BEFORE the writer lies a largish brown book, bound in half-calf, and bearing signs of much use. It is heavy, a hundred and fifty substantial pages, ruled with faint lines and filled almost to the end with small, clear writing. A line a day is all that is given to most of the entries, and there are few blank spaces. Only one line a day―the amazing record of Fraser’s missionary activities―beginning at Tantsah with the New Year, 1916, and abruptly ending at Paoshan, twenty-two years later. ‘Thirtieth anniversary of sailing from Tilbury’ is almost the last entry, a few days only before his swift translation to higher service.
Life became too full, as time went on, for any record save the barest facts; but in the Tantsah period, the opening pages of the Journal are rich in revealing thoughts and experiences. Here we company with Fraser in his loneliness; tramp with him on his preaching tours; share his inner life amid joys and sorrows, and enter into the deeper communings of his heart with God. Truly, ‘the place... is holy ground.’
And the journal adds meaning to the correspondence he kept up so faithfully with his mother and the praying friends she gathered round her. For she was the heart of his Prayer Circle; the one who originated and tended it with all a mother’s love. She lived, toiled and suffered with her boy, so far away, and when he was hard pressed in his Lisu trenches, instead of worrying she gave herself the more to prayer and getting others to pray.
As the Prayer Circle grew, Fraser was distinctly conscious of a change both in himself and in his surroundings. A new spirit of expectancy began to stir within him and there seemed new power with his message. This made him long for more such prayer help, and in his practical way he set to work to obtain it. Writing to thank the members of the Circle for their ‘faithful intercessions’, he continued:
You will know how, sometimes, a passage of Scripture comes to one with such insistence and such an obvious application to present circumstances, that one can hardly doubt its being a direct message from God. It seems as if God’s word to me at present comes in a passage from Isaiah, which spoke to me powerfully a few weeks ago and still seems to ring within me: ‘Enlarge the place of thy tent. . . spare not; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left.’ Isa. 54:2, 32Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. (Isaiah 54:2‑3).
Knowing as I do the conditions of the work, its magnitude (potentially), its difficulties and the opposition it meets with, I have definitely resolved, with God’s help, to enlarge the place of my tent; to lengthen my prayer cords and strengthen my intercessory stakes. I have, that is to say, resolved to make a forward movement with regard to the Prayer Circle.
Up to that time his occasional letters about the work had been forwarded from one to another, round the group of eight or ten prayer helpers. Now, at his own expense, he was to send a separate copy to each one, as well as taking steps to add to the membership.
I am persuaded [he wrote in this connection] that England is rich in godly, quiet, praying people, in every denomination. They may not be a great multitude as far as numbers are concerned, but they are ‘rich in faith’, even if many of them be poor and of humble station. It is the prayers of such that I covet more than gold of Ophir―those good old men and good old women (yes, and not necessarily old either) who know what it is to have power with God and prevail.... Will you help me, prayerfully and judiciously, to get some of these to join the circle?... The work for which I am asking prayer is preaching and teaching the Word of God, pure and simple.... I have no confidence in anything but the Gospel of Calvary to uplift these needy people.
How much Fraser’s heart was in this work comes out in both letters and journal. Oh, those endless journeys over the mountains, tramping round his districts, new and old! How widely he scattered the precious seed, how fervently he watered it with his prayers. Of one journey on the Burma border there is no record save in penciled notes to his mother:
In this poor, mountainous part of Burma, the people put up very rough shanties.... They live practically―sit, eat and sleep, on their earth floors.... For a bed, they lay you a lath-mat, just next to the fire in the center room, on which you spread your bedding. So you lie only about one inch from the ground. And the people, often a whole roomful of them, are much interested in the process of dressing and undressing.... They give you little or no privacy if they can help it, from the moment you enter the village until the moment you leave it. Bathed in dashing mountain stream, among the big boulders. Less tired in the evening: preached and talked to the people.
But in those tiny, hidden hamlets, overshadowed by mountains eleven thousand feet high, there was a response to the message Fraser brought that made it all worthwhile.
At the village of Six Families [he wrote] put to stay in a Black Hole of Calcutta, called a house. Good time preaching in the evening. As this was not one of the places to which I had been definitely invited, I was preparing to leave in the morning when my Lisu helper came along to say that the villagers were asking us to stay on, as some of them wanted to turn Christian. So of course I stayed. I am at their beck and call whenever they want to turn to God. More preaching in the evening.
