Wang’s Choice by J. N. Anderson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1903

Wang’s Choice

By J. N. Anderson

J. N. ANDERSON

As an illustration of how God calls souls to himself, even in China, the following case is cited. A sixteen-year-old boy named Wang Ting Hsien, the son of a merchant in Kai Feng Fu, the capital city of the province of Honan, was invited by one of the native workers of our Sin Iang Cheo Mission to attend a Bible reading in the mission chapel. His interest was aroused, and he remained in the place some two or three weeks, listening to the wonderful truths of the gospel.

On reaching home he began telling his father of the vanity of idol worship, of Christ as the Saviour of mankind, and of the urgent necessity he felt of preparation for Christ’s second coming. He frankly confessed that he had no desire to succeed to the father’s business as a merchant, but rather chose to become a Christian teacher, and requested to be allowed to return to the mission. Strangely enough, the heathen father granted the earnest request, imposing the sole condition that he join himself to the foreigner, and obey implicitly his teaching.

Most gladly was the condition accepted; and clad in a suit of blue cotton garments, stitched and heavily wadded according to the custom in winter in this section, with a blanket for a bed, and a pair of new hay sandals (worth one cent), with which to replace those on his feet, rolled in a bundle on his back, and native cash to the amount of forty cents in his pockets, he set out on a journey of two hundred miles back to the mission. His journey, like Jacob’s, was without companions or escort, but he testifies that as he pursued his lone way by the narrow, crooked paths between the rice fields and vegetable gardens of the plain, God’s Spirit was present in his heart, and holy angels attended him.

No one had asked the boy to come back to the mission, much less had there been any promise given of a home or of assistance in gaining a living. On his return he was questioned as to his purpose in coming back, and as to how he expected to gain his support. He replied that he wished to learn the truth, and to become a follower of Jesus, and that as for his support, he could trust it to God.

He has now been at the mission about seven weeks, attending the classes and meetings. He is active and willing in the parts he has to perform, and diligent in study, committing to memory large portions of the Bible. His cheerful, open countenance and polite, modest conduct are a comfort to all about him. His experience is clear and bright, and his testimony full of hope and earnestness. May our God make him a polished instrument of his own choosing, a light to his people who sit in darkness.

Canton, China.