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 \57 
 

 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION ON CHINA 
 
 AND THE CHINESE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BR 1285.C51 
 
 Echoes from China :the story of my life. 
 
 3 1924 022 955 508 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022955508 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To the Missionaries and Mission Friends 
 
 of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America, 
 
 to express ray gratitude for their kindness 
 
 to me during: this trip. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To the Missionaries and Mission Friends 
 
 of the Swedish Evang-elical Mission Covenant of America, 
 
 to express my gratitude for their kindness 
 
 to me during: this trip. 
 
^iarcus Ch' eng 
 
miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiitiiniiiiiriiiiiriirriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'tiiiiiiiiiiriiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinL 
 
 Echoes from China 
 
 The Story of My Life 
 and Lectures 
 
 By 
 
 fiDarcus Cb'eno 
 
 4 
 
 I CHICAGO, ILL., 1921 | 
 
 I ttbe Covenant JSooft Concern p 
 
 I 136 WEST LAKE STREET I 
 
 MiiliiilinlllliillirillinillllliriiillillliiiiniiiiiiMitiirillliiriilKiiiiiMtririNliillillltrilllllllllllilriiriitiitriitiniiiMlriiiiiin 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This is no attempt to be an author or to write a book 
 in English. During my trip in Sweden and America I 
 2iave delivered many speeches and have some of these 
 in manuscript. Some friends have read them and asked 
 :m6 to publish at least a few in permanent form to- 
 gether with a sketch of my life. At first I rather hes- 
 itated to do it. Then I thought that if this can be 
 idone for the glory of my Savior and can aid the cause 
 ■of bringing salvation to my beloved land, I shall be 
 more than glad to do it. Now I send this forth with 
 the prayer to God that He may bless the reading and 
 the readers to the attaining of the object of this little 
 missionary enterprise. 
 
 I wish to express my special thanks to Prof. A. S. 
 Wallgren for his help in reading the manuscript and 
 the proof for me, and to Miss Agnes Hjerpe for her 
 stenographic help. This was written originally in Swedish 
 and is published in Sweden. 
 
 Marcus ch'eng. 
 
 Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, 
 
 136 W. Lake St., Chicago, 111., Oct. 8, 1921. 
 
 /■J d 
 
 EMIL FORSLUND, PRINT., SOt PLYMOUTH CT., CHICAGO 
 
GOD'S WAY OF DEALING WITH ME. 
 
 MY ANCESTRY. 
 
 My great grandfather was a farmer who 
 lived some ten miles away from Hankow. He 
 was very rich but became poor through a trial 
 at court. We still have in our home a box full 
 of contracts and title deeds from that time. 
 In China in the country places there is a 
 custom to have every year at the time of the 
 New Year a so-called "lantern feast." These 
 lanterns are made of paper in the shape of a 
 dragon with a big head. Every village has its 
 own dragon, and the farmers carry their dragon 
 to the temple to compete with those of others. 
 It often happens that they get into a quarrel 
 and fight. The dragon plays a big role in 
 China and exerts a great influence. The Em- 
 peror's throne is called the "Dragon Throne." 
 The Emperor's dress is called the "Dragon 
 Dress." The old Chinese flag has also a dra- 
 gon. This reminds us of the dragon in the 
 
The Story of My Life. 
 
 Book of Revelations, because the dragon has 
 done much mischief in China too. 
 
 It was at such a dragon feast my great grand- 
 father's nephew killed a man during the fight. 
 My great grandfather offered to suffer punish- 
 ment instead of him. Now in China courts 
 of law are not well organized, and the officers 
 and "yamen runners" take advantage of such 
 opportunities to squeeze the people, especially 
 if the arrested one is rich. When he was in 
 prison the "yamen runners" would privately 
 threaten to beat the prisoner and treat him in 
 many cruel ways. The only way to escape 
 such treatment was to pay bribes. My great 
 grandfather had to sell his house and fields, 
 and in fact all his properties to bribe officers 
 and "yamen runners" in order to help his 
 nephew, and at last he died in prison in 
 Wuchang. 
 
 The law in China is that if a man dies in 
 prison he may not be carried out through the 
 gate. They break the wall and make a hole 
 to cast him out. That is considered to be 
 a great shame, and the people believe that if 
 such a person has no children it is a sign that 
 even God testifies that he was a sinner. But if 
 such a prisoner has children, and has many of 
 them, it is a sign that God in heaven bears 
 witness that the prisoner was innocent. There- 
 fore it was my grandfather's ambition to get 
 as many children as possible to show that his 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 7 
 
 father was innocent, but died instead of another. 
 He had two sons and more than ten grand- 
 children. He used to talk to us about his 
 father, that is, my great grandfather, how 
 great a hero he was and how noble and brave 
 he was to be willing to die for his nephew. He 
 was very glad that Heaven also testified now 
 to that effect through 60 many descendants. 
 
 When prospects at home became poor, my 
 grandfather found it necessary to leave the 
 country and move to Hankow to learn a 
 trade. He learned to be a cooper. My grand- 
 father and my father established a big shop 
 there. My brother was born in Hankow. The 
 new enterprise, however, did not succeed; so 
 they must move over to Mucheng. There I 
 was born. There the Mission Covenant of 
 Sweden began their work. 
 
 My father's mother and my mother's mother 
 were not born in Hupeh province. They came 
 from the Province Nganhuei. In this province 
 it happened there was a big flood and the 
 people had to move from there to save their 
 lives. These two girls then came to Wuchang 
 and were married there. They became very 
 good friends and agreed secretly that their 
 children, if they should have any, should be 
 united in marriage. So my father and mother 
 were engaged by their mothers. That is very 
 common in China. The parents decide concern- 
 ing the marriage of the children. 
 
8 The Story of My Life. 
 
 When my father and mother were young they 
 had an opportunity to study in Mission schools, 
 that is, schools established by the missionary 
 societies. At that time the mission practically 
 paid the children to study. They paid their 
 board and tuition and gave them clothes. Still 
 the children dared not come because they were 
 afraid of foreigners. Only those poor children 
 who were not afraid of death came, rather 
 for food than for education. My father and 
 mother had friends who dared to study in the 
 mission school and are now prominent people 
 both in the church and in society. My father 
 and mother were richly gifted. If they had 
 had an education they would have attained 
 prominence also, but they dared not. Now 
 conditions are quite different in China. The 
 same school has now developed into a uni- 
 versity, and every student has to pay a large 
 tuition and many cannot get in because it is 
 so crowded. Here we see what a great change 
 has taken place and what a great confidence the 
 people now have in mission schools and in mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 My grandfather was a very hot tempered 
 man. One reason was that he was so badly 
 and unjustly treated by people when he was 
 young, during the time when his father was 
 in prison, but he was a very righteous man 
 and would do only what he understood to be 
 right. He was very religious too. For more 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 9 
 
 than thirty years he was a vegitarian to 
 avoid the slaughter of animals. There are 
 many such in China. They believe in this 
 way they can gain merit and win the for- 
 giveness of their sins. He worshipped idols very 
 earnestly. I remember that once when I was 
 a little child he took me to a chapel. I was so 
 small that I could not understand what the evan- 
 gelist preached, but I remember how my grand- 
 father was angry with the preacher and de- 
 bated with him. 
 
 My father was led to Christ and joined the 
 American Church Mission through his child- 
 hood friends, but he dared not tell his father, 
 because at that time to be a Christian meant 
 so much persecution. At Chinese New Year's 
 the custom is to offer special New Year's 
 offerings to the idols and ancestors and have 
 family worship. All members of the family 
 are to take part. My father, who was then 
 a Christian, would not take part and it was 
 disclosed that he had "eaten" the foreign reli- 
 gion, that is, he had become a Christian. My 
 grandfather was very angry. My father dared 
 not come home but hid himself in a church. 
 When he as head of the family was not at 
 home and did not take part in the offering, 
 my mother and we children also could not take 
 part. We sat in our room, neither worshipping 
 the true God nor the false ones. 
 
 You see it was not an easy thing to be a 
 
10 The Story of My Life. 
 
 Christian then, especially when only, one mem- 
 ber of the family took the step. Even now 
 it is not easy, but much better. So my father 
 suffered very much persecution at home. Our 
 family then consisted of my grandfather and 
 his two bachelor brothers, my uncle and his 
 wife, my father, mother, and a few children. 
 All these lived under one roof. Very often my 
 grandfather was angry with my father and 
 beat him and smashed the furniture at home. 
 I remember very well how my grandfather beat 
 him with a stick. My father showed such great 
 filial obedience to his father that when he was 
 beaten he would try neither to escape nor pre- 
 vent it, but instead of that gave him a cup 
 of tea and begged him not to strain himself too 
 much. I remember once there was a Swedish 
 missionary who witnessed such an occasion, and 
 when he saw how grandfather beat his son 
 he thought it terrible and unbearable and told 
 my father to bring action in the police court. 
 My father laughed and said, "You Western 
 people don't understand such conditions. This 
 is according to our Chinese etiquette." 
 
 My father's mother died when she was quite 
 young and he visits her grave every ,year in 
 the springtime. Since he became a Christian he 
 could not burn incense and offer to the dead. 
 But he kept the grave very nice, and much 
 better than the non-Christians. Since ancestor 
 worship is very strong in China, the non- 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 11 
 
 Christians ridicule the Christians and say that 
 they have sold their ancestors when they become 
 Christians. My father was anxious to show that 
 we Christians honor the memory of our dead 
 more than they, although we do not worship 
 them. I was with my father once to visit 
 my grandmother's grave and, although she was 
 dead then more than twenty years, I saw my 
 father shed tears when he sat by the side of 
 the grave and thought about her. 
 
 Filial piety is considered to be a fundamental 
 virtue in Confucianism. The Chinese keep the 
 fourth commandment of God very strictly, al- 
 though they don't know there is such a com- 
 mandment, "Honor thy father and mother and 
 thou shalt live long in the land God giveth 
 thee." One of the chief reasons China has 
 existed as a nation so long (about four thousand 
 years), is that China unconsciously has received 
 the blessing of the promise. 
 
 But this can go to extremes. It has its 
 faults and shortcomings, too. The children 
 obey the parents, but sometimes the parents 
 are not thoughtful for the children. For exam- 
 ple, when my father was twenty years old 
 and could work, my grandfather who was then 
 fifty-eight years old ceased to work and entirely 
 •depended upon his sons. That is one of the 
 chief reasons why so many Chinese are poor. 
 The laborers in China are as a rule very 
 poor. My father was not an exception. I think 
 
12 The Story of My Life. 
 
 I can safely say that I have not seen in 
 America a house like the one in which I was 
 born, that is, so poor a house. 
 
 MY CHILDHOOD. 
 
 I was born in the winter. It was very cold 
 and my mother, because of the severe weather, 
 contracted an illness the effects of which she 
 never can get rid of. 
 
 When I was small they gave me the name 
 of Shiao-sac, which meant "little potatoes" 
 or "little fool." The purpose of giving a child 
 such an ugly name is to cheat the evil spirits 
 so they may pass by him and not do harm 
 to him. The Chinese try to cheat the devil 
 from coming. Western people swear to invite 
 the devil in. As a rule it is the grandfather 
 who gives the names and I got my name from 
 him. One day I went up to him and said, 
 "Grandfather, can't you give me a better nameT 
 I don't like my name." But he was not willing 
 to change it. When I began to study in the 
 school my teacher gave me another name, 
 Chung-Kwei, which means "the highly exalted." 
 After some years when I myself began tO" 
 understand and thought over my name, I took 
 the name Marcus. The custom in China is 
 that the family name never changes but the 
 first name may change as often as you wish. 
 Here in the Western lands the opposite is the 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 13 
 
 case. You never change your first name but 
 change the family name. 
 
