p. 13 | Two Years in China by J. N. Anderson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 9, 1904

Two Years in China

By J. N. Anderson

J. N. ANDERSON

We have just passed another Chinese New-year, and I am reminded of the fact that it is just two years since the first of us landed in this strange land. It is only a short time—too brief indeed for serious retrospection, and yet it does us all good to recall our Father's gracious dealings with us, and to review our own shortcomings as well as our God-given victories. Surely it is refreshing and inspiring to recount all the undeserved blessings which the Lord so lavishly bestows upon us, and which become more real and tangible as we look back upon them.

The past two years have brought many unexpected experiences to us; but whether adverse or favorable, God has sustained us, and will continue to do so until the work is finished.

To the Lord's final commission to go and evangelize the world is linked the

unfailing promise that he will be with his own to the end of the world. I am sure all our workers in China have found this promise fulfilled in their individual experience.

We have now actually in the field, counting the wives of missionaries, no less than thirteen workers, and to this number must be added several native helpers, who, in such a field as China, act a leading part in carrying the gospel message. Already the Lord has, through the labors of Brother and Sister Pilquist, given us several converts, some of whom are being trained as workers. To this good beginning, as the readers of the REVIEW will remember, was added last fall a re-enforcement of four physicians and two nurses, who are now heart and soul in the work as far as it is possible for them to be, since it must not be forgotten that without the language little can be accomplished. These new workers, together with Brother and Sister Pilquist, are at Sin Tsai Hsien, a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants, in the ancient province of Honan, almost due north of Hankow, with a distance of about three hundred miles intervening.

It is the heart of China geographically, as it is the center of the great Mandarin-speaking population that constitutes about three fourths of all China, and this fact at once throws a clear light on the meaning and value of our foothold in Honan. The work there was inaugurated by Brother Pilquist, who joined our forces one year ago. And as the missionaries who lately entered there took this as God's opening and call to them, so may still others see in it a definite call to give or to come in person to this great, needy field.

Our work in the south, separated, as we at present make the distance, from our workers in Central China by about seventeen hundred miles, might at first thought seem to be a different field, and a distant and separate work. Such, however, is not the case. We, too, are in China. And, with the exception of the colportage work done by Brother Wilbur in Hongkong, our efforts are directed toward China and the Chinese; though it should not be forgotten that the people here are Cantonese, so called from the metropolis of south China.

And while they write and read the same characters as in all other parts of China, their spoken tongue is as different from that of central China as French is from English. These Cantonese are the most intelligent and most enterprising Chinese. And although in point of numbers they do not exceed twenty-five or thirty millions, yet as they are found in considerable numbers in Western lands, their relative importance far exceeds their numerical strength.

Brother and Sister Wilbur, who came to China one year ago last fall, have been in Hongkong since last April, where they are doing colporteur work in connection with their language study. In this way a considerable number of our books and periodicals have been put into the hands of the people. They are making progress in the Chinese language, and ere many months pass by will be prepared to make a beginning among the natives. As it requires much time and no little means to prepare workers for active labor among the Chinese, it is decidedly unprofitable and unwise to retain them in such a place as Hongkong after they are once prepared. Hence, our plan is to get a new worker for Hongkong, and so relieve Brother and Sister Wilbur for definite Chinese work. But where is the man to take their present place?

Miss Thompson conducted an Anglo-Chinese school for almost one year, until it had to be closed last August on account of her failing health. Her physical strength was seriously reduced by that insidious disease, malaria. This has, however, almost entirely disappeared, and arrangements are being made for her to open a school for Chinese girls, to begin the first of April. As the Lord has provided the means for this special work, and all the arrangements are nearly finished, we feel assured that it will prove a success, and be a blessing to our work. It will be a day-school for the present, as we are not yet prepared for a boarding-school. The teaching, in the main, will be done by a Chinese lady teacher, but the whole enterprise will be under the immediate direction of Miss Thompson. Religious instruction will form a part of the daily study, and we hope in this way to win souls for eternal life. It will also be the means of training natives as Bible workers. And these we must have if we will reach China's women.

As for Mrs. Anderson and myself, our time and strength have been occupied with the study of the language, together with a general oversight of the work. Since coming to Canton last April, our progress in the language has been steady, though not so rapid as might be desired. We have deferred getting out literature until we were able to judge of its merit and accuracy. And, furthermore, without a working knowledge of the language, it would be well nigh useless to attempt to use literature, even if we could be assured that it was good. All this will, however, very soon be removed, as the strange characters and speech of this people are gradually yielding to our steady application, which we hope will, under the blessing of God, bear fruit in laying a good foundation for the work in China.

I have secured a hall, in which I shall within a few weeks begin to teach publicly the Lord's message. Although by no means familiar with the Chinese speech, I feel that it is time to make a beginning, and that every such effort will serve to hasten my preparation for a better and more effective work.

Apart from several sailors in the British navy, who have been led to the truth since we came to China, there is a young Chinese in Hongkong who has definitely decided to stand by this message. He acted as servant for us while we were in Hongkong. He has resigned a good position in a British shipping firm, and now proposes to come to Canton and enter a Baptist academy to prepare himself for future usefulness in the work.

While in school, he will be closely associated with us, and so be a help to us in our meetings.

It is thus seen that the Lord is going out before us, opening doors which invite and urge us to enter. We can but praise God for all that has been and is being done, and with glad hearts renew our consecration to the blessed cause. We have a foothold in two of the eighteen provinces of this empire. Surely this is a cause for rejoicing. And yet these beginnings unconsciously extend the horizon of our vision with reference to the magnitude of the work to be done in this Chinese world; and, accordingly, we are constrained to lay the situation before our people, and pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into this part of the vineyard. It should never be forgotten that all new missionaries must spend, even under favorable conditions, from one to two years in the study of the language before they can enter upon active and aggressive work. The point in this is that if we wish to see new workers at work in China at a given time, they should be sent out about two years prior to the fixed time.

The situation here in Canton calls loudly for at least two new workers before the end of the present year, who can at once prepare for the work which is opening up in this province. And this is emphasized by the fact that my responsibility to the work in general prevents me from carrying on a regular and systematic work in any one place. With our present attainments and experience in this field, we can profitably receive and assist new workers, who can thus be spared much of the delay and misunderstanding which invariably came to us who had no one to look to for counsel and assistance.

Hongkong needs a man, whose coming can not be delayed beyond next fall. Such a man is needed to relieve Brother Wilbur of his work for the Europeans, in order that he may take up work for the Chinese, for which he will be prepared by that time. The man needed in Hongkong should be a good, wide-awake canvasser and Bible worker. Along with this, there is really a call for a physician, who can open up treatment rooms and introduce our health literature, as well as our health foods, which are already quite well known and favorably received in that island colony. Shanghai, the New York of the Orient, also needs one of our Christian physicians—a man of sterling qualities, who can open up our work in that cosmopolitan city. Such a work in Shanghai could not fail of success.

Other places might be mentioned, but these are the most pressing. Are there not loyal, consecrated young men and women who feel that God is calling them to enter these openings? Be sure that you hear the voice of the Master, before coming. But once you have heard that voice, let nothing divert you, but come in the spirit and power of God's message.

Canton, China.