With the Dawn
We are moving forward with the dawn. Day is beginning to break over these distant regions. The Call of this great North-west as we apprehend it is twofold: it is not only the call of the need, but that God is working to meet that need in these days as never before. “When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees,” He said to David long ago, “then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the Lord go out before thee....” 1 That sound of “a going,” an unmistakable moving of God’s providence, is heard throughout Kansu to-day.
Even since the chapters of this book were written in their first form — written immediately upon leaving the province — changes have come that remarkably confirm this impression. Had it been published then, it would have lacked much of its message. But now, delayed through our experiences with brigands in Yunnan and by the publication of that story, it comes out at a time when in answer to prayer the evangelisation of the far North-west is taking a distinct step forward.
1 2 Samuel v. 24.
Was it ten years ago, at Cairo, that the change began to come? Something happened then connected with Kansu and the Moslems of North-west China that seemed deeply mysterious. Full of life and hope, William Borden of Chicago, having completed his course at Yale and graduated from Princeton Seminary, had set out upon his missionary career. Sane, strong, richly equipped as to gifts and training, he was also the possessor of wealth which was equally consecrated to the Lord he loved. Rarely does a young man enter upon his life-work with so great promise of usefulness. For Borden was a missionary already — one of the founders of the Yale Hope Mission, and skilled as a “fisher of men.” It was to the Moslems of Kansu his life was given, as an accepted worker in the China Inland Mission.
And then, in the midst of his Arabic studies in the language-school at Cairo, where he was throwing all his heart into preparation for his far-off field, the call came — “Come up higher.” Borden was ready. In the short span of five-and-twenty years he had accomplished more than many of us in a lifetime. Above all, he had learned to know the divine Master and Friend whom he loved with an undivided heart and served with uncompromising loyalty. To him it was “all joy,” though the waters of suffering ran deep and the task he had ardently prepared for had to be laid down. With the news of his early death a shock of surprise and sorrow came to countless hearts, for Borden was known and loved round the world. How could it be? what could it mean from the point of view of the work to be done? Such a life — cut short in its usefulness! Such need in his chosen field — unmet, forgotten!
Forgotten of men it might be, but not of God. When William Borden fell in Cairo, fell as a corn of wheat into the ground, was it not to “bear much fruit” according to His faithful promise? “Except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” 1 There was no mistake, no failure in God’s purpose, no loss even for Kansu, though that new-made grave in Cairo seemed to say that Borden’s work was done.
That was ten years ago — April 1913. What would the young missionary have accomplished in these ten years if he had gone to China? He would have learned Chinese and probably Arabic, would have seen something of his chosen field, have begun to get into touch with the people, Moslems especially, and to grapple with the problem they present. He would be ready, now, for the larger responsibilities of his life-work. And what has been accomplished in these ten years, apart from any human foresight or planning? Things have moved slowly, but changes have come that are startling us now with the sense of a power at work making for advance. All along the line it may be seen. From the railway reaching out toward Ningsia to the new stations
1 John xii. 24-26.
occupied on the Tibetan border; from the “Western Gate of China,” included now in a new mission district, to the openness of the Moslems in large areas as a result of the earthquake, all tells the same story — some power making for advance.
Perhaps the most encouraging of these developments has been that of independent Chinese missionary effort. It is a new thing in Kansu to have the Gospel carried far afield by Chinese Christians, unpaid and unsent save by the Spirit of God. Dr. Kao was the first, and it is a joy to record that the work at Kanchow grows and deepens. In August 1921 the first baptisms took place, when a little church was formed with seventeen members, two of whom were women. Now there are more than eighty inquirers, and it is all that Dr. Kao can do to shepherd the flock and make time for prayer, without which he realises there is no spiritual power. He speaks in a recent letter of rising at night to pray, and of longing above everything else that God would make him and keep him a man of prayer. Meanwhile the light is spreading and there are no fewer than thirteen places around Kanchow in which the Christians are at work.
Very different is another line of advance — that of the forcible opening, on this Kansu border, of the long-closed gates of Tibet. For Tibet is open, though the fact is little known as yet. The Mohammedan Governor, Ma Ch’i, with his foreign-drilled troops, has been more than a match for the brave but poorlyarmed Golok tribes who even when we were in Sining were still independent of China. In the winter of 1921-22 he sent an expedition with quickfiring guns, etc., against these wild Tibetans — tribes ruled by their own kings and in one case a queen — and, of course, crushed their desperate resistance. Now they are subject to the dreaded Governor at Sining, who has thrown open their country to Chinese and other travellers, settlers, merchants, and even missionaries. He has established post offices out there in the Golok country, and is building three Chinese cities far in Tibetan territory. For sixteen days’ journey from Sining the country is more open, now, than we are ready to enter.
