Your ShelfYour Projects

China’s Millions

6%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 1, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 48.

Read the full edition

China’s Millions

The vast empire of China comprises more than four million square miles of territory. It would spread all over the United States, and cover nearly two thirds of North America.
China is wonderful in its physical conditions. It has magnificent river systems, two of which—the Yangtze and the Hoangho—compare with the Mississippi, the Amazon, and the Kongo in extent. It has lofty mountains, deep and fertile valleys, and extensive plains. Its climate is healthful, its soil productive, its fruits various and abundant.
But more wonderful than the country itself is the vast, immeasurable sea of China’s millions of humanity, which has surged through the empire since centuries before the Christian era. Compilers of statistics strive in vain to count these millions, or to make us comprehend their extent. Our picture [explaining the figure on the blackboard] will give us a faint idea of their vast numbers. If we were to transfer the population of the great Russian empire, of the countries of Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States, into the Chinese empire, there would still be room. Add to these again the population of South America, and we would be able to populate the country as densely as it is populated today by the Chinese themselves. Such figures are almost beyond our conception, yet they convey some idea of the great work to be done among that people.
Their needs?—Every province has been entered by a missionary, although the province of Hunan, with twenty-one million people, has but one mission station, with territory equivalent to that of Maryland and the two Virginias. The province of Shansi has the largest number of mission stations; but even here it is as though “only one town in Rhode Island contained a church, whose pastor and members were responsible for the evangelization of the entire State, and a considerable fringe of Connecticut besides.”
The position of women is degraded. They are secluded, maimed by foot binding, and almost slaves in the household. A result of this is the dreadful practise of destroying female children, which is still common, although done more secretly than formerly. Indeed, sometimes the little boys, too, are destroyed. Childmurder is not considered a crime. Only recently one of our workers in the province of Honan rescued two of these helpless little ones, one of which had been dropped twenty-five feet from the top of a wall, and the other thrown into a mass of refuse. Their sufferings were alleviated for a few days, but it was too late to save their lives.
What have we done?—We have entered two provinces—“one in southern China, at Canton, in the Kwangtung Province, and one eighteen hundred miles distant, in the province of Honan.”
There still remain sixteen provinces unentered by any herald of the third angel. It is as though all Europe had two stations—one in Great Britain, and one at the farthest point of Russia; or as though North America had but two stations—one at Montreal, and the other at New Orleans, with all the intervening railroad facilities blotted out,” and all these people [pointing to the figure on the blackboard] crowded into the territory. Recently the truth has gained a foothold in another province, at Amoy, north of Canton, but we have not been able to send a worker to follow up the interest.
What does this mean?—That still in the land of Sinim many wait for the gospel. When China’s millions have been reached, one half of the heathen world will have heard the good news of the soon-coming Saviour.
“The gospel that thou bearest,     The power of God shall prove, To triumph o’er the souls of men     By the omnipotence of love. And remember, while thou lingerest,     The voice of thy brother’s blood; A million a month in China     Are dying without God!”
[NOTE.—Draw a large square, dividing it into 214 equal-sized small squares. The large square will represent the population of China, each tiny square standing for 2,000,000 of China’s 428,000,000 people. Of these squares, 53 will represent the population of Russia, 19 France, 26½ Germany, 19 Great Britain, 15 Italy, 22 Japan, 20½ South America, and 39 the United States. The large square, divided into the 214 smaller ones, should be drawn upon the blackboard or a large sheet of paper, before the exercises. When the number is called for on the program, the square should be divided to represent the population of the several countries, printing in the name of each country, and a statement made concerning China’s millions and our obligations to them. This can be made very impressive, if presented by one of the older pupils who understands the situation.]

“The Voice of Thy Brother’s Blood”

O CHURCH of the living God!     Awake from thy sinful sleep! Dost thou not hear yon awful cry     Still sounding o’er the deep? Is it naught that one out of every three,     Of all the human race, Should in China die, having never heard     The gospel of God’s grace? Canst thou shut thine ear to the awful sound,     The voice of thy brother’s blood? A million a month in China     Are dying without God!
O, speak not of the noble few     Who the gospel sickle wield, And reap some sheaves with weary hand     On the edge of its harvest-field; For beyond their utmost efforts     Four hundred millions lie, And a thousand preachers were all too few     To reach them ere they die!
But hear! O! hear ye for yourselves     The voice of your brother’s blood! A million a month in China     Are dying without God!
And ye who can not go, O! help     With the wondrous weapon, prayer; While ye uplift your hands at home,     The cross shall triumph there. And give ye freely from your store     To the warriors in the field. The more you give, to you the more     Barrel and cruse shall yield. So only can you cleanse your hands     From the guiltiness of blood! For a million a month in China     Are dying without God! —H. Grattan Guinness.