The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 111

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

111

Persecuted for Christ’s Sake in Hainan,
China.

In one village, in the region of Dengang, lives
a lone Christian family, father, mother, and son,
who are finding that in giving up their worship of
ancestral tablets and idols and becoming worshipers
of the true God, ostracism and persecution is their
lot. The villagers have nothing whatever to do
with them, and they are unable to hire help to
work their fields. The son’s wife is not a Christian
and, to add to the family’s sorrow,
that, unless her husband gives up his faith, she will
commit suicide, which is a common thing for young
brides to do.

The Christians at Ang-zin are very faithful in
their attendance at services. Two of the young
men take turns in holding the Sunday services
when a helper is not there. The women need in-
struction. ‘Two of them from this district, who
have been brutally treated by their husbands, are
now in the Woman’s School. One is a Christian
woman. She has a little boy six years old, who at
the Chinese New Year, when his father forced him
to his knees to worship the ancestors, refused,
whereupon his father struck him in the face, mak-
ing it black and blue.

It is not an easy thing to be a worshiper of the
true God in Hainan; for the Christians are scolded,
reviled, by their own relatives and villagers; all
sorts of filthy abuse is heaped upon them; they are
frequently robbed of their crops and often threat-
ened with being driven out of the village. Much
prayer has been offered for these persecuted Chris-
tians, and thus far they have stood firm.

In a village about three miles from the market
of Bang-khoe a small school-building has been
erected on the property of one of the elders.
A Christian teacher has been put in charge, and
about twenty small boys attend. This is the result
of the work of our enthusiastic helper at this out-
station. He is a born shepherd and teacher, very
faithful in his dealing with any under his care
who do wrong. He insists upon the church’s being
clean. He says he cannot go out and preach to
others if his own church at Bang-khoe is not clean.
He invites young believers who are suffering perse-
cution to spend a month with him at Bang-khoe,
where he teaches them, rooting and "grounding
them in the faith; and’ then he sends ‘them’ back
to face the persecution. . His. wife. sworks faithfully

- among the women Pereueheay thati; peeici '

has threatened

istry and to give CSET of it to see zs

The Christian women at Nam-Tsiam meet every
Sunday in the school-building. Elder Lau’s son
preaches the sermon, and afterwards one of his
daughters teaches the women. This daughter, after
spending a month studying in the Woman’s School,
was severely beaten by her husband. She is an
earnest worker for the Master and patiently endures
her husband’s treatment of her, hoping that in time
she may win him to Christ. — Selected.

Making Money for God.

Hon. Alpheus Hardy, the princely benefactor of
countless good causes, who educated the great Jap-
anese Christian Dr. Joseph Hardy Neesima, once
told this thrilling story of his experience: —

“T am not a college man, and it was the bitter
disappointment of my life that I could not be.
I wanted to go to college and become a minister;
went to Philips Academy to fit. My health broke
down, and in spite of my determined hope of being
able to go on the truth at last was forced on me that
I could not.

“To tell my disappointment is impossible. It
seemed as if all my hope and purpose in life were
defeated. ‘I cannot be God’s minister,’ was the sen-
tence that kept rolling through my mind.

“When the fact at last became certain to me one
morning, — alone in my room,—my distress was
so great-that I threw myself flat on the floor. The
voiceless cry of my soul was, ‘O God, I cannot be
Thy minister!’ Then there came to me, as I lay,
a vision, a new hope, a perception, that I could serve
God in business with the same devotion as in
preaching and that to make money for God might
be my sacred calling. :

“The vision of this service and its nature as
a sacred ministry was so clear and joyous that I rose
to my feet and, with new hope in my heart, ex-
claimed aloud, ‘O God, I can be Thy minister!
I will go back to Boston. I will make money for
God, and that shall be my ministry.’

‘From that time I have felt myself as much
appointed and ordained to make money for God as
if I had been permitted to carry out my own plan
and had been ordained to preach the Gospel. _I am
God’s man, and the ministry to which God called
me is to make and administer money for Him, and
I consider myself responsible to discharge. this min-
a