p. 10 | General Meetings in China by A. C. SELMON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 15, 1912

General Meetings in China

By A. C. SELMON

A. C. SELMON

I HAVE just returned from a nine weeks' trip through our Mandarin-speaking field. During this time I attended our four general meetings,—one in the province of Hunan, one in Hupeh, one in Honan, and one in Anhwei. I have never before attended such meetings as we had at these four places. In the past, we have had to work hard to get an audience, but now it is a question of how to take care of those who attend our meetings. At the Hunan meetings there were about one hundred fifty of our people in attendance, including inquirers; in Hupeh there were between sixty and eighty, including inquirers; in Honan there were in the neighborhood of two hundred fifty, including inquirers; and at the Anhwei meeting there were about eighty of our people, this also including inquirers. I was greatly impressed that the Lord's time has come for this message to go in China. The Chinese people are more ready to accept the truth than ever before. Of course, it may be said that this is due to the fact that we are able to present the truth with more clearness and force, now that we have the language, than we were a few years ago. However, regardless of the advance which we may have made in the language, there is surely a wonderful opening of the ears of the people to hear. This refers especially to the non-Christians. At the Hupeh, Honan, and Anhwei meetings, we made a special effort every night for the heathen, and the Lord richly rewarded us. At each of these meetings there were over one hundred persons who took their stand for the gospel. While many of them did not fully realize what the step meant, yet among them was a large number of good, earnest persons, and now they only need to be taught and instructed in order to be fully established in the truth, and to make good, substantial Seventh-day Adventists.

In the past, when we have held meetings for outsiders and made calls for men to stand up and thus announce their intention to believe and obey the gospel, there have been very few who would dare do so. They did not dare to take the step, fearing that they would “lose face” with their acquaintances. However, in these meetings men dared to take their stand, and they would even dare to bear testimony before a whole congregation of their heathen friends. This greatly encouraged all of us, and especially was it a great help to our Chinese church. Our Chinese brethren seemed to get a glimpse of the power there is in this last gospel message, and to see that there is in it an antidote for every ill and sin that is in the world, and that it is not only adapted for the people in Babylon, but that it is especially adapted for the idol-worshipers of China.

We were fearfully short of help at all our meetings. We had four services every day for our own people, and the burden of all this work fell on the one or two foreigners who had to do the preaching. In addition to the day meetings there was the work in the evening for the outsiders, and usually these meetings would not close until ten o'clock. This was a great strain, and used up every ounce of energy that we had. At the Chang-sha meeting there were three of us to do the preaching,—Elder and Mrs. R. F. Cottrell, and myself, in addition to the help that some of the Chinese evangelists gave; at the Hupeh meeting there were six of us,—Brother and Sister O. A. Hall, Brother and Sister F. A. Allum, Dr. A. G. Larson, and myself,—and some Chinese evangelists; and at the Honan meeting we had four men,—Brethren Hall, Westrop, Allum, and myself. Sister Allum and Sister Hall conducted the meetings with the women. Brother Allum was very tired and worn at the close of the Honan meeting, but he accompanied me to Anhwei, to help in the Ying-shan meeting. It requires four days to make this trip, and while we were on the way Brother Allum became ill. After reaching the meeting he was able to preach only one sermon, and then was forced to give up and return home. Brother Fred Lee and wife had been in Ying-shan for about three weeks before the general meeting began; but just after we opened the meeting, Brother Lee came down with a severe attack of malaria, so we were deprived of his help also. This left Mrs. Lee and me to carry on the general meeting. There was in addition only one Chinese evangelist, Brother Li Fah Kung, who could go ahead and be of any help in the preaching. Under ordinary conditions, our hands would have been full, but because Ying-shan had been in a turmoil for several months on account of the fighting there during the revolution, and because of other conditions, there was a distressing state of affairs in the church to be dealt with. But in spite of being short of help, and in spite of other difficulties, the Lord greatly blessed.

Thirteen individuals were baptized at the Ying-shan meeting; thirty-two at the Honan meeting, and thirteen at the Hupeh meeting. At the close of the Hunan meeting nine were baptized, and following the meeting Brother Cottrell opened a Bible school with some twenty-five persons in attendance. This Bible school was to continue for one month, at the end of which time Brother Cottrell expected to baptize about twelve more.

Brother F. E. Stafford and Sister B. Miller have been carrying on an active evangelistic campaign here in Shanghai, and yesterday (June 18) six persons were baptized as a result of these meetings. These six all give promise of being active workers in the cause, when they have the necessary training. One of the six is a teacher from the far western province of Szechuen. This teacher and three of his friends have accepted the truth, and so the Lord has heard our prayers that the work might be started in the province of Szechuen with its eighty-odd millions of people. The door of opportunity is open before us not only in Szechuen, but in many, many other places, and here we are so short-handed for workers that we can not care properly for the work already under way.

During this series of meetings in the interior we made our first attempt to use a tent in China. At the Chowkiakow meeting all the services for outsiders, and some of the meetings for our own people, were held in the tent. The seating capacity of the tent we used was about five hundred, and it was filled every night. We had fears, in the past, lest the crowd could not be kept orderly, and possibly our ropes would be cut, etc.; but no one could have asked for a more orderly crowd. There was no disturbance during any of the meetings. This convinces us of the utility of tent-meetings in the interior of China; and now the brethren in the North Central Mission are planning to take a tent and a company of trained workers, and visit as many cities and market-places as they can reach each tent season.