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• WHILE CONTINUING as the enthusiastic Superintendent of the Hunan Bible Institute (the China department of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, located in Changsha, Hunan, China), Mr. Roberts envisions vast opportunities for spiritual advance among ALL the youth of post-war China. He is confident that the Institute and the Biola Evangelistic Bands—already notable for their far- reaching spiritual ministry—will be appreciably strengthened by the develop ment of Christian schools for younger pupils, about which this article speaks.
School of the Holy Light
By CHARLES A. ROBERTS as told to ANN E HAZELTON
T HE DENSE winter fog had lifted. Warm sunlight glinted across the fields of bright small bungalows clustered about the pine-clad hills of Shantong, a resi dential suburb of Chungking where the families of China’s officials live. If the sun’s rays rested a moment longer on a taller building that stood out above the residences, no one in side the wide chapel hall noticed. Rows of children, ranging in age from six to thirteen years, their faces shining with cleanliness and antici pation, sat quietly at attention as the several important speakers mounted the platform. Outwardly, the meeting was not unlike a gathering of the student body in any government ele mentary school. But there was a dif- ference. When the program began, each dark head was bowed in prayer to God, and, when the first hymn was announced, young voices joined eagerly in the singing of praise to the one true God. A selection was read from the Bible. Addresses followed, given by men whose names have weight in China’s official and educational circles: Gov ernor Chang Chih Chung (now aide- dercamp to the. Generalissimo), Mr. Chang Ching-yu, Mr. Chu Ching Nung, Note: There ts similarity in the names, as well as in the objectives of two schools in China, as the Chinese lettering above will show. The Institute (left) is “ The School of the Holy Canon (B ib le]” and the school for younger children (right) is “ The School of the Holy Light." Thus the written and the in carnate Word are being exalted.
etc. The burden of the messages was one: that the aim in establishing this school—the preaching of the gospel in order to lead the children to know Christ—might be fulfilled. It was February 13, 1943, and the Holy Light School was being officially opened. It was a dream fulfilled— a dream that began ten years before in the heart of a Christian Chinese official. Foundation for the Dream Before a building Is erected, there' must be a foundation. The foundation for the Holy Light School began, not so much in the stones that mark the actual foundation of the buildings, but in the spiritual birth of Ernest R. Yin, one of China’s high officials. In the minds of Ernest Yin and his wife, Faith, there was no thought of the far-reaching changes that were to enter their lives, as we see them in their beautiful home in Shantung Province some fifteen years ago. Ernest Yin was then Director of Tax 'Bureau on WineS, Spirits, and Tobacco. Though he was a member of a Protes tant Church, a graduate of Harvard University, and his wife the daughter of Pastor Ding Li-mei, one of the mightiest witnesses God ever raised up in China, there was no evidence of spiritual life in either the man or his wife. Their lives were a whirl of society dinner parties, theaters, dances, and mah-jong parties, while the Bible which Ding Li-mei had given them at -heir marriage, lay for gotten and at the bottom of a trunk.
There was no place for God in their lives. It must have been disconcerting for them when Lena, Ernest. Yin’s daugh ter by a former marriage, returned from college for a holiday and re fused to have any part in the fam ily’s social life. Only a short time before, she had found the Lord Jesus Christ to mean everything to her, and now she chose to stay at home and tell Bible, stories or teach choruses to David, the six-year-old son of Ernest and Faith. The parents urged her to go out and have a good time and forget her fanaticism. “We once thought, too, there was something in that,” they told her. “But our eyes were opened at college in America, and we know now that the Bible is only Hebrew folklore. It is not good enough to waste your life on.” ' Lena, with almost prophetic vision, defended her stand. “It is the Word of God to me, in spite of what col leges may say.” Then, her voice sof tening in respect due her parents, she faced them with their owri neglect. “You, who have been taught of Christ, have denied Him, and turned back to a world of pleasure. You have neg lected to tell David anything of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was hungry to hear. You love him very much, but I wonder whether God will not have to take him from you, to melt your hearts.” [ Continued on Page 219]
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