Co d An swe rs Pray e r

Th e P ersona l T estimo ny
o f On e Li f e-Tim e

By

ROSALI ND G OFORTH
( M J th G f th)
n . on a an o or

M i ssi on a ry i n Chin a i
s n ce we!

They shall ab un dan tlyutt th m m y thy

“
er e e or o f
greatg d oo —P lm M5 7
n ess.
!
sa : .

d t ll th m h w g t th i g th
“
Co an e e o rea n s e Lord
hath d f th —M k 5 3 I 9
on e or
!
ee . ar .

HARPER BR O THERS PUBLI SHERS

opy igh t
C r , 1 92 1 , b y
 F O REWO RD

T SEEM S fitting that this little book o f

personal testimonies to answered prayer
should have a brief introductory word as t o
how they came t o be written The question
.

has been aske d by some who read many o f

these testimonies as they appeared in the
pages o f The Sunday School Times : How “

could you write such personal and s acred

incidents in your li f e ? I could not have
written them but for a very clear God give n
,
-

leading .

The story is as follows : W hen in Canada

on our first f urloughs I was frequen tly
amazed at t h e meredul-ity expressed when
d efin ite testimony was given to an answer t o
prayer Sometimes th is was shown by an
.

ex pressive shrug o f th e shoulde rs sometimes

,

b y a sudden silence or turning o f the topic o f

conversation and sometimes more openly by
,

“
the query : How do you know t hat it might
”
not have happened so anyway ?
,

Gradually the impression deepened : I f

they will not believe on e two or a dozen t es
, ,

t im on ie s will they believe the combined t es

,

t im on ie s o f on e whole li f e ?
The more I thought o f what it would mean
1 11
iv Fo reword
to record the sacred incidents connected with
answe r s to p r ayer the mo r e I sh rank fr om
the publicity an d f rom undertaking the task
, .

There we r e dozens o f answers f ar too sacred

f or the public eye which we r e known only to
,

a f ew others known only to Go d But i f the

, .

record we r e to ca r ry weight with those who

did not believe in the supe r natural element in
prayer many personal and scarcely less sa
,

cred incidents must o f necessity be made

public .

A gain and again I laid the matter aside as

impossible But I know now that the th ing
.

was o f God A s months even years passed

.
, , ,

the impelling sense that the record o f answers

to prayer m ust be written gave me no rest .

It was at the close o f the 1 908 1 0 fu r lough -

during which as a family we had been

, ,

blessed with many and to our weak faith , ,

wonder f ul answe r s to prayer that my old

est son urged me to put down in some definite
form the answers to prayer o f my li fe and ,

extracted f rom me a solemn promise that I

would do so .

But months passe d after returning to

China and the record had not been touched
,
.

Then came a sudden and serious illness which

threatened my li f e when the doctor told me
,

I must not delay in getting my a ffairs in

order .
 Foreword
It was then that an overwhelming sense o f
reg ret took possession o f me that I had n ot
set down the prayer testimonies and sol,

emn ly I covenanted with the Lord that i f he

would raise me up they should be written .

Th ere was no more question o f what

others might think the on e thought was to
,

obey The Lo r d raised me up ;and although

.

he had to deal with me ve ry ste r nly once

'

more be fore I really set myself to the task ,

the testimonies that are given here we r e

written at last — most o f them in odd mo
ments o f time during strenuous missionary
journeys among the heathen .

Thus it will be seen that these incidents o f

answered prayer are not given as being mo r e
wonder f ul or more worthy o f record th an
, ,

mult itudes the world over could testi fy to ;

but they are written and sent out simply
and onl y because I had t o writ e t hem or dis
o b ey God
.

RO S A LIN D GO F O R T H .
 C O NTENTS
FO RE W ORD
How th ese t es ti monies ca m e t o be writt en
I
GE TT IN G T H IN G S FR O M G OD
Th e s implicity f pe t i ti on o

II
E A RL! L ESS O N S IN THE L I FE OF FA I T H
Led b y a b ird Tooth ach e t ak en away Reward .

F inancial aid
.

f seekin g firs t th e K in g dom

o . .

S unday sc h ool sch olars gi v en G uidance in

-

t i m e f cri s i s A pray er p repara t i on f or

.

o .

Chi n A beautif ul seal o th e new li f e

a . n

I II
”
Go FO R W ARD O N YO U R K N EEs
( 1 88 7- 1 894 )
Th e k ey not e o f pi oneer y ears Hel p i n th e lan
-

gua ge f rom th e H ome B ase P ra y er opened

.

-
.

doors D eli v erance in t i m e o f peril Ke pt

. .
“

by th e power o f G od P rayer and medical .

”

work Con v ert s f rom th e firs t W an g

. .

Fen g ao the p roud Con f ucian sch olar W an g

-
, .

Fu L in th e o p ium fiend
-
, Dr H un t er Cor .

b e tt s t es timon y T h e resul t o f ob edience

.

’
.

F rom th e ga tes o f dea th Lord S andwich s

.

’
.

t es t imony
IV
A G OD G IVE N F I E LD ( 1 89 4 1 900 )
- -

A promise gi v en T h e p romise f ulfilled O u r

grea t need On n ed su pp lied —
.

e v an
.

e e an
gelis t A second need su pp lied — B i b le
.

. a
woman P ayin g th e pri ce f pe tit ion A
. o .

Vl l
viii Conten ts

t ouc h o f h eal i n g A Ch inaman s f ai th —th e ’

locus t st ory ! A Ch ris tian woman s f ai th f or

. ,
’

h er c h ild Our ch ild d ied — a case o f un

answered p rayer A G od o f deli v erances
.

. 28

V
OUR D E LIV E RA N CE FR O M T HE BO ! ER S
( 1 900 )
A clear answer t o pray ers in th e h om e c h urch
Led on t h rou gh dan gers and t rials S a f ely
.

b roug h t th roug h 43

VI
P R OV IN G GO D S FA I T HF U LN E SS ( 1 902 1 908 )
’
-

G od m us t com e firs t A h ard p ropos it ion I n .

th e f urnace Made willin g in th e da y f

.

. o
G od s p ower Tes t imon y t o G od s ab undan t
’ ’

f ai t h f ulness A B i b le woman o f e x ce pt ional

.

-
.

power g i v e G d mee ting th e H om e mesn. o

sa ge Ab undan t f unds p ro
id d
v e A b eau t i f ul ins t ance f G od s wire
. o
“ ’

less A ca se f W h ile th ey are y e t p eak

. o
“
S
i g I will h ear
n T h e li f e made easier A . .

c h i ld s f e v er res trained B lessin g in th e work

’
.

con vert s gi v en A G od sugges ted emed

,

.
-
t
C h inese pre v ailin g p ray er f or Mr G f t . o or
Women sen t t o us D oors f or p reachin g .

o p ened W ork ers su pp lied ab undan t ly K ep t

. .

f rom smallpo x We ma y t ru s t H im w h olly 69 .

V II
T HE S T O R! OF O NE F U RLO U G H
( 91 0) 1 90 8- 1

M ee t in g a cond it ion o f pe titi on —ob ed i ence .

S i x di fficul t doors o p ened T rust in f or

e v eryth in g App les sen t in a b undance Tw i t
.

th e bes t in a b undance A t ele ph one su pp lied

. .
,

A fu r coa t G od s wonder f ul kee p in p ower

. .

’
.
,

a b lessed e xperience H el p f or th e c ild ren s .

’

sewin g A noth er case o f G od s wireless ’ ”

A t imely o ffer A dau ght er s guardian pro

. .

’
.
 Contents

vided case o f th e Lord s lovin gki ndness

. A
’

a red cloth ul t l T man y t o record s er oo

V III
O UR GOD I M PO SS I BLE OF T H E
A b lessed i nciden t f rom Kesw i ck A v erse f o a
hymn v en A g o v erness pro v ided Ra i n
.
'

. .

wit hh d i n answer t o pray er F i v e pounds

e .

sen t S ew in g and pray er A g acious lead

. . r
in g and a g rea t need su pp lied A n inciden t
i n Ti t i More h elp wi th th e sewin g A
.
,

en s n .

sewin g mach ine su p plied A case o f t ub er

.

c ul
os s i h ealed Two inciden t s f p ray er and . o
re v i v al F i fty doll rs en t f f riends in
. a s or
need Ano th er case f s p iri t ual wireless
. o
“ ”

Led t l t k y
.

o a os e .

I!
T 0 Hrs P R A I SE !
Trust in g God t o su p pl y needs H is f a ithf ulness
Prayer and dress T h e rest rainin g p ower o f
. .

p rayer —m son i n t h e G rea t W ar A pra er

.

answered a un dan tl f or on e a t h ome ur

G od gi ”v en si t e losin g words A ll in
.

-
. .

a b i de B i b le s t ud y on pray er
“
.
.

!
V I CT O R! FO U N D
Chi ld h ood y earn i n g s f or th e presence of Ch ri st .

H al f h ear ted con flict wi th sin in earl y ears

-

in Ch ina P ride d b ad t emper . t ly an . ec re

cri t ici ed b y Chi nese women H ow t o li v e
z .

Ch ris t as well as preach h im Hei ht s and .

de pth s f p iri t ual e x perience

o if l g
s . e on
prayer f or th e f ulness o f th e Spi rit T h e .

con ference a t Nia gara u th e Lak e J une -

o - -
,

A spea ker s messa e and lea fle t o

,
’
n
h e V ic tori ou Lif e ri s t accep ted as s .
!

S a v iour f rom th e power o f sin as well as f rom

i t s penal ty Th e joy of real i in g hi s I ndwellin g
. z
P resence A ll summed u in . word Res t on e ,
“

Bi b le s t ud y Lif e f V ic t ory in
”
mg . T - on o
a
,,
ri st
 GETTING T H I NGS FR O M GO D
“
A re no t fi v e s p arrows sold f or t wo f arth
m g s and no t on e o f th em 8 f orgo tten b e f ore
, 1
G od ? Fear no t th ere f ore : e are o f m ore
v alue th an man y sp arrows ”
h e L ord J esus
.

Ch n st .

HE pages o f th is little book deal almost

wholly with j ust on e p hase o f prayer
petition T he record is almost entirely a
.

personal testimony Of w hat petition to my

Heavenly Father h as meant in meeting the
everyday crises Of my li fe .

A prominent Christian worker who read ,

some o f these testimonies in The Sunday

School Times said to th e writer : To em
,

h asiz e getting things from God as you do

p , ,
”
is to make prayer t oo material .

To me this seems f ar f rom true God is .

my Father I am his child A s truly as I de

, .

light to be sought for by my child when he is

cold or hungry ill or in need o f protection
, , ,

so is it with my Heavenly Father .

P rayer has been hedged about with t oo

many man made rules I am convinced that
-
.

G od has intended prayer to be as S imple and

natural and as constant a part o f our spirit
,
2 G od An swers Prayer
ual li fe as the intercourse between a child
,

and his pa r ent in the home A nd as a large .

part o f that intercourse between chi ld and

parent is simply asking and receiving just so ,

is it with us and our Heavenly P arent .

P erhaps however the most blessed ele

, ,

ment in this asking and getting fr om Go d lies

in the strengthening o f f aith which comes
when a definite request has been granted .

What more helpful and inspiring than a ring

ing testimony O f wha t G od h as d on e ?
A s I have recalled the past in writing thes e
incidents on e o f the most precious memories
,

is that of an evening when a number o f

friends had gathered in our home The con .

versation turned on answered prayer For .

more than two hours we vied wi t h on e an

oth er in recounting personal incidents Of
God s wonderful work ;and t h e inspiration of
’

that evening still abides .

A C h ristian mi nister once said to me : I s

it possible that the great God o f the universe ,

the Maker and Ruler o f mankind could or ,

would as you would make out take interest

, ,

in such a trifle as the tri mming o f a hat ! To

”
me it is preposterous l
Yet did not our Lord Jesus Christ say
The very hairs o f your head are all num
” “
bered ;and not on e sparrow is f o r gotten
” “
be fore G od ; and a gain Your heavenly ,
 “
Get ting Thin gs from
!

G od 3

Father knoweth what ye have need o f b efore

”
ye ask him ?
It is true t hat There is nothing too great
f or God s power and it is just as true that
’

”
“
The r e is nothing t OO sm all f or his love !
I f we believe Go d s Word we must believe
’

as Dan Crawford has tersely and beauti f ully

“
expressed it that The God O f the infinite is
,
”
th e God O f the infi n itesimal Yes he .
,

“
Wh o clear th e groundin g b erg
s
A nd guides th e grindin g fl oe ,
He h ears th e cry o f th e li tt le ki t f o x
A nd th e le m m in g f th e snow l o
”

No more wonder f ul testimony perhaps , ,

has ever been given of God s willingness to

’

h elp in every emergency Of li f e th an that ,

w hich Mary Slessor gave when asked to tell ,

“
what prayer had meant to her My li f e .
,
“
sh e wrote is one long daily hourly record
, ,

O f answe r ed p r ayer For physical health

.
,

fo r mental overstrain f or guidance given ,

marvelously for e rr o r s and dangers everted

, ,

f or enmity to the Gospel subd ued f or f ood ,

provided at t h e exact hour needed for every

'

th ing that goes to make up li f e and my poor

service I can testi fy with a f ull and
.
,

o ften wonder stricken awe that I believe

-
,

God answers prayer I kn ow G od on

.

”
swers prayer I
I have been asked the question : Has God
4 G od An swers P rayer
always gi ven you just what have asked
you
”
for ?
O h n o t For him to have done so would
,

have been great unkindness For instance : .

when I was a young woman I prayed f or

three years t hat Go d would grant me a certain
petition Sometimes I pleaded for this as for
.

li f e itsel f so intensely did I want it

, Then .

God showed me very clearly that I was pray

ing against his will I resign ed my will to
.

his in the matter and a few months later God

,

gave what was infinitely bett er I have .

Often praised him for denying my prayer ;

for had he granted it I could never have come
t o China .

Then t oo we must remember that many

, ,

Of our prayers though always heard are not

, ,

granted because O f some sin harbored in th e

li f e or because o f unbelief or Of failure to
, ,

m eet some other Bible recorded condition -

governing prevailing prayer ( See Bible .

S tudy on pages 1 2 9 ,

The f ollowing incidents of answered

prayer are by no means a complete record .

How could they be when no record Of prayer

,

has been kept all these fi f t y years ? Had

there been I doubt not that volumes could
,

have been written to the glo ry o f Go d s grace ’

and power in answering prayer But even .

from what is recorded here I t oo can say , ,

 G etti ng Things from G od
!
5

from a f ull heart , I kn ow G od ans wers

“
He answered prayer : so s w t li th a t I t and
ee s
A mid th e b lessin g f h is w di u hand
o on
'
o s
A nd marv el a t t h miracle I see
e
Th e f a v ours th a t h is lo ve h a th wrought f or
,

P ray on f or th e i m p ossi b le and dare

,

Upon thy b anner th is b ra v e mo tt o bear ,

M y F a th er answers pra y er
‘ ’
.
 E A RL Y LESS O NS IN THE
LIFE O F FA ITH
I lo v e th e Lord b ecause h e h a th h eard
“
,

m y v oice and m y su pplicat ions Psalm .

”
-

HEN a very lit tle child so young I can ,

remember nothing earlier a severe ,

th understo r m passed over our home Terri .

fied I ran to my mother who placed my

, ,

hands together and pointing upward re ,

pe at e d over and over again the one word

”
e sus .

More than fi fty years have passed since

that day but the imp r ession le f t upon my
,

child mind o f a Being invisible but able t o

-
,

hear and help has never been e ff aced

, .

The most precious recollections o f early

childhood are associated with stories told us
by our mother many o f which illustrated the
,

power Of prayer .

O ne that made a specially deep impression

upon me was about our grand f ather who as ,

a little b oy went to visit cousins in the south

o f England th eir home bein g situated close
,

6
8 G od Answers Pray er
what we th en called j umping too th ache I .

ran to my mother f or com f ort b ut nothing ,

S he could do seemed to ease the pain .

The nerve must have become exposed f or ,

th e pain was acute Suddenly I thought .

,
“ ”
Jesus can help me and just as I was with
, ,

m y f ace pressed against my moth er s b r east ’

I said in my heart :
“
Lord Jesus i f you will take away this
,

toothache right now n ow I will be your little

, ,
”
girl for three yea r s .

Be f ore the praye r was well uttered the pain

was entirely gone I believed that Jesus had
.

taken it away ;and the result was that f or

years when tempted to be naughty I was
, ,

a f raid t o do what I knew was wrong lest i f ,

I broke my side o f what I felt to be a com

pact t h e tooth ache would return This little
, .

incident had a real influence over my early

l i fe gave me a constant sense o f the reality
,

o f a divine presence and so helped to prepare

,

m e for the public con f ession o f Christ as my

Saviour a few years later at th e a ge o f ,

eleven .

About a year after my confession o f Ch rist

an incident occurred which greatly strength
ened my f aith and led me to look to God as a
,

Father in a new way .

When Easter S unday m orning came it was

 Early l e ssons in the w e o f Faith 9

so warm only sprin g cloth es could be worn .

My sister and I decided at break f ast that we

would not go t o church as we had only ,

our o ld wint er dresses Go ing to my room

.
,

I turned to my Bible to study it when it ,

opened at the si xth chapter o f Matthew and ,

my eye rested on these words : Why take ye “

thought for raiment seek ye first the king

dom o f God and all t hese th ing s shall be
,
”
adde d unto you .

I t was as i f God spoke the words directly

to me I determined to go to church even i f
.
,

I had to humiliate mysel f by going in my old

winter dress The L ord was true to his
.

promise ;I can still feel the power the resur

rection messages had upon my heart that day
SO long ago And further on the following
.
,

day a b ox came from a distant aunt contain ,

ing not only new dresses but much else that

“
m ight well b e included in t h e all t hese
”
th ings .

An proo f o f God s loving

un forget ab le
’

care cam e to us as a family about this time ,

wh en my parents were face to f ace with a

serious financial crisis I saiah 6 5 : 2 4 was
.

“
literally fulfilled : Be f ore they call I will ,

answer ;and w h ile they are y et speaking I ,

will hear
At that time it is necessary to state we
, ,
 G od An swers Pray er
depended on a quarterly income which came ,

t hrough my mother s lawyer in England

’
.

Unusual circumstances had so drained our

resources that we found ourselves in the ,

m iddle o f the quarter with barely suflic ien t

,
‘

to meet a week s needs My dear mother

’
.

assured us that the Lord would provide ;that

h e would not f orsake those who put their
trust in him Tha t very day a letter came
.

from the lawyer in England enclosing a ,

dra f t for a sum ample to meet our needs till

th e regular remittance should arrive T h is
unexpected and timely dra f t proved to be a
bonus which d id not occur again
, .

