December 1943
. . . From the Japanese Line
By CHARLES A . ROBERTS A s told to Anne Hazelton '
nese Pastor, Ch’en Kuang, and had warned t h e m that the conference might be interrupted by invasion. Back had come the answers:..“Realize .conditions, but the conference is im portant. Count me in.” ■ The Biola Evangelists and church delegates had gathered, and for a few days uninterrupted sessions were held. RUmors grew more ominous and throughout the city ran an undercur rent of impending disaster, but each of the services was a quiet, unhur ried blessing to those who met to gether. “The news is bad,” Mr. T’ien, one of our Band leaders, told me toward the close of the first week. “The Jap anese have crossed the lHsing Chiang Ho.” That meant they were then only sixty-five miles from us. The heavy bombing raids followed closely upon this news. From the be ginning we scheduled meetings for early. morning and late afternoon, which allowed the people to go out-
Remembering the crowds of refu gees that would be at the river bank trying to get passage, or thronging the narrow roads leading from the city, I glanced up into tiie sun-filled September sky, fearing momentarily to see the shadow of Japanese planes, coming on their daily mission of death as they had come for the past week. A . Christian Conference under Air Raids Evidences of God’s protection had not been wanting during that week wherf, by the very intensity of the air raids, we knew invasion to be im minent. The annual Autumn Bible and Evangelistic ' Conference was in ses sion, and through all that week of continuous raids only His providence kept us from injury or harm. When the program for the confer ence was in preparation', I had written to the other speakers who were to be with us: Robert Porteous of the China Inland Mission, William Blackstone of. the Presbyterian Board, and a Chi
si det he city duripg the hours the planes were m o s t likely to come. Soon, however, the planes were there by d a w n, a n d continued frequent raids were our portion for the day. While the planes were overhead We would spend the time in prayer, re suming the regular service when they had gone. We knew the Japanese drive was on in earnest and that the Chinese troops were beginning to re treat. Rifles and machine guns could hold no longer against superior mech anized forces. In spite of the dangers, the people remained, and the confer ence continued. Each night three evan gelistic services, held in three sep arate places of worship in the city, drew large crowds. Evacuation of Changsha On Thursday it became evident the conference must dose. Evacuation of the city had begun in earnest. The afternoon meeting, which we knew must be the last of the series, was a time of very precious fellowship. The same night I accompanied the two missionaries outside the city to the river bank. A large crowd already was there, milling up ond down the bank. Boats, packed with refugees, Were hastily swinging out from shore, in danger of being , sunk by the peo ple trying ,to board them. I looked at the crowd, helpless with a cruel enemy approaching, and thought of the mul titudes Christ had looked upon and of His compassion for them. , It was many hours later when the missionaries found places on a mili tary launch which pulled away well after midnight. They were silhouetted for a moment in a shaft of clear moonlight which seemed to pick them out. As we raised* our hands in a token of farewell blessing, my heart lifted and I raised my eyes to see the moon, serene in the dark sky, above all the strife and bloodshed. The
Faces of China's Children M irrored An Anxious Fear A s
The Enemy Approached
Photo by H. Armstrona Roberts
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