Quite a little is involved in this ‘turning.’ First a good talk with the family round the fire, explaining the meaning of the step they are taking. Then prayer with them all, standing up, followed by the removal of all objects used in demon worship. This takes quite a while.... All that will burn is thrown on the fire, and we have a fine old blaze. The joy of seeing this done is second only to the joy of baptizing.
At Chop River, the Bear family also gave cause for encouragement—an old lady with her son, his wife and three children.
A delightful family [Fraser continued]. None on the whole trip turned Christian more whole-heartedly. The son made a clean and bold sweep of all demonolatry, both inside and outside of the house, leading me round to see that all was O.K. Someone suggested that it would do to remove only the things used in spirit worship, leaving the shelf for other purposes.
‘No, no!’ he exclaimed. ‘We will get rid of the whole lot while we are about it.’
His young wife, an unusually bright, intelligent woman, plied me with all sorts of questions about the Gospel.
But such joys were none too frequent. The reaping time had not yet come for the lonely pioneer, and his hopes for Tantsah especially were far from being realized. Yet he had no liberty about moving to another center. For five months, from January to May, he held on, waiting for guidance; and turning the early pages of the Journal one is awed to see the depths of soul exercise involved, the height, length and breadth of his prayers. To himself, his experience at this time seemed full of failure, checkered with defeat. And in a sense, it was. But to those who knew him in later years it goes far to explain the spiritual level on which he lived, so unconsciously to himself, a plane many of us know little about and never reach. In these long-closed pages we see him climbing, undeterred by the cost.
Tantsah.
January 1, 1916. Must watch against getting up too late, these intensely cold mornings. The indwelling Christ is my successful weapon against all sin these days―praise Him!
Sunday, January 2.... An earnest desire to save souls is on me, but prayer is rather unstable. I must regain my equilibrium in the prayer life. I must maintain, also, my abiding in Christ, by prayer without ceasing (silent), which I am now finding blessedly possible. Rom. 6 is not now my weapon, so much as John 15.
Tuesday, January 4. Finished Finney’s Autobiography: much help received from it. Finney’s strong point is the using of means to an end. My own leading is not a little along that line also. I do not intend to be one of those who bemoan little results, while ‘resting in the faithfulness of God’. My cue is to take hold of the faithfulness of God and USE THE MEANS necessary to secure big results.
Saturday, January 8. Prayer out on the hill, from noon till about 3:30 p.m. Much drawn out for Lisu work generally.
Sunday, January 9.... Discussion with Ku’s family about his removing the ‘family altar’, as well as the betrothal ceremony of his son, tomorrow.
Monday, January 10.... Nearly all the Christians away at Ku’s betrothal ceremony (where there would be drinking and dancing, etc.). I spend most of the evening in prayer. Nothing will give me lasting joy on this earth, now, but the salvation of large numbers of Lisu. To hear of Lisu ‘turning’ anywhere, or even intending to turn, rejoices me in a way that nothing else does.
Sunday, January 16. Not a single one to Service in the morning....
The walls of Jericho fell down ‘by faith’ (not the faith of the walls, though!). Of all the instances of faith in Heb. 11, this corresponds most nearly to my case. But not faith only was necessary; the wall fell down after it had been compassed about for seven days. Seven days’ patience was required... and diligent compassing of the city every day too―which seems to typify encompassing the situation by regular, systematic prayer. Here then we see God’s way of success in our work, whatever it may be―a trinity of prayer, faith and patience.
Tuesday, January 18. Prayer, today, rather on general than particular lines; patience the chief thought. Abraham was called out by God and went in blind faith; when he got to the land of promise, he found nothing but a famine―much like me with the Lisu, these two years. But Abraham, or his seed, possessed the milk and honey of the whole land, later on. God’s time had come for Abraham, but not for the Amorites. God’s time has come for me, but not, perhaps, just this month or this year, for the Lisu.
Am impressed, too, that I do not yet know the channels which the grace of God is going to cut out among the people here. Hence general prayer has its place, until God’s plan is revealed a little more fully.
Fraser, it appears, was assailed at times by the uprising of what he calls ‘fierce impatience’ with a very trying helper, a man from whom he endured not a little rudeness and inefficiency. He was usually able to control am manifestation of annoyance, but the inward perturbation left him with a deep sense of defeat. For he did know by experience the meaning of victory in Christ, which is so much more than outward self-control.
‘How can thee be so calm and pleasant?’ exclaimed a young Quakeress, seeing the way an older lady responded to great annoyance.
