Encouraging Reports From China
Reports to headquarters of the China Inland Mission are said to be very encouraging. One report says: "During the last fortnight over two hundred converts have been noted; these come from twenty stations in seven provinces." Another says: "In several districts the lives of the converts have received spiritual quickening, and expensive idols have been destroyed." A further report announces that "everywhere there are openings for the propagation of the Gospel and the dissemination of Christian literature; and, influenced by all kinds of motives, men of all ranks are willing to listen to the missionary." Another missionary says: "In one district in Hunan, at least two hundred families have abandoned idolatry, and a much larger number profess interest in the Gospel." From another we have this announcement: "In Kuangyuen, a very idolatrous city, one woman burnt all her idols and her ancestral tablet at the grave of her deceased husband during the funeral. She had long desired to give up idolatry, but her husband had forbidden her. Now that she is free she has embraced her earliest opportunity of doing so and joining the Christian church." To which we may add the following from still another report: "The literary chancellor of Shensi, in his recent farewell address to some five hundred Chinese graduates, not only spoke favorably of Christianity, but said they were at liberty to join the Protestant church if they wished to do so." Writing from China to the Mission Board, Rev. W. S. Sweet says: "It was my privilege to see an audience of over 300 literati at Suchow University, who listened for two hours to the presentation of the history, growth, and benefits of Christianity. To one who believes in the virile power of the Gospel,13it means the conversion of large numbers of this class. Then, if the grip with which this class has held China be loosened, and some of them become advocates of the truth, many millions will be gathered into the Christian church. This educational evangel is one of the forces that has punctured idolatry. It is surely within the facts to state that in all the educational centers of the Chekiang Province, six men out of ten have virtually dropped the worship of idols. In conversation the other day with a doctor of philosophy in regard to ancestral worship, he said: 'I know that our ancestral worship is false, and many of my friends are coming to be of the same opinion. The truth will conquer.'"