Chapter 3.
Among the hills that skirt the plain toward the sunrising, lay a group of villages in which, about this time, Hsi began to take a special interest. Up there in the hamlet of Yang-ts’uen lived two farmer brothers named Li, who had been led to Christ by David Hill, and baptized on the same occasion as Hsi himself. And now they were in trouble. Their beloved father in the faith had left the province, and the remaining missionaries were too much occupied with their work in the city to be able to visit these outlying places. The brothers were discouraged on account of long continued persecution. What more natural than that the Christian scholar from his neighboring village should go over and help them.
Thus, week after week, Hsi turned his face toward the mountains, and cheerfully traversed seven miles of rough road, either way, to conduct a little service in the farmhouse at Yang-ts’uen.
They were informal meetings, and many were the queries and exclamations that interspersed the proceedings, especially from heathen Neighbors who dropped in to join the little circle.
“But is all this true, Teacher Hsi? Did Jesus really heal that demoniac among the tombs? Or is it only an Honorable fable? Did He indeed open the eyes of the blind, make lame men walk, and cure even lepers?”
“Why do you not respectfully invite Him to our neighborhood? There are plenty of sick people here. We should like to see your Jesus, if He can do the things you say.”
It was indeed a strange, new story, and Hsi was never more happy than in explaining it to those who had not heard. Sin, the incarnation, and atonement, faith, and Christian living all had to be made plain in the light that streams from Calvary. And the word preached was with power. For when his listeners asked him: “Can Jesus do those same things now? You say He is living and near us. Can He heal the sick and cast out devils here, today?”
The answer came with equal simplicity and directness: “Of course He can. He healed me after long years of sickness, and took away my opium craving too. Did you not hear how He delivered my wife from demon possession, only the other day? There is nothing Jesus cannot do for those who turn from sin and trust Him fully.”
That was satisfactory so far. But then followed the practical application.
“Will you then pray for me, Teacher Hsi? My mother is ill; my wife; my son. Do come to our house and get the Lord Jesus to make them well again.”
It was a searching test. But Hsi welcomed it. Wherever he saw real earnestness, and found people willing to put away their idols and give up sin to follow Christ, he gladly laid his hands on their sick and prayed for immediate recovery.
In some ways, perhaps, it was an irregular proceeding. For Hsi had never been trained for the ministry, and was not ordained; nor had he been led by the missionaries to expect the working of miracles. As a matter of fact there was hardly anyone to train, or authorized to ordain him in those days. The whole province, with its fifteen millions of people, had but two stations of any Protestant mission, and he himself was one of the earliest converts. He had no guide but his Bible; and living at a distance from the city, no teacher most of the time, except the Holy Spirit. But it is wonderful how much a man may learn under those circumstances, if he be willing and obedient.
Hsi’s Bible knowledge of course was most defective, and his ideas crude and incorrect in many ways. But he had learned some things; amongst them, that the Book means just what it says; and he had not learned to doubt or discount what it does say, by an unsatisfactory, God dishonoring experience.
And so in the simplest, most natural way, he expected the Lord to do as He had said. “These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
He knew that the Apostles had proved it all true, and had gone everywhere preaching, “the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following.” He did not see any occasion, himself, for speaking with new tongues, nor had deadly serpents as yet come in his way; but here were plenty of sick people, and for them surely the promise was plain.
Well, we cannot perhaps understand it or explain the facts along the line of modern science; but Hsi did not wait for that. Up in the little village of Yang-ts’uen, he knew that he could pray in the name of Jesus; and he believed that that name had lost none of its ancient power.
Wonderful were the scenes those simple homesteads witnessed, recalling days in Samaria, Lydda, and elsewhere, when the Apostles’ message was — “Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.” And seeing these things with their own eyes, it was little wonder that men and women turned to the Lord. Nor was it strange that antagonism should be aroused; for the powers of darkness had never been so challenged in those upland valleys before. That too seemed natural, and as in early days.
