Produced by Free Elf, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
How I Know
God Answers Prayer
The Personal Testimony
of One Life-Time
By
ROSALIND GOFORTH
(Mrs. Jonathan Goforth)
Missionary in China since 1888
"They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy
great goodness."--Psalm 145:7.
"Go . . . and tell them how great things the Lord
hath done for thee."--Mark 5:19.
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Copyright, 1921, by
Harper & Brothers
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
IT seems fitting that this little book of personal testimonies to
answered prayer should have a brief introductory word as to how they
came to be written. The question has been asked by some who read many of
these testimonies as they appeared in the pages of The Sunday School
Times: "How could you write such personal and sacred incidents in your
life?" I could not have written them but for a very clear, God-given
leading.
The story is as follows: When in Canada on our first furloughs I was
frequently amazed at the incredulity expressed when definite testimony
was given to an answer to prayer. Sometimes this was shown by an
expressive shrug of the shoulders, sometimes by a sudden silence or
turning of the topic of conversation, and sometimes more openly by the
query: "How do you know that it might not have happened so, anyway?"
Gradually the impression deepened: "If they will not believe one, two,
or a dozen testimonies, will they believe the combined testimonies of
one whole life?"
The more I thought of what it would mean to record the sacred incidents
connected with answers to prayer the more I shrank from the publicity,
and from undertaking the task. There were dozens of answers far too
sacred for the public eye, which were known only to a few, others known
only to God. But if the record were to carry weight with those who did
not believe in the supernatural element in prayer, many personal and
scarcely less sacred incidents must of necessity be made public.
Again and again I laid the matter aside as impossible. But I know now
that the thing was of God. As months, even years, passed, the impelling
sense that the record of answers to prayer _must_ be written gave me no
rest.
It was at the close of the 1908-10 furlough--during which, as a family,
we had been blessed with many and, to our weak faith, wonderful answers
to prayer--that my oldest son urged me to put down in some definite form
the answers to prayer of my life, and extracted from me a solemn promise
that I would do so.
But months passed after returning to China, and the record had not been
touched. Then came a sudden and serious illness which threatened my
life, when the doctor told me I must not delay in getting my affairs in
order.
It was then that an overwhelming sense of regret took possession of me
that I had not set down the prayer testimonies, and solemnly I
covenanted with the Lord that if he would raise me up they should be
written.
There was no more question of what others might think; the one thought
was to obey. The Lord raised me up; and although he had to deal with me
very sternly once more before I really set myself to the task, the
testimonies that are given here were written at last--most of them in
odd moments of time during strenuous missionary journeys among the
heathen.
Thus it will be seen that these incidents of answered prayer are not
given as being more wonderful, or more worthy of record, than multitudes
the world over could testify to; but they are written and sent out
simply and only because _I had to write them or disobey God_.
ROSALIND GOFORTH.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
How these testimonies came to be written iii
I
"GETTING THINGS FROM GOD"
The simplicity of petition 1
II
EARLY LESSONS IN THE LIFE OF FAITH
Led by a bird. Toothache taken away. Reward of seeking
first the Kingdom. Financial aid. Sunday-school
scholars given. Guidance in time of crisis. A prayer
preparation for China. A beautiful seal on the new
life 6
III
"GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES"
(1887-1894)
The key-note of pioneer years. Help in the language
from the Home Base. Prayer-opened doors.
Deliverance in time of peril. "Kept by the power
of God." Prayer and medical work. Converts from
the first. Wang Feng-ao, the proud Confucian
scholar. Wang Fu-Lin, the opium fiend. Dr. Hunter
Corbett's testimony. The result of obedience. From
the gates of death. Lord Sandwich's testimony 15
IV
A GOD-GIVEN FIELD (1894-1900)
A promise given. The promise fulfilled. Our great
need. One need supplied--an evangelist. A second
need supplied--a Bible-woman. Paying the price
of petition. A touch of healing. A Chinaman's
faith,--the locust story! A Christian woman's
faith for her child. _Our child died_--a case of
unanswered prayer. A God of deliverances 28
V
OUR DELIVERANCE FROM THE BOXERS
(1900)
A clear answer to prayers in the home church. Led
on through dangers and trials. Safely brought
through 43
VI
PROVING GOD'S FAITHFULNESS (1902-1908)
God must come first. A hard proposition. In the
furnace. Made willing in the day of God's power.
Testimony to God's abundant faithfulness. A
Bible-woman of exceptional power given. God
meeting the Home message--"Retrench." Abundant
funds provided. A beautiful instance of "God's
wireless." A case of "While they are yet speaking
I will hear." The life made easier. A child's
fever restrained. Blessing in the work, converts
given. A God-suggested remedy. Chinese prevailing
prayer for Mr. Goforth. Women sent to us. Doors
for preaching opened. Workers supplied abundantly.
Kept from smallpox. We may trust Him wholly. 69
VII
THE STORY OF ONE FURLOUGH
(1908-1910)
Meeting a condition of petition--obedience. Six
difficult doors opened. Trusting for everything.
