Honan, China by J. J. WESTRUP

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 8, 1908

Honan, China

By J. J. WESTRUP

J. J. WESTRUP

“There is a special power in the presentation of the truth at the present time; but how long will it continue?—Only a little while. If there was ever a crisis, it is now.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 16.

Great changes are certainly taking place in China. If there were any who foresaw that the China of to-day would arise out of the confusion of 1900, they were few and far-sighted. Yet after seven years, we call the time before 1900 “the past,” and we are living in China, not wholly reformed as yet, but differing in its spirit and prospects from the China before the year of martyrdoms. “So it is that the missionary of to-day stands at a different point, and has need of a different policy, than the missionary who came before 1900. We were trained in the ancient classics, and China is turning away from them. We studied the models of Chinese style; and the new learning is introducing a new literary style, and in some points altering the very language. We accustomed ourselves to Chinese manners, and even to Chinese costume; and young China too often forgets the one and discards the other.”

These words give a faint idea of what young China is reaching out for. O, that in their great thirst for knowledge, their minds might be directed to “the Author and Finisher of our faith!” As you read some good inspiring book at home, how often you say, “What a precious book! My friend must read it too. But in China we have no such books, except a small tract on the Sabbath question, to put into the hands of these poor souls. According to the truth we have received above others, we are debtors to impart the same to them. We have no time to lose. The end is near. O, may none of our brethren fall as a prey into the hands of the wily enemy. How brethren with thousands of dollars in their possession can really “love his appearing,” and still continue to disregard the call for means to carry on work in the needy fields, is more than I am able to understand. There is a blessedness in spending and being spent to carry this glorious message to all nations, thus hastening the coming of Jesus. Dear brethren, we need means to translate and print this Spirit-filled literature, and then missionaries enough to establish at least one or two central stations in each province to spread this all-important message among China’s four hundred millions of people.

Now it is comparatively easy to give the truth to this nation, but things are taking place that will make it very hard to give the message to them not long in the future. “Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now. We must look our work fairly in the face, and advance as fast as possible in aggressive warfare.”

In a late number of the Fortnightly Review there appeared an article entitled “Asia Contra Mundum” (Asia Against the World). The writer notes the signs of such a movement at the present time, and the causes which are arousing a sense of continental unity and common interests among the peoples of India, China, and Japan, and outlines very clearly how this movement is being forced on by the discrimination against the peoples of Asia which is everywhere taking place in those parts of the world inhabited by the white races.” Foreigners from the white races are, as a rule, very unwelcome guests even now, but when Asia takes her position against the world, the feeling will be almost unbearable.

Another still more important movement is arising to hinder the message more than anything else. This relates to “the image of the beast.” Bishop Greaves, in the Chinese Recorder, speaking of what the church hopes to accomplish in China, says: “The formation of a sort of glorious federation of Protestant churches is the way to real unity, which would include Protestant and Catholic alike.” When such a unity is realized, it will be harder to give the truth to this people than we now imagine.

“The home missionary work will be further advanced in every way when a more liberal, self-denying, self-sacrificing spirit is manifested for the prosperity of foreign missions: for the prosperity of the home work depends largely, under God, upon the reflex influence of the evangelical work done in countries afar off. It is in working actively to supply the necessities of the cause of God, that we bring our souls in touch with the Source of all power.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 27. We should no more think of comparing ourselves with the other denominations than John the Baptist thought of comparing himself with the priests and Levites of his day. The self-sacrificing spirit of John the Baptist is needed in these last days to take men into the highways of this soon-to-be-doomed world, crying mightily, Prepare to meet thy God! The hour of his judgment is come! The spirit of prophecy points out that “scarcely a thousandth part of the work is being done that ought to be done in missionary fields.” This being so, it calls loudly for confession and heart-searching. In the ancient worship, God’s people were called upon to afflict their souls and confess their sins on the day of atonement. Now is the great day of atonement. Let us not become careless. Whoever desires to “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth,” must now in this time be willing to unfurl the banner of the cross in the very strongholds of the enemy. “Whoever will save his life shall lose it.”

We are staying in the plain this year with our Chinese brethren, and by God’s blessing are able to hold meetings and carry on all our work even through the great heat. Recently I visited our Shang-tsai station thirty-five miles south of us. The road was flooded in many places, but we managed to get through. On Sabbath the chapel was full of believers and inquirers. We held three meetings. I preached about the new earth and some wept for joy. Yesterday (July 25) as the brethren came to meeting, their clothes were soaked with perspiration, it being 122° F. in the sun. We are earnestly praying the Lord to keep us well through this heat. At present we are well; have not felt better since we arrived in China. “The just shall live by faith.” Thank God we are learning more and more to trust him for each day. Surrounded on every hand by swarms of heathen, who at any time may be aroused to fury by the enemy of souls, we rest in God, and are ready to sacrifice all, and even to be sacrificed, whenever it pleases the Lord. We daily find sweet rest in such never-failing assurances as John 10:28, 29.