yard; and as we alighted from the cart these men literally drove us
before them into one room, which in a few moments was packed to
suffocation. For probably an hour the crowd kept crushing us into one
corner; then those outside became impatient at not being able to get in,
and demanded that we be brought out. We managed to keep some of the
ladies from going out; but the rest of us--men, women, and
children--stood facing that seething multitude until relief came in the
darkness. Why did they not kill us then? Why, indeed? None but an
Almighty God kept that crowd back.
As soon as we had reached the city a servant was sent to the official
demanding protection. It was dark when this man returned, in a state of
great agitation; his story was that as he was waiting for an answer from
the official he overheard a conversation between two soldiers, and
gathered from what they said that the official had sent a party of fifty
soldiers along the road that we would have to take, with the order that
every one of us must be put to death. The official was afraid to have us
killed in the city lest he should afterward be blamed; but by this plan
he could say brigands had done the deed. So sure was this servant that
we were all to be massacred that he would remain with us no longer, but
returned that night to Honan with the report that we were all killed.
A consultation was held, and the question was, should we stay in the
city and again demand protection, or should we go on and trust God to
open our way? The latter course was decided upon. But for a long time
the carters utterly refused to go farther with us. Again prayer opened
up our way, and by two o'clock in the morning all were ready to start.
The official had sent a few foot-soldiers to guide us to _the right
road_! (to the waylaying party). The night was very dark, and as we were
passing through the gate of the city we noticed what seemed to be signal
lights put out and drawn in. We all felt these to be signals to the
waylaying party ahead. A short distance from the city, probably about
one hundred yards, our carts suddenly stopped. Some one ran up and
whispered to Mr. Goforth, "Paul and Mr. ---- are missing." Search was
made for them, but without success.
A veil must be drawn over those terrible hours of suspense; my faith
seemed to fail me, and I could only cry in my agony, "If Paul is gone,
can I ever trust God again?" Then I remembered how marvelously God had
given me back my dear husband's life, and I just committed Paul into his
hands and waited to see what he would do.
When all hope was given up of finding the missing ones, a cart was left
behind with a trusted servant, and we went on. Then we saw God's
wonderful plan for us. While we were waiting the soldiers had fallen
asleep in the carts, and were not aware that the carters were taking a
side road until we had gotten miles from the city and beyond the reach
of our would-be murderers! The soldiers were infuriated at this
discovery; but after some threatening they left us and returned to the
city. Thus again we saw that God was indeed unto us a "God of
deliverances."
Again and again that day we were surrounded by mobs. Many times I held
up the poor, dirty clothes which the Mohammedans had given us, and the
story of how these had been given quieted the people perhaps more than
anything. Once the cry was raised to drag our children's nurse out of
the cart; but as we cried to God for her the people let us alone, and we
passed on. At another time a man snatched the remains of Mr. Goforth's
helmet away from us, and tore it to pieces. I had hoped to keep it as a
trophy should we ever get out safely.
We were at this time in a pitiable condition. Most of the men had head
or arms bandaged; Dr. ---- was unable to raise his head. What we
suffered in those carts with nothing but the boards under us cannot be
told. Nine persons were packed in our cart, which under ordinary
circumstances would have held four or five. At noon we reached a large
city, where the animals had to rest and feed. Then again we saw an
evidence of the Lord's loving kindness over us.
Just as we were getting down from our carts the crowd became very
threatening, and it looked now as if our hour had indeed come; but at
this critical juncture two well-dressed young men of official class came
through the crowd, greeting Mr. Goforth in great surprise. They had been
received by him in our home at Chang Te Ho. A few words of explanation
were spoken, then they turned quickly to the crowd and told them who we
were and of the work at Chang Te Ho. The attitude of the people changed
instantly, and they made way for us, giving us good rooms, and food was
brought which was greatly needed.
