The People of Inland China Eager to Hear the Gospel
By A. C. Selmon
ONE of our stations is a city forty miles to the north of us. A young Buddhist priest in the city had heard a few words of the gospel, and was desirous of hearing more. He hired a cart, and came down to Sin Tsai Hsien, requesting that I go back with him and look at a house he wished to have us use if we would come to his city to preach the gospel and care for the sick. With my native teacher, I returned with him. As we passed through the cities and small villages, the inhabitants would quickly collect when they learned that a foreigner's cart was passing through. How I longed to be able to speak freely to these people, who have never so much as heard that there is a living Saviour. But I did what I could, and my small stock of Bible portions was quickly exhausted. Reaching the city late in the afternoon, I was asked to stay with one of the inquirers. In the evening we had a15Bible study, and the next forenoon, being Sabbath, a little company of inquirers who had learned of my arrival, sixteen in all, gathered for a Sabbath service. My native teacher spoke to them of the soon coming of Jesus. We then had a song service and Bible study. Not having command of the language, I could only give them the texts, and pray that the Holy Spirit would bring the truths to their darkened minds. After the Sabbath I was kept busy till late at night caring for the sick who had come for help. Almost the whole city seemed to be devoted to idol worship. The population of the city was not over ten thousand, yet there were fifteen large idol temples, and the courtyards of these temples were thronged with people a great part of the time. Satan held full sway over the people, very little business was carried on, many of the shops were empty, and a large number of the people were opium-smokers. We are glad for the opportunity of holding up the True Light in this dark corner. We have rented a chapel, and now have one of our evangelists stationed here. The young Buddhist priest, previously mentioned, was greatly interested in studying the account of creation as it is given in Genesis, and was glad to receive the portions of Scripture we gave him. Buddhism is one of the three great religions of China, and is the one most devoted to idol worship. They have large temples and great numbers of priests in every city. The priests wear no queues, and so are very conspicuous among the mass of people. One day while out selling some Bible portions, two Buddhist priests came up to the crowd that had gathered about me to buy the Bibles. They soon destroyed the interest of the crowd by telling them it was a bad doctrine. A woman who had been a Buddhist for many years asked one of our workers to teach her how to pray to the true God, for she had found that it did no good to pray to idols. And so it is that there are many souls among this great multitude of people who are earnestly seeking for the true God, the God who hears and answers prayer. Sin Tsai Hsien, Honan, China.