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SONGS IN THE NIGHT anS REJOICING ALL the DA Y
Tills the Great First Church at Heaumont, Texas —Their Recent Meeting Was Glorious.
E HAVE just closed a two weeks
meeting in the First Church with
Dr. Lee Scarborough leading. It
was a meeting of great depth and
power. All of us regretted the
necessity of closing when we did,
but Dr. Scarborough's engage
ments were such that he could
only stay two weeks.
✓
There were many remarkable hours and
some remarkable conversions during the meet
ins'. It was a men’s meeting throughout and
those who were hardened in sin were among
the number saved. A strong lawyer and schol
ar, but a man totally divorced from the church
and religion and who had not been inside a
church in a dozen years, was gloriously saved
and baptized. Another man of wide business
experience and who had not been to church in
ten years was reached in a men’s meeting and
saved. And thus the story went on. Business
men, professional men. laboring men —all class
es met on a common level in Jesus.
There were more than seventy-five profes
sions of faith and sixty additions to the First
church. One rather remarkable thing was that
from the first night of the meeting there was
somebody saved at every service who united
with the church.
HE SUN and moon probably never
shine brighter than in the Shantung
Province. China. I have been here
at Laichowfu, in North China, for
about two months, and this has been
one thing that has impressed me. The
atmosphere is clear and during the
summer months, even in the latter
part of the fall, it is necessary for
T
foreigners to carry an unbrella to prevent
sunstroke. The air is dry. Ihe brightness
of the sun is doubtless due to the clear
ness of the atmosphere. We are much
farther north than the Central States of North
America, and yet the rays of the sun here are
much stronger. The brightness of the sun is
in great contrast with the spiritual darkness
around us. It is fortunate that there is some
purifying agent to cleanse the air of the dense
ly populated cities. But nothing else than the
cleansing power of the Son of Righteousness
can change the spiritual darkness which mani
fests itself on every hand among these people.
I speak not from a sentimental standpoint, but
from practical observation made here on the
field.
A Type of the Sturdy Indian Stock.
The people of America, in a great many
cases, regard the Chinese as being no more
hopeful than the lowest coolies seen m our
larger cities, and yet they are hopeful. Those
seen there are usually from around Canton or
from other parts of South China, and are an
inferior race to these of the North. I have
been impressed with, the fine type of physical
manhood seen here in North China, and these
people have good intellectual qualities. Hav
ing studied their physical characteristics and
wavs of doing things. I am convinced in my
own mind that the North American Indians
are most probably descendants of this hardy
race of Chinese. Their hair and eyes arc
black, the hair being straight; the skin brown :
cheek bones and forehead high : and the build
of the body is very much like that of the
American Indian. They arc a people of great
endurance and great perseverance. They are
destined to take a prominent place among the
civilized nations of the earth. They practice
A LETTER LAICHOWLU
The First of a Series of Letters to be Written to The Golden Age.
The Golden Age for February 16, 1911.
Sy CALEV A. RIDLEY.
Two splendid young men. now in the Y. M.
C. A. work yielded to a call to preach and
are shouting happy over their victories. One
doctor of large experience gave himself over
to God for the rest of his life. Several others
who knew nothing whatever of the joy of per
sonal work for Christ were constrained to go
out and lead one after another to Jesus. One
good doctor who had never before spoken a
personal word for his Lord began on one of
his patients whom he soon interested and, be
ing unable to show him the way, brought him
six blocks to the pastor and others that he
might be shown the Saviour. It was easily
done and both the lost man and the good doctor
sang the praises of Him whom we serve.
The greatest hour ever seen in the church
was the eleven o'clock hour on last Sunday
following a mighty message on “The Cross of
Christ.” God's power fell upon the whole peo
ple and amid the holy hush of His felt presence
there was such surrendering to Him and such
evidences of consecration to His service as I
have never seen before. Fully two hundred
men and women said they were willing to lay
on God's altar their lives, their hopes, ambi
tions. their money and all else they had. My
own precious boy. only thirteen years of age,
gave himself for the preaching of the glorious
Sy CHAS. A. LEONARD.
economy in everything except time. I his
they will learn to use to better advantage later.
