In 1890 S. N. Haskell made a missionary tour around the world. He visited Hong Kong and Shanghai and was greatly impressed with the need of establishing Seventh-day Adventist work in the great country of China. In 1890, Elder W. A. Spicer had received word from Mrs. Ellen G. White that she, too, had felt it was time to enlarge our work to cover the world and specifically mentioned China. At a council held in Battle Creek in 1898 it was voted to open work in China, but nothing was done until at the General Conference Session of 1901 when it was voted to send our first missionaries.
But God had a man with a vision. He was a layman by the name of Abram La Rue who had spent his early life as a gold miner and seaman. Coming back from one of his trips abroad he met with the tragic experience of learning that his home in San Francisco, California, and all his wealth had been destroyed by the great fired. Discouraged, he settled in the Sonoma Valley and became a sheepherder. One day a neighbor gave him some copies of the Signs of the Times magazine to read and through many providential experiences he was led to accept the Seventh-day Adventist message.
Now he wished to learn more about how to give the truth, which was so dear to him, to others. He enrolled in Healdsburg College to prepare himself for his future work. Being in his sixties he found it difficult to keep up in his lessons with all the young folk.
He offered his services to the General Conference but was turned down because he was too old to learn foreign languages. La Rue would not give up. He said he would work for the seamen. So he went to Honolulu where he rented a room in the rear of a church. He visited the seamen as they came to port and supplied them with literature and held Bible studies in their living quarters. The next summer a young man from Healdsburg College also went to Honolulu to canvass. This was a great comfort to the old patriarch, as he was called. He pled with the brethren on the west coast of America to send a minister to Honolulu and was overjoyed when Elder William Healey answered the call of the Mission Board. He was the minister who helped Abram La Rue with bringing the converts into the truth back in Sonoma area years before. An effort was held in Honolulu and the first Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized as the result.
But Abram could not forget the urge to take the message to China. After the effort, he returned to San Francisco. One day he received a letter from the General Conference asking him to labor as a ship missionary in the islands of the Pacific.
Returning to Honolulu with fresh supplies of literature, he took up his work among the sailors again. One morning as he was visiting the captain of a ship where he had formerly been a seaman, the captain said, “We are leaving in a few days for Hong Kong. Come along.” Hadn’t the Conference brethren told him he could work on some islands in the Pacific? Hong Kong was an island just across the strait from South China. The call of China proved too strong, and on March 21, 1888, he took ship for Hong Kong.
In his quiet way he soon made friends with the members of the crew. He told them of the love of God. One of the crew, Mr. Olson, from Sweden, was especially interested. Before the voyage was over he gave his heart to God and joined Mr. La Rue in his worship.
When the ship came to port at Hong Kong, Mr. Olson resigned his position and left the ship with his teacher, Abram La Rue. Together they found a room on Arsenal Street down where the ships anchored in that great harbor. Day after day they rode a small native sampan out into the harbor and visited men on the ships.
Fourteen years after La Rue arrived in Hong Kong, the first commissioned missionary family, Jacob and Emma Anderson, was sent out to China by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. On February 2, 1902, their boat sailed into the Hong Kong harbor.
Mr. La Rue had been notified to meet these newcomers, but for some unexplainable reason, failed to make connections. The Andersons had a nerve-shaking experience. They got into a sampan from the ship and were rowed across the bay to the pier. Not being able to speak a word to the coolies, who were unloading their baggage and putting it into rickshaws, Emma cried out, “They are stealing our things!” Jacob took a card out of his pocket which read, “A. La Rue, 3 Arsenal St.” The coolies could not understand the directions. Just then a British seaman came up, and asked if he could help them, and guided them to the La Rue residence. Now we let Emma describe the story of getting there and the humble quarters where La Rue stayed.
“In about 20 minutes our train of five one-man-powered vehicles halted before a row of three-story buildings. The guide said, ‘Go up the stairs to the landing and enter the door to the left.’
“The glimmer of a small wall lamp revealed the location of the door, which was a stranger to lock and key. It yielded to light pressure, and we found ourselves inside a large, meagerly furnished room. Opposite the door, a low fire smoldered in the red brick fireplace. The light of an oil lamp on the table left deep shadows in the far corners and the apparent size of the room was further increased by the blue-tinted bare walls. Plenty of chairs were set about in convenient places, and several stood around the table, where books, papers, and leaflets were laid out invitingly. Straight-backed chairs and armchairs, they were, all of them. There was not a rocking chair in sight.
“A few minutes after the Andersons arrived at the house, sailors from the steamship Terrible, came ashore to meet the new Americans. Nearly an hour elapsed when the hall door opened again. ‘Well boys, for some reason, they haven’t come,’ the speaker pushed back a khaki topee and wiped the moisture from his forehead. It was Mr. La Rue. ‘Haven’t come? Come in and see if they haven’t come!’ returned the boys. As he entered, the light fell full on the flushed face of Abram La Rue. I shall never forget the doughty pioneer as I saw him that night. He was rather below the average height of five feet eight inches, his well-knit figure stooped with the weight of its almost fourscore years. The kindly eyes were grey-blue; the firm thin lips,clean shaven above the chin, and the well-set jaw was covered by a shorn grey beard. The thin white hair, brushed back form the temples, with the full forehead, revealed the outline of a face marked by trials and disappointments, with lines of gentleness and patience. The warmth of his handclasps, and the genuine cordiality of his welcome and hospitality, made us his friends from the beginning.” (Taken from “With our Missionaries in China” by Emma Anderson)
He had been in Hong Kong 13 years when the Andersons arrived. He had made trips to Shanghai and Japan, and South to Singapore, Borneo and Java, and Ceylon, selling books on board vessels, and in harbors and ports where the steamers chanced to call.
Six weeks later La Rue took seriously ill with pneumonia. He rallied and had an ardent desire to live until Jesus should come. The following year he had another attack. All that loving care availed to nothing. “When I am gone, I want every cent I have invested in the cause” he used to say. As the end drew near, he made a formal gift to the China Mission of the savings of his lifetime. He fell asleep as one in slumber, April 26, 1903.
J. N. Anderson baptized seven of La Rue’s converts, including six sailors form the Royal British Navy.
La Rue had one of his Chinese friends translate for him a tract called “the Judgment,” of which he had 2,500 copies printed in 1891. Later he had the chapter, “The Sinner’s Need of Christ,” from Mrs. Ellen White’s Steps to Christ translated and printed. These two tracts represented the beginning of Seventh-day Adventist publications in the Chinese Language.
He also was instrumental in the conversion of William C. Grainger and his wife who later pioneered the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the great country of Japan. One time when La Rue visited the Grainger’s home in Japan she saw how he enjoyed their rocking chair so much and gave it to him to take back to Hong Kong.
He was buried in Happy Valley Cemetery, Hong Kong, overlooking the waters which separated him from his beloved China. He gave the torch which he had lighted for us to carry until Jesus comes to take us all home to our Heavenly Father’s House.