Tidings from the Orient by J. E. FULTON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1916

Tidings from the Orient

By J. E. FULTON

J. E. FULTON

OUR first band of book workers are sending in their first reports, and we are very much rejoiced over the success they have had. This is a new venture, and we wondered how they would be received by the people as they took orders and asked for deposits. The first young men to be heard from were two that went into Chie-kiang Province. They canvassed the leading men and took thirty-seven orders for the first day's work. Two others who had gone to Shantung Province reported one hundred orders for a week's work. Another young brother who is working in the large and difficult city of Nanking reported twenty orders for one day. If this is an indication of how these books are likely to go, there is no doubt that our edition is far too small and that another one will have to be quickly printed. We greatly rejoice in this, for it means much for the cause in the Far East. It means that our publishing work can be put on a self-supporting basis. It ought to be so.

We have just heard of the arrival of our colporteurs in far-away Manchuria. Some canvassing had previously been done there, two men having taken two hundred and eight subscriptions for the magazine in a week. Brother H. M. Blunden is there now, conducting a canvassers' institute, in which some of the local brethren are receiving instruction. The two men we sent there from the south will be a help and an encouragement to them.

Brother Li Ting Sui, one of our colporteurs from Shantung, passed through Shanghai. He told of some thrilling experiences he had during the recent revolution. He canvassed in that province in the early months of the year and until the time of his arrest, and did well. When the trouble broke out between the northern army and the revolutionaries, he was taken for a spy. He was one of thirty arrested at that place, and all the others were shot. It was a time of great peril for Brother Li. He was robbed of his money, and again and again the rifle was leveled at his head, but God interposed. He was asked if he could produce evidence that he was a canvasser as he declared, and not a spy. Brother Li referred them to the chief magistrate, whom he had canvassed, and from whom he had taken an order. For a long time it seemed that he would not be taken to the magistrate, and through him was released. It is a wonderful case of God's deliverance.

From Elder B. L. Anderson, of south China, we have the very cheering report of sixty-nine persons who have recently been baptized in the city of Fuchau. Fifty-four of these were students in the Fuchau boys' school. This makes a membership of one hundred and eighty-two in that great city. An earnest call for foreign help comes from Brother Anderson. At present Brother N. P. Keh, our Chinese evangelist, is alone in the city. Certainly there is great need of help there. Brother Anderson tells us also that through Brother Keh's missionary talks some of the church members there have been impressed that they must do more in the way of giving to the support of the work. One man has promised to give $1,000. Pray for the work in this great Eastern field.