p. 17 | Honan, China by A. C. Selmon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Mar 17, 1904

Honan, China

By A. C. Selmon

SIN TSAI HSIEN.—We are now settled in our own little compound, about one-half mile from the compound where the other workers are living. We are surrounded with Chinese on every hand. We have a small courtyard and two houses. Our houses are made of sun-dried mud brick, plastered with mud. They are thatched with a kind of grass that grows here, which is much like the prairie hay found in the Western States. The walls are plastered inside and outside alike. We have pasted some foreign wall-paper on the wall, to hide the mud. We have kiln-burnt bricks laid on the ground for a floor, and over these we spread cane mats, to protect our feet from the cold bricks. The houses in the other compound have board floors. We hope to have boards for a floor as soon as we get the money. Lumber is very expensive here.

We are using charcoal for cooking and heating purposes. Mrs. Selmon does all her cooking on a charcoal stove. A charcoal stove is made of mud bricks and mud plaster, arranged in a square pile, with a hole scooped out of the top for the fire. We are just getting our home settled. We are happy and contented, and have not been homesick a day since coming here. The Lord said, “Peace I give unto you,” and he meant that we should have that peace when we were doing the work he would have us do.

The people keep coming to us for treatment, but we do not have any place where we can get our medicines out, and no place to examine the patients and treat them. [Since this letter was written, the one thousand dollars for a mission compound, so generously donated, has been forwarded to China. Our workers will soon have a place to treat the sick.]

We are fully convinced that the study of the language should be our first work; for it is very unsatisfactory to examine a patient through an interpreter; and when we have treated him, we can not tell him of the Great Physician, for we can not speak to him. I feel that it is a waste of time and energy to treat the people from a humanitarian standpoint only, and not be able to give them the gospel. I came to China as a gospel missionary first, with the intention of using the medical work simply as an aid. Mrs. Selmon and I do treat many cases; for there are many diseases which we can diagnose and treat without asking questions.

From our little experience, and that of Brother Pilquist and other missionaries, it is evident that one physician can make openings and opportunities for quite a number of gospel workers. In fact, I have been very much surprised to find little companies of inquirers springing up here and there wherever Brother Pilquist has stayed a week or so and preached. He has just returned from a few days’ visit to a city of fifteen thousand people about forty miles from here. He was there last year, and preached to them, and now there is a company of ten or twelve, who are inquirers. They have meetings in a private house, and are keeping the Sabbath as best they know how. It seems pitiful that we can not help them more. But Brother Pilquist can not be in more than one place at a time, so he has to get them started, and then they study by themselves. The Holy Spirit surely enlightens their darkened minds; for they are quick to see and appreciate Bible truths. When they read the Sabbath commandment, they readily see that those who have told them that they should keep the Li far rih, which simply means “worship day,” are mistaken, and that they ought to keep the An sin rih, or “rest day.”

Our need here now is for gospel and Bible workers. We hope to train some of the native women to do Bible work; for that is the most effective way to reach the women. Not one woman in ten thousand here can read. We know of only one in this place who can read, and she has been taught by our workers. She is an earnest woman, and Mrs. Pilquist is training her for a Bible worker. We hope soon to have a place where we can conduct a reading and Bible school for these women.

We are just learning how to study the language. We have a native teacher, who knows only one English word, and

that is “Yes.” We think a great deal of him. He is one of our native converts, and is a well-educated Chinaman. We are getting along much faster in the language than I expected. The Lord is surely blessing us in helping us to remember these difficult characters and the more difficult sounds and construction of sentences.

We feel very thankful for the Testimony which says that the Lord will give his workers understanding that they may know how to carry on his work in a proper manner. We are grateful for the privilege of being connected with the work in this place.

A. C. SELMON, M. D.