Tenth Meeting by L. R. Conradi; W. A. Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 27, 1909

Tenth Meeting

By L. R. Conradi; W. A. Spicer

May 18, 3 P. M.

As the Conference met for the afternoon meeting, it was seen that the platform had been somewhat transformed. A large map of China hung from above the pulpit. Chinese mottoes and hangings covered a screen at the back of the platform, indicating that the meeting was to be devoted to reports from China.

L. R. Conradi occupied the chair, and prayer was offered by I. H. Evans.

The chairman called upon J. N. Anderson, superintendent of the China Union Mission, to report for the general field. [This report was printed in last week’s Review.]

Following this outline report of the general field, Elder Anderson made some additional remarks upon the awakening of China. It is seen in reforms—domestic, social, industrial, and political. This is not a figure of speech, he declared, but an actual condition appealing to us.

He said: “Brethren, this is the China into which this message has been cast within the past few years. We have entered upon the work with our eyes open. We deliberately passed a vote that that empire should hear this message, not as provinces, but as one whole empire, and I believe we did it because we felt that this message should go to the whole empire.

“You understand perfectly how this message works in this country. You know how it stirs the hearts of men and women in all parts of the world. It is a message that stirs mightily. So, what may we not expect that it will do as it extends over the Chinese empire? I therefore submit that we are under solemn obligations to push forward this message with greater efforts in that field at this time.

“It is needless to say there are great needs to be met to make this possible. There is a publishing work to be built up, to supply literature for nearly 450,000,000 people. In educational lines, each province should have its own school and corps of teachers to train the Chinese young men and women to go out as evangelists and teachers. Then there is the medical work. All these different lines will call for scores and hundreds of missionaries to lead out in the work. The Chinese Christians are anxious to take hold of the work.

“It does not seem quite right to me, brethren, that the support of this great work should rest upon the uncertain foundation of the free-will offerings, as sacred and as good as they are, while we rest the home work on the certain foundation of the tithe. I am anxious for the time when a certain fraction of the tithe shall regularly go to foreign fields, in addition to the free-will offering, in order that this work may go forward, and that there may be no halt in this great message.

“When Sven Heden, the explorer of Tibet, was stopped in that country, and told to go back, he answered that he could not do so. Asked why he could not go back, he told the officials that his religion was to go forward. That is a good religion for us in this message. The work must not surrender. It can not compromise. It can not retrace its steps. It must go forward. This message to-day stands in China facing forward, and, brethren, we must do what we can to let it advance.

“Although we are not a large company in China, we do not come here confessing that we are fearful or discouraged as workers there; but we do feel that the people are too many for us; so we ask that from among the young men whom God is calling to the mission fields, we may have assistance. As in days of old the Saviour said, ‘Give ye them to eat,’ so to-day we believe that our Master would be pleased if we would plan to impart liberally to those who have not yet had the privilege of sharing with us our spiritual blessings. God would have us go there, and with a firm, fixed purpose carry that work forward. And so in closing, I would say, in the words of another,— “‘Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart With boundless charity divine, So shall all my strength exert, And love them with a zeal like thine, And lead them to thy open side,— The sheep for whom their Shepherd died.’”

Following Elder Anderson’s remarks, Dr. A. C. Selmon and wife, with Brethren Esta L. Miller and O. J. Gibson, sang a hymn in the Mandarin language. This hymn had been composed by Pastor Hsi, and is entitled, “I once was a sinner bound in sin; Jesus set me free.”

Work for the Women in China

Mrs. Bertha L. Selmon, M. D., in Chinese costume, then reported as follows on work among the Chinese women:—

The great problem which confronts us here, and which confronts Seventh-day Adventists everywhere, is how to find men and means to supply the needs of a world-wide field. Often when calls are made, the answer comes that there is no one ready to answer the call. Could they but see the real situation, and realize the possibilities for service in this hour, every young man and woman in our ranks must rise and prepare for a part in this closing work.