 We have had the family name of Cheng for 
 more than two thousand years. It was an 
 Emperor who gave one of his favorite ministers 
 this name, Cheng, and we are his children, 
 and that name was never changed. In fact, if 
 we want to say something in China is unchange- 
 able we say it is as unchangeable as my family 
 name. 
 
 Another reason they called me "little potatoes" 
 was, my mother afterwards told me, that I was 
 so quiet and obedient. Wherever mother put 
 me there I would sit. But this does not mean 
 that I was so good; it was because I was neg- 
 lected. Nobody cared much about me, because 
 I was the second child in order. Among the 
 Chinese, like the Jews, the first born has 
 special privileges. When the first is born they 
 make a feast with much pomp in honor of the 
 event. But when I was born they didn't wel- 
 come me like that. One reason was that my 
 parents were very poor. To be the second 
 child in China is not enviable. When the first 
 child gets a new coat, the second one gets his 
 old one. Because of my personal experience I 
 treat my second boy with more thoughtful ness. 
 
 When a family is poor not more than one son 
 can get an education. Of course, the first-born 
 gets the privilege to study and the others are 
 neglected. My father paid for my brother in 
 
14 The Story of My Life. 
 
 school with the hope that he some day might 
 become a learned man. The way would have 
 been closed to me, if the Mission Covenant had 
 not opened a Boys' School in Wuchang. There 
 I could study without any fee; so I went to a 
 Mission School and my elder brother went to 
 a private school. When my father sometimes 
 examined us at home he found out that I suc- 
 ceeded better in the Mission School than my 
 brother in the private school; so he took him 
 to the Christian Mission School too. 
 
 The whole time before I was three years old 
 I was very sick and once nearly died. Besides 
 me, my mother had to take care of two small 
 girls, whom she adopted and intended to be 
 the wives of her two sons. In China just like 
 in America it is difficult for the poor to get 
 a wife. Many cannot afford to marry, but 
 in China they try to help the situation by 
 adopting small girls and rearing them to be 
 the future wives of their sons. My mother took 
 thought for our future. The girl who should 
 be my wife died at the age of one year, in a 
 way a fortunate thing, and my elder brother's 
 girl grew up in my parents' home and my 
 brother married her. In their home conditions 
 were not what they ought to be. My brother 
 sometimes complained to my mother that she 
 brought up a wife for him whom he cannot 
 love. Therefore I say it was fortunate what 
 happened to mine. 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 15 
 
 When I was small I had a boil on my eye- 
 lid. At that time they had no knowledge of 
 how to treat it. My mother opened the boil 
 and with a mouth full of wine sucked out the 
 pus. Even now I don't understand whether 
 it was that method that cured me or God that 
 in a special way protected my eyes. Anyway 
 -my eyes became all right. 
 
 I have not much memory of my childhood, 
 but I remember I often gathered together chairs 
 and benches and played church. I stood on a 
 chair, playy^g that it was a pulpit, and preached. 
 Because I had the opportunity and privilege to 
 go in a Christian school and came under Chris- 
 tian influence, my hero and my ideal is a 
 preacher. My parents were very poor — my 
 father went out every day to work and came 
 home with a little money with which we bought 
 a small quantity of rice and vegetables as our 
 food. Sometimes when it rained my father 
 could not get work and often we had no food. 
 Sometimes my father sent me to a pawnshop to 
 get some clothes pawned in order that we might 
 have a little money with which to buy food. 
 Sometimes we must borrow money at very high 
 interest. For example, when we borrowed one 
 dollar, we would pay back one cent a day for 
 one hundred and twenty days. 
 
 Because my father was a Christian and my 
 grandfather did not like him, he treated my 
 uncle with special favor. He sold our house. 
 
16 The Story of My Life. 
 
 which belonged to both my father and uncle, 
 and gave the money to my uncle to be used as 
 capital with which to begin a business. That 
 made it harder for us when we had no house 
 ourselves and had to pay rent. My uncle's 
 business prospered and we children sometimes 
 went to him an hour's walking distance, in 
 order to get a little food. Uncle treated us 
 rather unkindly. I remember once when we 
 went there to his home he took a cane and 
 drove us out and said, "This is not a restau- 
 rant. I can't feed you." But now my uncle 
 is poor. We often help him and try to forget 
 how he treated us. He was much impressed 
 by this and came to attend the service in our 
 church and was converted. He is now a mem- 
 ber of our church. 
 
 When I was small I often heard missionaries 
 preach. I don't remember much what they said, 
 but what they did I remember much and very 
 well. I remember in the winter time when it 
 was cold a missionary came to our home in the 
 evening to see my little sister who was sick. 
 He took out of his bosom some cakes and gave 
 to my sister. I also remember how a Christian 
 doctor who heard from a missionary that we had 
 someone sick in our home late in the night 
 came to us and knocked at the door and said, 
 "I have heard that you have a little girl sick. 
 May I come in and see her?" All this work of 
 Christian love made a very deep impression upon 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 17 
 
 me. It is true as someone has said, "The door 
 of China for the Gospel was opened by the 
 knife of a Christian doctor." 
 
 When I came to the age of twelve years it 
 was pretty hard for me to continue to study, 
 because I must help my parents to support the 
 family. We were then already seven children 
 and my father could not support them. My 
 mother was a woman of vision and saw the 
 future and understood that I could study; so she 
 was willing to work hard in order to spare me 
 for my studying. My father worked very hard 
 too and I felt rather bad about it because I 
 did not earn my bread by working but only 
 studied. My father sometimes lost his temper 
 and beat me. Sometimes he beat my head so 
 hard that for some time it felt like a wooden 
 block. Under these circumstances I myself 
 many times thought of giving up studying and 
 learning a trade, but they would not let me. I 
 helped what I could at home. Sometimes I did 
 the cooking for the home and other household 
 work, arising early in the morning to get my 
 tasks done before school. I exposed myself in 
 the winter time so that my hands became 
 chapped until they bled. 
 
 In China the parents treat their children 
 rather strictly and make them fear them rather 
 than love them. Most children have not the 
 friendly attitude toward their parents that I 
 have seen here in America. ' My father wag 
 
18 The Story of My Life. 
 
 extraordinarily strict; so when I was small I 
 never learned any sport or games. The Chinese 
 children have many games, too, but I never got 
 a chance to take part. My father would beat 
 me even if he saw me standing by and looking 
 at some other children play. This has its good 
 side too. In this way I was kept from the harm- 
 ful company of bad children in the streets. 
 
 There was one time when my mother beat 
 me that I shall never forget, and I have felt 
 thankful to her for it. It was when my mother 
 sent me to buy some food and I kept a few 
 pennies and bought some cakes for myself 
 secretly. My mother found out that I had 
 cheated her and told a lie and she punished 
 me very hard. She undressed me and whipped 
 me all over. Even now I can feel it when I 
 think of it. Very often the Chinese parents 
 don't care if their children tell lies, but my 
 mother tried to lead us and educate us accord- 
 ing to the light she had, and that was a great 
 blessing to me. 
 
 I had the great privilege from childhood of 
 coming under the influence of the Gospel. I 
 never worshipped idols. We had idols in our 
 home, but only my grandfather worshipped 
 them. Although my father was a Christian he 
 could not remove them. Once when I was in 
 school, a missionary came and asked us boys 
 to bring our parents to the meetings which were 
 to be held in the church. I went home and 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 19 
 
 asked my mother to go to hear the Gospel and 
 she went. She still remembers very well how 
 she for the first time heard a lady missionary 
 preach. She said, "If your Emperor should 
 write a letter and send it to you, would you not 
 like to listen to what your Emperor says?" My 
 mother did not understand that this was an 
 illustration. She thought actually the mission- 
 ary had a letter from the Emperor for her. 
 Therefore she said to the missionary, "I shall 
 be very glad to hear what our Emperor says," 
 and the missionary had to use all possible ways 
 to make her understand it was only an illustra- 
 tion. It was God, the Emperor in Heaven, who 
 sends us His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us, my 
 mother at last understood, and she began to 
 attend the meetings regularly and was converted 
 to God and joined the Mission Covenant church. 
 My father then left the American Episcopal 
 Mission Church and also joined the same church 
 as my mother. 
 
 At this time my parents lived separately from 
 our grandfather and uncle; so our home became 
 a Christian home and had no idols, a home in 
 which we worshipped the true God. But no 
 doubt we sometimes mixed not so few super- 
 stitions from our former idol worship with the 
 worship of God. That was not to be wondered 
 at since we had just turned from the idols to 
 the true God. For example, at New Year's 
 time each family has a New Year's feast. By 
 
20 The Story of My Life. 
 
 the way, we keep the New Year somewhat as 
 you people keep Christmas. All members of the 
 family try to be at home and have a dinner 
 together. We had a dinner before dawn and 
 ate very slowly until it became light in the 
 morning. This is supposed to be going step by 
 step toward the light. At this dinner they 
 always place some extra chairs by the table 
 in the belief that they may expect more children 
 in the future, for, although in many cases they 
 have more children than they can support, they 
 want still more. 
 
 The ideal in China is, the more children the 
 better, in order to continue the lineage. Men- 
 chius, the great Chinese philosopher, said, "The 
 great sin against your parents is to have no 
 children." That is also one of the reasons why 
 in China they allow a man to take a concubine 
 when his wife has no children. At New Year's 
 time we put sugar and preserved dates in the 
 tea and call this the "tea of wealth." They 
 drink to wealth instead of health. The first 
 three evenings at New Year they seal the door 
 inside in the belief that in this way they keep 
 wealth from going out. Since my parents were 
 Christians we kept the New Year's feast and 
 had the New Year's dinner, drank the tea of 
 wealth, but did not seal the door. We read 
 the Bible, sang some hymns and prayed. At 
 dawn of New Year's Day the children woke 
 up early or stayed up the whole night and 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 21 
 
 congratulated the parents and wished them a 
 "Happy New Year." The parents sit on a chair 
 and the children according to the order of age 
 come forward, one by one, fall on their knees 
 and touch the ground with the forehead three 
 times and then stand up and make a bow and 
 in the same way salute the elder brothers and 
 sisters, but not the younger. In China age plays 
 a big role. The younger brother salutes the 
 elder, but not vice versa. The younger must 
 not call the elder by his name, but use the title, 
 "elder brother" instead. We have different 
 words for younger and elder brothers, and 
 younger and elder sisters. It is not considered 
 polite to address a person older than you by 
 name. 
 
 MY BAPTISM AND PREPARATION FOR 
 CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 When I was in the school we studied Chinese 
 classics (four books and five classics). We 
 memorized a great deal. We have to memorize 
 our classics and we treat the Bible in the same 
 way. I memorized the four Gospels, and part 
 of the Psalms and Proverbs. For example, this 
 is the way in which I learned the Gospel accord- 
 ing to St. Mathew by heart. The missionary 
 came to our school and sat by the desk and 
 opened his Bible and I came forward and stood 
 beside him and turned my back to him and 
 memorized the Gospel from the first chapter. 
 
22 The Story of My Life. 
 
 first verse, to the end of the twenty-eighth 
 chapter in one stretch. From childhood I had 
 the opportunity and privilege to learn to know 
 the true God and Jesus Christ. I remember 
 many times when I was a small boy I went 
 apart and prayed and many times in my heart 
 I had a struggle as I wanted to be sure that 
 my sins were forgiven.- It is indeed a great 
 privilege when children have the chance to have 
 the Gospel seed sown in their hearts. I was not 
 baptized until I was sixteen years of age, at 
 the time of my entry into college. 
 