‘Ah, my dear,’ was the quick reply, ‘thee doesn’t know how I boil inside!’
It was just that boiling inside from which Fraser sought deliverance―sought and found it in the blessed fact, ‘I live yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. The indwelling Christ is my successful weapon against all sin’ was increasingly his experience in the details of everyday life. ‘Claim more; claim victory,’ he quoted from a book he was reading at this time; ‘I do not mean ask God to give, you victory, but claim His victory to overshadow you. When in the thick of the fight, when you are the object of attack, plead less and claim more on the ground of the blood of Jesus Christ.’ But the conflict was real, for the journal continues:
Tuesday, February 1, Prayer in the afternoon for about three hours, but not enough grip or intelligent method―as if have arrears of prayer to make up.
Thursday, February 3. Depressed after defeat this morning, from which no real recovery all day (last day of the Chinese year.)
Friday, February 4. No meal till 2 p.m., Thoroughly depressed about state of work in Tantsah. No one to count upon in matters demanding an earnest spirit.... The evil one seems to have the upper hand in me today, as veil as in the Christians. Fighting between Gu and Ku in We evening, also between Adu and O.S. Ku of to the dances. Several visitors during the day.... A little prayer in much distress of soul, on top of hill. Feel much inclined to ‘let Ephraim alone’... But just here I am torn between two alternatives―for I seem to have no leading to leave Tantsah, any more than the Lord had to leave Jerusalem (Luke 19:4141And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, (Luke 19:41)) .... My prayer is not so much, Lord, ‘lead me somewhere else’, as Lord, give me a solid church here in Tantsah.’
Saturday, February 5. Yesterday’s attack of depression and defeat almost got over, but not quite. Such times are not easy to recover from, I find. Enabled in large measure, however, to adopt the attitude of combined common sense and restful faith. The two O.S.’s came in this evening, with whom useful talk, as also with Ku. Still much distressed, however, over the condition of things.... The majority of Christians have gone in for whisky drinking... The outlook here in Tantsah at present seems less hopeful than at any time since I first set foot in the place.
I am not, however, taking the black, despondent view I took yesterday.... The opposition will not be overcome by reasoning or by pleading, but by (chiefly) steady, persistent prayer. The men need not be dealt with (it is a heartbreaking job, trying to deal with a Lisu possessed by a spirit of fear) but the powers of darkness need to be fought. I am now setting my face like a flint: if the work seems to fail, then pray; if services, etc., fall flat, then pray still more; if months slip by with little or no result, then pray still more and get others to help you.
Sunday, February 6.... B. and Va announce that they will become Christians, if their parents will allow them.... Four young men say they will follow Christ, whatever happens.... I adopt an entirely new attitude with them for the first time, concealing my earnest desire beneath a calm, almost indifferent exterior. I now think that this is the best way after all.... It will give them more confidence.
Tuesday, February 8. Mo La P’ turns Christian in the morning. Gu, Va and T, all at his house.... Full of joy and praise!
But there was fighting, drinking and dancing that New Year season even in ‘Christian’ households. The dancers came up to Fraser’s courtyard one night, and he awoke to find people in his room and revelry going on outside. An evangelistic trip took him away for a time, and before long he was able to write:
Cloud seems to have lifted considerably—perhaps because prayer burden fought right through.... After much pressure, even agony, in prayer for Lisu souls, enabled to break through into liberty, and to pray the definite prayer of faith for signal blessing among the Lisu during the next few months.... Real, prevailing prayer, for the first time for a week or more, and well worth the travail that led up to it.... Much peace and rest of soul after making that definite prayer, and almost ecstatic joy to think of the Lisu Christian families I am going to get.
And yet, this was almost immediately followed by the distressing experience at the Sword-ladder Festival, when every one of the promising group of inquirers went back to demon worship as we have seen.
Quite crushed with sorrow for a while [is the entry for March 13], whence an effort helped me, outside the village―and a straight-out, right-from-the-shoulder prayer against Satan restored faith and peace. The spirit of depression had to be entirely driven away, for victory.
A suggestive entry follows:
March 14. The question now remains whether I intend really to consecrate myself to the Lord, or to compromise.
Was he recognizing afresh that only a deeper work of grace in ourselves can enable us effectually to strengthen others? ‘For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth.’ Compromise is so easy! A slackening off, hardly conscious to oneself, it may be, and of which no one else for the time being is aware. But how it tells in the long run!