In the few minutes allotted to this paper, I hope that we may see more clearly the situation among the women in China. Filled are their lives with cares and sorrows; empty of joy and every hope, unless there has come the transforming grace of Christ. For the Chinese woman there is a monotonous round of toil. She must pick the cotton, spin the thread, weave the cloth, and make the garments for the household. She must cook the food, grinding the flour herself; and often she is called to the field or garden to help gather in the crops. Frequently have I heard it said, as the women gather in village groups to hear of the gospel for the first time, “I would like to come to the meeting, but we are always busy; there is no time to go. How can the gospel be for us?” But I am glad that even for them, “where there is a will, there is a way;” and once having tasted, they will leave no stone unturned to reap the blessings the gospel has in store for those who improve their God-given opportunities.

At the first meeting they are permitted to attend, they will talk aloud, remarking about the missionary’s clothing or shoes. If a new arrival comes, they rise and receive her as is their custom at home. So they must be taught first little by little how to conduct themselves in a meeting.

In Heathen Homes

It is almost impossible for us, surrounded with the loving ministrations of our home life, to realize what the life of such a poor woman can be. She has no home as we know it; even as a child, she is not counted as belonging to the parents, but to the home of the boy to whom she is early engaged. From many homes the children are sent out to gather dry grass and sticks for fuel. At the harvest time, children of seven to ten years carry home great baskets of straw and stubble on their backs. On her marriage day the young woman is sent weeping away from all that she has known and loved to all that is unknown and dreaded.

She is fortunate if she finds a mother-in-law who treats her with any consideration. Her husband is still his father’s son; he is not supposed to speak to her during the first days, and it is rare indeed, except among Christians, that the husband learns to love his wife. The house itself is dark and gloomy. Often the cattle are housed under the same roof with the family. There is no outlet for the smoke of the cook-stove, and even the walls of the best room present nothing more attractive than hideous idols or pictures of them on cheap paper pasted up over the mantelpiece. The bare earth floor is damp and cold. Even in winter there is no cheerful fireside; only a pan of coals buried in ashes over which to warm the feet.

I can only touch on the ignorance and superstition of the masses of Chinese women. Never having had an opportunity for even a limited education, their minds are filled with superstition and fear of foreigners and the doctrine which they preach. When a woman is recommended by some of her neighbors to come to us for treatment, other women gather to discuss the matter. They say that if she takes our medicine, she will have to eat our doctrine; or our medicine will cause her to be childless for life; or we will hypnotize her, and make her do stupid things; or she will die in a hundred days after taking our medicine. These are some of the foolish rumors given out. But in spite of all this, many come and get help.

Work for the Physician

As there is almost no rational treatment of disease in China, the women are sadly neglected. I will mention one or two dispensary cases. The first was of a mastoid abscess resulting from middle-ear disease. The patient had suffered the pain till the pus had made its way through the bone. I lanced the abscess and put in drainage. The suffering must have been intense; yet this woman had been doing her household work, and her mother-in-law abused her because she had to take the time to come to the dispensary each day for four or five days to have the wound dressed. Fortunately, she made a quick recovery.

Another case was that of a woman who was brought to us on a stretcher. Two scalp wounds made eleven days before were still unwashed; the hair was matted with blood, dirt, and vile sticky ointment. She had had lockjaw for eight days. I told them it was too late to save her; but as they urged me to do what I could, I cut off the hair, shaved the scalp, and opened and dressed the wound; but the poor creature died the following day.

One day a poor woman was brought in dying of opium poison. Her mother-in-law followed, cursing and reviling her for being so unfilial as to commit suicide. That morning had brought merely a trifling incident, but it was just the straw too much for the young wife and mother to bear. She had been scolded every day since she came to the home, and this morning, for a matter for which the mother-in-law knew she was in nowise responsible, she dared to answer that she could not help it, and was then accused of impudence, and beaten by her husband at the mother-in-law’s command. This was why she took opium and ended her life of misery. Her own mother’s family came next day; and not finding the mother-in-law, whose life they sought, they smashed all the dishes and furniture, and broke up all the windows and doors in the mother-in-law’s home, by way of revenge. This is only a glance at the physical and spiritual need of our Chinese sisters. Helpless and hopeless, with no rights which any one is bound to respect, it is little wonder that to them life itself becomes a burden.

