The Shantung Revival

Mary K. Crawford

NEW THINGS IN N. CHINA BRIEFLY EXPRESSED

HWANGHSIEN:
“In the revival here in Hwanghsien last spring the N. China Baptist Theological Seminary and Bible School; came in for a great blessing. Everyone of the faculty got a distinct blessing, and nearly everyone of them was filled with the Holy Spirit. It has made a new school.”

Evangelistic Work: “It is a new day for us. Every month or so, all the churches and out-stations have had special revivals held by Missionaries or special evangelists, and the results have been greater than many previous years put together. One blessed result of the outpouring of the Spirit is that He sends people to ask the Way.”

Warren Memorial Hospital: “The hospital was mightily blessed during the spring. Many of the personnel were saved and some filled with the fullness of the Spirit.”

TSINGTAO:
“During this week of prayer in the Tsingtao Church, daily testimony is being given by Mr. Chao Deh San, one of the brightest Mission pupils our early schools ever knew, who has spent his life in Government service, building Rail and Motor Roads. In his sixtieth year, after forty years in the wilderness; he confessed and put away his sins, and is now visiting the cities where he worked and sinned, testifying to the saving power of Christ.”

TSINAN:
“More people have been saved the past year than perhaps in any year in the history of the work here. The churches have never been on such a high plane spiritually as now. Practically all the preachers, teachers, Bible women and Missionaries have had a blessed experience in the deeper things of the Holy Spirit, and have more real victory and power than they had ever known before.”

TSINING:
“Our people have become of one heart and mind in the Lord Jesus, as never before. We feel that the year has led us on to new spiritual heights.”

HARBIN:
“A new church was organised, and this with fighting in hearing distance. This group also doubled the size of their gospel hall in spite of demoralised business conditions.”

LAICHOW-LAIYANG:
“This has truly been one of our very best years spent in China. It is absolutely beyond the power of human tongues to express the sheer joy and rapture of this new, marvellous, intimate fellowship into which we were brought with the glorified Redeemer Himself. On that night there began the most wonderful revival ever witnessed in that little church.”

CHEFOO:
“In place of having difficulty in finding teachers who would be willing to suffer the reproach of being superstitious and unpatriotic, we have had to refuse applicants sufficient to re-staff the schools.”

PINGTU:
“God has been adding daily to His church. The general estimate is that three thousand souls have been saved this year. There have been about nine hundred baptisms, with others waiting.” The Acts of the Holy Spirit “are being reacted in a remarkable way right here in our midst.”

A PERSONAL MISSIONARY LETTER TELLING OF THE REVIVAL IN THE NORTH CHINA MISSION.

Chefoo, Shantung Province, China, July 4, 1932.

DEAR BROTHER PASTOR, BRETHREN AND SISTERS:

In our annual Missionary Conference here these last few days someone exclaimed: “Oh, that our Baptist people at home could hear and see what has come to our ears and eyes these past months!” “Yes,” replied another, “how they would rejoice with us! And should the Holy Spirit bless them as He has many of us and our Chinese brethren and sisters, the debt on foreign Missions would be wiped out in a short while!” That you may enter into this joy with us, pray for greater blessings upon us, and for a real revival in the churches of our Southern Baptist Convention, the writer was asked to prepare one or more letters to be sent by individual Missionaries to pastors and others at home.

It may not be generally known that perhaps the greatest revival in the history of Southern Baptists in North China is now being experienced in many Chinese churches of our North China Mission. This has come as a result of EARNEST PRAYER, FAITH IN GOD, BIBLE TEACHING, and MUCH PREACHING on sin and kindred subjects. Numbers of Christians and churches are being revived; restitution of money is being made; tithes of the Lord held back are being brought forward; sins confessed to God and to those who have been wronged; sick are being healed; devils cast out; men and women, boys and girls are preaching with a power hitherto not known; hundreds are crying for mercy and are being saved. The devil is also at work, but there is great blessing and rejoicing in many places. Missionaries and Christians are marvelling at the wonderful works of God.

During a quiet series of meetings held in Tsinan, the capital of Shantung, people were led to examine their hearts, for the searching message of the leader was: “Are you saved; have you been born again?” This simple question, asked publicly and privately throughout North China and Manchuria, has put many to thinking. Church members apparently unsaved — and leaders among them — confessed their sins, and were marvellously saved. Then other meetings were held in Tsinan. Each time the people moved closer to the Lord. Joy following the forgiveness of sins, love for Christ and concern for the lost took possession of the saved, and has spread like fire there and elsewhere in that region.

