EVANGEL IST IC D EPARTM EN T
REVIEW OF THE MONTH’S ACTIVITIES By Bible Institute Workers
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WORK IN PACIFIC COAST HARBORS Oscar Zimmermann, Supt.
\ T ARIED, indeed are the circumstances * under which the workers find them selves in carrying the message of the Gos pel to the ships. The surroundings are those of a bee-hive of activity, and yet through the noise and bustle, the unrest and ungodliness, Christ is lifted up. One time the worker is seated in a luxurious cabin, where the captain of the large liner has bid him come and sit down. He finds the man intelligent, brainy, yet often hiding behind petty excuses. The sign on the bridge: “Be sure you are right, then go ahead,” gives the worker the opening to preach from the Word of God and press the message home. The next time the worker finds himself in a smelly, dirty and dark hole. For a minute he cannot see, but when the eye can make out the things and persons, he sees twenty or thirty or more Chinese coolies, some smoking their pipes, others chattering like parrots, and still others gambling as only the Chinese can gamble. One word is used to intro duce the stranger and his business to all wondering faces: “Jesu.” Then the dis trustful expression on the faces changes to smiles; everything else is forgotten, and all crowd around the worker, glad to receive the Scriptures. Yes, dark heathen, hearts open wide to the worker, and as he leaves, everywhere groups can be seen reading, often aloud, perhaps the first time of “Jesu,” whose name is above every name. The rich millionaire passenger, the Dutch chief engineer, the Japanese table servant, the cook, baker, barber, fireman, sailors, oiler, cabin boy, all and many Of them,
often on a single vessel carry the good news to their far off destinations. After leaving the vessel—it may be over barges full of coal dust and over a swing ing ladder on the side into the wave-tossed launch “Biola”—with a heavy heart because of the hardness of hearts, yet the worker rejoices with joy unspeakable, knowing that if he had a hundred lives to live each of them would be gladly lived in a hundred ports where each one is a “gold mine” of opportunity. Does it not almost seem that He Himself is unable to move *our poor hearts to serve Him as we ought ? Ought we not to pray as we never prayed before that He may so own the message that not a single one He has given us to minister to may be lost, but that we may see all of them in glory? A young man engaged in preparing a meal in the kitchen of a vessel was spoken to by the worker, and having no other opportunity than the one here presented, followed the man across the kitchen and pantry, speaking to listening ears. He had given up church, had no Christian friends nor hardly a chance to attend services, so was in a backslidden state—if ever he was a real Christian. He had ample time to think and was, in a way, bitter at first but finally became ' warm and was a changed man before the worker left. He came back and said he would study the gospel we left and spoke of his appreciation of some one being interested in his soul. He, we are sure, came back to the Lord. We are to see him again and need your prayers. On another day, while coming alongside a large freighter from Holland, with the
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