Some years later having moved to a

,

strange city a great longing came to do some

,

definite service for my Master O ne day .

there came to the Bible class I attended a call

for teachers to aid in a Sunday school near
,
-

by When I presented mysel f be f ore the

.

supe r intendent o f this Sunday school the fol -

lowing Sunday and o ff ered my services it

, ,

is not much wonder I received a reb ufl for I

’
,

was young and quite unk nown I was told .

that i f I wished a class it would be well for

,

me to find my own scholars I can remem .

ber how a lump seemed choking me all th e

way home that day .

At last determ ining not to be baffled I

, ,
 Early Lesson s in the Life of Faith ll

prayed the Lord to help me get some scholars .

I went f orth praying every step o f the way ,

the f ollowing Saturday a f ternoon ;and can

vassin g just on e short street near our home ,

I received the promise o f nineteen children

for S unday school -
The next day a rath er
.

victorious young woman walked up t o th e

Sunday school superintendent with seventeen
-

child ren f ollowing Needless to say I was

.

given a class .

I n the autumn o f 1 885 th e Toronto M is

sion Union a f aith mission decided to estab
, ,

lish a b r anch m I SSl OI l in th e East End S lums

o f that city Three others with myself were
.

depute d to open this wo r k Everyt hing con .

n ec t ed with it was enti r ely new to me ;b ut

most help f ul and inspiring I f ound it For .

in face o f t r emendous diffi culties that seemed ,

to my inexperienced eyes insurmountable I ,

learned that p r ayer was the secret which

overcame every obstacle the key that un ,

locked every closed door .

I f elt like a child learning a new and won

der ful lesson —3 as I saw benches tables , ,

chairs stove fuel lamps Oil even an organ

, , , , , ,

coming in answer to definite prayer f or these

things But best sight o f all was when men
.

and women deep in sin we r e converted and

, ,

changed into wo r kers f or Go d in answer t o ,

prayer P raise God for t he lessons then

.
 12 G od Answers Prayer
learned which we r e invaluable later when
,

facing the heathen .

Th e time cam e when t wo diverse pat hs lay

be f ore me — on e to England as an artist ; ,

one to China as a missionary Circum

, .

stances made a definite decision most diffi cult .

I thought I had tried every means to find out

God s will for me and no light had come
’

, .

But in a day o f great trouble when my ,

precious mother s v ery life seemed to hang

’

in the balance I shut mysel f up with God s

,
’

W ord praying definitely for h im to guide me

,

to some passage by which I might kn ow his

wi ll for my life My Bible Opening at the fif
.

t een t h chapter O f John s Gospel the sixt eenth

’

verse seemed to come as a message to me :

“
Ye have n ot chosen me but I have ch osen ,

y o u and
,
ordain e d you that ye S hould go and ,
”
bring f orth fruit Going to my dear mother
.

and telling her O f the mes sage God had given

“ ”
me she said : I dare not fight against God
,
.

From that time th e last hindrance f rom

going to C hina was removed Su r ely the .

wonde rful way God has kept his child for

more than thi rty years in China is proo f
“ ”
that this call was not a mistaken on e .

“
In all thy ways acknowledge him and ,
”
he will make plain thy paths ( P rov 3 : .

6,
 Early Lessons in the Lif e of F aith l3

During the summer o f 1 887 a book written

by Dr Hudson Taylor came into my hands
. .

“ ”
I n China s Spiritual Needs and Claims the
’

writer told many instances o f God s gracious ’

provision in answer to prayer The inc i .

dents related impress ed me deeply A little .

later a few weeks be fore my marriage when

, ,

I found I was short fi f ty dollars o f wh at I

would need to be married free o f debt I re ,

solved not to let others know o f my need but ,

to just trust God to send it to me The .

th ought came i f you cannot trust Go d for

this when Hudson Taylor could trust for so
,

much more are you worthy to be a mis

,

sion ary ?
I t was my first experience o f trusting quite
alone for money I was sorely tempted t o
.

give others just a hint o f my need But I .

was kept back f rom doing so ;and though I

had a week or more o f severe testing peace ,

o f mind and the assurance that Go d would

supply my need came at length The an

, .

swer however did not c ome till t h e very last

, ,

n ight be f ore the wedding .

That evening a number o f my fellow work -

ers from the East End Mission called and ,

presented me with a beautifully illuminated

address and a purse Af ter these friends had.

le f t I returned to my home circle assembled

in the back parlor and showed t hem the ad
,
l4 Cod Answers P rayer

dress and the purse un Open ed ! Not for a

moment did I think there was anyt hing in t h e
“
purse till my brother said : ! ou foolish girl,

why don t you open it

’
I opened the purse,

and found it contained a check for fi f ty

d ollars !
This incident has e ver remained peculiarly
precious ;for it seemed to us a seal o f God
upon the n ew li fe opening be fore us
16 G od An sw ers Prayer

years to enter that province from the south ,

and have only just succeeded It is on e o f .

th e most anti f oreign provinces in China

-
.

Brother i f you would enter that province

, ,
”
y ou m us t g o f
or ward on u
y r
o kn ees
.

These words gave the key note to our early -

pioneer years Would that a f aith f ul record

.

had been kept Of God s faith f ulness in an ’

swerin g prayer ! O ur strength as a mission

and as individuals during those years so
,

fraught with dangers and diffi culties lay in ,

th e fact that we did realize the hopelessness

O f our task apart from divine aid .

T he following incident occurred while we

were still outside Honan stu dying t h e lan ,

guage at a S ister mission It illust r ates the .

importance Of p r ayer from the home base f or

those on the field .

My husband was finding great difficulty in

acqui ring the language ;he studied f aith f ully
many hours daily but made painfully slow
,

progress He and his colleague went regu

.

larly together to the street chapel to p r actise ,

preaching in Ch inese to th e people ; but ,

t hough Mr Go f ort h had come to China

.

almost a year be f ore the other missionary ,

the people would ask the latter to speak in

stead o i Mr Goforth saying they understood
.
,

hi m better .
 “
Go o ur Knees
!
Forward on ! l7

On e day just be f ore starting as usual for

,

the chapel my husband said : I f the Lord

,

does not give me very special help in this

lan guage I fear I s h all be a failure as a
m issionary .

Some hours later he returned his face ,

beaming with joy He told me that he real

.

iz ed most unusual h elp when h is turn came to

speak ;sentences came to his mind as never
be fore ;and not only had he made himself
understood but some had appeared much
,

moved coming up a fterward to have further

,

conversation with h im SO delighted and en

.

c ouraged was he with this experience that

h e made a careful note o f it in his diary .

Some two months and a hal f later a letter

came from a student in Kno x College saying ,

that on a certain evening a number o f st u

dents h ad met specially to pray for Mr GO .

forth T he power o f prayer was such and

. ,

the presence o f God so manifestly felt that ,

they decided to write and ask Mr Go forth i f .

any special help had come to him at that time .

L ooking in h is diary h e found that the time

,

o f their meeting corresponded with t hat tim e

o f special help in th e language .

“
I canno t tell wh y th ere s h ould come t o me
A th ou ght o f some on e miles and y ears away ,
I n swi ft ins i s t ence on th e memory ,

Unless th ere i s a need th a t I s h ould pray .

18 G od An swers Prayer
W e are t oo b us y t o Sp are th ou ght
F or day s t o ge th er o f some f riends away
P erh a p s G od does i t f or us —and we ou ght
T o read h is si gnal as a si gn t o p ra y .

P erh a p s j us t th en m y f riend h as fie rc er fi ght ,

A more a pp allin g weakness a decay ,

O f coura g e darkness some los t sense o f ri ght ;

, ,

And so in case h e needs m y pray ers I pra y

, .
”

At last the j oyful news reached us women ,

waiting outside o f Honan that our brethren ,

had secured prope r ty in two centers I t .

would be diffi cult for those in the homeland

to understand what the yea r s o f waiting had
meant to some o f us The danger to those .

dear to us touring in Honan was very great

, , .

For years they neve r le f t us to go on a tou r

without our being filled with d r ead lest they
should never return ; yet the Lo r d in his ,

mercy hea r d our praye r s f or them ; and

,

though o ften in grave dange r none received ,

serious injury This is not a history o f the

.

mission but I cannot forbear giving here one

,

incident illustrating h ow they were kept dur

ing those early days .

Two o f our brethren a fter renting prop ,

e rt y at a to wn just within the boundary o f

Honan and near the Wei Rive r moved in

, , ,

intending to spend the winter there ;but a

sudden and bitter persecution arose just as ,

they had become settled The mission prem .

 “
Go ! r Knees
!
Forw ard on ou I9

ises were attacked by a mob and eve rythi ng ,

was l ooted The t wo men were roughly

.

handled on e being dragged about the court

,

yard They f ound themselves at last left

.

alone their lives spared but everything gone

, , .

Thei r position was serious in the extreme

several days jou r ney away f rom fr iends
’
,

with no money no bedding and no clothes , ,

but those upon them and the cold winter ,

begun .

In their extremity the y knelt down and ,

committed themselves to the Lord And .

according to his promise he delivered them

out o f their distresses ; for even while they

prayed a brother missionary f rom a distant

station was at hand He a rr ived unexpect .

e dl y without knowing what had occurred a

, ,

few hours a fter the looting had taken place .

His coming at such an opportune moment

filled the hearts o f their heathen enemies with
fear Money and good s were retu r ned and
.
,

from that time the violent opposition o f th e

people ceased .

A few month s a fter th e above inciden t

seve ral move d into Honan and a
fam ilie s ,

permanent occupation was e ff ected ;but the

hea r ts o f the people seemed as adamant
against us They hated and distrusted us
.

as i f we were their worst enemies The dis .

20 G od Answers Prayer
t rict in which we settled was known for its
turbulent and anti f oreign spi r it and as a
-
,

band O f missionaries we were f requently in

the gravest danger .

Many times we re alized that we as well as ,

our f ellow workers at the other stations we r e

-
,

kept f rom serious harm only by the over rul -

ing protecting power o f God in answer to

,

the many prayers which were going up f or

us all at this critical juncture in t h e history o f
our mission The f ollowing are concrete ex
.

amples o f how God heard our prayers at this

time .

We had for our station doctor a man o f

splendid gi fts He was a gold medalist with
.
,

years of spec i al training and hospital experi

ence and was looked upon as on e o f the ris
,

ing physicians in the city from which he

cam e I magine his disappointm ent th ere
. ,

fore when month a fter month passed and

,

scarcely a good case came to the hospital .

The pe ople did not know what he coul d do ,

and moreover they were a fraid to trust them

selves into h is h ands We as a little band
.
,

o f missionaries began to pray definitely that

,

the Lord would send cases to the h ospital

which would open the hearts o f th e people
toward us and our message .

I t was not long be fore we saw this prayer

answered beyond all expectation Several .
 Forward on ! our Kne es 2l
!

Go

v ery important cases came a lmost tog eth er ,

on e so serious that the doctor hesitated f or

days be f o r e operating When at last the.

operation did take place the doctor s hands ’

were strengt hened by our prayers the patient ,

came through sa f ely and a f ew days later

,

was going around a living wonder to the

people .

Very much depended upon the outcome o f

this and oth er serious operations Had the .

patients died under the doctor s hands it ’

would have been quite sufficient to have

caused the dest r uction O f the mission prem
ises and the li fe of every missionary Three .

years later the hospital records showed that

there had been twenty eight thousand treat-

ments in on e year .

A gain we kept praying that the L ord

,

would give us converts f rom th e very begin

ning We had heard o f missionaries in I ndia
.
,

C h ina and elsewhere who had worked for

, ,

many years without gaining converts ;but we

did not believe that this was God s will for ’

us. We believed th at it was his pleasure and

purpos e to save men and women through his
human channels and why not from the b e
,

ginning ? SO we kept p r aying and working

and expecting converts and God gave them ,

to us The expe r ience of th irty years has

.

confi rmed this belief .

22 G od An swers Pray er

Space permits the mention o f but two o f

these ea r liest converts .

The first was Wang Feng ao who came -

,

with us into Honan as M r G o fort h s per .

’

sonal teacher He was a man o f high de

.

g r ee equal to the W estern M A and was

, .

on e of the proudest and most ove r bearing o f

C on f ucian scholars He despised the mis

.

sio n arie s and their teaching and so g r eat was

,

his opposition that he woul d beat hi s wi f e

every time she came to see us or listen to our
message But Mr Goforth kept praying f or
. .

thi s man and using all his influenc e to win

,

h im f or Ch r ist .

Be f ore many months passed a great change

had come ove r Mr Wan g ;his p r oud over
.
,

bea r ing manner had changed and he became ,

a humble devout f ollower o f the lowly Naza

,

rene God used a dream to awaken this man s

.
’

conscience — as is not uncommon in Chi na .

O ne night he d r eamed he was st r uggling in a

deep miry pit but t ry as he w
, ould he could
find no way o f escape When about to give .

up in despai r he looked up and saw Mr G0

, .

forth and another missionary on the bank

above him with the ir hands stretched out t o
,

save h im Again he sought for some other

.

way of escape ;but finding none he allowed ,

them to draw him up .

This man later on became M r Go fort h s

, ,
'
 24 G od Answers Prayer
!
f I shall have occasion to S peak of this man
a gain.
!

I n all th e cases o f divine h ealing cited in

this record it will be noted that God healed in
answer to prayer either when the doctors had
done all in their power and h Ope had been
abandoned or when we were out o f reach o f
,

medical aid .

Soon a fter coming to China the Rev Hun .

ter Corbett o n e o f the most de voted and

,

saintly o f God s missionaries gave a testi

’

mony which later was used o f God to save the

writer f rom giving up serv ice in China and
retu r ning home to Canada .

Dr Corbett said that for fi fteen years he

.

had been laid aside every year with that terri

ble scourge o f the East dysentery ;and the
doctors at last gave a definite decision that h e
must return at once to th e homeland and for
sake Ch ina But said th e grand old man
.
,
“
I knew Go d had called me to China and I ,

also kn ew that God did not change SO what .

could I do ? I dared n ot go back on my call ;

so I determined that i f I could not live in

China I could die there ;and f rom that time

”
the disease lost its hold on me .

This testimony was given over twenty five -

years ago when he had been almost thi r ty

,

years in China ! I n January 1 92 0 when , ,

 “
Go Forward ! our Kn ee s
!
on 25

well nigh ninety years o f age th is beloved

-
,

and ho nored saint o f God p assed to higher

service .

For several years I had been aff ected just

as Dr Co r bet t had been and each year th e
.
,

terrible disease seemed to be getting a firmer

hold upon me A t last on e day my husband
.
,

brought me the decision o f the doctors that I ,

should return home And as I lay there ill

.

and weak the temptation came to yield But

, .
,

as I remembered Dr Corbett s testimony and

.
’

my own clear call I felt that to go back would

,

be to g o against my own conscience I there .

fore determined to do as Dr Corbett had

done — leave mysel f in the Lord s hands
.

whether for li fe or for death This happe ned .

more than twenty years ago and since then I ,

have had very little trouble from that dread

disease .

! es the deeper t h e need and th e mor e

, ,

bitter the extremity the greater th e opport u

,

n ity for God to S how fort h his mighty power

in our lives i f we but give him a chance by

,
“
unswerving Obedience at any cost In t h e .

day when I cried thou answeredst me and ,

”
st re n gt h en edst me with strengt h in my soul

( P sa .1 3 8

During our fourth year in China when we ,

were spendin g the hot season at the coast our ,

26 G od Answers Prayer

little son eighteen months old was taken

, ,

very ill with dysentery Af ter seve r al days .

’

fight f or t h e child s li f e came the realization

’

o n e evenin g that t h e an g el o f death was at

,

hand .

My whole soul rebelled ;I actually seem ed

to hate Go d ;I could see nothing but cruel in
justice in it all ;and the child seemed to be
f ast going My husband and I knelt down
.

beside the little one s bedside and he pleaded’

earnestly with me to yield my will and my

c hild to God Af ter a long and bitter strug
.

gle God gained the victory and I told my ,

husband I would give my child to the Lord .

T hen my husband prayed committing the ,

precious soul into the L ord s keeping ’

.

While he was praying I noticed that th e

rapid hard breathing o f the child had ceased
, .

T hinking my darling was gone I hastened ,

for a light for it was dark ;but on examining

,

the child s face I found that he had sunk into

’

a deep sound natural sleep , which lasted

, ,

m ost o f the night The following day h e .

was practically well o f the dysentery .

To me it has always seemed that the Lord

tested me t o almost the las t moment ;then ,

when I yielded my dearest treasure to him

and put my Lord first he gave back th e ch il ,
y
While writing th e above I cam e across an
 Go ! our Kn ees
“ !
Forw ard on 27

e xtract from the Christian O f March 1 2 ,

1 9 1 4 in which th e editor s aid :

,
“
Speaking at the annual meeting o f the
Huntingdon County Hospital Lord Sand ,

wich re f e r red to the power o f spiritual heal

ing and premising that the finite mind cannot
,

measure the power o f the infinite said he ,

‘
looked forward to the day when the spiritual
doctrine o f he aling and the physical d iscov
eries Of science will blend in harmonious
combination to the glory O f God and t he
,

benefit o f hum anity .

 A GO D GI VEN FIELD ( 1 894
- -
1 900 )
Lord th ere i s none b eside th ee t o h elp
,

b e t wee n th e m ig h and h im th a t h a th no
,

s tren gth ;h elp us Lord our G od ;f or we

,

rely on th ee and in thy name are come

,

a gains t th is mul t i t ude ( 2 Ch ron 1 4 :

”
.

HE story Of the Opening o f Changte is

so connecte d by a ch ain Of praye r that to
give isolated instances o f prayer would be to
break the chain .

A f ew months after our arri val in China

an old experienced missionary kindly volun
,

t eered to conduct Mr Go forth and his col .

league who had just arrived through North

, ,

Honan t hat they m ight see the field for

,

th emselves .

Traveling southward by cart they crossed ,

the border into Honan early one morning .

A s my husb and walked beside the carts that ,

mo r ning he felt led to pray that the Lord

,

would give that section o f Honan t o him as

his field The assurance came that h is
.

prayer was granted O pening his daily text.

book he f ound the passage f o r that morning

,

was from Isaiah 5 5 : 8 1 3 Like a precious -

.

28
 A Cod Giv en Fi eld
- 29

promise o f future blessing for that field came

“
the words : A s the rain cometh down and ,

the snow from heaven and returneth n ot ,

thither but watereth the earth and maketh it

, ,

bring f orth and bud that it may give seed to

,

the sower and bread to the eater : so shall my

,

word be that goeth forth out o f my mouth :

it shall not return unto me void .

For Six years however our faith was

, ,

sorely tested .

O f all places Changt e seemed most deter

,

mined to keep out the missionary A nd there .

were other difficulties in the way A presby .

t e ry had been f o r med as others joined us and ,

all matters had to be d ecided by that body .