There were wonderful results among the students of the Shantung Christian University. This fine institution adjoins the Baptist compound at Tsinan, a hundred being saved the past year. Many were led to the Lord by a professor, also blessed in these meetings. Missionaries, pastors and others, willing formerly to work only as average Christians, became dissatisfied, put themselves on the altar anew, were filled with the Spirit, and now see the Lord in a different way. They have a new joy in the Lord and a vigour in their work hitherto not known. The revival there, as at other places, began with the leaders. Some missionaries found that they were not without sins, and so did other leaders. These confessed their sins to God and to those whom they had offended, even though this often meant “loss of face” (embarrassment). The result is that many are being saved.

God’s power came mostly during prayer services, while studying earnestly the Holy Spirit and His work by men and women who met separately in rooms of the Church. People were broken up and wept for their sins. There were then special manifestations of the Spirit’s power and great rejoicing. Nothing like it has been seen in old Tsinan. A young man, for years only a nominal Christian, came forward confessing his sins and placed on the table ten dollars which he had wrongfully received. Others also brought money which did not belong to them, and a number brought funds which should have been given to the Lord. A wealthy man, who had been only an average Christian, has become a great leader, and so have others. These have now gone out in the city and country churches, some of which were almost dead, to conduct meetings. The churches are being revived and many saved. The big gospel tent, unused for two years for lack of funds and workers, is now being taken over the country by earnest Christians, these bearing the expense and doing the preaching. The Tsinan Church now pays all its’ pastor’s salary, supports three theological students in the Seminary, and has made other advances in self-support.

Speaking of the revival in the country districts of the Tsinan field, one of the Missionaries said: “Our country work has been revolutionised. Last year we decided to discontinue work at two places and go on to others because the people seemed hardened, but now it is different. The few old Christians there have been revived. They have power and are now doing the preaching themselves. It would all seem a dream did we not realise it is real. A man at another place thought himself saved, but then realised he was lost and prayed in great agony for forgiveness. He is now saved, and also his wife. They have revolutionised their village. Another layman who was saved recently has rented a place to be used as a preaching hall. Numerous Christians have confessed their sins and gotten right with God. Unsaved who scoffed at the gospel are now coming for salvation. What we call the ‘Model Church,’ recently built by the people themselves in one of the villages, a result of the revival, is the best building in the town, and is crowded. From fifty to sixty are awaiting baptism there.’

Thus God’s Spirit is doing wonderful things in the capital of Shantung and elsewhere in our Mission as a result of earnest prayer, preaching and teaching of His Word. Pray that the fire may continue to spread, and that God will likewise bless His people in the homeland.

ANOTHER LETTER FROM ONE OF YOUR MISSIONARIES TELLING OF GOD’S REVIVING POWER IN CHINA.

DEAR BROTHER PASTOR, BRETHREN AND SISTERS:

You will be interested to hear of the moving of God’s Spirit in the Schools of the North China Mission as reported recently at our annual Mission Conference in Chefoo.

During a prayer-meeting at one of the schools in Hwanghsien a boy, so convicted of sin that his body became rigid, fell against one of his teachers, crying aloud for mercy. He was told to pray to God, but begged that they carry him home, for he thought he would surely die. (Chinese all want to die at home.) He was terribly afraid, for the devil had led him into great sin. He was laid upon a bench and several of his friends — teachers and students — bowed close beside him, praying earnestly for him. Either the hand of the Lord, or the consciousness of sin, bore heavily upon him, for he felt that life was being crushed out of him. After a half hour of great agony, his body rigid, he cried aloud: “O, God, if you will not kill me, I will confess my sins!” And then for an hour he poured out his heart to God. He confessed the deepest and blackest sins, such as had never been heard in that school. He hated and wanted to take the life of a classmate who had kindly loaned him money simply because this friend was better off than he. His hatred of the rich had become so great that he wanted to destroy them and seize what they possessed, for he had become a real communist (“red”) at heart. He asked student friends to forgive him because he had tried to convince them that there is no God. Among other terrible things, he confessed to God how he had sworn to kill every person in the world if there be a chance, and then that because the world is not right he determined to go to heaven and kill God himself! But God graciously forgave him and he, as did others, received peace and salvation. This school has never before had such spiritual blessing.

