China by W. A. WESTWORTH

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 25, 1910

China

By W. A. WESTWORTH

W. A. WESTWORTH

How the hearts of God’s people are gladdened when, in the columns of the REVIEW, they read that an action has been taken by the Mission Board, assigning a worker to some far-off land to carry the blessed news of the third angel’s message to those who sit in darkness. How our spirits rise when we hear that this action has been carried out, and the workers have gone. But sometimes we fail to look at the situation as it really is, and to weigh the facts and conditions which the workers in distant lands have to face.

Mention has been made in the REVIEW of the Chang-sha riots. God intervened in a marked manner to save the lives of our workers there, and for this we can not praise him enough. As the result of the terrible strain of that time, all foreign help is now withdrawn from this most important city, and Brother and Sister P. J. Laird are now in the States, having been obliged to take a sick leave of absence.

Now comes added news from the workers at Pakhoi, in Kwangtung. Here Brother A. H. Bach is holding the fort amid the ravages of the plague, which has become so extended and acute that all other missions but ours have abandoned their work for the time. Some extracts from a letter just at hand will faintly portray some of the conditions met by those in this field:—

“It is now 8 A. M. I arose at six, and have already seen fourteen coffins pass my door. To hear the desperate howling of the two or three followers is something awful. Two houses from my home a young woman just died. Last night she was apparently well. Three houses in the other direction a man lies in the street in a delirious fever; he will soon die. A group of soldiers is passing now, leading one of their company around the town. One of his ears has been cut, because he should have watched the street, but instead entered a house and stole what he could get.

“My house is full of women and children, refugees. They dare not go to their own homes on account of plague. In my courtyard I have a band of boys. If we could start a school now, we would get plenty of pupils. These children have no father, no mother, their parents having died during the epidemic of the plague.

“How did it all start?—In the beginning of the second Chinese month it was rumored that the plague was in the town. No one paid any attention to it, there was no attempt at isolation or disinfection, and thus it spread rapidly. The dead bodies were removed at night; and during the day, business went on as before. After eight or ten days, however, business stopped; the houses and shops were closed; and the people started to fight the bad spirits, whom they supposed to be the originators of the disease. Coffins were scarce, and the bodies were simply wrapped in straw, and carried out. Rats died by the thousands, and were left in the street. An odor resulted that was indescribable. The town clerk, with the gentry, professed to discover that two cloth lions, carried through the streets, would drive the bad spirits away. A large procession was accordingly arranged, and the people carried two ugly lions through the streets. Every ten steps they knelt down, and asked for protection. The next morning the town clerk was dead, and the disease had spread more than ever. A new deputation of the best men, merchants of Pakhoi, proceeded to one of the idol temples, asking for advice; and the idol answered (through the priests) that the procession had been too small; he must have a bigger one. Then the mayor of the town and the gentry started out. They collected over three thousand dollars, and an idol procession was arranged. It went on for a whole day—and the next day not a man of the entire committee was left alive. The mayor had died, also seven agents of the largest shops. In three days after the procession, two hundred eight persons had gone to their graves. Then the priests said that the disease would carry away one thousand persons, because the idol needed just that number. Great rejoicing filled every heart. The dead were eagerly counted; yet when one thousand had died, twenty more were down to die. Then the people called the priests to curse the gods. A tower sixty feet high was built, and some Taoist priests went on it to curse the gods for seven days. But the plague continued just the same.

“Then the people ran away, leaving their houses and belongings; and bands of thieves were formed, stealing, robbing, threatening everywhere. Terror reigned. The soldiers, who ought to protect life, were the worst of all.

“There was one rich man’s house where all the people (over twenty) died in a week’s time. The owner had a beautiful flower garden, which he called ‘Love-the-life Garden.’ This property has been taken by the town; and all strangers who have not their own home, or who live in rented quarters, are carried there as soon as they are known to have the plague. It is a spot of lovely flowers and death-stricken people. O, the sad sights that meet the eye there! the fearful cries of the people in their last state! The dead, the half-dead, with decaying corpses, are there; and an unspeakable

horror lies over the whole place. I went there several times to preach to the dying; however, my chair-bearer contracted the disease, and died, and I had to stop going.

“There are in the town five missions,—the English, the German Lutheran, the Roman Catholic, the Independent New Testament Church, and ours. All the other missions have closed their stations; but I kept on, trusting that the Lord, who put me with this message in Pakhoi, is able to keep me. I do not believe in fatalism; but I do believe in a living God. He gave me this work, he put me here, and his angels are here, too.

“One evening after a street preaching, I said: ‘Any time, night or day, I am at your service. If you desire to be saved, come any time.’ After midnight a man knocked at my door, and said he wanted now to listen to the preaching. I saw at once that the dreadful disease was on him, and he was in the first stage of delirium. I did all I could for him, to help him pray and accept Christ; and it seemed as if he understood it. It was a joy to tell him about the Coming One. After daybreak he went away, and at nine o’clock he was at rest. May he awake, when Christ returns, saved by his precious blood.

“Our Bible woman, Wang Pat Sham, a true Christian, kept on visiting, and contracted the disease. One morning during prayers she collapsed, and we found that the plague had her in its iron grip. She already had the plague-boils, and was quite helpless. All who were gathered in the meeting were much afraid. I do not know how it was; but a joy fell over me, so that in praying I could not stop thanking God for his help already given to that woman. I prayed for her, and read some texts of Scripture to comfort her. She said that she felt God’s power in her to resist. When she was a little better, she offered a most touching prayer, commending herself to God’s keeping. Two hard days and nights followed; then the plague-boils opened. She was saved, but was very weak. Now she is at work again. She is the only person in the whole town who had the disease and survived. Truly, God answers prayer. We had an eight days’ prayer-meeting, very well attended, and we quoted the ninety-first psalm, I believe, more than a thousand times. Not one of our inquirers has died or been taken. This is a wonder before our eyes, and in the eyes of the heathen as well. We glory in our Lord. Our mouth is full of praise, because his goodness endureth forever.”

After reading this experience, you can see, brethren and sisters, a glimpse of some of the terribly real things in China. But there seems no fear for personal safety among our workers. God is good, and we believe that he will care for his own. But when we consider the work before us, and the few laborers, our hearts sometimes almost faint. One hundred dollars pays a native evangelist, with his traveling expenses, for a full year.

It seems that there must be many who could undertake to support one or more of these native workers, and thus hasten the time when such sorrow as herein described will be no more.

Just now we are entering the heated season; and as we get news from some of the interior stations, telling of the thermometer in their compounds registering 104° F. in the shade, we wonder how that $300,000 Fund is coming on.

When we get calls,—and they are constantly coming to us,—asking for light, and when we think of the fact that the four hundred twenty-five millions of China must hear the message ere the Master comes, we long to have our printing plant producing the word of life.

Brethren and sisters, the workers in China are all glad to be here; but we need material to prosecute the campaign,—money to provide the much-needed facilities, and men and women of consecration to lead out in the closing work of God in this sorrowing, sin-cursed heathen land.

Shanghai.