Learning constantly from experience, Mackay eventually found an opening for Christianity: "This ancestral feast on the last night of the year is to the Chinese what Passover night is to the pious Jew. It has been my custom never to denounce or revile what is so sacredly cherished, but rather to recognize whatever of truth or beauty there is in it, and to utilize it as an 'open sesame.'
在不斷的受挫經驗裡，馬偕從中慢慢摸索出了「開門咒」。「除夕祭祖之於中國人，猶如逾越節之於猶太人，別人所視為神聖的感情，我從未加以攻擊或誹議，其中如有真理或美點，也願予承認，而利用之為人心的開門咒。