LaRue

Basic Biographical facts

Brother LaRue offered himself to the mission board to go as a self-supporting missionary to China, but was advised to go instead to one of the islands of the Pacific, the mission board no doubt having in mind that he would locate in one of the islands of the Hawaiian group. as he had begun work there as a colporteur in 1885. He accepted this counsel, and in 1888 was on his way to the island of Hong Kong, lying just off the coast of China. “I have kept just within the borders of my commission,” he often said, in regard to his appointment and his final settling in Hong Kong.

Brother LaRue opened a mission on Arsenal Street (軍器廠街), near the sea. “The large room was used for a gospel meeting hall, and a good stock of religious books and Bibles were attractively displayed. Among the soldiers and sailors and wayfarers the place soon became known as the headquarters for any man who needed a friend. The seed cast into the shifting sand of such a soil took root in some instances, and not a few men returned to their homes in the four quarters of the earth, thanking God for the beacon light set at this strategic point on the great highway of the Far East”

Much literature was sold by Brother LaRus among the Europeans in Hong Kong and to the seamen and passengers on the many boats that called at that busy port. He sold books, took orders for magazines, and distributed many tracts. He made several trips to Japan, during which he sold literature, stopping off at Shanghai en-route. In the spring of 1889 when making one of these voyages he was impressed with the possibilities in Shanghai for missionary work, and wrote to the mission board, “Here, too, missionaries are needed immediately.” He reported having sold $102.75 worth of literature on that journey and of having had an interesting visit with the captain of the boat on which he traveled. One reason why he visited Japan, besides that of selling literature, was to visit Brother W. C. Grainger (葛林繼), whom had interested in the truth while he was in California. This brother had resigned his position as president of Healdsburg College to become one of our first missionaries to Japan. The friendship between these men was very close. Brother Grainger later laid down his life in Japan, being one of the first of our people to laid to rest in the Orient.

Selling literature en-route, Brother LaRue also made a trip to the Holy Land, and was contemplating another at the time of his death. It was at Hong Kong, however, that he did his greatest work. Many a wayward, seaman was inspired with new desires after a visit to his little mission. He placed literature on boats that sailed to all parts of the world and was highly thought of by the world and was highly thought of by the foreign community and by the Chinese with whom he came in contact. Shortly after his arrival in the British colony he wrote, “The seed is being sown all over the Orient, and the Lord will take good care of the results. It will certainly be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.”

In another letter he mentioned that the minister of a certain church met him on the street and spoke roughly to him. Of this experience he said, “He acknowledged that he was tearing up and destroying our publications, and he gave me to understand that my work would be stopped. But when we parted, he had mellowed down amazingly, and I have had no more troubled. They have found that threatening, coaxing, persuading, or hiring will not move me.”

After residing in Hong Kong for some time this man of God became known as Father LaRue. It is said by some that the name originated when some one, thinking he was a Catholic priest, addressed him as “Father.” Or perhaps it was simply because of the friendly, fatherly way that made him seem like a father to all. However the name originated, he became Father LaRue to many.

At the time of his arrival in China, on account of his advanced age, Brother LaRue was unable to learn the Chinese language; but be always felt a burden for the Chinese whom he daily met. He made the acquaintance of a Chinese named Mo Wen Chang [Mok Man Cheung (莫文長)] and there grew up between these two a very close friendship. Mo Wen Chang was a translator in the Colonial Court, and as he went to work each morning, he would stop in at the mission and have worship. Brother LaRue later had this man translate one chapter of Steps to Christ and two tracts, one on the prophecy of Daniel 2 and the other on Daniel 7, and had these printed. These tracts he used in his missionary work. This was the first Seventh-day Adventist literature printed in Chinese.