p. 4 | Away Beyond by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 21, 1908

Away Beyond

By W. A. S.

With progress in Turkestan, north of Afghanistan, news of Sabbath-keepers near Semipalatinsk and Omsk, Siberia, and of others scattered along the Chinese frontier of Siberia eastward, it is not presumption to look hopefully toward even Chinese Turkestan and Mongolia.

In fact, we hear of some Kirghiz Tartars, in south Siberia, who are interested in this advent message. That the Lord is preparing the way for the speedy evangelization of the very innermost recesses of the vast Asiatic continent, is evident from the manner in which these lands, so long unentered by the missionary, are now being opened up.

The agents of the Bible Society, those advance couriers of light in every dark region, are now pushing across Mongolia toward the northern borders of Tibet. A Mr. Larson, with six camels, two horses, and native men to accompany him, is in the hitherto unentered regions of Mongolia, with eight thousand volumes of the Scriptures in the Mongolian and Tibetan tongues. He is to be out two years, selling the Scriptures. This is the way fields are prepared for the evangelist. In the first part of his trip in Mongolia, he sold so many books that a fresh supply had to be sent on for his further journey beyond all reach of supplies.

Another Bible Society agent, a Mr. Döring, last year penetrated the Gobi desert, and made his way to the capital of Chinese Turkestan. He found there a copy of the book of Acts in the Mandarin Chinese:— The little book hung by a string from a nail in the one room of the humble home. The original cover had been replaced by a new one, on which the title had been rewritten. The smoke of the small mud hearth near the K’ang had toned the outside of the book to a gray-black like the color of the wall on which it hung. The inside of it gave evidence

of having been much read; here and there pages that had been rent were patched carefully. For seven years it had been a well from which Wang had drawn the water of life.

Unless we stop to think of it, and to dwell upon the meaning of all these activities in our time, we shall fail to understand one way in which the Lord is cutting the work short. Out in the regions beyond, away beyond our knowledge and keenest sight, his providence is opening ways, and agencies of his creating are casting in the seeds of truth to prepare for a sudden harvest as the latter rain falls in its fulness.

The Seventh-day Adventist to-day who is not devoting every resource, and bending every energy, and managing all his business, for the hastening on of this third angel’s message, is in peril of his soul; for if the Master to-day called him to account for his talents, given of God, he would be without excuse. The light is breaking over all the earth, and we must be children of the light.

W. A. S.