Earnestness of the Native Converts—Successful Evangelists Are Soon Developed from Those Who Accept the Message
By ARTHUR G. DANIELS
OUR efforts in behalf of the spiritual enlightenment and uplift of the Filipinos have met a most encouraging response. Pastor and Mrs. Finster spent their first year in the Philippines studying the Tagalog, the language spoken by the people about Manila, in the province of Luzon. While engaged in language study, they employed competent scholars to translate some of our smaller publications into Tagalog.
HELD THEIR FIRST BAPTISMAL SERVICE
Having obtained a working knowledge of the Tagalog, and having provided themselves with some literature in that tongue, they began to visit from house to house, holding Bible studies, and distributing literature. In March, 1911, two years and three months after landing in Manila, they held their first baptismal service, and organized our first church in the Philippines. Eighteen believers, including the two missionaries, united in church relationship. During the following year, the membership of this church grew to one hundred; and at the beginning of 1913, it was one hundred fifty.
As these persons embraced our message, they became earnest witnesses to the truth, among their neighbors. They were active in distributing message-filled publications, and in holding Bible studies with their friends. Some of the young men became successful preachers, and others gave their entire time to colporteur work. As a result of these activities, our numbers are rapidly increasing. When I visited the field in March, 1915, I found much to cheer and encourage us. Pastor Finster, the superintendent, had brought to Manila the native evangelists, Bible workers, and canvassers, for a workers’ meeting during our visit.
Instruction in different lines of service was given to these workers each day during the week. Including the young people employed in the printing plant, there were about forty workers present. They were very responsive to the instruction given, and unitedly renewed the consecration of their lives to God and the work to which He has called them. In all my travels, I think I have not met a more self-sacrificing, active body of young people than these Filipinos. Surely God’s grace has wrought great changes in them, and now He is using them in the proclamation of His message to the Filipino people.
FIVE YOUNG EVANGELISTS
Five of the young men of best education and largest experience are giving their entire time to our evangelistic work. At the time of our visit, some of these young evangelists were holding tent meetings in the city of Manila, and were having most gratifying success. Forty-six converts were baptized while we were there, and twenty or thirty more were receiving instruction in preparation for baptism. The evening services were attended by many more interested listeners than could get inside the tent.
AUTOMOBILE TRIP THROUGH LUZON
The encouraging reports given us regarding the work going on in the country north of Manila led to a visit to some of the villages and towns in that region. As it was impossible to reach all these places by train, Pastor Finster secured a large automobile, and took seven of us on a journey of one hundred fifty miles.
The first church we visited was at the village of Bukawa, about twenty miles north of Manila. The manner in which this little church was raised up is an example of the missionary zeal that characterizes our new believers in the Philippines. One of our Filipino brethren who was teaching in the public schools of Manila, located his family in this village, where he could devote his spare time to missionary work—visiting families, distributing literature, and holding Bible studies. By these efforts, an interest was awakened, which led Pastor Finster to2send one of the young evangelists to the village to hold public meetings. The result was the organization of a church of sixteen members.
NATIVES HARD TO DISCOURAGE
We next visited Malolos, twenty miles farther north, where we have a church of thirty-three members. Here we enjoyed a most excellent meeting with these earnest people.
Upper: A FAMILY OF NATIVE FILIPINO BELIEVERS. Lower: GROUP OF NATIVE FILIPINO EVANGELISTS DEVELOPED SINCE ELDER FINSTER ENTERED THE FIELD IN 1909.
About a year ago, this congregation erected a neat church building; but soon after its dedication, it, with many other buildings in the town, was burned to the ground. This was a heavy loss to these poor people; but their courage was good, and they were preparing to rebuild.
Leaving this place, we hastened on to Narzagaray, about seventy-five miles north of Manila. Here we found ninety believers. Between fifty and sixty had been baptized, and the rest were receiving instruction more fully in the Christian life, preparatory to baptism. The chief of police and two members of the town council are members of this church. These people were all brought into the church by the labors of two of our Filipino evangelists. It is surely a great blessing to our cause in foreign lands to have native workers who can raise up good, substantial churches. Our meeting at this place was held in the open air, as there was no building at our command large enough to hold the audience. There is an excellent interest here, and the outlook for the growth of our cause is promising. It is a real Filipino town, fifteen miles away from the railroad. So far as any of us can judge, this is an illustration of what can be done in many other towns in these islands. Everything impresses our workers in these fields that just now is the time to press our work with all zeal and devotion.
MARKED SUCCESS OF NATIVE EVANGELISTS
Left: NATIVE FILIPINO COSTUME. Right: NATIVE COSTUME GATHERED UP FOR A STROLL ON THE STREET.
Our next meeting was held in Baliwag, a good railway town in the north. A short time prior to our visit, two of our native evangelists began a series of tent meetings here. The people became deeply interested, and the attendance grew until there seemed to be as many people standing around the tent as could possibly be seated inside. Just as this large attendance had been secured, Brother Bibiano Panis, the more experienced preacher of the two, became ill of appendicitis and had to be taken to the hospital in Manila. This was a sad blow to one of the most encouraging openings we have so far seen in the Philippines. I spoke in this tent, to a large, appreciative audience. As I looked into the earnest faces of these people, who seemed deeply impressed, I greatly desired to remain and unfold to them the purpose of God regarding the salvation of lost men and women as that purpose is revealed in His inspired word; but at the close of the service, we were obliged to hurry away to Manila. When Pastor Finster visited this place two months later, he found fifty rejoicing in the message that had been preached in the tent.
This journey gave us some idea of the density of the population in the island of Luzon. During a large part of the journey, we passed through village after village, so close together that many of them seemed like one continuous town. The sad part of it all is that tens of thousands of these people have no spiritual life. For hundreds of years, they have been groping in moral darkness and superstition. However, their readiness to accept light and truth is a cheering and impressive omen to the missionary. Now is the time to exert ourselves to the utmost to save them; and the Lord of the harvest is going before us, to prepare the way for a great work.