That noon, as one after another came up to express their sympathy at
Paul's loss, I could say nothing--I was waiting to see what God would
do. When Mr. Goforth told the young officials about Paul and Mr. ----,
they were greatly concerned, and promised to send men at once to search
for them. These friends in need sent with us a man of the district to
guide and help us, and also wrote an urgent letter to the official of
the city we were to stay in that night, asking him to give us an escort
and help us in every way he could.
About four o'clock that afternoon a man came running after us with the
joyful news that Paul and Mr. ---- were safe, and would reach us that
night. As I heard this news my unbelief and faithlessness in the hour of
testing came over me with overwhelming force, and I could only bow my
head and weep. Oh, the goodness and mercy of God! Never had the love of
God seemed so wonderful as in that hour.
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Were the whole sky of parchment made,
Were every blade of grass a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain that ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky."
That night we reached our destination about nine o'clock, having
traveled seventeen hours over those roads, with but a short break at
noon. It was marvelous how Mr. Goforth was sustained, for he was obliged
to start at once for the official's residence with the note I have
already referred to. On the way through the street the mob about
succeeded, several times, in getting him down under their feet; but God
was with him, and he reached the Yamen in safety, being courteously
received by the official, who promised us protection, and sent him back
to the inn under escort.
When Paul and Mr. ---- arrived that night, they tried in vain to wake
me, but nature had to have her way. I knew nothing till I wakened with a
start at about two A.M. Jumping up, I started to look for Paul, and
never can I forget the scene! The whole party was lying on the bare
earthen floor, practically without bedding or mattresses.
A word concerning the experiences of Mr. ----and Paul. The two had got
down from their cart and were walking behind. In some way they missed
the road in the dark, and became separated from us. During that day they
were repeatedly in the gravest danger.
On one occasion, when surrounded by a violent mob, and one man had
raised a club above Paul's head to strike him down, Mr. ----felt
impelled by some unseen power to shout out, "We are not Roman Catholics,
but Protestants." At this the man lowered his club, exclaiming, "Why,
these are not the bad foreign devils, but the good foreign devils, like
those missionaries at Chow Chia K'eo" (China Inland Mission). At this
same place the hearts of the people seemed turned toward them in a
wonderful way. One man gave Paul one hundred _cash_ (five cents) to buy
some food; another man carried the lad on his back for miles to give his
feet a rest, they were so sore. This same man, when he could carry Paul
no longer, ran ahead to try and find us. When they reached the inn where
we had been so helped by the two Chinese gentlemen, they found that
these friends had food prepared and a barrow waiting, also a guide ready
to lead them to us!
Less than an hour from the time I awakened we were on the road again.
The official was true to his promise, and a large mounted escort
accompanied us. That day we were on the road twenty hours, reaching Fan
Cheng at midnight. Here we found the engineers' party waiting for us
with boats hired, but we were obliged to remain twenty-four hours in the
most loathsome inn we ever had the misfortune to be in in China. It was
an unspeakable relief to get into the houseboats, even though we only
had bare boards to lie on, and the boat people's food to eat.
We were ten days going down stream to Hankow. One after the other became
ill. When still a day from Hankow, a steam tug met us with provisions.
Our children cried at the sight of bread and milk! We were not allowed
to stop long enough at Hankow, as we had hoped, to get clothes and other
necessaries, but were obliged to hasten on by the first steamer, which
left the following morning. I was obliged to borrow garments for myself
and the children from our fellow-passengers.
At Shanghai the streets were being paraded, and every preparation was
being made for an attack. We learned with deep sorrow of the death of
many dear friends at the hands of the Boxers. Ordered home by the first
steamer, without anything left to us but the old clothes we had on at
the time of the attack, how could we get ready in such a short time for
the long home voyage? There was no lack of money, for our Board had
cabled all we needed. The question that faced us was how could I get
clothes made for six of us in such a short time, with Chinese tailors
too busy to help, no machine to be had, and no ready-made clothes to be
bought except for Mr. Goforth and Paul.
