OPEN DOORS FOR THE GOSPEL.
By E. J. B.
A GENTLEMAN who has just returned from an extended missionary tour in China and Japan, says that in the late Boxer movement China was more sinned against than sinning; that “the constant talk of partitioning China, and the unreasonable demands made upon her by the powers,” made her suspicious. Of the present outlook he says:— The missionary work is more prosperous than ever before. People are turning to the Lord by the thousands. Every mission school I saw was crowded to its full capacity with students who pay their board and tuition. Ten or fifteen years ago, when the schools required board and tuition they could hardly secure pupils. Even when they gave board and tuition, it was difficult to fill the schools. St. John’s College, in Shanghai, requires its pupils to pay board and tuition three years in advance. The capacity is three hundred. Not long ago there was a vacancy for thirty new students, and eighty-five applied, with sufficient money to pay three years in advance, tho only thirty could be accepted. St. John’s College is a mission school, and was a very small one a few years ago. Rev. W. M. Upcraft of the West China Baptist Mission writes: “There are many calls, and open doors were never so widely open nor so many as now. . . . It is far to come and toilsome; but once here, there is unbounded opportunity and unlimited welcome.” Rev. W. E. Witter, M.D., says, in the Missionary Review of January, 1902:— The American Baptist Missionary Union has never before, in all the eighty-eight years of its remarkable history, faced so many wide-open doors, or received such repeated and imperative calls to enter and possess vast fields for God. No more unfortunate calls ever came from any part of the world for the immediate thrusting in of the sickle and reaping unto life than have been coming for months from our representatives in the Philippine Islands. . . . A recent letter to the rooms (of the Baptist Missionary Union) was accompanied by a document containing the full name, age, etc., of 7,934 people, with thirty-five headmen, or chiefs, who desire to abandon Rome and go over to the Protestant faith. From the island seas of Japan, Captain Luke Bickel of our Gospel ship writes of having reached sixty-two islands with about 350 towns and villages, and given their first message of the Gospel to over 40,000 souls during the last twelve months. This work has been simply thrust upon him by the eagerness of the people to hear the Gospel. From Burma, Assam, Southern India, and Africa come similar appeals for more laborers with the promise of abundant harvests. Do we see in these appeals, and in the many appeals from other equally needy and promising fields, no indication that God is calling upon us? He has given us great and precious light on His Word; are we faithful stewards of our Lord’s goods? He is by His providence opening doors of opportunity on every hand. The great needy world is appealing to us, and beckoning through these open doors; are we pressing in? We may not all go to share our cup of the water of life with those in the regions beyond; but we can help those who can go; and there are plenty to work for all around us, if we will open our eyes to their needs and our hearts to God’s sweet love and pity. The fields “are white to harvest.” Let us each ask, Am I doing what I can? If we are not faithful workers for the Master, the question is for us, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” E. J. B.