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THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
September 1925
I Our Bible Institute in nut
Hunan Province, China
Superintendent
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The Hunan Bible Institute (the China Department of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles) is organized along sim ilar lines to the home Institute,— training native Chinese young men and women for Christian work, and at the same tim e carrying on an active evangelistic work am ong the unsaved. The work (which is recognized by the different evangelical m issions as one of the best in China) has three departm ents: (1 ) A Bible Institute at Changsha (the capital city of Hunan Province.) (2 ) Tw elve E vangelistic Bands with thirteen men in each band, devoting the .mornings to Bible Study, and the afternoons to giving the Gospel in the native homes. (3 ) The Autumn Bible School and Conference at Nanyoh (one of China’s five sacred m ountains). Hundreds of conversions have resulted from the work done among' the thousands of pilgrim s.
“A NEW NAME” H EH YUNG is h er new name, not a given name but a chosen one. I t is a name w ith a meaning express ing the purpose of a woman who has come th rough deep waters, who is born again and wants her very name to express it. We do no t even know w hat her old name was, bu t from henceforth she is “ telling of v irtu e.”
do this? Who am I to her? She is not of my family, and I cannot repay her w ith money or in any other way,” and then the answer came to her own h ea rt questionings, “ It is for love of her Lord, it is her new h ea rt th a t makes her do it,” : and a t this point she resolved th a t if she recovered she would go to th e Gospel hall and h ear more.
She was tru e to her promise and when strong enough she w ent to the chapel and heard more about the story of Jesus and learned to read so th a t she couid, very slowly, pick out some verses in the Bible. This new development was more th an the fam ily could stand, and even her husband tu rn ed against her. P rom th a t tim e on she endured b itte r persecution. C u r s i n g , beating and general ill-treat ment were her portion for over a year. One day she heard a sermon on th e one word “Love” wherein all who knew the love of Jesus were exhorted to be patien t w ith those who did not. T hat evening, when she went home, her mother-in-law met her w ith curses in which her father-in-law joined. She went
HOME-GOING OF “MOTHER” KELLER The members of “ Our Fam ily” who looked into th e sweet .and sm iling face of dear “Mother” Keller, which was shown opposite the editorial page of the Jun e “K ing’s Busi ness,” little though t th a t she would so soon h ear the call to “ come up h igher,” bu t on Thursday morning, Ju ly 16, afte r a sho rt ill ness (during which she frequently expressed the wish th a t it m ight please her Lord to take h er to be w ith Himself, she fell asleep “ in the arm s of Jesu s,” eighty-eight years “ young” . We hope to have ip the October issue a por tra it and short biographical sketch of this dear saint who gave to th e Lord’s service such a splendid son,, and who so ch e erfu lly -^ when th e Lord called him to take up th e work of th e Bible In stitu te in Hunan Province, China— gave up the comforts and friendships of her home to go w ith him.
Deh Yung was born in a hea then home of thè m iddle class and therefo re had no schooling in her girlhood, bu t was m ar ried, according to good custom, a t the age of twenty. She liked her husband and he was good to her. The home she was m arried into was considerably b etter th a n her own and she had hopes Of being very happy. Time passed and she had no children, which was a b itte r cross to her and also to the family, so, a t the age of tw enty-three, she took a vegetarian vow to appease the Goddess of Mercy, hoping thus to be blèssed w ith a child. She became very zealous in idol wor ship and in every way tried to heap up merit, while th e mother
and father-in-law , as well as th e brother-in-law and his wife grew b itter in th e ir conduct tow ard her. Her husband, however, rem ained kind. About a year a fte r she had tak en th is yow th e ir home was visited by a Bible woman and Deh Yung was very deeply in terested in the story- she had to tell. The Bible woman came again and finding a welcome, h er visits became quite frequent. Suddenly Deh Yung fell ill, b u t no one in the home went near her. She grew worse bu t had n eith er proper food nor care and was in a tru ly dreadful state when the little Bible woman happened to make one of her wel come calls. The mother-in-law said th a t if she could not have chil dren she was not worth keeping, and would not give her any care. The rest of th e fam ily followed her example. It was th en th a t th e Bible woman had h er chance. She “ spent her stren g th ” in caring for th e poor girl, bringing her things she could eat, reading to h er and praying for and w ith her. Can you not imagine w hat it all m eant to the neglected g irl? She began to ask herself, “Why does she
directly to the kitchen, made tea, and bringing it in offered it to the ang ry couplq. They were so surprised th a t they stopped cursing and asked w hat had happened and she explained briefly her reason. Prom th a t tim e they le t her alone. They did not love her bu t at least they were not outw ardly cruel. She was baptized in F eb ru ary of th e following year and in May the home was burned to the ground. Of course Deh Yung was blamed and her lo t again became very hard as they felt th a t she had angered th e gods. The fam ily moved to a place where they owned two stores and in ju st a year from the tim e of the burning of the home both stores were destroyed by fire. This was the climax. They tu rn ed her out on th e street, cpld and penniless, no where to go and nothing to do. The fam ily moved to another town and she went to the home of a church member and worked for h er food b u t was very unhappy, feeling, of course, the disgrace of being turned out.
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