I WAS sitting one Sunday in my home at Pedang, Sumatra, reading, when a Malay entered, and introduced himself as a Christian Battak. I was very glad to see him, and gave him a cordial welcome, for I had long been deeply interested in the work done by the Barmen Mission in the uplands of North Sumatra, the land of the cannibal Battaks.
In the course of our conversation it soon became necessary for me to allude to the fact that we were Sabbath-keepers, and I went on very briefly to state the scriptural reasons.
This young man, Immanuel by name, is the son of the oldest senior Battak minister, and has graduated from King's College, in the Battak country. When I gave him Bible studies on Daniel 2 and 7, he quickly comprehended all I said about the history of Babylon and the other three kingdoms. He can read music, and used to sit for hours at a time playing sacred music. Just before we left, he told me that when he first called he came with the object of convincing me that Sunday was the Sabbath. It seems the German missionary had told him we "keep Saturday like the Jews;" but when he heard the fourth commandment and studied other texts, his mouth was closed.
We had many earnest talks and some Bible studies together, until he came to love us, and seemed very sad at our leaving. He said to me, "Why do you go away now, just as I am getting interested in these great questions? Will you not stop here and teach me more concerning them? I want to know the truth, and mean to obey it, but I have not had sufficient time fully to consider these subjects. They seem to be true. I have sent for my Battak Bible, and want to read these proof-texts in my mother tongue before finally deciding. If I do become a Sabbath-keeper, I shall go back among my people and tell them the truth."
I gave him a copy of "Bible Readings" in Dutch, as he knows some Dutch, and can follow the line of argument with his Battak Bible.
He is a most promising young man about the age of twenty-four, and is already educated. He only needs to have the truth instilled into his mind thoroughly to make him a most efficient worker. The conditions are such that European missionaries can not enter the places where the Barmen Mission is strong, for opposition would set in; and without the consent of the Mission, the government would not give us permission to carry the Third Angel's Message to the 60,000 Battak Christians in North13Sumatra. Immanuel, however, can take the message, and nobody can hinder him.
The providences that brought him to Pedang against the advice and counsel of his father and the missionaries, are remarkable. He felt he must come. He entered a printing-office to assist in printing a Battak newspaper. I told him that the Lord had brought him there to show him the truth.
Pray for Immanuel, that he may be kept faithful, and rejoice in the fulness of the light of truth.
