The Crying Need in China by I. H. EVANS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1911

The Crying Need in China

By I. H. EVANS

I. H. EVANS

SINCE last November I have been at Shanghai only about three weeks. The rest of the time I have been visiting various countries and companies in the Asiatic Division. The more I see of the East, the more I am convinced we are in the time when it is God's time for us to work. I wish you could have been with Dr. A. C. Selmon and myself on our recent trip to the interior. I have no language to set before you the situation or the needs; it is like a great campaign in war. The advantages are all on your side, the enemy is within reach; its forces are disheartened, disorganized; its men are deserting and coming to your enfeebled ranks. You know that if you could but rise and strike one blow, the day would be won; yet notwithstanding all this, you are unable to lift your hand to do anything.

Your heart cries out for just one company of fighting men; you pray; you walk the floor in despair; you pray for God to spare the men in the field, and help you do something: yet your condition is such there is not a man you can move; not a division nor even a company that can march a step. Day by day you see the opportunities slipping, passing beyond all hope of return.

Such are the conditions here in China. If God has opened these doors, and made these possibilities, he made them for his church to step into, and complete the work he has begun by his Holy Spirit.

Last night we left a meeting in Chang-sha, where there was an attendance of over seventy Sabbath-keepers. They were called together by Brother Cottrell for a three weeks' institute and Bible study. We did not know we had nearly so many believers in all his territory. Last January he reported sixty-one believers in his division, and last Sabbath we had over ninety in the service, and many more who were not there.

When we reached Chang-sha last week, we found the workers all present, and the institute on, but Brother Cottrell was so hoarse he could speak only in a whisper. His wife was sick with a chronic trouble that disabled her for service, and Dr. Selmon ordered her to bed for months to come. There was not another foreigner in all that country nearer than Hankow, a three days' journey under the best of conditions, and one which sometimes requires a week.

I never saw people more eager to hear the truth of God than this congregation. They had come for a hundred li, some much farther, leaving their work, their crops, their stores, and had paid their own expense and board to study the Bible. Five meetings a day for three weeks is a hard burden for a frail man like Brother Cottrell to carry. Of course we took hold and did the best we could. Dr. Selmon had to do his own work and translate for me. To-day he is about tired out. We left Brother Cottrell last night without a soul to help him but a sick wife; he can talk now, but is very hoarse.

In Hunan we have another meeting, to begin this week. In this province we now have seven companies of believers calling for help. Much of the present situation is the direct result of the distribution of literature circulated by Brother P. J. Laird and his helpers in the past. But now the seed has grown, and the harvest is ready to glean, and we have not a man to place in the field. Think of more than forty millions of human beings ready for the preaching of the gospel in these two provinces of Hunan and Kiangsi and only one man to do anything. Think of the work he has to do. He has a school in operation for men and one for women, and not one trained teacher. He has twenty-five students trying to get an education; but there is not a man to help teach who has any ability in that line. The people cry for training. They thrust themselves upon us, and beseech us to fit them and their children for service.

Then there is the literature that must be scattered. Poor, sick Sister Cottrell has given her time to directing this work, and she has done well; but she is sick. To look at her you would not know her as the same woman who came to this field. She is thin and haggard. Still she stays at her post.

Then there are the cottages to build; and if they are not up soon, there will be neither Elder Cottrell nor Mrs. Cottrell living on earth, to say nothing of working. He has so many calls for help that it is confusing, and the poor man is distracted to know what to do. The long, hot months are hastening on, and there is not a man to lift his finger if sickness should come. All we ask is just one helper to be with Brother Cottrell to help, and to hold the fort if he

should fall under sickness. Then each man will have about twenty-five million souls to warn and prepare for the coming Lord.

I wish you could have seen those men, and heard their testimonies yesterday. We had a social meeting, and they arose in groups from the various cities whence they came. There you would see ten, twelve, fourteen, men and women from a certain town, and they had come to study the Word of God. They will average a month from their homes, and they pay their own way. Last Thursday six men packed up and started for home. They had stayed as long as they had funds to pay for their food. A brother came and told us they were going, and we sent after them and brought them back, Dr. Selmon, Brother Cottrell, and myself promising to see them through.

We wanted to open two chapels in distant cities, but had no appropriations for the work. Brother Cottrell put two hundred squares on the blackboard, and all but twenty squares were taken, largely by the Chinese. We foreigners took only ten each, and they took the others.

Shanghai, China.

The Crying Need in China1

The Crying Need in China