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diff --git a/26033.txt b/26033.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff65cdd --- /dev/null +++ b/26033.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3931 @@ +Project Gutenberg's How I Know God Answers Prayer, by Rosalind Goforth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: How I Know God Answers Prayer + The Personal Testimony of One Life-Time + +Author: Rosalind Goforth + +Release Date: July 12, 2008 [EBook #26033] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER *** + + + + +Produced by Free Elf, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + + + How I Know + God Answers Prayer + + The Personal Testimony + of One Life-Time + + By + ROSALIND GOFORTH + (Mrs. Jonathan Goforth) + Missionary in China since 1888 + + "They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy + great goodness."--Psalm 145:7. + + "Go . . . and tell them how great things the Lord + hath done for thee."--Mark 5:19. + + HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + NEW YORK AND LONDON + + Copyright, 1921, by + Harper & Brothers + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +FOREWORD + + +IT seems fitting that this little book of personal testimonies to +answered prayer should have a brief introductory word as to how they +came to be written. The question has been asked by some who read many of +these testimonies as they appeared in the pages of The Sunday School +Times: "How could you write such personal and sacred incidents in your +life?" I could not have written them but for a very clear, God-given +leading. + +The story is as follows: When in Canada on our first furloughs I was +frequently amazed at the incredulity expressed when definite testimony +was given to an answer to prayer. Sometimes this was shown by an +expressive shrug of the shoulders, sometimes by a sudden silence or +turning of the topic of conversation, and sometimes more openly by the +query: "How do you know that it might not have happened so, anyway?" + +Gradually the impression deepened: "If they will not believe one, two, +or a dozen testimonies, will they believe the combined testimonies of +one whole life?" + +The more I thought of what it would mean to record the sacred incidents +connected with answers to prayer the more I shrank from the publicity, +and from undertaking the task. There were dozens of answers far too +sacred for the public eye, which were known only to a few, others known +only to God. But if the record were to carry weight with those who did +not believe in the supernatural element in prayer, many personal and +scarcely less sacred incidents must of necessity be made public. + +Again and again I laid the matter aside as impossible. But I know now +that the thing was of God. As months, even years, passed, the impelling +sense that the record of answers to prayer _must_ be written gave me no +rest. + +It was at the close of the 1908-10 furlough--during which, as a family, +we had been blessed with many and, to our weak faith, wonderful answers +to prayer--that my oldest son urged me to put down in some definite form +the answers to prayer of my life, and extracted from me a solemn promise +that I would do so. + +But months passed after returning to China, and the record had not been +touched. Then came a sudden and serious illness which threatened my +life, when the doctor told me I must not delay in getting my affairs in +order. + +It was then that an overwhelming sense of regret took possession of me +that I had not set down the prayer testimonies, and solemnly I +covenanted with the Lord that if he would raise me up they should be +written. + +There was no more question of what others might think; the one thought +was to obey. The Lord raised me up; and although he had to deal with me +very sternly once more before I really set myself to the task, the +testimonies that are given here were written at last--most of them in +odd moments of time during strenuous missionary journeys among the +heathen. + +Thus it will be seen that these incidents of answered prayer are not +given as being more wonderful, or more worthy of record, than multitudes +the world over could testify to; but they are written and sent out +simply and only because _I had to write them or disobey God_. + + ROSALIND GOFORTH. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + FOREWORD + + How these testimonies came to be written iii + + + I + "GETTING THINGS FROM GOD" + + The simplicity of petition 1 + + + II + EARLY LESSONS IN THE LIFE OF FAITH + + Led by a bird. Toothache taken away. Reward of seeking + first the Kingdom. Financial aid. Sunday-school + scholars given. Guidance in time of crisis. A prayer + preparation for China. A beautiful seal on the new + life 6 + + + III + "GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES" + (1887-1894) + + The key-note of pioneer years. Help in the language + from the Home Base. Prayer-opened doors. + Deliverance in time of peril. "Kept by the power + of God." Prayer and medical work. Converts from + the first. Wang Feng-ao, the proud Confucian + scholar. Wang Fu-Lin, the opium fiend. Dr. Hunter + Corbett's testimony. The result of obedience. From + the gates of death. Lord Sandwich's testimony 15 + + + IV + A GOD-GIVEN FIELD (1894-1900) + + A promise given. The promise fulfilled. Our great + need. One need supplied--an evangelist. A second + need supplied--a Bible-woman. Paying the price + of petition. A touch of healing. A Chinaman's + faith,--the locust story! A Christian woman's + faith for her child. _Our child died_--a case of + unanswered prayer. A God of deliverances 28 + + + V + OUR DELIVERANCE FROM THE BOXERS + (1900) + + A clear answer to prayers in the home church. Led + on through dangers and trials. Safely brought + through 43 + + + VI + PROVING GOD'S FAITHFULNESS (1902-1908) + + God must come first. A hard proposition. In the + furnace. Made willing in the day of God's power. + Testimony to God's abundant faithfulness. A + Bible-woman of exceptional power given. God + meeting the Home message--"Retrench." Abundant + funds provided. A beautiful instance of "God's + wireless." A case of "While they are yet speaking + I will hear." The life made easier. A child's + fever restrained. Blessing in the work, converts + given. A God-suggested remedy. Chinese prevailing + prayer for Mr. Goforth. Women sent to us. Doors + for preaching opened. Workers supplied abundantly. + Kept from smallpox. We may trust Him wholly. 69 + + + VII + THE STORY OF ONE FURLOUGH + (1908-1910) + + Meeting a condition of petition--obedience. Six + difficult doors opened. Trusting for everything. + Apples sent in abundance. Fruit, the best, in + abundance. A telephone supplied. A fur coat. + God's wonderful keeping power, a blessed + experience. Help for the children's sewing. + Another case of "God's wireless." A timely offer. + A daughter's guardian provided. A case of the + Lord's lovingkindness--a red cloth ulster! Too + many to record 89 + + + VIII + OUR GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE + + A blessed incident from Keswick. A verse of a hymn + given. A governess provided. Rain withheld in + answer to prayer. Five pounds sent. Sewing and + prayer. A gracious leading, and a great need + supplied. An incident in Tientsin. More help with + the sewing. A sewing machine supplied. A case of + tuberculosis healed. Two incidents of prayer and + revival. Fifty dollars sent for friends in need. + Another case of spiritual "wireless." Led to a + lost key 105 + + + IX + TO HIS PRAISE! + + Trusting God to supply needs. His faithfulness. + Prayer and dress. The restraining power of + prayer--my son in the Great War. A prayer + answered abundantly for one at home. Our + God-given site. Closing words. All in "abide." + Bible study on prayer 124 + + + X + VICTORY FOUND + + Childhood yearnings for the presence of Christ. + Half-hearted conflict with sin in early years in + China. Pride and bad temper. Secretly criticized + by Chinese women. How to live Christ as well as + preach him. Heights and depths of spiritual + experience. Lifelong prayer for the fulness of + the Spirit. The conference at Niagara-on-the-Lake, + June, 1916. A speaker's message and leaflet on + "The Victorious Life." Christ accepted as Saviour + from the power of sin as well as from its penalty. + The joy of realizing his Indwelling Presence. All + summed up in one word, "Resting." Bible-study on + "The Life of Victory in Christ" 131 + + + + +I + +"GETTING THINGS FROM GOD" + + "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and + not one of them is forgotten before God? . . . Fear + not therefore: ye are of more value than many + sparrows."--_The Lord Jesus Christ._ + + +THE pages of this little book deal almost wholly with just one phase of +prayer--petition. The record is almost entirely a personal testimony of +what petition to my Heavenly Father has meant in meeting the everyday +crises of my life. + +A prominent Christian worker, who read some of these testimonies in The +Sunday School Times, said to the writer: "To emphasize getting things +from God, as you do, is to make prayer too material." + +To me this seems far from true. God is my Father, I am his child. As +truly as I delight to be sought for by my child when he is cold or +hungry, ill, or in need of protection, so is it with my Heavenly Father. + +Prayer has been hedged about with too many man-made rules. I am +convinced that God has intended prayer to be as simple and natural, and +as constant a part of our spiritual life, as the intercourse between a +child and his parent in the home. And as a large part of that +intercourse between child and parent is simply asking and receiving, +just so is it with us and our Heavenly Parent. + +Perhaps, however, the most blessed element in this asking and getting +from God lies in the strengthening of faith which comes when a definite +request has been granted. What more helpful and inspiring than a ringing +testimony of _what God has done_? + +As I have recalled the past in writing these incidents, one of the most +precious memories is that of an evening when a number of friends had +gathered in our home. The conversation turned on answered prayer. For +more than two hours we vied with one another in recounting personal +incidents of God's wonderful work; and the inspiration of that evening +still abides. + +A Christian minister once said to me: "Is it possible that the great God +of the universe, the Maker and Ruler of mankind, could or would, as you +would make out, take interest in such a trifle as the trimming of a hat! +To me it is preposterous!" + +Yet did not our Lord Jesus Christ say: "The very hairs of your head are +all numbered"; and "not one sparrow is forgotten before God"; and again, +"Your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of _before_ ye ask +him"? + +It is true that "There is nothing too great for God's power"; and it is +just as true that "There is nothing too small for his love!" + +If we believe God's Word we must believe, as Dan Crawford has tersely +and beautifully expressed it, that "The God of the infinite is the God +of the infinitesimal." Yes, he + + "Who clears the grounding berg + And guides the grinding floe, + He hears the cry of the little kit fox + And the lemming of the snow!" + +No more wonderful testimony, perhaps, has ever been given of God's +willingness to help in every emergency of life, than that which Mary +Slessor gave, when asked to tell what prayer had meant to her. "My +life," she wrote, "is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. +For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given +marvelously, for errors and dangers everted, for enmity to the Gospel +subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that +goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and +often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer. _I know +God answers prayer!_" + +I have been asked the question: "Has God _always_ given you just what +you have asked for?" + +Oh, no! For him to have done so would have been great unkindness. For +instance: when I was a young woman I prayed for three years that God +would grant me a certain petition. Sometimes I pleaded for this as for +life itself, so intensely did I want it. Then God showed me very clearly +that I was praying against his will. I resigned my will to his in the +matter, and a few months later God gave what was infinitely better. I +have often praised him for denying my prayer; for had he granted it I +could never have come to China. + +Then, too, we must remember that many of our prayers, though always +heard, are not granted because of some sin harbored in the life, or +because of unbelief, or of failure to meet some other Bible-recorded +condition governing prevailing prayer. (See Bible Study on pages 129, +130.) + +The following incidents of answered prayer are by no means a complete +record. How could they be, when no record of prayer has been kept all +these fifty years? Had there been, I doubt not that volumes could have +been written to the glory of God's grace and power in answering prayer. +But even from what is recorded here I, too, can say from a full heart, +_I know God answers prayer_. + + "He answered prayer: so sweetly that I stand + Amid the blessing of his wondrous hand + And marvel at the miracle I see, + The favours that his love hath wrought for me. + Pray on for the impossible, and dare + Upon thy banner this brave motto bear, + 'My Father answers prayer.'" + + + + +II + +EARLY LESSONS IN THE LIFE OF FAITH + + "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice + and my supplications."--_Psalm 116:1._ + + +WHEN a very little child, so young I can remember nothing earlier, a +severe thunderstorm passed over our home. Terrified, I ran to my mother, +who placed my hands together, and pointing upward repeated over and over +again the one word "Jesus." + +More than fifty years have passed since that day, but the impression +left upon my child-mind, of a Being invisible but able to hear and help, +has never been effaced. + + * * * * * + +The most precious recollections of early childhood are associated with +stories told us by our mother, many of which illustrated the power of +prayer. + +One that made a specially deep impression upon me was about our +grandfather, who as a little boy went to visit cousins in the south of +England, their home being situated close to a dense forest. One day the +children, lured by the beautiful wild flowers, became hopelessly lost in +the woods. After trying in vain to find a way out, the eldest, a young +girl, called the frightened, crying little ones around her and said: +"When mother died she told us to always tell Jesus if we were in any +trouble. Let us kneel down, and ask him to take us home." + +They knelt, and as she prayed one of the little ones opened his eyes, to +find a bird so close to his hand that he reached out for it. The bird +hopped away, but kept so close to the child as to lead him on. Soon all +were joining in the chase after the bird, which flew or hopped in front +or just above, and sometimes on the ground almost within reach. Then +suddenly it flew into the air and away. The children looked up to find +themselves on the edge of the woods and in sight of home. + +With such influences bearing upon one at an impressionable age, it is +not surprising that I came even as a very little child to just "tell +Jesus" when in trouble. + + * * * * * + +Through the mists of memory one incident comes out clearly, which +occurred when I was six or seven years of age. While playing one day in +the garden, I was seized with what we then called "jumping" toothache. +I ran to my mother for comfort, but nothing she could do seemed to ease +the pain. + +The nerve must have become exposed, for the pain was acute. Suddenly I +thought, "Jesus can help me," and just as I was, with my face pressed +against my mother's breast, I said in my heart: + +"Lord Jesus, if you will take away this toothache right now, _now_, I +will be your little girl for three years." + +Before the prayer was well uttered the pain was entirely gone. I +believed that Jesus had taken it away; and the result was that for +years, when tempted to be naughty, I was afraid to do what I knew was +wrong lest, if I broke my side of what I felt to be a compact, the +toothache would return. This little incident had a real influence over +my early life, gave me a constant sense of the reality of a divine +presence, and so helped to prepare me for the public confession of +Christ as my Saviour a few years later, at the age of eleven. + + * * * * * + +About a year after my confession of Christ an incident occurred which +greatly strengthened my faith, and led me to look to God as a Father in +a new way. + +When Easter Sunday morning came it was so warm only spring clothes +could be worn. My sister and I decided at breakfast that we would not go +to church, as we had only our old winter dresses. Going to my room, I +turned to my Bible to study it, when it opened at the sixth chapter of +Matthew, and my eye rested on these words: "Why take ye thought for +raiment . . . seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall +be added unto you." + +It was as if God spoke the words directly to me. I determined to go to +church, even if I had to humiliate myself by going in my old winter +dress. The Lord was true to his promise; I can still feel the power the +resurrection messages had upon my heart that day so long ago. And +further, on the following day a box came from a distant aunt, containing +not only new dresses but much else that might well be included in the +"all these things." + + * * * * * + +An unforgetable proof of God's loving care came to us as a family about +this time, when my parents were face to face with a serious financial +crisis. Isaiah 65:24 was literally fulfilled: "Before they call, I will +answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." + +At that time, it is necessary to state, we depended on a quarterly +income, which came through my mother's lawyer in England. Unusual +circumstances had so drained our resources that we found ourselves, in +the middle of the quarter, with barely sufficient to meet a week's +needs. My dear mother assured us that the Lord would provide; that he +would not forsake those who put their trust in him. That very day a +letter came from the lawyer in England, enclosing a draft for a sum +ample to meet our needs till the regular remittance should arrive. This +unexpected and timely draft proved to be a bonus, which did not occur +again. + + * * * * * + +Some years later, having moved to a strange city, a great longing came +to do some definite service for my Master. One day there came to the +Bible class I attended a call for teachers, to aid in a Sunday-school +near by. When I presented myself before the superintendent of this +Sunday-school the following Sunday, and offered my services, it is not +much wonder I received a rebuff, for I was young and quite unknown. I +was told that if I wished a class, it would be well for me to find my +own scholars. I can remember how a lump seemed choking me all the way +home that day. + +At last, determining not to be baffled, I prayed the Lord to help me +get some scholars. I went forth praying every step of the way, the +following Saturday afternoon; and canvassing just one short street near +our home, I received the promise of nineteen children for Sunday-school. +The next day a rather victorious young woman walked up to the +Sunday-school superintendent with seventeen children following. Needless +to say I was given a class. + +In the autumn of 1885 the Toronto Mission Union, a faith mission, +decided to establish a branch mission in the East End slums of that +city. Three others with myself were deputed to open this work. +Everything connected with it was entirely new to me; but most helpful +and inspiring I found it. For in face of tremendous difficulties, that +seemed to my inexperienced eyes insurmountable, I learned that prayer +was the secret which overcame every obstacle, the key that unlocked +every closed door. + +I felt like a child learning a new and wonderful lesson--as I saw +benches, tables, chairs, stove, fuel, lamps, oil, even an organ, coming +in answer to definite prayer for these things. But best sight of all was +when men and women, deep in sin, were converted and changed into workers +for God, in answer to prayer. Praise God for the lessons then learned, +which were invaluable later when facing the heathen. + + * * * * * + +The time came when two diverse paths lay before me--one to England, as +an artist; one to China, as a missionary. Circumstances made a definite +decision most difficult. I thought I had tried every means to find out +God's will for me, and no light had come. + +But in a day of great trouble, when my precious mother's very life +seemed to hang in the balance, I shut myself up with God's Word, praying +definitely for him to guide me to some passage by which I might know his +will for my life. My Bible opening at the fifteenth chapter of John's +Gospel, the sixteenth verse seemed to come as a message to me: "Ye have +not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should +go and bring forth fruit." Going to my dear mother and telling her of +the message God had given me, she said: "I dare not fight against God." + +From that time the last hindrance from going to China was removed. +Surely the wonderful way God has kept his child for more than thirty +years in China is proof that this "call" was not a mistaken one. "In all +thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths" (Prov. 3: 6, +marg.). + +During the summer of 1887 a book written by Dr. Hudson Taylor came into +my hands. In "China's Spiritual Needs and Claims" the writer told many +instances of God's gracious provision in answer to prayer. The incidents +related impressed me deeply. A little later, a few weeks before my +marriage, when I found I was short fifty dollars of what I would need to +be married free of debt, I resolved not to let others know of