IT WAS ONE of Mr. Hudson Taylor’s helpful sayings that “a little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in a little thing is a great thing.” To these two, who had been faithful above all in their hidden walk with God, was now to be entrusted the great riches of a per, feet love in married life and a wide field of service.
But before taking up his new responsibilities, John had the summer for study, and instead of accepting an invitation to the shore, to escape the great heat, he chose to spend it alone in his new district among the Chinese. Süancheng, the central station, was in charge of Mr. George A. Birch, who was glad to welcome him as a fellow worker.
How clearly I remember the day John arrived at Süancheng [wrote Mr. Birch]. I met him at the launch. He was six feet two, every inch a man. His hearty grip and bright smile clinched our friendship at once.
As we proceeded in the sampan (little boat, for shallow water) the conversation soon led to the things of God, for John lived with God and loved to talk of the things that were filling his heart.
On our first itineration together we had to walk all one day in the rain and mud, but John’s ardor was in no way dampened. That trip, and all our trips together, were a blessing to me, for John’s mind was a mine of wealth in the knowledge of God. He truly was mighty in the Scriptures, full of zeal to make Christ known, and full of love to the lost souls around him.
John was very quick to see the hand of God in everything. One day he was “all in” from a heavy cold and tired from a long walk. We felt the need of some green vegetables with our food, but saw no possibility of getting any. At noon we stopped to preach the Gospel in a village, and without any word from us the woman at the door of whose tea shop we were preaching, and who knew our Chinese companion, prepared a good meal for us. There were six or eight different kinds of vegetables, most of them nicely salted, for they were out of season at the time. What a surprise! John exclaimed, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” How often he would say, “My heavenly Father knows”!
Mr. and Mrs. Birch were going to the hills that summer for much needed change; so that from the middle of June John was left alone it charge. And he had only been eight months China.
He made marvelous progress with the language [Mr. Birch found on his return] and got very close to the people. During that time he carried on regular meetings for the children, and one Sunday even led the church service, preaching a sermon in Chinese.
John’s own letters give glimpses of the inward side of these experiences, which were not all easy.
Well, I am all alone now [he wrote in July]. But it’s not half as bad as it sounds, and a good home letter did a lot to remind me of my great privilege one day when I was a bit tinged with blue....
What I have been enjoying most is to get out distributing a few tracts, and having a chance to talk with people. Last night I stopped in two shops where men asked me to sit down a bit, and had a good talk with them about the Gospel, though my vocabulary is still so painfully limited.
Here’s telling you [he wrote to a boy friend at the same time] that these last weeks have been about the most blessed I have ever known. People laugh at my Chinese! It’s a fright to try to get all they say to me, and I am only partly successful in getting my ideas across. The goat may die, thieves may come in and turn the compound into a place for a midnight manhunt, there may be plenty of interruptions and difficulties of one kind and another, but through it all has been the steady consciousness of the Lord’s presence....
I’ve had quite a number of young students coming lately. Pray that I may be able to give them the Gospel clearly. I usually have a good Scripture tract handy, which I give to one of them and ask him to read it for us. Then a few words of explanation, and so forth. As yet I can’t do what I should like to—ask questions to bring out what they think or believe, and then try to give them something really to fit their needs. My words are still too few, and I can only understand a fraction of what they say. Many of them, too, are probably more interested in just seeing the foreigner, and hearing the phonograph or organ. So there it is! But they do get some Gospel truth from me, and more in a tract or Scripture portion.
Tired after long days of study in the heat, he found refreshment in the beauty of nature around him.
Many a night I go outside the city gate, or up on the wall, and just stand and watch the clouds. It’s like a benediction and a choir singing anthems and a wonderful sermon all rolled into one. So you see I am not without my enjoyments. About ten miles on either side of us are hills and mountains, and the sunsets are just grand.
He was getting up early, and working in the garden for an hour every morning before breakfast, “for exercise and delight at the same time,” as he put it. So that he kept in health and got through his second section of language study before the time came to go northward for his bride. In August he wrote about putting up sixty quarts of preserves and jams for the absent housemother, commenting “Didn’t think that had anything to do with missionary work, but it seems to!”