March 15. Last night’s compromise continued until this morning, with distressing turmoil in consequence. Not enabled to take the crucified position till mid-day. A wasted morning as a natural result.... Oh, I am myself needing far, far more prayer these days!
Two days later he was writing with reference to one who was causing anxiety.
O Lo Si here in the evening.... After he left, was enabled to strive for him in prayer, with the result that I now hear of his re-decision to be a Christian. He must be held on to in faith, however. Much helped by Mrs. Penn Lewis’s bringing out the point, ‘SAY to this mountain’. Was enabled to say, this evening. Retired, strong in spirit.
In his loneliness, Fraser was helped at this time, as oft’ before, by articles in The Overcomer. Quotations mad toward the end of March show the lines on which he WE... thinking.
March 20. Each time your spirit goes under and faints in the testing and trials which come to you, you lose mastery over the powers of darkness, i.e. you get below them instead of abiding above them in God. Every time you take the earth standpoint―think as men think, talk as men talk, look as men look―you take a place below the powers of darkness. The mastery of them depends upon your spirit abiding in the place above them, and the place above them means knowing God’s outlook, God’s view, God’s thought, God’s plan, God’s ways, by abiding with Christ in God.
You may be so entangled in the things of earth that your spirit cannot rise above them. The devil knows this and pours earthly things upon you to keep you down, so that you go under and not over when the battle comes.
Rom. 8:1111But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11). You must know the quickening of the body to a very great extent if you are to be able to endure the conflicts of this present hour. Your natural strength would go under, so God ‘quickens your mortal body’ to make you able to endure what no flesh and blood could endure and live. One of the temptations in the spirit-warfare is when the body begins to flag, to say ‘I must give up’, instead of casting yourself upon ‘God that raises the dead’ and can quicken the mortal body to endure and triumph in and all things.
In every battle there are crucial spots. Get near and stay near to your Divine Chief until He turns and points them out. And at those points face and force the fight. And though the conflict be keen, though defeat seems certain though the battle should continue for hours, for days, for months, even for years, yet hold on, HOLD ON; for to such Jer. 1:1919And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. (Jeremiah 1:19) is written: ‘They shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee to deliver thee.’
The aim of Satanic power is to cut off communication with God. To accomplish this aim he deludes the soul with a sense of defeat, covers him with a thick cloud of darkness, depresses and oppresses the spirit, which in turn hinders prayer and leads to unbelief―thus destroying all power (instead of seeing Heb. 11:11Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)).
Any position you have really taken with God’s help, may be re-taken at once by faith after a temporary lapse.
It is one of the most subtle wiles of the foe to get us occupied with superficial and surface concerns (e.g. book-selling language study, running mission stations, report-writing correspondence, account keeping, building, repairs, buying things reading, etc., etc., J.O.F.). The enemy is delighted to have us so occupied incessantly with secondary and trivial concerns as to keep us from attacking and resisting in the true spirit of the conflict. WEIGH THESE WORDS. J.O.F.
Times of defeat are frequently noted in the Journal, and traced to their true cause. ‘I am needing more form and order, more diligence, definiteness and dispatch in my prayer life’, he wrote at this time, ‘Laziness’ in spiritual things found to be one of his chief causes of failure, and he was startled to note how quick the enemy was to attack when he was off his guard, and to gain ground not in himself only, but in others. One experience of this kind, which caused much painful exercise of mind is faithfully recorded in the Journal.
It had been a day of failure and slackness of spirit. He had tried to pray as usual, but had been baffled by listlessness and wandering thoughts― ‘no grip’, he wrote, ‘no power’; only a sense of sliding down and beating the air, the cause of which must be ‘mercilessly investigated’. But efforts at recovery had only left him the more conscious of defeat. Matters came to a climax in the evening, and some of the inquirers came in for Bible reading and prayer. They were three of the most hopeful, his Tantsah inner circle, but that night they did not seem themselves. The experience that followed was so humiliating that we confine ourselves to Fraser’s own notes, made at the time:
A very definite sense of spiritual weakness―aggravated, no doubt, by further defeat in the evening with Ku, Va and O.S. The latter seemed almost as if possessed by a laughing demon, so entirely foreign to his usual demeanour! Insane giggling during study, followed by a burst of laughter (the first I remember here, from any Christian) as soon as I commenced to pray. Va follows him, more or less. I stop praying and burst out at him in carnal anger which quite fails, from almost every point of view. But I feel quite incompetent to deal with it; unequal to the situation; master neither of myself nor anyone else. Feel weak, lazy and semi-passive; have lost my grasp of things. O.S.’s unnatural flippancy seems only a reflection of my own condition. Almost feel as if a demon were laughing at me through him because of my powerlessness, defeat and spiritual inertia.
