There was a family in the interior of China who had learned to trust in the Lord Jesus, and knew He loved and cared for them. Every day two hours before breakfast, they would all get up and read the Bible, sing, and pray to God.
Suddenly a dark cloud of trouble gathered over them. They were accused of not being loyal subjects because they had lodged a passing foreign missionary. They continued their morning prayers, even more earnestly, pouring out their heart Father, for they knew they before God their Father, for they knew they might lose their home and all they possessed.
The very morning when they should appear before the judge, while they were still on their knees, a hen came into their courtyard, cackling loudly. The mother went out and found that the strange hen had laid an egg in their yard. What could they do about it, as they did not know the owner? They did a wise thing. They took a small piece of silver, wrapped it in paper, on which they had written that it was the money for the egg the hen had laid in their yard. They then tied the little parcel to the foot of the hen which ran away. The wife of an innkeeper saw her hen coming home with something tied on her foot. When she found the money and had read the message, she laughed, and could not stop laughing. The judge was lodging at her inn, and he asked her why she was laughing. The woman said: “These Christians are stupid people, they even pay for an egg which was laid in their yard by a strange hen.” The judge thought to himself. If the Christians have such a tender conscience, then they cannot he had people. He took the accusation, crossed it out, and wrote under it, “finished.”
So these dear children of God experienced what is written in Psalm 50: 15: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”
ML 03/01/1953