"The coming of the Lord draweth nigh"

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord… for the coming of the Lord draweth NIGH" (Jas. 5:7,8). These are indeed comforting words for those who labor in other lands, particularly where there is not much fruit apparent as a result of their labors, and they should also be comforting for all Christians at the present time.

A missionary writing from China says:"As far as China is concerned we have a picture of it in 2 Tim. 3:13." This, coupled with other verses in 2 Timothy, is not only a picture of China but of many other countries at the present time. The awful conditions in Russia and China, the unrest in India, the recent outbreaks in Argentine, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Poland and Germany, and disturbances in several places in this country, would surely lead us to believe that we are in the "perilous times" of "the last days" (2 Tim. 3:1), and that the world is fast becoming ripe for judgment (Joel 3:13).

"The coming of the Lord" will indeed be a happy event for believers, but for the rest of the world, "tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil" (Rom. 2:9).

"The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Missionaries realizing this are anxious to reach out to the unconverted as far and as quickly as possible. One writes:"It is evident the time is short, and what we do before our Lord appears we must do promptly."

Another says, "But open up this new field we must, as precious souls are traveling very fast into eternity and the light of the glorious Gospel must be shed abroad." Surely the urgency and necessity of the work demands our interest and prayers.

"The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." "Therefore, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord" (Luke 12:35,36).

"Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing" (Luke 12:43).

"Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12).

He is coming, He is nigh! Signs of this we can descry; Soon the clouds of midnight darkness will depart, And in radiance passing fair, We shall meet Him in the air. He is coming! Oh, 'tis music to the heart!

CHINA

The following extracts are from a circular sent out by our brother Kautto:

"It is now over a year since we returned from furlough, and we have been trying to be busy in seed-sowing. Especially during the past few weeks we have again had wonderful opportunities to sow the seed, as much as our perishable bodies will stand. We were intending to have some tent meetings, as mentioned before, but the bandits have been increasing so much that it is more dangerous to go to the villages than it has ever been before. In smite of some six hundred soldiers stationed at Taitowying the bandits came within three miles and held people for ransom. In one week's time some 50 to 60 men and women have been captured and held for ransom within a radius of five miles. All that have anything at all in their homes have moved into walled cities, and from the way in which they have been daily pouring in here it seems we have some four or five thousand people added to Taitowying in the past month. So we do not need to go to them for they are coming to us. After harvest we expect the bandits will slack down a little, and then we may be able to use our tent.

In the first part of the summer there was great drought in this part of China, and then when the rain finally came, the people generally re-sowed their lands, and when the seed had come up nicely, heavy rains came, and crops in many places were ruined, houses broken down and hundreds of people drowned. Now many of the soldiers have turned bandit, and one can never be sure he is safe from these evil men.

In a district west of Shuang-shan-tze Mr. Lee, our native Evangelist, heard there were a thousand drowned in the recent flood. People were leaving their homes, but one man had just built a new house, and decided to stay there with his three children. The water came into the house and he put the children on the k'ang; it rose to the windows, and he put them up on the beams overhead, and climbed up there himself. The waters rose until the house began to fall, and the man saw his children, one by one, fall into the water. Then the beam loosened on which he was and with it he was swept so far down the river that he reached home again only yesterday to tell the tale-after he was supposed by the villagers to have drowned "because he was such a bad man."

Mr. Lee was at Mutouteng also. There the river had done very little damage to the town, only two buildings being affected; but the stream took a bend to the other side of its bed, and in its swift tide tore down several idol temples. From Mutouteng Mr. Lee went seven miles farther north, and saw that the town of Kan-Kou (Dry ditch) had been swept off the map again. This is the town which has been repeatedly deaf toward the gospel, ana after a period of ten years all efforts on the part of different missionaries were abandoned. Not long after "«"» soldiers burned the town, but it was re-built. Last year it was largely washed away, but after much effort and money it was reared again, only to be again demolished in this worst flood in many years. "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov. 29:1).

The Nationalist Government of China has issued an order banning the teaching of religion in Mission schools below the rank of Junior Colleges. Moling Tsiang, minister of education, gives four principal reasons for the Government's policy, one of which is that he considers religion an unfit subject for inclusion in a modern scientific education!