Apples sent in abundance. Fruit, the best, in
abundance. A telephone supplied. A fur coat.
God's wonderful keeping power, a blessed
experience. Help for the children's sewing.
Another case of "God's wireless." A timely offer.
A daughter's guardian provided. A case of the
Lord's lovingkindness--a red cloth ulster! Too
many to record 89
VIII
OUR GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
A blessed incident from Keswick. A verse of a hymn
given. A governess provided. Rain withheld in
answer to prayer. Five pounds sent. Sewing and
prayer. A gracious leading, and a great need
supplied. An incident in Tientsin. More help with
the sewing. A sewing machine supplied. A case of
tuberculosis healed. Two incidents of prayer and
revival. Fifty dollars sent for friends in need.
Another case of spiritual "wireless." Led to a
lost key 105
IX
TO HIS PRAISE!
Trusting God to supply needs. His faithfulness.
Prayer and dress. The restraining power of
prayer--my son in the Great War. A prayer
answered abundantly for one at home. Our
God-given site. Closing words. All in "abide."
Bible study on prayer 124
X
VICTORY FOUND
Childhood yearnings for the presence of Christ.
Half-hearted conflict with sin in early years in
China. Pride and bad temper. Secretly criticized
by Chinese women. How to live Christ as well as
preach him. Heights and depths of spiritual
experience. Lifelong prayer for the fulness of
the Spirit. The conference at Niagara-on-the-Lake,
June, 1916. A speaker's message and leaflet on
"The Victorious Life." Christ accepted as Saviour
from the power of sin as well as from its penalty.
The joy of realizing his Indwelling Presence. All
summed up in one word, "Resting." Bible-study on
"The Life of Victory in Christ" 131
I
"GETTING THINGS FROM GOD"
"Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and
not one of them is forgotten before God? . . . Fear
not therefore: ye are of more value than many
sparrows."--_The Lord Jesus Christ._
THE pages of this little book deal almost wholly with just one phase of
prayer--petition. The record is almost entirely a personal testimony of
what petition to my Heavenly Father has meant in meeting the everyday
crises of my life.
A prominent Christian worker, who read some of these testimonies in The
Sunday School Times, said to the writer: "To emphasize getting things
from God, as you do, is to make prayer too material."
To me this seems far from true. God is my Father, I am his child. As
truly as I delight to be sought for by my child when he is cold or
hungry, ill, or in need of protection, so is it with my Heavenly Father.
Prayer has been hedged about with too many man-made rules. I am
convinced that God has intended prayer to be as simple and natural, and
as constant a part of our spiritual life, as the intercourse between a
child and his parent in the home. And as a large part of that
intercourse between child and parent is simply asking and receiving,
just so is it with us and our Heavenly Parent.
Perhaps, however, the most blessed element in this asking and getting
from God lies in the strengthening of faith which comes when a definite
request has been granted. What more helpful and inspiring than a ringing
testimony of _what God has done_?
As I have recalled the past in writing these incidents, one of the most
precious memories is that of an evening when a number of friends had
gathered in our home. The conversation turned on answered prayer. For
more than two hours we vied with one another in recounting personal
incidents of God's wonderful work; and the inspiration of that evening
still abides.
A Christian minister once said to me: "Is it possible that the great God
of the universe, the Maker and Ruler of mankind, could or would, as you
would make out, take interest in such a trifle as the trimming of a hat!
To me it is preposterous!"
Yet did not our Lord Jesus Christ say: "The very hairs of your head are
all numbered"; and "not one sparrow is forgotten before God"; and again,
"Your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of _before_ ye ask
him"?
It is true that "There is nothing too great for God's power"; and it is
just as true that "There is nothing too small for his love!"
If we believe God's Word we must believe, as Dan Crawford has tersely
and beautifully expressed it, that "The God of the infinite is the God
of the infinitesimal." Yes, he
"Who clears the grounding berg
And guides the grinding floe,
He hears the cry of the little kit fox
And the lemming of the snow!"
No more wonderful testimony, perhaps, has ever been given of God's
willingness to help in every emergency of life, than that which Mary
Slessor gave, when asked to tell what prayer had meant to her. "My
life," she wrote, "is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer.
For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given
marvelously, for errors and dangers everted, for enmity to the Gospel
subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that
goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and
often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer. _I know
God answers prayer!_"
I have been asked the question: "Has God _always_ given you just what
you have asked for?"
Oh, no! For him to have done so would have been great unkindness. For
instance: when I was a young woman I prayed for three years that God
would grant me a certain petition. Sometimes I pleaded for this as for
life itself, so intensely did I want it. Then God showed me very clearly
that I was praying against his will. I resigned my will to his in the
matter, and a few months later God gave what was infinitely better. I
have often praised him for denying my prayer; for had he granted it I
could never have come to China.