 In 1901 the Mission Covenant decided to sup- 
 port me while I studied in the Wesley Methodist 
 College, in Wuchang. When I heard that, I 
 cried with joy. In nearly every examination I 
 got the highest mark in the class. I think, one 
 reason that I worked hard in the school was 
 that I often remembered the poverty in my 
 home. Very often when I was out and saw 
 other boys playing, the conditions in my home 
 would come to my mind and I would leave the 
 place and go back to my room and read. We 
 had in the school quite a number of boys from 
 rich families and the official class. As a rule 
 in examinations they fell behind. We some- 
 times said to them, "If you rich fellows could 
 study also, God would not then be just." 
 
 I was there in the college only two years 
 when the Mission Covenant decided not to sup- 
 port me for the study of English, because they 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 23 
 
 were afraid that I would not serve the mission 
 when I graduated, but use my English to earn 
 money in other fields of work. But I was very 
 interested in the English language and would 
 not give up. From childhood I have liked foreign 
 languages. When I saw the foreign words I 
 wondered how in the world the foreigners could 
 write such wonderful words — ^how they could 
 remember the curves and the hooks, and the 
 rings, with the dots here and there. They must 
 have a wonderful memory, thought I. When one 
 does not understand it looks as if it were 
 impossible. I suppose it is the same when you 
 look at the Chinese characters. You think it 
 is wonderful how we can write Chinese. 
 
 From that time I was supported by an Amer- 
 ican friend, who was introduced to me by the 
 President of the school. Rev. G. G. Warren. He 
 understood and knew me and had confidence in 
 me. English has been a great joy in my life. 
 M^ny times when I have read English books and 
 magazines, I have had so much blessing that 
 I thank God because I learned English. But 
 I also suffered very much because of English. 
 When I graduated, the President of the school 
 called me in his study and because he knew 
 that I was very poor he proposed that I should 
 spend a few years in some other work to get 
 money to pay back the debt, and afterwards 
 come back to the mission's service. He would 
 recommend me to a position in a Post Office. 
 
24 The Story of My Life. 
 
 There I could earn seven times more salary 
 than the mission could pay me. I said I would 
 not do it, but I chose to work for the Mission 
 Covenant. I could then with good conscience 
 say that I was not ambitious to become rich, 
 although we were so very poor in my home, 
 and I would not work only for money's sake. 
 
 Now I say this, not because I wish to boast 
 of myself, but for the other Chinese young peo- 
 ple's sake. When I was in the school a few 
 of us who were among the poorest in the school 
 but who were Christians sometimes came to- 
 gether and talked over our life's plan. We 
 encouraged each other to seek first the king- 
 dom of God, and decided not to work outside 
 the mission, but rather stay in the mission's 
 service if we only could get a decent living. I 
 know there are at present young men in China 
 who are in the same situation. 
 
 In this connection about money, I must say I 
 got much help and inspiration from Mr. Warren, 
 whom I just mentioned. I remember one even- 
 ing I went to his study. He took my hand and 
 asked, "What can I do for you?" I told him 
 I had no money to buy a new suit which was 
 necessary and also my father was sick. He 
 opened his cash drawer and there were many 
 silver dollars and bank notes, and he said to 
 me, "Take what you want." I took ten dollars. 
 Then he said, "Take more if you want," and 
 then he took my hand and looked into my eyes 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 25 
 
 and said, "Thank you, because you take me as 
 your friend, and come to me in your need. This 
 need not to be the last time. Come again." 
 This made such a deep impression upon me. 
 There was something in my throat so that I 
 could not even speak, but only shed tears of 
 thanks. I came back to my room and fell on 
 my knees and thanked God that I had such a 
 friend. He made me realize the true value of 
 money just at the critical time when I should 
 choose my life work. It was this same m.an who 
 had authority to speak to me afterwards when 
 I had a position as instructor in English in a 
 Government school and had a large salary; he 
 said, "Why teach just for the dollar's sake? I 
 would rather preach the Gospel at twelve dollars 
 a month than teach English at a salary of one 
 hundred dollars." 
 
 ary marriage. 
 
 I had worked in. the Mission's service for a 
 year at a salary of six thousand cash a month 
 (equal to eight Mexican dollars). I could sup- 
 port nxyself on this, but I could not help my 
 parents; so 1 resigned and took a position in a 
 Government school and at the same time was 
 a tutor in a rich man's home and had a salary 
 of $120.00 a month. Just at this time I married 
 a girl who was a nurse at the Methodist Hospital. 
 I saw her and knew her myself and according to 
 the custom asked a "middle-man" to arrange 
 
26 The Story of My Life. 
 
 matters for me. Before we were married we 
 wrote to each other although it was against the 
 custom. So we really loved each other and 
 lived very happily together. 
 
 Now in this connection I shall speak a few 
 words about Chinese family life. In my home 
 lived my father and mother, my sisters and my 
 elder brother and his wife and their children, 
 my wife and I together under one roof. This 
 is very common in China. China considers this 
 to be the ideal of family life, especially our 
 Cheng family which has special history and tra- 
 ditions back of it. 
 
 In our family chronicles it is said there was a 
 time when thirteen generations lived together. 
 There were seven hundred persons, both young 
 and old who lived together. They ate together, 
 and had everything in common. They had one 
 hundred dogs and these dogs ate ^in the same 
 place. The tradition says that if there was any 
 one dog not present the other ninety-nine would 
 wait for him. That shows how the generations 
 could live together in harmony. Even the dogs 
 were impressed. When the Emperor heard this 
 he presented to our family a tablet with the 
 word "I-men" written on it, which means "the 
 righteous family." So in China it is consid- 
 ered a great honor if several generations can 
 live together. 
 
 There is another family in China which is 
 well known for this honor. That is the Chang 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 27 
 
 family. There was a time when nine genera- 
 tions lived together and had all things in com- 
 mon. When the Emperor learned to know this 
 remarkable family, he paid them a visit and 
 asked the patriarch in the family what the 
 secret was that they could live together so many 
 generations. He took out a pen and wrote an 
 answer. He wrote one hundred times' the word, 
 "Patience." Yes, it took much .patience for so 
 many individuals to live together. When we 
 three families lived together we needed patience 
 too; certainly it was not an easy thing for the 
 mother-in-law to live in harmony with her 
 ' daughters-in-law. 
 
 It was only a little more than six months 
 after our marriage that my wife died. She 
 died very suddenly on a hot summar day. This 
 gave me a very deep sorrow. In China it is 
 common that when a young wife dies her 
 parents come to the home and make as much 
 trouble as they can. Often they place the blame 
 for the death on the mother-in-law. When a 
 daughter is married her parents have to give 
 much as her dowery and spend much money 
 for her. Now if she dies young they think it 
 is a great loss, not only the loss of a daughter 
 but also the money. So they would cause as 
 much trouble as they can to make the mother- 
 in-law spend money. 
 
 Now in China in marriage the girl goes to 
 the mother-in-law's home and lives together 
 
28 The Story of My Life. 
 
 with her husband's parents. It is not as in 
 America, where the newly-married couple build 
 a new home for themselves. So you see a 
 marriage in China is a loss to the bride's home, 
 because her parents have to give her dowery 
 and spend money for her, but it is a gain to 
 the bridegroom's home. This explains why boys 
 are more valued than girls in China. Also, the 
 son will support his parents in their old age, 
 but not the daughter. So we say in China the 
 girl is married out and the son is married in. 
 When my wife died so suddenly they had more 
 reason to make trouble. This, of course, in- 
 creased my sorrow. Oh, I felt I was put into 
 circumstances that I did not know how to get 
 out of. They could sue me in the law-court and 
 make me spend money and suffer, but God 
 helped me through. Usually I had difficulty to 
 go to sleep, but it was wonderful during those 
 times that as soon as I lay down I slept and 
 nothing could awaken me. 
 
 SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 In the same year in the autumn I met an 
 extraordinary preacher. He was not a preacher 
 by profession, but a doctor of medicine, but 
 God so used him that he gave up medical work 
 to preach the Gospel. He had special meetings 
 for the deepening of spiritual life. He came to 
 our city and had a series of meetings. He 
 talked much about a deeper spiritual life, about 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 29 
 
 Jesus Christ in us and we in Him. I remember 
 how he preached about "I am the vine, ye are 
 the branches." I understood then that that man 
 had something I had not. It was a critical 
 moment in my life. I did not understand the 
 deeper meaning of a Christian life, so I went to 
 him one evening and had a private talk with 
 him. I said, "You have talked so much about 
 Christ in us and we in Him. I do not under- 
 stand it. How is it possible that Jesus Christ 
 lives in us?" 
 
 He answered with Christ's own words, "I stand 
 at the door and knock. If anyone opens the 
 door, I shall come in and sup with him." He 
 said, "Christ is not like a naughty boy, who 
 knocks at your door and runs away when you 
 open the door and comes back again when it 
 is closed. No, He never plays with you. He 
 means business. You know Christ is knocking 
 at your heart's door. If you just open he will 
 surely come in." 
 
 I asked, "How can I know if He has come 
 in?" 
 
 He said, "Christ lives in us by faith ; we can't 
 feel it in our body but we believe it. St. Paul 
 said, 'Christ lives in us through faith'." 
 
 I said to him, "Now, how shall I begin?" 
 
 That man certainly was a spiritual doctor. 
 
 He looked at me and said, "You go home now. 
 
 ' Go in your room and shut the door, open your 
 
 Bible and read Paul's word in the Epistle to the 
 
30 The Story of My Ufe. 
 
 Ephesians, the 3rd chapter, 17th verse. There 
 he says, 'Christ lives in you through faith,' and 
 you just kneel down before Him and open your 
 heart and invite Jesus Christ to come in. Be 
 sure He will come in. Believe that He has come 
 in. The most important is to obey Him. Do 
 what He tells you." 
 
 Well, I left him and went home and did what 
 he said. I expected in a few minutes everything 
 would be clear, but it took a long time. Jesus 
 had to cleanse my heart before He could live 
 there. He showed me my sins; so I must con- 
 fess my sins and ask forgiveness. But there 
 was especially one sin which Jesus wanted me 
 to confess not only to God but to the man whom 
 I wronged. You know it is a very hard thing 
 to confess to God, but it is harder sometimes 
 to confess to man. To an American it is easier, 
 but it is more difficult for a Chinesei to con- 
 fess his sins to men because we are so very 
 careful not to "lose our face," that is to say, 
 come to dishonor. At that time I was already 
 a preacher and teacher. It was the hardest time 
 in my life. I was so sad that I had no interest 
 in life. I remember how when I walked the 
 streets and I saw a cat or a dog I wished I was 
 one of them, as an animal has no conscience, no 
 sense of sin, and after death no judgment. 
 
 But at last I got the grace and courage to 
 go to that man and confess my sin and God 
 forgave me. Oh! how joyful was that day when 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 31 
 
 I was sure all my sins were forgiven. What a 
 joy it was to feel that I was right with God. 
 I remember it was a rainy day, and as I walked 
 the dirty street I felt as though I were walk- 
 ing in the streets of gold in Heaven, because I 
 had peace with God. 
 
 I might tell you also of that particular sin. 
 By that time I had taken up work in the Mis- 
 sion again, and I promised the missionary I 
 would give all my time in the Mission's service. 
 I worked six hours a day in the Mission School, 
 but in my leisure hours I had work in a Govern- 
 ment school and in a rich home, so I got a good 
 salary besides. When, however, I invited Jesus 
 to come into my heart and be my Lord, I saw 
 that this was wrong, and decided to leave the 
 extra work; so I confessed to the missionary 
 that I had cheated him and did not keep the 
 promise to devote my whole time to the mis- 
 sionary work. However, this was not an easy 
 matter. 
 
