6. A Chinese Riot.
MOST Christians have realized the greatest comfort in the thought that a Father’s hand was guiding their affairs, making plain a path before them, and taking all responsibility for the consequences of a faithful walk and a fearless testimony. The writer experienced the truth of this once, in a somewhat remarkable way, in a Chinese riot. It was at the time of the great famine in North China, when with others he was engaged in the distribution of relief funds, contributed by friends in England, in a district in the interior, where no missionary work had been done, and where the people were in total darkness. The curse of opium-smoking had also gained a stronghold on the people, and there were many wealthy native opium merchants in the city. One of these offered his personal assistance in the work of distribution of relief to the famine sufferers, which, it need not be said, was politely refused. Wong Shu-pen, for that was his name, thereupon became our greatest enemy, and resolved to drive us from the city.
Our relief work was going on quietly and with good order. The poorest of the people in the city had been helped, but there were yet a hundred villages in the county needing assistance; our funds amounted to more than a thousand pounds. Suddenly, as by magic, everything changed. The people seemed afraid of us. We were called “Foreign Devil” at every corner of the streets. The house in which we lived was surrounded by noisy crowds.
One day, we noticed a great deal of whispering among the natives around us. Presently a great scuffle outside the gates on the main street arose, and in a moment our native evangelist, a strong, burly fellow, who, before his conversion, was a bargeman, was to be seen dragging an unfortunate man to the police-station by the pigtail. The culprit had been caught sticking a large bill on the outside wall of our house calling upon the people to drive out the foreign devils from the city.
Wong Shu-pen had written bills, and employed some bad fellows to stick them upon the city gates and in every available place inside it, to excite the populace against us. It was stated that we had come to the city only to deceive the people by giving away money which was really their own, for the “foreign devils” had been watched going early in the morning to the hills outside the city wall, and after praying to their gods, had been seen getting silver out of the earth. Our purpose in coming to the country, it was said, was only to buy up the hearts of the people with our money, to secure property, build foreign houses, to purchase young girls for wives, and then finally bring in a foreign army and take the country.
These and many other still more foolish things rapidly passed from mouth to mouth, and were gladly believed. Notices were posted on our very doors, telling us that the people had pledged themselves as one man to kill us if we did not immediately leave the city. Their city had always been noted for its loyalty in all past time, and they were determined not to tolerate the presence of a foreigner in their midst.
Our presence, it began to be believed, was a displeasure to heaven, hence no rain fell, and, it was said, so long as we remained, heaven would send no rain. Those who know anything of the Chinese character, and their great superstition about matters of this kind, will readily understand how effectually these rumors stirred up the people against us, and rendered our position both trying and dangerous. The district magistrate professed to be concerned for our safety, and doubtless he was. He instructed the elders of the city, and those of all the neighborhood to make diligent inquiry, and at once to send the ringleaders to the magistrate’s office for judgment. It need hardly be said that the said leaders were never found, and we had good reason to believe that the mandarins desired to get rid of us just as much as the opium merchant did, with whom, it must be understood, they were fast friends.
Soldiers were told off to protect us, but they gave us as much trouble as the mob did, besides being perfectly useless. At last the excitement became universal; the whole city was up against us, and crowds thronged our house all day.
While the people were clamoring for our lives, we were kept in perfect peace, and had not the slightest fear that any evil would befall us. The calm and quiet that filled us in such circumstances made us feel very strongly the reality of God’s presence.
The fact of our being kept in such peace intimidated the people, and, humanly speaking, went far to preserve our lives, although we know that the hand of our gracious God was behind it all, and it was by His power alone that the rage of the heathen against us was restrained. Experience of Chinese character and mode of thought has shown the truth of that well-known proverb, “HE that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.” The Chinaman’s idea of a virtuous man is a man who can rule his spirit and remain calm under great provocation.
After five days we deemed it advisable to leave the city and to proceed further west to Ping-yang Fu, a city five days’ journey distant; but before doing so we greatly desired that, if it were consistent with the will of God, rain might fall, to vindicate our position against the lying rumors which were in circulation.
The day before we took our departure, God answered our prayer, and sent a great thunder storm with rain, snow and hail. This astonished the people, for it was not the season for snow, and they believed our God was a God who could and who did hear prayer, and this had the effect of opening the eyes a some of them, and they came over to our side. The morning of our departure was a time of great excitement and exultation, and at an early hour the house was surrounded by crowds of people waiting to see us start. Soldiers had guarded our house night and day during the disturbances, but their services had not been particularly required, and, true to Chinese character in cases of emergency, they were unequal to the position.
The day was now getting on, and we could not afford to make further delays. Our passage through the streets was a somewhat thronged one, but perfectly quiet. A few friends escorted us out of the city gates, and among them a lad of not more than nine years of age. His history was a sad one. He was the nephew of a man who had been chief mandarin in that city, but through the force of adverse circumstances, or more probably in consequence of misrule, was now thrown out of office, and no longer able to support the child. The little fellow was an orphan, and but for a sick and dying brother in bed, had no one to care for him. We had noticed him frequently at our gate, and after having learned the facts of his case, gave him food as often as he came and wanted it. He was a handsome boy, but delicate, and of far too tender an age to fight single-handed the battles of life. When he realized that we were really going, and he would get no more daily food from us, his little heart failed him, and bursting into tears, he refused to be comforted by his neighbors.
We would gladly have adopted such a promising youth, and taken him away with us, but after what had taken place in the city, it was out of the question to attempt such an arrangement.
Driven from Tseh-chou Fu we proceeded to act upon the scripture injunction, that when persecuted in one city we should flee to the next. This we did, and after five days traveling over hills and through partly deserted and uninhabited villages, reached the city of Ping-yang Fu, where we hoped to find the people less hostile to our presence among them than their neighbors in the south-east of the province had been.
We were soon suitably housed in the heart of the city, and for a time all went well; but when it was realized that our intention was to settle down to direct missionary work, and not as heretofore to the distribution of famine relief, considerable opposition was manifested by the literati and a few of the common people, but this was finally lived down, and a permanent work was commenced in 1880, and has continued ever since, and today there is a work as interesting as any to be found in all the north of China.
From Ping-yang Fu the work has spread north, south, east, and west into neighboring cities, towns and villages―the one station opened in 1879 has increased to ten, in each of which there is a small church, and many Christians are scattered over the surrounding villages on either side of the Fen river, which courses down the center of this part of the province of Shansi.
There was a good deal of patient sowing and waiting before much result to the preaching of the gospel in the south of Shansi was seen.
A solid foundation was laid— every city, town and village was visited and the gospel preached, scriptures and tracts being circulated in them. The utmost care was taken that there should be abundant evidence of a thorough change of heart and life in the candidates for baptism before they were accepted and recognized as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were taught to look upon the Scriptures as the one rule of faith, and that the work was the Lord’s and not man’s.
From the first there has been much persecution of the native Christians. Many have been beaten, robbed, and deserted by their friends and neighbors, which, instead of stopping the work, has had the opposite effect. It has kept out of the church mere professors, and strengthened and confirmed those who are truly Christ’s within it.
There are among the Christians two or three most excellent men, who seem specially gifted for oversight, and a good deal of the prosperity of the work is doubtless owing to the self-denying and disinterested efforts of these brethren who, in return for their labors, are satisfied with the thought that they please God and have the praise and love of all the Churches. The province contains at the lowest computations, seven-millions of people. Every city and large town has been visited and the gospel preached, and scriptures circulated in them by itinerant missionaries. A. G. P.