THIS BRIEF RECORD is not a eulogy, it is a simple narration of facts. Nothing can be more eloquent than such facts. We do not need to be told that it is day when the sun is shining. Over the portal of the greatest gallery of heroes the world has ever seen stands the brief but divine commendation: “Of whom the world was not worthy.”
There are few who feel the loss of John and Betty Stam more deeply than the members of the Mission to which they belonged. Such faith and love and devotion are the richest treasures we possess, next only to the harvest of precious souls that God is giving. These dear names are added to a lengthening martyr roll. Think what that means of wealth, over there, where God Himself is seen as “the Lamb that hath been slain.” He died to redeem; they died in making known, at His command, that glorious redeeming work. And still He is seeking those who will live—and die, if need be—that He may “see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.” To all eternity we shall live and reign with Christ, but shall we ever be able to make sacrifices for Him again? When sin and pain and death are no more, and all tears are wiped away, shall we ever have again the privilege that is ours now of sharing the fellowship of His sufferings, “to seek and to save that which was lost”?
The smile that lingered on the face of John Stam, long after he fell on that Chinese hill side, surely makes for us a rift into the eternal glory. The sweetness of that little baby, loved, by the world, surely tells us of the tenderness with which the Lord accepted the “spikenard very precious” of the mother’s outpoured life, and of the love with which she is comforted forever and forever. Ours is the opportunity today.
O God, to us may grace be given,
To follow in their train.