Two stations that had been opened where a ,

foothold could first be gained required all , ,

and more than all the force we then had SO

, .

f or six years the door to Changte remained

f ast closed But du r ing all those years Mr
. .

Go f orth never once lost sight o f God s prom ’

ise to him nor f ailed to believe it

, .

A gain and again when Mr Goforth and

, .

his colleague visited the city they were ,

mobbed and th r eatened the people showing ,

the utmost hostility But the day came at

.
,

last when the long prayed f or permission

,
- -

f rom the presbytery to open Changte was

g r anted The very next mo r ning found Mr
. .

Go forth en route f or Changte to secure ,

30 G od Answers Prayer

propert y f or a mission site O ften has he .

told how all the way over that day to Chang

,

te he prayed the Lord to open the he arts o f

,

the people and make th em wi lling to give

,

him the property most suitable f or the work .

Within three days o f his reaching Changte

he had thirty fiv e o ff ers o f property and was
-
,

able to secure the very piece o f land he had

earlier chosen as most ideal for the mission .

Thus the Lord did break in pieces the gates

o f brass whi ch had kept us so long from our

prom ised land .

A y ear later I joined my h usband there ,

with our three little children I t was arranged .

that our colleagu e should take charge o f the

outside evangelism while we opened wo r k at
,

the main station .

To understand what it meant for us t o

have our need supplied there should be some ,

knowledge o f what that need was .

W e decided f rom the first that no on e

, ,

should be turned from our doors Mr Go . .

forth received the men in the front guest

room while the women and children came to
,

o ur private quarters During those first .

weeks and months hundreds nay thousands , ,

crowded to see us Day by day we were .

literally besieged Even at meal time our

.
-

windows were banked with f aces .

32 G od An swe rs Prayer

O ne day Mr Go forth came t o me with h is

.

“
Bible open at the promise My God s h all ,
” “
supply all your need and asked : Do we
,

believe this ? I f we do then God can and

,

will supply us with some on e to help pre ach

t o these crowds i f we ask in faith
, .

He prayed very definitely for a m an to

preach With my doubt blinded heart I
.
-
,

thought it was as i f he were asking for rain

f rom a clear sky Yet even while he prayed
.
, ,

God was moving on e t o come to us A day .

or two later there appeared at the mission the

converted Opium fiend Wang Fu Lin whose

,
-
,

conversion has been already recorded .

N 0 one co uld have looked less like the an

swer to our prayers than h e did Fearfully .

emaciated from long years o f excessive

opium smoking rack ed with a cough which
,

three years later ended h is life dressed in ,

such filthy rags as only a beggar would wear ,

he presented a pitiable sight Yet the Lord

seeth not as man seeth .

Af ter consulting together Mr Go forth de .

cided to try him for a few days believing ,

that he co uld at least testify t o the power o f

God to save a man from his opium Soon he .

was reclothed in some o f my husband s C hi ’

nese garments ;and within an h orir or t wo Of

his entering th e mission gate pract ically a ,

beggar he was seated in charge o f th e men s

,
’
 A C od Given Fi eld-
33

c hapel so changed on e could scarcely have

,

recognized him .

From the first day o f his ministry at

Changte there was no doubt in the minds o f
any who heard him that he had indeed been
sent to us by our gracious God for he had in ,

a remarkable degree t he unction and power

o f the Holy Ghost His gi f ts as a speaker
.

were all conse crated to on e Object the win

ning Of souls to Jesus Christ He seemed .

conscious that his days were few and al ,

ways spoke as a dying man to dying men .

L ittle wonder is it therefore that f rom the

, ,

very beginning o f his ministry in our chapel

men were won to Christ Go d spa r ed him to
.

us for th e f oundation laying o f the church at

Changt e then ca lled hi m higher
, .

Mr G o fort h s need was reliev ed by the

.
’

coming o f Wang Fu Lin but n ot mine The

-
, .

remarkable way God had sent him however , ,

gave m e courage and faith to trust God to

give me a Bible woman Those who kn ow
-
.

anyth ing o f m ission work in China will agree

with me that it is far more diffi cult to find
women than men who are able to preach the
Gospel ;or i f able wh o are free for the work
, .

But I was beginning to learn th at God is lirn

it ed only from the human side ;and that h e
is always willing t o g i v e beyond our aski n g ,
34 Go d Answers Prayer

i f the human conditions he h as so plainly

laid down in his Word are fulfi lled .

A short time afte r I had begun to ask my

Heaven ly Father definitely for a Bible
woman Mr Mac G
, . came in from a
tour and hi s first words were :
,
“
Well Mrs Goforth I be lieve we have a
, .
,
”
ready made Bible woman for you !
- -

Then he told me how he had come across a

widow and her son in a mountain v illage wh o ,

had heard the Gospel from a recent convert

o ut o f on e of the other stations This m a n .

had been a member o f the same religious sect

as the wido w and her son When he found
.

Christ he at once thought o f h is friends and ,

went over the mountain t o tell them Mrs . .

Chang received the Gospel gladly She had .

been a preacher in that heathen sect and had ,

gaine d the fluency in speaking and power in ,

holding audiences so necessary in the preach

,

ing o f the Go spel .

The way was soon opened for h er t o come

to me and she became my constant compau
,

ion and v aluable assistant in the women s ’

work during those early years She wit

n esse d a good confession in 1 900 — being
.

strung up by her thumbs when refusing to

deny her Lord Faith f ully sh e served th e
.

L ord as a Bible woman un til the tim e o f her

-
,

death in 1 903 .
 A G od Give n Fie ld
-
35

During the first two or three years at

Ch ang Te Fu we lived in unhealthy Chinese
houses which were low and dam p It was
, .

there f ore thought best that we should have a

good semi f oreign house built for us T he
-
.

wo r k at th is time was so encouraging

converts being added wee kly and sometimes
alm ost daily — that we f eared lest the new
,

house would hinder the work and become a ,

separating ba r rier between ou r selves and the

people We there f o r e prayed that God would
.

make th e new house a means O f reaching the

people—a blessing and not a hind r ance The
, .

answer to this prayer as is often the case

, ,

depended la r gely upo n ourselves We had to .

be made willing t o pay the price that the an

swer demanded .

In other words we came t o se e th at in

,

order that our prayer could be answered we

would have to keep open hou se every day and
all day which was by no means easy Some
, .

assured us it was wrong becau se it would ,

make us cheap in the eyes o f t he Ch inese ;

others said it was wrong because o f the dan
ge r o f in fection to the children But time .

p r oved these objections to be un f ounded .

The very highest as well as the lowest were

received and their friendship won by this
,

means And so far as I can remember our

.
, ,

children never met any contagion because o f

36 G od Answers Prayer

this way o f receiving th e people into our

house .

The climax in numbers was reached in the

spring o f 1 899 when eighteen hundred and
,

thirty five men and several hundred women

-

were received by us in on e day The se were .

first preached to in large bands and then led ,

through the house We have seen evidences

.

o f the good O f this plan in all parts o f our

field I t opened the hearts o f the people

.

toward us and helped us to live down suspi

,

cion and distrust as noth ing else could have

done .

I n May o f 1 898 we started down t o Tien

tsin by h ouseboat with our children for a
, ,

m uch needed rest and change

-
Cold wet .
,

weather soon set in Twelve days later as .

,

we cam e in sight o f T ientsin with a bitter ,

north wind blowing our eldest child went on

,

deck wi t h out h is overcoat in disobedience t o ,

my orders Shortly after the child came in

.

with a violent chill T hat a ftern oon when

.
,

we arrived in Tientsin the doctors pro ,

n oun ced the v erdict pneumonia .

The following day shortly a fter noon a , ,

second doctor who had bee n called in con

,

sult at ion met a f riend on his way from o ur

,

boy s bedside and told her he did not t h ink

’

th e child could live till morning I h ad .

 A God-Given Fi e ld 37

taken his temperature and found it to be 1 06

, .

He was extremely restless tossing in the ,

burning fever Sitting down beside him

.
,

wi t h a cry t o t h e L ord to help me I said dis ,

“
t in ct ly : P you disobeyed me and have ,

thus brought this illness upon yoursel f I .

f orgive you ;ask Jesus to f orgive you and ,

”
give yourself to him .

The child looked at me for a moment

steadily then closed his eyes I saw his lips
, .

move f or a moment ;then quietly he sank into

a sound Sleep When he a woke about dusk
.
, ,

I took his temperatu r e and found it 1 0 1 By

, .

the time the doctor returned it was no r mal ,

and did not rise again A lthough he had .

been having hemorrhage from the lungs this ,

ceased .

I S not Jesus Christ the same yesterday to ,

day and f orever ? Why should we wonder

, ,

the r e f ore at his heal ing touch in this age ?

,
“
According to your f aith be it unto you .

During those early p ioneer years when ,

laying the f oundation o f the Changte Church ,

my own weak faith was O f ten rebuked when

I saw the results o f the simple child like faith ,
-

o f our Chinese Christians Some o f those .

answers to prayer were o f such a n ext raor

din ary character that wh en told in the home
,

land even ministers expressed doubts as t o

,
38 God An swers Prayer

their genuineness But praise Go d I know .

, ,

they a r e true Here are two concrete exam .

ples .

L i ming a warm hearted earnest evangel

-
,
-
,

ist owned land some miles north o f Chang

,

Te Fu O n on e occasion when visiting the

.
,

place he f ound the neighbors all busy placing

,

around their fields little sticks with tiny flags .

They believed this would keep the locusts

from eating their grain All u r ged Li ming .
-

to do the same and to worship the locust god , ,

o r h is grain would b e dest r oyed Li ming .

-

“
replied : I worship the one only true G od ,

and I will p r ay him to keep my grain t h at ,

”
you may know that he only is God .

The locusts came and ate on all sides o f Li

ming s grain but did not touch his When
’
, .

M r Go f o r th hea r d this story he determined

.

t o get f urthe r p r oo f so he visited the place ,

for himsel f and inquired o f Li min g s hea

’
-
,

then neighbo rs what t hey knew o f the matter .

O ne and all testified that when the locusts ,

came their grain was eaten and Li ming s

,
-
’

was not .

The Lord Jesus once said a fter a conflict ,

“
wi th unbelie f and hypocrisy : I thank thee ,

0 Father Lord o f heaven and earth b e

, ,

cause thou hast hid these things from t h e

wise and prudent and hast revealed them ,
”
un to babes .
40 God Answers Prayer

healthy man An d our child died Yet we

. .

had prayed for her as few perhaps have , ,

prayed for any child W h y then was sh e

.
, ,

n ot S pared ? I do not know But I do know .

that there was in my li f e at that time the sin

, ,

Of bitterness toward another and an unwill ,

in gn e ss to forgive a wrong This was quite .

sufficient to hinder any prayer and did hinder ,

for years until it was set right

, .

Does this case o f unanswer ed prayer shake

my faith in God s wil lingness and power to
’

answer prayer ? NO no ! My own child

,

might just as reasonably decide never again

t o come to me with a request because I have ,

in my superior wisdom denied a petition Is

,
.

it not true in our human relationships with

,

o ur children that we see best to grant at one

,
“
time what we withhold at anot her ? What
I do thou kn owest n ot now but thou shalt ,
”
know hereafter .

And on e o f th e most precious experiences

o f God s loving mercy came to me in connec
’

tion with our little Gr acie s death We had ’

.

been warned that the end would probably

come in convulsions ;two Of our dear chil
dren had been so taken O nly a mother who
.

has gone through such an experience can

f ully understand the horror o f the possibility
that such might come again at any time .

One evening I was watching beside our

 A G od Given Field
-
4!

little on e Miss P, being with me when ,

“
suddenly the child said very decidedly : Call
”
Papa ;I want to see P apa I hesitated to .

rouse her father as it was his time to rest ;so

,

I tried t o put her off with some excuse ;but ‘

again sh e repeated her request and so I called ,

her father asking him to walk up and down

,

wi t h her until I return ed .

Go ing into th e next room I cried in an

agony to the Lord not to let Gracie suff er ;
but i f it was indeed his will to take the child
, ,

the n to do so without her su ff ering A s I .

prayed a wonderful peace came over me and ,

the promise cam e so clearly it was as i f

“
S poken : Be fore they call I will answer ;an d
while they are yet spe aking I will hear .

Rising I was met at the door by Miss P

,

wh o said : Gracie is with Jesus While I

“
.

was on my knees our beloved child a f ter rest ,

in g a few moments in her father s arms had

’
,

looked into his f ace with on e o f her loveliest

smiles and then quietly closed her eyes and
,

had ceased to breathe No struggle no pain .

, ,
“ ”
but a falling On sl eep .

Like as a fat her pitieth so th e Lord ,

Ever darkening clouds gath ered about us

-

d uring the months f ollowing G racie s death

’

and while the storm did not burst in all it s

42 G od Answers Praycr

f ury till the early summer o f 1 900 yet the ,

preceding winter was f ull Of forebodings and

constant alarms .

O n one occasion thousands gathered inside

an d outside o ur mission evidently bent on
,

serious mischie f My husband and his col

.

leagues moved in and out all that day among

the dense crowd which filled the fr ont court
yards ; while we women remained shut
within closed houses not knowing what mo
,

ment the mob would b r eak loose and destroy

us all What kept them back that day ?
.

What but trust f ul prayer ! A nd the Lord

heard that day and wonder fully restrained
,

the violence o f our enemies .

W e did not kno w then but those expe ri

,

e n ces were preparing us for th e gr eater tri als

an d perils a waiting us all .

 O UR DELIVERA N C E FRO M
THE B O ! ERS ( 1 900 )
G od is un t o us a G od o f deli v erances
( P sa . R .

“
W h o deli v ered us o ut o f so g ea t a dea th
r
and will deli v er : on w h om we h a v e se t o ur
,

h o pe th a t h e will also s t ill deli v er ( 2 Cor

”

R
.

A NY times we were asked in the home

land to tell the sto r y o f our escape dur
ing the Boxer up r ising and O f ten the ques
,
“
tion was put I f it was really God s power
,
’

that saved you and others on that journey ,

then why did he not save those O f his chil

dren who we r e so c ruelly done to death
For a time this question troubled me .

Why indeed ? O ne day when seeking for

light on the matter I was directed t o the
twel f th chapter o f Act s There I found the
.

only answer that can be given We a r e told

.

in th e second verse that James was put t o

deat h by the sword ;then the rest o f the chap
ter is given to the detailed reco r d o f P eter s
” ’

wonderful deliverance in answer to prayer

( vs
.
5 ,
I n tha t day when all things
shal l be revealed I am convinced we shall
44 G od Answers Prayer

see that had much to do in th e work

pray er
ing out o f our deliverance When the first .

cable was received in Canada in f orming the

home church Of our party starting on that
pe rilous journey we a r e told a great wave
,

o f prayer went up for us fr om Ch r istians of

all denominations The P resbyterian A s

.

sem b ly o f Canada was meeting at the time ,

and on e session was given up entirely to

praye r on behal f o f the missionaries in China .

Never had that body witnessed such a sea

so n O f intense united intercession
, .

Late r when giving the story O f our escape

in t he homeland repeatedly we have had
,

people come to us telling how during the ,

weeks which elapsed between the first cable

in f orming the home church O f our danger ,

and the second cable which told o f our sa f e

,

arrival at the coast they had never ceased to

,

cry to God to save us Then too a fter .

, ,

all is said we must believe God was glorified

,

and God s pu r poses were f ulfilled in the death

’

O f some as in the saved lives o f others The .

blo od of the martyrs is still the seed o f the

Church .

It was in the month of June 1 89 5 that an , ,

incident occurred which has ever been linked

in my mind with the events o f 1 900 I was .

about to leave To r onto with my f ou r chil

dren to j oin my husband in China when a , .
 O ur De liveran c e from th e Boxers 45

cable was received telling o f the cruel massa

cre o f Mr and Mrs Stewart and others
. . .

Deep and widespread sympathy was e x

pressed and much anxie t y f elt for mission
aries generally in China Many urged me .

t o delay our return ;but I felt it best to keep

to ou r original plans and a few days later
,

f ound us bidding farewell t o friends at t h e

Union Station Toronto , .

Just as the train was leaving a lady step

ped f orward quickly to the window and said ,
“
You do not know me but I have prayed ,

the L ord to give me a promise f or you ;it is

”
this take it as from Him and handed me a
, ,

slip o f paper I opened the paper and

.

read No weapon that is formed against

,
”
the e s hall prosper ( I sa 54 : Then and .

there I raised my heart to God in prayer that

he would f ulfil this promise t o me and those
dear to me ;and as I prayed there came the
clear assurance that the L ord heard .

Never can we f orget that winter o f 1 899

1 900 The clou ds had begun to gather and
; ,
,

the mutterings of the coming storm were

heard on all sides o f us Repeatedly we were
-
.

as a mission in gravest danger and at such ,

“
times were lit erally shut up to God The
temper o f the people was such that any little
thing angering them wo uld have been as a
spark to gunpowder
46 God Answ ers Prayer

From th e time o f the gover n ment crisis

o f the autumn o f 1 899 we in company wit h
, ,

all other f oreigners in China realized that ,

conditions we r e becoming Serious yet never ,

did we expect or prepare f or such a cata

cly sm as took place when the storm clouds

suddenly burst in the early summer of 1 900 .

The first indication we had o f coming

danger was whe n our mail carriers r unning
to and from Tientsin were stopped and o ur
mails returned Thus cut O ff fr om the out
.
,

side world we had to depend solely upon the

,

wild rumors afloat among the Chinese f or

in f ormation The country around us became
.

daily more disturbed ;day by day we could

hear the beating o f drums and the cries o f
th e people f or rain T he darkness and
.

horror o f those days in the midst o f which

,

sickness and death entered our home can ,

never be f orgotten O n the nineteenth o f

.

June o ur eldest da ughter Florence a f ter a, ,

week o f intense su ff e r ing was released f rom

,

pain It was while her li f e was still h ang

.

ing in the balance that we received the first

communication f rom the American Consul
in Che f oo u r ging us to flee This message .

was quickly f ollowed by another still more

The question was where could we flee ?

,

O ur usual route was by river boat t wo weeks

48 G od Answers Prayer

Th e day pre vi ous departure a mes

to our

sage pas sed through the city o f Chang Te

Ho the messen ger riding at breakneck S peed
, .

T his messenger we learned later was eu

, ,

route for the P rovincial Capital with the

sealed message from the Emp r ess Dowager
commanding the death o f all foreigners We .

h ad planned first t o take th e direct route

south which would as far as we can n ow
, ,

see have led us t o o ur death for this route

, ,
'

would have taken us through the capital .

Almost at the last moment and quite um ,

aware o f the danger on the direct route ,

we were led t o change our plans and take a

route farther west though it made a c on sid
,

e rab ly longer journey .

