Had it not been for miraculous protection of God, Edgar H. James would not have lived 79 full years. He was born in Ballarat, Australia on November 30, 1891. His parents, Carsed and Minnie James, were Seventh-day Adventist lay workers.
Edgar’s first-remembered miracle happened when he was l4 years old. While a student at Pukekura Training School in New Zealand, he was traveling by bicycle after dark one night. Because there were no lights anywhere around, he had to find his way by watching the open sky visible between the tall trees on either side of the road.
Unknown to him, a butcher was driving toward him using the same means of staying on the road. Just that morning the butcher had complied with a new regulation requiring that all shafts on horse-drawn carts extend no more than a prescribed number of inches beyond the harness. He had cut the shafts of his cart back from their sharp ends to the shorter length, leaving unprotected sharp-edged, four-inch squares on the ends.
Since neither vehicle showed any light, they could not avoid an impact. Edgar collided with the shaft, leaving an ugly four-inch gash in his chest. The surface wound healed, but he was left weak and feverish. All the efforts of the doctors did nothing to get him back to his former energetic state, so he was forced to drop out of school.
Finally a retired doctor asked to care for Edgar in his home, where he and his wife gave him many hot and cold fomentation treatments, trying to bring him back to health. The doctor decided to open an abnormal-seeming place in his back, and daily he and his wife would force warm water into the hole with a syringe. Edgar then would squeeze his chest by moving his shoulder to create pressure. A stream of water would rush out first, bringing signs of infection, followed by small threads. Finally, one day the stream stopped abruptly. The doctor probed the hole with forceps, pulling out a four inch square of flannel from the shirt Edgar had been wearing the night of the collision. The wound then healed rapidly and Edgar was able to return to school a year after the accident.
He later attended Avondale College, where he completed the ministerial training course. It was there he met Florence Mitchell, who was studying the secretarial course. After his graduation in 1914, he colporteured for a year. Edgar and Florence married on August 18, 1915, leaving as missionaries to China one month later. They spent the next year in Chinese language school in Nanking.
Once he learned the Chinese language, he began supervising the building of three bungalows for missionaries in Hankow. He was then put in charge of training and supervising Chinese colporteurs. Before the James’ first seven-year tour of mission service was completed, two daughters, Joyce and Irene, had joined the family. A third daughter, Beth, arrived while they were on their furlough in Australia in 1923.
Upon their return to China, they were assigned to work in Kiukiang, where Elder James experienced several miracles. This was during the political uprisings that plagued the country during 1926 and 1927. He often shared the story of a trip into town from the compound where they were living. While transacting this business for the mission, he was advised by the British Council to hurry his family to a gunboat stationed in the river and send them to Shanghai for safety. As he was riding his bicycle back home, an angry mob surrounded him, threatening to kill him. He tried to joke with them by inviting them to race him, which stalled them for a while, but when more people joined the mob, he was not able to get away.
At that moment a tall, fair Chinese man stepped forward saying, “He is not one of the bad foreign devils. I know him. He is a good one. Let him go.” The mob fell back permitting him to leave. Since he had never seen anyone like that man before, he believed that an angel had assumed the appearance and language of a Chinese and had saved him.
Later as he was helping his family and others from the compound to get from the sampans to the gunboat, a boatman behind him raised a sharp pole, preparing to strike him on the head. He did not see the action, but upon seeing his wife turn pale with fear, he reassured her. “Don’t worry, we are safe now.” The boatman lowered the pole and they continued to the ship without further problem.
After another furlough, Edgar was asked to go to Honan as president of that area, were the James family worked for another seven years. By then, trouble was brewing due to the Japanese invasion of China. The Jameses were sent to Changsha, where the unsettled condition made living and working very difficult. By the end of 1940 most of the missionary women and children had to be evacuated from China. Since Edgar was now alone, he and his long-time friend, Ezra Longway, helped to move missionaries and supplies by truck to Chungking. Because of a broken leg he found it difficult to hide during bombings. In addition, the problems of finding adequate sleeping shelters and proper nourishment caused him to contract malaria at this time. Instead of the typical fever and chills every other day, he suffered the attacks daily. No doctor could ever help him find a permanent cure, and he was plagued with this disease the rest of his life.
When the caravan of missionaries finally arrived in Chunking, they settled into work. Edgar was put in charge of the uprooted publishing house. During this time he developed a successful Chinese correspondence course which was distributed by the colporteurs to many villages.
After being separated from his family for over a year, Edgar rejoiced when the China Division voted for him to take a furlough to be with his family for a rest. He joyfully set sail for home, only to find himself on the high seas on December 7, 1941. Many rumors that the ship he was on had been sunk reached his family before he safely joined them in California.
In May of 1943 Edgar and Elder C. H. Davis were asked to find their way back to China. The trip back, lasting a full year, included many varied means of transportation as they traveled via South America, Africa, India, and then over the Burma Road. When Edgar arrived back in Chunking, he resumed his work at the publishing house.
At the conclusion of the war with Japan, he was sent to Shanghai to help recover the China Division property. When that was accomplished, he returned to the United States to a reunion with his family, which had grown to include two sons-in-law and a couple of grandchildren. He was also able to attend the wedding of his youngest daughter, Beth.
On February 14, 1947, Edgar and Florence once again sailed to China. Their destination this time was Peking, where he served as president of the North China Union. The political situation worsened steadily due to the Communist takeover led by Mao Tse Tung, until finally, by the middle of November, 1948, all overseas workers were forced to evacuate Peking to seek temporary safety in Shanghai. Edgar returned to Tsing Tao to try to hold the work together from there, but then he found it very difficult to get out. He was finally able to escape to Hong Kong in September of 1949. He and Florence left China for the last time on October 24, 1949.
At that time he took early retirement, but his energy would not retire.He soon began working in California on a semi-retirement basis, first as pastor of the St. Helena Church and later the Middletown and Calistoga churches.The severe case of malaria he had contracted in China eventually wore his health down, so that he fully retired.Shortly thereafter, he was stricken with cancer of the liver.He put up a valiant fight, but on May 21,1969, he died at the age of 79.He sleeps in St. Helena, California, waiting to be united with his Lord and the many friends he grew to love in China.