An indefatigable worker was C. C. Crisler, born in Brooklyn, Iowa, and reared in a Seventh-day Adventist home. His parents accepted the Adventist faith when he was five years old. He graduated from the Orlando, Florida, High School in 1892 and later taught in the Seventh-day Adventist Academy in Graysville, Tennessee. He was baptized in 1893. In 1895 – 1897 he attended Battle Creek College. During the next few years in Battle Creek, Michigan he served as a private secretary for such leaders as A. G. Irwin, and O. A. Olsen.
In July, 1901 he began working for Ellen G. white in her Elmshaven office in California, and he continued there until one year after her death in 1915. In 1916 while accompanying A. G. Daniells, the president of the General Conference, on a trip to the Orient, he was made secretary of the Far Eastern Division. There I. H. Evans ordained him in 1922 to the gospel ministry.
It was in the fall of 1920 that Elder Crisler was asked to visit the missions in the South China Union Mission. One of the first meetings he attended was held at Waichow, Kwangtung Province among the Hakka people. The president of the mission at that time was Sherman A. Nagel, and he was so happy to have elder Crisler lead out in a seminar on “ The work of Mrs. E. G. White as the founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “ This greatly strengthened the work in that field, as the pastors returned to their churches and told the stories of her leadership.
One of the American children on the compound was only 10 years of age and attended the seminar. She remarked to her parents how it seemed that Jesus was speaking through Elder Crisler’s voice, and it was at this meeting that she gave her heart to God and was baptized in the East River which flowed in front of the compound, by Elder J. P. Anderson. He had begun the work among the Hakka people ten years earlier and had returned from a trip to French Indo China hoping soon to carry the message to those countries as well.
Elder Crisler spent time with the American children and took them out for walks every day during those meetings. As he prayed with them and encouraged them to be faithful witnesses for God it left an everlasting impression upon them and three of those young people in later life returned to the mission fields in China, Thailand, Vietnam and Africa.
In 1930 when the China Division was organized, Elder Crisler became its Secretary. He was also editor of the Far Eastern Division Outlook, which later became the China Division Reporter. Besides this he was an associate editor of the Chinese church paper. He contributed much to the development of books and pamphlets in the Chinese language. He also served as a member of the managing boards of the Chinese publishing house, the college, and the sanitarium.
He made several trips into Western China and on into the borderlands, often making long pilgrimages on foot, sleeping in native inns or in chapels, or at the home of some fellow worker. His presence always brought cheer and hope. Perhaps he never left a home but what the family members cherished the blessings he had imparted. For many, his reading the Bible, his spiritual interpretation of its helpful promises, and his earnest prayers were never forgotten. Whenever he left a Christian home, the dwellers wished for his speedy return, because he brought hope and cheer when he came, and he left peace and joy when he departed.
In his last year his health was not good, but he never complained. Often times he worked at night when he should have been in bed. He would stay in his office, sometimes sleeping but an hour or two at most, to finish reading some book manuscript, and thus he worked himself into a condition of exhaustion which none fully understood.
In 1936 he was asked to go with George J. Appel and other missionaries on a trip to Tibet. Although somewhat apprehensive of the long and hazardous journey, he went. On March 3, 1936 the group set out but never reached Tibet. They had made a side trip over trails that reached a high altitude, and there Elder Crisler contracted pneumonia. He died two days before the traveling party reached Lanchow.
As Elder Ezra Longway told the story of Elder Crisler’s life, he would break down with emotion. He had been asked to make the same trip. But at the time was down I south China soliciting funds for the Canton Adventist Hospital and felt he could not leave. When he heard of Elder Crisler’s death he felt he had contributed towards it. The last days before his death had been very difficult. He had been riding on a bicycle but finally because of loss of strength had to walk and push it. But this was too much for his weakened body and he was found lying on the ground by a passer by and taken to a village nearby. The Adventist believers did all they could for him but to no avail.
In his last hours he sang the words to the hymn, “ All the way my Saviour leads me. “ He lies buried in Lanchow, far interior in Northwest China, still in the land and among the people he loved.
After the Communist took over the church propertyElder Crisler’s body was removed to a plot outside the city. But the people in the town plead with the authorities and told how this man loved the Chinese people so much that his body was again reburied in Lanchow by the church.