REFUSE, however, to be discouraged, but get down on my knees at once and ‘get right with God.’ I have had many such experiences (failures) before, but have made the mistake of giving way to depression instead of calmly investigating the cause of things. This time, however, the thief is not going to escape....
Formerly, it used to take me a few days to recover from such defeat. Then, when I began to know better, it took a few hours. But now I know even that to be too long, and only allow a few minutes for complete recovery. The sooner the better, and there is no time limit. (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).)
The lessons learned from this experience were unexpectedly practical. Seeking the explanation of his defeat, Fraser came to see that it was due to physical as well as spiritual causes. He had confined himself too much to his room―the only place in which he could count on privacy―and had neglected exercise and the mental balance of good hard study. Loneliness and the pressure of surrounding darkness had driven him to his knees too exclusively. The laws of nature are also the law of God; and he had to learn that ignorance or forgetfulness of either the one or the other does not save us from the penalty of breaking them. ‘First that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual’ began to take on new meaning. ‘I now think,’ he wrote quite simply, ‘that a long healthy walk was indicated, or wholesome Lisu study, rather than the “knee drill” I practiced with such, signal failure.’
I will still continue to test before God this newfound explanation, but a practical rule I may well go by is this:
1. Do not imagine that success and blessing in the work are absolutely conditional on one’s spending a few hours daily on one’s knees, with unfailing regularity. Cast-iron methods in spiritual matters are never free from objection. Let regularity be tempered by Spirit guidance, even in such matters. For example, one’s mind or body may be genuinely tired and require a little relaxation. Also, one may have prayed a thing through a day or so previously, and now have simply to hold on in expectant faith. But it is more than probable, when there is no liberty in spirit, that a change is needed, or a spell of study, as I have found.
2. Always remember, ‘I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also’. 1 Cor. 14:55. Let the spirit and the understanding work in about equal proportions. First, think over the needs, taking into account any consciousness of spirit burden. Pray, tentatively, along that line, asking God continually to focus your prayers. If, after covering such ground in prayer, no ‘grip’ comes anywhere, it is probably best to close down at once. Do not be in a hurry to do this... but don’t press on in the energy of the flesh.
With regard to 1 (above), do not press it too far. The more prayer (in a sense) the better, however many hours every day it may demand: but God must lead. PRAY AS MUCH AND AS LONG AS EVER GOD WILL LET YOU.
These conclusions were justified, as he records, when the next week opened with ‘a general state of defeat and weakness, cured as if by magic by setting to and doing some honest work.’
Yes, PASSIVITY, or call it by an uglier word, LAZINESS is the cause of half my defeat. I need never be defeated, as I know quite well. Victory all the rest of the day. This bears out what I have been learning... When you are weak and feel unable to free yourself from the power of sin―just up and sing a song, or shout a determined note of defiance against the enemy; then roll up your sleeves and do some good Lisu study. Lack of this spirit brings defeat. Moral: TRY TO FIND GOD’S BALANCE BETWEEN PRAYER AND WORK.
‘Temptation again overcome by virile activity,’ he continued the next day.
Oh yes, we Christians need never be overcome! One weapon at least will always be found to work, if others fail.... ‘When we are defeated there is a cause. We should not pass it over as inexplicable. Cast about to find the cause, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Then put the thing away, and avoid it in the future.’ ...
Spent most of the morning in prayer, very peacefully―drawn out especially for O Lo Si, or against the powers of darkness, rather, that hold him back. This prayer continued in power until, apparently, fought right through.... Rest of the day in Lisu study, thoroughly wholesome. Friday’s lesson is being still further burnt into me. Yes, God teaches all right.
That was at the end of March, and early in April he was able to write:
Today saw the biggest victory since ever I set foot in Tantsah. O Lo Si’s demonolatry came down. Ku S. very helpful.... Oh, to learn more about co-operation with God in all things! This is coming home to me, now, as never before.
Turning from these arresting pages, we leave a spirit on its upward way.
My soul thirsteth for Thee...
My soul shall be satisfied...
My soul followeth hard after Thee...
Three stages of experience, successive yet ever present―thirsting, satisfied, following hard after our Upholding God.