T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S One missionary said to me, “I am go ing to send that band of students into the hardest part of the field.” I replied: "A ll right, send them there, but let us both keep praying for them.” And so away they went into this admittedly dif ficult field. How wonderfully God blessed them there can be seen from the follow ing letter which the Rev. M. E. Ritzman, the missionary in charge of the field, kindly wrote to us after paying a per sonal visit to the place while the students were at work. Mr. Ritzman’s Letter “Fifty miles south of Changsha lies San Men, a town of- several thousand in habitants. I myself have visited this place several times, and our evangelists have also made frequent trips to it.. We always found it, if not openly hostile to the Gospel, at least so coldly indifferent that one felt like being up against a stone wall. Two weeks ago, in company.with one of our evangelists, I made another trip to the place. And what a change! We were greeted with smiles, as we passed along the streets, we were invited into the shops for a cup of tea, our literature was received with thankfulness and we were invited to preach the Gospel to them. Above all, we were invited to take din ner with the head nran of the town, who informed us that he and three or four others of the leading men of the town had sent a letter to the Hunan Bible In stitute urgently requesting the station ing of a preacher in San Men, so that they might have the opportunity of hear ing the Gospel preached to them regu larly. What caused the change in the atti tude of the people? It was due to the fact that a band of ten students from the Hunan Bible Institute had spent six days of their New Year’s vacation in the town, and their faithful witnessing, their preaching of the Gospel of the risen, powerful Saviour, and their life among the people had borne fruit in an utter change of front. Sincere Native Preachers ■A day later I was with this same band of men at Shih Ting, ten miles away, where they had been laboring for three or four days before I came on the scene. I had a chance to watch the men at rest, in their meetings for prayer, in their in tercourse with others, and in their preaching to the heathen in the evening, and I was very greatly pleased with what I saw, for I am convinced that the
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men are in earnest in their quest for souls whom they may bring to the feet of the Master. I was unusually tired when we reached Shih Ting, and had hoped that I could turn in for a good night’s rest, but I was .so interested in their preaching that I was able to stand for over an hour and listen as two mem bers of the band kept the audience inter ested in a straight Gospel message, and the room was packed to suffocation. Un accompanied by any member of the band I was in the homes and in the shops of some of the people, and everywhere there was the same hearty endorsemnt of their work: ‘They are good men, they are preaching the truth and we like to listen to them.’ Many cheerfully enrolled their names as being ready to spend time regularly in Bible study. They begged us to come at once and start a catechetical class so that they might learn enough about' the Gospel to enter the church. I can only speak in the highest terms of the work done by this band of students, some of whom are only in their first year. They have done good work. Instead of spend ing their Nfew Year vacation in idle loafing at home or among friends, they spent it witnessing for the Master in the highways and hedges, and in sowing seed' that shall in time bring forth fruit, some thirty fold, some sixty, and some even a hundred fold.” M r..Ritzman’s Testimony Mr. Ritzman came to Hunan about eighteen years ago. He has been in gen eral mission work and is now a professor in a theological seminary. He is a stud ent a.s well as a teacher of young men, a careful observer and an enthusiastic worker. I have quoted his letter in full because it not only describes this work as seen by a thoughful outsider, but it' brings out so clearly the fundamental principles of the work, first of all the prayer life of- the men; second, their going into a new place and there living from morning to night with Jesus, their lives together and in the community, preaching “Sermons without words”, and then their evening meetings with the “Straight Gospel messages of a risen, powerful Saviour.” As I write, at nine o’clock Friday ev ening, a telephone message comes from the school saying that some of the stud ents are planning to walk ten miles to morrow (Saturday) to a village where they spent their New Year vacation, to spend, the day with those whom they
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