BROTHER H. KUNIYA writes from Kagoshima, Japan: 'Lately two ladies have begun to keep the Sabbath. Both are nice people. One is a widow, and we hope to make a good Bible worker of her, sending her to school this winter. Since the first of the year Mrs. Kuniya has been teaching a cooking class, and about nineteen ladies come to learn every Monday. Mrs. Kuniya gives a Bible study each time, lasting an hour. She has organized a Dorcas society also. We hope to win some souls.'
Brother F. A. Detamore, who has recently gone to take charge of the work in the East Indies and federated Malay States, writes from Singapore as follows: 'Many nationalities are represented here, making it hard to reach all classes with our small force of workers. Brother Montgomery . . . has a good interest among the English-speaking people. Brother Chan and his daughter are working for the Chinese, with good success. Baptism will soon be administered to eight or nine of these, and others will receive the rite later.
'Our visit to Java was a profitable one to the work of the whole field. . . . Several urgent calls for help have come from new fields, but we are unable to send help at present. Those who receive the truth in one place feel impelled to pass it on to friends and loved ones in other places. While I was at Kuala Lumpur for a few days, a Tamil man who had heard some of the truth came fifty miles to learn more of it. When I came away, he said he wanted to be baptized and unite with us. He and several others will be ready when I return there.'
In China
The following from Pastor J. J. Westrup, concerning the work in Honan, China, taken from the Asiatic News-Letter, will be of interest:
'To-day inland China is attired in her holiday garments, celebrating New-Year's. As I saw the people walking hither and thither, I thought: This people inland, altho they have heard of the great changes that have taken place the last year, still do not realize what has happened, but cling to the old Manchurian customs. Thus many Christians have heard of the power of the gospel, and that they are candidates for the kingdom of heaven, but so much of the time they fail to realize the grand possibilities before them, and still cling to the perverted customs of this sin-cursed world. But how encouraging it is to see a few souls who are earnestly laying hold of eternal life! Thank God that we have quite a few of that stamp here. I will mention two or three instances. One brother, Djang Dji Deh, is always full of joy in the Holy Ghost, and every time I see his beaming face it puts new joy and inspiration into my own soul. He is very poor, he and his wife having less than two dollars a month to live on, but that never troubles him. His heart is full of hope and of Christ, and that he talks about and preaches early and late. He used to be a Mohammedan; and when he left that doctrine, his father and the whole city turned against him, and he was imprisoned, beaten, starved, etc. Still he was faithful to Christ. One day a stranger came to him and comforted him greatly with many Bible promises.
A Chinese colporteur ready for the road
Djang asked the stranger, 'Who are you, and where did you come from?' The stranger answered, 'I came from Chi-Fu-Kou' (the place where our station is located). After a few days Brother Djang came to find the stranger, but no such man was to be found. Then he said, 'I thought, the way he comforted me, that he must be an angel.' This brother has won his family and others, and has about thirty children coming regularly to meetings. We hope they in turn will win their parents. The other day we rented a small house of him for four dollars a year. At once he thought of the tithe. Another said to him, 'How can you afford it?' He answered, 'I want to give an offering to the Lord.'
'Another brother, Du Fu Dju, who is now one of the most powerful preachers that we have, said the other day to his wife, who is rather slow in turning to Jesus: 'Can't you see what a powerful change there is in my life? Some time ago I used to swear and gamble and whip you and the children. I was a terror in the home as well as in the neighborhood. Now I have overcome all that, and all the time I treat you kindly, lovingly, and patiently. Can't you see what a power there is in this precious doctrine? You turn to Jesus, and He will be the same power in you.'
'I heard another evangelist lately testify that he had been seeking the Lord earnestly and had got victory over his temper and other sins. At the same meeting his wife (who has been as one possessed by the evil one for many years) made a touching testimony about her freedom. Was there any connection between his victory and her freedom? - Most assuredly. He has been praying for many years, and sometimes wept like a child because she was so troublesome. As soon as the Lord sees the earnestness of the man, his prayers are answered, and his wife is free. And she is so earnest, reading the Word, and praying, and growing fast in her Christian experience.'
A Chinese Doctor
In a later letter, from Chow Kia Kow, Pastor Westrup writes:
'I have been visiting a mission station every week since Brother and Sister Allum left, and each visit takes three or four days out of the week, but it is time well spent, and I am very happy to report such blessed meetings in every place. Yesterday I returned from Shangtsai (thirty-seven miles), walking all the way there and back. The meeting at this place was a good occasion. Many seemed to be deeply impressed. We started a church school, which already has twelve students. This will be a strength to the work in that place. Altogether, we have started six church schools. We are praying daily for one hundred honest, converted souls this year, and the Lord is already opening doors of opportunity for us, both west and north, and in this vicinity.'
After a visit to Hsia Ting Chi, he wrote as follows:
'Yesterday I returned from Hsia Ting Chi (I visit a company every week), having walked fifteen miles going and twenty miles returning, putting my bedding, folding bed, and lunch basket on a wheelbarrow. How thankful I am to have health and strength to walk! It is a very healthful exercise. Many are losing health from want of exercise.'
