The East Indies by J. E. Fulton

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 4, 1909

The East Indies

By J. E. Fulton

Under Our Australasian Union Conference

In presenting the needs of this great field, I would point to a few of the populous islands.

Java: Look at Java, with its teeming millions, one of the most densely populated countries on the globe. From Java alone, thirty-two million souls cry, in their dire need for help. Perhaps no missionary field in the world has been so strangely neglected as this one. Here missionary societies have done little. The people have been left to grope on in darkness, with scarcely a human hand stretched out to help. In this great island we have but begun.

Neglected Millions: Dark Borneo, with its numerous tribes of heathen people, the millions in the Celebes, Moluccas, Bali, and tens of thousands of souls in other smaller islands, all must hear the message that gladdens our hearts. The darkness is deplorable. Wrecked upon the rocks of idolatry, superstition, or base Mohammedanism, these millions cry for help.

From Sumatra come cheering words. A few years ago an interest sprang up in the hearts of a few Battak boys of Sumatra, and four or five attended school in Singapore. One returned to his home, and commenced to tell his people what he had learned. This field in Battakland is closed to any English-speaking missionary carrying this message. But these native sons can not be stopped. A letter just received states that the “whole country has been aroused,” and that as many as forty letters have come to our workers, inquiring about the truth, and about coming to school. The workers speak of this as the “Macedonian call from that country,” and they say the people there are “literally waiting for the truth.”

Fiji Sends Help: Our training-school in Fiji is filling up with earnest young men who are preparing for missionary work in the Polynesian islands and New Guinea. One excellent young native from Fiji has already gone to give his life to New Guinea. The Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides should shortly be entered, and we hope to use native brethren from Fiji as missionaries in these fields. J. E. FULTON.

Sydney, Australia.