Educational Work in Canton, China
By E. H. Wilbur
WHILE it is true that every department of our work is educational, and that our principal business is to teach the people by precept and example the everlasting gospel, yet there is no more important phase of this work than that of conducting schools where the young can be trained for the service of the Master. This is no less true in China than in other fields. The conditions here, however, are somewhat different from those in Western lands. Here separate schools must be established for boys and girls. A little over three years ago Miss Thompson opened our first girls’ school in Canton. The work has been carried steadily forward, increasing in numbers and interest. During the first half of this year about sixty were enrolled. These girls come from heathen homes. Few, if any, had ever been in school before, and it was here that they obtained their first knowledge of the gospel. It is remarkable how much of the New Testament some of them can repeat from memory. Nearly all attend the Sabbath services, and a few of the girls have acted as assistant teachers in the Sabbath-school. A number of them also attend the Friday evening prayer-meeting in the chapel, and take part. You would be surprised to see how apt they are in selecting texts of Scripture to read that are appropriate to the subject dwelt upon by the leader of the meeting. Three of these girls were baptized last week in June, and others are nearly ready for baptism. This spring another girls’ school was opened by Miss Vanscoy, outside the east gate, about a mile from our chapel. The room is small, but eighteen girls of a good class were in continuous attendance during the first half of the year. A Sabbath-school has been conducted regularly at the school, often as many as thirty women and girls being in attendance. There is no doubt that this is one of the most successful means of reaching the women and girls of China. In the autumn of 1904 we opened an English and Chinese boys’ school in Canton. The average attendance in the English school has been between twenty and thirty. Each student was required to pay two dollars (Mexican) a month for tuition, and board himself. One of the pupils in this department has accepted the truth and united with the church. The attendance in the Chinese department of the boys’ school has been small, but this year the outlook is more promising. We hope eventually to carry on most of the work of this school in Chinese, since that is the language of the country, and the one in which they can most quickly and clearly gain a knowledge of Bible truth. It is through this language only that they will be able to proclaim the gospel to their own people. In April, 1906, five young men came to us for special Bible instruction. A Bible school was conducted for them for four months during the first half of the year. From September until July of this year this department has been continued, with about nine in attendance. Thus far six of these young men have been baptized, and two others are nearly ready for baptism. For the first part of 1907 the total attendance of all our schools in Canton was about one hundred twenty. How to carry on this work in a way that will glorify God is the problem that confronts us. May we have your prayers for wisdom from on high.