 In China a married person must support not 
 only his own family but his parents as well. 
 So my parents objected when they learned that 
 I was to quit my work. They thought I was 
 crazy, but I knew I was never so clear in my 
 head. They said to me, "Is it a sin to teach 
 English?' You cannot blame them, as money 
 is money everywhere in China or in America. 
 But I quit the work even at the expense of dis- 
 obeying my parents. Now my parents reali2ie 
 
32 The Story of My Life. 
 
 that I was right, but at first they could not 
 understand it. When I went up to the Presi- 
 dent of the Government school and resigned, 
 they did not believe me. They thought that it 
 was only an excuse for demanding an increase 
 of salary. He said he would increase my salary 
 and he would recommend me to another school 
 with a still higher salary, but I quit them all. 
 From that time it was a new joy to preach the 
 Gospel. It is a pleasure and a privilege to serve 
 the Lord. I am sure it is not a sacrifice. It is 
 really the Lord Jesus Christ who sacrifices 
 when he condescends to take such a low instru- 
 ment as I and use me. 
 
 CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 At this time I had a new temptation. I got 
 the idea that it is better to wear out than rust 
 out. My wife's death made me look at this 
 world as the vanity of vanities. I wished to 
 leave this world as soon as possible. I thought 
 the best way was to work myself to death; so I 
 worked very hard, from early morning until late 
 in the night — preached, taught, and translated 
 books, read and studied, with no recreation. So 
 I became very weak. I remember that one night 
 when I was on my knees I fell down on the 
 floor unconscious. I was alone in the room. At 
 midnight I woke up and found I" was on the 
 floor. Then I realized that if I continued to 
 live in this way I would soon be done. My 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 33 
 
 parents and sisters saw it, but they could not 
 help me. Just in this condition I met my 
 present wife. 
 
 She was a school-mate of my sister. We had 
 known each other for many years. She belonged 
 to the Christian and Missionary Alliance. She 
 was educated in a Methodist school, and after 
 graduation she had been a teacher for five 
 years in a country place very far from us. Dur- 
 ing these five years we had not heard from her 
 and did not know how she was. Just at this 
 time she came to Muchang and visited us. She 
 heard me preach and was very glad. My sister 
 told her my condition, that I was tired of life 
 and wished to die. She thought it a great pity 
 that such a young man should lose interest in 
 life. 
 
 According to Chinese custom and etiquette, 
 a young man and a young woman should have 
 no social fellow-ship with each other. Mencius, 
 the great philosopher, says, "Man and woman 
 should not hand each other anything so that 
 their hands would come in contact." Even now 
 when I come to my wife's home her own sister 
 does not hand me a book or anything directly 
 in my hand. She puts it on the table and 
 lets me take it from there. Especially does the 
 old conservative class Tiold to this etiquette very 
 strictly. You cannot imagine that such people 
 would dance. In fact, they don't dance in China. 
 
 My wife really belongs to the old school; but 
 
34 
 
 The Story of My Life. 
 
 bri 
 O 
 
 Si 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 35 
 
 Mencius also said, "If a woman falls in the 
 water and is dying, a man may reach out his 
 hand and save her." Now, at this time it was 
 a man who was dying and a woman who 
 reached out her hand to save him. She broke 
 the Chinese etiquette a|id one evening came 
 to my study and earnestly talked to me and 
 pointed out my wrong idea of life. We talked 
 about our spiritual experiences. I was surprised 
 that she knew the deeper things in spiritual 
 life, and we prayed together. Since then I got 
 a new inspiration and a new interest in life, 
 and we often corresponded. But I was not 
 willing to marry again, because I really hated 
 the Chinese system of family life. I would 
 not live together with my parents and brother 
 under one roof. I prayed to God that if he 
 opened a way by which I could leave Wuchang, 
 then I would marry. 
 
 In the year 1907, Dr. Waldenstrom came to 
 China and inspected the mission field and had 
 a Conference with the missionaries both from 
 the Mission Covenant of America and the Mis- 
 sion Covenant of Sweden, and decided to estab- 
 lish a Seminary to train Chinese preachers, this 
 Seminary to be opened in the city of Kingchow. 
 I was called to be a teacher in this school and 
 as I had to move there, we were engaged and 
 in the beginning of 1909 were married. That 
 was before the Revolution, so we had our 
 wedding in the old-fashioned way, although we 
 
36 The Story of My Life. 
 
 did it in a new spirit. According to the Chinese 
 etiquette, at the engagement the gtrl gets two 
 rings at the same time. The same year the 
 Chinese Empress Dowager and Emperor died; 
 so the people must wear mourning for one hun- 
 dred days. During these one hundred days 
 people should not have music nor any weddings. 
 If they should marry at this time they should 
 not have the ordinary pomp and decorations 
 and music. But my wife had what we call the 
 "Flower sedan chair," that is, she came to my 
 home in a sedan chair embroidered in silk. This 
 "Flower Sedan Chair" can be rented. 
 
 Now, we shall talk a little about a Chinese 
 wedding. The wedding takes place always in 
 the bridegroom's home, not in the bride's home. 
 In the morning, they send the "Flower Sedan 
 Chair" to the bride's home and stand outside 
 the house. The door is closed. Someone is 
 sent in to knock at the door and sends in a 
 large piece of red paper on which the bride- 
 groom's and his parents' names are written. This 
 is to greet the bride's parents and beg for their 
 favor. This is to be done three times before 
 the door opens. 
 
 The sedan chair is brought in and put in the 
 middle of the guest room. The bride is dressed 
 in red silk, embroidered, with a crown on her 
 head full of flowers which are red and adorned 
 with jewels. Before she goes into the sedan 
 chair, she kowtows before her parents three 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 37 
 
 times and before her brothers and sisters also to 
 say farewell and to thank them for the time 
 she has been in the home. As a rule some of 
 her brothers carry her and put her into the 
 sedan chair. This is to represent that she is 
 not willing to go and must be compelled to. 
 Often the bride weeps when she goes into the 
 sedan chair, but my bride did not do it. She 
 went in herself with a smile because she was 
 willing. 
 
 The sedan chair is to be carried into the 
 guest room of the bridegroom's house, where- 
 upon very many fire-crackers are burned to 
 welcome her. The door of the chair is sealed 
 and locked by the bride's parents, and the bride- 
 groom comes before the chair, takes off the 
 seal, opens the door, and makes a bow three 
 times before her to invite her three times to 
 come out. She is supposed not to move until the 
 last time. The groom invites beforehand two 
 ladies of good standing with many children to 
 stand by the sedan chair, and they take the 
 bride by the hand and escort her out of the 
 chair. A widow may not stand there and see 
 the ceremony. If they are not Christians, the 
 bride and groom now fall on their knees and 
 kowtow in worship of Heaven and their ances- 
 tors. 
 
 Of course, we had a pastor and were mar- 
 ried according to the Christian rituals. After 
 the ritual the two ladies who escort the bride 
 
38 The Story of My Life. 
 
 from the sedan chair also escort the bride into 
 her room. She is to sit down on the bed and 
 all the time her head is covered with a beautiful 
 embroidered veil, and the groom is to take off 
 the veil himself from the bride and for the first 
 time their eyes meet. This veil is considered 
 to be a sign of power and it is the bride's wish 
 to have this veil hanging over the bed to show 
 her power over him, and it is the groom's and 
 the mother-in-law's wish that the groom sit on 
 the veil as a sign that he has power over her. 
 It often happens that the bride and groom both 
 grab the veil and at last it is placed in the 
 bosom of the groom to show that he takes her 
 to his bosom. But when I took off the veil from 
 my wife, we laughed and cast it away. 
 
 When they both sit on the bed, the groom tries 
 to place a corner of his coat on her dress to 
 show that he has power over her and the bride 
 tries to avoid this, moving away from him as 
 much as possible. I understand in America 
 you do just the opposite, because we did the 
 same. Another part of the etiquette of the occa- 
 sion is to have two small cups full of wine one 
 of which the bride drinks and the other the 
 groom; afterwards they pour the wine into 
 each other's cups, mix it, and drink again. This 
 is a sign of their union and fellowship. We 
 thought that was interesting; so we drank, but 
 we had water instead of wine. 
 
 After this the two ladies escort the bride out 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 39 
 
 of the" guest-room and the parents sit on two 
 chairs and the bride and bridegroom fall on 
 their knees and kowtow before them, and then in 
 this way kowtow to all the guests present. As 
 a rule the bride falls on her knees and stays in 
 the same position, but the poor groom must 
 get up and down tens and even hundreds of 
 times according to the number of guests that 
 arfe present. And then comes the evening. The 
 groom's friends come and see the bride, speak 
 some words of congratulation, and then in a 
 spirit of fun tease the bride and groom and 
 play some little pranks. But at our wedding 
 there was nothing of this kind. The next morn- 
 ing the groom must rise up early and go to 
 the bride's home, where much ceremony is ob- 
 served and he has to kowtow many times. For 
 example, he drinks a cup of tea, and has to 
 fall on his knees, touch his forehead on the 
 ground three times, and when he eats he has to 
 do it again. 
 
 As a rule the first time the groom comes to 
 the father-in-law's home the young people make 
 all sorts of fun of him and do him what mis- 
 chief they can. For example, they put a lot of 
 pepper in a dish that he should eat, put stones 
 on the cushion of the chair where he should 
 sit, and burn fire crackers under his chair. I 
 knew this beforehand, so I tried to avoid it as 
 much as possible. The etiquette demands that 
 the bridegroom does not really eat, but only 
 
a! 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 a 
 2 
 
 J3 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 41 
 
 pretends to taste a little of everything-, but wheii 
 I had kowtowed so much 1 was rather hungry 
 and tired and told my father-in-law, "Now I 
 am hungry and must eat and cannot go home 
 before evening, because I have to go around 
 and pay back visits to all the guests who were 
 at our wedding the day before, and kow-tow to 
 all of them," 
 
 So you cannot count how many kowtows I 
 made. I really do not understand why they 
 should make so much trouble for the groom. 
 It seems to me everybody envies the groom and 
 tries to make it as hard as possible for him. 
 But now much has been changed since the Eevo- 
 lution. The young people have it much easier 
 than we had it when we were married. At least 
 they don't kowtow now. 
 
 MOVING KING-CHOW. 
 
 Two months after our wedding we moved to 
 King-chow, and now arose a new obstacle for 
 me. My parents would not let me go, because 
 in Wuchang I could have opportunity to earn 
 extra money, and they decided they would not 
 let me go. We prayed God about this obstacle. 
 
 One evening the missionary who was president 
 of the school asked my parents to go to his 
 study and talk it over. When they went they 
 were determined and had prepared arguments 
 to defend their decision not to let us go. The 
 discussion did not come to any result. Just 
 
42 The Story of My Life. 
 
 before they separated, the missionary proposed 
 that they should have a word of prayer. They 
 would pray silently. When they rose up my 
 mother said to the missionary, "Now we are 
 willing to let them go to King-chow, because 
 during the time I was praying I seemed to see 
 my son and his wife on their knees before God 
 praying that God should change our mind, and 
 we cannot hinder God from hearing their 
 prayers." 
 
 When she came home and actually saw us on 
 our knees in our room, she said to us, "God 
 has heard your prayers." When we moved to 
 King-chow my parents gave us very little money. 
 They had my whole salary and gave us only 
 eight dollars a month. As our family has 
 grown, we have gotten more and more. Even 
 now I must give one-third of my salary to my 
 parents to help them and my younger sister 
 and brother. It is very difficult for you Amer- 
 icans to understand Chinese conditions and the 
 duty of Chinese to their parents. 
 
 I know many of you will not agree with me 
 in my attitude toward my parents. There are 
 even missionaries who have said .to me that 
 I "honor" my parents too much. But if you 
 compare my father's attitude toward his parents 
 with my attitude toward mine, there is a great 
 difference. I will not change this attitude as 
 long as it does not go contrary to God's word, 
 but I will syrely change it betw^^n me and my 
 
God's Way of Dealing With Me. 43 
 
 children. I think that is the right way of 
 starting the change. In my home and family, 
 wife and husband, parents and children, we have 
 much peace and joy. 
 
