A MILLION TESTAMENTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 July 1925, Page 7

A MILLION TESTAMENTS.

NATION-WIDE CAMPAIGN IN CHINA. “It is proposed to distribute a million copies of the New Testament in China to those who will read them,” stated George T. B. Davis recently. “The plan os not for an indiscriminate circulation. but for the wise presentation of pocket Testaments to special classes, such as soldiers, students, Government officials and employees, postal employees, policemen, prisoners, doctors, nurses, ricksha men, farmers, factory emplovees, ■ orphans, lepers, boys and girls in schools, and similar groups throughout the length and breadth of China. ~ “It may not be generally known, adds Mr* Davis, ‘ that seventy or eighty years ago there was a similar distribution of a million Testaments in China. It occurred at the time that the Taiping rebellion and the opening of the Treaty ports in China and turned the world’s attention to this country to an unusual degree. Tne plan was financed in England, with contributions from America and other lands. “Signs are not wanting of the approach of a spiritual awakening m China. One of the harbingers of revial is the formation of hundreds of prayer circles meeting in homes, schools, and churches. In Pekin over a hundred of these praying bauds have been started is one mission, while in Nanking there are more than a thousand persons enrolled in these small groups. These bauds are shortly to begin a special crusade, and from Shantung province comes news of work carried on by the Chinese themselves in a village of about five hundred families. Prayer is th© chief feature of the movement, but the general outcome everywhere indicates a new and increasing interest in Christianity. Th e attitude of the Chinese people ’Toward Christianity is very different to-day from what it was five’ or six years ago. Professor James Peng, of the Nanking Theological Seminary - declares that the awakened interest is largely the result of the political chaos. .In the midst of this political turmoil and unrest the people want something stable, something that will "ive peace, and thev are turning to the Gospel for it. It is probable tlyit never before in the history of mission work in China has there been such a providential moment as tli«» present for the distribution of Testaments.”