為何進行標本文物收藏採集？為傳教而收藏？
Why did he collect specimens and artifacts ? For missionary purposes?

當時加拿大家鄉的一些教友曾經質疑馬偕身為傳教士卻進行大規模收藏的動機和目的，馬偕提出一套收藏對傳教有作用的回應說法：「可能有些基督國度內的好教友看到前面的敘述會覺得非常吃驚、納悶，為什麼傳教士要花那麼多時間收藏和研究這些東西。我不打算在這些人的面前辯護我的行為。如果他們能夠看見這些東西對於訓練當地異教徒成為耶穌基督福音傳佈者的作用，或是想到這些研究對傳教工作輾轉的影響，可以讓驕傲的讀書人謙卑、讓自大的北京大官震撼，並且吸引最好、最聰明的職工--無論是本地人或是外來者；他們就不會那麼輕易地根據與表面的描述而懷疑『這是為誰而做』？」（Mackay 1896:289-290）

 

Some parishioners back in his hometown in Canada had questioned the motives and purpose behind the large amount of specimens he had been collecting since he was a missionary. MacKay replied, demonstrating the collection’s usefulness for preaching his religion as follows:

There may be good people in Christian lands who will read these pages with painful astonishment, horrified that a missionary should spend time collecting and studying such things. I do not attempt to justify my conduct in the eyes of such persons. Had they any conception of what it means to train native-born heathen to become missionaries of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, or could they conceive the reflex influence of all this study on mission work, in humbling the proud graduate, conciliating the haughty mandarin, and attracting the best and brightest of the officials, both native and foreign, they would not so readily write across these paragraphs their ignorant and supercilious “Cui bono?” （Mackay 1896:289-290）