MINISTERING CHILDREN
In 1898 a boy named Ch’en Yo, generally known as Yo-ah, lived near the
West gate of Chinchew city. His father, who was called Poah, used to
sit by the roadside gambling with the passers-by. The boy went with
him, and sometimes when his father lost a game, would have a turn at
the board and win some money.
When Yo-ah was thirteen years old, his father first heard about the
worship of the true God, and began to go to church, near the great
western pagoda in the city. Strangely enough, Yo-ah, who had gone
willingly enough to gamble, would not follow his father to church. For
six months Poah went to the ‘worship hall’ alone, then he told his son
that he must join him. Yo-ah did not wish people to know that he had
anything to do with the ‘Barbarian church,’ so when out of obedience
to his father he went to service, he used to creep through round-about
lanes and side streets, in the hope that none of his friends would meet
him on the way.
After a time Yo-ah went to school, though he was most unwilling to
do so, thinking that gambling was better fun than poring over books.
Seeing how idle he was, his father said to him one day:
“If you don’t mean to study you had better go away, for I will not take
care of you any longer.”
Seeing that his father meant what he said, Yo-ah made up his mind to do
better, and set about his work with a will. Not only did his lessons
improve; in a short time his temper grew better, and he gave up using
naughty words and telling lies. The secret of this wonderful change was
that at school Yo-ah had learnt to know the Saviour.
[Illustration: SUNDAY SCHOOL, CHINCHEW]
The neighbours, who did not understand about worshipping God, noticed
that Yo-ah had given up his rude ways, and did not answer back as he
had done before he went to school. One of them, a widow who had an
only son named Wu-mei, was very much struck by the change in him. Her
son had been called Wu-mei, that is, Black Little Sister, to deceive
the evil spirits into thinking that he was an ugly little girl, not
worth troubling about, in the hope that they would let him grow up
to manhood in peace. His mother, seeing how much Yo-ah had improved by
study, sent Black Little Sister to the same school.
The new scholar read diligently, and soon began to drink in the story
of the Gospel. Three or four months after he entered school a bad
illness, called plague, broke out and many people died, both inside and
outside the city. Black Little Sister sickened one day and had to be
carried home in a chair, slung on two long bamboo poles.
His teacher, who wanted all the children he taught to know the Lord
Jesus, was troubled about him, for he saw that he was very ill, and
he did not know whether Black Little Sister had learnt to trust the
Saviour or not. Just as he was starting off to go to the boy’s house,
Yo-ah’s father came into the school-room and said:
“You need not go, teacher; Black Little Sister’s mother has filled the
house with idols, and he is delirious. Even if his people allowed you
to enter his room, he would not understand what you said to him.”
The teacher was very sorry when he heard what Poah said, for he saw
that it would be useless to go to see his little friend.
Very early next morning Yo-ah’s father came again with news of Black
Little Sister, and best of all, he told the teacher that the dying boy
believed in our Lord Jesus as his own true Saviour.
“Last night,” said he, “when everyone could see that Black Little
Sister was very ill and must surely die, his relations turned all the
idols out of the house. Then I went in to see him. When I entered his
room, I said, ‘Black Little Sister, people say that you have lost your
senses. Is it true?’”
“‘No, brother Poah,’ he answered, ‘these heathen, who do not understand
what I am doing, think that I am out of my senses, because they see me
constantly getting up and kneeling upon the bed to pray.’”
Seeing that the boy was able to talk quite sensibly, Poah brought
another Christian, a man called Ah Lin, to come and see him.
“Shall I read some verses from the Bible to you?” asked Ah Lin, sitting
down by the bedside.
“Yes, I should like you to read some very much,” answered the dying boy.
Ah Lin opened his New Testament and began reading from the third
chapter of St John’s Gospel. When he reached the fifteenth verse he
stopped.
“Black Little Sister,” he said, “do you know the next verse?” It had
been the golden text, repeated by the children at the Bible service on
the previous Sunday.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting
life.” The poor dried lips slowly repeated the precious words to the
end.
Then Poah and Ah Lin prayed. When they had finished Black Little Sister
put his hands together and said: “Thank you, God, so much for giving
your only born son, that I, a sinful one, believing on Him, might have
everlasting life.” Then the room was very quiet, for the boy was tired
and neither Poah nor Ah Lin could speak a word.
Soon after this the fever died out of Black Little Sister’s face and
eyes. The fight was over. He had left the narrow room and its useless
idols, and gone to the home of love and everlasting life.
