The Chang-sha Meeting by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 27, 1911

The Chang-sha Meeting

By I. H. Evans

I. H. EVANS

In company with Dr. A. C. Selmon I left Shanghai, April 10, for Chang-sha, in the province of Hunan. It took seven days and eight nights of constant traveling to reach this famous city, which boasts of having furnished at one time eight of the ten viceroys in China. A general meeting for the workers and Sabbath-keepers in the province had been in session four days on our arrival, under the charge of Brother and Sister R. F. Cottrell, who are the only Seventh-day Adventists in Chang-sha.

We were greatly surprised to find about eighty commandment-keepers assembled, and in regular attendance at the meeting. These believers had come from their homes, some of which were more than 250 miles distant, for the purpose of attending the meetings. They had come, too, at a time of year when they were greatly needed at home, as it was spring, and work was pressing. They provided themselves with food, paid their own transportation both ways, and lost their time. One man who attended the meetings, but who has not fully identified himself with us, said he had never known the Chinese to do such a thing before; and surely there must be a power in our work when it will induce men to make such sacrifices.

A full camp-meeting program was carried out, and the meetings were well attended. The people studied their Bibles with a strong desire to understand the Word of God. On the Sabbath, fully one hundred Sabbath-keepers were assembled, and the Lord spoke to all our hearts.

Requests had come in that two new chapels might be opened where no meetings had yet been held. Brother Cottrell put two hundred squares, or blocks, on the blackboard, each representing fifty cents. Then he laid before the people the necessity of raising the funds to open these chapels. They began to take squares, and with the help of the foreigners, all but twenty were taken. Later in the meeting the brethren invited Elder Cottrell to come in and see the blackboard, and lo! every square was taken. In their morning meeting they had taken these remaining squares when no foreigner was near. To some one hundred dollars may seem a small sum to raise. But one poor woman took three squares, which meant a whole month's work at hard labor. Others gave more than a month's earnings; and truly when they have nothing left for themselves, there is sacrifice in the gift. When these Chinese find Christ, he is precious to them. They esteem it a pleasure to give for his sake. They love him, and there is nothing they will not cheerfully give up for his name. During the meeting, twenty-three precious souls were baptized.

After Dr. Selmon, Brother C. Sparks, and myself left, another company of about ten persons came about three hundred miles to attend the meeting. Of them Brother Cottrell writes: “The company from Yungchau arrived about a week after you left. They all stayed about ten days; then, as we felt it was not best to keep them any longer, we told them that three or four might possibly stay and enter the school as regular students. Four of the brightest stayed, and the others, as they had no money, started for home on foot. They will have over a thousand li [about 350 miles] to walk. We had special Bible studies for them while they stayed. When they left, they said they were very anxious to earn money, and come back to the general meeting, and possibly some of them would attend the fall term of school. Our people felt there was excellent material in some of these men.”

A great work is begun in Hunan; but there is only one family of Seventh-day Adventists for the twenty-two million people. In the province, seven companies of Sabbath-keepers have sprung up, and each one is pleading for help. Our hearts were full of sadness as we left the meeting. It was to continue another two weeks, with not a foreigner to help Brother Cottrell, and his wife, too, was ill. Truly here is a whitened harvest-field; here people are accepting the truth, when there is no one to follow up the work. I asked Brother Cottrell how he explained the fact that so many are accepting the truth when there is no teacher, and he said, “It can only be the fruits of the Spirit of God.” I sometimes wonder if the Holy Spirit is to be compelled to work without the cooperation of the remnant church? And what will be the effect upon a people who, blessed with goods and prospered beyond their expectations, are still so slow in following up the leadings of the Spirit of God? These are times when the church, aroused from its Laodicean state, may expect mighty things to be wrought by the Spirit of God. Shall 2 Kings 7:2 be our experience at this time?

Another appointment, in Honan, compelled us to leave before the Chang-sha meeting closed. In six days we made the journey from Chang-sha, Hunan, to Cheo Chia K’o, Honan. Brother Sparks stopped at Hankow, while at the same place Dr. A. G. Larson, Sister Selmon and children, Sister Osborne, who had just arrived from Australia, and three of the Chinese workers in Hankow joined our party for Cheo Chia K’o.

Shanghai.