IT was a hot summer day in Fu-chow, China, years ago. Several small Chinese boys and girls were playing outside a little mission hall. Looking for a shady retreat from the sun they crept inside the mission and sat in the back row. A missionary was telling the story about a man named Peter who was in prison. Peter was to be put to death the next day but the preacher told about a God who sent His angel during the night and by a miracle Peter was let out of prison.
One of the children was a little Chinese boy. Lee knew only of the god in the idol temple, but the God the preacher told about lived up in the sky. Little Lee thought it was a good story but his impressions were not very lasting for soon after, he and his little companions slipped out and returned to their play.
Years passed by. Our little Chinese friend was now a young man and had been drafted into the army. It was a time of civil war and bands of rebels and bandits ravaged the countryside. One night Lee and some of his comrades were captured by the rebels and placed in a shed, or barn, for the night. The rebel commander was ruthless and cruel. To make himself feared and to warn the people not to fight against him he would usually shoot his prisoners. Guards were all around the shed so it was impossible to escape without being shot. Lee and his comrades believed this was their last night on earth—at dawn they would be taken out and shot by a firing squad.
Sad, miserable, without one ray of hope, Lee lay on the barn floor, unable to sleep. Memories of home and childhood began to fill his mind. For the first time perhaps in many years, he remembered that hot afternoon when as a small boy he and his little friends had crept into the mission. He recalled how the preacher had told the story of the man Peter who had been put in jail, and of how he was to be killed the next morning. The story fastened itself in his mind as he went over the details, and he remembered how God had sent His angel to help Peter escape from the prison.
Suddenly a voice seemed to whisper to him, “If God could do that for that other man, then maybe He could do it for you.” It seemed at first all too wonderful to be a possibility, but as he thought of it more a spring of hope rose in poor Lee’s breast. He had only prayed to dumb idols in his lifetime, but suddenly he found himself saying, “O God, I don’t know much about Thee, but I remember hearing at the little mission at Fuchow of how You got a man out of prison. If You will please get me out of here I’ll go straight back to that mission and learn more about Thee.”
After a while he thought he was selfish to just pray for himself, so he asked God to save his comrades also. Then, as he sat thinking about it, he reasoned, “It won’t be any use to just get out of prison; we might be captured by other soldiers and be put back into prison again. Would God somehow supply us with safe-conduct passes so we could get back home again.”
So Lee prayed again, “O God, please supply us with safe-conduct passes, or I’ll never be able to get back home to that mission and learn more about Thee.”
Daybreak came, there was a noise as the door of the shed was opened and rough soldiers marched the prisoners out into an open space in front of the shed. As the soldiers stood by with their rifles, they saw the rebel commander coming towards them. He ordered them lined up by the wall. Lee’s prayers were forgot, ten. This was the end, he thought.
Then the commander addressed them. They could hardly believe their ears. “I am not going to kill you,” said he. “You can all go home —on one condition. You must never fight against me again. Tell your people this. Let this be a warning. Now you may go.” As the poor prisoners stood by, scarcely able to believe their eyes and ears, he issued safe-conduct passes to them all.
It was all too good to be true. Surely it must be a dream! Lee wanted to pinch himself, but just at that moment a soldier pressed a safe-conduct pass into his hand. Then there flooded into his soul the realization that the wonderful God who had set Peter free from prison had done the same for him and his friends.
It was all too wonderful! Lee started to walk home, but every step he marveled that God could do such great things.
A few days later a ragged and weary young soldier presented himself at the missionary’s home in Fu-chow. He wanted to know more about the God who could bring fellows out of prison. Astonished, the missionaries listened as their visitor told the story of how when a little boy he had crept into the mission and had heard of a God who got that man Peter out of prison. And now that same God had answered his prayer and had done the same thing for him. He wanted to learn more of, Him. With joy they told him that that was but one of many wonderful things this same blessed God would do for Him if He trusted His beloved Son Jesus as his Saviour.
And Lee did trust Jesus as His Saviour. Through faith in His blood he was saved and became a happy Christian. For years it was his joy and privilege to tell his countrymen the story of redeeming love and delivering power, that power which delivers sinners from the prison house of sin, of death and judgment to come.
May our dear reader too come to know that same blessed God through His dear Son, who came into this world to save sinners.
ML-10/11/1964