p. 7 | Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 44. (11/4/1909)

The Thanksgiving Ingathering for 1908

By I. H. Evans

The Ingathering for 1908 was a real blessing to our missionaries in foreign fields, as well as to those who contributed to this good work. Sometimes we are inclined to forget the great opportunity the Christian enjoys of being connected with the Lord in proclaiming the gospel to a lost world. For a moment let us conceive God to have appointed angels to preach the gospel to sinners, and to have given man no part in helping his fellows. What misfortune could have come to us that would be greater than to be separated from any part in helping to save our fellow men? It was in infinite love to man that God granted him the privilege of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In last year's Thanksgiving call, there was gathered $43,359.91. This was a small ingathering, speaking from the riches of the world and the blessings which our Heavenly Father has given to us in this land; yet forty-three thousand dollars will do much toward supporting missionaries in heathen lands.

On the basis of our Mission Board estimates, that amount of money would support three white families and five native missionaries during an entire year in each of the following countries: China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, the East Indies, India proper, Tibet, Manchuria, Siberia, and Central Africa. That means that thirty white families and fifty native workers could be maintained for a year in heathen lands on the donation received from last year's ingathering. This certainly is doing something for these needy fields, and the results of the work done by these servants of the Lord will be lasting as eternity.

While the ingathering was being taken in 1908, it was my privilege to be in inland China, in the province of Honan, at the mission station of Hsiao Tao. The day before I arrived at this station, twenty-three precious souls were baptized into Christ, and it was my privilege to talk to them about the love of God, and the spread of the gospel of his Son Jesus Christ. The crowd gathered to hear was so great that it was impossible to assemble them in the little chapel. An overflow meeting was held outside, while I spoke to those within. I do not remember of having ever spoken to more appreciative audiences than those loyal believers in inland China.

WORKERS AT GENERAL MEETING, LUCKNOW, INDIA

It would seem that this year we ought to raise one hundred thousand dollars for this good work, and it is with this special object in view that we solicit funds from our friends and those who are in favor of the spread of the gospel among the heathen nations of the world. Some who are solicited to give, may have other church obligations which require from them regular donations to maintain their own denominational work. To all such we wish God-speed, and trust all the contributions made will be used to the glory and honor of God.

Surely God has greatly blessed us in the United States with riches and with prosperous times beyond anything in the history of the world. We are under a great obligation to the Lord for these temporal blessings which he has given to us in such abundance, and it should be a privilege for us to contribute of our means for the advancement of God's work.

The Seventh-day Adventist Mission Board has appropriated to the foreign mission fields for the year 1909:— Polynesian field ............ $ 8,500.00 China ...................... 42,000.00 Fields bordering on the Mediterranean ............ 10,000.00 India ...................... 26,000.00 Japan ...................... 11,000.00 Korea ...................... 8,000.00 South Africa ............... 23,000.00 West Africa ................ 3,000.00 South America .............. 20,000.00 West Indies ................ 19,000.00 Mexico ..................... 8,000.00

This does not include money raised in Europe and Australia for missionary work, nor in the above-mentioned fields.

I. H. EVANS, Acting Treasurer Mission Board.

The Teaching of the Second Advent Movement

By William Warren Prescott

THE fundamental idea which has served as the actuating impulse and the creative principle of this movement is loyalty to the plain teaching of the Word of God rather than to tradition or creed. United with this is the recognition of the fact that God gives light upon the Scriptures for the proclamation of special truths due to the world at any special time. Thus, when the time came for the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh, “the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” Charged with a divine message, based on the fulfilment of prophecy, this forerunner of our Lord proclaimed to rulers, priests, and people the truths they needed to know in order to be ready to receive the Saviour.

1. MISSIONARY GRAVE OF A. G. WATSON, NYASSALAND
2. CANTONESE BELIEVERS AND EVANGELIST — MISSIONARY GRAVE OF A. G. WATSON, NYASSALAND

CANTONESE BELIEVERS AND EVANGELIST

Just so, as the great prophetic periods recorded in Scripture had either come to a close or were nearly fulfilled, and the specific signs marking the last generation were appearing, the providence of God raised up the great second advent movement. This movement is proclaiming to the world the speedy second coming of Christ in power and glory, urging upon all “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” The time has come for the preaching of that final gospel message which is “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” To this work Seventh-day Adventists are devoting their means and their lives.

