The Reverend Carl Thurman Smith, missionary and historian, died in Macao on 7 April 2008. Funeral service is to be held on Thursday 10 April 2008.
The directions from Mei Foo MTR to his apartment were precise, as fitting for a historian. So Carl Smith welcomed me to his sanctuary eight years ago and unfolded to me horizons of Christian charity and ardent scholarship. His flat at Mei Foo was in truth a sanctuary, lined wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling with tomes of history and meticulously filed notes that silently witnessed to over forty years of devotion to the histories of South China, Macao and Hong Kong. The lunch with pan-fried fillet prepared by Dolly at that first visit celebrated the beginning of our friendship. Our common interest in Macao and Sheng Kung Hui’s history provided the occasion for many happy conversations in the following years. Carl would later unreservedly guide me to the worlds of archival studies and historiograhies. In God’s providence, Macao – the City of God, and Morrison Chapel – God’s acre in the Far East – would be the final stop of his earthly pilgrimage. Carl Smith is an exemplary gentleman, scholar, missionary and friend. With a pure and single heart he devoted himself to what God has entrusted him: towards preserving the histories of his adopted homes in the Far East.
He generously gave and enriched us all, for much he has received from God.
Good things and bad, life and death,
Poverty and wealth, come from the Lord.
The gift of the Lord endures for those who are godly,
And what he approves will have lasting success.
. . . .
Stand by our task and attend to it,
And grow old in your work. (Ecclesiasticus 11:14, 20)
May God grant his faithful servant eternal rest.
**
Carl Smith's favorite hymn: Jesus, I live to Thee, the loveliest and best