 What I have now said covers nearly half of 
 my life. To sum it up, I feel very thankful to 
 God because He ra^seth up the poor out of the 
 dust and bringeth low and lifteth up. He has 
 comforted me and carried me through the bitter 
 sorrow and He has cured me and helped me in 
 my bodily sickness and weakness. Above all, 
 He has forgiven me and saved me from my 
 sins and He has chosen me, who as a child was 
 called the "little potatoes," for His name's sake. 
 He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and 
 plentious in mercy. To Him be glory and 
 power for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
44 The Story of My Life. 
 
 CHINA FOR CHRIST. 
 
 VARIOUS VIEW-POINTS. 
 
 First we shall talk a little about China. A 
 thing can be seen from different points of view. 
 Much depends upon the observer's mind. If 
 we take an ox, for example, the butcher looks 
 at the ox and wonders how much meat he has. 
 A tanner looks at the ox and figures how much 
 hide it has. An artist observes the form of 
 an ox. A zoologist studies the oxen's anatomy. 
 A poet takes an ox as material for his poems. 
 If we see China, we can see her from many 
 different points of view. 
 
 If we study Chinese literature, we shall find 
 out that this nation has a literature about three 
 thousand years old. One hundred years before 
 David played the harp and sang, Wen-Wang, an 
 Emperor of China, composed classics which are 
 committed to memory at this day by every 
 scholar of China, Chinese literature consists 
 of various types: philosophy, history, classics, 
 and poetry of all descriptions. It is remarkable 
 for its ennobling standards and lofty ideals, its 
 wholesome purity, and the almost total absence 
 of coarseness and obscenity. You will be very 
 interested in studying Chinese literature. 
 
China for Christ. 45 
 
 We can view China from a historical point of 
 view. She has an unbroken history of four 
 thousand years. At the time when Moses led 
 the Israelites through the wilderness, Chinese 
 laws and literature and Chinese religious knowl- 
 edge excelled that of Egypt. When Europe was 
 not civilized, China was already developed in 
 culture and politics much higher than its con- 
 temporaries. Two thousand years ago our fore- 
 fathers sold silks to the Eomans and dressed 
 in these fabrics, when the inhabitants of the 
 British Isles wore coats of blue paint and fished 
 in willow canoes. Our great walls were built 
 two hundred and twenty years before Christ 
 was born at Bethlehem, and they contain ma- 
 terial enough to build a wall five or six feet 
 high around the globe. We made paper about 
 150 A. D. and gun powder about the commence- 
 ment of the Christian "era. 
 
 Our history really has no parallel except the 
 history of the Hebrew people. The Chinese 
 people are also an interesting subject to study. 
 Of all the people of ancient history, the Jews 
 and Chinese alone survive. What is more, China 
 is the only country in the world in which even 
 the Jews have lost their racial identity and 
 have been absorbed. China is like a sea which 
 renders salt all the waters which flow into it. 
 Twice in our history we have been overcome 
 by the might of invading barbarian armies and 
 in the end the patient pursuance of established 
 
46 The Story of My Life. 
 
 national ideals of social life and culture have 
 overcome by incorporation the life of the con- 
 queror. For example, the Manchus conquered 
 the Chinese by force, but were conquered. They 
 now speak the Chinese language, worship 
 Chinese idols, keep Chinese customs — in one 
 word, they have been naturalized into Chinese. 
 So it would be unusually interesting to study 
 China from the historical point of view. 
 
 You can see China from an agricultural point 
 of view. China is a land of farmers. Our social 
 order is as follows: first, the scholars; second, 
 the farmers; third, the artisans; fourth, the 
 traders. The farmers toil almost unceasingly. 
 They rise early and toil late. They take care 
 of the field as a garden. Their great short- 
 coming lies in their using such primitive im- 
 plements and in their total lack of education. 
 If Chinese agriculture wfere reformed and mod- 
 ern methods introduced, and if the large area 
 of land which is now taken up by graveyards, 
 an area composing at least one-fifth of the 
 land that could be cultivated, were available to 
 the farmer, China would become the great gran- 
 ary of the world, for even now she exports 
 enormous quantities of food. 
 
 Now think of the mineral resources of China. 
 They appear to be practically inexhaustible. We 
 have coal and iron, the twin pillars of modern 
 industry, in quantities unsurpassed anywhere in 
 the world. Someone who has investigated the 
 
China for Christ. 47 
 
 coal deposits has declared that China could sup- 
 ply the whole world with coal for five thousand 
 years at its present rate of consumption. 
 Chinese iron and steel is exported to America and 
 sells cheaper here than that which is produced 
 here. The remarkable fact is that China has 
 alniost all kinds of minerals of economic im- 
 portance: gold, silver, platinum, nickel, copper, 
 tin, lead, zinc, salt, rubies, saphires, garnets, 
 topazes, amethysts, jade, etc. All this enormous 
 wealth is as yet almost untouched. What great 
 possibilities do not lie here. 
 
 Now let us see China from an industrial point 
 of view. Someone has said that if the Chinese 
 have any talent at all, they have and have 
 always had a talent for work. Artisans of all 
 kinds ply their trades not merely from dawn 
 till dark but often far into the night. The birth 
 rate is very high, in China and the people are 
 increasing. With this unlimited supply of labor 
 power, and with the natural resources and min- 
 eral wealth, China will be one of the industrial 
 powers of the world. The number of factories 
 is increasing constantly. 
 
 We can consider China also from a commer- 
 cial point of view. Even now, before this land 
 is developed in industry and forestry and agri- 
 culture, China is one of the biggest markets for 
 the European and American trade. The more 
 the people are modernized, the bigger the mar- 
 ket will be. In the year 1911 when we cut off 
 
48 The Story of My Life. 
 
 our cues, we imported from foreign countries 
 modern caps and hats to the amount of two 
 millions in one year, at that, considering the 
 number of the people, a very small amount. Dr. 
 Wu Ting Fang once said that if every Chinese, 
 lengthened his shirt one inch the textile manu- 
 facturers of America would become millionaires. 
 Last year in one city in China seventy-two new 
 American firms were established. 
 
 The Chinese themselves are clever merchants 
 and business men, polite and trustworthy, and 
 good organizers. What China needs is better 
 communications, better roads and railways, and 
 she will sooner or later be one of the biggest 
 markets in the world. There is one thing we 
 must remember when we see the Chinese indus- 
 try and commerce. China through the teaching 
 of her sages and in accordance with her social 
 ideals looks down upon industry and commerce. 
 The ambition of Chinese men is to become 
 philosophers, teachers, or officials or' the govern- 
 ment. They study only classics, philosophy, and 
 literature. But now a great change has taken 
 place in China. The young people are awake 
 and have a different ideal of life. For example, 
 most of our students who are studying here 
 in America, take such subjects as engineering, 
 mining, commerce, forestry, agriculture, etc. 
 
 When I traveled from China to America last 
 year over the Pacific ocean, we had on the boat 
 a large number of young men who came here to 
 
China for Christ. 49 
 
 study. Among them only one was to study law. 
 The others laughed at him and ridiculed him 
 and said, "Are you going to study law and 
 become a Mandarin?" The poor fellow was 
 very much ashamed and answered, "I am sent 
 by the Government to study this subject. I 
 cannot help it." Now only those who know 
 China closely can appreciate this change, can 
 understand of what importance' this is to the 
 future of China. We have no doubt that sooner 
 or later China's natural resources will be de- 
 veloped. 
 
 AS THE MISSIONARY SEES CHINA. 
 
 But there is one point of view we have not 
 considered. That is to see China from the mis- 
 sionary point of view. The great question is, 
 "How shall we win China for Christ?" — how 
 shall we evangelize China's millions? If China 
 is Christianized, she will have a good influence 
 upon the rest of the non-Christian world. If 
 China is not evangelized, only modernized, she 
 will have a bad influence upon the world. 
 Someone has said, and I think it is true, "If 
 you do not Christianize China, China will hea- 
 thenize you." 
 
 China is for the present going through a crisis. 
 We do not know what China will be. The 
 Chinese character for the word "crisis" origin- 
 ally means a ferry-boat. China is therefore in 
 a ferry-boat crossing a sea. The question of 
 
50 The Story of My Life. 
 
 questions is, "Who is at the helm and what is 
 our compass and where shall we land?" Just 
 think if China's four hundred millions, one 
 fourth of the population of the whole world, 
 should give her helm to atheism, adopt militar- 
 ism as her compass, and sail into the harbor of 
 materialism. If that is the destiny of China, 
 it will be a great calamity not only for China 
 herself but for the whole world. Christ said, 
 "I am the truth, the way, and the life." We 
 who love Jesus Christ, just think — if Christ 
 gets hold of the Chinese helm and the Bible 
 becomes the compass, then China will arrive in 
 the harbor of Christianity. If that is China's 
 destiny, it will be a blessing not only for China 
 herself, but for the whole world. You talk 
 about the yellow peril. If China be evangelized 
 and won for Christ, China shall be the yellow 
 blessing. What China shall be depends much 
 upon what the Christian nations give to China, 
 and that now. 
 
 The evangelization of China is very closely 
 related to the second coming of Christ. You 
 talk so much about the second coming of Christ. 
 Remember, there are many millions in China 
 who have never heard of the first coming of 
 Christ. The right way and the best way of 
 watching and waiting for His second coming 
 is to preach His first coming. St. Paul says 
 in his Epistle to the Romans, 11 : 25, that "blind- 
 ness in part is .happened to Israel until the full- 
 
China for Christ. 51 
 
 ness of the Gentiles be come in." Who knows 
 but that this "fullness of the number of Gen- 
 tiles" which St. Paul speaks of here is just 
 depending upon the number of Chinese to be 
 added in to make it the full number? Christ 
 himself said in Matthew 24:14, "This Gospel of 
 the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world 
 for a witness unto all nations and then shall 
 the end come." Who knows but that the teem- 
 ing millions in China who have not yet heard 
 the Gospel for a witness are just that which is 
 hindering Christ from coming back? There- 
 fore, if we desire our Lord's coming we must do 
 what we can to preach the Gospel for these 
 millions and in this way hasten His second 
 coming. Peter speaks of (2 Peter 3:12) not 
 only looking for but hastening unto the coming 
 of the day of God. 
 
 There is another point of view. Why should 
 we preach the Gospel in China? Because thus 
 we glorifj^ the name of God. There are many 
 people in China who misunderstand God. They 
 worship idols and believe that God is like these. 
 They believe God is like human beings in their 
 covetousness and coarseness. They believe God 
 drinks wine, and some ignorant and supersti- 
 tious people even believe that God smokes opium 
 and is fond of theaters. Now if we believe that 
 God is our father in Heaven and these our 
 fellow-men are our brothers who have such a 
 wrong and low idea of God in their minds and 
 
52 The Story of My Life. 
 
 hearts, shall we not go to them and try to 
 correct this wrong and low idea of God and 
 bring these our lost brothers back to our 
 Father? The only way in which we can glorify 
 God is to preach Jesus Christ, because if any- 
 one has learned to know Jesus he has learned 
 to know God. In most of our churches in China 
 we have a tablet on which are painted four 
 characters, namely Yong-Kwei-Shang-Ti, which 
 means "Glory to God." Now these Christians, 
 who have heard the Gospel and turned to God 
 from idols, give glory to God. In the measure 
 in which Mission Friends have contributed to 
 help these people to know God, in this same 
 measure have they glorified God. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 We have seen China now from various points 
 of view. Now how shall we win China for 
 Christ? That is not an easy task. It is an 
 extraordinarily difficult task and if we depend 
 upon our own power it is almost an impos- 
 sible task. But thanks to God, He is able to 
 do what is difficult and even what seems im- 
 possible. We Christians have two lessons which 
 are very difficult to learn. The first lesson is 
 that we can do nothing. The second lesson is 
 that for God nothing is impossible. Some of us 
 have learned the one, but not the other. We 
 have learned our own weakness and that we 
 can do nothing. But we have not learned the 
 
China for Christ. 53 
 
 other lesson which says, "For God nothing is 
 impossible." 
 
