8. The Possibilities of Faith.
THE following instances of God’s care, for those who cast their care upon Him, may help to encourage some of our readers, who may not yet have learned the joy of being able in faith to take everything to the Lord in prayer.
Ch’uen was a man of fifty years of age, at the time about which we write, and lived at Tsine-kiang, in the province of Kiangsu. He was a clerk in a magistrate’s office, and although the salary he received was not very large, he was able to obtain money in various questionable ways. Like the large majority of his class, he was an opium smoker, and spent most of his money in satisfying his craving for the drug. He had smoked opium for thirty-years, and was a thorough slave to it.
For some time he had heard the gospel from a native Christian preacher, who lived in the city, and he professed to believe. Two years he had been an enquirer, and, but for the one sin of opium smoking, would probably long before have been baptized, and received into the church. He knew that the word of God condemned the practice which his own conscience also told him was sin. (1 Cor. 6:1010Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:10).) What could he do? He had tried physic. He had tried to cure himself by gradually reducing the quantity smoked, but every attempt had failed.
Like nearly every other opium smoker known to or heard of by us, he had not the moral strength to resist and overcome the craving. At last he resolved upon another desperate attempt to break away from the habit, not as heretofore, in the strength of his own resolution, but he would trust Christ to deliver him. It is true that in former attempts he had prayed for help, but he had now lost all confidence in himself, and felt that if Christ did not save him from this one sin, which made his life a burden to him, and was shutting him out of the kingdom of God, he must perish.
He now threw away his pipe, and what opium he had in his possession, as well as his spirit lamp, and the other little instruments used in preparing the drug for smoking. He let his friends know that this time he was determined that Jesus Christ should save him, or he would die in the attempt.
For three days, Ch’uen told me, he was in the utmost agony of mind and body. He could find no rest day or night, and spent the time in pacing up and down his house, in the streets, or the fields outside. His neighbors thought he was mad, and he himself feared that he should lose his reason; but he was firmly resolved that Christ should have the utmost opportunity of conquering the sin, for he felt that if Christ could save him from this awful craving He could save him from anything.
Suddenly, Ch’uen went on to say, on the third day all the craving and all the bodily pain ceased. He knew that Christ had delivered him; and from that hour he has never once had a desire to go back to the pipe. He has often been tempted by his old companions, but his experience of Christ’s love has enabled him always to give a decided “No,” and to witness a good confession of his faith.
Ch’uen had now proved Christ’s power to deliver the captive, and could with a good conscience meet with the Christians, of whom there were five or six in the place. Christ had pardoned his sins, and delivered him from the power of them, and the whole course of his life was changed.
He found much joy in studying the Scriptures, and I was a little astonished and greatly rejoiced to see what a thorough knowledge of the New Testament he had obtained.
There was now another matter causing him some anxiety. In his occupation, as mandarin’s clerk, he was required to do many things which, to his mind, now that he had become a disciple of Jesus Christ, were not right, and he felt that he must at once quit the government service. But what could he do for a living? He had never learned a trade, and was fifty years of age, and had a wife and two children to support.
He could see no way open before him, but was quite clear that it was his duty to quit the magistrate’s service. He would trust Christ to prosper him; so, having a sixpence, he purchased a few cakes and sweetmeats, and sold them to children in the streets. Soon after this he obtained money to the value of about seven shillings and sixpence, with which he enlarged his stock of wares. He had cast all his care upon the Lord, and was not disappointed. The Lord prospered his business; he turned his house into a little shop, and might be seen any morning in the streets, soon after sunrise with his cakes and hot drinks. This kind of business also afforded him many opportunities of making known the message of salvation, and left him free to act in all things according to the dictates of his now enlightened conscience.
The story of Mrs. Chang, who lives in the same city as Ch’uen, illustrates the possibilities of faith in God, concerning matters not purely spiritual. I had the joy of baptizing this woman in 1883, and received her story from her own lips, in the presence of others, who confirmed every word of it.
Mrs. Chang is a native of the Shantung province, and appears to have come into the neighboring province of Kiang-su at about the time of the great famine in North China. She married a Kiang-su man, who used to get his living by carrying goods about the city on his wheelbarrow.
One day, the native pastor―there was no European missionary in the place―was preaching in the little chapel, when a beggar woman, of over seventy years of age, looked in at the door, and listened to what the preacher was saying about the Person and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
She understood that the man was preaching some new God, who was alive, and had almighty power―one Jesus, who opened the eyes of the blind, and healed all manner of sickness when on earth, and did many great wonders.