Had a great day with a very nice young fellow this morning [he added]. He seemed really interested and I was able to pray with him. Then in the afternoon four more students dropped in. A small group have been coming more or less regularly, and we have gone through John’s Gospel, chapter by chapter.... Pray much for these young fellows.
And the children were a great joy. John was snaking use of Scripture choruses put to Chinese music:
The children in our afternoon and Sunday meetings sing them like anything [he wrote in August]. I don’t think you could sit in this room for an hour, except at night, without hearing some little kid going off on a Scripture song at full tilt at the top of his lungs.... The other morning, quite early, I heard one little girl singing joyfully, “Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.” Well, it really thrilled me! For I knew that people all about her, to whom I can talk so little, were getting the Gospel, because she was singing to them.
After almost a year of steady grind at the language, he found it wonderfully refreshing to be traveling by steamer and train up to Dr. and Mrs. Scott’s home in Tsinan.
I feel like taking a couple of days off just to praise the Lord [John wrote to his family]:
1. Because I’m saved and in the Lord’s service.
2. For excellent health, despite the hottest summer known here in years.
3. For more freedom in the language.
4. That I shall soon be returning, D.V., with my wife—I like that phrase too!
The warmth of his welcome in Tsinan may judged from a letter of Betty’s, written some months previously to Mr. Harry Stam, the brother in Africa:
It is good that John has a real sense of humor. He is such an easy person to get along with! You should hear Mother rave about him. Even if I hadn’t wanted him, Mother would have stuck to him through thick and thin and given me no peace until I gave in! Mother just took to him from the very first. Daddy doesn’t say so much, but he feels pretty good about it too. They are making plans for the wedding at a great rate, and Daddy seems to be thinking about all the details.
It was toward the end of October that the bridal party gathered at Tsinan. Betty had home a month or more, after an absence of ten years, and John had had some quiet clays with her before the bridesmaids and best arrived. These were fellow workers of the China Inland Mission, the Misses Katherine Todd and Nancy Rodgers from Fowyang, and Mr. Percy Bromley, who had been with John in the Language School. The maid of honor was Betty’s roommate and chief friend et Wilson College days, Miss Marguerite Luce, a missionary nurse working in the Presbyterian hospital at Chefoo.
When the morning of October 25 dawned [wrote the bride’s mother] we were all filled with thankfulness that God had so wonderfully answered our prayers about the weather. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky all the day long, also without wind or dust, and warmer than it had been for several days past. We could go ahead with our plans for converting our tennis court, east of the house, into an open-air chapel.
The court easily lends itself to a delightful transformation. It runs north and south, and on three sides is lined with trees and shrubbery. On the fourth side, the south wall is a solid mass of ivy, the leaves of which were just turning red and gold. From the seats, facing south, guests could see over the wall the top of a range of hills near the city.... Long benches with backs, brought over from the compound church, were arranged to leave a wide aisle down the center and an open space at the south end for the ceremony. This was banked in with palms and ferns and flowering plants... Rugs covered the cement floor there, and down the central aisle....
The bridegroom and best man with the officiating clergyman, our next-door neighbor, the Rev. Reuben A. Torrey, approached by a path through the garden from the west side. The bridesmaids wearing lavender silk and carrying bouquets of yellow chrysanthemums and asparagus fern, tied with wide yellow ribbons, came slowly down the central aisle, followed by the maid of honor in a dress of the same princess style of lavender.
The bride, on the arm of her father, wore a simple gown of white silk crepe, with wide sleeves and a long skirt. At the open neck was Brussels lace, like the lace across the front of her cap-fitted veil. We all thought she looked specially lovely, as she moved with ease and grace in our midst. On her lips was a sweet, happy smile, while she kept her eyes steadily on the face of the bridegroom.... And he, waiting at the altar, had eyes for her alone.
We have witnessed many Chinese weddings, even among Christians, when the bride never once glanced up into the face of the bridegroom, keeping her head bowed as if in sorrow and trepidation, and could not but feel that the willing, trustful attitude in this case made a deep impression on our Chinese friends, especially the students. Mr. Torrey in his ministerial robes added dignity to the simple, impressive service. Everyone seemed to feel a reverence and sacred joy in witnessing the union of two such devoted, consecrated young lives. Many of the guests, both Chinese and foreigners, spoke afterward of the helpfulness of the service to them personally.