W e left Chang Te June 2 8 1 900 at day

, , ,

b reak At Wei Hwei Fu the first large city

.
,

t o which we came an attempt was made to

,

b reak into our inn but as we prayed the mob

,

dispersed and we were le f t in peace O n .

July first we reached the north bank Of t he

Yellow River and there for a short time ( it
,

was Sunday a f ternoon ) we rested under t h e

trees Little did we dream t hat even then
.

many very many o f our fellow m issionaries

, ,
-

and personal f riends were being done to

death by th e merciless Boxe rs At sun set .

t he ferr y which carried us across the river

reached th e south bank and here we foun d ,
 Our D e liveran c e from th e Boxers 49

several missio n aries and a part y o f en gineers

waiting for us These latter were fully
.

armed and h ad a fair escort A fter some .

di fficulty it was decided that we should all

keep together but in reality th is party kept
,

by themselves except th at we stayed in the

,

same towns at night Each day that passed .

seemed harder than th e last the heat was ,

intense and the ten or twelve hours o f bump

,

ing over rough roads in springless carts

made even a be d spread on the ground a
welcome resting place -
.

O nce when Mr Go forth had jumped O ff

, .

o ur cart to get fres h water for our head

cloths a crowd gathered round him and b e

,
“
came very threatening raising the cry Kill , , ,
”
kill
. All the other carts were ahead and ,

th e carter would not wait for Mr Goforth .

,

as he was a fraid During the few moments

.

that elapsed before my husband was allowed

to j oin us even the carter turned pale with
suspense and oh h ow I prayed !
, ,

Except for a few S imilar passing dangers ,

nothing special occurred until the evening

o f July se v enth when we reached t he small
,

town o f Hsintien We had heard during the

.

da y that th e whole country ahead o f us was

in a state o f ferment a gainst th e Roman
C atholics S carcely had we reached the inn
.

when th e engineers and t h e m issionaries with

50 G od Answers Pray er

them wh o had become increasingly alarmed

at the condition o f the count ry in f o r med us ,

that they we r e going on t o the la r ge city o f

Nan Yang Fu that ni ght but would leave ,

us two soldiers and two o f their carts Mr . .

Go f o r th did not wish them to go for he felt ,

it would greatly increase our danger .

Shortly a fter they le ft us the mob began

to gathe r outside our inn The gate was .

bar r icaded with carts For hou r s stones

.

were thrown against t he gate and demand

was made f or our money A messenger was .

at once sent a f ter the engineers party ask ’

ing them to return All that night was

.

spent in sleep less suspense .

Early in the mo r ning the messenger t e

turn ed with the reply that th ey had f ailed t o
get help fr om the Nan Yang F11 official and
were obliged to push on A s soon as th e .

carters heard we we r e thus left helpless a

panic seized them and it was with great diffi
,

culty they could be pe r suade d to harness their

animals All this time the crowd had been
.

becoming more dense as we could see ,

through the cracks o f the gate and were ,

ominously quiet Hints had been given us

.

o f coming danger but that was all ;none

,

spoke o f what all f elt that we were prob

,

ably going to our death .

Suddenly without the slightest warni ng

, ,
 Our De liveran ce from the Boxers 5l

I was seized with an overwhelming fear o f

what might be awaiting us It was not the .

f ea r o f after death but o f probable tortu re

, ,

that took such aw f ul hold o f me I thought .

,
“
Can this be the Ch r istian courage I have
”
looked for ? I went by mysel f and prayed
fo r victo ry but no help came Just then
, .

some one called us to a room f or prayer b e

f ore getting into our carts Scarcely able to .

walk f or t r embling and utterly ashamed ,

that others should see my state o f panic ,

for such it undoubtedly was I managed ,

to reach a bench beside which my husband

stood He drew from his pocket a little
.

”
book Clarke s S cripture P romises and
,
’
,

read the verses his eye first fell Upon They .

were the f ollowing

“
The eternal God is thy refuge and under ,

neath are t he everlasting arms : and he shall

th r ust out th e enemy fr om be fore thee ;and
”
S hall say Destroy them
, .

“
The G od o f Jacob is our refuge .

Thou art my help and my deliverer ;

”
make no tarryi ng O my God , .

“
I will strengthen the e ;yea I will help ,

thee ;yea I will uphold thee with the right

,

hand o f my righteousness The Lo r d thy .

God wil l hold thy right hand saying un to ,

thee Fear not ;I will help thee

, .

“
I f God be for us who can be against us ?
,
52 God An swers Prayer

We may boldly say The L ord is my ,

helper and I will not f ear w hat man sh all do

,
”
un to me .

The e ff ect of these words at such a time

was remarkable All realized that God was
.

speaking t o us Never was there a message

.

more directly given to mortal man f rom his

God than that message to us From almost .

th e first verse my whole soul seemed flooded

with a great peace ;all trace of panic van
ish ed ;and I felt God s presence was with us
’
.

I ndeed his presence was so real it could

,

scarcely have been more so had we seen a

visible form .

Af ter prayer we all got on our carts and ,

o n e by one passed out into the densely crowd

ed street A s we approached the city gate

.

we could see that the road was black with

crowds awaiting us I had just remarked to .

my husband on how well we were getting

through th e crowds when our carts p assed ,

th rough the gates My husband turned pale.

as he pointed to a group o f several hundred

men f ully armed awaiting us They waited

, , .

till all the carts had p asse d through the gate ,

then hurled down upon us a shower of stones ,

at th e same time rushing f orward and maim

ing or killing some o f the animals Mr . .

Go f orth jum ped down from our cart and

cried to them Take everything but don t
, ,
’
 Our De liverance from the Boxers 53

kill
. His only answer was a blow The .

confusion that followed was so great it would

be impo ssible to describe the escape o f each
on e in detail Each one later had his or her
.

own testimony o f that mighty and merci ful

d eliverance But I must give the details o f

.

M r G o fort h s experience
.
’
.

O ne man struck him a blow on the neck

with a great sword wielded with two hands .

“ ”
Somehow the blunt edge o f the sword
struck his neck ;the blow left a wide ma r k
almost around his neck but did no f urther ,

harm Had t h e sharp edge struck his neck

.

he would certainl y have been beheaded !

His thick helmet was cut almost to pieces ,

on e blow cutting through the leather linin g

just ov er t h e t emple but without even

,

scratching the skin !

Again he was felled to the ground with a ,

fear f ul sword cut which entered the bone o f

,

the skull behind and almost cle f t it in two .

A s he f ell he seemed to hear distinctly a

“
voice saying Fear not they are p r aying
, ,
”
for you Rising f rom this blow he was
.
,

again struck down by a club A s he was .

falling almost unconscious to the ground he

saw a horse coming at full spe ed toward
‘

him ; when he became conscious again he

found the horse had tripped and f allen ( on
level ground ) so near that it s tail almost
54 G od Answe rs Pray er

touched him The animal kicking f uriously

.
, ,

had served as a barrier between him and his

assailants While dazed and not knowing
what to do a man came up as i f to strike but ,
“ ”
whispe r ed Leave the carts
, By that time .

the onlooke r s began to rush f o rward to get

the loot but the attacking party f elt the
,

thi ngs were theirs so desisted in their at

,

tack upon us in order t o secu r e thei r boo ty .

A word as to mysel f and the children .

Several fierce men with swords jumped on

my cart O ne struck at the baby but I
.
,

parried the blow with a pillow and the little ,

f ellow only received a slight scratch on the

f orehead Then they d r opped their swords
.

and began tearing at our goods at t he back

o f th e cart Heavy boxes were dragged over
.

us and everything was taken Just then a

, .

dread f ul looking man t r ied t o reach us fr om

the back of the cart with his sword missing ,

by an inch I thought he would come to the

.

f ront and continue hi s attack but he did not , .

I had seen Mr Go f o r th sink to the ground

.

covered with blood twice and had given him

,

up f or dead Just then P aul who had been

.
,

in the last ca r t j umped in wild with delight

, ,

at what he seemed to think was great f un ,

for he had run through the thick o f the fight ,

dodging sword thrusts f rom all sides and ,

had succeeded in reaching me without a

56 G od Answers Prayer

By this time Mr Goforth had sunk to th e

.

ground P utting the baby in an old woman s

.
’

arms I knelt do wn beside my husband Th e

, .

children were crying bitterly Mr Go f ort h . .

loo ked as i f he were dying The women .

standing round us were weeping now This .

was t oo much for t h e men who came for ,

“ ”
ward saying We will save you
, O ne ran .

and got some stu ff t o put in the wounds as ,

suring us it would stop th e flow of blood and ,

it did This man he lped me to bandage up

.

th e wounds with bandages made from gar

m ents taken from mysel f and the ch ildren .

They helped my husband and we followed ,

th em into a little hut where they laid him on

,

a straw bed and locked us in Hot water f or .

bathing our bruises food and drink were

,

handed us through a small window and we ,

could hear them plannin g how they woul d

save us We told them how anxious we were
.

t o hear o f our f riends and little Ruth so the y ,

sent a man to inquire .

W e found that these people the whole

v illage—were Mohammedans and had taken ,

no p art in the attack W e felt that God had

.

wonder fully directed our s t eps to that village .

All that day Mr Go forth lay still but

. ,

looked at times so v ery white that I feared

the worst Never f or on e moment I believe
. , ,

during th at day did I cease to pra y for h is

r
 Our De liveran c e from the Boxe rs 57

li fe And when Mr
. on e o f o ur party
.
,

arrived about four o clock looking f or us Mr

’

, .

Go f orth at once got up as i f pe rfect ly well ,

insisting on walking to the cart TO me .

,

knowing how he had looked that day it ,

seemed only a miracle His o nly answer t o .

“
my prote st was O nly pray ;th e Lord will
,

give me stren gth as long as he h as work for

,
”
me to do .

A s we were leav ing the kind friends o f the

,

v illage gathered round insisting on my taking

some old clothes to put round the children ,
“
who were alm ost naked saying I t will , ,
”
b e ch illy at night A s we went forward to
.

join the others Mr , told us how on e by

.

on e all had escaped Dr was the only

. .

on e beside Mr Gofort h seriously injured the

.
,

poor fellow h aving had h is kneecap severed

and the tendons o f his right wrist badly cut ,

besides many oth er wounds .

All that day our friends had been waiting

by the roadside unable to proceed without
,

carts owing to the doctor s condition T hey

,
’
.

had joined in on e petition that Go d would ,

m ove the carters to come Those who know .

Chi na and h eathen carters will readily ac

knowledge that it was nothing Short o f a mir
—
ac le the miracle o f answered prayer that —
made these heathen carters come after all ,

they had already gone through For come .

58 G od An swers Pray er
they did five o f them all that were needed
, , ,

n ow that our luggage was gone We learn ed .

t oo that o ur f aith f ul Chinese nurse wh o

, ,

had cha r ge o f Ruth had saved the child at

,

the risk o f her own li f e lying upon t he child

,

and taking many cruel blows till greed f or ,

l oot d r ew the men off .

We soon joined the rest O f the party and ,

by six o clock that evening we reached the

’

la r ge ci t y o f Nang Yang Fu The city wall .

was black with people and as we entered the

,

gate the wild crowds crushed against our

cart s Sometimes the animals staggered and
.
,

it seemed as i f nothing could save the carts

from b eing overturned Every moment o r .

t wo a brick or stone would be hurled against

” “
the carts and that cry Kill kill which can
, , , ,

never be forgotten when once h eard was ,

shout ed by pe r haps hundreds o f voices Yet

“
th e L ord brought us through and no ,

weapon prospered .

Wh en we reached the inn a wild mob o f

over a thousand men filled the inn yard ;and
as we alighted from the cart these men liter
ally drove us be f ore them into on e room ,

which in a few mom ents was packed to suff o

cation For probably an hour the crowd
.

kept crushin g us into one corner ;then those

outside became impatient at not being able t o
get in and demanded that we be b r ought out
,
.
 Our De liverance from th e Boxers 59

We managed to keep some o f the ladies f rom

going out ;but the rest o f us men women , ,

and children stood f acing that seething

multitude until relie f came in the darkne ss .

Why did they not kill us th en ? Why in ,

deed None but an A lmighty God kept that

?

crowd back .

As soon as we had reached the city a ser

vant was sent to the o fficial demanding p r o
t ec t ion It was dark when this man returned
.
,

in a state o f g r eat a g itation ;his story was

that as he was waiting f or an answer f rom
the o fficial he overheard a conversation b e
tween two soldiers and gathe r ed f rom what
,

they said that the offi cial had sent a party of

fi f ty soldiers along the road that we would
have to take with the order that every on e o f
,

us must be put to death The Offi cial was

.

a fr aid to have us killed in the city lest he

should a f terward be blamed ;but by this plan
he could say brigands had done the deed SO
sure was this servant that we were all to be
massac r ed that he would remain with us no
longer but re turned that night to Honan
,

with the report that we were all killed .

A consultation was held and the question

,

was should we stay in the city and again de

,

mand protection o r should we go on and

,

trust God to open our way ? Th e latter course

was decided upon But for a long time the
.
60 G od An sw ers Prayer
carters utterly refused to go fart her with
us Again prayer Opened up our way an d
.
,

by t wo o clock in the morning all were ready

’

to start .

The ofli cial had sent a few foot soldiers t o -

g uide us t o t h e rig h t road ! ( t o the waylaying

party ) The n ight was very dark and as we
.
,

were pa ssi n g through the gate o f the city we

noticed what seemed to be sig nal lights put
out and dra wn in We all felt these to be
.

sig nals to the waylayi n g party ahead A .

short distance from the city probably about ,

on e hundred y ards our carts suddenly

,

stopped Some on e ran up and whispered t o

.

“
Mr Go forth P aul and Mr
.
, are mis s
.

ing . Search was made for th em but ,

without succe ss .

A veil must be d rawn Over those terrible

hours o f suspen se ;my f aith seemed to f ail
“
me and I could onl y c ry in my agony I f
, ,
”
P aul is gone can I ever trust God a g ain ?
,

Then I remembered h ow marvelously God

had give n me back my dear husband s li f e ’

and I just committed Paul into his hands and

waited to see what he would do .

W hen all hope was given up of finding the

missing ones a cart was le f t behind with a
,

trusted servant and we went on T hen we

, .

saw God s wonder f ul plan f or us While we

’
.

were waiting the s oldiers had f allen asleep in

 Our De liverance fro m the Boxers 6]

the carts and were not aware that the carters

,

were taking a side road until we had gotten

miles f rom the city and be yond the reach o f
our would b e murderers !
-
The soldiers were
infuriated at this discovery ;but after some
threatening they left us and returned to the
city Thus again we saw that God was in
.

“ ”
deed unto us a God o f deliverances .

Again and again that day we were sur

rounded by mobs Many times I held up th e
.

poor dirty cloth es which th e Mohammedans

,

had given us and the story o f h ow these had

,

been given quieted th e people per haps more

than anything O nce the cry was raised to
.

drag our children s nurse out o f the cart ;but

’

as we cried to God for her th e people let us

alone and we passed on At another time a
, .

man snatched the remains o f Mr G o fort h s .

’

helmet away from us and tore it to pieces I

, .

had hoped to keep it as a trophy should we

e ver get out safely .

We were at this time in a pitiable condi

tion Most o f the men had head or arms
.

bandaged ;Dr was unable to raise h is

.

head What we su ff ered in those carts with

.

nothing but the boards under us ca n not be

told Nine persons were packed in our cart
.
,

which under ordinary circumstances woul d

have held f our or five At noon we reached .

a large city where the animals had to rest and

,
62 G od An swers Prayer

feed Then again we saw an evidence o f the

.

Lord s loving kindness over us

’
.

Just as we were getting down from our

carts th e crowd became very threatening and ,

it looked now as i f our hour had indeed

come ;but at this critical junctu r e two well
dressed young men o f official class came
through the crowd greeting M r Go forth in
, .

great surprise They had been received by

.

him in our home at Chang Te HO A few .

words o f explanation were spoken t hen they ,

turned quickly to the crowd and told them

who we we r e and o f the wo r k at Chang Te
H0 The attitude Of the people ch anged in
.

st an t ly and they made way for us gi v ing us

, ,

good roo ms and food was brought wh i ch

,

was greatly needed .

That noon as one a fter another came up

,

t o express their sympathy at P aul s loss I

’

coul d say nothing — I was waiting to see

what God would do When Mr Go fo rth . .

told the young O fficials about Paul and M r .

they were greatly concerned an d ,

promised to send men at once to sea r ch f or

them T hese friends in need sent with us a
.

man o f t he district to guide and help us and ,

also wrote an urgent letter to the Official o f

the city we were to stay in that night asking ,

him to give us an escort and help us in every

way he could .
64 G od Answ ers Prayer

us protection and sent h im back to the inn

,

under escort .

When P aul and Mr arrived that .

night they tried in vain to wake me but

, ,

nature had to have her way I kne w nothing .

till I wakened with a start at about two A M . .

Jumping up I started to look f or P aul and

, ,

never can I forget the scene ! The whole

party was lying on the bare earthen floor ,

practically without bedding or mattresses .

A word concerning the experiences of Mr .

and P aul The two had got down .

from their cart and were walking behind In .

some way they missed the road in the dark ,

an d becam e separated from us During that .

d ay they were repeatedly in the gravest

danger .

O n one occasion when surrounded by a ,

violent mob and on e man had raised a club

,

above P aul s head to strike him down Mr

’

, .

felt impelled by some unseen power to

“
shout out We are not Roman Catholics
, ,
”
but P rotestants At this the man lowered
.

“
his club exclaiming Why these are not the
, , ,

bad foreign devils but th e good foreign ,

devils like those missionaries at Chow Chi a

,
”
K eo ( China Inland Mission ) At this same
’
.

place the hearts o f the people seemed turned

toward them in a wonder f ul way O ne man .

gave P aul one hundred cash ( five cents ) to

 Our D eliveranc e from the Boxers 65

b uy some f ood ;another man carried the lad

on his back f o r miles to give his feet a rest ,

they were so sore This same man when he

.
,

could carry P aul no longer ran ahead to try ,

and find us When they reached the inn

.

where we had been so helped by the two Chi

nese gentlemen they f ound that these friends
,

had food prepared and a barrow waiting also ,

a guide ready to lead them to us !

Le ss t han an hour from the time I awak
ened we were on the road again The o fficial .

was true to his promise and a large mounted ,

escort a ccompanied us T hat day we were .

on the road twenty h ours reachi ng Fan ,

Cheng at midnight Here we found the en .

gineers party waiting for us with boats

’

hired but we were obliged to remain twenty

,

four hours in the most loathsome inn we ever

h ad the mis f ortune to be in in China I t was .

an unspeakable relie f t o get into the house

boats even though we only had bare boards
,

to lie on and the boat pe ople s food to eat

,
’
.

W e were ten days going down stream to

,

Hank ow O ne after the other became ill

. .

