General Conference Bulletin, vol. 7

Bible Study Hour - EXPERIENCES OF THE GOSPEL’S POWER IN CHINA

F. A. ALLUM

May 20, 8:30 A. M.

In obedience to the prophecy of Revelation 14, we find that today the message of the three angels has gone to many parts of China. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.1

It was not until 1888 that our work began in China. Our first missionary, as you know, was our venerable brother A. La Rue. I was down in the graveyard in Hongkong, where that brother is sleeping, and I shall never forget the thoughts that came to me as I stood by his grave. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.2

It is more than seven years since I had the privilege of going to that field. I want to contrast the conditions as I found them then with the conditions as they exist today. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.3

The first port that we touched (I am going to carry you on a little excursion through this “celestial” land—a land far from celestial when you get there) was Hongkong. No Seventh-day Adventist company was there. We were greeted by one of our brethren from Australia who was there canvassing. We then went up to Canton, and were warmly greeted by Brother Anderson and his colaborers. I think there were at that time twenty or thirty baptized members in that province. Is not that so, Brother Anderson? GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.4

J. N. Anderson: Not more than that. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.5

F. A. Allum: I am sure that is so, as I recollect the situation. The only other place in South China at that time where the message had gained any foothold at all was at Amoy. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.6

Next we sailed around on this coast [tracing China’s eastern shore], and came to Shanghai. There we were two weeks before any Seventh-day Adventist met us, owing to a mistake in a telegram giving the date of our arrival. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.7

Finally, Dr. Miller, who was located at this place [pointing to the province of Honan], came away down there to meet us, and then we received our first introduction to missionary life. It was a little different from what it is now. You doubtless have read some of the experiences through which we passed. It was thought at that time that it was best for missionaries in the interior to adopt the native costume, and for the men to adopt the queue; and so, at the suggestion of our brethren, I went through the painful process. I will never forget the experience and the troubles that came to me in consequence of having that appendage. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.8

PHOTO-DELEGATES FROM THE AUSTRALASIAN UNION CONFERENCE, WITH OTHERS WHO FORMERLY LABORED THERE

We first went up the Yangtze River 640 miles to the great city of Hankow, the Chicago of China. We then went up this railway line [following railway north] until we reached the station at Shansi. That was our first home in China. In all this distance of over twelve hundred miles, we had not met a single native Adventist believer since we left our station at Canton. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.9

That was seven years ago. In all that field we did not have fifty baptized Sabbath-keepers. I remember in Hunan we had but two. Shortly after, Dr. Selmon baptized his first convert, making three. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.10

Now I want to carry you back over that same journey that I have just described as I came to this Conference. First, we started from our headquarters in Chowkiakow, a name that is possibly familiar to many of you. That is our central station, and you will notice by these red crosses [pointing to the map] that we have 19 companies of Sabbath-keepers in that province today, with a membership of 183, in the province where we had only 2 believers seven years ago. The Lord has been going out before us and blessing us in a wonderful way, and I want to tell you, brethren, that the people there are men and women who pray to God. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.11

I shall never forget an experience we had as we came from that station to this Conference. The first night of our journey, we stopped at a little place called Shao Yao. There we have an established church of thirty members. We slept at one end of the chapel, and when I awoke the next morning about half past three, I heard one of our native evangelists praying. I awoke my wife, and we listened to that man up there at half past three in the morning, praying. He prayed on until almost five o’clock. We heard him pray that the blessing of God might rest upon his work, praying for us, that we might have a peaceful journey. Tears rolled down my face, and I said, “Would to God that we, as foreign missionaries, might receive that same gift of earnest prayer, that these Chinese evangelists have.” I tell you, brethren, they put us to shame! I wish you could have heard that earnest entreaty, as it went up to the throne of God for his blessing upon the work. And that is only one of many. GCB May 22, 1913, page 89.12

There is today at this station one of our best evangelists in China. He is a man of God, and if he will only keep humble, he will be in our mission what Pastor Shi was in the China Inland Mission. This man is a man of faith. I will tell you a little about him. We want to listen to this little stories about these people, because they tell us of the wonderful way God changes the hearts of men and women in that land. When this man to whom I referred came to us, he was a member of the China Inland Mission. The man’s wife at that time was a raving lunatic; and the more he studied the message with us, the worse she became. The members of his former mission told him this was a judgment from God because he had left the orthodox church and become a heretic. The man was sorely tried. I shall never forget hearing that man’s wife as she came to our mission station, raving and cursing us and every one else, because she had lost her reason. But that man prayed on, and we prayed with him. When I tell you of her condition you will realize something of the nature of the work God has done in her heart. I remember that one time, during a driving snow-storm, in one of her fits of insanity she ran out into the storm without clothing, and on this occasion her child was born. For a time this woman’s case seemed hopeless, but her husband continued praying for his wife, and she also in her sane moments prayed for herself, until at our last general meeting at Yen Cheng that woman came and gave one of the best testimonies I have ever heard a Seventh-day Adventist give. As I listened to her testimony, I looked to see what effect it had upon her husband. He was a very stoical Chinaman. You know the Chinese are all stoical. But tears were running down his checks, and when his wife sat down, after telling how good God had been to her, he got up and told of her experience. He said that, in her gratitude for what Jesus Christ had done for her, every Sabbath day, from sunset to sunset, she fasts; and three times during every day of her life, she kneels before God to thank him for what he has done in her behalf. She said, “I am going forth now to tell this gospel of God’s love to my Chinese sisters.” GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.1

PHOTO-WORKERS OF ASIATIC DIVISION, IN GENERAL MEETING, SHANGHAI, CHINA, 1912.