Again I found that man's extremity was but God's opportunity. He was
true to his promise, "God shall supply all your need." Even as I knelt
in an agony of prayer, beseeching God's help, and asking definitely that
some one should be sent to me to help with the sewing, two ladies were
at the door asking for me! These were perfect strangers, but had seen
our names among the recent refugees, and God had moved them to come and
offer their assistance! They worked for me night and day until we had to
get on board the steamer. Never shall I forget their Christian
fellowship and practical help at that time.
But in the rush to get the older children ready, baby Wallace's clothes
were neglected. There was nothing for it but to take materials and make
things for him on the voyage. In this connection came a most wonderful
and precious evidence of God's power to answer prayer. For the first few
days of the journey I worked early and late trying to make something for
the little one, who had scarcely anything to wear; but as we were
nearing Yokohama I realized I had almost reached the end of my strength.
My needle refused to work; try as I would I could not even see where to
put the needle.
Folding up my work I went down to the stateroom, and kneeling down I
spread the work before the Lord. Too far gone to agonize in prayer, I
could only quietly, almost mutely, just tell him how the poor child had
no clothes. Rising with a great sense of the burden having been lifted,
I put the work away, locking it in a trunk, then went up on deck and lay
down almost insensible from exhaustion. How long a time passed I do not
know, but it could not have been more than half an hour when some one
came and touched me, saying, "We have dropped anchor in Yokohama Bay,
and a large bundle has been thrown up on deck from the lighter for you."
"For me!" I cried. "Surely not; I know no one in Japan." Then I thought,
"It is the answer come!"
Going down I found a letter from Mrs. O. E., of the China Inland
Mission. She said that her little son, the same age as baby Wallace, had
died four months before, and the Lord had pressed her to send his
complete outfit to me for my child! Opening the parcel, I found not only
everything the child could possibly need for a year or more, but much
else. Had some one stood beside that dear sister and told her what I
most needed, she could not have done differently. Yes, surely Some One
did direct her loving hands, and Some One just used her as one of his
channels; for she lived near to him, and was an open channel.
Three days later my own collapse came; but praise his great name, he was
with me in the darkness and brought me through.
VI
PROVING GOD'S FAITHFULNESS (1902-1908)
"The safest place . . . is the path of duty."
ONE of the results of our gracious and merciful deliverance from the
hands of the Boxers was an increased desire to make our lives tell in
the service of God--to spend and be spent for him. Our Heavenly Father
saw this and just took us at our word, and led us out into the path
which meant absolute surrender as I had never known it before.
It is so true that "God will be no man's debtor." When he asks for and
receives our all, he gives in return that which is above price--his own
presence. The price is not great when compared with what he gives in
return; it is our blindness and our unwillingness to yield that make it
seem great.
* * * * *
The following story has been asked for many times. Believing that it has
a lesson for others, I give it, though to do so means lifting the veil
from a very sacred part of my life.
After the Boxer experience, my husband returned to China in 1901; and,
with my children, I left for China in the summer of 1902, leaving the
two eldest children at the Chefoo schools, _en route_ to Honan. Mr.
Goforth met me at Tientsin, and together we traveled by river-boat
inland a journey of about twenty-four days. During those long, quiet
days on the river-boat my husband unfolded to me a carefully thought out
plan for future mission work.
He reminded me that six missionaries, from a mission-station which had
been destroyed by the Boxers, were now permanently stationed at Changte;
and that the main station, now fully equipped, no longer needed us as
before. He felt that the time had come when we should give ourselves to
the evangelization of the great regions north and northeast of
Changte--regions which up to that time had been scarcely touched by the
Gospel, because of lack of workers. His plan was that we--husband and
wife, with our children--should go and live and work among the people.
To make this possible a native compound would be rented in the center,
where we would stay a month for our first visit, leaving behind an
evangelist to carry on the work; and we would revisit this and other
places so opened as many times as possible in the year.