When still a day from Hankow a steam tug ,

met us with provisions O ur children c r ied

.

at the sight o f b read and milk ! We were not

allowed to stop long enough at Hankow as ,

we had hoped to get clothes and other meces

,

saries but were obliged to hasten on by t h e

,
66 G od Answers Prayer
first steamer which le f t the f ollowing morn
,

ing I was obliged to bo r row garm ents f or

.

myself and the children from our f ellow

passenge r s .

At Shanghai the st r eets were being pa r ad

ed and eve ry p r eparation was being made
,

fo r an attack We learned with deep so r row

.

o f the death o f many dear fr iends at the

hands o f the Boxe r s O rde r ed home by the .

first steamer without anything le f t to us but

,

the old clothes we had on at the time o f the

attack how could we get ready in such a
,

short time f or the long home voyage ? The r e

was no lack o f money f or our Board had ,

cabled all we needed The question that .

faced us was how could I get clothes made

f o r six o f us in such a short time with Chi ,

nese tailors too busy to help no machine to ,

be had and no ready made clothes to be

,
-

bought except f or Mr Go f orth and P aul . .

A gain I f ound that man s ext r emity was ’

but God s Oppo rtunity He was true to his

’
.

“ ”
promise G od s h all supply all your need
, .

Even as I knelt in an agony o f prayer b e ,

se ec hin g God s help and asking definitely

’

that some one should be sent to me to help

with the sewing two ladies were at the door,

asking f or me ! Thes e were per f ect strang

e r s but had seen our name s among the recent
,

re f ugees and God had moved them to come

,
 Our De live ran ce from the Boxers 67

and o ff er th eir assistance ! They worked for

me night and day unt il we had to get on
bo ard the steamer Never shall I forget their
.

Christian fellowship and practical help at

But in the rush to get the older chi ldren

ready baby Wallace s clothes were neglected
,
’
.

There was nothing for it but to take materi

als and make things for him on the voyage .

In this connection came a most wonder f ul

and precious evidence o f God s power to an ’

swer prayer For the first f ew days o f the

.

journey I worked early and late trying to

make something for the little on e who had ,

scarcely anyt hing to wear ;but as we were

nea r ing Yokohama I realized I had almost
reached the end o f my strength My needle .

re f used to work ;try as I would I could n ot

even see where to put the nee dle .

Folding up my work I went down to the

stateroom and kneeling down I spread the
,

work be fore the L ord T oo far gone t o

.

agonize in prayer I could only quietly al

, ,

most mutely just tell him how the poo r child

,

had no clothes Rising with a great sense of

.

the burden having been li fted I put the work ,

away locking it in a trunk then went up on

, ,

deck and lay down almost insensible f rom ex

h aust ion How long a time passed I do not
.

know but it could not have been more than

,
68 G od Answers Pray er

half an hour when some on e came and

touched me saying We have d r opped an
, ,

chor in Yokohama Bay and a la r ge bundle ,

has been thrown up on deck from the lighter

”
for you .

“
For me ! I cried Surely n ot ;I know
.

”
no on e in Japan T hen I thought It is
.
“
,

th e answer come !
Going down I found a letter from M rs .

D E o f the China Inland Mission

. .
, She .

said that her little son the same age as baby

,

Wallace had died four month s be f ore and

, ,

t he L ord had pressed her to send his com

p et e outfit to me for my chi ld ! O pening the

l
parcel I found not only everything the child
,

could possibly need for a year or mo r e but ,

much else Had some on e sto od beside that

.

dear sister and told her what I most needed ,

sh e could not have done di ff erently Yes .

,

surely Some O ne did direct her loving hands ,

and Some O ne just used her as on e o f his

channels ;f or she lived near t o him and was ,

an open chann el .

Three days later my own collapse cam e ;

but p r aise his great name he was with me in ,

t h e darkness and brought me through .

 P R O VING GO D S FA I T HFUL NE SS ’

( 1 90 2
-
1 90 8 )
“
Th e sa f est place i s th e pa th of duty .

NE o f the resul ts o f our gracious and

me rci f ul delive r ance f rom t h e hands o f
the Boxers was an increased desire to make
our lives te ll in the service o f G od to
S pend and be spent for him O ur Heave n ly .

Fathe r saw this and just t ook us at our word ,

and led us out into the path which meant ab

solute surrender as I had never known it
be f ore .

It is so true that Go d will b e no man s ’

”
de btor When he asks f or and receives our
.

all he gives in return that which is above

,

price his own presence The price is not .

great when compared with what he gives in

return ;it is our blindness and o ur unwi lling
ness to yield th at make it seem great .

The f ollowing story has been asked for

many times Believi n g that it has a lesson
.

f or othe r s I give it though to do so means

, ,

li fting the veil from a very sacred part o f my

li f e .
70 Go d Answe rs P ray er
A fter the Boxer experience my husband ,

returned to China in 1 90 1 ; and with my ,

child ren I le f t for China in the sum

,

mer o f 1 90 2 leaving the two eldest chil

,

d r en at the Che f oo schools en rout e ,

to Honan Mr Go forth met me at Tien

. .

tsin and together we traveled by river

,

bo at inland a journey o f about twenty f our -

days During those long quiet days on the

.
,

ri ve r boat my husband un f olded to me a

-

carefully thought out plan for future mis

sion work .

He reminded me that six missio naries ,

from a mission station wh ich had been de

-

stroyed by the Boxers were now pe rma ,

n en t ly stationed at Ch angte ; and that the

main station now fully equipped no longer

, ,

n e ede d us as be fore He f elt that the time

.

had come when we should give ourselves t o

the evangelization o f the great regions north
and northea st o f Changte — re gions which
up to that time had been scarcely touched by
the Gospel because o f lack o f workers His
,
.

plan was that we husband and wi f e with ,

our children should go and live and work

among t he people .

To make this possible a native compound

would be rente d in th e center where we ,

would stay a month f or our first visit leaving ,

behi nd an evangelist to carry on the work ;

72 Go d Answers Pray er
The very day a f ter reaching home our dear
Wallace was taken ill For weeks we f ought
.

f o r his li f e ;at last the crisis passed and he

began to recover Then my husband started
.

o ff alone on his first trip ! He had been gone

only a day or two when our precious baby
Co nstance a year old was taken down with
, ,

the same disease that Wallace had From the .

first there seemed little or no hope The .

doctors a nurse and all the little mission

, ,

circle joined in the fight for her li f e Her .

father was sent for but arrived just as she

,

was losin g consciousness A few hours later .

,

when we were kneeli n g round her bedside

waiting f or the end my eyes seemed sud
,

de nly opened to what I had been doing I

h ad d ared t o fig h t ag ain st A lm ig h ty G od.

In the moments that f ollowed Gyod revealed

himsel f to me in such love and majesty and
glory that I gave mysel f up to him with un
speakable j oy Then I knew that I had been
making an aw
.

ful mistake and that I could ,

indeed sa f ely trust my children to him wh e r

ever he might lead O ne thing only seemed
plain that I must follo w whe r e God should
,

lea d I saw at last that God must come first

. .

Be f ore the precious body was laid away pre

ar t ion s f or our first trip were begun
p a .

Was God f aith f ul to the vision he had

given me ? O r did he allow the children
 ’

Proving God s Fai thfuln ess 73

to suff er in the years that followed when ,

months each year were spent with them

right o ut among t h e people ? A s I write
this eighte en years have passed since we
,

sta rted on that first trip and none o f our chil

,

dren have died Never had we as little sick

.

ness as during that li f e Never had we so

.

much evidence O f God s f avor and blessing in

’

a hundred ways as may be gathered f rom

the definite testimonies which f ollow .

Without on e exception every plac e in ,

which we stayed for a month and Opened as ,

my husband had planned became in time a ,

growing church .

A nd I found t o my surprise that I was

, ,

able to give mo r e time to the child r en that I ,

was able to guard them better when on those

trips than when in t he Ch angte Station For .

the mission compound was large and o f ten ,

the children were out of my sight f or hours

at a time ;whereas the outside native com
pounds we lived in were so small the children
were always within sight and r each Even .

when groups O f women were listening t o the

Gospel I was able to di r ect the children s
,
’

lessons A s I look back on that time my

. ,

heart is filled with overflowing gratitude to

God f o r the wonderful grace and strength he
gave for that li f e .

My great regret is that I did not keep a

74 G od Answers Pray er

record O f answe rs to prayer I find it most .

d iffi cult to record j ust what asking and get

”
ting things f rom Go d meant at that time ,

but it now seems to me to have been the very

f oundation o f the whole li f e The instances .

o f answers to p r ayer here recorded are sim

, ,

ply the Ones connected with that li f e which

stand out most clearly in my memory o f
those years .

The first answer came the morning a fter

our dear Constance died and was the on e,

that had the greatest most far reaching e ffect

,
-

on the new li f e and its work .

A s I thought o f f acing the crowds o f

heathen women day by day and what it ,

would mean to carry on aggressive evangel

ism outside there was on e need I f elt must be
,

met that o f a Bible wom an A s I prayed

-
.

f o r di r ection a Mrs Wang Hsieh shen g

, .
-

came to mind as th e on e I should ask .

But when I laid my request be f ore her ,

that sh e come with me she burst into tears, ,

“
saying : I dare not I have only on e child
.

”
le ft and it would risk her li f e too much
, .

Seeing how she f elt I did not urge her but

, ,

told her to go and pray about it f or a day ,

and bring me her answer a f ter the funeral

that night When she came that evening
.

her face was shining through tears as sh e ,

 Provin g G od s Fai thfulness 75
’

said : O my S hepherd Mother I will go I f , .

you are willing to risk your childr en for

the sake o f my sisters how much more ,

should I !
Eighteen years have passed sin ce t hat day .

I would need to write a volume to record all

t hat Mrs Wang meant to me in those years
.

yes and to t h e work A s the years passed

, .

sh e became my beloved compan i on sharing ,

in all t h e responsibilities and hardships o f

that li f e and also in its j oys I real iz ed more
, .

and more that sh e was indeed a God given -

co worker
-
Though circumstances have led
.

me a way f rom t hat li fe she still remains and

,

works for her sisters in the Changte Church .

O ne o f th e hardest words a missionary can

“
get f rom his Home Board is t h e word re
”
trench . My husband and I were on on e o f
o ur evangelistic tours north o f Chan gte .

Every door seemed wide open be fore us and ,

th e time ripe for a specially aggressive cam

p gn o f evan gelism for th e heathen
ai But .
,

j ust as we were planning f or this word ,

reached us f rom our station treasurer o f a

m essage received from the Home Board that
f unds were low and retrenchment must be
,

carried out along all lines .

To us this meant dismissing helpers and a ,

g eneral curtailin g o f our work We face d ,

76 G od Answers Prayer

the question squarely O ur own tithe had .

been long overdrawn How then could we .

support the men we had and go on with the ,

wo r k which was opening so glo r iously be f ore

us a fter years o f hard pioneer preparation ?
But we decided to go on as we had planned ,

and to t r ust God f o r the necessary f unds ;

believing that though for the time being the
,

home church had disappointed us God would ,

not f ail us .

The f ollowing Friday a home mail reached

us in which was a letter f rom a lady in New
,

Z ealand The write r said she had r ead a

.

letter o f ours in The L ife o f Faith and ,

wished to support an evangelist under us .

This relieved us o f the support o f one man ,

but there were many other needs as yet

unmet .

The f ollowing Monday when our next ,

mail was f orwa r ded to us a letter came f rom ,

a lady in Australia enclosing a dra f t ample

,

to meet every special need in the wo r k f or a

year to come She stated very plainly that
.

she did not wish the money put into the

general f unds o f the mission but to be used ,

by ou r selves in any way we thought best I n .

deed had sh e kn own the special circum

,

stances in which the letter would find us she ,

could scarcely have writt en more exactly t o

fit our case .
 Provin g God s Faithfuln ess
'

77

Again a year after this experience o f

,

God s f aithfulne ss t o meet all our needs we

’

began to f eel the need o f special f unds f or

the work My husband as usual seemed
.
, ,

quite su r e that we s hould keep on as we h ad

been doing and that the money needed would
,

be sent In spite o f all the blessed lessons o f

.

the past my f aith seemed to f ail me ;and I

,

spoke decidedly against using our salary ,

when we ne eded it all f or ourselves and our

child r en s education We were traveling
’
.

homeward by ca rt at the time and the matter

was dropped ;though I felt my husband was
hurt by my lack O f f aith .

When we reached home t hat evening a , ,

letter fr om a la dy in Canada was awaiting

my husband He read it first ;and I cannot
.

f orget the l ook on his f ace as he handed it to

“ ”
m e with the words I told you so
, .

A s near as I can recall it the lette r said “

My mother and I are strangers to you never ,

having seen o r heard either you or your wi fe .

But my mother who is an invalid has for

, ,

some time bee n restless because o f a c on vic

tion that has come over her that she should
sen d you some money So to quiet my .

”
mother I am sending you fi f ty dollars .

A s I read the letter I certainly did feel ,

ashame d o f my lack o f f aith In writing our .

ac knowledgment I told how wonde r f ull y

,
78 Go d Answers Prayer

opportune th e gi f t had been A couple o f .

month s or so later came a reply telling us ,

that the invalid mother passed away s oon

a fter my letter reached them ;and that the
story o f how God had used her in this matter
greatly stren gthened her faith blessing and ,

helping her during th e closing days o f her

li fe.

O n on e occasion when we were traveling

,

from Wuanhsien to P en gcheng we reached ,

th e town Of Hotsun late in the a f ternoon ex ,

ec t in g to stay over night But on our

p .

arrival we found that the Christian whom

we had sent to arrange for our accommoda
tion had failed t o get us a place every on e ,

absolutely re f using to take us in While the .

animals were feeding and we were trying to

,

eat our dinner O f Chinese dough strings in -

th e midst o f a curious crowd my husband ,

told the Christian t o go out again and look

for a place while we prayed .

W e dared not close our eyes lest the super ,

st it ious heathen crowd crushing against us

on all sides would take fright thinking we ,

were mesmerizing them SO we just lifted

.

up our hearts silently to our Father ;and b e

fore many minutes had passed indeed be fore ,

we had finished our meal the Christian re

,
“
turned greatly rejoiced saying : A wealthy
,
80 God An swers Prayer

horrible O n either side o f us almost reach

.
,

ing t o our door were two great pigstys

,

Chinese pigstys ! In f ront O f the door were

eight or ten great vessels filled with f e r ment
,

ing stuff which had been there all summer ,

and which added to the other varied and

opp r essive Odors I greatly f ea r ed f or t he
.

children and wanted t o leave at once but my

, ,

husband seemed calmly certain o f the Lord s '

power t o keep them f rom all harm .

O n the second evening the youngest child

became very feverish Mr Go f orth was . .

holding a meeting with the men I was .

almost overwhelmed with f ear lest the child

had diphtheria Kneeling down beside him
.
,

I cried to the Lord as only a mother under

like ci rcumstances could pray At last tired .
,

o ut
, I fell asleep on my kn ees Awakened .

by the ent r ance o f my husband I felt t he ,

ch ild s head again and it seeme d cooler and

’
,

the child quieter The f ollowing day he was

.

quite well Is it much wonder I can say I

.

kn ow God answers p r ayer ?

Returning from our summ er holiday the

first o f September 1 9 1 2 we hoped to find a
, ,

place rented at a certain large center where

we had plan ned to begin work ;but to our
disappointment learned that the evangelists
had secured premises in a small ma r ket vil
 Proving God s Faith ful n e ss
'

lage where t here was just on e Ch r istian

, .

There was nothing to do but to go there ,

t hough it seemed almost useless f or it was ,

th e busiest season f or those farming people .

O n ou r way to this place we p r ayed much

that the Lord would prepare the people and ,

Open their hearts to the Gospel We had .

n ot been there many days when we became

convinced that we had been led there and ,

that the Lord was Opening the hearts o f the

people in a most unusual way Crowds o f .

men and women heard the preaching every

day O ur evening Gospel meetings with
.
,

organ and hymn scroll were crowded out on

,

to the street .

Everywhere we met with the utmost

friendliness and be f ore our mont h s visit
,
’

was ende d we had the joy o f seeing some Of

th e leading people in the village and district
come out boldly for Christ O ne was the .

chie f docto r ;an other was the head man in

the ma r ket In the store through which we
.
,

women had t o pass to get to the evening

meeting there were th r ee men and a young
,

lad o f fi f teen ;all o f the se were brought t o

Christ The men were Opium users gam
.
,

b lers men Of evil lives

, Two o f them are
.

now p r eachers O f the Gospel and one is the ,

leading man in the little growing church

there .
82 G od An swe rs Prayer

Had I time and space I could go on m ulti

plying cases where the same res ults have fol
lowed when the cross o f Christ h as been th e
pivot o f all Christian teaching an d prayer ,

has been the source o f power .

O n on e o f the early visits to th e city Of

L inch ang a woman came with a little child
,

whose f oot was terribly burned The whole .

foot was badly swollen the inflammation ,

reaching some distance up t h e leg The child .

was feverish and seemed in a serious condi

,

tion I t happened that on that trip I had

.

forgotten to bring the simple remedies which

I was accustomed to take out with me so ,

the woman was told nothin g could be done .

But sh e begged so piteously that I coul d not

turn away ;and li f ting up my heart in prayer
I asked the Lord to guide me i f there was ,

anything I could do .

Even while I prayed the thought o f a

b read poultice came to m ind T his remed y .

seemed almost absurd I had never heard o f

.

such a thing being used be f ore under like cir

cum stan c es but I resolved to try it
, Twice .

a day the foot was cleansed and put in t h e

poultice and it was really wonderful t o see
,

how it healed We were there ten days and

.
,

when we le f t the f oot was almost completely

well The mother f ather the child herself
.
, , ,
 83
'
Proving God s Faithfulness

an d indeed the whole family becam e Chris ,

tians O n a later visit I examined the f oot

.
,

and found n ot even the sign o f a scar t e

maining .

I told t h is incident not long ago to a medi

“
cal doctor and he said Why there is no
,
!

m iracle in t hat ! It was just up to date hy - -

g ie n e giving nature a c hance by clean l i

n ess

I replied : Doctor to me th e miracle lay

, ,

n ot in the poultice but in God s telling me

’

what to use ;and now it is to me all the more

a miracle o f prayer since you say it was up
,
”
to date hygienic treatment
-
.

At the same place some years later we , ,

were conducting special tent meetings for

Christians in the day time and for the hea ,

then at night Just a fter our meetings began

.

th e weather turned bitterly cold with wind ,

and sleety rain The tent was like a dra fty

.

ice house My husband caught a severe cold

-
.
,

which became worse each day He had fever .

and severe pains in head and chest but would ,

n ot give up his meetings O ne noon he .

came f rom the meeting looking very ill and ,

lay down to rest till the afternoon meeting .