Then, too, we must remember that many of our prayers, though always
heard, are not granted because of some sin harbored in the life, or
because of unbelief, or of failure to meet some other Bible-recorded
condition governing prevailing prayer. (See Bible Study on pages 129,
130.)
The following incidents of answered prayer are by no means a complete
record. How could they be, when no record of prayer has been kept all
these fifty years? Had there been, I doubt not that volumes could have
been written to the glory of God's grace and power in answering prayer.
But even from what is recorded here I, too, can say from a full heart,
_I know God answers prayer_.
"He answered prayer: so sweetly that I stand
Amid the blessing of his wondrous hand
And marvel at the miracle I see,
The favours that his love hath wrought for me.
Pray on for the impossible, and dare
Upon thy banner this brave motto bear,
'My Father answers prayer.'"
II
EARLY LESSONS IN THE LIFE OF FAITH
"I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice
and my supplications."--_Psalm 116:1._
WHEN a very little child, so young I can remember nothing earlier, a
severe thunderstorm passed over our home. Terrified, I ran to my mother,
who placed my hands together, and pointing upward repeated over and over
again the one word "Jesus."
More than fifty years have passed since that day, but the impression
left upon my child-mind, of a Being invisible but able to hear and help,
has never been effaced.
* * * * *
The most precious recollections of early childhood are associated with
stories told us by our mother, many of which illustrated the power of
prayer.
One that made a specially deep impression upon me was about our
grandfather, who as a little boy went to visit cousins in the south of
England, their home being situated close to a dense forest. One day the
children, lured by the beautiful wild flowers, became hopelessly lost in
the woods. After trying in vain to find a way out, the eldest, a young
girl, called the frightened, crying little ones around her and said:
"When mother died she told us to always tell Jesus if we were in any
trouble. Let us kneel down, and ask him to take us home."
They knelt, and as she prayed one of the little ones opened his eyes, to
find a bird so close to his hand that he reached out for it. The bird
hopped away, but kept so close to the child as to lead him on. Soon all
were joining in the chase after the bird, which flew or hopped in front
or just above, and sometimes on the ground almost within reach. Then
suddenly it flew into the air and away. The children looked up to find
themselves on the edge of the woods and in sight of home.
With such influences bearing upon one at an impressionable age, it is
not surprising that I came even as a very little child to just "tell
Jesus" when in trouble.
* * * * *
Through the mists of memory one incident comes out clearly, which
occurred when I was six or seven years of age. While playing one day in
the garden, I was seized with what we then called "jumping" toothache.
I ran to my mother for comfort, but nothing she could do seemed to ease
the pain.
The nerve must have become exposed, for the pain was acute. Suddenly I
thought, "Jesus can help me," and just as I was, with my face pressed
against my mother's breast, I said in my heart:
"Lord Jesus, if you will take away this toothache right now, _now_, I
will be your little girl for three years."
Before the prayer was well uttered the pain was entirely gone. I
believed that Jesus had taken it away; and the result was that for
years, when tempted to be naughty, I was afraid to do what I knew was
wrong lest, if I broke my side of what I felt to be a compact, the
toothache would return. This little incident had a real influence over
my early life, gave me a constant sense of the reality of a divine
presence, and so helped to prepare me for the public confession of
Christ as my Saviour a few years later, at the age of eleven.
* * * * *
About a year after my confession of Christ an incident occurred which
greatly strengthened my faith, and led me to look to God as a Father in
a new way.
When Easter Sunday morning came it was so warm only spring clothes
could be worn. My sister and I decided at breakfast that we would not go
to church, as we had only our old winter dresses. Going to my room, I
turned to my Bible to study it, when it opened at the sixth chapter of
Matthew, and my eye rested on these words: "Why take ye thought for
raiment . . . seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall
be added unto you."
It was as if God spoke the words directly to me. I determined to go to
church, even if I had to humiliate myself by going in my old winter
dress. The Lord was true to his promise; I can still feel the power the
resurrection messages had upon my heart that day so long ago. And
further, on the following day a box came from a distant aunt, containing
not only new dresses but much else that might well be included in the
"all these things."
* * * * *
An unforgetable proof of God's loving care came to us as a family about
this time, when my parents were face to face with a serious financial
crisis. Isaiah 65:24 was literally fulfilled: "Before they call, I will
answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear."
At that time, it is necessary to state, we depended on a quarterly
income, which came through my mother's lawyer in England. Unusual
circumstances had so drained our resources that we found ourselves, in
the middle of the quarter, with barely sufficient to meet a week's
needs. My dear mother assured us that the Lord would provide; that he
would not forsake those who put their trust in him. That very day a
letter came from the lawyer in England, enclosing a draft for a sum
ample to meet our needs till the regular remittance should arrive. This
unexpected and timely draft proved to be a bonus, which did not occur
again.
