时时求告上帝

Large couplet right: Call on God at all times

Large couplet left: Daily study and examine the Bible

Between couplet, above: Studying the Bible is the secret to raising a healthy, strong and clean progressive church

Loving the law of the Lord, thinking on it night and day, this person is blessed. He is like a tree planted by a stream of water, at the right time it bears fruit, and its leaves never whither, everything he does is successful. Psalm 1:2-3

(1) As Mengzi said, The world is drowning, rescue it with the Way. This is not an incorrect saying, and is able to save the world. This is what the High Lord has said in the Bble. We can use these words to save the state. Is this really true or not? This is a question we should investigate into. Carefully consider the church,

(2) so that it might move the world. It [saving the world] is all through believers working with power from above. Believers can receive power, which is completely based on prayer and Bible study. Surveying Chinese believers now, the majority cannot read the Bible [lit. “holy book”]. Since they cannot read the Bible, how are they able to be empowered people? If people are weak throughout their whole lives, how are they able to have power that can save the nation?

(3) Examining the book, The Influence of Christinaity in China, you can know the church. Nationwide there are 345,834 members. Among those, there are 217,151 men, and 128,702 women. Comparing the men and the women, there are 88,440 fewer women. We do well to ask about these 88,000 women,

(4) what are they like? Are the not the wives of believers, giving power to the church? Morality must first begin in the families of believers. The morality of believing families grows out of family worship. If women cannot read, then the benefit of family worship is lost, so promote the phonetic alphabet committee, which has been set up for this reason. If among the believers there is a wife who cannot read, you can buy her a Phonetic New Testament to use for family worship. Not long after, the entire family will be able to read, and they will avoid being weak believers. This kind of family will truly be able to realize the Lord Jesus Christ’s words, to be a light to the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. If every person can earnestly pursue a good family, we will become a unified nation. Mengzi’s words accord with this. The pictures featured here

(5) are like this. They are all pictures of people who have studied the phonetic alphabet. Above are pictures of a 78 year hold man and a small girl, and a 70 or 80 year old man and woman with their family. They can all very likely read and write. Before they

(6) were totally illiterate. Now they are a literate family, able to keep accounts. When they listen to a sermon they are able to write down the meaning of the message. When traveling they are able to record monuments and sites of historical interest. Isn’t this a change from a fool to a wise person? Everyone can

(7) be like this; every family can be like this; the entire nation can be like this. Isn’t this what Mengzi said, the whole world can be rescued with the Way? From this can’t we see that the effect of the phonetic alphabet is incomparably great?

Captions of the pictures:
Upper right: Shanxi (province), Xiaoyi county, phonetic alphabet class
Upper left: Henan (province), Fugou county, phonetic alphabet class
Middle: Zhili (Hebei province), Huolu (county), famine victims phonetic alphabet class
Middle right: Shanxi (province), Zhaocheng county, 8 year old child returns home and teaches his 70+ year old grandmother the phonetic alphabet
Middle left: Henan (province), Xu state, 67 year old grandmother teaches the phonetic alphabet to the children and grandchildren of her family

Image in the middle:
(right) 128,702 women of the church
(left) 217,151 men of the church

Lower right picture caption: Yantai women’s phonetic alphabet class
Lower left picture caption: Yantai grandfather’s and children’s phonetic alphabet class