Shanghai, China by F. E. STAFFORD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 26, 1914

Shanghai, China

By F. E. STAFFORD

F. E. STAFFORD

[From a personal letter we are permitted to gather the following interesting items concerning our tract society office and reading room in a prominent section of Shanghai, China.]

Our sales have been increasing month by month, and we have a very good class of customers. Besides the people who come to buy, there are hundreds who come in to read, and we always try to improve the opportunity to give them the gospel. This we manage all right with the Chinese and English, but quite often we have men of other nationalities, and then the best we can do is to give them a paper or a tract. Shanghai is such a cosmopolitan place that we have visitors from nearly every quarter of the globe.

On our reading table we have our own periodicals in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, Malay, German, French, Spanish, Swedish, and Norwegian, and also a small supply of tracts in all these languages. One day a Turkish man came and bought a copy of the English Signs monthly. Another time a Portuguese bought a copy of “Daniel and the Revelation.” Quite often the Chinese buy English books. A few days ago a wealthy Chinese who is a Confucianist, but whose wife and daughter are Congregationalists, came in and stayed quite a while, and finally bought a copy of “Christ Our Saviour” and an English copy of “Steps to Christ.” He was on his way to Peking.

We try to keep in touch with all our customers as far as possible, and have a visitors’ register, in which all who are willing are requested to write their names and addresses. This list forms a basis for missionary work, the members of our Shanghai church missionary society making use of it. They meet the third Tuesday night in every month and send out a club of the Signs, and also other tracts and books, to interested persons. Letters are read, the various committees report, and often we have interesting meetings. We have a committee on distribution of literature, a visiting committee, and a finance committee.

Our Shanghai church is beginning to take some of the responsibility of preaching the gospel. A definite amount is pledged every month for church expense, and a part of this is turned over to the mission to help pay the rent of the chapel. Our native tithe is increasing, so that it will soon be sufficient to support our native evangelist. Thus we hope soon to have a good, strong, self-supporting church here, which can not only take care of itself, but reach out and help many of the outstations of this province. When you consider that there are 40,000,000 people in this one province, and so far only two foreign families,—Brother Wood’s and mine,—besides a Bible woman, Sister B. Miller, you see there is yet a great work to be done here.

We have been enabled this year to open two new outstations,—one at Ying Ziang Kong, and the other at Nanxiang. At the last place we conducted a successful tent effort, the first of the kind in this province. We are so well pleased with the results that we purpose to carry out this policy in every city and town of the province as soon as we can secure native workers to man the stations.

We had erected what is called a mat shed; that is, a shed of mats placed on a bamboo framework. The mats are made of reeds, and on the roof we had them doubled with a sheet of oilpaper between, and then lapped in the same manner as shingles, thus making the tent waterproof. The structure was forty feet square, with windows that could be raised and lowered on three sides, thus securing plenty of light and ventilation. Above the doorway, which was built in true Chinese style, we had a big glass sign which could be illuminated at night. It read, “The Great Warning Meetings.” On either side were strips of cloth about twenty feet long, hung up in the style of Chinese scrolls, upon which characters were painted, giving a cordial welcome to all the people to come inside and quietly listen to the words of the message.

Photo by F. E. Stafford
THE MAT AND BAMBOO TABERNACLE AT NANZIANG, CHINA. USED FOR A SERIES OF MEETINGS — Photo by F. E. Stafford THE MAT AND BAMBOO TABERNACLE AT NANZIANG, CHINA. USED FOR A SERIES OF MEETINGS

The room was filled from the start, and we carried on the effort a month, with three meetings a day. One was held for the women at two o’clock. The three-o’clock meeting was devoted to the study of the life and work of Christ, with parables and easy doctrines. Many of the country people attended this service. Then at seven-thirty we had our main meeting, in which we took up a series of subjects on the prophecies and the second coming of Christ, the judgment, etc.

An excellent interest was manifested in the study of the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, and one of the wonderful things about the meetings which especially appealed to us workers, was the way in which the people who had never heard any of these things seemed to understand the prophecies and to grasp the meaning of the great events taking place in the world today.

A stereopticon lecture on the signs of the end was attempted, but the crowd was so great that it had to be shut off in order to save the tent from injury. As the people were so anxious to see it, we determined to go through with it; and so the next day we secured the use of a large parade ground used by the soldiers, at the back of which was a high building. This wall we had white-washed, which served admirably for a curtain, and then hastily throwing up a bamboo fence to separate the children and the women from the men, so the women, with their tiny feet, would not get crushed in the dark, we took the lantern out of doors, and there gave the lecture before a vast multitude. Probably this was as large an audience as has ever had the privilege of listening

to the third angel’s message at one time in China. I spoke through a megaphone in order to make the people hear, and then had the evangelist explain to those who were near, as they could not hear when I used the megaphone. After showing pictures of the San Francisco earthquake, and of floods, famines, and wars in China, we showed some of the industrial conditions prevailing in all the great countries today, as well as the mighty preparations for war. We finished by showing pictures of the last great earthquake and of Christ’s second coming. While the last picture was on the screen, all united in singing “When he cometh,” after which we closed the meeting. A profound impression was made on all who attended, and no doubt the pictures and the words of exhortation will influence many to prepare to meet the Saviour, who will soon come in the clouds of heaven. We have rented a small chapel in the center of the city, and left two native workers there to look after the work, and they report that there is an excellent interest. There are about twenty who meet together to worship the Creator on the true Sabbath day.

I am inclosing a few photographs, and trust you may find them interesting as well as novel, as this mat shed is the first thing of the kind to be used here in China. We believe it to be more serviceable than a tent, as a tent will mildew and rot in this climate in a short time. Besides, it is hard to get it up so it will stand the severe wind- and rain-storms which we have here. It would also be very hot in the spring months. The mat shed, which, by the way, is put up complete without the use of any lumber or a single nail, is both strong and well ventilated, and will stand heavy wind and rain without being damaged to any great extent. We rented the one we used, paying $30 gold for the month. We could have bought it for $50, but did not think it a wise investment; for when the mats are exposed to the sun and weather, they soon dry out, and crack to pieces when taken down.