I will relate another incident in reference to that place. I was preaching to those people upon the beautiful thought of peace. As I preached, I looked down upon them and said, “Do you know what peace means?” There was a poor, ragged old man sitting in front of the chapel, and he got up and said, “I have peace in my heart.” When I heard this man say that, my heart was filled with longing to do something for that people. He was the poorest man among us. His earnings were four cents per day in American money, and yet he said he had peace. He could neither read nor write. I will tell you how he got that peace. Every morning before he begins his day’s work he runs to our chapel and learns a text of Scripture. He then works on till dinner time, and then comes again to learn another text. After his work is over, he comes back again at night and spends nearly all his time in that little chapel learning texts of Scripture, that make him so happy and that bring him the peace of God. The Chinese have a prover, “Silver and gold is not true happiness; true happiness is peace.” And when this message comes to them it brings peace to their hearts. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.2

While I am speaking about this place, I will state that here is the grave of Dr. Miller’s wife. It is a singular fact that at this place today we have the largest church in Honan. Here seventy to eighty believers meet every Sabbath day. Sometimes we have an audience of one hundred to one hundred thirty. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.3

There are many other circumstances that I could relate. I will tell one more. Down here in the province of Hupeh, the late Brother Esta Miller and I went to a place. I remember that while I was speaking, we heard a terrible noise outside in the streets. We heard some one out there cursing and swearing at the foreigners for coming there. The Hupeh district is the most anti-foreign of any part I have ever had the privilege of visiting. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.4

That violent man cursed and swore, and finally entered our chapel. We preached in an upper room. There was a ladder, the only means we had of getting up to the room. And he stood at the bottom of the ladder. Finally he went away, saying, “These people do not preach like other Christians.” He went away, and later came back, and our evangelist labored with him until God has in a great measure given him his reason. He still has periods when he is troubled along that line. But, brethren and sisters, God has given him back his reason to the extent that he, although one of the poorest of the poor, took five dollars, Mexican, of his money, and procured a beautiful inscription hung up in our chapel, and the glory of God.” He had that inscription hung up in our chapel, and there it is today to the glory of God. That man, who once cursed and swore, now comes around and sweeps the chapel, and does it for nothing, does it for the love he has found that Christ has for him. This is another illustration of what the gospel is doing for this people. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.5

Now there are many other things I would like to tell you, concerning conditions that we have over there. When we are asking for missionaries to come to that land, we want them to know what they are going to face. We do not want them to come out feeling that they are to be carried around on flowery beds of ease. We do not want them to come to that land for the romance of the thing; for I tell you, brethren, that even in the water we drink there is everything but romance. One of the greatest privileges, aside from those that come to one’s spiritual nature, by being in this Conference, is the fact that I can have good, pure water to drink. I will tell you the kind of water we have. We tried to sink wells, but the water contained so much mineral matter that we had to give it up. We were driven to use the water of the river, and I have seen as many as five dead bodies floating down the river at one time. We boil and filter the water; and that is water that we have had for the past seven years. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.6

We have proved again and again that the promises of the ninety-first psalm are true today. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.7

Another word as to some of the other conditions. There are no roads in the Chinese interior. Some one asked Brother J. P. Anderson the other day if one could get an automobile over those roads. I want to tell you that the only kind of thing you could get over those roads with any kind of comfort would be a flying-machine. GCB May 22, 1913, page 90.8

The inns that we have in central China are beyond description. They contain very many things. The donkeys are placed in one end, and the guests placed in the other end. Frequently I have had the mules and the donkeys come and nibble my hair as I have tried to sleep in those places, but I have slept on, just the same, remembering that our Master had no better place than I had. It does not cost much to stay there overnight. Some one was speaking this morning in our meeting of foreign delegates, about providing missionaries with more than a two-roomed house. One of the necessities would be a fumigating room, where one could go and be fumigated after a return from one of those trips. But this is nothing when we think of what God does for those people—of the great love and the loyalty they have for this message. When I came away this time, they told me to tell you that there remained “much land to be possessed.” That was the last scripture that I was given before leaving; and, brethren, I want you to remember that. I trust that God may speak to some persons who are not afraid of difficulties, not afraid of cholera, or typhoid fever, or any of those things, but who may go out with the assurance that man is immortal till his work is done. GCB May 22, 1913, page 91.1

[In closing Elder Allum illustrated on the blackboard the manner in which the Chinese build up their words in written characters, using the words for “righteousness” and “Holy Spirit.” The audience followed with deep interest the striking lessons conveyed by the detailed characters composing these words.] GCB May 22, 1913, page 91.2