But the persecution went on and grew more serious, until the Christians and inquirers had hard work to stand their ground. False accusations were made against them to the mandarins. Some were robbed and beaten, and others threatened with danger to life itself. At length the time for a great festival drew near, and the heathen villagers decided that all who would not worship the gods as usual should be taken to the temple and strung up by their hands tied together behind them, the ropes drawn over the beams in the roof, until they retracted their faith in the foreign religion.
This was too serious an outbreak, and the Yang-ts’uen Christians determined to escape while they might. And so in the middle of the night, Hsi of the Western Chang village was aroused by persistent knocking at his gate. He stumbled out in the darkness, and recognizing the voice of farmer Li, admitted the little group of fugitives and heard their story.
No doubt a prayer meeting was held during the small hours of the morning; but Hsi was a man of action as well as faith, and had not yet learned to leave in wiser hands the management of such affairs. “Resist not evil,” and “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord,” were teachings that had yet to come home to him in power.
It was a serious matter, as Hsi knew well, to be mixed up with such a quarrel, for there is never any telling, in China, to what a village feud may grow. But fearless of results, and confident in the righteousness of his cause, he lost no time in carrying the case before the local mandarin. Were there not treaties with Europe and America, securing protection for all who desired to embrace Christianity? Did not the Lord Himself say: “All power is given unto me, in heaven and on earth: Go ye therefore and disciple all nations?” No doubt those treaties were part of the power lodged in the hands of Christ; and so beyond question was his own ability to carry his case successfully through the law courts. Did not all his powers belong to the Lord, including this facility gained through years of practice and pains? Surely now an opportunity had come for turning his talents to account in the service of his new Master.
It was plausible reasoning enough, and many an older Christian has been misled along the same lines. The deeper teachings of Christ are hard sayings still, and hidden from many eyes.
And so, as in old days, Hsi carried the matter with a high hand, pressing his demands in such a way as to alarm the local authorities. He fumed and stormed publicly, in proper quarters, and made his grievance so serious that no stone was left unturned to get rid of him as quickly as possible. The mandarin sent out soldiers to the hamlets in question, and promptly restored law and order, establishing the rights of the Christians.
The entire proceedings occupied about a month, and during that time the refugees were hospitably entertained in Hsi’s own home. With no sense of inconsistency, he exhorted them to trust in the Lord who had promised to be their refuge, and not to fear the wrath of man. Daily he conducted worship among his guests, instructing them carefully in the doctrines of Christian living. Thus, at his own expense, he cared for them all until the trouble was over and they could return to their village in peace.
Thankful and comforted the Yang-ts’uen Christians went back, to find their Neighbors frightened into submission. The persecution was not resumed; on the contrary everyone seemed to hold the foreign religion in wholesome fear. This encouraged timid inquirers, and when the Li brothers opened their house for public worship on Sundays, numbers of people flocked in. Hsi came over frequently, as before, and found whole families ready to burn their idols. Neighboring villages caught the enthusiasm, and from considerable distances people came in, bringing their sick friends to be healed, and asking the Christians to go back with them and preach the Gospel. Gradually in these places too, weekly meetings were established, and Hsi found his hands full of pastoral and preaching duties. In one place six families, in another eight or nine, turned to the Lord, and as many as thirty people would assemble for regular worship.
But as time wore on Hsi was distressed to find that somehow these believers did not develop as he expected and desired. They were all right as long as everything went well, but as soon as trouble arose their faith seemed to waver and their hearts to grow cold. Nurture and care for them as he would, the little churches never really flourished, and as years went by there came sad backslidings and deterioration. This was a keen sorrow to their ardent friend, and grew into one of the deepest lessons of his life.
At first he did not see it, and only very gradually the truth became clear to his mind. Not until after repeated occurrences of the same kind did the conviction come to him that persecution and trouble are allowed as a necessary test to prove whether people are willing to suffer for Christ’s sake and walk in His ways when sacrifice is involved. Then he began to value such experiences at their true worth, as sifting and strengthening processes that nothing can replace. In a word, he came to understand that God knows best how to care for His own, and that what He allows of trial, we cannot afford to be without.
It was an important development, and, like many another, grew out of painful experiences overruled of God. With so much to learn as well as unlearn, he made many mistakes at the beginning. But he was following on. And never heart responded more loyally to fuller knowledge of the divine will.