What this proposition meant to me can scarcely be understood by those
unfamiliar with China and Chinese life. Smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet
fever, and other contagious diseases are chronic epidemics; and China,
outside the parts ruled by foreigners, is absolutely devoid of
sanitation.
Four of our children had died. To take the three little ones, then with
me, into such conditions and danger seemed literally like stepping with
them over a precipice in the dark and expecting to be kept. But, on the
other hand, I had the language and experience for just such work, the
need was truly appalling, and there was no other woman to do it. In my
innermost soul I knew the call had come from God, but I would not pay
the price. My one plea in refusing to enter that life was the risk to
the children.
Again and again my husband urged that "the safest place" for myself and
the children "was the path of duty"; that I could not keep them in our
comfortable home at Changte, but "God could keep them anywhere." Still I
refused. Just before reaching our station he begged me to reconsider my
decision. When I gave a final refusal, his only answer was: "I fear for
the children."
The very day after reaching home our dear Wallace was taken ill. For
weeks we fought for his life; at last the crisis passed and he began to
recover. Then my husband started off alone on his first trip! He had
been gone only a day or two when our precious baby Constance, a year
old, was taken down with the same disease that Wallace had. From the
first there seemed little or no hope. The doctors, a nurse, and all the
little mission circle joined in the fight for her life. Her father was
sent for, but arrived just as she was losing consciousness. A few hours
later, when we were kneeling round her bedside waiting for the end, my
eyes seemed suddenly opened to what I had been doing--_I had dared to
fight against Almighty God_.
In the moments that followed God revealed himself to me in such love and
majesty and glory that I gave myself up to him with unspeakable joy.
Then I knew that I had been making an awful mistake, and that I could
indeed safely trust my children to him wherever he might lead. One thing
only seemed plain, that I must follow where God should lead. I saw at
last that God must come first. Before the precious body was laid away
preparations for our first trip were begun.
Was God faithful to the vision he had given me? Or did he allow the
children to suffer in the years that followed, when months each year
were spent with them right out among the people? As I write this,
eighteen years have passed since we started on that first trip, and none
of our children have died. Never had we as little sickness as during
that life. Never had we so much evidence of God's favor and blessing in
a hundred ways--as may be gathered from the definite testimonies which
follow.
Without one exception, every place in which we stayed for a month, and
opened as my husband had planned, became in time a growing church.
And I found, to my surprise, that I was able to give more time to the
children, that I was able to guard them better when on those trips than
when in the Changte Station. For the mission compound was large, and
often the children were out of my sight for hours at a time; whereas the
outside native compounds we lived in were so small the children were
always within sight and reach. Even when groups of women were listening
to the Gospel, I was able to direct the children's lessons. As I look
back on that time, my heart is filled with overflowing gratitude to God
for the wonderful grace and strength he gave for that life.
My great regret is that I did not keep a record of answers to prayer. I
find it most difficult to record just what "asking and getting things
from God" meant at that time, but it now seems to me to have been the
very foundation of the whole life. The instances of answers to prayer,
here recorded, are simply the ones connected with that life which stand
out most clearly in my memory of those years.
* * * * *
The first answer came the morning after our dear Constance died, and was
the one that had the greatest, most far-reaching effect on the new life
and its work.
As I thought of facing the crowds of heathen women day by day, and what
it would mean to carry on aggressive evangelism outside, there was one
need I felt must be met--that of a Bible-woman. As I prayed for
direction, a Mrs. Wang Hsieh-sheng came to mind as the one I should ask.
But when I laid my request before her, that she come with me, she burst
into tears, saying: "I dare not. I have only one child left, and it
would risk her life too much."
Seeing how she felt, I did not urge her, but told her to go and pray
about it for a day, and bring me her answer after the funeral that
night. When she came that evening her face was shining through tears, as
she said: "O my Shepherd Mother, I will go. If you are willing to risk
your children for the sake of my sisters, how much more should I!"