Educational Work in China

Miss Ida E. Thompson, our pioneer mission school teacher in Canton, reported on educational conditions, with particular reference to the school work already undertaken, or definitely planned for, by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.

It is with a feeling of deep appreciation that I come before this Conference, and so much the more as I realize that here are gathered from all lands fellow laborers who are anxious to share this time in presenting the needs of their respective fields.

I come to present before you one third of the entire world’s inhabitants. Four hundred fifty millions of voices from heathen China are calling to you, “Come over, . . . and help us.” “This is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who among you will give ear to this? who will harken and hear for the time to come?”

I purpose to speak briefly of the educational work in China, though our plans for this work are not yet matured. There are government schools with which we must compete,—universities, normals, colleges, commercial schools, industrial schools, naval and military schools. The government sends large numbers of students to Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Belgium. Many are also sent to Japan for an education. In 1906 there were thirteen thousand Chinese in the University of Japan, half of whom were maintained at government expense. In the normal schools the students’ expenses are defrayed by the government, but they must engage to teach six years in the state schools. The moral tone of the government schools is exclusively Confucianist.

Mission schools and colleges are also numerous throughout the country, Roman Catholic predominating. The Shanghai Catholic Mission has a university, a college, and an industrial school, and maintains in and around Shanghai fifty other schools, with an attendance of 3,750 pupils.

What about Seventh-day Adventists, who have a special message to give, a definite work to do, to prepare the world for the soon-coming Saviour? How shall our schools rank? While we may not have the numbers that other missions maintain, shall we not stand at the head in this work? We have young men and women who are well equipped, who will venture all because of their zeal in their Master’s cause, who have no business or ties of a personal nature to stand above their duty to the Saviour.

Our plans are not yet matured, our schools are few, our teachers are wanting, our courses of study are crude, our buildings must needs be spoken of in the singular number; but we have made a beginning.

We have done something in every province in which our work has entered. In Honan we have four schools,—two for boys and two for girls. At Chin Chiu (Fukien) there is a boys’ school. In this province of Fukien there are thirty-five baptized converts, among them ten or twelve children and young people of school age. Here we need to be definite in laying plans at once for a good school, that these may have a right foundation, a sure anchorage in this present truth. Not only so, but we must train workers from these to carry this message to others. We have, therefore, already gone ahead at To K’ang, a small market town, and bought about an acre of land, paying therefor the sum of forty dollars. There is opportunity to add to this tract from three sides, and this we hope to do as soon as we can have the means. We want to put up a plain, substantial two-story building, that will furnish room for a boys’ boarding school and quarters for the foreigner who shall have charge of the school.

This school is to be established in the midst of ten million who speak the Fukienese language as a representative of the truth. Two thousand dollars will be required to complete this enterprise, and for this money we must look to you.

It is thought best to open the school for boys first, and then add a girls’ school as soon as we can. Sister B. L. Anderson has for some time been sending quantities of the Chinese linen gown and embroidery work to America to friends to be sold, with the proceeds of which she hopes to lay the corner-stone of this school.

Honan is also ready for such a school at this time. Brother and Sister Westrup at Sha Yau have done their best to start schools both for boys and for girls.

At Cheo Chia K’o Brother and Sister Allum are pushing forward, and adding to the work begun by Dr. and Mrs. Selmon.

In K’wang T’ung, where our work first began in China, we have opened five schools—three for girls and two for boys. One of the boys’ schools is a Bible training-school, from which we have already six of our present corps of native workers.