For the benefit of inquirers who desire a general statement of belief in few words, we may say that Seventh-day Adventists believe,—

1. In the inspiration and divine authority of the Word of God, and that the Bible is a sufficient rule of faith and practise.

2. In the deity, the divinity, and the pre-existence of Christ.

3. In salvation from sin through faith in the merits and atoning work of Christ,— righteousness by faith,— the original Protestant doctrine.

4. In conversion, or a new birth, by the operation of the Spirit, and that only regenerated persons can be admitted to the kingdom of God.

5. In the perpetual obligation to obey the law of God, the ten commandments, and therefore in the obligation to obey the fourth commandment, which declares that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;” but that this can be done only by grace through faith.

6. That life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel, and that, therefore, man is not immortal by nature.

7. In a literal resurrection from the dead, and that rewards and punishments are bestowed at the time of the general judgment.

8. That immersion is the Scriptural method of baptism.

9. In the separation of church and state, and in granting to every man freedom to believe or not to believe, to worship or not to worship, according to his own choice.

10. That the best method for the support of the gospel is that which God himself has established; and they have, therefore, adopted the tithing system for raising means with which to carry forward their work.

11. In the practise of temperance in the strictest sense; and they are in favor of proper legislation prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors.

12. That Christ will return to this earth according to his promise, and that he is now “near, even at the doors;” but they do not set any definite time for his appearing.

13. That the divine commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature is still in full force.

W. W. PRESCOTT.

The missionary motive: “For the love of Christ constraineth us.”

CHINA

By J. N. Anderson

Forty Recruits Called For

We are glad to report progress in every respect in our China Mission field, not striking or extraordinary, but steady and permanent.

Four years ago our total force, besides native workers, was fourteen, located in the provinces of Honan and Kwang-tung; to-day we have thirty-seven, distributed in five provinces. Our force of Chinese assistants has increased from nine to forty.

Then our foreign workers were making a beginning in but two Chinese languages; to-day we have workers whose knowledge of Mandarin, Cantonese, Amoyese, and Hakka, makes them efficient teachers of the message in those languages. Other workers are now nearly prepared to take up active work in yet another language.

At our general meeting in Shanghai this year, we were seized with a boldness and a faith that led us to plan for the immediate entrance of our work into every province and dependency of the Chinese empire. To effect that end, we set about organizing our field and our forces.

The empire and its dependencies were divided, for our work, into ten great divisions, each to be in charge of a superintendent, the whole constituting our China Union Mission. Six of these divisions are carved out of China proper, the others being Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet.

To begin to enter these great fields and develop the work, we have called for forty families to come to China in the next two years. In this way we are planning for an advance on the entire Chinese world. J. N. ANDERSON.

Shanghai.

The Holy Spirit at Work

By F. A. Allum

At one of our meetings in Chien Mao Lu, one hundred twenty li [Forty miles] eastward, the Spirit of the Lord came very near to all present, and three or four small children took their stand for the Lord. These were from heathen families, and all, both believers and unbelievers, testify of the wonderful change in their lives. One little fellow, only six or seven years of age, went home to his father and told him of his determination never to worship the heathen gods again; for, said he, “Jesus is coming soon to judge the world.” Since then this father, who was formerly opposed to the truth, has pulled down his heathen gods, and he and his family are anxious to hear.

IN OUR FIRST CHINA MISSION PRINTING-OFFICE

On every hand we see evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work among China’s millions, preparing the way for the message to go quickly.

At present we are conducting a Bible school at our station, with an attendance of twenty-five men and seventeen women and girls. We are having a blessed time. Some of these people are so earnest that they get up in the middle of the night, and pray and weep before the Lord, asking him to bless them in their study, and cause them to understand this truth which they count most precious. They would put to shame many in the home land. Most of the texts they memorize, and thus when they meet with opposition, they are able to give chapter and verse for “the reason of the hope that is in them.”

To the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west, God is opening up the work, and we are unable to meet the other demands. Will every reader join us in praying the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into whitening fields?

F. A. ALLUM.

Chou Chia K’ou, Honan.