* * * * *
Some years later, having moved to a strange city, a great longing came
to do some definite service for my Master. One day there came to the
Bible class I attended a call for teachers, to aid in a Sunday-school
near by. When I presented myself before the superintendent of this
Sunday-school the following Sunday, and offered my services, it is not
much wonder I received a rebuff, for I was young and quite unknown. I
was told that if I wished a class, it would be well for me to find my
own scholars. I can remember how a lump seemed choking me all the way
home that day.
At last, determining not to be baffled, I prayed the Lord to help me
get some scholars. I went forth praying every step of the way, the
following Saturday afternoon; and canvassing just one short street near
our home, I received the promise of nineteen children for Sunday-school.
The next day a rather victorious young woman walked up to the
Sunday-school superintendent with seventeen children following. Needless
to say I was given a class.
In the autumn of 1885 the Toronto Mission Union, a faith mission,
decided to establish a branch mission in the East End slums of that
city. Three others with myself were deputed to open this work.
Everything connected with it was entirely new to me; but most helpful
and inspiring I found it. For in face of tremendous difficulties, that
seemed to my inexperienced eyes insurmountable, I learned that prayer
was the secret which overcame every obstacle, the key that unlocked
every closed door.
I felt like a child learning a new and wonderful lesson--as I saw
benches, tables, chairs, stove, fuel, lamps, oil, even an organ, coming
in answer to definite prayer for these things. But best sight of all was
when men and women, deep in sin, were converted and changed into workers
for God, in answer to prayer. Praise God for the lessons then learned,
which were invaluable later when facing the heathen.
* * * * *
The time came when two diverse paths lay before me--one to England, as
an artist; one to China, as a missionary. Circumstances made a definite
decision most difficult. I thought I had tried every means to find out
God's will for me, and no light had come.
But in a day of great trouble, when my precious mother's very life
seemed to hang in the balance, I shut myself up with God's Word, praying
definitely for him to guide me to some passage by which I might know his
will for my life. My Bible opening at the fifteenth chapter of John's
Gospel, the sixteenth verse seemed to come as a message to me: "Ye have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should
go and bring forth fruit." Going to my dear mother and telling her of
the message God had given me, she said: "I dare not fight against God."
From that time the last hindrance from going to China was removed.
Surely the wonderful way God has kept his child for more than thirty
years in China is proof that this "call" was not a mistaken one. "In all
thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths" (Prov. 3: 6,
marg.).
During the summer of 1887 a book written by Dr. Hudson Taylor came into
my hands. In "China's Spiritual Needs and Claims" the writer told many
instances of God's gracious provision in answer to prayer. The incidents
related impressed me deeply. A little later, a few weeks before my
marriage, when I found I was short fifty dollars of what I would need to
be married free of debt, I resolved not to let others know of my need,
but to just trust God to send it to me. The thought came--if you cannot
trust God for this, when Hudson Taylor could trust for so much more, are
you worthy to be a missionary?
It was my first experience of trusting quite alone for money. I was
sorely tempted to give others just a hint of my need. But I was kept
back from doing so; and though I had a week or more of severe testing,
peace of mind and the assurance that God would supply my need, came at
length. The answer, however, did not come till the very last night
before the wedding.
That evening a number of my fellow-workers from the East End Mission
called, and presented me with a beautifully illuminated address and a
purse. After these friends had left I returned to my home circle
assembled in the back parlor, and showed them the address and the purse
unopened! Not for a moment did I think there was anything in the purse
till my brother said: "You foolish girl, why don't you open it?" I
opened the purse, and found it contained a check for fifty dollars!
This incident has ever remained peculiarly precious; for it seemed to us
a seal of God upon the new life opening before us.
III
"GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES"
1887-1894
"I will go before thee, and make the crooked
places straight: I will break in pieces the gates
of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron"
(Isa. 45:2).
IN ATTEMPTING to record what prayer meant in our early pioneer days,
other than purely personal testimonies must be given; for we were, as a
little band of missionaries, bound together in our common needs and
dangers by a very close bond.
* * * * *
In October, 1887, my husband was appointed by the Canadian Presbyterian
Church to open a new field, in the northern section of the Province of
Honan, China. We left Canada the following January, reaching China in
March, 1888. Not till then did we realize the tremendous difficulties of
the task before us.
Dr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, writing to us at this
time, said: "We understand North Honan is to be your field; we, as a
mission, have tried for ten years to enter that province from the
south, and have only just succeeded. It is one of the most anti-foreign
provinces in China. . . . Brother, if you would enter that province, _you
must go forward on your knees_."
These words gave the key-note to our early pioneer years. Would that a
faithful record had been kept of God's faithfulness in answering prayer!
Our strength as a mission and as individuals, during those years so
fraught with dangers and difficulties, lay in the fact that we did
realize the hopelessness of our task apart from divine aid.
* * * * *
The following incident occurred while we were still outside Honan,
studying the language at a sister mission. It illustrates the importance
of prayer from the home base for those on the field.
My husband was finding great difficulty in acquiring the language; he
studied faithfully many hours daily, but made painfully slow progress.