We believe the school work to be one of the most effective means of carrying this gospel to the Chinese. By it we gain access to the hearts of the pupils, we find openings into their homes; and, perhaps the most important of all, we are enabled to train our young people.

In Canton the Bethel Girls’ School is a boarding-school with day pupils. Here we enrol upward of sixty girls and women, with twenty-five boarders. Here we plan to develop teachers and Bible women. This school was opened five years ago. This year we are using one young lady from the school as a teacher. One woman who learned to read her Bible, and found her Saviour in the school, offered her services free as a Bible woman this year. She is a capable, unusually active woman, and has already done much good. Another old lady about sixty years of age, when we were studying how Anna received Jesus in the temple, and though above one hundred years old, spread the news of salvation in the Saviour, exclaimed: “O, Miss! I want to be Anna in Bethel Girls’ School.” She felt she had found her work and her place. She is now filling it.

Two of our girls attended the church missionary meeting. Upon their return they set about thinking what they could do. They concluded they must have a part in that work, but according to Chinese custom they must be confined to the school home. So they asked me for the Chinese church paper, and set about canvassing teacher and pupils for it. Not very long after, with faces all aglow, they came handing a list of nine annual subscriptions, accompanied by the cash.

In the east side of Canton, Miss Vanscoy has opened a day school with an enrolment of twenty-five girls. Some have gone from her school this year to Bethel, and some have come from Kongmoon, where Brother and Sister E. H. Wilbur have been located.

We have had a number of Hakkas in the school. This race numbers ten millions. Thus far Brother J. P. Anderson is the only foreign representative of this message among that people.

We would like very much to enlarge our present quarters at Bethel School by purchasing the adjoining lot to the east. This lot has practically no buildings of value on it, and I understand can be bought for five or six hundred dollars. The building now used was seriously damaged by the typhoon last July, one section being blown to the ground. Could we have three thousand dollars we might purchase the lot, rebuild the school and a home for the foreign directors of the school. We want to open a kindergarten department next year, and plan for a normal school on this site.

We have been late in entering China, but the wonderful way in which God has gone before, and set in operation the forces to prepare the way for us, indicates that we have no time to lose if we expect to gather a harvest of souls from China. God says, “I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people.” “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,” “My glory will I not give to another, neither by praise to graven images.” In the book “Education” we read: “To obtain an education worthy of the name we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as they are revealed in the sacred Word.” And again, “Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for his children. Godliness

—God-likeness—is the goal to be reached.”

In conclusion I want to say again: “This is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who among you will give ear to this? who will harken and hear for the time to come?” Isa. 42: 22, 23.

Medical Work in China

J. N. Anderson: We will next hear from Dr. A. C. Selmon, on the medical work in China, particularly in the interior, with special reference to the province of Honan. Dr. Selmon spoke as follows:—

Present-day Conditions

Honan, one of the central provinces of China, for which I speak, is a vast fertile plain that supports thirty-five millions of people, a population of over five hundred to the square mile. For the most part, these are farmers and small merchants. Although for a long time bitterly anti-foreign, Honan has shared with its sister provinces in the new spirit which has come into China.

Since the Boxer troubles of 1900, eight hundred miles of railroad have been built in Honan, giving the province a trunk line from north to south and another from east to west. Previous to 1900, Honan possessed not a single foot of railroad, and only a few of the larger cities had post-offices; but at present there is not a city or town of importance in the province that is without a regular mail service. God is surely preparing the way for us; for how could we send forth the truth-bearing page without post-offices and post-roads? While a few years ago in one city of two hundred thousand not more than three newspapers were subscribed for, to-day in this same city, newspapers are read by every merchant and educated man. New business enterprises are being started, such as modern cloth-weaving, glass-making, a modern plant for extracting vegetable oil, etc. Rich deposits of coal are being opened up, and a tide of new economic conditions is setting in on every hand.

