A Travel Letter From Rev. And Mrs. W. J. Willis

Peiping, North China Christmas 1936.

Dear Friends: "THE king's business required haste."—1 Sam. 21:8.

FASTER! FASTER! This is the cry of our hearts as we look once again upon the whitened harvest fields of the Orient. The moment we step outside the house we are in the midst of the appalling need. It is everywhere. It seems to envelop us. We cannot escape it. It appears to wrap itself around us like a black cloak. It shuts us in on every side, pressing upon us until eur hearts feel sick and faint. Even in this vast land of China, from which we are writing to you, our friends and fellow-labourers in the gospel, there is no place to which we can flee from the truly awful need of heathen souls. We sit here writing and are very anxious to give you a true picture of the actual conditions by which we are surrounded, but the task appears too hard. We search about for words but, somehow, the words we find are so inadequate. The thought occurs that if we step out into the street and let the darkness wrap us around again, the Holy Spirit will give us words to write which will move and melt your hearts as ours have been moved and melted. One thought emerges from the darkness and forms itself into a cry in our hearts—predominates, persists—and it is this: we must move FASTER. We MUST! It is imperative. You would instantly agree if you could be here seeing the need with your own eyes. You would say, as we say, that what is being done is not enough. A thousand-fold more—ten thousand-fold more—is necessary. The plain fact is that millions are even now dying in darkness and despair because we have not gone fast enough to reach them. And it is equally plain that millions more will "perish" (the word is not mine, remember; it is the Lord's—John 3:16) if we do not find a way whereby we can reach them with the gospel, far faster than we are reaching them now.

Surely, here is something that ought to occupy our every wakeful moment. Yes, and MORE than that—it sometimes ought to take sleep from our eyes, draw us away from all human society and drive us into the secret place of prayer; there to pour out our hearts in "FERVENT" (white-hot) supplication, that God may be able to pour the saving blessings of the gospel upon every spot on earth, where heathen hearts are to be found.

It is our desire to write you about the conventions we have attended and the scenes of blessing witnessed, since our arrival in the Orient. But we beg you to remember that, although in these few weeks we have seen hundreds of souls at the altars in our meetings, and our hearts have rejoiced over every one of the trophies of grace, we realise, as never before in our experience as missionaries, that we are only touching the fringe of things. You will rejoice to hear that we have seen the Spirit of God working in a mighty way and we believe that He has brought the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, Into hundreds of dark hearts. However, if you rightly view the matter, you will find yourself saying: "I praise God for these hundreds of seekers, but what are hundreds after all, or even thousands, compared with the MILLIONS that live and die in heathen lands without the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?" Therefore, our joy must ever be tinged with sorrow; and the triumphs of the gospel already witnessed must serve to urge us on to greater speed in the accomplishing of the great—the truly great—unattempted and unfinished task.

We spent our first week in Tokyo with our dear Japanese brethren and there from the fifth to the ninth of November, we saw the Spirit of God poured out again and again. Large congregations met three times each day; in addition to which we gathered for prayer every morning at six o'clock—about 150 were present in each prayer-meeting. We were impressed with the eagerness with which the Japanese listened to the messages. Of some of the great congregations to which we preached, John Wesley wrote in his Journal: "There was a solemn awe upon the people and they listened as if the matter in hand was one of life and death." This exactly describes the great crowds to which we had the responsibility and privilege of preaching. On Sunday more than a thousand people thronged the church AT EACH SERVICE—morning, afternoon and evening-—and paid the most serious attention to the preached. Deep conviction came upon many who heard. It would be very hard to describe some of the altar scenes, but one of them stands out in our memory, for at that time it seemed as though the entire congregation was crying to God for blessing. Many were weeping and one man, a Doctor of Philosophy, clung to us and sobbed out in good English; O, pray for me, please. I once was a good Christian, but have lost out in my soul." We had the great joy of praying with this seeker who could understand our language; and soon he was rejoicing in the fact that God had given him the Holy Ghost and purified his heart according to Acts 15:8,9. After our experience in needy Japan, we felt reluctant to say "Good-by" to our dear pastors and workers, but were compelled to do so that we might move on to an equally needy place—Korea.