Without saying a word to anyone, the old woman walked away, pondering in her heart over the strange things she had heard. She went straight home, and told a partially blind neighbor of hers―the Mrs. Chang of our story―what she had heard, and proposed that next day, when the chapel was again open, they should go together to the preacher and make further inquiry about the God he preached. Accordingly, the following day, the old beggar woman appeared at the chapel with her blind neighbor, and addressed the preacher very much as follows: ―
“Teacher, I heard you say yesterday that this Jesus, whom you preach, has almighty power, and can open the eyes of the blind.
Now I have brought this friend of mine, who has been totally blind with one eye for three years, and can see very little with the other, to ask if Jesus can do anything for her.”
“Yes,” replied the preacher, a man of about fifty years of age, who was nearly blind himself, and who had been a good deal exercised about whether or not it were possible to obtain restored sight from the Lord in answer to prayer. “Yes, what I said is perfectly true. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, opened the eyes of the blind, and cured all kinds of diseases, and He has just the same power today that He had then. I have no doubt that if you have faith He will grant your request.” Mr. Yao then showed them the teaching of the New Testament about prayer, and after prolonged conversation, the women replied, that they believed what he had said, as he could have no object in deceiving them.
They at once kneeled down in the chapel, and prayed that Mrs. Chang’s sight might be restored, and agreed to continue praying till the answer came. The following day was Sunday, and Mrs. Chang came up with the Christians to the morning service, and reported that her eyes were improving.
By the following Sunday her sight was perfectly restored, and she desired all to join with her in praising God for what He had done. No medicines were used, nor any means taken.
But this bodily healing did not convert her soul. Like many of whom we read in the gospels, she knew Christ only as the Healer of her body, and had yet to learn, after severe trial and persecution, that there was something widely superior to physical blessing to be obtained from Christ. She attended regularly on Sundays at the chapel, but was in consequence severely and frequently beaten by her husband and neighbors, who had all turned against her for professing to believe the “Jesus’ religion.” Her neighbors, not content with persecuting her, persecuted her children also. At length the woman’s life became a burden to her, and she resolved to destroy herself, and thus to have her revenge upon her husband and her enemies in general. This, the reader must know, is deemed by the heathen in China a meritorious act. She did attempt to kill herself, but failed in the effort, and conceived that the Lord came to her, and said, “I have come to save you,” and that He rescued her from death.
The continued persecutions of her sister-in-law, and other neighbors, drove her once more to seek to destroy herself; but Mr. Yao, the native preacher, arrived at the house in time to prevent the accomplishment of this second deliberate attempt at suicide. The woman now began to think that it surely could not be the will of God that she should kill herself, since He had interposed twice to prevent her doing so.
During all this time she kept up her attendance at the chapel, and attentively listened to the gospel, and now it began to dawn upon her that there was something far more precious to be found in Christ than anything she had yet known. It is not a little strange that she should have heard it repeated dozens of times that the Lord Jesus Christ has power to forgive sins, and all the time had failed to see her own sin and need of such salvation. But in this respect she, poor heathen woman, was only too much like many professing Christians, who hear these things for years together, but never see their need of Christ as their Saviour. Mrs. Chang knew that the Lord had saved her from the death she sought for, and that He had restored her sight, but now the Holy Spirit enlightened her soul, and made her feel her need of pardon and eternal life. Corning to Christ as a guilty sinner, needing forgiveness and eternal life, she quickly began to see things in a different light. Instead of wanting to destroy her life, and so have revenge upon her enemies, she saw that, by patiently enduring persecution, she was pleasing her Lord, and magnifying His grace in her heart. She said that if her husband beat her to death he could do no more, and she would the sooner see the Lord, who had done so much for her, and whom she was determined never to deny.
At the time of my visit to her city she was one of four candidates for baptism. One of the three persons baptized with Mrs. Chang was a blind man, who had heard of the Lord’s goodness to her, and inquired at the chapel whether his sight, too, could not be restored. He became an earnest enquirer, and, although it had not pleased the Lord to open his eyes, the gospel had reached his heart, and he could now say, in a spiritual sense, “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” His wife, too, had received the gospel, and made profession of her faith by baptism at the same time. Thus these two cases of conversion resulted from the experiences of Mrs. Chang. A. G. P.