But a change fraught with greater importance than all these was the reorganization of the educational system. Previous to August, 1901, education in China consisted in storing the mind with a cargo composed of the old Confucian classics, some of which date back to the time of Queen Esther; but on this date an imperial decree was issued abolishing the old-style curriculum of study and the old-style literary examinations, and directing that thereafter there be examinations in Western arts and sciences and economic and governmental methods. It was further decreed that schools and colleges be established throughout the empire. So by this one decree an educational system was abolished that had been in vogue for millenniums, and several millions of China’s brightest young men, who were in the schools of the old order, with their faces toward the dead past, executed a “Right about face!” and are now looking toward a living future. Chang Chi Tong, one of China’s oldest and most trusted statesmen, and a right-hand man to the new regent of China, in advocating the establishment of schools throughout China, says:—

“Convert the temples and monasteries of the Buddhists and Taoists into schools. To-day these exist in myriads. Every important city has more than a hundred. Temple lands and incomes are in most cases attached to them. If all these are appropriated to educational purposes, we guarantee plenty of money and means to carry out the plan. Buddhism and Taoism are decaying, and can not exist; while the Western religion [Christianity] is flourishing, and making progress every day. We suggest that seven temples with their lands, out of every ten, be appropriated to educational purposes.”

In compliance with this advice we have seen workmen tumbling the idols out of a temple, and in their places putting in tables, chairs, and other necessary appliances for a modern school. Formerly, female education was a thing unthought of. There were absolutely no schools for girls outside of mission schools; but now schools of all grades for girls are being established throughout the empire.

This brief mention of the changes which are taking place must be made in order that you may know that it is for such a time as this, and in the face of such conditions as these, that God has led this people to make a start in warning China’s millions.

At present we have two mission stations in Honan, where foreign workers are located. Chowkiakow is a busy city of two hundred thousand situated on the Sand River, a day’s journey by cart from the railroad. Brother and Sister Allum and Sister Schilberg are located here; Brother R. F. Cottrell and wife are also temporarily at this station. Brother and Sister Westrup are in Li Wan, a village situated about half way between Chowkiakow and the railroad. At a distance of from three to thirty-five miles from these two central stations, there are eight out-stations where there are companies of Sabbath-keepers.

The numerical growth of the church has in the beginning been very slow. The newly arrived missionary, be he ever so zealous, can accomplish little until the language is mastered to such a degree that he can express his own thoughts, and understand the people when they express theirs. While much can be done in six months in acquiring a vocabulary sufficient to converse about ordinary topics, yet up to the present time there have been none of our workers who have acquired sufficient mastery of the language to do effective work in less than two years. The language-study course for new missionaries, as outlined by all the large missions, covers a period of three years; and of these three years the first two are given up entirely to language study. Acquiring the language is only half the proposition that confronts the missionary; he must learn the people, their customs, religions, and manner of thought.

Mission Schools

Every foreign worker in China must be an educator. The reason for this is seen when we face the task of giving this message to over four hundred millions of Chinese. It is evident that the messengers must be Chinese trained for the work. In our schools we have the children of Sabbath-keepers, both boys and girls, and brighter students will not be found in the schools of any land. Not only are the children in our mission schools, but many of the parents as well; for in those who accept the truth there is found a determination to learn to read the Bible that no hindrance short of blindness will overcome. Among the men in China there is said to be sixty to ninety per cent of illiteracy; and it is safe to say that among the women there is not one in a thousand who recognizes characters.

