Crumbs From the Canton (China) Workers’ Meeting
By Mrs. J. N. Anderson
FURNISHED BY MRS. J. N. ANDERSON Rev. 14:6 speaks of a present-day message. We need not here say who is to give this message. We all very well understand. This angel is represented as flying in the midst of heaven. What does this indicate—a messenger flying in the midst of heaven? Every man in every part of this earth can see what transpires in the midst of heaven. So this message is to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. No other denomination professes to bear a message for the world. Wherever this people go, all around the earth the law of God is magnified, and the Lord’s coming is heralded. The judgment is at hand, and the world must be warned. God will clothe this message with power and glory, but we must know that every man of us has a duty to perform.
LO KAN SHAN. We Chinese know what meat in due season is. When we get sick, we do not eat rice, salt fish, salt eggs, and vegetables. If we have a fever, we leave off rice, and take only congee and cooling foods. At other times we need other kinds of diet. Just so God gives to his people just that kind of spiritual food they need for the conditions under which they live. Now I want to say to the students in our schools, and to all my young friends, You can not catch fish in a tree. No more can you pick peaches from a wild-thorn hedge. You are expecting to join a church some day. Now if you want the message of God for these times, you must take hold where you cast your lot. If you want the meat in due season for this generation, you must go where it is found. Take heed lest you miss the path, and go to destruction. As laborers in this cause, our message must have a decided tone. When the cock crows, the farmer calls, Get up, the dawn is breaking. No such call is given in the afternoon: it would not be true, not in season. Let us suit our message to this time, and to the people who are to hear it.
LIU KOON PING. Topic—Means and Methods of Labor The first way in which this truth is to be advanced is by the lives of the people who profess it. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Phil. 2:16 speaks of Christians shining as lights in the world. The stars are silent, but they guide the sailor who understands how to interpret them. Those who can not15engage in active work in the ministry can do much by writing letters. Paul said; tried by “all means” to “save some.” A certain dumb man put a placard on his back, and walked up and down, stopping now and then for people to read his message; when he was too tired to stand, he lay down with the placard exposed to the view of passers-by. At last he was driven away. Then he wrote letters. Through this mute’s labors, a great many souls heard the gospel and believed.
HUNG HEI YING. No facilities or methods of labor can take the place of personal dependence upon our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Without him we can do nothing. Peter caught fish when he cast his net at the command of Christ. Thus only shall we be successful in winning men to him.
WONG OI TONG. Soon after I began to keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, an old friend and former fellow Chinese pastor called on my family during my absence, and offered some counsel to my wife. He said, “You better not follow your husband in this foolish step of keeping the Jewish Sabbath. The law has all passed away, and Christians today are under no obligation to the fourth commandment. Let me prove it to you,” he went on. “In the Old Testament times, people were put to death for breaking the Sabbath. You remember how the man was stoned for picking up sticks. Now look at me. I am well and hearty, and have been breaking the Sabbath all my life.” When I returned home, my wife announced that she intended no longer to keep the Sabbath, and in defense of her position produced the pastor’s, to her, convincing argument. I was in perplexity. My wife had been somewhat wavering, and now it looked as if my home might be divided in opinion on this subject. After careful thought I decided to return the pastor’s call, and took the first opportunity to do so. When we were seated, and had chatted a few minutes, I said, “My wife tells me you say the law is done away because men no longer die for Sabbath-breaking.”
“Yes, yes, that is what I believe.”
“So? Then it is no sin to lie,” I said, appearing to be quite pleased to know it.
“Why so? How can you say that? What proof can you produce for your statement?” the pastor demanded.
“Most excellent proof,” I maintained. “Let me show you. You remember how in the days of the apostles, Ananias and Sapphira lied, and were stricken dead on the spot. Well, thousands of Chinese all about us go on lying every day, and do not fall dead because of it.” He saw the point, and my wife has been keeping the Sabbath with me ever since.
KEH NGA PIT. When my husband died, and left me with four children, all girls, and the youngest but a mere baby, I felt very sad; but though my feet were bound, and very small, still we were not poor, and so I thought we could get along. I worshiped the idols more devotedly, and kept on praying to the gods to have mercy upon us. Then there came a great fire in the ward just west of us here. I was driven out in the night with my four children, the eldest also bound-footed, to make our escape as best we could, while our home and the shop from which we derived our principal income were burned to the ground. This left us poor, and I felt very much distressed. The eldest girl was soon married; still it was hard getting on. Things were not always pleasant at my father’s house among his four wives, but I tried to put up with it, and kept on praying that the gods would have mercy upon us. This is the way the heathen do—keep hoping that by and by the gods will have mercy. It sounds very stupid, but I did not know the true God then. My heart was not at peace, though I worshiped the idols assiduously, and I thought I must have done something to cause the gods to bring so much trouble upon me. Then I decided to give my youngest child to become an idolatrous priestess, or nun. She was taken off outside the city to a temple upon White Cloud Mountain; but this, instead of bringing the peace I sought, only vexed me the more, and the two little sisters kept crying for the baby, and pleading for me to get her back, till at last I yielded. When we were all together again, I felt more satisfied, and as our business affairs brightened up a little, I rented a little house, and we began living by ourselves. All this time I kept on praying the gods to have mercy upon us, but I was very unhappy. A distant relative from Hong-kong paid us a visit. She tried to talk to us about the gospel, and sang to us some of the sacred songs she had learned. My people all ridiculed her; but while my heart was so dull I could not understand what she was really talking about, still I saw she was very sincere, and that her life was better than ours, and the children liked to hear her sing. Thus things continued till one day about four years ago a young woman came in to chat a few minutes. During the conversation she told me that a certain woman, a foreigner, was opening a school for girls in her own home, only a few blocks away. Now, thought I, is my chance; I will put my girls to school. They shall not grow up sad and stupid as I am.
The girls began to study the very first day the school opened; but the word no sooner got abroad than my friends began to call, and harrow my mind with all sorts of evil suggestions. One stoutly affirmed that the sole object of that school was to gather in girls, kidnap them, and take them off to America. I determined to take them out of school, but they pleaded so strongly that I wavered till the friend from Hong-kong came again to visit us. Assured by her that the foreign lady had only the best of motives toward the girls, I allowed them to continue. Seeing how much they enjoyed their work, I sometimes went with them to the Sabbath-school, but I could see nothing in it; and my stupid, darkened heart kept on praying the gods would have mercy upon me, and that my girls might not be overtaken by calamity. When they began to talk about being Christians, and loved nothing so much as to sing and read the Bible and pray, my father became angry, and threatened to strip us of every bit of property if they became believers. But their entreaties became irresistible, and at last I promised they might be baptized when their grandfather died. But by and by they so far overcame his prejudice that they were baptized almost one year ago. It was a great pleasure to me to dedicate them to the Lord. Since we have been living at the school, I have had opportunity to study the Bible, and learn of God’s great love for us unworthy sinners. I no longer hope the gods will have mercy upon me. I know that the true God has had mercy upon me, and forgiven my sins. I am at peace. Although I have not yet been baptized, I know that I am his child, and that the Holy Spirit dwells in my heart. This meeting has been one of great blessing and profit to me, and I pray that we may all go out from here to work for our friends and relatives, that they, too, may receive the gospel and be saved.