dr. and Mrs. Boyle initially settled in Orlando, Florida, where they lived with Grace's mother, the widow of Rev. William Robb (see above). Following her death, they moved to Shawnee, Kansas, where they lived with their youngest son, Bill, and his family. Even in retirement, Boyle remained active as a preacher, regularly speaking in churches.
In 1966 Boyle was honoured to be elected as Moderator of the RPCNA Synod, the second highest elected position in that denomination.
In 1987, Grace Robb Boyle died of cancer and was buried in Shawnee. For the next five years Boyle continued living with his son's family.
In 1992, at the age of eighty-seven, he married for a third time. His bride was Orlena Lynn, who had recently retired after forty-one years of service with the Covenanter Bookstore in Kobe, Japan. They had known each other for many years and starting the bookstore in Kobe had been Boyle’s suggestion. The couple spent eight happy years together in Shawnee before moving to the Reformed Presbyterian Home in Pittsburgh. Boyle described this period as a "second spring" in his life.
Rev. Dr. Samuel E. Boyle died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2002 at the age of ninety-seven. His legacy was the fruit of decades of missionary service, evangelism, church planting, theological translation and Christian publishing across China, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States.
*Presumably House 22. It had been Robert Jaffray’s house. About this time the Wuzhou Bible School was expelled from China and moved to Cheung Chau basing itself in House #22.
Source: Reformation Translation Fellowship-usa.com