p. 15 | What Has Been Done by William Penniman

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 18, 1904

What Has Been Done

By William Penniman

WILLIAM PENNIMAN

“A CENTURY ago China was almost an unknown land, and nothing had been done for it by the Protestant church. Reviewing the labors of the past years, two questions naturally come to the lips of those interested in mission work in that country: What has already been accomplished? and, What still remains to be done? Let us briefly answer these two inquiries.”

“China, not long ago a closed land, has been opened from end to end. The Bible has been given to her in her own languages, and mission stations opened in each province. The progress, though slow at first, has been increasingly rapid. After thirty-five years of work, starting from 1807, when Dr. Morrison landed in Canton, there were only six converts. After a second period of thirty-five years, the six had grown to 13,035. Within the next thirteen years that number could almost be multiplied by three, for the converts were then 37,287, and in 1900 the number of communicants had risen to 112,808, which means that during the ten years from 1890 to 1900, the number of converts had again been trebled. Though the persecutions of 1900 have reduced these numbers in large measure, that reduction is not a cause for discouragement, for many have been laid away to await the coming of the Life-giver.”

“According to the latest statistics obtainable, there are sixty-eight societies at work in China, twenty-two of which began their work since 1900.”

“In connection with these sixty-eight societies, there is an army of 2,785 missionaries, of whom 772 are wives and 825 single women. These are augmented by 6,388 native helpers. There are 241 medical missionaries, of whom seventy-nine are women, and during one year as many as 691,732 patients were treated.”

“Beyond these figures, we should remember the more than ten million portions of Scripture circulated by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the similar work of other Bible societies, such as the Scottish and American; also the many millions of tracts scattered throughout the empire, which have results far beyond what can be tabulated.”

“Statistics tell only of the harvest already reaped, but there are other fields not yet fully ripe which must be included in ‘What has been done.’ There is much seed sown which will yet bear fruit, there is the blade already appearing, and much unripened grain which will yet be gathered in as the result of labors past.”

“Much has been done, but only in the way of beginnings. The foundations have been laid, and foundations being mostly below the surface, do not show. To-day there is opportunity as never before for building.”

The preceding, from China’s Millions, shows what has been done in preparing the way for the last message, and shows how quickly the work of evangelizing China, and also the whole world, can be done, when all of God’s people work with this end in view, trusting in him who has promised to cut the work short in righteousness. Rom. 9:28. As the work of evangelizing China is advancing with giant strides, so should this work advance in all other parts of the world. The time is not only hastening when the saints of the Most High are to possess the kingdom, but the people of God can, if they will, hasten the time when they will come into the possession of the kingdom. With this truly our watchword, “The evangelization of the world in this generation,” God’s truth will be carried quickly to the ends of the earth.