WITH CHRIST IN INDOCHINA - IndoChina1911

have the Spirit of God to work in him to will and
to do of His good pleasure.
This conception is expressed in a key text, Mark
16:20, which explains the rapid progress of the early
church, and much that is otherwise inexplicable in
Christian history from that day to this. It has just
five words, "The Lord working with them," but they
reveal the great secret of the Church. If we accept
them at their face value, we need search for no
other reason why savage Fiji Islanders, head-hunting
Dyaks of Borneo, civilized heathen from the coast
cities of French Indo-China, and primitive Moijungle
people from the mountainous hinterland of that
great country, have been changed into peaceable,
God-fearing people through the preaching of the
gospel.
When missionary work was started among the
Annamese people who inhabit the fertile plains of
the coast provinces of French Indo-China, a friendly
French official was frankly pessimistic. He said, "I
shall be glad to do anything that I can to help the
work, but I can tell you in advance that the Mission
will have no success among these people." He had
spent 25 years in government service, working for
the civilization of the Annamese, and he had come
to the conclusion that it was a hopeless task; he considered
them unreliable to the last degree. This was
the general opinion of the French colonial people.
But God has brought into being an Annamese church