7. A Troublesome Journey, and What Came of It.
IF immediate results were the only reward of true Christian service, there would be much in heathen lands to discourage the missionary. Often he has to toil on for months, and sometimes perhaps even years, without being permitted to see much result to his labors.
The missionary journey which I am about to describe, was one of great trial, there was much to dishearten and little to encourage; the seed was sown in tears, but the time of joyous reaping came, and the labor was not in vain in the Lord.
This happy result of our journey, which only came to our knowledge some years after our labor, corroborates the expectation of blessing which we had directly upon the end of the journey and return home, which we put on record in our diary, as follows:― “There is reason to expect large results if God follow up with His blessing only a small part of the work done, and teach by His Holy Spirit those who read His printed word, which has been scattered all over the route we traveled. We rest on the faithfulness of God’s assurance that His word shall not return unto Him void; it shall accomplish that which He pleaseth, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto it was sent. (Isa. 55:1111So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11).) Eternity alone will reveal the wonderful achievements of God’s silent message, and the work of His messages in various parts of this great empire.”
The journey was into the cities and towns of the almost unknown regions of the Western hills of Shansi. The roads in this part of China are simply the beds of mountain streams, which in the rainy season fill with water, and at once stop all traveling. The water, however, soon disappears into the Great Yellow River, and then roads are again passable, ―rocks, stones and sand only remaining to try the patience of the traveler and to test the strength and power o; endurance of the beasts of burden. These make-shift roads, to a great extent, serve to cut off the inhabitants of the hills from those of the more populous plains.
The famine had carried off two-third: of the people of these hills, the town and villages were partly in ruins, and the terraced hillsides were uncultivated and overgrown with weeds. It was no easy thing to hire a guide and mules for a journey into the stricken region, but at length a mar owning two mules agreed to conduct out party, consisting of two Chinamen and myself, to our destination.
We started from the city of Ping-yang feeling conscious of carrying with us the Word of Life into a region of the greatest darkness and death, where hitherto the gospel had not been preached.
We expected to be able to accomplish the journey in less than three weeks, and so escape the rainy season. All went well for the first two days, when the two Chinese brethren―one an evangelist, and the other a servant―fell out with each other, and so great was the strife between them, that I was forced to allow the servant to return.
Rain now began to fall, and advance was both slow and difficult. Our road became covered with water, the stream grew deeper, and the constant crossing and re-crossing made it dangerous for the animals. The rain increased, and we began to fear that the rainy season had commenced.
We had stayed a few days in roadside inns and villages along the route hoping for better weather, but the waters increased so quickly that it was impossible to proceed. The stream had grown too rapid and deep for the laden mules to swim over.
This was our eleventh day on the road; we were too far from home to think of returning, so we looked around us for a resting-place for the night. Not far away were a few caves, and in them were living three families. After a little persuasion the occupier of one of the caves, a farmer named Chang, allowed us to sleep in a shed where he kept his grain and farming implements.
The next morning the guide refused to go any further along such roads, and unpacked our goods and returned home with the mules, the rain, the famine-stricken region, and the fear of robbers and wolves, having quite frightened him.
So I was left weather-bound in the cave with only one native companion, and the prospect of nearly a fortnight’s weary waiting. For ten days we lived with the Chang family―and were thankful for their kind hospitality, consisting of two meals of maize-bread in the twenty-four hours, together with a few vegetables and hot water to drink. Before the famine some twenty families had lived in the caves, all of whom bad perished except three.
We had preached in the villages on our way, and were encouraged to find that one man in Pu Hsien showed an interest in the gospel. He afterward became a Christian, ―the first fruits of a Christian church now existing in the neighborhood.
Our host professed to believe our message, but there was little inclination to destroy the idols in his cave. The fearful scenes of starvation around him did not appear to have awakened any great concern about the future, but rather the reverse. We left with him some scriptures, which he began forthwith to study.
As soon as the weather improved we took short excursions into the surrounding hills and valleys. Few people were to be found, but we discovered the remains of men, women, and children in many of the caves just as they had fallen from hunger. The sights were awful. Now and again, while wandering over the silent hills, we would come across a solitary man, and, sitting down by the side of the mountain path, we would talk together of the famine―and would then tell him of the salvation of God, which we had come to make known to the stricken people.
When the rain ceased we tried to obtain mules and proceed. We carried some copies of the scriptures over the mountains, along a difficult and dangerous mountain path, till we reached a place where the water in the river was not more than a few feet deep, and we crossed to the town of Wu-cheng, put up at an inn, and preached the gospel to as many as we could of the few people left.
It happened to be market day, and there was present, listening, a man named Chu from a neighboring village. We distributed copies of parts of the Bible, and to Chu we gave a Gospel of Mark. This he studied carefully, and he conceived it to be a book from heaven, for it taught a heavenly doctrine―one different from what he had ever heard. So Chu began to worship the book. And for two years he worshipped this Gospel by Mark. At the end of that time he visited Wu-cheng again, and stayed in the inn where we had been, and there, to his great joy, he discovered a book, in the possession of the innkeeper, which appeared to be of the same kind as his own Gospel of Mark. He bargained with the innkeeper and bought the new book, which was nothing less than a complete New Testament.
Chu returned home with his new treasure, and began to study it with great desire. There was a Buddhist priest in the village, and he, too, became deeply interested in the contents of these strange books, so much so that he and Chu used to meet every evening to read these Scriptures.
Three more years passed by, when Chu, who was a man of literature, had occasion to go to the city of Ping-yang Fu to pass Government examinations, and when there, he learned that a missionary lived in the city, and he took an early opportunity of paying him a visit.
The missionary asked him to spend a few days in his house, and thus Chu learned that God forgives sins, and that through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he might obtain the remission of his sins and the gift of eternal life. The end of the matter was, that Chu returned to his village a changed man. He immediately carried this good news of the forgiveness of sins to his friend the Buddhist priest, and, after pointing out clearly to him the way of salvation, he, too, accepted Christ and became a Christian.
Since his conversion, Chu has been the means in God’s hands of leading more than fifty others to Christ, not only people in his own village, but also of the surrounding country. A. G. P.