He and his colleague went regularly together to the street chapel, to
practise preaching in Chinese to the people; but, though Mr. Goforth had
come to China almost a year before the other missionary, the people
would ask the latter to speak instead of Mr. Goforth, saying they
understood him better.
One day, just before starting as usual for the chapel, my husband said:
"If the Lord does not give me very special help in this language I fear
I shall be a failure as a missionary."
Some hours later he returned, his face beaming with joy. He told me that
he realized most unusual help when his turn came to speak; sentences
came to his mind as never before; and not only had he made himself
understood, but some had appeared much moved, coming up afterward to
have further conversation with him. So delighted and encouraged was he
with this experience that he made a careful note of it in his diary.
Some two months and a half later a letter came from a student in Knox
College, saying that on a certain evening a number of students had met
specially to pray for Mr. Goforth. The power of prayer was such, and the
presence of God so manifestly felt, that they decided to write and ask
Mr. Goforth if any special help had come to him at that time. Looking in
his diary, he found that the time of their meeting corresponded with
that time of special help in the language.
"I cannot tell why there should come to me
A thought of some one miles and years away,
In swift insistence on the memory,
Unless there is a need that I should pray.
We are too busy to spare thought
For days together of some friends away;
Perhaps God does it for us--and we ought
To read his signal as a sign to pray.
Perhaps just then my friend has fiercer fight,
A more appalling weakness, a decay
Of courage, darkness, some lost sense of right;
And so, in case he needs my prayers--I pray."
At last the joyful news reached us women, waiting outside of Honan, that
our brethren had secured property in two centers. It would be difficult
for those in the homeland to understand what the years of waiting had
meant to some of us. The danger to those dear to us, touring in Honan,
was very great. For years they never left us to go on a tour without our
being filled with dread lest they should never return; yet the Lord, in
his mercy, heard our prayers for them; and though often in grave danger,
none received serious injury. This is not a history of the mission, but
I cannot forbear giving here one incident illustrating how they were
kept during those early days.
* * * * *
Two of our brethren, after renting property at a town just within the
boundary of Honan, and near the Wei River, moved in, intending to spend
the winter there; but a sudden and bitter persecution arose, just as
they had become settled. The mission premises were attacked by a mob,
and everything was looted. The two men were roughly handled, one being
dragged about the courtyard. They found themselves at last left alone,
their lives spared, but everything gone.
Their position was serious in the extreme--several days' journey away
from friends, with no money, no bedding, and no clothes but those upon
them, and the cold winter begun.
In their extremity, they knelt down and committed themselves to the
Lord. And according to his promise he delivered them out of their
distresses; for even while they prayed a brother missionary from a
distant station was at hand. He arrived unexpectedly, without knowing
what had occurred, a few hours after the looting had taken place. His
coming at such an opportune moment filled the hearts of their heathen
enemies with fear. Money and goods were returned, and from that time the
violent opposition of the people ceased.
* * * * *
A few months after the above incident several families moved into Honan,
and a permanent occupation was effected; but the hearts of the people
seemed as adamant against us. They hated and distrusted us as if we were
their worst enemies. The district in which we settled was known for its
turbulent and anti-foreign spirit, and as a band of missionaries we were
frequently in the gravest danger.
Many times we realized that we, as well as our fellow-workers at the
other stations, were kept from serious harm only by the over-ruling,
protecting power of God in answer to the many prayers which were going
up for us all at this critical juncture in the history of our mission.
The following are concrete examples of how God heard our prayers at this
time.
We had for our station doctor a man of splendid gifts. He was a gold
medalist, with years of special training and hospital experience, and
was looked upon as one of the rising physicians in the city from which
he came. Imagine his disappointment, therefore, when month after month
passed and scarcely a good case came to the hospital. The people did not
know what he could do, and moreover they were afraid to trust themselves
into his hands. We, as a little band of missionaries, began to pray
definitely that the Lord would send cases to the hospital which would
open the hearts of the people toward us and our message.
It was not long before we saw this prayer answered beyond all
expectation. Several very important cases came almost together, one so
serious that the doctor hesitated for days before operating. When at
last the operation did take place the doctor's hands were strengthened
by our prayers, the patient came through safely, and a few days later
was going around a living wonder to the people.
Very much depended upon the outcome of this and other serious
operations. Had the patients died under the doctor's hands, it would
have been quite sufficient to have caused the destruction of the mission
premises and the life of every missionary. Three years later the
hospital records showed that there had been twenty-eight thousand
treatments in one year.
Again, we kept praying that the Lord would give us converts from the
very beginning. We had heard of missionaries in India, China, and
elsewhere, who had worked for many years without gaining converts; but
we did not believe that this was God's will for us. We believed that it
was his pleasure and purpose to save men and women through his human
channels, and why not from the beginning? So we kept praying and working
and expecting converts, and God gave them to us. The experience of
thirty years has confirmed this belief.
Space permits the mention of but two of these earliest converts.
The first was Wang Feng-ao, who came with us into Honan as Mr. Goforth's
personal teacher. He was a man of high degree, equal to the Western M.
