Adventist History in Indonesia: Brother Immanuel the Battak

September 15, 1905, page 6 

ABOUT a month before we left 
Padang I was sitting one Sunday in 
my home, reading, when a Malay 
entered, and introduced himself as a 
Christian Battak. I was very glad 
to see him, and gave him a cordial 
welcome, for I had long been deeply 
interested in the work done by the 
Barmen Mission in the uplands of 
North Sumatra, the land of the 
cannibal Battaks. 

In the course of our conversation 
it soon became necessary for me to 
allude to the fact that we were Sab 
bath-keepers, and I went on very 
briefly to state the Scriptural reasons. 

This young man, Immanuel by 
name, is the son of the oldest senior 
Battak minister, and has graduated 
from King's College, in the Battak 
country. When I gave him Bible 
studies on Daniel 2 and 7, he quickly 
comprehended all I said about the 
history of Babylon and the other 
three kingdoms. He can read 
music, and used to sit for hours at a 
time playing sacred music. Just 
before we left, he told me that when 
he first called, he came with the ob 
ject of convincing me that Sunday 
was the Sabbath. It seems the 
German missionary had told him 
we "keep Saturday like the jews;" 
but when he heard the fourth com 
mandment and studied other texts, 
his mouth was closed. 

We had many earnest talks and 
some Bible studies together, until 
he came to love us, and seemed very 
sad at our leaving. He said to me, 
" Why do you go away now, just as 
I am getting interested in these 
great questions? Will you not stop 
here and teach me more concerning 
them? I want to know the truth, 
and mean to obey it, but I have not 
had sufficient time fully to consider 
these subjects. They seem to be 
true. I have sent for my Battak 
Bible, and want to read these proof- 
texts in my mother tongue before 
finally deciding. If I do become a 
Sabbath-keeper, I shall go back 
among my people and tell them the 
truth." 

I gave him a copy of "Bible 
Readings" in Dutch, as he knows 
some Dutch, and can follow the line 
of argument with his Battak Bible. 

He is a most promising young man 
about the age of .twenty-four, and is 
already educated. He only needs to 
have the truth instilled into.his mind 
thoroughly:—to /.make. ':Mm , a ..most 
efficient worker. The conditions are 
such that European missionaries can 
not enter the places where the Bar 
men Mission is strong, for opposition 
would set in ; and without the con 
sent of the Mission, the government 
would not give us permission to carry 
the third angel's message to the 
60,000 Battack Christians in North 
Sumatra. Immanuel, however, can 
take the message, and nobody can 
hinder him. 

The providences that brought him 
to Padang against the advice and 
counsel of his father and the mission 
aries, are remarkable. He felt he 
must come. He enteied a printing 
office to assist in printing a Battak 
newspaper. I told him that the 
Lord bad brought him there to show 
him the truth. 

Pray for Immanuel that he may 
be kept faithful and rejoice in the 
fulness of the light of truth. 

R. W. MUNSON.