“In our school new hearts and new lives have been born in girls whose only heritage was depravity of generations of idolatrous ancestry. We rejoice that many have been led of the Spirit into a deeper experience and walk in Christ Jesus.” So goes the report of the Girls’ Boarding School at Tsinan, in another part of 4th. Province of thirty-five million souls, the vast majority of whom are yet unsaved. This report, read at our annual Mission Conference in Chefoo, continues: During the year the girls themselves organised an evangelistic band and on Sunday afternoons have gone out preaching in the nearby villages. This spring, after the hot weather began, a group walked five miles and came home with their faces beaming because they had experienced the joy of witnessing for their Saviour. The road was dusty and the day uncomfortably hot, but this little group of school girls sang praises to their God as they walked, and spent their rest time by the roadside praying for the souls of those to whom they were taking the gospel. When they returned at twilight with shining eyes, and voices still joyous with praise, the report continues, we found that during the whole long hot afternoon the girls had not bothered about the comfort of a single drink of water, but exclaimed: ‘It was the best trip we ever took!’ Faculty and students have made great progress in spiritual growth in this school. The principal rejoices that the chief aim and ideal of the students is the spiritual uplift of the students and the salvation of their people.

A revival in the church at Tsining resulted in a new era in the Boys’ and Girls’ Schools there. Due to reduction of funds from America the Middle School departments had to be closed and these pupils sent to the Presbyterian Schools but the enrolment increased nevertheless.” The tone of the schools is so fine as a result of the revival that our hearts overflow with rejoicing to God for rich blessings from Him this year, for never was the spiritual atmosphere of the schools so high. Many have received great spiritual blessing, and, on going home, were looking forward to a summer of witnessing to parents, relatives and friends.” These are extracts from the Girls’ School and Woman’s Training School at Laichowfu.

The Boys’ Middle School at Pingtu rejoices that all graduates this year are Christians, one an earnest preacher and others outstanding disciples. There was a serious cut in funds and other difficulties, but again, we are reminded, the greatest feature of the work was the spiritual revival this year, a blessing to students and teachers. A number took part in the students’ Sunday preaching on the streets and in outlying districts. Another report says: “God’s boundless grace poured out upon us in increasing fullness this year, the best and richest in the long history of our institution.

And now read these lines from the Effie Sears Memorial School for Girls, located at Pingtu, where the revival began: “No longer a school, but a POWER-HOUSE, preparing bands of soul-winners; no longer ‘hireling teachers,’ but men and women watching prayerfully the spiritual growth of each student; no longer simply a Mission school, but ‘everything for God’s glory’! Praise His holy name, for He is Head of this school!” This note rings through all these reports. Preaching bands of girls and teachers in this school also went out on Saturdays and Sundays as did the school boys and instructors. Teachers preached in the street gospel hall when they had no classes. Reports were given at the daily evening prayer-meetings. A twelve-hour watch-tower prayer service was maintained enthusiastically in an upstairs room until school closed. The girls contributed liberally of their limited funds to work of the B.Y.P.U. societies. Fifteen were baptised this spring.

This summer the graduates and other students will teach vacation Bible Schools, preach to the women in the villages, and lead prayer-meetings, as will many of the boys who have gone home, for there is now a prayer-meeting nearly every night in each of the many revived country churches. This report, as did so many others, closes with words of praise: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.”

This letter is being written at Hwanghsien, Shantung, where we are attending the Chinese Summer Bible conference. We never saw such rejoicing as among this large body of delegates, who have come from as far north as Harbin, Manchuria, and Tsining in the far west of Shantung; nor have we ever seen the Chinese so burdened for the souls of their people. Surely with God thus blessing the work of your Missionaries in such a marvellous way, when we are needed so much to direct in this movement and to teach His Word, and with unparalleled opportunity for preaching the gospel, you will not allow our forces to be cut down, or funds to be reduced, but make it possible for us to continue to GO FORWARD in the Lord and the power of His might.

Hwanghsien, Shantung, China, July 10, 1932.

C. A. L.

INCIDENTS OF THE REVIVAL IN THE CHINESE BAPTIST CHURCHES OF THE NORTH CHINA MISSION.

Chefoo, Shantung, China, July 15, 1932.

DEAR BROTHER PASTOR, BRETHREN AND SISTERS:

You who pray for the work out here and contribute of your funds for saving of the Chinese will be interested to receive another letter giving a few incidents in this great revival movement, where God is blessing so many. Please accept this as a personal letter from the one whose name the envelope bears, and pray that the revival will not only spread throughout China, but that God will also revive His people in the homeland and increase their interest in foreign Missions.

In the densely populated county of Pingtu, Shantung, where the revival began and the churches have been greatly revived, there are now villages in which every family has one or more saved persons, and in some villages nearly every one has accepted the Lord. Is this not glorious news to all who love God our Saviour! ? ! ? Even during wheat harvest meetings went right on. Some coming into the meetings at night fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, desiring rather to pray than to rest.

