Falmouth Outlook Friday 14 Sept. 1923 Vol. 17 No. 15 Pg. 4 Col. 2 Letter From China On the 27th of this month a year will have passed since I left “My Old Kentucky Home” and so full has the time been with new and interesting experiences that scarcely can I realize that is has been so long. Our first six months spent in Peking, the historic center of China gave us a most favorable introduction into this foreign county. We were there mainly for our language study and every day from 8:15 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. minds were centered upon Chinese and what tone a certain word was. To relieve our minds from too much strain, social hours and sight seeing trips were arranged for us. We were privileged to meet many interesting people from all parts of U. S. A. and England, all of whom were preparing to go out into Evangelistic, Educational, Medical, Literacy or Industrial work. Our sightseeing trips took us to all places of historic interest in and around Peking. From the point of view of the history of religion, the Temple of Heaven is the most strikingly interesting place we visited. It was built in 1420 A. D. in the time of the Mings. For granduer of conception and plan, it ranks with or surpasses the cathedrals of Europe in the expression of man’s religious instinct crystallized into architecture. This piece of architecture is a monument to the one true God of Heaven. The white marble Altar of Heaven for the worship of Heaven, set with a low circular, blue capped wall, pierced by four white marble gateways leading the the Altar from each direction, fills the tourist with awe and wonder. It is here where the Son of Heaven (the Emperor)ascended once a year to intercede for the sins of the people and here amid the quiet stillness of the open sky who can say the true God of Heaven never heard and answered the sincere prayers of the Son of Heaven (the Emperor)! Since the revolution of 1911 no emperor has worshiped at the Altar of Heaven. After visiting the Temple of Heaven one does not dare say that the Chinese have no sense of the infinite spirit of the universe. One of our other trips was to the Great Wall of China, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. From Peking we traveled by rail for two hours then after reaching the station some of us rode donkeys, others walked to the place where we mounted the wall and there viewed the ruins of the past in all its majesty. It is said that the only man made monument upon the face of the earth which could be seen from the moon is probably the Great Wall. It stretches, as one huge dragon, over plain and mountain for 1700 miles. It is 20 feet wide at the base and 12 feet at the top and from 20 to 50 feet in height. It was built 21 centuries ago, requiring the labor of 20,000 masons and millions of other workmen ten years to construct it. Who can compute the number of lives that were devoured in its making! The entire wall contains 160,000,000 cubic meters. Only when we consider that every fifty miles of the wall would build one of the largest pyramids do we begin to realize what a prodigious mass it is. It was built for protection against the outside world, but today it is the crumbling skeleton of a dead dragon. To tell of the other pieces of interest we visited would prolong this indefinitely. We left Peking throughly fascinated with the city. It has a charm which seems to defy definition, but it is there. And why should it not have a wonderful charm, a city whose history covers a period of about 3000 years? Today we are in Pingtu, North China, Shantung province where we hope to be able to enter the work and help carry it on. Indeed a great work has been started here, but we feel the future has a promise of being much greater than the past. No other mission is doing work here, so the entire field is ours, and a big responsibility it is! Today we have 7,000 native Christians, 10 pastors, 29 churches and three more being built, 100 Bible women and colporteurs, 150 day schools with 4,000 enrollment, one boys boarding school with 200 attendance, but by means of the new buildings which are now under construction the enrollment can be increased next year, a girls boarding school with 125 enrolled, and a new hospital in charge of two foreign doctors and two foreign nurses assisted by the native doctors and nurses. Thus you can see we are carrying on work along evangelistic, educational and medical lines. There are boundless opportunities for work here. Every door is marked with the word “Push, ” and it is our duty to enter with the gospel message. We have a church here in Pingtu which will accommodate 400 or 500 people, but this is without the city wall. Within the city we have several Christians, but find it a difficult task to get the rich and higher class to be willing to give up their opium smoking, drinking and other immoral practices to accept the religion of the one True God. They are not hostile to us, often come to church and outwardly favor our religion, but inwardly they are still heathen. We hope to gradually gain a fuller entrance within the city walls and build a church there whose doors will be open at all times of the day and where wanderers coping on the darkness of sin may enter and hear the words of eternal life. Our rural evangelistic work is one of the most promising features of our work. Each of the 29 churches are visited every year by our evangelistic workers who spend several days with each church, teaching and encouraging the Christians and telling many of the true God, some of whom have never heard the name of Jesus. Everywhere they go a most hearty welcome awaits them and so eager are the people to hear that they are some times unwilling to leave long enough for the workers to eat their meals. Rural evangelistic work is not easy and one must often endure many hardships, but results are so gratifying that one is willing to spend his life going from village to village as our Master did, telling those buried in superstition and sin of Him who came and died for all people. The religious life of the students in our boarding schools is under the direction of those in charge of the school. The pupils attend Sunday school and church every Sunday and prayer meetings each week besides the special training by their instructors. Many of our students from the boys school go to our Seminary in Hwanghsien and prepare for the ministry. Into whatever walk of life the enter, is is our prayer that they will carry the teachings of Jesus with them. All forms of our work are mainly evangelistic, and if our school did not carry this aim foremost, our purpose for coming here would have been defeated. Every Sunday afternoon our women have their meeting and even though I can’t understand much they say, I enjoy going and always feel encouraged by their eagerness and earnestness. Their sacrificial spirit of giving could easily be followed by many of us. At the hospital every one who enters is told, by our evangelist and Bible women, of the Great Physician who can heal his soul as well as his body and it is the joy of the workers there to see many accept Him. In working among the Chinese one must be willing to put forth his best efforts and be patient to wait and watch for the results. As a race they are slow moving and this trait characterizes their every action. How directly opposite to our American race! When one first reaches China he is impressed with the number of walls which he sees on every side. Walls, Walls, Walls! Our imaginations are quite active in wondering what are behind them. Some are made of brick and are highly colored, others are of mud and resemble a pile of debris more than a wall. As one rides along the streets in a ricksha the occasional open doors are loopholes through which one may have fleeting visions of the Orient on all its majesty and fascination. Sometimes it is the glimpse of the flower garden of the rich, sometimes the squalor of wretched homes and courtyards which meet your eye. Often times it is an elaborately carved stone wall which cuts off the view of everything past the first court. The walls are typical of the Chinese. They all live behind the wall of their exterior, behind a wall of conservatism and appearance. To “lose face” is one of the worst things that can happen to them. They are always acting the part which will help them best preserve the desired exterior. But the walls of China are old and of an approved standing. It is not for us foreigners to hope to tear them away in order to know how to deal with the Chinese, but we must watch for loopholes through which we may get a glimpse of their hearts. During the past year we have given our time to the study of the language and of the characteristics of the Chinese people. One striking noticeable trait of these people is the inherent tendency to do things exactly opposite to the foreigner. A foreigner once made this statement to a Chinese and he immediately replied, “Sir, who was doing it first?” Of some of their customs and habits I shall write in another article. Sincerely, Mrs. Sarah Gayle Parker ============================== Items of interest to: Doug Harper Biloxi, MS