The “Malaysia Conference” by R. W. Munson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 7, 1907

The “Malaysia Conference”

By R. W. Munson

R. W. MUNSON

One of the special reasons for sorrow of heart over our enforced departure from Padang, Sumatra, was the anxiety we felt concerning the future of the children of Brother Matthew, the first man we baptized in Sumatra. There were seven of these, and the conference had undertaken their support; but they were not under our jurisdiction, and according to Chinese customs and Dutch law, they could not be until their father died. He was rapidly failing before we left, but lived for many months. I had taken the precaution to have a will made, in which he appointed me the executor of his estate and guardian of the children. He specifically stated that he wanted the children reared and educated in the Christian faith. Last June Brother Matthew died, and this left the way open for us to act. Brother Jones went there, on the same trip that took him to Surabaya, and brought the orphans to Singapore. He was providentially directed to the home of Mr. Seng Ahn, son-in-law of Brother Matthew, and a very fine man. His wife, the daughter of Brother Matthew by his first marriage, welcomed Brother Jones cordially, and made him feel at home. He met all the brethren, and did them much good by his visit.

November 1, the day we saw the steamship “Guthrie” leave the harbor of Sydney with a company of eleven, comprising the party who were starting for the East Indies, we rejoiced exceedingly, and took fresh courage. God is working, and we should pray with ever-increasing faith and assurance that every prayer is recorded in heaven, and will eventually be answered.

Another cause for raising a stone of Ebenezer is the miraculous restoration of our son Paul to health. A year ago the first of this month I brought him home from the sanitarium to die, if God did not intervene. Before bringing him home, I called Brother Gates, Brother McElhaney, and Dr. James, who is an elder, and after carefully explaining to the child his condition, and telling him that if God spared his life, I wanted him to devote it to the work of carrying the message to others, we prayed for him, and Brother Gates anointed him with oil, in harmony with the instruction in James 5. I felt that this was the last thing I could do. I then committed him to God’s care, to heal or otherwise, as the Lord willed. As Abraham laid Isaac upon the altar, so we laid him on the altar. We were fully resigned to the Father’s will, but prayed that if he saw that the child could live to honor him and forward the work of the message, he might spare him.

He began to mend from the day he reached home. Within the past year he has lost all the bad symptoms. He suffered from consumption of the bowels, and was a mere skeleton, and apparently bloodless. No one who saw him had any hope for him, humanly speaking. To-day he is plump and ruddy and full of life. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

Most of my time the past year has been given either to tent work or to the translation of literature into Malay for use in Singapore. I have translated a Sabbath tract prepared by Brother Gates, one on opium, prepared by Dr. Kress, and am now at work on “Christ Our Saviour.” We hope to get this off by the close of 1906, when a Sabbath tract, one on the seventh of Daniel, one on tobacco, and finally “Coming King,” will be taken up. This book will be put into Dutch Malay—the kind of Malay spoken by the Baba Chinese in the Dutch East Indies. The tracts are first to be put into the Singapore Baba Malay, and then the Dutch Baba Malay. Another work that must soon engage our attention will be a Malay hymn-book, containing hymns suited to the needs

of our work, and dwelling upon the fundamental phases of the message.

This translation work has given me peculiar joy and satisfaction. I can readily see that the demand for literature in that great field is going to tax my strength for some time to come; for there are many millions of people to be reached through the Malay tongue alone in its various forms. The work already mapped out will keep me busy for a year at least.

There is one great field among the East-Indian born (or Baba) Chinese who come of Chinese fathers and Malay mothers. There must be at least a hundred thousand of these. Then there are the Mohammedans, numbering several millions, who can be reached with the pure Malay in the Arabic character. Lastly, but not least, there is the large population of Christian Malays in Sumatra, Celebes, Moluccas, and the Sangir group, who must hear the message. Most of these can be reached through the Malay. In the Celebes and the Moluccas it is a somewhat different Malay, but can be easily acquired by one who knows the pure Malay spoken in the Malay peninsula.

One night some weeks ago, in a waking vision I seemed to see all those hundreds of thousands of Christian Malays reaching out their hands for the pure light of the third angel’s message. We can enter those fields with literature when ordained ministers would be refused permission to labor.

All this will help the reader to realize what a tremendous importance attaches to the plan to establish at Singapore a strong plant for printing the message in all the languages of eastern and southern Asia, and of the East Indies. This plan is receiving serious consideration, and will no doubt crystallize in definite action in the near future.

I can say that while my first impressions of Australia—I do not refer to the people—were unfavorable, I like this country better and better. All my children are attending the Avondale school. Excellent work is being done in this school. I regard it as a singular mark of God’s favor that I am permitted to place my children in this institution.

In conclusion, I wish to say that I am rejoicing in a richer, deeper religious experience than ever before. I bless God for complete victory over sin. Many besetting sins that have hindered me in my Christian race are indeed “laid aside,” by the grace of God, and I am striving with all my heart to run the race set before me. I wish to testify that one secret of this victory lies in a prayerful study of the “Testimonies.” I thank God with all my heart for the spirit of prophecy, and especially for the “Testimonies.” I know they are from God, for they bring conviction to me whenever I read them. Furthermore, they describe my condition as I myself could not do it. As I have read them, I have stood in awe, as if I heard the very voice of God speaking to me.

Cooranbong, N. S. W.