A Visit to the Province of Honan, China
By Arthur G. Daniells
Our journey by rail from Manchuria down through Central China was most interesting and instructive. It gave an excellent opportunity to see some of the conditions prevailing in the interior of this great country. The distance by rail from Mukden to Hankow is 1,279 miles. This part of China is certainly a wonderful agricultural country. It is level, well watered, and fertile. As far as the eye can reach on either side of the railway there could be seen well-cultivated fields of wheat, rice, millet, barley, buckwheat, maize, potatoes, beans, peas, etc. Mulberry trees are extensively cultivated for the silk industry. It is said that China produces one fourth of all the silk used throughout the world. The Chinese are hard-working, painstaking farmers, but for the want of modern methods and implements they work at a great disadvantage. The only implements of cultivation I saw were a clumsy hoe, a spade, and the old-fashioned hand sickle. They use but few horses or bullocks. This compels them to work long hours. They begin as early as they can see to work, and continue until darkness closes around them; and the masses work every day of the week. We crossed the line from Manchuria into China proper at Shanhaikuan, 260 miles southwest of Mukden. Here we passed through the great wall of China, built by the Chinese more than two thousand years ago, to protect their country from invasions by their enemies in the north and west. The length of this wall is 1,200 miles in a straight line, or 1,500 miles measured by its windings over hills and mountains, some of which are 4,000 feet high. It is from fifteen to twenty feet wide at the base, and from eight to twelve feet wide at the top. The height varies from fifteen to thirty feet. Its towers are forty feet high and about six hundred feet apart. Although completed 214 years before the Christian era, it is still in a fair state of preservation,—a monument of the engineering skill and thorough workmanship of the Chinese in their earlier history. Our route took us through the city of Peking, the capital of China. During China’s long history its capital has been located in many cities, but Peking has remained the national capital without interruption since 1416, a period of 499 years. The great outer wall of this city incloses an area of forty square miles, and at present a population of about one million. Although this capital will not compare at all favorably with American and European capitals, it is in many respects a nice city, one of the best in China. While in the city we improved the opportunity to get a look at the places of greatest interest. These were the old palaces of dynasties which ruled China centuries ago, the palace now occupied by the young emperor who was deposed during the revolution of 1911-12, the new palace built for Yuan Shi-kai, the first president of the new republic, the Temple of Heaven, the various foreign legations, and the business part of the city. These were all interesting, but that which impressed me most deeply and seriously was the fact that in this city of a million souls we have no representative of our glorious cause. Nor have we a single believer in the province of Chi-li, in which Peking is located. This province is as large as the States of Iowa and Illinois combined, and has a population of twenty-nine million, nearly one third as many people as live in the United States. This fact pressed heavily on my heart all the day; and all the while I was going about looking at the sights, I kept looking for favorable omens for beginning our work in the national capital. I felt so sure of having seen evidences of providential openings for beginning our work here, that when the day closed I felt that if I were young enough to get the language I should beg to be placed there for life, if need be, to give those dying souls God’s message of salvation. When I reached Shanghai a week or two later, I found that a burden for Peking was pressing hard on the hearts of Dr. Selmon and his wife. During the Shanghai conference that immediately followed, it was decided to send Brother and Sister Selmon to Peking at once, to begin medical evangelistic work, and to request our Mission Board to increase the appropriation to China in order that this decision may be carried through. Both the city of Peking and the province of Chi-li give every evidence of being most promising fields. Leaving Peking, we continued our journey south 521 miles, to Yen-cheng, the headquarters of our work in the province of Honan. Peking is exactly halfway between Mukden and Yen-cheng, a distance of 1,042 miles. Between these two mission stations there are many cities and a densely populated country. One of these cities is Tientsin, with a population of nearly a million. It is said to be one of the finest, most modern promising cities in China. There must be at least fifty million people living between Mukden and Yen-cheng, who can be reached and saved by our message as readily as hundreds have been in other places we have entered. No man who believes this message can travel among these lost millions without a heavy heart, and without praying the Lord to send more laborers into this great field. We were met at Yen-cheng by our dear brethren, R. F. Cottrell, Fred Lee, and Orvie Gibson; also by a number of our native evangelists and brethren and sisters. I had not seen Brethren Cottrell and Lee since they came to China years ago. I cannot tell the joy it gave me to meet these workers in the field where they have toiled and struggled, and have won splendid victories for the Master. We were sorry that we could not have had with us Brother J. J. Westrup, who remained at Yen-cheng station so long without his family. It was here11that he was exposed to great dangers during and following the revolution. Honan is the province in which Dr. Selmon and Dr. Miller, with their wives and two missionary nurses who came with them, settled when they came to China in 1903. Although the work went hard and many difficulties had to be surmounted, and although there have been many changes in the staff of workers in this province, yet the field has never been deserted. There has been no retreat, and we are now reaping precious fruit. There are in Honan, 7 churches, with a total membership of 288. Of these members 80 per cent came direct from heathenism into our message. Besides these there are 16 companies with an attendance of 200, making 488 Sabbath keepers in the province. We have one central school with an attendance of 45 students, and a number of schools at the outstations. The working force consists of 1 ordained foreign minister, 1 ordained native minister, 14 native evangelists, 15 canvassers, 6 Bible women, 8 school-teachers, and 4 other workers, making a total of 49. The