A good many years ago I was stopping in a house in the West,
and saw there a bright boy of thirteen who didn’t bear the name
of the family he was living with, and yet was treated like one
of the family. In answer to my inquiries, the lady said, “He
is the son of a missionary. His parents couldn’t educate their
children in India, so they came back here. But they had learned
the language of India, and they did not feel that it was right
for them to stay in this country. Finally, the husband said,
‘You stay here, wife, and educate the children and I will go
back.’ The mother said, ‘No; God has used me there with you--we
will go back together.’ ‘But,’ the father said, ‘you can’t give
up those children. You never have been separated from them
since they were born. How can you leave them in this country
and go back?’ She replied, bravely, ‘I can do it if Christ
wants me to.’ They made it a matter of prayer and put notices
in the papers that they were going to leave their children, and
asked Christian people to take them and educate them. I saw the
notice and wrote that I would take one child and bring it up for
Christ’s sake. The mother came and stayed a week in our home and
observed everything. She watched the order and discipline of the
family, and after she was convinced that it was a safe place to
leave her boy, she set the day for departing. My room adjoined
hers, and when the time came to start, I heard her pray, ‘Lord
Jesus, help me now. I need Thee. Help me to give up this dear
boy without a tear, that I may leave him with a smile. Oh, God,
give me strength.’ She was helped to leave with a bright smile
on her face. She went to five homes in the same way and went
back to India, leaving her five children. Some time afterward,”
Mr. Moody continued, “I was in Hartford and found a young man
busy in the good work of picking up the rough boys of the
streets and bringing them to my meetings and trying to lead them
to Christ. It pleased me very much and I asked who he was. He
was studying in the theological seminary, and I found he was one
of those five sons of that brave woman, and all of the five were
expecting to return to India to carry on their father’s work.”
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