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By LOU IS T. TALBOT, D. D.
flew from Shanghai to Wuchang, where we were met by Mr. Russell Davis, Busi ness Manager of the Hunan Bible Insti tute. It was a good thing that Mr. Davis took us in charge, for no one could un derstand us, and we would have been stranded indeed! We crossed the yellow Yangtze by ferry to reach Hankow, where we were entertained at the Lu theran Missionary Home, and in the eve ning of the same day returned to Wu chang, where we boarded a primitive and rickety train which required eight een hours to transport us the two hun dred miles to Changsha. It was quite a contrast to the luxurious airliner on which we had travelled! We wish we could go into the details of that trip. At least, there was one advantage: the slow transportation enabled us to see the countryside. The villages were intri guing, and the people who gathered at the stations to sell their wares most appealing. Everywhere was such filth as we had never imagined. Every Chinese home is not only blessed with large num bers of children, but there are pigs, and ducks, and chickens, and quantities of livestock of much smaller size, often re ferred to as “ China’s millions,” though more correctly, it should be “ trillions.” At last on September 17th we reached Changsha! Our hearts were d e e p l y moved as we for the first time beheld that great citadel for God, the Hunan Bible Institute. There were tears in our eyes and great gratitude to God in our hearts. The buildings stand on a fifteen- acre compound, right in the heart of Changsha, a city of 500,000 population, which is the capital of Hunan, the last province of China to admit the Gospel. The story of the establishment of our school is a thrilling one. But in order to understand it, one must go back into the last hundred years or more of mis sionary history in China. In 1807, Robert Morrison, the first Protestant mission ary, arrived, followed fifty years later by J. Hudson Taylor, and a great army of heroic souls who sacrificed themselves to the gigantic task of reaching China for Christ. The work of various missions followed and progressed, until the first great blow came with the Boxer Upris ing in 1900, when anti-foreign feeling rose to fever pitch, and many of God’s servants were martyred. Out of this per secution, God hammered a church for Himself in that land. With the loss of so many foreign missionaries, the re sponsibility fell upon the native church, which grew in courage and strength. But the political picture was ever shifting. The rise of the young republic brought to China a national consciousness she had never known before. Russian aid was sought, and a new anti-foreign, anti- God element was introduced. At the hands of the Communists, many of the Lord’s children climbed to heaven by the T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
First post-war conference at Changsha including faculty members, delegates. Dr. Talbot and Mr. Allder. A T 8 p.m. on Monday, September 8th, to the accompaniment of many fervent “ God bless you” ’s
very simple Gospel message. The Chi nese Christian workers were very thorough, spending considerable time with the inquirers, grounding them in the Word of God, and making clear to them that being a Christian not only meant a personal acceptance of Christ, but an utter abandonment of idolatry, Buddhism, Confucianism, and all other known evils. That a real work of God had been done in the hearts of Chinese youth was evident from the fact that the ushers and choir m e m b e r s who served in those meetings had become Christians a year before, and were still walking with the Lord. Chinese pastors, evangelists, and youth leaders pleaded with me to present the challenge of China’s need to Bible Institute and Semi nary students in America. The rising generation of Chinese, es pecially the students, have lost all faith in idols, in Buddha and Confucius, and in ancestor worship, some even going so far as to ridicule their parents for such superstitions. But th is leaves but a vacuum in their' hearts and lives, and they are very susceptible to the two great rival forces which are battling for th eir sou ls — Christianity and Com munism. Although Russia is presenting its godless ideology with a zeal that the devil always gives to false systems, and is making great inroads in their think ing, still tens of thousands are eager to hear the claims of Christ. This condition exists not only in the larger cities and along the Pacific Coast, but also in the interior villages of China as well. At present, China has not buildings large enough to accommodate the thousands who will come to hear a servant of Christ with a real ipessage. Some evan gelistic meetings have been held in the open fields, where as many as 20,000 have gathered in one place to hear the Gospel. Certainly it is one of the great est opportunities for evangelism of this generation! On September 16th, Mr. Allder and I
from an enthusiastic crowd from the Bible Institute and the Church of the Open Door, Mr. James Bussell Allder, Executive Vice-President of Biola, and I, boarded a giant Clipper at the Los Angeles airport, and soon were winging our way across the mighty Pacific to ward the land of China. This was not a trip for pleasure. Our objective was to attend the first postwar Bible Confer ence of the China branch of our school, located at Changsha, Hunan, and to set tle various business matters connected with its maintenance. Although we had an extremely interesting flight, we have not space to describe our experiences at Honolulu, Manila, and other points en- route. It is sufficient to say that every where missionary friends gaVe us a hearty welcome, and that we saw vast devastation which recalled to our minds very vividly World War II, and caused us to pray more earnestly that we might have a long period of peace in which to send the Gospel to the ends of earth. • Our feet first touched Chinese soil at Shanghai at 6 a.m. on September 13th, where we were met by a number of alumni of Biola who are serving under the China Inland Mission. It is difficult to describe my feelings as for the first time I looked upon the great mission field of China. As I gazed into the faces of Chinese men, women and children making their way along the narrow, crowded streets, I realized as never be fore something of the appalling spiritual, moral and material needs of that coun try. We spent three days in Shanghai, during which time I was honored to preach five times, twice to great Youth for Christ gatherings through in te r preters. Literally thousands of Chinese youth attended these meetings, and in one service alone one hundred came for ward to accept Christ in response to a Page Ten
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