my need, +but to just trust God to send it to me. The thought came--if you cannot +trust God for this, when Hudson Taylor could trust for so much more, are +you worthy to be a missionary? + +It was my first experience of trusting quite alone for money. I was +sorely tempted to give others just a hint of my need. But I was kept +back from doing so; and though I had a week or more of severe testing, +peace of mind and the assurance that God would supply my need, came at +length. The answer, however, did not come till the very last night +before the wedding. + +That evening a number of my fellow-workers from the East End Mission +called, and presented me with a beautifully illuminated address and a +purse. After these friends had left I returned to my home circle +assembled in the back parlor, and showed them the address and the purse +unopened! Not for a moment did I think there was anything in the purse +till my brother said: "You foolish girl, why don't you open it?" I +opened the purse, and found it contained a check for fifty dollars! + +This incident has ever remained peculiarly precious; for it seemed to us +a seal of God upon the new life opening before us. + + + + +III + +"GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES" + +1887-1894 + + "I will go before thee, and make the crooked + places straight: I will break in pieces the gates + of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron" + (Isa. 45:2). + + +IN ATTEMPTING to record what prayer meant in our early pioneer days, +other than purely personal testimonies must be given; for we were, as a +little band of missionaries, bound together in our common needs and +dangers by a very close bond. + + * * * * * + +In October, 1887, my husband was appointed by the Canadian Presbyterian +Church to open a new field, in the northern section of the Province of +Honan, China. We left Canada the following January, reaching China in +March, 1888. Not till then did we realize the tremendous difficulties of +the task before us. + +Dr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, writing to us at this +time, said: "We understand North Honan is to be your field; we, as a +mission, have tried for ten years to enter that province from the +south, and have only just succeeded. It is one of the most anti-foreign +provinces in China. . . . Brother, if you would enter that province, _you +must go forward on your knees_." + +These words gave the key-note to our early pioneer years. Would that a +faithful record had been kept of God's faithfulness in answering prayer! +Our strength as a mission and as individuals, during those years so +fraught with dangers and difficulties, lay in the fact that we did +realize the hopelessness of our task apart from divine aid. + + * * * * * + +The following incident occurred while we were still outside Honan, +studying the language at a sister mission. It illustrates the importance +of prayer from the home base for those on the field. + +My husband was finding great difficulty in acquiring the language; he +studied faithfully many hours daily, but made painfully slow progress. +He and his colleague went regularly together to the street chapel, to +practise preaching in Chinese to the people; but, though Mr. Goforth had +come to China almost a year before the other missionary, the people +would ask the latter to speak instead of Mr. Goforth, saying they +understood him better. + +One day, just before starting as usual for the chapel, my husband said: +"If the Lord does not give me very special help in this language I fear +I shall be a failure as a missionary." + +Some hours later he returned, his face beaming with joy. He told me that +he realized most unusual help when his turn came to speak; sentences +came to his mind as never before; and not only had he made himself +understood, but some had appeared much moved, coming up afterward to +have further conversation with him. So delighted and encouraged was he +with this experience that he made a careful note of it in his diary. + +Some two months and a half later a letter came from a student in Knox +College, saying that on a certain evening a number of students had met +specially to pray for Mr. Goforth. The power of prayer was such, and the +presence of God so manifestly felt, that they decided to write and ask +Mr. Goforth if any special help had come to him at that time. Looking in +his diary, he found that the time of their meeting corresponded with +that time of special help in the language. + + "I cannot tell why there should come to me + A thought of some one miles and years away, + In swift insistence on the memory, + Unless there is a need that I should pray. + We are too busy to spare thought + For days together of some friends away; + Perhaps God does it for us--and we ought + To read his signal as a sign to pray. + Perhaps just then my friend has fiercer fight, + A more appalling weakness, a decay + Of courage, darkness, some lost sense of right; + And so, in case he needs my prayers--I pray." + +At last the joyful news reached us women, waiting outside of Honan, that +our brethren had secured property in two centers. It would be difficult +for those in the homeland to understand what the years of waiting had +meant to some of us. The danger to those dear to us, touring in Honan, +was very great. For years they never left us to go on a tour without our +being filled with dread lest they should never return; yet the Lord, in +his mercy, heard our prayers for them; and though often in grave danger, +none received serious injury. This is not a history of the mission, but +I cannot forbear giving here one incident illustrating how they were +kept during those early days. + + * * * * * + +Two of our brethren, after renting property at a town just within the +boundary of Honan, and near the Wei River, moved in, intending to spend +the winter there; but a sudden and bitter persecution arose, just as +they had become settled. The mission premises were attacked by a mob, +and everything was looted. The two men were roughly handled, one being +dragged about the courtyard. They found themselves at last left alone, +their lives spared, but everything gone. + +Their position was serious in the extreme--several days' journey away +from friends, with no money, no bedding, and no clothes but those upon +them, and the cold winter begun. + +In their extremity, they knelt down and committed themselves to the +Lord. And according to his promise he delivered them out of their +distresses; for even while they prayed a brother missionary from a +distant station was at hand. He arrived unexpectedly, without knowing +what had occurred, a few hours after the looting had taken place. His +coming at such an opportune moment filled the hearts of their heathen +enemies with fear. Money and goods were returned, and from that time the +violent opposition of the people ceased. + + * * * * * + +A few months after the above incident several families moved into Honan, +and a permanent occupation was effected; but the hearts of the people +seemed as adamant against us. They hated and distrusted us as if we were +their worst enemies. The district in which we settled was known for its +turbulent and anti-foreign spirit, and as a band of missionaries we were +frequently in the gravest danger. + +Many times we realized that we, as well as our fellow-workers at the +other stations, were kept from serious harm only by the over-ruling, +protecting power of God in answer to the many prayers which were going +up for us all at this critical juncture in the history of our mission. +The following are concrete examples of how God heard our prayers at this +time. + +We had for our station doctor a man of splendid gifts. He was a gold +medalist, with years of special training and hospital experience, and +was looked upon as one of the rising physicians in the city from which +he came. Imagine his disappointment, therefore, when month after month +passed and scarcely a good case came to the hospital. The people did not +know what he could do, and moreover they were afraid to trust themselves +into his hands. We, as a little band of missionaries, began to pray +definitely that the Lord would send cases to the hospital which would +open the hearts of the people toward us and our message. + +It was not long before we saw this prayer answered beyond all +expectation. Several very important cases came almost together, one so +serious that the doctor hesitated for days before operating. When at +last the operation did take place the doctor's hands were strengthened +by our prayers, the patient came through safely, and a few days later +was going around a living wonder to the people. + +Very much depended upon the outcome of this and other serious +operations. Had the patients died under the doctor's hands, it would +have been quite sufficient to have caused the destruction of the mission +premises and the life of every missionary. Three years later the +hospital records showed that there had been twenty-eight thousand +treatments in one year. + +Again, we kept praying that the Lord would give us converts from the +very beginning. We had heard of missionaries in India, China, and +elsewhere, who had worked for many years without gaining converts; but +we did not believe that this was God's will for us. We believed that it +was his pleasure and purpose to save men and women through his human +channels, and why not from the beginning? So we kept praying and working +and expecting converts, and God gave them to us. The experience of +thirty years has confirmed this belief. + +Space permits the mention of but two of these earliest converts. + +The first was Wang Feng-ao, who came with us into Honan as Mr. Goforth's +personal teacher. He was a man of high degree, equal to the Western M. +A., and was one of the proudest and most overbearing of Confucian +scholars. He despised the missionaries and their teaching, and so great +was his opposition that he would beat his wife every time she came to +see us or listen to our message. But Mr. Goforth kept praying for this +man, and using all his influence to win him for Christ. + +Before many months passed a great change had come over Mr. Wang; his +proud, overbearing manner had changed, and he became a humble, devout +follower of the lowly Nazarene. God used a dream to awaken this man's +conscience--as is not uncommon in China. One night he dreamed he was +struggling in a deep, miry pit; but try as he would he could find no way +of escape. When about to give up in despair, he looked up and saw Mr. +Goforth and another missionary on the bank above him, with their hands +stretched out to save him. Again he sought for some other way of escape; +but finding none, he allowed them to draw him up. + +This man, later on, became Mr. Goforth's most valued evangelist. For +many years his splendid gifts were used to the glory of his Master in +the work among the scholar class in the Changtefu district. He has long +since passed to his reward, dying as he had lived, trusting only in the +merit of Jesus Christ for salvation. + + * * * * * + +Another of the bright glints, in the darkness of those earliest days in +Honan, was the remarkable conversion of Wang Fu-Lin. For many years his +business had been that of a public story-teller; but when Mr. Goforth +came across him he was reduced to an utter wreck through opium smoking. +He accepted the Gospel, but for a long time seemed too weak to break off +the opium habit. Again and again he tried to do so, but failed +hopelessly each time. + +The poor fellow seemed almost past hope, when one day Mr. Goforth +brought him to the mission in his cart. The ten days that followed can +never be forgotten by those who watched Wang Fu-Lin struggle for +physical and spiritual life. I verily believe nothing but prayer could +have brought him through. At the end of the ten days the power of opium +was broken, and Wang Fu-Lin came out of the struggle a new man in Christ +Jesus. + +I shall have occasion to speak of this man again. + + * * * * * + +In all the cases of divine healing cited in this record it will be noted +that God healed in answer to prayer either when the doctors had done all +in their power and hope had been abandoned, or when we were out of reach +of medical aid. + +Soon after coming to China the Rev. Hunter Corbett, one of the most +devoted and saintly of God's missionaries, gave a testimony which later +was used of God to save the writer from giving up service in China and +returning home to Canada. + +Dr. Corbett said that for fifteen years he had been laid aside every +year with that terrible scourge of the East--dysentery; and the doctors +at last gave a definite decision that he must return at once to the +homeland and forsake China. But, said the grand old man: "I knew God had +called me to China, and I also knew that God did not change. So what +could I do? I dared not go back on my call; so I determined that if I +could not live in China I could die there; and from that time the +disease lost its hold on me." + +This testimony was given over twenty-five years ago, when he had been +almost thirty years in China! In January, 1920, when well-nigh ninety +years of age, this beloved and honored saint of God passed to higher +service. + +For several years I had been affected just as Dr. Corbett had been, and +each year the terrible disease seemed to be getting a firmer hold upon +me. At last, one day my husband brought me the decision of the doctors, +that I should return home. And as I lay there ill and weak, the +temptation came to yield. But, as I remembered Dr. Corbett's testimony, +and my own clear call, I felt that to go back would be to go against my +own conscience. I therefore determined to do as Dr. Corbett had +done--leave myself in the Lord's hands--whether for life or for death. +This happened more than twenty years ago, and since then I have had very +little trouble from that dread disease. + +Yes, the deeper the need, and the more bitter the extremity, the greater +the opportunity for God to show forth his mighty power in our lives, if +we but give him a chance by unswerving obedience at any cost. "In the +day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength +in my soul" (Psa. 138:3). + + * * * * * + +During our fourth year in China, when we were spending the hot season at +the coast, our little son, eighteen months old, was taken very ill with +dysentery. After several days' fight for the child's life came the +realization, one evening, that the angel of death was at hand. + +My whole soul rebelled; I actually seemed to hate God; I could see +nothing but cruel injustice in it all; and the child seemed to be fast +going. My husband and I knelt down beside the little one's bedside, and +he pleaded earnestly with me to yield my will and my child to God. After +a long and bitter struggle God gained the victory, and I told my husband +I would give my child to the Lord. Then my husband prayed, committing +the precious soul into the Lord's keeping. + +While he was praying I noticed that the rapid, hard breathing of the +child had ceased. Thinking my darling was gone, I hastened for a light, +for it was dark; but on examining the child's face I found that he had +sunk into a deep, sound, natural sleep, which lasted most of the night. +The following day he was practically well of the dysentery. + +To me it has always seemed that the Lord tested me to almost the last +moment; then, when I yielded my dearest treasure to him and put my Lord +first, he gave back the child. + + * * * * * + +While writing the above I came across an extract from the Christian of +March 12, 1914, in which the editor said: + +"Speaking at the annual meeting of the Huntingdon County Hospital, Lord +Sandwich referred to the power of spiritual healing, and premising that +the finite mind cannot measure the power of the infinite, said he +'looked forward to the day when the spiritual doctrine of healing and +the physical discoveries of science will blend in harmonious +combination, to the glory of God and the benefit of humanity.'" + + + + +IV + +A GOD-GIVEN FIELD (1894-1900) + + "Lord, there is none beside thee to help, between + the mighty and him that hath no strength; help us, + O Lord our God; for we rely on thee, and in thy + name are come against this multitude" (2 Chron. + 14:11). + + +THE story of the opening of Changte is so connected by a chain of prayer +that to give isolated instances of prayer would be to break the chain. + + * * * * * + +A few months after our arrival in China an old, experienced missionary +kindly volunteered to conduct Mr. Goforth and his colleague, who had +just arrived, through North Honan, that they might see the field for +themselves. + +Traveling southward by cart, they crossed the border into Honan early +one morning. As my husband walked beside the carts, that morning, he +felt led to pray that the Lord would give that section of Honan to him +as his field. The assurance came that his prayer was granted. Opening +his daily textbook, he found the passage for that morning was from +Isaiah 55:8-13. Like a precious promise of future blessing for that +field came the words: "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from +heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it +bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to +the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it +shall not return unto me void." + +For six years, however, our faith was sorely tested. + +Of all places, Changte seemed most determined to keep out the +missionary. And there were other difficulties in the way. A presbytery +had been formed as others joined us, and all matters had to be decided +by that body. Two stations that had been opened, where a foothold could +first be gained, required all, and more than all, the force we then had. +So for six years the door to Changte remained fast closed. But during +all those years Mr. Goforth never once lost sight of God's promise to +him, nor failed to believe it. + +Again and again, when Mr. Goforth and his colleague visited the city, +they were mobbed and threatened, the people showing the utmost +hostility. But the day came, at last, when the long-prayed-for +permission from the presbytery to open Changte was granted. The very +next morning found Mr. Goforth _en route_ for Changte, to secure +property for a mission site. Often has he told how, all the way over +that day to Changte, he prayed the Lord to open the hearts of the +people, and make them willing to give him the property most suitable for +the work. Within three days of his reaching Changte he had thirty-five +offers of property, and was able to secure the very piece of land he had +earlier chosen as most ideal for the mission. + +Thus the Lord did break in pieces the gates of brass which had kept us +so long from our promised land. + + * * * * * + +A year later I joined my husband there, with our three little children. +It was arranged that our colleague should take charge of the outside +evangelism, while we opened work at the main station. + +To understand what it meant for us to have our need supplied, there +should be some knowledge of what that need was. + +We decided, from the first, that no one should be turned from our doors. +Mr. Goforth received the men in the front guest room, while the women +and children came to our private quarters. During those first weeks and +months hundreds, nay thousands, crowded to see us. Day by day we were +literally besieged. Even at meal-time our windows were banked with +faces. + +The questions ever before us those days were--how to make the most of +this wonderful opportunity, which would never come again after the +period of curiosity was past; how to win the friendship of this people, +who showed in a hundred ways their hatred and distrust of us; how to +reach their hearts with our wonderful message of a Saviour's love? + +All that was in our power was to do, day by day, what we could with the +strength that was given us. From early morning till dark, sometimes nine +or ten hours a day, the strain of receiving and preaching to these +crowds was kept up. My husband had numbers of workmen to oversee, +material for building to purchase, and to see to all the hundred and one +things so necessary in building up a new station. Besides all this he +had to receive, and preach to, the crowds that came. He had no +evangelist, Mr. Wang being then loaned to Mr. MacG----. I had my three +little children, and no nurse or Bible-woman. When too exhausted to +speak longer to the courtyard of women, I would send for my husband, who +though tired out would speak in my stead. Then we would rest ourselves, +and entertain the crowd, by singing a hymn. + +So the days passed. But we soon realized that help must come, or we +would both break down. + +One day Mr. Goforth came to me with his Bible open at the promise, "My +God shall supply all your need," and asked: "Do we believe this? If we +do, then God can and will supply us with some one to help preach to +these crowds, if we ask in faith." + +He prayed very definitely for a man to preach. With my doubt-blinded +heart, I thought it was as if he were asking for rain from a clear sky. +Yet, even while he prayed, God was moving one to come to us. A day or +two later there appeared at the mission the converted opium fiend, Wang +Fu-Lin, whose conversion has been already recorded. + +No one could have looked less like the answer to our prayers than he +did. Fearfully emaciated from long years of excessive opium smoking, +racked with a cough which three years later ended his life, dressed in +such filthy rags as only a beggar would wear, he presented a pitiable +sight. Yet the Lord seeth not as man seeth. + +After consulting together Mr. Goforth decided to try him for a few days, +believing that he could at least testify to the power of God to save a +man from his opium. Soon he was reclothed in some of my husband's +Chinese garments; and within an hour or two of his entering the mission +gate, practically a beggar, he was seated in charge of the men's +chapel, so changed one could scarcely have recognized him. + +From the first day of his ministry at Changte there was no doubt in the +minds of any who heard him that he had indeed been sent to us by our +gracious God, for he had in a remarkable degree the unction and power of +the Holy Ghost. His gifts as a speaker were all consecrated to one +object--the winning of souls to Jesus Christ. He seemed conscious that +his days were few, and always spoke as a dying man to dying men. Little +wonder is it, therefore, that from the very beginning of his ministry in +our chapel men were won to Christ. God spared him to us for the +foundation laying of the church at Changte, then called him higher. