December, I93S
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
448
CHRISTMAS
B y GRACE PIKE ROBERTS A s told to Mildred M. Cook
T o spend Christmas in America, with one’s own people and among Christian friends, is one o f the outstanding joys o f a missionary’s furlough. But to me, there is no happiness to be compared with the privilege o f spending the Christmas and New Year season on the mission field. On many occasions, Christmas has found my husband and me in China at the Hunan Bible Institute, Changsha, the China Department o f the Bible Institute of Los An geles. And although we have returned only recently from China, I am finding myself going back there in thought as the end of the year approaches. I can see our lovely and spacious compound with its tall poplars on either side of the broad walks, its fine admin istration building— the Milton Stewart Hall— and other buildings, all of which were the gift o f those consecrated Christian laymen, Lyman and Milton Stewart. The Insti tute occupies a strategic location on the Military Road which connects Changsha with another large city thirty miles away. Over that well-built highway, the first to be constructed in Hunan with funds from the American Red Cross, automobiles, busses, sedan chairs, and rickshaws are continually passing. What activity! I am traveling that thoroughfare now, in memory; come with me, won’t you ? W e are stopping before the massive iron gates that give us entrance to the compound. It must be Christmas time!
Eager young hands have gathered the branches and have constructed the arch, for every year, when classes are dismissed two days before Christmas, the students prompt ly begin their work o f decorating. To them, the beautify ing of the grounds and buildings is not a question o f per sonal enjoyment only. It is a matter also o f testimony to hundreds o f passers-by; for in China, the sight o f an evergreen arch proclaims that honor is being accorded a great man— on the occasion of his arrival or departure, or in recognition o f some meritorious service that he has per formed. The Christmas arch that spans the entrance to the Hunan Bible Institute bears silent witness to the fact that the only Truly Great One whom the world has ever known has come to be the Saviour o f all who will trust in Him. Our friendly gateman is smiling at us as we pass. There is no time today to pause for a long conversation, nor to observe the quantities o f gospel literature that are stored in the two gatehouses on either side o f the entrance. This lit erature is kept for the use o f the Evangelistic Bands, when they go out on their regular missions o f evangelism. The work o f the bands is a department separate from the regular school activities, but the evangelistic ministry which reaches unevangelized districts through these bands is n inspiration to the students and the means o f winning many souls. We are hurrying toward the
THE STORY THAT THE PICTURES TELL The large group is the student body and faculty at the Hunan Bible Institute, pictured at the entrance to the Milton Stewart Hall. Dr. Frank A. Keller, superintendent of the Hunan Bible Institute, is shown, with Mrs. Keller, in the inset at the left. The children at the right are the sons and daugh ters of members of the faculty, standing with their kinder garten teacher; these are the children for whom a Christmas party is given each year in the Roberts' home in China. Janet Roberts, and her twin sisters, Joyce and Jean, may be seen in the center of the group of children. At the lower right are Charles A. Roberts, Treasurer of the Hunan Bible Institute, and Mrs. Roberts (Grace Pike— Biola 1921), the author.
central building, the Milton Stewart Hall. In this building there are to be found offices, classrooms, and an auditorium that seats comfortably five hun dred people. But it is not to any o f these rooms that we are being led, but rather to the social hall on the third floor, an attrac tive room thirty by sixty feet in
The entrance gates are lavishly decorated with fir and cedar. A banner, intricately formed, com pletes the arch, and four large Chinese characters proclaim that the coming to earth of Jesus the ^Saviour is being celebrated here.
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