I determined to take the Ch r istians into my

confidence and te ll them O f my anxiety for
,

Mr Goforth SO some time be fore th e

. .
,
84 G od Answers Prayer

a fternoon meeting I slipped out and called

them into the tent telling them O f my h us
,

ba nd s condition and asking them to pray f or

’

him O h wh at a wave o f earnest heart

.
, ,

ove r flow o f prayer went up without a m o

ment s pause ! The tears came to my eyes as
’

“
I thought Surely God wi ll answer such
,
”
praye r s I
Then fearing my husband might arrive I
, ,

gave out a hymn A f ew moments later he

.

walked into the tent in his old brisk way ,

looking quite well At the close o f the meet

.

ing he told me that sho r tly a f ter he hea r d me

go out the pain in his head and chest ceased ,

t h e f ever seemed to leave him and when he,

started f or the tent he felt quite well T he .

s ymptoms did not return .

When on a visit to a cert in astation out - ,

after being there two whole days scarcely ,

any women had come to see us We were .

so circumstanced that I could not leave t h e

children The third day I became so bur

.

d en e d in prayer that I could only shut myself

up in an empty room and cry to the Lord t o
send women to us as he knew I could not
,

leave the children From that day we always

.

had plenty o f visitors to keep us bu sy either ,

Christian women studying or heathen wome n

listening to the Gospel
 Provin g G od s Faithfulne ss
’

85

At Tz uch ow the first place we Opene d t o

,

gethe r the people seemed much se t against

,

us After the fi r st period o f curiosity was

.

over no one came to hear the Gospel A s we

, .

had a nice place f o r the children to play in

wi t h their faith f ul nurse the one who ,

saved Ruth s li f e in 1 900 Mrs Wang and

’
, .

I dete r mined to go out each a f ternoon and

try to reach the heathen women with the Go s
pel Be f o r e going out we always p r ayed the
.

Lo r d to open a door to us f or preaching .

And as I now recall that time never once d id ,

we return home without being invited into

some home to p r each or at least being asked
,

to sit on a doorstep and tell Of a Saviour

from sin .

O ne O f the most outstanding evidences o f

God s f avor and blessing was seen at this
’
,

time i n the way he provided my husband

,

with native helpe r s To ca r ry on the plan O f

.

wo r k we had adopted r equired a good f orce

o f trusty evangelists Time and again we
.

looked to the Lo r d f or men and women t o

help us and the answer always came
, .

A s my husband always seemed to have

plenty o f men to help him he was fr equently ,

asked f or evangelists by his f ello w mission -

a r ies o f both our own and other missions I .

was at first Opposed to his giving away his

86 Go d Answ ers Prayer
best men but he woul d answer The L ord
, ,

has been good to me ;should I be less gener

”
ous with my brethren ? A nd it certainly
was remarkable how whenever he gave a ,

really valuable evan gelist another man even , ,

better was raised up shortly a fter The

, .

secret o f his getting men may be seen best

through words of his own taken from a ,

letter to a f riend in Canada about the time

o f wh ich I am now writing :
“
W e came to this little market town in
September o f last year My wi f e had t wo .

women workers I had Mr Tung the old

. .
,

evangelist and a young high schoo l graduate

,

without experience and the only Christian

,

man in the district very ignorant but with ,

this to recommend him that he was con ,

verted or quickene d by th e Holy Spirit in the

Changte revival and was intensely in earnest
, .

We were here only about twenty days when

dozens began to inquire among whom were ,

robbers Opium sots and gamblers The work

, , .

went on all day and well on till midnight We .

were all tiring out We had not enough work

.

e rs . It was like a very heavy burden that

f orced me to my knees I told t h e Lord that .

he was the Lord Of the harvest and that he ,

must send more harv esters There was a .

time o f intense looking to God a lmost ,

am ounting to agony and then the burden ,

88 G od An swers Prayer

and attentive bringing water and food f or

,

both Mary and mysel f Being much taken .

up with p r eaching to the women it did not ,

occur to me to ask why she kept her baby s ’

f ace covered f o r the child was always in her

,

arms Just as we were leaving I asked her ;

.

then she uncovered the baby s face and to ’

my horror I f ound that the child was suff er

ing f rom smallpox ! For weeks I watched
Mary s temperature but nothing developed
’

, .

Through repeated instance s o f this kind I

came to see that M r Go f o r t h was right when
.

he said The safest place for yoursel f and

,
“

”
t h e ch ildren is in the path O f duty .

A s I recall those yea r s o f touring li f e with

o ur children words f ail me to tell o f all the
,

Lord s goodness to them and to me Though

’
.

there were many hard hard places these we r e

, ,

but opportunities for special grace and help .

Many times when discouraged almost to the

,

point o f never going out again wi t h the chil

dren there would come evidence that the
,

Lord was using our family li fe lived among ,

the people to win them to Christ Then I

,
.

would take ne w courage and go again O h ,

. ,

it is so true that
W e ma y t rus t h im f ully
“

A ll f or us t o do ;
T h ose w h o t rus t hi m w h olly
F ind h im w h olly t rue .
”
 THE ST O RY O F O NE FURLOUGH
( 1 908 - 1 9 1 0 )
Call u p on me in th e da y f t roub le I o :
will deli v er th ee and th ou s h al t g lori fy me
,

( P sa.

N THE summer o f 1 908 I was obliged t o

retu r n t o Canada with five o f our children ,

leavin g Mr Goforth in C hina for th e revival

.

wo r k
.

Reaching Toronto I learned t hat my eldest

,

son was at death s door from repeated at

’

tacks o f rheumatic fever He was then .

almost a day s journey away O n my way

’
.

there as I recalled the times in which he had

,

been given back to us from the very gates o f

death my faith was strengt hened to believe
,

for his reco very again

‘
But as I prayed it
.
, ,

became very clear that the answer to my peti

tion depended on mysel f ; in other words ,

that I must yield mysel f and my will to God .

I had been planning to take n o meetings

during that furlough but to devote mysel f
,

wholly to my children I confessed the sin.

o f planning my own li fe and definitely cove ,

89
90 G od Answers Pray er
n an t edwith th e Lo r d that i f he would raise
my son f or his service I would take meetings ,

o r do anything as he opened the way for the

,

care O f the children .

There were six diffi cult doors h owe ver , ,

that would have to be Opened not on e but ,

all be f ore I could possibly go out and

speak for Christ and China as God seemed ,

to be askin g First th e Lord would need to

.
,

restore my son to complete health as I could ,

never feel j ustified in leaving a sick child .

Second he would need t o restore my own

,

health for I had been ordered to the hospital

,

for an Operation Third he would need to

.
,

keep all the other ch ildren well Fourth a .

,

se rvant must be sent t o take care o f the house

though my income was so small that a
servant seemed out o f the question and only ,

the strictest economy was m aking both ends

m eet Fi fth a Christian lady would need to
.
,

be will ing to take care o f the ch ildren and ,

act as my housekeeper in my a bsence from

h ome Sixth sufficient money would need
.
,

to be sent to meet the e xtra expenses incurred

by my leaving home .

Yet as I laid these difficulties before the

,

L ord I received the definite assurance that he

,

would ope n the way .

My son was brought back to Toronto on a

stretch er the doctor not allowing him to raise
,
92 G od An swers Prayer

this would come as I went forward ;and it

did Each month that f ollowed as I made
. ,

up my accounts I found that my receipts e x

,

cee de d my expenditu res su fficiently to enable

me to spend money for work in China and to ,

pu r chase things which I needed for China ,

including an organ Al l these accounts were .

laid be f ore our beloved Mission Board secre

ta ry who approved them
, .

Under these circumstances I dared n ot

re f use invitations to speak Yet so weak .
,

was my f aith for months I never le f t home

,

f or a f ew days without dreading lest some

thi ng should happen t o the children during
my absence I even acce pted meetings with
.

the proviso that i f the children needed me I

must f ail to keep my appointment But as .

the days and weeks and months passed an d ,

all went well I learned t o tru st

, .

“ ‘
s ti ll ;be s t ron g t o d y
Be -
a .
’

B u t Lord t o morrow ?
, ,
-

Wh a t f t o morrow Lord ?
o -
,

Sh all th ere be res t f rom

B e t ruce f rom sorrow ?
D id I no t die f th ee ?
‘
or
D I o t l iv e f
no th ee ? or
Le a v me t morrow e o- .

In giving the following I wish t o make

c lear that had I been living a li f e Of ease or
,

sel f indulgence I could not h ave been j usti

-
,
 The Story o f On e Furl ough 93

fied in expecting Go d to undertake f or me in

such matte r s as are he r e recorded It must .

be remembered that I had stepped out int o a

li f e which meant trusting for ev ery t hing .

Be f ore leaving China f or Canada my h us

“
band had said to me : Do not stint the chil
”
dren with apples ;give them all they want .

But when I began housekeeping I f ound this

was not ve ry easy to do Apples were ex .

pe nsive and the appetites o f my six children

,

f or them seemed insatiable However I .

,

began by buying a few small baskets ;and

the n I did not need to buy more f or apples ,

came in a most wonder f ul way First in .

baskets ;then as the season advanced in bar

, ,

rels These came from many di ff erent

.

sou rces ;and in some cases long distances ,

express paid to the door O n on e occasion a.

”“
barrel o f large hard Greenings came just
,

as we had finished the last ba r rel The chil

dren complained that they were too hard t o
eat and begged me to buy them some
,
“ ”
Snows very expensive but delicious ,

apples for eating I had only pu r chased o n e

.

“ ”
small basket o f Snows when a large supply ,

almost a barrelful came from a distant

,

friend .

I f eel that th e L ord saw that I had given

up all f or him so just showed how he could
,

provide thus e v idencing his love and care f or

,
94 God An swers Prayer
my dear children We had set up house
.

keeping at the end o f the f ruit season and so ,

I had not been able to do canning for winter

use . That winter again and again gi fts o f
, ,

canned f ruit came sometimes from unknown

,

sources Altogether se venty j ars o f the

,

finest fruit were sent to us I will give the .

details o f just on e o f these gi f ts .

Shortly be f ore leaving home f or ten days ,

t he serv ant informed me that the canned

fruit was fini shed Accordingly I went down
.
,

and ordered enough dried fruit to last till I

should return O n reaching home I was
.

greeted at th e door by a rush f rom the chil

dren all trying at once to tell me that a
,

lovely valentine had just arrived Leading .

me back to th e kitchen they showed me the ,

table covered with twen ty jars of the most

delicious loo king fruit and a large can o f ,

maple syrup O n a card accompan ying the

.

“
gi ft was written : A valentine f or our dear
‘
substitute in China from her sisters in
,
’

”
Ren f rew .

Early in th e winter it becam e e v ident that

a telephone was a necessity with my numer ,

ous calls and engagements I hesitated about .

going into this expense not being quite sure ,

that it was right to use in that way t h e money

given me At last I prayed that the Lord
.
,
96 G od An swers Prayer

I failed them Just be f ore reaching Winni

.

peg I was enabled to commit mysel f defi

n it ely into the Lo r d s hands f o r strength and
’

voice f or the meetings The days that fol .

lowed can never be f o r gotten f o r the bodi ly ,

weakness f ever and th r oat trouble we r e t e

, ,

moved only while I was giving my addresses .

In each case though so hoarse be f ore and

,

a fter speaking as to be sca rcely able to make

mysel f heard above a whis per my voi ce ,

cleared f or the add r ess .

F or exam ple : while at Dr and Mrs C W . . . .

Go r don s home the Sunday I was to speak in

’

Winnipe g I was advertised to speak that

,

night in Dr Gordon s church At the supper

.
’
.

table I asked Dr Gordon i f he would be .

ready t o speak should I f ail Just be fore my .

time came to speak I slipped up on to the

plat f orm behind Dr Gordon who was pray .
,

ing ;and Oh h ow I cried to the Lord f or help

,

and courage ! For the church was packed ,

and even the Sunday school room partitions -

were Opened to accommodate the crowd My .

throat was as i f in a vise and I f elt weak a n d ,

ill But as Dr Gordon introd uced me I

.
, . ,

stepped f orwa r d possessed by a f eeling o f

wonder f ul calm and absolute confidence It .

seeme d I could just feel O ne like unto t he

Son o f man beside me and never had I f elt so ,

c ompletely and only a channel For more .

 Th e Story o f On e Furl ough 97

than an hour I spoke so that every on e heard

distinctly ;but when I sat down my throat
tightened as be f ore Dr Gordon told me
. .

later that he had a man sit in the most diffi

cult place in which t o hear and that he had ,

heard every word .

5 0 it was till the end o f my appo intments .

O n the homeward journey I asked the Lord

either to heal my th r oat or to p r ovide a way
,

f or me to get a needed r est f rom speaking

‘
,

for I had many appointm ents awaiting me in

O ntario A f ew days a f ter reach ing home
.

f our o f my child ren were taken down with

measles During the weeks I was in quaran
.

tine with them my throat received the rest it

needed and became quite restored
, .

O ne day the following early summer in ,

looking over the children s clot hes I found

’

there was so much to be done I was fairly

overwhelmed I saw it was quite impossible
.

to do the necessary sewing and keep my ap

po in t me n t s too The question that weighed
heavily was Should I cancel the meetings
,
“

”
for which I had given my word ? My hus
band urged me to buy ready made clothes -
,

but I knew how expensive they would be and ,

could not bring mysel f to do so I went alone .

and laid my burden be f ore the Lord praying ,

that i f he wanted me to speak further for

,
98 G od Answers Prayer

China he would show his will by sending m e

,

some gi f t that would enable me to get ready

made clothes f or th e children .

A few days later I was spe aking at a P res

b yt erial gathering in western O ntario At .

the close Of the evening meeting an old gen

t lem an put into my han ds some money I .

asked him what he wished me to use it f or ,

“
and he replied For your children Use it
, .

in a way that will help you to be f ree f or

”
God s work
’
My heart rose in t h an ksgiv
.

ing and I decided to accept it as t h e

,

token I had asked o f the Lord O n my .

return to Toronto I spent this gi ft in buy

ing ready made clothes f or the children to
-
,

save my time and strengt h for the L ord s ’

work .

When busy in my home one day the ,

thought o f two dea r friends o f the C hina

I nland Mission kept coming constantly t o
mind and I began t o wonder i f I should not
,

send t hem some money Looking into m y

.

purse I found I had onl y fi fty cents on hand

,
.

I put the matter out o f my mind with th e ,

th ought that i f the Lord wanted me to send

them anything he would provide a way That .

a fte r noon s mail b r ought a letter f rom a dis

’

tant place in O nta r io whe r e a year be f ore I

, ,

had v isited and spoken f or a f riend Th e .

l OO G od Answers Prayer

places word cam e t hat th e children s Sunday

,
’

school treat was to take place during my

Little Mary had no best dress for the

occasion I had planned to make her a white
.

woolen dress but now there was no time ;and

,

I knew I could not make it while away with ,

so many meetings ahead But that very day .

, ,

a lady f rom our church called and said she

had wanted for a long time to help me and ,

asked i f sh e could do any sewing f or me .

W ith dim eyes and a grate f ul heart I accepted

h er o ffer O n my ret urn Mary told me Of
.
,

her wearing a pretty white clo t h dress f or the

Sunday school treat-
.

O nce more we planned to leave Canada for

China and a serious problem faced me O ur
, .

eldest son could be left to f ace the world

alone but not our daughter o f sixteen It
, .

was necessary that a suitable guardian be

fo und for her I called on three di ff erent
.

ones whom I thought woul d f eel some re

sponsibility toward the missionary s daugh ’

ter but all th ree declined to accept the re spon

,

sib ilit y I then saw that it was not f or me to

.

try to Open doors but for this also I must ,

look to the Lord I prayed that i f he wished

.
,

me to return to China he would send me on e ,

t o w h om I could commit her .

 Th e Story o f On e Furl ough 10!

A short ti me passed ;then a lady called ,

whose li f e had been devoted t o the traini n g

Of young women Her beauti f ul Christian
.

character made her the on e above all others

in whose ca r e I could gladly leave my daugh
ter This lady told me that in her early years
.

she ha d hoped to give her li f e for service in

China but the way had been closed S he

, .

now f elt that the Lord had laid it upon her

heart to o ffer to take charge o f my child .

Years have passed since then and sh e has ful ,

filled my highest expectations o f her Rarely .

has a mo r e definite answer come f rom a lov

in g Fathe r n or on e that brought greater re
,

lie f and help ;for this offer coming as it did ,

in answer to my prayers seemed to be unmis ,

takable proo f that the Lord would keep my

child as I gave her up .

T he time had almost arrived for begi nni ng

the last p r eparations for the long journe y to
China when on e day Ruth came in f rom her
,

play with her heavy coat almost in shreds she ,

having in some way torn it on a barbed wire

fence The coat was the only heavy one sh e
.

h ad and I had planned to make it do for t he

,

ocean voyage intending to get a new on e in

,

England I tried t o find a new on e in t h e

.

stores but t he season was past and I coul d

,

n ot ;and I had no time to make anoth er I

l oz G od Answers Pray er

j ust took the need to the L ord and left it

there believing that in some way he would
,

provide A f ew days later a friend tele

.

phoned me that her mother had recently

returned f rom a v isit to Chicago and wished ,

me to come over to see a parcel she had

brought f or me O h the relief that came
.
,

when I found that the parcel contained ,

among other things a handsome red cloth,

ulster which fitted Rut h per f ectly This

, .

fresh evidence o f the Lord s oversh adowing ’

care touched me deeply Those who have .

never known such tokens of the Lord s loving ’

care in the lit tle things o f li f e can scarcely

un derstand the blessedness th at such experi
e n ce s bring .

“
Wh e th er it b e so h ea vy th a t o th ers canno t bear
To know th e h ea vy b urden th e y canno t come and
sh are
Wh eth er it b e so t in y th a t o th ers canno t see
Why i t s h ould b e a bu rden and seem so real t o me
, ,

Ei th er and bo th I lay th em down a t t h e M ast er s ’

f ee t
An d find th em alon e w ith Jes us m y s t er i ously
swee t ”
.

A s I attempt recall th e answers t o

to
prayer on this furlough so many come t o ,

mind it is impossible to record the m all

help in keeping my appointments cou r age ,

and power for public speaking physical ,

lo4 G od Answers Pray er
littleservice I have been able to do has been
d one by his grace in answer to prayer .

I s t ood ama ed and w h is p ered Can i t b e

z ,
‘

Th a t h e h a th gran t ed all th e boon I sou ght ,

How wonder f ul th a t h e f or me h a th wrou ght

t t t i t

Oh ,f ai th less h eart ! he said t h a t h e would h ear ,

And pro v ed h is promise w here f ore dids t th ou f ear ?

,

How wonder f ul i f h e s h ould f ail t o bless

Ex pec tant prayer w ith g o od succ ess I ”
 OUR GO D O F THE IM PO SS I B L E
B e h old I am th e Lord”
“
i s th e re any
,

t hi g t oo h ard fo r ME ?
n ( Jer .

