China

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 1, 1907

SHAN TSAI HSIEN.—Some have written to us saying that for a long time they have been looking for an article from us in the papers. It has been quite a while since we wrote anything, not because we have nothing profitable to write about, but because we are so pressed for time. Our whole inward being is aching with a desire to get a ready command of this language in order to tell intelligently to this sin-sick people the glorious truth so precious to us; hence we are pressing our language study to the utmost of our ability. When we were called to go to China, some of our brethren asked us what we could do here while we were learning the language. If these dear brethren would come and stay with us until our dear Saviour’s return, they would find plenty for all of us to do. The main thing as yet is our language study; but besides that we train workers and give them Bible studies every day; two young women are studying all day, and we are training them for the work. We have also opened a boys’ school, which needs attention. Several sick persons receive treatment daily. Sometimes half-dead persons who have tried to poison themselves with opium, are brought to us, and we empty their stomachs with the stomach-pump. And many other things come into our daily lives, besides the correspondence. On Sabbaths we have meetings nearly all day. We begin the Sabbath with a meeting. At 10 A. M. between one hundred and one hundred and fifty come to our meetings. My wife conducts the service for the

women, and I and the evangelist, for the men. At 3 P. M. about fifty attend the Sabbath-school; and then we close the Sabbath with a meeting.

When we think of the thousands at home who have this soul-saving truth in their hearts, it causes us to cry daily to the Lord of Sabaoth: “Lord, send us a family with deep Christian experience and hearts filled with the love of God.” We shall be able through him to press forward this soul-saving work in this needy field. Often my mind reverts to the brother I met last year; he is a Baptist. He said, “In the United States there is so much religious literature that piles of it are stored up in attics, and any one there who wants religion can get it in five minutes.” When we thought of that, we took our money a year ago and came to this needy field. I am seventy years old, and my wife is forty-five. I do not expect to be able to learn the language perfectly, but hope to be able to exemplify Jesus before this people. My wife can learn the language, and we can do more for Jesus here than we ever could do in the United States. Let us be careful that the words, “The last shall be first, and the first last,” may not be fulfilled in any of us.

There has just been a remarkable spiritual awakening in Korea, and another in China in the far west. The Spirit of God so impressed the Chinese that some of their own accord went far and near among the villages, preaching Jesus as the Saviour of the world, with power and large results. God is willing to give his Holy Spirit when he sees real, earnest longing for him. Our brethren in the Australasian Conference were thus blessed.

Our brethren in other places have had the same experience. And you, dear brethren in the United States, will share the same blessings just as soon as you put self-interest in the background, and lay self and all you have on the missionary altar of the Lord. That does not mean that the Lord wants you all to go into mission fields, but that he wants you to pray earnestly and labor for the evangelization of the whole world in this generation. Jesus speaks to every brother and sister when he says, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;” and if you can not go yourself, send a substitute, and support him with your prayers and all the means you can spare. The word is, “There shall be delay no longer.” Sister Henry’s words come to me so often. She said that “the loud cry will come and pass, and the latter rain fall, and many of our people will know nothing about it.” Let us all earnestly pray the Lord for grace to wake up to the full realization of the time in which we live. How few of us realize that we, with our own eyes, and perhaps in a very few years, shall witness the coming of Christ in his glory, and the consummation of all things.

It is very encouraging to see how God works through our weakness. Often when we, in our broken Chinese, try to tell them about God’s love, the Spirit comes and melts their hearts. Last Sabbath, for example (and we have had other similar experiences), as my wife was telling the women about our Saviour, who is mighty to save, the Spirit came in, and some were moved to tears, and one woman exclaimed, “I am seventy years old. There is no help for me. I have sinned all my life.” My wife lovingly took her hands, and comforted her with the fact that Jesus is able to save all; that if our sins were even as high as a mountain, Jesus could remove them; that it is as easy for him to save us from one thousand sins as from one, if we only show faith in him. Some seem to think that the Chinese have lost all feeling. If only the missionary’s heart is flowing over with the love of Christ, the same love will flow into the poor heathen heart.

“Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.”

Dear brethren, pray earnestly for the work in China, and for all the mission fields. God always honors earnest prayer.