A perfect day came to a close when, after the bridal party had dined together and had evening worship with beautiful hymns, John and Betty left for Tsingtao, the home of her childhood.
This letter is from your newly married couple at Tsingtao [John wrote on October 27]. Oh, the Lord has been so good in all the arrangements that we are just praising Him all along the way! We are having a most blessed time together, and there is so much to tell you that I am going to see if I cannot lay violent hands on some typewriter around here, before our blessings pile up so high that I may forget some of them.
Just to show you how wondrously happy the Lord has made us, I must tell you of a remark Betty made yesterday. We were speaking of one poor fellow all alone here in China, and she exclaimed so naturally, “John, dear, don’t you wish all our single friends would get married!”
I am sure none of the boys [his brothers] has had so lovely a honeymoon as Betty and I are having—perfect fall weather with gorgeous foliage and this seaside mountain place, seemingly all to ourselves! An architect friend of Dr. Scott’s took us up to his cottage in the mountains about two hours from here. We stayed the night. All around were great rocky peaks, it was just grand! The next morning, Betty and I walked up one valley toward a waterfall. It was lovely, with clear crystal pools and rocks on all sides. We never saw a single European all the way, and only a couple of Chinese. It was so deserted that we could sing and yodel freely as we went along... Truly our God seems to go out of His way to make His children happy.
But married life like theirs has a way of getting better and better all along. They may have felt that nothing could ever be quite so perfect as those two weeks at Tsingtao, but when they got back to Süancheng and settled down in their own little home for a winter of work and study, it was even more wonderful.
John is out for the week end [Betty wrote in early December], and next week end he and I are planning to visit another outstation, where he is to lead his first Communion Service in Chinese. That will be my first trip in this part of the country. We have had the tailor and his men busy for some days, and both of us are now fixed up with Chinese garments. You ought to see John in his fur-lined gown! He looks taller than ever. And watch him gather his arms up under the skirts in the back, when he is going downstairs, for all the world like an old Chinese gentleman!
While living in their own quarters on the Mission compound, the young couple took their meals with Mr. and Mrs. Birch, to save double housekeeping. But many a quiet evening was spent by their own fireside (or stove), John with his books at one end of the table and Betty at the other. She was preparing for the last of her examinations in the language, which she took a few months later, thus completing within three years the course of study required for women workers of the Mission, But though eager to get on with the language, they did not neglect opportunities of getting out with Chinese fellow workers,
I do thank the Lord for bringing me to this station [John had written on his first arrival at Süancheng for there are many fine Christians here, and it is a good place to work out from.
It was with Song, the tailor, one of these voluntary workers, that John and Betty made their first trip together to an outstation. Four hours’ walk, including many conversations by the wayside, brought them to Swenchiapu, where they were hospitably welcomed by Pao, the silversmith. Of these friends John wrote:
Both Song and Pao Lao-pan, at whose home we stayed, are real Christians and a great blessing in the work. Song, especially, gives whole weeks of his time to going out over the country preaching. He gets nothing for it, but praises God for the opportunity of making known the Gospel. It is good to hear him tell how at one time he was afraid to leave his business and go off in this way, but now that he observes Sunday and has his apprentices do so too, the Lord has given him honest men, so that he can be free. I wish you could see that man’s face, just smiling out the joy and thankfulness he has in the Lord!
Mr. Pao too had had encouraging experiences in the difficult matter of keeping Sunday. He had been burdened with a debt of seven hundred dollars, and felt that to be a sufficient excuse for working on the Lord’s Day. How could he hope to pay even the exorbitant interest (three per cent a month) unless he kept his shop open seven days a week, like everyone else! But a visit from Mr. Birch set him thinking. The missionary had shown him some wonderful promises from the Bible, God’s own promises to those who please Him by keeping His commandments. Faith was strengthened, and Pao determined, at any cost, to close his business on Sunday.
