SOUTHERN CHINA
IN the colporteurs' travels some months ago, they came upon a large village containing about three thousand inhabitants. It was most picturesquely situated. It was a long way off from the main road, and surrounded by great mountains that served as huge barriers to keep its people from the outer world. One of the mountains that lay between them and an important city beyond, took half a day's continual walking to reach the top; so the colporteur told me, with a serious face and a far-off look in his eyes, as though he were recalling that terrible climb, and still had the difficulties of the road visibly before him. The place had a had reputation for murder and robbery, for it was so difficult to be got at, that the mandarins shrunk from the difficulty and expense of bringing the terrors of the law to bear upon the people.
Singular to say, in this unruly village there lived a man who was specially noted for his filial piety. He had become so famous for this virtue, that the Imperial Examiner of the province had given him a tablet with an inscription on it, praising him for his obedience to his parents. This tablet he was allowed to put up in a prominent place in his house. He was also conspicuous for his benevolence. He helped the poor in many a way unknown to his neighbors, and his heart seemed to delight in acts of kindness to those who were in need.
It is needless to say that he was a most fervent worshipper of the idols. He subscribed liberally to their support, and his offerings on their birthdays were given with no churlish hand. About six years ago, he had occasion to visit a town some twenty or thirty miles off, and there he stumbled into a church where preaching to the heathen was going on. He was very much startled to hear the speaker declare that to worship idols was a great wrong, and that they even committed sin who did so. He was perfectly indignant at this, and at once stood up in their defense, but idolatry is a desperately weak and vulnerable system, and will never bear the strain of logic or reason.
He left the town with his faith shaken, but with no teacher to guide him into the right way. Three years went by, but he had never lost the ring of the preacher's voice, or forgotten the arguments by which he had been worsted when he stood up to defend the idols.
One day the colporteurs, unconscious that such a man existed, came into his village, and taking their stand in front of the house next to his, began to speak to the crowd that gathered round them. To his delight, the man recognized in the words that caught his ear the very same as those that he had heard three years before, and which he had never been able to forget. Rushing out and pressing through the crowd till he came to the side of the speaker, he listened with breathless interest, and found to his delight that the strangers were Christians. He bought fifty gospels, and distributed them at once amongst the people, telling them that they were good books, and that they must read them at their leisure. He next invited the colporteurs to be his guests whilst they stayed in the village. This they gladly consented to do, for it was a treat to them to find a man with such a warm heart towards their work as he had shown himself to be.
Nearly the whole of that night was spent in explaining to him the meaning of Christianity. The hours went by, and morning was not far off before they retired to rest. He had so many questions to ask, and they had so much to explain, that they could not tear themselves away from each other. They urged upon him to give up his idolatry and become a Christian, but he was in the twilight yet, and could not see his way to abandon his ancestral worship. From that night, however, his belief in the idols completely vanished forever, and never again could he worship them.
Three years again went by, eventful ones in his life. He had had but two opportunities of hearing the gospel, and yet these had made a mighty impression upon him. The instruction, however, had not gone far enough to deliver him entirely from his old beliefs, and he had been Left alone with no one to encourage him, or to show him what were the next steps he should take in his new spiritual life.
By and by, he had great losses in business, and in the midst of his perplexities he had a dream, in which he was told that he ought to worship God, as many would imitate his example if he did so. His difficulty now was as to how he should do this. The colporteurs from whom he had learned so much were gone, and where they lived he did not know. He then made a special journey to the town where he had first heard the gospel preached, but the station had been given up, and the preacher had gone, whither he could not discover. Finally, after months of anxiety, in which he was longing after God, he accidentally met his lost friend in the streets of another large city, whither his business had led him. His joy at this wonderful meeting was intense. Every vestige of idolatry was now given up, and it was arranged that religious services should be regularly held in his own village, where not only the members of his own family might hear the gospel, but the villagers as well.
Last year the colporteurs again visited the village. Three years had gone by since they had last seen the man whose kindness they so well remembered, and whose earnestness had lived in their memory. What had become of him, and had he remembered the teaching of that night when they had sat up till nearly morning?—These were the thoughts that passed through their minds as the great mountains came nearer and they found themselves, as they entered the village, beneath their shadow. What was their delight and surprise to find that not only had the man become an earnest Christian, but also three others of his family, as well as four out of the village, and that every Sunday twenty-five people met for Christian worship.
The meeting between him and the colporteurs was most affecting. That night he told them the story of his deliverance, and the mental struggles that he had experienced before he found rest. He now thanked God for his losses in business, for they had been the means of making him more determined to break entirely with idolatry.
When it became known that he had become a Christian there was a good deal of excitement amongst the natives. Strongly worded letters were written to him protesting, but his only reply was to go to the writers, and tell them what God had done for him, and how He had filled his life with happiness. The gentry had determined to petition the Imperial Examiner to take his honorary tablet from him, but his gentle unassuming manners and the loving way in which he acted towards his fellow men disarmed their hatred, and they have now agreed to let him worship in his own way without interfering with him.—The Bible Society Monthly Reporter.