I HAVE been much interested in reading about a Chinese boy who was brought to an open confession of the Lord Jesus as his Saviour when about thirteen.
At the age of fourteen, he went from Wun-Chau, in the seaboard province of Cheh-Kiang, where he lived, to a city forty miles away, to attend on a native preacher. He had been well instructed in the truth by a missionary, who has departed this life “to be at home with the Lord.”
One day this lad strolled into a Buddhist temple, and there found an old man worshiping idols. He waited till the man had finished his devotions; then, seating himself by the side of the devotee, he said: “Venerable grandfather, do the idols see and hear you when you worship?”
“Yes.”
“But you see, they are made of clay; how can they answer your prayers?”
Said the man, “I do not worship the clay, but inside the idol there is a spirit that can see and hear.”
The boy, who had often heard Mr. Scott answer such questions as these, said: “You say there is a spirit in the god; but look at this one—it has a dirty face; it has not been washed forever so long. There is another whose nose is broken off; and it has not the sense to have it mended. This one has had part of the beard on its upper lip taken away; yet it has not been able to protect itself. What is the use of a spirit inhabiting a body that cannot protect it better than this?
“We have a spirit within our bodies, but rats do not run away with our beard. I can speak to you and you can hear, because of the spirit within. Let the spirit leave our bodies, and we are dead like the idols, and cannot protect ourselves.”
The old man was struck with the wisdom of the boy, and asked where he had learned such wonderful things. He replied, “In the school at Wun-Chau. But I can tell very little. If you go to the preacher, he can tell you more.”
The old man went, and took his wife with him. They learned of the Saviour, and at last believed. That was the beginning of e good work in the city, where there are now about a hundred professed Christians.
Now what about our idols? What did the aged Apostle John mean, when he closed his First Epistle with the tender words, “My little children, guard yourselves from idols”? Should not our motto be, “Jesus only”? Having eternal life in Him, and being one with Him as to our position before God, surely He ought to be the object of our first affections. While we think of how the inspired writer warns all Christians, young and old, against “loving the world, and the things that are in the world” (Chap. 2:15-17), let the words of a well-known hymn be the language of each of our hearts:
“Is there a thing beneath the sun
That strives with Thee my heart to share?
O, tear it thence, and reign alone,
The Lord of every motion there:
Then shall my heart from earth be free,
When it has found its all in Thee.
“Lord, draw my heart from earth away,
And make it only know Thy call;
Speak to my inmost soul and say,
‘I am thy Saviour, God, thine all!’
To feel Thy power, to hear Thy voice,
To taste Thy love, be all my choice.”
ML 09/30/1917