Ah Lord Go”d ! th ere i s n ot h i g t oo won

“
, n

d erful f or th ee ( Jer 3 2 : 1 7 marg in )

.
, .

HE following illustration o f the truth ,

“
What is i mpossible with man is possible
”
with God occurred while we were attending
,

the Keswick Convention in England in 1 9 1 0 , .

O ne evening my husband r eturned f rom

an evening meeting which I had not at
,

tended and told me o f a woman who had

,

come to him in great distress She had been .

an earnest Ch r istian worker but love f or ,

light trashy fiction had so grown u po n her

,

as to work havoc in her Christian li f e She .

had come to Ke swick three years in succes

sion hoping to get victory but had f ailed
, , .

My whole soul went out to the poor wo

man ;I longed to help her But Mr Go f orth
. .

did not know her name and the tent had been
,

so dark he could n ot recognize her again ;

besides there were about four thousand peo

,

ple att ending the convention That night I .

lay awake asking the L ord i f h e knew I coul d,

1 05
106 G od Answe rs P ray er

help her to bring us together for I too had

, , , ,

at on e time been almost wreck ed on the s ame

rock .

Three evenings later the tent was so

crowded that I f ound di ffi culty in getting a
se at Just as the meeting was about to begin
.
,

I noticed a woman change her seat twice and ,

then rise a third time and come to where I

was asking me to make room for her I
, .

crowded the others in t he seat and made room

for her I f ear not t oo graciously W hile .

Mr F B Meyer was speaking I noticed sh e

. . .

was in great distress her tears falling f ast , .

I laid my hand on hers and she grasped it ,

convu lsively At the close o f the meeting I

.

“ ”
said Can I help you ?
,
“
O h no sh e replied there is no hope f or
, , ,

me ;it is those cursed novels that have been

my ruin .

I looked at her in amazement and almost ,

gasped : Ar e you the one who spoke to Mr

“
.

”
Go f orth Saturday night ?
”
“
Yes ;but who are you ?
Scarcely able to speak f or emotion I told ,

her and also o f my prayer For the next

,
.

f ew moments we could only weep together .

Then the L ord used me to lead the poor

c rushed and b r oken soul back to himself A s .

we parted a few days later her face was

, ,

beaming with the j oy o f the Lord .

108 G od Answers Prayer

Be fore leavm g Canada we had writt en t o

the China I nland S chool at Chefoo Chi na , ,

hoping t o get o ur child r en admitted there ;

b ut sho rtly before we le f t England for
,

Ch ina word reached us that both the boys

,
’

and girls schools were overflowing with

’

long lists o f waiting applicants This was a .

great blow t o me f or I had been looking for

,

ward to engag ing once more in the aggres

si ve outstation work .

But the children could not be left and ,

were t oo old to be taken away f rom their

studies It seemed necessary there f ore tha t
.
, ,

a good Christian governess should be f ound ,

wh o would teach the children and take charge

O f the home in my absence All the way .

across the Siberian route this matt er was b e

fore us Ea r nestly did I pray that t he Lord
.

would direct the right on e to us ;f or I knew

that to get a young woman who could fill the ,

position we wanted her f or would be very ,

difficult in China .

We had planned t o go direct to our station ,

but illne ss f orced us t o break the journey at

P eitaiho whe re we met a young lady the
, ,

daughter o f a missionary Many difficulties .

appeared in the way o f her coming o n with

us but on e by one these we r e removed ;and
,

when we continued our journey this young

woman was one o f our party .
 Our G o d o f the I mpossi bl e 109

Time pro ved her t o be truly God given -

.

Not only was sh e all and more than I could

have hoped for but the Lord answe r ed my
,

prayers that her young li fe might be c on se

crated to the Lord s service in China She
’
.

later went t hrou gh her training in England

as a nurse and rs now in China as a m issi on
,

ary o f the China Inland Mission .

T he summe r holi days at P eitaiho were

drawing to a close Heavy rains had f all en
.
,

making the roads to the station six miles ,

distant almost impassable Word had come

, .

that our two children Ruth and Wallace , ,

m ust leave by the Monday morning train in

order to reach the steamer at Tientsin which ,

was t o take them to Che foo where they were ,

attending the China Inland Mission schools .

All day Saturday and Sunday torrents o f

rain continued to fall wit h a fierce wind ,

from the north .

I rose be fore daybreak Monday morning ,

t o find the rain still pouring down in torren t s .

I roused the servant and sent him o ff to

,

make sure about the chair cart and donkeys , , .

A little later he returned to say that the chair

had been blown over and the chair bearers
,
-

had refused t o come The carters also re

.

fused saying the roads were impassable ;and

,

e v en t h e donkey boys said they would not go .

l 10 Go d An swers Prayer
“
I was truly at wit s end corne r ’
I went .

alone and did not take time even to knee l

,

down but just li fted up my heart to my

,

Father to stop the rain and open a way for

the children to get to t h e station I f elt a .

sudden strong confidence that the Lord

,

would help and going out again I ordered

,

the servant to run f ast to the village near by

and get f resh donkeys He was unwilling .
,

saying it was useless no on e would venture ;

,
“
but I said : G0 at once I know they will ,
”
come .

While he was gone the children had their

break f ast boxes were closed and taken out
, ,

and the children put on their wraps Then .

the r ain stopped ! Just then the servant t e

turned with several donkeys Within five .

minutes children and baggage were on don

,

keys and started for t h e station A f ew

, .

hou r s lat er one o f the donkey boys returned

with a hastily written note from Ruth say ,

ing they had reached the station without any

mishap and quite dry ;for it had not rained
,

o n the way over but had started to pour

,

again just a fter they had got on the train .

T he rain continued f or days a f ter .

At th e close o f our f our months o f meet

ings in Great Britain in 1 9 1 0 I felt a stron g
, ,

desire to send a gi ft o f five dollars to five

l lZ G od Answers Pray er
How t o get th e sewing done family for my
an d yet meet the pressing calls made upon

me as the wi f e Of a pioneer missionary for ,

alm ost thirty years has been perhaps the most

diffi cult and constant problem o f my mission
ary li f e In connection with the solving o f
.

this problem I have seen some o f the most

,

precious evidences o f God s willingness t o ’

undertake in th e daily details o f li f e .

The f ollowing story must be given in de

tail to be really understood as on e o f the ,

striking instances o f how God in his own ,

wonderful way can work out the seemingly

,

impossible .

Returning h ome to our station from an

unusually strenuous autum n s touring I ’
,

p lanned as usual to give t he month o f De

c em b er to the children s sewing so as t o
’

leave J anuary largely free for a Bible

women s training class But my health
’
.

broke down and I could make scarcely any

,

he adway with the thirty five or forty gar -

ments which had t o be m ade or fixed over ,

be f ore the children returned t o their school

in Che f oo By the eighteenth o f December
.

we decided to can cel the class on account o f

my ill health ;and to all the women except
-
,

o n e whom I entirely f orgot I sent word not ,

to come .

A s the days passed the burden o f th e

,
 Our God o f the Impossibl e ”3
alm ost untouched sewing became very g r eat .

At last I cried to the Lord to unde rtake for

me A nd how wonderfully he did ! O n De
.
‘

cemb er twenty eighth when I was conduct

-
,

ing the Chinese women s prayer meeting I ’

-
,

noticed in th e audience M r s Lu the very .

,

woman to whom I had forgotten to send

word She had come a long distance with
.
,

her little ch ild over rough mountainous ,

roads so I f elt very sorry for my thought

,

lessness Mrs L u accompanied me h ome

. .
,

and I gave her money f or a barrow on which

t o return the n ext day I then sat down to .

the sewing machine The woman stood b e .

side me for a little and then said ,

! ou are looking very tired Mrs GO

“
.
,

forth ;let me run the machine for you .

“
You ! I exclaimed astonished why
!
, , ,
”
you don t know how ’
.

“ ”
Yes I do she replied
, , .

She was so insistent that at last in fear ,

and trembling I ventured to let her try

,

for I had onl y on e needle It too k but a few .

moments to convince me she was a real ex

pert at the machine W hen I urged her t o .

stay and help me sh e replied that since th e , ,

class was given up sh e would return home on ,

t he morrow .

That night I was puz zled Why should .

th e Lord lead this woman to me the only

l 14 G od Answers Prayer

on e , so far as we knew wh o could do th e ,

machine work and then permit her t o

leave ? I could only lay the whole matter
be f o r e the Lord and trust him t o undertake
, .

And again he answered That ni ght a fierce .

storm came on lasting several days and

,

making the roads quite impassable Mrs Lu . .

,

finding hersel f storm tied;gladly gave all her

-

time to me The roads remained impassable

.

f or a whole month during which time I did

,

not once need to sit down at the machine .

While in Tientsin with my children during

th e revolution in 1 9 1 2 I had occasion to go
,

into the Chinese city with my servant We .

visited three stores O n our way home by

.

the tramway I discovered I had lost a five

dollar bill and one o f my gloves I had f ool .

ishly put the bill inside the glove A shamed .

to let the Chinese servant kn ow of my care

lessness I sent him home when we reached
,

the end o f the tram line A s soon as he was .

out o f sight I took the tram back to the city .

O n the way I con f es sed t o the Lord my care

lessness and asked him to keep the glove and
,

money and lead me to whe re they were I

,
.

ret r aced my steps back to t wo o f the stores

whe r e we had been A s I entered the s econd
. ,

which was a shoe store a number o f men ,

were in the shop ;but there right in sight o f ,

I I6 Co d Answers Prayer

need O f a good sewing machine as I could ,

not possibly do t he children s sewing by hand

’

and still get time f or meetings O ne day as .

,

my husband was leaving on a deputation

tour I asked him for money for a machine
, .

He assured me it was im possible ;that we

had only sufli c ien t for bare ne cessities I .

knew well he would gladly give me money for

the machine i f he had it SO I laid my need
.

be fore my Father confide nt that he knew it

,

was a real need and th at according to his

,

promise he could and would supply it .

I was so sure th at somehow the money

would come that I went down town espe
,

c ially to choose a suitable machine I f ound .

it would cost thirty six dollars A few days

-
.

later I received a letter from a band o f ladies

in Mount Forest O ntario enclosing twent y
, ,

three dollars and some odd cents and sayi n g ,

“
P lease accept the enclosed to buy something
you have lost as our sub stitute in China .

O nly a day or t wo later another letter came ,

from quite another part Of O ntario enclosing ,

twelve dollars an d some cents The two .

amounts came to exactly the sum I needed to

purchase the m achine .

The second letter stated that the money

was sent to help me buy a sewing machine .

I t has always been a puzzle to me how they

came to send the money in that way for I ,
 Our G od Of the Im po ssib le ”7
had not spoken to any on e but my husband
about wanting a ma chine When Mr GO . .

forth returned I was able to show him

w hat the Lord coul d g ive me though he ,

could not .

I had been holding a class for women at

an out station staying in th e home Of the
-
,

elder Dr Fan The day be fore I was to

, . .

re t urn home Mrs Fan asked me to go with

, .

her to visit a very sick b oy whom the mis

sio n ary doctor had sent home from the boys
’

school Wei Hwei because o f his having

, ,

tuberculosis o f th e lungs M rs Fan told me . .

the mother was in great distress and begged ,

me to come and pray with her I found the .

lad in a truly pitiable condition His mouth .

was swollen his face a ghastly hue and

, ,

e very moment a cough racked his frame He .

seemed to me quite beyond h ope and looked ,

as i f he could not live long .

O n our way home to Mrs Fan s the m es .

’

sage O f James 1 5 kept coming per ,

“
sist en t ly to me as i f spoken by a voi ce :
, Is
any sick among you ? let him call for the
elders Of the church ;and let them pray over
him , and the prayer o f faith shall save the
”
sick and the Lord shall raise him up
, .

I simply could n ot get away from those

words O n reaching Dr Fan s home I sent
. .
’
,
I 18 Go d Answers Prayer

for him and ask ed i f he and the other el ders

,

would be willing to pray with me over the

lad He consented though at first he s eemed
.
,

rather dubious There were quite a number .

Of Christians gathered around as we placed

the b oy in our midst A ll knelt down and I .
,

read the words f rom James I told them .

plainl y th at I could not say that it was indeed

the Lord s will to heal the boy ;all that was
’

clear to me was that we must obey as f ar as

we had light and leave the rest in God s,
’

hands for li f e or death Seve r al prayed and .

,

we th en dispersed .

Early the f ollowing morning I le f t f or

home Circumstances prevented my return
.

to that place and in time we moved to an

,

other field More than two yea r s later while

.
,

visiting Wei Hwei I met Mrs Fan who told , .

,

me that t he lad had compl etely recovered and

was then working with his f ather Still a .

year later I met Dr Fan and upon inquiring .

,

about the lad the doctor told me he was per

,

fe ct ly well and was in business in Wei Hwei

,

Ci ty .

T he power O f intercession is shown in the

following two incidents
I n the winter o f 1 90 5 a call came for my
husband to hold special meetings in Man
churia O n reaching Liao Yang f or these
.
120 G od Answers Pray er

f or their support Just as these f riends had

.

started toward us on their five days jou r ney

,
-
’
,

smallpox b r oke out at ou r station and o n e O f ,

the missiona r ies died A telegram was sent .

,

hoping to catch them be f ore they le f t but it ,

did not reach them until they were a short

distance f rom our station Then the whole .

family had to turn around and once more ,

take the long trying journey homeward A s

, , .

t h e weather was very cold at the time on e ,

could ima g ine what a te r rible trial to faith

the whole experience meant to them I f elt .

so deeply f or them that I planned to send

s uffi cient to cover at least the expense O f the

journey But on getting out O f quarantine
.
, ,

I found I could not draw on our treasurer

for the fifty dol lars needed as Mr Go f ort h , .

was not at home However the Lord had

.
,

seen the need long be f ore I felt it and had ,

t he exact amount ready Th r ee days a f ter I .

got out O f quarantine I received a letter f ro m

Mr Horace Goven o f the Faith Mission
.
, ,

Glasgow enclosing a dra f t for five pounds

,

which at the rate o f exchange at that time

, ,

came to fi fty dollars Mexican T he gi f t .

cam e f rom the workers O f the mission and ,

he stated that they wished me to accept it as a

personal g i ft Needless to say the dra f t was
.
,

sent Off that same day to the needy f riends in

the far Off station
-
.
 Our G od o f th e Impossi b l e l zl

On on eoccasion while we were t em por

,

arily stationed at Wei Hwei Honan I was , ,

cal led to nurse a f ellow missionary who had

cont r acted black smallpox This missiona ry
.

died ;and it was while shut away fr om every

o n e during the time O f quarantine that I had

the f ollowing experience

I awoke suddenly one night feeling greatly
troubled f or o n e in Canada SO strong was .

the imp r ession that this f riend needed my

prayers that I felt compelled to rise and
,

spend a long time wrestling with God on this

one s behal f ;then peace came and I again
’

slept .

A s soon as I was out Of quarantine I wrote

to my f riend and told o f this expe r ience giv ,

ing the date In time the answer came which

.
,

said that though no date could be given as ,

no note had been made O f it as f ar as

could be judged it was about the same time
,

that I had had the burden O f prayer that my

f riend was passing through a time o f such
temptation as seemed almost overwhel ming .

But the letter said : I was brought through

V icto r iously ;I know that it was your p r ayers
”
that helped me .

The following incident may seem trifling

to some ;but to me no answer in my li f e ever
brought more intense relie f For this reason.
l zz G od Answers Pray er
I have reserved it as the final testimony o f
,

the original prayer record .

My husband had gone to hold r evival meet

ings in a distant p r ovince and while he was ,

away I went with my Bible woman to a ce r -

tain out station at the urgent r equest O f the

-

— “
Christians to p r each at a f our days t h eat ri
,
’

”
cal which b r ought great crowds The f our
, .

days there were enough to wea r out the

st r ongest ;f or many hours daily we had to
f ace unruly crowds coming and going ;and
at the end o f our stay I turned my f ace home
ward utterly worn out My on e thought was .

to get to Wei Hwei our next station f or a , ,

few days rest with my youngest children

’

who were attending school there A sight o f .

them I knew would recover my energies

, ,

better than anything else .

But in getting home I in some way lost the

key o f the money drawer It was Friday -
.
,

and th e train f or Wei Hwei le ft on Satur

day at ten o clock Di fferent persons came
’
.

for money but I had to put them Off with

,

some excuse There was t oo much money in

.

the drawer f or me to leave with the key lying

around somewhere ;besides I mysel f could ,

n ot go without money .

A s soon as I had my supper I started

searching everywhere Drawers pigeon ,

holes shel ves were all searched i n vam

, ,
.
 T O HI S P RA ISE !

Th ye sh all a b undan t l y u tt er memo ry

“
t he
of thy grea t goodness .
”

HI S chapter is written more than seven

years later than the foregoing in fur ,

ther testimony and praise .

Return ing to Canada at the time o f the

Great War we came face t o face with a
,

serious financial crisis O nly two ways .

seemed open to us O ne was to lay our

.

a ffairs f rankly be f ore the Board showing ,

that our salary was quite insufficient with ,

war conditions and prices to meet our re ,

q u ire m en t s
. The other course was to just
go forward get a suitable home and what
,

ever we requi r ed and trust our Father to

,

supply what was needed above our income .

We decided on the latter course .

A dear daughter felt indignant that we

should have a salary insuffi cient f or our
needs ;but we assured her that to trust God
for what was lacking was not begging The .

day came when this child and myself took

possession o f our new home A s we entered .

124
 To His Praise 1 25

t he dining r oom we f ound a large mail from

-

China on the table .

O ne lette r was f orwarded from the lady

in A ustralia whose g ifts in the past seemed , ,

always to have met some felt need Her .

letter enclosed fi f ty pounds with the ex ,

pressed wish that thirty pounds should be

used f or work in China but twenty pounds ,

was to be used to meet some personal need I .

handed the letter to my daughter saying ,

Shall we not believe that God will under

take f or us ? It seems to me as i f our Father
were beside us saying My child take this ,
‘
,

hundred dollars as an earnest Of what I am

going to do for you .
’

Tears stood in her eyes as my daughter

“
gave the lette r ba ck saying : Mother we
, ,

don t trust Go d half enough !

’

Were I to attempt to w r ite the history o f

the month s that f ollowed a long chapter ,
.

would be required ;but my testimony along

this line is surely suffi cient .

I t was on this same furlough that I came

to have an enlarged vision o f my Heavenly
Father s willingness to undertake in what
’

some m 1 gh t term the minor details o f every

day li f e Missionaries especially we m is
.
,

sion ary women know only too well how we

,

are criticized in the matter o f dress when in ,

126 G od Answers Prayer

the homeland and when traveling I have .

had through the years not only many amus

, ,

ing but try in g experiences in this connec

tion and I resolved to make the question o f
,

dress a definite matter o f prayer And I .

rej oice to te sti fy that the result Of this de

c ision beca m e a consta nt source o f wonder

and praise Yes I found the L ord could

.
,

guide me even in trimming my hat to his

glory ! That is so that I could stand up b e
,

fore an audience and not bring discredit to

my Master P raise his name !
.