 In the work to win China for Christ, there 
 are very many difficulties. I shall mention a 
 few. First, there is the ignorance and super- 
 stition of the people. These superstitions have 
 taken very deep root and it is not an easy 
 matter to uproot them. Then, there is their 
 conservatism. They are not willing to give up 
 the old for something new. Then the Chinese 
 make the great mistake of looking above and 
 around. If they don't see those above them 
 and around them receive the Gospel, they say, 
 "Why should I accept when they don't V" They 
 always look up to the leaders. We have net 
 yet seen the mass conversion in China. The 
 half million Christians who now confess Christ 
 are very few when compared with the large 
 number that we hope and believe will come 
 when the ice is broken. 
 
 There is another big hindrance to the Gospel 
 in China. The so-called Christian nations have 
 made it very hard for the Chinese to under- 
 stand the spirit of Christianity because of all 
 the diplomatic injustice, the political tricks and 
 secret treaties, a policy which makes it hard for 
 the Chinese to believe in the sincere friendship 
 of missionaries and preachers of the Gospel. 
 And then there are so many unscrupulous busi- 
 ness men who try to poi^n China with opium, 
 morphine, cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, liquor. 
 
54 The Story of My Life. 
 
 dirty movies, etc. The American Tobacco Com- 
 pany has for its motto to put a cigar in the 
 mouth of every Chinese man, woman, and child. 
 Lately the liquor traffic is moving its head- 
 quarters and machinery to China and intends 
 to flood China with its deadly poison. Are you 
 surprised that the Chinese call such foreigners 
 "the foreign devils?" Sometimes thoughtful 
 persons say to missionaries, "You come to us 
 and preach your teachings. Why do you bring 
 with you opium, cigars, and liquor? Do yoi^ 
 wonder that your preaching is not as successful 
 as it ought to be? I'll tell you why. Because 
 you are not like the Jesus you preach about." 
 During the last few years another difficulty 
 has arisen. Some of our students who have 
 studied in Europe and America have brought 
 with them back to China atheism or other harm- 
 ful "isms." They say and write that there is 
 no God, no life after death. The worst is that 
 they say Christianity is dying in the western 
 lands, that very few people believe in it and 
 still less live up to it. The most difficult thing 
 is that many people are deeply sunk in sin. 
 Some will not leave their sins; many have lost 
 hope that they can be saved. 
 
 CHRIST OVERCOMETH. 
 
 Now we have talked of some of the difficul- 
 ties which stand in the way of our winning 
 
China for Christ. 55 
 
 China for Christ. Now we shall think about 
 Christ. Our aim is to win China for Christ. 
 Therefore, first of all, we must put Christ first 
 and highest. Only He can win China and 
 also what China needs is Christ. For the first 
 we must believe that Christ is the King of 
 Kings and Lord of Lords. Before He com- 
 manded his disciples to go into all the world 
 to preach the Gospel, he said, "All the 
 power is given unto Me in Heaven and in 
 Earth. Go ye therefore." From this we learn 
 that Christ has all power in Heaven and on 
 earth in His hands. 
 
 If we believe all things work together for 
 good to them that love God, to them who are 
 the called according to His purpose, shall we not 
 believe that all things work together for good 
 to Christ, to Him who is the Son of God? 
 Shall we not believe that all things work to- 
 gether for good to the spreading of the Gospel? 
 We believe that Christ has power even over 
 China, that all things happening there work 
 together for the good of His kingdom. For 
 example, such conditions as the Boxer trouble 
 of 1900 did not hinder but helped the exten- 
 sion of the Kingdom of God. From the human 
 point of view it seemed that it would harm and 
 hinder the work but we now see plainly that 
 God has lead us and turned even this trouble 
 to advantage for His Gospel. For my part, I 
 
56 The Story of My Life. 
 
 believe too that Christ has power over the 
 present conditions in China. 
 
 China has, during the last fifty years, tried 
 to reform and adopt western education and a 
 western form of Government and has been 
 through many reforms and revolutions, but in 
 many respects she has not succeeded. At the 
 same time, Japan has also tried to imitate the 
 western lands and she in many respects has 
 succeeded. Her industry has been developed, 
 her commerce has prospered, and she has now 
 a large army and navy and is counted one of 
 the big powers. But why can't China succeed 
 as her neighbor, Japan? I believe that for the 
 true welfare of China and perhaps for the 
 blessing of the whole world, China will not 
 succeed in being modernized before she is 
 evangelized. The Gibraltar of heathendom is 
 its self-satisfaction, self-content, and pride and 
 disdain of all other wisdom. Now all these 
 years' experience of bitter disappointments and 
 humiliation and failure has at last crumbled 
 down the Gibraltar and has put China as a 
 whole in a most receptive mood for the Gospel. 
 Even now the old, proud, Confucian scholars are 
 willing to sit in the dust and want to learn. 
 
 China has many problems, but the problem 
 of all problems is after all the spiritual problem. 
 The salvation of China both in the material and 
 the spiritual sense lies in the Gospel of Jesus. 
 Politically perhaps the outlook in China w^s 
 
China for Christ. 57 
 
 never so dark, but spiritually it surely was never 
 so bright. But with an evangelized China, what- 
 ever may happen to her, she will turn out all 
 right and come to her own. 
 
 In the second place, we believe that Christ is 
 powerful to save. In the measure we believe 
 that he is able to save, in the same measure 
 have we hope and faith that China shall be won 
 for Christ. 
 
 It was not so many years ago that the 
 Christian churches believed that the Chinese 
 could not be converted. When Morrison, the 
 first missionary to China, sailed to China, the 
 captain on the boat ridiculed him and said, 
 "Do you believe you can convert Chinese?" 
 "No," answered Dr. Morrison, "but I believe 
 God can convert the Chinese." But now I don't 
 think any of you would doubt that the Chinese 
 can be converted, because you have seen con- 
 verted Chinese. The Gospel of Christ has been 
 many, many times proved to be the power of 
 God unto salvation in China. 
 
 I have seen myself how the Holy Spirit can 
 convict the people in China of their sins, how 
 some Chinese confess sins which if it were not 
 for the Holy Spirit, they would not confess, 
 even if you had applied the severest torture. 
 I have seen myself how Christ can save deeply 
 sunken opium-smokers and gamblers and save 
 them from their sins and lift them up high. 
 Think how the Gospel has won success even 
 
58 The Story of My Life. 
 
 among the high official class. Two of the dele- 
 gates to the Peace Conference in Paris were 
 Christians. Not a few brilliant Christians are 
 recognized as national leaders. 
 
 Think of such a Chinese Christian as General 
 Feng, who has lead nearly all of his officers 
 and more than half of his ten thousand soldiers 
 to Christ. In his army he exerts such a Chris- 
 tian influence and powerful discipline that his 
 soldiers study the Bible and attend prayer 
 meetings and his officers preach the Gospel. 
 One missionary who personally has seen and 
 baptized many of the soldiers has written, "No 
 smoking, drinking, bad language, or gambling 
 is allowed among General Feng's men. For 
 nine days I was everywhere among the men and 
 never saw anyone smoking nor smelled the 
 fumes of drink." When the General and his 
 soldiers entered the city they established them- 
 selves there, all bad women were ordered to 
 leave the city within three days, and all 
 gambling dens and theaters were closed. The 
 theaters were turned into schools, workshops, 
 and preaching halls. Yes, Christ is powerful 
 to save. Therefore China shall be won for 
 Christ. 
 
 In the third place, we believe in Christ's 
 power to inspire His disciples to sacrifice in 
 His service. That is something very remarkable 
 about Christ. During my visit in Sweden and 
 America I have seen how Mission Friends are 
 
China for Christ. 59 
 
 interested in foreign missions and willing to 
 sacrifice for the work. This willingness to 
 sacrifice for the spreading of the Gospel is very 
 noteworthy. For example, in China we have 
 Confucianism. Many times in discussing with 
 these Confucian scholars I challenged them and 
 said, "Why don't you go to Europe and America 
 and preach Confucianism? Why don't you trans- 
 late the Confucian classics into other lan- 
 guages?" They don't do it, because Confucius 
 is dead. He has no power to inspire his dis- 
 ciples to spread Confucianism, but Christ is 
 living. He is able to inspire His people to 
 sacrifice for the Gospel. 
 
 Christ is able even to inspire the Chinese 
 Christians to give up their time, money, and 
 even their lives for Christ. In the Boxer year, 
 1900, there were no less than sixteen thousand 
 Chinese Christians who would rather die than 
 deny their Christian faith. Lately, the Chinese 
 churches as a whole started and established a 
 Home Missionary Society to send missionaries to 
 the Yun-nan Province to preach the Gospel. 
 During the first year they sent eleven mission- 
 aries and raised mission-funds to the sum of 
 about sixteen thousand dollars. Still later the 
 whole church of China started a movement, 
 the "China for Christ" movement, to unite 
 different missions in an aggressive and prac- 
 tical effort to win China for Christ. This 
 movement is characterized by its spiritual, prac- 
 
60 The Story of My Life. 
 
 tical, and steady way of working towards this 
 end. It lays emphasis upon inspiring the indi- 
 vidual Christians to more Bible study, watchful 
 prayer, systematic giving, and individual effort 
 to lead others to Christ. It caused many more 
 Christian homes to establish family altars. It 
 awakened more young people to offer themselves 
 in Christ's service. We believe that this is 
 really a God's movement in the hearts of Chinese 
 Christians. It will under God move China to 
 Christ. 
 
 Christ said himself, "If I be lifted up from 
 the earth I will draw all men unto Me," and 
 God Himself promised His Son and said, "Ask 
 of me and I shall give Thee the heathen for 
 thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for thy possessions." Now God says here 
 that he. has given the heathen to Christ as His 
 inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth, 
 China included, as possessions, of Christ's. What 
 God says shall be. Two boys were discussing 
 something. One of them said, "It is so." The 
 other said, "It's not so." The first boy said, 
 "Even if it is not so, it is so anyway, because 
 mother has said it is so." We don't care what 
 man says. God has said so, and so it shall be. 
 
'Come Over and Help Us!" 61 
 
 "COME OVER AND HELP US!" 
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 It is now many hundreds of years ago that 
 there was a man from Asia who had a vision, 
 fie saw a European who stood and pleaded with 
 him saying, "Come over and help us." When 
 that man from Asia saw the vision he under- 
 stood that God had called him to go to Europe 
 with the Gospel, and he was not disobedient to 
 the heavenly vision but went to Europe and 
 preached the Gospel. That was many hundred 
 years ago, but now conditions are reversed. 
 Now it is a man from Asia who comes to you 
 and says, "Come over and help us." I hope 
 that you all understand that God is calling you 
 directly or indirectly to proclaim the Gospel for 
 us in China. 
 
 The meeting of welcome to St. Paul was held 
 in the court of the magistrates. That sounds 
 very great, doesn't it? At present many mis- 
 sionaries in China really have such welcomes in 
 the homes of the Chinese magistrates, and not 
 so seldom they are treated to elaborate feasts, 
 and also with much respect and courtesy. But the 
 Koman magistrates treated Paul and his com- 
 
62 The Story of My Life. 
 
 rades differently. They rent off their clothes 
 and commanded that they be beaten, and when 
 they had laid many stripes upon them, they 
 cast them into prison. Here we see that Euro- 
 peans did not always receive guests from Asia 
 in the same kind and friendly way in which 
 you now receive me. We see what a great 
 change Europe has gone through and what a 
 great difference between now and then. 
 