A., and was one of the proudest and most overbearing of Confucian
scholars. He despised the missionaries and their teaching, and so great
was his opposition that he would beat his wife every time she came to
see us or listen to our message. But Mr. Goforth kept praying for this
man, and using all his influence to win him for Christ.
Before many months passed a great change had come over Mr. Wang; his
proud, overbearing manner had changed, and he became a humble, devout
follower of the lowly Nazarene. God used a dream to awaken this man's
conscience--as is not uncommon in China. One night he dreamed he was
struggling in a deep, miry pit; but try as he would he could find no way
of escape. When about to give up in despair, he looked up and saw Mr.
Goforth and another missionary on the bank above him, with their hands
stretched out to save him. Again he sought for some other way of escape;
but finding none, he allowed them to draw him up.
This man, later on, became Mr. Goforth's most valued evangelist. For
many years his splendid gifts were used to the glory of his Master in
the work among the scholar class in the Changtefu district. He has long
since passed to his reward, dying as he had lived, trusting only in the
merit of Jesus Christ for salvation.
* * * * *
Another of the bright glints, in the darkness of those earliest days in
Honan, was the remarkable conversion of Wang Fu-Lin. For many years his
business had been that of a public story-teller; but when Mr. Goforth
came across him he was reduced to an utter wreck through opium smoking.
He accepted the Gospel, but for a long time seemed too weak to break off
the opium habit. Again and again he tried to do so, but failed
hopelessly each time.
The poor fellow seemed almost past hope, when one day Mr. Goforth
brought him to the mission in his cart. The ten days that followed can
never be forgotten by those who watched Wang Fu-Lin struggle for
physical and spiritual life. I verily believe nothing but prayer could
have brought him through. At the end of the ten days the power of opium
was broken, and Wang Fu-Lin came out of the struggle a new man in Christ
Jesus.
I shall have occasion to speak of this man again.
* * * * *
In all the cases of divine healing cited in this record it will be noted
that God healed in answer to prayer either when the doctors had done all
in their power and hope had been abandoned, or when we were out of reach
of medical aid.
Soon after coming to China the Rev. Hunter Corbett, one of the most
devoted and saintly of God's missionaries, gave a testimony which later
was used of God to save the writer from giving up service in China and
returning home to Canada.
Dr. Corbett said that for fifteen years he had been laid aside every
year with that terrible scourge of the East--dysentery; and the doctors
at last gave a definite decision that he must return at once to the
homeland and forsake China. But, said the grand old man: "I knew God had
called me to China, and I also knew that God did not change. So what
could I do? I dared not go back on my call; so I determined that if I
could not live in China I could die there; and from that time the
disease lost its hold on me."
This testimony was given over twenty-five years ago, when he had been
almost thirty years in China! In January, 1920, when well-nigh ninety
years of age, this beloved and honored saint of God passed to higher
service.
For several years I had been affected just as Dr. Corbett had been, and
each year the terrible disease seemed to be getting a firmer hold upon
me. At last, one day my husband brought me the decision of the doctors,
that I should return home. And as I lay there ill and weak, the
temptation came to yield. But, as I remembered Dr. Corbett's testimony,
and my own clear call, I felt that to go back would be to go against my
own conscience. I therefore determined to do as Dr. Corbett had
done--leave myself in the Lord's hands--whether for life or for death.
This happened more than twenty years ago, and since then I have had very
little trouble from that dread disease.
Yes, the deeper the need, and the more bitter the extremity, the greater
the opportunity for God to show forth his mighty power in our lives, if
we but give him a chance by unswerving obedience at any cost. "In the
day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength
in my soul" (Psa. 138:3).
* * * * *
During our fourth year in China, when we were spending the hot season at
the coast, our little son, eighteen months old, was taken very ill with
dysentery. After several days' fight for the child's life came the
realization, one evening, that the angel of death was at hand.
My whole soul rebelled; I actually seemed to hate God; I could see
nothing but cruel injustice in it all; and the child seemed to be fast
going. My husband and I knelt down beside the little one's bedside, and
he pleaded earnestly with me to yield my will and my child to God. After
a long and bitter struggle God gained the victory, and I told my husband
I would give my child to the Lord. Then my husband prayed, committing
the precious soul into the Lord's keeping.
While he was praying I noticed that the rapid, hard breathing of the
child had ceased. Thinking my darling was gone, I hastened for a light,
for it was dark; but on examining the child's face I found that he had
sunk into a deep, sound, natural sleep, which lasted most of the night.
The following day he was practically well of the dysentery.
To me it has always seemed that the Lord tested me to almost the last
moment; then, when I yielded my dearest treasure to him and put my Lord
first, he gave back the child.