Medical Work for Women

By Bertha L. Selmon

As there is almost no rational treatment of disease in China, the women are sadly neglected. I will mention one or two dispensary cases. A woman came in with a mastoid abscess resulting from middle-ear disease. She had suffered most the pain till the pus had made its way through the bone. I lanced the abscess, and put in drainage. The suffering must have been intense; yet this woman had been doing her household work, and her mother-in-law abused her because she had to take the time to come to the dispensary each day for four or five days to have the wound dressed. She made a quick recovery. One day a poor woman was brought in dying of opium poison. Her mother-in-law followed, cursing and reviling

her for being so unfilial as to take her life. That morning had brought merely a trifling incident, but it was just the straw too much for the young wife and mother to bear. She had been scolded every day since she came to the home, and this morning, for a matter for which the mother-in-law knew she was in no wise responsible, she dared to answer that she could not help it, and was then accused of impudence, and beaten by her husband at the mother-in-law’s command. This was why she took opium and ended her life of misery. Her own mother’s family came next day; and not finding the mother-in-law, whose life they sought, they smashed all the dishes and furniture, and broke up all the windows and doors in the mother-in-law’s home, by way of revenge. This is only a glance at the physical and spiritual need of our Chinese sisters. Helpless and hopeless, with no rights which any one is bound to respect, it is little wonder that to them life itself becomes a burden.

BERTHA L. SELMON, M. D.

A Chinese Girl's Message to America

ONE of the girls in our Bethel Girls' School, Canton, sends this message to America:—

“I thank the brethren in America for loving us in China so much that you send missionaries to preach the gospel to us, that we may hear the true word. I am so very happy, and for that reason I write a few words to thank you. I hope God will bless each one of you, give his peace to you, make you strong physically, and establish your hearts to do God's work. For the privilege of attending school I also thank you, my brethren and sisters, and also that you have given money with which to buy school building.”

And we assure Kwok Tak Yan, the writer of this little letter, that we thank God she has learned to love “the true word” in the Bethel School. We trust she may become a worker for God.

A Changed Life

By J. J. Westrup

A NATIVE doctor accepted Christ as his Saviour about two years ago. We have watched him, and prayed for him daily, as we know it means a great sacrifice for him. He lives at the Shang-tsai out-station. When I visited them recently, he said:—

“When I used to sell my medicine at an enormous price, and played cards, drank, and smoked opium, and could make from one hundred fifty dollars to three hundred fifty dollars a year, they said I was a good man, a fine fellow, and I had many friends; but now when I have quit these habits, and by making my living in an honest way earn only from thirty-five to forty dollars gold a year, they call me a bad man, and all my worldly friends have forsaken me. I had to discharge my cook, and my wife does the cooking now; but I am not afraid to work, I am not lazy.”

And surely he is not. Only coolies are supposed to roll wheelbarrows and do hard work, and if any one else does it, he is regarded as a coolie. But this man, although educated and a doctor, wheels his books himself on a barrow to places where he wants to go to sell them—he is one of our book sellers. Some time ago he sold out. Then he took his barrow, and came all the way to this station, got his box of books, and wheeled them back to Shang-tsai, a distance of seventy-three miles in all. And such trips he makes often. On evenings and rainy days he makes shoes to sell, to earn a living.

J. J. WESTRUP.

Hsia Iao, Honan.

Greeted by Fireworks

By J. P. Anderson

I was asked to visit a place called Moi Lung, about half-way between Hongkong and Swatow. We had a call from there, to the effect that some hundreds of people wanted us to preach the gospel to them.

IN SHANGHAI: NEW METHODS IN THE ANCIENT EAST

When we landed, we were met by a score of the professed Christians. Some had never seen the face of a foreigner before. They knew not how to express their intense joy that I had come to them; they did not know how to show forth their happiness in any other way than by firing off fire-crackers. The distance from the seashore to Moi Lung is about four miles and a half. They would not allow me to walk. I must ride on horseback, and the other two workers must have chairs. Ahead of us ran several men, crying out in loud voices, “The Muh su [foreign preacher] has come!” As we journeyed, our crowd swelled, and with it the volley of the fire-crackers. When we reached Moi Lung, there were about two hundred following me. I did not like this kind of procedure; but “what can not be cured must be endured.”

They have a house which they bought and fitted up for a chapel. When I alighted from the horse and entered the chapel, all firing ceased for a moment. But I had no sooner disappeared than it began again, with more earnestness than before. This was kept up for about fifteen minutes, when it stopped altogether. Then they marched in and looked me over. This was their way of expressing their gratitude to me for coming to teach them “about Jesus,” as they said. I stayed about ten days. We held evening meetings, which often lasted until nearly three o’clock in the morning. Some days we had Bible study, and other days preaching.