Meeting place of Sabbath-keeping Christians in Shih Chiao village, China
After telling of the trials the believers in this place are undergoing, on account of their extreme poverty and their having to pay out money for repairing the city wall, for crude theatrical performances, and for building heathen temples, he says: 'I counseled the brethren to endure patiently. 'In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.' . . . I told them that the dear Lord allowed this that we might learn to be patient and humble, because only those who have this Christlike spirit can enter the kingdom, and tried to show them that only those who are willing to make a covenant with God through sacrifice are able to get ready to meet the Lord in glory. Our heart-to-heart talk made a deep impression on them. They all assented, and took up their cross with renewed courage.
'It strikes me with amazement when I see how awfully poor most of these brethren are, and then this squeezing persecution on top of it all. I wonder how they can hold out. I know of one family of five, who have only three fourths of an acre; others with as many and more in the family have only one acre to live on—have no chance in this sin-cursed world to earn a day's wages, but are simply pinned down to their one acre, and must eke out their living from that. When I see this, you may be sure, dear brethren, that I learn to circumscribe my wants, and I find that the plainer I live the healthier and stronger I become. Luxury and too much comfort never have agreed and never will agree with a spiritual, Christlike life.
'I am happy in the Lord, and thankful that I am here. I am daily praying that I may keep well, and stay right here until Christ returns in glory. He surely hears prayers.'
Again he writes:
'Yesterday one brother from Chang Deh Fu, who has been a preacher for ten years, came to study the truth with us. This brother had been appointed by the foreign pastors to overthrow the arguments of another brother who had just accepted the truth of the Lord's soon coming and the Sabbath, and to persuade him to go back to the fold. But in the argument, he himself was convinced of the truth, and many others there are persuaded. And that is not the only place the dear Lord is opening up for us.'
The following note by Mrs. R. F. Cottrell, taken from the Asiatic News-Letter, illustrates how the promise, 'Cast thy bread upon the water,' etc., is verified in definite instances:
'One busy day two years ago this winter, Mr. Cottrell was interrupted in his language study by the arrival of a well-dressed, intelligent-looking man, who told us he had come from his home town about seventy miles distant to hear more of the doctrine of which he had incidentally learned a little through a paper purchased from a canvasser.
'Of course Mr. Cottrell was glad to have a long talk with him, and after a season of prayer, stocked him up well with literature to carry back to his home. We both felt impressed at the time that we would afterward hear more from this man; but over two years had passed, and altho we had from time to time inquired about him, we had never heard anything of his whereabouts.
'About a month ago another man came to call on us, from the same town from which our former15friend had come. This man — Liu by name — told us that he came as the representative of about twenty-five others who had embraced the Sabbath doctrine as the result of the papers and tracts given the former man and that he had been asked to come as a delegate to petition our mission to open a chapel in their city. He said that they stood ready to help considerably in the matter of expense.
"As to the man who had given them the literature, they did not know definitely of his whereabouts, or even whether he had begun to keep the Sabbath. However, later in the same day, an evangelist arrived from one of our out-stations, saying that this man was now living near the chapel at that place, and was keeping the commandments of God. This coincidence caused great rejoicing, not only to us, but also to the men who brought the tidings. Our first evangelist, Huang Sien Seng, has recently returned from a visit to this place, and reports very favorably concerning this opening."
SOMETHING NEW AND NICE
Are you interested in what the Sabbath-schools are doing for mission lands? Do you want your school to have a beautiful reminder of their success? The Sabbath-school Department has had made a number of charts showing the amount of the Sabbath-schools' gifts to missions during the past twenty-six years. The chart is 36 x 27 inches, lithographed on vellum drawing cloth, and is striking and attractive in appearance. It should be hung permanently in every Sabbath-school. Price, post-paid, is fifty cents. Order without delay if you wish to be sure of getting one. Send money with the order, as we carry no accounts. Address the Sabbath-school Department, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.
Co-operation Corner
Helping Together
THERE are constantly coming to this office requests for this paper (1) for those who are poor and unable to take the paper; (2) for mission work among prisoners and others otherwise confined or secluded; (3) for public reading-rooms; (4) for general missionary work in foreign fields by our missionaries; (5) for general missionary work in various phases.
Sometimes there are calls for tracts in foreign languages as well as English. It is not possible for the publishing house to meet all these requests. Publications are sometimes published at a loss to the house. We felt sure that many more of our readers would be glad to help us in this work. Thus may we bring together those who have no time or opportunity to do missionary work, but who are able to help others, and those who have the time and opportunity, but not the means. Who will contribute to our Coöperation Fund?
Special Notice
Some of our subscribers feel it a privilege to help in our coöperation fund in order that the SIGNS may be sent to others unable through some reason to pay for the paper. Here is what one recipient says:
"Your notice received this morning, notifying me that my subscription expires June 24. Would like you to continue sending me the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, as I am always interested in that particular paper more than any other paper, magazine, or book, excepting the Bible. You have been kind enough to send me that paper for over a year now, free of charge, and I trust you will continue to do so free, as I have no money to pay for the same, and no way of making any. I am paralyzed from my waist down, but manage to get about on crutches. I would like to have the SIGNS OF THE TIMES as long as I live,—how long that will be I can not say. I am fifty years old and might live another six years. In case of death, the superintendent will send you word."
It is through the response of our readers to our Coöperation Corner that we are enabled to bring such happiness to less fortunate readers. We invite you to share these privileges with others.
Bibles. — Remember that we are headquarters for anything in the Bible line. Pacific Press Publishing Assn., Mountain View, California.