Whilst Poah told the story to the good teacher, he cried for joy and
sorrow, until the tears ran down his cheeks.
In the fourth moon of the next year, the plague came to the city once
more. On the 15th, Yo-ah was taken ill after morning school. When his
minister went to see him, he said:
“Please do not say anything to my father about my sickness, for I am
the last of six brothers, and if he were to hear that I was ill, he
would be so sorry.”
But the minister of course felt he must send for the father as quickly
as possible.
When Poah reached the school he found Yo-ah sitting in bed reading his
Bible. He seemed bright enough, and had just finished doing up accounts
for one of the Christians, who had been out selling fish.
“What is wrong with you, Yo-ah?” asked his father.
“I have only got a small lump above my leg, which pains me a little,
father.”
The doctor came presently and gave the boy some medicine, but the
medicine did not seem to have much effect.
That evening Yo-ah felt poorly. “If the fever does not go down to-night
I will certainly be in Heaven to-morrow, father,” said Yo-ah.
Next morning Yo-ah looked so much better that Poah was very glad and
exclaimed to one of his friends, “I took a straw rope for a serpent
this time,” meaning that he had been frightened by his boy’s illness
when there was no reason to be afraid.
During the day one of the schoolboys, a great friend of Yo-ah’s, went
to see him. The sick lad was very glad to see him, and said: “Ah!
So-and-so, you will go on to the middle school by-and-by. Afterwards
you must give yourself to God’s service and work for Him.”
“You, too, must work for God, Yo-ah,” answered his friend.
“The Lord is not going to leave me long in this world,” said Yo-ah.
After this he begged one of his uncles to believe in Christ and find
safety in Him. He also spoke to several of his friends asking them to
give up things which they knew to be wrong in their fives. To one, who
was careless about money, he said, “Brother Lin, you ought to live more
sparingly. How can you glorify God when you are constantly in debt and
people have to dun you for money at the end of the year?”
His father, seeing that though Yo-ah looked better, he acted like one
about to leave this world, said to him:
“If you die, I will go and hang myself.”
“Daddy, if you do what Judas did, then after my death, we two, father
and son, will never see each other any more. You must live for God and
tell people His truth with all your might when I am gone.”
After this he spoke much with his father, asking him to be faithful
to Christ. When noon came he stopped talking, saying, “Now all is
finished.”
His poor father was very sorry and tried to speak to him, but all that
Yo-ah would say after this was “Submit, gladly submit,” repeating the
words over and over again, meaning that his father ought to be willing
to let him go if God took him.
By seven o’clock that evening Yo-ah was restless, throwing himself from
one side of the bed to the other. His father sat by, trying to soothe
and quiet him, and as he watched through the dragging minutes he cried
to God, for he was not willing that his only son should die.
The bell rang for evening prayer in the church, next door to the
school. The poor man in his sore trouble wished to go to the service,
but dared not leave the sick-room, fearing that Yo-ah might roll from
the bed and fall upon the ground.
A change passed over him and a new calm came into his heart. He fell
upon his knees in front of the bed and prayed:
“O, God! I submit to Thy will. I pray Thee to let my child go home in
peace.”
He rose from the ground. The restless tossing had stopped. Yo-ah was
lying still upon the bed. After one long look the poor father went into
the church. The service was nearly over when he entered the building
and the minister was just saying, “If anyone wishes to lead us in
prayer, let him do so.” Poah began: “O God, I thank Thee for having
given me this son to care for these fifteen years. Now Thou hast taken
him home to Thyself. I gladly submit to Thy will. Only please help me
to remember, and to do all that he spoke of when he talked to me.”
At the close of the service the people knew that Yo-ah had ‘crossed
over’ to the better land. Some of them wished to try to comfort his
father, but they were all so grieved for him that no one could find
a word to say. Poah, whose face was very calm, began to comfort them
instead. He told them what Yo-ah had said, and asked them to join with
him in submitting to the will of God.
That year plague raged in the city and many people died. One of the
minister’s sons, a boy of ten, sickened and died without a word. When
Poah heard of it he said: “God has indeed been merciful to me. If my
boy had died like this without comforting me, what should I have done?”
Yo-ah’s father, who now seemed to live only for the good of others,
went everywhere to help with the sick and dying. Next year he became an
elder of the church, which he served most faithfully. A year later, the
plague came again, and joyfully submitting to God’s will he, too, went
home to be with Jesus.