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Goforth's need was relieved by the coming of Wang Fu-Lin, but not +mine. The remarkable way God had sent him, however, gave me courage and +faith to trust God to give me a Bible-woman. Those who know anything of +mission work in China will agree with me that it is far more difficult +to find women than men who are able to preach the Gospel; or if able, +who are free for the work. But I was beginning to learn that God is +limited only from the human side; and that he is always willing to give +beyond our asking, if the human conditions he has so plainly laid down +in his Word are fulfilled. + +A short time after I had begun to ask my Heavenly Father definitely for +a Bible-woman, Mr. Mac G---- came in from a tour, and his first words +were: + +"Well, Mrs. Goforth, I believe we have a ready-made Bible-woman for +you!" + +Then he told me how he had come across a widow and her son in a mountain +village, who had heard the Gospel from a recent convert out of one of +the other stations. This man had been a member of the same religious +sect as the widow and her son. When he found Christ he at once thought +of his friends, and went over the mountain to tell them. Mrs. Chang +received the Gospel gladly. She had been a preacher in that heathen +sect, and had gained the fluency in speaking, and power in holding +audiences, so necessary in the preaching of the Gospel. + +The way was soon opened for her to come to me, and she became my +constant companion and valuable assistant in the women's work during +those early years. She witnessed a good confession in 1900--being strung +up by her thumbs when refusing to deny her Lord. Faithfully she served +the Lord as a Bible-woman, until the time of her death in 1903. + +During the first two or three years at Chang Te Fu we lived in unhealthy +Chinese houses, which were low and damp. It was therefore thought best +that we should have a good semi-foreign house built for us. The work at +this time was so encouraging--converts being added weekly, and sometimes +almost daily--that we feared lest the new house would hinder the work, +and become a separating barrier between ourselves and the people. We +therefore prayed that God would make the new house a means of reaching +the people--a blessing, and not a hindrance. The answer to this prayer, +as is often the case, depended largely upon ourselves. We had to be made +willing to pay the price that the answer demanded. + +In other words, we came to see that in order that our prayer could be +answered we would have to keep open house every day and all day, which +was by no means easy. Some assured us it was wrong, because it would +make us cheap in the eyes of the Chinese; others said it was wrong +because of the danger of infection to the children. But time proved +these objections to be unfounded. The very highest as well as the lowest +were received, and their friendship won by this means. And, so far as I +can remember, our children never met any contagion because of this way +of receiving the people into our house. + +The climax in numbers was reached in the spring of 1899, when eighteen +hundred and thirty-five men and several hundred women were received by +us in one day. These were first preached to in large bands, and then led +through the house. We have seen evidences of the good of this plan in +all parts of our field. It opened the hearts of the people toward us, +and helped us to live down suspicion and distrust as nothing else could +have done. + + * * * * * + +In May of 1898 we started down to Tientsin by houseboat, with our +children, for a much-needed rest and change. Cold, wet weather soon set +in. Twelve days later, as we came in sight of Tientsin, with a bitter +north wind blowing, our eldest child went on deck without his overcoat, +in disobedience to my orders. Shortly after the child came in with a +violent chill. That afternoon, when we arrived in Tientsin, the doctors +pronounced the verdict--pneumonia. + +The following day, shortly after noon, a second doctor, who had been +called in consultation, met a friend on his way from our boy's bedside +and told her he did not think the child could live till morning. I had +taken his temperature, and found it to be 106. He was extremely +restless, tossing in the burning fever. Sitting down beside him, with a +cry to the Lord to help me, I said distinctly: "P----, you disobeyed me, +and have thus brought this illness upon yourself. I forgive you; ask +Jesus to forgive you, and give yourself to him." + +The child looked at me for a moment steadily, then closed his eyes. I +saw his lips move for a moment; then quietly he sank into a sound sleep. +When he awoke, about dusk, I took his temperature, and found it 101. By +the time the doctor returned it was normal, and did not rise again. +Although he had been having hemorrhage from the lungs, this ceased. + +Is not Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and forever? Why should +we wonder, therefore, at his healing touch in this age? "According to +your faith be it unto you." + + * * * * * + +During those early pioneer years, when laying the foundation of the +Changte Church, my own weak faith was often rebuked when I saw the +results of the simple, child-like faith of our Chinese Christians. Some +of those answers to prayer were of such an extraordinary character that, +when told in the homeland, even ministers expressed doubts as to their +genuineness. But, praise God, I know they are true. Here are two +concrete examples. + +Li-ming, a warm-hearted, earnest evangelist, owned land some miles north +of Chang Te Fu. On one occasion, when visiting the place, he found the +neighbors all busy placing around their fields little sticks with tiny +flags. They believed this would keep the locusts from eating their +grain. All urged Li-ming to do the same, and to worship the locust god, +or his grain would be destroyed. Li-ming replied: "I worship the one +only true God, and I will pray him to keep my grain, that you may know +that he only is God." + +The locusts came and ate on all sides of Li-ming's grain, but did not +touch his. When Mr. Goforth heard this story he determined to get +further proof, so he visited the place for himself, and inquired of +Li-ming's heathen neighbors what they knew of the matter. One and all +testified that, when the locusts came, their grain was eaten and +Li-ming's was not. + +The Lord Jesus once said, after a conflict with unbelief and hypocrisy: +"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid +these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto +babes." + +Our little Gracie became ill with a terribly fatal disease, so common in +malarious districts--enlarged spleen. The doctors pronounced her +condition quite hopeless. One day a Chinese Christian woman came in with +her little child, of about the same age as our Gracie, and very ill with +the same disease. The poor mother was in great distress, for the doctor +had told her also that there was no hope. She thought that if we would +plead with the doctor he could save her child. At last Mr. Goforth +pointed to our little Gracie, saying: "Surely, if the doctor cannot save +our child, neither can he save yours; your only hope and ours is in the +Lord himself." + +The mother was a poor, hard-working, ignorant woman, but she had the +simple faith of a little child. Some few weeks later she called again, +and told me the following story: + +"When the pastor told me my only hope was in the Lord, I believed him. +When I reached home I called my husband, and together we had committed +our child into the Lord's hands. I felt perfectly sure the child would +get well, so I did not take more care of him than of a well child. In +about two weeks he seemed so perfectly well that I took him to the +doctor again, and the doctor said that he could discover nothing the +matter with him." + +That Chinese child is now a grown-up, healthy man. And _our child +died_. Yet we had prayed for her as few, perhaps, have prayed for any +child. Why, then, was she not spared? I do not know. But I do know that +there was in my life, at that time, the sin of bitterness toward +another, and an unwillingness to forgive a wrong. This was quite +sufficient to hinder any prayer, and did hinder for years, until it was +set right. + +Does this case of unanswered prayer shake my faith in God's willingness +and power to answer prayer? No, no! My own child might just as +reasonably decide never again to come to me with a request because I +have, in my superior wisdom, denied a petition. Is it not true, in our +human relationships with our children, that we see best to grant at one +time what we withhold at another? "What I do thou knowest not now, but +thou shalt know hereafter." + +And one of the most precious experiences of God's loving mercy came to +me in connection with our little Gracie's death. We had been warned that +the end would probably come in convulsions; two of our dear children had +been so taken. Only a mother who has gone through such an experience can +fully understand the horror of the possibility that such might come +again at any time. + +One evening I was watching beside our little one, Miss P---- being with +me, when suddenly the child said very decidedly: "Call Papa; I want to +see Papa." I hesitated to rouse her father, as it was his time to rest; +so I tried to put her off with some excuse; but again she repeated her +request, and so I called her father, asking him to walk up and down with +her until I returned. + +Going into the next room I cried in an agony to the Lord not to let +Gracie suffer; but, if it was indeed his will to take the child, then to +do so without her suffering. As I prayed a wonderful peace came over me, +and the promise came so clearly it was as if spoken: "Before they call I +will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear." Rising, I was +met at the door by Miss P----who said: "Gracie is with Jesus." While I +was on my knees our beloved child, after resting a few moments in her +father's arms, had looked into his face with one of her loveliest +smiles, and then quietly closed her eyes and had ceased to breathe. No +struggle, no pain, but a "falling on sleep." + +"Like as a father pitieth, . . . so the Lord pitieth." + + * * * * * + +Ever-darkening clouds gathered about us during the months following +Gracie's death; and while the storm did not burst in all its fury till +the early summer of 1900, yet the preceding winter was full of +forebodings and constant alarms. + +On one occasion thousands gathered inside and outside our mission, +evidently bent on serious mischief. My husband and his colleagues moved +in and out all that day among the dense crowd which filled the front +courtyards; while we women remained shut within closed houses, not +knowing what moment the mob would break loose and destroy us all. What +kept them back that day? What but trustful prayer! And the Lord heard +that day, and wonderfully restrained the violence of our enemies. + +We did not know then, but those experiences were preparing us for the +greater trials and perils awaiting us all. + + + + +V + +OUR DELIVERANCE FROM THE BOXERS (1900) + + "God is unto us a God of deliverances" (Psa. + 68:20, R. V.). + + "Who delivered us out of so great a death, and + will deliver: on whom we have set our hope that he + will also still deliver" (2 Cor. 1:10, R. V.). + + +MANY times we were asked in the homeland to tell the story of our escape +during the Boxer uprising, and often the question was put, "If it was +really God's power that saved you and others on that journey, then why +did he not save those of his children who were so cruelly done to +death?" + +For a time this question troubled me. Why indeed? One day when seeking +for light on the matter I was directed to the twelfth chapter of Acts. +There I found the only answer that can be given. We are told in the +second verse that James was put to death by the sword; then the rest of +the chapter is given to the detailed record of Peter's wonderful +deliverance in answer to prayer (vs. 5, 12). In that day when all things +shall be revealed I am convinced we shall see that _prayer_ had much to +do in the working out of our deliverance. When the first cable was +received in Canada informing the home church of our party starting on +that perilous journey, we are told a great wave of prayer went up for us +from Christians of all denominations. The Presbyterian Assembly of +Canada was meeting at the time, and one session was given up entirely to +prayer on behalf of the missionaries in China. Never had that body +witnessed such a season of intense, united intercession. + +Later when giving the story of our escape in the homeland, repeatedly we +have had people come to us telling how, during the weeks which elapsed +between the first cable informing the home church of our danger, and the +second cable, which told of our safe arrival at the coast, they had +never ceased to cry to God to save us. Then, too, after all is said, we +must believe God was glorified and God's purposes were fulfilled in the +death of some as in the saved lives of others. The blood of the martyrs +is still the seed of the Church. + +It was in the month of June, 1895, that an incident occurred which has +ever been linked in my mind with the events of 1900. I was about to +leave Toronto with my four children to join my husband in China, when a +cable was received telling of the cruel massacre of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart +and others. Deep and widespread sympathy was expressed and much anxiety +felt for missionaries generally in China. Many urged me to delay our +return; but I felt it best to keep to our original plans, and a few days +later found us bidding farewell to friends at the Union Station, +Toronto. + +Just as the train was leaving a lady stepped forward quickly to the +window and said, "You do not know me, but I have prayed the Lord to give +me a promise for you; it is this, take it as from Him," and handed me a +slip of paper. I opened the paper and read, "No weapon that is formed +against thee shall prosper" (Isa. 54:17). Then and there I raised my +heart to God in prayer that he would fulfil this promise to me and those +dear to me; and as I prayed there came the clear assurance that the Lord +heard. + +Never can we forget that winter of 1899-1900. The clouds had begun to +gather, and the mutterings of the coming storm were heard on all sides +of us. Repeatedly we were as a mission in gravest danger, and at such +times were literally "shut up to God." The temper of the people was such +that any little thing angering them would have been as a spark to +gunpowder. + +From the time of the government crisis of the autumn of 1899, we, in +company with all other foreigners in China, realized that conditions +were becoming serious, yet never did we expect or prepare for such a +cataclysm as took place when the storm clouds suddenly burst in the +early summer of 1900. + +The first indication we had of coming danger was when our mail carriers +running to and from Tientsin were stopped and our mails returned. Thus, +cut off from the outside world, we had to depend solely upon the wild +rumors afloat among the Chinese for information. The country around us +became daily more disturbed; day by day we could hear the beating of +drums and the cries of the people for rain. The darkness and horror of +those days, in the midst of which sickness and death entered our home, +can never be forgotten. On the nineteenth of June our eldest daughter, +Florence, after a week of intense suffering, was released from pain. It +was while her life was still hanging in the balance that we received the +first communication from the American Consul in Chefoo urging us to +flee. This message was quickly followed by another still more urgent. + +The question was, where could we flee? Our usual route was by river boat +two weeks to Tientsin, but this way was blocked, the whole region being +infested with Boxers, and Tientsin even then in a state of siege. The +only possible route left open to us was southward by cart,--fourteen +days to Fan-cheng,--then ten or more days by houseboat to Hankow. We +faced such a journey at that time of the year with fear and trembling +because of the children, the danger from heat and sun being very great. +Gladly would we have stayed, but the Chinese Christians urged us to go, +saying they could escape more easily were we not there. + +We had with us our four remaining children: Paul, nine; Helen, six; +Ruth, under three; and baby Wallace, eight months. Their faithful +Chinese nurse, though weeping bitterly at parting from her old mother of +almost eighty, decided to come with us. There were altogether in the +party five men, six women, and five children, besides the servants and +carters. + +Many were the difficulties in the way of getting carts and other +necessary things for the journey, but one by one all things needed were +provided as we besought the Lord to open the way. There were many +indications on that journey that God's purpose was to save us; one of +the most striking of these happened just as we were about to leave. + +The day previous to our departure a message passed through the city of +Chang Te Ho, the messenger riding at breakneck speed. This messenger, we +learned later, was en-route for the Provincial Capital with the sealed +message from the Empress Dowager commanding the death of all foreigners. +We had planned first to take the direct route south, which would, as far +as we can now see, have led us to our death, for this route would have +taken us through the capital. Almost at the last moment, and quite +unaware of the danger on the direct route, we were led to change our +plans and take a route farther west, though it made a considerably +longer journey. + +We left Chang Te, June 28, 1900, at daybreak. At Wei Hwei Fu, the first +large city to which we came, an attempt was made to break into our inn, +but as we prayed the mob dispersed and we were left in peace. On July +first we reached the north bank of the Yellow River, and there for a +short time (it was Sunday afternoon) we rested under the trees. Little +did we dream that even then many, very many, of our fellow-missionaries +and personal friends were being done to death by the merciless Boxers. +At sunset the ferry which carried us across the river reached the south +bank, and here we found several missionaries and a party of engineers +waiting for us. These latter were fully armed and had a fair escort. +After some difficulty it was decided that we should all keep together, +but in reality this party kept by themselves, except that we stayed in +the same towns at night. Each day that passed seemed harder than the +last, the heat was intense, and the ten or twelve hours of bumping over +rough roads in springless carts made even a bed spread on the ground a +welcome resting-place. + +Once, when Mr. Goforth had jumped off our cart to get fresh water for +our head cloths, a crowd gathered round him and became very threatening, +raising the cry, "Kill, kill." All the other carts were ahead, and the +carter would not wait for Mr. Goforth, as he was afraid. During the few +moments that elapsed before my husband was allowed to join us even the +carter turned pale with suspense,--and oh, how I prayed! + +Except for a few similar passing dangers, nothing special occurred until +the evening of July seventh, when we reached the small town of Hsintien. +We had heard during the day that the whole country ahead of us was in a +state of ferment against the Roman Catholics. Scarcely had we reached +the inn when the engineers and the missionaries with them who had +become increasingly alarmed at the condition of the country, informed us +that they were going on to the large city of Nan Yang Fu that night, but +would leave us two soldiers and two of their carts. Mr. Goforth did not +wish them to go, for he felt it would greatly increase our danger. + +Shortly after they left us the mob began to gather outside our inn. The +gate was barricaded with carts. For hours stones were thrown against the +gate and demand was made for our money. A messenger was at once sent +after the engineers' party, asking them to return. All that night was +spent in sleepless suspense. + +Early in the morning the messenger returned with the reply that they had +failed to get help from the Nan Yang Fu official and were obliged to +push on. As soon as the carters heard we were thus left helpless a panic +seized them, and it was with great difficulty they could be persuaded to +harness their animals. All this time the crowd had been becoming more +dense, as we could see through the cracks of the gate, and were +ominously quiet. Hints had been given us of coming danger, but that was +all; none spoke of what all felt,--that we were probably going to our +death. + +Suddenly, without the slightest warning, I was seized with an +overwhelming fear of what might be awaiting us. It was not the fear of +_after_ death, but of probable torture, that took such awful hold of me. +I thought, "Can this be the Christian courage I have looked for?" I went +by myself and prayed for victory, but no help came. Just then some one +called us to a room for prayer before getting into our carts. Scarcely +able to walk for trembling, and utterly ashamed that others should see +my state of panic,--for such it undoubtedly was,--I managed to reach a +bench beside