Part 8. Flying Squirrels.
FLYING squirrels! Well, that is a funny sort of an animal, is it not? You all know about red squirrels, and black squirrels, and chipmunks, I expect; but I wonder how many of you have seen flying squirrels? I have, for one. When I was quite little, we had a pair of them, and it was great fun watching them “fly.” They would only come out in the dark, so we used to pull down the blinds, to make them think it was night, and then we would let them out of their cage, and they would run up the curtains, and “fly” down. They have not really got wings, you know, but there is a piece of skin stretched between their legs, so that they can jump in the most wonderful way.
I wish we could see the red and white flying squirrels at home on their own hills in China. The pretty little things have such fine games, and look so happy. I only wish all the Chinese people were as happy as the squirrels; but they are not. No nation is really happy that does not know about the Lord Jesus. You know that we call the American, French, German, English and all the other European countries, “Christian nations,” because in all those countries no other God is worshiped but the Lord and His Son, our Saviour—Jesus Christ, and dear children, especially all my dear little girl readers, you should thank God every day that you were born in a “Christian” country, for in other lands many children are suffering terrible things. In heathen lands, little girls are thought of no more value than an animal. Often they are left to die, or if they live, their parents sell them to some man to be his wife, when they are only about 10 years old; after that the girl is never allowed out walking, never allowed to see her mother again, but has to be the little slave of her husband’s mother, who is often very cruel. O! will you not pray that the Gospel may be preached in those lands, in India, and Arabia, and Africa and Japan, and in great big China!
But, dear children, remember that although you live in a Christian country, you have a bad heart just the same as any other child. It is not enough, even, that your parents are Christians, who love the Lord as their Saviour. Each one of you, no matter who you are, must come to God, and ask Him to wash your little sinful heart in the blood of our Saviour.
Supposing that we visit a little Chinese girl. She is not very pretty, with her yellow hair and little slits of eyes. A few years ago, this little girl would have been suffering terrible pain from her feet. You know how it hurts when your shoe pinches. Well, in China every little girl’s foot used to be bound up tightly, so that it would never be more than about 4 inches long. It hurt them so much that they say every bound foot had cost a barrel of tears. But I am glad to say that girls do not tie up their feet in China now. So you see they really are more sensible than some American girls, who wear narrow high-heeled shoes that are so bad for them.
The Chinese have always been very clever. Long ago, when people in England lived in mud huts, and painted their bodies instead of wearing clothes, Chinamen were building grand cities and learning all sorts of things.
There is no country in the world so crowded with people as China. The towns are full, the villages are full, and there are even boats on the rivers full of people who can’t find houses on the land to live in. It makes us very sad to think that nearly all these people are far away from the Lord Jesus. Once when He lived on earth, the King of China heard about Him, and sent some messengers to find Him. But the messengers made a terrible mistake. They went to the wrong country, and brought back the story of Buddha, instead of the story of Jesus, and that is why there are so many thousands of people today in China who worship dead Buddha, instead of the dear, living Saviour. But there is another dead man who is worshiped in China. His name is Confucius, and he lived 2000 years ago. He tried to be good, but it was no use, for nobody can be good unless the Spirit of God is dwelling in them.
There are a great many idols in China. You can buy them in the shops for a few cents; often a Chinaman buys an idol, brings it home in a little parcel, and then puts it up on a shelf and prays to it. Fancy a grown-up man doing that! There is another thing they do in China that seems very foolish to us. When people die in China, their friends say, “They have gone away; they are in another world. We must send them clothes, or they will be cold; we must send them food, or they will starve.” The way they do this is to buy things made of paper, and burn them. Paper clothes, paper money, paper houses, paper boats—all kinds of things. Sometimes, too, they write prayers on bits of paper and burn them too, and they really think their poor dead friends will hear them. Now do you see why the poor Chinese are not happy? Nobody to take care of them, nobody to pray to, except dead men! How can they be happy? Poor Chinese!
Some of the Chinese are beginning to think that that is too foolish a thing to do, and so they do not worship any God, but go round asking, “Who is the true God?” Then sometimes they meet someone who can tell them about the true God who loves them so much. But is it not terrible when they do not find any one to tell them about the Saviour? Must we not feel ashamed that we are so slow to obey the command of our Lord Jesus, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature?”
ML 06/25/1916