THE CHINESE.
LOO QUONG'S APPEAL.
Loo Quong is one of our Evangelistic Helpers. His special field at present is Southern California. The appeal is not only original, but spontaneous; written out of the anxious longings of his own heart, and not upon any suggestion from me. I have simply condensed it, to bring it within the limits of our space. I ask for it a kind and responsive hearing.
WM. C. POND.
Dear friends of the American Missionary Association:
We, the Chinese, have appreciated the generous Christian acts of the members of this great Association, who not only have done good to other souls of the United States, but have saved hundreds of poor sinners of our Chinese race, in which I, myself, was one of the lost and now am found. It was through the generosity and God-loving heart of the Association that the Chinese found Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world. And it was through the hard labors and patience of our Superintendent of the California Chinese Mission that the Chinese have become partakers of the blessings of the gospel. Though it is here that the good news is told, it has echoed back far away across the Pacific, where the four hundred millions of heathen Chinese are living. Just as our Lord said to his disciples, "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house tops." Luke 12: 2, 3.
Those who have been converted in California and who have visited their homes in China, have seen the necessity of Christianity for their countrymen in China. Within these ten years there were hospitals established and missionary societies organized by native Christians and by those who have returned to China from California. Contribution books are often sent over to the United States to the different denominations of Christian Chinese to raise money and send back to support the hospitals and missionary societies in China. But this is not all; not long ago the Congregational Association of Christian Chinese in California organized a missionary society to Southern China, from which part nearly all the Christian Chinese that are now in the United States have come, and this is the most important part of China in which to do the missionary work. There are now many native preachers and evangelists. This society proposes to buy property in China, for a headquarters must be established in some of the middle cities in the south of China, and then to sustain some of those native preachers and evangelists.
Now I must come back to our work in California among the Christian Chinese. There are about one thousand Christian Chinese in California. You may hear in our towns and cities Chinese preachers and Chinese evangelists preaching the gospel to their countrymen. The American Missionary Association has put three more Chinese missions in Southern California during the year 1888, one of them in Tuscon, one in San Buenaventura and one in Los Angeles. Each of these is doing good work. As to our mission at Los Angeles, which was only opened April 1, 1888, it has twenty-five Christian members, and it has nearly one hundred pupils who attend the evening schools and preaching service at the mission house from night to night. There are union meetings of all the denominations of Christian Chinese at Los Angeles, and at San Francisco and Santa Barbara. These meetings occur once a month; Chinese preachers and speakers are appointed to address the meetings, a week beforehand. We have found these meetings a great help to us. Street meetings were often held in the Chinese quarters in many cities and towns throughout the State. Thousands of Bibles and tracts in Chinese were given away to Chinese readers, and thousands of heathen have heard the blessed gospel of Jesus, and, perhaps, there are other thousands who may give their hearts to Christ through this operation. Surely God is hastening the time when His will will be done in all parts of the earth, since the Chinese themselves have summoned their people to Christ. And now I respectfully and earnestly request of all the friends of the A.M.A., and even people of every name, race and creed of this Christian land of the United States, to follow the example of our Master who has given himself for us all, and we do ask for your prayers both for the Chinese in your country and in China.
LOO QUONG.