which my husband stood. He drew from his pocket a little +book, "Clarke's Scripture Promises," and read the verses his eye first +fell upon. They were the following: + +"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: +and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, +Destroy them." + +"The God of Jacob is our refuge." + +"Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God." + +"I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee +with the right hand of my righteousness. . . . The Lord thy God will hold +thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." + +"If God be for us, who can be against us?" + +"We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man +shall do unto me." + +The effect of these words at such a time was remarkable. All realized +that God was speaking to us. Never was there a message more directly +given to mortal man from his God than that message to us. From almost +the first verse my whole soul seemed flooded with a great peace; all +trace of panic vanished; and I felt God's presence was with us. Indeed, +his presence was so real it could scarcely have been more so had we seen +a visible form. + +After prayer we all got on our carts, and one by one passed out into the +densely crowded street. As we approached the city gate we could see that +the road was black with crowds awaiting us. I had just remarked to my +husband on how well we were getting through the crowds, when our carts +passed through the gates. My husband turned pale as he pointed to a +group of several hundred men, fully armed, awaiting us. They waited till +all the carts had passed through the gate, then hurled down upon us a +shower of stones, at the same time rushing forward and maiming or +killing some of the animals. Mr. Goforth jumped down from our cart and +cried to them, "Take everything, but don't kill." His only answer was a +blow. The confusion that followed was so great it would be impossible to +describe the escape of each one in detail. Each one later had his or her +own testimony of that mighty and merciful deliverance. But I must give +the details of Mr. Goforth's experience. + +One man struck him a blow on the neck with a great sword wielded with +two hands. "Somehow" the blunt edge of the sword struck his neck; the +blow left a wide mark almost around his neck, but did no further harm. +Had the sharp edge struck his neck he would certainly have been +beheaded! + +His thick helmet was cut almost to pieces, one blow cutting through the +leather lining _just over the temple_, but without even scratching the +skin! + +Again he was felled to the ground, with a fearful sword cut, which +entered the bone of the skull behind and almost cleft it in two. As he +fell he seemed to hear distinctly a voice saying, "Fear not, they are +praying for you." Rising from this blow, he was again struck down by a +club. As he was falling almost unconscious to the ground he saw a horse +coming at full speed toward him; when he became conscious again he found +the horse had tripped and fallen (on level ground) so near that its tail +almost touched him. The animal, kicking furiously, had served as a +barrier between him and his assailants. While dazed and not knowing what +to do a man came up as if to strike, but whispered, "Leave the carts." +By that time the onlookers began to rush forward to get the loot, but +the attacking party felt the things were theirs, so desisted in their +attack upon us in order to secure their booty. + +A word as to myself and the children. Several fierce men with swords +jumped on my cart. One struck at the baby, but I parried the blow with a +pillow, and the little fellow only received a slight scratch on the +forehead. Then they dropped their swords and began tearing at our goods +at the back of the cart. Heavy boxes were dragged over us, and +everything was taken. Just then a dreadful looking man tried to reach us +from the back of the cart with his sword, missing by an inch. I thought +he would come to the front and continue his attack, but he did not. I +had seen Mr. Goforth sink to the ground covered with blood twice, and +had given him up for dead. Just then Paul, who had been in the last +cart, jumped in, wild with delight at what he seemed to think was great +fun, for he had run through the thick of the fight, dodging sword +thrusts from all sides, and had succeeded in reaching me without a +scratch. A moment later my husband came to the edge of the cart scarcely +able to stand, saying, "Get down quickly; we must not delay in getting +away." As I was getting down one man snatched away my hat, another my +shoes; but we were allowed to go. + +Ruth was nowhere to be seen, and we hoped she was with the missionaries +who had charge of her at the time of attack. I saw that Mr. Goforth's +strength was failing fast, for he could scarcely walk, and as men began +to follow I urged him forward with the baby and the other two children, +and turning faced the men, begging them to have mercy on my children, +for they had begun to stone us. Some of us were black for days from the +blows received then. They stopped and listened, then the leader said, +"We've killed her husband, let her go." With this they ran back to the +carts. + +I knew Mr. Goforth could not go far. We could see a small village not +far distant, and to this we hastened, praying as we went that the Lord +would open the hearts of the people to receive us. Here again Paul +seemed to feel no fear, but said, "Mother, what does this put you in +mind of? It puts me in mind of the Henty books!" + +As we neared the village men came out to drive us away, but I begged +them to help us. By this time Mr. Goforth had sunk to the ground. +Putting the baby in an old woman's arms, I knelt down beside my husband. +The children were crying bitterly. Mr. Goforth looked as if he were +dying. The women standing round us were weeping now. This was too much +for the men, who came forward saying, "We will save you." One ran and +got some stuff to put in the wounds, assuring us it would stop the flow +of blood, and it did. This man helped me to bandage up the wounds with +bandages made from garments taken from myself and the children. They +helped my husband, and we followed them into a little hut, where they +laid him on a straw bed and locked us in. Hot water for bathing our +bruises, food and drink were handed us through a small window, and we +could hear them planning how they would save us. We told them how +anxious we were to hear of our friends and little Ruth, so they sent a +man to inquire. + +We found that these people--the whole village--were Mohammedans, and had +taken no part in the attack. We felt that God had wonderfully directed +our steps to that village. + +All that day Mr. Goforth lay still, but looked at times so very white +that I feared the worst. Never for one moment, I believe, during that +day did I cease to pray for his life. And when Mr. ----, one of our +party, arrived about four o'clock looking for us, Mr. Goforth at once +got up as if perfectly well, insisting on walking to the cart. To me, +knowing how he had looked that day, it seemed only a miracle. His only +answer to my protest was, "Only pray; the Lord will give me strength, as +long as he has work for me to do." + +As we were leaving, the kind friends of the village gathered round +insisting on my taking some old clothes to put round the children, who +were almost naked, saying, "It will be chilly at night." As we went +forward to join the others, Mr. ---- told us how one by one all had +escaped. Dr. ---- was the only one beside Mr. Goforth seriously injured, +the poor fellow having had his kneecap severed and the tendons of his +right wrist badly cut, besides many other wounds. + +All that day our friends had been waiting by the roadside, unable to +proceed without carts, owing to the doctor's condition. They had joined +in one petition, that God would move the carters to come. Those who know +China and heathen carters will readily acknowledge that it was nothing +short of a miracle--the miracle of answered prayer--that made these +heathen carters come, after all they had already gone through. For come +they did, five of them, all that were needed, now that our luggage was +gone. We learned too, that our faithful Chinese nurse, who had charge of +Ruth, had saved the child at the risk of her own life, lying upon the +child and taking many cruel blows, till greed for loot drew the men off. + +We soon joined the rest of the party, and by six o'clock that evening we +reached the large city of Nang Yang Fu. The city wall was black with +people, and as we entered the gate the wild crowds crushed against our +carts. Sometimes the animals staggered, and it seemed as if nothing +could save the carts from being overturned. Every moment or two a brick +or stone would be hurled against the carts, and that cry, "Kill, kill," +which can never be forgotten when once heard, was shouted by perhaps +hundreds of voices. Yet the Lord brought us through, and "no weapon +prospered." + +When we reached the inn a wild mob of over a thousand men filled the inn +yard; and as we alighted from the cart these men literally drove us +before them into one room, which in a few moments was packed to +suffocation. For probably an hour the crowd kept crushing us into one +corner; then those outside became impatient at not being able to get in, +and demanded that we be brought out. We managed to keep some of the +ladies from going out; but the rest of us--men, women, and +children--stood facing that seething multitude until relief came in the +darkness. Why did they not kill us then? Why, indeed? None but an +Almighty God kept that crowd back. + +As soon as we had reached the city a servant was sent to the official +demanding protection. It was dark when this man returned, in a state of +great agitation; his story was that as he was waiting for an answer from +the official he overheard a conversation between two soldiers, and +gathered from what they said that the official had sent a party of fifty +soldiers along the road that we would have to take, with the order that +every one of us must be put to death. The official was afraid to have us +killed in the city lest he should afterward be blamed; but by this plan +he could say brigands had done the deed. So sure was this servant that +we were all to be massacred that he would remain with us no longer, but +returned that night to Honan with the report that we were all killed. + +A consultation was held, and the question was, should we stay in the +city and again demand protection, or should we go on and trust God to +open our way? The latter course was decided upon. But for a long time +the carters utterly refused to go farther with us. Again prayer opened +up our way, and by two o'clock in the morning all were ready to start. + +The official had sent a few foot-soldiers to guide us to _the right +road_! (to the waylaying party). The night was very dark, and as we were +passing through the gate of the city we noticed what seemed to be signal +lights put out and drawn in. We all felt these to be signals to the +waylaying party ahead. A short distance from the city, probably about +one hundred yards, our carts suddenly stopped. Some one ran up and +whispered to Mr. Goforth, "Paul and Mr. ---- are missing." Search was +made for them, but without success. + +A veil must be drawn over those terrible hours of suspense; my faith +seemed to fail me, and I could only cry in my agony, "If Paul is gone, +can I ever trust God again?" Then I remembered how marvelously God had +given me back my dear husband's life, and I just committed Paul into his +hands and waited to see what he would do. + +When all hope was given up of finding the missing ones, a cart was left +behind with a trusted servant, and we went on. Then we saw God's +wonderful plan for us. While we were waiting the soldiers had fallen +asleep in the carts, and were not aware that the carters were taking a +side road until we had gotten miles from the city and beyond the reach +of our would-be murderers! The soldiers were infuriated at this +discovery; but after some threatening they left us and returned to the +city. Thus again we saw that God was indeed unto us a "God of +deliverances." + +Again and again that day we were surrounded by mobs. Many times I held +up the poor, dirty clothes which the Mohammedans had given us, and the +story of how these had been given quieted the people perhaps more than +anything. Once the cry was raised to drag our children's nurse out of +the cart; but as we cried to God for her the people let us alone, and we +passed on. At another time a man snatched the remains of Mr. Goforth's +helmet away from us, and tore it to pieces. I had hoped to keep it as a +trophy should we ever get out safely. + +We were at this time in a pitiable condition. Most of the men had head +or arms bandaged; Dr. ---- was unable to raise his head. What we +suffered in those carts with nothing but the boards under us cannot be +told. Nine persons were packed in our cart, which under ordinary +circumstances would have held four or five. At noon we reached a large +city, where the animals had to rest and feed. Then again we saw an +evidence of the Lord's loving kindness over us. + +Just as we were getting down from our carts the crowd became very +threatening, and it looked now as if our hour had indeed come; but at +this critical juncture two well-dressed young men of official class came +through the crowd, greeting Mr. Goforth in great surprise. They had been +received by him in our home at Chang Te Ho. A few words of explanation +were spoken, then they turned quickly to the crowd and told them who we +were and of the work at Chang Te Ho. The attitude of the people changed +instantly, and they made way for us, giving us good rooms, and food was +brought which was greatly needed. + +That noon, as one after another came up to express their sympathy at +Paul's loss, I could say nothing--I was waiting to see what God would +do. When Mr. Goforth told the young officials about Paul and Mr. ----, +they were greatly concerned, and promised to send men at once to search +for them. These friends in need sent with us a man of the district to +guide and help us, and also wrote an urgent letter to the official of +the city we were to stay in that night, asking him to give us an escort +and help us in every way he could. + +About four o'clock that afternoon a man came running after us with the +joyful news that Paul and Mr. ---- were safe, and would reach us that +night. As I heard this news my unbelief and faithlessness in the hour of +testing came over me with overwhelming force, and I could only bow my +head and weep. Oh, the goodness and mercy of God! Never had the love of +God seemed so wonderful as in that hour. + + "Could we with ink the ocean fill, + Were the whole sky of parchment made, + Were every blade of grass a quill, + And every man a scribe by trade; + To write the love of God above + Would drain that ocean dry, + Nor could the scroll contain the whole + Though stretched from sky to sky." + +That night we reached our destination about nine o'clock, having +traveled seventeen hours over those roads, with but a short break at +noon. It was marvelous how Mr. Goforth was sustained, for he was obliged +to start at once for the official's residence with the note I have +already referred to. On the way through the street the mob about +succeeded, several times, in getting him down under their feet; but God +was with him, and he reached the Yamen in safety, being courteously +received by the official, who promised us protection, and sent him back +to the inn under escort. + +When Paul and Mr. ---- arrived that night, they tried in vain to wake +me, but nature had to have her way. I knew nothing till I wakened with a +start at about two A.M. Jumping up, I started to look for Paul, and +never can I forget the scene! The whole party was lying on the bare +earthen floor, practically without bedding or mattresses. + +A word concerning the experiences of Mr. ----and Paul. The two had got +down from their cart and were walking behind. In some way they missed +the road in the dark, and became separated from us. During that day they +were repeatedly in the gravest danger. + +On one occasion, when surrounded by a violent mob, and one man had +raised a club above Paul's head to strike him down, Mr. ----felt +impelled by some unseen power to shout out, "We are not Roman Catholics, +but Protestants." At this the man lowered his club, exclaiming, "Why, +these are not the bad foreign devils, but the good foreign devils, like +those missionaries at Chow Chia K'eo" (China Inland Mission). At this +same place the hearts of the people seemed turned toward them in a +wonderful way. One man gave Paul one hundred _cash_ (five cents) to buy +some food; another man carried the lad on his back for miles to give his +feet a rest, they were so sore. This same man, when he could carry Paul +no longer, ran ahead to try and find us. When they reached the inn where +we had been so helped by the two Chinese gentlemen, they found that +these friends had food prepared and a barrow waiting, also a guide ready +to lead them to us! + +Less than an hour from the time I awakened we were on the road again. +The official was true to his promise, and a large mounted escort +accompanied us. That day we were on the road twenty hours, reaching Fan +Cheng at midnight. Here we found the engineers' party waiting for us +with boats hired, but we were obliged to remain twenty-four hours in the +most loathsome inn we ever had the misfortune to be in in China. It was +an unspeakable relief to get into the houseboats, even though we only +had bare boards to lie on, and the boat people's food to eat. + +We were ten days going down stream to Hankow. One after the other became +ill. When still a day from Hankow, a steam tug met us with provisions. +Our children cried at the sight of bread and milk! We were not allowed +to stop long enough at Hankow, as we had hoped, to get clothes and other +necessaries, but were obliged to hasten on by the first steamer, which +left the following morning. I was obliged to borrow garments for myself +and the children from our fellow-passengers. + +At Shanghai the streets were being paraded, and every preparation was +being made for an attack. We learned with deep sorrow of the death of +many dear friends at the hands of the Boxers. Ordered home by the first +steamer, without anything left to us but the old clothes we had on at +the time of the attack, how could we get ready in such a short time for +the long home voyage? There was no lack of money, for our Board had +cabled all we needed. The question that faced us was how could I get +clothes made for six of us in such a short time, with Chinese tailors +too busy to help, no machine to be had, and no ready-made clothes to be +bought except for Mr. Goforth and Paul. + +Again I found that man's extremity was but God's opportunity. He was +true to his promise, "God shall supply all your need." Even as I knelt +in an agony of prayer, beseeching God's help, and asking definitely that +some one should be sent to me to help with the sewing, two ladies were +at the door asking for me! These were perfect strangers, but had seen +our names among the recent refugees, and God had moved them to come and +offer their assistance! They worked for me night and day until we had to +get on board the steamer. Never shall I forget their Christian +fellowship and practical help at that time. + +But in the rush to get the older children ready, baby Wallace's clothes +were neglected. There was nothing for it but to take materials and make +things for him on the voyage. In this connection came a most wonderful +and precious evidence of God's power to answer prayer. For the first few +days of the journey I worked early and late trying to make something for +the little one, who had scarcely anything to wear; but as we were +nearing Yokohama I realized I had almost reached the end of my strength. +My needle refused to work; try as I would I could not even see where to +put the needle. + +Folding up my work I went down to the stateroom, and kneeling down I +spread the work before the Lord. Too far gone to agonize in prayer, I +could only quietly, almost mutely, just tell him how the poor child had +no clothes. Rising with a great sense of the burden having been lifted, +I put the work away, locking it in a trunk, then went up on deck and lay +down almost insensible from exhaustion. How long a time passed I do not +know, but it could not have been more than half an hour when some one +came and touched me, saying, "We have dropped anchor in Yokohama Bay, +and a large bundle has been thrown up on deck from the lighter for you." + +"For me!" I cried. "Surely not; I know no one in Japan." Then I thought, +"It is the answer come!" + +Going down I found a letter from Mrs. O. E., of the China Inland +Mission. She said that her little son, the same age as baby Wallace, had +died four months before, and the Lord had pressed her to send his +complete outfit to me for my child! Opening the parcel, I found not only +everything the child could possibly need for a year or more, but much +else. Had some one stood beside that dear sister and told her what I +most needed, she could not have done differently. Yes, surely Some One +did direct her loving hands, and Some One just used her as one of his +channels; for she lived near to him, and was an open channel. + +Three days later my own collapse came; but praise his great name, he was +with me in the darkness and brought me through. + + + + +VI + +PROVING GOD'S FAITHFULNESS (1902-1908) + + "The safest place . . . is the path of duty." + + +ONE of the results of our gracious and merciful deliverance from the +hands of the Boxers was an increased desire to make our lives tell in +the service of God--to spend and be spent for him. Our Heavenly Father +saw this and just took us at our word, and led us out into the path +which meant absolute surrender as I had never known it before. + +It is so true that "God will be no man's