At present we are carrying on our school work the best we can in the low, dark, mud-walled, thatched-roof Chinese houses; and it is only the enthusiasm of the learners and their absence of nerves that enables them to sit on the narrow, backless benches, and study their lessons day after day. The quarters we have for our boarding students are even more cramped and uncomfortable than the schoolroom. In the elementary school work, the Bible and song-book are the readers used. Elementary geography, physiology, and arithmetic are also taught. The children learn to write Chinese, and even men and women from thirty to forty years old undertake the difficult task of learning to write the Chinese characters in order that they may take down texts from the Bible studies, and prepare texts and notes for their work in preaching the gospel. The girls are taught to sew, and we are now putting in a small weaving machine, and planning for industrial work for our students. Under the most favorable circumstances, the struggle for existence is so hard that when one or more children are put in school, where they must be clothed better, and where their food will cost more (since they can not eat from one common kettle), it means that we must help support the children, and this we shall aim to do in part with industrial work. At the present rate of exchange an outlay of $1.30 a month will supply a student in our schools with food and clothing, and this sum will be reduced when we get some industrial work started.

The future growth of our work in China will depend in no small degree upon the mothers in the homes of the Sabbath-keepers; and in these schools it is our blessed privilege not only to teach the children and train them up for workers, but we may go back of the children, and teach the mothers to read God’s Word, and see the influence of that Word grow in their hearts from day to day until the heathen Chinese woman is changed by conversion into a Christian wife and mother.

Most of our school work thus far has been elementary, but we have two short sessions a year when all Chinese workers come together for Bible study and training. Our crying need in Honan is along the line of school work. We must have a boarding-school, where we can train up our young people from our Sabbath-keeping homes, and surround them with a home life that is conducive to Christian living. The interest is growing, and there is a constantly growing demand for more Chinese evangelists, colporteurs, and Bible women. To supply this demand we must have a good training-school, where those who have had a primary education can be thoroughly fitted up for service in these various lines of work. These schools,

housed in adapted Chinese buildings, would be inexpensive, and would be of inestimable value to the work in China. Without them not only the educational work will suffer; but the evangelistic, medical, and canvassing work will necessarily be crippled for lack of trained men.

Evangelistic Work

The Chinese Sabbath-keepers, evangelists, and Bible women are the real convert-makers in China. It remains for us to teach, train, organize, and direct in the work, and so the evangelistic work of the missionary for the most part is to meet inquirers and interested ones who come, conduct Bible studies with them, and conduct meetings for the believers. On the Sabbath either a foreign worker or a Chinese preacher must go to each of the out-stations to conduct meetings with the companies. Frequent itinerations must be made to visit these out-stations, to meet inquirers, and to look after the interests of the company in general.

Only recently one of the members of an independent church learned of the Sabbath, and, through his influence and that of two other men from the same company who attended our general meeting held in Honan last December, ten or twelve of the church-members began to keep the Sabbath, and are helping build a chapel, so that meetings can be held with them every Sabbath. This instance serves to show how the interest springs up that makes what we designate an out-station. In one of Brother Westrup’s out-stations, there are fifty who regularly attend his services; in another there are sixty who come every Sabbath. In the Honan companies there are fifty who are baptized or are ready for baptism, and an equal number that we class as probationers and inquirers; and in addition there are double this number of interested ones.

Persecution is the lot of all who accept this truth in China. One sister near Shang-tsai was beaten unmercifully on more than one occasion because she believed the gospel, and attended our meetings. Sister Wang, after she began keeping the Sabbath, was compelled by her father to go into the harvest-field and help reap wheat on the Sabbath day. When Brother Chen began keeping the Sabbath, under Elder Pilquist’s teaching, his wife was so bitterly opposed that she destroyed his Bible and song-book, and locked him out of the house every evening when he came home from Bible study.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the Chinaman who believes as verily as it is to the sinner of any other nationality; and we are glad to report that the church in China is a witness-bearing church. Our Sabbath-keeping Chinese surely enjoy the blessing of the Lord; for previous to their believing the gospel it was only by the strictest economy that they could, by working seven days of the week, feed and clothe their families. Where poverty is well-nigh universal, as it necessarily must be on a wage of six to seven cents a day, they are paying a tithe which, as the church grows, will be sufficient to support the native workers.

