Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1907

Editorial

By Editor

Editorial Letter

Jottings from the Editor’s Note-Book

As some notes on my trip from Peking to Sin-yang Cheo have already appeared in the REVIEW, I will not make further reference to that part of my journey, but will now come directly to the Honan conference, which was held at the latter place. It was our intention that all the workers in Central China should enjoy the privileges of this gathering, and when I learned that Brother and Sister Laird, who are stationed at Chang-sha, in Hunan, were not decided about attending, I telegraphed an invitation to them to be present, but the reply, “Impossible; no steamer,” showed that the water was so low in the river, as often in the winter, that they could not travel. We greatly regretted their enforced absence from the meeting.

Sin-yang Cheo is a walled city of some importance, formerly a division point on the Peking-Hankow railway line, in the southern part of Honan. We passed out of the great plain of northern China a few miles north of this place, and entered the rolling country and the foothills of a mountain range through which the line passes later on. The scenery around Sin-yang Cheo was therefore somewhat different from what we had already noted in China, and I rather enjoyed the change.

I found that Dr. Miller and his associates were occupying three sections of a compound which had formerly been used for Chinese hotels, the printing-office being located in a part of this space. With generous hospitality these friends received the workers, and all were entertained there, the meetings being held in the dining-room. The visitors brought their own bedding, and although it was impossible to give each one a separate room with steam heat and electric light, yet all greatly appreciated the entertainment provided. It was a constant source of wonder to me how Brother and Sister Allum, who had charge of household affairs, were able to care for so many with their meager facilities. Doubtless the general spirit of brotherly kindness manifested by all helped to solve the problem.

To come together for a conference in China means more than it does in America. I will mention some facts in illustration of this statement. We left Dr. Selmon’s station, about one hundred and fifty miles distant, for this meeting on Sunday noon, and arrived about ten o’clock Wednesday forenoon, and we traveled more than half of the distance on the train. Owing to the condition of the roads this was as quick as we could make the journey. It required two days for Brother Pilquist and family to come from their station at Lo-shan, about forty or fifty miles away. There are no cart roads and consequently no carts used in southern Honan, and the sedan-chair and the Chinese wheelbarrow are the only means of conveyance when one is off the railway line. What it means to travel in this way is best known to those who have tried it. My own opinion is that “the half has never yet been told.” I learned from Dr. Selmon that he worked hard all one night on one journey to make two miles, and I found that the workers knew what it was to wade through the water for miles at a time and to swim swollen streams when traveling in the rainy season. On a journey of this kind one of our sisters arrived at her station dripping wet to the waist. It will be easy to conclude from what I have written here and elsewhere that our missionaries in China are not carried from place to place “on flowery beds of ease.”

Our conference at Sin-yang Cheo was the first gathering of this kind ever attended by the workers in China, and was an occasion of much blessing to all of us. I need not write fully about it, as it was arranged for one of the brethren to prepare a report of it for the REVIEW. The work at the different stations was fully reported, a local organization for the supervision of the local work was effected, plans were laid for the future of the publishing work, but the most time and the best thought were given to an earnest study of the message itself, as outlined in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, and the best way of presenting it to the Chinese. I have never known these truths to stand out with more clearness and simplicity, and all were greatly encouraged both in their personal experiences and in their hopes for the future of their work.

On Wednesday morning, February 6, we left Sin-yang Cheo for Shanghai, to attend the conference of all the workers in China, which had been appointed for that place. A cavalcade of eleven coolies loaded with our baggage formed a part of our procession as we went to the railway station. We arrived at Hankow, the terminus of the railway, about 5 P. M., where we took a steamer for the ride of six hundred miles down the Yang-tse-Kiang, or “broad river,” to Shanghai. The party occupied the whole of the Chinese first cabin, furnishing their own bedding and the most of their food, and reducing the cost of transportation to about one third that of European first class. As our party thus had full control of the room designated (not altogether appropriately) as the first-class Chinese saloon, we decided to continue our Bible studies en route, and we therefore met morning and afternoon for this purpose. Thus the time between the two conferences was well improved, and those who attended them both had three weeks of almost uninterrupted Bible study. On the way down the river we called at several ports, but the stops were short, and we had no opportunity to go on shore. The water was low, and once we came very near being grounded on a mud bank, but still the river was wide, and it often seemed more like one of the Great Lakes than a river. It has been well named “broad river.” We arrived in Shanghai the evening after the Sabbath, and after the usual confusion incident to securing coolies, wheelbarrows, and ’richashas, we reached our temporary home.

We have no work in Shanghai, and there was therefore no mission home where our workers could be entertained and our conference held. So it was necessary to provide a place. A large vacant house was rented, and a limited amount of furniture was secured, and we fitted out our rooms in somewhat primitive style. Arrangements had been

made for us to take our meals at a Japanese restaurant, but our plans were somewhat disarranged by finding on the door of the place the second morning a sign “Closed for to-day,” and this became so chronic that we provided for ourselves or went elsewhere. I mention these little things so that the readers of the REVIEW may get an inkling of some of the experiences involved in doing what seems so easy to do in America. To hold a general meeting in China in a city where there is not a single believer in this message is quite a different matter from holding a similar meeting with one of our large churches in America. I realize this myself now better than I did before I went to China.

Nearly all the workers from Canton and Amoy joined us at the Shanghai meeting, and I was especially glad to greet here Elder E. H. Gates, the superintendent of the Polynesian Mission field, whose work had brought him near enough so that he was able to accept Brother Anderson’s invitation to attend this meeting. Brother Gates spoke at different times, and joined us in our consideration of plans for the future of the work in China. We all appreciated the help which he was able to render.

W. W. P.