p. 19 | Java and Sumatra by G. F. Jones

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 25, 1906

Java and Sumatra

By G. F. Jones

It is four weeks since I felt Singapore on this trip, and I am now on the return journey about thirty-six hours' sail from that place.

I visited Batavia, Buitenzorg, Soerabaya, Bencoolen, and Padang. I also conversed with men from the other cities of Netherlands-India, and got all the information I could concerning our missionary outlook in those places. I am convinced from all sources that we ought not to delay to begin work in these islands. The Dutch themselves are not so proud and unapproachable as are the English, and they are eager to learn English and to associate with them, which makes missionary work so much more pleasant. The Dutch are extremely strict disciplinarians, and the whole of Netherlands-India is well under their control. Their laws compel the native to work, else he would be the laziest man on earth, and the government also derives a rich revenue from native labor. The effect of this has been to make the native a better and more industrious man, and to destroy any fanatical tendency which would be really so had he nothing more than his Islamism. A native can not have his residence near the conservative Dutchman, neither is the Chinese permitted to draw near. No native, or Chinese either, dares to speak Dutch. There is liberty for the missionary to teach the Chinese, but to teach the native is against the law. Moreover, the native must not wear European clothes, but is compelled by law to wear a cloth around his waist, and another twisted into a hat around his head. No native dares leave his district, much less his island, without a pass. The Dutch has his eye and his hand upon every man, woman, and child in his country. He is a modern Pharaoh to the native; and I would not care to say but that the Lord has permitted him to be so. He sent Israel into Egypt for the same treatment before delivering them, and now in this our day the oppressed are under preparation for their final deliverance if they care to accept it. The Lord is good to all, “for his mercy endureth forever.”

The Chinese are thrifty and well-to-do, and are hungering for an English education, and many of them wish to be Christians if some one would only teach them. There are openings in every city where a missionary could be self-supporting. It is, of course, well to possess some kind of school certificate in order more easily to get permission from the authorities, as nothing can be done here without their permission.

Batavia is a large and important place. It needs, like other places in the Dutch Indies, good, common-sense workers who will not unwisely run up against the Dutchman's authority. He is a hard snag, and it is better to steer clear of him. Our work there would not have to encounter half a dozen bitter missions, as at Singapore.

I visited Buitenzorg twice—once in going and once returning. There are two interested Chinese there who live next door to the mission room of the American Methodists of Singapore, who have just begun work there. One of these I have invited to Singapore to give him a training. This shows the need of a good training-school at Singapore, as I have already invited some other young men, but we are not yet ready to take this work in hand. Three Malay tracts which I sent from Soerabaya have stirred up quite an interest among the Chinese at Buitenzorg, and they have been loaned from one to another, so there is now a call for more, which I will send from Singapore.

My next visit was to Soerabaya, where I stayed four days, and had a very pleasant and profitable time with the Fox family, who moved here from Singapore nearly a year ago. Mr. Fox has also become a vegetarian, and is seriously thinking of keeping the Sabbath with the rest of his family. I found them of good courage and endeavoring to give the truth to others. Here I met twelve or more educated young Chinese who were anxious to be Christians. I can not tell you how heavy at heart I have felt over these ripe calls for help with no one to take up the work. O where are all our young people! O that they would take a step by faith out into these fields and begin the work, that it might be finished in this last hour of this generation!

I landed in Bencoolen, in Sumatra, to seek Brother Munson's Chinese orphans. Only one was there; all the others had gone back to Padang. The people (mostly Chinese), upon hearing that I was a missionary, crowded around me in the street, asking me all manner of questions, some religious and some concerning school, hoping I had come to stay, as they had no missionary to teach them. The richest Chinese there promised to be of some assistance to us if we would only open an English school. Bencoolen was formerly the British seat of government in Malaysia, but afterward it was removed to Singapore. In Sumatra I heard nothing but complaints against Dutch rule from Chinese, Eurasians and Malays preferring that of England. Of this they spoke openly. Personally I think the Dutch have done remarkably well with these islands, and the people I found to be humble and respectful. But there is only one kingdom I could safely recommend to these poor, heart-sick people which I know would never disappoint them, and about which I could tell them freely. What a blessed privilege it is to possess the keys of that kingdom, that the oppressed and the weary may enter it. Surely it is high time for us to make good use of these keys.

At Padang I hunted up our few friends, and was very kindly treated by all. They were sorry to learn I had not come to stay. There is still work to do at Padang, and I hope somebody will be able to go there soon. Padang is a beautiful and healthful place. A number of people and government officials spoke well of Brother and Sister Munson, and they have been missed. I brought all the orphans who were under Brother Munson's care, to Singapore, as they were not properly looked after in Padang.

Calling once more at Bencoolen and other places on the west coast, and again at Batavia and Buitenzorg, we sailed for Singapore, calling at Biliton. Here again I heard the same call, “Do come and stay with us.” A young man educated at Singapore, sat with me a whole hour, pleading for us to open an English school at Biliton. This is an island belonging to the Dutch, half-way between Batavia and Singapore. There are about thirty thousand natives and two thousand Chinese, with no missionary in the island. He thought that we would have two hundred pupils at five guilders a month each. Rent and food are cheap, water is good, and it is quite a healthful place in which to live. Before steaming out, he sought me again, to get my promise to come. Again I ask, Where are our young people to take up this work?

To-morrow I hope to reach Singapore. I have been thirty days on the round trip. I traveled fourth class because there was no fifth, and together with the coolies I went to the tub to dig out my allowance of boiled, dry rice at meal-time. We have been literally packed on the upper and lower decks like chickens for market, but I am as well, and perhaps better, than if I had traveled first-class; however, it is good to enter into the experience of One who had “not where to lay his head,” and I rejoice to spend and be spent in the service that will soon close its mission for this world.

G. F. JONES.