Right across the street, was another silversmith who hoped to profit by what he considered Pao’s foolishness, and openly reviled him for having “eaten of the foreigner’s religion.” But Pao was quiet and patient, and his business did not suffer. Just then gold began to be in demand. Pao kept in touch with the exchange in other places, and was able to make considerable profits, to the envy of his rival. Before long the entire debt was cleared away. A little later, strange to say, fire swept that part of the city. The houses opposite Mr. Pao’s were completely destroyed. The flames came right up to his premises. His roof, even, was slightly damaged. But, suddenly, as he was crying to God for protection, the wind chanced. His whole place was saved, as by a miracle. No wonder he loved to tell of the power and watchful care of his heavenly Father.
We had a happy time with Mr. Pao [John continued]. On Saturday we went round giving out tracts and talking with people in their homes, and at night had a crowded meeting. But Sunday was the great day. In the morning there was a meeting for worship, after which we observed the Lord’s Supper. Truly the Lord blessed us richly! In the afternoon we first had an hour in the street chapel, then went out for two big open-air meetings, and at night there was again a large, attentive audience in the street chapel...
We were specially happy on the trip back. Betty had been able to go out with Mrs. Pao, and also to help at the open-air meetings and with the children, so our hearts were already full of praise. But Monday brought further opportunities. It took about six hours to walk the ten miles home, stopping every now and then with groups along the way. It was really delightful! At one town where we stayed for lunch, we had a good open-air meeting. We finally arrived at Süancheng with every tract given out and every Gospel sold, and with a big blessing in our own souls.
At the Chinese New Year, when folks are tree to enjoy the one annual holiday, Betty was able to take a longer trip with John to the district which was to be their special parish. Lying some sixty miles southwest of Süancheng, it proved to be a beautiful, mountainous region, with many towns and villages the fertile, valleys. As this was the district in which their brief missionary service; seen to be consummated, this visit in 1934, is of special and pathetic interest.
Their center was to be the little city of Tsingteh, where they stayed a week with Mr. and Mrs. S. J: Warren, who were leaving shortly for furlough. Formerly a wealthy city, had been a favorite residence of noble families in attendance on the emperor, but all that had long gone by. The Tai-ping Rebellion, which almost depopulated the district in the early part of the last century, had left Tsingteh largely in ruins.
Our premises here are thoroughly Chiarsey [Betty wrote], but big and roomy. . . There is not much yet in the way of Christian life, but there are one or two bright spots, and God is our hope anyway, or we would never attempt the work.... Ancestral halls abound, and ancestral worship with the strong clan system will form our greatest hindrance—excepting always our own selves.
We enjoy the scenery all about us here very much, only it looks like another case of “every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.”... The people live in greater comfort, compared with other places, eat better food and probably are more self-satisfied. Many have old mansions, full’ of spacious halls, with wonderful carved beams and woodwork. Even in the inns, coming down, we rarely encountered fleas or allied pests, a condition undreamed of in the north, There are lovely stone bridges over clear-flowing streams. The rice fields everywhere are most picturesque. So are the high, grass-covered mountains and the blue, misty peaks beyond.
Do pray about the beginning of work here. We have a fine street chapel at the front of our premises and a comfortable place at the rear, made out of one of the old Chinese houses, now screened and fixed up.
One of the bright spots Betty referred to was the outstation at Miaosheo, ten miles across the mountains, or at any rate, one family of Christians there who welcomed the young missionaries with every possible kindness. Miaosheo and the Evangelist Lo, of whom John wrote in the following letter, are names that will go down in the annals of Christian heroism for all time to come:
Saturday morning we went to Miaosheo where the evangelist, Mr. Lo, with whom I am to be working, will have his home. The trip was only a short one, about thirty-five it but beautiful beyond words—part of the time down a long valley that winds in and out among tree-covered hills. The walking was good, for it was over stone-covered roads a large part of the way.... Most of the Miaosheo Christians live out in the country, and right now the church certainly needs to be revived. Pray for them and for Mr. Lo, who will act as their pastor when he is at home.
