NOT very long ago, a lady who was staying in the same house with me, told me this true story, and I was so interested in it, that I thought perhaps you would like to hear it too.
She had been spending some weeks with friends in a large city in China, but the time had come when she must return to her home in another city at no great distance. There were no trains in that part of the country, and as there was no river, she could not go by boat, and it was quite too far to walk.
What could she do? Why, she went in a sedan chair, carried by several men. Her friends felt rather nervous about her going alone, as the whole country round there was full of robbers, but my friend was a Christian, and she said,
“I am not afraid, God will take care of me.”
So off she set, one fine morning. She travelled all day, and stopped at a Chinese inn for the night. The next morning they were up early, and once more on the road, and by ten o’clock, they could see the walls of the city she was going to, in the far distance. But suddenly, from the hills through which they were going, there sprang out a band of men. O! such dark, wicked looking men, each with his gun in his hand. The men who were carrying her were so terrified, they dropped the chair and the rough soldiers, or brigands, as they were, crowded round her. One seized her rug, and another her suit case. They dragged off her watch, and took all her money. When they had taken everything, they told the men they could go on.
“Go quickly, as quick as you can,” said the lady, but the men were so frightened, they were shaking all over, and could Hardly move.
They had gone a very little way, when loud voices called to them to stop. They dared not move a step farther.
“Has the lady fainted?” asked the men. “No,” was the reply. “Is she crying?” they next asked. “No,” said the men.
“Bring her here,” commanded the robbers, so back she was carried. Making her get out of the chair, they said,
“We want money; you must give us some.”
“But I have none,” she answered, “it has all been taken from me.”
“Then,” they said, “write a note to your friends in the city, and tell them to send us a ransom, and we will send a man with the letter, and you can stay here.”
“No,” she said, “I cannot do that, my friends are poor, and I cannot ask them for money.”
“Well,” said one man, “if you cannot give us money, you can sing for us,” and all the men gathering round her, shouted,
“Sing! sing!”
She was a solitary woman, in the midst of hundreds of fierce wicked men, to whom killing men or women, was thought nothing of, but she felt no fear, she was not alone, the One who was with the young men in the fiery furnace, was with her, and over her spirit came a great yearning for the souls of these ignorant reckless men, a quick prayer went up,
“O, Lord, teach me what to sing.”
She felt this might be her last chance to witness to the love of Jesus, and she selected a hymn telling of the birth and death of the Lord Jesus, and telling also why He died. The Lord was with her in a wonderful way. She sang one hymn; then another was called for, and then another. For several hours she was forced to stand there and sing to these men, many of whom had never heard before of Jesus.
At last a young man came up, who seemed to be the commander of this band of robbers. He at once asked what they were doing to the lady, and told them to let her go on her way at once.
“Perhaps you do not remember me,” he said to her, “but I know you well, and you shall not be hurt.”
The lady was surprised, but she felt the Lord had sent him to help her. She thought she might have given him medicine at some time.
“Have you taken anything from her?” he then asked the men, but they all said they had not. My friend could not say they had taken everything, and so enrage these fierce men, and she was only too thankful to God, for saving her life. So she got into her chair, and soon was with her friends in the city.
But a great surprise awaited her, when she sat down to her supper, not long after. She found, on a chair beside her, everything the robbers had taken from her. The kind man had sent all back. How thankful she was to the Lord, and how all the little band of missionaries praised God for His goodness to their dear sister. Was not the promise fulfilled, which says,
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify Me.” Psa. 50:15.
ML 11/13/1927