debtor." When he asks for and +receives our all, he gives in return that which is above price--his own +presence. The price is not great when compared with what he gives in +return; it is our blindness and our unwillingness to yield that make it +seem great. + + * * * * * + +The following story has been asked for many times. Believing that it has +a lesson for others, I give it, though to do so means lifting the veil +from a very sacred part of my life. + +After the Boxer experience, my husband returned to China in 1901; and, +with my children, I left for China in the summer of 1902, leaving the +two eldest children at the Chefoo schools, _en route_ to Honan. Mr. +Goforth met me at Tientsin, and together we traveled by river-boat +inland a journey of about twenty-four days. During those long, quiet +days on the river-boat my husband unfolded to me a carefully thought out +plan for future mission work. + +He reminded me that six missionaries, from a mission-station which had +been destroyed by the Boxers, were now permanently stationed at Changte; +and that the main station, now fully equipped, no longer needed us as +before. He felt that the time had come when we should give ourselves to +the evangelization of the great regions north and northeast of +Changte--regions which up to that time had been scarcely touched by the +Gospel, because of lack of workers. His plan was that we--husband and +wife, with our children--should go and live and work among the people. + +To make this possible a native compound would be rented in the center, +where we would stay a month for our first visit, leaving behind an +evangelist to carry on the work; and we would revisit this and other +places so opened as many times as possible in the year. + +What this proposition meant to me can scarcely be understood by those +unfamiliar with China and Chinese life. Smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet +fever, and other contagious diseases are chronic epidemics; and China, +outside the parts ruled by foreigners, is absolutely devoid of +sanitation. + +Four of our children had died. To take the three little ones, then with +me, into such conditions and danger seemed literally like stepping with +them over a precipice in the dark and expecting to be kept. But, on the +other hand, I had the language and experience for just such work, the +need was truly appalling, and there was no other woman to do it. In my +innermost soul I knew the call had come from God, but I would not pay +the price. My one plea in refusing to enter that life was the risk to +the children. + +Again and again my husband urged that "the safest place" for myself and +the children "was the path of duty"; that I could not keep them in our +comfortable home at Changte, but "God could keep them anywhere." Still I +refused. Just before reaching our station he begged me to reconsider my +decision. When I gave a final refusal, his only answer was: "I fear for +the children." + +The very day after reaching home our dear Wallace was taken ill. For +weeks we fought for his life; at last the crisis passed and he began to +recover. Then my husband started off alone on his first trip! He had +been gone only a day or two when our precious baby Constance, a year +old, was taken down with the same disease that Wallace had. From the +first there seemed little or no hope. The doctors, a nurse, and all the +little mission circle joined in the fight for her life. Her father was +sent for, but arrived just as she was losing consciousness. A few hours +later, when we were kneeling round her bedside waiting for the end, my +eyes seemed suddenly opened to what I had been doing--_I had dared to +fight against Almighty God_. + +In the moments that followed God revealed himself to me in such love and +majesty and glory that I gave myself up to him with unspeakable joy. +Then I knew that I had been making an awful mistake, and that I could +indeed safely trust my children to him wherever he might lead. One thing +only seemed plain, that I must follow where God should lead. I saw at +last that God must come first. Before the precious body was laid away +preparations for our first trip were begun. + +Was God faithful to the vision he had given me? Or did he allow the +children to suffer in the years that followed, when months each year +were spent with them right out among the people? As I write this, +eighteen years have passed since we started on that first trip, and none +of our children have died. Never had we as little sickness as during +that life. Never had we so much evidence of God's favor and blessing in +a hundred ways--as may be gathered from the definite testimonies which +follow. + +Without one exception, every place in which we stayed for a month, and +opened as my husband had planned, became in time a growing church. + +And I found, to my surprise, that I was able to give more time to the +children, that I was able to guard them better when on those trips than +when in the Changte Station. For the mission compound was large, and +often the children were out of my sight for hours at a time; whereas the +outside native compounds we lived in were so small the children were +always within sight and reach. Even when groups of women were listening +to the Gospel, I was able to direct the children's lessons. As I look +back on that time, my heart is filled with overflowing gratitude to God +for the wonderful grace and strength he gave for that life. + +My great regret is that I did not keep a record of answers to prayer. I +find it most difficult to record just what "asking and getting things +from God" meant at that time, but it now seems to me to have been the +very foundation of the whole life. The instances of answers to prayer, +here recorded, are simply the ones connected with that life which stand +out most clearly in my memory of those years. + + * * * * * + +The first answer came the morning after our dear Constance died, and was +the one that had the greatest, most far-reaching effect on the new life +and its work. + +As I thought of facing the crowds of heathen women day by day, and what +it would mean to carry on aggressive evangelism outside, there was one +need I felt must be met--that of a Bible-woman. As I prayed for +direction, a Mrs. Wang Hsieh-sheng came to mind as the one I should ask. + +But when I laid my request before her, that she come with me, she burst +into tears, saying: "I dare not. I have only one child left, and it +would risk her life too much." + +Seeing how she felt, I did not urge her, but told her to go and pray +about it for a day, and bring me her answer after the funeral that +night. When she came that evening her face was shining through tears, as +she said: "O my Shepherd Mother, I will go. If you are willing to risk +your children for the sake of my sisters, how much more should I!" + +Eighteen years have passed since that day. I would need to write a +volume to record all that Mrs. Wang meant to me in those years; yes, and +to the work. As the years passed she became my beloved companion, +sharing in all the responsibilities and hardships of that life, and also +in its joys. I realized more and more that she was indeed a God-given +co-worker. Though circumstances have led me away from that life, she +still remains and works for her sisters in the Changte Church. + + * * * * * + +One of the hardest words a missionary can get from his Home Board is the +word "retrench." My husband and I were on one of our evangelistic tours +north of Changte. Every door seemed wide open before us, and the time +ripe for a specially aggressive campaign of evangelism for the heathen. +But, just as we were planning for this, word reached us from our station +treasurer of a message received from the Home Board that funds were low, +and retrenchment must be carried out along all lines. + +To us this meant dismissing helpers, and a general curtailing of our +work. We faced the question squarely. Our own tithe had been long +overdrawn. How then could we support the men we had, and go on with the +work which was opening so gloriously before us after years of hard +pioneer preparation? + +But we decided to go on as we had planned, and to trust God for the +necessary funds; believing that, though for the time being the home +church had disappointed us, God would not fail us. + +The following Friday a home mail reached us, in which was a letter from +a lady in New Zealand. The writer said she had read a letter of ours in +The Life of Faith, and wished to support an evangelist under us. This +relieved us of the support of one man, but there were many other needs +as yet unmet. + +The following Monday, when our next mail was forwarded to us, a letter +came from a lady in Australia, enclosing a draft ample to meet every +special need in the work for a year to come. She stated very plainly +that she did not wish the money put into the general funds of the +mission, but to be used by ourselves in any way we thought best. Indeed, +had she known the special circumstances in which the letter would find +us, she could scarcely have written more exactly to fit our case. + +Again, a year after this experience of God's faithfulness to meet all +our needs, we began to feel the need of special funds for the work. My +husband, as usual, seemed quite sure that we should keep on as we had +been doing, and that the money needed would be sent. In spite of all the +blessed lessons of the past, my faith seemed to fail me; and I spoke +decidedly against using our salary, when we needed it all for ourselves +and our children's education. We were traveling homeward by cart at the +time and the matter was dropped; though I felt my husband was hurt by my +lack of faith. + +When we reached home, that evening, a letter from a lady in Canada was +awaiting my husband. He read it first; and I cannot forget the look on +his face as he handed it to me, with the words "I told you so." + +As near as I can recall it the letter said: "My mother and I are +strangers to you, never having seen or heard either you or your wife. +But my mother, who is an invalid, has for some time been restless +because of a conviction that has come over her that she should send you +some money. So to quiet my mother I am sending you fifty dollars." + +As I read the letter, I certainly did feel ashamed of my lack of faith. +In writing our acknowledgment, I told how wonderfully opportune the +gift had been. A couple of months or so later came a reply, telling us +that the invalid mother passed away soon after my letter reached them; +and that the story of how God had used her in this matter greatly +strengthened her faith, blessing and helping her during the closing days +of her life. + + * * * * * + +On one occasion, when we were traveling from Wuanhsien to Pengcheng, we +reached the town of Hotsun late in the afternoon, expecting to stay over +night. But on our arrival we found that the Christian whom we had sent +to arrange for our accommodation had failed to get us a place, every one +absolutely refusing to take us in. While the animals were feeding, and +we were trying to eat our dinner of Chinese dough-strings in the midst +of a curious crowd, my husband told the Christian to go out again and +look for a place while we prayed. + +We dared not close our eyes, lest the superstitious heathen crowd +crushing against us on all sides would take fright, thinking we were +mesmerizing them. So we just lifted up our hearts silently to our +Father; and before many minutes had passed, indeed before we had +finished our meal, the Christian returned greatly rejoiced, saying: "A +wealthy man has offered you a fine empty place which has just been +fixed over. And you can have it as long as you like, free of rent." + +For three days we preached in that place--morning, noon, and night--to +great crowds; and a work was begun which has gone on ever since. + + * * * * * + +There were times when my faith was severely tested, and I fear too often +I did not stand the test; but oh, how patient God is with us in our +human weakness. "Like as a father pitieth, . . . so the Lord pitieth." +The Chinese have often said to me, "Your children seem made for this +life." But I know it was God's great goodness. He knew how hard the life +was, and how difficult it would have been for me to continue that work +had the children been peevish or hard to manage. Time and time again we +had to get the little ones up before daybreak to start on a cart +journey, but I do not remember that they ever even cried. They would +just wake up enough to get dressed and ask sleepily, "Are we going +again, Mama?" and then go off to sleep as soon as we were settled in our +carts. + + * * * * * + +On one occasion, arriving at a certain town, we found the place in which +we were to stay unfit for the children. It was simply horrible. On +either side of us, almost reaching to our door, were two great +pigstys--Chinese pigstys! In front of the door were eight or ten great +vessels, filled with fermenting stuff which had been there all summer, +and which added to the other varied and oppressive odors. I greatly +feared for the children, and wanted to leave at once, but my husband +seemed calmly certain of the Lord's power to keep them from all harm. + +On the second evening the youngest child became very feverish. Mr. +Goforth was holding a meeting with the men. I was almost overwhelmed +with fear lest the child had diphtheria. Kneeling down beside him, I +cried to the Lord as only a mother under like circumstances could pray. +At last, tired out, I fell asleep on my knees. Awakened by the entrance +of my husband, I felt the child's head again and it seemed cooler, and +the child quieter. The following day he was quite well. Is it much +wonder I can say I know God answers prayer? + + * * * * * + +Returning from our summer holiday the first of September, 1912, we hoped +to find a place rented at a certain large center where we had planned to +begin work; but to our disappointment learned that the evangelists had +secured premises in a small market village, where there was just one +Christian. There was nothing to do but to go there, though it seemed +almost useless, for it was the busiest season for those farming people. + +On our way to this place we prayed much that the Lord would prepare the +people, and open their hearts to the Gospel. We had not been there many +days when we became convinced that we had been led there, and that the +Lord was opening the hearts of the people in a most unusual way. Crowds +of men and women heard the preaching every day. Our evening Gospel +meetings, with organ and hymn scroll, were crowded out on to the street. + +Everywhere we met with the utmost friendliness, and before our month's +visit was ended we had the joy of seeing some of the leading people in +the village and district come out boldly for Christ. One was the chief +doctor; another was the head man in the market. In the store, through +which we women had to pass to get to the evening meeting, there were +three men and a young lad of fifteen; all of these were brought to +Christ. The men were opium users, gamblers, men of evil lives. Two of +them are now preachers of the Gospel, and one is the leading man in the +little growing church there. + +Had I time and space I could go on multiplying cases where the same +results have followed when the cross of Christ has been the pivot of all +Christian teaching, and prayer has been the source of power. + + * * * * * + +On one of the early visits to the city of Linchang, a woman came with a +little child whose foot was terribly burned. The whole foot was badly +swollen, the inflammation reaching some distance up the leg. The child +was feverish, and seemed in a serious condition. It happened that on +that trip I had forgotten to bring the simple remedies which I was +accustomed to take out with me, so the woman was told nothing could be +done. But she begged so piteously that I could not turn away; and +lifting up my heart in prayer I asked the Lord to guide me, if there was +anything I could do. + +Even while I prayed the thought of a bread poultice came to mind. This +remedy seemed almost absurd. I had never heard of such a thing being +used before under like circumstances, but I resolved to try it. Twice a +day the foot was cleansed and put in the poultice, and it was really +wonderful to see how it healed. We were there ten days, and when we left +the foot was almost completely well. The mother, father, the child +herself, and indeed the whole family, became Christians. On a later +visit I examined the foot, and found not even the sign of a scar +remaining. + +I told this incident not long ago to a medical doctor, and he said: +"Why, there is no miracle in _that_! It was just up-to-date +hygiene--giving nature a chance by cleanliness!" + +I replied: "Doctor, to me the miracle lay, not in the poultice, but in +God's telling me what to use; and now it is to me all the more a miracle +of prayer, since you say it was up-to-date hygienic treatment." + + * * * * * + +At the same place, some years later, we were conducting special tent +meetings for Christians in the day time, and for the heathen at night. +Just after our meetings began the weather turned bitterly cold, with +wind and sleety rain. The tent was like a drafty ice-house. My husband +caught a severe cold, which became worse each day. He had fever and +severe pains in head and chest, but would not give up his meetings. One +noon he came from the meeting looking very ill, and lay down to rest +till the afternoon meeting. + +I determined to take the Christians into my confidence, and tell them of +my anxiety for Mr. Goforth. So, some time before the afternoon meeting +I slipped out and called them into the tent, telling them of my +husband's condition and asking them to pray for him. Oh, what a wave of +earnest, heart-overflow of prayer went up without a moment's pause! The +tears came to my eyes as I thought, "Surely God will answer such +prayers!" + +Then, fearing my husband might arrive, I gave out a hymn. A few moments +later he walked into the tent in his old brisk way, looking quite well. +At the close of the meeting he told me that shortly after he heard me go +out the pain in his head and chest ceased, the fever seemed to leave +him, and when he started for the tent he felt quite well. The symptoms +did not return. + + * * * * * + +When on a visit to a certain out-station, after being there two whole +days, scarcely any women had come to see us. We were so circumstanced +that I could not leave the children. The third day I became so burdened +in prayer that I could only shut myself up in an empty room and cry to +the Lord to send women to us, as he knew I could not leave the children. +From that day we always had plenty of visitors to keep us busy, either +Christian women studying or heathen women listening to the Gospel. + +At Tzuchow, the first place we opened together, the people seemed much +set against us. After the first period of curiosity was over, no one +came to hear the Gospel. As we had a nice place for the children to play +in with their faithful nurse,--the one who saved Ruth's life in +1900,--Mrs. Wang and I determined to go out each afternoon and try to +reach the heathen women with the Gospel. Before going out we always +prayed the Lord to open a door to us for preaching. And as I now recall +that time, never once did we return home without being invited into some +home to preach, or at least being asked to sit on a doorstep and tell of +a Saviour from sin. + + * * * * * + +One of the most outstanding evidences of God's favor and blessing was +seen, at this time, in the way he provided my husband with native +helpers. To carry on the plan of work we had adopted required a good +force of trusty evangelists. Time and again we looked to the Lord for +men and women to help us, and the answer always came. + +As my husband always seemed to have plenty of men to help him, he was +frequently asked for evangelists by his fellow-missionaries of both our +own and other missions. I was at first opposed to his giving away his +best men, but he would answer, "The Lord has been good to me; should I +be less generous with my brethren?" And it certainly was remarkable how, +whenever he gave a really valuable evangelist, another man, even better, +was raised up shortly after. The secret of his getting men may be seen +best through words of his own, taken from a letter to a friend in Canada +about the time of which I am now writing: + +"We came to this little market town in September of last year. My wife +had two women workers. I had Mr. Tung, the old evangelist, and a young +high school graduate without experience, and the only Christian man in +the district, very ignorant but with this to recommend him, that he was +converted or quickened by the Holy Spirit in the Changte revival, and +was intensely in earnest. We were here only about twenty days when +dozens began to inquire, among whom were robbers, opium sots, and +gamblers. The work went on all day and well on till midnight. We were +all tiring out. We had not enough workers. It was like a very heavy +burden that forced me to my knees. I told the Lord that he was the Lord +of the harvest, and that he must send more harvesters. There was a time +of intense looking to God, almost amounting to agony, and then the +burden lifted, and I knew that God had answered. I told my wife that I +was sure that God was going to send me workers. + +"Now what is the result? Since then he has sent me two Chinese B.A.'s, +both excellent speakers. He moved an excellent elder to give up his +business, and he has been appointed an evangelist. At this center a +scholar, who was an opium user and gambler, got converted last year. His +progress has been most remarkable, and it looks as if he is going to +make one of the front-rank preachers. Also two brothers here, who were +among the first converts last year, help to preach, their father--also a +convert of last year--providing their food." + + * * * * * + +Another gracious evidence of God's over-ruling providence was seen in +the way we, especially the children, were