420
July 1924
T H E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
Our Bible Institute in Hunan Province, China Dr. Frank A. Keller Superintendent
The Hunan Bible Iuutitute (the China Department o f the Bible Institute of Dos Angeles) is organized along similar lines to the home Institute,— training native Chinese young men and women fo r Christian work, and at the same time carrying on an active evangelistic w ork among the unsaved. The work (which is recognized by the different evangelical missions as one o f the best in China) has th ree:departments. (1) A Bible Institute at Changsha (the capital city o f Hunan Province.) (2) Twelve Colportage Boats (floating Bible Schools) w ith 13 men on each boat, devoting the mornings to Bible Study, and the afternoons to giving the Gospel in the native homes. (3) The Autumn Bible School and Conference at Nanyoh (one of China's three sacred mountains). Hundreds of conversions have resulted from the work done among the thousands of pilgrims. SOME “ S. O. S.” CADES
the entire' conference wéek and on till thé day after they started home, Praise God! It was a sight to see them all at meals, thirty-two tables of eight each! After the rice and vegetables were served they all rose together and sang the “ Grace before meat" chorus. Here is a free translation of what they sang:—- ‘O Lord upon our table bestow Thy gracious light That with gladness of heart we may eat in Thy sight. Nourish our-bodies and strengthen our souls, Then at' last receive us to Thy heavenly folds.’ “ After breakfast the 9:30 bell sounded, calling.them all together with the city members for a half hour’s united prayer. This was followed by two hours of Bible study. For the first three days I gave them “ The Better Things” of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and Mr. E. E. Clarke of Sin- chang, who kindly came a two and a half days’ journey to assist at the conference, gave some most helpful Bible readings from Genesis. The afternoon meetings were filled up with addresses by our local workers and workers from the Biola Bands. Open air meetings were held in various parts of the city and at the same time examinations were going on for the candidates for baptism. The evening meetings were devoted to lantern talks on such Gospel themes as, “ The Life of Christ," “ The Sower," “ The Prodi gal Son,” “ The Story of Joseph” etc. “ On Monday, February 18th, we had the joy of baptizing seventy-two men and one woman and the day following, these, with the two hundred odd members present, sat down together at the Lord’s Table to commemorate His dying love. For the first timé in the history of the work here the body of the city church, with all the seats added for the conference, was filled by members of His body, the in quirers having to sit either beside the pulpit or up in the gallery. “ The closing testimony meeting cheered our hearts as with shining faces one after another arose and told how the Living Word had gripped their hearts. We have reason to thank God for Çis gracious working in our midst. House-to-House Evangelism “ There has been no slacking off in the work of House- to-House Evangelism, and we do indeed praise God for the abundant fruitage. How we wish that some of you could have been with us as trophy after trophy (won to Christ by Biola Evangelistic Band No. 9, or by the workers of our local Band) came forward desiring to make public con fession of Christ and be received into church fellowship. ‘How did you get to know about trusting the Lord Jesus for salvation?’ they were asked, and turning toward the above mentioned workers they invariably replied, ‘THEY CAME TO OUR PLACE AND WE HEARD THEM PREACH!’ Can you imagine how our hearts, and theirs, swelled with (Continued on page 451)
A few weeks ago the Rev. Robert W. Porteous of the China Inland Mission returned from furlough. He promptly paid a visit to the principal districts of his large field, and carefully inspected the work of the Biola Evangelistic Bands. Then came his annual Bible Conference which proved to be a gathering marked by God’s rich blessing. Mr. Por teous wrote a report of his visit to the outstations and of the conference and kindly sent us a copy to read and pass on to other friends. Those who have read his previous let ters in THE KING’S BUSINESS will be glad to read the fol lowing extracts from the stirring report which Mr. Porteous has just sent us. As you read of the Spirit-led and blessed work of Mr. Ou-Yang and Mr. Wen, who are now serving as evangelists in the China Inland Mission, please bear in mind the en couraging fact that these men received their training in the Biola Evangelistic Bands. We have just had the joy of supplying three Biola trained men to two other missions to take charge of important posts, thus emphasizing the fact that our work is not only that of widespread evangelism, but also that of training men and women for the strategic posts where they are so urgently needed. Mr. Porteous writes:— “ After having visited several of our 38 outstations we began preparations for the Men’s Annual Conference, February 13th to 19th. With the timely help of the workers of Biola Evangelistic Band No. 9 and some of our local men, the church was beautifully de corated to welcome the various groups of Christians and enquirers as they arrived from their long tramps through the sticky mud to gather with us in the House of God for a week’s fellowship and Bible study. Some 270 guests arrived, part of them had relatives on the street with whom they stayed and the others remained with us on the Mission Compound. The new conference buildings were a great boon! In fact we could not have managed very well without them. Our able helper, Mr. Ou-Yang, (formerly assistant leader in Biola Band No. 6) sounded the early morning bugle call arousing them all at dawn each morning for the various prayer meetings in the dormitories. By the kind permis sion of Dr. Keller the men of Biola Band’ No. 9, and sev eral men from Band No. 6 were with us, and they, with some of our local workers, conducted the devotional exer cises morning by morning in the different rooms. How our hearts rejoiced to hear the early bursts of praise, and to know that they came from the various companies of those ‘Gathered together praying’." “ God wonderfully answered prayer for good weather throughout the conference. There were snow and rain until they began to come, but with the exception of a slight drizzle one morning the good weather continued throughout
Made with FlippingBook HTML5