We reached Seoul on the thirteenth of November and it would be impossible for us to tell you what our feelings were as we looked again into the faces of those people. There was no time wasted, after our arrival, for on the fifteenth we left for Sin-eui-ju, which is located in the far north—up on the Manchurian border. Again, we had three meetings each day, in addition to the sunrise (?) (4:30 a.m.) prayer-meetings. Here also, the Spirit of God did a deep work in many hearts. We sometimes wonder if there are people anywhere in the world as responsive to the gospel as the Koreans. The altar services beggar description. The seekers came "with strong crying and tears." Such scenes have to be witnessed; they cannot be described. This was even more true of the meetings held at Reri from the twenty-second to the twenty-seventh. There we had seekers who seemed to be in an agony of desire for the blessing of God. One day we were together from ten o'clock in the morning until one-thirty in the afternoon; and in that wonderful meeting the most heart-broken confessions of sin were made. It really seemed as though every needy soul there prayed through to the place of real blessing and victory. One young man clung to us as a drowning man clings to a spar and, in broken English, said: "Please pray for me." We were glad for that privilege and, though he did not understand much of what we said, he cried: "Amen," again and again until he was clearly and definitely blessed. There were many tears shed in that meeting and to many, the Holy Ghost gave "the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

It was also our privilege to preach thrice daily, from December the second to the sixth, at special services held in connection with the reopening of the Bible School in Seoul. The students had been out for several months in practical training as they were engaged in the village campaign and other evangelistic work These were very blessed meetings too, for we saw God working in many hearts in a very gracious manner Our pastors, Bible women and workers were greatly blessed in these meetings, and in the large evening meeting many unsaved people sought the Lord New vision and a greater burden for their own people, came to the hearts of many of the workers, and one after another they witnessed to the very real blessing God had given to them. Looking back upon the meetings, we feel there is much for which to praise God, and we believe that the blessing poured into thirsty hearts will result in a real ingathering of precious souls

We thankfully record the great growth of the work of The Oriental Missionary Society in Korea, but we cannot keep from pointing out to you the solemn fact, that not more than three per cent of Korea's millions are Christians, and many of these are only nominal Christians. Wide spread, Holy-Ghost revivals are needed out here—mighty cyclones of spiritual blessing from God nothing less will meet the terrible need. Will you not ceaselessly pray for this?

We arrived in China on the sixteenth of December, and ever since that time our hearts have been oppressed with the thought of the truly awful need of this vast country.

Special services had been arranged, and they were held at our Cowman Memorial Bible Training Institute Here we again had the joy of seeing the arm of the Lord made bare. It is necessary to adapt oneself to the different conditions that prevail in these lands, but we find that the Holy Ghost is well able to bring conviction of sin to the hearts of the Chinese as well as to the hearts of the Koreans and Japanese. One service in particular we shall not soon forget, for God came down in a mighty way and humbled and bowed hearts with a deep sense of their need. We felt that a great work was done in those meetings and we expect to see some fruits of the blessing in the days to come.

Journeying on, we reached Peiping, North China on the twenty-third of December and it is from this great city that we are writing this account of our experiences and of God's faithfulness. Here we get a glimpse of the real need of China: we have seen enough already to make us want to ask you to pray for us as you have never prayed before. Tomorrow (the twenty-seventh) we take our first service thus beginning a series of meetings in connection with the dedication of a new church building on the other side of the city. During the following week, work will be commenced in the new Bible School building which under the blessing of God, has been erected in a remarkably short space of time. Accounts of these services will appear later in the "Standard"

To all of our friends who have followed us with their prayers, we wish to say a heartfelt "Thank you," and to any who had expected to heal from us and have not, we would point out that the above heavy programme of meetings has not allowed time for private correspondence. However, your prayers mean so much to us at this time; therefore we beg you to continue holding us up before the Lord in this way. Amen!

Yours with an ever growing burden for earths lost millions,

BROTHER AND SISTER WILLIS