Messages From the Field for the Week of Prayer
WHILE large numbers have not accepted the truth, the message has been onward in the Pacific islands during the past year. Generally our workers are sick, full of courage, and are making steady spiritual progress. BY the time this is read, we shall have three missionaries working in Singapore. A new church building will soon be erected in Padang, Sumatra. In a few weeks we hope to have a school started in Fiji, where young natives will be trained for service in the Savage Islands of Melanesia. AT the close of our late Eastern Polynesian conference, at Raiatea, five young persons were baptized. WE are confident of the speedy triumph of the last message. IT is now almost three years since our first company of three workers landed, and well may we at this point in our experiences pause to raise our Ebenezer, and devoutly say, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” From this small beginning our force has increased to a band of thirteen adults and five children. One has fallen from our ranks. Dear Brother La Rue, at the age of eighty years, was laid to rest in April, 1903. IN all our trying experiences consequent upon entering a new field—the change of climate, and other physical conditions affecting health; the new, strange world of thought, customs, habits of living; and the peculiarly difficult language—in it all the Lord has not only preserved our lives, but prospered us on our way, so that now we feel to thank God and take courage. WE have been enabled to enter two provinces, and are laying the foundations for two mission stations—one in southern China, at Canton, in the Qwangtung 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’s message. 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 intervening railroad facilities blotted out. IN the south we have progressed in the language so far as to be able to make a small beginning in preaching. We have opened a girls’ school and a boys’ school, and have begun the preparation of literature. In the north Brother Pilquist and wife had been in the work for years previous to connecting with our mission, and are carrying on regular work. They have a boys’ school, and several native helpers to assist in preaching the Word. The other six are making excellent progress in the language, and already are able to do considerable by treating the sick and teaching the Word. China is heathen, but not barbarous nor uncivilized. Independent of outside help, she has built up and maintained an immense empire, has a written language, a literature and schools, a fixed government, with law and judiciary that touches every man. Industries and arts to fully meet the needs of her civilization have been developed. China’s one great urgent need is the everlasting gospel—the present truth. Taking into account the fact that a great part of the work of carrying this third angel’s message can and must be done by native workers, there is still a crying need for a great army of efficient leaders who will be able to train and direct the efforts of native help. We must have strong men and women, who know how to maintain their own integrity and help the argumentative and the weak,—experienced workmen, who can give mold and character to the work, and those of sufficient physical endurance to enable them to do battle with a trying climate, and endure the hardships of pioneer life. WE need money for printing, for the opening and support of Christian schools, for the support of such native help as God may bring to our aid. As yet we have not a dwelling, schoolhouse, nor chapel—not one spot of our own where the sick can come for relief or the sinner for comfort; not one foot of Chinese soil is owned by Seventh-day Adventists. One thousand dollars has been devoted to the opening of a general headquarters for gospel and medical work in Honan. A song of praise from our united band went up to God for that thousand. But many more such precious gifts will be needed before our work is fairly begun. The native houses in which we are compelled to find shelter are not sufficiently lighted and ventilated, and are too damp and unhealthful to be used for homes. Our hospitals, chapels, churches, and schools can be built even in large cities much more plainly, and at much less cost for labor and materials, than in the western lands, but we must have them, and a few are needed at once. For these and other needed blessings, we rely upon the promise, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” SIN TSAI HSIEN.—The time we have spent in China has been the best of my life. We have seen more of the Lord’s working, and have had closer communion with him. There is a pleasure in working when one knows he is doing his best to fulfil the Lord’s will. We are thankful to the Lord for the help he has given us in studying the language. We are just beginning to see now what a great help in the study it would be to a newcomer to have help from some one who knew the language. THE past year has been one of trials and triumphs in the cause in India. As we look back over the past few months, and note the progress of the work, we see unmistakable evidences of the blessing of God attending the sowing of the seed. We praise God for the way he has sustained the work in this field, though some of the most capable workers have had to lay down their burdens for a time, and seek health in a more invigorating climate. FROM different parts of the field we are receiving encouraging reports. At the present time the Oriental Watchman has reached a larger circulation than any previous year at this season, and we hope the paper will reach a circulation of five thousand before the year shall end. A list of five thousand paid subscriptions represents an immense amount of work. To accomplish this, our faithful fellow workers travel through India, Burma, and Ceylon, during the trying seasons of the year, facing difficulties and diseases unknown in other lands. THE amount of territory covered by these workers equals an area of twelve times that of England, Ireland, and Scotland combined. The way the Lord has sustained them in carrying the literature, and the remarkable experiences they have had, is a clear evidence that the Lord has set his hand to the important work of bearing the message of the third angel to the English-speaking people of this land. COMBINED with circulating the Oriental Watchman, our agents are circulating the Indian edition of the English Good Health, which is helpful in gaining access to many who could not otherwise be reached. In addition to this, our Watchman press is doing all it can to get out our literature in the vernacular. “Steps to Christ,” which is printed in Bengali, will soon be off the press. We are laying plans to get out little pamphlets of truth in the Hindi, Bengali, Santali, and Burmese languages. OF late we have received very encouraging reports of the work in Simla, the seat of the English government in India in the hot months. For two seasons past, two lady workers have been engaged in the work there. As a result, not less than nine persons have begun to observe the Sabbath. IN my recent trip to Burma, I was much encouraged by the earnestness and zeal of the Burmese brethren. Without financial help, and almost without any encouragement, these dear brethren are doing what they can to tell their fellow countrymen the truth. Again and again they plead with me to send some one to further instruct them and to lead them14forward in the work. Just as our boat was leaving Rangoon for Calcutta, they came, beseeching us to remember them in our prayers, and do what we could to help them. And we promised to faithfully lay the matter before the Mission Board and our brethren at home. Nearly a century ago, Judson stirred the hearts of the Burmese people, and he still lives in their memory. What is needed now is God-fearing men and women to go and continue the work of reformation begun by Judson so many years ago, and raise up monuments of present truth in that land where Buddhism has so long held sway. Elder Armstrong and his wife went to Ceylon last May. These are the first permanent representatives of the truth in this island of three million people. Already they are sending encouraging reports of the work there, and are anxious to make a public effort in the city of Colombo as soon as possible. The sanitarium is getting well settled in its new quarters in Calcutta, and will have larger accommodations and better facilities both for treating the sick and for training workers in medical missionary work. With these and other evidences that the Lord is going before his workers in India, we take courage, and go on, believing that in this land, among these down-trodden millions, some trophies will be won to sing the song of victory when the work is done.