Th ere is noth in g t oo grea t f or h is power ,

A d no th in g t o small f or h is lo v e !
n o

At the time o f the Great War a son had

gone to England with the first Canadian con
tingent When this news reached us in
.

China I began to pray definitely that the

,

Lord would use my son s gi f ts in the best ’

way for his country s good but would keep ’

,

him back f rom the trenches and f rom actual

warfare My b oy did not know Of this
.

Some weeks a fter reaching England he

was looking forward to leaving f or the
trenches in France when orders came that
,

he was needed in the O rderly Room and his ,

unit left without him Months later a call .

came for volunteers to fill the great gaps ,

 128 G od An swers Prayer

Lord s f avor She wrote joyously telling

’
.
,

that she had received just what I had asked

for and in every detail as I had prayed
, .

W hen my husband resign ed th e regular

field work o f Changt e Honan it became , ,

ne cessary for us to find a home elsewhere .

The only suitable place meeting all our re

'

quirem e n t s was on the hills at K ikun gshan

, ,

South Honan On going there to get a site

.

for our home though we looked for more ,

t han a week we could find no place

, A s we .

started down the hill on e morning soon a fter ,

midnight I was feeling our failure very

,

keenly for we had given up our Old home

, .

When my husband saw how bad I felt as ,

he told me later he began to cry earnestly to ,

the Lord t o give us a site And be f ore we .

reached the station the assurance had come

that we would get a place A friend on the .

trai n traveling third class saw us getting on

, ,

the second class and came in f or a f ew words

,

be fore gettin g Off the train When he heard .

we had f ailed to get a site he said : ,

“
I know o f a beauti ful sit e which our Mis
sion is reserving f or a f uture mission ary .

”
I ll ask them to give it to you
’
.

A f ew days later t h e treasurer O f this Mis

sion wrote us that they had unanimously an d
gladly voted to give us the site .
 To His Prai se l29

I am now writing these closing words in

o ur God given home built on this bea utif ul
-
,

site one O f the most lovely spots to be f ound

,

in China SO f rom this quiet mountain

.

retreat a monument O f what Go d can give in

,

answer to prayer this little book o f P rayer ,

Testimonies is sent f orth .

A s the past has been reviewed and Go d s ,

’

wonder f ul f aithfulness recalled the r e has ,

come a great sense o f regret that I have not

trusted God more and asked more o f him , ,

both f or my f amily and the Chinese Yes it .

,

is truly wonde rful ! But th e wonder is not

that G od can answer prayer b ut th at h e d oes , ,

when we so impe r fectly meet the conditions

clearly laid down in his Word .

In recent years I have O f ten tested myself

by these conditions when weeks and perhaps , ,

months have passed without some answer to

,

p rayer and there has come a conscious Spir

,

it ual sagging A s the discerning soul can .

plainly see all the conditions mentioned in

,

th e list below may be included in the on e

“ ”
word Abide .

C di ti on f P il i g P y on s o re v a n ra er

1 Con trit e h u m ili ty be f ore God and f orsakin g f o

sin — C h ron
.

S eekin g G od wi th th e w h ole h eart —J

. 2 .

29 et .

12 3 1
Fai t h in G d —Mark
.
,

O b edienc — Jo h n
o 24 .

e 1
l 3o G od Answers Prayer
D ependence on th e H oly Sp iri t —Rom 8 2 6 :
I m p ortu ni ty —Mark 7 2 4 3 ; Lu ke
. .

5 0 : -
0 11 : -
1
M u s t ask in accordance wi th G od s will — Joh
. .

’
. 1 n
1
I n Ch t Nam —Jo h n
:
r1 s
’
s 14 and many
e ,

o t h er passages
o th er —
.

M us t b e willin g t o make amends f wrong s t o or

Ma tt 5 2 3 2 4
s . : , .

C u f F il u
a i P y
s es o a re n ra er

1 . Si n i n t h h eart and l if e —P
e I sa 59 . sa. .

1 2
P er is ten t re f usal t o O b ey G d —P ro v
, .

2 . s 28 o
-

Z ec h
.

F m h m and a
1
—
.

or a s yp i y I sa 15 ] oc r s -

t o f orgi v e o th er —Mark
. . .

U nv illi g n n e ss s
zg
W i g mo t i v es
ro r ames 3
—
.

G od s law Am os
.

D pi
’

Lack f lo v e and mercy —P ro v 2 1 : 1 3

es srn
g .

o . .
13 2 G od Answers Prayer
With the longing to know Christ literally ,
“
to find him came a passionate desire to
,

serv e him But Oh what a terrible nature I

.
, ,

had ! P assionate proud self willed indeed , ,

-
,

just f ull was I o f those things that I knew

were unlike Christ .

The f ollowing years o f half heart ed con -

fl ict with sinf ul self must be passed over ti ll

about the fifth year o f our missionary work
in Ch ina I grieve to say that the new life
.

in a foreign land with its trying climate pro ,

vokin g servants and altogethe r irritating

,

conditions seemed to have developed rather

,

than subdued my natural disposition .

O ne day ( I can never forget it ) as I sat ,

inside the house by a pape r window at dusk ,

two Chinese Christian women sat do wn on

the other side T hey began talking about me
.
,

and ( wrongly no doubt ) I listened O ne

, .

“
said Yes she is a hard worker a z ealous
, , ,

preach er and yes sh e nearly loves us ;but

, , ,

Oh what a temper sh e has ! I f she would

,
”
on ly live m ore as she reac hes !
p
Then followed a full and tru e delineation
O f m y li fe and ch aracter SO true indeed .
, ,

was it ,to crush out all sense o f annoyanc e

as

an d lea v e me hum bled to the dust I saw .

then h ow useless how worse than useless , ,

was it fo r me to come to Ch ina to preach

Christ and not live Ch rist But how could I .
 V i ctory Foun d 13 3

li ve C hrist ? I knew some ( including my

dear husband ) who had a peace and a power
—yes and a something I could not define
,

, ,

that I had not ;and O ften I longed to know

th e secret .

Was it possible with such a nature as

,

m ine ever to become patient an d gentle ?

,

Was it possible t hat I could ever really

stop worrying ?

Could I in a word e ver h Ope t o be able t o

, ,

live C hrist as well as preach him ?

I knew I loved Christ ;and again and again
I had proved my willingness t o give up all
for his sake But I knew t oo that one h ot
.
, ,

flas h Of temper wit h the Ch inese or with the ,

children be fore the Chinese would largely ,

undo weeks per haps m onths o f sel f sacrific

, ,
-

ing servi ce .

T he years that followed led Often th rough

th e furnace The L ord knew that nothing
.

but fire could destroy the dross and subdue

my stubborn will Those years may be
.

“
s umm ed up in one line : Fighting ( not fin d
”
ing ) f ollowing keeping strugg ling
, , Yes
, . ,

and failing ! Sometimes in the depths Of

despair over these failures ;then going on
determined to do my best and what a poor ,

best it was !
I n the year 1 905 and later as I witnessed
, ,

the wonderful way the Lord was leading my

l 34 Go d An swers Prayer

husband and saw the Holy Spirit s power in

,
’

his li fe and message I came to seek very ,

definitely for the fulness o f the Holy Spi r it .

I t was a time o f deep heart searching The -

.

heinousness o f sin was revealed as never

be fore Many many things had t o be set
.
,

right toward man and God I learned then .

“ ”
what paying the price meant Those were .

times o f wonderful mountain top experi -

en ce s and I came to honor the Holy Spirit

,

and seek his power for the overcoming O f sin

in a new way But Ch rist still remained as
.
,

be f ore distant a far Off and I longed in creas

in gly to know — to fin d him
, , ,

Although .

I had much more power over be setting sins ,

yet there were times Of g reat darkness and

de f eat .

I t was during on e o f these latt er times

t hat we were f orced to return to Canada in ,

June Of 1 9 1 6 My husban d s health pre

.
’

vente d him from public speaking and it ,

seemed th at th is duty for us both was to fall

on me But I dreaded facing the Home
.

Church without some spiritual upli ft a ,

fresh vision for mysel f The L ord saw this .

he art hunger and in his own glorious way

-
,
“
h e fulfilled literally th e promise He satis ,

fie t h the longing soul and fille th the hungry

,

soul with goodness ( Psa A . .

A spiritual conferen c e was t o b e held th e

13 6 G od Answe rs Pray er

The leader then went on t o say t h at li fe

which he had described was n ot the li f e God
planned o r wished f or His child r en He de .

scribed the higher li f e Of peace rest in the ,

Lord o f power and freedom from struggle

, ,

wo r ry care A s I listened I could scarcely

, .

believe it could be true yet my whole soul ,

was moved so that it was with the grea test

diffi culty I could control my emotion I saw .

then though dimly that I was nea r ing the

, ,

goal f or which I had been aiming all my li f e .

Early the ne xt morning soon a f ter day ,

b reak I went over on my knees care f ully and

,

prayer fully all the passages on the Victorious

Li f e that were given in a little yellow leaflet
that the spe aker had distributed What a
1
.

com f ort and strengt h it was to see how clear

God s Word was that victory not defeat was
’

, ,

his will for his children an d to see what won ,

de rful provision h e had made ! Later during ,

the days that followed clearer light came I , .

did what I was asked to do I quietly but

definitely accep ted Christ as my Saviour
from the power O f sin as I had so long be fore
accepted him as my Saviour from the pen alty
O f sin A n d on this I rested
. .

1 Th i s
le fl e t givi g efu lly sele te d li t f S i ptu
a n a c ar c s o cr re

s h V i t i us L ife m y b
,

f
re e re n c e on t h d f m Th
e c or o a e a ro e

S u d y S h l Ti m s C m p y 103 1 W l ut S t e t Ph il
.

n a c oo e o an . an r e , a

d lph i P
e a. 50 ce ts p
a 100 co p i es ;
.
. at 15 e ts f 25n er or c n or

c pi es po t p i d
o s a .
 V i ctory Found 13 7

I left Niagara realizing however there , , ,

was still something I had not got I f elt .

much as the blind man must have felt when

“ ”
he said I see men as trees walking
, ,

(A . I had begun to see light but dimly ,

.

The day a fter rea ching home I picked up

”1 “
a little booklet The Li f e That Wins , ,

which I had not read be f ore and going to my ,

son s bedside I told h im it was the personal

’

testimony o f on e whom God had used to

bring g r eat blessing into my li f e I then read .

“
it aloud till I came to the words At last I ,

realized that Jesus Christ was actually and

”
lite r ally within me I stopped amaz ed The . .

sun seemed suddenly to come f rom under a

cloud and flood my whole soul with light .

How blind I d been ! I saw at last the secret

’

Of victory it was simply Jesus Christ him

sel f his own li f e lived out in the believer .

But the thought of victory was f or the mo

ment lost sight o f in the inexpressible joy o f
realizing C H R I S T S I N D W E LLIN G P RE S E N CE !
’

Like a ti r ed worn out wanderer finding home

,
-

at last I j ust rest ed in him Rested in his .

love in himsel f And Oh the peace and .

, ,

joy that came flooding my li f e ! A rest f ulness

and quietness o f S pirit I never thought could
1 !
Lif t h t W i s m y b b t i d f m Th
Th e e a n
!
a e O a ne ro e S un
d y S h
a l T i m s C m p y t 2 e ts h ; 20
c oo e o an a c n e ac or c en ts a
d pi s
oze n c o pe h u d d p o tp i d
. or er n re . s a .
13 8 G od Answers Pray er
be mine took possession o f me so naturally .

Literally a new li f e began for me or rather in ,

“ ”
m e I t was just the Li fe that is Christ
. .

The first step I took in this new li f e was to

get standing on God s own Word and not ’

merely on man s teaching or even on a per

’

sonal experience A nd as I studied especially

.

the truth O f Ch r ist s indwelling v ictory over

’

sin and God s bounti f ul provision the Word

’

, ,

was fairly illumined with new light .

The years th at have pa ssed have been years

Of blessed fellowship with Christ and Of
j oy in his servi ce A friend asked me not
.

long ago i f I could give in a sentence the

after result in my li f e o f what I said had
“
come to me in 1 9 1 6 and I replied Yes it , , ,

can be all summed up in on e word ,

“ ”
Resting .

Some have asked But have you never ,

”
sinned ? Yes I grieve to say I have Sin
, .

is the on e thing I abhor f or it is the one

thing that can i f unrepented o f separate us
, , ,

not f rom Christ but f rom the consciousness

,

Of his presence But I have learned that

.

there is instantaneous f orgiveness and restor

ation to be had always That there need be .

no times o f despair .

O ne o f the blessed results O f this li f e is

not only the consciousness o f Christ s pres ’

ence but the reality of his presence as mani

,
c
 140 G od Answers Prayer
Th e words in C h ris t w h ich recur i n many oth er ,

passa ges will h a v e a new li t eralness w h en read in

t h e li ght O f th e ab o v e
,

T h e Apos t le Jo h n h ad a like concep t ion of C h ri s t s ’

i ndwellin g presence .

I Jo h n to
1 I Oh n 12, 13 , 1
J Ohn 5 : 20 .

’ - ose
God s P p
h r

A s V ict ory i s th e resul t o f C h r i s t s Lif e l iv e d o ut ’

i n th e b elie v er i t i s i m p ort an t th a t we see clearl y th a t

,

V ic t ory and no t d efe t i s God s P u o se f or h is

’

,
a

T h e Scrip t ures are v ery deci ed u p on thi s

,

Ch ilcl ren .

t ru t ll
L uke 1 : 74 75 2 Th essalon i ans 3 : 3 ( R .

2 Ti m o t h y
, .

Rom ans
!
Rom ans c h a p s 6 and 8 Ti t us 2 1 2 .

1 Corin t h ians 1 5 5 7
.
, . .

H e brews 7 : 2 5 . .

2 Corin t h ians 2 : 1 4 1 P e t er
.

2 Corin t h ians 1 0 : 5 2 P e t er 3 : 1 4
E p h esians oh n 2 : 1
. .

J
4 1
O hn 3 : 6 9
. .

Colossians 4 : 1 2 ,

1 T h essalonians
. .

And many o th er passages .

T h a t Ch ris t came as th e S a vi our f rom th e power

as well as th e pena lty o f s i n we see i n Ma tt h ew 1 : 2 1 ,

wi th Jo hn 8 : 3 4 3 6 and Ti t us , ,

God
’
s Pr o visi o n
G od kn ew th e f ra i lty of man th a t hi s h eart was
despera t el y wicked th a t e v en h is ri ght eousness was
,

as fil thy ra g s th a t man s onl y h ope for v ict ory

,
“ ” ’
,

o v er si mus t come f rom t h e God ward side H e

n -
,

th ere f ore made kin g l y pro v ision so ric h so sufficien t

.

, ,

so e x ceedin g a b undan t th a t as we s t ud y i t we f eel

,

we h a v e ta pp ed a m ine O f weal th t oo deep t o f a th om

, ,

, .

Jus t a f ew su gg es tions o f i t s rich es :

G od s g reates t pro v ision i s th e ggift O f a part Of
’
l
H is O wn B ein g i n th e p erson O f t h e H ol yp Sp iri t .

T h e follo win are b u t some o f th e manyy th in s th e

Holy Sp iri t oes f or us as recorded in th e ord ,

Th’
7t he h pt f R m c h ul d b
a er d i t h li g h t
o o an s s o e re a n e
of th ot h
e d 8t h h pt an c a e rs.
 V ictory Found 14 1

He b ege t s us i n t o th e f amil o f G od — Jo h n
He seals marks us as d —Ep h
or O
’
s
dwells i u — Cor 3 1 6
. .

He n s 1 :
uni t es us t o C h ris t —1 Cor
. .

He
.

—
27 . .

He c l ang esus in t o th e likeness f C h ris t 2 C o or.

3 : 1 é
He h el p s in prayer —Rom
com f ort —Jo h n 1 4 1 6
. .

He s :
g uide —R m
.

He
s t ren gth ens wi th power —Eph
s o .

He
i s th e source f power d f rui tf ulness —
. .

He Jo ho an . n

7 : 3 8. 3 9 .

S om e of th e v ict ori ous resul t s in o ur li f e as Ch ri s t

,

h as Hrs way 1n us are h own

, s 1n

Romans 8 3 3 7 : 2, P h ilip p ians

.
3 9 1 , 1
Romans 1 5 3 Colossians
.

: 1 . 1 : 11 .

2 Corin th ians 9 8 1 1 :P e ter 5 , . 1 1 :

2 Corin th ians 2 Ti m o thy 3
.

4 2 : 1 .
7 : 1 .

Eph esians 1 9 ude 2 4

JOh n
1 . .

Eph esians 3 1 6 2 0 : , .

To th e seeker f or f urth er S cri pt ure h el p th e wri ter

would sugges t a plan th a t h as pro ved a grea t b less
i h ersel f
gs
n o .

ead th e P salms th rough makin care f ul record

f all th e s t a t e m en t s O f w h a t th e
,

o rd was t o th e
wri ters f th e P salms Th e lis t will surp rise y ou
o . .

Th en ony our knees g o o v er th em by wi th on e on e,

th e p ray er th a t C h ris t m y be t o y ou w h a t h e was t a o
D a v id and th e o th ers .

Take a C ud r b e tt er s ti ll a ! oun g s concord

’
en s, o r
’
,

ance and look u p th e t e xt s under suc h h eadin g s as

L o v e F ulness P ower Ric h es G race e t c grou in g , , .
,

th em in t o usab le B i b le s t udies A s a sam p le t a g

, , , '

,
n
th is las t word g race ; th e more one s t udies i t th e
.

“ ”
,

more wonder f ul does it b ecome Here are ome f . s o

th ese h eadin g s :

Grace f or grac —Joh n e

S uffi cien t grac —2 Cor e
More G rac —James
.

e
A ll Grac — Cor
Abu ndan t g ac —
e 2 .

R mr e o
E x ceedin g a b undan t grac —1 T m
.

e 1

E x ceedin g rich es O f H is gra e —Eph

.

c . .
142 Answers Prayer
B u t le t us remem ber th a t t o sim ly know o f r i ch es
will ne v er ma terially benefi t us . e mus t make th em
our o wn A ll f u lness dwells in C h ris t It is onl y
.

as we appre hend ( wh ic h means take h old or t ake

“ ”

i n ) C h ris t th rou gh t h e H oly Sp iri t can i t b e possi b le

f o r th ese Spiri t ual ric h es t o b ecome ours T h e slo g an
.

3 g lorio us l i f e in Chr i s t i s j us t L e t o andgle t

“

25051
1
11 g