 Just think the great change that has taken 
 place among the Swedes. The old Vikings were 
 so wild that it was hard to find any means to 
 crush them and to stop their wild onrush. At 
 last Ansgarius went there with the Gospel. He 
 was robbed on his way by the pirates, so that 
 his followers were discouraged and wanted to 
 turn back, declaring that it was impossible to 
 convert such barbarous people and that it was 
 no use to go any further. But Ansgarius had 
 faith in God and also had faith in the Vikings, 
 that even they could be saved, and you know 
 God honored his faith, and the Gospel was 
 proved to be the power of God unto salvation 
 even to the Vikings. At that time the English- 
 men were so afraid of these Vikings that they 
 prayed in their churches, "God protect us from 
 the rage of the Norsemen." But now there are 
 Christians in the churches in China who pray 
 God to send more missionaries from the land 
 of the Vikings. Just think what a great change, 
 what a great difference. What power was it 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 63 
 
 that could bring about such a change? It is 
 the Gospel, which Paul preached in Europe and 
 which Ansgarius preached in Sweden. 
 
 It is a lamentable fact that there are very 
 many people today in these Christian nations 
 who give so little credit to the Gospel, who 
 think that we can get along just as well with- 
 out Christianity. Last year when I went 
 through America on my way to Europe, I met 
 one evening three young men who were inter- 
 ested to hear me speak Swedish, and they came 
 forward and spoke to me in the Swedish lan- 
 guage. I asked them if they believed in Jesus 
 Christ, and they answered and said, "No, we 
 don't believe in Christ." 
 
 I said, "Why don't you believe in Christ?" 
 
 They said, "There is no reason why we don't 
 believe in Jesus." 
 
 "When we have a reason to believe Jesus 
 Christ," I said, "then you must have a reason 
 for not believing in Him." 
 
 Then one of the young men said, "Why need 
 we believe in Jesus Christ? Look at Japan. 
 The Japanese don't believe in Jesus Christ and 
 they are as good as we." 
 
 I said to them, "I will not discuss the Japanese 
 with you. From what you say I understand 
 you do not know Japan. But may I ask you 
 a question? If the Pilgrims who first came to 
 America in the Mayflower had been heathens 
 and idol worshippers, do you believe that Amer- 
 
64 The Story of My Life. 
 
 ica would be what she is? If there were not 
 so many Christians in America, do you believe 
 you could enjoy the privileges and blessings 
 you do now?" 
 
 Think how much America owes to the old 
 English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the 
 pioneers of the Dutch Reformed Church, and 
 the Swedish "lasare" (readers). 
 
 I remember when I traveled from Canada over 
 the Atlantic to England, I preached once on 
 the boat. I spoke something about the power 
 of the Gospel. After the meeting there was an 
 Englishman who came forward and discussed 
 what I had said with me. He claimed to be a 
 philosopher. He disagreed with me that the 
 Gospel was such a power, saying, "Your Jesus 
 has said so many things to contradict Himself 
 that I don't believe your Bible.'" 
 
 I have never felt so proud as then, when a 
 man from a Christian land spoke to me, a 
 Chinese, and used the expression, "Your Jesus, 
 your Bible." 
 
 I asked him, "What' power was it that could 
 change the wild Anglo-Saxon into an English 
 gentleman ?" 
 
 He would not answer, and tried to lead on to 
 another subject. I said to him, "Please answer 
 my question first." 
 
 He said, hesitatingly, "Well, perhaps it was 
 Christianity." 
 
 "Perhaps?" I retorted. "Certainly it was 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 65 
 
 Christianity. If it were not for Christianity in 
 England, I would not now dare to go there." 
 
 And then I said to him, "Is it fair that you 
 eat the fruit of Christianity and say it is good, 
 but deny that the tree which bears the fruit is 
 good?" 
 
 It is certainly very sad that so many people 
 who are born and raised in these Christian 
 nations and enjoy daily the fruit and blessings 
 of Christianity do not value the privilege and 
 do not accept Jesus Christ. If such people 
 would make a trip to China and other non- 
 Christian lands, they would see what a great 
 difference there is between Christians and non- 
 Christians and how much they ought to bo 
 thankful . for Christianity. 
 
 The Englishman said further,' "Your Jesus 
 contradicts himself. Once he said to his dis- 
 ciples, 'Don't call your brothers fools' and in, 
 another place he said, 'Thou fool, that which 
 thou sowest is not quickened except it die.' " 
 
 I asked him, "Where do you find these words 
 in the Bible?" 
 
 He was confused and said, "Well, if you will 
 let me have a reference Bible perhaps I can 
 show you where." 
 
 I said to him, "I don't need a reference Bible 
 to tell you that the first passage you men- 
 tioned is in Matthew 5. That was Jesus' word. 
 The other words were Paul's and may be found 
 in 1 Cor. 15. But even Jesus Christ and His 
 
66 The Story of My Life. 
 
 apostle Paul do not speak contradictory words. 
 Christ said, 'We should not call our brother 
 fool,' and the words Paul used meant 'stupid' 
 or 'unwise.' " 
 
 When he heard that he said, "Excuse me, I 
 really don't know much about your Bible." 
 
 "Is it fair then that you criticise something 
 you do not know?" I said. "For example, if you 
 have not read Chinese classics and criticise them, 
 that is not fair." 
 
 There is another thing which surprised me 
 during my visit in these Christian nations. 
 That is to have met people who know so little 
 of their Bible. Once in a train an old man 
 offered me a cigar. I said, "I don't smoke." 
 
 He asked me, "Are you a Christian?" 
 
 "Yes," I said, "I am." 
 
 "You don't drink either?" 
 
 "No, I don't drink." 
 
 "Do you know," he said, "according to the 
 Bible the prohibition law is wrong? According 
 to the Bible they should let us drink." 
 
 I said to him I did not know that. I asked 
 him where in the Bible it says so. 
 
 "Don't you know the Bible says, 'Eat, and 
 drink for tomorrow we die?' Don't you know 
 that Jesus on His wedding day changed water 
 into wine?" Isn't this terrible ignorance? 
 
 St. Paul did not ask whether people would wel- 
 come him or not. To him the question was 
 whether the people needed the Gospel or not. 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 67 
 
 I shall now present China's need to you. 
 Just think what America would be if you took 
 away Christianity from her. Then you would 
 get some idea of China's need. Imagine that 
 some morning you would wake up and to your 
 surprise find that all the Christian churches 
 were taken away and all the Bibles had disap- 
 peared. What would America be then? Then 
 you would get some idea of China's need. Just 
 think if you lost your faith in God and hope 
 in Christ Jesus and love to the brethren; think 
 what that would be. Oh, how much you have 
 to thank God for Christianity. 
 
 I know there is not a nation in the world 
 which is a real Christian nation, but Chris- 
 tianity has great influence on your land. With 
 due allowance for the false and the hypocritical 
 among professing Christians, still Christianity 
 has influenced your law-making bodies, your 
 politics, your education, social reform, even 
 industry and commerce — even the building of 
 roads, yea, even animals, for a cat or a dog 
 or a horse can enjoy the blessings of Christian- 
 ity. How much you have to thank God for 
 Christianity. We have a Chinese proverb which 
 says, "Those who are in the blessing seldom 
 appreciate it." 
 
 During my visit I have often made a com- 
 parison between Christendom and heathendom. 
 Oh, what a great difference. It is much greater 
 than you people can realize. We need not men- 
 
68 The Story of My Life. 
 
 tion such great blessings as the forgiveness of 
 sins, the peace and joy of being the children 
 of God, but only think of the material blessings. 
 How many of them come directly or indirectly 
 from Christendom? It is a great pity that so 
 many people in a Christian land just because 
 they enjoy the material blessings of Christianity 
 neglect or cast away the essential or spiritual 
 blessings. Too many only enjoy the visible and 
 material blessings of Christianity and do not 
 accept Christ Himself. 
 
 They remind me of a man who saw in a shop 
 a very beautiful small box which contained a 
 very precious pearl. The man did not under- 
 stand the value of the pearl. He only saw the 
 beauty of the box and he bought it and kept 
 the box and cast away the pearl. Of course, we 
 all understand that that man acted foolishly, 
 but many worldly-wise people act in the very 
 same way when it applies to the material bless- 
 ing of Christ and Christ Himself. You certainly 
 enjoy very much the material blessings of 
 Christianity, but that is only the box. Christ 
 Himself is the precious pearl. If you cast away 
 Christ, if you do not accept Him as your per- 
 sonal Saviour, if He is not precious to you, 
 whatever material blessings you may enjoy, 
 you have lost the essential and eternal blessing 
 of Christianity. 
 
 It is not only true that we can live happily 
 in Christ, but we can die happily too. What 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 69 
 
 a great difference when a Christian dies and 
 when a heathen dies. I know; of a rich lady 
 who when dying screamed and cried and said, 
 "Oh, it is so dark, so dark.! Where shall I go? 
 Who can help? Burn money paper, be quick, 
 and burn much." The poor woman died in dark- 
 ness and did not know where she was going." 
 She thought tha,t money paper, that is, paper cut 
 in the form of coins, could help her in the next 
 world. 
 
 WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR CHINA. 
 
 During my visit in Europe and America, 
 when I have seen what Christianity has done 
 for you, many times I have thought and asked 
 myself, "Had St. Paul gone to the east instead 
 of turning to the west, what would the world 
 be now?" You remember how St. Paul intended 
 to go to the east. He was traveling eastward, 
 but the Holy Spirit forbid him and he turned 
 westward, and then he saw the vision and went 
 to Europe. Just imagine if Paul had gone to 
 the east and finally come to China. China 
 was then already civilized and had literature 
 and government. It might then have been China 
 which first had become a Christian land and 
 then Europe would still have lived In the dark- 
 ness of heathendom. It would then have been 
 the task of the Chinese to send missionaries 
 to Europe and America to preach the Gospel. 
 
70 The Story of My Life. 
 
 Now which would you prefer? To send mission- 
 aries to China or receive missionaries from 
 China? To give offerings to China or receive 
 offerings from China? Jesus Christ was right 
 when He said, "It is more blessed to give than 
 to receive." It is more blessed to give mis- 
 sionaries than to receive missionaries. It is 
 more blessed to give offerings than to receive 
 offerings. Which do you prefer? To rescue the 
 drowning or to be rescued? To relieve the poor 
 or to be relieved? It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive. 
 
 We do not understand why God forbade Paul 
 to go to the east, but we know God loves the 
 whole world and He would have all men to be 
 saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. 
 He is the God of order. He has a plan for the 
 whole world. He never makes any mistakes. 
 Some people get the opportunity first and some 
 later, just as Paul said, "to the Jews first, and 
 also to the Greek." "To the west first, also to 
 the east." 
 
 "Come over and help us ! " When we 
 hear this cry we are apt to think it means to 
 go to China as missionaries. Of course, not all 
 Mission Friends can go as missionaries but 
 everyone can indirectly work for the extension 
 of the Kingdom. The most important is not 
 to be a missionary, although that is very im- 
 portant. The most important is to pray for the 
 mission work. 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 71 
 
 The history of every mission field can be 
 divided into three periods. The first period is 
 when only foreign missionaries preach the Gos- 
 pel as pioneers. The second period is when both 
 the foreign missionaries and the native workers 
 share the responsibility. The third period is 
 when the native Christians take up the work 
 in their own hands and on their own shoulders 
 without any foreign help. The mission history 
 of China has come to the second period. The 
 right attitude of the missionaries should be that 
 of John the Baptist, when he said, "He must 
 increase but I must decrease." The most im- 
 portant and the greatest need for the present 
 is to call and train the native workers and as 
 many as possible. If China is ever to be evan- 
 gelized, she must be evangelized by hor own 
 sons and daughters. The chief work for foreign 
 missionaries should be to recruit aAd train 
 Chinese Christian workers. I wish the Mission 
 Friends would especially remember this in their 
 prayers, that God will raise up many young 
 people in our churches in China that the love 
 of Christ may constrain many such to offer 
 their lives for the spreading of the Gospel. 
 
