First Church in Kiang-si Province, China
By A. C. Selmon
DURING the month of December I spent ten days in the province of Kiang-si. This is one of the central China provinces lying south of the Yangtze-kiang River. The principal commercial port of the province is Kiu-kiang, a city on the Yangtze-kiang, east of Hankow about twelve hours' ride by steamer. The present truth first entered this province through the agency of our colporteurs. Six months ago D. D. Hwang was asked to move from Hunan and locate in Nan-chang, the capital of Kiang-si. He secured a suitable building for a chapel, and began work. During my recent visit a five days' meeting was held with the believers and inquirers. At the close of this meeting seven were baptized. Three of these had accepted the truth before Brother Hwang went to Kiang-si. In addition to those who were baptized, three are keeping the Sabbath, and ten or more are attending our meetings regularly. The little company baptized impressed me as being composed of fine persons. The four women are very intelligent. Three of them are the wives of the three men baptized, and the other is the wife of one of our colporteurs. They all have a fair education, and at least two of them will become Bible workers when they have the training. Another member is a man about thirty years old. He has a good education, and is now helping a missionary translate a book. He was engaged to complete the book, and it will be a month before he will finish his present work. In the past his employer had been working on the manuscript for only an hour or two on Saturday, but as soon as he learned that his translator was attending our meetings, he told him that he was needed all day Saturday. But our brother objected to this, and said that unless he had his time off on Saturday so he could attend our meetings, as in the past, he should be obliged to stop work entirely. The employer was loath to part with such an efficient writer, and so yielded the point. This man is in earnest, for he has destroyed his idols. With a hatchet he himself smashed his goddess of mercy idol, and cut up for kindling the ancestral tablets in his house. Leaving Nan-chang, I traveled a night and half a day in a rickety Chinese launch to a large market place called Wu-cheng. Brother Hwang accompanied me. On the Sabbath we held a long preaching service in the guest room of a wealthy business man's home. This man is the secretary of the Business Men's Guild of Wu-cheng. He is a raw heathen, but had heard enough about the message we preach to become interested. There are three or four other well-to-do business men in this place who are also interested. This is an experience different from any I have met with in China thus far. To be invited into the home of one of the city 'elders,' and to have him invite in some of his friends, and there have an opportunity to preach the plain gospel to them for two hours, was surely an experience out of the ordinary. Following the meeting Brother Hwang and I were invited to remain with them for dinner, which we did. From all that I saw, I believe that the interest of these business men in the gospel is genuine. One not acquainted with China can by no means realize what an unusual thing it was to have a business man invite two missionaries to his home, and then call in his friends to hear the gospel. If you will help with your prayers, I believe that one or more of these men will take a stand for the Lord. This was my first visit to the province of Kiang-si. I was very favorably impressed with the people, and am certain from all that I saw that our work will have a rapid growth in this province. We now have two evangelists and five colporteurs working for the most part in the central and southern part of the province. The capital city, Nan-chang, is a good center from which to oversee the work in Kiang-si, and it is imperative that we have two families as quickly as possible to settle there. The work is growing too fast for Brother Hwang to look after it alone, and the financial burdens are too heavy for one man. Personally, I can say that if I were to make Kiang-si my field of labor, I should be enthusiastic over the outlook.