China

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 12, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 19.

China.— In a letter to a friend in Mountain View, Sister Louise Roberts, who went from our publishing house to China, writes very encouragingly indeed regarding their work in that field, and how much freer they are than our workers in Japan, whose mail is opened without any apology on the part of the authorities. She also tells us that Koreans are very friendly to American missionaries, but the Japanese Government is grinding the very life out of poor Korea.

Referring to some of our own workers over there who have been sick, she says: “In spite of all the sickness among our foreign workers here lately, our work has never been so strong as it is now, and new interests are constantly springing up. The stations are using large clubs of the paper and many tracts, and the native evangelists and colporteurs are meeting with excellent success. Clubs of the paper are being increased from month to month as they gain experience. So you see that is a sure sign that the work is going.”

She expresses the wish that the time may soon come when they can have their own printing-office, and also declares that a sanitarium is needed there very much, and also more dispensaries at our stations and out-stations. Another splendid thought of the good missionary is: “We like the Chinese and find that it is no discomfort to us to adapt ourselves to their customs and ideas; so that is no trial to us as it is to some, yet we rather expected it would be to us. Of course, the most of the Chinese are dirty and ignorant and superstitious, and they have all the faults that they have been accused of, but still there is lots of good in most of them, and some of them lead such honorable lives that I often wonder how they can be as good as they are under the blighting influences of heathenism. When they are converted—they are admirable Christians, and I don't believe that they have their superiors anywhere. That is the miracle of the Gospel, that it takes these poor souls and makes of them subjects for the kingdom of God. As far as personal preference goes, I know now that I would rather be in China than any other mission field.”