By ROSALIND GOFORTH
CHAPTER III
"I will go before thee, and make the crooked
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
practice 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
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.'""GO FORWARD ON YOUR KNEES"
1887-1894
places straight: I will break in pieces the gates
of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron"
(Isa. 45:2).
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."
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