Evangelistic Department INTERESTING STORIES from REAL EXPERIENCE A S T O L D B Y B I B L E I N S T I T U T E W O R K E R S
Another month of service has brought usual and unusual opportuni ties to hold fo rth the Word of Life to groups from foreign and home shores. The flags SEAMEN'S of many nations WORK seen in the harbor made one’s month w ater to p lan t the flag of the crimson cross w here it belongs— above every other flag. “ Occupy till I come,” in the Seamen’s work means the boarding of additional vessels, “ occupying” them for God, and so many ships were board ed w ith a prayer on our lips to have H is blessing re st in power upon th e peo ple on th e ir journeys to and fro. Nowhere, except on foreign steamers, have we ever seen such eagerness to h ear th e Word of God. We are th ink ing of one p articu lar steam er and re membering how the first gospel of John was given out in a foreign tongue and how one man, reading aloud the title.o f the Book to th e large crowd, announced th a t he had a Book about Christ. Then they came by the dozen, men and women, holding ou t th e ir hands in sil ence, while here and th ere one came, saying “ Please, give,” pointing to the coveted trea su re in th e w o rk er’s hands. How hard it was to make them und er stand th a t what was wanted was th a t they all should rep air to th e ir own qu arters and beds, so th a t all could be reached and no duplication occur. They retired and waited th e ir tu rn pa tien tly and were so th an k fu l to get the “Christo Books,” many fearing th a t the supply m ight become exhausted before th e ir tu rn came. Thanks to Him, all six hundred souls received the message — and only two Testam ents or Bibles were owned by two people in th e whole crowd. Outstretched hands and long ing h earts are to us th e token of g reater things to follow as He leads, we be lieve, many to Himself. On th e same ship was a group of Russian Jews, fleeing from persecution from Siberia to unknown lands to them. They were not overlooked. The Scrip tu res in th e ir language were given them
and gladly received, except in one instance. We rejoice to hear from tim e to time of new steam er lines being established out of San Francisco and th e opportun ity to preach His Word on new ground. P ray th a t it may be fru itfu l, prepared soil and th a t His blessing may not fail us, while preaching the Word in a needy field— th e H ighways of* the Sea. — Oscar Zimmerman, Supt. Shanghai, China. One morning th is week a t the b reak fast table someone asked me if we ever saw any definite resu lts from the dis tribu tion of the Scriptures among the pilgrim s a t Nan THE INSTITUTE Yoh. I was able to IN CHINA give a most positive yes in reply, and yesterday I received repo rts of the Jun e work from two of our bands, and one of those reports has some very strik ing and encouraging answers to th is question. I will share them w ith you, th a t you may join w ith us in praise, and also in prayer th a t God may continue to honor and bless His own precious Word. On reaching th e village of Mien Bih Chiao our evangelists called a t the home of a man named Hwang Hsien- Siu. Mr. Hwang soon told them th a t two years before when on a pilgrim age to Nan Yoh he had received a copy of “ Selected Portions of the Holy Scrip tu res,” he had taken the book home and had studied it very carefully, and was convinced th a t th is was th e tru e Gospel, able to save men. He also said th a t he had made no fu rth e r pilgrim ages to Nan Yoh. But he wanted to enquire as to ju st w hat was m eant by believing in Jesus. The evangelists sat th e re w ith him and his fam ily and quietly and lovingly opened up the Word to them . Then Mr. Hwang and his en tire fam ily kn elt in th a t humble Chinese home w ith our evangelists, con- T ract W ork in China.
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