295
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
May 1928
their declared attitude toward the Church was one of “ unlimited and bitter enmity.” Their announced plan of action was threefold:— 1. “ Overthrow the Church and kill the Christians.” 2. “ Fill the streets with posters exhort ing the people to uproot and cast out the Church.” 3. “ Visit the evangelists, curse them and confuse them with perplexing questions.” Dear reader, just stop a moment and ask yourself the question, What would I do under cir cumstances like the above? What did the men of Band No. 12 do? The report continues:— “ In spite o f these conditions we went on with our work in the regular way with the following blessed r e s u l t s T h r e e o f the principal men o f the Merchants’ Union turned to the Lord. They were the president, secretary and treasurer of the Union. These men began calling on us for the purpose o f confus ing and defeating us in argument, but suddenly they came under the mighty influence of the Holy Spirit and were led to real faith in Jesus Christ. They broke off from ■their much-loved habits of gambling and wine-drinking arid became most enthusiastic workers in the Church. When persecution became severe they came to our help, and as Christmas drew near they took the lead in raising a fund to decorate the chapel and to provide other things needed for the Christmas festival. G od ’ s B lessing U pon T he B ands “ There were two sisters at Tan-Peh, over sixty years o f age. They had heard the Gospel before but had grown very indifferent. During our Stay there they were led out into a new relationship to Christ; they put away all idols from their home and were used to lead the younger mem bers o f their families to faith in Christ. Some friends came to them and said: ‘Do you not realize that all the unions are strenuously opposing the Christian religion? W e feel that it would be better if you would not profess faith in Jesus at this time.’ T o this these aged sisters replied Jesus gave His life for us, to save us from our sins, and we have His promise of a home in heaven after our death, and so even though men threaten to kill us, how can we deny our faith in Jesus?’ ” At this center, as. the work went on, a class for the daily study o f God’s Word was organized. It began with an enrollment of seventeen on the first evening and grew steadily until its membership was thirty-seven. So many children were eager to study the Bible that a separate class was organized for them. Over forty children came regularly to this class, and our evangelists told them Bible stories, taught them Gospel hymns, and also taught them how to pray. When the work at Tan-Peh was completed the Band moved on to a new center, Wu-Chi by name. Here they found the unions thoroughly organized and active and with the same intensely bitter attitude toward the Gospel. They had many rnost interesting experiences, and by the “ good hand o f their God upon them” they were able to report “ When we came to Wu-Chi all the people were our bitter enemies, but before we left fully one half of the people were our warm friends.” A t Tan-Peh the three men of whom we have written took charge o f the Christmas celebration, and at Wu-Chi our evangelists were in charge. The work had been great ly blessed; evening after evening their chapel was packed with eager listeners; •many had accepted Christ; Bible classes for adults and children had been organized, and they were looking forward to a great time on Christmas. They had planned for a service on Christmas eve, but they learned o f a plan made by the unions of the surrounding places to come in in large numbers and make an attack on
the chapel, so they postponed the service to Christmas morning at nine o’clock. At that hour over four hundred people gathered for the service and they had a most blessed and happy time. All through the service they could hear the yells o f the mob outside: “ Break down the Gospel Hall.” “ Arrest the evangelists and lead them about the streets.” But not a blow was struck, not a person harmed. L ike J ourneys of P aul A few days later some students from a leading school in Hengshan came to Wu-Chi, called the people together and charged them with being traitors to the Nationalist Party in allowing these evangelists to remain in their midst. These students also went to the unions in neighbor ing communities and stirred them up to such a frenzy that a committee o f leading men at Wu-Chi waited on the evangelists, laid before them the urgency of the conditions and earnestly advised them to retire for a time. Still they stuck at their work, but at last when the agitators, saw that they could not scare them away, they went to all the shops and gave strict orders that no food should be sold to them, so finally the brave men were forced to go on to a center called Kan-Chi. Here the experiences o f the previous places were repeated. Earnest, faithful work was done
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