* * * * *
While writing the above I came across an extract from the Christian of
March 12, 1914, in which the editor said:
"Speaking at the annual meeting of the Huntingdon County Hospital, Lord
Sandwich referred to the power of spiritual healing, and premising that
the finite mind cannot measure the power of the infinite, said he
'looked forward to the day when the spiritual doctrine of healing and
the physical discoveries of science will blend in harmonious
combination, to the glory of God and the benefit of humanity.'"
IV
A GOD-GIVEN FIELD (1894-1900)
"Lord, there is none beside thee to help, between
the mighty and him that hath no strength; help us,
O Lord our God; for we rely on thee, and in thy
name are come against this multitude" (2 Chron.
14:11).
THE story of the opening of Changte is so connected by a chain of prayer
that to give isolated instances of prayer would be to break the chain.
* * * * *
A few months after our arrival in China an old, experienced missionary
kindly volunteered to conduct Mr. Goforth and his colleague, who had
just arrived, through North Honan, that they might see the field for
themselves.
Traveling southward by cart, they crossed the border into Honan early
one morning. As my husband walked beside the carts, that morning, he
felt led to pray that the Lord would give that section of Honan to him
as his field. The assurance came that his prayer was granted. Opening
his daily textbook, he found the passage for that morning was from
Isaiah 55:8-13. Like a precious promise of future blessing for that
field came the words: "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to
the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it
shall not return unto me void."
For six years, however, our faith was sorely tested.
Of all places, Changte seemed most determined to keep out the
missionary. And there were other difficulties in the way. A presbytery
had been formed as others joined us, and all matters had to be decided
by that body. Two stations that had been opened, where a foothold could
first be gained, required all, and more than all, the force we then had.
So for six years the door to Changte remained fast closed. But during
all those years Mr. Goforth never once lost sight of God's promise to
him, nor failed to believe it.
Again and again, when Mr. Goforth and his colleague visited the city,
they were mobbed and threatened, the people showing the utmost
hostility. But the day came, at last, when the long-prayed-for
permission from the presbytery to open Changte was granted. The very
next morning found Mr. Goforth _en route_ for Changte, to secure
property for a mission site. Often has he told how, all the way over
that day to Changte, he prayed the Lord to open the hearts of the
people, and make them willing to give him the property most suitable for
the work. Within three days of his reaching Changte he had thirty-five
offers of property, and was able to secure the very piece of land he had
earlier chosen as most ideal for the mission.
Thus the Lord did break in pieces the gates of brass which had kept us
so long from our promised land.
* * * * *
A year later I joined my husband there, with our three little children.
It was arranged that our colleague should take charge of the outside
evangelism, while we opened work at the main station.
To understand what it meant for us to have our need supplied, there
should be some knowledge of what that need was.
We decided, from the first, that no one should be turned from our doors.
Mr. Goforth received the men in the front guest room, while the women
and children came to our private quarters. During those first weeks and
months hundreds, nay thousands, crowded to see us. Day by day we were
literally besieged. Even at meal-time our windows were banked with
faces.
The questions ever before us those days were--how to make the most of
this wonderful opportunity, which would never come again after the
period of curiosity was past; how to win the friendship of this people,
who showed in a hundred ways their hatred and distrust of us; how to
reach their hearts with our wonderful message of a Saviour's love?
All that was in our power was to do, day by day, what we could with the
strength that was given us. From early morning till dark, sometimes nine
or ten hours a day, the strain of receiving and preaching to these
crowds was kept up. My husband had numbers of workmen to oversee,
material for building to purchase, and to see to all the hundred and one
things so necessary in building up a new station. Besides all this he
had to receive, and preach to, the crowds that came. He had no
evangelist, Mr. Wang being then loaned to Mr. MacG----. I had my three
little children, and no nurse or Bible-woman. When too exhausted to
speak longer to the courtyard of women, I would send for my husband, who
though tired out would speak in my stead. Then we would rest ourselves,
and entertain the crowd, by singing a hymn.
So the days passed. But we soon realized that help must come, or we
would both break down.
One day Mr. Goforth came to me with his Bible open at the promise, "My
God shall supply all your need," and asked: "Do we believe this? If we
do, then God can and will supply us with some one to help preach to
these crowds, if we ask in faith."
He prayed very definitely for a man to preach. With my doubt-blinded
heart, I thought it was as if he were asking for rain from a clear sky.
Yet, even while he prayed, God was moving one to come to us. A day or
two later there appeared at the mission the converted opium fiend, Wang
Fu-Lin, whose conversion has been already recorded.
No one could have looked less like the answer to our prayers than he
did. Fearfully emaciated from long years of excessive opium smoking,
racked with a cough which three years later ended his life, dressed in
such filthy rags as only a beggar would wear, he presented a pitiable
sight. Yet the Lord seeth not as man seeth.
After consulting together Mr. Goforth decided to try him for a few days,
believing that he could at least testify to the power of God to save a
man from his opium. Soon he was reclothed in some of my husband's
Chinese garments; and within an hour or two of his entering the mission
gate, practically a beggar, he was seated in charge of the men's
chapel, so changed one could scarcely have recognized him.
