Taiwan Presbyterian elder Huang Mao-ching, in his book 120 Years of History at the Thai-Peng-Keng Maxwell Memorial Church of the Taiwan Presbyterian Church, discusses the background against which Max-well's early proselytizing efforts took place: "When the church was first established, Christianity as it then appeared to Taiwanese arrived in the wake of foreign soldiers and artillery, alongside economic invasion and unequal treaties, so they could not accept the gospels.
台灣基督教長老教會長老黃茂卿在《台灣基督長老教會太平境馬雅各紀念教會設教一百二十年史》一書中，提及馬雅各宣教之初的時代背景：「設教之初，台灣人眼見基督教的來臨，是隨著外國兵炮洋槍，經濟侵略和不平等條約同時而來，無法接受福音。