kept from contracting +contagious diseases. The Chinese carry their children about everywhere +in their arms, even when sick with all sorts of contagious diseases. + +I give the following instance to show how impossible it was to know when +one would run into danger. Going to a certain village for a day's +preaching, I took with me little Mary, then three years of age. We were +waited on by a Christian woman who was most kind and attentive, +bringing water and food for both Mary and myself. Being much taken up +with preaching to the women, it did not occur to me to ask why she kept +her baby's face covered, for the child was always in her arms. Just as +we were leaving I asked her; then she uncovered the baby's face, and to +my horror I found that the child was suffering from smallpox! For weeks +I watched Mary's temperature, but nothing developed. + +Through repeated instances of this kind I came to see that Mr. Goforth +was right when he said, "The safest place for yourself and the children +is in the path of duty." + +As I recall those years of touring life with our children, words fail me +to tell of all the Lord's goodness to them and to me. Though there were +many hard, hard places, these were but opportunities for special grace +and help. Many times, when discouraged almost to the point of never +going out again with the children, there would come evidence that the +Lord was using our family life, lived among the people, to win them to +Christ. Then I would take new courage, and go again. Oh, it is so true +that + + "We may trust him fully + All for us to do; + Those who trust him wholly + Find him wholly true." + + + + +VII + +THE STORY OF ONE FURLOUGH (1908-1910) + + "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will + deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Psa. + 50:15). + + +IN THE summer of 1908 I was obliged to return to Canada with five of our +children, leaving Mr. Goforth in China for the revival work. + +Reaching Toronto, I learned that my eldest son was at death's door from +repeated attacks of rheumatic fever. He was then almost a day's journey +away. On my way there, as I recalled the times in which he had been +given back to us from the very gates of death, my faith was strengthened +to believe for his recovery again. But, as I prayed, it became very +clear that the answer to my petition depended on myself; in other words, +that I must yield myself and my will to God. + +I had been planning to take no meetings during that furlough, but to +devote myself wholly to my children. I confessed the sin of planning my +own life, and definitely covenanted with the Lord that if he would +raise my son for his service I would take meetings, or do anything, as +he opened the way for the care of the children. + +There were six difficult doors, however, that would have to be +opened--not one, but all--before I could possibly go out and speak for +Christ and China, as God seemed to be asking. First, the Lord would need +to restore my son to complete health, as I could never feel justified in +leaving a sick child. Second, he would need to restore my own health, +for I had been ordered to the hospital for an operation. Third, he would +need to keep all the other children well. Fourth, a servant must be sent +to take care of the house--though my income was so small that a servant +seemed out of the question, and only the strictest economy was making +both ends meet. Fifth, a Christian lady would need to be willing to take +care of the children, and act as my housekeeper in my absence from home. +Sixth, sufficient money would need to be sent to meet the extra expenses +incurred by my leaving home. + +Yet, as I laid these difficulties before the Lord, I received the +definite assurance that he would open the way. + +My son was brought back to Toronto on a stretcher, the doctor not +allowing him to raise his head; but on arrival he would not obey +orders, declaring that he was so well he could not and would not remain +still. Fearing the consequences of his disobeying orders, I telephoned +for the doctor to come at once. On his arrival he gave the lad a +thorough examination, and then said: "Well, I cannot make him out; all I +can say is, let him do as he pleases." + +Within a month the boy was going back to his high school, apparently +quite well. Some months later he applied for a position as forester +under the government. He had to pass through the hands of the official +doctor. My son told him of his recent illness, and of what the doctor +had said concerning his heart; but this physician replied: "In spite of +all you have told me I can discover nothing whatever the matter with +you, and will therefore give you a clear bill of health." + +As for myself, I did not go to the hospital; for all the symptoms that +had seemed to require it left me, and I became perfectly well. A servant +was sent to me who did her work sympathetically, as helping me to do the +Lord's work. A married niece, living near, offered to stay in the home +whenever I needed to be absent. + +And so there remained but one condition unfulfilled--the money. But I +believed this would come as I went forward; and it did. Each month that +followed, as I made up my accounts, I found that my receipts exceeded my +expenditures sufficiently to enable me to spend money for work in China, +and to purchase things which I needed for China, including an organ. All +these accounts were laid before our beloved Mission Board secretary, who +approved them. + +Under these circumstances I dared not refuse invitations to speak. Yet, +so weak was my faith, for months I never left home for a few days +without dreading lest something should happen to the children during my +absence. I even accepted meetings with the proviso that if the children +needed me I must fail to keep my appointment. But as the days and weeks +and months passed, and all went well, I learned to trust. + + "'Be still; be strong to-day.' + But, Lord, to-morrow? + What of to-morrow, Lord? + Shall there be rest from toil, + Be truce from sorrow? + 'Did I not die for thee? + Do I not live for thee? + Leave me to-morrow.'" + +In giving the following I wish to make clear that, had I been living a +life of ease or self-indulgence, I could not have been justified in +expecting God to undertake for me in such matters as are here recorded. +It must be remembered that I had stepped out into a life which meant +_trusting for everything_. + +Before leaving China for Canada my husband had said to me: "Do not stint +the children with apples; give them all they want." But when I began +housekeeping I found this was not very easy to do. Apples were +expensive, and the appetites of my six children for them seemed +insatiable. However, I began by buying a few small baskets; and then I +did not need to buy more, for apples came in a most wonderful way. First +in baskets; then, as the season advanced, in barrels. These came from +many different sources; and in some cases long distances, express paid +to the door. On one occasion a barrel of large, hard "Greenings" came +just as we had finished the last barrel. The children complained that +they were too hard to eat, and begged me to buy them some "Snows"--very +expensive, but delicious apples for eating. I had only purchased one +small basket of "Snows" when a large supply, almost a barrelful, came +from a distant friend. + +I feel that the Lord saw that I had given up all for him, so just showed +how he could provide, thus evidencing his love and care for my dear +children. We had set up housekeeping at the end of the fruit season, and +so I had not been able to do canning for winter use. That winter, again +and again, gifts of canned fruit came, sometimes from unknown sources. +Altogether, seventy jars of the finest fruit were sent to us. I will +give the details of just one of these gifts. + +Shortly before leaving home for ten days, the servant informed me that +the canned fruit was finished. Accordingly, I went down and ordered +enough dried fruit to last till I should return. On reaching home I was +greeted at the door by a rush from the children, all trying at once to +tell me that a lovely valentine had just arrived. Leading me back to the +kitchen, they showed me the table covered with twenty jars of the most +delicious looking fruit, and a large can of maple syrup. On a card +accompanying the gift was written: "A valentine for our dear 'substitute +in China,' from her sisters in Renfrew." + + * * * * * + +Early in the winter it became evident that a telephone was a necessity, +with my numerous calls and engagements. I hesitated about going into +this expense, not being quite sure that it was right to use in that way +the money given me. At last, I prayed that the Lord would show me his +will in the matter by sending me half the amount needed for the +telephone within a certain time, if it was right for me to get it. +Before the time expired the money had come; so I got the telephone. + + * * * * * + +As the weather became cold I began to suffer on the long drives in the +country to appointments, and was soon longing for a fur coat. I +consulted our mission secretary as to whether, if sufficient money were +given me, I could put it into a fur coat. The answer was a decided +"Yes." There was no doubt that the coat was a necessity in the Lord's +work. So I began to pray the Lord to send the money quickly, for the +cold was severe. In less than two weeks I received the money needed, and +of course got the coat. + + * * * * * + +The ladies of the Winnipeg Presbyterial had arranged a series of +meetings for me in Winnipeg, Brandon, and other places in that vicinity, +about ten in all. The collections from the meetings were to defray my +traveling expenses, which would amount to over one hundred dollars. On +my way by train from Toronto to Winnipeg I caught a severe cold, which +settled in my throat and chest. I did not want the women to be +disappointed, and also put to all the expense, if I failed them. Just +before reaching Winnipeg I was enabled to commit myself definitely into +the Lord's hands, for strength and voice for the meetings. The days that +followed can never be forgotten, for the bodily weakness, fever, and +throat trouble were removed only while I was giving my addresses. In +each case, though so hoarse before and after speaking as to be scarcely +able to make myself heard above a whisper, my voice cleared for the +address. + +For example: while at Dr. and Mrs. C. W. Gordon's home the Sunday I was +to speak in Winnipeg, I was advertised to speak that night in Dr. +Gordon's church. At the supper table I asked Dr. Gordon if he would be +ready to speak should I fail. Just before my time came to speak I +slipped up on to the platform behind Dr. Gordon, who was praying; and +oh, how I cried to the Lord for help and courage! For the church was +packed, and even the Sunday-school room partitions were opened to +accommodate the crowd. My throat was as if in a vise, and I felt weak +and ill. But, as Dr. Gordon introduced me, I stepped forward possessed +by a feeling of wonderful calm and absolute confidence. It seemed I +could just _feel_ One like unto the Son of man beside me, and never had +I felt so completely and only a channel. For more than an hour I spoke +so that every one heard distinctly; but when I sat down my throat +tightened as before. Dr. Gordon told me later that he had a man sit in +the most difficult place in which to hear, and that he had heard every +word. + +So it was till the end of my appointments. On the homeward journey I +asked the Lord either to heal my throat, or to provide a way for me to +get a needed rest from speaking, for I had many appointments awaiting me +in Ontario. A few days after reaching home four of my children were +taken down with measles. During the weeks I was in quarantine with them +my throat received the rest it needed, and became quite restored. + + * * * * * + +One day the following early summer, in looking over the children's +clothes, I found there was so much to be done I was fairly overwhelmed. +I saw it was quite impossible to do the necessary sewing and keep my +appointments too. The question that weighed heavily was, "Should I +cancel the meetings for which I had given my word?" My husband urged me +to buy ready-made clothes, but I knew how expensive they would be, and +could not bring myself to do so. I went alone and laid my burden before +the Lord, praying that, if he wanted me to speak further for China, he +would show his will by sending me some gift that would enable me to get +ready-made clothes for the children. + +A few days later I was speaking at a Presbyterial gathering in western +Ontario. At the close of the evening meeting an old gentleman put into +my hands some money. I asked him what he wished me to use it for, and he +replied, "For your children. Use it in a way that will help you to be +free for God's work." My heart rose in thanksgiving, and I decided to +accept it as the token I had asked of the Lord. On my return to Toronto +I spent this gift in buying ready-made clothes for the children, to save +my time and strength for the Lord's work. + + * * * * * + +When busy in my home one day, the thought of two dear friends of the +China Inland Mission kept coming constantly to mind, and I began to +wonder if I should not send them some money. Looking into my purse, I +found I had only fifty cents on hand. I put the matter out of my mind, +with the thought that if the Lord wanted me to send them anything he +would provide a way. That afternoon's mail brought a letter from a +distant place in Ontario where, a year before, I had visited and spoken +for a friend. The letter was from the treasurer of the Christian +Endeavor Society for which I had spoken. He enclosed five dollars, and +said the money was to have been given me at the time I spoke for them, +but had been overlooked. + +My first thought was to return it, as it would be dishonoring my friend +to accept money for such a service; and then I remembered my friends for +whom I wanted money, and I decided to send the five dollars to them. My +husband, returning the following morning, handed me another five to put +with it, and the ten dollars was sent off. + +In due course a reply came from my friends, saying that the very morning +my letter arrived they both had been given assurance that a certain sum +would come, for which they had been praying. This was to meet a need +which they did not wish to bring before their Board. My letter brought +the ten dollars; and another letter in the afternoon's mail contained a +sum which, with mine, exactly made the amount they had been asking the +Lord for. + + "Say not my soul, 'Can God relieve my care?' + Remember that Omnipotence hath servants everywhere!" + +On one occasion, when about to leave home on a ten days' trip to +Montreal and other places, word came that the children's Sunday-school +treat was to take place during my absence. + +Little Mary had no "best" dress for the occasion. I had planned to make +her a white woolen dress, but now there was no time; and I knew I could +not make it while away, with so many meetings ahead. But, that very day, +a lady from our church called and said she had wanted for a long time to +help me, and asked if she could do any sewing for me. With dim eyes and +a grateful heart I accepted her offer. On my return, Mary told me of her +wearing a pretty white cloth dress for the Sunday-school treat. + + * * * * * + +Once more we planned to leave Canada for China, and a serious problem +faced me. Our eldest son could be left to face the world alone, but not +our daughter of sixteen. It was necessary that a suitable guardian be +found for her. I called on three different ones whom I thought would +feel some responsibility toward the missionary's daughter, but all three +declined to accept the responsibility. I then saw that it was not for me +to try to open doors, but for this also I must look to the Lord. I +prayed that, if he wished me to return to China, he would send me one to +whom I could commit her. + +A short time passed; then a lady called, whose life had been devoted to +the training of young women. Her beautiful Christian character made her +the one above all others in whose care I could gladly leave my daughter. +This lady told me that in her early years she had hoped to give her life +for service in China, but the way had been closed. She now felt that the +Lord had laid it upon her heart to offer to take charge of my child. +Years have passed since then, and she has fulfilled my highest +expectations of her. Rarely has a more definite answer come from a +loving Father, nor one that brought greater relief and help; for this +offer, coming as it did in answer to my prayers, seemed to be +unmistakable proof that the Lord would keep my child as I gave her up. + + * * * * * + +The time had almost arrived for beginning the last preparations for the +long journey to China, when one day Ruth came in from her play with her +heavy coat almost in shreds, she having in some way torn it on a barbed +wire fence. The coat was the only heavy one she had, and I had planned +to make it do for the ocean voyage, intending to get a new one in +England. I tried to find a new one in the stores, but the season was +past and I could not; and I had no time to make another. I just took +the need to the Lord and left it there, believing that in some way he +would provide. A few days later a friend telephoned me that her mother +had recently returned from a visit to Chicago, and wished me to come +over to see a parcel she had brought for me. Oh, the relief that came +when I found that the parcel contained, among other things, a handsome +red cloth ulster, which fitted Ruth perfectly. This fresh evidence of +the Lord's overshadowing care touched me deeply. Those who have never +known such tokens of the Lord's loving care in the little things of life +can scarcely understand the blessedness that such experiences bring. + + "Whether it be so heavy that others cannot bear + To know the heavy burden they cannot come and share; + Whether it be so tiny that others cannot see + Why it should be a burden, and seem so real to me, + Either and both I lay them down at the Master's feet + And find them alone with Jesus mysteriously sweet." + + * * * * * + +As I attempt to recall the answers to prayer on this furlough, so many +come to mind it is impossible to record them all--help in keeping my +appointments, courage and power for public speaking, physical strength, +and guidance in facing many difficult problems. + +It was at this time I formed a habit of getting a message for a meeting +on my knees. It often seemed to me very wonderful how, as in a flash, +sometimes, an outline for a talk on China would come. Never having kept +notes, nor even outlines of addresses, I have frequently been placed in +circumstances when I have felt utterly cast on the Lord. And I can +testify that he never failed to give the needed help, and the realized +divine power. Yet sad, sad is it that often at just such times, no +sooner would the address be ended than the Satan-whispered thought would +come, "I have done well to-day." + +Oh, is not the goodness and forbearance of our God wonderful; wonderful +that he ever again would deign to give help when asked for it? + + * * * * * + +A short time since I asked a dear friend whose writings have reached and +inspired multitudes throughout the Christian world: "How did you do it?" + +Softly, with deep reverence in look and tone, she replied: "It has been +done all in and through prayer!" + +With deepest gratitude and praise to our ever faithful God, I too can +testify that any little service I have been able to do has been done by +his grace in answer to prayer. + + "I stood amazed and whispered, 'Can it be + That he hath granted all the boon I sought, + How wonderful that he for me hath wrought!' + + * * * * * * + + Oh, faithless heart! _he said_ that he would hear, + And proved his promise, wherefore didst thou fear? + How wonderful if he should fail to bless + Expectant prayer with good success!" + + + + +VIII + +OUR GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE + + "Behold I am the Lord, . . . is there _anything_ too + hard for ME?" (Jer. 32:27.) + + "Ah, Lord God! there is _nothing_ too wonderful + for thee" (Jer. 32:17, margin). + + +THE following illustration of the truth, "What is impossible with man is +possible with God," occurred while we were attending the Keswick +Convention in England, in 1910. + +One evening my husband returned from an evening meeting, which I had not +attended, and told me of a woman who had come to him in great distress. +She had been an earnest Christian worker, but love for light, trashy +fiction had so grown upon her as to work havoc in her Christian life. +She had come to Keswick three years in succession, hoping to get +victory, but had failed. + +My whole soul went out to the poor woman; I longed to help her. But Mr. +Goforth did not know her name, and the tent had been so dark he could +not recognize her again; besides, there were about four thousand people +attending the convention. That night I lay awake asking the Lord, if he +knew I could help her, to bring us together, for I, too, had at one +time been almost wrecked on the same rock. + +Three evenings later the tent was so crowded that I found difficulty in +getting a seat. Just as the meeting was about to begin, I noticed a +woman change her seat twice, and then rise a third time and come to +where I was, asking me to make room for her. I crowded the others in the +seat and made room for her--I fear not too graciously. While Mr. F. B. +Meyer was speaking I noticed she was in great distress, her tears +falling fast. I laid my hand on hers, and she grasped it convulsively. +At the close of the meeting I said, "Can I help you?" + +"Oh, no," she replied, "there is no hope for me; it is those cursed +novels that have been my ruin." + +I looked at her in amazement, and almost gasped: "Are you the one who +spoke to Mr. Goforth Saturday night?" + +"Yes; but who are you?" + +Scarcely able to speak for