Brother Wun, who is a colporteur, in one of his trips to the Shi Bridge village, met a man some thirty-five years old,

and succeeded in interesting him in the gospel. The man was in difficult straits even from a Chinese standpoint. He was a vender of hot sweet potatoes, and his earnings did not exceed five cents a day. On this he had to support his old mother and a blind brother. Although his exterior was uncouth, he soon showed that he was in earnest. He bought a copy of “Gospel Primer,” and mastered it at night with what little help he could get. Then he began learning to read the Bible, and has kept at it so persistently that he can now read most of the New Testament and some parts of the Old. Not only has he learned to read, but he is now a converted man. When I hear him pray, and tell the gospel story to a crowd of people in the Street Chapel, it seems strange to remember that only a little over a year ago he was a poor, ignorant, superstitious heathen, worshiping at the shrine of every false god in his village, without any knowledge of the true God, and with no ray of hope to brighten his bitter lot. Now he is a Sabbath-keeper, and a candidate for heaven, and to stand with you and me among the hosts of the redeemed if we are as faithful as he so far has proved to be.

Medical Work

In connection with the work in Honan, we are conducting three dispensaries,—one at each of the two central stations, and one is by a self-supporting, Sabbath-keeping Chinese doctor. All our workers find that they must do more or less medical work, whether they have ever had any medical training or not. The people believe that every missionary of the gospel must have some ability in medical lines; and so, whether at the mission station, or on itinerating, the sick and suffering besiege one for help. In all the great heathen world there is not a country where medical missionary work has played, and will play, a more important part in the proclamation of the gospel than in China.

The native physicians of the old school are entirely ignorant of anatomy and physiology. The people do not understand the first thing about the nature of disease. The remedies in common use are such as in the nature of the case cause disease rather than cure it. Surgery, as practised by the native doctor, is most rude and barbarous. The sufferings of the poor Chinese women in cases of difficult childbirth are beyond description.

Held as the people are in the clutches of superstition, they believe that evil spirits and the anger of the gods are the chief causes of disease; and so in their treatments they use sorcery, puncturing with needles, blistering, the cautery, and various inhuman methods. They know nothing of the laws of hygiene, and their care and treatment of infants is such that infant mortality is appalling. With our present equipment, and having to look after the interests of all the departments of the work, we have been able to treat only those diseases which yield quickly to treatment, and do not require hospital accommodations. For lack of a small, inexpensive hospital, we have been forced to turn away many cases when we could have saved life; and because of this lack, we have to-day among our Sabbath-keepers those who are in need of surgical help.

In our dispensaries we have saved the lives of over five hundred persons who have taken poisonous doses of opium with suicidal intent. As a rule, the one whose life we save seldom takes the trouble to return and thank us—not because the Chinese as a people are unthankful for favors, but as a rule those who try to take their own lives want to die, and really are not thankful that we have prevented them from carrying out their plan. But this work is a demonstration of the spirit of the gospel, the influence of which is seen in removing the prejudice of the people.

While the work so far accomplished seems insignificant when compared with the area and population of China, yet it has served to show that there are many honest souls in whose hearts this truth will find a place. At no time in the past has there been such an interest as now. Through our paper, the Gospel Herald, and the few tracts we have put out, interest is being aroused on all sides. Inquirers have come from the adjoining provinces of Shantung and Anhui. With our present force of evangelists we are unable to answer the many calls that come from various companies asking that some one come and tell them about this “true doctrine.” The name by which we are commonly known in Honan is “Chen Tao Hui,” which means the “true doctrine church.” Inquirers also want to know about the Sabbath doctrine and the end-of-the-world doctrine.

These reports from China were witnessed to by the Spirit’s presence, touching all hearts. Heartiest amens greeted the appeals for more help for that great empire. Elder Anderson stated that China was to have another hour during the Conference, when he hoped to have Elders Prescott and Evans speak of their observations in China, which they have visited during the four-year term.

Meeting adjourned.

L. R. CONRADI, Chairman, W. A. SPICER, Secretary.