Taking Advantage of Circumstances by A. C. Selmon, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 28, 1911

Taking Advantage of Circumstances

By A. C. Selmon, M. D.

SOME recent events have made it manifest that the enemy is becoming very much alarmed because of the literature that is going out in an ever-increasing stream from our Mission Press. But we move forward in the fear of God, assured that it is his purpose that this final call to repentance must go to the remotest bounds of the Chinese empire.

Fulfilling signs of the end create a demand for our literature; for the explanations that we present appeal even to the heathen. We have recently seen a remarkable instance of this kind in South China. Brother J. P. Anderson reports that there was a very severe earthquake recently in the city of Hai-feng. This is a seaport city on the east coast of the Kwangtung province. In the afternoon of the day preceding the earthquake, one of our Wai-chow-fu colporteurs arrived in the city. That night the earthquake came and did great damage. The next morning our brother went out on the street to sell the (Chinese) Signs of the Times, and it so happened that the issue he had was one in which the subject of earthquakes was dealt with quite fully, in an illustrated article that

pointed out their significance as signs of the soon coming of Christ. The colporteur no sooner began to proclaim aloud that he had a paper telling all about earthquakes and their significance than the people besieged him for papers, and in one short hour he sold out his entire supply of seven hundred copies.

Brother Fred Lee and Dr. M. M. Kay report an interesting experience of our Ying-shang colporteurs. The colporteurs arrived in a city while representatives of the British and American Cigarette Company were busy putting their glaring posters on every bare wall in the place, and giving out their vile bait in the form of free packages of cigarettes. There were many of the better class of citizens who were indignant because of this. The issue of the paper that the colporteurs had with them contained an article dealing with the evils of the cigarette, and illustrating it with a cut showing a young boy in the coils of a horrible snake. This paper was just the one for the occasion, and the colporteurs sold several hundred copies before they left the city. Our brethren were greatly encouraged by this; for they felt that God had directed to that city for that very time and purpose.

During the first half of this present year, so many foreign workers have returned to the States that we for a time felt that we probably would not be able to push the work very rapidly; but the Lord is showing us that he is not dependent upon numbers, and for these six months we have to report most encouraging progress. Over one hundred believers have been baptized, and the number of inquirers and interested ones has greatly increased. At the close of 1910 the press was shipping out an average of 12,500 copies of the paper monthly. The issue has been growing from month to month, and we now have orders for thirty thousand of the regular issue for August. When the Lord raises up and sends us a few consecrated men to take the oversight of the colporteur work in China, and help to train our colporteurs, the sales of our paper can be quickly quadrupled. We have long been praying for these men, and we ask that you pray with us. A. C. SELMON, M. D.