emotion, I told her, and also of my prayer. +For the next few moments we could only weep together. Then the Lord used +me to lead the poor crushed and broken soul back to himself. As we +parted, a few days later, her face was beaming with the joy of the +Lord. + +While addressing a gathering of Christians in Glasgow I was giving a +certain incident, the point of which depended upon a verse of a certain +hymn. When I came to quote the verse, it had utterly slipped my memory. +In some confusion I turned to the leader, hoping that he could help me +out; but he said he had no idea what the hymn was. Turning again to the +people, I had to acknowledge that my memory had failed me, and, feeling +embarrassed, I closed my message somewhat hurriedly. + +Sitting down, I lifted my heart in a cry to the Lord to lead me to the +verse I wanted, if it was in the hymn-book used there. I took up a +hymn-book and opened it, and the very first lines my eyes fell on were +those of the verse I wanted, though it was the last verse of a long +hymn. Rising again, I told the people of my prayer and the answer, and +gave them the verse. The solemn stillness which prevailed indicated that +a deep impression had been made. Some two years after, a newly arrived +missionary in China told me he had been present at that meeting, and how +this little incident had been a great blessing to him. + +"They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and +were not confounded" (Psa. 22:5). + +Before leaving Canada we had written to the China Inland School at +Chefoo, China, hoping to get our children admitted there; but, shortly +before we left England for China, word reached us that both the boys' +and girls' schools were overflowing, with long lists of waiting +applicants. This was a great blow to me, for I had been looking forward +to engaging once more in the aggressive out-station work. + +But the children could not be left, and were too old to be taken away +from their studies. It seemed necessary, therefore, that a good +Christian governess should be found, who would teach the children and +take charge of the home in my absence. All the way across the Siberian +route this matter was before us. Earnestly did I pray that the Lord +would direct the right one to us; for I knew that to get a young woman, +who could fill the position we wanted her for, would be very difficult +in China. + +We had planned to go direct to our station, but illness forced us to +break the journey at Peitaiho, where we met a young lady, the daughter +of a missionary. Many difficulties appeared in the way of her coming on +with us, but one by one these were removed; and when we continued our +journey this young woman was one of our party. + +Time proved her to be truly God-given. Not only was she all and more +than I could have hoped for, but the Lord answered my prayers that her +young life might be consecrated to the Lord's service in China. She +later went through her training in England as a nurse, and is now in +China as a missionary of the China Inland Mission. + + * * * * * + +The summer holidays at Peitaiho were drawing to a close. Heavy rains had +fallen, making the roads to the station, six miles distant, almost +impassable. Word had come that our two children, Ruth and Wallace, must +leave by the Monday morning train in order to reach the steamer at +Tientsin, which was to take them to Chefoo, where they were attending +the China Inland Mission schools. All day Saturday and Sunday torrents +of rain continued to fall, with a fierce wind from the north. + +I rose before daybreak Monday morning, to find the rain still pouring +down in torrents. I roused the servant, and sent him off to make sure +about the chair, cart, and donkeys. A little later he returned to say +that the chair had been blown over, and the chair-bearers had refused to +come. The carters also refused, saying the roads were impassable; and +even the donkey boys said they would not go. + +I was truly at "wit's end corner." I went alone, and did not take time +even to kneel down, but just lifted up my heart to my Father to stop the +rain and open a way for the children to get to the station. I felt a +sudden, strong confidence that the Lord would help, and going out again +I ordered the servant to run fast to the village near by and get fresh +donkeys. He was unwilling, saying it was useless, no one would venture; +but I said: "Go at once, I know they will come." + +While he was gone the children had their breakfast, boxes were closed +and taken out, and the children put on their wraps. Then the rain +stopped! Just then the servant returned with several donkeys. Within +five minutes, children and baggage were on donkeys, and started for the +station. A few hours later one of the donkey boys returned with a +hastily written note from Ruth, saying they had reached the station +without any mishap, and quite dry; for it had not rained on the way +over, but had started to pour again just after they had got on the +train. The rain continued for days after. + + * * * * * + +At the close of our four months of meetings in Great Britain, in 1910, I +felt a strong desire to send a gift of five dollars to five different +objects in Britain, to show in a practical way our sympathy with the +workers in these various branches of the Lord's work. + +My husband was in the midst of his accounts when I asked him to give me +five pounds for this purpose. He told me it was impossible, as we had +barely enough for the journey to China. As I left him I wondered why I +seemed to have these gifts so definitely laid upon me to send away, when +there was no money. Reasoning that if the thing were really of the Lord +he could himself give me what he wished me to send, I put the matter +from my mind. + +That evening's mail brought a letter from a stranger living some +distance away, judging from the postmark; for the letter had no address, +and was not signed. The letter said: + +"I do not know you, nor have I met you, but the Lord seems to have laid +it on my heart to send you this five-pound note as a farewell gift, to +do what you think best with." + +It was with a joyful heart I sent off the gifts to the five Christian +workers in Britain. Had the giver said it was "for work in China," as +was usually the case, I could not have used it for any other purpose. + +How to get the sewing done for my family and yet meet the pressing calls +made upon me as the wife of a pioneer missionary, for almost thirty +years has been perhaps the most difficult and constant problem of my +missionary life. In connection with the solving of this problem, I have +seen some of the most precious evidences of God's willingness to +undertake in the daily details of life. + +The following story must be given in detail to be really understood, as +one of the striking instances of how God, in his own wonderful way, can +work out the seemingly impossible. + +Returning home to our station from an unusually strenuous autumn's +touring, I planned as usual to give the month of December to the +children's sewing, so as to leave January largely free for a +Bible-women's training class. But my health broke down, and I could make +scarcely any headway with the thirty-five or forty garments which had to +be made or fixed over, before the children returned to their school in +Chefoo. By the eighteenth of December we decided to cancel the class on +account of my ill-health; and to all the women, except one whom I +entirely forgot, I sent word not to come. + +As the days passed, the burden of the almost untouched sewing became +very great. At last I cried to the Lord to undertake for me. And how +wonderfully he did! On December twenty-eighth, when I was conducting the +Chinese women's prayer-meeting, I noticed in the audience Mrs. Lu, the +very woman to whom I had forgotten to send word. She had come a long +distance, with her little child, over rough mountainous roads, so I felt +very sorry for my thoughtlessness. Mrs. Lu accompanied me home, and I +gave her money for a barrow on which to return the next day. I then sat +down to the sewing machine. The woman stood beside me for a little, and +then said: + +"You are looking very tired, Mrs. Goforth; let me run the machine for +you." + +"You!" I exclaimed, astonished, "why, you don't know how." + +"Yes, I do," she replied. + +She was so insistent that at last, in fear and trembling, I ventured to +let her try--for I had only one needle. It took but a few moments to +convince me she was a real expert at the machine. When I urged her to +stay and help me, she replied that, since the class was given up, she +would return home on the morrow. + +That night I was puzzled. Why should the Lord lead this woman to me--the +only one, so far as we knew, who could do the machine work--and then +permit her to leave? I could only lay the whole matter before the Lord, +and trust him to undertake. And again he answered. That night a fierce +storm came on, lasting several days and making the roads quite +impassable. Mrs. Lu, finding herself storm-tied, gladly gave all her +time to me. The roads remained impassable for a whole month, during +which time I did not once need to sit down at the machine. + + * * * * * + +While in Tientsin with my children during the revolution in 1912, I had +occasion to go into the Chinese city with my servant. We visited three +stores. On our way home by the tramway I discovered I had lost a +five-dollar bill and one of my gloves. I had foolishly put the bill +inside the glove. Ashamed to let the Chinese servant know of my +carelessness, I sent him home when we reached the end of the tram line. +As soon as he was out of sight I took the tram back to the city. On the +way I confessed to the Lord my carelessness, and asked him to keep the +glove and money, and lead me to where they were. I retraced my steps +back to two of the stores where we had been. As I entered the second, +which was a shoe store, a number of men were in the shop; but there, +right in sight of all, on the floor lay my glove, and I knew of course +with the five dollars inside. It was with a heart full of gratitude to +my loving Heavenly Father, and an enlarged vision of his love, that I +picked up the glove and returned home that day. + + * * * * * + +On one occasion when on furlough with several little children, and my +husband in China, I had no settled home. When the time came to do the +sewing for the long journey back to China, I had simply no way to get it +done. I just had to look to the Lord; and, as so often before, he was +again faithful, and opened the way. When shopping down town, one day, I +met a minister's wife from a distant country charge, who said: "I want +you to come with all your children, and get your sewing done with me. A +number of the ladies of our congregation sew well, and will be delighted +to help you." + +I gratefully accepted her invitation, and while staying with her a +sewing-bee was held in the church. In one week the sewing was finished, +which would have taken me many weeks of hard, constant labor to +accomplish alone. + + * * * * * + +The winter of our return from China, after the Boxer tragedies, I felt +keenly the need of a good sewing machine, as I could not possibly do +the children's sewing by hand and still get time for meetings. One day, +as my husband was leaving on a deputation tour, I asked him for money +for a machine. He assured me it was impossible; that we had only +sufficient for bare necessities. I knew well he would gladly give me +money for the machine if he had it. So I laid my need before my Father, +confident that he knew it was a real need, and that according to his +promise he could and would supply it. + +I was so sure that somehow the money would come, that I went down town +especially to choose a suitable machine. I found it would cost +thirty-six dollars. A few days later I received a letter from a band of +ladies in Mount Forest, Ontario, enclosing twenty-three dollars and some +odd cents, and saying: "Please accept the enclosed to buy something you +have lost as our substitute in China." Only a day or two later another +letter came, from quite another part of Ontario, enclosing twelve +dollars and some cents. The two amounts came to exactly the sum I needed +to purchase the machine. + +The second letter stated that the money was sent to help me buy a sewing +machine. It has always been a puzzle to me how they came to send the +money in that way, for I had not spoken to any one but my husband about +wanting a machine. When Mr. Goforth returned I was able to show him what +the Lord could give me, though he could not. + + * * * * * + +I had been holding a class for women at an out-station, staying in the +home of the elder, Dr. Fan. The day before I was to return home, Mrs. +Fan asked me to go with her to visit a very sick boy whom the missionary +doctor had sent home from the boys' school, Wei Hwei, because of his +having tuberculosis of the lungs. Mrs. Fan told me the mother was in +great distress, and begged me to come and pray with her. I found the lad +in a truly pitiable condition. His mouth was swollen, his face a ghastly +hue, and every moment a cough racked his frame. He seemed to me quite +beyond hope, and looked as if he could not live long. + +On our way home to Mrs. Fan's, the message of James 5:14, 15, kept +coming persistently to me, as if spoken by a voice: "Is any sick among +you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over +him, . . . and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall +raise him up." + +I simply could not get away from those words. On reaching Dr. Fan's +home, I sent for him, and asked if he and the other elders would be +willing to pray with me over the lad. He consented, though at first he +seemed rather dubious. There were quite a number of Christians gathered +around as we placed the boy in our midst. All knelt down, and I read the +words from James. I told them plainly that I could not say that it was +indeed the Lord's will to heal the boy; all that was clear to me was +that we must obey as far as we had light, and leave the rest in God's +hands for life or death. Several prayed, and we then dispersed. + +Early the following morning I left for home. Circumstances prevented my +return to that place, and in time we moved to another field. More than +two years later, while visiting Wei Hwei, I met Mrs. Fan, who told me +that the lad had completely recovered and was then working with his +father. Still a year later I met Dr. Fan, and upon inquiring about the +lad, the doctor told me he was perfectly well, and was in business in +Wei Hwei City. + + * * * * * + +The power of intercession is shown in the following two incidents: + +In the winter of 1905 a call came for my husband to hold special +meetings in Manchuria. On reaching Liao Yang for these meetings, one of +the missionaries showed him a letter from Mr. Moffat, of Korea, which +said: "I have a thousand Christians here who have promised to pray for +Mr. Goforth, and I know their prayers will prevail with God." Can we +doubt that their prayers had something to do with the marvelous revival +movement which followed? + +When in England, in 1909, my husband was the guest of a lady in London +who was noted for her power in intercession. He was telling her of the +great revival movements he had been through, which took place in +different provinces of China; and she asked him to look at her diary, in +which were notes of times when she had been led out in special +intercession for Mr. Goforth. These dates exactly corresponded to the +times of greatest revival power. + + * * * * * + +A few months after we returned to China from a furlough, I invited a +certain missionary and his wife and children to pay us a visit. +Peculiarly touching circumstances had led me to give this invitation. +Both husband and wife were in ill health, and greatly needed a change. +They resided in a far inland station, quite cut off from other +missionaries. They were not connected with any Society, and were looking +only to the Lord for their support. Just as these friends had started +toward us, on their five-days' journey, smallpox broke out at our +station, and one of the missionaries died. A telegram was sent, hoping +to catch them before they left, but it did not reach them until they +were a short distance from our station. Then the whole family had to +turn around, and once more take the long, trying journey, homeward. As +the weather was very cold at the time, one could imagine what a terrible +trial to faith the whole experience meant to them. I felt so deeply for +them that I planned to send sufficient to cover at least the expense of +the journey. But, on getting out of quarantine, I found I could not draw +on our treasurer for the fifty dollars needed, as Mr. Goforth was not at +home. However, the Lord had seen the need long before I felt it, and had +the exact amount ready. Three days after I got out of quarantine I +received a letter from Mr. Horace Goven, of the Faith Mission, Glasgow, +enclosing a draft for five pounds which, at the rate of exchange at that +time, came to fifty dollars Mexican. The gift came from the workers of +the mission, and he stated that they wished me to accept it as a +personal gift. Needless to say, the draft was sent off that same day to +the needy friends in the far-off station. + +On one occasion, while we were temporarily stationed at Wei Hwei, Honan, +I was called to nurse a fellow missionary who had contracted black +smallpox. This missionary died; and it was while shut away from every +one during the time of quarantine that I had the following experience: + +I awoke suddenly one night feeling greatly troubled for one in Canada. +So strong was the impression that this friend needed my prayers, that I +felt compelled to rise and spend a long time wrestling with God on this +one's behalf; then peace came, and I again slept. + +As soon as I was out of quarantine I wrote to my friend and told of this +experience, giving the date. In time the answer came, which said +that--though no date could be given, as no note had been made of it--as +far as could be judged, it was about the same time that I had had the +burden of prayer that my friend was passing through a time of such +temptation as seemed almost overwhelming. But the letter said: "I was +brought through victoriously; I know that it was your prayers that +helped me." + + * * * * * + +The following incident may seem trifling to some; but to me no answer in +my life ever brought more intense relief. For this reason I have +reserved it, as the final testimony of the original prayer record. + +My husband had gone to hold revival meetings in a distant province, and +while he was away I went with my Bible-woman to a certain out-station at +the urgent request of the Christians, to preach at a four-days' +"theatrical," which brought great crowds. The four days there were +enough to wear out the strongest; for many hours daily we had to face +unruly crowds coming and going; and at the end of our stay I turned my +face homeward utterly worn out. My one thought was to get to Wei Hwei, +our next station, for a few days' rest with my youngest children, who +were attending school there. A sight of them, I knew, would recover my +energies better than anything else. + +But in getting home I in some way lost the key of the money-drawer. It +was Friday, and the train for Wei Hwei left on Saturday at ten o'clock. +Different persons came for money, but I had to put them off with some +excuse. There was too much money in the drawer for me to leave with the +key lying around somewhere; besides, I myself could not go without +money. + +As soon as I had my supper I started searching everywhere. Drawers, +pigeonholes, shelves, were all searched in vain. After hunting for two +hours, until I was too exhausted to hunt any more, I suddenly thought, +"I have never prayed about it." Stopping still just where I stood by the +dining-table, I lifted my heart to the Lord. "O Lord, you know how much +I need a rest; you know how much I long to see the children; pity me, +and lead me to the key." + +Then, without wasting a step, I walked through the dining-room, hall, +and women's guest room into Mr. Goforth's study, to the book-case (which +covers one side of the room), opened the door, slipped two books aside, +and there was the key. So near did the Lord seem at that moment that I +could almost feel his bodily presence. It was not that I remembered +putting the key there, but he led me there. + +Yes, I _know_ God answers prayer. + + + + +IX + +TO HIS PRAISE! + + "They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy + great goodness." + + +THIS chapter is written more than seven years later than the foregoing, +in further testimony and praise. + +Returning to Canada at the time of the Great War, we came face to face +with a serious financial crisis. Only two ways seemed open to us. One +was to lay our affairs frankly before the Board, showing that our salary +was quite insufficient, with war conditions and prices, to meet our +requirements. The other course was to just go forward, get a suitable +home and whatever we required, and trust our Father to supply what was +needed above our income. We decided on the latter course. + +A dear daughter felt indignant that we should have a salary insufficient +for our needs; but we assured her that to trust God for what was lacking +was not begging. The day came when this child and myself took possession +of our new home. As we entered the dining-room we found a large mail +from China on the table. + +One letter was forwarded from the lady in Australia whose gifts, in the +past, seemed always to have met some felt need. Her letter enclosed +fifty pounds, with the expressed wish that thirty pounds should be used +for work in China, but twenty pounds was to be used to meet some +personal need. I handed the letter to my daughter, saying: "Shall we not +believe that God will undertake for us? It seems to me as if our Father +were beside us saying, 'My child, take this hundred dollars as an +earnest of what I am going to do for you.'" + +Tears stood in her eyes