province of Honan has an area of 68,000 square miles—about the size of either Missouri, Oklahoma, or Washington. The population is 35,000,000, giving about 400 persons to the square mile. This population is a little more than one third of the total population of the United States. The greatest distance east and west between these churches and companies of Sabbath keepers is 230 miles, and the greatest distance north and south is 350 miles. The majority of these Sabbath keepers can be reached only by cart roads, which in the rainy season are almost impassable. The canvassers are circulating between 7,000 and 10,000 copies of our monthly Chinese paper. Their sales for the year total about $1,000. This is the status of our work in the province of Honan at the present time. It does not appear large by the side of some of our old, strong conferences in the States; but when looked at in the light of conditions and obstacles that have had to be met and overcome in Honan, it is wonderfully encouraging. It took a long time to get a good, reliable, substantial band of believers, but now the work is going much faster. The majority of those who have embraced the truth have received a new life and experienced a change of heart. They have come to know the Saviour who died for them, and they rejoice in his mercy and love as truly as do the followers of Christ in other lands. The same desire that takes possession of converts in Christian lands to tell the good news to others, fills the hearts of these converts from heathenism, and they at once become active workers in the proclamation of the message. To those who are best acquainted with conditions in this field, the future of the work looks very bright and encouraging. During the first quarter of 1915, forty-four persons were baptized. This compares well with a large majority of the conferences in the United States, as will be seen by the statistical report for the last quarter of 1914. The work of the canvassers in the sale of our literature is creating interest in all directions. At the time of my visit the native evangelists were holding meetings in seven new places. Every month people are taking their stand for the truth. If the progress now being made continues, we shall soon have a thousand Sabbath keepers in Honan. But there is a serious side to this situation. Our foreign staff of workers is too small for the work that presses upon them. Pastor Fred Lee is the only foreign minister in the province. The only other foreign worker is Brother Orvie Gibson, who acts as secretary and treasurer of the mission, and looks after the central school located at the headquarters. As he cannot leave the main station, the entire burden of the field work falls upon Brother Lee. It is a heavy task. All the churches and companies must be visited to instruct and build up these five hundred Sabbath keepers. The fifteen evangelists must be directed and encouraged in their work. The fifteen canvassers must be trained for their work, and constantly directed and encouraged to make the work successful. The schools must be looked after, and the teachers must be given instruction in order to make the school work efficient. This would be considered heavy work by the president of any conference in the United States having a membership no larger than the number of believers in Honan. But in the States the task would not begin to compare with the work in Honan. In America the people who embrace the truth have been all their lives under Christian influences. Their education from infancy has been far more in harmony with our gospel message than anything these poor heathen have ever known. It requires a great deal more care and effort as well as patience to bring these converts from heathenism up to a proper standard than is required to develop converts in Christian lands. Also in the States there are comfortable railway trains, automobiles, and other vehicles to convey the president of the conference to his churches, while in Honan long journeys must be made with bullock carts, and sometimes the vehicle of transportation is only a wheelbarrow pushed through the mud by a coolie. Oftentimes Brother Lee must spend days walking to his churches and companies, while the vehicle can carry no more than his luggage. I confess my heart was made to burn within me as I got a good square look at the situation in Honan. Brethren Porter, Fulton, and Cottrell and I went over the situation very carefully, and decided that without fail more help must be sent to this great field. We are aware that this will make one more call for larger appropriations to China. But surely the present condition is the most expensive kind of economy. In the first place, it is utterly impossible for Brother Lee to do justice to the large work that has developed in Honan. In the next place, he cannot endure the toil and the fatigue indefinitely. He has already had more or less trouble with malaria, but we thank the Lord that he still has splendid endurance. But think of the great loss Honan would sustain if his strength should fail at the present time. His place could not be supplied by any one in China without imperiling the interests of the work in some other province. There would be no way of preventing a steady loss until some one from the home field could get a sufficient knowledge of the language to enable him to take up the work to advantage. There should be at least two foreign evangelists in each of these large provinces, to share the burdens, counsel with each other regarding the work, and relieve each other in time of sickness or other emergencies. I am sure that if our people in the homeland can understand the situation just as it is, they will cheerfully contribute the money required to greatly increase our staff of workers in many places in these foreign fields. We greatly enjoyed the general meeting held at Yen-cheng. It was a pleasure to form the acquaintance of the native evangelists, canvassers, teachers, and students. Before the meeting closed, we ordained Brother Lieu Djen Bang to the work of the gospel ministry. This brother has been a faithful evangelist for seven or eight years, and has led many persons to take a stand for the truth. The native brethren as well as Brethren Cottrell and Lee united in recommending that he be ordained. They came forward at the close of the service and gave him a most affectionate welcome. Our meeting closed with an inspiring praise service. The countenances of the brethren and sisters told of the joy that filled their hearts as they testified of their love for the Lord, and for our brethren in America who had sent the third angel’s message to them. By a rising vote which they themselves proposed, they requested me to bear their Christian greetings and brotherly love to all our brethren and sisters in the homeland.