At one of these villages a Missionary dared not sleep a few years ago, for local bandits were expected to attack at any time, which meant looting and burning of the village and possible carrying away of Missionary and leading Chinese for ransom or death. But since the revival began that whole community is different. Recently this same Missionary slept there safely with doors open and walls down. One could not ask for more peace than now reigns in that region. Forty odd were baptised in the village this spring.

Another story is told of a gospel tent which was not being used for lack of funds and workers, now repaired and being used by laymen in Pingtu county, as at Tsinan. An organised band of desperate robbers planned to break up the meetings and take the tent. The brethren were advised to move elsewhere in order to save the tent, but replied, “No,” preferring to pray earnestly for salvation of these robbers. The result was that the young bandit leader was stricken blind and a swelling came upon his face. This frightened him greatly. He realised it was from the Lord, and came to the tent confessing his sins and asking for prayer. Converted, his sight was restored and the swelling left. Later he went to Pingtu city and joined a Bible class. His life has been wonderfully transformed. This man had heard the gospel in a Christian day school when a child, but resisted and has served the devil rather than God. Those who know him believe that now he will give the remainder of his life to preaching. There have been between two and three thousand conversions in Pingtu county this year. No less than one thousand have been baptised!

At another village God’s Spirit seemed to fall upon the people like fire. They fell before Him, asking for forgiveness and salvation. During a meeting the speaker arose from prayer only to see his congregation leaving the house. He found that old Sister Kiao, who had been sick and was carried to the meeting, had gotten up, walked out, and was on her way home, third of a mile away, to tell her family she was healed. The village people marvel, for she had not walked for twenty years and was known to be helpless. She is still walking, and, with others, is praising God. The church is now too small, so at night two separate meetings are held.

A Christian son of a Pingtu woman who was healed clerks in a store in Tsingtau. He went home to see his mother and to rejoice with her. Seeing her, a revived church, and the salvation of many of his people, he also reconsecrated his life to the Lord. On returning to the big port city he persuaded his employer to let him go out to witness for the Lord. The very first night he happened to go into a prayer-meeting where someone was telling of the healing of his mother, but the leader was not sure that this and other reports of healing were true. The young man was quickly on his feet to testify to the healing power of his Lord, and preached Christ to those who had come. He continues to witness for Christ with that zeal which has taken possession of so many. The husband of this same Christian woman, who has been healed after 18 years of helplessness, lives here in Chefoo, where we are writing at this time. His family telegraphed him and he immediately went to his home, some distance interior, to see his wife and to praise God. He, too, has reconsecrated his life to the Lord, is preaching His Word, and many of his village are being saved.

It rejoices one to hear also of how God is now graciously and marvellously blessing His work in the Laichow fu field. We were permitted to labour there before moving to Harbin. A man who went home from up our way and was converted in the Laichow fu meetings was met by his brother in the fields with a shovel ready to fight, for they had been enemies for eight years. But the meeting turned into one of confession of sins, forgiveness and salvation of both. Then the two sisters also became Christians. This prodigal brother from Manchuria is now so enthusiastic in preaching that many of the heathen think him crazy.

At one of the women’s prayer-meetings in a neighbour’s yard a missionary saw mud on the skirts of some of the women, due entirely to tears wept for sin and unsaved members of their families. A phonograph is no longer needed there to attract people into the evangelistic meetings, for the gospel hall fills with earnest listeners. Again we find the laymen there preaching in tent and other meetings, while the Missionary and evangelists are free to give their time largely to work elsewhere.

In an adjoining county a leading church member who for twenty years was careless about paying his debts, has now received a new Christian experience and is advertising for creditors to present old accounts, and his son is now supporting two evangelists. A Christian man at Hwanghsien brought forward $500.00 of tithes due the Lord since he became a Christian years ago. Another who owed money to a Missionary now in America but did not intend paying it has sent the money to him. Others are making restitution and paying back tithes due the Lord.

Time would fail us to tell of the many evidences of God’s wonderful working in the Chinese churches. This is given that you may rejoice with us and give praise to God. The revival is a result of earnest prayer, preaching and Bible teaching. Again may we ask that you join us in prayer for return of the missionaries now at home. We plead with all earnestness for greater financial support so the saving gospel of our Lord may be carried to other places here in Shantung, in Manchuria and elsewhere, for we have never had such openings for preaching the Word as at this time.