Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

well.'us.'plague'now.'Weme.'me.'well.'go.'mightelder, Mr. Yiu. The family of Mr. Shum, caretakerat the chapel, with my family lived at Mr. Yiu'shome for weeks while the Japanese army occupiedDo Shing. In the city there were terrible happeningsand many people were killed. We had prayer everymorning and evening and asked God for safetyanddaily food. He supplied our needs even while manyabout us were starving."One day I was ill and discouraged, when I hada vision of God. It seemed to me that an elderly manwith a long beard came to me and said to me, 'Youmust eat a bowl of hot rice gruel and you will beI was awakened and ate the gruel and washealed."Shum Shing-Uen, our chapel janitor, had aserious fall. In his pain he, too,saw this aged Oneand the words to him were, 'Boil water and drinkthree bowls and you will be He did so and recovered. Elder Yiu had a somewhat similar experience during his long illness. Thus we Christians livedthrough a time when many were dying from starvation and 'thebrought in.which the Japanese army"After the surrender of Japan the enemy troopswent away and we returned to our homes in DoShing. Miss Soong came after some weks to help us.It was then that I had my serious illness. For twoweeks I was unconscious. My mouth had to be forcedopen with a stick and liquids poured down my throat.My relatives said one day : 'He is dead. Wrap him upfor burial.' A neighbor who is a herb doctor said,'No, his pulse is still moving. His heart beats. He isnot yet dead.""Miss Soong and the other Christians cameevery morning and prayed for me. I found out laterthat she gave me milk from U. S. relief goods, andthat it was this food which they poured down mythroat daily. This milk kept me alive for two weeks.It was during this two weeks of unconsciousness thatI had the following dream."I saw four of Satan's devils dressed in whitecoats (white is the color for mourning in old China,worn by those who carry the coffin, S.E.B.) andtrousers coming to my bedside. One said, 'Come withEach devil carried a wooden staff. I askedrefused tothem where they were taking me. Theytell me and commanded me to follow them. After along journey we reached a Judgment Hall and thesefour devils ushered me into the presence of theJudge. As we came before Him the Judge becamevery angry, and shouted; 'Why do you bring thisman here now? It is not yet time.' The four devilscarried me out and started away."As we journeyed on our way we met the sameAged One with the beard whom I had seen in myearlier vision. He stopped us and asked the devils,'Where are you taking this person? Go away andleave him with As the devils fled the AgedOne said, 'Come with"We walked miles and miles up a winding road,through beautiful hills and up steep mountains. Atlast we crossed a great river of foaming, white water.On the banks of this river were many trees. Theyseemed to be very short trees with beautiful fruit oneach one. I reached out my hand to take of thisfruit but the Aged One said, 'Not yet. Wait.' ThenI wanted to drink of the water but He again refused,went back by the way I hadsaying: 'Not70come. I still remember the beauty of the great cityand the mountains which I saw, and that fruit."After a while I heard a voice calling to me:'Mr. Cheung, today is the Lord's Day. It is time forchurch. Come on, bring your Bible and"I replied, 'I lost my Bible when we fled fromthe Japanese.' The voice answered, 'We have Bibleschurch!'for evryone. Come quickly. It i's time for"At that moment I regained consciousness andbegan to get well. I was in bed for fully six months,unable to walk. After that I arose and in time regained my full strength. God has helped me many,many times and certainly nothing preserved my lifebut God's continual care."There are many so-called 'Christians' here inDo Shing, but, sorry to say, most of them are notreal disciples. They still gamble and drink and smoke.They never come to church. I begin every day withthe prayer, 'God my Heavenly Father, I have nothingin my own strength. Help me through this day!'When I see the worship of false gods or gambling Iwalk away and ask God to protect me from evil.Sometimes the people ridicule me for my Christianbelief, but I laugh back at them for their own sillysuperstitions, saying: 'What are your incense andholy candles but rubbish and dirt? Your incensesticks are made of wood shavings picked up afterpigs have walked over them leaving them filthy.Your idolatrous candles are made with the cottonfrom cast-off bedding, the dirtiest material in existence. Yet you take all that filthy rubbish and offerit to your gods. God cannot be worshiped except by aclean heart ! That is what we Jesus Doctrine peopleoffer the True God." (End)ConclusionWhen Mr. Cheung the Christian junk collectortold me the above experience he was already 75 yearsold. Now six years more of trouble and terror 'haveswept over China. How he has fared, whether he isalive or dead, we do not know. But it is our hope thatthe same God who maintained his simple, ignorantfaith in the hard years of 1941-45 has since thenprotected him and, if he has died, taken him at lastto the beautiful city where the fruit and the waterof everlasting life are forever his to enjoy in Christ.The Good Shepherd of the sheep in Red Chinais able to minister to every simple Christian in justthis manner. We are constrained, then, to pray muchfor these unknown Christians in communist landsthat God will win many a victory through their bravetestimony for Christ. "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that net many wise men after the flesh, notmany mighty, not many noble, are called: but Godhath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak thingsof the world to confound the things that are(I Corinthians 1:26-27.)When this paper reaches you, the two families,the Boyles and the Spears, and Eleanor Faris will beon the high seas on their way to Japan, and BlancheMcCrae is on her way to Cyprus. They are dependingon you to uphold their work. Miss McCrea's sailingaddress is S.S. Constitution, sailing August 10, Pier84, North River, New York.COVENANTER WITNESS