The Beginning Of The C.I.M.
In the year 1865, the China Inland Mission was organized and the workers in the field became a part of it. Mr. ‘W’.T. Berger who was living at Saint Hill, near East Grinstead, took over the direction of the home territory during the time I expected to be away in China. Without his help and good words, I could not have gone forward.
Our every need was being met. We had now waited for a party of sixteen or seventeen to go out and knew that 1,500 to 2,000 pounds would be needed to cover clothing, passages, and start-up costs. I wrote a little book, calling it Occasionally Paper) It planned to write numbered reports to give to donors and friends, informing them of the work done through us in China.
In that paper, I talked about the need to start the work. I expected that God would move the hearts of some of the readers to send money. I had decided never to use a personal request for offerings, to make a collection or issue collecting books.
A missionary box was permiffed and a few were prepared for those who might ask for them. We have continued to use these ever since” It was February 6, 1866, when I sent my Occasional Paper, No. I to the printer with a design for the cover. On that day, a daily prayer meeting had begun to ask for the needed money.
On this day we felt much better by having received 170 pounds, 8 shillings, and 3 pence in little more than a month, as we had not asked for such help, except from God. But we also knew that we must ask the Lord to do greater things for us.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for a group of from ten to sixteen to leave in the middle of May. Daily prayer was offered to God for the money needed for the clothing and the voyage of as many as He wanted to go out in May.
Because of the delay in printing the Occasional Paper, it was not ready to be published until March T2. On this day I looked at my mission money box and compared the results of the two similar periods of one month and six- days each, one before and one after special prayer for tr,500 to 2,000 pounds. It was very interesting” From February 6 to March 12, tr,974 pounds, 5 shillings and 1 pence was received.
“This, it will be seen was before we sent out the Occasional Paper and was not the result of it. It was the answer of a faithful God to the prayers of those whom He had called to serve Him in spreading the Good News of His Son.
“We can now comp ata with these two periods of tiffie, a third of the same length. From March 12 to April 18 the money received was 529 pounds. This shows that when God finished providing for the special needs, the special income also stopped.
Truly there is a living God, and He hears and answers prayer.” But this answer to prayer made it a little difficult to send out Occasional Paper Ir{o. t, as it told of the need which was already taken care of.
The difficulty was solved by putting inside each copy, a colored paper saying that the money for the clothing and travel was already in hand in answer to prayer.
We were reminded of the difficulty of Moses – not a very common one in this day – and of the message he had to send to the people to bring no more for the building of the Tabernacle.3 F{e had to text them that the gifts in hand were already too much.
“We believe that if there were fewer requests for money and more dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit and greater spiritual life, the experience of Moses would be a cordon one in every part of Christian work. Preparations to sail to China were begun at once. About this time, I was asked to give a talk on China in a village not very far from London.
I agreed on the condition that there should be no collection and that this should be written on the announcement papers. The man who invited me said he had never had such a condition requested before. He accepted and the announcements were given for May 2 and 3. With the aid of a large ffi&p, something of the population and deep spiritual need of China was presented and many were full of concealer.
At the close of the meeting, the chairman said that by my request, there would be no collection. But he felt that many present would be disappointed if they were not able to give something towards the good work.
He hoped that as the idea was his own and the feelings surely shared by many in the meeting, I should not object to a collection. I asked that the condition be carried out. I pointed out that among other reasons for having no collection, the very reason given by our kind chairman was, one of the strongest for not having it.
I did not wish for those present to hurriedly give an offering and escape God’s dealing with their hearts. This would be easy to do because their hearts felt moved. I asked that each one should go home with a conviction for the deep need for China. They should ask God what He would have them do.
If, after thought and prayer, they felt that an offering was what He wanted them to do, it could be given to any missionary society with workers in China. Or it might be given to our London office.
Sometimes God does not want money, but He wants people willing to be in His service in other places. It might involve giving a son or daughter who is more important than silver or gold.
I added that I thought the idea of a collection was to give the feeling that the all-important thing was money, but that no amount of money could save one soul. What was needed was that men and women filled with the Holy Spirit should be willing to do the work. For this, there would never be a lack of money.
As my wish was seen to be very strong, the chairman kindly accepted and closed the meeting. As we ate supper, he said that he thought it was a mistake on my part. Even with all I had said, a few people had put a little money into his hands.
The next morning at breakfast, my kind friend came in a little late and said he did not have a very good night. After breakfast, he invited me to his study and presented the money passed to him the night before.
He told me that he had thought that I was wrong about a collection. He now knew that I was very right. He said that, during the night, he had thought of people in China ever passing into the dark without God.
He could only hear as he thought of what I said, “Lord, what will You have me to do?” He said he now had the guidance he asked of God, and here it was.
He gave me a check for 500 pounds and said that if there had been a collection, he would have given a few pounds to it. Now, this check was the result of having spent a large part of the night in prayer.
I do not need to say how surprised and thankful I was for this gift. I had received at breakfast a letter from Killick, Martin & Co, a shipping company, in which they said that they could offer us the whole passenger space of the ship Lammermuir” I went directly to the ship, found that it was good for our need in every way and paid the necessary amount.
As I said before, the money that was needed had been already in hand for some time. But the offer of the ship and this wonderful gift of money was a great help to my heart.
On May 26 we sailed for China in the Lammermuir, a party of sixteen missionaries out of trendy-two passengers. Mr. Berger took charge of the home office and so, the China Inland Mission was fully begun.