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T H E
K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
May 1924
Six Weeks With Chinese Brigands
Mrs. Howard Taylor Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor have been spend ing some months in this country after a tour of three years and a half through all the prov inces of China. Dr. Taylor is the son of J. Hud son Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mis sion and Mrs. Taylor is the daughter of H. Grat tan Guinness, so well known a generation ago as one of the greatest preachers and Bible teach ers in England. The following is a stenographic report of Mrs. Taylor’s own story of their mar vellous deliverance from the Chinese brigands, as she gave it in the Bible Institute Auditorium, Los Angeles, California.
EFORE speaking about the brigands this af ternoon, I am tempted to mention a sweet lit
tlon we have given to us there, in the 4th verse: “ That thou mightest know the certainty of those things that are commonly believed among us.” Oh, friends, it is our privilege to know— to know— that we are dealing with certainties. And this knowledge comes in a vari ety of w a y s , and especially through experience. Those ter rible weeks among Chinese bri-
tle experience that happened not long ago in China showing how the Lord cares for the needs of His children, not only in great things and very i m p o r t a n t things, but in little things too. And don’t you think that some-
times the care of God in the lit tle things is almost more sweet and precious than in the gands, those six long weeks, the suffering of which could very big things?
never be fully told, have become to us such a rich and precious experience— because they brought to us anew a knowledge of some of the great “ certainties that are be lieved among us.” We made then a rediscovery of, some of the great realities that has been, and still is to us, in estimably precious., We rediscovered two great certainties; — the certainty of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the certainty of the living power of this precious Word, the life of the Word of God. May I just speak about the reason for brigandage in China today, and something of the results? As you know, dear Christian friends, that great country, containing one- quarter of the human race, is thrown at the present mo ment into confusion and chaos that is almost indescribable. The central government is not strong enough to control the situation, and there is civil war ^between practically all the eighteen provinces in China, and the only rulers in China today are the military dictators or military governors of these Provinces. There is civil war, as you know, between the North and the South, and aiso this between the provinces, because they are all armed to the teeth and every one seeking to get the most of whatever they can in loot and plunder. Now these brigands, you know, are for the most part soldiers who cannot get their pay. The great government officials enrich themselves in so many cases, and the sol diers cannot get their pay. You may have heard what the Christian General Feng had to do when his soldiers could not get their pay. For many months they had no pay and at last General Feng stopped a train going up the line with a large quantity of silver for Peking. He took his ac counts to the train and showed just how much salary was due to his soldiers. Then he took just that much silver from the train, put back all the rest and sent it on with his accounts to Peking, and paid his men. And the wonder that swept over China was not that he had taken some of the silver, but that he had left any. But unfortunately there are very few Christian Generals like that in China today. If there were a few more to take charge there today, things would very soon be different. Pray for Gen eral Feng; pray for that great country in its suffering; pray for a better government; and, oh, pray for the mission aries and Chinese Christians who are exposed just as we were. We had been traveling in China for three and a half years through fifteen provinces, and had seen everywhere the terrible doings of these brigands. They will come per haps to a town in the early morning and announce, “ Be- (Continued on page 324)
We had a dear missionary family whose funds during the time of the war were rather low, not because the money did not come, (for the incorne of the Mission went up steadily every year all through the war), but the exchange was very much against Us in China. One summer the mother in this family of missionaries, was a little bit troubled. She al ways used to buy fruit and sugar to make preserves for the children for she liked to have the storeroom well stocked with jars of jelly and preserves for the winter vacation. But that summer she felt that perhaps she ought not to purchase the sugar and fruit. I am sure every mother here will understand what it meant to her to leave those jars in the storeroom empty, because the children only came home once a year and she did want to make a good time for them. But that summer she went away to the hills leaving all the jars in the storeroom quite empty. She was taking care of the sanitorium in the hills, and when the summer was over she came back to the home and as she was going into the storeroom,—-just turning the key to go in,— the Chinese caretaker, who had been in charge during the summer stopped her. “ Oh, do not go in there!” “ And why?” she said. “ Oh, it is very dangerous to go in there.” “ But what is the matter?” “ Oh, that storeroom is full of bees. If you go in there you will be stung.” She was not very much afraid of bees and opened the door quietly, and there— and there— a great humming was heard and she saw that the storeroom was just full of bees. As she looked around she saw bound to all those shelves a great mass of honeycomb, and the bees were just filling it with honey as fast as ever they could. Right op posite them were those empty jam pots on the shelves. Who had sent the swarm of bees into that particular storeroom? The window had been left open and they had come in there, and there they were working so hard and laying up pounds and pounds of sweet delicious honey, right there where it was needed. The bees were never turned out and are in possession of that storeroom still. Last win ter we were told they made thirty pounds. When the chiL dren came home from school they said, “ Oh, mother, who would want jam if they could have honey like this?” And so the Lord cares for the little needs as well as the great needs of His children. Now I am so glad of this opportunity this afternoon of 'speaking about brigandage in China, and abouKour own experience— and that for two reasons. But first of all I want to ask a question. I wonder if everybody here knows exactly why the Gospel of Luke was written? Will you bear with me if I refer to the first of Luke, and the explana-
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