 To preach the Gospel is like cultivating a 
 field. First, one must break the ground and 
 plow and prepare; and then there comes the 
 sowing of the seed, and then one must water 
 it when it grows and at last reap the harvest 
 when it is ripe. The condition of the mission 
 
72 The Story of My Life. 
 
 field in China for the present is like this. There 
 is much wilderness in China. For example, 
 there are still 126 cities in China where there 
 is no mission work begun. Such wilderness 
 needs to be cultivated and sown with the seed. 
 But there are many other places where the seed 
 is sown and has been growing for many years, 
 while there are places where sowing has just 
 begun. For the present, the greatest need is to 
 reap the harvest, and to bring the sheaves in 
 when it is ripe. 
 
 Jesus said once to His disciples, "Say not ye 
 there are yet four months and then cometh the 
 harvest. Behold, I say unto you. Lift up your 
 eyes and look on the fields that they are white 
 already unto harvest. He that reapeth re- 
 ceiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life 
 eternal, that he that soweth and he that reapeth 
 may rejoice together, for herein is the saying 
 true: One soweth and another reapeth. I send 
 you to reap that whereon ye have not labored, 
 others have labored and ye are entered into 
 their labor." We sometimes neglect the work 
 of reaping. The two thousand Christians who 
 now belong to the churches of our Mission Cov- 
 enant are very few when compared with the 
 harvest we hope and believe we shall reap in the 
 future. What we need most for the present is 
 not only sowers but reapers. I wish that the 
 Mission Friends would remember this in their 
 prayers, that God will raise up especially 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 73 
 
 Chinese Christian workers to reap what has 
 been sown for many years. 
 
 The "missionary work cannot go forward with- 
 out financial support. The native Christian's 
 contribution is at the present rather low. There 
 are many reasons. One reason is that in China 
 industry and commerce are not so well devel- 
 oped as in western lands. The people as a 
 whole are very poor, and the standard of living 
 is very low. The modern development of com- 
 merce and industry in the western lands seems 
 to be God's providence for missionary work. 
 Were it not for these even the Mission Friends 
 though they be greatly interested in the mission, 
 they could not contribute as they might wish to. 
 The Chinese people are very generous wheri it 
 comes to sacrificing for religion. All over China 
 there are temples built by the Chinese them- 
 selves, and most of them are very elegant and 
 extravagant, and if you compare the home- 
 steads with the temples, it is the more remark- 
 able. When you come to a city in China you 
 may see a lot of poor houses, but right in the 
 midst of them you will find a building tower- 
 ing high over the others, and that is a temple. 
 Here in America you have very many beautiful 
 churches, but if you compare your homes with 
 them, sometimes we find the homes are even 
 more beautiful and extravagant. But in China 
 you can hardly find any homestead bigger or 
 better than a temple. 
 
74 The Story of My Life. 
 
 1 believe when the Chinese are converted to 
 Christ they will build churches in the same pro- 
 portion. And now think how many monks and 
 nuns and Taoist priests are supported by the 
 people, and how much the people in China spend 
 every year for the worship of idols and for the 
 festivals of these idols. It is the more remark- 
 able when you consider that in Buddism or 
 Taoism or Confucianism, there are hardly any 
 teachings about sacrifice. How much more 
 could not one expect if such a people are con- 
 verted to Christ, who sacrificed Himself for 
 us on the Cross? Therefore, the question of 
 self-support in the churches of China is after all 
 a spiritual problem. What we need is that God 
 really takes hold of our hearts and our purse. 
 
 China has many problems and many needs, 
 but after all it is a spiritual problem. What 
 China needs is a thorough revival to sweep the 
 whole land ; such a revival as will bring the 
 sheaves in, the harvest of many years' sowing, 
 such a revival as can call forth many young 
 men and women who are willing to sacrifice for 
 the salvation of their own fellowmen, such a 
 revival as can convert our hearts, not only our 
 heads, as can convert even our pocketbooks. 
 That is the salvation of China in both the ma- 
 terial and spiritual sense of the word. 
 
 Such a revival is possible. How can such a 
 revival come to pass? We study the Bible; we 
 study the church history; we learn by expe- 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 75 
 
 rience that such a work of God can only come 
 to pass by faithful and persevering prayer. 
 Therefore I say, the most important and the 
 greatest need is prayer. That by which you 
 can help China most is to set yourself really 
 to pray — and pray definitely and perseveringly 
 and God will hear our prayers and we shall 
 receive the greatest thing from God. 
 
 Come over and help us! If you cannot come 
 over yourself, let your prayers and intercessions 
 come over and help us. It has been my joy and 
 privilege to travel around and meet very many 
 Mission Friends both in Sweden and in America. 
 What gives me the best impression and that 
 which I shall never forget. is to meet such Mis- 
 sion Friends as really pray for the missions. 
 
 I remember I was in Gottland in Sweden and 
 there I saw the happiest face in Sweden. It was 
 that of a young lady who was sick and who had 
 been sick for seventeen years. She has during 
 that time always been bed-ridden in a home 
 for the incurables. I was asked to visit the 
 Home. I thought that the inmates of a Home 
 for Incurables must be very melancholy and 
 sad, but to my surprise I saw some of the 
 most happy faces I have ever seen in my life. 
 Especially that young lady. She looked more 
 like an angel than a human being. 
 
 When she saw me she took my hand and said, 
 "Brother Cheng, I cannot do much for China 
 but I talk with God very much about China." 
 
76 The Story of My Life. 
 
 I said to her, "You who talk very much with 
 God about China do very much for China." And 
 we talked a little while. I asked her a few 
 questions, among others this, "What is the 
 secret of your happiness, you who are so sick 
 and have pain in nearly your whole body? How 
 can you be happy? What is the secret?" 
 
 She said, "Jesus, that is the secret." 
 
 I asked her, "Is Jesus Christ so real, so near 
 to you, are you as aware of his presence as 
 you now are of a Chinese standing here?" 
 
 "Yes," she said, "Jesus is so real and so near 
 to me, but not always."' 
 
 I asked her,"What do you do when you don't 
 feel Jesus Christ is so near and real?" 
 
 She said, "Then I pray. When I pray and 
 talk with God, Jesus becomes so real and near 
 to me." 
 
 You see, that is the secret of mission interest, 
 too. When Jesus Christ is real and near to 
 us, then we talk very much with God for the 
 missions. The trouble with many of us is that 
 Jesus Christ is not so real and near to us. 
 We have only what Professor James called 
 "second-hand religion." If Jesus were more real 
 and dearer to us, we would talk much more 
 with Him. 
 
 When I was leaving her, she gave me a little 
 package, on which she herself had written, "Set 
 apart to the Lord for the mission in China, a 
 little contribution to the evening collection." I 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 77 
 
 opened the little package on the platform at the 
 evening meeting. In it was ten crowns. She 
 is very poor and sometimes friends give her 
 a little present. It must have taken a long 
 time before she could save ten crowns, and now 
 she gave these to the Lord for the missions. 
 She gave a real offering; that was a real sacri- 
 fice. She talks very much to God about China. 
 Therefore, she really sacrificed for China. 
 
 Now, my friends, I wish to God that you would 
 talk very much with God about China. Talk 
 very much with God about China. Talk more 
 with God about China than you have done 
 hitherto, now when you have seen and heard 
 the fruit of your prayers and intercessions. 
 
 When you talk very much with God about 
 China I am sure God will talk very much with 
 you in your hearts about China. It is good to 
 hear missionaries when they come home and 
 talk about China, but it is much better, well, 
 it is the best, to hear God lecture in our hearts 
 about China. When God speaks in our hearts 
 about China, he talks especially for you and 
 then you can hear what is God's will for you 
 in regard to the mission in China. Only when 
 we talk very much with God about China can 
 we hear God's voice in our hearts about China. 
 
 When Jesus was on earth He went about in 
 all cities and villages and seeing the multitudes 
 He was moved with compassion for them be- 
 cause they fainted and were scattered abroad 
 
78 The Story of My Life. 
 
 as sheep having no shepherd. I used to say that 
 this is the best description of the condition of 
 the people in China. They fainted as sheep 
 having no shepherd. I wonder how great a mul- 
 titude Jesus saw in the land of Judah, but I am- 
 sure Jesus is seeing the large multitudes of 
 China's teeming millions. When he saw the 
 multitude he spoke to the disciples. You notice 
 it was to the disciples Jesus spoke because" only 
 his disciples could hear him and would do what 
 he said. I am sure when you talk very much 
 with God about China you will hear Jesus' voice 
 saying to you as of old when He said to His 
 disciples, "Pray ye that the harvest truly is 
 plentious but the laborers are few. Pray ye 
 therefore the Lord of harvest that He will send 
 forth laborers into His harvest." 
 
 Come over and help us ! Prayer Is a power , 
 prayer changes things. Before I was converted 
 a missionary wrote to a Young People's Society 
 in Kristianstad in Skane and Karlstad in Varm- 
 land. She told them, "Here in our church there 
 is' a young man whose name is Markus Cheng. 
 Will you join us in prayer for him that God 
 will take hold of him that. he may give himself 
 'wholly for the Lord?" After I was converted 
 she told me and said, "I know you are coming 
 because we have been praying for you." Then 
 she told me about the Young People's Society 
 which especially prayed for me. This year in 
 the springtime I had the joy to visit the 
 
"Come Over and Help Us!" 79 
 
 chiwches in these cities and personally thank 
 them for their intercession for me. Many 
 friend^ there shed tears of joy to hear and see 
 me. How powerful is not prayer? On that 
 day when Jesus comes it shall be revealed how 
 much has been accomplished through prayer. 
 Come over and help us! 
 
 Prayer is real, prayer is work. Prayer is 
 not like a lottery, where one spends a few pen- 
 nies and expects "good luck" to make a large 
 fortune without spending the corresponding 
 amount of effort and labor. Prayer is not like 
 that. Prayer is to spend energy and labor to 
 get the corresponding amount of results. For 
 example, if we pray for more laborers for the 
 mission fields, we must be prepared to be will- 
 ing to go ourselves or to offer our children if 
 the Lord calls them. If we pray for the exten- 
 sion and the success of the work, we must be 
 prepared to give what we can to set it going. 
 In other words, we must be willing not only 
 to pray, but to hear our own prayers. 
 
 There was a little boy who prayed every even- 
 ing before he went to bed for a birthday pres- 
 ent, and he used to scream loudly, "God give 
 me a bicycle and a tool-box." He screamed like 
 that every evening. His little brother rebuked 
 him and told him, "Why scream like that? 
 God is not deaf." He answered, pointing to the 
 room where his grandfather was, and said, "I 
 know God is not deaf, but grandfather is deaf." 
 
80 The Story of My Life. 
 
 God is not deaf. He hears our prayers, but 
 many times it is we ourselves who do not hear 
 our own prayers. We are not willing to hear 
 our own prayers. 
 
 An old man in Sweden was praying for Africa 
 and one day his daughter came to him and tol.i 
 him, "Papa, will you let me go to Africa?" He 
 was surprised, but he said, "You know I am 
 praying for Africa. I am praying with tears 
 for their salvation and never expected that God 
 would take my daughter to Africa, but I will 
 let you go." That is real prayer. It is dan- 
 gerous to pray sometimes if we are not pre- 
 pared to be willing to answer our own prayers. 
 Real prayer is work. Real prayer costs energy 
 and life-blood. When Jesus prayed in Gethse- 
 mane. He perspired and His sweat was as red 
 drops of blood falling down to the ground. 
 This costs sweat and blood. Our prayers will 
 bring blessings in the proportion that they cost 
 us something. Come over and help us! Amen.