as my daughter gave the letter back, saying: +"Mother, we don't trust God half enough!" + +Were I to attempt to write the history of the months that followed, a +long chapter would be required; but my testimony along this line is +surely sufficient. + + * * * * * + +It was on this same furlough that I came to have an enlarged vision of +my Heavenly Father's willingness to undertake in what some might term +the minor details of everyday life. Missionaries, especially we +missionary women, know only too well how we are criticized in the matter +of dress, when in the homeland and when traveling. I have had, through +the years, not only many amusing but trying experiences in this +connection, and I resolved to make the question of dress a definite +matter of prayer. And I rejoice to testify that the result of this +decision became a constant source of wonder and praise. Yes, I found the +Lord could guide me even in trimming my hat to his glory! That is, so +that I could stand up before an audience and not bring discredit to my +Master. Praise his name! + + "There is nothing too great for his power, + And nothing too small for his love!" + +At the time of the Great War a son had gone to England with the first +Canadian contingent. When this news reached us in China, I began to pray +definitely that the Lord would use my son's gifts in the best way for +his country's good, but would keep him back from the trenches and from +actual warfare. My boy did not know of this prayer. + +Some weeks after reaching England he was looking forward to leaving for +the trenches in France, when orders came that he was needed in the +Orderly Room, and his unit left without him. Months later a call came +for volunteers, to fill the great gaps made at the time of the first +use of gas. My boy resigned his position, and joined the company of +volunteers to be sent to France. Just before they were to leave he was +again sent for from Headquarters, and told he was to go to the Canadian +Base in France as adjutant. His duties in this capacity kept him at the +Forwarding Base. A year later he again planned to resign, in order to +get to the trenches. He had begun making arrangements for this step, +when he had a fall from his horse, which caused him to be invalided home +to Canada, where he was kept till the close of the war. + +It would indeed be difficult to persuade his mother that all this +happened by chance; for one day, when in great distress, expecting any +day a cable to say he had left for the trenches, I received a most clear +assurance from the Lord that he had the boy in his keeping. + + * * * * * + +After our return to China, when in great trouble, I prayed the Lord to +grant me a clear sign of his favor by giving me a certain petition, +which affected a child in the homeland. The request was a complicated +one, including several definite details. A little more than a month +later, a letter reached me from the one for whom I had asked the Lord's +favor. She wrote joyously, telling that she had received just what I had +asked for, and in every detail as I had prayed. + + * * * * * + +When my husband resigned the regular field work of Changte, Honan, it +became necessary for us to find a home elsewhere. The only suitable +place, meeting all our requirements, was on the hills at Kikungshan, +South Honan. On going there to get a site for our home, though we looked +for more than a week, we could find no place. As we started down the +hill, one morning soon after midnight, I was feeling our failure very +keenly, for we had given up our old home. When my husband saw how bad I +felt, as he told me later, he began to cry earnestly to the Lord to give +us a site. And before we reached the station the assurance had come that +we would get a place. A friend on the train, traveling third class, saw +us getting on the second class, and came in for a few words before +getting off the train. When he heard we had failed to get a site, he +said: + +"I know of a beautiful site which our Mission is reserving for a future +missionary. I'll ask them to give it to you." + +A few days later the treasurer of this Mission wrote us that they had +unanimously and gladly voted to give us the site. + +I am now writing these closing words in our God-given home, built on +this beautiful site, one of the most lovely spots to be found in China. +So from this quiet mountain retreat, a monument of what God can give in +answer to prayer, this little book of Prayer Testimonies is sent forth. + +As the past has been reviewed, and God's wonderful faithfulness +recalled, there has come a great sense of regret that I have not trusted +God more, and asked more of him, both for my family and the Chinese. +Yes, it is truly wonderful! But the wonder is not that God _can_ answer +prayer, _but that he does_, when we so imperfectly meet the conditions +clearly laid down in his Word. + +In recent years I have often tested myself by these conditions, when +weeks, and perhaps months, have passed without some answer to prayer, +and there has come a conscious spiritual sagging. As the discerning soul +can plainly see, all the conditions mentioned in the list below may be +included in the one word "Abide." + + +Conditions of Prevailing Prayer + + 1. Contrite humility before God and forsaking of sin.--2 Chron. 7:14. + + 2. Seeking God with the whole heart.--Jer. 29:12, 13. + + 3. Faith in God.--Mark 11:23, 24. + + 4. Obedience.--1 John 3:22. + + 5. Dependence on the Holy Spirit.--Rom. 8:26. + + 6. Importunity.--Mark 7:24-30; Luke 11:5-10. + + 7. Must ask in accordance with God's will.--1 John 5:14. + + 8. In Christ's Name.--John 14:13, 14, and many other passages. + + 9. Must be willing to make amends for wrongs to others.--Matt. + 5:23, 24. + + +Causes of Failure in Prayer + + 1. Sin in the heart and life.--Psa. 66:18; Isa. 59:1, 2. + + 2. Persistent refusal to obey God.--Prov. 1:24-28; Zech. 7:11, 13. + + 3. Formalism and hypocrisy.--Isa. 1:2-15. + + 4. Unwillingness to forgive others.--Mark 11:25, 26. + + 5. Wrong motives.--James 4:2, 3. + + 6. Despising God's law.--Amos 2:4. + + 7. Lack of love and mercy.--Prov. 21:13. + + + + +X + +VICTORY FOUND + + +AT THE close of this little volume it seems fitting to recount again a +wonderful personal experience, narrated in The Sunday School Times of +December 7, 1918. + +I do not remember the time when I did not have in some degree a love for +the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour. When not quite twelve years of age, +at a revival meeting, I publicly accepted and confessed Christ as my +Lord and Master. + +From that time there grew up in my heart a deep yearning to know Christ +in a more real way, for he seemed so unreal, so far away and visionary. +One night when still quite young I remember going out under the trees in +my parents' garden and, looking up into the starlit heavens, I longed +with intense longing to feel Christ near me. As I knelt down there on +the grass, alone with God, Job's cry became mine, "Oh, that I knew where +I might find him!" Could I have borne it had I known then that almost +forty years would pass before that yearning would be satisfied? + +With the longing to know Christ, literally to "find" him, came a +passionate desire to _serve_ him. But, oh, what a terrible nature I had! +Passionate, proud, self-willed, indeed just full was I of those things +that I knew were unlike Christ. + +The following years of half-hearted conflict with sinful self must be +passed over till about the fifth year of our missionary work in China. I +grieve to say that the new life in a foreign land with its trying +climate, provoking servants, and altogether irritating conditions, +seemed to have developed rather than subdued my natural disposition. + +One day (I can never forget it), as I sat inside the house by a paper +window at dusk, two Chinese Christian women sat down on the other side. +They began talking about me, and (wrongly, no doubt) I listened. One +said, "Yes, she is a hard worker, a zealous preacher, and--yes, she +nearly loves us; but, oh, what a temper she has! _If she would only live +more as she preaches!_" + +Then followed a full and true delineation of my life and character. So +true, indeed, was it, as to crush out all sense of annoyance and leave +me humbled to the dust. I saw then how useless, how worse than useless, +was it for me to come to China to preach Christ and not _live_ Christ. +But how could I live Christ? I knew some (including my dear husband) +who had a peace and a power,--yes, and a something I could not define, +that I had not; and often I longed to know the secret. + +Was it possible, with such a nature as mine, ever to become patient and +gentle? + +Was it possible that I could ever really stop worrying? + +Could I, in a word, ever hope to be able to live Christ as well as +preach him? + +I knew I loved Christ; and again and again I had proved my willingness +to give up all for his sake. But I knew, too, that one hot flash of +temper with the Chinese, or with the children before the Chinese, would +largely undo weeks, perhaps months, of self-sacrificing service. + +The years that followed led often through the furnace. The Lord knew +that nothing but fire could destroy the dross and subdue my stubborn +will. Those years may be summed up in one line: "Fighting (not finding), +following, keeping, _struggling_." Yes, and failing! Sometimes in the +depths of despair over these failures; then going on determined to do +_my_ best,--and what a poor best it was! + +In the year 1905, and later, as I witnessed the wonderful way the Lord +was leading my husband, and saw the Holy Spirit's power in his life and +message, I came to seek very definitely for the fulness of the Holy +Spirit. It was a time of deep heart-searching. The heinousness of sin +was revealed as never before. Many, many things had to be set right +toward man and God. I learned then what "paying the price" meant. Those +were times of wonderful mountain-top experiences, and I came to honor +the Holy Spirit and seek his power for the overcoming of sin in a new +way. But Christ still remained, as before, distant, afar off, and I +longed increasingly to know--to _find_ him. Although I had much more +power over besetting sins, yet there were times of great darkness and +defeat. + +It was during one of these latter times that we were forced to return to +Canada, in June of 1916. My husband's health prevented him from public +speaking, and it seemed that this duty for us both was to fall on me. +But I dreaded facing the Home Church without some spiritual uplift,--a +fresh vision for myself. The Lord saw this heart-hunger, and in his own +glorious way he fulfilled literally the promise, "He satisfieth the +longing soul, and _filleth_ the hungry soul with goodness" (Psa. 107:9, +A. V.). + +A spiritual conference was to be held the latter part of June at +Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and to this I was led. One day I went to +the meeting rather against my inclination, for it was so lovely under +the trees by the beautiful lake. The speaker was a stranger to me, but +from almost the first his message gripped me. Victory over Sin! Why, +this was what I had fought for, had hungered for, all my life! Was it +possible? + +The speaker went on to describe very simply an ordinary Christian life +experience--sometimes on the mountain-top, with visions of God; then +again would come the sagging, and dimming of vision, coldness, +discouragement, and perhaps definite disobedience and a time of +down-grade experience. Then perhaps a sorrow, or even some special +mercy, would bring the wanderer back to his Lord. + +The speaker asked for all those who felt this to be a picture of their +experience to raise the hand. I was sitting in the front seat, and shame +only kept me from raising my hand at once. But I did so want to get all +God had for me, and I determined to be true; and after a struggle I +raised my hand. Wondering if others were like myself, I ventured to +glance back and saw many hands were raised, though the audience was +composed almost entirely of Christian workers, ministers, and +missionaries. + +The leader then went on to say _that_ life which he had described was +_not_ the life God planned or wished for His children. He described the +higher life of peace, rest in the Lord, of power and freedom from +struggle, worry, care. As I listened I could scarcely believe it could +be true, yet my whole soul was moved so that it was with the greatest +difficulty I could control my emotion. I saw then, though dimly, that I +was nearing the goal for which I had been aiming all my life. + +Early the next morning, soon after daybreak, I went over on my knees +carefully and prayerfully all the passages on the Victorious Life that +were given in a little yellow leaflet that the speaker had +distributed.[1] What a comfort and strength it was to see how clear +God's Word was that victory, not defeat, was his will for his children, +and to see what wonderful provision he had made! Later, during the days +that followed, clearer light came. I did what I was asked to do--I +quietly but definitely accepted Christ as my Saviour from the _power_ of +sin as I had so long before accepted him as my Saviour from the +_penalty_ of sin. And on this I rested. + +I left Niagara, realizing, however, there was still something I had not +got. I felt much as the blind man must have felt when he said, "I see +men as trees, walking" (A. V.). I had begun to see light, but dimly. + +The day after reaching home I picked up a little booklet, "The Life That +Wins,"[2] which I had not read before, and going to my son's bedside I +told him it was the personal testimony of one whom God had used to bring +great blessing into my life. I then read it aloud till I came to the +words, "At last I realized that Jesus Christ was actually and literally +within me." I stopped amazed. The sun seemed suddenly to come from under +a cloud and flood my whole soul with light. How blind I'd been! I saw at +last the secret of victory--it was simply Jesus Christ himself--his own +life lived out in the believer. But the thought of victory was for the +moment lost sight of in the inexpressible joy of realizing CHRIST'S +INDWELLING PRESENCE! Like a tired, worn-out wanderer finding home at +last I just _rested_ in him. Rested in his love--in himself. And, oh, +the peace and joy that came flooding my life! A restfulness and +quietness of spirit I never thought could be mine took possession of me +so naturally. Literally a new life began for me, or rather _in_ me. It +was just "the Life that is Christ." + +The first step I took in this new life was to get standing on God's own +Word, and not merely on man's teaching or even on a personal experience. +And as I studied especially the truth of Christ's indwelling, victory +over sin, and God's bountiful provision, the Word was fairly illumined +with new light. + +The years that have passed have been years of blessed fellowship with +Christ and of joy in his service. A friend asked me not long ago if I +could give in a sentence the after result in my life of what I said had +come to me in 1916, and I replied, "Yes, it can be all summed up in one +word, 'Resting.'" + +Some have asked, "But have you never sinned?" Yes, I grieve to say I +have. Sin is the one thing I abhor--for it is the one thing that can, if +unrepented of, separate us, not from Christ, but from the consciousness +of his presence. But I have learned that there is instantaneous +forgiveness and restoration to be had _always_. That there need be no +times of despair. + +One of the blessed results of this life is not only the consciousness of +Christ's presence, but the _reality_ of his presence as manifested in +definite results when, in the daily details of life, matters are left +with him and he has undertaken. + +My own thought of him is beautifully expressed in Spurgeon's words: + + "What the hand is to the lute, + What the breath is to the flute, + What's the mother to the child, + What the guide in pathless wild, + What is oil to troubled wave, + What is ransom to a slave, + What is flower to the bee, + That is Jesus Christ to me." + +The special Bible-study which I made at that time was embodied in a +leaflet. Proving helpful to others, it is added below.[3] + + +=God's Presence= + + The secret of Victory is simply Christ himself in + the heart of the believer. This truth, of Christ's + indwelling, is, and always has been, a _mystery_. + + Romans 16:25. + Ephesians 3:9 with Colossians 1:26, 27. + Ephesians 5:30, 32 (R. V.). + Colossians 4:3. + +Christ himself taught this truth. + + John 14:20, 23; 15:1-7; 17:21-23. + Matthew 28:20. + Revelation 3:20. (See also Mark 16:20). + +It was a vital reality to the Apostle Paul. + + Romans 8:10. + 1 Corinthians 6:15. + 1 Corinthians 12:27 (R. V.). + 2 Corinthians 5:17. + 2 Corinthians 13:5. + Galatians 2:20. + Galatians 3:27. + Galatians 4:19. + Ephesians 3:17. + Philippians 1:21 + 1 Thessalonians 5:10. + Hebrews 3:6. + + The words "in Christ," which recur in many other + passages, will have a new literalness when read in + the light of the above. + + The Apostle John had a like conception of Christ's + indwelling presence. + + 1 John 2:28 to 3:6, 24. + 1 John 4:4, 12, 13, 16. + 1 John 5:20. + + +=God's Purpose= + + As Victory is the result of Christ's Life lived + out in the believer, it is important that we see + clearly that _Victory_, and not _defeat_, is God's + Purpose for his Children. The Scriptures are very + decided upon this truth. + + Luke 1:74, 75. + Romans 5:2. + [A]Romans, chaps. 6 and 8. + 1 Corinthians 15:57. + 2 Corinthians 2:14. + 2 Corinthians 10:5. + Ephesians 1:3, 4. + Colossians 4:12. + 1 Thessalonians 5:23. + 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (R.V.). + 2 Timothy 2:19. + Titus 2:12. + Hebrews 7:25. + 1 Peter 1:15. + 2 Peter 3:14. + 1 John 2:1. + 1 John 3:6, 9. + And many other passages. + + That Christ came as the Saviour from the _power_ + as well as the _penalty_ of sin we see in Matthew + 1:21, with John 8:34, 36, and Titus 2:14. + + +=God's Provision= + + God knew the frailty of man, that his heart was + "desperately wicked," that even his righteousness + was "as filthy rags," that man's only hope for + victory over sin must come from the God-ward side. + He, therefore, made kingly provision so rich, so + sufficient, so exceeding abundant, that as we + study it, we feel we have tapped a mine of wealth, + too deep to fathom. Just a few suggestions of its + riches: + + God's _greatest_ provision is the gift of a part + of His Own Being in the person of the Holy Spirit. + The following are but some of the many things the + Holy Spirit does for us, as recorded in the Word: + + He begets us into the family of God.--John 3:6. + He seals or marks us as God's.--Eph. 1:13. + He dwells in us.--1 Cor. 3:16. + He unites us to Christ.--1 Cor. 12:13, 27. + He changes us into the likeness of Christ.--2 Cor. 3:18. + He helps in prayer.--Rom. 8:26. + He comforts.--John 14:16. + He guides.--Rom. 8:14. + He strengthens with power.--Eph. 3:16. + He is the source of power and fruitfulness.--John 7:38, 39. + + Some of the victorious _results_ in our life, as + Christ has His way in us, are shown in: + + Romans 8:32, 27. + Romans 15:13. + 2 Corinthians 9:8, 11. + 2 Corinthians 2:14. + Ephesians 1:19. + Ephesians 3:16, 20. + Philippians 4:7, 13, 19. + Colossians 1:11. + 1 Peter 1:5. + 2 Timothy 3:17. + Jude 24. + John 15:7. + + To the seeker for further Scripture help the + writer would suggest a plan that has proved a + great blessing to herself. + + Read the Psalms through, making careful record of + all the statements of what the Lord was to the + writers of the Psalms. The list will surprise you. + Then on your knees go over them one by one, with + the prayer that Christ may be to you what he was + to David and the others. + + Take a Cruden's, or better still a Young's, + concordance and look up the texts under such + headings as Love, Fulness, Power, Riches, Grace, + etc., grouping them into usable Bible studies. As + a sample, taking this last word, "grace"; the more + one studies it the more wonderful does it become. + Here are some of these headings: + + Grace for grace.--John 1:16. + Sufficient grace.--2 Cor. 12:9. + More Grace.--James 4:6. + All Grace.--2 Cor. 9:8. + Abundant grace.--Rom. 5:17. + Exceeding abundant grace.--1 Tim. 1:14. + Exceeding riches of His grace.--Eph. 2:17. + + But let us remember that to simply know of riches + will never materially benefit us. We must make + them our own. All fulness dwells in Christ. It is + only as we "apprehend" (which means take hold or + take in) Christ through the Holy Spirit can it be + possible for these spiritual riches to become + ours. The slogan of this glorious life in Christ + is just "Let go and let God." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] This leaflet, giving a carefully selected list of Scripture +references on the Victorious Life, may be had from The Sunday School +Times Company, 1031 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa., at 50 cents per +100 copies; or 15 cents for 25 copies; postpaid. + +[2] "The Life that Wins" may be obtained from The Sunday School Times +Company at 2 cents each; or 20 cents a dozen copies, or $1.50 per +hundred, postpaid. + +[3] This leaflet may be obtained from the Christian Life Literature +Fund, 600 Perry Building, Philadelphia, at 15 cts. a dozen, 60 cts. a +hundred, or 2 cts. each. + +[A] The 7th chapter of Romans should be read in the light of the 6th and +8th chapters. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 129, "4" missing from list of Conditions of Prevailing Prayer. The list was +renumbered to correct this. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's How I Know God Answers Prayer, by Rosalind Goforth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER *** + +***** This file should be named 26033.txt or 26033.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/0/3/26033/ + +Produced by Free Elf, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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