Later

The interest at Moi Lung gives promise of bringing forth much fruit. We have rented their chapel for a year. They are heathen yet, but there are good reasons to believe that some of them will accept the gospel.

It cheers our hearts to find such openings. I wish our people could look over a gathering of these people, and hear them sing, “Down at the Cross,” or some other hymn. They do not always sing the tune; but the spirit is there.

J. P. Anderson.

Moi Lung, Kwang-tung.

The Gospel Message Reaches China

“BEHOLD, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim [China]. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth . . . for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” So Isaiah wrote, and the day for China to hear the gospel message has come.

THE SUNRISE AND THE HERMIT KINGDOMS

By H. Kuniya

JAPAN AND KOREA

From Buddhist to Adventist

FORMERLY I was a Buddhist. I am truly thankful that the Lord has brought me out of the darkness of heathenism into the marvelous light of the advent message.

The population of Japan is over forty-eight millions, with an annual increase of three hundred thousand. Japan is as densely populated as any country in the world. I, of course, think that there is no country more beautiful than my own.

1. EVANGELIST KUNIYA AND WIFE. 2. SANITARIUM, KOBE

The religions of Japan are Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. There are also many foreign religions in the country. Since so many forms of Christianity have been introduced into Japan, there is a tendency to unite many heathen ideas with Christianity. This makes it difficult for the people to understand the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.

OUR MISSIONARIES MAKE USE OF THE GOSPEL TENT IN JAPAN

I enjoy working in the country better than in the cities, because the country people are so simple-hearted and so anxious to listen to the truth. They are hungry for something that will satisfy them. Twenty years ago Christian teachers were stoned in Japan; but now the Lord is going before us, and in the country villages the people, like hungry fishes, crowd around us to hear the gospel. Of course all will not accept Christ, but we have found some honest ones, who are now rejoicing in the truth, and anxious to tell the good news to their friends.

Some time ago I was invited into the country to hold meetings. When I arrived, I was surprised to find a large Buddhist temple overflowing with people anxious to hear me. I asked the chief of the village if I might preach my religion in the temple, and he said, “Yes, and if the priests interfere, we will put them all out.” After the meeting I conversed with a priest, and he said, “You spoke the truth to-night, but I can not obey such a religion. I would soon lose my position.” There are about three hundred thousand temples in Japan, and more than this number of priests.

As the result of intemperance, all kinds of diseases are common. There are plenty of drug doctors in every city and village, and they make much money without curing the people. One poor old woman, with rheumatism, spent all her money on physicians, but was no better. My nephew gave her fomentations, and she was soon much improved. Her friend told her not to associate with him, or she would become a Christian, but she said, “I don’t care about that if I get well.” This shows the need of medical missionaries. Remember needy Japan in your prayers. H. KUNIYA.

A Trip to a Korean Village

By R. Russell

It was a trip of two hundred li (about seventy miles), to visit an isolated company of believers. We left Soonan about noon, and, after passing over several low mountains, and through fertile valleys, we stopped for the night at Morokdong-koda, staying in a Korean hotel. There was one room, about ten by fifteen feet in size, and fourteen persons slept in it. As the Koreans have no ventilation, and all smoke, the atmosphere becomes quite dense. Among the company were traveling merchants from all parts of Korea; so we did not miss the opportunity to scatter a good supply of tracts.

The next morning we had a bowl of rice, and started on our way. While we were riding through a small village, a man ran out and called, “We won! We won!” (“O doctor!”) When we stopped, he said his wife was very sick, and he wished us to come to see her. We turned aside, and the natives gathered around. We were able quickly to help the patient, and did not fail to distribute our tracts. We bade them good-by, and rode on, while the crowd followed to the edge of the village, and bowed, saying, very politely: “We thank you so much.”

Our destination was reached about 10 A. M., and soon we had the company collected. We studied and preached for three days, and between times visited at their homes, or saw their sick,—of whom there were many,—for they are more than one hundred li from any physician. The people said we followed the Saviour’s example, preaching the gospel and healing the sick. This caused us to

lift our hearts to God that he would help us to be true ambassadors for him. On our return, we spoke with many people by the way. I never enjoyed a trip more in my life, and never was busier. We in Korea ask an interest in your prayers. R. RUSSELL, M. D.

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