Eighteen years have passed since that day. I would need to write a
volume to record all that Mrs. Wang meant to me in those years; yes, and
to the work. As the years passed she became my beloved companion,
sharing in all the responsibilities and hardships of that life, and also
in its joys. I realized more and more that she was indeed a God-given
co-worker. Though circumstances have led me away from that life, she
still remains and works for her sisters in the Changte Church.
* * * * *
One of the hardest words a missionary can get from his Home Board is the
word "retrench." My husband and I were on one of our evangelistic tours
north of Changte. Every door seemed wide open before us, and the time
ripe for a specially aggressive campaign of evangelism for the heathen.
But, just as we were planning for this, word reached us from our station
treasurer of a message received from the Home Board that funds were low,
and retrenchment must be carried out along all lines.
To us this meant dismissing helpers, and a general curtailing of our
work. We faced the question squarely. Our own tithe had been long
overdrawn. How then could we support the men we had, and go on with the
work which was opening so gloriously before us after years of hard
pioneer preparation?
But we decided to go on as we had planned, and to trust God for the
necessary funds; believing that, though for the time being the home
church had disappointed us, God would not fail us.
The following Friday a home mail reached us, in which was a letter from
a lady in New Zealand. The writer said she had read a letter of ours in
The Life of Faith, and wished to support an evangelist under us. This
relieved us of the support of one man, but there were many other needs
as yet unmet.
The following Monday, when our next mail was forwarded to us, a letter
came from a lady in Australia, enclosing a draft ample to meet every
special need in the work for a year to come. She stated very plainly
that she did not wish the money put into the general funds of the
mission, but to be used by ourselves in any way we thought best. Indeed,
had she known the special circumstances in which the letter would find
us, she could scarcely have written more exactly to fit our case.
Again, a year after this experience of God's faithfulness to meet all
our needs, we began to feel the need of special funds for the work. My
husband, as usual, seemed quite sure that we should keep on as we had
been doing, and that the money needed would be sent. In spite of all the
blessed lessons of the past, my faith seemed to fail me; and I spoke
decidedly against using our salary, when we needed it all for ourselves
and our children's education. We were traveling homeward by cart at the
time and the matter was dropped; though I felt my husband was hurt by my
lack of faith.
When we reached home, that evening, a letter from a lady in Canada was
awaiting my husband. He read it first; and I cannot forget the look on
his face as he handed it to me, with the words "I told you so."
As near as I can recall it the letter said: "My mother and I are
strangers to you, never having seen or heard either you or your wife.
But my mother, who is an invalid, has for some time been restless
because of a conviction that has come over her that she should send you
some money. So to quiet my mother I am sending you fifty dollars."
As I read the letter, I certainly did feel ashamed of my lack of faith.
In writing our acknowledgment, I told how wonderfully opportune the
gift had been. A couple of months or so later came a reply, telling us
that the invalid mother passed away soon after my letter reached them;
and that the story of how God had used her in this matter greatly
strengthened her faith, blessing and helping her during the closing days
of her life.
* * * * *
On one occasion, when we were traveling from Wuanhsien to Pengcheng, we
reached the town of Hotsun late in the afternoon, expecting to stay over
night. But on our arrival we found that the Christian whom we had sent
to arrange for our accommodation had failed to get us a place, every one
absolutely refusing to take us in. While the animals were feeding, and
we were trying to eat our dinner of Chinese dough-strings in the midst
of a curious crowd, my husband told the Christian to go out again and
look for a place while we prayed.
We dared not close our eyes, lest the superstitious heathen crowd
crushing against us on all sides would take fright, thinking we were
mesmerizing them. So we just lifted up our hearts silently to our
Father; and before many minutes had passed, indeed before we had
finished our meal, the Christian returned greatly rejoiced, saying: "A
wealthy man has offered you a fine empty place which has just been
fixed over. And you can have it as long as you like, free of rent."
For three days we preached in that place--morning, noon, and night--to
great crowds; and a work was begun which has gone on ever since.
* * * * *