HARBOR WORK Brother West writes:

Work among the seamen here has shown much to encourage us. The number of men we reach each month goes into the hundreds, and more and more as we visit among them and talk to them of Christ are we convinced of the great necessity of the work. Spiritual darkness, moral wickedness, and indifference to all that is worth while, mark many, though here and there we meet with real men and true believers.
Recently I have been working with the chart Mr. A. E. Booth designed some years ago, and it has proved a happy innovation to me. The men crowd around, and it is so clearly done that even they seem to grasp it. A few days ago, on the "City of Christchurch," a Mohammedan showed me a Gospel of John in Persian Urdu which I gave him a few months ago, and which he had been so interested in that he asked for more literature. Further, and as a cause for rejoicing, the Lord gave us a real convert last July in the person of a young steward (English) who was saved reading our new book "A Captain's Decision." A few days after his conversion,, which he himself attributed to this book, he led another boy on the ship to the Lord.

I found another English steward, a man of 50 or more, in a Brooklyn hospital recovering from a bad fall in which he injured two of his ribs. I learned of his accident from his shipmates, and immediately felt a strong desire to visit him. This I did, and to my joy discovered he was a child of God, and a hard worker for the Lord with his wife and daughter in Essex, England. He was a Salvationist, but knew and loved the so-called "Plymouth Brethren," whose conferences he often attended.

A middle-aged pantryman on the "Adriatic" (a ship we visit often) was attacked one night in September at the foot of 20th Street, N. Y., by two thugs, and died twelve hours later of a fractured skull. His son, also a pantryman, on the S. S. "Rhexenor," I met yesterday (Oct. 21) and had an excellent chance to speak to him of the gospel. He was very friendly, and I hope the word may take hold.

May the above incidents related by our brother encourage us to continue bearing up this work in prayer.

AFRICA

Our brother Robert Deans writes as follows:

We appreciate the thoughtfulness of the saints in remembering the work of the Lord Jesus here.

Did I tell you about the headman and his wife, who had been prayed for by Dr. & Mrs. Woodhams and the rest of the missionaries for many years, yielding to Jesus Christ, the same week the Doctor returned to the States? Another headman, by the name of Songalata, on the porch here last Monday night said, "I will take Jesus Christ as my Lord and Master. I believe He died on the cross for my salvation." Last night at our prayer service a young man of about 20 years, by the name of "Sabuni" (Kingwana for soap), stood up and said, "I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for me." We have great reason to thank the dear Lord for His abounding grace in the hearts of these dear people.

The building of the hospital is going on apace, as is also the chapel at the "town" of Mambassa.

Mrs. Deans wrote about Bill, saying he was helpless, he cannot stand on his feet. I made him a pair of crutches, but they had to be discarded, and he had to resort to his bed by orders from Dr. Trout of the A.I.M. He is now at Nyangkundi with his mother nursing him. His whole heart was set upon the new work he had started, and which we all thought, by the happy response of the natives there, was the place our gracious Lord had for him. However, dear brother, our Heavenly Father has different ways in revealing His will to His children, and it may be He would have Bill locate in the grass country when he gets better.

It is our intention, if the Lord will, to carry on the work Bill started, and settle there when the Doctor returns, because of the wonderful opportunity. The other stations we had in mind further West will be held in abeyance until new workers come out, but open up this new field we must, as precious souls are traveling very fast into eternity and the light of the glorious gospel must be shed abroad. While here I am to look after the place at Lulua getting bricks made, and if possible a house built, so that we can move in when our dear co-workers return from the States. There is so much work to be done that one hardly knows what to begin first. Well, hallelujah, it is for our dear Lord, and oh, dear brother, a look at that blessed Face when we get "Home" will cause us to rejoice and again rejoice, as we recall any little service we did for Him down here, so that luster could be added to His glorious Name. What a privilege is ours to be co-workers with the King of Glory!

With much love in our Lord Jesus Christ and with thanks to all the saints.

ARGENTINE

We have not heard from our brother Monttlau since the short-lived civil war in the Argentine. We trust, however, that our brother and his family have not suffered in any way, and that he has been allowed to continue in the proclamation of the gospel.