At Miaosheo we stayed in the home of Mrs. Wang, who was the first Christian in these parts. Years ago one of our present directors and his wife were passing through this district, and reaching Miaosheo about nightfall were looking round for a place to stay in. While Mrs. Gibb was still in her sedan chair, Mr. Gibb began to preach on the street. Mrs. Wang was one of those who heard. She ran to fetch her husband, and both of them received the truth, though it was the first time they had ever heard it. They invited Mr. and Mrs. Gibb to their home that night. Later, when Mrs. Wang was asked if she believed the Gospel, “How could one help believing,” was her answer, “when told of such wonderful love?”
Sunday in Miaosheo was a good day, the Christians gathering with interest to meet the new missionaries. Gladly would John and Betty have stayed with them, but they had several other places to visit before returning to Süancheng. The journey occupied twenty-four days in all, and took them over a high mountain pass into the province of Chekiang, a corner of which lay in their field.
This trip was getting right down into the thick of the mountains [John continued]. The valleys were much narrower and passes higher to climb. Most of the way was good stone road. About noon it rained, so that we made about half our journey in a downpour. Still it was beautiful, for the path led in and out along the mountain curves, high above the gushing brook at the bottom, with little thatched homes and corn clearings still higher above us. We had a good night in the town of Child.
Next day we went on to the home of our Cheng’s people, over in Chekiang.... There were about eighteen church members there, and it was good to hear them sing the hymns to their own tunes. In the afternoon we had a baptismal service which the pastor conducted. It was interesting to meet his old father.
Years ago a colporteur had passed through that region and old Mr. Cheng, then a schoolteacher, had bought one of the Gospels bound up with the Book of Acts. Many an hour he spent carefully reading the little book, until he was convinced that it was a message from the true God. The colporteur came again some time later, and Mr. Cheng eagerly asked him if there was not more of this story. From his reading he had discovered that he had only part of a larger book. Yes, said the colporteur, he would bring him the rest. And so Mr. Cheng came into possession of the whole Bible. What a treasure to have found its way into those remote valleys! After many experiences of persecution and wonderful answers: to prayer, the old man was still standing firm in the faith, and his testimony had led not a few others to Christ.
It was a joy to see him in the meetings—arrayed in a foreign style overcoat with great wide sleeves, a battered foreign hat, and rimless glasses, his head thrown back, singing with all his might! Why look at a book? He seemed to know all the hymns by heart!
A perilous journey over high mountain passes had to be negotiated on leaving this The climb up was stiff, and Betty walked all the way, but the path down on the side was still more precipitous. At first preferred to clamber down on foot, rather than to risk sliding out of the chair, but as the descent was about two miles she was finally persuaded to ride.
Believe me, I prayed [wrote John, who was walking behind]. In places where the path doubled back on itself, the front bearer would be down ever so far, and the back one up, with Betty in the chair hanging over the abyss below! I walked close back of the rear man, and once threw away my stick and grabbed the poles when he slipped a bit. I surely breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the bottom! It was a long hard day, from 7:30 A.M. to 7 P.M.
The next day made up for weariness, however, when they reached the river and were able to hire a boat for Süancheng.
Talk about solid comfort [John added]—the boat boards were solid enough, but with our bedding we were able to sleep and read in comfort until we arrived home that night.
Do praise the Lord for keeping us in good health and spirits, and for the work He has given us to do. It is sobering to think that under God we are responsible to give the Gospel to such a big slice of our Anhwei province with a corner of Chekiang thrown in. The valleys just teem with villages. Oh, that the Lord might have an assembly of true worshipers in each one!
Betty was not able to travel much after that, on account of new hopes that were making the future look very bright.
Of Betty and John’s last year I have two specially vivid impressions [wrote her sister, Mrs. Mahy]. One is the long walking and preaching trip they took among the mountains.... They were wonderfully happy and exhilarated over it and over doing it together, though Daddy and Mother were concerned, fearing the trip would be too much for her. The other impression is the anticipation and preparation for that little one. I realized during the months before she came that Betty was making more loving and careful preparation for her than I had over both of mine put together. She and John discussed many possible names for the baby, and their letters were crammed full of their love for her.... I devoured those letters even more eagerly, I think, than the ones about their evangelistic journeys.