From the first day of his ministry at Changte there was no doubt in the
minds of any who heard him that he had indeed been sent to us by our
gracious God, for he had in a remarkable degree the unction and power of
the Holy Ghost. His gifts as a speaker were all consecrated to one
object--the winning of souls to Jesus Christ. He seemed conscious that
his days were few, and always spoke as a dying man to dying men. Little
wonder is it, therefore, that from the very beginning of his ministry in
our chapel men were won to Christ. God spared him to us for the
foundation laying of the church at Changte, then called him higher.
* * * * *
Mr. Goforth's need was relieved by the coming of Wang Fu-Lin, but not
mine. The remarkable way God had sent him, however, gave me courage and
faith to trust God to give me a Bible-woman. Those who know anything of
mission work in China will agree with me that it is far more difficult
to find women than men who are able to preach the Gospel; or if able,
who are free for the work. But I was beginning to learn that God is
limited only from the human side; and that he is always willing to give
beyond our asking, if the human conditions he has so plainly laid down
in his Word are fulfilled.
A short time after I had begun to ask my Heavenly Father definitely for
a Bible-woman, Mr. Mac G---- came in from a tour, and his first words
were:
"Well, Mrs. Goforth, I believe we have a ready-made Bible-woman for
you!"
Then he told me how he had come across a widow and her son in a mountain
village, who had heard the Gospel from a recent convert out of one of
the other stations. This man had been a member of the same religious
sect as the widow and her son. When he found Christ he at once thought
of his friends, and went over the mountain to tell them. Mrs. Chang
received the Gospel gladly. She had been a preacher in that heathen
sect, and had gained the fluency in speaking, and power in holding
audiences, so necessary in the preaching of the Gospel.
The way was soon opened for her to come to me, and she became my
constant companion and valuable assistant in the women's work during
those early years. She witnessed a good confession in 1900--being strung
up by her thumbs when refusing to deny her Lord. Faithfully she served
the Lord as a Bible-woman, until the time of her death in 1903.
During the first two or three years at Chang Te Fu we lived in unhealthy
Chinese houses, which were low and damp. It was therefore thought best
that we should have a good semi-foreign house built for us. The work at
this time was so encouraging--converts being added weekly, and sometimes
almost daily--that we feared lest the new house would hinder the work,
and become a separating barrier between ourselves and the people. We
therefore prayed that God would make the new house a means of reaching
the people--a blessing, and not a hindrance. The answer to this prayer,
as is often the case, depended largely upon ourselves. We had to be made
willing to pay the price that the answer demanded.
In other words, we came to see that in order that our prayer could be
answered we would have to keep open house every day and all day, which
was by no means easy. Some assured us it was wrong, because it would
make us cheap in the eyes of the Chinese; others said it was wrong
because of the danger of infection to the children. But time proved
these objections to be unfounded. The very highest as well as the lowest
were received, and their friendship won by this means. And, so far as I
can remember, our children never met any contagion because of this way
of receiving the people into our house.
The climax in numbers was reached in the spring of 1899, when eighteen
hundred and thirty-five men and several hundred women were received by
us in one day. These were first preached to in large bands, and then led
through the house. We have seen evidences of the good of this plan in
all parts of our field. It opened the hearts of the people toward us,
and helped us to live down suspicion and distrust as nothing else could
have done.
* * * * *
In May of 1898 we started down to Tientsin by houseboat, with our
children, for a much-needed rest and change. Cold, wet weather soon set
in. Twelve days later, as we came in sight of Tientsin, with a bitter
north wind blowing, our eldest child went on deck without his overcoat,
in disobedience to my orders. Shortly after the child came in with a
violent chill. That afternoon, when we arrived in Tientsin, the doctors
pronounced the verdict--pneumonia.
The following day, shortly after noon, a second doctor, who had been
called in consultation, met a friend on his way from our boy's bedside
and told her he did not think the child could live till morning. I had
taken his temperature, and found it to be 106. He was extremely
restless, tossing in the burning fever. Sitting down beside him, with a
cry to the Lord to help me, I said distinctly: "P----, you disobeyed me,
and have thus brought this illness upon yourself. I forgive you; ask
Jesus to forgive you, and give yourself to him."
The child looked at me for a moment steadily, then closed his eyes. I
saw his lips move for a moment; then quietly he sank into a sound sleep.
When he awoke, about dusk, I took his temperature, and found it 101. By
the time the doctor returned it was normal, and did not rise again.
Although he had been having hemorrhage from the lungs, this ceased.
Is not Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and forever? Why should
we wonder, therefore, at his healing touch in this age? "According to
your faith be it unto you."
* * * * *
During those early pioneer years, when laying the foundation of the
Changte Church, my own weak faith was often rebuked when I saw the
results of the simple, child-like faith of our Chinese Christians. Some
of those answers to prayer were of such an extraordinary character that,
when told in the homeland, even ministers expressed doubts as to their
genuineness. But, praise God, I know they are true. Here are two
concrete examples.