BARBADOS

Our brother Hoze continues to go on quietly and faithfully. He endeavors to proclaim the gospel and minister to the saints as the Lord enables. In a recent letter he tells of hardship and suffering caused by lack of business and consequent unemployment in the islands. He says:

Here, as elsewhere, the people have little or no desire, even to listen to the Gospel, and the mass of professing Christians are more desirous of walking after the flesh than after the Spirit. Nevertheless it is our duty, both as ambassadors and stewards, to be faithful to that which is committed to our trust.

BRAZIL

From our brother J. P, Ribeiro we hear as follows:Sept.1. – Since June 1 I have been laboring in the neighborhood of Parintins, visiting various settlements in the interior, with much weakness and interruptions. It is wonderful to behold how God is blessing the simple sled among these destitute folks. Some 35 souls have been added to the Body. I believe God is fulfilling Mark 4- 26 29 with us here, nor can I see how His kingdom can grow any other way. Depending as ever on your prayers. Oct. 4 _In my recent trip to the Cabory section of this field we had the satisfaction of seeing one more family enter the Kingdom, father, mother and four daughters. In other sections the evangelists (natives) report increasing interest. There is opposition too, and in many ways the enemy is busy around us, having gotten some to be unfaithful to the Lord. We are having lots of tribulation, as the Lord promised, but in Him we have peace (John 16- 33). Everybody seems to be suffering from the slump in Brazil, only God knows the end. Keep praying for me and family that we may hold the fort for a little longer.

Beginning at Jerusalem

To any who may be contemplating service for the Lord in a foreign land we would commend to their thoughtful attention the following brief note taken from a missionary magazine published in England :"It is worthy of note that John G. Paton, the apostle of the New Hebrides, was at first apostle to the slums of Glasgow; that Mary Slessor, blessed to the savages of Calabar, began her saving work among the roughs of Dundee; that John Hunt was an enthusiastic soul-winner in Lincolnshire before entering on his marvelous service among the Fijians; that Keith Falconer was a devoted worker in East London ere he filled a missionary's grave in Arabia.

"Should not this test be applied to all who seek to be evangelists at home or evangelists (often called missionaries) abroad:Have you been used as a soul-winner in your own home, district, or neighborhood? Is it likely that a man pitchforked into another district or country is likely to be a successful soul-winner, when there has been no evidence of such work at home? 'Beginning at Jerusalem' (Luke 24:47) is the Divine method."

BAHAMA RELIEF FUND:

From our brother Robert S. Stratton we have received a detailed report of the receipts and expenditures for the relief of the brethren who suffered the loss of their homes by fire in Cherokee Sound, Abaco. We quote from his letter:

After much labor, nine homes, each 20 x 20 ft. were completed. Beds were furnished for six homes, chairs for one, paint for six and labor for fourteen. Five houses were furnished by a fund raised from the general public; these were also supervised in construction by me and built according to my plans.

I can only say that the fullest possible appreciation was manifest, tears of joy were shed, and at the completion of each home we sang, "Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow," with the favorite hymn of each owner, a word and prayer.

I enclose a letter of appreciation from the saints, and also desire myself to thank those who so kindly responded to the need of our suffering brethren.

Affectionately yours by His grace,

The letter from the brethren in Cherokee Sound is as follows:

Dear brothers and sisters:This is written as an expression of gratitude and thanks to our Father for the ministration of love and fellowship you have shown to us in suffering through the loss of our homes by fire. Through Mr. Stratton we have recovered our homes again, and now wish to subscribe our thanks and gratitude to those who ministered to our needs in any way. The good Lord bless every one of you, filling your barn with plenty, your store and house with grain and your soul with holy joy. We would also be glad to commend Mr. Stratton's work and labor of love among us and make known how wholeheartedly he has entered into all our difficulties and trials and in every case eased the burden. May the Lord bless both you and him and increase your substance a hundred fold. That Day will declare all. Yours gratefully, Deweese Lowe, Reedith Sawyer, Osborne Lowe, John H. Pinder, Prior Sawyer, Kirtland H. Russell, Calvert Albury, Talbot Bethel, Lawrence Sawyer, Benjamin H. Al-bury, Geo. Hilland Sands, Standly Sawyer, Herbert Pinder, Maggie Pinder.

The total receipts and expenditures were roughly as follows:Received, $4,000. Expended:-Lumber, $2860. Paint & Hardware. $140. Freight, $100. Labor, $550. House furnishings, etc. $350.