CHANG SEN was 10 years old and a school boy in the Gospel Hall school on the Beautiful Waters River. He was the only son of his widowed mother. He wasn’t very smart at his lessons, but he liked to play and was good friends with the other boys. Coming home from school one afternoon he put away his books and went out to play bore supper.
It was in the days before the Communists took over China and bands of robbers roamed through the land. Chang Sen had not gone very far when some men came and led him outside the gate of the town. Then one of them picked him up, covered his face with a cloth and carried him far away into the country. Poor little Chang knew then he had fallen into the hands of bandits who would carry off people and hold them for ransom.
Meanwhile Chang’s poor mother was in great distress when her boy did not return and she went out to seek him. It was dark and the gates were closed. She looked in the school yard, and not finding him there she went hither and thither seeking her dear boy, but she could not find him anywhere.
At last a little boy told her he had seen Chang going out of town with some men, and then the poor mother realized he had been carried off by bandits. Poor Mrs. Sen! Chang was the most precious of all her possessions. She thought of the dreadful things that could happen to one who fell into the hands of the bandits. She was only a poor heathen, but she came to the mission house and told the Chinese evangelist, Mr. Hwang, what had happened. She said: “He is one of your school boys—he believes in Jesus—will you pray for him?” Immediately Mr. Hwang called the believers together and “prayer was made earnestly of the Church to God for him.”
A letter was sent to the missionary in the city telling him what had happened, but asking him not to be too insistent, lest if the government sent soldiers after the bandits, they might kill the boy, and the mother would indeed be bereaved.
So in another place the Church was called to pray for the boy. Missionaries realize over and over again that “it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” Prayer is the Christian’s great comfort and resource.
In the meantime little Chang ban to call for his mother, for Mr. Hwang the evangelist and others whom he thought big and strong and who would be able and willing to save him. But the big fellow who was carrying him stifled his cries, and the little fellow realized that neither his mother nor his friends could hear, so he ceased to cry.
Then he remembered what he had been taught about God and about the Lord Jesus, how that they are always near and always able and willing to help those who trust in the Lord. He began to ask God to help him and save him from these men. So he prayed inwardly as they carried him along, and God answered his prayer, for the men did not treat him roughly after that. They did not put him into a pit as they did another boy on another occasion. They put him into a room, and gave him good things such as pork and sweet cakes and spoke kindly to him. He was moved to seral places, and in some ways he enjoyed it, so he told afterward.
The third evening Chang was blindfolded and carried off again. He did not shout or cry this time—he knew it was no use. At last he was put down, and still blindfolded, was told to knock at the door in front of him. He did so, the door was opened, and wonder of wonders! the next minute he was in his mother’s arms. He had been brought right to his own door and the first one he saw was his mother. The man who had brought him had disappeared. In his pocket they found a big red Chinese card on which was the name of the bandit chief, or supposed to be, and on it was written: “Though this boy was worth $600, when we found out he was a boy attending the Gospel Hall school, we felt we ought to return him without a ransom.”
And so Chang came back. He had found out that he had a Friend who was always near, and always ready and able to help. That Friend was the Lord Jesus, of whom Mr. Hwang had often told him. The Christians there were helped in this wonderful answer to prayer and encouraged to take all their troubles to God.
This then is the story of Chang Sen, who became a happy Christian, and used to tell other boys and girls how the Lord Jesus saved him from the bandits in answer to prayer.
Praise the Saviour, ye who know Him,
Who can tell how much we owe Him?
Gladly let us render to Him
All we have and are.
Trust in Him, ye saints, forever,
He is faithful, changing never.
Neither force nor guile can sever
Those He loves from Him.
ML-06/18/1972