When one sums up their real needs he must
confess that what is needed most is the sav
ing power of Jesus Christ, spiritually, and the
fundamental principles of Christianity in their
social, political and economic life. Their re
ligion has held them back, and ever will do
so if they cling to it. But we can see in many
ways that the time has come when there will
be a great change just here. The old ancestral
worship will be the most difficult obstacle to
overcome, but here in North China —and it
is true over practically all of China —the heath
en temple and idcls are crumbling and new
ones are n--t being built.
Prejudices Are Disappearing.
When a new missionary comes here and
-ees what good has been done he feels that
he does indeed belong to that great body of
people who are benefactors to mankind, and
there is a consciousness that it is a great privi
lege to enter into this work, that he is giving
to the people of ( hina that which will benefit
them most both directly and indirectly. The
cordiality of the native Christian and the
friendliness of rhe Chinese, as we meet them
upon the street and on the highway, giw
evidence that the barrier has been broken
down even here in the interior and that the
cause of Christianity will succeed But much
work is necessary and the work has really
iust begun.
The Laichowfu station, from which I write,
was established eight years ago by the Bap
tist churches of the South, and is under their
charge, being direetd by the Foreign Mission
Board at Richmond. Va. We have here a
Bovs' School, a School for Young \\ omen, a
Teachers’ Training School, a hospital for men
and a dispensary for women, a church, and
buildings for all these. There is a fairly good
evangelistic force, though this part of the work
has suffered greatly on account of lack of mis
sionary help to man it. The results in all de
partments of work are good and hopeful.
A Panorama Os Cities.
The city of Laichowfu is walled and is one
of the most important cities of this province.
gospel at home or on the foreign field. It
was an hour when earth and heaven met in
holy wedlock. The First Church will never
get over it.
Scarborough is one of the world s great
evangelists. No saner man has ever preached
for me. He believes in God, relies on the Holy
Ghost and preaches the gospel four square.
Our people will never cease to love him and
they are tied on to the Southwestern Seminary
as they never could have been without Scar
borough's coming, as was seen in the splendid
offering made for current expenses and endow
ment of more than $3,000.00 I o have Scar
borough in a meeting means the making over
of the average church. It means a new vision,
a new ambition and a new purpose. It means
that the saving of lost men and women be
comes the main business. When I shall go
into the evangelistic work I want Scarborough
as my yoke follow.
My assistant, Bro. Walter E. Rodgers had
charge of the music and Dr. Scarborough said
as the meeting closed: “This is the best sing
ing and leading I have ever heard in a series
of meetings.” Bro. Rodgers is a young man
of splendid parts and whether he sings or
works it is for God’s glory. Fie did valiant
service during the meeting.
The city's population is 150,000. The people
are crowded closely together. The whole of
this country is densely populated. A few days
ago I counted 200 villages from a mountain
near here. The average population is about
1.500 people per village.
We are situated about five miles south of
the Gulf of Pechilli, a part of the Yellow Sea,
and are about 150 miles west of Chefoo and
Port Arthur.
A UNIQUE GANG PLANK.
Our nearest seaport, if it may be called such,
is Tiger Head, ten miles away. It was here
that we landed for Laichowfu, having come
from Chefoo to Tiger Head on a miserable
C hincse steamer —a twenty-four hours’ ride.
\\ e could not get nearer to the shore than
three miles. Chinese junks came to our boat
and carried us as near the shore as they could
come and then Chinese had to carry us —both
men and women —to the beach on their backs.
When Dr. R. J. bV illingham, of Richmond,
b a., visited this part of China, a year ago, he
was carried ashore on the back of a Chinaman,
and on account of his heavy weight. Dr. Wil
lingham came near being dropped into the
water. The Chinese do not have manv nice
things of their own, so do not know how to
take care of articles which ought not be ex
posed to the weather. Ab hen our freight from
America was put ashore at Tiger Head some
weeks ago, the Chinese inn-keeper, into whose
hands the goods, fell for safekeeping, allowed
all the goods to stand in two davs’ ram, and.
of course, they were damaged, some of them
very badly. Iwo boxes of our best books were
soaked through and through with water, but
a missionary soon learns to take these things
as they come, because they are part of his lot.
Our nearest foreign neighbors are thirty
miles away\ ()ur mail comes overland 150
miles. I here are many privations here, of
course, but Mrs. Leonard and I came here ex
pecting to find hard work and a lack of many
things which we had enjoyed in America. I
am happy and glad that it is my privilege to
be here. I would not change my place for any
other in America, or elsewhere which I can
think of.