Though in this matter also progress has been made. For years the devoted workers of the Christian and Missionary Alliance have been seeking to gain a footing among the Tibetan population of the borderland. Twenty to thirty Tibetan converts are gathered in their stations, and in one place a lamasery has been turned into a Christian church. And now, since we were in the province, they have been enabled to open three new Tibetan stations, in which the work will be carried on entirely in the Tibetan language. These stations are all near the border, and are regarded as stepping-stones for a further advance.
In the far north, too, out on the great road to Central Asia, the C. and M.A. are following the Guiding Hand. Years of prayer have prepared the way, and only this summer (1923) it has been decided that Mr. and Mrs. Mosely are to occupy the important city of Suchow near the Western Gate of China. Six days beyond Kanchow, this city is the starting-point for caravans that go out across the Gobi Desert to Hami and Tihwafu, where Mr. Hunter and Mr. Mather are working. What will it mean to them to hear that Kansu missionaries are at last following up their brave lead?
And then in a distant province of North China, in the district and one of the very cities in which Pastor Hsi laboured, the Lord has been preparing, through long years, gifted and experienced workers to break new ground in this long-neglected Kansu. Who could have imagined in reading Miss Cable’s book, The Fulfilment of a Dream, or in visiting the station of which it tells, that the ladies at the head of that great work would be called to leave their home and schools and the hundreds of Christians, even thousands in the country round, to go out as evangelists pure and simple, to carry the gospel of redeeming grace to those who have never heard? Miss Cable and the Misses French have trained hundreds of Christian workers, school-teachers, and Bible -women, who in their turn are reaching thousands. After fruitful years in educational work, crowned with unusual success from the spiritual point of view, their heart’s desire is being granted — they are evangelists again, privileged to go to one of the scores of waiting cities in Kansu that have never had a missionary. Could you not envy them the joy, mixed though it is sure to be with much of hardship and trial?
Hardly can we realise that, even since we left Kansu, God’s time has come for advance not only in the north and west but also in the east and south of the province. Two new stations now being opened by our own mission will give access to large and hitherto untouched districts — the city of Pingfan on the Great Road, and that of Hweihsien, south of Tsinchow, the oldest station in the province. This means that one of the forty governing cities east of the capital, that have never had a missionary, will shortly be occupied, D.V.
And in one other of these forty cities, experienced missionaries are now at work — for to Chungwei, on the Yellow River, Mr. and Mrs. Elliott from California have just come. Near them, in a busy town to the south of the river, Mr. and Mrs. Jamieson also have settled, kindling the first light on that populous plain.
Then from the recently occupied stations of the Scandinavian Alliance district come tidings of a manifest working of the Spirit of God. At Tsingningchow the ladies who went to give help at the time of the earthquake are finding openings on every hand, and from Kuyiian we hear of over a hundred inquirers. When one remembers that the population is largely Mohammedan, this is cause indeed for thanksgiving. At the very time of writing these words the first Christian Conference (three days) is meeting in that city, during which the first baptismal service is, D.V., to be held.
“We are so glad to have come to this needy field of Kansu,” Mrs. Swenson writes. “The Lord has given us open doors in Kuyiian and its large district. Much more could be done if there were more workers. The meetings are well attended; even quite a number of women come, and some really believe in the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. What joy it is to bring the good tidings of salvation to those who sit in darkness!
So many seem to have entirely lost faith in idol-worship since the earthquake, and they are longing for something to take its place. What a time of opportunity for the neglected province of Kansu!”
Even the Mohammedans of this great field are being thought of and prayed for as never before. An advance has been prayerfully determined on, about which it is not wise to say more at present — save that the time has come to pray for men called and prepared of God to occupy more than one strategic centre that it is hoped will shortly be opened.
These things are certainly new and largely un¬ expected. Does it not seem as if some new prayer-power must have been at work? For these wide¬ spread, disconnected happenings, touching all parts of the province and all the missions working in that field, have not come about through organisation or concerted planning. There must be prayer-power behind it all. Such movements do not develop apart from prayer, much prayer. Quiet like the coming of spring, the change is upon us almost before we realise that anything is happening. And, like the coming of spring, it is only the foretaste of what summer will bring. Tibet shall yet open its gates, and Islam its heart. Oh, in this day of opportunity let us press forward, and let us thank God that though He took William Borden He did not silence his prayers! Borden was a man of prayer. All through his college career he was a missionary, working mighty changes in men’s lives by prayer. To him, prayer was life: he lived to pray. And can we doubt but that closer access to the throne of God would mean for him a deeper fellowship in the intercessions of Christ? Borden’s prayer-life was born of fellowship with Christ, fed by a growing knowledge of and likeness to Him. May it not have found fuller, freer exercise in His unclouded presence?
And is not this the call of Kansu, Tibet, and Central Asia for us to-day? God is working — -and humbles Himself to seek and wait for our co-operation. What shall our answer be?
“Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.”
“The restless millions wait
The light whose dawning
Maketh all things new:
Christ also waits —
But men are slow and few.
Have we done all we could?
Have I, have you?”